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+{"text": "“They can’t just arrest you, right? I mean, they don’t have proof or anything.”\n\n“If it’s true that I’ve made everyone on the police force feel a certain way, they’d love to see me behind bars. They don’t need proof.”\n\nOnce they arrive in front of the apartment complex, Sherlock leaves even before the cab pulls over. They reach the elevator with a few people in it. Sherlock pressed the third floor button multiple times, hands resting on the metal bars while his foot taps the ground.\n\nJohn can feel how worried he is, and it becomes more evident once the doors slide open and Sherlock pushes past the people, running down the hallway and slamming his palm against the surface of the door.\n\n“Jocelyn!” Sherlock raises his deep voice, slamming his fist against the door repeatedly. “Jocelyn, open the door!” When no one answers the door, Sherlock breathes out. “We have to kick the door down.”\n\n“What if she’s still at the Yard?”\n\n“No. When we arrived back at the precinct to interview the little girl, she wasn’t there.”\n\n“We… didn’t even go to the lab, how would you even know that?”\n\n“Because every five in the afternoon, she leaves the lab to get coffee. She never did that today. I must have noticed without… noticing.”\n\n“She never leaves early…”\n\n“Precisely. She left early for your birthday, not for anything else. Something is wrong.”\n\nIf this was Moriarty’s idea to burn him, he might be doing much worse to Sherlock.\n\nJohn nods at him as well, looking at the door again. Sherlock raises his foot and braces himself. As if on cue, the elevator doors slide open and a clueless Jocelyn steps out, carrying her sling bag over her shoulder while she pushes her hair out of her line of sight. Once she looks up, her eyes widen.\n\n“What are you doing!?” Jocelyn shrieks.\n\nAt the sound of her voice, both heads snap towards her. John sighs in relief, eyes relaxing as he glances at Sherlock lowering his foot. However, the consulting detective only has his eyes trained on her.\n\nJocelyn jogs towards them with an annoyed expression, arms wide open. “Were you just going to kick—”\n\nShe was cut off by the impact of Sherlock wrapping his arms around her in a frantic manner, eyes still wide as if he couldn’t believe that she’s fine.\n\n“You’re… fine. You’re alright.” Sherlock mumbles in a questioning tone mostly to himself, hands shaking as they brushed through her brown hair to hold her head to his chest.\n\nJocelyn is surprised by his gesture. For the past few months, all he’s been was neutral to her, treating her like he treats everyone else. Now, he was holding her so tight as if she would just disappear all of a sudden.\n\n“I’m okay, Sherlock,” she mumbles into his chest, listening to how rapid his heart rate is.\n\nSherlock sighs out and for a moment, he didn’t care that John was watching them.\n\nAlthough, that doesn’t mean he’s been comfortable with himself. Once he realizes what he did, he immediately pulls away and just watches Jocelyn as though he was a deer caught in headlights.\n\nHe stammers for a second and she just looks a bit worried. “John.”\n\n“On it,” he immediately directs her to the elevator after taking her keys and giving them to Sherlock.\n\nThe detective glances down at her purse, brows knotting. As John walks her, Jocelyn keeps looking back with worry. The detective unlocks the door and pushes it open to disappear inside.\n\n“What’s going on?”\n\n“We’ll explain at home.” John leads her outside the building.\n\nLater, Sherlock steps out, carrying a bag. A few people begin to leave the building with fear in their eyes, and the number increases by the minute.\n\nJocelyn’s mouth opens, realizing it’s the emergency bag she keeps in case she needs to leave immediately. “How did you—”\n\n“What’s in your purse?”\n\n“…what do you mean?”\n\n“I mean, what do you have in your bag?”\n\n“Sherlock…”\n\nHe steps forward and grabs the sling bag, pushing Jocelyn’s carry-on into John’s arms. He has his eyes on Jocelyn the entire time as he slides the zipper of her sling bag, pulling out the handgun she brought with her. She crosses her arms anxiously.\n\n“Jesus, bloody hell—” John stares at the gun.\n\nShe gulps. “I can explain that.”\n\n“Please do, before you give John a heart attack.”\n\nJocelyn bites down on her lip. “Moriarty forced me to meet him. I went to tell him to fuck off.”\n\n“Sorry, did you just say that you went face to face with that psychopath?” John asks with wide eyes.\n\n“Why would you not tell anyone? More importantly, why did you go alone? Do you realize how idiotic your actions were?”\n\n“He threatened my aunt, I had no choice!” She snaps at him. “Plus, you and I weren’t exactly on speaking terms.”\n\nSherlock steps forward so their faces are mere inches apart. “Speaking terms or not, you contact me as soon as your life is in danger, do you understand?” His eyes twitch. ���Where did he meet you?”\n\nJocelyn stays silent, not wanting to answer him anymore as she gives him a stubborn expression. This only makes Sherlock reach into her bag to pull out the paper and unfold it.\n\nHe looks at Jocelyn in alarm. “What was he doing in our old flat?”\n\n“He… recreated our flat. Everything looked the same as it did before. Everything.”\n\nSherlock stares into space, thinking to himself.\n\n“He said that he knows about how we met… but I doubt anyone’s memory is sharp enough to randomly remember us.”\n\n“What else did he tell you?”\n\n“He offered me a deal, but that doesn’t matter because I didn’t take it. He wants something from me, but he didn’t say what it was. He said that only I could be the one who can do it. I don’t know what he meant.”\n\n“Why didn’t you ask? Considering you two are now acquaintances.” Sherlock glowers before walking past her.\n\nJohn clears his throat, giving her a disappointed look before following after Sherlock. She briefly closes her eyes, turning to walk up to them as they wave down a cab.\n\nAfter a tense cab ride, they arrive an hour later and Sherlock proceeds to the flat without another word, as well as John.\n\nThey seem to be annoyed at Jocelyn for not telling them of Moriarty’s visit, but Jocelyn can’t exactly be sorry, no matter how wrong she felt her actions were.\n\nJohn answers a phone call from Lestrade, saying that they’re on their way to Baker Street. Both men appear to be troubled looking, she can tell by the tone of John’s voice.\n\nAs Sherlock removes his coat and scarf, Mrs. Hudson enters the flat, holding an envelope that she was planning to give to them earlier. John opens the envelope and pulls out something dusty; an overly baked gingerbread man.\n\nJocelyn’s attention is caught when she hears police sirens nearing the streets. The doorbell rings and Mrs. Hudson fetches it. The rapid knocking on the door fills their ears.\n\n“What the hell is going on?” Jocelyn asks in horror.\n\n“Are we supposed to give you an explanation after you refuse to give one?” Sherlock barks out.\n\n“I told you, you moron. I was protecting my aunt.”\n\n“By also putting yourself in danger. It’s Moriarty, he could have killed you and your aunt. Along with the whole building. You weren’t thinking!”\n\n“I had no choice!”\n\n“You always have another choice,” he snaps. “You could have died tonight. He could have murdered you in that flat. Or held you hostage! How foolish—”\n\nDonovan’s loud voice booms through the hallway outside. Mrs. Hudson scolds them. Everything is happening simultaneously and Jocelyn can barely keep up. It causes her uneven breathing.\n\nJohn follows after Mrs. Hudson, mentioning something about a warrant and the word makes Jocelyn freeze.\n\nSherlock calmly puts on his coat and scarf again, preparing himself.\n\nGreg crosses his arms once he sees Jocelyn. “I was wondering where you went. Ready to tell me why you were looking through the security footage?”\n\nAt the mention of security footage, Sherlock glimpsed at her with a slight glare, figuring out that she was looking for the person who put the note in her lab.\n\n“Sherlock Holmes, I’m arresting you on suspicion on abduction and kidnapping,”\n\n“Greg, what—” Jocelyn gapes.\n\n“He’s not resisting, you can’t just cuff him.”\n\n“It’s alright, John.” Sherlock mutters, not wanting the situation to worsen.\n\n“No! It’s not all right. This is ridiculous!”\n\n“Jocelyn, stay in this flat. Do not leave.” Sherlock calmly tells her.\n\n“But—”\n\nGreg orders his officers to take him and they aggressively push Sherlock outside.\n\n“Don’t hurt him!” Jocelyn steps in, but Greg gently grabs her arm to stop her. She glares at him. “Are you serious?! Abduct and kidnap?”\n\n“You don’t even have a warrant.” John reminds.\n\n“Don’t try to interfere, or I’ll arrest you two.” Greg points out, looking as dismayed as the both of them before he leaves.\n\nDonovan walks in with a smug look on her face, and John just shakes his head at her. “I said it, solving crimes won’t be enough. One day he’ll cross the line. Now, ask yourself. What sort of man would kidnap those children just so he can impress us all by finding them?”\n\n“Sherlock would never do that,” Jocelyn immediately says.\n\n“Of course, you’d say that. What, with being the only woman that Sherlock has ever dated.” Jocelyn freezes in her place. Donovan snorts. “It’s all over the papers, Grant. You and Sherlock shacking up back in the day.”\n\nJocelyn’s jaw drops, looking at John. He just shakes his head, indicating that he had no idea.\n\n“What does that have to do with how you are all arresting the wrong man?”\n\n“Well, you weren’t there. And since you’re practically his ex, you’re letting your personal feelings cloud your judgment. He found those kids with just a footprint as evidence, no one can do that.”\n\n“That’s how he is. He’s intelligent. Too intelligent for your lot, which is why all of you consult him.” She persistently says, stepping forward to near her enraged face to Donovan’s. “You are repulsive.”\n\nDonovan has nothing else to say and it was the exact same time their boss walks in.\n\nHe looks at Jocelyn. “Dr. Grant, what are you doing here in the middle of an arrest?”\n\nShe walks to him. “You are making a big mistake. Sherlock Holmes is innocent, you have to let him go,”\n\n“Dr. Grant, don’t tell me you’ve also been consulting this man and letting him into the lab to view evidence.”\n\nShe huffs. “He—”\n\n“Donovan, that our man?”\n\n“Yes, sir.”\n\n“Looked a bit of a weirdo, if you ask me. Often are, these vigilante types.” He comments, and it might have pushed John over the edge.\n\nJocelyn gasps when John swings at the Chief Superintendent, successfully giving him a bloodied nose. “John! John, don’t,” she goes to his side and pulls him back as he tries to pull away from her hold to assault their boss even more.\n\nOfficers came in and grab John, pulling him downstairs. John quietly apologizes to Jocelyn for his display of violence. Jocelyn can only watch, feeling powerless as her two friends are arrested.\n\nJocelyn follows behind. “Greg, you have to believe me. Sherlock didn’t do anything, you know he wouldn’t!”\n\nGreg grabs her arm, pulling them away from the officers hearing range. “I know he wouldn’t, but I can’t do anything about it, alright? We have the Chief involved in this!” He sharply tells her. “I told you before that I confide in Mycroft Holmes, but now it’s out of my hands, there’s nothing we can do.”\n\n“It’s Moriarty, this was what he was planning, don’t you see?”\n\n“He walked free after the trial, which means that I can’t drag his name into this. The media made sure of that.” Lestrade reaches into the nearest police car he could find, pulling out the newspaper and giving it to Jocelyn. “They’re telling Sherlock’s life story, like an exposé. You were mentioned in the preview of it.”\n\nThe article introduces her as Sherlock’s sole romance before she was introduced as a prestigious scientist. It even mentions how they knew each other during their sophomore years for five months, which is oddly specific.\n\n“There is no way that any random civilian just cared about mine and Sherlock’s lives enough to even remember any of this.” \n\nBefore Lestrade could reply, groans from other officers can be heard. They look at one another before jogging back to where everything was happening. Jocelyn feels like her heart would stop at the sight of Sherlock pointing a gun at everyone.\n\n“Ladies and gentlemen, would you all please get on your knees?” Sherlock backs away with John cuffed to him. Everyone watches in shock.\n\n“Sherlock, what are you doing?!” Jocelyn yells.\n\nIn response, Sherlock points the gun to the sky, firing it and letting it be known that he is armed.\n\n“Now would be good!”\n\n“Do what he says!” Greg orders, already lowering himself to his knees and everyone copies his actions. Jocelyn kneels down, still watching them with concern.\n\nJocelyn’s hands are shaking, watching the two men back away and begin running. The moment they turned, everyone was on their feet looking exasperated. Jocelyn clenches her fists and hails a cab.\n\n***\n\n“No one trusts the voice at the end of a telephone. A man turns up with a Holy Grail in his pocket. What were his credentials?”\n\nKitty doesn’t answer him, which leads him to set rage inside himself, but he tries not to let it show on his face.\n\n“You had no permission from her for you to publish your ridiculous articles. Dr. Grant has been in your place, scouring up every opportunity she could find in order to make a name for herself and here you are, slapping the label ex-lover into her entire identity. Now, people who read the papers will begin to view her solely because she was apparently involved with me and not because she gained three PhDs in her lifetime.” Sherlock bottles up his anger. John gapes at the anger on Sherlock’s face. The detective inhales calmly again. “I will ask again. Who is Rich Brook?”\n\nThe door opens from behind them and Sherlock turns to see who it is, and to Sherlock’s horror, it was none other than Jim Moriarty.\n\nHowever, Moriarty is not acting his usual self as he watches the two men with fear, arms raised in defense while backing away.\n\nOn the other hand, Jocelyn storms into Mycroft’s office, eyes filled with betrayal and disappointment.\n\n“We are in the middle of—”\n\n“I don’t care, get out.”\n\nMycroft sighs. “Miss Grant—”\n\n“I said, get out.” Jocelyn looks towards the man and woman sitting opposite of Mycroft’s desk with a murderous glint in her eyes.\n\nHe contemplates, but nods at them wordlessly. Jocelyn doesn’t take her eyes off Mycroft for one second while the two people leave the room, closing the door behind themselves.\n\n“What the hell did you do?”\n\n“Pardon?”\n\nJocelyn messily throws the newspaper into his desk.\n\n“Miss Grant—”\n\nShe snaps. “Don’t fucking Miss Grant me! What… did you do?”\n\nMycroft is speechless, even avoiding to look her in the eyes. He couldn’t say anything to her about the plan, which leads to Jocelyn scoffing at him with total betrayal.\n\n“You told me that I should never doubt you when it comes to Sherlock’s safety and you do this? How could you? He’s your brother and you, what, went on story mode over coffee with Moriarty?”\n\n“Miss Grant, you have to understand that it was never my intention to hurt him, and it will never be my intention.”\n\n“He can use that to ruin him, do you see what you’ve done?” She couldn’t help but let a tear escape her eye in front of him, the Iceman.\n\n“Jocelyn, you don’t understand. I never intended for this to happen,” he lifts up the newspaper.\n\n“I don’t care if they smear my name. His whole life story will be revealed and I never thought for a single moment that it could be you who would do such a thing.”\n\nHe just sighs. “I’m sorry.”\n\nShe almost dryly laughs at him, but refrains. Jocelyn gives him one last look before leaving his office with a heavy chest.\n\n***\n\n“Well, here we are at last. You and me, Sherlock. And our problem, the final problem.”\n\nSherlock is cautious enough to look at his surroundings as he walks towards him.\n\n“Did Jocelyn tell you about what I did to your little flat? It was so fun trying to identify objects in photos using a magnifying glass,” he chuckles, circling around him and seeing Sherlock mimicking the tapping. “Good, you got that, too.”\n\n“Beats like digits. A keycode that can break into any system.”\n\n“Told all my clients. Last one to Sherlock is a sissy.”\n\n“Yes, but now, I can use it to alter the records. I can kill Rich Brook and bring back Jim Moriarty.”\n\n“No, no, no, this is too easy, this is too easy, there is no code! Doofus!” The insanity flashes across his face as he screams into Sherlock’s smug face, wiping it off at the instant. “I’m disappointed in you, ordinary Sherlock.”\n\n“But the rhythm...”\n\n“Partita No. 1! Thank you, Johann Sebastian Bach. Your significant other managed to play it really well. I knew you’d fall for it, that’s your weakness. You always want everything to be clever. Now, shall we finish the game? One final act. Glad you chose a tall building. Nice way to do it.”\n\n“Do what?” It dawns over him, turning to look at the edge of the rooftop. “Yes, of course… my suicide.”\n\n“Genius detective proved to be a fraud. I read it in the paper, so it must be true. I love newspapers. Fairy tales, and pretty grim ones, too.”\n\nHe turns to Moriarty. “I can still prove that you created an entirely false identity.”\n\n“Oh, just kill yourself. It’s a lot less effort.”\n\nSherlock breathes out, looking around the rooftop and the view.\n\n“Go on, for me. Pleaaaaase?”\n\nThe detective grabs Moriarty by the collar and balances him over the edge, staring at him with a murderous glare.\n\n“You’re insane.”\n\nMoriarty appears amused. “Okay, let me give you a little extra incentive. Your friends will die if you don’t.”\n\nSherlock’s face softens. “John?”\n\n“Not just John. Everyone.”\n\n“Mrs. Hudson?”\n\n\n“Everyone.”\n\n\n“Lestrade?”\n\n“Everyone, Sherly.”\n\nOnce Sherlock quiets down, his eye twitches, thinking of everyone’s lives.\n\nMoriarty grins. “Forgetting a name?”\n\n“Jocelyn,” Sherlock says under his breath.\n\n“Three bullets, three gunmen, three victims. There’s no stopping them now.”\n\nSherlock narrows his eyes. “Three?”\n\n“Oh, I’m not going to shoot Jocelyn. No, no. Bullets are reserved for the ordinary people.”\n\nSherlock tightens his grip around him. The mere mention of Jocelyn’s name was enough for Sherlock to want to throw Moriarty of the building.\n\n“I have someone who’s going to take her and make her suffer. She will hate herself and you wouldn’t be able to do anything. She will hate her life until she begs them to kill her.” He taunts, and Sherlock’s heavy breathing begins to shake.\n\n“I’ll make her do things you can’t even imagine. So many possibilities with the good scientist. I can make her as my right hand, or I can make her feel all the different types of pain, or I can make her the biggest criminal master in the whole world,” he smirks, watching the confusion in Sherlock’s eyes.\n\n“You might think I’m reaching, but she really has the potential, believe me. If she doesn’t accept, they’ll throw her into terrorist cells.” He casually says, and Sherlock pulls him off the edge. “You can do whatever you want with me, but nothing’s going to stop them from pulling the trigger, and kidnapping little Josie from your bedroom. Your only four friends in the world will die, unless…”\n\n“Unless I kill myself. Complete your story.”\n\nMoriarty chuckles. “You’ve got to admit, that’s sexier.”\n\n“And… I die in disgrace.”\n\n“That���s the whole point? Off you pop, go on. I told you how this ends, your death is the only thing that’s going to call off the killers. I’m certainly not going to do it.\n\nAnd from that, Sherlock figures out that Moriarty can call it off, and now, the two are challenging each other again.\n\n“Nah, you talk big. You’re ordinary, you’re on the side of the angels.”\n\n“Oh, I may be on the side of the angels, but don’t think for one second that I am one of them.”\n\nMoriarty just stares at him, slowly coming to realization. “No, you’re not.” He slowly smiles at him. “I see. You’re not ordinary, no. You’re me. You’re me! Thank you, Sherlock Holmes.” He offers his right hand for Sherlock to shake.\n\nHe reluctantly reaches for it, shaking his hand.\n\nMoriarty grows emotional, nodding continuously at him as he thanks him. “As long as I’m alive, you can save your friends. You’ve got a way out.” He nods in understanding. “Well, good luck with that!” He chirps, widening his mouth into an ‘O’ before pulling out a gun from his coat.\n\nBefore Sherlock could react, Moriarty puts the gun into his mouth and pulls the trigger, sending Sherlock to gasp out and take a step back, watching Moriarty’s body fall into the floor.\n\nMoriarty’s eyes were wide and lifeless as blood pools around his head, Sherlock’s heart was beating rapidly as he groans at the sight, feeling lightheaded as he tried to think of what to do.\n\nHe looks over his shoulder, slowly making his way back to the edge. Sherlock starts panting, his hands are shaking. He steps on it and looks down, pulling out his phone to send a specific text to his brother.\n\nHe had no other choice, he knows what’s coming.\n\nSherlock scrolls through his contact list and searches for a name. He dials them and holds the phone to his ear.\n\nA yawn sounds from the phone. “What?” \n\n“Jocelyn.”\n\nAt the sound of his voice, she sounds more awake. “Sherlock, oh, my God. Where are you? I’ve left you like a thousand messages! Are you okay? Where’s John? Are you hurt?”\n\nHer many questions laced with concern only makes one corner of Sherlock’s lips to twitch upwards into a smile.\n\n\n“Hello? Sherlock?”\n\n\nThe sound of her voice snaps him out of his daze. “I need you to listen to me very carefully.”\n\n\n“Can’t you just tell me where you are? I can come to you.”\n\n\n“No, I can do this over the phone.”\n\n\n“Alright, what is it?”\n\n\n“I… want you to know that I understand why you did what you did.”\n\nShe silences, and by the sound of it, she seems surprised.\n\n“You wanted to give me my best chance. You thought that you were hurting me by being around me. My past self would disagree, but I understand from your point of view.”\n\n\n“Sherlock, what’s going on?”\n\n\nHe shakes his head, looking down at his shoes and observing the way the tips of his pair are hanging from the edge. “Jocelyn, I apologize for any inconvenience I may have caused you in the past, and in the coming future. I apologize for being so angry while not knowing the full story. On the bright side of things, if you hadn’t left, I never would have met John or Mrs. Hudson.”\n\n“Where are you right now?” Sherlock can hear her begin to walk.\n\n“No, no! Don’t leave the flat—do not leave.” He quickly tells her in a slightly aggressive tone that he cannot hold back.\n\n\n“Sherlock...”\n\n\n“Please. Stay where you are. I need to tell you more.”\n\n\n“I swear to God—”\n\n\n“Everything they’ve been saying in the papers, everything you’ve read, everything you will read. It’s all true.” He cuts her off with a calmer tone.\n\n“What? That you’re a fraud?” Jocelyn laughs, thinking it’s a joke. “Okay, I’m going to call John and—”\n\n“Jocelyn, please. I am not trying to be amusing at the moment.”\n\n\n“Why are you saying this? Did Moriarty put you up to this?”\n\n\nSherlock can feel Moriarty’s lifeless body just bleeding out behind him. “No, of course not. This is all me.”\n\n\n“You don’t seriously think I’d believe the papers, do you?”\n\n\n“Oh, but you must. It’s all true, Jocelyn. I am a fake.”\n\n\n“This has to be a joke—you and I met during University! You knew who I was the moment I opened the door.”\n\n\nSherlock swallows, peering over the edge and calculating how high it is. “All of your information was enlisted on the university papers.”\n\n\n“You knew about my mother.”\n\n\n“You kept a photo of her by your bedside table.”\n\n\n“You found her diamond ring in under a few days!”\n\n\n“My brother knew of a pawnshop owner who knew how to assemble jewelry. I was trying to impress you.”\n\n\n“I-I don’t know what you want me to say.”\n\n\nSherlock briefly closes his eyes. “I lied to you.”\n\nA sniffle coming from the phone against his ear only sent a pang through his body, and now he cannot stop picturing Jocelyn with tears running down her face. “Why are you lying to me now?”\n\n“I’m not lying now, this is the truth. I’m a good researcher, but I was never a good detective. I created Moriarty’s identity,” he tells her, but she only scoffs in disbelief. “I needed him to stand as an arch nemesis.”\n\n“Oh, so you were the one who put me inside that freezer, then? Is that what you’re telling me? You were the cause of one of my worst traumas?  None of this makes any sense!”\n\n“That is what happened.”\n\n“Do you even hear yourself right now?  You would never hurt me.”\n\n“I took it too far that afternoon, Jocelyn. It was my mistake. You were not supposed to experience mild hypothermia.”\n\n“Shut up, stop lying to me.” She pleads him. “Come to Baker Street, Sherlock. I swear to God, if you’re not here in less than half an hour, I’ll hunt you down myself.”\n\nHis heart feels as though it stopped beating. He couldn’t bring himself to tell her that he was going to die. That would only make her come running to St. Barts and plead him to come down. He wouldn’t want her to see him that way.\n\n“Jocelyn, don’t—”\n\nShe hangs up and slips the phone into her pocket, scoffing to herself as she walks downstairs with her wallet, seeing Mrs. Hudson. “What’s going on?”\n\n“You’re awake!” Mrs. Hudson smiles at her. “John came by.”\n\n“He was here?”\n\n“He seemed to be in a hurry.”\n\n“Did he say why he came here? Or where he was going?”\n\n“No, he was a bit shaken up, I think. He didn’t even stop by for five minutes.”\n\n“Did you see which road he was headed?”\n\nMeanwhile, once Jocelyn hung up, Sherlock glares at his phone, unable to prevent his eyes getting watery from dejection. Even near death, she still manages to piss him off.\n\nHe tries to dial her again, but as soon as he sees a cab pulling over in front of the hospital, his face softens. At least he got to hold Jocelyn and talk to her even just for a moment, which was enough for now.\n\nSherlock calls another number and watches as John sprints out of the cab and into the hospital while answering his own phone. He speaks to John and watches the panic in his friend the moment he sees him on the rooftop.\n\nFlashes of Jocelyn’s smiles, laughter and words were playing before his eyes. All the times that Jocelyn was most happy, it doesn’t surprise him that most of the images are not from the this year.\n\nBut he does remember when he paid her a visit, they drank together, and shared memories. His words brought a smile to her face and laughter rumble from her chest that night, and the satisfaction of doing that was unfathomable.\n\nJohn shakes his head, not even believing him for one second. “Stop it, now,” he begins to walk to the entrance, but Sherlock lifts his arm to stop him.\n\n“Keep your eyes fixed on me, will you do this for me?”\n\n“Do what?”\n\n“This phone call, it’s my note,” he sniffles. “It’s what people do, don’t they? Leave a note?”\n\nJohn presses his lips together, not believing what’s happening before him. “Leave a note when?”\n\nSherlock watches his best friend, not wanting to do this to him or to anyone, but he has no other choice. “Goodbye, John.”\n\n“No, don’t.”\n\nThe consulting detective throws his phone to the ground, bracing himself at the edge. Sherlock takes a deep breath, looking at the ground and seeing everyone get to work.\n\n\n“Sherlock!”\n\n\nHe stretches his arms to his side, relaxing his body before slowly unbalancing himself, leaning forward to let himself fall.\n\nJohn watches in horror and everything is a blur for him. Something hits him, sends him to the ground, he pushes himself up, pulling himself together as he makes his way to the growing crowd, a body, blood, the smell of blood, his hand reaches for the body’s wrist, no pulse, his vision darkens. John could barely hear the ear-piercing scream from behind him, the hurried steps and the shaky breath coming from one woman.\n\nJust a few moments earlier, the young scientist walks casually to the entrance of the hospital. She huffs out in annoyance, thinking back to how the detective was clearly lying to her. She kept thinking about how she’ll help her two friends get out of this mess; but it wasn’t until she catches a crowd from the corner of her eye. She furrows her brows, seeing between the gaps of the crowd that there is someone lying on the ground.\n\nHer heart pounds as she makes her way towards the crowd. Everything inside her overflowed the moment she recognizes the familiar coat and scarf… and she screams. She screams until her she can barely feel her throat. The screams were deep and painful, horrific and haunting. Sobs tore her chest open as she runs towards the body to push between the crowd.\n\nShe wails the man’s name, hands getting covered in blood as she tries to reach out for him. Pairs of arms held her back, but she fights back, watching the paramedics lift the body into a stretcher. Her whole world falls apart, her entire body feels like it’s no longer attached to her as she slowly sinks into the floor, eyes droopy with her energy draining, and everything goes dark."}
+{"text": "It was actually kind of nice to sleep on that couch, but it took Finn awhile after Poe nodded off to fall asleep himself. Though his Prince woke up again in about three hours time, it was probably the best night's sleep either of them had in days.\n\nPoe seemed to be of a better mind after the short nap. He seemed more collected, more sure of himself, that much more ready to face all of this. But he reminded Finn of his promise to go back to bed, so there was nothing else the guard could do until at least daylight.\n\nOnce morning broke, he followed Poe around like a puppy as plans and tactics flowed in like water. Every General had something to say about invading the Capital, and his Prince listened to everyone's suggestions, both stupid and wise alike. It was clear – terribly clear – that this attack shouldn't happen for at least another week. The primary factor of the First Order's military support was still horribly unclear which put a massive void in most plans. However, due to the circumstances, they agreed to move forward at dawn the next day.\n\nFinn never wanted to speak up more in his life. Tomorrow? And Poe planned to be the first one there? Secretly, he had hoped his Prince would have thought otherwise about going if Finn went, too, but that didn't seem to be the case. It didn't change his mind, but the rapidly approaching moment to strike was putting everything in a stronger perspective. Finn was more than okay with himself going, but Poe? The mere thought went against his every grain. He lived and breathed to protect his Prince, and now the man wanted to run into war.\n\nBut that's just the thing. It's war. If the invasion failed, nothing for the country would end well. Ben would decimate everything, that much everyone was sure of. It was all or nothing... and Poe was a great pilot, a great leader. And he had to be there. He had to. Finn understood that. That didn't mean he couldn't hate it.\n\nSo Finn excused himself from Poe's side halfway into the day, feeling certain that his Prince was in no danger while under Lando's roof. His first order of business was to visit with some of the others that planned to lead the ground troops. Finn would be in charge of every unit on the ground, but these people would practically be his rights hands through the whole thing. When he spoke to and shook hands with Karé Kun and Iolo Arana, he tried hard to not think of Muran and Antilles.\n\nHis second step was to visit with the pilots that would be flying by Poe's side. However, he found out that all of their air squadrons would be following him, and the only two people he trusted to act as right hands were still not within Finn's realm of contact: Jess and Snap. Once he realized who Poe would be flying with, though, he realized that he didn't need to speak to them after all. Those two would never let anything happen to him.\n\nSo he talked with Karé and Iolo for hours, dividing their military units into sectors, deciding which way to enter the city and take the palace back. The city was the easy part. The contacts they had within the limits, not to mention the news and social media that managed to leak out, every millimeter closer to the palace was more and more guarded and deadly. The First Order was afraid of an assault. Maybe they wouldn't have all of the surprise that Finn had previously hoped for, but they could still work with this.\n\nJust as dusk set in, Leia ordered everyone to rest. What wasn't planned already would never get planned by this point, she claimed. They needed the rest for tomorrow.\n\nPoe wasn't going to rest. He wasn't going to sleep at all, the moron. But Finn vowed to find him later, to give them both a moment of space, as he went back to the room they had given him, the same medically sterile thing he had woken up in. He just... needed a minute. To think, to collect his thoughts, to make sure he wasn't doing something absolutely stupid.\n\nHe stared at the blank pad of paper in front of him from his perch on the bed, having already torn away any notes or plans he had made earlier during the endless meetings. So all he could do was just... stare. Writing came easy to him. It was a form of freedom and adventure and creation and expression. Writing was beautiful. Except for right now. Right now, he wanted every written word imaginable to burn as he wracked his brain. The hardest part is starting, he said to himself, so he started.\n\nThen promptly tore it out and started again. He wrote more this time, taking up half the page, going back every now and then to scratch out words or entire sentences. When he drew a big 'X' through the entire second paragraph, he tore that sheet out and started again. This one was short, to the point, and not at all good enough, so he tore that out, too. The fourth attempt was more of an homage to the second, making it long winded sans the mistakes he had marked out before. When he was at the end of the page, writing as small as he could to fit everything he needed, he stopped and took a look at it. Too long. He tore it out.\n\nOn the twelfth draft, he finally knew what actually needed to be written. It took two more times after that to write it. It wasn't perfect – it wasn't going to ever be perfect – but it was good enough. He threw away the mound of rough drafts, then gently tore out the final copy. He folded it and stuffed it in an envelope that he had also lifted from the meetings and stared at it. It wasn't perfect, but it should be; it deserved to be.\n\nHe was about to take it out and start all over again when there was a knock, the door opened, and Poe walked in. Finn smirked. “And here I thought I'd have to run you to bed tonight.” But it was flattering that he came here.\n\nStill, Poe looked dead on his feet, as expected, dressed again in something more casual. He didn't get any rest after their nap on that couch. Miraculously, his Prince smiled back. “Wouldn't have to ask me twice to go to bed with you,” he chuckled, moving forward and pointing to the envelope. “What's that?”\n\nFinn looked back to it again, grimacing, and resolved that this was as perfect as it'll ever get. “Just something for Leia. For tomorrow,” he sighed, turning to place it and the paper on the table next to his bed. “Speaking of, I'm thinking we all have about five hours worth of sleep right now?”\n\n“Give or take,” Poe answered, climbing into the bed beside him, sitting against the headboard and resting their shoulders together. “You should have been asleep hours ago.”\n\n“Me? How much did you sleep last night?”\n\n“You're wounded,” the Prince said playfully with a tiny smirk, shoving his shoulder against him. Finn shoved back, delighting in this new mood right before everything turned somber again. Poe frowned down at his feet, serious again, looking years older than he ever should. “I really wish you wouldn't go tomorrow.” Finn didn't answer. He was going. That wasn't up for argument. “I could order you not to go.”\n\nOkay, that was up for argument. “I outrank you.”\n\nPoe raised an eyebrow. “I'm sorry?”\n\n“I'm in charge of your safety,” Finn nodded, “and when I think something isn't safe for you, even if it's an idea of your own, I can do anything and everything that I must to protect you. Therefore... I could order you to not go.”\n\nHis Prince leaned his head back against the wall. “Then why haven't you?”\n\n“I want to,” he answered. “Why haven't you?”\n\n“I'm thinking about it.” And for a moment, Poe seemed to do just that, then let out a heavy breath, shaking his head. “I almost lost you at the palace-”\n\n“But you didn't,” Finn interrupted, not wanting that train of thought to continue. Instead, he reached over and grabbed Poe's hand, lacing their fingers together. Touches like this were still new, but it didn't really feel like it. So he just watched his Prince, studying the profile of his face like he didn't always have opportunities like this.\n\nIt seemed like an eternity before Poe gave in and turned to face him. But he wasn't really seeing him... There was turmoil just behind the dark eyes, heavy with thought. It took tim for him to finally come up with, “You're stubborn.” Finn gave him a small smile that wasn't returned. Then, softer, “You don't have to do this. Not like I do.”\n\n“I have to.”\n\n“Why?” Those lovely eyes darkened more as a frown pierced his handsome face. “For me? Don't go because of me, Finn.”\n\nIt was for Poe, if he wanted to be completely honest. After all, he was injured and had been in a grand total of two combat situations in the past. But- “I have to go for everything,” he said instead, squeezing his hand, “Everything I know. Everything I care about.”\n\n“If I stayed here, would you still go?”\n\nDon't do this. Finn frowned, too, but didn't let up on the grip of their hands. “My place is with you.”\n\nPoe seemed to mull that over for a moment, glancing at his eyes and lips and forehead and torso, lost in thought but looking him over to take him all in at the same time. Eventually, like it was uncontrollable twitch, a deeper frown came over him, scrunching up his face. “It's not, though,” he finally said, blinking a few times before their eyes met again. “I'm not royalty, you know that. Nothing's going to change if something happens to me. I'm the son of soldiers... You shouldn't even be here. You were working your way up, remember? All of this was a case of being at the right place at the right time. You took it because you were bored and it offered more money. Remember? You're not obligated to do anything. You've done so much already. You have nothing to-”\n\n“Poe.” His voice was soft, but the other man shut his mouth all the same when Finn shifted and moved closer. “I told you,” he whispered just low enough to hear, foreheads brushing together, “I'm here to protect you. You are my Prince... by blood or not. Okay?” There was no answer, as Poe's shining eyes moved up from his lips, facing him again. He was shuddering, hand gripping his hard, so full of emotion that he could burst again. So Finn asked once more, just to be sure. “Okay?”\n\nThe sound of a reply was nothing more than a terrified breath against his neck, “Don't die for me.”\n\nNo. Those thoughts were supposed to be gone. “I'm going to survive for you. If I die-”\n\nPoe's breathing hitched, hand practically flying to the side of Finn's face. But it was gentle and soft and... shaking. He was shaking. “Finn, don't- Just don't. Just- You don't have to. It's okay. I'll be okay. I don't want you to- I don't want you even thinking about-”\n\n“I'm going with you.” It was a whisper, a mutter of breath between them, but firm enough to feel the seriousness in the statement. “Poe, I'm going with you.”\n\n“No, I- I-” His Prince stared down at his cheek, eyes shining bright. His breathing pattern was all over the place, shaking like a leaf, mouth moving in silence. “Finn...” His name said like that felt like an oath, and all he could think about was kissing him. They had only kissed twice, but- Poe tightened his grip on him, frowning with a furrowed brow, looking like a frustrated child. “I-” Their eyes finally met again, the Prince's full of fear and hope and warmth, his voice so low that it could barely be heard. “Finn, I-... I lo-”\n\nHe looked terrified... Finn leaned forward, somehow understanding the broken words through a connection he didn't dare second guess, and swallowed the meaning between them, gently pressing his lips against his Prince's.\n\nPoe tensed instantly, gripping hard at Finn's jaw and neck, and he didn't move at all for a moment. Until, suddenly, he pressed back hard, pushing against Finn. There was shuffling, a moment where Poe readjusted himself to face him head on, a second where the guard was sure he was about to be straddled but didn't. Instead, he felt Poe leaning over him, gliding his tongue along his lips, and Finn let him in without a thought.\n\nHe reached higher above him, grabbing the back of his Prince's shirt and tugging him further down, all the more closer. But while Poe's tongue was making him weak, he felt resistance there. He pulled away for a brief moment, one where he continued the kissing between the words. “I won't break.”\n\n“Don't wanna-...” Poe paused in the words to kiss him deep again, making Finn lean off of the bed to get closer to him, before they broke apart again. “Don't wanna hurt you...”\n\nDidn't want to hurt him... They were walking into a war in a few hours, and Poe was worried about hurting him right now. Finn grabbed him at the ribs, pulling his Prince away and, all at once, picking him up and flipping them both over, putting him on top and pressing down without any thought to dignity. And... well, yeah, okay, it kind of hurt a good bit, but it was worth seeing Poe beneath him, wide eyes dark, breath catching and hands scrambling- Finn attacked the pulse point on his neck, biting down and sucking however way he wanted. Beneath him, Poe tilted his head to give more room, hand gripping up his back, and an amazing moan escaping him. “Finn.”\n\nHe arched beneath him, and Finn groaned when he realized that Poe was hard. Oh Christ, to continue this, to see where they would end up- But his wounds felt like they were on fire. It wasn't a big deal – he'd feel much worse tomorrow – but he didn't want to pull a stitch just to make Poe think it was his fault. But it felt too good to stop now. The noises Poe was making as he rocked back into him. They couldn't just stop now.\n\n“Can I-?” Finn mumbled against his neck, hand gently going beneath Poe's shirt to trace the skin of his hips. “Can I-?”\n\n“Yes,” the other nearly sobbed against him, one leg already wrapping around him. “Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes-”\n\nFinn nipped at his adam's apple, effectively hushing him for the moment, hands deftly working to unbutton his pants. Meanwhile, Poe bucked and wiggled beneath him, scrambling to get his shirt off. Finn paused in his mission, leaning off of him for just a second to get rid of the offending piece of clothing – and oh, those days of sparing had paid off – but Poe gripped his bicep before he could go back. “Wait. Wait.”\n\nHe froze, worried for just a moment, until he realized what was about to be asked of him. His shirt. Oh hell. He didn't think that far. An excuse was on his tongue, literally anything that came to mind first, but Poe was already moving beneath him, leaning up until they carefully flipped over again. This time he was definitely being straddled. Poe was breathing heavy, eyes blown huge, and this was probably the best thing that had happened in a long, long time.\n\nPoe's hand carefully moved beneath his own shirt, staying at the waistline like a question... Dammit. Finn bit his lip, but arched gently beneath him to take the shirt off. Hands moved, and Poe was suddenly helping him. It took a second just because they were going so slow with it, but the thing came off and fell on the floor, revealing every one of Finn's bandages that he hadn't wanted Poe to see.\n\nFor a moment, his Prince just stared and took it in, eyes flicking to every spot covered in gauze and wraps. If Finn could have gotten away with covering himself up, he would have. It wasn't that he was self-conscious about it, but he knew Poe's way of thinking. He didn't want to share these wounds. But, slowly, Poe leaned forward to kiss his collarbone with much more patience than a moment ago, moving down his chest and lightly brushing his lips over the bandage at his heart. But he hardly stopped there. Poe kept moving down, following the line of his hard-earned abs. “Can I?” he repeated.\n\nFinn could have melted off of the bed. “Yeah,” he managed to breathe, like that was anywhere near as good as Poe's enthusiasm to the question a moment ago, but it was all that his mind could come up with right now.\n\nIt didn't deter his Prince any, apparently. Poe's hands moved against him again like he had known this body for years, sucking at a spot beside Finn's navel that made everything in him tense and run hot, quickly managing to get his pants unbuttoned. Finn groaned in relief, hardly aware of the sound until it left him, while Poe's hands swiftly drove him insane by running down his hips like that.\n\nGoddammit, was this a dream?\n\nThose thoughts silenced when Poe finally released his cock and turned his sharp eyes on him. Oh God, this could not be happening right now. Finn, breathing hard, gave a small nod of approval. He could have sworn that there was a smirk there, before Poe opened his mouth and slid his tongue over the head, keeping his eyes on his. Finn gasped, shuddering, but didn't look away. Not until Poe took him in, eyes fluttering shut before swallowing to the hilt.\n\nThen he looked away. There was no other choice. “Fuck, Poe.” His eyes screwed shut, head tilting back, bucking once and managing to stop himself with the hardest bite to his lip he'd ever had to do. He had wanted this to last. He had wanted to think about anything except what was happening right now, but that wasn't about to happen. Poe felt so good, bobbing up and down on him, and Finn's hand automatically found his soft hair.\n\nHe opened his eyes, entirely against every logical piece left in his mind. “Poe-” Those dark eyes found him again, full of wild lust, the man over him suddenly grinding against the bed, and- “Poe, God-” He was quickly losing the situation. “Poe, I'm- Poe-”\n\nThe lover above him, his Prince, moaned into him, and that was it. Finn arched with a whine, gripping at the soft curls in his hand, coming hard down his throat. There was a beat that Poe stayed, practically milking him dry, before pulling off with a little pop.\n\nIf Finn could physically melt into a puddle right now- Poe was kissing his jaw, chin- He moved his head at an angle, taking his lips in his, hardly able to lean up and kiss him as deep as before. Damn if his body hadn't decided to give out.\n\nBut, no, not yet. Finn pulled back. “Now, you.”\n\n“I'm okay.”\n\n“Oh, don't start that-”\n\n“You're tired-”\n\nFinn grabbed his hip, pulling him close. “Just tell me how you want it.”\n\nDoubtless, a hundred different scenarios suddenly crossed Poe's mind if the way his eyes flicked down and his tongue licked his lips was any indication. “I just-” he began, then stopped and looked into his eyes again, leaning back in. “So long as you're doing it, I don't care.”\n\nFinn smiled, pushing up to meet him halfway and return the kiss. He would never get enough of kissing Poe. Ever. And maybe this wasn't nearly as good as the stellar blowjob that just wiped him out, but Finn pressed the heel of his hand to Poe's cock anyway, pleased when the man bucked above him.\n\nHe broke the kiss, making quick work of the pants. “So hard,” he muttered, finding that spot again on Poe's neck, his free arm wrapping over his Prince's back to press them together. To make it as good as he could, he pushed his hips up, grinding against Poe while his hand did the harder work.\n\nJudging by Poe's, “Oh God,” moan against him, it was working. Before he knew it, Poe was grinding down hard, thrusting into his hand, practically growling against his ear, and Finn bit down, ushering him closer.\n\nIt didn't take long before Poe gasped over him, body tensing and letting out a long moan, a beautiful heat spilling against the guard's torso. “Finn, oh... Finn...” For a moment, he nearly collapsed on top of him in a heaving mess of pleasure, before managing to roll off and onto his back.\n\nFinn watched him try to catch his breath... As far as first times go, that was pretty great. “Was it good?” If it wasn't, he was more than willing (if not exhausted) to try again, even as he wiped away the come to his torso with the edge of a sheet.\n\nBut Poe huffed a laugh, opening his bright eyes again to look at him. “Well, that was-... That was pretty fucking great, Finn.”\n\nIt still hurt to laugh, but there was a strong sense of peace now, especially with that light back in his Prince's eyes. God, he'd done that. A pride surged through him, a protectiveness, a love- He turned on his side, moving closer.\n\nPoe got the hint quickly, turning to where his back was facing Finn so that the other man could wrap him in his arms and pull him close. All thoughts of tomorrow were for tomorrow, but for now a calm flowed through him, claiming them both.\n\nHe was already falling asleep in the haze when he heard Poe mutter, “I wish we'd done this sooner.”\n\nFinn opened his eyes to the room, with the lights still on and the door unlocked, making sure that he heard right. After a breath, he placed a light kiss on the back of Poe's neck. “Me, too.”"}
+{"text": "As expected, Eric made it home well before you. He met your car as it pulled in and opened your door. Immediately, he pulled you into his arms and kissed the top of your head. You relaxed into his hold. You’d been separated for several hours and you’d missed him. Finally, you pulled away to stretch your back. You hated long car rides.\n\nEric glanced at the group around you. “Where’s your father?”\n\n“He rode separately so he could make a call.” The reminder annoyed you. It wasn’t as if you got to see your father on a daily basis any more. You thought he’d want to spend the car ride without your mate catching up on business and personal things he wasn’t comfortable discussing around Eric yet. Instead, he hadn’t even ridden in the same vehicle. Gods, he could be frustrating at times.\n\nYour mate arched a brow. “It appears as if all the cars are here, yet your father is not.”\n\nYou frowned as you glanced around to find he was correct. You even went so far as to open the door to inspect the interior of the car he rode in.\n\nThe driver stepped up to you. “He had us drop him off at the hotel, ma’am. He asked me to proceed to your residence to convey his apologies. He will be unable to speak to you until tomorrow.”\n\nYou clenched your teeth and worked the muscle in your jaw. What the fuck was your father up to? You loved him dearly, but you didn’t trust him for a moment. With your life? Yes. Everything else? Not so much. “Alonso,” you called.\n\nThe man in question was in the process of getting back into the car. He stopped and glanced at you with an arched brow.\n\n“What is he up to?”\n\nThere was a pause before he said, “I’m sure I don’t know. Perhaps you should ask him.”\n\nOh, you fully intended to do just that. You watched Alonso leave and pulled out your phone. You’d start with a text and escalate from there. You could be pretty damned annoying when you wished to be.\n\n***\n\nEric’s phone rang just after sunset the following night. He was still in bed when he took the call. He listened for a moment while you frowned at him. He kept the volume down on his phone and you were having trouble picking up the other side of the conversation. Eric sat up, swinging his legs off the bed.\n\n“Yes, sir,” he said after several minutes. He glanced over his shoulder at you. The look on his face had you shifting uneasily. “I understand, sir.”\n\nWith that, he ended the call. He licked his lips and shifted his weight on the bed so he could see you more easily. You moved closer but kept some distance between the two of you. You had a feeling you weren’t going to like whatever he had to say.\n\n“That was your father,” he informed you.\n\nYou arched a brow. Why did he call Eric instead of you? You grabbed your phone and checked your notifications. Nothing.\n\nEric took the phone from your hand and laid it beside his on the nightstand. Nerves made you nauseous. You swallowed the lump in your throat as you stared at your mate waiting for him to speak.\n\nHe licked his lips again, a nervous habit he’d never lost. “I’ve been summoned to appear before the Magister, the Guardian and other representatives of the Authority.”\n\n“Why?” You forced the word out through clenched teeth as you willed the tears that suddenly flooded your eyes not to fall. You didn’t even know what was going on yet, so why did you feel like crying? And what the hell was your father up to?\n\n“To answer for Sophie-Anne’s death.”\n\nFear and anger shot through you in equal measure. “You mean the execution you carried out at the Guardian’s command?”\n\nEric said nothing. It was then that you realized what Roman had done. He had set your mate up to take the fall for the death of a queen. The only punishment that could possibly fit the crime was the true death. He wanted Eric out of your life and this was how he intended to accomplish it. “If he thinks I’m going to sit here and do nothing he’s sorely mistaken.”\n\n“I am to attend the hearing alone. Anyone accompanying me risks being punished for interfering in Authority matters.” His voice was deadpan, emotionless. He was already shutting down. Distancing himself. Preparing for what he felt was inevitable.\n\n“Well, that’s a risk I’ll just have to take,” you argued.\n\n“I agree,” came a voice from behind you and you turned to find Godric in the doorway.\n\nHe hadn’t been here when you arrived the night before and this was the first you’d seen of him since your trip. You gestured for him to join the two of you on the bed and let him pull you into his arms when he did. You leaned against his chest, seeking his comfort.\n\n“I will not risk either of you. You will remain here.” Eric’s face was hard. It was the look he wore when he’d made up his mind and he was determined no one would change it. You rolled your eyes.\n\n“I wasn’t asking for permission, Eric. Frankly, I don’t really give a shit what your thoughts are on the matter. You are entirely too self-sacrificing when it comes to the two of us.” Godric gave you a little squeeze at your words. Apparently, he agreed.\n\nYour phone buzzed with a notification before Eric could state his argument. You held out a hand and he passed you the phone. You scanned the text and frowned. “When is your meeting?”\n\n“One hour.”\n\n“At the hotel? Room 336?” You glanced up to see Eric wearing a frown to match your own.\n\nHe grabbed the phone from your hand and read the message from your father.\n\n\nMeeting. One hour. Rm 336. You are to attend as a guest of the Authority. Bring your boyfriend if you wish. \n\n\n“Why was he so adamant you not attend with me if he was going to invite you anyway?” Eric tossed the phone on the bed and raked a hand through his hair. He glanced between you and Godric. “I’m sorry, alskling, but I am not overly fond of my in-laws.”\n\nYou laid your hand on his knee. “At the moment, I’m not overly fond of him either.”\n\n***\n\nDespite the uncertainty you held concerning your father’s actions at the moment, you knew he seldom did things without reason. So, while Eric flew to the meeting on his own, Godric ran you there. Your mate was already in the room when you arrived to several familiar faces. Your father was nowhere to be seen.\n\nGodric moved to Eric’s side which would only be expected of him as his sire. You, however, kept your distance other than a brief nod of greeting. You made your way around the room saying hello to those you knew. When Roman entered, his gaze immediately found you with a smile. He came to your side and kissed your cheek. “I’m so happy you made it, sweetheart.”\n\nYour eyes searched his. The coldness you’d expect if he was planning to betray you was absent. All you saw was that spark he got when he was scheming. “And why exactly was I invited to…whatever this is?”\n\nHe didn’t miss the warning in your tone and the corner of his mouth curled in a smile. “I thought you might enjoy seeing some faces you hadn’t in awhile. And your boyfriend should be particularly interested in tonight’s proceedings. As you were both near, I thought ‘why not’.”\n\nBefore you could prod him further, he clapped his hands together and turned to the room in general. “Welcome everyone. Let’s get started shall we?”"}
+{"text": "There was nothing Ian Gallagher loved more than his boyfriend, Mickey Milkovich. There was so many things Ian could tell you he loved about him, from his bright blue eyes, to his inky black hair, to his cold persona he put on for everyone but once he was with Ian he turned into a ball of mush right before everyone’s eyes. The love the two boys held could not be broken by anything, not homophonic dads, beatings, and especially not by a horny sixteen year old girl currently occupying the seat across from him at the kitchen table.\n\n \n\nIan first noticed Holly’s crush on him the first time he had met her. He was twenty at the time and she was only fifteen. Holly had stared so hard and so long at him, Ian’s surprised her eyes didn’t dry out and her drool didn’t flood the whole house. Ian knew Holly was being very obvious on purpose, as if that would make him fuck her. He knew she tried to get with Lip in the past, way back when Mickey was still in juvie for the Kash-n-Grab shoplifting, and she had fooled around with Carl for a little while when his leg was still busted. Ian usually ignored her advances and focused on his boyfriend, but tonight he couldn’t help but notice Holly was on a mission to get into his pants. He would have laughed if she hadn’t been so persistent.\n\n \n\nIan and Mickey had taken their seats at the kitchen table and Holly was quicker than Carl or Debbie at picking a seat, making sure she got the seat directly across from Ian. Ian was uncomfortable, sure, but he just clung tightly to Mickey’s hand and enjoyed the feel of Mickey pressing their legs together under the table. As Ian shoveled the burnt chicken into his mouth, he felt Mickey tense up beside him. Ian started rubbing circles on the back of Mickey’s hand with his thumb, hoping to calm him down a bit. He saw the look Mickey gave Holly but chose to ignore it, just focusing on relieving the sudden tension in his boyfriend.\n\n \n\nMickey got tense once again before glaring again at Holly. “Do you fuckin’ mind not molesting my leg under the table?” Mickey huffed angrily. Holly looked confused and Ian tried so hard to control his laughter. He knew she didn’t know he and Mickey were together and figured he could have some fun with it and see just how far she’d go with it before realizing. He figured she’d give up before the movie even started. When Holly “dropped” her fork and went to investigate, Ian almost lost it. Too fucking funny. Ian turned to an aggravated Mickey and started whispering lowly to him.\n\n \n\n“Thank you for coming tonight, baby. I know you would much rather be in our bed while I abuse that perfect ass. Maybe before the movie starts I can take you upstairs so I can fuck your amazing ass real quick. I would love to get on you tonight, baby. Definitely.” Ian whispered hotly in Mickey’s ear, making the dark haired boy blush a deep crimson. Ian knew Mickey didn’t want to be here tonight and he wanted to make up for the too horny sixteen-year-old unknowingly making a fool of herself.\n\n \n\nIan kept his eyes on Mickey even after Holly resurfaced. He watched as Mickey’s facial expression turned from irritation to majorly possessive, and Ian would be lying if he said it didn’t majorly turn him on. Fuck. He had the hottest boyfriend ever. And he was all his.\n\n \n\nIf you’d have asked Ian a few years ago if he ever thought Mickey would be like he is today, you’d get a big fat hell no. Ian didn’t think Mickey was ever going to come around and be the amazing boyfriend he was today. The Mickey back then wouldn’t let him kiss him, hold him, or really be affectionate at all. Now, Mickey would cling to him any chance he got and he was honestly surprised that the Mickey he used to know is the same one that is holding his hand where everybody can see.\n\n \n\nExcept Holly, apparently.\n\n \n\nWhen Ian sat on the couch after dinner, he wasn’t surprised to see Mickey scrambling to get the seat next to him before Holly had a chance to. It was cute, and Ian was grateful that not only did he not have to sit next to Holly, but he got to be close to his boyfriend which was always nice. Ian leaned in close to Mickey and put his arm behind Mickey on the couch, enjoying the way Mickey blushed at the closeness. Goddamn, his boyfriend was adorable.\n\n \n\n“So, I need to go up to my room to get blankets and shit for the movie.” Ian said, with a mischievous glint in his eyes and before Mickey could even respond, Holly was booking it up the stairs. Mickey was staring after her and Ian couldn’t help but roll his eyes. This girl is sixteen years old. Mickey has absolutely nothing to worry about! Ian just goes along with it when Mickey takes his hand and drags him up the stairs, sending Debs a look over his shoulder that he hoped said control your friend before my boyfriend kills her. \n\n \n\nWhen the boys walk by the upstairs bathroom, Ian sees Mickey peak in and then immediately covers his eyes. “Ah! Fucking Christ! Close the fuckin’ door next time!” Mickey yelled. In the split second between that and Mickey closing the door, he caught a glimpse of a very naked teenaged ass and he immediately busted out laughing. This girl was extremely desperate, wasn’t she? Mickey just continued to drag him to his bedroom, clearly trying to distance himself from Holly and get closer to Ian as fast as possible.\n\n \n\nWhen Ian finally was in his room, he was still laughing as he shut the door. Pretty soon after they were both laughing and Ian kept it going to hear the beautiful sound that was his boyfriend’s laughter.\n\n \n\n \n\n“Fucking dick. I’m a gay man for Christ’s sakes. I don’t need an eyeful of teenage girl ass. I need an eyeful of Ian ass.” Mickey laughed, and Ian couldn’t help but remember a time where Mickey would never admit to being gay, even with a nine inch dick up his ass. Ian was still lost in thought when he sat on the bed, but smiled when Mickey’s immediate reaction was to straddle him.\n\n \n\nWhen Mickey slotted their lips together, Ian just leaned back on the bed, ready to do every dirty thing he could think of in the little time they had.\n\n \n\n**\n\n \n\nWhen Ian and Mickey finally finished doing the do, the movie was already fifteen minutes in. Ian didn’t care if it was obvious they just had sex, they were sweaty, breathing kind of heavy, and Mickey even had a bit of a limp. Ian couldn’t help but smirk at that one, just because he was a cocky son-of-a-bitch. Ian plopped down on the middle of the couch beside Holly and smiled a bit when he felt Mickey wedge himself between Ian and the arm of the couch, not minding the closeness one bit.\n\n \n\nWhen Holly draped the blanket over the three of them, Mickey immediately grabbed onto his hand and rested his head on his shoulder. Ian smiled at this, to himself since he was out of view from both people currently occupying the couch and Debbie, who had taken refuge on the recliner. Ian briefly wondered where Carl had fucked off to, but he shrugged it off to him going to kill a cat or something else Carl does.\n\n \n\nIan smiled whenever a cheesy line came on the rom-com they were watching. Ian leaned over and gave Mickey a kiss whenever they said one, and by the tenth time Mickey expected it and just smiled sleepily and blushed like a tomato when Ian did it. Ian couldn’t help but love when his boyfriend was sleepy, he got even clingier and more often than not would wrap himself around Ian like a koala because he apparently can’t sleep without Ian holding him. Who knew Mickey Milkovich was so fucking cute?\n\n \n\nIan felt Holly place her head on his shoulder and under any normal circumstance he would have gently pushed her off and probably excused himself from the couch.  But tonight, Mickey was just barely awake and there was no way he was going to disturb his boyfriend. Five minutes later, he felt a small hand grab his dick through his sweatpants. He barely noted the domino effect as he sprung out of his seat, anger burning in his eyes.\n\n \n\nMickey and Holly had both tumbled off the couch when Ian got up and Mickey was glancing up at him slightly annoyed at being jolted awake and shoved to the ground. Ian would have thought his confused expression was cute if he wasn’t so pissed at Holly. Ian turned to Holly, the anger in his eyes still blazing.\n\n \n\n“What the fuck were you doing just then?” Ian yelled angrily. Mickey just looked between the two, confused for a moment before Ian continued on. “Why the fuck were you grabbing at my dick?” Ian didn’t know how she hadn’t caught on to Ian and Mickey yet. They were very obvious. Ian knew she liked him but he didn’t think she would go this far!\n\n \n\n“She did what?” Mickey asked angrily. Ian looked at his boyfriend and he looked as though he was reconsidering all his morals on hitting a girl. Ian watched along as Mickey and Holly had some weird little staring contest before Holly’s face grew smug and Ian knew whatever she was saying was going to be stupid.\n\n \n\n“Don’t get mad just because I’m not interested in you, Mickey. Don’t ruin this for your friend, I mean, if I were you I wouldn’t hold him back from getting the best piece of ass around.” Holly was spewing bullshit at this point, and Ian would have laughed if he wasn’t so pissed she’d grabbed his dick in front of Mickey. That was real fucking uncalled for.\n\n \n\nTurns out Ian can’t control his laughter after all and does end up laughing. He walked over to Mickey and slung an arm over his clearly worked up boyfriend. Ian leaned down and left a soft kiss against Mickey’s cheek as his anger disappears and he begins to feel bad for the girl. Ian turns to Holly and looks at her with an apologetic look and she just looks like she’s ready to piss herself.\n\n \n\n“Actually, Holly, the best piece of ass I’ve ever gotten is Mickey.” Ian had never said something so true in his life. Mickey was the best and Mickey was his. Mickey took Ian by surprise by grabbing his face suddenly and crushing their lips together. Mickey always poured so much emotion in his kisses and Ian wasn’t surprised when this kiss was full of love while still being passionate. Exactly like Mickey. By the time he turned back, Holly’s jaw was on the floor and Ian would have laughed if it was the right moment.\n\n \n\nMickey wrapped an arm around Ian’s waist and Ian felt the warmth radiating off of the arm. Ian smiled as Mickey pulled out his big boy threats for Holly. “If you ever touch my man’s dick in my presence again I will personally break all of your knuckles.” Mickey threatened with barely any emotion. Holly noticeably paled and Ian briefly wondered if they’d gone too far. But Ian knew Mickey wasn’t going to do anything to her so he let it go.\n\n \n\n“I- I’m sorry.” Holly mumbled as she plopped back down on the couch, dejectedly. Ian saw her get lost in thought, probably about something that happened tonight, not that he could blame her. The girl was probably humiliated. Ian honestly hadn’t meant to humiliate her but who the fuck thinks it’s a good idea to grab someone’s dick in a room full of people? Not to mention that he was five years older than her and didn’t want to deal with that mess.\n\n \n\nIan just threw himself down in Mickey’s previous position near the arm of the couch, clearly trying to put space between him and Holly. Ian knew Mickey wasn’t going to want to sit next to Holly and very much knew what Mickey’s favorite seat was, and that it was available.\n\n \n\nSo, when Ian felt Mickey plop down onto his lap sideways, barely able to keep his eyes open as he kept his head buried in the crook of Ian’s neck, he just smiled. He felt the kisses there and his heart fluttered with love for this amazing boy. The amazing boy that was all his and nobody could come between them.\n\n \n\nAnd if Ian just held Mickey as he slept through the rest of the movie? Well that’s nobody’s business."}
+{"text": "Hermione joined Ron for lunch in the atrium of the Ministry. The Australian contingent had requested a meeting with her after they finished with the Minister. Since she’d be at the Ministry anyway, Hermione decided to catch up with Ron, who was now working there. After the fall of Carding, Ron and quit his job as an auror to start afresh. Ron had followed his brother’s path into Curse-breaking and had finally achieved the enviable combination of working hard at something he loved. He still, Hermione decided with affectionate exasperation, ate like a pig.\n\nThe atrium’s roof soared high above them, Hermione used to love looking up at the fractal scattered pattern of the roof panels reaching up to the glazing above. She wasn’t exactly sure whether the light that streamed in was natural or magical but it was beautiful all the same. It was probably the only part of the Ministry she had missed.\n\nWorking on Draco’s project had re-energised Hermione after the devastation of discovering her years of pushing for equality for all magical beings had been a complete write-off. This time she was starting smaller, and focusing all her energy on breaking down stereotypes in the younger generations. But she hadn’t given up on her other dreams. She’d just shelved them temporarily until an opportunity presented itself.\n\n“Bloody Merlin’s beard ‘Mione, that all sounds completely horrible,” was Ron’s first comment after she blurted out a watered down version of what she’d seen in Severus’ memories. \n\nShe had desperately wanted to talk to someone about it, but obviously couldn’t burden Severus, and Harry still had a lot of his own demons from that time yet to be exorcised.\n\n“I actually can’t believe some of the things he did,” Hermione said.\n\n“Or some of things he didn’t do, more to the point,” Ron added, ripping apart a bread roll.\n\n“Yes, that too,” she sighed. \n\n“I’ll tell you something I’ve never told anyone outside the family,” Ron said hesitantly. \n\nHermione put down her own sandwich, as if holding the bread would interfere with her ability to listen. “What?” She asked.\n\n“The Ministry called Ginny in a few years ago for questioning,”\n\n“Questioning? What about?”\n\n“About what Snape did while he was Headmaster,” Ron answered quietly.\n\n“What, besides saving everyone’s bloody life?” Hermione said angrily and Ron made a shushing motion. She clamped down on her annoyance.\n\n“Obviously they weren’t the biggest fans of him, you know, because of the whole double-agent business remember?” Ron reminded her. \n\nHermione blushed. She’d lately been noticing her lack of rationality on topics involving Severus. She felt such an overwhelming desire for him to be happy that somehow got mixed up into feelings of overprotectiveness. She worried constantly that she would scare him off. She wasn’t under any false impressions of her charms, and definitely thought she was hexing above her weight with him. She felt every day could potentially be the day he found out he could actually have any witch he wanted, and didn’t have to settle for her. His reaction in Minerva’s office had frightened her. Was it really that easy for him to decide they shouldn’t be together?\n\n“Sorry,” she said. \n\n“They got Dad to head up an investigation to bring a prosecution case against him; for charges relating to administration of the Cruciatus on underage wizards and witches,” \n\n“Oh,” Hermione breathed. She couldn’t believe it. Or actually, she could believe it. She’d seen it in the Pensieve after all. She could still see the drawn, desperate face he’d worn that horrible year when she closed her eyes at night. It never ended, never, never. \n\n“Dad wasn’t entirely sure on why it was necessary to prosecute a dead man, and even why they transferred him to the section to do it, but he decided that if he ran it, then he could at least make sure it was done properly,”\n\n“Go Mr Weasley!” Hermione whispered.\n\n“Well obviously he needed witnesses right? Luna, Cho, Neville.....”\n\n“Ginny,” Hermione guessed. \n\nRon nodded. “Except what did Dad find out? Every single memory was fabricated. The Ministry was fuming, they couldn’t prosecute him for a a crime he didn’t commit. However there was one he did commit—“\n\n“The Memory Charms,” said Hermione sadly. \n\n“Yes. It took a long time for Ministry experts to unpick the false implants and remove them without damaging their minds,” Ron explained as Hermione listened, transfixed.\n\n“There is residue in there, Ginny’s told me. She said they removed almost everything, except she says it’s like a whispery dream. But with the removal they took the false and left the real. So they all have Snape’s real memory of being tortured,” Ron finished.\n\n“Oh shit,” Hermione said. \n\nRon shrugged.“Yep. Ginny said it’s weird, like being in a Pensieve almost. They all signed a secrecy agreement, but Ginny said the Ministry was a bunch of misogynistic twats and she couldn’t give a shit what she signed,” he smiled at the fist-pump of solidarity Hermione had given upon hearing Ginny’s opinion on the previous Ministry.\n\n“Is that why Ginny left?” Hermione asked.\n\n“Mostly,” Ron said. “It was her dream to play Quidditch, but she also wanted to get away. I mean, Riddle’s diary forced Voldemort into her head, then Snape got in there as well.”\n\n“Understandable,” Hermione said.\n\n“She loved Harry, but she said she was too mixed up to be with anyone....needed to sort herself out,” Ron said.\n\n“I adore Ginny,” said Hermione. “That’s so sensible.” \n\nRon nodded, then looked nervous. “Have you, um, maybe, um thought Snape is perhaps too mixed up?” He asked, the blush that overtook his face seemed to signal even his body couldn’t believe what he’d had the courage to say.\n\n“Too mixed up to be with me?” Hermione asked, hurt.\n\n“No, you’re amazing. Terrifying, sure, but amazing,” Ron said seriously. “I mean.... with anyone. I mean, no one can live through what he did and be, you know, normal,”\n\n“You lived with him!” Hermione protested.\n\n“Yeah, but...well...he’s obviously perfected putting on a fake front right? Look,” he said hurriedly obviously worried Hermione was going to cry or explode or crysplode, “I’m your best mate aren’t I?”\n\nShe nodded.\n\n“Well that means I get to be all protective and threatening,” he said. “Although don’t actually tell Snape that as I’m fairly sure he could completely destroy me with minimal effort.”\n\nHermione smiled. “I love you, you stupid idiot,” she said. He grinned.\n\n“But—and don’t vomit—I love Severus too. I really do,” Hermione said. “If he’s a bit broken well, then, it’s not as if he doesn’t know it. And I’m certainly not in a position to throw rocks,” she added, placing a hand over her shirt-buttons that covered the raised scar on her sternum.\n\n“No one is,” agreed Ron. He grinned. “Well I’ve done my brotherly duty for this week, can you please pass me that bread roll?”\n\nHermione laughed. She understood his concern, she really did. After all, she worried a little about Ron sometimes. Harry had told Hermione that Ron had been somewhat introspective after she’d moved out. They’d both jokingly agreed that such a condition was probably a novel experience for Ron, and he would certainly need their support to work through it. Hermione had thought, in a way, it had signalled the end of something.\n\nAfter all, they’d been together, in their little trio, since they were eleven. They’d moved in together straight after school and spent the years afterwards thicker than proverbial thieves. She’d been the one to break this when she moved into Spinner’s End. Harry had let it slip that Ron had fretted for days and at one point even resorted to asked Kreacher if Hermione was happy where she was. Ron, Harry had decided with the hubris of someone who didn’t spend a great deal of time concerned with the feelings of others, missed Hermione. Family was a particular trigger point for him after Nagini’s attack on his father; Ginny’s possession, Fred’s death and the latest unsuccessful Death Eaters versus Molly Weasley dramatic showdown. Ron didn’t want to lose anyone else.\n\nHermione understood, and she had made an effort to go back to Grimmauld Place more regularly since the boys were too terrified to visit Spinner’s End. Hermione had thought....hoped?...Severus might have got a bit jealous when she started being away more. But he didn’t. While she decided that was definitely a good thing, a very silly, immature part of her wished he’d perhaps show a tiny but of interest in who she met with. But that, Hermione had decided, was insecurity talking. And she was not insecure, at all, being the strong, independent witch that she was. \n\nThat she definitely was.\n\nRight?\n\nBut there was perhaps a slight, small, or maybe even insignificant issue she hadn’t quite dealt with.\n\nHermione imagined Severus’ mind would be like a well-organised gallery or showroom, with everything neatly laid out, labelled and alphabetical. Perhaps in there would be a ‘One True Love’ plaque underneath a too-beautiful for words Lily Potter statue, Hermione thought glumly. And in some dimly lit corridor she’d find a ‘She’ll do’ statue of her, complete with unmanageable hair and problematic teeth. If there even was a statue. Maybe she’d be relegated only to a bust, or perhaps a card, filed away with an appropriate Dewey reference. Hermione sighed to herself. Maybe she was overthinking things. After all, he travelled to Australia, fixed her parents with no concern to the implications for himself....sorted out Skeeter. He wasn’t a man of romantic words, she decided, he was more a ‘demonstrate through actions’ type of wizard. \n\n“Hello,” said a voice and Hermione both looked up. It was one of the Australian men, Chris.\n\n“Oh hello!” Said Hermione.\n\n“Gough is working out something with the Minister and Severus,” he said. “I’ve been left to my own devices. Which is always a dangerous idea.” \n\n“Would you like to join us?” Hermione asked. “Oh, and this is my friend Ron. Ron, this is Chris.”\n\n“Yes, I recognised him,” Chris said shaking a bemused Ron’s hand and sitting down.\n\n��Nice to meet you,” Ron said. “And good timing as I’ve got to go which means you can keep Hermione company. I’m meeting up with the Antiquities Section on a particularly tricky little amulet that’s giving spikes to everyone within a two feet radius.”\n\n“Sounds useful but potentially unsightly,” commented Chris.\n\n“Exactly,” laughed Ron, pushing back his chair to stand up. He gave Hermione a peck on the cheek and walked off towards the lifts.\n\n“I wanted to talk to you without Gough anyway,” said Chris. “So this is serendipitous.”\n\n“Intriguing,” smiled Hermione, “go on.”\n\n“Basila had a lot of friends in the military, and we did quite a bit of fund raising. So, we think what we could use it for is an exchange,” Chris explained.\n\n“Exchange?” Asked Hermione.\n\n“Yeah,” Chris said, “between Hogwarts and our school. A semester.” \n\n“That sounds great!” Hermione exclaimed.\n\n“We also had an idea about your group,” \n\nAfter the Pensieve viewing spectacular where Severus had.....er......needed a bit of space, Hermione had spent some time talking with Chris. She’d been really interested in the differences between the two countries, as had he, and she’d ended up giving him a potted history of her and Draco’s pet project. Until Severus, Hermione was used to males who half-listened to her, smiled vacantly and who were obviously thinking about Quidditch...or themselves...or themselves playing Quidditch...about two minutes into anything she tried to tell them. Chris, however, was cut from Severus cloth. He listened, asked questions and contributed meaningfully. Hermione had been in windbag heaven. \n\n“We were also thinking of something involving your group as well. We have a lot of areas where we’ve combined muggle and magical. It would fit in well with your excursions. Plus, I mean, we could hold it in your winter so extra bonus for the kids right?” He grinned at her.\n\nHermione grinned back. “Yes! That would be fantastic.”\n\n“Gough also has another surprise for you,” Chris continued with the air of a man on a Good News binge.\n\n“Yes?”\n\n“He got Severus’ entry ban overturned. We’ve decided to let him come back. Provided of course he keeps out of people’s minds.”\n\nHermione crowed ecstatically. “Brilliant! Brilliant!” She could hardly restrain herself and pummeled the table in excitement. \n\nSeverus, walking to the left of Gough, could see a very excited Hermione talking to Chris. She was waving her hands around erratically, which generally meant she was thoroughly engaged in a conversation. Typically, he tended to be the other participant in the aforementioned conversation. She never seem to get as animated talking to Potter and Weasley, but who could blame her really. \n\nSeverus decided it was odd to see her in full flight talking to someone else. He felt funny about it, although he wasn’t quite sure what was wrong, beyond an uneasy feeling that he wanted to be the one that made her laugh and knock cups over with her flailing arms. Not a handsome, blonde Australian with disturbingly thick biceps. As he neared their table, Chris obviously said something amusing as Hermione roared with laughter and immediately spilt her drink. He frowned. At that moment Hermione looked around and saw him. Her smile broadened and she pushed out her chair and practically bounced over to him. Severus felt himself relax slightly. That was his smile, the one she saved for him.\n\n“Hello!” Hermione said looking up at him. “All done?”\n\n“Yes,” he said.\n\n“Are you going to Hogwarts now?” \n\n“Yes,” he said a little uncomfortably.\n\nHermione reached out and grasped his right hand, squeezing it gently. “I hope everything goes all right, and going back there isn’t too, you know, awful,”\n\n“I anticipate it being very awful,” Severus answered. “But I do have to go back there.”\n\n“I’ve just owled Draco to meet me here to discuss a great idea that Chris has just outlined to me. It’s really exciting, I’ll tell you about it later,” Hermione told him cheerily and he attempted an encouraging smile.\n\nSeverus decided he must not have passed the correct message to his facial messages as she looked a bit crestfallen at his expression.\n\n“Oh, um, if you are coming back home that is. I mean, if it is going to be really bad, do you need some space? I can go visit the boys if you’d like,” Hermione babbled at him.\n\n\nYou are an idiot, Severus admonished himself. He obviously couldn’t trust his face to do anything helpful in the current situation. His hands, however. He lifted them and drew her towards him.\n\n\n\n “I’ll be fine,” he lied. “I’ll see you at home later.” \n\n\n\n In direct contradiction to his years of wrathfully stripping House points from miscreants indulging in public displays of affection, and right in the middle of the busy atrium he bent down and kissed her. She wriggled delightfully closer to him, and sighed a small, soft sigh as she responded very agreeably to his lips. He lifted his head from hers, noting she’d turned quite a fetching shade across her cheeks. Severus allowed himself a smug smile.\n\n\n\n “Yes. Later,” Hermione repeated, and she was smiling again.\n\n\n\n Severus held that smile in his mind as he arrived at the gates of the familiar castle. A dark oppressive malaise threatened to creep up on him but he pushed it away. He watched the figure of Filius approaching down the path. Severus could feel the wards wouldn’t deny him entry, but instead he waited for the escort. Hogwarts wasn’t going anywhere.\n"}
+{"text": "Chapter 51July 1st, 1993France\n\nHarry slowly woke up and found a warm weight on his chest belonging to his naked girlfriend.  Fleur was curled around him, her arms around him with her legs locked around one of his legs.  He had to laugh at the position she put herself in because he knew that they didn’t go to sleep like that.He placed small kisses on the side of her neck and stroked up and down her back to rouse her from her sleep, making the sleeping girl squirm.“Wake up, dear,” Harry whispered to his girlfriend.  Said girlfriend half opened her eyes and looked up at him which made her look very cute.She smiled back before snuggling more into his chest.“I don’t wanna wake up,” Fleur mumbled, gripping Harry tighter.Harry laughed before unhooking her arms that were around him“But you have to,” Harry said to which Fleur let out a little grunt of frustration.  She pouted at him with her arms under her chest, causing certain features to stand out.  Harry stared at her body, marveling at her beauty.  Fleur saw him looking at her and gave him a sexy smile.“Coming?” she said as she got up and walked towards the bathroom, swaying her hips.  Harry smirked as he got up and followed her.He smiled as he remembered how great it was to be in a relationship with Fleur and how their first time had been---------------------------------------------Lemon SceneNo one underage may viewYou have been warnedHarry sleepily woke up as he felt something press into his erection. He opened his eyes to see Fleur rubbing her bum back against him as they were spooned up together. They had apparently switched positions in the night, and Harry was hugging her back to his chest as they lay in bed.Raising his head up a bit to look at her face, he could tell that she was still asleep, but probably having a very nice dream if her actions were anything to go by.The young man started to kiss the back of her neck, making her moan in her sleep. Harry saw her eyes flutter open and stiffen from the contact. She relaxed though when she saw that it was Harry.“Morning Fleur,” Harry whispered into her ear. He let one of his hands drift down until it came into contact with the band of her knickers.“You can go ahead,” Fleur whispered. Harry moved his hand down the rest of the way and cupped her sex. He gently slipped one finger around the elastic on the band and slowly rubbed down her bald slit, making her moan. His finger found her tight hole and slowly slipped its way in.“Mmmmm,” Fleur moaned out, as Harry continued to kiss her neck, ears, and turned her head so that he could nibble on her lips. Slowly and tenderly, he loosened her up enough to add another finger. After a few minutes, he felt her inner muscles clench on his fingers as she went through an orgasm. As her orgasm ended, Fleur rolled them over so that she was on top of Harry.She shimmied her body down his and under the covers until Harry could feel her pull down the band of his sleeping pants; her hot moist breath on his manhood.“So big Harry,” Fleur said before licking up the side of his manhood. He couldn’t help the moan that escaped his mouth as he then felt Fleur engulf him.“Bloody Hell! That feels so good Fleur,” Harry gasped out. Due to his relative newness at this he couldn’t very well take the warmth and suction of Fleur’s actions, so after a few minutes, he came into Fleur’s mouth with a grunt. She swallowed his cum as it spurted out of his cock. Fleur took the time to remove his boxers completely. She stood up with her back to Harry. The girl bent over and slipped her knickers fully down her legs. Harry groaned at the sight as she turned around and bit her lip.“I don’t want to wait, Harry,” Fleur purred huskily. Harry nodded his head and she climbed into his lap. She used her wand to cast the Contraceptive Charm on herself before throwing her wand to the side. Fleur grasped his cock and lined it up with her wet opening. She slowly sank onto him until he bumped into her hymen which made her wince. After taking a deep breath, she plunged down until all of Harry’s cock was in her.“Please don’t move,” Fleur whispered. She knew it was supposed to hurt but this was still a surprise for her first time. “I think we should have loosened me up more before doing this.” A few tears leaked out of her eyes. Harry wiped them away before kissing her tenderly.“Relax love,” Harry whispered. “I won’t move until you tell me to.” Fleur hesitantly moved her hips slightly. After she discerned the pain was lessening, she started to slowly rock her hips back and forth.Fleur purred her approval while squeezing at his organ with the muscles in her rectum. They both felt the intimacy of this moment. Fleur surrendered herself fully to her man and Harry gladly took the offer plunging into her with unstopping rhythm and focus. It was all about his beautiful girl pressed on top of him for Harry. For Fleur, her mind was focused solely on the pleasure of the moment, her body on fire with need and arousal. Her juices leaked from her slit along her thighs in ever increasing amounts. Fleur’s butt muscles continually squeezed and released his organ as it pushed and pulled through her sphincter. Fleur’s mind came back to awareness of the outside world as she felt her pussy feeling that it was going to explode. She rubbed her flower as she began to feel the Harrys prick picking up speed. Her belly muscles tightened while her thigh muscles flexed to rock her hips back and forth. She was actively driving her rear up into the thrusts of her man. “I’m going to cum,” Fleur gasped out as she plunged herself down onto Harry’s cock as far as it would go. Harry’s eyes almost popped out of his head when he felt the pleasure of Fleur’s inner muscles gripping and fluttering around him. With a grunt, he forcibly came into her and a primal scream of ecstasy escaped Fleurs throat as she threw her hips back one last time and began to orgasm... Both pulled each other tightly to their chests, lips locked in ecstasy.After a few minutes where their actions and lip lock slowed, they both breathed heavily as they tried to catch their breath from the intensity of the experience.“That was amazing,” Fleur said. Harry nodded in agreement. They relaxed until Harry felt himself harden inside of her again.Here we go again.Lemon EndYou may read again if underage“That was amazing,” Harry whispered to her“Oui,” Fleur whispered back.---------------------------------------------------------The Next MorningFleur sat down at the breakfast table carefully as she was still sore from last night.“I knew you two wouldn’t be able to wait,” Fleur heard Appoline say in her ear as she laid food on the table. Fleur blushed as her mama sat down at the table muttering something about horny teens.“So, how was it?” Apolline asked.“It was painful at first but after about thirty seconds, the pain started to go away and it started to feel better,” Fleur said truthfully.“And just how long did you two go at it?” Apolline asked with a small smile.“I’m not sure,” Fleur answered as she tried to focus her sleep-deprived brain.“Morning Flower,” Harry said coming up and kissing her.“Harry” Fleur squeaked before hugging her boyfriend.“I missed you too Fleur,” Harry chuckled amused.  He whispered the next part, “But can you get off me? Your body is making certain areas grow.”Fleur shot up off of him blushing as she remembered that they had other people watching.  Harry chuckled as he stood up and wrapped her in a tight hug.He massaged her neck making her almost purr.“Harry, you’ve gone sappy on me,” a voice was heard, making Harry and Fleur break apart.  The voice belonged to his mentor Isaac Patterson.“Okay, maybe I'm a little sappy,” Harry admitted. “But Fleur is worth being a little sappy.”“Way to make a girl feel loved,” Fleur muttered with a huge blush on her face.They all laughed.Author Note I know this chapter was mostly a lemon scene and I don't intend to have this be every chapter but at least a bit."}
+{"text": " \n\n\tIt was now nearing 9 months since the chaos of the Civil War, and Tony actually felt comfortable with his team. Carol and Rhodey worked flawlessly together, which always caused Peter and Tony teasing him. During one of the team exercises Peter and Tony watched as Carol went against Hope, and how both were holding out rather well.\n\n\t“Major Danvers is so cool.” Peter sighed as Carol threw Hope out of the ring.\n\n\t“Tell me something I don’t know.” Tony chuckled. \n\n\t“Colonel Rhodes is gonna ask Major Danvers out after this.” Peter said, smiling up at his mentor. It was a running joke between the two of them, saying something new when the other said ‘tell me something I don’t know’ or ‘what else is new’. It was nice, having that type of relationship again. Tony didn’t think he’d ever have that again, not after the Civil War.\n\n\t“You’re joking. Tell me you’re joking.” Tony gaped at him. Peter laughed.\n\n\t“Nope! Heard him muttering to himself this morning. He wanted to wait till after the training so ‘Tones isn’t there to mess with me’.” Peter deepened his voice to mimic Tony’s best friend. Tony started cracking up.\n\n\t“That is precious! Oh I so want to mess with my honey bear now.” Peter looked alarmed, before putting a hand on his arm.\n\n\t“Oh please don’t Tony, or we’ll have to watch them flirt for even longer!” He whined. Tony just chuckled, smiling warmly at the boy. He finally got Peter to start calling him ‘Tony’ instead of ‘Mr. Stark’ which he considered a win. \n\n\t“Fine fine, I won’t bother him.” He looked to Carol helping Hope up. “Hey Major! We done here? Spidey’s gotta get home soon!” He called. Even though no one outside of the compound knew his identity, Peter had gotten comfortable enough to let other’s see him without his mask, and some to even know his name. Carol laughed, heading over to them.\n\n\t“Of course. We’ll see you this weekend right Peter?” Since coming out to his aunt, Peter started spending every other weekend at the compound, in the east wing with Tony. Peter nodded, bouncing a bit.\n\n\t“Yup! After Tony and I have dinner with May.”\n\n\t“That’s right it’s Thai night this Friday right? Wouldn’t miss it.” Tony ruffled his hair before heading to the door, knowing Peter would follow. “Oh and Honey Bear!” He called to Rhodey who was standing on the opposite side with a tablet. Once he looked up to the genius Tony grinned madly. “Good luck!” At hearing his friend sputter he cracked up as he put his arm around his mentee.\n\n\t“Tony you’re so mean!” Peter exclaimed, but laughed still. Tony chuckled, following the kid out to the front of the compound. “I’ll text you when I get home ok?” He was already wearing his spider suit from training, and he had his bag slung over his shoulder. \n\n\t“You better. Also try not to find too much trouble on the way home. It is a school night and May will kill me if you’re too late!” Tony smirked at him, knowing full well Peter would usually stop a few muggings or what not before getting into his Queens apartment. \n\n\t“I know I know! She yelled at me for twenty minutes last time!” Peter laughed, pulling his mask over his face. “Night Tony!” Tony waved, watching Peter leave. Once he knew the kid was gone he headed down to his lab. He had work to do, both for the Avengers and SI. First he’d work on finding more for his team. He had already reached out to a team in Hell’s Kitchen that called themselves the Defenders, and he was hoping to hear back from either a Luke Cage or a Jessica Jones. He was looking into a ‘Xavier Institute’ when Friday interrupted.\n\n\t“Boss, something’s wrong with Peter. I lost contact with Karen while he was stopping an assault and I cannot reconnect with her.” Friday spoke, sounding alarmed and concerned. Tony froze for half a second before bolting out of his lab.\n\n\t“Give me last coordinates Fri, and let Carol and Rhodey know what’s up. Do we still have the training wheels protocol installed?” He said as soon as his armor was around him. He was still working on his nano tech to create the ‘Bleeding Edge’ armor he wanted, but for now his Mark XLVII would do.\n\n\t“We have limited training wheels protocol, at least enough we can see what Peter saw before disconnection. I’ve already alerted Colonel Rhodes and Major Danvers.” Friday flew the suit while Tony watched on one of the HUD screens a visual come up. Looked like Peter hadn’t listened and was stopping three thugs from trying to hurt…a homeless girl? And things were ok, until one of the thugs stomped their foot and Tony could only watch in strange fascination as the street suddenly broke apart and shot up, trying to hurt Peter. \n\n\t“What the…Friday what am I seeing here?!” He watched then as Peter jumped away, only to be shocked suddenly electrocuted by another thug, causing the feed to cut.\n\n\t“I’m…not sure boss. I’ve been trying to go through it to see what they’re using to cause such damage but I’m not finding anything visual.” They were nearing where Peter last was.\n\n\t“Hopefully we’ll get some answers, and the kid’s ok.” Tony was trying not to panic, but he could feel it slowly bubble up. They made it to the street, and Tony landed, seeing Peter in full Spider-Man gear unconscious. The street looked like something had ripped out of it, and when he landed all eyes turned to him. “Scuse me, you have a permit to tear up the street like this?” He called out, seeing that the thugs were two guys and a girl. The one from the video who had torn up the street before stepped up, but before he could stomp again Tony raised his repulsors at him, causing him to pause. \n\n\t“Now now, let’s not do anymore damage.” Tony was concerned because Peter hadn’t moved yet. \n\n\t“We’re just here to get one of ours back.” The other guy yelled, grabbing at the homeless looking girl who had been trying to stay between Peter and the three.\n“Seems like she doesn’t want to go with you.” \n\n\t“She doesn’t have a choice.” The woman growled. “Come now Ana, you’ve cause enough trouble. Just come back and Father will forgive you.” She spoke to the girl, who had to be no older then 15-16. The girl looked to Tony, blue grey eyes focusing on him, before back to the woman. \n\n\t“He’s right Rebecca. I don’t want to go back and I am not going back.” Her voice quivered only a bit at the end, but she still stared them down. \n\n\t“Really?” The woman sneered. “You’d abandon your family?!”\n\n\t“The only family I have there is Michael and Mia, and I will get them back. But I’m not going with you, I will not go back to your precious Father, and I’m not letting you near Spiderman!” Ana yelled back at her.\n\n\t“You heard the little lady.” Tony said as he stepped forward. “Back off.” He could see exactly when the stomping man decided to act and shot up before the concrete that he was standing on exploded. “How are you doing that?” He questioned, Friday already running through what was seen. He shot at the stomper, knocking him out with a sonic blast. \n\n\t“Sorry, tricks of the trade” The other man growled, watching as Tony landed next to Peter. Tony then let his helmet retract as he kneeled and checked Peter’s pulse. It was going strong, letting the tension Tony had easily fall off before glaring at the woman who seemed to be itching to get closer to the three of them. \n\n\t“Back off. Now.” He straightened, letting his helmet fold over him and lifted one of his repulsors on her. Ana seemed to move closer to him, and he glanced over to notice she was removing her torn up clothes.\n\n\t“You heard Iron Man. Back off. Go sniveling back to Johnathan.” Apparently having Iron Man next to her gave her more confidence.\n\n\t“Keep talking shit Ana but you know damn well if we keep coming up empty handed Father will just take it out on Michelle. Little freak deserves—” The woman was cut off by what looked to be a white ribbon shooting out and wrapping around her neck, choking her. For a moment Tony thought Peter had woken up, and that maybe whatever caused him to collapse make his web shooters act up, but no. It wasn’t Peter at all. He turned to see that it was coming…from Ana? She had her hand out towards the woman, ribbon coming out of her palm. It looked like it had ripped straight out of her flesh and continued to pull itself out as the woman continued to be choked and then raised from the ground.\n\n\t“Shut up Rebecca. Shut up shut up shut up!” Ana snarled, and Tony could see Rebecca was starting to turn purple. \n\n\t“Kid…” He gently touched her shoulder. “You’re gonna kill her. And I don’t think your siblings would appreciate you doing that…so just…unribbon her?” She had flinched when he touched her, but seemed to listen and dropped Rebecca. The ribbon then shuttered and dissolved into thin air. “Good, that’s good. You alright?” He kept an eye at the now coughing woman and her last companion, but wanted to make sure the teen wasn’t hurt.\n\n\t“As alright as possible in this situation.” She said, looking up to him. She was now holding her hand that had the ribbon come out, as if in pain.\n\n\t“That’s ok, let’s get these two apprehended and you can tell me what’s going on.” Tony spoke softly, and turned when he heard a groan from behind him. “You alright Spider-Man?” He asked, keeping a repulsor on the two while helping Peter up.\n\n\t“Mr. Stark? Er..Tony…Iron Man yeah I’m just…what happened?” Seems that Peter was a little confused but took his hand, shaking his head. “Last thing I remember is—” He looked at Ana, then the two other people, and pulled Ana away to be shielded by himself and Tony. “These guys have been assaulting homeless people! And they were trying to take her!” He got into an offensive position.\n\n\t“Yeah caught that. Let’s get them taken care of yeah?” Tony let his repulsor hum to life, watching as the woman Rebecca put her hands close together to create a spark of electricity. That must’ve been what shocked Peter. The other man stepped back and began to chant Before Rebecca could do anything Peter webbed her hands, and then tried to web the other. It hit something invisible, like a wall of some sort so it didn’t hit him. He continued to chant, not noticing a strange orange portal opening up behind him.\n\n\t“Whoa, what is that?!” Peter asked, stepping back. Tony felt the icy prick of panic in his chest. He never got over portals after New York, and wasn’t sure what going to happen. To his surprise golden sparking chains suddenly shot out and wrapped up the chanting man, cutting him off.\n\n\t“The fuck?!” He yelled, struggling. From the portal stepped out a man that looked familiar to Tony. He wore strange blue robes, and had a god awful red cape that seemed to move with no wind around. \n\n\t“One of yours?” He asked the girl behind him.\n\n\t“No…none of them can do portals like that.” She said, stepping up to stand by Peter. \n\n\t“Apologies for interrupting this…scuffle.” The man called to them, looking at the mess of the street. “But I figured you may need help when it came to magic.Tony and Peter looked at each other confused, before Tony lowered his repulsor slightly. \n\n\t“So you’re…here to help?” The portal behind the man shut, and he chuckled at Peters question.\n\n\t“Yes. We sensed abnormal magic and so I came to find out what was going on.”\n\n\t“And you are what? The king of magicians?” Tony asked, seeing the cape behind him move almost as if it had a mind of its own. The man chuckled but shook his head.\n\n\t“No. My name is Doctor Stephen Strange. I’m the sorcerer supreme.”"}
+{"text": "Sex has never this big, life-changing thing for me. I've had a couple long-ish relationship, drunken one night stands I don't care to remember, and the occasional hook up that should've never happened in the first place. With the exception of a few close relationships, sex has always been a means to an end. Whether I was horny or in need of some companionship—sometimes both—someone just as desperate would always be there to scratch that itch. Sometimes even multiple people if I was in the right mood. Then I would go about my daily routine, taking care of my needs with the help of a trusty rabbit, until I craved that all too familiar touch; seeking it out in some hyped up club or an obnoxiously loud and packed frat party. I've had some really great sex and some...not so great, but never has it been this mind-blowing thing for me. That is until I met him.\n\nThe thing is, I wasn't even supposed to go to that party. At first I turned down the invitation from my friend, making up some lame excuse about studying and still recovering from the bar the previous night. I only accepted my friend's nagging requests to go with her when I found out the party was hosted by the infamous wealthy kid; my piqued curiosity getting the best of me. Hey, she wasn't any better. I found out weeks later she just wanted to go to potentially hook up with a guy she'd been chasing after for most of the year. We all had our reasons to go to that party; some shallow and some not so shallow, but mine was never to find someone who would completely change my ideas of love and relationships forever.\n\nWe're not a perfect couple by any stretch of the imagination, but our relationship works for us. We love each other, we communicate, and are open and honest with each other. Plus he's fucking hot, the conversations are great, and the sex is pretty damn awesome, so...you know...add those to the pro side of the list. All in all, if it came down to it, I would be incredibly happy just being with him in what society deems to be a \"normal relationship\".\n\nHowever, normal...never really been our thing.\n\n~~~~~~~~~~\n\nAs open as most of the floor plan was for Rush, through secret doors and down long, darker corridors of the upper floor hid smaller rooms for the members to seek out and explore; some comparatively tamer than others. Each room varied in size and decor; from old world elegance to sleek and modern to a futuristic playground and everything in between. The masquerade of it all was beginning to wind down, but the majority of the upper floor was still packed with members enjoying all the main areas and all of the secluded rooms.\n\nThe majority of the members still had their masks on, wanting to prolong the fantasy, but some did opt to take them off while they had the freedom to do so. Down on the first floor, Rush strictly prohibited any patron or member from taking off their masks, but allowed members to take them off on the upper floors. This was to ensure the anonymity and privacy of everyone while still giving members an option if they do choose to.\n\nThe low lights from various antique fixtures casted a reddish golden glow around the room, beautifully decorated to look like a vintage french parlor. Smoke, sex and that uniquely Rush scent engulfed the room, encapsulating the gathering group of members watching one of the current shows of four women slowly eating each other out. Their bodies looked rather uncomfortable tangled amongst each other, looking as if they fell into their current positions on the cozy makeshift bed. However, from the loud pitch of their muffled moans, I doubt any of them really cared about the weird positions they were in.\n\nFuck, he looked hot with his cock in her mouth. His eyes were closed, head tilted back, and his soft breaths passed through his parted lips. Her soft pink lips were wrapped tightly around his cock; well paced bobs of her head caused him to grab onto a large chunk of her honeyed curls. She seemed to really enjoy this from her muffled moans and her French tipped nails scraping down his bare thighs.\n\nAn open bottle of Moet in a silver ice pail sat idle on the low antique wood table between us; condensation forming on the thick green glass. Two empty champagne glasses also sat on the table next to a half eaten cheese board with Lorde's brooding voice flowing through speakers situated around the open area. I would never in a million years mind a quiet Saturday night at home, watching Netflix and chilling under the covers with him. However, watching him get a blowjob from a gorgeous model while I sipped on expensive champagne as her equally gorgeous significant other fingered my already wet pussy, wasn't a bad situation to be in either.\n\nI smirked from behind the champagne glass as I caught the attention of those dark and hooded eyes. They were an even better site to see them gazing at me from across the seating area; the passionate stare warming my body more than any champagne flowing throughout my body could ever do. His raspy groan carried across the room when her tongue slowly dragged along the underside of his cock, just before moving down to suck his swollen balls. She then wrapped her small hand around the base and leisurely jacked him off; small beads of precum spurting slowly from the reddened tip.\n\n\"Who do you want to be?\"\n\n\"Either,\" I said, moaning as the dark eyes slowly averted down to watch her tongue lick the dripping pearls. \"Both.\"\n\nMichael chuckled, his fingers slowly teasing my clit. \"You know, she's talked about the two of you before?\"\n\n\"She has?\"\n\n\"I wasn't at the agency at the time she met you. But, when we really got to know each other, she told me about the two of you.\"\n\n\"Did you know at the time you knew one of us?\" I asked, setting my empty glass on the end table next to me.\n\n\"Kind of,\" Michael said, turning into me when my hand splayed over the bulge in his pants. \"You didn't sounds familiar at all, obviously since I hadn't met you yet. But when she described him, something about it sounded a little familiar. Never thought it actually would be someone I knew.\"\n\nI let out a shuddered breath and watched his eyes again meet mine from across the room, biting my lip at the sexy grin that appeared when I opened my legs a little more. His eyes moved down and watched Michael's fingers continue their slow torture on my wet pussy. \"It's a small world I guess.\"\n\nAnother moan left my lips when I felt the little nip of Michael's teeth on the outer shell of my ear. \"Yeah it is,\" he said and placed tender kisses across my neck.\n\nThe groans underneath my ear and soft bites sent a shiver down my spine, prolonging it with a graze of his rough thumb over my hardened nipple. My hand slowly massaged the growing bulge in his pants, feeling the soft leather of his belt against my forearm; fleeting thoughts of another belt passing through my mind. I wanted to watch him completely come undone, relish in the groans and sharp breaths caused by her, but my eyes finally slid shut when Michael slipped two of his fingers inside me. Fuck, he was good at this.\n\nMy foot kicked the leg of the table as I slipped my heels off, catching the attention of him. Loud drunken laughter, low chatter, and a variety of sexual clamor was heard all around the room, including some distant moaning yells from outside the doors. It was not uncommon for members to continue their playful trysts right out in the halls. The sound of a loud bang against the stark white walls, a soft thud to the white marbled floors. Sex was everywhere in Rush, you couldn't escape it. Not that anyone was really trying to. We all craved it, embraced it here. We all found relief here from the monotonous daily grind, found solace here from the pressures of social expectations, and found support here to go about our lives the way we truly wanted to live them.\n\nAt this very moment, I was getting finger-fucked by the friend of the only person I could pretty much see spending the rest of my life with while he was intently watching the whole debauched scene from across room, getting an amazing blowjob from said friend's significant other. None of us were jealous or cheating or embarrassed. Instead, we were enjoying each other, indulging and losing ourselves to the sexually charged moment.\n\nMichael's eyes widened when I pushed him back onto the couch, but his face instantly changed when I climbed into his lap and kissed him. It was different than his, though, not in a bad way. It just wasn't him. But, in some weird way, it made me want him even more. I craved his lips, his touch, his scent all around me. Those delicious groans in my ear, hands dragging over me, lips and tongue teasing me down to my very soul. I needed him, but I also wanted them.\n\nHis hands hesitated slightly on the loose tie around my waist. \"Don't think,\" I moaned into his mouth, my teeth nibbling his bottom lip. \"Just feel. Look at them. Look around you.\"\n\nWe both turned to see her sliding a condom down his cock, aimlessly chatting about something we couldn't hear due to all of the noise. Soft laughter could be seen between the two as he spread out onto the vintage cream tapestry French sofa, helping her to straddle his hard cock. One of the staff members walked behind the couch to one of the large fireplaces throughout the room, tending to the fire as she slid down onto him; moans loudly coming from both of them.\n\nI turned my head and leaned down, my tongue slowly tracing the shell of his ear. \"Doesn't it make you want her even more?\" I said in a whisper so quiet, I'd be surprised if he even heard me. The tie was gone in an instant, along with my robe, his shirt and the leather belt. All of it thrown haphazardly onto the hardwood floor as he pulled me into his rough kiss.\n\nThe crescendo of moans and murmurs swelled to a deafening pitch as the women came in writhing succession. Onlookers watched from various vantage points while others participated with the women, reaching their high along with them. Long legs tangled together, hands petting over sensitive areas, and lips fully consumed in one another; the waves of their orgasms dissipating amongst gawking eyes. When the show was complete, they climbed gracefully off the rumpled bed, seamlessly making way for the next act.\n\nA low, sensual jazzy intro played as a large male climbed onto the bed, face down and spread out, waiting for what was to come. White stilettos clicked on the wooden floor, signaling the entrance of a very tall woman, clad in low hung white leather pants that looked almost painted on, and a matching sleeveless crop top that barely held in her perfect breasts. A fiery reddish orange messy bun sat gracefully on top of her head and full lips painted the perfect shade of red grinned with every gasp and moan floating her way.\n\nThe condom easily slid down Michael's hard cock; his fingers gliding through my hair as his eyes were glued to them. Head thrown back, teeth firmly attached to her bottom lip, and curls wrapped tight around his hand, her breast bounced as she rolled her hips into him. His other hand slid over her hip, gripping harder with every thrust into her. I could almost hear the low groan from him, and it caused me to shiver with thoughts of other times I've heard that sexy groan.\n\nI was so in my own little world that I barely heard Michael say, \"Turn around.\" I sheepishly mouthed a sorry, but the small smile on his face told me he wasn't too upset. Face them, no sense in only one of us watching them.\"\n\nA loud male moan came from the other side of the room as the redhead slowly slid a large dildo into his prepped hole. The black straps surrounding her legs and hips contrasted with the tight white leather. Her red lips left a stained mark in the center of his back as she began her slow, torturous thrusts. Strong fists grabbed onto the silver chains connected from his wrists to the black iron bed frame, clanging with each pull upon the dildo's hard impact against his prostate.\n\n\"Shit you feel good,\" I said, moaning with each inch down his cock. \"Don't hold back either, I don't mind it rough.\"\n\nMichael's hands gripped my hips, lips dragged over my shoulder, and my eyes closed when I felt the sting of his teeth biting into the crook of my shoulder. \"I've heard,\" Michael said, feeling him grin against my skin as he ran his tongue along the bite. Other members wandered all around the four of us; some stopping to watch for a bit, but most of them just gazed on as they passed around to the various performances.\n\nHis skin glistened from the sultry heat permeating the room. Fingers slid slow up her side and kneaded her breast, his thumb brushing over her taut nipple. Worn pink lips were opened wide as breathy moans flowed from them. With everything going on around me, I couldn't take my eyes off of them; hips thrusted faster into every roll of her bucking hips. \"They look hot together,\" I said, my pace increasing when I felt one of his hands moved between my spread legs.\n\n\"They are, though, I wouldn't mind seeing you and her together again.\"\n\nI let out a small laugh that quickly changed to a moan when his fingers circled over my clit. \"Did we put on a good show for you two?\"\n\n\"That you did,\" Michael said, groaning into my neck and sucking just underneath my ear.\n\n\"I'm curious to see you and him together.\"\n\nIt was now his turn to laugh, except his felt a little loaded. We both fell into a steady fuck; my mind picturing the two of them together, wondering what sort of past the two of them had. Our eyes darted between watching them and the large male trying to arch his back as far as he could while still being chained to the bed. Animalistic groans accompanied by low whimpers, sharp squeaking and a rhythmic metallic tone were now heard all around the room. The woman had one hand gripped tight against his hip, while the other was switching between gentle strokes over his ass and painting his back a deep red with her gold-foiled pointed nails.\n\n\"I want him to tell you. I wouldn't feel right telling you his side. But, I will say college was...an interesting time for all of us.\"\n\nI nodded my head, barely registering what he mumbled against my ear. My eyes continued to focus on the two of them as they both neared their orgasms. My moans grew louder from the combination of them, Michael's cock inside me and his fingers dancing over my clit nearly pushed me over the edge. I willed myself to continue watching the intimately public scene, but they kept slipping shut every single time his cock drove deeper inside me.\n\n\"Keep watching them, don't close your eyes. They're almost there.\"\n\nWe watched as both of them came, heads thrown back in pulsating pleasure. My brain officially fried with watching his face as he completely came undone. Swollen lips parted, groaning and heavy panting as her hands ran all along the ridges of his abdomen. His head slightly turned, his dark eyes finding mine and I couldn't hold it anymore. My orgasm rushed through me, body convulsing as I desperately tried to keep my eyes on him. I kept on rocking my hips and Michael came shortly after; strained groans lightly tickled my neck.\n\nHe grinned when he saw me grab Michael's hand and slowly suck on the fingers he used to play with me.\n\nI heard Michael's chuckle before he said, \"When you speak to him again, tell him he has a keeper.\"\n\n~~~~~~~~~~\n\nStark white with accents of aqua blue, the room was a complete polar opposite to the comforting warmth of the last room. Even though the last room was open, it still had more intimate seating areas and quieter alcoves away from the main area. This room, however, was completely open; save for ten thick and glossy white columns lining the sunken middle of the room. Furniture of various sizes, carved from what looked to be large blocks of clear and aqua glass, were on display as if they were pieces of art instead of seating for the packed crowd.\n\nA large bar area in the same clear and aqua block of glass lined the back wall. Members chatted away while they all waited for their drinks to be served by the efficient bar staff. Intermittent flashes of white and aqua came up from the frosted glass floor around dancers perched on large glass cubes. Their naked bodies were adorned with clear heels as they twirled gracefully around glass poles filled with a flowing aqua liquid. It felt as if we walked through the door and were transported to another world. The only thing that remotely reminded me of where we were was the unique Rush scent being pumped throughout the room, driving me insane with each teasing caress of his hand over the small of my back.\n\nAfter we discussed that we would meet up with them after she gave Michael a tour around, we continued into the futuristic room and went to order something from the bar. His arms wrapped around my waist, pulling me into him as we both watched the raised main stage of a woman hung face up and horizontally by intricately tied white ropes all around her body. Thin streaks of neon green highlights contrasted nicely through her ink black hair; the long strands swinging back and forth with each violent slap of the flogger against her dripping and swollen red pussy. Her strangled cries of pleasure barely rang over the pulsating beat, blinded only by the tight black scarf covering her eyes to the intent group seated around the stage.\n\nHis hand wrapped tight around my slightly moving hips, guiding rather than stopping my teasing ministrations. \"And you call me a tease,\" He said into my ear when I laid my head back against his shoulder.\n\n\"Can't help it, I missed you.\"\n\n\"You did?\" he kissed my temple; a shiver running through my body when he moved to finger the tie around my waist.\n\n\"Lots.\"\n\nHis moan lingered in my ear as I turned around in his arms; a slow and gentle kiss placed on his lips. \"Missed you too. Are you having fun?\"\n\n\"Yeah, but I'm glad to be back with you.\"\n\n\"Are you alright?\"\n\nMy eyebrows furrowed. \"Why wouldn't I be?\"\n\n\"We've done a bit before, but this is your first time like this.\"\n\n\"You prepared me for it, you comforted me after. What more could I ask for? Don't worry, I'm doing fine. I was a little shook afterwards, but it's gone now.\"\n\nAs I looked up at him, my mind drifted into his hungry kiss. 'the only person I could pretty much see spending the rest of my life with...'. Was my sleep-deprived mind playing tricks on me? Time seemed to pass so slowly without it. Phones were strictly prohibited, neither one of us had a watch on, and from the looks of it there were no clocks displayed anywhere in Rush. When we first entered, it was a refreshing feeling to disconnect from the outside world and enjoy the sinful night ahead. But now, the low rhythmic beat from the sound system felt as if it was blaring in my head. It felt stifling and a little unnerving to be in the midst of this ever growing crowd, and I felt my body tense the more I kept thinking of it.\n\nHis lips left mine and my heart swelled; barely hearing the soft words uttered against my ear. No words were needed between us after that. No matter who we were with, no matter who was around us, it always felt like we were in our own little world; enjoying each other and basking in the love and trust we had for each other. He moved his hand to my cheek and looked down at me with slight concern in his eyes.\n\n\"Trust me, I'm fine.\"\n\n\"Excuse me?\"\n\nWe both looked and saw the next bartender ready for us. \"Are you ready to order?\"\n\n\"Sorry, yes thank you.\"\n\nUnlike the other rooms, the bar in this room only displayed a six drink menu typed out in beautiful hexagonal font, against a glossy black cardstock, and surrounded in a frame of clear and aqua glass. Each ridiculously neon drink was mixed to each members specific need, poured into crystal glasses, and topped with different things depending on the drink.\n\nOnce we got our drinks, we took a seat at one of the long sofas along the wall. Curled up against him, we continued watching the performance, hands comfortably locked together. With each second that passed by, my body physically ached for him to be inside me. Even the sweet but slightly bitter neon pink drink couldn't cool me down and quench the thirst I was suffering from. Only one thing was on my mind at the moment, and no amount of distraction was going to alleviate the throbbing throughout my body.\n\nI sat my drink down the table in front of me and straddled his lap, giggling with the surprise look on his face. Taking his drink, I set it on the table next to him and kissed him hard. Groans muffled behind my kiss turned to low growls as my hips rolled into the growing bulge beneath his black pants. Desperate hands were now kneading my ass, and a lone 'fuck' was all I heard when I pulled back, biting his bottom lip before sliding off his lap and onto my knees.\n\n\"I want that blowjob now,\" I said, smiling as my teasing fingers dragged down the obvious bulge.\n\nHe spread his legs wider and his fingers slipped through my hair, watching my shaking hands slip the black leather belt off. I undid his pants, sliding my hand inside and pulled out his hard cock; my hungry eyes staring into his half closed ones. \"Fuck, I'm not stopping you.\"\n\nDrinks forgotten and members ignored, I ran my tongue along the underside of his cock, swirling my tongue around the head; precum already coating my swollen lips. One last swipe over his head and I slid my lips down his cock, feeling the long groan reverberate through my body and the pain of his hand gripping my hair. My hand grabbed the base of his cock, slowly stroking while my other hand played with his balls; the weight of them made my mental tongue water.\n\nWhatever words came from him were lost to the next rhythmic beat and the next participant's strangled moans and screams. I could've cared less of what or who was around us; passersby, gawkers, avid watchers. My mouth was filled with his cock, hair pulled tight into his fist, and my pussy throbbed with the prospect of his cock buried deep inside me. Head bobbing to the rhythm, I felt his other hand move to play with my breast, and a muffled yelp came from me when his fingers pinched my hard nipple.\n\nAll of a sudden, I was violently pulled from his cock and he kissed me, both of us moaning at our mingling tastes. He pulled me into his lap and I ran the head of his cock over my wet lips, moaning into his neck as I slowly slid down. I unbuttoned his shirt and traced my nails down his chest and stomach, sighing when he untied my robe and sucked lightly on a hard nipple. His rough tongue slowly circled the tip before sucking again, then repeating the process to the other one, lavishing them until a sharp shiver raced through my body.\n\n\"I need you,\" I said, crying out when his fingers moved to circle over my hard clit.\n\n\"You have me, sweetheart.\" He didn't know how much those words meant to me.\n\nOnce I was ready, I moved my hips up and down, bouncing into his upwards thrusts. His hands grabbed my hips and pumped into me, drifting down to grab my ass. I went to kiss him and almost bit his tongue at the loud smack vibrating through me.\n\n\"Oh fuck yes, sweetheart. You feel so good wrapped around me.\"\n\n\"Again,\" I begged, my hips moving faster. \"Please.\"\n\nEqual smacks on both cheeks had my head falling backwards, blindly seeking out that pleasure I was looking for. He grabbed my head and pulled me back into him, slowly kissing me; a muffled growl falling between our lips. \"That's it, sweetheart. Right there, you're so fucking tight.\"\n\nMy hands dragged up and down his chest, rolling my hips faster with every upwards thrust. He moved a hand up and teased over my nipple before moving up to caress his fingertips over the column of my neck. Pleasure shot through my body at what I hoped he was planning to do. \"Yes, please. Do it.\"\n\nI almost came when his hand squeezed tight around my throat, hips thrusting at that perfect angle. My body trembled under his darken gaze, skin on fire from his touch, but my heart completely melted for him. A random guy I met at a house party has completely and thoroughly ruined me for everyone...and I couldn't have been any happier.\n\nA few more thrusts and we both found our release; bruised lips crashing together, shivering bodies connected as gasping breaths and heated words flew freely from our lips.\n\n\"Bite me,\" I moaned.\n\nHis teeth teased over my shoulder, softly biting down at the same time he thrusted upwards, causing my eyes to roll back into my head and my body to shiver. A low, breathy moan came from my mouth when his hand played with my clit, prolonging the orgasm rippling through my body.\n\n\"I know...\" I said, struggling to get my words out. \"I know this is gonna sound really out of place right now, but when we're back home and settled, let's discuss moving in...together.\"\n\nHis dark eyes widened, shining due to the fluorescent aqua recessed lights above us.\n\n\"It doesn't have to be right now or even in the coming weeks, but I want to at least have a discussion about it. Cheesy and cliche, but I want to wake up with you next to me and have meals together. I want to come home knowing you'll be there, not on the other end of the phone or a webcam. I...\"\n\n\"It's not at all. Let's discuss it over dinner...well...today I guess,\" he said, chuckling at the thing I was nervous about moments before.\n\n\"Alright,\" I said in a giggle, biting my lip. \"You know that thing you whispered to me before? Words can't express how much I do for you.\"\n\nMy heart pounded when his smile slowly appeared. I leaned in and kissed him again, using the frenzied chaos of a group of exuberant girls laughing as they walked by to hide the tears that threatened to spill over. If my mind was playing tricks on me, then it wasn't doing a very good job of it.\n\n~~~~~~~~~\n\nI groaned when my eyes opened to the peeks of sun through the curtains, stretching out my body out along the bed. Carefully moving so as to not wake up the other three, I climbed out of the large bed and quickly went out into the common area to grab the red leather bound book sitting next to the phone. The cool air had me shivering as I walked back into the room and curled under the covers, leisurely flipping through the well made book. An extensive menu with food and drinks from all over the world, a variety of sexual goodies that could rival any shop or site, and services for pretty much anything you could think of were shown throughout the beautifully photographed pages.\n\nStartled, I felt her chin lay against my bare shoulder. \"What are you doing?\" She asked, her fingers tracing where the sheet had fallen and met my hip bone.\n\n\"Was in the mood for something,\" I said, scanning over a particular page of various dildos; meticulously organized by type, material, size and color. Seriously, someone needed a raise for this. \"Not really sure what though.\"\n\n\"Come here. I want to show you something.\"\n\nShe grabbed my wrist just as I set the book on the side table and we quietly walked out into the long hallway, barely having time to throw on the completely open white silk robe. Hair wild from a night of amazing sex and lips a mix of both our lipsticks, we'd looked completely crazy in any other situation. But for some reason, here at Rush, it seemed to be a normal occurrence as we passed by other people. From singles to large groups of people, everyone was wearing the same robes and nothing else as they walked to and from their private rooms.\n\nAfter a short while of searching, we came to a quiet hallway and stood in front of a large silver framed black and white photo. The picture contained a woman who was completely naked with an ivy plant concealing her face, in the throes of an amazing self-induced orgasm. Her quivering body was arched on an oversized oriental rug; perfect breast pushed up, teased nipples hard, and fingers glistening under most likely numerous studio lights.\n\nShe tapped her fingernails on the glass protecting the photo and looked at me with a smug smile on her face.\n\n\"That's you?\" I questioned, my eyes widened to what felt like saucers.\n\nShe nodded. \"It was hours after my first scene. Afterwards, we went back up to our room, ordered a ridiculous amount of alcohol and spent the rest of the night getting completely high and wasted, fucking in pretty much every room of our suite. The perks of being a celebrity; the best alcohol and drugs money can buy. Around six in the morning and coming down from my high, I had this realization I desperately wanted my picture up on one of their walls.\"\n\nI listened in awe as she recounted her story and of the photographer, who has been a professional photographer for well over thirty years.\n\n\"But of course, being the stubborn brat I am, I had a different idea. I told him I didn't care about my face being seen, but he refused to take the photo any other way; most likely for legal reasons, but I would like to think it was just him looking out for me. After agreeing on what I'd be doing and signed a bunch of forms, I was finally spread out naked on the rug with one of the ivy plants covering my face, masturbating while the photographer got his camera ready for when I was ready to cum.\"\n\nI stood there trying my hardest not to act too surprised as she tried in vain to cover her laughter and continue on.\n\n\"My ass hurt so bad from being spanked earlier that night. My moans echoed so loud in the room, and I remember hearing all the wet noises. I didn't care, I was getting off on how many people would see the photo and think about it as they got off themselves or fucked someone else. How narcissistic, right?\"\n\nTaking a deep breath to clear my mind and to process everything she was saying, I said, \"Maybe not this extreme. But, I think most people have had those thoughts at least once in their lives, whether they would like to admit it or not.\"\n\nShe laughed at my decent attempt to make her feel like less of a \"stereotypical, self-centered model\".\n\n\"The plant was to conceal my face, but it was low enough to help tease my skin and nipples,\" she sighed, somewhat drifting off as her fingers dragged over her neck and collarbone. \"It felt so good on my sensitive skin.\"\n\nMy mouth wouldn't shut as I heard a group of people walk down the hall, talking about how beautiful it was outside.\n\n\"Looking back, I feel bad for the guy. He was only doing was his job, and there was me, high out of my mind and playing with myself on the floor of his studio. But...I finally came and the photo also came out perfect. I got dressed and washed up, thanked him for the opportunity, and left the studio. After a few hours of sleep and a clear mind, we all went to leave the club and I was stopped by both the manager and photographer. They said they would be happy to discard the photo and all forms since I wasn't in the right mindset at the time, but I happily shook my head and told them to go ahead and use the photo.\"\n\n\"But you didn't have to. They would've...\"\n\n\"I know. But Rush is the only place I've ever felt free. Free to be myself, to be who I want to be. I never have to conform to standards or ideals here. I'm just me and this picture reminds me of that. It doesn't matter if my fans, my management team, or even the outside world do not understand. They don't have to. As long as I'm happy, that's all that matters.\" She looked at the photo and smiled. \"Don't you think?\"\n\nI smiled and nodded my head in agreement, knowing this time, her smile was genuinely out of happiness. \"Right.\"\n\n~~~~~~~~~~\n\nThe sun shined bright as we all passed through the iron door, cars perfectly parked in front by the valet. We all said our goodbyes, exchanging numbers and promising to get in touch, then watched as her and Michael pulled away. As he opened the door and helped me inside; kissing me as he closed the car door, I was even more confident now than ever that we were stronger than we've ever been before, even with everything that happened behind those closed iron doors. I knew I wasn't ready to take that huge plunge just yet, but when I did, I knew I could only trust him to take it with me.\n\n"}
+{"text": "\n(Hiccup)\n\n\n“I said I’m fine!” Hiccup gestured to himself, then jumped on the spot. The soft grass in the glade outside their cave was still slick from the fallen rain under his boots, but a morning sun was finally gracing their nameless island.\n\n“See?”\n\nToothless did not look convinced. He eyed him suspiciously, pacing around him like a predator does its prey. He produced tiny concerned growls, then louder, angrier ones, puffing small clouds of smoke from his nostrils.\n\n“Why are you pouting?” Hiccup complained. “I told you I’d be fine! The fever is gone like I promised. Look!” He spun around in a spectacle of healthy Viking-ness.\n\nToothless did not seem amused by the performance. Had he really been so worried?\n\nIn the past, Hiccup had suffered plenty of fevers. His mother had always taken care of him when he’d been very little, and, after her death, whenever those days came, it was Gobber or Helga who would occasionally come to check on him at Stoick’s behest. His father, being the chief of the village, did not have the time to care for him when he became ill. Besides, Stoick had never seemed to enjoy spending time at home.\n\nHiccup had hence gotten used to looking after himself during fevers or colds, for they had been quite common occurrences, and, since concern for someone’s affliction was rarely dispensed among real Vikings (for, like pity, it was sure to offend), Hiccup had never demanded or expected much attention during those times. He had certainly not expected the dragon to fret much over it.\n\nBesides, I told him not to worry about me. He thought, trying to fend off an uncomfortable feeling; it was almost like guilt, but why would he feel guilty?\n\n“Alright, alright, but I’m really fine now. Here, look…”\n\nIn a playful, yet awkward attempt to lighten the mood, Hiccup punched the dragon’s jaw to show off his recovered strength.\n\n“Aha! Take that Snotlout!” He said, pretending to fight the imaginary opponent, or, more accurately, pretending to pretend to fight, since he had no actual experience with hand-to-hand combat, besides being occasionally shoved around.\n\nToothless barely budged behind his weak jabs. It did not look like the dragon was enjoying his antics in the least.\n\nThe playful activity was put to an abrupt end when Toothless, teeth fully unsheathed, let out an ear-shattering roar.\n\nHiccup fell on his back, covering his ears with his hands and instinctively raising his elbows in defense. He had not expected that reaction, and, for a terrifying moment, he thought his friend had transformed into the kind of beast that all Vikings believed dragons to be.\n\n“I’m sorry,” Hiccup blurted out hastily, cowering on the ground. For the first time since the day they had first met, Hiccup felt small before the dragon’s angry form, defenseless.\n\nI probably deserved that, Hiccup thought, finally recognizing the source of that unpleasant feeling of guilt.\n\nToothless could not have known about his rather frequent fevers, or how dangerous they were. The crippled dragon had most likely been fearing for his own life too, unable to fly without a rider.\n\n\nI definitely deserved that.\n\n\n“I’m sorry for worrying you,” Hiccup lowered his hands warily. “I just get sick sometimes. I didn’t mean to scare you.”\n\nHe did not move from his spot on the ground, still unsure whether his words had actually reached his friend, or whether the dragon before him had become as feral as a pack of wild, angry boars.\n\n “Bud?” He murmured, his legs shaky with a mixture of fear and lack of strength, which he hadn’t fully regained yet.\n\nToothless’ eyes softened after a few blinks. He then voiced a soft, apologetic croon, which Hiccup had been breathlessly waiting for. The dragon approached him as he lay on the soft grass, and finally nuzzled his chest.\n\nHiccup felt relief spread across his limbs at the warm touch. Why he had been so reluctant to apologize in the first place, however, he could not recall.\n\n“I didn’t think you cared so much, you know?” He said, caressing the dragon’s head. “I mean… you stood by my side for two days, you brought me food, you kept cooling my head... Thank you, bud.”\n\nToothless purred and pressed his muzzle into Hiccup’s chest again. Then, in a fit of glee, the dragon began licking him. First, he lapped his chin, then his entire face. Hiccup could only try to fight his way out of the dragon’s overly-affectionate grasp.\n\n“Toothless! S-stop! Aaah!” Hiccup wailed uselessly, though he couldn’t help laughing too as the dragon’s large tongue coated him with thick layers of drool. “No- Stop- Please, Tooth-!” He suddenly coughed, which made Toothless interrupt his display of affection, allowing Hiccup to stand up.\n\n“Eeew! It’s in my mouth!” Hiccup cried and coughed again, trying to spit out all the dragon saliva that he had managed not to swallow by mistake.\n\nHe then produced a revolted grunt, and scraped off the excess slime from his face with his hands, which he wiped on dragon’s own snout, catching Toothless by surprise.\n\n“There. Serves you right.” He said smugly, failing to hide the smirk on his lips.\n\nToothless frowned, but seemed otherwise unfazed by having his own muzzle covered with spit.\n\nWith a sigh, Hiccup sat again on the grass, trying to recover from the exhaustion of fighting his much larger friend. He was going to need a few more days before he could consider himself strong enough to leave this island.\n\nAs he sat, contentedly observing some small clouds above being herded by the warm southern winds, and for once not thinking about Berk, Hiccup caught a whiff of what he could only describe as a rather unpleasant, though familiar smell.\n\n“Oh, man! I stink like Gobber after a full day at the forge,” He exclaimed, sniffing under his own armpits, realizing he had not washed for… how long?\n\nDuring his last couple of weeks on Berk, the troubling thoughts of abandoning the island had made him forget and skip the customary activity of Laugardagr, the weekly Day of Washing. This meant he had not washed properly for no less than fourteen days, perhaps even more.\n\n“Toothless, I seriously need a bath, bud. I reek like a yak!” \n\nDespite the saying that outcasts were supposed to never bathe, Hiccup was not willing to abide by such rule. He did not want to stink, even as an outcast.\n\nToothless approached him with an eager, gummy smile, his forked tongue readily lolling out.\n\n“No, no, no…! Enough dragon spit! I mean it. Stay. Put. There.” Hiccup commanded in his most authoritative tone, pointing a single prohibitive finger towards his friend, and trying his best not to smile as he did so. “Humans wash with fresh water, not spit.” He explained.\n\nToothless retracted his tongue with an unhappy warble. Then, sniffing the air, the dragon began to look around with a thoughtful frown.\n\n“What is it?” Hiccup asked, then groaned: “Oh, please don’t tell me there’s someone else on this island!” He was too tired to pull off another hurried escape like the one on Meathead island.\n\nThe dragon shook his head, but he gestured with his shoulders for Hiccup to get on him.\n\n“Want to fly? Now? But I just removed your fin, I thought it was starting to chafe.”\n\nToothless shook his head again.\n\n“I don’t get it,” Hiccup said, grimacing.\n\nA low warbling noise and a soft bark were the only responses he received.\n\n“You know, sometimes I really wish you could speak, bud. It would make everything so much easier.”\n\nThe dragon rolled his eyes. He then approached a lingering puddle of muddy rainwater, and splashed his paws in it, casting a meaningful look towards Hiccup. He did it again and again until Hiccup thought he understood.\n\n“Oh, you mean water! You think there’s a river or something?”\n\nToothless nodded twice.\n\nHiccup gladly accepted the suggestion, and, after grabbing some of his effects, he allowed his friend to carry him on his shoulders. Toothless wasn’t wearing his saddle or tailfin, so he just trotted into the unburnt patches of forest, towards what Hiccup believed was the sea’s direction. Hiccup could not recall the island’s layout, as they had landed during the night, in the company of an early summer storm.\n\nThey soon emerged from the treeline to the sight of a small valley, which descended gradually towards the sea-shore. It was not just the usual valley, though. Where Hiccup expected to see grass or moss or mud, the strange patch of land was dressed all in waves of white. Hiccup slid off the dragon’s back, eyes wide, then leaned to feel the surprisingly solid floor. At first glance, it looked almost like snow, but it was actually a very light-grey kind of rock, smooth and dusty to the touch, like pumice stone or chalk, only denser, harder.\n\nThe whole valley was uneven, molded by rain and wind to form gentle hills and bumps, pits and craters, some small as basins, others big as the lake in the cove near Raven Point. They were all made from this kind of pale rock, connected smoothly like dunes of sand on a beach, but rigid, and apparently impermeable too, for rainwater appeared to have filled all the smooth craters to the brim, creating dozens of small interconnected lakes.\n\nAs Hiccup looked around, he noticed a very narrow stream emerging from the forest to their far left, pouring even more water into those lakes, which in turn spilled over into the lower ones, and so on, until they reached the sea.\n\n“Whoa… Look at this place,” Hiccup murmured to himself. “Do you think it’s because of the volcano? Is this like… white lava?”\n\nToothless shrugged absently.\n\n“Aren’t you supposed to know about volcanoes? In the Book of Dragons, Bork says that dragons like to stay near live volcanoes. Don’t they?”\n\nAfter a small pensive silence, the Night Fury gave another noncommittal shrug.\n\n“You don’t know? How could you not know? Aren’t you at all like the other dragons?”\n\nToothless scowled and huffed, offended. He then straightened his pose to a more dignified one, his expression smug, head held high, eyelids lowered lazily. In that stance, the dragon looked like an elegant statue carved in black stone. No matter what anyone could say, Night Furies were truly beautiful creatures, and this one clearly knew it.\n\n“Yeah, of course not,” Hiccup said with a scornful look. “You are the bestest of the best. The greatest dragon that ever was or will be.” \n\nToothless ignored the heavy sarcasm behind those words, nodding solemnly, accepting even that derisive form of flattery. Hiccup could not tell whether Toothless was being ironic himself, but he already knew that the Night Fury before him was by no means a humble one. At least on the outside, for as Hiccup would sometimes notice, the dragon’s eyes seemed to hide a rather different story.\n\nHiccup approached one of the largest pools, and probed the water with his fingers. The pumice-like floor sloped gradually to a substantial depth, but Hiccup could still see the clear bottom at the center of the pool, filtered through pale-blue colors, rippling as his hand disturbed the surface. The water wasn’t freezing, but it was still quite cold to the touch.\n\nHiccup laid down his clean clothes. He began undressing, before remembering that Toothless was still there. He turned around. \n\n“Hey, bud, listen, can you… could you…” He trailed off. How was he going to explain? He didn’t even know whether he should. After all, wasn’t Toothless only a dragon? He was that, of course, yet Hiccup had enough proof that Night Furies, and perhaps many more dragons, were just as intelligent, and just as sentient as humans. So, try as he might, Hiccup felt he could not subdue his pathological shyness, even before his best and only friend.\n\nHe sometimes cursed himself for that stupid affliction, but he had yet to learn to fight it, not to mention overcome it. Besides, Hiccup had never been forced to. He had never had to wash in Berk’s common bathhouse before, and he had always dreaded the idea, partly because he didn’t want anyone to have definitive proof that, behind those oversized clothes and voluminous fur coat, he was undoubtedly the scrawniest, most pitiful creature in the Barbaric Archipelago.\n\nMuch to Hiccup’s relief, the chief’s house was furnished with a rather luxurious round wooden bathtub, as well as a private outhouse. Behind a large drape, at the back of his noble abode, Hiccup had gotten used to an uncommon amount of privacy for Viking standards. In fact, he could almost consider that tub as his very own, since his father preferred going to the bathhouse, for he wouldn’t have to waste time with heating the water, and he could instead use the occasion to further discuss matters of great import with the other men and women of the village. (Stoick the Vast never stopped working, even on Laugardagr.) Still, the man had tried to bring Hiccup along a few times, but Hiccup had always come up with some excuse not to go.\n\nThis way, Hiccup had also been able to afford to warm the water as he pleased, for he had the time and freedom to heat as many rocks over the hearth as he wanted, to then drop into the tub. He did not even need to get the water himself. On every day of Laugardagr, the tub was filled anew from the nearby well by the occasional boys, who had the honour to perform small daily tasks for the chief, like delivering messages, or bringing whatever the chief required. There were no slaves on Berk, but the chief did have plenty of hands at his disposal.\n\nAt the back of his mind, not without a pang of melancholy, Hiccup wondered if he would ever be able to enjoy that kind of luxury again, or if he was destined to wash in cold ponds and rivers for the rest of his life. The possibility of heating the water with scalding rocks was definitely not an option now, and, come winter, even the ponds would be too cold for washing.\n\n“Can you go back to our camp while I wash myself?” Hiccup finally asked, scratching the back of his neck.\n\nToothless tilted his head, perplexed.\n\n“Please? I’ll come back when I’m done. I promise. I know the way.”\n\nThe dragon’s expression changed. He crooned questioningly, edging closer, instead of going away as he’d been asked.\n\n“No… I- I’d really rather wash alone. I’ll be fine by myself. Please?”\n\nToothless was clearly unhappy with the prospect of leaving him on his own, and he probably couldn’t begin to understand the ridiculous reasons behind such an unusual request, but he still slid back into the forest, producing petulant little whimpers.\n\nWhile the apprehensive dragon had always had the tact and consideration not to follow Hiccup whenever he had to relieve himself (something Hiccup was incredibly grateful for), undressing and bathing in water were not activities with which the Night Fury was familiar, so it was likely that Toothless was also curious. Hiccup felt bad for the dragon, but he was going to find a way to make it up to him later.\n\n“I won’t be long!” He shouted as his friend left.\n\nOnce he was sure he was alone, Hiccup stripped completely, and trod with hesitant steps into the water, resisting the urge to shiver. When he was waist-deep into the lake, he decided to plunge with the rest of his body, so as not to extend his suffering. He yelped from the cold before diving in completely, holding what air was left inside his lungs. With his hands, he vigorously scrubbed his hair underwater, hoping to wash away most of the dirt and grime.\n\nOnce out of breath, Hiccup emerged. He had almost gotten used to the chill, and he was beginning to enjoy his bath, when, as he reopened his eyes, he found himself face to face with a black, reptilian muzzle.\n\nA shriek escaped his mouth. He launched himself backwards, into slightly deeper waters, trying to hide what he could with both hands.\n\n“Toothless! What-?! Go away!” Hiccup shouted, praying the water provided at least his lower half with enough cover.\n\nHe quickly realized his cold-induced yelp had reached the Night Fury’s sensitive ears, and the dragon had rushed back, thinking it a call for help.\n\n“I’m fine. Go away.”\n\nToothless warbled, scanning Hiccup’s naked figure with obvious concern.\n\n“Oh come on.” Hiccup lifted only one arm to wave his friend away as he yelled: “Shoo! Shoo!”\n\nWhen Toothless felt reassured about his rider’s health, he slouched his way back into the forest, without even trying to hide the expression of inexplicable rejection from his face.\n\nWorrying about the amount of pampering this was going to cost him, Hiccup resumed his activity, using a piece of rough cloth to rub his skin with some of the soap he had incidentally found in his belongings. Inside a hidden pocket within Gobber’s leather mustache-care kit, Hiccup had discovered a few shards of strong soap, of the kind Vikings used both to clean, but also to lighten their hair, for that soap, if used often enough, had a valuable bleaching effect. It was by no means a secret that Gobber, like many other villagers, enjoyed his mustache braids brightly blonde.\n\nAs Hiccup scrubbed himself, he could not avoid noticing a few, timid, yet encouraging changes; truth was, Hiccup would regularly examine his body during Laugardagr, praying for those very changes. He felt an unnecessary amount of surprise, and perhaps pride, when he thought he could see a few new, incredibly faint, but still somewhat noticeable strands of pale-auburn armpit hair. Perhaps he could have one day become a Hairy Hooligan worthy of the name, he thought, if only he had managed to stay on Berk a little longer.\n\nA few more hairs here and there, however, were no great consolation before his much too evident gauntness. In fact, he looked thinner and bonier than ever.\n\nIs this why Toothless keeps barfing freshly caught fish on me as often as he can? He also wanted me to eat three whole rabbits the other day; he knows I can’t eat that much.\n\nHiccup sighed. He needed to take better care of himself. If Toothless’ behavior that morning had taught Hiccup anything, it was that he could no longer afford to neglect his own health. The dragon needed him to be strong. Saving the Night Fury from Berk’s bloodthirsty villagers had not put an end to Hiccup’s commitment towards his friend. In fact, it had only given this responsibility an even more central place in his life. He lived for Toothless’ sake now, a notion that he found to be a much nobler source of pride than any, though pleasing, still timid achievement in his slow physical growth.\n\nHiccup finished bathing, and dried his shivering limbs quickly with another piece of cloth. He then decided to cut his messy hair with Gobber’s scissors. He cut it slightly shorter than usual, so it would be more comfortable to fly, without hair getting in his eyes. Yet, Hiccup felt there was also another reason behind that decision, the heart of which eluded him. He still went through with the slightly different look, almost on a whim.\n\nOnce he was done, and not one moment later, Hiccup caught a faint ruffling noise coming from behind the treeline.\n\nHe sighed. At least he was wearing his clean smallclothes. Asking for further privacy would have likely been pointless now that he and the dragon were living together.\n\n“Come out, Toothless. I know you are there.”\n\nThe Night Fury’s black head sprung from behind a bush, shooting small leaves in every direction. Then, the dragon happily trotted to where Hiccup was sitting, gathering his belongings. Toothless began sniffling Hiccup curiously, from his wet hair to his bare toes.\n\n“Yeah, I smell better now, don’t I- ah! Tickles!” Hiccup giggled, feeling the dragon’s warm breath on his skin.\n\nToothless produced an unexpected growl at some unwelcome sight.\n\n“What? Oh... that.” Hiccup found the scar that trailed his left side, just below the lowest rib bone. It was no more than the length of a finger, but it had been deep. “That’s from… when… I fell. In the stream,” he half-lied. He had actually been thrown by Snotlout and Tuffnut on the day of his tenth birthday.\n\nThe two boys had said it was meant to celebrate him, and they had added that they didn’t know the water would be so shallow. They had most likely been honest about the last part, and perhaps even the first, much to Hiccup’s bafflement. He could never understand what the other boys were actually thinking, and Hiccup was still somehow convinced that, for that single day, the two boys had truly decided to regard him as one of their own. It still hadn’t made the sharp rock in his side any less painful, nor the fact that the event had gone relatively unnoticed within the village any easier to swallow.\n\nStoick had been furious of course, but with whom, Hiccup was not sure. Hidden underneath a facade of proper worry, Hiccup could often perceive Stoick’s silent disapproval. Part of Hiccup had always suspected his father to resent him whenever he got hurt, even when it wasn’t his fault, or perhaps especially on those occasions. A man could get hurt by himself, but when another man was the offender, retaliation was a Viking’s prerogative and obligation, possibly of the kind involving fists. At least, that’s what Stoick seemed to want his son to learn: to be more like a Viking. Hiccup had tried, of course, but his fists had never yielded the desired effect.\n\nAnd yet, as a contradiction to that very lesson, Stoick had preferred not to make a fuss about the accident that day. Maybe he had preferred to avoid upsetting his rather uncertain relationship with Snotlout’s father, Spitelout. Despite his strength and might, and with only few exceptions, diplomacy was always a priority in Stoick’s mind, which was one of the reasons Berk had almost entirely forgotten what a blood-feud was.\n\nThis was actually one of the things Hiccup admired about his father, so he hadn’t complained, but he had yet to understand why he was expected to act more like a Viking himself, when ‘un-Vikingness’ was clearly one of his father’s most effective tools as a chief. Hiccup was sure he was alone in seeing that contradiction.\n\nSo Hiccup felt no bitterness at the two boys’ lack of punishment. He still suspected that, somewhere deep inside, both Snotlout and Tuffnut had actually felt some remorse for hurting him so gravely, although, like proper Vikings, they had never shown even a glimpse of it.\n\nThey had still come to visit him afterwards, as he was recovering in his bed after being sewn closed by Gothi, and Snotlout had even asked whether he was going to need to take over as chief one day, because, as the burly boy had put it: ‘it would be a bit of a hassle’. He’d said it most likely in jest, Hiccup was sure, but that was still the closest thing to an apology he had ever gotten from his second cousin.\n\nFunny how the worst scar I have is from their attempt to be friendly. Maybe that’s what being friendly means to real Vikings, Hiccup thought, as he often would, and once again found that notion tough to accept.\n\nOf course, not a few weeks after the accident, his relationship with both boys had reverted to what it had always been. He was the ‘village hiccup’, after all. Hiccup had still decided to forgive them, wanting to believe that, for once, their intent had been a well-meaning one. It may not have mattered now that he was an outcast, but Hiccup didn’t want Toothless to feel otherwise about them, at least in regards to that scar.\n\n“Don’t worry about it.” He said, before getting fully dressed, and heading back to the cave with Toothless, all the while thinking about their next destination. A safe place for him and Toothless. A place to call their own.\n\nTheir departure was going to wait a while, however. For now, Hiccup had to recover completely. Hence, he decided to spend that afternoon, and the next couple of afternoons too, snugly resting by his best friend’s side, occasionally taking to the skies, and thoroughly enjoying the precious sun of the first balmy days of May.\n\nThey broke their fast with fresh salmon, which Toothless had graciously caught (without swallowing it, as instructed), and which Hiccup was now cooking over a small fire. The dragon had already eaten his fill, and was now observing Hiccup’s activity with interest, his head laying on his crossed paws.\n\n“You know, I’m going to have to learn how to hunt for myself at some point,” Hiccup said, before rotating the skewered slice of fish he was holding. “I can’t keep making you always provide for me.” \n\nToothless groaned in protest. He sounded offended.\n\n“Why not? I’m really glad for your help, but I shouldn’t always rely on you for everything, at least not for food. You just need me to fly, but I’m using you for almost everything else. Food, travel, protection… even warmth. It’s not fair to you.”\n\nHiccup was determined to learn, sooner or later, how to take care of himself, partly for the dragon’s sake, but mostly because, as Astrid had painfully pointed out, he had actually been coddled all his life, at least in regards to the basics of survival.\n\nToothless was still unconvinced. He produced a series of high to low-pitched warbling noises, which Hiccup was slowly beginning to decipher as some form of disagreement. Hiccup had spent enough time with the dragon to be able to successfully discern (often aided by his friend’s vivid facial expressions) most of the sounds for affirmation and denial, direction, calls for attention or alarm, and more.\n\nHowever, he sometimes could not believe that this was all there was to dragon communication, at least as far as Night Furies were concerned. After all, Toothless had clearly learnt to understand him word for word, so the potential for comprehension of complex languages was obviously there.\n\n“At least, I need to learn how to hunt. I won’t change my mind about this,” Hiccup stated in his best tone of confidence, “even though I don’t think I completely understood what you just said,” he added. “Actually… about that. Remember when you woke me up the other day... during my fever?”\n\nToothless raised his head.\n\n“Well, my fever was so high, that I actually thought I could hear you talk!” Hiccup chuckled.\n\nThe dragon raised his head further.\n\n“It was kind of weird; must have been quite a high fever I had. It’s been a while since I had any visions during fevers. When I was little, I used to get quite a lot of those, you know? I would see weird things happen. This time I could almost hear a voice, asking me something, and I remember thinking it was you!” Hiccup smiled at the thought. “Then, I think I also saw…” his smile faded “...someone else.” He paused, and stared at the palm of his free hand with hopeless contemplation.\n\n“Still, wouldn’t that be something... if you could talk.” \n\nHiccup’s mind drifted off to recall more of that night’s hallucinations, and, as if on cue, his head started to ache again, though this time there was no good reason for it. He tried to ignore the ache, and looked back at Toothless, who was now gaping disturbingly at him, his eyes wide, and the narrow reptilian pupils sharp as knives.\n\n“Something wrong?” Hiccup grimaced, unsettled by the intense glare. “Tooth’? You are scaring me. Are you alright?” \n\nSlowly, a faint, yet uncomfortable noise began buzzing all around him. Hiccup turned to look for the source of the disturbance. The strange sound stopped immediately, and the headache ebbed away too, as if it had never been there. Hiccup looked back at his friend, who had settled his chin on his paws again, and was now gazing at their fire with a dissatisfied air.\n\n“What was that?”\n\nToothless looked at him sideways, then back to the fire, shrugging casually.\n\nAm I still imagining things? Hiccup wondered, when the smell of burnt fish filled his nostrils.\n\n“Thor’s flaming breeches!” Hiccup yelped, yanking away his slice of salmon from the fire. He studied the result. “Well... At least it’s not all burned. We’ll just say it’s well done,” he said, then began to take bites of his slightly charred fish right from the skewer.\n\nFortunately, his meal was not entirely ruined. Yet, while he was able to satisfy his stomach, Hiccup still felt like something was missing from his palate.\n\n“Man... It’s barely been a week, and I already miss bread.” Hiccup confessed, his mouth watering again at the memory of Helga’s warm loaves.\n\nHe felt surprise at the fondness with which he recalled the huge woman, since, back on Berk, Hiccup had never particularly enjoyed her. Though kind in her actions, Helga had always been rough and unpleasant in her ways. Even her voice could sometimes boom louder than the chief’s. Hiccup had often woken up to the sound of her barging in their home, shrieking:\n\n\n‘HICCUP, ya little muttonhead, COME GET YER DAMN BREAD!’\n\n\nStoick was usually already out at that hour, and Hiccup, if he hadn’t left for the forge himself, would end up having to climb down the stairs to sleepily thank the woman, who would otherwise keep on screaming.\n\n‘Suffering scallops... Can’t you leave it on the table?!’ Hiccup would yell in response when he was too tired to get up. This had often been his morning throat-clearing exercise.\n\n‘Get yer ass outta bed and do something useful FOR FREYA’S SAKE!’ She’d yell back, as per routine.\n\nWhy she’d always demand that he receive the bread personally, Hiccup could never understand, and sometimes he suspected his father of always leaving early just to avoid her insufferable presence. Nevertheless, Helga’s bread was by far the best on the island, so she was the one who had the honor to bake for the chief’s house.\n\n“Maybe I can make some bread myself,” Hiccup said. “I need barley flour, and a pan... and maybe butter, and…” He bit his lower lip. Those were all goods he could exclusively find in a village.\n\nToothless stared at him, eyes widening with worry.\n\n“I’ve got it!” Hiccup exclaimed, triumphant, raising the wooden skewer excitedly, like a warrior would a sword. “We find a deserted island close to a southern village where nobody knows about me. Then, we can fly there before sunrise, so we are sure we can’t be seen, and in the morning we can get the stuff we need. Well… I can get the stuff I need. You’ll have to stay hidden in the forest. And no making fires. We both remember what happened the last time.”\n\nHe looked at the dragon for approval.\n\n“Oh, come on. Don’t give me that look. If nobody knows about me, there’s no reason to worry. We are south enough, the Northern Alliance doesn’t reach where we are going, so we won’t be meeting any Hairy Hooligans, or Meatheads, or Berserkers. And who’s going to notice a little hiccup occasionally visiting a shop or two? This could work! We just need to look for a good place.”\n\nHiccup’s thoughts began to drift towards the southern seas, about which he knew either very little, or nothing at all. He felt his heart skip a beat, and a grin form on his face.\n\n“Actually, the weather is great, and we’ve just eaten.” Hiccup jumped to his feet. “You know what? We are leaving right now!”"}
+{"text": "They're not the first back to base, probably because they were near the opposite end of the island, so when Wei Ying peeks into the Winners' Room, he sees Huaisang first, tired and dishevelled in the Solo Omega box. It's a transparent box so that they can still see and hear everything going on, air conditioned and air filtered, but it is nevertheless a box because all the Solo Omega winners are still in heat.\n\nWei Ying grins, and raises a fist bump at him.\n\nPast him are the Couple Winners, and he takes a moment to parse what he's seeing: Nie Mingjue with Mo Xuanyu. Huh. Well, that's unexpected. Xuanyu doesn't look particularly terrified or traumatised though, and even raises a hand to wave at him. Wei Ying's grin grows wider. Good for him.\n\nHe limps into the room – the endorphins of the second knotting are starting to wear off now, and Wei Ying's body really is starting to protest the amount of abuse he's put it through in the last week – and he sees it, the moment Huaisang's eyes widen as Wei Ying walks past the Box.\n\nIt's like a domino effect, the surprise jumping from Huaisang to Xuanyu. It takes Xuanyu a moment longer, but he can smell Wei Ying from where he is – he can smell that Wei Ying's heat has broken.\n\n\"Hey,\" he says, dazed, as Wei Ying walks past to join him on the next little marked podium in the Couple Winners section. Even Nie Mingue's eyebrows are raised.\n\nLan Zhan has a sense of dramatic timing that Wei Ying wouldn't have expected from him, as he chooses that moment to sweep in behind Wei Ying, following him up to stand on the step behind his. His hand is light, but he rests the breadth of his palm across the back of Wei Ying's neck, his fingers curled around the side in the most possessive gesture Wei Ying has seen from him yet. His stomach swoops: it feels right.\n\n\"Mingjue-ge,\" says Lan Zhan, inclining his head. \"Xuanyu. Congratulations.\"\n\n\"You too, I gather.\" Crow's feet of laughter gather at Mingjue's eyes. Yeah, Xuanyu's going to be okay.\n\n\"Thank you. Do you happen to know what happened to my brother?\"\n\nA grimace passes over Mingjue's face, long enough that Wei Ying starts to feel a stab of alarm, before he speaks. \"He won, I think. Unless something happened in the last few hours.\"\n\nLan Zhan waits, but whatever it is that has Mingjue unhappy, he's obviously not going to say anything about. That's fair, they're still being filmed. Wei Ying has learnt that while he's not one to mince his words, he's not tactless. Well, he's sure he'll find out later, when he watches the highlights of everyone else's stream.\n\nThe time for the next winners to arrive stretches, the long wait time presumably meaning that whoever has arrived has been unceremoniously dumped in the Losers Lounge. (Despite the terrible name, it actually looks way more comfortable than the Winners Room because they get to just collapse in a heap on a giant sofa and cry their commiserations and get actual medical attention.)\n\nLan Xichen is the next to arrive, which immediately answers Lan Zhan's question. The omega he has in tow is Meng Yao, and when Wei Ying slides his eyes over to Mingjue, he has a badly concealed scowl. Huh, so something definitely happened there then. It doesn't stop Lan Xichen from clapping him on the arm as he walks past, or Nie Mingjue clasping his hand in return.\n\nHe gets to see Lan Xichen walk past Mingjue and Xuanyu to see Wei Ying. There's a little 'oh?' of mild surprise to see Wei Ying there, and then a wider 'oh!' moment when he realises it's Lan Zhan stood behind him.\n\n\"Congratulations,\" says Wei Ying as neutrally pleasant as he can because he should probably start off on the right foot for a potential in-law, and leans just a little into Lan Zhan's side. Lan Zhan sways back towards him, like they're a set of matching magnets.\n\n\"Thank you,\" says Lan Xichen, still visibly surprised. It's like Lan Zhan inherited all of the family's poker face capabilities and Lan Xichen not at all. \"And you. If, that is, congratulations are the right sentiment?\"\n\n\"Thanks,\" says Wei Ying, with a grin. He's enjoying the prolonged sensation of seeing everyone's reactions at him pairing up at long last.\n\nAt the same time, Lan Zhan says, \"Sales of the Qiankun Bag™ are up by 42% since the beginning of the finale.\"\n\nThere's a moment of silence, and then Lan Xichen says, with poorly concealed amusement, \"That's great. Well done, Wangji.\"\n\nAnd then he carries on so that he and Meng Yao are standing on their own little podium. Wei Ying turns to Lan Zhan and stares at the side of his face. It's a pretty great profile to stare at. \"Lan Zhan,\" he says eventually, as quietly as he can manage. There are only regular cameras here and no drones, and they're not micced up yet. \"Do you actually have a killer sense of humour? I thought – maybe last time had been a fluke.\"\n\n\"My brother thinks I'm very funny,\" says Lan Zhan, which delightfully tells Wei Ying nothing at all.\n\n \n\nΩ\n\n \n\nIt's distressing how little time they get to spend together after they're all coupled up. After the Winners segment has been filmed of them all trooping off the helicopter and into the room, the producer says, \"Cut!\" and the room dissolves back into a seamless production of a TV show again. It's jarring, after essentially live streaming for a couple of weeks, to go back to staged shots and camera angles and \"Can you do that again, with more emotion?\" requests.\n\nThey get ushered off the set by a veritable army of crew members – checked over by medical staff, given a whole bunch of antibiotics and jabs for any nasty infections they might have all picked up having outdoor sex and being bled on by other people for two weeks, and then bundled a set of clothes and shown into the shower.\n\nAfter the shower, Wei Ying looks around for Lan Zhan, who is presumably nearby doing much of the same thing, but another crew member directs him into a small interview room instead.\n\nHe'd done this as a solo winner and hadn't minded at all, but hadn't considered how terribly annoying it would be to be immediately separated and herded along as part of a couple.\n\n\"Wei Wuxian! Congratulations, a winner for the fourth season in a row!\" The interviewer is new – they tend to be new for this segment, some actual celebrity host with presumably a busy schedule who can only fly in to do the glamorous bits. Wei Wuxian recognises her from daytime TV.\n\n\"Fourth and probably last,\" says Wei Ying demurely. Or, a vague attempt at demureness anyway. The point is that people can tell it's fake. He bats his eyelashes at the camera.\n\n\"Such a plot twist!\" says Sisi, playing into it. \"I can see that's a real bite as well, so not just a knot, eh?\"\n\n\"Well I think if you're going to do it, you might as well go all the way! And there's no one I would have done it with apart from Lan Wangji.\"\n\n\"I think you've moved past the point of calling him by his stage name, haven't you?\" She's good. Pointed questions that get to the topics that people are likely discussing on the internet, getting material to fuel the conversation.\n\n\"Yes, but that's just for his ears only.\" Wei Ying winks, like 3 million or however many people watching live haven't already seen him calling him Lan Zhan.\n\nIn retrospect, it's good that they got separated this early. It's always a bit of a whiplash for Wei Ying to slide into his media personality. He's good at it, charming and effusive and a little bit flirty, but it's not really what he's like with Lan Zhan, he realises.\n\nThey go for a bit longer, long enough that sitting on the high stool is starting to get painful for someone whose ass got blown out earlier that day. He hides it well, he thinks, but he's still grateful when she leans in and says, \"Now, the final question. You know what it's going to be. You've never been in this position before, so think carefully.\"\n\nWei Ying nods. He does know what it's going to be. As a solo winner, he takes home the full prize money for each of the winners. As part of a couple, they get a choice.\n\n\"The prize money. Are you going to Steal It or Share It? If both of you choose to share it, all's good in love and war, you each get half of the amount. If only one of you chooses to steal it, that person gets the full amount and the other person gets nothing. If, however, both of you choose to steal it, then neither of you get anything at all. Nilch. Nada. A big fat zero. What's your choice going to be?\"\n\nIn the entire history of the show, none of the couple winners have stolen the money. The bad press alone would have tanked whatever sponsorships, engagements, et cetera, et cetera, the extra half of the money would have cancelled out. Everyone has, at least on camera, pretended to actually like the person they knotted with, even if it didn't last afterwards.\n\nWei Ying tries to look like he's thinking. (When he's actually thinking, he mostly looks like he's sleeping, so he tries not to do that on camera.) He waits. The show doesn't even have to build in a suspenseful pause, he's doing it himself.\n\nAnd then he says, enunciating very clearly, \"I'm stealing.\"\n\nShe clutches her chest like she's been shot and gasps, a long drawn-out affair that lasts a full three seconds longer than it should. Wei Ying appreciates her sense of drama; it really matches his own. \"No!\"\n\n\"Yep,\" he confirms, popping the 'p'. \"I'm taking it all.\"\n\nSisi leans forward and looks at him over her little horn-rimmed glasses. \"That's a lot of confidence, Wei Wuxian. What if your dear Lan Wangji also chose to steal it?\"\n\nWei Ying shakes his head. \"He wouldn't. He's way too nice for that.\"\n\n\"And you don't feel bad about taking his half then?\"\n\n\"He is rich. He doesn't need it. I, on the other hand, just became forcibly disengaged from my Career Omega career path. I'm gonna need all the funds I can get,\" he tosses his head with a sniff.\n\n\"All right then. For the first time in Hot or Knot history! We! Have! A! Steal!\" She flings her hands into the air and a bunch of poppers go off, spraying them in glittery bits of confetti. Wei Ying jumps, laughing as he's caught off guard.\n\n\"Have the production crew had these lying around for ten years, waiting for someone to finally steal?\" He asks, fishing confetti out of his hair; he hadn't even noticed the little fuckers.\n\n\"Almost definitely,\" she informs him, and pops one last one into his face. \"Now, let's see what happened with your partner.\"\n\nThey cut there, which feels almost anti-climactic. \"I have to go do this interview with Lan Wangji now. I am so excited,\" she informs him as she hops off her stool. The crew indicates that Wei Ying needs to wait in here while that happens, since she'll be coming back to film his reaction afterwards.\n\n\"Don't forget to act surprised,\" she says.\n\n\"I won't,\" promises Wei Ying.\n\nShe laughs off camera as she wiggles her fingers in a farewell. \"You're very good at this, Wei Wuxian. I hope we get to work together again.\"\n\nAt least Wei Ying doesn't have to sit on the stool if he's just waiting for Sisi to come back. Hopefully, Lan Zhan's interview will be quick, since he's the concise type. He slides down the wall to sit down opposite the cameraman, and stretches his legs out with a sigh.\n\n\"You really stealing, man?\" The guy – Ouyang Zizhen, if Wei Ying remembers correctly; he'd been an intern last year and it looks like he impressed enough to land it as a full-time gig – asks curiously, unwrapping a cereal bar of some sort. Wei Ying is forcibly reminded that he hasn't eaten in a hot while.\n\n\"Yeah, I mean, the real answer is that it doesn't matter, right? Not if you plan on staying together. If one of you steals and you're a real couple, the money is kind of both of yours anyway.\" Wei Ying drops the media persona. \"You don't happen to have another cereal bar, do you?\"\n\nZizhen fishes one out from his pocket. \"Yeah, it's been in my jeans for like ten hours though, if you don't mind?\"\n\n\"That's what he said,\" murmurs Wei Ying absently, peeling it apart and devouring it in two bites. Zizhen snickers. \"Thanks. Come hit me up when your contract for this season's up if you don't have another gig lined up. I feel bad for stealing your food when I'm literally about to win a huge amount of money.\"\n\n\"You got a job going?\" asks Zizhen sceptically. \"Didn't you just say that you're now unemployed?\"\n\n\"I'm marrying rich, I'm sure there's something,\" says Wei Ying with a shrug. \"Again, also why the prize money doesn't really matter. Plus, I'm an influencer, I always need video staff.\"\n\n\"Must be nice,\" says Zizhen wistfully. \"But yeah, thanks.\"\n\nThe interviewer arrives back at that point – which, wow, was brief even by Lan Zhan's standards – and Wei Ying pushes himself back up the wall. His ass is throbbing even looking too hard at the barstool thing.\n\n\"Not to like, TMI,\" says Wei Ying, which is a ridiculous thing to say given he has all of his clothes on right now, \"but can I get a cushion or something? My ass is battered.\"\n\nSomeone on crew bustles around to find him something – eventually one of the sofa throws folded up into a little square pad that Wei Ying can perch on – as Zizhen busies himself doing nothing with the camera to hide his laughter.\n\nThere's a screen set up just under the camera that they swivel to look at, with the footage just captured from Lan Zhan's interview. They run through much of the same line of questioning that Wei Ying did, and Wei Ying watches him with interest.\n\nHe'd seen Lan Zhan's opening interview before the show started – he'd watched all of them for research purposes – and he remembers Lan Zhan being professional and articulate, but largely devoid of personality. It's always interesting to go back and see how his opinions of people change once he's met them in person, how he can spot little tics or habits they do in front of the camera and be able to interpret them differently with context.\n\nBut Lan Zhan is much the same as his opening interview; like how Wei Ying has a media personality that's him, but a little more of him, it appears Lan Zhan's media personality is him but a little less of him: professional, eloquent, thoughtful. And concise. Terribly, terribly concise.\n\nWei Ying sees the company CEO in that persona; he hadn't, quite, been able to imagine Lan Zhan running a company before.\n\nHe's been distracted, he thinks, by the musing over Lan Zhan's media persona – he lost the answer to a number of questions. But the important bit is coming up. Zizhen moves his body camera for a better angle of Wei Ying's face.\n\nOn screen:\n\n\n\"…If, however, both of you choose to steal it, then neither of you get anything at all. Nilch. Nada. A big fat zero. What's your choice going to be?\"\n\n\n\n\"Share.\" Lan Zhan answers immediately, no sense of suspense at all. \n\n\n\n\"...Okay. Share it is. Are you worried that Wei Wuxian will steal it from you? I spoke to him just now.\"\n\n\n\n\"Then whether I worry about it or not matters little,\" says Lan Zhan. Infuriatingly true. \"But no, I am not worried.\"\n\n\n\n\"Let's take a look at what he did.\" And then it fades away to a complicated looping Russian doll situation where Lan Zhan is watching a recording of Wei Ying's interview while Wei Ying's watching a recording of Lan Zhan watching a recording of Wei Ying's interview.\n\n\n\nThey get to the moment where Wei Ying can hear his own voice, tinny and faint over the speakers. \"Steal!\" Wei Ying watches Lan Zhan for a reaction, and grins to himself when there isn't one.\n\n\n\nThey pause the video. \"You just said that you weren't worried,\" says the interviewer, fake concern heavy in her voice. \"But it looks like you had cause to be.\"\n\n\n\n\"I am not worried,\" repeats Lan Zhan. \"Wei Ying deserves the money.\"\n\n\n\n\"He – deserves it?\"\n\n\n\n\"Yes. There should be a third option. Share, steal, and... surrender, perhaps, if you would like to continue the alliteration.\" \n\n\n\nWei Ying sits back smugly. \n\n\n\"Surrender!\" squeals Sisi delightedly at this turn of events, before remembering that she's in front of the wrong half of the couple to give her an appropriate response to that. \"How chivalrous of you. I'll feed that back to the producers, although I have to admit that it's not likely to be a popular choice!\"\n\nThey pause the video there.\n\n\"Now, you don't look surprised at all,\" says Sisi, wagging her finger at Wei Ying.\n\nHe spreads his hands in a modest shrug. \"We didn't discuss this segment specifically, but I already knew that Lan Wangji was never here for the money.\" (He was never here for the heat mating either, but Wei Ying glosses over that part.)\n\n\"Besides, I'd say he's won the best prize of all, right?\"\n\nWei Ying loves this interviewer, because she sets him right up for it, with her eyes wide and hand ready to fly to her mouth. \"Oh? And what's that?\"\n\n\"Me, of course.\"\n\nThey cut the interview there.\n\n \n\nΩ\n\n \n\n\nWEEK 0.5, THE NEXT YEAR\n\n\n \n\n\"Hello everyone, and welcome to Hot or Knot: Behind the Sheets. I'm your host, Wei Wuxian, thanks for joining me tonight. I've got with me a winner from last year's season of Hot or Knot, Nie Huaisang, who's going to give us a bit of a preview as to what to expect in the upcoming few weeks. Huaisang, nice to see you again.\"\n\nWei Ying moves the mic from his face to Huaisang's, and grins at his friend. Wei Wuxian has done a few sponsored events, started his own streaming projects since last year, but it's his first time acting as a celebrity host of anything. He's wearing a replica of his robes from last year, the red and the black ones he was wearing when he got knotted by Lan Zhan, just to visually remind viewers who he is if they've forgotten.\n\nHuaisang looks good as well, his hair grown out a little longer this year and wearing a tracksuit that somehow looks terribly luxurious as well as comfortable. They're items from his own clothing line, launched this past year off the back of his Hot or Knot win with the tagline: 'Fashion you could die in'. Well, Wei Wuxian found it funny, anyway.\n\nThey've kept in touch, he and Huaisang, and Mo Xuanyu as well, so it's a little odd greeting Huaisang like he's a long-lost friend rather than someone he sees every other week or so when he's not travelling, but the director asked them to reveal snippets of their familiarity slowly, to get the audience hooked.\n\n\"You too, Wei-ge. It's odd to see you on that side of the table.\" \n\nIt is odd, being on this side of the chair, and they both know it. Everything feels a little bit different from this angle, and it's taking him a moment to adjust to the idea that the cameras are behind him and he's not meant to turn to face them. The whole interviewer gig is weird, actually. He's been given prompts and questions that he has to get through, but he's also been told to feel free to ad-lib and try and get interesting reactions out of the contestants (which is probably what Wei Ying is better at than reading off cue cards).\n\n\"Isn't it just! But I'm glad the show asked me to come back to host some of the interview segments, it's always nice to catch up with old friends. How are you feeling about this upcoming season?\"\n\n\"It's good. I'm ready to see what challenges the show comes up with this time. It feels like the staff always come up with something new.\"\n\n\"Yeah, the fake pregnancy sure was an escalation from the fake baby. Which of the new contestants do you think would be a good partner for that challenge this year?\"\n\n\"I'm not going to give it away. I've done my research though, and I've got two or three people in mind. But it would be a coupling for the challenge only, I think.\"\n\nThey've already talked about this, outside of the interview room; one of the first things they discussed when Huaisang mentioned joining the show again.\n\n\"Oh? You're not looking for a long-term partner.\"\n\nHuaisang looks from Wei Wuxian, into the camera. \"Oh, not at all. I hear this show needs a new Career Omega, after all.\"\n\n \n\nΩ\n\n \n\n\"Wei Ying!\" The call from the living room is faint, which actually means that it was really loud.\n\n\"Coming!\" Wei Ying darts from the third floor down the stairs, skidding across the polished hardwood floors hard enough that his slippers make the most atrocious squealing sound, and half rolls and half falls over the arm of the sofa, into Lan Zhan's lap. He grins up at Lan Zhan. \"Hello.\"\n\n\"Hello,\" says Lan Zhan bemusedly, looking down at him.\n\nWei Ying rights himself, just as the opening shot finishes and the voiceover begins.\n\n\"Tonight, on Hot or Knot. We meet our omega contestants for the first time, and get to know their dreams and desires. Some, returning faces. Some, fresh faced and unaware of the challenges that lie ahead.\"\n\n\"What's this, Lan Zhan? Reality TV? I didn't think you were the type,\" says Wei Ying as he turns the volume up.\n\n\"I rarely indulge,\" says Lan Zhan in that ever-dry tone of his that Wei Ying has grown to love and appreciate. \"But I found out that my favourite celebrity was making a guest appearance.\"\n\n\"Pah,\" says Wei Ying, arranging Lan Zhan's arm around his back the way he likes it. \"Who cares about some celebrity when you've got a nice omega at home?\"\n\n\"There is also an important business matter,\" adds Lan Zhan. Wei Ying frowns. He hasn't heard about this bit. He doesn't get involved in the everyday of Lan Zhan's job, but generally Lan Zhan tells him things that are classified under 'important business matters'. \"I would like Huaisang to get through to the finale, and send him a prototype of the Qiankun Bag™ 2.0 to use, so we will need to vote for him. You are allowed to vote for one contestant every 24 hours.\"\n\n\"Ah, Lan Zhan. I didn't think you were one for audience participation,\" Wei Ying laughs. Even after a year, he's often caught out by Lan Zhan's knack for understatement. \n\nLan Zhan presses a smattering of kisses to Wei Ying's temple, and Wei Ying settles down as the narration begins. Even though it's been a year since he was last on the show, seeing it move on without him feels like a new chapter in his life. A new, exciting chapter.\n\n\n\"Tonight, on Hot or Knot...\"\n"}
+{"text": "When I woke up the next morning, Melanie was already out of bed and in the bathroom. I closed my eyes and remembered the night, shuddering as I relived her spanking my pussy. Strangely enough, I felt a tingle between my legs as I thought about it. I wanted to look at my pussy, but I was afraid of what it might look like, so I didn't. I was tender. Melanie solved that for me as she came out of the bathroom in a robe and her hair wrapped in a towel. She marched over to me and pulled the cover and sheet off me.\n\n\"Lie back and open your legs, Sabine.\"\n\nI shivered, thinking she was going to do it again and my eyes filled once more.\n\n\"No, no, you silly goose. I have something for it.\"\n\nI laid back and covered my eyes, not wanting to know if she was going to swat me there again. I felt her hands pull my legs wider and then something cool and moist on my pussy. I looked up to see Melanie peering at my pussy as she rubbed some lotion stuff on it. I could just see the top of my slit and it was a little puffy and a deeper pinkish color, but not red as I imagined it. Melanie's hand and fingers, as always, felt good on my pussy and I closed my eyes and let the nice sensations flow over me. I was really enjoying this when our door opened.\n\nMs. Wilson, the resident head, walked in.\n\n\"I've had some reports of...WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?\"\n\nMelanie stood up, remaining surprisingly calm under the circumstances. I shrieked and reached for the sheet, pulling it up. The resident heads had master keys to the dorms and had blanket permission to enter rooms where there was some possibility of misbehavior. My face was hot and burning.\n\nMelanie looked at her coolly.\n\n\"Sabine seems to have a little rash or something and I was putting some antiseptic lotion on for her.\"\n\nMs. Wilson looked at her suspiciously and then at me. I was shaking.\n\n\"Is that right Sabine?\"\n\n\"Y-y-yes.\"\n\n\"A rash, you say? Let me see.\"\n\n\"Ah, Ms. Wilson, it's, ah, on my, um, vagina.\"\n\n\"And I haven't seen one before? As I remember, you insisted on showing it to me twice earlier this year, Sabine.\"\n\nShe walked over to the bed and grasped the sheet. I reluctantly let go and shuddered as she pulled it off me. Melanie, the bitch, helpfully pulled my left leg open and Ms. Wilson peered at my pussy. I was beet red and humiliated. She reached down and lightly touched my pussy.\n\n\"It does seem a little inflamed. Let me see the lotion.\"\n\nMelanie handed it to her and she read the label, with me lying on the bed, legs spread.\n\n\"That may help, but if it doesn't get any better in a couple of days, I insist that you see the school doctor, Sabine. But that isn't why I am here. I had some reports of screams and slapping sounds from your room last night and thought I should check on it. What do you two have to say?\"\n\n\"May I get my robe, Ms. Wilson?\"\n\nShe nodded, curtly, and I got up and scurried, naked, to the bathroom. Once inside I leaned against the wall, shaking. I knew we were caught and there was going to be hell to pay. I slipped on my robe and tied it tightly and walked back out to face the music. Ms. Wilson was sitting on my chair, the one that I fucked myself on for Melanie and I blushed, wondering what she would think if she knew what it was used for. I sat on my bed and Melanie on her chair.\n\n\"I don't know what anyone said, Ms. Wilson, but I did scare Sabine last night and she did scream, but that's all, isn't it?\"\n\nMelanie looked at me.\n\n\"Yes, Ma'am, she scared me and I screamed, that's all.\"\n\n\"And what about the slapping noises?\"\n\n\"Well, ah, we had a pillow fight, right Sabine?\"\n\n\"Yes, we did, that could have those noises, I guess.\"\n\nMs. Wilson looked from Melanie to me and then back to Melanie. She frowned.\n\n\"Some how I don't think that is the entire truth, girls. Do you want to try again?\"\n\n\"No, Ms. Wilson, it's the truth. Just like I told you, right Sabine?\"\n\nI nodded this time, my mouth was dry and I wasn't sure that I could speak.\n\n\"I don't think you are telling me everything. However, if you insist on this story, I must tell you that I am going to be keeping an eye on both of you. Sabine, with your history with others, I will tell you that if you want to talk to me alone, my door is always open. And Melanie, you've been a model student and dorm resident. I would surely think that you would want to tell the truth, so the same goes for you. One last chance, is that your story, scaring leading to screaming and a pillow fight?\"\n\n\"Yes Ms. Wilson.\"\n\nOur voices were echoes of each other's. She looked at each of us again and then stood and walked out. The door closed and I sat, shivering.\n\n\"Scared me and a pillow fight? Are you crazy?\"\n\n\"I didn't hear anything from you, Sabine. She didn't give us much time to think up a story, just burst in and confronted us.\"\n\n\"Jesus, she knows something is going on.\"\n\n\"She suspects, but she doesn't have any proof, Sabine. She has to catch us to prove anything.\"\n\n\"She's got a master key for God's sake, she can walk in on us at anytime.\"\n\n\"Well, yes, but what are the chances that we will be doing anything? I would guess slim.\"\n\n\"We have to be careful, Melanie. I can't get caught and have my parents find out and you wouldn't be too happy either.\"\n\n\"We just have to get an apartment off campus or something. I'm not giving you up just because Ms. Wilson got a complaint. We'll just be more careful and you have to learn to keep from screaming.\"\n\n\"I HAVE TO LEARN TO KEEP FROM SCREAMING?? You're the one who was slapping me, if I remember correctly. Perhaps we need to cut that out...\"\n\n\"If I remember correctly, Sabine, you asked me to keep on slapping you. Or is your memory totally crap?\"\n\n\"Oh fuck you, Melanie.\"\n\nHer eyes tightened and she stood up and took my left arm, pulling me up and dragging me into the bathroom. She pushed me against a wall and opened my dirty clothes hamper, pulling out a pair of my soiled underpants.\n\n\"Get the robe off now, you little bitch, and get over my knee!\"\n\nI stood by the wall, eyes wide. Melanie reached over and pulled me to her, sitting on the toilet. I went down over her knees and she reached under me, yanking my tie loose. She pulled my robe out from under me and yanked it off my left shoulder and down my arm until it was off that side. Then she just flipped it over me and it slid down my right arm to the floor. It was tangled around my right wrist and I was naked again.\n\n\"Open.\"\n\nI tucked my head down and pulled my chin in towards my chest.\n\n\"No Melanie, no, don't...\"\n\nShe responded by pulling my hair back so my head came back up, then she pinched my nostrils until I had to open my mouth to breathe. As soon as my mouth opened, my soiled panties were stuffed inside it. My left arm was twisted up into the small of my back. I tensed and then...\n\n\"Whack!\"\n\nI jerked up, keening, as my ass was struck.\n\n\"Whack!\"\n\nMy legs kicked and my head tossed. My eyes filled with tears. Melanie reached between my squirming legs and rubbed me on my pussy. In a few moments I had forgotten about her spanking me.\n\n\"Whack!\"\n\nI remembered again, kicking and blubbering, but her hand went back to teasing my pussy and I whimpered.\n\n\"Whack!\"\n\nMy back arched up and I screamed as she caught me right over my pussy, my sore pussy. My legs bent up and stiffened, my whole body stiffened in agony.\n\nShe felt me again, teasing and a finger slipping into a wet, hot pussy. She fiddled with my insides for a few moments.\n\n\"Whack!\"\n\nI squealed and wriggled on her lap, but her arm holding mine, held me down. She teased my pussy some more.\n\n\"Whack!\"\n\nI howled into my panties, sucking air through them, tasting myself from the fabric. Melanie whacked me a few more times, heating my ass up nicely, reddening it all over. Then she just pushed me off her knees, letting me fall on my side on the rug in our bathroom. I was lying there, panting and clutching my sore ass, when I heard the key in our door.\n\n\"Oh God, she's coming back. Quick, get in the shower.\"\n\nI hurriedly peeled off my robe and jumped in the shower, grimacing as I turned it on and cold water gushed over me. Melanie picked up her toothbrush and began to brush her teeth. I faced the bathroom so my ass was against the wall. Ms. Wilson walked in. Fuck, I still had my panties in my mouth. I pulled them out and dropped them behind me, facing her and the mirror.\n\n\"I was just walking by again and I heard something that sounded like slapping. Another pillow fight, girls?\"\n\nI had yanked a washcloth down and was rubbing my face with it. Melanie almost choked.\n\n\"Ah, no, I have no idea what you are talking about Ms. Wilson.\"\n\nShe looked at Melanie, then at me.\n\n\"Sabine...\"\n\nI kept washing my face.\n\n\"Sabine!\"\n\nI jumped as though I was scared and stared at her through the shower door. Hell, I was scared! My hands went over my breasts and pussy automatically. My mouth worked soundlessly.\n\n\"Sabine get out of the shower.\"\n\n\"I don't want to Ms. Wilson.\"\n\n\"Get out or I will drag you out.\"\n\nI shut off the water and hesitantly opened the door, taking my towel and wrapping it around myself.\n\n\"Now I know that you two are lying to me. Let's have the story, now.\"\n\nMelanie looked at me and then at her. Her eyes came back to me, I was no help, and I was only able to tremble.\n\n\"You wouldn't understand.\"\n\n\"Try me.\"\n\n\"Ah, God. Sabine?\"\n\nI was resigned to being expelled and having to go home in disgrace, my parents finding out about Melanie and I and thinking that I was no better than a slut. I spoke in a low quavering voice.\n\n\"Just tell her.\"\n\nI had given up and was prepared to take the punishment I was going to get.\n\n\"Let's go in the room and at least sit down.\"\n\nMelanie led and Ms. Wilson and I followed. The two of them sat down, but I didn't, making Melanie grin at me. She was taking this a little too well for me.\n\n\"Ah, we play games.\"\n\n'Games, what sort of games?\"\n\n\"Ah, Jesus...\"\n\n\"Oh for Christ's sake, Melanie, they are sort of sexy games, Ma'am.\"\n\n\"Give me an example.\"\n\n\"Ah, Melanie spanks me.\"\n\n\"Really?\"\n\nI could see that this wasn't going anywhere. I moved over so I was in front of them but facing away. I swallowed and let my towel loose. My hands, still holding the ends of the towel fell to my sides and the towel slowly slid down my back until my reddened ass was bare.\n\n\"Jesus!\"\n\nI stood, my ass bare, trembling. I knew that this was the end for my school career. I heard her get up behind me and walk closer.\n\n\"Does it hurt, Sabine?\"\n\n\"Ah, at the time, yes, but now it's just very warm and ah, um, arousing...\"\n\nI heard movement closer and then a soft hand touched my ass, making me flinch and sigh. It moved over my red and roughened skin lightly, feeling the heat bubbling out from it. I alternately pressed back, whimpering and pulled away, gasping as the touch was soft and then more insistent. The hand, Ms. Wilson's hand, left me and I stood, facing away, blushing and not a little aroused.\n\n\"And that's it? Just a spanking?\"\n\nMelanie walked up beside me and turned my face. She looked at me and then her lips moved to my ear. She whispered.\n\n\"You decide what to tell her darling. Whatever you want and nothing you don't.\"\n\nShe stepped back and sat.\n\n\"What else do you do, Sabine?\"\n\nI turned to face her, letting the towel fall to the floor.\n\n\"Melanie dominates me, Ms. Wilson. She does what she wants and I let her.\"\n\n\"So then I should be asking Melanie?\"\n\nNo, she won't tell you. It has to be my decision. And I am not sure of what to tell you.\"\n\n\"Why?\"\n\n\"Because you'll use it against us and judge us. It isn't for everyone and because of that people think its wrong. And I don't want to be expelled nor have Melanie expelled.\"\n\n\"And if I listen and say nothing, do nothing?\"\n\n\"Your word?\"\n\n\"Yes, you have my word, as long as I feel you are not being pressured.\"\n\nI took her sleeve and walked to Melanie, standing in front of her. Ms. Wilson was standing to our sides. I moved my feet apart and looked at Melanie, then bent and kissed her. I straightened up and took a hand, placing it on my left breast. Melanie looked up at me and squeezed it softly. I closed my eyes and sucked in a breath.\n\n\"Do what you want, Melanie. Its Sabine, remember.\"\n\nShe looked at me and stood. Then she looked at Ms. Wilson. She squeezed harder, making me gasp. Her thumb and index finger pinched my nipple and twisted it. I opened my eyes to see her face in front of mine, and then I looked to my right where Ms. Wilson was staring at her hand and my breast. I whimpered and pushed into the hand, wanting more. Melanie knew. She let go of my breast and then slapped it, hard, making me gasp and making my breast bounce and sway. Then she pinched the nipple again. Her other hand was between my legs, rubbing. I was in heaven with the rubbing. She slapped me again and I sucked in a breath. I let Melanie do what she wanted for a few moments. Then I hugged her, kissed her. I stepped back.\n\n\"Sit down Ms. Wilson, please.\"\n\nI walked to Melanie's dresser and took out the dildo and plug and lubricant. I walked back and set them on my desk.\n\n\"Where is the rest?\"\n\n\"Bottom drawer.\"\n\nI walked back and bent, opening the drawer and finding the harness and the handcuffs. I picked them up and walked back, setting everything down on my desk.\n\nMs. Wilson stared at all the toys and then at me, standing naked in front of her. Then she looked at Melanie.\n\n\"And all this is consensual?\"\n\n\"Does she look like she is being forced?\"\n\n\"There are things that I don't really like, but I get things I do like if I do them.\"\n\n\"Such as?\"\n\nI picked up the anal plug.\n\n\"This in my bottom. I get something I want for that. And there are other things that don't involve toys that I get something for. It isn't a one way street, Ms. Wilson.\"\n\n\"It's not that I don't want to believe you and you are both of age, but...\"\n\nI sighed and picked up the plug and lubricant and handed them to Melanie.\n\n\"Are you sure, darling?\"\n\nI just nodded and bent over my desk, resting my elbows on it. My reddened ass stuck out\n\n\"Ms. Wilson, participate so you will keep quiet. Pull her cheeks open.\"\n\nI felt strange hands on my ass and my cheeks were pulled apart, exposing everything. Melanie dripped lubricant on my anus and rubbed, then slid her finger up my ass. I whimpered and twitched a little as it went in. Melanie played with me, then slid another finger in with the first, twisting them inside me.\n\n\"Enough, darling?\"\n\nI nodded. I felt the plug at my anus and another drizzle of lubricant, glad for her consideration. The plug pushed forward and was turned and slipped inside a little. I gasped but held as still as I could. Another push and more slid into me, making my anus stretch.\n\n\"Oh my God...\"\n\nAnother push and I felt my anus feel impossibly open and then the largest part was past my ring and I gulped a breath. I still didn't like it, but it was the easiest thing I could think of to show her. I didn't want her to watch Melanie do me or to sit on a dildo or to have Melanie pee on me. And I certainly didn't want my pussy smacked again, at least not for a while.\n\nI sucked in another breath, trembling. I looked over my shoulder to see Ms. Wilson staring at my bare, filled ass.\n\n\"Satisfied Ms. Wilson?\"\n\nShe reached out and barely touched the base of the plug. I winced, my ass was a little sore from the ass fucking I had taken last night.\n\n\"Actually, no, Sabine. You still could be doing this under pressure. You could be afraid to say anything. Just like before with Rebecca and Amy. And don't think I am stupid and can't figure things out.\"\n\n\"What would it take to make you believe us, Ms. Wilson.\"\n\n\"I think I should move you out of this room, Sabine. It looks to me like you are being taken advantage of again.\"\n\n\"No, Ms. Wilson, no, please, I will do anything you say if you let me stay with Melanie, please...\"\n\nShe was taken aback by how fervently I begged her. I certainly didn't do that the first time she caught me in a compromising position.\n\n\"Then tell me what goes on in here, truthfully and completely.\"\n\nMelanie looked at me. I looked at her. Then I looked at Ms. Wilson. Melanie turned and walked to the window. Then she turned around.\n\n\"Ms. Wilson, you are not being fair to Sabine. You are asking her to tell you intimate details of her life. You can't expect her to tell you.\"\n\n\"And if I am correct and you have some hold on her? And you are using it for your selfish pleasure?\"\n\n\"What would it take for me to show you that we love each other?\"\n\nI started to open my mouth. It wasn't being fair to me, but it wouldn't be fair to Melanie either.\n\n\"No Sabine. Let her ask me. She isn't going to humiliate you just to satisfy her perverted curiosity.\"\n\nMs. Wilson glared at Melanie. I was beginning to get nervous that things would be said that never could be taken back. I stepped in between the two of them.\n\n\"Just stop it, stop it. I don't want this anymore than I want to leave Melanie. I just want it over and you to leave us alone, Ms. Wilson.\"\n\nShe looked at me, then at Melanie.\n\n\"Fine, show me that you truly love her, Melanie.\"\n\n\"If I do, this is over and we get to live our life the way we want to?\"\n\n\"Um, yes, but I think you two are going to have to move from this room to another, more private room. I can't have students and residents coming to me about noises that they are concerned about and not do anything. If you stay here, it's going to come up again, if you two aren't lying to me.\"\n\n\"Where is this room?\"\n\n\"It's on the top floor and at the end of the right hall. No one else is within fifty feet of you.\"\n\n\"Jesus, that's five flights of stairs!\"\n\n\"A small price to pay for true love, isn't it?\"\n\n\"Melanie, let it be. We'll have some privacy until we can move out of here.\"\n\nMelanie looked at me and smiled.\n\n\"All right Ms. Wilson. You win, now sit down and watch how much I love her.\"\n\nMelanie removed the towel wrapped around her think mane of blonde hair. She led me to my bed and gently sat me down, stroking my face when I winced.\n\n\"Sorry darling, but don't say things that anger me.\"\n\nShe slipped off her robe, standing naked in front of Ms. Wilson and I. Her firm breasts stood out from her chest, nipples erect. Her slim torso gleamed in the light shining through our window. I looked at her, still surprised that she wanted to be with me. She was good looking, attractive and I was plain, a nobody. Melanie knelt in front of me.\n\n\"Let me, Sabine.\"\n\nI flushed, looking at Ms. Wilson. I let Melanie open my legs and gasped when she bent down and kissed my pussy. Then she looked up at Ms. Wilson. She mouthed \"watch\" to her and then bent down and buried her face in my pussy, kissing and licking me. This time I was the one being loved and I reached down and stroked her hair, whimpering as she drove me slowly crazy. Ms. Wilson was staring at the two of us, both naked and one licking the other's pussy. I watched her, the look of disbelief on her face. And then I had to close my eyes and I clutched Melanie's head in my hands\n\n\"Oh God, Melanie, oh God, I love you\"\n\nShe licked, kissed and sucked on my pussy right in front of Ms. Wilson, naked and seemingly unashamed. I was, however. I was bright red. I could feel the heat in my face. It felt hotter than the heat in my spanked ass.\n\nMelanie lifted my legs up, rolling my ass up and gently removed the anal plug. Then she kissed my anus, something she had never done before. Then she licked it, making sure that Ms. Wilson was able to see exactly what she was kissing and licking. I was moaning when she moved back up and licked my lips and clitoris, lovingly and tenderly, laving each inch of my pussy with her tongue. I was soaking and little tremors had started in my stomach, my abdomen. My hips lifted to her mouth and she sucked and licked me harder, flicking her tongue across my clitoris until I exploded, keening and bucking my hips up and down. Melanie licked and kissed me until I slumped down. I had little after shocks shooting through me, making me twitch. Melanie sat back on her heels and looked at Ms. Wilson.\n\n\"Satisfied?\"\n\n\"Um, maybe.\"\n\n\"Maybe? Maybe? Good God, Ms. Wilson! We are not going to drag everything we do into your dirty little mind!\"\n\nI had been slumped back, panting, until I heard that.\n\n\"Melanie, stop it.\"\n\nI looked at Ms. Wilson.\n\n\"If I tell you everything, this is over, right? It doesn't come up again and we get the room away from everyone, so we can do what we want and no one's tender sensibilities are corrupted...right?\"\n\nShe nodded. I made her write it out on a sheet of paper and then sign it. I put the paper in my middle desk drawer for the time being. I sat back down. I looked at Melanie. She was fuming, pissed off and ready to argue some more.\n\n\"Get dressed and go out for a while. Take about twenty minutes.\"\n\nI sat, still naked, as Melanie dressed. She walked to our door and turned to Ms. Wilson.\n\n\"If anything happens when I am gone that Sabine doesn't like, I will get you somehow, Ms. Wilson, some way. You'll pay for hurting my girl. I promise you that and you had better believe it.\"\n\nShe turned, opened the door and stalked out, slamming it behind her.\n\nMs. Wilson turned to me, white-faced and angry.\n\n\"Just let it be and listen to me. Melanie and I didn't do much of anything at first but talk a little and be students. But I needed more and she and I found that for me. I proceeded to tell her about the night I had gone flashing with her and how she stripped me naked in front of the guys at the other school. And the little show at the gas station. I told her how I masturbated in front of Melanie of that night, exploding in an orgasm in front of her.\n\nI told her about my stripping in the cornfield and then walking naked to find Melanie and her car. I told her about the two men seeing me naked and then Melanie buying the dildo and using it on me to make me come once more.\n\nI told her about Melanie tying me up for the first time, stripping me naked and putting the dildo in me, right in front of our window. How she tied me on her bed and had me lick her pussy until she orgasmed and how she teased me unmercifully until I felt as though I was going to implode. I assured her that I liked that a lot. Ms. Wilson was dumbfounded that two eighteen-year-old girls were doing these things to each other. My first spanking...so deliciously naughty.\n\nI told her about us going to the adult store, which shocked her, and how Melanie had pulled down my panties in the store and all the things she bought for us. Not for her, for us. And then having me use the dildo on the chair in front of her naked and bouncing up and down. And then later when she used the harness on me, fucking me in bed and then having me lick her pussy until she orgasmed.\n\nThe day that Melanie first used the anal plug on me and then fucked my ass, rubbing my pussy while she did, until I came. And me licking her pussy again.\n\nI'm not stupid though, I didn't tell her about being peed on or the night with Erin, when they both used me and spanked me. I didn't think she would believe that I willingly let Melanie pee on me or that having another person fuck me and pee on me was something I was willing to do for Melanie.\n\nI told her about the two of us licking each other together and then how Melanie got me into a role, playing a mind game with me and using a little physical punishment. I probably shouldn't have said anything, but she had already seen Melanie slapping my breasts. I thought, she'll either believe or not that I like it, I like giving up to Melanie.\n\nI told her a little about our games and my desire to be dominated and Melanie's ability to dominate me. Not everything though. I didn't want all my dirty laundry on the floor.\n\nShe just stared at me throughout the entire recitation.\n\n\"So Melanie has intercourse with you but you don't with her.\"\n\n\"She told me she is a virgin, Ms. Wilson. I don't need that from her anyway; I get enough other things out of this so that is a luxury. If she wants me to do it to her, she'll let me know. I trust her.\"\n\nMs. Wilson shook her head.\n\n\"I'm still having trouble believing that you are doing this without some coercion, Sabine. It just doesn't seem to be you.\"\n\n\"Still waters run deep Ms. Wilson. You made your offer to both of us that we could come to you anytime and talk if we are not happy. You got me away from the other two and now you want to break up something I am so happy with...can't you just believe me? Didn't you just see me willingly let Melanie put the plug in my ass? Didn't you just see Melanie strip naked in front of you and lick both my pussy and anus? What else can we do to prove it to you? Anything we do, you'll still think the same, that these two girls cannot be truthful. What they are doing is wrong because of your upbringing, Ms. Wilson. It would be better if you came into this room and we each had a guy on top of us, wouldn't it? You may not like that either, but it fits the way things are \"supposed\" to be much better. Well, Ms. Wilson, not everyone in the world is what they are \"supposed\" to be. I mean, Jesus, there is a gay and lesbian organization on this campus!\"\n\n\"Yes, there is but neither of you belong to it.\"\n\n\"So, if I joined would that make you believe us?\"\n\nShe sighed. I watched her.\n\n\"No, it wouldn't make a difference. I just can't believe that you two, ah God.\"\n\n\"Just let us be and keep your promise to us. Let us have that room. You still have your master key. We can't keep you out of the room we are in, but let us have each other. I love Melanie.\"\n\n\"Even with what she does to you? Sabine, think for God's sake.\"\n\n\"I have thought. I have used my mind and I want this. We have something special, Ms. Wilson. In four years we may go our separate ways, but we have something now, something wonderful and caring in our own way. Don't take that away from us, please.\"\n\nThe door opened and Melanie walked in, shutting it softly. She walked up to me and sat down beside me, putting her arm around my shoulders. She looked at me and then Ms. Wilson.\n\n\"Well?\"\n\n\"Ms. Wilson, the ball is in your court. I will tell you that you can move us apart, but you can't keep us apart. Do what you have to do and so will we.\"\n\n\"Ah, God, against my better judgment, you can have that room, together, but I still may check on the two of you.\"\n\n\"Jesus Christ, then we have no privacy.\"\n\n\"Take it or leave it. That's all I can say or do right now, but I still don't like this whole situation.\"\n\nMelanie was going to say more, but I put a finger on her lips and shook my head. I smiled at her. Then I looked at Ms. Wilson.\n\n\"All right, the deal is we can stay together but in that top floor room. You'll keep everything you've seen and heard to yourself, correct?\"\n\nShe nodded.\n\n\"Then we move in today. Melanie, we have to pack our stuff and haul it up there. So, let's get busy. Ms. Wilson, can we have a key for our new room, please.\"\n\nShe got up and nodded once more and left.\n\n\"Christ, I didn't think you were this assertive, Sabine.\"\n\n\"I just know what I want and will do whatever I have to do to get it, Melanie. Now let's get moving, I want to be up there before this day is over.\"\n\nWe started packing our clothes, stripped the beds and looked at all our books and sighed. This was not going to be a good day for some things. What only took a couple of hours when we moved in at the start of the year took us six hours with the five flights of stairs we had to climb with each load. And we didn't have our parents to help us this time, just the two of us.\n\nWe were exhausted, sweaty and dirty by the time we were done. Ms. Wilson watched us and lent a hand with some things but we were pretty much on our own. There were some perks with the room and its bathroom, however. The room was much bigger. Ms. Wilson had told us that much earlier in the college's days that this was an assistant resident's room. The bed was a little bigger than what we had, but it was only one bed. That left a large open area where the second bed would have been. At least for now, anyway. We were going to have to get a second bed in here before long, but neither of us was up to hauling a mattress and a bed frame today. We needed another dresser too. The bathroom was beautiful. It had a large sink with a huge counter and mirror, a shower, bigger than ours was and a huge claw foot tub. When Melanie saw that, her eyes lit up. I knew that look. It probably meant something interesting for me, later.\n\nMs. Wilson helped us with the last load of our stuff. She watched us explore our new home, smiling at how excited we both were. She was all right, for a tight assed, mid thirties woman.\n\n\"Can we make some modifications to the rooms?\"\n\nI looked at Melanie and she smirked at me.\n\n\"I have some ideas already.\"\n\nThen she giggled. I blushed, wondering what they might be.\n\n\"Check with me first, Melanie.\"\n\nYes, Ma'am.\"\n\n\"I'm hot, sweaty and dirty and I am going to take a shower.\"\n\nAfter saying that, I stripped naked and walked into the bathroom. Ms. Wilson just shook her head.\n\n\"Girls, don't make me regret this.\"\n\n\"We won't, we promise, and we will be discreet.\"\n\n\"I'm counting on that, because if you aren't we will all be leaving the school and I might have to move in with the two of you.\"\n\nI had stopped when I heard her words and walked back out. I leaned against the doorframe, naked and watched her leave us, shutting the door firmly behind her.\n\nWe slept together that night, naked and holding each other after I had licked Melanie to orgasm.\n\n"}
+{"text": "I was still fuming the next morning. How could that witch come to us and ask us to this, this, fuckerware party? Why did she even think we would go? And why was Melanie even thinking about it?\n\nI was lying in bed, mumbling to myself when Melanie woke up.\n\n\"Don't you have a class?\"\n\n\"I don't want to go, I have something on my mind that is bothering me.\"\n\n\"Class is more important. Get up and get dressed and go.\"\n\n\"You aren't my mother, Melanie.\"\n\nOops. She sat up in her bed and fixed me with a stare.\n\n\"What did you say?\"\n\n\"Nothing, Melanie.\"\n\n\"I think I heard something about a mother, Sabine?\"\n\nAh, shit. I was caught and might as well admit it.\n\n\"I said that you aren't my mother, Melanie.\"\n\n\"I see. I knew that I wasn't your mother, Sabine. I think you do too. Was there some other meaning that I should attach to that statement?\"\n\n\"Just that I am old enough to take care of myself and I don't need you mothering me. There is something on my mind that I need to work out and until then I won't be able to concentrate on anything.\"\n\n\"And that is?\"\n\n\"Nothing that would interest you.\"\n\n\"I think I will be the judge of that, thank you. What is it?\"\n\n\"I don't want to go to any stupid party with Ms. Wilson and her friends.\"\n\n\"And what if I want to go and bring you with me?\"\n\n\"I don't want to go, period. If you do, fine, I'll be here when you get back.\"\n\n\"I think that you are missing something here, Sabine. I said and bring you with me.\"\n\n\"I don't want to go, I don't like her anymore and I don't know any of her friends and probably wouldn't like them either.\"\n\n\"That's fine, you don't have to like them. And I don't want to hear anymore about it. If I decide we are going, we are going. That means you and I, Sabine. Not me, but you and I.\"\n\n\"I looked at her and saw the look she was giving me. My anger at the whole thing was bubbling and it didn't register.\n\n\"I don't...\"\n\n\"Enough, Sabine. Remember what you said to me. I set the rules, right? I make the decisions, right? You mind me. I don't want to hear another word. Is that clear, perfectly clear to you?\"\n\nIt started to sink in but my mouth was faster than my brain for once.\n\n\"I don't...\"\n\nShe was out of her bed in an instant, grabbed my hair and pulled me out of mine. I squealed as she dragged me to the door.\n\n\"No, Melanie, my class, no...\"\n\nThe door opened and she dragged me down the hall, struggling with her, trying to get her hand out of my hair. I was naked; she didn't allow me to wear any nightgowns to bed anymore. And I was staring frantically down the hall to where the other girl's rooms were.\n\n\"Melanie, I 'm sorry, I really am, I'm sorry, I'll be good, I promise...\"\n\nIn the punishment room and she turned me away from her. She pulled my arms back and held my wrists in one hand while the other smacked my ass, hard. I squealed.\n\n\"Shut up unless you want the rest of the floor down here, watching, you silly bitch.\"\n\nShe lifted my wrists up so I had to bend over and then proceeded to smack my cheeks hard and over and over until they were all hot and red. I could hear the smacks and wanted to scream, but I didn't want anyone down here to see this. The slapping noises as her hand hit my ass were loud enough anyway. I bit my lip and squirmed but kept silent. She really gave me a good hand spanking, the first really good one I had ever received and it was amazing to me how much it heated my ass. Then she grabbed my hair again and dragged me out of the room and back to ours.\n\n\"Now, will you argue with me again, Sabine?\"\n\n\"No, Melanie. I promise.\"\n\nI tried to sneak a rub to my cheeks. Of course she noticed.\n\n\"No rubbing. Get dressed, no bra or panties. After class come back here immediately, understand?\"\n\n\"Yes, Melanie.\"\n\nDamn her, she knew I hated going braless. I jiggled, even as small as I was and my nipples, they always stuck out. I'd get looks and blush and I hated it. As I pulled up a pair of jeans, I winced. Christ, she could hit hard! I pulled on a top and grabbed my books, hurrying so I wouldn't be late for class. Melanie watched me, standing in her nightie, not looking at all happy. I dashed out the door without saying goodbye.\n\nMy class was boring, but I was good in this subject so I didn't mind too much after I got there. It was the instructor, not the subject matter so I could get into that. It made the time go fast and helped me to forget Melanie for a while. It was an hour and half class and I talked with a couple of girls I knew from it afterwards, forgetting that I was to be back right after class. Yeah, I know, pretty stupid.\n\nI walked back, enjoying the Indian summer weather and took my time climbing the stairs to our room. When I walked in I saw Melanie, looking at her watch and frowning at me. Then I saw Ms. Wilson and another woman about her age sitting on our couch. I understood Melanie immediately. She was pissed off that I dawdled on the way back from class and my stomach did a flip. My ass wasn't sore, but it still felt warm from my spanking earlier today. A nice warm feeling, but I didn't want another. I watched Ms. Wilson and the other woman look me up and down. I was nervous because of Melanie's obvious pique at me, but I also didn't think I liked how they were looking at me.\n\n\"Well?\"\n\n\"I'm sorry, I forgot, Melanie. I just talked to two girls for a minute.\"\n\n\"I wasn't talking to you, Sabine.\"\n\n\"I think she'll do.\"\n\nMy face swiveled to the two women.\n\n\"It's kind of hard to tell, though.\"\n\nI just stared at them for a second, then turned to Melanie.\n\n\"I don't understand...\"\n\n\"Shush, Sabine.\"\n\nShe turned to them, ignoring me. She had a smirk on her face.\n\n\"Hard to tell?\"\n\n\"Well, she does have quite a bit of clothes on and it is a lingerie party.\"\n\nMelanie giggled. Then she turned to me and my stomach dropped. She had her Melanie smirk going full bore today.\n\n\"Take off your clothes.\"\n\n\"I don't want..\"\n\n\"Sabine.\"\n\nI got the look she gave me. I sniffled softly and slowly pushed off my shoes. I didn't want to do this, but I was afraid of another spanking. I bent and pulled off my socks, delaying as much as possible. I whispered to Melanie.\n\n\"I don't have underwear on.\"\n\n\"So?\"\n\nMy eyes started to tear up and my lower lip began to tremble. I closed my eyes and grasped the bottom of my top. My hands were shaking. I slowly pulled up my top, over my head and off and clutched it in front of me. Melanie held out her hand and took it from me. I crossed my arms over my breasts and stood, blushing and humiliated.\n\n\"Sabine.\"\n\nI whimpered softly and lowered my hands to my jeans, baring my little breasts. I fumbled with the button, finally getting it undone, but looked at Melanie once more, begging her with my eyes. She just looked back at me, no expression on her face other than expectation. I moaned and unzipped my jeans and then began the stupid dance we all do when we take off tight pants while standing. I squirmed and wriggled, finally getting them off my hips and then bent over to tug them down, hiding my pussy from them. I finally got them off and Melanie took them away from me also, leaving me naked. I had one arm over my breasts and one hand clamped over my pussy. I was blushing and trembling. I could feel how hard my nipples had gotten and I was not going to touch my pussy, afraid of how wet it might be.\n\n\"She looks fine, but it's still hard to tell with her hands in front of her.\"\n\n\"Sabine, hands at your sides.\"\n\nI gave Melanie a look after she said that, not moving, she couldn't mean that.\n\n\"Sabine!\"\n\nMy hands dropped immediately, baring everything. My face was hot and red. I looked at the two women, who were unashamedly looking at my body. I closed my eyes and shivered. It was good, but humiliating. I liked it when Melanie made me take my clothes off, but lately it had mostly been her and I. Just a few times with Ms. Wilson and she had seen me naked before. This new woman was acting a little too interested in me for my comfort.\n\n\"Can we see the rest?\"\n\n\"Turn around, Sabine, slowly.\"\n\nI was happy to do that, since it took my pussy and breasts out of their sight, but it also made me show my ass, my fat ass, to them. My lip was trembling all over again. I turned in a circle ending up with me facing them once more.\n\n\"She'll do just fine, but I think the hair should go.\"\n\nMy mouth opened, my eyes went wide, and I stared at her and then turned to Melanie.\n\n\"I don't...\"\n\n\"Shush. Anything else?\"\n\n\"No, I think she'll do very well.\"\n\nWith that they stood and walked to our door.\n\n\"See you at the party.\"\n\nThe door opened and they stepped outside. Melanie swiftly walked up to me and grabbed my hair, pulling me towards the door.\n\n\"No, no, please, no..\"\n\n\"Shut up, Sabine. You are going to learn not to talk back to me or to ignore what I tell you to do if I have to do this every hour on the hour.\"\n\nI was dragged into the hall, seeing Ms. Wilson and her friend stop and turn. They watched Melanie drag me into the punishment room, smirking. I could have died! And then when she bent me over again and swatted me I began to cry, humiliated, that they had seen me hauled down the hall, naked, and that they knew I was being spanked. They couldn't help but hear the sound the smacks on my bare ass made as Melanie whacked me. Harder than she had already this morning. Much harder. And they had to hear me bawling like a baby. I was so humiliated!\n\nMelanie smacked me good again and then left me bent over and bawling, to make my own way back to our room. I finally managed to stop crying, wiped my eyes and walked out to see them standing, facing me and I sniffled again. I stepped out and put my hands behind me, trying to hide my red ass, but mentally I knew it didn't make any difference. They knew, they knew that I had just been spanked and it was so embarrassing.\n\nMelanie was waiting for me, standing in our door. She took my hand and kissed my cheek, making me stand in the hall.\n\n\"I don't want to spank you darling, but I also want you to mind. Will you?\"\n\nI nodded yes, trying not to look over my shoulder, back down the hall. I was nervous, thinking of someone walking our way and seeing me standing naked in the hall. I kept my eyes focused on her, even though it was hard not to look behind me.\n\nFinally she let me inside and she led me into the bathroom. Sitting on the counter was a pair of scissors, ladies shave cream and a razor. My eyes filled again.\n\n\"Melanie, I don't want to be shaved completely. I'll look like a little girl. I'll hate it.\"\n\n\"Darling, it's just until after the party. Then you can grow it back just like it is. Now hop up on the counter and lean back and spread your legs.\"\n\nLip trembling once more, I did as I was told and watched her pick up the scissors. I closed my eyes and listened to the snips and felt the tugs on my pubic hair. I cried silently, tears leaking out of my eyes and trickling down my cheeks. I heard the hiss of the foam and Melanie rubbing it on me and then the scrapes of the razor across my skin. I didn't open my eyes until she wiped the excess foam off my pussy. I looked down and sniffled. I looked like a twelve-year old girl!\n\nMelanie rubbed some lotion on me, making me whimper softly and then she thrust the first two fingers of her right hand up my pussy and rubbed her thumb over my clitoris. Her left hand found a breast and teased it, squeezed it, rolled the nipple and soon I was panting and squirming my ass on the counter. Just before my stomach was going to contract and my orgasm hit me; she stopped and pulled her fingers out. I looked at her through teary eyes and she smirked at me. Her hand lifted and I sighed and opened my mouth, sucking my juice off her fingers and feeling my abdomen knot up from denial. She let me clean her fingers and thumb and then stepped back.\n\n\"Maybe later, Sabine, right now you have class.\"\n\nIf I didn't love her so much I could have cheerfully strangled her right then. I slipped off the counter and looked at my reflection in the mirror above it. I sniffled. I was bare down there, nothing at all and it was humiliating, because with my tiny breasts I looked so young. I sighed. Melanie would get her way one way or another, I realized that, but did she have to do things like this to me?\n\nI walked into the main room, she was already seated on our couch and she looked up at me and smirked, making me feel worse than I already did. I walked over to my dresser to get a pair of panties and a bra.\n\n\"What do you think you are doing?\"\n\n\"I'm getting some underwear.\"\n\n\"What did I tell you earlier?\"\n\nI looked at her and then it dawned on me. Before my first class she had said no bra or panties, but she couldn't mean that still, could she?\n\n\"Um, no bra or panties?\"\n\n\"Yes, Sabine, very good. Now tell me why you are in your underwear drawer?\"\n\n\"I, um, didn't think, ah, you meant all day...\"\n\nShe smiled at me.\n\n\"Actually I didn't mean all day, but now that you mention it, Sabine, that sounds like a good idea, doesn't it? Let me pick out a nice outfit for you to wear.\"\n\n\"Um, my jeans are fine, Melanie.\"\n\n\"Oh, I don't think so, we want you to look your best, Sabine.\"\n\nShe got up and went to the large closet that we shared. I heard her rummaging around, hangers moving and then she came out. Melanie was holding my shortest skirt and a spaghetti strap top. She walked over to me and held them out.\n\n\"I can't wear this without underwear, Melanie, please.\"\n\n\"Tell me that you are not talking back to me, darling...\"\n\nI took the skirt and top and shut up. I slipped the top on and then the skirt and walked into the bathroom to look in the mirror. Jesus! My nipples weren't erect but they were showing noticeably and my skirt was mid-thigh, standing up. I hated to think of where the hem would go when I sat down. I walked back out.\n\n\"Melanie...\"\n\nShe looked up from her textbook that she had been reading.\n\n\"Enjoy your class, Sabine.\"\n\nI sniffled quietly and picked up my books for this class and walked out the door, careful to not slam it, like I wanted to do. Shit, I didn't want to go to class! Not now, dressed as I was, but if I didn't and she found out. I sighed and headed to the stairs, blushing as I thought what someone might see if they were coming up as I was going down. I hurried down the stairs, meeting a few people but I don't think anyone noticed. Walking across campus to the building for my class wasn't too bad, except for the cool air on my pussy, but when I got in the classroom I looked for a place in the back but there wasn't one. I had to sit in the third row from the front and I as I sat down I heard a whisper.\n\n\"Why doesn't she just wear a belt, it would be longer than that skirt.\"\n\nI blushed. I heard snickers behind me and I think everyone in the class heard too, because it really wasn't a whisper that was meant not to be heard. It was one of those that everyone was supposed to hear and they did. I sat unable to control my blushing, like always, and kept my knees clamped together. The guy sitting next to me smiled at me, but it was at my nipples, not my face. His look never rose above my neck. A guy and girl in front of me turned and looked at me. The girl glanced at my skirt and snorted, as if I was whore or something. The guy stared at my legs as if he had never seen legs before. I was never so happy in all my life as I was when that class was over.\n\nWhen I got back from class, Melanie was quiet and thoughtful. She did look at me and say hello but she had been studying and went back to that. I wondered if there was something she wanted to say and waited for her, but I soon realized that I had been sort of neglecting my schoolwork, so I sat down to study also. We spent a good share of the afternoon together, but silent and each in their own world. I did notice that she would look at me from time to time, speculatively, and then go back to her texts. I'm sure that I didn't see each time that she looked but enough that I shivered inside. We went to dinner together, each fairly quiet although we did talk some.\n\nWe got back to the room and studied some more until I had had enough and put some soft music on. I sat on the couch and curled my legs underneath me, letting the music take over my thoughts and not really paying much attention to anything. I was relaxed and thinking about bed when Melanie closed her text and turned to me.\n\n\"Sabine, darling, remember what we decided on for us?\"\n\nI was startled slightly, she had been sort of distant and I didn't expect her to talk to me tonight. The thought that she might ignore me hurt. I was happy that she decided to say something to me.\n\n\"Um, sort of, Melanie. I'm not sure what you are asking me, though.\"\n\n\"Do you remember that you told me that I set the rules, darling?\"\n\nI shivered when she said this to me.\n\n\"Um, yes, Melanie, I guess I do.\"\n\nI wasn't sure where this was leading.\n\n\"Good, and I am sure that you meant what you said, right?\"\n\n\"Ah, yes, I did, Melanie.\"\n\n\"Good, then take off your clothes, darling.\"\n\nI shuddered inside, but I stood up, feeling that something nice was going to happen to me and I wanted it very much. I undressed, not coyly, but almost eagerly, folding each item as I removed it. I wasn't wearing much anyway and I was soon naked, standing and looking at her. My anticipation was strong. I was shivering and getting aroused without having her touch me. Just the act of stripping while she still was dressed was good for me.\n\n\"Now, darling, my top dresser drawer. The lubricant and the strapon, get them.\"\n\nI had trouble getting myself to move, but I finally did. While I walked to her dresser, Melanie got up from her desk and walked to the couch, sitting down on it. I walked back with the lubricant and strapon, extending my hands to give them to her. She did take the strapon, but left the lubricant in my hand.\n\n\"Now darling, kneel down, facing away from me, put your head on the floor and lubricate your asshole.\"\n\nI sucked in a breath. I was not happy at all with this command, because always before Melanie had done this, I had done it one day, just to show her how much I loved her. I had never had to lubricate myself other than that. Melanie always did it for me. Besides, I knew what she wanted and she knew that I didn't like it. I stood, staring at her, unhappy.\n\n\"Sabine, did you mean what you said or was it just talk?\"\n\nI shuddered and turned away from her, my eyes filling. I knelt and lowered my face to the floor and opened the top of the bottle. Reaching back, I drizzled the lubricant between my cheeks, sniffling softly and then set the bottle down. I shuddered as one hand reached back and rubbed between my cheeks, finding my asshole and rubbing the lubricant on it.\n\n\"Put a finger inside, darling.\"\n\nI was trembling, so ashamed as she watched me humiliate myself for her. I slowly inserted a finger in my asshole and shivered.\n\n\"Move it in and out, darling, finger your asshole for me.\"\n\nI did as I was told, blushing and feeling so embarrassed. She watched me humiliate myself for her for a while.\n\n\"Where is your finger Sabine?\"\n\n\"In my ass, Melanie.\"\n\n\"Does it feel good, darling?\"\n\n\"I don't like it.\"\n\n\"Put another finger in darling. Open yourself up for me.\"\n\nI gave out a soft sob and grimacing, inserted another finger.\n\nI felt so full, there, stretched open and disgustingly dirty and nasty.\n\n\"Twist them around and in and out, darling. It will help.\"\n\nI did as I was told, Melanie smirking at me, I knew she was smirking. I could see that look, even with my face on the rug. It was burned into my mind. I heard clothes rustling behind me. My ass felt open, distended. I felt her kneel behind me and I shuddered.\n\n\"What are you doing, darling/\"\n\n\"I'm fingering myself, Melanie.\"\n\n\"Oh goodness, you are fingering your pussy?\"\n\n\"No, Melanie.\"\n\n\"If you aren't fingering your pussy, then what could it be?\"\n\n\"Oh God, Melanie, please...\"\n\n\"Oh darling, you can tell me.\"\n\n\"Oh Jesus, Melanie, I am fingering my ass.\"\n\n\"Sabine! Only dirty sluts finger their ass. Are you?\"\n\n\"Yes, Melanie, I'm a dirty slut.\"\n\nShe then slapped my ass cheeks, making me squeal. I should have, but I didn't expect that.\n\n\"That's good, darling. Dirty sluts should be spanked, don't you think? Now take your fingers out and reach back. You know what goes in your hand, don't you?\"\n\nI closed my eyes, even if I couldn't see anything because of the position I was in and reached back, finding the cock she had on. I touched it and shivered inside. I lightly took it in my hand.\n\n\"Now put it where I want it, darling.\"\n\nI knew what she wanted, she wanted to make me ashamed and humiliated and I slowly pulled it forward, sensing her moving closer as I did. I pulled it and her closer and finally the head was between my cheeks. Moaning softly, I knelt, waiting.\n\n\"Now, darling, take both hands and spread your cheeks for me. Hold them open until I say you can let go.\"\n\nI felt so submissive as I reached back with both hands and whimpered softly as I took hold of my ass. Then, swallowing, I slowly pulled my ass open. I felt Melanie move until the head of her cock was at my ring and I gave a soft sob as she pushed forward. My ring resisted, but it was inevitable. The head pushed through it and I gasped, feeling stretched and dirty. Melanie let me kneel, feeling it inside me, just inside for a few moments. Then she began to speak to me.\n\n\"I expect you to mind me, darling.\"\n\nAs she said this, she thrust in until her hips hit my ass, making me gasp. Oh God, it hurt going in! She wasn't being gentle with me; she was just taking my ass.\n\n\"I don't want to hear any back talk or any negative comments.\"\n\nShe pulled back as she said this and slammed up my ass at the end.\n\n\"I do not want to have to spank you everyday, but I will if it is the only way that you will learn.\"\n\nThe cock slipped back and slammed into my ass once more. I was whimpering softly. My ass felt so full. It was hurting a little, I was struggling to relax my ring so it wouldn't hurt, not entirely successfully. My natural tendency, because I didn't like being fucked up the ass, was to tense up, which wasn't good.\n\n\"If you understand, push back, darling.\"\n\nI whimpered once more and hesitantly pushed back, this time moving my ass to engulf her cock. moaning as it filled me.\n\n\"I don't expect you to like this or some other things that may happen, but I do expect obedience from you.\"\n\nAs I pushed back again, she drove her hips forward, impaling my ass on her cock once more. I felt shamed, dirty, slutty, humiliated.\n\n\"Do you understand me, darling?\"\n\nI whimpered, softly.\n\n\"Y-y-yes, Melanie.\"\n\n\"Will I have any more problems with you, darling?\"\n\n\"N-n-no, Melanie.\"\n\nAs she was asking me these questions, she was forcefully thrusting up my ass. Her hips slapped against me, making a smacking sound that was so shameful to me, knowing that she was in my ass, deep in it.\n\n\"I don't believe that you will be able to obey always darling, but know that I expect it and that there will be consequences if you don't. Now tell me where my cock is, darling.\"\n\n\"I-I-In m-m-my ass.\"\n\n\"Yes it is. And what is it doing to you?\"\n\n\"I-I-it's fucking m-m-my ass.\"\n\n\"Do you like it, darling? Do you like my cock up your ass?\"\n\n\"N-n-no.\"\n\n\"Oh, does it make my little girl feel bad?\"\n\n\"Y-y-yes.\"\n\n\"But you know that I like it, don't you? I like watching your ass open up for me, watching you shudder as it goes in. I like knowing that you don't really love it, darling. I like knowing that you feel nasty and dirty and ashamed.\"\n\nShe plunged her cock in and out of me, fucking my ass. She reached forward and grabbed my hair; pulling my body up, making my back arch and me gasp as she did. She held me up with one hand and with the other she found a nipple and pulled on it harshly, making me gasp once more.\n\n\"Just remember what will happen to you every time that you ignore me or don't mind, Sabine. Your tight little ass will be spanked and you may get your ass fucked. Right after your ass is spanked or paddled. You do understand me, don't you?\"\n\n\"Y-y-y-yes Melanie.\"\n\nI shivered as she pounded me, my asshole, moaning softly in shame. She reached down and teased my pussy, flicking my clitoris in time with her thrusts. She teased and tormented me, until I was mindlessly pushing back to meet her thrusts, panting and gasping as I was fucked. She knew me, knew when I was so close to the point of no return. She stopped rubbing my pussy and clitoris and pinched and twisted a nipple, hard, making me whine and forget that she had been teasing me. She pounded my ass, fucking it, until she felt that I really understood what she meant. Then she pulled out, leaving me shuddering in front of her. She roughly pulled my face around until it was in front of her cock. I knew what she expected and with a soft cry of dismay, I opened my mouth and she pushed her cock inside it.\n\n\"Suck, darling. Clean my cock from your ass.\"\n\nI had tears running down my cheeks, so ashamed, so humiliated, but I sucked her cock. I tasted my ass on it, screwing up my face at the taste, but it was what she wanted. I sucked her, using my tongue and lips, a look of distaste on my face. Melanie smirked at me. She tilted my head so she could watch the expressions on my face and I sobbed softly around her cock, sucking, as she wanted me to, sucking until she felt I had been humiliated enough. Melanie pulled back, her cock leaving my mouth and she moved back to the couch. She pulled down her harness and opened her legs.\n\nI sniffled, not seeing all that well through my tears but well enough to know what she expected from me, demanded from me. I crawled forward and put my face in her pussy. I licked her pussy and clitoris, split her lips open with my tongue and thrust it into her pussy. Her hands came to my head and stroked me gently as I licked and kissed her pussy. This was much better. I loved licking her. I loved feeling her stiffen as my tongue licked her and from my efforts to give her pleasure. And I was always rewarded for it, Melanie always came and this night was no different. Her hands stroked my hair, my cheek, and I listened to her breathing become faster, change to soft moans. I felt her hands stroke my face lovingly, and then she tensed, lifted up, and mashed her pussy to my mouth. She clutched my head tighter and then she came, rubbing her pussy on my face as I licked and kissed her. Melanie came on my face, holding my head to her pussy as her spasms and shaking slowed and then stopped. She lifted my head up, looking at my wet, shiny face and smiled at me.\n\n\"You'll be a good girl, won't you, Sabine?\"\n\nI couldn't speak, I just nodded yes, shivering inside, feeling so nasty for what I had just done, but pleased and happy that she allowed me to make her come. Even with my ass now tender and distended, I felt good that she let me please her.\n\nI slumped over on my left hip and looked at Melanie's face, her smile making me happy. She gently pushed my face down until my head lay on her thigh and she stroked my hair, making me happy and loved. Melanie could be so tender and loving, so firm and demanding. She was exactly what I needed.\n\n\"Darling that was lovely. But I want you to remember that if you disobey me, anger me, ignore what I tell you to do, that you will be spanked and after that I probably will fuck your ass for you. Not that I won't fuck your ass other times, darling, because I love doing it to you, but it will be a part of your correction. Only because of how humiliated you will feel as I do it.\"\n\nShe picked up the strapon and handed it to me.\n\n\"Go and clean this nicely and then you can put the lubricant and it away. Then go to bed, darling.\"\n\nI hurried to do as I was told, cleaning it with hot water in the bathroom, shuddering as I remembered what she had me do and had done to me. I hurried back and picked up the lubricant and put both in her top drawer. Melanie was already in her bed. I wanted so much to crawl in it with her, to have her hold me, but it was not to be. I turned out the light and slipped into my bed, alone. And I quietly cried myself to sleep, disappointed in myself, very unhappy that I was alone in my bed and promising myself that I would be good.\n\nNothing happened for the next two days, it was almost two college age girls again, but there was that hint of tension on my part, wondering nervously and expectantly what Melanie would do or think of next. She informed me on the second night that we would be going to the lingerie party. WE would be going. She made sure that I understood that clearly. I wasn't given a choice in the matter and knew better than to remind her that I didn't want to go.\n\nShe did me that night, just before bedtime. She had me undress; the act of my removing my own clothes was both embarrassing and arousing. I was a willing participant by doing that. She then had me stand in front of her and she toyed with my pussy, watching the expressions on my face. Watching my face change from embarrassment to arousal to out and out lust as she made me so hot. She toyed and teased with my lips and clitoris, even running her hand underneath me all the way to rub my anus. I jerked when she touched me there. I always did and she loved making me jerk. Once I was breathing hard and fast, she stood up and told me to stay. Then she went into the bathroom and put on the dildo harness, the strapon. Other than that, when she returned, she was naked. To be able to look at her, almost naked, always took my breath away. She was so lovely! Melanie sat down and looked up at me. I shivered and straddled her legs. She held the dildo, she opened my lips. I lowered myself and felt her cock penetrate me. She then sat back, her fingers of both hands on my breasts, toying with my nipples, and watched as I bounced up and down on her. Watched me fuck myself for her. Naked, but not unashamed. Blushing, embarrassed and oh so eager for it. This night she watched me, closely. She watched until she noticed that I was close. Then one hand reached out and teased my pussy and it wasn't long until I stiffened and arched my back, whimpering out loud. I came, explosively and Melanie rubbed my pussy and now her hips were driving up, fucking me. I shuddered through the spasms and then collapsed on her, my head finding her shoulder. When I was conscious enough to know what was going on, Melanie made me look at her.\n\n\"I talked to Erin today. We are going to her apartment tomorrow evening, darling. A chance to enjoy some new things for us. Something completely different than what we have had over the last few months.\"\n\nI wasn't happy to hear that. Erin had taken advantage of me the first time we had met, not without Melanie's agreement, or for that matter, mine. We had both gotten caught up in the night. I had let things go, perhaps too far, but Melanie seemed to love what I had done. I kept my resolution to myself to be good. I said nothing, not wanting to cause any problems.\n\nThe next morning I woke up and remembered Melanie telling me that we were going to Erin's tonight. I sighed quietly, in my bed, next to Melanie's. She had made me sleep alone again and I was disappointed. Most times after Melanie had fucked me we ended up in her bed, holding each other. Last night she had sent me to bed alone.\n\nI lay there, silently, and remembered the last time I had been to Erin's. I could picture everything that was done to me in my mind and my stomach began to knot up. It felt as though there was a hard lump inside it. It wasn't that I didn't sort of like Erin, but what had happened and how I felt during and after.\n\nI didn't really want to get up but after Melanie woke up she had me run a bath for her and wash her. I enjoyed that a lot. She was lovely to look at and I loved being able to touch her skin. I wasn't allowed to touch her sexually, though, just wash her. It was frustrating. I had to use a washcloth so I didn't really get to touch her with my hands. After that, after drying her off, she had me shower so I was clean and fresh. We went to breakfast together, companionable, but quiet. I was thinking about going to Erin's apartment and I couldn't get out of my mind what had happened before.\n\nWe got back to our room and she told me to study, which I did. Melanie did also. Once I focused on my texts and the homework that I had, I managed not to think about tonight.\n\nMelanie sent me out for lunch for the both of us. There was a place on campus where you could spend coupons that we got with out rooms for sandwiches and stuff like that. So I went and returned with lunch. When I entered our room, I noticed a small bag, zipped shut by our door. Of course I pictured floggers, paddles, handcuffs, rope, strapons and any other thing she had for me. My stomach knotted up again. I handed her the sandwich and chips I had purchased for her and sat, my eyes pulled to the bag. I ate but everything I had tasted like sawdust.\n\nShe knew that my not knowing what was in that bag would drive me to think all sorts of things. She watched my face, smiling at my expressions. I tried to study with her but it was hard to keep concentrating, because every time I looked up my eyes went to the bag.\n\nDinner was a welcome break from seeing it, although I wasn't really hungry. I was nervous, afraid a little, scared, all sorts of emotions running through me. After dinner, when we were back in our room, Melanie took me in the bathroom and made up my face, to make me look pretty, she said.\n\nShe picked out a nice pair of slacks and a top for me. A pair of filmy thong panties also. You could see my slit through them, which made me blush. And I hated that I was without my pubic hair. And that made me think about the lingerie party which wasn't a pleasant thought either. It wasn't turning into a wonderful evening for me.\n\nWe left and she drove us to Erin's. Erin greeted us at the door and we went inside. Melanie told Erin to take me to her bedroom and me that I was to get dressed. She handed me the bag that had been in my mind all afternoon. At least I was going to get to see what was in it now.\n\nErin let me in and closed the door behind me, leaving me alone. I set the bag on the bed and opened it, moaning when I saw the stupid maid's outfit in it. There were four sets of handcuffs in it also. I did as I was told however. Taking it out and laying it on the bed. I slowly undressed, the outfit a reminder of that last time here. I put on the stockings and garter belt, then I put my panties back on, knowing that they should be over the garter belt so they could be taken off without having to unclip the stockings. Then I slipped into the black, short dress. It barely covered my stocking tops. The apron was next and then I pinned up my hair so I could put on the stupid hat.\n\nI took a deep breath and walked out. Melanie and Erin were in the kitchen and there was a lot of food on trays and bottles and glasses, and I didn't know what to think.\n\n\"Darling, you look so precious! Are you ready to have an enjoyable time?\"\n\nI swallowed and nodded yes. I hoped it would be anyway.\n\n\"Erin is having a small party tonight, and I thought it would be so special if you were to serve people at it. Doesn't that sound fun?\"\n\nI closed my eyes, I wanted to say no, but I nodded yes after I opened them again. I had thought it was going to be just the three of us again. I could deal with that, mostly, but now I knew that some other people were going to be there also and my stomach knotted up tighter than it had been. What was she going to do to me now?\n\nIt wasn't long and Erin's guests began to arrive. Melanie was introduced as a friend; I was introduced as Melanie's roommate. But Melanie was a guest and I was a servant. I was told to take drink orders and once everyone but me had one, then I had to walk around with a tray of the snacks. Of course people were sitting down and I had to bend over to serve them. I could feel my dress pulling up behind, well above the stocking tops and I knew that anyone behind me could see the bottom of my ass. That made me blush and feel embarrassed. I had to stand by the kitchen door, waiting until someone needed something and then I had to go and get it. I had to occasionally circle the room with a tray of refreshments, bending over and showing more than I really wanted, but at least I still had the thong on.\n\nAll night I felt eyes on me, eyes with snickers behind them as they watched me walk about with drinks and refreshments. As they watched me have to bend and show more than was polite. The girls would look at me and giggle. The men just stared at me and smiled. I was red-faced most of the night. I never got used to it, even though it was close to my fantasy of being naked in front of people. Several of them patted my ass, making me blush harder, but Melanie's smiles at me told me not to stop them. She watched me almost all night, smiling at me, which made me feel a little better. At least I was pleasing her by doing this.\n\nFinally everyone had left but Melanie, Erin, a man that I assumed was Erin's boyfriend and I. I cleaned up the living room, feeling his eyes on me all the time. Once I had all the glasses and trays and dishes in the kitchen, Melanie called to me. She leaned close and whispered to me.\n\n\"Go in the bedroom and take off everything but the garter belt and stockings. There is a blindfold in the bag, put it on after you have undressed and laid the four handcuffs on each corner of the bed. Then lie down on your back in the middle of the bed, darling.\"\n\nI shuddered inside, picturing Melanie and Erin teasing and tormenting me.\n\nI walked slowly into the bedroom and closed the door. Swallowing nervously, not knowing for sure what was going to happen to me, I undressed. I laid out the handcuffs and then put the blindfold on. I lay back on the bed, shivering. I don't know how long I lay there alone, but it seemed forever. I finally heard the door open. I couldn't see, but I felt two people sit down by my head and pull my arms out and fasten them in the cuffs. Then hands were at my breasts and nipples, teasing them into hard points. I was moaning softly, becoming aroused, when I felt another pair of hands on my left leg, cuffing my ankle. I tried to sit up, panicking.\n\n\"Shhhh, darling, relax. You want to please me, don't you?'\n\nI felt the hands on my right leg, cuffing that ankle also and I softly whimpered. Who was it at my feet? It wasn't Melanie; she was at my head. I didn't think it was Erin. She, I was sure, was on my other side, toying with my nipple. I swallowed.\n\n\"Y-y-yes, Melanie.\"\n\nI felt the bed between my legs dip as someone got on it. I trembled and wanted to close my legs but I couldn't.\n\nThe person moved up and I felt a hand on my thigh. It stroked my thigh, caressing me. Two more hands teased my nipples. I was a little afraid, nervous, but the touching worked to distract me until the hand found my pussy. Then I stiffened, gasping.\n\n\"Darling, relax, I want you to do this for me. I want to see you do this. You want to please me, don't you? \"\n\n\"Y-y-yes Melanie.\"\n\n\"Tell me what you want to do darling.\"\n\n\"I-I-I want t-t-to please you Melanie.\"\n\n\"Good girl.\"\n\nThe hand at my pussy stroked it and then a finger went up it. I stiffened again and I realized that it wasn't a girl's finger but a man's. It was much thicker than a girl's was, longer, and I whimpered.\n\n\"Melanie....\"\n\n\"Yes, darling?\"\n\n\"Who i-is th-that?\"\n\n\"A friend of Erin's.\"\n\nI sensed him leaning over me and felt the bed move down by my ribs. I gasped as a warm cock, hard and throbbing, touched my lips.\n\n\"Melanie, no...\"\n\n\"Darling you want to please me, don't you?\"\n\n\"Y-y-yes, but Melanie....\"\n\nI felt the tip of it rub between my lips. Lying naked on the bed waiting for them had my mind working, thinking of what they were going to do to me, and the touching that had already happened had aroused me, but I wasn't sure if I wanted this. I just knew that Melanie did. And I wanted to please her, to not disappoint her.\n\nI lay trembling as he rubbed his cock on my pussy lips. It felt so hot to me. It felt alive. I could feel it twitch as he rubbed my pussy with it.\n\n\"Melanie, please, hold my hand, please.\"\n\nShe took my hand and gently squeezed it.\n\n\"I-i-is this w-w-what you w-w-want?\"\n\n\"Very much darling.\"\n\nI took a breath. I squeezed her hand back. I didn't see but Melanie nodded to him and he slowly rubbed the tip of his cock between my lips and then found the hole. He pushed his cock up my pussy. slowly. I gasped and squirmed as he did, feeling it fill me. It felt different than Melanie did, warmer, almost hot and it seemed to twitch inside me, not like what a dildo felt like inside me. I felt his pubic hair touch my bare skin and knew he was into me all the way. It wasn't as large as Melanie's favorite dildo. It didn't hurt, it just felt different. The sensations were different than Melanie. But I was ashamed to be doing this in front of her and Erin had to be watching too.\n\nI clutched her hand and felt him withdraw and then slide back up my pussy. Melanie and Erin played with my nipples as he thrust in and out, slowly, letting me feel it.\n\n\"Darling it looks absolutely lovely going in you. It's so naughty too, fucking in front of Erin and I. Do you feel naughty, darling?\"\n\nY-y-yes.\"\n\n\"Does it feel good?\"\n\n\"N-n-no, I want you Melanie.\"\n\n\"Ah but darling, I want to see this. And you look so lovely. You'll be a good girl and enjoy it for me, won't you?\"\n\nI shuddered as he continued to thrust into me, his cock warm and throbbing inside me.\n\n\"Not in her pussy. Where is his cock, darling?\"\n\n\"It's I-in m-my pussy.\"\n\nYes, but it isn't a pussy right now is it? What is it?\"\n\n\"M-m-my c-c-cunt.\"\n\n\"Mmmmm. That's right, Sabine, it's a cunt.\"\n\n\"What is doing to you, darling?\"\n\n\"F-f-fucking me.\"\n\n\"Where is he fucking you?\n\n\"In m-my c-cunt.\"\n\nI felt him pushing into me harder and faster. His belly slapped on mine. I clutched Melanie's hand tight and whimpered. Erin continued to tease and toy with my left nipple, giggling as she watched me being fucked in front of her and Melanie..\n\n\"Not in her.\"\n\nI didn't know what she meant until I felt him pull out of my pussy and climb over me his knees at my shoulders.\n\n\"Lift your head up and open your mouth darling.\"\n\nI did as I was told and felt him feed his cock into my mouth, too deep, making me gag. I tried to pull back, but someone held my head up. I tasted my pussy and something else.\n\n\"Suck darling.\"\n\nI squirmed.\n\n\"You want to please me, don't you?\"\n\nI shuddered inside and began to suck him feeling like a slut, a whore. I wanted to please her but I was embarrassed and ashamed. I couldn't move my head very well. But I sucked because she wanted me to suck.\n\nIt wasn't long before I felt his body stiffen, then his cock seemed to get harder, it twitched in my mouth and then he came in my mouth. My head was held up so I couldn't pull back and I felt the spurts hitting the roof of my mouth and my throat. I gagged but was held still, my mouth filled with cock and sperm. He finally pulled his cock out and I was going to spit.\n\n\"Swallow, darling.\"\n\nI whimpered softly but I steeled myself and swallowed, feeling it slide over my tongue and down. I gagged again. I swallowed again. I felt sick to my stomach and lightheaded. I felt him leave the bed and Erin also. My face was hot as I remembered what had been done to me, that Erin had watched it done to me.\n\nMelanie got off the bed and opened the cuffs on my ankles. I brought my legs up and curled my lower body over, hiding my pussy. I felt so slutty. She undid my hands and stroked my hair as I sniffled.\n\nMelanie didn't talk to me, but she helped me up and helped me dress, putting all the things back in the bag. Then she took my hand and the bag and we walked out. Erin was sitting on the couch. He wasn't there. I flushed as she smiled at me. Melanie told Erin good night and we left. The ride home was silent.\n\nWhen we got to our room, Melanie set the bag down and held my face in her hands so I had to look at her.\n\n\"You looked so lovely and I wanted to see that, darling.\"\n\n\"Who w-w-was h-h-he?\"\n\n\"I don't know his name.\"\n\n\"Does Erin?\"\n\n\"Maybe, but she won't tell you.\"\n\n\"Why?\"\n\n\"Because you don't need to know, darling. All you need to know is that you pleased me very much tonight.\"\n\nI felt a little better but I was still ashamed.\n\n\"Was Erin...\"\n\n\"Watching?\"\n\n\"Y-y-yes.\"\n\n\"Yes, she was the other one there.\"\n\nI flushed again. Melanie made to kiss me. I moved back.\n\n\"I need to brush my teeth first.\"\n\n\"Fine darling, then come to bed.\"\n\nI went into the bathroom and brushed my teeth for a long time. I undressed and turned off the light. In the moon light through our window I could see Melanie in her bed. She motioned to me and I walked to her and got into bed. She kissed me deeply and held me. I cried softly into her shoulder. She had the harness on and she gently pushed me to my back. Then she got between my legs and slowly thrust the dildo inside me. She wasn't hard or rough and demanding. She held me, kissed me and made love to me, thrusting in me steadily, gently and lovingly until I came, quivering and gasping under her. Then she rolled to her back next to me. She didn't have to ask. I knelt up and helped her out of the harness and lay between her legs. I licked her, kissed her and made her come, shuddering and panting. She pulled me up and kissed my wet face.\n\n\"I love you darling.\"\n\nI just held her tighter and buried my face in her shoulder. Melanie stroked my hair and held me tight also. Being with her allowed me to relax and forget what had happened, mostly, and I fell asleep in her arms. It took a while but Melanie stayed awake until I fell asleep. The last thing I remember was Melanie kissing my cheek softly.\n\n"}
+{"text": "Aizawa was both relieved and exhausted when he made his way to Midnight’s apartment later that night.  Talking to Shinsou had gone better than he had hoped for and by the time Shinsou was yawning sleepily, Aizawa was already feeling content and at peace with the way things were going between them.  \n\nOnce he had sternly told Shinsou that he needed to return to the dorms to actually get some sleep, Aizawa had opted to not take his own advice and he instead left his apartment to head to Midnight’s, assuming that both Midnight and Present Mic would likely be waiting for him.  \n\n“You two still awake?” he asked as he peered into Midnight’s apartment, opening the unlocked door without bothering to knock.\n\n“Shota!” Midnight called from the couch, dressed in an oversized shirt with her hair twisted up in a bun as she cradled a steaming mug in her hands.  She tilted her head back with a smile as Aizawa slipped into her apartment wearily.  “It’s about time you got here!”  \n\n“We were wondering if you’d ever make it here tonight,” Mic added as he sipped from his beer from where he was sprawled on the other side of the couch, his leather jacket slung over a nearby chair and his hair combed out and draped over his shoulders.  Mic pointed with the bottle in his hands towards the coffee table, which was currently covered with bags and boxes of take out.  “You should eat.”\n\nAizawa nodded, his shoes off and his body already moving forward in the familiar, well-established routine.  He was grateful that the two of them withheld their anxious comments and well-meaning questions as he sorted through the crumpled bags and investigated the contents of the now-cold boxes.  He could feel both of their eyes on him as he helped himself to some food but they didn’t comment as he slumped into a nearby chair.  \n\nMidnight, who had retreated briefly to the kitchen, returned with a cup of hot tea for Aizawa and Mic tapped on a whisky bottle with a questioning hum as Aizawa shook his head at the unspoken question.   It wasn’t that sort of a night. \n\nAizawa gratefully began to eat his dinner, not even minding that it was cold and ignoring Midnight’s exasperated sigh of  you know I have a microwave while Mic laughed.  Aizawa didn’t care.  It had been a long day and he hadn’t eaten since noon.  And Aizawa wasn’t the sort to be picky.  He was hungry and tired and all he wanted to do was consume the cold takeout and then bask in the comfort of his friends.  It was that simple.\n\nApparently, Mic and Midnight were only able to restrain themselves until Aizawa had gotten halfway through his curry.  Aizawa was mid-chew and about to dip his chopsticks down for another bite, when Midnight broke first.\n\n“Sooooo,” she said, watching Aizawa closely and giving him her most sympathetic expression.  “How’d it go?”\n\nAizawa repressed a heavy sigh and instead opted for a baleful glance at Midnight.  “How’d what go?” Aizawa asked flatly, chewing his food and ignoring his friends’ resulting scowls.  He had hoped he’d at least be able to finish  most of his late dinner before they started pestering him for details about his talk with Shinsou.\n\n“Shinsou came over, right?” Midnight asked, looking annoyed that Aizawa was even making her clarify her statement.  “I just wanted to see how that went after the meeting.”\n\n“Oh,” Aizawa hummed, sounding less than amused.  “Is  that what you wanted?”\n\n“Shoooo,” Mic whined immediately.  “Don’t shut us out!  We want to know!”\n\n“Want to know  what?” Aizawa asked grumpily, taking another bite.\n\n“How did it go?”\n\nAizawa swallowed his food and finally put his chopsticks down, looking up at the pair in irritation.  “What do you want to know?” he asked, too wrung out to even begin to play coy about any part of the situation.\n\nMidnight smiled encouragingly.  “We genuinely just want to know how everything went.  Shinsou’s been through a lot lately.  And that meeting was — well, he looked a little shell shocked.”\n\n“We want to know what’s going on,” Mic piped in.  “What’s  really going on.  You can shut Nezu and Hiyori out, but not us, you know.”\n\nAizawa sighed.  He knew the two meant well.  They  always meant well.  But he was trying so hard to deal with his own issues and uncertainties regarding the entire Lock Box quirk that he wasn’t entirely sure how to vocalize what was going on.\n\n“Everything’s fine,” he said after a moment.\n\n“Fine?” Midnight repeated, her voice lilting in a question.  “What does that mean?”\n\nAizawa glowered, knowing immediately that Midnight was just trying weasel information out of him.  “I am  not having this discussion with you two,” he said grumpily, crossing his arms.\n\n“Why not?” Midnight grinned widely.  “Unless — ”\n\n“Unless what?”\n\nShe looked curiously at Aizawa.  “Unless something happened?”\n\nMic’s head jerked up in alarm and his face paled instantly.  “Wait — what did you — did you  do something?”\n\n“What?” Aizawa looked up from where he had sunk into the couch.  “No!  What the hell, Zashi,” Aizawa hissed, far too irritated to deal with Mic’s melodrama with any degree of patience.   \n\nMidnight smacked Mic’s arm.  “I meant they had a heart-to-heart or something equally out of Sho’s comfort zone,” she scolded.  “Not  that.” \n\n“Well how should I know?” Mic whined.\n\n“We  talked,” Aizawa said firmly, trying to stave off his exhaustion.  “That’s all.”\n\nMidnight and Mic exchanged a look.  “But?” they both asked, tilting their heads in tandem that made it look almost rehearsed instead of just creepily obsessed with the drama.\n\n“But nothing,” Aizawa huffed.\n\nMidnight and Mic exchanged yet another look and Aizawa had to resist the urge to strangle them both right there in Midnight’s living room.\n\nA slow smile appeared on Mic’s face.  “You look all wretched and miserable because you  talked to him?” he asked, looking more amused than sympathetic.\n\nAizawa shook his head.  “I’m just — I’m terrible at this.”\n\n“Shota,” Mic said, his smile a little too gentle for Aizawa’s tastes, “we’re not here to tease you.  We just wanted to check in.”\n\n“Could have fooled me,” Aizawa huffed.\n\nMidnight smiled kindly.  “Shota, we know how hard this is for you.  But you can trust us, you know?  We just want to help.”\n\nAizawa let out a breath, trying not to literally growl in frustration.  “You know that — talking to people isn’t exactly one of my talents.”\n\nMic laughed, leaning back on the couch as he sipped his beer.  “Well, that’s not really a surprise to anyone, Sho.”\n\nAizawa glared at him.  “That’s not helpful.”\n\n“I’m sure you weren’t that bad,” Midnight said, crossing her legs as she settled back into her chair.  “Just tell us what happened.” \n\nAizawa’s face twisted in annoyance.  This was the last thing he wanted to do, but he knew it would probably be helpful to run everything by his friends; not only were they more socially adept than he was, but he trusted them and their opinions fully.\n\n“He told me that Lock Box talked to him,” he grunted after a moment.\n\nMidnight nodded, not looking surprised in the slightest.  “Of course she did,” she said wearily.  “Hiyori gave me quite a scolding after the meeting.  She knew we went behind her back to set up Shinsou going to your apartment.”\n\n“We weren’t  that bad,” Mic pointed out.  “We only said we thought it prudent that you had a safe space for the emotional bonding — and I stand by that.”\n\nAizawa nodded.  “Well, I’m glad she spoke to him in any case.”\n\n“Of course,” Midnight exclaimed before Mic could say anything.  “I’d be concerned if Hiyori  didn’t talk to him after that display.  It’d be downright irresponsible of her not to look into that.”\n\nAizawa hummed in agreement and picked up his chopsticks again.  “Well, Shinsou said he thought he diverted her suspicions,” Aizawa said, not bothering to elaborate what Lock Box’s suspicions were in the first place.  He instead talked around the issue like he always did.\n\n“Well, that’s good!” Mic exclaimed, looking between Midnight and Aizawa anxiously.  “Right?”\n\nAizawa took another bite of cold curry while Midnight nodded firmly to Mic in response.\n\nMic let out a relieved breath.  “Alright, so that’s alright,” he said, combining his fingers through his long locks.  “So what else did Shinsou talk to you about?”\n\nAizawa chewed slowly, not wanting to discuss Shinsou’s concerns with his friends, but Mic and Midnight were patient and were more than fine waiting for him to speak.  Sighing inwardly, Aizawa once again set his chopsticks down.  “He wanted to know about logistics,” Aizawa said heavily.\n\n“Logistics?” Midnight echoed, his nimble fingers idly beginning to braid a few strands of his hair.\n\n“He wanted to know what the plan was,” Aizawa clarified, reaching for his tea, mostly to give his hands something to do.\n\n“He’s  nervous,” Midnight said, touching her hand to her chest.  “Don’t you get it, Shota?  He’s trying to figure out how to proceed with this logically.”\n\n“He’s trying to be  you, ” Mic added, looking touched but saddened.\n\nAizawa scowled at that.  “He doesn’t need to be me.  He  shouldn’t be trying to be me.”\n\n“Shota!” Midnight cooed, looking far too enamored for Aizawa’s tastes.\n\n“So,” Mic said, leaning forward, his half-braid forgotten.  “What did you tell him the plan was?”\n\nAizawa sighed.  “I told him we should discuss a few things first,” he said flatly.  “I asked him how he was doing — I know he’s been asked that a thousand times over but he never answers honestly — and he said his emotional state was fine and he wanted to know the logistics for how we were going to move forward.”\n\nMic nodded.  “That seems reasonable.”\n\n“I asked him if he was alright with me returning to teach,” Aizawa said after a moment.  He looked down into his mug of tea and watched the steam swirling on the surface of it, feeling suddenly bashful at relaying his conversation with Shinsou to his friends.  “And — ” he added in a quiet voice, “ — I asked him if he would be comfortable going to my actual apartment.”\n\nMidnight raised a brow at that.  “And?”\n\n“He said yes.  And then he — he asked me if  I would be comfortable having him at my apartment.”\n\nMidnight and Mic exchanged a look that was far too knowing and Aizawa pushed past it quickly.\n\n“I told him it was fine,” he said shortly.  “And he said there weren’t any other immediate issues that we needed to discuss, other than figuring out how to bond.”\n\n“Figuring out how to bond?” Mic repeated incredulously with a snort.  “What’s that supposed to mean?”\n\nAizawa glanced up at Mic and Midnight, then hurriedly redirected his gaze back to his tea cup, but both of his friends had already caught the faint flush on his cheeks.\n\n“Shota!” Midnight exclaimed quietly, looking both delighted and rather pleased.\n\n“What did you tell him?” Mic asked at the same time, with an equally wide grin plastered on his face.\n\n“I didn’t tell him anything,” Aizawa huffed.  “I asked him what he thought we should do.”\n\n“You asked  Shinsou what to do?” Mic repeated in a slightly awed voice while Midnight clapped her hand over her mouth either in shock, amusement, minor appalling or some combination of the three.\n\n“He’s the one who was asking about logistics!” Aizawa shot back irritably.\n\n“Shota!” Midnight chastised, despite her delighted grin.\n\nAizawa scowled.  “Shinsou wanted for us to bond more — to work on emotionally coming closer together.  So, I asked him what he wanted to know — ”\n\nMic laughed, looking more delighted than Aizawa would have preferred.  “Well, what was he supposed to say to something like that?”\n\n“I don’t know!”  Aizawa huffed.  He sighed after a moment.  “He said the same thing when I asked,” Aizawa admitted quietly while Mic shook his head.\n\n“Well, so what did you say?”\n\n“I — told him my favorite color.”\n\nMic and Midnight both stared at him, their eyes wide.  Then they both threw their heads back and laughed, cackling at Aizawa’s awkwardness and embarrassment.\n\n“It’s not funny,” he pouted.\n\n“Shota, you’re  hopeless.”\n\n“I didn’t actually tell him that,” Aizawa said with an irritated sigh.  “I was being sarcastic and asked if he knew it.”\n\n“Shota,” Midnight said seriously while Mic continued to shake his head, laughing, “you need to learn how to open up.”\n\n“It’s not something I can just learn overnight,” Aizawa snapped angrily.\n\n“Of course not.  But you’re going to have to get better at it,”  Midnight said, shaking her head.  “Don’t worry, Shota.  We’ll help you.”\n\nAizawa shook his head helplessly.  “I just — I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.  One minute I’m his teacher and now I’m supposed to be — I don’t know what I’m supposed to be.”  His hands curled in frustration.  “I can’t be his teacher, his mentor, and his friend all at the same time.  And I just don’t know which mode I’m supposed to go into when I see him.”  Aizawa looked up, his features twisted.  “I never had to think about it before.  I never had to even give it a thought.  It was just natural.  And now — I don’t know.”\n\nMidnight and Mic exchanged a look.  “Well, Sho,” she said gently, “I think the answer is that you’re not supposed to be any of those things to Shinsou right now.  As hard as this is for you, this entire process is about Shinsou and how to help him.  Not about your relationship with Shinsou.  Whatever is going on between you two might have to get put on the backburner.”\n\nAizawa growled softly in distress.  “I know.  I know it’s not about me or my feelings.  It’s about helping him.  But I just — I don’t know what he needs.”\n\n“Yes you do,” Mic said quietly, his features softening as he looked at his friend.  “You can’t be Shinsou’s mentor or teacher or colleague right now.  You’re supposed to — essentially — be his boyfriend.”\n\n“This entire experiment is rooted in your emotional bond with him,” Midnight nodded.  “It’s not enough to be close.  You have to love him. You have to take care of him — ”\n\n“I do!” Aizawa said harshly before freezing in surprise.  “I — I mean, of course I will,” he corrected hurriedly.\n\nMidnight and Mic both smiled gently at that and Aizawa busied himself with drinking his tea in order to ignore their responses.\n\n“Well,” Midnight said gently, leaning forward to begin to package up the takeout, “I think this is good.  You both seem to be heading in a positive direction with this.”\n\nAizawa snorted into his tea at the thought of calling any part of the physical component plan a “positive direction” but he chose not to comment on it for the time being.\n\n“So,” Mic leaned forward, his eyes glimmering as Midnight shuffled to the kitchen to put the leftovers into the refrigerator, “did Shinsou actually end up asking you a question, then?  Or did you just tell him your favorite color and call it a day?”\n\nAizawa rolled his eyes but knew that both Mic and Midnight would never stop pestering him until he answered.   “He wanted to know what I thought of him.”\n\nMic blinked as Midnight poked her head out of the kitchen curiously.  “What you — thought of him?”\n\nAizawa, who was far too grumpy to continue the conversation, crossed his arms sullenly as he settled into the chair.  “What I really thought of him.”\n\nMidnight sank back into her chair, looking both amused and curious.  “So, what did you tell him?” \n\n“The truth,” Aizawa said simply.\n\nMic raised a brow.  “The  whole truth?”\n\nAizawa’s cheeks darkened slightly.  “Enough of it,” he admitted after a moment.\n\n“Well,” Midnight said with a grin while Mic beamed happily.  “I’d say this really is progress, then.”\n\nAizawa glared into his mug, doing his best to ignore the cautiously happy expressions on his friends’ faces.\n\n \n\n \n\n“Good morning” Jirou said cheerfully as Shinsou stumbled into the kitchen.  Without even needing to be asked, she immediately slid an empty mug down the counter to him.\n\n“Thanks,” Shinsou mumbled, still half-asleep as he caught the mug, squinting at the counter for the coffee maker.\n\nJirou didn’t seem to mind.  She tilted her head at him, one of her ear jacks gesturing at him as she stirred sugar into her tea.  “I hope you don’t mind me saying this, but — you look good.”\n\nShinsou, who was still grappling with his sluggish motor skills in trying to grab and lift the coffee pot to pour its life affirming contents into his mug, blinked as he processed what she said.  “Huh?”\n\nJirou gently tapped her spoon against the rim of her mug before placing her spoon in the sink.  “You just seem like you’re doing better.”  She offered him a slight smile.  “Right?”\n\nShinsou’s brain finally caught up to what she was saying.  “Yeah,” he said sheepishly, unsure of how else to respond to her statement.  “Yeah, I feel — I feel like I’m doing a lot better now.”\n\n“That’s good.”  Jirou paused, as if considering, then reached out and touched his shoulder.  “I’m really glad to hear that, Shinsou.”\n\n“Thanks,” he said softly as Jirou exited the kitchen, feeling a warm flutter in his chest;  it was nice to feel cared about.   \n\nThings had been steadily getting better and better for Shinsou.  Returning to training had felt like a return to himself.  Going to class was one thing, but going to class, and then training, and then repairing his relationship with Aizawa?  And with Lock Box’s quirk helping set aside the overwhelming emotions of his trauma?  It meant that he felt like he was himself again.  Shinsou Hitoshi, future underground Pro Hero.  It was where he wanted to be and a part of him couldn’t be happier to actively feel himself beginning to rapidly make improvements towards his recovery.\n\nShinsou leaned against the kitchen counter, inhaling the aroma of the cup of coffee in his hands, and had nearly reached a level of contentment and peace when his tranquil morning was abruptly interrupted by an ear-splitting sound.\n\n“GOOD MORNING, LITTLE LISTENERSSSSSSS,” an impossibly loud voice made Shinsou nearly drop his mug.\n\nHe swore, steadying himself and his cup of coffee in his hand, before leaving the kitchen and venturing out into the common room where none other than Present Mic was standing among the couches.\n\nShinsou scowled — not that he wasn’t happy to see Present Mic — but much like Aizawa, anything with a volume over a decibel of fifty before noon was a crime against humanity in his book.\n\n“Present Mic sensei!” Yaoyorozu said, ever the social diplomat in situations like this.  “Good morning!  It’s good to have you here.”\n\nBakugou, who was leaning against the wall near Shinsou, his hair still glistening from his early morning run’s shower, glared at the man.  “Who the  fuck is this loud in the morning?” he growled, echoing Shinsou’s sentiments perfectly.\n\nMidoriya, who had come over to the pair, gave Bakugou a pleading look, as if hoping that would make him behave, before smiling shyly at Shinsou as he turned to hear what their English teacher wanted to say.\n\n“I HAVE AN ANNOUNCEMENT!”\n\n“We can hear you just fine,” Bakugou said loudly and Shinsou remembered with a jolt that Bakugou was worried about his hearing — in the rush of everything happening to him, Shinsou had nearly forgotten that he wasn’t the only one with issues going on as well.\n\nMic chuckled and gave a slightly apologetic bow.  “Sorry, sorry,” he said with a grin.  “Force of habit.  Anyways!  I am here to make an announcement!”\n\n“What is it, Mic sensei?” Iida pushed forward, his chest puffed out proudly.\n\n“It’s regarding some changes to your homeroom teacher,” Mic said and Shinsou suddenly realized why Mic was purposefully not making eye contact with him.  \n\n“Is Aizawa sensei back?” Uraraka practically squealed while Hagakure and Tsyu nodded eagerly and Tokoyami and Kirishima both pushed themselves to their feet.  Shinsou had to bite back a smile at that;  he hadn’t realized how much his classmates had missed Aizawa.   It seemed they had missed Aizawa almost as much as he had.  And while part of him was a little territorial over that, another part of him was just thankful that the other students cared as much as he did.  Because he  wanted Aizawa to have the love and support of all of his students, not just him.  The man certainly deserved at least that much.\n\n“Yes, Aizawa is back from his mission,” Mic said smoothly and Shinsou had to look down at the ground to hide his blush since Aizawa had  been on campus the entire time, just hiding away from the world as he grappled with the fallout of knowing what happened with Silvertongue and Shinsou.  “He’s back on campus today so you’ll probably see him soon.”\n\n“What about Lock Box sensei?” Ojiro asked while Kaminari continued to pet at the fur on his tail.  “Is she still going to be our teacher or is Aizawa sensei starting back immediately?”\n\n“Lock Box will still remain your primary homeroom teacher for now,” Mic said easily, “although Shota might stop in to observe your class and assist with running some trainings.”\n\n“So — he’s not back?” Kaminari asked, sounding confused.\n\n“He’s back in a partial capacity,” Mic answered.  “We’ll keep you updated once we’re better aware of what’s going on.  But for now, the rest is classified.”  Mic slapped on a broad grin as he looked around at the rest of the students and Shinsou knew enough to clap his hands over his ears to protect himself from Mic’s shout that they BETTER ALL GET GOING OR THEY WERE GOING TO BE LATE FOR CLASS, followed closely by Bakugou yelling in absolute outrage over the unnecessarily loud volume.\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe rest of the day was so normal and mundane that Shinsou had almost completely forgotten about Present Mic’s minor visit to Heights Alliance earlier in the morning — until Lock Box ended her lecture nearly two hours early with a slight smile on her face as she announced that they would be spending the rest of the day in a training session.\n\nShinsou spent the walk over to the training hall not even thinking about what might be coming as he chatted with Ojiro and Kaminari about the latest class drama that happened over lunch (involving some potential drama about some students from Shiketsu High School potentially being poached by some other hero agencies and some minor drama involving a rumor that Jirou and Yaoyorozu might be a little closer than friends).  \n\nHe was in a good place: happy that his mind was no longer constantly buzzing with panic, happy that he was surrounded by friends, happy that he had had a good and productive conversation with Aizawa the night before, happy that his school and teachers continued to support him, and happy that he was now being allowed to participate in trainings once again.\n\nThings felt normal.  And normal felt  good. \n\n“Shinsou!” Lock Box hailed, grinning brightly as she slipped beside him.\n\n“Lock Box sensei,” Shinsou gave a small bow and a smile as Lock Box fell into pace next to him.\n\nKaminari and Ojiro slowed their pace, sensing that she was stopping by to check in on Shinsou.\n\n“I just wanted to see how you were doing?” she asked, no lilt of suspicion in her voice and no raised eyebrow to signal that she was trying to point at any ulterior motives.  She genuinely was just checking in on him.  \n\n“Good,” Shinsou answered without hesitation.  “I’m just excited to get back to training again.”\n\nLock Box grinned, a little wickedly this time.  “Oh I’m sure,” she said.  “But you might not be so eager after you see what I have planned.”\n\nFrom a pace behind Shinsou, Kaminari groaned.  “I can just tell, this isn’t going to be good.”\n\nKirishima, who had just departed from Bakugou’s side, grinned at Kaminari.  “Hey, man, don’t worry, you’ll be fine,” he grinned in his typically supportive way.\n\nLock Box waved the class forward.  “Let’s hurry it up!” she called to the chattering group.  “Don’t be late!”\n\n“Late for what?” Ojiro asked fearfully as he and Kaminari rejoined Shinsou while Lock Box headed to the front doors of the training hall.\n\nKaminari rubbed at his temples with a preemptive groan.  “I should have taken an aspirin before training, shouldn’t I?”\n\n“Oh, c’mon!” Kirishima said, throwing his arm around Kaminari’s shoulders and giving him a squeeze.  “It won’t be that bad!  We’re almost graduated!  What could Lock Box sensei possibly throw at us at this point?”\n\nLock Box pushed the front door open and held the door as the class filed inside the training hall.  “Come on in,” she said, still smiling.\n\nKaminari chuckled with Kirishima as they stepped into the training hall.  “You’re right,” he said, sounding deeply relieved.  “It’s not like they can really throw us for a loop at this point with a training that’s going to kill half of us.  We can definitely handle whatever Lock Box sensei is going to throw at us.”\n\n“I’m so glad you think that, Kaminari,” a familiar flat voice said.\n\nKaminari froze, the cheerful look on his face stalling as he processed who had spoken, then he immediately fell into shock with the slightest touch of fear and awe on his features.  “Aizawa sensei!” \n\n“Sensei!” Shinsou echoed in surprise as the class walked into the training hall.\n\nAizawa was leaning against the wall of the training wall, looking utterly at home as if he had never left teaching their class in the first place with his arms crossed and his hair spilling over his shoulders as his dark eyes swept over the chattering students. \n\nShinsou almost laughed at the chorus of shouts that rang out in the training hall as Aizawa looked over the group, his face set in a bored expression and very much so looking like the indifferent and exhausted teacher he always seemed to be as he looked around the room.\n\n“Aizawa sensei!” Sero exclaimed in surprise while Koda squeaked in alarm and Satou stumbled back in surprise.\n\n“You’re back!” Jirou exclaimed.\n\n“Sensei!” Midoriya said excitedly, running forward to greet his teacher.  “Are you back from your mission?  Did everything go alright?  Did you catch the villain?”\n\n“Calm down, Midoriya,” Aizawa said flatly.  His dark eyes swept the room with his usual keen dispassion.  “I’m back temporarily,\" Aizawa said, using the same bored tone that he used whenever he was lecturing.  \"Lock Box is still running your class until I return in an official capacity — ”\n\n\"Did something happen?\" Ojiro asked worriedly. \n\n“Why are you not coming back to teach full time?” Ashido asked suspiciously.\n\n“We probably tired him out,” Bakugou muttered with a pleased smirk on his face.\n\nAizawa sighed, looking like he suddenly very much was regretting returning to Heights Alliance, and Shinsou had to suppress a laugh.  Even though all of the other students were anxious and clamoring over each other with a million questions and concerns — and Aizawa was doing his very best to look annoyed — Shinsou could see the faintest brush of pink on Aizawa's cheeks, he noticed the way Aizawa's lips seem to curve in an almost imperceptible smile when his students pressed forward, and he noticed the way Aizawa's eyes were a severe black, the slight warmth in his flat tone, and the way his teacher's shoulders slumped down, not in exhaustion or discouragement but in genuine relaxation, as if being around his students was a comfort to him. \n\nAnd Shinsou realized how much Aizawa had truly missed his class.  And — by extension — how much Aizawa truly must care for Shinsou, since Aizawa had been immediately willing to give up his students, if it meant even the slightest chance of helping Shinsou.  And while Shinsou had always known that, seeing proof of it only made something in Shinsou’s chest swell in warmth and fondness towards his teacher.\n\nThe other students, however, were not as perceptive as Shinsou when it came to reading Aizawa and all collectively quieted down in minor apprehension when Aizawa sighed irritably at their questions, no doubt fearing that he would scold them for being illogical and emotional.  \n\n“He’s not wearing his uniform!” Hagakure whispered loudly to Uraraka while Uraraka made a soft squeak of alarm at the realization that Aizawa was wearing his civilian clothing — which was a rather rare sight for his students to see.\n\n“I’ve only seen Aizawa sensei out of uniform twice!” Midoriya whispered in a hushed, almost awed voice as he nodded in confirmation to the girls.\n\nShinsou started at that, realizing for the first time that Aizawa was still in civilian clothing and not his typical hero costume.  And at Hagakure’s comment Shinsou suddenly realized that he hadn't actually seen Aizawa in his official Eraserhead uniform since the day he went to Aizawa’s apartment in an attempt to stop him from watching Silvertongue’s video.  To Shinsou’s knowledge, Aizawa hadn’t put it on since.\n\nAnd part of him had to wonder if Aizawa ever would again.\n\n“Alright, everyone, settle down!” Lock Box called out, gesturing to the class to be quiet while Aizawa looked around the room in a disingenuous expression of annoyance. \n\n“So you’re here to — observe us?” Ojiro asked, almost hopefully as he looked up at his teacher.  “Right?”\n\nAizawa’s lips twitched in a slightly sadistic smile.  “No,” he answered.  “I’ll be running your training today.”\n\nKaminari whimpered in fear while the rest of the class groaned in preemptive pain of what was to come.\n\n \n\n \n\nIt was an impossibly long two hours.\n\nAlmost unbearably long.\n\nFor two solid hours, Aizawa put the entire class through their paces, making them run laps with weight, using their quirks almost to their breaking point, then teaming them up in three-on-three battles while then giving them whiplash and sending the three-on-three teams into a collision course until it became an entire battle royale with the entire class\n\nBy the time the training session was over, the class was beyond exhausted: Kaminari was practically in tears, sending little jolts of electricity through his hair as he sniffled, shuffling forward weakly as he trailed after his classmates; Ojiro’s tail dragged on the ground as he walked; and Yaoyorozu mindlessly shoved mini cupcakes into her mouth that Satou kept numbly pulling from his belt.\n\nEven the top students of the class seemed half-dead: Midoriya was only able to shuffle towards the showers, his trademark grin absent from his features; Todoroki walked wearily, flecks of ice sparkling on his skin as his internal temperature desperately tried to fix itself from overuse; and even Bakugou was uncharacteristically silent as he trudged away from the training hall, his strong shoulders slumped.\n\n“Shinsou,” Aizawa called out, still watching the exhausted and battered class trudge out of the training room.  “A word, please.”\n\nShinsou blinked.   Right now?  He swallowed down a curse, his entire body aching in protest.  Even Kaminari didn’t have the energy to waggle his eyebrows at Shinsou, although Ashido managed a tired grin as she trudged away wearily.\n\n“Sensei?” Shinsou said, shuffling over to where Aizawa stood.  It almost felt like the way things were before: Aizawa standing off to the side, his tall frame slightly slouched as he jammed his hands in his pockets, surveying the class with a bored expression.  The only thing that was different was that he was no longer wearing his hero uniform and instead was wearing what looked like gym clothes, although the long pants and long-sleeved tshirt were dark and essentially didn’t alter his look too drastically. \n\n“You look worse for wear,” Aizawa observed with more amusement than pity in his voice.\n\n“And whose fault is that?” Shinsou grumbled.  It had been weeks since he had had a proper training session and Aizawa running him ragged around the gym certainly hadn’t helped things.\n\nAizawa hummed and cocked his head towards the door, making his way towards it without another word while Shinsou repressed a groan and did his best to follow him.\n\nShinsou winced.  “I can barely walk, you know,” he grumbled as he hobbled after Aizawa.\n\nAizawa gave a slight smile to Shinsou.  “You’ll survive,” he said dryly, heading out the door in the direction of the teachers’ dorms.\n\nShinsou winced.  “Is this really necessary?” he grumbled as he hobbled after Aizawa, every cell in his body currently regretting his decision to become a Pro Hero.\n\n“You’ll be fine,” Aizawa said airily, stubbornly going to the stairwell instead of the elevator just because he was a bastard enough to let Shinsou suffer just a little more.\n\nShinsou groaned but continued to limp after his teacher with a huff.\n\nAfter climbing four floors of stairs — which took Shinsou longer than he cared to admit — Aizawa finally fished his keys out of his pockets and worked on unlocking the stairwell door while Shinsou leaned heavily against the wall of the landing, struggling to catch his breath.\n\n“What’s on this floor?” he asked, unable to stop the dread he was feeling from coloring his voice.  He knew Aizawa loved to push them to their limits — and as much as he appreciated the push — Shinsou didn’t think he had any more energy for anything else today.\n\nAizawa grinned at the apprehensive note in Shinsou’s voice and pushed open the stairwell door.  “You’ll see,” he said, gesturing for Shinsou to follow.  \n\nWhen Shinsou stumbled slightly — his traitorous legs almost giving out from the strain of standing — Aizawa caught him and helped him through the door without a word.\n\nBeyond the stairwell, Shinsou found himself standing in a small hallway with what looked like men's and women's locker rooms on either side of two large wooden doors.\n\nShinsou stopped short.  “More training?” he whispered fearfully, eyeing the large doors as the stairwell door shut behind them with a thud.\n\n“No,” Aizawa said simply before making his way to the large doors at the end of the hallway.\n\nShinsou hesitated, unsure if he should believe Aizawa, then sighed and obediently hobbled forward after Aizawa.\n\nAizawa wordlessly flipped through his key ring until he found the right key, ignoring Shinsou’s apprehensive stare.  Once he fit it into the lock, he pushed the door open that was on the side of the hallway with the men’s locker room and let Shinsou through.\n\n“Whoa,” Shinsou breathed, looking around in amazement.  Tucked on the fourth floor of the teachers’ dorms was — much to Shinsou’s surprise — an entire room made to look like a traditional  sentō. \n\nWood panels and shoji doors lined a small entryway  genkan, with little cubbies and shoe lockers along the walls.  Past that, Shinsou could see a blue curtain pushed to the side for the changing room and beyond that was an enormous bathroom.  The room had a wooden ceiling with soft golden lights glowing and a tiled floor set in an intricate blue and white pattern.  Adorning the walls were gold faucets with wooden stools in front of them and in the back of the room was a huge stone tub filled with steaming water, with an enormous tiled wall depicting a garden scene with blossoming trees and Mount Fuji in the distance behind it.\n\nAizawa grinned slightly at Shinsou’s reaction.  “Weren’t expecting this, were you?”\n\nShinsou looked around, openly staring.  “This has been here the entire time?” he whispered, his eyes drinking in the tiled floor, the steaming water, and the warm lantern-like lights.  “Without anyone knowing about it?”\n\nAizawa hummed.  “It’s not like you have any reason to know it exists.  It’s for the teachers.”  When Shinsou looked up, Aizawa rolled his eyes.  “Do you think Nezu convinced a bunch of adults to give up their apartments and move onto a high school campus just because it was an easier commute?  He had to sweeten the pot with perks.”  He gestured around the room.  “And this is one of them.”\n\nShinsou let out a low whistle.  “Well, I guess he did a pretty solid job, then.”\n\n“You don’t have to use it if you don’t want to,” Aizawa said.  “But I figured after the drills you ran today, you might want this to ease up.  And this is certainly far more relaxing than the baths in the student dorms.”  He hesitated, suddenly looking uncertain.  “I booked the room, so no one will come in here while you’re here — ”\n\nShinsou immediately understood Aizawa’s sudden and uncharacteristic hesitance:  he was worried that giving Shinsou a place to have a soak was essentially another instance of Aizawa forcing Shinsou to linger naked in a room.  But Shinsou didn’t make that connection at all.  He was far too focused on the steaming water, the smooth, paneled walls, and the soft glowing light all beckoning his tired body into what looked like the most soothing soak in the world.\n\n“No, this is perfect,” Shinsou said quickly.  “And — don’t worry.  With Lock Box’s quirk — it doesn't even bother me at all.”\n\n“It doesn’t?”  Aizawa looked doubtful.\n\nShinsou tilted his head, considering.  “Nope,” he said after a moment and he meant it.  The thought of taking his clothes off in a public place — a place where adult teachers could enter — didn’t make him feel even remotely skittish, which was a far cry from what had happened the last time he had taken a shower at Aizawa’s apartment.  “I feel fine.  And comfortable.”  He eyed the water.  “And I really, really want to jump in the water.”\n\nAizawa sighed.  “Do  not jump in the water,” he said, sounding exhausted while Shinsou grinned at him.  “Alright, the towels are over there and there’s some spare shoes and clothes to change into if you need them.”\n\n“I have my bag,” Shinsou said, lifting up his gym back with his clean clothes in there.\n\nAizawa nodded.  “You have an hour, so take as long as you need.  And — ” he hesitated, then handed Shinsou a small water bottle with a slightly tormented look on his face.  “Here.”\n\nShinsou took the bottle.  “Uh — thanks?” he said but the look on Aizawa’s face made him wonder what it was.  “Is this — not water?”\n\n“It is.  But — ”  He sighed.  “Nezu has a friend. They’re working with some people to imbue quirks into food and things like that.   This is water that was imbued with a healing quirk.”\n\nShinsou’s brows raised almost up to his hairline.  “This is  magical healing water?” he gasped, genuinely surprised that such a thing existed.\n\nAizawa rolled his eyes.  “No,” he said flatly.  “The experiment didn’t work.  But they did discover that while it can’t regrow limbs or heal shattered bones or whatever they were hoping for, it does take care of bumps and bruises and sore muscles.  And according to Hizashi, cures hangovers.”  He shrugged.  “From what I heard they’re giving it to athletes and things like that.  It won’t work miracles, but you should be able to walk after this.”\n\n“Really?” Shinsou eyed the bottle, swirling the water in it critically.  “It can do that?”\n\n“I’m guaranteeing nothing,” Aizawa said, sounding almost annoyed by Shinsou’s fascination with the water.  “It will basically be like if you took some ibuprofen and rested for a few hours.  That’s how you’ll feel after drinking it.  It won’t just magically fix your soreness.  It just will help speed things along a bit.”\n\n“But,” Shinsou blinked, still staring at the unmarked bottle in his hands.  “Why would you give this to me?  Wouldn’t it be better suited for you or for — emergencies or something?”\n\n“As I said,” Aizawa’s voice sharpened, as if he realized Shinsou had caught him doing something kind and altruistic and he was trying to deflect, “it doesn’t do anything useful, or I would keep it for emergencies.  This isn’t the old lady’s quirk.  It will just help your muscles not be so sore.”\n\nShinsou frowned, looking up from the water bottle to Aizawa.  “Why now?  Why not wait until after patrol when I fall off a roof or something?”\n\n“Because it’s my fault you’re in so much pain,” Aizawa said, almost too quickly and too harshly.  He froze as soon as he spoke, then sighed.  “If it wasn’t for — what I did — you would have been in training this entire time and you wouldn't be in pain now.  You’re suffering because you were pulled from training for four months.  It’s my fault you’re limping now.”\n\nShinsou’s expression softened.  “Sensei, you know I’d be in pain regardless, right?  Your trainings are always brutal, no matter what shape I’m in.”\n\n“Shinsou, just drink the damn water,” Aizawa said softly, looking down at his watch like he didn’t care. \n\nShinsou knew otherwise.  And so Shinsou twisted open the cap and drank the small water bottle down.  He frowned at the bottle after he finished it.  “I thought it would taste like something,” he mused.\n\nAizawa sighed and ignored him.  “I’ll text you to remind you when your hour’s up,” Aizawa said, still not really looking at Shinsou.  “Once you’re done, you’re more than welcome to head back to the dorms.  But you’re also more than welcome to stop by my apartment, if you want.  The door will be open.”\n\nShinsou gave a smile.  “Then I’ll stop by.”\n\nAizawa nodded and turned to leave the bath.  With his hand on the door, he hesitated.  “And Shinsou?”\n\n“Hmm?”\n\nAizawa looked up at him blandly.  “Please do not plan on falling off a roof anytime soon.”\n\nShinsou grinned.  “Noted.”\n\n \n\n \n\nShinsou left the fourth floor bath an hour later feeling blessedly refreshed.\n\nHis aching joints had been soothed, his grimy, sweat-streaked skin was now fresh and clean, and he felt utterly rejuvenated, like life had been breathed back into him again.\n\nAfter he changed into his fresh clothes and now gloriously clean, Shinsou felt content as he rode the elevator up to Aizawa’s floor without a single bit of hesitation about visiting his former teacher.  Their talk the night before had calmed the swirling uncertainty in his chest when it came to their relationship and what direction they were going to head in.  Everything about Lock Box’s quirk and the upcoming physical component was still confusing for Shinsou, but his talk with Aizawa had at least soothed some of his anxieties.  For now, he knew they just needed to focus on the emotional component and getting closer to Aizawa was something that Shinsou was both familiar with and comfortable doing.\n\nIt felt nice to have a day with his friends, a brutal training, a relaxing soak afterwards, and then an evening to relax and talk to Aizawa.  It felt almost like a routine.  Like they were establishing a pattern of being together.  And Shinsou couldn’t help but like how mature it all felt.  And how comforting it was to have.\n\n“Hey, sensei,” Shinsou greeted as he stepped into Aizawa’s apartment.\n\nAizawa, who had been resting on the couch looking over what appeared to be a pile of papers, glanced up at Shinsou entered his apartment.  “How’re you feeling?”\n\n“Great,” Shinsou grinned, slipping his shoes off.  “I don’t know if it was the magical healing water or the magical healing bath, but  something definitely did the trick.”\n\nAizawa rolled his eyes, gesturing with his red pen towards the kitchen.  “There’s coffee in the pot,” he said as Shinsou made his way over to the counter, their familiar routine taking shape with ease.  “And stop calling it magical.  There was nothing magical about it.”\n\nShinsou laughed as he grabbed the spare mug Aizawa had left out for him.  “Would you rather me go full Midoriya and go with an unhinged analysis?”\n\nAizawa groaned in mock protest.  “Why did I invite you here again?”\n\n“Bonding,” Shinsou supplied, as he poured himself a cup of coffee.  “That’s what we’re supposed to be doing, right?”\n\nAizawa grunted.  “Something like that,” he said, tossing the paper he was looking at facedown on the coffee table as Shinsou came around and eased himself onto his usual side of the couch.  “You look better,” he said with a slightly raised brow.\n\nShinsou snorted into his cup.  “What?  Are you mad I’m not still limping around?”\n\n“I didn’t push your class that hard,” Aizawa retorted.  “If you’re all struggling that much after  one round of training, then maybe I need to speak to Lock Box about increasing the intensity of your classes — ”\n\n\n “Sensei!” \n\n\nAizawa allowed himself a slight grin.  “Sorry,” he said, shaking his head, still looking amused.  “It’s just been a while since I’ve run a training.”\n\nShinsou grinned, settling back against the couch.  “So, how did it feel being back?”\n\nAizawa ducked his head into his coffee cup — Shinsou assumed to hide a fond grin — and took a drink before he looked up at Shinsou again, his face carefully blank.  “I certainly had missed it,” he admitted softly.\n\n“I know,” Shinsou said warmly.  “And we missed you, too.  Well — maybe a little less now that you basically tried to kill us.”\n\n“I did not,” Aizawa snorted.\n\n“You kinda did.”\n\n“You all survived.”\n\n“Barely.”\n\n“It’s good preparation for after you graduate.”\n\nShinsou rolled his eyes.  “If my patrols are like that every night, then I’m just going to quit now.”\n\nAizawa grinned roughly.  “It was good to see everyone again,” he mused thoughtfully as he sank back into his couch cushion, still cradling his coffee cup.  He glanced at Shinsou.  “And it was good to see you with all of your classmates.”\n\nShinsou nodded, taking a drink of his coffee.  “Things have been better with them lately.”\n\nAizawa raised a brow.  “Oh?”\n\nShinsou shrugged.  “Yeah.  It’s just — it’s good to have friends.  Not just friends — I know that I can trust everyone in my class.  They’re all good people and I know they’re going to be good heroes.  But it’s like for the first time, I have  good friends — people I can really trust.  I’m — I’m not really used to that.”\n\nA faint smile twitched on Aizawa’s lips and he took another long drink of coffee to mask it.  “You deserve that,” he said softly.  “I don’t know what I’d do without Hizashi and Nemuri.”  He tilted his head at Shinsou, his dark eyes filled with warmth.  “I’m glad you have people like that, too.”\n\nShinsou nodded.  “Well, I for one, am happy that you have them.  You deserve to have good friends, too.”\n\nAizawa let out a melodramatic huff.  “I make due with them the best I can,” he said with a slightly wicked grin.\n\n“Oh, c’mon,” Shinsou laughed.  “You always act like they’re terrible.  They’re not that bad, you know.”\n\n“No,” Aizawa said with a fond chuckle.  “They’re not.”\n\nShinsou smiled, draining his mug with a faint grin.  He liked that he and Aizawa were able to engage in banter like this, he liked that Aizawa acknowledged that Shinsou understood the relationship Aizawa had with his friends, and he liked that Aizawa recognized that Shinsou had close friendships of his own.  \n\n“More?” Aizawa grunted as he eyed Shinsou’s now-empty coffee mug.\n\nShinsou hummed, happy that Aizawa understood his endless need for coffee without him needing to say a word.\n\nAizawa took both of their empty mugs and made his way back to the kitchen to get more coffee while Shinsou leaned back against the couch, breathing deeply in contentment.  Despite the looming uncertainty of the upcoming physical component, Shinsou was at least happy that they were definitely making strides with the emotional component of the quirk.\n\nShinsou was peacefully dozing on the couch, listening to Aizawa bustle around the kitchen,  when Aizawa’s phone suddenly buzzed from where he had left it on the coffee table, jarring Shinsou into alertness.\n\nMuch like his own phone, Shinsou frowned at the disruption and ignored the sound, continuing to bask in the quiet comfort of Aizawa’s living room while listening to the sounds of Aizawa move around the kitchen.\n\nUntil Aizawa’s phone buzzed again.\n\nShinsou glanced up with a slight frown.  It was probably nothing.  Plus, Aizawa was coming back in less than a minute, so if it was urgent, he’d see it soon enough.\n\nAnd then the phone buzzed again.\n\nShinsou sat up from the couch, his interest finally piqued.  Aizawa wasn’t much of a texter so it was odd that he was getting three texts in a row.  Granted, it was probably Present Mic texting him something stupid or Midnight annoying him about making plans, or something related to hero work or to Eri or to — literally any other countless number of potential things — all of which were none of his business.\n\nAnd while it was stupid, this was the crux of his problem with Aizawa: no matter how close they grew, it was never close enough.  Shinsou was always stymied by that last wall, the last barrier, the last locked door that Aizawa hid his secrets behind.  And since Aizawa was still terrible at opening up, Shinsou had to take every opportunity that was presented to him to get to know a little bit more about his teacher.  \n\nEven if it meant glancing at a phone screen.\n\nBesides, while Aizawa might be in the next room over, he had left his phone out — screen up — on the table.  \n\nShinsou nearly shook his head at how stupid he was being — it was a text message.  It was probably nothing.  It was probably just a cat meme.  It was probably just —\n\nShinsou shoved his thoughts aside and quietly leaned over from his seat on the couch, his eyes locked on the phone on the coffee table, and tapped at the screen of Aizawa’s phone so it would light up again.  \n\nThe lock screen appeared — with an image of Eri holding a cat in the background — as well as the phone’s unread notifications.  \n\nThere was a text from Mic from a good three hours ago, along with a calendar reminder and a news notification — both of which Shinsou assumed Mic or Midnight had set up on Aizawa’s phone and Aizawa had been too lazy or confounded by the process to turn them off — but there were also the three newest texts, all on display on the screen for Shinsou to read.\n\nEmi: LOL since when are you so needy??\n\nEmi: You know I’d do anything for you <3 \n\nEmi: My place or yours?\n\nShinsou swallowed hard.  Emi?  Who the hell was Emi?  And then Shinsou suddenly realized with a ice cold rush of horror in his veins: Ms. Joke. \n\nFor years, there had been rumors.  For years, Shinsou had ignored them all, dismissing it as ludicrous that someone like Aizawa would date someone like Ms. Joke.  And, if Shinsou were being perfectly honest, he also failed to see Aizawa dating anyone at all, least of all a woman as unnaturally jolly and loud as Ms. Joke.  But, then again, perhaps all the raised eyebrows that had gone around the room as the girls giggled in delight at the prospect whenever Ms. Joke’s name was brought up (with Aizawa only huffing in response) — maybe it  did mean something?\n\nMaybe the girls were right?  \n\nMaybe Aizawa was actually dating Ms. Joke?\n\nShinsou sank back onto the couch in a daze.   How could he have been so stupid?  So childish?  So fucking stupid? \n\nHe hadn’t even bothered to ask if Aizawa was seeing anyone or if he was in any sort of relationship at all.  Shinsou wouldn’t have known, since that was private information and Aizawa was so careful to never reveal anything personal about himself to his students at any time.  And Shinsou had foolishly and conveniently forgotten about all the rumors and teasing about Aizawa and Ms. Joke being an item — or at least  having a thing — while dealing with the Silvertongue fallout.  \n\nBut now, Shinsou had to wonder:  what if he were wrong? \n\nShinsou’s stomach turned at the thought of that.  The very thought of Aizawa spending all night patrolling the dark streets of Musutafu with an iron will and a rigid sense of justice, then rushing to class to lecture flatly at his class of students in his bored drawl, trying to teach his students the most important lessons of their lives while also ensuring that they didn’t end up killing each other — with the stoic patience of a saint — to then spend time after school training the hapless Shinsou, and finally rush home to sweep this woman into his arms?\n\nShinsou ground his teeth angrily.  So all the little pieces of Aizawa he had painstakingly collected over the last few years were just offered  out of pity?  Every little smile Shinsou wrung from Aizawa, every tiny morsel of information that he had carefully collected and assembled into the larger mosaic of the man, every moment Shinsou felt they were growing closer — it was all a lie?\n\nAnd perhaps that was unfair.  Aizawa could be dating someone and still get close to Shinsou.  It was a perfectly reasonable and normal state of affairs.  But to have Shinsou covet every bit of praise from Aizawa?  To feel proud at guessing something as stupid as his favorite color?  To keep his goddamn sweater in his armoire like a personal talisman?  Shinsou had thought he was one of the only people who was growing close to Aizawa like this, he had thought it meant something.  Not just to him, but to Aizawa as well.  And now to find out that the entire time there was a woman who probably knew Aizawa’s favorite color and food and favorite fucking brand of toothpaste?  And who had access to an entire closet of Aizawa’s sweaters?  \n\nIt made Shinsou feel childish.\n\nIt made him feel pathetic.\n\n\n How could he have been so stupid? \n\n\nAnd worse — far, far worse — was the fact that Shinsou had apparently not even thought to investigate or inquire about Aizawa’s sexuality.  The entire time they had been discussing Lock Box’s plan, it hadn’t once come up.\n\nNot once.\n\nSo Aizawa was dating a woman?  Which meant he was probably straight.  Aizawa probably came home from work to join his girlfriend and his daughter in a perfect little nuclear family, never once even thinking about Shinsou in any way but platonically and probably sick to his stomach at the thought of having to touch Shinsou again.   Shinsou was disgusting for ever wanting such a thing. \n\nShinsou curled himself into a small huddle on the couch, trying not to cry or scream, even though he suddenly wanted to do both. \n\nAfter the Silvertongue incident, Shinsou’s entire life had revolved around trying to protect Aizawa from the truth because  he cared deeply and profoundly for Aizawa.  And once Aizawa learned the truth of what had happened, Shinsou’s life became about trying to repair their relationship to restore it to where it once was: with the two of them emotionally and platonically close as mentor and mentee, as potential friends.  And it was only after Shinsou was told about Lock Box’s quirk therapy that he began to really think about what his relationship with Aizawa meant — and where he wanted it to go.  \n\nAnd Shinsou had then become so wrapped up in figuring out not only how to preserve his relationship with Aizawa for after the quirk wore off, but also how he was going to deal with and survive the physical component of Lock Box’s quirk, that he hadn’t really stopped to think about how  Aizawa  might be handling things.\n\nHe had, of course, given some thought about how Lock Box’s quirk would affect Aizawa.  He had thought about how Aizawa was being forced to relive the worst night of his life (despite not having any direct memories of it) and how Aizawa was reenacting a traumatic event that could potentially result in him getting fired and destroying his life, all for the sake of Shinsou and his future.  And Shinsou had certainly fixated on Aizawa having to deal with sleeping with him, despite probably not finding Shinsou attractive.\n\nBut Shinsou had failed to even once begin to consider that Aizawa might not be attracted to Shinsou because Shinsou was Shinsou; and that perhaps Aizawa was not attracted to Shinsou because Aizawa was attracted to  women.   \n\nHe hadn’t even thought about it.  \n\nShinsou swallowed hard, trying to think if he had any indication that Aizawa was even interested in men in the first place.  And of course, Aizawa was so private that Shinsou had no idea.  Some part of him had assumed that Aizawa had known what he was doing that awful night because he had experience with men — but no part of that night was fair to judge any part of Aizawa’s character on.  Which meant that Shinsou actually had no idea about Aizawa’s preferences.\n\nThe orders that Silvertongue had given Aizawa rang hollowly through Shinsou’s head:  ‘you are now deeply and utterly filled with an overwhelming lust toward Shinsou Hitoshi… You feel only the need to sate yourself and use your student as an instrument of pleasure until you are completely spent.’ \n\nShinsou blinked, trying hard not to choke at the sudden realization that Aizawa had been filled with lust towards Shinsou because he had been  commanded to be aroused.  Not because there was any part of him that wanted Shinsou in that way.     \n\nAnd the entire time they had been planning to engage in the physical component of Lock Box’s quirk, Aizawa — the altruistic, self-sacrificing asshole that he was — hadn’t said a word to Shinsou or anyone else about what sleeping with Shinsou would emotionally do to him.\n\nBecause why would he?  Lock Box’s quirk meant that they needed to reenact what happened.  That they physically needed to sleep together.  Which meant that their sexual preferences didn’t matter.  Aizawa had been brainwashed into having sex with Shinsou.  And Shinsou had no choice in it.  So when they discussed the physical component of Lock Box’s plan, their actual wants and desires hadn't even been a factor.  Because it wasn’t before.  So it wasn’t now.\n\nSo maybe Aizawa was straight.  Maybe he thought Shinsou was, too?  Maybe Aizawa thought Shinsou’s crush and desperation for his approval was actually just like Midoriya’s love and obsession with All Might: born out of intense admiration, hero adoration, and  platonic love.\n\nShinsou closed his eyes, trying to will himself not to cry.\n\nAnd of course Aizawa had agreed to do this.  He truly didn’t  want to, but he would do it for Shinsou.  He nearly died for his students before.  He had no issue sacrificing this part of himself, too, apparently.  \n\nAnd Shinsou had felt guilty because a part of him wanted it.  A little bit.  Some part of him was curious.  Some part of him craved that closeness.  But now that he knew that Aizawa was only doing it out of pity made him want to vomit.  Because it was wrong.  It was all horribly, horribly wrong.  And it was even worse that Shinsou was forcing Aizawa into this mess.\n\nHe felt sick.  He felt angry.  He felt lost.\n\n\n What was he supposed to do? \n\n\n“Shinsou?” Aizawa’s voice broke into Shinsou’s thoughts, startling him out of his spiral of despair.  He looked up in alarm to find Aizawa watching him from the doorway of the kitchen holding two cups of coffee in his hands and frowning in concern.  “Are you alright?” Aizawa asked as he set the mugs down on the coffee table.\n\nShinsou nodded dumbly, his thoughts still whirring in his head.  “I’m fine,” he whispered.\n\nAizawa’s eyes widened slightly and he immediately sank into the seat next to Shinsou — careful to keep a space between them, as he always did.  Was it because he was trying to be respectful of Shinsou’s space and trying not to trigger him again, or was it because he was a straight man who was currently dating a woman?\n\nShinsou cringed at the thought.\n\n“Shinsou?” Aizawa asked softly, his dark eyes softening in concern to the deep, stormy gray color that always made something ache in Shinsou’s chest.\n\n Not anymore,  Shinsou told himself fiercely.  “I’m fine, sensei,” Shinsou said softly, still trying to work out what to say with Ms. Joke’s text messages branded into his mind.   It was fine .  Aizawa was an adult.  He was allowed to have relationships and dalliances and fun and whatever else he could call it.  Aizawa was allowed to go home to Ms. Joke and laugh and kiss her and tell her all his secrets and have sex with her like a normal, functional adult while Shinsou would just be left alone with his sexual dysfunctions, fear of relationships, and general distrust of people.  \n\nShinsou wasn’t hurt at all. \n\nIt was fine.  \n\nEverything was fine.\n\n“Shinsou,” Aizawa said quietly and Shinsou could hear the concern and the confusion in his voice.  “You don’t seem alright.  Did — did something happen?”\n\n“Sorry,” Shinsou managed.  “It’s nothing.  I just — ” \n\nAizawa still looked startled by Shinsou’s sudden change in demeanor.  “You don’t have to apologize,” he said softly.  “You just — look upset.  And I — ”\n\n“Will you be okay?” Shinsou whispered, unable to help himself.  He turned, finally looking up at his teacher.  “If we — if we do this — if we go through with it — will you be okay?”\n\nAizawa blinked, looking a little surprised at the question.  He swallowed and looked away, a strange emotion in the depths of his gaze.  “What do you mean — will  I be okay?” he finally asked after a long moment had passed.\n\nShinsou shook his head.  “All of this — the focus is always on me and if I’m comfortable and if I’m okay with things.  No one has really asked about you.  And — I,” Shinsou faltered, unsure of how to phrase his thoughts, “I just don’t want doing this to affect your life.”  \n\nAizawa frowned, a look Shinsou couldn’t quite discern darkened his expression before he smoothed it out again.  “Where is this coming from, Shinsou?”\n\nShinsou said quietly.  “I just — I just don’t want to force you or make you do something that makes you uncomfortable — ”\n\nAizawa frowned, clearly uncertain what prompted the conversation.  “Shinsou,” he said slowly, his brow knit, “you’re not forcing me — ”\n\n“Fine,” Shinsou huffed, already tired of circling around the issue.  He had no idea how to bring up that proceeding with the physical component would cause a rift in Aizawa’s relationship with Emi.  He had no idea how to ask Aizawa about his sexual preferences and if sleeping with Shinsou was going to cause some sort of mental breakdown.  And he had absolutely no idea how to voice the grief and betrayal at suddenly discovering that the man that Shinsou had known for years and who had slowly grown to encapsulate Shinsou’s affections didn’t return them at all.  “You said we should be honest with each other, right?”\n\n“Yes.”\n\n“Then — then I want to know if — doing this — if it’s going to mess you up.”\n\nAizawa blinked.  “Mess me up?” he repeated.\n\nShinsou let out a slow breath.  “I mean — if doing this is going to — have a negative affect on your mental health.”\n\nAizawa stared at Shinsou.  He seemed to know that Shinsou wasn’t exactly saying what he meant but at the same time, Aizawa didn’t seem to quite understand what Shinsou was trying to uncover.  Aizawa folded his hands in his lap.  “Whatever you’re worried about,” he said finally.  “Don’t be.  You don’t need to worry about me.  I’ll be fine.”\n\nShinsou nodded, swallowing thickly as he tried to ignore the sinking feeling in his chest.    Aizawa really was doing all of this to help Shinsou, even at the expense of Aizawa’s own mental well being.  Aizawa’s kindness and willingness to engage in the physical component had nothing to do with some love for Shinsou.  It was about his guilt.  And his willingness to throw his life away on the chance it would help a student.  That was all.\n\n“Would you tell me — if you weren’t?”\n\n“Shinsou,” Aizawa said softly.  “What’s going on?  What brought this up all of a sudden?”\n\nShinsou lifted his chin, trying to keep his expression calm even though his heart was beating wildly in his chest and he wanted nothing more than to cry at what felt like a loss.  But he knew that was foolish — he never had Aizawa in the first place.  \n\n“I was just thinking,” Shinsou said, keeping his voice steady, “about how I want you to know that I feel guilty for making you do this.  And I feel like you’re resisting doing — any of this — because you don’t want to.  And that you’re only doing this out of guilt over what happened.”\n\nAizawa blinked.  “Shinsou — Shinsou, I’m not  resisting,” he said, his typically flat voice coloring with an emotion Shinsou couldn’t place.  “I’m just trying to be cognizant of your feelings and of what you’ve been through.  I have to take that into consideration.  Not to mention — ”\n\n“I know,” Shinsou cut him off.  “We’ve been through this a thousand times before.  I don’t need to hear it again about how you need to be careful because you’re my teacher and because I’ve been traumatized and how this is horribly illegal.   I know.  We’ve been over it.”\n\nAizawa pressed his lips into a thin line.  “I’m sorry,” he said softly, his voice so carefully delicate that Shinsou wanted to scream.  “I know this isn’t — ”\n\nShinsou groaned loudly, cutting Aizawa off.  “Will you just  stop  that?” he snarled in annoyance, Aizawa’s endless stream of apologies filling his head with a mocking echo.\n\nAizawa faltered and looked up, his brow furrowed in confusion, his eyes dazed with worry, as if he thought that Shinsou was somehow once again offended by whatever he had said or done or not said or any of the other litany of reasons why.\n\nShinsou shook his head.  “Just — stop saying that you’re sorry that I have to do this.  Stop making it sound like sleeping with you is torture.”\n\n“Shinsou,” Aizawa said carefully, “you  were  tortured by being forced to sleep with me — ”\n\n“No, I wasn’t!”  Shinsou closed his eyes.  He couldn’t even be grateful that Aizawa at least wasn’t calling it rape this time.  “Don’t you get it?  Having sex with you wasn’t the torture!”\n\nAizawa stared at him suddenly confused.\n\n“It was having sex with you and knowing that you didn’t have a say in it,” Shinsou hissed miserably.  “And now — when you act like this — it’s like it’s happening all over again.  But instead of Silvertongue forcing you, you’re forcing yourself.”  Shinsou stared at Aizawa angrily.  “Do you really think that’s what I want?  Have you  ever even stopped to ask me what it is that I want?”  \n\nAizawa stared at him.  “Shinsou — ” he murmured quietly, utterly at a loss.\n\n“No,” Shinsou pushed past the wretched look on Aizawa’s face.  “You were too busy assuming that even being near you was torture for me.  And instead, you’ve just been making it worse by apologizing over and over again.  Like being close to you is so unbearable.  Like you being close to me is some sort of — abomination.  Like I — ” He stopped short, his voice caught in his throat.  \n\n“Shinsou,” Aizawa said carefully.  “I don’t mean to overwhelm you with apologies.  I just — I don’t know what else to say.  And I don’t want to make things worse.”\n\nShinsou snorted.  “You don’t want to make things worse?” he asked roughly.  “Then how about you actually be honest with me for once.”\n\n“Honest about what?”\n\n“If you actually want to do this.”\n\n“If I — if I  want to have sex with a student whom I brutalized and attacked?” Aizawa repeated numbly.  He looked almost angry at the very thought.  “Of course I don’t want to do this!  Why would I ever — ” He froze, suddenly catching the expression on Shinsou’s face.  “Shinsou, no, that’s — that’s not what I meant — ”\n\nShinsou shrugged, trying to smooth his face into his typical expression of vague indifference, but the damage was already done.  “It’s alright,” he said casually as if he weren’t actually hurt by his teacher sounding absolutely repulsed by the notion of being intimate with him.   Of course the thought of having sex with Shinsou repulsed Aizawa.  He should have known that all along and he was a fool for only just now figuring it out.  “I don’t blame you.”\n\n“Shinsou,  no.”    Aizawa looked flustered and upset, his voice low and hoarse as he rushed to get the words out.  “I — what I was trying to say is that I don’t want to do this because I just don’t want to make things worse.  I’m not — good at these sorts of things.  And I — I couldn’t bear it if you somehow ended up in a worse state because of what I did.  I — I just don’t want to make everything worse.” \n\nShinsou shrugged, still staring off at a spot on the wall and trying not to lash out any more than he already had.  Everything about having to sleep with Shinsou probably made Aizawa want to recoil in disgust and yet, Aizawa was pushing through his revulsion for Shinsou’s sake.  And Shinsou didn’t want Aizawa to do that.\n\nShinsou looked up at Aizawa.  “I don’t think any of this could get worse,” he admitted softly.  “For me, at least.  That’s why I thought I could do this.  But — when I realized how much it’s going to mess you up — it’s not worth it to me if it does.”\n\nThe entire reason he had lied and kept quiet about the truth of what happened to Silvertongue was to protect Aizawa and to spare him from the trauma of knowing what happened.  And now that Shinsou realized that Aizawa being forced to sleep with Shinsou wasn’t just uncomfortable from a moral standpoint for Aizawa — but that it would also be a traumatic violation of Aizawa’s preferences — Shinsou suddenly realized that having Aizawa go through with the physical component was simply no longer a viable option.  Just as Aizawa cared about Shinsou so much that he was willing to go through with the physical component for Shinsou’s sake, so too was Shinsou willing to  not go through with the physical component, if it meant sparing Aizawa further suffering.\n\n“Shinsou,” Aizawa protested softly, “I know it’s not ideal.  And I can’t say it won’t have an affect on me, but — but I can do this.  You don’t need to take my feelings into consideration about this, alright?” \n\nShinsou suddenly felt like he wanted to throw up.  Aizawa once again was trying to push his own needs and feelings aside for Shinsou’s sake.  And Shinsou  refused to be the cause of more trauma for Aizawa.  “No,” Shinsou muttered, pushing himself to his feet abruptly.  “Just — forget it.” \n\nAizawa stood up as well, looking startled.  “Shinsou!” he said weakly.\n\n“No,” Shinsou said again, pulling his bag over his shoulder angrily as he headed towards the door.  “I told you that I wasn’t going to do this if this hurt you and  clearly  this is going to hurt you.  So it’s not worth it to me.”\n\n“Shinsou, this is not going to hurt me,” Aizawa said firmly.\n\nShinsou stared at Aizawa, wishing he could believe him.  But he knew it was a lie.  \n\nShinsou turned away and grabbed his shoes from the  genkan. \n\n“Shinsou, wait!”\n\n“No,” Shinsou said sharply as he jammed his feet into his shoes.  “This is my choice, sensei.  It’s my life.  And if doing the physical component is going to fuck you up, then we’re not going to do it.  So we’re done.”\n\n“Shinsou, I said I’d be fine — ”\n\n“Stop lying to me!” Shinsou snapped.  He wanted to lash out and yell about the text messages and tell Aizawa he knew he was dating someone.  He wanted to remind Aizawa that he made a commitment to his partner and to Eri.  That Aizawa had to stop throwing his life away only because he felt guilty over what he did to Shinsou.\n\nAizawa looked dazed at Shinsou’s sudden turnabout.  “I don’t understand — what — ”\n\nShinsou wished there was a way for him to vocalize how hurt he was over the fact that he never had a chance with Aizawa in the first place.  That for all his pining and hoping that their relationship would continue to develop and grow into something more, that it was all futile.  It wasn’t Aizawa’s fault that he would never love Shinsou the way Shinsou wanted him to.  \n\nAizawa opened his mouth, his eyes wide, but he seemed unable to speak.  He looked lost and confused and even a little hurt, but Shinsou didn’t care.  Aizawa had lied to him and Shinsou was done letting Aizawa’s guilt control both of their lives.\n\n“I’m not going to do this if it hurts you,” Shinsou said firmly, well aware that refusing to proceed with the physical component would likely result in him failing to get his hero license back.  He knew that he was making a decision that would most likely result in him not being able to become a hero.  But how could he ever be a hero if he used, sacrificed, and then discarded all of the people who had helped him along the way?  A true hero wouldn’t do that.\n\nAnd with or without his license, Shinsou at the very least knew how to act like a hero.  And he knew that destroying Aizawa’s life just to help himself was not heroic in the slightest.\n\n“I’m sorry, sensei,” Shinsou said, his voice softening.  “I’m sorry for all the time you spent training me and for all the grief that I’ve brought you, but — I can’t go through with the physical component.  I won’t do it.”  \n\n“Shinsou!” Aizawa exclaimed quietly.  “If we don’t do the physical component, then most likely you won’t — ”\n\n“I know,” Shinsou said softly, trying to ignore the tears stinging in his eyes.  He knew he was doing the right thing by turning Aizawa away, even if it meant Shinsou losing a chance at getting his license back and becoming a hero.\n\n“Shinsou, I know that this is hard,” Aizawa tried again.  “I know that you don’t want to do this, but — Shinsou, being a hero is your dream.  You can’t give up on that.”\n\nShinsou swallowed thickly.  “I’m not,” he said quietly.  “We can — we can still try the emotional component.  There’s still a chance that it might work.”\n\n“Shinsou — ” Aizawa said again, his voice soft and confused and hurt.\n\n“Good night, sensei,” Shinsou said stiffly.\n\nShinsou didn’t turn around at Aizawa calling his name.  \n\nHe didn’t stop, he didn’t try to pretend to listen or like he wanted to hear Aizawa’s excuses or his pleas.  Shinsou knew he needed to leave, he needed to not be swayed by Aizawa’s arguments, he needed to let Aizawa go so he didn’t ruin his life all over again.\n\nShinsou left the apartment and headed back to the dorms, trying to blink past his tears.\n\n "}
+{"text": "When Buggy first laid eyes on Crocodile, he was in shock. Part of it was fear, but another part of him was addled by the fact that the ex-Warlord was the perfect example of all of Buggy’s deep—rooted fantasies brought to life, wrapped up in a sophisticated and handsome package. Style, luxury, power. The man encapsulated everything Buggy found desirable.\n\nThis did not go unnoticed by Galdino, who warned Buggy not to make things even more awkward between him and his old boss.\n\n“Is it the heavy make—up he’s not into?” Buggy asked.\n\n“No, he hates worthless people.”\n\nWell, damn. There’s nothing Buggy can do about that.\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\nThe first real moment of self—discovery comes after Buggy finds an unopened crate stocked full of jewelry meant for some kind of high—end deal, just by sheer luck.\n\nThat night, to celebrate his personal victory, he put on all the wearable treasures and jewelry and lied around like a king. Drinking a little booze and coasting on this high.\n\nHe felt up the gems, the precious metals, and one thing led to another, and before he knew it, in a fit of ecstasy, he was lying breathless on his bed after the best jacking off session he’s had since he was a hormonal teenager.\n\nThen it happens again and again. It becomes a regular nightly activity for him to strip down and put on all his finest treasures, rubbing it all over himself and getting off on it.\n\nHe knew he was a greedy, treasure loving pirate, but even he didn’t expect he’d be this depraved about it.\n\nHe decides no one can ever know about this. His pride and reputation couldn’t allow for such a thing. He’s a fearsome pirate, not an insatiable degenerate.\n\nAt the very least, it’s a secret that’ll die between him and the ocean.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\nNow that he’s in the New World, Buggy has found himself running into Shanks more often. \n\nThey have an…understanding between them. The seas are a lonely place. Shanks is very obvious about what he wants, and Buggy has opened up to the idea despite his denial at first.\n\nFor the time being though, they agreed to hold off on making anything of it. To not label what they were to each other. Commitments can make or break a person, and Buggy doesn’t trust himself not to throw Shanks under the bus if things get hard.\n\nBesides personal business, Buggy Pirates have a regular business arrangement with the Red—Hair Pirates. They have trading sessions every so often, where they bring out their wares and let others make bids and offers. It reminds him of the old days with Whitebeard and Roger when they did the same.\n\nCurrently, Buggy is evaluating a crate of goods he’s negotiating over with the Red—Hair Pirates, carefully assessing its value. He’s always been enthralled by the glitter and gleam of shiny, expensive things. Now, more recently, it reminds him of his secret activities, and he has to suppress any subliminal reactions. His attention is stolen when Benn Beckman calls his name.\n\n“You gave me some good information on the last island, so here.” Beckman holds out to him a piece of gold jewelry decorated in fine diamonds.\n\nBuggy is practically salivating at the outset. Though he’s quick to tamp it down, trying to play it cool.\n\nHe inspects the item up close like he’s determining its value. It has a complicated clasp on the back.\n\nBuggy attempts to place it around his neck, but it squeezes his windpipe with how tight it is.\n\nBeckman observes his antics with amusement. “It’s a bracelet. Here.”\n\nBeckman shows Buggy how to work the clasp as he wraps it around Buggy’s wrist. The familiar, weighted feeling of the gold has him heating up as memories of his recent activities flood in. It’s mixed up with conflicted feelings at Beckman being nice to him for a change. (Usually the first mate is a condescending know—it—all who never fails to act like he knows Buggy is inferior).\n\nThe way Beckman holds his wrist is attentive and precise. Buggy’s face flushes against his will.\n\nThen Beckman adjusts the size so it squeezes comfortably around his wrist.\n\nHe can’t hold back — he’s wracked by a full-body shiver, a tiny moan escapes his mouth.\n\nBeckman freezes, which makes Buggy freeze in turn. Suddenly, any other feelings have been flushed out by dread.\n\nBeckman doesn’t immediately jerk away, but he removes his hands in a very telegraphed manner.\n\nBuggy flounders to save himself, “Wait! It’s not like that —“\n\n“I’m flattered, but that isn’t territory I want to cross into.”\n\nBuggy gets defensive in that learned, reflexive way he does. “Don’t flatter yourself! I’m not into — whatever it is you’re about!”\n\nBeckman goes off to somewhere on the opposite side of the cargo area. Brushing him off like the condescending prick he is.\n\nIn his paranoia, Buggy swivels his head around to see if anyone else noticed his slip—up.\n\nMost people are too engrossed in their own activities or secretly slacking off to carefully observe Buggy and Beckman’s interaction. The person he’s most worried about though —\n\nHis eyes finally land on Shanks across the cargo area on the far side of the center pile of merchandise. His body is half—turned away, not giving any indication he noticed something was up, staring intently at a crate of fruit.\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\nBuggy works hard to block the memory of his slip—up with the Red—Hair Pirates’ first mate out of his mind. So the next time, when Shanks brings him a small box of jewelry, it comes off as such a sudden gesture it makes Buggy far too confused and suspicious to contemplate the motivation behind it.\n\n“Thanks for that,” Buggy replies distractedly, unable to settle on anything else.\n\nShanks scrunches his brow, looking disappointed for some reason.\n\nHe lifts a silver chain with a dazzling pendant out of the box.\n\n“I’ll help put it on you,” Shanks says.\n\n“I don’t need help from a guy who can’t even put one on himself,” Buggy retorts.\n\nShanks fingers the chain of the necklace in his hand. “I’d like to give this to you, but I need to see how it looks first…”\n\nBuggy snatches the necklace out of Shanks’ hand and detaches his head from his neck to put it on (he’s learned at this point not to allow anyone to put jewelry on him). Buggy turns away from Shanks and says, childishly, “You see that? You’re not getting it back now.”\n\nThe touch of Shanks’ rough fingers alight on his neck as they hook underneath the chain, running down the length to the pendant at the center.\n\n“It really suits you,” says Shanks.\n\nBuggy, full of suspicion, looks up and meets his eyes.\n\nShanks glances down at the necklace framing Buggy’s neck, then raises his eyes back up, looking straight back at him with a daring gaze.\n\nA little itch starts in the back of his mind, and he’s certain that Shanks  knows.\n\n Observation Haki can’t read minds!  He reminds himself, trying not to panic.  He’s trying to trick you into saying something damning! \n\nBuggy hurriedly takes off the necklace and stuffs it back in the box. “This isn’t a gift exchange, so don’t expect me to get you anything back.” He stuffs the box of jewels under his armpit and flies for safety to avoid any further scrutiny.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n \n\nBuggy has done a good job of avoiding any further complications for the past few weeks, especially avoiding any accidental overlap between the Red—Pirates and his proclivity for getting a hard—on for treasure. Those are two things that need to be kept separate until Buggy is certain he won’t find himself in a situation of some kind. He doesn’t need to start collecting them all by adding Yasopp to the list of men who think he’s a pervert because he can’t contain himself over a little treasure. \n\nThen he thinks: who cares what Shanks thinks? Certainly not him. But he’s suddenly stricken with another thought like, what if Shanks thinks he can make fun of Buggy for his treasure loving kink?  What if he’s making fun of Buggy right now?\n\nShould he be worried that Shanks might be turned off by it? That he’ll think less of him for it? Even though they haven’t actually promised to be anything to each other…\n\nBuggy knows that he means  something  to Shanks. Except neither of them are in positions where they can have a standard commitment. So they are both aware of a shared underlying desire, but nothing has been agreed upon in the open. It’s an unspoken agreement on both their parts to not act rashly or try to give up their current lives for a typical relationship. They aren’t like other people.\n\nExcept, Shanks has made attempts to make something more of it. He keeps trying to bring those underlying feelings to the surface, making it obvious, and showing more overt affection. He keeps trying to speak his feelings into existence in whatever small way he can.\n\nBuggy suspects that Shanks is an inherently lonely person at his core, and for all his outward friendliness, there are a lot of things about himself he can’t explain to people. He’s bottled up a lot of personal things and developed incomprehensible layers over the years. Growing up, he probably made himself think he needed to have certain things in his life to have a fulfilling future, and now he’s starting to unravel his old influences and find new ways to live with himself. Buggy knows this because he is the same.\n\nSo with all those clumsy feelings being unearthed, Shanks has latched onto the shared thread he has with Buggy like a deprived, lovelorn animal.\n\nBuggy is kind of a cruel bastard for refusing to let Shanks open up and air out this thing between them. He’s still trying to reconcile the kid he knew with the adult man he’s become in the last two decades.\n\nThe way Shanks looks at him is a mixture of longing and heartbreak, the face of a buried man who's looking to the surface. \n\nWhatever it is that Shanks needs from him, it’s a lot of pressure.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIt’s a while before Shanks makes another one of his attempts to keep in touch with Buggy.\n\nIt’s strange not to see Shanks around at all whenever Buggy is aboard the Red Force. Buggy usually never has to go looking for him.\n\nBuggy walks into the room he knows is Shanks’ quarters and immediately halts after one step inside.\n\nStanding in the middle of the room is Shanks, dressed up in a layered dark suit, made up of a white dress shirt without a tie, a black suit jacket, and a black cloak similar to his usual one draped over his shoulders, except this one is lined with delicate gold embroidery and has a brooch with a gold chain pinned to his chest. The left sleeve is hanging empty by his side, everything put together neatly.\n\nBuggy feels like he’s walked into a stranger’s room.\n\nShanks spreads his arm out and flashes a stunning grin. “How do I look?”\n\n“Like you’ve finally cracked. What’s all this for?”\n\nShanks fiddles with the front of his cloak, and Buggy notices the heavy stones on the rings adorning his fingers — hello there. “It’s about anything expensive, right? That’s what you’re into.”\n\nBuggy lets out a sound like a dying croak. He refuses to let himself lose face though.\n\n“So what? Are you trying to mock me?”\n\n“Actually, I thought we could try it together.”\n\nBuggy’s mind stutters like a stalled engine.\n\nHis mouth clicks repeatedly as he tries to get the right words out. “You want to — what, watch me surround myself in expensive stuff and rub off on it?”\n\nShanks nods, entirely genuine. “Except we’d do it together.”\n\nBuggy wants to laugh hysterically.\n\nShanks is being an idiot, as usual. He thinks he can just waltz into Buggy’s private, intimate space and blow through all pretenses and guarded fronts, somehow trying to make it work through a positive attitude and sheer determination. What is this, a company team bonding workshop?\n\nBuggy gives Shanks a critical onceover. It’s not such a bad result, considering Shanks’ usual fare, though it is a bit monotone for his tastes. The gold is a nice touch. The biggest change here is that Shanks looks freshly laundered for once.\n\n“How did you find out about the suit?” Buggy asks, knowing he never made any hints about it.\n\n“Galdino told me how you were with Crocodile.”\n\nFucking snitch. He supposes it was Galdino’s revenge for Buggy acting stupid in front of his former boss.\n\nNow Crocodile — that was a man who knew how to dress. A man who found the time to look impeccable even during a prison breakout.\n\nIt’s clear from his body language that Shanks isn't used to wearing stiff formal wear. His posture is awful and he keeps fiddling with himself, clearly he does not know how to handle finely tailored clothing.\n\nThen again, there’s the appeal when someone who always wears loose, casual clothes changes into something fitted and proper; it gives them a completely different image.\n\nBuggy moves forward and reaches for the lapels of Shanks’ cloak, which is what he instinctively does whenever he wants to start a confrontation, but then he’s distracted by how soft the material is between his fingers and starts rubbing it with an inspecting touch.\n\n“Is this velvet?”\n\n“I’m not sure, I just got it from Beck,” says Shanks cluelessly. “I didn’t even have to say anything for him to know what it was for. So, Beck knows you have a luxury kink.”\n\n“Of course your first mate fucking knows. You guys probably swap all the hot gossip on your weekly sleepovers.”\n\nIt’s obvious Shanks couldn’t have put on such an intricate outfit by himself, he had to have outside help. The first mate always had a suspicion since the last incident, maybe it won’t be so damning.\n\nBuggy is pulled out of his thoughts when Shanks lifts his hand to slide ringed fingers along Buggy’s jaw.\n\nHe sweeps his thumb over Buggy’s painted lips (smear—proof) and pries his mouth open. Pulling down his bottom lip, he runs his thumb over the inside; Buggy tastes the crisp metal of the ring.\n\nShanks observes him and says, “Promise me you won’t fall for just anyone who puts expensive jewelry on you.”\n\n“Of course I won’t just — wait, are you talking about the time with your first mate? That doesn’t count. He was — I don’t know, it was a different kind of vibe, I can’t explain it…”\n\nShanks leans in to seal his mouth over Buggy’s, earning an indignant  ‘mmph!’.\n\nHe licks into Buggy’s mouth and delves in like he’s going for his tonsils. His hand grazes down Buggy’s throat, the solidity of the rings lighting a fire underneath the skin.\n\nBuggy slides his hands down Shanks’ torso, getting really into the feeling of expensive fabric draped over that hard body. It’s such an unfamiliar feeling, it’s kind of enthralling.\n\nShanks slides his hand until he’s gripping the back of Buggy’s neck, tight enough that the metal digs into soft flesh and squeezes down on the muscles. It forces an embarrassingly high—pitched whimper out of Buggy.\n\nShanks pulls back, eyes a little wide, as if he wasn’t expecting Buggy to be so weak for it.\n\n“It’s the velvet, alright? Get that fucking look off your face and get back here.” Buggy pulls Shanks back in. \n\nTheir mouths back on each other, Shanks undoes Buggy’s hair to let it fall freely over his back. He runs his fingers down his long strands, caresses down the length of his spine and presses into his lower back.\n\nBuggy reaches out to remove Shanks’ clothes, but Shanks guides his hands away.\n\n“We’ll get to that later. I want you to show me what you like,” Shanks says it so earnestly that Buggy can’t find it in him to refuse.\n\nShanks shows him the chest of treasures he obtained for the occasion (“Oh, now you’re just showing off.”). He didn’t know what Buggy would like so he brought along a random collection of treasures without much thought in their fashion.\n\nBuggy chooses the pieces he likes. The knowledge of Shanks’ presence in the room is a constant pressure in his mind, and it makes him inept and irritable, he can’t do it like he normally does when he’s alone.\n\nHe’s mentally cursing Shanks for sticking his nose into his private business. He decides, then, he’s not going to make this easy for Shanks. He deliberately chooses the most delicate, fragile pieces to dress himself in. If Shanks damages a single piece or bends it even slightly out of place, Buggy is going to use that as an excuse to end their little session right there and then. That way, Shanks won’t be able to touch him too much, and they’ll get through this fast and without fuss.\n\nBuggy ends up stripped of his clothes and sitting on the edge of the bed; he’s put on an intricate diamond and jade choker, a sapphire pendant, a whole bunch of gold armlets and bracelets and anklets, delicate beads and pearls wrapping him wherever he can place them, and a body chain made of crystals that loops multiple times around his torso with another complicated chain that drapes over his hips and thighs.\n\nShanks takes in his finished appearance and says, “That's it?”\n\n“This is fine,” Buggy grunts. He just wants to get this over with, and spare himself from too much embarrassment. “You better not be careless with any of this. It’s worth a lot, and I don’t like messing it up.”\n\nShanks’ hand grazes lightly down Buggy’s collarbone and chest. “Don’t mess up the treasures. Got it.”\n\nShanks takes a moment as if he’s thinking of something, then digs out a red—and—gold leather belt he suggests Buggy should wear. It’s solid, snug, the kind of flashy and stylish piece he’d wear on a regular basis. Buggy allows it because it has a shiny ruby embedded in the buckle.\n\nAfter he’s done with that last addition, Shanks says, “Okay, lie back down and get comfortable.”\n\nBuggy does it with some grumbling, shuffling back to rest his head on the pillows. In his head, thoughts run through like a stream:  stupid Shanks, whatever, I’ll just jerk off and that’ll be it, then we can go to sleep and tomorrow we’ll never talk about it again. \n\nHe’s in the middle of an internal tirade when Shanks wraps his hand around his cock. Buggy’s mind grinds to a screeching halt.\n\nThe rings slide against sensitive flesh as Shanks strokes up and down Buggy’s cock.\n\nIt’s — different, having it be someone else, having it be  Shanks, who is indulging Buggy’s dirty secret and working to get him off on it.\n\nWhile his hand keeps up the motions, Shanks leans over Buggy’s body to press his lips to the other decorated parts of him. His neck, his upper arms, his navel. Buggy spreads his legs a little more, getting comfortable, trying to relax his body and enjoy the sensation as if it were his own hand.\n\nShanks’ touch is deft, steady, not too chafing. It’s like he’s been practicing on his own. \n\nBuggy’s body gradually starts to heat up. The jewelry is a cool relief on his skin. At this rate, he’ll have no problem finding a quick release.\n\nThen Shanks pulls his hand away and — something thin and cold is on his dick.\n\nHe looks down. A delicate gold chain is wrapped around the base and the tip of his dick, connected by another length of chain.\n\n“What the —“\n\n\n Where the hell did he get that? \n\n\n“This stays on as decoration.” Shanks has on a devious grin. “I’m only going to use this anyway.” His fingers slide down past his balls to circle his hole, a slight caress. He plunges one finger in halfway, right up until the first ring catches on his rim, and it’s enough to make Buggy dig his feet into the mattress.\n\nThe shape of the ring bumps up against his walls, and Buggy feels every slide of the cool metal against his heated insides.\n\nBuggy reaches out to grab at Shanks’ shoulders and — fuck, that velvet is really soft to the touch.\n\nOnce he has to start really opening Buggy up instead of teasing, Shanks takes the rings off by pulling them off with his mouth.\n\nHis fingers slicked up with lube make wet noises as he pumps them in and out of Buggy’s passage. Lube drips out with the continuous motions, and Buggy has to spread his feet further apart to make sure it doesn’t get on his precious treasure. The jewelled accessories are like weighted shackles keeping him immobile, forcing him to use concentrated mental energy to keep them pristine.\n\nBuggy’s effort doesn’t escape Shanks’ notice. Once he gets in three fingers, Shanks is deliberately making it as messy as possible. A small puddle is forming underneath him and Buggy has to lift his ass above the wet sheets so it doesn’t seep to his hip chain. His body trembles from the strain of holding himself up, cock bobbing hard against his abdomen. Shanks has an insufferable, appreciative look on his face. \n\n“Fuck — are you serving soup down there or are you going to get on with it already —“ \n\n“I will, but —” Shanks twists his fingers to make Buggy writhe more, “You should see how sensitive you are.”\n\n“I didn’t ask for the shitty commentary —“\n\nIn one smooth motion, Shanks’ head dips down and his mouth sinks down on Buggy’s dick, gold chain and all.\n\nBuggy can’t contain a shout, hips flying upwards. Shanks doesn’t stop the movement of his fingers.\n\nThe mouth on him is slow and careful, but the fingers moving in him are flying in and out like they’re intent on abusing his pleasure spot. Buggy feels more aware of every piece of accessory on his body right now and it drives him quicker to the height of arousal, the brush of the finer chains and crystals on his torso and hips, his limbs weighed down by bands, and especially the feel of Shanks’ mouth moving up and down his shaft, the chain being squeezed in that tight space and every shift and glide of it rubbing over his cock.\n\nA tongue sweeps over his slit. He can’t hold back any longer. Buggy thrusts into the hollow of Shanks mouth and comes.\n\nShanks slips his mouth off and swallows the liquid down, a small trail dribbling down his chin. Buggy breathes heavily while Shanks rakes his eyes up and down his flushed body.\n\n“Do you like being wrapped up like this?”\n\n“Ain’t it obvious now?” Buggy grumbles.\n\nShanks leans over Buggy to kiss him as if he’s trying to ease Buggy’s embarrassment, smoothing out the wrinkles on his face by running his lips over every strained point.\n\n“You look like something to be kept in a safe. I’ll have to take you as my treasure,” Shanks grins into Buggy’s shoulder, “I’d keep you all dressed up in gold and jewels. You’d lie pretty in my bed, and every night I’d have you open yourself up for me.”\n\n“I know —“ Buggy clenches his jaw “— you’re fucking broke.”\n\nShanks just keeps on going, and he sounds so genuinely enticed, “I’d rip off all the treasures on your body, fuck you bare, and replace them so I can do it all over again.”\n\n“This is starting to sound like  your fantasy kink.”\n\nAs Buggy watches Shanks unzip his pants and free his stiff cock, he’s keenly aware of an itch starting beneath his skin.\n\nBuggy’s movements are practiced as he grabs the lube, coats it on his hands, and slicks up Shanks’ length. Shanks jerks into his grip, growing harder in his hands.\n\nAt this point, Buggy realizes getting fucked while wearing a bunch of delicate jewels might be a little uncomfortable. He already feels like he’s being caged in by restraints, now he has to keep himself spread open and vulnerable on that thick rod while Shanks takes his pleasure and drives Buggy to the edge again. Forget Shanks being careful, Buggy is going to have to be careful not to lose his mind.\n\nShanks’ is already urging him onto his hands and knees, and Buggy kind of forgets what he was thinking about.\n\nThe press of a blunt tip against his backside still makes him suck in a sharp breath. There’s a slight resistance at first, but Shanks pushes past it, forcing past the first ring of pressure.\n\nShanks eases himself in. He stops midway to let them both adjust. But Buggy is prepared enough, and he’s no amateur at this, so it doesn’t take much time until he’s completely full and feeling the whole heat of him.\n\n“Buggy,” Shanks sighs, sounding way too sappy about it.\n\nShanks presses in until their thighs are touching, then starts fucking in and out, his thrusts short and hurried.\n\nBuggy almost forgets about the finery on his body. It’s hard to think about that when you’re trying to arch your back to make sure your insides are hit just right.\n\nHis brain is turning into mush, just remembering how he’s being fucked while glammed up in fine metals and crystals. He wonders how it looks to Shanks.\n\nAll he knows are the sounds of Shanks’ ragged breaths, and the occasional murmur of some sweet nonsense.\n\nIt’s hard to hold his position when his hands and knees keep sliding up the sheets. And Shanks can’t get a good grip on his hips in fear of accidentally snapping the crystal chain with his eager strength.\n\nBuggy keeps adjusting the position of his arms and legs, trying to push back, put more force behind each thrust.\n\nNext thing he knows, Shanks pulls him up by the belt around his hips, lifting his ass up with it as he drives into him with less restraint.\n\nBuggy feels himself burn with half—embarrassment and half—arousal. Which just means he can’t help but tighten around Shanks’ plundering cock. The squelch of his asshole reaches his ears, the increased tension in his body adding to the sloppy sounds, and the friction is intense to the point that it makes Shanks groan. Shanks lifts Buggy’s hips up by the belt, higher and higher, until Buggy’s knees are actually lifted slightly off of the bed.\n\nThe angle touches on new spots — and Buggy can’t even rock back to chase that pleasure. All he can do is jolt his whole body whenever Shanks sporadically brushes against a certain spot. Then all his impatience runs up to his mouth, “Shanks, let me —“\n\nShanks rolls his hips while tugging the belt back; he presses as deep as he can go and stills, his length throbbing right against his prostate. It’s enough to make Buggy’s tongue fumble in his own mouth.\n\n“You’re clenching around me so hard,” Shanks’ voice strains above him, “I could probably come just from staying like this.”\n\n“That’s because you’re —“\n\n“Is it the belt?”\n\nJust a single leather belt couldn’t do this to him. It’s the single-minded way Shanks is focused on using this pressure point of Buggy’s to maximize his pleasure. It’s not the kind of care and attention he’s used to.\n\n“Aren’t you going to finish already?” Buggy grunts out, because in any situation he will find a way to complain.\n\nShanks lowers Buggy to the bed again and skims his hand down his decorated body, lightly enough he doesn’t disturb the arrangements.\n\n“I can’t wreck the outside, so I’m gonna wreck your insides. You feel it? I’m hitting in deep, touching every part of you.”\n\nHe realizes Shanks is really intent on making this good for him. It gives him some kind of awful chest pain he doesn’t want to look into.\n\nShanks gets a tight hold on the belt. He swivels his hips, rocking back and forth like he’s trying to punch into the deepest part of him, stirring up his insides. Shanks’ breath picks up quickly.\n\nBuggy alternates between being utterly vocal and having the air knocked out of his lungs like he’s been doused in seawater; it’s like he’s burning from the inside. Buggy can feel the velvet of Shanks’ clothed thighs rubbing up against his behind repeatedly and it only serves to rattle his mind even more.\n\nWhen Shanks finally spills inside, he lets out a shaky groan.\n\nMeanwhile Buggy’s dick is now back to hardness. But he’s spent enough that he’s willing to ignore it in favor of catching his breath.\n\nShanks gives him a few moments before he gets them going again. “I was thinking —“ Shanks pulls out to sit himself back against the backboard, pulling Buggy onto his lap — “this way, you can feel me against you.”\n\nWith how Shanks looks like he’s having fun, you’d think he was the one getting his kinks fulfilled while Buggy was being the reluctant but indulgent one.\n\nBuggy tries to position his body over his lap, but then he becomes aware of Shanks’ release dripping out of him.\n\nShanks gently covers Buggy’s used hole with his fingers. “Don’t wanna stain these nice clothes. Hold it in.”\n\nThe cheeky smile on Shanks’ face is annoying. But Buggy is also winded up enough from all the stimulation that his mind tips over to resignation and he keeps his body still and poised, hovering just over his lap.\n\nIn this position, Buggy has the chance to allow his eyes to rove over the suit on Shanks’ body. He gives into the urge to run his hands down the smooth material, breathing heavily. “Never in my life have I seen you dressed up like this. How is it? You don’t feel the way I feel about it?”\n\nShanks shrugs half-heartedly. “I don’t mind it, but it’s all for you anyways. It doesn’t really do much for me.”\n\nHe knows Shanks can’t stay comfortable in stuffy clothes, especially ones that are snug around his chest and neck area. Turtlenecks? Ties and scarves? He can’t wear them.\n\nBuggy can’t help but be bugged when he’s the only one being all vulnerable with his kinks exposed — the neurotic, control freak that he is. So he decides to level the playing field a little.\n\n“Unlike you, I’m not an  animal,” Buggy says, “I’m not going to ruin this, I know how to take my time.”\n\nBuggy loosens a few of the top buttons, then sucks a few marks onto Shanks’ neck and collarbone where he knows he’s aching to feel air.\n\nShanks’ breathing picks up. Buggy spends a few more minutes teasing him, fondling him through the fabric, biting at what little exposed skin there is.\n\nAfter he’s had enough of a taste, Buggy leans back while getting absorbed in feeling up the delicate lining of the suit. “Damn, this feels good. Do you think I could wear it and fuck you sometime?”\n\n“If — you want.” Shanks’ voice clicks a little. “But, well —“\n\nShanks’ voice trails off as Buggy bites and tongues at his neck muscles. Sliding a hand underneath the collar of Shanks’ white button-up, feeling around his chest in sensual motions.\n\n“You should be the one lying all prettied up,” says Buggy, “I should keep you as one of my treasures.”\n\nThe press of the velvet suit against his front has him delirious and hard, but he focuses on taking it piece by piece.\n\nFirst, Buggy unfastens the cloak, and drops it off the side of the bed. He undoes the jacket, unbuttons the shirt underneath, peeling them both off and leaving Shanks’ torso finally free from the weight of the clothes. Next, Buggy slides his hands over Shanks’ thighs, squeezing his inner thighs and making him squirm for a while, then he shimmies Shanks’ pants off of him, along with his underwear, and discards it with the rest before sitting back down on top of him.\n\nWhen Shanks starts reaching for him, Buggy smacks his hand away.\n\nBuggy looks down at him like he’s reminding him who’s in control. “Don’t want you to mess it up when I’m looking expensive.”\n\nShanks swallows, adam’s apple bobbing. “I’ll be careful.”\n\nBuggy has a moment to feel smug.\n\nHe enjoys the way Shanks’ pupils are blown, expression needy and entirely focused on Buggy sinking down onto his cock. Buggy eases himself down so as not to rattle the jewelry too much. \n\nShanks’ fingertips trace down exposed skin, around the pearls, the gleaming crystals, the sapphires and rubies. They graze over the planes of his abs, an idle but reverent touch.\n\nBuggy’s muscles have been straining for a while now. The delicate pieces on his body have got him tense and careful about how he holds himself so they don’t snap or get bent.\n\nBut fuck, it’s exactly what he needed. Shanks is aware of this. He knows Buggy is relishing in the tingling sensation and the cool slide of metal on his heated skin. He did all this just to see Buggy in this humiliating state. Buggy ignores the fact that Shanks’ gaze is adoring, and he treats Buggy like he’s a precious jewel himself — which coils something tight inside him.\n\nFaint drops of sweat are visible on Shanks’ skin, his hair sticking back to his scalp. Although it seems he’s straining on the edge, apparently the pace isn’t enough to get Shanks to release again yet. Shanks can be really fucking obstinate when he wants to be.\n\nSo Buggy tries to tease him by getting right into his face, brushing their open mouths together and making noises to get under his skin. Shanks just remains settled, accepting whatever kisses Buggy deigns to give him.\n\nIt’s Buggy who ends up squirming and losing his patience first. He knows he’s going to get tired before Shanks does. So he switches tactics.\n\nBuggy tries to go at it harder and intensify things, but Shanks keeps slowing him down with a hand on his hips. “Don’t want to ruin your pretty look in all these trinkets,” he says with a languid smile.\n\nSometimes Buggy hates how his past words and actions come back to bite him.\n\n“What do you suggest then?”\n\nShanks pulls Buggy’s hips down snug against his. He leans into Buggy’s ear and says, “I’m gonna sit inside you, and you’re gonna milk my cock like this, with just your walls clenching on me.”\n\nBuggy curses. But his body and horny-addled mind is feeling very obliging at the moment.\n\nBuggy wraps his arms around Shanks’ shoulders, rocking forwards slightly, his dick rutting against Shanks’ stomach.\n\nHe focuses on tightening and relaxing rhythmically. It’s frustrating and makes him even more pent—up. The situation and the slowed down pace makes him hyper—aware of the expensive treasures all over his overstimulated body, the sensations from every place they touch his skin dialed up to ten. He wants to rub them into his flesh until they fall apart, feeling the sudden urge to tear at them — but he can’t.\n\nInstead, Buggy gropes at every part of Shanks’ body he can reach. He runs his hands down Shanks’ back and fondles what he can reach of his backside, rubbing down the middle crevice like he’s trying to spread his cheeks apart.\n\nShanks is only going to let him come in the slowest, most torturable ways, all because of these damn treasures.\n\nLike this, it would take too long for Buggy to come.\n\n“It’s sweet seeing you work so hard for me,” says Shanks, nuzzling his face into Buggy’s hair. “It makes me happy.”\n\nBuggy’s entire face contorts like it does when Shanks says something that cuts straight to the heart, having to fight the swell of sentimentality infecting him. It sticks to his ribs like tar and Buggy has a severe allergy.\n\nHe keeps clenching down like he’s aiming towards the goal of orgasm, making it feel as good as possible for both of them. The way his walls try to mold around the cock sends tingles of pleasure all the way up to his pleasure spot.\n\nShanks rubs his jaw against Buggy’s neck, fingers brushing along his spine, murmuring, “You’re so hot and tight around me.”\n\nBuggy just lets out a long, drawn-out moan, too agitated to do anything else.\n\nEverything feels too sensitive, the precious metals and gems igniting his skin and edging him but  not being enough  is driving him nuts; he can't stand it anymore.\n\nShanks’ hand reaches between them to rub the gold chain into Buggy’s heated dick, making tiny swirls with his thumb and forefinger.\n\nBuggy realizes, horribly, the treasure isn’t enough for him anymore.\n\nHe finally has the sense to push himself off Shanks with a slick sound. This pace is going to drive him crazy. He needs to get this expensive stuff off of him  now.\n\nHe crawls off of Shanks’ lap, and he’s turned around on his hands and knees when Shanks places one hand on his hip to stay him, keeping him from getting further.\n\nBuggy, albeit confused and a little disgruntled, lets Shanks run a gentle palm over his sweaty body, because the desires in his brain is stronger than anything else right now. He’s expecting Shanks to just get in him and get his release already.\n\nThen he feels Shanks’ mouth press into his ass. He lets out a surprised curse just as he feels the broad flat of a tongue probing at his entrance.\n\nA thumb comes up to rub at the spot just above his balls while Shanks licks into him. Shanks is still careful not to disturb the placement of the accessories. He ignores all the jewels and finery and focuses on sticking his tongue into Buggy’s most intimate place. It’s filthy and revealing and it gets him off like he never could have imagined when he was alone.\n\nWithout even thinking about it, Buggy rocks back onto Shanks’ face. His insides lighting up like the entire place is a pleasure center. Shanks’ tongue swirls around the wetness of his hole, suctioning at his soft flesh open mouthed, uninhibited in the way he greedily and messily presses in. It’s like Shanks is so fucking single-minded on giving Buggy pleasure only through that place while avoiding everything else, it makes Buggy want to crawl out of his skin.\n\nA fist wraps around Buggy’s dick and pumps it - still wrapped in a delicate gold chain - slicking it up from top to bottom, rubbing the chain against his shaft as Shanks’ tongue keeps fucking in and out of him.\n\nHe decides he’s had enough.\n\n“Oh, god — fuck. Take it off already.”\n\nShanks pulls off to ask, “You sure?”\n\nBuggy is just so fed up. “I don’t care about the treasure anymore, goddammit — you’re the one who drives me crazy. Fuck, no one else does it for me.”\n\nBuggy finds himself quickly pulled up into a hard and solid embrace, before falling onto his back.\n\nShanks grins lasciviously at him from above. “I did that for you?”\n\nBuggy wants to roll his eyes whenever Shanks gets overly gleeful like this. “You better tear this stuff off me before I do it myself.”\n\nShanks is looking pleased and way too accomplished with himself. The bastard was waiting for this moment. It’s almost annoying enough to make Buggy take back his words out of spite. Almost, but not quite.\n\nShanks enters him again, thrusting in hard enough to make Buggy bounce along the rucked—up sheets.\n\nThey pull off the bracelets and armlets first, Buggy helping to slide them off in a hurried manner, practically tossing them off the bed, not even caring about the state of them while he forgets he could probably detach his body parts and let them fall off of him.\n\nShanks’ fingers rake down his sides, and Buggy feels the beads and finer pieces fly off from their delicate strings being snapped. Chains and strings break and scatter all over the bed. So all he can feel is Shanks’ sweaty skin on top of his.\n\nShanks takes off the belt off with a snap so it probably tears. It’s rough and clumsy, and Buggy lets out a whine in his throat, arching his back at its removal. He doesn’t even bother to be careful with the necklace or the choker. Shanks leans down to attack Buggy’s neck with his mouth and actually snaps the necklace off with his teeth. With every piece of jewelry gone, he replaces the loss of cool metal with his own heated touches and kisses.\n\nBuggy doesn’t know how it’s possible, but getting treasure ripped off of him feels even better than keeping it on.\n\nHis pale body is covered in marks and red blotches from the rough handling and Shanks littering love bites all over his chest and shoulders, leaving trails of saliva. \n\nShanks’ teeth latch onto the thick meat of Buggy’s neck, sucking marks that sting slightly, all the while he thrusts into him at a rapid pace. Buggy lifts his hips to help Shanks in deeper, fucking himself back on his cock, rocketing up and down like the brakes have been cut loose.\n\nThe sensations against his prostate shoot straight to his cock. It’s like a direct line to making his dick feel like it’ll explode with nerves.\n\nShanks takes notice of how loose and wanton Buggy’s expression becomes, gasping and whining at a higher pitch, deriving more and more pleasure each time he’s pounded into.\n\n“Buggy — your ass feels good, doesn’t it?”\n\nHe doesn’t know what Shanks did to him, but Buggy is hyper aware of every slide against his inner walls. Every stroke feels like a hot brand or an electric jolt down his spine.\n\nHe’s oversensitive from all the previous activity. He somehow suspects Shanks did it on purpose knowing what it would do to Buggy.\n\n“I can’t believe you did this to me,” Buggy forces out through a groan.\n\n“Did what?” Shanks looks at him openly.\n\nNow Shanks is playing dumb. Buggy will never forgive him for this.\n\n“It’s all your fault.”\n\n“Hm?”\n\n“You made me like this. Fuck — I’m turning all depraved because of you.” \n\n“It’s your body getting used to me,” Shanks’ tone is deeply gratified. “Feel how it massages me just right, so good for me...” He punctuates his words with another thrust.\n\nBuggy refuses to believe his body is somehow getting trained to accommodate Shanks’ desires.\n\nBut he can’t deny the fact he’s rocking his hips back into Shanks’, clamping down like he’s trying to pull him in every time he pulls out. His pride hates to admit it, but the reverse is just as true, Shanks knows how to please him to drive him to madness. \n\nIt’s not like there’s anyone but Shanks to hear.\n\n“Fuck yes, if that’s what you want. I’ll do it just the way you like it,  ah —“\n\nShanks pulls Buggy half onto his thighs, watching his cock plunge in and out. Buggy bends so his knee is pulled up to his chest, taking it with gusto, his rim stretched out. Shanks is full on leering while he pants hard, eyes half—lidded like he’s witnessing a feast for the eyes.\n\n“You don’t know what you do to me,” Shanks says, but the words get drowned out to Buggy’s ears.\n\nBuggy gives him a good visual, red cock bobbing in the air, spreading his legs to show off his ass being plowed, how he’s shamelessly enjoying it. When Buggy climaxes, Shanks holds him down and fucks him through it, unable to hold back a pleasured groan when Buggy clenches around him so hard it punches a breathless groan out of him.\n\nBuggy gets to draw out his orgasm with Shanks still inside him, chest heaving as he lets him watch how he comes down from the aftershocks. Then he grabs onto Shanks and pulls him down. “C’mon, Shanks,” he rasps, “decorate me in your come instead.”\n\nShanks pulls out — and with a few rough strokes, he’s coming all over Buggy’s front. His pale skin shiny from being slick with sweat and fluid.\n\nIn a complete turnover, he’s gone from being covered in gold and diamonds to being a disgusting receptacle.\n\nShanks grins down at the sight of Buggy in his own mess, in part admiration and part fondness.\n\n“I like this look on you.”\n\n“You would, you tasteless idiot.”\n\nThe idiot in question is too busy rubbing his scratchy face against the side of his leg and grinning shamelessly like he’s got everything he wanted.\n\n \n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n“Thanks for lending me the suit, Beck.”\n\n“Don’t mention it.”\n\n“Oh,  that  famous suit that was for…y’know.” Howling Gab mimes at Buggy in what he thinks is a discrete gesture.\n\n“Did you fucking tell everyone?!” Buggy cries out.\n\nShanks scratches the back of his neck. “I only meant to ask for advice on the clothes, and then word got around…”\n\n“I had plans to trade this suit,” says Beckman, “but Shanks wanted to use it before that, and well, I just told him to send it to the laundry before returning it.”\n\n“That’s really going to increase the value,” says Howling Gab. “Red—Hair Shanks fucked in this suit. We could get a lot for it.”\n\nHis forehead vein twitching, Buggy turns a glare onto Shanks. “This doesn’t bother you?”\n\n“Whatever works, I guess?”\n\nShanks seems to have already put it out of mind, leaning back in his chair as he has a drink with his crew — who he apparently can’t keep anything from. Literally, they’re slapping him on the back, telling him what a considerate partner he is for indulging a guy like Buggy in his bedroom kinks. Buggy wants to strangle all of them.\n\n“Hey, boss, fair’s play. Since you did all this for Buggy, he should do something you like.”\n\n“Yeah, we can always get the men together again to brainstorm ideas for you. Think of things we know you’ll be into.” The Red—Hair Pirate flashes him a thumbs—up.\n\n“What would I do without you guys?” says Shanks, laughing warmly.\n\n“I hate this fucking  crew!” Buggy screams and stomps off, tearing his hair out with his hands.\n\n\n\n\n"}
+{"text": "Sabine had just finished her second year of college and was off for the summer. Because her parents did not have a lot of money she had to find a job, which she did, at a local office.\n\nAfter she had been there a couple of weeks she heard some of the other women talking about the boss. It seems that he had been offering some of the women $500 to undress in front of him. But he had not offered this to Sabine.\n\nAt first she was glad. She did not want to have to say no to him, but wasn't sure that she would be able to say yes, even that she wanted to say yes. Sabine was not innocent, she had had several boy friends and knew what men wanted, even had let some of them do some things. She wasn't a virgin, but had only had sex twice.\n\nBut, after another couple of weeks, while the thought of him asking her for that had gotten rather exciting to her, she came up with a plan.\n\nThere were times where some of the women had to work late and she volunteered for one of those nights. She had checked out an area away from the office and had brought some clothes that she had prepared at home.\n\nShe walked into the bosses office and closed the door.\n\n\"Mr. Adams, I have a question.\"\n\n\"Yes?\"\n\n\"Why, when you asked some of the girls here to undress for money, you didn't ask me?\"\n\nHer boss was somewhat shocked by her forwardness.\n\n\"Uh, because you are rather young for me.\"\n\n\"Don't you think that I would have wanted the $500?\"\n\n\"Well, I suppose you would have but I still wouldn't have asked you because of your age, Sabine.\"\n\n\"Well, I have thought about this Mr. Adams. I would like to make you an offer, but we need to go somewhere else.\"\n\nAdams, a mid forties man was even more surprised but also now interested.\n\n\"Let me change clothes and we can go for a short drive.\"\n\nSabine left him sitting there and went to ladies room and changed into her prepared clothes, a t-shirt with the neck and hem cut through, a bra with the clasp ready to pull off and no straps, a pair of shorts with the button really loose and ready to pull off and panties with the waistband and leg holes cut almost all the way through. She held a long coat over her arm and went and got Adams.\n\n\"This won't take long Mr. Adams and I think that you will like it.\"\n\nShe led him to his car and directed him to a church near a city park. A large park with softball fields on one side, camping far into the park and some walkways on the other side from the softball fields.\n\nIt was almost dusk, but still light enough for him to see. They parked, got out of the car and Sabine led him into the park, along the furthest walkway. They walked a good way into the park, still light enough and Sabine stopped him, led him somewhat off the walkway and hung her long coat over a tree limb. Then she led him away from her coat. She stopped and turned to him.\n\n\"You may not have noticed, but my clothes have been slightly adjusted, Mr. Adams. If you would just grab the neckline of my shirt and pull, you'll see what I mean.\"\n\nAdams looked at Sabine, not really getting it.\n\nSabine stepped up to him, took his hands, placed them on the neckline of her shirt...\n\n\"Pull.\"\n\nHe did finally and her shirt tore down the front and then he smiled.\n\n\"Push it off me.\"\n\nHe did and it slid down Sabine's arms and fell on the ground behind her. She shivered. Her coat was 75 feet away from her and she knew what she was going to allow him to do to her.\n\n\"Just get a good grip and pull, Mr. Adams.\"\n\nHe smirked at her, grabbed the front of her bra and yanked. The clasp let loose, pulling the hooks out and her boobs bounced out into the open, nipples hard. Adams tossed the bra away and gazed at her bare boobs.\n\n\"You don't have to pay me the $500. Go ahead.\"\n\nAdams grabbed the waistband of her shorts and pulled hard. The button popped off and the zipper peeled open. The shorts were very loose and slithered down Sabine's legs to her ankles. She shivered again, in just her panties, and stepped out of the shorts. Adams didn't wait for an go ahead, he just grasped her panties and yanked. The waistband snapped, then both leg openings, leaving him with destroyed panties in one hand and Sabine bare ass naked.\n\nAdams tossed the panties behind Sabine and gazed at her naked body. Now that everything had happened that she had planned, Sabine was having some second thoughts. She looked at him and noticed that he was smirking and she had to force herself not to cover up, to just stand there completely exposed.\n\n\"This could have been done at the office, at work, Sabine. Why did you want to come here?\"\n\n\"Ah, the thought of you doing what you did, in the open, it, ah, made me feel, ah, excited.\"\n\nHis smirk, smile, got even wider.\n\n\"Slip your shoes off and come here, Sabine.\"\n\nShe shivered, looked down at the ground and toed off her shoes.\n\n\"Not too sure that you should have done this?\"\n\n\"Ah, no, not right now.\"\n\n\"Come here.\"\n\nSabine walked up to Adams, only looking up at him when she had reached him. He still had a large smirk on his face. His left hand reached out and touched her shoulder and then slowly moved down, eventually closing over her right boob. Sabine gasped. Adams squeezed it, rubbing her nipple while his right hand slid across Sabine's left boob, down her belly and eased into her pubic hair. She began to breathe faster and her legs involuntarily moved apart.\n\nAdams chuckled and slid his hand between her legs, cupping her pussy and then slipping his middle finger right up inside her pussy.\n\n\"I don't want...\"\n\n\"Right now I don't care what you want, Sabine, and you certainly are right about being excited. You are dripping wet. You're not a virgin, are you?\"\n\n\"Ah, no, no I am not...\"\n\n\"Good, very good.\"\n\nBy now it was getting dark, just the lights of security lights along the walkway letting the two of them see anything.\n\n\"Now, I want to test how excited and obedient you can be, Sabine.\"\n\nAll the while moving his finger inside her.\n\n\"See that light pole down there?\"\n\nSabine looked where Adams had indicated.\n\n\"Yessss.\"\n\n\"Walk down there and touch the pole, then walk back to me.\"\n\n\"I can't...\"\n\n\"Yes you can, and I think you want to, Sabine. Go ahead and do it.\"\n\nThe light pole had to be at least 150 feet away. Sabine wanted to do it and didn't want to do it. Adams pulled his finger out of her, cupped both her boobs and squeezed them, rubbing his thumbs over her erect nipples, making her gasp again.\n\n\"Go on, Sabine, you know that you want to.\"\n\nSabine hesitantly turned towards the light pole, completely naked, outside, with her boss and began to walk. Adams chuckled. He watched his bare ass naked employee walk down the path, her ass moving, the ass crack clearly visible. He thought to himself, \"I can't believe that she is actually doing this\".\n\nThen he gathered up the torn scraps of her clothes and her shoes and tossed them all into a large patch of brush slightly off the walkway. Then he faced Sabine and watched her walking, nude, a long way away from him. Adams did not really believe that Sabine would have done what she did, what she is now doing. It was a complete and total surprise to him, but one that he was really enjoying.\n\nAdams watched Sabine walk up to the light pole, in a pool of light, and touch the pole, then turn and begin walking back to him. He still was chuckling as he observed the nude woman, seeing her boobs jiggle and bounce as she walked along. She finally arrived, shivering, slightly red-faced. Adams laughed.\n\n\"Come on.\"\n\nHe walked towards the exit and before that Sabine's coat. Sabine walked with him, naked, his right hand cupping and feeling her bare ass. She didn't tell him to stop.\n\nWhen they arrived where she had hung her coat on a branch of a tree, Adams looked at her and smirked.\n\n\"Wait here.\"\n\nThen he took her coat and walked off towards his car. Sabine stood there, surprised, shivering, nude. Would he come back for her? She didn't know for sure, was scared that he wouldn't and somewhat excited by what she was doing.\n\nIt seemed like it was forever, but Adams finally came back, without her coat.\n\n\"Let's go to the car, Sabine.\"\n\nAs Sabine walked alongside Adams, he casually reached down and over, cupping her bare ass and feeling it, from time to time running his fingers through her ass crack. The first time he did that she jumped and he chuckled. But she clenched her teeth and let him do what he wanted. It was arousing her.\n\nThey got to his Town Car and got into it. Adams turned on the car and then the interior lights.\n\n\"Show me your pussy.\"\n\nSabine felt her face heating, she knew that she was blushing, but there was something she wanted to tell him, needed to tell him. So...\n\n\"Ah, I want to ask you for something Mr. Adams. First of all, you don't have to give me anything for doing this. In a way, for me, it's better if I don't get any money or anything. And what I want you to to do is not refer to my parts like most people do. Call them tits. Call it my ass.\"\n\nShe swallowed. She looked down.\n\n\"Call it my, uh, cunt.\"\n\nAdams burst out laughing. When he had calmed down, he reached over, pushed her face up so she had to look at him, and smirked.\n\n\"All right, Sabine, show me your cunt. Lean back against the door, put your feet up on the seat and let your knees fall apart. Let's see that cunt of yours.\"\n\nSabine moaned softly, closing her eyes and did as she was told. After she did it, she slowly lifted her ass off the seat and then opened her eyes, looking at Adams as he stared at her. She shuddered as she watched him extend his arm and thrust a finger up inside her. She gasped, but said nothing, just let him do it.\n\n\"Damn, girl, you are wet as hell!\"\n\nAdams worked his finger in and out of Sabine and to her horror, she felt her ass moving, pumping towards his knuckles. Adams laughed as she did this, watching her. After a few minutes of this, Adams removed his finger and turned off the interior lights. Then he drove off, back towards the office. But he couldn't resist a few words...\n\n\"Do you like being bare ass naked, Sabine?\"\n\nNo answer came.\n\n\"Do you like it when I feel your tits?\"\n\nNo answer.\n\n\"Do you like it when I feel your bare ass?\"\n\nNo answer.\n\n\"Do you like it when I finger fuck your slut cunt, Sabine?\"\n\nSabine whimpered, then...\n\n\"Yes, I do Mr. Adams.\"\n\nAt the underground parking garage, Adams parked and got out, motioning Sabine to get out of the car also. Adams stared at her, grinning.\n\n\"I like you naked Sabine. Get up on the trunk and show me your cunt again.\"\n\nSabine backed up to the trunk, used her arms to hoist her ass up on it and slowly spread her legs again.\n\n\"Christ you are wet! Pull your ass cheeks apart so I can see your asshole Sabine.\"\n\nShe did it, whimpering softly, but aroused by how nasty she was being, just because he wanted her do things.\n\n\"Your asshole is wet too Sabine. You must be leaking out of your cunt.\"\n\nSabine closed her eyes, not wanting to see him staring at her most intimate parts.\n\nFinally Adams had her get off the car and had her walk up the three flights of stairs to the office floor. She was still naked, not knowing if the cleaners were in the building, not knowing if she was going to be caught bare ass. She was scared but aroused when she thought of being caught. Naked for Adams was one thing but having the cleaners see her, that was something altogether else for her.\n\nAs Sabine and Adams entered the office Sabine thought that she heard a vacuum cleaner running, but she wasn't sure. It made her stomach clench. Adams, instead of leading her to his office as she thought he would, led her to the conference room.\n\n\"Get up on the table, ass at the edge, feet up on it and beside your ass.\"\n\nNervously Sabine did as she was told.\n\n\"Close your eyes.\"\n\nShe did and heard the sound of a zipper. Then she felt something between her pussy lips, rubbing up and down them, initially somewhat soft but then getting firmer, harder. She moaned. As it rubbed downward it seemed to linger at her opening, teasing into it slightly, then back out. She thought that she knew what it was, Adams penis, but wasn't sure.\n\nThat went on for some time, then she heard the door to the conference room open, a gasp, and she looked to see a cleaning woman standing in the doorway with a shocked look on her face. Sabine gasped...\n\n\"Oh my God...\"\n\nAnd then Sabine felt the thing at her pussy reach her opening and forcefully slid up inside her, then jerked several times inside her.\n\n\"Oh no, God no, I am not on birth control!\"\n\nThe door closed. Adams was grasping her hips and she knew for certain that his penis was deep inside her and that he had just cum inside her.\n\n\"Why did you do that?\"\n\n\"I don't cum on women, I cum inside them.\"\n\n\"I am not on birth control. I could get pregnant.\"\n\n\"So?\"\n\nSabine moaned and she felt him pull out of her, then a wetness trickle down between her ass cheeks.\n\n\"I told you that I didn't want sex, didn't I?\"\n\n\"I don't think so, and it wasn't sex, I just put it in you. If I came it was involuntarily. Besides, you don't really think that I could watch you prance around in front of me naked without thinking that I could fuck you, did you?\"\n\n\"Let me up.\"\n\nAdams put himself away and stepped back.\n\n\"I need to go, I need to go now.\"\n\nSabine slid off the table and felt more of him slipping out and oozing down the inside of her thighs.\n\nAdams smirked at her and let her go off, down the three flights of stairs to her car, following her, chuckling. She was still nude. She was not happy.\n\nThey reached his car.\n\n\"I need my coat.\"\n\nAdams opened the trunk and got it for her, Sabine put it on and left for her car, sniffling, wondering if she was going to end up pregnant. Adams was completely pleased with himself.\n\nSabine drove home and played the entire evening over in her mind, calling herself stupid in her mind. She still felt more of him oozing out of her all the way home. Most of the night was spent awake, bemoaning how dumb she had been.\n\nThe next morning she debated going to work, but finally decided to go, dressed, make up on, nice clothes. She got to the office and worked hoping that the entire thing would be forgotten, but knew that it wouldn't.\n\nAround 10AM, when most of the staff took their morning break, she was called and Adams asked her to come to his office. She didn't want to go, but she did. She was nervous and upset. But when she walked into his office, she was becoming somewhat excited once more.\n\n\"Close the door.\"\n\nShe did that and came to the front of his desk, sitting down in a chair. Adams looked at her, smirking again.\n\n\"Stand up.\"\n\nSabine did so.\n\n\"Take off your clothes.\"\n\nSabine swallowed nervously.\n\n\"I don't...\"\n\n\"I don't really care what you don't Sabine. I've seen it all, I've been up that tight little cunt of yours and I want you to strip, right here, right now. I want you bare ass naked again and I want you to spread your legs so I can see that tight cunt and asshole of yours again. And if you don't, I've told Amy and Mary about last night and everything that happened and they would be completely happy to come in here and take your clothes off for you. I don't think that you want that to happen, do you?\"\n\n\"NO!\"\n\n\"Then strip. Everything off, even your shoes. I want you bare ass naked again, Sabine. And I am not going to pay you anything for it, no money, no extra days off, no perks of the job, just you getting naked for me, whenever I want, wherever I want. Because I want it and I think that you get off on it, don't you? Sabine, you are going to be my little naked employee for as long as you work here. And you are going to get off on it. I saw that in your eyes last night, that it turned you on, that you liked it. How wet that cunt of yours got without me even touching you showed that to me. Now strip, everything off, right now.\n\nSabine moaned softly, and her hands went to the top button on blouse, undoing it...\n\n"}
+{"text": "\nAsshain \n\n\nIn Asshain, dark clouds and eerie mountains cover the entire landscape. Known for its Ash River it is known as the Shadow Lands by many. The population of the city cannot match the scope and space of it. Not many live among the great walls. At night, only one of ten buildings shine a light. Every place and structure in Asshain is constructed in dark stone with the exception of one. \n\nThe Temple of the Red Priestesses and the Lord of Light is colored with cream sand stones light the city in the center with torches and candles. Normally, in the daylight the Red Women would flock to-and-from the temple to worship as they please. But, in the night it is found secluded with only one sister allowed to remain inside to maintain the flames inside. \n\nThis night, Lady Mito clad in her red dress and shawl over her red hair sits in silent prayer as she waits for morning to come. She stares at the large torch in the center that shines the Lord's light. Her eyes remain closed as she recites words to her Lord. \n\nSuddenly a chilly draft takes over the room, she can feel it on her skin. A gust of breeze from above blows inside and all of the candles in the room go out, almost systematically. \n\nMito opens her eyes to find herself in total darkness, except for one light. \n\nThe large torch at the center of the temple burns brightly, the Lord's light coming through. But, only his light, no others. \n\nShe stands and walks closer towards the flame until she stops right in front of it. \n\nHer eyes alight with it as she sees the visions in the flames. Vampires and blood clashing with men and snow, a dragon emerges before it all returns to an icy wall. Where it all comes back to. Where it all starts. \n\nNow is the time, the Lord of Light has made her wait for this moment to come.\n\nShe must make preparations to leave Asshain and return to Westeria because the Great War is finally beginning. \n\n\n Ebina \n\n\nShinoa takes her breakfast on a balcony in solitude. This is one of the rare times she is left alone from Kagiyama and Lady Hyakuya. Ser Kouta stands to her side and attends to her every need. Shinoa has taken note of the man and Lady Hyakuya's especially bitter treatment towards him. Almost going out of her way to find an excuse to hit or insult him. The man has been with her since she's arrived and he's treated her kindly. \n\n\"Ser Kouta.\" Shinoa watches as the man bristles. \n\n\"Is everything alright, My Lady?\" Ser Kouta asks. \n\n\"I've noticed you speak almost as a nobleman would.\" Shinoa says. \"You weren't born a servant, were you?\"\n\nSer Kouta nods, \"That's correct, My Lady.\"\n\n\"Then, how did you come into Lady Hyakuya's service?\" Shinoa asks, \"Were you indebted to her in some way?\"\n\n\"No, My Lady.\" Ser Kouta tells her. \n\n\"Then, how?\" \n\n\"I'm her prisoner.\" Ser Kouta says. \n\nShinoa's eyes widen in realization as all the pieces fall together, \"For what crime?\"\n\n\"I was your brother's Hand.\" Ser Kouta says. \n\n\"Which one?\"\n\n\"King Seishirou Hiiragi.\" Ser Kouta says with a bitter sort of pride. \n\n\"You're a prisoner of the Red Wedding.\" Shinoa nods. \n\n\"I am, My Lady.\" Ser Kouta says, \"I was the one to be married to broker the alliance. When, Lady Hyakuya killed your brother for your uncle, she revealed the marriage was a ploy and took me as her prisoner in the dungeons before forcing me to be her servant.\"\n\n\"Did your wife know that the marriage was a lie?\" Shinoa asks. \n\nSer Kouta only looks down in shame and Shinoa knows the meaning of his grim silence. \n\n\"I'm sorry.\" Shinoa says, \"I never did meet Seishirou. What was he like? I've mostly heard things about him that are not so admirable.\"\n\n\"Your brother was one of the bravest and strongest men I knew before he took on the quest to pursue the Seraphin Throne. After that he became hungry for power and desperate to become King, so much it led to his death.\" Ser Kouta tells her, \"But, I'd like to think that the man I knew before was still there under all of it the entire time. That's how I'll remember him.\"\n\n\"I wish I'd met him then.\" Shinoa says. \"I'm sorry for where you are now.\"\n\n\"I've dealt with worse.\" Ser Kouta says, \"Lords and Ladies have always used the common folk for their own desires, never taking their needs into consideration. Maybe, if they did most would not be known the way they are after they're gone.\"  \n\n\"Sometimes Lords and Ladies have no option, but to reckon with their own terrible circumstances.\" Shinoa replies, \"We're not always as better off as you think.\"\n\n\"Aye, you might be right about that.\" Ser Kouta nods. \n\nShinoa stares at him for a minute before going back to her breakfast. \n\n\nFrightfort \n\n\nThe sun begins to set as ship in the middle of the Blood Sea moves along the waves.\n\nMirai Kimizuki addresses the twenty Osaka Bay soldiers she's taken with her to rescue Shihou. The party will reach the gates of the Frightfort when night falls. \n\nShe stands at the center, a rare omega in complete power as the men surrounding her listen to her attentively. \n\nThe young omega's voice is grim as she reads from the scroll her father received, \"I give you until the full moon to order all Osaka Bay scum out of the North and back to those shit-stained rocks you call home. On the first night of the full moon, I will hunt down every islander still on our lands and flay them living, the way I flayed the 20 Ironborn scum I found at Snowstorm. In the box you'll find a special gift-- Shihou's little toy. He cried when I took it away from him. Leave Nagoya now or more boxes will follow with more Shihou. Signed Ky Luc, natural born son of Shoya Hanayori, Lord of the Frightfort and Warden of the North.\"\n\nMirai looks up to the angry faces of her men, \"They skinned our countrymen and they mutilated my brother, your prince. Your prince. Everything they've done to him, they've also done to you.\"\n\nThe omega continues resolutely, her voice booms, \"As long as they can hurt our prince with impunity, the word Ironborn means nothing!\"\n\nInside of the highest room in the highest tower of the Frightfort, candles light the room in the dead of night. \n\nKy Luc lies naked on the bed, his alpha coming out as Sayuri in an equal state of undress climbs on top of the alpha. The omega has her hair in a loose braid that cascades over her shoulder.  \n\nShe slowly leans her face down towards his and instinctively begins to grind her hips so her cunt is rubbing against Ky Luc's cock. \n\nShe nuzzles his nose, but avoids kissing her half-brother. His gaze turns cold and almost murderous as he possessively runs his hands down her back, skimming past her hips, before finally landing on her cheeks. \n\nSayuri knows now is the right time and allows Ky Luc's cock to breach the lips of her vulva. She begins to thrust more instinctively as he guides her forcefully onto his cock. His eyes cold and calculating. Knowing that only he holds the true power here and that's the way she likes it.\n\nThey both grunt as they meet each other's thrusts. \n\nThe thrusts grow more forceful and aggressive as it drives both of them closer to their climax. Sayuri rides him deeply until he loses his expression and his mouth falls open. \n\nShe can't help the instinctive glee she feels as her hand plasters to the wall above her, \"Yes!\"\n\nHer hands move to his throat as her screams of ecstacy fill the room and he lets out labored cries before she finishes first. Ky Luc wills himself not to finish until she does as he finally comes. \n\nSayuri's head falls onto his forehead in bliss before flipping over on the bed to drift into a peaceful slumber. \n\nIn the dark of night, Mirai and her men in a limited amount of boats begin to row their way towards the waters near the Frightfort. \n\nThe words in the letter echo in her head as her brother is the one thing she cannot get out of there. She has to get him home as soon as possible because she knows nobody else will care to do so if she doesn't. \n\nThe men row her towards the dark castle as she looks ahead towards where her brother is being kept.\n\nOn the waters outside the Frightfort, three Ironborn boats led by Mirai land on a secluded, unguarded part of the shores. \n\nMirai leads the men out of the boats onto the shores, silently moving in a shroud of darkness.\n\nA guard from the top of the wall hearing the sound of metal clanking looks left to see a grappling hook flying and landing onto a part of the upper fence, he rushes towards the area before an axe hits him square in the forehead causing blood to immediately start pouring from the wound. \n\nMirai comes over the walls before more men follow her. \n\n\"Go left.\" Her first mate orders. \n\nMore Hanayori guards arrive as the Kimizuki men clash with them. One charges towards Mirai who dodges the beta before pushing him against a wall, effectively taking a hostage. \n\n\"Shihou Kimizuki.\" Mirai orders. \n\n\"I don't know-\" The guard starts. \n\nMirai braces him against the wall again, \"I'm here for Shihou Kimizuki. Take me to the dudgeons.\"\n\n\"He's not in the dungeons.\" The guard says, terrified for his life. \n\nIn the darkened kennels of the Frightfort, Kimizuki resembles one of the hounds that reside as he tries to lie down on the little hay given to him as a bed. He remains locked in a metal cage like an animal, trying to get comfortable enough to sleep in the cramped space. \n\nHis eyes remain shut until they open at the sound of the dogs growling and feet coming down the steps. \n\nThe First Mate emerges from the entrance before Mirai follows with her knife at the guard's throat. \n\nThe terrified Hanayori guard squeals out, \"Last cage on the right.\"\n\nThe bells begin to ring as screams can be heard. \n\n\"Thank you.\" Mirai replies coolly, before nonchalantly slicing the guard's throat causing the man to fall to the ground as blood pours from the gash.\n\nKimizuki's eyes widen at the sound of his sister's voice. He feels like his mind is fooling him and even if it wasn't he could never acknowledge her the way he is. He forces himself to sit up, out of curiosity and fear for his life. \n\nShe takes the torch and begins walking through the kennels as the dogs bark at her until she finally stops in front of the last cage. \n\nKimizuki backs away until he's tucked in a corner as the lit flame comes closer. His eyes go impossibly wide in fear and terror.\n\nMirai's eyes widen in horror at Kimizuki's state. There is no trace of the alpha who was once there when she first saw him. Hell, there's no trace of an alpha at all. It's almost like he has been rendered broken as nothing. She can barely recognize him, at all. All she knows is she has to get him out of here. He's covered in dirt and his clothes are torn.  \n\n\"We're going home, Shihou.\" She says to him with a calm expression. She knocks an axe against the cage lock as Kimizuki recoils in fear. Kimizuki's eyes water in confusion at the sound of his own name leaving his sister's mouth. \n\nKimizuki remains frozen in fear. He can't leave. He can never leave. How can he live with the way he is? How will he return home the way he is? He's no longer an alpha. He's even lesser than an omega. He feels like nothing is in him anymore. There is no place for him anywhere, but here. He is only what Ky Luc has made him. His master owns him now. He belongs to him as Reek. He'll never let him go.\n\nThat's when it hits him. Ky Luc is testing him, trying to trick him and give him a false sense of security when there is none. Not anymore. He wants him to run away so he can torture him and hurt him. But, Kimizuki won't let him. He won't let himself be tricked and fooled. He will remain here like the good pet he is. He is Ky Luc's Reek. \n\nWhen he looks up at the omega girl, he can't register his sister because he knows it's not her. He knows he is being fooled for amusement. He knows this is probably some tavern slut who resembles his sister. He knows his master is testing him, but he will pass. \n\n\"It's all right. It's me, Mirai.\" Mirai moves inside of the cage and kneels down. \n\n\"You can't trick me.\" Kimizuki says weakly, yet determined. \"Tell him. Tell him you couldn't trick me.\"\n\n\"I'm not tricking you, Shihou. I'm saving you.\" Mirai tries to comfort her brother, desperately. \n\n\"I'm not Shihou!\" Kimizuki shouts defensively almost like he's spurned by the name. \"Reek! Reek! My name is Reek!\"\n\n\"They're here.\" The first mate notifies Mirai.\n\nMirai looks back, \"If they catch us in here, we're trapped. Help me with him.\"\n\nBoth of them try to grab him and drag him out, but Kimizuki refuses to move from the cage as the dog barks grow. \n\n\"No, you can't! You can't!\" Kimizuki screams and pleads. \n\n\"You're Shihou Kimizuki!\" Mirai shouts as they struggle.\n\n\"No, I don't believe her! I know who I am! I'm Reek! Reek! Loyal Reek! Good Reek! I've always been Reek!\" Kimizuki shouts unwaveringly. He fully knows who he is and who he belongs to now. \n\nThey finally drag him out of the cage and the First Mate covers Kimizuki's screams with a gloved hand as they begin to force him to move. \n\nSuddenly, Ky Luc enters with men behind him. The alpha is shirtless with boots and pants on, covered with bloody scratch marks and splashes that are not his. \n\nThe Ironborn raise their shields in a defensive position as Kimizuki's eyes widen in fear at the sight.  \n\nKy Luc has his hands outstretched with a dagger in his right and another in his left. \"This is turning into a lovely evening.\"\n\nKy Luc and his men charge at the Ironborn and they begin to engage in battle as the dogs snarl and bark loudly. \n\nThe men of Osaka Bay fight valiantly against the bloodthirsty Hanayori men. Ky Luc fights effectively with his daggers, dispatching man-after-man. \n\n\"I'm Reek! Loyal Reek!\" Kimizuki cries before the First Mate covers his mouth again. \n\nMirai struggling to stop Kimizuki's thrashing accidentally pushes him back enough to almost get free. She grabs him before Kimizuki sinks his teeth onto her flesh hand and scurries back to the corner of the cage, panting in terror. \n\n\"AHHH, Shihou!\" Mirai screams in pain as her brother runs back to his cage. \n\nA man engages her from behind and she dodges before stabbing him with a pointed mace. Another two come up to fight her before she stabs them both swiftly with her dagger. \n\nThe dogs try to bite through the metal bars. \n\nMirai and Ky Luc face each other from a distance, a sadistic smirk on his face as he looks at the omega. Their men stand behind them. Ky Luc somehow getting on the side closer to Kimizuki. \n\n\"Give me my brother and no more of your men will die.\" Mirai challenges. \n\n\"You've got bigger balls than he ever did. But, with those big balls of yours...\" Ky Luc tells her as he produces a key, \"How fast can you run?\"\n\nMirai's eyes study Kimizuki, she severely underestimated how broken he truly is. She can't save him, if he doesn't let her and she can't sacrifice her men for a lost cause. \n\nKy Luc turns towards a lock and opens the dog cages. \n\nIn the night, Mirai and the remainder of her men not caught by the hounds race back to the boats. \n\nThey quickly jump on the small skiff. The row man looks at the blood splattered on the girl's face.  \n\n\"Make for the ship, now.\" Mirai says coldly. \n\n\"But, your brother-\" The row man starts. \n\n\"My brother is dead.\" Mirai declares as her and her men begin to make their way back to the ship. \n\nKimizuki stands in Ky Luc's chambers in the morning. He keeps his eyes meekly downcast. \n\nKimizuki looks at the man seated on the edge of a tub filled with water, running his hand through it. \n\n\"I have a treat for you. A reward.\" Ky Luc tells him. \n\n\"Reward?\" Kimizuki mumbles.\n\n\"Yes, Reek. Those creatures who came in the night, they wanted to take you away. And you didn't let them. You remained loyal.\" Ky Luc tells him proudly. \n\n\"I-I didn't want them to take me. I was so scared. I didn't want them-\" Kimizuki begins with a sniffle before he is cut off.\n\nKy Luc stands and makes his way towards him, \"Yes, yes, Reek. It's a bath. For you. Remove those rags. Now.\"\n\nKimizuki looks at the seemingly safe tub of water, unwilling to let his guard down. He is terrified this is another trick. But, he complies and removes his shirt. \n\nHis entire torso is covered with scars from every weapon imaginable, some not even fully healed. \n\n\"The britches, too, Reek. Take them off.\" Ky Luc commands. \n\nAn overwhelming sense of shame overtakes Kimizuki as he looks down and knows there is no other option. He undoes the tie and lets his pants fall to the ground.\n\nKy Luc's face is overtaken by a pleased smile at his full handiwork as he looks at Kimizuki's especially affected area and the shame that his creation shows.  \n\nOnce he looks back up, Ky Luc raises a hand to gesture him towards the tub. \n\nKimizuki hobbles and grunts as he tumbles towards the bath. He looks at the water, unsure if it is all a mirage. He brings a hand down onto the edge before climbing in. The water feels warm and perfect on his skin. He lets out a sigh of relief before looking back at Ky Luc and returning his eyes downcast when the man walks to the left side of the tub. He sits on the edge and looks at Kimizuki. \n\nWhen Kimizuki looks up at him, he smiles. When Ky Luc moves his hand Kimizuki bristles and looks down as he dips the sponge in the water. \n\nHe takes the cloth and begins to wash Kimizuki's back. Kimizuki lets out a gasp and jumps up.\n\n\"Do you love me, Reek?\" Ky Luc asks him, sinisterly. \n\nKimizuki gapes up at the man, \"Yes, of course, My Lord.\"\n\n\"Good. Because I need you to do something for me. Something very important. There's a castle, you see. Some bad men hold this castle. I need your help to take this castle back.\" Ky Luc tells him slowly. \n\nKimizuki looks up in fear and uncertainty, \"But how can I-\"\n\n\"I need you to play a role. To pretend to be someone you're not.\"\n\n\"Pretend to be whom?\" Kimizuki looks up, like a lost puppy. \n\n\"Shihou Kimizuki.\" Ky Luc smiles evilly at him. \n\n\n Shinjuku - Meeridan \n\n\nOn a mountainous, grassy field near Meeridan, a goatherd tends to his flock with his son.\n\nThe grass is a brown-green with many black-grey rocks surrounding the area with a sizeable stream of water pouring from a waterfall. \n\nThe son skips a rock on the river for amusement. His father continues to keep the flock moving and feeding. \n\nThe son skips one last rock before squinting at something in the distance coming closer, almost like a black blur before it disappears downward. \n\nThe boy looks down before an enormous Makoton, the size of a small hut emerges from below, flying above the boy on the cliff as the goats try to run away. \n\nThe boy crawls back, terrified. But, Makoton flies over him towards where a large amount of goats are running. \n\nMakoton blows fire on an entire section of the field before grabbing a freshly cooked goat and leaving the burnt field and flock in his wake as he flies away.\n\nIn the Great Pyramid of Meeridan, Mikaela Shindo is seated at the top of the steps on a backless flat chair. His hair is down with the five braids in his hair. He is clad in a dress made of an all blue design with embedded dragon scales from the hips up and around his waist. He has an opening where a white chiffon skirt covers in an archway style. He is wearing a two-piece dragon-tooth necklace that covers the back of his neck only to display them on his chest. Ser Lacus stands to his left and Lord Guren to his right. Akane is further away from them on the side while Brown Dog stands guard. \n\nThe goatherd stands before the omega, his head down and carrying a burlap sack. \n\n\"You stand before Mikaela Fireborn of the House Shindo, the First of His Name, Queen of Meeridan, Queen of the Andals and the First Men, Khaleesi of the Great Sea, Breaker of Chains and Mother of Dragons.\" Akane announces for all in the room to hear. \n\n\"Don't be afraid, my friend.\" Mika says in Valyrian.\n\nThe goatherd remains motionless with his head bowed. \n\n\"The Queen says you may approach and speak.\" Akane says. \n\nThe goatherd steps forward with his head still bowed and ascends the steps while speaking Valyrian. He stops not too far up. \n\nMika follows along while Akane translates, \"He is a goatherd. He says he prayed for your victory against the slave masters.\"\n\n\"I thank him for his prayers.\" Mika says. \n\nAkane translates Mika's sentiments to the man. The goatherd then places his bundle on the ground. He uncovers it to reveal the charred carcass of his goat. He begins to speak Valyrian again. \n\nAkane tenses, \"It was your dragons, he says. They came this morning for his flock.\"\n\nMika tenses, as well. He's losing control of his children and now he is realizing it. \n\n\"He hopes he has not offended Your Grace, but now he has nothing.\" Akane translates. \n\n\"Tell this man I am sorry for his hardship. I cannot bring back his goats.\" Mika says as Akane translates. \"But, I will see he is paid their value three times over.\"\n\nThe goatherd bows his head and kneels before Mika to cover up the goat and pick it up. He begins to speak Valyrian excitedly. Akane smiles at Mika who looks at the man in amused astonishment with a smile. \n\n\"Send the next one in.\" Mika says to Brown Dog. \n\nA noble man around Lord Guren's age enters followed by a less well-dressed man. The noble man is clad in blue and white robes with golden jewelry, he has curly hair as he enters with the other man. \n\n\"The noble Hizakh lo Doraj begs an audience with the Queen.\" The manservant says. \n\n\"The noble Hizakh lo Doraj can speak to me himself.\" Mika says. \n\nThe manservant retreats as the noble comes forward and bows. \n\n\"Queen Mikaela. Tales of your beauty were not exaggerated.\" Hizakh lo Doraj says. \n\n\"I thank you.\" Mika says. \n\n\"Mine is one of the oldest and proudest families in Meeridan.\" Hizakh lo Doraj says. \n\n\"Then it is my honor to receive you.\" Mika says. \"My father, one of Meeridan's most respected and beloved citizens, oversaw the restoration and maintenance of its greatest landmarks. This pyramid included.\" Hizakh lo Doraj says. \"For that, he has my gratitude. I should be honored to meet him.\" Mika says, already catching a bad feeling from this interaction. \"You have, Your Grace. You crucified him. I pray you'll never live to see a member of your family treated so cruelly.\" Hizakh lo Doraj says. \"Your father crucified innocent children.\" Mika says. \"My father spoke out against crucifying those children. He decried it as a criminal act, but was overruled. Is it justice to answer one crime with another?\" Hizakh lo Doraj says. \"I am sorry you no longer have a father, but my treatment of the masters was no crime. I gave them a fair trial, which some advised me against. You'd be wise to remember that.\" Mika says, \"If your father was outspoken against crucifying those children, why did you not come to his defense at the trial? There were others who were found not guilty from testimony of former slaves and others.\"\"I was out of the city on business in Asshain. What's done is done.\" Hizakh lo Doraj says dismissively. \"You are the Queen and I am a servant of Meeridan. A servant who does not wish to see its traditions eradicated.\"\"And what traditions do you speak of?\" Mika asks hesitantly. \"The tradition of funeral rite. Proper burial in the Temple of the Graces. My father and 162 noble Meerinese are still nailed to those posts, carrion for vultures, rotting in the sun.\" Hizakh lo Doraj says before kneeling. \"Your Grace, I ask that you order these men taken down so that they might receive proper burials.\"\"And what of the slave children these noble Meerinese crucified?\" Mika proses, \"They were rotting in the sun as well. Would you have begged me for their right to a proper burial?\"\"Your Grace, I cannot defend the actions of the masters. I can only speak to you as a son who loved his father. Let me take his body down. Let me have him brought to the temple and buried with dignity so that he might find peace in the next world.\" Hizakh lo Doraj pleads. Mika's resolve crumbles as the man speaks, his face softening and growing more filled with sadness, \"Bury your father, Hizakh lo Doraj.\"\"Thank you, my queen.\" Hizakh lo Doraj says, humbly. Mika nods him off. Hizakh lo Doraj stands and backs off the steps before turning to leave with his manservant following after him.\"How many more?\" Mika asks. \"There are two-hundred and twelve supplicants waiting, Your Grace.\" Akane says. \"Two-hundred and twelve?\" Mika says slowly as though he is a man finding out he has to fight a war and win right this very minute, like he's bracing himself as the realization of the weight of his choices finally hits him. The weight of what it means to be Queen and actually rule finally registers in Mika's mind. He looks to Ser Lacus, who only shrugs.\n\nMika sighs tiredly before looking at the entrance to the throne room with a resolute determination, \"Send the next one in.\"\n\n\n Shibuya \n\n\nIn the small council meeting chambers, Mahiru, Sycelle, Yukimi, Yukio Inoue, and Prince Basteya wait impatiently for Lord Tetsuo to arrive. Mahiru paces around the room. \n\nBasteya taps his fingers against the table, \"These meetings aren't always going to be this early, are they? I was up late last night. So, does this mean I am a Master of something now? Coins, ships?\"\n\n\"Lord Tetsuo and I already determined that I shall be the Master of Ships long before you-\" Lord Yukio starts. \n\nLord Tetsuo enters the chambers as all rise for him, except Basteya. The alpha takes his place at the head of the table. \n\n\"Lord Tetsuo, it's a great honor to have been granted a seat on this council. I-\" Lord Yukio begins before everyone sits causing him to be cut off as the meeting party ignores him. \n\n\"The trial begins this afternoon. We only have the morning for affairs of state. Shall we begin?\" Lord Tetsuo says.\n\n\"Aoi Sanguu has been spotted in the Riverlands, My Lord.\" Yukimi purposefully does not mention the little girl seen with her that has been said to be her mirror's image. \n\n\"A coward and a traitor.\" Mahiru mutters. \n\n\"My birds tell me the Hound slaughtered five of our soldiers. I believe the phrase \"fuck the king\" was uttered.\" Yukimi says. \n\n\"Disgraceful.\" Sycelle says. \n\n\"What would it take to make the common soldier stupid enough to try his luck with Sanguu?\" Lord Tetsuo asks. \n\n\"10 silver stags seems a generous bounty.\" Yukimi says nonchalantly.\n\n\"Make it 100. What else?\" Lord Tetsuo dismisses. \n\n\"More whispers from the east, My Lord.\" Yukimi says. \n\n\"The Shindo boy?\" Lord Tetsuo asks. \n\n\"Mikaela has taken up residence in Meeridan. He has conquered the city and rules as its queen.\" Yukimi says. \n\n\"Conquered with what?\" Mahiru asks. \n\n\"He commands an army of Untainted, my Queen. Some 8,000 strong. He has a company of sellswords-the Second Sons. He has two knights advising him-Lacus Welt and another. And he has three dragons.\" Yukimi explains, knowing she has to give them something.\n\n\"Baby dragons.\" Mahiru says.\n\n\"Larger every year, Your Grace.\" Yukimi says. \n\n\"Welt is spying on him for us.\" Sycelle says. \n\n\"No longer. He appears to be fully devoted to her. As for the other knight, I could not get a name, but he has been said to have features similar to Guren Ichinose.\" Yukimi says. \n\n\"That's impossible.\" Mahiru says. \"Guren has been dead for almost four years.\"\n\n\"They say he only resembles him.\" Yukimi says. \n\nMahiru only shrugs and turns to Lord Tetsuo, \"Don't tell me you're worried about a child halfway across the world.\"\n\n\"A child with at least one seasoned warrior counseling him and a powerful army at his back, Your Grace.\" Yukimi says. \n\n\"Lady Yukimi is right. I have been to the Bay of Slaves and seen the Untainted firsthand. They are very impressive on the battlefield. Less so in the bedroom.\" Basteya says. \n\n\"Dragons haven't won a war in 300 years. Armies win them all the time. He must be dealt with.\" Lord Tetsuo says. \n\n\"How, My Lord?\" Sycelle asks. \"By force?\"\n\n\"Eventually, if it comes to that. Can your little birds find their way into Meeridan?\" Lord Tetsuo asks Yukimi. \n\n\"Most certainly, my Lord Hand.\" Yukimi says.\n\n\"Lord Inoue, be a good man. Fetch my quill and paper.\" Lord Tetsuo hums and orders as the man rushes to comply. \n\nIn the Seraphin Throne room, Lady Yukimi arrives early to the trial to find one other there. \n\n\"Prince Basteya.\"\n\n\"Lady Yukimi.\"\n\n\"Only Yukimi. I'm not actually a noblewoman. No one is under obligation to call me Lady.\" Yukimi says. \n\n\"And yet everyone does.\" Basteya says. \n\n\"You seem quite knowledgeable about the Untainted. Did you spend much time in the Bay of Slaves?\"\n\n\"Five years.\" Basteya responds. \n\n\"May I ask why?\" Yukimi probes. \n\n\"'We are in a big and beautiful world. Most of us live and die in the same corner where we were born and never get to see any of it. I don't want to be most of us.\" Basteya says. \n\n\"Most of us aren't princes.\" Yukimi says.\n\n\"You are from Shinjuku. Where? Kyrna?\" Basteya asks as Yukimi squints in curiosity he continues. \"I have an ear for accents.\" \n\n\"I've lost my accent entirely.\" Yukimi says. \n\n\"I have an ear for that as well. How did you get here?\" Basteya interrogates. \n\n\"It's a long story.\" Yukimi says. \n\n\"One you don't like telling people.\" Basteya says. \n\n\"People I trust.\" Yukimi shrugs. \n\n\"My paramour Eliana, she would find you very interesting. You should come to the brothel and meet her. We brought our own wine, not the swill they serve here. We have some lovely boys on retainer, alphas and betas, but...\" Basteya trails off. \n\nYukimi remains silent. \n\n\"You did like it? Being with an alpha or a beta?\" Basteya says. \n\nYukimi shakes her head. \n\n\"Really? Omegas? Hmm. I hope you won't be offended when I say I never would have guessed.\" Basteya says. \n\n\"Not at all. But I was never interested in omegas, either.\" Yukimi says.\n\n\"What then?\"\n\n\"Nothing.\" Yukimi says simply. \n\n\"Everybody is interested in something.\" Basteya says, almost confounded. \n\n\"Not me. When I see what desire does to people, what it's done to this country, I am very glad to have no part in it. Besides, the absence of desire leaves one free to pursue other things.\" Yukimi shrugs. \n\n\"Such as?\" Basteya questions. \n\nYukimi only looks over to the Seraphin Throne in all of its glory. She gives him one last glance before walking past and leaving him to ponder. \n\nIn the dungeons, Kureto opens one of the small dark metal windows on the door to peek in. \n\nHe spots Shinya in his black clothes sitting and waiting on his horrible bed. Shinya gets up at the sight as Kureto turns back to tell the guard to open the door. \n\nKureto opens the door and walks in with his gold-plated armor, his face a stoic mask. \n\n\"Let me guess, I've been pardoned.\" Shinya says. \n\nKureto nods an order to the guards behind him and they move to slip the manacles onto Shinya's hands. \n\n\"Really?\" Shinya asks in disbelief. \n\n\"Uncle's orders.\" Kureto says. \n\n\"Well, we mustn't disappoint Uncle.\" Shinya says as Kureto moves to lead him to the throne room.\n\nThe doors to the throne room opens, Kureto bounds down the steps with Shinya following close behind flanked by two guards. Their armor clanks as they climb down the steps. The floor is made in an aisle leading to the dais where people surround the aisle with a clear walkway. People sit on wooden stands at different levels as they watch the proceedings.  \n\n\"Sisterfucker!\" A man shouts in the distance. \n\nShinya and Kureto make their way to the stand as, the omega's face remaining hardened and bitter. He looks up and sees Tyuri on the Seraphin Throne with Lord Tetsuo by his side. \n\nShinya is helped onto the accused dais before they chain his manacles to the stand. Kureto and the guards leave him standing before the new King. Shinya turns to look at the crowd and take measure of the room. \n\nTyuri stands at Lord Tetsuo's look causing the crowd to rise, as well. Shinya turns back to the front. \n\nThe throne is flanked by two chairs on the same level where Lord Inoue sits on the left and Prince Basteya on the right. Mahiru sits further from Lord Inoue on a lower level. Rika and Reo are to the further right. \n\n\"I, Tyuri of the House Hiiragi, First of my Name, King of the Andals and the First Men, and Lord of the Six Kingdoms, do hereby recuse myself from this trial. Tetsuo of the House Hiiragi, Hand of the King, and Protector of the Realm will sit as judge in my stead. And with him Prince Basteya of the House Irclu and Lord Yukio of the House Inoue. And if found guilty...\" Tyuri looks at his uncle, who's face softens slightly at him, \"May the gods punish the accused.\"\n\nTyuri in his golden crown makes his way down the steps and passes one lingering glance to his uncle before leaving with his guard. Kureto nods to him from the side.  \n\nBasteya and Lord Inoue take their seats with Lord Tetsuo sitting on the Seraphin Throne. Everyone takes their seats, as well. \n\n\"Shinya of the House Hiiragi, you stand accused by the Queen Regent of regicide. Did you kill King Takashi?\" Lord Tetsuo says. \n\n\"No.\" Shinya shakes his head. \n\n\"Did your sister, Lady Shinoa?\" Lord Tetsuo asks. \n\n\"Not that I know of.\" Shinya answers with a slight shrug. \n\n\"How would you say he died, then?\" Lord Tetsuo asks. \n\n\"Choked on his pigeon pie.\" Shinya says, uninterested as his anger boils underneath the façade. Kureto looks at him admonishingly. \n\n\"So you would blame the bakers?\" Lord Tetsuo levels. \n\n\"Or the pigeons. Just leave me out of it.\" Shinya says tensely. Mahiru glares at him in her dark dress.\n\n\"The crown may call its first witness.\" Lord Tetsuo concedes. \n\nIn the throne room, Fuola Honte is placed on the witness stand diagonal from Shinya. Shinya stews on the side as he glares with hatred at the man who only looks at him smugly the entire time. \n\n\"Once we'd got King Takashi safely away from the mob, the omega rounded on him. He slapped the King across the face and called him a vicious idiot and a fool. It wasn't the first time the omega threatened King Takashi. Right here in this throne room, he marched up those steps and called our king a halfwit. Compared His Grace to the Mad King and suggested he'd meet the same fate. And when I spoke in the King's defense, he threatened to have me killed.\" Fuola Honte says as the crowd hangs off his every word.\n\nHonte glances back at Shinya who has decided he's had enough of the man's horseshit.  \n\n\"Oh, why don't you tell them what Takashi was doing?\" Shinya says. \n\n\"Silence!\" Lord Tetsuo shouts. \n\nBut, Shinya only continues to talk louder, \"Pointing a loaded crossbow at Shinoa Hiiragi while you tore at her clothes and beat her.\"\n\n\"Silence! You will not speak unless called upon.\" Lord Tetsuo shouts at Shinya, \"You're dismissed, Ser Fuola.\"\n\nSer Fuola climbs off the witness stand and has a smug look on his face as he crosses past Shinya's hateful glare. \n\nNext on the witness stand, the old curmudgeon Grand Maester Sycelle takes his place for a testimonial. \n\n\"Basilisk venom, widow's blood, wolfsbane, essence of nightshade, sweet-sleep, tears of Kyrn, demon's dance, blind eye-\" Sycelle lists off a piece of paper. \n\n\"I think you have made your point, Grand Maester. You have a lot of poison in your store.\" Prince Basteya tries to shut him up. \n\n\"Had, Prince Basteya. My stores were plundered.\" Sycelle says. \n\n\"By whom?\" Lord Tetsuo asks.\n\n\"By the accused, Shinya Hiiragi, after he had me wrongfully imprisoned.\" Sycelle says, glaring at Shinya. \n\nShinya can only gape in somewhat amused disbelief at the lengths that cunt, Mahiru went to make sure he loses his head. \n\n\"Grand Maester, you examined King Takashi's corpse. Was it without question poison that killed him?\" Lord Tetsuo asks. \n\n\"Without question.\" Grand Maester Sycelle says. \n\nThe crowd murmurs amongst themselves around Shinya as Sycelle removes a necklace from around his neck. Rika's eyes shut as she pulls her black shawl tighter against her matching gown. \n\n\"This was found on the body of Kaito Hayashi, the King's fool. He was last seen spiriting Shinoa Hiiragi, the close sister of the accused, away from the feast. She wore this necklace the day of the wedding. Residue of a most rare and terrible poison was found inside.\" Sycelle says. \n\n\"Was this one of the poisons stolen from your store?\" Lord Tetsuo asks. \n\n\"It was. The Strangler. A poison few in the Six Kingdoms possess. And used to strike down the noblest child the gods ever put on this good earth.\" Sycelle grits out with seething hate towards Shinya. \n\nShinya can only keep his eyes downcast, even as the disbelief fills Kureto and Rika who knew Takashi's character and honor. \n\nThe crowd murmurs amongst themselves. Kureto looks at a defeated and hate-filled Shinya as Basteya wavers.\n\nThe royal bitch, herself takes the stand as Mahiru is placed on the witness podium. Her chair now emptied as she leans on the edges of the dais.\n\nShinya remains silent as the rage builds within. Murmurs of the \"Great Beauty of the West\" go around the room.\n\n\"\"\"I will hurt you for this. A day will come when you think you are safe and happy and your joy will turn to ashes in your mouth and you will know the debt is paid.\"\" Mahiru repeats the words Shinya told her almost two years ago. \n\n\"Your own brother said this to you?\" Lord Inoue says in legitimate shock.\n\nMahiru nods with watery eyes at remembrance of Takashi, \"Shortly before the Battle of Bluewater Bay. I confronted him about his plans to put Takashi on the front lines. As it turned out, when the attack came, Tak insisted on remaining at the battlements. He believed his presence would inspire the troops.\" \n\n\"Shinya said, \"And you will know the debt is paid.\" What debt?\" Prince Basteya inquires.\n\n\"It is no longer an old tale. But, my brother had a lifelong salacious affair with my former betrothed, the Kingslayer, Guren Ichinose. He and the traitor carried on together for years even when I was promised to him. Their relationship was one of an intimate nature. When he found out I was to kill that traitor for treason, he wasn't pleased.\" Mahiru says. \n\nShinya can only shake his head at how his smug foolishness has come to bite him in the ass.  \n\n\"Thank you, Your Grace, for the courage of your testimony.\" Lord Inoue says. \n\nRika only sighs as Mahiru avoids Shinya's gaze while climbing down the steps of the stand. Kureto watches the omega as she sits. \n\nMahiru's eyes lock onto Shinya's both reflecting the cold, murderous hatred they have for each other. \n\nLord Tetsuo stands from his chair and declares, \"We will adjourn for now.\"\n\nThe three judges stand. \n\n\"Toll the bells in an hour's time.\" Lord Tetsuo commands. \n\n\"Clear the court!\" A guard shouts as the crowd stands.\n\nShinya looks around. The omega's eyes find Kureto's who turns to find Mahiru's hate-filled, moist eyes turn from Shinya to him. \n\nShinya finally sits, dejected when he is left all alone in the throne room. \n\nIn Lord Tetsuo's chambers, the man sits at his table to enjoy his lunch of roasted pheasant. Kureto stands before the man. He has come to plea Shinya's case since the omega is too drained and incapacitated to do so himself. \n\n\"You'd condemn your own nephew to death?\" Kureto asks. \n\n\"I've condemned no one. The trial is not over.\" Lord Tetsuo says. \n\n\"This isn't a trial. It's a farce. Mahiru has manipulated everything and you know it.\" Kureto tells him. \n\n\"I know nothing of the sort.\" Lord Tetsuo says. \n\n\"You've always hated Shinya.\" Kureto says. \n\n\"He killed his King.\" Lord Tetsuo says. \n\n\"As did we.\" Kureto says. \n\n\"Guren was the one who landed the blow.\" Lord Tetsuo says. \n\n\"But, you and father were the ones who would have done it if he had remained docile for a second until we arrived.\" Kureto says. \"This will be murder.\"\n\n\"It won't be murder. It'll be justice.\"\n\n\"Justice?\" Kureto asks in disbelief. \n\n\"I'm performing my sworn duty as Hand of the King. If Shinya is found guilty, he will be punished accordingly.\" Lord Tetsuo says. \n\n\"He'll be executed.\" \n\n\"No, he'll be punished accordingly.\" Lord Tetsuo corrects. \n\n\"Once you said family is what lives on. All that lives on. You told me about a dynasty that would last 1,000 years. What happens to your dynasty when Shinya dies? I'm a Kingsguard, forbidden by oath to carry on the family line.\" Kureto says. \n\n\"I'm well aware of your oath.\"\n\n\"What happens to your name? Who carries the lion banner into future battles? Your bastard? Hozumi Iwasaki?\" Kureto says. \n\n\"What happens to my dynasty if I spare the life of my grandson's killer?\" Lord Tetsuo says. \n\nKureto looks at the man and knows he just may be saying the stupidest thing he will ever. He has to do this to repay Shinya for the way he's always treated him when the omega has only ever helped him when he needed it. He has to save him, the way Shinya saved him by launching the wildfire at Bluewater Bay. \"It survives through me. I'll leave the Kingsguard. I'll take my place as heir to Hakone if you let Shinya live.\"\n\n\"Why are you doing this now?\" Lord Tetsuo asks, surprised for once at a move he did not anticipate, \"For him?\"\n\n\"Repaying debts as a Hiiragi does.\" Kureto says. \n\n\"Done.\" Lord Tetsuo says to a speechless Kureto, \"When the testimonies have concluded and a guilty verdict rendered, Shinya will be given the chance to speak. He'll plead for mercy. I'll allow him to join the Watch. In three days' time, he'll depart for Nagoya and live out his days at the Wall alone and under the protection of the Hanayori's. You'll remove your white cloak immediately. You will leave Shibuya to assume your rightful place at Hiiragi Rock. You will marry a suitable omega and father children named Hiiragi. And you'll never turn your back on your family again.\" \n\n\"You have my word.\" Kureto agrees. \n\n\"And you have mine.\" Lord Tetsuo nods.\n\nThe bell begins to toll causing Kureto to exit and Lord Tetsuo to finish his wine. \n\nIn the Throne Room, the crowd begins to retake their seats on the stand as Shinya rises. \n\nKureto enters and makes his way over to Shinya who turns to him. \n\n\"Not going well, is it?\" Shinya asks. \n\n\"You're going to be found guilty.\" Kureto tells him. \n\n\"Oh, you think so?\" Shinya says sardonically. \n\n\"When you are, you need to enter a formal plea for mercy and ask to be sent to the Wall. Father's agreed to it. He'll spare your life and allow you to join the Night's Watch. He'll ensure you are protected and taken care of by the Hanayori's.\" Kureto says. \n\n\"Guren was promised the same thing and we both know how that turned out.\" Shinya says as the realization hits him that he most likely will never see Guren again. \n\nMahiru enters and glares at the sight of her brothers whispering as she retakes her seat. \n\n\"Father is not Takashi. He'll keep his word.\" Kureto tries to reassure Shinya. \n\n\"How do you know?\" Shinya says, but their conversation is cut short. \n\nThe three judges return and sit down in their respective chairs after the crowd rises.\n\n\"Do you trust me?\" Kureto whispers. \n\n\"Strangely.\" Shinya nods. \n\n\"Then, for once in your life, keep your mouth shut. No more outbursts. This will all be over soon.\" Kureto says. \n\nKureto retakes his place to the right of the steps.  \n\n\"The crown may call its next witness.\" Lord Tetsuo declares. \n\nShinya turns at the sound of dainty footsteps and his eyes widen at the sight of Yukimi somehow being coerced into this. His closest friend and a person he thought he could always trust. Yukimi keeps her gaze straight ahead as she takes the witness stand. \n\n\"State your name.\" Lord Tetsuo says. \n\n\"Shigure Yukimi.\" \n\n\"And what is your title?\"\n\n\"The Master of Whispers.\" Yukimi says. \n\n\"Do you swear by all the gods that your testimony will be true and honest?\" Lord Tetsuo says. \n\n\"I swear it.\" Yukimi agrees. \n\n\"Do you know this man well?\" Lord Tetsuo asks. \n\nYukimi nods, \"Shinya Hiiragi, we serve on the council together.\"\n\n\"Is that all there is to your relationship?\" Basteya asks. \n\n\"Yes, I found out information about him and I have not spoken to him since I did.\" Yukimi says as Shinya sinks back into the stand in utter despair. Mahiru can only look triumphant as she watches her brother fall further into his pit of melancholy. \n\n\"What was the nature of this disagreement?\" Lord Inoue asks.\n\n\"I found out that he was conspiring and planning to murder the King Takashi Hiiragi.\" Lady Yukimi says as the crowd gasps loudly with murmuring going off all around, \"I heard whispers from my little birds that he was planning to poison Takashi Hiiragi using Shinoa as an easy way to do so.\"\n\n\"Are your little birds not children? How accurate can this be?\" Prince Basteya asks. \n\n\"If it came from one, it would be something.\" Yukimi says, \"But, I had five of my little birds return with information that Lord Hiiragi was planning to murder King Takashi in some way.\"\n\n\"Are you saying that he is guilty of murdering King Takashi?\" Lord Tetsuo asks. \n\n\"I believe he is the one who did so.\" Yukimi nods. \n\n\"Did Lady Shinoa have any knowledge or involvement with the plans?\" Prince Basteya asks. \n\n\"I would not know that, My Lord.\" Lady Yukimi says, \"She was only a part of that plan with the poison, otherwise the only name mentioned was Lord Hiiragi's.\"\n\nShinya feels the bitter resentment, fury, and betrayal finally taking shape and rising in his body. \n\n\"Why did you wait so long to say anything?\" Prince Basteya asks. \n\n\"I had only recently found out after checking with my little birds, and so I confided in the Queen.\" Lady Yukimi says, \"She insisted I take the stand to voice the truth.\"\n\nShinya glares hatefully at Mahiru as his face scrunches up. \n\nThe murmuring of the crowd has only grown louder. \n\n\"Silence! Continue.\" Lord Tetsuo urges. \"Why would he want to kill King Takashi?\"\n\n\"He wanted revenge for his lover. He blamed his death on the King. He hated Takashi. He hated the Queen. He hated you, My Lord.\" Yukimi rattles off. \"My little bird told me he saw him steal poison from the Grand Maester's chamber to put in Takashi's wine.\"\n\n\"How did Lord Shinya treat you?\" Lord Inoue asked, \"You said he was your friend and you were very close.\"\n\n\"He treated me almost like he owned me. He never desired me, but he told me that no one would ever. He only used and talked to me when he needed something done for him.\" Yukimi says, \"He made many comments about the state of my womb and my ability to never bear children. He treated me like I was his property to use as he wanted to.\" \n\nShinya is shrunken down in the dais, struggling to restrain tears as he feels the sting of the betrayal and lies. He weakly and quietly lets out, \"Shigure.\"\n\nYukimi turns to face him. \n\n\"Shigure, Please. Stop.\" Shinya's face begs, but his words instill all of his pleading that his best friend not continue to lie about him to get him killed.\n\n\"I am nothing, and can give nothing of mine to this world.\" Yukimi turns back and continues, \"But, if the right man who committed this atrocity is punished, justice will be served. Shinya Hiiragi wanted to kill Takashi for Shinoa, after the way he treated her and if you want to talk to my little birds, as well. They will gladly tell you the many ways the he killed the King and the one that succeeded.\"\n\nShinya looks down, completely broken, betrayed, and defeated. Kureto looks at his brother, worried. Mahiru looks gratified as she watches him crumble.  \n\n\"Uncle, I wish to confess.\" Shinya says before looking up to Lord Tetsuo and speaking louder. \"I wish...to confess.\" \n\n\"You wish to confess?\" Lord Tetsuo asks as Kureto looks at Shinya in shock. \n\nShinya looks up and around at everyone in the crowd and at those on the steps above him, his voice is entirely bitter when he speaks with a sneer, \"I saved you. I saved this city and all your worthless lives. I should have let Seishirou kill you all.\"\n\nThe crowd clamors and shouts. \n\n\"Shinya, do you wish to confess?\" Lord Tetsuo asks Shinya who turns to face him. \n\n\"Yes, Uncle. I'm guilty. Guilty. Is that what you want to hear?\" Shinya says his face filled with a relief-filled, manic slight grin.\"You admit you poisoned the King?\" Lord Tetsuo asks.\n\n\"No, of that I'm innocent. I'm guilty of a far more monstrous crime. I am guilty of being an omega.\" Shinya says\"You are not on trial for being an omega.\" Lord Tetsuo says.\"Oh, yes, I am. But, not just that. I'm an omega with nothing that was brought from an orphanage by Tenri Hiiragi to be made into a legitimate omegan son along with his trueborn children. I've been on trial for that my entire life.\" Shinya bites out with a sneer. \n\n\"Have you nothing to say in your defense?\" Lord Tetsuo asks. \"Nothing but this-I did not do it. I did not kill Takashi, but I wish that I had.\" Shinya shouts at the entire court before his fury-filled eyes land on Mahiru. \"Watching your vicious bastard die gave me more relief than 1,000 lays with Guren.\"Shinya turns fully to address the crowd with scorn filling his voice, \"I wish I was the monster you think I am. I wish I had enough poison for the whole pack of you. I would gladly give my life to watch you all swallow it.\"\n\nThe crowds shouts of anger and clamors grow louder. The crowd only gets more uproarious by the minute.Lord Tetsuo stands, \"Ser Fuola. Ser Fuola. Escort the prisoner back to his cell.\"\n\n\"I will not give my life for Takashi's murder. And I know I'll get no justice here. So I will let the gods decide my fate. I demand a trial by combat.\" Shinya declares.The crowd clamors and roars of disbelief and shock fill the room as it only rises from there. \n\nRika and Reo look towards Lord Tetsuo. Yukimi glances back at the crowd and looks back to the head judge on the throne. \n\nPrince Basteya leans forward in his seat, a slight look of intrigue taking over his face. \n\nKureto swallows and sighs silently, closing his eyes and looking down in defeat and simultaneous relief. \n\nMahiru's nails dig into the ends of the chair's handles as a cold, loathing glare overtakes her face as she aims it towards Shinya. \n\nShinya's breath heaves slightly, but remains unheard over the crowd. He looks up in solemn defiance and determination as a small, triumphant smile overtakes his face. Lord Tetsuo can only coldly glare with seething resentment at the omega who has upended and destroyed yet another one of his plans to secure his House's future. He looks down at Shinya's triumphant slight grin. The omega knows he's won this challenge and upset his family the only way that he truly can, and for that he feels like the greatest winner despite the remaining uncertain circumstances. He allows the relief he feels from letting it all out overtake him as he looks up at his Uncle who glares down at him.  "}
+{"text": "The following morning, Foggy reluctantly woke the still dopey Matt. “Hey, Matty.” \n\nMatt gave a grunt that clearly said, I hear you, but please go away now. \n\n“Matt, I know you probably feel like shit and want to keep sleeping, but I have to remind you about last night.” He continued quickly while he had Matt’s attention. “Daisy needs to go to the vet to get her paw looked at.”  \n\nMatt rolled over and mumbled, “Daisy?” \n\n“She cut her paw. She’s okay. Claire got the glass out, but she needs to get it checked by a vet. She might need antibiotics or something. I can take her, but I thought you might want to come too.” \n\n“Yes, yes of course,” Matt said, struggling upright and searching for the dog. \n\n“Also, we have that appointment to see Fisk this afternoon. If you’re too tired, I can go alone or we can try and reschedule-” \n\n“No, I’ll come,” Matt said quickly just as Daisy burrowed out from beneath a pile of blanket. He put a gentle hand on Daisy’s back and brushed the back of his hand down her leg to the bandage Claire had wrapped around Daisy’s paw. “How-how-” \n\n“It wasn’t your fault, Matt,” Foggy started, which was exactly the wrong thing to say to Matt. He was predictably distressed when he found out what happened. He refused to put Daisy down for the next half hour, going so far as to nurse her at the kitchen table while he had a morning coffee and searched for a nearby vet online. Eventually, Foggy pointed out that she had three other legs and would probably benefit from a visit outside to pee. Matt rushed upstairs with her under one arm so that Daisy could relieve herself on the rooftop doggy grass patch. \n\n\n \n\n\nFoggy wasn’t happy about letting Matt take Daisy to the vet alone in his tired state, but they had back-to-back client meetings that morning and at least one of them needed to be at the office. Fortunately, Candy was working in the office that day and ended up sitting in on the meetings in Matt's place. \n\nWhen Matt returned from the vet, Daisy under one arm, he was immediately swamped by Candy and Karen who cooed over Daisy. The dog squirmed, sick of being carried. \n\n“You have a meeting with Harvey Savage in ten minutes, Matt,” Karen said as Matt struggle to keep a grip on the wriggling dog. “Do you want me to take Daisy?” \n\nMatt shook his head, and carried her to his office, placing Daisy in her basket with the utmost care. Daisy immediately jumped out, giving a vigorous shake in protest. She limped over to Candy on three legs, trying and failing to jump up to say hi.  \n\n“Daisy, no,” Matt ordered, chasing after the dog. “Daisy, you need to lie down.”  \n\nCandy laughed and picked up the wagging dog. “Matt, she’s fine. She has three other legs. You just have to make sure she doesn’t chew through the bandage.” \n\n“She had glass in her paw. She’s been through a trauma,” Matt replied. \n\n“But she’ll survive,” Foggy said, emerging from his office. “How did it go?” \n\nMatt rubbed the back of his neck. “Uh, good. Yeah. She got vaccinated for all sorts of stuff. I didn’t know – I didn’t…” He petered off, the guilt washing over him. \n\n“If only they came with a manual, huh” Candy said. “We used to give our dog grapes all the time until we read just recently that grapes are poisonous for dogs.” \n\n“What happened?” Matt whispered, his eyes wide. \n\n“Nothing, he’s fine,” Candy said. “But we’re not going to give him grapes anymore.” \n\n“Grapes,” Foggy repeated in disbelief. \n\nKaren cleared her throat. “Uh, guys, your eleven o’clock is due any moment.” \n\n“Oh, yeah, um, Candy, do you want to continue with Foggy on this one. I-I have something I need to do,” Matt said, grabbing Daisy from Candy’s arms and disappearing into his office. \n\nWhen Karen knocked on Matt’s door ten minutes later, she was greeted with “did you know that dogs shouldn’t eat dried pasta or coffee?” \n\n“Matt, have you ever thought about giving Daisy coffee?” \n\n“No.” \n\n“Well there you go,” Karen replied. “She’s safe.” Her mouth twitched at the sight of Daisy sitting on Matt’s lap, her head just poking up above the desk. “Uh, Matt, I wanted to talk to you about those lists.” \n\nMatt stopped what he was doing and sat up straight. “Did you find anything?” \n\n“Yeah,” Karen whispered. She placed a braille document in front of him, and he quickly skimmed it. As he got to the bottom of the list, she said, “you were right - the overlap between Fisk’s associates and the victims is too close to be an accident.” \n\nMatt balled his left hand into a fist. “I knew it. It’s gotta be Fisk.” \n\n“That’s the obvious answer, yes. But how’s he doing it?” \n\nMatt shook his head. “I don’t know. Uh, you said obvious answer – does that mean-” \n\nKaren leaned in and said in a whisper, “I mean maybe it’s just designed to look obvious. What if Fisk is being set up?” \n\n“By whom?” \n\n“Well that’s the question. Do you know anyone?” \n\nMatt thought for a moment. “I just don’t know what’s to be gained by framing Fisk for a series of druggings. He’s already in jail, and he will be for a long time.” Matt combed his fingers through Daisy’s hair. “I’ll ask him this afternoon.” \n\n“This afternoon? What’s happening this afternoon?” \n\n“Oh, we didn’t tell you. We’re going to visit Fisk.” \n\n“What?! When – why?” \n\n“We only arranged it yesterday, and you were off doing, um-” \n\n“Compiling this list for you,” Karen said pointedly. \n\n“Yeah,” Matt said, giving her what he hoped was a distracting smile. \n\n“I want to come.” \n\n“No, that’s impossible, Karen,” Matt said quickly. \n\nKaren crossed her arms. “Why, because I’m a woman?” \n\n“No,” Matt spluttered. “Of course not. We-we only got permission for the two of us.” \n\n“So Foggy’s in on it?” \n\nMatt rubbed his forehead. “Karen, there’s no in on it. It’s – it’s just – please leave it. We’ll give you an overview when we return.” He gave Daisy’s ears a rub. “We need someone to look after Daisy and she loves you the best.” Matt gave her a small, hopeful smile. \n\n“Great, the woman has to dogsit,” Karen muttered. \n\nMatt exhaled through pursed lips. He decided to switch subject. “Kare, can- can you help me find the form for parking violation disputes?” \n\nKaren did a double take at the change of topic. “Uh, sure. Is this for Mrs Lopez? I’ve already filled it out. I just need her signature.” \n\n“Oh, uh, thanks,” Matt said. “What would I do without you?” \n\n“You’re not going to get out of this with flattery, Murdock. Next time, I’m coming with you. I don’t want to be sidelined.” \n\nMatt sighed. Between Foggy’s insistence on being his night time wingman, and Karen’s whatever-this-was, he was feeling a little suffocated. Things were much easier when Daredevil was a lone vigilante and he didn’t have to consult with someone at every turn. But to sate Karen, Matt gave a small nod. It seemed to satisfy her because she turned on her heels and left the office. \n\n\n \n\n\nAfter the morning’s drama, the effects of the previous night’s seizure started to catch up on Matt and he fell asleep at his desk. Daisy was still curled up in his lap. \n\n“It just keeps getting cuter,” Karen said to Foggy. \n\nFoggy raised his eyebrows. “Cute isn’t the word I’d use. Ergh, I’m going to have to wake him up. We have to be at Rikers in an hour.” \n\n“I could come instead,” Karen said, glancing sideways. \n\n“Matt would kill me if I went without him. No, I’ll give him another ten minutes and then wake him up.” \n\n“Seriously, Foggy. I don’t think he’d mind.” \n\nFoggy turned and looked at Karen through narrowed eyes. “You’ve talked about this with Matt already, haven’t you?” \n\nKaren crossed her arms and stared at him in defiance. “Yeah, so?” \n\n“I’m going to wake him,” Foggy said, starting towards the door. \n\n“Foggy, wait,” Karen said, pulling him back. She whispered, “yeah, I talked to him. He didn’t want me to go,” she paused, considering her next words, “but Foggy, I don’t like being sidelined like this. I’m part of this – as much a part as you two.” \n\n“What did Matt say?” \n\nKaren chewed her lip, hesitated then said, “you’d give me an overview when you return.” \n\n“Exactly. We can even give you a detailed overview if you’d like. Besides, Candy needs the company and the help.” \n\nKaren rolled her eyes and returned to her desk. \n\nFoggy sighed and focused on the task of waking Matt instead. At times, the office felt like a battleground of competing personalities. \n\n\n \n\n\n \n\nAs Matt and Foggy were entering the secure part of the prison, Foggy stopped dead and tugged at Matt's sleeve. \"That assistant DA you were talking to-\" \n\n\"Kirsten McDuffie,\" Matt supplied. \n\n\"Yeah, she's here.\" \n\nMatt tilted his head, listening to the discussion between Kirsten and the security staff. \n\n\"Matt, you can't do that,\" Foggy hissed. \"You of all people know how important confidentiality is in this place.\" \n\n\"She's talking about recent breaches in security,\" Matt whispered back. \n\n\"That's not new,\" Foggy muttered. \n\n\"Yeah, but these are sophisticated ones. Cameras are switched off, recordings just disappear without a trace.\" \n\nFoggy raised his eyebrows. \"Let's talk about this later. We have an appointment to keep.\" Foggy started towards the security x-ray machine. \"You coming, Matt?\" \n\nMatt was standing still with his head tipped down, deep in concentration. \n\n\"Matt,\" Foggy hissed. \n\nMatt started. \"Yeah, sorry, Fog.\" He caught up to Foggy and took his arm. \n\n\n \n\n\nAs they passed through the x-ray machine, Kirsten spotted them. \"The Hell's Kitchen attorney duo,\" she said. \"It's Kirsten, we met the other day,\" she added for Matt's benefit. \n\nMatt smiled. \"I recognise your voice.\" \n\n\"Oh,\" Kirsten said, looking surprised but flattered at the same time. \"Who are you here to see? I thought you only defended the innocent.\" \n\nThe two men remained silent for a moment, both trying to work out whether it was wise to reveal the reason for their visit. Eventually Matt said, \"Fisk. Wilson Fisk.\" \n\nKirsten stared. \"I didn't realise-\" \n\nThey were interrupted by a booming voice behind them. \"Mr Murdock, Mr Nelson.\" \n\n\"Mr Donovan,\" Matt replied with a nod.  \n\n\"Sorry for keeping you waiting. I'll need to talk to you for a few moments before we proceed.\" \n\nKirsten watched the exchange with interest. Benjamin Donovan - Fisk’s lawyer - completely ignored her, turning his back on her as he ushered Matt and Foggy into an adjacent room. \n\nMr Donovan shut the door behind them. \"We can never be too sure.\" He pulled a couple of pieces of paper from a leather-bound folder, handing Foggy and printed agreement, and Matt a braille version. \"Mr Fisk insisted I cater to your particular disability, Mr Murdock. He's a very considerate man.\" Matt turned the paper up the right way before scanning the contract at speed.  \n\n“You will refer to Mr Fisk only as Mr Fisk and you will not ask any questions until I personally approve of them first. You will not discuss this meeting or its content with anyone. He doesn't have to do this, Mr Murdock and Mr Nelson, just remember that.\" He gave them a broad smile, but it didn't reach his eyes. \n\n“That’s a lot of rules,” Matt said. \n\n“Rules are what separate us from the animals, Mr Murdock.” \n\nMatt pulled out a pen and signed the contract before handing Foggy the pen. Foggy hesitated, worried about the details of the agreement. \"Do you have a problem, Mr Nelson?\" \n\n\"Uh, no, it's fine,\" Foggy said, scribbling his name at the bottom of the paper and handing the contract to Mr Donovan. \n\n\"Follow me,\" Mr Donovan instructed. \n\nThey walked through the labyrinthine corridors in silence. Matt could hear Foggy's heartbeat quicken as they wandered further and further away from the visiting area. \n\nAs they passed through a set of heavy double doors, one of the guards said, \"Dakoda one\" into his radio. Matt heard the reply, \"copy. Enacted.\" The cryptic exchange sent a shiver down Matt's spine, and he increased the grip on Foggy's arm. \n\nMatt eventually caught the heavy breathing that could only be Fisk's. As they passed through the door, Mr Donovan said, \"mind the cane.\" \n\nFoggy replied, \"he's allowed the cane under ADA rules.\" \n\n\"Foggy, it's fine,\" Matt said, handing over the cane, which was then passed to a waiting guard. Matt kept a hold of Foggy's arm as they entered the room. \n\n\"Five minutes,\" Mr Donovan said, closing the door. He stood behind the Foggy and Matt, just out of range of Foggy’s peripheral vision. It was unnerving. \n\n\"Mr Murdock, Mr Nelson,\" Fisk said. \n\n\"Mr Fisk,\" Matt replied with a nod. \n\nStaring straight at Foggy, Fisk sat back in his chair and said, \"for what do I owe the pleasure?\" \n\nFoggy opened his mouth, but Matt beat him to it. \"We want to know about your involvement in the druggings that have occurred of late.\" \n\n“You don’t have to answer that, Mr Fisk,” Mr Donovan interrupted. \n\nFisk smirked. \"It’s fine, Mr Donovan.” He turned back to Matt. “Mr Murdock, I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about.\" \n\n\"Impossible,\" Foggy said. \"Dozens of your old associates have been jailed thanks to the drug’s psychosis-inducing effects.\" \n\nFisk leaned back in his seat and waited. \n\nMatt said, \"how are you doing it? Who are your contacts on the outside?\" \n\n\"I told you, I have no idea what you're talking about.\" \n\n\"But you do,\" Matt insisted more forcefully. \"You know exactly what we're talking about. What is your involvement?\" \n\n\"I have no involvement. Ask the guards, ask my fellow inmates. I do not have that kind of reach in here.\" \n\nMatt listened intently to Fisk's heartbeat. His heartbeat revealed the lie of his earlier statement. He had heard about the druggings, there was no doubt. But this last statement was different. Either he was a master of concealment or he really was telling the truth: he really wasn't involved in the druggings. \n\nMatt decided to try a different tack. \"But you have some guards working for you. That guard who turned off the security cameras as soon as we walked in, for instance.\" \n\nFisk raised his eyebrows. \"I'm afraid this meeting has come to an end.\" He called out, “Mr Donovan, escort these two men out of here please.\" \n\n\"Vanessa,\" Matt said, leaning forward. \n\n\"Wait,\" Fisk said to Mr Donovan. \"Leave us.\" \n\nMr Donovan approached the table. “Mr Fisk, I highly recommend-” \n\n“Leave us,” Mr Fisk repeated, more forcefully this time. Mr Donovan looked between Matt and Foggy and then back at Fisk before silently leaving the room. \n\nFisk lowered his voice. \"What about Vanessa?\" \n\nMatt paused, listening to the change in Fisk’s heartbeat. Eventually he said, \"Vanessa - she was involved in your criminal activity. Maybe she still is. What's her involvement in your continued criminal enterprise, Mr Fisk?\" \n\n\"Leave Vanessa out of this,\" Fisk growled. \n\n\"Ah, but you see I can't. And I have more than enough evidence to put her away.\" \n\nFoggy put his hand on Matt's knee and whispered, \"Matt, don't.\" Matt shook Foggy's hand away. \n\n\"A quick call to the DA’s office is all it takes,” Matt said, clicking his fingers. “You see, I think she's involved in this somehow. And when I find out-\" \n\nMatt's threat was interrupted by a roar of rage from Fisk. He pulled his wrists out of unlocked handcuffs, and leaned across the table. Before either Matt or Foggy could react, Fisk slammed Matt's head hard against the table.  \n\nFoggy screamed, \"no, get off him. Help!\" He tried to pull Fisk's arms away, but Fisk hit Foggy in the nose before smashing Matt's head against the table again. Foggy yelled, \"help, guards,\" but it seemed like Matt was right about the guards being in his pocket. No one came, no one saw, no one cared. Foggy wrapped his body around Matt's head, protecting him from another injury. For some reason - and Foggy had no idea why – Matt wasn't fighting back. \n\nFisk stood back and brushed his hands against his sleeves as if wiping germs off his skin. With a grunt, he walked out of the room, leaving Foggy huddled around Matt. \"Are you okay, Matt?\" Foggy whispered.  \n\nMatt wiped his bleeding nose with his sleeve and croaked, \"yeah, fine.\" \n\n\"Here, Matt. I have a tissue,\" Foggy said, rummaging in his pocket. A drop of blood landed on his hand and he realised that his nose was bleeding too. \"Ergh,\" he moaned. \n\nMatt suddenly cottoned onto the fact that Foggy was injured too. \"Foggy – what happened. A-are you okay?\" \n\n\"Yeah, but we have matching noses now,\" Foggy replied, his voice muffled by the tissue. “Why didn’t you fight back?” \n\n“I-I-I don’t know what happened,” Matt said weakly. “I-I'm sorry, Fog. I shouldn't have put you in danger like that.\" \n\n\"It wasn't wise to goad him like that, but you weren't to know that the handcuffs were unlocked,\" Foggy said. He hesitated, \"did you know they were unlocked?\" \n\nMatt shook his head. \"My concentration was elsewhere.\" He swallowed. \"Let's get out of here. It's not safe.\" He stood up and stumbled slightly, his head still spinning. \n\n\"Take my arm. We're going to the hospital.\" \n\n\"No, Foggy, we can't.\" \n\n\"We can and we will. Your head just got slammed against a hard surface. Twice. You need to be checked for another brain injury. You're lucky your glasses didn't smash and cut you again.\" \n\n\"Foggy, shhh...\" Matt hissed as Fisk's lawyer entered the room. \n\n\"Your cane, Mr Murdock,\" the lawyer said as if nothing was out of the ordinary, nudging the cane against Matt's outstretched shaking hand. Matt snatched the cane with a thunderous expression on his face. \n\nAs they were exiting the prison, they heard a rush of footsteps behind them. \"Matt,\" Kirsten called.  \n\nMatt stopped but didn't turn around. Foggy pocketed his blood-soaked tissue as he turned to face Kirsten, but the nosebleed wasn't done yet and a couple of drips ran down his upper lip. He swore under his breath and retrieved the sopping tissue from his pocket. \n\n\"What happened?\" Kirsten said, but Foggy just shook his head. \n\nShe walked around to face Matt, whose bleeding nose had stopped, but the crust of blood on his upper lip remained. His nose and forehead were red and swollen, and he bit his lip as he felt her critical gaze. \n\n\"Seriously, you two, what happened?\" \n\nMatt stood up straight. \"I'm afraid we can't discuss it.” \n\n\"Who did this?\" \n\nMatt replied stiffly, \"I'm sorry, Kirsten, you know as well as I do that we can't discuss-\" \n\n\"But he's not your client. Or was it someone else?\" \n\nFoggy gave her a pleading look. \n\nMatt moved a little closer to Foggy and said, \"Goodbye, Kirsten.\" He gave her a brief nod before moving away, tugging Foggy to move faster. \n\n\"We can't tell anyone,\" Matt whispered. \"You know what we signed.\" \n\n\"Yeah, but it didn't include anything about being beaten up. We can easily argue assault lies outside a confidentiality agreement.\" \n\n\"I don’t want to get anyone else involved in this, Foggy. Not yet. It’s disappointing that we’ve hit a dead-end, but at least we have proof that Fisk's running the joint.\" \n\n\"No shit. Which means it wouldn't be hard to arrange the druggings.\" \n\n\"I – I really don't think he did it,\" Matt said. \"But not here. We'll discuss it later. I need to find an icepack.\"  \n\nFoggy sniffed and turned over the tissue, trying to find a corner that wasn't saturated. \"And I need a fresh tissue.\" \n\nOnce they were safely in the back of the cab, Matt added, \"and maybe the couch. Last night's seizure has me beat.\" \n\n\"I bet. Are you sure you won't go to the hospital?\" \n\n\"Very.\" \n\n\n \n\n\n \n\n\"You have to go to the police,\" Karen said when she heard what happened. \n\nMatt groaned from his horizontal position on his office couch. \"And say what, Karen? That Fisk runs the prison? That the guards turned off the surveillance system on his order? That they just ignored the fact that we were assaulted by Fisk?\" \n\nKaren crossed her arms. \"Okay, well what about Brett?\" \n\nFoggy looked at Matt over his icepack. \"We should probably warn Brett. He can keep an eye out. He needs to know Fisk is flexing his muscle on the inside.\" \n\nMatt removed the icepack from his forehead with a sigh. \"Okay, we'll tell Brett. You're right. He should be warned at least. But-\" he stopped and put on his glasses. \"But we need to make sure he doesn't do anything stupid or put himself in danger.\" \n\n\"You should take your own advice,\" Foggy muttered. \n\n\"I'm not going to apologise again, Foggy. It's done and we know more than we did this morning.\" \n\n\"We still don't know who's behind the druggings. If Fisk isn't, who is?\" \n\n\"I have a lead,\" Matt said, grunting as he sat up. He could feel his forehead pulsing with angry heat. He closed his eyes to gather himself. \n\nFoggy said, “you're not going out tonight, Matt. Not with a probable concussion, you're not.” \n\nMatt shook his head. \"I can't anyway. Melvin's trial is tomorrow. I have some last-minute things to catch up on.\" He stood up. \"I'll meet you at home.\" He scooped up Daisy and left before Karen and Foggy could interrogate him about his intentions. "}
+{"text": "A few days later found Tony, Michael, Mia, Ana, and Stephen standing before Rose Soveliss’s grave. May and Peter came as well for support, along with Rhodey and Carol. No one knew they were there, as thanks to Wong who was standing further back, they found a spell that would shield the funeral from prying eyes. All others would see was a family in mourning. Michael and Mia were crying, while Ana’s eyes shined with unshed tears. She held Mia while Tony had his arm around Michael. Peter came up and rubbed Mia’s back while hugging Ana, and for that Tony was grateful. When they left, Wong walked closer and spoke up. \n\n\t“The Masters wish to see you and…Riven… Ana.” Tony glared at the librarian. \n\n\t“Now? Can we have a bit more time? We just laid Mom to rest…” Ana said softly, looking at the man as the unshed tears began to fall. Wong watched, before nodding, looking slightly ashamed. \n\n\t“Of course. I will let them know you are in mourning.” Ana nodded, and it wasn’t until everyone parted and Tony and the kids were in the car that she wiped them away, completely fine. \n\n\t“I can’t tell if I’m disturbed by your ‘acting’ or proud.” Tony said, raising an eyebrow at her. Stephen had warned them that some of the Masters from Kamar-Taj would be nearby, not only to help with the spell but to watch Ana. So Ana put on the strong front for her siblings, only shedding tears when Wong asked for her to come with him. \n\n\t“Thank you.” She said smugly, smirking at him.\n\n\t“Again, not sure it’s a compliment.” She just chuckled as she reached over and brushed Mia’s hair out of her eyes. The little girl was still very upset, but when Tony told her and Michael that they can come visit the grave whenever they want it seemed to calm them. Tony watched them, before pulling out his phone at the text he got. Stephen had gone with Wong, and updated him that the masters will pull back on their demanding of seeing Ana for now. He sighed in relief, before showing Ana the text. \n\n\t“Good. One less thing to worry about right now.” When they reached the compound Happy, who had driven them helped get Michael’s chair out and wheeled the boy in with the others. \n\n\t“Thanks Hap.” Tony said as they entered the living room. Carol and Rhodey had to go meet the council after the funeral so it was only them and Vision. \n\n\t“Not a problem boss. It was nice to meet you kids…and I’m so very sorry for your loss.” He said softly. When they had met him that morning Mia gave him her signature shy smile, and Tony could tell Michael was nervous, like he usually was with new people. But soon they warmed up to him, seeing him be careful with Michael in getting him in the car, and how he already had a carseat ready for Mia. She smiled at seeing it was sea creature themed. \n\n\t“Thank you Happy.” Michael said, wheeling himself to his room. “I’m gonna go change…Ana can you help?” \n\n\t“Sure. Tony you mind helping Mia?” Tony took the little girl in his arms and had helped change her out of the black little dress. He hoped she wouldn’t have to wear it again for a very long time. Once she was in her comfortable clothes, he went to his room and pulled out a present he’d been searching for her. \n\n\t“Mia?” The little girl looked up from her bed, confused. “I have something for you.” He pulled out from behind his back a shark plush. What she didn’t know was it had gps chip in it, along with some spells Stephen offered when he mentioned the other night that he wanted something for Mia to have around that would keep her safe. Mia gasped, jumping down from her bed and rushing over, slamming into Tony’s legs. At that moment he was thankful for Extremis because she slammed hard enough he would’ve fallen over. “I take it you like it?” She nodded into his pant leg before carefully taking it from him. \n\n\t“What should I name him?” She whispered, carefully holding the plush. \n\n\t“You really like Jaws right?” She nodded. “How about Bruce? That’s what they named the shark in the movie.” She smiled brightly at him, nodding again as she cuddled the plush close. “Come on, let’s go see what your brother and sister are doing.” When they went to the living room the found Ana instructing Vision on how to set up the ‘cuddle pile’ as after that first one Tony ordered a bunch of soft blankets and thicker pillows to basically turn the floor into a bed. Michael was on his tablet, looking through something. “What’s up kiddo?” He and Mia went over to him.\n\n\t“Looking at movies to watch that Friday recommends.” \n\n\t“Any look good?” The boy turned the tablet to show what had peaked his interest. \n\n\t“Megamind huh? Whatcha think munchkin?” Mia looked at the tablet, before nodding. “Excellent. Ana you done bossing Viz around?”\n\n\t“I’m not bossing him around, I’m showing him the best way to do a cuddle pile!” Ana gave Tony a look. \n\n\t“Uh huh.” \n\n\t“I did ask for the best methods, so I don’t mind.” Vision smiled at Tony, before getting back to getting the blankets made up. \n\n\t“See?” \n\n\t“Alright fine. Now, what do we want for dinner? I’m thinking comfort foods.” Mia was already to a point she could eat normal foods, but things like fast food or super processed foods would have to be a hard pass for her. \n\n\t“What kind of comfort foods?”\n\n\t“How about pizza?” Tony ordered from his usual place, which meant it was well made, not really greasy and just perfect for their movie night. After they got settled in with their food and the movie, Tony kept getting texts from Stephen. He was complaining about how the Masters were being pains, and because he couldn’t bring Ana in both he and Wong have to train some of the newer students at the sanctum so he wouldn’t be around for a bit. Tony frowned, before replying that he could over after the training was over, he and the kids wouldn’t mind. After going back and forth a bit, Tony noticed Ana watching him. Michael and Mia were next to him on one side, while Ana was on the other with Vision sitting on the sectional behind them. \n\n\t“That Stephen?” \n\n\t“Maybe?” Tony watched as the young girl raised an eyebrow at him. “What?” She just shook her head. \n\n——\n\n\tThat night after Mia and Michael went to bed, Tony and Riven were in the lab. Tony was going over the feedback from the Starkpad for kids while Riven was going through the books he and Stephen had gone through a few days ago. \n\n  “Interesting.”  Riven said out of nowhere, looking over to Tony.  “I think I may have found where Johnathan mixed up summonings.”  \n\n\t“Oh yeah?” \n\n  “Tony.”  Tony paused and looked up to the demon.  “If these ‘Masters’ found this…”  Tony understood what he meant. \n\n\t“Friday, go ahead and scan the book, put it under my personal file, and then password and voice protect it.” \n\n\t“What shall I put it under?” Friday asked as she began.\n\n\t“Put it under Def Leppard.” At the tilt of the head from Riven, he just chuckled. “Go ahead and look them up after you finish up whatever you’re doing. You’ll understand why.” \n\n  “Thank you. And I will put this in a secure location.”  \n\n——\n\n\tAbout another hour later a portal opened and Stephen walked through, looking exhausted. \n\n\t“Heya Doc!” Tony smiled at him before realizing how tired he was. “Shit you ok?” \n\n\t“Yes…just had to deal with an interdimensional parasite while trying to teach a bunch of new students what not to do when said interdimensional parasite appears out of no where.” \n\n\t“Damn.”\n\n  “What type was it?”  Riven asked, closing the book he was reading. \n\n\t“Just a small one, just hard to handle with inexperienced ones around.” \n\n  “What did it look like?”  After describing what Tony could only sum as ‘a mutated half zombie rat’ Riven hummed, smiling a bit.  “Doctor I believe I have a solution to your parasite. But before I can give it to you and the others at the Kamar-Taj we need to come to an agreement.”  \n\n\t“We?” Stephen asked. \n\n  “Your Masters and myself. In order for them to leave Ana and myself alone…along with a few other things I require.”  \n\n\t“Such as?” Tony asked. \n\n  “You’ll see…”  Riven chuckled.  “Now, I’m off to rest. I believe Vision is still up so I’m going to see if he is interested in watching some classic movies.”  \n\n\t“Alright, let me know if you need anything.” Riven just waved as he walked away. \n\n\t“How’re you holding up?” Stephen asked Tony after a moment of quiet. \n\n\t“Oh you know. I have three traumatized children, a demon who’s planning something, recently had a panic attack about something that I’ve had an inkling of since…hell since the Invasion…” He let out a shuddering breath. “So…good?” \n\n\t“Talk to me. It’s obvious this inkling you’ve had was before Maximoff, since you mentioned the invasion.” Tony sat next to the doctor and, decided to talk. It was like when he was talking with Ana, having someone actually listening to him about what had happened. After he finished telling him about the nuke, he felt Stephen take his hand carefully. “Tony…you do realize how traumatic that was right? No wonder Maximoff was able to pull from that fear and turn it into such a nightmare.” Tony carefully turned his hand and laced their fingers. \n\n\t“I know. I’m seeking therapy but…I didn’t at first. I didn’t handle it well after everything.” Stephen was quiet, before asking. \n\n\t“Didn’t your house get blown up by a known terrorist?” Which caused Tony to laugh. \n\n\t“Yeah. Like I said, didn’t handle it well at first.” They talked for hours, before Stephen sighed. \n\n\t“I should get some rest.” \n\n\t“Yeah me too. Victoria is suppose to be out tomorrow, and I’ve got a few things we’re gonna have to take care of.” Tony pulled his hand away reluctantly, before standing. “Text me?”\n\n\t“Of course.” Stephen opened a portal to what looked like a bedroom. “Goodnight Tony.”\n\n\t“Night Stephen.” \n\n——\n\n\tThe next week seemed to fly by for Tony and the kids. Tony had tested both Michael and Ana in regards to their education, finding that Michael was actually quite brilliant. Ana with her photographic memory thanks to Riven, was also incredibly smart. Mia wanted to learn like her siblings, so Tony ordered a ton of books for her to learn colors, shapes and numbers. He made sure they were all sea themed, or star wars themed. Each night they’d curl up on the couch watching movies, getting them all caught up with movies he knew they’d love. When Michael found out there were not only multiple movies but cartoons and comics of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Tony may have gone overboard with getting him all of it. Peter coming over and talking about all the nerdy things the boy liked also helped. The occasional check ins with Victoria were going well as well, and they were planning their first outing soon since Michael was strong enough to go out without getting so winded. \n\n\tCurrently everyone was in the lab, which Tony had started to realize that he had now permanently shared with his kids. Michael and Peter had their own corner for Lego building, or any other models Michael found he wanted to try to build. Mia had a spot next to the  bots charging station, and if Tony didn’t need them they’d crowd around the little girl as she used her new books to point out colors and shapes. Ana had her own spot full of books, and she shared it with Stephen. If Stephen wasn’t over complaining to Tony about the ongoings of the Kamar-Taj he’d be over there with Riven or Ana going through the last of Johnathan’s books. Right now they were talking about the upcoming meeting they had with the Masters. \n\n\t“I still don’t like it.” Tony said, pacing a bit. ���What if something happens?”\n\n\t“I’m there to make sure nothing does.” Stephen said. “I’ve also told them that as her guardian you’ll be coming as well.” \n\n\t“Look no offense Stephen but I don’t trust the bastards. Especially after what happened with Hong Kong!” During the week they texted none stop, and when Stephen would occasionally come over once the kids went to bed they talked. When Tony found out what all Stephen sacrificed, him going through his death countless times…he wasn’t happy with Kamar-Taj. Especially if they keep giving the rightly named Sorcerer Supreme such problems. \n\n\t“I know you’re angry, and as flattering as that is we need to focus on the here and now.” That was another thing that changed…they had started flirting. Tony’s stomach twisted a bit, and he sighed, finally standing still. \n\n\t“Fine.” Riven was watching the two of them, giving Tony the same raised eyebrow look Ana would give before he cleared his throat.\n\n  “I have a request…and yes Ana is on board.”  He handed over the tablet he was holding. On it was the senate hearing Tony had to attend after coming out as Iron Man. \n\n\t“Ok?” Tony looked at the demon confused. \n\n  “I’m thinking we handle this like Tony Stark would.”  Riven grinned. \n\n\t“…Are you asking me for a suit so you can saunter in with an attitude?” \n\n  “That’s exactly what we’re asking for.”  \n\n\t“Oh Vishanti help us.” Stephen said, shaking his head. \n\n\t“You’re just jealous you’re not getting a nice suit for this little meeting. Riven and I will look amazing” \n\n\t“…I bet.” The look he gave Tony made him flush a bit. It wasn’t quite a leer, but more of appreciation to the man standing in front of the sorcerer. \n\n  “Quit that.”  Tony jumped at Riven’s sudden closeness. \n\n\t“Quit what?” Riven gave Tony a ‘really?’ look. \n\n  “You know what.”  Stephen gave Riven a confused look but Tony ignored it. \n\n\t“I am not about to have this conversation with you. Now…” With a wave of his hand, holograms came up with different styled suits. “What do you guys want to wear?”"}
+{"text": "The next morning, Mingi wasn’t too confident in his wish to wake Yunho. While aware of his duties, Mingi spent almost five more minutes in bed rolling around when he usually would have got up already. His eyes burned from the lack of sleep, body begging him to take a rest and simply confess to Yunho he wasn’t feeling so great.\n\nYet, the more responsible side of Mingi knew that his inner turmoil shouldn’t impede Yunho’s daily duties. His night of thinking had led him to the conclusion that Yunho had every right to be sleeping with people he was enticed by. Doing so behind the solid walls of the castle and with the respect he treated people with, nothing was wrong with it. Yunho attracted people left and right, and among demons, there was no need to shun these matters.\n\nThen why did Mingi’s heart feel as if stabbed by a dozen knives? Because of the attention Yunho had given him that he had wished to be exclusive to him? Because Yunho might sleep with San after all and that the signals he had sent towards Mingi had been no more but his usual flirtatious?\n\nIt hurt. Mingi’s heart hurt, and even after an entire night of his dilemma, he couldn’t help himself.\n\nAfter so many times of telling himself that his attraction to Yunho was uncalled for and so many times of Yunho proving to him that his feelings were valid and reciprocated, Mingi felt like a fool now. How could he have dared to believe that he had stood out to the regal demon more than others? Even when Yunho didn’t divide between the two different horned groups, amongst draped horned people were many more attractive demons than Mingi.\n\nMingi was queasy from hunger and lack of sleep. And even as he dragged himself up from bed, he didn’t want to go.\n\nLoyal to his duties, Mingi slipped into his shirt, buttoning it up cleanly. He took the book with him he needed to give Yunho. As he trudged downstairs to fetch Yunho’s meal, he was slow. Once he went back up, he had reached a snail’s pace.\n\nMingi wasn’t prepared to intrude into that room again and to find Yeosang sleeping next to the prince. Surely, Yunho didn’t take advantage of his power with such matters, right? Or was the reason he pushed off San, since he could make use of the servants easier?\n\nMingi’s head suffered with his unanswered questions and the lingering feeling of betrayal. Even as he tried to practise nonchalance and school his features into a mask of indifference, Mingi caught himself slipping. Tight, his tail curled around his leg as if offering comfort for his broken heart.\n\nAfter he had reached Yunho’s door, Mingi exhaled once more. Then, he carefully knocked in the same custom as always.\n\nNo answer. No voices inside, either.\n\nWith his head ducked, Mingi entered the room. His eyes searched the bed instantly, trying to make out the number of limbs under the sheets. Once he had prepared the tray, he hesitantly trudged closer.\n\nYunho was alone.\n\nRelief flooded Mingi at the same moment that an evil voice asked him how often Yunho had indulged late-night visitors that Mingi didn’t know of. Catching him once had already put a strain on Mingi’s side of their relationship. Who knew who else was involved.\n\nWith a sigh, Mingi shook off his malicious thoughts once more.\n\nIt was not his place.\n\nUnmotivated, he shook Yunho’s shoulder. The prince’s skin under his fingertips was pleasantly hot, as always. Mingi’s mind connected it with gentle touches and flutters in his stomach, but today it sent no more but another rush of bitterness through him.\n\n“My Prince. You need to wake.”\n\nYunho slept deeply tonight. His blanket was mostly kicked off regularly and this time, Mingi couldn’t help but glance down on his form to spot any evidence of what had occurred the night prior. No marks marred his tattooed skin, and not even a strand of hair reminisced about his nightly visitor.\n\nAs much as Mingi had denied himself of his improper thoughts so far, the sight of Yunho couldn’t keep them any longer from permeating his mind. He wondered how Yunho’s skin had felt under Yeosang’s fingers. How the heat between them had taken over their bodies and minds. And how Yeosang had fallen apart in Yunho’s arms.\n\nMingi gulped; his fingers on Yunho’s shoulder stilling.\n\nFor a moment, he was entranced, his pulse fluttering as he imagined just a bit too far. As he sunk into his daydream with the image of Yunho right in front of him, Mingi flustered himself. The yearning of being in Yeosang’s place to experience the same with his own body and soul nearly overwhelmed him.\n\nThe sudden thought of Yunho kissing him, moulding their mouths together to pull him close, had Mingi flinch. His hand pulled back from Yunho as if he had burnt himself at the rough nudge. Yet, Yunho’s eyes finally fluttered open, and he groggily blinked up at Mingi.\n\nFor a moment, he was still half asleep, then his usual droopy smile stretched on his lips. Mingi smiled back in a grimace. Guilt washed over him over regarding the unconscious prince with such greed.\n\n“Good morning, Mingi,” Yunho yawned as he stretched and rolled around. His horns tangled in his blankets, and he shook them off with a huff. Wild hair got messed up further.\n\n“Morning,” Mingi muttered, still occupied with his jumbled mind.\n\nYunho sighed comfortably, sitting up with yet another languid stretch. He came to sit in front of Mingi, entirely bare but without shame. With a wince, he sorted through his hair in an attempt to fix his appearance.\n\nThrough the iron bars that Mingi had enclosed it in, his heart gave a weak squeeze.\n\nWordlessly, Mingi grabbed onto Yunho’s clothes. He handed him the pants first and Yunho slipped into them sleepily. As Mingi handed him the cropped jacket Yunho had picked out to wear, he kept his eyes on the bunched up sheets beyond the man’s shoulder. Yunho slipped into the jacket that had no means to close it at the front. Only when Mingi busily laid the heavy chains around Yunho’s neck with a blank expression, the prince scrutinised his features curiously.\n\nThe centrepiece of Yunho’s jewellery today was a leather amulet. Its middle held a teardrop-shaped cloudy gem in a pale blue. It matched the earrings he fiddled into his ears, as well as the ring he slipped over his index finger.\n\n“Did you not sleep well? You appear tired.”\n\nThe sleepy drawl of Yunho’s voice lifted quickly, but it still resonated in Mingi’s chest. When the tip of Yunho’s tail brushed against Mingi’s, Mingi awkwardly pulled his away. He wrapped it around his forearm so it was out of reach for Yunho. Anxious, he avoided Yunho’s dejected gaze.\n\n“I stayed up for a while reading. I found another book that might fit your interests. I put it on the table for you.”\n\nBefuddled, Yunho glanced at the living quarters and back at Mingi. Worry etched into his features now. Worry that delved into open concern when Mingi adverted his eyes from him as soon as his fingers fell from his necklaces.\n\n“Mingi, you didn’t have to. I didn’t want you to give up sleep over these matters.”\n\n“I wanted to.” With a polite nod, Mingi stepped back from the bed. His heart raced in his chest, nervous about how Yunho would react; if he would close off because of Mingi’s avoidance. Steely, he stuck to his formalities.\n\n“Will you need me during breakfast? If not, I will catch up with you later during your royal meetings.” The patience in Mingi’s voice sounded artificial even to him.\n\nUpset, Yunho stood to near him. His taller figure loomed over Mingi, making his knees weak once more.\n\n“You won’t eat with me today?”\n\nWhen Mingi mildly shook his head, disappointment flashed in Yunho’s eyes. He tried to school his expression so his miserable eyes wouldn’t make Mingi feel bad, but Mingi’s heart took a stab, anyway.\n\nNot as bad as the stab of last night, though. The reminder strengthened Mingi’s resolve.\n\n“I will stay if you insist, but I didn’t plan to, no.”\n\nPunishing Yunho with a meal alone was the barest thing Mingi dared to do. The only thing he could get away with. He swore to himself that it was only a method to sort himself out first before he snapped at Yunho over matters perfectly licit for a prince to do. And yet the dull satisfaction he got over the hurt in Yunho’s features eased his betrayed spirit.\n\n“Of course I won’t insist, then. Please, take your time to eat in comfort and join me afterwards,” Yunho muttered. When he turned to focus on his breakfast alone, Mingi regretted it.\n\nNo use in reaching out once more. Without another glance at him, Mingi ducked out of the door and dashed back down into his room. He ate by himself, his heart burning with guilt over the situation he had put both himself and Yunho into. In Yunho’s eyes, the prince had done nothing troublesome. The sour turn in their usual playful companionship had been entirely Mingi’s fault.\n\nThe food didn’t taste as good as the other days.\n\nAfter he had finished his lonesome meal, Mingi didn’t linger. He joined Yunho back upstairs and waited for him next to the door while the prince finished fixing his appearance in the bathroom. When he came back out, he dared a careful glance at Mingi’s features. When Mingi stared straight ahead stonily, Yunho gave up. With a sad droop of his usually squared shoulders, he left the room.\n\nMingi kept behind him as he followed him through the corridors like a ghost. Every ounce of his willpower went into keeping his mind a blank void, so no thought dared to occur.\n\nThe meeting with the advisors was kept short. They had received notice that the king would return in the evening and that Yunho would join his brother and San on a hunt for the pixie terrorist tomorrow. In the backroom, Mingi chewed on his lip at the idea of having to stick to Yunho awkwardly like this for an entire day while in danger. When Onnah had disrupted their slow game of chess to tilt her head inquiringly at Mingi, he had shaken off the thought.\n\nToday, Yunho didn’t dare to call Mingi over during dinner time. If the queen found it remarkable, she didn’t comment on it. She merely asked Yunho about San and if there were any improvements to their relationship.\n\nYunho declined.\n\nAfter a long dinner that had Mingi nearly falling asleep on the spot since he was so tired and exhausted by his emotions, he trudged up the stairs behind Yunho once more. Back in Yunho’s room, he didn’t even come to sit with the other man on the divans. He lingered near the door in a stiff posture, ready to flee their tense atmosphere.\n\n“I won’t take you with me tomorrow. Stay here and enjoy your free time. I hope you may get some sleep,” Yunho said mostly to himself, since Mingi was so unresponsive. Mingi’s stomach dropped. Was it because he had acted out of order today? Did Yunho consider him a nuisance like this?\n\nHelpless in between his duties and his aching heart once more, Mingi drew his brows together.\n\n“I will not be needed?”\n\n“No. I won’t have time to explain details to you during the chase and servants might limit the group or make it difficult to manoeuvre.” Despite the usual kindness in Yunho’s voice, he sounded strained. He picked up the book on the table in front of him, flicking through the pages.\n\n“I understand. I will await your return then.”\n\nYunho hummed, eyes focused on the book.\n\n“What about this did you want me to read?”\n\n“The part of pixies enchanting other creatures. I wondered if maybe a spell on us demons makes it possible for such small creatures to best us.”\n\nIt had been an interesting chapter. Mingi knew little about the details of the attacks, but he imaged either it would help Yunho figure something out, or it was a valuable guide to understanding pixie magic.\n\n“Thank you.”\n\nYunho raised his head to gift Mingi with a soft smile. It had the other demon melt in the worst ways, and his tail swished behind him nervously. He wanted to ask Yunho about it, wanted to resolve this issue between them like an adult, but he was a coward. No more, but a frosty nod came from him.\n\n“I will see you tomorrow evening, then. It would be best if you didn’t visit the town this time. It may not be our hunting ground, but I worry if similar dangers might lurk there if we don’t find the pixie,” Yunho dismissed him.\n\n“I understand.”\n\nWith that, Mingi turned on his heel to retreat to his room. And once more, he rolled around for an eternity, plagued by vivid imaginations and hot stabs of jealousy. When he finally fell asleep, he could at least doze for long until noon."}
+{"text": "\nEli was up all night tossing and turning.\n\n\n \n\n\nNo matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t fall asleep, couldn’t get his mind to quiet down. Every time he closed his eyes, all he could see was the frustration and hurt in Klitz’s eyes and the naive admiration from Sydney. There was no way she could’ve known that this is how it would end up. She had been so excited when Eli asked her out, which made what he had to do all the more heartbreaking. \n\n\n \n\n\nWhat could he say to her that would be believable while still withholding knowledge of the truth? It wasn’t like he could just go up to her and say “hey Sydney, I had a great time last night except I can’t date you because I’m fucking my guy best friend”. Even the hypothetical made his stomach roll over with nausea. The whole situation made him feel ill. He was kept awake, plagued by thoughts of everything that could possibly go wrong. \n\n\n \n\n\nEli wasn’t great with words in the first place. Nothing he ever said was eloquent or graceful, he often stumbled over his speech. He could easily come up with a joke or a comeback, but that was different from something he had to take seriously. There was a very real possibility that he might slip up and say something incriminating and be exposed. \n\n\n \n\n\nThat also made everyone else finding out a very real possibility. Sydney, as lovely as she was, had a tendency to gossip about pretty much anything that happened, ever. Even if he didn’t fuck up what he was gonna say, it was almost guaranteed that Sydney would tell all of her friends about the “breakup”. Eli wouldn’t be surprised if she already told them about their date.\n\n\n \n\n\nHe also had to make it seem like he was still interested. It would be super suspicious for him to tell her he couldn’t date her just because he didn’t want to. Nobody didn’t want to date Sydney.\n\n\n \n\n\nHis eyes burned and he glared at his alarm clock when it told him it was nearly four am, as if that was its fault. He rolled over to the other side of his bed where he wouldn’t be lying in a puddle of sweat. It was slightly cooler but didn’t do much to help his nervous sweating, it just made him shiver. \n\n\n \n\n\nHe closed his eyes in frustration and made another attempt to fall asleep. He laid still for about five minutes, even took deep breaths in through his nose and out through his mouth, like how his parents had told him before when he couldn’t sleep. It didn’t work. Instead of the deep breathing calming him, it just made him angrier.\n\n\n \n\n\n“This is so fucking stupid,” Eli muttered as he kicked off his covers and got out of bed. Sleeping was obviously not working, and he was hot—he ought to be doing something productive rather than stewing in his own sweat and self pity. He went to the bathroom and ran a shower, not bothering with turning on the hot water. He gasped as the cold water pelted his skin and made him break out in goosebumps.\n\n\n \n\n\nHe stood in the stream, getting used to the temperature.\n\n\n \n\n\nHe tried to scrub his body of his anxiety, letting it run down the drain with the soap and bubbles.\n\n\n \n\n\nAs he washed his hair, he thought about how he had to get out of this mindset that he was bound to mess it up. If he kept thinking like that, he would psych himself out and actually fuck up for real, which he couldn’t let happen under any circumstances.\n\n\n \n\n\nHe had to come up with something real, something that would work; he didn’t have a choice.\n\n\n \n\n\nHe got out of the shower and dressed in fresh clothes and instead of getting back into his own bed, he went to the guest bedroom.\n\n\n \n\n\nHe pulled back the comforter and got into bed. The sheets were stiff and smelled faintly like dust from disuse, but they were cool against his skin and he finally began to relax.\n\n\n \n\n\nHis eyes got heavier and heavier as he stared at the ceiling and eventually, sleep overtook him.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nHe woke up the next morning to his doorbell being rung repeatedly. Whoever was ringing it was obviously impatient. He looked around, disoriented and feeling like he’d been hit by a small truck. He blinked slowly several times until he regained enough consciousness to realize that he was sleeping in the guest room and didn’t have his alarm to wake him up.\n\n\n \n\n\nGod damnit.\n\n\n \n\n\nHe rushed out of bed and into his own room, checking the time on his alarm clock. The clock that was currently beeping obnoxiously, and had been, presumably, for the past thirty fucking minutes.\n\n\n \n\n\nThe ringing must be coming from Klitz, then.\n\n\n \n\n\nHe grabbed his phone off his nightstand and flipped it open to find four missed calls, all from Klitz. He groaned in annoyance and rushed to get dressed for school before going to the bathroom where he quickly brushed his teeth because, contrary to popular belief, he wasn’t \n\nthat\n\n gross, then washed his face to get the sleep out of his eyes. At least he’d showered during the night and wouldn’t be going to school all sweaty. He looked at himself in the mirror, the state of his eyes catching his attention. Light purple circles under his eyes made them look even more downturned and sad. \n\n\n \n\n\nHe checked his outfit as well, making sure he was at least decently presentable, and noticed a red spot on his neck. \n\n\n \n\n\nHe pulled down his collar to see it better and, yep, that was a fucking hickey. \n\n\n \n\n\nFucking great, Klitz, thanks a lot.\n\n\n \n\n\nHe dug through a drawer in the vanity where he’d tossed the concealer that he’d used on the last hickey Klitz had so lovingly bestowed upon him. Eli rolled his eyes.\n\n\n \n\n\nHe smeared the concealer on the bruise and rubbed it in with his fingers. It was still partially visible and the concealer was way lighter than his actual skin tone, but nobody would notice unless they were standing super close to him. It’d be fine.\n\n\n \n\n\nHe bounded down the stairs and grabbed his bag, before unlocking the door to find Klitz pacing on his porch looking down at his phone. Eli was surprised he waited for him that long.\n\n\n \n\n\nWhen Klitz heard the door open he looked up, concern on his face turning to anger. “What the fuck dude?! I called you like fifty times! I thought you were fucking dead or something!”\n\n\n \n\n\n“Sorry. Couldn’t sleep last night, must’ve slept through my alarm,” Eli said as he locked his front door.\n\n\n \n\n\n“And slept through me ringing the doorbell too?” Klitz said with irritation.\n\n\n \n\n\nEli turned to him and threw his arms up in an \n\nI don’t know what you want me to say\n\n gesture.\n\n\n \n\n\nKlitz let out a harsh breath of frustration. “Are you okay at least?”\n\n\n \n\n\n“Yeah. Fine. Just tired.”\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nOn the drive to school, Eli went over the two objectives he’d come up with during his sleepless night. The apology and the not quite breakup. He decided to get the apology over with. Eli thought about how upset Klitz had been yesterday. How aggressively he’d kissed him like he was staking a claim or trying to get a point across or something. It was super sexy, but it probably wasn’t the healthiest approach to sex, and it definitely didn’t make up for the fact that Eli hurt Klitz.\n\n\n \n\n\nEli had been stupid and selfish and ended up hurting two people because he was thinking with his dick and not his brain. That was pretty on par for him, but there was no denying that this time he took it too far.\n\n\n \n\n\nAlright, the apology. Here goes nothing.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Um,” Eli broke the silence. “I’m sorry.”\n\n\n \n\n\n“For what?”\n\n\n \n\n\nWell… wait, what was Eli sorry for? He and Klitz weren’t dating. It’s not like Eli cheated on him. But it felt weird, and Eli felt the need to apologize anyway.\n\n\n \n\n\n“For, uh… kissing someone else.”\n\n\n \n\n\n“Oh. It’s fine, man.” Klitz tried to make it seem like he didn’t care, but Eli saw the shift in his demeanor. Klitz was relieved.\n\n\n \n\n\nAlright, one down, one to go.\n\n\n \n\n\nThey arrived at school and Eli and Klitz sat in the parking lot with the few minutes they had before the morning bell rang. \n\n\n \n\n\n“Did you figure out what to tell Sydney?”\n\n\n \n\n\nActually, he did.\n\n\n \n\n\nHe would tell her that he thought it would be a bad idea to get into a relationship so late in the year when they were both about to go away to college in a few months. It was foolproof and completely reasonable.\n\n\n \n\n\nIt didn’t really explain his sudden change of heart though, since he seemed so eager yesterday. He could say he did some thinking overnight, which technically wasn’t a lie.\n\n\n \n\n\nSydney would probably agree with Eli’s reasoning. Yesterday, Eli had learned that Sydney was super academically oriented and had been accepted into Columbia University, which was practically on the other side of the country. Long distance with your high school sweetheart never worked out. Eli would convince her that this was for the best, and they’d stay friends, and everything would go back to normal, and he could keep kissing Klitz, and everyone would live happily ever after.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nUnfortunately, there was a reason ‘happily ever after’ only existed in fairy tales.\n\n\n \n\n\nAt the beginning of English class, Sydney had walked over to Eli where he was already sitting at his desk and kissed him on the cheek. Eli smiled at her and pretended like everything was fine and dandy, but everything was not fine and dandy in the slightest. It was really sweet of her—Sydney was such an amazing girl—which made this so much more difficult.\n\n\n \n\n\nNot difficult, emotionally, per se; difficult because it would look suspicious that he was turning down an opportunity to be with her. Any guy in their class would want a summer fling with Sydney, even if they both knew they’d have to break up a few months later. That was the main problem. There was no real excuse for Eli to turn down a summer fling, especially since there was a chance that Sydney would be cool with that. He’d just have to rely on the chance that she wouldn’t.\n\n\n \n\n\nAfter class, Sydney turned to him and smiled sweetly before leaving. She didn’t know it, but she was actually really helping Eli out. Putting on a performance in front of Troy without even realizing. Eli knew he was the biggest asshole for using her like that, but he was dealing with a lot of shit, so he’d have to put feeling bad about it on the back burner. At least Troy would be taken care of for a little while.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAfter school, Eli went to the gym. Sydney had told Eli that she was in track and had practice after school every day, so he figured he could catch her at the locker rooms and tell her before practice. Regrettably, this plan meant that there was a risk Sydney would have to go to practice in a bad mood, but there was no way Eli was delaying more than he had to.\n\n\n \n\n\nSorry, Sydney. Eli’s gotta look out for number one.\n\n\n \n\n\nHe found her walking in the middle of a large group of other girls to the locker rooms carrying a gym bag. She was laughing at something one of the girls must’ve said and Eli felt so fucking guilty. \n\n\n \n\n\nHe wasn’t sure how to get her attention without interrupting the group, but luckily, she noticed Eli, saving him the awkward interaction with her friends who he knew for a fact didn’t think very highly of him.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Oh, hey Eli!” She jogged over to him and pressed a brief, very unexpected kiss to his lips.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Uh, hi,” he smiled nervously. “Can I talk to you real quick?” Eli glanced at the group behind them who were waiting for Sydney. All of the girls broke out into an ‘oooooh’ and Eli blushed. At least they didn’t automatically think it was something bad.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Sure.” Sydney turned to the group and waved them off. “Guys, stooooop,” she said, giggly. \n\n\n \n\n\nSydney handed her gym bag to one of the girls before Eli took her hand and led her away from the group. “Do you know anywhere, um… private?” He lowered his voice in case anyone happened to be in earshot.\n\n\n \n\n\nSydney’s eyes got wide and a flirty grin spread on her face. Fuck, she probably thought Eli wanted to have some sort of fucked up school sex. \n\n\n \n\n\n“Yes. Follow me.” Sydney walked off down the long, dim hallway of the gym locker room corridor. Eli followed Sydney to an old, abandoned looking girl’s dressing room, where she held the door open for him. He stood at the entrance and refused to go inside.\n\n\n \n\n\n“That’s the girl’s,” he protested.\n\n\n \n\n\nSydney rolled her eyes. “Just come on, nobody’s in there.” Eli hesitantly walked into the room, feeling like he was breaking the law. “You’re insane if you think I’m going in the boy’s.” Sydney followed him into the room and locked the door behind her before turning around and pressing her back to it with a cheeky smile.\n\n\n \n\n\nEli didn’t know what he was expecting, but the room was just a basic dressing room. A long counter was bolted to the wall with an equally long mirror above it. It smelled like dust, and old perfume still lingered in the air even after the room obviously had not been used for a good while. There was a set of lockers across from the mirrored wall. It looked more like a room that belonged in the performing arts building for people in plays or some shit to get dressed in than a locker room in a gym.\n\n\n \n\n\nSydney crossed the room from where she was standing at the door to Eli, wrapped her arms around Eli’s waist and kissed him, harder than she had done in front of her friends and it caught Eli off guard. Eli had been secretly hoping that last night was a fluke and he was only freaked out from Sydney kissing him because he was intimidated. He halfway expected himself to enjoy it this time and would have to tell Klitz he changed his mind. \n\n\n \n\n\nEli wished that was the case. \n\n\n \n\n\nThings were starting to go way too far with Klitz—not like they hadn’t from the very beginning—but Eli found himself wanting it more and more as each day passed. He wasn’t sure if he could stop even if he wanted to, which was absolutely terrifying. Hell, he had tried to stop; that was the whole reason he was with Sydney in the first place. And he couldn’t even do that. \n\n\n \n\n\nThis ‘not thing’ seemed like it was rapidly approaching ‘thing’ territory, and that was dangerous. Mainly because Eli wasn’t gay and if he had a thing with Klitz then people would think he was gay. How was he supposed to get women if people thought he was gay?\n\n\n \n\n\nTo Eli’s dismay, kissing Sydney didn’t feel any better than it did last night. It was still cold and, despite Sydney’s enthusiasm, was unwelcoming. Eli resisted the urge to recoil and shove her away. Instead, he gently pushed her back with a hand on her shoulder so that he could speak. \n\n\n \n\n\n“Um, so listen,” Eli started, going over the script he had prepared in his head. “I had a great time with you last night.”\n\n\n \n\n\nSydney’s smile faded slightly. She’d probably heard those words before. She probably knew where this was going. “But…?” she offered.\n\n\n \n\n\n“But,” Eli accepted, “I don’t think it’s a good idea for us to date.”\n\n\n \n\n\nSydney stepped back and tilted her head as she frowned. “Why not?”\n\n\n \n\n\n“I just,“ Eli looked at the ceiling and rubbed at his neck anxiously, playing up how guilty he felt to hopefully sell it better. “I think we–“ Eli looked back down at her, ready to deliver his prepared excuse, but paused when he saw her no longer looking at his face.\n\n\n \n\n\nShe was looking at his neck.\n\n\n \n\n\nOh shit. Shit shit shit.\n\n\n \n\n\nEli looked at his palm and found the concealer smudged there, now doing its job concealing on his hand rather than on his neck where it should be.\n\n\n \n\n\nSydney reached out and rubbed away the remaining concealer with her thumb, revealing the rest of the bruise. “That wasn’t there last night, was it?” she asked.\n\n\n \n\n\nEli stood there, mouth hanging open at a loss for words. She wasn’t supposed to see that. He hadn’t come up with an excuse for that. What was he supposed to say to explain that?\n\n\n \n\n\nSydney had gone off script and Eli didn’t have a backup plan. A wave of nausea hit him as he realized he was trapped with no excuse and no plan and no way to explain without giving himself away. He went red in the face as he recalled the events taking place that were the reason he had a hickey. It was because he was fucking around with Klitz. Klitz, who was a man. A man gave him a hickey. The realization caused a nasty mix of panic and fear to develop inside him, and his brain began to shut down.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Were you with another girl last night?” Sydney asked, anger edging her voice.\n\n\n \n\n\nOh god, Eli didn’t want Sydney to be mad at him. He still wanted to stay friends with her, and telling her he got a hickey from some other girl on the same night as their date would be the easiest way to make sure that didn’t happen.\n\n\n \n\n\nUnable to think clearly, Eli did his best to reassure, “No, Sydney, not a girl–“ but stopped when his brain caught up with him and he realized what he had just said.\n\n\n \n\n\nNot a girl.\n\n\n \n\n\nSydney raised her eyebrows at him in shock. “Not… a girl…?” She spoke slowly, like she wasn’t sure if Eli was joking or not.\n\n\n \n\n\nThree little words. \n\n\n \n\n\nThree little words that instantly managed to completely fuck everything up.\n\n\n \n\n\n“No– I mean, yes,” Eli babbled, trying to fix his slip up.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Were you with a boy?” Sydney raised her voice.\n\n\n \n\n\nEveryone knew about fight or flight. It was an instinctual reaction to a threat, kicking in when one was faced with danger. Unfortunately, Eli was currently experiencing the lesser known freeze.\n\n\n \n\n\nHe stood stock still, eyes wide with fear, not knowing how to continue from there. His chest was tight and he could feel tears forming in his eyes. “Sydney, I–“ his voice caught in his throat. His breathing picked up and his vision turned fuzzy at the edges. He was so fucked. Everyone was gonna find out. \n\n\n \n\n\nSydney watched Eli gradually begin to break down, and her expression turned from anger and confusion, to worry, finally understanding what was going on. “Eli,” she walked to where Eli hadn’t even noticed he’d backed away and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, getting his attention. \n\n\n \n\n\nEli jumped and looked at her, eyes filled with tears, panicked and terrified. “I’m not gay, I swear.”\n\n\n \n\n\n“Take a deep breath,” she tried to slow his spiral. She guided Eli through a few deep, shuddering breaths until he wasn’t so lightheaded from hyperventilating and the lump in his throat went down enough that he could speak again.\n\n\n \n\n\nEli was stuck.\n\n\n \n\n\nHe couldn’t exactly deny that he was with a boy now that he’d totally lost his shit over it. He didn’t have to confirm it verbally; he took care of that with his fucking panic attack.\n\n\n \n\n\n“I can’t explain,” he whispered, not trusting his voice. “I want to, but I can’t.”\n\n\n \n\n\n“It’s okay,” she said sympathetically.\n\n\n \n\n\nEli scrunched his eyes shut tight and his tears fell.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Hey, Eli, it’s okay, seriously.” Sydney pulled him into a light hug. He didn’t reciprocate, his arms hanging heavily at his sides.\n\n\n \n\n\n“I’m sorry.”\n\n\n \n\n\nSydney pulled away and adjusted the lapels of his jacket. “You know, I think we’re better off as friends anyway,” she smiled gently at him. \n\n\n \n\n\nJust like Klitz does.\n\n\n \n\n\nEli nodded and wiped his eyes roughly with the back of his hand, mad at himself for crying. “Um… please don’t tell anyone,” he said shamefully.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Of course not.” Sydney held up her pinky. “Not a soul. Pinky swear.”\n\n\n \n\n\nEli locked his pinky with hers. Sydney walked him out with an arm around his shoulders. “Don’t worry about it, Eli,” she said. “I’ll see you.” She waved before jogging off to the main locker rooms.\n\n\n \n\n\nSydney was so calm about this. Eli came to school expecting Sydney to be the upset one. He can’t believe he broke down like that in front of her. That was the most humiliating experience of his life. His eyes and face burned red. He looked at the ground for the entire walk to the parking lot, holding himself back from breaking into a full on sprint to get away from the school as fast as he could. \n\n\n \n\n\nEli opened the passenger door and fell into the car, immediately burying his face in his hands, embarrassed, and humiliated, and scared. So fucking scared.\n\n\n \n\n\nThere was no way he could be sure that Sydney wouldn’t tell anyone. She might think it’s harmless to just tell her bff, just cause she tells her everything. But then her bff might tell someone else with the same mindset, then everyone is telling everyone, and before he knew it, the whole school would know.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Eli?” Klitz asked, concerned.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Sydney knows,” Eli said, his voice muffled behind his hands.\n\n\n \n\n\n“What?!”\n\n\n \n\n\n“She doesn’t, like, \n\nknow\n\n know. I didn’t say anything about you.”\n\n\n \n\n\n“Why did you say anything about it at all? What happened to the original plan?” Klitz sounded mad.\n\n\n \n\n\nEli lifted his head and glared at Klitz. How dare he be mad at Eli when it was his fault Sydney found out. “She saw the hickey on my neck. You know, the hickey you gave me? Remember that?” \n\n\n \n\n\nKlitz glanced down at Eli’s neck and his cheeks tinted red with guilt.\n\n\n \n\n\nEli sighed and continued. “She asked if I was with another girl and I pretty much accidentally told her I was with a dude. She promised not to tell anyone though.”\n\n\n \n\n\n“And you believed her?”\n\n\n \n\n\nEli looked at him in disbelief. “Are you fucking serious, Klitz? What should I have done? Make her take a fucking blood oath?”\n\n\n \n\n\n“You should’ve not told her in the first place!”\n\n\n \n\n\n“You think I meant to?!”\n\n\n \n\n\n“How do you “accidentally” tell someone you were with a guy?”\n\n\n \n\n\nEli turned in his seat to face Klitz. “You know what? Fuck you, dude. It’s your fucking fault for sucking on my neck like you’re trying to mark your fucking territory. Stop pouting because I’m not a fucking faggot like you!”\n\n\n \n\n\nEli instantly regretted saying it.\n\n\n \n\n\nKlitz flinched at Eli’s harsh words, hurt painting across his face before his mouth set in a hard line and his eyebrows drew together in anger. He looked like he wanted to snap back with his own hurtful remark, but instead shook his head and looked down at his hands in his lap. “I’m sorry, Eli.” Eli couldn’t quite make out the tone of his voice. He thought it was maybe anger or guilt, but also recognized a note of disappointment.\n\n\n \n\n\nEli wished he could take it back.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Just take me home,” he said shortly. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe ride home was silent. Eli sat slumped in his seat with his arms crossed. He was pissed at Klitz, pissed at the hickey, pissed at the whole situation in general, but when they got back to Eli’s house, asked Klitz to stay with him anyway.\n\n\n \n\n\nEli unlocked the front door and dropped his bag on the ground in the entryway haphazardly, kicking it out of the way so he wouldn’t trip on it later. Klitz followed him inside and took Eli’s keys out of the lock before shutting the door behind him. Before Eli could walk away, Klitz put his hand on Eli’s shoulder and turned him around so they were facing each other.\n\n\n \n\n\nEli let Klitz pull him into a hug. Eli wrapped his arms around Klitz and gripped handfuls of his jacket. He wanted to fight and kick and punch and yell, but instead he began to tear up again. He buried his face in the crook of Klitz’s neck and leaned some of his weight into him, letting Klitz hold him up. Klitz rubbed his back soothingly and it wasn’t until then that Eli realized how tired he was. Eli let the tears roll down his cheeks and land on the collar of Klitz’s jacket. Klitz petted Eli’s hair and held him tightly.\n\n\n \n\n\nEli pulled away after way too long and looked up at Klitz. Klitz looked at him, apology written all over his face. “I’m sorry.”\n\n\n \n\n\nEli searched Klitz’s face, but Klitz’s eyes never left Eli’s. He didn’t look at Eli’s lips this time. He didn’t ask Eli if he could kiss him, he didn’t even try to. How fucked was it that Eli wanted him to, even after all that? \n\n\n \n\n\nKlitz wouldn’t though. Not after what Eli said.\n\n\n \n\n\nEli’s stomach rolled over with guilt. Klitz probably thought Eli thought he was disgusting or something. Eli could try to say he didn’t mean it like that, but there wasn’t much else he could’ve meant by it. But Eli didn’t think Klitz was disgusting. Eli thought Eli was disgusting.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Yeah. Me too.”\n\n\n \n\n\nKlitz finally released Eli and they went to the living room together where Eli grabbed the tv remote. He flopped down onto the couch like his body was dead weight before began flipping through channels. He yawned. He could seriously go for a nap. \n\n\n \n\n\nKlitz went to the kitchen and brought back two bottles of water and a bottle of tylenol, which Eli gratefully accepted. “Thanks.” He had a killer headache.\n\n\n \n\n\nKlitz sat next to him on the couch, but they didn’t talk like they usually did. Eli rested his head on the back cushion of the couch, nodding off. He wanted to try to take a nap, but it was proving difficult. Every time he thought he’d found a comfortable position, a crick would form in his neck about five minutes later.\n\n\n \n\n\nKlitz must’ve noticed because he grabbed a pillow and put it on his lap. “Eli.” Eli looked over at him and Klitz patted the pillow. Eli squinted at Klitz, a refusal resting ready on the tip of his tongue, but that did look really comfortable, and Eli was mind-numbingly tired.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Fine. But I’m still mad at you,” Eli clarified, making sure Klitz didn’t think this was some kind of truce. He kicked his shoes off, then scooched around until he was able to fully lay down on the couch, and rested his head on the pillow in Klitz’s lap.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Okay,” Klitz said, so painfully gentle and kind, despite Eli’s cruelty toward him earlier. Klitz was always too patient and forgiving with Eli, that it made Klitz easy to blame. It might be unfair that Eli stayed mad at Klitz when Eli was also at a huge fault. Klitz had full reason to be angry with Eli—he just… wasn’t.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Are you mad at me?”\n\n\n \n\n\n“No.”\n\n\n \n\n\nHe should be. It would be easier if he was. \n\n\n \n\n\nThe two watched tv together, and Klitz idly ran his fingers through Eli’s hair. Eli relaxed, exhaustion finally catching up to him. His mind cleared and he started to worry less about what Sydney knew. She’d pinky promised she wouldn’t tell anyone, and despite Klitz’s doubt, Eli felt like he could trust her to keep that promise. It was a pinky promise for christ’s sake.\n\n\n \n\n\n“I’m not mad at you anymore,” Eli said after a while, turning his head to look up at Klitz.\n\n\n \n\n\nKlitz looked down at him and smiled softly. “Okay.”\n\n\n \n\n\nEli’s eyelids began to get heavy and he slowly let them slip closed, soothed to sleep with Klitz’s hand in his hair.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWhat felt like seconds later, Eli was awoken by the shrill ringing of someone’s phone. He opened his eyes and squinted up at Klitz, groggy and disoriented.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Sorry,” Klitz said, slightly jostling Eli as he took his phone out of the front pocket of his pants. He looked at the screen before flipping it open and putting it to his ear. “Hey, Matt.” A short pause. “No, I’m not doing anything.” Klitz played with a strand of Eli’s hair while he spoke on the phone. Eli could hear the faint murmur of Matt’s voice through the phone, but he couldn’t make out what he was saying. “Uh, yeah, we can.” Another pause. “No, I’m at Eli’s.”\n\n\n \n\n\n“Hey, Matt,” Eli said as if to confirm, loud enough that Matt would be able to hear him. He heard a faint “hey Eli” in response from the speaker. \n\n\n \n\n\nKlitz held the phone away from his face far enough to speak to Eli so that he wasn’t talking directly to Matt as well. “Do you wanna get something to eat with Matt?” Klitz asked softly. \n\n\n \n\n\nAt the mere mention of food, Eli’s stomach growled, and he realized he hadn’t eaten all day. “Yeah, I could eat.”\n\n\n \n\n\nKlitz returned the phone to his ear. “I can pick you up…alright see you soon.” Klitz closed his phone and looked down at Eli.\n\n\n \n\n\n“How long was I asleep?”\n\n\n \n\n\n“Like four hours.”\n\n\n \n\n\nEli sat up abruptly and noticed Klitz’s position on the couch, pretty much the exact same as when he’d first sat down. “Jesus christ! You didn’t move for four hours?”\n\n\n \n\n\nKlitz shrugged. “I didn’t wanna wake you up. You said you didn’t sleep well last night.”\n\n\n \n\n\nHow dare Klitz care about Eli.\n\n\n \n\n\nNow that he was fully awake, Eli noticed how rested he felt. Most of the anxiety from earlier had dissipated. He rubbed his eyes and stood up from the couch, his back making a sickly cracking sound as he stretched. “So, where are we going?”\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe three friends sat at a booth in McDonald’s, Klitz and Eli on one side and Matt on the other. Eli made sure he was sitting an appropriate friend distance away from Klitz. It wasn’t like Matt would think anything strange was up if Eli and Klitz did sit close, they were all really good friends, it wasn’t like anything was out of the ordinary. Just two bros sitting next to each other. Two friends. Nothing else.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Is that a hickey?”\n\n\n \n\n\nEli choked on his drink.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Oh shit,” Matt laughed.\n\n\n \n\n\nEli’s face scrunched up in pain from accidentally snorting carbonated drink through his nose. “Fuck, dude,” he said as he squeezed the bridge of his nose.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Sorry, man,” Matt apologized. “Didn’t mean to expose you or anything.”\n\n\n \n\n\nEli paled at the word ‘expose’. He didn’t want to talk about that anymore, but he hadn’t really told Matt about the date, and if he tried to avoid the topic, he’d look suspicious.\n\n\n \n\n\nEli recovered from his initial reaction and put on a fake smirk. “Uh, yeah, that’s a hickey.”\n\n\n \n\n\nKlitz shifted on the bench next to him.\n\n\n \n\n\n“That’s sweet, dude,” Matt said, finishing off his fries. “So are you guys dating then?”\n\n\n \n\n\n“What? No,” Eli said, before realizing Matt wasn’t talking about the one who gave him the hickey. Shit. “I mean, yeah,” Eli corrected, perhaps a little too quickly. He went with the lying route this time since the truth, as accidental as it was, didn’t go too well earlier. At Matt’s raised eyebrow, Eli deepened the lie. “She said she doesn’t really wanna tell anyone yet. So, uh, if you ask her, she’ll probably be… weird about it.”\n\n\n \n\n\nEli actually didn’t know how Sydney would respond if someone asked her if she and Eli were dating. They hadn’t exactly gone over specifics.\n\n\n \n\n\nMatt nodded in understanding. “Nice. That’s really great, Eli, I’m happy for you.”\n\n\n \n\n\n“Thanks.”\n\n\n \n\n\n“Damn,” Matt said, shaking his head like he couldn’t believe Eli’s luck. “Sydney Dover.”\n\n\n \n\n\nDamn was right. Sydney was gorgeous, smart, had an amazing personality, outgoing, popular, pretty much everything anyone could want in a girlfriend. Yet Eli still didn’t want her. He wanted Klitz. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAfter they all finished their food and sat around for a little while after that, they all drove back to Matt’s house. \n\n\n \n\n\n“What about you, Matt? How’s things with Danielle?” Eli asked over his shoulder after remembering that the lack of Danielle was why Matt was hanging out with them again.\n\n\n \n\n\nMatt sighed and stared out the window dramatically. “I haven’t talked to her.”\n\n\n \n\n\n“You could try apologizing?” Klitz suggested.\n\n\n \n\n\n“I know, but she hasn’t really been around and I’m too scared to actually talk to her. She was really upset at the motel.”\n\n\n \n\n\n“Man up and talk to her, dude,” Eli said. “She’s a pornstar, apologize so you can fuck her.” Eli accidentally said the last part while looking at Klitz, and blushed before looking away.\n\n\n \n\n\nBoth Klitz and Matt groaned in annoyance at Eli’s comment.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Come on, man,” Klitz said.\n\n\n \n\n\n“You’re a dick, Eli. It’s your fault in the first place that I’m even in this situation. All you care about is sex and porn, I’m surprised Sydney agreed to date you,” Matt snapped venomously.\n\n\n \n\n\nBoy, was Eli good at saying the wrong thing.\n\n\n \n\n\nThe rest of the drive to Matt’s house was quiet. When Matt got out of the car, he only said goodbye to Klitz.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Wow, awkward.”\n\n\n \n\n\n“Eli–“\n\n\n \n\n\n“Whatever,” Eli dismissed, cutting Klitz off. He didn’t want another lecture on how he’s an idiot, he didn’t want to talk about it anymore. He wanted a distraction. “Wanna go back to my place?”\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThere was hardly any confusion about what going back to Eli’s place meant. Sure, Eli and Klitz hung out a lot as friends, but lately, pretty much every time they hung out they ended up having sex. They couldn’t even use the “practicing” excuse anymore because what they were practicing could never be applicable to a woman. Unless that woman had a dick. Eli and Klitz had come to a mutual agreement that they were just doing this because they liked it at this point. They weren’t gonna talk about it, but they both knew it was stupid to keep pretending they were doing it for any reason besides the fact that they just wanted to.\n\n\n \n\n\nSo that’s how Eli ended up underneath Klitz once again as the two made out on Eli’s bed.\n\n\n \n\n\nThere was still a little bit of tension remaining between the two. Eli never properly apologized for what he said in the car after school, so getting Klitz to kiss him again had taken a little bit of convincing. Fortunately, it was slowly dissipating, Eli apologizing with his kisses rather than with his words. He was better at that anyway, and Klitz seemed to accept it.\n\n\n \n\n\nThey relaxed into each other and nipped at each other’s lips, and Eli even gave Klitz his very own hickey. “Payback,” he teased as he sucked on Klitz’s neck, low enough that the collar of most of Klitz’s shirts would hide it.\n\n\n \n\n\nTheir kisses were lazy and casual, and apart from Klitz’s small grinds down against Eli every so often, it wasn’t really leading up to anything.\n\n\n \n\n\nEli did have something in mind, though.\n\n\n \n\n\nHe’d been rereading his magazine and rewatching his gay porn pretty often. Really often. It was actually the only porn he’d been watching since he got it. He noticed new things every time and eventually he did some research, starting off with the perineum and why the guys in the magazine insisted on it. That led him to the discovery of the prostate, which was pretty much the dude g-spot. No wonder it felt so good. \n\n\n \n\n\nHe’d gone down a gay rabbit hole and learned some weird shit he could’ve probably gone his whole life without knowing about, but that wasn’t important right now. What mattered right now were the dick sucking things he’d learned.\n\n\n \n\n\nAsking Klitz to do it the first time had been petrifying, but Klitz was into it. Now that Eli knew that, it shouldn’t still be scary to ask, but he still found himself hesitant.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Hey Klitz?”\n\n\n \n\n\n“Yeah?”\n\n\n \n\n\n“Uh…”\n\n\n \n\n\n“What?”\n\n\n \n\n\n“Can I… you know…”\n\n\n \n\n\nKlitz pulled back and gave him a smug look. “Do I?”\n\n\n \n\n\nEli knew for a fact that Klitz knew what Eli was trying to ask, but he was gonna make Eli say it anyway. Sadistic asshole.\n\n\n \n\n\nTwo could play that game.\n\n\n \n\n\nEli kissed Klitz and tugged his bottom lip down with his teeth. “Let me suck your dick?” Eli tried to sound as confident as possible asking it because he knew Klitz was expecting him to be shy. Nah, fuck that.\n\n\n \n\n\nKlitz blushed at Eli’s sudden, unexpected change in tone. “Oh. Y-yeah,” Klitz stuttered. “Please.” \n\n\n \n\n\nWho’s flustered now, bitch?\n\n\n \n\n\n“Get off,” Eli said, pushing Klitz off and onto his back next to Eli on the bed. Klitz scooted up to the top of the bed and sat against the headboard. He unzipped his pants and pushed them and his boxers down, but only enough to get his dick out. That wasn’t going to work for what Eli had in mind. “No, take them off. All the way,” Eli said.\n\n\n \n\n\nKlitz blushed even harder at the demand, but obeyed and pushed his pants all the way off and kicked them off the side of the bed. Klitz spread his legs so that Eli could lay between them. \n\n\n \n\n\nEli was somewhat familiar with how to do it now. He’d only done it once before, but it wasn’t exactly rocket science.\n\n\n \n\n\nEli gripped the base of Klitz’s half hard dick and licked the head. Klitz hissed at the first contact. He pumped Klitz’s dick until he was fully hard. Then he could really get to work.\n\n\n \n\n\nEli gathered spit in his mouth and licked long stripes up and down Klitz’s cock, spreading it all over. Lube was important.\n\n\n \n\n\nHe took the tip into his mouth and sucked lightly before going down a couple inches and retreating. He was determined to get Klitz back for how much he liked to tease Eli. He focused on the head, knowing that was the most sensitive area. Klitz’s thighs spasmed every time Eli poked his tongue into the slit. \n\n\n \n\n\nHe took him more fully into his mouth again and tilted his head to the side, the head of Klitz’s cock creating a bulge from the inside of his mouth. Klitz reached down and touched himself through Eli’s cheek. \n\n\n \n\n\n“Holy shit, dude,” Klitz said, voice full of awe.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Mmm,” Eli hummed in agreement.\n\n\n \n\n\nKlitz’s hand made its way to Eli’s hair from his cheek and he gripped it lightly. Eli tilted Klitz’s dick around in his mouth, and began to bob his head again. He sucked Klitz slowly, going down further and further with each pass, and hit his throat with the tip, purposefully gagging himself. \n\n\n \n\n\nEli had read about that. It seemed kinda weird to gag himself on purpose, but he’d seen that it helped with warming up his throat so he wouldn’t be worried about gagging while he’s actually trying to put it in his throat. It kinda just got the first one out of the way so he could continue more confidently.\n\n\n \n\n\nSurprisingly, it worked. Eli got himself down far enough that the tip of Klitz’s cock just barely blocked his airway. That would have for sure made him gag, but he didn’t, simply because he wasn’t afraid to. Funny how that works.\n\n\n \n\n\nEli pulled off and took a few deep breaths. He honed in all his attention to what he was about to attempt. He took Klitz back into his mouth while relaxing his throat, and got a little more than halfway down Klitz’s cock before gagging and pulling off again. He blinked away the tears that had formed and let them roll down his face so he could see clearly.\n\n\n \n\n\nEli didn’t care if it was only his second time sucking dick, he was determined to suck \n\nall\n\n of Klitz’s dick. He took a deep breath and went slowly. Klitz’s grip on Eli’s hair got tighter as Eli took him further and further. Eli knew Klitz wouldn’t slam him down and make him swallow or anything like that, but the hand on his head was a little nerve wracking. \n\n\n \n\n\nKlitz made small quiet moans as Eli’s throat massaged his cock. Eli went up and down, relaxing his throat more each time, getting used to the feeling of something obstructing his breathing. It took a few attempts but eventually, Eli had managed to get all of Klitz’s nine-something inches in his throat, his nose pressed against Klitz’s pubes. \n\n\n \n\n\nKlitz was so big. It felt like he was touching Eli’s lungs.\n\n\n \n\n\nHe looked up and made eye contact with Klitz through wet eyelashes.\n\n\n \n\n\nKlitz’s mouth was hanging open and he was taking small panting breaths, as if Eli was strangling Klitz while his throat strangled his cock.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Oh my god,” Klitz groaned, and the sound went straight to Eli’s own dick.\n\n\n \n\n\nEli was so proud of himself. He’d read that deepthroating took practice and was difficult, and here Eli was with all of Klitz’s cock in his throat. Apparently he was just a natural cocksucker.\n\n\n \n\n\nHe pulled off and grinned at Klitz smugly, blinking away tears and wiping spit off his chin.\n\n\n \n\n\nHe did it. \n\n\n \n\n\nHe deepthroated Klitz. Klitz’s huge dick. The biggest dick Eli had ever seen in his life.\n\n\n \n\n\nThe thought alone was seriously getting Eli off. He had no clue why sucking dick was such a turn on, but he savored every part—the way it felt in his mouth, hot and heavy on his tongue, when it would twitch and pulse out more precum. Eli was loath to admit, even to himself, that he liked it. A lot. \n\n\n \n\n\n“That was so good, Eli.”\n\n\n \n\n\nThe praise made him blush and he pressed a kiss to the head of Klitz’s dick. He liked making Klitz feel good.\n\n\n \n\n\nEli tried it again, just to see if he could. He could. He moved his mouth up and down Klitz’s cock, alternating between taking him from tip to root in long bobs of his head and shorter bobs where he focused near the head and teased the slit. He was pullling some pretty sexy noises out of Klitz, and welcomed it when Klitz pulled his hair this time.\n\n\n \n\n\nEli pulled off all the way but continued to slowly jack Klitz off while he gave his jaw a break. Sucking dick was hard work, and Klitz’s girth meant he had to open his mouth pretty wide. Eli used his other hand to cup Klitz’s balls, figuring now was a good time to try the prostate thing. He also just really wanted to actually see Klitz’s reaction.\n\n\n \n\n\nEli’s hand was in a good position. He kept a steady pace on Klitz’s cock and used his first two knuckles to press up against the space behind Klitz’s balls.\n\n\n \n\n\nKlitz moaned loudly and his cock jerked hard in front of Eli’s face. That was hot.\n\n\n \n\n\n“What the fuck was that?” he asked a few moments later, panting for breath.\n\n\n \n\n\n“G-spot for dudes.”\n\n\n \n\n\n“I thought that was in the ass?”\n\n\n \n\n\n“There’s this whole thing about it,” Eli dismissed the topic, not really interested in giving an anatomy lesson in the middle of sucking Klitz’s dick.\n\n\n \n\n\nEli pressed again, but this time applied a constant pressure and began to rub in small circles. \n\n\n \n\n\nKlitz choked on a moan and his hips bucked up. His cock drooled out precum like crazy. “\n\nFuck\n\n Eli,” he moaned breathily.\n\n\n \n\n\nEli grinned wide as he watched Klitz fall apart, literally, under his own two hands. “Yeah? That feel good, Klitzy?” Eli knew the answer, but he wanted to hear Klitz say it.\n\n\n \n\n\nKlitz’s eyes were closed and his head was tilted back in pleasure. “Yes, fuck, so good.”\n\n\n \n\n\nEli spread the new precum down Klitz’s cock and took him back into his mouth. Klitz placed both hands in Eli’s hair and used his grip to gently guide Eli’s head as he fucked his mouth. At first, the thought of Klitz having so much control like that over Eli worried him, but he was now finding out that he actually really enjoyed it. He trusted Klitz to not hurt him, so he relaxed and went down further and let Klitz thrust into his throat.\n\n\n \n\n\nThe new pressure had Klitz groaning, “Wait wait, Eli, I’m close.”\n\n\n \n\n\nIt was nice of Klitz to warn him. Also nice of him to pull Eli off of him last time, automatically assuming Eli didn’t want come in his mouth, and at the time, he’d assumed correctly. But since tasting come, it wasn’t as offensive as Eli expected it to be, and he wanted Klitz to finish in his mouth this time.\n\n\n \n\n\nEli created a vacuum with his mouth and sucked harder, hollowing his cheeks. Realizing Eli was gonna let him come in his mouth, Klitz groaned and began to push his hips a little deeper. Eli applied more pressure on his perineum and Klitz’s cock got impossibly harder, got fucking \n\nbigger\n\n in his mouth, and that was the only warning he got before Klitz was coming down his throat.\n\n\n \n\n\nKlitz used his hands on Eli’s head to push his head nearly all the way down, forcing Eli to take all of it while he came. His hips moved in small pulses into Eli’s mouth, pushing it so deep, Eli didn’t even taste his come.\n\n\n \n\n\nAfter the last big pulse, Klitz released Eli’s head. Eli pulled off and caught his breath. The brief lack of air made him dizzy. That combined with the fact that Klitz had forced his head down and came down his throat, Eli was so aroused he couldn’t think straight, which was strange because that was the thing he was worried about the most earlier.\n\n\n \n\n\nEli looked at Klitz, and he must’ve looked seriously fucked up, because Klitz became extremely concerned and began apologizing over and over again.\n\n\n \n\n\nEli shook his head, thoughts fuzzy, and he couldn’t focus on anything except the burning need to come.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Klitz, I’m-I-I can’t, I’m so close, I can’t–“ Eli babbled, lust drunk.\n\n\n \n\n\nKlitz held out his arms like he was welcoming Eli in for a hug, and Eli immediately took the opportunity to get up onto Klitz’s lap. He kissed Klitz desperately, not caring about where his mouth had just been.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Please Klitz, you g–you gotta touch me, Klitz, I’m– \n\nplease\n\n,” Eli begged.\n\n\n \n\n\nKlitz undid Eli’s pants and quickly took him in hand. Eli sobbed in relief as Klitz started jacking Eli off, not slowly, but definitely not fast enough for how badly Eli needed it.\n\n\n \n\n\nEli braced one hand on Klitz’s shoulder and one hand on the wall behind him and frantically fucked Klitz’s fist.\n\n\n \n\n\nEli didn’t cry during sex, no way.\n\n\n \n\n\nBut he was so hard, he was in tears.\n\n\n \n\n\nKlitz had never seen him so worked up. He looked at Eli’s face, his forehead scrunched up, eyes watery and tears flowing down his face. He began to whine on every breath he took.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Eli,” Klitz said, voice hoarse, and for some reason, that was all Eli needed to push him over the edge. He moaned as he came on Klitz’s chest, hips not slowing in Klitz’s hand until he started to twitch with sensitivity. That was probably the hardest he’d ever come in his life. His chest heaved as he came down. He met Klitz’s eye and was startled at the intense look of amazement and reverence.\n\n\n \n\n\n“That was so fucking hot, Eli.”\n\n\n \n\n\nEli turned red and brushed off the compliment. Crying during sex wasn’t hot, it was pathetic. He lifted up his shirt and used the bottom edge of it to wipe his face of drool and tears. In doing so, he noticed Klitz’s shirt.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Oh…” Eli winced. Klitz looked down at his chest. “Sorry dude.”\n\n\n \n\n\n“It’s okay, I can wash it.”\n\n\n \n\n\nEli swung his leg over Klitz’s lap, climbing off of him. Klitz wiped his hand on his shirt, then stood up and took it off, trading it for his boxers. Eli pulled off his shirt and shucked his jeans and flopped down into bed. Klitz joined him and rolled onto his side to kiss Eli.\n\n\n \n\n\nEli scowled at him. “Dude, I just had your dick in my mouth,” he said, leaning away from Klitz’s lips.\n\n\n \n\n\n“I don’t care,” Klitz chased them.\n\n\n \n\n\n“You’re so fucking gross,” Eli said, but let Klitz kiss him anyway.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Says the guy who just had my dick in his mouth?”\n\n\n \n\n\nEli pushed Klitz away with a hand on his face. “Shut up.”\n\n\n \n\n\nThey laid in bed together and watched tv, not really wanting to go to sleep just yet. They scooched around until they found a comfortable position, Eli’s head resting on Klitz’s chest and Klitz’s arm wrapped around Eli’s shoulders. He traced random patterns on his arm.\n\n\n \n\n\nThings seemed to have cooled down between them. Eli wasn’t angry anymore, and as far as Eli could tell, his comment wasn’t bothering Klitz. It probably wasn’t the best idea to have sex instead of talking about their problems, but talking about feelings was for sissies. If it was a problem that could be solved with a blowjob, then was it really that big of a problem in the first place?\n\n\n \n\n\nThe sleepy stillness in the room and between the two caused Eli’s mind to wander. Mostly, it landed on his… research. How weird would it be to bring this up right now?\n\n\n \n\n\nSince the first time watching two guys do it, Eli had been a little (a lot) curious about the experience for himself.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Hey Klitz?”\n\n\n \n\n\nThey were both almost falling asleep, so Klitz simply hummed to show he was listening.\n\n\n \n\n\n“What do you think about. Uh. Anal?”\n\n\n \n\n\nKlitz’s hand stopped on Eli’s arm. “Uhhhhh… I don’t really know,” Klitz said, now much more awake than he had been before Eli’s potentially distressing question. Eli could tell Klitz didn’t want to answer directly because he wasn’t sure which way the conversation would go.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Okay, but you’ve like… you know about it,” Eli stated more than asked.\n\n\n \n\n\nKlitz huffed a small laugh. “Yeah, I get the concept.”\n\n\n \n\n\n“Alright, cool. Good. Great. Um… yeah, cool.”\n\n\n \n\n\n“What do \n\nyou\n\n think about anal?”\n\n\n \n\n\nEli honestly didn’t think about where he was even going with this conversation when he brought it up. He wanted to try anal. Was he just supposed to outright ask Klitz to fuck him?\n\n\n \n\n\n“I kinda wanna try it.”\n\n\n \n\n\n“Uh. Okay. Do you mean like…” Klitz said, in a careful attempt to navigate this conversation in the right way. Of course, this meant he expected Eli to actually say what he wanted.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Jesus christ, Klitz, with you!”\n\n\n \n\n\n“Okay, sorry. I wasn’t sure. Just didn’t wanna get the wrong idea…”\n\n\n \n\n\n“Fuck,” Eli rolled his eyes.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Okay, well. We don’t really know how to do… that.”\n\n\n \n\n\n“I’ve seen gay porn, I know some things.”\n\n\n \n\n\n“You watch gay porn?” Klitz asked, slightly amused.\n\n\n \n\n\nEli’s face got hot. For some reason, that admission embarrassed him despite having Klitz’s cock in his throat like thirty minutes ago. “Fuck you dude, never mind,” Eli rolled away from Klitz.\n\n\n \n\n\n“No, hey, I wanna talk about this,” Klitz said as he moved onto his side to face Eli. He propped himself up on his elbow and looked down at where Eli was laying with his head on a pillow. Eli glared at him. “Come on. You said you wanna try it, right? Who’s doing who?”\n\n\n \n\n\nThe way Klitz said it—who \n\nis\n\n instead of who \n\nwould\n\n—like it was actually going to happen and wasn’t just a perverted hypothetical made Eli’s stomach flip with excitement.\n\n\n \n\n\n“I want you… to do… me,” Eli spoke slowly and quietly and looked away from Klitz.\n\n\n \n\n\nKlitz leaned over Eli and kissed him. “I can do that.”\n\n\n \n\n\nHoly shit, they were actually talking about this. Klitz didn’t seem freaked out or put off or anything. He actually looked kinda excited, which eased Eli’s nerves. They discussed some of the smaller details like when it would happen (Sunday), where it would happen (Eli’s house, duh), who would be getting lube and condoms (Klitz). It was an awkward conversation to have. Discussing the unsexy details instead of just doing it was super lame, but it had to be done if they wanted to actually… do it. \n\n\n \n\n\n“Okay. It’s happening then.”\n\n\n \n\n\nHoly shit. Eli and Klitz were gonna do it. They were gonna have real actual sex. Klitz was gonna fuck Eli. Holy shit. Klitz was gonna \n\nfuck\n\n Eli. That thought made heat curl in Eli’s stomach.\n\n\n \n\n\nKlitz took his glasses off and set them down on the nightstand before turning off the lamp. He kissed Eli goodnight.\n\n\n \n\n\nHoly shit.\n\n\n \n\n\nThey were gonna do it.\n"}
+{"text": "Sabrina's Story of How She Got into Exhibitionism\n\nHi, my name is Sabrina and this is my story of my unexpected entrance into exhibitionism. Two years ago, if you had even suggested that I would enjoy exposing my body to strangers, I would have immediately told you that you were wrong and stupid at even thinking that I could do that.\n\nWell people do change, don't they?\n\nI had just turned 37 years old and had also just had my 18th wedding anniversary to my one and only love and lover, Cliff, who is three months younger than me. We have two children, a girl and a boy. My daughter just graduated high school and joined the Air Force. My son will graduate next year. I had been feeling weak, run-down, and light-headed lately so I made an appointment to see my doctor. She told me I had Type-2 diabetes and put me on some meds and said that I should start getting more exercise and to watch what I eat from now on and it wouldn't hurt to lose about 40 to 50 lbs.\n\nSummer was coming to an end soon so it wouldn't be so hot outside to start my exercising. Cliff suggested I ask Chip, my son, if I could start riding his bike since he hardly used it anymore since he now drove our old car that he and his sister use to share all the time now. He said no problem so Cliff cleaned it up and lubed the chain and gears on it. I started off my exercises easy by just riding down the sidewalk to State Rd. 100, which is about a half mile from my house, and back a couple times in the mornings after Chip left for school. Once I felt comfortable with that distance, I turned left at SR 100 and rode the bake path about a mile to the entrance to the State Park then turn around and head home. I did this once a day for a couple weeks then did it twice and then three and four times a day. Thank goodness I live in the south where it is still relatively warm here most of the winter so riding that bike outside wasn't bad. At the beginning of January, I purchased a yearly pass to the park and began to ride the 5+ miles of bike paths in the park as well. By this time I was feeling stronger and had already lost 15 lbs. By the time warmer weather had returned, I had lost a total of about 25 lbs. and felt great. The only problem now was the pants I usually wore to ride the bike in were getting loose and threating to fall off me.\n\nCliff told me one night that he could see the difference in my body and that he liked it. He then suggested I buy and wear some bike shorts to ride in. I had seen other women wearing them and it did look like they would be better to ride in but they also looked tight and would mold to my big butt and I didn't like the idea of showing that off. I told Cliff that, he chuckled he told me stop being silly. He said my butt was looking much finer than it did before I started riding that bike, that's why he's had trouble keeping his hands off it lately. He said that if he were a girl and had an ass that looked that good, he would be proud to show it off. After taking my shower, I was getting dressed for bed and noticed my panties wear also getting baggy on my ass. I then checked out my ass for the first time in quite a while, I thought that maybe Cliff was right, it did look better! It was tight and toned up where it used to be saggy and baggy. Maybe I would look alright in some bike shorts.\n\nI bought one pair the next day after my ride and went home to try them on. I wore them around the house and surprised how cool and comfortable they were and I decided my ass looked OK in them, except for the VPL [visible panty line], my t-shirt would cover that, so I decide to wear them the next day. I enjoyed them so much; once I got home I went to the store and got a couple more pair.\n\nI also started to dress different in the evening around the house so Cliff could play with my ass easier. I was feeling more alive in the sexual apartment than I use to lately. I guess it was because of my weight loss and Cliff's increase in his affections to me lately. Cliff use to be all handzy around me when we were younger and I loved it and now he was getting that way again, I've found I still like it. He is once again grabbing my tits and ass whenever he gets the chance. The difference between now and when we were young is that I now let him grab me when we are in public. When I was young, it embarrassed me when he fondled my ass in public, now I like it when he does it. I've also noticed men are now checking me out more lately than they used to and I've found I'm enjoying their stares. I've packed away all my old PJ's and started wearing just mid-thigh T-shirts and panties around the house. I have never worn a bra at night and I've gotten to the point I don't were one around the house anymore.\n\nCliff says my breast are still riding almost as high as when we got married. Cliff liked my new nighttime attire and keeps reaching under my shirt to grab my ass or crotch. I had to slap at his hands more than once because Chip was around. He told me he didn't care if Chip seen him grab my ass. The boy was old enough to know what he was up to and for me to not worry about him, plus it was educational. I already knew Chip had seen my panties a few times when I bent over in front of him and I had already gotten use to that so I decided to let Cliff have his fun, plus I liked the grab-ass too! At Cliff's suggestion, after he had stripped me when we went to bed a few times, we started sleeping nude together again. We hadn't done that since the kids were 5 or 6 years of age. I found I've missed the cuddling naked with Cliff and sleeping nude and am enjoying sleeping nude again, plus the sex has become a lot more frequent too. Before losing my weight, sex was once or twice a week, now it is almost a nightly thing. We've even fooling around more than that on weekends.\n\nA couple months later, it was getting quite warm and I was getting quite warm and sweaty during my now 10 plus mile daily ride. I noticed another girl I rode and talked with once in a while had started wearing just a small sports-bra as a top and some low-rise stretch short-shorts to ride in. I asked where she got the shorts from and she told me where and how much they cost.\n\nI was feeling a lot better about my body at this time and although it would be out of character for me to wear so little in public. I had gotten quite conservative in my clothing over the past few years. I guess because of my weight and being a mom. Anyway, I felt like I wanted to give it a try, but chicken out buying the smaller sports bra. I did buy a couple bigger sport-bras than the girl wore and decided to give them a try. I was cooler wearing them than a t-shirt. A couple days later, I noticed my VPL again and didn't like how it looked with my tight bike shorts. And then from off who knows where, I got a naughty idea to wear my bike shorts without my panties. I was already not wearing a bra under my sports-bra, so why not got without panties too. When I pulled them on alone the next morning, it felt strange, but it was a nice strange feeling, so I decide to go ahead and give it a try. I liked it! I liked the feeling of being naughty and not wearing panties in public plus I felt cooler down there also. I had never wore anything outside my house in public without underwear, except my swimsuit, so as I rode my bike I began to wonder what it would feel like to wear my regular shorts without panties, maybe even a dress without underwear. I know it was naughty and good girls didn't dress that way but I decided I still wanted to give it a try one day.\n\nI also noticed I was getting a strange tan pattern over my body from riding in the sun so much and decide to get a small bikini to get a tan in my backyard after my ride. I usually left the house to ride about 8am and was back around 11am and before noon I was lying out getting some sun. After about a week of wearing my bikini in my backyard, I noticed I had a lot of privacy in the part of the backyard I did my sunning in and I knew I had the house to myself until 4 PM, at first I untied the strings across my back to not leave any white lines there. Then I dared to take off my top and tan my breast. I had never felt the sun on them before and it felt wonderful. I tanned topless for a few days and then decide to try nude sunbathing. It felt wonderful lying naked in the sun. I now do it as often as I can. I first stripped out of my bikini once in the private corner of my backyard but after a week or so, I started wearing just a towel wrapped around me to my lounge chair.\n\nAfter a couple weeks of that, I ended up just carrying the towel one hand and a drink in the other as I walked naked across my backyard to my chair. It felt wonderful to walk naked outside in the sunlight. My husband noticed my tan and my disappearing tan-lines and questioned me about it. I told him about the tan-lines from my sports bra and shorts and how I had slowly progressed to tanning nude in the backyard when I was alone. He said he understood and approved of my nude tanning and how he wished he could be there to see me like that. I told him to drop by around lunch one day and he might catch me out there. He just smiled and said he just might surprise me one day. I said, \"I dare you\", inside I was hoping he would stop by and catch me naked. Lying naked in the sun also got my fantasies going too; one was Cliff making love to me outside in the sunlight. We have never done that but find I wouldn't mind one bit if he wanted to take me out there. I think I would enjoy it!\n\nI also decided to go buy those low-rise short-shorts and smaller sport-bras to ride my bike in and I also quit wearing panties under those short-shorts too. I found I was enjoying riding around in public practically naked. I even started wearing just my bikini top one in a while with my low-rise short-shorts while I rode my bike. I was now down to my target weight, my sugar was staying down, and I felt and looked good. One day I was in 'Walmart' and I noticed the store was having a sale on sun-dresses. I picked out a couple halter style dresses and tried them on. They both came about mid-thigh but fit me well. I hadn't worn any dresses that short since Cliff and I dated but I knew I wanted them and that I would be willing to wear them in public. I knew I was looking pretty good right now and I wanted to celebrate and show off my new body.\n\nAs luck would have it, Cliff called me while I was on the way home. He told me not to start supper because he had won a drawing at his job and had won two free dinners at a local Bar-B-Q place we like. I knew then I was wearing one of my new halter-dresses to dinner and surprise Cliff. I gave Chip $20.00 when he came home and told him to get him a burger or a pizza for supper because his Dad and I would be going out for dinner. Cliff was shocked but happy to see me in that short halter-dress and later at home, he was really surprised when he found that all I wore under it was a new pair of tiny thong panties I had bought in the spur of the moment that day also, I'd sworn in the past I would never wear thong panties but I was feeling a lot sexier lately and decide to give them a try. He snatched those panties off me and took me hard and fast. I will have to get me more to wear if he does that when I wear them, I should have started wearing them sooner!\n\nA few days later, while out shopping and while passing the sleepwear section in 'Walmart', I seen some low-rise satin short-shorts, they were so light and thin they almost weighted nothing, I had to have them. I bought 2 of them, one in black and one I light blue. I then found matching satin crop tops to go with the shorts in the same colors. I got those too. I couldn't believe I was even contemplating wearing them when I rode my bike but I knew I wanted to at least give it a try. And I did! I felt like I was naked while I rode my bike.\n\nI wore the black set first. I felt so naughty, but it was exhilarating and exciting at the same time. I knew people knew I was almost naked in public but I found I didn't care! I like knowing they knew that! I found was also very horny when I got home. I didn't expect my new found exhibitionism would get me so horny. I was so horny I didn't notice Cliffs' car I the garage. I rushed through the house stripping my top and shorts off as I headed to my lounge chair in the back yard. I had planned on the way home to jill myself off while lying in the sun. I was shoving two fingers rapidly in and out of my newly saved bald pussy, I did that this morning before leaving when I notice my bush showed a little when I put on those loose legged short-shorts. I didn't want my bush to show. When I opened my eyes, there in front of me was my naked husband stroking his nice hard cock. I surprised him and me when I hollered, \"Oh God Yes! I need that! Fuck me! Ram that cock in me!\" I had never been the one for naughty talk before, I don't ever remember talking like that to Cliff before but he didn't complain but his eyes did open wide. He just gave me a big smile and gave me what I wanted and needed.\n\nCliff wasn't mad at me when I explained in detail at what I had been doing the last couple months and accumulating with what I had done today. When I put back on the satin top and shorts and showed him all that I had worn riding in today, he attacked me and took me from behind right there on the living room floor, leaving the shorts on! He just slipped the crotch of the shorts to the side. It had been years since he took me doggy style. I hope we make use for that position often now.\n\nAfterwards, he told me to take a shower and get dressed in my halter dress again; he had decided me wanted to take out for lunch as a reward for being such a nice naughty girl. He had seen my floral print dress last week so I decided to wear the solid yellow one this time. After pulling the dress on, I noticed I could see my nipples though the top. For half a second, I decide to NOT wear the dress but since I was still slightly turned on from the sex and my exposure this afternoon, I decide to hell with it. I'm going braless and I really didn't care if people see my nipples though the dress. I started going braless after I met Cliff and he liked it then and a couple of my tops were a little thin. And now I was now looking forward to wearing this thin dress braless and to people noticing them! I opened my underwear drawer and stopped. I suddenly felt like being pantiless too. I wondered if I could really do it. I had thought about it a couple times but never had the nerve to try it. But again still feeling sexy and a bit randy from my sex today, I decide that I would go pantiless. I have gone naked under a couple long ankle length dresses in public before but that was years ago, early in our marriage and that was to tease cliff, but I have never worn a dress that came halfway between my ass and knees pantiless before. And I could feel my pussy tingling at the mere thought of going uncovered in public. Then I wondered how long it would take Cliff to find out his wife was being a naughty girl and how would he react. Would he get angry at me or would he turn me over and take me right there. I hope it would be the latter and I decide I would let him take me wherever and whenever he wanted, even in public if he wanted. I was that horny!\n\nCliff was in the kitchen taking his meds when he saw me; he nearly choked on the water he was drinking. He said that if he wasn't already worn out from the sex we already had that day, he would bend me over the couch and take me again. I said that sounded like a good idea but that I really was hungry and would like to eat, plus that he needed to eat to get his energy back up so he could bend me over the couch when we got back home. He smiled, gave me a kiss and told me that it sounded like a good plan. I could feel the breeze blowing under my short dress, tickling my wet pussy when we walked to the car. Feeling the wind tickling my bald pussy felt nice, I might just have to wear my dresses pantiless more often! I then thought that maybe I needed to get a few more short dresses to wear. Almost every dress I owned was around knee length and a few came between my knees and ankles. I knew I would start wearing those pantiless as some as I got a chance to wear one.\n\nWhile we ate, Cliff keep looking at my nipples and asked how I felt knowing people could see them. I told him that for some reason it really wasn't bothering me and I'm sure I'm not the first girl to show her nipples under a thin top and that I probably wouldn't be the last. He then asked how come I started dressing like this lately and not years ago. I told him I wasn't sure but that I think it had something to do with my recent weight loss and exercising I had been doing. I was feeling good about how I was now looking and I felt better than I have in years plus I notice my sexual libido had increased lately too. I now wasn't afraid to show my body in public anymore. In fact, I've discovered I like being looked at and I am not afraid to show-off a little bit now and then. I asked him if he minded me showing off my new body a little. He laughed a little and said the only problem he had with me showing off a little was that he seemed to be getting hard-ons a lot more lately. I laughed at his remark and told him I had another surprise for him later that I though he just might enjoy. I wasn't sure if I would but now I knew I was. He asked me what it was and I laughed and told him, \"Now now, but I promise you I will tell you later and I'm sure you'll like it.\" I looked around to see if anyone was looking at me. When I noticed no one seemed to be looking, I reached under my dress and touched my pussy in pubic for the first time ever! An found it was as wet as I could ever remember. Then I got a naughty thought, I pushed one finger inside me and then presented it to Cliff. Telling him to smell what he was doing to me. We left soon after that.\n\nOnce to the car, I asked Cliff to be a gentleman for me and to open my door. When I sat in the car, I sat down very unladylike, exposing my pantiless pussy to my hubby. His eyes got as big as silver dollars as I sat there, not moving, with my legs spread wide for him. \"See\" I said, \"I told you I had another surprise for you. This is my first time ever going pantiless in a dress in public and this one is a bit short. If you like it, I'll do it for you again sometime. That is if you don't mind.\" He pulled me from the car and placed a big kiss on me.\n\nCliff said, \"You can go pantiless whenever you want honey! I love you dressing like this. I just wish you had started doing this years ago. If you want to quit wearing underwear altogether, that would be fine with me too. Just expect me to fuck you a lot more often and in location other than out house.\" He looked around, \"Starting right now!\" He closed the car door then turned me around bending me over putting my head in the car window. I heard his zipper and two seconds later, he was entering me. I was so wet and ready, he went all the way in on his first push. We had a quickie in a public parking lot during the early afternoon and I liked it! I decided I wouldn't mind having sex in public more if it felt this good. I started to look around to see if anyone could see us but before long, I didn't care and started hoping someone would see us. We had now had sex three times in one day. We hadn't done that since our honeymoon.\n\nI basically quit wearing bras and panties for Cliff, and well, me too! I found I enjoyed wearing all my clothes without panties and I don't wear bras with any of my tops anymore. Some of them are quite thin. I love the looks I get when someone notices my tits and nipple showing through. I don't wear any panties under my t-shirts at night anymore either. I have to be careful around Chip though, I don't think a young boy wants to see his mother's pussy, right? If he has seen it, he hasn't said anything. But he has been hanging around the house at night more than usual lately. I know he seen my panties under my t-shirt a few times in the past but he made no big deal about it. But he is a normal 17 year old boy and if he did happen to see my bare ass or pussy, so what? It won't kill him. It could be considered educational, Right?\n\nI realize how loose the leg openings were on my satin shorts after Cliff screwed me while I wore then the other day. I experimented with them one day as I rode around the park. I pulled them aside and found I could ride around with my pussy uncovered. The ride around the park is usually quiet and I hardly see anybody when I ride so I wasn't worried about exposing myself to children or families. I even experimented with fingering myself as I rode. And 'Yes' I did get myself off that first day and I'm sure it will not be my last time doing it. I've also pulled my very short, loose crop-top up almost daily and ride around with my boobs out. The top comes back down easily and quickly if I need to cover myself although my breasts are only covered by a couple inches when the top is down.\n\nA couple weeks later after another 'very' enjoyable ride around the park, it began to rain. I hadn't paid attention to the weather before leaving the house, my mind was it the gutter elsewhere. I've rode in the rain before and usually dress for it. Today I was wearing my light blue satin outfit today and I was a good half-hour from my house even on a good weather day. I pulled up under a picnic pavilion for a bit to check out the weather radar on my phone, I keep my phone and ID's in a waterproof pouch on my bike and found out it was going to rain the rest of the day. I would be soaked by the time I got home. I then looked down at my top, it was transparent! My breast and nipples were plainly visible. I might have well have been topless. All of the sudden I perked up. This could be fun! I'm not topless but it looked like I might be. This would be my ultimate show-off in public so far.\n\nAll of the sudden one of the park rangers pulled up in his pick-up truck, it was one of the ones I thought was cute, he was about 25 with dark hair. You know the ones; tall, dark and handsome! I felt my pussy tingle. He asked if I was alright. I faced him letting him and wanting him to see me and told him I was fine but wet. He told me he could see that. \"Good!\" I thought. \"Get a good look.\" I told him I guess it was my punishment for not checking the weather before leaving home. He asked if he could give me a lift somewhere. \"Yea, I know where you want to take me.\" I thought, thing is, I was almost tempted to go with him but I wasn't ready to cheat on my husband. I'd get naked for the guy if he asked and let him get a good look at me but no touching, at least not yet and then only if Cliff gave me permission to let another man touch me. But knowing another man might want to have sex with me was a big turn on.\n\nI walked slowly right up to his truck window, in the rain, letting him have a good look at my practically nude body while pushing my bike and told him, \"No thanks, I deserve this. Plus I don't live far, I'll get wet but I'll be alright. It's not the first time I've rode in the rain. Thanks anyway.\" I got on the bike and pushed off into the pouring rain. I road with the ranger following behind me. I knew my top was transparent but I wasn't sure about the back of my shorts. If they were as transparent as my top, it probably looked like I was bottomless too. I'm sure the ranger was getting a good look at my ass and I made no attempt to cover-up. That was getting me even hornier! Luckily I didn't have to cross any busy highways in that rain on my ride home. All I had were right turns onto the bike-path and then the sidewalk to my house. I did have a few cars slow to check me out as I rode next to the street while looking like I was naked. I was one horny girl when I got home. I took a few pictures and a short video of me in my wet outfit in the rain so I could show my husband when he got home. I'm sure I'm going to get a nice fucking after he sees them! Especially when I tell him about the park ranger seeing and talking to me like that and that I liked it!\n\nI continued my bike riding and expanded my exhibitionism around town. I now went everywhere wearing no bra or panties. Cliff loves it when I wear my short dresses pantiless for him and I love doing it too. I regularly wear only my short sundresses shopping and have on more than a few occasions dared to bend over a little bit too far and flash some unsuspecting male my bare ass and pussy. When I did my first intentional 'flash', it surprised even me at how excited I got when I did it. The juices from my pussy would be running down my leg after my first few flashes which prompted me to do it again soon. I told Cliff about each time I did it and he ended up screwing me, that's one reason I don't regret my flashing. I get cock when he gets home. He has even gone with me on a few of my adventures and watched me do them. He loves watching the reactions of my targets. I also enjoy wearing my satin crop tops when I shop too. I found that when I bent over to get something off the lower shelfs, the top falls away exposing the bottoms of my breast.\n\nAround Thanksgiving, Cliff told me of a new guy at work that he had become good friends with and asked if I minded if he asked Danny over for Thanksgiving Dinner. The guy was about 28 and single and had nobody to have dinner with. I told him I had no problems with that and did that mean I needed to wear a bra around him. Cliff said, \"Don't you dare! I've been telling him how hot you are lately and I kind of let it slip that you hardly ever wore a bra. You should have seen his eyes open when I said that. I now am looking forward to you 'accidentally' teasing him with them tits. You can wear whatever top you want, that's going to be your choice.\" I told him I would love to tease him and I promised not to be too obvious that I want him to look at them. I also said it will depend on how warm it is if I wear pants, shorts or a skirt. Cliff smiled and said, \"I hope it's a 100 degrees that day and so you get to wear that new short jean skirt and a halter top that day.\"\n\nWell, it was cold and rainy that day so I ended wearing so jeans and a thin yellow tank-top in the house. My nipples were quite obvious through the thin material and Cliff was happy about that. I noticed Danny taking every opportunity to look at them I caught him looking once and just smiled and winked at him. A big smile came to his face when I shook them at him.\n\nI told Cliff after we ate I was surprised he hadn't groped me in front of his friend yet, he looked surprised at my suggestion and asked if I'd let him. I said, \"Of course I wouldn't mind if you did. Why on earth would I suggest it if I wouldn't let you. Listen, I want you to 'accidentally' help me get some water on the front of my shirt in a little while in front of both of you. I'll then be giving you two a wet t-shirt look and then I'm going to change out of that wet top into one of my satin crop-tops for the rest of the afternoon. You will then have better access to my tits then. If you accidentally end up barring a little tit to him when you do, don't worry about it. You're right; he is a nice guy so I really wouldn't mind baring a tit to him.\"\n\nAbout 15 minutes later, Danny put a rubber band around the spray nozzle at the sink and when I turn the water on; it sprayed me and soaked the front of my shirt. I loved the look on their faces when I screamed, jumped back, and turned around and faced them both. Success! I looked like a contestant in a wet t-shirt contest. I blurred out, \"Oops, sorry about this. Damn you Cliff, I know you had something to do with this. I ought to stay just like this just to spite you but it's cold and now I'm wet. I'm going to put something dry on, excuse me Danny. Sorry about this.\" I said as I motioned to my wet shirt, drawing his attention once again to my hard, but cold nipples.\n\nI put on my black satin crop-top and went back to the kitchen; Cliff came up behind me and wrapped his arms around me telling me he was sorry about getting me wet. I said to him, \"You know I hate being cold and wet. You also know that I don't mind getting my shirts wet and showing my nipples as long as it's not cold.\" I then looked at Danny and asked him, \"I hope Cliff making my top wet and see-thru didn't upset you. It's not the first time that's happen to me. It's fun to do when the conditions are right, but today the conditions are not right. I hate being cold!\" He said he was fine with what happen and he was just glad I wasn't upset with him seeing them. I told him I was fine with him seeing them. He wasn't the first to see them like that.\n\nAt that time, Cliff slipped his hands down and under my top, cupping both bare tits in his hands. I asked him what he thought he was doing. All he said was that he was having fun. I told him it felt good but to let go. He said OK, and when let go, his hands dropped down immediately grabbed the bottom of the top and whispered in my ear, \"Ready, I'm showing them to him.\" He them lifted the top up, for the first time ever, he purposely baring my tits to another man. I hesitated a second letting Danny get a good look then pushed my top back down telling Cliff to stop that. Before Danny went home that night, Cliff had lifted my top three times more and before he left, they both finally talked me into taking it off completely and walking around topless. That was so much fun! I was topless for over an hour around two men and both, 'yes both of them', touched and fondled them during that hour. The crotch of my jeans were wet I was so horny. If Cliff had asked me to fuck them both, I was so horny, I don't know if I could have said 'NO'. Having another man, or two men at once fondle and kiss my breast was pure heaven. I could, and would love to do that again one day.\n\nCliff asked me a couple weeks later if I would be willing to wear something daring and sexy to his companies' fancy dress 'New Years' day party this year. I've never wanted to go in the past because I dislike crowds and drunken people and if I went, this would be my first time meeting Cliff's bosses and co-workers. I asked his if he was sure he wanted me to dress daring around his bosses and co-workers and he said it would give him much pleasure showing off his hot, sexy wife to them. I said I would go but I wanted him to pick out which sexy dress he wanted me to wear. He asked how daring could he go and I told him as daring as he dared.\n\nWe went online and picked out a floor length black satin halter dress. It had a very deep plunge front to almost the waist and narrow straps barely covering my breast and no back at all to just above the crack of my ass. It had a slit from the bottom all the way up to my hip in front of both legs where both slits came to a gold ring. From there the slits continued and curved toward the front plunge, passing a couple more gold rings on the way to the plunge, where they ended at center gold ring. The slit from the hip to the bottom of the plunge on both sides was about two inches wide. Everyone seeing this dress could tell it would be impossible to wear any type of underwear with it. Fine with me there! When the dress came, I tried it on for Cliff. We loved it! Cliff told me that when I was standing up straight and if someone was sitting in a chair beside me, they would be able to look across me, under my dress and see just how bare I was under the dress. I told him I liked knowing that.\n\nFriday night of the party came and I was a hit with the men. Everyone seemed impressed with my dress. No one made a big deal about it and I don't know if anyone looked under my dress except for Cliff and he made sure Danny noticed too. I didn't care. I liked knowing people could see my bush, if it were there, if they tried to look.\n\nI was surprised when Cliff told me Danny was coming back home with us that night, he didn't like the idea of him driving a long way home while being half-drunk and would be staying the rest of weekend with us since he had nowhere to go. I asked Cliff if he was planning on letting Danny see and play with my tits again. He smiled and said probably, but only if I let him. I smiled at that. Then he whispered in my ear. \"Then we will see where it goes from there.\" I was surprised at his implication but wasn't shocked by it. I have also had some naughty ideas since that night. I'm already thinking of letting them undress me once we get home and remain naked around them until Cliff takes me to bed. Or maybe letting them both take me to bed, if I could only be that lucky. Cliff did mention after our last night together, he had unexpectedly enjoyed watching another play with my tits and wondered how he would feel seeing me naked with another man. He told that just thinking about it got him hard. I didn't tell him it got me wet too thinking about being naked with another man. I would be happy with just being naked around other men. I really wasn't interested with having sex with another man but if my husband wanted me to I'd do it for him.\n\nWell, I was naked in less than five minutes after getting home. Cliff actually told Danny to help me get undress while he went to get some 'Alka Seltzer\". I remained naked and let both guys play with my tits and both fingered me to orgasm. I thanked them by giving them both blow-jobs. Something else I've enjoyed doing a lot more of since I lost my weight. I did them occasionally for Cliff over the years but lately, I've gotten to enjoying having a cock in my mouth and swallowing the cum a lot more. I've enjoyed sex in many more ways lately too. Blow-jobs, anal, public places, I think I'm open for almost anything now. When we went to bed, I purposely left our bedroom door open and left the bed-stand light on and was more vocal than normal, hoping Danny would appear at the door and watch. I don't know if he did or not I just know I needed to be fucked after giving two blow-jobs that night.\n\nLuckily Chip was away for the weekend with the neighbor kids and wouldn't be back till Sunday night so I didn't even get dressed Saturday morning. I wanted to stay naked all day and I did. I also got fucked by Cliff that morning as Danny watched and then Cliff told Danny to help himself to my pussy. Cliff smiled and said I looked wonderful as he watched Danny pound away at my pussy. I swear, Danny is only the second man to get to go there and my husband was watching me have sex with him. Boy, I love that man! And I told him that as he watched Danny fuck me. Later that afternoon, I had two men in me at once and they made use of every hole in me. My God that was fun! I was their sex slave all weekend I was willing to do whatever they wanted me to do.\n\nWe even went out to dinner that night with me wearing only my yellow halter dress. Both of them fingered my pussy under the table while we were in the restaurant and I noticed at least two men watch them as they fingered me. I just didn't care! I surprised them both by removing my dress while on the way back to the car and walking naked across the parking lot the last two hundred feet and I was seem by two couples. I ended sucking Danny off in the back seat as Cliff drove us home. We all slept, well tried to sleep, in the same bad that night. Sleeping with two men felt great.\n\nI've decided I like being an exhibitionist slut! Cliff promised me if I continued being a naughty girl, it would not be the last time Danny would come over. He then surprised me when he said, \"Who knows honey. I might even consider finding a couple more guys to become friends with one day. I'd bet you'd like that wouldn't you?\" My heart skipped a beat. Did he just insinuate that he might let me have sex with three or more guys at once? I knew I'd sure be willing to try it at least once.\n\n"}
+{"text": "Kinship Texas.\n\nPopulation 2021.\n\nSame as the year.\n\nA quiet little one-horse town, unless you count the Harley's. At one time it was a bustling little community of small family-owned businesses. Surrounding a large Aviation parts manufacturer, it kept the locals fed and clothed. Over a hundred years earlier there used to be ranches and farms. One horse per family in most cases. Back then Kinship was named Next of Kin. Graveyards for fallen soldiers escaping the Alamo. Don't believe what you've read in the History books. Hell, there's even a family with the last name Crockett living here. Boone even. Speaking of...\n\n\"How's it coming back there Boone?\" A stunning redhead with her long red mane pulled around her shoulders lifts her head, its tips died black as if feathers. Swigging a drink from a tin flask she waits on a reply after buzzing stops. Eyes narrow from a hard night of drinking.\n\n\"You try finishing a tat when your canvas is as naked as the day she was born.\" Her native American tattoo artist scowls wiping away blood from her upper back. He had been working on this woman for 18 hours straight. She had barely flinched. Unlike his dick. Halting only to smoke a cigarette and rub one off every four hours behind her. This bitch was fucking fine. He had known her since childhood. Both born here in the early 90's.\n\n\"Quit stroking your tattoo gun and finish up. My train leaves in...\" She reaches to her right for a pocket watch dangling from her jeans next to her...\"8 hours, 15 minutes. Gonna be done by then?\"\n\n\"You're the one wanting the full back and shoulders done. Be glad I finished your tits yesterday. How are those hands holding them up?\"\n\n\"Reaching for the sky Pardner.\"\n\n\"You're one tough girl Sadie Lynn. So, where's the Army deploying you next?\"\n\n\"Nowhere, I'm out. Staying stateside this tour. I'm done with deserts.\"\n\n\"No shit. I thought you were career. Vacay in Hawaii?\"\n\n\"I wish. Uncle Sam's got me going to Kansas. Got hired as a head of security at a place called Wyndham Explorations. Tornado alley no less.\"\n\n\"You always did give good blowjobs.\" He sighs firing up his gun to add more ink.\n\n\"As if you would know. Must have been a lot of bragging while I was gone.\" She rolls her eyes.\n\n\"If I get you done early...\"\n\n\"Not gonna happen Tonto.\"\n\n\"Now that's just racist Sadie Lynn.\"\n\n\"Fuck you Comanche Boy.\"\n\n\"I'm older than you White Squaw with pretty colors.\"\n\n\"By two years.\"\n\n\"I remember wrestling with you as a kid.\"\n\n\"I whipped your ass every time.\"\n\n\"Untrue. Be more respectful. Your ass is right here for me to whip.\" He dares to slap her ass as he lifts his needle away from filling in the wings of an eagle.\n\n\"Good thing that's not your tattooing hand. Soon as I get up, I'm using that bowie knife by my boot to cut those fingers off.\"\n\n\"Why? So, I don't do this?\" He jabs a pinky into her anal pucker.\n\n\"So dead. I swear.\"\n\nHe laughs at her. She merely scowls and takes another drink from her flask. \"Wish you had more time here. My Grandfather would love a visit from you.\"\n\n\"Sorry Boone. Between burying my own Grandpa and tying up his will I barely had time to sit here with you. Give Newton my best.\"\n\n\"He did want to give you something. Ride up there with me for thirty minutes before your train?\"\n\n\"Fine! Finish the bird before I flip you the talons.\"\n\n\"Now that you mention it, the gold watch looks damn good in the eagle's talons.\"\n\n\"That was important to me. I appreciate the perfection in your talents Boone.\"\n\n\"I have many talents.\"\n\n\"Yeah, yeah! Think with your tattoo hand not the one on my ass. My luck you'll trace your hand on my butt cheek.\"\n\n\"Interesting idea.\" He strategically places his hand over her butt as if planning. She shakes her ass to change his mind. That called for another drink. \"Is that your father's flask?\"\n\n\"Handed down.\" She lifts it to show off, \"Sixth generation possession. Been in my family since 1865. My Great yada yada yada Grandpappy Jessup was one of the first Texas Rangers. That's why there's a star etched into the pewter. Little wore down in spots but it's there.\"\n\n\"Funny that he was a Texas Ranger, but your last name is Outlaw.\"\n\n\"I know right? He disappeared without a trace in 1877. Word, was he caught wind of some bad hombres in the Texas Rangers and they had him killed. No proof of that, but it's out there. Definitely not on Ancestry.com.\"\n\n\"I recall hearing that story now. When we were teenagers. You wrote an essay on the Rangers your sophomore year.\"\n\n\"You remember that?\" She hisses.\n\n\"I also remember the Teacher ripping it up calling it hogwash. Not right.\"\n\n\"Mr. Butler was a prick. I barely passed his history class.\"\n\nBoone hesitates to clean her wounds when he hears motorcycles revving outside his Ghost Town Ink parlor. It used to be an old mercantile. Barely up to code these days. Sadie Outlaw lifts her head groggily from the booze intake. Two days of hard drinking was just now taking its toll. Definitely no lightweight. She could drink most men under the table.\n\nStirring Boone felt uneasy about the new arrivals. \"You better get your clothes on.\"\n\n\"Why? As if I'm afraid of a few bikers.\"\n\n\"You may be a badass in the Army Sadie, but we're talking gangs here. That's Korso and his crew, the Copperheads.\"\n\nShe stares out a lone picture window in the front of Boone's shop, to see six burly bikers with enough hair to be women. She corks her flask and reaches over for her knife. Sliding it closer she grins. Nothing spooked the Outlaw.\n\n\"Keep inking.\"\n\n\"Your gangbang Sadie.\"\n\n\"You're here as back up. Break out your tomahawk.\"\n\n\"Already have it handy.\" It was in a specially designed slot beneath his table believe it or not.\n\n\"Can't be too handy if your free hands still rubbing my ass cheek.\"\n\n\"Sorry.\" He removes it not even realizing it was still hovering. Approaching the front door Jake Korso barged in with the sound of a jingling doorbell over the threshold. He was a good 280 pounds of muscle, tattoos, and beard. Following him in were two others, less threatening, but ugly just the same.\n\n\"Afternoon Boone Tickle Bear.\"\n\n\"Korso. What brings you to my reservation?'\n\nThe burly biker rubs his beard looking over Sadie. \"Mighty fine canvas you got there. Howdy Ma'am.\" He winks at her.\n\n\"Stop being respectful. You know I'm no Ma'am. Call it as you see it.\" She narrows her eyes at him while sifting through her jeans for a pack of cigarettes and a butane lighter. Cig to her lips she lets it dangle as the men size her up.\n\n\"Nice work there Boone.\" Korso looks over Sadie's shoulders, his eyes trailing over her back to just above her butt crack along the small of her spine, there a very ornate logo of a skull with a crossing of a rifle and a blade. \"Special Forces? One shot, One kill. Now isn't that interesting. What's the fine print say?\"\n\n\"It says, Thank You for Your Service.\" She huffs.\n\n\"Damn! That's hot.\" The two other bikers seemed impressed, both puckering their lips at each other.\n\n\"Why are you here Korso?\" Boone sets his tattoo gun aside in favor of standing tall.\n\n\"Easy Indian. I'm not here for trouble. Just waiting on a package delivery. Damn!\" He strokes his beard, \"You wanted me to call it how I see it...that is one extra tight ass.\"\n\n\"I hear that a lot. Military style. Try bouncing a quarter off of it.\" Sadie lights her cigarette and takes a drag without using her fingers, exhaling a thin line of smoke. \"I'm sending up smoke signals Boone. Get to work on my tat. Time's a ticking.\"\n\nThe bikers admire her fearlessness under pressure. Being totally nude in a compromising position, knowing they would love to manhandle her. They could tell she was tough.\n\n\"Mind if I get some privacy here?\" She hisses without looking at any of them.\n\nBoone moves to cover up Sadie's lower body with a towel. Sadie wouldn't have it.\n\n\"What are you, my masseuse? Get that rag off me.\" Hearing her Boone frowns. She was trying too hard to be the badass. The bikers would call her out eventually. Removing the towel Boone settles in his lean over her and begins tattooing again. One of the other two bikers moves around Boone making him uneasy.\n\n\"Relax. I'm only checking out her other tats. Rattlesnake coiling around both legs.\"\n\n\"Not a Copperhead.\" She growls.\n\n\"Too bad. You'd be one fine ole' lady.\"\n\n\"Nice tan for a redhead. No tan lines even.\" The third biker noticed.\n\n\"When you're in a fuckin' desert like Afghanistan for six years you have lots of time to fill. Suns harsh, so am I.\"\n\n\"You talk big.\" Korso nods, \"No AK-47's here in Kinship.\"\n\n\"Don't need one. AK-47's is for pussies. I prefer a Norwegian HK416. Battleax with kick.\"\n\n\"Nice.\" The man behind her eyes her parted legs. A sweet pinkness clamped tightly like a clam made his mouth water.\n\n\"The Swedewacker or me?\" She winces taking another drag.\n\n\"Both.\" He chuckled.\n\n\"Fellas!\" Boone rallied to her rescue, \"She's on a timer here. Her train leaves in less than 8 hours and I have at least six hours to finish this tat. Can you please wait outside for your package?\"\n\n\"Calm down Brother.\" Korso raises his palms. \"It's hot out there.\"\n\n\"Hotter in here.\" The third biker known as Roadkill chuckled crouching in front of Sadie. She blows smoke in his face with a wink. Swatting the nicotine aside he smirks for effect. Noting her thong laying with her bra and other clothing he stands picking it up to inhale it. \"Oh, that's beautiful.\"\n\nShe lifts her head eying his enjoyment, \"Those won't fit your fat ass.\"\n\n\"My big dick wouldn't fit in that tight ass pussy.\"\n\n'Had bigger than you, I'm sure.\"\n\n\"Damn you got spunk.\"\n\n\"What part of privacy don't you get?\" She hisses with a bitter bite.\n\n\"Beware Brothers.\" Boone shakes his head.\n\n\"I think she's all talk.\" Beastro, the second biker chuckles. \"These snakes here lead up to some fangs?\" His hand caresses her inner thighs, easing in between her leg's mere inches from her pussy.\n\n\"Only one way to find out.\" She reopens her flask taking a drink before corking it again and setting it aside. She winks at Roadkill still sniffing at her thin white thong. As Beastro rubs fingers along her slit Boone reaches for his hand. Korso in turn pats his concealed Glock.\n\n\"Like that Chica?\" He grins toward his friends.\n\nNodding she clamps her inner thighs hard around his hand pinning him in. Rolling over she drags him sideways into an awkward stance. Raising her butane lighter she ignites a fire and spits her whisky at Korso. A blinding flash of flame makes him flinch. Leaping off the table holding her bowie knife up to Korso's chin while Beastro falls to the floor at their feet, she leers at Roadkill who had pulled his gun. Before any further violence could ensue the bikers outside whistled loudly.\n\n\"Bet I can sever his carotid and blind you with his blood before you get off a shot Panty Waste.\" Roadkill looks at Jake. Korso's attention dropped to her 38C's with hand tattoos palming both breasts. Both hands with a middle finger pointed high flipping him the birds.\n\n\"Holy shit!\" Beastro grunts from the floor looking up between her legs. \"Bitch has Rattler heads bearing fangs over her cunt.\"\n\n\"Bet my venoms tastier than yours. I let your hand go you get up and walk out of here. Let me get my artwork finished in peace. Pleasure was all mine.\"\n\nKorso notes a Police Bronco outside. An Officer getting out. \"Yaeger's here. Put your blade away Hotstuff. No threats.\"\n\nShe unclamps her upper thighs releasing Beastro to wave his arm to regain circulation. She smirks. \"Just imagine what I can do if your dick was in there. Maybe your face.\"\n\n\"Damn! Bitch is crazy.\"\n\nAnother jingle of the door, a large older Cop entered removing his sunglasses. Eying Sadie from head to toe he shakes his head. \"Same ole' Sadie Outlaw. Trouble at every turn. Gentlemen? Not so gentle I'm sure...word of advice? Find yourselves another hookup. How many confirmed kills you got now Sadie?\"\n\n\"Forty-two shy of Chris Kyle's record Wyatt. Not even a Sniper.\"\n\n\"How's about with that knife there?\"\n\n\"27. Four from thirty feet away.\"\n\n\"Jesus!\" Roadkill tosses her thong on a chair.\n\n\"Keep 'em to remember me by.\" She growls.\n\n\"I'll pass.\"\n\n\"Outside Boys.\" Sheriff Wyatt Yaeger encourages the bikers with a nod. \"Nice work Boone. My grandson Duke might hit you up here soon. He's been talking crazy. Something about a cobra. Too many snakes in these parts as it is. Copperheads. Rattlers...\"He eyes Sadie's long legs. \"Good to see you again Sadie. How long you in town? Deployed again?\"\n\n\"Out for good Wyatt.\" She slaps Beastro on the ass in passing. Looking over his shoulder he sees her blow him a kiss. \"See you around lover. Gonna say anything about my indecent exposure Wyatt?\"\n\n\"Would it do any good?\" Yaeger frowns.\n\n\"You know you always liked the girls.\" She points at her tits. \"The boys don't like you much though. As you can tell by their hissy fit.\" By the boys she was referring to her twin rattler tattoos surrounding her thighs and snapping fangs at her cunt.\n\n\"Nice birds. Give my best to your Momma.\" He tips his Stetson and takes his leave. Before resuming her outstretched position on the cushioned tattoo recliner, she watches Wyatt and the bikers talking.\n\n\"Some things are better not knowing Sadie Lynn.\"\n\n\"I hear you Boone.\" She really couldn't have cared less.\n\nWith the dust settled Boone Tickle Bear continued his work. In five hours instead of six. He was proud of how it turned out. Her eagle looked majestic and savage at the same time. Coating her with antibacterial ointment and sealing it in under plastic wrap he sits back and has a cigarette with her.\n\n\"Bike or Jeep? Either of those relics even run these days?\" She sits up getting dressed. Forsaking her bra due to the tat she tosses on her black tank top. Tossing her thong in his garbage can with a frown she points at him. \"Don't go digging those out and hanging them from your rearview mirror.\" Smirking she shrugs, \"Aw hell! Live a little.\"\n\n\"Jeep runs. Suzuki needs a fuel pump.\"\n\n\"Let's go see Newton before I run out of time. My Mom's driving me over to El Paso to catch my train.\"\n\n\"One can never run out of time unless the clock stops.\"\n\n\"Always a shadow clock. I thought you Indians invented that.\"\n\n\"Laying on the Earth Mother prematurely invites the vultures.\"\n\nPulling her jeans up he gets his final view of two dueling Rattlers fighting over her burning bush. She knew Boone was staring. Hissing at him she winks, \"One snake in, one snake out. Only skin needs shedding is lambskin.\"\n\n\"Why do you taunt me so?\"\n\nPatting his chest, she puts her socks and boots on. Lastly her women's black Silverado cowboy hat with shiny silver disks banding the brim. \"Ready to ride?\"\n\n\"Right here.\" He unzips his own jeans. All he got from her was playful sneer. Out the door she went. Lights out Boone locks up his parlor and walks with her around to the back where his old 1973 Jeep Commando was hiding.\n\n\"Some things never change. Hopefully the oil.\" She sighs. Crawling up into the Jeep she listens at a horrible turnover of the engine. Boone peaks a brow as it finally starts.\n\n\"Still life in the old stallion.\"\n\n\"Good. Maybe I'll fuck Newton when we get there.\"\n\n\"You are indeed merciless Sadie Lynn.\"\n\n\"You know it.\" She rubs his leg letting her fingertips slip over his obvious erection. \"Oh, not the gear shift. My bad.\"\n\n\"Clutch first.\" He pushes it down to the floor. Instead of rubbing his crotch she yanks the shifter into reverse.\n\n\"Two hours. Ride like the wind Cochise.\"\n\n\"Apache. Get your tribes right.\"\n\n\"Whatever. DRIVE!\"\n\n\"I am so very offended.\" Regardless he smiled at the beauty. Reaching the edge of town Boone veered off the beaten path into a rather turbulent journey. Holding on for dear life Sadie had slipped up in judgment by not fastening her seatbelt. A seriously uneven piece of private real estate sent her toppling left into Boone. Her chest rubbing his arm gave him the idea to hit every pothole on the prairie.\n\n\"I'm so gonna beat your ass once we stop.\" She growls holding the windshield frame and the dash. He wasn't giving her time to look for a seatbelt. Not that there was one. The Jeep being as old as it was had a few less accessories since inherited.\n\n\"Relax. At least I have airbags if we flip over.\" He wags his eyebrows while checking out her tits. Nipple action noticed he chuckles, \"So that's where I misplaced my arrowheads.\"\n\n\"You're a riot Tickle Bear. Gramps still living up on that bluff?\"\n\n\"Ancestral land. What little we have left on the Rez. By the way, tell me about this new job. You apply for it?\"\n\n\"Nope! General Westmore actually approached me about it. Said he recommended me.\"\n\n\"What did you call the place again?\"\n\n\"Wyndham Explorations.\" Another hard jostle nearly throws her out the side of the vehicle. No doors didn't help.\n\n\"Exploring what?\"\n\n\"Top secret stuff. I'm just the new security chief. Everything moved so fast with my Gramps dying from Cancer six months ago then dad dying last month, I barely got the gist of the place. Big complex though. All I had time for was a brief introduction. Signed a few wavers threatening lawsuits if I talk about what I see there. Series of inoculations I had to endure which kind of made me stress over. What type of Explorations am I going to be doing in a building? Right? Unless there's biochemical shit going on that I'm not privy to.\"\n\n\"Kansas you say? Maybe they plan on sending you to Oz.\"\n\n\"Hope not. Singing munchkins and flying monkeys make me nervous. Of course, I might swipe a few gold bricks on my way back home.\" She laughs as the countryside levels a bit more. It didn't last long. This part of Texas was pretty rugged. Mountains in the distance although not the largest in West Texas still challenged the locals. As they continued onward Sadie found pleasant memories of the area. Her Uncle Brandon used to bring her there in her teens and teach her rock climbing. She grew up tough and thrived on it. She missed her Uncle Brandon who passed while on a tour during Desert Storm. It was her uncle that inspired her to beat the odds and become one of the very few women in the Army Special Forces. Without him to tutor her in pretty much everything he knew before his tour she might not be the invincible bitch she had matured into.\n\n\"Getting close Sadie.\"\n\nSnapping out of the traffic of memory lane at Boone's revelation Sadie saw smoke rising from a short cliff side. With Boone's pointed finger she recognized the neighborhood. She often wondered just how an old geezer like Boone's Grandfather climbed up that high. He had to have been 80 by now. Comanche strong she smiled. At a post driven into the desert floor, marked with a band of eagle feathers, Boone came to a halt. His Jeep sputtered, sending tailpipes smoke signals up as a signature arrival.\n\n\"If that buggy doesn't start back up and I miss my train you are buzzard bait.\"\n\n\"It will start. Do not worry your pretty little head, Outlaw.\"\n\n\"Still not bedding you down.\"\n\n\"Someday my dream will come true.\"\n\n\"My hormones have been riled up of late, which is weird, but I still don't swing toward fellas whom I call family.\"\n\n\"Your hormones were always busy.\" He grins as they walk together toward a rope ladder heading up the small cliff side.\n\n\"Yeah, I know. Kinship as a town moniker didn't help. I enjoy being friendly.\" She laughs as Boone becomes a gentleman offering her the lead on the ladder. Suspicious she shakes her head, \"You just wanna watch my ass.\"\n\n\"I see your ass every time you visit. Is today any different?\"\n\n\"You know I live to torture you Boone.\"\n\n\"I manage afterwards.\"\n\n\"I bet you do.\" She makes a hand motion as if he were jerking off. Smirking she accepts the rope after putting on her pair of rawhide gloves. A lesson well learned from many blisters. Although even they seemed to fade away as fast as they were unwelcomed. That was another thing about Sadie, in her entire life she had rarely even caught a cold. She just choked it up to the healing power of good alcohol. Of course, even then she was never drunk long. Zero hangovers no matter how much she imbibed. Her parents always told her that she took after the Outlaw gene more than her mother's side. Never much thought on it after that.\n\n\"Still hanging on down there Boone? Didn't miss a step looking up at my camel toe, did you?\"\n\n\"As you say... wrong desert. No camels here.\"\n\n\"That reminds me. I need cigarettes before you drop me off at my mom's.\"\n\n\"How is it your lungs keep up Sadie Lynn?\"\n\n\"You've seen my tits. Best set of lungs in West Texas.\"\n\n\"What lies beneath is where I worry.\"\n\n\"Bet I could run 10 miles and barely wheeze.\" She reaches the top and crawls over the stone wall that prevents a restless sleepwalker from falling to his death. At least that was what the family laughed about many moons ago. Dusting herself off she peers down at Boone leaning over with her hands on her hips. \"You coming or not?\"\n\n\"Is that a that's what she said joke?\"\n\n\"Well, I am a She.\"\n\nAnother couple minutes he reaches the top and snatches up her hand to assist his final climb. Even though weighing more than Sadie, she yanked him skyward as if he were nothing. Astonished by her strength Boone winces. \"Have you been working out?\"\n\n\"You just tattooed my body. Did it look like I had any fat anywhere?\" She maintained her grip on his hand even as he lowers his gaze over her front from head to toe. \"If you say fat pussy, I'm throwing you off of here.\"\n\n\"It never crossed my mind.\"\n\n\"Sure, it didn't.\" She chuckles and drags him in front of her, \"Me neither. Lead the way Tinkle Bear.\" A manhandled twist places him in the lead, her palms slapping the back of his vest to make an entrance. Ahead of them was a rock hut if you could call it that. A simple dwelling with many padded blankets on the floor, animal hides texturing the walls, ceramic pots in the corners, traditional ceremonial items. It was an ancestral home for Medicine Men. On the innermost wall toward the floor was a secondary entrance appearing as if a tunnel. It required them to get on their hands and knees to crawl within. Again, Boone gallantly offers her the lead. She grimaces and drops down on all fours moving into the darkness. Boone directly behind her follows, barely able to see. After ten feet Boone collides face first into Sadie's ass, his nose buried where dreams come true. \"Seriously?\"\n\n\"Sorry.\" His words muffled over her cLameltoe as she might claim as its pet name.\n\n\"No, you're not.\" She wiggles her butt across his features before crawling forward toward a distant flicker of fire. They could hear low level chants and the shaking of ceremonial rattles until a visual of an elderly man sitting nude makes Sadie peak an eyebrow.\n\nStanding up inside the chamber she looks up into the sky through a hole in the ceiling casting sunlight upon the man. She squints noticing what looked like three birds circling the sky chasing one another. As Boone pulls himself up behind her, she points at the birds for him to acknowledge.\n\n\"Eagles. \"He whispers barely audible but to her ears perfectly versed. In that same instant the rattles cease and the chanting halts.\n\n\"The three brothers come to greet you, Sadie Lynn.\" Impressed that he knew of their arrival she presumed her perfume gave off all the knowledge he needed.\n\n\"Hey there Grampa Newton. Long time no... you might want to put some pants on.\" She hides her grin while Boone scurries around Sadie in an assist to cover his grandfather. He wouldn't have it. Newton Ruffled Feather pushed his jeans away.\n\n\"Let an old man sew his oats.\" Newton waves Boone aside, \"Come Sadie Lynn. Sit with me.\"\n\n\"Alright. Not in your lap though.\" She was brave enough to move in front of the elder and cop a squat Indian style, Boone crouching to her left.\n\n\"You have grown.\"\n\n\"Ummm! So have you it looks like.\" She winces at the elder's erection.\n\n\"Grampa please. Be respectful.\"\n\n\"What are you babbling about?\" He follows their point at his dick. Unashamed the elder frowns, \"The Great Spirits have called out to me to join them as I was once born.\" A directional circle of his hands around him leads their eyes away from his nudity.\n\nSadie looks around the cavern walls at cave art. Animals of every type etched into stone or painted in blue. She could almost sense eyes upon her. Looking at Boone, for once he was staring away. Newton had his own eyes closed. Shaking off her sensation of being watched she wonders if the incent urns were giving off some chemical hallucinogen like peyote. She would know for sure if her mind began playing tricks on her. All she could think of was missing her train.\n\n\"I can live with the... forefathers.\" She clears her throat, \"Boone says you wanted to say hi while I was in town.\"\n\n\"The Great Spirits have chosen you Sadie Lynn Outlaw.\"\n\n\"Chosen me?\"\n\n\"To embark on a great vision quest. Far away you will go.\"\n\n\"It's just to Kansas Newton.\" She chuckles.\n\n\"You have been prepared all of your life. Taught to survive at all costs. You are strong as the Bear. Fierce like the Puma. You see things as if the soaring Eagle.\" Newton points at the circling eagles above. Following his finger, she's reminded of them.\n\n\"You got those eagles trained Newton?\"\n\n\"They are the Great Spirits here to see you off. The four brothers.\"\n\n\"Four? I count three.\"\n\nFeeble yet exertive Newton Ruffled Feather stands tall nudging Boone away as he tries to assist him. Circling his fire Sadie observes him limp toward her. Her thoughts commenting on other things not so limp. Overlooking it the best she could another thing crossed her mind when the term wood entered her jest. How did Newton get wood for his fire way up here? With no time to ponder it she follows Newton as he stands over her. Not easy with a seven-inch cock four inches from her face. His hand touches her shoulder where she had recently had Boone tattoo...\n\n\"The fourth brother.\" Newton acknowledges as a piercing call of bald eagles' force Sadie to look skyward once more. This time the three eagles had landed on the rim of the rock skylight, staring down at her. He removes her plastic wrapping over her fresh tattoo even as Boone asks him not to. \"There are no scars. Have you never noticed?\"\n\n\"I-I guess I heal fast. Now that I think about it my other tats were the same way.\" Pinching the front of her cleavage to examine her TIToos she winces at Boone. They too had healed quickly. Boone could only shrug, having no answers.\n\n\"Medicine courses through your veins?\" Newton lifts her arm.\n\n\"Yeah actually. I've had quite a few shots lately, before and after coming back to the states. Procedure to avoid being a carrier from one part of the world to the next. Why?\"\n\n\"Have you not noticed even the needle marks are gone?\"\n\n\"What are you getting at Newton?\"\n\nHe caresses her back over the tattoo. \"You wear your family heirloom.\"\n\n\"Yes. In case I ever actually lost it I had Boone ink it on to me.\"\n\n\"Within the talons of the fourth brother. He will keep it safe.\"\n\n\"Sure. Sounds like it's in good... talons.\"\n\n\"You are not the same Sadie Lynn I knew as a child.\"\n\n\"Hmm! I'm me Newton. Well except more in shape.\" She lowers her gaze and grabs her tits, \"Oh, and I had these enlarged. Other than that? I paint my nails more often now. Trying to return to my feminine roots more. When you're a soldier that can be put aside some.\"\n\n\"You were always a warrior.\"\n\n\"Thanks Newt.\"\n\n\"There is something different about you.\" He lifts her chin to look deep into her eyes. \"Yes. You have indeed been defiled by the white man.\"\n\n\"Say what?\"\n\n\"Your eyes relate what he has done. I see your vision quest before it has begun.\"\n\n\"Ummm! Do you see me missing my train?\" She resists his gaze and looks at her watch. \"Times ticking Boone.\"\n\n\"Kansas...\" Newton shuffles away and returns to his seat.\n\n\"Yes. My ranking General arranged a job in Kansas. Wyndham Explorations. Don't ask. Even I'm not 100% sure what they do.\" An eagle above lets her know they're still present.\n\n\"As the wind explores the world, so shall you. The brothers will watch over your journey.\"\n\n\"It's just Kansas. Sizeable place just South of Wichita.\"\n\n\"The Wichita tribes name for themselves was \"Kitikiti'sh\" or \"Kirikirish,\" meaning Paramount Men. Paramount Men means Men of Supreme power.\" Newton offers his wisdom.\n\n\"Wow! You must read a lot. Where do you hide the encyclopedias?\" She jests.\n\n\"Behind the Mason jars. They were free.\" He shrugs not laughing at himself but smirking at least.\n\n\"Nice to know Newton.\" Even as she slaps her upper legs to get up something about his joke made her uneasy. As Boone watches her circle the fire and bend over to kiss Newton on the forehead the eagles above screech and take flight. Three feathers filter down and land in the open fire, burning as the smoke leaves a pungent odor. A shrill cry makes her back tingle. Eyes flaring at the warm sensation she smiles. \"That was certainly interesting. Take care of yourself Grampa Newton...that too.\" She points at his erection, \"Don't let it get too close to the fire. You might just roast that wienie.\"\n\nSnatching up her hand he pats her palm. \"All of the Great Spirits will be with you Sadie Lynn. Console them.\" A tingle in her hand this time makes her worry that she might be having a stroke.\n\n\"Gotcha. I'll visit again soon. Love ya Grampa, like you're my own.\"\n\n\"Go with wisdom and grace. I will think of you often.\"\n\n\"Just not when you take care of that.\" She shies away on purpose pointing again at his erection. He finally had to laugh.\n\n\"Do you think I am my grandson?\"\n\nBoone winced dramatically, \"Really? You're drawing me into this?\" A pat on his grandfather's shoulder he too bids goodbye. Trailing Sadie toward the crawlspace Boone spots her looking at the cave paintings.\n\n\"Where do you think I got the idea to be a tattoo artist?\" Boone stood proud of his family.\n\nIgnoring him she reaches out and touches each of the animal drawings. With each one she hears in her minds-eye the sound each might make. After five touches she shakes off her imagination and chuckles. \"Sorry! Just consoling.\"\n\nStrangely, Boone understood. This time Boone led the way out. Intentionally doing as she had earlier, halting halfway on his hands and knees until Sadie collided her face with his ass. He laughs thinking it only fair until he feels her hand squeeze his scrotum hard digging in nails.\n\n\"Oh, look there's a rattler in here.\" She growls. \"Poor baby. Don't even ask me to suck out the venom. Move before I miss my train.\"\n\nHe moved. Slowly but he moved.\n\nAfter giving them enough time to reach the Jeep. Newton uncovers a hidden secret from below a blanket next to him. Producing a cellphone, he dials a number. A swift answer later Newton mutters the words... \"Sadie is prepared.\" Just as quickly he hangs up. Amazing in itself considering cell towers were few and far between way out there.\n\nEven for 80, Newton Ruffled Feather was rather energetic with his free hand. The chanting from earlier resumed without the rattle. It wasn't the snarl of the Great Spirits this time. Totally Newt.\n\n********\n\nEl Paso train station, a few hours later.\n\n\"Time's up mom. They're boarding now. Thanks for putting the pedal to the metal.\"\n\nSadie hauls her large shoulder bag of personal things. Barely making it back to her mother's ranch she had time for nothing more than a fast shower and to show off her new tattoos.\n\nSadie's mother Mary gets emotional knowing her daughter was always gone for such long periods of time with every departure. Palming Sadie's right cheek lovingly she chokes on her words. \"I wish you didn't have to leave so soon after the funeral.\"\n\n\"I know. It seems like everyone in our family dies off when either I'm gone, or they're gone. You know I'm a phone call away. The new job set some ground rules for me is all. Timetable stuff the CEO's said. Not sure what that means but seeing as I'm Head of Security something must be pretty important that needs guarding.\"\n\n\"Please be careful Sadie. All we have is each other these days.\" Mary notes the locket around Sadie's neck, the family heirloom passed down to her by her father over a year ago when she last took leave from the Army. Lifting the locketwatch locket she opens it to peer at the two photos within. One of her Great, Great, Great Grandfather Jessup Outlaw and that of his wife Bonita. \"I'll miss these two as much as you. It was always such a comfort with them around. Even if it is only in photographs. Sometimes it felt as if their spirits were around to keep us company.\"\n\n\"I know. When Dad finally showed the locketwatch to me, I felt as if a pair of hands gripped my shoulders. I wish he could have accompanied us here. Why do all the Outlaw men have to die on us gals?\"\n\n\"He... is taking things easier now in heaven with your grandfather. Please don't tell me that's why you had hands tattooed over your breasts.\" Mary scowls at her daughter's touched shoulder comment.\n\n\"Not hardly.\" Sadie smirks with a queer look in her eye, \"Long story. Your daughter has some secrets too. Someday I'll fill you in. At least find comfort in the fact they're a man's hands.\"\n\n\"I never once thought you were into women.\"\n\n\"Who says I'm not into both?\" She laughs. \"We both know I'm so far from being an angel that I borrowed a hacksaw to cut off my chastity belt when I was...\"\n\n\"I don't want to know how old you were.\"\n\n\"Good because I'm not telling you.\" Sadie mimics her mom. \"You know you're proud of me even though I'm a slut.\" Her remark makes Mary sidestep her depression in favor of an eye roll.\n\n\"Of course, I'm proud of you even if you didn't take after me.\" Mary presses her palms together while looking toward Heaven. \"Please forgive my daughter Oh, Lord.\"\n\n\"Better be asking for more than my soul Momma. My sins go deep.\" A second departure warning forces Sadie to throw her arm around Mary and drag her into a tight hug. Kissing each other's cheeks Sadie picks her bag back up and turns toward the glass doors leading to her train. \"There's the final boarding call. I love you Momma.\" Tears fall from Mary's eyes as she waves goodbye. Even as Sadie exits, the waves became never ending.\n\nOutside Sadie tilts her cowboy hat up to look at each of the cars diligently. Her ticket gave her a sleeper cabin for the long journey to Kansas. Locating the car, she passes a ticket taker who informs her to have a safe journey. Heading up into the car she finds herself alone. Not a soul besides herself were in sight.\n\n\"Car to myself. What do you know?\" She finds her sleeper, opening it up before getting comfortable. Taking a seat, she rests quietly until the train pulls out from the depot. Waving at Mary through the windows she settles into it for the first couple minutes before taking her cellphone out and oddly writes a text to her father, wherever he was. A simple \"I love you Pop. Don't be a stranger. I'm here if you need to talk.\" It went unanswered. Heaven was like that. Her back itching, she found a comfort in her eagle's talons as a back scratcher.\n\nFour miles outside of El Paso in the desert, she yawns before pulling out the seats into a bed. Setting her alarm on her cell she prepares to take a nap. Ditching her boots and jeans she stretches out in her thong and tank top. Knowing she was the sole resident in the car she didn't even bother to pull the curtains. Besides that, she didn't care who saw her even if other passengers boarded later. Out like a light.\n\nJust how long Sadie Outlaw had slept she was unsure. Waking up she eyes her cellphone and realizes it was off. \"How in the world? I know I set my alarm.\" Peering out her cabin window she realizes the train wasn't moving. Sitting there a few minutes she puts her jeans and boots back on to check out the dining car. She figured she would find out why they were stopped in the middle of the desert. Reaching the door between cars she bulges her eyes.\n\n\"What the hell?\"\n\nPeering out the front she learns there was no forward car to pull hers. A quick glance backwards down the aisle she finds daylight through the back door as well. Swallowing dryly, she attempts to open the front door. It was locked. Eyes narrowing, she makes the stroll to the back door.\n\n\"This can't be good. Why would the train cars to both sides just disengage and leave me stranded? Forward I can understand, but where did the back four cars go?\" Locating an intercom, she pushes the button as if there were someone around to answer. Maybe there was.\n\n\"About time you woke up Master Sergeant Outlaw.\"\n\n\"General Westmore?\" Voice recognized; her eyes grew thin hearing her former commanding officer.\n\n\"How are you speaking to me from a com with no connection?\"\n\n\"Get a good look at the landscape Outlaw. Notice anything?\"\n\nSadie looks out the side windows. \"Looks like I'm on high ground. Did the train engineer go and leave me stranded in the mountains?\"\n\n\"Look further.\"\n\nShe heads back to the door and realizes something she had missed. \"Where are the rails?\" Seeing this she bolts to the back to find no tracks on either side. \"WHAT THE FUCK! What's going on here General? I thought I was headed to Kansas. Did I get airlifted somewhere?\"\n\n\"Not exactly. I'll let Professor Carlsbad explain things. Before I go... I salute you Master Sergeant. You were the best of the best. I'm counting on you. Survive this tour of duty and come home safely.\"\n\n\"Wait a minute. I'm not in the Army anymore. This still looks like Texas so fess up General. Did I get sent on some mission I never signed up for?\"\n\n\"You did. The mission of a lifetime. Here's the Professor. God be with you Sadie.\"\n\n\"GENERAL? WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?\"\n\n\"Hello Sadie. My name is Anson Carlsbad, chief science officer at Wyndham Explorations. Apologies due for not meeting you when you visited our facility a while back. Things were quite top secret. You were recommended for a very special mission. I will ask you to please remain in this car until the doors unlock. The energies surrounding you are harmful until they dissipate.\"\n\n\"Energies? Am I radioactive?\"\n\n\"Not quite. Temporal energies. Your car is a specially designed time capsule disguised as a railcar. This will be your home base for the next year. Once you leave it will go into stealth mode. Only you can see it or enter its interior. If you were to step out before it is safe you might be drawn further back than necessary. Without the capsule.\"\n\n\"Further back?\" Sadie was a fearless warrior but today she questioned the need to express fear. \"Where am I?\"\n\n\"You are still in West Texas. Only not the Texas that you grew up in. Sadie Outlaw? Welcome to the year 1876. The Centennial draws near.\"\n\n\"1876? Whatever!\"\n\n\"I do not lie Miss Outlaw. Everything you should need to accomplish your mission is within this car. Maps. Food for two weeks. Water. Even arms. My time speaking with you draws close to an end. Once the outside temporal energies fade, so will my transmission. You will find books under protected panels in the floor. Read them, memorize them. Your mission will become clear. You will leave time capsule messages for we in the future to locate at preordained locations. A generator toward the back will give you enough power to listen as they explain things further. Be well Sadie Outlaw. Congratulations on being a successful time traveler.\"\n\n\"Don't you bastards ever ask permission?\"\n\n\"You were chosen for your unique talents. We have prepared you for a good long while now. Faith in you is strong. I envy you...\" Dead silence. The ending transmission leaves Sadie Lynn Outlaw speechless. Almost.\n\n********\n\nJune 8th, 1876.\n\nShe should have never taken the job. No benefits. No pay. Just plenty of vacation time on the good folks at Wyndham Explorations.\n\n\"FUCK YOU GUYS.\"\n\n********\n\nBack in the year 2022...\n\nBoone Tickle Bear had returned to his parlor to make sure the Copperheads hadn't trashed it once the Sheriff had left. Everything looked fine. Settling back to clean up his needles he looks at his tray of paints which he had left out in their hurry to beat her train. Glancing at his paint bottles, Boone Tickle Bear squints at something that catches his attention. Lifting up a bottle of paint to look at the label more closely he discovers something interesting.\n\n\"Huh! Made in Wichita, Kansas. What are the odds of that?\"\n\n"}
+{"text": "Sabrina was as excited about this vacation as I was. We had not had a vacation by our selves in fifteen years and this year it was going to be just the two of us. Boat camping at Lake Mead and just the two of us! It was early fall so it was not to hot in the desert, but the water was still worm enough to be comfortable to swim in. How could it get any better!\n\nI awoke Sabrina up about 4:30 am. I wanted to get an early start trying to beat the desert heat and the morning traffic. I looked down on her necked body as she moved and stretched, marveling at how good she looked two kids and fifteen years later. My wife was not old at thirty-five and she still looked like the kid I had married. Her 36c’s still stood proud and she has the best ass I have ever seen, her legs are not to long at 5’ 3” but they are perfect. Standing there looking at her I told myself, Sam your one lucky man.\n\nI was putting the last of the gear in the truck when she came into the garage. She looked like she was still asleep standing there with a small travel bag. She had on an old T-shirt she had cut off so it hung to just below her boobs, and a pair of white t-back panties. I watched as she moved to put her bag in the truck. Her top lifted up to show me most of one tit as she stretched to do so.\n\nIs it ok if I just sleep for a while? I just can’t get it going I’m sorry.\n\nSure its ok with me. Is that what your wearing?\n\nI watched with a strong throbbing in my shorts as her panty’s stretched tight into the crack of her ass. She slid in closing the door looking at me smiling.\n\nAre you telling me to put more cloths on? Mister we don’t have to wear any thing all weekend. Still smiling at me she said, I just thought it would be more comfortable sleeping like this while we drive up there. It’s going to be dark for a while and I can slip on a cover up if we stop.\n\nNo Hun you look fine and your right it will be dark for a while.\n\nShe was still smiling as she watched me adjust myself a little better.\n\nSabrina fell back to sleep almost as soon as the motor started. She had adjusted the seat back down about half way so she wasn’t lying down but not setting up either. I watched my beautiful wife setting there, half necked and sleeping as we drove on. Still thinking how lucky I was and trying to figure out how to set comfortable with a ragging hard dick.\n\nWe had driven about two hours and sun was just coming up. It was shining in Sabrina’s face and she turned to the side window to get it out of her eyes. As she turned her top pulled up exposing most of her breasts. I looked at her thinking how hot she looked lying there like that. I can’t remember when I had been so excited just looking at my lovely lady.\n\nI can’t sleep with that dam, oh fuck Sam! Speed up, slow down, do something.\n\nWhat the hell is wrong with you! I yelled at her. I jammed on the brakes pulling behind a truck I was trying to pass. I pulled over to the side of the road and pulled her to me.\n\nWhat’s wrong are you hurt what is it?\n\nThat guy in that truck just saw my tits and I don’t know what else! What the hell were you doing? Driving right there by him so he could see me?\n\nNo I didn’t even think about it! I just couldn’t pass any faster with the boat back there. Dam are you sure he was looking at you?\n\nYes I’m sure, I looked at him and he smiled and waved at me. Oh God Sam I’m so embarrassed. How many others do you think have seen me?\n\nOh maybe one, I said, thinking ya one dozen. I really had not thought about them being able to see her but now I was intrigued by the idea of showing her off. I had been half-hard all morning from looking at her as I drove and I felt that thing in my pants start to grow again.\n\nSabrina turned in her seat and got up on her knees to reach the small bag in the back seat of the truck. I watched her ass as she leaned over, looking at the soft shape. Seeing how her t-back split her cheeks. I moved my mirror so I could look right at that sweet ass. Her cheeks opened just enough to see that the thong part of the panty had slipped into her pussy leaving her shaved lips bare and exposed.\n\nWhat are you going to do?\n\nI’m getting my shirt so I can cover up.\n\nOh don’t do that. You look so good to me and now that your awake and setting up no one else will see you, please.\n\nI had turned in my seat and was looking at her fully exposed tits as she leaned over her seat. Her nipples were hard and sticking out like little erasers. She pulled back across the seat and had her T-shirt but she made no move to put it on. She set there for a minute looking at me then smiled at me.\n\nWhat the hell, you said you wanted us to be as close to necked as we could all week so ok ill leave it off for now. Look at you, you’re hard as a rock. Sabrina then pulled her top up and shook her tits at me laughing.\n\nYou like these things being out in the fresh air, don’t you? She shook them at me again. Ok, I’ll keep my top off if you don’t want me to put it on. Just be careful when you pass some one, OK?\n\nYou have got a deal! God I love to look at you lady. She was laughing again as I pulled back onto the road.\n\nShe had leaned into the corner, back just enough for her top to pull up and expose the bottom half of her nipples. Sabrina smiled at me and pulled one leg up in the seat folding it to set on. As she moved her leg her panty’s slipped tighter into her pussy exposing her full lips for me to see. She watched me look at her, she was looking at the bulge in my pants.\n\nYes I think this will be a very good vacation my dear, she said and laughed as she saw I was catching that same truck….\n\n"}
+{"text": "David Shield was a genius when it came to his own inventions, but with even his vast knowledge of I-island it would take time for him to crack through the large number of hidden treasures locked away in the vault. The entire room was over fifty feet tall and was covered in wall to wall lock boxes. All of them were electronically controlled by the main database now at his fingertips.\n\nAlmost there… he thought as his fingers clicked along the keyboard… It's almost within my grasp again.\n\n\"Are we having fun in here?\" Phoenix strolled in casually and eyed the room with a low whistle. \"Look at all the fancy gadgets. No wonder you guys call this place the vault.\"\n\n\"How's the situation outside?\" Sam asked wiping sweat from his brow. \"We heard a scream.\"\n\n\"Oh nothing to worry about…\" She waved it off with a sweet smile. \"That was just Sworkill being dramatic. Some kids got lost in the building and were poking around the 80th floor. Made them all jumpy. The boss took care of it though, sent some guys to redirect them.\"\n\n\"Oh thank goodness.\" Sam let out a shaky breath. \"I thought perhaps some heroes had managed to escape.\"\n\nYeah that thought would make you nervous, wouldn't it old man? Karma thought with an inner sneer. Her eyes must have narrowed because she saw his tension go back up and he averted her eyes by busying himself on the data panel.\n\nShe didn't care for the fact that David was being lured into villainy due to this man's treachery. Just like she'd been lured in by love, and a ticket into UA High school, David Shield was now being lead by the nose at the promising thought that his invention would save his friend. David was a well known and respected scientists who helped create so many incredible items and costumes that he was referred to as a hero himself. Yet even he had stepped onto the dark path known as villainy with the proper motivation to fuel him.\n\n\"Mr. Shield…\" She spoke low watching this man work with an anxious smile on his face. \"I know it's a bit late to be saying this but do you really think this is a good idea?\"\n\nShe saw Sam tense up first and give her fidgeting looks. David didn't look up from his work, but instead kept typing even as he answered her.\n\n\"I had reservations at first. I know what I'm doing it morally wrong, but I'm confident the ends will justify the means.\" He paused, turning his eyes to another screen to check its lists before typing again.\n\n\"No, I really don't think it will.\" She clenched her fist at her side. \"I know you think it's going to help, and maybe it will for a time… but all you're doing is delaying the inevitable. You can't give All Might immortality.\"\n\nNow David stopped, his face going pale and his eyes whipping over to her.\n\n\"How did you-\"\n\n\"I'm not an idiot Professor Shield.\" She clenched her hands at her sides. \"All Might is the friend you want to help, and there's been rumors that he's losing his strength and power. Look at how easily he backed down during the hostage situation. In his prime we would have never been able to get away with this, and you're taking advantage of his weakened state in hopes that it would pay off in the end… but really you're just making it more clear to him that as time goes by he becomes less useful and less of a symbol than before.\"\n\n\"How can you say that?!\" Sam pushed David out of the way shaking and glaring at her. His fear turning to rage now. \"It's not just All Might that will benefit from this! Every hero in the world could benefit from this! It will…\"\n\n\"Is that what you told yourself when you brought us all here?\" She grit her teeth. \"Is that what you told the little voice in your head called a conscience? You're even worse than he is for talking him into this so shut your trap you bald geezer!\"\n\nSam gulped loudly but continued to shake and stand in front.\n\n\"We had a deal, young lady. If you want to get paid then I suggest you-\"\n\n\"Oh I have every intention of getting paid… but what makes you think I'm letting you be the one to write my check?\" She pulled out her gun that she'd retrieved from the hall. She took it off safety and cocked it before pointing it directly at Sam. It wasn't loaded, but he didn't know that. \"Now then… if I did my research properly then there's a series of switches that allows for every box to be open in case of an evacuation. Both of you are going to put in that code for me.\"\n\n\"The hell is this? What are you trying to do, Phoenix?\"\n\n\"I'm getting paid… didn't your assistant tell you?\" Her lips turned sinister. \"I'm not an actress, Professor Shield… I'm a real villain.\"\n\n\"What?\" David choked and looked down at Sam who clenched his teeth. \"Sam you didn't-\"\n\n\"I'm sorry professor… but I didn't have a choice. How else was I supposed to get back all those years of work and effort that were taken from us? I need compensation for my work!\"\n\n\"Sam…\" David's voice held such betrayal and sadness that it tugged on Izumi's heartstrings.\n\n\"Pitiful isn't it?\" She said with a small laugh and stepped closer. \"It's pitiful how easy it is for someone's character to change so drastically. You trust them, put your faith in them…\" her eyes took on a look of sorrow for a moment before she hid it with a smile. \"...and all they do is disappoint you.\"\n\n\"Is that what happened to you, Phoenix?\" David looked at her with a bit of pity. \"Did someone betray you?\"\n\n\"No…\" a single tear slipped down her cheek and she lowered the gun just a fraction so that their eyes could meet. \"I did the betraying.\"\n\n\"Hey boss!\" Twice skidded into the door, and Karma's gun lifted back up in a threatening motion. \"We got a problem. Those kids split up and the bulk of the group is moving up the tower.\"\n\n\"Boss?\" David whispered even as he held up his hands in defense against Karma.\n\n\"Tch... figures that Wolfram's goons are a bunch of weaklings.\" She glanced back over her shoulder. \"Oi, tell Compress to get his ass in here and have Dabi to keep Wolfram occupied. The clones should almost be done gathering up the goods in point A so we need to snag what we can from here and get gone.\"\n\n\"Righto!\" Dabi saluted but then slumped. \"What about the kids? They're a real nuisance… eh it's no big deal.\" He quickly waved it off as if the problem didn't exist.\n\n\"The security doors are sealed tight after they pass the 150th floor. There's only one way to get up to the tower from there and that's where we'll stop them.\" She looked at him over her shoulder. The look in her eyes had Twice bouncing with excitement.\n\n\"Ooh! Ooh! You got a plan don't yah? Tell me! Tell me!\" He crosses his arms up in an X over his chest. \"Not interested!\"\n\n\"You've my measurements don't you?\" She smirked and lifted her mask into place. \"Make a copy of me… and I'll handle those nuisances personally.\"\n\n~Meanwhile~\n\n\"It's pretty quiet, don't you think?\" Ochaco huffed a little as they took a small breather.\n\n\"Yeah, we haven't had any disruptions or disturbances since the 80th floor.\" Kaminari agreed cheerfully. \"Maybe they've finally lost track of us.\"\n\n\"Or it could be they're just lulling us into a false sense of security.\" Melissa argued and held her chest. A fresh bead of sweat dripped down her temple. \"Could be they've got men waiting for us, or are setting a trap.\"\n\n\"Either way we don't have much choice but to press on.\" Iida took a deep breath to calm himself. \"We've gotten this far, it'd be shameful if we backed down now.\" He rounded the corner but then stopped and cursed under his breath. \"Damn, it looks as though the path is blocked from here as well. We'll need to find another way.\"\n\n\"There's a way in from outside, through the wind tunnel platform. We can use Ochaco's weightless quirk to float and it's a straight shot from there to the control tower.\" Melissa provided and had all of them smiling.\n\n\"That's perfect, lead the way Melissa.\" Iida nodded his head and the group followed Melissa down a set of paths and out to the platform.\n\n\"Here it is, we… uh oh.\" Melissa stopped when she spotted the single figure standing in the center of the platform. With her back to them, she created quite a picture; the wind from the high altitude blew her long duster jacket and red curly locks giving her a very ominous look despite her small size.\n\n\"What is it?\" Yaoyorozu peeked around and her eyes narrowed. \"A single fighter?\"\n\n\"I recognize her…\" Uraraka whispered. \"She was the one standing over All Might when we went to check out the party. What's she doing all the way up here?\"\n\n\"I recognize her too…\" Mineta whispered. \"She's the hottie Kaminari and I served drinks to at the expo earlier.\"\n\n\"Hey you're right.\" Kaminari thumped a fist in his palm. \"Damn she was villain all this time? What a gyp.\"\n\n\"Now is not the time for banter you two.\" Iida stepped forward onto the platform first, his team behind him and forming a strong line of defense if needed.\n\nKarma tapped her ear, signaling her crew that the gang of students had arrived before slowly turning to face them. With her mask on and the dark helping conceal her face she let out a little laugh.\n\n\"I've been waiting for you, young heroes.\" She applauded. \"Congratulations on getting this far… but your tour of the tower ends here. If you would be so kind as to return to the lobby, you'll soon be released with the rest of the hostages. Providing that is you don't give us any further trouble.\"\n\n\"You're one to talk.\" Jirou countered with a sneer. \"It's you villains that started the trouble. We're just here to finish it!\"\n\n\"You tell 'em Jirou!\" Uraraka thrust her fist. \"Surrender or prepare to lose!\"\n\n\"Pfft,\" Karma had to laugh. Izumi always did like Uraraka's spunk. \"Whatever for? I'm in the clear advantage here.\"\n\n\"How do you figure that?\" Jirou scoffed. \"It's seven on one.\"\n\n\"For starters your math doesn't quite add up.\" She cocked her head to the side. \"Only two of you have strong combative quirks, and out of those two only one of them knows how to handle it well.\"\n\n\"Eh?\" Uraraka blinked in confusion. \"Say what?\"\n\n\"For second you're all held under society's thumb. The lot of you are students and there are rules in which you're forced to abide by if you want to become Heroes.\" She shrugged. \"I'm a villain so those rules don't apply to me in the slightest. I could kill each and every one of you and no one would look at me any different. A villain is a villain after all.\"\n\n\"Oi is she for real?\" Kaminari whispered to the rest of them. \"How the hell does she know all this about us? Is she a mind reader?\"\n\n\"Thirdly…the fact I'm alone doesn't hinder me at all. You're traveling in a large group of people you consider friends and have a strong sentimental attachment to them. If I endanger one of you, then another will gladly sacrifice themselves to protect them. Whereas I only have myself to worry about, no one to hinder me, and no one to distract me from the task at hand.\" Karma held out her hand and gave a come hither motion. Her eyes pierced through the dark, a glowing green against the black. \"Still if you all believe that you've the advantage then come at me. Let's find out who's right.\"\n\nA cold bead of sweat dripped down the side of Melissa's face. She swallowed hard and clutched her hands together trying to steady them. Something about this girl just sent shivers down her spine.\n\n\"Fine…\" Kaminari stepped forward. \"I don't like fighting girls, but since you're giving us no choice I'm going to prove you're wrong!\" He tossed off his apron and tie and rushed forward.\n\n\"Wait Kaminari!\" Jirou shouted and gasped as Yaoyorozu pulled her down and the insulated blanket appeared and covered the group.\n\n\"Take this you bitch! 1.3 million voltz!\"\n\n\"Hmmph, so predictable…\" She lifted her head, her face flashing in the light and Kaminari got a perfect view of her face as his lightning struck across the sky. \"Kaminari-kun.\"\n\n\"Weh!?\" Stunned himself, his electricity discharged against a fiery barrier that thrust out at him, knocking him on his ass and sent him rolling across the ground. His sparks sputtered and he sat looking stupefied.\n\n\"What in the hell was what?\" Jirou pulled up the sheet staring awestruck. \"Did she just block his lightning with a wall of fire?\"\n\n\"That doesn't make any sense…\" Melissa agreed narrowing her eyes on the situation. \"Even when used as quirks, fire doesn't have the right properties to discharge lightning like that. It was almost as if it was reinforced by something.\"\n\nHer prediction had been right, Karma thought, inwardly pleased with herself. The bluff had shaken them up, and she was able to put her power on display in the best possible way against that idiot Kaminari who jumped straight into it.\n\n\"Is it starting to sink in yet? You're all out of your league.\" She faced the group fully again, she let the flames dance up in her hands in a spiral motion. Be intimidating, be assertive… force them to back down! \"This is your last warning… go back downstairs and surrender to the boss, or face me and die.\"\n\n\"Oooh, nice touch there Phoenix.\"\n\nWolfram spoke over the comlink and she had to smirk. It seemed as though Dabi had patched her taunt through to Wolfram to appease his interest in the battle. Keeping him focused on the intruders rather than what was happening upstairs.\n\n\"If you think that's something then you should see her fight. She's got a mean right hook.\" Dabi added over the speaker.\n\n\"You're sure you can handle that group of kids by yourself, Phoenix? Need me to send you some back up?\" Wolfram suggested.\n\n\"Have some faith in the kid.\" Dabi interjected before she could way a word. \"Trust me, she'll have these kids practically running off the side of the building within ten minutes.\"\n\nKarma strained her ears so she could read the code in his words. Right hook…Faith…Side of the building… ten minutes. She had to stall these guys for ten minutes, then be prepared to take a leap of faith off the building.\n\n\"So what's the verdict, heroes?\" She taunted and flexed her hands out forming flames in the palms. \"Are you all gonna attack me? Or are you gonna heed my advice?\"\n\n\"What should we do Iida-san? She seems way more powerful than the other villains.\" Yaoyorozu swallowed hard.\n\n\"I agree… She's so confident even though there's so many of us.\" Iida agreed and grit his teeth. He rubbed the scar on his arm and looked at Kaminari who hadn't moved from his spot on the ground. \"We're in over our heads.\"\n\n\"Well what are you waiting for?\" Getting heated and enjoying the moment of superiority Karma let her villainous nature take over. Her grin spread wide behind the mask causing those green eyes to go wide and the pupils to shrink. \"ATTACK ME!\"\n\n\"GLADLY!\" Bakugo's voice suddenly called out and Karma whipped her head around only to get knocked on her ass by a massive explosion. Where the fuck did he come from?\n\n\"You guys alright?\" Kirishima asked as he and Todoroki raced up from behind.\n\n\"Kirishima, Todoroki!\" Iida turned and then glanced back at Bakugo who stood by the villain, hands braced for attack. \"When did he-\"\n\n\"You know Bakugo, we got a look at the situation from the doorway and he wanted to make a flashy entrance.\" Kirishima laughed jerking a thumb in his best friend's direction.\n\n\"Question is did he get her?\" Todoroki ripped off what was left of his tie and let it fall to the ground.\n\n\"Sure looks like it to me.\" Kirishima laughed and then saw Kaminari on the ground. \"Whoa hey Kaminari you alright man?\" He raced over to his friend and knelt down to help him up.\n\n\"Mnng Kirishima…\" Kaminari stirred awake and looked up at him fearfully. \"It's not… she's… it's her.\"\n\n\"Huh? What are you saying?\" Confused by the spaced out sentence he looked back over at Bakugo and the villain who was stirring and collecting herself from the sneak attack.\n\n\"Ready for more you bitch?\" Bakugo flexed his hands laughing. \"I'll take you on all by myself if these cowards don't want to.\"\n\n\"Nice to see you haven't changed…\" Karma laughed and stood up, her wig falling off and face turning to her opponent. It brought on a sense of delight to see the stunned expression on his face. \"Hello, Kacchan.\"\n\n\"Usagi?\" For the first time in his life Bakugo took several steps back from an opponent. Todoroki who had been walking towards them stopped dead in his tracks and looked at her pale faced.\n\n\"Izumi…\"\n\n\"Guys what's the matter? Why did you-\" Uraraka paused her sentence when she too got a look at the villain without her guise. \"No… Midori-chan?\"\n\n\"You guys look so surprised to see me.\" She pulled off her mask and tossed it aside, then ran fingers through her messy black hair grinning at them. \"Truth be told I'd hoped to postpone our reunion for a later date… but it would seem fate loves twisting knives in my back.\"\n\n\"Why Midori-chan?\" Uraraka whimpered as she fought off the tears. \"Why are you here? Why are you doing this?\"\n\n\"Do I really need a reason?\" She faced the tears with a look of pity. She felt the tugs on her own heart, the ache and hole each of these familiar faces put in her… but she wouldn't falter She wasn't the young hero they'd befriended. \"Don't give me that wounded look. I'm a villain, remember Ura-chan?\"\n\n\"You were our friend first.\" Todoroki corrected her and stepped closer. This time it was Karma who took a step back. \"We trusted you, believed in you…\"\n\n\"...and loved me.\" She smirked at him turning the look of pity in his direction. \"Or so you told me every chance you got. I told you from the start I had priorities, people who matter to me more. Unfortunately society and hero school frown upon fraternizing with villains so I decided to join up rather than cut them off like the rest of this heartless society.\"\n\n\"That's the biggest bull shit lie I've ever heard.\" Bakugo snapped. \"They warped you, Usagi. They're trying to turn you into something you're not and you're playing right into their hands.\"\n\n\"Hahahaha!\" She had to laugh at that. \"You're a fool if you think I'm a victim in all this.\" She pointed at herself still laughing. \"Do you honestly think I didn't understand what was happening to me during that whole process? I knew the outcome, I knew what would happen the moment I found out Sensei was a villain I knew I'd dug myself in too deep. I didn't run away from it, I embraced it. I ate all that negativity up like candy and now look at me!\"\n\nShe stood up straight and let her quirk dance around her. The kids of class 1A could only stare in horrorified awe at what had become of their friend and classmate.\n\n\"I was a quirkless nobody, but now all of Japan knows my name! Soon the entire world will know it too thanks to this infiltration. I'm the Queen of Villains! I am all powerful! I'm going to pull the strings of society and turn it into my puppet!\"\n\n\"Like hell!\" Bakugo screamed.\n\n\"We won't let you do that, Izumi!\" Todoroki let the ice form around his hand. \"We're going to stop you!\"\n\n\"You can try, Shoto… but get that sick puppy love look off your face first. I'm a villain, so you'd better treat me like one.\" She crouched and let the flames twist up in her palms. \"Because I won't pull my punches!\"\n\n\"Fair enough, Usagi!\" Bakugo launched at her again and she dodged quickly whipping the flaming energy out. He dodged as well, using a small explosion to jettison to the left and avoiding having his hand snapped right off his wrist.\n\nTodoroki moved next, unleashing a massive barrage of ice in her direction which her flame whips cut down to size.\n\n\"Kirishima!\" Bakugo whirled back. \"Icy Hot and I will handle Usagi. You and motor calves use your quirks to bust through those security doors and get to the control booth!\"\n\n\"Got it!\"\n\n\"Round face!\" He turned around to look at Uraraka. \"You, grape face, and Ponytail get Kaminari out of here and treat his wounds. Do what you can to find a way outside and alert the other heroes about what's going on.\"\n\n\"Okay!\" She obeyed. Using her quirk on Kaminari to lift him she and the others in her group hurried back inside.\n\nKarma skidded off to the side to avoid the oncoming attack for Todoroki and she put a finger to her comlink. \"Dabi, they're splitting up again, what's our situation upstairs.\"\n\n\"Never mind us here, do you need some backup? I can be down there in two minutes.\" Dabi said in cryptic speech. Translation being was that her double had finished with the Professor and Sam, and they were just waiting on transportation. ETA was two minutes.\n\n\"Not necessary, I can handle these punks. Just worry about your own task and be careful not to damage anything!\"\n\n\"What the hell is going on?\" Wolfram announced through the comlink. \"Give me a status update.\"\n\n\"A little busy at the moment, Wolfram, let Dabi give you the details!\" She shouted and sprung up to avoid Bakugo's blow and snagged him by the hair. She yanked him down slamming his skull against the brick.\n\nBakugo heard tweeting birds for a minute as the pain of the impact rattled his brain. He was lucky she hadn't cracked his skull open. In a move that was more instinctive then planned he brought up both hands and unleashed a furious blast against her belly.\n\nKarma barely had enough time to bring up a barrier before she was sent skidding back by the blast. Todoroki caught her with his ice, her feet now frozen solid and trapped. Well Shit.\n\n\"Nice timing…\" Bakugo grunted and held his head as he got up.\n\n\"Thanks.\"\n\n\"Tch, since when do you two get along so well?\" Karma taunted and briefly checked the levels on her flame thrower. She didn't have much fuel left, which meant she'd be relying on more of her own energy after this.\n\n\"Shit happens when you're faced against odds.\" Bakugo explained. \"We didn't want to do this to you, Usagi, but you left us with no choice.\"\n\n\"Well I'm happy to contribute to your brohood bond.\" She crouched down and used the last of her flame thrower to burn away the ice and release herself. The two boys stepped back into fighting stance looking ready for more. \"You guys took on two villain flunkies all by yourselves, and still had more than enough energy to deal with me.\"\n\nShe laughed, her bright smile sending shockwaves of nostalgia to both of their hearts.\n\n\"Honestly your stamina amazes me… guess I've got more training to do myself.\"\n\n\"You're not gonna have any training time in prison, Izumi.\" Todoroki narrowed his eyes fighting back his emotions and focusing on the task at hand. \"We're not letting you escape.\"\n\n\"Words are cheap… I'll believe it when one of you actually manages to take me down.\" She flicked hair from her face. \"I kicked both your butts at the Sports Festival, and I've gotten way stronger since then.\"\n\n\"I'm not losing to you again, Usagi.\" Bakugo raced forward. \"NEVER AGAIN!\"\n\n\"Like I said…\" Izumi heard the signal in her comlink and she leapt backwards and off the building. \"TALK IS CHEAP!\"\n\n\"What the!?\" Bakugo stumbled to the edge screaming out as he watched Izumi plummet downwards. \"USAGI!\"\n\n\"IZUMI!\" Todoroki joined him and braced a hand over his face as a gust of wind rushed up past them. The multipurpose transporter caught the falling villainess and she latched onto the top creating claws on her hands with her quirk and holding on for dear life.\n\nThe rush of adrenaline from the death-defying leap had made her face go pale and sweaty… but she laughed. She peered down through the window and saw her team manning the controls and waving to her.\n\n\"Nice timing, boys.\"\n\n\"USAGI!\" Bakugo went to blast his way up to the jet but Todoroki held him back.\n\n\"It's no use, it's too big a risk.\"\n\n\"Get the hell off me! They're getting away damn it! Heroes aren't supposed to lose! I AM NOT GOING TO LOSE TO THAT DAMN RABBIT!\"\n\nBakugo blasted his way up, using the racks of fans to help his ascension to the rooftop. He focused his quirk on the craft, his teeth gritting.\n\n\"I WON'T LET YOU WIN!\"\n\nHe let loose a massive explosion that erupted over his head and in the direction of the plane. The smoke and fire covered plane and Bakugo unleashed the fury over and over and screaming in pure frustration because he knew that it wasn't going to work.\n\nHe fell to his knees holding his arms that now ached from overuse and his teary eyes stare up at the pristine plane, protected by Izumi's quirk.\n\n\"Damn you… Usagi…\" He punched the ground and hung his head in defeat as the plane disappeared into the night. \"Villains aren't supposed to win.\""}
+{"text": "Hyunjin wakes up with a lapful of maknae and a groan, as Jeongin had successfully winded him. He opens his eyes blearily and flashes the youngest a halfhearted glare, but when he’s met with a bright grin, his irritation doesn’t last for long because really, as much as Jeongin was a wolf in lamb’s skin, Hyunjin still had a terribly soft spot for him and would probably sell and arm and a leg and maybe his soul too for the younger. Well...maybe not his soul, but still.\n\n“Morning, hyung, you look like death and a half,” Jeongin chirps cheerily from where he is quite literally  seated on top of Hyunjin while the older of the pair struggles to breathe. If this doesn’t look like an assassination attempt, then Hyunjin doesn’t know what does.\n\n“And whose fault is that?” Hyunjin groans as Jeongin’s thighs squeeze his ribcage a little too hard and the maknae’s sweet smile becomes the epitome of all things evil.\n\n“Chan hyung made breakfast, we’re going shopping today,” Jeongin announces cheerily.\n\nHyunjin slowly sits up, blinking tiredly and running his fingers through his hair, trying to shake the sleep from his mind. “Okay, okay, I’m up, now get off me,” he mumbles, and thankfully, Jeongin finds it somewhere in his (cold) heart to clamber off of Hyunjin so that he can go and wash up. He feels like seawater and sand, but as his mind drifts back to what had happened the night before, he can’t help but smile as he drags his feet on his way to the bathroom.\n\nHe emerges a changed man, towel wrapped loosely about his hips and vitality returning to his body. He quickly throws on a loose, graphic tee and a pair of ripped sinner jeans (they really weren’t that tight, and Hyunjin really doesn’t think Felix has any right to be judging his jeans). Throwing on a few accessories, he makes his way out to the table where everyone was present except for Changbin, heaven knows if the man was still sleeping.\n\n“Morning, hyung, you don’t look like death anymore,” Jeongin greets him again, cheerily. He reaches over to pinch the youngest’s cheek, causing him to yelp and bounce (how on earth he managed to do that without breaking his tailbone is beyond Hyunjin) away from him into the next chair.\n\nHyunjin pouts. “Innie, give me hugs,” he demands, stealing the empty chair between them and wrapping his arms around Jeongin. Jeongin dolphin-screams bloody murder, but Hyunjin just remains stuck to him insistently until Chan emerges from the kitchen with pancakes and sets the plate down on the table with one hand while prying Hyunjin off of the fox-eyed boy with the other.\n\n“While I appreciate the fact that there’s no one sane enough here to call the police when they hear that kind of screaming, I kind of like my ears and I don’t want to lose them just yet,” he remarks. “You guys start, I’ll go get Changbin.”\n\n“Yes, mum,” Felix quips with a mock-sigh.\n\n“Don’t use that tone with me, Felicia,” Chan jabs right back and heads down the corridor.\n\nFelix laughs and stabs a few pancakes, tossing them onto his plate. “Ooh, these look good,” he exclaims with a glint in his eyes as he takes the syrup and veritably  drowns the poor pancakes in the sweet stuff. Hyunjin stares at the obscenity of it in thinly-veiled disgust.\n\n“I don’t understand how you haven’t yet gotten diabetes, Lix,” he remarks. Jeongin steals a few of the pancakes for himself and does the same and Hyunjin lowers his head into his hands. “I’m living with heathens,” he wails.\n\n“Oh, don’t be such a drama queen,” Felix huffs, forking a few pancakes onto Hyunjin’s plate. “Hurry up and eat or we’ll bless your pancakes with the  correct amount of syrup.”\n\nThat’s all it takes for Hyunjin to practically shove half a pancake into his mouth and chew with renewed vigour, his eyes narrowing distrustfully at Jeongin, who brandished the bottle of syrup like it was some kind of firearm. “Stay away from my breakfast. Fifty-fifty is  not the correct syrup to pancake ratio, thank you.”\n\n“And you call us the heathens,” Felix sighs, rolling his eyes.\n\n“Shut up, Felicia.”\n\nHyunjin does end up drizzling some syrup over his pancakes, although not the ungodly amount that both Felix and Jeongin seem to favour. He secretly thinks that this confirms his suspicions of how the two were definitely spending too much time together.\n\nHe watches as Chan somehow manages to drag Changbin out of the bedroom and he throws his arm across the  shoulders of the shorter male. “Finally, someone sane,” he sighs.\n\n“Why did I agree to come with all of you?” Changbin asks, his voice deep and gritty, giving away the fact that he had just woke up.\n\n“Because you love us, hyung, now have some pancakes,” Jeongin deadpans, throwing a few onto his plate before looking up at Chan with a grin. “You too, hyung. You’ve been running around all morning.” Hyunjin chuckles at how Chan doesn’t hesitate to sit down and stuff his face after that. Not that he wouldn’t anyway, but a little encouragement every now and then never hurt.\n\n“You look really tired, Chris,” Felix suddenly brings up, “Did you not sleep again?”\n\nWhen Hyunjin glances back at the dark-haired man, he sees the dark bags under Chan’s eyes and he frowns. He knows that the man had been awake in the forsaken hours of the morning just like him, but he also knows that Chan was probably awake, up and running earlier than him and probably earlier than everyone else. Sure, Chan’s insomnia was nothing new, but Hyunjin would’ve thought that it would at least slacken during their vacation.\n\n“You can always stay back and rest, hyung,” Hyunjin offers.\n\n“How come I don’t get that option?” Changbin complains through a mouthful of pancake.\n\n“Ew, hyung, say it, don’t spray it,” Jeongin yelps. “And you don’t get that option because if you’re not there then Hyunjin hyung will stick to me, and I really don’t want to die of heatstroke in Australia, so instead you can be my virgin sacrifice.” Felix snorts mid-bite of his pancake and bursts into teary-eyed laughter, half-laughing, half hacking his guts out as he chokes. Hyunjin can swear he hears Jeongin whispering a  “that’s right, choke,” but he deliberately chooses to ignore it.\n\nChan breathes out a long suffering sigh and goes to pat Felix on the back. “I’m coming with,” he decides. “Otherwise someone is going to die, and I don’t want to have to go through all the trouble of hiding a body. So everyone please control your murderous tendencies”\n\n“I always knew that brat was part of a cult,” Changbin mutters under his breath and Hyunjin ruffles his hair, finding his grumpiness amusing. He would think that no one should expect a normal breakfast with decent people while they were all shoved in a building  by themselves, which, in retrospect, should have already been a terrifying prospect.\n\nWith a little more struggle, an argument on who should do the dishes and a strong disagreement when Chan offered to do it, Hyunjin finds himself setting the last dried plate on a rack and then drying his hands with the towel before tossing it aside. He makes his way to the door with a grin, throwing it open and letting the sun bathe him. He’d probably complain about it being too hot later, but for now he’d enjoy it.\n\nThe cove looked breathtaking and he’s sure  that he could wake up to that sight every day without ever growing tired of it, but it brings thoughts of Seungmin to his mind again, and the sudden urge to see the boy again washes over him. It probably wasn’t a good time though, considering his friends were right there, and really, after all their banter about it yesterday, Hyunjin didn’t know if it was a good idea to overwhelm Seungmin with the presence of all of his rowdy friends.\n\nBesides, the boy did seem to be a more solitary type. There was probably a reason why he kept to himself, and Hyunjin knew enough about courtesy to know that he should put the boy in a position where he would be uncomfortable. Especially not when Seungmin trusted him enough to meet him again. His gaze grows distant as his mind wanders. Perhaps he could meet him again during the night. Hopefully this time Chan would be sufficiently tired and wouldn’t be out walking.\n\nHe yelps and stumbles as he feels someone cannon into his back, and his arms automatically rise to support Felix’s lanky legs as one of the blonde’s arms wraps around his shoulders and the other points to the car that Felix had rented for their vacation (seriously, the boy had too many notes to spare). “If I break my back, you can’t get piggyback rides anymore, Lix!” he hollers.\n\n“Onward!” Felix declares shamelessly, and Hyunjin huffs, carrying him to the car and opening the door before throwing him into the backseat.\n\n“Dibs on shotgun!” Jeongin screeches as he dashes past them only to careen into the driver’s seat.\n\nHyunjin pulls him out of the seat and huffs. “Other side,” he tells him, poking his dimple.\n\nJeongin pouts. “I knew that.”\n\nHyunjin, being the good hyung he is, lets Jeongin take the front passenger’s seat anyway and settles with being squished in the back with Changbin and Felix. Not that he minded, since Changbin made a good pillow and Felix had the window rolled down and was currently yelling whatever song was playing on the radio in a disturbingly deep voice. Chan had landed himself with the misfortune of driving all of them, and Hyunjin would’ve felt bad if he knew how to drive, but he didn’t so he saves himself the guilt.\n\nAt the shopping centre, he just finds himself dragged around by an eager Felix who has to be constantly reminded by Chan that he wouldn’t be able to fit all the things he wanted to buy into his suitcase, to which he retorts that he’ll just buy another one.\n\nSomewhere between Versace and Balenciaga, Hyunjin recalls that he hasn’t seen Seungmin wearing a single article of clothing excluding the body jewellery, and he wonders if he should get something for the boy. Even if Seungmin didn’t feel self-conscious being naked, Hyunjin definitely did, and he wanted to spend time with Seungmin while they were both fully clothed...or at least sufficiently clothed. His eyes narrow slightly in thought as he tries to estimate the boy’s sizes.\n\nSeungmin was skinny and fairly tall, falling just a little short of his own height. Hyunjin figures that he could chop a centimetre off of his own sizes, and so he starts to pull some clothes from the racks, nothing too tight, since he was sure that would make the boy feel uncomfortable, especially if he was used to not wearing clothes. He frowns slightly in thought as he wonders what the boy would like. Would he even like it?\n\n“Oi, Hyunjin, don’t tell me you’re going on a spree too, you only have one carrier!” He can hear Chan calling to him, and he grins back at the dark-haired man.\n\n“Don’t worry about it, hyung,” he calls back as he selects a loose striped shirt with long sleeves from the pile that he had beside him. It was fairly chilly during the night, and the shirt was soft too, so he figures it would be appropriate enough. He throws in a hoodie because everyone needed a hoodie and then a pair of cargo pants. Before he knows it, he has almost his entire pile of clothes that he’s decided to buy.\n\nAnd definitely not enough money to buy it all. So he does the next best thing. He stands and drapes himself over Felix. “Lixieee, we’re besties, right?”\n\n“I’m not buying all of that for you, Hyunjin.”\n\nHyunjin pouts. “But Lixie, it’s important to me. Pleeeease?”\n\nFelix glances back at him, looking unamused. “No. Do I look like your sugar daddy?”\n\n“Well—”\n\n“Hwang Hyunjin, one, ew, and two, I am  younger than you.”\n\nHyunjin huffs and pouts, going back to his clothes and selecting a few random items before padding over to the cashier. “Consider our beautiful relationship cancelled, Lix,” he calls loudly, attracting the curious attention of a few other customers and a groan from Chan, who was hiding himself amongst a curtain of black shirts. Hyunjin really needed to convince him to wear some other colour.\n\n“Consider yourself cancelled, you big baby,” Felix retorts, tugging Changbin close to him and then pushing an oversized, pale pink hoodie into his arms. “Binnie hyung, get this.”\n\n“But—”\n\n“Okay, I’ll get it for you.”\n\nHyunjin openly gapes at Felix while Changbin seems at a loss for words as the boy heads over to the cashier with the hoodie as well as the armfuls of clothes he had decided to purchase. “Traitor!” he gasps. “I see how it is, doing things for your boyfriend, but not for me.”  To his surprise, both Felix and Changbin stop short at that and stare at him in disbelief, their ears matching shades of red. Hyunjin feels someone pat him on the back and he turns to see Jeongin’s too-sweet-to-not-be-evil grin on his face, like Christmas had just come early.\n\n“Nice one, hyung,” the youngest chirps, looking all too pleased at the scene. Hyunjin feels a smirk of his own creep over his lips.\n\n“Right, go buy your things and let’s go before they kick us out of the store,” Chan calls, already lugging Jeongin and Hyunjin out of the store with ease. Sometimes Hyunjin really needs to give the man some credit; if Jeongin had mentioned him looking like death and a half that morning, Chan definitely took the cake and Hyunjin felt a little bad for it.\n\n“Hyung, are you sure you don’t want to go back and rest?” Hyunjin asks worriedly. “You look like you studied for finals, finished five projects and threw in a thesis paper for good measure in one night.”\n\nChan offers him a dry smile. “Does it really look that bad?”\n\n“Worse,” Jeongin pipes up unhelpfully as they sit down on one of the benches just outside of the store.\n\nChan laughs wryly. “Gee, thanks, Innie.”\n\nHyunjin rests his chin on Chan’s shoulder and leans against him. “No, but hyung, you really look awful. It doesn’t look like vacation at all for you.”\n\n“Maybe because I have to stop all of you from almost getting yourselves killed 24/7,” Chan drawls before sighing. “I’ve been inspired lately, but I can’t...get it right,” he mutters. “I’ve got so many unfinished songs in my laptop and I’ve been hearing things since we arrived here. I can’t sleep until I get it perfect.”\n\n“Hyung—”\n\nHyunjin knows that reasoning with Chan when he’s in one of those moods is really just plain impossible, but it didn’t mean he wasn’t stubborn enough to try.\n\n“No, you don’t understand,” Chan interjects before he has the chance to say anything more. “I can’t sleep. I’m exhausted, but it’s like something is keeping me awake.” He sounds almost distressed to the point where it worries Hyunjin.\n\n“Something?” Jeongin echoes, and Hyunjin can see that he too is awfully concerned as well, enough for the seemingly ever-present smile on his face to have disappeared.\n\n“You’ll probably think I’m crazy,” Chan dismisses and Hyunjin pokes his dimples insistently.\n\n“Hyung, we’re all a little crazy, you’re probably the sanest one out of all of us, and that’s saying something.” He ignores the offended yelp that elicits from the elder’s lips. Hyunjin pokes him yet again. “So tell us.”\n\n“Tell us what?” Felix asks, loaded with bags as he and Changbin leave the store and leave the staff looking rather relieved although Hyunjin doesn’t miss the few that pull out their phones to snap a few pictures of them. He chooses to ignore it although he wishes they wouldn’t because while he knows that he has a very handsome group of friends and while he and his very handsome group of friends also happen to be terribly shameless, privacy was always something that they could appreciate.\n\n“Why Chan hyung isn’t sleeping. Like, at all.”\n\n“Chris I keep telling you to take sleep meds,” Felix sighs, sitting down with them. “We're heading back and you're going to rest. We can go play around on the beach or something.”\n\nChan turns to stare at him and frowns. “Believe me, I would, but I swear that I keep hearing voices and they sing...I'm trying to get that song, but I can't and I can't fall asleep either.”\n\nAt Chan's words, Hyunjin feels himself tense slightly which earns him a curious glance from their fox-eyed youngest, but he just shrugs it off as though it had never happened. He clears his throat and stands up. “We're getting you back, hyung, you really need some rest. We've been here for a few days and if you haven't gotten any sleep...well, you're getting some sleep now,” he decides, and they collectively nod in agreement. Chan seems about to argue, but eventually nods in resigned assent.\n\n“Yeah, maybe I am just tired…”\n\n“Maybe,” Hyunjin echoes, although he knows that that's not the real or only reason for it. For all it was worth, he wanted to change the course of their conversation before it pressed too far into foreign territory.\n\nHe helps Felix carry his bags to the car and somehow manages to shove it all into the trunk. Piling into the back seats with Felix and Changbin, he settles himself comfortably and rolls down the window as they begin to drive. “Let's order takeout today,” he suggests over Felix's merciless caterwauling, and it's met with a resounding agreement and what looked to be like complete and utter relief on Chan's part.\n\nAs they roll back to the bungalow, Hyunjin's eyes trail over the cerulean waves that roll against the sand and he feels the sudden urge to go to the shoreline and just stare out at the broad line where the blue sky met the bluer sea. “I'm heading out,” he tells the others on a whim, and to his surprise, Jeongin falls into step with him.\n\n“I'll come with,” the youngest announces, and Hyunjin flashes him a grin and throws an arm over his shoulders.\n\n“I knew you'd come around and accept my undying affection,” Hyunjin exclaims dramatically, only to have the younger propel him aside with a powerful shove, causing him to stumble. He huffs and makes a dramatic show of rolling onto the warm sand. “You're so mean to me,” he whines, bouncing on the sand and beating his clenched fists against it, his face twisted into a comical, petulant expression.\n\n“...you big baby,” Jeongin scoffs, and Hyunjin gapes at him. This was the second time today he's been called a big baby, and it was certainly unfair because anyone with a pair of eyes could see that it wasn't his fault his friends were all colossal jackasses.\n\nJeongin grins sweetly at him and runs off across the sand, laughing happily, and suddenly Hyunjin's indignation at all the injustice that had been done to him that day dissipates because Jeongin just has that much power in his sparkling narrow eyes and dimpled cheeks. He hops to his feet and runs after Jeongin with a grin on his own face, jumping onto the youngest's back and clinging to him.\n\n“Yah, you have too much leg, hyung!” Jeongin complains, toppling over and sending him careening onto the sand with a yelp. He just lies there, motionless for a bit until he feels Jeongin's finger prodding at his cheek. “Did you die? Are you dead?” He rolls over onto his back and laughs, causing Jeongin to pout. “Darn, I thought I got rid of you,” the maknae huffs. Shifting, he clings to Jeongin with a wide smile.\n\n“Takes more than that to get rid of me,” he singsongs.\n\n“Duly noted.”\n\nHyunjin whines when his forehead is flicked, but he doesn't move away from Jeongin until the youngest eventually gives up and just lets him practically lie down on him.\n\nFor a few moments, silence is sustained between them, but then it's broken by the sound of footsteps pounding on the sand, causing Hyunjin to crane his neck just in time to see Felix scramble over an outcrop and launch himself off of it with a vaguely distant  “yeet!” before hitting the surface of the water with a splash.\n\n“Isn't he an adult?” Hyunjin wonders aloud.\n\n“Aren't you an adult?” Jeongin queries, cocking an eyebrow at him.\n\nHyunjin gasps and huffs. “What is that supposed to mean?”\n\n“Whatever you want it to,” Jeongin chirps cheerily just as Changbin moves to sit beside them, dressed in more beach-appropriate clothing, namely a pair of swim trunks, a plain t-shirt thrown over his frame and a bucket hat.\n\nHyunjin glances over at him and sits up, hugging him. “Innie is being mean to me,” he tells Changbin.\n\n“Why, did you tell him about your naked boy problems?” Changbin asks, causing Hyunjin to flush down to his collarbones and Jeongin to raise an eyebrow, a devious glint in his eyes as he leans closer to the pair.\n\n“Naked boy problems?” He echoes and Hyunjin pushes Changbin pettily, but unfortunately the man works out and he doesn't budge that easily, which made for a very unsatisfactory revenge. Changbin side-glances at Jeongin and leans closer to him as though about to divulge something top-secret.\n\n“He claims that he rescued a hot naked boy from drowning yesterday,” Changbin stage-whispers conspiratorially. Hyunjin halfheartedly slaps the man's bicep. “And he said he's in love with him,” he adds as an afterthought, and Jeongin's smile turns absolutely  wicked . Hyunjin yelps and rolls away from both of them.\n\n“Nope, nope, I came here to have a good time and I'm honestly feeling so attacked right now,” he babbles, his ears crimson. “I'm being bullied so I'll go back to Chan hyung because at least he doesn't bully me, goodbye, oh, and Binnie hyung, your boyfriend is calling.” Hyunjin turns and darts back to the bungalow, his face sufficiently flushed. He still didn't know what had compelled him to say something like he was in love when really, he had only seen Seungmin twice. So maybe he was a romantic, but it didn't mean that he believed in love at first sight (or second sight) for himself!\n\nHe glances back just in time to see Felix bound out of the water and latch onto Changbin, who was a bright shade of red, while Jeongin cackled like a witch at all the newfound, juicy information he has. Hyunjin smiles slightly before running into the bungalow and hiding behind the nearest potted plant as though it would protect him from  feelings. \n\n“Uh— Hyunjin…? Do I want to know?”\n\nHyunjin peeks out from between the leaves of the plant to see Chan staring at him, bemused. He sheepishly moves away from it to flop gracelessly down on the couch. “I was being bullied so I ran away,” he shamelessly confesses, sitting up a few seconds later and hugging one of the throw pillows. He tilts his head and squints at the older boy. “How are you feeling, hyung?”\n\n“Honestly? Like fifty shades of death,” comes the response, and Hyunjin grimaces.\n\n“Serious enough for you to pull a necrophilia joke, huh.” He laughs at the look of disgust that he receives for his troubles, but he's quick to lose the mirth, his features growing serious. “Hyung, you said you heard voices, what did it sound like?” He asks.\n\nFor a few moments, the dark-haired man stares at him, dumbfounded before sighing. “Really beautiful. I've never heard anything like it. I don't know how to describe it. It was beautiful in a...almost disturbing kind of way? Does that even make sense?” Chan looks frustrated at the fact that he couldn't adequately describe it, but Hyunjin still understands perfectly, and he has a good idea of who was behind it too.\n\n“When did you start hearing it?” Hyunjin asks slowly.\n\nChan laughs dryly. “Since when did you become my therapist, Jinnie?” He jokes, but goes on to answer anyway. “Since we got here. The first night I thought I'd go and tweak one of the songs I was almost finished with, but then I heard the voice and since then it's been bugging me.”\n\nThat did make sense, considering that Hyunjin and co. had all fallen asleep from their trip, so only Chan would've heard the song. And now Hyunjin just happened to hear it too. The blood drains from his face as he wonders if he'll have to suffer sleepless nights too, but at the recollection that he had fallen asleep soon after he had returned from the beach with Chan is brought to his mind and he relaxes. Still, that didn’t mean that Chan was out of the danger zone just yet. Hyunjin knows for a fact that it’s been five days since they’ve arrived, and if Chan hasn’t slept for a single night, well...Hyunjin really doesn’t know how he managed to drive them to the shopping centre without killing all of them. For a few moments, he’s silent, wrapped up in his thoughts, but he’s pulled out by the sound of Chan’s voice.\n\n“I sound crazy.”\n\n“Yeah, you kinda do, hyung.”\n\n“Thank you for your undying honesty, Jinnie.”\n\n“No problem, hyung.”\n\nHyunjin stands up and pulls Chan to his feet by the arm, nearly causing the man’s notebook to topple off of the couch, but Hyunjin catches it before Chan can declare dishonour on him and his whole family and maybe his cow too (although he didn’t have a cow, but that was irrelevant). He sets the notebook safely on the coffee table and tugs Chan with him to the bedroom. “No working,” he declares. “We’re having some hardcore rest-time now.”\n\nThe older boy looks about to complain, but Hyunjin turns to face him with a deathly-serious light in his eyes. “I want cuddles, hyung.” And he knows that Chan will probably argue that he could work and give him cuddles at the same time, so he pulls the next card. “And I want attention too.”\n\nThe shorter male sighs resignedly and lets himself be dragged into the bedroom and plopped down on the mattress by Hyunjin, who promptly throws himself on top of him and cuddles him, silently thanking whatever deity had invented air conditioning. For now he’d cuddle, then he’d go find Seungmin, and hopefully get to the bottom of this."}
+{"text": "\nBaoshan Sanren went down the mountain the moment one of her disciples went back up.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Shizun, I know that it is not allowed to go back to the mountain, but please. Allow me!”\n\n\n \n\n\nBaoshan Sanren knows, she's not a cold-hearted woman. So, she just sighed and demanded an explanation.\n\n\n \n\n\nAs much as she wants to take them back again after they went down, she cannot. Those Humans. Those Mortals, who went down the Celestial Mountain, will have a fate worse than death. The Celestial Mountain is blessed. Once they went out of the Mountain's reach, they would lose its protection. The mountain would not be kind to those who’ve already been tainted.\n\n\n \n\n\nBaoshan Sanren huffed. \n\nCruel. Why made me an Immortal, if I will just have to see my disciples, my descendants, die? Immortality has a price, it seems.\n\n\n\n \n\n\nShe had to erase every memory, from the mind, heart, and soul, of every child, every disciple she took. That way, the mountain will be on a good term with them.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Shizun, it’s Cangse-Shijie! Your daughter!”\n\n\n \n\n\nCangse… Cangse Sanren had been the product of one of her inventions. She had been Baoshan Sanren’s everything. Her blood and flesh. Even some of her powers transferred to her. Still, only through skills, talent, will, and motives will she ascend to immortality. No matter how much of her powers are flowing through her meridians, no matter how her blood is running through her veins, the only way and the hardest part to achieve and ascend to immortality is having the purity of the heart. That is also the only way that her disciples need to achieve for them to be able to go back to the Celestial Mountain once they’ve decided to go down.\n\n\n \n\n\nCangse Sanren, having left the mountain without achieving immortality, can never avoid her fate. The fate of Baoshan Sanren’s disciple. Celestial Mountain’s disciple…\n\n\n \n\n\nThus, when her disciple came back up, bringing news about Cangse Sanren, she had to brace herself. “What happened to Cangse?”\n\n\n \n\n\nHer disciple kneeled and proceeded to kowtow. “Shizun, Cangse-shijie is dead.”\n\n\n \n\n\nBaoshan Sanren needed a moment to breathe. She closed her eyes and began to inhale deeply. \n\nI am expecting it. Still, it hurts.\n\n One sole tear escapes her silver eye.\n\n\n \n\n\n“But, Shizun…”\n\n\n \n\n\nBaoshan Sanren’s eye snapped open. “But?”\n\n\n \n\n\n“She had a son, Shizun! And they are condemning him! Just now, I heard that they are planning to raid his den!”\n\n\n \n\n\nBaoshan Sanren felt as if an arrow struck her heart. \n\nCangse…Cangse had a child? I have a grandson? My…My blood…Oh- Oh God- His fate…I have to find him.\n\n She thought determinedly.\n\n\n \n\n\nBaoshan Sanren straightened up. “Where is he residing? Take me to him.”\n\n\n \n\n\nHer disciple stands up and meets her eyes. “He is currently at the Burial Mounds, Shizun.”\n\n\n \n\n\nShe is slightly taken aback. Burial Mounds, huh? How did he survive such a place? There is so much resentful energy- Right! Resentful energy… Baoshan Sanren drew a teleportation array, that way they will arrive faster.\n\n\n \n\n---\n\n \n\n\nExplosion.\n\n\n \n\n\nGasps.\n\n\n \n\n\nShouts.\n\n\n \n\n\n\nScreams.\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\nPain.\n\n\n\n \n\n\nEveryone kneeled as they could not manage the pain coming from their middle dantian. Even Baoshan Sanren herself is not exempted. \n\n\n \n\n\nThey realized powers from their core are being \n\nsucked\n\n. \n\n\n \n\n\nWei Wuxian just finished destroying the seal the moment Baoshan Sanren landed in the Burial Mounds. He is exhausted, then suddenly there is power.\n\n\n \n\n\n\nOh.\n\n \n\nPower… Spiritual Energy… A core\n\n\n\n \n\n\nSuddenly, Wei Wuxian is receiving spiritual energy that is slowly forming a core inside the hollow space with only the dark as its company.\n\n\n \n\n\nThe cultivators had long forgotten about Wei Wuxian and his seal. All they could think is the mind-numbing pain they cannot suppress. \n\n\n \n\n\nAnd then, everything…\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n…stopped.\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\nCaws of crows are heard, the winds sang, humans are silent. \n\n\n \n\n\nSilence.\n\n\n \n\n\nSilence.\n\n\n \n\n\nSilence.\n\n\n \n\n\nThen, there are thunders. Wei Wuxian was being struck by thunders in front of their very eyes. Bright light blinding the cultivators, pure spiritual energies drowning them. \n\n\n \n\n\n\nHe is ascending. \n\nThey’re minds unhelpfully supplied.\n\n\n \n\n\nThen, Wei Wuxian is gone.\n\n\n \n\n\nThe cultivators are in disarray.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Wei Wuxian… Wei Wuxian ascended!”\n\n\n \n\n\n“How can this be?! A monster ascended?!”\n\n\n \n\n\n“No! My core! My powers had diminished!” \n\n\n \n\n\nHearing that, the cultivators checked their cores. Gasps rang out the mountains. Enraged cries are heard, cursing Wei Wuxian. There are also those who kowtowed, praying for forgiveness. There are others who praised him.\n\n\n \n\n\nAll of them didn’t notice a certain Sect Leader looking so pale and angry. Disbelief and rage are noticeable from this Sect Leader.\n\n\n \n\n\nThe said Sect Leader cupped his middle dantian, wherein his core, \n\nhis core\n\n, had almost diminished. While checking the core, all he received was a weak pulse. As weak as when he was a teenager. He cannot even unleash Zidian without overexerting himself.\n\n\n \n\n\nSect Leader Jiang, Jiang Wanyin roared as he looked at where the sky is located. “Wei WUXIAN!!! Did you think that it is over?! Come back here! \n\nI WILL STILL KILL YOU, YOU BASTARD!!!\n\n Do you think this is enough to atone for your sins?! WEI WUXIAN!!!”\n\n\n \n\n\nBaoshan Sanren glanced at the cultivators. \n\nPathetic,\n\n she thought. She chuckled, she suddenly caught sight of a group of people. \n\nNon-cultivators…Why are there non-cultivators here?\n\n\n\n \n\n\nShe told her disciple to discreetly escort the non-cultivators outside the Burial Mounds, tell them Baoshan Sanren will see them later. Her disciple bowed and subtly went to where the non-cultivators are located.\n\n\n \n\n\nShe glanced at the cultivators leaving.\n\n\n \n\n\nShe glanced at the cultivators in gold, who are red-faced, be it from anger, embarrassment or shame.\n\n\n \n\n\nShe glanced at the cultivators in dark green, who seemed to be contemplating when they are near the resentful energy.\n\n\n \n\n\nShe glanced at the cultivators in white, whose faces also seemed to be as white as their robes.\n\n\n \n\n\nShe glanced at the cultivators in purple, especially the one with purple lightning whenever his face sneered, and narrowed her eyes at his core.\n\n\n \n\n\nShe glanced at the Burial Mounds, where her grandson was last standing.\n\n\n \n\n\nShe chuckled darkly. \n\nWell, well… Looks like you have gotten what you deserved.\n\n\n\n \n\n\nShe cast one lingering stare, and then she descended the Burial Mounds, willing to find the non-cultivators and ask them what they were doing at the place, such as the Burial Mounds. \n\n\n \n\n---\n\n \n\n\n“Popo, I am not here to harm you. My master, Baoshan Sanren, will just talk to all of you.” Baoshan Sanren heard her disciple talking to the oldest of the non-cultivators.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Baoshan Sanren? The immortal?” She heard the elder respond.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Yes. Yes, Popo.” Her disciple said.\n\n\n \n\n\n“I’m here. I’m Baoshan Sanren.” She finally responded.\n\n\n \n\n\nThe non-cultivators gasped, their eyes full of hope and wariness. Baoshan Sanren immediately softened her eyes. “Tell me, what are you doing in the Burial Mounds? And a non-cultivator at that, how did you survive?”\n\n\n \n\n\nOne of the non-cultivators responded he told her that they are the Wen remnants. They were protected by a person they called A-Ying.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Wen remnants? Why were you called Wen remnants?” Baoshan Sanren asked, she did not know why they were the only remaining of the Wens. She knew of the Wen Sect, located in Qishan. And, there are a lot of people, Wens, living in Qishan.\n\n\n \n\n\nThe same person told her of the war. Saying that their sect had gone too far, resulting in retaliation and war.\n\n\n \n\n\n“And they are capturing you? Non-cultivators who are supposed to be out of the war between cultivators?”\n\n\n \n\n\n“What will even change, Immortal Baoshan? We are Wens. As long as there are Wens living, they won’t stop hunting us.”\n\n\n \n\n\nBaoshan Sanren huffed a bitter laugh. \n\nThey never change, huh?\n\n\n\n \n\n\nShe sighed, “Well, this A-Ying of yours, where is he?”\n\n\n \n\n\nThere is some pride in their faces, some who even smiled softly. “He ascended. Our A-Ying, our Young Master Wei. Our Laozu…”\n\n\n \n\n\nShe heard her disciple gasp. Her disciple looked at her and said, “That’s it, Shizun. Wei. Cangse-shijie’s husband is surnamed, Wei.”\n\n\n \n\n\nWide eye, she asked her disciple of the name of her grandson. \n\n\n \n\n\n“Wei Ying, courtesy name Wuxian.”\n\n\n \n\n\nShe looked tearfully at the non-cultivators, “Is-Is your A-Ying named Wei Ying, Wei Wuxian?”\n\n\n \n\n\nSome of them looked wary, but they answered. “Yes, Immortal Baoshan.”\n\n\n \n\n\nShe let out a wet laugh. “My grandson…” \n\nI’ll go to heaven later, for now, I will save the people my grandson saved.\n\n\n\n \n\n\nOnce she calmed down, she offered them a settlement. Two options, actually. One: They will go with her to the Celestial Mountain without having any memories and will be secluded for life. Two: She will give them a place far from the cultivation world, and live in peace. \n\n\n \n\n\nThey looked thoughtful. The second option seemed tempting as they wanted to live freely in peace. However, their past will always be their nightmare. \n\n\n \n\n\nSo, they chose the first option.\n\n\n \n\n\nRemove all their memories, and live in a secluded mountain until they die.\n\n\n \n\n\nBaoshan Sanren smiled at them. “Is there anything you wish to bring?”\n\n\n \n\n\nThe eldest meekly spoke, “My-My great-grandson, Immortal Baoshan. He is still at the Burial Mounds.”\n\n\n \n\n\nBaoshan Sanren gasped, she sent her disciple to get the child. She turned to the group, “My disciple will get you your great-grandson, Madam. For now, let us depart.”\n\n\n \n\n\nAnd then, Baoshan Sanren drew a transportation array to the nearest door and went to the foot of the mountain. Before they went up the celestial mountain, she asked the group to close their eyes as she casts a memory removing spell to the group, so as to cleanse the lingering pain, regret, sorrow, sadness, happiness, joy, and many other emotions they had experienced to be reborn as a new person.\n\n\n \n\n\nThe moment the Wen remnants opened their eyes, their life had now begun changing for the better.\n\n\n \n\n\nUnknown to them, a certain white robe disciple had already claimed the youngest Wen as his child. Baoshan Sanren’s disciple will not get to reach the child she had been tasked to get.\n\n\n \n\n---\n\n \n\n\nWei Wuxian opened his eyes. He did not know what he is currently doing. Is he lying down? Is he standing up? Sitting down? One thing crossed his mind, \n\nI’m dead? Yeah, I’m dead. I didn’t know I would end up in heaven though.\n\n\n\n \n\n\n“Your Highness.” He heard a voice.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Your Highness.” A little louder.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Your Highness!” \n\nWho the hell is shouting? And who is this “Your Highness”? Can’t they answer who is calling them? I want to be at peace.\n\n\n\n \n\n\n“Your Highness, Wei Wuxian!” \n\nOh.\n\n The voice called his name. \n\nI am the “Your Highness”?\n\n\n\n \n\n\n“Uh- I am no royalty, but I am Wei Wuxian. What can I do for you?” \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n “Your Highness, I am Ren Jiayi, in charge of your palace. If you do not remember, you ascended into Godhood. You are supposed to ascend only to immortality the moment you destroyed the Stygian Tiger Seal, but with another immortal in the vicinity, their spiritual power pushed you to ascend into being a God. Congratulations, Your Highness. You are now the God under resentful beings. Most especially, God of Demonic Cultivation. While you have both energies, spiritual and resentful alike, the resentful energy inside your body dominated and becomes your main power. Your main domain is the South, particularly the Yiling area.” \n\n\n \n\n\n\nOkay, what? \n\n“I’m a God?” \n\nHow could I be a God?\n\n He is currently in a place - \n\na palace?\n\n - full of black and red decorations. The outlines of the pillars are in silver. The walls are painted in black. There are paintings on the wall with silver and red colors. The furniture, such as the couch and bed are in black and red colors. Oh, and he is currently lying on the said bed. All in all, the palace is a beauty. Truly of Wei Wuxian’s style.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Yes, Your Highness.”\n\n\n \n\n\nWei Wuxian was left dumbfounded. He intended to die, thank you very much, and not to ascend into some kind of Godhood. He was about to facepalm when he realized something. “Wait, wait. Who are you? I’ve never met any Ren Jiayi before.” \n\n\n \n\n\nRen Jiayi smirked. “I am the Burial Mounds, of course, Your Highness. I manifested into a real body after you destroyed the seal and ascended.”\n\n\n \n\n\nWei Wuxian blinked, “Burial Mounds? Wow, then your name means “auspicious one”, quite the opposite of you, no?” He taunted Ren Jiayi, not because he wanted to create a fight with them. He is just bored.\n\n\n \n\n\nRen Jiayi smiled dangerously, “I do not know what Your Highness is talking about.”\n\n\n \n\n\nClearly, Wei Wuxian should watch his mouth. The temperature seemed to lower as Wei Wuxian shivered. When he shivered, he felt something.\n\n\n \n\n\nWarmth.\n\n\n \n\n\n“How could I have a golden core?!” As far as Wei Wuxian knows, he has none and will never feel the warmth of a core again. But as he examined the core further, it felt akin to a golden core, \n\nbut no golden core should feel warm and cold at the same time.\n\n\n\n \n\n\nRen Jiayi straightened, “It is true that Your Highness has a core again, but it is not golden.”\n\n\n \n\n\n“It is a silver core.” A voice called out.\n\n\n \n\n\nA very familiar voice.\n\n\n \n\n\n\nWen Qing.\n\n\n\n \n\n\nHe gasped, “Wen Qing!”\n\n\n "}
+{"text": "\n“Come with me.” Ava does not wait for Sara’s reply, she just simply turns around and starts walking. If Sara wants to be one of her soldiers, she will follow the command instead of waiting for her general to explain herself.\n\n\n\n“Where are we going?” Ava shakes her head mentally — at least Sara is following her while questioning her orders.\n\n\n\n“If you’re going to be one of my soldiers, I need to assess your fighting skills.” Ava glances over her shoulder, watching as realization dawns on Sara’s face.\n\n\n\n“Okay,” she nods, walking easily next to Ava, “but we need to make a quick stop by my tent first.”\n\n\n\n“What do we need from your tent?” Ava asks, stopping and turning around to face her. Sara continues walking but turns around so she is looking at Ava as she does so, making Ava have to follow her.\n\n\n\n“You’ll see,” she says, arching an eyebrow.\n\n\n\nAva sighs but follows her the whole way to her tent.\n\n\n\n“Alright, what is it that is so important that you had to go get it?” Ava asks once they’re there.\n\n\n\n“This,” Sara says, picking up the walking stick she had not used since she went with Charlie.\n\n\n\n“What are you going to do with that? I thought your leg was healed.” If there is worry in Ava’s voice, it is only because Sara is her responsibility now.\n\n\n\n“It is. I need it to fight.” Sara shrugs, twirling the staff around in her hands. Ava is certain she is going to hit something in the small space, but somehow she manages to avoid it. “Now, are we going or what?” Sara asks, backing out of the tent’s opening.\n\n\n\nAva sighs, once more starting on a path to the training grounds.\n\n\n \n\n\nOnce they make it to the training grounds, Ava gestures for Sara to walk up to a dummy. Sara frowns, following the order but looking at Ava curiously.\n\n\n\n“Show me what you can do,” Ava says, nodding at the training dummy.\n\n\n\nSara narrows her eyes, burying the end of her staff in the dirt. “Nuh-uh,” she says, crossing her arms around the staff. Ava definitely does not think she looks cute like that.\n\n\n\n“Excuse me?” she says, taking a step towards Sara, hands fisted behind her back.\n\n\n\nSara meets her gaze, an innocent expression in her eyes. “You promised that once my leg was good, you’d spar with me.” She raises an eyebrow, looking expectantly at Ava.\n\n\n\nAva takes a deep breath, the fondness that has grown for Sara over the last couple of weeks warring with the fact that she is now under Ava’s command. “And I will, once you show me that you’re well enough for it.”\n\n\n\n“You’re just scared I’ll beat you, \n\nGeneral\n\n.” As she speaks, Sara uncrosses her arms, once more grabbing her staff as she determinedly walks towards Ava, stopping just a step away from her.\n\n\n\nAva feels her nails dig into her palm as she stares into Sara’s defiant gaze. She should order Sara to do as told or even take a break, telling Sara that she has no time for this and will come back later. Instead, her gaze drifts to the weapons rack, her fingers itching to hold one of the weapons on display.\n\n\n\n“Fine, but don’t blame me if you find yourself on the ground.”\n\n\n\n“We’ll see who ends up where.” Ava can hear the smirk in Sara’s voice as she walks over to fetch a training sword.\n\n\n \n\n\nAva tightens her hold on her sword, watching Sara with inquisitive eyes. She wants to make sure she does not go too hard, especially when all Sara has to defend herself with is a wooden stick, so she waits for Sara to make the first move. Sara tilts her head, watching Ava as she twirls her staff in one hand. \n\n\n\nSara’s tongue pokes out as she continues to observe her, and the moment Ava’s attention is drawn to it, Sara advances, moving to strike Ava with her staff. Ava barely registers it in time to raise her sword to deflect it, her body moving on instinct.\n\n\n\nSara pulls back, raising her staff in the air to block Ava’s responding blow. Despite the blade’s bluntness, it makes a chip in the wooden staff. Sara turns the staff around in her hands, trying to use it to her advantage, but Ava just manages to pull the blade back to herself before she can do it.\n\n\n\nBoth of them return to their starting positions then, watching for the other to make a move. Ava has to admit, Sara seems to know what she is doing with that staff, despite Ava’s low expectations of the makeshift weapon. Still, Ava decides to take it slow, not wanting to overwhelm her.\n\n\n\nAva waits for Sara to attack again but it appears Sara has no intention of initiating this time. She just simply watches Ava with a patience Ava did not know she had. Gripping her sword tightly, Ava advances, letting her sword arm move out of instinct. Sara dodges the blow quite skillfully, then tries to strike Ava’s legs with her staff. Ava just barely twirls out of its reach, stretching her sword out towards Sara only to keep some distance between them.\n\n\n\nDespite how little they have sparred, Ava can already say with certainty that Sara is superior to the average recruit.\n\n\n\n“I thought your father was a guard,” she says, curious as to how Sara gained her skill. Last she checked, most guards were not better than her soldiers.\n\n\n\n“I didn’t say he was the only one who trained me,” Sara smirks, her blue eyes sparkling in the sunlight.\n\n\n\nBefore Ava has a chance to respond to Sara’s vague answer, Sara charges her again with her staff raised, ready to strike.\n\n\n\nAva blocks the blow, then advances, delivering a flurry of blows to Sara’s defenses, wanting to see how much she can take. Sara stumbles back, blocking the attacks but letting herself be pushed back to the edge of the training grounds. \n\n\n\nWith one final swing of Ava’s sword, Sara’s foot catches on something, making her lose her balance. Ava instinctively reaches for her, worry taking over. Sara’s staff drops to the ground as she grabs onto Ava’s hand, but instead of letting Ava steady her, she pulls on it, bringing Ava down with her. \n\n\n\nAva drops the sword to the side so she can brace herself with her hand, burying it in the dirt before she can crush Sara with her body. She sighs out of momentary relief. \n\n\n\nThe relief does not last long. Sara’s face is almost innocent as she looks up at her with a grin - a stark contrast to the sharp blade Ava feels pressing against her side, just underneath her chainmail. Ava freezes, wondering where Sara even got a dagger considering her weapon of choice. \n\n\n\n“Well played,” she sighs, shaking her head at letting herself be played. \n\n\n\n“I have to admit, I didn’t think you’d be so easy to beat,” Sara says, arching a brow as she pulls the dagger away. \n\n\n\n“You’ll have to excuse me for not wanting my soldiers to get hurt if I can help it.” Ava feels Sara’s chest vibrate underneath her hand as Sara lets out a chuckle in response. The action makes Ava aware of where she had grabbed Sara — her hand gone for the closest thing at the moment, which happened to be Sara’s tunic — and that her hand is still on her, with one of Sara’s hands locked around her wrist. \n\n\n\nSara’s hand releases its hold, moving instead to push some stray hair that has escaped Ava’s bun out of her face. Ava cannot decide if her heart is beating impossibly fast or not at all as she catches her breath, eyes trained on Sara’s face. Sara lets her fingers linger on her cheek as she catches Ava’s gaze, eyes glistening with something Ava cannot place. \n\n\n\nHer eyes move lower on Ava’s face and her palm cups Ava’s cheek. Before Ava knows it, Sara lifts her head from the ground, hand holding Ava’s head in place. \n\n\n\nAva feels completely frozen, like she has forgotten how to move even the smallest muscle. Sara’s breath hits her lips and a voice in the back of her head is screaming for Ava to let go. \n\n\n\nSara’s lips are almost so close that Ava can feel them. Right before they can get close enough, Ava pulls her head away, rolling off of her. \n\n\n\n“I can’t,” she breathes, feeling like her entire body is on fire. \n\n\n\n“I’m sorry,” Sara says quickly, pushing herself up to her feet. \n\n\n\n“Sara, wait!” Ava calls, struggling to get herself up from the ground, but Sara is already running away, not even sparing Ava a glance. Ava lets herself fall back onto the ground, cursing everything that just happened. \n\n\n \n\n\nThe rest of the day, Sara avoids her. Ava sees her once, when the camp is called for supper, but the moment Sara lays eyes on her, she turns in another direction as if food is not on her agenda. And that is all she sees of her. Part of her swears Sara is better at being stealthy than Charlie, either that or she has simply found a spot Ava does not visit during her day to day.\n\n\n\nIn any case, Ava has not spoken to her since their sparring and… \n\nwhatever\n\n it was that happened at the end of it. Which should be fine. Ava has gone days without speaking to people in her camp and sometimes weeks without speaking to those she is closest to when either she or they are out on patrol. Not speaking to Sara is fine.\n\n\n\nExcept it isn’t.\n\n\n\nExcept there is something in Ava that \n\nneeds\n\n to know that they are okay. That what passed between them, what Ava stopped from happening, did not ruin the friendship they built over the past few weeks.\n\n\n\nWhich is absurd. Ava is the general of the Rebellion forces, she does not have time to care about making friends with her soldiers. She certainly should not \n\nneed\n\n anyone. \n\n\n\nAva sighs, letting tired legs carry her into the war tent to read over the last few reports for the night. She only finds a single sealed letter lying on the table. She quickly breaks the seal, weary eyes taking in the words. Her heart cries over what she reads.\n\n\n\nThe entire squadron she sent out just a few days ago, save a couple, died during an Empire siege. Ava crumples the paper in her hand, wanting nothing more than to bury her blade in Damien Darhk’s chest. Her mind immediately wanders to all the families she will have to write, all the families who will never see the member they sent off to war.\n\n\n\nShe puts the letter back down on the table, smoothing it out so she can see the names of the two still alive. All she can hope for now is their safe return.\n\n\n\nA yawn escapes her lips when she makes to stand up properly. The letters will have to wait until morning, she thinks, her body yearning for the comfort of her own tent. \n\n\n \n\n\nAva sheds her armor as soon as she reaches her tent, out of the view of her soldiers. She feels the strong pull of sleep and yet, there is something in her mind that will not allow it. Bringing a hand up to rub the back of her neck, her thoughts wander to the letter. Involuntarily, her mind pulls up a list of the dead with Sara’s name at the bottom.\n\n\n\nAva closes her eyes, dropping down on top of her blankets. She lets out a breath as she pulls her legs to her, gently resting her hands on her knees. The words from her trainer that taught her how to clear her head repeat in her mind, clear as the day they had been spoken to her. As she sits there, she slowly feels her worries seep away and she almost enters a trance-like state.\n\n\n\nA state she is ripped out of when there is a gentle burn on her leg. It does not hurt, but the unexpectedness of it is enough to make Ava let out a curse as she opens her eyes. She looks down at her leg, pushing away the fabric of her trousers to look underneath. She finds a small mark she has not seen before, a new scar having found its way onto her body.\n\n\n\nShe sighs, supposing she should not be surprised that her soulmate has gotten yet another scar. She traces the scar for a moment and her mind wanders to what her soulmate’s reaction is whenever \n\nshe\n\n gets a new scar.\n\n\n\nA yawn interrupts her thoughts and Ava decides to leave it for another day, the call of sleep too loud for her to do anything else.\n\n\n \n\n\n***\n\n\n \n\n\nA few more days pass and Ava talks to Sara all of two times, if the short words exchanged can even be called talking. When she gets a report from a nearby camp that needs reinforcements, Ava figures it is a good distraction from everything going on and makes up a squad to take with her there, instead of leaving it to one of her soldiers.\n\n\n\nAva thinks she spots a head of blonde hair watching as they leave camp, but that could just be wishful thinking as she only sees it for a second. She shakes her head, willing her thoughts to move on to something else. Sara has made it pretty clear that she does not want to spend time with her anymore and that is just fine with Ava.\n\n\n \n\n\n***\n\n\n \n\n\nWhen they arrive at the small Rebellion camp, multiple arrows are immediately pointed at them. Ava raises her fist both to signal for her squad to stop and to show the white canary symbol sewn into the wrist of her glove. Someone calls for the archers to stand down and opens the gate, ushering them through.\n\n\n\n“I apologize for the arrows, we cannot be too safe in these times,” the captain of the camp, a young woman, says.\n\n\n\n“There’s no need for apologies, you do what you have to to defend the camp,” Ava says, shaking the captain’s hand.\n\n\n\nThe captain nods. “I’m Captain Reese, at your service. You’re the reinforcements we asked for?”\n\n\n\n“Yes, we came here as soon as we got word.” Before Ava can say anything else, Amaya comes up to her side.\n\n\n\n“General, Captain,” she says, nodding at both of them. “I was wondering if I could gain free range to check on your wounded?” \n\n\n\nCaptain Reese just stares at them for a second, before she nods her head vigorously at Amaya. “We would be very grateful.”\n\n\n\nAmaya offers a nod and leaves them be.\n\n\n\n“You’re the, uh, general? Of the Rebellion?” Captain Reese asks, looking at Ava with wide eyes.\n\n\n\n“I am,” Ava says, straightening her back — despite it being impossibly straight from before — and offers Captain Reese a slight nod.\n\n\n\n“Oh God, I had my archers point arrows at the general,” she whispers, looking horrified.\n\n\n\n“I would have done the same in your place,” Ava assures her. “Please, tell me about why we’re needed here,” she says, hoping to bring Captain Reese’s thoughts away from the way they had been greeted.\n\n\n\n“Of course,” she says, clasping her hands. “If you would follow me.”\n\n\n \n\n\nThe cause of the camp's problems turns out to be a rivalling Empire camp only a few miles away. Before Ava and her soldiers arrived, the Rebellion camp had almost been defeated by the Empire soldiers. \n\n\n\nThey leave camp late the next day, aiming to arrive at the camp at nightfall for the best chance of the enemy not seeing their attack. Their group is not the biggest — a rather big part of Captain Reese's soldiers are out of commission due to the last attack. But with Ava and her soldiers, its big enough to pose a threat. And with the advantage of an ambush, they do not need the bulk of their forces to defeat the camp. Or so Ava hoped.\n\n\n\nThe battle is over much quicker than anyone thought it would be. Only a few soldiers are standing guard and none of them spot the group approaching in the darkness. The more stealthy soldiers take care of them quickly enough, and then Captain Reese leads the attack through the gates. To Ava, the attack is over in the blink of an eye. Most of the soldiers lay dead from trying to fight back and the survivors have been thrown in the dungeon.\n\n\n\nAva’s squad stays the following night, partaking in the camp’s small celebrations at still being alive. With Amaya’s help, most of the wounded look to be recovering, which only adds onto the reasons for celebrating. Ava thinks about excusing herself early, but finds the celebrations a good distraction to the current state of the land and her personal life.\n\n\n \n\n\n***\n\n\n \n\n\nBack at her own camp, Ava cannot be bothered to greet anyone but Gary before she makes her way as quickly as possible to her tent. It is not particularly late, but Ava is sweaty from the ride and the warm, sunny day, and is eager to get out of her armor and clothing.\n\n\n\nToo wrapped up in her thoughts, she does not notice anyone entering the tent until her name is spoken. Ava turns her head, pushing the tunic she just pulled off against her chest.\n\n\n\n“Sara,” she sighs, feeling something pull at the corner of her lips as her eyes take in Sara’s familiar face, her freckles even more adorable than usual in the low light of the tent.\n\n\n\n“Hey,” Sara says distractedly, eyes trained on Ava’s back. With a start, Ava realizes exactly what is on her back.\n\n\n\n“They’re not as bad as they look,” she says, imagining the scars she has ever only seen in mirrors. “Most of them aren’t even mine.” Ava mentally slaps herself, not knowing why she said that.\n\n\n\nSara nods slowly, moving her eyes from Ava’s back to her face. “Your soulmate…”\n\n\n\n“Yeah,” Ava confirms, even though Sara had not posed it as a question. She feels weird saying it, yet somehow lighter. She has never mentioned her soulmate or any of their scars to anyone before. Not a lot of people have seen them and those who have assume the scars to be her own.\n\n\n\n“It’s a lot, but I don’t mind them,” she says when Sara continues to just stay there. “I don’t know if I’ll ever meet them but at least every new scar means they’re still alive, which I guess counts for something.”\n\n\n\n“Right,” Sara says, looking off to the side of the tent. Ava takes the opportunity to fetch a clean tunic, quickly pulling it above her head. “I wanted to ask you something, just after the other day—”\n\n\n\n“You want to be reassigned?” Ava cannot help herself from asking the question, her heart sinking in her chest at the thought of Sara possibly leaving.\n\n\n\n“What? No!” Sara says, eyes going wide. Relief washes through Ava at her words. “I just wanted to ask if we’re okay. After what happened.” Sara looks so open and vulnerable and Ava’s heart melts at the sight.\n\n\n\n“Yeah,” she says softly, offering Sara smile. “Yeah, we’re okay.”\n\n\n\n“Good,” Sara says, releasing a long breath. “I will let you get back to whatever you were doing before I intruded.”\n\n\n\n“See you tomorrow?” Ava says hopefully.\n\n\n\n“See you tomorrow,” Sara confirms before leaving.\n\n\n\nAva cannot help a big smile as she watches the space Sara had previously occupied, a warm feeling spreading through her.\n"}
+{"text": "\nDraco knew he had to change his game. Hermione was treading on dangerous territory despite his warnings. She was a far too precious gem, and he didn’t want her to get caught in the middle of the crossfire. No. Fucking. Way.\n\n\n\nHer surprise appearance at St. Mungo’s confirmed his belief; she was stubborn as hell and was not letting it go. He needed a higher power to make her ditch his case,  this higher power being a man he wasn’t so fond of, Harry Potter.\n\n\n\nHiding his blond hair under a hoodie, he kept his head low while walking through the hallway of the second floor towards his destination: the Magical Law Enforcement, more precisely the office of the Head Auror. He knocked softly, and the voice he hadn’t heard in a while gave him the permission he needed.\n\n\n\nHe entered the room, sat in the chair appointed by an absent minded hand and waited. The dark-haired wizard looked up and slack-jawed, “Bite my arse, no one has seen you for ages, and you decide to make your first appearance in my office. To what do I owe the honour?”\n\n\n\n“Potter, I’m not here to trade pleasantries. I’m here for more urgent matters, issues you are more than likely aware of.”\n\n\n\n“Hermione.”\n\n\n\n“Granger, indeed. You need to get her off my back.”\n\n\n\n“Malfoy, I sound like a broken record by now. Have you any idea how many times I have told her to back off?”\n\n\n\n“She’s stubborn.” He smiled softly, surprising the wizard on his opposite side the most. \n\nAm I on drugs? Malfoy talks warmly about Hermione? The wonders of the world are not yet out… \n\n“Malfoy, I will not repeat this in her face, but you are spot on. When she’s into something, she’s unstoppable.”\n\n\n\n“This time it could cost her life. I’m not a magnet for good luck these days.”\n\n\n\n“Why do you care? She’s a mudblood.” \n\nSee how Malfoy answers now, the answer will be determining. If I might help this man or not, depends on how he describes Hermione.\n\n\n\n\n“Be careful and don’t repeat that foul name in my presence again. Blood prejudice is an issue I wholeheartedly hate, definitely if it's about your friend. I’m alive because of her; my arse was saved from a stay at Azkaban thanks to her. Not something I’ll forget easily.” Draco spoke resolute, never faltering a word. “And she could have kicked me out of her house, and no one would have blamed her. Instead, she got me on my both feet again.” He unzipped his hoodie halfway, “Her stubbornness could kill her. Make her see reason.”\n\n\n\n“Malfoy, what do you think I have been saying to her the past days? All that I’ve said has fallen on deaf ears. Instead, she has paid visits to your friends-”\n\n\n\n“Yes, I know, Blaise, Pansy and Theo-”\n\n\n\n“Claiming to want to organise a school reunion!”\n\n\n\nDraco chuckled and shook his head, “The idea alone…She’s resourceful at least.”\n\n\n\nHarry had trouble comparing the man staring at him with the boy he used to know, \n\nwho are you and what have you done with the git?\n\n \"That's my Hermione.\" His amused face became a serious one, \"Let me present an alternative, tell me what the hell is going on with you so that I can help you decently. Then you and Hermione can pursue whatever this is between the two of you.\"\n\n\n\n“Nothing is going on between her and I.”\n\n\n\n“Yes, and my name is Mickey Mouse.” Harry was not to be fooled, “Be honest with me and allow me to help you. I want us to set aside old grudges and misplaced pride feelings. From what I know, you were attacked in the neighbourhood of Knockturn Alley.” The blonde nodded, “Malfoy, did you recognise who attacked you?”\n\n\n\n“Hermione spoke of a Gibbons.”\n\n\n\nHarry flexed both hands, one over the other in a squeezing gesture, “Sometimes I would like to squeeze her neck.” Realising to whom he just confessed, Harry blushed, “Don’t you ever tell her I said that.” He lifted his spectacles to rub a hand over his face, “Gibbons, the former Death Eater. Theodore is convinced your father bought his freedom, according to Hermione.”\n\n\n\n“He didn’t, and you know it as well as I do. The thing is, when people are convinced otherwise it's hard to make them change their mind. I'm laying low, keeping to myself. I'm ashamed of what I did and said, of the man I was forced to be. I try to contribute where possible, as far as people allow me to go. To a certain extent, I'm content with the life I lead; I don't miss the jet set world for one bit.\" Harry listened intently; if he weren’t already convinced of Malfoy’s change of heart, then he would be now. This was a different human being than the spoiled brat he knew; this man was one Harry wanted to befriend. \n\nI’m no longer surprised about Hermione’s behaviour.\n\n\n\n\nDraco continued, looking off into the distance, “You would think that after ten years, people would let go, move on… Accept the past and focus on the future.”\n\n\n\n“How do you see your future Draco?” Addressing the blond by his given name, was a deliberate decision. Hopefully, the wizard would understand the hidden hint.\n\n\n\n“As it is right now? Me ending in a body bag; preferably not in the company of your stubborn witch.”\n\n\n\nHarry rose an eyebrow, “That’s pretty dark, why struggle? Why not ask for help? You still have friends.”\n\n\n\n“And bring my problems to their front door? Drag them down the pit with me? I know Blaise wants to help. I’m the one preventing him from doing it. And I’m trying to do the same with Hermione, alas with no success. That’s the sole reason why I’m here. You have to stop her.” He was at the end of his rope.\n\n\n\n“Draco, listen. There’s nothing I’d like more, but she doesn’t listen. And I’m starting to understand why Malfoy. I do.” Sigh, “Let’s get things straight, aside from this old grudge from Theodore, you have no idea why you’re being targeted?”\n\n\n\n“No.”\n\n\n\n“Have you seen anyone else besides this Gibbons?”\n\n\n\n“I didn’t even recognise the man, Potter.” Throwing his arms in the air; “They attacked me from behind, the cowards. But, nothing new here, Death Eaters attack in packs because alone they are chicken-shit scared.”\n\n\n\n“Draco,” Harry’s eyes bored into the blonds, “I’m getting to the bottom of this. Mainly to avoid that Hermione gets hurt and secondly, I believe you have paid your dues. It’s time you can return to a normal life.”\n\n\n\n“What will you do with Hermione?”\n\n\n\n\"Work with her; it's the only way I can keep an eye on the witch. Sometimes she's too smart for her own good.\" Both men smirked.\n\n\n\nDraco took a piece of parchment and a quill, and wrote a series of numbers on it and slid it to Harry, “This is my mobile; owls won’t find me.” The blond left shortly after, though with another point of view about his old school nemesis. \n\nPotter deserves his promotion; he allows common sense to prevail above old resentments.\n\n The wizard pondered of his youth, regretting once more his stance as a spoiled brat. \n\nWe can’t change the past, only the future.\n\n\n\n\n\nDid he have a future?\n\n He wondered, \n\nHas Potter given me his blessing to pursue Hermione?\n\n The man had used his given name a few time, though Draco wasn’t yet ready to change his way of addressing the man himself, \n\nShould I fight back for her? Am I strong enough?\n\n\n\n\n-oOo-\n\n\n\nHermione was making plans \n\nif he\n\n…\n\n correct this lady; it's not if, it's a when, when he arrives tonight, I'll know. I'm done with sleeping next to a charming prince and being unaware of it.\n\n Charming prince… “Have I called Draco a charming prince just now? He’s a spoiled brat, yes. A very sexy spoiled git. Oh hell, what’s happening to me?”\n\n\n\nShe modified her wards to the point they would wake her up, upon his entry. As a nightgown, she chose a sexy laced thing she bought at Victoria’s Secret, during a well-deserved shopping day at Muggle London. It was a see-through; \n\nHe has seen the merchandise already. See if he’ll only look and not touch, he he.\n\n\n\n\nAdjusting her cushions to sit comfortably on her bed, she set her notepad and a self-inking quill on her lap and wrote all she had:\n\n\n\nOne: Theo has connections to the Carrow family, Rowle and Rookwood.\n\n\n\nTwo: Rookwood knows Gibbons attacked Malfoy.\n\n\n\nThree: How does Rookwood know?\n\n\n\nFour: Reason? Only because the Malfoy’s aren’t in Azkaban?\n\n\n\nShe ticked the point of her quill against her lip, “How gullible does this sound?” She talked aloud, “Here we are ten years later, and wounds haven’t disappeared but become dull instead. I still miss Fred but the pain doesn’t consume me anymore, Molly has adjusted too. Live and let live, move on.” Her arms made wide gestures, to accentuate her thoughts, “No person at Azkaban is there innocently, those who are still there have no right to a free life. They are condemned for their actions during the war, not because they said a ‘fuck you’ against a Minister.”\n\n\n\nShe pondered in silence for a few minutes, “Maybe to catch a mouse I need a meaner cat. Who’s the big baddie, who also has extensive knowledge of the underworld and probably will do whatever needed to save his son?” Mentally she added to her tomorrow’s to-do-list: visit Malfoy Sr. \n\n\n\n-oOo-\n\n\n\nThe chirping of  birds woke her the next morning. While the slumber dissipated, her brain made a few assessments. \n\nHe didn’t show up, the git. And a notepad is not a fluffy pillow. And I have to satisfy my brain with the required dose of caffeine first and appease the growling beast on my stomach before I can move on to my first to-do-task.\n\n\n\n\nHarry’s owl ticked at her window and offered her paw, pecking at Hermione’s had until she received the wished treat as a thank you. The witch smiled, at the typical behaviour and opened the note. She pencilled her answer quickly and attached the letter back on the owl watching it fly away into the sky.\n\n\n\nHarry wanted to speak to her, \n\nprobably to annoy her again and coerce her into stopping her mouse chase. He should know better by now.\n\n But her first task of the day was, visit the house of hell, aka Malfoy Manor.\n"}
+{"text": "(This picks up, right where the first part of the story left off...)\n\nShe left me there as she had before: naked, my cock stiff, my heart pounding and my head crazy with wanting, and again she left the curtain open a bit, leaving me exposed if any passer-by happened to look back into the stall. This time I tried to calm myself, tried to stay nonchalant, and vowed not to make eye contact if someone did seem to notice me. That wasn't so easy, when I realized a pair of women strolling arm in arm had stopped and were whispering, looking at me, laughing. I pretended not to notice, but my cock, which had just started to calm down was having none of it, and grew again, stiffened right up, wanting all the attention it could get.\n\nDasha came back then, with several pairs of pants, some shirts, and a bright smile. She gave a little laugh and kind of tossed her head, her long red hair flowing and her breasts swaying lightly under her light dress.\n\n\"These should all fit,\" she said. \"Try them on, see what you like.\"\n\nThey were all very good quality, nice linen, the pants thicker material than the shirts. She watched me, commenting, and apparently had good taste. I liked it all, and told her so,\n\n\"Wear what you want, and I will wrap up the rest,\" she said.\n\n\"All of it?\"\n\n\"You need clothes, don't you? You can't wear that ridiculous stuff you had on before,\" she said. \"These look good. Wear them. I will fold these up for you. Come along.\"\n\nI came out with her, and saw that the two women were still there, shamelessly watching me, laughing. Again I tried to pretend to not notice them, and really, my head was full of Dasha. I couldn't imagine that she was done with me, and I knew I wanted to put myself in her hands. I felt almost scared, certainly shy, but I had to say something.\n\n\"Can I ... can we ... see each other?\"\n\n\"Silly boy, of course,\" she said, her voice low, soft.\n\n\"Today?\"\n\n\"You're so eager for me to play with you?\"\n\nI nodded.\n\n\"You're not afraid I might - hurt you?\"\n\n\"I don't think you're mean, Dasha,\" I said.\n\nShe looked in my eyes a moment, and then nodded.\n\n\"I'm pleased you think that way,\" she said. \"We can meet this evening, in the garden across the street, at the statue of Pushkin. You know Pushkin?\"\n\n\"Of course,\" I said.\n\n\"Of course,\" she echoed. Then she gave me the other clothes in a bag, and when I asked her how much it all was, she laughed and shook her head. \"I don't want any money from you. That would not feel right. These are yours, from me.\"\n\nIf there ever would have been any doubt in my head about seeing her again, that would have knocked it out. But there hadn't been.\n\nI spent the day walking the city, wandering, looking. The beauty of Russian women has become almost a cliche, but in those days, when the Cold War had just ended and few had seen inside the Soviet Union, it was still a wonderful surprise. I felt like I'd never seen so many beautiful women, long hair, long legs, grace. And of course I was already excited, from what Dasha had done with me, and the expectation, the anticipation that she would play with me more. It didn't hurt that girls and women noticed me, my long hair stood out, and my penis wouldn't quite settle down - and sometimes that was noticed, too.\n\nKnowing we were going to meet at a statue of Pushkin, I thought I should get something by him, and at a little antiquarian bookstore I found a copy of his poems and of his novel in verse, and bought them both. I was looking at the beginning of the novel, sitting on a bench facing the statue, when I heard footsteps, and looked up to see Dasha.\n\nThe grace of her movements astonished me. She was casual, calm, almost careless as she walked, her long read hair swaying down her back, her strong leg flashing out of the dress that fell just past her knees, the golden freckles across her broad face. I forgot every other woman I had seen and lost myself in her.\n\nShe took my arm and we started to walk in the garden. It was quiet, evening, the sun gold over the trees, lighting the pink, green and yellow houses around. She asked me about my day, what I had done, and seemed pleased that I had merely wandered, explored.\n\n\"My husband loved to walk the city, even though he lived here all his life,\" she said, and she held my arm tighter a moment. \"I hope you don't mind me talking about him. It's just - he was just about your age when he died, and you look so much like him, and - maybe I got carried away today, but - he let me play with him like that, he would let me do things - he knew that letting me have control didn't mean he was weak. He knew it was the ultimate bravery to surrender yourself to another.\"\n\nShe was close against me. I could smell the warmth of her body, feel her muscles as she walked, and her words filled my head.\n\n\"He sounds like a very smart man,\" I said, my voice catching in my throat as I felt my cock stiffening.\n\n\"You feel that too, don't you,\" she said. \"That's what this is, isn't it?\"\n\nHer left hand came across her body and pressed against my hard-on, closed half around it.\n\nI couldn't deny it, and didn't want to. I knew what I wanted.\n\nShe nodded at a bench at a curve in the path. There was no one else around, evening coming on. The city was strangely quiet, even at midday, back then.\n\n\"Let's sit down,\" she said.\n\nWhen we did, she stretched her legs out straight in in front of her. I followed their line out to her feet, slender in light canvas sneakers, and I thought of how she did nothing fancy, and yet had captivated me from the moment we started talking.\n\n\"My feet get sore, standing all day,\" she said softly.\n\n\"You should put them up, let them rest,\" I said.\n\nShe turn on the bench and moved a little away from me, as she did placing her feet lightly in my lap.\n\n\"Is this what you mean?\" she asked.\n\nI nodded and put my hands on them.\n\n\"May I?\" I asked.\n\nShe shrugged, her smile turned to teasing. I slipped one sneaker off, then the other, and started to massage her right foot. Her toes were long, slender like her foot, her legs, and her feet were somehow both strong and delicate, with high arches. As I massaged, I turned to face her more. She let me take her right foot, but brought her left into my lap, and pressed it against my cock.\n\n\"Take it out, Dean,\" she said.\n\n\"What if someone...\" I looked around.\n\n\"You can cover it, if someone comes,\" she said. \"Take it out.\"\n\nI gently put her foot down, and nearly tore open the fly of my pants, letting my hard-on stand up. As good as the fresh air felt on my exposed cock, when she pushed her foot against it, grabbing it just under the head between her toes, that felt even better. And when I lifted her foot again, without thinking, without pausing, I brought it to my face, to my lips, and began to kiss her sole. My eyes were closed, but I heard her sigh and laugh, heard her say tenderly, \"Oh my, you sweet boy. My feet are dirty, you know.\"\n\nYes, her foot tasted of salt, of sweat, and I could feel little grains of sand or dirt, I don't know what, but I kept kissing her sole, up to her toes, and I licked between them, sucked them into my mouth, kissed them, all the while feeling her rubbing my shaft with her other foot. I had opened my eyes, watched her watching me, her smile nearly laughing, her eyes dancing.\n\nShe squeezed my cock between her big and middle toes, surprisingly strong, and pressed with her heel against my balls, the pressure right at the place between pain and ecstasy. As she released, a gush of precum came up, and then another. As I kissed my way to the arch of her right foot, she rubbed her left up my shaft, then took her right foot away from my lips and gave me her left, which was wet with my goo.\n\nI sucked at it, licked it up, tasting the tang of my own juice with her salty, sweaty feet, felt the joy of her watching me do it.\n\n\"Do you like that?\" she asked. \"Do you like kissing my feet, Dean?\"\n\n\"My god I do,\" I murmured into her sole.\n\n\"You don't mind that someone's watching you? A woman on her balcony - don't look - she's enjoying the evening, enjoying you pleasing me. You don't want to make her self-conscious.\"\n\n\"She can watch,\" I said. \"I - I'm not ashamed of kissing your feet. I don't care who knows.\"\n\nShe moved her foot away from my hard-on, giving it a last little kick as she pulled it away.\n\n\"Stroke yourself, Dean,\" she said softly. \"Show her how much you love my foot against your lips.\"\n\nI didn't hesitate. I grabbed my cock and started stroking it, holding her foot to my lips with my other hand, kissing her.\n\n\"What must she think of you? A grown man, jerking off while he kisses a woman's foot, her toes. And you're not ashamed at all? Embarrassed? What if you meet her, if she recognizes you - someone you work with - a student. With your long hair, she would know you right away, on the street, with her friends - would she tell them? Would they come to you, tease you-\"\n\nI kept on stroking myself, trying to control myself but slowly going faster and faster, her voice in my head building everything up until I felt on the verge of cumming, of shooting out everything - but she must have felt it. She pulled her foot away, grabbed my arm and pulled my hand off my cock.\n\n\"No, Dean,\" she said. \"Not now. Not yet. Not here. That's for later. Come home with me, we'll have some dinner. You can meet my sister.\"\n\nMy heart was pounding, I was almost out of my mind. My cock was twitching, so close I could feel it, feel it wanting to burst out. I felt my face burning.\n\nShe slipped her feet into her light sneakers, stop up and took my hands, brought me up, too, before I had even put myself away. I was afraid to touch it, feeling just my fingers on it could set me off. Again I looked in her face, the fine lines at the corners of her gray eyes, her wide smiling mouth, her straight red hair, bold as she herself.\n\n\"Put it away and we'll go home,\" she said.\n\nI gently got it inside, closed up my fly. Then I saw the woman, youngish, blonde like so many here, leaning on the railing of her balcony over the garden.\n\n\"Don't worry, Dean,\" Dasha said. \"She wouldn't have watched if she didn't like what she saw. I'm sure she'll think about you a lot now.\"\n\nAnd with that, we started out of the garden, to her home.\n\n"}
+{"text": "Martin wakes up to the familiar sensation of hair sticking to his mouth and a sharp knee digging into his hip. It’s not remotely comfortable, but even groggy with sleep it brings an immediate smile to his face. Of all the little things he’s come to be comfortably accustomed to, his boyfriend twining around him without fail every night like some kind of heat-seeking vine is one of the most endearing. \n\nHe can’t check the time - his mobility is a tad compromised at the moment - but the strength of the sun streaming through the window tells him enough. He nuzzles into the sleep-tangled mess of hair in front of him. \n\n“Jon.” \n\nThere’s a beat, followed by an unnatural stillness. \n\nMartin huffs out a quiet laugh and kisses the top of Jon’s head. “I know you’re awake. We have to get up.” \n\nThe vine clings just a little bit tighter. \n\n “I know, but we’re going to see the flat at eleven, and then we told Georgie and Melanie we’d-”\n\nHe finds himself abruptly freed as Jon shoves away and flops over with a pained groan, dragging a pillow over his face.\n\n“Can I have one day where I don’t have to interact with Melanie King?” comes the muffled complaint. \n\nMartin rolls his eyes as he pushes himself into a sitting position. “You haven’t seen her in over a week.” He stifles a yawn and reaches for his phone. \n\n“My previous record was a year.” \n\n“You know, everyone knows you’re both just playing it up for the drama, at this point. You get along fine. I mean for you guys.” Martin yanks the pillow off of Jon’s face and tosses it aside. “Come  on, it’s already after nine.” \n\nThe look Jon gives him is nothing short of petulant. Martin snorts. Then he dips down to kiss his forehead before finally sliding out of bed. \n\n“Well,  I’m  going to go shower. Love you.” He pauses halfway to the door, waiting.  “...I love you.”  \n\nAn exasperated, drawn-out sigh and a warm, if grumbled, “...I love you, too” are eventually forthcoming, and Martin grins to himself. That’s been pretty nice to get used to, too. He goes to grab a fresh towel and lays one out for Jon while he’s at it. The fluffy yellow one.\n\nWhen he comes back to the bedroom a short while later, Jon is propped up against the headboard, texting. \n\nMartin moves around the room, collecting his clothes for the day. “Who’s that?” \n\nJon glances up at him before returning his eyes to the phone. He types out something and then sets it down on the nightstand. “Sasha. She’s found a new lead on the circus. At least she’s fairly certain.” He slings his legs over the side of the bed and finally gets up, stretching. \n\n“Oh.” Martin pauses, one leg in his trousers. “Should we- do you need to go in..?” \n\n“I-” Jon grimaces. “No. I asked, and she has a handle on it for now. Besides, she’s working from home. She forwarded me what she found.” \n\n“If you’re sure.” Martin resumes getting dressed, watching Jon as he lays out his own clothes. It’s bothering him, Martin can tell; not going. But ever since they found out exactly what the institute  is,  they’ve been trying to make sure no one spends any more time there than strictly necessary. Doing what they need to do - right now, learning what they can about the Stranger - but staying connected to their lives outside.  Making lives outside. \n\nIt’s not perfect, and Martin hates every day that any one of them is stuck there, but it’s the best solution they’ve got for now. And it helps.  \n\nHe fixes them both a quick breakfast while Jon showers, relieved to see that he comes out looking less distressed. They chat quietly about other things while they eat and Martin texts Georgie to confirm the time, and then they’re on their way. \n\n“Good sized kitchen,” Martin points out. It’s easily twice the size of the one in their flat, with spacious countertops and a double sink. Jon has taken up cooking recreationally in the past few months - in the name of getting a hobby, at Martin’s and Georgie’s insistence, anything at all not related to work. They’ve both found that he’s really quite good at it, and finds it cathartic, besides. \n\nPlus, it gets him to eat regularly without any extra trouble on Martin’s part, so it’s a win on all sides. \n\nHe wanders in after Martin, looking around. He nods, looking faintly pleased, but his mind is clearly elsewhere. \n\nMartin frowns and takes an instinctive step towards him. “Everything alright?” \n\n“Hm?” Jon blinks at him. “Oh. Oh, yes, just-” He averts his eyes, suddenly looking a bit sheepish. “I, er, I asked if they allow pets here. They do. Small ones.” \n\nIt takes Martin a second, but then his frown instantly morphs into a wide grin. “Are you asking me if we can get a cat?” \n\nNow Jon definitely looks sheepish. He stares at the smooth countertop with studied concentration. Traces his fingers along the edge of it. “It’s not like we haven’t discussed it before. And- I know you get to spend a lot of time with the Admiral, since you started working more with Georgie-” \n\n“Yes.” \n\nThis gets Jon to look up. He narrows his eyes. “Yes..?”\n\n“Yes, Jon, we’ll get a cat,” Martin laughs. “It’ll be nice to have the extra company.”  And I think it would be good for you, he doesn’t say. \n\n“Oh.” Jon smiles - one of those rare, bright, full smiles that Martin is still trying to find new ways to draw from him. He mentally files away ‘cats’ on his growing list. And then Jon quickly bites it back and stuffs his hands in his pockets, looking past Martin and out into the dining room. \n\n“Good. I mean, I’m glad you’re on board. I think it- it could help.” He clears his throat. “So, this seems like a nice one. Ready to sign?”\n\nMartin lets out a startled laugh. “We haven’t seen it all!” \n\nJon huffs irritably. He waves his hand vaguely at their surroundings. “It has a kitchen, an office for you, and enough room for our cat.” \n\n“All the essentials.” Martin rolls his eyes. “Still, I’d like to at least check out the water pressure.” \n\n“Right. Of course you would.”\n\n“What’s that even supposed to  mean,  Jon?” \n\nJon levels him with a flat look as they leave the kitchen. “You are the pickiest man I’ve ever seen about your showers.” \n\nMartin scoffs, half indignant, half amused, but refrains from taking this any further. If only for the sake of the poor lady showing them around. \n\nHalf an hour later he’s sat next to Jon on the tube on their way to Georgie’s new studio. \n\nIn the wake of learning about- well, everything, he and Melanie had decided they no longer had the stomach for in-person supernatural encounters, and so Melanie had handed over control of the channel to Andy and defected to Georgie’s podcast. They’re currently working on getting her own show running, and talking about taking on other projects. Georgie has taken Martin on as a regular guest, as well. \n\nToday, she and Melanie are getting everything moved into the new space, and since Martin is off work - he’d also picked up a job at a bakery that opened recently - they’re going over to help out. \n\nJon is quiet and preoccupied next to him, and Martin takes the opportunity to study him. He watches him first read the email Sasha had sent him, and then settle back against his seat and gaze absently down the aisle. He looks- relaxed. Tired, careworn, but genuinely alright, all things considered. On impulse, Martin reaches out to take his hand. Jon startles and looks up, takes in Martin’s smile, and offers a small one of his own before lacing their fingers together.\n\nGeorgie is just getting back with an arm-full of donuts and coffee - one iced, extra sweet, extra un-coffee-like for Jon, as always - when they arrive at the studio. \n\nJon reaches for his drink, and she makes a scolding noise and steps back out of his reach, regarding both of them critically. \n\n“And just where have you two been?” \n\n“Sorry.” Jon tosses a sharp look at Martin.  “Someone  wanted to check the water pressure in the new flat.” \n\nMartin makes an offended sound next to him, and Georgie rolls her eyes. “The nerve of him, right?” She shoves the box of donuts into Jon’s arms and - much more politely, he notices - hands Martin the coffees. “Come on, tell me about it while we work.” \n\nMelanie is on a step ladder when they walk in, placing sound-proofing tiles. She twists around at the sound of the door opening and slumps against the wall. “Oh, thank god.” \n\nShe hops down from the ladder and makes a bee-line for Jon, taking the donuts from his arms and unceremoniously replacing them with a stack of foam tiles. “Here. You two be useful for a change. My back is killing me.” \n\n“We’re only fifteen minutes late,” Jon grumbles. \n\n“And I’ve been here working for forty-five,” Melanie snips back. \n\n“Remind me when we mutually decided that you’d-” \n\n “Children,”  Martin warns lightly. He takes half the tiles from Jon and makes his way over to where Melanie had left off. \n\n“Thank you, Martin,” Georgie calls over, long-suffering, from where she’s settled down on the floor to start unboxing equipment. “We cannot let those two get started.” To Jon and Melanie, “You know you’re just alike, right?” \n\n“What can I say?” Melanie says, offhand. “You have a type.” She opens the box of donuts. Jon snatches one before she can stop him - more out of petulance, he admits, than actually wanting one - and hurries over to join Martin. \n\n“So,” Georgie asks, “how was the flat?” \n\n“Really nice!” Martin answers, brightening. Jon smiles at the enthusiasm in his voice. “It’s clean, has plenty of room, the second bedroom is perfect for that office I’ve been needing.  Beautiful  kitchen for Jon.” \n\n“Great water pressure,” Jon adds, innocently enough. \n\n“Would you-” Martin swears as one of the tiles falls and smacks him in the face. Jon catches it and hands it back to him before resuming placing his own. “-behave? Just because you don’t care if your showers- Anyway,  we like it! We’ll be moving in as soon as Jon’s lease is up.” \n\n“About time,” Melanie says. She’s crouched down near Georgie and dragged another box over. “Now you guys can take a turn hosting game nights.” \n\n“We’ve  offered,” Jon points out, waspish. \n\n“Yeah, but no one wants to hang out in your dingy grandma flat all night. We’re trying to  keep everyone’s spirits up, remember?” \n\n “Melanie,” Georgie scolds, but Jon can hear the laughter in her voice. He regards her flatly before turning back to the wall. More seriously, she adds, “Congrats, you two. You’re getting your official first place together! It’s a big step.” \n\n“Yeah, actually,” Melanie agrees. “Hosting benefits aside, we’re happy for you guys.” \n\nMartin thanks her shyly, and Jon ducks his head and sets about lining up the next tile with determined precision. Warm contentment curls in his chest, and he can feel Martin’s eyes on him, followed by a gentle hand sliding across his back -- before it has to dart back up to catch another falling tile. \n\nAnd so they get back to work, chatting idly about the new flat and then the studio and then plans for future podcast episodes.\n\nJon doesn’t say much, content to just listen to the friendly chatter. And he is. Content, that is. More than that, he thinks, considering for a moment; he’s happy. \n\nIt might seem absurd, considering.\n\nHe’s  happy. There was a long time in his life when he truly didn’t think he’d get to have any of this. And then he got it, and almost as quickly thought he’d have to watch it all be ripped away again. \n\nBut here they are. It’s not perfect, but they’re all working through it. And they’re closer than ever. Not just him and Martin, but- everyone. Tim and Sasha and him. Georgie. Melanie. They’re doing what they can with the circumstances they have, and they’re supporting each other and keeping each other grounded and it’s- more than Jon ever hoped for or thought he  should hope for, even without supernatural circumstances. \n\nIt’s good. \n\n“Oh, sure,” Martin’s voice, bubbling with laughter, breaks into his thoughts. He’s talking to Georgie or Melanie, Jon didn’t hear. “Sure, let me just grab my phone and ring up all the  ghosts I know-” \n\nJon snorts, despite having lost track of the conversation a while ago. Martin beams down at him and it makes his chest tighten pleasantly.  \n\nEvery moment like this means more to Jon than he can put into words. Someday he should try. But for now he just accepts a bundle of wires from Martin and crouches down to begin untangling them while that warmth curls up through his ribcage again and settles there. \n\nSuddenly - or not, Jon’s lost track of things again - Melanie stands up. “Martin,” she says, “come help me with something upstairs?” \n\nJon looks up at hearing Martin addressed. Fixes his eyes on his face. Martin blinks and seems a bit taken aback. So it was sudden, then. But then he smiles and says, “Um, yeah, sure?” and turns to Jon. “Be back in a bit, I guess?” \n\n“Uh- right, alright.” Jon accepts his quick hug and watches them leave, brow furrowed. He turns to Georgie with a question on his lips, but she’s got her back to him, steadily working at getting their equipment set up on the table. \n\nHe stands up to go join her, pulling up a chair across from her. “So…”\n\n“So,” she agrees, not looking up. Not getting anything from her, then. He huffs in frustration and reaches for a box of- something. He’ll figure it out, he supposes. \n\nThey work together in companionable silence - a microphone, it turns out, that’s what he’d grabbed - until finally Georgie speaks up. \n\n“Hey,” she says. “How are you doing, Jon? Really?” \n\nJon glances up at her, then returns his attention to the mic he’s fitting together. “I’m- good..? I’m good, actually. It’s-” He presses his lips together, thinking. “It’s better. It’s not easy, but, it’s better. Martin makes sure of that,” he laughs. “And… you, and everyone else. It’s not easy, keeping things balanced. But it helps.” \n\n“Good.” After a beat, she reaches across and lays her hand on his forearm, giving it a quick squeeze. “I’m proud of you, Jon. I hope you know that. Not just for, you know. But everything else. I’m proud of you.”  \n\nThe plastic base he’d been fitting goes skittering across the table. “I- I, erm-” He quickly retrieves it, keeping his eyes down. He nods once, stiffly, and resumes his work. “...Thank you, Georgie. That means a lot.” He tries to pretend not to notice the sudden emotion clogging his voice, and knows she’ll be kind enough to do the same. \n\nHe’s just had enough time to swallow back the feelings and no small embarrassment threatening to undo him, when Georgie clears her throat. He looks up to find her giving him a pointed, curious look. It makes him uneasy.\n\n“On another note…” she begins, “...have you thought about it any more? The thing we talked about?” \n\n...Unease is quickly replaced with bafflement. He scrunches his face at her. “The thing we-” And then it hits him. “Oh.  Oh.” He instantly drops his eyes back to the table, fidgeting with the mic stand. “I- well, yes. Yes, I’ve thought about it.” He sets the mic aside and drags over the next box. \n\n“And?” She’s relentless. \n\n“And what?” Jon’s fingers stop their fidgeting in favor of tapping an agitated rhythm against the tabletop. “I’ve thought about it. ...And decided that it’s probably a bad idea, considering.” \n\n\n “Jonathan.”  \n\n\n “Georgina,”  he shoots back automatically. He raises his head again, fixing her with a serious look. “Look at us, Georgie- look at  me. Look at our lives. Not- not to mention it’s too soon. Everything else aside, it’s only been a year-” \n\n“Since you made it official,” Georgie points out. “We all know you were a thing long before that. And you  lived together  before  that. If you’re hung up on doing things ‘right’, I’d say that ship has sailed, Jon.” \n\n“That’s- fair,” Jon concedes, reluctant. “That’s fair. But the other things I mentioned-”\n\n“What about them?” \n\nWhen Jon raises an eyebrow at her, she amends, “Okay, I know it’s not something to just brush off. And that’s not what I’m trying to do, sorry.” She gives him a soft smile. “And I hope to god you guys find a way out of this mess. But for now, don’t hold yourself back from the good in your life while you’re trying to sort out the bad.” \n\nJon regards her a long moment, then rubs at the back of his neck; a nervous habit he’d picked up from Martin. He drops his hand back to the table with a sigh. “...Do you really think it’s a good idea?” \n\nGeorgie doesn’t hesitate. “Do you love him?” \n\n“Of- of course. Yes.” He feels his cheeks warming traitorously. Even now, after all this time. \n\nShe nods, lips pursed. “And you really want this?” \n\n“I think we’ve established that, Georgie.” \n\n“And you think he’ll say yes?” \n\n“God, I hope-” he cuts himself off when he catches her smug look. “...Point taken,” he grumbles. “Fine. I’ll- I’m going to do it. Soon.” \n\n“Mhm.” Georgie stretches across the table for a loose adapter. Jon reaches it first and hands it to her. “I’m going to hold you to that. In your own time, of course. But it’s not  allowed to take another near-death experience, Jonathan, I  swear.”  She flicks a scrap of cardboard at him. \n\n“Hey.” He knocks the cardboard off his shirt with a huff. Shakes his head. “...Thanks, Georgie. For-” he gestures vaguely at her. “All of it. All the time.” \n\nShe grins at him. “Love you, Jon.” \n\n“You, too.” Then, desperate to change the subject, “You were, uh, talking about a new segment on the show..?”\n\nShe gives him a knowing look, but goes along with it. “Yeah, Martin helped come up with it, actually--” \n\n“So, what’s new with you?” Melanie asks once they’re upstairs. She’d brought Martin up here to help rearrange the room, apparently? Table off to the side, filing cabinet moved to the other, that old desk sat by the door and ready for Georgie’s friend to come and pick it up. \n\nMartin laughs. “Melanie, we talk almost every day.” \n\n“About boring stuff,” she says, waving him off. “Here, get the other side.” She grabs onto the end of the table, and he moves to the other. “I want to know the good stuff. Life-changing plans. That sort of thing.” \n\n“Um. Well.” Martin lifts the table on her count, and they carry it across the room and carefully set it down. “I don’t know, um, I’ve told you I’m going to uni next fall?.. If all goes well, I mean.” \n\nMelanie nods as she crouches down to get a grip on a filing cabinet. “Right, good. What else?” \n\n“Can I ask why I’m being interrogated?” Martin grabs the other side and they lift. He grunts in surprise; it’s a lot heavier than he’d expected. \n\n“Excuse me-  Jesus, what’s in here, bricks?  - for wanting to know about my best friend’s life.” \n\nMartin scoffs at that. “Best friend? Really?”\n\n“Well, technically Georgie’s my best friend, yeah,” she amends. “But she’s got the girlfriend title now, so you’re promoted to best friend. Congratulations.” \n\n“Good to know.” Martin rolls his eyes, but fondly. They get the cabinet moved and go for the desk. They’ve got it halfway across the room when Melanie continues:\n\n“So..? You didn’t answer my question. Anything else? Getting married any time soon-  shit, Martin-!”  \n\nThe desk slips with a violent crash, sending drawers flying open and loose papers cascading out across the floor. Martin freezes there, wide-eyed, face flaming. Then he flusters and springs into action, dropping to his knees and gathering up the spilled pages. \n\n“Sorry, sorry, but-  what? Why would you ask that?”  \n\nMelanie kneels next to him, inspecting the desk for damage and replacing the drawers. “Because you guys are stupidly in love and practically married already?” She straightens up, dusting off her knees. “Desk is fine. No thanks to you.” \n\nHe stands too, slipping the papers back into the top drawer. “Well, what do you expect, Melanie? Springing a question like-  that  onto somebody.” \n\nThey get the desk successfully moved, and Melanie perches on the edge of it. “Have you guys talked about it any..?” \n\n“Seriously?” Martin scrubs a hand over his still warm face. Props himself against the wall. “...Yeah? We have. A- a bit. In passing, like, not a serious sit-down conversation. But, erm, it’s something we both want, yeah.” He thinks. He  hopes.  \n\nHis heart feels like it’s going to beat out of his chest, at least in part from the crash, but also…\n\nMartin slips his hand reflexively into his pocket, fingers curling around the tiny box there. “Did, um,” he clears his throat. Fixes his face into something hopefully fairly neutral. “Did Jon say something, or..?” \n\n“Not to me, and if he’d said something to Georgie I’d probably know about it, so…” Melanie shrugs and hops off the desk. “But that’s good-”\n\n“I’m going to ask him,” Martin blurts out. \n\nHe notices Melanie still, then. She turns to him slowly, an odd expression on her face. “Ask him what, exactly..?”\n\n“What were we just talking about?” Martin deadpans. “To... to marry me.” He feels a little laugh rising in his throat. “I’m going to propose to Jon.” \n\nMelanie’s eyes go wide with something that looks like alarm. “Oh. Martin, I don’t-” She snaps her mouth shut.\n\nMartin frowns. “You were  just on me about marrying the guy-”\n\n“No, no, marry him, by all means.” Melanie waves her hands. “Just- you’re asking  him? You’re sure?” \n\n“What’s  that supposed to mean?” \n\n“Nothing. You know? Never mind.” She smiles and pats him on the arm. “Good luck. Seriously. And I’d better be invited to the wedding.” \n\n“Of course. And- thanks?” Martin watches her head back down the stairs with some consternation. He shakes it off and takes a moment to compose himself; smoothing out his clothes, making sure the box in his pocket isn’t too obvious. Forcing back the half giddy, half nervous smile that he feels dancing at the edges of his features.\n\nMelanie hurries on ahead of him and back into the room where they’d left Jon and Georgie. Jon’s head snaps up when they walk in. He looks a touch flustered and wide-eyed himself. Martin tilts his head, questioning, but Jon simply gives him a tight smile and returns his attention to whatever he and Georgie were working on. \n\nOkay. Cool. \n\nMelanie strides over to Georgie’s spot by the table and slips an arm easily around her waist. “Help me with something upstairs?” she asks pointedly, leaning her head into Georgie’s shoulder. \n\n“Wait,” Jon begins, glancing from her to Martin and back again, “didn’t you just-” \n\n“Sure, let’s go.” Georgie drops a quick kiss to Melanie’s temple and they head for the stairs, both sending Martin an odd look as they go. \n\nMartin watches them helplessly. “What the hell…” He turns back to Jon, who he finds is studying his face carefully. Of course. It sets his heart racing again.\n\n“Is everything alright?” Jon asks. \n\n“Hm? Yeah. Think so.” Martin casts one final baffled look towards the staircase before settling down in Georgie’s empty chair. More aware than ever of the little box pressing into his hip. He swallows his nerves and nudges Jon’s shin under the table with his foot. “So,” he says brightly. “What are we working on?” \n\nJon studies the board before him shrewdly. He’s got a clear shot at Tim’s capitol with the bulk of his infantry, but Melanie is coming up on his flank and he’d have to divide his forces if he wanted to keep his  own capitol guarded, weakening his chances at both. He internally curses himself for falling for Martin’s trap all those turns back; he could really use some ranged pieces right now.  \n\nIt’s game night, just over two weeks later. Sasha is hosting this time, and they’re all huddled on the floor of her living room, surrounded by empty pizza boxes. Jon picks up a cavalry piece and hovers it above the board. He’s-\n\n“Oh my  god,” Melanie breaks in. “For the record, if this was a real war? Your empire would be burned to the ground by now.” \n\n-trying to take this seriously. He says as much. “I thought that was what you wanted?” \n\n“Meaning ‘get off your phone and stop snarking the whole time’.” Melanie rolls her eyes. “Not turn into the world’s biggest board game nerd.” \n\nJon narrows his eyes at her. Then he sets his piece back down and sits back. “I skip my turn.” \n\n“Are you serious? You’ve had me blocked in for  six turns, you prick-”  \n\nTim bursts into loud laughter and claps Jon on the shoulder. “Don’t take it personally,” he tells Melanie. “He just knows one of us will kick his ass the second he makes a m- hey!” \n\nWhile he was talking, Sasha had quietly taken her turn, and now his capitol is surrounded. She raises her eyebrows mildly. “Speaking of,” she says.\n\nMartin snorts, and Jon makes eye contact with him across the board. \n\nTwenty-six. That’s how many freckles Martin has on his face. He gets to know that, now. He has for a while, but he always re-counts, just in case. \n\nSomething warm and familiar passes between them and it makes Jon’s stomach swoop pleasantly. \n\n“Guys, you’re doing it again,” Melanie intones. “Martin, your move.” \n\n“Oh, right, right, sorry-” Martin flusters and hunches forward over the board, casting Jon a final shy glance before turning his attention to his pieces. Jon flusters too, and then even more so when he raises his eyes to catch Tim and Sasha exchanging a look. \n\n“What?” he snaps. \n\n“Just never get tired of this, that’s all,” Tim explains, disproportionately smug. \n\n“Ew.” Melanie shakes her head. “I really don’t get you two.” \n\n“Hey, you didn’t live through what we did,” Sasha points out. “Let us have our victory.” \n\n“I had to deal with Martin and  his  pining.” Melanie’s turn comes up, and she glares at the board. “Still can’t fucking  move, Jon.” \n\nTim scoffs. “You’re going to try and tell us that  Martin pining is worse than Jon?” \n\n“I’m right here, Tim,” Jon says irritably, flushed as he keeps his eyes firmly on the board. \n\nMartin speaks up. “Honestly. And come on, guys, it’s been a year. Can we talk about something other than my love life? Ever?” \n\nMelanie seconds that motion adamantly. Sasha rubs Martin’s arm companionably. \n\n“We don’t mean to make it weird. It’s honestly just the most interesting thing going on in our lives right now.” \n\nNow is Jon’s turn to scoff. “Do I need to remind you that we’re tracking a circus of supernatural clowns-”\n\nMelanie and Martin both make a sharp, scolding noise. Jon flinches and whips his head up in alarm.\n\n“Nope! Rule number one of game night,” Melanie says. “No clown talk.” \n\n“Jon, we’ve talked about this,” Martin scolds. Tim is shaking his head in disgust. \n\nJon holds his hands up, placating. “Accident. It just- slipped out. Clown rule. I remember.” \n\nIt takes him a moment to realize the sound swelling in the room is Sasha, doubled over in hysterical giggles. Jon straightens up, concerned. “Sasha..?” \n\n“Hold on,” she gasps, shaking with mirth. She sits up and leans into Martin’s side, swiping at her eyes. “Sorry,” she says, high and breathless. “It’s just that our lives are so  stupid-  we have to have a  clown rule--”  \n\nTim promptly loses it next, and then Martin. Jon catches Melanie’s eye and they look at each other helplessly for a long moment before finally, reluctantly, letting the laughter catch them, too. \n\nEventually, they do manage to finish their game - Sasha wins, as usual, but Martin almost got her - and Melanie heads home. The others decide to put on a movie at Martin’s suggestion; no one quite ready to part ways yet.  \n\n“Sounds good,” Sasha says. “I’ve got some popcorn above the sink.” \n\n“Great! I’ll go fix it,” Martin offers. He squeezes Jon’s knee before rising and heading into the kitchen. Jon watches him leave. \n\nTim stands up next, heading for the door. He’d grown quiet the last little while. “Be right back,” he says, cheerful as ever. “Just need some air.” \n\nJon hesitates. These past several months have been the hardest on Tim, out of all of them. He’d been down after the Prentiss attack, but then when they’d found out- everything, had learned about the Stranger, well. Jon shares a look with Sasha, biting his lip. Finally, he gives a mumbled, “I’ll, ah, I’ll be…” He waves at the door and gets up to follow Tim. \n\nHe finds him outside on the balcony, leaning on his elbows on the railing and staring out into the night, pensive. Jon joins him, mirroring his posture. Neither of them says anything for a long moment, until Jon tentatively breaks the silence. \n\n“Are you- are you thinking about-” \n\n“Yeah,” Tim bites out. He doesn’t look at Jon. “Never stop thinking about him, if I’m being honest.” \n\nJon doesn’t know what to say to that. He peeks over at Tim, faltering. Finally he reaches an awkward hand out and settles it on Tim’s shoulder. Tim tenses briefly, giving Jon a sharp glance, before relaxing and slinging an arm heavily around his back. \n\n“What a mess, huh?” Tim asks. Jon assumes it’s rhetorical. “...Sasha referred me to her therapist,” Tim continues, after a blank. “The one she went to after Jane Prentiss. It helps. This-” He raises his arm from Jon’s back just long enough to gesture behind them, “-helps.” \n\n“I’m glad,” Jon answers quietly. He means it. He really does. \n\nTim huffs out a humorless laugh, but the crooked smile he turns on Jon looks genuine, at least. “You know, you’ve got to start being more of a bastard again. You’re too soft these days, boss. I don’t know how to deal with you.” \n\nJon starts to pull away, a sharp retort on his tongue more for the sake of playing along than anything, when the door creaks open, flooding the balcony with light. They both turn around. \n\n“Martin’s going to come looking for you guys,” Sasha warns, leaning out the door. “You know how serious he is about rule number two.” \n\n“What’s that one again?” Tim asks. \n\n“No brooding alone on the balcony,” Sasha says. At Jon’s skeptical look, she adds, \"I know. But he’s your boyfriend, and they’re his rules. Take it up with him.” \n\n“Won’t be necessary,” Tim says. He claps Jon on the back with a resounding thump. Jon coughs and glares at him. “We’re not alone, at any rate. So we’re free to go on brooding all we like.”  \n\n“You know I can hear you,” Martin calls lightly from inside the living room. \n\n“Busted,” Sasha mumbles, sing-song. “Come on, popcorn’s ready.” She turns and heads back inside. Once they’re back in, Tim takes the armchair, and Sasha curls up on one end of the couch. Jon sinks down on the other end next to Martin, letting him pull him close to his side. \n\nMartin smiles down at him, soft and concerned. “Hey. Alright?” \n\nJon lets his head fall back against Martin’s warm shoulder. He hums, affirmative. “Just talking.” Martin pulls him closer and passes him the bowl of popcorn. \n\nWhen they get home late that night, while Martin is doing something or other in the kitchen before bed, Jon opens the bottom dresser drawer and peeks under the stack of old shirts he’s got stuffed in there. Checking on the tiny, plain box tucked away beneath them. The sight of it sends his pulse rocketing and he hurriedly replaces the shirts and slams the drawer shut, straightening up just as Martin enters the bedroom. \n\nMartin gives him a bemused look. One that quickly turns to suspicion. “Jon, if you’ve got a tape recorder or a statement or something-” \n\n“I  don’t,”  Jon insists, defensive. He wipes his damp palms on his pajamas. “I just, ah- thought I saw... something. A bug.” \n\n“A bug.” \n\n“Yep.” \n\nAnd Martin doesn’t look entirely convinced, but he just shakes his head and climbs into bed. “Well, come on. It’s late. The ‘bugs’ can wait til morning.” \n\nJon starts to protest out of habit, but he’s cut off by a heavy yawn. “...Right.” He climbs in next to Martin, who wastes no time wrapping him in his arms. \n\n“Christ, Jon, your heart’s pounding.” He sits up, brow furrowed in concern. “Was it a spider? Do you need me to get it?” He’s already half out of bed. Jon panics and shoots out his hand, latching onto Martin’s wrist. \n\n“No!” It comes out far sharper than intended and he winces. “I mean- it’s- it wasn’t a spider. It’s fine. Let’s just rest.” \n\nMartin hesitates a moment before sliding back into bed and turning off the lamp. Jon flops back against the pillow in relief. He’ll have to find another hiding spot. That or go ahead and ask the damned question. To his dismay, that sets his pulse racing even faster. He twists around in Martin’s arms, curling against him in a way that hopefully will make it less noticeable. Martin makes a surprised little sound and slides a hand into his hair. Murmurs some quiet endearment. \n\n Good, Jon thinks. Crisis averted. Good. \n\nHe’ll have to do something about this. \n\n\n Soon.  \n\n\nMartin rocks on his heels as the last customer meanders out of the shop. Honestly, it’s what? Fifteen steps to the door? How are they still here? His eyes flick anxiously from the clock to the street outside, stomach flipping every time someone passes by the door or so much as glances at the window.\n\nFinally,  finally, the world champion of the leisurely pace pushes the door open and steps out into the street, and Martin rushes out from behind the counter and turns the lock and draws the blinds before anyone else can get a craving for last minute pistachio muffins. \n\nHe sweeps up and wipes down the counters with such haste that he actually breaks a sweat. Then he counts the money, locks the register, and bolts for the backdoor, yanking his apron off and flinging it over his shoulder with a flourish of relief and frantic energy. \n\nThey moved into their new flat today; Jon should already be there, getting things unpacked. And Martin definitely wants to hurry home to help him, and also just to enjoy the experience of moving into their first real place together. \n\nBut that’s not why his throat is so dry and his hair is disheveled beyond all hope from him running his shaking hands through it every couple minutes. \n\nA little jolt of fear hits him - unfounded, for at least the hundredth time today - and he shoves his hand in his pocket. As soon as his fingers touch the box, he lets out a long gust of a sigh and sinks back against his seat. \n\nTonight’s the night. He’s got it all planned out; later on, he’ll suggest they take a break from packing, that Jon go and have a shower or something. While he’s gone, Martin will lay out a blanket and some pastries he’s brought with him from the shop. Dig out that bottle of wine he’s got stowed away. Light some candles.\n\nAnd there on the floor of their new home, surrounded by boxes and the clutter of their shared life, he’ll ask the man he loves more than that life itself to marry him. \n\nHis skin prickles hot and cold in turns.\n\nPerfect. Can’t go wrong. His foot bounces an anxious rhythm on the floor of the cab - habit he’s picked up from Jon - and he forcefully stills it. Curls his hands into tight fists on his lap. \n\nIt  won’t go wrong. \n\nHe bites his lip.\n\nIt  won’t.  \n\n...So far, everything that could possibly go wrong has done so with reckless abandon. \n\nMartin had arrived at the front door of their flat to the sound of a muffled curse. He’d broken into a sprint and flung the door open to find Jon standing in the middle of the hall, glaring with deepest offense at a spilled box of shattered plates. \n\nAnd things had only gone downhill from there. \n\nSomehow, an entire box of clothes had been misplaced in the move. Martin had rushed back to their old flat to look for it, praying to anyone who might be listening that the door would be unlocked. His prayers, of course, had gone unanswered. \n\nHe’d managed to hunt down the landlord and beg him to come down and open it, only to find that the clothes weren’t even there. Arrived back to the new flat an hour later to Jon having broken a lamp - “What the hell are you  doing  while I’m gone?” he’d demanded. Jon had snapped back in defense and muttered something that Martin swore  better not be about a bloody spider -  and suddenly, to top it all off, the water pressure was  terrible.  \n\nAnd then, he realizes, once things have finally calmed down enough to make it noticeable - Jon is acting… weird. \n\nAt first, Martin feels a twinge of guilt, thinking it must be because he’d snapped at him. But Jon briskly waves off his apology, and besides; he doesn’t seem upset. Just-  weird.  \n\nMartin watches him closely while they work; takes in his agitated, jerky movements and his tight, skittish expression. For an awful moment, it takes him back to the days after they’d found out about Gertrude Robinson -  god - and his imagination has a great time supplying him with new developments. \n\n“Um… how was your day?” he ventures, studying Jon’s face from across a large box of books. \n\nJon startles and looks up at him, wide-eyed. “Oh. Oh- uh, fine. It was fine. Uneventful.” He taps his fingers against his thigh. “Yours?” \n\n“Long,” Martin says, frowning; not really hearing his own answer. Jon nods and resumes sorting through the books in front of him. There’s a faint flush to his cheeks, Martin notices. He reaches across and lays a hand to Jon’s forehead. \n\nJon blinks at him. \n\n“Are you sick? Please tell me if you’re getting sick.” \n\n“...No…” Jon leans back out of his reach and sets another book aside. “Am I supposed to be?” The flush is creeping down his neck now, and he’s almost definitely avoiding Martin’s eyes. \n\n“...Right. No, no that’s… good. Just checking.” Martin watches him a moment longer and then gets up to grab another box. The box in his pocket jabs into his thigh despondently. Things could still turn around. Just a stressful start. But things could turn around. \n\nAnd they do, for a little while. \n\nJon is still acting a bit- off, but as the evening wears he and Martin at least fall into comfortable conversation over sorting through knick-knacks and cutlery. Martin will talk to maintenance in the morning about the water, tomorrow evening they’ll get their bed frame put together, maybe next week sometime they can go furniture shopping. Sasha’s lead on the circus didn’t really go anywhere, but Tim found something in the library that might be helpful. She’s looking for another job, too; they can’t leave the institute, but she’d like to get something else part-time just to broaden her environment. \n\nAnd social circle, Jon had added with a touch of disdain, as if he couldn’t imagine her needing anyone else but them. \n\n Good for her, Martin had thought, sagely. \n\nIt’s not perfect - hell, it’s  moving, of course it’s not going to be perfect, who is he kidding - but it’s finally turning a bit more pleasant and Martin’s heart flips when he thinks that his plan might still be salvageable. \n\n“I’m still thinking about studying literature,” Martin is saying, carefully lining a bookshelf up with the wall. “But then there are so many  kinds of literature. Do I just go for a general degree, or do I specialize in- in eighteenth century bee-keeping sonnets?” \n\n“Do you like eighteenth century bee-keeping sonnets?” Jon asks, sounding distracted, handing him a stack of books. \n\nMartin takes them and starts slotting them onto one of the shelves. “It was just an example, Jon. Point is-” \n\nIt all happens so fast. \n\nFirst, there’s a crack and a crash as one of the shelves buckles and sends the books sliding and tumbling to the floor. Then the entire bookshelf falls forward, sending more books cascading to the floor and Martin staggering back out of the way, taking Jon with him. \n\nThey stumble over  something  and topple onto a box of something else - clothes, by the feel of it, thank  god - as the bookshelf lands heavily on top of another box, which contained something considerably less soft, judging by the shattering sound. \n\nMartin scrambles to sit up, dragging Jon up with him, checking him over. “Shit-  are you alright? Did I land on you, or-” \n\n “-fine-” Jon is saying, brushing himself off and looking thankfully more like a disgruntled cat than like he’s actually hurt in any way. “I’m fine, Martin. ...Are you?” \n\nAnd that’s- ha. That’s quite a question, isn’t it. Martin says something he’s sure is vaguely affirmative and turns back to the disaster in front of them. Yeah. He slumps forward and puts his face in his hands. Yeah, he might as well call this one a day. \n\nHe says as much- not about his… plans, obviously, but about the unpacking, but Jon doesn’t seem to hear him. Martin turns back to him, and flinches back when he finds Jon’s eyes fixed on him with startling intensity. That flush is back to his cheeks, and his mouth is set in a firm line.\n\nA chill slides down Martin’s spine and the worry from earlier squirms its way back into his chest.\n\n“Uh. Jon? Is everything-” \n\n“Let’s get married.” \n\nThe words come out in such a rush that it takes Martin a full six seconds for them to really register. And then he chokes. \n\n“Wh- Jon, that’s- what are you-” he sputters, coughs, composes himself. “I mean, yeah, yeah, you mean- why are we talking about this now? ” His voice is high and cracking with nerves, and he has to force his hand to not dart reflexively to his pocket. \n\nJon is shaking his head, scowling and looking flustered and frustrated. The entire disaster playing out aside, it’s adorable, and it’s all Martin can do to keep from kissing the frown off his face. \n\n“I’m not- I’m not trying to  talk about it,  Martin, I’m-” He takes a shaky breath, and Martin feels his thoughts grind to another screeching halt when he reaches into  his pocket and-\n\nJon presents him with a tiny, battered box, tied in purple ribbon. He watches transfixed as Jon unties it with trembling fingers, nearly dropping it, and pulls the lid off to reveal a simple ring. \n\n“I’m- I’m  asking,  Martin.” And Martin almost laughs - only Jon could sound so put out and irritable while bloody-  proposing. Because that’s what this is. \n\nIt hits him square in the chest. That’s what this is. \n\n “Are you fucking kidding me?” he blurts. \n\nWhich he realizes too late is probably not the best response, because Jon winces and immediately drops his gaze. “I- I know the timing isn’t the best, and I know it’s too soon, but when have we ever done anything  right- that’s not what I mean, that didn’t-” \n\nShit. Martin hurries and reaches out, closing his hands over Jon’s fluttering ones and the little box nestled in them. “No! No, that’s not, I’m not saying-” \n\n“And I know our situation isn’t ideal, I mean in light of recent developments-” \n\n Shit. Martin gives him a little shake. “Jon, oh my god, no, that’s not what I meant, if you would just shut up for a second-” \n\n“-I thought it would be- romantic, doing it here, I was going to light  candles,  but-” \n\nMartin finally startles him into silence with a bark of laughter. “Oh my god.” At Jon’s offended look, he squeezes his hands. “Sorry, sorry, just- god.  I was going to light candles.” \n\nJon’s miffed expression morphs into confusion. “You were…” Then understanding. His hands go slack in Martin’s grasp. “Oh.  Oh, you mean you were…”  \n\n“Hang on-” Martin lets him go and reaches into his pocket, pulling out an equally battered little velvet box. His hands are surprisingly unshaky as he flips it open, revealing the ring inside. “I had a whole thing planned,” he explains in a rush. “Blanket, wine, candles…” He runs a hand through his hair. “Christ, Jon, I’ve been sick over it all day.”\n\n“Ah.” Jon’s cheeks turn a lovely shade of pink as he stares at the ring, then back up at Martin. “Ah,” he says again. “Sorry. For, er, ruining your plans, I suppose..?”\n\n“No, no it’s, it’s alright, Jon,” Martin breathes out. He should say something else, definitely; they both just  proposed, he can’t just sit here, but he’s admittedly a bit shell-shocked. And Jon looks so beautiful right now, flushed and shy and just as lost as Martin. \n\n“...You could still ask,” Jon says tentatively, at last.\n\n“What?” \n\n“Since I got my turn,” Jon explains. He stares down at his lap, hand curled around the box. “You could- still ask. If you wanted. So I don’t entirely rob you.” His lips curve in a rueful smile.\n\nMartin snorts and shakes his head, endeared. “You didn’t  rob me, Jon.” But… “But, yeah, alright.” He clears his throat and sits up a bit straighter. Reaches out and takes Jon’s free hand gently in his. Jon looks up at him, so soft that it hurts. \n\n“Jon Sims,” Martin begins. His heart is hammering in his throat and all of the words he’d had planned, all of the grand affirmations and poetic declarations, have fled him entirely. But that’s okay. \n\n“Marry me? Please?” \n\n“Alright,” Jon says. It’s just a single word, but the look on his face tells Martin that he’d had plenty of his own flee him, too. \n\nAnd here in their new home with its shit water pressure, surrounded by the considerably more worse-for-wear clutter of their shared life, Martin sweeps the man he loves more than words can express into his arms and kisses him soundly. \n\nHe may be crying just a bit when Jon finally pulls back with a muffled sound. Martin wipes at his eyes, peering at him. “Alright?” \n\n“...Yes.” Jon’s own eyes look suspiciously damp and he drops them to the little box that’s fallen into his lap. Martin sees him press his lips together. Pluck at the hem of his shirt. Finally he looks up again, a sheepish expression flitting over his face. “You, ah… you didn’t answer me.” \n\nMartin smiles at him - he can’t help it. Not right now. “Hm?” \n\nJon wets his lips. “My- question. I answered yours, but you never answered mine.” \n\n“--Right, right, sorry. Guess I didn’t,” Martin laughs. And god, he loves this man. “Yes, Jon. I’ll marry you.” \n\n“Thank you,” Jon says primly. And he scoots forward and presses himself decidedly back into Martin’s arms. "}
+{"text": "Thunder begins making out with Calico again. The two dolls swing each other around like they were lighter than air. They end up slamming into the door right as you unlock it, shoving it open and collapsing into the carpet. On the other side of the room is-\n\n“Oh, goddamn it! They’re doing it again!” you groan.\n\nPPK and G36C are having sex on their bed again. Their lower halves are covered with a blanket, but the rest gives away exactly what they’re doing. G36C is laying on the bed while PPK is kneeling on top of her. The petite maid has one of C’s thick thighs and legs over her shoulder as she grinds into her partner’s privates with her own. Both girls are moaning when you intrude.\n\nG36C whips her head aside while PPK continues to roll into her. She shuffles her shoulders, attempting the motions to cover her inverted nipples as the flop up and down, but her fingers are dug into the white sheets. “Oh, hi, Commander!” she says amid pants. “H-hey, Calico. I’m sorry. We put Nya~ to bed and… got into the mood. Aha~!”\n\n“No, no. We’re sorry for barging in without knocking… nor subsequently checking if your following response wasn’t a double entendre.”\n\nCalico and Thunder glance up, taking a momentary break from their kissing. Their eyes dart back and forth between each other and the other couple.\n\n“…Whoops,” Calico meekly says.\n\nYou rouse your dolls to give the duo some privacy. “Calico, Thunder, A-91, let’s get a drink or something. Give these girls exactly another hour to wrap things up-”\n\n“Wanna join us?” PPK instead suggests.\n\n“PPK!” G36C exclaims. “Don’t listen to her, Ms. Calico. She’s just being a whore.”\n\nCalico and Thunder start back, the latter inching back on the carpet as she’s the bottom girl. The former gets a curious expression, however. Instead of being horrified by her reckless charge or off-put with the lewd maid, she’s genuinely considering the idea. Thunder looks up at Calico, now her being the one clueless of what’s going on in her partner’s head.\n\nCalico’s yellow eyes peer back down to Thunder’s reds. “My folks have told me how important it is for my first time to be special, cause I only get one first. Yet, each and every one of the stories I’m told is the same thing: two people alone in a dark bedroom doing it missionary or doggy-style and whispering sweet nothings into each other’s ears. Never has it been with a T-Doll in front of her comrades while they’re already having sex.” She lowers her head, their noses touching. Both of their breathing turn intense as they know exactly what she’s going to ask. “Thunder-”\n\nThunder answers with a deep kiss. Her tongue strikes into Calico’s mouth and she moans in response. The handgun duo immediately go at each other like animals, continuing their rolling on the floor now. No need for a single motel room. No time to find a private place. It’s sex and love right here, right now, until the moment they part for good.\n\nYour blue-haired doll takes an abrupt hold of the reins. She grabs Calico by the shoulders and pushes her onto the foot of her bed. She then drags her up on top, all the while sucking the life out from her mouth like a succubus. Calico moans into her, more than pleased. She surrenders her machine soul to the succubus as she wraps her hands around Thunder’s neck and head and keeps her sucking her mouth dry. They make so many lewd noises and Thunder hasn’t even hit the bed yet. They do this all in front of PPK and G36C. Thunder even looks over in the corner of her eye to check if they are watching and ask if she’s doing everything right.\n\nG36C responds with a big thumbs-up. PPK has stopped grinding into C, temporarily distracted with the new set of lovers.\n\n“I didn’t expect either of them to be so lewd, especially Thunder,” PPK pants.\n\n“Must be your influence,” G36C blames her.\n\nPPK glares at her. She reminds her that she’s on top and in control. “More than likely, it was Gepard’s.”\n\nThunder and Calico eventually break lips. Both are panting and desperate to reconnect on the spot.\n\nCalico quickly says as a disclaimer to Thunder, “I-I’m sorry if I mess up somewhere. I’ll try my best, I really want to for you, but it might not be good enough. My body-”\n\nThunder clasps her hands tightly over Calico’s mouth. She wants no more self-doubt coming from her mouth. No more words either. She locks lips with her again, running her hands over her body and enjoying it just the way it is.\n\nPPK and G36C return to each other as well. With the door to the fun room closed and Nya~ sleeping, all four dolls proceed to make steamy love to each other on the beds, filling the air with their soft moans and rubbing bodies.\n\nIt’s quite the abrupt sight for you and A-91. Neither of you expected that this was going to happen.\n\nA-91 tugs your arm to grab your attention. “You mentioned something about a drink?” she asks. She folds her arms behind her back and sways tweely. “Maybe make it a date with me?”\n\nYou sigh and nod. You guess you did. You give the now-four of them some degree of privacy while you and A-91 go out for her date.\n\n+=+=+\n\n\n\nCLINK!\n\n\n\nYou and A-91 down your drinks at the same time. You lean back in your chair and look out of the front windows to the downtown city. Green light bathes you, A-91, and the floral-tile floor beneath. It’s calm, quiet, still: just you, her, and the human bartender that’s half-asleep and occupied with the American football game on the TV hanging above him.\n\n“You picked a good place,” you say.\n\n“Pwah~!” a thirsting gasp escapes her throat. Her head falls forward and sways back and forth. “Thank you, Commander.”\n\n“You really haven’t had a lot of time to go drinking like you hoped, huh?”\n\n“Yeah, it sucks being sober,” she groans.\n\nYou set your empty glass aside. Your eyes travel up from A-91’s inebriated form to the counter and black brick wall behind her. She’s already hit 5 shots.\n\nYou ask, “What’s it like when you enter the double digits? How do you go… berserk?”\n\n“I’m not sure,” A-91 frankly replies. She whips her head up and rests her upper body on the support of the wooden chair. Her multicolored hair messily flops all over her. “One moment I’m here, then I remember everything blurring, then… nothing. My visual records cut to when I wake up.”\n\n“Yet you seem to carry over a lot of your personality and memory to this other state.”\n\n“Yeah, I’ve been told that. It’s been described to me as… what do the book-nerds say… Jekyll and Hyde? After 10, impulses take over entirely. Something in me is overwritten which lets me do things I wouldn’t normally do.”\n\n“Does it scare you, that your addiction can make that happen?”\n\nShe parts some of her hair over her ear. Her yellow, sharp eyes slowly close and open, staring down at your chest as she thinks. “It is concerning how little control I have over it. Then again, I’m rarely in control of my body in general.” She chuckles softly with a hiccup in the middle. She looks to you with a confident smile. “I can think around my ‘Double Digit Disaster’. I can position myself in a way that can cause the least damage. Or at least, damage only what I consciously want to be damaged, hehe.”\n\n“But couldn’t your berserk form outsmart you?”\n\n“Potentially. I’ve thought about that exact scenario a few times, but I’m still the same gal in whichever state I’m in.” She places her hand over yours. “I will always be your doll, Commander~”\n\n“True.” You smile with her. “Since you’re all drunken-up now: Made any conclusions on the Pinstripes?”\n\n“I have been thinking a lot about ‘em. During your double date with Persica at the concert, I looked into the news and police records.”\n\n“Oh right, you were drinking there, too. Wait, have you hit your limit already?”\n\n“But I can’t seem to figure out shit about them!” she whines. “There aren’t any security recordings of them online until the big heist. No footage from any place in or near the bar we were at, either. They move so quickly, too. They’d have to know where all the exterior and internal cameras are, scout the building from either really far away or from a ridiculous vantage point, and execute their plan with no surprises.”\n\n“No wonder M870’s been so sparse with the details.”\n\n“She rubs me the wrong way. Is she hiding something or…” She looks at her reflection in the bottom of the empty glass. “I’m not usually a biased doll.”\n\n“You’re not?”\n\n“Most of what I believe, I usually have evidence or a line of logic to back up. For this case, though I don’t have nearly enough evidence to believe in anything certainly. Maybe I need more alcohol…?”\n\n“I wouldn’t risk going over the limit.”\n\n“To be honest, I’ve been thinking about you more than the Pinstripes.” She sets the glass aside and looks back up into your eyes. “You’re fascinating to me. Who were you? What were you? Who are you now? Gram-Gram told us the basics, but they’re just as vague as what we know of the Pinstripes.”\n\n“You think there’s a relation?”\n\n“Dunno. Has your memory improved?”\n\n“I don’t think so.”\n\n“How about you tell me what you remember of your old life so far? Maybe I can help.”\n\n“That would be very kind of you. Thank you.” You tell her everything you remember. It’s the same story as before, you in a ditch being shot through the head, Griffin saving you, and Persica putting you in the V-Doll body. You try to dredge up any details you can add on. However, these details are fluid. They change shape and form, even when you’re just describing the exact shade of the sky. There isn’t a single answer to the question. There can’t be a singular answer. You try your best to describe this uncertainty alongside the story, which rewards you with a baffled expression from the genius drunkard.\n\nYou finish the story to be met with an unsurprising answer: “I got no clue.”\n\nYou groan, frustrated. “I can’t get any other memory out of this undead piece of brain matter.”\n\n“How about something that resonates deep within you? Like a name? A place? A year?”\n\n“...” You cross your arms and bow your head. You think about it, digging through everything your mind’s eye can conjure up. You arrive at… something. “2020?”\n\n“Like the year?”\n\n“Or the decade,” you wonder.\n\n“You think you were alive then?”\n\nYou nod. “Yeah, possibly.”\n\n“Then that would make you over 40 years old.”\n\n“Maybe even more. At least another 10, I’d estimate.”\n\n“You could be older than… most everyone in Griffin. Kryuger, Helian, Persica. They’d all be your juniors.”\n\nYou shiver at the thought, all the responsibility that could be dropped onto your shoulders. “I’m fine with just being Persica’s apprentice for now,” you reply with an easing chuckle.\n\n“Is that your own will, or Persica’s programming?”\n\n“Huh?”\n\n“If she were a smart girl, she’d put in some mental restraints. You know, Directive 4, Asimov’s laws, some security to keep you in check.”\n\n“I doubt she’d do anything like that. I’m not a volatile person.”\n\nA-91 raises an eyebrow. Oh. Right. You faked a hostage crisis and risked your entire base’s safety to steal a doll from your fellow commander.\n\n“The V-Doll body is meant to revive a human brain, potentially allow it to be fully digitized. We don’t know if it even works, so why would she tamper with it so drastically during testing?”\n\n“Then why would she choose a body that was shot through the head?”\n\n“...”\n\nA-91 elaborates on this thought, “If she really wants to raise the dead, wouldn’t she have used a terminally ill dude? Or someone who just drowned? She’s shooting herself in the foot using a brain like yours.”\n\n“Hmm…”\n\n“Unless that’s her intention. But what does she want in being able to revive someone who’d died as you did?”\n\n“There might not be any ulterior motives,” you say. “She revived me in the pursuit of human benefit. She’s a good doctor like that. Besides, isn’t this supposed to be a date between us?”\n\n“Ah… sorry. Welp, it hardly matters. No matter what you were, you’re now my commander. You’re still that strong man that went against the man to save that little snow-princess, Thunder.” She takes her glass and bonks the bottom against the tabletop. “Another!”\n\nAs the bartender is snapped from his game and gets another drink prepped, A-91 listlessly plays with the buttons of her coat. You then feel one of her legs rub against yours. A sly smile appears on her lips.\n\n“Those girls are still going to be fucking when we get back,” A-91 says.\n\n“Oh, totally.”\n\n“Let’s go to the pool after this.”\n\n“Really? Alcohol and swimming? Is that healthy?”\n\n“Pfft. What’s water compared to Sangvis Ferri and mobsters?”\n\n“That doesn’t answer the question.”\n\n+=+=+\n\nSteam envelops the rooftop pool, contained within a barrier of cyan-illuminated glass. The heating and steam units purr in the corner. In the face of the cold, winter night, your body bathes in the warm waters. Along the way back, A-91 had grabbed a towel and a pair of trunks from your room. Apparently, during the other girls’ shopping trip, one of them got a fun idea to give you some sexy shorts. Thunder, Calico, PPK, and G36C were still making intense love like predicted. They didn’t even notice your drunken doll as she stumbled in and out.\n\nYou keep in the shallows, only soaking in the water. A-91 lays on her belly on the tile floor behind you. Her heels slowly kick back and forth in the air. The tight latex about her thighs and rear quietly stretch and rub at a hypnotic pace. There’s no one else here. At least, you think so. With so little disturbances to the air, the steam thickens into an isolating veil.\n\nA-91 pulls off her leather cap and fans herself. “You’re so hot, it’s making me hot,” she slurs.\n\n“That’s your opening line?” you jest.\n\n“Don’t pick on me.” She slaps you with her hat. “I’m no Tolstoy or Pushkin. болван~ (Bolvan~)”\n\n“Do you natively speak English or Russian? I’m just curious. What’s your first language?”\n\n“It’s… half and half. Half of my programming’s written in English and the other is in Russian.”\n\n“Is that even possible?”\n\nShe shrugs. She’s alive and moving now, isn’t she? “Does it bother you?”\n\n“It’s a little inconsistent, but it does give you an exotic edge, in a way.”\n\n“An exotic local? In the New Soviet Union, no less! I outta slap you in the face. You sound more wasted than me, hahaha!”\n\n“Dammit Persica,” you shift the blame of your dumb compliment, blushing at her hearty laugh.\n\n“Thank you for being by my side for so long on this trip. Gram-Gram and the dolls of S18 are often scared or shy of me. You’re willing to get drunk and party with me.”\n\n“Honestly, perhaps I should cut down on the drinking. Prevent addiction.”\n\n“We’re dolls, we can’t get addicted.”\n\nYou whip your head around, getting a good look at who’s making the claim. You’re met with her rear jutting out at you as she sits up onto her knees. You hear a series of pops from her chest before her winter jacket flows off from her shoulders. Her blond, pink, and purple hair flutter around her slim form. She turns around, exposing the thin top half of her bodysuit and the bare arms and cleavage around it.\n\n“Whoo…” you whistle at her.\n\n“It just keeps getting hotter,” she says in a low pant. Her chest rises and falls with her heavy, deep breaths. “I’m just so used to the cold, the barren, isolated, cold.” She giggles, unable to keep up the act for even a line. She curls a finger around one of her long stands, shifting herself so you see all of her curvy angles.\n\n“Doesn’t seem to be a lot of things to cool you down,” you reply, playing along. You know where this is going.\n\n“Except… your body. No, it’s the hottest thing here. Bah… blyat… Gimme a better line!” she slaps you over the head.\n\n“Ow! …You’re usually a lot more straightforward with this kind of stuff-”\n\nYour concern is immediately addressed as A-91 smacks her lips against yours. Her flimsy pre-sex banter is tossed away the moment it fails. She forces you open with her lips and invades your mouth with her tongue. She moans graciously upon finally entering you.\n\nHer body relaxes as she takes her prize. You’re able to wrestle some control back and move your tongue with hers, swirling them around. She slowly splays her body out onto her side and supports herself on her elbows and hands as she gradually lowers down to your lips. Her hips rotate around, again showing off her perfect rear to you. It curves in a perfect circle as it juts out from her backside and flows into her thick thighs.\n\nShe grabs a hold of your chin tightly, hollowing your cheeks and squeezing your tongue into her mouth. Her half-open eyelids show a pair of hot, yellow irises staring into you intensely as she explores the inside of your mouth. She swallows any groans that escape you. It’s a wet and messy kiss, with saliva being swapped between the two of you and hot strands dribbling down her chin.\n\nAs she continues to roughly kiss you, you find yourself being slowly pulled out of the water. Your back is laid on the floor while your knees bend into the watery steps. She repositions herself so that she lays parallel to your body. She then releases your chin and catches the back of your head before it reaches the floor. Strings of saliva stretch from your parting lips before ultimately falling all over your face. She breathes out deeply. Her eyes flutter down to her body, the sweat of the steam seeps from her smooth skin to the equally smooth latex bodysuit.\n\n“I’m getting… so hot…” she wheezes.\n\nShe pulls aside one of the straps over her chest and her breast flies out. It was crushed inside of her suit, begging for release. Her big, juicy nip falls right in front of your mouth. You seize upon the opportunity, taking the pink bud in your mouth and suckling on her boob. A-91 smiles amid a hot moan.\n\n“There you go… Ah…” she coos as your lips wrap around her perfectly large nipple.\n\nShe caresses your head with one hand and starts jerking you off with the other. She pulls your pants down and uses her strong fingers to beat the life out of your cock, turning it erect with deep, powerful strokes. Her drunkenness has not caused her ability to stagnate. No, it makes her more free and forceful upon your member.\n\nYou moan as you continue to suckle on her. Her pillowy boob envelops your face. All you can smell and feel is her luxurious body, her hardening nipple, her erotic breathing. While evident she won’t give any milk, it’s a goal the remnants of your animal mind attempt to achieve as you suck her, sending shocks throughout her once restrained bosom. You get your tongue involved, giving the occasional wet lashing to her bud. She strokes you off faster as you suck on her harder.\n\n“Commander~ You- Aahah! You like my body that much, huh?”\n\nYou answer by pressing your face deeper, giving her a deep, suckling smooch. A sharp exhale escapes her parted, bared teeth.\n\n“You’re so needy!” she moans on the inhale.\n\nShe strokes you faster and faster. It creates a rising feedback loop of pleasure for both of you. Without the water to cool you, your bodies turn sweaty. The steam melts your minds as you suck and she jerks you. You’re sapping her strength she needs to work her hands. You feel her pinky graze your balls as she cycles around your lengthening member with growing, desperate effort.\n\nYour head’s too far in her boobs to restrain yourself. You feel your body lighten, about to burst. You hound into her chest, sucking her dry. You bite into her nipple. She loudly shrieks. Her hand strikes down with a final jerk that sends you over the edge. You cum a fountain out of your cock, caking A-91’s hand in jizz.\n\nShe sets you down as she examines her hand. A hungry smile shows as she sniffs you. Seeing you feed on her has made her hungry herself. She sticks her fingers in her mouth and sucks on them, one by one, before using long, deep licks to clean the rest on her palm and the back of her hand.\n\n“It’s a close second to vodka,” she seductively remarks. “Hopefully I can’t go crazy over this stuff.”\n\n“Don’t tempt me with a good time now,” you jest, catching the breath you wasted in her chest.\n\nHer lust-possessed body slinks back up in a flowing motion, swaying loose in a mesmerizing pattern. She reaches behind and unzips her bodysuit. The black latex peels off of her heavily toned skin.\n\nPlaced all over her midriff and legs are tattoos of various symbols. There is an entire history painted in black ink and pale skin, the history of a once-rebel that has been hidden away in black cloth, but remains a part of her to this day. You see military-style stars below her collarbones; a spider with a cross on its back crawling down her right ribs, having finished its hunt; Madonna and her child, otherwise known as St. Mary and Christ, taking refuge below her other breast; a round rose surrounded by barbed wire over her navel, half white and half black; and most notable of all are a pair of deeply detailed stars etched onto her knees.\n\nShe sees your keen focus on them. She tells you what those in particular mean: “На колен��х не стоял. (Na kolyenyah ne stoyal.) I did not kneel.” She then sighs humorously. “Obviously, things have changed since then.”\n\n“What changed?”\n\nShe shrugs, unable to clearly remember the details. “Thinking. I used to think like those Pinstripes: humans as our creators and we’re supposed to serve them without a second thought like some cruel, cosmic curse. I wouldn’t even consider fighting as a T-Doll for Griffin then. But… after some more thinking and a couple of blackouts, I found you that humans are astounding things. You’re not animals, nor are you perfectly logical machines. Your emotions make you both impulsive to reason, and compassionate enough to find reason in others’ actions. You created us like gods, yet you’re not even sure if God is real. You create art, you can create advanced technology, and you made booze! Humans are an anomaly on top of the anomaly known as Earth. Beyond our programming, if there was anything to preserve in this universe, it would be you humans.”\n\n“A-91…”\n\nShe kicks off her bodysuit and her high-heels. She slides her hands over the stars on her knees. “I should get rid of these someday. I’d get in a lot of trouble if someone saw me like this.” She looks around, seeing only the thick fog. You two are still perfectly isolated, but… “I should hide them in the water.”\n\nShe rolls ungraciously into the pool, creating a big splash on impact. Her entire body becomes soaked as she pops back up. Her sleek skin and rainbow hair glitter in the night lights.\n\n“Mind your waterproofing,” you advise her.\n\n“Man, if my waterproofing was ever a problem, I would’ve drowned in alcohol years ago,” she drunkenly laughs.\n\nShe pulls you into her at the middle of the shallows. She locks lips with you again as her hands wander down to your trunks. She pulls them down, bringing her kissing lips and your face down with them. Your cock is rushed with warm water followed by A-91’s warmer thighs and hips. It becomes erect, floating upwards towards your lady’s opening.\n\n“I came to Griffin and S18 to preserve you wonderful anomalies. And now, haha, I serve under the most wondrous and anomalous human of them all,” she declares.\n\nShe grabs onto your shoulders and lifts herself up just enough. She then slides down over your member. Your cock pushes into her sleek folds immediately.\n\nA-91 arches back and lets out a drunken roar, “Aaahaa~! блять! (Blyat!)”\n\nHopefully the pool truly is quiet and empty. Then again, A-91 hardly seems to be in the mood to care. Taking a forceful head-start again, she pushes herself up and down your cock, splashing in the warm water. Your body slowly slips back against the wall. You grip into her ribs to stabilize yourself. Her eyes glisten topaz as they wildly glare into yours, starving for your cum. You get into it as well. Your fingers dig tighter into her sides and aid her movements.\n\nYour cock pumps deeper and deeper into her. You feel her insides become slowly forged into the shape of your cock. They squeeze and suck on your member’s artificial flesh all the way through. The machine muscles in her tattooed torso clench just as tightly against yours.\n\nYou lower your hands to her hips. You hold them tight as you drive your hips into her faster and deeper. The water between your crotches turns into a hot boil. A-91’s core heats up rapidly. Pleasure pulses through both of your bodies, frying your nerves and melting your neural circuits. Her face warps with her digimind as her eyes start to cross over each other. Her body arches back further and her tongue starts to lap from her mouth. Her big, beautiful breasts spin in circles, clapping against each other at the same rate you’re fucking her.\n\n“Ебать! Ебать! Ебать! (Jebat́! Jebat́! Jebat́!)” she pants out into the clouds above.\n\nYou then pull each other back together. A-91’s lewd face returns to yours, now blushing ruby. Her eyes have nearly rolled over the top of her head. She can no longer focus on you or anything, lost in the frantic fucking of her tight pussy. It compels you to go all out. You strike into her cervix with hydraulic viciousness, emptying in and out of her faster than any water can seep in. The speedy slapping of your genitals and the water surrounds you denser than the steamy fog. Your bodies are repeatedly splashed with the waves your combined hips produce.\n\nYou hit the final stretch. A-91 has lost all of her senses to you, her face being a red-hot, sexy mess and her gorgeous hair flailing everywhere. Her insides have been fully shaped around your cock, but continue to squeeze as you shove in and out of her. You keep going up and down, into and out of her. You hold on as tight as you can.\n\nYou lastly strike down as deep as you can, bottoming out entirely and cumming directly into her core. A-91’s body seizes rigid.\n\n“Сукаaaaa~! (Sukaaaaa~!)”\n\nHer face freezes in that lewd form as she feels your sperm fill her arctic center. Her yellow eyes are stuck crossed over and rolled to the top of her head, glazed in an orgasmic fade. Her tongue hangs limply outside of her mouth, dripping a continuous stream of mixed saliva down between you two.\n\nHer stomach twitches and convulses with your cock around it. Her core muscles would occasionally spasm, unsure how to take their commander’s combined cock and cum. Her nails dig into your back to the point of drawing machine blood from you.\n\nUpon pulling out, she immediately crashes. Her body turns limp and falls backwards into the waving water’s surface. She floats a little there. Her chest and stomach rise and fall at opposing interval. But then, she starts to sink. You catch her before her permanent ahegao dips below. You throw her body over your shoulder and carry her out of the pool. You spend a minute lying on the side of the pool, dryly panting and pulling your senses out from your mental frenzy one by one.\n\nThen quickly, you dry both yourself and A-91 and wrap each other up in the towels. You grab your clothing and return back to the hotel room, just barely escaping another encounter with Commander Maro.\n\n+=+=+\n\nBack in the room, everyone has fallen asleep. The two queen-sized beds have turned into piles of slowly rising and sinking bodies, emitting the soft moans and snores of each of the four lovers within. They’re all nude, but have mostly covered themselves in sheets and pillows their post-coital bodies could gather.\n\nStarting from the back, G36C and PPK are completely passed out. G36C has one arm crossed over her hot face and the other splayed over the edge. Bits of steam hiss out of her agape mouth plus some drool in the corner of her lips. PPK is laying on top of her, latching over her partner’s chest like a love parasite. She’s sucking on her thumb, but given the position of her head, she might have mistaken it for G36C’s boob.\n\nIn what was once your bed, Calico and Thunder are cozily snoozing together. Thunder holds her partner from behind with her hands tightly bound under Cali’s shoulders and over her heart, like she’s holding a giant teddy bear. Her face is buried in her undone, green hair, completely absorbed in her scent and fluffy mane. She has never been this attached or at peace in all of her life. Calico, while a little stiff with how rough Thunder is handling her, is equally enjoying this. This may be the first time she’s been held in such an embrace like this. Her hands rest over Thunder’s. A small, calm smile appears on her sleeping face.\n\nThey all look so happy together.\n\nWith your own “bear” deep asleep on your shoulder, you rinse the both of you off, go to the bunk below Nya~, and sleep together for the remainder of the night. A-91 feels the softness of the bed as her body automatically latches itself around yours. Hopefully, this was a good enough date to leave her satisfied until her next turn. Hopefully, everyone has had a perfect date today, for it’ll be the last between Thunder and Calico for the foreseeable future."}
+{"text": "They drive out to Palmetto on January 19th and neither of them mentions the date. They never mention it, or the nightmares that come with it for Neil, how he can only fall asleep with one hand clutching the material of Andrew’s shirt, fingers wrapped tightly around it but loose enough that Andrew can break free if he needs to.\n\nAndrew finds an empty parks near the stadium and twists the key to turn off the Maserati, shaking off the memory of him holding Neil’s hand to his chest this morning, his heartbeat a reassurance that his words can’t be. \n\nNeil is slumped against the cool window in the passenger seat, mouth slightly open and eyes moving under his eyelids. The sun hits his hair, dyes it a bright red and his long lashes throw shadows on his cheeks. He’s wearing one of Andrew’s hoodies and he’s drowning in it and it makes him look younger and more innocent than he is. \n\nThe phone in his pocket vibrates once against his thigh and Andrew pulls it out and looks away from Neil. We are ready, it reads and Andrew doesn’t answer. \n\n“Neil,” Andrew says quietly and watches as Neil’s brows furrow for a moment, followed by his lips curling up at one corner. There’s warmth in Andrew’s chest when he looks at Neil, there has been for a while now, and he’d safe the feeling to analyze and look at later but he’s old enough and has been with Neil long enough to know and name it. “Neil.” \n\nNeil’s eyes snap open and he takes a deep breath, his shoulders relaxing from where they crept up to his ears when he recognizes his surroundings. He turns his head, a yawn splitting his face open and he mumbles, “staring.” \n\n“Shut up,” Andrew says and keeps staring. Neil looks better, he realizes, the dark bags under his eyes are barely visible anymore and his eyes are hooded but not wild. He exhales and opens his door. “Come on.” \n\n“We’re already here?” Neil asks but steps, hissing at the chilly breeze that brushes through his hair and whips at the hoodie. \n\nInstead of answering Neil (that question doesn’t need an answer, neither was it necessary to ask but Andrew doesn’t say this), he grabs their bags from the backseat, carrying them both, and makes his way to the entrance. \n\nIt takes a few seconds but he eventually hears Neil’s footsteps as he follows. They let themselves in, the keys a graduation gift Wymack had given both of them. Andrew had thought he was getting sentimental with age, whereas Neil had looked like he was going to tear up. \n\nBeing back here, seeing the lounge and pictures of himself on the wall, framed and not wrinkled, dirtied and ripped apart, is strange but not unpleasant. It smells like cheap deodorant, sweat and rubber. It feels, somehow, like seeing someone you haven’t seen for a long time. Not like coming home but there’s not a big difference. \n\nNeil snorts behind him and when Andrew turns, he is looking at one of the pictures. It’s of them, at the airport. They’re both wearing their matching coats from Nicky and their eyes are locked. \n\nAndrew remembers (he remembers, he remembers, he remembers) Neil asking him if he had been joking about his fear of heights. He remembers Neil giving him Nathan’s and his old name. It’s not something he necessarily wants to remember but not something he wants to forget either.\n\n“Nicky said it was blatant favoritism,” Neil says and lightly taps a finger against the glass protecting the picture. “Because you’d barely said ten words to him but were talking to me. And that he’d been jealous if he wouldn’t have been so afraid of dying.” \n\nIt’s nothing Andrew has interest in talking about. He thinks he hears mumbling coming from down the hall but ignores it.\n\n“Was it?” Neil asks and Andrew’s gaze slips down when the corner of Neil’s mouth quirks up. “Blatant favoritism?” \n\n“No. I hate you,” Andrew says and steps closer. “Yes or no?” \n\n“Yes,” Neil says and leans down to meet Andrew in the middle for a hard kiss that gets softer the longer their lips touch. \n\nSoftness isn’t something either of them is know but if it comes in forms like this one, Andrew doesn’t mind familiarizing himself with it. \n\nHe steps back and looks at Neil’s lips, slightly red and wet, before turning around and focusing on the closed door of the locker room. “Come on.” \n\nNeil’s footsteps echo off the walls as he speed walks to reach Andrew’s side and if Andrew trips him when Neil turns the handle to the locker room, no one has to know about it. \n\nHushed conversations stop when Neil opens the door and Andrew nearly runs into his back when he stops walking. He gives Neil a shove into all of the orange and steps out of the way as Matt jumps up from where he was tying his shoes. \n\n“Neil!” he cries and lifts him into the air. And then he twirls him around once like a life sized teddy bear. “How are you, son?” \n\nAndrew puts his and Neil’s bag down, feeling blue eyes burning into the back of his head and opens his old locker. \n\n“I— what?” Neil sounds confused but when Andrew throws a look over his shoulder, there’s happiness practically pouring out of his pores. \n\n“It’s so good to see you,” Nicky says somewhere on Andrew’s right and Andrew sighs quietly before turning his head and meeting his brothers knowing stare. “You never call me back!” \n\nAllison walks out of the shower room, dressed in her old jersey and arms crossed in front of her chest. “Can you blame the guy?” \n\nThe door opens and Andrew looks away from Aaron and begins to open his bag. “What’s taking you so long?” There’s a pause, clearly from Kevin noticing Neil’s arrival. “You’re here, finally. Where’s Andrew?” \n\nAndrew tunes the others out, an old habit that he slips into without problem. Their talking and Kevin bitching is background noise to him that he can easily ignore. He acknowledges Renee with a nod when she stops next to him for a second and zones back in when he hears his own name. \n\n“.. Andrew and Renee’s idea, actually,” Wilds says and then there’s a second of silence in which she either has her hand on Neil’s shoulder or is ruffling his hair. “The old jersey’s was Kevin’s idea, though.” \n\n“Getting sentimental, aren’t we?” \n\n“Fuck off, Reynolds.” \n\n“I don’t..” Neil says. “I don’t have mine.” \n\nWith a quiet sigh, Andrew grabs the piece of fabric that has been hurting his eyes since he opened his bag and throws it in Neil’s general direction. Then he does the same with the pants and the rest of Neil’s gear and his annoying bandana.\n\nThere is more silence and then Matt clears his throat. “That.. was weirdly cute.” \n\nAndrew considers throwing his locker at the backliner for a second but then Neil joins him in front of his locker as the others speak, warmth in his eyes (and they’re blue, blue, blue) and Andrew decides that it’s too much effort. \n\n \n\n***\n\n \n\nIt is, in true Fox fashion, a disaster. \n\nIt starts with Nicky pulling out his phone every two seconds to answer Erik, Kevin bitching at him from all the way down the court and ends with Andrew sending one of Kevin’s weak attempts at scoring a goal flying directly at his crotch. Kevin jumps out of the way at the last second and Aaron lifts one of his eyebrows. \n\nNeil’s grin is bright enough to blind Andrew and he finds that he doesn’t mind. \n\nWymack, joins sometime between Kevin bitching at Allison and Neil giving Aaron the finger, and surprisingly brings Jeremy Knox with him. \n\nIt takes Kevin spectacular ten seconds to stumble over his words and then his own feet and he manages to fall on his face. \n\nNeil looks back at Andrew, a twinkle in his eyes, and Andrew simply looks back. \n\n \n\n***\n\n \n\nIt’s late and dark outside when they reach their home. Andrew feels exhausted but something close to nervous energy is buzzing around in his stomach and he tells King it’s her fault when she keeps meowing at him as he waits for Neil to come out of the bathroom. \n\nHe leans back against the headboard, a book in his hand, his reading glasses slipping down his nose and Sir purring on his lap when Neil emerges, stretching and yawning wide enough that his jaw cracks. \n\nHis eyes are half closed when he sits down, the mattress tils a little under his weight but Andrew finds that he doesn’t mind. \n\n“Yes or no?” Neil asks and puts his head on Andrew’s shoulder when he gets Andrew’s quiet consent. “Today was fun. It was good seeing everyone and playing with them again.” \n\nAndrew closes his book, a finger between the pages to show that he was listening. \n\n“I think that.. I wouldn’t mind spending next year like this,” Neil says and then nearly rams his thick head into Andrew’s chin when he looks up at him. “Or like this.” He runs a hand through Sir’s fur and she purrs disgustingly loud. “Thank you.” \n\n“I’m not your answer,” Andrew says quietly.\n\nNeil shrugs. “I know, and I’m not yours either. That doesn’t mean I can’t be grateful for what you do.” \n\nAndrew hums and puts the book on the nightstand, taking off his glasses and placing them on top of it. When he turns back around, Neil has scooted closer. “We could spend next year with them too.” \n\n“What?” Neil asks and then tilts his head. “Playing Exy? You hate Exy.” \n\n“I hate you,” Andrew says lightly and ignores Neil’s huff of amusement, minty breath hitting his face. “You don’t think about anything else in that one track mind of yours.” \n\n“I think about you,” Neil says, grinning. “And your biceps. You’ve got arms for days, did you know that?” \n\nAndrew hates Neil. This was a terrible idea and he’s definitely going to murder him and dump his body where no one can find it. \n\n“Kiss me.” \n\n“Kiss your racquet instead,” Andrew says but still leans in for a short kiss. It leaves his lips tingling, his heart racing. \n\n“I like kissing you more.” \n\n“This sounds like you actually kissed your racquet.” \n\n“Who says I haven’t?” \n\nAndrew covers Neil’s face with his hand and shoves him. He falls onto his bag and grins up at Andrew, his auburn hair a mess and eyes bright. “You disgust me.” \n\n“Sure,” Neil nods. “Hey, how else would we spend next year if we’re not playing Exy?” \n\nIf it weren’t for the fact that Andrew’s heart is trying to jump out of his chest, Andrew would say something about how the only thing can think about doing with his friends is playing Exy.\n\n“Depends,” Andrew says and swallows as his throat goes dry. Sir puts her claws in his thigh as she leaves, her head held high but Andrew doesn’t care; he puts his elbow on top of the headrest and Neil’s eyes are drawn to his biceps. Andrew does not feel smug, he doesn’t. “Yes or no?”\n\n“To kissing?”\n\nAndrew puts his hand down, grabbing what he stuck between the wall and the headrest and drops it on Neil’s chest. “To marrying me.” \n\nNeil blinks at the box, then at Andrew, at the box again. He sits up quickly and looks at it with big eyes.\n\n“It is not because of the date,” Andrew says and adds, “not entirely.” Because he’s not a liar and if he ever decides to become one, he won’t start with lying to Neil, of all people. “I’ve been thinking about it for a few weeks. There are certain benefits with it; not having to fight nurses when you end up in the hospital again, and we both know you will. Stopping those ridiculous rumors.” \n\n“You don’t care about rumors,” Neil says. \n\n“No,” Andrew agrees. “But you do.” \n\nNeil opens the box after another second and his eyes zero in on the ring. It’s simple and silver, a thin band without any sparkling diamonds or anything extravagant. \n\n“You can say no,” Andrew says and he is almost convinced that Neil can hear his heart wildly beating in his chest. “It won’t change anything, we’ll go on like now. I’ll bring take the ring and bring it back or maybe—”\n\n“No.” \n\nAndrew blinks, breath frozen somewhere in his lungs. \n\n“I’m not saying no to this, to marrying you,” Neil says a second later and Andrew keeps breathing. When Neil looks up, the corner of his mouth is curled up and his icy eyes are warm and hooded. “I’m saying no to getting rid of the ring. How come no one spilled anything? Our friends are shit at keeping secrets.” \n\n“My dear baby brother unexpectedly helped me choose it in Germany.” Aaron does talk to the foxes, but he doesn’t spill others secrets. Not always. \n\n“That was six months ago.” \n\n“So it was.” \n\nNeil hums through a smile and takes the ring out of the box, looking surprised when it fits his left ring finger perfectly. “I’m not even going to ask when you got my ring size.” \n\nAndrew doesn’t say anything, gaze stuck on Neil’s left hand and his mind completely quiet and content until he opens his mouth again. \n\n“Andrew Josten.” Neil snorts and Andrew can feel his eyebrow twitch. “Neil Minyard.” Neil turns to him. \n\nAndrew couldn’t care less about which last name they end up using. “You haven’t said yes yet.” \n\n“Oh.” There’s another smile parting Neil’s lips and he leans forward, so close to Andrew that his face starts to blur. “Of course I’ll marry you. Yes, Andrew.” \n\nBefore Andrew can open his mouth, Neil leans back, smile turning into a small smirk. “Josten-Minyard or Minyard-Josten?”"}
+{"text": "Rose set her Chinese takeaway box on her table after the friends had casually reminisced about movies they’d seen recently at Donna’s cinema, as if they weren’t about to break someone out of prison. They all seemed to need the distraction for a moment. She, however, was never one to beat around the bush. “So, about this elephant in the room.”\n\nMickey said, “Before we take this conversation anywhere, I need to clarify something.”\n\nMartha looked worried. “What’s that?”\n\n“I know who Torchwood is.”\n\nShe sat up. “Are you serious?”\n\nRose was incensed. “You’ve known this whole time and you didn’t say anything?”\n\n“There’s a good reason for that, I promise.”\n\nShe slammed her fist down on the table. “And what fucking good reason is that, Mickey Smith? If that is even your real name.” She pointed accusingly.\n\n“Yes. Well, now it is. Used to be Rickey when I was just a punk, but I had my name legally changed. And the reason is because they’re van Statten’s number one enemy, and I work for them.”\n\nMartha blinked. “You… work for Torchwood?”\n\n“And what the bloody hell did they have to do with what happened to Theta?!”\n\n“First of all, Torchwood is nothing like Statten Labs. We’re an organization that truly works for the betterment of the world. We also deal with weird science, but it’s not like Statten, I promise. And we’re looking for ways to take him down.”\n\n“What about the harm to Theta and where he’s from?” Rose demanded.\n\nHe held out his palms. “Rose, let me explain that. I wasn’t involved in that particular case, but my boss let me get intimately acquainted with the files.”\n\n“So you’ve known about him this whole time? I can’t believe this!”\n\nMartha still wouldn’t look at him.\n\n“Look, I had no idea what we signed up for. After we went home that first day, I contacted my boss immediately, and he's been working on a plan since. I’ve been letting you two lead the research. Having looked at the files, I’ve been so impressed with what you’ve been able to figure out without knowing anything.”\n\n“So, what, we’ve been your experiment, too?”\n\n“No. It’s not like that, I promise. Look, Torchwood can’t just go in guns blazing to save him. It’s impractical.”\n\nMartha sighed. “Can you… just start at the beginning of all this? How you got involved with Torchwood? What they have to do with Theta?”\n\n“Yeah. I…” He scratched his temple. “Eh, got in a bit of trouble a while back. I was a hacker. Pretty good at it, too. I managed to get past some high-level firewalls in the government. Next thing I know, I was picked up by MI5. I got this barrister who showed up out of nowhere and managed to get me out of prison time with some service time.”\n\n“Torchwood?” Rose crossed her arms.\n\n“Yeah. They took me in. I didn’t have anyone but me gran, and she died. Once she passed, I was pretty much going nowhere, had no direction. Torchwood turned my life around. Captain Jack, that’s what we all call him, the big guy in charge, he’s a good man. I promise you it’s not awful like you think it is.”\n\nMartha sighed and leaned on her elbows on the table. “Maybe Rose wouldn’t be so upset… it’s not that you work for Torchwood, but it’s the secrets. You’re our friend. Seems like friends shouldn’t keep secrets. I’m starting to understand there are reasons for it, but it hurts a little. Almost like you don’t trust us.”\n\n“No, that’s not true. I’m sorry. I really am. I hope you’ll be able to forgive me by the end of this.”\n\nShe smiled a little at that.\n\nRose prompted, “Go on about Theta.”\n\n“Yeah.” He shifted in his seat. “Few years ago, Torchwood started picking up on these readings out in the middle of the ocean, out in the north Atlantic, intermittently. They matched it up with any and every calendar. Turns out, it was, of all things, supermoons. The readings could only be picked up on nights of supermoons.”\n\n“Supermoons?”\n\n“Wait.” Martha slapped the table. “Oh, but that’s… think about it, Rose. The electricity thing that he does, and the moon’s gravitational pull that affects the tides and such. Something about the moon must have, I don’t know, amplified whatever energy readings were being picked up.”\n\nMickey grinned. “Exactly. Torchwood packed up and set out to see what it was. So, think Wonder Woman.”\n\n“What about it?” Rose asked.\n\n“Themyscira.”\n\n“Hidden island? You found a hidden island?”\n\n“Yep. Straight out of sci-fi, I know, but it was there.”\n\n“And this civilization was on this island.”\n\n“Yes. We have no idea how they evolved or even if they're originally from Earth.”\n\n“And you all thought it was a good idea to camp out and study them? Like nothing bad could ever come of that?”\n\n“Right. We know that now, in hindsight. And we have no idea how Statten got a hold of those files. We’re thinking there’s a mole in Torchwood, just like I’m working for van Statten. Believe me, we’re combing through everything to find out who it was.”\n\n“What was in the files?” Martha asked.\n\n“Well, I think when you do the CT scan tomorrow, you’ll find that his epiphysis cerebri is larger than a human’s. That’s what gives him telepathic abilities. He can automatically translate everything we’re saying because of that. Something about being able to read the other parts of our brains while we’re speaking to understand the words. Our linguists even came up with a fake language, and they could understand.”\n\nRose’s eyes widened. “He can read minds?” Did he know what she thought of him?\n\n“Essentially. But not, like, what you’re thinking. It’s got to be spoken.”\n\nShe studied her fingernails. “Oh. Good.”\n\n“The human brain and his brain operate at different frequencies. His is higher, of course. That’s why you were able to see his dream. You were holding his hand. Skin-to-skin contact, and his brain was working at a frequency compatible with ours, and only at certain stages of sleep.”\n\n“Right place, right time, basically. Did Torchwood do experiments or something?”\n\n“No, they only collected data.”\n\n“Theta felt like what happened was his fault because of Torchwood.”\n\n“Yeah, here’s the thing. Lupa, she was open to interaction, but he never was. And, yeah, it sort of is our fault. If Torchwood hadn’t collected data, van Statten wouldn’t have gotten hold of it.”\n\n“What about that energy Torchwood detected?” Martha asked.\n\n“Theta wouldn’t ever let us get near it. He was very protective. We think he was some sort of guardian of it, being Lupa’s mate. It’s some sort of… life force, we think, or they could regard it as a deity, even. The agents there would see it at night, light coming from somewhere on the island. We never figured it out, and we wouldn’t pry because we didn’t want to lose their trust. But we do know they can live for a long time. They’re not immortal, but we’re thinking hundreds of years, maybe more, if something doesn’t happen to them.”\n\n“They wanted him specifically, though. Why?”\n\n“One of the agents was hurt, took a nasty fall while exploring the island. Theta healed him.”\n\n“Statten wanted to find out how.”\n\n“Yeah. And we know we messed up, and we want to do anything possible to help get him back.”\n\nRose spoke up. “Wait. You’ve been working with us for a while now. How long ago was Theta picked up?”\n\n“It’s been a few months, we think, since Saxon got a hold of him. It’s been that long since the last supermoon.”\n\n“What the fuck has Saxon been doing with him for months?”\n\n“I don’t think any of us want to know the answer to that. And we had no idea he’d been taken, or we would have gotten at him earlier.”\n\n“Well, you’re not keeping him at Torchwood when we break him out. I don’t think he’d want that, and I certainly don’t want to keep him in a lab again.”\n\n“Where do you want him to go, then?”\n\nShe shrugged. “He can stay with me. Can’t Torchwood do some sort of protection even if he’s not at your facilities?”\n\n“Yeah, we can. So, what do you think? How do we bust him out of there?”\n\nRose raised her eyebrows. “Shouldn’t Torchwood have a plan? You’re the ones with access to resources, and you need to clean up the mess you’ve made.”\n\n“We do, yeah, but I wanna know what you would do.”\n\nShe thought for a moment. “No guns blazing… what if we could just, I don’t know, get him out through a back door or something?”\n\n“And how would we get him out without someone noticing? That hair and beard aren’t exactly inconspicuous.”\n\n“We’d have to put him in some normal clothes, I suppose. I could cut his hair. Make him look a bit more London than wilderness man. Put him in a hat. Fake glasses. That sort of thing.”\n\n“Can Torchwood make him some credentials?” Martha posed.\n\n“We can do that. What else?”\n\nRose began cleaning the table, picking up their boxes and throwing them in the trash. “How soon can he get back to the island?”\n\n“Two weeks? We need him to lie low for a bit while Torchwood makes it look like we're running this big operation.\"\n\n\"Sort of like a shell game?\"\n\n\"Exactly. \"\n\n“We’ve got to do this before he starts checking up on us again.”\n\n\"Right. We need to have him out in two days, by my estimation. Gives us a day to prep everything. Plant an employee record, notify other Torchwood agents inside, that kind of stuff. It’s only been a few days since we’ve started our work, a day less since Saxon disappeared. We'll think of something to distract him, too. Because with the technology Statten's got, I can't imagine he's not on the mend. Maybe we'll drain his bank account or something. Identity theft. Once we have him out, the other Torchwood agents and I will clean up afterwards, and we’ll make it look like it was us. They won’t suspect either of you. Especially when we show up the next morning and put in the call that he's missing.”\n\n“What about cameras and all that? When we're getting him out for real?”\n\nHe grinned. “See, Rose, you’d make a great agent. And you, too, Martha, of course.”\n\nMartha said sheepishly, “I might need to find something new after all this is done. No way I’m staying with Statten.”\n\nMickey smiled, and they were awkwardly silent for a moment.\n\nRose cleared her throat. “Aaaaaanyway, cameras?”\n\n“I’ll get a hold of our guy in security.”\n\n\"Well. I guess it's sorted, then?\"\n\n\"Yeah.\"\n\n\"Wanna watch a movie or something?\" Martha asked.\n\n\"Nah, I'm good. I kinda want to sleep,\" Rose answered.\n\n\"Mickey?\"\n\n\"Let's get some ice cream or something. My treat.\"\n\nMartha smiled. \"Yeah. You owe me big time, mister.\"\n\n--\n\nRose tossed and turned in her bed later that evening, her mind replaying the whole conversation.\n\nShe thought of Theta, how lonely he must have been for a while, how lonely he must be when they leave. He seemed to enjoy their company a bit. She was happy he wouldn’t be alone for much longer.\n\nShe thought of Mickey’s comment, about the deity or life force or whatever on the island. She wasn’t particularly religious herself, never had been.\n\nShe sighed. Obviously, whatever it was couldn’t hear her, but she decided to say a few words anyway. “I promise I’ll bring him home.”"}
+{"text": "\n“Mama!”\n\n\n \n\n\nEda awoke to a little hand on her face. She blearily opens her eyes to see her two-year old leaning over her.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Up time!”\n\n\n \n\n\nEda stretches, feeling her back pop, and grabs Aria, pulling her into the nest.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Few more minutes,” mumbles Eda, snuggling into Aria, who was attempting to squirm out of her mothers arms.\n\n\n \n\n\n“No!” she squeals, “Hooty! Hooty!”\n\n\n \n\n\nEda hardly has time to react before she sees a shadow loom above them.\n\n\n \n\n\n“I will protect you, fair maiden!”\n\n\n \n\n\nHooty squirms his way in between the two and wraps himself around a giggling Aria, lifting her out of the nest and onto the ground. \n\n\n \n\n\n“Alright, alright,” says Eda, yawning and sitting up, “I get the picture, I’m up.”\n\n\n \n\n\nShe swings her legs off the side of her nest and slips her feet into her bunny slippers. As soon as she stands up, Aria grabs her hand and starts dragging her downstairs.\n\n\n \n\n\nEda’s nose is met with the smell of griffin eggs and herbs, and sees a plate of food on the table. Raine must have made her breakfast before leaving for work. She smiles.\n\n\n \n\n\nEven now, their acts of love and care warm Eda's heart.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Nini made food,” says Aria, confirming her suspicions. \n\n\n \n\n\n“Did you already eat, songbird?” Aria nods, before climbing up onto the bench and grabbing a letter that was on the table.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Hooty gave us mail!” she says, waving the letter around, “for you!” \n\n\n \n\n\nEda takes a bite of eggs and plucks the letter out of Aria’s hands. She observes the familiar gold and black seal, the sign of a \nBlackwood, before carefully tearing open the letter with her nails. \n\n\n \n\n\n\nDearest Edalyn,\n\n\n\n\n\nI hope this letter finds you well! Your last letter has made me chuckle. Aria sounds like such a joy! I cannot wait to see her again.\n\n\n\n\n\nI am wondering if I could ask a favor of you.\n\n\n\n\n\nI have been reading different texts on humans, and their flora is so interesting! I wonder how human ingredients would interact with our potions? Are there new recipes to discover? How good are their teas?\n\n\n\n\n\nI propose we take a day in the human realm! You still have your door, yes?\n\n\n\n\n\nPerhaps we could even take the children with us! Elwin has gotten so curious. He often watches me while potion making, I’m sure they’d have a lovely time.\n\n\n\n\n\nLet me know, I look forward to your response!\n\n\n\n\n\nLots of love,\n\n\n\n\n\nRowena Blackwood.\n\n\n\n \n\n\nEda chuckles to herself. Rowena Blackwood, after bumping into her at the night market, had kept in semi-constant contact. It turns out that while the Blackwoods were known for their potion business, they have also been doing underground dealings with wild witches for generations. \n\n\n \n\n\nRowena was actually the one who had suggested creating a wild witch group, so they could all help each other evade the emperor coven’s tyrannical law. \nShe was very old fashioned, not even having a scroll, so she and Eda communicated through handwritten letters.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Hey Ari,” says Eda, making the small girl look up from her task of folding paper, “how’d you like to take a trip to the human realm?”\n\n\n \n\n\n“Yes!” says Aria, lighting up. Eda smiles and draws a spell circle, a pen and paper floating in and landing on the table in front of her.\n\n\n \n\n\nTime to write back to Rowena.\n\n\n \n\n\n—-------------------------------------\n\n\n \n\n\nEda walks into the living room, rummaging through her patchwork shoulder bag to make sure she had everything. Aria was laying on the floor, playing with some wooden blocks with runes on them. Aria’s mint green hair was choppy and reached just above her shoulders, and she was wearing black overalls over a red t shirt. Eda was wearing her usual off-the shoulder red dress and tall heeled boots.\n\n\n \n\n\n“You have a visitor, hoot hoot!” says Hooty, the door swinging open. There stood Rowena, holding the hand of her three-year old son Elwin.\n\n\n \n\n\nAria gasps and gets up, running towards the door.\n\n\n \n\n\n“No you don’t!” says Eda, quickly grabbing the toddler and holding her.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Heyyyy!” she whines.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Sorry about that, this little rascal always tries making a mad dash out the door.” says Eda, ruffling Aria’s hair. Rowena laughs.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Oh do I understand that. My little dragon just hit his growth spurt, so we’ve had to move the more dangerous items on the upper shelves.” she says, giving Eda a wink. Elwin looks up at Eda, giving her \na wide smile.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Hello, miss Eda!” he says. Eda chuckles.\n\n\n \n\n\n“No need for that ‘miss’ stuff, kid.” she says, placing Aria down, “Ari, do you remember Elwin? You were very little when you met last.”\n\n\n \n\n\nEda and Rowena had gone out for coffee about a year after Aria had been born. Rowena had brought Elwin with her, and the two seemed to enjoy each other’s company. Eda doubted the two would remember it though.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Hi!” says Aria, holding out a hand, “I’m Aria!”\n\n\n \n\n\n“Elwin,” he replies, taking her hand and shaking it. \n\n\n \n\n\n“Wanna see my toys?” asks Aria. Elwin nods and the two run into the house, Aria leading him to her toy chest.\n\n\n \n\n\nEda smiles and holds back a purr.\n\n\n \n\n\nShe felt bad that Aria was an only child- as a kid, Lily was her best friend, and she worried about Aria being too lonely. When she found out Rowena had given birth a year before her, Eda knew she wanted Aria to befriend the little Elwin.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Come on in,” says Eda to Rowena, “do you have everything you need?”\n\n\n \n\n\n“Yes!” says Rowena, “I’ve brought my camera, my journal, drinks and snacks for the kids, and my magic bag!”\n\n\n \n\n\n“Magic bag?” Eda questions, raising a brow. Rowena gestures to the small messenger bag resting on her hip.\n\n\n \n\n\n“It’s a Blackwood heirloom,” says Rowena, “it’s enchanted so it has unlimited space in it! It’s quite helpful for collecting potion ingredients, I must say.”\n\n\n \n\n\n“Impressive,” notes Eda. That would sure make some of her shoplifting much easier. She makes a mental note to look more into expansion spells.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Alright kids, are you ready to go?” Rowena asks. The two toddlers quickly abandon their toys and run up to their parents.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Yes yes yes!” They both chant. Eda chuckles and takes out the portal door, but doesn’t open it yet.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Before we go, some ground rules,” says Rowena, holding up a finger, “one- you will stay close to us at all times. The human realm is unpredictable, so no wandering off, or we’re coming straight home.”\n\n\n \n\n\n“Two,” continues Eda, “the human realm doesn’t know about witches or demons, so I will have to cast an illusion on the two of you to hide your witchy features,” she casts a spell circle over the two children, and a light glow encompasses them. Both their ears turn small and rounded. Elwin’s pink skin turns a light brown, similar to his mothers, and his tiny bat wings disappear.\n\n\n \n\n\n“You look weird!” Aria giggles, pointing at Elwin. He pokes at her ears.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Not as weird as you!” He says in response, “so circly!”\n\n\n \n\n\nThe two continue to laugh and poke at each other while Rowena and Eda put on their bandanas, hiding their own long ears. Eda opens the portal door, and holds out her hand for Aria to take. Rowena does the same, and the two children hold on to their mothers without complaint.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Off we go!” says Eda, stepping through. \n\n\n \n\n\nThey enter a small broken-down hut, one all too familiar for Eda. They walk towards the open door, and Aria, Elwin, and Rowena marvel at the woods in front of them.\n\n\n \n\n\n“The human world is so…green,” Rowena says in awe. Eda chuckles.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Yeah, and guess what? The rain here doesn’t even boil!”\n\n\n \n\n\n“No!” Rowena gasps, looking at her with shock. \n\n\n \n\n\n“Come on,” says Eda, leading them down the porch steps and into the woods, “I know some fun hiking spots in the woods where we can forage for ingredients.”\n\n\n \n\n \n\n\nThe four spend the next two hours walking through the green forest. Every new tree, animal, or plant was met with a ‘what’s that?’ from Aria and Elwin. Since she had been here so many times, Eda agreed to watch the kids while Rowena could more closely study the human flora. \n\n\n \n\n\nIt reminded her of something Lily would do. Stopping to look at a plant, taking out her journal and drawing a quick sketch. It made her a little melancholy. \n\n\n \n\n\nShe was never able to bring Lilith to the human realm. When she had found the portal, it was after her sister had already gone to be at the emperor’s coven, so she never had the chance to show her.\n\n\n \n\n\nLilith would find the human realm so fascinating.\n\n\n \n\n\nShe was snapped out of her musings when Aria came up to her, a variety of mushrooms in her hands.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Mama, look!” she says, shoving the mushrooms up at Eda, “hang on wall!”\n\n\n \n\n\n“Haha, okay okay,” says Eda, casting a spell circle and putting them in a small baggie, before stuffing them in her hair. Aria had developed a habit of placing anything she found cool on her bedroom wall, from sticks to monster teeth. \n\n\n \n\n\nRaine would jokingly complain about where she got that habit from, as Eda was in the process of hanging up a large foam finger she found on their living-room wall.\n\n\n \n\n\nEda snaps out of her musings and looks over at Elwin, who was bent over a berry bush, slowly bringing a red berry to his mouth.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Elwin, no, don’t eat that!”\n\n\n \n\n\n—-------------------------------------\n\n\n \n\n\nEventually, the four made their way out of the dense forest and ended up in the small town Eda knew as Gravesfield. Usually there wasn’t much activity going on, and Eda’s shenanigans were the most eventful thing happening at any given time.\n\n\n \n\n\nToday, however, there were dozens of stalls lining the streets, all selling different wares.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Looks like humans have their own market days,” muses Eda, “this usually isn’t here.”\n\n\n \n\n\n“What an excellent opportunity!” Rowena gasps, clapping, “maybe I could find some human tea!”\n\n\n \n\n\n“Okay rascals,” says Eda, bending down to Aria and Elwin, “you two are gonna hold on to us the entire time, okay?” The two nod and proceed to hold their mothers’ hands. Elwin and Aria also hold hands, so they’ve created a four person chain.\n\n\n \n\n\nThe four start weaving their way through the stalls, the children oohing and aahing at the different products. Eventually, Elwin stops, pointing at a stall.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Mommy,” says Elwin, tugging on Rowena’s arm, “I want one!”\n\n\n \n\n\nThe two women turn their heads to see what Elwin is pointing at. At one of the stands full of stuffed animals was a stuffed giraffe.\n\n\n \n\n\n“I forgot those were a thing here,” Rowena muses, “alright sweetheart, is that really what you want?” Elwin nods, and so the four make their way towards the stand.\n\n\n \n\n\n“I would like that giraffe stuffed animal, please,” says Rowena, and Elwin grabs the stuffed animal and holds it close to him. Rowena takes some snails out of her pocket and passes them to the vendor. They look closely at the money and frown.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Look lady, I don’t know where you’re from, but we only take American cash here,” they say, passing the money back to her. Rowena furrows her eyebrows.\n\n\n \n\n\n“American…cash?” she questions.\n\n\n \n\n\nThe vendor grabs the stuffed animal out of Elwin’s hands, who lets out a cry of protest.\n\n\n \n\n\n“No cash, no animal.”\n\n\n \n\n\n“Here, let me.”\n\n\n \n\n\nA woman walks up next to them and hands the vendor some money. She looked to be heavily pregnant, with warm brown skin and chocolate colored eyes behind red glasses. \n\n\n \n\n\nThe vendor hands the stuffed animal to the woman, who turns and hands the animal to Elwin.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Here you go niñito,” Elwin takes the animal and hugs it close to his chest.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Thank you miss!” he says. He turns to Aria and shows her the creature, and she pokes its long neck, commenting on how strange it looks.\n\n\n \n\n\n“I appreciate your kindness,” says Rowena to the woman, “please, how can I repay you?”\n\n\n \n\n\nThe woman lets out a hearty laugh and waves her hand in dismissal.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Don’t worry about it,” she says. Rowena smiles appreciatively at the woman, before she starts fishing through her messenger bag.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Cariño!” Yells a man, running up to them. He was wearing a flannel and had dark curly hair that faded into a short beard.\n\n\n \n\n\n“I found a stall selling flowers,” he says, putting a hand on her shoulder, “it’d be a perfect gift for your mother!”\n\n\n \n\n\nIt was then he noticed Rowena, Eda, and the two children.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Oh I’m sorry, did I interrupt?” he asks, putting a hand up to his face, looking mildly embarrassed.\n\n\n \n\n\n“No no, it’s alright,” says Eda, “thank you again. We’re from out of town, and totally forgot the correct currency.”\n\n\n \n\n\n“Ah, I can’t tell you how many times that’s happened to me,” the man chuckles, “I’d forget my own head if it wasn’t attached to my body! Camila here really keeps me grounded”\n\n\n \n\n\n“Mama,” says Aria, tugging on Eda’s dress, “ups!”\n\n\n \n\n\nEda smiles and hoists Aria up, balancing her on her hip.\n\n\n \n\n\n“You have no idea how much I relate,” says Eda, turning back to the man, “I’ve lost my hands more times than I can count.”\n\n\n \n\n\nThe man looks at her with mild concern.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Uhh…”\n\n\n \n\n\n“Found it!” Rowena announces, taking out a bracelet. It was beaded, each painted with intricate details, with a flower charm in the middle. She offers it to Camila.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Please, take this as thanks.”\n\n\n \n\n\n“Oh, I couldn’t” says Camila, heat rising to her cheeks, “it looks too valuable.”\n\n\n \n\n\n“My husband is a jewelry maker,” Rowena explains, “if you’re worried about the price, you need not be- I’d love for you to have it.” Camila gently takes it, and admires the handiwork.\n\n\n \n\n\n“This is incredible,” she breathes, captivated by its beauty. She slips it on her wrist, relieved to see it’s a perfect fit, “Thank you so much!” Rowena practically glows at the woman’s reaction.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Well, are you ready to go?” the man asks his wife. She nods up at him, before waving to the little family. The two groups go their separate ways.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Nice protection spell on that bracelet,” Eda comments once they’re out of earshot, “are all your husband's creations charmed like that?”\n\n\n \n\n\n“Only by special request,” Rowena says, giving Eda a sly smile, “I keep some of his work on me at all times in case I’m hit with a particular…divination.” \n\n\n \n\n\n“I didn’t know you dabbled in oracle magic,” says Eda, “you sense something about her?” Rowena nods, her expression turning serious.\n\n\n \n\n\n“I’m not sure what it is, but I have a feeling there’s going to be hardship for her in the future…I want to make sure someone that kind is protected.” Eda feels a shiver up her spine.\n\n\n \n\n\nThere was a reason she never got into oracle magic, and it was because it gave her the creeps.\n\n\n \n\n\nWhile oracles couldn’t see perfectly into the future, their intuition and clairvoyance were leveled up. One of Raine’s mothers was an oracle, and she was always being cryptic- from sending Eda a string of garlic a month before she ran into a vampire, to sending clothes for Aria with her exact measurements, even when she’s constantly growing.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Admit it, you just like carrying those on you so you have a good reason to give strangers gifts,” Eda remarks. Blood rushes to Rowena’s face.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Guilty!” she giggles, “I’m just not all that great with interactions- I’ve found gift giving to be universally beloved!”\n\n\n \n\n\n“I know I for one always love free stuff,” she says, before zeroing in on a vendor selling loose-leaf tea, “Speaking of free stuff…what do you say I show you the bad girl art of stealing?”\n\n\n \n\n\n—-------------------------------------\n\n\n \n\n\nThe two moms stepped through the portal door, their children asleep in their arms. After a successful day of robbing different human stands, and making sure their easily distracted children didn’t run off or get lost, they both felt dead on their feet. Eda in particular felt magically drained, as she had kept up the illusion on the two kids for the whole day. She could feel feathers pricking through her arms, and knew she needed to take an elixir soon.\n\n\n \n\n\n“You’re back!” says Raine, walking into the living room, “I made leftovers! Rowena, do you want to join us for dinner?” they ask, taking a sleeping Aria from Eda, who gratefully stretched out her stiff arms.\n\n\n \n\n\n“I’d love to, but I fear my little dragon needs his beauty sleep,” she says, taking out her palisman. It was a light brown snake with white spots and golden eyes. \n\n\n \n\n\n“Thank you again for today,” says Rowena to Eda, opening the door, “we’ll have to get together again soon!” \n\n\n \n\n\nEda smiles, watching her and Elwin fly away.\n"}
+{"text": "The morning of the sports festival is a buzz of energy. Izuku wakes up an hour earlier than usual (not because of a nightmare for once), and dresses and gets ready in record time. Inko makes a large breakfast. Ten minutes before his bus will arrive, Izuku can’t wait any longer, and grabs his bag to leave.\n\n“I feel bad we can’t have our yearly festival-watching party,” he says as he hugs his mom goodbye. \n\n“Oh, don’t worry, I’m recording it,” Inko assures him. “We can watch it later, and you can give me the inside scoop.”\n\nIzuku smiles. “Okay, sounds good.”\n\n“Good luck, Izuku,” Inko beams. “You’re going to do great!”\n\n“Thanks, mom.”\n\n \n\nThe classroom is empty when Izuku gets there, a note on the chalkboard telling them to leave their belongings and get changed into their gym uniforms before heading to the stadium. \n\nIn the locker room, a few other guys are changing. Kaminari waves to Izuku.\n\n“Hey man, you excited?” he asks.\n\n“Yeah,” Izuku says, opening his locker. “You?”\n\n“I’m so hype, dude. Just hoping I don’t go stupid in front of all those cameras.” Kaminari laughs awkwardly. \n\nIzuku shrugs. “You’ve got a good chance of making an impression on the pros, though. Electricity is both flashy and versatile, and there have been some pretty cool pros with electric quirks.”\n\n“Yeah, that’s true.” Kaminari zips up his jacket. “Let’s just hope it’s a good impression.”\n\nIzuku knows the feeling. Assuming he gets far enough for anyone to notice, he’ll make a stir just by being quirkless. \n\nIzuku and Kaminari walk to the stadium together, but split up when they get to the prep room. Izuku avoids catching Katsuki’s eyes and sits next to Hitoshi, who’s hunched over, glaring daggers into the table.\n\n“Everything okay?” he asks.\n\n“Oh. everything’s great, I just have to go on national television with no binder, it’s fine,” Hitoshi snarls sarcastically. He sighs, deflating a bit. “Like, I get why I can’t wear a binder while exercising, that’s why my costume has a jacket. But Midnight’s refusing to let me wear it because it isn’t ‘essential support gear’.”\n\n“Geez, that’s shitty.” Izuku frowns. “She said the same thing about my gauntlets.”\n\n“It’s the fucking worst,” Hitoshi agrees. “Mic tried to get her to let me as a favor to him, since they went to school together, but she’s being stubborn as hell.”\n\n“I’m sorry.”\n\n“Ugh, it’s not like they’re even really visible in my gym uniform. They’re already pretty small, and I have a top made for dancers that keeps them pretty firmly in place,” Hitoshi explains. “It just feels like the minute I walk out there everyone's going to be staring directly at my chest.”\n\nBefore Izuku can think of something reassuring to say, Ochako and Tsuyu join them. \n\n“Are you guys excited?” Ochako asks.\n\n“Aside from the debilitating dysphoria, yes.”\n\nTsuyu pats Histoshi’s arm. “I understand, kero.”\n\nShouto joins them, sitting on Izuku’s other side. \n\n“Welcome to the table of misery,” Hitoshi jokes. \n\n“Why is this the table of misery?” Shouto asks.\n\n“Mostly just because I’m miserable and I want to feel like I’m not alone.”\n\n“Oh.”\n\n“Are you excited, Shouto?” Ochako asks. “Everyone’s already saying you’re the favorite to win.”\n\n“I guess.” Shouto shrugs. “They’re only saying that because of my father, though.”\n\n“That’s probably true for the people who don’t know you,” Tsuyu says. “But I do think you have a really good chance of winning. Aside from a strong quirk, I can tell from our training so far that you’ve got good combat sense and reflexes.”\n\n“I wouldn’t say I’m so much better that I’d be the favorite,” Shouto says. “There are other people in our class who are strong or smart.”\n\n“Sure, but you’ve clearly had training before this,” Histoshi says, face now resting on the table. Shouto frowns slightly. \n\n“Hey, don’t make it sound like none of us have a chance,” Izuku teases. He turns to Shouto. “If we end up facing each other, I’m gonna kick your ass.” \n\n“Okay.” Shouto’s mouth twitches up on one side in a tiny smile.\n\n“This is the prep room for 1-A, right?” A voice says from the doorway. Izuku looks up to see Natsuo standing there, holding his gauntlets. \n\n“Natsu-nii?” Shouto asks.\n\n“Hey, Shouto.” Natsuo walks over to their table. “I came to bring Izuku his gauntlets.”\n\n“You got Midnight to approve them?” Izuku asks. Hitoshi huffs angrily, and Izuku shoots him an apologetic grimace.\n\n“Yeah, turns out that babbling on about support tech jargon will get her to sign the papers, even if it’s just to shut me up.��� Natsuo hands them over. “Here you go.”\n\n“Thanks!” Izuku grins. \n\n“Hey, what the fuck are you doing here?” Katsuki appears to have noticed Natsuo, who heaves a sigh.\n\n“Oh right, you’re here too,” he rolls his eyes. “The support company I intern with sent me as a scout.”\n\n“And what, you came to say hi to fucking Deku?”\n\n“Actually I came to deliver his gauntlets. And to wish my brother good luck.”\n\nIzuku watches the gears turn in Katsuki’s head as he realises who Natsuo’s talking about. “What the fuck do you mean Icy-Hot is your brother?”\n\n“Icy-Hot?” Natsuo asks, raising an eyebrow. “Still doing that stupid nickname thing, huh?”\n\nKatsuki slams an explosion onto his table, but Natsuo smoothly ignores him and turns back to Izuku and Shouto.\n\n“Anyway, good luck you two,” he says. “I should get to my seat before the opening ceremony.”\n\n“Thanks, Natsu-nii.”\n\n“Thanks, Natsuo-senpai!” Izuku chirps. Natsuo ruffles his hair, pats Shouto on the shoulder, and leaves without so much as a glance in Katsuki’s direction. \n\n“Holy shit your brother’s cool,” Hitoshi mutters. \n\n“Thanks?” Shouto’s eyebrows furrow slightly. \n\n“You’re welcome.”\n\nKatsuki starts toward them, but gets intercepted by Iida yelling about his disrespectful attitude. Their increasingly loud conversation is interrupted by the announcement for them to get ready to walk into the stadium. Yaoyorozu takes charge, directing them down the stairs to the hallway they’re designated to enter through. \n\n“Now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for!” Present Mic’s voice booms across the stadium. “The first-year participants are about to take the stage, are you ready?” The crowd cheers. “Alright, first up is Class 1-A, the rising stars who held their own against a villain attack!”\n\n“I told him to not say that,” Hitoshi mutters as they stride onto the field. \n\nCameras flash from every angle, and the roar of the crowd is deafening. Izuku puts on a cheerful smile and waves, gritting his teeth against the onslaught of sensory input. He barely hears the introductions for Class B and the other courses. They converge in front of the stage where Midnight stands. \n\n“Someone needs to talk to Midnight-sensei about what she's wearing,” Kirishima says, avoiding looking at her. “At least while she’s teaching.”\n\n“Apparently her original costume was worse,” Hitoshi adds. \n\n“And now, your first year representative!” Midnight announces. “From Class 1-A, Midoriya Izuku!”\n\nIzuku climbs onto the stage. Aizawa had told him last week that he’d be doing this, since he came in first in the heroics exam. He’d thought about what he wanted to say, had gone so far as to try writing a speech, but he’d never been able to come up with something that didn’t sound either cheesy or outright hostile. Winging it isn’t the best plan, but Izuku’s never claimed to make good decisions.\n\n“I know there’s been a lot of talk about certain classes or certain students having the upper hand in this tournament,” Izuku says into the microphone, grinning. “But I just want to say, don’t get too caught up in all that. You never know when someone will come from behind and surprise you.” He bows and turns to leave the stage.\n\nThere’s scattered applause from the assembled students, mixed with a lot of weird looks. Izuku catches at least five Class B students squinting at him in confusion. When he reaches his class, Ochako grins at him and Hitoshi pats him on the back. \n\n“Hell of a speech,” he teases. \n\n“Thanks,” Izuku laughs. \n\n“Now, let’s get started with the first event!” Midnight says. “Up first is the qualifier! To proceed on to the next event, our first years will have to face…” She trails off, gesturing to a screen. A roll of events flash across the screen before coming to a stop. “An obstacle course race!”\n\n“Members of all eleven classes will race along a four-kilometer track around the stadium! As long as they stay on the course, anything goes!” A gate opens, and the classes move to the entrance. Izuku slips through the crowd, weaving between other students with the practiced ease of someone who’s spent years navigating crowded school halls without drawing attention to himself. He loses sight of his friends, but ends up near the front.\n\n“Get ready!” Midnight calls. “Get set! Go!” \n\nA buzzer sounds, and the mass of students charges forward as one. Izuku’s far enough forward that he avoids getting trapped as students flood the too-narrow tunnel. A wave of cold sweeps through, and Izuku knows what’s about to happen. He jumps, kicking off the wall as ice covers the ground. \n\nIzuku lands, struggling to find his footing as Shouto races past. He picks his way across the ice as quickly as he can. A lot of other students have avoided the ice, and they’re starting to catch up. By the time Izuku reaches un-frozen dirt, he can see the first obstacle. \n\nThe robots from the entrance exam cover the track from edge to edge, including a row or towering zero-pointers. Izuku catches sight of Shouto in front of them just before he unleashes a massive wave of ice, freezing all the zero-pointers in one go. \n\n“Quick!” A student Izuku doesn’t recognize yells. “Between their legs!”\n\n“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Shouto calls over his shoulder as he runs. “I froze them off-balance. On purpose.”\n\nA laugh bursts out of Izuku as he dodges a one-pointer. He hangs back as the massive robots crash down, sending ice and metal flying. He ducks another one-pointer and rushes forward once the dust has settled. A three-pointer locks onto him and chases.\n\n“Shit,” he mutters, scanning the track for something he can use. He spots a metal panel and grabs it, swinging it around to slam into the three-pointer and knock it to the ground. \n\nHe takes off again. He can hear Present Mic over all the commotion, but he doesn’t bother listening to whatever he’s saying. Izuku can tell he isn’t near the front of the group anymore, but he’s not out of the running.\n\nIzuku keeps going, bringing the panel with him. If nothing else it’ll make a decent shield. He reaches the second obstacle, where a group of students are hesitating at the edge of a canyon. Shouto is already more than halfway across, using his ice to stabilize himself as he crosses the web of cables stretching between small platforms. \n\nKatsuki is catching up, using his explosions to blast himself over the canyon. Izuku blocks out the sound the best he can and focuses on himself. He uses the wires still attached to his bit of paneling to strap it across his back. Nearby, a girl decked out in support gear launches herself off the edge, using some sort of grappling hook to catch onto a platform. Izuku smiles to himself. He can admit he has a bit of a soft spot for support techs. \n\nIzuku grabs onto a cable and hangs off it, hooking his knees over it and crawling along. The undersides of his gauntlets protect his palms, keeping them from being rubbed raw.\n\nBy the time he reaches the far edge of the canyon his arms are aching, but he powers through. Present Mic is yelling about the third obstacle, a minefield. Izuku nearly trips over his own feet. The last fucking thing he needs right now is to be surrounded by explosions. \n\nPresent Mic explains that the mines are harmless, designed to trip them up more than hurt them, but are still loud and flashy. Izuku is far from reassured.\n\nHe pauses at the edge of the minefield. Shouto is picking his way across carefully, and as Izuku watches Katsuki blasts by him. He tears his eyes away from them and looks at the ground. Almost all the mines near the front are untouched. Izuku knows he’s fast and sneaky, but he lost a lot of time crossing the canyon, and he can’t be sure he’ll be fast enough to secure a qualifying spot. \n\nAn idea comes to him. It’s reckless, and if it doesn’t work he’ll lose even more time, but it’s all he’s got. Taking a deep breath, he pulls the panel from his back and uses it to start unearthing mines and pushing them into a pile. He flinches every time another student triggers one.\n\nHe takes a step back, wrapping the wires around his gauntlets to give himself a grip on the panel. “Thanks for the idea, Katsuki,” he mutters, slamming the panel down onto the pile of mines.\n\nThey explode into a giant cloud of pink smoke, propelling Izuku through the air. He goes flying over the heads of the other students, many of whom are staring up at him in shock. Present Mic starts yelling about an upset as Izuku goes soaring past Shouto and Katsuki, who stop going after each other to race after him. \n\nThe ground is rapidly approaching, and Izuku realizes he has no idea how to land. If he hits the dirt at this speed he might not be able to recover fast enough. Below him Shouto and Katsuki are neck-and-neck. He shifts his position the best he can in midair, and manages to plant one foot on each of their shoulders.\n\n“Sorry Shouto!” He yells, slamming the panel onto the ground. The mines below them explode, propelling Izuku forward while knocking the other two to the sides.\n\nIzuku hits the ground and rolls to his feet, safely across the minefield. He doesn’t pause to look behind him as he takes off running. The gate back into the stadium is just ahead of him, and Izuku sprints into it. He blocks out everything else, focusing only on getting to the finish line. \n\nHe bursts through the tunnel into the stadium to the sound of raucous cheering. He stumbles to a stop, bracing his hands on his knees.\n\n“The first-place finisher of the qualifier is none other than Midoriya Izuku!” Present Mic announces. Izuku looks up at one of the screens around the stadium to find his own face grinning down at him, a gold number one emblazoned on his picture. He laughs, straightening up and grinning triumphantly. \n\nIzuku takes a moment to absorb the applause from the roaring crowd. Pride wells up in his chest, and for once he doesn’t think about how Katsuki is going to feel about his accomplishment. "}
+{"text": "\n It’s a cruel word. But you ain’t it. \n\n\n“Is there a statute of limitations on a lie of omission?” Matt asked, hands wrapped tightly around his black coffee.\n\nFather Lantom chuckled. “You really are a lawyer sometimes.”\n\nMatt remembered his younger self running hands over Thurgood Marshall’s writing and translating the feeling into words for his father. The way his father’s heart had beat, impressed that his son was reciting what, to him, might as well have been a foreign language. Matt had always hated the world for sticking his father in that ring, robbing him of any chance to read Thurgood Marshall, or anything at all other than signs advertising the latest fight. But he knew it was sacrilege to hate the ring, so he kept it to himself.\n\n“I just wish I had told him. I like to think…” Matt trailed off, shrugging. “I like to think he’d be okay. With it. With me. But at the same time…”\n\n“It’s something you’ll never know,” Lantom said.\n\nMatt frowned, taking a drink from his cup.\n\n“He was a compassionate man. Everyone around here says so. And I’ve heard you talk about him, and he really loved you, Matthew. If that helps.”\n\nIt didn’t. “It does.”\n\n \n\n \n\nThere was a cafe across the street from the community center that Matt knew intimately despite having never been in it. As much as everyone appreciated Owen setting up coffee, it was understood that it wasn’t his strength, and people often came to the meetings with lattes and pastries with expensive ingredients that drove Matt up the wall. It reminded him of sharing a dorm with Foggy.\n\nHe was grateful for Owen’s coffee. He didn’t need something from across the street. No matter how many times he smelled pumpkin spice.\n\n“I’ve been thinking about my dad a lot,” Matt started. “Not fondly. I’m not upset with him. I just feel guilty.”\n\nHe sighed, leaning his head forward into his hands.\n\n“It’s exhausting, feeling guilty all the time. And even thinking that goes against every Catholic bone in my body. I should be guilty. God, I couldn’t even tell you why anymore, just that I am. I wish I had known my dad. I wish I’d had the chance. Seven years, that’s nothing. And I’ve been thinking about it in relation to God’s plan. My priest tells me it all happens for a reason, that we’re trying to piece together why things happen from the wrong side. But I just can’t  see it.” He laughed self-deprecatingly, gesturing to his glasses. No one joined him.\n\n“I mean, not to throw myself a pity party here, but c’mon. Blinded and orphaned and,” he stumbled over the word, like always, but he’d been able to say it more often, “raped, all within a couple of years. What’s the reason? What’s the  possible reason? And I can’t stop thinking that maybe… maybe God’s plan fucking sucks. I don’t know. I don’t know about anything, but I just can’t stop… feeling this thing inside me, and I get so mad I could lose it. Really lose it.”\n\nHe shook his head, an inside joke he shares only with himself. “I just want to let the Devil out on God sometimes.”\n\n“You know, Matt, that’s a really big step.”\n\nMatt lifted his head up in surprise.\n\n“Anger, it’s not always a terrible thing. And it’s nothing to feel guilty about.”\n\n“Actually, it’s one of the seven big things to feel guilty about.”\n\n“It’s healing,” Owen said. “When you’re angry at the people who hurt you, it’s a sign that you’re realizing what happened was wrong. That you didn’t deserve it.”\n\nMatt furrowed his brow, but Owen kept talking. “Anger is a sort of self-defense. It guards you from feeling something else, sometimes, but when recovering from abuse, it’s defending you against yourself. That anger is your self-hatred being redirected to those who hurt you. Where it belongs.”\n\n \n\n \n\n“Hey, Karen, what are you—”\n\n“You called yourself the Devil.”\n\nMatt stood still, holding the door to his apartment open. Karen was standing outside it, having shown up unannounced, heart pounding like she was terrified or had just run a mile. Or like she might break down in tears.\n\n“What are you talking about?”\n\n“You called yourself the Devil, Matt. When I asked about you and Foggy fighting. Was it because you’re gay?”\n\n“Karen—”\n\n“Because you’re not the Devil, alright?” She walked right past him into his apartment, planning to argue her way through this, prepared to win a fight against a professional lawyer with her conviction alone.\n\nHe shut the door and followed her to his living room.\n\n“You know—”\n\nShe isn’t planning on hearing his side. Not yet. “Yeah, Matt, I know about your insane habit of dressing up at night and kicking criminals’ asses, but you chose to put those horns on. Some part of you picked that. And your grandma called you the Devil when you were a  kid,  and I can’t imagine how that fucked up how you feel about yourself, but Matt, I’m starting to get an idea of how deep that runs.”\n\nShe took a step closer to him, careful not to invade his space.\n\n“This Murdock Devil… what is it? What do you think it is?”\n\nMatt took a shaky breath, his own heart racing to match hers now. He could feel her posture shift, and he knew she was waiting for an answer, but after that day’s meeting, he wasn’t sure what to give her.\n\n“Matt. Why do you call yourself the Devil?”\n\n“I don’t know,” he confessed. “I don’t know anymore.”\n\n \n\n \n\nAt the end of the night, he walked her to his door. He didn’t know when he stopped pretending he could live without her, without Foggy, but he’d recently thrown all pretenses aside.\n\nHe could hear in her breathing the shift to a small smile while she said goodnight, and before she went, she told him, “I’m glad you finally learned how to work a thermostat.”\n\n“What do you mean?” he asked.\n\n“Your apartment is always freezing. But it was actually livable tonight.”\n\n \n\n \n\nFoggy had a certain skip in his step for the past couple of days. Matt wasn’t sure what caused it, but it was nice to hear the uptick of his favorite heartbeat every time the office’s door opened. It made his shoulders drop just a little, his instinctively rigid posture able to relax around the man he trusted so well.\n\nBut today was a new level. Foggy came in whistling. Honest to God whistling. And the moment he opened the door, Matt smelled it.\n\nPumpkin spice with whipped cream. And a cinnamon muffin to boot.\n\nAs Matt suspected, he didn’t go to his desk. He came over to Matt’s, his heart thrumming nervously and some new cologne that was just subtle enough that Matt was able to enjoy it without being smothered, and his hand was radiating warmth because of the drink he had in it, and Matt knew with sudden and complete clarity what was about to happen.\n\n“Foggy, don’t,” he cut in, and Foggy stopped, confused. “You can’t— you don’t know—”\n\n“I don’t know everything,” Foggy agreed, interrupting him gently. “But I don’t need to.”\n\n“What happened to the importance of honesty?”\n\n“You have honest intentions. And you’re not keeping anything from me. You’re just not ready to say it.” He shrugged, carefree, despite everything that was happening. “That’s different.”\n\n“I…” Matt tried, before realizing he was arguing for nothing. A case he wasn’t even sure he still believed in. So he swallowed, straightened his glasses, and said, “I have to be the one… to ask. It’s one of those. Things of mine.”\n\nFoggy nodded, setting the bag from the bakery and the coffee cup onto Matt’s desk.\n\n“Do you want to ask?” Foggy questioned.\n\n“For years now.”\n\n“Alright. Then I’ll be here when you’re ready.”\n\nAnd it was that simple for him. He was willing to walk out of Matt’s office and go to his own and wait for an unspecified amount of time for Matt to work up the guts, the strength, the heart to say it. It made Matt warm from the inside out.\n\nAs Foggy turned to leave, Matt said, “Wait.”\n\nAnd Foggy did.\n\n“Do you want to… Foggy, do you want to go out tonight? With me?”\n\n \n\n \n\nThe two of them debated for over twenty minutes when Foggy got to Matt’s. Josie’s was deemed too casual, most of the bars in town were deemed too loud or smelly or just terrible, any and all formal restaurants were deemed too expensive for two lawyers with consciences, and diners were too greasy. Finally Matt said, “We could just stay in?”\n\nWhich he regretted saying as soon as he did. That kind of statement has implications. And Foggy knew them, given the heat that flooded his cheeks, but he had the decency not to bring them up because he’s Foggy.\n\n“Yeah,” he agreed quietly. “That sounds nice.”\n\nSo they ordered a small pizza to split from the only place in Hell’s Kitchen that washed their hands thoroughly enough for Matt to be able to stand. Foggy didn’t even have to ask, he knew which one by heart.\n\nIt felt entirely mundane in a warmly pleasant way until Foggy had the guts to wiggle his toes under Matt’s leg. And then it felt extraordinary, like it was a moment of miracles, and Matt laid a gentle hand on Foggy’s calf and rubbed circles with his thumb.\n\n“Why haven’t we been doing this since the beginning?” Matt asked himself aloud, and Foggy’s heart skipped just a little.\n\n“You know, I tried to in college,” he joked.\n\n“I wasn’t ready.”\n\n“I know.”\n\nAnd he did. Maybe not everything, not the gory details that Matt couldn’t even share with his support group, but the things that make him Matt. He knew him in something deeper than the Biblical sense—he understood him.\n\n \n\n \n\nThey fell asleep together on his couch with their legs brushing against each other and in the morning he and Foggy took turns showering and Matt let the water run hot.\n\n \n\n \n\n“We should get Karen something,” Foggy says on their walk to work. “From the bakery. Or maybe just a strong coffee. She said she hasn’t been sleeping great lately.”\n\n“Maybe she needs less caffeine then.”\n\n“You’re one to talk.”\n\n“Oh, I’m big on hypocrisy. You do know what my day and night jobs are, right?”\n\nFoggy cackled at the joke, and Matt found himself relieved that it wasn’t stepping too far out of line. Maybe it could just be like this, now. Maybe once the lies stopped, the hurt could too. For a bit.\n\nSo while they were in line for a local business that always tried to give them discounts but they overtipped to compensate for, Matt blurted out, “I hate black coffee.”\n\nFoggy’s mouth, halfway through reciting their order to practice for the register, froze. And Matt couldn’t exactly pinpoint all the sensory information that allowed him to figure it out, but he could feel Foggy’s smile in the air around him.\n\n“I know,” Foggy said.\n\n \n\n \n\n“Well, Foggy’s the eyes and the brain of the firm. Always has been,” Matt joked.\n\n“We never decided what that makes you, though.”\n\n“The heart,” Karen said definitively. “Matt’s the heart of the whole thing.”\n\n \n\n \n\n“I was praying last night,” Matt told Father Lantom. “Proper praying, with my mom’s rosary.”\n\n“And did you receive revelation?” Father asked, and Matt laughed.\n\n“No, I didn’t.”\n\n“Then why mention it, if you don’t mind me asking?”\n\nMatt twirled his cane between his legs, a smile he’s not sure how to stop spreading across his face. There were intricacies to the story, details he would spare the Father about Foggy’s hands in his hair and laugh in his mouth, but all Lantom needs to know is, “I stopped begging for forgiveness. I think I might just be sick of it.”\n\n \n\n \n\nMatt’s head was comfortably in Foggy’s lap when the man spoke. “Gift from God,” Foggy said out of the blue, scrolling on his phone.\n\n“What?” Matt asked.\n\n“That’s what your name means. Gift from God.”\n\nMatt grinned. Thought about a more complicated time. And shook his head. “That doesn’t sound right,” he laughed out.\n\n \n\n \n\n“My grandma always said… she said, the Murdock boys, they’ve got the devil in them.”\n\nThe woman in the seat across from him shifted uncomfortably, and he ducked his head, remembering how upset this story tends to make people.\n\n“I don’t think she was wrong,” he continued, much to Owen’s heart’s dismay. “I think she might have meant it wrong, but I saw my dad fight. Heard him fight, later, but I still remember that look in his eyes. And yeah, sometimes she called me a queer before I knew what it meant, and sometimes that’s what she meant, but… I don’t the devil made me gay. I think the Murdock devil, the anger in me, it might be the reason I’m alive. My dad’s fights kept food on the table when I was a kid. The ‘devil,’ the  drive my dad passed down to me, it helps me protect people. Just because the Church is pissed off at me doesn’t make me evil.”\n\nHe sat up straight, hands unclasped and free. “I don’t think I’m all that bad of a person.”\n\n \n\n \n\nAfter the meeting, Matt went across the street and bought himself a hot pumpkin spice latte. His hands shook while he drank it, but he finished the cup before he got the nerve to leave the shop and head to the graveyard.\n\nBattlin’ Jack Murdock. It even said so on his headstone, according to the nuns. He’d never wanted to feel it for himself. But now he knelt down, his hands scraping against the rough stone, and he could make out the inscription beneath the name. “Loving father” was the only dedication they’d given him.\n\n“Hey dad,” he breathed out shakily. “It’s been awhile, huh?”\n\nA woman began crying in the distance. Matt steadied himself against the headstone.\n\n“I’ve been scared to come see you. I really have been. See, I’ve been dressing up as the devil at night and using those boxing skills you tried not to teach me to do it. And I’ve been hurting people, bad people, and you may have seen the world in black and white, but sometimes I wish you’d taken the blood money so you could have been here with me. There’s a lot of haze in the world. I’m trying to make it better, and I know you might now like the way I do it.”\n\nThe grave was cool against Matt’s forehead, but he didn’t mind.\n\n“But it’s not that that makes me scared. I’ve been avoiding you because I don’t know how to ask for forgiveness from you.\n\n“Dad, you were right. I ain’t queer. But I am gay. And I think you’d be okay with that. But I have to accept that I’ll never know for certain. I can’t keep living my life trying to be you, not when you lived your life trying to make mine better than yours. It’s time for me to be okay with myself. When judgement day comes, when I see your face again… I have to know that no matter what you think of me, I’m good at what I do. And I’m good at being good, I think.”\n\nMatt stayed at the grave for a long time, head against the name of his father, before he finally stood. He needed to go home. Foggy was coming to his apartment tonight. It might be time to tell him some things."}
+{"text": "Godric found his way to your side, linking his fingers with yours as you sat at the back of the room. While you were aware the action was meant to comfort, you were just as sure it was intended as a way for him to have a semblance of control over your actions. Neither he nor Eric would be pleased if you got yourself killed trying to save your mate from a similar fate.\n\nYour father and five other people took seats at the front of the room facing the rest of you. Eric stood in front of them, back to you.\n\n“Do you know why you are here, Mr. Northman?” Kibwe Akinjide asked.\n\nYou shifted in your seat. Kibwe was the only other high-ranking member of the Authority in attendance. The others were in the ranks but not chancellors. Alonso was the only other face you recognized of those at the front of the room.\n\n“I was led to believe it had something to do with the execution of Sophie-Anne Leclerq,” Eric answered, his voice as even and flat as always.\n\n“Indeed,” Kibwe responded with a slight nod.\n\n“The true death of Ms. Leclerq—while necessary—has unfortunately left an opening in the power structure of Louisiana,” Alonso explained, his lips twitching slightly. “It is an opening the Authority wishes for you to fill.”\n\nYou forgot to breathe for a moment as those words sunk in. King. They wanted him to be king. Your gaze darted to your father to find him pointedly not glancing in your direction. That slick son-of-a-bitch. You wondered briefly how long it would have taken him to come up with a reason to remove Sophie-Anne if she hadn’t provided one herself. Or maybe it would have been another king or queen closer to his home. He couldn’t maneuver you into a position of power, but Eric was another matter entirely.\n\n“Excuse me, Magister, but it sounded as if you said the Authority wishes me to fill Sophie-Anne’s position.” Eric had gone very still and his shoulders were tight. You could tell he wanted to turn around, to find you in the crowd, but he didn’t.\n\n“That is precisely what I said, Mr. Northman.”\n\n“Might I ask what makes me worthy of such an honor?” Eric asked.\n\n“Loyalty,” your father answered, his gaze finding you briefly as he did so. “You’re loyal to the Authority. You respect the traditions of our kind. I think we both know you could have been rid of Sophie-Anne long before now had you wished, yet you did not. Why?” He continued without giving Eric a chance to respond. “Because you respect the Authority and our decisions, Mr. Northman. Plus, you have the age, strength and cunning necessary to hold your territory and run it the way it should be run. So, do you accept?”\n\n“I would be a fool to do otherwise.”\n\n“Indeed, you would.” Roman gestured to either side of him. “All of those you see here are voting on behalf of one of the chancellors. Mr. Akinjide and myself will be casting our own vote as well as one for another member.”\n\nYour eyes never left your father as he called for the vote. Everyone voted yes except for one member. And just like that, your mate was king. As soon as everyone was dismissed, you were on your feet, dragging Godric along behind you as you made your way to where your mate and your father were deep in conversation with one another.\n\nKibwe was quick to join you as well.\n\n“You might have mentioned,” you said through clenched teeth.\n\n“I might have but I didn’t.” Roman shifted his attention to the chancellor. “Kibwe, might I officially introduce my daughter’s mate and the new king of Louisiana, Eric Northman?”\n\nThe other man’s eyes went wide and moved between you and your father. They then focused in on your hand holding Godric’s. Eric noticed and took your free hand in his before pressing a kiss to the top of your head.\n\n“I wasn’t aware that you were acquainted on a personal level with Mr. Northman, Roman.”\n\nYour father attempted to look surprised and failed miserably. “Didn’t I mention it? Careless of me.”\n\n“An oversight I’m sure,” Eric piped up. “It’s a relatively recent development.”\n\nYou just shook your head and rolled your eyes. You weren’t even going to try. Everyone here knew your dad was full of shit. No, you bit your tongue until the last of the stragglers headed out the door, leaving you, Eric, and Godric alone with your father and Alonso.\n\nAs soon as the door shut, you turned to the man that raised you. “So, that’s why you didn’t want me coming with Eric. You didn’t want anyone knowing what we were to each other until after the vote.”\n\nHe smiled and poured drinks for all of you. After he passed them out, he gestured to the sitting area. After you were all settled, he leaned back in his chair. “Despite my position with the Authority, or maybe because of it, there are many who fear me gaining more power than I already possess. Several of them move behind the scenes, plotting, scheming. They think I don’t know. This was a countermeasure.”\n\n“I won’t be a puppet for anyone,” Eric said. His tone was soft, but you could hear the anger in it.\n\n“You would for her,” Alonso argued with a gesture to me.\n\n“I don’t want a puppet.” Your father spoke quickly before Eric could respond to the Magister. “Regardless of who you are to my daughter, I wouldn’t have even recommended you for the position if I didn’t think you capable of handling things on your own. There may simply be some things I need seen to on occasion. All within your purview as king, of course.”\n\nYou pursed your lips. “What aren’t you telling us?”\n\nHe didn’t answer, simply looking at you over the rim of his glass.\n\n“Sophie-Anne’s holdings are being transferred to you, Eric. The outstanding taxes were covered by the Authority,” Alonso stated. It was a blatant attempt to change the topic. One none of you fell for.\n\nEric nodded in thanks but his gaze moved between you and your father.\n\nFinally, Roman sighed. “Can’t you believe I simply want to see you taken care of? That there is no ulterior motive?”\n\n“No.”\n\nYour mate and his sire donned matching smirks at that.\n\nYour father leaned forward and placed his glass on the table. “Alright. Perhaps there’s one thing I could use your assistance with.”\n\nYou crossed your legs and leaned against Eric’s side. Here it was. Eric shifted so his arm was around you and he pulled you more tightly against him. Godric still held one of your hands. He was content to remain quietly in the background and you didn’t push. His continued existence was enough.\n\n“I would like to state that you could have assisted with this particular issue without being king. Though it does help.” As your father explained what he needed, your mind drifted. Eric was king. That made you queen for all intents and purposes. And Godric…what? The royal concubine? You snorted at the thought earning a disapproving glance from Roman who knew you weren’t paying attention.\n\n“Are we boring you, sweetheart?”\n\nYou sighed. “To be honest, yes. You over complicate everything.” You tilted your head back to look up at your mate. He smiled and kissed your forehead. “What he’s trying to say is Russell Edgington is being a dick again and he’d like us to take care of it before he becomes a problem.”\n\n“If you insist on being impatient you can word it that way, yes,” your father said.\n\nEric and Godric both chuckled. “Alright, Guardian, we’ll go to Mississippi to extend an offer of trade to my counterpart and see if we can figure out what he’s up to while we’re there,” Eric said, looking up.\n\n“Fantastic,” Roman said. “I shouldn’t think you’d encounter anything too difficult to handle.”"}
+{"text": "Travelling after the first night was a bit easier, but not completely. Mitsuri had tried to bring the three boys closer to the pillars, but both groups had been apprehensive. Despite the few nice moments, the tensions were still there, ever-present as they were all forced to be together at all times.\n\nThe next night was uneventful, going very similarly to the first, with the two groups staying a certain distance from each other. Tanjirou knew that they could be trying harder, than it didn’t have to be like this, but somehow, he felt like he wanted them to try first. To earn their respect. It was always him trying to earn other’s respect, for once, he wanted someone else to have to earn his.\n\nThe third day of the trip, Tengen, Mitsuri and Rengoku hung back a bit, talking with the three boys, attempting to get know them. It was nice to see them make an effort and Tanjirou couldn’t help but smile at Mitsuri talking at the box, not even caring that Nezuko was likely asleep. Every so often though, he would look forward and see both Sanemi and Obanai watching him, analyzing him like he was a puzzle they were trying to figure out. It was a bit unsettling, but he chose to ignore, figuring it was just them hating him like usual.\n\nAs the group began to get tired from all the walking, Rengoku suggested they stop at the nearby town to get some food and take a break. As they walked over the ground, Tanjirou found himself overcome with a sense of familiarity, like he’s been here before. Finally, as they walked over the hill overseeing the little town, the redhead found himself stopping to stare.\n\nHome.\n\nThey were going to stop in Tanjirou’s hometown.\n\nIt’s been such a long time since he’s been here. It almost hurt to see just how little the town has changed while he was almost an entirely different person now. The buildings were all the same, the trees, the sound, everything. It’s almost as if nothing horrible had happened to his family, that they just on the mountain, safe and sound. Tanjirou felt himself tremble a bit. He missed home. He missed everything.\n\nZenitsu and Inosuke had walked ahead, talking to Mitsuri and Tengen when Inosuke noticed Tanjirou wasn’t following them down the hill.\n\n“Kentaro! You coming?”\n\nThe redhead snapped back, looking to his friend before nodding shakily, “Yeah…I am.”\n\nAs they descended down the hill and into town, Tanjirou wondered if anyone would recognize him. He didn’t look that different, the only thing really different about him was his hair and the fact that he was older now. Did he even want to be recognized? What would he even say? Hey, I’m back, did you notice that my entire family died in a night? No, he couldn’t. He didn’t want them to recognize him.\n\nTanjirou gulped as he stuck closer to Zenitsu, trying to blend into the middle of their group. They were already getting quite a bit of attention, with everyone’s colourful hair and swords contrasting with the generally black and browns of everyone else in town. He could see and hear the confused stares from the townspeople and he hid his face. He could hear questions of ‘who are those people’ and ‘does that boy look familiar to you’.\n\nZenitsu watched him carefully before asking, “You recognise this place?”\n\nTanjirou nodded, leaning a bit closer, “This…this is where I was born and grew up.”\nThe blonde widened his eyes a bit before gently curling their pinkies together while everyone was busy ahead of them, “Are you okay?”\nNodding, the redhead finally smiled for the first time since arriving back home, “I will be. I just…I never thought I’d come back, you know? I wonder if the house is still there. If anything has changed.”\n\nZenitsu hummed before saying, “We’re taking a break here. We can go visit if you’re okay with that?”\nTanjirou thought about it for a moment before smiling, “I’d like that.”\nAs the group stopped in front of a decently sized soba shop, Tanjirou stepped away from the group with Zenitsu and Inosuke.\n\n“We’re going to go off somewhere else, we’ll meet you back here in a little while, okay?”\n\nSanemi grunted, suspicious as he asked, “Where are you going? You going to get another demon for your collection?”\nTanjirou glared, gritting his teeth as he replied, “I don’t have to tell you. Just trust that we’ll be back, okay?”\nHe didn’t want to get an answer as he turned around and left with his friends in tow. It was strange to walk down the streets of the home he once loved with all his heart. Now all it did was bring painful memories. He sighed, he supposed it would be good to finally have some proper closure. As they arrived at the base of the mountain, Tanjirou found himself shaking again.\n\nInosuke stared at the path, “So where are we going?”\nThe redhead let out a held breath as he replied, “To my home.”\nHis friend didn’t say much after that, picking up on the weight and heaviness of this. They walked up the mountain in silence, the dirt crunching under their feet. It was all too easy to remember those feelings. The fear he felt when he smelt blood, the sound of wind that rushed past his ears as he sprinted up the very same path, snow crunching under his feet. Now the snow was long gone, the path now lined with grass and flowers. The smell of blood that seemed to dominate the mountain that day was now replaced with the smell of flowers instead. As if nothing bad had happened here.\n\nZenitsu was holding his hand fully, squeezing him to keep him grounded and not to fade into his memories. Tanjirou could only squeeze back as he walked forward and the roof of his home finally came into view.\n\nIt was all still there. The house, the logs, everything. Tanjirou walked towards the house, touching the wooden walls reverently. Despite the lack of care for the past several years, it was all here. Tanjirou looked over to the graves he and Nezuko had made for their family.\n\nThe stones weren’t there anymore but the mounds of dirt were now covered in grass and flowers. He walked over, standing in front of them and gently touching the purple flower that grew on top of his mother. This was what was left of her. Of any of them. Plants. The redhead began to shake violently, collapsing in front of the graves as he sobbed, letting himself mourn while his two closest friends stood behind him, Inosuke’s comforting hand on his head while Zenitsu kneeled next to him, holding his hand with a grip that warmed him. They listened to him cry and scream, watching as Tanjirou pressed his head against the grass.\n\nAs Tanjirou slowly calmed down, he found himself wondering. Would they be proud of what he’s become? Would they think he’s doing the right thing? Would they support his decisions? He hoped so. As he stood back up, wiping away any stray tears, he could feel Zenitsu step closer.\n\n“Do you want me to do anything for you?” he asked, pressing his body close to his and Tanjirou sighed, leaning into it.\n\n“Just…don’t let go.”\n\nInosuke looked at the flowers, leaning now and touching a pink one that was growing on one of the smaller mounds. He frowned and asked, “Should we clean this shit up? You know, make it look like a grave again?”\nTanjirou hummed, staring at the beautiful flowers that had grown on the graves of his family and shook his head.\n\n“No. I think they’d like to be a part of the mountain. To let life be back here again.”\n\nThe boar child nodded, taking off his mask and bowing his head in respect, something that they had taught him the first day they met. Zenitsu smiled as he and Tanjirou did the same, the feeling of closure running over him.\n\nTanjirou turned his attention to the house and he walked over there, staring at the doorway. He stepped in, staring at the room. When they had buried their family, the thoughts of cleaning the house was far from their mind. They just needed to bury them and then Tanjirou had to take care of Nezuko. There had been no time to clean up the blood, that would’ve taken days. So, the blood stains were still on the walls and the floor, though faded. The smell of blood that had been so overwhelming at the time was now just…a hint. The vague sharpness being the only thing left. He touched the walls, a numb feeling in his gut.\n\nHe walked through the house, passing the rooms that once held his family.\n\nStaring at the kitchen brought memories of cooking with his parents, the sounds of sizzling food on the fire as he tried to help by dropping food in the pot. He had wanted to help so bad and his father only laughed and picked him up. Memories of later, when it was now him having to pick up his siblings because they wanted to help too. The laughter of when Nezuko tried to cook something new and having it fail miserably.\n\nWalking further along, he touched the bedroom door of his little siblings, fist clenched. He couldn’t go inside. It would only make the memories of tucking them into bed all the more vivid, the sounds of their voices as they talked about their dreams that much clearer.\n\nSoon, he came across his room and opened the door, looking inside. He had never a materialistic type of person, so there was very little there. But seeing his futon, his closet where he kept the few clothes he had and the little decorations that he put up at the insistence of Takeo to make it livelier, he couldn’t help but lean into Zenitsu and Inosuke for comfort. It was all too real. He stepped in, walking over to the wall and touching the ribbons that he had hung. The little drum he used to play with was still in here, laying on the ground. He picked it up, shaking it as the familiar thump rang through the air. Biting his lip, he smiled down at it.\n\nHe quietly slipped it into one of his bags and left. There wasn’t much else there.\n\nAs they went through the house, Tanjirou finally made it to his parent’s room that led into the backyard. He opened in and walked in, opening the door to the back and sitting on the edge. Like his father used to do. Zenitsu and Inosuke sat on either side of him, quiet for him. A rare thing in their group.\n\nTanjirou leaned his head on Zenitsu’s shoulder, a kiss being pressed against his forehead.\n\n“You know something…?”\n“What?”\n“I had always thought that I’d never leave this place. I planned to just…always take care of my family. It was my little siblings that had the dreams to travel and what the world had to offer. I was content to just stay here.” Tanjirou said, staring at the forest that was behind the house, “Weird how things work out, huh? Sometimes I wonder if I would be happier if I had stayed here. If none of it ever happened.”\nZenitsu gently took his hand and brought it to his lips, kissing it before leaning closer, “Who knows, baby…? Maybe you might’ve, or maybe not.” The blonde sighed before saying, “Is it wrong of me to be…glad that things ended up the way they did? Because if they hadn’t, we might’ve never met. I would still be alone without you guys.”\n\nInosuke grunted, leaning forward on his knees, “Who knows? We might’ve met, we might not have. It doesn’t matter now, because things are what they are. Can’t change it now. All we can do if just accept it and be grateful.”\nTanjirou smiled a bit at that and nodded, “Yeah…I guess so.” The redhead turned his head to look at Zenitsu, leaning close and kissing him, nuzzling close, “I don’t think I would be happy without you guys in it. Eventually, I’d want to go out to do my own thing. It’d only be a matter of time. And then I’m sure I would meet you again.”\nZenitsu laughed against his lips, pulling away and pressing kisses in his hair, “Yeah. I think if I were to guess…Inosuke would meet you first. Probably just running around in the wild and he would bump into you. And then you’d become instant best friends.”\nInosuke snickered and kicked Zenitsu’s leg, “Yeah. And you two would meet in the grossest, cheesiest possible. Like in your dumb romance books, Zenitsu. You’d be crying or something and then trip over Tanjirou’s foot. And then your eyes would lock and it would be boom, in love.”\n\nThe couple laughed a bit, Tanjirou hiding his face into Zenitsu;s chest.\n\n“That’s not even how it was like when we actually met. Tanjirou was mostly mad at me, I think.” Zenitsu said, making the redhead shoot up.\n\n“I was not! I was just…concerned.”\n“You were, you did not like me.”\nTanjirou frowned, leaning back against Inosuke, “Well I didn’t entirely like Inosuke either, but that doesn’t matter now, does it?”\nZenitsu grinned, “So you admit it!”\n\nInosuke kicked his legs out, shrugging, “Well it doesn’t matter, cause now you’re so in love, it’s almost gross.”\nTanjirou gasped, playfully offended, “What? I thought you wanted us to be together!”\nThe green-eyed demon slayer crossed his arms, “Yeah, because you were moping! You wanted to be with Monitsu so badly! Of course, I wanted you to be together!”\nZenitsu chuckled as he grabbed Tanjirou and pulled him close again, “I knew you loved me.”\nThe redhead stared down at him before nodding, “Always.”\n\nInosuke gagged a bit, standing up and walking into the house, “And that’s my cue to leave, you guys are gross.”\nTanjirou watched him go with a giggle and turned to Zenitsu, who was now staring at him. He frowned and asked, “What?”\n“You’re just fucking pretty.”\nHe flushed and he kissed his nose, “I missed hearing you say that.”\nThe blonde giggled as he pulled Tanjirou onto his lap, “It’s only been a couple days.”\n“And I missed it. You’ve ruined me, Zenitsu. Now I can barely go a day without you holding me. Congratulations, do you feel proud of yourself?”\n\nZenitsu hummed and kisses his neck softly, “I am, if it means you’ll have to stay forever.”\n“I already was.”\nThe couple held each other, soaking up the love and the affection they couldn’t have before. They sat in quiet silence in Tanjirou’s childhood home. He looked into the house and wondered if he would ever settle down.\n\n“Zenitsu?”\n“Yeah?”\n“Would you want to settle down one day with me and have…have a family?”\n“What?!”\nThe blonde shot back, a look of shock and embarrassment on his face as he grew redder. Tanjirou gulped at his reaction and rushed to fix it, “I mean you don’t have to, we don’t have to, it’s too early to even really talk about marriage let alone kids, I don’t even know if we can have kids anyway, it was just a question and-!”\nZenitsu suddenly leaned in and kissed him hard, his arms wrapping around his waist, squeezing him tightly. Tanjirou felt a bit dizzy as they kissed, it was a bit rougher than usual as he groaned against the blonde’s lips. Pulling back, he felt breathless as Zenitsu gave him the most adoring look he’s ever seen.\n\n“Tanjirou, I…” he started to tear up, blushing as he covered his face with his hands, giggling through the crying, “I know it’s too early to be talking about marriage and kids but…” he sobbed a bit as golden eyes met ruby, “I think the idea of settling down with you and having a family, our own little family…that sounds wonderful.”\nThe redhead stared down at him before he breathed out a sigh of relief and clung to him, laughing, “Little family? I want a big one! With tons of kids running around and having Inosuke and Nezuko play with them!”\nZenitsu laughed and kissed Tanjirou deeply, pulling him up as they swayed together, “We’ll see.”\nFor a moment, it seemed like they were having one of those moments that would make Tanjirou feel fluffy and warm for hours afterwards, until he smelt something…off. From the front of the house. Smells that shouldn’t be here. Not here.\n\nHe pulled out of Zenitsu’s grasp and started running through the house, the confused sounds of his boyfriend fading behind him as he busted through the front door and stopped, gasping in horror.\n\nThe mounds of dirt that held the beautiful flowers, the flowers that were made from his family, were dug up and on the ground, almost crushed under the pile of dirt. The smell of rot filled the air and it made him gag. And Sanemi and Obanai looking the guiltiest he has ever seen them as they stood over the graves of his family.\n\nTanjirou shook with rage as he stepped out, gritting his teeth as he seethed out, “What are you doing here?”\nSanemi gulped and stepped forward, “Kamado, it’s not what it looks like-!”\n“Then what is it?! Huh?! Because it looks like you all followed us when I told you not to then dug up the graves of my family!”\nObanai tried to come close, as he said, “We…followed you and thought you had buried something you wanted to hide.”\nTanjirou shook as he turned to the Pillars fully, stomping towards them, “How fucking dare you! I have at no point shown that I was untrustworthy! And yet you decide to follow me, invade my home and dig up my family because what?! You thought I was hiding something?! Yeah, I was! My dead family, you fucking pricks!”\n\nFor the first time ever, Sanemi and Obanai looked extremely sorry. But Tanjirou couldn’t care less.\n\nThe Wind Pillar stepped forward, trying to explain themselves, “Kamado, w-we thought that you were going to do something suspicious and we followed you, but…we didn’t know they were graves!”\n“It doesn’t matter if you didn’t know! You disrespected me, my sister and my entire family!”\nObanai gulped as Tanjirou turned his gaze to him, stepping back, “We just…we thought you hid something under the dirt that would reveal a secret you were hiding from us.”\n“And what would that be, huh?! What did you think I was hiding?!”\n“Maybe something demon related, or records or like a love affair or something!”\nTanjirou stopped, his heart seizing at the sound of love affair. They had suspected something. He stared down at the ground, shaking as he looked at the two of them, the people he hadn’t liked before but now…now he just wanted them gone.\n\n“Get out.”\n“Wh-?”\n“I SAID GET THE FUCK OUT!” Tanjirou screamed, shoving his superiors towards the path.\n\nThe two of them didn’t say another word as they left and Tanjirou collapsed into a sob. Zenitsu and Inosuke quickly ran out, running to his side and hugging him tightly as he cried in their arms.\n\n \n\nAfter a while, after they had done the best they could to fix the graves and put the flowers back, they arrived to the soba shop where they had meant to meet up with the Pillars again. Tanjirou still felt angry as Giyu approached him.\n\n“Tanjirou, we heard what happened. We didn’t know that they would do that, they told us they were going to go check on something.” He said, frowning, “Though I don’t like them, I…I’m sure they didn’t mean to do that to you and your family.”\nThe redhead glared, “It doesn’t matter if they meant to do it, they did it. And I’m allowed to be mad about it, okay? They thought I have something to hide. And it doesn’t matter if I do or not, they shouldn’t have gone looking.”\n\nGiyu nodded, sighing, “I understand.”\n\nTanjirou could see in the corner of his eye that the other Pillars were just down the street. Sanemi and Obanai weren’t meeting his eyes, staring at the floor in shame. Good.  He walked towards the group of Pillars, who looked more tense when he approached. Mitsuri pulled him into a side hug, mumbling apologies that really shouldn’t be coming from her.\n\nHe walked ahead of all of them and said, “Let’s just leave.”\nFor once, no one had any arguments as they followed. Zenitsu stood next to the redhead, sighing as he said quietly, “I’m sorry.” He reached and touched his shoulder, letting the anger in Tanjirou’s veins drain, allowing his head to think logically.\n“It really shouldn’t be you saying that. I…I think they know I’m hiding something. They just…guessed in the wrong place.” Tanjirou looked behind them, where Obanai and Sanemi hung in the back of the group, “I know they’re not bad people but…they crossed a line. I’m allowed to be mad about this, right? I’m not overreacting, am I? I know it was an accident and they were already suspicious of me because of Nezuko and I don’t blame them but…”\n“Tanjirou, you have every right to be angry at them right now. It’s okay to be angry.”\nThe redhead sighed, “Okay.”\n\nHe didn’t really want to think about it much, despite the way it permeating in his mind.\n\nHe just wanted to leave."}
+{"text": "\nThe sound hardly carries but he hears it before his torch finds the huddled figure in the corner. It's Matt and he's \n\nwhimpering\n\n and Frank's suddenly dizzy and the faded nausea comes back full force. He runs to him, throws himself on the ground and gets a look at him before he reaches out. His hands are against the sides of his head pressed against his ears and he's breathing too fast. The walls and floor are paved seamlessly with a thick, dull sort of rubber material, soft, giving under Frank’s feet, completely muffling every step and soaking up more sound than even the corridor had.\n\"Matt, \n\nMatt\n\n...\" He flinches at the sound. Frank tries to keep his voice low but it's shaking. Matt's not wearing his suit, just an over large shirt and shorts. He looks too small.\n\"Matt can I...are you...\" Matt makes a choking pained sound and presses his head against the wall. Trembles, hiding against it, hands on his head.\n\n\nOh. Frank gets it, all at once, rises and crosses the room as quietly as he can and shuts the door gently. He moves back to Matt and squats a little distance away. Tries not to be too loud but his heart is wrenching and he has to force his breathing to slow. Waits. Matt clears his throat, flinches, waits to get his breath back.\"F-Frank?\" He says, voice a tiny croak of sound.\"Yeah.\" Frank says, voice lower than a whisper.\"Y'too loud.\" Matt's voice is shaking and weak but he sounds like he's trying to smile. He hasn't moved away from the wall, his hands are still pressed against his ears.\"I've been told that, yeah.\" Frank says. Matt doesn't flinch so much this time. \"Sorry about the gunshot.\"\"You smell like, like blood like a lot of...\" He sounds so breathless and disorientated that Frank has to concentrate hard on breathing shallow and even.\"Frank she was here, F-Frank she… but she was quiet there was no noise there was… she didn’t smell right she…” His voice is going in and out, like he’s about to pass out.\"How long have you been down here?\" Frank says softly.\"Don't know I don't...\" He shakes his head against the wall. \"It was so quiet, so quiet I didn't... Where are you I can't s-sense you are you here are you...\"\"I'm real, God, Matt I'm real.\" Frank's voice cracks and he scrambles nearer. Doesn't know how to do this. Matt's terrified, Frank's never seen him like this. Not even close, Matt doesn’t stop for anything. Everything he knows about how to keep morale up for an injured man is useless, he’s not even sure Matt can take anything above a whisper. What can he do? There has to be something, has to be… panic is taking over now, his vision swims. No, no, Matt needs you. Hold it together. Frank grits his teeth and settles within arms reach of Matt but not any closer. Now he can touch the floor for himself, he can appreciate the problem fully. It's so soft that it barely has a surface, cushioning Frank’s hand without any obvious points of support, but not giving through to any discernible solid surface beneath.\n\n\n\"I can hear where you are now.\" Matt sounds relieved, desperately so.\n\"Can I touch you? Would that...\"\n\"Not yet I can't... Not yet.\" He takes a breath. \"They uh, I followed him down here and... And felt this... There was a \n\nspace\n\n and I thought maybe they were hiding something from, from \n\nStick\n\n... thought it might be \n\nher\n\n...\" He's breathing too hard now. Voice is faint and high.\n\"Shh, Matt, listen to me you're safe.\"\n\"Why is there s-so much blood are you..?\"\n\"It's not mine.\" Frank says heavily.\n\"It was s-so quiet... I couldn't, I \n\nscreamed\n\n I...\" He drops his hands, one pressing against his chest, over his heart. \"T-tried to break though the w-walls… I didn't... Everything was... It all moved and I couldn't… could only hear me- only my heart, only... There was...\" His words choke off into a sob and the hand on his chest clenches into a fist. He reaches back towards Frank with his other hand, face screwed up and still pressed against the wall. Frank takes his hand first, Matt half jerks back as if he's touching something sharp and Frank keeps his fingers gentle. His hands are scraped and scratched and Frank has to steady himself, stroking his broken skin with light touches. Waits until Matt is relaxed against his fingers, moves his hand to his shoulder, tips Matt towards him. Matt's shaking at the sensation of touching him, like an exposed nerve, but he's clinging on regardless, presses his forehead against Frank's shoulder. Matt lifts his hand, feels Frank's face, strokes his head. The torch is on the ground now but enough light splashes from it to show Matt’s ruffled hair. His stubble isn't thick enough to cover the bruising on his face, he's pretty banged up. Blood spots the grey shirt from presumably a nose bleed, though his nose doesn't look too bad. An examination of any injuries is going to have to wait.\n\n\n\n\"S'blood in your hair.\" He mumbles.\n\"An' everywhere else.\" Frank agrees. He's afraid his harsh clothing is hurting Matt, imagining everything feels like sandpaper or worse by the way that Matt's body shakes against him.\n\"Is this ok?\"\n\"Fuck, Frank you're here you’re \n\nwarm,\n\n I don't care I don't \n\ncare\n\n...\" He runs out of breath and tightens his hands with a desperate little sound that gets Frank holding him finally, hands on his shoulders, gentle, barely touching him.\n\"We're gonna stay slow ok.\" Frank says and Matt nods against him. \"We need to get out of here but it's gonna be \n\nloud\n\n alright.”\n“Just don't go please don't go-” His voice breaks.\n“M’right with you.” Frank promises gently.\n\n\n*\n\nProgress is slow. Frank doesn't want to touch Matt too firmly but he has to support him at times because the slightest sound jerks his limbs, saps the feeling from them. His heart is beating so hard Frank can feel it against his side. He hopes to God Matt doesn't have any broken ribs because in this state there would be no way to tell just by the way he's moving. The moment they step over the threshold and into the regular, unmuffled corridor, Matt lets out a strangled noise of alarm, loses balance and tightens his hands on Frank’s body. Frank stops them, lets Matt adjust.“We’re still pretty far underground, can you hear the street?” Matt’s shoulders twitch uncomfortably, Frank guesses with the reverberation of his words, but he shakes his head. Frank pauses. Matt is wildly overstimulated simply by Frank’s presence and the ability to hear the walls again, where can he take him that won't just hurt? Still, they can't stay here.\n\nMatt’s turning his head wildly, breathing too hard. After a few minutes of presumably listening, he seems to adjust somewhat.\"J-Jessica?” Matt’s tilting his head, face still bunched up with pain but he's at least trying to make sense of what he can hear. Turns his head sharply. “Stick’s here?”“S’how I found you.” Frank tells him, gets them moving again.“Gotta get t’my apartment.” Matt mumbles.“Sure that’s a good idea?” Frank says.“I know it I know the… Sounds I know it…” He loses his grasp on words again for a few panting seconds, then; “T-there's blood.”“Yeah.” Frank says. They're retracing their steps back through the battleground they had to get through on they way in. Matt jerks and pulls in Frank’s arms before Frank can hear them himself, a shout and a lot of crashing. They round the corner in time to see Jessica and Luke standing back to back surrounded by unconscious men.“Matt!” Jessica says, much too loudly, grabs a torch from the ground and makes towards him. Frank holds out a hand but Matt groans weakly, hands coming up to his head and the feeling leaves his legs. Frank manages to catch him and lower his body to the ground before he falls. He's looking greenish, face shining with sweat, head rolling slightly on his neck as if from a lack of balance. Frank crouches beside him, holds his shoulder, hopes that's a good thing to be doing.“What's wrong with him?” Jessica says, blessedly in an undertone.“Think he's in shock.” Frank says softly. Gives them a brief explanation. Luke’s looking grim by the time he's finished and Jessica just deeply angry.“You wear earplugs right?” Luke says. Reasonable as always.“If you say no I’m going to punch you in the face and tell Claire.” Jessica says, quieter than before. Frank gets a sudden violent urge to kick himself.“Matt, I’m going give you some earplugs, that ok?” He waits. Matt nods a bit. His eyes are twitching, breath ragged. Frank has to hold him still as he puts them in but when he’s done, Matt’s body relaxes just a little. “You good?” He says, Matt nods.“Thanks.” Matt just about manages a watery smile.“Fuck, you two are just obnoxiously cute.” Jessica says, barely audible. Matt coughs out a laugh and then appears to regret that immediately to the point of half collapsing against the wall behind him. His chin rests on his chest. Frank waits for Matt’s drooping body to revive a little.“Still with us?” Frank says. Matt’s breath shudders but he manages a slight nod. His eyes are pressed shut out of some vain instinct. “Who’s the quietest?” Frank asks carefully. Matt tilts his head, looking almost panicked that he doesn’t understand at first, but then he figures it out.“Luke.” He mumbles. Luke nods, steps forward without having to be told. Lifts him and lets him lean, supports his body.“Do we need to help Stick?” Jessica says to Frank, who occupies himself with making sure all of his weapons are in their proper places.“He’s ok.” Matt grunts out. “Coming to join us.”“Thanks.” Jessica says a little helplessly and gives Frank a look, flicking her head at the stone above them and back again. As per usual, understanding shoots between them. He’s not going to do well up there. Frank grimaces and looks away because it’s been lurking at the back of his mind like a sense of impending doom since he found Matt cowering in that room and it’s irrelevant because they have no choice. He shakes his head. Jessica reaches out and grips his arm. He tries to give her a smile but it doesn’t quite happen.\n\n\nFrank only notices Stick come up behind them because he was watching out. He nods to him, opens his mouth to explain what’s happening.\n\"Come on Mattie stand up.\" Stick says briskly at regular speaking volume. Matt's head twitches from side to side and he lets out a noise, choked, he tries but Luke has to adjust his arms to take more of his weight. \"On your feet.\"\n\"Stick.\" Frank says softly.\n\"Walk.\" Stick's too loud.\n\"Quiet.\" Frank says, low but dangerous enough for Jess to give him a look this time. Stick ignores him, Frank's body burns with rage. He heaves in a breath, forces himself to calm, for Matt's sake. Stick takes a step towards Luke and Matt, who is grunting with the effort of trying to control himself.\n\"S-Stick I c-can't...\" His voice is strained and breathless.\n\"Look your boyfriend doesn't know how his works so I'll-\" Stick reaches a hand towards Matt and Jessica is suddenly there before Frank can figure out how to react without making too much noise. She catches Stick's hand.\n\"Don't.\" She says, voice very quiet but with an edge. Frank wants to go to Matt but he's shifting, groaning quietly, looks like he's going to heave.\n\"You know him.\" Luke says evenly. \"You know he's not playing this up.\"\n\"I know him better than you.\" Stick says, still too loud. Frank reaches for a knife.\n\"Honesty I'm not sure why I had so many people down here to guard it.\" A ringing female voice comes from the gloom.\n\n\n\nFrank starts, sees Jessica and Luke freeze. Stick doesn't move. Matt shudders and tries to push Luke away. A woman steps into a mildly lit area of tunnel in their path, leading to the stairs. It's her. Something is wrong with her eyes, her mouth, but otherwise there is no evidence that she was ever dead. Frank can just see a few men behind her.\n\"You are doing a very good job of getting ready to kill each other.\"\n\"Bring it on, girly.\" Stick sounds tired. \"We got through a whole bunch of your people to get down here.\"\n\"Yes well I wasn't \n\ncounting\n\n on you bringing friends.\"\n\"That much is obvious.\" Her face is twitching.\n\"So good to see you.\" She says, poisonously, terribly, eyes right on Stick. \n\nHe crossed a line for you he broke it for you and you do this you do this..\n\n. Frank's hand is clenching and unclenching on the handle of his combat knife.\n\"Why did you hurt Mattie.\" Stick says, suddenly strangely calm.\n\"Oh he kept trying to hurt my associates.\" She says dismissively. \"He gave as good as he got I can tell you that much.\"\n\"He means this.\" Frank growls, gesturing to Matt. \"You left him in there.\" She zeros in on him, eyes narrowed. There's something deeply wrong, her eyes are dead, cold, shark-like.\n\"Are you \n\nFrank?\n\n\" She asks, her voice is viciously smooth. Matt makes a pained sound and tries to pull away from Luke.\n\"Who's asking.\"\n\"His previous squeeze.\" She says with a sickly smile. \"He spoke of you rather a lot in there. I'm honestly shocked, I was expecting someone more... Well, soft.\" She spits the last word.\n\"That what you are?\" Frank says, keeping his voice at a whisper. He bares his teeth at her a little. \"Soft?\" She shrugs, eyes landing on Matt who is panting, angrily, helplessly.\n\"I honestly didn't realise it would have such... Effects.\" A flash of something more human passes over her face. Confusion almost. Close to pain. Somehow that just pulls out something heavier, angrier from somewhere inside Frank. \n\"Yeah well we all make mistakes.\" He has his rifle levelled at her but doesn't remember raising it. She tuts a few times.\n\"Oh \n\nFrank\n\n I think you know better.\"\n\"Try me.\" She claps her hands. Once. Loud and sharp. Matt yells faintly. The feeling goes out of his legs and he would have dropped if not for Luke.\n\"Let me go m'gonna t-throw up-\" Matt gasps and Luke lowers him to the ground.\n\"It's ok, just breathe, we're getting you out of here.\" Luke tells him gently, crouched next to him.\n\"Lower the gun, Frank.\" Elektra claps again. Matt moans and drags himself to the wall, leans there on all fours, shaking violently. Frank forces himself to lower it. Can't do that to Matt.\n\"Good boy.\" Elektra says. She leans her head and scoops her hair around to one shoulder, smiling at Frank as she does. \"Look at all of you, rallying around my poor Matthew.\" Frank catches Jessica in the corner of his eye, shaking with anger.\n\"Why would you do this.\" She spits out each word in a furious hiss.\n\"How could you?\" She takes a couple of angry steps towards Elektra. \"He's not \n\nyours\n\n.\"\n\"And you feel he belongs to you?\" She doesn't look at Jessica, eyes still focused on Frank.\n\"Get out of our way.\" Jessica's voice has gone flat now, somehow more dangerous. Elektra laughs.\n\"Oh I wasn't planning on staying. I only wanted to drop in, take a look all my unexpected guests. I had hoped Stick would be staying, but I know my boys are a little easier to dispose of if they can be seen. That will have to wait. As I say, I was not expecting \n\nfriends\n\n.\"\n\"Until next time, Ellie.\" Says Stick and a sudden spark of anger contorts her features.\n\"See you soon.\" But there's something more childish and less threatening about her words as she stalks away.\n\n\n\nShe leaves them some men who put up a significant fight, or maybe it's just because they're all trying their hardest to keep quiet. They flee rather than finish the fight, presumably left behind to give Elektra a comfortable stretch of time in which to leave. They give Matt a few minutes, until the sounds of fighting have stopped making him twitch and shudder. Luke helps Matt to his feet. He's managed not to throw up at least, but there's a defeated sort of slump to him now.\n\"I'she g-gone?\"\n\"She's gone.\" Frank says, touches his shoulder lightly. Stick's thankfully quiet now. Doesn't try to push Matt again which is a relief because Matt looks so utterly miserable that all three of them may well have attacked him if he had. Jessica looks about ready to punch something. Frank has no doubt that nothing much would survive it if she did.\n\"This ok?\" Luke asks, carefully arranging his hold on Matt. He nods a few times.\n\"Y-yeah s'fine thank you, thanks.\"\n\"Good to move?\" He nods again.\n\n\n\nThe journey above ground takes longer than he journey down just on account of the stairs. Luke has no trouble carrying Matt, he hardly slows them down at all. At least until he gets within hearing range of the street. It slowly tenses his body, the higher they go. Frank's stomach turns helplessly, watching the world above gradually overwhelm Matt's already shaky grip on himself. He was faint to begin with, so it's no surprise when, close to the surface when even those of them with regular human hearing can begin to hear the traffic and the car horns, he breathes too fast, sobs, shudders and goes limp. It's probably the kindest thing his body could have done. Jess takes over then, throwing him over her shoulder to give Luke a break. He falls back to walk in step with Frank.\n\n\n\n\"You doing ok?\" Luke says, unexpectedly. Frank turns to him, doesn't know what to say. He's covered in blood, exhausted, probably looks more dead than alive. He's hardly thought about himself since finding Matt beyond how much noise his body has been making. Suddenly each step feels like a battle against gravity. It hardly matters though, because it's nothing compared to the searing worry clawing at his lungs. He nods eventually.\n\"Yeah s'just, you know what he's like.\"\n\"Yeah. He's gonna be ok.\" Luke says with complete and total certainty. Frank tries a smile.\n\n\n\n*\n\n\n\nStick takes his leave when no one is looking which is probably sensible of him. Matt is still thankfully dead to the world by the time they bundle him into his apartment through his roof access. Frank gets him into some silk pants and into his bed as efficiently as possible, checks the ear plugs (probably less than useless but he can't think that taking them out will help) and joins the other two in Matt's living room.\n\"Go home.\" Frank tells them. \"It's late. I'll call you if there's trouble.\"\n\"You're ready to drop, Frank.\" Jess says, more gently than she usually takes it upon herself to point out Frank's own exhaustion.\n\"S'fine I'm gonna call in some backup.\" Elektra was right about one thing, Frank is not soft, he's rough and harsh in every way that Matt doesn't need right now.\n\n\n\nFrank climbs out to the roof before making the call, as if that distance makes much difference to Matt at the best of times.\n\"Nelson.\" He says as soon as he hears the line pick up. There's a breath and a pause.\n\n\"Frank?\"\n\n Foggy sounds as tired as Frank feels, but his voice isn't distorted by sleep. Frank hasn't woken him.\n\"We got him he's... Safe.\"\n\n\"You do?\"\n\n Foggy lets out a sudden splutter of relieved laughter. \n\n“Why d'you say it like that?\"\n\n Foggy moans. \n\n\"Do I need to call Claire?\"\n\"Maybe.\" Frank says. He explains, tries to blunt the scope of it by making it as brief as possible but there's not much to be done in the way of making 'four days of sensory deprivation' sound less damning. Foggy curses unintelligibly when Frank's finished, voice choked.\n\n\"How is he now?\"\n\"Unconscious. Passed out before we got up to street level.\"\n\n\"Should I be there? If he's...\"\n\"He slept in the same room as you for... How long is law school?\" Frank blinks tiredly. \"You're familiar. You're his best friend, Foggy.\" \n\nAnd you're softer than me.\n\n Frank wants to say. Soft like Matt's sheets, careful in a way that Frank can't reach no matter how hard he tries to. But it wouldn't sound right, so he just lets his plea and Foggy's nickname hang in the air until Foggy's sigh rustles the speaker.\n\n\"I'm coming. Now.\"\n\n\n\n*\n\n\n\n\"You need to take a shower, man.\" It takes Foggy wincing as he looks at him to remind Frank that he's covered from head to toe in blood.\n\"Right. Yeah, don't wanna... Wake him.\" Frank says. Foggy glances in the direction of Matt's bedroom, sighs heavily.\n\"Don't think he's waking up any time soon.\"\n\n\nFrank showers and changes into some spare clothes he left last time he was here. It was barely a week ago, feels more like years. When he comes out of the bathroom Foggy is slumped on the sofa, staring across the room, eyes unfocused and dull.\"When did you last sleep?\" Frank says. Foggy's brow furrows, he shrugs.\"Looking at you? More recently than that.\" Frank can't argue with him on that one. Foggy puts his head back and closes his eyes. \"Sit down before you fall down.\" Frank shuffles his feet a bit.\"Shouldn't stay.\" He says, hating the words. Foggy's head shoots up.\"What?\" He says, not sharp, just surprised.\"He's... I'm loud.\"\"Frank.\" Foggy says, serious, looking right at him. \"Even I can hear the television on in the apartment below us, there's probably four family domestics happening in this block alone and there's sirens outside.\" He sucks in a breath through his nose. \"I don't think one more heartbeat will hurt.\" Frank looks away, head turns nervously from side to side. Can't shake that look of pain on Matt's face when Frank was the only deafening thing he could hear. \"This isn't your fault.\" Foggy says sharply. \"He'll want you to be here when he wakes up. How many times have you slept together now?\" He grimaces. \"I mean in the same room I don't wanna know about the other stuff.\" Frank forces himself to breathe as close to normal as possible, shrugs.\"Few times.\"\"Who wakes up first?\"\"Sometimes I do sometimes Matt.\" His voice caves in on his name.\"Then sit down. Sleep if you can. Even you can't be that loud when you're unconscious.\""}
+{"text": "Sansa barely left her room in the following days. It wasn't as if Margaery were sending for her, not to liaison in their chambers, not to eat or sew with her and her ladies. And it wasn't as if there was anyone else in King's Landing who was willing to damage their reputation enough to spend time with Sansa Stark.\n\nShe swallowed hard as Shae entered her chambers to change her bedding. Sansa was hard at work pretending to read a book about marital law, but they both knew her heart wasn't in it. She hadn't turned a page in the past hour.\n\nShae moved around Sansa's chair, to the bed, and began stripping it. Sansa was abruptly reminded of the morning after she and Tyrion's wedding, when Shae had checked the bedding and realized that they hadn't consummated their marriage.\n\nIt was on the tip of Sansa's tongue to ask whether Shae had seen Tyrion recently, whether he was all right.\n\nShe didn't know what was holding her back.\n\n\"Why don't we go down to the harbor?\" Shae asked, hands full with Sansa's sheets.\n\nSansa glanced up listlessly from her book. \"What?\" she asked. She didn't think she had gone to the harbor since that day when Margaery had kept her from trying to escape.\n\nWell, there was the time she had escaped with the Martells, but that hadn't been Sansa Lannister, that had been Sansa Stark.\n\nShe swallowed. \"I'm not feeling well enough,\" she told Shae, painfully aware of how much of a lie the words sounded.\n\nShae harrumphed. \"Perhaps some fresh air might help,\" she suggested, in a tone that seemed to believe Sansa wasn't going to change her mind, anyway.\n\nSansa bit the inside of her cheek. \"Maybe tomorrow,\" she said.\n\nShae hesitated, and set the bundle of sheets back down on the bed. Sansa felt her heart leap up to her throat as the woman sat down on the bed across from her, stared at her.\n\nSansa fidgeted under the scrutiny, setting down the book she wasn't really reading, anyway.\n\n\"Sansa...\" Shae chewed on her lower lip. It was something Margaery did every time she hesitated over something, and Sansa hated that this was her first thought, seeing it.\n\nShe felt her stomach twist as the silence drew on.\n\n\"If you want to talk, about anything,\" Shae started, but Sansa cut her off, suddenly frightened even if she didn't know why.\n\n\"I'm fine,\" she stammered out. \"I just...I just want to be left alone.\"\n\nShae shook her head, some of her dark hair spilling in front of her face. \"I know it can feel like that, but I worry about you. We don't even need to talk about...\"\n\nNo, she knew why she was worried. If Shae was able to figure out what was wrong so easily, who else would be able to take one look at Sansa's face and figure that out, as well?\n\nSansa swallowed. \"I said I didn't want to talk about it, Shae,\" she snapped, and instantly felt guilty as Shae's face closed off, the way Margaery's had before she demanded Sansa get out of her chambers.\n\nShae nodded, stood to her feet. She picked up the bundle of sheets. \"Well, if you ever change your mind...\"\n\nSansa felt another hot spike of guilt. Shae was struggling as much as she; she knew that, what with Tyrion locked away. Like Sansa, he had been one of her only protections here in King's Landing.\n\n\"Shae,\" she started, and when Shae looked back at her hopefully, she could only manage to get out, \"thank you.\"\n\nShae hesitated again, and then reached out and clasped Sansa's hand in her own. \"It's going to be all right, Sansa,\" she said softly. \"You'll see.\"\n\nSansa felt wetness accumulating behind her eyes. \"How can you say that?\" she asked, before she could stop herself.\n\nShae's gaze softened. \"I'd better take these,\" she said. \"What with Tyrion...\" she swallowed. \"The servants are not quite as understanding,\" she said, and Sansa swallowed, miserable, then nodded.\n\n\"Of course,\" she said, and watched Shae go.\n\nShe barely made it to the chamber pot in time when the door closed after Shae.\n\nShe sat over it, dry heaving and shivering, for a long time, hot black spots appearing in her vision. She rubbed at her barren stomach as it cramped painfully.\n\nIt seemed she was destined to destroy every good relationship in her life, she thought miserably.\n\nAnd that thought had her getting up to her feet, reaching for her ratty shawl and pulling it around her shoulders. Shae was right. She couldn't keep sitting in this room, this room that she used to share with her husband, near this bed she used to share with Margaery.\n\nShe walked out of the room, ignoring the looks of the servants she passed in the hall, ignoring the careful way that the lords and ladies she passed didn't look at her.\n\nShe didn't know where she was going; only that she couldn't bear the thought of the harbor, and she couldn't bear the thought of remaining in that room. That was all that mattered.\n\nAnd that was how she found herself standing outside her old chambers, the ones she used to have before she was married to Tyrion.\n\nSansa stared at the old door that didn't look like it had been opened since the servants had moved her things out of it, took a deep breath.\n\nShe wasn't even sure how she had ventured this far, to the other end of the Keep, without passing Margaery or one of her ladies-\n\nNo, she couldn't think of that.\n\nSansa tried the door, was surprised to see that it was unlatched. It pushed inward, and, after a brief hesitation, Sansa stepped inside, pulling her shawl a little more tightly around her shoulders.\n\nThe room was just as she had left it, covered in a layer of dust now, but the same. She wondered at that, wondered if the Lannisters simply hadn't had any other guests that they felt the need to give these chambers.\n\nShe swallowed, thought of how she had sat here with her septa, complaining about how boyish and childish Arya was, complaining about the fact that her father wanted to leave King's Landing without letting her marry Joffrey.\n\nShe swallowed thickly, and thought she would give anything to return to those days. Anything.\n\nSansa swallowed, walking over to the banister looking over King's Landing and looked out it, clutching the railing in an iron grip. She closed her eyes as she could practically hear her father speaking over her shoulder, asking her if Joffrey made her happy, to be a bit kinder to her sister.\n\nShe missed being Sansa Stark so much, missed being the naive little girl who thought all princes were kind and good, and that all queens were gentle and compassionate. She missed being the little girl who had a mother and a father, and who thought these chambers were beautiful and so far above her own, in Winterfell.\n\nSansa closed her eyes, breathed in the room, and imagined for a moment she was breathing in something of the Sansa Stark of old. The girl who wouldn't have cared to go to Dorne at all because of the warnings her septa had always given her about it, who would have been happy to be only Margaery's friend and who would never have lost her in such a way.\n\nShe felt a tear slip down her cheek, and brushed at it furiously.\n\nWhen she opened her eyes, she was met by a mop of blonde hair, and Sansa jerked, momentarily not recognizing Tommen, and seeing someone else. She wondered for a moment what in the seven hells he was doing here, why no one could just leave her in peace.\n\nWhen she blinked again, he was still standing in front of her.\n\n\"Hello, Tommen,\" Sansa said, forcing herself to smile at him. \"I wasn't expecting to see you here.\"\n\nShe hadn't been expecting to see anyone here, in Sansa Stark's old chambers. Had been counting on it, in fact. That was, she realized, why she had come here.\n\nTommen smiled, face wan. \"I wanted to see the sunset,\" he said. \"I can't see it very well, from my room.\"\n\nSansa squinted at him, and then turned to look out over the city again. He was right, she realized. This room had a spectacular view of the sunset.\n\nShe remembered standing on this very railing as Joffrey, making effort to be a charming prince, had given her a necklace and smiled at her as if he really loved her. She wanted to laugh at that naive girl, wanted to be her again.\n\n\"Oh,\" she said, for lack of a better word, and Tommen smiled.\n\n\"It's beautiful,\" he told her, and Sansa forced herself to nod, even if she thought it looked like blood.\n\nTommen was not put off by her strange behavior. \"Mama used to say that it was golden because it belonged to the Lannisters,\" he said. \"Golden like lions, because the coming day was ours.\"\n\nSansa almost smiled at that. \"That's pretty,\" she said instead.\n\nTommen nodded, hugging himself a little. Sansa remembered that his mother had barely acknowledged him at that horrible supper Joffrey had forced her to attend, too busy glaring at Margaery and likely plotting her demise.\n\n\"Do you come here often?\" she asked him.\n\nTommen flushed a little at being caught out. \"Yes,\" he said.\n\nSansa smiled. \"Can I join you, sometimes?\"\n\nTommen swallowed, shrugged his small shoulders. \"These are your rooms,\" he told her.\n\nSansa felt her lips pulling down, at those words. \"They were,\" she corrected him. \"Not anymore.\"\n\nTommen glanced up at her. \"Won't they be again though, when Uncle Tyrion...?\" he trailed off, lower lip wobbling.\n\nSansa looked away, unable to stomach the sight. \"I don't know,\" she told him, and that much was true.\n\nShe looked out over the banister. \"The sun's set now, anyway,\" she said. \"Oughtn't you to be in bed?\"\n\nShe wondered where his nannies were, that they hadn't noticed he was gone.\n\nTommen shrugged. \"I suppose,\" he said.\n\nSansa reached out and put her hand on his shoulder, only realizing after that this was an imposition. He was a prince, after all, neglected or not.\n\n\"Come on,\" she said, letting go of him. \"I'll walk you.\""}
+{"text": "“...This isn’t some kind of joke, is it?” Yoongi asks hesitantly. “The other guys, they’re not, like...pulling a prank on me or something?”\n\nAfter his relatively uneventful school day, Yoongi was called to the gymnasium. He wasn’t sure why. Is it because he’s been slacking off during gym? It’s true that he tries to put in the least amount of effort possible in every activity, but he didn’t think that was enough of a reason to get in trouble. \n\nHe was surprised to see the gym occupied by not only the football coach, but also several of the guys he remembers seeing at tryouts a few days ago. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that this meeting is about the football team.\n\nYoongi was expecting to be called over to the gym to be let down and told that he didn’t make the team. He was awful at pretty much all of the activities on the day of the tryouts, so he wasn’t exactly betting on making the team. It was mainly just something new to try, really. \n\nBut then he saw Jackson talking to a few of the guys. There is no way this is a group of people who didn’t make the team. Jackson was way too talented to not make the team; besides, it seems like the coach really favors him as well. \n\nSo...did Yoongi actually make the team? Or is this some kind of cruel practical joke? He doesn’t mind being made fun of, really. He knows that he sucked at the tryouts. Maybe everyone in the gymnasium except for him made the team and he was only called over here as an example of what not to do. That would make more sense, honestly.\n\n“Congratulations, everybody,” the coach said once everyone appeared to be in the right place. Yoongi had seated himself further away from the rest of the guys. The only one he might consider sitting next to was Jackson, but he seemed to be preoccupied with his other friends. “If you’re in this room, that means you’ve made the team. Now, we’ll go over practice hours and dates. Next week, we’ll...”\n\nYoongi couldn’t quite wrap his head around the fact that he, apparently, made the team somehow. Even after his epic failure of a tryout, he made the team? It just couldn’t be possible. The only part of the tryout he did somewhat okay in was when he practiced throwing with Jackson, but that couldn’t possibly constitute making the team if he sucked at everything else.\n\nSo, he raised his hand. He knew that he would probably get yelled at for interrupting the coach and dragging the meeting out for longer than necessary, but he couldn’t help but ask. He needed to know what was going on because nothing made sense right now.\n\nAfter he asks his question, the coach goes silent and looks him in the eye. Yoongi averts his eyes quickly, unable to handle the sudden direct eye contact. “I have my reasons for putting each and every one of you on the team,” the coach says. He speaks slowly, as though his words would be too difficult for Yoongi to understand otherwise. “That includes you, Min. If you don’t like my decision, you can leave now before you waste any more of my time.”\n\nThat makes Yoongi think. Does he want to be on the team? It sounds like a lot of work and he didn’t think he would even make it in the first place. It was just a silly idea he thought of one day to get him prepared for future events that would be even more outside of his comfort zone (which is already very limited to begin with). So...does he want this?\n\nHe could leave right now, like the coach said. He could simply walk out of the gymnasium and he would never have to think about football or even sports in general for the rest of the year. That would save him a lot of time and energy as well. He wouldn’t have to spend hours practicing for games he doesn’t really care about, and he’s sure his body would thank him for that.\n\nEven with the logical, reasonable parts of his mind telling him all of this, there is still one important factor that’s preventing him from simply getting up and leaving: Taehyung.\n\nJackson is on the team. If Yoongi is on the team as well, then he’ll be able to help Taehyung with the boy he likes. He is Taehyung’s wingman, after all. He can tell his brother what the guy is up to, what he’s saying about him, and other important stuff like that. But is it worth all of the hassle being on the football team will bring? He isn’t sure yet.\n\nBecause Yoongi isn’t able to come up with a definitive answer yet, he stays seated. He’ll still be able to leave the team if he decides against it, after all. The coach seems pleased to see him remain in his seat, but Yoongi can tell that there is more that he wants to say than time will allow for now.\n\nThe coach goes over the practice schedule, which is Monday through Thursday from three to five o’clock. Not that bad, Yoongi thinks. At least it isn’t unbearably long. At least he won’t have to practice on weekends. Maybe the other guys will, but he definitely isn’t planning on working any harder than he has to.\n\nThere are some dues for being on the team, which Yoongi doesn’t think will be a problem. Jin and Namjoon have some funds set aside for the boys and their extracurricular activities, so they should be able to cover it. What Yoongi is worried about, though, is the uniform.\n\nThe uncomfortable shoulder pads, the itchy mesh, the tight helmets, the dreaded jockstrap. He isn’t sure he’ll be able to handle that much physical discomfort on top of the loud players, shrieking whistles, and screaming students. It might be too much stimulus and he could potentially have a meltdown on the field. He might be able to deal with one or the other—either the uniform or the noises—but both sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. \n\nAfter the coach finishes his lecture about dues and practice hours, he calls Yoongi over while all of the other boys are free to leave. Now he’s pretty sure he’s in trouble.\n\n“You asked if this was a joke, Min,” the coach says. He seems unusually stern, but Yoongi isn’t sure why. Is he always like this? “You were pretty useless at the tryouts, I must admit. You had some of the lowest times and distances I’d ever seen. And yet, you worked perfectly with Jackson Wang.”\n\nOh. Is this some kind of a compliment, then? Should Yoongi thank him? No, he decides to stay quiet until the coach is finished. That’s probably the best idea in this situation. “You two make an excellent pair,” the coach continues. “Jackson has never worked so well with another player in his life, and I could tell just from the tryouts that you two have great teamwork. That’s why I chose you, Min.”\n\nThat settles it, then. Yoongi will stay on the team.\n\nHe’s doing this for Taehyung.\n\n~\n\nAt the same time that Yoongi was called to the gymnasium, Jimin was called to the auditorium. \n\nHis heart is pounding and his thoughts are racing through his mind at a million miles per hour. This means that he’s made the dance team, right? Either that, or they’re calling him over to tell him that he failed to make the team. Jimin is fine with either, actually. Even if he failed, him being called back means that he was memorable, at the very least.\n\n“Hey, Jimin,” Chungha greets as soon as he walks through the door. The has that smile on her face again; it looks sweet, but he can tell that there is an underlying determination and drive in it. “We have some good news for you.” Jimin wants to ask if it’s about making the team, but he knows that’s probably not the right thing to say in this situation. So, he waits until Chungha tells him herself. “Congratulations, you’ve made the dance team.”\n\nJimin is jumping with joy on the inside. He knows he’s smiling widely and he can’t contain his excitement, but he doesn’t care. Finally, he was able to achieve this. He really, really wanted this. All of his hard work and effort finally paid off. He made the team!\n\nMaybe he’ll be accepted now.\n\n“Thank you so much, Chungha,” Jimin replies, overwhelmed with happiness. “I’ll work hard and I won’t let you down.” The girl seems pleased by his comments and she smiles again, much more genuinely this time. Jimin thinks he could be good friends with the girl if given the opportunity.\n\n“No need to thank me,” she says. “Your talent speaks for itself. I look forward to seeing what you can do for our team. I’m a senior, so this is my last year as captain. I’m looking for someone who can take over my position and, well, that someone could be you if you impress us.”\n\nWow. Jimin almost can’t believe what he’s hearing. Not only is he officially a member of the dance team, he could also potentially be the captain starting next year? It feels so surreal that he discreetly pinches his arm to make sure he’s not dreaming. \n\n“It’s amazing that you’ve never taken formal dance lessons before,” Chungha says. “I’ve trained for years and you’d probably be on the same level as me in a few years. You have an amazing natural talent, Jimin. Not many people have that.” When Jimin gives her a questioning look, she says, “Anyway, I wanted to tell you about our practice schedule. We meet in the auditorium every day after school except for Fridays, and practice lasts two hours. If the theater kids need the auditorium, then we go to the gymnasium if there isn’t a home game. It’s basically the same schedule as the football team.”\n\nThe football team. Jimin remembers hearing Yoongi’s name being called earlier that day around the same time he heard his own name. Maybe Yoongi made it on the football team after all. That would certainly be interesting. If Jimin makes it on the dance team and Yoongi makes it on the football team, Jimin will be able to perform at his brother’s games. That would definitely make things more exciting, especially if Hoseok is going to cheer them on as well.\n\n“Thank you, Chungha,” he says again. “I know you told me not to thank you, but I feel like I need to. This is something that I’ve really, really wanted, and I didn’t think I would actually be able to achieve this goal. So...thank you so much for making that dream of mine a reality.”\n\nChungha laughs a little, looking down as if his words embarrassed her. They might have, he realizes, because she has a faint blush on her cheeks. “You’re pretty cool, Jimin,” she says. “I don’t usually say this to new members, but if you ever want to eat lunch with us, you’re free to sit at the table with me.” She pauses, then says, “Okay, that’s pretty much everything. I don’t want to keep you for too long. I’m sure you’re going to enjoy your time on the team.”\n\nJimin is sure that he will. He wanted this more than anything, and it’s finally appearing to become a reality. He’s so happy that he made the dance team, Hoseok made the cheerleading squad, and Yoongi might have made the football team as well.\n\nEven though he wishes that Taehyung could have been a part of some team as well, he knows that his brother has his sights set on one thing and one thing only. He respects that, but he also wishes he could spend more time with him than he already does.\n\nThey haven’t spoken since the argument, and Taehyung won’t even sit with him at lunch anymore. He’s probably with Jackson instead, he thinks bitterly to himself. Jimin isn’t sure whether he approves of Jackson yet. He doesn’t know that much about him, and even though he seems to be nice enough, appearances can be misleading. Well, whatever, Jimin thinks. He’ll give Taehyung the space he needs to think things through for now.\n\nAt least he has another group of friends to sit with at lunch until he works things out with Taehyung.\n\nAt least someone else wants him."}
+{"text": "Bucky Barnes was looking to scratch a very particular itch. \n\nBecause the medical community at large stated that it was “unhealthy” for Omegas to go without experiencing heats completely and the government supported them (of course they did, the bastards were all about the benefits of population increases) regulations mandated that Omegas on suppressants had to do two to three years on, one off to stay healthy and not risk lasting and/or permanent fertility side effects. Bucky figured it was all bullshit, but he couldn’t exactly say he didn’t feel a hell of a lot more normal off them than on. The only issue of course being he got shit done when he was on them, and ended up with half a year worth of hell trying to balance his life when he was off them. \n\nThis time around he was actually looking into a more scheduled approach to the year’s heats. Generally when they came he spent a week riding highs and lows as his hormones took over his body’s natural processes. He’d swing wildly between horny as fuck and feeling like shit, ready to jump anything with a knot the closer his body got to full estrus. He was generally needy as hell for about three days where he needed constant attention of all types, before his body began to wind down. Not so amusingly, he was horniest just before full heat hit him and right after it swung down toward completion. When he was younger he’d go find the most swaggering Alpha cock he could locate and lose himself in a few days of heat induced rut. He’d come out the other end heat neatly cared for, but feeling hollow and empty as if something were missing. Even when he was a complete idiot and risked breeding the release of Alpha semen inside him couldn’t quite sate the gnawing disquiet that would settle in after. Something entirely unrelated to his (thankfully) continually unbred status. \n\nHe’d tried toys when hunting for Alphas ended up more trouble than it was worth and he felt he could better satisfy himself. Most Alphas could be really fucking selfish when it came to pleasure, especially when they rode it out with an Omega in heat - which just seemed counter productive in Bucky’s opinion. He’d thought if he took his own pleasure in hand it’d work out better. After all, he knew what he wanted and how he liked it. He was perfectly capable of satisfying himself when he was on suppressants, so he didn’t see why he’d have any issues doing similarly when he was off them. \n\nWhen that didn’t work, he’d tried a pleasure den. The less said about that the better. \n\nHe’d tried substituting with Betas using Alpha enhancements. They were a lot more attentive lovers, better able to keep their heads in the proverbial game. But there was something about the entire process that just seemed...off. Betas didn’t have the same natural instincts as Alphas and Bucky found himself quickly growing frustrated with having to explain himself, his wants and needs. \n\nHe’d even tried sharing a heat cycle with another Omega once. It hadn’t been a bad year, but it hadn’t been the best either. And there was a moment there in the middle where they’d managed to sync and had been forced to find an Alpha willing to take them on together. Bucky dissolved that relationship as quickly as possible. \n\nSo, he tried to stay on his suppressants for as long as he was able and would put off thinking about his heats until the last possible second when he was confronted by them. The problem, of course, was that the longer an Omega went suppressing their heats, the faster and harder the first came when the suppressants went away, as if their body was violently protesting or actively punishing them for simply trying to live their goddamn lives. \n\nSince he’d pushed it a little too far this time around, he’d been forced to use some of his precious hoarded vacation time in order to not have to scramble for a solution for his first heat of the year. He’d taken a week before his heat was scheduled to arrive and was using it to try to establish some kind of support network for himself. His best option, all told, would be to simply contract an Alpha through an agency. And while this sounded like the best possible solution, Bucky found it was also the biggest pain in the ass he’d ever had to contend with regarding his heats. He had a government sanctioned Alpha stipend he’d never touched from his time with the Army. (They may prefer Alphas and Betas for grunt work, but special forces was almost entirely Omega based and Bucky was one of the best.) And he figured they owed him the stability in his life since they were the ones that got him hooked on the best fucking suppressants on the market. His Omega Vet ID he found, much to his satisfaction, was accepted on a little more than half the sites he visited. With some of them on the higher end even, as a sort of government write off he figured. He didn’t much care about the technical stuff; that would be handled by his OVID provider network. What Bucky cared about was finding a good match for himself. He scoured site after site, clicking his way through profiles and photographs. Some sites were more in depth than others, providing Alpha’s cock sizes and knot circumferences if not outright equipped with pictures. Bucky was aware that sort of thing mattered to some Omegas, but in his experience the Alpha’s personality was a better test of how they’d handle a heat than the size of their dick. \n\nHe was three days in and starting to feel like the whole damn thing might be a bust when he noticed a ‘Favorites’ category on his current agency homepage. Curious, he clicked it and found a ‘Top Twenty’. It was all pictures with profile links but that wasn’t what got Bucky’s attention. No, the Alpha at the top of the list was in an entirely separate category and that got Bucky’s attention. The site encouraged its patrons to leave reviews - which Bucky fucking loved because reviews were God’s gift to people - and offered specially awarded extra stars to Alphas with impeccable reputations. All Alphas on the site were graded on a scale of stars which allowed for half fills and maxed out at five. Bucky knew in order to be awarded additional stars, an Alpha needed a fuck ton of pushes from patrons specifically requesting them. He didn’t know how many exactly, only that it was virtually impossible to even get an extra star without probably every single Omega reviewing them positively. The Top Twenty consisted entirely of only fully filled five starred Alphas. Alphas who hadn’t received a single negative review. Some of the top ten had an additional star, surrounded by a glowing outline as if you wouldn’t be able to recognize their superiority based on the additional star alone. The site’s highest rated Alpha however, and the guy whose profile sat at the very top of the page, completely separate from the rest had a whopping eight stars. \n\nBucky found himself wondering just how many Omegas the guy had fucked over the course of his employment in order to get eight stars. Eight stars in Bucky’s opinion meant he knew how to work with what he had and what he had was likely damn impressive. Still, he clicked the profile more out of the endless sea of reviews (two hundred and eleven to be exact) than because of the stars. He’d gotten used to reading the reviews where he could before even looking at the Alpha in question. It didn’t do to allow for attraction to take the wheel if the guy was a dick, and Bucky was specifically looking for someone who’d help him take control of his life this year. Professional and competent and on fucking time. \n\nHe read every single review. There were pros and cons attached to each one in reference to the Alpha in question and an additional section with twenty subcategories which were also rated with stars. These capped out at the standard five, but the Alpha whose profile reviews Bucky was reading had a full set whenever someone filled them out, consistently. From what Bucky could see, the guy was practically a paragon of Alphahood; the only real complaints (and they were also consistent) centered around the fact that he did not provide breeding services. Bucky wasn’t baby crazy by any stretch of the imagination - though he did want them and was feeling the pressure to have them, both by society and his family, and his own biological clock; at thirty he was hitting his prime breeding years and his body was very interested, constantly supplying him with dreams and daydreams and entirely too emotional responses to cherubic little faces, even when he was personally adamantly against raising pups on his own. Plenty of Omegas were single parents these days. Choosing to be bred during a heat by an Alpha of their choosing and then subsequently releasing the Alpha of the responsibility so they could go about their lives. And while the thought had occurred to Bucky - he wasn’t getting any younger and dating was getting a hell of a lot harder - he knew in his heart he’d never be happy without the bond, even if he had his own baseball team of sweet faces. \n\nWhen he’d finished the review section, Bucky reviewed the Alpha’s actual profile and found himself sold all too quickly. He liked that he was a retired Army captain - they had shared life experience and Bucky knew he wouldn’t have to tip toe around this one - so he’d understand Bucky’s desire to be orderly and regimented about his heats. He was an artist who liked to cook (and could cook damn well according to reviews), enjoyed time outdoors (Bucky fucking loved being outside), and exercised regularly. Even though the guy refused to provide breeding services, the site required all of his statistics anyway. Bucky found himself nodding along at how fucking healthy the guy was. According to his daily STD scans which were posted at noon of every day for the day previous, he was completely clean - and held a record, noted by the number of checks (which he had in the hundreds) and Xs (which he had not a single one of). The only part of his profile that was blank was the ‘Sired’ category, which made sense. The only part of it filled was the very top which read ‘Breeding Available: No.’ And beneath it...Bucky whistled. An Alpha with a sperm count like that who refused to breed was almost a tragedy. Bucky could understand his peers frustrations. But, it worked for him, because despite the ‘yes someday’ to babies, he was most assuredly not in the market and had no intention to be, so it worked out just fine for him - though several reviews warned that many of the Omegas he’d been with had chosen him distinctly for the same reason and came out the other end wanting them more than ever. Still, Bucky wasn’t concerned, and clicked the ‘contact’ link. He filled in his basics and gave the guy a short, perfunctory overview of his plan and hit send. While realistically, he was aware that for his distinct level of need, and with his heat rapidly approaching, it’d be best to explore all avenues, and perhaps contact a few others on the site’s Top Twenty - putting the fact aside entirely that the Alpha he’d chosen was a site favorite and probably got inundated with requests by the minute; all reviews mentioned he replied to them despite his busy schedule - Bucky had set his mind on this Alpha in particular, and that was pretty much it for him. Feeling accomplished, he got up and stretched, before giving in to the desire to go for a run and push his body while he still could. Closing his laptop, he trotted off to get changed. \n\nMuch to his surprise, by the time he’d finished his run, had something to eat, showered and napped, there was a response waiting for him from the Alpha. Bucky clicked the link excitedly before pausing and closing his eyes. He realized the guy could be responding with a polite no and he didn’t think he could handle that, not when he finally felt like he was gaining some sort of control over his life. He held his breath a minute or so, then released it slowly, falling into the calm mental state just before he pulled the trigger. Opening his eyes, he read the response, and felt all the air leave his chest in a rush. His fingers stumbled over themselves as he hurriedly replied, giving the Alpha his schedule, complete with both expected heat start and what he felt to be the more realistic start time, given everything he was feeling. The Alpha must have been at his computer, because he replied back almost immediately, informing Bucky he was available and asking him if he’d like to meet before hand to see if they were a personality match. Bucky closed his eyes on a very personal mewl and took a moment to thank all higher powers for finally sending a competent individual attached to this year’s knotting service. He agreed to coffee and sent the Alpha the address. \n\nAn hour and twenty minutes later he was sitting in his fourth favorite coffee shop -  he was not stupid enough to ever give out the first three for tactical reasons - hands curled about his cup and trying not to look at the door every time the bell jingled. He’d bought a magazine to peruse while he waited, but it mostly sat face up above his jiggling knee under the table. Bucky wasn’t nervous as a general rule - he’d have never gotten as far in the military if he had been - but he found the closer the time came for them to meet, the more anxious he felt. The fact that he was using an agency didn’t sway him in the least. The fact that the Alpha he’d chosen, and whom his mind had happily already settled on, might end up not feeling a kinship enough to agree to undergo his heats with him for the year made him jittery as hell. Many reviewers had pointed out that the Alpha not only remembered (and prefered to use) their names during their time together, but had a keen mind for recalling every intimate detail revealed to him, recalling everything from just how they liked their knotting to their idiosyncratic tendencies, whims and preferences. He was an Alpha who believed in proper Omega care before, during and after a heat and nearly every reviewer had touched upon how easy and enjoyable their heats were while in his care. The fact that he even personally subscribed to Omega care, let alone deigned to provide it was something Bucky found he really, really wanted to experience for once in his life. And while the Alpha remained (a strange combination of tragically and blissfully) unbonded and refused to provide breeding services, Bucky had read more than one review that personally thanked him for teaching and/or reminding them what they ought to be looking for in a partner. Bucky wondered how often the guy was approached by clients for personal attention outside of a contract. He suspected incredibly often. \n\n“Are you a pictures man or do you read it for the articles?” \n\nBucky looked up to find quite possibly the most gorgeous man to ever grace the Earth smiling down at him. He blinked, following the playful drop of the blond’s eyes to his National Geographic on the table. Bucky laughed, standing. “All about the articles,” he replied, smiling. “Of course the inserts aren’t half bad either.” \n\nThe guy laughed. “Steve,” he introduced himself as they shook hands. “Are you James?” He seemed to be asking out of courtesy more than uncertainty, and Bucky found he liked that a whole lot. \n\n“Yeah. Bucky though, please. Everyone calls me Bucky.” \n\n“Nice to meet you, Bucky.”\n\nBucky felt his smile tugging even wider and wondered if this was a natural occurrence for Steve. He held out his newly freed hand and gestured at the table. Steve sat with a quiet thanks, not at all concerned apparently about accepting breaks in social etiquette when offered them. Bucky’s opinion of him rose even more. “Coffee?” he asked. “Tea? A sandwich?” The last he drawled out after a long look at the Alpha sitting across from him. \n\nSteve laughed and Bucky marveled over how relaxing it felt to be in this particular Alpha’s presence. Usually Alphas left him slightly unsettled, especially close to a heat. But Steve, for all his stature and clear Alpha status seemed about as threatening as a kitten. “Water’s fine,” he assured him. \n\nBucky waved one of the servers over to ask for a water for Steve. The girl - an Omega herself - bumped into exactly five tables including their own in the process of fulfilling the request. Steve smiled at her beguilingly and thanked her sincerely, making eye contact with her the entire time she was present, as if he truly appreciated her service. She flushed prettily and dropped her eyes, barely glancing up at him from below her lashes as she nervously tucked some hair behind her ear and replied in a quiet voice, “You’re welcome.” She shifted slightly, twining her fingers together and risked a glance up at him. “If...if there’s anything you need…” Bucky felt proud of her for not stressing the word. “I’ll be...just over there.” She thumbed her badge. “Sharon.” \n\n“Thanks, Sharon,” Steve replied with a kind smile that didn’t seem the least bit forced or fake. “We appreciate it. We’ll let you know if we need anything else.” \n\nShe chanced a glance at Bucky who smiled at her, sharing an ‘I know, right?!’ moment with her before she scurried off. He laughed softly to himself, shaking his head, mindful of her trek across the room so she wouldn’t feel offended. \n\n“What?” Steve asked, head cocked to the side. \n\n“Nothing, pal,” Bucky replied with a chuckle. “I just can’t believe you’re actually real.” \n\nSteve straightened, though he didn’t appear offended, merely seemingly resigned. “Why does everyone I meet say that?” he sighed. \n\n“Because you’re a bit of a miracle,” Bucky pointed out. \n\nSteve snorted. “It doesn’t take anything to be nice to people,” he responded. And ohhh did Bucky want to sign the damn contract and have the privilege of this man’s company for the year. Steve seemed to catch on, because he cleared his throat and leaned back in his seat, fingers toying idly with his straw. “So,” he said, crossing his legs at the ankles beneath the table. Bucky could tell because Steve’s legs were long and he could feel them adjusting just to the right of his own. “Do you want to discuss specifics?” \n\nHe was giving him an out, Bucky realized. A chance to say he wasn’t comfortable or didn’t feel like they were a good match but thanks for coming anyway, sorry for wasting your time. Jesus, nobody could be this fucking perfect. He smiled and took a sip of his coffee, deliberately dragging out the moment as he observed Steve over the rim of his cup. Steve sat quietly, upright, but hunched a bit at the shoulders, as if conscious of how his size could affect people’s decisions. Swallowing, Bucky leaned back in his own seat, deliberately stretching his legs out so his feet settled between Steve’s chair legs. “Yeah, let’s talk specifics.” \n\nSteve pulled out his phone, holding his thumb to it for a moment, before swiping across the surface. He tapped something and then looked up at Bucky. “You said you should be peaking sometime around Thursday?” \n\nBucky shrugged. “I’ve been on Omniprel for three and a half years.” Steve’s eyebrow rose slightly. “System just finished flushing last week. I’m back to norm, so…” \n\nSteve hummed and tapped something into his phone. “Do you peak early?”\n\n“Yeah,” Bucky replied with a sigh, raking his hand through his hair. “I’m really needy just before and just after.” \n\nSteve looked back down at his phone and swiped up with his thumb. “First heat of the season?” \n\n“Yeah,” Bucky drawled, feeling his chest heave a deeper sigh. “I’m gonna be a fucking wreck. Sorry about that. I mean I understand-” \n\nSteve held up a hand, shaking his head. “No apologies please,” he said, putting his phone down. He reached out, giving Bucky plenty of time to retreat before laying his hand over Bucky’s on the table and giving him a firm but gentle squeeze. “Omniprel’s a serious suppressant. Coming off it is stressful enough. I’m just trying to figure out how much time you’ll need; I want to be sure you’re safe before I leave you. That’s all.” \n\nBucky blinked at him, swallowing against the sudden blockage in his throat. He released a slow, too shaky for his liking exhale as Steve rubbed his thumb against his wrist supportively. “Okay.” \n\nSteve smiled and picked his phone back up with his free hand. His fingers relaxed over Bucky’s, offering him the choice to pull away if he wanted. Bucky considered the anxiousness swirling in his gut over Steve’s sincerity and shifted his hand so their fingers interlocked lightly. Steve’s grip adjusted, so they were holding hands, fingers twined. Bucky found he could breathe a lot easier. \n\n“It’s Tuesday,” he said apropos of nothing. \n\n“Yeah?” Bucky replied, unsure of whether or not there was a question there. \n\n“You figure you’ll start peaking on Thursday,” Steve explained calmly. \n\nWell shit. \n\nSteve’s fingers gave his a light squeeze. “Do you prefer your own space or would you rather spend it in mine?” \n\nBucky was aware some Omegas prefered to be completely surrounded in an Alpha. Using their environment to help ground them in the present, using it as a security and a safety net all at once. Some Alphas also prefered their own space, for performance reasons. The fact that he was getting a choice…\n\nBucky’s mouth quirked up in one corner. “Yeah, but is it really your place, or is it your office?” \n\nColor graced Steve’s cheeks and Bucky grinned. He was almost positive no one had ever asked him that before. Which really, Steve was a contract Alpha. Of course he kept his own home independent of where he took Omegas for their heats. He was young, healthy and beautiful. Eventually he might decide to retire and take a mate, and he’d never be comfortable bringing them back to the same place he brought his contracted Omegas. It was common sense. \n\nBucky gave Steve’s hand a squeeze. “My place is fine,” he replied. “I’ll be more comfortable there. I know where everything is.” \n\nSteve nodded and tapped something into his phone. He took a moment, reading something before hovering his thumb over his screen. “Would you like me to lock in the time?” \n\n‘Do you want to sign with me,’ was what he was really asking. Bucky grinned at him, feeling a little dopey. “Yeah, go ahead,” he replied. “You’re OVID approved, right?” \n\n“Yep,” Steve said, thumb pressing down on the screen. He waited a moment, nodded then put it away. “The contract will need to be signed and filed by the end of the day - they’ve sent it to you for approval, it should be in your inbox within the next ten minutes - but, I’m yours now.” \n\n‘Yours.’ Bucky liked the sound of it. “You agreed awfully fast,” he pointed out. “Not that I’m complaining or anything.” \n\nSteve shrugged. “I go with my gut,” he replied, casual as you please. \n\n“Instincts ever fail you?” Bucky asked, curious. \n\n“Nope.” \n\nBucky grinned. “Good to know.”\n\nBucky read the contract in the passenger’s seat of Steve’s car on his phone while he waited for Steve to pack up for their time together. According to the contract, they would be essentially bonded for the duration of Bucky’s heat, which allowed for certain intimacies as required by the Omega and at their own discretion. Bucky wondered how many Omegas had asked Steve to scent mark them during their heats and felt a weird prickle in his chest. He signed the contracts with his forefinger and sent them back. He trusted his gut too. It’d kept him alive more than his training ever had. He just wished his gut would make up it’s mind where the Alpha was concerned. He was pretty sure contract Omegas had no right to feel any inkling of jealousy over a biological service. It’d be nice if emotional compliance came with the contract as well. \n\nBucky’d had plenty of Alphas over in his time, but whether it was the contract or just Steve himself, it felt a lot different this time around. Steve looked around, but was careful not to touch anything. He was being very mindful of scenting up the environment, and Bucky appreciated that. \n\n“Feel free to make yourself at home,” he said. “We’re going to be seeing a lot of each other, there’s no reason you should be standing around trying to keep to yourself for the year.” \n\n“You can contract me monthly,” Steve pointed out. As if Bucky would give Steve up for anything short of his own personal mating. Steve’s not Bucky’s. Bucky had more or less resigned himself to being alone for the rest of his life. \n\n“Do you have your heart set on that?” Bucky replied, flopping onto the couch. “Because I already put in for the year with OVID.” \n\nSteve relaxed. He didn’t take up any more space than necessary, but he took up space more naturally than he had a moment ago. “It’s up to you,” he said crossing over to the couch at Bucky’s invitation. “Whatever you’re comfortable with.” \n\nBucky shifted, tucking one leg under him as he turned to look at him while Steve made himself comfortable. “Don’t you get a choice at all?” he asked with some concern. \n\nSteve smiled. “Of course I do,” he reassured him. “But, I go with my gut, remember?” \n\nBucky grinned. “Yeah, me too.” He dropped back into the corner of the couch, dropping his legs into Steve’s lap and freezing. “Is this...I mean…”\n\nSteve dropped a hand over Bucky’s calf and rubbed his leg. “It’s fine. I’m here for you, Bucky. Whatever I can do to make this more comfortable on you, I want you to tell me.” \n\nBucky suppressed the pleasured sigh as Steve’s strong fingers swept over his jean clad skin, wiggling back into the pillows and flexing his toes. “I don’t want you feeling obligated-”\n\n“Bucky,” Steve cut him off gently. He smiled. “If I don’t want to do something, or I’m uncomfortable, I’ll tell you, all right?”\n\nSomething in Bucky seriously doubted the truth of that declaration. “Promise me.” \n\n“I promise,” Steve vowed, so solemnly Bucky found himself swallowing. “What do you like?” he asked after a moment, fingers tracing nonsensical patterns against the back of Bucky’s knee. He dropped his other hand across the back of the couch, fingers gently reaching to toy with the ends of Bucky’s hair. \n\nBucky arched slightly, feeling arousal wash through him in a low wave. \n\n“Bucky?” Steve’s voice was gentle and inquisitive. \n\nBucky opened his eyes - surprised he’d closed them to begin with - and met Steve’s shockingly blue ones. “I don’t…” Shame curled in the pit of his stomach. It was stupid. He knew better than to feel ashamed over his own needs. Hell, it was the entire reason he’d gone with a contracted Alpha this time around - to see that those needs were met as best as possible. Still, he found it difficult to reconcile with years of what was essentially social indoctrination. He shrugged. “I don’t really know.” \n\nSteve nodded as if this wasn’t news. There was something not at all like pity on his face, but still spoke of a sort of tired understanding, as if Bucky’s situation was universal, and he was still struggling to accept it after all this time. \n\nBucky shifted, and Steve used the motion to sweep his legs up and scoot closer on the couch. Bucky’s ass met Steve’s thigh, feet against the couch even as Steve’s hand began to sweep from his hip to his ankle without apparent struggle in reach. It felt...incredibly good and Bucky relaxed into the touch. “I like that,” he conceded. \n\n“How would you feel about an open learning curve?” Steve asked. \n\n“Hmm?” Bucky replied, peeking up at him again. \n\nSteve’s fingers swept around his knee as the fingers of his other hand drifted back, barely grazing his scalp. Bucky swallowed a keening sound, arching up slightly, hands fisting against his sides. Steve reached for one and drew it close, resting it flat against his side. “We’ll agree to give one another permission to go with our guts.” He gave Bucky a soft smile. “Just do what feels natural, and we’ll correct one another when necessary. If you don’t like something, just tell me to stop and I will. If you want more of something, let me know. And I’ll do the same.” He shifted closer. “It’s important that we establish a connection. So when your heat sets in, I’ll be able to give you everything you need. You won’t come out the end feeling like something’s missing.” \n\nBucky blinked up at him. “How did you…”\n\nSteve sighed heavily. “It’s an unfortunate truth that communication is often severely lacking between our designations. It’s disturbingly common how many Omegas feel unfulfilled in general, but it’s completely disgraceful that they’re more likely to after a heat. While we’re together, I promise I will be here for you one hundred percent, no matter what you need, Bucky.” \n\nBucky swallowed against the intensity in Steve’s eyes. The air felt heavier around them, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. Just weighted, like a particularly important moment, preparing to burn itself into memory. “I can be really needy,” he informed Steve quietly, feeling the habitual urge to drop his eyes, but unable to in the steady gaze of Steve’s regard. \n\n“Well,” Steve replied pleasantly. “That’s good. Because I can be extremely attentive.” \n\nBucky snorted a laugh. \n\n“The only thing I absolutely won’t do,” Steve informed him. “Is risk breeding you. I know that it’s something a lot of people choose me for, but I-”\n\n“You don’t have to explain yourself,” Bucky interrupted. “Breeding is your own damn business. And anyone who tries to get you to breed them after knowing it’s something you don’t want is an asshole.” \n\nSteve smiled, hand sliding up Bucky’s side. “It isn’t that I don’t want kids,” he replied, nodding his consent to share of his own free will when Bucky opened his mouth again. “I want plenty of kids. A whole baseball team even.” He laughed. “I just...I want my kids to be my kids. I want to raise them with my mate. It’s...it’s important to me that it’s...special, you know? I want the only kids I have to be born out of love and mutual desire and respect. Not because someone thought I looked good or got caught up in the moment.” \n\n“You’re a romantic, aren’t you?” Bucky asked, looking at him sideways. \n\n“Yeah, what of it?” Steve responded, tilting his chin up playfully. \n\n“We’re a dying breed,” Bucky informed him. \n\n“Oh?”\n\n“You will not believe how often I’ve had some idiot knotted up in me complaining about the condom because ‘it’s such a waste’.” \n\nSteve snorted. \n\n“I understand that a lot of people don’t want to wait now a days, and that’s completely fine. It’s their lives and their business. Am I happy that I’m gonna be thirty-one and I don’t know what it’s like to be pregnant? No. I mean, I get that I’m ‘still young’ but at the same time, I always thought I’d be hip deep in kids by now. That was the plan. Not to sound cliché or anything - it’s not like I wanted to be a house Omega, not that there’s anything wrong with that - but I always thought I’d have everything together by now, you know?” \n\nSteve nodded. \n\n“I had it all planned out. I’d meet someone young, fall madly in love…” \n\nSteve smiled. Bucky suspected he’d been similarly duped by life. \n\n“Mate. Start my family while I was still able to keep up with them.” Most people would interrupt him at this point in his explanation to point out that Bucky was still young and fit enough to do that. Steve didn’t. “Hell by thirty, I was supposed to have been mated at least five years with about as many kids and a bunch more to come.” He sighed, raking a hand through his hair. His fingers bumped Steve’s and they tangled. “I don’t regret my life at all, but the older I get the harder it is to find someone who gives a shit. So many Omegas are going it alone because it’s just easier to admit if you can’t have the whole thing you were promised when you designated, the least you can do is fulfill your own needs. And I want kids so badly…” He wiped at his eyes. “I hate my heats because every last one is just this reminder of how wrong everything’s gone. And every time I have to go off my suppressants, the need just consumes me. It’s just this big, painful reminder of everything I don’t have. And everything I try is just...not enough. I always feel so...empty. It doesn’t help! It...I...What’s so wrong with me that no one wants me?” he asked, meeting Steve’s eyes. “Every heat I have to hear about how much some stupid knothead wants to breed me. But fill ‘em and flee ‘em! That’s all they want! And I-my kids deserve better! They deserve parents who love them and want to be with them and not..not…” \n\nHe steadied himself against Steve’s chest, surprised to find himself in the Alpha’s lap. Steve’s arms were around him and there were wet stains in his shirt. Bucky pressed his face into Steve’s neck as Steve made a throaty soothing sound and just fucking sobbed. \n\n“You deserve better,” Steve murmured into his hair, hand smoothing over his back. “You shouldn’t have to settle for anything you don’t want because that’s ‘just the way the world works’.” He pressed a sweet, pulling kiss against Bucky’s temple. “I’m sorry you’re feeling so unfulfilled, but I promise if nothing else, I’ll do my best to ease as much of the strain as I’m able while we’re together.” \n\nBucky pressed his face into Steve’s neck, nose to his throat. Steve didn’t object, arms drawing him closer and holding him so securely, Bucky thought he just might crumble into nothing if he let go. \n\n“I’m here,” Steve soothed gently. “I’m here. I have you, Bucky. Everything’s gonna be alright.” \n\nBy the time Bucky calmed enough to regain his bearings, he couldn’t quite recall the series of events, or make any accurate guess towards the time passed. All he was aware of was the fact that Steve had - at some point - made himself comfortable, and was cradling Bucky close with the same sure feeling of safety and security. Somehow Bucky’d managed to curl up about Steve’s torso, knees high up his chest and face buried in his neck. His arms were tucked just under Steve’s, whose own were wound about him unmoving, but still reassuring in the strength of his hold. The Alpha was taking all of Bucky’s weight, laying back against the couch at an angle, and if it bothered him at all - and it didn’t seem to - he wasn’t saying anything. \n\nBucky inhaled deeply and let the steady Alpha scent collect in his lungs. Steve, perhaps noting the change, gave a rumble of what Bucky assumed was approval and shifted his grip so he was craddling his body in the solid hold of one arm, fingers splaying against Bucky’s hip. His now free hand moved to the back of Bucky’s head and began a long, smooth stroking that was just the right pressure. He didn’t say anything though and the silence dragged out until Bucky felt compelled to address it. \n\nShifting, he wiggled impossibly closer, as if he could hide in Steve. Steve obligingly sat up a bit, so his shoulders shielded Bucky - from what, he couldn’t say, but it felt amazingly reassuring. As a result, more of his weight rested against Steve’s arm beneath him, which didn’t so much as twitch over the increase. \n\n“I’m...sorry,” he murmured; nearly whined really. “Steve, I-”\n\n“Hey,” Steve replied. His voice was even, quiet but firm. Bucky relaxed into it. Steve’s hand paused against his back, his head tilting. “Look at me.” It wasn’t an order, but it wasn’t a question either. Just enough Alpha to get through Bucky’s distress. He lifted his head, but when he didn’t lift his eyes, Steve’s fingers brushed his chin and guided it up gently. “Bucky, look at me.” \n\nBucky’s eyes rose slowly, afraid of what he might find in Steve’s. When their eyes did meet however, Steve’s were lit with a kindness and understanding Bucky wasn’t used to. \n\n“Why are you apologizing?” \n\nBucky’s eyes flitted around, unable to hold Steve’s. \n\n“Hey.” \n\nHe looked back at him. \n\nSteve’s hand cupped his cheek and Bucky’s entire body pressed into the touch. “Don’t ever apologize for anything you need,” he said quietly. “Okay?” \n\nBucky swallowed. \n\n“That’s why I’m here,” Steve continued. “To take care of you.” He leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to Bucky’s brow. His eyes closed at the touch, body relaxing further. Steve brought their brows together. After a moment of feeling Steve’s unwavering gaze, Bucky opened his eyes. “Anything and everything you need. I’m here for you.” \n\nInhaling shakily, Bucky nodded slowly. It made their noses brush and they both smiled. \n\n“May I kiss you?” Steve asked, and it was such an odd thing, to be asked by an Alpha. Especially given the reason Steve was in his apartment. \n\nHe’d meant to say yes, but what came out was a slightly trembling, “Please.” \n\n“If you want me to stop,” Steve said, holding his gaze. “You tell me to stop and I will. Alright?” \n\nBucky swallowed; his throat felt dry. “Okay,” he replied when Steve didn’t immediately comply. \n\nSteve made a sound - of what Bucky guessed was either confirmation or approval - then reached up with his other hand, closing Bucky’s face between them. His fingers slid back into his hair and he guided Bucky forward, pushing up against the couch with his shoulders. The moment their mouths touched...Bucky had never been kissed by anyone in his entire life the way Steve kissed. He couldn’t even describe it. Not if he spoke every language on the planet and had a hundred years to document it. \n\nSteve didn’t move anything but his lips and tongue, slowly stoking a wildfire in Bucky’s body. Drawing out sounds from somewhere deep inside that the Omega hadn’t been aware he’d even possessed. In fact, it was Bucky who began moving. The dual combination of his hardening cock and the slick sliding free of his body, encouraged by the heavy throbbing between his hips, urging him to find some kind of release. He began to rock over Steve, body making contact with the Alpha’s firm abdomen. After a while, his hips began to wind circles, and then a combination of the two, slowly losing focus and finesse, fingers gripping the cloth at Steve’s shoulders with increasing strength. And still, Steve didn’t move. Just kept kissing him in his maddening way. Kept himself a steady target for Bucky’s rutting motions. His mouth absorbing Bucky’s cries even as it encouraged more of them free. \n\nBucky lost all real sense of himself as he pushed against Steve’s strong shoulders. As an Alpha, Steve by definition was difficult to move, but he did, shifting back until Bucky was atop him, without sacrificing the angle that was giving the Omega in his lap so much pleasure. Bucky pushed himself upright and took. Riding the mounting pleasure mindlessly. \n\nSteve’s hands slid down his sides, moving to rest over his hips. They didn’t guide or attempt to alter Bucky’s movements in any way. Simply settled there, a welcome pressure. \n\nBucky could feel his orgasm coming at him with the speed of a freight train and shoved his hips down against Steve with increased urgency, fingers trapped in knots he’d made of the Alpha’s shirt. Steve’s hands slid back and his fingers did something soft and fleeting against Bucky’s lower spine and he just fucking lost it. Entire body bowing tightly, his head snapping back, Bucky howled his pleasure to the ceiling. The intensity alone was shocking, but what really got his attention was the length of it. It seemed to go on forever before abruptly capping off. Bucky’s entire body pulled a full one eighty and he collapsed in a trembling heap atop of Steve. \n\nSteve, who still didn’t move, except to comfort him. Winding his arms about him and smoothing his hands over Bucky’s oversensitive nerves. “Better?” he asked calmly after several moments of Bucky’s harsh gasping and uncontrollable shaking. \n\n“Jesus fucking Christ,” Bucky growled when he was finally capable of responding. He pushed himself up enough so he could look at Steve. The bastard didn’t even look smug, instead a strange sort of satisfied happiness. He smoothed a hand through Bucky’s hair and the Omega was temporarily lost to the sensation. \n\n“Feel better?” he clarified. \n\nBucky blinked at him. “You’re going to be worth every cent,” he informed him. \n\nSteve laughed. \n\nBucky’s heat didn’t start for another twelve hours. In that time, Steve proved to be exceptionally adept at anticipating and providing for Bucky’s needs and desires. He got him off so much, the frantic feeling that usually accompanied his heat’s arrival was distinctly absent. So absent in fact, that Bucky didn’t even realize when his body transitioned from pre-heat to full heat. Not that he was capable of focussing on much. Not with how fucking amazing Steve was. \n\nThe Alpha seemed to instinctively know where all of Bucky’s spots were. If he were guessing, then he was doing a damn fine job of faking it, because he never lost that confidence that he wore like a cloak about him. The steady, assured sort, not at all laced with insecurities. But stuffed with sincerity and earnestness. \n\nIn fact, Bucky only knew his heat had started because Steve drew away from him - and God but having an Alpha eat you out for hours on end was something every Omega deserved to experience at least once in their lifetime - shifting in his position between Bucky’s legs. He pulled off his shirt and undid his belt before attending to his fly. Bucky was automatically transfixed. Eyes glued to the main event as it was slowly revealed. Steve didn’t rush like most Alpha’s. Tearing at their clothes and throwing them everywhere before grabbing at Bucky. He wasn’t overly careful, but he was definitely leisurely. Bucky found himself swallowing as Steve adjusted, folding his pants and tossing them with astounding accuracy onto the chair in the corner. \n\nBucky took a moment to thank every deity in existence as his eyes drank in the sight of Steve’s erection. He was large and thick, the kind of Alpha an Omega would easily find intimidating if they brought them home without prior warning. Everything about Steve screamed virile and Bucky felt the gushing release as his body responded. \n\nSteve looked at him - Bucky couldn’t be sure if he’d made a sound or not - and smiled. “Ready?” he asked. Bucky flopped back on the bed, arching and spreading his legs with a whine. Steve laughed again softly and stroked Bucky’s inner thigh. “It’s okay, Bucky. You can take me.” It suddenly occurred to Bucky that Steve’s constant attentiveness made a striking amount of sense now. \n\n“In me,” Bucky whined, hips rolling. He damn well knew he could handle Steve. Hell, he was excited as all fuck to try. If Steve would stop taking his sweet ass time. \n\n“Shh,” Steve soothed, stroking him again. “In a minute. Need to acclimate you to me first.” \n\nHe lifted Bucky’s legs, bending them at the knee and settled between them. “Have to do this part without the condom, so there’s gonna be a bit in between that’s gonna feel tight,” he explained. “Sorry.” Bucky was about to berate him - he could damn well get on with it any fucking day now - when he felt Steve’s heavy cock meet his slickened hole. Oh. OH. \n\nSteve slid his cock against him a few times; long, steady thrusts that coated them in one another’s essences. He adjusted his hold and levered Bucky’s hips before doing it again, coating the other side. Each stroke was maddening. Since they glanced right over his entrance without once making an attempt to burrow into his body - where Bucky needed him to be. \n\n“Steve,” he gasped, head tossing to one side. His hands made aborted grabbing motions against the Alpha’s abdomen. “Steve!” \n\nSteve made a soothing noise and helped Bucky roll over. Bucky was quick to present, limbs scrabbling beneath him, tangling in the sheets. “Almost…” Steve soothed. “Just a little bit more, Buck, and we can start.” His hands gripped Bucky by the hips and held him down firmly. Bucky cried out, feeling his body release even more slick. He was ready! He was so ready!! “Easy…” Steve said, lining up the head of his magnificent cock. “Easy, Bucky. Can’t start just yet.” Bucky bucked in Steve’s grip, trying to thrust back to greet him. “Almost..” Steve soothed. He pushed in slowly, but shallow. Bucky cried out and tried to push back, but Steve’s grip strengthened about him. They’d agreed earlier that Steve would use his Alpha voice on Bucky whenever it felt right. So when he said, “Bucky not yet,” voice heavy with Alpha, it thrummed hard through Bucky’s entire body. He stopped moving immediately, ass in the air and face making even more of a mess of the sheets as he pressed it close and moved around, whining desperately. Steve made a soothing noise and stroked a hand down Bucky’s trembling back, following the entire length of his spine. “So good,” he praised gently - Bucky liked it, so Steve had agreed to it. He pushed forward and Bucky keened as his body stretched slowly about the oh so welcome intrusion. “Almost…” Steve panted. “Almost there.” As he bottomed out, balls pressed close to Bucky’s skin, Bucky mewled and squirmed. He still wasn’t allowed to move, and Steve stroked him reassuringly as Bucky’s body accepted him. When his muscles had contracted to accommodate Steve’s cock, body properly imprinted for the cycle, Steve slowly drew out. Bucky - unable to stop himself - immediately burst into frustrated tears. \n\n“Shhh…Buck,” Steve soothed as he slipped free and reached for a condom. “I’m here. I’m right here. Gonna take care of you. Gonna take such good care of you.” \n\nBucky pressed his face into the sheets, sobbing quietly. Steve gently levered him free after a moment, turning him over and smoothing his hands over Bucky’s spred legs. “I’ve got you, Buck…” he gasped as he slid back in. Bucky watched through watery eyes as Steve’s head tipped back slightly, exposing his neck. He let out a soft, open mouthed sound when he was fully sheathed again, then drew Bucky’s hips close with both hands and leaned over him so he could kiss him sweetly. When the tears were clear and Bucky was trembling again, Steve pressed their brows together and meeting Bucky’s eyes asked, “How do you want it?” \n\nBucky threw both legs about him and drew him close. Steve must have seen the answer in his eyes, because he kissed Bucky again and said, “Alright.” He gathered his knees up beneath him, tucking close and wrapping Bucky up in his arms before letting loose. Bucky was only vaguely aware he’d probably bruise from the force of it later; he was far too busy being filled in every way. \n\nSteve rode him fast and hard and deep, only alternating for the occasional long draw out before ramming home again. Bucky clung to him with all his limbs, fingers digging into the powerful muscles of the Alpha’s back. Steve’s head was beside his, and Bucky’s body was only more spurred on by the sounds of his harsh breaths. The scent of Steve was everywhere and Bucky could feel the need to lock drawing upon him. He clung closer with all the strength he yet possessed and a moment later found himself awash in pleasure as he came. Steve thrust through his orgasm, knot thickening. With one final push, they sealed together and Bucky gasped against his heart beating a million miles a minute in his chest. \n\nDespite the fact that Steve ought to be riding his own high as his orgasm drew out, body releasing continuously in a vain attempt to impregnate the Omega beneath him, he pushed himself up onto his elbows and looked down at Bucky. “You okay?” \n\nBucky wasn’t capable of articulation beyond moans, so he gave him one and kissed him. \n\nHis first heat of the year passed after a week, and by the end of it, Bucky was on cloud nine. He returned to work and had to endure constant teasing from his co-workers, a good number of whom were his friends, and could get away with a few more intrusive comments. \n\n“Sure you’re not pregnant?” Clint asked for the third time. \n\n“Positive,” Bucky replied, rolling his eyes. \n\n“I’m just saying,” the other Omega replied with a shrug. “I’ve only ever really seen our lot be that happy after two things: a bonding and getting knocked up.” He squinted slightly, leaning close. “You’re not…” \n\nBucky shoved at his shoulder. “I’m not bonded either, you idiot!” \n\n“I don’t get it,” Clint said, shaking his head as he tapped a group of papers together. \n\nBucky just smiled and turned his chair to take in the exterior cameras. \n\nHe and Clint had a deep, abiding friendship, so when he felt Clint’s nose against his neck his first reaction wasn’t violence. “Get off!” he replied with a laugh, one arm gently shoving. \n\nClint inhaled deeply, swaying slightly with the motion, before straightening and moving back to his own chair. “I really don’t get it.” \n\nBucky scanned the camera outputs before turning to his friend. “I just found a really dedicated Alpha to help me out this year,” he explained, unable to stop the widening grin on his face. “A really, really dedicated Alpha. I mean, like he’s fucking amazing at it, Clint!” \n\nClint leaned back, extending his legs and rocking his chair from side to side slightly. “And you’re not planning to keep him?” \n\nAll of Bucky’s friends - his family, hell most everyone who knew him well, despite how much he’d rather keep his pathetic desperation to himself - knew his situation. Clint better than most. Bucky’s eyes trailed over the swell of Clint’s belly. He was happy for his friends, but at the same time, it was hard sometimes to be an outsider to their happiness. They’d never treated him any differently - especially Clint and Natasha - but there was something oddly alienating about someone close to you getting to experience everything you wanted so strongly. Bucky only felt more and more isolated as his social circle began to shrink until he was the last one left without a partner. He’d stopped going to a lot of events because being the only Stag in a happily paired off and reproducing group physically ached and only made him more unhappy at the reminder that he just wasn’t good enough. \n\nClint and Natasha however, would not let him bow out of all his relationships so easily and circumvented his emerging pattern by inviting him to smaller, more intimate gatherings. He was often at their home or going out to dinner with them. And when he’d dodged them a little too effectively a smidgen too long one or both would show up at his home to either drag him out or invade. Bucky was comfortable with them; so much so that often they’d encounter situations where people would assume they were a triad. Sometimes they’d correct them. Sometimes they’d ignore them. Sometimes they’d play into it. It really depended on the situation. When they played into it however, Bucky always felt hazy with the imaginary situation and would end up feeling severely low about himself for days after. He never found himself not wanting to play along though, no matter how depressed it left him later. And he always felt like a shitty friend, no matter how much he enjoyed it while it lasted. \n\nBucky sighed. “He’s contracted. He came into my life through an agency. OVID’s paying.” \n\nClint’s brows rose. “You went contract this year?” \n\nBucky shrugged. “I just wanted to know everything would be taken care of, you know.” \n\nClint nodded. It had been a few years since it’d been an issue for Clint, but it wasn’t the sort of thing an Omega ever forgot. His friend’s fingers folded over his middle and his cupped hands followed the sweep down until his arms were almost hugging his belly. “Are you going to-”\n\nBucky shook his head a little too fiercely. “You know how I feel about that, Clint.” \n\n“I know. I just thought maybe…”\n\n“No.” \n\nClint sighed quietly, then asked after a moment, “Can I see him?” \n\nBucky’s smile was instantaneous. He’d been wanting to share his good fortune for days. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out his phone. \n\nClint watched with a smile of his own. When the phone was turned around the smile stuttered and he openly gaped. “Shit, Bucky.” \n\n“I know, right?” \n\nClint grabbed the phone and peered down at it. \n\nBucky squirmed in his chair, practically climbing into it in his excitement. \n\n“This is seriously him?”\n\n“Where else would I get such a nice pic of such a hot Alpha?”\n\n“A porn site?” \n\nBucky laughed and leaned forward. “No, that’s really him.” He reached over and began swiping. He was smugly satisfied with the way Clint’s eyes continued to widen and his mouth hung open. When Clint finally looked up questioningly, Bucky held his hands apart, laughing hard when Clint cursed at him and threw his phone at his head. \n\n \n\n“My friends are jealous of you,” he informed Steve during their next heat together. Steve paused, lifting his head from between Bucky’s legs. No Alpha had ever been so invested in Bucky’s cock before and he loved it. Bucky grinned at him. “They’re all mated so they missed out on the chance to contract you.” \n\nSteve huffed softly, twisting his fingers expertly in Bucky’s ass. “You keep saying I constantly surprise you, but you do the same thing,” he replied. \n\nBucky moaned, arching into the touch as Steve leaned forward and ran his tongue up the underside of Bucky’s cock. Sure, it wasn’t the main event during a heat, but that didn’t mean it didn’t still work. And the fact that Steve knew that and was mindful of it made the pleasure flood twice as intoxicatingly through his system. “Me?” he gasped after a moment, catching on to what Steve had said. \n\nSteve hummed. Since Bucky’s cock was in his mouth when he did it, Bucky responded with a low groan. Leaning back, the Alpha wrapped long fingers about his shaft and began an excruciatingly slow gliding motion that just barely tugged Bucky’s skin along for the ride. “Yeah, you,” he said, mouth quirked in a small smile Bucky had never seen before. “Usually, things go the other way.” Steve didn’t like to discuss clients with clients and Bucky respected that. Steve also made it a point to never mention the fact that he was doing a service which he also performed for others in the same contracted duration. But every now and again, Bucky supposed he caught him off guard and Steve slipped. Never enough to be disrespectful, but enough that Bucky felt honored by his honesty. \n\nHe snorted. “They buy into the whole thing, huh?”\n\nSteve hummed his agreement. \n\n“Yeah, well…” Bucky arched with a gasp, trying to shove his cock up into Steve’s grip - just short of maddening in the way it was only the right amount of pressure and nowhere near enough. “I’m not most Omegas.” \n\nSteve laughed, low and open. The sound of it sent a new wave of arousal washing through Bucky’s nerves. “Yeah, I’m discovering that.” \n\n \n\n“You know, I didn’t quite believe it when Clint explained, but this…” Natasha looked him up and down. Bucky just grinned at her. She gripped his chin and lifted it, inspecting his neck, then walked around him, pushing his head forward and tugging his collar down. \n\n“I’m not mated,” he informed her flatly. \n\n“I can see that,” she replied. Stepping back, she folded her arms across her chest and looked him over. “Take off your shirt.” \n\n“Tasha!” he objected. \n\n“Shirt. Off.” She said it in a friendly manner, insistent but not demanding. When the occasion called for it she could Alpha Bucky better than anyone he knew - with the possible exception of Steve now, but then they were sharing his heats, so it made sense - but she never pressed unduly. \n\nBucky rolled his eyes and yanked his shirt off, dropping it to his side, dangling in one hand. \n\nNatasha circled him, touching him gently every now and again. She dropped down in front of him after several moments and pressed her nose below his belly button, inhaling deeply. \n\n“Well,” commented Clint from the doorway. “Nice to know the rounder I get the less attractive I am.” \n\n“She doesn’t believe me either,” Bucky informed him. \n\n“Coming off your second heat glowing?” Clint scoffed in return, passing them to open the refrigerator. “Who would?” He pulled out the orange juice and uncapped it. “That’s two in a row now.” \n\nBucky threw up his hands, shirt swinging and nearly catching him in the face. “He’s contracted!!” \n\n“That doesn’t mean shit and you know it,” Clint replied around the mouth of the bottle. \n\nBucky jerked at the unexpected sensation of Natasha licking him. “Nat, what the hell!!” \n\nShe leaned back with a heavy sigh, hands about his hips. “You’re not pregnant.” \n\n“Yeah, because I’m not contracting him for breeding services,” he drawled. “We use condoms!” \n\nThere was a frown to her brow and she stood. Taking his shirt from him, she straightened it out then held it up for him to slip back into. The Alphas in his life - Natasha especially - were always doing things like that. It was both frustrating in its reminder of what he was lacking and so thoughtful that it left an ache in his heart that any Alpha would care enough to give him even the most minor personal attention. Especially when he wasn’t oozing pheromones. \n\nAfter his shirt was settled, Natasha gripped him by the base of the head and drew their brows together, squeezing gently. Bucky relaxed into the loving hold and everything was forgiven. “So,” she said, crossing over to her mate and taking the bottle of juice out of his hand. \n\n“Hey!” he protested.\n\nNatasha shoved a bottle of water in his grasping hands and Clint sighed heavily. \n\n“When do we get to meet him?”\n\nClint perked, slight forgotten as he looked expectedly at Bucky. \n\n“Uh...you don’t,” Bucky replied, confused. “He’s contracted.”\n\nNatasha waved a hand as if his statement didn’t mean anything. \n\n“I don’t even see him unless I’m in heat.” At Natasha’s raised brow he added, “Yes, he’s that busy!” He pulled his phone out of his pocket and pulled up the web page. “Look, see!” he said, holding it out for her to view. \n\nNatasha deftly plucked the phone from his hand and leaned in to peck him sweetly against the temple. Clint laughed as Bucky blinked, Natasha walking smoothly away from them, Bucky’s phone in hand. \n\n“You make it too easy!” Clint informed him as his mate moved to sit on the couch in the living room. He slapped a hand to Bucky’s back, sliding his arm around him. “Come on, you just got off a cycle. And I’m pregnant. We get to eat fun stuff!!” \n\nBucky sighed and accepted the fact that he would not be getting his phone back any time soon. He was only slightly grateful his heat was over for the month and so Natasha wouldn’t be able to intercept any messages from Steve. \n\n“What do you want?” he asked Clint; cooking would at least take his mind off Natasha’s snooping. \n\n“Psh!” Clint replied, flagging a hand. “Phil’s home. He can cook. PHIL!!” \n\n“So pregnancy ruins your autonomy,” Bucky drawled. “Good to know.” \n\n“Just wait,” Clint replied, looping their arms together. “When it finally pans out, you’re going to love every minute of it!” He grinned at him. “Really, this…” He gestured down at his belly with his free hand and leaned in. “Drives them fucking crazy. They’ll do anything for you!” \n\nBucky shook his head. “You’re so fucking spoiled.” \n\nClint merely beamed at him. “Yup!” \n\n \n\nBucky liked Phil. He was the kind of Alpha Bucky had always wanted for himself. Sort of like Steve, now that he thought about it. Phil never used his Alpha nature to push anyone around and in fact, it was often easy to forget he was an Alpha at all. Clint’s other mate - and leave it to his idiot friend to luck out and double mate - was in Homeland Security. He was around so little, it was ridiculously easy to forget Clint even had another mate. But when Phil was home, there was a certain peace to the household that was difficult to miss. Bucky still wasn’t sure how the three of them did it. Natasha and Phil were not intimate with each other, though they were happy enough to be intimate with Clint at the same time whenever he wanted it - and Phil was around. And yet there was a certain camaraderie about them that was difficult to find in Alphas who shared a living space while mated. Bucky supposed it came from having to deal with Clint all the time and their mutual, unconditional love for him. \n\nPhil was gentle in nature and while he could be as dangerous - perhaps even more so - than any fully trained Alpha in defense of their own, he was generally easy to be around. Bucky found he always felt extra relaxed when Phil was home, even if he didn’t see him. It might have to do with how happy it made Clint - Omegas who were close could affect one another’s moods fairly regularly - or the way the house just pulsed with the combined might of two strong Alphas. Whatever the case, Bucky found it ridiculously easy to hang around longer than he usually felt comfortable when Clint’s household was at capacity. Today - sated from another well met heat cycle, and with both Alphas in residence - was no different. \n\n“You’re looking well, Bucky,” Phil commented, spatula in hand. \n\n“I’m finally not scrabbling around to get my shit together,” he replied around a mouthful of obscenely decadent French Toast. Everybody ate better when Phil was home. \n\n“He found an Alpha to take care of him,” Clint informed his mate eagerly. \n\nPhil didn’t outwardly react, but Bucky could see his nostrils flaring from where he sat. “I’m not mated and I’m not pregnant,” he reiterated. \n\n“I still don’t know why,” Clint drawled, pouring more syrup on his own meal. \n\n“Clint. Sugar,” Natasha called from the living room. \n\nClint made a face at Phil. His male mate crossed over to him and rubbed noses, before removing the syrup from his immediate reach. Clint made a hurt sound and turned to Bucky. “I take it back. You don’t want this life.” \n\nBucky snorted at his friend’s distress. \n\nNeither of his mates seemed immediately concerned by it though. Natasha was quiet and Phil set the syrup down on the counter by the stove. Clint had always had a bit of a thing for extremes - sweet, sour, spice - Bucky suspected it was getting worse now that he was pregnant. He did not envy either of his friend’s mates having to deal with curbing him. \n\n“Are they doing a good job?” The question came out casually, but Bucky knew better. For all that their numbers had grown since the post-war baby boom, Omegas were still grossly outnumbered and general concensus regularly swayed between treating them like gold and treating them like disposable lust receptacles. Omegas had it a lot easier now a days than their predecessors, but sometimes it seemed like there were too many options. It made it hard to read people. \n\nAny Alphas that were stable enough to have Omegas in their social groups they weren’t actively fucking tended to get extremely protective and territorial of them, as if in compensation. Unbonded Omegas being especially susceptible to their Alpha friends’ well meant intentions. As the last unbonded Omega in their friend group, Bucky endured a lot of Alpha posturing. He understood and appreciated the sentiment behind it so he tried not to let it affect him - even if some days were harder than others. It had certainly come in handy on more than enough occasions. And despite the fact that the love and affection were different from what he so desperately needed at his core, it was enough to keep him going. Not quite enough to keep hope alive, but a reassurance that not all Alphas were assholes. And that if he ever needed them, they would all come, whatever the cause. \n\n“Whatever he’s doing, he’s got Bucky living on a cloud,” Clint commented, sullenly poking at his food. \n\n“He’s very attentive,” Bucky assured Phil. “He has to be, it’s his job.” \n\nHe knew it was the wrong thing to say as soon as it was out of his mouth. Phil straightened and put the spatula down for starters. He turned, and it wasn’t the sort of movement Bucky was used to seeing from him at home. It was the Agent of the government, I will fuck up your entire life, sort of motion. Bucky actually recoiled instinctively. He trusted Phil, but the Alpha wasn’t hiding what he was in that moment and it made Bucky’s entire being want to hurry up and appease him so he wouldn’t hurt him. It was a ridiculous notion, Bucky fully admitted it - Phil would never hurt him and he could more than hold his own - but it was hard to argue with instincts. \n\n“You contracted?” he said, a dangerous edge to his voice. \n\n“What’s wrong with contracting?” Clint asked from beside him, straightening. It was something he was able to do only because of the mating bond they shared. He was also acting on instinct; an attempt to protect his fellow Omega by drawing his mate’s attention to himself. \n\nPhil didn’t look at him, eyes fixed on Bucky. “I want to see your contract.” It wasn’t a request. \n\nBucky swallowed and edged off his seat. “Natasha…” He gestured helplessly to his right. “Natasha has my phone.” If he were on his suppressants, Bucky knew he wouldn’t be affected. There were many, varied, specifically intricate reasons Omegas made up the brunt force of military special forces the world over. And Bucky was the best. Everyone knew that. But off his suppressants, in Alpha territory, and unmated...instinct came first - something he’d always hated - the only means most Omegas had had available to them for centuries to keep them alive. It was difficult to fight them, especially when it came unexpectedly from someone he trusted. \n\nArms wound about him and he felt Natasha press into his back. She tossed his phone at Phil who caught it and left without another word. Clint got up from his seat and moved to embrace Bucky, Natasha shifting to draw both of them close. She didn’t make any soothing noises or voice any reassurances, just held them until Bucky stopped shaking. \n\n“Are you okay?” Clint asked sometime later. \n\nBucky nodded and scrubbed at his face. “I should probably go.” \n\n“No,” Clint responded. “You need to stay. Phil has to apologize and explain what the fuck that was about!” \n\nNatasha nuzzled Bucky behind his ear, hand smoothing back Clint’s hair. “He didn’t mean to scare you,” she explained. “He’s just wound a little tight over his last assignment. It didn’t end well.” \n\n“Why didn’t he tell me?!” Clint asked affronted. \n\nNatasha smoothed her hand over his belly and Clint snorted. \n\n“I’m pregnant, not an invalid!” \n\n“Stress,” she reminded him. \n\n“I swear, the both of you!!” \n\nNatasha kissed him, slow and deep. \n\nUsually Bucky tried to avoid them when they engaged so intimately - mate to mate - but Natasha still had an arm about him, holding him close, and he wasn’t secure enough yet to leave the safe harbor she was offering. So he pressed his face to her shoulder and waited it out. Luckily he didn’t have to wait long. \n\nNatasha rubbed his back and pressed a kiss to his hairline. “Phil’s just worried about you, Bucky. About how safe you are.” \n\nHe released a low, only slightly wavering exhale of defeat. “I know.” \n\n“And he’s not used to you--”\n\n“Like this, I know.” \n\nShe patted his back. “He’ll feel horrible about it when he calms down. Come on, let’s go snuggle on the couch.” \n\nNeither Omega objected. \n\nPhil did indeed return after about an hour, head hanging and Bucky’s phone at his side. He approached them slowly and got down on his knees in front of them, respecting the boundary of both Natasha’s protection and Bucky’s personal bubble. He sat back and offered Bucky his phone which Bucky took after only a minor internal hesitation, before launching into an apology so heartfelt that Bucky couldn’t really stand to let him continue. Unfortunately, Clint insisted, so he sat uncomfortably while Phil explained how an agency named Hydra had used Omegas natural biological requirements against them. Creating contracts which had essentially landed the Omegas in sexual enslavement. Bucky really didn’t want to hear it, because it made him both enraged that because of his injury there was nothing he could do about it any longer, and sick to his stomach that so many of his own had thought they were taking control of their lives, only to end up in a hell hole. The fact that most hadn’t survived, and the few who had were in for a lifetime of therapy and hospitalization didn’t help. \n\nBy the time Phil finished, Bucky was walled in on all sides. An Alpha on each side and Clint wedged against him between them. He was horrified, but grateful all the same. He nuzzled Phil’s jaw until the Alpha relaxed against him. \n\n“Thanks, Phil,” he murmured. “I know you probably just jeopardized your career for sharing that.”\n\nPhil shook his head. ���I was out of line. I shouldn’t have been so rough with you.” \n\n“I’m a big boy,” Bucky replied. “I can handle it.”\n\n“You’re off suppressants and imprinted on an Alpha who isn’t around. You’re vulnerable and I exploited that. I’m sorry. You’re my friend; the last thing I want to do is make you feel unwelcome.” \n\n“You’re spending the night, right?” Clint asked from below his own chin. \n\nBucky sighed. \n\n“You’re spending the night,” Clint informed him. “I don’t think any of us are going to be able to sleep after that, and definitely not with you alone and vulnerable hanging over us.” \n\n“I have military grade weapons in my apartment,” he informed him. “And a doorman. Who’s a Beta.” \n\n“You’ll sleep in the middle with me.” \n\n“I’ve killed people. With my bare hands,” he reminded him. \n\n“You’re off suppressants, I’m pregnant and Phil owes us at least three apology meals. Don’t make me hold you here at arrowpoint.” \n\nBucky heaved a sigh. “I didn’t bring anything.” \n\n“What’s wrong with your skin?”\n\n“Clint,” his mates groaned. \n\n“What?!” \n\n \n\n“I am so sorry about this,” Bucky greeted Steve with a heavy sigh. \n\nFor his part, Steve didn’t look all that surprised - or all that intimidated, which really did things to Bucky that had no business being involved in his present position; even if his heat would be starting in a few hours. Light glinted off the metal of the sword tucked casually between them, Wade’s other arm about Bucky’s middle and his body pressed up against his back. Really, Bucky had known better. He had. But Phil and Natasha had insisted - and Clint had undoubtedly goaded them on until casual interest became some kind of protective paranoia - and Bucky had figured if letting them meet Steve and see that he was a nice, unthreatening Alpha just before would keep them from staking out his apartment during his heat - because he knew they would - then it would be worth the time, aggravation, posturing and threats. Unfortunately, Clint had opened his big mouth and told Darcy he was getting to meet ‘Bucky’s Super Alpha’. Darcy - who was in a happily balanced Alpha-Beta-Omega triad - had a habit of going home and telling her mates everything. In concern, Jane - her Beta - had called Pepper, who happened to be with Tony, who immediately called Rhodey, who, of course, called Phil. Thor - Darcy’s Alpha - mentioned it to Peter, who told Wade who demanded he be present to ‘fuck up’ Bucky’s ‘heat toy’ if it came to it. Bruce - the only sane person in their friend group - had called Bucky to give him a head’s up. And that was how Bucky had ended up with four Alphas, a Beta and three fellow Omegas in his apartment an hour before Steve was set to arrive. The only thing that had saved him from complete and utter embarrassment - as if it weren’t bad enough - was the fact that because it was such short notice, several people hadn’t been able to clear their schedule in time for the meeting. Peter had come, even though he hadn’t been able to get the time off, because they were all well aware that he was the only one who could rein Wade in. \n\nSteve shifted his weight, using the motion to take in the group, even as Bucky (and Wade’s sword) motioned him in. Bucky shut the door behind him and followed him into the living room where the group waited, Wade still plastered to his back.\n\n“This is about Hydra,” Steve said, eyes holding Phil’s. It was a plain statement; without question, though there was a weariness to his tone. \n\nPhil regarded him coolly. “This is about Hydra,” he agreed. \n\n“I’ve only ever worked at Shield,” Steve informed them. He was calm, actively passive, but Bucky could practically feel the contempt in him. \n\nIt seemed like the other Alphas could too though, because they all took him in with measured gazes. At his back, Wade’s body was tensing for a fight. His hand had slid low, centered over what was vastly considered equally both an Omega’s greatest strength and their most obvious weakness. It wasn’t the first time one of Bucky’s Alpha friends had done as much to him - it was a protective instinct they often failed to realize - but where he had always found it comforting before, he felt a gnawing irritation now. \n\nSteve sighed - more to relieve tension, Bucky thought. “What Hydra did…” He stopped, hands curling into fists and inhaling deeply. Bucky could see the ticking of his jaw. He could tell Phil, Wade and Natasha were in full agreement without prior consultation - they wanted to hear what he had to say. Were testing his reactions to be absolutely certain he was safe to leave Bucky alone with. And while Bucky could understand their reasoning, and even respect their concern, this close to heat, he really had no patience for it. Unfortunately, much to his own displeasure, he’d begun to scent already. Pheromones wafting free of his skin in thickening waves that only further complicated the situation. An unbonded, fertile Omega coming into estrus in an apartment full of healthy, capable Alphas, all of whom he shared emotional ties to - to varying degrees. At present, Steve’s imprint was strong enough that the others wouldn’t consciously challenge him over something like biology. Especially since they were all mated, and in the case of three of them, in the presence of their mates. But, if they thought for any reason at all that Bucky was in danger or did not feel comfortable stepping away, it would be a fight. And Bucky would find himself herded away into a safe corner with Clint, Darcy and Peter to wait out the destruction of his apartment. Which would likely end in him being forced to ride out his heat alone. After being nearly smothered in Alphas, the mere thought of it…\n\nHe didn’t mean to make any noise, but he had all the same. The pained sound drawing the attention of everyone in the room. Wade bumped his nose against the back of Bucky’s head and drew him close to check his front for injury. Perhaps concerned he’d caught him against his blade. \n\nSteve met his eyes, and Bucky watched the fight go out of them. The anger draining from his system leaving a visible change in him. He straightened, chin lifting and turned to the others as Peter crossed over - taking a slightly wider path around the unfamiliar Alpha - and pressed up against Bucky, head tipping back over his shoulder, which immediately enraptured Wade. Bucky could feel him relax against him and Peter eased Bucky from his grasp, taking his place. Bucky swept a hand over Peter’s hip in thanks as he stepped free - knowing well enough to remain in Wade’s bubble until things were settled, else risk an unprovoked incident; Wade could be difficult to predict. \n\n“Is this an intervention?” Steve asked the group at large. \n\nClint stood from his seat and moved between his mates, looping his arms in one of each of theirs to ground them. “No,” he replied cheerfully. “We really did just want to meet you. Well, Darcy and I really, really wanted to meet you. The rest of them are here for the bragging rights.” \n\n“Hi!” Darcy said, stepping into focus with a small wave. “And can I say, wow. I mean, my Alpha is a God, but you’re just…” She waved her hands around, as if to encompass all of him, then squeezed both hands together tightly and bit her lower lip, making a rumbling sound. \n\n“Darcy!” Jane gasped, catching her mate by the shoulders. \n\n“What?!” Darcy defended. “Look at him! He’s absolutely perfect! No wonder Bucky’s glowing! It’d be physically impossible not to after having his-” \n\n“Darcy!” Jane dropped a hand over Darcy’s mouth, the Omega’s nostrils flaring above her skin. Jane turned to Steve. “I am so sorry! Darcy’s just…”\n\nSteve smiled, some of the tightness in his shoulders easing in amusement. Omegas wanting him was familiar territory. Even if it was just a playful flirt from a happily - and well cared for, Bucky fucking knew - bonded Omega. “It’s all right, I understand.” \n\nBucky inched closer to Steve. Steve, who had weathered a psychological ambush by putting Bucky’s needs first. No one had ever put him first, and Bucky wanted to shove Steve down and ride him and he didn’t care who the fuck was around to see. \n\nThat thought might have come across rather loudly if the way Steve’s head swiveled, eyes focusing on him was any indication. He inhaled deeply and didn’t exhale right away. Bucky swallowed thickly, feeling the spike in arousal like a full bodied burn. \n\n“Well,” Pepper said, clearing her throat. She was taking covert inhales through her slightly parted lips, Bucky noticed. “I think we’ve done enough damage for today.” She shooed at the group with her hands. \n\nClint grinned and started for the door, towing his mates along behind him. Pregnant belly looking almost like the bow of a ship as he navigated the hormonal soup the air had become. “Really nice to meet you,” he told Steve as he passed him. \n\nSteve nodded. \n\nJane ushered Darcy out by the shoulders. The smallest Omega pausing by Steve and making a sweeping motion with both hands before giving a full bodied tremble. “You smell amazing!!” she informed him. “SO AMAZING!” Jane gave her an extra nudge and Darcy tipped sideways, stumbling into Jane’s embrace. “Did you smell him?” she asked her mate, leaning into her side. She gave an appreciative moan. “Bucky’s so lucky!” \n\n“Let’s get you home,” Jane consoled. “I think you and Bucky may have synced again.”  \n\n“Come on Wade,” Peter said, tugging his mate’s arm. “We’re going to be late picking up Ellie.” \n\nWade sheathed his blade and threw an arm about Peter. “When are you going to give me one?” \n\nPeter huffed a snort. Their daughter had been born of a dalliance with a Beta in Wade’s past. When her mother had died, social services had tracked Wade down. He and Peter - who had been only courting at the time - suddenly found themselves with a baby. Strangely enough, Ellie had brought them closer together. Wade’s love and dedication to his child cementing Peter’s decision to mate with him. They’d been so busy raising their child and with Peter’s body in full nesting mode, dissipating his heat cycle sans suppressants, they hadn’t much had time for any of the ‘fun stuff’ as Wade liked to call it. A lot of people tried to put the blame on Peter’s heat loss, but Wade had equally stopped going into rut, and saw no reason anyone but them should be concerned about it. Which was for the best, because no one dared bad mouth Wade’s family within earshot. \n\nBut with Ellie in Kindergarten, and their cycles still gone, Bucky knew Peter was beginning to feel the strain. He was younger than Bucky, but he’d had a more difficult home life and he craved a family with an intensity that could startle. Thankfully, he was mated to Wade. It was hard to be surprised by Peter after meeting Wade. They were a perfect match. \n\n“You should hang out with Bucky more now that he’s cycling,” Wade informed his mate. “Maybe it’ll rub off.” \n\n“Maybe,” Peter conceded. \n\nBucky made a mental note, because it wasn’t the worst idea. He’d talk to Peter after his heat was over. If he could be of any help, he’d damn well do his best. Peter was a good guy, he deserved all the babies he could happily endure.\n\nPepper was the last out the door, smiling at them pleasantly, before closing it behind her. Bucky heard the lock engage and knew Pepper had used her clearance as one of his Alpha powers to lock them in - and everyone else out. She could have engaged the scent flush, but she didn’t and Bucky was grateful she hadn’t. For all the scents swimming around his apartment during a heat could make things uncomfortable, at the moment a scent flush could have broken the mood. If anything, the additional scents seemed to be provoking Steve, who turned to face him, jaw set. Bucky had never seen him anything but pleasant or passionate, and it turned him on like he’d never been turned on before. \n\nHe practically threw himself at Steve, hands yanking at his belt and fly. “I’m so sorry about that,” he husked, in a rush. The heavy sound of Steve’s belt hitting the floor deeply satisfying. “I didn’t know that it’d turn out that way or I never would have-” \n\n“It’s fine,” Steve replied, catching his shoulders in strong hands. “I understand.” \n\nBucky yanked Steve’s shirt open, sending buttons flying. “Yeah, but…” \n\n“They love you,” Steve told him. “They wouldn’t have been so close to challenging me over you if they didn’t.”\n\nHe paused, fingers tangled in the fabric of Steve’s shirt. “I don’t think it would have been a fight.” \n\n“Maybe not. I definitely wasn’t helping.” He heaved a sigh, hands smoothing over Bucky’s arms. “I’m sorry. It’s just...the whole thing makes me so angry.”\n\nBucky nosed the underside of his jaw in support. \n\n“Look at you...you’re shaking! Bucky, I’m so sorry!” \n\n“It’s fine,” he gasped, practically climbing Steve, one leg thrown up high over his hip. “It’s fine! Just…” He rocked into Steve, mewling at the hard length still trapped in clothing. “Please!” \n\n“Okay, Buck,” Steve soothed. “Okay…” \n\nBucky gasped, wrapping every limb about him as Steve hoisted him up into his arms. It took him very few strides to carry Bucky into the bedroom and drop him into the downy softness Bucky only ever tolerated when he was heat high. \n\nSteve made quick work of stripping them both and rolled a condom on one handed as Bucky squirmed in need beneath him. \n\n“Steve...Steve…” \n\n“I’m here. Shh...I have you.” \n\n“No, no…” Bucky whined and Steve immediately froze. Bucky made a hurt noise and dragged him close with both arms about his neck. “Don’t be gentle with me, Steve! Please, not now.” \n\nSteve relaxed into the guiding motion, allowing himself to be drawn close. \n\nBucky buried both hands in golden hair and gripped tight. “Fuck me, Steve,” he gritted out, through clenched teeth, body coiled tightly against the lingering scents drifting through his apartment. “I want you deep and hard and fast. I want you to take me like you need me and I want you to bite me.” \n\n“Are you sure?” Steve asked, eyes slightly wide. \n\n“Yes,” Bucky replied. “Mark me up! I can’t take it! I feel all tangled up and I-”\n\n“I know,” Steve murmured, sinking into the bed and kneeing Bucky’s legs open; pushing forward until he was bent nearly in half. He planted his hands on either side of Bucky’s chest and holding his eyes, entered him in one smooth, strong glide. \n\nA clearer headed Bucky would not be proud of the sound he made or the way his face contorted as he was filled so efficiently. Thankfully, small embarrassments were easily lost in the heat haze. \n\nSteve dropped their brows together and began to thrust, holding Bucky’s gaze captive. Their noses rocked against one another and they panted into one another’s mouths as he quickened the pace, nearly drawing out entirely before slamming back in. Bucky keened, chest arching and hands scrabbling at the Alpha’s chest. \n\nThe soundtrack to the first hour of Bucky’s third heat became the sharp slap of skin, harsh gasps, heightening cries and the slide of the bed against the floor. By the time they were locked together, Steve’s back was sporting raised welts and Bucky’s neck and shoulders were peppered with the indentations of teeth, which Steve spent their knot time decorating with bruises. \n\nBucky fell asleep sore and sated and slick with exertion to the pulse of Steve inside him."}
+{"text": "\nNear the Southern Air Temple - Two days before the comet\n\n\n \n\nKuzon woke up with a start when he heard a twig snap. Ignoring the dread rising in his stomach, he raised his fist engulfed in fire, ready to fight. “Who is there? Stay back!”\n\n“It’s me,” a familiar, gentle voice replied. Gyatso seemed more to float above the ground than to walk.\n\n“Did they change their minds?” Kuzon asked hopefully. \n\nThe meeting with the elders of the Air Temple had been a total disaster. The monks were not at all what Kuzon had expected them to be. They didn’t have Gyatso’s easy laugh. Instead, their faces were strict and they outright accused Kuzon of being a Fire Nation spy trying to set a trap. Despite Gyatso’s intervention, they dismissed the warning Kuzon’s father sent to them. \n\n“ Let the Fire Nation come if they are foolish enough - no army stands the chance against an air-temple,” Abbot Ngapo declared.  Kuzon was told to leave immediately. He had left the place bitter, thinking that he had failed, that his father’s sacrifice was all in vain. But now...Maybe Gyatso’s appearance meant that things changed.     \n\n“Do they believe me now?”\n\n“I’m afraid they don’t. But I do. I do believe you,” Gyatso put his hand on Kuzon’s shoulder. “Your father was a man of integrity and the best friend I’ve ever had. And you are a brave, loyal son. This is why I know you can do this.”\n\n“Do what?” Kuzon frowned. He was more than ready to leave this place behind and be reunited with his mother. \n\nGyatso whistled and a few more figures appeared from the shadows. Kuzon realized that they were all kids - bald and clad in orange and yellow monk apprentice clothes, just like the ones Aang always wore. None of them had their air-bending master tattoos yet.  Kuzon recognized Zam and Chimi from the beach. Aang was not among them. \n\n“You have to hide them somewhere safe,” Gyatso motioned towards the children.\n\nThat was impossible. “But… I don’t really have anywhere to go. My mother went to her birth island… but I promised my father not to put her in danger.”\n\n“Do you know Ta Min?” Gyatso asked.\n\nKuzon had a foggy memory of a visit to an old beach house with his father near Shark-Squid Bone Isle where a small, old lady lived alone.\n\n“Yeah…a kind old lady. Made the best mango-cream pie.”\n\n“That’s her. I’m fond of those pies myself. Go and give this to her.” Gyatso handed a pai sho tile to Kuzon. “She’ll know it’s from me and she’ll find a way to help you.”\n\nKuzon stared at the white lotus tile in his palm. All of this was too confusing. “But how do we go? I have lost all my money at sea.”\n\n“Lucky for you, airbenders come with their own transportation,” Gyatso pointed into the distance where a herd of young sky bison calves waited patiently.  Kuzon’s eyes grew wide with excitement. \n\n“I’ll get my own bison?” That would be neat. Only air-benders could ever have flying bison. The monks kept the herds under tight control.\n\nAt Gyatso’s signal, one of the animals came closer, blinking her large hazel eyes at Kuzon.  “This is Ghama. She’s never chosen anyone as her companion. I’ve always thought that she was waiting for her destiny. This morning, when they brought you up to the airtemple unconscious, she licked your face. Turns out, she was waiting for you.”\n\nKuzon ran his hands over the shaggy fur of Ghama. She seemed like a gentle creature. “Hello Ghama.”\n\nGyatso nodded. \n\n“You need to leave now. Travel at night, try to stay out of sight during the day.”\n\n“You are not coming with us?” Kuzon asked with a heavy heart. \n\n“No, my place is here.” Gyatso waved back that the temple. \n\nKuzon had one more question. It’s been bothering him ever since he set foot in the Air Temple “What about Aang? Where is he?”\n\nGyatso’s expression changed; the gentle smile was replaced by an inquisitive glare. It felt like he was looking straight into Kuzon’s heart. It was freaky. Kuzon swallowed nervously. Gyatso smiled again. “You are a good friend. I’m going to tell you a secret… If something happens to us, you’ll have to find Aang and help him. Tell him that it’s not his fault and he was exactly where he was meant to be…” \n\nHe leaned closer to Kuzon and started whispering in his ears.\n\n \n\n-0- \n\n102 AG - Shark-Squid Bone Isle, Fire Nation \n\nZuko turned the map around in his hand, squinting at it. This was frustrating. “It’s supposed to be right here.”\n\n“Maybe we took a wrong turn?” Aang suggested looking around. They were in the thickest part of the forest, with nothing but trees and bushes all around. “There is nobody here.”\n\nAs if to prove the Avatar wrong, a weird-looking fellow dressed in colourful clothes, wearing a flower necklace popped out from behind a tree-trunk. “Not quite true Little Arrowhead. If you keep our eyes open, you’ll meet fellow travellers who can lead you where you are meant to go…”\n\n“Little Arrowhead?” Zuko frowned at the guy who was soon joined by two companions dressed in similarly ridiculous outfits. \n\nAang broke out in a wide smile. “Chong? Moku? Lily? What are you doing here?”\n\n“You know these people?” Zuko asked Aang. He seemed to befriend the weirdest people. He was worse than Iroh. Maybe it was an old-people thing.\n\nAang nodded. “They helped us find a secret tunnel near Omashu.” He turned back to the travellers. “I don’t suppose you have a song about lost or hidden airbenders.”\n\n“We can always make one up,” Chong replied, strumming a chord on his guitar. “Flying high, flying high, swirling and twirling on the blue skyyyyyy...”\n\n“That’s not bad…” Moku nodded, starting to beat the rhythm on his lap. Lily span around.\n\n“All together now…” Chong started again the annoying song; this time his companions joined in. “Flying high, flying high…” They all danced; Druk and Momo flew around them in excited circles.\n\nZuko blinked. He pinched himself. No, it was not a weird dream.The situation was spinning out of control. “Stop!” he yelled over the noise. “We don’t have time for this Aang.” He had to get back to the capital and not chase dreams or made-up songs.\n\nAang put his hand on Zuko’s shoulder. “Just wait a little. Last time they were right. At least they got us to the tunnel. We were led here for a reason. They must have the next clue.”\n\n“They seem completely clueless to me,” Zuko muttered.\n\nChong wrapped his arms around both of them. “You should listen to your little arrowed friend, Brother. He knows that love will take you to places.”\n\nZuko tore himself out of the weird guy’s embrace. “We don’t want to go to places, we need to find...whatever it is that we are meant to find... and we should be on the move.” He gave a pointed look at Aang who had a penchant to get distracted by song and dance.\n\n“Zuko, you promised you’ll listen to my instincts. I feel strongly about this,” he looked at him pleadingly. Zuko sighed in defeat. It was not crazier than all the other random clues that led them here. Maybe Aang was right, maybe the weird dancing nomads were the key. He gave a little shrug. Aang smiled and turned back to Chong. “Right. Let’s try some tunes for clues. Do you have any songs about the sky?”\n\n“Oh, do we, my friend? The sky is an inspiration for everyone with poetry in their hearts,” Moku nodded. Zuko cringed. People with poetry in their hearts were terrible. He knew from experience that people with poetry in their hearts were excruciating. Listening to these people sounded worse than Uncle Iroh’s music nights.\n\n“Underneath blue skies, I wander with my love…” Chong started a lyrical song. Lily hummed along to the melody.\n\n“That doesn’t sound right..” Aang interrupted them. “I don’t think we want a love song. Anything else?”\n\nThey talked in hushed voices for a little while. Chong strummed a more upbeat chord. “We’ll shout, shout, shout to the sky…” They all danced and swayed to a raucous song that sounded like the stuff the sailors used to sing at the bars whenever they stayed at a port.\n\nAang’s smile started to fade. He seemed a bit less sure of this strategy. “Maybe something about flying bison?” He asked hopefully, not ready to give up yet. \n\n“I know a song about a flying pig chicken.” Chong nodded. \n\nMoku snorted. “That’s a good one.”\n\n“There was little pig-chick, over the hills, it was a little pig-chick, bip-bop-bip…” They all danced making flapping wing movements. \n\n“I can’t take this anymore…” Zuko groaned and walked away on the narrow, faded path deeper into the forest, until the sounds of the guitar faded. Both Druk and Momo seemed to have had enough of the music as well; they chose to follow him searching the trees for bugs. Zuko fumed. Aang was getting his hopes up, convinced that they found something important, but all they had was a dead-end. Sooner or later he had to call it quits. \n\nA loud shriek interrupted his thoughts.  Oh, no, not again! Zuko leapt through the bushes to rescue Momo. He found the lemur and the dragon entangled, fighting over a small cylinder-shaped object. \n\nZuko split up the fight, holding up both animals by the neck. “Get along, please,” he scolded them. “Let me see, Momo,” he held out his palm towards the mystery-object. Inside the casing, he found a small scroll. He unrolled it, revealing drawings of a familiar airbending form he had seen Aang use many times. Zuko gasped.  Maybe they weren’t lost after all . \n\n“Can you show me, where you found this, Momo?” he asked the lemur. The electric-green eyes blinked in agreement. Zuko followed Momo through the heavy undergrowth to a cave opening. Lighting a fire on his palm, Zuko stepped inside. There were strange signs painted on the wall. Maybe this was the clue. \n\nHe ran back to Aang. The strange group was still singing; this time about heart-shaped clouds. Aang was lying on the ground with a resigned expression on his face. \n\n“Aang, I think I found the clue,” Zuko pulled him up. \n\n“You see, Brother? Music will lead the open hearts…” Moku smiled. \n\n“But I was not led by your music, I was chased away by it,” snapped Zuko. \n\n“And yet, you ended up exactly where you were meant to go. It sounds to me that we have led you there after all.” Chong said thoughtfully. “Good-bye, little Arrowhead. I hope you’ll find what you are looking for. And you too, Brother. Let the music into your heart.”\n\n“Safe travels,” Aang returned their greeting.\n\n“A song for the road?” Lily asked. \n\n“No!” Zuko and Aang yelled at the same time and hurried down the path.\n\n \n\n-0-\n\n \n\nAang traced the carving on the wall with trembling fingers. They were etched in clumsily, visibly done in a hurry. But clearly these were written in the ancient symbols of the Air Nomads.\n\n Zam. Chimi. Sang. Kiran.  The boys from the Air Temple. His childhood friends. They were here in this cave, long enough to carve their names on the wall. The clearest sign yet that he was not imagining this. The dreams were real.  “ They were here, Zuko.”\n\n\n Simu. Dhozi.  \n\n\n“Who?” Zuko asked with a frown.\n\n Kuzon.  Aang heart skipped a beat, remembering how he and Kuzon taught each other to write their names in the ancient symbols of their nations. \n\n“These were the other boys at the air temple. We used to play together. They were here. They were here with Kuzon. Why else would their names be on the wall?”\n\n“Maybe they came here travelling before the war? You traveled all over the place, didn’t you?” Zuko asked, still skeptical. \n\n“I was the only one. Gyatso thought it was important…” of course he would. He had already known that Aang was the Avatar. He knew it was important to feel at home in all the four nations. \n\n“So they came here after you left?”\n\n“Don’t you see? They must have escaped.” This was the proof he was searching for. The voices from his dreams wanted him to come here. Aang felt hope soaring inside him. “You know what this means? There must be airbenders somewhere out there.”\n\n“Aang… Even if they were here a hundred years ago…even if they escaped… that doesn't mean…” Zuko bit his lips not wanting to finish the thought. He didn’t have to. Aang knew exactly what he meant.  It doesn’t mean that they survived. “If they are out there, why didn’t they come to you when the war ended?”\n\nOf course, Aang asked himself this question. Most answers he could think of, he didn’t like. But there had to be other possibilities that he just couldn’t think of. \n\n“I don’t know. But our next clue must be here.” \n\nThey searched the cave, but there was nothing else on the walls. Aang turned the ground upside down with earthbending, but there was nothing hidden in the soil either. \n\n“There is nothing here, Aang. It looks like the end of the road,” Zuko sighed heavily.  Aang shook his head stubbornly. \n\n“I refuse to give up now. Maybe - maybe if I meditate here, I can find some answers in the spirit world.”\n\n“Fine. But after that we go home,” Zuko said firmly.\n\nAang sat crossed-legged and closed his eyes.\n\n\n He found himself in an empty green meadow. The spirit world was utterly frustrating - Aang still had no control over where he would land in any moment. \n\n\n“Hello! Is anyone around?” he yelled because the eerie emptiness of the place was unnerving.  \n\n\n “What are you yelling about?” a grumpy voice hissed.  \n\n\n\n Aang craned his neck until he saw the half-bird, half-frog creature sitting on the ground. \n\n\n\n “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be a bother. I need to find an old friend of mine,” Aang explained. “Maybe you could help me? I’m the Avatar…” he added. His title wasn’t nearly as impressive in the spirit world as in the human world, but ho knew, it might be helpful.  \n\n\n\n “A human friend? They are not here. Luckily,” croaked the frog-bird spirit. “You can try it there behind the hills. There are humans there…” \n\n\n\n Aang bowed to the spirit and dashed off for the hills. As he reached the top, he saw swirling fog in the valley; it echoed with voices of pain, voices of despair. Human voices. Aang hurried towards the fog.   \n\n\n\n Before he reached the edge, the spirit of Roku appeared and blocked his way. \n\n\n\n “Aang, you can’t go in there,” he warned sternly.  \n\n\n\n “Roku!” exclaimed Aang with irritation and relief. “You have to help me. I need to speak to Kuzon. He knows where the airbenders are.”  \n\n\n\n “You can’t go into the Fog. It’s playing tricks on your mind. You would be lost there, your memory slowly fading,” Roku explained. \n\n\n\n “It’s worth the risk. I need to find my people.” \n\n\n\n “You are the Avatar, Aang. The entire world is your people. They can’t lose their Avatar. Not now when the peace is so fragile.” \n\n\n\n Aang’s heart sank. “But how am I going to find the answers?” \n\n\n\n “You already have everything you need…The spirit realm cannot be used as a shortcut to solve the puzzles of the human world.” \n\n\n\n “So you can’t tell me anything at all?” \n\n\n\n An amused smile appeared on Roku’s lips. “Did you know that my wife used to make the best mango-cream pie in the world?” \n\n\n\n “I meant something important,” Aang grimaced. He was really not in the mood for listening to Roku’s love life. “Something connected to my search.\"\n\n\n\n “We are all connected,” Roku explained. “You, me, the frog-bird spirit. Mango-cream pies are important, Aang.” \n\n\n\n Aang sighed. Maybe Zuko was right. Maybe it was time to call it quits. \n\n\n \n\n-0- \n\n \n\nDruk curled up in Zuko’s lap to sleep. He listened to the dragon’s soft snores sitting motionless, not wanting to disrupt his nap. Aang sat with eyes closed and from the grimace on his face, he seemed to be having an unpleasant conversation. Zuko yawned, trying to keep his eyes open, but it was a long day of flying and a long week of strange dreams and a long year of endless work…  \n\n\n The orange-red curtain of the house blew in the wind carrying a sweet smell. Zuko stepped inside.  \n\n\n\n “I’ve been looking forward to seeing you.” A grey-haired, old woman greeted him from the corner. Her eyes were familiar somehow.  \n\n\n\n “Do we know each other?” Zuko looked around the small kitchen.  \n\n\n\n “In some ways,” the old woman walked slowly to a chest and took out a parchment and some ink.  \n\n\n\n “Why am I here?” Zuko asked her. \n\n\n\n “Only you can answer that. Your search led you here,” shrugged the woman.  \n\n\n\n “If you know something, you should tell me,” Zuko scowled at her. His scowl usually went a long way of getting things he wanted, especially since he became Fire Lord. But this woman just smiled in that frustrating I-am-in-on-a-secret-you-have-no-idea-about way Iroh sometimes did. She pulled out something from the oven and put it in front of Zuko. \n\n\n\n “Here. Have some mango cream-pie.” \n\n\n\n “I didn’t come here for a pie. I came here for answers,” Zuko huffed in annoyance. \n\n\n\n “I can only offer you the pie. It’s quite tasty,” the woman winked and took a slice for herself.  \n\n\n\n Zuko knew that it was just a dream, which made the pie only a dream pie, but he took a piece anyways. Surprisingly it tasted exquisite - sweet and tangy. It reminded him of something. \n\n\n\n “It tastes like a memory. I remember now - it was my mother’s favourite. I think she once said that there was a special family recipe that was passed down.” \n\n\n\n “Indeed, family recipes are important…” nodded the old woman with a twinkle in her eye, as she scribbled something on the parchment.  \n\n\n\n Zuko leaned over, trying to make out the symbols, but the house, the woman, the parchment all went up in smoke.  \n\n\n “Wait!!!!” yelled Zuko but the dream disappeared.  \n\nHe woke up with a start, the same time Aang’s eyes popped open. \n\n“Any luck?” Zuko asked.\n\nAang’s grimace didn’t bode well. “No. A waste of time. Just Roku prattling on about how his wife made the best mango cream pie.”\n\nThat couldn’t be a coincidence. “Wait. He said mango cream pie?”\n\n“Yep. He said - and I quote - mango cream pies are important, Aang.” Aang said on a deep voice, with a very bad imitation of Fire Nation accent. “How am I going to do this if I can’t even get my former life take me seriously?” he sighed dramatically.\n\nZuko bit his lip. He could stay quiet. He could end the wild goose-rabbit chase right at this point and go back to the palace. But the mango cream pie had to mean something. Roku must have said that deliberately.  Which also meant that the old lady in his dream was his great-grandmother. “I think he was trying to give you a clue, Aang. And I know where we are going next…”\n\n“Wait? What? Where?” Aang’s face changed from shock to surprise to confusion.\n\n“Ember Island…” smiled Zuko. “Come on, I’ll explain on the way.”\n\n \n\n-0-\n\n\n102 AG - Fire Nation Royal Palace\n\n\n \n\nIroh was already in the dining room when Azula arrived. He stood up heavily and bowed politely when he saw her enter. \n\n“Uncle,” Azula returned the bow as superficially as she could get away with. He still made her uneasy. And it was frustrating that Zuko called in the old man whenever he had some important business with his ragtag team of ridiculous friends.\n\n“Niece. Just in time for a nice cup of tea,” he smiled pleasantly.\n\n“Let me guess - ginger,” Azula sniffed into the air.\n\n“You know me too well,” chuckled Iroh. “It’s the best thing to refresh after a long ride on the airship. I was hoping you could bring me up to speed?” he gave her a sly look. It made Azula feel like she was under cross-examination.\n\n“Why? Your spy network is slacking?” she asked sharply.\n\nIroh took a long sip from his cup watching her above the brim intently. “If you are referring to the White Lotus, Princess Azula, I have to disappoint you. It’s more a group of fellow pai sho enthusiasts, really.”\n\nAzula held up her hands to stop him from going off on an endless pai sho tangent, “In any case, Uncle. Our spy network is reporting trouble from the provinces. There are those organizing against Zuko.”\n\nThe pleasant smile on Iroh’s face was replaced by concerned wrinkles. Predictably, he was fully interested now. \n\n“That is troubling, indeed. Do you know anything about their plans?”\n\n“I would, if Zuko weren’t so damned stubborn about his high-minded ideals.” Azula stared into Iroh’s eyes. This was her window of opportunity to interrogate those people. All she had to do was convince Iroh that the Fire Lord’s safety took precedence over pipe-dreams of peaceful reign. “Uncle, it’s up to us to do what it takes if he won’t.”\n\nIroh looked uncomfortable. “Zuko hopes that our people can change,” he said evasively, staring into his tea cup as if the steaming liquid could provide the answer to the dilemma.\n\nAzula felt his hesitation, so pushed on. “You know I’m right, don’t you? If we don’t nip this rebellion in the bud, we are risking an all-out civil war. He listens to you.”\n\n“We need to consider carefully…”\n\n“Princess…” a fearful voice interrupted.\n\n“What is it? Who are you?” she snapped at the intruder who started shaking immediately under Azula’s firm gaze.\n\nHe dropped to his knees even though Zuko had put an end to all kowtowing in the palace as soon as he became Fire Lord. “I’m the Archivist. You ordered to see immediately what we found about Councillor Kuse.”\n\nRight. Zuko’s cryptic request. “So what did you find?” she asked impatiently. \n\n“I am afraid this is all, Your Highness,” he handed her a small scroll.\n\nAzula unrolled the parchment. It read:  On the order of Fire Lord Sozin, we the members of the secret tribunal find Councillor Kuse... The rest of the document was scratched out.\n\nIroh peaked curiously over her shoulder. “Does this have to do with the mysterious mission of the Fire Lord and the Avatar?”\n\nAzula ignored his question.\n\n“But this is all blotted out. What does this symbol mean?” she pointed to the top left corner.\n\n“It’s the Vault, Your Highness,” the Archivist explained.\n\n“What is the Vault?” \n\n“The most secret archive of the Fire Nation that had been sealed by Fire Lord Sozin himself, Princess Azula. Only the Chief Archivist knows of its existence and it can only be opened jointly by the Fire Lord and the Great Sage.”\n\n“So it’s an even more secret secret archive?” Iroh asked slightly amused.\n\n“Did you know this, Uncle?” Azula turned to him accusingly. It was troubling that there would be something of this importance in the Fire Nation that she wasn't aware of.\n\n“I had no idea,” Iroh shook his head.\n\n“So take us to this Vault,” Azula ordered.\n\n“But the Fire Lord... is…” the Archivist stuttered.\n\nAzula pursed her lips and drew her eyebrows into her most intimidating scowl. “My Uncle is interim Fire Lord. Or do you question his authority?”\n\n“No, Your Highness... Highnesses. Of course not. I will send for Great Sage Shiyu at once,” the Archivist bowed to both of them, his hand trembling and retreated from the room.\n\nThe Vault was hidden under the palace, accessible through a secret corridor even Azula didn’t know about. They paused in front of the heavy door, decorated with a huge dragon head with sparkling red eyes. \n\n“It is said that the door can only be opened by lightning bolts, shot at the same time into the two eyes of the dragon,” the Archivist explained.\n\n Dragons and lightning. It was so Sozin.  Azula felt the familiar empty pangs under her skin as she watched Iroh and Shiyu go through the circular lightning-bending motions, blue sparks crackling around them. The red eyes lit up as the lightning reached them, and the door opened with a loud creak. Cold, musty air hit them in the nose. \n\nThe room was filled with long rows of filing cabinets. The Archivist lit a flame in his palm and examined the inscriptions. “It’s the same filing system as our normal archives. I should find it in a moment.” He pulled out drawers at amazing speed. “Here it is, the file on Councillor Kuse. It’s entitled the Solstice Conspiracy.”\n\nAzula and Iroh leaned over the parchment reading it together.\n\n\n The members of the Solstice Conspiracy, known traitors and Air Nomad collaborators who questioned, opposed and attempted to stop Fire Lord Sozin’s glorious conquest. For their heinous crimes, we, the secret war tribunal sentence them to death: \n\n\n\n Councillor Kuse, found guilty of intending to disclose secret war plans to the enemies of the Fire Nation, \n\n\n\n Fire Sage Shin, found guilty of destroying all known information about the identity of the Avatar, \n\n\n\n General Miku, found guilty of attempting to murder our beloved Fire Lord Sozin, \n\n\n\n General Rinoko…. \n\n\nAzula looked at the long list of names. People who questioned Sozin’s plans. People who tried to stop the attack. People...who could have perhaps changed the course of history. People who were believed to be traitors then but would be celebrated as heroes now. Fire Nation citizens with the capacity to think for themselves, to march against the beat of Sozin’s bloodthirsty drums, to risk their lives for what they believed was right.  Idealistic fools, if they thought they could get away with it.  \n\nStill, the names spoke of a history that Sozin wanted to bury because those ideals threatened his plans. Azula couldn’t help but wonder if it would have made a difference had she known of the dissenters. If she was free to make up her own mind.\n\nIroh put a hand on her shoulder. “Do you see it now?” he asked quietly. "}
+{"text": "The blue flowers in the meadow Keith has come to call Lance’s Meadow glow, casting soft light. Every sound they make is caught by the flowers, answered with flicks of light from the flowers.\n\n“Lance,” Keith murmurs from where Lance is sitting in his lap. His eyes are soft and warm, touched with an edge of uncertainty. His hand slides further down Lance’s back, pressing where his spine meets his pelvis. \n\n“I want…” Keith’s breath hitches and he opens his eyes, biting his lip like he’s afraid to say it. He rocks his hips up into Lance’s, making his breath catch. \n\nLance shifts his weight, lifting one hand to cup Keith’s cheek. \n\n“Are you sure?”\n\nKeith sighs, pressing into Lance’s hand. “Yeah. I’m sure.” He bites his lip again and that trepidation is back. “I’ve just- I’ve never…” He takes a steadying breath and holds Lance’s gaze. \n\n“I’ve never done this before.” \n\nLance feels his insides go all soft and gooey and light at the same time. He’s so overwhelmed for the amazing man beneath him he nearly cries. \n\nHe lowers himself further down and Keith spreads his legs, cradling Lance’s body between his knees. Lance kisses him, slow and sweet until he feels Keith relax again. He rolls his hips just slightly, adding pressure more than friction between them and Keith whines, arching up as Lance kisses his way to Keith’s ear. \n\n“Want you so bad,” he whispers, breath dancing across the shell of Keith’s ear. Goosebumps ripple down his arms and Keith shivers. “Want you inside me.” \n\nKeith bites his lips around a groan and Lance sits back, running his thumb along the bitten bloodless skin. \n\n“Don’t,” he pleads. Keith’s eyes are hazy and dark when he opens them. “Wanna hear you.”\n\nKeith releases his lip with a whine, and flushes. His lip swells, blossoming pink and Lance catches it with his own teeth, sucking on it, soothing away the tenderness with his tongue. Keith’s fingers find their way into his hair, holding him like he’s precious and Lance feels that urge to cry again. He’s never felt so wanted, so desired, or so trusted before in his life. \n\nWhen he pulls away Keith lifts himself off the ground, chasing his mouth, lips parted and wanting. \n\n“Come here.” Lance takes Keith’s hand, pulling them both upright until Keith is sitting in his lap, knees bracketing Lance’s hips. He feels his jeans growing damp from the soft ground but can’t bring himself to care. \n\n“If this gets overwhelming,” Lance says softly, tucking Keith’s hair back, the other arm around his waist, “I want you to tell me.” Keith’s hands flex on Lance’s shoulders. “We can stop. At any time, for any reason. I'm not gonna be mad.” He strokes his thumb over Keith’s cheek. “I just want you to feel safe and enjoy it. Okay?” A smile pulls at his mouth. “It’s supposed to be fun.” \n\nKeith blushes, ducking his head to hide against Lance’s shoulder. \n\nLance’s hand strokes up Keith’s back under his jacket and he can feel the heat trapped in the material, like Keith has been in the training room instead of lying in the damp grass. \n\nHe feels the warmth of Keith’s shuddering breath against the side of his throat as he sighs. \n\n“Okay.” \n\n“Okay what?” Lance prods gently and Keith sits back.\n\n“I’ll tell you. If I get overwhelmed or we need to stop.” He flushes as he says it and Lance kisses his burning cheek. \n\n“Promise?” he asks, lifting his pinky up in the air between them and Keith laughs. \n\nHe rolls his eyes but loops his pinky with Lance’s. “Yes, I promise,” he says, fond exasperation in his voice. \n\nHe kisses his own thumb, watching Lance over their entwined hands while he does. \n\nHe turns bashful a moment later. \n\n“You’re gonna have to guide me,” Keith manages, throat tight with embarrassment. “I don’t know what I’m doing.” The corners of his mouth pinch like he’s afraid of disappointing Lance. “I don’t want to hurt you.” \n\nLance kisses him until the tension bleeds away, sliding his tongue against Keith’s lazily. \n\n“You won’t,” he promises. “I know what I’m doing. I know what I like.” He pets Keith’s hair back, marveling at how soft it’s gotten. \n\n“Trust me,” he whispers against Keith’s lips. \n\n“I do.” \n\nLance cups the back of Keith’s head, tipping it and kissing him, long and languid. His other hand slides over Keith’s chest, slipping under his jacket to his shoulder and pushing at it gently. \n\n“Can I?” He asks, waiting for Keith’s nod before kissing him again, slowly pushing the jacket from his shoulders. Keith shivers under the touch when Lance’s fingers drop past his sleeves, meeting skin. \n\nThe air rushing in to touch him is warm but Keith still shivers, goosebumps rippling down his arms, leaving him cold as the jacket slips down his elbows. \n\nLance kisses along Keith’s throat to the hollow, Keith tipping his head back, encouraging Lance with a hand to the back of his neck. The jacket partially restrains his movement but Keith doesn’t care. He hums and makes little noises as Lance dips down to kiss along his collarbone. His fingers abandon Keith’s jacket to stroke over his chest, seeking out a peaked nipple from the cold. \n\nWhen he touches it Keith whines, rocking in his lap and Lance’s hand on his back holds Keith firm as he sucks a hickey into his throat. The noise he makes when Lance pinches his nipple, rolling it, is embarrassingly loud, tapering off into a whine in his throat. \n\nIt makes Lance’s cock twitch in his jeans, heat pooling in his belly. He does it again, a little harder and Keith makes that sound again, body shuddering as he rises up on his knees, body arching. \n\n“Fuck, Lance,” he cries and Lance takes his hand away, wrapping it around Keith’s waist, crushing them together. He rolls his hips up into Keith, face still buried against his throat. \n\n“God I love the way you sound,” he groans and Keith’s fingers finally ease in his hair, soothing along his scalp. \n\n“‘m glad it’s you,” he breathes, pressing his nose into Lance’s hair. He smells warm and sweet and like the flowers around them. \n\n“Never wanted you so badly,” Keith murmurs and Lance’s fingers fist in Keith’s shirt. \n\n“You have to stop talking like that or I’m not gonna be able to take it slow.” His breathing stutters against Keith’s throat and he takes a minute to calm down, pressing soft kisses against Keith’s skin. \n\n“You okay?” Keith asks, stroking his fingers through Lance’s hair. \n\n“Yeah. I just really love you.” \n\nKeith flushes, lifting Lance’s face from his shoulder to look at him. No one’s ever looked at him like that, like he was a star or a supernova, something to be marveled at and admired. It makes his stomach clench and his heart skip. \n\n“I love you,” Keith chokes, kissing him. He kisses Lance until they’re both dizzy, fingers dragging Lance’s jacket off him and throwing it to the side. He yanks on the bottom of Lance’s shirt, trying to pull it off without making Lance let him go. \n\n“Thought you were nervous,” Lance teases and Keith nips his bottom lip scoldingly. \n\n“Never was very patient,” he mumbles and Lance lifts his arms, allowing Keith to remove the shirt. \n\n“Why are you still dressed?” Keith grumbles, reaching for Lance’s belt. “Wanna touch you.” \n\nLance grabs a fistful of his hair and yanks, dragging a guttural sound from Keith as he does. His hands freeze in place, hovering above Lance’s hips as he trembles, lips parted and god he looks so beautiful. His lips are kiss swollen and his throat works over another moan as Lance ducks his head, leaving a bruising kiss there. \n\n“Lance-” he whines and Lance growls. \n\n“So impatient.” He finally eases his grip in Keith’s hair, letting him raise his head. “You’re supposed to be better behaved,” he scolds. \n\n“Make me.” \n\nLance grinds his teeth against his knee-jerk reaction to throw Keith to the ground and fuck him senseless. Next time. \n\n“Should have known you’d be a brat.” \n\nKeith grins. “I don’t know what that means but probably.” \n\nLance cradles Keith’s weight as he lowers him down, using his own jacket as a kind of blanket against the grass. \n\n“Fuck, I don’t have-”\n\n“I do,” Keith cuts him off, fishing into his back pocket for a small packet of lube and a condom. \n\nLance’s eyes widen in surprise. \n\n“You planned this,” he accuses. \n\nKeith rolls his eyes. “Of course I did. This video was the moment I realized I was in love with you. Of course I’d want you to fuck me out here.” \n\nLance groans, his head tipping down to rest against Keith’s sternum. \n\n“Why is that romantic? Damn you.”\n\n“I hadn’t planned on actually using the condom to be honest.” His cheeks flush and Lance lifts his head, his own cheeks warm. \n\n“Keith,” he gasps with delighted surprise. “Did you want me to raw you?” he teases. Keith’s face goes bright red in the dark. \n\n“Yes,” he admits and god that does things to him. Lance groans. \n\n“God that’s hot.” He sits up, taking both from Keith and straddles him. “Next time,” he promises, kissing the tip of Keith’s nose. “Right now I want you to make sweet, sweet love to me while I ride you.” \n\nKeith’s hands fall to Lance’s hips, squeezing and Lance grinds down into him, rocking his ass against Keith’s cock. \n\nHe wastes no time stripping them out of their remaining clothes and opening the lube packet. Keith watches intently as Lance covers two of his fingers, setting the packet within easy reach and reaches down to slowly slide a finger over his hole. He keeps one hand on Keith’s chest for balance as he slowly presses shallowly inside. His cock twitches in the air and Keith’s mouth waters at the sight. \n\n“Can I-?” The words come out gravelled.\n\nLance opens his eyes, following Keith’s gaze. “Yeah.” \n\nKeith swallows thickly before reaching for Lance’s cock, fingers touching him carefully. When Lance groans, rocking his hips, Keith grasps him fully, giving a slow drag. \n\nLance’s mouth falls open, face distorting with pleasure as he presses deeper, fucking himself on his fingers as he presses another inside. \n\n“Tighter,” Lance gasps, stomach clenching when Keith tightens his grip. \n\nHe works himself open, scissoring his fingers until he can press a third inside. He wants more stimulation but it’s hard to press against his prostate from this angle.\n\nKeith’s free hand slides up and down Lance’s thigh, feeling the muscle quiver and tense. \n\n“Lance.” His voice comes out dry and he has to clear his throat, still watching as Lance pumps his fingers. \n\nLance opens his eyes, looking down at Keith. He sees him watching and presses as deep as he can. “Wanna try?”\n\nKeith groans, the hand on Lance’s cock tightening as he nods. \n\nLance pulls his fingers free, feeling empty as he does. He takes Keith’s hand and coats his fingers with the lubricant, guiding them boldly to his entrance. Keith flushes as he presses them against Lance. His body gives, drawing Keith’s fingers into him and Lance groans, hand still holding Keith’s wrist as he rocks.\n\n“Curl your fingers,” he gasps, cock bouncing in the air as he lifts and drops his hips. \n\nKeith does and Lance’s body arches like a drawn bowstring, quivering and tight. \n\n“God, right there. Again.” \n\nKeith does, sliding his fingers down and back up until Lance is whining and desperate. He doesn’t let up, other hand stroking Lance’s cock until he collapses into Keith’s chest with a shiver. \n\n“Stop,” he begs. “Stop, Keith-”\n\nKeith immediately freezes.\n\n“What did I do?”\n\nLance shakes his head, sweaty hair sticking to his face. \n\n“Nothing,” he gasps. “Didn’t do anything wrong.” Keith pulls his fingers free and Lance whines again. “God, gonna cum,” he pants. \n\nKeith grins. “Yeah?”\n\nLance nods, pressing his cheek to Keith’s chest. His thighs are burning. \n\n“Want you inside me.” \n\nKeith reaches for the condom, tearing open the package and rolling it on as Lance grabs what’s left of the lube, slicking him up. He shuffles forward, until they’re aligned, guiding Keith’s cock to his hole and pressing against it. \n\nHe bites his lip, slowly sinking down a little at a time. Keith’s nails dig into Lance’s hips, leaving red lines behind. \n\n“Perfect,” Lance moans, “so perfect.  Dios mio  you’re so  perfect .” He’s flush in Keith’s lap, their bodies pressed together and quivering as Lance adjusts. Keith strokes him slowly, trying to chase off whatever pain Lance might be feeling with pleasure. \n\nHe slowly begins to rock, hands on Keith’s chest for leverage. He opens his eyes, staring down at him as he bounces on Keith’s cock, alternating pace and rhythm, repeating what makes Keith’s eyes roll into the back of his head or his breath hitch, clenching around him again and again. \n\nHe pulls back far enough the head of Keith’s cock catches along his rim before dropping back down, hard, making them both groan. Keith arches up off the ground, forgetting to breathe and Lance does it again and again, pounding into his prostate as he does. Precum drips from the head of his cock over Keith’s fingers and his thighs burn. He bends forward, trying to ease the pain and Keith grabs Lance thighs, knifing up into him. Lance’s body clenches with a cry, his hand covering Keith’s on his cock and guiding it as Keith buries himself in Lance and cums. \n\nLance squeezes the head of his cock with Keith’s fingers, Keith still thrusting into him shallowly, his other hand coming to cup Lance’s sac. He rolls his balls and Lance shudders, body twitching and shaking as he finally cums. It’s been too long since someone touched him and he never thought it would be Keith. \n\nHis legs hurt as he lays across Keith’s chest, blinking back tears with a jagged gasp. \n\nKeith’s hand strokes up Lance’s sweat slicked back. \n\n“Lance?” \n\n“Ngh,” he manages, blinking back tears. \n\n“Hey.” Keith pushes at his shoulder and Lance props himself up, both of them groaning as Keith finally slips from him. \n\n“What’s wrong?”\n\nLance shakes his head, wiping at his tears. He can’t get the words out so he just kisses Keith. \n\n“I love you,” he finally chokes. “More than I’ve ever loved anyone.” His features crease as he pinches his eyes shut. “God, you’re my whole heart Keith.” \n\nKeith feels tears prick at his own eyes and he forces himself to sit up, carrying half of Lance’s body weight with him. \n\nLance shakes his head, his face buried against Keith’s throat. His chest aches with how much he loves Keith. It’s overwhelming. \n\nKeith kisses his shoulder, holding him close and cradling Lance. \n\n“I never thought you’d be mine,” Keith whispers. “You’re so out of my league.”\n\nLance snorts. “You’re such a dumbass.”\n\n“I’m serious.” \n\nLance sits back, pushing Keith’s hair out of his face. \n\nKeith searches Lance’s eyes, the lights from the flowers reflecting in his already impossibly blue eyes. \n\n“You could do so much better than me,” Keith whispers. It hurts to say but it’s true. \n\n“Bullshit,” Lance chokes, anger thick in his voice but more on Keith’s behalf than at him. “There is no better than you.”\n\nKeith’s heart flips and he feels tears wet his lashes when he blinks. \n\nLance cups his face in his hands. “You make me happy,” he whispers. “Happier than I’ve ever been. You make me feel less alone. You’re the balance to all of my weaknesses.” He shakes his head slowly. \n\n“God I could take on the world if you’re with me,” Lance breathes. “You make the impossible possible. I’m so much stronger and braver when you’re with me. You make me confident. Not just fake confident but the real thing. I know you’ll always have my back.” He runs his hand over Keith’s hair. \n\n“When I reach for you, you will always be there. Always. That’s who you are.” Tears slip down his cheeks and Keith brushes them away. \n\n“You mean so much to me,” Lance cries. “I don’t think you’ll ever know-” \n\nKeith kisses him and holds Lance tight. \n\n“You’re my whole heart too,” he manages and Lance cries harder, overwhelmed with love and relief. \n\n~\n\nThey help one another dress, Lance blushing as Keith does his belt for him. Somehow it feels more intimate than the sex. Lance pulls him into a kiss, Keith dropping another to his mouth before he pulls away. They walk back to the castle ship hand in hand"}
+{"text": "If Stiles hated high school parties, he absolutely loathed high school dances. The music was too loud, the air too thick with awkward hormones and shitty punch. What even was punch? Weird, that’s what. It was even worse now with his deteriorating condition and he wondered if Derek was even here. It must be wreaking havoc on his senses.\n\nHe’d been searching for ten minutes now but he couldn’t find the wolf and he was starting to get dizzy so instead he found a solitary corner and spoke in a clear voice, at normal volume, “Derek. Derek, are you here? I need to—we need to talk.” Stiles closed his eyes, “If you want—I want—” He groaned, unable to organize his thoughts, “I’ll be out on the lacrosse field. If you—if you still—”\n\nHe sighed, pushing through the crowd and out into the dark night. He lay in the center of the lacrosse field pondering life and death. He’d been doing that a lot lately, since his birthday, trying to comprehend the life cycle. He’d wished for Derek a hundred times. So he wasn’t sure if he could trust the image coming towards him now.\n\nHe didn’t speak as he sat near Stiles’ shoulders cross legged. It took him a long time to meet his eyes and when he did Stiles saw his own misery reflected back at him, “Hi.”\n\nDerek’s voice sounded rough, as if he hadn’t been speaking in a while when he replied, “Hey.”\n\nStiles sighed, looking up at the night sky and moving one hand lazily over the grass while the other rested on his chest, “What do you know about witches?”\n\nHe felt Derek’s eyebrows and nearly smiled, “They’re similar to Druids and Emissaries. Drawing on the power of nature and the elements. Most are frauds, using old spells and such but a rare few, true witches, have active powers. They correspond with the elements, fire, water, earth, wind.”\n\nStiles nodded, “Why are they so rare?”\n\nDerek scowled and Stiles couldn’t tell if it was because he was clearly working up to something or if he was reacting to the answer he was about to give, “Back when they were prevalent, witches were known to be kind of elitist. They didn’t mix with other supernaturals unless there was money involved and they never interacted with humans. That left little option when their population started dying out. A few left and started going out into the world but most stuck to their stupid ideals and just died out.”\n\nStiles gritted his teeth as he nodded, “Have you ever heard of the Silverleaf family?”\n\nDerek tilted his head, “Earth witches, I think? They could control things like plants and stuff.”\n\nHis voice trailed off, his eyes on the hand Stiles was running across the grass. He knew he’d be able to see even in the dark that with one swipe the grass turned yellow and died then with another swipe it turned lush green again.\n\n“What about the story of the lost Silverleaf daughter? Heard of that?”\n\nDerek didn’t take his eyes off Stiles’ hand as he shook his head. Stiles nodded, looking up at the sky, picking the grass before reconnecting it to the ground below, “The Silverleaf family was one of the last to die out. They were all pure breeds, just like you said and they controlled the element of earth. The last in the line was a woman, good news because she could breed with other witches; older if need be to reproduce heirs. But she was a bit of a trouble maker, liked to question things.”\n\nStiles’ heart stuttered when Derek’s mouth quirked up. He kept talking, “She just didn’t buy all that bullshit about pure breeds. She didn’t know if a child she had with a non-witch would be magical but she also didn’t really care. What had magic done for her but make her a breeding puppet?”\n\nHis voice hitched and then there was a hand covering the one on his chest. He breathed a sigh of relief as he intertwined their fingers and continued, “She disappeared, used her magic to do it for a little while but magic leaves a trace, another reason for her to hate it. She stopped altogether, just in time to meet a going nowhere deputy in a small shit town.”\n\nThe tear rolling down his cheek was caught in Derek’s warm finger and Stiles closed his eyes, “She fell in love and when she decided to marry him, she decided to go all in on the human life. So she bound her powers with a powerful, difficult spell and moved on. And she was happy. She was happy with her boring little life and her boring little flower shop. Her boring police man husband and her boring over active son.”\n\nStiles choked and had to sit up, Derek’s hand on his shoulder helping him. He turned and mirrored Derek’s position, their knees brushing, “Thing is,” he continued with voice clogged with tears, “Once you accept it, magic is a part of you. And if you lock that part away, eventually you’re going to start deteriorating.”\n\nHe shook his head, squeezing Derek’s hands in his own, “She knew there were people who could help. She knew there was an Emissary nearby and a powerful werewolf pack who were known to help stranded supernaturals.”\n\nHis laugh was hollow as Derek squeezed his fingers nearly too hard, “But she’d made a vow, to live a human life. And that meant a human death. So she wrote a note which turned into a journal. She wrote down everything she could think of before wrapping it up with her Grimoire to be given to her son on his seventeenth birthday.”\n\nStiles took a steadying breath, the hard part was over. He moved slowly, just in case as he slipped the knife from behind his back and set it in the grass between them. Derek didn’t even blink, “She didn’t know if he was even a witch. You don’t come into your powers until you’re seventeen.”\n\nStiles touched the tip of the knife with his finger and turned it counter clockwise until the old tome lay before him. He glanced up at Derek who was staring down at the book, “That’s not all though.” He murmured, brining Derek’s attention to his hand which was pressed into the grass beside them. They both watched as a dark flower grew up and bloomed, “A witch has two months to decide if they want to keep their powers.”\n\nDerek’s head snapped up to look at him and Stiles smiled sadly, flipping Derek’s hand palm up and tracing up and down his fingers, “It’s as simple as saying a few words but once it’s done, it can’t be undone. If you say no, you can never do magic again. Not even a simple spell. But if you say yes, it’s there, forever unless you do something like my mom and we know how that turned out.”\n\nDerek squeezed his fingers and Stiles plucked one of the blooms, starting at Derek’s palm and tracing it up a finger, watching as it caused a claw to grow. The claw looked broken and cracked, much like Stiles’ heart. Derek must really trust him, because he let Stiles continue. When he moved the bloom up towards his nail, it would elongate and as he moved it back down, the claw would retract.\n\n“If you had the choice to give up being a werewolf, would you?” he said quietly and watched Derek’s fingers flinch. He smiled sadly, “No, I guess you wouldn’t. You’ve had eighteen years to be a werewolf; you know the ups always come with downs and vice versa. But what if—” Stiles choked slightly, “What if your mom did everything she could to never be a wolf again? What if she died for it? How could you accept that as a gift? How could you respect her memory? So do I give up magic and honor my mother? Or do I accept the thing she hated most in the world?”\n\nHe stopped drawing the flower over Derek’s palm, feeling the weight settle on him. Derek’s hand landed heavy on the back of Stiles’ neck and strangely, it made him feel lighter, “You can’t refuse this, Stiles.”\n\nStiles looked up and Derek sighed as he wiped the tears from his eyes, “You may have only received these powers but they’ve always been a part of you. You know my mom killed that moon flower in two days? I looked it up, they’re incredibly difficult to cultivate. But you did it almost effortlessly with no power to speak of.”\n\nStiles bit his lip and looked away. Derek’s fingers drifted over his cheek, “Your mother made the choice she had to make but she didn’t want to make yours for you. That’s why she left you that journal. That’s why she left you this.”\n\nThey both looked down at the Grimoire, the complicated leaf design adorning the cover, “Magic was bad for her. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be good for you. She wouldn’t have given you this if she didn’t think you could make magic what it’s supposed to be.”\n\nDerek turned over their hands and looked at the flower still in his palm. Stiles sighed, picking it up and holding it out near the stem. The flower’s life cycle reversed slightly, to the point where Stiles picked it off and it reached out to pull it back in.\n\n“It’s something my mom made. Foxglove mixed with wolfsbane. It can’t hurt you.” He said quickly, glancing up at Derek only to find him completely unworried. Stiles smiled softly before stroking the bell shaped flowers that fell in a cascade from the stem, “Before she disappeared, she was working on a way to identify other supernaturals. I think she was already planning her escape and she wanted to steer clear of them. I’m not sure why she chose foxglove but the wolfsbane is obvious. There’s not much in there, just enough to draw out your shift slightly. It’s beautifully sad looking isn’t it?”\n\nThey looked at the flower that really was an exact replica of foxglove, only it had the deep cool color of wolfsbane, the petals such a dark purple, they appeared black. Stiles touched the base of the stem and watched the cycle spin backwards as the blooms closed, turned to buds and then the stem grew shorter until is disappeared completely.\n\nHe dragged his hand over slowly, touching Derek’s knee before landing on the book, “Have you ever seen a Grimoire?”\n\nDerek shook his head, glancing up so their eyes met briefly before looking back down. Stiles flipped it open, “It’s pretty cool actually. A mix between a spell book, a beastiary and a magical artifact. The pages change. I’ve read it eight times and found something new each time. It also learns.”\n\nHe stopped on the newest entry about Darachs, a sketched image of Jennifer Blake added to it. He felt Derek stiffen and took his hand, “There was already stuff about Darachs. That’s how I knew what it was. But when it touches something in its other form, it learns. And when I—”\n\nDerek squeezed his fingers and he nodded, “When I killed her, I think it took some of her memories.”\n\nHe trailed a finger down the entry, “I didn’t know about any of this. About the alpha pack.”\n\nDerek nodded, “My mom and a few others took care of them. What happened to Jennifer Blake was enough to bind them together in a singular cause. They aren’t a problem anymore.”\n\nAs he said it, they watched the entry change, a foot note being added, strangely in Stiles’ handwriting about the alpha pack being disbanded by Alpha Hale and friends. Derek smirked at that last part and Stiles felt himself smiling too, “You’ve had a busy week.”\n\nDerek groaned, “My room is the over flow guest room. Mom says Cora and Laura are too messy.” He pouted, “I miss my bed.”\n\nStiles frowned, “Why not go to the loft?”\n\nDerek’s eyes flicked up, “Because. That’s our place.”\n\nStiles swallowed thickly before looking down and flipping pages, “There’s a ton in here about werewolves. They’re a pretty plentiful supernatural but there are a few things worthy of note.”\n\nHe stopped flipping and pointed as he began to read, feeling Derek stiffen as he did, “The Alpha Command is a power rarely used. The alpha’s power is dependent on the strength of the pack as a whole and when an alpha continues to circumvent the feelings of others, it weakens the pack and causes dissonance.”\n\nStiles glanced up, “I don’t want to cause any dissonance.”\n\nDerek shook his head, looking uncomfortable, “I didn’t like it, but I understood it. I wanted to tell you, you have to know that.”\n\nTheir eyes seared into each other as Stiles nodded, “I do now.”\n\nHe saw hope flicker alive and real in Derek’s eyes and Stiles ducked his head flipping the page, “I want to read you another entry.”\n\nDerek squeezed his hand in acceptance. Stiles took a deep breath and began, “The werewolf mate is something that is difficult to describe. It is not an obvious thing but if one is paying attention, they can usually pinpoint the signs.”\n\nHis eyes flicked up at Derek to find him concentrating, he kept reading, “The first notable sign is that the wolf will be drawn towards its mate inexplicably. The echo of their bond pulling at it even when it is not fully developed. The mate, wolf or not, may experience the same thing.”\n\nHis eyes flicked up again and this time Derek smiling softly. He kept reading, “All of a wolf’s natural instincts will be heightened around their mate and they might be known to do any of the following: say I love you very early in the relationship, try to be touching their mate at all times, feel the need to protect their territory and become jealous of others touching their mate even if they are pack. They will want to leave their scent on their mate in any way which may include: scenting, continuous claiming marks, and sexual acts.”\n\nHe shot Derek a raised eyebrow and his grin widened. He kept reading, “Sexual intimacy is very important in a mate bond and should not be taken lightly. Sex, especially unprotected sex, leaves the couple smelling like each other and claimed for weeks.”\n\nStiles flushed, remembering the blow jobs they exchanged in the bathroom stall at school on Derek’s birthday. His family had to have been able to smell that.\n\n“The wolf may experience difficulty controlling their shift during sexual acts and may have to relearn control. This is due to high levels of emotion that result from a sex bond. Wolves are warned to be careful if their mates are not fellow wolves.”\n\nHe glanced up and found Derek blushing; he couldn’t help his smile, knowing now why Derek needed the blindfold. He paused, tilting his head, “Was the Kate thing a lie?”\n\nDerek winced but shook his head, “Not really. She did critique everything I did, including my face and body and ya know.” He blushed again, “But she never knew I was a wolf and I’ve never had trouble with control until you. Not like Cora.”\n\nStiles frowned, “That’s what she’s doing in South America? Learning control?”\n\nDerek nodded and Stiles hummed, “And that’s why you went at Christmas?”\n\nAnother nod and Stiles couldn’t help but grin as he looked down, “Didn’t help that much.”\n\nDerek squeezed his fingers and he bit his lip, about to start reading before pausing and looking back up, “Oh and by the way, you have the face of an angel, the body of Greek God and your cock is one of the seven wonders of the world. Moving on.”\n\nHe felt Derek’s grin on his skin as he continued reading, “Sex is also one of the ways the bond is strengthened although shared traumatic events or prolonged exposure will result in the same thing. The strongest mate bond will result if the couple spends eight hours or more in each other’s company for no less the four days a week, with communication between the two constantly even when they are not together. They will have a strong and healthy sex life and find it difficult to stay away from each other or keep their hands off each other. They will also likely have shared at least one traumatic experience, usually a life or death instance.”\n\nStiles didn’t want to think about watching Derek’s wolf whimper so he moved on, “The wolf is not the only one who will experience the draw of the mate bond. All of the aforementioned symptoms will most likely appear in the mate, wolf or no in a variety of ways. Something that has been observed more in the mate, though it is not altogether uncommon for the wolf to feel it as well, is the desire to bare their neck. The mate will not only know instinctively how to calm their mate and rile them up, they will also instinctively know how to communicate in wolf terms. The baring of the neck often means submission but it can also be seen as acquiescence or consent. When a mate bares their neck, they are more than likely feeling the pull of the bond and the love they have for their wolf.”\n\nStiles rubbed his neck, feeling the need to bare it now but knowing it wasn’t time yet. He was happy to remember that Derek had often bared his neck as well. A hand came up to cover Stiles’ and he let his hand drop away so Derek could touch. He nearly bared his neck just from that but he was almost done with the entry.\n\n“A werewolf mate bond can be a glorious thing, making both the wolf and their mate stronger and more fulfilled. However, with great connection there can also be great loss.”\n\nStiles felt Derek’s hand tighten on his neck, he read on, “It is so common that this text might even say inevitable that when one member of the bond passes away, the other is sure to follow swiftly.”\n\nDerek growled and Stiles brought his hand back up to cover his, to give comfort, “Perhaps the only way to truly prove a mate bond is in death or when the bond is severed, damaged or drawn taught. When this happens, expected symptoms include: decreased rate of healing, decreased reflexes, looking wan or ill, lack of sleep, lack of motivation to do anything at all. A non-wolf will suffer all of these and more but the wolf will also show outwards signs of deterioration. Their claws will begin to crack and break and the most notable: their eyes will shift but they will no longer glow. It is recommended that the bond is healed quickly through any means necessary or the result may and often will be death.”\n\nStiles took a shaky breath, closing the Grimoire and spinning it before sheathing the knife and finally looking up. Derek looked tired, completely on the edge of collapse and Stiles felt much the same way. But the book didn’t mention the need. The screaming clawing need inside that felt like it was carving him from the inside out. Maybe he’d add that. And a lot more about the mate side of things. That entry was way too geared towards wolves.\n\nStiles lifted a hand, tracing it along Derek’s cheek. Understanding what he wanted, Derek closed his eyes and when he opened them Stiles had to hold back from crying out. Derek’ eyes were yellow but they were flat, flatter even than his normal eyes, like they were made matte.\n\nA whimper escaped his lips as he threw all pretenses out the window and crawled into his lap. Derek held him tight and fast, their eyes never leaving each other.\n\n“I’m sorry.” Stiles whispered but Derek was immediately shaking his head.\n\n“No. I should have been there for you. I should have been at your side not chasing down stupid monsters.”\n\nStiles shook his head, “You were doing your duty as a pack member. As a Hale. You were saving lives. I understand that, I do.”\n\n“But you didn’t know because I couldn’t—”\n\nStiles made frustrated noise, “I know that now. I just didn’t before. I thought you were hiding it because you thought I’d freak out.”\n\nDerek shook his head, “Everything, Stiles. You have every piece of me. Even when I couldn’t tell you, you knew. With the moon flower and the blind fold. Fuck you knew when I was in control and when I wasn’t and that night at the Nemeton…”\n\nStiles flinched and Derek squeezed him tighter, “You knew it was me. I could see it in your eyes. You took one look at my wolf form and you knew.” He shook his head, “I should have known you needed me.”\n\nStiles shook his head, looking down, “You’re not mad about that? Me approaching a wolf in the forest on a full moon?”\n\nDerek huffed a laugh, “I can’t say I was thrilled to see you there. Especially since we were tracking the Darach but I looked at you and I thought—Maybe. Maybe you could figure it out on your own. I had all these plans to plant seeds where I could. Even considered not holding back when we…but then you woke up and you just knew and I—”\n\nStiles smiled, placing his hands on Derek’s cheeks and memorizing his face all over again, “I did figure it out on my own. I mean I had a little help but you didn’t break your command. You didn’t tell me. I’d like to think I’d have gotten there eventually.”\n\nDerek put his head on Stiles’ shoulder and just breathed for a moment, “You definitely would have. You’re so smart, Stiles. You’re smart, beautiful, funny, kind, fierce.”\n\nStiles pulled back, wiggling his fingers, “and now I can control grass. Don’t forget that.”\n\nDerek grinned and Stiles felt the need to trace his lips with his fingers. Derek pressed a kiss to his fingertips and spoke even as Stiles held his fingers there, “I think you should accept them. I think it makes sense, you with magic. But whatever you decide. You’ll figure it out. And if—if you’ll have me. I’ll be at your side the whole way. I’ll never stop showing you how sorry I am and how much I—” He shuttered before he glanced up, his eyes yellow and Stiles swore he saw the faintest glow, “How much I love you.”\n\nStiles just stared at him for a long time, his hands moving over his face, making up for lost time. When he was ready, when he could bear to look away, he simply closed his eyes and let his head fall back and to the side, showing his wolf how much he loved him.\n\nDerek growled and Stiles let out a soft moan as he felt his lips descend, marking Stiles as his, as claimed."}
+{"text": "“GAH! What was that for!?”\n\n“You had a hair sprouting between your eyebrows. That’s not very ladylike of you, is it?”\n\n“That’s just an excuse and you know it!”\n\nEven now, on the verge of his punishment, Yosuke and Chie found a way to argue. She sounded like she was enjoying whatever makeover Hell she was putting him through a little too much.\n\n“There’s some leg hair showing in this outfit, too. Good thing I brought the wax.”\n\n“Don’t you dare!”\n\nYukiko, meanwhile, sounded like she was the star of a PG-13 slasher film. She was a nice person and all, but there were times when that girl went downright sadistic. Kanji felt no shame in being afraid of her, at least a little bit.\n\n“GYAAAAAH!”\n\n...Okay, a lot a bit. He had never heard hair pull off like a velcro strip before, and he hoped to never hear it again.\n\nAt least he didn’t have to see it. Their classroom underwent another transformation to serve as their dressing room. It was a more relaxed transition this time, though. Curtains went up to preserve everyone’s shame as they underwent their makeovers, and each little station had a makeup desk with a mirror. Simple, but it got the job done.\n\nNot that he knew how to use any of this shit. Which is where his own help came in.\n\n“Tilt your chin up for me, okay?”\n\nSeeing as he hadn’t pissed the girls off, they were a lot more gentle with him. Rise made as much of the process simple as she could. Kanji, in turn, did whatever she told him to. She was the expert here, not him. He felt a slight tug on his eyelashes as she used the mascara wand thing on them.\n\n“There. How does that feel?”\n\nShe knew better than to ask how it looked, because they both knew the whole point was to look ridiculous. Kanji blinked a few times, getting a feel for the extra weight on his eyelids.\n\n“Feels fine, I guess.” That was about the best answer he could come up with. How was it supposed to feel being dressed up like a doll? “Is this what you girls go through every day? Man, if dudes knew how tough looking pretty was, they wouldn’t be talking so much crap.”\n\n“Aw, does that mean you think we look pretty?” Rise giggled while she worked on his other eye, much to his embarrassment.\n\n“Wha? I mean, yeah, but...”\n\n“That’s sweet of you to say.” She capped the mascara wand with a flourish, dipping into the pile of stuff for whatever step came next. “But you really shouldn’t be flirting with other ladies in front of you girlfriend~!”\n\n“Would you please stop teasing him now?” Naoto squinted at his cheek, her focus broken. “It’s hard enough to use this foundation stuff when you’re not making his skin change color.”\n\nChange color? Then that meant he was… Yeah, he felt the heat there. That was a blush. Shit, Rise would never let him hear the end of it.\n\n“Sorry, I can’t help it. This big bad punk gets worked up so easily.”\n\nKanji’s eyes locked on the mirror in front of him in an attempt to force a cooldown. He could still see the punk looking back at him, but he wasn’t nearly as rough and tumble as usual. Every pass of Naoto’s brush took a bit more of the edge off his cheeks. He could still glare with the best of them, but the effect was confused when it was framed with big, black, luscious lashes. The lipstick Rise was coming in with promised to blend the signals even further.\n\n“Give me a little pout now. You have to cover the insides of the lips to make it look all even while you’re talking.”\n\nHe stuck his lips out how she wanted, but the cold touch of the lipstick almost made him jump.\n\n“Sorry, I should have warned you. It gives people a warm look, but this stuff can be cold in the tube.” She got him to sit still before she tried again. “You’re listening, too, right Naoto?”\n\n“Huh? Me?” She stopped what she was doing to stare at Rise in surprise, but then she slumped a little as she recalled. “Oh, right. I have to go on stage later, too. I was trying to block that out for the moment.”\n\n“Hey, is Naoto getting sad over there?” Chie’s question was followed by another round of waxing, with Yosuke’s scream echoing twice as hard. “Does that help?”\n\n“It does for the moment, but I don’t think it will last into the afternoon.” Naoto was about to start again with a heavier heart before she jumped in to add, “No need to do that again for my sake. The effort is appreciated.”\n\n“Okay.” Rip. “I’ll still do it for ourselves, though.”\n\n“You’re a demon, Amagi! A demon!”\n\nThe lipstick pulled away, and after popping his lips together as instructed, Kanji had to throw in his two yen. He didn’t really have anything helpful to say, though, so maybe a joking offer would help?\n\n“You think if I put a hole in the stage while I’m up, they’ll have to cancel your half of it? I could totally do that.”\n\n\n “Absolutely not!” Naoto was shocked by her own outburst, reeling her composure back in before elaborating. “While I know you could follow through on that idea, it would also be destruction of school property. \nG\netting out of a pageant is \nnot \nworth you potentially being expelled.”\n\n\n\nIt was flattering to hear her say it, but now they were back where they started, with Naoto working herself up into a lather and Kanji being powerless to help her in the moment.\n\n\nAs far as he was concerned, that meant he owed it to her to make sure his one good plan turned out right.\n\n“It’ll be bad for today, but I swear, I’ll make sure no one in this building’s talking about it later. All eyes on me, damnit!”\n\n\n “That’s the spirit!” In the next station over, Yu was doing his own work. After all they’d been through together, it was easy to forget that one of the first things Yu did after Kanji joined up was go out in drag to make him feel better about his Shadow. Kanji guessed he was going to pull the same look as back then. “Remember, the crowd can feel it if you’re only going halfway. To make your act work, you have to \nbelieve\n you belong on that stage. \nBelieve\n you’re the best looking girl up there, and no one will tell you otherwise.”\n\n\n\n “\nYes, Sensei!” Teddie’s presence in the room had almost gone forgotten. Whatever he was doing in his station, it was dead quiet.\n\n\nActually, come to think of it, the only thing he went in there with was the bear suit on his back. How was he doing any work without makeup?\n\n\n “I failed to follow your lead before, but I’ve learned so much since then. Today, Teddie will prove him… I mean, \nher\nself the prettiest girl in Inaba!”\n\n\n\n “Ooh, is that a challenge?” Rise got an evil glimmer in her eyes. Kanji was at once stoked and mortally terrified. “\nIt’s personal now, Kanji. You’re going to do us proud out there. Right?”\n\n\n“R-right.” He couldn’t lose nerve now. Rise was on his side. If he couldn’t hold up under her scrutiny, what chance did he stand against a crowd of those shitbirds he called classmates?\n\n“Ah, this dress still fits like a glove. My compliments to the seamster!”\n\n“Wait, pull that back a step, Ted.” Wow, Yosuke was managing to say something that wasn’t a tormented cry for help. Chie and Yukiko must’ve been getting tired. “Did you get Kanji to make you a dress just for this stupid pageant?”\n\n“I made both of ours.” Somehow, seeing himself in makeup made admitting to his sewing feel a lot less embarrassing. Like comparing a stick of dynamite to a primed torpedo. “No way in Hell I’m making two dresses in a day again, but I’m proud of my work.”\n\n“And you didn’t make one for me? I look like a total creeper in this throw-together schoolgirl getup!”\n\n“Are you insulting our work, Hanamura!?”\n\n“No, not the wax! Not the wax!”\n\nServed him right. He didn’t deserve to look pretty after getting all of them into this mess.\n\nYeah, pretty. Kanji looked pretty! He repeated that in his head over and over again until he started to believe it. If he believed it, so would everyone else. And that would mean drawing eyes away from Naoto. He looked up at her, and though anxiety ate at the corners of her expression, there was a new glimmer of hope, too.\n\n\n “\nSenpai, we’re gonna crush this pageant, yeah?”\n\n\n“Into pieces.”\n\n“Itty-bitty pieces!”\n\n“Speak for yourselves!”\n\n \n\n-\n\n \n\n“Ladies and gentlemen!” While he wasn’t the main act of the day, the announcer they picked for the pageant sure looked like a clown. Pink afro wig, big red bow tie, and a pair of sunglasses that looked like they were ripped out of a cheesy secret agent flick. He was still wearing the normal Yasogami uniform from the neck down, but it kind of added to the ridiculousness.\n\nWhile he hyped up the crowd, the ‘lovely ladies’ of the day were lined up just offstage. It was hard to get a good look at each other in the unlit space. Even with the stage lights bouncing off of the pink curtains a few feet away, they could only see the vague outlines of anyone more than six inches away.\n\nThat was all they needed to see how Yosuke quaked in his heeled loafers. From his spot at the front of the line, he could spy a sliver of the crowd arrayed to laugh at his misery. It wasn’t a one-hundred percent attendance situation, but a sizable portion of the school was out there. Everyone would know what went down on that stage.\n\n“Why do I have to be the first one to go?”\n\n“Age before beauty.” Kanji smirked with all the sadistic glee in his heart. He was fully intent on rubbing the salt in until the wound was red and raw. The catharsis of beating up shitheads who pissed him off, without any of the jail time or sore knuckles.\n\n“An eloquent heiress of the noble Junes, she’s pure disappointment from the moment she opens her mouth!” Speaking of wounds, that sounded like their cue. Yosuke backed away from the edge as the guillotine prepared to drop. He found out quickly that he was stuck between the razor and a hard place. Specifically, Kanji.\n\n“Oh no you don’t. Get out there and take your damn medicine.”\n\n“Presenting Yosuke-chan of second-year Class Two!”\n\nThe introduction ended, and Kanji shoved Yosuke out to meet it. He scrambled to stay on his feet, but by the time he found his balance, he was caught like a deer in the spotlights. The sea of spectators stretched far in his eyes, and his heart dropped like a cold rock in his chest.\n\nHis outfit was a Frankenstein’s monster of women’s apparel. Knee socks stretched up out of heeled loafers, the closest thing to high-heels they could bully him into. A plaid skirt barely covered his hips. It did absolutely nothing to hide his shiny, freshly waxed thighs. If that was all someone saw, then maybe they could have mistaken him as an actual girl.\n\nFrom the waist on up, though, his act was as transparent as it was ridiculous. The sweater vest was baggy in all the wrong ways on his thin, boyish figure, to a degree that not even the big red bow on his chest hid how little he filled it out. His makeup looked like it was applied via a pie to the face. It sat awkwardly on him, a slapdash layer of femininity that was as unnatural as a rubber Halloween mask. The pink spots on his cheeks couldn’t even hide how his skin went flushed at the unwanted attention.\n\nIn the third row from the stage, Chie was apparently having the time of her life. She laughed long and hard along with most of the crowd, pointing at the scarecrow she had created as it sat exposed in the field.\n\n“Look at him go! He looks even better under those bright lights, don’t you think?”\n\n“Oh yeah, he looks great!” Yukiko miraculously managed to get that much out while she choked on her own laughter. Her hyena-esque cackling was recognizable even with the room around her making as much of an uproar, but she couldn’t care less. For all that Yosuke’s perversion had put her through, this was sweet revenge. She was going to enjoy it down to the last bite.\n\n“He looks like a newborn deer taking its first steps.” While she wasn’t joining in on the outright mirth around her, Rise was more than happy to chip into the teasing. Alongside that, though, she was getting a good look at the results of their torture session. “Wow, you two really worked the wax. I don’t see a hair on those puppies.”\n\n“Yukiko did most of the planning for that. I just yanked where she told me to.”\n\n“It takes a lot of practice to get hair removal just right.” The two were starting to wind down, though the occasional giggle kept bubbling out of Yukiko as hiccups. “It takes even more to make it not hurt too much. Although, I might have ‘forgotten’ that lesson for a minute.” Anyone who heard the screams that morning considered that she had not forgotten the lesson, instead inverting it to great effect.\n\n“You all have taught me a valuable lesson of late.” Though Naoto was preemptively trying to disappear into her coat and hat, she watched Yosuke’s punishment with due diligence. “Vigilante justice has its place in cases like these.”\n\n“The justice is only starting, you know.” Rise nudged her, shoulder-to-shoulder, and tilted her head towards the stage. “Just wait until they get to the questionnaire!”\n\n“Now, Miss Yosuke.” The style of address chosen made his skin squirm, which the announcer took as a sign to keep going. “I must say, you really stand out in that little number. Tell me, do you dress like this often?”\n\n“Hell no!” He all but snarled at the idiocy being aimed at him. In the corner of his eye, though, he saw Chie starting to glare at him. He was breaking character, and she made it clear how that would end up. Memories of searing pain directed him back to his humiliating character. “Uh, I mean… Like, no way! Hehe…” Forcing a high pitch made his throat itch, but at least it got Chie to stop psychically threatening him.\n\n“Could have fooled me! It takes a lot of confidence to wear something that bold.” The announcer held his mic out to the crowd. Even without it, he could make his voice boom loud enough to fill the auditorium without losing its goofy edge. “This poor girl is feeling shy. Let’s hear some encouragement, people!”\n\nBy the executioner’s order, Yosuke found himself flooded with cheers and mocking catcalls, all underscored by yet more laughter. He heard a few of them talking among themselves, totally oblivious that their whispers weren’t quiet at all.\n\n“Oh god, that’s so creepy!”\n\n“I know! He looked so cool in that suit yesterday, I thought he could pull it off. I guess I was wrong.”\n\n“You don’t think he spends all his Junes cash on a whole weird wardrobe like that, do you?”\n\nYep. It was official. This was the single worst day of Yosuke’s life. The girls wanted revenge, and their revenge was absolute. His body was still on stage, but his soul? That died long ago.\n\n“We’re only just beginning, so strap in! Our next contestant is a runaway express train who’s Inaba born and bred, and can kill with both her fists and her looks.”\n\nThat could only be one person. Kanji rolled his shoulders, working out any tension left in his muscles. He had to make a big splash out there, even if it killed him.\n\n“You got this! You da man, Kanji!”\n\n“Thanks, Ted. All eyes on me.”\n\n“Presenting Kanji-chan of the first-year Class Three!” The crowd was on the edge of their seat for this one. Everyone knew him as the punk who had narrowly skipped jail time, and now he was starring in a clown show like this. It was going to be one to remember.\n\nFar be it from Kanji to disappoint them, then. He pounded a fist to his chest, then he strutted into the limelight. He glared out into the sea of people, and they stared back in shock. Maybe the thin layer of oil on his rippling muscles flashbanged them senseless. He shined like a bodybuilder up there.\n\nOr maybe it was the dress and wig. He only had the time to throw something simple together for himself, and he remembered an old American actress he could use as an inspiration. The folds of his white dress billowed as he stomped to the lineup, and his long, golden locks shimmered as bright as his muscles. The pearl earrings were a small touch he borrowed from his Ma, which… Well, it wasn’t easy to ask for them, but she didn’t hit him with too many questions.\n\nThe crowd, meanwhile, was asking a million of them. Most of them stayed in their own heads, but plenty were blurted out.\n\n“Is that really Tatsumi?”\n\n“What am I looking at?”\n\n“Did he finally snap?”\n\nHe had their attention all right. He just had to keep it, and burn the memory into their brains. He reached the velvet carpet, but before the announcer could shove that damn mic in his face, he showed that his voice could boom just as loud.\n\n“Sup.”\n\nHe might not have snapped, but he certainly broke the tension in the crowd. They were losing themselves in a fit of laughter. Any sense of intimidation he had instilled in them over the years, be it intentional or otherwise, was suddenly flipped on its head.\n\n“Oh god, that voice, that dress… None of it matches at all!”\n\n“He’s a walking quilt!”\n\n“Hey, give him some credit. His eyeliner is actually even.”\n\n“Thank you!” Rise threw her arms up, not that anyone paid her mind as they pointed and laughed at the second drag queen. “I don’t care what anyone says. I think he looks nice.”\n\n“I could actually see him fitting in with that sort of crowd.” Yukiko made the comment offhandedly, but when she glanced over to Chie, she was getting an odd look in return. “What? We sometimes get crossdressers passing through the inn. Not a lot, but I think his looks could genuinely fit in with them.”\n\n“...If you say so.” Chie took another good look at Kanji, but she couldn’t help the chuckle rising in her. “I just think it’s funny with how he’s so focused on being ‘manly’ all the time. What do you think, Naoto?” A few second passed with no response. That wasn’t like the usually prompt detective, so the three looked over at her.\n\nShe was staring intently at the stage. Most of her face was hidden by the collar of her longcoat, but her eyes were locked in place. Chie reached across Rise and started snapping her fingers.\n\n“Hey, Naoto! Are you there?”\n\n“Huh?” She was flung abruptly back into awareness, and found herself the center of her group’s attention. It was like a pageant in microcosm, which only intensified the nervousness in her response. “Uh, yes. Of course.”\n\n“It… wasn’t a yes or no question.”\n\n“Oh? It… I-it wasn’t?”\n\nSlowly, Rise’s trademark knowing grin bloomed into place. That scrutiny was enough to bring the red of Naoto’s cheeks creeping past the collar.\n\n“Don’t worry about it.” She brought a hand up to pat Naoto’s back approvingly. “I think we have enough of an answer right here.”\n\n“...I do not like the way you’re looking at me. What was the question?”\n\n“Now, don’t rip me apart for asking.” Attention was yanked back to the announcer, who was the only person not somehow stunned by Kanji’s entrance. He was a professional, no matter what his general demeanor implied. “But what would you say is your, best feature?”\n\nKanji grinned. He knew just how to bounce off that one.\n\n“My guts.” He leaned into the mic and flexed down. His presence was amplified by the surround sound speakers. “All of you are down there laughing, but you wouldn’t be so ballsy if you were up here in my heels. I can look pretty and kick your asses!”\n\nMany of the boys looking on went quiet all of the sudden, but the girls were still laughing. Near the back, one of them nudged the guy next to her.\n\n“Yeah, he’s right! How come you’re not that brave?”\n\n“Uh, well…”\n\nOff to the side of the room, one guy had a hand on his chin and a concentrated look on his face. Finally, Daisuke hummed affirmatively to himself.\n\n“Never thought about it like that before. I guess there’s more than one way to be tough.”\n\nFrom his place on stage, Kanji could see how he hit them all. No one expected to have the pageant’s joke thrown back in their face, eh? Strong start, and he had the whole show left to make it better.\n\nYosuke glared at him, his embarrassment all the more painful next to Kanji’s complete obliviousness to how humiliating this was. Did the girls plan for that, too? Because it felt like an intentional dig against him.\n\n“You sure got over your Shadow, didn’t you?”\n\n“Yeah.” Kanji dropped his voice to a pointed hiss, and the half of his face obscured from the crowd ticked up into a smirk. “What’s wrong, need a hug?”\n\nAh, it had been a long time since Yosuke felt that kind of chill run up his back. He could still remember those macho bastards from the bathhouse. He would never forget the way they ogled him, like a cut of prime meat they wanted nothing more than to pounce on and devour...\n\nAll thought stopped for him in that moment, and his mocking surroundings came into sharp focus as the clouds in his mind parted. Exposed, defenseless, used for someone else’s selfish amusement. In these stupid clothes, he was less than human to the crowd, letting them laugh at him without any guilt. They didn’t care how it hurt him. Not as long as they got their kicks out of it.\n\nWas that how the girls felt when he pulled stunts like this?\n\n“We have an energetic zest this year, ladies and gentlemen, and we’re only halfway through introductions!” The show went on without him, paddling off as he fought to stay afloat. The laughter bubbled down, and the announcer continued. “Our third contestant is a new face in town, but she’s already turning heads and taking hearts. She has the mildly bitter tang of the city, and she’s made more girls cry than there are stars in the sky.”\n\nThe girls watched that stage intently, letting the guys pick up the shattered remnants of their dignity in peace. They’d all heard about the next one within a day of his name winding up on the board. It had to be some jealous guy’s shot at ruining his biggest competition’s reputation, or so the rumor said. That didn’t stop them all from needing to see the city-slicker contend with this old Yasogami tradition.\n\n“Presenting the transfer student that every girl wants and every guy wants to be, Yuri-chan of the second-year Class Two!”\n\nThe first click made the room stop dead. It was like the snap of a branch in the middle of the woods. The second click was as sharp as the first. With the third, the stalking tiger emerged from the trees.\n\nSharp, crimson lipstick drew the eye first. It was a slight line, just enough to underscore the tight, unimpressed frown. Her eyes shared in that pointed disinterest, sweeping over the crowd as if they were so many grains of sand. Her rigid, imperial posture only cemented her position over them.\n\nWaves of silver followed, her hair swaying like a banner over her wooden sword. It was only a practice weapon, little better than a prop, and yet, the way she held it made it feel as dangerous as a real blade. She held it over her shoulder firm enough that it didn’t waver, but loose enough to convey that she felt no threat from those around her.\n\nShe felt no danger, because she was the danger.\n\n“Damn...” Yosuke snapped out of his funk when she entered the lineup. Even with the infamously massive Kanji in the way, her presence towered over them. “He didn’t go nearly that far with the getup last time.” If he didn’t know for a fact that it was Yu under all that, he would’ve thought an empress had stormed the stage. Any hint of masculinity left in him was redirected and obscured in the act.\n\n“Woo, you didn’t turn the charm down at all, did you?” Once more, their showman wasn’t fazed by the intensifying performances all around him, still standing up as the ringleader of this circus.\n\nActually, that made Yosuke think; where’d the laughing go? The crowd was still quiet, trapped in the tense moment of his entry. They were just, staring, blankly. It was as if their minds couldn’t process what emotion this called for. They didn’t expect anyone to actually pull off the crossdressing act.\n\nOh well, Yosuke thought. The dam would break when he spoke. His unmistakable, flat voice would remind everyone of who he really was, and the gap between what they knew about him and what they were seeing on stage would kick the comedy switch back on.\n\n“So, you heartthrob, I’d say you’ve taken the stage like a natural. Did you sign yourself up, or did some loyal fan ask, nay, demand, for you to show off to the world?” He was pushing up the ham in his performance. He didn’t let the crowd’s lack of reaction affect him outwardly, but the announcer took it upon himself to break through their silence with his best effort yet.\n\nThe only immediate response was from Yuri, who sneered at the ridiculous question.\n\n“I don’t take orders, I give them.”\n\nHer speaking was a kick alright, but not the way Yosuke imagined. He was gobsmacked; that wasn’t Yu’s voice at all. He sounded exactly how he looked, like some empress! That wasn’t possible. It wasn’t physically possible. The last time he tried to sound different, he broke every window on the north wall of the school. How could he go from that, to actually sounding like a girl!?\n\nYuri let her gaze pass over him, briefly flicking across the confusion on his and Kanji’s faces. She didn’t speak to either of them, letting them fall from her attention like everyone else, but she tilted her head ever so slightly to the side. This let Kanji see an inch further down her neck. There was a necklace under the collar of her shirt, a metal band with a series of powered lights running across it. No one else could see it, so it wasn’t just a flashy accessory.\n\n“Is that some kind of voice changer bullshit? That’s gotta be cheating!”\n\n“That’s the part you’re focusing on?”\n\nThe crowd sank deeper into the fever dream. That was Yu, right? From where they were standing, he hadn’t just dressed up like a girl. He had completely flipped his sex.\n\n“Holy...!” Rise sat straight up in attention. She was quick to pick apart all the little pieces that made the outfit work. His Adam’s apple was hidden. Most of his blatantly male figure was underneath the uniform and ankle-length skirt. The backs of his hands were shaved, and his nails were filed to a lethal point. The way he held his jaw shifted the angles of his face. His mouth was restrained to a smaller space. Every little sign that he was a guy had been accounted for and dealt with, either by smart clothing choices or careful maintenance of his movements.\n\nShe had seen some stunning work from teams of professionals before, but this one-person job could stack up to most of them.\n\nNaoto woke up from the daze that captured her, studying Yu’s technique from afar as well. He had said it before, and he said it truthfully. He was quite skilled at creating and fitting into roles. Naoto was almost jealous.\n\n“You would think his stature and build to be counterproductive to the act, but he has incorporated his natural presence into a vital part of his disguise. Using the truth to strengthen the lie. Clever, Narukami.”\n\n“Not to mention hot.” While everyone around them was stewing in various states of confusion and discomfort, Rise had nothing holding her back from speaking her mind. She liked what she was seeing. “He was right about the confidence thing. He’s owning it up there.”\n\n“Yo, Yukiko!” Chie found herself snapping again, this time to catch Yukiko’s attention. Unlike Naoto, whose distraction was crystal clear, it was difficult to tell exactly what train of thought she was being yanked out of by the sudden intrusion. Only Chie seemed to be able to read it at all. “You’re looking at him like you look at Lyn, so you know.”\n\n“Oh, I was?” Yukiko was unaware of that detail, but rather than making her scuttle shamefully away from her daydream, the information redoubled her distraction. This time, no amount of snapping was rousing her. Chie surrendered with a groan.\n\n“She’s gonna come out of that with some weird question, I just know it.”\n\n“Ooh, someone bring the bonfire, because we have an ice queen.” Detached from the delirium of the crowd, the announcer went on, though the way he steamrolled ahead implied some hope that the next contestant would bring his show back to its old tracks. “Don’t you worry if the cold shoulder’s got you down, though. I hear contestant number four is warm to the core. In fact, she might be too sweet to bear.”\n\n“Oh no.” Another flash of trauma crossed Yosuke’s face, this one reaching deep into his repressed psyche. “Tell me he didn’t write dumb puns for this thing. Please, spare me that!”\n\n“In a never before seen twist, our last ‘beauty’ is unaffiliated, but when she heard her friends were having fun with us today, she couldn’t stay away. So let’s give a warm welcome to our cute, sexy little guest, calling herself the ‘Queen of the TV World,’ Teddie-chan!”\n\nAt first, the crowd seized up when they heard another resounding click. But then, they realized the pattern they were coming in wasn’t that of a lurking predator. It was closer to the gallop of a baby lamb. Then, the little lamb skipped into view.\n\nThe laughter was quite decisively back, though it wasn’t quite as vehement and mocking as the first few bouts. With the way Teddie smiled and pranced under all their attention, it was more like they were laughing with her than at her. She was blowing kisses to them with both hands, drawing their eyes to her face without the aid of any makeup. Her wholly natural features were noticeably softer than those around her, complimenting the warm glow of her friendly demeanor.\n\nHer clothes, too, rang of innocence. While her competition was dressed loud and proud, she sat comfortably in a more casual, baby blue dress with a white apron, the kind that someone her apparent age might have worn when that was the style. Her long, blonde hair flowed in tandem with its soft ribbons.\n\nShe skipped this way, then pranced that way, before coming to a stop at her proper spot in the line. From there, she crossed her hands on her chest and bent her knees, bringing her closer to eye-level with her adoring public.\n\n“Give me your hearts!”\n\nA second wave of humor came, softly lapping as a gentle tide. She relaxed in front of them as if the stage were her beach and soaked in the warm rays of the sun.\n\n“Aw, he’s so cute!”\n\n“This thing is usually a pack of dorks in dresses and thigh-high socks, but now we get two people who can pull it off?”\n\n“Well, they’re both from out of town. That must have something to do with it.”\n\n“If that’s how boys look in the city, I’ll stay here. Less chance of… you know...”\n\n“I think their hearts are yours, you cutie-pie.” The announcer was demonstrably relieved to have his show back on track. In light of the lightened tone, he was more than happy to play along with the act. If it was, in fact, an act. “You must have come a long way to join us today. The trip wasn’t too frightening, I hope?”\n\n“Not at all!” She clasped her hands together and gave the biggest, cheeriest smile. “I wasn’t scare because I knew there would be smiling faces waiting for me. You’re all as wonderful as I hoped!” Cheers went up in support, the audience, her audience, accepting her compliments in kind.\n\n“Making the crowd feel special, works like a charm.” Rise nodded in admiration of the masterful tactic in use. “I think he learned that trick from me.”\n\n“Is that what you call your schmoozing?” Chie couldn’t bring herself to be properly angry with Rise’s shenanigans anymore, but the way the former idol walked right on through the accusation reminded everyone that she was fully aware of her weasel-like tendencies.\n\n“Don’t worry, anyone can learn how to do it. If you want, I could help you. It would make netting that special guy easier~!”\n\n“Um...” Yukiko glanced around, making sure no one was listening before she continued. “It wouldn’t happen to help with finding a special girl, too, would it?”\n\nNaoto fully expected Rise to pull out some lighthearted teasing at the request. That seemed to be her favorite mode of helping with her own relationship issues. Instead, Rise reached over and set a reassuring hand on Yukiko’s shoulder.\n\n“Meet me after school. I’ll teach you everything you need to know.”\n\nThe weight lifted from Yukiko’s heart, freeing her to sigh in relief.\n\nWhile this went on, the announcer made a quick trip off the side of the stage to retrieve a special prop. When he came back, there was a small, wooden ballot box nestled in the crook of his arm and a conspiratorial gleam in his sunglasses.\n\n“Alright, now that our lovely ladies are all here, we can start the main event!” He held out his mic just in time to pick up on the cheer that rose from the audience. “As you know, you were all asked to fill out one ballot on your way in today. Each contestant will receive a question from the box.” He dipped his head just low enough to peer out from over his glasses, the sight of his exposed eyes cutting a thin line in the overjoyed performance. “Please note that any questions deemed too ‘risque’ have been removed. We wouldn’t want to hurt Teddie-chan’s innocent little ears, would we?”\n\nA few unseen voices in the crowd began to boo at the revelation of censorship. As the stated excuse, Teddie couldn’t help but chime in.\n\n“I’m sorry if I’ve made this less fun for anyone...” She wilted, and her bottom lip quivered. With everyone watching her, no one saw where the loud slaps across the room came from exactly, but the jeers stopped cold.\n\n“Don’t you worry, there’s plenty of fun to be had!” The announcer’s eyes were hidden again, and the party was back in swing. He clipped the mic to the side of the box before reaching in. The crinkling of paper made Yosuke’s heart clench, because with the guy right next to him, he knew this was going to be a fastball aimed at his forehead.\n\n“Yosuke-chan, what kind of date should a lucky fella take you on to win your heart?”\n\nThat was about as demeaning as he was expecting. He could feel Chie glaring at him again, threatening him with untold horrors if he chickened out.\n\nBut he found that he didn’t mind. Normally he would be angry or resentful of getting humiliated in front of everyone. His reputation would never recover. This time, though, he knew that it was exactly what he deserved. He swallowed his pride and prepared to take his medicine.\n\n“Oh my, this is sudden. I couldn’t possibly choose on such short notice!” The airheaded words stung like hornets on his tongue, and that dumb voice still scratched his throat. The mocking laughter felt like the least of his concerns. “I guess if I had a boyfriend, I would want to have a nice picnic, then cuddle in the shade.”\n\nHe wanted to throw up. It was like someone else was wearing his skin, with him a passenger along for the ride. Was this how his Shadow felt, being totally ignored while the rest of him did whatever it wanted?\n\n“Aw, isn’t that precious? Who doesn’t want a cuddler, gents?” His broiling disgust, both at the pageant and himself, was hidden from the announcer and the crowd as they kept on laughing. He could only hope that Kanji would hit the joke right back at them again. Tangential retaliation was the best he could ask for.\n\n“Kanji-chan, are you ready!?”\n\nHe flexed, as if prepping for a punch.\n\n“Lay it on me!”\n\nThe next ballot came out with a flourish. The announcer paused for a moment, then smiled wider as he read it aloud.\n\n“Are there any hobbies you’d want to rope your boyfriend into doing with you?”\n\n“That’s, kind of wholesome.” Rise could tell he was rewording the question on the fly. The date thing was slanted towards embarrassment, but hobbies were on much more even grounds. And doing it together? That was just sweet. She didn’t think there were any real romantics watching a show like this. “I wonder who wrote that one in?”\n\n“Um...”\n\nThe pieces clicked before she looked to her side. Naoto was blushing again. And her hand was raised low enough so that only their group could see it.\n\n“...Oh ho ho!”\n\nThere’s the teasing. Naoto was starting to feel weird without it.\n\n“I didn’t think mine would actually get drawn...”\n\n“Much less for Kanji, hmm?” She scooted closer to Naoto and leaned forward with rapt attention. “Let’s see if you get any ideas here.”\n\n“Wait, I know!” The announcer started to flex, too, matching Kanji’s pose. His figure was notably less defined, but he found the spirit in himself anyway. “Weightlifting! Any man of yours is gonna be the toughest son of a gun around, am I right? A matching pair of powerhouses.”\n\n“You’re close.” Kanji struck a new pose, a bicep curled up as his other arm pointed defiantly into the distance. “I’ll teach that bastard to knit!”\n\nThe audience chuckled with the announcer’s act, but Kanji’s return of fire kicked it up a few notches. There were now two clowns flexing their stuff like it was a bodybuilding pageant as they debated the fine art of bonding.\n\n“Of course! You’ll make matching outfits together!”\n\n“That’s right!” The two were suddenly in perfect sync, rotating through power postures that showed off every square inch of Kanji’s bulky figure. His thin, white dress could barely handle the unbridled machismo. “We’ll be more stylish than every other couple put together! And in Winter, we’re doing a pair of scarves!”\n\n“Or even better.” The announcer pointed with all the power he had at Kanji, challenging his presence directly. “One big scarf to share!”\n\n“Hell yeah!” Kanji returned the gesture in kind. No one but them had any clue what was going on between them, but they didn’t have to understand it to get caught up in the energy. “We’re gonna kick the cold’s ass together!”\n\n“...Knitting, hmm?” Naoto quietly put a hand to her neck, imagining a nice, warm scarf wrapped around her and tying her to someone special. “...I like the sound of that.”\n\n“You heard it here first, folks. We’ve got an aggressively affectionate artist that wants to keep you close.” Their host slid out of the burning aura he and Kanji shared and wheeled back into his normal style of address. “Now let’s see how the commanding queen of cold compares.”\n\nYuri observed him with a distant, yet sharp glare as he dove into his box of questions. One could see the hourglass flowing in her eyes. Her patience dwindled with every fallen grain wasted. At last, he pulled out a paper and began to read, unperturbed by her silent menace.\n\n“Yuri-chan, what would a guy have to do for you to...” His voice trailed off as his mind caught up with his mouth, making him stop the thought before it could escape. Those in the front row were caught off guard, and the feeling spread as he looked over the room with intense disappointment seething under his glasses. “It seems our screening process missed one. I remind you that explicit content is not condoned by the school. I won’t say a question like this popped if you won’t, so let’s find a more appropriate question and...”\n\nHe jumped as he felt the ballot being torn from his grasp. Yuri acted too quick to stop, and the way her dispersed disdain focused to a razor point said that she wouldn’t have been impeded anyway. It was a wonder her attention didn’t burn a hole through the paper.\n\n“What would I have to do to ‘hit that.’” She let the question sit for the span of a single weighted heartbeat before she crushed the ballot in her hand.\n\nHer gaze bore deep into the audience, so frigid that its touch seared. Suddenly, towards the center of the room, she noticed that people were looking at a particular male student. His panicking at their scrutiny intensified with every sign pointing his way. It was too late to divert their attention. The shark had already smelled his blood in the water.\n\n“Listen well.” The student could practically feel the point of her sword as she thrust it towards him. He was pinned in place from yards away, her undivided attention freezing the blood in his veins. “If by some astronomical act of mercy I were to allow you within twenty paces of me, you would not be the one hitting.”\n\nIf she was at all unclear, her driving her sword to the ground with a resounding thwack made her meaning unmistakable. At once, the thoroughly berated student’s skin went as pink as cherry blossoms, and all those who had singled him out began to aim their renewed laughter at him. With the graceless plebeian put in his place, Yuri allowed herself the pleasure of expressing her distaste for him in particular.\n\n“The insolence it takes to ask such a thing is beyond belief.” She turned her attention to the announcer, who had backed away from her in reasonable caution. “You may continue.”\n\n“O-of course.” He straightened his bow, tapped his mic, and thanked his lucky stars as he reassembled his shattered act into a presentable state. “I hope that keeps inappropriate questions off of my stage from now on. A million thanks, Yuri-sama.” He passed her with only the deepest bow, swinging up from it with a smile as he neared the last contestant. “Let’s cross our fingers and hope we only find the best question for you, Teddie-chan.”\n\n“I’m sure we will!” Teddie set about defrosting the stage as soon as the mic was hers. She rocked back and forth on her feet, radiating her sweetest feelings while she waited. The announcer braved his box once more. This time, he was careful to read the question to himself before reading it out loud. The relief he felt was palpable, and his energy was back in full swing.\n\n“Do you like your guys tall or short?” He was outwardly all pep and cheer, but the speed with which he clapped that box closed broke records. He wasn’t letting his renewed faith get assassinated so soon.\n\n“I can’t possibly make that choice. I would love them either way.” A hand went over her heart, and she closed her eyes as she drifted off to dreams of love. “If they were taller than me, I could ride on their shoulders. And if I was taller than them, they could ride on mine. Their height won’t make me close my heart.”\n\n“Aw, you’re just the most precious thing. But, what if you two were the same height?”\n\nTeddie opened one eye and pointed up knowingly.\n\n“Then we could kiss whenever we wanted!”\n\n“Ooh, three for three! There’s no souring your good mood, Teddie-chan.”\n\nWith all four contestants behind him, the announcer turned to the crowd for the grand finale.\n\n“You’ve seen today’s beauties, and they told you everything you wanted to know, whether you should have asked them or not. Now, it’s time to vote!” Across the room, assistants passed about a new set of ballots, and one towards the back went around with a second box to collect. “Which one of our undaunted ladies captured your heart? We’ve never had such a wide selection before, so make your voices heard!”\n\nWhile the votes were collected and tallied, Kanji shuffled towards Yu with a satisfied smile.\n\n“I think we did our job well. Right, Senpai?”\n\nWith the crowd distracted, Yu let his domineering facade fade. He nodded in agreement and turned a dial on the side of his necklace.\n\n“Perfectly.” He coughed into his hand with a slight grimace, his voice halfway between Yu and Yuri. More of himself came back as his vocal chords loosened. “This thing hurts my throat more than I remember.”\n\n“Then you shouldn’t have cheated like that.” Kanji nudged him, pulling a somewhat hoarse laugh out of his Senpai. “Where the Hell did you even get something like that? Movie bullshit if I’ve ever seen it.”\n\n“I made it myself a few years ago.”\n\n“Of course you did...”\n\n“Did you see me, Sensei? How was I?” Teddie shanghaied the chat at the first opportunity, pulling on Yu’s arm with the excitability of a middle-schooler. Strangely, he didn’t stop talking in his higher, girly voice. Yu happily patted the top of his head.\n\n“You’ve learned a lot since the first time you tried cross dressing. Hold onto that quick learning, it’s one of the most valuable skills out there.”\n\nTed’s eyes were wide and sparkled like stars. He jumped back far enough to curtsy properly.\n\n“Thank you, Sensei.”\n\nWith the new angle, Kanji noticed something he didn’t before. Teddie’s face was a different shape than usual. It wasn’t in the same way as Yu, who was holding his jaw and mouth carefully for the effect. No, Ted’s cheekbones were set different, making them look softer.\n\n“Wait a minute...” He wasn’t used to the feeling of ideas coming to him yet. But when it was a topic he cared about, his mind was quick to put the pieces together. They all clicked when he saw that Ted’s skin had a light, sparkly sheen to it. Just like at the concert. “You changed your body for this!”\n\n“Hmm, maybe~!” Teddie rose from his curtsy with a coy hand over his mouth. In that position, Kanji could see that his fingers were different, too, with the pointer being longer than the ring. “A girl never tells her secrets.”\n\n“And the votes are in!”\n\nThe three of them jumped back into place, and Yu subtly flicked his necklace back on.\n\n“This tally was as hot as our competitors, with every one of these girls scooping up fans hand-over-fist.” The announcer was holding a sheet of paper, the key to deciding who the best girl was. Teddie and Kanji watched him with equal tension and anticipation, though Yuri spared only a sideways glimpse. “While all of our stars shined bright, sadly, one of them found out that old tricks could only go so far.” It was with a faux-heavy heart that he turned to Yosuke.\n\nNo one had been paying much attention to him since he finished his question, but in that short frame of time, Yosuke had started to wither. His shoulders slumped. His hands tunneled haphazardly into his sweater vest to make pockets. He stared at the thin line separating the stage from the stands, paying little mind to either side.\n\n“You could have taken center stage any other year, but we just had too many knockouts playing by their own rules. Good work, Yosuke-chan, we were happy to have you.”\n\n“Yeah. Real shame.” His words barely reached the mic. What few people could hear him were disturbed by the hollowed husk of a voice. The announcer was quick to move on.\n\n“As for you three, the order came down to a handful of votes. Our third place winner was...” Somewhere offstage, a drummer ramped up to the big reveal. The sharp snap of a snare drum signaled the drop. “The beautiful brute, Kanji-chan!”\n\nKanji visibly mulled over the announcement, but he settled on a quirked grin.\n\n“Third place behind a couple of cheaters. Not bad.”\n\n“The taker of second place...” He pulled away from the mic, giving his side thought a quieter delivery. “...And earner of my personal thanks...” The drums revved up again, this time capping with a cymbal snap. “...The no-nonsense noble, Yuri-sama!”\n\nIf she was at all upset by being stuck with silver, she only expressed it in a twitch of her nose.\n\n“It’s a wonder anyone in this mire could appreciate a woman like me.”\n\n“Ah!” The simple math swept through Teddie’s mind, seeing everyone to her right whittled off of the running. She was bouncing in her shoes, the folds of her dress fluttering like butterfly wings. “Does that mean…!?”\n\n“Indeed it does!” The announcer slid to her side and made a sweeping gesture over the pumped-up princess. “The winner of this year’s ‘Miss’ Yasogami Pageant is none other than the Queen of the TV World, Teddie-chan!” A deafening gong echoed from backstage, but all it did to Teddie was send her hair swaying in its ring.\n\n“Yay! Yay! Teddie is the prettiest girl!”\n\n“Congratulations to our special guest. You asked for our hearts, and you got them! And! You have earned a position alongside our judges during this afternoon’s beauty pageant.”\n\n“I… Suppose that means it’s time.” Naoto’s heart quivered in terror. She’d been given a day to ready herself, but she was no more prepared than the moment the news broke to her. The shaking in her voice came across clearly to Rise, who set a hand calmly over hers.\n\n“I’ll help you get ready for it, if you want?”\n\n“I could use all the help I can get.”\n\n“That concludes this pageant. Give it up for our brave contestants who made this all possible!” The announcer’s call brought out a blend of cheer and mirth from the crowd, and while most of the contestants were happy to accept, whether they admitted it outwardly or not, Yosuke took that as his chance to leave.\n\n“Finally.” He wasn’t even off stage before he tore out the scrunchy holding up his hair. Ted felt goosebumps prickling his neck, and he bowed to the cheering public before giving chase.\n\n“Wait for me!”\n\n“Uh, Senpai. That looked a lot worse than just getting embarrassed, didn’t it?”\n\nYu watched his partner storm off into the unlit backstage, but somehow, the creases on his face looked bleaker. He didn’t like the hollow gloom haunting those eyes.\n\nThey reminded him too much of when he looked in the mirror."}
+{"text": "\nLexa:\n And you accused me of cheating!\n\n\n\n         I would never have accepted if I knew you weren’t going to play fair\n\n\n \n\n\nHer eyes roll at the message, she had been waiting for something along those lines to come since yesterday. Clarke’s actually surprised it took Lexa that long to break. \n\n\n \n\n\nClarke\n: I’m not cheating, i’m playing the game!\n\n\n \n\n\nShe continues getting her stuff together as she waits for a response. As much as she knows she needed to stay home the past two days, Clarke doesn’t want to get too far behind. The more work that piles up, the more overwhelmed and less motivated she gets. So, she decided to go in after lunch to collect her work and attend the remaining classes.\n\n\n \n\n\nLexa\n: half of your words aren’t real! Chimnal? Planch? Rowth? Tav?\n\n\n \n\n\nClarke\n: they were accepted weren’t they??\n\n\n \n\n\nLexa\n: only because this game has ludicrous principle\n\n\n \n\n\nClarke\n: don’t be salty just because you lost\n\n\n \n\n\nLexa\n: I wouldn’t have lost if you played fairly\n\n\n \n\n\nShe’s never seen it before and honestly it’s probably not happening, but Clarke can imagine a pout on Lexa’s face and she lives to see that in reality one day. Lexa’s lips just seem like they would form the perfect pout.\n\n\n \n\n\nClarke\n: all of my words are valid in the game… all is fair in words with friends\n\n\n \n\n\nLexa\n: No, I don’t accept that.\n\n\n \n\n\nClarke\n: and yet you keep playing… :D\n\n\n \n\n\nLexa\n: I can stop\n\n\n \n\n\nClarke\n: NO!\n\n\n\n            I’ll play real words\n\n\n \n\n\nLexa\n: as happy as I am that you admit that, the game accepts it. I’ll just have to stop going easy on you. Your fake words won’t stand a chance.\n\n\n \n\n\nClarke smiles at that, Lexa has definitely become more playful, at least competitively, with her lately and she hopes the brunette continues to feel more comfortable around her.\n\n\n \n\n\nClarke\n: Oh I’d like to see you try!\n\n\n\n           On another completely unrelated note, are you free after school?\n\n\n \n\n\nLexa\n: today?\n\n\n \n\n\nShe rolls her eyes, when else.\n\n\n \n\n\nClarke\n: yes today\n\n\n \n\n\nLexa\n: yes\n\n\n\n        Why?\n\n\n \n\n\nClarke\n: I’m coming in for a half day because I don’t want to miss anymore and was hoping we could go over my midterm review again\n\n\n\n          I’m not contagious\n\n\n\n          My moms a doctor, she would know\n\n\n \n\n\nShe probably didn’t need to add that, but doesn’t want Lexa to be grossed out or worried about catching anything. Clarke looks at the time and quickly fills her water bottle, slides it into her bag along with a pack of tissues and a few cough drops and then puts her coat on.\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\nLexa\n: We can do that, 3 at the library?\n\n\n \n\n\nClarke\n: Actually...do you think maybe we could study at my house? It’s just more comfortable \n\n\n\n            Unless you’re not comfortable with that, then the library’s fine\n\n\n \n\n\nLexa\n: That’s fine\n\n\n\n         Going to your house that is\n\n\n \n\n\nClarke\n: Awesome, thank you! I just have to tell the qb team I won’t be there and then I can drive us\n\n\n \n\n\nLexa\n: okay, I’ll wait by the east entrance \n\n\n \n\n\nClarke\n: see you then!\n\n\n \n\n\n------\n\n\n \n\n\nClarke may have thought her energy was back, but there’s a big difference between walking from the couch to her room or the bathroom and walking around a school, that seems to have expanded in her absence, with a heavy backpack. By the time she’s talked to all of her teachers and sat through the remaining three classes, she’s seriously questioning her decision making abilities and everything is starting to look like a bed. \n\n\n \n\n\nOnly one thing stands between her and her cozy blanket, the staircase leading up to the class room where quizbowl meets. Okay so maybe it’s two things since once she makes it up, she’ll still have to go talk to them before she can go. Technically it could be considered three things since after that she still has studying with Lexa, but Clarke is pretty sure Lexa won’t mind if she makes herself comfortable or at least Clarke isn’t going to let it stop her.\n\n\n \n\n\nWith her remaining energy store, Clarke climbs the steps, only becoming slightly winded at the top, and walks toward room 203. Certainly not expecting the greeting she receives when she enters.\n\n\n \n\n\n“What are you doing here?” There has to be some sort of candid camera on her, because this can’t be happening. Clarke doesn’t spare Raven a glance, instead walking toward Patrick, the team leader.\n\n\n \n\n\nHe speaks up when the question hangs over them. “She’s part of the team now.” \n\n\n \n\n\n“Youve got to be kidding me. You let her join?”\n\n\n \n\n\n“She’s proved to be a great asset so far.” He says, unclear as to why there’s an issue. \n\n\n \n\n\n“Whatever just don’t put us in one on ones together.” Raven huffs, taking her seat at the table.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Don’t worry you’ll have time to get over yourself,” She says flatly to Raven before turning to the rest of the group “I’m only here to let you know I can’t stay today, I have a lot of make up work to do and I’m still not 100%. I’ll be here next week though.”\n\n\n \n\n\n“Monty told us you were sick as well, we figured you wouldn’t be here either” Patrick shrugs “you can take a copy of today’s quiz cards if you want.” He moves to the table to pick up a packet of paper and brings it over to her.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Thanks, I’ll look it over.” She says awkwardly, the tension in the room more than obvious.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Sure thing, feel better.”\n\n\n \n\n\n“Thanks.” She offers him an apologetic smile and quickly makes her leave.\n\n\n \n\n\nAny remaining tension she had dissipated as soon as she saw Lexa sitting on the bench by the doors with a book held up in front of her face. She shakes her head slightly to fight off a smile.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Lexa,” she greets catching the girls attention.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Clarke, hi,” Lexa stands, tucking her book away. “Are you feeling better?”\n\n\n \n\n\n“Not as good as this morning, but definitely overall. Ready to go?” She asks.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Yes, though if you’re not up to it anymore that’s fine.” Lexa says as they start walking through the parking lot.\n\n\n \n\n\n“I wish it was that easy, but I kind of told Mr Jones I could take the midterm on Friday.”\n\n\n \n\n\n“He didn’t offer for you to take it Monday?” Lexa says in surprise.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Oh, no, he did.”\n\n\n \n\n\n“Then why…?”\n\n\n \n\n\n“Because I like to torture myself,” she laughs “No, because I knew I would think that would give me more time to study, but then I wouldn’t actually end up using it and I would know less than I do now.” She explains and unlocks her car as they approach.\n\n\n \n\n\n“I guess you know what works best for you.” Lexa says as they fit her bike in the back.\n\n\n \n\n\n****\n\n\n \n\n\nShe’s been in Clarke’s car before, somehow multiple times, and yet it feels different. More awkward. Though apparently it’s just her feeling that because Clarke doesn’t seem fazed as she hums along to the radio, tapping the wheel, while waiting for the light to change.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Anything interesting happening in your classes?” Clarke asks and Lexa, well she doesn’t panic because that’s not something she does, but she does cycle through everything she’s been doing in the past couple of weeks to figure out what to say. She finds a lot of it interesting, but that doesn’t mean that other people do, that Clarke will.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Well, in AP environmental we started working on our final project and part of mine covers ergot, which they now believe is what caused the hysteria that lead to the Salem witch trials.” She says confident in her choice because who doesn’t like talking about that bizarre point in history?\n\n\n \n\n\n“I’m sorry what? What the heck is ergot?” \n\n\n \n\n\n“It’s a fungal disease that contaminates grains.” She says and starts to second guess her topic, because who really wants to talk about fungi?\n\n\n \n\n\n“And that caused people to think their neighbors were practicing witch craft?” Clarke spares her a quick glance as if to check if she were joking.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Yes, it’s a hallucinogenic, so basically people were high and accusing each other of spell casting.” \n\n\n \n\n\n“You’re kidding.”\n\n\n \n\n\n“Well, a lot of it is speculation, but the descriptions match what is now know to be side effects of eating ergot contaminated grain products.”\n\n\n \n\n\n“That’s insane.” Clarke says after a few moments. “That’s \n\ninsane.” \n\nshe says again and Lexa gives herself a mental pat on the back. “So how does that relate to your project?”\n\n\n \n\n\n“Oh, well, my main focus is on conditions ideal for the spread of dormant or not as prominent parasitic fungi and disease especially related to future outputs from changing climate.” Lexa says trying to underplay her enthusiasm over her choice of study.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Well, we’re all doomed if that comes back. Though maybe it’ll mellow everyone out this time.” Clarke jokes, pulling the car into the driveway. “That’s an interesting study, but I feel like it could be really depressing.”\n\n\n \n\n\n“Perhaps, but it will also tell me what regions to avoid.” She says, stepping out of the car and following Clarke inside.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Do you want anything to eat or drink?” Clarke asks\n\n\n \n\n\n“I’m fine, thank you.”\n\n\n\n\n\n“Okay, should we get started then?”\n\n\n \n\n\n“Whenever you’re ready.”  Lexa nods.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Alright, let’s go up to my room.” Clarke says and turns down the hall. It takes Lexa a moment to follow her though, she had been expecting to work at the table again, not Clarke's bedroom. It makes sense, Clarke didn’t want to work at the library because of comfort and that would have been a table, so of course she wouldn’t want to work at just a different table at home.\n\n\n \n\n\nShe shakes her head and makes her way towards Clarke’s room. A thought crosses her mind briefly, that if Clarke actually \n\ndid \n\ndraw her, the drawings would likely be kept in her room and if they were, maybe they would be somewhere that Lexa could just stumble across. Accidentally knock something off the desk, place her folders on top and pick them up all together, offer to put Clarke’s things away- okay she’s getting away from herself and that was definitely more than a brief thought.\n\n\n \n\n\nClarke is already sitting on her bed, leaning against the wall, wrapped in a blanket when Lexa walks in. Way more than brief thoughts. \n\n\n \n\n\n“Are you sure you’re up for studying?” She checks again.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Yeah, just wanted to get cozy, hope that’s okay.”\n\n\n \n\n\nIt’s more than okay, at the moment only Clarke's face is visible and her cheeks are still slightly flushed from her fever. If Lexa was one for sappy thoughts she’d swear the redness makes Clarke's eyes bluer and more captivating, but she’s not and she’s good at ignoring the little flutter she feels at the other girls cute nature.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Whatever you need.” She says instead.\n\n\n \n\n\nLexa’s surprised by how focused Clarke stays throughout the entire time they review. Usually she has a timer going in her head for the next groan or insistence in taking a break or the ‘I’m never going to be able to remember everything’. Not one of those happen, just a few sniffles or coughs here and there which should absolutely not be considered adorable and yet, Lexa finds herself endeared by them. By the time they call it quits, Clarke's eyes are looking slightly more droopy than before and her body is a bit more hunched in her blanket.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Have a game of scrabble in you?” Clarke asks.\n\n\n \n\n\n“I don’t think you do. It looks like you’re slowly melting into your bed.”\n\n\n \n\n\n“Yea, feels like it too. I’ve probably kept you too long any way, you must have other things to do.”\n\n\n \n\n\nLexa shakes her head “Not really, I do my home work in free period and everything else isn’t due for a couple weeks.” She slowly packs up her things, not wanting to leave yet and Clarke did make it seem like she didn’t want that either, but she doesn’t want to impose.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Do you maybe want to stay a bit then? Watch a show or something.” \n\n\n \n\n\n“Yeah that would be nice.”\n\n\n \n\n\nAnd that’s how she finds herself no more than ten minutes later trying not to move as Clarke’s head rests on her shoulder after she fell asleep to Person of Interest. She definitely is not enjoying this and she \n\ndefinitely \n\ndidn’t act like a creep and smell Clarke's hair, it just happened to be under her nose when she shifted her head slightly. The sketch book will have to wait for another time, but Lexa supposes she can settle for this instead.  \n\n\n\n\n"}
+{"text": "Despite the number of times Denki and All Might had met, he still couldn’t believe that this was his life. When starting at Yuuei, his grandmother had asked him what he wanted to have accomplished by the time he graduated. His answers had been pretty straightforward and expected at the time. Make some friends in his class that would last beyond high school (goal accomplished already). Prepare to be the best pro hero that he could be. Pass all of his classes. Simple. Achievable. \n\n\tAll Might had thrown everything in his life off course with a single conversation, and while Denki couldn’t say that he wasn’t glad that the Symbol of Peace seemed to think so highly of him, the thought of what it all meant still left him reeling whenever he remembered it. All Might wanted to help him. All Might, the number one hero, looked at Kaminari Denki and saw potential. A successor to his legacy. It was huge in a way that Denki couldn’t even begin to comprehend, because it no matter how he looked at it, it just didn’t make sense. \n\n\tDenki knew he had potential. He had worked hard to get into Yuuei, and he wasn’t going to downplay that. But this? This was something else entirely. This was All Might, of all people. Did Denki really deserve this? Weren’t there other people who would be better suited for what All Might needed? People who had their own quirks under control, who were more skilled, more naturally talented than he could ever hope to be? His mind flashed for a second to the other members of his class, but he shoved it aside. It was no use thinking about which of them would be a better choice. He could hear what Izuku and Mei would say to that particular line of thought. \n\n\tPotential is a tricky thing though. He heard the word enough when he was growing up. Little Kaminari had the potential to be a great hero with a quirk like his! Strong and flashy, just the type of ability that stands out amongst the hundreds of pro heroes. If only he knew how to use it. If only he didn’t stand in his own way with his lack of control. If only he didn’t become the butt of the joke every time he pushed himself too far. Sure, things had gotten better. Being at Yuuei had helped him to gain more control over his quirk, and Izuku and Aizawa both seemed to think that it would only improve with time. But did he deserve this opportunity? \n\n\tA quiet voice asked another equally important question: Did he want this responsibility? The power, the legacy, the pressure that came with it? His grandmother had wanted him to be sure before he accepted. Denki knew that if he told All Might he had changed his mind that the man wouldn’t make him feel guilty for it. No matter his doubts though, Denki knew that he wanted to be worthy of the trust that was being placed in him. He wanted to be worthy of being chosen by All Might, and that was why he was at the school on his day off of classes, standing awkwardly in the middle of the gym All Might had reserved for them. \n\n\t“Kaminari, my boy,” All Might said, interrupting Denki’s train of thought. “Thank you for meeting with me on your day off.” \n\n\t“Of course!” Denki replied brightly. How was he supposed to say no to a request from All Might, after all? If All Might wanted to meet with him every day, Denki wasn’t about to say no. \n\n\t“There is much that we still need to discuss concerning One for All,” All Might said, settling back into the chair that he had set up in the front of the gym, “but first, have you spoken to young Midoriya yet?” \n\n\tDenki nodded, legs folding under him as he sat on the floor in front of the hero. “I spoke to him about it this week. Thank you for letting me tell him. I know this is all supposed to be secret, even if he does already know about most of it.” \n\n\tHe can’t imagine what it must have been like for Izuku to keep this secret to himself for months. Not to mention the strength that it must have taken for Izuku to turn down All Might’s offer. They’ve talked about Izuku’s training enough for Denki to know that before meeting Aizawa in person, his friend had idolized All Might. To have his former idol offer him his legacy and for Izuku to turn it down…Denki had never been more proud of someone, even if they hadn’t met yet when it happened. His grandmother had certainly decided who her knew favorite was when she heard the full story of Izuku’s encounter with All Might. \n\n\t“I take it your concern was unfounded then?” All Might said with a smile. \n\n\t“He was so excited!” Denki blurted out. That was another thing about the entire situation that just didn’t feel real to him. He didn’t think that Izuku would be mad exactly. He had turned down All Might’s quirk for a reason. An amazing reason. But there was a difference between not wanting it himself and seeing it be offered to someone who was, hopefully, his best friend. Denki had told Izuku that they were friends before the USJ attack, and he had meant it. Izuku and Mei were already the best friends he had ever had. Instead of laughing at him as he struggled, they had both tried to help him. They were so good, and Denki didn’t want to do anything that could shake their friendship so early on. Stupid, he knew, but his anxiety and the words of his old classmates kept rearing their ugly heads. \n\n\tAll that worrying had been for nothing though. Izuku had truly been ecstatic for him, immediately going on about how One for All might affect his quirk, and how he was glad that All Might had found a worthy successor. Izuku hadn’t even hesitated to say that he thought Denki was worthy, and the warmth that spread through him at Izuku’s approval had quieted his own doubts for a long time afterwards. Mei had been less interested in the details of the quirk than she was in designing devices to help All Might’s injury, and that had been its own kind of comfort as well. \n\n\tStill smiling at him, All Might said. “Yes. I thought he would be. That’s a good friend you have there. Now, on to a more serious note. There are a few more things that you should know about both One for All and its history before we move forward with your training.” \n\n\tIt was strange how quickly that trademark smile slipped from All Might’s features, but as he continued to speak Denki understood why. On that day, he heard the story of All for One. On that day, the tides of fate began to change.\n\n“Are you sure you’re supposed to be doing this?” Izuku stood with his arms crossed in the middle of the warehouse. He hadn’t been to this particular spot since a few months after he first started training with Aizawa, but he needed somewhere familiar and safe that wasn’t the school campus for his training. \n\nAizawa gave him a flat look through the screen, bandages still wrapped tightly around his head. “I haven’t left my apartment. Hizashi will be here in half an hour. I think I can observe your training in the comfort of my home without sending myself back to the hospital.” \n\nA cat, Leo from what Izuku could see, crossed in front of the screen blocking Aizawa from view for a second. It gave him just enough time to clear his own expression, mimicking Aizawa’s tone as he said, “Too soon.” \n\n“Izuku. I promise I’m okay. The hospital cleared me for light movement. This is no movement.”\n\n“But your eyes-”\n\n“The screen isn’t going to do anything. I made sure to ask. I’ll just get you started, and then I’ll turn off the video part of the call. Will that make you feel better?” Aizawa’s tone was gentle, but it still made Izuku feel guilty. \n\n“I’m sorry.” Izuku fidgets where he’s standing for a second before making a conscious effort to stop. He’s not sorry, actually. He’s still worried for Aizawa, and he doesn’t want to see his mentor pushing himself for Izuku’s sake. Not when he technically doesn’t need his help today. \n\n“No. You’re not,” Aizawa replies, but there’s a smile to his voice now. Izuku can’t help smiling back. \n\n“You caught me.”\n\nIf Izuku could have seen it, Aizawa probably would have been rolling his eyes. Instead, he adjusted another cat out of the way of the camera before sitting up straight. “You needed my help with something?” \n\n“I can do it on my own,” Izuku responded. Even with the video set up, Aizawa still probably couldn’t see him clearly through his bandages, but that didn’t stop Izuku from shifting uneasily on his feet at the question. “I’m just going through some stances. Getting back into the feel of things.”\n\nAizawa hummed thoughtfully.\n\n“Really. I don’t want you to push yourself. I’m at the warehouse, so it’s safe. I’m not planning on staying long. It’s just that we don’t have long until the Sports Festival, and I don’t want to fall behind.” The words sound rushed and exactly like the excuse they are. He should have expected Aizawa to see through them in an instant. He knows him far too well. \n\n“It’s your rods, isn’t it?” \n\n\tIzuku’s hands hovered over where they connected to his belt, but he didn’t touch them. He didn’t say anything either. It wasn’t as though Aizawa needed the verbal confirmation anyway. In just a few words, he had already seen to the root of Izuku’s problem. He shouldn’t have bothered him with this, not when he was recovering, but Izuku didn’t think that he would have been able to put his feelings into words. Not even to Hizashi or All Might, both of whom he knows would have been willing to help him too, if only he had asked them. \n\n\t“I may not have seen the video of the attack yet,” Aizawa said softly, “but Hizashi filled me in on what happened. I wish that you have never been put in that situation to begin with, and I’m sorry that I wasn’t able to stop it.” \n\n\t“It wasn’t your fault!” Izuku protested. \n\n\t“It wasn’t,” Aizawa agreed. “It is still my responsibility to look after my students. To look after you especially, problem child. What you all went through… You shouldn’t be facing actual villains for a while yet. I don’t want you to feel bad about this. You’re having a completely normal reaction to what happened.”\n\n\t“I know,” Izuku said, and because he knew that Izuku would doubt that said again, “I know that this is a normal reaction. I read up on it and everything. It’s just…Every time I think about using them, I think about that moment. Explosions don’t bother me, not when I grew up with Kacchan, but I just keep thinking about how it could have been worse. If Kaminari had been injured again or…” He trails off unsure how to finish the thought. He just knows that every time he tries to pick up his weapons that moment flashes back, and he can’t do it. It’s a stupid mental block that he doesn’t have time for. \n\n\t“You have to be able to trust in your weapons, and in that moment it failed you,” Aizawa said, his voice still gentle. “That’s no one’s fault. If anything, I should have been more stringent with the safety features of your gear. Hatsume’s mother has checked over your new gear herself. As for everything else…you shouldn’t be so hard on yourself.”\n\n\t“I have to be!” Izuku burst out, frustrated that he could already feel the tears coming on. It wouldn’t be the first time that Aizawa had seen him cry, but Izuku wished that his go to reaction to being frustrated wasn’t tears. “The Sports Festival is in two weeks! I should be pushing myself even harder, not struggling just to hold my weapons without having a panic attack! You know what people will be saying about me. They’re going to be looking for any reason that I shouldn’t be allowed to continue in the hero course, and I don’t want to hand them one on a silver platter. I’ve gotten good at this over the years! If I have to start from scratch with something else-”\n\n\t“Then we will figure it out together,” Aizawa interrupted, “but I don’t think that will be the case.” \n\n\tIzuku tried to get his breathing back under control. “I’ve worked so hard on this. I don’t want all of that to have been for nothing. If I panic every time I get injured by a villain, then how am I supposed to do my internship? Work studies? It’s so stupid.”\n\n\t“This was an extreme circumstance, Izuku, and you have to remember that you are still a student. You are still learning, and as I said before, this was something you should not have been exposed to for a long time. It will all be okay. I promise you. In the meantime, there are ways that I can help you help you through this. You aren’t the first person to go through this. Are you ready to work?”\n\n\tWiping his eyes, Izuku smiled at Aizawa through the screen. “Yes, sir!”\n\nShinsou Hitoshi had work to do, if he could ever get a moment of peace and quiet. If he was honest with himself, he could acknowledge that it wasn’t entirely his classmates fault that he was in this situation. His conversation with Present Mic had been a little louder than he had been anticipating, and by the time he realized his mistake too many people had heard the teacher’s booming voice giving him both permission and instructions to come by his office later for more information. \n\n\tAsking hadn’t been a test for himself, but somehow Shinsou still felt like he had failed. It wasn’t the greatest feeling to start off with. He pushed past it though. Shoved the feeling aside and ignored the whispers of his classmates that followed him through the halls now. The whispers themselves weren’t new, even if the content of the gossip was. He was used to it after all the years, and he refused to let it get to him now. Not when he had an actual chance of making his dreams come true. \n\n\tComing to Yuuei had been an eye-opening experience for him. In more ways than he could have anticipated. He knew the entrance exam for the hero course was suited for more physical quirks, but he had tried it anyway. It had been hard for him to admit to himself after the fact that he hadn’t gone into it expected to do well. He hadn’t gone into the exam expecting to pass. He refused to stand in his own way a second time. That was the first thing he had realized upon starting school. He hadn’t done enough to prepare himself, and he was paying for that mistake by starting out in the Gen Ed course. Shinsou had felt discouraged by that, but he hadn’t given up. There was still a chance, he told himself. \n\n\tThen school started, and he learned two things very quickly that actually gave him hope. The first was that a student in the hero course had been expelled. That probably should have been intimidating more than anything. It showed just how high the standards for their students were, after all, and the consequences for not meeting those expectations. It also meant that there was an open spot ripe for the taking. Shinsou didn’t let himself hesitate this time. That open spot in class 1-A would be his. There was no other option. It was just a matter of waiting for the right opportunity. \n\n\tThe second thing to happen was that he learned about the existence of Midoriya Izuku. At first, Shinsou hadn’t believed the rumors. It seemed hard to believe given what he had experienced during the entrance exam, but after some investigating on his own, he learned that there was some truth to the rumors. Midoriya Izuku of class 1-A was both quirkless and a recommendation student. What he had done to get in on recommendations and who his sponsor was had been too conflicting to put any real trust in the information, but those two facts he had been able to confirm at least. Apparently, he excelled at hand to hand combat and had a host of support weapons, if the rumors were to be believed. \n\n\tShinsou was impressed, but he also felt like an idiot. He had spent so much time thinking about how unfair the exam was, how much of a disadvantage he would be in. He thought the only way through to the hero course would be through the use of his quirk, but obviously that wouldn’t work when his opponents were giant robots. Hand to hand combat. How could he have missed that? If he had thought of it himself, trained earlier, could he have somehow passed the exam? Recommendations take connections. That route would never have worked for him, but if only he had thought things through a little better instead of getting hung up on what he couldn’t do… He had still been planning to rely on his quirk as much as possible during the Sports Festival but in light of everything he had learned that seemed like a mistake he couldn’t afford to make. \n\n\tSo, he had asked Present Mic if Gen Ed students could have access to the additional gyms on campus that were usually only used by hero course students. And Present Mic had said yes. He hadn’t asked Shinsou what he wanted access for, and Shinsou hadn’t volunteered the information, but it shouldn’t have been hard for anyone to figure out. His classmates knew that he had failed the entrance exam. Could probably guess that he hadn’t given up. The whispers and looks followed him, but that was fine. Let them talk. Shinsou had work to do, and he didn’t intend to be there long enough for it to bother him anyway."}
+{"text": "Life settled into a comfortable rhythm for the occupants of the castle over the following week, as it always did after the whirlwind first week of classes. The first years were gradually learning to navigate the twisting corridors and jump the trick stairs and stopped getting lost so much on their way to lessons, the older students were gradually learning to accept their doomed fates as O.W.L. and N.E.W.T. students who had suddenly very little free time and quite a lot more stress, and that usual, somewhat surreal air of nervous excitement which surrounded returning to Hogwarts faded naturally into the feeling that they had never really left.\n\nA brutal wind had blown up around the castle, whipping steadily across the grounds and sneaking through the gaps under doors, rattling the windows in their frames and chilling the hallways.\n\nThis, Harry brooded as he shifted positions uncomfortably, must certainly be why he was so bloody freezing all the time now, and he pulled his robes more tightly around himself.\n\nIt was his Friday morning free period and he was sitting crouched in one of Hogwarts’ secret passageways, hidden behind a tapestry, head bent low over the Marauder’s Map. He scanned the miniaturised drawings of classrooms and corridors, eyes darting about rapidly, searching…he had just seen…there! Harry smacked his finger to the parchment triumphantly, tracing the little dot labeled ‘Draco Malfoy’ as it moved down one of the tiny staircases, flanked by two other dots marked ‘Gregory Goyle’ and ‘Theodore Nott’. Malfoy was heading to the ground floor…he, Harry, was only one floor above! He thought quickly…if he left the passageway and used the stairs to the right, he could overtake Malfoy easily in minutes. But if he followed the passage, it would take less time…though that would lead to more classrooms, and a higher chance of getting caught…Harry rubbed his hands together in an attempt to warm them. He wasn’t out-of-bounds, but he would rather no one knew what he was up to, not yet…not until he had proof….\n\nHarry’s elbow brushed a small lump of material balled up inside his pocket, just over his hip, and he nearly startled as it struck him: his Invisibility Cloak!\n\nIt was so obvious he felt stupid for not realising it earlier. But then again, he supposed as he fished it out of his pocket, he wasn’t quite yet used to having it with him all the time, before now he’d always kept it in his trunk when he was at school.\n\nWell, that settled that, he decided – he’d take the shortcut. A thrill of anticipation and purpose raced through Harry as he made to stand.\n\nBut then he hesitated, checking Malfoy’s progress: he and his lackeys were on the ground floor now, and they were heading toward the dungeons…Harry felt quite sure that if they were about to deface something or cause any trouble, it would be out in the open again for the whole school to see, not down in the dungeons…Harry sat still another minute and watched the three dots rove deeper into the bowels of the castle, and then pass through the entrance to the Slytherin common room, as he’d suspected they might.\n\nHarry slumped back against the wall, disappointed.\n\nThis was the third time this week he had sat hidden away in a secluded section of the castle, alone, waiting for Malfoy to make a mistake…to perhaps wander off somewhere he wasn’t supposed to be, or to linger too long anywhere that was not a classroom, or a bathroom….\n\nAnd this was the third time he had been left with absolutely nothing to show for it.\n\nHarry knew Malfoy was up to something. He knew it had been Malfoy who’d written those foul things on the wall in the second-floor corridor, and if no one else was going to do anything about it, then Harry would.\n\nIt had not been difficult, these past few days, to slip away unnoticed by Ron and Hermione whenever they started up into one of their usual rounds of bickering. They had been doing that quite a lot recently. Bickering, that was. Harry supposed that they had always done that – had always liked to needle each other to the point of exasperation, but he had noticed a definite uptick over the summer, and he had a sneaking suspicion as to why that might be.\n\nAnd he was not sure how to feel about it.\n\nAbout the possibility of Ron and Hermione…what? Abandoning him? Shutting him out forever, so they could be on their own?\n\nBut Harry mentally kicked himself. Surely that would never happen. They had, both of them, stuck by Harry, even through some pretty tough times, and he was certain that wouldn’t change just because they might want to start dating each other.\n\nHarry let out a quick puff of air. His free period was already half over, and he still had to run back to the Tower to get his books before his next class. Resigned, Harry quickly rolled up the Marauder’s Map and tucked it back inside his robes. He climbed to his feet and stretched, pulling his arms briefly above his head. His back was aching and sore from sitting still for so long, and he took a moment to stretch that out too, his spine popping in several places.\n\nCautiously, Harry poked his head out and looked up and down the corridor. Seeing no one, he stepped out from behind the tapestry.\n\nHe had to switch up his strategy, Harry thought as he made his way toward the stairs, mulling over his Malfoy problem again…the Slytherins (collectively, for Harry was positive Malfoy'd had help) had last struck in the middle of the night, and Harry had so far only managed to post himself throughout the school at random times of the day, whenever a break in his timetable allowed it. It would make more sense to keep watch at night…it was not as though this would interfere with all the solid sleep he was getting, he considered ruefully...but then again, there was the risk of getting locked out of Gryffindor Tower if the Fat Lady decided to visit another portrait….\n\n“Hi Harry!” a voice called brightly behind him.\n\nHarry’s hand jerked, ready to draw his wand, but as he turned and saw who it was, his arm fell back to his side.\n\n“Hi Luna,” said Harry, relieved in spite of himself. The sight of her, wearing her usual radish-shaped earrings, blonde hair as long and straggly as ever, was oddly comforting, and his heart stuttered back to normal. He realised with a twinge of unhappiness that he had not seen her properly since they had shared a compartment on the train. As she caught up to him, Harry dug his hands into his pockets and turned automatically so that they were walking together.\n\n“What are you doing down here? Haven’t you got class?” Harry asked her.\n\n“Oh yes,” Luna nodded serenely. “Charms. But Laura Hinkley accidentally overdid her Summoning Charm and smacked herself in the face with a globe. She broke her nose and knocked out two front teeth, so Professor Flitwick ended class early to take her to the hospital wing. I feel a bit badly for her – I would feel much worse, only she’s one of the girls who calls me ‘Loony’ sometimes,” she said matter-of-factly.\n\nHarry grinned at her, and he was surprised to find it came easily. He hadn’t grinned in what felt like ages.\n\n“I’m glad you got out early, then. It’s nice to see you,” he told her sincerely.\n\nLuna’s wide, silvery eyes lit up, and she absolutely beamed at him. “It’s very nice to see you, too, Harry.”\n\nThey chatted companionably through a few more corridors, and as Luna told him all about her first week of school, Harry scratched absently at his wrists.\n\nHis hands itched all the time now; the strange, intense urges to bathe himself had not abated over the last week and had continued to strike him randomly at thoroughly inconvenient times. He wasn’t, of course, able to sneak away half a dozen times a day just for a shower, so he had found himself slipping into the bathroom between classes and meals to quickly shove his hands under some hot water. It seemed to help suppress his odd new compulsion, but the skin on his wrists and the backs of his hands was now cracked and dry, and he had begun to develop tiny blisters.\n\nHarry wasn’t exactly sure what was driving this weird impulse. Perhaps it was his now seemingly permanent case of the chills – a hot shower seemed to be the only thing that could sufficiently warm him up these days.\n\nOr perhaps it was the fact that he now felt very like he had done after witnessing Nagini’s attack on Mr. Weasley the year before and subsequently hearing some of the members of the Order speculate that he might have been possessed without his knowing…Harry remembered, very clearly, how…separate…from everyone else he had felt on the train ride home from visiting Mr. Weasley at St. Mungo’s – contaminated, infected...dirty….\n\nHarry found himself thinking, sometimes, though he tried very hard not to, about that night in the broom cupboard with Romilda. He had neither properly seen nor heard from her since the evening she had left him chocolates in his room, and Harry felt quite certain that the best thing he could do would be to just forget about what had happened between them. The only problem with this, however, was that she seemed to have transferred something to him that night. Left some parasite on his skin that had crawled up inside him and latched on, releasing a kind of vile toxin that made him itch all over, made him feel like he had a thin layer of living grime sitting just underneath the surface of his skin…Harry found that the feeling went away, for just a little while, after he’d scrubbed himself sufficiently, though he could never quite seem to fully eradicate it.\n\nHarry pulled his sleeves down over his hands and shoved them back into his pockets, forcefully shelving all thoughts of Romilda Vane and focusing instead on Luna’s animated description of a Blibbering Humdinger her father had claimed he’d seen a month before.\n\n“Anyway,” Luna said as they climbed another set of stairs together, “what were you doing down there, all by yourself?”\n\nHarry shrugged. “Enjoying the view,” he said as though it were obvious, gesturing grandly at the exceptionally uninteresting bare stretch of wall they were passing, and Luna broke out into giggles. She snorted slightly, which Harry might usually have found a bit grating, but coming from Luna he found it somehow endearing, and he felt his spirits lift considerably as he watched her, another smile tugging at his lips.\n\nWhen they reached the top of the stairs, Luna stopped and turned to Harry, tucking her wand more securely behind her left ear. “Well, I suppose I’d better be heading back. I’ve got Care of Magical Creatures next, and I’m afraid I’m already quite late,” she said, smiling widely. “See you, Harry!”\n\n“Bye, Luna,” said Harry, her words sinking in as she climbed back down the stairs. She hadn’t been heading this way at all, then, but had simply walked with Harry to keep him company, even though he had made her late for class.\n\nHarry watched her go, a fierce sort of affection rising in his chest, and hoped, as Luna disappeared around the corner, that Laura Hinkley’s broken nose was still smarting.\n\n \n\n \n\n“Been stalking Malfoy again, have you?” Ron said offhandedly without looking up from his Charms text as Harry plopped into the chair next to him and put his feet up on the table.\n\nHarry laced his fingers over his stomach and did his best to look highly affronted. “Who says I’ve been stalking him?”\n\nRon glanced up at him, giving him a look that said quite plainly he wasn’t fooled, and Harry gave in.\n\n“Yeah, alright,” he shrugged easily, and leaned his head back against the wall, closing his eyes.\n\nHe heard Ron snort and turn a page. “Don’t know why you’re wasting your time….”\n\nHarry lifted his head again to look at Ron incredulously. “What, you don’t think it was him who wrote that rubbish in that corridor? You said you did!”\n\n“‘Course it was,” Ron agreed, squinting at a footnote. “It’s just…I mean, how d’you think you’re going to catch him at it? Better to just wait and see if he does it again, and then you can see what his game is, where he’ll make his next move….” Ron trailed off, tapping his quill against the table as he looked something up in his text’s index.\n\nHarry stared at him. It was no wonder Ron Weasley won every game of chess he ever played, he thought wryly. But it was, in Harry’s opinion, a moot point. He had admittedly already considered this strategy and discarded it – after all, what if Malfoy ended up hurting someone next time? But when Harry voiced this concern to Ron, he merely laughed.\n\n“Malfoy? Come on, Harry, he’s a filthy rotten creep, yeah, but he’s a cowardly filthy rotten creep,” Ron pointed out, closing his book and leaning back against the wall, mirroring Harry’s position. “Since when has he ever done anything more than stand there insulting people, and threaten everyone with his father?”\n\n“But that’s just it, isn’t it?” Harry pressed. “His father’s in prison, isn’t he, and now Draco thinks it’s his job to prove the Malfoys aren’t all worthless, they’re still useful…hey!” A sudden idea had just struck him. “D’you reckon he’s working for Voldemort already?”\n\nRon cringed at the name but did not attempt to challenge Harry’s use of it. “Are you serious? What would You-Know-Who want with a slimy, spineless little git who’s not even fully qualified yet?” Ron shook his head. “Not a chance.”\n\n“Well, I still reckon he ought to be expelled either way,” Harry said grimly. “I mean, you do realise it was people like Hermione he said should pop their clogs, don’t you? I thought you’d be more upset about this….”\n\n“I am!” Ron said indignantly, sitting up a little straighter and frowning down at Harry. “I just think you’re getting a bit obsessed, that’s all….”\n\n“Who’s getting obsessed with what?” asked Hermione, who had just appeared next to them. She set down a rather large stack of books and pushed Harry’s feet off the table, muttering something under her breath that sounded suspiciously like “boys” and “respecting the furniture.”\n\n“Harry’s getting obsessed with Malfoy,” Ron informed her as she sat down across from them.\n\n“Oh, that,” she agreed conversationally. “Yes, I do think you’re putting a bit too much energy into it, frankly, Harry…until you’ve got proof – ”\n\n“Ron thinks I’m right that he’s up to something, don’t you?” Harry demanded, but Ron simply held up his hands as if to say ‘sorry, nothing I can do’ and Harry glared at him.\n\nHermione ignored both of them. “Until you’ve got real proof, there’s really no point in wandering about the school, wasting time when you should be studying….”\n\n“And how am I supposed to get proof without going looking for it, wait for it to fall into my lap?” Harry challenged.\n\nBut Hermione seemed to have lost interest in discussing the matter, giving him a stern look but declining to answer. Harry looked away in defeat, vowing to bring it up again next chance he got. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Hermione looking him up and down, as though inspecting him for any visible signs of an ailment.\n\nHarry rolled his eyes.\n\nBetween Harry’s frequent trips to the bathroom and his continued lack of appetite, Ron and Hermione had started to express the concern that Harry might have come down with some sort of stomach illness. Every time Harry had looked at food for the past week, he’d felt a rolling sense of nausea, and after several days of consuming only water, tea, and modest portions of whatever soup the kitchens had produced that day, Hermione had become increasingly insistent that he should try to eat a bit more. It was just no use telling her he wasn’t hungry, and that probably he wouldn’t be able to keep any of it down anyway; her incessant harassment was starting to wear on him, and he had begun to find a certain bitter pleasure in refusing her demands….\n\nJust then the bell rang, much to Harry’s relief, and the three of the them headed off to Charms, where he knew Hermione would have blessedly little time to focus on his well-being, physical or otherwise.\n\n \n\n \n\nThe next day dawned grey and calm. Overcast, but no sign of rain yet, and the brutal wind had died down to almost nothing. Perfect Quidditch conditions, and Harry could not have been more pleased – it was Gryffindor tryouts today, his first official duty as Captain of the team, and he wanted everything to go as smoothly as possible.\n\nThe thought of the good weather sustained Harry all the way down to breakfast, and he even managed to get down three sausages and a pile of eggs before Hermione announced over the morning paper that Stan Shunpike had been arrested.\n\n“What?” he and Ron both said at once.\n\nHermione read the rest of the article aloud, and it seemed clear to the three of them that the Ministry had now reached a point of desperation, and had resorted to merely constructing the appearance of doing something about the growing threats to the community they were supposed to be protecting, even if it meant jailing innocent people.\n\nHarry sat there silently as Hermione and Ron continued to discuss the subject, fingernails scraping absently against the back of his wrist, and glanced up at the staff table. For a while he watched Dumbledore, who was deep in conversation with Professor Flitwick, and wondered when their next lesson together would be.\n\nHarry certainly wasn’t managing to do much on his own to improve his chances of helping to win the war: with his growing inability to concentrate properly in lessons and an ongoing struggle to get a full night’s sleep, Harry’s classes had become an even bigger challenge than before. The printed words of his textbooks blurred together and sometimes did not even seem like they were written in proper English, and he would find himself reading the same sentence a dozen times as his mind wandered off completely. His teachers’ voices oftentimes faded to a dull buzz that he had trouble deciphering and he would feel his eyelids getting heavier and heavier, until he was inevitably nudged awake by Ron’s elbow, or startled by the bell.\n\nAnd the worst part was he could feel himself beginning not to care.\n\nHe wanted to care, he knew how important his education was (what use was he to anyone else as an underqualified wizard) but he sensed his motivation for schoolwork slipping through his fingers and he did not know how to stop it. What was the point in trying, after all, if he couldn’t keep any of it inside his brain….\n\nHarry knew his marks were already starting to suffer for it.\n\nHe’d caught McGonagall frowning at him more than once, and Flitwick had handed Harry’s last essay back to him with a rather baffled look of dismay. Slughorn, with a rather melodramatic expression of pure agony on his round, walrus-y face, had expressed his profound consternation that the evidence of the talent Harry had obviously inherited from his mother had disappeared so entirely and had offered to tutor Harry privately.\n\nBut the thought of being alone for hours on end with Professor Slughorn, who often looked at Harry as if he were a delicious prize to be won and whom Harry did yet know very well, was deeply unsettling to him for reasons he did not know how to name, and Harry had flat-out refused this proposition as politely as he possibly could.\n\nThe breakfast Harry had managed to get down churned unpleasantly in his stomach, and he shoved his plate away, blaming it somewhat truthfully on the nerves of the upcoming tryouts when Hermione asked him if that was all he was going to eat.\n\n \n\n \n\nThe weather held as Harry, Ron, and Hermione made their way down to the Quidditch stadium fifteen minutes later.\n\nGinny caught up to them about halfway down, her broom over her shoulder, and was joined shortly thereafter by Dean, which Harry would not have minded, as he liked Dean quite a lot, except that he casually slipped his hand into Ginny’s, and this seemed to coincide with a slight dip in Harry’s mood (although he saw Ron glance pointedly at their clasped hands and felt a bit better).\n\nA rather large crowd had already gathered by the time they reached the pitch, and Hermione departed to find a seat in the stands, wishing them all a hasty good luck. Ron, Ginny, and Dean wandered off to join the rest of the hopefuls, leaving Harry alone to survey the massive group of applicants. Harry couldn’t believe how many people had shown up…he tried to perform a quick headcount but it was impossible to tell for sure, as everyone kept moving around. Definitely more than had ever turned up to trials over Harry’s previous years on the team. He felt his nerves flutter again….\n\nHarry glanced up at the grey sky, thinking he had better get things started up before it decided to rain, and felt a faint tug on his sleeve. He looked back and abruptly found himself face to face with Romilda Vane – a sharp bolt of lightning seemed to lance through Harry in the millisecond it took for him to recognise her face, and he stepped back hastily without thinking.\n\n“Harry,” she said, smirking, and Harry was oddly surprised to find that her voice sounded perfectly normal. Like it could have belonged to any other girl.\n\n“Hello, Romilda,” said Harry evenly. He forced himself to stand his ground, even though what he really wanted to do was turn around and march across the field until he was as far away from her as possible. The vague beginnings of a headache throbbed to life at the back of his skull, but the panic that he had felt every time he had thought of her over the past week did not come. In fact, he suddenly felt terribly, mercifully blank. “Er – what are you doing here?”\n\n“Trying out!” she beamed, gesturing at the crowd behind her, and winked conspiratorially. “Figured I had an in with the Captain….”\n\nHarry gave her a tight smile and thought privately that Snape had a better chance of winning a tap-dancing competition than Romilda did of getting on this Quidditch team. “Right. Well, if you’ll just wait over there….” He tried to direct her back over to the others.\n\n“And anyway,” she continued as if Harry had not spoken, “I haven’t heard from you, did you like your present?” She gave him a knowing smile.\n\n\nA box, a little box on his bed, and a note that smelled of roses-\n\n\n\nShe had-\n\n\n\n “Please….” \n\n\n\nbeen in his room-\n\n\n\nDon’t.\n\n\nHis fresh headache gave a nasty throb.\n\n“I don’t like chocolate,” Harry said stiffly.\n\n“Oh! Well, if you – ”\n\n“And like I said, you can wait over there with everyone else,” he told her, pointing.\n\nRomilda’s expression faltered for a moment at his tone, but she recovered quickly. “Sure, if you like….” She moved as if to touch Harry’s arm, but he jerked it abruptly out of her reach, and her hand fell back to her side. The barest trace of annoyance flashed across her face, and then she smirked at him again and walked away to rejoin the group.\n\nHarry watched her go, and wished it were just a bit sunnier; the cool breeze seemed to have taken on a harder edge….\n\nHarry wiped his palms on his trousers, squared his shoulders, and lifted the whistle hanging round his neck to his lips, giving it a sharp blast. The talk died down immediately as everyone turned to face him.\n\n“Alright, you lot,” he announced firmly, “we’re going to start with the basics, I want you to split up into groups of ten….”\n\n“So assertive,” someone whispered, and several girls broke out into hysterical giggles. Harry pointedly ignored them and began relaying instructions to the first group of ten to fly once around the pitch so he could get a sense of their abilities.\n\nRomilda Vane was in the second group. When Harry blew his whistle, not a single one of them kicked off from the ground, but merely dissolved into another fit of giggles, and Harry felt irritation flare in his empty chest.\n\n“Leave now, please!” he barked at them, before turning to the rest. “And if there’s anyone else here who’s not going to take it seriously then you can get off this field….”\n\nRomilda and her friends ran off the pitch, still laughing, and Harry noted with annoyance that they did not head back up to the castle but rather went to sit in the stands to watch everyone else. Harry grimaced, scratching his hand, the pressure in the back of his head increasing, and turned to direct the third group….\n\nThe rest of the trials took several hours and were somewhat of a blur. Harry could feel sweat running down his back despite the cool weather; he focused all his concentration on the players before him and did not look into the stands, though he imagined, in the back of his mind, that Romilda’s eyes were following him…he thought Hermione might have tried to wave at him once, when he’d finished the flying tests and the Chaser candidates had stepped forward, to give him the thumbs up, but he steadfastly refused to look in her direction…he was vaguely sure she was sitting in the row just above Romilda…the pulsing heaviness in Harry’s head seemed to be growing, twisting….\n\nHarry watched, trying to absorb every detail, as each Chaser attempted to score as many goals as possible; Katie Bell was still as good as ever, and it was no tough decision to welcome her back on the team; Demelza Robins, whom Harry had only seen in passing before now, was a nice surprise, and had a particular talent for avoiding Bludgers; Ginny Weasley scored more goals than anyone before her, and managed to look damn good while doing it (although Harry didn’t suppose this was relevant to her Chasing abilities, and it did not, of course, have any bearing on her acceptance to the team).\n\nBy the time Harry had chosen two new Beaters, Jimmy Peakes and Ritchie Coote, he had shouted down several arguments and complaints from those who had failed to make the cut – normally he would have found this infuriating, but as it was Harry couldn’t seem to muster any real sense of exasperation.\n\nAs Jimmy and Ritchie went to join the other spectators, Harry glanced toward the stands. Romilda was still there.\n\nHarry’s head pulsed again, and he wiped a bead of sweat off his temple, turning to watch Ron, who had flown up to the goal posts to start his trial for Keeper. Ron looked like he might be sick, and Harry felt his stomach dip in sympathy, but Ron managed to save all five penalties without much trouble, something no other Keeper applicant had managed to do, and Harry felt a relieved delight try to stir in his heart as Ron landed to the cheers of the crowd.\n\nWith the excitement over, the onlookers began to file quickly out of the stadium, and Harry waited until Cormac McLaggen (who had done second best as Keeper but who also seemed to possess both a nasty temper and the idea that Harry had not given him a fair shot) had stomped off to the castle, aiming a kick at one of the benches as he went, before making his way over to Ron and thumping him on the back.\n\n“Well done!” said Harry fervently, slightly hoarse from all the shouting he’d had to do. “Really great, Ron, that last save – ”\n\n“Thanks,” said Ron, grinning ear to ear. “Almost thought I’d missed it, did you see – ”\n\n“Congratulations, Ron!” Hermione was running toward them, and when she reached them, she leaned up quickly, kissing Ron on the cheek. A second later, she seemed to realise what she had done and stepped back quickly, blushing and looking everywhere but at Ron’s face. Ron’s ears turned red as he stared, dumbstruck, at Hermione, then touched his cheek lightly where she had kissed him, beaming. Ginny, who had just walked up with the rest of the new team, caught Harry’s eye and they both looked away quickly, trying not to laugh.\n\nAfter consulting everyone’s timetables, the first full practice was fixed up for the following week.\n\n“You were all brilliant,” Harry congratulated them, and for a second he felt a true glow of pride as he looked around at them all.\n\nKatie smiled at him fondly. “You too, Mr. Captain, nice job.”\n\nThe last stragglers were leaving the Quidditch pitch, and as Harry shook Ritchie Coote’s hand, he glanced away, inadvertently catching Romilda Vane’s eye. She gave him a little wave then turned back to her friends, their tinkling laughter fading as the little group strolled away.\n\nRon’s enthusiastic re-telling of his third save faded to a buzz in Harry’s ears as he stared after them. He dropped Ritchie’s hand, his skin crawling…his head throbbed like a heartbeat…his arms were beginning to itch again….\n\n“Gonna go put these up, be right back….” Harry said mechanically, and kicked shut the lid of the crate containing the Quidditch balls, scooped it up, and headed toward the equipment shed. He quickly stowed the crate and glanced back at his friends. No one was watching, and he felt safe slipping away to the changing rooms.\n\nHarry stopped just inside the door, pulling it closed and looking around. His eyes drank in the long benches, the pads and gloves hanging on the walls, the section leading off to the showers.\n\nHe loved this room.\n\nHe still remembered the first time he had sat in it before an actual Quidditch game, how nervous he had been…he saw himself quite clearly as he imagined it, his tiny little eleven-year-old self in those scarlet robes, trembling and anxious and so very, very excited….\n\nHarry locked the door and went around to the showers. He wanted to rinse off, he felt sweaty and gross, but as soon as he turned on the tap, he remembered that Ron and Hermione would be waiting for him…they had planned to go down to Hagrid’s after tryouts…Harry reluctantly switched off the tap. He wandered over to the lockers, running his hand along the metal doors until coming to the one that had first been his, five years ago…it wasn’t his anymore…George had switched his and Harry’s as a joke in third year and they had never bothered to swap back…Harry turned around and leaned against it, sliding down until he was sitting on the floor. His wrists tingled more intensely and he scratched them one at a time, digging his nails in, prying out the itch.\n\nHe felt…odd.\n\nLike how he imagined it might feel to stand at the edge of a cliff and look down, and feel no awe, or anticipation, or fear.\n\nHe was satisfied with his performance as Captain today, and truly happy for Ginny and for Ron for making the team, but it was like all that was buried underneath a massive, solid layer of…nothing.\n\nThe headache that had been developing all morning, since the moment he’d seen Romilda, gave a particularly intense throb…something was pulsing at the back of his mind like a tumor, begging to be examined –\n\n\n“…did you like your present?”\n\n\n– and Harry did not want to touch it, but it was like being in the room with a dead body, and you didn’t want to look at it, but it was so awful it drew your eyes against your will….\n\nThere was a knock at the door.\n\n“Harry?”\n\nIt was Ginny.\n\nHe stared across the room. He wanted to call out to her, to go back out and join the others and talk about Quidditch like it was the only thing that mattered, but his mouth and body had disconnected from his brain, and Ginny’s voice felt very far away, and he stared.\n\n“Are you in there?”\n\nIn his mind, he inched closer and closer to that ugly, red, pulsing mass, and he wanted very much for someone to yank him back, to stop him, this did not belong in his head –\n\nDON’T!\n\nHe reached out, and touched it, and his mind burst open –\n\n\n– it felt like acid was leaking into his brain –\n\n\n\n “Are you lost, Harry?” \n\n\nHis head was swirling with an artificial confusion, he felt dazed, he felt wrong, and then there was darkness –\n\n\n“This is a broom cupboard….”\n\n\n– his body was frozen, he was helpless, he couldn’t do anything to protect himself, and there was –\n\n\nSweet, sickly syrup sliding down his throat –\n\n\nHe could taste it now, like he was being forced to drink it all over again, and he gagged, retching –\n\n“Harry?” came that nice voice again, and it was louder, and not so calm, anymore.\n\n\nThere was a boiling, raging heat inside him, nothing but heat, heat, heat, and he was burning up…she was beautiful, so beautiful you couldn’t see what was hiding underneath –\n\n\n\n “There’s a good boy.” \n\n\nHe could feel her hand on his face, as surely as if she were sitting next to him, and he wanted to jerk away, but he was paralysed, he couldn’t move, and then her phantom lips were pressing against his, forcing them open, and her tongue was in his mouth –\n\n\nStop her, or you won’t like what comes next – stop her, you sorry little –\n\n\nThere were other voices outside the door now.\n\n\nHelp me.\n\n\n\n“I love you.”\n\n\nThose words were everything, they were the only important thing in the world, and she had taken his first ones, all for herself –\n\n\nThere were hands all over him….\n\n\nHe couldn’t breathe. His head fell back and hit the locker behind him with a metallic bang. He lifted his head and slammed it back again, and again –\n\n“Get out of my head!” Harry gasped into the empty room.\n\n\n“You’re so gorgeous, Harry, hasn’t anyone ever told you?”\n\n\n\nA hand slipping into his pants –\n\n\nHarry’s whole body jerked and he kicked out, his foot slamming into one of the wooden benches. It toppled over with an almighty crash –\n\nThe door was pounding now, pounding like the inside of Harry’s head.\n\n“Harry Potter, open this door right now, or I swear – ”\n\n\nShe was pulling his clothes off, and then they were both naked, and she was on top of him –\n\n\nHarry squeezed his eyes shut.\n\n\nDON’T. PLEASE.\n\n\nThere was the shout of a spell, and the door burst open.\n\nSomeone shrieked.\n\n“Oh my God! Harry!”\n\nThere was a clatter around him, and voices….\n\n\n He was so cold.\n\n\n“Harry, stop!”\n\n\nHermione….\n\n\nHe sensed a body kneeling down beside him, and a hand closed over his burning wrist –\n\nHarry startled at the contact, his eyes still shut tight, and he jerked away from it violently, his shoulder banging painfully into the lockers, and the hand released him. He still couldn’t breathe….\n\n“Harry….” Her voice was trembling. “Harry…open your eyes….”\n\nHarry forced himself to focus, his breath coming fast and sharp. He concentrated all his willpower on slowing his racing thoughts, shoving the images of her face, her hair, her hands back through the door in his mind he never should have allowed himself to open in the first place – he pushed as hard as he possibly could – the door slammed shut…the too-real sensation of Romilda’s hands on his body began to fade, her voice draining out of his ears…when Hermione told him again to open his eyes, he obeyed on instinct.\n\nRon and Ginny were standing over him, their faces stricken and pale. Hermione knelt next to him, tears rolling down her cheeks, her eyes wide, her hands held up in front of her as if to show she meant no harm…one of her hands was covered in blood….\n\nHarry stared at the bloody hand in consternation. Why was she bleeding…? His shoulders were hitching with the force of his breath, which was still coming too fast and shallow, his head was swimming….\n\n“Ginny, quick, go get help, Hagrid’s closest – ” Hermione said frantically.\n\n“No!” Harry croaked, hardly knowing what he was saying, and grabbed her wrist, his breath stuttering. “N-no…pl-ease….”\n\n“Harry, you need help, you’re hurt!” Hermione said shrilly.\n\nHarry blinked at her, confused, and his eyes fell to the hand he had wrapped around her arm. His wrist was torn open and raw, dripping blood down his arm, onto her skirt…Harry released her at once, mortified, and looked down at himself. His other hand was in a similar state, and there were drops of red spattered across his shirt….\n\n“I don’t….” he panted. “W-what…what happened….?”\n\n“You don’t remember?” Ron asked tensely, his eyes raking over Harry’s face. His freckles stood out starkly in his bloodless face.\n\nHarry shook his head slowly, trying to think. He’d been scratching his wrists (had to get the itch out), he remembered that now…had he done this to himself? He hadn’t felt it….\n\nGinny knelt down on his other side. “You need to breathe, Harry,” she instructed, and her voice was steady despite the white-knuckled grip she had around her own knees. “In and out, come on.”\n\nHarry tried to obey. He focused on the hair framing her face, admiring its colour, even in the dim lighting of the changing room…it reminded him of the Burrow…of sunny days spent playing Quidditch in the apple orchard, and Mrs. Weasley humming to herself while she cooked supper…Mr. Weasley reading in his worn, patched armchair…Harry’s heart rate began to slow, and he managed to take several deep breaths.\n\nRon had been hovering uncertainly, apparently debating whether to run and fetch help after all. But as Harry’s breathing slowed, he sank down onto his knees next to Hermione so they were all on the same level.\n\nA heavy silence fell over the four of them as Harry calmed, and he looked down at his mangled hands, drawing them close against his body, and refused to look at anyone. Nobody said anything for what felt like an eternity; then Hermione reached out tentatively, giving Harry time to refuse her touch if he wanted to, before resting her hand gently on his arm, careful to avoid his injuries.\n\n“What happened, Harry?” she prompted gently.\n\nHarry thought about that for a minute, his brain feeling sluggish and slow. He shrugged hopelessly, still not looking at any of them. “I don’t know…I…I was thinking, and then I just…I dunno, blacked out, I guess….”\n\nExhaustion was setting in fast, dragging at Harry’s bones, and he thought he would like nothing more than to roll over right here and sleep for a week.\n\n“You mean like…a vision?”\n\nHarry wanted to say yes: here was a ready-made excuse for this…episode. An excuse that relieved him of all guilt for making them worry, for making them break down a door and find him collapsed on the floor of a locker room, covered in his own blood…but he could not bring himself to do it. And besides, if they were put under the impression that a vision from Voldemort had affected him this badly, they would want him to go straight to Dumbledore.\n\nHe shook his head.\n\n“I’m sorry,” he said quietly.\n\n“You don’t have anything to apologise for,” said Ginny softly.\n\nA pause. “Where’re the others?” Harry asked, hoping the rest of the Gryffindor team weren’t standing outside, that they hadn’t heard….\n\n“They went back up to the school, before I came looking for you,” Ginny told him, and Harry felt a bit better at that.\n\n“What were you thinking about, that made you...?” asked Ron suddenly, as though he wasn’t sure whether he should, and Harry glanced up at him. His expression was clouded.\n\nHarry shrugged again. “Something stupid. It doesn’t matter.” And it didn’t, Harry decided, because was never going to go there again, was never again going to open the door in his mind that made him lose control like that, ever….\n\nRon’s eyes did not leave Harry’s face. “You hurt yourself.”\n\nHarry bristled, and said a little defensively, “I didn’t do it on purpose, I told you, I blacked out.”\n\n“Yes, well – ” Hermione said, her tone taking on some semblance of its usual briskness as she wiped the tears from her face. “We’ve got to get you up to the hospital wing – ”\n\n“I don’t need the hospital wing,” said Harry, and was shouted down at once.\n\n“Harry – ”\n\n“Are you mad?”\n\n“Yes, you do!” Hermione insisted heatedly, and they were all looking at him as if he’d grown another head. “You’re injured, Harry, and probably you need something for shock, too….”\n\n“I’m not in shock,” Harry growled, climbing to his feet, and the three of them scrambled to stand as well. “And it’s just a couple of scrapes, Hermione, I’m fine –”\n\nThough this statement lost something of its merit as Harry wobbled uncertainly and Ron reached out to steady him. Harry did not fancy the idea of traipsing through the school covered in blood, he could imagine the rumours it was bound to start. He just wanted to lie down, and for Hermione, Ron, and Ginny to forget this had ever happened….\n\n“Look,” he said tiredly, looking around at their determined faces. “I’ll let one of you lot have a go at healing me, if you want, but I’m not going to Madam Pomfrey, and I’m not changing my mind.”\n\n“We can’t do that, Harry, we’re not qualified!” said Hermione. “What if something goes wrong? Besides, I don’t know those kind of healing spells….”\n\n“I do,” Ginny said quietly, and they all looked at her.\n\n“You do?” asked Ron, nonplussed.\n\n“Mum taught me.”\n\n“How come she never taught me?” Ron demanded, looking put out.\n\n“I asked her,” said Ginny, giving him a look.\n\n“Oh.”\n\n“But I still reckon we should take you up to the school, whether you like it or not,” Ginny said, turning back to Harry. There was a hard, blazing look on her face, and for a brief second Harry’s resolve weakened and he almost considered going.\n\nBut he shook his head, looking into her eyes. He hesitated, and then held his ruined hands out to her. “Try? Please?”\n\nGinny held his gaze for another second, then sighed, pulling out her wand.\n\nHermione covered her eyes for a brief moment, shaking her head. “Unbelievable,” she whispered, and then fixed Harry with a glare. “Don’t you think you’ll be doing anything other than going straight to bed, when we get back up to the castle….”\n\n“Fine by me,” Harry said wearily.\n\nAnd then Ginny, very gently, took one of Harry’s hands in hers. Ginny’s skin was warm against his, and Harry’s belly performed a pleasant little flip, but that thing in the back of his mind into which he had vowed not to look loomed larger as she touched him, and he had to fight the urge to pull away.\n\n“Tergeo,” she said quietly, siphoning off the dried blood, then tapped her wand gently to his wound and the ravaged skin started to knit itself back together as Ron and Hermione watched. Hermione was still looking very worried, but fascinated, too. Harry could practically see the gears of her mind turning, trying to work out the mechanics of the spell, and he would have smiled under different circumstances. Ginny repeated the process with Harry’s other hand, and then pointed her wand at Harry’s shirt, said “Scourgify!” and Harry’s clothes were suddenly blood-free.\n\nHarry held his hands up, inspecting them. They were not quite good as new; the skin had closed up completely but was raised and slightly pink, like it was in the final stages of natural healing. But they were loads better than they had been, and Harry was more than a little impressed.\n\n“Thanks,” he said quietly.\n\nGinny smiled at him, a little sadly, and said, “You’re welcome.”\n\nHarry swallowed and looked away, crossing his arms over his chest and hiding his newly-healed hands from view. He nodded awkwardly toward the door and said, “Erm – guess we’d better be getting back then….”\n\n“Harry – ” Hermione started significantly, but Harry walked quickly past her and out the door before she could say anything else.\n\n \n\n \n\n\nPlunk.\n\n\n\nPlunk.\n\n\n\nPlunk.\n\n\nHarry pulled two more dead flobberworms apart and tossed each one into a bowl. He glanced at the clock behind the desk where Snape sat, bent over a stack of paperwork, and groaned inwardly.\n\nHe’d only been at it for half an hour. He had another whole hour left….\n\nSnape looked up ominously at the pause in plunking sounds, and Harry grudgingly dug his hands back into the giant barrel of flobberworms he was sorting into rotten and not-rotten for use as Potions ingredients.\n\nHermione and Ron had been furious at him when he had announced he was leaving the common room to serve his detention with Snape as planned. Ginny too. And she had looked so much like Mrs. Weasley as she’d threatened to hex Harry back into bed that even Ron had recoiled under the strength of her glare.\n\nThe three of them had tried to convince Harry to tell McGonagall or Dumbledore what had happened so he wouldn’t have to attend this detention, but honestly, Harry thought grimly, as he dumped the bowl of rotten flobberworms into the rubbish bin and continued sorting, it was almost a relief to be down here up to his elbows in slimy dead worms with only Snape for company instead of up in the Tower with Ron, Hermione, and Ginny.\n\nHarry had gone straight to bed like he’d promised after the…fiasco…that morning. But when he had tried to lie down, he found he was too jittery to rest and made his way back down to the common room to ask Ron if he was up for a game of chess. Ron had kept shooting Harry highly anxious looks, however, and after their match Harry had gone right back up to bed. And on it had gone all afternoon, back and forth, bed, common room, bed, until Harry thought he’d go stark raving mad if he had to spend another second in Gryffindor Tower. So at half past eight he had been more than glad to depart for the dungeons, if only to get away from the oppressive pall of his friends’ worry and his own jumpy, restless nerves.\n\nHarry peered up at Snape again through his fringe. Snape didn’t teach in the dungeons anymore, of course, his office was up on the second floor now, but perhaps Snape missed his old stomping grounds, and that was why he had insisted on dragging Harry all the way down here to stock Potions ingredients, just like old times.\n\nIt was odd, Harry thought, that he felt no misgivings about spending time alone with Snape, when the idea of being alone with Slughorn had nearly sent him into a panic….\n\nThen again, Harry considered, throwing away another flobberworm. Perhaps it was not so odd after all.\n\nSnape was safe.\n\nWell, maybe ‘safe’ wasn’t exactly the right word. Harry knew Snape wouldn’t mind hurting him, given half the chance. He could still vividly recall the feeling of Snape’s fingers digging into his arm the day Harry had accidentally viewed his memory in the Pensieve, holding him in a vicious, biting grip, shaking him, throwing him to floor….\n\nHarry’d had those bruises for two weeks, though he’d never shown anybody, not even Ron and Hermione.\n\nOld habits, he supposed.\n\nBut that was just it, wasn’t it? Snape was predictable. He hated Harry. Despised him. And Harry returned the feeling with interest. Harry knew Snape was capable of hurting him, that Snape even took great pleasure in his misery and pain. But Snape did not like to touch Harry if he could help it. The ways he could choose to hurt Harry were expected, and obvious, and to the point.\n\nSnape was like the Dursleys.\n\nAnd Harry gleaned a small measure of bitter comfort from the unfailing certainty of that fact.\n\nBecause he had started to think, somewhere behind that door in his mind that he couldn’t ever touch again, that maybe it was the less obvious ways of getting hurt that could really mess a person up. The ways you didn’t see coming. The ones that slithered in, disguised as something else, something nicer…something prettier….\n\nMaybe, he thought, looking down at the damaged skin of his hands, the worst bruises did not come from fists, but flowers."}
+{"text": "\n Phoenix Wright, \n\n\n A little bird told me that you’ve received the chance to lecture at your alma mater. How interesting that they would extend such a prestigious offer to   you.   The next time we meet you'll have to tell me all about it. I wonder how long you spent- \n\nThe upside-down message, along with the rest of the mail, was swept off the kitchen table. Wright laid out two coasters and tucked the letter with neat cursive into his shirt. A drink was presented to him, and Phoenix dragged over the closet chair.\n\n“You brought along a catalogue?” Wright confirmed.\n\n“Yes.”\n\nMiles took it out of his organizer, and flattened the creases in the front page. It was a catalogue for his preferred tailor, currently earmarked with some personal choices, as well as ones he believed would suit Phoenix. They would find some selections first, and then go in to make alterations and purchases. It was somewhat premature to buy the clothes Wright would wear in court, but he still needed something proper for the lecture, and clothes for when they went on dates with a dress code. (He had several plans for that in mind.)\n\n“I see no reason for to get a full suit right now, unless you want to.”\n\n“How accurate are these colours to the samples?” Wright asked, examining a page.\n\n“Very, in my experience. Although, I find anything in white tends to be somewhat off from what’s been printed.”\n\n“I like that tie,” he said, pointing to a bubblegum pink one. “It matches the lettering on my hat.”\n\n“Not for long,” he darkly muttered, glaring at the vile thing in question. Miles knew Trucy had knitted it for her father, and thus it was a work of love and some such, but the hat needed to go. Preferably out the fourteenth floor window of his new office at work.\n\n“What was that?”\n\n“How do you feel about sweaters?”\n\n“No sweater vests.”\n\n“Tch, as if I’d let you dress like my eight year-old self.”\n\n“I can’t pull off a bowtie,” Phoenix added for good measure. “But a regular sweater sounds good. I’ve always liked them.”\n\n“It can’t be bulky,” he cautioned. “It will need to fit you properly.”\n\n“I used to layer a dress shirt and turtleneck when I was articling,” he answered thoughtfully. “And learning from Mia too…”\n\n“Casual, but acceptable for our purposes.”\n\nHe licked the tips of his fingers to flip to the page of sweater styles. Wright naturally gave a squawk of disgust.\n\n“Why must you do that?”\n\n“I’ll stop as soon as you cease cracking your knuckles,” he reassured, landing on the section he was looking for.\n\nThere was an array of sweaters in different patterns, cuts, and styles. Some he was personally drawn to, and had already marked down for consideration. Wright curiously poured over the page, before stabbing a single choice.\n\n“That.”\n\n“Move your finger so I can circle it.”\n\nPhoenix made another sound of disapproval when he deliberately drew a large red circle.\n\n“Hey, no prices,” he noted upon inspecting the image.\n\n“Don’t you worry about the cost.”\n\n“But-”\n\n“Consider it a gift.”\n\nThere was a pause.\n\n“I don't understand.”\n\n“For the lecture, and a better future.”\n\n“I don't get-” his tone was stiff and uncomfortable. Phoenix kept his eyes glued to the page, though his mind was clearly distant. “What do you want from me?”\n\n“Pardon?”\n\n“What could you possibly see in me that's worth buying anything for? Let alone tutoring and dating and-” his fingers curled up, trembling. “I haven’t done anything to deserve you, so why are you  doing  this?”\n\n“I-I want you to succeed in your goals, and get back on your feet again,” he stammered, forcing himself to put his emotions into words.\n\n“But people don't  do  that. They don't befriend you, and pay for your meal every time you go out for seven years, and tutor your daughter in science because you were an arts student who never paid attention because they  care  about you,” he ranted. Phoenix squeezed his eyes shut, and kept a hand pressed his chest. “So what do you want? Am I just useful to your plans of legal reform? Is it sex? Or am I being kept close so you can devise a perfect scheme for when it's finally expedient to  murder  me-”\n\n“Contrary to what my glares may suggest, I do not plan on killing you.”\n\n“I can’t go through it again,” Phoenix tried to wipe the sweat glistening on his forehead, but his shaky hand fell short of its target. “Please don’t make me. Whatever it is just tell me or get it over with.”\n\nTelling the truth wasn't going to accomplish what it normally would have. He decided to rationalize, hoping that would prove his intentions to Phoenix.\n\n“Do you remember how Gumshoe used to cut up a tree’s worth of paper and hand it to observers in court, so they could throw it with our victories?” he gently asked.\n\n“Y-yeah.”\n\n“And how he would let you into crime scenes, and fudge up a testimony for you to find contradictions?”\n\nThose moments were the bane of his existence in the early days. But when the roles were reversed, and he was the one who needed to sneak into a crime scene, it was useful. Gumshoe was ready to give his all, even his beloved K-9 unit Missile, if it meant that much to the investigation.\n\n“Yes.”\n\n“Do you want to know something both infuriating and humorous about the man?”\n\nSwallowing thickly, he nodded.\n\n“The first time I met him, he was nearly convicted of murder. All because he promised a little girl he wouldn't reveal she’d talked to him, a stranger, so they could buy swiss rolls.”\n\nTaking him away from the stressful subject helped some. Still, Wright pulled at the neck of his sweater, and was too shaken to keep his expression schooled.\n\n“That sounds like Gumshoe.”\n\nPhoenix’s voice was croaky, almost as if he’d been crying. It nearly sounded like the insides of his throat were covered in rough sandpaper, which scratched at his words as they formed in his vocal cords.\n\n“And he's still taking little actions like that now. Not necessarily for us, but certainly for the new detectives he mentors,” Miles went on. “Do you really believe  Gumshoe  has had ulterior motives for the past decade or so?”\n\nAt Wright’s uncertain expression, he glared.\n\n“Gumshoe doesn't have the mental capacity to scheme. It’s not a part of his personality.”\n\n“Yeah, I suppose.”\n\n“You suppose? Then what about the Feys?”\n\n“Dahlia and Iris had their fair share of-”\n\n“Did a seven year-old child decide you would be her adoptive father because she planned to kill you, or-”\n\n“Trucy’s a great kid,” he interjected. “I don't know how but she’s managed to put up with my worthless parenting skills, but she has.”\n\n“And there are good people out there,” he stated, reaching to caress his face. “It took me a long time to recognize them. But there are a lot more Gumshoes and Trucy Wrights than there are…”\n\nPhoenix slipped away from his touch, turning his head.\n\n“I’m sorry.”\n\n“I’ve told you before that I’d rather have you speak up.”\n\n“You don't know what it was like.”\n\n“To be close to a person who despised me and planned my ruin all along?” he condescendingly asked, each syllable dripping with displeasure. “To be systematically belittled and insulted by a narcissist?”\n\n“...I don't push you to talk about it.”\n\n“I would if you asked.”\n\nIt was a spontaneous declaration, but somehow, Miles was aware that it was true. He was comfortable with the idea of talking to Phoenix about those times, should he ever want to know.\n\n“You’ve had eleven years. I’ve had three months.”\n\nPhoenix was certainly doing better than he was at the three-month point. By then he’d fled from his identity and the country, choosing death over facing the realities of his life. When put into perspective, it really wasn't that long.\n\n“I’m not demanding you tell me everything. Just that you’ll tell me  something. Even if it is your opinion on my houseplants or piano sonatas.”\n\n“Edgeworth...”\n\n“Yes?”\n\nFor a moment, he thought Phoenix would begin arguing anew. But he merely slumped his shoulders, and made a put-upon sound.\n\n“How can you stand dealing with me?”\n\n“I knew what I was getting into.”"}
+{"text": "It took Sudou a good hour to climb the steep hill, as he kept grabbing for roots that pulled out of the soil and sent him tumbling back down to the base, where he'd have to start over again.  Finally, he made it to the top and spotted the flag pole.  He lowered the flag from the tree tops and proceeded to destroy it, tearing the grass apart and stomping the little shells into the ground. \n\n\"You're brighter than I gave you credit for, Shuu,\" came Mikhail's voice behind him.  Sudou dropped the flag and made to bolt, but Viktor and another man grabbed his arms.  \"And I didn't give you much.\"  Mikhail took the flag from Sudou's hands.  \"Destroying the boy's signal flag, good job,\" he continued.  \"Now, where's Takaba?  If you've killed him, you won't be leaving this island in one piece.\"   \n\n\"I haven't seen him,\" Sudou lied.  \"I saw the flag and wanted to destroy it before Asami saw it.  Then I was going to look for Akihito.\" \n\n\"Hmm,\" Mikhail mused, studying Sudou, who was a convincing liar.  \"We'll continue our search then, and you will stay with us.  Tie his hands.\"  A third man tied Sudou's hands while the other two held them behind his back. \n\nMikhail grinned knowingly.  \"We wouldn't want you getting to Takaba first and murdering him, now, would we?\"\n\n\"I won't try anything, Mikhail, I promise,\" Sudou said.\n\n\"Yeah right.  Leash him.\"  The man who tied Sudou's hands made a loop with the remaining rope and slipped the loop around Sudou's neck.  He held the other end of the rope and gave it a tug, causing Sudou to stumble towards him.  \n\n\"Now I believe you, Shuu,\" Mikhail said, laughing.\n\n***\n\nLater that day, Mrs. Takaba's email arrived, and Kei printed it out and brought it to Asami. \n\n\"Relay this information to the pilots,\" Asami instructed Suoh after reading it.  Suoh immediately did so and told Asami that one of the islands in the list was coming into view. \n\n\"Get me visual,\" Asami ordered, and the pilots began a live feed of images from the planes' cameras to the computer on the boat, where Asami, Suoh, and Kirishima were watching.\n\nThe planes then split up, each taking a different side of the island and transmitting their live feeds, which appeared on two monitors in the boat's cabin.\n\nBoth feeds showed uninhabited beaches and jungle, nothing more.... \n\n***\n\nThe cannibals on the beach surrounded Akihito, for he looked exactly like the pale ghost-demons in the boat who'd attacked them the previous day with the loud slingshot.  The chief reached out and stroked Akihito's chest.  He wore an odd expression, amazed and fascinated.  He looked Aki up and down and then touched his skin again.  \n\n\"Takaba Akihito,\" Aki repeated, pointing to himself.  The chief narrowed his eyes, then barked something at the two young tribesmen with spears.  Grabbing some vine, they tied his hands behind him and pushed him to sit.\n\n\"Water,\" Aki said.  The cannibals looked confused.\n\nAki nodded at a hand-made flask one of the men was holding.  The man nodded and held the flask to Aki's lips for a drink.  Aki gulped the water down, then nodded in gratitude.  The chief stared at him for another minute, then walked away.  Children also came to stare from a distance.  He smiled at them, and some smiled back.  A few were brave enough to venture closer; one or two actually touched him with a tentative finger, then ran off to hide behind their mothers.  \n\nApparently, these people didn't plan to kill him immediately, which was--to say the least--a huge relief.  When the tribe began to move eastward down the beach again, Aki walked with them, escorted by the two young tribesmen.\n\nAs the sun set, the tribe set up camp for the night, spearing fish in the surf and building a fire to cook them.  They untied Aki so he could relieve himself behind a palm tree and then eat some fish and drink more water.  Then, they tied him up again.\n\nHe sat silently and watched as the tribesmen danced around the fire late into the night, chanting their hypnotic songs.  The firelight illuminated the faces of the men sitting cross-legged watching the dancers.  The women didn't participate in this ritual.  Instead, they spread out mats away from the fire and lay down to sleep with their children curled up beside them.  One of the women put a mat next to Aki, and he tipped himself over so he could lie on it and try to sleep.  He stared at the fire and continued to study the faces of the men as they chanted and conversed among themselves.  Their eyes, black and intense, glittered in the firelight.  \n\nAs he was dozing off, he saw another pair of black, glittering eyes in the trees beyond the campfire.  The eyes moved, and Aki immediately became alert.  It was Ryuichichi.  He was sitting on a tree branch staring at Aki and not making a sound.  Aki's heart raced upon seeing him; was his little friend going to help him escape...?\n\nSure enough, when the fire had died down and the entire camp was fast asleep, the monkey stealthily made his way down to the beach and over to Aki.  Their eyes met, but they both remained silent, and Ryuichichi went to work, gnawing through the vines that tied Aki's wrists.  When Aki's hands were free, the monkey made quick work of the vines binding his feet.  Aki stroked the animal's hair, and Ryuichichi touched Aki's arm and scampered off into the jungle.  \n\nScanning the tribe, which was still sleeping soundly, Aki slowly rose to his feet and took off running through the jungle. \n\nLess than a minute later, he heard yelling in the camp followed by footsteps behind him.  Aki ran faster, darting this way and that through the darkness, tripping over rocks and roots and logs, but continuing to move.\n\nOne of the tribesmen was carrying a torch, and two others grabbed Aki simultaneously, causing him to fall facedown in the mud, nearly knocking his teeth out. \n\n\"Nooooooooooo!\" Aki screamed, as the two men tried to pull him to his feet.  He hit and kicked at them, yelling and screaming, and they literally had to drag him back to camp.\n\nThe chief was irate, his eyes blazing like a demon's as he shouted and bellowed in his language.  The men held Aki before him, and Aki continued to kick and scream; he was beyond terrified.  He was sure these cannibals were going to kill him, and he wasn't about to go down without a fight. \n\nThe chief kept yelling the same words at him, over and over, but Aki continued to kick and scream hysterically.\n\nThe men holding him and the people watching looked terrified of the ferocious chief, whose chest was heaving in rage.  The tribesmen shook Aki and spoke to him in low, rushed voices, but he didn't calm down. \n\nFinally, the chief picked up a wooden club, and with a murderous grimace, he slammed it with all his considerable strength against Aki's shin. \n\nAki screamed as he'd never screamed before.  It was out-of-your-mind pain, the kind that made him wish for instant death.\n\nThen the chief hit him equally as hard on the other shin.\n\nAki went limp in agony, screaming and crying, his head spinning.  He suddenly felt light-headed and hot, and the noise around him faded to low ringing.  Then everything went black....\n\n*** \n\nWhen Aki awoke, he was lying on the mat tied up again, only two tribesmen were guarding him.  Excruciating pain throbbed upwards from his lower legs and spread throughout his body.  He knew he was going to be sick, and he tried to move his head off the mat.  He ended up vomiting onto the mat, and the pain from his legs became worse from the attempted movement.  He began to cry, and one of the tribesmen knelt beside him, his expression one of sympathy and fear.  The other man glanced nervously over at the others, who were still sleeping.\n\nThe tribesman next to Aki said something to the other one, who then handed him a flask.  The man lifted Aki's head and helped him to drink water from the flask.  Then he gently moved Aki off the mat and turned it over to the clean side.  The man was obviously trying to be gentle, but even the slight movement made Aki gasp and sob.  He got a look at his legs, and they were purple and swollen; Aki was sure they were broken.  The man tending him cleaned his face with the water and then got him coconut milk to drink.       \n\nAki lay sobbing and whimpering until dawn.\n\nIn the morning, Aki's hands were untied, and as he suspected, his legs were broken, for he was unable to even stand.  The pain was unbearable, and he felt horribly nauseated.  Several women tried to give him food, but he had no appetite.\n\nThe chief was in a foul mood, and he yelled orders at the others, who were packing up for another day of traveling.  He glowered at Aki, but said nothing to him.\n\nSince Aki was unable to walk, the two young tribesmen tied him to a pole and carried him down the beach. \n\n*** \n\nSuardika waited for Mikhail and the others to leave the hill before returning to the hut.  She wasn't afraid, she just didn't want a fucking confrontation, as there was too much to do.  She grabbed her many coconuts, pouring ingredients from them into her largest wooden bowl; things she'd had in those coconuts for years, just waiting for the right time, and that time had finally come. \n\nShe took the bowl to the jungle surrounding the hut, closed her eyes, and began to concentrate.  Her lips moved as she whispered the ancient spell, and sweat ran down her face.  She opened her eyes, and the whites were blood red.  She began tossing the powdery mixture into the air beneath the trees, chanting louder and louder, concentrating with such intensity that the birds and animals grew silent and instinctively knew to stay away.  They fled the trees, the bushes, the ground.  Even the snakes slithered deep into their holes to hide from what was coming.\n\nWhen all the powder was gone, the witch dropped the bowl, and slowly raised her hands, palms towards the jungle.  Her eyes rolled up into her head, and she began to shake.  The powder started to glow like embers and rise from the jungle floor.  It rose higher and higher, growing brighter, until it turned into actual fire and began to burn in the canopy above.  Only like the burning bush of the Bible, nothing was actually consumed, but the flames continued to glow and dance red and orange and yellow and white-hot.  A huge section of the canopy was covered by the flames, but it did not burn, and there was no smoke, just a huge, brilliant light.\n\n***\n\n\"I don't see a signal flag,\" Suoh said, his brow furrowing as he watched the live feed from the plane flying over the west side of the island.  \"Wait--  What is that?\"\n\n\"Are you seeing this, Suoh-sama?\" came the pilot's astonished voice over the audio feed.  \n\n\"Yes,\" said Suoh.\n\nA huge section of forest canopy was engulfed in flames, but there was no smoke.  What's more, it was a perfect circle of fire. \n\n\"It's a signal,\" Asami said. \n\n\"The planes are doing another pass,\" said Suoh.  \"Lower this time.\" \n\n\"There's a sub just offshore,\" said Asami, watching the feed. \n\nSuoh clicked the image and enlarged it.  \"Russian.\"\n\n\"Mikhail,\" said Asami.  \"Get us in closer, but stay out of range.\"\n\n\"Bring us in, stealth,\" said Suoh.  \"We'll deploy the drones as soon as we're close enough.\" \n\nThe boat's captain engaged the boat's stealth motor, and the boat quietly made its way towards a cove. \n\nThe drones were sent in to surveil the island and determine just who was where; specifically Akihito, but also the Russians.  Asami knew Mikhail had likely seen his planes and would be prepared for him.  Just what he had planned, Asami didn't know.\n\nThe crime lord and his team had several rescue plans ready, depending on the conditions.  Suoh was carefully reviewing the images from the drones.  His expression was grim.   \n\n\"Akihito appears to be in the cannibal camp, Asami-sama.  Last visual was that he was tied to a pole, but he's gone now, and the camp is now populated.\"\n\nAsami looked at the island's layout on the computer screen.  \"The Russians are on the north side, and Akihito is on the east.\"\n\n\"The sub has moved to the north side, as well,\" said Suoh.  \"There's another cove on the south-east side.  It's the best place to launch the rescue.\"\n\n\"Keep us just outside the cove,\" said Asami.  \"We'll take the smaller boats in.\"\n\nAsami and his men changed into camouflage, dark shirts, and boots.  They began donning their gear and weapons.\n\nThe decision was made to secretly \"extract\" Akihito under cover of darkness, as they didn't want to risk injuring him and alerting the Russians with a noisy assault.  They would, however, be prepared to fight cannibals, the Russians, or both.  The order was to destroy anyone and anything that got in their way. \n\nOne way or another, Akihito was leaving the island with Asami that night.\n\n***\n\nAki felt as if he'd been in the tiny hut for days.  After arriving at their village, the cannibals had untied him and tossed him onto the dirt floor of a small, round hut.  Aki had cried and screamed in pain, as there'd been no regard for his broken, purple limbs, which were now twice their normal size.  He was then rubbed all over with some kind of oil.  The chief himself had participated in this task, stroking Aki's skin, touching his prick, and inserting his fingers into his ass.\n\nThe chief stunk to high heaven, and his breath was hot and putrid as he ran his hands all over Akihito.  Aki had glanced into the man's eyes, and he'd seen lust and hunger there.  Was the chief going to fuck him and then eat him???  Aki felt as if he was in some obscene nightmare he couldn't wake up from.\n\nHe was also running a high fever and lay on the dirt floor, fading in and out of consciousness, for hours.  Nobody brought him food or water, and he became dehydrated. \n\nWhen night came, the camp fire was lit, and the tribesmen began their dancing and chanting again.  Aki could see the firelight through the cracks in the hut.  Still, no one came to tend him, and he knew he was going to die. \n\nHe would never see Asami again, nor anyone else he cared for.  He wondered if Asami would ever discover what'd happened to him, or if the cannibals would so thoroughly dispose of his bones--using them in fences and mounting his skull on a post--that he'd never know.\n\nHe thought about Suardika and Ryuichichi.  Maybe the witch would tell Asami about Aki's life on the island.  Perhaps the monkey could somehow communicate Aki's fate.  At least then, Asami would have closure, and he could go on about his new life with Sudou.  Aki moaned in agony when he thought about Sudou in Asami's arms and bed.  Sudou, who was reason he'd been captured by the cannibals.  Asami would never know the truth.\n\nAki closed his eyes, and awaited his fate, the rising fever distorting the pitch of the chanting so that it almost sounded like laughing. \n\nHe didn't hear the noise behind the hut, as his head was facing the other way; the cutting of grass and bamboo.\n\n\"Akihito,\" came the whisper.\n\nAki didn't hear, as he was fading into unconsciousness again.\n\n\"Akihito.\"\n\nAki slowly raised and turned his head.  Someone was squatted behind the hut peering in at him through a curved opening.  The person was blurred: green, black, and weird, black eyes with no whites.\n\nThe person murmured, \"Jack,\" then pushed up the weird eyes to reveal golden ones. \n\n\"Asami,\" Akihito breathed weakly, \"are yooou reeeeal?\"  His speech was slow and slurred.\n\n\"Yes,\" said the crime lord, shoving into the opening and grabbing Akihito with gloved hands. \n\nAki would've cried with joy, but he was so dehydrated, he had no tears.\n\nOthers were suddenly there with Asami: Suoh, and two other men.  The two other men had guns drawn and were scanning the area with the same weird, black eyes that Aki realized were night-vision goggles.\n\nAnd there he was, cradled in Asami's arms.  Aki sobbed and weakly slid his arms around the man's neck, burying his face in his black shirt.  The crime lord kissed Aki ardently several times--his temple, his cheek, and finally his mouth--then nuzzled his hair, his breath hitching with emotion.\n\n\"His legs are broken,\" Suoh murmured, carefully examining Aki's shins. \n\nAsami looked into Akihito's unfocused eyes.  \"Your legs, Kitten.  How did this happen?\"   \n\n\"Chief did it,\" Aki sighed.  \"After they caught me n' brought me back.\" \n\nA low growl rumbled in Asami's chest, and for a moment, he was so infuriated, he couldn't see straight. That these savages had dared to hurt his kitten made him want to kill every one of them and turn their village into a smoking pile of ash.  But that would take time, and his kitten needed medical care now.  Best to stick to the plan.  The other team was just about in position to kick things off. \n\n\"So thirsty,\" Aki murmured.  \n\nSuoh handed Asami an open canteen, and the crime lord gave his lover several sips.  \"You came for me,\" Aki murmured.  \"You came for me.\"  He burrowed back into Asami's chest.\n\nWordlessly, Souh wrapped a nylon sling around Aki and began expertly harnessing him to Asami's body.  Suoh quickly splinted the broken shins together and wrapped them.  This was all done in under a minute.\n\nAsami pulled down his goggles.  Suoh did the same and retrieved his gun.\n\n\"Flush,\" Suoh said into his Bluetooth, and the four-man rescue team disappeared into the jungle.   \n\nAs they moved stealthily through the darkness, Asami whispered in amusement to a semi-conscious Aki, \"Their god is about to pay them a visit, Kitten.\"   \n\nSuddenly a loud noise that sounded like a firework, a screeching \"piccalo pete,\" interrupted the cannibal chanting, and then firecrackers and colored smoke bombs started going off everywhere.  All hell broke loose in the village, as people and dogs panicked and ran, unable to see through the smoke and terrified of the noise.  \n\nMagnificent fireworks exploded over the ocean, and the entire tribe ran to the beach to see--gasping and with huge eyes--for they'd never witnessed such a thing.  The children screeched with delight at the beautiful colors, as the men fell to the sand, thinking this was their god and that they had conjured him with their dancing and chanting.\n\nThe rescue team continued to move through the jungle towards the cove, where the small motorboats were waiting to take them back to the speedboat.\n\n\"Dogs,\" Suoh said into the Bluetooth, and every gun--including Asami's--was trained on the clearing before them. \n\nThe Russians were there waiting, also with guns drawn.\n\n\"Get out of my way, Mikhail,\" Asami said, as Suoh covered him.\n\n\"I see you beat me to Takaba,\" the Russian said dryly.  \"That's too bad.\"\n\nAsami's expression became dangerous.  \"Get out of my way.\"\n\n\"There's the matter of my club,\" said the Russian.\n\n\"I told you, I did not sabotage it,\" said the crime lord.   \n\nMikhail was sizing up Asami.  \"We seem to be at a draw.\"\n\nSuddenly, there was loud slap, and Mikhail had a pancake of what looked like mud in his face.\n\n\"What the--\"  He wiped at it.  \"It's shit!\"\n\nViktor was being rained on.  \"Piss!\" he yelled, moving away and rubbing his eyes frantically.\n\nThings were falling at tremendous speed from the trees--branches, sticks, fruit, coconuts, a wasps' nest--as if being fired from a cannon.  Only the Russians were being hit. \n\n\"Shoot whatever the fuck it is!\" Mikhail yelled, but his men looked up and saw nothing, for Ryuichichi was high in the dark canopy and not making a sound.    \n\nAsami, Suoh, and the rest of the team had already shoved past the Russians and were running towards the cove.  \n\nViktor raised his gun, and Suoh shot it out of his hand.  Mikhail ran after Asami, taking aim, but the crime lord shot out his kneecap.  The Russian fell to the ground, screaming.  \n\nTwo of Asami's men were at the beach guarding the cove.  When Asami, Suoh, and the rest of the team appeared, they all got into two inflatable motorboats and sped out of the cove towards the speedboat.  Suoh helped Asami get Akihito unharnessed and into his lap.\n\nIn several minutes, they pulled up alongside the speedboat, and Asami carefully handed Akihito up to Kirishima. \"They broke his legs,\" the crime lord muttered angrily.\n\nKirishima's eyes registered disgust at that revelation, and he gently wrapped Akihito in a blanket.  Asami climbed aboard, took Akihito back into his arms, and carried him to the seats in the rear.  Kei appeared with a loaded syringe.\n\n\"For your pain, Kitten,\" Asami murmured as Kei injected Aki.  Almost immediately, Aki felt the drug hitting his system, taking with it his excruciating pain and making him very sleepy. \n\nKei held a straw to Aki's lips, and the young man sipped.  It was chocolate, whatever it was.  Aki thought that nothing had ever tasted as good as that drink.\n\nThe fireworks team arrived, and the captain put the speedboat in gear.  It headed out to sea in stealth mode until it was safely away from the island.  Then, the lights went on, and the boat practically flew over the waves.\n\nAkihito lay cradled in Asami's arms, wrapped in a blanket, his shins still taped together.  He sobbed drowsily, \"You came for me.  You came for me.\" \n\n\"To the end of the abyss, my Akihito,\" Asami murmured softly.  He kissed his kitten's forehead and nuzzled his hair.  Akihito mumbled something inaudible, then sighed and drifted off to sleep with the crime lord holding him as if he'd never let go.   "}
+{"text": "I suppose the story should start with a little background about my wife and me. We are professional people living on the St Lawrence River in the Thousand Islands area. We are in our mid 50's and a few years ago we downsized our life style (sold the big house and most the stuff in it) so that we could afford a sailboat and spend the summers sailing in and around this beautiful area.\n\nLast summer, we decided to extend our cruising into Lake Ontario, and made up our minds to circumnavigate the lake. That may not seem like much to some of the readers, but it meant that we would be sailing for several weeks and travelling about 350 nautical miles in total. It took about four days to get to the start of Lake Ontario and it was dead calm; so, we had to motor for the first two days. We stopped each night at different towns, met up with a few friends, and generally did the cruising thing we had been doing for the last few years.\n\nOur next stop was the big city of Toronto and the perfect place to dock the boat was at Centre Island, which is a large, municipally run park, just a few hundred yards off shore. There are ferries which take thousands of people back and forth to the island for picnics, playgrounds, and, of course, the beaches. Our plan was to stay a few days and to explore the island and to use the ferry to get into town and explore the big city. We arrived at dusk after a very blustery day on the water; so, we were content to just tie up, cook our late supper and go to bed.\n\nIn the morning, we were well rested and happy to be staying put for a few days. We got breakfast and decided to go for our morning run on the paved roadways on the island (there are no cars allowed). So, off we went for a three mile jog in the hot sun of the early morning. About 100 yards into the run, we were on a walking path with many signs to the beach. This was a great place to run and to check out the beach at the same time.\n\n\"Hey look at that!\" my wife said. So I looked up and saw the sign to the \"CLOTHING OPTIONAL BEACH\"\n\n\"This ought to be interesting.\" I said. \"Let's check it out.\"\n\nNormally, once we are on a run, we don't like to stop. We had only just started and the sign was a total shock to us. We had no idea that there was a nude beach on Centre Island. At any rate, we decided to walk off the path and cross the small sand dune to take a look. The beach was beautiful and almost deserted. There were only about a dozen people around as it was early morning, but sure enough, they were naked as naked could be. The nearest person to us happened to be the only woman on the beach, and she was doing a very slow Tai Chi routine. She moved with steady, purposeful grace as she bent and stretched through her movements. As weird as this may seem, I was focused on her movement rather than her nakedness. Don't get me wrong, I was checking her out, but the sun, the sand, and the moves, made a greater picture than the nudity.\n\n\"God, I'd love to spend some time walking naked around here. What do you think?\" I asked my wife.\n\n\"Yahhh, I'm sure you would.\" she replied in a somewhat sarcastic tone, but she did say, \"We can do our run and end up at the far end when we come back.\"\n\nThe clothing optional area was about a quarter mile long and there was a fence at the far end to mark it off. I was excited as hell at the sudden prospect that my wife would be willing to walk nude down a public beach. My cock had the first stirring of an erection and I asked. \"Do you mean you'll walk down the beach in the nude?\"\n\n\"You can if you want to, but the sign says ‘clothing optional' so we don't have to be naked.\" she replied.\n\nHer response wasn't exactly a \"No!\" so life was looking up, as we started off on the run. The twinge in my cock had not diminished and the old running shorts were developing a sudden bulge. My head was reeling with the prospect of spending time on a nude beach and especially with the possibility of my wife going along with it.\n\n\"Hey wait a minute,\" I thought to myself, \"I'm just thinking about this, and my cock is close to rock hard. What will I do when, and if, I drop my drawers in public?\" For the rest of the run, I could think of nothing else. Would my wife really spend the afternoon on a nude beach? Would she get pissed off at me for looking at other women? Would I be rock hard for all to see? It was the shortest three mile run of my life. It was not because of the pace, but because I was totally focused on the beach and never once though about the aches and pains of running. Three miles later, we were back at the fence and standing at the gate.\n\n\"Are you going to do it?\" my wife asked. Before I could answer, she saw that I had my shirt off and my running shorts were around my ankles. Off came the shoes and socks and there I was, naked for all to see, desperately hoping my dick would not grow. I didn't pressure my wife, but I was praying she would not freak and stop the whole idea right there.\n\nShe kept her running clothes on. My wife has never been a prude by any means. In our younger years, we had skinny dipped a few times with other friends but those episodes were always a quick strip and dash to the water as fast as you can. They weren't like this.\n\nAs we made our way down the beach, we saw the dicks, and boobs, and butts, and crotches. It was a weird experience, but we almost instantly understood what we had heard for years about nudism. Nudist resorts and nudity are not sexual but are more a feeling of freedom and exhilaration.\n\nThere were far more men on the beach than there were women. Many were effeminate and we were convinced that most of them were gay. Almost to a man, they were totally shaved. The other thing we noticed right away was the silence of the beach. Everyone was simply lying on towels or walking up and down like us, but there was no yelling, or laughter, or screaming kids throwing Frisbees. It was not like most beaches we had been to in that respect. The other end of the beach was reached in about fifteen minutes and we were set to go back to the boat.\n\n\"Do you want to come back for the afternoon, Dear?\" I asked.\n\n\"Ok but I'm wearing my suit.\"\n\n\"Will you be pissed off at me if I'm naked?\"\n\n\"You can do what you want? I can look at everybody and read my book. If you want to be nude that's up to you.\"\n\nAbout three hours later, it was noon and we had just finished lunch. We decided to take a sleeping bag we had on board to lie on. We had a second glass of wine at the boat, and it was off to the beach. My wife had her two piece black bathing suit on plus a T-shirt. I wore my running shorts and a t-shirt as well. We spread out the sleeping bag and I whipped my stuff off. My wife took her shirt off but was still in her suit. We settled in pretty well, and we were checking out everybody in our area. We were surprised that nobody was staring at us or bothering us at all. Every once in a while, I would have to knock a little drop of ‘dick drip' off my cock, but I was still soft and proud that I could control it ok.\n\nMy wife sat up after about twenty minutes and said, \"I guess I could take my top off.\" She unclasped the bra and shook it loose.\n\nAll I could say was \"That' a girl… nobody's looking at us anyway.\"\n\nHer breasts are not huge but more than ample and still very firm. They were white below her tan lines; so, she casually reached for the creamy sun screen and gently rubbed it over and around her smooth tits. I'm sure she was playing with me the way she took extra time to do it. Her nipples stood out as they felt the coolness of the liquid mixed with the freshness of the air. For the next fifteen minutes or so, she lay on her back with the sun warming her chest and then she said, \"Ah, What the fuck!\" She lifted her hips and hooked her fingers just below the waistband of her suit. Off came the last hint of modesty as she pulled them down her legs and over her feet.\n\nBang! My dick got rock hard instantly. I could hardly flip over fast enough to lie on my stomach. I had spent half an hour looking at naked bodies all over the place and felt only a slight twinge, but when she dropped the suit it was rock hard and pouring pre-cum all over the sleeping bag. If I hadn't tried to hide it, I could have cum on the spot without touching myself. Her legs were bent so that her feet were flat on the ground. I couldn't believe it! Here was my wife, totally naked, lying in full view of everyone. The beach was starting to fill up as we were approaching the heat of the day. More than a hundred people could look at her and me and see all that we owned. It was both tremendously exciting and yet strangely mundane. Nobody seemed to even notice that she was now nude or that my cock was dripping profusely.\n\n\"God my dick is hard!\" I said.\n\n\"Just lie on your stomach for a while and he will come down.\" she responded.\n\n\"Can you feel the breeze on your pussy?\" I asked. \"I've got to tell ya' that it is tickling my balls and it feels soooo good.\"\n\n\"Mmmm it does feel good doesn't it?\" she agreed.\n\n\"Man, you look beautiful.\" I whispered. \"You're lying there naked. I love thinking about your crotch open to the world and all these men seeing you; knowing they're jealous as hell.\"\n\n\"They are all gay!\" she said. \"They are drooling over you, not me.\" We laughed and started looking around again.\n\n\"Check this guy out! Look at his dick.\" I said My wife turned a bit and saw what I was talking about. One of the gay guys (I assumed) had about five rings pierced into his penis. The five rings were attached to each other by a series of chains that were then tied around his balls. Those made my dick shrivel (thankfully) as I couldn't believe it.\n\nThe afternoon continued and it was a beautiful hot summer's day. The temperature was hovering around 30 degrees centigrade. We lay on the bag and watched the men and women as they arrived and stripped or walked quietly back and forth in front of us. My cock would drip a bit from time to time but the sun and sand, and the beautiful water brought us back to ‘just another day on the beach'. We were getting pretty hot though, so I said we should go for a swim. My wife agreed, but she then put her bikini bottoms back on and we headed down to the water. It was unbelievable to me to be walking naked around people lying there and my dick swinging in the breeze. The water was fairly cool so I was praying for shrinkage but the wife swam towards me and wanted to tease me by hugging me and wrapping her legs around mine. Well that was an instant boner! She giggled and teased knowing what was bound to happen. She then headed back to the sand and I had to swim around for a while until I could get out of the surf. I emerged with what I call a ‘pudge' displayed. My cock was thicker than normal but much less than a raging hard on.\n\nI tried in vain to casually cover myself as I walked back towards her, but the effort seemed laughable; so, I just let the pudge swing freely. Back on the sand, we settled down and she took her pants off again, much to my relief. I asked her why she had put them on and she just shrugged and said she wouldn't wear them next time.\n\nThe afternoon drifted along, and we had sunned and swam many more times totally enjoying our new freedom and laughing and joking. We saw many more pierced pricks and a few vagina rings as well. A few times, I felt embarrassed when my dick would twitch when some women walked by. However, the thing that really brought the old boy to life was when I'd look over at the woman I've loved for years and saw her pussy wide open. I would think about eating her right there knowing how fast she would cum.\n\nFinally, the afternoon came to a close and we headed back to the boat. We stepped aboard and my wife said, \"Not until we have supper.\" I knew she wanted to fuck as much as I did but she is a diabetic and has to eat her meals on time. I never prepared a barbeque faster in my life. There was an absolute puddle on my running shorts in anticipation of the after dinner treats.\n\n\"Slow down\" she said when she saw that my shorts were soaked.\n\nI was ok with that because I knew the night would be great. We drank some wine and waited until the sun started to go down. We talked about the beach and this guy's dick and that woman's boobs. Clearly, we couldn't get the day out of our minds.\n\nThe bugs were starting to come out so we went below. It was about two seconds into cabin and I put my hand on her ass cheek just under her shorts. She turned and kissed me while I grabbed both sides of her ass with a real sense of urgency.\n\n\"God I loved the beach!\" she said and I slid my hand around to stroke her crotch over her shorts. \"Mmmm ... not too much or I'll come too soon.\" I quickly slid my hands up under her t-shirt to feel her braless tits. I pinched her nipples and they hardened under my touch. We continued to tongue each other in a deep French kiss. She grabbed my cock by the front of my shorts and said, \"God he's big! You loved the beach too!!\" I lifted her shirt and she helped me take it over her head. Her shorts were off in a flash as well and we giggled a little because she couldn't get my shorts off. My rock hard cock was catching the waist band of my shorts. We stopped the passionate kiss and concentrated on the freedom of my pecker. When it sprang forth, I flexed my ass cheeks thrusting it forward.\n\n\"I wish I could have shown this on the beach eh?\" I asked.\n\n\"I would have pumped him right there in front of everybody.\" she responded.\n\nI slid my finger through her pussy lips and over her clit. \"Oh ya' … and I could finger you like this, right out in the open.\" I started to stroke her lips and slide my finger back and forth. She grabbed my cock and pulled on it as if to stretch it even more. My dick had never been bigger or harder but her strong, continuous tug made me feel power and strength in my cock that I had not felt in years. It actually made me swoon and I twisted around and sat on the seat beside me. She turned with me and stood in front of me still with a firm grip on my manhood. I grabbed the base of my cock and forced the head toward her vulva. She helped me guide it and we were both so wet it slid to the hilt in one quick thrust. She sighed and I grunted as we started to rock in unison. It was so intense and I felt so hard that I knew I could last forever. We fucked like that – me sitting and her standing- for a minute or two but her legs were getting tired so she let me fall out and she turned around with her back to me. I got the idea immediately and entered her from behind.\n\n\"Ohhhh. God! That is soooo good. He is sooo hard. I can't take it all. He is sooo big.\" Her words increased my intensity even more.\n\n\" Yesssss… I could have fucked you like this when you were lying on the beach. I would have cum in two strokes. Everybody could see my big cock and your dripping pussy. Man, I love to fuck and I love being naked on the beach.\" We pumped and rocked with me sitting and her bouncing on my dick from behind. I reached around and rubbed her clit with my middle finger as the thrusting continued. It seemed like I could last forever but I wanted her to cum. She was giving it her all, but I knew her legs were getting tired again.\n\n\"Let's go up to the V-Berth.\" I suggested. She stood fully upright and grabbed my prick with that strong tug again and walked me to our bed. We climbed up and under the single sheet on the bed.\n\n\"I love you!\" I said.\n\n\"I love the beach.\" she said, and again she turned with her back to me but still holding my prick. Thinking I knew what to do, I reached for her cunt and separated her lips to take my raging hard on back up to the hilt. She reached back to stop me.\n\n\"I want you up my ass, Honey!\" She cooed, \"ohhhh. I'd love it up my ass.\"\n\nI couldn't believe what I was hearing. We had tried it in the past a few times, particularly when we were drunk, but without much success. It wasn't that she hated it or that I demanded it. Anal sex just wasn't a significant part of our sex life. However, she wanted it now and I was holding a baseball bat of a cock in my hand. I rubbed the head through the folds of her sex to gather the natural moisture that was abundant. I spread the pre-cum all over my bone and pressed gently but steadily at her asshole. The head popped in surprisingly easily.\n\n\"Easy honey…go slow\" she said \"We've got to get it all the way in.\" My wife was begging me to shove my prick all the way up her ass.\n\nIt only took a few gentle strokes and a little added pressure and before we knew it, I was pumping by huge cock in smooth thrusts all the way back and all the way forward.\n\n\"Yes Honey! It's all the way up. I can feel your balls hitting my pussy. Pump him Honey. Fill my ass with your cum\"\n\n\"Uggg … Aahhhh, Uunnnhhh\" was all I could say. I was thrusting and pumping for all I was worth but the peak was not reached. \"Shit! I just can't cum.\"\n\nShe didn't flinch.\n\n\"I want you to eat me. You can pump your dick while you eat me on the beach.\"\n\nShe pulled away and spun around before I knew what was happening. Her thighs were beside my face and she was begging me to suck her clit. I was on it like a hungry shark. I lapped at her lips and slid my tongue over her clit. My right hand went to my pecker and I couldn't believe the feel of my hardness. I stroked it slowly as I felt the intensity elevate in my wife's pussy.\n\n\"I'm going to cum honey… you are sucking me on the beach. Oh eat my cunt! Make me cum. Suck me off on the beach. Oohhh aahhh I'm Cuummming Oohhhhh mmmmmm.\" It lasted forever. I could feel her contractions and wave after wave of the intensity pouring out of her.\n\n\"Ooohhh… God honey. Did you pump your cock? Did you come?\" she said as her climax started to subside.\n\n\"Not yet!\" I said still focusing on her intense satisfaction. \"Watch me pump my pecker… talk to me.\"\n\n\"Do you want to go back to the beach tonight?\" ….pump.\n\n\"You could play with your cock in front of everybody\" …..stroke, stroke.\n\n\"Then you could eat me on the beach….make your cock shoot… blow your pecker… pump him pump him\" I pounded my prick as she talked. All I could say was \"I want to see you… on the beach …with your legs spread wide, … your cunt exposed to the world\" It brought me to the brink and my cock shot rope after rope of hot cum all over her chest. I started to lightly chuckle with the release of the tension. It turned to laughter and my wife joined in. Soon we were laughing hysterically and we fell into each other's arms reveling in our love.\n\nTo be continued\n\n"}
+{"text": "“Jeonggukie, wake up! We’re going to do something really fun today!”\n\nJeongguk was sleeping peacefully until Hoseok clamored into his room, turning on the lights and speaking loudly. Jeongguk was planning on getting to sleep in a bit since it’s the weekend, after all, but Hoseok had different plans for him, apparently.\n\n“What’s going on, hyung?” Jeongguk asks, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He’s still very groggy and he can’t quite piece together what’s going on. He thought it was some kind of an emergency at first, with how loudly Hoseok was speaking to him. However, his brother seems to be very excited about something. He isn’t sure what. \n\n“It’s Appa’s birthday today, of course!” Hoseok says happily. He seems incredibly excited, which isn’t unusual. Hoseok tends to get excited about even the silliest of things. It’s no wonder he’s practically bouncing off the walls because it’s his father’s birthday.\n\n“Oh,” Jeongguk says, still feeling sleepy. He’s happy that it’s his father’s birthday, but he still wants to go back to sleep. Why couldn’t this have waited a few more minutes? “Happy birthday.” He puts his head back down on his pillow, beginning to drift off.\n\n“Nope!” Hoseok says, grabbing his younger brother’s arm. “You’re helping us prepare, Kookie! We don’t have a lot of time, you know. Appa got called into work for a few hours, so we’re going to bake a cake from scratch for him. It’ll be really fun, but I need you to wake up, okay?”\n\nOh, that does sound like fun. Jeongguk yawns and forces himself out of bed, heading to the kitchen in his pajamas and still-messy hair with Hoseok.\n\nThe kitchen counter is covered with cooking supplies. Mixing bowls, spatulas, and several ingredients cover the kitchen counter to the point where Jeongguk can hardly make out the counter itself. “Oh, Jeonggukie!” Jin says once he notices Jeongguk with Hoseok. He’s wearing an apron and he seems to be preparing even more ingredients. Jeongguk didn’t know there were that many things that go into making a cake. “I’m so happy you’re up! Hoseok probably told you already, but we’re going to be making a cake for your Appa today. Do you want to help?”\n\nOf course he does. Jeongguk loves his Appa so much and baking him a cake will probably make him really happy. It’ll be the best birthday present ever. While Jeongguk is helping Jin prepare the ingredients, Jimin and Taehyung are standing idly by. \n\nThey both woke up early to prepare the cake. The only problem is they haven’t exactly made up yet, and there is still a heavy tension between the two of them. \n\nJimin can tell that Taehyung hasn’t heeded his advice about Jackson. It seems like the two are still sitting together at lunch every day, and Taehyung has  been going out almost every day “to meet up with a friend,” as he’s been telling Jin and Namjoon.\n\nHe’s just worried about his brother. Why can’t Taehyung understand that? He seems to be way too infatuated with Jackson and Jimin doesn’t think that’s healthy. Everything between them happened so fast and Jimin hardly knows anything about the guy. He can’t approve of the relationship unless he knows Jackson through and through. He just wants his brother to be safe. If anything bad happened to him because of his relationship with Jackson, Jimin would be devastated.\n\nTaehyung is scared. It kind of feels like the walls are closing in on him and he wants to leave the kitchen immediately, but that would only raise even more suspicion. \n\nHe feels trapped by Jimin. He knows his brother isn’t doing anything intentionally, but he still feels apprehensive around him ever since the argument. He isn’t sure what Jimin is thinking about him, but it can’t be good. Jimin probably hates him\nnow. He yelled at him at lunch and Jimin never raises his voice at him. \n\nTaehyung wants to make amends with his brother, but he’s afraid. He’s afraid that Jimin hates him, doesn’t want him, wants to hurt him. After what Jackson did to him that day, he isn’t sure who he can trust anymore. Jackson never raised his voice at him before and he ended up slapping him. If Jimin was willing to yell at him in the middle of the cafeteria, what else could he do?\n\nAnother, much more valid reason why Taehyung is currently afraid is because he had to text Jackson earlier to cancel his plans with him.\n\nHe wasn’t sure what the family would do to celebrate his father’s birthday, so he thought it would be fine if he hung out with his boyfriend for a little while before it was time to celebrate. However, when Jin told him that Namjoon got called into work and they would be baking a cake, he knew he wouldn’t have time to see Jackson today. \n\nTaehyung: Hey Jackson. I’m really sorry but I can’t make it to your place today. It’s my dad’s birthday and we’re making a cake. It’s really important. [9:53am]\n\nTaehyung: I’m sorry. [9:54am]\n\nJackson responded only a few seconds after Taehyung sent his last text. \n\nJackson: are you kidding me??? we were supposed to work on the project today! [9:54am]\n\nJackson: it’s the last time we can meet before the presentation on monday! [9:54am]\n\nJackson: if you fuck up the project i’m not gonna go easy on you. remember that. [9:55am]\n\nTaehyung felt his heart beat quickly in his chest. He knew it was important that they met today to work on the project worth a large portion of their grade, but his father’s birthday was even more important. He knew Jackson would be upset, but he forgot how upset his boyfriend could get.\n\nSo now, Taehyung is scared because of his brother and his boyfriend. He never thought things would be this way, but life has a way of surprising him, he has come to realize. He just hopes this baking session will go by easily without any incident.\n\nYoongi is looking forward to baking this cake.\n\nOut of all of the brothers, he’s one of the only ones who can actually cook. Jin always jokes that it’s because he’s the only one who follows the recipe, which is probably true. If the recipe calls for a cup of flour, he’s adding one cup of flour. He doesn’t see what’s so difficult about baking.\n\n“Those are pasteurized eggs, Jimin,” Yoongi says, watching his brother struggling to choose the right eggs for the recipe. “You’re supposed to be using regular eggs.” \n\nJimin sighs in frustration. “What’s the difference, hyung?” he asks. “They’re both eggs! Why does it matter which one has a fancy name and which one we buy at the store most of the time?” He groans. “Baking is so hard.”\n\nYoongi finds that pretty hilarious. He isn’t really sure why his brothers have such a hard time with cooking and baking, but it’s fun to help them. “They look very different on the inside, Jimin,” he explains. “If we use pasteurized eggs, the cake won’t come out the way we want it to. Do you know how to crack an egg?” Jimin shakes his head, looking clueless. \n\nYoongi sighs. This is going to be a long day, isn’t it?\n\nWhile Yoongi is helping Jimin figure out which eggs to use, Hoseok is helping Taehyung with mixing some of the ingredients. “It’s not a test, Tae,” Hoseok jokes, noticing how frightened his brother looks. “You can relax. Here, I’ll show you how to mix it.”\n\nHoseok isn’t sure why Taehyung has been more reserved lately. He knows about Jackson, but he doesn’t think that has anything to do with his strange behavior. It’s probably because of the argument he had with Jimin, he reasons. He hopes the two will be able to make up soon. He hates seeing them so distant from each other like this.\n\n“We’ll wait for Yoongi and Jimin to finish figuring out what an egg looks like before we add the butter and the sugar,” he jokes. Taehyung cracks a smile at that and Hoseok is happy he could help his brother relax a little. “Just between you and me,” Hoseok says in a whisper so the rest of the family can’t hear, “Jimin is really sorry for what he said to you.”\n\nTaehyung isn’t sure how Hoseok knows about their argument, but he nods nonetheless. “I’m sorry, too,” he says. “I was being really stubborn and Jimin was right. I should’ve just listened to him.”\n\nHoseok gives Taehyung a pat on the shoulder. “I’m not the one you should be telling, Tae,” he says. “Go on. I’ll make something up to get Yoongi-hyung to help me for a while.” He clears his throat, then shouts, “Yoongi-hyung! I think I broke the spatula!”\n\nHe hears Yoongi mutter something about how it shouldn’t be physically possible to do that, but the eldest brother heads over to Hoseok’s and Taehyung’s station nonetheless. Hoseok winks at Taehyung, letting him know that now is the perfect time to make up with Jimin.\n\nHoseok has given him the perfect opportunity and Taehyung doesn’t want his brother’s efforts to go to waste, so he heads over to Jimin. “Hey, Jimin,” he says nervously, looking down at his feet. “Can we, um, talk? About what happened the other day?”\n\nJimin seems surprised that Taehyung is talking to him. Then, he says loudly, “Dad! Tae and I are going to get some decorations from the attic!” It’s not a very good excuse, but Jin is to preoccupied with teaching Jeongguk how to mix ingredients properly that he doesn’t dwell on it for too long.\n\nInstead of going to the attic, Jimin leads Taehyung into his room. He sits Taehyung down on the bed and sighs. “I’m really sorry, Tae,” he says immediately. Taehyung wasn’t expecting the apology to happen so quickly. In fact, he was prepared to apologize himself. “I should never have yelled at you like that. I know what it does to you and I completely disregarded that because I was upset. I know I hurt you really badly and I’m so, so sorry. Do you think you could ever forgive me?”\n\nTaehyung blinks. This is all happening so quickly that he doesn’t really know what to think. All he knows is that Jimin is apologizing to him. This is what he wanted, right? So then why does he feel so guilty?\n\n“It’s okay, Jimin,” Taehyung says, flashing his brother a smile. It’s a bit forced, but it’s the thought that counts. “I know you were just worried about me. I’m not mad at you, I promise. I was actually going to apologize to you for not listening to you. I should’ve listened, Jimin. I’m sorry.”\n\nTaehyung is expecting Jimin to say something else, but instead his brother pulls him into a tight hug. “You don’t have to apologize, Tae,” he insists. “This is my fault and my fault alone. You didn’t do anything wrong, so don’t think like that, okay? As your older brother, I’m super protective of you and I just didn’t want you getting hurt. I shouldn’t have yelled at you, though. That was completely wrong of me.”\n\n“It’s okay, Jimin,” he says. “I don’t blame you. I know you were just worried about me, and I really appreciate it.” \n\n���So, tell me,” Jimin says. When Taehyung gives him a confused look, he elaborates, “How are things with Jackson? Good, I hope. If he does anything bad to you, I swear to god, I’ll—“\n\n“It’s fine, hyung,” Taehyung laughs. How ironic this is. If Jimin knows about what Jackson did to him, his boyfriend would probably be a dead man. That’s just another reason why he can’t tell his family, though. That, and the shame of it all. “Jackson’s good to me. We’re just seeing how things go for now. I’m happy with him, Jimin, so you don’t need to worry.”\n\nJimin seems unconvinced, but he nods nonetheless. It’s going to be hard to put the big brother instinct aside, but he trusts Taehyung. He’s sure that if anything was going awry in his relationship with Jackson, he would tell Jimin immediately. “Okay,” he says, choosing to believe Taehyung. “We should probably head back now. If we’re gone for too long, Dad will probably get suspicious.”\n\n“So...are we okay now?” Taehyung asks. His voice is so small and vulnerable that it reminds Jimin of when they were kids. He isn’t sure if that’s a good thing. \n\n“I thought that was obvious, Tae,” Jimin says, smiling. “Now, come on. We have a cake to finish baking.” He extends a hand for his brother to take, which he does.\n\nThey head back to the kitchen and Jin gives them a weird look. “Where are the decorations?” he asks. “I thought you two were going to the attic to look for some.”\n\nJimin looks at Taehyung and the brothers exchange a knowing glance. “We couldn’t find any,” Jimin says, which makes Taehyung laugh.\n\nJin can tell that there is more to the story, but he doesn’t push it. He knows that Jimin and Taehyung haven’t been getting along for a few days now, but it seems like things have finally gotten better between them. At least that’s one less thing for him to worry about now.\n\nThe only other thing is making sure his husband’s birthday cake is edible."}
+{"text": "Nie Huaisang has never wanted kids, despite being an omega. A dependent, defenseless human being that literally wouldn’t survive without the help of others? That sounds like himself. How could he ever raise a kid?\n\n \n\n\nThere’s something about being pregnant that really makes it clear that he’s changed. No longer a child, no longer chasing justice (revenge) with tunnel vision, focused on past ignorance and futures cut short.\n\n\n \n\n\nHe’s just started showing, barely a bump to his stomach, really, and yet the urge to place his hand on his baby, protectively, lovingly, is \n\nstrong\n\n. He feels like he rubs his belly at least 80% of the time he’s awake, and maybe when he’s sleeping as well. He can’t stop thinking about the life growing inside him, something \n\ngood\n\n coming from him for once, maybe the only good thing he’s ever done for this world—\n\n\n \n\n\n“Huaisang.”\n\n\n \n\n\nNie Huaisang pulls himself away from his thoughts, glancing up into Wei Wuxian’s knowing smile. The helpless smile he puts up in response comes naturally. “I’m sorry, Wei-xiong! I’ve been up in the clouds lately, it seems.”\n\n\n \n\n\nWei Wuxian shifts closer, moving blankets and pillows around them as he goes. His scent fills the air, fruity with a bit of spice, and he curls up against Nie Huaisang’s side. “First of all, call me Wuxian; aren’t we brothers already? And second of all, you can’t fool me. You’re scared, right? That you’re not good enough for this?” He places his hand next to Nie Huaisang’s, rubbing gentle circles into his stomach.\n\n\n \n\n\nNie Huaisang doesn’t \n\nflinch\n\n, but it’s a near thing. Since when has Wei Wuxian been good at reading him?\n\n\n \n\n\n(Since the temple, when Wei Wuxian watched him with eyes full of disappointment, betrayal, so similar to Jiang Cheng’s eyes glaring into his own barely a week later, when he visited to talk about what he’d done, what he’d \n\nalmost\n\n done—)\n\n\n \n\n\n“Let me tell you this, as someone who’s been there: those thoughts don’t leave. But that’s okay. You want to take care of your child, yeah? Then everything’s alright. We’ll all help.” Wei Wuxian pauses before laughing. “Did you ever think that we’d be cuddling in a nest, talking about fatherhood, after everything that happened?”\n\n\n \n\n\nNie Huaisang sighs, letting the rest of the tension that had been lingering in his shoulders fade away, scenting lightly. He leans into the other omega’s warmth and responds, “No, honestly. But I think I might… be happy that things turned out this way.”\n\n\n \n\n\n“You’d better. I don’t wanna have to kill you because you stomped on my brother’s heart!”\n\n\n \n\n\nWei Wuxian grins and nudges him annoyingly, and Nie Huaisang grins back, as if the years between them hadn’t ever strained their friendship, as if they were back in Gusu, two junior disciples with a penchant for mischief.\n\n\n \n\n\n——\n\n\n \n\n\nIt doesn’t matter how long Nie Huaisang has known Lan Wangji, the man is still just as insanely difficult to read. His intense stares still look like glares, his stoic expressions like disapproval.\n\n\n \n\n\nWhen Lan Wangji steps into the room with a baby in each arm, however, it’s really hard to be intimidated by him. The man dips his head in greeting and sits nearby, setting his twins down to crawl around. His gaze slides down to Nie Huaisang’s belly, which has definitely grown since the last time they’ve seen each other, and he looks back up at the omega in silent question.\n\n\n \n\n\nWell, Nie Huaisang isn’t the \n\nbest\n\n at reading the guy, so he isn’t sure, ever, about Lan Wangji’s true feelings, but he \n\nthinks\n\n he’s being asked about his well-being.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Getting pretty big, aren’t I?” He wonders how Lan Wangji will respond, hiding a mischievous smile behind his sleeve. He’s asked Jiang Cheng already, who’d looked at him with apprehension before saying that he’s beautiful. A safe answer. Lan Wangji tends to be more honest, however, and Nie Huaisang… is just a bit insecure about the weight he’s gaining.\n\n\n \n\n\nThe alpha hums in what seems like agreement. “Healthy,” he says, patting Nie Huaisang’s shoulder gently. “Good for the baby.” He frowns when Nie Huaisang does, a little confused. “What is the problem?”\n\n\n \n\n\n“I’m fat and ugly now, that’s what the problem is!” The uncomfortable look Lan Wangji gives him at that outburst makes him want to laugh. “Sorry, I’m just teasing, don’t take it so seriously.”\n\n\n \n\n\nLan Wangji’s frown deepens. “Jiang Wanyin…. If you have any problems, I am here.”\n\n\n \n\n\nNie Huaisang \n\ndoes\n\n laugh at that. He knows that Lan Wangji isn’t fond of Jiang Cheng, but to think that he’s even willing to defend Nie Huaisang’s honor! Maybe it’s a good thing that he found out about the honorable Hanguang-Jun’s secret love of trashy romance novels. “No, there are no problems! Jiang Cheng is very good to me, though don’t tell him I said that,” he says, as if Lan Wangji would ever willingly speak to Jiang Cheng. With a wink, he adds, “He has to earn it.”\n\n\n \n\n\nVery subtly, Lan Wangji shifts away, and Nie Huaisang laughs again. “The novel,” the alpha says, desperate to change the subject.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Ah, from last time?” Nie Huaisang lets him get away with it. “Did you enjoy it? I’ve got a few more that are pretty similar, though only one is really worth the read in my opinion….”\n\n\n \n\n\n——\n\n\n \n\n\nThe pack room is what Nie Huaisang calls it, because receiving the others in the room he shares with Jiang Cheng, in \n\ntheir\n\n nest, seems a little inappropriate to him. There are times when the omega only wants the scent of his partner, only wants the feeling of his love. He knows, however, that having the rest of them stinking up the place wherever they choose to exist is… Well, there \n\nare\n\n other people that live here, after all.\n\n\n \n\n\nSo he has a room where he can receive the other members of his pack, where their somehow calming scents make him feel safe and reassured even though he definitely didn’t agree to be a part of this pack in the first place, and technically, it’s not even his, it’s Wei Wuxian’s, and he’s still grumbling about that, because who put Wei Wuxian in charge?\n\n\n \n\n\nAnyway, the whole pack thing is the reason why he has three people about half his age loitering in his pack room, though he barely knows them, really. Nie Huaisang doesn’t mind Wei Wuxian, doesn’t mind Lan Wangji either. But this… this is just awkward.\n\n\n \n\n\nJin Ling kneels properly with his head held high, staring resolutely at Nie Huaisang’s stomach. It’s omega instinct, of course, coupled with Jin Ling’s very intense focus on babies, but it still makes Nie Huaisang shift uncomfortably from the attention. The two next to Jin Ling keep silent as well, clearly affected by the atmosphere.\n\n\n \n\n\nNie Huaisang breathes out a sigh of frustration. Curse Wei Wuxian for putting him in this situation! See if he tries to bring him back from the dead ever again!\n\n\n \n\n\nSurprisingly, before he can say anything, Jin Ling speaks up. “I’ve had a long time to come to terms with what you did, and I understand why you did it.” He shrugs, trying to seem nonchalant. “And, well, you make Uncle happy, and Senior Wei said you’re not the type to just have children, so…”\n\n\n \n\n\nWhat’s with Wei Wuxian and exposing all of his secrets?\n\n\n \n\n\n“He’s right,” Nie Huaisang says, fingers caressing his baby bump possessively. “I never wanted children. But if it’s to provide Jiang Cheng with an heir…”\n\n\n \n\n\nJin Ling huffs, scent leaking out as he moves closer. “Just be honest and say you love him! You’re really not as subtle as you think you are. Anyway,” he places his hand on Nie Huaisang’s stomach eagerly, ignoring his raised eyebrows, “how’s the baby? Do you know the gender yet? What names did you have in mind? Is Uncle treating you right?”\n\n\n \n\n\nThe barrage of questions only stops when one of Jin Ling’s mates, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji’s son, puts his hand on his omega’s shoulder. “A-Ling, let him breathe,” the beta says with a smile. “I’m sure Sect Leader Jiang treats Sect Leader Nie just fine.”\n\n\n \n\n\nJin Ling flushes red with embarrassment. “Okay, \n\nyeah\n\n, I know that!”\n\n\n \n\n\nThe alpha, another Lan, pipes up next to him with a grin and a pat on the head, “A-Ling just wants advice for when we have a baby of our own!” The way his face slowly falls, blood draining from his cheeks as he realizes what he’s said, makes Nie Huaisang’s day.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Oh?” With a sweet smile, Nie Huaisang looks at his three nervous soon-to-be nephews. “You’re trying for a baby as well? That’s great news! Have you told Jiang Cheng yet? I’m sure he’d \n\nlove\n\n to know.”\n\n\n \n\n\nThey all clamor to beg for his silence, and as he lounges in his nest, Nie Huaisang thinks that maybe having them in his pack won’t be so bad after all.\n\n\n \n\n\n——\n\n\n \n\n\nIt’s late by the time Jiang Cheng drags himself over to the bundle of blankets Nie Huaisang is tangled in, exhaustion lining the shadows of his face. He’s spent the day settling things at Yunmeng, putting someone in charge for the weeks ahead, making sure everything will run smoothly in his absence.\n\n\n \n\n\nNie Huaisang, no matter how much he tried to convince himself otherwise, was afraid he wouldn’t return.\n\n\n \n\n\n“A-Cheng,” he says, and the relief in his voice is almost palpable, “you’re back.”\n\n\n \n\n\nJiang Cheng sinks down to the floor next to him, immediately curling into his side and nuzzling at his scent gland. “I said I would be, didn’t I?” He scents, the smell of gentle rain mixing with the omega’s own sweet honeysuckle, intertwining almost as seamlessly as their fingers do once they find each other in the dark. “What will it take to make you believe that I’m here to stay?”\n\n\n \n\n\nThe silence is enough of an answer. All things come to an end, Nie Huaisang knows, and yet he is so tired of things ending. He wants things, for once, to last forever.\n\n\n \n\n\nJiang Cheng deserves a happiness that lasts forever, and Nie Huaisang cannot give that. It would be only natural if Jiang Cheng leaves. Nie Huaisang wouldn’t blame him.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Hey.” The alpha squeezes his hand, presses a kiss to his neck. “If you can’t believe it, then I’ll just say it over and over until you do.”\n\n\n \n\n\n“Wow,” Nie Huaisang almost manages to make his voice as teasing as he wants it to be, “I didn’t know you could be so sweet.”\n\n\n \n\n\nJiang Cheng grunts. “Well, I was gonna say, \n\nYou’re literally going to be birthing my child in a few weeks, why the fuck would I leave, dumbass\n\n, but the last time I said something like that, you cried.”\n\n\n \n\n\n“I’m \n\nsensitive\n\n when I’m in heat! Maybe you shouldn’t call me an idiot!”\n\n\n \n\n\n“Only an idiot would think that I would leave someone I’ve been in love with for over twenty fucking years!”\n\n\n \n\n\nNie Huaisang falls silent at that, panting a little at his outburst. Things like yelling and sitting up takes a lot more effort these days, so he’s resorted to sulking to get what he wants.\n\n\n \n\n\nThis time, he isn’t quite sure what he wants.\n\n\n \n\n\nSomehow, Jiang Cheng is. Without a word, he gets up, picking Nie Huaisang up in the process, and makes his way out of the pack room and into their room. The gentle way he sits him down and removes his clothes, and then lays him in their nest and tucks him in, is almost too much for Nie Huaisang to handle.\n\n\n \n\n\n“A-Sang,” Jiang Cheng uses a voice he knows is reserved for him only, “for most of my life, I have been yearning for you. I’m terribly selfish. How could I ever leave you when I’ve been so desperately clinging onto you?”\n\n\n \n\n\nNie Huaisang feels a tear roll down his face and curses his hormones. Sniffling, he tugs his alpha into the nest, wraps around him as best he can. “Thank goodness you got off your ass and confessed to me,” is what he says, because he might actually sob if any heartfelt words manages to escape his mouth.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Says the guy who knew I was in love with him all this time and did absolutely nothing about it. At least I had the whole fear of rejection excuse.”\n\n\n \n\n\n“I really wasn’t counting on you being that much of a coward.”\n\n\n \n\n\n“You—!”\n"}
+{"text": "I looked at my watch it was still quite early but already we were waiting in the hotel lounge for Caroline and James. I took a sip of my coffee hot and sweet I needed it my head reminding me of how much I had drunk the night before. I looked over to John his mind engrossed in the charts spread out over the table the excitement on our forthcoming trip lighting up his face, he looked to me saying nothing blew me a kiss I returned his kiss and closed my eyes remembering last night, I smiled a shiver of delight ran down my spine. I was brought back to reality by John's voice \"You guys must be keen.\" He said causing me to return to reality I opened my eyes and to see a dishevelled Caroline and James walking over to us.\n\n\"We wanted to get out of that place as early as possible.\" Caroline replied. \"We were out of there by five o'clock this morning and managed to find a nice café and had breakfast there.\"\n\n\"Was it that bad?\" I asked.\n\n\"Worse.\" James said. \"We ended up sleeping on our towels couldn't face the idea of our bodies touching the bed clothes.\"\n\nI felt guilty remembering our wonderful night; there's must have been hell. I turned to Caroline \"Give me a hug, you're out of there now and starting now we're going to have a bloody good holiday.\"\n\nCaroline pulled back a little \"You won't want to get too close to me, I haven't had a shower since leaving home yesterday, and the bathroom was disgusting the smell appalling I couldn't bear using it.\"\n\n\"Caroline you poor dear,\" I sympathized with her the thought of not being able to shower or wash was horrifying. \"John we've still got the room key haven't we?\"\n\n\"Yes I've not checked us out yet.\" John answered.\n\n\"Good. You guys take our key use our room to have a shower and get sorted. Why didn't you say it was that bad last night? Somehow we could all have shared our room.\"\n\n\"You two are so generous to us, what we would have done without you I don't know, thank you so so much.\" Caroline took the key giving us both a peck on the cheek. \"We won't be long, fifteen minutes okay?\" she asked.\n\n\"Guys take your time Susie and I will have another coffee.\" John answered.\n\n\"Thank you my darling.\" I said giving him a big cuddle and a kiss, I knew how eager he was to get to the boat but was still happy to wait for them.\n\nHalf an hour later they both reappeared looking a lot fresher and smiling. It was the first time I had really seen Caroline smile, her whole face lit up her eyes full of life. \"I feel alive for the first time since we arrived, thank you.\" Caroline gave me a big hug her arms gripping my waist and surprised me with a longer than expected kiss on my lips. Instinctively I returned her kiss stunned at our sudden intimacy but, strangely not offended, after all she was just a friend. James broke the spell between us \"Cheers mate.\" He said to John. \"You really have saved us, I was getting worried Caroline was going to break down. I owe you guys' big time.\"\n\n\"It's what friends are for, have a coffee there's plenty in the pot and I'll check out then off we go.\" John strolled off to the reception a jump in his step. Caroline looked at me. \"He's excited.\"\n\n\"He always is around yachts, it's his biggest love.\"\n\n\"Surely you're his biggest love?\" James asked.\n\n\"Sometimes I'm not sure, I think he's married to boats, I'm just his mistress for when he's on land.\" I winked ensuring they knew I was joking. John returned we finished our coffee and took a taxi to the marina. As we reached the marina John's excitement had rubbed off on all of us, he had given us a rough itinerary it would be very laid back sailing but I knew John would want to push the yacht. We unloaded of cases as John went into the office. We needed to buy a few extra provisions arm in arm Caroline and I went to the local shop, leaving the guys to go over the boat and stow the food and luggage.\n\nWithin half an hour we returned everything we needed plus a few extra luxuries we handed them down to the guys and they helped us on board. The guys gave us a quick tour she was a beautiful white boat with a light blue stripe running down the hull it was quite new, inside there were two cabins galley and spacious salon and thankfully a separate loo and shower, I fell in love with her immediately.\n\nWe left harbour under the engine but as soon as we reached open water John started teaching James on how to set the sails. The boat cut through the flat crystal clear blue sea the weather was exquisite a light sea breeze the sky a picture perfect a deep blue only occasionally interrupted by a thin stream of white cloud the sun glowing warming every part of the body. \"Would you care to join me on the deck and do absolutely nothing? I asked Caroline.\n\nShe smiled \"Sounds perfect to me.\" the winds were light so we made our way forward. Caroline stripped off her shorts and top to reveal a turquoise bikini, she had a body I would kill for, a size 10 not an inch of extra fat on her, lovely long legs, trim waist probably a 34B bust, brunette shoulder length hair and eyes that matched her bikini to perfection. Caroline sat with her back to me I massaged the lotion into her skin, her body felt like satin beautiful, soft and near flawless. I finished her massage and standing up stripped off to my bikini I felt self-conscious, a hint of jealousy, wishing my body was still as flawless as hers.\n\n\"My turn,\" Caroline said, \"lay down on your front and I'll do your back.\" I did as instructed and Caroline rubbing the oil in her hands started to expertly massage my back.\n\n\"That feels lovely,\" I murmured. \"You've done this before.\" I added enjoying the luxurious sensation she was giving me.\n\n\"I have some training in sports massage; I use to play football for a ladies team until I was injured now I act as the physio for the team, it's not the same as playing but I enjoy it and it does have some advantages.\"\n\n\"Lucky ladies are all I can say.\" Caroline laughed, continuing the massage her practiced hands moving from my shoulder to my lower back, I jumped a little as the tips of her fingers went a little lower than expected below my bikini briefs. I moved, thinking my treatment was complete but Caroline's hand stopped me. \"I haven't finished yet, if you're happy for me to continue?\"\n\n\"Please.\" I answered. Caroline then moved her position, now straddling my calfs she continued, her hands massaging the back and sides of my thighs each stroke getting a little higher until her hands reached the cheeks of my bum, the next stroke her fingers pushed at my bikini exposing more of my bum, never before had I had a massage like this, I was feeling a little uncomfortable but also enjoying the sensations she was giving me. Caroline's hands went back to my thighs now her touch now stronger her two thumbs pushing between the cleft of my closed legs.\n\nCaroline's voice woke me from my trance. \"Would you like me to go further?\" She asked.\n\n\"No, that feels fine.\" I answered not really knowing what she meant.\n\n\"Perhaps some other time soon.\" She said as she got off my legs and lay down next to me. We spent the next couple of hours chatting and getting to know each other taking in turns to replenish the drinks. Any issues we may have had about not getting on were soon dispelled; it was easy to tell by the chatting and laughing from the guys that they would soon be close friends.\n\nIt was late afternoon when John informed us that as the winds were light we would not make port before dark, we had two options, enter the port after dark or find a cove out of the wind and anchor for the night. I was hoping we would make port but John had been working hard all day sailing and crewing the boat alone whilst also trying to teach James. He was looking tired he could do with a break so the decision was made to anchor in a small cove. Within half an hour a cove was found, we anchored and set the boat for the night. I opened a bottle of wine and the four of us sitting in the cockpit raised a toast to a successful day.\n\n\"I fancy a swim, before we're pissed, anyone care joining me?\" John asked.\n\nJames nodded his head in agreement \"Sounds like a fine idea to me, ladies would you care to join us?\" We looked at each other and nodded both replying yes in unison. \"Let's go then.\" John said standing up removing his shirt his hands on the waistband of his shorts preparing to remove them.\n\n\"John,\" I shouted. \"No!\" Realising his actions he pulled his shorts back up though not before exposing most of his bum to us.\n\nHe apologised to James and Caroline. \"Sorry I didn't think, forgot we weren't alone for a second. Normally if we're alone it's easier to strip off. Saves a lot of faffing around, didn't mean to embarrass you.\n\nJames laughed. \"You don't need to apologise not the first naked bum we've seen, we've frequented the odd naturist beach in our time.\n\nI stepped in \"Sorry about him Caroline, normally when we're alone sailing we don't worry too much about wearing anything when swimming. Hope he didn't embarrass you?\"\n\n\"I'm fine with nudity, please carry on, as James said we do strip of ourselves and it's us invading your holiday.\"\n\nI looked to Caroline. \"You're not invading the holiday; this is our holiday it belongs to the four of us.\"\n\nJohn looked at James and Caroline \"If you're sure?\"\n\n\"Yes go ahead, I presume you haven't got anything I haven't seen before?\" Caroline said with a smile on her face.\n\n\"If you're sure with that guys? Then let's live the dream.\" John answered but not waiting for a reply as he removed his shorts threw them on the deck and without turning around dived naked into the water.\n\n\"When in Rome, if you're okay with that Susie?\" James asked, my nod giving him the go ahead. \"Thank you.\" With that his shirt and shorts joined John's abandoned on the deck.\n\n\"Are we going to join them?\" I asked Caroline.\n\n\"Do you mean for a swim or stripped off?\" She asked.\n\n\"We're on holiday, I don't want to get this bikini wet and can't be bothered going to change.\" I replied. Caroline wasting no more time stripped off joining the guys in the water with me only seconds behind her.\n\nWe swam around laughing and playing although we were in the water it was very clear and I did take a peek to see what James had. Caroline certainly peaked at John several times swimming very close to him. Several times I caught James watching me closely and although I'm not a natural exhibitionist I had no issues with James and Caroline seeing me naked swimming in the water, the situation felt natural and right.\n\nI swam for about ten minutes the water beautifully clear, warm and refreshing, I could have stayed in the water for hours, swimming, laughing and playing but stomachs would soon start grumbling food would be required; I now had to pay for my day of relaxation to the galley I needed to go. I climbed out and now it was me not thinking, grabbing a towel I dried my face and sat down and picked my drink up letting the sun dry my body laughing watching the high junks of John Caroline and James. The guys decided to swim to shore leaving Caroline to swim back to the boat; pulling her body out of the sea she joined me in the cockpit wrapping herself in a towel as she sat.\n\nI felt Caroline's eyes were scrutinising my body feeling a little self-conscious I grabbed the nearest towel covering my modesty from Caroline's gaze. \"Hey don't cover yourself on my account, you have a pretty body, very sexy, you should show it off.\" Caroline winked, leaning towards me she placed her hand on my thigh, making my body jump, \"soft and smooth too.\" She giggled, gently stroking my thigh before removing her hand.\n\nI looked at Caroline, there was something about her, something I couldn't decipher. I had had the same thought at the airport and dismissed it but the thought had returned. \"What dark secrets do you told?\" I asked myself.\n\nWe finished dinner, between Caroline and me we had cooked paella adding the few muscles the guys had brought back with them. I stacked the plates and John took them down to the galley returning with another bottle of wine, we had probably drunk too much already though no one refused John's offer of a refill. I felt contentment, resting my head on John's shoulder I looked around the night was dark, a moonless night broken only by the masthead light throwing shadows over the yacht, momentarily conversation went quiet, leaving only the sound of the sea quietly slapping the hull of the yacht.\n\nEventually James broke the silence. \"I know you guys are naturist lovers but have you ever tried sailing naked?\"\n\nJohn looked at me I looked back and shrugged my shoulders and John answered James's question. \"Actually we normally spend most of the time naked when we're out here sailing with no one else around: it's a feeling of freedom, free from all restraints only the wind moving the boat the sun on our bodies, it feels so natural the way it should be.\"\n\nCaroline whispered in my ear. \"What else do you get up to when you're alone out here?\"\n\nI giggled a drunken giggle I knew exactly what Caroline meant; normally I would have been reserved in my answer but the wine had taken its toll loosening my tongue. I whispered to her ear. \"Making love on the deck at midnight, you can't beat it. You must try it; we'll set up a rota taking turns.\"\n\n\"That sounds like heaven.\" She replied. \"Who's first on the rota?\"\n\nI winked at her \"I believe your name is on the top of the list.\" I left it a few minutes and yawned. \"John I'm tired and feeling a little drunk, let's have an early night?\"\n\n\"I'm fine if you want to turn in.\" I stared at him; he knew he had given the wrong answer. \"Actually it's not a bad idea; we'll leave you guys to it if that's okay.\"\n\n\"Sure.\" Said James with a slight smile; Caroline had obviously told him about our rota. Kisses and goodnights were exchanged and we retired to our cabin. We had been in bed for only a few minutes past before we could hear them moving and stumbling and laughing on deck. I smiled, I knew what was happening and let John in on the secret of the rota. Caroline and James settled down on the deck directly above our cabin. The soundproofing isn't great on these boats we couldn't see them though by the sounds they were making they were certainly enjoying each other.\n\nJohn stood up pushing his ear to the roof to listen to James and Caroline. \"Don't be nosy.\" I shouted to him in a whisper, slapping his thigh in chastisement but losing my own battle not to join him. I listened, whispering we were trying to interpret their sounds, John mimed Caroline giving James a blowjob, and I burst out with laughter having to fall on the bed using a pillow to stifle my laugh. I regained my poise looking up from the bed I could see John was getting turned on, my hand went to his semi erect cock gently I started to stroke him. I started to fondle my tits through my night shirt the feeling of John's cock getting harder in my hand having an effect on me.\n\nI sat up from the bed taking John's cock to my mouth imitating Caroline's actions with James, John let out a quiet moan his hand pushing on my head wanting me to take his cock deeper. I gagged as it hit the back of my throat my fingernails digging into his arse making him push his cock deeper. My hand reached between my legs, my pussy already wet I ran my finger down my pussy before my juice covered finger found my waiting clitoris, rubbing it in rhythm with the fondling of my tits and John's cock. John pulled out his cock and whispered to me. \"Let's take a look.\" I should have said no, already we were invading their privacy but I was intrigued, I had never watched two people making love before.\n\nWe crept quietly out of our cabin and out to the cockpit, carefully we looked over the top of the glass windshield hoping we wouldn't be seen. I gasped at the sight, both of them lit up by the masthead light, James had removed his shorts and was lying on his back with Caroline astride James leaning slightly forward and riding his cock hard, her naked back shinning in the light her dress crumpled at her waist.\n\nJohn stood behind me I could feel his hard cock pushing against my naked arse. Positioning myself careful I reached behind myself and took his cock guiding it to my pussy. John knew what to do I gasped with delight as he eased his cock deep in my pussy the tip brushing the front of my pussy and find my G-spot. I wanted to scream only John's hand in front of my mouth stopping me, I had to be quiet I didn't want Caroline and James to know we were watching but I also wanted to scream to the world.\n\nSlowly he fucked me from behind his hands tightly he gripped my hips, with one hand I supported us both, the other fondling my clit as John plunged deeper inside me, both of us watching and enjoying the sight of James and Caroline fucking. This was a new experience for me and I was enjoying it. John moved his arm around my waist his other hand slipping up my night shirt finding, caressing, playing with my tits my hardened nipples enjoy the attention he was giving them.\n\nI had a sudden urge to be with James and Caroline, lying next to them as John fucked me, as James fucked Caroline for them to be watching us enjoying the same pleasures they were bestowing on us. I wanted them to look up, to see us, to invite us to join them. I wanted to shout, scream, and call to the world around us. I was in paradise, a new paradise, a paradise I never wanted to leave. I controlled my urge to shout; I watched and listened to them intently as John's fucked me. By the light of the moon I could see James's fucking Caroline his hands gripping her hips as John had gripped mine pulling her harder down onto his cock.\n\nCaroline was calling, demanding. \"Fuck me James, yes fuck me, harder, fuck my wet cunt, fuck my brains fuck my cunt harder.\" I couldn't imagine Caroline would use that language but she was. Her voice lowered though I could still hear what she was saying. \"Think of you fucking Susie's tight cunt, I know you want to, and you want to watch John fucking my cunt, using me as his slut.\" I was shocked by what she was saying, but strangely turned on hearing it. Did she really mean it? Surely it was just a fantasy to turn him on? Said in the heat of the moment? Right now I didn't care, he could fuck me.\n\nI rubbed my clit harder as John fucked me, abusing my nipples, my tits my whole body. I felt John's body stiffen his cock grow harder I knew he was close to coming, he pressed deeper inside me, furiously I rubbed my clit, I wanted to come with him for us to come together, for us all to come together. A small wave ran through my body, followed by more, each a little stronger than the last. John pushed hard into me and I felt his cock explode as a larger wave of my orgasm ran through me I could feel my pussy filling with John's sperm, a second and third time he shot more inside me as my orgasm reached its summit exploding my every sense in ecstasy. I slumped forward a little trying to regain my composure, John's cock now spent slowly slipped out of me, a cocktail of sexual juices drawing down my thigh, his arms still around me, holding me, and loving me.\n\nWith James and Caroline still locked to each other we moved away silently not wanting to disturb them or be seen. Retreated to our cabin we collapsed on the bed still catching our breath regaining our control now oblivious to James and Caroline above us. John pulled the sheet over us, holding me tightly I could hear movement from above; Caroline and James had reached their crescendo.\n\nI lay there quietly in the bed feeling only the beat of John's heart as he fell into a sleep, I thought of tonight's events, it was exciting, different, something new, though I felt guilt, we had no right to invade their privacy. How would I feel if they had done the same to us? I wasn't sure, before tonight I would have been upset, annoyed, betrayed. Did I still feel like that? Strangely I didn't know. I wondered what tomorrow will bring.\n\nI heard the sound of their cabin door shut, it was silent only the familiar sound of the water against the hull and the gentle rocking from the swell. I looked up to the darkness of the cabin; one last thought entered my head before sleep. \"What did Caroline mean about swapping partners? Was it just a fantasy? Or a reality?\" I closed my eyes, the night taking me to my dreams, my answer not discovered.\n\n"}
+{"text": "\ntaetae\n\nToday 7:27 AM\njimin:left some breakfast in the fridge for you when you wake up <3\n\n\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n\njungkook :)\n\nToday 7:29 AM\njimin:good morning jungkook\n\njimin:hope i get to see you today :)\n\njungkook:morning hyung\n\njungkook:me too\n\njimin:oh i didnt expect you to be awake this early lol\n\njungkook:i just woke up\n\njimin:aww cute\n\njimin:im on my way to the studio\n\njimin:about to get on the bus\n\njungkook:will you still be able to do lunch today?\n\njimin:i think so\n\njimin:come by the studio around 12?\n\njungkook:i'll be there :)\n\njimin:see you then :)\n\n\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n\njungkook :)\n\nToday 11:54 AM\njungkook:hey just got here\n\njungkook:whenever you're free\n\njimin:give me like, 10 more minutes? and i'll be outside\n\njungkook:ok :)\n\n\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n\njungkook :)\n\nToday 12:35 PM\njimin:sorry lunch had to be so short\n\njimin:but thank you for coming\n\njimin:im really glad i got to see you\n\njungkook:i'm glad i got to see you too :)\n\njungkook:text me tonight when you get home?\n\njimin:i will\n\njungkook::)\n\n\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n\ntaetae\n\nToday 9:15 AM\ntaehyung:ty bb <3\n\nToday 12:37 PM\njimin:tae i like him a lot :(\n\ntaehyung:i kno chim\n\njimin:also im definitely coming to the thing this weekend\n\njimin:i'll make time for it\n\ntaehyung:!!! good!\n\ntaehyung:cant wait :)\n\n\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n\njungkook :)\n\nToday 8:43 PM\njimin:hey, i just got home\n\njimin:free to talk?\n\njungkook:earlier than yesterday\n\njungkook:and for you, always\n\njimin:cheesy\n\njimin:i have another early day tomorrow but i wanted to get home in time to talk to you\n\njimin:waiting until i was that exhausted yesterday was not the smartest thing ive done\n\njungkook:im glad you made time for me\n\njimin:i want to make time for you\n\njungkook::)\n\njungkook:you still want to talk about stuff from yesterday?\n\njimin:yeah, i do\n\njungkook:ok, cool\n\njungkook:is it ok if i go first?\n\njungkook:ive been thinking about what i want to say all day\n\njimin:yeah of course\n\njungkook:ok\n\njungkook:so ive mentioned that this is kind of new to me\n\njungkook:like, i've been with people but only before i transitioned. and that kind of changed a lot of things about my body\n\njungkook:and i've been nervous about how things are going to progress since i didnt tell you from the start\n\njungkook:and i appreciate that you've been respectful so far and i trust you and i like you a lot\n\njungkook:and im glad you wanted to talk too because i want to go further with you but i want to talk about boundaries first\n\njungkook:ok that's everything\n\njungkook:i know the boundaries i wanna talk about too but if you wanna say something before we start talking about then. um. idk go ahead\n\njimin:thank you for trusting me jungkook\n\njimin:i was worried before because\n\njimin:well like i said i usually just rush into stuff and there's not a lot of talking\n\njimin:and ive never been with a trans guy before so i didnt know what to do or what to expect and i was kind of nervous\n\njimin:but i was looking up stuff online and it seemed like\n\njimin:idk there's a lot to talk about and i didnt want to use the wrong words or say the wrong thing or do the wrong thing with you\n\njimin:i just want you to be comfortable with me\n\njimin:so whatever boundaries you have is fine, i dont want to do anything you dont want\n\njungkook:thank you\n\njungkook:and i mean same to you? if you have anything you dont want to do\n\njimin:lol i'm pretty open\n\njungkook:oh\n\njungkook:ok\n\njimin:im down to try whatever and if something comes up i'll say something\n\njimin:but what are some of the boundaries you wanted to talk about?\n\njungkook:well you know the biggest one, im not really ok with like. any penetration\n\njungkook:and like, touching anywhere else is mostly fine, but on my chest it's kind of\n\njungkook:i have scars there and im kind of uncomfortable with them so\n\njungkook:touching is fine but not like, lingering? if that makes sense\n\njimin:yeah it does\n\njungkook:also i mentioned before im fine with saying clit or like calling it a dick or whatever, it doesnt matter to me but i'd rather not talk about anything else no matter what words are used\n\njimin:i kinda got that feeling from our phone calls, but it's good to know. thanks\n\njimin:and you said touching anywhere else is mostly fine. why not totally fine? i don't want to do somethign wrong\n\njungkook:like below the waist, sometimes it's okay but other times i need to work up to it\n\njungkook:sometimes i just dont want to be touched at all\n\njungkook:so i guess it's just, go slow\n\njimin:ok. i'll check with you first\n\njungkook:thanks\n\njimin:i guess it sounds like you're mostly okay with like, what we've sexted or called about? like handjobs or oral but not fucking\n\njungkook:i mean, yeah im cool with those things, and i dont want to be the one getting fucked\n\njungkook:but um\n\njungkook:for the record\n\njungkook:what you said yesterday isn't true\n\njimin:what did i say?\n\njungkook:that i can't fuck you\n\njungkook:i have straps\n\njungkook:like, multiple different dicks to choose from\n\njungkook:if that's something you're into\n\njimin:oh. i never thought about that\n\njungkook:does that mean you are into it?\n\njungkook:because i do have a lot and i can get more if you want\n\njungkook:i have like normal ones but i also have a tentacle one that i've always wanted to use on someone\n\njimin:you have a tentacle dick\n\njungkook:yeah\n\njungkook:what's the point of having a detachable dick if i can't have an exciting one\n\njimin:oh my god jungkook\n\njimin:i think i love you\n\njungkook:oh\n\njimin:wait\n\njimin:i didnt mean to say that, i had a plan, it just slipped out\n\njungkook:oh\n\njimin:was it too soon?\n\njimin:please just ignore me until i find a better way to tell you in person\n\njungkook:i just wasnt expecting it\n\njimin:me neither\n\njimin:can we go back to talking about you fucking me because that conversation was much easier\n\njungkook:we can ;)\n\njungkook:i can call if you want too\n\njungkook:just wish you weren't so busy this week so we could do more than just talk about it\n\njimin:me too :(\n\njimin:but it'll be something to look forward to right?\n\njimin:you'd better call me though\n\njimin:preferably now\n\njungkook:ok give me a minute to wash my face and brush my teeth\n\njimin:im waiting :(\n\njungkook:talk to you soon :)\n\n"}
+{"text": "“Your strikes lack discipline. You are merely tapping them with your hands.” A low, gravely women’s voice hissed within the halls. “If you are to triumph in the coming battles, you must hit with intent!”\n\nThe hall here was largely the same as the other areas held by the Church of New Darkness, ornate, with the columns and walls adorned with the snarling visages and face of the Klyntar upon them, the surrounding parts of the buildings resembling the flowing, shimmering form of the Symbiotes themselves, giving even this training area a strangely organic, surrealist look to it.\n\nWithin the halls were numerous young ones, some no younger then ten, some as old Izuku and his classmates, a few a little older. They were position in front of punching bags, targets and other things, most dressed in practical training outfits, black and red, as the figure approached down from the platform overlooking it all, her feet carefully stepping down and hitting each step as she made her way down. Her toes were not the normal human ones, rather being cruel, curved black claws, attached to dark green scales, the first toe of each a large, wicked blade, twitching slightly with every step. The rest of this stranger was hidden under the heavy black cloak of the other Church members, shimmering with the star-like pattern against the inky blackness, her hands carefully hidden within the long sleeves.\n\nShe made her way down, claws clicking against the cold, hard floors. She pulled her hood back, revealing a scaled face the same as her toe claws, dark green, and serpentine, her face broad, and neck long and thin, reptilian yellow eyes flickering from one student to the other.\n\n“Your strikes are with the arms, not the core!” She hissed, gesturing to her abdomen with a clawed hand. “Your arms can be weak, the core supplies the power, throwing your whole strength into it.”\n\nAbove, on the platform, overlooking this, was Kitab and one of the other Prophets, the strangely tall and lanky Charles Whately, and a figure dressed simpler, in a heavy set of brown robes and hood.\n\n“The training of our Adepts is welcome, Brother, but why call us here so out of the blue?” Charles asked, as Kitab merely watched, engrossed in the show. “Is this because of the Heroes, the Izuku Midoriya, correct? He is among them?”\n\n“Matron Kibotsume’s scouts have tracked them, and report they have been a training program reserved for their second and third years.” The Serpent-like being reported, before looking back at the younger members of the Church. “She has taken to training our youngest Pack members harder as well.”\n\nKitab looked up slowly, his face half hidden in the shadows of his cloak, his visible eye narrowed. “They have already begun?”\n\n“Yes, Supreme Prophet.” The Serpent responded, bowing his head slightly.\n\nHe seemed deep in thought, nodding slightly to himself, as though conversing in private with Zzzxx as the two waited, before turning back. “This is an unexpected move for Aizawa. It’s too aggressive.”\n\n“You see why our training for our young hatchlings has intensified?” The Snake-Human asked, with another slightly bow of the head. “The next move, sir?”\n\n“Your scouts, tell them to be mindful, cautious. If they are caught, let the heroes make the first move.” Kitab ordered, pointing a crocked finger at the Raptor. “The rest of your Clan, continue your operations in private. Remember, we remain hidden in the shadows until the right moment.”\n\n“As you wish, Supreme Prophet.” The Serpent member replied, bowing to both, deeper then before, and leaving silently.\n\nWhately turned to Kitab, as the being left, lowering himself slightly. “Kitab, I am worried, are our Prophecies accelerating too quickly? Tomura, Knull’s Hand, I don’t think is...”\n\n“Tomura is not even there, and his gang of allies will survive, trouble yourself no longer.” The Supreme Prophet said, shaking his head. “We both know a full confrontation is not due for many months. We have time. Let Shigaraki and his League sharpen their teeth, as Izuku and his class furthers their power. Our visions are never wrong.”\n\n“But they can mislead. How disasters almost ruined us before we could reach this day?” Charles questioned.\n\n“Our allies in The Scale Clan are readying us. Our Quirks are strong, our faith stronger.” Kitab declared, shaking his head to the tall man. “We watch and observe. Our part has yet to come.”\n\n“If you are certain, Supreme Prophet.” Charles replied.\n\nKitab nodded with a satisfied smile upon his face. “Yes, everything is proceeding as we have foreseen.”\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\Class-1B had been dragged from their sleep early in the morning. It wasn’t like they had much choice afterall, and had to follow their teacher, the red and black clothed Vlad King. He lead them along, his thunderous steps leading them along like a thundering drum to set the tone, as the students staggered along.\n\n“We’re improving the Quirks themselves this morning!” Vlad King declared to his class, focused ahead. “Class A has already started.”\n\nVlad King grunted to himself, bringing a hand to his chin, as he began to think aloud to himself. “This Semester was Class A’s time to shine, but Second Semester will all in favor of Class B!”\n\nAll of Class B looked disappointed and disheartened with themselves, but Tetsutetsu felt tears run down his face, holding up a fist in despair. “We’re sorry teacher, we won’t disappoint you going forward.”\n\nVlad thought it odd to say for a student, but energy and hormones made kids pumped up and crazy to please their teachers and all. Setsuna took a deep breath, trying to focus through the fog of grogginess over her head. “What do you mean by ‘Strengthen your Quirks?’ exactly?”\n\n“You work a muscle, the fibers snap, and then reknit themselves thicker and stronger.” Vlad King explained carefully, taking his time so each student could understand. “A Quirk is the same way. By working your body, we force the Quirk to strengthen itself at a faster rate.”\n\nBakugou’s scream probably would’ve interrupted any further words exchanged, as he unleashed an explosion from the cold water he was dunking his hands into, before unleashing a powerful blast into the skies right after. Mineta was on the ground yanking off ball after ball from his hair, blood running down his scalp, as Momo and Seto jammed as much cake and treats in their mouths to fuel their Quirks.\n\nIida ran along the perimeter, the engines in his legs burning white hot, as Sero and Denki screamed, one hooked to a car battery as electricity ran through his body, and the other set tape in a never ending stream down the side of a mountain.\n\n“This looks like hell.” One of Class B muttered as he watched the scene in horror, the others silently agreeing in ramp shock.\n\n“Normally, your bodies would adapt as you grow and fight, but we can’t wait that long.” Vlad interjected, trying to get his students’ minds off the scene before them. It wasn’t much, but he alteast wanted them to have a positive attitude going forward.\n\n“We’ll be watching and advising Class B. Get to it.” Aizawa added with his usual deadpan delivery.\n\n“The two of you, to, what, 40 of us?” Kendo asked, trying to guess just how many students there were through the early morning fog.\n\n“A logical response. So that’s why these four heroes have agree to help us.” Aizawa replied with a knowing nod, before turning to the four behind him.\n\nThe four eagerly took up their poses and shouted out their catch phrases, the one of the newcomers, Rag-Doll, looked largely like she belonged in the group of female super heroes who relied on a cat theme to their gear and equipment, and despite her almost childish facial expressions, obviously was a great hero if she was in this group. The one behind them, however, was completely at odds with the rest. A massive titan of a man, as tall and as ruggedly built as All Might or Endeavor, and at odds with the cutesy skirt and vest outfit near identical to his female counterparts, despite his stature and musculature.\n\nIzuku had heard the Pussycats wore all identical outfits, with some color variance, but he was still thrown out by the sight of a grown, burly man strong enough to bend iron with his bare hands would dress like that. Venom didn’t flinch at the sight however. He had seen plenty of strange dress styles of his various host species, Shi’ar, Ssi-Ruuk, Turian and a countless other number of species across the universe. How people dressed was irrelevant to him, only their strength and usefulness to his host and himself.\n\nWhat made Izuku and Venom fearful of the man, was when Aizawa assigned them to Tiger’s training regime. It didn’t seem like much a problem at first, though Aizawa had whispered something in the larger man’s ear before the start, until they got to working. Izuku’s endurance and all was above most others, even if his training was limited compared to Shoto’s Spartan-like method, or Bakugou’s pushing himself in everything for the sake of pushing, but Tiger would not accept that lightly.\n\nAs the Pussycats explained each of their Quirks and how they would function, Tiger was the last to explaine his. “You students with strength and related enhancement Quirks will be with me.”\n\nAs Izuku was put through the intense stretches, muscle exercises and other workouts, he, at the same time, was using Venom to lash out with his tentacles and grab random objects scattered around in the trees, with the idea of pushing Venom’s “Quirk” abilities by forcing him to extend his range even further. Venom did share that his tendrils could, when “Hidden” within his host, could extend his tentacles out for several feet, even yards away from himself. However, Izuku was working over time, and not wanting to push their body any further already, decided to simply play along and pretend this was really overextending his powers.\n\nAs his tentacles lashed out and hit the targets hanging from the trees, Tiger marched back over to them, looming over Izuku, his eyes glaring down intensely. “Now, you little Hero wannabe, come at me!”\n\nIzuku snapped to ready position, Venom instantly coating his fist as he lash out with a battle cry, eager to impress. Tiger’s body merely bent and twisted around the fist, before aiming a perfect right hook into Izuku’s face, knocking him to the dirt. “Pathetic! Those muscles haven’t been ripped up hard enough! And that goo isn’t tired out yet either! Keep working!”\n\n“Yes sir!” Izuku managed through the pain, struggling to get to his knees, before Venom spoke in his mind, sounding as excited as a puppy. “This is good training, I’m almost feeling it!”\n\n“I can’t hear you!” Tiger barked out once more.\n\n“Yes sir!!” Izuku yelled louder, getting to his feet, Venom giving yet more unhelpful advice. “Give me enough time, and I’ll land a punch on him!”\n\n‘That’s...not the point.’ Izuku thought with a heavy breath in, as Tiger stood over him, holding a fist before him.\n\n“Your motto is Plus Ultra, show it to me!” He declared.\n\n“Come on Izuku, this is fun!” Venom hissed with delight, as Izuku grunted. ‘For you maybe.’\n\nIzuku didn’t really think this would help him much. They thought Venom was his Quirk, all fine and good, but he wasn’t sure Quirk training would help much. Venom had millions of years of experience with fighting and harnessing his abilities to their fullest. Izuku wasn’t exactly sure what this training would accomplish.\n\n“Think Deku, I’ve stayed with you, even if you are a loser. You’ve got the heart, and body, to be a great hero.” Venom whispered to him. “All you need to to prove it, earn it.”\n\nIzuku nodded, wiping the sweat from his forehead, as he stood up once more, roaring to the skies, determined as ever. Tiger grinned at the display, gesturing for him to keep going, and keep pushing himself, as the automated targets re-positioned and moved all around him once more. Aizawa watched Izuku continue his training.\n\nTruth be told, he wasn’t exactly sure how to do most of the stuff with Venom. For one, he had used his Ersaure twice throughout the year on Izuku when he was unaware, and both times nothing had happened. Venom had still remained active. Much of this was formality. If Venom wasn’t a Quirk, he wasn’t sure how Quirk-Strengthening exercises could improve anything, but Izuku needed to be trained just like everyone else while he was here.\n\nBack at UA, he had discussed his plans with Nezu, leaning against the wall of his office, looking off into the distance out the window. “I still don’t know what to make of this kid.”\n\n“If it’s not Quirk, what could it be?” Nezu asked, filling through the paperwork of the school, mostly setting things up for the Summer training camp for Aizawa.\n\n“That’s what I wanted to ask you. I’ve never heard of anyone developing an ability without a Quirk.” Aizawa said in disbelief, still unable to truly come to terms with the idea, even as he said it aloud.\n\nNezu put down the papers and thought over it carefully, tapping his paw against the table for a moment. “The hero Godzillo took an interest in him early on, and his DNA tends to get used to create all sorts of strange new creatures.”\n\n“It’s what I thought, but those still have Quirks, based on Toho, and mutated, but Quirks all the same.” Aizawa remarked, rubbing his chin in thought. “This could be anything.”\n\n“I’d wager a bio-weapon of some kind. Izuku could’ve found the thing in a lab accident of some kind, and he doesn’t want to reveal the truth.” Nezu wagered. “Hence, the Men in Black showing up.”\n\nAizawa nodded slightly, partially accepting the idea, but it just seemed so strange to him. Nezu seemed to sense his dissatisfaction, and to be fair, was only going off a guess at this point. “You have full control over the class, would you like to transfer him or…?”\n\n“No.” Aizawa said quickly and resolutely. “I don’t know what to make of it, but I want to watch him. I think he can still be a Hero, as long as he keeps Venom from eating anyone.”\n\n“What if he turns out to be Jet Black, then?” Nezu asked pointedly. They both knew what that would mean. Turning him in.\n\n“I’ll ask him when I get the chance.” Aizawa replied simply, his expression cold and distant, making the whole thing even more cryptic.\n\nNezu simply shrugged, as he returned to his work. As always, he hoped Aizawa would stick to the rules, if not the letter, then the spirit of them, and not do anything to rash.\n\nBack in the present, at the Camp, Aizawa merely watched the students continue to work, partially hoping Bakugou would throw out his voice from how much he kept screaming at the top of his lungs. He had to give him one thing, when Katsuki set his mind to something, he completed it with 100% of his energy, and all the bloodlust he could manage. He carefully jogged a few steps forward, allowing Iida to pass by in his laps, as he watched the others at work.\n\nIt was at 4:00 when they finally finished their training workout. Even Izuku, with Venom enhancing his body and endurance, was run ragged by the whole thing, and just about everyone had stumbled their way in, bruised and battered all over, and barely able to stay on their feet. The darkened skies and high moon was a clear and present reminder of how long they had been at their grueling work.\n\nPixie-Bob and Rag-doll merely laughed lightly at their predicament. “Like we said yesterday, your pampering ends from here on out.”\n\n“If you’re gonna eat, you gotta make it yourself! Today’s ingredients are curry!” Rag-Doll said, her face beaming in a broad smile.\n\n“Yes ma’am.” The Trainees intoned, as Venom zeroed in on the ingredients, ignore to start making food, even if said food wasn’t living meat like he preferred.\n\nRag-doll giggled loudly to herself, buzzing along excitedly, like nothing could contain her. “You all look like you’re ready to drop. That’s why this meal’s gonna be special.”\n\n“Hmm, of course, that makes sense! As heroes, we have to win the hearts and minds of people in need and who will be traumatized!” Iida said aloud, before turning to the two classes. “1A, 1B! Let’s pour our resources together into making the greatest curry for our school!”\n\nEveryone cheered, more likely at the prospect of getting food then actually having a teachable moment, but it worked all the same. Aizawa breathed a small sigh of relief. ‘Iida helps makes somethings a lot easier.’\n\nAs such, it did not take long for both classes to pool their resources and remaining energy together to whip together the curry, or whatever their ingredients produced. As long as they could eat it without getting sick, most of the students would be fine with whatever came out. As the others prepared the pots to boil the ingredients, Deku was dividing up said ingredients so they would be perfectly prepared and balanced for cooking, as the others started fires under said pots.\n\n“Bakugou, you can’t start fires with your explosions.” Sero muttered, watching him desperately fire off explosion after explosion under the pot, and only burning the underside of the pot severely.\n\n“Just watch me damn it!!”\n\n“Todoroki can we get some fire over here?” Mina asked, pointing to the pots in front of her, as she carefully handled the meat with the tongs.\n\n“Guys, you can’t rely on him for everything. You’ll never learn to start a fire yourself.” Momo admonished as she produced a Torch lighter from her wrist.\n\nJioru gave an unbelieving look for a moment, looking to the other classmates for a moment, as Momo started the fire.\n\nTodoroki approached with his left hand outwards, shrugging slightly. “No, no, it’s fine.”\n\nTongues of fire lightly danced off his finger tips and palm, starting an easy but strong flame, as Ochako danced up and down excitedly.\n\n“Burn, burn, burn!” Mina chanted in excitement, pumping her fists in rhythm. “Burn it all!”\n\n“No good if it’s all burned.” Shoto replied calmly, as Deku carefully poured everything into the pots.\n\nTokoyami watched closely, as Izuku prepared everything, slightly astonished by the whole thing. “You’re surprisingly adept at preparing food, Midoriya.”\n\n“Yeah, part of having Venom, because he enhances my body, I have a higher metabolism.” Izuku explained with a shrug, with the practiced precision of having to explain in the past why he could pack in so much food. “I learned to be a good cook. That and mom was always at work, so I had to be self sufficient.”\n\n“A heightened metabolism, hmmm?” Tokoyami remarked, as Izuku poured it in. “I guess all Quirks have their upsides and downsides.”\n\n“Right.” Izuku said, as Venom chanted hungrily within his mind, almost never stopping his demand for food as the he prepared the last of the expertly made pots for food. “Hungry! Hungry!���\n\n‘Yeah, I know, give it time.’ Izuku ordered nervously. He knew how Venom would act if he didn’t get the food he needed. He didn’t want him going wild, with his classmates.\n\n“Relax, I like flesh, but I’ve held off since you insisted on chocolate.” Venom remarked with a dark chuckle. “Unless you count the USJ Nomu, I haven’t touched a pinch of human flesh. I can wait.”\n\nMidoriya nodded for a moment, before pouring the last bit into the last pot, and standing back to look over his work for a moment, satisfied. ‘I get it Venom. I’m just scared of the Agency finding us, and anyone here getting hurt.’\n\n“I have always tried to protect the innocent, ever since we bonded.” Venom replied softly. “It’s been a dream of mine since I first spawned.”\n\nIzuku was surprised. Everything he had said had lead him to believe Venom had always been a soldier within his Empire, a mere grunt who looked to inflict pain on those that got in his way. Going after criminals was just a way to ameliorate Izuku’s conscious when he attacked others. It caused a million questions to go through his mind for a moment, but Izuku decided not to ask. It felt like prying, trying to get at Venom’s past, first with his past dreams, and then with this “grandchild” of his, this ‘Toxin’.\n\nThat alone caused a lot of questions too. Venom seemed wistful, almost nostalgic for his offspring. Venom talked about children and parents at odds, destroying each other for power and strength. How much of this was his actual beliefs then?\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\Izuku would chew over these questions later, the meal readied and cooked to perfection under his (and Venom’s) careful tending and prepared at the moment of perfection. Even with Izuku’s help, this wasn’t five star quality, but it was delicious, especially to a class that hadn’t eaten anything in several hours. Table manners were second to greedily scarfing it down with gusto, and Yaomomo, the usual epitome of Lady-like manners, was shoveling in curry as fast as she could.\n\n“Man, Momo, you and Midoriya can pack it away like nothing.” Sero remarked through his own meal.\n\n“It’s all about the lipids in food that I convert to create new objects.” She explained calmly, in between mouthfuls of food.\n\n“I just get big and punch things hard.” Izuku explained simply, again, practiced in the art of playing Venom off as his Quirk.\n\nIt was after going for his third and final plate, while everyone had satisfied themselves on two, that Izuku noticed Kota walking off into the night on his own, making sure none of the adults noticed as he vanished into the night. Izuku, however, would not be so easily alluded, and carefully followed him, keeping a fair amount of distance and staying quiet.\n\nVenom growled in agitation. “Must we get involved?”\n\n“He needs help, obviously we have to help.” Izuku replied softly, as he began to make his way up one of the smaller mountains in the middle of the forest, not far from the central encampment.\n\n“Losing parents, I don’t know exactly what that’s like, mine was evil and rotted to the core,” Venom remarked, as they followed him up. “But I do know that losing Toxin hurt. It still hurts. I would not want a stranger poking around in my past to try and make things better.”\n\nIzuku was silent for a moment, not used to the Symbiote sharing such an emotional side to itself, as Venom made a sighing sound. “Step carefully. Help if you want. I’m just here for the ride.”\n\nIzuku continued upwards, carefully following behind his footprints, making his way up the mountain to the very top. The place was high above the trees, but just low enough to be safe. Because of this vantage point, Izuku could see out across the trees and beautiful landscapes as far as the eye could see. Above, the stars twinkled in the sky above like white and blue jewels, the moon not quite full, but casting a stunning, lambent white glow upon everything.\n\nA loud grumble sounded from the plateau, as Izuku stepped upwards, spotting Kota glaring out over the landscape, his mind seemingly elsewhere. He cleared his throat first to announce his pressence, before speaking.\n\n“Hey uh, you seem kinda hungry still.” Izuku said awkwardly. “I usually go for thirds, Quirk and all, but I saved you a plate.”\n\n“What are you doing here!? I don’t need your charity!” Kota yelled, springing to his feet in anger.\n\n“Sorry, I followed your foot prints here and all, Ven’s real good at following people.” Izuku explained, as Venom rumbled within his chest, not liking this one bit. “You haven’t eaten anything, so I figured...”\n\n“I’m fine, just scram. This is my secret base!” Kota interjected, narrowing his eyes angrily.\n\nIzuku lingered for a moment, contemplating whether to leave, or to continue, before swallowing heavily. “Your parents, were the two heroes, the Water Hoses right?”\n\nKota turned, clenching his small fists like he was ready to fight Izuku right there. “Did Mandalay tell you?!”\n\n“No, I figured it out.” Izuku replied calmly, as Venom hissed into his ear. “Tread. Carefully.”\n\n“It was a real tragedy.” Izuku continued, his voice low and quiet. “It was all over the country.”\n\n“Screw you.” Kota mumbled angrily.\n\nSuddenly, without warning, Venom overtook Izuku’s body, before the host could even protest to his Other, as Kota turned slightly, looking slightly surprised and fearful for a moment, before Venom spoke, his voice a low boom, like thunder in the distance. “I...you’ll have to forgive my host. He’s quite stupid for a smart person sometimes.”\n\n“Whatever.” Kota muttered again, shaking his head as he sat down, pulling his knees to his chest, before glaring at Venom. “You’re all real stupid. Stretching and pushing your Quirks. It’s all gross and stupid.”\n\n“Understandable, I don’t much care for the training much either, to be honest.” Venom remarked, as he approached, laying the plate of food a few feet behind Kota. “May we sit and watch the stars. We rarely get to see them, and we’ll only have a few minutes.”\n\n“Do whatever you want.” Kota remarked. He didn’t care for this weird Quirk Izuku had, but at least it had the sense to not want to talk.\n\nVenom sat by, looking over the landscapes and night skies before him. He found it easy to forget that this world was not so ugly, being stuck in the big cities. He found them disagreeable, mostly because the Imperium was more lassie-fare about things. Since every Symbiote knew where their kin where at all times, they could be called from anywhere at the moment they would be needed, and be there in the time they were needed. The fact humans needed to be packed in for even their jobs reminded Venom how very lonely it could be to be a human.\n\nAfter several minutes in silence, in which Kota seemed to calm down, if only slightly, Venom stood from his position, taking a deep breath through his knife-like fangs, before turning to Kota. “I can’t share too much, but I am not exactly a Quirk. I’m not a normal power to this world.”\n\nKota looked at him in confusion and agitation. “Then why the heck are you in Quirk training. You’re just talking crap.”\n\n“Consider it a cover.” Venom remarked with a small shrug. “I don’t think my host knows what it’s like to lose family, but I do, let’s just say that the pain is like a dagger in your heart and mind. Being able to find some place quiet and get away from everyone’s empty platitudes is the best reprieve.”\n\n“Whatever, just scram, alright?” Kota remarked quietly, his voice filled with poison. “Crazy freaking Quirk.”\n\n“Apologies. We’ll leave you to your Secret Base, and tell no one.” Venom replied with a nod, turning and bound off into the forest. He left Kota with the meal of Curry, and on the other side of the rocks, the shattered cliff face, still wet from someone smashing water into it.\n\nVenom was quick to move and get back to camp, and even his senses could not detect Aizawa hanging from the closest training, listening in to both of their conversations, his baggy eyes narrowed. He himself would have to return soon to see to the Remedial class, and Mineta. But this confirmed at least one thing to him that he long had guessed at.\n\n“Not exactly a Quirk?” Aizawa muttered with narrowed eyes, tapping his finger on the tree branch he perched upon. “Midoriya, what have you gotten into?”\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\Back in the city, all was mostly quiet in the small diner in Hosu, no one really caring about the strangely dressed man stepping in, his long white coat billowing behind him, his orange-red eyes scanning the area before him, before settling on the emaciated, pale skeletal man seated in one corner, reading a Newspaper and sipping some coffee, but eating nothing. That was Toshinori, All Might’s agent. Godzillo moved with the sheer-footed, steel-focus of a predator, standing over the table for a moment patiently.\n\n“Ah, Mister Nakajima, good to see you.” Toshinori remarked, folding and putting away his paper, and standing up to shake his hand, the Monster Hero taking it carefully, worried he might break the man’s hand. “I was hoping we’d discuss Midoriya.”\n\n“Good to be seen.” He remarked, carefully folding his overcoat behind him and sitting down, the table groaning slightly. “So, what is it you want to know about?”\n\n“Where to start? What was he like when you worked with Izuku, what are his strengths, his weaknesses?” Toshinori asked, as the waitress refilled his coffee, and Nakajima placed a quick order of his own.\n\nHe considered Toshinori’s questions carefully, trying to pick the best answer going forward. “He’s… a little timid and over-zealous at the same time. He often overthinks and hesitates. Venom is aggressive and fiery. Almost uncontrolled, but the two are strongest together.”\n\n“You almost talk about them like they’re two separate people.” Toshinori remarked to himself. “But what about his Hero work with you, did he listen, how was he with people?”\n\n“Heh. He went off on his own and disobeyed orders to save people in Hosu.” Nakajima remarked with a small smile. “Don’t let this leak, but it wasn’t Endeavor and me who stopped Stain. Those claws and burns were from Midoriya and his pals.”\n\n“I see.” Toshinori remarked with a small, nervous smile.\n\n“He’s more heart then brain sometimes.” Nakajima remarked finally, as the waitress brought his coffee, and without adding any creamers, immediately began drinking it. “I feel like if All Might wants him as a student, they’ll pair well together.”\n\nHe smiled for a moment, before taking another sip, and looking back at Toshinori. “Why is All Might focused on him? All the kids got potential? Why just Midoriya?”\n\n“The fight with the Nomu, and I guess the Hosu incident got All Might’s attention,” Toshinori explained coolly, practiced in referring to his Hero name as a different person entirely. “He wants to take him as a student and maybe successor.”\n\n“Successor?” Nakajima asked, tapping fingertips on the table. “I guess All Might’s gonna have to retire someday. Midoriya will probably ready be then, I guess.”\n\n“Indeed.” Yagi replied with a nod, scratching the back of his neck nervously.\n\nThe two continued their discussion for much of the night, both about Midoirya, and then the League of Villains, and hopefully, that all of this would turn out alright.\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\In one of the high mountains overlooking the camp, stood the five figures from before, the newest members of the League of Villains, one still covering his body in his cloak, the others dressed in the casual cloths and jackets.\n\nThe girl, Toga, fiddled with the mask over her face, attached to a number of tanks and specialized syringes, and knife sheaths all along her sides, thighs and shoulders. “Errgh, this is so not cute!”\n\n“They were designed on the Black Market to specialize in assisting our Quirks. They’re for function, not style.” Mustard remarked relaxed and as cold as ever, his voice muffled slightly and given a slight robotic tone by the specialized gasmask and WW1-style helmet and gear over his face and mouth.\n\n“Couldn’t they make it cuter is all I’m asking!” Toga pouted, throwing her hands up in frustration.\n\nX grunted slightly, refitting his new, more armored mask over his face and mouth. Other then some fitted shoulder and knee pads, he had very little new “Christmas gifts”. “Yeah, at least you guys got something, I was first to join, why am I stuck looking like an edgy 90’s Comic book character.”\n\n“Probably because you always did.” Dabi muttered quietly to himself, rolling his eyes.\n\n“Tomura said something about budget constraints.” Mustard remarked.\n\n“He can genetically modify those Nomu freaks but stuff for me is out of the question?” X demanded in annoyance, shaking his head in disgust.\n\n“Who cares about fashion and all that, I’m too pumped to sit here,” The brute growled through his own mask, lifting up a hand as his fingers cracked and flexed. “Just cut us loose.”\n\n“Shut your mouths, all of you crazy bastards, you’re all too loud.” Dabi commanded, glaring back at them in irritation. “We wait. We still need all 11 of us together to pull this off.”\n\nAs he spoke, the next three showed up to join them. Magne was the first to speak, carrying a gigantic, pillar-like magnet across her broad shoulder. “Sorry we’re late darlings.”\n\nSpinner carefully folded back his Stain-style mask and hair, while checking all his knives and blades to make sure they were secure, as the third hobbled beside them, dressed and bound within a black suit with numerous straps and spiked belts binding his arms to his body, only his mouth visible from the mask, lips pulled back by his bindings.\n\nHe muttered to himself, jabbering away as he walked, drool dripping form his teeth. “Job….Job...Job….”\n\n“And that makes Eight of us. Three more before we strike.” Dabi remarked, before turning back to the site of the camp, it’s few lights gleaming in the dark. “The League made a mistake going after USJ with a bunch of random punks. Better a small group of elites.”\n\n“First to go, will be their sense of peace.” Dabi continued with a manic grin, the wind picking up around them. “They have to realize that their lives rest completely at our mercy.”\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\Training continued as always, the class being pushed to their absolute limits once more to complete their work-outs. Most were throwing their all into it, as always, except the ones stuck in remedial, and Mineta. They were barely standing, utterly exhausted and looking half dead. By time their classes had finished, they had to go on 5 hours of sleep.\n\n“Remedials, keep working!” Aizawa commanded in annoyance, part of his scarf lashing out and wrapping around Kirishima’s forehead, yanking back to get him awake. “We’re not done here yet.”\n\n“Just a little...sleepy...” Mina managed eyes half closed, even as she stood and tried to push herself onwards.\n\n“I warned all of you this wouldn’t be pretty.” Aizawa remarked with a huff. “You all need to keep pushing your limits if you don’t want a repeat of this.”\n\n“Why am I here?” Mineta mumbled, stumbling for a moment, before Aizawa’s scarf lashed out and yanked back on his head as well.\n\n“Because you need to learn self-control and reigning in that lust,” Aizawa barked, narrowing his eyes in disgust. “This is serious work and needs focus, being ready to face life and death, not for you to be a sexual harassment lawsuit in the making.”\n\nHe glared down at all of them, eyes red and terrifying, completely focused on them as he continued chewing them out. “Worst of all, you were all exposed during the final exams. As you train, think about why you’re so much more tired then everyone else.”\n\nAs he spoke, Ochako walked by, carefully a large boulder by her hands, keeping it close to her grasp, but not quite holding, learning not only to float larger objects without getting sick, but learning to control how far off the ground she could get certain things. Aoyama, meanwhile, stumbled out of one of the portable bathrooms, holding his stomach and green all over his face.\n\n“Aoyama, Ochako, don’t you give up either!” Aizawa yelled, turning his icy glare upon them. “You didn’t fail, but you came damn close. 30 was the minimum, and you squeaked by with 35.”\n\nOchako looked stricken for a moment, as Aoyama groaned, holding back the urge to vomit on the ground right then and there.\n\nIzuku had kept up his physical training, essentially boiling down to a boxing match between himself in Venom form and Tiger, trying to land a number of hits on him, only for him to stretch and bend out of the way of his strikes, before having to tank every hit and not stumble from it. Tiger was no All Might or Nomu, but Venom could still feel every hit, stumble ever so slightly from every punch.\n\nVenom was actually enjoying this. Not just because it felt like a real fight for him, but he was experimenting with modifications to his biomass in the heat of battle. As Tiger drove forward, ready to deliver another hook into Venom’s face, he held up his hand and crafted a shield of blackened, oil-like mass, blocking the blow completely. Tiger gave a small, impressed smile for a moment, before continuing his attack.\n\nIt was surprising, but Izuku was not completely taken aback by his Symbiote’s new defensive abilities. Venom had grown a lot since they were on their own, and without Riot or other Symbiotes from the Imperium to lord over him, it made sense Venom would start to branch out on his own and find new things he could do.\n\n“As you train, remember your fundamental drive, what lead you here, why you’re training.” Aizawa stated, as Izuku and Venom held off another assault. “Why am I here? Why is he riding me so hard? Only you have that answer.”\n\n‘Drive’ The Thought had burned into the forefront of each student’s mind, as they burned the area around them, created further and further explosions, or popped out more and more items while eating.\n\nIzuku almost felt the desire forming to ask Aizawa something important, before refocusing on his training with Venom. He could ask it later.\n\n“What is it you wish to ask him.” Venom asked mentally, remaining focused on the attacking Tiger.\n\n“Well, where is All Might for one?” Izuku wondered aloud.\n\nVenom thought it over for a moment, before crafting another large shield from his hand, resembling something like a Pavise or a Roman Legionary’s shield, and blocking blows from Tiger. He nodded to himself as he finally came up with an answer. “This is secret right? So All Might showing up anywhere is bound to get attention.”\n\n“I guess...” Izuku muttered to himself.\n\nVenom did not bother asking why, refocusing his attentions on Tiger in their short brawl, but he could guess. Even without the connection the two shared, Venom could see easily why Izuku was so intent on All Might. He wanted to help Kota come to terms with his apprehension towards Quirks and society. Venom for his part was largely apathetic. Kota was bound to come around and change. Trying to force things would just hurt more then anything.\n\n“Let’s jump subjects. Tonight, if you all do your training, you get an interclass test of courage!” Pixie-Bob declared excitedly. “If you work hard, you get to play hard, get it?”\n\nMurmurs broke out among the class, many wondering what exactly a ‘test of courage’ entailed. Monoma, of course, was more interested in the interclass part then anything else.\n\n“A revelry in the dark.” Tokoyami remarked, Ochako giving him a weird, sideways glance.\n\nVlad King, sensing the classes were about to lose their focus, decided to get everything back in order. “Alright, if you want to enjoy tonight, get to work!”\n\n“Yes sir!” Both classes declared, refocusing their efforts.\n\nFrom further away, out of sight of the others, were two reptilian, raptor-like figures seated among the tree tops, watching the class with yellow-green eyes. They wore simple cloths for the outdoors, one red with plums along his head, the other orange.\n\nThe second, the orange one, turned to Red. “Children’s games, this is how they train?”\n\n“If it gets results, who cares?” The other remarked, readjusting his hand and foot claws to stay on the branch. “We won’t be here for long anyway.”\n\n“I don’t like this. We should be earning our place in Knull’s glory, not waiting for others to do our work.” The Second grumbled.\n\n“Calm yourself. To reveal ourselves too early, would bring ruin to the Church and others of Knull’s flock.” The first replied, clicking his fangs together. “We have tracked them, monitored them, and even leaked the information to the League’s master. Then, we leave them to bleed each other.”\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\The hours burned away quickly, the class getting another meal prepared for the end of the day, before their big tests of courage. Perhaps after two days of hard work and being worked to the bone by their teachers and the extra heroes, they were getting used to having to wait awhile to get their meals after their exercise.\n\nBakugou was at the cutting board, slicing up carrots and other vegetables with the precision skill of an expert, chopping through them in seconds, each and every piece largely the same size and cleanly cut. Ochako walked by with some of her own ingredients, eyes bugging out of her head in shock.\n\n“Wow, when did you get so good at cutting food Bakugou?” She said with surprise.\n\n“What do you mean, when did I get good?! Why are you people so bad at everything?!” He yelled in rage, turning to her with an expression of pure rage, even as he continued cutting the vegetables with practiced precision.\n\n“At least he’s not blowing things up.” Denki remarked, as Kirishima sighed to himself.\n\n“I’m too tired for any of this.”\n\nIzuku, meanwhile, was preparing the pots and coals this time for the cooking, gloves carefully placed over his burned-scared hand and the fully healed one. Venom chanted within his brain. “Food, food, food!”\n\nAs he worked, Shoto was walking behind him, his own kiln-made pot in tow. Izuku turned slightly, before clearing his throat. “Todoroki, can I ask you something?”\n\n“Hmm, what about?” Shoto replied, raising an eyebrow.\n\n“It’s about Kota. That kid.”\n\n“The one that hit you in the balls?” Shoto asked bluntly, before his eyes drifted around the room. “Where is he by the way.”\n\n“He disappears a lot.” Izuku stated. “But he seems to dislike heroes. A lot. Just Quirks in general. I don’t know what to say.”\n\n“It’s a bit mean to say, but perhaps you shouldn’t say anything at all.” Shoto remarked. “If words meant anything, he wouldn’t hate heroes, cause someone else would’ve given him a big speech before.”\n\nIzuku slightly quietly as Shoto spoke further. “If you want to convince him, actions might work better then words.”\n\n“I guess I get what you mean. It would pretentious for someone to just give big speeches to him.” Izuku remarked as Venom grumbled within his head. “Told you.”\n\n“you might also want to be careful. I don’t know why you have an interest in this kid, but you have a habit for poking into delicate business.” Shoto remarked, eye narrowing slightly. “Not everyone is going to appreciate that.”\n\nBefore Izuku could reply, Iida was barking orders at them from afar. “You two, stop talking and get back to work! Our Vegetable and Beef stew must be the best possible!”\n\nAfter a hardy meal of excited eating, everyone was able to get on their feet and ready for the test of courage.\n\n“After a good meal, we’re ready for our reward!” Mina declared, pumping her fist in anticipation. The others in the Remedial group began to cheer, before Aizawa cut in.\n\n“Sorry to interrupt, and it pains me to say it, but the Remedial class will be spending extra time with me.” Aizawa cut in, the remedials stopping right where they stood. “I wasn’t satisfied with your performance today, so I now I cut into your play time.”\n\nMina did not react at first, merely looking at him with a slightly daze, slightly unbelieving expression, before she melted into an expression of total panic and horror at what he had just said. “YOU’VE GOTTA BE KIDDING ME!!”\n\nAizawa’s capture scarf lashed out, the teacher perhaps sensing his students would on some level try to make a break for it. Mineta tried to escape, even as the others cried out for their chance at fun and a reward. Izuku and others shuddered at the sight, as they were dragged back to the central facility.\n\n“I didn’t even fail!” Mineta cried out in horror as Aizawa dragged them away.\n\nAs they left, the Pussycats went into their explanation of things, going over the rules and rolls, such as who would be scaring who, the drawing of straws, and the card in the middle to show they had actually done their rout and weren’t just cheating.\n\n“A revelry in the dark.” Tokoyami muttered to himself.\n\n“He keeps saying that.” Ochako muttered to Izuku, trying to hold back a laugh.\n\n“The goal with this is to use any Quirk abilities you have to scare the other team til they piss their pants!” Tiger roared with excitement, as Pixie-Bob and Rag-doll jumped up and down excitedly. Mandalay merely looked at the three in deadpan silence at their interruption of her instructions.\n\n“Ew. Please don’t say that.” Jirou muttered, shaking her head.\n\nOnce the teams were drawn, Izuku was put with Ojiro, as team six, right behind Tsuyu and Ochako, Venom was rather surprisingly supportive of the idea. “He’s a good one. If forgettable. Once we get in there, we’ll scare the shits outta them though!”\n\n‘Why am I not surprised you were already planning scare them?’ Izuku thought with a defeated shake of the head.\n\n“Hey, at least when we go in, we’ll scare them better then anyone.” Ojiro suggested with a nervous laugh. “No offense, but your Quirk...”\n\n“Yeah, he was planning that himself.” Izuku said with a bemused smile. Venom chuckled darkly to himself. Since it was competition, he’d go all out, even if it was scaring children.\n\nBakugou was stuck with Todoroki, already disgusted at the idea, and trying to pawn off their partnership to anyone else. “Will anyone trade with me damnit!”\n\n“No trades and no givies-backies!” Rag-doll declared, somersaulting behind him, as Bakugou straightened in rage, stiff as a board as his eyes went bloodshot.\n\nHe said nothing, perhaps accepting his fate to be stuck with Shoto at this point, who seemed largely apathetic about the whole thing. Izuku was simply glade he wasn’t isolated again by the whole thing. The teams went in, one after the other, before coming to Uraraka and Tsuyu.\n\nPixie-Bob motioned them in with an easy smile. “So, these are the fifths, Froggy-Kitty and Uraraka-Kitty.”\n\nThe two went in, Tsuyu generally relaxed even as the screams of panic and fright filled the forest. Uraraka, meanwhile was visibly terrified over the idea of being here, as she and Tsuyu walked the dirt path before them.\n\n“I’m so scared Tsu. There’s so much screaming.” Uraraka said, looking around in fright.\n\n“Understandable. That would be Kyouka and Hagakure,” Tsuyu explained calmly, before holding up her hand. “I don’t scare easily. Would you like to hold my hand as we go through.”\n\nOchako did so, as they continued along. With night falling over them, everything was darkened and near-pitch black over them. As the two headed on their way, the Students of Class B, several yards ahead, lay in wait, congratulating themselves on their ability to scare others.\n\nHonenuki poked his head out of the bushes, his silver hair and exposed teeth, with few lips or gums, practically making him look like Venom’s love child, stood in start contrast with the more average appearances of his classmates Yui and Kendo.\n\n“Kodai! You did amazing. Everyone crapped the pants because of you!” He remarked, giving a wide grin.\n\n“That was great work.” Kendo said, giving a thumbs-up.\n\n“Thank you.” The dark-haired girl replied simply.\n\n“Bakugou and Todoroki were hilarious.” He stated with a laugh.\n\nAs they talked back and forth, Honenuki stopped, sniffing the air. “By the way, you notice that smell? Smells like burning.”\n\n“Now that you mention it, I’m seeing smoke or something.” Kendo remarked, as a strange dark purple, musty smoke began to slowly roll in from beyond the forest. She gave it a strange look. Bakugou nor Todoroki produced smoke like that.\n\n“Maybe Bakugou or someone got so scared, they fired off their Quir...” He began before the smoke went into his nostrils and mouth, and he immediately fell on his face.\n\nKendo looked on in shock, before quickly clamping her mouth shut and expanding her hand to a gigantic size and wrapping it around Yui. “Don’t breath this in, it’s poison!”\n\nLittle did she realize, the gas was shooting out across the forests, the thick, purple fog hanging thick over the forests, as those in the rest of the group looked up to the skies in confusion.\n\nIzuku was tipped off before he knew what was going on, Venom coldly reporting to him. “Deku. We have to get out of here. A fire and poison gas have been unleashed. We must leave.”\n\n“Wha…?” He began, before he noticed the Pussycats were looking up in the forests. In the far distance, a blue glow rose above the trees, thick pillars of smoke rising with it.\n\n“Smoke, what the hell is going on?” Tiger remarked, as the group remained focused on it.\n\nIn the epicenter of this smoke, surrounded by blue fires and conflagration all around, was Dabi, his left firmly pressed against the bark of a tree, fire burning off the side of it, as he smiled to himself. “Let the games begin. Let’s go wild, Vanguard Action Squad.”\n\nAs Toga and Tsuyu continued on, only slightly aware of what was going on, Toga watched them from the forests and underbrush, a mask fitted over her face, as she carefully checked out her two targets, making sure to know their every move and reaction so she knew how best to take them apart.\n\nIn the path leading to the main building, a figure dressed in black and with white bone-like spurs and growths jutting from his face and hands, his skin peeling and breaking off as bone claws shot form hsi fingers, waiting with narrowed eyes in the dark, while in the clearing itself, Hikishi shouldered her massive pillar-like magnet, like a rocket launcher.\n\n“Little Kitty cat is being such an annoyance. Let’s change that.” She remarked, before a pink glow surrounded Pixie-Bob, who hardly noticing the strange pulling sensation, until she was torn form the ground, and slammed head-first into the pillar.\n\n“What...what the hell? There are villains here?” Ojiro shouted in shock, as Magne stood over Pixie-Bob’s unconscious body, the magnet pressed threateningly against her skull.\n\nAnother, a smaller, wiry figure, dressed almost exactly like Stain, with various swords and blades sheathed across him, stepped over Pixie-Bob, throwing his hands out dramatically beside him, giving a small grin to the gathered heroes.\n\nIt was with that Izuku realized that, if they were under attack, that meant Kota was alone, out in the mountain, with no one around. At that mountain, the massive, cloaked figure stepped into the shadows, watching him with a grin beneath him mask.\n\nVenom squirmed in annoyance. “We have to move now. These two chucklefucks aren’t alone. Fires, gas, blood and a man whose more bone then muscle, and a man more muscle than bone. I can sense much hostile intent.”\n\n“I had a feeling that was the case.” Izuku muttered, as Tiger and Mandalay squared off with the two. He bit his lip slightly, as Venom began to coat his legs.\n\nThis was about to get deadly."}
+{"text": "27 always heard that Mondays were supposed to be the worst day of the week. He’s never fully understood  the concept  until now. \n\nAfter Midnight left the apartment on Friday, Eraser told him that he’ll be going with them to their work on Monday. At first he found the prospect of going to UA a relief. Not only would it get him out of the apartment, he’d be able to stay within earshot of Eraser. Being with him for the majority of the day would make getting information for Miasma easier. The excitement dwindled away and dread started to replace it on Saturday when he realized who he would meet at UA.  \n\nInteracting with the students wouldn’t be an issue for him. After the initial confrontation that is bound to happen when the students who recognize him, they should all forget about him sooner or later. If he can keep his head down and become as part as the background as possible, they’d leave him alone. What made him dread coming on Monday was realizing that Toshinori works there. He  was going to see Toshinori frequently if his schedule was anywhere similar to Erasers or Mics. He’d have to see the person he put on Miasma’s radar every day.  \n\nHe already felt the guilt start to eat at him as soon as he wrote the letter and it has only grown stronger since. Initially he thought the feeling was because he was nervous that Miasma wouldn’t be able to find the pen, that they would say he never made a report. However, when he looked out the window the following morning, the pen was no longer laying there in the dirty alley. Despite knowing that Miasma more than likely retrieved the pen, the feeling stayed.  \n\nThroughout the weekend he started to feel worse about what he did, no matter how hard he tried to reason with himself that it was for the best, it wouldn’t go away. He felt like an exposed nerve, any sound set him on high alert. He doesn’t know what he expected to happen. Maybe Miasma barging into the apartment saying that what he gave wasn’t enough and just get rid of him or Toshinori himself to storming in and accuse him of betrayal. \n\n The smell or the sight of food turned his stomach and he was unable to keep anything down for long. Eraser seemed to pick up on it after a couple of meals.  He didn’t seem to concern that he was only eating a couple of bites of food at first, then he saw the concern grow on his face as the pattern didn’t stop. He started to taste test every item of food that was on the plate, not just one item like he’d used to do. When that didn’t work, Eraser offered to let him eat some cookies in exchange of the meal he prepared. He was able to take one bite before he remembered who he made them with. It quickly turned into ash in his mouth and he quickly excused himself from the room.\n\nHe couldn’t get his mind to stop replying what he’s done and the potential consequences of his actions. Toshinori started to haunt his dreams when he could sleep. Asking why he did it, if it was worth it, begging for his life. \n\nThe last time he slept was when he was taking a nap Saturday evening and dreamt that Toshinori was in front of him in the red room asking him why. He tried to explain, but Toshinori’s whispered why’s continued to grow in volume until he was screaming at him. He felt the spit spray his face as he got yelled at by the slowly approaching man.  He woke up in cold sweat when Bug started to laugh in the background and maggots started to crawl over Toshinori’s already bony arms as he reached out to him in blood covered hands. \n\nAvoiding sleep after that was simple. Eraser and Mic seemed to be fine with him sitting in his room for as long as he liked.  He learned that they wouldn’t bother him unless it was for food or if he looked like he was already preoccupied. If he was just sitting thinking, Mic would start encouraging him to talk to him about what he was pondering, which he quickly turned down.  Thereafter, any time they did check on him, he’d pretend he was sleeping and they would leave. During the day, he would take the notepad and colored pencils that Midnight had given him and let himself mindlessly draw.\n\nHe could tell they tried their hardest to include him with stuff they were doing. Asking if he’d want to watch a movie with them, if he wanted to help cook, if he would like to draw on the table while they graded papers. He turned every invite down,it was becoming too much effort to keep up with them and settled to keep by himself to try and reign his thoughts in. \n\nSunday came and went uneventful. Mic finally went to the station for work and him and Eraser listened to his show while  they ate dinner.  And then it was Monday. Mondays were normally just another day in the week for him. But this one? He wished it never came.\n\n27 felt his pulse race as he stood in front of the UA entrance next to Mic and Eraser.  Mic was chattering excitedly about a lesson he had for his students, something about translating an English song while Eraser merely hummed in acknowledgement.\n\n“Let’s go over it one more time.” Eraser said shooting him a look from the corner of his eye. “You’re going to stay with me.  If you need something, let me know and I’ll help as best as I can. However, if it can wait, make sure you ask during an appropriate time, I do still need to teach.”\n\n \n\nHe resisted sending back a glare as Eraser relied what his orders were again but merely nodded.Eraser had already told him the plans for his attendance at UA six times, he would have been offended, if not for the fact it looked to be more for Eraser’s benefit than his. \n\n He knew his job, it was the only thing that he was confident about today. He’s going to shadow him, like he’s done with some of his past clients, a simple protection detail.  Keep quiet, stay to the sides, be the buffer, and not be a inconvenience. \n\nEraser seemed satisfied with his response and they entered the building. They soon parted ways with Mic as he went to go to a meeting with the head of departments, and he was left alone with Eraser. \n\n27 tried to do his job as best he could like any other client but Eraser simultaneously made it easier and harder. Eraser would walk right down the center of the hall. It was impressive that the students parted like the red sea as Eraser walked, but it also caused some issues.  It made it easier to for him to spot it, but it also made it easier for any enemies to spot him. It also left him wide opened and it made it difficult to provide adequate protection when there were multiple angles an attacker can attack from.\n\n It also didn’t help the fact that when they avoided him, it left not only Eraser exposed but it also left him exposed.  It ruined his cover and his plan to go by unnoticed. He wasn’t blending into the shadows like he wanted, but seemed like he had a giant neon sign pointing directly at him. , He felt the hair on the back of his neck raise as he felt multiple sets of eyes on him that only seemed to grow as he went. With the amount of whispering that they had left in their wake, at this rate the whole school knows he was there. \n\n“You ready?” \n\n27 gave him the most  exasperated look he could manage. Eraser raised an eyebrow back at him, his hand still holding the door handle. \n\nHe had half a mind that Eraser was making his job harder on purpose. Not only did he leave his back exposed to the hall, which he quickly blocked, but he kept asking if he was ready and alerting the people inside the room of their presence. He had already said yes when he ask him if he was ready to meet his homeroom class down the hall, a few minutes weren’t going to change that.\n\nJust as he was going to open the door himself, Eraser stopped looking him over and opened the door with little flourish. \n\n“Everyone sit down.” Eraser ordered as he entered the room. He strode confidently in, ignoring the the confused looks his way as he set down his work bag. Eraser was digging around in said bag as he addressed him. “You can sit in the empty seat over there.” \n\n27 nodded and went to the free chair that Eraser indicated with a jerk of his head. He felt the once relaxed atmosphere shift to something more intense as he went to the free desk. Resisting his training, he kept his head low, avoiding looking at the sure to be inquisitive looks that was sure to be sent his way. \n\nThe whole room was still, it was quiet enough he was sure you could hear a pin drop. He bit his tongue as he resisted looking up once he sat down, all his senses screaming at him to see who’s around him.  Literally and figuratively he needed to keep his head down, he was sure if he made eye contact with one of the students, he would learn to regret it. \n\nHe didn’t want to compare his situation to a lamb inside a lion's den, but that's what it felt like. He was confident in the training he has received but they have all received training also. If they decided to all do something at once, he would undoubtedly lose.  He was used to fighting smaller groups and one on one, but this class wasn’t just larger, they all must have strong quirks to make it into the hero course. No amount of training would prepare him to fight nineteen kids with strong physical quirks. \n\n“All right, so for today’s lesson-”\n\n“Sensei!” a voice yelled out from across the classroom. “Who’s that?”\n\nThe feeling of eyes on him seemed to triple at the question. He wanted to look up at Eraser but the heard the kid in front of him turn in his seat to look at him, so he settled at looking out the window that was next to him. \n\n“Is that really how you want to spend your time Ashido?” Eraser sighed. “It’s unimportant right now.”\n\nMultiple started to shout out at once. He was silently grateful that that the people closest to him had remained quiet, he doesn’t know if he would be able to handle someone yelling that close to him. \n\n The lack of sleep and food quickly caught up with him as the rush from the morning left his body. His head was pounding from lack of sleep and his hands shook slightly, which he covered by pulling his sleeves to cover them.  \n\n“Sensei perhaps it’s wise to introduce him? I’m sure everyone would calm down once he’s been introduced.” \n\n27 couldn’t resist the urge to look over when he recognized the voice.  Iida was standing up at his desk two seats away. He looked better than he last saw him, no longer sounding as nasally as he last had and his nose and cheeks were no longer flushed.  He furrowed his eyebrows as he watched Iida fix his glasses on his face and started to talk about the importance of knowing every student in the class.  He couldn't help but seem slightly shocked that Iida was still there, he must be stronger than he initially thought. \n\n“Fine, only if you get to work as soon as introductions done.” Eraser said duly which he earned him a few reluctant agreements.  \n\nJust as Eraser turned to look at him, he was interrupted by the door slamming open and a shout of someone announcing themselves. \n\n“I AM HERE!”\n\n27 couldn’t help but freeze in his seat and stare wide eyed at the number one hero as he waved to the classroom. He was just as intimidating as he remembered, he was so tall he was leaning over Eraser and had a massive frame to match, but no longer had his face in a determined scowl but his iconic smile. Eraser looked like a toothpick next to All Might but still glared him down. \n\n“All Might,” Eraser grumbled roughly. “What are you doing here?”\n\n“I-uh..” All Might said, his face reddening as he looked away from the glare. “I need you.”\n\n27 jumped in his seat when the pink girl across the classroom let out a sharp ‘I knew it!’ and then started cooing in the silent classroom before quickly covering her mouth with a eep when Eraser turned his glare onto her.\n\n“You need me?”\n\n“Well, I need your quirk.” All Might rubbed the back of his neck nervously and gave Eraser a slanted smile.  “I was covering for homeroom for the Gen 2 kids. I thought it would be a great opportunity to have them try a hero course activity.”\n\n“And?” Eraser prompted when All Might voice trailed off and remained silent.\n\n“Well, one of the students kinda lost control of their quirk and they got stuck. We were hoping if you used erasure on them, it would unstick them.”\n\nEraser pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a long exhale before nodding. “Alright, everyone while I’m dealing with this, do some homework or something until I get back. Iida is in charge.”\n\n27 got to his feet to follow, but Eraser raised his hand and told him to wait here, that he’d be right back. He wishes he ignored the ordered and followed, so he didn’t have nineteen pairs of eyes trained on him as soon as the door closed. \n\nThey all seemed to think he’ll say something if they stared long and hard at him enough. They could do it as long as they like, that tactic never worked on him, he’s fine with with the silence. Even if it was a waiting game, he could out wait them. If he didn’t say anything, hopefully they wouldn’t either. He only had to out wait until Eraser came back, after that he’ll be in the clear. \n\nLeaning back in his seat while keeping his face as blank as he could he turned to look back out the window.  \n\n“I can’t take it anymore!” a voice said dramatically somewhere in front of him. “Aizawa was going to introduce you, but since he’s gone, why don’t you do it?”\n\nHe was set in ignoring her, but multiple voices started to join in with hers. The increasing volume reminded him of the headache that was slowly forming into a migraine. \n\n“Alright.” he sighed turning his head back to address the class.  “Im twe- Shinsou Hitoshi.”\n\n Shivers went down his spine as the room suddenly became quiet as they started to analyze him. He saw multiple eyebrows furrow as they looked him over and tried to connect the face to the name.\n\n He himself recognized a couple of the students from his previous job. Both girls that he had interacted with were squinting at him from across the room, and the red haired boy was giving him a big smile from where he sat a couple of seats down. He did feel sweat drip down his back when he noticed the green idiot who tried to take on the Nomu was sitting in front of him as he started to mumble, while the guy who landed at hit on him was sitting behind him with eyes narrowed dangerously. \n\n“What’s your quirk?”  A waving uniform said in one of the front seats.\n\nHe couldn’t help but raise his eyebrows as he saw her. Invisibility wasn’t an extremely rare quirk, but normally is only activated for a couple of minutes tops. He knew one person who could remain invisible as long as he held his breath, but she looked to be continuously invisible. Just as he thought that her quirk would make a great Number, he quickly shook it out of his brain. \n\n“It’s above your pay grade.”\n\n“What?”\n\n \n\n“I’m not going to give away that information for free.” He shrugged. If it was in his power, he would prevent them from ever learning, but if he was going to spend a lot of time with them, he knew it would slip sooner or later. It doesn’t mean he wasn’t going to make them work for it. \n\n“What if we tell you our names and quirks? Then it’d be even.” The pink girl shouted. Before he could agree or disagree, people started to introduce themselves and their quirk at a rapid pace.\n\nHe tried to remember them all, quickly filing away the information for later. He knew the Miasma didn’t have this information. If they did have it,they would have sold it to The League of Villains and perhaps their last mission would have turned out better. \n\nJust as the last person reluctantly grumbled out their name and quirk they all looked at him expectantly.  “I never agreed that I’d tell you my quirk.”\n\nThe collective groan in response was almost worth being here alone. Almost. \n\n“Hey Iida?” The green haired kid in front of him asked. Midoriya if he remembers correctly. “Is this the guy that beat you in hand to hand?”\n\n“N-No! What makes you think that?” Iida spluttered out while waving an arm.  27 clasped his hands together tightly to stop himself from face palming at the blatant lie.\n\n“Well, you said you were with your brother at his friend’s house when it happened. You’re brother is a pro hero, so the odds are high that it was another pro hero. You said he was our age and I can’t imagine anyone not in a hero course beating you.” Midoriya rambled. He leaned forward onto his desk and  made eye contact. 27 straightened his back as the Izuku started to really look him over. “Is that why you’re here? Did Aizawa transfer you to UA to be in the Hero course?”\n\n \n\n“Sure.” He replied instantly. He doesn’t know what Eraser wanted him to tell his students why he was here, they never covered his cover story fully. But this one didn’t seem like a bad one to go with. \n\n“I know you from somewhere.”  The blonde haired kid in front of him said. His eyes were pinpoints as he glared at him. \n\n“No you don’t.” he replied. He couldn't help but feel slightly smug as the kid seemed to grow more frustrated. \n\n“Fuck yes I do.”\n\n“Sure you do Combustible.” He said rolling his eyes. \n\n“What the fuck did you call me?” Bakugou growled dangerously, small explosions were let out as he slammed his hands onto Midoriya’s desk as he stood up.  \n\n“Maybe you should calm down Blasty, it’s not cool to scare the new guy.” a voice said calmly. \n\n“Blasty?” 27 couldn't stop the smirk that started to form on his face as the blond seemed to visibly simmer at the name. He knew he shouldn’t push it, especially with this guy landing a hit on him the last time they met, but this was too easy. “Fulmination, why didn’t you tell me your name was already so interesting?”\n\nHe pulled the neck of his sweater over his to cover his mouth to try to hide his expression better, which he immediately regretted when recognition flashed in Bakugou’s eyes.  His old mask did leave half of his face exposed so he knew they’d would recognize him sooner or later, but he was hoping for later.  It unwittingly pushed it too far by mimicking his mask with jacket. \n\nOne moment Bakugou was in his seat and the next he was reaching for him with his right hand. 27 gripped the wrist and twisted it away from him, letting the oncoming explosion onto his desk and not his face. The other hand came and grabbed at his shirt. Just as he felt the heat bubble  up, he hooked his right arm and pressed it against the inside of Bakugou’s elbow then slid his arm underneath, dislodging the hand as he yanked the arm to the side. He slid out the knife that he kept in his sleeve and  held it against the wrist that he now holding against the table. When Bakugou went to counter, he pressed the knife harder letting it draw up a small line of blood. \n\n“Don’t move Boom Baby. I can cut off your hand before you even lay a finger on me.” 27 growled out when he felt the hand in his twitch. He was slightly lying, he’d be able to do severe damage, but knife isn't sharp enough to cut it off. He was hoping that the importance of the use of his hands for his quirk would be what stops Bakugou from calling his bluff. “I don’t care if I hurt you, consequences mean shit to me. Nothing they or you could do would ruin me.  You however? If you hurt me, in front of an audience this large, it would be a completely different story. Potential hero attacks new student in homeroom class out of anger would be a wonderful title for the school paper, maybe even the actual press. What would that say about your chances of becoming a hero? Do you think that the top hero school would keep you after that? I could land on my feet no matter how this turns out, but what about you?”\n\nThe class was silent as they stared at each other. 27 can hear Bakugou grind his teeth as he glared at him, his lips curled back in a snarl.\n\nIt was a matter of pride at this point. He was at an uncomfortable crouch, hovering over his seat, as he held onto Bakugou. However, he wasn’t going to let go. He wasn’t going to be the first to cave in this small standoff. He doesn’t know what he’s waiting for Bakugou to do but he can wait. \n\n“You were at USJ.” Bakugou snapped at him,breaking the silence.\n\n“Yes I was.” He said  dryly.. He heard a couple of sounds of recognition from the class, but most of them was covered by people yelling for explanations of what Bakugou was talking about.\n\n“He’s the one that did something to shitty hair and round face.”\n\n“Don’t forget to mention yourself Detonation. This is what this is all about right? Can’t admit that you lost to me the last time we met? Is that what made you decide to do a on the spot rematch.”\n\nBakugou growled at him as the class started to erupt around them, yelling and shouting echoing around. He could make out some trying to reason with him to let go of the blond, some asking why there was a villain in the classroom, while some were yelling out how they now recognized him and started to recall some events to the people surrounding them.\n\n“What the hell is going on here?”\n\nHe could hear his heartbeat in his ears as he heard the anger coloring Erasers voice. The room abruptly went quiet, but he still didn’t look away from the red eyes in front of him to see what’s going on. He was slightly concerned that his bluff wouldn’t work, and if he looked away, the last thing he’d see were those red eyes.  He was relieved that Eraser was back, no longer have to make his own cover story even though it got ruined, no longer without direction on what to do. He could live with whatever consequences Eraser gives him for his actions as long as he could get him out of this situation. \n\n27 kept his eyes on the now red faces Bakugou as he heard Iida quickly gave shorthand version of the what happened to Eraser. \n\n“I leave for fifteen minutes.” Eraser mumbled from the front of the classroom.  “Shinsou, didn’t we agree to keep the knife at home?”\n\n“We did.” he replied dryly, keeping his grip tight. \n\n“Then why did you bring it here?”\n\n“I did leave that knife at the apartment. This is a different one.”\n\n“Where did you get that one?”\n\n“The box of knives.”\n\nShinsou heard the Midoriya mutter if all underground heroes have boxes of knives laying around and if it was a requirement, he then started to wonder why they’ve never seen Eraser use a knife. \n\n“We’ll talk more about this later,” Eraser proposed when Bakugou’s hands started to spark up in irritation. “Let him go.”\n\nHe pulled the knife back before Eraser even finished his sentence. Bakugou snatched his hand back and looked like he was about to say something, but was quickly cut off by Eraser. \n\n“Shinsou give me the knife and since All Might owes me,  you can stay with him for a couple of minutes while I explain.”\n\nOnly at the mention of his name, did 27 notice All Might standing in the doorway. He odd combination of emotions running across  his face. He looked slightly shocked, nervous, and confused before it was replaced with his signature smile when he saw him looking.  He gave him that same smile after he handed Eraser the knife and followed All Might into the hallway. \n\nThis was his chance to make it big with Miasma, solidify his spot as a Number, no longer be useless, no longer have to worry about what happens next. If he could get the smallest bit of information on this guy, directly from the source, he could be safe.\n\n“So Entire Maybe,” 27 said as soon as the door closed.\n\n“Oh! Is this your names? Mic told me about that. But might is more like power or strength or force!” All Might boomed as he flexed one of his arms. 27 felt his body vibrate at the power behind his voice. He wouldn’t doubt that it echoed across the campus.\n\n“Sure thing Completely Perchance, but I was wondering.”\n\n“Yes?”\n\nThe words suddenly died on his tongue as he looked up at the smiling hero. He couldn’t do it. He knew All Might would probably survive anything that any of the Miasma’s clients may throw at him, but he couldn’t help but have images of the Nomu pop into his head. \n\nIt was surprisingly a close call for the hero, the Nomu had almost defeated him. Sure All Might ended up defeating him, but the monster could be improved upon. The League of Villains saw first hand and know the potential of those things. They did make them after all and who’s to say they have stopped making them? Their next batch would be stronger than the last. If it was stronger, it could actually accomplish what the other didn't, kill All Might. \n\nHaving the guilt of telling Miasma about Toshinori was still slowly wearing him down, he doesn’t think he can take on more for today. He knows the potential information he gets from All Might could be worth a lot, but it wouldn't change Toshinori’s position. He’d still be in the same predicament. All Might’s information would be worth a lot more than Toshinori’s and It would be cheaper for clients to take what they want from Toshinori than buy Miasma’s information on All Might.  \n\nMiasma probably already let it known they have some information about All Might, so they couldn’t take back what they know about Toshinori or risk their credibility. No matter what, he screwed Toshinori over.  He hasn’t been able to handle the guilt with Toshinori, he doesn't think he can handle handing in over All Might also. \n\n“Never mind.” He mumbled out, shifting his weight from one foot to another as All Might’s grin seemed to grow.\n\n“All right, why don’t I take you to the teachers lounge? I have to go back to teaching, but I can drop you off along the way.”\n\n“Sure.”\n\n“Hm, I think someone is in there right now. I can’t remember who, but I’m sure they wouldn’t mind watching you until Eraserhead is done. Maybe you can find something fun to do while you wait.”\n\n“Lets hope.” he mumbled sarcastically as he followed the towering hero down the hall."}
+{"text": "We reached the boat ramp at the lake and as I got ready to back the boat into the water Sally climbed on board. “How long will it take you to get there?” she asked as I put the plug in the back of the boat.\n\n“At least an hour and a half. “I said as I looked up at her standing by the wheel. The way the sun was shining on her I could make out her dark nipples through the material of her halter-top as I smiled up at her. You sure you want to take the boat up and not the truck?”\n\n“Yes! I hate driving with the trailer bouncing all over back there. Besides it will only take me about 20 minutes to get there and I can drink a cold beer while I wait for you!”\n\n“Ok then give me a kiss and I will see you in a while!” I stepped up to the side of the 26’ day curser as she bent over the side and kissed me. “I love you baby!”\n\nWe kissed and I got in the truck and backed it and the boat into the water. Sally fired up the 350 Chevy and I watched as she backed the boat slowly off the trailer. She waved to me as she backed out and then turned up out giving the big boat the gas and was soon around a point of land and out of sight. I pulled back onto the highway and in a couple of spots got a glimpse of her speeding up the lake until the road turned away from the shoreline.\n\nAn hour and forty-five minutes later I pulled off of the highway and down onto what was basically a cow path the led to an old rusted gate. Sally and I had bought the land 10 years earlier and had hopes of putting a house up on it some day but for now it was just where we went camping. It was still a mile down to the water from the gate and the old road was so rough it took another 15 minutes to get down to where I found Sally setting down an ice chest under a shade canopy she had set up!\n\nI parked and then walked over to her. Sally was sweating lightly giving her soft skin a slight shine as she pulled 2 beers from the ice chest and plopped her butt down on it. “Dam next time I’m driving the truck! I didn’t realize what all you had to do to set things up before I would get here!” she smiled as she ran the cold beer can between her breasts as she looked at me. “If you get the tent set up I will set up the stove and then we will be ready for dinner right after we take a swim!”\n\nWe went about or work and in no time I was picking up a towel and walking to the cool water. I stopped by the boat where Sally had beached it and pulled off my sweaty T-shirt and threw it onto the bow. “You going to put on your suit?” I called to Sally as I turned to watch her walking to me.\n\n“Nope, I wasn’t going to. Do I need to.” She smiled at me knowing I wanted to see what she had bought. “You’ll see it soon enough but for now I’m going to show you another kind of suit! MY BIRTHDAY SUIT!”\n\nI watched as she untied her top pulling it off as she waded out into the water. She stopped as it reached her knees and pulled off her Daisy Dukes and rinsed them both out in the water. I must have been standing with my mouth open as I watched her breasts hanging and swaying back and forth and how her nipples stiffened as she splashed water on her self! “What? You look like you have never seen me with out cloths on before!”\n\nMy dick was getting stiff as I pulled off my own shorts and tossed them with my shirt. “I tried for years to get you to go skinny dipping and you wouldn’t even do it at night! Now here you are standing right out in broad daylight as naked as you can be! Fuck Sally! YOU LOOK HOT!”\n\nShe smiled at me splashing water at me. “No kids!” She said and turned diving in the cool water and swam out the few yards to a floating dock I had built for the kids to swim around and play on. She pulled her self out of the water and stood there nude smiling at me. “Well are you coming?” she called.\n\n“All most!” I yelled back at her as I dove in and swam out to her.\n\nI climbed up the ladder to find her lying on her back letting the after noon sun shine on her, in my eyes, perfect body! We sat there talking softly to each other until we could hear a bass boat coming across the lake. I thought Sally would slip into the water but instead she just waved at the 2 guys on it as they whooped going by!\n\nWe had lain there long enough to dry out and sense neither of us had any sunscreen on spots that had never seen the light of day before I said. “Come on. I am hungry and we both need to put some cream on or we will be in trouble!”\n\nSally stood up laughing. “Yes we don’t want to burn that pecker do we?”\n\n“Oh hell no!” I said as she dove into the water with me right behind her.\n\nNeither of us put any thing on enjoying the freedom and each other as after noon turned into evening and then night. We roasted marshmallows and ate them like kids and really for the first time in years found out that we not only love each other we liked one another!\n\n“You know I love my kids but I think I like not having them around.” She said with a smile as she stuck a gob of half burnt marshmallow into her mouth and shook her tits at me in the fire light.\n\n“Yea, it’s almost to bad Mark and Tina are coming up.” I ran my hand over her shoulder enjoying the softness of her skin. “I would like to spend the whole weekend like this!”\n\n“Well, most of what I brought to wear is a little more reveling than you might think and Tina knows about it because she was with me when I went shopping.” She stood up stretching, pushing her breasts out as she did. “And I think you will be happy with what she bought as well! Now come to bed with me and rub some cream into my back!”\n\nWe went into the ten and I picked up the cream as Sally lay on her tummy. I began working the cream into her skin starting on her shoulders and working down to her bare bottom. “Does she know about our new found fun?” I worked more cream into my palms and then worked from the small of her back down over her ass cheeks puling them open and letting my thumbs slip into her crease! “Yes, a little. Umm baby easy!” I worked down in between her thighs and with a soft sigh Sally opened her legs giving me complete access to her woman hood! I worked my fingers into her slowly opening her, spreading her vagina lips as I let my thumb bump into her now exposed clit.\n\n“Are you hard baby?”\n\n“Oh yes!” I said\n\n“Do you want to be in me?”\n\n“Yes!”\n\n“Now?”\n\n“Yes!”\n\n“Lay down.”\n\nI did as she asked and felt her set up in the darkness of the tent.\n\n“Here!” Sally took my dick in her hand. “Let’s put it in!” she let it slip into her wet hole as she guided it in sinking slowly down on me. She leaned forward letting her clit grind into my pubic mound as she kissed me. “Is this what you wanted?” She pinched my nipples as she began to mike me with her pussy muscles. “Did you want me to fuck you?”\n\nSally had never talked much in sex and had never been the aggressor before and I suddenly found I was very close to coming! “Yes, yes I like it very much!” I whispered to her as she bit and nibbled on my neck!\n\nDo you want to cum in me?”\n\nI pushed up into her as she moved on me for the first time. “Oh god baby! Oh!” was all I could say.\n\n“That’s it give me what I want! I’m ready Sammy cum in me!” I let out a groan as the first shot of milky hot liquid shot out of me and in to her! “That’s it baby fill me up with it! Oh yes I want it in me Sam!” I rolled her onto her back and began to pound into her as I shot the last of me seed deep into her belly!\n\nSuddenly as fast as it came it was gone and I felt like she had ripped my guts out! All I could do was lay trembling on her as she stroked my face and hair. “That’s it baby I feel you in me! I feel how hot you are and how hot your cum is in me!” I started to move but she pulled me back tight to her breasts. “No! Stay here! Let me enjoy feeling you Sam!”\n\nWe lay like that until I went soft and slipped out of my wife. My dick was sticky with cum as I move to the side kissing her. “What about you? Let me do it for you!”\n\nShe pulled my face to hers kissing me softly. No just hold me! You gave me what I wanted this time! “You can make me cum next time.” She kissed me again. “Now go to sleep my love!” and I did holding her close to me!\n\n"}
+{"text": "\nChapter Three\n\n\nShe couldn’t seem to relax.  Her father and Ray were talking about the house, about the business and the island, but Felicity was aware of only one thing. \n\nShe could see him at the edge of their property, an ax cutting through the air every few minutes with a solid thwack, split logs falling to the ground after every swing.  She watched the swing of his arms and tried not to marvel at the smoothness of the action.  The muscles of his back rippled beneath his skin with each movement.\n\n“It really is beautiful here.  The view… it’s spectacular.”\n\nHer father smirked, “Most beautiful place on earth, if you ask me.  And the house, well, we’re proud of what we have here.  The girls, when they were young, liked to tell everyone we lived in a castle.  With the turret, of course, it resembles one.  Laurel’s room was up there and I cannot begin to tell you how many fights I had to break up because those two couldn’t agree who got to be the princess.”\n\n“Princess Felicity, huh?” Ray teased, the smile on his face genuine.\n\nIt seemed that he and her father got along well enough and being around her dad had eased some of the tension between them.\n\n“Laurel was the oldest so she seemed to think it was her birthright to be the princess all the time,” she explained, “She always wanted me to be the evil queen.”\n\nRay and her dad laughed and she found herself relaxing ever so slightly.  When her mom stepped outside with a tray of muffins, Felicity reached for one to distract herself.\n\n“Mom’s muffins are famous,” Felicity explained, peeling back the wrapper, “Everyone on the island orders baskets of them for bridal showers and baby showers and any other occasion they can use as an excuse.  You’ve got to try the banana – no nuts, of course- they’re my favorite.”\n\nShe took a bite and fought to hold back the moan of appreciation that wanted to leave her lips.  It had been a long time since she’d had one of her mom’s famous muffins. \n\n“I myself happen to be partial to the carrot, Ray,” her dad told him, “But they’re all great.  Donna is a wonderful baker.  One of the many reasons why I married her.”\n\nAs they ate their breakfast, Felicity’s eyes traveled around the porch.  It was easy to spot the simple changes that had been made, the balustrades that she and Laurel had broken when they were young had been replaced and the chipped paint was no longer chipped but fresh and new.  Several floorboards that had once been loose were as steady as ever and the steps leading into the freshly mowed yard had been completely replaced.  It seemed that Oliver had done well for the money her parents were paying him.\n\n“There are still a few things that we’d like to see finished before winter rears her ugly head but it’s getting there,” her father was telling Ray, “A few of the upstairs windows need replaced but Ollie can’t manage it all by himself.  Unfortunately, I just don’t have time the time to help him out.”\n\nShe didn’t hear Ray’s reply.  She stood and took a cup of coffee from the tray her mother had set on the table, ambling down the steps and into the yard.\n\nThe wooded area behind her family home was a vibrant painting of red and gold, the leaves turning as autumn was quickly fading into winter.  It had always been her favorite time on the island, the short few weeks before the trees became bear and snow threatened. \n\n“Are you alright?”\n\nThe sound of his voice jumpstarted her heart and Felicity clapped her hand over her breast.  Oliver stood behind her, a respectable distance between them, but she felt the heat of him as if he were actually touching her.  She hadn’t meant to wander so close to where he’d been cutting wood but her feet had carried her to him of their own accord.  She found herself unable to remove her eyes from his.\n\n“I’m fine.”\n\nHis face was still that same cold mask that he had greeted her with previously but his eyes had warmed and she saw a bit of her Oliver there.\n\nHe looked away, lifting the ax still in his hands, and swung.\n\nFelicity moved to step away from him but as her eyes took him in one last time, she caught sight of the swirling black ink etched on his ribcage.  It wasn’t his only tattoo, he had several including a crude dragon on his left shoulder blade, but this one was different.  She reached for him without thought, catching his arm with her fingers tight on his elbow.  He lowered the ax, setting it aside, and angled himself to face her fully.\n\n“What is it, Felicity?”\n\nShe felt a series of emotions pass through her, warring for dominance, but her heart couldn’t settle on one.\n\n“Lift up your arm.”\n\nHis eyes widened and there was a hint of warning in his tone.\n\n“Felicity.”\n\nShe grasped his elbow more tightly and drew him forward.  He didn’t resist her, lifting his arm over his head to grant her the access that she’d requested.\n\nHer breath caught as her hand rose to drift across the intricate script.  She was trembling.  She recognized the word for what it was, a name only Oliver had ever dared to call her.\n\nFlick.\n\nFelicity released his arm as if she’d been burned and stumbled away.  She half expected him to come after her, to stop her retreat and tell her that it would be okay, that they would be okay.  But his voice, when it came, was hollow and broken.\n\n“Felicity, don’t.”\n\nShe shook her head, her damp eyes stinging, and retreated another step.\n\n“Felicity, please, please don’t cry,” he pleaded.\n\nShe felt something inside of her shattering.  Every instinct told her to run toward him, to draw him into her arms and to allow him to do the same to her.  Ten years worth of pain had been bottled up inside of her so deep that if uncorked, she knew she would explode.  It was buried in her bones, hidden in their depths, and seeing him there before her brought it rushing to the surface.  She couldn’t control the tear filled sob that escaped her.  But she was able to stop the next from coming.\n\n“Why?  Why would you stay away, Oliver?  Why didn’t you want me to know that you were here?  That you –“\n\nThe hurt in his eyes cut her.  The pain he so obviously wanted to hide couldn’t stay hidden forever.\n\n“Felicity.”\n\nShe shook her head, “Why?  Answer the question, Oliver, please.  Why?”\n\nFor a moment she thought that he would explain.  Instead, he retrieved the ax from where it had been discarded and left her standing there alone.  Tears dampened her cheeks.\n\nWhen she moved this time, it wasn’t to return to where she’d left Ray with her father on the porch.  Felicity rounded the house instead, bypassing a confrontation that would undoubtedly leave her in pieces, and entered through the front door.  She dropped onto the sofa in the sitting room and closed her eyes, clutching her head in her hands.\n\n“Oh, baby, I’m sorry.”\n\nHer mother’s arms wrapped around her and Felicity leaned into the warmth.  Tears continued to trek down her cheeks.  They had been on Star Island for less than six hours and everything she had thought she’d buried deep was being dragged to the surface.  If she had only known what she was coming home to, she never would’ve returned.  Certainly not with Ray in tow.\n\nWiping her face on her sleeve, she leveled her mother with an accusatory glare.\n\n“Why didn’t you tell me?”\n\nHer mom sighed, “Sweetheart, Oliver asked us not to.  And before you go and tell me that, as your mother, I should’ve told you anyway, I couldn’t do that to him.  We don’t know what he’s been through.  He’s been gone for a very long time and I think that this is a lot harder for him than any of us can imagine.”\n\n“Has he told you anything?  Where has he been?  Do you or Daddy know what happened to him?”\n\n“As far as I know, he hasn’t really been open with anyone.  For the better part of six years, Moira has been begging for information about him.  She just needed someone to tell her if he was dead or alive and when word finally came that he’d been declared missing in action, that was the end of it.  I haven’t spoken to her much since… since you left the island but they continued searching for him even after the ruling came down,” Donna explained, “We all thought that he was gone.  But he turned up on Moira’s doorstep a couple of months ago and –“\n\n“Months?”\n\nFelicity’s surprised gasp cut her mother off.  Those familiar blue eyes were full of sympathy, empathy, and even a bit of contrition.  He had been home for months and no one had bothered to tell her.\n\nThe screen door bounced roughly off of its frame as someone stepped inside and Felicity’s head turned at the sound.  Ray stood there, the tension in his shoulders evident again, as he watched her with her mom. \n\n“I’ll leave you two to talk.”\n\nShe watched her mother exit the room and a moment later, Ray took the spot beside her that had been vacated.\n\n“Felicity, what’s going on?  I’ve never seen you like this.  Crying and… and withdrawn.  This isn’t the girl that I know.”               \n\nShe couldn’t respond.  He was right.  This wasn’t her.  At least, as far as Ray knew, she wasn’t this girl.  Vulnerable and weak and a walking disaster.  The woman that Ray had known for the duration of their relationship was headstrong and witty and brilliant and dedicated.  She was a mask that Felicity had donned in the face of tragedy.  She had walked away from everyone and everything and she had become someone else in order to survive. \n\nRay deserved to hear the truth.  He was trying to be patient, to be understanding, but the fact that she had done a complete one eighty in such a short period of time clearly had him worried.\n\nShe took a slow, even breath and willed away the pain that encompassed her heart.\n\n“God, I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean to turn into this emotional mess the minute we got here.  Obviously being back on the island is bringing up some stuff that I’d thought I’d let go.  Apparently not, if the waterworks are any indication, but look, I’m good now.  Promise.  I’m fine.”\n\nHis eyes on her were challenging her to show him that her words were a lie but she held her ground, affixing a plastic smile on her face and forcing her shoulders to relax.\n\n“Okay,” he sighed, “But if it gets to be too much, just remember that we can leave whenever we want.  There’s a car waiting at the port that will take us back to Coast City.  Just say the word.”\n\nFelicity stood and held out her hand to him.  He took it without hesitation.\n\n“Let’s get out of here for a little while,” she urged, “We can go for a ride.  I can show you the island.”\n\nHe grinned down at her, his free hand brushing a loose strand of hair behind her ear.\n\n“You can ride a bike?” he teased, “I’ve seen you trip over your own two feet more times than I can count.  Are you sure it’s safe?”\n\nShe snorted, “Thanks for the vote of confidence, Palmer.  And I’ll have you know, I used to ride my bike everywhere.  I mean, I didn’t even learn to drive until I went away to college.  I didn’t need to.”\n\nThey left through the front door and Felicity led him to the shed at the side of the house where her father had always kept the spare bicycles that guests of the inn could use freely.  Mounting the bikes, they rode away from the house, up Murray Hill and along the bluff overlooking Star Harbor. \n\n“The old saying really is true,” she called to Ray where he rode a few yards ahead of her, “You know, about never forgetting how to ride a bike?  I haven’t done this in years!”\n\nHis laugh carried back to her on the wind.  It felt good to do something normal, something that had been a part of her life for as long as she could remember, and as the wind stung her cheeks, the plastic smile she’d put on for Ray gave way to a real one.\n\nWhen they paused to rest a few minutes later, she was breathing hard and her face hurt from laughing.\n\n“I can’t believe you’ve stayed away this long, Felicity,” Ray said again, “This place is …”\n\nHe shook his head and the smile he gave her was full of wonder.  She felt a small fluttering in her chest.  He was an attractive man, truly, with rich dark hair and a beautiful smile.  She had been drawn to his charm and intellect.  He understood her, understood the work that she did and the way that her mind worked.  They made sense together, she and Ray, but just because they worked on paper, didn’t mean that they could love one another.  It didn’t mean that she could love him. \n\nFelicity cleared her throat and looked away, uncomfortable with where her thoughts had suddenly wandered.\n\nThe moment she realized where they had ended up, her heart jumped in her throat.\n\n“Ray, this is… this is the Queen house.  This is Queen Manor.”\n\nUnlike her parents’ home, the house where Oliver had grown up really did resemble a castle.  It’s gothic architecture and stone walls made the home seem dark and cold and even though the inside wasn’t as harsh, Felicity had never felt comfortable there.\n\n“Is that his mother?  Oliver’s, I mean.”\n\nShe saw Moira Queen too late, realizing that the other woman had seen her as well and that she couldn’t leave without speaking to her.\n\n“It is.  Look, I – I really should say hello.  I’ll be just a minute if you want to wait.”\n\nRay caught her hand, squeezing her fingers, and glanced over at Oliver’s mother.\n\n“It’s okay.  I’ll head back to the inn.  Why don’t you meet me there when you’re done?”\n\nShe nodded, “I won’t be long.”\n\nThe moment he’d descended the crest of Murray Hill, she turned her attention to the home where her best friend had grown up.  A home she had visited many times over.  Moira Queen was expecting her."}
+{"text": "When Bucky wakes up, he immediately knows something is wrong. It’s partially because he’s locked up in Bruce’s safety room, sure, but he also feels like he���s waking up from a long sleep in a way he hasn’t since Steve called his name in DC.\n\nSpeaking of Steve, Steve is staring at him with hard eyes and a broken nose, and that’s his last clue. He must have lost the fight against the Winter Soldier. Shame engulfs him. He looks away from Steve and asks, “What happened?” \n\n“Do you remember anything?”\n\n“Not really.”\n\nSteve looks relieved for some reason, then starts explaining. “Last night, you remembered that y—the Winter Soldier killed Tony’s parents.”\n\nBucky reels back in shock, and memories start trickling in. Howard and Maria, Tony looking at him with dull eyes, Steve—Steve?\n\nSteve is still talking, his voice emotionless and clinical—“I decided not to tell him, but the Winter Soldier did, so he punched me in the face—” and Bucky feels a flash of irritation amid the numbness, because for all they had been talking about not hiding from their problems, Steve had not only done that but had pushed it onto Tony. Oh well. He had never really expected Steve to change. \n\nExcept for he had, hadn’t he? Because the last memory he has is of Steve basically admitting to loving Tony (“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he had said, but Bucky has known Steve long enough to know that his eye twitches slightly when he’s lying), and the old Steve would never have loved someone other than Bucky.\n\nSo when the doors are opened, he bolts down to the gym, and he doesn’t look at Steve. Steve, who said he loved him, but who loves Tony. Steve, who looked relieved when he said he couldn’t remember anything. Steve, who gets angry when he talks about Tony’s soulmates, and looks at Tony like he hung the sun, and crap, Bucky’s been so oblivious. He supposes it’s not something he’d have even thought to look for.\n\nBut it also makes sense, in a strange kind of way, he thinks detachedly as he beats up a training dummy. Steve had thought he was gone, and Steve was here with Tony for at least a year before Bucky came back. He was here for six months before he knew Bucky was even alive. And Tony is bright and vivacious and smart and wounded, and Bucky is surprised at how fond he is of Tony even knowing that he’s taken his soulmate away.\n\nOr, well. Not exactly. Even if he didn’t know when Steve was lying, Tony is utterly incapable of it altogether. He’d know if they were doing something. Tony would never say anything anyway, too convinced of his worthlessness, and really, Tony probably doesn’t know. If Bucky is oblivious, Tony is ten times more so.\n\nAnd the other thing is, Steve hadn’t been lying when he said he loved Bucky. Maybe he meant like a friend, or…maybe Steve just loves both of them. Bucky knows it’s possible; after all, people in three-way bonds work it out just fine. Like Tony’s, and isn’t that just the kicker, because Steve just had to fall in love with someone already destined to be with two other people.\n\nSomething nags at the back of his mind, and he can almost hear the Winter Soldier chuckle. He pushes the thought away blindly, distracting himself by idly wondering what Tony’s soulmates’ words are. Must be from the voice program, because he highly doubts sign shows up. Probably something snappy and smart like the man himself. Like “Either I’m having a visual hallucination or I should run away screaming now”—what? Bucky shakes his head. That’s…that’s Tony’s first words to him, not—okay, the news must have messed him up more than he thought. Tony isn’t his soulmate. \n\nAnyway, the point is he sort of gets why Steve fell for the guy. Why have a partially brainwashed wreck of a man when you can have—well, Tony is a wreck too, but he’s not brainwashed at least, that’s a plus. If he’s being honest with himself, he could see himself doing the same in the same situation. He thinks back to the time he called Tony ‘punk’, the banter so familiar, so comfortable that he slipped and called Tony the nickname he usually reserves for Steve. Yeah. He understands.\n\nHe understands, but that doesn’t make him any less sad. He and Steve had the perfect relationship. They had to hide most of the time, sure, but in front of people who knew and understood, they were the perfect couple—the kind of sweet that made people shake their head in public and envy them in private. Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes, America’s sweethearts.\n\nBut things change. Bucky changed. Steve has changed, as much as Bucky pretends he can’t. And maybe that was always more for him than it was for Steve. Because if Steve was the same, the same unflappable, immoveable rock, then maybe even if Bucky was broken, things could be okay.\n\nBut they are both broken, and things aren’t okay.\n\n----------------\n\nWhen he goes back up to his room to change out of his sweaty clothes, his weapons are gone. All of them. He supposes he can’t blame them for feeling unsafe—he doesn’t feel safe from himself, either—but he can’t help but miss the comfort of having a knife or six at hand.\n\nHe finds an additional surprise when he opens up his and Steve’s shared underwear drawer, puts on his boxers, and feels a prickling, well…everywhere. Natasha, because it must have been Natasha, had been very thorough. He storms downstairs, and Natasha just smiles calmly and says she didn’t know which ones were Steve’s, sorry.\n\n(Steve’s are on the left, with his name sewn into the label. It’s an obvious lie. He allows it, but obviously he still runs a load of laundry immediately.)\n\nA week after the whole thing, Bucky finally decides he’s ready to go downstairs and talk to Tony about what happened. But when he tries, the elevator button flashes red and refuses to move. He pauses. He guesses he’s not shocked that Tony doesn’t want to see him, the man who wears the face of his parents’ killer, but he’s not happy, either. Tony’s not going to solve anything by avoiding him—or Steve, who he understands has been blocked all along and has been well reprimanded for it by both Pepper and Rhodes. Steve keeps trying, though, doggedly keeping at it day after day, rejection after rejection, so Bucky decides he might as well do the same. At different times, though. He hasn’t really seen Steve much since it happened.\n\nHe can tell Steve is hurt by it, by their empty bed. He just doesn’t know how to face him knowing that Steve is in love with someone else. But more importantly, and the real reason he’s been sleeping on a cot in the gym, is that he is terrified knowing that he could fall asleep one day and wake up the Winter Soldier, knowing that he could lose control. He can’t do that to Steve. So, even though he also knows he’s being incredibly hypocritical telling Tony to face his problems when he can’t even do the same, he sleeps in the gym next to a tranquilizer that he nicked from Natasha (sorry, Natasha, I didn’t know which one was yours!), and he stays away from Steve, and he thinks privately that maybe this is all for the best. Because maybe it doesn’t mean he gets to be happy, but at least Steve can be when he realizes that he doesn’t want Bucky anymore. And he’s not fine, but he hasn’t been fine for a while. He manages.\n\nThen, two weeks and two days after the Winter Soldier showed up, Tony lets him and Steve back into his lab."}
+{"text": "I walked into the kitchen to find my wife Sally standing by the counter talking on the phone. I felt my self lengthen as I ran my eyes over her 5 foot 9 inch frame as she stood there in a short white pleated tennis skirt and a white peasant blouse with white three inch heals making her all ready long legs look even longer! It was easy to see that she was braless as her 36b breasts pushed out the thin white material of her top showing me her dark nipples! She smiled at me as she talked and I smiled back as I watched her nip’s grow hard under my gaze!\n\nSally hung up the phone and went to the fridge. “Hi baby! Want a beer?”\n\n“Umm, yes that would be nice!” I said as I watched her bend over just enough to let me see the cheeks of her ass. “Say are you being sexy for me to night or did your boy friend just leave?”\n\nShe smiled as she walked over to me giving me a kiss me as she sat down my beer. “Yep you walked in the front as he walked out the back! Fucked me good and hard to!” she laughed. “You ass hole you know it’s only for you!”\n\nI took her hand putting it on my bulging pants. “Well it worked! Are you wearing any panties?”\n\n“Good I very much wanted to turn you on and no I am not! Now what do you want for dinner?” She kissed me again then stepped back looking at me waiting for an answer.\n\n“You know what? Why don’t we go out?” I said as she looked at me.\n\n“Ok,” I could see her face cloud up and knew she was trying hard not to loose it after dressing just for me. “Umm ok then, I’ll go change.” She had turned away from me when I stopped her.\n\n“Wait baby! You didn’t let me finish!” Sally had not ever turned down a dare or bet in the 15 years we had been married and I was hoping that would not change now as I felt my self-dripping in my pants. “I dare you to stay dressed just as you are!”\n\nSally turned back to me and standing with her legs spread to shoulder width she put her hands on her hips and said, “What are you saying?”\n\n“I’m saying I dare you to stay dressed just as you are and go out to dinner with me! I am saying you won’t do it!” I smile knowing I had her!\n\nShe rocked from side to side as she looked at me. “It has to be worth more than just dinner, and what, well how am I going to, what if some one sees me like this? Some one we know!”\n\n“You just have to not bend over, that’s all!” I could see her thinking hard about it as she walked back over to the bar. “What else will it cost me?” I asked.\n\n“You have to take me to the beach tomorrow!”\n\nFuck I hate the beach! “Done!” I stuck out my hand and she shook it. “And you can pick the restaurant and it can be dark if you want!” I smiled at her as I finished my beer and stood up. “I will give you that!”\n\nI really thought Sally would be a little shyer than she turned out to be as she picked up her purse. “Do I need this?”\n\n“Nope lets go!” and I was right when we got to the door!\n\n“I don’t know Sam!” she lifted up the back of her dress showing me her bare ass cheeks as she stopped and stood in front of me. “I really don’t have anything on!”\n\n“Well ok, wait right here!” I rushed back to our bedroom and to her panty drawer. I knew what I was looking for and found them right away stuffed into the back of the dresser. I almost ran back into the hallway! “Ok come with me!”\n\nI was so excited I was trembling as we walked out to my truck. Stopping at the passenger’s door I held out the T-back thong panties I had picked out for her! They were made of white silk and very tine! In fact the last time I has seen her in them they just covered the front of her slit not going up over her pubic mound at all and the back was nothing more than a string!\n\n“You can wear these if you want to but you have to either put them on here out in the parking lot of the restaurant or the bet is off!”\n\n“Honey!” Sally looked around and all though the truck was in our drive way the house next door had a good view of us standing there talking. Her breathing had changed making her breasts move on her chest as she looked past me at the neighbors’ house!\n\n“Nope that’s the bet!”\n\nSally got a defiant look in her eyes as she looked at my cock straining to get out of my pants. “You really are liking this aren’t you?” She looked around again then back at me and looking me in the eye she pulled her skirt up high around her waist fully exposing her closely trimmed blond bush and ass to any one looking as she stepped one leg at a time into the panties and pulled them up! She held her skirt up as she adjusted them and then smiled at me as she let it fall into place!\n\n“Is that what you wanted?”\n\n“God Sally! Yes!”\n\nShe opened the truck door and made a big deal of getting as I watched her pull her skirt up high so I could see her little panties as she sat there. We talked about the day’s events as we drove to the restaurant never bringing up how she was dressed or that it was really turning me on and it wasn’t until I pulled into the driveway she realized it was vale parking!\n\nSally looked at me with a question on her face and when all I did was smile at her she smiled shaking her head and left her skirt bunched up so her panties and long legs on display as I pulled to a stop! I watched the young mans face as he rushed up to open the truck door for her and almost tripped as he got a look at my wife’s panties and exposed pussy showing through them as she opened her legs! “Thank you.” She breathed as she stuck her leg out to the ground not closing them until her toes lightly touch the concrete and she slipped out! His eyes went to her breasts as she let her skirt fall into place and smoothed it out as she waited for me to get around to her! Her cheeks were flushed as I kissed her softly and with trembling hands hooked her arm in mine as we walked into the place.\n\nSally was quiet as we waited for our table and as I looked around I only saw one person looking at her and it was a lady. When we had been seated she looked at me. “Umm, is there something I need to know about all of this? I mean we have been married for a lot of years and I have never seen you like this!”\n\n“Well, you know I have always liked it when you would wear skimpy things for me.”\n\n“I know but not like this!” She put her hand on top of mine on the table. “Sam do you want me to expose my self to other men?” She moved over a chair setting next to me. “Is this what this is all about?” She got a shocked look on her face. “Oh God! Do you want me to fuck other guys?”\n\n“NO!” I looked around not wanting to be heard. “No way is any one to touch you but me,” I looked into her eyes. “But it just makes me crazy hot thinking of you showing off like this! It has always been something I have wanted you to do but I didn’t want you to think, well what your thinking! Sally I am so worked up I could cum in my pants!”\n\nOur drinks came and as the waiter sat them on the table he couldn’t take his eyes from her breasts! Sally leaned back giving him a better look as she smiled up at him before he turned to walk away. She looked back at me. Is that what you wanted?”\n\n“Yes!” I breathed\n\n“She leaned into me kissing me softly. “If I told you I liked it what would you say?”\n\n“I love you!”\n\n“Well I am very, very wet and I don’t know if I can wait to get home!”\n\n“Then lets don’t!” I stood up. “Come on we can get something later!”\n\nI threw some money on the table and watched as Sally stood up not pushing her dress down in back leaving her naked ass exposed until she had taken a couple of steps and then she smiled at me as she adjusted it! We walked out and the kid had not even moved my truck yet it was happening so fast! Sally waited for him to open her door and as she sat down gave him the same show just in reverse letting him look at her crotch as she put her left leg in and with just enough hesitation she lifted up the other smiling at him like she didn’t know what she was doing!\n\nI didn’t even have us out of the drive way as she pulled my stiff cock out of my pants and started to slowly pull on it. “Tell me about this new game, my love.” She said as I tried to think about driving and not her hand!\n\n“I don’t know sweet hart! I just like the idea some one might get a look at you that’s all! I mean to night might have been a little over the top but god I loved it! I mean did you see what you did to that kid!”\n\nI looked to the side to see Sally smiling. “He was a little excited!” she said.\n\n“A little! Hell he will be pounding it for a month thinking about you!”\n\n“Pull over!”\n\nI did as she asked stopping under some trees as she slipped off the little panties letting them fall into the floorboard. “Slide over here!” She said and as I did she lifted up and slid over me still facing the front. “I want you in me!” Was all she said as she took my cock in her hand and guided it into her soaking wet hole!\n\nSally was trembling as she sat down on me taking me all the way to her womb in one long slow move! “Oh god!” came from her as I hit bottom and I could feel her fingers as she started pulling on her own clit! She leaned forward putting one hand on the dash pushing me even deeper into her hot love canal as she began to milk me with her pussy muscles! She wasn’t moving on me at all and didn’t need to as she pulled on and then strummed her clit with her finger!\n\n“Oh god Sammy you have made me a slut! Oh baby I am so close! Wanting to show it o, o ohhh godddd! Yeessss baby! OHHHhhhhhhh shit! Fuck me!”\n\nShe lifted up off of me just enough to give me room to pump into her as she came her juices leaking out over my dick and down my balls!\n\n“Yes that’s it baby fuck me! Oohhhhhh!” I pistoned into her as the cars and trucks sped past us on the road!\n\n“I’m coming Sally! OOOOOOOOOOhhhhhhhhhhhh!” I pushed as deep into my wife as I could trying to push my cum into her belly! “Ooohhh god!” Rope after rope of my hot seed shot into her and mixed with her own juices as she leaned on the dash with one hand and tried to turn to kiss me!\n\n“Oh holed me sweet hart!” She said as my dick spurted the last gob of my love into her!\n\nI cupped her breasts as she leaned back into my chest and I kissed the back of her neck. We sat like that as my cock grew soft and slipped out of her and our mixed juices ran from her and over my balls!\n\nSally kissed me as she slipped off of my lap. “Well I guess we have some things to talk about when we get home then don’t we?” she said with a smile as I moved back behind the wheel!\n\n“Yes I guess we do!”\n\n"}
+{"text": "© 2006 by Mike Yevchekov\n\nAll rights reserved. No part may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any electronic means, including photocopying, recording or by any information and retrieval system, without the written permission of the author.\n\n*\n\nOpening:\n\nMy name is Steve and moved in with my girlfriend about four months ago. Heather is as close to perfect as anyone can become, and yes I do realize how lucky I am having a woman like her in my life. She's sexy and intelligent and man does she love sex. Heather is around five four with a small frame, and I think B Cups. She has curly hair just past her shoulders. Now there is one issue. She has a roommate: Ruth. It's not that she's a problem but it's kind of a challenge moving in with two people and I'm sure that Ruth has seen and heard more then she cares for, but I have a gut feeling Ruth is enjoying the show.\n\nRuth is also a very pretty woman and has a killer body. She also has B Cup breasts and her hair is longer and a little lighter then Heathers. Since we started hanging around Ruth has opened up more, moving away from the quiet type to becoming little bit of an exhibitionist. She even purchased one of those tan through bikini's and all winter she has been modeling it for us.\n\nOn Monday Heather had to fly out on a business trip. Every now and then she has to go visit clients. It's funny, the first couple times that you have to travel for work can be fun but then it becomes a major pain. While Heather is away Ruth and I alternate on cooking dinner. Some nights, I simply order pizza as I'm not a good cook. Both Ruth and Heather are fabulous cooks.\n\nWednesday was Ruth's turn to cook. This week had been especially long and every night I had to bring work home with me.\n\nRuth knocked on my door, \"Hey, would you like something to eat?\"\n\nWow, she looked freaking hot. Ruth was wearing a rose color cami with spaghetti straps. In her defense she was wearing a sheer jacket. \"Sure, thanks.\"\n\n\"Well, since Heather's not here I guess it's my job to take care of you.\"\n\nThat really got my attention and started to check her out. Damn, did she look hot in her almost sheer nightie that did little to conceal her curves, tight where it needed to be tight and loose around her hips. Ruth's nipples were clearly visible, and I didn't see any visible panty lines. Why did she have wear that? The cami was about three inches below her sweat pussy and now she was on my mind. Wow, this is the first time that I've really noticed her legs. Man, did her legs look smooth and soft.\n\nRuth started cooking dinner. She makes it look so easy. Now, I don't know if she was teasing me or not, but Ruth was not very careful about her cami. Oh, she was showing me lots of leg and a few times most of her butt. Man did she have a nice butt!\n\nWe all enjoy the beach, well Heather and Ruth love the beach and I love seeing them in bikinis. So far, this is the most that I've seen of Ruth.\n\nWe sat down and enjoyed a great dinner. We made small talk and I did my best not to make an ass out of my self. Oh I was excited, and very aroused. All nighty, I've enjoyed taking Ruth in, seeing her in that sexy cami.\n\nAfter I finished a dinner, Ruth smiled and asked, \"Hey, want to watch a movie?\"\n\nRuth has always been friendly with me, a little flirty at times. Heather never said anything nor did she seem concerned. I placed my hand on her arm, \"Sure.\"\n\n\"I rented this movie, when I was at blockbuster. The plot seems interesting.\" Walking away, I let go of her arm. Ruth walked over and put the movie in. Then, she came over and sat next to me. \"Hey, why don't we get comfortable?\" Slowly she lifted up her foot, placed it on my chest and pushed me back.\n\nOh she was not wearing panties. Talk about becoming uncomfortable, I only hoped she didn't see my cock as it started becoming erect. Her legs were in front of mine as I rested against the couch. Our heads were resting on the head rests. Her thigh kept bushing against me and now I'm sure she could feel me.\n\nMan, Ruth was looking hot, lying on her side, her nightie riding up showing me all of her legs and her part of her firm butt. The movie was R rated but this couple was hot and heavy. The plot was a little light but the actors were attractive.\n\n\"Look at that slut, she's not wearing a bra.\"\n\n\"Nice!\"\n\n\"What, that? You think so? Why?\"\n\n\"Please, you can almost see her breasts.\"\n\n\"And you like that?\"\n\n\"Sure. Don't you?\"\n\nShe looked confused by my question and pondered the thought. She looked at the screen, at me, and then back at the screen. \"Well, kind of.\"\n\n\"And why not? She's attractive just like you are. Being a man, I love to see women and her mini skit and almost sheer blouse, well it's very naughty.\n\n\"And you don't mind that her breasts are fake?\"\n\nNope, after all she's not my wife. Sure it's easy to tell her tits are fake but I still love to look.\"\n\n\"Don't you like the real thing?\" She started to tease me by massaging her breasts.\"\n\n\"Oh I love checking you out.\"\n\n\"Do you think I have nice tits?\" Cupping her breasts with her hands, almost offering them to me.\n\n\"Love seeing your hard nipples.\"\n\n\"Really as much as hers?\"\n\n\"I don't know, why don't you show me yours?\"\n\n\"What?\" She playfully sat up and hit me. Her nightie pulled up as she moved and she was sitting bare ass on the sofa.\n\n\"Be honest, like you don't enjoy having me check you out, be honest!\"\n\n\"You enjoy checking me out?\"\n\n\"Get real girl,\" placed my hand on her thigh. \"I think you know the answer.\"\n\n\"No, I don't.\" Ruth put her hands and the arm rest behind her, to support herself. Her nightie was very tight and her breasts were almost being squished.\n\nI took a deep breath, about to reveal a dark secret something that could change our relationship. \"You look so hot. The way your curly hair rests on your face, hiding your eyes, the way your nightie is a second skin, your nipples showing though.\"\n\nRuth leaned back resting against the arm rest and corner of the sofa. Her pussy hair started to show. She had to know she was showing me. \"I'm blushing. Go on.\"\n\n\"Please, look at you, you're a hottie.\"\n\nShe looked down at her body her voice pitched, \"Really? You think so? Then why don't I have a man?\" She crossed her legs, drawing my attention and thinking about holding her, to put my hand on her hopefully wet pussy.\n\n\"I don't know, but I would love to be your man and take you to bed. Make you feel like a woman, over and over again.\"\n\nHer foot felt soft and she rubbed it up and down my leg. Next, she looked up at me, \"really? Please tell me more.\" Ruth started to squeeze her legs together, I'm sure this put a little pressure against her clit. \"What would you want to do to me?\"\n\n\"For starters, I would love to lick and kiss you by starting at your toes, and work my way to your nipples. Only my warm breath against your nipples, making sure that my tongue and lips did not touch you.\"\n\n\"Now who is the tease?\" She started to rub my thigh with her foot. Her eyes quickly focused on my cock. Slowly her toes danced around my cock, gently touching it. \"Is that from me?\"\n\n\"Yes.\"\n\n\"Good, cuz I'm wet and didn't want to be the only one uncomfortable.\"\n\nThere was a loud splash that caught our attention. In the movie the main couple heads up to the mountains and finds a hot spring. They jump in, nude. This movie was not helping at all as the actress was smoking. Ruth was starting to squirm and moved on her back. I swear her hips were rocking as we watched this couple kissing passionately. Ruth was taking deep breaths, as she inhaled her nightie was a second skin. Then, Ruth started to massage her breasts.\n\nI split my attention from the screen to her. Watching her was far more erotic! Shockley, she moved her hand between her legs.\n\n\"I've always wanted to watch someone. Did you know that I can hear you two?\"\n\n\"Really?\"\n\nHer eyes focused on me as she openly masturbated feet away from me. \"Oh don't be, its hot. I think about how Heather looks as you fuck her.\"\n\n\"Wow.\"\n\n\"Can't tell you how many times I wanted to walk into your bedroom and watch you two.\n\n\"I don't know what to say.\"\n\n\"Yea, that would be so hot. To watch you make love to her, see how you give her pleasure and to watch Heather cum.\"\n\n\"Wow, I didn't know.\"\n\n\"Is that bad?\"\n\n\"No, you really want to watch?\"\n\nShe took a deep breath, \"Yes. Oh I have to stop before I cum.\"\n\nTime for me to turn the heat up as I started to massage Ruth's feet, \"Why? Don't stop.\"\n\n\"Oh, I loved being kissed like that. Do you?\"\n\nTime to step things up a little, placed my hand on her knee. \"Yes, very much so.\"\n\n\"That is what sucks about being single, no one to kiss. That is what I miss the most.\"\n\n\"Oh and your other needs?\"\n\n\"That part is easy,\" she looked down almost embarrassed. \"It's easy for a girl to have toys this day an age.\"\n\n\"Really?\"\n\n\"Yea, you don't believe me?\"\n\n\"Nope!\"\n\nHer excitement peeked, \"Wanna bet?\"\n\n\"Sure.\"\n\nShe jumped up. \"Are you game for this game is for a man, no boys allowed.\"\n\nNow she had my goat. \"If you don't have any toys then you have to spend the rest of the night nude.\"\n\n\"Easy, but only if I do,\" She took a deep breath. \"I get to watch you jack off.\"\n\n\"What?\"\n\n\"Oh come on you're a guy and surely you've jacked off a million times all ready. So, this should be no big deal for you. and besides, I've never watched a guy before.\"\n\n\"Really?\"\n\n\"Yea, so are you game or chicken?\"\n\n\"You have a bet.\" We shook hands.\n\nShe stood up and grabbed my hand. \"You better come with me.\" With that said, Ruth led me up to her room.\n\nI started to feel taken. Ruth didn't seem to be the type to walk into a toy store and purchase something.\n\n\"Since I have had to endure many nights of listening to Heather cum over and over again, I ordered some things to help me through those nights.\"\n\nDamn, the internet as I didn't think about that. She could purchase things and not have to visit any store. Ruth started to light some candles and her bedroom had this warm glow as she turned off the lights. \"I want you to be comfortable.\" She pulled out some of her toys.\n\nHer first toy was a silver bullet. Ok, that was expected. Next, she pulled out a rabbit, \"I really like this one. Love how it feels in me and the beads start to spin.\"\n\n\"Really?\"\n\nShe turned it on to show me. \"Why don't you get more comfortable as I want to see all of you.\"\n\nA bet is a bet and I had to pay up. Embarrassed as my cock was all ready growing, and now it was very noticeable. Standing up, my eyes were glued on her waiting for a reaction which came in a big smile as her eyes were glued on my stiff cock.\n\n\"Don't worry, I have some more toys and will show you all of them when were ready.\"\n\nThis girl knew how to push my buttons. Now I really wanted to see what she had. I removed my shirt and then my shorts and boxers. My cock fully hard pointing to the ceiling.\n\n\"Very nice!\" She moved over to me and gave me a quick lick. Holding my cock she turned her face to look up at me, \"I like big cocks, wonder if Heather will ever share that with me.\"\n\n\"Oh, you're such a tease.\"\n\n\"Yep! So anyways, I have yet to take this one.\" She pulled out this nine inch life like dildo. \"I just had to have it; it looks so freaking hot on the web site.\"\n\n\"Oh my god, that is freaky.\"\n\n\"You think? Feel it, it's so soft. It's from cyberskin.\n\n\"No way.\n\n\"Oh don't be gay, it's not a real cock.\" She started to stroke it, like she was masturbating some man.\n\n\"Still, I can't.\"\n\n\"I'll let you use it on me, if you touch it?\" Ruth made a circle with her thing and index finger, pretending to slide it in her.\n\nDamn, that was freaking how! Now the envelope was being pushed. Was this too much? Oh, I had to see her take that thing, how erotic to watch that thing in her.\n\nRuth looked at me, smiled, and then pulled the cami over her head. She was not sitting nude, right before my eyes. The room began to spin, making it hard for me to breath. Ruth teased me a little, \"I want this thing big and fat.\" She leaned back against the bed propping herself with pillows. Holding the cyberskin, she moved it up her chest to her chin, toying with it. Holding the cock inches from her lips, kissed it, and started to slide the toy down to her pussy. Her lips were wet, parted, and she started to take the fake cock in her wet pussy.\n\n\"Do you like watching me?\"\n\nMy cock was rock hard and aching for some attention. Reaching over, I grabbed her massage oil, put some on my hand and moved next to her. Our shoulders were touching and we could watch each other. I wanted to watch the toy sliding in and out of her pussy. So after a minute I moved next to her, sitting Indian style. This way, I can watch her fucking herself and she could still see me. Her eyes were glued on my hand, sliding my hand up and down my stiff cock.\n\n\"That is so hot! I've never watched a man before.\"\n\nSince Ruth has an eight inch dildo in her, I didn't think she was conservative. Her eyes were glued on my hand, so with my other hand I reached out and felt her breast. She looked up at me and smiled. Rolling her nipples through my fingers, Ruth smiled at me. Her breasts were soft, her nipples hard, and it all felt good.\n\n\"I really want to watch you cum. How far do you shoot?\" She looked at my body then back to my cock, \"Will you cum on me? That's it baby cum on me, I want to feel you're hot cum.\"\n\nI'm sure Ruth was only saying that for my pleasure, and was it working. It's always so erotic to hear a woman talk dirty. Since I was towering over Ruth, I knew my cum would be all over her. Talk about a mental rush, cumming all over my friend. She seemed ok with that and was even asking me to do that. after all this was her dirty idea and I'm going to take full advantage of it. Tonight, I've seen Ruth nude and use a toy.\n\nWomen, look so sexy when they are nude, and even erotic when they are about to cum. I wanted to enjoy this moment so I moved along side her. My head was close to her pussy. Women love to stay prim and proper but when they are aroused the legs part and I was enjoying the view. Ruth had her legs apart as I slide the cyberskin dildo into her. This thing was big and thick. Talk about a mental rush, watching the head enter her waiting wet pussy.\n\nThe silver bullet was lying against her, with my other hand I grabbed it and struggled to turned it on. Ruth's eyes grew big as she watched me. With my other hand, I guided and pushed the cyberskin deep into her. Then placed the silver bullet on her clit. Ruth closed her eyes and started to really enjoy the experience.\n\nI think she was close, too close. She didn't open her eyes. She let go of the dildo and I controlled her pleasure. I kept the dildo in her as the silver bullet worked her clit. Ruth was on fire, fully enjoying the attention. Oh, and I was focused on her.\n\n\"Oh god, I'm going to cum!\"\n\nThe cybercock stayed deep in her, allowing her pussy to grip it. Her pussy was so wet making sexy sounds as the silver bullet vibrated on her clit.\n\n\"That feels so good.\"\n\nMy focus was only on her clit. I can't believe that my roommate, this sexy woman, lying on her back, nude, and being fucked by the dildo in my hand. With my other hand, I massaged her clit with a silver bullet vibrator. Looking up at Ruth, I noticed that her eyes where still closed. Her breaths were shallow and fast. She was so close, oh yea she's about to cum!\n\nIn a deep voice, almost demanding, \"That's it baby, fuck me with that thing!\" Ruth reached out, grabbed my hand holding the silver bullet. She held tight, now allowing my hand to move. \"That's it baby, I'm cumming!\"\n\nI watched as the orgasm took control over her body. Her body convulsed with pleasure. Ruth shook, and let out some sexy sounds. She looked so hot, cumming with me holding the toys on her most intimidate of parts.\n\nAfter two minutes or so, Ruth came back to earth. Her eyes slowly opened, \"that was soo good.\"\n\n\"I'm glad that you enjoyed it.\"\n\n\"Oh yea. I loved it. Can I feel you?\n\n\"Sure.\"\n\nSlowly, tentatively she reached out. Her small soft hands wrapped around my very hard cock. I moved up, closer to her, straddled her stomach. Now, she had easy access. Ruth placed some oil on her hands and started to massage me.\n\n\"I'm going to make you cum.\"\n\nShe grabbed the oil and put some on her hands. Next, she grabbed my cock and started to massage my painfully hard cock.\n\n\"I bet you want to fuck me don't you?\"\n\n\"Yes, just as much as you want me to.\"\n\n\"Touché. To be honest, I do miss the feeling of a hard cock in me. Oh, and after I cum I love getting fucked hard.\"\n\nNo time like the present to see how far our friendship had evolved, reached down and started playing with her breasts. Something sexy about them, her chest was still flushed and nipples rock hard.\n\n\"Do you like how I feel?\"\n\n\"Very much so.\"\n\n\"I was serious; I want you to cum all over my tits.\"\n\n\"That will not be a problem.\"\n\nRuth started to work her hands faster, with a steady beat she started to stroke my cock. Wondered what song she was listening to in her head. Faster and a little stronger she would stroke me. \"So, are you going to allow me to watch you fuck Heather?\"\n\n\"Oh yes, that will be hot.\"\n\n\"I can't want to see, this fat cock of yours in her tight, wet, pussy.\"\n\n\"One rule, you have to be nude to watch.\"\n\nRuth eyes grew big, \"Really?\"\n\nI knew she wanted to watch and her reaction confirmed that she wanted to. Now, how do I get Heather in this little game? Heather has always been very open when it comes to sex, and she loves to masturbate for me. She even made a few comments about some hot actresses, so maybe she's open to this after all.\n\nMan, it was so hard to think from what Ruth was doing with my cock. All I wanted to do was guide my cock into her sexy mouth. Wonder how those lips would feel, wrapped around my cock. To have her suck me, her wet tongue flicking and sliding up and down my shaft.\n\n\"Oh god,\" I was so close. Thinking about her and what I want to do to her. Thinking about having Heather join us in and pushing the envelope. \"I'm going to cum.\"\n\n\"That's it baby, cum all over me.\" Ruth gave me a couple fast strokes as the first stream shot out and landed on her hair. The second stream landed on her face. Ruth worked everything out of me, allowing me to enjoy the moment and come back to reality. I looked down, she looked so sexy. This was the first time that I've ever cum on a woman like this. Heather would normally suck me off, but Ruth seemed to enjoy having cum on her. I'm sure it was for my benefit as she started to play with it. She grabbed a Kleenex and started to clean herself up.\n\n\"Well, that was fun!\"\n\n\"Yea that was. You were great.\"\n\nRuth sat up, still being nude she looked confident, and didn't try to cover up. \"Well, I guess this is going to change things.\"\n\n\"Kind of, were both adults and have a wild side.\"\n\nShe smiled and looked excited with her face glowing, \"Exactly.\"\n\n\"We did push the boundaries but didn't go over the line. I think Heather would love to have you watch us.\"\n\n\"Oh that would be hot.\"\n\nI hugged her, \"Yea, so we just have to be careful and work on expanding our relationship.\"\n\n\"I couldn't agree more.\" We both stood up and walked to the bathroom to clean up.\n\n\"So tell me Ruth. Do you want to bed my girl?\"\n\n\"Not sure, I've never been with a woman before. Heather is so smart and sexy that who knows.\"\n\n\"I hear you; we can't plan this just have to let things happen.\" One of the most important things that I've learned about women, adult situations have to happen and can't be forced. So I knew this would have to play out on its own; however, I could help things along.\n\n\"So true. Hey, should we watch that movie now?\"\n\n\"Sure.\" We both dressed and went back to the family room to watch the movie.\n\nThat was about it for the night.\n\n*\n\nplease tell me what you think, and vote!\n\n"}
+{"text": "***\n\nEntering the gates to Ghost City, Xie Lian and Hua Cheng strolled down the gaudy and brightly lit main street.\n\nThey had not yet let go of one another, though Hua Cheng had made some changes on their walk. He donned a different skin tonight, the youthful one Xie Lian had met him in. The one who told him to call him San Lang on a creaky cart filled with hay.\n\nXie Lian was fond of this one. Xie Lian knew that Hua Cheng preferred not to show his true self in front of too many people. Though, ever since he met that true self in the Gambler’s Den, Hua Cheng seemed to have no problem with showing it in front of others as long as Xie Lian was by his side. It made his heart flutter to think of it. \n\nComing back to the Ghost Realm was wonderful.\n\nHe hadn’t visited since Hua Cheng left, preferring to keep to his cottage and wait. But some of the residents had popped in on him for tea now and then, bringing general chaos and noise and excessive exclaiming about how exotic it was to eat rice. \n\nXie Lian wasn’t fooled- he knew Hua Cheng had probably told them to visit- but he still appreciated it nonetheless. It was always a pleasant reminder of the richness of the world, and how he, a humble 800 year old Scrap God, still had so many new and exciting things to learn and experience.\n\nIn many ways, the Mortal Realm could be a tad…unimaginative.\n\nThere was a reason Xie Lian struggled with his memory. So many of his days were consumed with what everyone’s days were consumed with as a living human: survival. The drive to keep living, despite the guarantee no one would forever, even Gods. It could become monotonous. To some degree, it felt like a waste of potential.\n\nThe Ghost Realm, however, was a prime example of what one could do when staying alive was no longer the goal of existence. \n\nIt was wild, and creative, and funny, and indulgent; completely unrestrained by moderation. There was no such thing as too much or too little of anything: danger, food, beauty, dark magic, ugliness, violence, greed, lust, anger all existed purely for their own sake.\n\nThose things were not  needed, so instead, they were revelled in. After all, one could only become a ghost if one decided there was something more important than surviving.\n\nXie Lian didn’t think it was hell. It was magical. How could it not be, with Hua Cheng at the helm?\n\nHe was a little embarrassed at how he’d reacted when Hua Cheng got back. He knew he shouldn’t worry and be so clingy. It’s just that he missed him. And he hadn’t realised he’d missed Ghost City too.\n\nIt didn’t take long for citizens to spot them.\n\n“IT’S TRUE! MY LORD! YER LORDSHIP! IT’S THE LORD, LOOK, IT’S THE LORD-”\n\n“PIG GODS AND PIG GUTS!!! IT’S CHENGZHU, CHENGZHU REALLY IS BACK-”\n\n“HE’S BACK, HE’S BACK, GO GET THE GAMBLING MONEY!”\n\n“GRAND UNCLE IS HERE! IT’S CHENGZHU’S FRIEND! THE ONE WITH THE BROKEN PENI-”\n\n“WHAT DO YOU  MEAN  YOU SPENT THE GAMBLING MONEY-”\n\nA crowd formed, all elbows and shoves and a few hooves and feathers. Xie Lian spotted a three eyed pelican-woman and the boar-headed Butcher Zhu, both of whom had visited him. He bowed in greeting. They practically prostrated on the cobblestones in reverence.\n\n“GRAND-UNCLE, YOU’RE HERE WITH CHENGZHU, YOU’VE REUNITED-”\n\n“GRAND UNCLE KNOWS US, SEE, HE SAW US, WE’VE BEEN TO HIS PALACE, WE’RE CLOSE PERSONAL FRIENDS-”\n\n“Yes, yes,” laughed Xie Lian. “Your Lord Chengzhu and I are back, and it’s good to see you all!” He looked around happily.\n\nHua Cheng surveyed them indifferently, arms folded. “I believe I called for a festival, did I not?” he said, voice arch.\n\nA chorus of “OF COURSE!” and “NOTHING LESS THAN A WEEK OF CELEBRATION, YER LORDSHIP!” filled the air as yet more heads and eyes and beaks poked out of various market stalls.\n\nHua Cheng looked around, as the crowd stilled. \n\n“My instructions were clear. This festival is not just for me, it is for the Crown Prince of Xianle as well. He will be given anything he wishes. He is my guest, and will be treated as such. Is that understood?”\n\nXie Lian gulped. The crowd nodded and exclaimed eagerly, shouting and trilling and clucking. \n\n“Good.” Hua Cheng raised an eyebrow, and the crowd fell silent. “Then celebrate.”\n\nThe crowd erupted. \n\nHua Cheng took him by the hand again, and they moved with the wave of enthusiastic ghosts wanting to ply him with food and drink and well wishes and all manner of things that even his iron stomach could not possibly handle. \n\nHe lost himself in a giddy whirlwind of greetings and “SIR, ARE YOU SURE YOU DON’T WANT THIS POTION TO FIX THAT PROBLEM FOR YOU, SO YOU AND CHENGZHU CAN REALLY CONSUMMATE-” and “HE DOESN’T WANT THAT STICKY MESS, YOU BONEHEAD-” and “BULL SEMEN IS  MEANT  TO BE STICKY, YOU POINTLESS IDIOT, MORTALS EAT IT, I’VE SEEN IT WITH MY OWN EYESTALKS-”\n\nAfter his eighth “Hahaha, well thank you, that does look lovely but I couldn’t possibly-” Hua Cheng finally intervened.\n\n“Scram,” he ordered, and they obeyed. \n\nSuddenly free of the surrounding melee, Xie Lian looked up at Hua Cheng as he confidently steered them towards their usual ‘Delicacies of the Mortal Realm’ shop. \n\nThey took a seat at their table by the window.\n\nXie Lian did a double take as he realised the crowd had not in fact scrammed, but simply moved to congregate just far enough across the street that it could theoretically seem to be a casual gathering, if it weren’t for the fact there were a hundred of them crammed into an area half the size of his cottage.\n\nIt was odd to see a hundred beings all determinedly pretending that they weren’t looking at them. A few of them had poured themselves drinks and taken out binoculars.\n\nHua Cheng followed his eyes and opened his mouth to clearly tell them to get lost again, but Xie Lian shook his head. “Let them,” he said quietly. “It’s nice, and they don’t mean any harm.” Hua Cheng’s eyes flickered back to his, and his lips quirked. “Very well. Though they’ll be there all night if you let them.”\n\n“Aren’t there other things happening?”\n\n“We are the things happening, as far as they are concerned.”\n\n“I meant… there’ll be the Gambler’s Den, and street food and revelry, right?”\n\nHua Cheng parked his chin in his hands, gazing at him. “Mmm. If that is what you want, gege.”\n\nXie Lian found, oddly, that he missed Hua Cheng’s eyepatch. It felt strange to look into two eyes again. Hua Cheng had all the expressions and mischief he could ever need in one eye. Xie Lian shook his head fondly, though he watched Hua Cheng under his lashes as he ordered them some food.\n\nHua Cheng was being a little strange. He seemed completely himself, the first night. But he kept… Xie Lian wasn’t sure what it was. His gaze went far away sometimes. And his face went careful sometimes. Xie Lian thought maybe something was wrong in Ghost City, but he had been doing it in the morning too, before he left. So it probably wasn’t that.\n\nBut as they sat together companionably, he realised with a slow creep that if something  was  wrong…\n\nHua Cheng wouldn’t tell him. \n\nIf anything…he would lie. \n\nHe didn’t really mind the little lies, like back when when he pretended to be Lang Ying, or when he didn’t really let on that they’d met, or when he pretended he didn’t know where they were to try to steer him away from the Cave of 10,000 Gods…Hua Cheng had reasons for that.\n\nHua Cheng wanted to protect him, and help him, and Xie Lian probably would have reacted badly if he received all of that information at once. He wouldn’t change any part of their story, including the parts that weren’t always honest. But now…\n\nNow was different. He realised that it bothered him, the idea of Hua Cheng lying to him.\n\nHe wanted to know what was wrong. He wanted to know what Hua Cheng actually wanted, and thought. He didn’t want to be placated, pleased, catered to. He wanted Hua Cheng to just be his proud, arrogant, rude, jealous, sulky, whiny, slightly unstable, beautiful and  perfect  self, not…\n\nNot this careful, smoothly guarded person. That was for  other  people.\n\nXie Lian stifled a sigh. This was so very strange. How was it possible for him to love someone so thoroughly, completely, and yet feel as if there were parts of him he didn’t even know how to ask about? \n\nIn reality, they’d really only known each other for a cumulative total of a few weeks. He didn’t feel any doubt about his feelings, but it did knock his confidence somewhat. He had a lot to learn about Hua Cheng, and no idea how to start. Who had he been, all these years?\n\nXie Lian scolded himself. Hua Cheng would tell him whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted, in his own time. It was not for him to demand anything after everything Hua Cheng had done for him. Hua Cheng deserved to be loved unconditionally. Which Xie Lian did.\n\nHe just hadn’t figured out a way to…tell him that. Or make him believe him when he did. Hua Cheng was always far too hard on himself.\n\n“Is Gege alright?” said Hua Cheng, chin still in his hands.\n\nXie Lian straightened up. “Of course!” he lied. “It’s just…this mortal food is a little…plain.”\n\nHua Cheng raised his eyebrows, looking down at the spicy porridge. It was bright red and the steam alone made Xie Lian’s eyes water.\n\n“Plain?”\n\n“GRAND UNCLE, DID YOU SAY THE FOOD IS NOT TO YOUR LIKING?” yelled one of the residents across the street, who had been using an ear-trumpet.\n\n“Ah…well, I enjoy quite a strong taste!” called Xie Lian.\n\n“GRAND-UNCLE’S PALATE MUST BE SUBLIME! THIS UNWORTHY HOST COULD NOT POSSIBLY HOPE TO MATCH IT!” said the chef, who had served them their congee and then sprinted outside in terror to join the crowd.\n\n“His Highness is an exceptional cook,” called Hua Cheng. “You could never hope to be so lucky as to taste his concoctions. Each is unique. One of a kind.”\n\nThe crowd burst into excited murmurs as Xie Lian scratched his head in embarrassment.\n\n‘WON’T GRAND-UNCLE SHOW US HOW TO MAKE DIVINE FOOD WORTHY OF HIS EXCEPTIONAL MOUTH-HOLE? YOU CAN USE MY STALL!”\n\n“NO, HE CAN USE MINE- I HAVE THE BEST EEL GUTS ANYWAY-”\n\n“NO, MINE! NO ONE ELSE IN THE GHOST REALM CARRIES FINER TESTICLES-”\n\nXie Lian paused. Now that was an interesting idea. Well. Not the testicles part.\n\n“Gege?”\n\n“Mmm,” he said, eyes on the crowd.\n\n“What are you thinking?”\n\n“Well, it would actually be quite fun, don’t you think? I’ve always thought it would be enjoyable to work in a restaurant! But no one ever let me, with my luck.”\n\nHua Cheng appeared to bite the inside of his cheek. “A restaurant.”\n\n“En. And you said it was my festival too.”\n\nHua Cheng’s brows twitched. “I did,” he said slowly.\n\n“Why not have a little bit of fun then?” said Xie Lian brightly. “Just for the night. A one off. To say thanks to your citizens for their patience.”\n\nHua Cheng’s mouth twisted slightly. “I do not thank my citizens. They are lucky I allow their wretched souls in this city at all.”\n\n“You don’t fool me, San Lang. You like them. And I like them! So…let’s do something for them.” \n\n“Both of us?”\n\n“How could I cook without my assistant?” \n\nHua Cheng sighed longsufferingly. For effect. With breath he didn’t need.\n\n“Alright then.”\n\nXie Lian’s eyes scrunched into crescents. “Wonderful. Shall we commandeer this shop? It probably has all the ingredients I’m…most used to.” \n\n“Mmm. Though gege should feel free to let me know if he needs me to source any species of testicles.”\n\nXie Lian cleared his throat. “That won’t be necessary.”\n\nHua Cheng nodded, and turned to the window. “Scram, and come back in an hour. The Crown Prince will be using this shop to provide a feast!”\n\nThe crowd positively exploded. He felt a hum of excitement. \n\nThis could actually be fun!\n\n***\n\nIt was not. \n\nAfter an incense time, Xie Lian had bitten off more than he could chew. True, he’d borrowed the giant pot the chicken-ghost typically stewed himself in, so quantity was not an issue. However, the stew was looking…well. It had oscillated between the consistency of concrete and brick dust. \n\n“More water!” he called frantically, as Hua Cheng ambled infuriatingly casually back with a newly filled tub.\n\n“It will be alright gege. Think of this as the paste from which we’ll make the stew.”\n\n“It wasn’t meant to be a paste,” panted Xie Lian as he tried to stir the pot with a wooden spoon the size of an oar. Hua Cheng emptied the tub into the pot and moved delicately out of the way to avoid the resulting sparks, circling back behind a sweating Xie Lian.\n\nHands came around his waist. He stilled.\n\n“It smells good,” said Hua Cheng from behind him, only choking a little.\n\n“Really?” said Xie Lian hopefully, leaning his head to tuck in under Hua Cheng’s chin as his heart sped up. \n\n“En. It will be delicious. And they will love whatever you serve, because you are the one serving it.”\n\nXie Lian made a noise in his throat and avoided the urge to hide his face in Hua Cheng’s shoulder. “But I want them to like the food, not just lie to my face!”\n\nHua Cheng widened his eyes. “What do you mean. Gege? His Highness could not serve a bad meal if he tried,” he said innocently.\n\nHe huffed. “San Lang, you are lying to me. You don’t think there’s anything I’m bad at? Even cooking?”\n\nHua Cheng’s eyes widened even more. “Your highness, you are the best cook. In the worlmmpph-”\n\nXie Lian had covered his mouth with his hand. Hua Cheng’s eyes flicked down in surprised amusement at his hand on his mouth. Xie Lian gulped and tried not to think about how soft Hua Cheng’s lips felt. “No lying. I know what my food is like.” \n\nHe had his reasons. The shackle on his neck had always made food quite difficult to taste. And even if that weren’t true, he liked to remember his mother this way. She was always horrific at cooking, but wanted nothing more than people to enjoy it. He liked his food. He just wanted others to like it too, like her.\n\nHe took his hand off his mouth. Hua Cheng gave him a dangerously sweet smile and raised his hands in mock-surrender. His gaze was warm, and fixed. Xie Lian swallowed, remembering kissing him in the water and how icy cold and hot he’d been all at once.\n\n“Let’s just get through this,” he sighed, dropping his gaze and dodging the thermonuclear geysers erupting in the pot.\n\n***\n\nThere was a moderately violent line starting to form, snaking around the corner (literally; there was an actual snake hissing at everyone on the corner). Xie Lian could hear the general clamour and mayhem from outside the steamy kitchen, and swallowed. Time to get this over with.\n\nHe stood wiping his brow, eyeing the vat. “I think this is as good as it’s going to get,” he said mournfully. It was several colours at once, somehow, with darker green spots amongst the bright sludgy brown and yellow.\n\nHua Cheng’s fingers brushed his waist, looming behind him again.\n\n“It will be good,” he said firmly. “Shall I take it out?”\n\n“I suppose. It’ll be memorable, if nothing else.”\n\n“They’re privileged just to touch something you worked on.”\n\nXie Lian shook his head. “Let’s not say that until we know they survived the night,” he said grimly.\n\nHua Cheng raised his hand and beckoned toward the vat, which rose and followed him outside. Xie Lian stacked a wobbling, waving tower of bowls so high he stopped and thought ‘Xie Lian, you can’t do this,’ until he remembered there was  at least  an even chance he wouldn’t drop them.\n\nHe proceeded outside, smiling quietly to himself at his change in fortune. He only dropped five.\n\nThe horde was hungry, figuratively and literally. A cheer built as they set up, and Xie Lian straightened, wiping his hands on his apron. \n\n“GRAND UNCLE, MAY I BE THE FIRST TO HAVE THE HONO-”\n\n“NO WAY YOU GREASER, DON’T GIVE IT TO HIM, HE STEALS THINGS-”\n\n“CHENGZHU’S WIFE SHOULD DEFINITELY CHOOSE US-”\n\n“WIFE? USE YOUR EYES, HE’S A MALE HUMAN-”\n\n“CHENGZHU’S EUNUCH SHOULD DEFINITELY CHOOSE US-”\n\n“Hahaha, there there!” laughed Xie Lian awkwardly. “There’s plenty for everyone, please stay orderly!” \n\n“Perhaps I can offer myself for the first try,” came a strange, lilting voice.\n\nXie Lian felt, more than saw, Hua Cheng twitch slightly to his left. He kept his face impassive, noticing that the crowd had quieted and parted slightly around the figure.\n\nThey approached quietly, light footed and lithe. They were a tall figure, looking almost like a human, long haired and long limbed, except for the fact their limbs were scaled; silvery and winking in the light of the lanterns. \n\nTheir face was angular and cold, eyes dark. What set them fully apart was their hair. Ink black and cascading down their back, it would look like the beautiful hair of any human, were it not for the fact that it…floated. Moved slowly, in a ripple. Out of sync with the rest of them, like it was underwater. Xie Lian knew the world well enough.\n\nThis was a demon. A powerful one.\n\n“Welcome back to Ghost City, your respective Highnesses,�� they said, bowing.\n\nHua Cheng’s arms were folded in their usual casual pose, but Xie Lian noted his fingers tightened around his forearms. “Yes.  Ghost  City. Not the Demon Capital. Here for the fun and games, are you, Grey Guard?”\n\nXie Lian looked over the demon with interest. Demons typically didn’t like…well, anyone, including their own kind. They kept to themselves, except when there was war to be raged. Fun and games weren’t really their style. \n\n“Of course,” they said neutrally.\n\n“Well then. By all means, enjoy yourself,\" said Hua Cheng sweetly.\n\nThe demon turned to Xie Lian.\n\n\"May I introduce myself, Your Highness? I am called Zhong Jianren.”\n\nXie Lian nodded politely, noting the strange name, and bowed. “Xie Lian.”\n\n“What is this dish called?”\n\n“Overdue Queue Stew,” replied Xie Lian. “And I’m sorry, but as the festival is in his honour, the first taste can only belong to Lord Chengzhu,” he said, apologetic but firm.\n\nHua Cheng smiled, smug and not breaking eye contact with the demon. Zhong Jianren inclined their head, raising an interested eyebrow as Xie Lian served Hua Cheng a bowl. He breathed in the steam and downed it. “Delicious, gege,” said Hua Cheng quietly, only for him. Xie Lian stifled a smile, and a shiver.\n\nXie Lian scooped another serving into a bowl, and handed it to the demon.\n\nZhong Jianren tipped the bowl and gulped it in one. The crowd was silent, watching.\n\nThe demon stared at the empty bowl for a moment.\n\n“You are sure this is a concoction of the Mortal Realm?”\n\nXie Lian gulped. “Uh…well, as much as it can be,” he said guiltily. The demon hadn’t fainted yet. That was something.\n\nTheir eyes glinted. “I believe this is the most delicious thing I have ever tasted.”\n\n“...” said Xie Lian.\n\nThe line cheered, honked, and hissed.\n\nHua Cheng smiled humourlessly. Xie Lian knew his smiles well enough by this point to know this demon had actually managed to get under his skin.\n\n“Of course it is,” he said lightly, eyes scanning the advancing line as if bored, as Xie Lian began to spoon out more portions into bowls.\n\n“What was the meat in the stew, Your Highness?” continued the demon, hair swaying slightly in a breeze that wasn’t there.\n\nXie Lian blinked. “Uh, there is no meat in this stew.”\n\n“No meat?” muttered a few malcontents.\n\n“Well, I didn’t want to eat anyone’s relatives,” said Xie Lian, purposely avoiding eye contact with Butcher Zhu.\n\nSilence.\n\nCoughs.\n\n“That’s very thoughtful of you, Your Highness,” said the demon, eyes flashing in amusement.\n\n“Ahaha, well, thank you- say, which part did you think  was meat-”\n\n“No fighting in front of His Highness!” said Hua Cheng irritably, as the snake paused guiltily in its attempt to squeeze a sorry looking soldier ghost to death. \n\n“Apologies,” they both muttered, uncurling and nodding in agreement at each other that they would resume later.\n\nHua Cheng turned smoothly back to the demon. \n\n“Can I trust that you’ll return to your home Realm tonight?” he said sardonically.\n\n“Naturally.” Zhong Jianren bowed in a manner which seemed a tad mocking, though the execution and form was technically flawless. They turned, hair floating behind them, and were swallowed by the street revelry.\n\nHua Cheng watched them go, smile fading just for a moment.\n\n***\n\nAfter doling out stew to who knows how many ghosts and receiving a litany of compliments, generally along the lines of “I never tasted mortal food like THIS” and “Grand-Uncle, I wish I could be alive again just so I could die once more from one bite of this!” (apparently that one was not an insult), Xie Lian and Hua Cheng made their way to the Gambler’s Den.\n\nXie Lian was feeling very pleased. He knew the difference between false and genuine praise. And for some reason, ghosts seemed to genuinely enjoy his food.\n\nHe tried not to read into that too much after they strolled past a ghost enjoying what looked like a tanghulu stick made from human toes.\n\nXie Lian watched Hua Cheng curiously as they went, holding hands in a manner so casual and easy it made his ears turn pink. He’d barely even noticed taking his hand until after he’d done it. It just felt right.\n\n“San Lang…” he began.\n\n“Hn?” said Hua Cheng, eyes looking around the streets as they went, taking in the wild partying. \n\nMost of the City’s Ghosts had spilled into the street and were playing dice, throwing knives, bartering, drinking, juggling heads, and fighting cheerfully as they passed, pausing in their activities always to offer a “WELCOME BACK, LORD CHENGZHU!” and “WE TOLD YOU HE’D COME BACK FOR YOU, GRAND UNCLE!!” and “OF COURSE HE DID! HAVE YOU SMELLED HIM? HE DOESN’T SMELL IMPOTENT AT ALL… WELL HARDLY!”\n\n“San Lang, that demon…” he continued, waiting for Hua Cheng to fill in the blanks.\n\nHua Cheng stiffened, and sighed. “Mmm. Interesting they introduced themself to you as Zhong Jianren. They’re usually known as Grey Guard. Realm Walking Grey Guard, in full. Sometimes called Zhong Bianyan. They’re a…border guard, of sorts. Between the Realms.”\n\n“Between the Ghost and Demon Realms?”\n\n“Between  all of the Realms. Mortal, Ghost, Spirit, Demon, Dreamscape, Heaven…other stranger places that could be called Realms; nowhere is off limits.”\n\nXie Lian hummed thoughtfully. Often, mortals and gods referred solely to ‘the Three Realms.’ Heaven, Mortal, and Ghost. He’d usually done so, out of habit. The Three Realms really just referred to the Realms that humans ruled; the paths that humans could take. Demons had their own Realm. \n\nHua Cheng and He Xuan were even frequently referred to as Demon Kings, though technically Demons were separate beings.\n\nThey were easy to mix up for three reasons: demons hung around the Ghost Realm a lot; humans liked to call anything particularly evil a demon (in the Ghost Realm, this was a point of pride), and no human, god or  ghost had ever seen the Demon Realm. It was therefore quite easy to pretend it did not exist.\n\n“So…Grey Guard could walk into Heaven’s Upper Court right now?” \n\n“Yes. Heavenly Officials know of them. But Heavenly Officials never much fancied taking on the issue of borders themselves; it's always chaos even as it is and this way, demons are to blame. And the gods like the problems. Means more desperate prayers.”\n\n“But…we  walk between the Realms. I am right now! And there are nonhuman spirits here in Ghost City, and ghosts and demons and spirits and gods in the Mortal Realm…”\n\n“And I’m betting Grey Guard knows of each and every one of those border crossings, every time. Including ours. Guardianship of the Realm barriers is an ancient practice. Grey Guard comes from a long line,” said Hua Cheng.\n\n“Interesting. I didn’t know demons had such a role. I figured you managed the barriers here,” continued Xie Lian.\n\nHua Cheng kept his smile light. “I didn’t create them. They are many, many thousands of years old. And demons…have all kinds of roles. Don’t think of Grey Guard the way we would think of a border guard. They aren’t here to protect or serve anyone. They move between worlds and like to stir up trouble in each.”\n\n“What kind of trouble?”\n\nHua Cheng’s hand tightened in Xie Lian’s for a moment. “Do not worry, gege. It’s nothing, really.”\n\nXie Lian was frustrated as ever with his own ignorance of these matters. He strained his memory for what he  did  know.\n\n“But wasn’t separating the Realms a demonic idea, forever ago?”\n\nHua Cheng was quiet. “That is what is written,” he said finally.\n\nXie Lian frowned. “But…San Lang, I want to understand. They seemed…well, you seemed like you…” he trailed off as Hua Cheng turned to look at him. They’d reached the back, more private entrance of the Gambler’s Den, and stood awash in the noise and shouts and enjoyment and red silk hangings under lantern light. \n\n“You seemed like they bothered you,” he finished.\n\nHua Cheng’s face flickered. “They could never bother me with you here, gege.”\n\nXie Lian sighed. “San Lang…you’re…I want you to tell me if something is wrong.”\n\nHua Cheng blinked. “Gege?”\n\nXie Lian squared his shoulders, and stood up to his full, intimidating height of Hua Cheng’s chin.\n\n“I can tell something is bothering you. I don’t want you to lie and say everything is fine.”\n\nHua Cheng’s brows twitched. “Gege, I’ve only been back for a week. There are a few things I need to settle, but it will settle with time. Trust me.”\n\nXie Lian mouthed up at him. “I do! Of course I do, I just meant… I don’t like the thought of you not telling me something because you think it would bother me.”\n\nHua Cheng paused, and smiled. “We can discuss it later.”\n\nXie Lian nodded in triumph. “Good.”\n\nHua Cheng’s smile deepened. “That was a particularly nice scolding.”\n\nXie Lian gaped. “I didn’t! It wasn’t!” \n\nHua Cheng chuckled. “I told you gege. I don’t mind when you scold me. I quite enjoy it, in fact.”\n\nXie Lian grumbled in his throat, resisting the urge to put his hands on his hips like an affronted old man.\n\nA cool hand on his overheated face. Another at his waist. Xie Lian barely had time to understand what was happening before Hua Cheng leaned closer, and then…it happened.\n\nXie Lian leapt back, stumbling into a barrel.\n\nHua Cheng’s eyes widened, hands grasping at empty air.\n\n“Gege…I-”\n\n“No, San Lang, it wasn’t-” Xie Lian sputtered.\n\nHe straightened, now formal. “I apologise. I should have-”\n\n“No, San Lang, it wasn’t- I was just-”\n\nHua Cheng’s jaw tightened. “I should not have done that. I was greedy again.”\n\n“San Lang, it’s  not that -”\n\n“What can this unworthy believer do-”\n\n“STOP IT!” blurted Xie Lian.\n\nHua Cheng mouthed soundlessly, looking down.\n\n“I hate it…” Xie Lian began, stopping suddenly.\n\nHua Cheng had flinched.  Flinched. \n\nOh Gods. Xie Lian felt his heart twist and stomach drop. He had well and truly botched this. A noise came from the back of his throat.\n\n“San Lang, please, I just…for a moment,” he struggled to explain.\n\nA muscle was leaping in Hua Cheng's jaw, and he wasn't looking at him.\n\nHe gulped, and tried again. “When you, um, look like you do right now… it didn’t feel like you. You’re not in your true form and it just felt like it wasn’t right for me to...you know…”\n\nHua Cheng frowned slightly. He said nothing. He was very still.\n\nXie Lian sighed, feeling terrible. Why did he  do  that? The one time Hua Cheng had tried to kiss him since he’d been back, and he sprang back like he was made of hot iron,  so  humiliating, and he’d hurt him…\n\nHe took a deep breath, beet red and shaky voiced. “I’m sorry I shouted. It’s just, it hurts me when you call yourself unworthy. I don’t need you to be my worshipper all the time. I just want San Lang.”\n\nHua Cheng’s lips parted, expression unreadable, eyes still on the ground. \n\n“Let me see if I understand gege. You…only want to kiss my true form?”\n\nXie Lian swallowed. He had not known that himself, but…yes, that was true. He’d had to kiss this form once, when he thought San Lang nearly drowned, but now that he had a choice…\n\nHe nodded earnestly. \n\nXie Lian gestured at him. “I…I love this form, I do, it’s just…well, you’re a little young for me like this, especially since we already have a bit of an age gap,” he said, feeling awkward. \n\nHua Cheng’s eyebrows raised. \n\n“Gege, we are both over 800 years old.”\n\nXie Lian huffed. “No, I’m older! Seven years! That’s a lot! I was…well, I was a young man, when I ascended, but…but when you’re like this…you’re, you’re a teenager. It’s a little bit…indecent.”\n\nHua Cheng’s lips pursed. His eyes were now slowly starting to dance with mirth. Hua Cheng didn’t make any noise, but he may as well have been snorting.\n\nXie Lian gave up. The hands went on the hips.\n\n“San Lang, are you laughing at me?”\n\nHua Cheng gave up. “Yes, gege, because you are extremely funny.”\n\nXie Lian exhaled irritably.\n\n“I didn’t know I felt that way either!” he said, aggrieved.\n\nHua Cheng’s lips twitched. “Well, now that we know, I…will adjust accordingly. Happily.”\n\nXie Lian rolled his eyes. “You’re going to ignore the second thing I said then?”\n\nHua Cheng paused, quiet.\n\nXie Lian shifted from foot to foot. “I really do just want San Lang. You don’t need to…” he fumbled for the words. “Earn it.”\n\nHua Cheng said nothing, not meeting his gaze. “That’s…very nice of you to say, gege.”\n\n“I didn’t mean it to be nice, it’s what I want,” said Xie Lian brusquely, deciding that if he was going to act like an 800-year-old, he may as well lean into it.\n\nHua Cheng opened his mouth, and closed it again. “Well, Your Highness, whatever I can do for you, I will do-”\n\nA bang came as the back doors flew open and the noise from the Den pierced the air.\n\n“And STAY OUT!” came the yell, along with the thump of a body hitting the ground and the resulting groan.\n\nXie Lian grimaced. “Well, perhaps we could go around the main entrance,” he said, looking around.\n\n“Black Water?” asked Hua Cheng, voice strange.\n\nXie Lian’s head whipped around. \n\nSprawled on the ground was a pathetic looking figure. \n\nThe figure ‘oofed’ as it climbed slowly to its feet, dusting off its filthy rags as it went.\n\nXie Lian’s mouth fell open. He was certainly not easily recognisable. He was one of the Four Great Calamities, and he’d just been tossed out by a bouncer like a sack of rice.\n\nHe Xuan did not look good. He was normally pale and stern of brow and demeanour, but he seemed…drunk. Xie Lian didn’t realise how stiff and formal his posture normally was until he saw him like this. Swaying and vague-eyed, scratching aimlessly at his head and robes. \n\n“Ah, Your Highness!” he slurred, attempting a bow in Xie Lian’s direction and falling over immediately. Xie Lian instinctively moved to help him up, but Hua Cheng gently stopped him. As he did, Xie Lian wondered why exactly he  was  about to help him up. He’d last seen him popping Shi Wudu’s head off like a pea out of a pod. \n\nTrue, he’d lain low and let them battle in his waters during the chaos after Mount Tong’lu, and Xie Lian would be surprised if his Bone Dragons had fought without his express permission, but he hadn’t shown his face. \n\nHe Xuan righted himself on his feet again.\n\n“Hua Cheng,” he belched, with a chin nod. “Good party,” he said, jerking his thumb behind him.\n\nHua Cheng’s eyes glittered. Xie Lian noticed he wasn’t smiling. Apparently he had no need for pretence around He Xuan.\n\n“Figured you’d be here, but you must have made quite a scene to get kicked out this early.”\n\n“Not my fault no one here can drink properly,” he hiccuped.\n\nXie Lian looked him over with interest. He had given He Xuan plenty of thought, over the past year. Shi Qingxuan visited a few times, still their delightfully unhinged self, but Xie Lian had never brought Black Water up. Strangely, he felt a kinship with He Xuan, though they’d never really had any one on one interaction. \n\nHe knew exactly what it was like to lose himself completely to rage and revenge. To realise too late that the self he’d have to live with afterward was not one he wanted to live with at all.\n\nBut it wasn’t like death was really an option for either of them. Their only difference was that Black Water didn’t have someone looking out for him, willing to shield him from the worst so he could find his best again. He didn’t have a San Lang.\n\nXie Lian spent a good hundred or so years thinking of Wu Ming’s sacrifice every day. Trying to live in a way that would make his death not just a waste of his faith in him. Until it became habit, and he became the Xie Lian he was now. Someone who no longer had much use for rage or vengeance.\n\nBut those first years? They were hard. Almost impossible. It looked like He Xuan was right in them, judging from his current glassy eyed stare.\n\n“You don’t look like yourself,” said Xie Lian hesitantly. \n\nHua Cheng sniffed. “Someone who eats and drinks my establishments out of everything they’ve got? Sounds like Black Water to me.”\n\n“I got kicked out because they wouldn’t let me bet one of my Bone Dragons. Seemed to think I wasn’t telling the truth,” he burped.\n\n“You have half the money of Heaven itself, you owe  me  most of it, and you’re betting a Bone Dragon?” said Hua Cheng impatiently.\n\n“Well, a Dragon is a more liquid asset-”\n\n“Cough up, or leave.”\n\nXie Lian glanced at Hua Cheng. His gaze was steely and unforgiving. \n\n“Ah, San Lang, perhaps we should be a little more gentle with him,” he murmured.\n\nHua Cheng looked at him in surprise. “Gege, this man spent quite a long time actively plotting how best to rip apart the life of one of your friends.”\n\nDidn’t manage to do that, thought Xie Lian privately. Shi Qingxuan had an odd sort of resilience.\n\nStill. It was sweet to watch Hua Cheng be all tough and gruff just because he thought Xie Lian might have tender feelings about it. Which he did, but he could also see the shades of grey. And this wasn’t really about him.\n\nHe smiled sadly. “I know he did. But I once spent some time actively plotting how to kill every person in an entire Kingdom.”\n\nHua Cheng’s brows contracted.\n\n“You are not him,” he said shortly.\n\n“How?”\n\n“You are better.”\n\n“Only to you. And only thanks to you,” said Xie Lian, desperately fond. Hua Cheng’s gaze bore into his for a moment, and Xie Lian felt hot around the collar.\n\n“Don’t let me interrupt,” said He Xuan, who had given up on standing and sat slumped on the ground with his legs wide apart. “I loved someone once. Nice, isn’t it,” he said bitterly.\n\nXie Lian’s heart clenched. Just the idea of something happening to Hua Cheng like what happened to He Xuan’s fiancee… he’d have done what He Xuan did. Even now, even with all the change in him, he’d still probably do it. No one was immune to the reckoning of that kind of pain. \n\n“He Xuan,” he said, edging towards him slightly. “Is there anything we can do? To help you.”\n\nHe Xuan lay down flat on the ground. “Just leave me alone,” he muttered to the stone.\n\nXie Lian sighed. He could recognise a man who was not ready to be helped. \n\n“Alright. If that’s what you want.”\n\nHe looked back at Hua Cheng. He wasn’t quite sure he wanted to step over He Xuan’s miserable prone form just to get inside anymore.\n\n“San Lang, maybe we can go somewhere quiet, instead?”\n\nHua Cheng’s face softened. “Of course, gege.”\n\nThey turned to leave.\n\n“You felt it too, right Hua Cheng?” called He Xuan.\n\nXie Lian looked back as Hua Cheng’s shoulders tightened. “I don’t know what you mean,” he said coldly, not turning. \n\nHe Xuan snorted. “The shutting. I feel it. I welcome it. I hope this is all over soon,” he said, curling into a ball away from them.\n\nHua Cheng’s eyes widened, just for a moment. Then his face was a mask. And he smiled. Xie Lian stared. Hua Cheng didn’t smile, with He Xuan. “Sounds like a you problem,” he said, nonchalantly, before offering Xie Lian his elbow.\n\nXie Lian watched his face carefully as he took it.\n\nIt seemed there were more than a few things that Hua Cheng was keeping to himself.\n\n***"}
+{"text": "The next day Elizabeth was back to the hero grind. Her agency had been extremely busy the past few weeks with emergency calls, media outings, and numerous investigative cases. Her day started with filling out a Sidekick ad.\n\nThere were already seven sidekicks working alongside her, but they were stretched thin as it was. \n\nScience was the focus at her agency, making it different from the rest of the top heroes and also in high demand. Each of her sidekicks had a quirk that specialized in one main area of science such as biology, geology, physics, etc. \n\nAfter calling in one of her interns for the proper paperwork, she placed it to the side and glanced down at her to-do list. Written in pink ink was her agenda for the week. One of which took the utmost priority was The Heroic Children's Charity or The HCC.\n\nEvery year Elizabeth had been in charge of organizing and hosting the prestigious charitable event. The nonprofit raised thousands of dollars to help support at-risk children reach their dreams of becoming Pro Heroes. \n\nSpectators and fans pay a hero fee to enter the venue, they are provided a meal and an opportunity to meet and greet any of the heroes who attended. The heroes and vendors all volunteer their time and efforts for the event, so all of the money collected from tickets goes to the scholarship fund.\n\nThe scholarships provide opportunities for the prospective heroes to train with real Pro Heroes and a chance to refine their quirks. When they came of age, they would enroll in a heroics school of their choice. Most students choose to attend U.A., with it being the top Hero Academy in Japan, but others would graciously pursue Shiketsu High School.\n\nThe future heroes had to fill out applications and be selected to attend the event. Not all applicants met the requirements, and there was a limited number of those chosen.  \n\nPro Heroes from all across Japan attended the event, but this year was going to be different. After pulling a few strings, Elizabeth managed to secure the greatest hero of all time: All Might. That alone had the potential to bring in the big bucks, and therefore, more applicants.\n\nShe had just over a week left before the eventful night. Most of the planning was already done, she just needed to tie up a few loose strings. It was a lot of work, but she didn’t mind. Elizabeth loved to plan events.\n\nFeeling satisfied with the number of tasks that were already completed for The HCC, she moved on to the ad. \n\nAfter working for about ten minutes, she glanced up at the wall in her office.\n\n I have one hour before the staff meeting. I need to get this finished so I can present and send it down the chain to my hiring team. She sat at her computer and began typing away. \n\nHer office was at the end of the hallway in the corner of the building. A large wooden desk sat perpendicular to three floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out over the city. \n\nHugging the side wall was a bookcase filled with books, case records, and small deep green succulent plants. A few decorations were scattered around the room giving the space a chic and modern vibe. \n\nWhile in the middle of editing the Sidekick Wanted Ad she felt her cell phone vibrate. \n\n\n It’s probably Nemuri wanting an explanation about me leaving early last night. I won’t answer and let her catch the voicemail.  \n\n\nThe phone continued to vibrate, and unfortunately, her inner moral compass was working overtime today and wouldn’t allow her to sit through the persistent buzzing. \n\n Maybe I should answer, what if it is an emergency?  She stopped typing and brought the phone up to her ear.\n\n“Ella speaking?” \n\n“Tsukauchi here. Do you have a minute to come down to the station?” he asked. His voice was calm but obviously burdened.\n\nElizabeth sat up from her chair. “I’ll be there in ten minutes.” \n\nShe clicked off and immediately left her office, giving instructions for her interns to finish the ad as she walked out the door. The staff meeting would have to wait.\n\n \n\n \n\nElizabeth arrived at the Police Station within four minutes. She figured that this probably wasn’t a dire emergency, but it was important enough for her to use her quirk for travel. \n\nWhen she walked inside the building, she and the police officers on duty exchanged polite waves. Her presence at the station was a common occurrence so they didn’t even stop her with questions. In fact, this was her twenty-fourth visit to the station this month. Not that she was counting.\n\nShe noticed that the lobby didn’t look normal for a Monday. Usually, the weekends kept the station busy with criminals but today it had a sluggish atmosphere.  \n\nPassing the lobby desk she headed down the long narrow hall toward Tsukauchi’s office.\n\n\n This has to be about the black hole from the other night. I wonder if Nemuri was summoned as well?  \n\n\nStraight ahead a cloud of black closed the door that led to Tsukauchi’s office. It vanished so fast that if she would have blinked she would have missed it. \n\nHer forehead creased.   Was…that…?  \n\nArriving at the same door, she gave a polite knock. Tsukauchi called out from inside, granting her permission to enter. Elizabeth opened the door to reveal the detective leaning on his desk, arms crossed with a quizzical look. \n\n“Ella! Thank you for joining us,” said Tsukauchi with a smile. “I wasn’t expecting you so quickly! I’m sure that you’ve already met Eraserhead.” He held out an introductory arm toward the man standing beside him.\n\n Shit. It was.   A muscle in her jaw twitched.    Wait, Eraserhead? What kind of hero name is that?   \n\nBefore her stood the man that she was sure she wouldn’t see again. In this close proximity, Elizabeth could see his face, something that she wasn’t able to do the night before. To her surprise, he didn’t look much different in the light than he did that night by the tree. The white scarf around his neck was surrounded by his long untamed hair. His face was weathered and worn like he was going to collapse from exhaustion any second.\n\nMeeting him now threw her analytical mind for a loop. If she knew about this second encounter ahead of time, she would have put more thought into their interaction. \n\n This is my chance to clear the air. Come on Liz, be as polite and professional as possible. She secretly took a deep breath and then handed out her hand.\n\n“Nice to meet you Eraserhead, I’m Elizabeth Isamu,” she said politely with a white smile.\n\nHer hand lingered awkwardly in the air while Eraserhead only gave her an unimpressed expression.\n\n ….um… Elizabeth held her gaze, unsure if she should withdraw. \n\nHis sullen eyes fell down with a blink before he jerked his head away. “So why did you call us here, Tsukauchi?\"\n\n\n What!? What's his deal?   \n\n\nElizabeth sheepishly retreated her hand and let it fall to her side. She gave the detective her full attention with a blank expression on her face. She wasn’t sure if she should feel embarrassed about what just happened or angry that the bridge troll ignored her presence for the second time. \n\n\n Whatever. Focus.  \n\n\n“Right. Let’s get started,” Tsukuachi said, studious voice breaking up the awkward atmosphere. “I’ve called you both here because of your involvement in the case of the black holes.” He reached for his notepad that was sitting on his desk, flipping through the pages before coming to a stop. \n\n“All except one of the victims had been reported missing before falling out of the black hole. The details of each missing person's case are the same. They just vanished. No witnesses, no rhyme or reason for their disappearance, and worst of all, no suspect.”\n\nElizabeth wrinkled her eyebrows. “Is no one talking about what they experienced?” she asked. This was all starting to seem off to her.\n\n“Some are, but there isn't much to go off of,” the detective replied. “One person said the last thing they remembered was walking down one street, and then the next thing they knew, they were sitting on the ground on a different street. Another one said they remembered briefly seeing a dark purple light. It could be a side effect from the black holes. But we shouldn’t dismiss the idea of another quirk at play. Maybe memory alteration.”\n\nElizabeth had been listening so intently to the detective that she didn’t realize that she was biting one of her fingernails. Eraserhead still held the same expression on his face. \n\nTsukauchi continued. “We've interviewed all the victims and have reached a pretty alarming discovery. It seems that each of them possesses a quirk, but are no longer able to activate it.”\n\nThe unnerving news echoed in Elizabeth’s brain. It wasn’t unheard of that injured people couldn’t activate their quirks right away. Following recovery, it could take weeks. But if this were the case, Tsukauchi wouldn’t have called in for the two heroes.\n\nEraserhead spoke up, \"to what extent?”\n\nElizabeth unintentionally glanced over at him, seeing that he had shifted on his feet. The change in his posture justified her rattled thoughts. \n\n“That’s why I've called for you, Eraser. Can you describe in detail how your erasure works?” he asked, preparing his pen.\n\n“I can temporarily pause the gene that's responsible for the quirk,” Eraserhead explained. “The wielder is unable to activate it for a short period of time. Once I blink, the expression on the quirk factor returns. There's no damage to its owner or the quirk itself.”\n\n\n Ah, so that's why he's called Eraserhead. Still a weird name though... \n\n\nTsukauchi continued to scribble down notes before looking up at him. “I see, thank you Eraserhead, this is very helpful information. I'll relay this over to the medical team who are working on this case to see if there are any similarities.”\n\nElizabeth thought back to the man on the ground who seemed totally disconnected from everything around him. “How are the victims?” she asked the detective.\n\n“There's been little progress on that front,” he said with a frown. “Most of the victims appear to have been through some sort of emotional trauma but have not verbalized anything with us. Physically, some have minor bumps and bruises, while others are not physically harmed at all.”\n\nElizabeth stood with a hand on her chin.   This doesn’t make any sense. If some of the victims were uninjured then there shouldn’t be a reason why their quirks are deactivated.  \n\nShe continued her questioning. “What about the metal bands?” \n\n“Well, I could actually use your help with that, Ella,” he admitted. “Did you have any immediate thoughts when you first saw them?”\n\nElizabeth had a lot of thoughts, actually. But she decided to stick with the basics to avoid confusion.\n\n“It was hard to tell if it was natural or synthetic, but either way it was exceptionally well made. The metal was extremely smooth, flawless almost. If it  is  natural, I'm guessing it to be transition metal. But I would need to investigate it further to reach a more concise conclusion.”\n\n“That wouldn’t be a problem,” Tsukauchi said as he wrote down the reminder on his notepad. “I can make a few phone calls to schedule an interview with one of the victims.”\n\n“And the black holes?” Elizabeth asked, happy to release the questions that had plagued her mind the past few days.\n\nTsukauchi sighed before answering. “One of our main problems is that we can’t get ahead of these occurrences. We only have eyewitnesses to rely on to describe what happened before, during, and after the black holes appear. We always arrive after the fact.” \n\n\n So the black holes appear at random places and at random times.  \n\n\nElizabeth was so deep in thought that she had almost forgotten Eraserhead was still standing there. At least until he spoke up. “The holes are clearly some sort of warp gate that seems to appear randomly. Do we know anything else?” he asked, face still blank of expression.\n\nHuh. That was weird. It was like he knew exactly what she was thinking. \n\n“We only know that there have been reports of people coming out of them. Never anything or anyone going in,” said Tsukauchi. He handled the Pro Heroes questions with grace. He must have been expecting the interrogation.\n\n\n If they're acting as some sort of teleportation device, then maybe as the victims travel through them they interfere with their quirks. The question is…  \n\n\n“When was the first known instance of a black hole appearing?” \n\nTsukauchi referred back to his notes before giving her an answer. “The first black hole was reported three weeks ago. The second one was shortly after. There have been eight instances that we know of.”\n\n Three weeks ago!? Why hasn’t my agency been informed? Elizabeth felt a little offended. Her agency was one of the fastest and most thorough agencies at solving cases. \n\n“That’s why I called you here Ella,” Tsukauchi said with a smile. “Can your agency provide any additional support to the investigation? For obvious reasons, your agency is best suited in cases like this.”\n\n Elizabeth stood with her mouth slightly opened, feeling embarrassed by her judgmental thoughts. “Of course. Whatever you need, detective,” she offered.\n\n“Great! I'll send over the paperwork to your office within the next couple of days. For now, that’s all I have. I'll continue to keep both of you informed if anything comes up.”\n\n The both of you? Great. I guess we are teaming up for the remainder of this case. She tried to hide the disapproval on her face.\n\nElizabeth looked over at her newly assigned case partner to see that he was already walking toward the door. \n\n\n What!? He’s not even going to say goodbye? What’s with him?  \n\n\n“Thanks, Tsukauchi,” she said, retreating out the door to catch up with Eraserhead. \n\nThough he snubbed her and ignored her introduction, Elizabeth felt the need to try and smooth things over with him. If they were going to be working on this case together, then they needed to be able to communicate. Besides, she wasn’t used to people not liking her, at least not publicly to her face. It bothered her. Maybe she said something or did something to offend him?\n\nEraserhead was also practically a stranger whom she knew nothing about. Questions flooded her mind about him as a hero, his agency, and his investigative style. This was her opportunity. She quickly prepared a list of questions in her head.\n\nElizabeth picked up her pace until she was walking beside him. He walked with his hands in his pockets and back slouched over. His head was buried in that scarf thing, eyes pointed straight ahead. \n\nAs soon as she got close to him though, her mind went blank. \n\n\n ….damn it. What was I going to ask him??  \n\n\nHe didn't bother to offer anything to their quiet stroll down the hall either. Elizabeth wasn’t sure, but it almost seemed like had picked up the pace a little. She ignored the idea of him trying to get away from her and kept walking. Hopefully any minute now her thoughts would return and she could engage in a conversation. \n\nThis was the closest that she had been to the man since their introduction. By being so, she caught a subtle smell of sandalwood that hovered around him. She accidentally breathed in its airy undertones. \n\n\n Huh....he kinda smells good.  \n\n\n Wait, what!? What the heck is wrong with you, you dummy. Now she felt even more awkward.\n\nTrying to break the thick silence that hung over them, Elizabeth opened her mouth in an attempt to start a conversation. \n\n\n …….. \n\n\n\n …….. \n\n\nShe failed. The only noise between the two of them was the sound of their tapping footsteps on the marbled tile. \n\nIt seemed like an eternity before they reached the entrance. The awkwardness of them walking in silence was gently broken up by the sound of chatting police officers in the lobby. Exiting through the revolving door, Elizabeth had finally remembered a question that she was going to ask. \n\n“So,” she started. “What kind of-”   Huh!?  Her face dropped when she saw that Eraserhead had turned on his heels to walk in the opposite direction. Not even acknowledging that she was talking.\n\n“Hey!” she snapped, previously expressionless face tangling in a scowl. “If we’re gonna work together on this case we should at least be cordial!”  \n\nThe words were ruder than she originally intended, but at this point, she was definitely offended and she wanted him to know it. \n\nEraserhead stopped walking. \n\n“Who said we’re working together?” he argued, not even bothering to turn around to face her. He picked up his pace and continued walking away. \n\n He’s such a jerk! Elizabeth couldn’t help the anger that was building on her face. She blew out a puff of air from her nose and abruptly rocketed off into the air with her quirk.\n\n\n He has some nerve. How am I supposed to work with this guy if I can’t even have a conversation with him?  \n\n\nShe returned to the office and started the staff meeting."}
+{"text": "Jim was well aware that at every first contact they had with new races in outer space there was a good chance that the translators could make a mistake or two, not able to fathom the nuance of some word or even sentence. It was a known possibility, since translating a language would have took a bigger exposure to it than it was possible at that very first approach.\nMany times it led to funny anecdotes that Jim would later recount to hosts and guests during social occasions, other times they led to difficult situations that weren’t nice stories material.\nMore often than not, it all simply led to ridiculous misunderstanding though, as Jim was pretty sure it had happened upon their arrival to Paracacia when the automatic translator had more than one problem in translating their words, sometimes leaving whole sentences in the original alien language.\nJim frowned slightly, tempted to shake the translator, but he knew it was no use; instead, he tried to ask the ambassador to repeat one more time what they had said.\nThe alien had stopped in their track, the tentacles on their chin trembling softly as they tried with different words.\n\"We are a very united people. We welcome such a unite people as you are.\" The translator relayed that time, and Jim was ninety percent sure that it had missed something. He had started to develop a sixth sense about that kind of situations.\nA quick glance to his side revealed a pointedly arched eyebrow on Spock's face and Jim felt his suspicions confirmed.\n\"We are glad you welcome us.\" He smiled at the alien nonetheless. \"We hope that we will soon be able to talk with your head of state and inform them of how the Federation would welcome you if you would decide to unite to us.\"\nThe tentacles trembled more animatedly and Jim had the clear impression that the alien was quite happy to hear that. Once again the ambassador started walking, leading them to what they had been assured would have been a suitable sistemation for them until their royalty was free to meet them.\n\"It is sad that the rest of your team is not as united as you two are.\" The ambassador commented, and Jim frowned slightly because at no point he and his team had showed any divergence.\n\"I can assure you they are of the same opinion as us, we all share the same desire to see peace spread on the universe.\"\n\"That is admirable.\" The ambassador had told them, his tentacles much more subsided.\n\"How valuable is the fact of being united for your people?\" Spock had wondered, clearly finding the matter fascinating.\nJim could almost hear the word go around in the other's brain.\n\"Very much. That is how the head of state are chosen. How all the head are chosen.\"\n\"Fascinating.\" Spock commented right as Jim had expected him to.\nThey nodded their heads respectfully when the ambassador left them in front of a door and informed them that they would have met in three hours for dinner.\n\nJim stopped barely two steps inside the room, his gaze fixed on the huge bed in the center of it. A queen sized bed that clearly meant their hosts had thought he and Spock were \"united\" in a very different way compared to what the translator had made them think they meant.\n\"Uh.\" He said very intelligently.\n\"Indeed.\" Spock murmured beside him, eyes fixed on the only bed in the room.\n\"Guess they thought... we were united in another way than being Captain and First Officer.\" Jim considered slowly, tilting his head without really wanting to walk closer to the bed.\n\"Apparently. It could be what the ambassador meant when they said that their head of state were chosen between the united ones.\"\n\"Ah.\" Jim nodded, putting his hands on his hips. \"So, they chose between bonded couples. And they thought we were... united, because we are at the head of the Enterprise.\" He surmised.\n\"Probably correct.\" Spock nodded his head, back straight and hands behind his back.\nJim nodded slowly and finally moved away from the door, letting his bag drop on what looked like a chair.\n\"So, which side do you prefer?\" He asked Spock, wondering if that little tic at one tilted eyebrow was just in his imagination.\n\n\"Captain, I have reached a conclusion based on the facts that we had gathered up until now.\" Spock had informed him, primly seated at the end of the bed, his tricorder between his hands.\n\"And that is?\"\nSpock inhaled slowly, bringing his gaze on the human. \"It could be in our interest to not let the indigenous species of this planet know that we are in fact not bonded to each other. If they value such a detail so much that they see fit for power only those who have a partner, then it stands that they would not allow any audience or even consider our words if they were to find out that our relationship was merely-\"\n\"A friendship?\" Jim interrupted him with a soft smile.\nSpock seemed to falter for a second, probably having been about to say \"professional\", but in the end he gave a curt nod of his head, a little smile tugging at his lips.\n\"Exactly, Jim.\"\n\"So do you suggest pretending to be a couple for what is left of our stay here?\" Jim approached him slowly, looking Spock straighten his back even more.\n\"Precisely.\"\n\"It's a good plan.\" Jim nodded, and for a moment he wondered if once more his imagination was playing him tricks or if the warmth in Spock's eyes had really been there for the quickest moment.\n\nTheir suppositions were soon considered more than valid by Uhura and Shya, the communications ensign that had followed them planet side.\nWhen they followed their guide to the state dinner Spock made sure to stay closer to his Captain, attempting to show that way how close they were. Jim smiled warmly at the vulcan, just as he would have if they were to really share a romantic relationship. In a show of good manner, or at least what he hoped the paracacians would see as such, he moved the chair for Spock, helping him sit down at the table before taking his place by his side.\nIt was with a thrill of pride that he noticed the tendrils on their hosts chins tremble in approval.\n\n\"And hear, Captain, how did the two of you meet?\" A paracacian asked curiously, their gaze moving from Jim to Spock who was currently assessing if their food was fit for consumption by both humans and vulcans.\nJim gave the alien a brilliant smile. \"Starfleet paired us years ago. I am most fortunate to have found such a brilliant First Officer to serve by my side.\" He chuckled softly, throwing a glance at Spock and finding with pleasure that - even though the vulcan kept his gaze on his tricorder - his cheeks were flushed a darker green than usual, clearly having heard his words. \"Honestly, it could have been all kind of bad if I hadn't found that I could trust the person closer to me with my whole life.\" He admitted, a little part of him wondering how much Spock could have blushed if he was to keep telling others what he really thought of him.\n\"Captain...\" Spock called him softly.\n\"Yes, Spock?\" Jim turned with a smile, looking at the almost uncomfortable vulcan nod to their plates without taking his eyes off the tricorder yet.\n\"The food is fit for consumption.\" He cleared his throat, even his ears flushed a bright green by then.\n\"Thanks, Spock.\" Jim smiled, reaching out with one hand to gently brush Spock's forearm, taking care to not let his touch go where the fabric of the uniform didn't protect the vulcan.\nSpock moved his gaze to his hand and gave a curt nod, seemingly relaxing at that. Even though Jim could have sworn that Spock seemed to stay tense at his side for the rest of the evening.\nIt was a matter he endeavoured to rectify as soon as the door of their assigned room slid close behind them.\n\n\"I hope I haven't put you in an embarrassing position during dinner, Spock.\" He started.\nSpock though shook his head once, his back rimrod straight, but his shoulders more relaxed.\n\"On the contrary, Captain. I have to admit that hearing your compliments directed at my persona during dinner helped me.\"\n\"Really?\" Jim couldn't help but ask, a little smile tugging at his lips.\n\"Confidence.\" Spock only answered, his eyes on Jim's almost searching for something. After a moment he moved his hands from behind his back, showing Jim the first two fingers of his right hand.\n\"If I can, Captain, this is the ozh’esta. The only permitted show of affection in public for vulcans couples.\"\nAnd then it was Jim's turn to blush hard at the proof right in front of him that Spock was not only granting him to touch his bare skin, but he was proposing him to practically present themselves in public as a couple even for vulcan's standards.\n\"I-\" He stuttered, not really wanting to see too much in it but unable to do so either way. \"Are you sure, Spock?\" He murmured.\n\"If you are not interested-\" Spock started, lowering his arm, but Jim hurried to step closer to him, shaking his head with a smile.\n\"No, no, it's just- You usually don't like much people touching you.\" He chuckled, mirroring the way Spock kept his fingers.\nAnd then he noticed the warmth and note of amusement in Spock's so human eyes.\n\"Since it is you, and in deference of the respect you always showed to my culture, I see nothing wrong with teaching you this, or using this gesture to further our image of bonded couple at the eyes of the paracacians.\"\n\"Sure. They will love it.\" Jim chuckled with butterflies in his stomach as he gently tried pressing his fingers against Spock's.\nFor the briefest moment Jim could have sworn that the vulcan’s eyelashes had fluttered at that contact, a little spark igniting between them and travelling from their fingers up their arms.\nIt seemed to surprise both of them, if the quirking of the slanted eyebrow was a sign, but instead of moving back or letting his hand drop Spock stood where he was. There was a beat of stillness between them before Spock actually used his fingers to hook Jim's, gently pulling them closer to himself, pressing better against them. Even though Jim couldn't surely feel what Spock did in that moment he found himself furiously blushing at being at the center of the vulcan's attention.\n\"Spock...\" He called softly the First Officer, and that was enough to shake Spock out of his reverie.\nSoon he had let go of his fingers and nodded his head, covering the tremble on his fingers by bringing both of them once more behind his back.\n\"Very well, Captain.\"\n\"For god's sake, Spock...\" Jim chuckled, instinctively drawing circles on the tips of his fingers with his thumb. \"It kinda seems like we almost made out, and you're still calling me Captain even though we're alone.\"\nThe flush on Spock cheeks came back full force, giving Jim pause.\nAfter a beat the vulcan tilted his head of a fraction.\n\"The ozh’esta could be assimilated to the show of affection done by humans kissing their partner chastely on the lips.\" He admitted.\nJim was left gaping at that, looking shocked at his friend.\n\"I- was that inappropriate of me?\" He managed, slowly rubbing his hands one against the other.\n\"It was not.\" Spock reassured him, even if he appeared distracted by what Jim was currently absently minded doing, studying Jim's hands instead of looking him in the eyes. \"I would have not proposed it if I were not ready to exchange it with you. Jim.\" He added almost as an afterthought, briefly raising his gaze on him to study his reaction.\nJim was left staring at him, trying to decide what that could mean for them, if the peaceful end of the accords after all was not the only thing in his mind in that moment.\n\n***\n\nJim was perfectly aware that as sleep eluded him it was clear the same was happening to the other occupant of the bed.In the darkness he could perfectly follow the regular pattern of Spock's breath, but considering how many times they had slept in shared quarters during missions - sometimes even in sickbay - he was fairly sure that it should have been even slower if Spock was really asleep.As for what regarded him, Jim wasn't kept awake by the thought of the encounter with the head of state the next morning, but by the memory of what had previously emerged between him and Spock.He couldn't help but think back at the warmth in Spock's gaze as he had proposed Jim to follow the vulcan tradition, his fingers so soft and warm at the touch. Jim couldn't help but wonder if the rest of his hand would have felt the same, soft skin and strength hiding under it. He let a sigh escape his lips at the memory of how Spock had tugged his fingers closer to him, how his eyelashes had fluttered in what Jim hoped was pleasure.He licked his lips, well aware that he was maybe seeing too much in what Spock considered barely the equivalent of a peck on the lips, and turned to try and throw a look at his First Officer.In the darkness he could barely make out the silhouette of the other's head on the pillow, and feeling so very stupid Jim turned once more, moving until he was laying on his side, his back to Spock, and he grabbed the pillow in the futile hope that smashing his head into it would have helped him get asleep.He stopped every movement though when he heard a rustle of covers behind him, the proof that Spock was in fact awake even though he had not said a word the whole time. Jim stared at the darkness in front of him, trying to gauge what Spock was doing, and felt a shiver run down his back when suddenly a puff of hot breath hit the nape of his neck.Spock had slowly moved on his side himself, but instead of giving his Captain his back he had moved towards the human.\n\nJim swallowed in silence, feeling his body tense as he noticed he was able to actually feel the heat emanating from the other, so close to him that Spock must have had left his side of the bed in his movements. Jim closed his eyes shut, trying to focus on the warmth he could feel against his back and legs.\nSpock laid still for long seconds in which they didn't share a word, not even when Spock finally moved once more, closing the distance between the two of them.\nA deep sigh escaped Jim's lips when the vulcan pressed himself against him, sending shivers of pleasure down his body. Spock felt like a safe presence against him, his chest so terribly hot pressed flush against his back, his knees pressing against the back of Jim's until he was making the human move them toward his chest. Jim had no protest to make at that, actually elated to finally have the chance to feel Spock on him that way, and instead pressed back against the other, tucking himself more closely in Spock's embrace.\nSoon Spock sneaked one hand under his arm, letting his fingers slide from Jim's side toward the left side of his body, wrapping him in a hug that Jim had no hurry to escape.\nInstead Jim found himself smiling in the darkness, the tension dissipating from his body. Slowly he covered the vulcan's hand, slowly stroking his fingers until Spock parted them enough to let Jim entwine them.\nSpock sighed softly at that and tilted his head forward, pressing his forehead against the nape of Jim's neck.\nBut still he didn't seem intentioned to take his hand away, or to talk for that matter, to explain what he was doing. Not that Jim wanted to talk much in that moment, preferring instead to bask in the pleasure of that contact for as long as he could.\nThey laid there in silence, enjoying their closeness until Jim let the warm puff of breath against his bare skin lull him to sleep.\n\nJim sighed softly upon waking up. The heat in the bed was stifling, Spock acting as a heater against his body, and for a moment Jim thought that was what had woken him up. Pretty soon though he noticed how Spock's breath was way more erratic than how he had ever heard it, faster than the night before, almost akin to when they were running from some enemy. The cause of it though was clear by the way Spock kept slowly rocking his hips, grinding his hard erection against Jim's ass.\nJim suffocated a moan at understanding that Spock was having a wet dream and was trying to take care of it using him. Well, Jim was more than on board with letting Spock have his wicked way with him, but would have preferred if the vulcan was actually awake for it.\nThat didn't stop him though from pressing himself better against his First Officer, his own penis quickly growing harder at every passing second. He had some difficulty suppressing a moan when Spock managed to push his cock against the crack of his ass through the fabric of their pajamas.\nJim was tempted to spread his legs in the hope to be able to feel it better. He closed his eyes in pleasure when Spock's movements became stronger, almost making him wish to just wake the other up and ask him to keep going but without any clothes on.\nSuddenly though Spock's breath faltered and Jim stilled completely, trying to force himself to slow down his own breath after the minutes in which it had quickened as he let the lust take a hold of him.\nSuddenly his mind was filled by the dread that Spock would understand what had happened and take away everything.\nNot only the hold of his arms, but the heat and comfort of his body.\nEven worse, the friendship they had slowly built and the trust Jim had sweated on to make it last.\nAfter a moment though Spock simply leaned in and pressed his lips behind Jim's ear.\n\"Your fears are too loud.\" He complained softly with a voice full of sleep.\n\"Sorry.\" Jim murmured without thinking.\n\"I should be the one saying so.\" Spock pointed out in a low murmur, not giving any hint of wanting to back off him, or even take away the arm he still had around Jim.\nJim sighed softly, shaking his head once. \"No need for it, Spock.\" He murmured.\n\nBut that close to each other there was no way for him to hide the fears that still had a hold on his heart, neither the relief at sensing that still Spock wasn't about to leave him like a boiling potato even though he was now awake and well aware of their position.\nNot to mention the vulcan's erection still there and the desire that still run through Jim.\nSlowly, tentatively, he tried pressing back against Spock once more, hoping his closeness was sign that he was still interested as much as the boner still poking against his ass would have made him presume.\nInstead of choosing that moment to pull back Spock moaned softly and soon he started grinding against him once more.\nAbruptly Spock moved the covers away from them, surprising Jim for a moment as he lifted himself on an elbow enough to be able to watch the human lying against him.\nA quick glance revealed to Jim the heated gaze in those too human’s eyes and he couldn’t help a shiver at that sight.\nSlowly the vulcan went back to caressing his abdomen, taking a hold of his shirt before slowly hiking it up to expose Jim to his gaze.\nJim sighed excited and kicked the covers away, licking his lips and cracking a smile.\n\"Like what you see?\" He murmured teasingly, even though he could easily guess the answer by the way Spock was staring at him with hunger in his eyes.\nSlowly Spock went back to caressing him, his fingers spread as he slowly touched the golden skin of the man, tips of fingers brushing a nipple, stopping a moment to play with it. Jim bit his lip, almost holding his breath as he wished to just be able to remember all of that when it was going to be done.\nSpock though didn't look too eager to stop any time soon, slowly playing with his nipple enough to see if Jim liked it or not before letting his touch slide more south, over the abs and to the trail of golden hair that started from Jim's navel to disappear under the waistband of the pajama pants.\n\nThere Spock stopped, clearly unsure if his touch would have been welcomed over that point.\nJim though took the doubt away from him by moving one leg up and over Spock's, pressing back his hips against Spock's boner to remind the vulcan that he was more than willing to all of that.\nSpock moaned hoarsely at the added pressure, his fingers trembling for a second, and instead of sneaking his hand inside the pants Spock moved it over the erection that tented the fabric, making Jim moan as he cupped his hard penis. Jim threw his head back on the pillow as Spock slowly started groping him, making him even more excited and eager for what they could have had.\nThe vulcan was so close to his ear that Jim was perfectly able to hear the moment Spock swallowed, clearly barely able to still control his body.\n\"Please, Captain...\"\nThe pray came with a surprising hoarse voice, not more louder than a whisper, and Jim let out a soft noise.\n\"Jim.\" He murmured, closing his eyes for a moment. \"Heavens sake, call me Jim.\" He didn't bother feeling ashamed for the soft whine in his voice, too strung up to be able to stand Spock calling him by rank in that moment, so close to actually having sex with him.\nIf they were to do it Jim wanted to make sure Spock knew it wasn't happening as Captain and First Officer.\n\"Jim.\" Spock called him softly, a syllable whispered like a prayer in the hope that Jim would let him.\nAnd Jim nodded his head without even asking the other what was that he wanted. After all he was pretty sure he would have given the vulcan whatever he could have asked for.\n\"Please...\"\n\"Yes.\" Jim sighed when it was clear that Spock needed to hear it from his lips, not just see his nod. \"Yes, Spock.\"\nA hoarse noise escaped the vulcan and Spock stopped holding back, taking his hand away from Jim's cock only to pull down the human's pajama and expose to the light incoming from the window the naked body of his Captain.\n\nBut then Spock’s hips faltered when Jim attempted reaching back, clearly with all the intention to return the favor and pull down the standard pajama Spock wore.\nThe vulcan’s hand stopped completely when Spock spoke, insecurity leached in his tone. “Jim… it would probably better if you didn’t.”\n“You don’t want me to?” Jim frowned in surprise, his hand still over Spock’s hip.\nJim was pretty sure to not have been wrong, at least judging from the way Spock was still completely hard against him, his cock lodged between Jim’s asscheeks and the fabric the only thing stopping him from pushing in.\nSpock hesitated, for once at loss for words, and he cleared his throat after a couple seconds.\n“Vulcans are physically different from humans.” He murmured, even if something in his tone made Jim suspicious.\nMoreover it was known that vulcans and humans were sexually compatible, ence Spock’s birth in primis.\n\"It's okay, Spock...\" Jim tried to reassure him, cracking a smile. \"I'm not really in this because I have a kink for vulcans or something like that.\" He tried to joke.\nBut Spock seemed at a loss for words and still reluctant.\nHe was in fact torn between his desire for the man and his shame at the mere thought of letting Jim see what very few had. He pressed his face against Jim's shoulder, moving his hand away from the human's cock to go back to holding him tightly against his chest.\n\"Jim...\"\nIt was clear that something was wrong and Jim tried to turn in his arms, finding himself instead stopped by the strong arm around him.\n\"Spock...\" He called softly, gently caressing the side of his friend. \"Spock, talk to me...\" He almost begged, trying his best to project his affection through their touch, pretty sure Spock could feel him with all that exposed skin against skin between them.\nThat seemed to help the vulcan relax a fraction and Spock sighed softly, nuzzling the hair on the nape of Jim's neck.\n\"My hybrid status separates me from what is considered normal for vulcans. But also from what is considered normal for humans.\" He murmured softly, his cheeks so flushed in shame that even Jim could sense the warmth of them.\nJim tried looking back at him, but once more he had to yield his attempts since from his position he couldn't really see anything, the incriminating part securely pressed against him. But the most pressing problem for Jim was actually to reassure the vulcan that nothing would have changed between them.\nJim sighed and took the hand away from Spock's side but only to cover the vulcan’s hand once more, slowly and ever so gently letting his pads travel over the smooth back of it, over the mounds and between his fingers.\nSpock's breath hitched at that and suddenly his shields seemed to shatter and Jim was engulfed in waves of love and desire, emotions so intense that they were almost scorching against his mind.\n\nJim closed his eyes, breathing erratically, and with a soft moan tried pressing himself better against the hot body behind himself.\n\"Spock- darling.\" He murmured, cracking a smile when Spock's emotions seemed to be rippled by something different that felt a lot like longing and hope. \"I don't care if you're different from others. You are unique, Spock. I've always known that.\" He murmured, slowly moving his fingers between Spock's, up until he was almost covering his hand and down again to press the tips against the tender skin between those long fingers. \"I've always known you were unique, even before knowing of your hybrid status. And I wouldn't want you any different from how you are.\"\nSpock trembled behind him, his fingers pressing against Jim's chest almost as if he feared he would soon change his mind and try getting away from him.\n\"I do not want to lose you because I tried having more than what I could.\"\n\"You can have everything, Spock. God knows I want everything from you.\" Jim smiled, slowly prying Spock's hand from his chest to bring it to his mouth.\nEver so gently he pressed his lips against the vulcan't pads. The hitching in the breath behind him made his cock throb in desire, but Jim kept his focus on what he was doing. He parted his lips to let his tongue flick over the tip of Spock's index finger, against the short and perfectly trimmed nail, before grazing it with his teeth.\nSpock let a soft whine escape from his lips, his hips starting to move of their own volition against the human.\n\"Jim-\" The strangled sound seemed to take even Spock by surprise, and he tried wrapping himself better around the human, lifting himself on one elbow to reach with his lips the corner of Jim's mouth, stealing his attention from his fingers to press a kiss over his lips. One kiss was followed by one more and another after that, until Jim parted his lips and Spock was able to plunge his tongue in his mouth for a passionate kiss.\n\"I want everything you want to give me...\" Jim murmured between kisses, noticing he had moved his hand in Spock's hair only when he found himself tugging those black strands to keep Spock close.\nSpock was breathless by then, but his brown eyes managed to convey all the longing and love that he wouldn't permit himself to voice yet.\nHe hesitated for barely a second before giving a curt nod of his head, stealing a chaste kiss from Jim's lips as if he needed it to gather his strength. Then, even if it seemed to be a hardship taking his hand away from Jim's hold, Spock nonetheless did so to slowly push his pants down.\nThere was a sharp intake of breath from both of them when finally they were able to feel each other skin on skin.\nSpock seemed to melt against him with a long moan and he went back to brushing his lips against Jim's neck as he once more pressed himself against the human's asscheeks.\nJim moaned softly and pressed back against him with his eyes closed.\nHe licked his lips, about to tell Spock that he didn't feel anything strange in that, when suddenly an unexpected movement made him open his eyes in surprise.\nSpock heard the sudden intake of breath from Jim and wrapped his arm around the man once more, almost as if trying to remind Jim of his promise to not run for the hills.\nThe fear mingled to the desire and longing Spock was exuding managed to ground Jim and he didn't even try to turn and take a peek at him, trusting that Spock would have never hurt him in the first place.\n\nStill Jim was unable to suppress a gasp when what felt extremely like a lithe lubed tendril pressed against his opening, slowly pushing inside of him.\nNot big enough to hurt in its movements, not too thin to not be felt.\nIf Jim had any doubt on if that was Spock's organ or not, the soft moan that came from behind him was all the answer he needed.\nHe tried to relax, his curiosity and interest piqued, and tried squeezing his muscles around the intrusion.\nThat managed to get a louder moan out of Spock and Jim cracked a grin, wondering how it was possible that \"that\" managed to move on its own without Spock moving his hips of an inch. But his question flew out of his mind as soon as the tendril managed to find its way to his prostate, insistently pressing against it and making him cross his eyes in pleasure.\n\"Oh!\" The loud groan that escaped his lips seemed to give Spock more confidence and suddenly Jim felt another lithe tendril press against his opening, followed close by another.\nSoon Jim wasn't able to keep his voice down anymore, not with three tendrils moving inside of him at different tempos, driving him crazy and slowly but surely opening him up.\nSpock moaned at feeling Jim's desire and pleasure spike up and he seemed unable to stop himself from caressing him with his hand well open, touching every inch of the human's skin he could reach.\n\"Jim...\"\nJim whined softly, nodding his head. He had no idea what more Spock could ask of him, but whatever that was he was more than ready to let Spock just take it, to let him do whatever he wanted to his body and mind.\nHe was so out of his mind for the new experience and the pleasure that Spock was managing to give him that it took him a fourth, slightly bigger, tendril pushing inside of him to finally realize that maybe vulcans might have had some kind of tentacled reproductive organ. That could have actually explained a good chunk of their secrecy around their sexual encounters, since they seemed ashamed already just at the thought of telling outworlders that their freaking hands were an erogenous zone.\n\"Ashal-veh...\"\nJim sighed deeply at that, his cheeks flushing a deep red at recognizing the endearment, and couldn't help the rush of affection he felt for Spock.\nHe nodded his head, rolling his hips to try and coax Spock into giving him more.\nAnd Spock delivered, parting his lips to actually bite his neck where Jim's pulse was more perceptible, sucking at the tender skin.\nJim was left gasping, surprised that Spock would really do that, go there for a hickey with the chance of everybody seeing the mark on him in just a couple hours. But Spock didn't seem to think too much of it, for once not overthinking his every move and letting instead his instinct speak up.\nSlowly Jim found himself filled by more of Spock's, his thighs trembling for the pleasure of it.\nSpock let go of his skin only to lap at the purple mark he had just left on his Captain. He swallowed, close enough to Jim's ear that the man heard it clearly, and sneaked one hand back on Jim's cock. He wrapped his fingers around it, smiling softly at the groan that escaped the human's lips, at seeing Jim throw his head back in pleasure, and slowly started to pump it.\nJim understood Spock was trying to keep him distracted with that only when one tendril way thicker than the previous ones slowly started pushing inside of him, leaving him breathless and with eyes wide open.\nSpock moaned obscenely behind him, clearly too lost in pleasure at finally being completely in him, and finally he started moving his hips.\nJim went cross eyed with a loud moan when Spock's erection started sliding out of him only for the vulcan to thrust once more in him, pressing all those tendrils deep inside of him together, the slickest ones still moving around the thicker one, the one that was actually making Jim feel almost as if he was losing his virginity once more.\n\nJim bit the pillow in a futile attempt to suffocate a scream of pleasure when Spock managed to have part of himself still brush instistently against Jim's prostate while he kept thrusting in and out of him.\nIt was maddening and at the same time the best sex Jim had ever had. He surrendered himself to Spock, moaning at every movement of the vulcan, loving the way he took him fast and hard, the sounds of their love making so loud in the little room he almost expected their guests to just know how \"united\" the two of them were.\n\"Jim- Jim...\" Spock whispered, voice strained against his ear, unable to still keep his shields up and letting Jim feel exactly how incredulous and grateful he was that Jim still wanted him, accepted him for how he was even though no one had ever wanted him so before.\nSuddenly Jim noticed how he had grabbed Spock’s arm in an attempt to hold on against the onslaught of those powerful snaps of Spock's hips. It took a bit of effort but he let it go, letting instead his hand slide along the vulcan's forearm, wrapping his fingers for a couple seconds around his wrist before he changed his mind, ultimately covering the hand Spock had around his cock.\nSpock let out a surprised moan and Jim grinned, wrapping his fingers better over the other’s, holding tighter to have Spock not only tighten the hold around him but to have him experience the full attack of his emotions and pleasure.\nSpock hid his face against Jim's shoulder, his motions becoming frantic as he approached the edge.\n\"Jim...\"\nThe pitiful way he called his name was enough for Jim to know exactly how close Spock was and he nodded his head, leading the vulcan into stroking his cock faster, to rotating the wrist exactly like he liked, thrusting his hips into the other's hold until he was cumming in hot waves all over the bedsheets and Spock's fingers. The way he suddenly tensed, squeezing his muscles around Spock's erection, managed to be enough to strip the vulcan of any means to still hold back and suddenly he was dragged over the edge by Jim.\nA hoarse moan escaped him and Spock gave one last thrust, pressing himself flush against Jim in an attempt to not leave a single inch of space between them as he slowly poured his semen in him.\nJim relaxed in his embrace, trying to catch his breath with a grin plastered on his face, almost unbelieving that he had just been fucked raw by his First Officer.\nSpock was probably too tired and out of it to even think about putting up his shields, because he seemed able to read Jim's mind. He hummed softly at his thoughts, brushing his lips slowly behind Jim's ear.\nThe human couldn't help but smile wider with pride at knowing that he was the sole responsible for rendering Spock speechless.\nIf he didn't know any better, he would have sworn that actually elicited a snort out of Spock.\nSlowly he pried open Spock's fingers to move his hand over his own chest and have the vulcan press the palm over his beating heart.\nSpock held his breath for a moment at that, but a second after he moved one leg over Jim's, trying to wrap himself better around the human.\n\"Mine.\" He murmured on Jim's ear.\n\"You better claim me as yours.\" Jim tried going for a joke, and was awarded with a little kiss on the line of his jaw.\n\"I will, ashayam.\" Spock murmured with what was a real smile on his lips, his joy so strong that even Jim was able to sense it through the contact of their skin.\n\nThey laid in bed side by side looking at each other, the light of day slowly brightening the room more and more, but still Jim was reluctant to get up. As he told the vulcan, they had at least three more hours till they were to get out of there for the meeting.\nSpock offered no protest at that, no logical reason to get out of bed, and instead merely nodded his head on the pillow and pushed one leg between Jim's, looking for a comfortable way to still reiterate that he wasn't letting the man go away from him any time soon.\nJim couldn't help but smile at that sight, a warm and fuzzy feeling swarming in his chest, and reached out to move back Spock’s black hair from his forehead. The brown eyes of his lover shone with love, following his every move, softening even more when Jim inched closer to press his lips gently against his.\nThey had ended up stripping completely of their clothes, preferring to just cover themselves with the bedsheets while they kept touching and caressing each other.\nJim took the chance to lift the sheets and finally peek at whatever was that Spock had used to drive him crazy not half an hour before. He grinned openly at seeing Spock blush under his inspection, the green spreading from his face and neck to his chest. But he didn't stop Jim from observing him, even if he still didn't look too comfortable.\nJim inched closer to him, caressing one naked hip and licking his lips, trying to project reassuring feelings for him to latch on.\nAt a casual look it seemed a mostly normal cock, but upon closer inspection Jim noticed that it was in fact made of little tendrils that would keep close to one another, the thin ones surrounding a larger one that didn't look too different from a human cock. When he lifted his gaze it was to see the vulnerability raw in the other's gaze, and Jim moved his hand to Spock's cheek, slowly drawing circles over his cheekbone with his thumb.\n\"Hey, it's alright, darling.\" He murmured, leaning in to press a kiss on his lips. \"I like it.\"\nSpock didn't look too sure though, and so Jim repeated himself with a grin.\n\"I like it, Spock. Didn't you noticed how much earlier?\"\nSpock gave a curt nod after a moment, still unable to relax completely.\nJim pressed another kiss on his lips, letting his fingers move until he was caressing the nape of Spock's neck, digits slowly scratching the sensitive skin.\n\"Talk to me.\" He whispered.\nSpock reopened the eyes that he had instinctively closed when Jim had started to gently scratch him, and Jim saw his adam apple bob up and down as he looked for words.\n\"I have been told I am too unusual.\" He murmured after mulling it over for a couple seconds.\nThrough his quiet voice Jim was perfectly able to hear the hurt that that had brought to his friend during the years.\n\"I believe it was one of the reasons my father was afraid I would not be able to find a bondmate.\" He admitted, unable to look Jim in the eyes.\nJim felt compelled to press himself against Spock at that, his lips pressed in a thin line.\n\"Well, don't know if you noticed, but I'm quite enthusiast of it. Of all of you, really.\" He huffed a smile, leaning in for another kiss and another one after that, pressing Spock back until he was laying on his back.\nJim moved over him, covering his face in kisses until the vulnerability in his gaze disappeared, leaving space for a lustful look.\nAt that Jim grinned openly, calling it a victory.\n\"Let me show you how much I love every part of you.\" He almost purred, leaning down to kiss Spock on the lips before slowly starting to move down his body leaving a trail of kisses and little bites that had Spock moaning and gasping, brown eyes fixed on his human lover.\nEven if Jim had just reassured him he didn't mind the differences between the two of them Spock couldn't help but tense when he saw the man getting closer and closer to his cock, fearing that upon closer inspection he would decide that no, it wasn't for him.\nBut Jim was exuding only affection and desire and Spock desperately latched on those feelings in hope that Jim could be really different from anyone else he had ever met.\nJim stopped only when he found himself eye level with the tangle of tendrils that constituted Spock's cock and couldn't help but grin anew at seeing them twitch as his hot breath hit them.\nGently, sparing one glance at the worried face of his lover, he wrapped three fingers around them.\nSpock held his breath quite loudly at that, surprised, but he finally started relaxing when Jim slowly pumped them as he would have done with a human cock. Another glance up revealed Spock's eyelids flutter and the way he had parted his lips in pleasure.\nIt was enough to send Jim leaning in to lap at the bulbous head of the central tendril, the thickest one, and Spock let out a yelp, grabbing the sheets in his fists.\n\"Jim!\" He called the human, almost scandalized.\nJim chuckled softly at that reaction, grinning up at him. \"Oh, darling, don't tell me I'm the first to do this...\" He smiled, but his eyebrows shot up when the flush on Spock's cheeks became more pronounced, confirming so. \"Really?\" He murmured after a moment, surprised, a couple moments before a new and unexpected wave of possessiveness overcame him.\nSpock looked suddenly puzzled at him, unable to understand the surge of the new emotion.\nJim groaned, starting to pump the tendrils a bit faster. \"Oh, darling, there is so much I have to teach you now...\" He murmured, voice thick with desire.\n\nSpock opened his mouth to probably ask the reason for it but Jim chose that moment to part his lips and stick out his tongue, starting to lick at him, and that had Spock letting out a surprised moan that only grew in volume as Jim made sure to take care of all of his tendrils, leaving not even one uncared for.\nSoon Jim found out that Spock seemed to know exactly how to move them when he wanted so, and grinned at the flushed vulcan when the more thin ones moved away from the thickest to let Jim free to lavish at it.\n\"Do you like it?\" He murmured, just licking the head of it while he kept his First Officer under control, waiting to see him nod his head frantically before opening his mouth more to finally push it past his lips and start to suck him.\nSuddenly Spock threw his head back with a scream of pleasure, arching on the mattress and pushing himself deeper into Jim's mouth.\nJim moaned and started growing hard himself pretty fast at that sight, but instead of taking care of himself he relaxed his throat and went down on that cock even more.\nSpock stopped breathing for a moment, shocked by the pleasure that sent running through him.\nJim hoped Spock's shields were still down as he drew lazy circles with his hands on his lover's hips, trying desperately to project to the vulcan that he was free to relax or simply fuck his throat, whatever he preferred more. His plan seemed to succeed since Spock's breath loudly itched in his throat, a moment before he brought his hands on Jim's head and tentatively started moving his hips.\nJim closed his eyes, enjoying it immensely, and tried opening his mouth more when the other tendrils started poking at his lips, trying to find a way inside of his mouth with the thickest one. Jim was more than happy to wrap his lips around them all, sucking Spock as he had dreamed of for years. Jim let him take command of it and simply tried to give him as much pleasure he could, enjoying the grunts and moans that fell from Spock's lips until he was tensing up and slowly filling his mouth of his semen with a drawn out moan.\nHe waited to let it go until Spock let himself fall back on the mattress, short of breath and undone, and only then Jim crawled over his lover with a big grin, chastely kissing his lips.\nSpock merely looked at him from under his half closed eyelids, sighing with satisfaction.\n\"Do you believe me now?\" Jim murmured, stroking one green cheek with the back of his fingers.\n\"Yes, ashayam.\" Spock whispered with a little smile that had Jim's heart racing once more.\n\n***\n\nThere wasn’t really any way for Jim to suppress his smile even after they had left the bedroom picked for them by their hosts, but the glances he kept throwing at his First Officer and the way Spock made sure to walk closer to him than the previous day, only managed to put their hosts in a good mood.Soon they were granted audience by the heads of state and Jim’s smile grew even bigger when Spock lifted his hand, two fingers ready for Jim to press into."}
+{"text": "It was a damn good thing he wasn’t afraid of heights. But then again, a fear of heights was a luxury no sailor could afford. From climbing the rigging to patching the sails to keeping watch high in the crow’s nest; many of their duties consisted of hanging by the knees twenty feet off the deck. Every movement of the ship was magnified in the crow’s nest. The slightest rocking of the hull translated into a swinging motion by the long mast that support the look-out. In the beginning, the swaying had made Akihito horribly sick. His first time keeping watch, he had ended up barfing over the side of the crow’s nest, showering the crew below with remnants of his breakfast; hardtack biscuits and black bean mash. Most had thought it was terribly funny and loved to rib Akihito about it. Unfortunately the majority of it had landed on Captain Kuroda, ruining his fancy new captain’s hat and staining his blue uniform with the brass buttons.\n\nHe was still holding a bit of a grudge. \n\nWhich is why keeping watch soon became Akihito’s favorite duty. Even if it was a little boring and nauseating. It was the one time he was able to get away from the watchful eye of the captain. And the worst of the duties he always got stuck with. Cleaning the chamber pots, scrubbing the deck, washing the pots, taking care of the sick. If it was a messy job and smelled bad, Akihito could always be sure that Captain Kuroda would come looking for him. He had really hoped to become a ship’s carpenter. He was the son of a blacksmith and very good with his hands. But that position was already filled on all the ships at port, so he had signed up for deckhand on the first decent boat he could find.\n\nHe had really gotten very lucky. The Dracaena really was a beautiful ship. It had to be. Her primary purpose was as a passenger vessel. Taking English passengers to and from the colonies in the Caribbean . Because of that, they weren’t much of a target for pirates. In fact, that had encountered a pirate ship or two already as they entered Caribbean waters, but they were not interested in passenger ships. It was the merchant ships they aimed for. They were on their way to the Barbados with a cargo hold full of Protestants. Akihito shivered. They were a prim, prissy lot. Full of vinegar and hellfire and eager to convert the raucous sailors into good Christians. Whatever that meant. God help anyone who got cornered by the preacher. \n\nBut there was one passenger that Akihito didn’t mind quite so much. \n\nAkihito sighed and looked down over the people on deck. The one he was looking for wasn’t there. She would have been easy to spot, as the only other blond on board besides him. She was beautiful. And funny and sweet. And she had taken a bit of a shine to him. She even let him called her Momo, instead of Lady Momohara Ai, as the rest of the crew was expected to address her. Akihito knew it was absurd to have a crush on a fine English lady like that. Especially one that was already engaged to the governor of the colony they were taking her to. \n\nBut that couldn’t stop him from dreaming…. Akihito’s beautiful blue eyes clouded over with his daydreams as he relaxed high in the crow’s nest. His eyes matched the clear sky above and the brilliant sea below. The wind was high and they were making excellent speed. His golden hair flew back out of his eyes, sparkling in the sun. What Akihito didn’t realize was that he was in fact, far more beautiful than Lady Ai. He had the kind of beauty that was legendary. If he had not been born a male, it would have been his ticket into any palace in the world. But Akihito didn’t know that. In fact, he had hardly ever seen his own reflection. A blacksmith’s son was not the type of person who spent much time lounging in front of mirrors. Even less after his father had died and the English government had taken their home as payment for back taxes. All that was left for Akihito was the military or taking a job as a sailor. He had always wanted to sail.\n\nIt was everything he had ever imagined it to be. He loved it. Vindictive captain, seasickness and all. He was so happy, his blue eyes sparkling, his full lips parted in a smile as he daydreamed. He didn’t even notice the other ship that came into view of the port side until it was far closer than it should have been. As soon as he noticed it, he hollered down to the rest of the crew to alert them and fumbled for the spyglass, holding the long telescope up to his eye as he tried to assess whether the other ship was a threat or not. She flew no flags. That immediately made him suspicious. He looked carefully over the crew. They were clean and well-kept. As was the boat. The other pirates ships he had seen were filthy, crew included. There wasn’t a eye patch or a parrot in sight… Aki drew a sigh of relief. It probably wasn’t a pirate ship. And even if it was, the ship wasn’t changing course to attack them. In fact, they were headed diagonally in the other direction and showed no sign of changing their path.\n\nAkihito continued to survey the other ship curiously. It was big, but long. A sleek hull made for speed and painted black with pitch to reduce drag and make her even more water tight. Obviously a wealthier ship. Akihito wondered what it was for. He moved the spyglass down the deck until he reached the bridge and stopped in surprise. An enormous man stood at the helm, clothed all in black, his muscular legs braced wide apart as he looked back at Akihito through a similar spyglass. Aki jumped when he realized the man was probably looking right at him. He laughed, dropped the spyglass down on his hip and waved cheerfully. No sense in not being friendly to a fellow sailor. \n\nHe put the spyglass back up to his eye. The other man had dropped his. He stared intently at Akihito’s ship. He had the blackest hair and the most handsome face Akihito had ever seen. Broad shoulders and enormous arms. And golden eyes! Akihito gasped as he noticed them through the telescope. He had golden eyes…. To Akihito’s surprise, the dark haired man grinned wide. He strode to the helm. He began shouting orders and the men scurried about him.\n\nHuh. Must be the captain. Akihito continued to watch, wondering what they were doing. To his horror, he noticed they were changing course, turning on a dime and giving chase to the Dracaena. His heart froze in his chest as he saw a black flag with a red crest rise to the top of the tallest mast.\n\nThe Black Dragon.\n\nThe most feared and infamous pirate in all of the Caribbean. His feats were legendary. And no one, no one had ever outrun his ship, the Sion. Yes, even a novice sailor like Akihito knew the name of THAT ship.\n\nHe shouted down to the captain who in turn gave the call to arms and the crew on deck below nearly broke into a panic. He descended from the crow’s nest as quick as his nimble feet were able. No sooner had his feet touched the deck than the boom of a cannon rang in his ears, the deck under his feet trembling. The cannon ball careened across the bow and splashed in the water a few feet to starboard. Had they missed? Akihito looked around in confusion. The crew had been preparing the ship to run, drawing the sails and prepping for speed. They had very limited ability to fight back. It was their only chance if they didn’t want to be boarded by the pirates. \n\nAkihito could see the indecision on Captain Kuroda’s face and he realized that the captain didn't know what to do. He wanted to fight, but they were hopelessly outmatched. And the galleon was much too slow to be able to outrun what was well known to be the fastest ship in the Caribbean. \n\nA moment later, the pirates fired a second broadside, this one was loaded with grapeshot and fired into the rigging. This time, the entire crew recognized it for what it was. Grapeshot would do no real damage to the sails, but it would be devastating if fired along the deck, slicing through skin and flesh like nothing. That shot wasn't meant to do damage, it was meant as a warning.\n\nNormally, the captain would have risked it. He would have run. They were not far from English waters and possible colonial protection. But this wasn't a normal voyage. He had the Arch Duke's daughter aboard. The fiancee of the governor of the Barbados. Broadsides of grapeshot could kill the young woman, even if she wasn't really a target. It could kill a lot of the passengers. So, with a heavy heart, the captain ordered his flag down and surrendered his ship.\n\nThe Sion turned silently toward the English galleon and closed the distance fast. Grappling hooks hit the side of the vessel before Akihito was even ready and pirates were running nimbly over several narrow makeshift bridges. Even the largest among them climbed like monkeys across the narrow planks of wood as it moved with the ups and downs of the waves. They swarmed over the decks subduing the feeble resistance of the English crew. They were damned efficient and Aki could tell they had done this many times before. There was no sense in fighting. The battle had been lost the moment the Sion had given chase.\n\nAkihito stood in the shadows, half hidden between the passenger quarters and the pirates. His keen mind was racing. There was no reason a pirate ship should beset a passenger ship. They carried nothing but the most basic of sustenance. Most of the passengers were very poor, moving to the colonies to find work as indentured servants. There was only one passenger that had any value. Only one passenger that could fetch her weight in golden ransom; Lady Ai.\n\nAkihito felt his blood boil. He would not let these filthy dogs lay one hand on her. He slipped quietly in the shadows, sliding to place where Captain Kuroda had hung his coat. He had seen him do it from the crow’s nest. It had been a particularly warm day and he had taken that off as well as his swordbelt. A razor sharp rapier hung in its sheath and Akihito slid it out silently. He may have been a blacksmith’s son. But that blacksmith had made some of the finest swords in all of England. His secret was that he had been an expert swordsman himself and therefore had far more expertise and insight into the design of a blade than a blacksmith who only knew how to pound metal flat. He had taught his son well. \n\nAkihito palmed the hilt of the sword and held it. Waiting to see if the pirates would make a move on the passenger cabins. Poor Lady Ai was probably terrified. Akihito gritted his teeth in determination. He would save her or die trying he thought dramatically.\n\nMen swarmed over the deck, seemingly directed by their captain. Akihito’s eyes were drawn to his broad shoulders as he shouted out orders commandingly. He was tall, and his thick, jet black hair was tied back brushing the collar of a white linen shirt. Black breeches clung to his muscular thighs disappearing into knee-high polished black leather boots. His hand rested on the jeweled hilt of a sword in a silver scabbard. The darkhaired man was walking back and forth impatiently on the deck of the ship. His eyes passed over the English crew as if he was looking for someone. He stopped in front of the kneeling captain and spoke. The wind was high and it was impossible for Akihito to tell exactly what he had said. All he heard was the word ‘where’ and ‘blond’.\n\nOther than him, Lady Ai was the only other on board with golden locks. He gripped the hilt of the sword hard in terrified determination as heavy bootsteps brought the enormous raven haired pirate closer to where Aki stood protectively in front of the passenger quarters. His eyes pierced the dark shadows and fell on the tiny, young blond. Akihito felt sure he knew why they called him the Black Dragon now. Those glowing golden eyes traveled the entire length of his body coming to rest on his face. Akihito was startled by the lust and appreciation that was written on his handsome features. It threw him off a bit… wasn’t he looking for Lady Ai?\n\nHe stopped a yard away with a smirk. Akihito tried to quell the cold knot of fear in his stomach. The pirate was even bigger up closer. He towered over him. Akihito was sorely outmatched on height and muscle. His voice was deep and flowed over him seductively when he finally spoke.\n\n“Hello little one.”\n\nAkihito glared at him, bristling in anger at the mocking tone and raised the sword in challenge, “If you want to get to them, you have to go through me.”\n\nThe pirate’s tone was incredulous, “While the rest of your crew surrenders like the pathetic cowards they are, you alone would fight to protect the ship and its passengers? Against me and all my men?” He gestured behind him where the captain of the Dracaena and the rest of the crew kneeled submissively, despite outnumbering the pirates nearly three to one. Captain Kuroda at least had the decency to blush as he overheard the pirate mocking him. Akihito decided not to dignify that with an answer. He inclined his head slightly, his blue eyes blazing with fire and assumed the perfect fencing stance with one arm slightly back and his hand and fingers arched. The pirate took in the sight before him and raised one black eyebrow in question before assuming the stance himself, drawing his own sword. \n\nThe duel began. \n\nAkihito could tell the Black Dragon was taking it easy on him. Holding back. He knew better than to think the man had conquered the Caribbean with these paltry skills. Akihito held back a bit too. Trying to figure out exactly what the hell his own plan WAS. Because even if he won the duel, there were still over twenty pirates behind him. The pirate seemed to read his mind. Between sword thrusts he spoke again, irritatingly calm, “What’s your plan, little one?”\n\nAkihito scowled at him for calling him out, batting his sword down as he sidestepped, “I’m working on it!”\n\nThey fought on. Akihito was unaware that both crews were watching with interest; focused entirely on the duel. The English crew was astounded by the extraordinary skill exhibited by the tiny cabin boy. Captain Kuroda’s mouth was hanging open, just a little. As their swords crossed and they fought to hold one another off, their faces mere inches apart; the pirate gave him a seductive smile and asked, \"May I make a suggestion?\"\n\nAkihito snarled up at the much larger man before throwing him back off balance with a strong shove, “What?”\n\n“I’ll make a deal with you.”\n\nThey were circling each other now. Each one breathing a little heavy. Spirited blue eyes fixed on intense golden ones. \n\n“A wager. The fate of this ship, resting on the outcome of this duel.”\n\nAkihito tilted his head in interest, “I’m listening.”\n\nThe pirates eyes took on a predatory glint. “If you win this duel, we will retreat. My crew and I shall return to our ship and never bother you again. You will have safe passage assured, in and out of the Caribbean, forevermore.”\n\nAkihito’s full lips curved in an ironic smile, “And if I lose?”\n\n“You will come with me and serve me for the rest of your natural life.”\n\nAki’s eyes widened. That was basically slavery! And there had to be a catch, surely the Black Dragon had no intention of taking ONLY him….\n\n“What’s the catch, Dragon? What about the rest of the passengers? And why would you want me?”\n\nThere was a twinkle in those eyes that Akihito didn’t trust. The pirate drawled his reply, slowly circling closer as Akihito backed away, “No catch. I’ll leave the rest of the passengers alone and take only you. As it happens, I find myself sorely in need of a cabin boy.”\n\nIt was fishy. Why would the pirates risk boarding an English galleon so close to the colonies only to walk away with one worthless cabin boy? But he also didn’t see that he had much of a choice. If there was a chance he could save the Duke’s daughter from falling into the hands of these ruffians, he was going to take it.\n\nHe nodded curtly, “Deal!”\n\nAkihito became the aggressor, immediately putting the other man on the defense and adding strength and speed to his thrusts. However, the pirate also stepped up the pace and met each of his sword thrusts with an equally as skillful parry. Aki had been trained by the best, but he couldn’t help but be impressed by the other man’s skill and elegant finesse. He was certainly not a typical pirate. It was almost as if he had a nobleman’s training. They fought on, each one enjoying the duel and appreciative of the other’s skill, but both determined to win.\n\nAs much as it irritated him. Akihito couldn’t help but notice the way the Dragon’s enormous muscles flexed as he moved with an almost feline grace across the deck of the ship as Aki pursued him with his sword. The way his shirt lay open, his bare muscular chest glistening with sweat. He was extremely handsome, with his jet-black hair and strong jaw, chiseled cheekbones. Although, Akihito found it utterly infuriating the way he arched one dark eyebrow at him each time his sword passed millimeters from the pirate’s skin. It almost seemed like genuine surprise, but then again; it was also possible he was mocking him.\n\nDespite the pirate’s much longer reach and much greater strength, it was obvious that Akihito was actually the better swordsman. Much quicker, skillful and more nimble. The two opponents were equally matched and both were beginning to show signs of fatigue. As they crossed swords and stood face to face, almost nose to nose, the Dragon’s eyes flashed and he whispered tauntingly, \"To the victor go the spoils”\n\nAkihito retorted with a toss of his golden head, \"It matters not to you, for you will not be the victor.\"\n\nThe Dragon laughed a full-bodied laugh at Akihito’s confidence.\n\n\"Ah, my beautiful one, you are a trifle overconfident. If you concede your loss now, I will go much easier on you.\"\n\nAkihito’s eyes widened in surprise at the endearment, before narrowing in anger. He sputtered in contempt, \"Easier? I hate to disappoint you, but it is you who should admit defeat now and save yourself the embarrassment of losing in front of your crew.\"\n\nThat dark eyebrow arched again and Akihito took advantage of his inattention. Swiping the blade quickly under the other man’s sword, catching the fabric of his shirt and tearing it open, exposing his rippling abdomen and scratching his stomach lightly. The shock on his face was worth it and it was Aki’s turn to raise a sarcastic eyebrow and smirk. The pirates were hooting and hollering in the background. It actually looked like they had started wagering….\n\nThe Dragon dropped his head back and laughed. It boomed across the deck and Akihito was momentarily distracted by the oddness of it. And his gorgeous white teeth. His amazing smile….\n\nThe pirate took advantage of Akihito’s distraction to reach around and smack the side of his ass with the flat of his own blade, grinning lecherously. Akihito jumped. His blue eyes going wide with shock. He hadn’t been touched by another blade since he was thirteen. What the hell? He narrowed his eyes and returned to the fight with renewed vigor. He had not lost a fencing match since he was a child. The Dragon might not be taking him seriously. but that would be to his own detriment. \n\nHe ducked, thrusted and parried, his silver blade slashing almost too fast to be seen. The pirate was barely keeping up, blocking his passes. But his reach…. it was a bitch to deal with. In order to get a hit, Akihito had to get well within striking distance of the Dragon’s blade. But he was too quick and his blocks too good for the Dragon to even come close to catching him. They moved back and forth across the deck, steel on steel, clashing and clanging. Akihito wanted to laugh as he saw the other man’s brow actually beginning to bead with sweat. Well, until his own sweat began to run into his eyes. \n\nNeither made any progress. They were both breathing hard, panting for breath. Suddenly the pirate’s foot lashed forward in an advance lunge, taking Akihito off guard. It was a dirty move but not illegal in fencing. He stumbled forward, recovering quickly and thrusting his sword up, stopping just short of the pirate’s throat. He was obviously not expected Akihito to recover so quickly. The darkhaired man froze, the tip of a razor sharp rapier resting on his Adam’s apple as Akihito advanced, pushing him backwards.\n\nAkihito’s blue eyes glowed with triumph. He smirked, questioning quietly, “Surrender?”\n\nWhat he saw in those golden eyes was not defeat. Not fear. He saw intense lust and desire… almost rapturous. It completely threw him off and he pulled back a bit. The Dragon moved forward and Akihito relented, not truly wishing to slit his throat. He kept moving forward, coming into Aki’s space. Towering over him.\n\n“Stop!” He cried, pushing the blade back against his throat. A single drop of red blood red down his neck, trailing over his chest and disappearing into his black shirt. Akihito watched its path and the Dragon moved forward again. Akihito’s innocent, frightened eyes met his.\n\n“You’re a fighter, but you are not a killer little one.”\n\nAki frowned in confusion, “How do you know?”\n\n \"Because of this,\" he murmured huskily. He dropped his sword, dipping his head to cover Akihito’s mouth with his own. He moved forward into the blade and Akihito pulled it back immediately as it began to penetrate his skin. He would have run himself through if Aki had not yielded. He had gambled, but he was right. Akihito couldn’t kill him, even though he was a pirate, even if it meant surrendering. A strong hand grabbed the hand that held the hilt of the sword, while another reached around and grabbed his ass, squeezing it hard. The sword was ripped from his grasp and dropped onto the deck to join the Dragon’s. He moaned in protest against his mouth as it moved firmly over his, his tiny fists beating at the pirate’s broad shoulders. He kissed him soundly, thoroughly, stealing all the breath from Akihito’s lungs before pulling back with a smirk. Looking down at the beautiful boy's dazed and confused expression. He laughed.\n\n“I win.”\n\nThe other pirates were laughing their own asses off at the horrified expressions on the English sailors faces. The Dragon called over to them, “Back to the ship!” He looked down at Akihito and smirked, “I got what I came for.”\n\nWith a muffled scream of protest, he was scooped up against the solid warmth of his chest, his tanned arm anchoring Akihito’s hips to him as he walked across the plank to the pirate's ship. Too terrified of falling to fight back, his eyes widened as they gazed down at the water so far below, dark and shadowy between the heaving ships. Unconsciously, his hands clung to the man’s strong shoulders, wrapping fearfully around his neck and the pirate’s strong arms crushed the boy to his chest. He jumped from the plank and landed on his feet like a large jungle cat, and slowly lowered Akihito’s feet to the deck of the Sion. Rubbing his body against the Dragon's own much larger, harder one. A blush warmed his cheeks and he was unable to meet the golden eyes laughing down at him.\n\nHe bit his lip as he watched the grappling hooks removed from the Dracaena, the remaining pirates swinging back on board the ship. His eyes met Captain Kuroda’s and he was startled when he realized the Captain had his hat off. He and the rest of the crew were bowing to the pirate ship. Bowing to HIM, he realized. Before he could even register the significance of what that meant, his upper arm was caught in a firm grip, and his eyes swung up to meet his captor's.\n\n\"Lock him in my cabin,\" he ordered to someone over Akihito’s shoulder, never taking his eyes from Aki’s. His lips parted on a soundless gasp as an enormous blond pirate wrapped a rope around his wrists. He began to struggle as the man pulled him toward the steps that led below. A solemn looking man in glasses who had not been with the raiding party walked up to the Dragon and looked over at Akihito who was raising hell on the deck as the blond mountain tried to drag him to the captain’s quarters. He looked more like a scholar than a pirate.\n\nHe asked his captain incredulously, “That’s what we boarded the British galleon for? Risking our necks in colonial waters? Just for that... kid?”\n\nThe Dragon’s eyes were glowing with hot fire as he watched the blond hellcat who had bewitched him through the spyglass make mincemeat of his strongest pirate. He smirked and replied to his first mate, “Not all treasure is gold Kirishima. Not all treasure is gold.”\n\n-\n\nNeed more? There's a LOT more! Come check out my Facebook and Tumblr pages if you want to know more about me and my writing!\nhttps://www.facebook.com/amelitarae\nhttp://amelitarae.tumblr.com/"}
+{"text": "Izuku would say he had a fine memory. He remembered the first picture he drew out of crayons and hung it on the fridge by a magnet; the first football he received; the first action figure he got; the first friend he made; the first time his friend hit him; the first time his friend left a burn mark on him, the first time his friend turned into his tormentor, the first time he understood that life wasn't just what he'd see on television; the first time he figured out that some people had it better than others; the first time he set a goal for his dreams, the first time his dreams were mocked; the first time he didn't cry over a wound, and the first time he felt truly alone in this world.\n\nHe had a road; he just didn't know where to go. He had the door of opportunity; he just didn't have the key. He had to keep trying, but that got harder and harder with each passing day. Sometimes, he wondered what life was all about. Yes, he'd keep living, but then what? Where should he go?\n\nAnd that thought – that thought he kept pushing down to keep his sanity was tattooed in the back of his mind: Everyone dies eventually. He's going to die. He was going to stop existing, just like those who had passed away before him. He was dying, with each passing day, the hours, minutes, seconds eating away at his lifespan.\n\nLife was a merry-go-round, spinning in an endless, repetitive loop without actually going anywhere.\n\nHe wasn't sure when everything started to blur. Time meant nothing anymore, and while walking to class, people started to blend into the background, turning into nothing but smudged up colors and buzzing noises his brain couldn't understand. The only things his could hear were his footsteps.\n\nHe recognized the empty hole in his chest. He'd had it before. It hurt. He tried to ignore it, scribbling into his notebook. He hadn't felt like this since… since he had been Quirkless… he'd been so alone…. But… but he had his friends now! Real friends! So why did the angry snake in his gut keep returning? Why? Why couldn't it just leave him be?\n\n\"Midoriya.\"\n\nIzuku looked up.\n\n\"Come up here and solve this,\" the teacher told him.\n\n\"Ah – yes, sir.\"\n\nHe had to hold on, just until classes were over. This was such bad timing. He'd been feeling sluggish all morning. The last time this had happened, he had a full on mental breakdown in his room. He couldn't let it happen here. Keep calm, stay still, no one will notice.\n\n…\n\nHe wasn't sure why it came and went. He wasn't that Quirkless loser who couldn't do anything. He was a student, a UA student, at that. So why now…?\n\nIzuku slammed his dorm room shut loudly before leaning against it, slowly sliding down and to the ground. The angry snake curled and uncurled in the pit of his stomach. He wanted to throw up – he wanted to beat his own abdomen because that feeling in his gut was driving him insane.\n\nHe hugged his middle, a tiny wail squeezed out of his throat. He hadn't changed out of his grey school uniform. He didn't feel like it. His body told him 'I don't want to move' so he just stayed like that on the floor. Half of the lights in his room weren't turned on. Good. He needed to calm down.\n\nWhy was he panicking? Nothing – absolutely nothing worth panicking over was happening. Calm down, you wimp. But it was hard. It was hard, when he felt many invisible chains swarm his body. He felt them, crawling up his ankles and shoulders and around his neck, suffocating him.\n\n\n\"You're Quirkless – what do you think you can do?\"\n\n\nThey tightened.\n\n\n\"You? A Hero? You've got to be kidding–\"\n\n\nThey tightened. Izuku squeezed his eyes shut.\n\n\n\"Useless Deku–\"\n\n\nStop. It hurt.\n\n\"–give up already.\"\n\nStop it. Please…\n\n\"Good for nothing loser. Can't do anything–\"\n\nI'm trying. I'm really trying! I swear –\n\n\nNo, you useless shit. You aren't. You are nothing. All Might made a mistake when he decided to give you One For All. He made a mistake, because you are a mistake. You'd die, and no one would notice. You'd die, and no one would give a damn. You'd die, and the world would keep spinning.\n\n\n\"Stop…\" Izuku whimpered and hugged himself. The tension in his gut was eating him alive. Fat tears stung his eyes and ran down his cheeks. He rubbed at them with his arm.\n\nThe snake never left him alone, no matter where he went. It was with him, always, hiding in a tight ball in his stomach, waiting for him to lower his guard. It would try to crawl up his just and throat. Izuku's hands trembled as he clutched at his clothes, his knuckles going white.\n\nThe snake was eating him – eating him from the inside. It wanted to nibble its way out. Each bite hurt because Deku was a weak shit who couldn't even save himself.\n\n\n\"Get it through your thick skull already, nerd – you can't be a hero!\"\n\n\nHe chocked. Vomit. He needed to vomit. The snake was already at his throat. He heard panting, and it took him a few minutes to realize it was coming from him. Breathe, he told himself. Breathe. Just calm down. His heart rammed at his chest. Even his own heart wanted to kill itself.\n\nHe felt a pluck and noticed his grey uniform slacken. Oh, he had popped off one of the uniform buttons due to his uncontrolled grip. Sweat began to gather around his neck and over his back.\n\nThe knock on his door almost gave him a heart attack.\n\n\"Gah!\" He yelped and grabbed over his heart. He already felt like dying. He didn't need any jump scares.\n\n\"Mi… Midoriya?\" Iida called from behind the door. \"Midoriya, is everything alright? You seemed unwell in class today.\" He sounded worried.\n\nAnswer him. Answer him – oh god, he's still standing right behind you just stop being useless and answer him already!\n\n\"I'm…\" His voice came out as a squeak. He swallowed it down and tried again, still clutching over his heart. \"I'm fine. I'm fine.\" It didn't sound any better.\n\nIida didn't say anything for a while, until… \"I see… May I come in, then?\"\n\nNo. No, you may not. But he couldn't tell Iida that. He couldn't. He just couldn't. Just because Izuku was a mess didn't mean he had to throw his mess at his friend as well.\n\n\"No, no. I'm…\" Izuku sighed, willing the pain to go away. \"I'm fine. Really!\" He tried to chuckle, but it sounded so fake. He doubted Iida would fall for it.\n\n\"…Do you need any assistance, Midoriya?\" Iida asked carefully, his tune low but clear. \"Do you remember what you told me before? If you ever need someone to talk to, you can talk to us. We are your friends. So please, whatever you're dealing with, know you don't have to go through it alone.\"\n\nIida figured it out.\n\nIzuku wasn't himself.\n\nIzuku wasn't being Izuku.\n\nIzuku panicked even more. His classmates knew he wasn't mentally well. They knew everything. They'd gone through his memories. They'd seen his past. They'd seen him break and crumble and shrink and shrivel away. They'd seen the useless Deku, and knew the useless Deku was still part of him, and would always be part of him.\n\n\"I'm okay…\" Izuku whispered. He wasn't sure if he was talking to Iida, or to himself. \"I'm… I'm… I'll be fine. Thanks, Iida. I'm sorry for worrying you. It's nothing.\" No, it's not.\n\nHe heard a few more footsteps behind the door, then a few whispers. Izuku wanted to throw up. He slapped a hand over his mouth. Was he actually about to vomit, or was that just a feeling and nothing more?\n\n\"Hey, Midoriya?\" Kirishima. That was Kirishima. \"You okay in there, bro?\" He asked, knocking on the door.\n\nGreat. First Iida, now Kirishima. Who's next?\n\n\"He's still there,\" Jiro whispered. \"I hear him. He's breathing really hard.\"\n\n\"I'm… I'm fine!\" Izuku blurted out. It was hard to breathe. The snake ate at his insides. It made sure he was feeling every bit of pain he deserved. He heard more whispering, someone mentioning Aizawa, and a few more footsteps. They were trapping him in. they were gathering at his door.\n\nThe knocked and called him a few more times, but their voices didn't make sense anymore. What did their words mean again? He forgot how to understand human speech. He felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. Then again. Then again. Still bent over with his back against the door, he reached for it with shaky fingers.\n\n\n(6) Unread Messages\n\n\nKaminari: You ok man\n\nKaminari: ?\n\nKaminari: Iida s worried man he called me\n\nKaminari: srsly everything ok?\n\nKaminari: Im coming over with Sero\n\nKaminari: hold on buddy\n\nA fat tear landed on the screen. Izuku sniffed, and he swore he heard the voices behind the door panic. It wasn't a big deal. Why were they making a big deal out of it? They didn't know what was wrong with him. Even he didn't know what was wrong with him.\n\n\"He's crying,\" Jiro informed the others. She was still hearing him.\n\n\"Midoriya, can you let one of us in, please?\" Iida asked, and before Izuku could decide what to say or do, he felt the door handle move. He had locked it behind him.\n\n\"No good. He locked it,\" Kirishima told them.\n\n\"Guys!\" Kaminari's panted.\n\n\"What's going on? What happened?\" Sero sounded just as tired. They must've ran all the way over.\n\nWhy couldn't they just leave him alone? Why were they smothering him? They'd never done that before. He'd never had anyone whenever the Snake grabbed at him. So why now? Was it because they had seen his true, weak self? Useless Deku suddenly mattered?\n\n\"….You don't think he's gonna hurt himself, do ya?\"\n\nKaminari's words slowly sunk in.\n\n\"Midoriya,\" Yaoyorozu called gently. \"You don't need to tell us what's wrong, but it's alright to lean on your friends.\" She tried.\n\nIzuku wiped his wet nose with his sleeve. \"I…\" his voice died. A sob rolled out of his wet throat. They most likely heard it.\n\n\"Deku!\" He heard Ochaco's high-pitched voice join the others. \"Is – Is he okay?\" She was panicking. It sounded like she was close to crying. \"He was so quiet today – I should've told to him earlier…\"\n\nNo. It's not your fault. Don't blame yourself, please…\n\n\"I'm to blame as well,\" Iida added. \"He seemed down today. I wanted to talk to him, but I was too late. I should've spoken with him earlier.\"\n\n\"Hey, now, it's not your fault,\" Kirishima said.\n\n\"No one could've predicted it'd get worse this fast,\" Yaoyorozu explained. It. She must've meant his depression.\n\nHis phone buzzed. They were trying to reach him through his phone.\n\n\n(5) Unread Messages\n\n\nUraraka: Deku?\n\nUraraka: Are you ok?\n\nUraraka: Are you sad?\n\nUraraka: Its ok to be sad\n\nUraraka: Do you need a hug?\n\n\n(3) Unread Messages\n\n\nTodoroki: Midoriya\n\nTodoroki: We will walk away from your room\n\nTodoroki: Iida and Uraraka will stay by your door if you need anything\n\nOh… they must've realized gathering by his room would only scare him even more; but they still didn't feel comfortable enough to leave him by himself in such a state, so they left two of his friends close by.\n\nThey were obviously worried about him. He didn't deserve such kind friends. He wanted to let them know he was alright, but even he wasn't sure why he felt like getting torn from the inside out. He couldn't keep hiding. He couldn't keep pretending nothing was wrong. They were offering to help him anyway they could, but was he worth their time?\n\nGrabbing his phone weakly, he looked at the texts sent to him, then clicked on Uraraka's name. He looked up at her questions. Was he okay? Was he sad? Did he need a hug? He sent the only thing he felt: Not sure.\n\nHe heard her phone ding from behind his door. She was right there, and most likely, so was Iida. They hadn't spoken in a while. His phone buzzed again.\n\n\n(2) Unread Messages\n\n\nUraraka: im sorry if we bothered you Deku\n\nUraraka: we crowded you we re sorry\n\nIzuku wiped his wet eyes with his sleeve. They wanted to help, but didn't know what to do. He couldn't blame them. Even he didn't know what to do.\n\nYou: its ok\n\nYou: I'm sorry I worried everyone\n\nHe wanted to add 'thanks for caring about me' but that would only make him sound selfish. Was he selfish for wanting their attention? He'd never been one to seek attention. All his life, he'd tried to hide from people and kept himself under the radar, because how else would he hide from bullies and pointing fingers and words that sounded more like bullets?\n\n\n(1) Unread Messages\n\n\nUraraka: do you need time ?\n\nDid he? What did he need? He wasn't sure. He was so confused and felt like spewing his guts out. He wanted nothing more than to feel his mom's hug. It was so childish. Whenever the snake attacked him like this, he'd usually crawl under the covers of his bed, or put on his headphones and turn on music he wouldn't remember later on. He didn't know what was happening to him, or why, but he wanted his mom. He wanted someone safe.\n\nSomeone safe…\n\nHe looked down at his phone and scrolled through his contacts list. They'd gathered at his door, not because he was injured, not because he was dying, but because they understood he wouldn't ask for help even if he needed it. They understood he was used to being alone, and wanted to let him know he didn't have to be alone anymore.\n\nYou: are you and Iida still there?\n\n\n(2) Unread Messages\n\n\nUraraka: yes\n\nUraraka: do you need anything Deku?\n\nIt took every ounce of his strength to reach up and unlock the door and scoot away.\n\n\"Deku…?\"\n\n\"Midoriya?\"\n\nThey'd heard the lock click. He needed to get off the floor and talk to them properly. He needed to be respectful. He just didn't have the energy to do so. He was weak… pathetic…\n\n\"Can we come in, Deku?\" Ochaco asked nervously. The door wasn't locked anymore, but they didn't want to barge in without his permission.\n\n\"Yeah…\" that was all he could whisper out before the door slowly cracked open.\n\nThe two snuck in carefully, and before he knew it, Ochaco dropped to her knees and hugged him. He felt the hard edges of her pink phone in her palm as she squeezed him. Iida made sure to quietly close the door behind him as he knelt to their level.\n\nHe must've looked like a mess, on the floor and face wet and eyes red-rimmed. His room was mostly dark, which only added to the depressing mood. Izuku slowly melted into Ochaco's embrace. His arms slowly unwrapped from his midsection and dropped them around her.\n\nIida hugged the both of them firmly. \"I'm sorry we didn't notice sooner.\"\n\nIzuku shook his head no, sniffing lightly. The snake that had been crawling up his throat had slowed down its wriggling. \"I'm… I'm sorry I w-worried you guys…\"\n\nOchaco tightened her grip. \"Deku… Don't be sad, Deku...\" was she crying, too? He couldn't believe how his own emotional breakdown was affecting his friends.\n\n\"You're not alone anymore, Midoriya,\" Iida reminded him calmly.\n\nIzuku felt Ochaco give a nod in agreement, rubbing her cheek against his. He felt their heartbeats, gentle yet strong; surreal yet so real. He swallowed, and it was much easier now that the snake had crawled back down. He could breathe without feeling nauseous now.\n\nRelief. It felt too good – their hold on him was too perfect. Tears rolled down his face freely. He couldn't hold it in anymore. Grabbing fistfuls of Iida and Uraraka's clothes, he ducked his face in between them and cried. They held on to him as he cracked and broke apart from the inside.\n\nHis chest hurt, but he could breathe. His head throbbed, but his thoughts were clearing. His heart rammed against his chest, but he felt alive – something he hadn't felt in a while. He didn't know how long the three of them stayed like that. His crying slowed to silent tears.\n\n\"…Thanks guys…\" he whispered. His throat hurt, but he felt lighter.\n\nHe felt Iida pat him on the shoulder. \"Would you like me to inform the others?\"\n\nIzuku thought about it. They were probably still worried out there. He had people waiting for him, not just Uraraka and Iida. \"If… if it's not much trouble…\" he decided.\n\nIida gave him one last pat on the shoulder before moving away. Uraraka drew away, but then leaned against Izuku's shoulder. Iida gave him an encouraging nod before leaving, closing the door as he left.\n\nIzuku sighed and wiped the wetness from his eyes. It was only then did he notice Uraraka's hand in his. A tiny blush brushed his cheeks. How had he not noticed that earlier?\n\n\"Are… Are you feeling better, Deku?\" She asked him quietly, leaning against him.\n\nThe snake had quietly retreated. Izuku swallowed thickly. \"Yeah… Yeah. I am. Thanks…\"\n\nShe squeezed his hand. I'm glad you're better.\n\nHis phone started buzzing. Izuku dried his cheeks before reaching for his phone, keeping his other hand in Ochaco's.\n\n\n(24) Unread Messages\n\n\nKirishima: my bro! :D Youre ok! give me a hug\n\nAsui: glad you're feeling better\n\nAsui: text us if you need anything\n\nKaminari: DUDE you freaked me out!\n\nKaminari: don't scare me like that again man\n\nKaminari: MY CINNAMON ROLL BUDDY!\n\nJiro: Kaminari was crying\n\nJiro: by the way\n\nJiro: Sato left you cupcakes by your door\n\nAshido: Midori!\n\nAshido: you better? :3\n\nAshido: cause Bakugo was ready to break your door lol\n\nAshido: ps Kaminari was crying XD\n\nTodoroki: Iida told us. I'm glad you're feeling better\n\nYaoyorozu: Take as much time as you need\n\nHagakure: You better! ❤❤❤❤\n\nHagakure: Im so happyyy\n\nSero: hey don't be shy to ask for hugs next time\n\nSero: oh and Kaminari cried for ya lol\n\nOjiro: good to hear you're doing alright\n\nKacchan: DEKU what the fuck did you do?!\n\nKacchan: shitty electro dolt was sniveling\n\nKacchan: I don't care if you're being a crybaby\n\nKacchan: Do that again and I'm breaking that door down\n\nIzuku hadn't noticed the small smile spreading across his face. It was weak and wobbly, but a smile none the less. He felt Ochaco's stare. He turned just in time to see her own smile as she threw herself at him for another hug.\n\n\"I'm so h-happy. You're… you're happy again…\" she said, her voice muffled through his shoulder. \"We all love you.\"\n\nThat was all he needed to hear.\n\nHe had people who loved him – who never wanted to let him go. And while the snake slept on, he knew he was prepared for it next time. The arms around his neck and the buzzing of his phone were enough to let him know that he had armor to fight the monster."}
+{"text": "“Do you really have to leave now?” Joon asked. \n\nJimin gave him a small smile. He couldn’t ask more from his saviors. They already fed him and his pride wouldn’t let him stay with them any longer. \n\n“Yes, I have to meet up with a friend.” Jimin lied and this was seen through immediately. He was such a shitty liar.\n\n“This late? It is already past dawn.”\n\n“Uh… it’s not a friend.. It’s…” Jimin bit his lips. “My.. my brother-“ \n\n“You said that you have no family.” \n\nShit. \n\n“If you have nowhere to go, you can stay for the night.” Joon offered. Jin on the other hand didn’t even try to hide his horror.\n\n“I really can’t take your offer.” Jimin said, feeling guilty. He didn’t want to take advantage of them.\n\n“Why not? It is not like we would mind, right?” He asked and Jin shook his head, even though one could see the dismay on his face. “You do not want to stay the night on the streets. What if these men come after you?” \n\nJoon had a point... he stayed in the end. But only for tonight!\n\n \n\n \n\nWhen he woke up, Jin and Joon were already awake. Jin in the kitchen to make breakfast and Joon sitting on a pad, reading something. \n\n“Good mornin’…” Jimin mumbled sleepy, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. \n\n“Did you have a good rest?” Joon asked with a warm smile. \n\n“The best.” Jimin smiled back and Joon nodded, misunderstanding what Jimin meant. He thought that Jimin always had to sleep on the streets and never got a warm and save place. But the actual thing was that Jimin was never greeted this warmly since he got here. It was a nice change of surroundings. “What are you reading?” Jimin asked, looking curious at the paper in Joon’s hand. \n\n“This? This is for my education.” \n\n“Education? For what?”\n\n“I want to change the country.” Joon said after a short pause, considering if Jimin would even understand him.\n\n“Why?” Guess he didn’t. \n\n“Can you not see the things around here? It is just wrong… how the noble treats the folk.” Joon explained even though it would be for nothing. He wanted to talk about his thoughts with someone other than Jin for once. \n\n“I know what you mean.” Jimin agreed. “I didn’t get to see much of this city or the world but what I saw yesterday… wasn’t pleasant.” When he walked into this city yesterday, he was greeted with the wrong side – the slums.  \n\nJoon raised an eyebrow at Jimin’s statement but he continued when he saw the serious look on his face. “Yes, because people in heaven have no reason to think about people in hell.”\n\n“But how can you change something by educating yourself?” \n\n“Can the dark never win the light? Can the wrong never win the right? Someday I will have enough power to change things.” Joon mumbled. “But first, I need to educate myself.”\n\n“Where would you get that power? You can only be born with it… This period is only about the nobles. Nobody even thinks of the people… I mean, who if not them decide and carry our future?” \n\nJoon became silent. He was surprised that Jimin could keep up with him. That’s why he carelessly let his thoughts flow out.\n\n“Yes, exactly that is my thought! My plan is to give everyone a chance for education. Not only the ones who can afford it. I know that peasants and workers have more ideas for innovation. Who else if not them, know what is best for labor? I want to give them hope for a better life. I want everyone to achieve their own dreams, with their own power, not how they are born. What should peasants tell their children? That they have no chance for a better life? Someday they will be adults too and understand. But what is the point? Tell me… Is it me who is stupid? Is it me who is insane? Or is it them?” \n\n“I do know what you mean. We could have so many educated people who could lead us into the next period. Instead of waring for more land, we could educate the children and work together for an innovative world. Get more good brains and let them decide their future for themselves.” Jimin agreed because Joon is talking about the world he originally came from. This man is thinking of the future. He wants everyone to have the same rights that is not determined by blood.\n\n“I wish that I could change this but they hold me back.” He sighed. “I got no faith in this system.” He continued. “I hope for better days but hope is not enough. I need to do something… that is why I left my country. I had heard that the recent king of this land is doing great things… so I wanted to see for myself. I have to agree that his way is pretty good but he cannot achieve much if he stays in his palace…” \n\n“I agree… how can he know what’s best for his people if he is never here to see what’s wrong? I mean I saw the slums. How blind must he be to not see that? It can only progress when he knows what his countrymen are doing or how they are living. If he would be near them he could tell what they really need.” \n\n“You are the first one to understand my statement. I would not have thought that someone shares my opinion.” Joon said in surprise. He was heavily impressed. Especially since the boy came from the streets and wasn’t as educated as him - apparently. \n\n“If you want to continue your conversation, do it another time.” Jin said coming out from the kitchen with the pot. \n\n \n\n \n\nAfter eating, Jimin offered them to wash the dishes since Jin cooked – and was still injured. Joon had objected because he wanted to continue his talk but Jin gave him a look that made him shut up. When Jimin entered the kitchen to wash the dishes, Jin and Joon left the main room and walked out onto the already busy streets. Their conversation was held in a very low tone to prevent someone to overhear them.\n\n“You should not reveal too much, master.” Jin warned. \n\n“He is different I want him to come with us.” Joon said without blinking an eye. Jin however was not pleased one bit.\n\n“He cannot come with us.” Jin protested. “He would be a burden.” \n\n“What burden? Did you not see how he knocked the other guy out yesterday? His physique is so small yet he could handle the other with ease! Plus he is so much more open-minded than everyone we had met. Maybe even more than I am.” \n\n“We cannot trust him.” Jin said, still not agreeing.\n\n“I want him to come with me. That is my wish…” He said, but seeing Jin’s reaction he had to add: “and an order.” His voice was heavy with dominance. He never wanted to use his authority because he saw Jin more like a friend but the truth was that Jin was his attendant and before, Jin was a slave brought with the money of his parents since he wanted to save the pretty boy. \n\n“As you wish.” Jin complied. He couldn’t talk back when his master talked like this.\n\n“There you are!” Jimin said, when he found the two men who suddenly disappeared. “What are you doing outside?” \n\n“We just had a short talk. Nothing important.” Joon smiled and went inside again, followed by Jin. “I have a proposal to make.” Jimin looked at him with curious eyes. “You can decline if you want but would you like to come with us?” \n\n“What?” Jimin was surprised because he would have never thought that they would ask him something like that. \n\n“I thought that you would like to come with us since you have no place to stay but if you do not want to, it is-“ \n\n“I mean I would gladly, yes!” Jimin said happy. Joon smiled pleased.\n\n“We should get going. It is not save to stay too long in one place.” Jin butted in, not happy at all. \n\nJimin was confused. Why would it not be save for them to stay in one place? Because it was surely for him dangerous to stay so close to the palace but no one could recognize him now with his new appearance. So there should be no danger, right?\n\nJoon didn’t object and they packed their few belongings. \n\n“What about the house? Is it not yours?” Jimin asked. \n\nJin shook his head. “It is rented.” That was the only thing Jin said. Jimin could hear disapproval in Jin’s voice. He wasn’t stupid. He understood that Jin didn’t want him to join them. But he needed to get away from here and he didn’t know how and where to go to. Therefore this is the best opportunity for him… and he took a liking to Joon… the man was something different. \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\nBefore they could leave the city, they went to the marked to get some provisions for their journey. When they arrived at the center, noise was emitting from a big crowd. Jimin, Jin and Joon went over to see what was so interesting for the people of the city – mainly because Joon was interested and Jin couldn’t disobey orders. \n\nThey pushed their way through, because Jimin was too small to see anything. When they reached the front, they could see many soldiers standing there. \n\nEveryone watched with awe. \n\n“What are soldiers from the palace doing here?” Someone whispered curious and Jimin’s face darkened. He should leave. Now. But before he could even talk to Joon and Jin, one soldier announced something.\n\n“Kneel before the king!” \n\nLoud commotion. Jimin froze. \n\nThis can’t be happening.\n\n‘The king?’ \n\n‘What is he doing here?’ \n\n‘Did something happen?’ \n\nBut when the soldiers parted to let the king through, everyone fell quiet and kneeled down, lowering their head. Someone suddenly pulled Jimin down to his knees. It was Jin and he put a hand on his head to lower it but instead of lowering his head he looked up with wide eyes. \n\nWhy was he here? Wasn’t the prince useless? Why come and get him back? Why imprison him again? Why should Jeon even care? Wouldn’t it benefit him when Jimin was gone? \n\nAs he continued to stare at the path the soldiers made, he could see a figure nearing the center. It was none other than Jeon himself on a black horse. When he stopped in the middle, he looked through the crowd. Jimin lowered his head instantly to hide his face.\n\n“My people, do not kneel before me. It is not I, who you should kneel before. I, too, am a mere servant of his highness.” Jeon waited until everyone stood up before he continued talking. Joon and Jin were on their feet swiftly, but Jimin got up slowly, trying not to attract attention. His head was still lowered and he kind of started to hide behind Joon, watching the king talk to the crowed. “You might be asking why I choose to be here in the first place. It is because I am in need of your help.” Whispers everywhere. “There is a certain someone his majesty wants to find.” He started and everyone fell silent to hear their king out. “This person is most likely close by. He is dear to his royal majesty. So do not use any kind of violence if you spot him.” \n\nBefore he continued talking one of the soldiers walked in front of Jeon and unrolled a scroll. On the piece of paper one could see a face, Jimin’s face. The resemblance was terrifying. They even drew him short hair – well cut short hair. Jimin ducked his head, afraid of someone recognizing him. He moved away from Joon who looked scandalized because he recognized that the person on the paper was Jimin. If he understood right, Jimin was someone close to the prince of this country. He turned around to look at Jimin, but the boy already disappeared. He then turned to Jin but the brown haired male was also out of sight.\n\n“Here is a picture of the boy we are searching for.” Jeon said. “If you find him, please-“ Before he could finish his sentence someone interrupted the king. \n\n“The boy is here.” The crowed made a path for the man, who spoke up. He held Jimin’s arm in a firm grip, because the boy was struggling to get away. \n\n“Let go! I don’t want to! Please, Jin! Let go of me!” Jimin begged, trying to pull his arm out of Jin’s grip. But it was already too late. Jeon dismounted his horse and walked to Jimin. When he stopped in front of them, Jeon raised Jimin’s face to get a better look. Jimin could swear that he saw a glimpse of anger in Jeons face. He gulped.  \n\n“You are to be rewarded.” Jeon said after a few seconds to Jin, not taking his eyes away from Jimin. \n\n“Your presence is reward enough, your highness.” Jin said bowing slightly. \n\nJeon nodded to one of the soldiers who held onto some kind of reward. The solider walked to them and offered it to Jin. Jin took it with another bow, better not anger the king. He let go of Jimin’s arm and stepped back. Jeon took Jimin’s wrist and pulled him to some carriage. \n\n“Fuck you, traitor!” Jimin shouted before Jeon forced him into the carriage."}
+{"text": "It is still dark when Techno returns back inside, although morning is not far to follow behind. Tommy and Wilbur have left already, declining the offer to stay for the night. It is for the best, but Phil could not help but offer anyways. Techno’s posture is calm, the tension gone from him limbs, but his eyes are still clouded with complicated emotions. They are not red at least, Phil muses, the voices aren’t overwhelming him.\n\nNot that his own turmoil is any less severe or important than the ruckus the voices cause. He seems exhausted, undoubtedly having spent the majority of his time outside hacking away at mobs. It has been a long, long while since he felt the need to calm his agitation through violence.\n\nNot since the time when they had to leave the server. It had been rough for him back then, rage coursing through him whenever he remembered the home they lost. Since then he had went through quite some changes. Living in peace again for a while had calmed the blood lust of the voices, instead of hungering for more, opposed to how it had been back in the dsmp. He was not just avoiding danger; there simply was none on this server, outside of the mobs. If you could truly count those as danger, even if the smaller zombies being a major threat was an inside joke between him and Phil.\n\n \n\nTechno hangs up his cape and heads for the bedrooms, before hesitating. He turns back and heads to the kitchen instead, seemingly deciding against sleep. To be fair, it is almost morning and time to feed their livestock. A moment later, quiet sounds of tea being prepared filter through to where Phil sits. Not long after, Techno comes back with two cups, and joins Phil at the table.\n\nPhil accepts the cup with quiet thanks, and watches as Techno sits down. He waits a moment, looking at the downturned face and general misery wafting off him, before he breaks the silence.\n\n“You’re alright, mate?”\n\n \n\n***\n\n \n\nWarm sunlight filters through the stained glass of church Primes windows, leaving a flurry of colours on every surface it touches. It’s peaceful in here, quiet, and the air fresh after Tommy had opened all doors and windows to air the place out. He’s done quite some work with the place, although the majority had already been done when he had gone back to the server for the first time.\n\nAll in all the building had only suffered minimal damages, even after almost 15 years of non-use and radioactive poisoning. It only took some light repairs to the facade and a replacement of the wooden pews inside. Some of the floor tiles had been cracked, but that too was an easy fix. Most time consuming had been the thorough spring-cleaning. Sweeping the floors, cleaning the windows, polishing the wood, marble, and stone until it shimmered. Cleaning the holy water fountain and replacing the water had been a little tricky, but he had managed to do it anyways. Fixing up the altar with new candles and offerings was the last thing he had done, and Church Prime had been restored back to its old glory.\n\nThat had been barely a few months ago, but he still found something to do when he came back to it now. Some dusting, some cleaning, lighting the candles, positioning the offerings just right on the altar- he kept busy.\n\nAnd no- he was not stalling. Taking care of church Prime and making sure it was in perfect condition was an honour, and it had absolutely nothing to do with the frankly overwhelming backlog of messages currently sitting in his communicator. He’d get to them soon enough, first he just had to take care of church Prime. It was much more important than some annoying evil green bastards last messages, even if he had been waiting for answers for years and okay. Maybe he was stalling. But it wasn’t because he was afraid, or anything. He was just…. A little overwhelmed.\n\nHe knew that Dream died in the prison. Multiple times even. Techno and Phil had talked about that. But hearing about it and seeing the hundreds of messages containing just a single death message fly by was a little different, you know?\n\nMaybe he was also still just a little freaked out because of the prison. The building had been every bit as imposing and threatening as it had been back in the SMPs prime. Maybe even more so, now that it had outlasted most of the servers other builds, and survived pretty much unscathed in the radioactive wasteland surrounding it. The inside at least, had been pretty much the same. A little darker than before, as some of the glow stone lamps had worn down or broken over time.\n\nThankfully, or not so thankfully, he knew the way to the high security cell by heart. Not that he had walked it very often, although he was probably one of the only people to have walked it multiple times. It was weird, walking it without having to follow Sam’s extensive security measures. Somehow, despite carrying all his weapons and armour with him, the walk didn’t feel any safer.\n\nAt the cell, the lava was already down. He didn’t feel like fiddling with the bridge, so he just pearled over. Standing in that little box….. was weird. Somehow, he expected it to look different. He couldn’t quite describe how, just… different.\n\nBut there it was, the same size, the same cauldron, lectern and chest. The same waterhole. The only notable “change” was the dirt that had accumulated. The water in the cauldron was murky, and the food dispenser was caked in dried up smudges of rotten potatoes. There’s a pile of something below it, and Tommy would bet that it used to be potatoes, but by now it dried and decomposed into some vaguely dirt like substance. It didn’t smell like soil, that’s for sure.\n\nOverall, most of the cell was covered in brown stains, some even splattered up the wall. It only took some scratching at it with his shoe for a distinct metallic scent to rise up, and he realized their true nature. It was blood, simple as that. His first thought was that it might have been his own, and his eyes dart to the place where he had…. Died. But there is no discernible blood stain for him to pick out, it’s just a continuous blanket of rusted brown everywhere.\n\nHe remembers the torture, then. He hadn’t quite thought about what that entailed when Techno and Phil had mentioned it. They hadn’t gone into detail either. Tommy’s first thought had just been of exile, and how Dream had tortured him back then with the hole and the TNT. However, looking at the state of the cell it seems that this torture had been…. A lot more literal than he had expected.\n\nHe doesn’t quite know what to think about that. It’s not really related to him in any way. He hadn’t ordered it, and Quackity had done it for his own reasons. ‘The book’ he remembers, and his face sours. If Dream hadn’t mentioned the book back in his base, he would have never gone to prison. He could have just died there and he wouldn’t have needed to go through all this bullshit. TOMMY would not have needed to go through all the bullshit. It really was kind of Dreams own fault for mentioning the book.\n\nOn the  topic of books, though… Tommy stepped over to the lone chest in the corner. It’s old, the wood beginning to rot and the hinges rusty. But inside, it still houses a few belongings. Books, that is. He pulls them out, the leather bound pages still in surprising good shape. He considers to sit down on the chest for a second, as the floor is not a choice at all, but he decides to lean against the lectern instead. He just has to be a little careful in case of splinters.\n\nThere’s only a few books, and there is truly not much of interest to them. Some hold messy scribbles of the prison layout, probably to plan an escape. Others are just filled with random and nonsensical scribbles that Tommy doesn’t understand, and doodles that he has no interest in. Nothing that helped him in any way.\n\nHe sighs. On his wrist, his communicator sits undisturbed, screen black and peaceful. He muted Dream before coming here, just in case. He wanted to take a look first, see if he could find any clues. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to see the supposed messages he left behind. Maybe he was also a little scared of what they would entail, or maybe they would just leave him with more questions then answers.\n\nHe looks around the cell again. There really isn’t much else to look at in here. It’s dark, humid and unbearably hot. Everything is slowly rotting and there is old blood splattered on every surface. The books have been useless to him as well. All that is left is the messages. \n\nAnd he is not a coward.\n\n \n\nOr maybe he is, because here he is, sitting in church Prime busying himself with anything he can, just to avoid looking at the thousands, ten thousands of messages sitting in his communicator.\n\nOkay, maybe he is stalling.\n\n***\n\n“Again, mate, Tommy will be alright. He’s grown a lot, and yesterday… yesterday was just a shock. Caught him by surprise. He’ll be alright. I don’t think he is going to stay mad at us.” He reassures. “That includes you as well, you know?” Phil smiles in Techno’s direction, but the other still doesn’t seem reassured. His brows furrow as he grips his cup worryingly tight.\n\n“Yeah yeah, he is fine. Sure, for now. But Dream is here and he is staying and I don’t think Tommy will be too happy about that.” Techno says helplessly.  “He won’t be fine when he realizes, Phil. And I refuse to let him drag Dream somewhere else. He can’t survive on his own, Phil.”\n\n“I know.” Phil sighs, but he doesn’t lose the reassuring smile. Although it does veer a little more to the helpless side of optimistic. “It’s all gonna work out somehow. Tommy just needs some time to figure this out on his own. He’s smart, Techno, and he is kind as well. It’s all gonna be alright.”\n\nSomehow, Techno wonders if Phil just keeps repeating it to make himself believe in it as well.\n\n \n\n***\n\n \n\nTommy felt sick.\n\nHe hadn’t known what he had expected, but not for them to immediately start with a death message. And certainly not for them to continue for dozens of messages. At first, there is quite some time in-between them, weeks, before it dwindles to days, and then it becomes daily. They always send out at a similar time at first, but then they start to get later and later. Tommy doesn’t know if it just means that Quackity pushed his schedule back and showed up later, or if it means that the… sessions got longer. He doesn’t want to think about that in particular. He doesn’t want to think about the details of the messages either, but he can’t help scrolling the almost…. catalogue of torture with a morbid curiosity. It’s like watching a train wreck. The messages vary, beginning with just weapons, before expanding to tools, potions, and other methods.\n\n\nStabbed slain pickaxe suffocated drowned sword burned cut down gutted shears choked broken branding iron bled out axe succumbed to infection illness poison rope starved lava killed killed killed killed killed died died died died died died\n\n\nEven just scrolling through the messages, he couldn’t get the rusted brown blood stains out of his head. They had been everywhere, they had splattered up the wall as high as he stood. He hadn’t really thought about how they had been accomplished, but with the messages right in front of him, just continuing further and further and further, his mind begins to fill in the blanks on his own.\n\nDimly, he realizes that what he sees is just what killed Dream in the end. What he sees is only the end of the session, and not, looking at the times of the messages, the hours of torture beforehand.\n\nThere was so much time, and judging at the variety of death messages, Tommy can only imagine to what lengths Quackity had gone session after session. Sometimes, there are messages from Dream before a death message. Usually, when the death message is way later than the others, and the tone of the messages is mostly the same. Delirious, riddled with typos and barely decipherable, if one didn’t know the people he was calling out for. Technoblade sometimes, probably because of the favour. Punz was a reoccurring one as well, his last ally, who had betrayed him. Puffy, who Tommy knew had some weird parental relationship with Dream going on before all this, although she had denounced him when he had been in the prison. Maybe he had not known. Sometimes Bad.\n\nAnd mostly George and Sapnap.\n\nIt was interesting to see who the people were Dream called for. It made sense, since they all used to be close to him in one way or another. Before the prison, that is. And yet their names are only called when the soon after appearing death message spells out a slow, painful death of poison, infection, or blood loss. Almost as if, he would never call for them if he was at full awareness.\n\nNotably, the days after he sent messages were the ones where the death occurred the quickest. He didn’t like the implications. He didn’t understand what Quackity was thinking. It’s hard to connect these messages with the Quackity he knew. And yet it was quite easy to connect them with the Quackity that razed the entire SMP to the ground in a fit of rage over Dreams supposed escape.\n\nAnd all of that for a book? Granted, it was the revive book, but who would Quackity even revive? Everyone that died had been revived, aside from… Schlatt. There was no way Quackity would revive that bastard, right? Schlatt hadn’t been very nice to him. What was there to gain from it?\n\nAt one point, the torture related death messages were interrupted by a stream of death messaged related to death through lava. At first Tommy thought it was just another thing Quackity tried, but the messages went on and on and on, far longer than any session ever had, and the times didn’t match up either. He realizes that it was Dreams doing then. He had done it intentionally. Did he try to die? But he respawned, so maybe that wasn’t his goal? “Trapped in an involuntary death loop” he remembers Techno’s words. And he remembers himself, looking longingly at lava long, long years ago.\n\nHis stomach coils. Yep, he was going to be sick.\n\n \n\n***\n\n \n\nWhen Techno returns to the kitchen still holding the full bowl of soup, Phil already knows that Dream isn’t doing as well as they had hoped. Techno’s face doesn’t do anything to ease that worry.\n\n“He isn’t responding again.” He mutters, and Phil can see the restraint in his hands as he sets the bowl down slowly on the kitchen counter, instead of hurtling it into the sink. He stands there, for a moment, hands gripping the wooden counter worryingly tight.\n\n“Hey…” Phil calls out, quietly, reassuringly. “This isn’t the end, you know? We were here before, we can do it again.” He laughs, softly. “Hell, this time we even know what we’re doing. It won’t be like last time. He is gonna wake up again, and then we can try and figure out what happened.”\n\nTechno turns away. “I shouldn’t have let him stay near Tommy. I should have brought him to his room immediately.” He sounds frustrated, and guilt is laced in his tone again.\n\nPhil sighs. “You don’t know if that would have been better though, right? He was already shaken from the encounter; what if isolating him immediately after would have made everything worse? What if it had reminded him of his imprisonment and had triggered an even worse attack?”\n\nPhil leans back in his chair, breathing out warily. “Sure. The situation could have gone better, but it also could’ve gone infinitely worse. You did what you thought was best, and that’s what counts.”\n\nTechno turns; finally, worry and hesitation clear in his face. “I just don’t know. He was so… panicked. He was scared of something, and I don’t understand what it was. And why did he mention XD? He shouldn’t even be able to remember the god. What if XD was involved in the memory loss?”\n\n“Hmm” Phil ponders, but he doesn’t know enough about the patron deity of the old server. They’ve only interacted once, when they had stumbled across an end portal on accident. The deity had been ready to smite them, presuming that they had wanted to access the end. They had convinced XD that it truly hadn’t been their intention, and they were left alone after the deity disabled the portal.\n\nIt still made for an incredibly badass table though.\n\n“You said you summoned them once, with Dream in the prison, right?” He eventually says. Techno nods in confirmation, and Phil can see the realization dawn on his face. “Could you do it again? Obviously you’d have to do it on the old server, but…. You could ask them directly.”\n\n \n\n***\n\n \n\nTommy didn’t make it to a window in time, and this time he isn’t at all ashamed to say he is using the time to clean his puke of the floor to avoid the messages. He is mentally apologizing for defiling the church in this way, and yet he is grateful as well for the involuntary break. He cleans and cleans and cleans and then cleans again, until his hands are wrinkly from the water and red from the pressure of scrubbing.\n\nMaybe he should continue outside, for the sake of the church, but being in here is what provided him with the mental strength and inner peace to read the messages at all. So instead, he dries his hands and takes a breather outside, before heading back inside. This time, he settles under a window, his legs stretched out into the warm sunbeams falling through it, while the rest is situated comfortable in the shadows to avoid the glare of the sun on the screen of his communicator.\n\nHe breathes in deeply. Time to go back. This time, he does not dwell on the death messages during the torture period too much. He skips through them as quickly as he can, although the quick glimpses are enough to make his stomach tighten in protest again.\n\nHe scrolls, and then, the messages change. Quackity’s name vanishes, and is replaced by messages announcing Dreams death by starvation. It takes a moment to set in, but then he recognizes the date on the messages. It’s been month since the last message containing Quackity’s name, and with a start he realizes the date. It’s well past the second explosion and the ensuing evacuation.\n\nAt that point, Dream had been alone. Well, aside from Tubbo, Ranboo and Michael in their little bunker. But they didn’t even know he was there. So basically, he had been forgotten and alone. But Quackity had said that Dream had escaped? And Sam had confirmed that. How was Dream still in the prison then… His head hurts.\n\nHe keeps scrolling, and quickly, the messages change to actual messages from Dream. They’re hesitant at first, calling out for anyone. They quickly grow pleading and desperate. He must have realized that they were gone. Tommy wonders how it could have taken weeks to realize, but then he remembers that no one really had visited him before and that Sam had automated any process he could to avoid having to see the prisoner, so how could he have noticed.\n\nHe sees his own name in the flurry of messages, and it makes him feel unsettled. How desperate was Dream, to call out for him, specifically? It doesn’t sit well with him, and neither does the growing desperation in the ongoing messages.\n\nThey end on a lonely please, hours after the last message, before a new death by starvation message interrupts again. Tommy scrolls. And then he abruptly stops.\n\n \n\n***\n\n \n\n\nPunz: I need to talk to you\n\n\n\nPunz: It’s about Dream\n\n\n\nPunz: meet me on Hypixel in 3 days, 10 am server time \n\n\n\n \n\n\nTechno stares at the message on his communicator in equal parts of confusion and apprehension. It interrupted him in the middle of his research and planning for the trip to the old SMP. He truly hadn’t planned to return again, especially not so soon, but Phil’s idea had been good. Even if he would have to find a different way to summon the god, seeing as he wasn't in possession of the revival book. But still, Summoning the god and finding out what caused Dreams amnesia and if it was reversible was the most coherent and clear plan they’ve had since they had picked Dream up from the prison.\n\nBut it wasn’t the interruption to his planning that caused the confusion.\n\nHe knew that Tommy informed the former SMP members of Dreams reappearance, but as far as he knew, Tommy hadn’t told anyone where he had seen Dream, or that Dream was with him and Phil. Well, he wasn’t too surprised about the speed with which Punz had found out that Dream was with them. Although he hadn’t mentioned it in his messages, Techno didn’t doubt that the mercenary was already well aware of it.\n\nNo, his surprise actually stemmed from the fact that it was Punz. He was one of the last people he had expected to reach out to them about Dream. Barely anyone had even heard from him in those past years, the only mentions of him surfaced through Purpled who apparently was still in contact with him through Hypixel.\n\nHe didn’t expect Punz to still be interested in Dream at all. Although they had been partners at one point, Punz had betrayed Dream for Tommy and the server. He was part of the reason why Dream was thrown in the prison. What did he want now? What business could he probably still have with Dream?\n\nTechno was unsure what to think of it. The offer of information was tempting, but he didn’t know what the information could possibly entail. Would it even be of any use for him? And more importantly, could he even trust Punz?\n\nSuddenly, as if Punz heard his doubts, a new message pings.\n\n \n\n\nPunz: I’m on Dreams side. \n\n\n\nPunz: ask him or check our messages for proof.\n\n\n \n\n\n \n\n\n***\n\n \n\n \n\n\nDream: I’m not sorry.\n\n\n\nDream: I’m not sorry for what I did.\n\n\n \n\nThere it sits. The answer he has been waiting for. Dream wasn’t sorry, even after all the punishment he had endured. But then why? What was the reason? It takes some time for him before he continues scrolling, questions boiling in his mind and unease crawling under his skin. He doesn’t know if he wants to read further, but this is it. This is all the explanation he is ever getting from Dream. The old Dream, the Dream he remembers. He takes a breath. And continues.\n\n \n\n\nDream: I failed my duty as an admin, and I failed my duty as a friend.\n\n\n\nDream: I allowed chaos to take over the server because I didn’t take my duties seriously enough.\n\n\n\nDream: Everything I did afterwards was to correct that misstep.\n\n\n\nDream: You may believe it was too harsh, but everything only happened because I wasn’t strict enough from the beginning. So I had to correct that.\n\n\n\nDream: In the beginning, when I made the server, I wanted it to be a home. I wanted it to be a nice place for the people that were my family. I didn’t want it to be a kingdom, a rulership.\n\n\n\nDream: I know now that this thinking was naïve.\n\n\n\nDream: I could have spared a lot of tragedy, had I not been so lenient with my duties.\n\n\n \n\nThis…. Tommy doesn’t quite know what to make of this. He wishes he could just get clear, straight answers. But this? This is confusing him, why did Dream always have to be so cryptic about everything. What does he mean he wasn’t “strict” enough. He was plenty strict, always a damn party pooper yelling about his rules and shit. So what if Tommy grieved and robbed a little? It was no big deal, all of them had supplies for days. It’s not like Tommy really did any bad damage or anything. He was just a kid playing around, pranking them a little. And still Dream had to be an ass about it. He didn’t really let Tommy get away with stuff, not after the first time he had banned him and then unbanned him again. So what does he mean more strict?\n\nLet him stay banned? Bullshit, without Tommy a bunch of people would have never even joined the server. It would have stayed just a measly little troupe of dreams ragtag group of friends. The server would have never become as popular without Tommy. Wilbur literally only joined for Tommy, and-\n\nWilbur. If Tommy had stayed banned, Wilbur would have never joined, and they would have never been able to found L’manburg. Of course Dream would think that that would be the cure to all his problems, getting rid of L’Manburg. Wishing it never existed just so he could stay in his happy little dictator kingdom.\n\nExcept… Back then, in the very beginning, he hadn’t really been …. A dictator. Not even really strict, aside from his dumb little rules. “no griefing” blablabla “no going to the end” blablabla. As if anyone even knew what the fucking end was back then. And as if it wasn’t hard enough to get there at all. Who would even want to go there? For what, hanging out with a bunch of enderman in the void? Ranboo was more than enough Enderman for a life time, thank you very much. Fight a huge fucking dragon? Not everyone was a fucking idiot.\n\nBut aside from that he had been quite laid back. Barely anyone had even worn armour back then. There wasn’t really a need, before the wars. That was still his own fault though, if he had just let them make their little country, they would not have needed to fight about it. What was he so pissy about anyways, the server was huge, he could have just let them have their little place.\n\n\n(But was it really about the space? Or was it about the brewing stands and all the ingredients you stole? About your and Wilbur’s drug empire in the little van? About you breaking the rules and then refusing punishment? Come on Tommy, be honest…)\n\n\n\n \n\n\nA little voice sounds in the back of his mind, and the way it speaks, so detached and neutral, was unnervingly alike to his therapist. Although, the voice itself was nothing like it. It was hard to say who the voice resembled, it didn’t just sound like his own, like his thoughts usually are. It wasn’t just one person either. It was like flickers of other voices, that meshed and blended into one. He could hear Phil, and Techno and Wilbur, but also Tubbo and Ranboo and Puffy and Sam and Quackity and so many more. It was confusing.\n\n \n\nWorst of all, he could hear Dream. It took so long to get rid of the fear of him, to stop seeing the painted smile on every white surface. He didn’t like it. He didn’t like what was happening. Everyone else was already on Dreams side, he didn’t need his own mind to betray him as well.\n\n \n\n\n(That’s not true, though. The others didn’t pick Dream over you, they just don’t care about him anymore. They want to move on from the situation, they’re tired of it. They wish you’d do the same…)\n\n\n\n \n\n\nThe voice whispers, and Tommy harshly shakes his head to get rid of it. He scrolls down his communicator, and continues reading.\n\n \n\n\nDream: It’s unfair. Where does my punishment end? Where does it start?\n\n\n\nDream: You broke the rules, you stole land that was free for everyone, you divided the server and ripped  my family apart. You painted me a villain when I tried to stop you.\n\n\n\nDream: You provoked a fight and then punished me for taking the invitation.\n\n\n\nDream: You took everything from me\n\n\n\nDream: And then you imprisoned me\n\n\n\nDream: why is it that only I am punished?\n\n\n\nDream: why is it that I have to bear the weight of everyone’s faults?\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n…\n\n\n \n\n\nDream: In the end, here I am. Left alone in the server. I don’t know if everyone just left, or if something happened. All I know is that I’m imprisoned in this vault forever.\n\n\n\nDream: The system doesn’t let me die by my own hands, and an escape is impossible.\n\n\n\nDream: I would say this is the end for me\n\n\n\nDream: But there is none\n\n\n \n\n\nDream died from starvation.\n\n\n \n\nA death message cuts off the stream of messages, and it repeats multiple times, no further messages of Dream visible for now. Tommy sinks back into the stone wall behind him. He is unsure what to think of all of this. He doesn’t like it.\n\n \n\nDreams messages made the situation seem completely different than it had been. They erased everything he had done, and just made it seem like it was “necessary”. Like he hadn’t wanted to do them, like he just had to, as if it was just a chore. They didn’t explain anything, they just made Dream out to be a victim. Like Dream had never meant to start a war, like he never wanted any of it to happen.\n\n \n\nBut that didn’t make sense. He had opposed L’Manburg, he had proposed the war if they didn’t stop. If he truly didn’t want war and all the bloodshed and conflict, why didn’t he just grant them L’Manburg? He started it, if he just let them do their own thing, none of this would have ever happened.\n\n \n\n\n(Is that really what happened though? Was L’Manburg really the beginning of the conflict? What did truly happen, back then? How was L’Manburg truly founded?)\n\n\n\n \n\n\nThe voice pipes up again, and this time Tommy doesn’t shake it off. What does it mean? Of course L’Manburg was the beginning of the wars. Dream had refused to allow them their freedom and independence and declared war. Tommy still remembered fondly how they came up with L’Manburg. It had been on a sunny day on the lawn outside the “drug van”, the somewhat shabby old vehicle they had repurposed into a little potion lab. They had just come back from a supply trip, although it mostly consisted of swiping the stuff from other members of the server who were frequent nether travellers and had amassed quite a bunch of resources.\n\n \n\nIt wasn’t like they needed them when Tommy and Wilbur would be the ones to make the potions. They had successfully grabbed every potion stand they could access, and were already in preparation to start brewing. If someone needed potions, they could just get them from them, maybe they’d even get a discount for their… “collaboration”. They were having a genuinely good time, and Tommy had been so happy to finally spend time with someone he thought of as an older brother.\n\n \n\nOf course, Dream had to ruin the mood. He showed up all huffy and annoyed with his stupid green hoodie and his stupid mask. Bitching about his rules and them “stealing” them. It wasn’t even that serious, who got so mad over some stupid spider eyes and melons? Sure, some stuff wasn’t as easy to get, like ghast tears and nether warts and blaze rods, but weren’t all of Dreams little friends sooooo skilled and capable? They could just grind and have them back within a few days. No big deal. Besides, they could just get their potions here, they wouldn’t even have to go through the annoying process of having to brew them. They were doing them a favour, really!\n\n \n\nBut of course, Dream wouldn’t get it. Blubbering on and on about rules and how they had to return the stuff and how they couldn’t do that and blah blah blah. Fucking annoying. So they just…. told him to get off their property. Called it their little kingdom, named it L’Manburg, and told him to shove it. He couldn’t do shit if they were their own nation. Of course Dream hadn’t liked it, and he had left all puffed up, saying this wasn’t the end of it. It had just been a spur of the moment back then, but in the rush Wilbur had realized that it wasn’t a bad idea. If they were their own nation, they wouldn’t have to give a shit about Dreams stupid rules.\n\n \n\nSo they made L’Manburg. And people apparently agreed with their vision, because they had a group together just a few days later. They would finally be able to live freely, build their own homes, without the influence of Dream. They would be free.\n\n \n\n\n(You were always free to build a home wherever you wanted. Just like everyone else. However, you were not free to infringe on the others freedom. You stole, you vandalized, and you grieved. It was never about your freedom, but about you breaking the rules and trying to escape the consequences of your own actions. It was about you dividing the people. You knew that Dream was not being unreasonable back then, but you still pulled others to your side just to get out of your punishment. Just to get your own way.\n\n\n\nWilbur lied to them, and you knew it. He called Dream a tyrant and you gladly parroted it back. He called Dream a villain and you announced it from the rooftops. It was all fun back then, when he just had the labels attached to him. It was not as fun when he started acting like them, was it?)\n\n\nWhat? That wasn’t true, not at all! He just wanted to be free! He just wanted to have fun! He was just a kid back then. He was not at fault for Dream going crazy, Dream was the one that was so obsessed with control. Dream manipulated him and caused all the evil. Why was the voice in his head victim blaming him? Dream had been the adult, a grown man, he should have known better.\n\n\n(Why do you insist so much on him being an adult? He was 20 when the conflicts started. He’s not really much older than you, you know? Why do you expect him to be so much more mature and capable, when you as a 16 year old were apparently equal to a toddler?)\n\n\nA toddler? He never said that! But maybe, if Dream wasn’t capable of acting like an adult, maybe he shouldn’t have made a server then! An admin has a responsibility, and if he wasn’t able to act like it, clearly he shouldn’t have become one.\n\n\n(Good Point, Tommy. He was indeed the admin. So why does he have to compromise his rules for an outsider, a “child” as you put it, that he had granted a home in his generosity? His rules were fair and easy to follow. Isn’t it more reasonable to expect the guest to follow them? Instead of causing mischief and unrest simply for their own entertainment?)\n\n\n‘That’s not fair! You keep twisting the story to make me look bad! I was just a child! It doesn’t matter what I did, he was wrong to treat me like that. He shouldn’t have done it! He just hated me and made my life hell because I wouldn’t let him control me like everyone else!”\n\n(You keep coming back to your age. Tommy, do you believe that the title of “minor” is a magic ‘get out of jail free’ card? Sure, the title does indicate that you’re not yet to be put on the same level as an adult, and it does give you leeway in how you act. But rules still apply to you, and being a minor doesn’t make you untouchable, Tommy)\n\n“I- I never said that!” he stammers aloud, caught by surprise at the call out.  “I didn’t follow the rules because they were stupid! But he still shouldn’t have done it! I didn’t even do anything bad, I was just having a little fun!”\n\n\n(So you acknowledge that you broke the rules knowingly, just for fun. Then why do you insist on blaming Dream for enforcing them and punishing you? What makes you think you’re above the rules, and unpunishable? Just your age? Then what about the other minors who followed them just fine? What about Tubbo?”\n\n\n“Leave Tubbo out of this!” Tommy replies, louder this time, as the anger in him is rising “Following the rules didn’t help him at all, Dream still went after him!”\n\n\n(But wasn’t that because of you, Tommy? You brought Tubbo into the revolution, you made him part of your plans, you agreed to make him a spy for Pogtopia and you let him get killed for it. You valued the discs over him, you painted a target on his back, you almost let him get killed by Dream. You broke the peace treaty, and gave Tubbo no choice but to exile you-)\n\n\n“WILL YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP?” Tommy screams, and the voice falls blessedly quiet. He pants, his heart racing and his legs shaking under his weight. When did he get up from his spot by the window? He doesn’t remember. ‘Fuck!’ he thinks, and sinks his hands into his hair, gripping the curls tightly as he screams in frustration.\n\nHe can’t do this. Fuck everything, Fuck Dream, it wasn’t Tommy’s fault, it wasn’t. Dream was the bad guy. Dream was the bad guy. It was all his fault, all his. He hates Dream, he hates him he hates him he HATES HIM HE HATES HIM HE HATES HIM-\n\n“What a shame.” The voice says, and suddenly it is not just in Tommy’s head anymore. He freezes, as the voice reverberates through the silent church. A chill rushes through him, and he whips around, to where the voice is coming from behind him.\n\nA tall, impossibly tall figure stands, or more likely floats, right behind the altar. The candles he lit have been extinguished, and their wisps of smoke trail upwards, curling around the hem of the figures robes. And even though Tommy has never met the being in person, he immediately understands that who he is facing is a deity. More importantly, the prime god themselves.\n\nThe god is towering, close to the ceiling even with the tall walls and high rooftops of the church. They are dressed in pristine white and green robes that never seem to stop moving. Tommy is unable to tell where the body begins and where it starts, he is not even sure the deity has one, with the way the robes seem to flow unobstructed. The head of the deity is round, smooth and white, like the marble and stone the church is built of. It floats unattached above the robes, decorated with twin halos crossing in front of it.\n\nThe figure starts to glow, as impossibly more smoke rises from the candles and spirals around it. The deity leans down, bringing their arms up for the wide sleeves to hide the head.\n\nWhen they come back down, the deity has changed forms into a more human appearance. Limbs are visible, and the light of the stained glass windows catches on gold and emeralds adorning them. The twin halos remain, and the face is hidden by a dark green hood.\n\nA glowing green mouth appears in the darkness of the hood, and a voice that sounds like a choir of every voice Tommy has ever heard speaks.\n\n\n“What a shame that my most loyal and devout follower is also the one who hates my creation the most.”\n\n\nThe hood falls, and for the second time in as many days, Tommy looks into the face that had haunted him for the past 13 years.\n\n \n\n***\n\n“How didn’t we think of this, Phil? It’s so simple.” Techno huffs “His communicator. It’s been almost a full year, and yet we never checked it?”\n\nThe device is lying on the table between them, restarting after going into standby mode when they had taken it off during that first day where they had patched Dream up. It’s not like they had taken it from him for specific reasons. It was more to be able to clean and dress up all his wounds. And after that he hadn’t needed it for a while, and then they just… forgot. It was just sitting in the nightstand next to Dreams bed. Dream didn’t leave the server, and he was never really alone.\n\nThey had simply forgot.\n\nThe communicator came back to live with a little beep, and the screen started to glow again. For a moment, they just let it sit there. Almost hesitant suddenly, Techno reached out for the device. A communicator was something pretty private usually. It wasn’t often that there was a need to share the contents of the device with someone else. What would they find? How many messages had piled up over the years? Who reached out to him? Who didn’t?\n\nIt felt wrong, somewhat, to be the ones to do this. It was something Dream should be able to do. But Dream was nonresponsive again, and he didn’t remember any of these people anyways. The… old Dream, the “real” Dream should be the one to see the messages. And yet here they were.\n\nWhat they find is… not unexpected. Mostly because they have absolutely no idea what to expect. It’s been 13 years after all, even longer if you calculated in the original prison time. Instead, what they find is disappointing. There should have been some unread messages piled up, surely.\n\nBut there are… none. Aside from Punz chat that is. There are a few sitting on there, but aside from that, there are no other notifications. If not for those, they would have thought that the device might need to be restarted, or refreshed or something.\n\nThey are confused. Did truly no one try to reach out to Dream? In almost 15 years? How? No one? Not even his old friends? Or rather, former friends? Techno could have sworn that at least George or Sapnap would have tried to reach out. It’s not what they checked the communicator for, but he can’t help but check the chats between the original Dreamteam. But… they’re not muted either. It had truly been radio silence, even before Dream had gotten imprisoned.\n\nA weird feeling rises in Techno at that. He hadn’t been a fan of the prison, for obvious reasons, but he knew that it had been decided as punishment for Dreams transgressions. He thought that it had went too far, and that people had overreacted quite a bit. But he hadn’t thought that people apparently hated Dream so much that they didn’t so much as blink at the notion of him vanishing off the face of the earth. He thought that at the very least his old friends would have still cared about him, even if only for old memories sake.\n\nBut seeing the quiet, abandoned chats he wonders how Dream had coped with that. It wasn’t a secret that Dream… was a pretty social person, at least before he had went on his little “villain” spree. He had quite a few friends he had been rather close with, and he had enjoyed being with and around people. He shakes his head, trying to push the thought away.\n\nHe scrolls back up to the top, where Punz’s chat sits, a badge displaying the number of missed messages. It automatically directs him to the begin, and under the last messages that Dream sent, Punz’s messages appear.\n\n \n\n\nDream: alright, see you on the other side\n\n\n\nDream: meetup at the usual spot, usual time\n\n\n\n…\n\n\n\nPunz: where are you?\n\n\n\nPunz: you’re late. Did the plan change?\n\n\n\n…\n\n\n\nPunz: I’m going to get you out of there. \n\n\n\n…\n\n\n\nPunz: the server is fucked, had to leave\n\n\n\nPunz: hope you made it out safe\n\n\n\n…\n\n\n\nPunz: if you need a place to stay, find me on hypixel\n\n\n\nPunz: I hope you’re okay\n\n\n\n…\n\n\n\nPunz: nobody has seen you in ages\n\n\n\nPunz: if your communicator wasn’t still active, I’d probably think you’re dead\n\n\n\n…\n\n\n\nPunz: I know something is wrong\n\n\n\nPunz: I’m here if you need me \n\n\n\n…\n\n\n\nPunz: the server opened back up\n\n\n\nPunz: I’ll be at the place\n\n\n\n…\n\n\n\nPunz: I went to the prison\n\n\n\nPunz: snooped around Sams old office\n\n\n\nPunz: I know what happened\n\n\n\nPunz: I’ll find you\n\n\n\nPunz: I’ll make it up to you\n\n\n \n\nTechno sighs when he puts the communicator down. It seems he is going to Hypixel soon.\n\n \n\n***\n\n \n\n“So Dream isn’t even a human?” Tommy’s voice is incredulous. “I always knew there was something off with the green bitch.” He scoffs.\n\n“Well…”  XD muses “Dream hasn’t always been a human, but in this current form, he is as much human as most of the other people on the server had been. Remember the hybrids and mob related people? Or the ones with special abilities?” The deity questions.\n\n“I guess…” Tommy sulks. “That doesn’t mean I forgive him though.”\n\n“You don’t have to” XD replies simply, and Tommy stills.\n\n“Wait what?” he stutters. “Why did you do the whole… fucking… mind-voice bullshit thing then?”\n\n“You sought answers for what troubled your soul. As your god, I simply wished to help you find them within the contents of your mind” The god replies simply, as if Tommy had asked about the weather instead. He feels a bit shocked at the nonchalance, but he refuses to show it. Instead, he sulks a little more.\n\n“Yeah, well you were being a real dick about it.”\n\n\n“Apologies, I’m not very familiar with the way the players interact”\n\n\nIt’s a little weird to talk so familiar with the God. It’s not like Tommy is usually putting extra effort into his word choice or avoids profanity when he prays. He believed that God deserved to be worshipped with every part of him, not just a clean scrubbed pretend version. But somehow it felt a little weird to not be polite when faced with a god. When the god actually replied to his quips.\n\nIt was also the calmness with that the god spoke that threw Tommy off. Considering the deities entrance, he had been quite shocked to find the god to be so… mellow and apathetic almost. The prime god was so detached, so blasé in the manners of speech. The god wasn’t at all as imposing and scary as Tommy expected when he turned around and found God staring at him. It mellowed Tommy out as well. Somehow, the anger that had been boiling in him ever since he found Dream again calmed, and left just the insecurity and confusion behind.\n\n“I guess. I’m… I still haven’t found my answers though. I’m still so confused. Can’t you just… tell me? Without being so cryptic about it?” he asks, looking up at the god next to him.\n\n“You know that I’m not Dream though, although he had been part of me, once.” XD replies, and although the voice is spoken in the same calm, composed cadence, Tommy swears there is a tint of sorrow in the words. “All I can tell you is what I saw. It’s for you to make your own conclusions out of it.”\n\n“But… in my head you said all those things, how was that not you giving me answers?” Tommy asks confusedly.\n\n“I just took the thoughts that were already there, buried deep down in your mind, and added what I knew. You’re torn and afraid to let go of what you know. I thought that providing a mirror might help you confront that fear.” The deity pauses “clearly that didn’t work the way I intended”\n\n“Yeah, you were a proper bitch about it.” Tommy mutters. “and fuckin’ scary as well. But…” he stops, letting his gaze wander the church, before it falls on the communicator on his wrist. “You’re the only one I’ve got to help me figure this out. Dream has apparently lost his memory, and all his old allies and … friends” he stumbles over the word “rather pretend he doesn’t exist than talk about him. Techno does not know shit about what went on, and Phil showed up way too late. Will was… gone for a long time as well.” He sighs. “So you’re my only shot at explaining things, aside from having to figure this out on my own… So… help me?” and after a moment of thinking he adds, “Without the spooky bullshit please?”\n\n \n\n***\n\n \n\n“Do you have everything you need?”\n\nTechno huffs, pointedly avoiding the other man leaning in the doorway. Of course he has everything he needs, it’s not like a trip to Hypixel calls for extraordinary preparations, especially since he isn’t even planning on staying there for an extended amount of time, or even planning to compete there. He’s just going for a quick chat with an old … acquaintance. It’s not even a full days trip, there is no need to fuss.\n\nAlthough, he realizes, Phil isn’t the one fussing. Techno knows that he has everything he needs, and yet he has been stalling his departure for the past 30 minutes.\n\n“Are you sure that you’re gonna be fine?” he retorts instead, finally turning around to face his friend. The relaxed expression on Phil’s face falls and the slightly teasing lilt of his smile curves down, before he smooths his face into carefully crafted expression of optimism.\n\n“Of course, mate. It’s just one day-“\n\n“A few hours” Techno interrupts.\n\n“-a few hours until you’re back. It’s gonna be fine. Dream will be fine.” The truth is, although he says it, Dream hasn’t exactly been fine. To their pleasant surprise, his complete catatonic state had barely lasted a day, before he had regained awareness. Much less pleasant had been his state since then.\n\nAlthough he was awake and aware, he was withdrawn, completely quiet and apathetic. He didn’t react to any attempt at communication or to leave his room, instead opting to sit quietly in his bed. He barely ate and spend most of his time sleeping, or buried under his blanket in a corner of the room, wedged between the wall and a chest. To be fair, it hadn’t even been three days since he woke back up, so Phil was positive he wouldn’t stay like this forever. Soon enough, he’d brighten back up and things could go back to how they used to be.\n\nIt was just worrying. Dream hadn’t been like this, ever. They were used to his catatonic state, but when he was aware, he had been curious, open and eager to learn, despite his initial wariness.\n\nNow he just seemed tired, exhausted even, and sad. He shied away from them, and withdrew into a shell where they were unable to follow. And they couldn’t even figure out why.\n\nTechno didn’t like the idea of leaving while Dream was in a state like this. But he knew that he needed to meet Punz if he wanted more information. He also knew that he would have to go to the old server to find XD soon.\n\nIt was clear that whatever they had been doing had not been enough.\n\nThey needed real answers.\n\n \n\n***\n\n \n\n\n“I think the problem lies within the way you perceive things, Tommy, especially in regards to Dream. Your mind is too idealistic and naïve in a way, even now. You see things too black and white, Dream as the villain, and yourself as the hero.”\n\n\n\n…\n\n\n\n“You cannot expect to find a satisfying answer to your questions if you truly believe that all the blame lies within Dream. If you perceive all his actions to be either outright malicious or at least motivated by evil intentions, they won’t make sense and they won’t quell your confusion.”\n\n\n\n…\n\n\n\n“You’re so focused on the past because it was the time you had been happiest, despite all the bad things that happened as well. You felt loved and appreciated, especially when everyone stood behind you against Dream. You were, and still are scared that if they stop hating Dream, they will stop loving you.”\n\n\n\n…\n\n\n\n“You’re desperate to find something that reassures you that you weren’t the reason, the cause for Dream’s actions, that you were just a victim. That he had always been like that, it was just a question of time for it to come out. That if it hadn’t been you, it would have been someone else.”\n\n\n\n…\n\n\n\n“You see him as this overwhelming, unbeatable and evil villain. But that is not who he used to be, and it is not something he was destined to become. It’s what your conflict made him. He used to be just Dream, someone who wanted to build a home and have fun with his friends. Just like you were just Tommy, looking for a home and friends and some fun.”\n\n\n \n\n***\n\n \n\nWhen Punz shows up, perfectly punctual at 10 am on the roof top they had set as their meet up spot, Techno recognizes him immediately, despite more than a decade passing since their last interaction. It’s less the face, and more the signature white hoodie that he still wears, especially in bold combination with the familiar golden necklace.\n\nTechno had always regarded the pure white outfit as a somewhat odd clothing choice in his field of work. Mercenaries are usually hired to do the dirty and often bloody work for people who didn’t want to tarnish their own hands. Or maybe just didn’t have the time for it. In any case, something flashy and easily dirtied was probably not the best uniform for someone meant to stay in the shadows.\n\nHowever, Punz had kept his signature style over years, and he was wildly successful at his profession. Maybe it was the bold declaration of wearing pure white, almost a dare to try and get him to mess it up, that had helped build up his reputation, or maybe the white was just an attest to his proficiency and skill.\n\nAlthough, Techno mused, it might also just be a fashion choice. If anyone would understand a somewhat ironic or odd choice of fashion it was probably the anarchist in a monarchists outfit.\n\n“Technoblade” he greets simply with a nod, his face calm and serious. Techno returns the greeting in kind, but doesn’t get to say much else before Punz continues.\n\n“Is he okay?” he blurts out, and now that the other is close, Techno can see the worry lines that crease his face and the dark rings under determined eyes.\n\n“He?” Techno replies, although he knows who Punz means, and yet he can’t help but tread carefully. Punz scoffs. “Cut the bullshit, Technoblade. You know who I’m here for.”\n\n“Well…” Techno hesitates. Was Dream okay? He was alive, at least. And he had been somewhat okay before Tommy had shown up. “as Tommy informed the server, Dream is still alive.”\n\nPunz rolls his eyes at the mention of Tommy, visibly annoyed. “Frankly, I couldn’t give less of a shit about Tommy. I know that Dream is alive. Is he okay? You were rivals, but not enemies, so I’m taking it that you didn’t spend the past year holding him captive or hurting him?” He spits, trying for a calm demeanour, but the agitation in his stance is still very clear to Techno. Or maybe it is just the furrow to his brows that he can’t seem to smooth out, or the way his fingers twitch for a weapon.\n\nNevertheless, disgust fills Techno at the implications. “Torture is spineless.” He sneers. “Repeatedly and violently harming someone defenceless and incapable of fighting back is honourless.” He breathes, calming the anger that rises with the memories of Quackity’s actions. “No intentional harm has come to Dream. He has been treated with care and healed to the best of our abilities. Although-“ he swallows, before continuing. “Although he currently isn’t quite in a state that I would call ‘okay’, he has been doing as well as is reasonable for someone in his situation.”\n\n“His situation” Punz says bitterly “that is one way to describe it.”\n\n“I take it you’re familiar with the details?” Techno asks, remembering the last messages Punz had sent to Dreams communicator.\n\n“I don’t know the details” Punz replies, face drawn tight in a complicated expression. “But that wasn’t really necessary to understand what happened after going through Sam’s office in the prison.” He spits the name in disgust. “Fuck. I should have never agreed to the prison plan.”\n\nWait.\n\n“Hold on. What plan? Are you telling me that Dreams imprisonment was planned? Why? He never mentioned it during the 3 months we spent there together” Techno asks, confused and suspicious of this newfound information, but Punz replies without missing a beat.\n\n“Nobody knew of the prison plan aside from me. I had asked Dream to at least tell Sam beforehand, as a failsafe, but Dream had insisted that it had to be real for the plan to succeed. Besides…” he trails off for a moment, looking out at the hustle and bustle of the server hub below them. “Dream had trusted him to be fair and just. He always spoke highly of Sam, convinced of his righteousness.” Punz voice is bitter as he thinks of all the times that Dream had reassured him that Sam had been the perfect choice. The only choice, really. How wrong they had been.\n\n“I always thought that it had been fishy that he got caught and imprisoned so easily, but why would he plan to be put in an inescapable prison at the mercy of someone else? Even restricted of his admin abilities? The prison was horrendous, what possible goal would that even fulfil?” Techno asks incredulous. All of this didn’t make sense, Dream had hated the prison, had desperately wanted out. There was no way he had planned all that.\n\n“Well, the conditions had certainly been worsened from the original plan, but the worst of it should have never happened. Sam took some liberties that he had no right to take.” Punz says. “But the prison had been necessary. The server was splitting apart and nothing that Dream did had been working. Everyone was intent on him being the villain, and anything he did just seemed to underline that belief. He was tired of it.”\n\nLiterally. At one point, Dream hadn’t been able to sleep for more than an hour without being shaken awake by nightmares. The servers tensions pulled at the very seams of his beings. He had been a walking wreck, kept alive by potions and golden apples only.\n\n“Dream realized that he would never be able to shed the role that Wilbur had assigned him. Everything he had tried had eventually backfired. So he needed to absolve it in a different way.” He explains further, while Techno quietly takes it in.\n\n“He thought that if he leaned into the accusations, if he became an actual villain, he could achieve what he so desperately wanted. The server finally stops with all the conflicts and reunites against the ‘big bad evil guy’.” Techno wanted to call that plan foolish, shortsighted, wanted to point out how peace like that never lasts. He is reminded of the myths and legends that he is so fond of, and he remembers how Dream had been, just as his name suggested, well… a dreamer. Someone idealistic and surprisingly naïve in some ways, despite his maturity in others.\n\n“Of course he wanted to be part of the ‘big happy family’.” Punz notes, smiling bittersweet. “He wasn’t that selfless to just die for the others to be happy. He knew that it wouldn’t be enough to be defeated in battle. Not for Tommy. Never for Tommy, he was never satisfied, always pushing for more.” Punz face twists, an angry grimace before he smooths it back forcefully.\n\n“Dream knew that punishment wouldn’t be pretty, but he could do his best to at least steer it in a way that ensured his survival. And after that, he thought he would finally free. He could start “new”, as this reformed person. Sure, he knew there would be some people still hating him, but at least they wouldn’t be able to just cause havoc on the premise of “retribution of Dreams wrongs” anymore, since he would have been punished and his “crimes” thus paid off. He wouldn’t be an excuse to fight anymore. He really believed there was a home to come back to.”\n\nHe pauses. When he continues, it is in a quiet, almost wistful tone.\n\n“He thought that even being killed a few times and then being stuck in that hellhole for an indefinite time would be better than the server continuing as it was.”\n\n \n\n \n\n***\n\n \n\n\n“…I don’t know the day or event that set your course, but for Dream it was the day that Wilbur and you unrightfully declared him a tyrant and a villain and people believed you. No matter what he did after that, he was unable to shake that title. All his actions were seen as proof of his maliciousness, even if they were just clumsy attempts at fixing the mess the server had become.\n\n\n\nNothing he did seemed to be working the way he wanted it to. He was too prideful, thinking the issue could be resolved easily since he had the authority, and his rules had been just. The idea of L’Manburg was tempting and desirable to the people, and Dream was seen as the envious, control hungry tyrant. People began to divide, and more and more conflicts arose. He felt justified in escalating his attempts, he felt righteous in his fight, but so did the other side. But soon, there were too many players on the board, too many conflicts and too little trust. He started losing, first his sleep, then his temper, followed by his friends, and eventually himself.\n\n\n\nDream was hurting, he felt helpless and angry, so he lashed out. He had been too scared, too prideful and ashamed of opening up about his worries to his friends, and now they had already left him. He felt as if there was not a single friendship left that he could trust wholeheartedly.\n\n\n\nIn the midst of all the conflict and chaos, he saw you as the root of all that had occurred. It wasn’t as if you had been personally responsible for every single conflict or as if you were the sole contributor for the war. But you were the embodiment of all his mistakes, fears, and regrets. He blamed you for losing everything he worked and cared for. He felt like everyone had left him for your sake, and he wanted you to feel just as alone as he did, especially after the falling out with his closest friends.…”\n\n\n \n\n***\n\n \n\n“So you have been looking for him all this time?” Techno asks into the silence that had fallen around them after Punz had finished his explanation. His words sit heavy in Techno’s gut, and he can’t help but feel the guilt he had become so familiar with rise in his throat.\n\n“I knew something was wrong. Why did you think I kept working as a mercenary? For money? I could’ve retired years ago with the amount that Dream paid me, but even then I’ve had some backups stashed away long before I ever joined the server.” Punz laughs, but it’s not a joyful sound.\n\n“No, I was looking for him. Any job that granted me access to a server I couldn’t enter otherwise, I took. I’ve been hunting for years to find any kind of trace.” He scoffs bitterly. “To think that all this time he had been right there, ready for me to pick up at any moment’s notice.”\n\n“To be fair” Techno muses “The server had been pretty much uninhabitable for years. You wouldn’t really have been able to visit it anyways.” He doesn’t know why he feels the need to reassure Punz, but he has a feeling it’s connected to the guilt he feels. He doesn’t want to imagine how Punz feels right now. “And it seems that you followed his directions as closely as you could.”\n\n“I still should have noticed. I should have known that he wouldn’t just go radio silent. He would have never just abandoned the plan without any notice. It wasn’t just you that failed in a promise, Technoblade.” Punz bites harshly, before sighing. “Sorry. That was uncalled for.”\n\n“No worries” Technoblade replies, and it really isn’t, surprisingly. Even if the reminder at his broken promise stung, it wasn’t as if Punz had said something that Techno hadn’t been already saying to himself. If at all, he was probably the one person who would understand exactly how he felt. Which also meant that Techno had a pretty good guess on how to proceed.\n\n“Well!” he says, and gets up from his spot. “Time to go.” He relishes in Punz’s confused expression and sputtered questions, but only for a moment. He fixes his cape, and moves to the staircase that had led them to the rooftop. “What are you waiting for?” he calls back over his shoulder. “Isn’t there someone you want to visit?” immediately, he can hear Punz scrambling to get up, and he knows he doesn’t have to explain any further. He smiles and begins to walk down the stairs, Punz falling into step right behind him.\n\nIt seems it is time for a reunion.\n\n \n\n***\n\n \n\n\n“…It might ease your mind that Tubbo had never been at risk of dying at the final Disk confrontation, as much as it looked like it. The Dream that you saw there was entirely an act, derived to play as the villain everyone thought him to be. The villain he had been dangerously close to actually become. The hide out filled with attachments was nothing but a show either. \n\n\n\nDream had expected to be killed at least once, willing to lose canon lives for his punishment to be just in the eyes of the server. But he had planned to be thrown into the prison, had the high security cell built and designed specifically for this. He made it crueller than the Warden had thought necessary, adding restrictions and difficulties against his recommendation. It hadn’t been for you, Tommy, even if many people thought that. It had been for him. “\n\n\n\n \n\n\n***\n\n \n\nEverything feels wrong. It’s like his skin doesn’t fit him, like it’s a size too big, like he can’t fill it. Like he isn’t enough. Ever since Tommy had showed up and had brought Wilbur in tow, he feels strange. He hadn’t understood much of what they had said, too overwhelmed with the situation. His inner guide had been going crazy but it hadn’t protected him this time. He had to sit in the corner of the room and feel their voices wash over him, incomprehensible to him and yet so frightening. He felt their words scratch at him, felt them catch on his skin and pull. Pull, pull and pull until he was all wrong. He was the wrong shape, he didn’t fit here. This wasn’t where he was supposed to be.\n\nIt was so different with the cell. Not a single time had he doubted his place there, the opposite even, he had always known that it had been made for him. But this place wasn’t, and he wonders how it had taken him so long to understand. At least, now that he has learned, he wont ever forget.\n\nForget.\n\nForget? He forgot a lot. He didn’t remember, but that was good. Was it? It was. Mercy. Yes, it was mercy. Kindness, for him. He didn’t want to remember, it hurt, it would hurt, he knew. He would rather be empty, rather be less and not enough for his skin than to be filled with pain.\n\nBut they wanted him to. They wanted him to remember, he knew. He could see it in Techno’s eyes. They got so hopeful and so sad. But he didn’t want to. He had tried to tell him, he had tried so hard, had even spoken, had written in the book, just for him to understand. But of course, that had been when the darkness had come to step in.\n\nHe doesn’t know if Techno had understood, but he hasn’t talked about remembering since, and he really didn’t want to bring it up. He didn’t want to speak at all, actually he didn’t want anything. He didn’t want to have soup and he didn’t want bread either. He didn’t want to sit in the chairs that belonged to someone else, and he didn’t want to be where he didn’t fit. He just wanted to forget, forget everything and float again. Just darkness, no more memories. No thinking, no feeling afraid and wrong.\n\nHe has no energy. His limbs feel as heavy as they had when he had been in the cell still. Moving feels like an impossible task, and his head is so loud when it isn’t silent. It’s all wrong, and his hand is bandaged where it lies in his lap. It hurts when he balls it up and the white bandages get all red. He doesn’t like the hurt, it keeps him here when he wants nothing more than to float away. But every time he concentrates on the cell with all his might until he reaches that floaty darkness again, he can’t help it. It’s like something is wrong, and so much is wrong but this is different. The cell is all wrong, something is missing. It’s not right and he needs to… he needs to…. And then the pain slams him back into the room and the bandages are red, red, red and he is still here and everything is still wrong.\n\n \n\n***\n\n\n“…That’s it. What this means for you is entirely in your hand. I cannot tell you what to do with this knowledge, but I hope it will help you to finally find the answers that you seek. \n\n\n\nThere is just one thing that I ask of you.”\n\n\n***\n\n \n\nThey’re on the doorstep of Techno’s and Phil’s home, when it occurs Techno that he should probably warn him about Dreams state. Maybe explain a little further. He hasn’t really gone into any detail aside from the fact that Dream isn’t in top condition right now.\n\nWith the hand on the doorknob, he turns around to Punz.\n\n“Uh…” he says, eloquently. “You should probably know that Dream might not remember you. He’s kind of… amnesiac.” And then he opens the door and steps in before Punz even gets the chance to react. He prepares to call out for Phil, but in a lucky accident, the other one is just passing the entryway with a little tray of mugs.\n\n“Techno!” Phil calls surprised, clearly not expecting the other back so early. “I see you brought a guest?” He asks when his eyes fall on Punz once Techno passed the entrance.\n\n“Yeah” Techno replies shortly before stepping aside to put away his coat, leaving Phil to greet Punz. “I take it things went well and you’re here to see Dream?” he asks with a friendly smile, and Punz relaxes slightly. “Yeah, I think so? How is he? Where is he?” he asks in reply, not really having a coat or something similar to take off and put away.\n\n“He’s in his room. I was just going to bring him some Soup” Phil answers easily, and gestures to the tray with his chin. “Why don’t you come with me?” he offers and turns to lead the way when Punz agrees. Techno hadn’t given him any indication that Punz was a threat, so he didn’t worry about taking him to meet Dream. It’s not far to Dreams room, but before he gets to leave the entryway, Punz speaks up.\n\n“Techno said that Dream…. Is amnesiac?” his voice is a little hesitant, worry laced through every word. Phil sighs slightly, but his eyes are as reassuring and kind as his smile. “Yes, that is what we think. He doesn’t seem to remember anything, aside from a somewhat…. Instinctual response? We’re not exactly sure about the state of his memory loss, if it’s permanent or not. But we’re working on it.”\n\n“I see” Punz replies, thoughtfully. “Anything else that I should be aware of?”\n\n“He doesn’t really speak.” Phil explains. “Sometimes he uses sign language to communicate, and he says words sometimes, but not quite in conversations. He doesn’t write in books either.”\n\n“Have you tried his communicator?” Punz asks, and Phil declines. “We had honestly forgotten about it, only remembered when your message came through.” He confesses. “We would have tried it out by now, but he hasn’t been doing too well since Tommy’s surprise visit.”\n\n“How so?”\n\n“He is… distressed, obviously. Although he didn’t really recognize Tommy, it was clear that he was uncomfortable and he had somewhat of a panic attack. He’s been pretty withdrawn and skittish since then, so try not to push him if he doesn’t react to you the way you expected it.” Phil explains further. “Oh, and try to avoid speaking in imperative form. He doesn’t react well to orders and such.” He adds on after a little pause. “That should be it, for now. Ready?” he asks, and motions to the hallway, just as Techno joins them again.\n\nPunz nods, and together, they make their way to Dreams room.\n\n \n\n***\n\n \n\n\n“Leave Dream be. Unless he intentionally seeks you out to harm you, do not go out of your way to find him. Do not search for him, do not hunt him down. You have many more lives to enjoy as a player. Allow him to live his last one.”\n"}
+{"text": " (Toothless) \n\nSuch a lively little creature; little eyes, little feet… little wings; so tiny and fragile, and yet, that little feathered creature, curiously pecking his snout, was still able to fly by itself, just as he once could, before his tail had been maimed. And fly the little bird did, when Toothless huffed with an annoyed pout. His eyes had begun to hurt from keeping them crossed too long in the attempt to watch the small animal nervously explore the spaces between his muzzle-scales for food.\n\nHe could not help feeling a faint, perhaps unfair touch of spite towards the innocent bird, as it fluttered hastily into the thick foliage of the forest. But what did it matter? Life had not been fair with him either. He had been too young when he had gotten himself captured by the queen’s spell, just on the verge of his sixth mating season. Even the mind of a mighty Night Fury was not able to fight against her vile will at that age, and perhaps at any age; Toothless was not planning to have that assumption ever tested. He still felt just as young, though his body had grown since the day of his enslavement.\n\nYears had probably gone by, while his mind was being kept captive in that horrible semi-conscious state, to obey the queen’s bidding, to satisfy her insatiable hunger, to damage, degrade, and ultimately corrupt his own pride. How many years? He’d rather never find out. So, Toothless had stoically accepted his physical growth, relegating the unclear memory of his lost time to the depths of his consciousness, determined not to think about it. Accepting the loss of his flight had been a much harder struggle, and, in a sense, it still was.\n\nHe did not hate Hiccup for it. He could not hate Hiccup for it. Although the boy had never openly apologized for being the one who had shot him down that night, Toothless was already aware of his rider’s feelings on the matter.\n\nThe little human had eventually spared his life the next morning, when Toothless had woken up, free from one type of bondage, immediately into another, and a tailfin poorer. So, no, he could not hate Hiccup, even though he had truly wanted to at first. After everything the boy had done to help him fly again, hatred was unattainable. That little boy with curious lonely eyes, that gangly biped who had shown him how humans smiled, was likely the last creature in the world he could have hated. There were some moments, though, such as this day, when Toothless felt rather… irked.\n\nWhenever Hiccup was not around, or at least within the reach of his sense of smell, Toothless would lose the only means he had to fend off that suffocating feeling of having fallen back into bondage, hideously tied to the earth like any other inferior rat, or squirrel, or boar, or… even as any human. He sometimes wondered how creatures as intelligent as humans could manage to stay sane without flying. How could their minds accept such a hideous fate so easily?\n\nIt was not important, as long as Hiccup stayed with him. When Hiccup was by his side, even when they were not up in the air, Toothless felt whole again, as if his tailfin had never been lost.\n\nHiccup, however, had recently decided to work in a foreign village, hoping to obtain some hunting weapon.\n\n\nA pointless waste of time.\n\n\nNow that they had fled from Berk, Toothless would always be there for Hiccup, so why did the boy keep trying so hard? He had nothing to prove to anyone any longer.\n\nRegardless, try as he might not to resent waiting for his rider, Toothless could not bear to be parted from him for even a single wingbeat, and the fact that Hiccup was his only means of flight was not the only motive, though it was surely a more-than-reasonable source of anxiety. The soft sounds of the forest, and even the stray rays of sunlight, breaking through the leaves and warming his scales, did little to soothe his nerves.\n\nIt was still rather early, a short while before midday, when strange noises began disturbing his uneasy slumber. Distant human voices among the trees, cries and yells of running people getting closer.\n\nToothless rose worriedly. Had he been spotted? Should he need to hide? Before he could make a decision, the breeze carried a mixture of scents to his nostrils. In that mixture, there were some familiar smells, one of which belonged to his own rider.\n\nThe situation became immediately clear. Hiccup was being chased by a group of undoubtedly ill-intentioned humans, and some of their scents Toothless could remember from Berk itself.\n\nToothless required no further thought. His only means of flight was in peril. His little human friend needed help.\n\n\nAgain.\n\n\nToothless tracked the source of the sounds in the forest. It was not long before he could see the running boy, and, just a few wingspans further, a group of Vikings, hard on Hiccup’s heels, some of their weapons dangerously unsheathed. Even Hiccup was carrying something, though it looked much less menacing. Was that the new weapon for which he had been working? It did not look particularly powerful. It was just a thin stick, with a rope coiled to one end.\n\nToothless half-roared to help his rider spot him, then prepared for Hiccup to climb on his back.\n\n“Toothless! We’re leaving!” The panting boy cried, sweat dripping from his forehead.\n\n“There’s the Night Fury!” A strong woman bellowed.\n\n“Don’t let them fly!” Shouted another man, whose voice Toothless had heard before. It was Hiccup’s uncle, the one who was in the arena when they had escaped from Berk. His name, Toothless recalled, was Spitelout.\n\nWhen Hiccup reached him, he hastily mounted on his back, and, as soon as the breathless boy sat upon him, Toothless bolted in the opposite direction.\n\nIn the meantime, the Vikings chasing them got much closer, but Toothless could not fly yet. The forest was so thick with trees that no average dragon could extend their wings. So, Toothless hurried towards the clearing where they used to land in the mornings, each time they got on Balheim. It was very close, but so were their pursuers.\n\nToothless was faster, of course, but before he could gain some distance, another man roared: “I’ve got this!”\n\n“Toothless! Watch out!” Hiccup yelled, looking back.\n\nWithout slowing down, Toothless turned his head to see an axe flying straight in their direction. In that breakneck situation, he could not run the risk of throwing his rider off his back, as the boy was not yet fully settled into the stirrups, so Toothless decided not to dodge. Instead, he hastily sucked in some air, mixed it with gas inside his throat, and shot a small blue fireball at the twirling weapon. His aim was as good as ever, and the shot stopped the axe, but part of the blue ball of flames continued towards their attacker, and exploded onto his shield, making the man stumble and fall in a cloud of splinters and smoke. Unfortunately, the man looked relatively unhurt, but there had been no time to charge a more powerful shot.\n\nIt was the brawny woman’s turn to shout: “Allow me!”\n\nToothless did not wait for Hiccup to warn him this time, and as soon as he heard her voice, he sidestepped beside a tree, keeping his pace. He nonetheless looked back to see the result of his evasion.\n\n“Shit!” The woman exclaimed at her failure, still running after them.\n\nSomething was off, however. Toothless did manage to dodge the flying weapon, but the axe had not seemed aimed at Hiccup. It appeared to be aimed at his own back instead, perhaps only at his tail. This was rather odd. In fact, the previous man had also seemed to aim at the tip of Toothless’ tail, perhaps where the prosthetic fin was fastened.\n\nCould that have been a coincidence? Were they not trying to kill them? They could have aimed at Hiccup, or at some of Toothless’ more vital parts. Sure, they could have killed them after managing to keep them on the ground, but, given the situation, Hiccup’s back or even a wing were much easier targets. \n\nAre they only trying to stop him from flying away? Toothless wondered as he ran. Maybe they were not actually trying to kill his rider, but why only aim towards the tail? Were they trying to keep him alive too? Perhaps he was just overthinking this, but he still found it curious. So, though he did gain some distance, Toothless did not increase his speed, hoping for further clues.\n\nPromptly, Hiccup began shouting from his back: “Toothless, faster! They’ll gain on us again! Why aren’t you-” Before the boy could finish his sentence, they had reached the wide grassy clearing.\n\nToothless kept running forward, until he made sure that all their pursuers had emerged from the treeline. Then, he took to the sky with a powerful jump, much to Hiccup’s relief.\n\nSpitelout bellowed a loud “Fuck!”, tossing his horned helmet on the ground, panting.\n\nToothless flapped his wings to rise higher, but he didn’t leave the area. They had reached a safe distance now, yet his acute ears could still pick up on the voices of the Vikings below. He wanted to hear what they were saying, ignoring Hiccup’s tired tugs at the saddle.\n\n“Toothless! Let’s leave!” His rider squealed breathlessly from his back, but Toothless yowled for the human to wait. He kept circling the clearing from up high, with his ear-plates trained towards the earth, listening at the crew of bickering humans.\n\n“Damn Night Fury broke my shield!” Said the first man who had attacked them.\n\n“When did Stoick's runt become so fast?!\" A second man exclaimed, gasping for air. He had been slower than the others.\n\n“Maybe we should’ve told 'im about yer little deal before he started runnin'. Eh, Spitelout?”\n\n\"You idiot!” Spitelout spat back. “We need to hold the Night Fury first! Otherwise what makes ya think he'll cooperate?!”\n\nThe first man, who was removing wood splinters from his forearm, decided to intervene: “At least we should have told ‘im his exile is for just two years. He might have gotten distracted if we did, then we could have caught 'im better, and lured the Night Fury later.\"\n\n“Are you soft in the head too?!” Spitelout shouted again. “What makes ya think he'd have stopped to listen when ya were chasing him with yer axe in hand?! Who told ya to take out yer axe?! And what if ya had hit him?”\n\n“I was aiming for the tail-thing!” The first man replied defensively. “And we’re up against the Night Fury. We didn’t know when it was goin’ to turn up! I had to be ready. And who would’ve thought the little shit could run like that anyway?!”\n\n“Jorunn's right,” the second man added. “We all thought we’d have him by one stretch of the hand. Wasn’t he born a cripple or something? This kid could almost win the Thawfest games.”\n\nSpitelout looked exasperated. He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, when the burly woman finally decided to speak:\n\n\"Well, now he knows we're after him,” she began, both hands clasping her broad hips, “what do we do, Spitelout? He probably thinks we're trying to kill him. He won't stay still for us to catch the Night Fury. How will ya blackmail him without a hostage?” The woman asked, but then continued. “Next time we find him I say you just kill the boy and be done with it. Don’t worry ‘bout me telling Stoick… never really liked the man anyway.”\n\nJorunn, the man with splinters of broken shield in his forearm, snorted cheekily. “Ya’re just sayin’ that ‘cause he only had eyes for Valk-”\n\n“I won’t soil my hands with blood of my blood, Brunhilda!” Spitelout spat angrily again, interrupting Jorunn’s teasing remark.\n\n“Tch!” The woman named Brunhilda scoffed, twisting her lips with disdain.\n\n“Why aren’t they leaving?” Asked another man, looking up towards them.\n\n“Toothless!” Hiccup hissed in his ear, as if on cue. “Come on! Let’s go!”\n\nThe young human’s ears were clearly unable reach the voices below, and he had grown restless, so Toothless decided to finally glide out of his circular trajectory. He flew west, towards their island. As he did so, he heard one last remark from his rider’s uncle.\n\n“I don’t know… keep yer eyes up,” Spitelout said. “But, if what Brunhilda says is true, if he thinks we’re tryin’ to kill ‘im, maybe he'll just fly far away, and stay away for good. But I can’t afford to hope for that yet. We’ll find them apart again. Next time bring the bolas, even for the boy. A bruise or two won’t matter if we have...”\n\nToothless failed to hear the rest of the conversation. He had flown too far, and not even his Night Fury ears could pick up such distant sounds. He could now mull over on what he had heard, and so he did, frenziedly.\n\nA deal with Hiccup? Two years of exile? Keep me hostage? What does Spitelout want? Blackmail? What is ‘blackmail’? It does not sound good.\n\nIf what he understood was correct, it was a good thing that they had managed to escape, but for very different reasons than those Toothless had formerly expected. In fact, even Hiccup did not seem to know what the other Vikings wanted from him. Perhaps it was better this way. Perhaps it was a good thing that Hiccup had not heard about his banishment being for only two years. Perhaps it was a good thing if Hiccup thought they wanted to kill him. And, apparently, that was exactly what he had inferred from the situation:\n\n“I can’t believe they were looking for me all this time!” the boy complained once they were halfway back to Old Balheim.\n\n“Why won’t they just let me rot in exile?! If they just came to kill you by finding me first, then I’d quickly end up dead too! I mean, they must know I can’t make it out here by myself! Unless... Unless, they meant to take me back. But I’m an outcast, and outcasts are executed. And I’ve likely been disowned too, so... Either way I end up dead! Does my father want me d-... no, I…” Hiccup exhaled wearily, lying with his back along Toothless’ spine, but keeping his feet in the stirrups.\n\n“I can’t believe he wants me dead,” he whispered, his voice catching in his throat, though Toothless heard him anyway. “I just... can’t. I’m not his son anymore, but still, even he wouldn’t go that far. Right?” He paused to calm his breathing.\n\nAs they flew, Toothless tried cooing softly at him, but there was nothing he could say, not in a way that his rider could hear at least, though even if there had been a way, Toothless still did not know what he could have said. Night Furies were capable of many things, but giving consolation to other creatures was not one of them.\n\nOnce his voice was back to normal, Hiccup sat up again. “What if it’s just Spitelout who wants to kill me,” he said. “Still… no, this makes no sense. If Spitelout is out here, it’s because my father sent him. Maybe I should have heard if they had something to say-”\n\nToothless barked his disapproval immediately.\n\n“Yeah, you’re probably right. They were throwing axes at us, weren’t they?”\n\nToothless crooned agreement.\n\nHe was thankful for Hiccup's human hearing, and, although it made him feel slightly ashamed to admit it, he hoped his rider would never come across the information he had just gathered, for he could still see the boy’s uneasy attachment to his birthplace.\n\nToothless felt a very conscious fear of that attachment. He feared that, if Hiccup ever found out that those men had not meant to harm him, even if their intentions were not entirely good, he would, at some point, demand to go back. Toothless could not run that risk. He was going to do everything in his power to keep Hiccup as far away from Berk as possible, which meant they couldn’t stay on Old Balheim anymore, they had to move even further. Fortunately, this time Hiccup's thoughts were aligned with his.\n\n“Ugh! To Helheim with them!” He said. “I guess we’ll have to leave these islands too, and find another place even more south.”\n\nToothless crooned again for agreement.\n\n“Summer ends in a few months,” Hiccup continued. “Spitelout won't be sailing when the sea starts to freeze. Who would have thought we'd be safest during winter, eh bud?\" He scratched his side affectionately.\n\nToothless replied with a particularly strong purr, fueled by both the scratches and the relief that came from seeing Hiccup dismiss his renewed thoughts of home so quickly. Perhaps he needn’t have worried so much.\n\n“At least I got the bow. Look!” Hiccup extended his new weapon above Toothless’ head, so he could observe it while flying. “I kind of had to steal it though. But I wouldn’t have, if Spitelout hadn’t found me,” Hiccup confessed. “I never stole anything before. At least I almost finished a very good axe to pay for it. Still… I did steal more arrows than I was promised as I left. I didn’t have time to count them. Let’s just hope Balheim’s weaponsmith doesn’t start chasing me as well, right?” He said the last part almost seriously, though there was finally mirth too in his words.\n\n“So, what do you think? Do you like it?” He asked, shaking the weapon above Toothless’ head.\n\nToothless let out a generic warble. He did not know how the weapon worked. It looked rather harmless to him.\n\nHiccup seemed to understand the meaning behind that sound. “I’ll show you how it works another time. First we have to get our stuff from our camp.”\n\nNot long afterwards, Toothless landed in their camp on Old Balheim. He waited for Hiccup to prepare for leaving. The boy gathered his pelts, clothes, pots, pans, and all the other tools that humans appeared to require in order to survive.\n\nOnce Hiccup was done cramming everything in his usual basket, he tied it to the saddle.\n\n“Alright,” he said, before checking his surroundings one last time. “I’m glad I didn’t build a house on this island; it would have been a completely wasted effort. Right, bud?”\n\nToothless huffed dubiously. He could still not see the point of Hiccup building a shelter, when his own wings could provide his rider with all the shelter that he was ever going to need.\n\n“Trust me, when winter comes, even your wings can’t protect me from the cold all the time,” Hiccup explained, responding to Toothless’ thoughts.\n\nToothless cocked his head. He was regularly surprised by the boy’s ever-improving ability to understand him. It was uncanny. Without even trying to communicate words with his rider’s mind, Hiccup would occasionally understand him regardless. Perhaps Toothless was never going to need to actually use words with his rider, though it would have still been a useful thing to be able to do.\n\n“Off we go, bud,” Hiccup said, jumping on the loaded saddle. “Let’s just hope we find land before nightfall.”\n\nThey were quickly among the clouds once again.\n\n“Wait!” The boy yelled against the wind. “Let’s go south and east! Spitelout saw us fly west from Balheim, so we should be harder to find if we go east instead. Don’t you think?”\n\nToothless welcomed the clever suggestion by veering his one tailfin and twitching his wings accordingly, which was all the signal Hiccup needed to adjust the prosthetic fin with his foot-pedal.\n\nNoon was replaced by late afternoon, when Toothless spotted the first large island on their path. It was very big, about the size of Berk, but, unfortunately, it appeared to be already densely populated. Two mountain peaks, one of which an apparently spent volcano, emerged from the sea, and old forests coated their steep sides. A sizeable village extended from one shore, deep into the island. It was likely that the humans were even more numerous here than on Berk.\n\n“This must be Thargran. Home to the… what was it? I’m sure I heard the tribe’s name before. Their crests were all over the ships in Balheim’s docks,” Hiccup explained. “Let’s just keep this island as reference, and find some place nearby.”\n\nSo, they flew past Thargran, until Toothless spotted a few dragons on the horizon, flying towards the distant skies to the east; they were probably too far for Hiccup’s human eyes to identify them. It was a small flock of the kind that Vikings called Gronckles, and they were travelling freely, clearly unbound from the queen’s control. Perhaps they were close to some nesting grounds, Toothless thought, and gradually steered towards them, thinking there were higher chances of finding land in that direction. He was soon proven right.\n\nWhen his rider noticed the second island on their path, he prompted Toothless to land. He needed to rest and eat, but very soon they were flying once more, as that island was, according to Hiccup, both too close to Thargran, and too small to have an adequate amount of wildlife. They needed to look further.\n\nThe setting sun began to warm their backs, tinting clouds and waves in all shades of orange and yellow. Hiccup had always seemed to regard this time of day as his favourite for being in the sky. The boy had never said so, but Toothless could tell by observing how his rider behaved during these flights.\n\nPromptly, Hiccup sat up straight, spreading his arms like a second pair of imaginary wings. He then wiggled his fingers against the air, and, whenever Toothless glanced behind, he would see the sincerest fraction of a smile upon the boy’s face, mixed with the smallest hint of excitement or fear; likely a fear of falling, or being blown away by the wind. It was the same expression Hiccup had worn when flying for the first time.\n\nAlthough it was slightly harder to keep his speed when Hiccup sat up like that, Toothless never complained. He just flapped his wings a bit faster to maintain his altitude. For some reason, he reveled in the notion that his rider could actually feel what it was like to have wings. To any dragon, and even more so to a Night Fury, flying was the very thing that made life worth living. Toothless could not begin to imagine why, but sharing his wings with a human made the experience all the more interesting.\n\nThey had left Balheim at midday, and it was already past sundown when Hiccup finally chose a place where to settle. \n\nShowered by the cool tinges of twilight, this island appeared to be less than half the size of Old Balheim. The deep, shady mouth of its lone but tall volcano housed a small glacier, which was the source of the island’s many thin waterfalls and rivulets. Most of the mountain’s feet seemed permanently concealed in low, misty clouds. The forest was rich with both slender saplings and proud old trees, heavy with needles or dark-green leaves. The resources seemed abundant, and the clearings plentiful, and, most importantly, it was not inhabited. Not by humans at least.\n\n“This place looks nice. What do you think?” Hiccup said as they approached. He sounded pleased, but his voice did betray some exhaustion.\n\n“This could very well be our next home. Seems big enough, and I think I see water, and… there! There’s sand!”\n\nToothless veered towards the northern shore, which appeared slightly more hospitable thanks to its sandy beach, whereas the southern side was almost entirely trailed with cliffs. The island was indeed uninhabited by humans, but the clear scents of a small number of dragons soon reached his nostrils.\n\nDespite the fact that mating season was soon about to begin, the resident dragons didn’t give off any particularly aggressive scents, nor did they seem particularly ill-inclined. In fact, one dragon appeared quite welcoming to the mighty Night Fury, or so Toothless believed when they landed, for the little Terrible Terror (as Vikings used to call them) was instead more interested in his rider, who had just slid off his back, and, after removing his rather tattered boots, was now enjoying the sand with his bare feet.\n\nThe small twitchy dragon approached curiously, sniffing the air with short, nervous breaths. He was mostly bright green, but the top of his head and the tips of the tendril-like fins on his back were colored red. The Terrible Terror squawked to get Hiccup’s attention. Toothless refrained from growling. Free Terrors were mostly harmless, especially when alone.\n\n“Hey, little guy,” Hiccup said, forgetting to remove the heavy basket from Toothless’ back. He crouched lower on the sand and extended a welcoming hand to pet the small animal. “Do you live here?” he asked, as the little Terror leaned gleefully into his hand, clearly enjoying the friendly scratches.\n\n“AAUGH!!! Thor’s fff…” Hiccup screamed and hissed, making Toothless jump in alarm.\n\nToothless was ready to tear the little green beast apart, when he noticed that what had caused his human to yell was actually a tiny crab, which had bitten Hiccup’s bare foot. The crab was immediately flung in the air by the boy’s sudden jolt of pain.\n\nBefore Toothless could relax again, the Terrible Terror readily shot a small, but very quick ball of fire towards the tiny crab, before it fell on the ground. He then rushed to the dead creature and picked it up with his teeth. He finally offered it to Hiccup. It was an unusually friendly gesture for the often selfish species.\n\nAnnoying little thing, Toothless thought to himself. He couldn’t help feeling left out, which was very much a new feeling to him, one, he realized, he did not like at all. Besides, his annoyance was justified; his prosthetic fin was chafing his tail, the basket was still weighing on his back, and his rider had completely forgotten about both.\n\n“Nice shot!” Hiccup exclaimed, picking up the dead, semi-cooked crab. He did not seem to refuse the offer, though he did not eat the crab either, much to Toothless’ relief.\n\n“Thanks, little guy. How about a name? I’m going to call you…” Hiccup hummed thoughtfully, “Sharpshot!”\n\nSharpshot?! Toothless huffed, rolling his eyes. How about ‘Barely-Decent-Shot’?\n\nYes, Toothless decided, this tiny, jolly, and annoyingly lovable dragon was definitely too friendly for his liking. Without Hiccup seeing him, he squinted at the little Terror.\n\nTo Toothless’ utter shock, in an unbelievable display of impudence, the little Terror stuck his tongue out."}
+{"text": "It reaches him like a sudden blow to the face.\n\nQuick. Painful, and completely undignified, and leaving him very out of sorts.\n\nHe is aboard the Gilded Lady, on his way to a required Event for the Season of the Century, a tedious affair with other Houses of the Glorious Generation, specifically one only Primaries can attend. He is the youngest member to attend, and the other Houses are always eager to point it out. They call him a child, they call him a boy and it is out of sheer jealously, he knows. After all, boy he may be to them, but he is still the Primary to a more prosperous House, a more wealthy House, a more perfect and pinnacle House.\n\n\"Lord Balem,\" said Tskalikin, his deep voice a hiss, and, Balem noted, alarmed.\n\n\"Be quick, Tskalikinn,\" he responds boredly, his voice a rasp.\n\n\"A missive has been sent from the Orous Authority of Houses.\"\n\nBalem blinked. Shifted slightly from his position in front of his vanity where he had been placing the final touches upon his attire.\n\n\"What in the Verse could they say to me? Is Titus being made an example of by the government of Orous?\"\n\nIt didn't happen often. But sometimes Orous liked to take a blow to a House, a weak show of intimidation and a sorry attempt to police them. They had never dared to do so to House Abrasax. As sorry as Titus is as a member of my House, this will not stand.\n\n\"No, my Lord. It- A claim of Inheritance has been made to House Abrasax.\"\n\n\nWhat.\n\n\nBalem could not contain his quick turn around, nor the way his eyes went wide at the announcement.\n\n\"Who is the claimant?\"\n\nThe Sargon kept himself straight, hands behind his back, a feat with his hideous wings.\n\n\"Not a claimant. Claimer, my Lord, as it has been accepted. Queen Jupiter Jones of House Abrasax, first of her name, Reoccurrence of Seraphi Abrasax, the new Sovereign of the Glorious Generation has taken her claim and place within House Abrasax.\"\n\nBalem cannot breathe for a single second.\n\n\nA Reoccurence.\n\n\n\nMother.\n\n\n\n\nMother.\n\n\n\n\"KILL ME BALEM, JUST KILL ME! I HATE MY LIFE!\"\n\n\"The validity of this claim- WHAT IS IT?!\" he bellowed, his throat burning.\n\nThe Sargon winced.\n\n\"It is an a-hundred-percent match, my Lord. The transmission has been authenticated by our communication expert, and Aegis missives have stated that we are not to trespass upon Queen Jupiter's Holdings until she has made her own assessment of all her Holdings. A list of the Holdings you have been stripped of has been sent.\"\n\nBalem could barely believe this.\n\n\"Find me recordings of her Ascension.\"\n\n\"All known footage of her is in your desk, Sir.\"\n\nBalem made his way to his desk. Tried not to tremble and failed miserably. And quickly loaded the recording.\n\nThe room was full of the horrific dull halls of Orous's Halls. Dull grey, dirty, and… And in the middle of it was a girl in a resplendent white and gold dress. Beautiful and just like I used to favor- Just a child. Barely old enough to claim her inheritance. A wisp of a thing.\n\nBut it was his mother.\n\n\"LEAVE!\" he bellowed, all the while not taking his eyes off of his mother.\n\nHe barely heard himself be left alone. Barely felt as he walked to the image of His Mother. Barely felt the rapid beating of his own furious, aching heart. Dark hair. Olive skin with just the barest hint of tan, two eyes of different colors. Pale green and brown. Luminous and assessing. She walked just the same. Pace even and elegant. Her dress was one to impress, worthy of a Queen. Worthy of her. Much too young. Not really his Mother. But… But.\n\n\"There you are,\" he whispered, voice trembling and shaky and so quiet he barely heard it, \"There. You. Are.\"\n\nShe was barely old enough to reach the marking desk, had to be given a stool by her Advocate to reach the machine. Balem watched as she tore through the order he had worked so hard to achieve in a single second.\n\n\"It's cool,\" the recording said, sweet, even, his mother. She flashed her Enitled Holding mark behind her.\n\nTo her entourage- Balem jumped at the sight of them. Unworthy. A teenage Splice, far too human to be decent, with only her transparent wings denoting her status in her long fiery robes. A Keeper in similar robes. And another Splice in military garb with similar wings. Too human as well. What sort of rabble does my Mother surround herself with?!\n\n\"It's very nice,\" said the teenage splice, beaming.\n\n\"I am so sorry,\" said the man behind the desk, face grim filled face sad.\n\nHis mother turned. Smiled. Full and even and calm.\n\n\"Whatever for?\"\n\n\"For the tragedy, your Grace. You were a Terristie. You'll see soon enough.\"\n\nHis mother's smile- it turned cool and perfect and just what it had always been.\n\n\"Doesn't matter. Thank you for the condolences. But they won't be necessary.\"\n\nI miss you, Mother. It was a sudden, ridiculous thought.\n\nBut Balem knew it was true.\n\n\"Shall we, Majesty?\" said the male splice. Balem thought he looked familiar. But he could not place him-\n\n\"I suppose my Holdings won't inspect themselves. Thank you, Sir Seal and Signet Minister, you have made my Ascendance a delight.\"\n\nShe descended from her stool. Small and dainty boots barely making a sound. The teenage splice and Keeper walked forward to help her with her long train. She didn't even look back to them as they did so. She regally gave a nod to her Advocate.\n\n\"Advocate Bob you have done well in my Ascension. Coordinates to the shipyard with my ship, The Red Hawk will be available if you need to send me any additional information.\"\n\nThe Red Hawk.\n\nHis Mother's mobile Alcazar. He had been trying for years to acquire it, desperately trying to contest her will to make it available to him.\n\n\nShe has cut my inheritance. Reduced our ability in the Market by cutting off access to the Refinery- \n\nSHE OWNS THE EARTH. \n\nWhat if she sees it again? What if she goes mad again?!\n\n\n\"Kill me Balem, Just kill me! I HATE MY LIFE!\"\n\n\nI don't want to, Mother. But I will. You are in the way again.\n\n\n\"I am sorry, Mother,\" he whispered, gently, \"But there can only be one of us. And you have gone once before.\""}
+{"text": "Will isn’t good at cities. It’s easier to avoid eye contact in a crowd, but there are always people brushing past him, noisy and unpredictable. Will is better at individuals, and even working at the Bureau, he was glad to live far enough outside of DC that he couldn’t see or hear anything but fields and woods and familiar animals. Hannibal loves cities though, art and culture and centuries of architecture piled on top of each other. Once they’re settled in a tiny, perfect apartment, he dresses Will in suits that fit too well and takes him out to promenade on the avenues like something out of a nineteenth-century novel. It’s dreamlike in those first days, so far removed from any reality Will has ever known that he wonders if he’ll wake with his ears ringing in a hospital bed. When they left the US, he was still groggy with painkillers, bandaged to look as though he’d come from a plastic surgeon and not a fall that should have killed them both.\n\n“There will be a scar,” Hannibal told him, checking the real bandage across his torn cheek, stitched through inside and out but stinging when Will tried to move his face. “But you will still be exquisite.”\n\nHannibal is earnest in complimenting him, and Will can hardly bear the weight of it, used to coyness and dissembling.\n\nHannibal calls him “exquisite” again in the boutiques in Vienna where Will is fitted for suits that rival Hannibal’s own in pattern and detail. Will pretends not to hear the word as a small, dark haired woman tugs the hem of his pants down over his shoes.\n\nHe finds himself waiting for Hannibal to touch him, electric for even the brush of Hannibal’s fingers straightening his collar. There is only one bed in their new apartment, but it covers nearly the whole width of the bedroom, and when they’re on opposite sides of it, it’s as chaste as a childhood sleepover. But Will is sure this is temporary, this distance, and the first few nights he lies paralyzed in the dark, imagining what he would do if Hannibal reached out for him. It reaches the level of fantasy, and Will has to admit it is not his first fantasy about Hannibal.\n\nAnd yet, night after night, Hannibal sleeps on the other side of the bed, wakes early to make beautiful breakfasts, thin crepes crisp at the edges, omelets spilling over with fresh vegetables, small tender sausages with the butcher paper left ostentatiously visible on the counter just so it’s clear that they were not of Hannibal’s own making.\n\nHe hasn’t killed anyone, as far as Will knows, and they’re hardly ever apart. Although he remembers Alana being Hannibal’s alibi once when he slipped out of bed beside her, and then he thinks better of his certainty. But Hannibal does not seem eager to be caught. He is not taunting the police or making a scene for Will to read like a love letter. Their life so far is simple and domestic.\n\nHannibal buys him a robe, unlike anything Will has ever had before, silk satin with wide sleeves that make Will feel absurd as they move over his skin. He is used to mornings at home in his boxers and undershirt. The fabric warms against his forearms as he sits at the table overlooking the street, until it’s almost like someone else touching him, brushing against him. On cloudy mornings he catches Hannibal watching him reflected in the glass, and it is an easier form of eye contact, when Hannibal is barely more than a flat silhouette. New fantasies bloom in Will’s mind, Hannibal pressing him against the window, holding him in place, creasing the satin robe until he has to take it off before it’s ruined. He looks away from the window and crosses his legs. He knows he’ll need to make himself come in the shower after breakfast, and it’s all he can think of until then, the imminent relief of it. Hannibal looks at him over the rim of his cup, and Will wonders if he can smell it, the sting of Will’s arousal in the air.\n\nSomeone in a shop refers to Will as Hannibal’s “partner” and Hannibal does not even try to correct him. Will stares at a display of antique coins and wonders how often that happens in German without him knowing. If he is Hannibal’s partner, why won’t Hannibal close the distance between them? He’s never shown any regard for Will’s boundaries, physical or otherwise, before.\n\nHannibal enjoys cooking, so their days are circumscribed by the time needed to prepare dinners. They eat late, in the continental style, but even so, they’re usually home by sundown, nightlife rolling by in clicking heels and laughter below the window, and Will learns to treat it like a natural phenomenon, like the rustle of trees and hum of insects outside his house in Wolf Trap. Sometimes Hannibal plays music on the little Bluetooth speaker he’s laid on the coffee table, switching wordlessly among compositions Will doesn’t recognize and won’t ask about. Will learns to read his moods in the music, in harsh cymbal crashes and soft meandering piano and low, mournful violin. At times he feels as if a bow is being drawn across his body, as though he’s vibrating in time with Hannibal’s music, in time with Hannibal himself.\n\nOne night Hannibal takes his hand as he’s chopping tomatoes, making a pulpy mess of it. He is gentle, as though he’s helping a child, but Will’s fingers clench on the knife handle as Hannibal shows him a new motion. Hannibal is pressed against him, all along his side, and his breath is low and even as Will manages the rest of one tomato before he sets the knife aside and turns, leaning farther into Hannibal’s body.\n\nHannibal’s eyes go to Will’s mouth, and Will thinks Hannibal will kiss him this time. Surely, Hannibal will kiss him this time. But Hannibal steps away. “One tomato will be fine,” he says, returning to the stove. Will’s sense of loss is wrenching. His cheeks burn with humiliation, and he begins to wonder if desire is not what animates Hannibal at all, if what Hannibal wants from him has never been as base as sex.\n\nHe tries to reassess what he knows about Hannibal, removing that part of the profile. Perhaps Hannibal has brought him here for the love of aesthetics. Will wonders if he could live with that, shuffle his own desire into a neat little corner to be dealt with at private moments. It wouldn’t be so different from the persistent singleness of his entire adult life before Molly.\n\nHe forces himself into a new discipline, not leaning into Hannibal’s touch, not courting it. He learns to straighten his own tie to avoid the temptation of Hannibal pressing close to do it for him. It aches, but he thinks he can get used to it.\n\n“Have I done something wrong, Will?” Hannibal asks, when Will flinches away from the hands smoothing the shoulders of his coat.\n\nWill looks past him and shakes his head. He is imagining Hannibal’s pressing on his shoulders, pushing him down to his knees. He’s ashamed of how much he wants it. “I just got lost for a moment.”\n\nHannibal cocks his head. “If something is bothering you, I would like to know.”\n\nWill shakes his head again. “We should go, before the market gets too crowded.”\n\n“Of course,” says Hannibal, and he tucks his arm through Will’s as they leave.\n\nHannibal watches him as they make their way through the maze-like corridors of the market, each stall discretely busy, purposeful in its daily routine. Will tries to pass unnoticed as usual, and yet today Hannibal insists on asking his opinion about fruit preserves and cuts of pork, matters of taste Will couldn’t care less about. It feels almost mocking, and Will finds himself resenting it, responding less and less.\n\nHannibal sets a pork shoulder gently in a canvas shopping bag, nestled between an acorn squash and a jar of gooseberry jam. There’s an edge to his voice when he says, “If you do not feel comfortable sharing with me like this, perhaps we should return to our old ways of communicating.”\n\nWill smiles tightly. “I like it better now that we’re not trying to kill each other.”\n\nHannibal pats his arm. “I was thinking of a therapy session.”\n\n \n\nHannibal sends him out for fresh bread early the next morning. Will pulls on jeans and a soft black sweater and sets off in the pearly light of dawn. The city is easier at this hour, when anyone who’s out is moving with purpose and direction, barely looking up from their errands. He falls into the current and lets it carry him to the bakery up the road, slips into the floury familiar hum of the shop. The sleepy teenager behind the counter doesn’t demand small talk and Will leaves with a warm, soft loaf tucked under his arm.\n\nWill comes back from the bakery to find Hannibal has moved the two armchairs in their living room in to face each other in front of the fireplace, a leather bound notebook resting in one of them. It looks nothing like his office in Baltimore, and yet it resonates, draws Will back to another time.\n\nHannibal sets the bread on the counter and nods at the tableau. “Perhaps you could humor me before breakfast? Just a little?”\n\n“For old times’ sake,” says Will, and he sinks into the chair across from Hannibal’s. He wonders why this couldn’t have waited until after breakfast, but Hannibal would have wanted him off guard, so it’s not really a question. “Should I tell you about my childhood?”\n\nHannibal smiles and opens his notebook. “That sounds like a fine place to start, if you like.” He waits with his pen poised, as though prepared to take dictation. Behind him the sun is golden through the window, the fullness of morning making him blinding to look at.\n\nWill looks at the fireplace instead. “I don’t know what to say.”\n\n“Why don’t you start with a memory? Something that calls to mind a strong emotion. Anger, or elation, or lust.”\n\n“Lust?” Will rolls the word off his tongue almost unwillingly. Does Hannibal know he’s started showering in the evening just so he can masturbate before getting into their shared bed?\n\nHannibal’s face is impassive. “If you like. When you were young, what did you desire most? What called to you most irresistibly?”\n\nWill remembers that lust does not have to mean something sexual. He keeps his eyes on the screen in front of the fireplace, shame ringing in his ears as he redirects his thoughts. “I wanted so much. I sometimes thought want was all I was because we didn’t have much, so everything the other kids at school had seemed like a punishment.”\n\n“A punishment? But you had done nothing wrong.”\n\n“I didn’t know that. My dad used to say things like, ‘I’ll get you a new bike if you’re very good,’ but I was never going to be good enough because we’d never have money for a new bike. Good enough just got further and further away, and there was nothing I could do.”\n\n“Did you feel guilty?”\n\n“Yes.” Will decides not to elaborate.\n\n“We have discussed your feelings of guilt before. You take a great deal on your shoulders that does not belong to you.”\n\nWill shakes his head. “Not anymore. I’m not trying to get into anyone else’s head anymore. Whatever’s left, it’s mine.”\n\n“And, that being the case, you no longer feel guilt for your own desires?”\n\nHe can’t avoid Hannibal’s eyes, and yet he cannot possibly meet them. He feels as though he’s been backed into a corner. Even the chair beneath him feels more rigid, suddenly, the walls of the apartment looming in on him. “What do you want me to say, Hannibal?”\n\n“Just tell me what you desire, Will. That is all I’ve ever wanted.”\n\nWill’s jaw feels tight, tension coiling in all of his joints, elbows and knees, hips and shoulders. He imagines Hannibal slicing him open, carving out his desires, scooping them up to lay like organs between them. Will wonders how they would look, bloodied and gleaming, if he would feel lighter with them excised. “Some desires need to be reciprocated,” Will says softly. “And if they’re not, it’s better not to mention them.”\n\nHannibal steeples his fingers in front of his mouth, and Will’s vibrating imagination fills with every way Hannibal might touch him with those hands. He sees the trap closing around him, but he doesn’t know what Hannibal will do once he’s caught. “I want you,” he says, the words like a rope squeezing tight around his chest, creaking as it ties him down. He looks, but of course it’s nothing, just his outwardly normal body in an armchair. He looks like someone who could get up and walk away, but he can’t. “I want to kiss you. I want to touch you. I want to suck your cock.” His voice is breathless and thready, lungs constricting under invisible pressure.\n\nHannibal shifts in his chair, crosses his legs in the opposite direction. “And somehow you have gained the impression that those things would be unwelcome.”\n\nWill tries to take a deeper breath. He stares at Hannibal’s knee, not the slightest tremble in his pose. “You don’t invite them.”\n\n“Don’t I?” Hannibal sets aside his notebook and pen. He uncrosses his legs and does not re-cross them, thighs parted so that Will cannot help but look between them.\n\nHe imagines crawling across the floor to press his face in Hannibal’s lap. He doesn’t think he could walk, his whole body flushed and trembling as it is. “You could have been clearer,” he says, in a poor imitation of disaffection.\n\nHannibal cocks his head and begins to undo his trousers, long fingers working over his fly, the inviting shape of his cock beneath. “I do not want you to feel confused or uncertain, Will. There is no need for that now, when we can know each other truly.” He reaches into his trousers, rubbing at himself through his underwear while Will watches, transfixed, gripping tight to the arms of the chair.\n\nHannibal makes a soft noise, and Will slides down onto the floor as though gravity has forced him there, as though his body is now too heavy to do anything but move towards him. He crawls, because that feels right, palms flat on the carpet. He’s never sucked cock before, but as he reaches Hannibal’s spread thighs, his mouth is almost watering with desire. He rests his cheek against Hannibal’s thigh and breathes in the earthy, human scent of him, the bitter tang of arousal even Hannibal can’t hide. He’s sometimes thought Hannibal must be more, must be something other than just human, but as he nuzzles up towards Hannibal’s crotch, it’s obvious that Hannibal is just flesh and blood like anyone else.\n\nHaving come this far, Will has to be careful about his next steps. He feels unprepared, now that he’s here, pressing his lips to the shape of Hannibal’s cock through his underwear. It’s less intimidating with the barrier of cotton between his open mouth and Hannibal’s skin, and Hannibal sighs in apparent contentment, letting him do just this. He rests his hands on his knees in a pose like meditation as Will sucks at the fabric over the tip of Hannibal’s swelling cock, pulling it into his mouth just a little. He wishes Hannibal would touch him, direct him, but of course he won’t. He’s already given Will all the guidance he asked for. If he wants more, he’ll have to ask for that too.\n\n“Touch me,” he says softly, lips nearly brushing Hannibal’s cock. “Show me how.”\n\nHannibal’s hands move, one caressing Will’s face and the other reaching for his cock, pulling it out so it’s tantalizingly close to Will’s face. Will looks at it, the full length and breadth of it, and desire washes over him in waves. He leans in, getting his lips on it again, breathing in the scent of Hannibal’s skin, the heat of it. Hannibal’s hand slips into his hair, almost incidental over the curve of his skull. Will works his tongue over the head, an experimental swirl around the edge of Hannibal’s foreskin, and when he looks up, his eyes catch Hannibal’s and he can’t look away again for a long time. Hannibal’s expression is warm, fond, almost proprietary, the way he looked on a bloody cliff in the moonlight, as though Will is everything he could have hoped for.\n\n“You’re doing very well,” Hannibal tells him quietly, gripping more firmly at his hair, and Will’s ears ring with how much he likes hearing it. He opens his mouth around the head of Hannibal’s cock, showing that he can, that he isn’t afraid of it. He firms his lips around it, covering his teeth, wondering if Hannibal expects him to bite. It seems unfair to do this before he’s even kissed Hannibal’s mouth, but then the intimacy of their relationship has never followed the expected path.\n\nWill leans in farther, pushing the head of Hannibal’s cock to the back of his tongue and shutting his eyes as his gag reflex threatens and subsides. He can do this. He can hold Hannibal inside him, move around him with a wet pull of spit, taste the early spill of him, thin fluid reminiscent of seawater and blood, familiar.\n\nHannibal sighs and twists his fingers in Will’s hair, and Will’s scalp tingles pleasantly. He presses forward, elbowing onto the edge of the chair as he sucks Hannibal’s cock as deep as he can, finding a rhythm within his own labored breath. The sound of his mouth seems too loud, greedy and wet, and Hannibal isn’t making any noise of his own. But the trembling clutch of his fingers in Will’s hair gives him confidence. Hannibal holds onto him, firm, compelling pressure, holding him back when he would choke himself on Hannibal’s cock, guiding him like a rudder in a storm. He lets himself get lost in the sensation of it, lets his focus narrow down until the world is just heat and spit and skin and the pull of Hannibal’s fingers. \n\nA sharp tug on his hair brings him back, and he looks up as Hannibal shoves forward into his mouth, deeper than he’s allowed himself so far, and comes. It’s heavy and hot on the back of Will’s tongue, and he coughs and pushes away, startled.\n\n“That was rude,” he gasps out, and Hannibal gives him a delighted smile.\n\n“I apologize,” says Hannibal, warmth and languor woven into his voice. “A moment’s impulse. Come here, Will.”\n\nWill thinks about standing, about taking one step to tower over Hannibal in his chair, but his knees are watery, so in the end he lets Hannibal help him into his lap, Will’s legs barely fitting to either side of his hips, Hannibal’s softening cock tucked away neatly in his trousers again. He looks down into Hannibal’s face, warm and fond, and Hannibal touches his jaw, guiding him into a kiss. Will can’t help but close his eyes as Hannibal’s mouth touches his, softly opening.\n\nHannibal kisses persuasively, licking into Will’s mouth and tasting himself there, one hand settling at the small of Will’s back to keep him in place.  Will sets both of his hands on Hannibal’s shoulders as he leans in close, and still he almost overbalances when Hannibal’s free hand goes to his cock. He’s hard. He’s been hard almost this whole time and kissing Hannibal isn’t doing anything to change that. Hannibal unfastens his trousers with one hand, fingers gliding over the rigid shape of Will’s cock, and Will squirms, breaking away from the kiss to gasp a few breaths. He rests his forehead against Hannibal’s, looks down as Hannibal works his cock free from his boxers, holding it gently in the cup of his palm.\n\n“Go on,” says Will, and Hannibal kisses him again and starts to stroke him. It’s dry, nearly painfully so, and Hannibal moves slowly to reduce the friction, but Will can barely stand the tease of it. He pushes his hips into Hannibal’s hand, greedy. Hannibal lets go of him though, sits back a little and holds up his palm to Will’s mouth, and he understands the request. Will licks it, thoroughly, cheeks hot as Hannibal watches him do it. It feels as intimate as sucking his cock.\n\nWhen Hannibal touches him again, it’s slicker but still barely enough, and Will arches towards him anyway, angling to kiss him. “There are so many ways I want to touch you, Will,” Hannibal says at the corner of his mouth, and the noise that comes from Will’s throat is soft and wounded, impossible to keep inside. Hannibal kisses his jaw and the tender throb of his pulse, and Will bends his head for it, letting Hannibal wrap around him, engulf him. Hannibal’s teeth graze his skin, and Will imagines him biting down, biting through, but he moves on again, back to Will’s mouth, pressing his tongue inside. The movement of his hand becomes more urgent, and Will can feel himself shaking, tensing, moments from coming as Hannibal’s thumb smears across the slick head of his cock, teasing against the sensitive slit. It’s as though he wants to feel Will coming as close up as possible, and Will can’t help spilling over in Hannibal’s grip, thick strands of come trapped by Hannibal’s hand as it covers the head of his cock. He imagines Hannibal lifting it to his mouth, making him taste it and compare the flavor to Hannibal’s own, asking questions like he does about wine. But instead Hannibal lets go of him all at once to lick his own fingers. He shuts his eyes to do it, and Will feels lightheaded watching him savor it.\n\n“May I take you to bed, Will?” Hannibal asks softly, bringing his licked hand up to cup Will’s cheek. Will imagines flecks of his own come drying in his beard and finds he doesn’t care. “It would mean a further delay to our breakfast.”\n\nWill is coltish and unsteady as he unfolds from Hannibal’s lap, and he doesn’t even bother to fasten his pants. Hannibal is looking him up and down with renewed desire, blatant enough that it chases off any of Will’s remaining uncertainties. “I have to admit, I’m not all that worried about breakfast right now,” he says."}
+{"text": "Jesse is restless beside him in the bed - tossing and turning with soft huffs. Something bothers the cowboy, keeping him awake. It isn’t the first time Jesse’s had a sleepless night in his presence, and it will not be the last. However, this is the first time he hasn’t sought out Hanzo’s comfort.\n\nWhen his nightmares and his ghosts bleed into the waking world, Jesse grasps and tucks into the archer. Even if it means waking him up - of which Hanzo assured him that it was alright, that he’d rather be awake than letting him suffer alone - his mate shouldn’t hesitate in asking to be held.\n\nTonight is a different story.\n\nHanzo lets the cowboy shuffle for ten minutes more, hoping that he will settle and fall asleep, but it never happens. He rolls in the bed, and meets wide, wet brown eyes.\n\n“Ah, sorry hun,” The cowboy croaks, wiping at his eyes furiously with the back of his hand, leaving them drier but red all around. “Didn’t mean to wake ya.”\n\nThe archer draws his eyebrows in concern, rests his arm over Jesse’s waist. “You did not. I could not sleep either.” Not when he was worried about the gunslinger’s state of mind. The day hadn’t been easy and Hanzo’s mind still races whenever he thinks about how Jesse just disappeared.\n\nHis fingers find purchase on the thick flesh of Jesse’s side, reminding him that his mate, his sunshine is still there. Something brews in the gunslinger’s mind, something troubles him but Hanzo can’t pry, unable to see past him in the waking world.\n\nAs much as he despises it, there are things, more often than not, that even Hanzo can’t fix. Sometimes he is suffocated under weight the gunslinger can’t let go of, and there are demons so big that even he is brought low by them.\n\nStrong hands slide up his arm, winding up around his shoulder and to the back of his neck. Before he knows it, Jesse is dragging him into a slow, heady kiss that he drowns in. Their lips part, breath mingling and Hanzo catches his gaze, oddly reverent and determined behind the wet shine of his eyes. He takes note of the gunslinger’s fingers grazing up his jawline, thumbing just under his eye. Surprise takes him when Jesse pulls his head in, pressing his cheek to the archer’s, and too soon they are clutching each other in desperation.\n\nHanzo doesn’t want to lose him, can’t bare to stomach the thought, so he lets his fingers curl into the gunslinger’s hip like a vice.\n\nIf Jesse is trying to keep his demons at bay, if he needs the distraction instead of dealing with it, tonight Hanzo will oblige him.\n\nTheir bare legs tangle and Hanzo pulls their hips flush together, drawing groans out of both men. Jesse ruts, cocking his hip and tangling his good hand in Hanzo’s hair, beard and stubble scraping him until the gunslinger’s head tucked against the archer’s neck where his puffs of breath heat up the space between them.\n\nHanzo’s hands wander down the broad expanse of Jesse’s back, where it softly gives, and his  fingers feel over every muscle that shifts beneath. Any other night, he would revel in his time, tracing the ridges of scars from old stories and the folly of battle, but tonight he has little attention to give to old wounds.\n\nDespite the cowboy’s tendency to tower over him, he feels small in Hanzo’s arms, unsure, like he’s trying to hide himself away. Jesse’s teeth worry at his shoulder, nipping and kissing until the spot is red from the attention. He creates more and more marks along Hanzo’s skin with the intent on leaving as many as possible before the sensation becomes too much.\n\nThe archer returns the favor in a less than graceful fashion, taking large handfuls of the cowboy’s ass, roughly pawing at him. Hanzo uses this leverage to drag him closer, delighting in the hitch in Jesse’s voice and the stuttered groan bursting against his skin -  his teeth sinking in more than they should. Hanzo’s fingers slip between the cleft of Jesse’s ass, finding the place still tacky with drying lube from earlier in the night.\n\nIt won’t be enough.\n\nThe archer’s hand moves in slow circles at the meat of jesse’s ass, pulling his cheeks apart. His finger grazes over Jesse’s opening, testing, and the man tenses in his arms, a hiss slipping through gritted teeth.\n\nHanzo withdraws his hands. “Sensitive?”\n\n“Sore,” The cowboy chuckles, nips at his neck. “You get real rough when you’re worried about me.”\n\n“We do not have to-”\n\n“No!” Jesse shouts abruptly, then quiets himself. “Please, Hanzo.” Something passes over those eyes, usually so vibrant and adoring, but now he’s not sure. He can’t read Jesse’s face. “I can handle it, please, I promise, I just- don’t stop.”\n\nThe way his voice falls tears at Hanzo’s chest and fills it with the desire rend in the name of the gunslinger, but with nothing to invoke his wrath he must turn his attention elsewhere. “Roll over, my dear.” He purrs, tugging at the gunslinger’s hip.\n\nHe reaches over to grab the bottle of lube from the bedside table, but Jesse beats him to it, grabbing it and holding it just out of reach. Hanzo snarls under his breath, but scoffs, rolling his hips so that he grinds up into the cowboy. The gunslinger gasps but holds out, so the archer repeats the action - again and again with a firm, deliberate slowness until Jesse fumbles and falls pliant and lose, arm curling close to his body.\n\nHanzo strikes in that moment of weakness, pausing mid-roll and snatches the lube from his fingers. “Y-y’can’t play me dirty like that, Haney.” Jesse’s voice breaks and Hanzo simply chuckles.\n\n“If you wish to play fair,” Hanzo kisses the gunslinger, teeth grazing over his lips as he retreats. “then do not pick a fight with a dragon.”.\n\n“Hanzo,” His mate begs sweetly, wiggling his hips backward, seeking  friction again.\n\nThe archer could give in, comply and sink into simple pleasure, but he has other plans. He kisses along Jesse’s shoulders as he pours a generous amount lube into his hand. Clicking it shut, he tosses it aside and uses his clean hand to lift Jesse’s leg.\n\nThe covers slip down, and exposed to the room, the cowboy shudders from the rush of cool air and arches forward. He outright yelps when Hanzo slicks cold lubricant along his inner thighs, between his ass and along the stretch of skin before his genitals.\n\nHanzo shifts just so that his dick rests between Jesse’s legs, lowering the one he had raised to create a snug grip. Jesse for his part, whines and turns his head into the pillow, tries to touch himself until his hand is swatted away. As much as Hanzo would like to watch the man pleasure himself, tonight he is impatient.\n\nThe dragon takes hold of Jesse’s cock, strokes it and begins thrusting between the cowboy’s thighs in time. It doesn’t take long for the steady rhythm to work into a frenzy, bolstered by Jesse’s sweet cries.\n\nFaster than he’d like, though if he had his way he’d tease Jesse with this for hours, the cowboy begins to go rigid with the beginning of his end. Hanzo urges him to let go, “So good for me, Jesse.” He snarls into the gunslinger’s ear, biting at the lobe. He picks up his pace, getting a better stance by propping himself up and leaning over Jesse. He snaps his hips harder now, determined to finish with him.\n\nBut with a cry, Jesse’s spilling on the sheets, going boneless, and Hanzo’s approaching orgasm falls away with the lack of pressure.\n\nHe grunts, lets go of Jesse’s cock to wrap his arms around the gunslinger. Hanzo rolls back until the cowboy’s solid weight lays upon him. Hanzo bites into Jesse’s neck, working the flesh with his teeth and holds tight when his hips lose their rhythm, so close,  so close .\n\nJesse tries to coax him over, reaches down between him and digs his prosthetic into Hanzo’s hips and  begs . “Please, baby, come on,” He asks, voice ragged.\n\nIt’s not enough.\n\nHis hip locks up and he falls to the bed, his dick slipping from between Jesse’s grasp and his thighs. Frustrated, he takes himself in hand - it will do for him.\n\n“Wait-.” Jesse bleats, who rolls over and takes Hanzo’s hand away.\n\nThe archer watches raptly as Jesse resumes his ministrations, understanding reaching him when the gunslinger slides down, peppering hanzo in little bites as he maneuvers towards his cock. “Jesse,” The cowboy looks up at him. “You do not have to.”\n\n“I wanna,” His lips curl at the corners when he smiles, kissing the thatch of hair at Hanzo’s crotch before licking his lips and taking all of Hanzo into his mouth in one fell swoop. Hanzo nearly chokes, more surprised that Jesse doesn’t- but he doesn’t tease, and for that the archer is grateful. He’s come too close to let them revel in any foreplay and with a strangled groan he reaches his long awaited, frustrating end.\n\nIt is a welcome relief, leaving Hanzo to catch his breathe and melt as Jesse swallows his mess. The blowjob is swift and efficient, but there is no less affection as Jesse licks and drags his tongue upward.\n\nA bearded cheek rubs against the meat of his thigh, making him jump.\n\nHanzo glares at the man as he chuckles. “Get up here.” He demands and the cowboy doesn’t listen, at least not straight away.\n\nHe spends time around Hanzo’s hips and thighs, kissing and biting tenderly,  scratching at his scales. He trails wet kisses up Hanzo’s chest, laving at the small clusters of iridescent blue as he makes his way up the dragon’s body.\n\nThe archer rolls his eyes and threads his fingers through the cowboy’s locks, a fond smile pulling at his lips. “Jesse, we need to sleep.” He pleas.\n\n“Alright- alright.” He agrees, nipping one more time before he rests himself half atop Hanzo. Jesse stretches and wiggles until his head rests against Hanzo’s chest and he has both of the archer’s arms wrapped around him. Only then does he begin relax.\n\nHanzo noses at Jesse’s hair, hoping that he does not wake again in a few short hours and leaves him to drift.\n\nUnbeknownst to him, the cowboy never sleeps, counting the heartbeats of the dragon and trying to commit the pattern to memory, just as he memorized the pattern of his scales, and the difference between his dragons. When Hanzo squeezes him tightly in his sleep, fingers twitching against his skin, Jesse’s heart breaks just a little more.\n\n-\n\nA stifling warmth wakes Hanzo in a most ungraceful fashion. He kicks off the covers to alleviate the staunch feeling of the temperature overcoming him, but even the lack of blankets does little to aid him. The air around him is heavy with steam, making him hotter when he breathes it in.\n\nHe spreads eagle on the bed which alerts him to two things.\n\nOne, the sheets are in dire need of a wash… as is he.\n\nAnd two, Jesse is missing.\n\nHanzo sits up quickly and takes stock of the room- the sheets are placed neatly over Jesse’s side of the bed. The gunslinger’s hat is still on top of the drawers with his serape still draped over the chair; two things he wouldn’t leave without, not after they were returned to his person..\n\nThe sound of the shower running catches his attention, makes his lips curl and his brows furrow. Jesse must be taking a while. There is certainly plenty to clean, and it would explain the mugginess of the air and the steam.\n\nSlipping out of bed, Hanzo approaches the door, left just barely ajar, and gently raps the backs of his knuckles against it. “Jesse,” He croons, “Are you alright? Do not make me wait long to get in there.” He pauses. “Or perhaps you are waiting on  me ?”\n\nThe thought taunts him mercilessly. Showers with Jesse are a welcome affair, usually in the aftermath of long nights. He loves the peaceful moment that comes with washing each other; fingers lathering shampoo into their hair, soaping down and emerging together feeling fresh, clean, sated.\n\n“Jesse?” The door gives easily with a gentle push, the steam leaking out from the sliver now billows out in large puffs from the open door. Hanzo scrunches his face from the sudden rush of heat, dragging a hand down his face as if that would stop the condensation from collecting on his skin.\n\nWhen it clears, the sight is far from what he was expecting.\n\nThe mirror is shattered, scattered across the floor with the smaller pieces of it spilled into the sink basin - what happened? When? Why didn’t he notice? The shower is hauntingly empty. It’s door is left open, water no longer warm pooling on the tile and soaking into the bath mat. A towel is tossed over the top of the sliding panel and Jesse’s shampoo bottle is laying open, tipped on it’s side with the contents long since oozed out and down the drain.\n\nSlowly, Hanzo makes his way over to the shower, stepping over the shards of glass that lay abandoned on the ground. Stray pieces crunch under his heel- but he doesn’t linger on it. He twists it’s knobs until the water stops and the last of it slowly swirls down the drain. Pulling the unused towel down, he drapes it over the wet patch on the tiling, trying to ignore the way the air cools too quickly. Inhaling sharply, he steps away.\n\nJesse isn’t here. Something’s wrong with Jesse.\n\nHe turns and strides out, eyes catching Jesse’s comm on the desk, idle and left alone since they retired to their room last night. He quickly snatches it up, thumbs it open and checks his messages.\n\nIt’s an invasion of privacy, but given the state the cowboy was in last night, Hanzo worries he is hurt, trying to hide away for a reason the archer doesn’t know. He thumbs at the screen until the messenger opens- the last few messages are from Hana last night, asking to have breakfast with him.\n\nRelief floods him. He’s off with Hana having breakfast, most likely helping her with the aftermath of the attack. And hopefully she is helping him deal with the rage that shattered their mirror- of which Hanzo makes a note to get fixed.\n\nHis fingers scrape against the ridges of the communicator. The mirror. The shower. It bothers him. Something twists in his chest and doesn’t settle right in his stomach, but he doesn’t let himself think on it too much. He can’t.\n\nJesse would enjoy his hat, feel better with it on. That’s the only reason Hanzo even considers joining them, not because he’s agitated and wants to make sure Jesse’s alright. Not because anger still pricks at the back of his mind.\n\nHe could’ve prevented it.\n\nHe should have stayed with the gunslinger. Inadequacy, failure, and fault. He doesn’t have the time to dwell on such feelings- there’s a cowboy in need of his hat. Hanzo picks up the stetson, patting it free of dust and dirt, and he briefly wonders if he should bring Jesse’s serape as well, until it catches his eye- a piece of paper. It falls, fluttering to the floor with Jesse’s slanted handwriting scrawled across it in hasty lines. A note.\n\nAnxiety roils in Hanzo’s belly as he bends to pick it up, tear stains soaking the paper. Nothing about this feels right, the dread in him twisting in coils, restricting his breath. Hanzo hesitates to turn the letter over.\n\nIf he doesn’t read it, Jesse will be in the cafeteria. If he doesn’t acknowledge it, he can stroll out with the hat, shove it on that mess of brown hair he adores so much. If the letter doesn’t exist, Hanzo can cling to the idea that Jesse is still here.\n\nBut as he reads the first words of the letter, he can’t deny it. As much as he wishes. As much as he wants. Steadying himself with quick, even breathes, he continues down the page..\n\n\n ‘Dear Haney,’ \n\n\nHanzo swallows a lump in his throat, he can hear the gunslinger’s voice through his writing, as if he were here reading it aloud..\n\n\n ‘I can’t stay. I got well in over my head but I’m just not made for this kind of life. I would take you with me if I could, but we both know where I’m headed. \n\n\n\n I’d say forgetting about me would be best, but I don’t want you to. Please don’t forget me, Hanzo. \n\n\n\n I love you, my Sweetheart, my Sugarcube, please, please don’t forget. \n\n\n\n -Jesse’ \n\n\nThere are fresh tear stains on the paper. Hanzo stockly wipes them away, his hands clenching into fists, crumpling the letter as the coil bubbles and bursts from up inside of him. His mate- His Jesse. The archer’s body shudders with a gasp, bracing himself. He isn’t-. He can’t be-.\n\nAll at once it gives way to an anguished cry, and no force on earth could stop him from splitting into two. The paper floats to the ground -  ‘don’t forget’  - and Hanzo tries to turn in on himself, keep himself together- one dragon wrapping around the other but it’s not the same as when Jesse holds him and he walks the earth on two feet.\n\nJesse’s gone. He’s gone. He can’t be gone, he has to be somewhere. But where? Jesse wouldn’t leave his friends behind. He wouldn’t go back to Talon. Why would he return to the one place that frightens him more than anything in the world?\n\nHe has to be somewhere here. Somewhere close. The note was hidden, not meant for Hanzo to find - surely it was an exercise of writing that Zenyatta had him do to deal with his anxieties. The omnic had done something similar for him, writing letters not meant for others to read but to help put words to his disorganized thoughts and feelings.\n\nZenyatta. That’s where the gunslinger is, he has to be. He didn’t reply to Hana for breakfast; how foolish was Hanzo for thinking Jesse would just turn up there. The cowboy is hurting, the garden is the most logical place for him to go.\n\nHanzo doesn’t bother pulling himself together, the panic preventing any sort of calm. He’s out the door, down a floor, and scratching mercilessly at the bottom of Reaper’s door within a minute. The trip is fraught with tangles and tumbles as his back legs move faster than his front, bunching up his bodies and twisting them over on the way. He has to see Jesse, he needs to know he’s okay. Yesterday’s worry is driving him mad, Jesse isn’t missing.\n\nHanzo arrives by sheer desperation, claws scratching at it’s metal surface. The both of him yell for them to open the door, yet he knows all that’s heard is sharp cries and loud, rapid chirps.\n\nThere’s a fumble and a groan before the door eases open, big enough for Sugarcube to squeeze through and make a dash for it. The garden is laid before him, through the screen door.\n\nHe’s in there. He has to be.\n\nHe yelps as he’s scooped up by his middle, flipping over and brandishing claws and teeth at whoever has made the mistake of grabbing him. But he meets Genji’s concerned face, who is so focused on the dragon in his hands that Sweetheart, the larger of the two, is able to brute through the door and skitter across the room quickly.\n\n“Hanzo, what-” His brother’s words are cut off by a loud screech, a frustrated, distressed  sound as Sweetheart scratches at the door to the garden\n\nSugarcube fusses in Genji’s hold, digging his claws into the oversized sweatshirt he wears, snapping at air even when the hood cords get tangled in his teeth.\n\n“Garden.” Sweetheart manages. “Jesse.” He insists, far too distraught to focus on his words.\n\nThe door opens, the path blocked by Zenyatta, whose voice is ringing softly. “Genji, is everything alright?”\n\nJesse has to tend to his box in the garden, with the budding sunflowers and marigolds that are starting to burst over it’s ledge. He must be.\n\nSweetheart doesn’t wait for him to move, can’t waste the time when Jesse should be there, will be there. He climbs the omnic, even gets assistance as Zenyatta moves to carry him over his shoulder. Front legs straight on his perch, he cranes his neck out to see his mate.\n\nBut he finds the garden empty.\n\nHanzo watches the garden, as if he could somehow will the gunslinger into existence. But the longer he glares at the lush, living fauna the more he resigns to the weight in his chest. Jesse’s not here. Genji gently rocks Sugarcube in his hold, perturbed by the abrupt and sudden silence from both serpents.\n\nThe both of him inhale sharply, exhaling long before going limp. Despair crushes him, leaving him  pliant with soft, sad chitters. Sugarcube manages to drag himself into his brother’s sweater, wheezing weak wisps of smoke when Genji begins to pet the golden fur along his spine and asks him, “What’s happened to Jesse?” which only makes him whimper.\n\nSweetheart feels misery acutely as a sharp stabbing pain through his body. It exhausts him, he can’t even bring himself to keep his tail off the ground as Zenyatta carries him into the room. Wetness gathers at his eyes, thick and more viscous than human tears, falling to the ground and on the omnic’s shoulder in soft, wet plops. He aches, hisses in as much warning as he can when he’s touched.\n\nZenyatta instead reaches over to pet at Sugarcube, his orbs drifting from the table and chiming gently as he does. Both dragons feel the brief sense of calm that roll over them, even though the anguish and distress is greater than one could ever soothe. “Hanzo?”\n\n“Jesse is gone.” - “Jesse is missing.” They say together.\n\nGenji holds Sugarcube tighter who snuffles into the embrace. “I’m sure he’s here somewhere-”\n\n“He left his serape,” - “His hat,” - “His comm,” - “And a note.” They list, one after the other. But both voices, strained and weary with sadness repeat, “He left me a note.”\n\n“A note?”\n\nBoth dragons tense. “He cannot stay.” - “He would take me with him.” -\n\n“Won’t ask me to forget him.” - “I cannot forget him.”\n\nGenji looks concerned, pets at Sugarcube and presses a thumb at the base of one of his horns, doing his best to comfort the dragons. “Hanzo… he left a note.” His voice is remorseful, as though this hurts him as well. “What if he simply left?”\n\n“He would not!” Two voices cry out, bodies twist, rising in anger. “He would not just leave. He would not do that.” He insists, looking Genji in the eyes. “He would not hurt me.” The words are quiet, vulnerable, and leave no room for argument. Hanzo slowly sinks back down where his bodies rest. “He wouldn’t.” If nothing else is certain about the gunslinger, his devotion to being at Hanzo’s side is.\n\nThe cyborg scowls, gathering up Sugarcube. “Master, please watch him for a moment.” And once the dragon has been traded over to the omnic, he motions and moves to the back of the room.\n\nLurking in the shadows, Hanzo had been so unfocused that he missed the obvious: Reaper. It was his room, of course he would be in here, perched on the large bed like a king. Perhaps on another day Hanzo will be concerned that the man was seeing him, the both of him, crumple in such a small, pitiful display, but today that worry was incomparable to the overwhelming loss he feels.\n\nHe can’t find the energy to listen in as his brother and Jesse’s former commander speak to each other. The dragons cannot bear to focus. All that runs through Hanzo’s mind is an overbearing thought of ‘Jesse - Jesse’ that the rest of the world seems to pass in a haze.\n\nZenyatta hums, begins to pace in a gentle flow of movement that rocks him. Hanzo feels babied, sickeningly coddled, and he should bring himself together and stand on his own two feet, but he can’t. The monk’s hold can only do so much for him.\n\nGenji curses, bright and colorful in their mother tongue, tossing his comm across the room in a swift, cracking motion. He stalks back over to Zenyatta and the dragons, scooping Sugarcube back into his arms and scratching his fingers through Hanzo’s golden mane- whether it’s to comfort himself or his brother, Hanzo will never figure out.\n\nHe isn’t sure what’s going on, on edge from Jesse’s absence, on edge from his brother’s frustration. His mind races too fast, with so many possibilities on what to do next but indecisive of which he should choose. And for all he knows, the only thing certain is he’s running out of time.\n\nIt’s answered for him quickly- as everyone’s comms go off at once, as mass message. Genji tightens his hold on Sugarcube, burying his chin into the fluff at Hanzo’s neck and huffs. “I’m sorry, brother.” He mutters.\n\nZenyatta reaches for one of the comms in the room, all three resting on a little table and opens it.\n\nSweetheart can see the message, and the title alone makes him flinch with more fat tears threatening to appear.\n\n>>  ‘URGENT: Emergency Meeting - All Must Attend - Subject: Defective Agent’ \n\nIt doesn’t take an expert to know the ‘defective agent’ is Jesse, his cowboy, his sunshine.\n\n-\n\nThey’re late to the meeting, it takes longer than expected for Zenyatta and Genji to help Hanzo pull himself together. He’s frayed at the edges, just barely hidden scales creating welts across his face mimicking a skin condition- unnoticeable unless one were to look too close. It would have to do, it’s as much as he can focus on and with his stomach is in knots over if he’ll see the gunslinger again- about what could be happening to him at this very moment.\n\nMorrison shoots them a very pointed look as they enter, his desire for punctuality is more fierce on Hanzo, or maybe that’s because he thinks he was right about Jesse. No one can surprise a veteran.\n\n“No,” He barks the second Hanzo opens his mouth, harsh and rude- intentionally so.\n\nThe shortness grates on Hanzo’s nerves, makes him itch to fight.\n\nIt’ll be the same argument they were in the day prior.Hanzo will volley for Jesse’s innocence, Morrison will continue to insist that he knows more about McCree than Hanzo would to make that call. Two fighters going back and forth about a man who isn’t there to defend himself.\n\nThe ex-commander stands tall, but there’s a weight to his shoulders, pulling him down. Despite how proud he looks, age has worn him down in comparison to the bright figurehead in his posters and it begs the question of how much authority he held back then.\n\nThe room is silent and hangs with every small movement made.\n\nHe pinches the bridge of his nose, exhaling roughly as though this whole thing is cumbersome.\n\nIt sets Hanzo on edge because a rescue mission should not be an inconvenience, no matter who it is that they’ll be retrieving.\n\n“Agent McCree’s status has been changed to ‘Kill On Sight’.”\n\nThere’s an uproar in the room - people demanding for an explanation, begging for it not to be so, and others grumbling about how they regret being right about him - but it all drowns in comparison to the ringing in Hanzo’s ears. Kill On Sight. They intend for Jesse to die. No more chances for the cowboy, not even if he explicitly deserves them.\n\nMorrison raises a hand, squares his shoulders and the room falls quiet, as quiet as it can with the shuffling of bodies and muted whispers between the closer agents. “It is not a decision I make lightly-”\n\n“Of course not,”\n\nBodies twist and heads swivel to look to the back of the room where they find Reaper lounging idly in a chair, examining his clawed gauntlets as one would nails when bored. The room holds its breath- it’s not often the wraith speaks openly, even less so when Morrison is around.\n\n“It’s just one you make against anyone who’s a hassle for you.” Reaper glances up, his mask tilting. “Speaking from personal experience, mind you Jacky.”\n\nMorrison narrows his eyes, in combination of squinting without his visor and glaring at the other ex-commander. “He’s not a hassle, Reyes- it’s a repeated offense. How many more agents do we have to lose before you realize he isn’t going to change?””\n\nHanzo purses his lips, if he speaks it will just go around in circles again. He knows the gunslinger defected before Overwatch was disbanded, though Jesse has never opened up as to how he joined Talon and Hanzo hadn’t wanted to know explicitly why. Whether it was by choice or by force, all that mattered was that Jesse’s remorse was genuine- a feeling Hanzo knows all too well.\n\n“Before.” Reaper says with a snarl. “We didn’t know what we do now. Talon wasn’t on the radar, anything that wasn’t visible to us didn’t exist or didn’t matter- that’s how everything felt to us, back then.” He stands, approaches Morrison and cranes his neck forward. “Now we know what they’re capable of.” He begins to tick off a list on his fingers. “Extortion, mental- physical manipulation, torture, threatening of loved ones-”\n\n“We didn’t know that then, no.” Morrison agrees; at the very least he sees some reason. “But we know McCree.”\n\n“You don’t know shit about the kid, Jack.”\n\nMorrison glares heavily. “He’s not a kid- no matter how much you think otherwise, he’s not that lowlife punk you dragged back!” He shouts, pausing to collect himself with a deep breath. “I know you trained him,” Hanzo briefly wonders what Ms. Amari would have to say, if she were not currently away with her own mission. “I know what he’s capable of, I know that he was trained for this- but the fact of the matter is he went willingly.”\n\nThere’s compliments hidden beneath the surface of the accusation- Jesse is strong, but perhaps that’s what makes him more dangerous in the hands of Talon. He survives, does what he needs to so that he can live another day.\n\n“He made his own decision. And he’s too dangerous for us to let him continue-”\n\n\n Ahem. \n\n\nAll eyes turn to Angela, who stands and slips her body between the two titans of commanding power. “If I may,” She looks uncertain, but stands straight, determined- and regardless of if she may, she will continue. “There is something you will want to consider before putting your so-called justified order into effect.”\n\nMorrison furrows his brows when he addresses her, seeming to sag under the weight of her gaze, fury of his argument all but fizzled out. “I’m not changing my mind about him, Angela. Not this time.” He looks worn out and for a moment Hanzo almost believes that he really does regret having to make this choice, despite it being the wrong one.\n\nHope is waning - with not a thought placed towards Jesse’s rescue, and a looming order of his death- and Hanzo can feel the gunslinger slipping through his grasp. Just like yesterday, he feels the cowboy’s fingertips slide along his palm as he leaves, a final goodbye before he’s gone. But this time, the archer has no confidence that he’ll be seeing Jesse again soon.\n\nAngela leers, reaching out and grabbing the ex-commander’s shoulder. She flicks her gaze between Reaper with a pointed look. “There’s something you may want to review.” She looks over her shoulder to Reaper. “And you as well,” Her eyes find Hanzo and she nods. Him too.\n\nMorrison calls the meeting, order put on hold until he sees whatever Angela has got for him- even if he doesn’t seem convinced.\n\nThey wait until everyone else files out before Angela pulls out a tablet and connects it to the screen at the back of the room. Reaper and Morrison sit close to the front on opposite sides, and Hanzo stands at the end with his fingers curling around the back of a chair. He can’t bear to sit down, nervous energy building the longer they go without a plan to find his mate. It feels as if they’re wasting his time.\n\nThe projector flickers on, clear and bright. It’s her personal tablet, if the background photo is anything to go by- her surrounded by small, grinning cherub faced children. She’s dirt smeared but smiling happily, receiving a kiss from the kid she holds. Tents and tarps, green and smeared in dust line the background. An omnic ruined landscape, a doctor treating the world.\n\nPersonal means that the information she’s about to show them is not within Athena’s system- at least at this point in time. That is what peaks Hanzo’s curiosity- no one knows what she’s about to show and if anything- it sets him only more on edge.\n\nAngela pulls up a file, a video, the first frame is easy to see- a younger Jesse is on his knees, surrounded by men with guns. He looks worse for wear, bruised and bleeding. “He begged me not to show anyone,” She explains, glancing back at Morrison without turning her head. “But you need to see this. You need to understand what happened to him.”\n\nShe presses play and then steps over to the side, turning away from the screen and her tablet. Whatever they’re about to witness, she doesn’t want to see it again.\n\nJesse’s screaming rips through the room instantly, his throat already hoarse and worn. The camera angle shifts, like a person circling around him, and it becomes clear to see what they’re doing. His arm is twisted at an unnatural angle, a knife jammed into his shoulder blade- Hanzo knows that knife. The Sandman was fond of it.\n\nTrue enough, the Sandman’s croon comes through the speakers and chills run down Hanzo’s spine. “I’ll ask again, Mister McCree. Will you accept our formal invitation into Talon?” \n\nLike the cowboy Hanzo knows now, the cowboy of then spits at the Sandman’s feet and sneers. Reaper lets out a soft ‘attaboy’ at the fight he’s giving.\n\n “I ain’t workin’ for no-”  He screams again, the movement is swift and sudden and it takes the occupants of the room to realize what transpired. In the blink of an eye, Jesse’s leg was extended and his knee shattered. The young cowboy’s face goes red, and his gritted teeth do nothing to muffle the sounds of pain he lets loose.\n\nHis eyes are defiant, fiery and dangerous. Talon is toying with a man who could take them all out, who’s gaze promises agony as soon as he is free. He says nothing, doesn’t agree to join them. Jesse is strong, and unfortunately his captors know this.\n\n “We’re asking nicely.”  The Sandman coos, leaning down to take Jesse’s chin in hand. There’s something sickeningly affectionate in that touch, the man was fond of those he caused pain. Hanzo remembers the burn of the Sandman’s palm under his chin as he tried to break the dragon, so disgustingly fascinated by his scales.\n\n “I could take your other knee, or your mind, or- perhaps…”  The laugh the Sandman gives stills the room, it’s bad news, whether you knew the leader of Talon or not. The boss leaves Jesse, walks toward the camera which catches the nasty, devilish smile on his face. He turns to face his captive.  “What about those friends of yours from Overwatch? We keep tabs on them, you know? Tracer has quite the sightseeing itinerary created, and - oh you will be delighted to hear this - Angela’s research clinic is doing quite well.” \n\nHanzo glances to Angela, finds her hunched over, arms firmly crossed with her knuckles white in their hold.\n\nJesse stares wide eyed, and Hanzo can see him breaking piece by piece- the one weak spot, his friends, his makeshift family of people who think he’s good. He needs them alive, even if they hate him. In Jesse’s eyes, Hanzo can see that the cowboy believes he’ll make it out of there soon, that agreeing is just a temporary situation. The gunslinger doesn’t know that no one will be coming for him for years.\n\nThe Sandman approaches. Jesse once more who leans back, suddenly afraid of the leader.  “Don’t-”  His voice breaks as a black leather shoe prods at his destroyed knee, but he has to agree, he has to protect who he can.  “Don’t touch ‘em, please.” \n\nUnsatisfied with that answer, or perhaps just because he’s a cruel man, the Sandman uses his foot to press against Jesse’s chest, his toe just under the cowboy’s chin.\n\n\n “I’ll join.” \n\n\nA song filters through, hummed but no less distinguishable from when the Sandman played it over the speakers and sang it while he drew samples and pumped things into Hanzo’s body. “ I knew you’d see things our way. ” He glances over his shoulder at the camera, an ugly smile on his face before he pushes Jesse over.\n\nHanzo flinches as Jesse howls, the knife in his shoulder sinking in further, his knee jostled and his head hitting the floor behind him.\n\n\n “And we won’t touch them, I promise you that.” \n\n\n\n “Because you will.” \n\n\nThe video goes black but there’s some shuffling and some whimpers that are definitely from the cowboy. Hanzo feels a sick churning in his gut, Reaper’s head hangs low but Morrison’s eyes are glued to the black screen- something is running through his mind, but Hanzo can’t figure it out, he doesn’t know the man well enough.\n\nAngela stays where she is, gaze fixed on the wall in front of her. “There’s another.” Is all she supplies before the screen comes to life again.\n\nThe camera is held at head height and for one second Hanzo believes it to be attached to some sort of headgear- right up until a hand made of metal joints pushes open the door. An omnic, that’s what it is, with recording software.\n\nIt approaches a lump on a bed in a dark room, gently peels back the covers to reveal Jesse’s face.\n\nHe’s pale and shaking, a sheen of sweat covering his face.\n\nThe omnic reaches out, tenderly tucks a lock of sweat-soaked hair behind an ear before it abruptly gives the cowboy’s cheek a quick series of less than affection slaps. “Wakey, wakey, eggs and bacey, McCree.”  It coos.\n\nThe cowboy grunts, his face twisting in pain as he turns it from the offender’s hand. The omnic sighs and grips his chin hard forcing Jesse to face what Hanzo is presuming is it’s own face- the recording device.\n\nHis eyes are glazed over, unseeing - “Is he drugged?” Morrison asks, leaning forward and staring intently still. Reaper answers with a grunted ‘no’ and before he can speak, the words croak from the back of Hanzo’s throat.\n\n“He’s giving up.”\n\nIt’s a face he’s only seen one other time, in the storage room when they were running. Jesse thought himself abandoned, staring down the barrels of too many guns and while he was going down with a fight, Hanzo had seen it in his eyes - resignation to a cruel fate. Accepting of death.\n\nThis time, Hanzo is not there to surprise him, to bring that flicker of  fight  back into his gaze.\n\nJesse doesn’t respond to being grabbed by the omnic and the automaton doesn’t take that too kindly, ripping the covers down with a harsh clicking sound from it’s headpiece. It doesn’t take an expert to know the bandages on the gunslinger’s arm shouldn’t be a sickly yellow and the skin peeking from beneath it shouldn’t be dark purple - black almost.\n\nWith a start, Hanzo realizes that it’s flesh, decayed as it is. It’s Jesse’s arm, not the prosthetic which freed him. He’s losing his arm.\n\nThe omnic yanks him out of the bed, the cowboy falls to the ground, weak and frail with fever. His body is failing, he’s letting go bit by bit - how long was he fighting for?  “You’ve got a job, McCree.”  It waits for Jesse to nod slowly, tapping impatient fingers against it’s arm.  “What’s the rule?” \n\n “If-”  Jesse draws in a shaky breath, using every last ounce of will within himself to keep going. The longer he lives, the longer he can make sure his former comrades live.  “If’n I don’t come back with a body, I keep losin’ mine.”  His voice breaks, trembles because he’s already losing.\n\nHanzo shuts his eyes, unable to witness such a broken display, regardless of the knowledge that somehow, someway, Jesse survives this tormented state.\n\nThere’s a thud and an irritated sigh from the omnic.\n\nThe archer glances back at the screen, sees the omnic toeing at Jesse’s form. The cowboy’s breath comes fast, panicked,  in shock  .  “Such a soft thing,”  It comments dryly.  “I will never understand why it wants you.” \n\nJesse’s eyes open just barely, a glare of red eyes looking up before rolling back into his head.\n\nThe omnic kneels, hefts the gunslinger’s form over his shoulder,  “We best keep you alive, or else there will be hell to pay.” \n\nThe video pitters out and Angela takes in a deep breath, collecting herself before looking at the men in the room. Her eyes are glossy and red, but her expression is no less bold, a look that Hanzo feels in his gut but refuses to show as much.\n\nHe refuses to dwell on Jesse’s past pains, even if the cowboy were present, there is nothing Hanzo can do to change the circumstances of that event. He focuses ahead of him, his eyes flicking over to Morrison who leans on his knees, staring at the blank screen, brows knit together.\n\nHanzo expects action, he expects for the ex-commander to stand up proudly and declare they must reclaim the cowboy.\n\nInstead he rises, slow, weary, and mashes a gloved palm on one of his eyes, rubbing the strain from them. “I…”\n\n-was wrong? -will form a plan? Hanzo hangs on the word.\n\n“... need to think.” Without much else, he slinks out of the room.\n\nDespite the tail between his legs, the old soldier doesn’t rectify the call- or make one at all, even though it’s clearer now that Jesse didn’t join of his own free will. That he stayed under the thought that the people he loved and knew would be safer if he did, and under the agony of losing his own body.\n\nThey’re losing time. There’s no inkling to Jesse’s fate and Hanzo looks back over at the blank screen as though it has the answers.\n\nThe idea ignites like a candlewick, a small light in the back of his skull. Morrison needs to see Jesse as Hanzo sees him, as Hanzo had learned to see him when he began gathering the intel to retrieve the renegade cowboy.\n\nHe slips out quickly, there’s a phone call he has to make.\n\n-\n\nHanzo perches in the rafters, eyes narrowed in suspicion at Morrison.\n\nThe entirety of the base is together again, going over new drills and tactics now that they are down one gunslinger. Morrison hasn’t withdrawn his pending order, and he’s been trying to get his attention the entire day, likely to tell Hanzo not to run off and do something stupid on his own - which is exactly what he itches to do.\n\nThere was no lie behind his words when he promised Jesse that he’d tear the world apart to get to him.\n\nBut destruction begets destruction, this he knows, and he’s chosen for a more subtle route of ripping the world apart.\n\nGenji sits beside him, one leg dangling off their beam, the other bent so that he can rest his head on it. He’s been a silent companion in the day and a half since Jesse left, support when Hanzo needs it and a distraction when the archer falls too far into his own thoughts.\n\nThe rest of the team is buzzing below - he can see Reaper and Zenyatta tucked away and talking, occasionally glancing up at the two dragon brothers, and Hana and Lúcio are conspiring, throwing loud laughs when someone else wanders too near. He wonders what they’re talking about and if he would feel more himself, more at ease, if he approached them without a thought, tease them because it’s a riot when they can’t tell if he’s joking or not. Jesse always knew- knows when he’s joking.\n\nHis heart seizes briefly as he realizes that he’s already thinking about Jesse as though he were a part of the past instead of the present.\n\nA hand on his shoulder draws his attention to his brother. Genji’s faceplate is lowered but not removed, showing his eyes as he looks at Hanzo in concern. The archer nods, a silent thank you.\n\nThe buzz of the conversations below quiets suddenly, followed with a light and smokey “Excuse me,” Everyone turn swiftly, hands flying to their weapons and readying them- only to lower them from the civilian before them. The woman takes them all in and a wry smile twists at the corners of her lips, “I guess I’m in the right place.”\n\nMorrison steps forward, slinging his gun over his shoulder. “Who are you?”\n\nHanzo knows- her posture, her gait is a dead giveaway even if he didn’t know her name. She fancies the color red, by her attire; a long coat that sweeps at her calves, vibrant with gold trim to match the scarf wrapped seamlessly around her neck. Hanzo chuckles to himself- a wide-brimmed hat rests against her neck hanging on a string, not one be-fit of a cowboy, but something much sleeker. Her thick, dark hair is peppered with greys, similar enough, but her nose is identical to Jesse’s, wrinkling a little when she smiles and holds her hand out. “Nolli.”\n\nEver courteous, even in the face of potential danger, the ex-commander returns the handshake, stands a little straighter when Nolli embraces it just as firm as he does. “Morrison- Jack.” He reciprocates before his words turn sharp. “How did you get in here?”\n\nNolli beams innocently enough, smooths down the sides of her coat and folds her hands in front of her. “The front door of course, it’s only polite.”\n\nHanzo covers his mouth to prevent himself from laughing at her coyness, he can certainly see where Jesse gets it from. Genji shoots him a look, tense over the stranger just like everyone else - surely he’s wondering why Hanzo is so relaxed.\n\nThe old soldier isn’t having any of it, “I’m sure you noticed that you can’t just walk in here,”\n\n“But I did.”\n\n“So how did you get into the base?” He lowers his gun, holds it firmly in front of his body, a threat.\n\nShe chuckles, deep and smooth. “I walked in,” Morrison goes to stop her but she continues on, regardless of the proximity of his weapon. “And used a handy code little I was given.”\n\nWinston seems to take over then, scuttling over to a nearby terminal and pulling up the base’s access logs. He adjusts his glasses and then frowns. “A guest code.” Everyone begins looking at each other, trying to figure out who brought this woman here.\n\nGenji clues in fast, “Brother,” He hisses and shoves at Hanzo’s leg. “She could get hurt.”\n\nHis concern for Nolli is not misplaced, one wrong move and someone could believe she’s the enemy, but at the same time, it’s apparent she knows how to tread in dangerous waters. She’s played a peaceful position- her hands have been visible at all times, her movements slow, and despite her teasing, she’s answered all questions.\n\n“She can take care of herself,” He says, watching as Morrison eyes her carefully, assessing.\n\n“Who is she- Hanzo!” Genji shouts.\n\nHe slips off the rafter, landing a bit away from the group with a soft thud before he stands straight and stares at Nolli.\n\nThe other agents gather closer, whispering about what he intends to do. He knows what he is to them, cold and distant, and he knows that a few of them will never see past Genji’s armor plating. They fear what he has to say to this stranger.\n\nHands shoot out to hold Nolli back as she approaches him swiftly, but she shrugs them off to get to him, standing toe to toe, looking up at him. Her heels could cut a fine line into dust, he realizes. Gentle hands come to cup his jaw, thumbs swiping across his cheekbones.\n\n“How was your flight?” He asks with a smile that doesn’t quite reach his eyes.\n\n“Quick. I am surprised.”\n\n“Good to see my name still holds some weight.”\n\n“And money, don’t think I didn’t catch the price on those tickets.” Her smile fades to sadness and all Hanzo can think about is how Jesse makes that same face; it’s the face waiting for the dragon to come for him, to save him.\n\nHe crumples, folds into her and wraps around her. She’s wearing cologne, something thick and spiced. He doesn’t cry, can’t let himself with all eyes on them, but he holds her tight, twists his hands in her coat as though he has no anchor to hold him to the earth.\n\nNolli embraces him, plays with the fine hairs on the back of his neck and rubs at his back. “Mijito.” She pries him upright and takes his face in her hands. She waits until he looks at her, face still twisted into a scowl. “I know you will find him. I know you won’t let them turn him into a weapon.” she whispers.\n\nHanzo inhales, nodding swiftly, setting his face back into the mask he knows well before his eyes settle behind her. She smiles, a simple motherly smile.\n\nAll too soon, she steels herself and draws straight, turning from Hanzo and facing down Morrison who no longer holds his gun as a threat. “Who is in charge?”\n\nWinston raises his hand uncertainly from his position at the terminal, regretting the choice when Nolli strides toward him.\n\n“Why haven’t you gone after my son? It’s in my understanding that he’s been gone for over twenty-four hours- aren’t those the most crucial?”\n\nPeople shift around her, away from her-Jesse McCree’s mother who demands answers with the tone of a woman who has raised hellions and shaped them up right.\n\n“We were just about to.” Morrison answers, approaching her. “I’ve been trying to form a team, but the designated leader,” Hanzo can only assume that his gaze is directed at him, the visor obscuring his eyes. “Has been avoiding me all day.”\n\nHe isn’t wrong, but Hanzo refuses to be humble here, not with Jesse’s life on the line and when his stern pride is one of the few things he still has the dignity of keeping.\n\nMorrison sighs, rolls his neck with a crack. “Well, what are you standing around for? Hop to it Shimada. You’re the one who’s defended him the most, go and get him.” He lifts his hand as if to shoo the archer. “Take who you need.” Orders given, he quiets his voice to speak between Winston and Nolli.\n\nHanzo wants to talk to her, assure her that he will get Jesse back, but she’s being escorted away before he can.\n\nHe will just have to make good on his promise instead.\n\n-\n\nHe is entirely prepared to leave on his own, team be damned. There is nothing that will stop him from finding Jesse, except for his brother’s hand firm on his shoulder, halting his brisk walk to his room.\n\n“I’m coming with you.” His brother says curtly and leaves no room for argument as he strides ahead and disappears into Reaper’s room.\n\nHanzo quickly changes into something nondescript for his journey and shoves his bow and arrows into a sleek black case that hangs from his shoulder with a long strap. A small bag is stuffed roughly with a change of clothes, a clip of bills, and a burner phone. If he were more patient, he would properly pack, folding his clothes and making sure he had a great sum on an untraceable chip, but he’s wasting enough time as it is.\n\nHe’s about to leave his room, when he passes the serape still draped over the back of a chair.\n\nIt pulls him in, and his fingers bury and twist into the worn fabric, his callouses catching on the frayed patches in the weave. Vividly he can remember roaming his fingers along the golden pattern while he walked close behind the cowboy, tangling his small serpentine bodies in it when he no longer desired to walk.\n\nSlowly he pulls it off the chair, folding it as tightly as he can before replacing some of the clothes in his pack with it. No one will question if he’s wearing a few extra layers- he always ran cold-blooded.\n\nHe doesn’t get to knock at Reaper’s door, Genji is waiting for him, tapping away at his comm as he leans against the wall. He wears a sweater that is entirely too large over his mechanical exterior and instead of a nondescript case for his weapon, a thin guitar case is resting against his back.\n\n“You do not have to join me.” Hanzo offers.\n\nHis brother tilts his head - something of a smile. “Of course, Hanzo. He is my friend, and you are my brother.” He rolls a shoulder, standing shoulder to shoulder with his brother. “I know what it is like to lose a mate.” There is a story there, one that Hanzo one day hopes to hear, but it is for another time.\n\n“I hope you were not planning on leaving without us.”\n\nThe melodic voice belongs to Zenyatta. The omnic walks with Reaper, arms linked as has become the norm to see them.\n\nReaper separates only to open the door to his quarters and disappear inside. He leaves the door open and Genji laughs, ducking inside.\n\nAgain, it appears as though the decision for his team is being made for him.\n\nThe wraith rifles through a drawer before pulling out a set of comms. They look just like the Overwatch ones, but instead of a standard blue, they are sleek black and the logo is a red and white ship, a sword overtop- it matches the large symbol on the back of one of Genji’s hoodies. He hands them to everyone in the room and then silently demonstrates taking the earpiece out of the compartment in the back.\n\n“Blackwatch,” He says, pulling out a few more gadgets. He manhandles Genji, spins the cyborg so he can get at his bag, depositing his items in there. His brother seems to have become the designated pack-mule. “Harder to get past the encryption, and the base can’t listen in the whole time.”\n\nHe pauses, turns and grabs an extra comm, tossing it to Hanzo.\n\n“For both of you,” The privacy and the consideration of his other form is welcomed, but Hanzo is still surprised that Reaper has said nothing to him about the dragons - though looking at how close he is with Genji, he is not surprised..\n\nZenyatta quickly leaves a message in Athena’s system, should anyone come asking for them, and just as they are about to depart, a sharp knock goes throughout the room.\n\nAnother delay and Hanzo’s gut twists. He wants to find Jesse, he needs to bring him back home, wants to know he’s safe.\n\n“You were thinking of leaving without us?” Hana’s disbelief is undertoned with haughtiness, as though she knew she would be coming along no matter what.\n\nLúcio waves at Hanzo, “We came to help.”\n\nThe sinking feeling turns into swelling - if only Jesse could see them now, how many people want him home. How many people love him. Angela’s insistence upon proving Morrison wrong, Hana and Lúcio ready to throw themselves into danger for him. His old friend, old mentor, and his teacher all prepared to go in without a clue to save him.\n\nJesse is loved, but unable to see any of it from where he is.\n\n“Now where do we start?” Hana asks.\n\nReaper sighs and fishes out more comms - a quick glance tells Hanzo that he has enough for eight people roughly. Where he got them or why he was hoarding them, Hanzo will never know. “I have a list of bases, we start at one and comb through them until we find him.”\n\nHanzo bristles. “That will take too long,” He snaps. “Surely there is a better method- which ones are empty, which ones are capable of being a prison. What about hidden areas such as the one I was kept in?”\n\nThe blatant truth, is that they simply don’t have enough information. “And... what of new locations?” Genji asks in tandem, tilting his chin downwards. Everyone looks at each other before they begin to set their items down. There’s no good place to start, Talon’s secrets are well guarded.\n\nThe wraith sighs, pulls out what looks to be a personal phone and taps away quickly. The reply is instantaneous and he growls at whatever is on his screen. “Give me an hour. I’ll be back with intel.”\n\n-\n\nNolli thanks Winston as he hands her a warm coffee mug. A sip tells her it’s bitter, but she refrains from making a scene. Well, even more of a scene. Not like she could help it, the old soldier had made it too easy to tease and she was biding time until she found Hanzo.\n\nThat rascal, hiding and watching her put the agents of Overwatch on edge. She smiles into her mug - a man after her own heart, that one. Speaking of, her heart breaks to recall how he looked, worn down and lost, and how he held her too tight in his grief. His wounds were too visible and unfortunately there was no time for him to recover before finding her son.\n\n “So,” Nolli jumps, startled out of her thoughts. She was currently sharing a space with a talking gorilla. Strange, but not the strangest thing she’s ever seen. Winston clears his throat and pretends to have not noticed her surprise. “Where are you from?”\n\n“Montana.”\n\n“You got here pretty fast, assuming Mr. Shimada called you after…” He trails off, they both know what he implies.\n\nShe smiles, eases the awkwardness. “The wonders of money, the boy doesn’t appear to be short of it.”\n\nWinston grins. “Certainly not, he’s been an asset in gathering resources and funding. It would be a lot tougher if he didn’t lend a hand.” An oversharer. He seems to think of something and lumbers over to a screen.\n\nFrom the angle, Nolli can’t see what he looks for, but there’s a visible crease between his brows. “Were you near the attacks? The omnic ones?”\n\nPursing her lips, she nods. “My city was the first one hit,” She can still smell the smoke from her neighbor’s house going up in flames.\n\n“I’m sure you’ve heard here have been many attacks like it all over the world then- few casualties, thankfully, but too much destruction, and there’s been a lot of missing people after each attack.” He rambles off, handing her a tablet pad and letting her scroll through it.\n\nShe sees faces, so many of them, labeled missing and short descriptions of them. All of them appear to have some sort of status due to a talent. “Are they collecting people who go above and beyond?” There’s a vet with a purple heart on the list, an olympic gold medal sprinter, and a businesswoman with a note of - Nolli’s eyebrows raise in surprise - eight fluent languages and three other semi-fluent.\n\nWinston shakes his head. “We thought that too, but there’s something else not adding up. All deceased are whole, but there are…. Body parts. Always with the omnics, but none of the tests are genetic matches to those missing. We don’t know where the pieces are coming from, it’s almost like the-”\n\nNolli tightens up, “They’re bringing the pieces in with them.”\n\n“Precisely, and the same thing happened with the omnics that attacked our base-”\n\n“Here!?” She hisses. “Who’s missing?” She hadn’t considered it, hadn’t connected the dots between her son with hellfire in his eyes, a wicked shot, and the missing talented folks. “Jesse,” Her fingers tighten around her mug and on the tablet. “They took m-” Her voice cracks. “My boy?”\n\nWinston looks down, ashamed and sorry all at once. “We don’t know for sure-”\n\n“Is that why they were in my city? They were coming for him there?” She has to get help- Hanzo will not be enough.\n\n“Ms. Nolli, where are you going?” Winston calls out to her as she leaves, tugging her hat on, holding her purse close to her side.\n\nShe glances over her shoulder, regrets not being able to stay for Jesse’s return. “Family business.”\n\nAnd as she exits, she barely hears the scientist say “I... thought McCree was family business?”\n\n-\n\nIt would be a dive joint - and a crowded one at that. There’s no better place to meet a mercenary than a crowded restaurant, and one with dim lighting so while you’re visible, your business can’t be seen.\n\nReaper looks around again. Or maybe his contact just likes the place genuinely, they’re strange enough, it wouldn’t surprise him too much.\n\nHe takes a seat at a booth, waits until a server comes by and leaves before speaking aloud. “I know you’re there,” Something brushes up his calf, wiggling like toes. “Sombra.”\n\nIn a shimmer, she appears on the opposite side of the table, leaning into her hands with a pout. “You’re no fun. Were you always this much of a buzzkill, Gabriel?” She pulls an image of his former self into thin air and laughs. “Of course you were,” She sends the image forward where it breaks in front of his eyes.\n\nThe wraith remains astute, his featureless disguise hiding the curl of his gnarled lips. He would appreciate it if people would let Gabriel Reyes rest in peace.\n\nShe ignores the threat in his silence. “You know it’s risky for you to contact me, right? Talon wants your head on a platter- this better not be some sort of booty call or I’m getting myself a promotion.”\n\n“I need a favor.”\n\nSombra groans loudly and slides down in her seat until only her head is visible - Reaper can feel her strange footwear prodding at his side. \"It's always a favor!\" She gripes and begins imitating him, \"Sombra, remove the ingrate's name from the botched mission on the train. Sombra, make this omnic disappear, hide these cyborg schematics. Sombra, the door .\"\n\nShe laughs suddenly, reveling in a playful, but false irritation. She sits up and leans in close. “Do you know how many IOU’s,” She brings up three screens, each with a bolded letter on it. They change as she taps them, “U-O-me?” The last is a winking graphic of her face.\n\n“That you never call on.”\n\n“That I’m saving!” She sounds indignant.\n\nHe leans forward, tilts his head in a grin - a behavior learned from Zenyatta and Genji that he hadn’t noticed develop over time. “Then consider this three more to your collection.”\n\nHer eyes go wide. “Woah. Three, what exactly do you need from me?” She’s wary, he doesn’t blame her.\n\n“Your employer has managed to get his hands on McCree again- I need to know where they put him.”\n\nSombra snorts. “He’s worth three? This little tidbit of information? Alright then, I can find him for you- and y’know, I’ll even give you a discount. Make it two.”\n\n“Two IOU’s it is then.” He agrees.\n\n“Give me ten minutes and I’ll give you everything you need.”\n\n“Ten?” She looks up, squinting at him. “You’re getting rusty, Sombra.”\n\nShe wrinkles her nose at him, tapping away into a holo-keypad before vanishing.\n\n“Five.”"}
+{"text": "Harry didn't understand her reaction, \"What,  What ? I’m telling you I’ll help you help Draco. I thought you would be happy with my decision.” He gave her a half looped smile.\n\nShe looked accusingly, “What have you done until now, with his case?”\n\nHe shrugged, “Low priority.”  This is still about a git, a bullying git. \n\n\"Harry, I can't believe this! A wizard is attacked, and the Head Auror considers it a low priority? Because of the man he was in the past?\" Her temperament rose several degrees, \"Are you serious? Seriously, serious?\"\n\n At least he has the decency to look guilty, Harry cowered slightly, “Look, Hermione, I admit it. I shouldn’t have swept it under the rug. But don’t forget that we are talking about the ferret.”\n\n He's not getting away so quickly,  she looked accusingly, putting both hands on her hips, \"Who's a human being, just like you and me. He bleeds and pees the same colour. How many other cases have you treated this way?\"\n\n“Only his case.” Harry sighed deeply, “Alright, okay, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have. I’ve said it already. But we are talking about the git. We weren’t exactly best friends…”\n\n\"Harry, since when is that an excuse? You have responsibilities, Harry. Your job comes with accountabilities that you can't ignore because they were arseholes over your youth years.\" She kept pointing an accusing finger at him, \"If everyone handles this like you did, where does it end, Harry? If a healer starts to deny treatment to a wizard because he holds a long-time grudge? What makes you better than Voldemort?\" Hermione spread her arms in frustration. Harry winced at every jab, knowing all too well nothing she said was wrong.\n\nShe raised both hands in the air, at face height, fingers open wide, “What am I going to do with you, Harry?” She took a deep breath, to find her peace again. “Harry, do you know something more?”\n\n“Malfoy was here this morning, telling me to keep you off his back. AND to inform me that you knew something about his attack.” He laid all his cards on the table.\n\nHermione inclined her head, “And???”\n\n\"And that's it.\" His admission forced Hermione to subdue the urge to hit him in the head. She gave Harry a quick overview of what she knew and suspected, summing up the names of the Death Eaters who Theo still had contact with. Harry nodded and scrunched his face upon hearing some of the names.\n\nHarry frowned, concerned, \"Rookwood knew about Gibbons? I suspect this attack wasn't a spur of the moment. But a planned event to be executed the moment someone spotted Malfoy.\"\n\nHermione nodded, “It may very well be, Harry. He was left to die, in such a state. To suffer while his life slipped away.” The memory came back in full force, and she felt her throat go constricted. A few moments later she rasped her throat and continued, “Have you offered him help?”\n\nHe nodded, “Yes and he denied.”\n\nShe flexed a fist, “He’s so obstinate. A headstrong git…” Her lips curled into a smile, “And what are we going to do, Harry?”\n\nHarry made a few decisions, “It’s time I tap decently into my contacts in the underground, and finally try to dig into the matter. I hope my informant knows more.”\n\n“And what about Ron, Harry?”\n\nHe assured her, “Don’t worry about Ron. I’ll convince him to help us, based on my assumptions. I saw a different wizard. Not the arrogant teenager we knew.”\n\nHer face told him wordlessly,  I told you so . \"Harry, he reads to sick children, visits lonely elders. I saw him yesterday at St. Mungo's. The children call him uncle Drake, Harry. He spoke to every present child, touching them. The git we knew, was disgust from a little spit, but the man? He held hands. He stroked over the heads, kissed the cheeks. And he read to them, he sounded just like my dad. The gentle voice, changing the tone according to the story. Explaining difficult words…\"\n\n“Oh Hermione, you are falling…”\n\n“No, I’m standing straight, Harry.”  Hold down your horses, not so fast. \n\n“I have his mobile number.”\n\n\"So do I, Harry.\" His eyebrows disappeared under the fringe, \"Did he give you an address?\" The wizard shook his head, \"It's just a matter of time before I can find him.\" She stood up and gave him a kiss, \"Harry, please do your job decently this time. I'll keep you up to date.\"\n\n“Hermione, and his request?”  I think I know the answer, already. \n\n“I’ve heard you, Harry, and I’ve considered it. My conclusion? I find it first class bullocks.” She winked, “I have a few other partners, who are working on their end of things.”\n\nHarry didn't know if he felt curious or anxious, she was taking unnecessary risks in his opinion, \"Who?\"\n\nHermione dismissed him, \"Nobody you should worry about. We will help the git if he wants or not. Or my name isn't Hermione Granger.\"\n\n“At this rate, your name will become Hermione Malfoy.”\n\n“Not funny, Potter.”\n\n“See what I mean? He’s rubbing off on you already!” They both smirked.\n\n-oOo-\n\n\"How do you find a git, who doesn't want to be found?\" She tapped her lip with a finger, \"It's time I called some of my fellow Muggle colleagues.\" Putting words into action, she spent the next half hour talking to her MI6 contact, placing a plan at work to narrow down on his location. The number gave them an idea of the surroundings, but not an exact address. They agreed on a phone call at a certain hour, to pinpoint precisely his whereabouts.\n\nBut first, enjoy a well-earned dinner,  it was time she turned the plates on him .\n\n-oOo-\n\nThe mobile was answered at the second ring, “Granger.”\n\n“Malfoy, I missed your company last night. I had made so many arrangements.” She watched her stopwatch, they were talking for ten seconds, she needed to keep him talking for another fifty.\n\nHis chuckle sounded through the earpiece, “Which arrangements precisely, Granger?”\n\n“You sound husky, are you curious, Malfoy?”\n\n“Don’t dawdle, Granger. Tell me, which arrangements? Handcuffs?”\n\n Ten more seconds…  “No, no handcuffs, but you gave me an idea there. You’re into kinky…ha ha...No Malfoy, Draco.” She drawled, “I had my sexiest lingerie set…”\n\n“In which colour?”\n\n\"Black, but very sheer. Like a thin veil.\" She spoke slowly, seductively. A message lighted up, and she glanced over with a knowing smile. Setting course to the indicated location, she kept talking.\n\n“Sheer black lingerie?”\n\n\"It was more a lace nightgown, it barely covered my bum…\" His heavy intakes of breath were doing weird things to her mood, \"And…\"\n\nHe was getting as aroused as she was, “And, what Granger?”\n\nHermione didn't answer straight away, looking up to the highest floor of a two-story modest house in a residential London neighbourhood. She was hidden by a disillusionment charm, aided by the dark of the night. The focus of her gaze was a low-lit window with its white curtains closed. Behind, the shape of a man, pacing back and forth, talking at a mobile. She was able to discern his features, from the only time he came close enough to the curtains. Her answer, rather the lack of it, was messing with his system.\n\nHappy with her confirmation, she entered the door, using a simple alohamora to unlock it. Using the same spell to enter his home and adding a muffliato to the game, she hid in a corner to watch him closely.  Oh boy, was he restless now. ..\n\n“Granger?” Her silence through the mobile alarmed him, he sounded anxious. “Are you still there...Hermione?” He never stopped pacing back and forth.  Was she in danger? Where was she? \n\nHer answer soothed him, “Yes.”\n\n\"For a moment, I feared…\" He sighed deeply, a hand ranking over his blond hair, \"You haven't answered me yet, witch. And what?\"\n\nShe smirked,  payback buddy  , \"And what? You mean about my lace thingy?\" He froze in expectation, and her fun increased, \"Oh, that...Malfoy, you could see everything,\" she drawled, \"Of course through a black shadow.\" His loud grunt came from deep.  What a sight he his, this worked up .\n\nHis husky voice did weird things in her belly, “And did you wear anything underneath, Granger?”\n\n\"A little something. It barely covered the basics, if I'm honest.\" Her grin couldn't be bigger, \"I believe Muggles call it a thong.\" Her belly trembled with laughter at the sight. \"You know it, I'm sure. A small fabric triangle and a cord running through its base over my…\" He was leaning his head against the cold window, hand rubbing his groin. \"My quim, up the crease of my arse and connecting with the waistband on the back.\" His hand flexed harder around his hardened member, her words hit the target entirely.\n\n I have to end this if I want to have some fun this evening, “Malfoy, see you later.” His grunted words were inaudible.\n\nShe ended the call and bided her time."}
+{"text": "You quietly wandered the almost endless area that was the Pizzaplex. It was always lonely at night, you never had anyone to play with. The only thing that was heard were your metallic footsteps, you messed about as you went to your usual spot, the gift shop.\n\nYour objective as an animatronic was pretty simple, look for kids who were left out and play with them! It was pretty fun for the most part, until whatever kid you were playing with got bored of you and went with a friend group. Your body was composed of a soft, plush material, which made you perfect for hugs! You were also small like a child. You were very approachable to the kids. Sometimes when you walked out here during the nights you wished that you could draw or paint with someone, usually you hung out with Sun whenever you or him had time. It was night time though, so you couldn't do that.\n\nSpeaking of which, you weren't supposed to be out. You had your own room, which was just a mock stage room with a charging station tailor made for you. You really needed to go and charge, you would act like an overtired toddler the next day if you were below a certain charge. Your programming was a little TOO realistic. No one could figure out how you managed to get loose at night, Vanessa couldn't even figure out how you escaped through the cams. It was just that magic convenience.\n\nBeing a mini Houdini at night got you to forge a friendship with Sunny's counterpart, Moon. You'd escape, he'd find you and bring you back. You'd escape again, rinse and repeat. He found it very irritating at first, but eventually he found you endearing. It was nice having someone who wasn't scared of you around, even if they were just a robo-kid. After a while you two developed a brother-sibling relationship, neither of you could really complain. It was fun talking about how your days went while Moon carried you back to your designated area. Some nights he didn't even bother taking you back if you were above a certain percentage, or if you day had gone slowly. \n\nYou had managed to get into the plushies and battery acid Fizzy Faz before you heard a voice.\n\n\"Naughty child, you should be in bed.~\" His tone was playful, having been used to you already. \"MOONY!\" You shouted eagerly as you ran up to him, jumping off the small platform you were on. He picked you up, carrying you on his hip. \"What are you doing now? You know you're not supposed to get into the Fizzy Faz, you know what it does to you.\" \"But I charge when I drink it Moony!\" Moondrop looked at you with a deadpan expression. \"Yes, but at what cost? We are NOT dealing with you hopped up on Fizzy Faz again. Fazbear said he didn't want a repeat of last time.\" You pouted, crossing your arms in defiance. \"No!\" \"I don't have time to be dealing with this! You're at less than half of your charge!\" You knew how stubborn Moondrop was, so you decided not to fight it this time. \"Fine...can I please have a plushie at least?...Please?\" \n\n\"Hmm...\" He decided to have some fun, dragging out his answer. He knew you had a bit before you'd start getting cranky, he wasn't worried yet. His head tilted, rotating clockwise a bit, then counterclockwise. \"P-Please?\" You begged him with an even bigger pout, busting out the puppy dog eyes. He responded to that with a playful eye roll and a sigh. He appreciated that you had the capability to understand his way of joking. \"Fine, but only ONE. After this I'll take you back to rest, you know you've already been naughty by leaving your room.\" You quickly snatched up a Moon plush. He was almost flattered. \n\nMoon's upper half did a 180* as he started back on the path to your room. His lower half followed suit. \n\n\"Moony?\"\n\n\"Yes?\"\n\n\"Why do you like me?\"\n\n\"You're one of the few children I can tolerate causing trouble during naptime. Which is surprising. Because you're an animatronic. You cause a lot of trouble around here, it's also surprising, I didn't think anyone other than Chica and Roxy could stir up much trouble. You're very special to me, is what I'm trying to say. You're what the guests would consider...a sibling to me.\"\n\nYou responded with a warm hug to him. You clung to him like a koala. \"Aww Moony, you're like a brother to me too!!!\" He smiled at you, patting your head. \n\nThe trip back was quiet for the most part, occasionally you'd point out different areas that you'd played in earlier that day, to which he would go \"Oh, really?\" and then ask a tiny follow up question.\n\nWhen you both arrived to your door, Moony slowly opened the door for you. You had been noticeably more tired (your entire body was running on an energy saver like mode, your body was much less reactive and your voice volume was much lower than usual) on the way back. Moon went off on his usual routine to put you to sleep, setting you down on your bed like charging station. It was the size of a regular charging station, just in bed form. You loved it. It even came with a Pizzaplex brand microfiber blanket and pillow (why it was so specific left everyone wondering) for you. As Moon tucked you in you held onto his blue and white hand. \"Moony? I don't wanna be alone...can you stay with me?\"\n\n\"Y/N, you know-\"\n\n\"I promise to stay tonight!\"\n\n\"Y/N-\"\n\n\"And tomorrow!\"\n\n\"You know I can't\"\n\n\"Please??\"\n\nHe let out a groan of defeat before submitting. You weren't going to let up about this. \"FINE! Ugh, let me get in.\" He hopped onto bed, getting himself comfortable with you as you nuzzled your tiny body into his robotic one. As he let you settle down he was surprised at your lack of energy, shutting down for the rest of the night. As rough as he liked to act, he couldn't deny that he had a soft spot for you. Eventually settling down himself, he hunkered down to contemplate his situation.\n\nWho knew that robots could build such tight-knit families? "}
+{"text": "Hyunjin only really has patience for Seungmin. Not just because Seungmin is cute and he's his boyfriend, though that does play a part in it, but also because Seungmin isn't as extra as the others. He's mainly focusing on Felix, Chan, and Jisung. Although there are times when everyone is extra, including Hyunjin, those three are so extra, it's hard to believe there's any extraness left for anyone else. Seungmin shared his thoughts but he has a heart of gold and he easily gets sucked into being extra. At those times, Hyunjin wishes he could save him but he knows one smile from Seungmin will suck him into being extra as well. But, back to the three who are extremely extra, out of Chan, Jisung and Felix, if Hyunjin had to choose, Felix is the most extra. So that's why it was such a surprise to Hyunjin and the others that Felix was calmly standing with a screaming Jisung by his side while Chan was on the other side of Felix, jumping up and down with - Oh. Seungmin. Hyunjin guessed that he'd have to wait to get normal Seungmin back but he was okay with that. \"Shut up, Jisung,\" Hyunjin said, glaring at Jisung.\n\n \n\n\"No,\" Jisung yelled, turning to give Felix a high five. However, Felix simply shook his head and moved to stand beside Hyunjin.\n\n \n\n\"I'm with Hyunjin on this one. Shut up, Jisung,\" Felix stated, causing the others to gasp and stare at him in shock. Hyunjin smiled a bit, throwing an arm around Felix's shoulders.\n\n \n\n\"I guess Felix is no longer extra, seems like you've been replaced, Seungminnie,\" Hyunjin said as Felix nodded in agreement.\n\n \n\n\"Felix, no,\" Chan whined, frowning at the thought of losing his fellow extra Aussie. \n\n \n\n\"Yeah, as much as we hate his extraness, we agree,\" Changbin said, pointing at himself, Minho, Woojin, and Jeongin. \"That'll be a drastic change.\"\n\n \n\n\"Oh well, you'll have to get used to it,\" Felix replied, shrugging before he turned to Hyunjin. \"Let's go somewhere else, Hyunjinnie, there's too much extraness here.\"\n\n \n\n\"Yep, let's go, bestie!\" The others watched the two of them walk away before turning to each other.\n\n \n\n\"I feel like something is missing,\" Jisung said, a bit too dramatic for Minho's and Changbin's liking. Chan nodded in agreement, placing his hand over his heart.\n\n \n\n\"Guys, it's Felix, he'll be back to normal in no time. How long does he think he can actually last without being extra at least once,\" Changbin asked, rolling his eyes. Seungmin grinned to himself, he certainly hoped that Felix will go back to normal soon, then he'd win the bet and Felix will have to give him money. However, the answer to Changbin's question came two weeks later as Hyunjin and Felix sat on the couch, judging Chan, Jisung, Seungmin and the others for being extra and loud. \n\n \n\n\"God, Jisung, shut up,\" Felix said, rolling his eyes.\n\n \n\n\"Took the words right from my mouth, Lix,\" Hyunjin said, patting his shoulder. It has been two weeks of Felix being a completely normal person while Seungmin was being a completely extra person. Hyunjin missed him but normal Felix is a good replacement until Seungmin becomes normal again. Until then, Hyunjin will just be there, patiently waiting while hanging out with Felix. See, if Felix was being extra right now and Seungmin was by Hyunjin's side, Hyunjin would be chasing Jisung, Chan, and Felix around until they agreed to shut up. But since Seungmin is the one being extra, he sat by Felix's side, silently judging Jisung, Chan, and Seungmin.\n\n \n\n\"Dab, dab, dab,\" Jisung chanted and Seungmin did each time Jisung told him to while screaming. Shaking their heads, Felix and Hyunjin stood up to walk away but Changbin slid in front of them, causing them to stop. Changbin crossed his arms over his chest, pouting at Felix as he stomped his foot. \n\n \n\n\"I want my boyfriend back,\" he said in the cutest voice he could muster. Everyone watched Felix in anticipation, especially Seungmin. To their absolute shock, Felix only snorted and shook his head.\n\n \n\n\"That's so childish, hyung,\" Felix said before he walked around Changbin. Hyunjin grinned as he followed after Felix, totally surprised that Felix kept his cool just like the others were. \n\n \n\n\"Did he just,\" Woojin trailed off, eyes wide as he turned to Chan who's expression mirrored his. Chan nodded to answer his question even though it was rhetorical. \n\n \n\n\"I, for sure, thought that was going to break him,\" Seungmin said, groaning. However, after three more weeks passed, Felix was not the one to break, Seungmin was since he couldn't take it anymore. \"Oh my god! I give up!\" The others stared at him in confusion as he threw money at a grinning Felix. \"Give me my boyfriend back! I want to be normal again!\" Felix grinned as he stood up, sliding the money into his pocket. \n\n \n\n\"I told you, Seungminnie, being extra is a talent only few possess and being normal isn't that hard,\" Felix said, dabbing as he walked away from Hyunjin. \"Oh, Binnie hyung!\" Changbin grimaced as Felix came over to him. \"I am so sorry for brushing off your cuteness as if it was nothing! You are the cutest human being to ever be born and walk the earth, I love you!\" Felix lifted Changbin up and spun him around as he hugged him tightly.\n\n \n\n\"Aish, put me down, idiot,\" Changbin said, his cheeks turning a dark shade of red. Felix set him down after kissing his cheek. He then ran over to Chan and Jisung, the others sighed as they waited for the dramatic reunion they were about to witness.\n\n \n\n\"Felix? Is that really you,\" Chan asked, fake crying as Felix nodded and pulled him and Jisung into a strong embrace, the three of them fake sobbing and yelling about how much they missed each other. Meanwhile, Seungmin quietly walked over to Hyunjin who sat waiting for him and sat down, leaning over to kiss Hyunjin's cheek.\n\n \n\n\"Sorry for being extra and leaving you alone with Felix,\" Seungmin said. Hyunjin nodded his head, smiling as he grabbed Seungmin's hand, lacing their fingers together before they continued to watch Chan, Jisung, and Felix have their overly and very dramatically extra reunion that included louder fake crying and even louder screaming about Felix being gone from them for oh so long, even though it was only five weeks. The others shook their heads as they watched the three and even though they would never, ever admit it, they were extremely happy that things were finally and thankfully normal once again."}
+{"text": "\nIt starts with stars glittering high up above Hogwarts Castle, like always, like it had years and years ago, when James and the three people he still calls his closest friends stumbled into a boat and crossed the lake together, for the first time. It starts just like that, simply, with the stars, and with the kinetic reflection of the full moon, cast down on the black, rippling waters of the Great Lake. \n\n\n \n\n\nAn oddly chilly breeze combs through James’ hair, and he pulls his cloak closer, idly wondering if Moony remembered his potion. An ache spreads through his chest, followed closely by a pang of guilt.\n\n\n \n\n\nHe misses nights like these. He regrets them, too. \n\n\n \n\n\nNights like this one, nights lit by moonlight, had been filled with wild adventures. The kind of trouble only bored teenagers could manage. The kind only dangerously naive, \n\narrogant\n\n teenagers could manage. \n\n\n \n\n\nMaybe he misses being dangerously naive, untouched by grief, the horrors of war. Just a little bit. Not more than he regrets it, he hopes. \n\n\n \n\n\nJames fetches the Marauder’s Map from his pocket and activates it with a whispered sentence of foolish words. He scans the parchment, and loosens his shoulders when he sees everyone is where they should be. Lily, up in her office, probably slashing her dreaded red ink across a stack of essays, and their children, Prim and Evan, up in Gryffindor Tower, sleeping, hopefully. \n\n\n \n\n\nWith a small sigh, he folds up the map and puts it back. A lot of things were pinned up on hope these days. \n\n\n \n\n\n“Thinking of going for a swim, Prongs?” asks Sirius, appearing from out of the darkness. \n\n\n \n\n\n“After you,” says James. He turns from the lake, and watches Sirius gain on him, the sight of him a slight surprise. He isn’t supposed to be stationed at Hogwarts. Not tonight. \n\n\n \n\n\n“His Highness has called everyone in for an emergency meeting,” explains Sirius. “And by everyone, I mean just the important people… oh, and Snivellus.” \n\n\n \n\n\n“Lily hates that you still call him that.” \n\n\n \n\n\n“But you don’t.” \n\n\n \n\n\nJames grimaces, and turns back towards the lake. He doesn’t hate it. He regrets it. \n\n\n \n\n\n“Has something happened?” asks James, trying to keep the resentment bubbling up through his tone. \n\n\n \n\n\nHe loves being stationed at Hogwarts, keeping guard over his family and the students, but he can’t lie. He misses working the field, the front line, chasing down the bad guys, instead of the bad guys chasing him. \n\n\n \n\n\nAnd he doesn’t like being out of loop. Not knowing everything as soon as it’s happening. \n\n\n \n\n\n“Not much,” says Sirius. “But you know how Tom is. We haven’t seen much of our favorite assassin friend lately, and it’s making him nervous. Paranoid.” \n\n\n \n\n\nSirius joins him at the water’s edge, picks up a pebble from the dirt, and skips it across the lake. It slides gracefully, finally sinking when it reaches the center. James is impressed. If they still kept score, like they had when they were kids, that’d be at least a fifty pointer. \n\n\n \n\n\n“Just cautious,” says James. “Nothing wrong with that, Padfoot.”\n\n\n \n\n\nEspecially not with the way the world is now. \n\n\n \n\n\nThe war casts a shadow even at Hogwarts, and James realizes, maybe for the first time under those stars and the full moon, that he isn’t the only one missing his spark. Hogwarts itself has gone dim.\n\n\n \n\n\nHe picks up a pebble from the ground, squeezes it tight as if making a wish, and lets it fly across the lake. It sails across the water, making just inches further than Sirius’s rock. \n\n\n \n\n\nSirius claps his shoulder. “You always were a show off, mate.” \n\n\n \n\n\nJames forces a chuckle, and as it dies, a faint boom shakes the ground. Something orange lights up the Forbidden Forest, eating the trees, sending up smoke.\n\n\n \n\n\nA few seconds pass, with James and Sirius staring into distance, shocked. \n\n\n \n\n\n“Padfoot,” says James, finally, blinking at the forest. “Are you seeing this?”\n\n\n \n\n\n“Seeing what? The spontaneous, raging forest fire?” asks Sirius. “Not at all.” \n\n\n \n\n\nThe two share a grin before taking off, towards the flames, the way they always do when they’re both about to jump head first into something stupidly dangerous. \n\n\n \n\n\nA small thrill, an echo of something long past, ignites in James’ chest. \n\n\n \n\n\n* * * * * * * * \n\n\n \n\n\nIt starts with an impulse, with an unknown curse shouted and thrown backwards over his shoulder, while he runs wildly through the Department of Mysteries. \n\n\n \n\n\nAnd then he isn’t.\n\n\n \n\n\nWithout explanation, without the unpleasant feeling of being pulled out of one place and placed into another, he’s in a forest. He stops running, stares. His breath is still fast, his chest heaves from sprinting, as he looks around.  \n\n\n \n\n\nHe’s in the Forbidden Forest, and it’s uncomfortably hot. Something crackles, pops, behind him. He turns, green eyes growing wide as he sees the chaotic fire burning behind him. \n\n\n \n\n\nHarry jumps just in time to dodge a tree branch engulfed with flames. He waves his wand, conjuring enchanted water, but it does nothing, just evaporates from the heat of the fire. \n\n\n \n\n\nHe tries again, and again, until he realizes running is the better option and begins ripping through the forest, his wand ready and his mind alert. His feet carry him to a clearing he’s never seen before, and by the time he gets there, he hears voices, familiar ones. \n\n\n \n\n\nTwo voices, to be exact. They’re carelessly uttering Charms, effectively killing the fire Harry had accidentally started, without much sweat. \n\n\n \n\n\nHarry crosses that particular curse off his list of viable options. Never again. He’ll never use that one again. \n\n\n \n\n\nWith the fire out, Harry has new worries, like hiding from the voices and getting back to the Department of Mysteries. His friends are in danger. Sirius is still in trouble. \n\n\n \n\n\nBut the voices… they’re distracting him.\n\n\n \n\n\n“-got to be around here somewhere, Prongs.” \n\n\n \n\n\nHarry stops, straining his ears to hear their conversation over his pounding heart. Sounds like Sirius. Sounds like Sirius talking to his dad, just like back in the Pensieve, but that’s impossible.\n\n\n \n\n\n“I didn’t see anyone on the map,” says the other voice. The one who can’t be James. “But I guess I wasn't really looking.” \n\n\n \n\n\n“Get it back out,” says Sirius, and Harry panics.\n\n\n \n\n\nHe’s not thinking about the incredible impossibility of this situation. He isn’t thinking about anything else except his name appearing as a black dot on a map, giving up his name and location. \n\n\n \n\n\nIt’s another impulse, another flick of his wand with a curse he’s never tried before. A pop, then a louder boom, erupts from his wand, but not much else except a thin cloud of wispy, white smoke.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Shit,” he whispers. \n\n\n \n\n\nUpside, he’s managed to distract the imposters away from the map. Downside, he’s distracted them away from his name on a map and pulled their attention to him, his actual self. \n\n\n \n\n\nHe runs, and hears Not Sirius and Not James trailing him through the brambles and branches. \n\n\n \n\n\nThis is a trick. \n\n\n \n\n\nAn illusion. \n\n\n \n\n\nIt must be.\n\n\n \n\n\nHe’s running away from a pair of Death Eaters. Enemies disguised as loved ones. It’s the only logical conclusion. \n\n\n \n\n\nWhat room in the Department of Mysteries has he stumbled into? A trap, maybe, something to keep him occupied and contained while Voldemort continues to torture Real Sirius. \n\n\n \n\n\nA good thing about traps is that they always have a way out. Harry just needs to find one, but quickly. He searches for a door, or a tree shaped like one as if he’s a character in a story, when he trips over an overgrown root and falls onto the dirt, forest floor. \n\n\n \n\n\nHe lands funny, with his leg bent weird, and under the rest of him. It takes effort not to cry out in pain, but he manages. It doesn’t matter, though.\n\n\n \n\n\nThe imposters catch up with him anyway, and the worst part, the dangerous part, is that Harry wishes it wasn’t a trap. He wishes it was real. \n\n\n\n\n"}
+{"text": "Lance jerked his shoulder, trying to dislodge the hands that held him down.\n\nFor all that these people claimed that they were peaceful, they sure as hell knew how to throw down. Lance may have not been the strongest of the paladins of Voltron, but even Hunk was having a tough time breaking free of the aliens’ grip on him. He was red-faced and panting, chest heaving as he tried to wrench himself free.\n\n“Hunk, this isn’t working!” Lance called, only to have the hand on his shoulder tighten to the point of pain. The alien made a strange, gurgle-like sound, one that meant nothing to Lance, but insinuated a clear threat: ‘don’t move, or you’ll get it’.\n\nWhat he would get, Lance wasn’t sure, but whatever it was couldn’t be good. He obeyed and went still, but only so he could look at their surroundings.\n\nThey were in front of some sort of altar, shining crystal sparkling on all sides. In the middle of a pool of water was what looked like a gigantic statue of some kind of a holy figure holding its palms outward. Water gushed from the ceiling of the cave, pouring over the statue’s palms and spilling into the pool below.\n\nRight where they were taking Keith.\n\n“What are you doing with him?” Allura demanded waveringly. “Please, tell me what’s going on. I know you don’t want to fight us. I can feel it!”\n\n“Who cares about that!” Pidge shouted. “Let me go! Let all of us go! Why does this always happen to us? We go to a peaceful planet, and then people start trying to kill us!”\n\nIt hadn’t started out that way. At least, not that Lance could tell. How a mission could have gone so wrong, so quickly was a mystery.\n\nThey were travelling through the galaxy, trying to pinpoint a civilization of peoples that needed assistance on the outskirts of Zarkon’s territory. So far, they hadn’t found anything that wouldn’t take a large-scale plan of action to accomplish anything significant. That was when they suddenly received a distress signal.\n\nA nearby planet was hailing any nearby ships in the vicinity, and as soon as the signal came in, Allura called the paladins into the control room.\n\n“Paladins!” Allura said once the team was assembled. “We’ve just received word from a planet nearby that they need our help.”\n\n“We’re sure this is a legitimate distress call, right?” Hunk ventured. “You remember what happened last time.”\n\nLast time, it had been a trap set by Zarkon’s forces and they barely escaped intact. They all looked at Allura, who returned their gazes unflinchingly.\n\n“You are correct, Hunk,” she said. “Last time was a disaster, but we will not make the same mistake again. I had Coran look through our ships files for any information pertaining to this planet. You will be surprised to find out that we knew this planet long, long ago, many years before I was born. Coran, if you will.”\n\nShe gestured to the ship’s console. Coran scrambled to obey, and soon the planetarium display had popped up. Muttering to himself, Coran swiped across the galaxy until he had reached a small, but beautiful planet. Like the Balmera, its surface was glimmering with light, its land forming intricate patterns.\n\n“Wow,” Pidge breathed. “It’s pretty.”\n\n“Yes.” Allura smiled. “It was a wondrous place, from what I can see. Before our war with Zarkon, we had many dealings with them. Their land carries rare riches and minerals, making them a target for theft, but their collective life energy somehow works as a shield for the planet. Only those they trust are allowed in. However…”\n\nAllura frowned, going quiet.\n\n“They’re being attacked,” Coran finished solemnly. “I know not how they stayed protected, but Zarkon must have finally penetrated their defenses after ten thousand years.”\n\n“Just now, after ten thousand years?” Lance asked. “Sure seems convenient now that the paladins are back together. Are we sure Zarkon isn’t behind this somehow?”\n\n“I’m certain of it,” Allura replied. “I can feel it. Their energy, it….it calls to me. Something about it is telling me we must go. It’s nothing like I’ve ever felt before, and it’s not something Zarkon is capable of.”\n\n“What kind of feeling is it?” Shiro asked.\n\n“It’s so difficult to describe. It’s….warm.” She touched the center of her chest, smiling. “Kind. Something good will come of this; I feel it.”\n\n“I don’t know if I trust this,” Hunk whispered loudly.\n\nAllura glared at Hunk, gearing up with a scathing retort, but Shiro stepped forward, hands raised.\n\n“We trust you, princess.” He bowed his head. “If you think this is what we should do, then we’re right behind you.”\n\nAllura’s expression softened in the face of Shiro’s confidence.\n\n“Thank you, Shiro. Diplomacy is an important part of being a paladin of Voltron. Suit up and meet Coran in the training room as soon as you can. He’ll brief you on the customs of the people of this planet: the planet Novaria.”\n\nShe nodded, dismissing them, and they scattered. Pidge and Keith immediately headed for their suits, but Lance hung back, staring at the still open display. Hunk was doing the same thing, observing the small orb up close.\n\n“Hey, Hunk?” Lance started, walking up alongside him. “Does something feel…weird about this?”\n\n“Weird?” He looked at Lance. “Not really. Is your gut telling you something’s off?”\n\n“Yes. No. I don’t know.” Lance stepped closer, peering directly at the planet. The closer he got, the weirder he felt. And the strangest part was that it wasn’t necessary a bad feeling, just weird. \n\n“Well until you figure that you, I guess we should suit up,” Hunk said unconvincingly. “Another space trip that will hopefully end in peace and harmony.”\n\n“Yeah.” Lance stepped back, giving the planet one last look before he turned around. “We should. Let’s move out.”\n\nThey walked to the training room together, clad in their gear and bayards. Pidge and Keith were already there, but Coran and Shiro hadn’t shown up yet, leaving the four of them to mingle.\n\n“’Sup, Pidge,” Lance called, stepping into the room. He glanced at Keith, his lips curling a little. “Keith.”\n\nThey weren’t mortal enemies any longer, but Keith wasn’t exactly his best friend. Now that they’d gotten to know each other a little, Lance could admit that Keith was a good pilot, a good fighter, and maybe—just maybe—a good friend, but he wasn’t about to tell him that.\n\n“Lance,” Keith greeted, eyes flicking up at him briefly. He was studying his bayard, brow furrowed in concentration. Lance and Hunk settled down in front of them, following Keith’s example and pulling out their bayards for inspection.\n\n“So,” Keith started, “does something about this whole thing feel kind of…off?”\n\n“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” said Pidge. She was busy typing something on her laptop, fingers flying across the keyboard. The light glinted off of her glasses when she glanced up at the three of them. “I’m trying to scan the planet—just to make sure what Allura said is true—and everything seems to check out. There’s some sort of forcefield jamming my signals, but I’m not able to trace it. It’s probably coming from the Novarians.”\n\n“Okay, but that doesn’t mean something’s not weird about this,” Hunk argued. “How do we know we can trust them?”\n\n“We don’t,” Lance said. “But we do have to follow Allura’s orders.”\n\n“You think she’s wrong about this?” Keith looked up at Lance, his eyebrow raised. Lance opened his mouth to defend himself when he felt a firm hand land on his shoulder.\n\n“The princess knows what’s best,” came Shiro’s voice from behind them. “If she says we’re going down there, then we’re going down there. They need our help. It would be good if you three could remember that.”\n\nAn awkward, guilty silence fell over the trio, broken only by the sound of Pidge’s frantic typing.\n\nKeith was the first to speak.\n\n“Sorry, Shiro,” he said, sounding sincere.\n\n“It’s just—” At Shiro’s pointed look, Hunk stopped. “Nevermind. Sorry. I’ll be quiet now.”\n\n“See that you are.” Shiro nodded, lips lifting into a smile. “I understand you’re all concerned, but this is nothing we can’t handle.”\n\nSomehow, that wasn’t comforting.\n\nBy the time Coran entered the room, they were all seated in a circle, waiting patiently for his tutelage.\n\n“Ready, paladins?” he chirped, wiggling a pad with a bunch of what looked like gibberish on it. “I have the communications from our Novarian friends right here. It appears that they don’t speak any form of English or Altean—or anything at all, really—but the signal was coded to indicate that they need immediate assistance.”\n\n“What kind of help?” Pidge asked. “Do you think it’s Zarkon?”\n\n“Should we take the ship into orbit?” Shiro added.\n\n“I don’t think that will be necessary,” Coran replied. He poked the screen, bringing up another display. “Don’t you worry; leave that to Allura and myself. For now, it’s time to learn about the Novarian customs!”\n\nLance groaned. Why did he have a feeling this was going to be boring?\n\nCoran went on for about half an hour on the greetings alone. Apparently when he said that they made use of the mind, he meant that the people of Novaria didn’t speak from any type of orifice, relying on touch to communicate ideas. Lance tried to imagine one of them hugging a communication panel and had to stop himself from snickering.\n\nHunk shot him a reproachful look.\n\n“Imagine someone probing your brain,” Coran explained. “Your thoughts, your memories; all of it open for the world to see. It’s just like that!”\n\n“Great,” Keith drawled. “I love having my brain probed. Can we say no to this whole greeting thing?”\n\n“I’m afraid not, Keith.” Coran twirled his mustache. “As much as I’d like to allow you to escape with your mind untouched, it would be terribly rude to the Novarians. You shouldn’t have to worry, though! I’m certain they won’t care about anything holed up in there.”\n\nThis time Lance did snicker. Loudly. Keith shot him a dirty look.\n\n“I’m not so sure about this either.” Hunk shuddered. “Anything involving aliens touching my brain makes me nervous. What if they, like, take over our minds? What then?!”\n\n“That won’t happen,” Shiro said. “We can’t be afraid to try new things. Not everyone in the universe will act like we do. We’d better get used to it.”\n\n“Easy for you to say,” Lance grumbled, leaning his back against Hunk. He didn’t like the thought of his mind being invaded. What if they started broadcasting it to everyone around them? What if Keith heard his thoughts?\n\nLance pushed the thought out of his mind; thinking about it made his skin crawl.\n\nPidge sighed. “Can we move on? We have a distress signal to answer, don’t we?”  \n\n“Righto.” Coran coughed. “So, after greetings, we have general etiquette…”\n\nAfter learning the basics of Nova customs, they were just shy of reaching the planet, which left them with just enough time to get to their lions and be ready for whatever awaited them. Allura was at the helm, dressed for battle and approaching the planet with care. When they reached the outskirts, it was obvious that the distress signal wasn’t in vain; there was a small hole where Zarkon’s forces were streaming into the planet.\n\n“Paladins, be careful,” Allura warned them. “Try to avoid causing any damage to the planet’s surface.”\n\n“Got it,” Lance said, swinging his lion around to the front of the pack. “Ready to kick some Zarkon butt?”\n\n“We’re not going in guns blazing,” Shiro admonished. “We should be careful. Hunk, you’re up front. Keith, you’re with me. Lance and Pidge will hold up our rear and fire if necessary.”\n\nThe forces had only just arrived, which meant that they didn’t even need to form Voltron to take them down. Hunk held up the front, using his defense as a barrier while the other slipped around him and wreaked havoc. When it appeared that the enemy was ill-prepared to face the sudden appearance of the legendary Voltron, Hunk, Shiro, and Lance took off to destroy the largest of the ships while Keith and Pidge attacked the transportation vessels.\n\nIt was an easy win, and after everything that had happened in the last few weeks, Lance should have been overjoyed.\n\nSo why did he feel like he was missing something? The closer they got to the planet, the more he felt like something was pulling him in, encouraging him to do something, to go somewhere. He couldn’t tell what it was, but the feeling in his gut was similar to…anticipation.\n\nLance warily followed the rest of the paladins down onto the planet, taking care not to crush any of the civilians as they descended to the surface and stepped out of their lions.\n\nThe people on Novaria weren’t exactly what they were expecting.\n\nFor one, they seemed to be made of some kind of energy. Whatever it was, it made them glow, as if their bodies could barely contain the light held within. They were vaguely human-shaped, and they towered over their visitors by at least a few feet. The funny thing was, even though they were blindingly bright, it didn’t hurt to look at them. The light was beautiful; welcoming, even, much like the rest of the planet.\n\nThe planet’s surface was covered in stark white foliage, with huge pillars of what looked like glass erupting from the ground. The Novarians had taken advantage of this, building their civilization around the beauty and splendor, erecting towering buildings that punctured the sky high above the clouds.\n\n“Whoa,” Keith breathed beside him. “It’s beautiful here.”\n\n“Yeah.” Lance shot a glance at Keith, watching the wonderment play across his face. “It is.”\n\nA cursory look around informed him that while they’d been admiring the planet’s beauty, Allura was already chatting away with the tallest of the Novarians, its hands clutched tightly between hers.\n\n“Thank you for welcoming us,” she said. “I am princess Allura of Altea, and these are the paladins of Voltron. You may not remember us, but long ago—oh?”\n\nShe narrowed her eyes, concentrating.\n\n“I’m sorry, I’m not sure I understand,” she said slowly. “Can you repeat that?”\n\n“What is it, princess?” Coran leaned forward, hesitating over their joined hands. “Perhaps I might be able to help.”\n\nAnother separate Novarian citizen took Coran by the shoulder and lowered its head until their foreheads were pressed together.\n\n“Oh.” Coran went stiff. “That’s—oh, that’s very strange. You’re in my head now, I see.”\n\nOne of the Novarians approached Lance and Keith, extending a hand—or what looked like a cross between a mitten and a hand—for them to take.\n\n“Ooh, I think it likes us,” Lance purred. “You go first, Keith.”\n\n“Why don’t you go first?”\n\nKeith and Lance shared a glare, challenging each other to be the first to take the bait.\n\nLance was the first to give.\n\n“Fine, I will!” He didn’t want to be rude, after all, so he took the Novarian’s hand in his own, braced for impact. “I hope this alien is ready to dive into the greatest mind it’s ever seen.”\n\n“Whatever.” Keith rolled his eyes and stepped back to watch.\n\nIt wasn’t like anything Lance expected.\n\nIt was warm.\n\nHe felt the Novarian’s mind connect with his own, a wave of that same warmth encompassing his entire being. His body started to tingle from his head to his toes.\n\nThen he felt it; it was like there was something that didn’t belong inside him, pushing gently, inexorably, and Lance was powerless to resist. It entered his mind, searching through his memories and thoughts and feelings. Images that Lance couldn’t understand flashed inside his head, telling a story that didn’t make any sense.\n\n“That kinda tickles, but in my brain.”\n\nThe Novarian went deeper, tugging at his childhood, pulling apart the times he fell and hurt himself; it picked through his time at the academy, watching the back of Keith’s head, always, always watching. Fast forward years, and they were in space; there was Keith, smiling at him, laughing with him.\n\nThe images were coming faster now. He saw a pool of water, glittering, and water cascaded over him, in his mouth, his throat, filling him with something unrecognizable. Something like want.\n\nIt retreated from his and went back to his time at the academy, hesitating, hovering over the memories. Then they shifted, turning to the rest of the crew. They saw Pidge, Shiro, Coran, and Allura. At Hunk’s wide, bright-eyed smile, it stilled, and then buried its claws in Lance’s mind, searching for something, looking for—\n\n“No!” Lance shouted, snatching his hand out of the alien’s grasp. He opened his eyes, which had previously been held shut, and paled in realizing what he’d done. “I’m—I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to let go, but I…that was…”\n\nHis heart was hammering in his chest. His head felt fuzzy, his breathing short.\n\n“What are you doing?!” Keith hissed, watching the alien warily. It swayed, emitting a strange humming sound. Then it turned to Keith.\n\n“I think, I think it wants you now,” Lance muttered, still out of sorts. The experience had been uncomfortable, but at the same time, he felt bereft, like something was missing. Like a piece of something important had been taken, lying just out reach.\n\n“Yeah, thanks for that.” Keith sighed, and then offered his hand for the Novarian to take. It did so gingerly, covering Keith’s palm with its own. Keith gasped, his whole body going rigid.\n\nLance eyed him uneasily. Did I look that stupid?\n\nHe didn’t have a chance to find out. After a few seconds of connecting with Keith, the being suddenly snatched its hand away from him, humming something unintelligible. Then it gurgled, waving its arms at its comrades to gather their attention.\n\n“What’s happening?” Lance muttered, watching as the Novarians turned their heads and started coming their way.\n\nSoon, half of the population was gathering around Keith, chittering and humming and gurgling. The Novarian alongside Allura lifted its head and emitted a booming sound, and the others suddenly ceased.\n\nLance looked at Keith. “What was that?”\n\n“I—I don’t know. It was looking through my mind one second, then the next, it was gone.”\n\nWhat Keith said puzzled Lance, but before he could inquire further, one of the Novarians approached him.\n\nKeith reached out to offer his mind, but instead they took hold of his arms instead and started hauling him away.\n\n“Wait, what’s going on?” Keith jerked weakly in their grip, hesitant to struggle, but still unnerved by what was happening. “What are you doing?”\n\nHaving noticed the commotion, Allura started to push her way through the crowd, reaching out towards Keith. “Excuse me, but where are you taking him?”\n\nThey received no answer, and one of the Novarians took Allura by the arm, restraining her from reaching Keith. Alarmed by the sudden turn of events, the rest of the paladins whipped out their bayards, training them on the Novarians.\n\nAllura held up her free hand.\n\n“Don’t!” she shouted. “Don’t hurt them! We don’t know what’s happening, but we mustn’t resort to violence. Just—if I could speak with your leader again, please!”\n\nMeanwhile, Lance hadn’t moved an inch. It was like his brain was filled with molasses, his thoughts processing too slowly for his body to follow. Hunk came up behind him and laid a hand on his shoulder, tugging him forward.\n\n“What happened over here?” he asked, concerned. “Did Keith do something to them?”\n\nLance shook his head, mind starting to clear. There was something he was supposed to be doing. Someone he was saving. Who was it? Right. Keith.\n\n“What are we supposed to do? Just sit here while they take him away?” Pidge waved her bayard at the nearest exiting Novarians. “We have no idea if they’re about to eat his brains, or—or worse!”\n\nHoly crow, Keith was kidnapped! What was he doing just standing here?\n\n“Keith! We have to save Keith!” He shot forward, ignoring Coran’s enraged shout and lunged at the nearest Novarian, bayard at the ready. These aliens moved pretty slowly, so Lance was expecting an easy fight, which was why he was shocked when the Novarian’s hand shot out like lightning and wrapped around Lance’s wrist, sending his bayard clattering to the ground.\n\nAs if a switch had been pulled, the Novarians turned and grabbed the remaining paladins and Coran, pulling them in the same direction that Keith had been taken.\n\n“What the hell is going on?” Shiro snapped, apparently finished playing the responsible adult. “I thought things were going well. Why are they attacking us?”\n\n“They aren’t trying to hurt us. Don’t worry: I’m trying to find out,” Allura grit out. Her arms were being restrained by two Novarians, but she made no more attempts to get free. “They’re blocking me somehow! I’m getting images—flashes. Something about a pool and a mind.” Her brow was knit with concentration, sweat beading down her neck. “I see Lance and Keith. I—I can’t make it out.”\n\n“Lance! What did you do?” Pidge squirmed, pointing her foot accusingly in Lance’s direction.\n\n“I didn’t do anything!” he cried. “Okay, maybe one of the Novarians got kind of brain-handsy with me and started digging around in my memories, so I pulled out of our mind meld. So what?”\n\n“Maybe you insulted him,” Hunk guessed.\n\n“But they didn’t start going crazy until they got to Keith! If anything, it’s his fault.”\n\nHunk opened his mouth to answer, but his attention was stolen by their arrival at the edge of a large cave. Glittering crystals lined every inch of the walls, sending light dancing along the crystals in a dazzling display. Even though they were effectively in a hostage situation, Lance couldn’t help but gape.\n\n“I’ve got something,” Allura gasped. Her hair was damp with sweat, her limbs trembling in the Novarians’ grip.\n\n“Princess, don’t strain yourself!”\n\n“I’m fine,” she snapped. “Trying to force our minds together is difficult, but I can handle it. I learned that there’s a ritual that’s going to happen. And Keith is going to take part in it.”\n\n“Uh oh.” Hunk swallowed, glancing at the front of the pack. “Rituals are never a good sign.”\n\nAs if on cue, the Novarians got louder, their voices echoing off of the walls. Keith could still be heard shouting at the front of the pack, crying out for help. The sound was grating, setting Lance’s nerves on edge. He never wanted to hear that sound come out of Keith’s mouth again.\n\n“Let me go! Whatever you’re doing, it needs to stop! Keith! Keith!” he shouted. There was an answering shout, but it was fading fast. He was getting farther away. Lance wracked his brain for any sort of plan, but his mind was suspiciously blank.\n\nHow had things gone so wrong? It was after they went into Keith’s mind that they started going crazy. What if what they saw there made them want to take over his brain, like Hunk had ludicrously suggested just hours ago?\n\n\nThink, Lance, think. What could they want with Keith?\n\n\nAside from his looks and combat skills, Lance couldn’t imagine anything the Novarians might want with a human.\n\nWhile he was trying to concoct a plan, they had arrived at a large cavern, which brought them back to the present situation. Keith was in trouble, and Lance was completely and totally useless.\n\nThe Novarians had lined them up in front of the altar, their hands held aloft. The rest of the Novarians that weren’t occupied with their guests were starting to disperse, forming a tight ring around the walls of the cave. In the center was Keith, still pulling at the leader’s hold as it dragged him forward.\n\n“Let me go!“ He let out an enraged shout, kicking his legs wildly. The Novarian leader remained unfazed, dragging him near the center of the pool of pouring water.\n\n“I’m guessing nobody has a plan,” Pidge added helpfully, her glasses slipping messily down her nose as she tugged at the hands binding her.\n\n“Of course not! I can’t even move,” Hunk groaned. “These guys are too strong. Isn’t there a way we can call our lions?”\n\n“I don’t know!” Shiro craned his neck to look at the way they’d come. “They usually just come when we’re in trouble.”\n\n“Maybe we’re really not in trouble,” Pidge suggested, sounding like she didn’t believe it.\n\n“I don’t know.” Shiro frowned. “This isn’t looking good. If they don’t want to hurt us, why can’t they just explain what’s happening?”\n\nThey didn’t have time to find out. As Keith was held up by the Novarian leader, the humming grew even louder, echoing in the cave, along the walls, in their heads. In Lance’s head.\n\n“Keith! Let me go, you—” Lance managed to wrench his arm from the Novarian’s grasp and fell forward, fingers scraping the ground for purchase. The sounds grew louder, scraping at the walls of his mind, and he knew without a doubt that something was about to happen to Keith. Icy cold fear washed over him, and he felt it when they plunged Keith into the freezing water. “Keith! Keith! Keith!”\n\nHis head ached. It felt like someone had plunged their hand into his chest and given his heart a good squeeze. His vision swam, eyes trying and failing to lock onto Keith as he was forced mercilessly back into the freezing cold water. It felt like he was being branded, like his skin was melting off, exposing bone and blood and pain, so much pain.\n\nHe screamed, mouth forming Keith’s name, and then there was nothing.\n\nLance was spinning. He couldn’t see, could barely hear his panicked breathes over the dull roaring in his ears. He was spinning, and he kept spinning, floating through—space? He couldn’t tell where he was. Lights were flashing in front of his eyes, so fast that he couldn’t make out what was going on. He tried to move, but his body wouldn’t cooperate.\n\n\nWhere am I? What happened?\n\n\nThe memories were fuzzy, slipping away. He couldn’t think properly; his thoughts were muddled, broken into bits and pieces.\n\nHis eyes fluttered open and he saw a flash of red, and an endless, endless light. He closed them again, trying not to panic, remembering to breathe.\n\n\nWhat was I doing? \n\n\n\nI was rescuing someone. A friend? \n\n\n\nA friend? Who? \n\n\n\nSomeone, someone important. It was…\n\n\n\nKeith! \n\n\nLight exploded behind his eyes at the revelation. He squeezed them shut, trying to block it out, to block everything out. There were voices sounding in the background, calling out, but before he could reach out a grasp them, the voices faded. Something cool rushed over him, filling his mouth and nose and lungs. He coughed and coughed, choking and spitting until he felt like he was able to breathe again.\n\nHis head hurt. His neck hurt. Everything hurt. Lance felt like his body had been ripped apart and then put back together.\n\n“…nce.”\n\n“…..ance!”\n\n“No,” he groaned, his head throbbing as the voices grew louder. “No, don’t. Leave me alone. I can’t, I need—“\n\nHe didn’t know what he needed. But it was something important, he was sure of it.\n\nThe voices faded. He was alone.\n\nA hand landed on his shoulder, and for a brief moment, the pain eased, simmering in the back of his mind where it was easier to bear. Then the hand left, and the pain returned. Lance buried his face in his arms, destitute. At this rate, he’d be in pain forever. He’d never find what he needed!\n\nSomeone shoved a warm body against his side, and something in his brain clicked. Relief flooded him, engulfing the pain and sending it away. He turned without opening his eyes, knowing that this was it; this was what he’d been looking for. This was what he needed.\n\nHe wrapped his arms around the warmth, burying his nose in something soft. A whiff of a familiar scent gave him pause, but he was too exhausted to investigate it further.\n\nHe fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.\n\n \n\nLance woke up with his face shoved in something fuzzy and dark. The pain from before was thankfully nowhere to be found, and his head felt clear, alert.\n\nHe felt heavy. Warm. Something—scratch that, someone was leaning against his chest, breath tickling his skin. Lance frowned, trying to remember when something like that could have happened. Did they get drunk? The last thing he remembered was being on Novaria, and then—\n\n\nKeith!\n\n\nHis eyes snapped open, and he was immediately greeted by the sight of Keith’s sleeping face.\n\nIt took Lance a few seconds for his brain to catch up with the unexpected turn of events.\n\n“What the hell!” Lance screeched, recoiling. Heat flooding his cheeks. He’d been cuddling Keith. “Why is Keith in my bed?”\n\n“Ah. Good, you’re awake.” Allura said from the doorway, drawing Lance’s attention. “We were worried you might be out for longer than expected. I’m relieved that isn’t the case.”\n\n“Allura, what are you doing here?” Lance took a deep breath. “Am I crazy, or am I missing something?”\n\n“What do you recall?” Allura asked, gently. “Do you remember Novaria, and Keith’s, er, capture?”\n\n“Yeah, I remember that.” Lance frowned at his lap. “I remember yelling, trying to reach Keith, and then…nothing.” He shook his head, trying to dislodge the memories. “What happened? How did we get here? And more importantly, why am I in bed with Keith?”\n\n“Ah.” Allura pursed her lips. Lance had a feeling he wasn’t going to like what she was about to say. “It turns out the ritual that they performed on Keith had a….binding quality to it.”"}
+{"text": "AN: La-gasp! Another chapter!? Still waiting on those spiders and thank you few for the orcas.\n\nChapter 16 - Only Fate\n\nA Segway Between Life and Death\n\n\"Do you ever wonder?\" the Death with the sexy hips asked the Death who was pacing the metaphorical space between universes.\n\n\"Wonder what?\" he snapped, pacing faster.\n\n\"If it were possible to destroy a timeline?\"\n\nDeath with a worry of wizards halted, he turned around slowly, metaphorically speaking, \"What?\"\n\nShe tapped her foot against her scythe, \"I just… have this feeling. I feel like, I feel like I have forgotten something, in fact, many things… I keep checking my books… and…\"\n\n\"And what?\" he demanded.\n\nThe Death with a titillation of mutants smiled, \"The books are blank. I've seen them be rewritten, repeatedly, I've seen them change, I've changed them, but never before have they gone blank. They are slowly…\" Her voice trailed off.\n\n\"Slowly what?\" Death with a preoccupation with divided souls demanded.\n\n\"What?\" she asked, looking up, metaphorically speaking.\n\nHe made a harsh sound, \"Your books are slowly, what?\"\n\n\"My books?\"\n\n\"Your books,\" he growled.\"What's wrong with your books?\"\n\n\"Nothing,\" she said, offended, \"Why? What do you know?\"\n\n\"You just said- You know what, never mind. How could you dump two more of your people in my world? Wasn't it bad enough you brought those two Aurors back? That pest who is so afraid of death is on the brink of finding true immortality! And it is your fault!\"\n\n\"Oh please, you showed the two redheads their son's would be life. They will figure it out,\" she said offhandedly, then more sharply, asked, \"Wait, what two?\"\n\n\"The Boy Who Lived's parents!\" Death with the greater sense of continuity roared.\n\n\"No, no, what two from my world? I only brought over the Lady Spider.\"\n\n\"Yes, you brought the little princess after she died, but now there are also the Man Spider and the little would be tigress.\"\n\nDeath with the overlarge slicing object stared at him blankly, \"What?\"\n\nDeath of the more fantastical magic waved his hand, an image appearing before them of Peter Parker and MJ asleep on the couch, \"Them!\"\n\nShe frowned at them, \"No, no, they aren't… they are too old, they haven't died yet. He isn't even a-, they-\" A book appeared in her long digited hand.\n\nShe opened to the correct chapter.\n\nBlank.\n\nThen flipped to the approximate age of the boy.\n\nBlank.\n\nShe flipped to the end of Peter Parker's book.\n\n\"Fuck,\" said the Death who knew all too well what the Infinity Stones were capable of.\n\nThe Death whose butt cheeks had been clenched tight ever since they broke the laws of Life and Death so dramatically, leaned over her shoulder, avoiding her scythe to peer at the page, then laughed.\n\n\"This isn't funny! We were played!\"\n\nDeath whose sense of rightness had corrected itself, chortled into the space between, metaphorically speaking, that is.\n\nSaturday seemed to come quickly that week. Harry much preferred having the addition of MJ, even if she was a bit withdrawn, he felt less like a misfit with her around.\n\nUnlike him, who played it cool and pretended to be sociable even though he didn't overly enjoy socializing, MJ was cool and didn't pretend to be anything then what she was.\n\nIf people gave her shit, she either didn't acknowledge their existence or had them tied up in their own words with the effort of someone folding a napkin.\n\nBut Saturday he didn't have the buffer of MJ to deal with his parents. People he was beginning to truly like, and yet…\n\nAnd yet he found himself dragging his feet, walking back with Padma and Hermione to the dorm rather than the room Lily was waiting to start his potions lesson with.\n\n\"Are you even paying attention?\" Hermione snapped.\n\nHe gave her a look.\n\n\"He's thinking about his mum and dad,\" Padma supplied. \"How's that going by the way?\"\n\nHe shrugged, \"Fine.\"\n\n\"Fine,\" she mocked, \"right, that sounded sooo believable.\"\n\nHe raised a brow, \"Are you calling me a liar?\"\n\n\"Ha,\" she said, raising her chin, \"You lie like you breathe.\"\n\nHe put his hand to his heart, leaning back against the railing at the platform of one of the moving staircases. \"Padma,\" he said dramatically, he placed a hand on the rail as if catching his balance against a blow, \"You wound me.\"\n\nThen he flipped himself backward over the railing.\n\nPadma screamed.\n\nSeveral other students screamed.\n\nHarry stuck the landing, coming to his feet in a swirl of robes.\n\nPadma was leaning over the railing to see him, her expression morphing from fear to rage in a heartbeat.\n\nIt had only been one flight.\n\nShe swore at him in Hindi, something that had her twin, Parvati, exclaiming, \"Padma!\" from an upper level.\n\nBut Harry laughed and blew her a kiss, and went to go see his birth mother wearing a self-satisfied smirk.\n\nHe was pretty sure Padma would get him back for that.\n\nHe found that he was rather looking forward to it.\n\nLily was pretty sure they had it.\n\n\"Happy thoughts?\" Harry asked, \"Like Peter Pan?\"\n\nLily grinned at him, \"Just so.\"\n\nJames cast the spell wordlessly, his doe prancing merrily around the hopping gracefully, then less gracelessly kicking its back feet into the air.\n\nLily spoke the Charm for Natasha's and Harry's sake, her stag charging down the doe that darted up, then circled around them.\n\n\"Okay,\" Harry said, \"that's cool, not very stealthy, but very cool.\"\n\nHarry raised turned his wrist, his bracelet transforming into an intricately carved staff with metal inlay, that was longer than he was tall.\n\nIt was an impressive weapon, though, she added mentally, not a stealth object.\n\nHe waited, and it took Lily a moment to realize that he was waiting for Natasha to try first. His respect for her evident in almost all that he did.\n\nMerlin, Lily hated being jealous of the other woman. She wanted to forget she existed. But when she glanced at James who teasingly wagged his eyebrows at her, she blushed.\n\nIt took Natasha two tries, and where Lily had expected to see a spider, what appeared in silver blue was nothing so small.\n\nA large Siberian tiger roared out of her wand, then playfully chased around the two deer patronuses.\n\nNatasha's smile was breathtaking, \"My favourite animal.\"\n\nHarry huffed a laugh, \"Also my favourite toy plushie when I was little.\"\n\nShe grinned at him, \"You cried yourself to sleep that night one of the Death Eaters blasted a hole through it. I had to take you back to Russia and track down the company, which turned out to be a little shop owner in a small town, hours outside of St. Petersburg, who had a vender's cart during the holidays, to get you one that was; тот самый.\"\n\nShe made Russian sound sexy, damn her, Lily noted.\n\nHarry grinned and teased back in a stream of Russian that sounded oddly beautiful, almost as beautiful of the sound of his laughter at Natasha's presumably witty comeback.\n\nAnd with that laughter still on his lip, he twirled his staff like he had wielded such a thing all his life, and maybe he had.\n\nAn elegant crane spread large wings, gliding elegantly around the deer and the tiger.\n\n\"A crane,\" James said with a smile, because how could you not smile at a fourteen year old performing such a spell so effortlessly with a creature whose natural elegance was further enhanced with magic.\n\n\"A Siberian Crane,\" Harry corrected, \"My favourite animal, they're endangered in Russia. Mum and I created a foundation for them and got them listed as protected animals.\"\n\n\"That's wonderful,\" Lily said, meaning it, even if her heart still hurt at yet another thing she had missed in her son's life.\n\n\"So what's next on the agenda?\" he asked, not in the least fazed by learning one of the most difficult spells in there world.\n\nJames coughed, \"Well, we had a request.\"\n\nNatasha narrowed her eyes, \"What?\"\n\nAnd Lily liked her a bit better for her protectiveness, or maybe that was just because she knew what they might be facing. \"Natasha, you know the dream we shared?\"\n\n\"Yes?\" she asked, warning in her tone.\n\n\"We think we know where the snake is.\"\n\n\"Wait, you shared a dream, and what about a snake?\" Harry asked.\n\nLily looked at him and wondered how he would take this, \"We had a dream about you slaying a giant serpent.\"\n\nHarry blinked at her and his response was not what she had expected, \"But I like snakes.\"\n\nBefore she could respond, Natasha said in a perfectly reasonable tone without the slightest indication she would change her mind on the subject, \"He won't be doing that again.\"\n\n\"He won't need to,\" James said, \"I just need to transfigure some roosters and light to make them squawk, then bam, dead Basilisk.\"\n\n\"I'm completely lost,\" Harry said.\n\n\"We just need to take a tour down the second floor,\" James answered pleasantly.\n\n\"Why?\" he asked, sounding a suspicious as Natasha.\n\n\"Why, to talk to a ghost, of course.\"\n\nHarry could tell Mom was unhappy, and his parents were not doing much better.\n\nBut it appeared the three adults had at least one thing in common: curiosity.\n\nMoaning Myrtle, as he was informed people called her, was a wailing ghost who appeared to spend a great deal of time in a toilet.\n\nWhen his dad asked her how she had died, she moaned with delight which creeped Harry out more than the Bloody Baron ever had.\n\n\"I saw something come out of there,\" she pointed to the sinks, then said almost gleefully, \"And then I diiiieed.\"\n\nHarry wanted away from this strange phantom who was eyeing him up hungerly. He wondered if you could kill ghosts, maybe exorcism?\n\nThe four of them searched the sinks and he was the one to find the tiny snake image.\n\n\"Salazar Slytherin had a thing for snakes, huh?\" he asked.\n\n\"He could talk to them,\" his dad said distastefully.\n\nHarry looked at him, \"I mean, so can I, but I don't go around marking my turf with snake insignias everywhere.\"\n\nHis mouth dropped open along with Lily's, they asked in unison, \"You can talk to snakes?\"\n\nMom put her hands on her hips, \"Is there a problem?\"\n\nThe Aurors exchanged looks, and his dad recovered first, \"No, it's just extremely rare in our world.\"\n\n\"How rare?\" he asked.\n\n\"As in, there is only one person known in our history who was born with that magical gift not connected to Salazar Slytherin's line.\"\n\nWhich gave Harry an idea, and he hissed at the little snake on the sink, \"Open.\"\n\nHe stepped back as the sinks moved.\n\n\"Nifty,\" Mom said.\n\nHarry chuckled, both at his mom and his parents who were slightly wide eyed at the new information revealed to them.\n\n\"How are we going to scope out what's done there?\" Mom asked.\n\nLily stepped forward and was sliding down into the darkness before anyone could stop her.\n\nMom sighed, \"So that's where you get it from.\"\n\nA moment later, Lily called up, \"Clear.\"\n\nJames was next, but before Harry could follow, Natasha tied a blindfold around his face.\n\n\"You think it's awake?\" he asked, not protesting after what the Potters had explained to them about the 'big snake.'\n\n\"I think you can practice walking in darkness.\"\n\nAnd they slid down the slide together.\n\nHe felt what most have been the small bones of rats crunch beneath his boots. Having practised fighting in the dark, and fighting with the blindfold before. He was able to follow his mother's footsteps, which she deliberately let fall audibly against the stone floor, scuffing her foot against any lips of elevation or loose stones.\n\n\"How are you walking without holding onto anything?\" Lily asked.\n\nHarry smiled, but didn't turn to face her, keeping his focus on Mom's movements. \"Training,\" he answered.\n\n\"What kind of training?\" James asked.\n\n\"The kind that has kept him alive,\" Mom said smoothly, \"Harry, there's a door with stone snakes.\"\n\nHe walked to her side, and hissed, \"Open.\"\n\nHe heard his dad mutter, \"That's somehow less menacing.\"\n\n\"Less menacing than what?\" Harry asked as the door creaked open.\n\n\"Our accents,\" Mom said in Russian.\n\nHarry rolled his eyes under the blindfold.\n\n\"And people say Godric had an ego problem.\"\n\n\"What do you mean?\" Harry asked, fighting the impulse to rip off his blindfold.\n\n\"Giant statues of Slytherin everywhere,\" Mom supplied.\n\n\"No, snake?\" he asked, not really liking the idea of killing it, but then he supposed anything that could be killed with a rooster squawk was not exactly a naturally born creature.\n\nNo one said anything.\n\n\"Now what?\" Harry asked after a time.\n\n\"There must be another chamber,\" Lily said, \"Or else it would have kept travelling throughout the pipes.\"\n\nHarry began hissing out greetings.\n\nAnd after a time, he heard something, he pointed toward the sound, \"There.\"\n\n\"Master?\" a deep, base hiss, thrummed through the walls, \"Master, have you returned for me?\"\n\n\"How do I free you?\" Harry hissed back.\n\n\"Don't you remember?\" It asked, sounding equal parts confused and suspicious.\n\nWell, sound, wasn't the right word, it was more a sense, because this thing sounded like no serpent Harry had ever heard before.\n\n\"Remind me. I am your Master, but the years are long and my memory is not what it once was,\" He lied.\n\n\"Master! Master!\" It cried, the earth below their feet trembled as it seemed to shift its great form and throw itself at the wall keeping it trapped. It began ranting, raving, crying words of ritualistic nature, claiming to be the Heir of Salazar.\n\nWhich is when Harry realized it was speaking the words that would release it, and he suddenly didn't feel so bad for being a part of this thing's death.\n\nIt was mad, it was starving, and it was imprisoned in a state that seemed to Harry to be far worse than death.\n\nHarry motioned with his hand. Mom led him back against a wall, and presumably warned the Potters, his dad ready with the birds.\n\nHe hissed the magic words, the snake cried, \"Master!\"\n\nHarry's heart broke as he listened to its scales and muscles slide against the stones, filling the echoing chamber, the first rooster crooked.\n\nAnd the Basilisk screamed, a wail of death, its last word, \"Master!\"\n\nWas a scream of betrayal.\n\nHarry had killed people before, but this was the first time he had sought someone out to kill them, proactive or no.\n\nHe suddenly got what Mom had been attempting to explain to him.\n\nBut when he removed his blindfold and saw what had been set to hunt children in a school, he decided that he had made the right choice.\n\nThey all went out for dinner and Hogsmeade to celebrate, Natasha said she needed to stop at her apartment first.\n\nHer apartment who's windows lit up with an explosion of light, shortly followed by one being thrown open to let out a plume of smoke.\n\n\"Right, stay here,\" Natasha said, disapparating with a pop.\n\n\"She has a roommate?\" James asked his son, explosions not being all that uncommon in their world.\n\n\"Um, well, sort of,\" Harry answered as Natasha apparated back with two figures to either side of her.\n\nBoth had hair as wild as his and Harry's, though not genetically, more from having something blown up near them in a small space.\n\n\"Dad, Lily, this is Michelle Jones and Peter Parker,\" Harry introduced. \"MJ, Peter, these are my birth parents, James and Lily Potter. They're wizard cops.\"\n\nThe lanky girl pulled her hair back, looking irked as Natasha passed her a hair tie.\n\nPeter, who looked absolutely nothing like Pettigrew, with a physique under his tight muggle clothes that would have done an Olympic athlete proud, said, \"Hi.\" Then turned to Natasha, \"I'm sorry.\"\n\n\"It wasn't toxic gas,\" was all she said as if to say that the rest was fine.\n\n\"Peter,\" the girl said in a low voice, \"If you don't warn me about future hair destroying experiments I'm going to turn you into a toad.\"\n\nHe blinked at her, \"Can you do that?\" He looked at the rest of them, \"You guys can't really do that? Can you? Mr. Strange couldn't.\"\n\nNatasha smiled, \"Oh, our magic can definitely accomplish it, eventually.\"\n\nHarry smiled at him, \"Dad could probably do it now, couldn't you?\"\n\nJames smiled a little uncertainly, \"A toad, hmm, yes, I could, but where's the fun in that? I am partial to turning people into a platypus or even a whale, if I'm feeling particular.\"\n\nPeter paled, his eyes going wide as he stared at the people around him.\n\nNatasha patted him on the back, \"I think it would be best if you treat all spells as things to be avoided.\"\n\nHe gulped, \"Noted.\"\n\nAnd James noted that both were Americans not Russians.\n\n\"So,\" Lily said, searching for a polite way to ask, then came out with it, seeing as neither child had the same surname nor seemed to be related in any outward way. Peter seemed to be a muggle if his apprehension to magic was anything to go by. \"You're staying with Natasha?\"\n\n\"Ms. Romanoff saved us,\" Peter said, \"were, um…\"\n\n\"Harry's step-sister and brother,\" Michelle said blandly.\n\nHarry grinned at her like it was something they had recently agreed on.\n\nLily turned on Natasha, \"How did you not mention having other children?\"\n\n\"It's kind of recent,\" Peter supplied helpfully, \"Course, I'm not magic so Ms. Romanoff is homeschooling me while MJ goes to Hogwarts.\"\n\nLily blinked at him, \"How recent and what happened to you parents are?\" she left it open ended.\n\n\"Dead,\" he said.\n\n\"Who the hell cares, Black Widow's our guardian, can we go get food now?\" MJ asked, clearly not liking the way Lily was scrutinizing them.\n\n\"Black Widow?\" James asked, he had known Natasha was a widow, but that sounded like a title or code name.\n\n\"Let's eat,\" Natasha said with a smile directing them all toward the inn.\n\nThey all troped toward the promise of food as Harry began to tell Peter about the Chamber of Secrets and the Basilisk, MJ listening with a disinterested expression.\n\nBut her question was pretty cutting, \"So you're saying that the founder of my house didn't just not like people whose parents were non-magical but actively wanted to feed children to giant snakes? That's swell.\"\n\nIt was said so blandly, James couldn't tell if she was being sarcastic or not.\n\n\"Her parents were not magical and she was sorted into Slytherin,\" Natasha filled in as she, he, and Lily trailed behind the younger ones a bit.\n\n\"Are their guardians really gone or did you kidnap them too?\" Lily said in a low voice, but the girl heard her.\n\nShe spun on her heel and walked backwards with a hand on Peter's shoulder to keep her balance. \"Not that you deserve to know, but as your Harry's family, I'll say this, Peter is an orphan but his Aunt May isn't dead and neither is my family, but Natasha wasn't the one to kidnap us.\"\n\nLily glared at Natasha, \"What, just like Death gave you Harry?\"\n\n\"Actually,\" Peter said over his shoulder, \"It wasn't Death, it was a stone, not really a stone, but a liquid, magical thingy that acted on its own and dropped us here. Now MJ's a witch and I'm, well still me, but that's not the point. Ms. Romanoff didn't do anything wrong. She took us in.\"\n\nEven for magical folk, James thought, they sound nuts.\n\nBut Natasha's expression said that she thought the boy had shared too much.\n\n\"What is going on?\" Lily asked.\n\nHarry laughed, confusing James, what was funny about this?\n\nNatasha shook her head, \"I'll explain later. It's… in order for you to understand, it's a long story.\"\n\n\"We have time,\" Lily said.\n\nShe shook her head again, \"You are coming with us on vacation to Russia, we will have time then. For now, let's eat\"\n\noOo\n\nWhen they were all seated in a large booth, MJ said, \"I'm not sold on travelling. It didn't go so well last time.\"\n\n\"I wasn't with you last time,\" Natasha said.\n\nPeter chimed in, \"I would be cool to stay with MJ here for the holiday.\"\n\nNatasha smiled at them, and it was the same expression James's mother had used on him and Sirius when they had innocently asked for something they planned to use for trouble.\n\nAnd her words came out in the same tone, \"I'm not leaving you two alone.\"\n\n\"We're old enough to watch out for ourselves,\" MJ said, not looking up from the menu.\n\nJames was suddenly glad Lily had decided against having more children. Harry was, well just getting through to Harry was a challenge, he couldn't imagine looking after a teenage daughter who had just been displaced from her family.\n\nPeter nodded vigorously, \"I can definitely be left alone.\" There was more to what he said aloud, something he knew Natasha already knew.\n\nBut her smile only brightened, \"I'm sure you can be, but the problem is not leaving you alone, it is leaving you alone together. Besides, you're not ready for the magical assassins.\"\n\n\"I thought they wanted Harry? Not us,\" MJ pointed out, \"And what's wrong with leaving us together?\"\n\nYep, James was very glad he wasn't Natasha in that moment, because he, and likely everyone at this table knew why leaving two teens alone, who were obviously dating -Peter sitting shoulder to shoulder with her- was a terrible idea. Or at least not something a guardian would want if they were the guardian of them both.\n\n\"The assassins could go after anyone with any relation to Harry, and I'm not leaving you alone because in some even slightly plausible future I have to face your families like I had to meet Harry's, I will do so having raised you both to the best of my abilities.\"\n\n\"We're sixteen, only two years away from being adults,\" MJ said, setting down her menu and meeting Natasha's gaze without the slightest flinching.\n\n\"Yes, but you also had your entire world ripped out from underneath you, given magic, and dumped in a new country, along with a thousand other little things. Give yourself time to adjust before trying to be an adult.\"\n\n\"I'm mature.\"\n\n\"I know that, but until you are of legal age, I will be around to supervise your mistakes.\"\n\n\"Gee, thanks.\"\n\nAnd though the girl hid it well, James could see some of the pain she was burdened with.\n\n\"What happened the last time you travelled?\" Lily asked.\n\nMJ's dark eyes slid to her, and she said, \"Europe is overrated.\"\n\nPeter snorted into his butterbeer the waiter had just handed him.\n\nGreat, James thought, more secrets.\n\n\"She's infuriating,\" Lily muttered as Kingsley, Amelia, Frank, and Alice came in, each with a stack of files in their arms.\n\nJames sighed, \"She's also a good person.\"\n\n\"Who would choose to go by Black Widow? Isn't that a poisonous spider?\" She paused, \"Scratch that, it fits her perfectly.\"\n\n\"What precisely are we looking for, on a Saturday night for that matter?\" Kingsley asked, placing his stack on the table. Not that Kingsley cared about weekends. None of them did except for the Longbottoms when Neville was home for the holidays.\n\nNymphadora entered the room, noticeably so as she tripped over her own feet and crashed into Sirius in front of her. They both went down in a heap, papers flying everywhere.\n\nSirius laugh-barked on the floor, pulling his wand, the papers flying back into order.\n\nJames pulled an old newspaper picture he had found of a little boy, \"Tom M. Riddle. He received a scholarship to Hogwarts, recruited by Albus Dumbledore in 1938.\" He pinned it to the board behind him. \"Likely a parselmouth who opened the Chamber of Secrets in 1943, causing the death by Basilisk of a young girl Myrtle Warren, age 14. A crime Rubeus Hagrid was wrongfully suspected of causing and expelled for. We need to know everything about him.\"\n\nNymphadora frowned at the board, \"A parselmouth, a parselmouth, does anyone else feel like we're missing something obvious? I've been thinking about it all week and I just can't put my finger on it.\n\nAmelia flipped open a file, knowing the organization of these files -if not their exact contents- better than anyone, to an almost unhealthy degree.\n\n\"Tom Marvolo Riddle, half-blood,\" she said, reading off a page she had found, pulling it from halfway through the stack, she pinned it to the board, \"Lived in an orphanage, Wool's Orphanage, muggle London.\"\n\n\"Marvolo,\" Sirius repeated, then his eyes widened, \"Marvolo Gaunt, the last known relative of Salazar Slytherin.\"\n\n\"It would explain the parselmouth,\" James said, not liking that there was none for Harry's ability.\n\n\"Nymphadora is right, we are missing something,\" Kingsley mused, his deep voice rumbling through the room.\n\nHer hair turned red, \"My name is Tonks, don't call me Nymphadora.\"\n\nThey all ignored her as the rest of them glared at their board.\n\nTheir board that they had basically turned around the safety and the standard of living in the Magical UK.\n\nAmelia sighed, and began flipping through more files, \"We will know after our research. I suppose the next logical question would be to ask what he did after he left Hogwarts?\"\n\n\"Hagrid said he applied to the DADA position but Dumbledore turned him done.\"\n\nFrank snorted, \"That seems unlikely. He must have been terrible for Dumbledore to turn him down.\"\n\nAlice nodded, \"The positions cursed, nobody can last longer than a year, if they are lucky.\"\n\nJames was looking out at the stacks of papers so he saw when Kingsley's face went slack. He said slowly, \"Unless it was before the position was cursed. The date…\"\n\nJames looked back at the picture and thought of all the older wizards he knew who were wicked enough to actually release a Basilisk on a school of hapless children.\n\nLily grabbed his hand as the truth dawned at him, as he imagined the little black and white figure of a boy in the newspaper smiling at him with red eyes.\n\nThe room seemed to come to the same conclusions unanimously.\n\n\"Well, I guess we know why he changed his name, Tommy-Boy just doesn't sound Dark Lordy enough,\" Sirius said cheerfully.\n\nNymphadora sat down on the floor, missing the chair completely, but she didn't seem to mind, she looked numbly at the board as they all were, and she stated, \"We found Voldemort.\"\n\nThey had.\n\nAnd more than that, they had found the boy behind the monster.\n\nNow it was only a matter of time before the uprooted all of his secrets.\n\nJames Potter smiled, a baring of teeth, Tom Riddle had thrown his world into war, had murdered him, his wife, and his son.\n\nIt was only fate that they were somehow still alive, it was only fate that he would ensure that every last vestige of Tom Marvolo Riddle would die.\n\nAN: Comments, reactions, suggestions, tigers, or cranes, pretty, pretty please? Much love to the reviewers~"}
+{"text": "Eric felt his nose wrinkle in spite of his attempt to keep cool—but he couldn’t help it.  Whatever Shitty was mixing in that tub looked toxic, a sort of greenish hue, and smelt of possibly actual petrol which was never a good sign.  Eric had been to a frat party or two back in Georgia and he knew things got…experimental.  And occasionally out of hand.  His baseball team wasn’t as tight as this one had been, however, and they certainly hadn’t been this excited to get black-out wasted.\n\nBut it seemed the tradition.  “This is nothing,” Shitty explained, clapping Eric on the shoulder as he poured some sort of tropical, green-dyed punch from a large tin with holes poked into the top.  “This is just the welcome night for all the little early birds hoping to catch a few worms.  Everyone on frat row is doing it.”\n\nEric was aware of that.  It was the reason he’d been dragged back to the haus, and all-but bullied into the shower.  And it wasn’t like he didn’t want to get a date—or a hook-up, whatever.  It was high time he started at least attempting to live with a foot outside the closet he’d carefully constructed for himself, especially when it seemed safe enough.  It didn’t stop the anxiety, but he used the nervous energy to put more effort into his outfit, his hair, and then into a bunch of mini-pies he was going to serve as apps for people who stopped by.\n\nAssuming they lasted five minutes with the team who all seemed to appear as if by magic to devour—or if they were Jack, and appeared by magic to glower until Eric caught fire.\n\nAll the same, it was dark, and music started pumping from all the houses up and down the street.  Someone in the haus threw a playlist on that began thumping heavy with Nicki Minaj which Eric started to move his hips to, in spite of still feeling a little…obvious.  But there were people all over now, filling stacks and stacks of red solo cups for beer pong, and cracking boxes of the cheapest, shittiest wine, and filling old, discarded water bottles with the toxic green tub juice to pass round.\n\n“Go easy on Shitty’s shit,” Holster said, slinging his arm round Eric.  “He hasn’t actually killed anyone with that shit yet, but since you’re our little frog…”\n\n“I am not a fucking freshman,” Eric snarled.\n\nHolster ignored him.  “…we don’t want you to get alcohol poisoning.”\n\nEric sighed.  “Yeah, whatever.  It doesn’t exactly look appetising, does it?”\n\nHolster shrugged, then slammed his can of PBR and threw it across the room.  It hit a poster which said, ‘Be Better’ in bold letters—apart from some sharpie graffiti in the shape of dicks—and then clattered to the floor. \n\n“So is this a normal Thursday night for y’all?” Eric asked after some time.  “I mean…I just pictured this more of a Friday night thing and…”\n\n“Nah,” Holster said, and hip-checked Bitty gently.  “There’s enough MOT on the team we don’t do shit for Shabbat.”\n\nEric blinked like Holster was speaking a foreign language.  “Um.”\n\n“Which reminds me, holy fucking shit.  Do you bake like… bread and shit?  Because I swear to god I would kill for some challah French toast Saturday mornings.  Seriously, I would be in your debt forever.”\n\nEric shrugged, completely unsure what that was but all the same, he hadn’t met a recipe he couldn’t master.  Hated—yes.  Cheesecake as possibly the biggest bane of his existence, but it didn’t mean it wasn’t the most buttery, crumbly, delicious cheesecake known to man.  “Just get me a recipe, hun, and I’ll see what I can do.”\n\nThat answer apparently earnt Bitty a trip round the party on Holster’s shoulders.  It should have been absurd and a little insulting, being carried like a child, but Eric was just tipsy enough to enjoy it.\n\nAfter the trip round, Ransom found them, pushed another crappy beer into Bitty’s hands, then said, “Let’s go raid the drama house.  They have bomb as fuck mixed drinks.  One of their tech guys is a chem major and he does this crazy shit with their drinks.  Molecular gastronomy, bro.  It’ll change your life.”\n\nEric had no real reason to refuse, so he allowed himself to be sandwiched between the two giant men, and carried off down the street.\n\n***  \n\nThe drama house was a little bigger than the baseball one—and definitely had a more Victorian aesthetic to it.  It was better maintained, and strangely decorated, but had all the markings of university students with too much time on their hands right before term started. \n\nThere was a massive hookah in the centre of the main room, surrounded by giant poufs, and no shortage of people puffing on the long tubes.  Bitty could smell something very fragrant—fruity almost, like cherry, coming out of the smoke.  Ransom steered him away, and into a large kitchen where, in less than four minutes, he’d consumed three sort of blobby “drinks” which were filled with juice, vodka, and the third one with something that made him blow out a huge puff of cold smoke at the end.\n\n“Am I fucking right, or am I right?” Ransom said as he sucked down some squared gelatine thing.  He shivered, let out a, “hooofuck,” and slammed his fist on the table.  “I’m going to be so fucking wasted tonight.”\n\n“Ch’yeah you are.”  Holster held up his hand, and Ransom high-fived it.\n\nEric took a step back away from the table as they continued to survey the goods, and backed up until he collided with something solid, and laughing.  He turned, his face pink from both alcohol and embarrassment, and found him staring up into an attractive face.  The guy was pretty broad, chiselled features, a large nose, curly brown hair.  His dark eyes were rimmed with heavy kohl, and he was wearing a weirdly tailored suit and had a top-hat tucked under his arm.\n\n“Uh,” Eric said.\n\nThe guy laughed, shifting the hat behind his back.  “If I told you I didn’t dress or act like this under normal circumstances, would you believe me?”  Eric was momentarily distracted by his accent, which sounded familiar, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.\n\nIt took him a moment to remember he was supposed to answer questions when asked them directly.  “Oh.  Hah.  I mean, maybe not?  This is the drama house after all, and I remember all y’all from school.”\n\nThe guy laughed, leaning into Eric’s space.  “Do you?”\n\nEric shrugged, flushing.  He turned his head only when he heard Ransom and Holster furiously whispering to each other and smacking each other on the arms.  Ransom gave him a thumb’s up, then they carefully started backing away.\n\n“Your friends?” the guy asked.\n\n“Teammates,” Eric said, groaning.  “Morons.  I mean, lovable, wonderful morons, but…”\n\n“Justin and Adam,” the guy said, and when Eric looked surprised, he shrugged.  “I had a bio class with them last year and it was…interesting.  Good guys.”\n\nEric nodded.  “I’m uh…Eric, by the way.  Eric Bittle?”  He extended his hand, then held his breath for a second out of fear he was going to get laughed at or rejected.\n\nBut the guy only took a second to take it—after swiping his own hand on the side of his jeans.  His palm was warm, and not too sweaty in spite of the claustrophobic heat from all the student bodies, and it squeezed tight.  “Finley Edwards.  It’s nice to meet you, Eric Bittle.”\n\n“The uh…the team calls me Bitty, apparently.  Just so um…so if you hear that…”  He flushed.  “It’s not because of my size.”\n\n“Wouldn’t have thought it.”  Finley winked.  “You can call me Fin, the rest of these shitheads do, but I’m not really bothered either way so…”  He trailed off with a shrug.\n\nEric realised they were still holding hands, and very carefully pulled his away.  He reached out blindly, searching for one of the strange drinks, and Finley laughed, going round him and grabbing two very bright orange spheres.\n\n“Here.  It’ll get you pissed good and proper.”\n\nEric knew he should probably ask what was in it, but he was already near drunk from the stuff Ransom and Holster had given him before, and he was feeling extra…friendly, in a way.  He popped the sphere into his mouth and laughed when it popped, sending a rush of an almost mango flavour down his throat.\n\nHe caught himself staring right at Finley’s smiling eyes, and he had a feeling his night was going to get…very interesting.\n\n***  \n\nEric woke up in his bed, face-down on his pillow, boiling hot from a stream of sun coming through the open curtains.  It was midday, by the look, though Eric’s entire body was begging for at least twenty-four hours of more rest.  Or possibly another week.\n\nSqueezing his eyes shut, he attempted to remember what had happened after he, Ransom, and Holster had left the haus to wander.  He recalled the drama frat—the strange hookah, and the weird drinks.  Then he remembered the cute boy with nice eyes who’d given him something very fruity.\n\nAnd…\n\nIf he was remembering right, a few more things that were fruity.  Then there had been hands on his hips, and really weird music playing—like Enya.  Interpretive dancing? \n\n“Oh, hell,” Eric groaned into his pillow.  Trying to recall anything was just making his head hurt.  And as nice as staying in bed and sleeping until he felt like a real boy once more instead of the wooden puppet this drinks had turned him into sounded, he knew that wasn’t an option.  He had to verify all of his classes, and see if there were any clubs or organisations he wanted to join.\n\nHe had promised himself he’d join at least one LGBT+ club this year, and he didn’t want to miss any of the chances to see what was out there.  Fresher week only came once a year, and while Baseball was going to take up a lot of his time, he wanted to embrace who he was.  It was time to stop being the sole, lonely gay boy in a group of frat bros who never talked about anything except girls.\n\nWith a sigh, Eric pushed out of his bed, grimacing at the smell coming out of his skin, like he was literally sweating out all the old alcohol from his pores.  He fumbled into his half-unpacked wardrobe, found a decent pair of shorts and t-shirt with Samwell Baseball printed across the front, found a clean enough towel, and shuffled into the bathroom.\n\nHe was grateful none of the haus seemed to be up yet, and he set his phone on the back of the toilet, shuffling his playlist to his Beyonce Morning Wake-Up, and hit play.  The water came out hot, and as he began to slough off the night before, he began to wake up.\n\n“…can see your halo, halo, halooooo,” he sang along.\n\nHe lathered the thick, creamy lush soap he’d scored right before heading up to Samwell, and began to rub the loofah across his skin.  His eyes closed, and he let his temple fall against the tiles that were still cool.  “…I ain’t never gonna shut you out…”\n\nHis high note ended on a yelp when the shower curtain was unceremoniously ripped to the side, and he was staring into Jack Zimmermann’s angry face.  His eyes were red, dark, his free hand curled into a fist at his side.\n\nThe panic only lasted a second, and then Eric became immediately indignant.  “I…am…showering!”\n\n“It’s eight in the morning, Bittle,” Jack hissed, then a long stream of French, the tone making it obvious none of them were polite phrases.\n\n“Jack Laurent, will you let me bathe…”\n\n“Stop singing Justin Beiber or whatever…”\n\nEric felt his heart race, and he cupped water into his hands, splashing it at Jack while shouting, “Don’t you dare blaspheme in my shower…”\n\n“Stop splashing me with water!” Jack yelled back, then slammed the curtain back and stormed out.\n\nShaking with fury, Eric hurried through the rest of his shower, grabbing his towel and stomping back into his room.  He had just pulled up his boxers when the door opened, and he let out a yelp when Johnson wandered in, his face scruffy, eyes sleepy and half-lidded.\n\n“Lord have mercy, you nearly gave me a heart attack.”  Eric gave his sternum a perfunctory pat, and smiled to let Johnson know he was not serious.\n\n“Jack giving you a hard time?” Johnson said as he flopped onto his bed.\n\nEric shrugged and eased into his shorts, then pulled his shirt over his head.  “Reckon he’s like that with everyone.”\n\nJohnson made a considering humming noise, then said, “There are a few AUs where things are good from the start.  The classic bakery, you know, heart eyes being made over the counter, flirting.  Sometimes you don’t have to work as hard for the endgame.  But you’ll get there.  Enemies to lovers trope is far more satisfying when you have true character growth.  Canon gives it to us.  This AU is trying to follow that.”\n\n“Uh.”  Eric blinked at him, then realised Johnson had probably come from Shitty’s room.  He’d heard the same random stoned ramblings from plenty of dormmates back in Georgia.  “Thanks, Johnson.  Anyway I gotta head down to the quad, but I’ll see you later?”\n\n“Entirely likely, Bits.  My narrative isn’t done just yet.”  He winked just before Eric shut the door and headed out.\n\n***  \n\nEric enjoyed the time to himself that afternoon.  He made Annie’s his first stop, ordering the largest white mocha they had on the menu, then went down to the massive spread of tables, banners, and tents.  It had been a long time since he bothered with this—even in his freshman year he’d been too afraid to set foot outside the carefully constructed boundaries he’d given himself, but here was different.\n\nThere weren’t any of his daddy’s boys looking over his shoulder, waiting to report back on his son’s homosexual activities.  Eric wasn’t even entirely sure his parents would care that he was gay—or at the very least he was pretty sure they had some idea.  The boys on Coach’s team hadn’t exactly been quiet about what they thought of Eric Bittle.  But his parents operated under a very careful Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy which Eric wasn’t sure he cared to live with anymore.\n\nThough even at his age, with proof behind him he was a good athlete and an okay student, the idea of coming out out was still as terrifying as some quarterback in high school finding him necking one of the marching band under the bleachers.\n\nSo.\n\nIt as a delicate balance, really.\n\nWithin an hour, the morning was getting warm—a little muggy from a late-season storm a few days prior.  He was glad for the shorts, even if his pockets were a little too full with informational pamphlets, bookmarks he was never going to use, and a couple of buttons he figured would probably get lost before he even made it back to the haus.\n\nBut he found the table he’d been looking for.  There was a painted mural on thin paper erected with every LGBT+ flag, a small iPod dock blaring out some sort of pop music Eric didn’t recognise, and what shouldn’t be surprising at all, was the sight of Shitty—shirtless, wearing very short shorts in the ace flag colours.\n\nHe had on his aviators, his stache combed to perfection, and was shaking his hips to the beat of the music.  When he saw Eric, he threw his arms out and shouted, “Incoming!”\n\nEric had only a second to brace himself, and his coffee, before Shitty was hauling him into a spinning hug. \n\n“Fuck yeah, Bits.  I was hoping I’d see you today.  I mean, I was gonna ask you about it later anyway, but we throw some fucking killer parties through the year, and pride…”  Shitty swiped a finger under his left eye.  “It’s a thing of beauty, Bits.  Beauty.”\n\n“Ah, uh,” Eric said, rubbing the back of his neck.  “I mean yeah.  I didn’t get to, you know, back in Georgia so…”\n\n“Put this cute lil fucker’s name down,” Shitty said, pointing to a girl behind the table.\n\nShe rolled her eyes, but wrote the name as Shitty spelt it out, and then went back to talking to another girl who was leaning into her space with a wide grin.\n\nShitty grinned and threw his arm round Eric’s waist.  “So.  How was your first night as an official Wellie?”\n\nEric shrugged.  “Um.  It was okay.  I think I drank too much—didn’t do anything I regret.  I hope.  Met a cute boy though at the drama house who…”\n\n“Finley,” Shitty said, nodding sagely.  “He was here earlier asking if you’d turned up.  Told me to give you this.  He said Holster had to carry you home before he could get your digits.”\n\nEric stared down at the paper with the neat block lettering spelling out Finley’s name, and his number.  He took it, then shoved it into his pocket.  “Thanks.  Um…how was your night?”\n\n“Ah, not bad, not bad my dude.  Jack came down and had his bitch-fit round midnight, chased everyone out.  But it was pretty good.  Just wait til Lards gets back.”\n\n“Lards,” Eric repeated.\n\n“Team manager, fucking beast, beer pong champ, all around greatest human being that ever lived.  Lardo runs the team.  Even Jack chills out round them.  Plus they can literally drink the entire football team under the table and for that, they’re a national treasure.”\n\nEric couldn’t help a laugh.  “So I guess it’s not just me Jack hates.”\n\nShitty blew out a puff of air.  “Look, Bits.  You need to understand he’s…”\n\n“I heard about the whole Bad Bob thing.  Or well…whatever Holster and Ransom wanted to share.”  Eric shrugged.  “It’s…fine. He doesn’t have to like me.”\n\n“Jack’s kind of a purist.  It happens in Baseball, you know?  People don’t really become fans, they’re born into it.  It’s…”  Shitty shrugged and leant against the table, crossing his feet at the ankles.  “When you have a reputation like Bob Zimmermann to live up to, it’s gonna fuck a guy up, you know?  And the worst part is, Bob doesn’t give a shit whether or not Jack’s any good, but Jack has a hard time seeing past that.  His entire life has somehow revolved round this game, and Bob’s the centre of it.  Objectively, Jack loves his dad, but…with all that shit…”\n\n“I get it,” Eric said.  “Trust me, I get it.  The whole…dad and expectations and knowing no matter what you do it’s never going to be what he wants or…or what you think he wants.  And every time you try and ask it’s…”  Eric cleared his throat.  “Anyway, I get it.  I don’t get the whole pitcher thing but…”\n\n“Ah.  That’s…more complicated.  Probably best not to discuss shit like that here.  He’ll warm up, okay?  He’s a good guy, Jackabelle.  He and I are ride or die, and we have been since freshman year.  He cares about the team, it’ll show once we get going.”\n\nEric nodded, then offered Shitty a smile.  “Thanks.  That…actually helped.”  And he was slightly surprised he meant it.\n\n***  \n\nEric spent most of the day on campus—meeting with his advisor, then wandering through the buildings to find each of his classes for the coming Monday.  He had lunch at a place called Jerry’s, waved at a few of the frogs on the team who looked like they were doing the same thing, then went and sat by the lake for a while and relaxed.\n\nIt was late afternoon when he wandered back, and he walked into the haus to find Holster throwing the cushions of two of the sofas in the air, frantically searching for something.\n\n“Honey, what are you doing?” Eric asked, leaning against the wall.\n\nHolster turned back.  “I need my lucky tie pin.  It’s…way too long to explain, but I fucking let Ransom use it for five seconds and now it’s gone and…”\n\n“Got it!” came Ransom’s shout.  He came down the stairs dressed in trousers, a button up shirt, freshly showered and smelling nice.  He ruffled Eric’s hair as he passed by him, tossing the tie pin to Holster who quickly pinned it to his forest green tie.\n\nEric opened his mouth to ask what they were dressed up for when suddenly Jack appeared at the top of the stairs, looking unfairly attractive in his coal coloured trousers and shirt so blue it made his eyes almost pale.  His hair was combed pristinely, and he smelt, if possible, even better than Ransom.\n\nHis eyes flickered over Eric’s form, then he huffed and brushed past him.  “Hurry up.  We’re going to be late and I’m not getting bad seats because the two of you can’t get your shit together for five minutes.”\n\nHolster rolled his eyes as Jack stormed out of the room.  “I’d say he’ll chill out, but…he probably won’t.”\n\n“Where uh…where y’all headed?” Eric asked as Holster reached for what looked like a folded up bit of fabric that was sat on the back of the tv.  His eyes widened as he watched Holster unfold it, and he recognised it immediately.\n\n“Normally we go Saturday mornings,” Holster said, ducking his head so Ransom could help him affix the kippah.  “But the first Shabbat of the year we always do Friday night services,” Holster said.  “Oh!”  He shoved Ransom away, then dug into his other pocket and shoved a bit of paper at Eric before grabbing him by the collar.  “I swear to god I will dedicate my entire life to you if you can make this.  Rans and I went to Murder Stop’n Shop and got everything you should need.  And youtube probably has like a hundred tutorials.”\n\nEric gave Holster’s arm a pat.  “I’ve got your back, hon,” he said, then peered at the paper.  It was a recipe for some type of braided bread, which shouldn’t be any trouble at all.  “It’ll give me somethin’ to do.”\n\nHolster kissed his cheek.  “I fucking love you.  Anyway we’d better go before Jack has a rage stroke.”  He backed up, then fumbled for his shoes, and shoved Ransom toward the door.\n\nMinutes later, the three of them were walking down the pavement, and Eric was alone in the kitchen.  With a sigh, he glanced at the counter where a bag of flour, pot of honey, and packets of yeast sat.  Swiping his hands on his jeans, he figured he’d might as well get to work.\n\n***  \n\nWhen the dough was proving, Eric sat at the counter, his legs swinging on the too-tall barstool, and he had his phone in his hands.  On the screen, Finley’s number was typed in the contact, and half a message was composed in the outgoing message block.\n\n\nHey, it’s Eric Bittle, from the party.  I think I should probably be embarrassed about what happened, but I guess it wasn’t too bad if you sent me your number through Shitty.  I was wondering…\n\n\nEric sighed at the phone, then at himself, then at the Universe.\n\n\n…do you want to get……maybe we could……I was thinking we might…\n\n\nHe let his head fall forward on the counter.\n\n“Hey, Bitty?”\n\nEric’s head snapped up to see Chris Chow peering hesitantly round the doorway to the kitchen.  When Eric smiled, Chris stepped into the kitchen, one hand shoved into the pocket of his jeans. \n\n“You okay?”\n\nEric groaned, letting his phone fall onto the counter with a too-loud clatter.  “Oh just…boy trouble.”\n\nChris nodded sympathetically.  “I thought college was going to be more like the movies.  Which I guess that party kind of was?  But I woke up feeling like I wanted to die, and I’m not sure how I’m going to live like that and play baseball.”\n\nEric couldn’t help his snort of laughter.  “I guess it all comes down to figuring out moderation, right?”\n\nChris smiled.  “Yeah.  My brother warned me.  I should have listened.  Maybe I should have started drinking younger, built up a tolerance.”\n\nEric laughed.  “Lord, that’s one way to handle it.  I think you’ll be alright though, hon.  Did you…did you need something?  Are you hungry?”\n\n“Oh I…”  Chris’ eyes flickered over the floured counter.  “Are you baking?”\n\n“Some bread Holster asked for,” Eric said absently.  “But I could really go for a nice grilled cheese.  How about I make us some?”\n\nChris’ face softened with a grin.  “If you don’t mind…”\n\n“It’ll help keep my mind off this mess I got myself into.  Maybe I should’ve done like you said.  Spent more time texting cute boys so I could build up my humiliation tolerance.”\n\n“Oh,” Chris said, frowning.  “Can I help?”\n\nEric sighed, then hopped off the stool and got to work pulling bread, butter, and cheeses from the fridge.  “You know, I don’t think so.  This is something I’ll have to figure out on my own.  But I sure wouldn’t mind a distraction.  How do you feel about Chopped kids?”\n\nChris’ eyes widened.  “I mean, apart from the fact that how the hell do these kids know how to cook better than I can play ball?”\n\nEric laughed, and clapped Chris on the shoulder.  “Exactly.  Come on, let’s eat our feelings in cheesy bread, and feel inferior to a bunch of eight year olds.”\n\n***  \n\nCompared to the photos online, the challah looked about right, but it was done well before the others got home.  Eric half considered staying up, but wandered to his room instead.  Johnson was missing—again, so Eric put his headphones on and curled up in his bed.\n\nThe message was still half-composed, and everything he could think of made him sound like an idiot.  But he wanted to be brave.  He didn’t even know if he wanted to date someone like Finley—he’d been too drunk to really have any clue what he was like, but he remembered liking him well enough at the party.\n\nAnd maybe it was time to be brave.\n\nStraight people had bad dates—made stupid relationship mistakes all the time.  He was owed a few.  He was owed some awkward conversation, and bad kissing, and personality clashes.  He wasn’t going to lose his gay card because he couldn’t find forever with the first guy who smiled at him.\n\nHe took a breath, then grabbed his phone to finish the text.\n\n\n…I know Monday’s the first day of lecture, but would you want to grab dinner or coffee or something where we aren’t completely wasted?\n\n\nHe hit send, and flopped back onto his pillow.  One hand covered his face, and he breathed through his anxiety.  A minute later, his phone buzzed, and it was by miracle alone he didn’t fling it across the room and against the wall.\n\nHe bit his lip as he swiped the screen open, and he felt a smile threaten to crack his face in half as he read the reply.\n\n\nNo worries, cariad, I thought you were really cute.  Coffee sounds great.  I don’t have much on Friday.  Want to see me then?\n\n\nEric felt his heart beating fast and furious against his ribs as he scrambled to text back.  I absolutely want to see you then."}
+{"text": "It had been a long, long week. \n\nAs Kuroo’s last lab for the day wrapped up, he felt exhausted, with the tiredness seeping deep into his bones. The class had run on for longer than he’d expected it to, and spending around 5 hours hunched over a cadaver would wear anyone out. His eyes prickled both with the leftover effects of exposure to formalin and an oncoming wave of fatigue. \n\nKuroo disposed of his used gloves, packed up his lab gown, and headed towards the nearest restroom to freshen up and get his bearings before making the commute home. It wouldn’t do for him to fall asleep on the train and miss his stop, especially during the Friday rush hour. \n\nHe washed his hands and splashed water on his face, slapping his cheeks a few times to wake himself up. \n\nAlright, good enough to go. \n\nAs he made his way out of the building, he checked his phone. He had an invitation from some schoolmates to go out to drink, which he briefly considered. It wouldn’t hurt to meet up with a few friends, chug back some beers, and spend the night bitching over their copious amounts of schoolwork and terror professors. \n\nNot too bad an idea, he could use some unwinding after a hard week. \n\nKeeping that option in mind, he looked over his other messages, which included a check-up from his father, asking he’d go home on that weekend, and a selfie from Bokuto in the middle of training, his smiling face and peace sign framing a pissy-looking Miya Atsumu and a laughing Hinata. \n\nBoth messages made him smile fondly at his phone. He replied to his dad, telling him he’d stay at his apartment for the weekend to study, but promised to make it home next week.\n\nKuroo made an exaggerated sad face and angled his phone below his chin to take a selfie to send back to Bokuto, captioning it with a  miss u tons bro , which summed up their friendship these days. He didn’t get to see him in person often, but he really appreciated being able to keep up with Bokuto’s life and career through texts, chats, and social media. \n\nSmall things like stupid selfies made him feel a little lighter after a tiring day. \n\nHe decided not to take up his classmates on the offer for drinks. This week wasn’t too kind on his mental health, and right now, he didn’t have the energy in him to socialize. Despite his obnoxious personality and generally outgoing disposition, he was an introvert at his very core, and his social battery had finally run out.\n\nAll that was left on his phone were a string of messages from Kenma, who was more than used to Kuroo not replying to him for extended periods of time. Over a decade of knowing each other rendered a certain level of ghosting insignificant. There was no rush or pressure in their relationship, not here, not now, and not ever. \n\nWhen Kuroo entered medical school and started to go MIA at times due to the sheer amount of work, Kenma hadn’t made an issue out of it. Their relationship evolved as they did, and Kuroo appreciated him so much. It made life a lot easier to not have to add relationship stress on top of everything else.\n\nKenma’s messages were a string of memes he thought Kuroo would find funny, an article about an upcoming game they were both looking forward to, and a link to his latest youtube video, which was another Animal Crossing video. He’d probably ask if he could visit his island later. \n\nJust as Kuroo was about to reply, another message popped up. \n\n \n\n\nwho tf is kodzuken\n\n\nr u home?\n\n\nrip kuro he dead\n\n\nlab just ended :( tired :( otw 2 train station\n i want 2 die!!!!!\n\n\nwho tf is kodzuken\n\n\nu always want 2 die\n\n\nrip kuro he dead\n\n\nmed school sucks kenma!!!!!\nim gonna quit and become ur kept man\n\n\nwho tf is kodzuken\n\n\nkuro uve said this 3 times this week alone\n\n\nrip kuro he dead\n\n\nfuck being a doctor u can be my sugar daddy \ni think id be an excellent sugar baby\n\n\nwho tf is kodzuken\n\n\nu dont have the face for it\n\n\nrip kuro he dead\n\n\nRUDE\nroasted by my own bf .i cant believe\n\n \n\nWhen Kenma didn’t reply as quickly as he usually did, Kuroo shrugged and pocketed his phone. He was lucky enough to get to the station right as his train arrived, and was even able to score a seat before it got too crowded. Small mercies. He took out his phone again to listen to a podcast during the ride home, when he noticed that Kenma had replied.\n\n \n\n\nwho tf is kodzuken\n\n\ni have to keep u humble somehow\n\n\nrip kuro he dead\n\n\nugh\n\n\nwho tf is kodzuken\n\n\nwhat time do u think ull be home \n\n\nrip kuro he dead\n\n\nidk 20 mins or so??\n\n\nwho tf is kodzuken\n\n\nk same\n\n\nrip kuro he dead\n\n\n???\n\n \n\nWell, it certainly wouldn’t be the first time they spontaneously decided to see each other. In fact, one could argue that their entire friendship was based around just randomly hanging out. Now that they were adults and lived a little further than a stone’s throw away from each other, they both got terribly lonely. Even Kenma, the homebodiest of homebodies, got bored enough to venture out to see his boyfriend. \n\n \n\n\nwho tf is kodzuken\n\n\n<3 \n\n \n\nSuddenly, a little bit of that heavy feeling faded away. Kuroo smiled at the message and closed his eyes, leaning his head against the window, relaxing a bit to the hum of the train.\n\n \n\n…\n\n \n\nKuroo got home to the smell of cooked fish and apple pie. A weird combination, but It smelled like love. Smiling, he opened the door to Kenma putting down a plate of grilled sanma on the table. He wasn’t surprised to see his boyfriend, they both had the spare keys to each others’ apartments. \n\n“Hey,” Kuroo said, sidling up to Kenma to wrap his arms around his shoulder and gave a kiss on the head, “When’d you get here?”\n\nKenma gave him a small smile and turned around to kiss his cheek. “Just a few minutes before you got here,” he said, untangling himself from Kuroo’s hold to take the apple pie he had brought out of the plastic bag. \n\n“Wow, both of our favourite foods? What good thing did I do recently to deserve this?”\n\nKenma frowned at him, pushing him towards a chair then sitting down next to him. “You didn’t do anything,” he said, then paused. “You don’t  have  to do anything. You deserve to treat yourself sometimes.”\n\nKuroo laughed and rested his head on Kenma’s shoulders. “I know… It’s just hard, sometimes,” he sighed.  “I’m tired. I don’t feel like I’m doing anything right.” He closed his eyes, taking in Kenma’s scent, letting the feeling of comfort take him over.\n\nKenma stroked his head, running his fingers through Kuroo’s messy hair. “You need to learn how to rest.” At this, Kuroo opened one eye to glare blearily at Kenma.\n\n“I can’t believe I’m getting lectured about resting by the guy with three jobs.”\n\nKenma rolled his eyes and snorted, pushing him off his shoulder. “Food’s gonna get cold. Eat,” he said, “And my jobs require a minimal amount of daily effort. You can’t compare.”\n\nKuroo huffed and pointed his chopsticks at Kenma’s face, “You stay up working until, like, 4am!”\n\n“Yeah, working… Playing video games, Kuro. My work is literally playing video games.”\n\n“You have a company! And trade stocks!” \n\n“I basically just tell people what to do. Often from home.” Kenma pushed Kuroo’s hand away from him. “And you also stay up working until 4am. Studying.”\n\n“I do not,” Kuroo grumbled.\n\n“Do too.”\n\n“Do not!” \n\n“Do. Too.”\n\n“Do not.”\n\n“Do. Too. Tetsurou.”\n\n“Wow, bringing out the first name so soon.” Kuroo laughed and threw his hands up, “Ugh, fine. Maybe I do. Whatchu gon’ do about it, my little kitty?” \n\nKenma rolled his eyes at him again, “Don’t be gross, Kuro.”\n\nThen, quietly: “I’ll take care of you, obviously.” \n\nKuroo paused with chopsticks halfway raised towards his mouth. He blinked, “Sorry, what was that?” he asked, starting to smile.\n\nKenma looked away, but the tips of his ears started to turn red. Kuroo put his chopsticks down and wrapped his arms around Kenma’s shoulders and nuzzled his face, cooing. \n\n“What’s that? Does my baby care about meeeeeee?”\n\nHuffing, Kenma put a hand on Kuroo’s face, shoving him away. “Can you just eat?” He turned back to his own plate and shoved food in his mouth so he wouldn’t have to talk.\n\nKuroo rested his face on his hand and stared fondly at Kenma, whose cheeks were a delightful shade of pink. He reached out and poked his cheek, squeezing it lightly. “I love you.”\n\nKenma swatted his hand away, still not looking up from his plate. “I know.”\n\n“I can’t wait to live with you.”\n\nThey had decided, when Kuroo graduated college, that they would wait until he was in his fourth year of med school to live together. Kuroo had actually wanted to move in together right away, but Kenma had told him that it would be better for him to spend the first few years adjusting, focusing, and finding his footing. Despite his busy schedule now, they’d still be able to find time to see each other on the weekends. \n\nBy his fourth year, he would be a medical clerk and working in the hospital instead of studying. Sharing an apartment by then would be easier money-wise, and since hospital work basically meant working all days of the week, Kenma would be able to spend time with him whenever Kuroo would get home. \n\nUntil then, they’d have to deal with a bit of distance between them. It was nothing that the wonders of technology, a few train rides, and date nights couldn’t fix, but sometimes that gap felt unbearable to Kuroo. Sure, sometimes it was easier to have to only think about himself, especially when his mind was being pulled in a thousand different directions at once, but times like these, when he’d be exhausted and needy, he longed for his boyfriend’s presence. \n\nKenma finally looked up from his plate to reach out to put his hand over Kuroo’s. “I know,” he said, smiling softly, “I love you.”\n\nKuroo smiled back, and felt a wave of contentment wash over him. \n\n“Anyway, did Bo send you that selfie with Hinata? I really want to be able to watch a jackals game soon--”"}
+{"text": "“So… um. Here I am…”\n\nHecate Lampadephoros is a little girl with a great, grand name that hangs over her like a wreath of laurels. No more than fourteen years by five feet she stands like an empress, crowned by the light brown roots of hair otherwise colored by minty-green dye. She wears a black school uniform with pink leggings underneath, not exactly regal, with only one flash of gold - the badge on her chest glitters in the light and is covered up quickly by a book. A book she hugs very, very tightly. The Good Witch Azura - Volume Five. She coughs to clear her throat and then begins.\n\n“I didn’t really have much of a choice about coming here. It was this or therapy - I mean regular therapy - and I don’t…” Hecate’s eyes pass over Dad and the Flying Rooster. “Um, yeah. So, anyways, this wasn’t my idea. Whatever. Might as well make the best of it, I guess.”\n\n\nInstead of a spotlight, a movie fragment; Hecate as a young child and another girl with chubby cheeks and round glasses and darker hair, playing with dolls on the floor. The pictures of other children - a boy and a girl - decorate the room and hall beyond it. The kids in the photographs look a little like Hecate Lampadephoros, but more like each other. There aren’t nearly as many pictures of her.\n\n\n“I have an older brother and sister. They’re twins and Mom’s favorites. They were born really sickly and premature. That happens a lot with multiples. It looked like they wouldn’t make it for a while, but they did and that was a ‘miracle’ so everything they do seems like a miracle… and I’ll never measure up to that.”\n\n\nHecate cracks open a school book as thick as the length of her child-sized thumb… and finds scribbles on the pages. Her face turns a bright, apple red. Malicious giggling echoes down the hall.\n\n\nMOM! \n\nOh, you know they’re just playing, dear.\n\nBut my boo-\n\nHonestly, Amity, we can buy you a new one.\n\n“They get away with murder - I love them, but they do - I never caused that much trouble and I still always had to move heaven and earth just to get half the attention that they did. It’s lucky that I’m good with school.”\n\nTwo A papers tacked to the refrigerator. An A+ report card on Hecate’s bedroom wall. She sits beneath it, pen in hand and with a book spread open on her knees. Notes are taken furiously. \n\n“I like to think of myself as an academic.”\n\n\nThat bespectacled friend from childhood approaches her in the halls. \n\n\nUh… hey, Amity. \n\nHecate pushes her aside. Sorry, she says, I don’t have time for morons. \n\nThere’s a crumpled up D in the other girl’s hands. \n\n“The girl that… um… the reason that… I’m…” Hecate Lampadephoros chews her lip and rubs her arms up and down. “She wasn’t so much - gifted, I mean. My… the… girl… the reason that I’m here…”\n\n\nHigh school banners in blue and gold. New faces at the start of the year and a newer one still part way through it. A girl with brown skin and eyes and a cat-eared sweatshirt pulled over her short, dark hair. A beaker bursts in science class, drenching her in purple goo.\n\n\n“It was a classmate of mine. I think she’d been kicked out of her last school or something.” Something bizarrely like fondness lights in Hecate’s eyes for a moment. “I believe it. She was kind of… distracting. Kind of weird.”\n\n\nThe girl with the cat ears eats lunch with the friend Hecate has discarded and with another, younger boy (a grade-skipper). She talks with her hands and bounces in place and above all is loud and does not know it. Cut; that same girl gives a book report with action figures and live snakes and lands herself in the principal’s office. Cut; the girl with cat ears flips her eyelids in front of the cheerleading team.\n\n\n“I think she had ADHD. Something like that. Most of our teachers didn’t really like her. I didn’t either… not at first.”\n\nHecate turns up her nose when the other girl smiles at her in the hall. This turns to tripping and to shoving, and to high pitched giggling just barely muffled by her hands. Her hand snakes out and slaps a book from cat-ears’. It hits the ground with a loud CRACK and lands face up. The Good Witch Azura - Volume Five.\n\n“I wasn’t the nicest to her… okay, I admit it, I was a bully. No, I really was. I’m not just saying that. And I know that doesn’t make what happened my… Uh, I was pretty awful to everyone for a while. Almost everyone…”\n\n\nHecate Lampadephoros reads from a storybook to a group of young children gathered at her feet. Unseen, the girl from school watches, having stumbled in.\n\n\n“I volunteer sometimes, at the local library. I read to the really little kids. Annnnd my siblings show up there just to annoy me. They ran into her one of those times. She thought they were cool, I guess…”\n\n\n“Cool” is one way to describe it. Hecate’s classmate’s whole face heats up when the older brother and then sister wink. She follows after them like a puppy on their heels, and snickers when they tease Hecate, turning her face apple-red with embarrassment.\n\n\n“They didn’t last long. They got into some trouble. Their fault, mostly… they’re not a great influence.”\n\n\nHecate watches as her older siblings and the girl from her school run about and run amok, knocking things over and disturbing the peace. There’s no ill intent in it, but that doesn’t stop her from seeing it there. \n\n\n“So the library is really old and really big and has a lot of places you can kinda get lost in. I found this room one time, behind the wall, and I kinda set up my own little place there. Yeah, this is important. It’s part of the story…”\n\nHecate retreats to a nook where no one can see her. A cozy lamplit area with a desk and hundreds of books, neatly arranged on the shelves. The Good Witch Azura printed on four purple spines.\n\n“It was supposed to be a secret, but somehow my siblings found out about it.”\n\n\nThe library after hours. Hecate stays to clean up and hears a noise. Someone has come in like a hurricane. Papers are scattered everywhere. Books have been knocked off shelves.\n\n\n“They snuck in at night, looking for my diary… I kept getting them in trouble at school - for cutting class mostly - and I guess they wanted revenge. Their plan was to post the pages online where everyone would see them. And she was there too.”\n\n\nHecate Lampadephoros throws a door open; sees her sister and brother laughing in that mean-spirited way she knows so well; sees the girl from her school scrambling to pick up diary pages on the floor. \n\n\nAmity! This isn’t what it looks like-\n\n“And it wasn’t. I was angry, but I know that now. She caught up with me before I could make it out the door. Words were said… a lot of words.”\n\n\nThe girl with the cat-ear sweatshirt starts to apologize and persists even after Hecate tries to cut her off. She speaks quickly, tripping over her words, but she makes her listen. She is heard.\n\n\n“I helped her clean up the mess my siblings left behind after all that. By the time we left it was almost dawn.”\n\nWait! the girl calls as Hecate walks by her. She reaches into her bag and pulls out a book. I know it doesn’t make up for reading your diary, but… would you wanna borrow this? I notice you only had up to four.\n\nHecate Lampadephoros hugs the book in her arms. “I know the Azura books aren’t really considered highbrow, but I always liked them. She… leant this one to me.”\n\n\n“Azura,” Hecate reads aloud. “Our paths have crossed only in battle but today I stand before you seeking an ally.”\n\n\n“I keep feeling like I should give it back… I already did once.”\n\n\nThey meet at the mall, Hecate’s siblings trailing after them now, guilted into civility.\n\n\nHey, we should hang out sometime! the girl says as they separate. Just… you and me. She’s blushing.\n\nSo is Hecate. Um… yeah.\n\n“She had… feelings for me. I didn’t feel the same way! I’m not a lesbian!” She says all of this very quickly. “I’m not! I swear! I just… I wanted to be nice. She was nice… um… yeah.”\n\n\nA montage of sight and sound. Hecate Lampadephoros and her classmate at the beach together; going shopping; giggling over those five purple books. Her friend removes the hoodie and lets Hecate try it on.\n\n\n\nAnd it’s Hecate that kisses her first.\n\n\n“We were… friends, I think? Just… good friends. Nothing more.”\n\n\nThere is more. More kissing and hand-holding and sugar-on-spice. The saccharine sweetness that comes from the taste of first love. They never tell anyone about this.\n\n\nRemind me why you don’t want me to tell Willow and Gus again?\n\nYou saw that stuff about… you know, that cult on the news. Some of those people are still out there… what do you think they would do to us…?\n\nI-\n\nAnd my parents! What would they say? No one can know, Luz! No one! Alright?\n\nOkay! Okay! Can do! Hoodie girl salutes. Secret it is then!\n\n“She wanted… she wanted us to… You know…”\n\n\nThey’re teenagers and adolescent hormones ride on the feelings between them. In sex-ed they stare at each other from across the room.\n\n\nI… I think I wanna try something.\n\nSomething like…\n\nYeah. \n\nThe other girl’s face heats up. O-oh… Okay! When-\n\nTomorrow? After school? You can come home with me. My parents won’t be there.\n\n“I mean… I guess that would have been fine. If she just had a crush on me. That’s… cool, but I’m not gay!”\n\n\nHecate leads hoodie girl up the drive, giggling nervously. They climb the stairs together and drop their school bags on the floor.\n\n\n“I like boys! Not girls! Not her! I… tried to tell her that. But she… but… I… um…”\n\n\nThey’re too young to be doing what they’re doing and they don’t know how to do it, but when hands fumble, it’s Hecate that does the reaching and neither girl pulls away.\n\n\n“… she didn’t listen to me,” Hecate says hollowly. “I said no.”\n\n\nOn the tape, a door opens. \n\n\nMittens?\n\n\nThe girls freeze. Hecate’s siblings stand in the doorway, stifling laughter. \n\n\nOh, wait till Mom hears about this. They tear off, laughing, down the hall.\n\nWait! Hecate goes to stop them, turning back to the other girl as she gets to her feet. You… you need to go.\n\nBut Amity-\n\nJust go! Before my parents get back!\n\nOkay… She takes her leave quickly. So quickly that she forgets her things and leaves them lying on the floor.\n\n“My siblings… um… they saw what… they walked in while we were- while she was… you know…” Hecate keeps her eyes on the floor. “They… thought I wanted…” \n\nHey, Mittens, her sister says at the dinner table, watching Hecate pick at her food. What’s wrong?\n\nNot hungry? her brother smirks, reaching his fork towards her plate. Guess you’re full from eating-\n\nShut up!\n\n“They teased me about it at dinner. Our parents heard them… that’s how…”\n\nMittens has a girlfriend~ her sister singsongs.\n\n\nThe table goes quiet.\n\n\n… What?\n\n\nHecate freezes, going stone cold still.\n\n\n“They blabbed to Mom about what they’d seen us… about what they saw her do to me…”\n\n\nHecate Lampadephoros, frozen to her chair. \n\n\nOh, we saw them messing around together. Her brother snickers. Didn’t we?\n\nAmity, is that true?\n\n\nThe mind’s eye opens like a great, gaping wound. \n\n\n\nThe Invader’s uncles on the news and whispers in the hallways that trace the outlines of a butch-looking girl with pink dye in her hair, a less butch one with blue, a feminine one with near-white hair beribboned in pink and purple, one who is not a girl with undyed blonde.\n\n\n\nA run-in with the Professor at a local library. His legs seem unsteady and his eyes are very far away.\n\n\nPictures of robes and masks. The filtered words of the Gunman and the Avatar and of Ringtail crash like red-tide waves through her mind. Newspaper clippings that read EIGHT STILL AT LARGE.\n\n“I… I know they wouldn’t have judged me for being… gay - even though I’m not. If I was, though… I think my family would be… okayish with it. I think… I’m sure they love me…”\n\n\nA candlelight vigil. A round-faced man in a bright pink apron. His parents loved him too.\n\n\nI… I didn’t want to! Her mouth opens before she can really process what’s coming out. I didn’t… I… She made me do it!\n\n\nThe room was already quiet. Now the silence stands still.\n\n\n“They sent my siblings out of the room and had me explain it. I… my father kept yelling until he got a name.” She flinches slightly. “I think he might have gone to find her himself, but Mom said we needed to call the police.”\n\n\nThe officer that spoke to Bombyx Mori flicks on a tape recorder and asks Hecate questions in a gentler voice than he used with the boy. His hand on the table and hers in her lap, both the same shade of pale. Her parents speak for her, but she nods at all the right places or shakes her head, getting out few words longer than yes or no. Her stomach clenches as the realization of what she’s doing sinks in. Her mouth’s too dry to take it back.\n\n\n“I went to a doctor afterwards and I think they sent someone to her house. This was after the whole, um, cops thing… which is good. She’s really not a bad person - she just made a mistake! And I know they would have hurt her if they’d gotten the chance. Wasn’t there one guy that really liked them young? And poor-ish. And… and not-white?”\n\n\nHecate Lampadephoros lies awake at night, worrying. She stays up until the dawn and falls asleep with the other girl’s bag beneath her pillow, clutching her hastily-abandoned book.\n\n\n“I think her mom bailed her out or something… until the trial. That’s what I heard anyway.” Her lips press into a thread-thin line. “I went back to school on Monday. She wasn’t there.”\n\nHecate’s classmates don’t look at her strangely. No one whispers anything behind their hands. She’s rich and white and with parents that can keep things quiet and siblings that look too guilty to say a word. A teacher pulls her aside after class. She’s called to the counselor. Someone asks if everything’s alright and she says, in a vacant tone, I’m sure it will be. She goes to lunch and sees the empty spot at her former friend’s lunch table and knows that nothing will be for a very long time.\n\n“So… there’s not really an ending. I don’t think it’s over yet. My… the girl that… Well, she… sort of disappeared. Ran away, I think. I don’t know where.”\n\n\nThat old friend with glasses and the grade-skipper boy come in late sometimes and leave early. Hecate sees them with bits and pieces of plant matter in their hair and mud on their shoes. Once she happens on them by accident, coming from the woods. They glare at her and she thinks that maybe the girl who owns the book in her bag might not have been so tight-lipped after all.\n\n\n“I… This will probably sound crazy but hear me out. I kind of hope that they… don’t find her. That she stays away… that…” Hecate Lampadephoros shakes her head and runs her hand over Azura’s cover, her index finger hovering over the Five. “I don’t want this thing to go to trial! I didn’t want any of this at all.”"}
+{"text": "Authors note: All characters are above 18 years old and fictitious. Any similarity to a real person is purely coincidental.\n\n*******************************************\n\nSamantha Rushton grew up the youngest of four children in an affluent suburb of a mid sized city in the deep south. Following in her father's footsteps, after high school she went to Houston Texas to study architecture at one of the finest programs in the country.\n\nIn high school she competed on the women's cross country team. While she didn't compete in college she continued running to stay in shape. Sam, that's what everyone called her, stood 5'2\" tall and weighed 105 pounds with shoulder length blonde hair, green eyes, 32D breasts a round firm bottom and, even though they were short, well toned legs.\n\nThree weeks after her twentieth birthday and one week after returning home from her first year of college her parents left town for a long planned month long vacation in Europe. This was a chance for them to finally take a trip alone after raising four children. They were also going to visit Sam's sister Sarah who was two years older than Sam and studying psychiatry at the University of Munich. Sam was left at home house sitting. As her parents left for the airport her mother stopped to give her some final instructions.\n\n\"Don't have any wild parties, if you need anything call your grandmother and I've asked Carol next door to check on you from time to time.\" With that she hugged Sam, gave her a kiss on the cheek and was out the door.\n\nThe first couple of days passed by pretty routinely. Sam spent time swimming in the family pool, visiting with friends and running between five to ten miles each day. Friday night came and Sam was dreading the following week. Most of her friends were going to be out of town vacationing with their families and she didn't know how she was going to keep occupied. With nothing else to do she went to bed.\n\nAwakening the following morning she went for a run. On her return home she showered, put on her bikini and took a dip in the family pool. Getting out of the pool Sam toweled off and reclined in a lounge chair to get some sun. She woke some time later and realized that she had not put on sunscreen. She wasn't burned yet but knew it would only be a matter of time. Getting up from the chair she went inside to find some tanning lotion. After looking in all the likely places with no success she went into her sister Sarah's bedroom.\n\nNot finding any sunscreen in the attached bath she checked the closet. While feeling around on the shelf above the hanging clothes (it was too high for her to see what was up there) she touched what felt like a DVD case. Sam took it down and sure enough it was a case containing a single unlabeled DVD. Thinking this was odd because all the DVD's were usually kept in the entertainment room Sam was curious as to why this one was in her sisters closet. She took the DVD back to her bedroom and loaded it into the laptop. A large group of numbered icons appeared. Clicking on the first Sam was not expecting what she found.\n\nThere on the screen was her sister Sarah on one of the lounge chairs next to their backyard pool. She was smiling at the camera and was as naked as the day she was born. Eyes widening in surprise Sam couldn't believe what she was seeing. Her sister had always seemed so proper. Opening more of the icons revealed additional pictures of her sister either nude or in various states of undress. Sam also noticed that many of the pictures had not been taken at their home. There were pictures of her topless on a nearby golf course, at a tennis court and even her lifting her skirt and displaying a perfectly bald pussy in what appeared to be a local park.\n\nSam scrolled down to see just how many files were on the DVD and there appeared to be several hundred. There were also video files near the bottom. Clicking on the first one her sister was again naked by the pool. She was smiling and talking to someone behind the camera.\n\nShe was saying things like, \"You really want to see me do this again don't you. You're so bad.\"\n\nWith that Sarah spread her legs and began slowly playing with her clit. Sam's eyes were glued to the screen as her sister became more vigorous finally reaching a climax and squirting all over the lounge chair.\n\nWhen the video ended Sam's bikini bottoms were soaking wet and she was as aroused as she had ever been in her life. She immediately stripped off the wet bottoms, threw herself on the bed and began rubbing her clit furiously using her already flowing juices as lube. Sam came in less than a minute\n\nAs she lay on the bed catching her breath Sam tried to identify what it was that aroused her so. She concluded that it wasn't from any sexual desire for her sister but rather it was the fact that Sarah could be so uninhibited about her body. Wishing that she had as much confidence Sam began wondering whether she could be brave enough to try some of the things her sister had done.\n\nGetting up from the bed Sam removed the bikini top then went into the bathroom and showered the sex from between her legs. After drying off she put on a long t-shirt that reached just below her bottom. Selecting a pair of panties she began to put them on then paused. Considering it for a moment she put the panties back in the drawer and headed to the kitchen for a bottle of water.\n\nStanding in the kitchen sipping the water and looking out at the pool Sam had never really thought about how very secluded the backyard was. A high privacy fence and shrubs surrounded it making it impossible for anyone on the outside to see what was going on back there.\n\nTaking a deep breath Sam stepped out the door. It was a warm sunny day with a gentle breeze blowing. Sam began to feel herself becoming wet again. She moved further into the backyard off the concrete surrounding the pool and into the grass. It felt cool and soft against her bare feet after the heat of the hard concrete. Taking a few more steps Sam sat down enjoying the feel of the grass against her bare bottom. She felt deliciously wicked and aroused.\n\nAfter sitting for several minutes working up her nerve Sam's hands found the bottom of her shirt. She was trembling with excitement as she considered removing it. Afraid that if she didn't take it off now that she never would Sam quickly lifted it over her head and dropped it to the ground. It was like an electric charge passed through her body. She felt tingly all over, her nipples were hard as pebbles and her pussy felt like liquid fire.\n\nWanting to push herself further Sam stood. Leaving her shirt on the ground she began to wander naked around the back yard. It felt exhilarating and free. She also noticed that the farther away from her shirt she got the more her excitement grew.\n\nAfter exploring the backyard for a while Sam was growing accustomed to being naked and the excitement was lessening. She realized that she would have to move outside the backyard to regain the intensity of the feeling. Sam gathered up her shirt and not bothering to put it back on went inside to plan her next adventure.\n\nSitting down at the computer Sam continued to look through her sisters pictures in an effort to gain some ideas of what to do next. While scrolling through the pictures she noticed that in none of them did her sister have any pubic hair. Sam had always kept hers neatly trimmed so it wouldn't show in a bikini but now she decided to take the next step and shave it bald. Never having done this before it took a little time but once finished she took a few minutes admiring her now clean shaven slit in the mirror. Running her fingers across her newly shaven mound she could resist no longer. She lay on her bed and brought herself to another orgasm drifting off to sleep afterward the late afternoon sun warming her still naked body through her bedroom window.\n\nSam awoke in darkness. According to the clock near her bed it was 11:45. The neighborhood in which she lived had few streetlights. The houses were built on larger than average lots and set well back from the road. The front yard had lots of shrubbery and landscaping so Sam decided her next adventure would be to explore the front yard as she had the back. She had been naked since her earlier backyard adventure but since it was now dark and she didn't want to injure her feet she decided to put on a pair of running shoes.\n\nIf anything the addition of the shoes made her even more excited since if she was seen it would be obvious that she was out nude on purpose. She also reasoned that the shoes would be helpful in the event she needed to make a quick escape. Leaving her room Sam went down the stairs through the kitchen and walked out the back door into the night. The cool of the evening instantly hardened her nipples as she walked past the pool to the side of the house.\n\nDrawing near the gate to the privacy fence Sam again began to experience that wonderful fluttery feeling of excitement in her belly. Opening the gate slowly she peeked out at what she could see of the yard. Creeping forward she stayed close to the shrubbery planted beside the house. When she reached the corner of the house she paused to plan her next move.\n\nA large oak tree was just off to her left about thirty feet in front of her. Sam made her way forward using the tree to conceal her from the street as much as possible. In the darkness it would have been almost impossible for anyone to see her but that didn't cross her mind as it was the first time she had ever done anything like this. Her excitement grew with each step she took.\n\nSam had decided that her goal for tonight would be to touch the mailbox at the street next to the one of the entrances of the \"U\" shaped driveway. To get there she had to cross in front of the house then work her way down the drive. There were bushes growing along the length of the road between the two entrances to the driveway and she felt that she could hide behind them if it became necessary.\n\nEverything was going well until Sam reached the halfway point near the front door. Suddenly every exterior light on the house came on and she was standing fully illuminated for anyone who may have been looking. Sam froze for what seemed an eternity, although in truth is was only a few seconds, then dropped prone onto the asphalt parking pad in front of the house. Her mind was racing. Who was here that turned on the lights? Then it dawned on her. The lights had a motion sensor attached to them that activated when someone came within range. The worst part was that, once activated, they were programmed to stay on for ten minutes. That's when she heard the car approaching.\n\nSam lay there hearing the car drawing nearer and was unsure what to do. If the driver looked in her direction it would be hard to miss a naked girl spread eagle on the black asphalt of the parking pad under what felt like a million watts of illumination even with the shrubbery lining the road. At the last possible second she managed to get to her feet and raced back to the relative safety of the oak throwing herself behind it just a second before a police car came into view.\n\nSam lay on the ground behind the tree shaking and listened as the car continued down the street. As her heart rate began to slow she took stock of the situation. She was in shadow thanks to the tree but the lights would be on for almost ten more minutes. She also realized that her inner thighs and bottom were wet from the juices which were flowing from her pussy. A pussy which at the moment was practically throbbing.\n\nThere was no controlling it. No waiting. Sam lay in the shadow of the tree rubbing her clit with one hand while burying three fingers of the other deep in her soaking wet hole. When she came she felt fluid gush out of her like her sister did in the video. It was the first time she had ever squirted and it was the most amazing orgasm she had ever experienced.\n\nShe lay there panting trembling from the aftershocks of her orgasm. Eventually the lights went back off. On shaky legs Sam made her way back through the gate and inside the house. Not bothering to go upstairs to her room she kicked off her shoes and dropped naked onto the sofa. As she drifted off to sleep she realized that reaching the mailbox would have to wait until tomorrow night.\n\nSam woke the following morning naked on the living room couch. The events of the previous day came rushing back to her mind. She knew that she wanted to push herself further. She also knew that she needed to disable the motion sensor on the exterior lights before venturing into the front yard again.\n\nGrabbing only the long t-shirt from the day before she put it on then retrieved a step ladder from the laundry room. Walking out the front door with the ladder knowing the shirt barely covered her bottom Sam was instantly aroused. She climbed the ladder but couldn't reach the sensor without her reaching over her head. Raising her arms caused the shirt to rise, exposing her bottom to anyone passing by. Sam almost came on the spot. Trembling with excitement she finally managed to remove the motion sensor then climb down the ladder.\n\nThat task accomplished, Sam went back inside removed the shirt and dropped it onto the couch as she passed. She returned the ladder to the laundry room then went out the back door for a dip in the pool.\n\nAfter a quick swim Sam toweled off and returned to her bedroom to continue checking the files on the DVD. She was looking for more ideas of places to indulge her newfound desire to be naked once she had finished exploring the front yard. Her plan was to lay down late in the afternoon and continue her adventures after midnight.\n\nAfter checking several pictures which were obviously taken in her sister's bedroom featuring her sister in nothing but a garter belt, stockings and heels Sam was again surprised. There was a picture of Sarah on her back, legs spread wide, feet in the air with a very large dark brown dildo shoved inside her pussy. Opening several following pictures Sam was able to get an idea of just how long and thick it was. Amazed at how much of it her sister seemed to be able to take she wanted to see it in person and hoped that it hadn't made the trip abroad with Sarah.\n\nReturning to her sister's bedroom she searched for it's hiding place. After checking what she considered the likely places, nightstand, lingerie drawer, under the bed, etc. she went into the closet. At the back of the closet was the only suitcase that her sister hadn't taken to school in Munich. Sam took it back to her bedroom and opened it discovering that her sister had an even wilder side than she had ever imagined.\n\nInside the suitcase was a wide variety of sex toys including a wand with numerous attachments, restraints, assorted vibrators, butt plugs, several different sized dildos and of course the giant chocolate colored one from the pictures. Also present was a large bottle of lubricant. What shocked her the most however was a ten inch long strap-on dildo. Was her sister a lesbian? She had never thought of Sarah that way but she was quickly discovering that she didn't know her sister nearly as well as she once thought.\n\nSam had never used a sex toy before but that was about to change. Picking up the huge brown dildo she was surprised by both its weight and thickness. She could only get her hand about half way around it. There was no way that thing would fit inside her. Placing it back into the suitcase she selected a smaller dildo that felt more like human skin and was approximately the same size as her last boyfriend.\n\nSam lay on her bed and began to slowly rub the head of the dildo across her clit and up and down the length of her pussy. Once her juices were flowing enough to provide the needed lubrication she inserted the head of the dildo into her hungry slit. She began slowly moving it in and out going a bit deeper with each stroke until finally she was taking the entire length. While it wasn't as good as a human penis it was definitely better than her fingers.\n\nShe continued for several minutes pulling the dildo out until only the head remained inside her then pushing its full length back into herself. While she was enjoying the feeling she had never achieved an orgasm without clitoral stimulation. Sam paused, leaving the dildo fully inserted, and looked in the suitcase for some additional assistance. She located a smooth silver bullet shaped vibrator and turned the black knob at the base. It began to vibrate while making a buzzing noise.\n\nLaying back, Sam continued to slowly fuck herself with the dildo but now placed the tip of the vibrator against her clit. Immediately Sam moaned as a feeling of pleasure more intense than she had ever experienced swept from her clit through her entire body. Unconsciously she began to pump the dildo more rapidly in and out of her now very wet pussy. In less than a minute Sam had a powerful orgasm. While not as powerful as she had the night before under the shadow of the oak it was still the second best she had ever experienced.\n\nTurning off the vibe and removing the soaked dildo from her pussy Sam got up from the bed and went into the bathroom to sponge off. Returning to her bedroom she knew if she stayed in the house she would not be able to resist the temptation to masturbate the day away. While not the worst idea in the world she was afraid if she did it would lessen her desire to continue her nude exploration of the front yard later that night. She decided a run would be a good way to both pass the time and get her tired enough to go to sleep in the afternoon to be rested for her planned late night adventure.\n\nNot bothering with panties she pulled on a pair of pink spandex running shorts and a pink and black sports bra. Socks and running shoes completed her attire. Quickly adjusting to being clothed she put her hair into a ponytail and headed out the door for a run.\n\nWhen running from home Sam followed a series of walking trails that the City maintained in the community. They were not completely connected which required about two miles of the five mile total to be run on sidewalks or the road. Sam would begin from her home, run to one end of the trail then turn around and run to the other end of the trail then run back to her house making the total circuit ten miles give or take. Always before when running she had worn panties. About a half mile into the run Sam noticed the difference not wearing panties made. Her tight spandex running shorts had worked their way up and were perfectly outlining her pussy displaying an obvious camel toe.\n\nHer first thought was panic but it was quickly replaced by a wicked feeling of excitement. She thought, \"This could be my first chance to be in public and expose an intimate part of myself in a way that can be passed off as accidental.\" Thinking of people being able to clearly see the outline of her pussy made Sam become wet and her nipples harden. They weren't too noticeable as her running bra was designed to provide support for her 32D breasts but they would be visible to anyone that looked directly at her chest.\n\nAs she turned off the sidewalk onto the first trail she could see an older man walking a dog headed in her direction. When she was within twenty feet of him Sam saw his eyes go to her crotch where they remained until she passed. Sam was so turned on that it was all she could do not to turn off the trail into the woods and find a place to masturbate. Thankfully the spandex material didn't show how soaking wet her pussy had become.\n\nA mile or so further down the trail a woman was jogging toward her. She looked to be in her thirties and very fit with short dark brown hair, small nicely shaped breasts and long firm legs. Sam had seen her on these trails many times before but they had never met. The woman had always seemed very focused and rarely made eye contact. As Sam drew near the woman looked her in the eye and smiled giving Sam a wink as they passed. Sam had never been with another woman or even had fantasies about doing so but at that moment all she wanted was for this woman to see her naked.\n\nSam received several more appreciative looks during her run and by the time she was back home she was so horny that she couldn't wait another second. Going to her room she stripped off her sweaty clothes, picked up the dildo and vibe she had used earlier and went into to the backyard to the lounge chair by the pool. Laying in the lounge chair naked in the sun she began working the vibe over her engorged clit and furiously fucking her soaking wet pussy with the dildo. She came again in short order.\n\nAfter her orgasm she lay in the lounge chair for a bit recovering before eventually going inside for a shower. After drying off and wrapping her hair in a towel she went naked to the kitchen and fixed herself a salad. By now it was late afternoon. Setting an alarm for 12:00 am she went to bed and drifted off to sleep.\n\nShe woke tingling with excitement. Sam was determined that this time she would make it to the mailbox at the street. Donning her running shoes but otherwise naked she went downstairs to the front door. The house was dark and Sam stood at the window looking out into the night. Once satisfied that no one was about, she slipped out the front door onto the porch and paused, watching and listening for the sound of a vehicle. Her nipples stiffened which she began to pinch and lightly twist as she stood enjoying the feelings running through her body.\n\nAfter several minutes she left the front porch and headed toward the driveway to her left. She could feel the juices from her pussy already beginning to seep down her inner thighs. She walked cautiously down the drive alert for the sound of an approaching car. None appeared.\n\nReaching the mailbox without incident Sam paused to decide what to do next, The street was quiet and all the houses were dark. To her right there were only three houses between her and where her street intersected with a thoroughfare that ran between the northern and southern sections of the city. Thinking that at this hour on a Sunday night it should be pretty quiet Sam decided to continue down the street to the intersection approximately 200 yards away.\n\nKnowing that this would significantly raise her chances of being caught only fueled her excitement. Believing that the lateness of the hour would allow her to get away with it she set out for the corner. About one hundred yards away from her goal she heard a car quickly approaching on the thoroughfare. Sam froze looking for a place to hide but there was nothing in the immediate vicinity that would offer her any concealment. Headlights game into view moments before a car sped past the intersection and continued on its way without any indication that she had been seen.\n\nSam was horny as hell, the inside of both her thighs were wet to her knees, her juices beading down them like sweat. She wanted to get to the intersection no, she needed to get to that intersection. Listening closely for any more approaching cars she continued forward eventually reaching the street sign at the corner. She was happy, horny and knew she wasn't done for the evening.\n\nAcross the thoroughfare from the corner was a golf course attached to one of the two country clubs in the city. Sam had run on it many times in the late evening and was familiar with its layout. Quickly crossing the road and passing through the bushes that separated the golf course from the street she was feeling more confident. The golf course sat lower than the road so Sam had to make her way down a hill and through some trees to reach the fairway. The shrubs, trees and difference in elevation should prevent anyone driving by from seeing her on the course which was lit only by the quarter moon that had recently risen.\n\nSam's destination was going to be the halfway house between the ninth and tenth fairways which was about four hundred yards from where she entered the course. Making her way along the fairway she felt exhilarated in the knowledge that she was completely naked in a public place that in just a few hours would have hundreds of people crossing it.\n\nSam reached her destination at ten past one according to the clock above the entrance to the building. There was a dim light illuminating an area outside where sat concrete tables and benches. Climbing on top of one of the large tables she lay on her back looking up at the stars. Hands moving to her breasts she began gently squeezing and rolling her erect nipples. Sam felt safe here and wanted to take her time. After a couple of minutes her left hand continued with its nipple play as her right slowly began working its way down her body, fingertips tracing lightly against her skin. She shuddered as her fingers moved across her hip bone and eventually arrived at her clit. Briefly reaching lower she inserted the middle finger up to the knuckle into her wet pussy. Swirling it several times elicited a low moan from her lips.\n\nRemoving the now well lubricated finger Sam brought it to her clit where she began to make slow circles around and across it. Making herself go slowly to savor the experience she alternated between rubbing her clit and finger fucking her pussy. After about ten minutes Sam's body could no longer take the build up of sexual tension caused by her public nudity and the ministrations of her fingers.\n\nMoaning loudly Sam's orgasm exploded through her body and she felt herself flooding the tabletop with cum. She continued rubbing her clit through the first orgasm rapidly climaxing a second then third time. Each brought more cum from her pussy but not nearly the amount as the first flood. Finally spent, she dropped her hands to her sides and lay there several seconds before pushing herself up to a sitting position to get a look at the wetness spread across the concrete table. That's when she saw the security guard.\n\nHe was standing about thirty feet away, just at the edge of the ring of light, and was rapidly pumping his very erect very large cock. Just as Sam saw him a huge rope of cum erupted from its head landing on the grass several feet in front of him followed rapidly by several more.\n\nIn a panic Sam began scooting off the table sliding through the puddle of her cum that was quickly seeping into the concrete. As her feet hit the dew covered ground she tried to run but lost her footing and fell in a heap knocking the breath from her lungs. Sam heard footsteps approaching and tried unsuccessfully to rise. The guard stopped still five feet from her and knelt down on the ground.\n\n\"Are you okay miss?\" he asked.\n\nUnable to speak Sam again tried to rise but once again her body betrayed her.\n\n\"I won't hurt you miss, I just want to help you. You're not going to be in any trouble. My names Jim,\" he said.\n\nStill dazed she croaked out \"Sam\" without thinking that she had just given this stranger, who had just caught her masturbating naked on a public golf course, her name. After thirty seconds or so Sam's breathing began to return to normal though she was still quite winded. She moved into a sitting position feet on the ground and pulled up against her ass, knees up she wrapped her left arm around them and did her best to cover her breasts with the right acutely aware of how naked and vulnerable she was.\n\nWhen Jim saw that she seemed to be recovering he stood and backed away a few feet making a calming motion with his hands. Jim's actions helped to calm Sam somewhat. As she sat recovering her breath Jim walked over to a golf cart sitting near the spot he had been standing when Sam first spotted him. He retrieved a raincoat and returned tossing it to the ground about two feet from her. He then turned his back and walked another ten feet away.\n\n\"Sam, you cover up with that if you want,\" Jim said.\n\nSam crawled across the ground retrieving the raincoat which she draped over herself like a blanket. Jim, his back still turned, was speaking again.\n\n\"I'm sorry I startled you. I really thought you was someone else. You see they's another lady that comes down here and puts on a show for me from time to time. When I saw someone down here I thought it was her. I got down here and saw you and assumed that she had told you about it and you come here to do the same.\"\n\nJim's manner and the fact he had given her the raincoat to cover up with helped to reassure Sam and his story of another woman masturbating in front of him on a somewhat regular basis intrigued her.\n\n\"Jim you can turn around now,\" said Sam.\n\nJim turned and Sam was able to get her first good look at the man. He stood around six feet tall, was powerfully built with broad shoulders and large biceps. He had a shaved head, thick mustache and dark brown skin. If Sam had to guess she would have put his age in his mid fifties. He leaned back against one of the concrete tables crossing his arms across his chest.\n\n\"So Sam,\" Jim began, \"if that other lady didn't send you, what you doing down here? I don't see no clothes laying around.\"\n\nSam hesitated but could think of nothing to say other than the truth. She told Jim of her past two days omitting how near she lived and the fact that she was alone in the house for the next month.\n\nWhen she finished Jim just chuckled and with a smile said, \"Well Sam, I work Sunday through Thursday nights on this here course. Anytime you want to come down here and put on a show for old Jim you feel free. I promise not to touch you unless you was to ever ask me to. I can't promise not to touch myself though,\" he said with another grin.\n\nJim's manner had put Sam thoroughly at ease now and his last comment had caused her to begin to feel aroused once more.\n\n\"Tell me about the other woman that comes down here Jim. If you don't mind that is.\"\n\n\"Oh I don't mind,\" said Jim. \"She older than you, not old but older. Pretty lady, probably in her thirties. Got darker hair, taller, not as nice a chest though,\" he said again flashing a huge smile.\n\n\"Are their any particular days she's here?\" Sam asked.\n\n\"No,\" Jim replied. \"She pretty random. Sometime she here twice a week, sometime I don't see her for a couple of weeks. She usually here about this time of night though.\"\n\nJim straightened from leaning against the table and said, \"Well Sam, I got to go punch a time clock up at the office so they know I'm doing my rounds. Remember what I said bout visitin old Jim again. Oh and keep the raincoat, it may help you get back to wherever you come from.\" With that he flashed Sam another smile and returned to the golf cart, its electric motor carrying him silently into the night.\n\nSam stood and slipped into the rain coat. It was made for someone much taller than her 5'2\" height which meant that a fair amount of it was on the ground and walking in it would be difficult. Removing it she folded it up and carried it with her in case she needed it before reaching home. Setting off naked once again erotic thoughts were flying around in her head. Jim jerking his massive cock while she masturbated was a huge turn on for her as was the thought that out there somewhere was another woman who, like her, enjoyed being naked where she shouldn't be. Sam's return home was made without further incident and by the time she entered through the front door she knew that she would be seeing Jim again. She had a raincoat to return after all.\n\n"}
+{"text": "-o-o-o-\n\n\n\no-o\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n“Watch where you’re walking!” Sunstreaker snarled as Sideswipe bumped into him. The ruby mech was carrying a stack of crates and couldn’t see his twin. Both nearly toppled to the ground.\n\n\n\n\n“How about taking a crate or two and helping me instead of yelling!?” Sideswipe snapped in equally foul temper.\n\n\n\n\n“We wouldn’t be in this mess had you not provoked Prowl,” Sunstreaker growled, taking a crate and kicking his brother in the shin for good measure.\n\n\n\n\nSideswipe yelped, hopping on one leg and struggling to balance the boxy cargo.\n\n\n\n\n“Hey, my plan would have worked had Blaster not been electrocuted,” Sideswipe protested.\n\n\n\n\n“Right,” Sunstreaker snorted. “So Prowl volunteers us to do the heavy lifting and help Wheeljack move his lab.  Forgetting the fact that we are unstable and hauling around equipment that is just as volatile as the mech who works on them.” Sunstreaker sent a glare to Wheeljack was who foreseeing the relocation process.  “Two unstable elements make for a very explosive reaction.”\n\n\n\n\n“Have you been hanging out with Perceptor?” Sideswipe asked, setting his crate down next to the one Sunstreaker just deposited. \n\n\n\n\nSunstreaker chose not to reply as several other mechs milled about, moving their burdens to a specific order as Wheeljack instructed. How the mech was able to tell what was being transported among the vast assortment of junk, no one could fathom. Sunstreaker thought it was in a long time coming but why he and Sideswipe had to lift the heaviest machinery was a mystery. There were mechs more suited to the heavy lifting than the Lamborghinis.\n\n\n\n\n“Sideswipe,” Ironhide called, motioning the red warrior to him. “Grab that end.”\n\n\n\n\n\"I’m not grabbing your end,” Sideswipe snickered that turned into a sigh as he went to Ironhide to help lift a large framework that was to serve as a kind of bomb shelter for Wheeljack when he was experimenting with explosives. \n\n\n\n\nActually, anything Wheeljack worked on could be labeled as an explosive. It was safe to say the entire base should be reinforced like the blast shield, which was why  everyone was working to assist the transition. The sooner Wheeljack was confined to an area structurally reinforced and encased with a blast shield, the better. \n\n\n\n\nThe twins were just grateful their comrades volunteered to help. It would have taken twice as long had they performed all the work themselves.  \n\n\n\n\n“Higher,” Ironhide barked gruffly to Sideswipe. \n\n\n\n\nJuggling heavy machinery, Sideswipe teetered to compensate for the bulky equipment. Unfortunately,  Sideswipe couldn't balance the heavy weight and Ironhide had the machine to drop on his pede. He bellowed out a curse attached to Sideswipe’s designation.\n\n\n\n\nSideswipe staggered with the sudden shift of the devices full weight, and when it hit the ground, the switch activated. The device hummed, emitting an orange glow that encompassed Ironhide and polarized him.  Which meant Sideswipe went headfirst into Ironhide’s chest plates.  Sideswipe’s whole body molded to Ironhide, their reds clashing violently and making Sunstreaker cringe.  \n\n\n\n\nWheeljack went running to the duo, assuring them the polarity was short lived and they wouldn’t be permanently magnetized together. \n\n\n\n\nSideswipe squawked and flailed about, looking like he was dirty dancing with Ironhide, who kept barking at the frontliner to stop moving.\n  \n\n\n\nSunstreaker waved off his brother's yelps of assistance and turned to enter the Ark.\n\n\n\n\nSo intent on the chaotic, but hilarious scene, Sunstreaker wasn’t watching where he was going.  A resounding clang echoed in his audios as something heavy and metal collided with his chest.  He had the fleeting image of a wide optic Red Alert standing behind a piece of machinery, before the unknown device emitted sparks and exploded in a symphony of color.  \n\n\n\n\nThe device detonated, throwing Sunstreaker and Red Alert several feet apart.\n\n\n\n\nSound was removed from existence as the device took its final deep breath before releasing its fury to the heavens. The light shot upwards in a beacon, shimmering in a beautiful mosaic that would have been captured on Sunstreaker’s canvas had he been conscious to see it.  \n\n\n\n\nWhen sound fell heavily once again, Ratchet was called out to assist in the assorted injuries, the medic grumbling about his workload and the ingrates who enjoyed their pastime of self harming.  \n\n\n\n\nRed Alert and Sunstreaker were immediately rushed to medbay, where Ratchet pried off their chest plating and scanned for damage. Strangely enough, the paint on both chassis was blistered, but the heat didn’t penetrate the armor. Internals showed an elevation of five degrees, but it was already being dispelled by internal fans.  The damage had only been cosmetic. \n\n\n\n\nA rarity in and of itself. \n\n\n\n\no-o-o-o-o-o\n\n\n\n\nThe first thing Sunstreaker was aware of was a nagging beep.  Several of them in fact. And they all were stationed near his audios with their volume turned to maximum.  A burning along his helm signaled he had received cranial damage but he couldn’t remember how. He tried to think back, searching memory files for the last time stamp, but things were jumbled too badly to recall. Checking his chronometer, he started, realizing three days had passed. \n\n\n\n\nPrimus, what kind of hit did he take to the helm? \n\n\n\n\nNo wonder his head hurt and his processor felt like it was scrambled and fried.  An alert blinked on his HUD and with trepidation, he gave the command for the file to open. \n\n\n\n\nHe could remember his twin in a tangle with Ironhide, their colors clashing horribly. Then there was a whirlwind of gold and white, all jumbled together until nothing but brilliant white filled his vision and he knew no more.\n\n\n\n\nGreat. \n\n\n\n\nSomething blew up in his face. \n\n\n\n\nTypical. \n\n\n\n\nWheeljack was involved, so there was a high probability of danger with the pyrotechnic. \n\n\n\n\nSunstreaker inwardly groaned.\n\n\n\n\nSideswipe was nearby, Sunstreaker could sense him, though it felt like he was wrapped in a thermal blanket. Sensations were muted, distorted.  There was a good chance Ratchet had used a high powered sedative on him, probably to keep him from thrashing. Sunstreaker had a habit of fighting when he was asleep. It was why he never had a berth partner for long. His survival programming during nightmares kept sending them to medbay. \n\n\n\n\nSunstreaker slowly opened his optics and sure enough, there was the ugly orange ceiling mocking him like a childish pumpkin. He really hated the Ark color scheme. Whoever decorated it had some serious issues with color. \n\n\n\n\n“Come on, Sunny,” Sideswipe said, seemingly from far away. “I know you can hear me. It’s time to wake up.”\n\n\n\n\nSunstreaker had to shutter his optics several times to get them to focus, details slow to sharpen as a heavy fog lifted from his senses.  He turned his head to the left but there was no Sideswipe. \n\n\n\n\nJust a huge monitor beeping a steady line. \n\n\n\n\nWincing with the effort to move his stiff and sore body, Sunstreaker turned to the right, and found another bank of monitors, these colorful and blinking and showing questionable vitals.  \n\n\n\n\nBut still no Sideswipe.  \n\n\n\n\nFrowning, Sunstreaker tried to lift his head to stare at his feet, but a sharp pain in his neck prevented him from moving too far. A monitor beeped in warning with the motion.  It took a few attempts but Sunstreaker was able to lull his head to the right and see past his body. \n\n\n\n\nStill no Sideswipe.\n\n\n\n\nAnd wait…why was he... white?\n\n\n\n\nPrimus! He was a ghost!\n\n\n\n\nA rising tide of fear threaten to pull him back under. If he couldn’t see his brother, and his brother couldn’t see his wakeful state, and his plating was now white instead of gold, surely he had perished in the explosion?  \n\n\n\n\n“Come on, Bro,” Sideswipe said, sounding desperate.\n\n\n\n\nSunstreaker frowned, opening his mouth to answer but then realized, if he was a ghost, his twin couldn’t hear him anyway. Of course, Sideswipe couldn’t see him, which was probably why Sunstreaker couldn’t find him either. \n\n\n\n\nThey were now of two different planes. Sunstreaker could hear the gurgle in his vocalizer as it spat static in answer to his brother’s pleas. \n\n\n\n\nHe really didn’t expect it to work. \n\n\n\n\nHe just needed to tell his brother he was sorry. He knew Sideswipe couldn’t hear him but the words still needed to be said. \n\n\n\n\nSunstreaker knew he wasn’t the easiest mech to live with.  No wonder Sideswipe acted up like he did.   Sometimes, he was just lonesome. Sunstreaker wanted his twin to know that he was sorry for not being a better brother.  That he was sorry for leaving and for the pain Sideswipe was enduring with his loss. \n\n\n\n\nIn a last ditch effort to say goodbye, he sent a thrum of affection through the bond, hoping to relay all the regret and love he could. It was a shame they were now separated.\n\n\n\n\n Sunstreaker never thought the day would come.\n\n\n\n\nIt wasn’t fair. \n\n\n\n\nSunstreaker felt betrayed. He should have terminated on the battlefield. Not due to one of Wheeljack’s errant experiments. There was no honor in that.  No glory. No sacrifice to save comrades or his brother. \n\n\n\n\nMerely an unstable mech who played with unstable chemicals and another unstable mech that was the unfortunate recipient of said reactions.  \n\n\n\n\nSunstreaker couldn’t believe he clocked out thanks to Wheeljack. He should haunt that mech and teach him a lesson. He was a menace. Sunstreaker always said so. \n\n\n\n\n“Come on, Sunny,” Sideswipe repeated. His voice seemed closer now, as if the veil separating them was thinning to allow one last conversation. “It’s time to wake up, Bro.”\n\n\n\n\nSunstreaker felt a dull ebb in his chest, knowing it was his spark saying one final farewell. With a heavy conscious, Sunstreaker opened his mouth again and was able to push away the static to speak, though he was certain Sideswipe could not hear his phantom pleas.  \n\n\n\n\n“I’m sorry, Sides. Forgive me, Bro.”\n\n\n\n\nHe knew Sideswipe would appreciate the nickname. He was always using such terms, no matter if it annoyed the subject or not. \n\n\n\n\nSuddenly there was a medical ghost hovering over Sunstreaker’s form. He could see Ratchet staring down at him, concerned. Oh, he would have loved to have enough energy to tell the medic how much he appreciated the artful patch jobs, and beautiful symmetry he graced his patients with. If only he wasn’t fading so fast.\n\n\n\n\n“It’s okay, just relax,” Ratchet said, looking between the monitors and Sunstreaker.  “You’re safe and stable. Just, relax and allow yourself to heal.”\n\n\n\n\n“You can see me?” Sunstreaker asked with static filling his vocalizer. His spark skipped happily at the thought of not being dead. \n\n\n\n\n“Yes, I can see you,” Ratchet said, narrowing is optics while he pulled out a  portable scanner and ran it over Sunstreaker’s helm. \n\n\n\n\n“I’m…. not a ghost?”  Sunstreaker asked, fearful to hear the answer but something told him he was still in the land of the living. \n\n\n\n\n“No, not a ghost,” Ratchet said, eying the readouts. He appeared more worried than usual when dealing with his favorite friendly enemy.  “How’re you feeling?”\n\n\n\n\nSunstreaker frowned, staring at Ratchet with an undeterred gaze.  He didn’t like Ratchet’s expression as he looked at the portable monitor.  He made to grab the scanner to look at the screen and see the results that troubled the medic, but he pulled up short. \n\n\n\n\nHis hands! \n\n\n\n\nThey weren’t the long, tapered fingers, riddled with scars and buffed to an indecent shine. His fingers were shorter, blunted, dented, scratched, and his arm was plated in white. \n\n\n\n\nRatchet put down the scanner and grasped Sunstreaker’s chin, turning his head so he could look into his optics.\n\n\n\n\n“How are you feeling, Red?”\n\n\n\n\nSunstreaker frowned.  \n\n\n\n\nRatchet didn’t look like he was playing a prank. It wasn’t in his nature. \n\n\n\n\nPrimus!  It couldn’t be! \n\n\n\n\nFearfully he reached up, moving Ratchet’s hands so he could examine his helm. Much to his terror, there were no helm fins. \n\n\n\n\nBut there were audial horns. \n\n\n\n\n“Slag!” Sunstreaker swore, looking up into Ratchet’s face. Ratchet frowned. “Ratchet you aren’t going to believe this, but I’m Sunstreaker.” \n\n\n\n\n“You suffered a sonic concussion,” Ratchet said slowly. “It has destabilized your systems. You are not Sunstreaker. You are Red Alert, head of security.”\n\n\n\n\n“I slagging know who I am!” Sunstreaker snapped. Suddenly there was a blooming pain in his processor and his audios filled with sizzling static.\n\n\n\n\n“Try not to excite yourself, Red,” Ratchet said gently. The tenderness in his optics didn’t suit him. \n\n\n\n\n“Sideswipe?!” Sunstreaker yelled. His voice was stronger now that his anger was building and throwing off the lethargy.  “Where are you?”\n\n\n\n\n“I didn’t do anything,” Sideswipe yelled back, somewhere out of range of Sunstreaker's vision.  \n\n\n\n\n“Red, don’t excite yourself,” Ratchet warned, which only made Sunstreaker angrier. \n\n\n\n\n“Slag it, Ratchet! I’m not Red Alert!  I’m Sunstreaker!”\n\n\n\n\n“Bullshit,” came Sideswipe’s voice. Within a few seconds he was standing beside of Ratchet, gazing down at his brother. \n\n\n\n\nSunstreaker struggled to pull himself upright, wincing and grunting. Ratchet tried to get the Lambo to lie back down and allow his body to heal before he damaged himself, but Sunstreaker was beyond caring.  \n\n\n\n\nSomething was slagged up and he wanted answers. \n\n\n\n\nWhen he was completely upright he let out a gasp. His golden form lay two berths down on the opposite side.  The monitors showed his frame still functioned, so why wasn’t he IN it?\n\n\n\n\n There was only one way to cut to the chase and alert the other two to the situation without them thinking he was crazy or lying. \n\n\n\n\n“Last week you traced your servo on a canvas I was prepping for the art show in Portland,“ Sunstreaker said, looking his brother in the optics. “You made it look like a turkey and painted it white and purple and called it Cluck-a-tron.”\n\n\n\n\nSideswipe’s optics narrowed. It had only been he and Sunstreaker in the studio that day. It was a good day. Sunstreaker let him paint with him and didn’t try to rearrange his transformation seams. \n\n\n\n\n“How would you know that? Do you have cameras set up in the studio?”\n\n\n\n\n“No,” Sunstreaker said frustrated, looking down and finding the white frame instead of his normal golden tones. Primus, it was a drab color. “I am Sunstreaker. Whatever blew up, must have switched me and Red Alert. I’m in his body.” He pulled a face of disgust, “And believe me, it’s dull, bland, and wholly unkempt in here.”\n\n\n\n\nSideswipe’s optics narrowed. “Sunny?”\n\n\n\n\n“You sure that’s your brother?” Ratchet asked skeptically. Wouldn’t be the first time the twins tried to prank him. If he fell for it again, exhausts would be mutilated with the jaws of life.   \n\n\n\n\nSunstreaker frowned, knowing the two weren’t believing him, though Sideswipe looked on the fence. \n\n\n\n\n“When we were younglings, you once endured a beating by the Pit Master because you lubricated on a client.”\n\n\n\n\nSideswipe’s optics went wide. “Sunny!”\n\n\n\n\n“Yes,” Sunstreaker, stuck in Red Alert’s body, nodded emphatically. “We’ve been switched!”\n\n\n\n\n“Slag,” Sideswipe sighed.\n\n\n\n\n“Wait, you are Sunstreaker?” Ratchet asked, hoping against hope he didn’t have another medical miracle he had to pull off. With the twins, his magic acts were getting more and more complicated. \n\n\n\n\n\"Yes!\" Sunstreaker snarled. A spark erupted from his helm, making him flinch and rub the side of his head.\n\n\n\n\n“Slag,” Ratchet swore, earning twin looks from two Lambos that didn’t normally go together. “If you’re in Red’s body, that means Red is in yours.”\n\n\n\n\nSunstreaker’s optics narrowed. He didn’t like that idea, not one bit. Red Alert was going to scratch him all over and wouldn’t buff his gorgeous body every other hour. \n\n\n\n\nRatchet went to the inert golden frame and magnetized it to the berth.\n\n\n\n\n“What are you doing?” Sideswipe asked, remembering the code Ratchet imputed for when he pranked someone in med bay later. He’d get the orneriness beat out of him from Ratchet, but it would be hilarious. \n\n\n\n\n“You know Red’s history,” Ratchet said, checking over the vitals being displayed on the overhead monitor. “I need him to remain calm while I explain things, and then I’ll let him up to view his new body.”\n\n\n\n\n“It’s not his new body!” Sunstreaker yelled, trying to get off the berth and feeling the world spin. He grasped the edges to steady himself. “It’s my slagging body and I want it back! It took me millennia to get it looking that way! I’m not having some paranoid nutcase slag it up!”\n\n\n\n\n“Sunny, calm down” Sideswipe said, finding it difficult to look at Red Alert’s features when he spoke his brother’s designation.  “You’re sparking.”\n\n\n\n\nSunstreaker opened his mouth to snap at his twin, but a sharp pain through his helm halted his verbal tirade. He hissed, clutching his helm. Sparks kissed his fingertips. \n\n\n\n\nSideswipe felt a slight burning along his circuitry, starting from his errant spark and traveling along his plating.\n\n\n\n\n“Ratchet, how can I still feel Sunny?” he asked, rubbing his chest plates to soothe the burn.\n\n\n\n\n“Wheeljack’s device switched sparks with bodies,” Ratchet said, running a diagnostic on Sunstreaker’s motionless form. Primus, he looked terminated, if he didn’t look so beautifully golden.  “The explosion probably transferred their consciousnesses between the two as well. The spark carries our memories and emotions. It's the part that makes us who we are as individuals.  All of our memories and emotions are stored in the exact same manner, and it is possible, as evidenced here, that the consciousness can be transferred between frames. We do it when we upgrade into our adult frames. We transfer the spark to the new chamber. Though it’s supposed to be impossible after a youngling has had their final upgrade.”\n\n\n\n\n“I don��t want to downgrade,” Sunstreaker spat, glaring at his beautiful body that was now so far away.  Primus, the burning pain was getting worse. His vision was starting to distort. He hissed again, grasping his helm tighter.\n\n\n\n\n“Settle down Sunstreaker,” Ratchet said, going to the now white sociopath and injecting a sedative into his main line. “You’re in Red’s body, and his glitch is still present.”\n\n\n\n\n“Tell me about it,’ Sunstreaker moaned, feeling the pain ease up to a dull throb. Primus, it felt like he had a slow spark ache echoing in his helm. Is this what Red Alert experienced every second of every day? No wonder the mech was a basket case. The pain alone was nauseating.  \n\n\n\n\n“Ratchet?” came a feeble, static filled voice from the other side of the ward. Ratchet left his white plated patient to join his golden plated one.\n\n\n\n\n“Red, how are you feeling?” Ratchet asked, keeping the skittish mech calm.  Red Alert was always frantic when coming back to consciousness. \n\n\n\n\nRed opened his vents, pulling in cool air over his systems and exhaling a long breath. \n\n\n\n\n“Feels great, whatever you did,\" Red said. “No burning. No pain. Everything feels….. “ Red trailed off, his face going slack. “Primus, why can’t I feel the pain and burning? Ratchet, what’s happened?”\n\n\n\n\n“Red, I need you to calm down,” Ratchet said to the naturally panicky mech. It was weird to see Sunstreaker’s golden frame so freaked out. \n\n\n\n\n”One of Wheeljack’s devices exploded,” Ratchet said slowly, hoping Red Alert would understand through his panicking state. \n\n\n\n\n“Did he destroy my body?” Red asked, fearful.\n\n\n\n\n“No.”\n\n\n\n\nRed Alert paused, trying to process what happened. The fact he physically felt fine was unnerving.  There were no warnings along his HUD, which only made him panic worse. \n\n\n\n\n“Red, settle down,” Ratchet snapped, not wanting to upset the golden Lambo.  This was beyond weird. “The device switched your body with Sunstreaker’s. You are now inhabiting his frame and he, yours.”\n\n\n\n\nRed faltered,  optics shuttering a couple of times before narrowing at Ratchet.\n\n\n\n\n“What?”\n\n\n\n\n“The device, it changed the polarity of your bodies, switching your processors and sparks.”\n\n\n\n\nRed Alert frowned, still disbelieving. \n\n\n\n\nRatchet hit the demagnetizing button and grasped the golden arm, lifting it up where Red Alert could see the color. His optics went wide as he took in the golden frame. \n\n\n\n\nA quick scan of systems showed his memory storage, energy absorption, normal pressure in all lines, fully charged systems, and a processing unit that was faster and higher than what he had thought possible. \n\n\n\n\nStructural and neurological integrity was at one hundred percent. Neural conductivity also was at optimal performance.  Red Alert took another long draught, reveling in the coolness invading the golden body and no red flags appearing in his HUD for compromised filters and glitched systems. \n\n\n\n\nHe felt like he was able to stretch, mentally, inside this new body. It was… freeing. This was how he felt he SHOULD be had he not developed the anomalies that plagued his normal frame. \n\n\n\n\n“Don’t get used to it because I’ll be wanting that back,” Sunstreaker yelled from across the ward. \n\n\n\n\nRed Alert slowly lifted himself up on the berth and looked over to see his white plated body glaring back at him. It was very unsettling, but strangely enough, he didn’t feel the full blown desire to scream and panic. It was creepy, but there was no pain or burning of circuits to signal a full blown meltdown. His spark wasn’t frantic and seizing in its chamber. \n\n\n\n\nIf anything, it was calm and steady.\n\n\n\n\nWas this what it was like to have a normal processor? Is this what a regular operating system felt like? \n\n\n\n\nRed Alert may be reluctant to part with such a pristine treasure.\n\n\n\n\n“You okay?” Sideswipe asked, watching his brother rub his helm.\n\n\n\n\n“I will be,” Sunstreaker muttered. \n\n\n\n\nPrimus, he felt so…. hot and constricted.  Why wasn’t his cache dumping like it should and deleting the unnecessary files? Why wasn’t he able to piece his thoughts together while they ran chaotically through his mind?  It was hard to think when his processor was going in a million different directions and sending his spark into a faster tempo of panic. It was like his processor and spark were competing to see which one would glitch first. \n\n\n\n\n“Aside from the regular glitches, you two aftheads are stable and in good health,” Ratchet said returning to the twins and checking the bioelectrical output from the white Lamborghini. \n\n\n\n\n“Burns,” Sunstreaker muttered when Ratchet popped an access port on the sparking helm and made an adjustment.  Sunstreaker winced and breathed a sigh of relief when the burning sensation lessened. Not by much, but now it was more tolerable.  \n\n\n\n\n“Don’t overly stress your processor,” Ratchet warned, looking Sunstreaker in the optic. “Red’s frame is riddled with glitches, and if you try to exert yourself, you’ll cause his systems to fail.”\n\n\n\n\nSunstreaker glanced to his golden body and saw the devastated look on his own face. \n\n\n\n\nPrimus, this was beyond weird.\n\n\n\n\n“How long until you can fix this?” Sunstreaker asked.\n\n\n\n\n“Wheeljack is already running diagnostics through the main scanner and looking for the blueprints that have went missing since the relocation,” Ratchet explained, closing the port. \n\n\n\n\n“You sure he even had blueprints?”  Sunstreaker asked, rubbing the plating above his spark chamber.\n\n\n\n\n“He says there is, so he better produce some sort of schematics or he’s going to find a screwdriver shoved in a very uncomfortable place.”\n\n\n\n\n“Am I free to go?” Red Alert asked. It was odd seeing Sunstreaker’s powerful frame looking so timid. \n\n\n\n\n“Yes,” Ratchet said, waving toward the door. “Both of you are on restricted duty until this has been resolved. Neither is to do things that they know the other would not appreciate. If you do something to mangle your frames, I will bang out the dents in an extremely violent manner.  Am I understood?”\n\n\n\n\nBoth Lambos nodded.  \n\n\n\n\n“I’ve already alerted the others about this condition,” Ratchet said, still hearing Jazz and Ironhide laugh their axels off over the comm. freq.  They were enjoying this little tragic disposition. \n\n\n\n\n“I have duties to attend,” Red Alert said, walking from the medbay pain free and unfazed by paranoia and worry for the first time in his adult life.  \n\n\n\n\nHe entered his security station and found the monitoring duty to be a breeze, his processor not struggling with the constant desire to check for faults and see enemy incursions at every turn. He smiled at the screens and drank some energon that had been left for him by Inferno. \n\n\n\n\nUnfortunately, Sunstreaker wasn’t fairing as well in Red Alert’s body.  He headed to the rec room to refuel, his systems blinking a constant veil like human blood.  He was getting tired of seeing the infra red end of the spectrum.  \n\n\n\n\nWhen he got to the dispenser he paused, staring, suddenly imagining it to be laced with poison. His spark pulsed, agreeing with the assessment. \n\n\n\n\n“What’s causing your flips?” Sideswipe asked from behind him. \n\n\n\n\nSunstreaker turned and found his brother rubbing his chest directly over his spark chamber. \n\n\n\n\n“What’s wrong?” Sunstreaker asked, fearing the worst. “Are you having a spark attack? Are you picking up on the glitch from this frame?”\n\n\n\n\n“Shut up,” Sideswipe snapped, annoyed. “You sound as paranoid as Red!”\n\n\n\n\n“Sorry,” Sunstreaker muttered, which was so unlike himself.  \n\n\n\n\nApparently his body wasn’t the only thing that was changed. His thought processes and emotional center were off the chart. This is the type of sensation he had when he drank too much high grade and touched high voltage wires.  \n\n\n\n\nIs this how Red functioned? With his circuits this scrambled? \n\n\n\n\nThe burning came back in a powerful wave, making Sunstreaker wince and teeter. Sideswipe caught him before he could collapse and steered him to a chair.  Sunstreaker sat down heavily feeling as if his helm was about to explode. \n\n\n\n\nPrimus, there was so much running through his head. It was so jumbled and erratic. \n\n\n\n\nAnd why wouldn’t his spark stop skipping like that?  Like it was trying to beat its way out of his chest.  He vaguely wondered if it was possible to ding the inside of a spark chamber with the flickering of a spark.  \n\n\n\n\nA half cube was placed in his hand by his brother, who helped him tip the contents down his throat. His analyzers sputtered, circuits stalling out like they had been shorted before they hummed in appreciation. The error messages reduced by half. Sunstreaker sagged in the chair, resembling a balloon losing air.\n\n\n\n\n“Sunstreaker, are you okay? Do you need Ratchet?” Bluestreak asked. He had thought it cruel everyone was laughing at the unfortunate turn of events. He couldn't find anything comical with the situation and shuddered to think if he had switched bodies with someone else.  \n\n\n\n\nPrimus, that would be embarrassing. .. and more than a little awkward. \n\n\n\n\n“I’ll be fine,” Sunstreaker muttered, keeping his optics closed and rubbing his temples . “Just low systems and needed a boost.” \n\n\n\n\nBluestreak sat down on Sunstreaker’s opposite side, his doorwings fanning wide, sensing the erratic spark pulse emanating from the white frame. \n\n\n\n\nSideswipe groaned, shoulders slumping. \n\n\n\n\n“Bro, I have to go,” he said, hearing Prowl cackle over the comms about missed duties and negligence.  “Prowl’s demanding my skid plates unless I go with Tracks on patrol this evening.”\n\n\n\n\n“It’s okay. I can stay with him,” Bluestreak said,  smiling at Sunstreaker though the white mech was still distracted by the throbbing in his helm. “Maybe I can help him polish up. That always makes him feel better.”\n\n\n\n\n\"I need to lie down,\" Sunstreaker muttered.\n\n\n\n\nBluestreak immediately grasped the disembodied frontliner and helped him to his pedes. \n\n\n\n\n“Primus,” Sideswipe groaned, face twisting into a look of revulsion. “You have to charge with me tonight. Oh, this is going to be weird and disgusting.”\n\n\n\n\n“It’s a barrel of laughs from my perspective,” Sunstreaker groused, finding the flipping in his spark chamber to be a real nuisance.  Primus, his spark wasn’t this bad since when he and Sideswipe were younglings, and needed merges to stabilize their lives. \n\n\n\n\nNow? \n\n\n\n\nWell, it would be sickening if they had to merge to stabilize. Sunstreaker wasn't sure he could endure such a thing. It was gross, creepy, and wholly unacceptable.\n\n\n\n\n Sideswipe didn’t appear to be to be suffering from the anomaly, but it was only a matter of time before he went out of sync. \n\n\n\n\n“Mech’s are going to talk,” Sideswipe said, grinning at his brother who didn’t see the humor in the situation. \n\n\n\n\n“Who cares?” Sunstreaker muttered. He groaned, doubling over and clutching his midsection. He felt like he was going to purge. “I need to lie down.”\n\n\n\n\n“I’ll help him,” Bluestreak said, latching onto Sunstreaker’s borrowed frame to help steady him. \n\n\n\n\nA spark erupted from Sunstreaker’s helm, the burning seeping back into his consciousness again.  Perhaps if he charged he’d feel better?\n\n\n\n\n“I’ll see you later tonight,\" Sideswipe said, sending an answer to Prowl so the mech would stop griping like a PMS’ing harpy over the comms. \n\n\n\n\nBluestreak helped steady Sunstreaker to the room he shared with his twin.  Normally Sunstreaker would shy away from tactile contact, but he didn’t mind the assistance as his perception had him rocking back and forth like a teeter totter. \n\n\n\n\n“You get some rest. I’ll buff you up,\" Bluestreak said, going to the shelf that held Sunstreaker’s detailing supplies. When he turned back, Sunstreaker was already charging. \n\n\n\n\nSideswipe kept a constant check on his twin via comms, Bluestreak supplying a steady stream of updates. The patrol route took half the time as Sideswipe hit the triple digits. He knew he would receive speeding tickets from traffic cameras, but he didn't care. Prowl could kiss his aft. His brother was more important than trolling streets looking for possible Decepticons. \n\n\n\n\nAn hour later, Sideswipe plodded down the hall to his quarters. The last leg of the patrol route had been tedious, Tracks providing a constant commentary on the corrosive nature of the organic world as rain turned silt into a gritty sludge.  Tracks wisely kept his vocalizer off about Sunstreaker’s predicament, lest his patrol partner run him into a guardrail.  \n\n\n\n\nWhen Sideswipe entered his quarters it was to find Bluestreak diligently buffing the white plating. \n\n\n\n\n“How’s he doing?” he asked quietly, looking at the calm face that was not his twin. \n\n\n\n\nIt felt so surreal to be addressing Red Alert’s body. He was used it to shouting and accusing him of things.  He had felt some twinges of pain over the bond he share with his twin, but  it had lessened. Now he had a low thrum that felt like a giant bass was playing a single note along his spark casing. \n\n\n\n\n“He‘s been charging since you left,’ Bluestreak said, finishing up his polishing job and placing Sunstreaker’s supplies back in their proper place. “I’ve got him as shiny and flawless as I can. You’ll have to do his back though. I couldn’t get him to turn over.”\n\n\n\n\nSideswipe nodded, his optics tired. “Thanks, Blue.”\n\n\n\n\n“No problem,” Bluestreak chirped, doorwings fluttering. “I’m down the hall if you need me.”\n\n\n\n\nSideswipe nodded and shut the door behind Bluestreak and turned to look at the inert white frame. \n\n\n\n\nPrimus, it was slagging weird to see Red Alert’s body on Sunstreaker’s berth. \n\n\n\n\nCorrection.\n\n\n\nIt was a nightmare.  \n\n\n\n\nHoping to wake up tomorrow and find the whole thing had been a dream, Sideswipe curled up on his berth and was sound asleep within seconds, his hand resting over his spark chamber. \n\n\n\n\n\no-o\n\n\n\n-o-o"}
+{"text": "Akihito hadn't been awake five minutes before he began ranting.  He'd already spent one fretful night at the hospital in Bali, hopped up on pain killers and antibiotics for his infected broken legs, feverishly tossing and babbling gibberish. \n\nAsami hadn't left his room.  The crime lord had slept in a reclining chair he'd had brought in and set next to the bed.   Kei had brought him breakfast and kept him apprised of business matters.  The jet was en-route to Bali with Aki's parents on board.\n\nAsami had just finished shaving in the bathroom off Akihito's room when he heard the young man crying.\n\n\"Asami....\" \n\nAsami was there, bedside, in his white shirt (albeit unbuttoned and sleeves rolled up) and slacks, his face still damp. \n\n\"I'm here, Kitten,\" the crime lord said, taking his lover's hand.  \n\nAki focused distressed hazel eyes on Asami.  \"You must protect Suardika!\"  He pulled his hand away and began tossing and making sounds as if he were uncomfortable.\n\n\"She saved my life!\" Aki declared, his voice hoarse and cracking.  He was no longer feverish, but all the medications in his system were making him loopy, nauseous, and irritable; he felt like shit.  \"I would've died from that, that fish sting without her.  She took care of me.  She protected me.  The dream travel.  That was all her.  You have to save her from the Russians and Sudou.\"\n\n Asami leaned forward in the chair.  \"Sudou was on the island?\"\n\n\"Uh huh.\"  Aki nodded.  Asami urged him to take a sip of protein shake.  Aki wrapped his balm-coated lips around the straw and sucked slowly.  He lay back on the pillow.     \n\n\"Sudou ambushed me on the beach and held a knife to my throat.  He was going to kill me, but I escaped.  He's the reason the cannibals got me.  He chased me into them.\"\n\n\"He must've come with Mikhail,\" Asami mused.\n\n\"You must save Suardika!\" Aki wailed.  \"She's there with Sudou and the Russians!  What if they capture her to get to me?  They might torture or kill her!\"\n\nAkihito began sobbing and hyperventilating, jerking his head from side to side, clutching and unclutching the sheet, and arching his back.  He was on the verge of hysteria.  \"You must rescue her, Asami!  Please!\"\n\nAsami rose from the chair and leaned over Akihito.  \"Calm down, Kitten,\" he said, stroking the boy's hair off his sweaty forehead.  \"I will take care of it, but you must relax first.\"  Akihito grabbed Asami's wrist and looked at him imploringly. \n\n\"Kei,\" Asami called, and his secretary entered the room.  Asami squeezed Aki's hand and lay it on his chest.  \"Stay with Akihito.  I must speak with Suoh.\"\n\n\"Yes, Asami-sama.\"  Kei slid into the chair.\n\n\"Make him finish that shake,\" Asami said as he left the room.\n\n*** \n\nAkihito!\" screamed Mrs. Takaba when she entered the hospital room later that day.  The nurse had just left from helping Akihito sponge-bathe and put on a fresh gown.\n\n\"Momma!\" Aki shrieked.  \"Dad!\"  \n\nBoth Takabas flew to opposite sides of the bed and threw themselves onto their son.  \"Akihito,\" Mrs. Takaba sobbed.  She kissed the young man's face frantically and held it in her hands.  Hazel eyes met hazel eyes.  \n\n\"Momma,\" Aki sobbed, tears streaming down his cheeks.  He buried his face in her shoulder and cried.\n\nMr. Takaba had his forehead pressed against Akihito's other shoulder.  He made no sound, but his body shook with emotion.  Akihito put his arm around the man and kissed the top of his head.  \"Daddy,\" he croaked, and Mr. Takaba raised his face to gaze at his boy.  His eyes, full of love, were wet with tears.  \"My son,\" the man whispered, nodding.  \"My son.\"\n\nAsami stood in the doorway watching this.  He was--as usual--calm and collected, his face revealing nothing, but inside, he felt awkward, as if he shouldn't be there, as if this family reunion were too personal for him, an outsider, to be witnessing.  He was touched, though he would never admit it, even to himself.\n\nMrs. Takaba turned her emotion-filled face to look over at him.  Her hazel eyes shined with gratitude.\n\n\"Asami-san, how can we thank you?\" she said in a voice barely above a whisper.  \"How can we ever repay you for bringing our son back to us?\"\n\n\"That is unnecessary, Takaba-san,\" the crime lord replied.  \"He was returned to me, as well.\"\n\nMrs. Takaba extended an arm out to Asami, and he realized that she meant to include him in this family lovefest.  Asami shook his head slightly and motioned with his hand dismissively.  \"I do not wish to intrude.\"  \n\nMrs. Takaba was having none of it.  Her hazel eyes flashed stubbornly, just as Akihito's so often did.  She nodded and gestured with her arm slightly.  Clearing his throat, Asami approached the bed and stiffly leaned into the group hug.  Mrs. Asami slid her arm around his waist and pulled him in closer.  Akihito--an arm around each parent--looked up at Asami with an expression of raw joy.  He began crying again, and his mother withdrew her arm from around the crime lord to hold her baby, and kiss and stroke his hair.\n\n***\n\nAkihito's lower legs were in casts, which were suspended in slings just above the bed to keep the blood from pooling in them.  The rest of him was covered with a sheet.  There was also a light blanket, for if he got cold.  After the Takabas left for the luxury resort Asami had booked them into, the crime lord approached the bed, folded his arms, and eyed his lover. \n\nAkihito knew that look.  \"The doctor wants me to rest, you horny bastard.  That means all of me.\"\n\n\"He also said your breaks were clean, and the bones hadn't shifted,\" said Asami.  \"You should heal well, with no residual effects.\"\n\n\"And to heal, I need to rest,\" said the blond.  He grinned and stretched his arms out over his head, closing his eyes and arching his back.  \"Aaaaaaah....\"\n\n\"Don't tease me, Kitten,\" Asami murmured in a low voice smooth as wine. \n\n\"I'm not teasing you, I'm stretching, is that all right?\" Akihito said.  \n\n Asami moved to the door, closed it, and turned the lock.  A thrill of excitement made Akihito shiver. \n\n\"I'll ring the nurse,\" he threatened. \n\nAsami took the controller from his kitten and dropped it off the bed.  Then he carefully grabbed the blond's wrists and looked at him with eyes that glowed like molten gold. \n\n\"My IV!\" Akihito exclaimed.  \"You're going to pull it out!\"\n\n\"No, I'm not,\" Asami said calmly, his eyes not leaving Akihito's.  \"Stop struggling, and it will be fine.\"\n\nAkihito grew still and stared back at the smug but handsome face above his.   He felt himself growing hard. \n\n\"I'll start yelling,\" Akihito said.\n\n\"I'm counting on it,\" Asami purred, as he moved along the blond's neck, licking a stripe from his shoulder up to and around his ear.  Aki moaned, and Asami chuckled.  He took the boy's ear lobe between his teeth and gently tugged, making a growling noise deep in his throat.  The resulting vibration only added to the sensation, and Akihito trembled and whimpered.\n\nAsami slid Akihito's gown down off his shoulders and began tasting the smooth, tawny skin and peppering it with kisses.  He ran his hands along the boy's lean body.  \"I've so missed this,\" the crime lord said in a thick voice.  He moaned softly, took one of Akihito's nipples between his lips, and laved it gently with his tongue.  Akihito gasped and clenched his hands into fists.  Still holding Akihito's wrists, the crime lord engulfed the boy's mouth with his own and kissed him urgently and deeply.  Akihito's loins ached with need, and he now had a full-on erection.  The many months without Asami's lovemaking had finally caught up with him.\n\n\"Put it inside me, Ryuichi,\" Aki breathed, and the crime lord released the boy's wrists and moved to the foot of the bed, discarding his shirt and belt in the process.  He gracefully climbed onto the bed, unzipping his fly and lowering his slacks with one hand, while he deftly navigated the narrow space between Aki's suspended legs.  He was truly like a panther descending upon its prey, his eyes on fire since the mention of his first name, and his massive hard-on bouncing free of his briefs.\n\nAki saw all this and groaned with desire, his balls throbbing and his prick leaking and making a wet spot on the gown.  Asami saw the spot and chuckled.  \"So eager for me, Kitten.  You will need a new gown after I am through.\"  The crime lord slid the gown up off the boy's hips, devouring the needy sight before him with hungry eyes.\n\n\"Hurry uuup,\" Akihito whined, grimacing.  He rolled his hips and whined again, his eyes so full of want.\n\n\"No foreplay, my kitten?\" Asami said.  He was enjoying this.  He lowered himself between the boy's legs, kissed the tender skin of his inner thighs, and teased his cock and balls with his tongue.\n\n\"Nooo,\" Akihito whined, louder this time.  \"Fuck me, 'Sami.  I need you to fuck me!\"\n\nAsami parted Aki's ass cheeks, and seconds later, Aki felt himself being invaded by Asami's strong, long, hot tongue.  It traced circles around his opening and then pushed its way past the ring of muscle, deep inside.  The blond yelped and bore down, wanting more.  He began trying to thrust down harder on the tongue, but his legs in the slings were preventing him.  He shook the slings in frustration, the metal parts making a terrible clanking noise, and huffed in frustration.\n\nAkihito could feel Asami laughing, the breaths against his ass crack, the slight shaking, as the crime lord continued to play his boy's hole with his wicked tongue.\n\n\"Your cock, Asami,\" whined Akihito.  \"I need your cock.\" \n\nAsami rose to his knees and slid a pillow beneath Akihito's ass.  He whipped out a packet of hospital petroleum jelly from his pocket and smeared it on his fingers.  He slid a single finger into Akihito's loosened hole, and felt the young man bear down upon it and moan.  He added a second finger and moved them in and out, curling them against Aki's prostate in the process.  Akihito was bucking his hips and whining with furious need now.\n\n\"Fuck me, fuck me,\" he repeated.  Asami smeared the rest of the jelly onto his massive prick, positioned it at Akihito's entrance, and pushed halfway in.  Akihito groaned with pleasure at the sudden fullness.  Even the sting of the stretch was good.  \n\n\"You are hot as a volcano, my Akihito,\" the crime lord said, closing his eyes as he savored the exquisite feeling of being inside Aki, \"and tight as a glove.  Are you trying to suck me inside of you?\"  Asami held the young man's hips with his strong hands and sank himself all the way in.  Aki could feel Asami's balls and public hair against his ass.  Akihito arched his back and white-knuckled the sheets.  \"Yeeees, 'Sami,\" he whispered, his eyes closed.  \"Yeeees.\"\n\nAsami pulled back, almost all the way out, and then thrust back in, angling himself to hit the boy's prostate.  \"Ah, god, Asami!\" Akihito yelled.  \"Nnnnnghaaaaa!\"\n\n\"I am God,\" the crime lord murmured, \"and you are mine, once again.\" \n\n\"I, I am yours, Ryuichi,\" the blond moaned, helplessly undone.  With half-closed eyes, he eyed the large man looking down at him. \n\nAsami took Akihito's weeping erection in hand and began stroking and pumping in earnest now.  There was just the sound of grunting and slapping flesh, as Asami plowed into his smaller lover over and over, hitting his prostate with each stroke.\n\n\"Ah, ah, ah, ah!\" Akihito gasped, as Asami slammed into him relentlessly.  He was gripping and releasing the sheets frantically, thrashing his head from side to side as he neared climax.  \"'Sami, 'Sami, aaaaaah, 'Sami!\"  Akihito rocked his hips to meet the thrusts as best he could, and then he exploded in climax, shooting strings of cum all over Asami's hand and chest.  Asami continued to pump as Akihito rode out his waves of orgasm.     \n\nThen, the crime lord dropped onto his elbows over the lean blond, supporting his own weight with his massive biceps.  The traction equipment above creaked as Akihito's thighs spread to accommodate him.  Asami took Akihito's mouth in another deep, demanding kiss and began pumping once again, his breath coming faster as he neared climax.  Akihito ran one hand up Asami's back and buried the other in his thick, black hair, tugging gently and then pushing him in for another deep kiss.  That was all it took, and Asami came, moaning long and low, and filling Akihito's ass with hot cum.  Aki could feel the massive cock convulsing inside of him as Asami's orgasm rumbled through them both like an earthquake.  There was so much cum, Aki could feel it overflowing, running down his crack to his back.\n\nAsami dropped his head onto the blond's shoulder, still supporting his weight with his arms.  He breathed in deeply, then pulled out of Akihito and rose to a sitting position.  He wiped his prick with Akihito's ruined gown and then shoved it back into his slacks.  He sat on the bed with his long legs bent up and his arms resting on them.  He surveyed his wrecked lover: legs in traction, Asami's cum dripping from his ass, and his stomach covered with his own jism.  \n\n\"I like you in this position,\" the crime lord said.  \"Perhaps I will add a similarly equipped hospital bed to the private room.  We can play 'doctor.'  I can take your temperature and examine your prostate.\"\n\nFlustered, Akihito attempted to clean and then cover himself with the ruined hospital gown.  \"I see nothing changed while I was gone,\" he huffed, trying to play off his embarrassment.  His cheeks were hot, and he knew they were likely bright red.  \"You're still the same old perverted yakuza bastard.\"\n\nAt this, Asami laughed loudly and smiled--a rare actual smile--that revealed perfect teeth and made Akihito want to go another round with him then and there.\n\n***\n\nDawn was breaking the next morning when Suoh and his men arrived back at the island.  Docking the speedboat on the west side, they once again took the two smaller boats ashore.  They were quiet and focused; they had their orders. \n\nThey made their way to the steep hill where Suardika reportedly had her hut.  They climbed it and found what appeared to be flag pole, but nothing else.  \n\n\"Suardika,\" Suoh called.  \"We are friends of Akihito.\"  There was no response.  \"Akihito sent us, Suardika.  He is worried about you.\"  Still no reply, and no sound of any creatures, except for birds.  The team continued to scour the hill and the surrounding jungle for most of the day.  \n\n\"This entire area appears to be uninhabited, Suoh-sama,\" one of the men finally said.  \"It doesn't look as though anyone has ever lived here.\"\n\n\"I agree,\" said Suoh.  \"Radio the other men, and let's get back to boat.\"\n\nBack on the speedboat, Suoh called Asami.  \n\n\"We didn't find the woman, Asami-sama,\" Suoh said, \"and we didn't see any animals, including monkeys.\" \n\n\"Did you find the hut?\" the crime lord asked.\n\n\"No.  No hut, no garden.  We did find what appeared to be a flag pole, but that's it.\"\n\n\"The camp was destroyed, perhaps?\" Asami mused.\n\n\"That's just it, Asami-sama.  Except for the pole, there's no sign that anyone was ever there.  The overgrowth is many years' old, not recent.  My men and I had to chop through thick vines just to climb the hill.\n\n\"Hmmm....\"\n\n\"The other thing, boss.  We were exactly where the circle of fire was--I double-checked our coordinates--but there's no sign of any burn.  No charred treetops or wood, no ash, nothing.\"\n\n\"Pictures?\"\n\n\"Sending them now, boss.\"\n\n ***\n\nAs the sun set, Suoh and his men changed into their night gear.  The speedboat made its way along the southern coast of the island in stealth mode, to the east side.  It docked outside the same cove as before.�� Five men, led by Souh, took a single small boat to the shore.  From there they made their way through the dark jungle.\n\nThe hypnotic drumbeat and monotone humming grew louder as they neared the cannibal camp.  From a distance, Suoh scanned the men surrounding the huge campfire, and the ones dancing, as well.  He used binoculars, as he was looking for very specific features and attire.  The head dress, especially, had to match.  Beside Suoh, one of his men held a perfectly calibrated high-powered rifle equipped with a silencer.   \n\nFinding a match, Suoh took the rifle, set the scope on the target, and pulled the trigger. \n\nOne of the tribesmen fell backwards from where he'd been standing and chanting.  The drums and humming suddenly stopped, and chaos broke out as the other men rushed over to see what'd happened.  \n\nThe man lay staring up blankly with a hole in the center of his forehead.  A pool of blood was growing beneath his head.  The tribesmen grew silent as they stared at him.  They looked at each other and then at the trees and sky, trying to catch a glimpse of the spirit who had struck their chief dead.... \n\n "}
+{"text": "\nTHREE - CATRA\n\n\n\nI glared at my laptop screen as I finalized yet another application. With the Fright Zone currently out of commission I needed a job until it reopened. It wasnt too pressing. Owning a house while getting rent from two others insured that bills would be handled, but play money people, play money. Plus ive been eyeing a really nice cat tower, and Ill be damned if I dont have it. \n\n\n\nScorpia gave a big sigh as she typed away on her phone. Not a usual response from her when shes chatting away with someone. \n\n\n\nDo I ask? Do I not? \n\n\n\nI didn't have to decide as Scorpia started to explain, “Perfuma was put on the schedule this weekend.” ‘This weekend’ meaning tomorrow. \n\n\n\nI raised an eyebrow, “Isnt she usually on weekend shift anyways?” \n\n\n\nShe nodded as she slumped further into the couch. Ok, so she was bummed bummed. \n\n\n\n“Yah, but she requested it off for the Mystacor trip. But someone got sick or something.” \n\n\n\nRight, the trip that I have only heard about fifteen-thousand times. Apparently Sparkles has some aunt who runs the luxury place. Its some sort of resort or something. They were all visiting for a mini vaca, but it was really some family bonding time for the Moons in their new addition. Adora was a part of this little trip and had already invited me along. The cons list of Sparkles family had actually won out over hot-dorky-blonde this time around. No way in hell was I going to spend my weekend battling glitter and dorks for some peace and quiet. Regardless of how nice the place had looked when I totally didnt google it. \n\n\n\n“Thats rough, bud.” I said as I returned my gaze to my screen. \n\n\n\nScorpia shot up in her seat before turning fully to me, “You have it off! Come with me! It's already paid for and everything!” \n\n\n\nI groaned. How did I not see this coming? \n\n\n\n“No.” I deadpanned\n\n\n\nShe didnt even flinch, rude, “Oh come on, itll be fun!” She leaned a little closer, “Theres a spa. And you wouldnt have to hang with us the whole time. You could go off and do your own thing. I know crowds isnt really your style.” \n\n\n\nI could go off on my own? There indeed was a nice looking spa in those photos I didnt look up. All paid? Chances to annoy sparkles? All paid?\n\n\n\nThe pros list was looking a little more hefty now. But was it worth it? How much ‘group time’ would I be expected to put up with? \n\n\n\nI didnt even look up from my screen, “No.” \n\n\n\nA weekend at home sounded just as nice. \n\n\n\nScorpia sighed dramatically before resting back into her seat, but I could see her grin radiating from here as she typed away on her phone. What was she so giddy about? \n\n\n\nA few moments passed and it didnt escape my notice that Scorpia was pointedly not looking at me as my phone went off. \n\n\n\nI dont know what she did but I had a gut feeling she deserved the glare I sent her way as she ‘inconspicuously’ whistled and really enjoyed scrutinizing the thread on her shirt. \n\n\n\nGlancing down at my phone confirmed my suspicions. She really really deserved that glare. \n\n\n\nAdorka\n: Hey! Scorpia said you needed some convincing to come along. \n\n\n\nAdorka\n: This is me convincing you\n\n\n\nAdorka\n: -Photo- \n\n\n\nI rolled my eyes at the selfie she sent. It was a top notch puppy dog pout that certainly didnt hold as much power over the phone as Im sure it would in person. Not at all. \n\n\n\nThough it did help that she seemed to be in some gym, glazed with sweat and a few strands of hair sticking to her face. \n\n\n\n“Dirty move, Scorp. Didnt know you had it in you.” \n\n\n\nShe beamed, “From you, thats a compliment.” \n\n\n\nI rolled my eyes as I glanced back down at my phone. It had taken the dork a few days to actually follow me on socials, I had almost caved and followed first but wheres the fun in that? Letting Adora chase a bit was far more fun. I was a bit shocked that at the end of sparkles party she had asked for my number. Pretty suave too despite her being a bumbling mess most of the night. I chalked it up to liquid courage and well placed flirting on my part. \n\n\n\n“Still not going.” I said as I responded to Adora. Which of course resulted in Scorpia typing away at her phone, do doubt to the same dork I was messaging. \n\n\n\nNice try, dummy. Not happening. :\nCatra\n\n\n\nAdorka\n: But it would be nice seeing you again.\n\n\n\nAdorka\n: Oh, Scorpia just said you dont do group stuff. \n\n\n\nAdorka\n: Thats fine. You dont have to mingle with us. \n\n\n\nAdorka\n: We could go do stuff together if that makes you feel more comfortable. \n\n\n\n‘Stuff’? What are you hinting at here? :\nCatra\n\n\n\nAdorka\n: Come along and find out ;)\n\n\n\nI rolled my eyes, fucking nerd. There was no way in hell I was giving up my weekend to Sparkles and co. \n\n\n\nNo way.\n\n\n\nNot happening. \n\n\n\nEven if a hot blonde is doing a poor attempt to flirt. Which would be fun to fluster her in person, but still. \n\n\n\nScorpia was watching me now, her own puppy dog pout in effect. \n\n\n\nI raised an eyebrow at her, “You really think it would be wise to leave Entrapta all by herself here? Alone? To do who knows what the place?” \n\n\n\nShe shrugged, “I trust her not to do anything too wild.” \n\n\n\nMisplaced trust. Nice. Makes sense. \n\n\n\nMy phone went off again, I expected another message from Adora but was shocked to find one from Glimmer instead. \n\n\n\nSparkles\n: A favor was called, you're invited. Don't make me regret this. \n\n\n\nAdora or Scorp? :\nCatra\n\n\n\nSparkles\n: Use a brain cell and figure it out. \n\n\n\nReally making me feel welcomed here. :\nCatra\n\n\n\nSparkles\n: If I have to watch her mope around this weekend because you're not here, Ill personally shave you bald. \n\n\n\nDoes that include wax and shine? :\nCatra\n\n\n\nI didnt get a response after the read receipt popped up. Guess not. \n\n\n\nBlissfully Scorpia dropped it and resumed playing around on her phone. \n\n\n\nOr at least I thought she had. I was halfway through another application when a knock sounded at the door. \n\n\n\nScorpia jumped up calling over her shoulder, “I got it!” \n\n\n\nI had a bad feeling about this. One, Scorpia doesnt invite people over without plenty of warning to me so I know to avoid all contact. Two, it was just a bad feeling. \n\n\n\nTime to dip. \n\n\n\nI shut my laptop and was nearly out of my seat when my bad feeling was proved true. \n\n\n\nAdora and Scorpia came back in wearing matching grins. Dorks. \n\n\n\nYah, definitely time to leave. \n\n\n\nAdora smirked at me as I brushed past the duo. My room was the only one down this hall, so there was absolutely no reason why either of them followed. \n\n\n\nAdora didnt hesitate at my door like Scopria did, who was well aware \n\nno one\n\n came into my room uninvited. \n\n\n\nScorp decided leaning against the door frame was risky enough while Adora just spun around like an idiot as she took in the space, seemingly unaware of my glare.\n\n\n\nMy room wasnt anything special, if anything it was pretty bare outside of the small desk littered with sketches and my bed. My closet was a whole different story. If she opened the door she would see a heap of clothes on the bottom, and hangers stuffed to the brim. \n\n\n\nI sat at my desk watching her take too damn long looking before she finally turned to smile at me, hands on hips, “So, do you have a bag?” \n\n\n\nI raised my eyebrow at that, “For?” \n\n\n\n“Packing. If not thats fine. I brought one just in case.” \n\n\n\nMy glare intensified, though I couldnt deny the little flutter in my chest. Here was this idiot who hardly knew me, making it very clear she wanted me to come along. Wanted to spend time with. So much so she was pulling out every annoying card she had. \n\n\n\nShe shrugged when I didnt answer and turned to leave. I was hoping that was a sign of defeat but I was once again wrong as she quickly returned with a duffel bag. \n\n\n\nShe tossed it onto my bed before giving me that shit eating grin, “I can help you pack.” \n\n\n\nScorpia was beaming behind her but I could see the panic in her eyes. Adora had no idea how many dangerous buttons she was pushing. Hell at this point if anyone else had tried they would have been mauled and turned into cat food for Melog. \n\n\n\nWho chose this time to make an appearance. \n\n\n\nHe jumped up on the bed to sniff the bag before rubbing his face on it. \n\n\n\nAdora did the cutest little noise as she crouched and offered her hand to the feline. Who, as a traitor, sniffed and once again rubbed his face against the new thing in the room. Which was just downright weird. Melog wasn't a violent cat by any means but he didn't just warm up to people and start scent marking them within seconds. He was usually more of a glare and avoid at all costs type. Unless he was hungry. There was no way of ignoring Melog when he got hungry. \n\n\n\nThough it was an adorable sight to see Adora just faun over Melog. \n\n\n\nAt this point Scorpia was nervously rocking in the doorway but doing her best not to all out flee from the oncoming shit storm she expected me to unleash. \n\n\n\nImagine her shock when I only groaned and slipped over to the closet, exposing the only place I allow to be cluttered. \n\n\n\nI could see Adora doing a dorky fist pump in the air as she unzipped the bag. \n\n\n\nI was halfway through shoving random clothes into the offered bag, half listening to whatever Adora and Scorpia (Who still stood at the door) were going on about, when Entrapta appeared behind Scorpias bulk. \n\n\n\n“Oh, Adora.” \n\n\n\nAdora perked up, “Entrapta?” \n\n\n\nNow imagine my shock when Entrpta accepted a fist bump from the tall woman. Entrapta doest \n\ndo\n\n touch. Adora must have known this as she didnt actually close the contact, instead waiting for Entrapta to do so. Which she did. Did I mention she doesnt do that? With \n\nanyone.\n\n \n\n\n\n“Uh, you two know each other?” I asked \n\n\n\nEntrapta nodded as Adora moved to sit back in the desk chair, “We all went to high school together.” \n\n\n\nEntrapta and I went to high school together. Seriously, how the hell have I not run into the blonde jock before now? \n\n\n\nAdora smiled at her seemingly long lost friend, “Entrapta used to work the scoreboard for Horde games.” \n\n\n\nOk, there was no way I havent run into this idiot before. Scorpia used to play football for Horde High. \n\n\n\n“Adora was on the baseball team. Captain if I remember correctly.” Scorpia supplied, as if reading my thoughts. That would explain why I never saw her at Scorpia’s practices. \n\n\n\nAdora nodded, “Yup. Though Scorpia and I played hockey outside of school together.” \n\n\n\nScorpia beamed at the mention of how they met, “Im so excited to get back out on the ice. Think Frosta will enjoy it?”\n\n\n\nRight, Scorpia had been invited along because her and Adora were going to show the runt a thing or two for the sport. \n\n\n\nEntrapta ended up sitting in the hallway cross legged as she played around on her laptop, also knowing not to invade my space but apparently feeling social. Adora and Scopria were rehashing old game stories while I did my best to share my glare evenly between the two. \n\n\n\nWhy the hell was my room the hangout? Couldnt they move this along to the living room to let me brood in my defeat alone? \n\n\n\nEntrapta looked up almost as soon as I was about to snap, “Catra should be hitting her peak point. Though it is odd that she hasnt become violent sooner.” \n\n\n\nA blush roared across my cheeks as Adora looked over curiously. Why the hell did she call it my ‘peak’. \n\n\n\nIt was Entraptas turn to receive my glare, not at all because I was avoiding Adoras gaze. \n\n\n\nScorpia scratched at her cheek, “Sorry, Wildcat. Kinda got carried away there.” \n\n\n\nI grunted in response as I not so gently zipped up the bag. She took that as he cue to leave, Entrapta following. \n\n\n\nAdora hesitantly stood, “Sorry, what was that about?” \n\n\n\nI let out a big sigh, “People dont come in here.” \n\n\n\nShe tensed as a blush crept up her neck, “Oh. Oh shoot. I'm sorry.” \n\n\n\nI waved it off, “Its whatever.” \n\n\n\nAdora made for the door and I couldnt help but feel a tug in my gut. Horribly enough I didnt really want her to leave. See thats the thing, if you're in my space and I like you in my space, you arent really welcome to leave my space. Yet there she was, only a few steps from the door. \n\n\n\nUgh, fucking attachment issues. \n\n\n\n“Adora, wait.” I spoke before I could even really think of what I would follow up with.\n\n\n\nShe raised her eyebrows in question as she turned to face me. \n\n\n\nPanicking, I clutched the bag, “Its ok.” I didnt look up, “You can stay. Melog would be upset if you left.” \n\n\n\nI heard her snort as she approached, why the absolute fuck was she getting closer? \n\n\n\nShe stopped a foot away from me, “Melog, huh?” \n\n\n\nI glanced up to see that shit eating grin again, like she had won something. \n\n\n\nI clenched my jaw shut, “Yah. Melog.” \n\n\n\nAs if knowing he was the topic of conversation and an excuse, he chose that time to stretch from his perch on the bed and flop to the floor before leisurely leaving the room. \n\n\n\nAll the while Adoras smile grew. \n"}
+{"text": "    Watching him move around the office with the purpose of searching every room made her very aware of how quickly things could change in a life. In her first day in Zootopia, she had found the way he checked every corner of the tiny office to be ridiculous. Even after the encounter with the tiger, which some stubborn voice in her mind had quietly tried to convince her was an isolated incident, she had found his desire to keep the doors open simply overbearing. Bordering on creepy, if she was completely honest with herself. Now, as he reached the final step in his search and went down on one knee in front of her desk to check under it... If he had done that on the first day, she had no doubt she would have rolled her eyes and complained.\n\n    Now, she simply stood and waited until he rose and gave her a quick nod. “All clear, Carrots.”\n\n    “No wiretaps under the desk then?” she asked, though her tone was playful rather than annoyed.\n\n    “Bombs,” he said simply, walking over to what she now thought of as his chair in front of the desk, shrugging the jacket from his shoulders and tossing it over the back.\n\n    “What?” she asked blankly as her ears dropped, not quite able to quickly process exactly what he was suggesting.\n\n    “No bombs,” he said, sitting and resting his elbows on his knees, paws folded in front of him as he looked at her. “The wolves were a tactical unit. A good tactical unit is trained in explosives.”\n\n    “Great,” she muttered after her brain caught up with her, causing her stomach to sink as fear trickled down her spine. She felt jittery all over again, which annoyed her after she had so effectively managed to save Otterton’s life earlier that day. She walked around the desk and dropped her briefcase on top of it before sinking into her chair. “Something else to worry about.”\n\n    “You let me worry about things like that,” he said, his voice holding that professional edge that he had begun to shed when talking to her recently. Somehow, it made her feel a little better. Something about the stern certainty in that voice, a voice that now came with steely green eyes unshaded by sunglasses. It was a simple reminder that he was very aware of the danger and, as he had been doing since she’d entered the city, he would protect her.\n\n    Bolstered by this, she released a slow breath, perked her ears and gave a quick nod before she popped open the briefcase. “I have a lot of information to go over now,” she said calmly, setting her notepad beside it before she pulled out the flash card that had been quietly in the corner of her mind for a long time. “I realize that most of what I have here will be inadmissible as evidence if it is helpful at all.”\n\n    “Because it was obtained illegally?” he asked, easily unbuckling his shoulder holsters and carefully hanging them from the back of the chair so that the guns and baton were still within easy reach.\n\n    “Yes, and it goes without saying that I wouldn’t be able to give my source for verification,” she said, slowly turning the tiny disk in her fingers as she stared down at it. “But if I can use some of the information here to verify what I already know, then I’ll be able to build a stronger case of doubt without ever showing the actual evidence. Or it could lead me somewhere to gather more evidence.”\n\n    “Then why are you hesitating?” he asked, causing a frown to crease her muzzle.\n\n    “I’m not sure,” she said, gazing at the drive for a moment longer before shaking it off and turning to the computer. “Flash said that you would know how to access the files here and in the e-mail he sent?”\n\n    “Hm,” he replied, his head cocked to the side as he looked at her curiously. “Did he? He didn’t set you up on your own account?”\n\n    “Was he supposed to?” the bunny replied, lavender eyes following him as he rose from the chair and walked around the desk. She forced herself to remain perfectly still, which took some effort when he leaned over the desk beside her to look at the e-mail she’d pulled up. It surprised her, how much she wanted to lean into him, though she was forced to wonder why it surprised her after how close they had been on more than one occasion.\n\n    “I’ve never known him to create a joint account,” he commented, his voice easy even as she felt her heart speed up. For a moment, she almost considered holding her breath when his scent washed over her, then silently berated herself for acting like an idiot. He lived in the office with her. His scent was all over the place, including drifting around her in a delightfully heady way as he tapped away at the keyboard.\n\n    She managed to focus on the fact that his claws were tapping on the keyboard as he looked at an e-mail that didn’t even seem to have an attachment included. ‘Make your fur lustrous and Bright! For only 12.23!’ was the subject, from an address that seemed like little more than an assortment of letters and numbers. Typical spam. She was about to question him when the horrible ad in the body of the Email pixelated and started to fade, displaying an entirely different message.\n\n    Nick,\n\n    As always, you have one minute to download the attachment and enter the password. Failing that, everything will be deleted and the normal recovery fee will apply.\n\n    F\n\n    She felt a little skitter of panic. “One minute?”\n\n    He didn’t reply, only calmly typed in a series of commands, commands that were completely lost on her, that caused the file to start downloading. “Don’t think I’m a computer genius or anything,” he commented at her look, giving her a toothy grin, “I’ve just done this a few times already.”\n\n    “The mystery deepens,” she deadpanned, turning her eyes away from the orange and cream that continued to tempt her and watched as he double-clicked the file that now sat on her desktop. When he started to enter the password, which seemed to stretch on forever, she tilted her head. “With all of this security, shouldn’t the password change rather than using the same one every time?”\n\n    “It changes,” he said, seeming to pause for a moment before he added the last four keystrokes that caused the file to open. Or in this case, extract itself. “How it changes and how I know the change is my little secret.”\n\n    “Uh huh,” she said, rolling her eyes slightly as she took the mouse and opened the folder. The number of files inside was staggering, considering the limited subject matter, and she stared at the list in silence for a long moment before she saw a file named ‘NickSuit’. She wasn’t oblivious to the fact that name recognition had drawn her eyes to the file, and after a quick glance at Nick, who didn’t seem to have noticed it himself, she double-clicked.\n\n    When she opened the file, it took her a moment to realize that she was looking at a receipt of sorts. Handwritten, sloppy, but legible enough for her to get the gist of it:\n\nTailor fitted suit\nGraphene lined shirt/pants x2\nSecond Kevlar lined jacket on request\ncarbon fiber insulation on all\n\n\n$150,000 est\n\n\n\nNick P\n\n\n    She stared at it for a long moment with her muzzle open a fraction. The price was outrageous, and while her experience in these things was limited to almost nothing, the mention of Kevlar at least told her that this was exactly what she was looking at. An order for body armor. One-hundred-and-fifty-thousand Bucks worth of body armor. As much the price was the date of the receipt, as printed, was the day after she had received the call and accepted his offer of protection.\n\n    Her wide eyes turned to him, seeing his frown turning his muzzle low as he looked at the receipt as a sure sign that he had not intended for her to know about the ludicrous amount of money spent.\n\n    “We still haven’t talked about how I am supposed to pay you,” she said from a suddenly dry mouth, a number of questions running through her mind so quickly that she couldn’t grasp on long enough to settle on one.\n\n    “No, we haven’t,” he said simply, tapping the arrow key on the keyboard quickly to move to the next image.\n\n    She stared at him for a moment longer, wondering if he was going to say something else, only to be met with silence. Opening her mouth to question him further, she stopped when she glanced at the screen. A little ‘huh’ escaped her as she leaned in close to look at the picture of the crime scene, the outline of where the body had been, and the bloodstain on the floor, taken from an angle she hadn’t seen in the case file. It was also slightly grainy, low resolution, which made her think it had come from someone’s phone rather than a professional forensic photographer. She looked back when she realized that he was crouching beside her chair, leaving him at eye level with her as he looked over the image.\n\n     “Where did he get this? Who took this?” she asked, frowning slightly as she clicked the button to show the next image. It was another of the crime scene, something that told her there was likely an obvious order to the files in the folders.\n\n    “Questions like that will make this take forever. If I expected he would send you things you had already seen, I wouldn’t have taken you to see him in the first place,” he added, tilting his head at an image that appeared to be Otterton himself climbing into his car in front of a building he didn’t recognize. “We’ve already established that a lot of this is probably illegal.”\n\n    “Yeah,” she said as her ears lowered. For a moment she almost considered just deleting the files, tossing the flash drive, and keeping her path straightforward. She stopped when the next image on the list was a closeup of the bloodstain on the carpet. Squinting, she leaned in closer. There was the faint discoloration in the shape of what might have been the knife, along with faint,  tiny claw marks in the blood. “Do you see that?”\n\n    “Yeah,” he said, his own eyes narrowed as he stared at the image with her. “It looks like someone picked up the knife.”\n\n    “Which could mean the assumption in the police report that Otterton held the knife the entire time was false,” she said, her earlier trepidation about where the files had come from vanishing as her ears perked up. She snatched the notepad and pulled out her carrot pen as she scribbled quickly. “I’ll have to review the existing images in the case files, see if I can find an angle that shows this, even faintly.”\n\n    “That was quick,” he said, one brow raised as he gave her a slightly amused look. “So, we’re done here?”\n\n    “It doesn’t prove anything either way,” she said, her mind distracted as she noted the file name and time stamp. “But anything that goes against what was force-fed through the trial is progress. But the images can wait. I want to see what’s on this flash drive.”\n\n    The routine repeated itself the moment she accessed the flash drive, though this instead of a junk mail cover, a couple of videos were all that showed on the drive. Her ears burned hot when she browsed the names as he started to type the information. ReynHARD, Lusty Lunar Lapins, and Deep in the Burrows jumped out at her from the list, causing her to cast a cautious glance towards Nick. A glance that she found returned with a smirk that caused her skin to heat under her fur before she released a short burst of laughter.\n\n    “Not something most mammals would want to poke around in, I suppose,” she admitted, watching as the file names started to rearrange themselves into less direct files names. The one that instantly caught her attention was the audio file called ‘Dbel’. She waved his paws aside with an almost playful wave of one of her own, earning a slow grin from him as she reached for the mouse and double clicked it. “I’ve been wondering what this was.”\n\n    “I’m not sure why I keep doing these personal journals,” came the somewhat familiar voice of Chief Justice Dawn Bellwether, “But sometimes they help to clear my head, I guess. It has been… a month since my last entry and a lot has happened. Leodore continues to be all the distraction I need. He remains ever the talkative one until given other things to do with his mouth, but I’m not sure what I would do without him…”\n\n    “I knew I smelled sheep,” Nick muttered, the idea that Nick presented and the words from the lambs own mouth causing Judy to silently groan. Thankfully, the Chief Justice didn’t linger on the subject before she moved on.\n\n    “What is on my mind today? Well, that’s easy. One Judith Laverne Hopps, from Bunnyburrow. Anyone in law has heard of her. The first bunny to willingly, and successfully, defend a fox outside of Zootopia in a murder trial since the city became a bunny free zone. Here to oversee the appeal of Emmitt Otterton. I’ll admit that, at first, I considered her a token. Some attempt to show that there are still some favorable relations between the mammals of Zootopia and the bunnies of The Commonwealth. That was until she started to speak.\n\n    “I don’t know what I expected then, or honestly what I expect now. If she was meant to be a token, she’s not playing the part assigned to her. I don’t recognize that fox who stood beside her while she presented her case for an appeal, but I do know that she wasn’t being used as a mouthpiece. Her words were compelling, even accusing towards the state of law in this city. Even without Leodore’s request that I accept the appeal, I don’t believe I had any other choice after hearing her point out every flaw in our justice system so plainly. And if nothing else, I do believe that justice, and the law, must win in the end. Others obviously don’t agree with me as I learned only moments ago that there was an attempt to kill Hopps. Which leads me to further questions, ones that I won’t voice here. I would wish her luck if that were proper, but I still have my oath to remain impartial. If she can prove her case, then it will be proven and my ruling will be appropriate. If she can’t… Well, at least here I can wish her luck.”\n\n    She sat in silence for a moment, at first trying to make sense of why the recording was sent in the first place. Soon that question was gone as she listened, digesting the words in shared silence with the patient fox beside her. That the entirety of the system in Zootopia wasn’t corrupted was not a revelation to her. There would always be those with good intentions and those who understood that any system was only as good as those who upheld it. But in this, there was the feeling that the one who would hear her appeal would take the evidence as what it was: an attempt to find the truth. It eased something inside of her, an ease that was almost physical as she released a slow breath.\n\n    “You all right?”\n\n    “Yeah,” she said, offering a slight smile that she was sure reached her eyes. She felt it. Determination mingled now with a little spark of hope. “She’ll listen. Now I just need to find enough to make what I say mean something.”\n\n    She hadn’t realized that her paw was still on the mouse until she felt his rest over it. Rough pads and large fingers were gentle as he guided her, and the mouse, over the next video on the list.\n\n    “Then we keep looking,” he said, causing her smile to return and turn a little wobbly when he pressed her finger down on the pointer twice quickly, “Until we find what you need.”\n\n    That he was helping her, rather than just being a silent figure in the corner watching over her as she had expected him to be, gave her the compulsion to hug him. That he was incredibly hot, incredibly close, and smelled so incredibly male made her want to climb all over him and forget that he was a fox and she was a bunny. The middle ground, in a mind that was more relaxed and happy than it had been since she had decided to come to Zootopia, was a kiss. Close as he was now, his muzzle turned towards her and his ears erect, she could feel his breath whisper over her lips. She had never been compelled on so basic a level as she was when she looked into his eyes, felt his paw lightly squeeze onto hers as the distance closed of her own accord…\n\n    The burst of static from the computer caused her to jump, snapping her out of the trance of her own making as she glanced at the screen with a nervous little titter of laughter. “Right, keep looking until we…”\n\n    She trailed off when she saw the gas station that was so often mentioned in the reports, her mind instantly returning to the task at hand even if her hormones were currently trying to wage a war in her blood. It wasn’t a good view, either. It looked like a recording from a wide-angle security camera set down the street, probably a few buildings down and across the street. From the time stamp, it had been recorded on the day of the night. In the lot of the gas station, she could clearly see the rear end of a ZPD patrol car illuminated by the overhead lights, obscured largely by the gas station itself. While she couldn’t see the car number, from the testimony and the fact that it was night, she could assume that she was looking at Weaselton and Fangmeyer’s car.\n\n    “Well, we can confirm that they were there like they said,” Nick commented, then narrowed his eyes and squinted as another, smaller vehicle pulled into the lot. “And that might be…”\n\n     Nodding in agreement to the statement he didn’t finish, she watched the tiny shadow of a mammal jump down from his car and hurry into the gas station. There was no actual visual confirmation, the quality was too poor and he was in the shadows of the gas station itself, but the car matched the model he drove. And the time stamp on the recording put it at 9:55 pm.\n\n    She felt a hard rush of professional excitement that almost managed to wash away her awareness of the fox who was watching her very much like the predator he was.\n\n    “This is it! There might be more in here, but this might be what I really need,” she said excitedly as she paused the video. “This is why the ZPD was so quick to respond because the unit was just down the street. But the call reporting the disturbance came in at 9:54 pm, saying there was angry shouting. If that is Otterton, there is no way he could have murder his wife, cleaned himself up afterward and gone to the gas station in less than a minute. It would take him longer than that to make the drive to his house. And even if he did manage to time it somehow, why would he have returned to the scene of the crime?”\n\n    “You need the receipt,” he commented, resting his forearm on the desktop so he could lean closer to her. A motion that she was completely aware of, even as she took her notepad and took some more notes. Enjoying how close he was, she didn’t try to move away or change the subject. Instead, she grinned at him.\n\n    “Look at you. A bodyguard and an investigator,” she said, her tone playful as she tapped the pen against the notepad while looking him up and down in a way that caused his brow to quirk. “You have been paying attention. Looking to be a lawyer now?”\n\n    “And spend my time in a tiny office all day?” he huffed lightly, a smirk climbing his muzzle as he returned the favor by giving her a once-over before he replied. “How dare you.”\n\n    “But you’re right,” she said after a light laugh, still smiling as she set the pen and pad down. “But we can’t go out looking for it now. It’s either in the impound or it’s been auctioned off, and that information won’t be available until morning. Failing that, or including that, I need to find the stoat that was running the register. Thank you, Nick.”\n\n    “It wasn’t much,” he said after a moment of surprise at the sudden gratitude, giving a little shrug. “There is still a lot to go over.”\n\n    “Yeah,” she said, reaching out to slide her finger down the length of his tie slowly, her eyes on his until she saw them go dark and heated when she ran one finger down the front of his shirt. A chest that she then poked, nudging him back an inch as he blinked in surprise. “But don’t think I’ve forgotten the other receipt I saw. We need to talk about some things, and soon, Mr. Graphene Lined Shirt.”\n\n    “Of course, you haven’t,” he muttered as they turned back to the screen.\n\n \n\n    Meetings with the Council. Incredibly important, though not for the reason many members of the Council believed. The Administrator wasn’t even thinking about them as the elevator silently and uncommonly slowly descended, instead using the pad in her paw to review the latest news articles that involved one as of yet un-named fox. An attack in prison. Another daring rescue of both the bunny and the prisoner. Another leak to the press. The fact that no one knew his name didn’t surprise her in the slightest. In fact, she very much doubted anyone would be able to find anything more on him than the fact that he appeared like a phantom when Miss Hopps came to Zootopia. Even she had not been prepared for his coming, so the fact that there were whispers of Yurei within certain dangerous circles of the city seemed apt.\n\n    Without more information to go on, there was a good deal of speculation by the press, some seen as she swiped the screen to the next news organization, ZNN. None of it was confirmed or commented on by herself or the Council, of course. But the glaring question on the front page of the site ‘A Hero in Zootopia?’ sat above yet another leaked picture of the handsome Todd easily dismantling a larger, and armed, predator inside of the prison meant that it wasn’t something that could be ignored by the government forever. How, and if, she should spin it was something she was still considering. Not that she expected Nick would ever stand in front of a camera, shaking Lionheart’s paw in a glorified photo shoot, but there were ways to make it seem as if everything was business as usual without actually trying to bring him into the fold.\n\n    She tapped the screen of the pad in her paw, locking the screen when found the sand fox standing just outside of the elevator with his arms folded behind his back, dark eyes sparkling as he gave a slight bow upon seeing her. The flick of her ears and the surprised pleasure on her face was faux, something that she was sure he knew as well as she did.\n\n    “Andrew, darling,” she said, her muzzle spreading in a pleasant smile as she stepped out and immediately past him. He fell into step with her, respectfully one step behind, as she kept walking towards the Council Chamber. “I assume everyone is gathered.”\n\n    “Of course, Administrator,” he said, the low hum of his voice keeping with the somewhat amused tone that told her he knew that she hadn’t been asking a question. “They are eager to discuss the recent developments, not the least of which is filling the void left by General Valter.”\n\n    “There will be the standard election, of course,” she replied simply, keeping her pace steady even as she saw the holographic walls of the Chamber come into view. The members of the Council itself had been more than eager to allow her to redesign it, once she had made it clear that it would make them the most advanced and envied government body in the world. Currently, the relaxing canopy of trees that ringed the room sang with the unobtrusive but constant songs of birds and the gentle whisper of the waterfall. These were all clearly made of light, being partially transparent, but the effect would and often did change depending on the mood of those within. Particularly hers. “But there is no rush to fill his seat, is there? He was such a dear friend and there are no pressing matters of governance that would require a full voting body.”\n\n    She doubted that he had missed her tone when she had called him a friend, as loose as the term might have been. “Of course, forgive my lack of compassion in what must have been a horrible loss for you,” he said, and though she didn’t look back she was certain she could hear a hint of a smirk in his voice. “I know he was one of the first to endorse your position as Administrator, along with myself. Though we shouldn’t wait too long to put forward candidates for the election. The rest of the Council will not be so understanding if we find ourselves at a standstill because of a deadlocked vote.”\n\n    “There may be someone on the Council willing to abstain from important votes until the political climate would welcome new candidates,” she commented, pausing for a moment as she turned to look back at him. “We will have to consider that they will be the future leader of the armed forces in Zootopia, after all.”\n\n    “I would be willing to abstain for the time being,” he said, causing her to fully halt her steps and raise her eyes to his face with a small smile playing over her muzzle as he continued, “and take over the burden of his considerable administrative duties in the interim.”\n\n    So humble, was her thought, though having known the male for most of her life, she didn’t buy it for a moment. But it was a part of her position to be paranoid.\n\n    “That would be a weight lifted, Andrew,” she said, warming her voice as she glanced towards the chamber ahead. Her platform was just beyond the waterfall now and even over the birdsong and babble of water, she could hear the Councilors growing restless. Ignoring it, she turned her attention back to him. “I will have the proper administrative powers transferred to you after the meeting is completed, though I see no reason to burden you with command of the armed forces themselves. Nathanial was experienced, and a transfer of leadership at this point would unsettle those who served under him. For the time being, I will retain silent command and deal directly with the generals myself.”\n\n    The broadly furred male opened his muzzle as if to offer protest, then closed it with a slow nod.\n\n    “Whatever you think is best, Neveen,” he said, his own ears flicking towards the Chamber again before he waved a paw for her to continue. “I assure you, I will take care of everything. And I can’t fathom that the other Councilors would argue with having my vote temporarily removed from matters of law.”\n\n    “No, I don’t image they will,” she said, a coy grin playing over her muzzle before she turned and made her way to the waterfall.\n\n    The light shimmered around her as she stepped inside once they parted ways, pausing for a moment while inside to allow Andrew time to reach his place before she stepped out onto the podium that overlooked the Seat of The Council. The moment she left the water, the room started to change. The peaceful wilderness setting melted away, rippling as walls seemed to solidify around the room. Elegant oriental craftsmanship flowed outward from her place at the head of the table, dark-toned wood in vibrant reds circling the table now. The curves and lines suited her, pleased her, as did the spires of the Zootopian flag that became her backdrop as she faced those on the Council.\n\n    Without Valter, there were now eight mammals sitting around the table. There was a sort of balance to it now, one that had not really existed before. Four foxes of various species, three representatives of the prey species, including the good Doctor Lyndon, and a lioness to balance the larger predator votes. They all grew still and silent with her appearance, whatever their species, and she looked over them with a cool eye. Like Valter, most of them still believed themselves to be far more important than they were on the road to remaking Zootopia. It was, perhaps, time that she gave them a small reminder of that.\n\n    “Good morning. It is a pleasure to see you all again,” she said, her voice pleasant enough as she swept her golden gaze over each one of them. Then her muzzle curved in a smile that was as cold and hard as those eyes as she nodded. “We have a lot to cover today. But let us begin by talking about the bunny.”\n\n "}
+{"text": "As Sam sat in the backseat of the car, her stomach was in turmoil. She was starving even through all the embarrassment and excitement of the day. She tried to understand why she had ever been these girls' friend. She sat there pondering the beginnings of their friendships and how silly they were. For Sam and Anita, they were fifteen the first time they met. At the time, they had shared a hatred for Coach Prichard. He was an unruly dickhead, but he also bore witness to Anita's nudity more than once. Even then, it was no secret that Anita had an exhibitionist streak. Sam could clearly think back to one time about two months after she had met Anita.\n\nAnita came to Sam in the locker room while they were changing.\n\n\"We're having a soccer game on the field today.\" Anita said standing over Sam who was tying her shoes. Anita was wearing a grey loose fitting t-shirt, her grey athletic shorts (They weren't much longer than her hips.), ankle socks and low top cleats.\n\n\"Yeah, I hear the boys are pissed because we're cutting into football practice.\" Sam said in agreement now dressed in roughly the same outfit, but with knee high socks. Sam was putting her long brown hair into a pony tail but stopped dead in her tracks when Anita spoke.\n\n\"I want you to try and pull me down to the ground by my shirt out there.\" Anita said suspiciously.\n\n\"Why?\" Sam inquired hesitantly.\n\n\"Just do it okay?\" Anita insisted.\n\n\"Fine, whatever.\" Sam said as she made her way to the field, Anita following close to her.\n\nWhen they got to the field, it was muddy and on the outside of the field was the track where the guys were running. Not just a few guys either, it was all the high school guys. Freshmen all the way to seniors, the entire football entourage was there. They all quit running when the girls filed onto the field. Sure enough, Sam and Anita were put on the same team. Sam was actually nervous just playing soccer in front of all these guys in these skimpy attires. But somewhere after both teams had scored a goal in the second quarter, it happened.\n\nSam and Anita were running side by side, Sam kicked the ball with great force sending it hurdling towards the goal, but lost her footing and grabbed Anita by the back of her shirt, just as she was asked. The shirt instantly gave way, but that wasn't the only thing, her shorts ripped into shreds with Sam's hand as well. Anita wasn't wearing anything underneath at first she acted like she did't notice and tried to help Sam get to her feet ignoring the many excited sounds from the guys watching. It wasn't until Sam said something that Anita tried in vain to cover up. Guys were all around the field, literally. If she covered her boobs and bush, her ass was bared, if she covered her ass her tits were bared. She alternated for a few moments until the girls huddled around her with the Coach and Ref.\n\n\"Jesus Christ! What happened?\"Coach Prichard said firmly.\n\n\"Sam fell onto me and my clothes came off sir.\" Anita explained.\n\n\"Why ain't you wearing any god damned underwear girl?\" Coach Prichard yelled at her.\n\n\"I don't like to get them all sweaty during P.E. sir.\" Anita explained, knowing how to talk to him, but still struggling to cover up.\n\n\"Where's her damned clothes?\" He bellowed.\n\n\"Right here sir.\" Sam said holding up the pile of cloth she had picked up off the ground.\n\nCoach Prichard inspected the clothes and noticed several scissor cuts on the shirt at vital seems and a very obvious cutting of the elastic on her shorts. \"Did you cut these to rip apart?\" He asked in a tone that signified he couldn't believe what he was asking.\n\n\"Yes sir.\" Anita replied with her head down now trying to cover her face as well.\n\n\"Well, what do you think we should do now?\" He asked with a scowl.\n\n\"I don't know.\" She mumbled.\n\n\"I should make you play out the rest of the game bareback.\" He said coldly and Anita shook her head no. \"But, since you weren't alone, Sam give her your shorts and shirt. You can play in your underwear.\"\n\n\"But, I didn't know anything about it, I just fell and grabbed her. I didn't know her clothes were coming off sir, honestly.\"Sam pleaded trying to get out of it.\n\n\"Is this true?\" He asked Anita who was glaring at me.\n\n\"Yes sir.\" Anita said in fear.\n\nCoach Prichard grabbed her arm revealing her breasts. \"We're going to the principal's office young lady. Coach Steiner, please take over.\" Prichard said while dragging Anita through the crowd of boys too quickly for her to be able to cover up. Sam didn't see her for the rest of the day, but Anita would tell her later that she had to ride home nude as well. She waited in the principal's office for an hour and a half for her parents and then got a good lecturing before they dragged her home.\n\n\"Quit covering up bitch!\" Anita's voice echoed from the front seat bringing Sam back to reality. Sam realized that she had instinctively covered her vital areas and she immediately dropped her hands to her side. \"As a matter of a fact, tits on the glass.\" She added.\n\nSam pressed her tits against the window again feeling the cold glass pressed against her tits and showing them to whomever could see them. That was until her window began rolling down. It rolled down until her tits hung out the window and then went back up until her tits were sitting on the window and hanging out it.\n\n\"That's better.\" Anita said. Then she heard Sam's stomach growl. \"Oh someone has never eaten breakfast huh? Don't worry we'll get something to eat before we get to the park. Pull into that Sonic.\"\n\nThey pulled the little dodge neon into a Sonic on the right, they drove around once with Sam's tits hanging out the window, but couldn't find an empty stall. They pulled around and parked, there was a speaker on the patio with some picnic tables. There were some college boys there hanging out and eating. They were already focused on their car trying to figure out if those were really tits. Little did they know they would soon find out for sure.\n\n\"Alright, go order me a number one, dry with no pickles, fries, and a drpepper to drink. And whatever you want.\" Anita said holding out a twenty dollar bill. Sam's heart began racing and pounding as she grabbed the twenty dollar bill. The college boys were already twisting around to see what was happening when her tits withdrew into the window.\n\n\"Please. Don't make me do this, haven't I been through enough?\" Sam pleaded.\n\n\"Fuck No Bitch! My parents are getting a divorce over your little slutty ass. I could just take the money and leave your naked ass here.\" Anita said grabbing the twenty and Sam's hand.\n\n\"No, Please No. I'll do it. I will.\"Sam said on the verge of tears. Anita released her.\n\n\"Yeah, well good. Do it now and smile.\" Anita ordered.\n\nSam put a forced smile on her face and opened the car door.\n\nSam was immediately greeted with hoots and whistles when she exited the car, she knew this was a bad idea, but she didn't have much room to argue. The college guys were dumbfounded and just sat in shock as she approached the speaker. Her hand was shaking as she was sure the rest of her body was as she reached out and pressed the button to order. The carhops were zooming by not even looking at her; it must be way too busy to worry about her naked state. It seemed like an eternity to Sam, standing naked and not allowed to cover herself, but finally.\n\n\"Welcome to Sonic, how may I help you?\" Came a chipper voice from the speaker.\n\n\"Um... I need a number one with no pickles, fries and a Dr. Pepper.\" She said nervously.\n\n\"Would you like that large size?\" The voice asked.\n\n\"No thanks. I also need a Jr. Deluxe Burger and a large Coke.\" She said visibly shivering.\n\n\"Alright I have a #1 with no pickles, fries, and a Dr. Pepper with a Jr. Deluxe Burger and a large Coke, can I get you any onion rings to go with that today?\" The voice said back as the college boys were beginning to get curious.\n\n\"No, that's all.\" Sam said again stuttering.\n\n\"Okay, that'll be $9.41, and we'll have that right out.\" The voice exclaimed, leaving Sam feeling alone again, only this time the college boys were approaching her and surrounding her.\n\n\"So, you got an order you'll be waiting on. Would you like some company while you wait?\" One of the boys said.\n\n\"No thanks guys, I'm kinda nervous.\" Sam said fidgeting about and standing on one foot then the other.\n\n\"Well, you've got a great body. We're just kind of wondering why you're out here ordering in the nude.\" One of the other boys said.\n\n\"I don't really have a choice.\"She said pointing towards the car and jumping as one of the guy's hands brushed her butt check.\n\n\"Oh I get it. You're a pledge and this is initiation. What house?\" The boy said.\n\n\"Oh. Beta Pi. You know it.\" She said, digging into her repertoire of knowledge about the sororities on campus. Beta Pi was well known for very brutal initiation rituals.\n\n\"Ah Shit. I know it, in that case boys we better back off. We'll ruin her chances. If I know Beta like I think I do, she isn't supposed to be blocked from the view of anyone and right now she's hidden by us.\" He said and immediately Sam regretted that decision. She hadn't realized how well they were shielding her until they all sat back down. There she was again out in the open and everyone in their cars were getting an eyeful now. Luckily, the guys had helped pass some time and a carhop came out the front doors. She stopped dead in her tracks when she spotted Sam.\n\n\"Um.. You had a #1 with no pickles and a Jr. Burger?\" She asked shocked at Sam's lack of attire.\n\n\"Mmm-hmm.\" Was all Sam managed to get out as she reached to take the bag of food and drinks. Sam gave her the money and took the cash change telling her to keep the coins. She headed back to the car, she pulled on the back door handle but it was locked.\n\nSam tapped on the passenger side window, Anita rolled it down.\n\n\"Oh is that my order?\" She said waiting for Sam to hand her the bag. Sam submissively handed the bag in along with Anita's drink. \"Oh thanks.\" Anita said unlocking the doors and Sam was almost immediately in the back seat. She sat back and dove into her burger damn near breathing the whole thing in. It seemed like it was going to be a long day. Anita tossed a key back only this one was for her mailbox.\n\n"}
+{"text": "Sam sat quietly in the backseat hungrily eating her Junior Burger. She wanted to cry so badly, but she wouldn't let Anita have the satisfaction. Her little click would just love to see you crack and start crying. She looked at Sandy in the passenger seat for just a second before looking away quickly. She remembered what happened just last year when Sandy lost a bet with Anita.\n\n\"No bitch! You said anything. You lost and that's all there is to it.\" Anita shouted at Sandy while standing in front of her open closet.\n\n\"But Anita...\" Sandy had started to say with sweat starting to form all over her naked black skin and in her short blonde dyed hair.\n\n\"No! No! Don't even. I know your ass would have something equally demeaning in mind if I had lost. You wouldn't let me back out.\" Anita argued as she stepped out of the door revealing a hole had been cut in the closet door and motioned for Sandy to get inside the closet.\n\n\"Alright, but don't let the party get out of control.\" Sandy said as she slowly got inside the closet, turned around, and got on her knees where a little pillow was on the floor.\n\n\"Sure.\" Sandy said closing the door.\n\nSam had gone to that party. It was one of the biggest parties Anita had ever thrown, probably due to the fact that Sandy was in the makeshift glory hole taking hot dicks to the throat. Sandy was a very well known lesbian, until that point Sam didn't think that Sandy had ever sucked a dick before. Sam remembered the uncountable number of guys went into that room throughout the night and well into the morning. Sandy must have sucked 50 dicks that night, most of them multiple times. Anita had just invited a shitload of guys from the rave to come to our AirBnB.\n\n'Fuck!' Sam thought as she crumpled up her burger wrapper. \"Tits out the window bitch!\" Sandy said suddenly staring Sam up and down. 'Has she been ogling me this whole time?' Sam thought and quickly turned towards her open window. Sam once again felt the window roll up under her tits, only this time it was only to hold her tits up and out the window. It was down low enough that Sam could stare out the window. Sam hadn't realized that they were stopped at a light or that there was a convertible full of five guys right next to them until that moment. Sam almost instinctively pulled away.\n\n\"Say hi bitch!\" Anita said.\n\n\"Hi.\" Sam squeaked barely audible.\n\n\"They didn't hear you.\" Anita yelled.\n\n\"HI!!\" Sam yelled.\n\n\"That's better slut!\" Anita said just before the light changed and she drove away. Sam watched as they drove deeper into neighborhoods she didn't really know her way around. Finally, they arrived at a little park in the middle of a neighborhood. It was a small wooded area with a broken down playground. Gang signs painted on the small little bathroom with a men's room and a ladies' room.\n\nThey pulled up in the parking lot and parked just by the bathrooms. Sandy and Anita quickly got out with Anita going straight to the trunk. Sandy opened the back door and pulled Sam's naked ass out of the car.\n\n\"Walk bitch!\" Sandy said shoving Sam forward.\n\nSam reluctantly walked noticing that she was being shoved towards the bathrooms. Sandy shoved Sam into the men's room with Anita quickly catching up to them.\n\n\"I had plenty of prep time whore, for your punishment.\" Anita said pushing Sam against the remains of the one bathroom stall in the room. The only thing left was the frame and the door, nothing covering the side at all.\n\n\"Anita..\" Sam started saying nervously, tears in her eyes.\n\n\"It's far too late for that bitch! Thought it would be cute to try and fight back. You know I take what I want and you get what I let you have.\" Anita spat.\n\n\"Fuck you bitch! You started this shit....\" Sam had started saying, acting like she was going to fight. Sandy grabbed her by the throat and slammed the back of Sam's head against the little bar on the stall.\n\n\"Please. Don't hurt me.\" Sam begged and Sandy eased her grip on her throat.\n\nSandy slowly lowered Sam to the floor, on her knees. Anita went behind the stall and Sam felt her applying cuffs to her wrist and then there was some rope that Anita roped over the top of the busted up bathroom stall it pulled Sam up to this awkward height where she was squatting not able to fully get on her knees. Then she felt cuffs go around her legs and Sandy let Sam go. Sam couldn't lower herself to her knees and couldn't fully stand. Her hands and knees were cuffed around the bar and the rope that linked them was strung over the bathroom stall keeping her in this awkward squatting position.\n\n\"Perfect!\" Anita said, then she put something over Sam's head that hung down over her tits. It was a string that was through a crude cardboard sign. Sam looked down at the sign having trouble interpreting it upside down while Anita was planting a portable camera with a suction cup up in the corner. Anita was playing with her phone, lining up the camera's view to focus on Sam from just over Sam's shoulder.\n\n\"Oh Fuck!!\" Sam said. She had finally deciphered the sign that said, \"FREE BLOWJOBS!!\"\n\n\"You're going to honor that until I come back. Cum on your face. Otherwise, I force you to swallow this and leave you to get raped over and over.\" Anita explained holding a handful of pills in her hand. Rohypnol.\n\n\"Fuck!\" Sam said, tears streaming down her face. \"Really Nita..\"\n\n\"Yes! Fucking Really!! I'll be watching!!\" Anita said pointing to the camera and dragging Sandy with her as she walked out.\n\nSam heard the car doors slam shut and the car pull away. It was only like 4 PM as best as Sam could tell.\n\n'She's kidding. She'll be back in a minute...' Sam tried to rationalize with herself as she heard male voices talking outside.\n\n'Who the fuck are you kidding Sam?! She left you to suck cock until she feels like letting you go. She could just leave you forever.' Sam thought to herself.\n\n\"You've got company whore. Act like you want it!\" Sam heard Anita's voice through a speaker that must have been in the camera.\n\nJust then, three big black guys came strolling into the bathroom with a smoking cigar in one of their hands.\n\n\"Yo! What the fuck?!\" The first guy said. \"Am I just fucking high?\"\n\n\"No. I'm real.\" Sam heard herself saying, feeling like it was coming from someone else.\n\n\"For Real? That shit a valid offer!\" One of the others said pointing to her sign.\n\n\"Absolutely.\" Sam again heard herself saying.\n\n\"Well fuck me guys, wait outside.\" The first guy said unzipping his pants.\n\nSam watched him pull his huge cock out of his pants while his friends stepped outside. Sam actually felt herself lick her lips as she smelled his cock now growing closer to her open mouth. Was she really going to do this?\n\n'Better than the other option.' She told herself and opened wide.\n\n"}
+{"text": " \n\nThree years of life with Alexander, and Magnus could no longer tell what life without him looked like. Centuries of existence and a carefully cultivated lifestyle had been entirely dismantled and then promptly rearranged by his husband.\n\nAnywhere he looked, there were signs of Alec’s influence, whether it was photographs lining the wall or the Alicante skyline outside their window, whether it was the wedding ring on his finger, or the fact that it was now routine for him to drop the glamour over his eyes once he was back home.\n\nNo one in Magnus’s life had taken the time or the consideration to carefully learn everything they could about him, no one had taken the effort to weave their life so intricately alongside his own the way Alec did. No one else knew him so entirely.\n\nBecause Alexander might not know which city Magnus spent the middle of the 19th century in, what properties he owned or when Magnus had first set foot in New York. He might not know the pages upon pages of history storied neatly into the journals Magnus still had stashed away in his estate across the sea. It was after all quite impossible to share centuries of life in less than a handful of years.\n\nBut Alec knew him, knew the drink he favoured when he was in the mood to dance and the scented oils he’d choose when he wanted to wash off a tiresome day. He knew to kiss Magnus goodnight and leave him be when he was particularly fascinated by a new translation he was working on, and to drag him forcefully to bed when exhaustion and magical depletion were chasing at his coattails after overworking himself. He knew when to wake him up with soft kisses and breakfast in bed and which Clave sanctioned dinners to sneak out of so they could ravish each other like horny teenagers.\n\nAlec knew Magnus, wholly, intimately and in all the ways that it mattered, and he continued in his efforts to learn more each day.\n\nHis latest venture has been to learn Indonesian, something that had been kick started by Magnus himself after one particularly memorable night. In throes of passion, Magnus had accidentally reverted all the way back to the language of his mother and instead of being smug about managing that, Alexander had been curious.\n\nHe was already used to Magnus’s whispers of ‘sayang’ or ‘cintaku’ in his ears, he was familiar with pressing the words ‘aku cinta kamu’ in gentle kisses to Magnus’s lips, but apparently, it was Magnus being verbose in bed that had gotten to Alexander.\n\nOf course the first time Alec had greeted Magnus with a stilted ‘Selamat datang di rumah cintaku’ , Magnus had been too endeared and though he’ll never admit it, a little choked up with emotion, at the best welcome home greeting he had ever received.\n\nSince then, Alec had picked up a few more phrases and Magnus had been quizzed more than once on the meaning of words Alexander was trying to learn.\n\nMagnus adored it of course, even in the initial days, when the words were slow and the pronunciation was butchered, Magnus had been too overwhelmed with fondness to do more than correct them with gentle kisses.\n\nAnd now, a few months in, Magnus was starting to get used to peppered phrases of his native tongue in between conversations, and especially in between the sheets – which was why, it made no sense for him to freak out this way now.\n\nThe two of them were lounging in bed on a Sunday morning, Magnus resting on his side and  ardently pressing kisses up and down Alec’s captive hand while his shadowhunter tried to hold on to the last vestiges of sleep. His eyes were still closed though the smile stretching on his face was enough of an indication that he was indeed fully awake.\n\n“Saatnya bangun Alexander” Magnus murmurs, urging Alec into waking up, there were better ways to spend a morning in bed than pretending to sleep after all.\n\nAlec only hummed a little, his hands encircling Magnus and tugging him gently on top. Satisfied with getting his way, Magnus willingly leans down to press a proper kiss into Alec’s waiting mouth, reveling in the way they were both quick to lose themselves in it.\n\n“Selamat Pagi Cahayaku” Alec says into his mouth, opening his eyes just in time to see Magnus turn ashen and pull away, the words still ringing in his ears.   \n\nHe doesn’t remember moving away, if anything he feels stuck as the sands of time flood over him, but he must have, because Alec is sitting up in bed now, a careful hand extended towards him and a frown marring his face.\n\n“Magnus?” Alec sounds concerned and Magnus absently wonders what expression his husband is seeing on his face, just how much shock is showing that makes Alexander looks at him with such worry.\n\n“Magnus what’s wrong?” Alec presses, but still seems hesitant to approach any closer, and God how long had it been since Alexander had been this careful with him? It would cast him back to those days when Magnus had first dropped his glamour, that body switch with Valentine, the first days his magic had been gone, but Magnus was lost further back in his own past to make those connections.\n\n“What  - what did you say?” He asks, voice tight and barely audible.\n\nAlec looks bewildered and lost as he blinks at Magnus, rearranging himself to scoot minutely closer while still keeping his distance.\n\n“Good morning?” he asks doubtfully, he’s said it hundreds of times in both languages after all.\n\nBut Magnus is shaking his head before the words are even out of Alexander’s mouth “No, what did you call me?”\n\nIt is the tremor in Magnus’s voice that finally has Alec reaching forward to properly touch him again, one hand cupping Magnus’s face gently, even as he thinks over his own sentence.\n\n“Cahayaku?” He repeats slowly, his eyes going wide when he hears Magnus keen almost mournfully in response. Even if he said it wrong, it would hardly be the first time he mispronounced a word, nothing about it should affect Magnus so.\n\nAlec rubs a soothing thumb over the apple of Magnus’s cheek, his voice gentling infinitely “What is it Magnus?”\n\nHis own name is jarring to Magnus now, his mind torn between today and centuries past. The image of Alexander cradling his face, is almost superimposed by his mother doing the same to a much smaller version of him, and it brings tears unbidden into his eyes.\n\n“Please, please don’t cry” Alec begs, his other hand coming up to hold Magnus’s face, urgent in the need to wipe away the tears falling rapidly.\n\n“Ibu saya –“ The words catch in his throat and he corrects himself “My mother – she used to – she called me –“\n\nAlexander stills, the ‘oh’ of acknowledgement silent as it falls from his lips. He seems to understand the gravity of what he had just said and doesn’t seem to know what to say next. Magnus for his part is still reeling and also speechless.\n\n“I’m sorry” Alec says after a few minutes of quiet “I won’t say it again”\n\nAnd that breaks Magnus’s heart even further, the simple withdrawal more than anything jolting him back into action as he hurries to grip the hands holding his face.\n\n“No – Alexander, you don’t understand” He says urgently, the words lapping over each other in his rush to somehow simplify the tumultuous ocean of feelings inside of him “She used to call me that because – it was my name. My birth name, it's Cahyo”\n\nAlec’s eyes go wide, his mouth dropping open in stunned surprised, before suddenly a wide smile stretches across his face and he is beaming at Magnus.\n\n“Cahyo” he says softly, surely, and it lands over Magnus’s heart like a solid punch “Of course, of course your name would mean light”\n\nThere’s an almost joyous bark of laughter from Alec and he leans forward to kiss Magnus on the forehead, the love shining impossibly bright in his eyes that Magnus feels like he is drowning in it.\n\nNever in his life has he mentioned the name his mother gave him, not once has he spoken it in the centuries since. No one knows of it, not Ragnor, not Catarina, nobody alive except his father.  But here Alec was, having stumbled upon the very foundation of who Magnus was, with simple ease.\n\n“It suits you” He promises, the reassurance accompanied by another kiss to his cheek. And when Magnus is still too speechless, Alec pulls him into his chest, arms wrapped securely around him and allowing Magnus to hide away from the world in the crook of his neck. The two of them sitting there in silence with Magnus replaying the last words Alec had said that morning.\n\n“You are my light Magnus”\n\n \n\n "}
+{"text": " Before  \n\n Sitting at the Gryffindor table at the Welcome Feast, Harry has his whole life ahead of him.  \n\n He’s only eleven, sure, and he might be too young for many things, but he catches sight of white-blonde hair and shining grey eyes and he knows.  \n\n “Someday,” he says, to Ron. “He’s going to be my husband.”  \n\n Ron looks over at the Slytherin table and wrinkles his nose.  \n\n “Malfoy?” he asks. “Why?”  \n\n They’ve been friends for all of six hours, so he doesn’t know that this is how most things happen in Harry’s life; he practically wills them into existence.  \n\n “I don’t know,” Harry says, because he can’t quite tell yet; he doesn’t know, he can’t explain it, but he knows his father went through a similar experience. Before he and his mom died when Harry was seven, he’d heard the story often.  \n\n “  I knew from the moment I saw her,”   James used to say to Harry every night, when Harry would ask for a bedtime story.  “Lily Evans was going to be my wife. Even if she didn’t know it herself.” \n\n His mother would roll her eyes, kiss Harry’s temple.   \n\n “  Your father says he knew,”   she’d say. “But he couldn’t have. Those things don’t work like that.”  \n\n Harry had never quite known what to believe; on the one hand, James would wink at him and tell him he’d know too, one day, but Lily would tell him that there was no problem if he didn’t.  \n\n Harry hated the idea of not knowing immediately, of not having that kind of love, and it’s why he’d been so nervous about Hogwarts, no matter how Sirius or Remus tried to soothe him.  \n\n Now, looking at the blond, he knows.  \n\n “I’m going to marry him one day,” he repeats.   \n\n Ron shakes his head disbelievingly.  \n\n* \n\nAfter \n\nWhen Headmistress McGonagall places the Sorting Hat on his head, Scorpius ignores the whispers; he’s been doing so all his life. \n\n Potter-Malfoy, huh?   The Hat’s voice seems to be only inside his head, and he tries not to jump in surprise; despite how much he’s been looking forward to this moment, how much he wants it, he doesn’t think he could ever quite be ready.   I remember your parents. Slytherin and Gryffindor, but where do   you   fit ? \n\nScorpius has been told he looks exactly like his dad; with the white-blonde hair and the fair skin, all he really has from his father is the green eyes, which everyone in the wizarding world recognizes as soon as they see him. \n\n I want to be like my parents , he thinks, and the hat laughs quietly. \n\n Doesn’t everyone ? It asks. \n\nScorpius swallows; their story is legendary, told to children before bed, talked about in the streets. The way they hated each other, the way they fell in love.  \n\nThe way they died. \n\nScorpius doesn’t want to be like them because of that; he doesn’t care about the secrets, he doesn’t care about the power and the whirlwind of romance and greatness, he wants to be like them because they were honorable, because they were  good . \n\nBecause they protected him at all costs, with their lives, because they knew what they wanted, and Scorpius doesn’t have the smallest clue. \n\n“SLYTHERIN!” The Hat calls out. The Slytherin table erupts in cheers, and, before McGonagall moves, it speaks to him again.  You’re going to get as far as you want to.  \n\nMcGonagall whisks the hat off his head. \n\n* \n\n Before  \n\n “Oi, Malfoy.” Harry’s grinning, resting on his broom, mid-air, while the rest of the team practice; he’s Gryffindor’s youngest seeker in a century, and he’s already caught the Snitch, which means he’s enjoying his time watching the people in the stands. “What are you reading?”  \n\n Malfoy looks up at him, unimpressed. “How to Get Unbearable Gryffindor Gits to Stop Talking to You.”  \n\n Harry’s grin only widens. “How is it working for you?”  \n\n “Not well,” Malfoy says drily. “I thought I’d have less interruptions here than in the library, but clearly, I was wrong.”  \n\n “Right, less interruptions,” Harry says. “So it’s nothing to do with the view?”  \n\n Malfoy snorts, picking up his things and shoving his bag onto his shoulder. “In your dreams, Potter.”  \n\n “In my dreams   you’re   the view!” Harry calls after him.  \n\n Malfoy throws a jinx over his shoulder, and Harry yelps as it hits him in the face.  \n\n *  \n\nAfter \n\nHe writes home to Teddy, Sirius, and Remus; he knows Teddy wanted him to be sorted into Hufflepuff, and though Sirius and Remus pretend not to care, they wanted him to be in Gryffindor; after all, his father was, too. \n\n“Quit moping.” Rose nudges him when she sees him in the hall; she’s a year older, and if Scorpius isn’t at home he can always be found at the Weasleys’, in Rose’s room, probably in some sort of contest of  who can name more Astrology book titles . “I thought this was what you wanted.” \n\n“It was,” he says. It’s not that he  didn’t  want it, it’s just – at home, everyone is used to him; they know he’s a huge nerd, that he’s shy, that he needs glasses but forgets them more often than not, that he’s allergic to nuts and cacao and that he has dragon slippers that roar when he walks. Here, people either ignore him – which he’s fine with – or stare at him like he’s some all-powerful wizard because of what happened when he was a baby. \n\nHe doesn’t feel all-powerful. \n\n“Then what’s the problem?” she asks, because she can always tell; they’ve been best friends for practically their entire lives, it’s insulting for him to think he can hide things from her. \n\n“There’s no problem,” he lies. The problem is that he can’t stop thinking about his parents, about the fact that they were here, where he is, and if he concentrates he can almost imagine them next to him. \n\nRose smacks the back of his head. “Don’t get too lost in your own head.” \n\n* \n\n Before  \n\n “You can’t know you’re going to marry him,” Hermione says, in their second year when Harry explains it to her.  \n\n “You can give it up,” Ron tells her. “I’ve been trying to tell him that for a   year  .”  \n\n “I just know,” Harry says, ignoring Ron.   \n\n “But you can’t   know  ,” Hermione insists.   \n\n “You’re going to take that back when you’re invited to our wedding,” Harry tells her, and she rolls his eyes.  \n\n “Okay,” she says. “  If   you and Malfoy get married, I'll take it back.”  \n\n *  \n\nAfter \n\nScorpius sits in front of the mirror of Erised for what feels like an eternity or two. There are a lot of things he doesn’t remember about his parents; their voices, for one, or the way he’s been told his father used to sing when he cooked, but he’d know their faces with his eyes closed. \n\nThere are old home movies, soundless; his favorite one is the video of his first time in a ferry, in his dad’s arms while his father filmed. He's watched it enough times he could recreate it in his sleep, the way his dad grinned, the kiss his father pressed to his forehead before sitting next to him and waving at the camera, so he recognizes them in the mirror before he recognizes himself. \n\nHis dads, hand in hand, standing beside him like they were always meant to, standing next to each other like a choice they made, over and over, even if it got them killed. Scorpius wonders if they’d do it differently, if they could. \n\n“I love you,” he says, a little uselessly, a little hopelessly. “And I wish you were here.” \n\nHis dad puts a hand on his shoulder, and Scorpius can almost swear they are. \n\n* \n\n Before  \n\n Remus starts teaching at Hogwarts during Harry’s third year, and he catches on quickly.  \n\n “Is that him?” he asks Harry one day after class; Harry’s told them all about Draco, but until then neither he nor Sirius had met him.  \n\n “Yes,” Harry says. “I’m going to marry him.”  \n\n Remus snorts and shakes his head. “I don’t know how you know.”  \n\n “But I know,” Harry says.  \n\n “I know you do,” he says. “Your dad did, too.”  \n\n Harry grins.  \n\n “Try not to annoy him too much, yeah?” Remus tells him. “That was your dad’s technique, and it worked in the end, but I think something different might be faster.”  \n\n Harry blinks. “Like what?”  \n\n “I don’t know.” Remus shrugs. “Give him flowers.”  \n\n *  \n\nAfter \n\nProfessor Quirrell tries to kill Scorpius by the end of the year, and somehow, that’s not the biggest one of his professor problems. His biggest problem is that Professor Zabini, the Potions Master and the head of Slytherin, absolutely  hates   him. Scorpius almost fails Potions! And okay, he’s not as good as his dad – he doesn’t think anyone is, sincerely, since he was the youngest potions master until he died – but he loves to read, and he loves school, and he never,   ever   almost fails.   Anything . \n\nRose tells him not to worry about it, but Scorpius ignores her. If  she   almost failed something, she’d have a stroke or something similar, he’s sure. If he told her to calm down during it, she’d probably curse him, so she can keep her ‘  calm down’ s to herself. \n\nShe doesn’t appreciate him telling her so, but Scorpius doesn’t particularly care. \n\n* \n\n Before  \n\n His friends have a bet; Ron says Malfoy will send the flowers back to Harry – most likely in pieces – and Hermione says he’ll abandon them or throw them at Harry’s face.   \n\n They hear later from a first-year Slytherin that he incendioed them when they arrived to the Slytherin common room.  \n\n “Told you,” Ron says smugly, when, later, Harry gets an envelope with ashes.  \n\n Harry doesn’t let that deter him.  \n\n “You got my flowers,” he says, jumping down from the windowsill he’d been sitting on.  \n\n Malfoy flinches, and then turns to him, glaring.  \n\n “Yes, I did,” he says, cheeks red.  \n\n “You didn’t like them?” Harry asks him.  \n\n “Like?” Malfoy looks at him incredulously. “  Like?   Potter, what the fuck were you thinking?”  \n\n “It was suggested that flowers might get my point across better than our usual bickering.”  \n\n “And what point is that?”  \n\n “That you’re going to marry me some day.”  \n\n Malfoy’s face goes even redder, and he steps on Harry’s foot before turning and walking out.  \n\n *  \n\nAfter \n\nWhen Scorpius goes back home for the summer, he’s greeted with open arms. \n\n“You’ll need to tell us everything,” Sirius tells him. Scorpius knows he wasn’t meant to hear, but the Halloween he was six – the fifth anniversary of his parents’ death – Sirius and Remus were sitting in front of the fire drinking firewhiskey, and he heard them say no one was ever meant to raise their baby’s baby. That it was a special kind of sorrow. \n\nHe tries not to think about it, because he knows they love him, but he also knows they’re right; he’s seen the way their eyes go misty when something he does reminds them of his father. \n\n“Nothing really happened,” he says, shrugging. “I almost failed Potions.” \n\n“Who teaches you?” Remus asks, grabbing his trunk from him. \n\n“Blaise Zabini,” Scorpius tells them. \n\nTeddy frowns. “He was pretty fair with me.” \n\nAnd the thing is, Scorpius knows he’s been fair with everyone else, too; Rose is half in love with him, and he’s not  unfair   to Scorpius, per se, but he seems to   loathe  him and he doesn’t understand why, which makes him nervous, which makes his Potions less than stellar. \n\nHe’s not going to ask why he loathes him, either, because any time he looks at him, Zabini seems to hate him a little more. \n\n“Don’t think about him.” Sirius waves it away. “And I was asking about the letter we got that you had been in an accident?” \n\n“Oh, that,” Scorpius says. “It was nothing. Voldemort tried to come back with the Philosopher’s Stone, and Rose and I went through insane trials to get to the mirror of Erised, and then Voldemort tried to kill me, but Rose had gone to get Dumbledore, so-” \n\nIt takes him a minute to realize his family has stopped walking. \n\n“What?” he asks, disoriented. \n\nSirius and Remus are staring at him like they’ve seen a ghost, and Teddy is looking anywhere but at him. \n\n“What?” he asks again. \n\n“Nothing.” Sirius is the first to recover. “Nothing, just – that name is not said so freely in the Wizarding World, Scorp. And – just – nothing.” \n\nHe tries to give him a reassuring smile, but it’s even less convincing than his words. \n\n* \n\n Before  \n\n Malfoy’s best friend is Blaise Zabini. They’ve practically grown up together, known each other since they were four, consider each other brothers. They spend every summer together in Zabini’s house, since Malfoy’s parents visit France.   \n\n Hermione says it’s creepy for Harry to know that, but he ignores her.  \n\n “Holy fucking-” Zabini flinches when Harry appears in front of him when he’s on his way to the Slytherin common room. “Potter, get the fuck out of my way.”  \n\n People say Zabini’s mother, who’s ‘the most beautiful and enthralling witch in Britain’, if witnesses are to be believed, is a seer, and that he’s got some of it, too. Harry doesn’t think he does, if this is any indication.  \n\n “I’m not going to do that,” he says. “Did Malfoy like my flowers?”  \n\n “He Incendioed them.” Zabini looks at him disbelievingly.   \n\n “But before he did,” Harry says. “Did he like them?”  \n\n Zabini looks like he’s considering cursing him, so before he can do so, Harry continues talking.  \n\n “Because if not, I know other kinds of flowers,” he says. “Glowing sunflowers, or singing peonies-”  \n\n “Oh, yes,   please   send him singing peonies,” Zabini says, amused glint in his eyes and smirk on his face. “He’d   love   that.”  \n\n Harry’s pretty sure that’s a lie, but he nods resolutely anyway.  \n\n *  \n\nAfter \n\nIn Scorpius’s second year, when the Chamber of Secrets is opened and Lilianne Crabbe declares Mudbloods will die, Scorpius gets letters from Sirius and Remus, Teddy, his grandma Molly, his uncle Ron, and his aunt Hermione. \n\nEveryone tells him not to be scared – Teddy asks him if he wants to come home, half teasingly, but Scorpius knows he’d come get him in a heartbeat if he said yes – but his aunt Hermione doesn’t; she tells him to be careful, which, to him, sounds like she believes at least  some  of the rumors going around about mythical monsters and Muggleborn murders. \n\nShe sends over pages of research, and before Scorpius has had time to go through it all, Rose has done some of her own. \n\n“Look at this,” she tells him, hair bushier than normal because she had double-potions. She shoves a thick book towards her. “No book specifies what the monster in the chamber is, exactly, but there are a few ideas-” \n\nScorpius only half-listens to the rest of the explanation, wondering what he’d do without her; though everyone keeps telling him to wait, that it’ll eventually happen, it’s become pretty clear to him that he’s not interested in men, or women, or anyone, really, in a romantic or sexual manner.  \n\nRose, however, is his best friend; he’d spend the rest of his life with her without batting an eye, their banter or easy silence more than enough for him to be happy. \n\n“Are you even paying attention?” Rose rolls her eyes at him, and he blinks. \n\n“Yes,” he says. \n\nShe rolls her eyes and throws a muggle pen at him. \n\n* \n\n Before  \n\n “Singing peonies?” Malfoy slaps his hands down on the Gryffindor table, and Harry grins up at him.  \n\n “Cute, right?”  \n\n “Singing peonies?” Malfoy is seething. “What in all bloody hell were you thinking, Potter? They arrived in the middle of Potions!”  \n\n Ron stifles a laugh against the back of his hand; he’d love to have seen Snape’s face.  \n\n “You didn’t like the others.” Harry shrugs.   \n\n Malfoy looks at him disbelievingly. “And you thought I'd like   singing peonies  ?”  \n\n Harry grins up at him, and Malfoy’s face turns a deeper shade of red.  \n\n *  \n\nAfter \n\nScorpius survives Voldemort a second time, against all odds. Hugo nearly dies, but he and Rose pull him out of the chamber, and, afterwards, Madam Pomfrey says he’s going to make a full recovery. \n\nSirius, Remus, and Teddy all show up to pick him up at King’s Cross, just like last year, and Remus kisses the top of his head when he sees him.  \n\n“Don’t make almost dying a habit, please,” he murmurs against the top of his head. “My dear old heart can’t take it.” \n\nSirius elbows his ribs. “Your ‘dear old heart’ is in perfect shape, Moony, don’t be melodramatic.” \n\nRemus elbows him back. “Says you, who was openly sobbing about it not two hours ago.” \n\nThey begin to bicker, and Teddy throws an arm around Scorpius’s shoulders. \n\n“Don’t get yourself killed, huh, kid?” he says quietly. “Too many people have died already.” \n\n* \n\n Before  \n\n Harry masters his Patronus at thirteen, thanks to Remus’s teaching, but they don’t actually see it in school until fourth year. All of it is theoretical, of course. They're not expected to be able to do the spell until sixth or seventh year.  \n\n Harry reads about it: Patronuses matching, if two people are meant for each other. He's sure Malfoy’s Patronus will match his, but he’ll have to keep guessing, since Malfoy refuses to even try the spell in class, color high on his cheeks.  \n\n “I can tutor you,” Harry offers him, when class is over.   \n\n “You,” Malfoy deadpans. “Tutoring me.”  \n\n “Don’t be a prick,” Harry says mildly, and Malfoy smirks; it’s true that he has much better grades than Harry does, but no one is quite as good as Harry is in Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Malfoy’s smart enough to know that, whether or not he likes it. “I’ll tutor you. I can do a Patronus since last year.”  \n\n “You can?” Malfoy, for the first time, actually looks a little bit intrigued, and Harry grins.  \n\n He waves his wand, and, sure enough, his Patronus slowly forms a stag, which then runs around the room before stopping in front of Malfoy; open-mouthed, bright-eyed Malfoy.  \n\n “Potter, that’s gorgeous,” Malfoy says, before he can stop himself.  \n\n Harry grins, and Malfoy looks away, uncomfortable.   \n\n “Don’t be weird about it,” he says, rolling his eyes. “I know how to recognize talent when I see it.”  \n\n “I’m sure you do,” Harry says smoothly, and before Malfoy can do anything, he kisses his cheek and walks out the door, leaving him gaping behind him.  \n\n *  \n\nAfter \n\nIn Scorpius’s third year, Pansy Parkinson escapes Azkaban. Sirius writes him no less than half a dozen letters telling him not to interact with her if he ever sees her, and he doesn’t understand why he thinks he would. \n\nHe gets it later, when he and Rose overhear Headmistress McGonagall explaining that Parkinson ended up in Azkaban for betraying his parents, selling them out to Voldemort.  \n\nScorpius doesn’t feel like he can breathe. \n\nAnd then. \n\nAnd  then . \n\nHe meets her. \n\nAnd Theodore Nott. \n\n“He was our friend!” She’s crying, tears and snot dripping down her face, but the wand she’s pointing at Nott is unflinching. “He was a  brother  to me, Theo, how could you-” \n\n“He married Potter!” Nott spits out the name like it’s physically hurting him. “He married Potter, he had a son! You knew the prophecy-” \n\n“But he didn’t!” Parkinson screams. “The Dark Lord didn’t until you told him you unbelievable piece of-” \n\nThe light from the spell Nott casts is blinding, but Parkinson is the most impressive dueler Scorpius has seen in his life, because she counters it wordlessly; it’s quick, it’s bright, and it’s brutal, and when it’s over, a body hits the floor. \n\n“I never would’ve betrayed your parents,” Parkinson tells him, staring emptily down at Nott’s lifeless body. “I never would’ve done that to Draco.” \n\nShe moves in – secretly – with Sirius and Remus not two weeks later. \n\n* \n\n Before  \n\n Harry tutors Malfoy when he has trouble with his Patronus. Remus winks at him when he tells him about it, and Harry can’t help but feel quite giddy, too. It's the first time Malfoy’s asked for his help in anything, and Harry can already tell this is where it starts.  \n\n “You need to concentrate on a happy memory,” Harry tells him, frowning, when the light from Malfoy’s wand extinguishes once more.  \n\n “How am I supposed to think of something happy right now?” Malfoy snaps at him, hand running through his hair. Harry is quiet; though they’ve only done this three times before, Malfoy had been getting better, not worse. This is definitely worse.  \n\n “Why not?” Harry asks.  \n\n Malfoy looks at him disbelievingly. “Have you heard nothing of what’s happening out there Potter?”  \n\n Of course Harry has; Sirius and Remus talk about it in hushed tones, about ‘Death Eaters’ about someone who’s named himself Voldemort. He's murdering muggles and Muggleborns.   \n\n Harry knows it’s building up to something, and the Ministry’s doing nothing.  \n\n “Why are you worried?” he asks, instead of answering.  \n\n Malfoy can’t quite look at him, and Harry wracks his brain.  \n\nCousin Cissy,  Sirius had sneered, when Harry had first mentioned Malfoy,  and her Blood Purist husband, as in-laws. Delighting. \n\n “Have your parents joined him?” Harry asks. “Voldemort?”  \n\n Malfoy’s jaw clenches, and he swallows, looks away.  \n\n That’s as good answer as any.  \n\n *  \n\nAfter \n\nIn Scorpius’s fourth year, he almost dies twice. Once, when he’s entered in the Triwizard Tournament, the youngest competitor in the history of the game, and the second time when he tries to ask Rose to the Yule Ball. \n\n“Not as - a date or anything.” He stumbles both over his words and over his feet, and he’d fall on his face if it weren’t the fact that Rose grabs the back of his jumper to stop him. “Thanks. As friends. I don’t feel anything for you that way.” \n\nShe throws a look at him and he winces. \n\n“I don’t mean that you’re not – you deserve to have people in love with you, and I'm sure you do, I just - I don’t - I don’t feel anything like that, for anyone, and – you're like a sister, and-” \n\n“I’ll go to the ball with you, Scorpius.” She laughs and then winks at him. “And don’t worry. You're like a brother, too. We could never date.” \n\nHe feels the knot of anxiety loosen in his chest.  \n\n“Thank you,” he says. \n\n“But you better pick me up at seven sharp,” she says, nose high in the air. “And you better  look nice . I’ll take nothing less than a gentleman.” \n\nHe grins goofily at her. “As you should.” \n\n* \n\n Before  \n\n Harry tries not to think too hard about what they are; Malfoy’s been stressed about his family, about Voldemort, and apparently, the way he’s dealing with that is by snogging Harry.  \n\n “Do you want to talk about it?” Harry asks between kisses, as he usually does.  \n\n “No,” Malfoy says, as he usually does.  \n\n They’re lying in Harry’s bed, with the curtains closed with a sticking charm and no less than three silencing charms around them, and Harry’s been okay with this the last two dozen times, he really has been, but this time he feels tears against his cheeks and he can’t help but pull away.  \n\n “Are you okay?” he asks, because Malfoy is rubbing at his eyes furiously.   \n\n “I’m fine,” Malfoy snaps at him. “Just - kiss me again.”  \n\n Harry doesn’t worry about what they are, because he knows they’re going to get married. He doesn’t worry about labels. He worries about Malfoy, though.  \n\n “Tell me what’s wrong,” Harry says gently.  \n\n “Stop, Potter,” Malfoy snaps. “We’re not   friends  . We’re not in a relationship. Stop caring about me.”  \n\n “I’ll always care about you,” Harry says honestly. “And I think you want me to, too. Tell me what’s wrong.”  \n\n “Are you going to kiss me again?” Malfoy asks.  \n\n Harry shales his head, and Malfoy’s lips purse.  \n\n “Fine,” he snaps. “Have a good day then.”  \n\n And he leaves, not bothering with Ron’s incredulous look when he slips out of Harry’s bed in the middle of the afternoon.  \n\n *  \n\nAfter \n\n“Umbridge is a bloody arsehole.” Rose drops herself next to him in the Great Hall, and Scorpius nearly flinches; he was immersed on his book about Dark Magic, because Voldemort is back – the mass murderer who killed his parents is  back   - and the Ministry is doing nothing about it. “She’s teaching the most ridiculous, unbelievably tame and censored Defense Against the Dark Magic course I've taken in my   life  . I   hate  her.” \n\n“Yeah,” Scorpius mutters distractedly. “I do, too.” \n\nRose rolls her eyes at him. “What are you doing?”  \n\nScorpius looks at her, chewing on his lower lip. “I think I need to talk to Headmistress McGonagall.” \n\n* \n\n Before  \n\n Harry finds Malfoy in the hidden corridor behind the largest tapestry in the castle; he has the Marauders Map to thank for it.  \n\n “No one’s seen you all day,” he says.  \n\n Malfoy doesn’t look up from where he has his head between his knees. He's clutching a newspaper in his hand.  \n\n “What happened?” Harry asks, for what feels like the thousandth time.  \n\n Malfoy exhales shakily and extends the paper to him.  \n\n Harry, surprised, takes it.  \n\n DEATH EATER ATTACK ON EASTERN MUGGLE VILLAGE. THREE HUNDRED TWENTY-SEVEN MISSING, SEVENTEEN DEAD, AND THOUSANDS TERRIFIED.  \n\n Harry sits next to Malfoy.  \n\n “My father was there,” Malfoy says, muffled.  \n\n Harry swallows. “Is he okay?”  \n\n He doesn’t really care, but he thinks Malfoy might. He’s proved wrong when Malfoy laughs sharply.  \n\n “Okay?” Malfoy echoes. “  Okay  ? He could’ve died there, Potter, and he’d deserve it.”  \n\n “He would,” Harry agrees. “It doesn’t mean you’d have to feel good about it.”  \n\n Malfoy finally pulls his head from his knees, if only to glare at Harry.  \n\n “I hate you,” he says, eyes brimming with tears. “I hate you, you always – you always know, you say you’re going to marry me, you say we’re going to be friends, you perform a bloody Patronus at thirteen, anything you want is yours and it’s not fucking fair!”  \n\n “I wish you didn’t have to go through this,” Harry says quietly. “I want for this not to happen. I’m not getting that.”  \n\n Malfoy kisses him again, and this time, Harry doesn’t stop him because of the tears.  \n\n *  \n\nAfter \n\nRemus and Sirius have been talking about it in whispers; Scorpius knows they think he doesn’t hear, but he does; he’s heard all of it. \n\n“I want to join the Order of the Phoenix,” he tells Headmistress McGonagall. It draws her up short. \n\n“What?” she asks him. \n\n“I know about the Order,” he says. “I read it. My father had a picture.” \n\nMcGonagall’s lips are tight. “You are underage, Mr. Potter-Malfoy.” \n\nShe’s the only one who calls him by both of his last names; everyone else only bothers with Potter. \n\n“So?” he asks boldly. “I’m the Chosen One. This is supposed to be my job.” \n\n“You are a child,” McGonagall says. “It was never supposed to be a child.” \n\n“He killed my parents!” Scorpius yells, before he can stop himself. “Because of him, I have nothing.” \n\nMcGonagall levels him with an unwavering glare. \n\n“Tell that to Miss Granger-Weasley,” she says coolly. “Tell that to Mr. Lupin and Mr. Black. To Edward.” \n\nScorpius looks away guiltily. “They know I have to do this.” \n\n“They’re your family,” McGonagall tells him. “And I need you to listen to me when I say that no one regrets the death of Mr. Malfoy and Mr. Potter like I do. I watched them grow up, I watched them fall in love, and I watched them die long before it was their time to, and that is something I'd never wish upon anyone. But you are a child, Mr. Potter-Malfoy, and I will not let you fight this war.” \n\nHe leaves her office feeling more helpless than he felt when he went in it. \n\n* \n\n Before  \n\n Their graduation is a quiet affair, filled with equal parts joy and dread because nothing is free of its own form of sorrow, not lately. Draco and Harry take a walk to Hogsmeade, holding hands, just to hear the silence, until Draco stops walking.  \n\n “Something is off,” he says.  \n\n “What is it?” Harry asks, readying his wand.  \n\n “Something is-”  \n\n A figure steps out of the shadows, and Draco’s wand is in his hand in seconds.  \n\n “Mr. Malfoy,” a cold, deep voice says. “Mr. Potter.”  \n\n The hood falls back, and though Harry has never seen Voldemort before – no one but his most loyal followers has – he knows who he is immediately.   \n\n “A pleasure to finally meet you.”  \n\n “I can’t say the pleasure is mutual,” Harry says coldly, squeezing Draco’s hand tighter.  \n\n “I don’t tolerate such disrespect from my followers,” Voldemort says, colder than Harry. There’s a tense pause. “But, I suppose, I can make an exception. Just this once.”  \n\n “What do you want?” Draco’s throat is too dry.  \n\n “I want you to join me.” Voldemort spreads his hands, dark wand glinting on the inside of his sleeve, in easy reach. Draco isn’t stupid enough to think them seeing it is a coincidence. “Be a part of our cause. We’re going to rule the world.”  \n\n “No,” Draco says, before Harry can. “Never.”  \n\n “No one turns me down.” Voldemort is looking at him dangerously. “No one says no to me and survives.”  \n\n Harry sees hooded people slipping out from the shadows, and before he can think about it, he squeezes Draco’s hand tighter and apparates them away.  \n\n They stumble into Sirius’s and Remus’s, who immediately stand, making everyone else silent.  \n\n “Harry, Draco.” Molly laughs nervously. “We weren’t expecting you so soon.”  \n\n The house is deadly quiet, which means Teddy must be with someone else for the night; he’s just three months old, Harry’s little brother, and he loves him. He's glad he’s not here for this.  \n\n “We want to join the Order,” Draco says. “Now.”  \n\n Everyone looks at Harry. “You’ll need any help you can get.”  \n\n “Yes,” Mad-eye Moody says gruffly. “We will.”  \n\n *  \n\nAfter \n\nThe Order of the Phoenix is reinstated, Scorpius knows. He also knows that he is banned from it. He has a long, loud argument about it with Remus and Sirius. \n\n“My dads joined!” Scorpius snaps angrily. “They helped!” \n\n“And look where that got them!” Sirius rarely raises his voice, but he does now. “Look where that got them, Scorpius! In an early grave, leaving their one-year-old  alone !” \n\n“They died for what was right!” \n\n“They died for  you!”  Remus exclaims. “They died to keep you safe, to make sure you would have a long, happy life-” \n\n“I can’t have a long happy life while innocent people out there are dying!” \n\n“Innocent people are  always  dying,” Sirius snaps. “And you cannot save every one of them.” \n\n“I can  try,”  Scorpius says. He looks desperately at Pansy, leaning against the counter with a glass of wine in her hand. “I should be a part of this.” \n\nHer lips purse. “Your dads wanted to protect you. Draco and Potter died to protect you.” \n\nScorpius leaves the room without another word. \n\n *  \n\n Before  \n\n Blaise sees it on a cloudless November day. He's staring at the sky, and it’s suddenly in front of him, the baby in the crib, the bright flash, Draco’s body on the ground.  \n\n He lurches forward, throat convulsing as he vomits everything he had for breakfast until he’s heaving, stomach empty but head still spinning; his mother – a seer, experienced, used to it – doesn’t have a hard time after her visions, but Blaise doesn’t get them often, and when he does, he usually needs a few minutes to recover.  \n\n He needs more than that after seeing his best friend’s lifeless body on the ground.  \n\n Before he knows it, he’s apparated to Draco and Potter’s, and he’s knocking on the door before he can stop himself.   \n\nYou never,  ever   tell someone about their death,   his mother used to say to him, when he was little and still unused to it.   It never brings anything good, and you can never stop it  .  \n\n Blaise needs to make an exception.  \n\n “Zabini.” Potter sounds a little surprised when he opens the door, and he scratches his ribs, looking around. “Everything okay?”  \n\n “I need to talk to Draco,” Blaise says.  \n\n Potter looks at him and then lets him in wordlessly, not questioning him; he’s learned not to, by now. Draco’s and Blaise’s friendship is something no one else really understands, and Potter’s stopped trying.  \n\n He finds Draco up in his lab, and he closes the door, uncaring that Potter had been right behind him.   \n\n “Well, fuck you, too, Zabini!” Potter calls from behind the door.  \n\n Blaise ignores him.  \n\n “Draco,” he says.  \n\n “Give me a minute.” Draco’s concentrated in what he’s brewing, as he always is. It's just been two years since they left Hogwarts: two years of the Order, two years of his Potions Mastery, two years of living with Potter and being   happy  .  \n\n Blaise hopes that’s enough to convince him to keep him alive.  \n\n “Draco,” Blaise repeats, heart pounding.  \n\n “I can’t stop stirring, Blaise.”  \n\n “  Draco  .”  \n\n Draco ignores him.  \n\n “Draco!” Blaise snaps, snatching the ladle he’s stirring with from his hand.  \n\n “Stop, you’ll ruin it!” Draco finally looks at him, and draws up short. “What happened?”  \n\n With a wave of his hand, the fire underneath the cauldron dims, and the ladle begins stirring by itself, even though Draco insists doing things by hand is what makes his potions so effective.  \n\n “You’re going to die,” Blaise says.  \n\n Draco blinks, evidently unsettled, but he perches himself on his table and crosses his arms, shrugging uneasily. “We’re all going to die.”  \n\n “You’re going to   die  ,” Blaise repeats. “Soon. If you have a baby.”  \n\n Draco stares at him.   \n\n “This isn’t funny,” he says.  \n\n “I’m not joking,” Blaise responds.  \n\n Draco clenches his jaw. “Harry told you we had a pregnancy scare, didn’t he? Is that what this little joke is about? He's getting me back?”  \n\n “Merlin, Draco, no!” Blaise snaps. “Listen to me. If you have a baby, you will  die.” \n\n He doesn’t know how it’s connected yet, can’t really explain it, but he knows the baby has something to do with it. The person who killed Draco wanted to get to the baby, and Draco was only in the way, only an inconvenience.   \n\n He can’t let Draco die like that.  \n\n “Leave Potter,” Blaise pleads. “Don’t adopt. I don’t care, just don’t, don’t have a baby, don’t die for them, Draco, please-”  \n\n “Stop,” Draco tells him. “No. I don’t want to hear it.”  \n\n “Draco-”  \n\n “Your mother always says you can’t change what’s going to happen after you’ve seen it.”  \n\n “She’s wrong,” Blaise snaps desperately. “She has to be.”  \n\n Draco doesn’t look at him as he throws him out of his lab.  \n\n *  \n\nAfter \n\n“I need your help.” \n\n“You’ve got it.” Rose doesn’t even ask what he needs help with. \n\n“Voldemort created Horcruxes,” he says. \n\nSomeone left a note of it in his potions book. He doesn’t know who, and he doesn’t know how they knew, but he knows he needs to figure out who it was, and why they’re helping him. The adults don’t want them to be a part of it, he knows, and he also knows he’s in his sixth year, which means Rose is on her seventh year and it’s their last year here together. They need to figure things out  now . \n\n“I don’t really understand what they are,” he admits. “But I need to figure out how to use them against him.” \n\n“Let’s start looking, then,” she says. \n\n* \n\n Before  \n\n Blaise knows what’s happened when Draco can’t quite look him in the eyes.  \n\n “You’re pregnant,” he says, disbelievingly.  \n\n Draco clenches his jaw. “Yes.”  \n\n Blaise stares at him. It’s always been them; Blaise-and-Draco, joined at the hip since they were four years old, Blaise-and-Draco, staying up late at night talking about the universe because even though neither of them wanted to admit it, they were just kids and terrified not too long ago, and hypotheticals were always much better than reality, for either of them; Blaise-and-Draco, eyes shining at Draco’s wedding because even if Blaise doesn’t particularly like Potter, anything that makes Draco happy is worth it on his list, Blaise-and-Draco, inseparable until death, never meant to be apart.  \n\n He was never meant to live without the only person who understood the deepest, most twisted parts of him and the most ridiculous, silly ones and doesn’t judge him for any of them.  \n\n “I’m happy about it,” Draco says, carefully. “So is Harry. Even if the circumstances aren’t ideal.”  \n\n They aren’t, not with a war coming.  \n\n “Did you tell Potter?” he asks. “About what will happen?”  \n\n Draco glares at him. “No. And you won’t, either.”  \n\n Blaise says, “I won’t promise that.”  \n\n *  \n\nAfter \n\n“It’s not your fault.” Zabini’s voice sounds hollow. \n\n“What?” Scorpius asks, frantically trying to remember where he put his wand; he doesn’t think the professor will hurt him, not really, but at the same time, it’s more than a little disquieting to wake and find him staring at him in his dorm while everyone else is asleep. \n\n“It’s not your fault,” Zabini repeats, louder. “I saw what was going to happen - I told Draco he was going to die because of you. He ignored me.” \n\nScorpius swallows, mind racing. His parents – they’d known? \n\n“I told him to get rid of you.” Zabini’s looking at him like he’s never seen him before. “I told him to leave Potter. I didn’t - I wanted him to live. He was my best friend, he was everything.” \n\nRose is Scorpius’s best friend, and there’s nothing romantic between them; that doesn’t matter. He can’t imagine his life without her, his wedding, his eventual children not knowing her, her existence, deleted from the world except for the people who’d remember her, him, always mourning.  \n\nHe'd never get over that. \n\nHe’d never get over her. \n\n“You should’ve made him.” It takes Scorpius a moment to realize it’s he who talked; if he knew something was going to lead to Rose’s death, if he couldn’t stop it – what would he do? \n\n Die with her , he thinks in a daze. It’s always been them, Scorpius-and-Rose, joined at the hip since she saw his little baby face, Scorpius-and-Rose, reading until dawn and quizzing each other because they’d be damned if there was anything they didn’t know, Scorpius-and-Rose, entering the Chamber of Secrets for Hugo because he’s Rose’s annoying little brother and she’d die before anything happened to him, and if Rose is dead then Scorpius is dead, too. \n\nHe doesn’t know how to exist without her. \n\nHe thinks, from Zabini’s expression, he knows exactly what he’s thinking. \n\n“And have him be unhappy for the rest of his life?” he asks. “That’s its own kind of death, and if Draco was going to die I was not going to be the one to do it.” Scorpius swallows. “And now I look at you, and – it's like I'm seeing a ghost, every day. And then you almost  died  today and - I hate you, Potter, but Draco’s going to have my head the moment I die if I let anything happens to you. That’s why. I know you’ve been wondering.” \n\n Why I hate you. Why I can’t look at you. Why nothing you do will ever be good enough, why I could never grow to care about you, why everything has to be cold and bloodless and calculating.  \n\nScorpius doesn’t think knowing the answer makes him feel better. \n\n“You need to stop what you’re doing,” Zabini tells him. “I told you about the Horcruxes to warn you, not to lead you to your death.” \n\nScorpius has never really known how to do what’s best for his own good; he’s told he gets that from his father. \n\n* \n\n Halloween, Godric’s Hollow  \n\n When it happens, Harry’s standing on the stairs, kissing his husband’s lips with Scorpius Harry Potter-Malfoy up in his crib.   \n\n The explosion by the door is deafening.  \n\n “Leave.” He thinks he’s saying it; his ears are ringing too much to hear himself, but he thinks he’s saying it as he clumsily pushes Draco up the stairs. “Leave, I'll hold him back. Grab Scorpius, run!”  \n\n “Harry, I love you.”   \n\n It’s the last thing he hears; there’s flashes afterwards, light, and spells, and Harry keeps up more than well enough, but eventually, there’s a green flash and his body hits the floor.  \n\n There’s two matching green flashes in Scorpius’s bedroom a few minutes later, but only one is successful.  \n\n *  \n\nThe Final Battle, Forbidden Forest \n\nScorpius dies in the Forbidden Forest, and just for a few minutes, he gets to see his parents. He's never seen them before, not like this. \n\n“Did I do enough?” he asks them, because they’re looking at him with so much love and sorrow he can’t tell which is caused by him and which is felt for him. \n\n“You did more than anyone could’ve reasonably asked,” Draco tells him. He grabs his cheeks and kisses the top of his head, and then Harry kisses his temple. “You did more than you should’ve been responsible for.” \n\n“We’re proud of you,” Harry tells him, and then Scorpius is alive, again, and there’s Hogwarts and Headmistress McGonagall and Teddy throws him his wand and Voldemort is dead, once and for all. \n\nScorpius feels like he can finally be his own person. \n\n \n\n "}
+{"text": "\"Have you ever kissed anyone?\" \n\nSae-byeok stiffens. Ji-yeong is both smart and slightly irritating, seeming to know which questions will and won't prod her. It doesn't make the air any lighter. Still, she thinks she'd rather be here with her than anyone else. There's more tension and the foreboding of death around the corner in the air than oxygen, but Sae-byeok hasn't ever kissed anyone, so she shakes her head no.  \n\nJi-yeong laughs. For a moment, Sae-byeok thinks she's being made fun of, not that it matters much to her. But Ji-yeong laughs in a way that gives away her momentary joy, and Sae-byeok somehow gathers that the girl's just happy with her answer. The reason beats her. \n\n\"So you've never had your first kiss, huh...\" Ji-yeong sighs contently.\n\nSae-byeok envies Ji-yeong's ease. She can't even relax while sleeping, let alone while she's awake and sitting on the steps with the latter. She figures it has everything to do with why Ji-yeong's here, and what her life was like before; it's kind of clear that she doesn't know what she's doing, nor does she really seem to care. Again, Sae-byeok envies her. \n\n\"Does it matter?\" she asks, looking down at her rough, calloused palms. \n\nJi-yeong hums, \"Well, do you want it to?\"\n\nSae-byeok is silent. Her hands look like maps, littered with ley lines that cross and connect with each other. She struggles to find a start or an end to the networks that overlap one another, eyes tracing along the mixture of natural lines and scars. Maybe it's because they're trembling too much that she keeps losing her trail. She can't feel the tips of her fingers.\n\n\"One of us is gonna die soon and if it's you, won't you want to have kissed someone first?\" \n\nJi-yeong asks a valid question, and Sae-byeok has nothing to lose but her life. \n\n\"...sure.\" \n\nJi-yeong doesn't say anything, instead shuffling down from her two steps above Sae-byeok's, until they're shoulder to shoulder.  In such close proximity, Sae-byeok stiffens again. Ji-yeong is warm, but not warm enough to bring the heat back into her shaky hands. Just warm enough for Sae-byeok to not want to back away. She studies the colour of Ji-yeong's eyes for a moment, then looks back down at her lap and balls her hands into fists. \n\n\"Well, me too. Can I kiss you then?\" \n\nSae-byeok's eyes widen involuntarily. She whips her head up to find Ji-yeong's mirthful eyes and pinkened lips, curved up into a smile. \n\n\"You... Haven't kissed anyone either?\" she asks, albeit hesitantly. \n\n\"Oh, I have,\" Ji-yeong laughs airily, then shakes her head, \"but you haven't. It takes two people to kiss, remember?\" \n\nSae-byeok purses her lips, looking away. They're dry and chapped, bitten in some places out of anxiety. She can still taste metal if she presses her tongue hard enough into the left corner of her bottom lip. \n\n\"I still don't know your name yet, so technically this can be a first for me, too- my first time kissing a stranger.\" \n\nSae-byeok blinks. The fists her hands are in have loosened onto her knees, fingers spreading out across green fabric. \n\n\"Okay,\" she mutters, purposefully soft. She's nervous. \n\n\"Okay?\" Ji-yeong repeats. \n\nSae-byeok nods. \"Okay.\" \n\nJi-yeong's hands are soft on Sae-byeok's face. Perhaps they aren't soft, per se, but just softer than Sae-byeok's. Or perhaps they're not soft at all, littered with callouses, but it's just the way that she's touching her that feels soft. Sae-byeok has never had her face cupped so tenderly, warm fingers splayed out across her cheeks and jaw. She closes her eyes from the way it shrouds comfort over her, and almost feels like she could fall asleep on these steps with her head in Ji-yeong's hands. But she might not wake up if she did. \n\nSo Sae-byeok blinks. She looks into Ji-yeong's eyes instead, the eyes that have been watching her for a while now. The eyes that have watched her weaken without judgement. Ji-yeong offers her a smile. For a moment it feels like sunlight on Sae-byeok's skin- to be looked at like this. To be held like this. To be so close to a warm body, if only for a moment. \n\n\"Ready?\" asks Ji-yeong, as she inches closer. \n\nSae-byeok nods into her hands. \n\n\"Okay. Close your eyes,\" Ji-yeong whispers, close enough to let the warm exhale of her words flicker across Sae-byeok's lips.\n\nSae-byeok nods again, does as she's told. She had never anticipated letting her guard down on command for anybody. But she doesn't have the chance to rethink it, because Ji-yeong's lips are warm and soft, painfully soft, as they're pressed against her own. She tenses up, fighting a bodily shudder, and squeezes her eyes shut even tighter. \n\nBut Ji-yeong is calm. She's always so calm. Sae-byeok can feel the ease in how her thumbs draw circles into her cheeks. It takes a few more for her scrunched up face to smoothen out under Ji-yeong's touch, and a few more for her lips to part into Ji-yeong's. \n\nKisses are warm, Sae-byeok learns. And they're soft. Impossibly soft. Ji-yeong's lips are soft where hers are not, moving slowly where hers are frozen. She needs a moment to compose herself; her heart is pounding in her ears. Warmth and a sensation she's never felt before thrums gently beneath her skin, rushing through her veins. She follows it until she's following Ji-yeong's lips with her own, and they're melting into each other. \n\nSae-byeok grows breathless against Ji-yeong's lips. Even then, she doesn't really want to pull away from their soft, wet warmth. Her lip stings when Ji-yeong runs her tongue across it, still bitten raw from yesterday. She doesn't mind, instead trying the same thing on the latter. Ji-yeong makes the softest of sounds when Sae-byeok licks her lip. It tastes as sweet as it sounds. \n\nSae-byeok feels a certain kind of loss hollowing out her bones for just a moment when Ji-yeong parts from her. Her eyes flicker open, meeting the latter's. The hands on her face are warm, warmer than before. Sae-byeok just doesn't realise that it's her cheeks that are heated with colour. She breathes deeply to refill her lungs. Ji-yeong watches her with a smile. \n\n\"Good?\" she asks, tilting her head to the side. \n\nWith her mind in an unfamiliar but pleasant haze, Sae-byeok nods dumbly. It causes the latter to breathe out a short laugh. \n\n\"You can be really cute, you know that?\" \n\nIt feels like Ji-yeong's hands are growing warmer on her face. When they're gone, Sae-byeok finally realises she's been blushing. \n\nThey go back to sitting side by side, both facing the faux concrete wall in front of them. The silence between them feels okay, but the air outside their little bubble keeps closing in on them. Bit by bit, what little comfort they've created for each other is destined to shatter for good. The numbers go down. They're getting closer to the end of this game, and by twisted design, one of their lives. \n\n\"We're almost out of time... Should we play something now?\" \n\n\"...yeah, we should.\" \n\nJi-yeong stands after Sae-byeok. But Sae-byeok lingers by the archway that leads out of their little compound. She waits until the latter looks back at her. \n\n\"What are you waiting for?\" Ji-yeong asks, hands stuffed into her pockets. \n\nSae-byeok hesitates. She looks down at her dirty shoes, at the sand beneath them, then back up at Ji-yeong. It's not like her to stall, she knows. It's also not like her to ask anything of anyone\n\n\"Can I-\" she shakes her head, \"no, nevermind.\" \n\nJi-yeong makes her way back to Sae-byeok, until she's standing right in front of her. Sae-byeok looks down at the shorter latter with hesitant eyes. Ji-yeong knows. \n\n\"Just one more,\" Sae-byeok whispers. It hurts. \"Please.\" \n\n\"Okay,\" Ji-yeong murmurs, carefully slinging her arms around Sae-byeok's neck. \"Just one more. Just for you.\" \n\nSae-byeok hugs Ji-yeong closer by the waist. They press their lips together in a way that's tender, but they're unable to hide the desperation. There's not enough time. One of them is going to die, and Sae-byeok just wants to feel this close to someone for as long as she can. She tries to tell Ji-yeong as much in the way she kisses her fervently, inexperienced but not insecure. And maybe Ji-yeong understands. Maybe she says she understands with her fingertips on the back of Sae-byeok's neck, drawing soft patterns into the skin there. That feeling returns, running through her veins like warm electricity. It's ironic that Sae-byeok feels so alive.\n\nIt hurts to rip themselves apart from one another, but there's no time. There's no time, and they have to play the game. Someone has to die. Someone's going to die. \n\n\"You're a good kisser, stranger,\" Ji-yeong breathes, and Sae-byeok hates the finality in her voice. \n\n\"...it's Sae-byeok.\" \n\n\"Hm? What is?\" \n\n\"My name. Kang Sae-byeok is my name.\" \n\n\"Kang Sae-byeok. It's pretty. It suits you.\" \n\nJi-yeong can still smile. Sae-byeok's eyes burn. They head out together to play someone's last game. \n\n \n\n \n\nThe only thing that pulses beneath Sae-byeok's cold skin is the aftershock of a gunshot still ringing in her ears. Sae-byeok doesn't sleep that night- doesn't even close her eyes in fear of the smile she'll see. \n\nThat was Ji-yeong's last. Sae-byeok wonders if it was her last, too. She doesn't mind if it was. \n\nShe never wants to kiss anyone ever again. \n\nThey'll just end up dead."}
+{"text": "\"Dr. Camille O'Connell,\" said the blonde-haired, blue-eyed woman's secretary over the intercom. \"Your three o'clock is here. Hope Mikaelson.\"\n\n\"Send her in, please,\" Camille, \"Cami,\" sighs as she gets up from her desk.\n\nLast appointment of a Friday.\n\nJust one more three-hour session and the Psychologist can let her hair down for the weekend.\n\nIt shouldn't be too hard of a session.\n\nLately, every patient she'd seen had been easy,.\n\n\n\nThe brilliant blonde had been able to figure out their psychosis, phobia, or neuroses as soon as they opened their mouths.\n\nHow hard can a teenage girl be?\n\nCami let out another long sigh, standing to straighten her three-piece female body suit.\n\nShe was never really into the whole white coat thing.\n\nCami preferred suits that made her look feminine.\n\nThe knock on her door broke her musing as a lovely sprite of an auburn-haired teenager emerged, looking bored and pissed off.\n\nThis teenage girl could not be much over five feet and strolled in Cami's office like she was ready to go Braveheart and set her newly appointed therapist on fire.\n\n'Oh my god,' Cami said to herself, 'perhaps this particular teenage girl will be harder than I thought.'\n\nCami smiled cordially and held her hand out.\n\n\"Hope,\" Cami speaks to her new patient in her softest, most soothing tone, \"my name is Cami, and I'm excited for us to work together-\n\nHope quickly cut off Cami sharply, \"yeah, yeah, you're the one who's going to fix all my problems. Where's the couch?!\"\n\nCami's left eye immediately twitches at the teenager's rude behavior.\n\nHope points to the white couch in Cami's office, \"Oh, look at that, I found it,\" Hope plops down, putting her hands behind her back, \"Okay, go ahead, diagnose me, and I'll be on my way.\"\n\nCami coughed indignantly.\n\nPerhaps this was Karma for her run of an easy streak the past month.\n\nIt would seem Hope Mikaleson was going to be very difficult.\n\n\"Okay?...., make yourself at home. I'm Cami again if you didn't catch it.\" Cami politely continues.\n\nHope turns to Cami and narrows her piercing azure eyes at her.\n\nCami could tell Hope wasn't buying her put-on, likable woman-shrink persona.\n\n\"Hi,\" Hope mumbles warily, \"Cami.\"\n\nCami could feel her left eye twitching again.\n\nWhat the fuck was this girl's problem?\n\nOh right.\n\n'I'm supposed to be the one that figures that out.' Cami amused herself jokingly.\n\nThe therapist with a doctoral degree, how she still wonders with all those long nights she moonlighted as a bartender, smirks as she points to a chair across her.\n\n\"I was going to offer you that chair because a couch seemed cliche,\" Cami laughs out loud, \"but I guess a couch works just fine for you.\"\n\n\"Well, at least you have a sense of humor\" Hope turns to Cami with a slight smirk that brings out her dimples, \"congratulations, I don't find you totally intolerable.\"\n\n\"Yay, lucky me.\" Cami pats herself on the back dryly.\n\nHope sat up on the couch, crossing her short legs, catching the Psychologist, a former bartender, by surprise.\n\n\"I don't know why I'm here,\" Hope declares snobbishly.\n\n\"Tell me why you think you're here?\"\n\nA quick flash of annoyance lit on Hope's pretty face, \"Because the people in my life suck, and they finally drove me crazy!\"\n\nCami nodded, writing in her notebook, \"Okay, that's a good start.\"\n\nHope looks up at the clock hanging on the office wall.\n\n\"It's only been 5 minutes....\" Hope moans miserably, \" I was hoping that confession would have burned more time.\"\n\nCami moaned out loud as well, \"Yeah, I was hoping it would too. You're like.... not a nice person to be around.\"\n\nHope snaps her attention to Cami, \"Excuse me?!\"\n\n\"Did you ever think,\" Cami diagnoses, \"that maybe people in your life don't suck, that it's you, and you're the one that drove them crazy?\"\n\n\"Wait, what?!\n\nCami shook her head, twiddling her pen in her hand, \"Yeah, it has only been 5 minutes, and I already can feel you driving me crazy, Hope Mikaelson.\"\n\n\"What kind of $20 online degree Psychology technique is this crap?!\" Hope screams out.\n\nCami lets out a joyous laugh, \"reverse psychology.\"\n\nA few moments pass before Hope lets out a giggle, and both females share a laugh.\n\nSo, if you're this great psychologist, why don't you tell me what's wrong with me and save us both some time?\"\n\nCami cocked her head at the teen.\n\n\"That's not how it works, Hope.\" Cami explains, \"you talk, and I listen.\"\n\nHope sighs, \"Okay, so what do I talk about?\"\n\nCami shrugs, \"Why do you think, and answer honestly, you are here?\"\n\nHope paused, processing this.\n\n\"Because I messed up and lost everything that ever mattered to me.\" She admits.\n\nSo then,\" supplied Cami, \"why don't you start from the beginning.\"\n\nHope smiled darkly, hating the irony in what she was about to say, and it carried over into her voice.\n\n\"Well, I guess you could make the argument. It all started when Ethan Machado came back to bite me in the ass without ever making an appearance.\"\n\n\\\\\n\n3 weeks earlier...\n\nEvery day at seven A.M., Milton Quincy Greasley would go to the Mystic Falls bus station, sit on the same bench, the same spot, and stare.\n\nThe boy would stare at the bus that came in and went out, stared at the people who got on and off the bus, and then he'd return to Kaleb's house at eleven P.M.\n\nMilton would watch families reunite and families go their separate ways, whether their youngest is off to college or the parents are going to a lovely retirement home.\n\nHe watched lonely people start their adventures and groups of friends end their adventures.\n\nHe watched how the unloved would wait for their families until the last second and ran towards the bus doors before they shut.\n\nHe watched as a few, who had their lives together, would confidently walk on or off the bus, like they were ready to start their careers, and lives.\n\nMilton knew he was waiting for someone, but they seemed like they would never come.\n\n\"MG.\" Lizzie's voice broke through his brooding as MG looked up at the smiling face of his girlfriend.\n\n'Right on schedule.' MG thought to himself gratefully.\n\nThe blonde had changed her morning route for her runs to sit with her boyfriend afterwards.\n\nLizzie sat down next to him, pulling her earbuds out and interlocking their arms together as she placed her head on his shoulder.\n\n\"You still miss Ethan, huh?\" Lizzie asks him, squeezing his hand comfortingly.\n\nMG bit his lip, wanting to choose his following words carefully, \"What he did to Josie was wrong, and I'm pissed at him just as much as you are....\"\n\nThe teen football player paused, holding back a sob, \"but he was still my best friend, Liz.\"\n\n\"No, I get it,\" Lizzie chuckled sadly, \"Penelope won't say it, but she is pretty torn up about Maya leaving too.\"\n\nMG shook his head, wanting to change the subject.\n\n\"So, did you guys hear back from the board committee yet?\"\n\nLizzie tensed and picked her head up so the couple could see each other properly.\n\n\"Don't even get me started,\" Lizzie growled out, \"Hope is suspended indefinitely from the squad.\"\n\nMG sighed; he knew the repercussion of the brawl at Ethan's house would have horrible ripple effects on his friends' lives.\n\n\"Maybe, she can come back before Nationals,\" Lizzie frowned, grabbing her head for the migraine that was forming, \"but she's definitely done for preliminaries, which means I just lost two of my best cheerleaders.\"\n\nMG puts a supportive hand on Lizzie's tensing shoulder, \"It'll be okay. I know you can get through this.\"\n\nLizzie took a deep breath, trying to suppress her mounting anger and accidentally unleashing it at her caring and loveable boyfriend.\n\n\"MG, how many football scholarships were given to your seniors last year?\"\n\nThe dark-skinned boy threw his hands up, trying to remember, \"two? Maybe three?\n\nLizzie laughed defeatedly, \"That's three more than any of our senior cheerleaders got.\"\n\nThe blonde Head Cheerleader felt herself wanting to break out in tears as she saw the future she had worked so hard for slowly slipping away from her grasp.\n\n\"I've been scouted since freshman year,\" Lizzie says to the boy, trying to make him understand her plight, \"because the college scouts think I'm extraordinary...\n\nMG leans in, listening more attentively, knowing that his usually strong and guarded girlfriend was letting herself be vulnerable with him.\n\n\"Being a champion? Becoming a 3-time National champion? That makes me extraordinary.\" Lizzie declares. \"And if I'm not? If I can't get this squad to win this year. Then there's go any chances, I have to a scholarship.\"\n\nLizzie can no longer fight the tears as a few drops roll down her reddening cheeks.\n\nLizzie wasn’t an academia like her sister Josie.\n\nShe wasn't rich like Hope and with a future job waiting for her when her father retired.\n\nWithout that scholarship Lizzie was nothing.\n\nMG quickly wraps his girlfriend in his arms, tenderly kissing her on the forehead.\n\n\"It's all going to work out, Lizzie.\" he promises her, \"if anyone can do this, I know it's you.\"\n\nLizzie murmurs out, \"Thanks, sweetcheeks.\"\n\nMG grins widely as he feels Lizzie poke his dimples, feeling accomplished in helping his girl feel better.\n\nLizzie gets up and holds her hand out to MG.\n\n\"Come on, handsome.\" Lizzie says, \"You still have me.\"\n\nMG feels his heart swell with love and relief as he takes his girlfriend's hand and interlocks their fingers.\n\nA familiar screech indicated a bus had arrived right on schedule pulling in.\n\nMG pauses and watches the usual people getting off, and he feels that familiar feeling of dread again.\n\n\"MG?\" Lizzie calls out, curious as to why her boyfriend was so fascinated by the bus that had pulled up.\n\nMG turned to her, a look of forlornness on his face.\n\n\"Lizzie, if anything ever happened to Josie,\" MG pauses, his voice pained, \"and she had to go away, leave Mystic Falls. Would you go with her?\"\n\nLizzie blinked. She never really thought about it.\n\nThe twin girls had spent all their lives in Mystic Falls.\n\n\nThe thought of just packing up and never leaving really crossed her mind. Maybe after college, but still...\n\n\"Yes,\" Lizzie answers without hesitation, \"I would go wherever Josie went. I wouldn't even think about it for a second.\"\n\nHis girlfriend's answer does nothing to quell the pit in his stomach.\n\nIf anything, he can feel it grow.\n\nJosie was his little sister.\n\nLizzie was the love of his life.\n\nThe Saltzman twins were the closest thing he had to a family.\n\nThe thought of either of them getting on that bus like Ethan...\n\nLike his mother.\n\nLeaving him all alone in this world.\n\nIt was too horrible to think about.\n\nMG felt Lizzie pulling him in the direction away from the bus stop, and he had one final thought, determined to never return to this place for a bus, for someone, that would never come again:\n\nHe can't let Hope destroy Josie like she did Ethan.\n\n\\\\\n\nHope shook her head in amazement as she and Cleo walked down the hallway side by side.\n\nAfter her initial embarrassment of Cleo's blatant flirting, the two fell back into a comfortable and familiar conversational cadence.\n\nThe pair of reunited friends discussed everything they had missed out on since they last saw each other.\n\nHope had told Cleo practically everything.\n\nEven about her mother whom she reconciled with.\n\n\"Simply wonderful.\" Was the response, Cleo gave. \"No one deserves the utmost happiness than you, Hope.\"\n\nHope could still feel the flush that had formed when Cleo said those words.\n\n\"So why are you even in this class?\" Hope questioned. \"If you wanted to escape being a prodigy and a simple teenager?\"\n\nCleo looked up, trying to think of the words to express herself.\n\n\"Because art is never finished, only abandoned,\" Cleo poetically answers, \"and I will never abandon my art.\"\n\nHope hummed, impressed with her friend, \"Leonardo da Vinci, I see you still love to quote your favorite artists.\"\n\nCleo stops the pair from having a proper conversation once they get to her new locker.\n\n\"I confess that advanced arts are throwing me for a bit of a loop,\" Cleo opens her locker and turns to Hope, looking at her inquisitively. \"Mrs. Tigg is proving to be a quite demanding art teacher for all her disorganization.\"\n\nHope nodded in agreement, \"True, Emma is the nicest teacher I've ever met, but only like ten people actually pass her class each term.\"\n\n\"Oh no, I have been deceived! How am I going to get the credit for this class?\" Cleo dramatically groans, feigning catastrophe.\n\nHope smiled at her antics and held her nose up high, \"Well, luckily for you. You have the best artist in Mystic Fall High, hell in the whole state of Virginia as your partner!\"\n\n\"The best you say?\" Cleo challenged. \"We will see about that, agapi mou.\"\n\nHope was about to retort back wittily when someone behind her interrupts.\n\nHey babe.\" Hope is surprised by a familiar voice.\n\nIt sounded like her Josie but hardened, with more bite behind her words.\n\nJosie firmly places her hands on Hope's hips, placing her chin on the top of her short auburnette girlfriend's head, \"who’s your new friend?\"\n\n\"Oh! Hi!\" Cleo greeted excitedly, believing she was about to make another friend. \"My name is Cleo.\"\n\nJosie really didn't care what Cleo's name was or how friendly and kind she may seem.\n\nJosie had decided she hated the new girl the second she walked down the hall and noticed how Cleo was staring at her girlfriend.\n\nThat had been the least subtle eye-undressing she's ever had the misfortune to witness.\n\nAnd Cleo dared to direct it at her Hope.\n\n\"Josie, my name is Josie.\" the junior teen all but shouts angrily at the Grecian transfer student.\n\nCleo is taken aback at the force behind Josie's introduction and is quite frankly a little more than terrified.\n\n\"Okay...Josie...\" Cleo nervously rubs the nape of her head, \"It's nice to meet you.\"\n\nHope raised an eyebrow while still comfortably in Josie's arms. \"Um, Jo Bear?\" she asked.\n\n\"Hmm\" Josie innocently draws out, never breaking eye contact with Cleo.\n\nThere is a part of Hope's brain that tries to be reasonable.\n\nThis was Josie.\n\nNo way she was doing all this to assert her dominance or blatantly claim Hope.\n\nJosie didn't just wrap her arms around her waist because of jealousy - Josiejust wanted to hug her girlfriend like always. And Josie didn't just interrupt their conversation because she was jealous - she was simply trying to spend time with Hope.\n\nYea. That was it.\n\nHope involuntarily shivered as she felt Josie lean down and place a purposeful kiss on her forehead.\n\n\"Oh.\" Was all Cleo could say as Josie kissed Hope, never breaking away from her, as if telling Cleo with her brown eyes looking like daggers to \"back off, now.\"\n\nHope tries to recover quickly, still very much surprised with how affected she was by Josie's sudden display of possessiveness.\n\nThe auburn-haired girl doesn't want to admit it out loud, but it was.... doing things to her.\n\n\"Josie is my girlfriend.\" Hope stutters out.\n\nSaid girlfriend tightened her hold on Hope, drawing her closer to the brunette's body defensively.\n\n\"Yea, so I would really appreciate it, Cleo,\" Josie spits out her name with venom, \"if you would stop referring to my girlfriend as your love.\"\n\nCleo panicked in embarrassment that the brown-haired girl had not only heard her conversation with Hope, her girlfriend but was well versed in Greek and knew exactly what \"agapi mou\" meant in her language.\n\n\"I am so sorry!\" Cleo apologized, her amazing day suddenly taking a turn for the worst. \"I didn't know Hope was spoken for.\"\n\n\"Well, now you know,\" Josie states, \"she is.\"\n\nCleo decides to make a break for it right then and there.\n\nLest her embarrassment doesn't kill her, she is pretty sure the snarling, taller, and clearly ticked-off teenage girl will do it.\n\n\"I totally understand. I can see with a gorgeous girlfriend like Hope you would be – what do the American kids say – jelly?\"\n\nCleo jokes but quickly feels pathetic at her useless attempts to diffuse the situation.\n\nJosie frowns for a second, feeling sorry for Cleo.\n\nThe new student didn't seem to be a bad person. Still, she fucked up when she messed with HER person.\n\nCleo turns on her heels, leaving the couple alone as she curses herself, feeling stupid.\n\n\"I'll talk to you more about our project later, Hope.\"\n\nHope quickly detangles herself from Josie's body and turns around to question her girlfriend's shocking behavior.\n\nHer girl doesn't give her a chance to speak as Josie reaches down, fisting her hands on Hope's blouse, bringing her into Josie by force.\n\n\"Jos-\" Hope squeaks, but the brunette doesn't wait for her to formulate whatever question Hope was about to ask.\n\n\nIn a swift move, Josie cupped her petite face and smashed their lips together in a kiss.\n\nIt took Hope exactly four seconds to understand what was happening and five seconds to close her eyes and kiss Josie back.\n\nSoft but deliberate assertive hands find purchase on the small of Hope's back as auburnette grabs Josie's neck to keep her as close as possible.\n\nLips heatedly move against one another, and Hope can't help but muse how perfectly she and Josie fit together in these little moments.\n\nA few seconds later, they break for air, their lips smacking loudly as they both take a deep breath.\n\nIt's worth mentioning that this was only the second time they indulged in PDA, and now the whole campus was staring at them, some with smiles on their faces, some with their phones out - oh no -,\n\nHope looked into Josie's eyes, her heart pounding out of her chest, her eyes dilated with the whirl of emotions and lust the kiss brought.\n\nJosie had a goofy smile playing on her lips, and squeezed Hope's waist before leaning down and pecking her lips.\n\n\"What was that about?\" Hope asked, her dazzled azure eyes searching Josie's beautiful face for an answer. \"I thought you were mad at me.\"\n\nBending her head down, Josie nuzzled her face on the hollow of Hope's neck, her voice small and her anger subsided. \"You're with me.\"\n\n\"I know,\" Hope answered, still confused about the sudden behavior change. \"But why are you so.... possessive now?\"\n\n\"I'm trying something new,\" Josie awkwardly responds, \"I don't want people to think they have a shot with you anymore.\"\n\nJosie prays Hope doesn't get mad at her for giving in to her territorial instincts and possessive rage instead of breathing them away this time.\n\nHope smirked at that, finally understanding what was going on.\n\nShe pulled Josie closer bringing her mouth in on a pierced ear, \"I like you. She's just a friend.\"\n\n\"I don't trust her.\" She repeated, squeezing Hope's torso tighter.\n\n\"So, you're jealous?\" Hope teased, earning a light shove from her girlfriend, \"You have nothing to be jealous of.\"\n\nJosie sighed, \"If you say so, I'm just glad Cleo knows you are my girlfriend.\"\n\nHope smiled, leaning back to look her in the eyes.\n\n\"So, I guess we can stop talking about all this stupid breaking up business now?\"\n\nJosie looked back at Hope, staring directly into yearning azure eyes, a smile forming on her lips as well.\n\nShe whispered in softly, \"Yes, Hopey.\"\n\n\"Hopey?\" Hope giggled. \"That's new.\"\n\nJosie blushes, \"It's another new thing I'm trying out. You said to come up with something else!\"\n\n\"Oh. I guess\" Hope thought about it and laughed, her laughter echoing joyously in the hallway.\n\nHope buried her face into Josie's shoulder.\n\nShe kind of liked a jealous Jo Bear.\n\n\"If I make you jealous, will you kiss me again?\" Hope questions teasingly.\n\nJosie groans, \"I'll kiss you regardless, but I prefer if you didn't.\"\n\n\\\\\n\nHope paused her story telling to look up at the clock on the wall.\n\n\"Damn,\" Hope curses, \"That part of the story only took up like thirty minutes.\"\n\nThe Mikaelson heiress turned her attention back to her therapist.\n\nCami was staring at her with an unreadable expression, and it was starting to make Hope feel uncomfortable.\n\n\"Well, Hope,\" Cami starts pulling the top of the pen cap she had been chewing on out of her mouth, \"It seemed like you and Josie have a very... complicated relationship.\"\n\nHope snorts out, \"Had a relationship. We're not together anymore.\"\n\n\"Okay, Hope,\" Cami said aloud to the auburnette's image of despairing before her, \"Why don't you tell me about the relationship you USE to have with Josie? It seems important.\"\n\n\"Well, Josie is the kindest, most understanding, sincere person I ever met....\" Hope stops her story, feeling the pain of her ex-girlfriend's loss hitting her like a speeding train.\n\nCami sighed heavily.\n\nShe hates this part about being a therapist.\n\nBringing out the pain and hurt that someone is feeling.\n\nBut Cami knows all too well thst  it's part of the healing process.\n\n\"Focus on the good, Hope,\" Cami guides, \"Just block out the bad right now and tell me about Josie. The good parts.\"\n\nHope smiles feeling that the train passes her as she loses herself in Josette Saltzman.\n\n\"She bites her fingertips when she gets nervous. She bites her lower lips when she doesn't know what to say. Her favorite food is macaroni and cheese because it's what her birth mom, Jo, used to make her and Lizzie before she died...\"\n\nCami nodded her head encouragingly, \"go on...\"\n\n\"When she would sleep at night, Josie would let out these little sighs that made me think she was dreaming of me. She was always cold, and because I'm always warm, it was the perfect fit when I held her in my arms at night. She loves playing in the rain, and little blue irises are her favorite....\"\n\nCami noted the way the auburnette's eyes had begun to well up and the amount of love in which Hope spoke about Josie.\n\n\"She sounds like an amazing girl,\" Cami supplied with her usual attentive insight.\n\n\"Yes,\" Hope said readily, surprised at how emotional she'd become. \"When I was ten, I wanted to marry her. My dad thought I was crazy.\"\n\nCami felt touched by Hope's devotion.\n\n\"So.... shall we continue with your story then?\" Cami said, grinning, already looking forward to what else Hope had to say.\n\nHope wiped the tears that had fallen off her face and inhaled deeply.\n\n\"Sure, might as well. We still have two hours.\""}
+{"text": "Sam was frustrated. She was supposed to have gone with her girlfriends on the week long trip to the beach, but her parents wouldn't let her out of the house. She was eighteen and just out of high school. This was the second weekend of the summer break and the beginning of the week she was supposed to be at the beach, but she was stuck at home. She had told her parents that she was going to look for a job for the summer, but didn't and was caught by her mom at the mall. As punishment she was not allowed to go with her friends and still had to pay her parents back for the trip.\n\nSam was short for Samantha, but she hated being called the longer name. She was an inch shy of six feet and one hundred thirty pounds. She had an hourglass figure with measurements of 32-24-34. She knew how to use her body to her advantage, but not to get a job, mainly because she never had an interview. She had, depending on the maker of the bra, large B-cup or small C-cup tits.\n\nTo add to her frustrations, her parents went on their own vacation for the week. They had left her chores list for the week. She knew they were all to be done before they got back and decided to just push through all of them and hope for a little stay-cation while they were gone.\n\nThe list said that she was supposed to clean her room, wash both cars, clean the kitchen, and many other things. Most of the stuff on the list was easy and indoors. She knew the lists needed doing before she went to bed on Friday after seeing her parents off.\n\nShe woke up Saturday and instead of griping and not doing her chores, she got right into them without changing out of her PJs. She normally wore a loose top and pants to sleep in when her parents were home, but when she had the house to herself or she stayed with friends she wore a tight tank top and just her panties. Now she was in a pink top and blue boy shorts.\n\nSurprisingly, by eleven a.m. most of the chores on the list were done; only one major chore was left, washing the cars. Actually the chore list stated that she was to wash the Pathfinder. She decided that if she had to wash the SUV, she would also wash her Honda sedan. Both were parked in the driveway, with hers wearing a parking boot. The boot was placed on her car by her dad, a city police officer who had bought an older boot from the city when they were getting new ones. He had had Sam pull into the spot where the Pathfinder normally sat and placed the boot with her watching. The SUV was parked where the Honda Element, the vehicle Sam's parents took for their vacation, normally sat.\n\nShe changed her clothes to go outside. She pulled another tank top on, this one a light green. Her panties hit the floor and a pair of tight fitting black spandex shorts that ended three inches below her butt were pulled on. She then pulled her shoulder length strawberry-blonde hair up into a ponytail. Her track shoes on her feet were the last things she put on before heading out the back sliding door.\n\nIn the back she blanched at the heat, but didn't stop. Fewer people would be out, meaning a little fun while washing. She smiled at the thought. The washing bucket and other implements were in the shed off to the side of the house next to the pool machine shed. She welcomed the brief respite in the shade, but the temperature was only a few degrees cooler than in the sun.\n\nWith the stuff in hand she went out front. The cars sat in the driveway and looked hot. There was a hose attached to the spigot on near the garage door, which she grabbed and used to fill the bucket.\n\nShe started with her sedan, since it was closer to the neighbor's house. While spaying the car down, she got splash back and she enjoyed it, especially the cool water hitting her chest. After the car was all wet she got into washing the car. While she was washing the main body of the car, she never squatted to soak the sponge. Only when the body was covered in suds did she spray the car down again. By this time she was sweating and to help alleviate some of the heat, she pulled her top up to the bottom of her tits. She also splashed some water over her head. The water cascaded down her body and because of the difference in temperature, when the water hit her chest her nipples hardened and became very visible to anyone who was looking. She smiled at the thought, but noticed there was no one around and the smile faded some.\n\nNext she did the wheels and bumpers, this time squatting and at one time accidentally splashed her knees. The water ran down her legs to her crotch. This time she shuddered. She stopped herself from touching her crotch. \"Got to finish washing,\" she said to herself.\n\nShe sprayed the sedan down again and quickly dried it off.\n\nNow it was noon and there was no one on the street. The temperature was over a hundred degrees and she was getting really hot. She spayed the SUV and wetted her hair again. That wasn't enough for her this time. That was partly because she was really hot from the sun, but she was also getting horny.\n\nHer best friend, Emma, showed her how 'hot' it was to show off. Sam wasn't into stripping off in front of people, but she did get naked some times when there was a chance of getting caught. Being horny the way she was made her glance up and down the street to see if anyone was around. Seeing the street was empty and most of the homes were empty, it being the beginning of summer vacation and all, she pulled her top off and laid it on the hood of the SUV. She then sprayed the top until the entire thing was soaked. She was reveling in the feel of standing in front of her house topless. Her nipples were even harder and she was starting to make a wet spot in her short, but that was hidden from sight because of the water that had leaked there earlier.\n\nOnce the top was soaked she stopped spraying and pulled the top on. The top held a huge amount of water and dripped from the time she pulled it up. It soaked her body and she shuddered. The top stuck to her like a second skin and she pulled it down just past her nipples. She was feeling naughty and didn't care as much anymore. The water ran down her body, making it glisten in the sun. It started to soak the top of her shorts.\n\nFelling cooler, yet hotter, she started washing the SUV in earnest. She used the same technique as on the sedan, spraying the entire vehicle (and trying to minimize splash back onto the sedan), washing the body, spraying off the suds, and then stopped again.\n\nShe was feeling too hot again, this time more for the sexual thrill than the heat of the day, but she did notice that the shirt was quite dry after the thirty minutes it took her to wash SUV. She was amazed at how dry her shirt got in that time. She pulled the top off again and pushed the sexual envelope by pushing her shorts down and off. She set both on the hood of the SUV and sprayed them down. All the while looking around to make sure no one saw her. Her free hand was gently gliding around on her bared body. Her nipples were at the hardest that she had ever had them and her pussy under a neatly trimmed bush was practically gushing.\n\nShe pulled her soaking wet clothes on again just before a car passed the house. She quickly finished the washing and then the drying of the SUV with a quick swipe of the towel over the sedan to get the splash from the SUV. When she was done, she dumped the bucket out onto the driveway and sprayed it out. All the items she had taken from the back were placed near the front door to dry and she stood in front of the SUV. She couldn't believe how quickly her clothes were drying, as they were almost dry again. That wasn't true, but it was the justification she gave herself.\n\nShe figured she was allowed a little down time, since there was only one more thing to do on her list. She was going to use the pool in the backyard. As a little play for herself, she had kicked her shoes off next to the door to dry with the other stuff. In front of the SUV she stripped herself bare again and smiled to herself. She pinched both nipples, causing her to moan happily.\n\nAs one last tease for herself, she squatted down and stuck a finger in her pussy. This caused her to moan again and she was close to sitting down right there to masturbate. That's when she heard a car coming down road. She pulled her finger out with a slight sucking sound and some disappointment. She ran around the corner just in time, leaving her clothes on the ground in front of the SUV.\n\nIn the back yard, she undid her ponytail, jumped into the pool and swam the length of it. In the shallow end she climbed the stairs and sat on a lounge chair. In short order one of her hands found its way to her crotch and the other to her tits.\n\nThis was a first for her. She had never skinny dipped in her own pool or tanned in the nude before. Both were making her hornier, and building on the feeling she had given herself in front of the house, than just the teases she had done in front. She had skinny dipped else where with Emma, but she had never thought she would do something like this at home. She smiled as her fingers played with her wet lips and hard clit. Her moaning became more pronounced as she worked herself toward a great orgasm. Her stomach was convulsing in time with her hands as she was getting closer to cumming.\n\nAs she crested her peak into orgasm, her body froze then she had tiny shakes, like many tiny earthquakes coming from the epicenter of her clit and pussy. The only thing that didn't stop was her mouth. At the crest she said quietly, \"Fuckmefuckmefuckme...\" Every time she cums she says exactly the same thing for the duration of the orgasm.\n\nThis time when she came down from her high she started masturbating again. The feeling of being outside in the middle of the day on the weekend was just something she couldn't get over and needed to release her happiness. She masturbated to two more amazing orgasms before stopping. She could barely walk when she went inside the house to get a drink and suntan lotion. After applying the lotion she laid back outside by the pool and truly enjoyed the sun on all her skin, especially on the tiny white triangles on her tits, over her pussy and on her ass. She vowed to herself that those lines would be almost gone by the time her parents cam home.\n\n"}
+{"text": "\"Hey babe?\" Angel called, leaning back in his chair to peer out of the door of his office. He didn't see Alastor right away but the deer soon came into view to answer the call.\n\n\"What'cha got?\" \n\n\"Some broad from the news wants to know if we're available to do an interview?\" Angel asked, holding up his phone.\n\n\"Katie Killjoy?\" Alastor guessed.\n\n\"That's the bitch!\" \n\n\"How lucky!\" Alastor brightened, looking almost gleeful. \"I've been wondering when I'd have reason to meet the lady Charlie humiliated on live television. Quite the fight that started!\"\n\nMost demons would say it was Charlie who had been the one who had been humiliated, but Alastor saw it differently. Charlie had taken all of the verbal venom Katie had spat in her direction rather well all things considered, while Katie had been moved to violence at a single vulgarity. That, in Alastor's opinion, made Charlie the clearly emotionally stronger of the two. Violence for the fun of it was all fair and good but violence due to a lack of wit was just pathetic.\n\n\"Well fuck. Now I gotta go just to throw a punch for Cha-Cha.\" Angel snickered, putting the phone back to his ear. \"We're in. It'll be funny.\"\n\n \n\n \n\nThe interview was a wreck before it even started. It began with a handshake and was all downhill from there.\n\n\"Charlie said you didn't touch The Gays.\" Angel huffed, not taking the hand the mantis of a woman offered.\n\n\"Oh it's not as if you count. You're really a woman, aren't you?\" Katie asked, not without a generous helping of condescension. \n\nAlastor's ambient static picked up a notch and the shadows all around the news station started to shift. Angel subtly tapped his elbow, letting him know to tone it down; Angel could fight his own battles. An honest mistake was fine, but this was hardly the first time someone had played the confusion card as an excuse to be transphobic, homophobic, or both at him. Angel decided not to take her hand after all, wiping it on his sleeve and making a show of checking his nails even though he had his usual gloves on. \n\n\"Well I don't touch shit and you seem to be full of it.\" He bit back.\n\nThat wiped the grin off of Katie's face and Alastor laughed as he could see the exact moment she suddenly regretted bringing them both on her show. It was too late to change program scheduling now, since they would be on air in a matter of minutes. \n\nTom Trench, at least, was more welcoming as Angel introduced himself to the masked man. Or not masked, he amended when he noticed the gasmask actually was the anchorman's face. A bit too welcoming as he kept stammering over his words as soon as Angel Dust was within a meter of him. Angel thought it cute, aware that Tom was probably a fan. He was a bit touchy too, but that was nothing Angel wasn't used to.\n\n\"Keep it in your pants you spineless, rotting--\" Katie began to bark at her co-host before sitting quickly as a cameraman signalled her.\n\nAlastor and Angel sat as well, letting Katie introduce them to the audience both watching from home and those that had paid to be physically present. \n\n\"So how long have you two actually been together?\" Tom asked cheerfully before Katie could get a word in. \n\n\"Been over a year.\" Angel shrugged. \"It's kinda fuzzy when we actually started.\"\n\n\"We've been officially married for months.\" Alastor clarified, though he didn't say which month. \"We've just kept it quiet.\"\n\n\"I'd keep it quiet too. You actually married a hooker?\" Katie taunted.\n\n\"Yes.\" Alastor confirmed, not taking her bait by trying to defend his actions when there was nothing to defend.\n\n\"Lucky.\" Tom muttered.\n\n\"It's a bit hard to make personal romantic connections with how many guys--and some girls, those are awkward nights--get a piece of me on the regular. Ain't impossible though.\" Angel said, taking the bait and twisting it around for his own benefit and, Alastor got the impression, that he may be talking to his former co-workers with that one. \"Sex and love are two different things anyway. They're nice together if you can swing it but different shit works for different people.\" \n\n\"What works for the Radio Demon?\" Katie asked, probably going for suggestive but only managing to come off sleazy.\n\n\"Oh, Angel does this lovely thing where he'll dance with the pig and sing while cooking. His song choices are hit-or-miss but it's fun seeing him have fun even if he's being gross.\" Alastor answered, causing Angel's fur to rise in his body's version of a blush.\n\n\"Let's Misbehave is your favorite and it's about sex too. Shut the fuck up.\" Angel snickered.\n\n\"Or murder!\" Alastor countered.\n\nGiving the lyrics a second run in his head with that context in mind, Angel couldn't even argue. He shrugged, and both he and Alastor took some delight in the confused disappointment on Katie's face. Clearly she had been expecting some sort of steamy detail about their sex life. Too bad that the moments where anything that qualified occurred were few and far between and very, very private.\n\n\"Aren't you worried,\" Katie began, recovering quickly, \"That some other demons might take the opportunity to take a shot at an Overlord by targeting his whore?\"\n\n\"The whore is right here.\" Angel huffed, running a finger along the space between his eyes since he didn't have a proper nose with a bridge to pinch. \"And that already happened.\"\n\n\"Oh?\" \n\n\"Yep!\" Alastor confirmed, his grin widening. \"And now Vox is dead! Though I expect others will still be stupid enough to try.\"\n\n\"Wondered what happened to Vox…\" Tom mused. \"Valentino was real quiet about it when we asked if he knew anything.\"\n\n\"Speaking of Valentino!\" Katie said in a mix of cheerful and sinister as she clicked a button under the news desk.\n\nThere was a screen in front of them to show what the greenscreen behind them, and Angel blanched when he recognised an old clip of him and Valentino that hadn't actually been released to Hell's population. Certain parts were blurred, of course, but that hardly counted as a proper censor when everything around the blur was so obvious. Even worse, Angel-on-screen's eyes were glazed over, making him appear nearly dead if not for the sounds accompanying the video.\n\n\"I don't even remember that.\" Angel deflected, though he honestly didn't. He'd seen the video after the fact, vetoing it for public view since Valentino had favored him enough to grant him that right. \"I think that was a meth day?\"\n\nAlastor brow furrowed, but that was the only indication that he was uncomfortable. At least until Valentino himself showed up from a side-stage, stepping up to take a seat next to Tom, bringing an abrasive scent with him.\n\n\"Oh fuck they Jerry Springer'd us.\" Angel grumbled, too quiet for the mic to pick up.\n\n\"What's Jerry Springer?\" Alastor asked, his nose twitching.\n\n\"Vox's pride and joy.\" Angel huffed, then glared over at his former boss and ex-pimp. \"Val, what the fuck?\"\n\nAn argument broke out about the clip and the sharing of it. It mostly angered screeching on Angel's part and laughter on Valentino and Katie's. Tom seemed apologetic so long as one ignored that his hands were below the news desk instead of on top of it. \n\nAngel paused mid-rant when he noticed a faint beeping coming from Alastor. He didn't know morse code by heart, but he knew what an SOS sounded like. They needed to go, and Alastor wasn't about to go showing any weaknesses on live television. So Angel needed to be the one to bail. \n\n\"I ain't playin' this game with you Val.\" Angel huffed, standing and letting himself look a bit more upset than he would normally show. \"I ain't takin' any of this shit. Al, can I go home?\" \n\n\"Of course, my Darling!\" Alastor nodded gracefully, standing as well and pulling both of them out of the filming area. Quietly, he added \"Thank you.\" \n\n\"Yeah, yeah. I'm a fuckin' knight in shining sequins.\" Angel huffed, but grew serious when he noticed Alastor's smile was dim at best, his ears were low, and he kept scrubbing his palm over his nose like it was severely bothering him. \"Al? You good?\"\n\n\"Valentino smells.\" Alastor grunted, not bothering to keep the irritation out of his tone. \n\nHe pushed away from Angel toward the nearest restroom, letting out a shriek of audio feedback to get the demons in said restroom to leave. Angel followed, startled by the suddenness and volume but not at all put off by it. \n\n\"Yeah he reeks like piss.\" Angel agreed. \"Usually he doesn't. Probably had gross shit scheduled for filming earlier today.\" \n\n\"No.\" Alastor said, like Angel was missing the point. \"He smells like a doe.\"\n\nAngel's brows raised, understanding instantly but withholding his comment as he watched Alastor turn the sink on to rinse his face with cold water. If Angel squinted sure enough there was a darker tint of grey under Alastor's eyes and across his face.\n\n\"He, uh…\" Angel stammered. \"Val uses heat-scents as cologne sometimes if he knows he's gonna be around animal-shaped demons. To get a rise out of 'em.\" \n\n\"A rise.\" Alastor chuckled bitterly, his claws clicking repeatedly against the sink.\n\n\"Pun not intended.\" Angel huffed, rolling his eyes. \"Let's go home?\"\n\n\"Can't focus…\" Alastor sighed. \n\n\"It got you that bad?\" Angel asked, surprised. \n\n\"Hush.\" Alastor huffed, and locked himself in a stall. \"Leave.\"\n\n\"You're gonna do chores in public?\" Angel ignored the order, knowing Alastor wouldn't enforce it.\n\n\"I'm going to wait it out and your presence is making it worse.\" Alastor reported, the annoyance in his voice growing.\n\n\"I'm down to help if you let me.\" Angel offered. \n\n\"Right now I want to hurt you.\" Alastor admitted. \"Between the smell and the video I don't even know what my body and brain are trying to do but it's very confusing and violence is usually the answer.\" \n\n\"You can play rough!\" Angel permitted. \"Hurt me, babe. I don't mind.\"\n\nSilence.\n\n\"Do you actually want me to leave?\"\n\n\"...No.\" \n\n\"Open the door?\" Angel asked, and the lock on the stall clicked.\n\nAngel let himself into the stall where Alastor had tucked himself into a corner, almost shaking. Angel frowned, sympathetic. He'd been slipped aphrodisiacs in drinks and drugs plenty of times to know they were no joke. Something that preyed on specifically on Alastor's species, something that got real deer to walk right up to a gun, had to be ridiculously strong. \n\nHe didn't have much time to think further as Alastor had him shoved up against the door of the stall, burying his face in Angel's chest and inhaling through the sweetly scented fur, trying to replace the burning smell that had him in such a state in the first place. \n\n\"Ain't wearin' panties if you want up the skirt.\" Angel offered, and Alastor backed off somewhat.\n\n\"No. I can't--\" Alastor stammered, the grey sort of blush having furthered. \"No.\"\n\n\"Want me to su--\"\n\n\"No.\" Alastor whined, his ears flat against his head. \"I don't know.\" \n\n\"Here.\" Angel tried, knowing that closeness wasn't a problem even if direct skin-to-fur might be. \n\nHe turned them around, boxing Alastor in in a way that if he needed to he could reach the latch on the door and leave the situation entirely. He leaned close, nipping a red ear and pressing a thigh to Alastor's swollen length through his trousers. Alastor bucked against the contact automatically, and his claws dug into Angel's secondary shoulders. \n\n\"Shred me if you wanna.\" Angel allowed, nuzzling Alastor between the antlers and encouraging him to grind my moving his thigh. \"You can bite too. Whatever you wanna do.\"\n\nUsually Angel wouldn't be as vague to say 'whatever' was allowed, but he trusted Alastor not to do any real damage. Despite being a complete sadist with others, Alastor had always treated Angel like glass by comparison. Very thin glass. Sometimes it was even annoying as much as it was sweet. \n\nWhile Angel's top set of hands were busy holding Alastor upright, his second set found the deer's hips. Alastor was clearly working entirely on an instinct he usually preferred to ignore, so a little guidance was needed. Angel felt claws dig into him further, only to release quickly.\n\n\"You're okay, Smiles.\" Angel cooed.\n\nAlastor shivered, giving in to the need for friction and pulling Angel maddeningly closer but still finding the contact somehow lacking. If only he could open Angel up to settle inside near the spider's heart. But that was an empty fantasy he had no plan of actually enacting. Though the smell of blood was certainly alluring, the thought of Angel in the same state he left most victims was sickening. \n\nStill he couldn't help but bite, the give of Angel's flesh tearing around his teeth being a comfort, even more so the pleased whimper it drew from Angel. He had to force himself to pull away before he did too much damage. Hell forbid he rip his husband's throat out for helping, even accidentally. The sight of it was pretty, Alastor thought, the blood on Angel's fur. Like roses on snow. He whined, partly from a vague sense of guilt at marring his husband's flesh and mostly from the fact Angel's lower hand had found his tail. He usually managed to leave the tail behind in a shift but sometimes the damned thing was stubborn. The fur of it was short and coarse, but Angel didn't mind. It was a nice texture in his opinion anyway.\n\n\"You're okay,\" Angel repeated, shifting to grind back against Alastor's hip while the deer continued to rut against his thigh. \"You want me to stop?\" \n\n\"Please don't.\" Alastor only just barely managed to utter, his breath short. \n\nAngel hummed, hooking a finger into Alastor's high collar and pulling it down to get at his neck. He kept his tongue to himself, and Alastor didn't protest as Angel started to bite and suck a mark into his skin. At some point they'd managed to fall into a rhythm, like dancing almost, and Alastor could hardly breathe. He felt too hot in his clothes, but not at all comfortable taking them off even if they weren't in public. \n\nThey were in public, Alastor realised. He'd already known, of course, but now he was actively thinking about it. He tensed up, and Angel clued into it immediately. \n\n\"You okay?\" Angel asked, always so careful with him.\n\nAlastor tried to speak, but it came out as a garbled mess of static. \n\n\"Nod or shake.\" Angel suggested. \"You wanna stop?\"\n\nA shake.\n\n\"Keep goin'?\"\n\nA nod.\n\n\"Can I put my hands down your pants?\"\n\nA very quick shake.\n\n\"Hands over pants?\"\n\nAlastor nodded, but he seemed unsure, so Angel kept his movements slow as he slipped the lower hand not on Alastor's tail between the two of them. He kept the hand over clothing, and relished in the sharp intake of breath it drew out of Alastor as he brushed his fingered over the covered bulge. The nod that got was almost enthusiastic and Alastor's hands moved from Angel's side so one was on his hip and the other on the thigh Alastor had been humping. His claws dug in again, drawing blood instantly.\n\n\"I got'cha.\" Angel assured, not bothered as he added a bit of pressure and began stroking Alastor through his trousers.\n\nAngel's usual policy was if a john jizzed in their pants he was obligated to laugh at them. But Alastor wasn't some john and Angel couldn't say something like that to his husband. Besides, it was a privilege to feel Alastor shudder against him, stifling a groan he couldn't keep to himself in Angel's chest. Angel held him through it, biting his own tongue. Now was not the time for his almost total lack of filter. \n\n\"You're really fuckin' cute.\" Angel's mouth said before his brain could stop it.\n\nAlastor shifted away, grimacing at the mess he'd made of himself. Of both of them, he amended when he noticed the blood all over the wall of the stall. They both needed a good washing. He hated feeling any sort of slimy.\n\n\"Home.\" He exhaled the word almost as if it were a desperate plea, then remembered that teleportation was his own ability and not one Angel had. \"I'll take us home in a minute. Let me get my head right.\"\n\n\"Take your time.\" Angel shrugged. \"Might have to find whatever the fuck Val's wearing and buy thirty bottles.\"\n\n\"Do not.\" Alastor snarled, and Angel laughed."}
+{"text": "The closest jeweler lived in a small town north of Resembool. You were there after an hour on the train. It was a small store but had impressive pieces. Rings, necklaces, bracelets and the like glittered in well-lit display cases, each with unique attributes, all handmade. You briefly wondered if the owner was an alchemist. Aside from you and Ed, the store was empty.\n\nThe maybe-an-alchemist owner appeared from the back a moment after the door shut, hitting the little bell connected to the doorframe. He was a man slightly past his prime with greying hair and bad posture, probably from leaning over jewelry all day for years. “Hello!” he greeted enthusiastically. “What can I help you two with?”\n\n“He is looking for an anniversary present,” you said, gesturing to Ed. “I am here to make sure he doesn’t get lonely.”\n\n“Or buy something stupid,” he added.\n\n“Or both.” You shrugged as your attention was pulled to one of the cases filled with what you assumed were diamonds. “There’s no telling what he’d do on his own.” The owner seemed amused at your banter but didn’t comment. Instead he jumped into a conversation with Ed about what he was looking for. Your companion was led over to a section of mostly silver pieces as you browsed the more interesting things in the store.\n\nYou didn’t often find yourself in jewelry stores - it wasn’t something you were particularly interested in - so the sheer amount of glittering stones in sight was a bit overwhelming. They were in all sorts of colors and shapes, from light blue teardrop-shaped pendants to deep maroon set into a flower ring as though they were petals. Some of the more interesting shapes only added evidence to your owner-is-an-alchemist theory. There were even strings of pearls on display. It was difficult enough to get a single pearl imported through Aerugo, a whole string of them was practically impossible. The owner had to have transmuted them. Or maybe he had a small oyster farm in the back room, you couldn’t be sure.\n\nYou turned from the impossible pearls and saw a smaller section with pieces of amber. You found yourself leaving fingerprints on the glass as you admired the honey-colored hues of the smaller gemstones. They were smoother than their faceted neighbors and didn’t have the sparkle of a diamond, but they were charming. They probably weren’t as popular as the more typical diamond, sapphire, and ruby pieces that you’d seen adorning the throats and fingers of the upper class.\n\nEd’s voice calling your name from across the store pulled you from your thoughts and he waved you over. “I was thinking a bracelet for Winry, and everything I’ve seen her wear before has been silver, so…” he trailed off, biting his lip. You glanced at the display in front of him, which showcased different bracelets and watches, most of which with a silver coloration.\n\n“I haven’t seen much of her jewelry collection,” you pointed out. “What’s her style like? How elaborate, on a scale of one to ten?”\n\n“Uh, like a… four? Maybe? It’s on the lower end of the scale. She prefers things to be practical.” You mentally eliminated a few of the more detailed pieces and those with large charms attached. “Actually, I think-” He stuck a hand in his pocket and pulled out a set of earrings. “Yeah, I still have some of her earrings from when we last went to Briggs.” He handed them to you. They were simple, likely steel. Not something that would draw attention, but they seemed nice enough despite the wear, probably from repeated use. They could use a polish.\n\n“Okay, then.” You handed them back to him and took another look at the display. A thick, segmented bracelet with what looked like a braided pattern caught your eye. “How about that one?” \n\nThe owner, who had been silently watching as you debated over his work, pulled it out of the case so that you and Ed could get a closer look at it. It was a little less than an inch thick on its widest point and was held closed by an unintrusive foldover clasp. “Yeah, I think she’d like this,” he said, taking it from its perch. “Gimme your hand,” he said to you.\n\n“What? Why?” You held out your hand to him despite him not answering your questions. He took your hand and secured the bracelet around your wrist.\n\n“How’s that feel?”\n\n“Uh…” The thick piece of jewelry was a noticeable weight on your wrist, but it wasn’t heavy enough to be uncomfortable. You twisted the cool metal around your wrist and found that it didn’t catch on your skin or pinch anywhere. “Little heavy, but it’s not uncomfortable. Winry’s got more muscle than I do, anyway, so she probably won’t notice it.” You reached for the clasp before Ed could and released it. “I like the clasp, easy to use with one hand.” You turned the bracelet in your hand, watching it reflect the light. “Practical, yet elegant. She’ll like it.”\n\nEd nodded and took the bracelet from you when you offered it and turned to the owner so that he could finalize his purchase. Within five minutes, you were leaving the store together with a nondescript paper bag. This, of course, was just late enough for you to miss the train back.\n\n“So, we have two hours to kill,” you said, sitting down next to Ed on a bench, train schedule in hand. “And there’s nothing to do in this town. Any ideas?”\n\nEd leaned back and stretched his legs out in front of him. “It’s about lunchtime. We could go find somewhere to eat,” he suggested. \n\n“Sounds better than sitting around here for two hours, in any case.” You stood up and stuffed the schedule in your pocket. “I thought I saw a little family-owned place down the street if you want to check it out.”\n\n“Sure.”\n\nThere weren’t many people walking around, probably because there weren’t many people in town anyway. The fact that there was even a restaurant in a tiny countryside town was a miracle in and of itself. There was a sign in the window that caught your eye before you went in. You grabbed Ed by the arm and pointed at the sign.  FREE ICE CREAM DESSERT FOR COUPLES.\n\n“Think you could stomach pretending to be my boyfriend for free ice cream?” you asked.\n\n“Uh…” His cheeks went a pale pink that you could barely see through his tan.\n\n“Free ice cream.”\n\n“I get the feeling they’ll be able to tell we’re not actually together.”\n\nYou scoffed. “I will have you know that I am a great actress.  Especially  when it involves manipulating people into giving me free food.”\n\n“You’re starting to sound like Ling.” \n\n“That is a compliment to the Emperor of Xing, but off-topic. We can totally pull it off if you let me do the talking.”\n\n“I don’t even like ice cream,” he grumbled.\n\n“Bullshit, everyone likes ice cream. What’s the real reason? Are you lactose intolerant or something?” you guessed. He averted his gaze to the ground, his silence speaking for him. “Is that why you say you hate milk? Why don’t you just tell people you can’t have it?”\n\n“It’s dumb…” he said, crossing his arms defensively.\n\n“It’s not dumb, it’s a legitimate health concern,” you pointed out. “We can ask if they have a dairy-free alternative. And if they don’t, I’ll just eat yours too. Problem solved.” You slipped your hand into his, intertwining your fingers.  So that it would look more convincing, you told yourself. His palm was rough with callouses, but you attempted to push that to the back of your mind for the time being. “Let’s go,” you said,  pulling him toward the building.\n\n“Yeah, sure.” He didn’t put up a fight as you dragged him toward the restaurant, though you knew you wouldn’t be able to drag him anywhere if he did. “Just don’t tell Winry. She’ll blow a gasket if she finds out I was willing to do this just for ice cream.”\n\n“My lips are sealed.”"}
+{"text": "It didn’t take much searching to find out where the demons were supposed to be locate. Rumours had spread around the town about the dangers of the forest and the old mining shaft that it didn’t take a genius to piece together that something was up. Like usual, Rengoku lead the way, enthusiastic as they walked through the forest to find the shaft.\n\nZenitsu looked a tad bit nervous, though that wasn’t unusual but it made Tanjirou feel bad anyway. He reached behind him, wrapping his pinky around his and smiling as he felt the blonde relax at his touch. It was a nice feeling, knowing that you can calm someone down without even needing to say anything.\n\n“I think I see it!” Rengoku exclaimed, running forward.\n\nThe group quickly followed, rushing past the trees as a gaping hole in the side of mountain came into view. There was an old mine cart at the front, with a track leading into the cave. Tanjirou frowned, walking over and looking into the cart, stiffening when he realized the inside was full of bones.\n\nMuichiro peered in, picking one of them up and staring at it, “This is definitely too big to be an animal’s bones.”\n\nThe group collectively looked to the cave, the sudden realization that there were at least 5 different human skeletons inside and if they’ve been terrorizing the area for a while, that means they’ve eaten well over 10 different humans. Sanemi moved first, unafraid as he headed inside the cave.“C’mon, no point staying.”\n\nThe demon slayers all nodded, following the Wind Pillar as they travelled into the cave, the light dimming. Tanjirou sighed, touching over the walls, the rough rocks and minerals brushing against his skin almost painfully, grounding him. The shaft wasn’t very wide, with the ceiling being a little too short for Gyomei, who had to duck his head a bit. Eveyrthing was an erry kind of quiet, with only their collective footsteps echoing against the walls paired along with their breathing.\n\nTanjirou never usually felt too scared when he was on missions. The awareness that he could die if he made a single wrong move did bother him but often in the moment, his fear would be replaced with blind determination. After all, he has Nezuko to take care, he couldn’t die yet, he’s busy. So, in battles, fear never really hindered him. However, the part that always left him a bit afraid was the beginning, before the battle even starts. The tense feeling of searching for an enemy that he didn’t truly understand.\n\nThe redhead paused when he felt a gently caress against the back of his hand, turning to see Zenitsu giving him a shaky smile. He smiled back, letting his fingers to tangle with his. It was too dark and tense for anyone to see anyways.\n\n“It never gets any easier, huh?” Tanjirou mumbled, thinking back to the bones at the front. He was probably never going to get used to it.\n\nThe blonde nodded, trembling a bit, “Y-Yeah…”Tanjirou watched him for a moment before squeezing his hand tightly, “I’m not going to let anything happen to you, okay? I’ll protect you.”“I know you will.”As they walked for a while longer, the shaft feeling like it was going on forever, Sanemi stopped. He looked around with a suspicious glare, eyes darting around. The Pillar readied his sword, with the rest of the Pillars doing the same. It felt like eyes were watching them, in the walls and the ceilings.\n\nInosuke grunted, gripping his swords tightly, “There something wro-!”That’s when the floor cracked open, sending the group shouting in surprise as they fell down into tunnels that they didn’t realize were underneath them the whole time.\n\nTanjirou shouted as he clung to Zenitsu’s hand tighter, hitting against the sides of the tunnels with his head and body. The rocks cut into their faces and hands, their haoris being torn in multiple places. They suddenly shot out of the tunnel, landing in what seemed to be a chamber of sorts that lead out two ends. Shining gems poked out against the rocks, giving the area a sort of mythical glow.\n\nThe redhead groaned as he sat up, rubbing his cheek, the slightest bit of blood seeping out, “Zenitsu? Are you okay?” he heard a groan from his left, letting him breath out a sigh of relief, “Oh thank god.” He stood up, pulling up the blonde, who looked mostly fine, if a bit dirtier. Tanjirou looked around, frowning, “Is there anyone else with us?”\n\n“INCOMING!”\n\nThe pair heard the echoing voice before jumping out of the way as Inosuke, Mitsuri and Rengoku fell through the hole and landed in the middle of the chamber.\n\nTanjirou and Zenitsu rushed to help them up, their eyes silently checking them over for any major injuries. Luckily there were none as Mitsuri brushed out a rock from her hair.\n\n“Well that was unexpected.” She said, shaking off her clothes before looking around, “Wow it’s very pretty down here!”\n\n“Indeed!” Rengoku agreed, “But we must keep going!” He pointed in one direction, “Nowhere to go but forward!”\n\nThere weren’t really any better plans so they listened, walking down the path with quite footsteps. Tanjirou held onto his sword, trying to smell the demon before it caught them off guard. As the walked, the gems in the walls started to become a soft pink. It gave off an almost unnatural glow. For a while, it was all quiet until the sound of someone humming faintly in the distance was heard.\n\nInosuke growled and immediately started to run, making Tanjirou shout in surprise as he ran after him.\n\n“Inosuke, wait!” he called, chasing after him as the gems seemed to get bigger and brighter.\n\nThey came into another chamber with cherry blossom petals covering the ground while a man sat in the middle, sipping on some tea. Taking a quick sniff of the air made it suddenly very clear to Tanjirou that this wasn’t a normal guy, he was a demon. The two Pillars and Zenitsu caught up to them pretty quickly, with Mitsuri having her sword out.\n\nThe demon looked up, arching a brow with an amused expression, chuckling lowly as he twirled a paintbrush in his hands, “Oh? Looks like we have unexpected visitors. Don’t you know it’s rude to barge in uninvited?”They barely had any time to think before the ground below them started to rumble and large roots burst out of the ground, forcing the group to get out of the way. Tanjirou glared at the demon, watching as he didn’t seem to care, still writing on a piece of paper with his paint brush. He got up, running to get to him until a root flew out and hit him across the room, flying until he hit the ground with a thump.“Tanjirou!” Zenitsu exclaimed, dodging out of the way from a root.\n\n“I’m fine! Just focus on the fight!Rengoku was quick to try and cut through the plants, but as he swung down, his sword lodged into it instead, only giving him a second to get the sword out before the root jumped at him. Mitsuri tried to get as close as she could to the demon, but the roots were growing too fast and too violently that none of the demon hunters could seem to get even near the demon.\n\n“Isn’t it sad how beautiful things never last forever?” the demon mused, humming a gentle tune, “They wither away, disappearing and only lasting for a short amount of time. It’s like an allegory for life.”Tanjirou ducked under a root, sliding through another set that tried to pierce him and lunging over another. He jumped onto a root that lead straight to the demon, readying his blade to try and slice through the demon’s neck. When the root he was on swung up to shake him, he flew forward and went for the killing blow. But the demon moved to the left without a care in the world. He pulled out his paintbrush, whipping it and watching with glee as the paint hit across Tanjirou’s front.\n\nThe redhead fell to the ground, gasping as he felt a burning feeling on his chest. He looked down, gulping as he saw the paint burn through part of his haori and some of his demon slayer outfit. It sizzled, the smell of chemicals strong enough that he could practically taste the bitterness.\n\nThe demon giggled, holding his brush, “Don’t you love my paint? It’s just like acid, my favourite.”\n\nTanjirou didn’t get an opportunity to get up as one of the roots slapped against one of the walls, making him shout for a second. He gasped, trying to catch his breath and trying to ease the pain. Warm hands touched his back, making him look up at Zenitsu, who looked worried.\n\n“Can you stand?” he asked, gingerly running his hand down his arm, “Please tell me you can stand, I don’t think I can be brave if you can’t stand.”The redhead shakily nodded, standing up and leaning against the blonde, “Y-Yeah. Watch out for the paint, it’s like acid.”“Noted.”\n\nThe demon watched them for a moment before a sick smile came onto his face, “Oh how rude of me, I forgot to introduce myself. I am Ren and I too, loved dearly.”That caught the pair’s attention, looking at him with confused expressions. Inosuke didn’t seem too keen on listening to some demon monologue as he ran up a root, launching into the air and trying to come down with his swords.\n\nRen turned to look at him before giggling, “Aw, look at you.” He moved out of the way, watching as the boar child hit the ground hard before slamming his foot down onto his back, grinding his foot against his spine, “Didn’t you learn that it’s rude to interrupt?”\n\nRengoku saw this and rushed to get to the demon, “Let him go!”\n\nThe demon seemed to smile as he pulled out a jar of ink, holding it out, “I wouldn’t move, if I were you. One step forward and I’ll pour this acid onto your friend here and let’s just say that it’ll burn and melt through his little human flesh like butter.”\n\nTanjirou growled, enraged as he froze, “Don’t you dare!”Inosuke struggled under his foot, trying to get out despite the immense amount of pressure being put on his spine, “Get off of me!”Ren clicked his tongue, humming, “I would shut up.” He smirked as he let a drop of acid hit Inosuke’s skin, the sound of the demon slayer’s scream of pain making him giggle, “One more word out of you and I’ll drop this whole thing on you.”\n\nFor once, the boy shuts up, biting his lip until it bleeds as he silenced his scream. The group seemed to be frozen, watching as the demon hummed to himself.\n\n“Now that I have your attention…” his eyes darts to Tanjirou and Zenitsu, who tensed immediately. The redhead was quick to stand in front of the blonde, glaring daggers. Ren smiled, “I was saying that I was once loved…not sure by who but I remember that I was loved like you. And yet…” he grinds his foot onto Inosuke’s back, “Love is fleeting. It doesn’t last forever, after all, tragedy always follows happiness.”\n\nTanjirou clenched his jaw, looking to Rengoku and Mitsuri, who gave him a brief look. Whether or not they understood the full meaning of what Ren means by love is debatable.\n\nThe demon grinned, “Happiness doesn’t last forever, little demon slayer. Just because something is going well now doesn’t mean that it won’t all shatter. After nothing lasts forever.”\n\nTanjirou stared at him, the words feeling way too close to home. Thoughts of the happiness of his family and then the tragedy of losing them came to mind. The thought that something might come and take the happiness he had now was terrifying.\n\nZenitsu glared, stepping forward, “I would worry about yourself lasting forever, if I were you.”\n\n“Hm-?!”The sound of Mitsuri shouting made Ren turn, the Love Pillar slashing down her flexible blade down and slicing the demon’s torso. He tripped, falling over and Inosuke quickly ran out, landing next to Zenitsu and Tanjirou.\n\nRen growled out, turning to Mitsuri before being attacked by Rengoku, who slashed at the demon. He grabbed his acid and tried to it splash onto the Pillar while growing the roots up to keep them away.\n\n“I wouldn’t focus on those guys! After all, you’re facing two Pillars!” the Flame Pillar exclaimed, looking to the trio, “Keep moving, we’ll take care of this! There’s must be more demons if you keep going! Go!”\n\nThe trio looked to the Flame Pillar, who offered them a confident smile before dodging out of the way of a root.\n\nMitsuri glanced at her comrade before saying, “I’ll provide cover for you! Go!”\n\nThey nodded, running towards to the exit on the other side of the chamber while Mitsuri deflected the roots and acid. As they ran out, Tanjirou could hear Ren shouting out, “Watch out little demon slayer, the end is coming!”As his friends ran down the path, the redhead turned for a moment and said, “If nothing lasts forever, then the end won’t last either.”\n\nHe ran down the path, the sound of hard root hitting against metal following him."}
+{"text": " \n\n \n\nThe drive home, which would normally be peaceful as he is alone in the car keeps getting interrupted by text message after text message blowing up his phone. The device which he has sitting in the mount he has for the car keeps vibrating and every time he thinks it will finally stop it would buzz again the screen flashing to life.\n\nFrom what he can see from the short span a text is on his screen nothing much as been resolved at home. Stiles is still apparently in the worst mood anyone has seen, tossing anything within arms reach at them if they disturb him.\n\nNow while Cora was trying to place the blame on Chris from tossing Stiles around a good part of the day. Which he would have to talk to the man about, Stiles was still dealing with a bit a pain from the spell after all and sparing wasn't what he had in mind when he asked Chris to train the boy. He would be there doing it himself but he was still busy with a bit of a legal battle about a property line he knew his family owned.\n\nThat being said, he knew his boy was far more stressed then the pack seemed to understand. Not only was he expected to learn how to use his Forest God Powers properly, he also had to weed through thousands of books to find out what was dwelling in the forest feeding on magic. That coupled with the guilt Peter still knew his little mate felt over the loss of life, Stiles was well on his way head first into a melt down.\n\nWhile he found a bit of enjoyment of him tossing things at the pack, he did not find it funny his boy was so high strung he was bound to reek of anxiety. A scent he didn't enjoy on his mate. Stiles should only smell of happiness and loved. He should smell of contentment and warmth, not inky like his anxiety tends to make him smell.\n\nWith that in mind, he decided to be done with his business for the night to help calm his mate. He guessed in turn save the pack, though if they were still failing to pick up the scent of stress a few good pegs with a book or frying pan were warranted.\n\nHis phone only stops buzzing the moment in pulls into the garage, the pack no doubt hearing the quite purr his beloved car. Stiles Jeep is parked next to his, though he hadn't driven in it in a few weeks. The Escalade was next to it, and though a three car garage had been a last minute addition he was still glad he did it.\n\nMaking his way into the house Peter pause in the kitchen, ears first locking in on his mate down in the library. Who by the way Stiles was grumbling like an angry little goblin was still in a foul mood. Next he hurries up the stairs, by passing the pack who are now all hiding in the media room. Someone shouts for him Erica from the sound of it, though he ignores her. Stopping at a door, Peter quietly pushes it open peeking inside. Zayd was sleeping peacefully oblivious to Stiles anger and the packs disgruntled annoyance at being assaulted with flying objects.\n\nA camera with a speaker attached had been installed the day after Stiles had the room made up, a way for his mate to keep an eye on Zayd if he was down in the basement library. Seeing as his little mate didn't have the bonus of super hearing he liked being able to watch and listen for the boy from the tablet monitor that came with the device. Content the boy would sleep till morning Peter moves back towards the media room and steps inside.\n\nChris and Allison were on the farthest end of the sectional Jordan to was packed in close to Chris. Peter had noticed the pair of them growing oddly close but has yet to say anything. He knew Stiles was building up to tease his dads deputy so he reframed from doing so himself. Jackson and Isaac sat in the middle, both teens turned to look at him with frowns on their face.\n\nScott was pouting at him his black eye already healed, though Peter was a bit saddened he hadn't got to see it. Erica and Boyd were curled around one another though they two were glaring towards their Alpha. Cora looked miffed and Derek's eyebrows had migrated into his hairline somewhere probably never to be found.\n\n“So, out of the ten of you, only three can not smell emotions.” Peter states, pointing towards the Argent's and Parrish. “That leaves seven of you who can, so my question is how come no one used their nose to figure out Stiles was stressed?”\n\nThe wolves all frown looking properly scolded.\n\n“How about next time instead of texting me and Noah to save you, you all try to ask if he needs help, shall we?”\n\n“Yes Alpha.” Comes the melody of several replies.\n\n“Good, now I'm going down stairs to deal with the little goblin. You are all to stay put up here or go to your rooms, unless of course you want an eye full.”\n\n“Ew, Uncle Peter!” Cora cries as Peter chuckles and makes his way back down stairs.\n\nThere was one sure fire way to help his boy relieve stress and he didn't want anyone but himself to have the privilege of seeing that.\n\n \n\n*-*-*-*-*-*\n\n \n\nHe finds his little mate leaning over one of the many tables, books a many opened before him. His laptop sat to one side, a thick notebook and pens close by. The tablet with the video feed to Zayd's room was on the other side, books no where near it to keep it in view. Stiles had a pencil in his mouth, and two more in each hand scribbling down who knows what on a different notebook. There's a steady grumble from behind the yellow pencil in his mouth, his teeth clenches as he bit down on it.\n\n“Now sweetheart.” Peter says, pulling the thing from his mouth. “You're going to make your jaw hurt biting down on that so tightly.\n\nStiles sighs up at him with a small smile. “Hey Big Bad, when did you get home?”\n\nPeter smiles in return. “Just a few moments ago, I hear you've been assaulting the pack with books and frying pans.”\n\nStiles snorts, “I wouldn't say I assaulted them, they just kept bugging me for things while I'm busy.”\n\nStiles glances down at several open books, glaring at them with frustrated honey eyes. “So far I haven't found anything useful, I think the only thing I have accomplished is making my back hurt.”\n\nHearing this, Peter lets his hand rest on the small of Stiles back drawing his pain. He was in a fair amount of it making the wolf hissed displeased. Once he was down he lets his hand slip under the red shirt his boy was wearing, using his thumbs to work out the knots there. Stiles sighs happily at that, dropping his pencils on the table so he could fall forward to give Peter better access.\n\n“I think it's time you took a break for the night love.” Peter says, stepping behind his mate so he could use both hands to knead the tense muscles in Stiles slim back.\n\n“Mmm, if you keep that up I'll do anything you want.” Stiles hums out, flopping his chest against the table gracelessly.\n\n“Well I have something much better in mind to help you unwind sweetheart.” Peter says, moving his palms farther up Stiles back, his smooth warm skin always felt buttery soft against Peter's palms.\n\n“You gonna spank me?” Stiles asks teasingly, shaking his round as at Peter.\n\n“Not tonight sweetheart, but if you ask nicely maybe another time.”\n\nStiles grunts when Peter finds a painful knot, and his quick to draw that pain away as he works it out of the muscles. He can't say he's to happy with how tight Stiles back is, and files it away for later to send him to get an adjustment from a chiropractor. While he was sure of his ability to give a wonderful massage, he wasn't going to risk his mate by trying to pop his back.\n\nStiles glances back at his honey eyes going dark with desire. They had of course falling into long sessions of love making, and each time was more magical than the next but that had always been in a bed. Tonight Peter had plans on taking him hard, knowing Stiles wasn't in the mood for soft tonight. Not with how frustrated he was. Only after they had both found their release, Stiles first of course would Peter take him upstairs for a bubble bath and would give him a proper massage.\n\nPicking his boy up Peter turns placing Stiles on a clear table quickly removing his shirt. His big hands find his way to his mates slim waist all that pretty pale flesh flushed pink for him. He always marveled over how sensitive Stiles was, how the smallest touch made him blush and his heart quicken. His palms travel up his flat belly, while he wasn't packing a six pack and hard muscle he wasn't soft either. He was slim, a runners body if Peter ever saw one, and Peter loved it. While it was possible he had a bit of a size kink he did love being bigger than his little mate.\n\n“Peter.” Stiles whimpers, when the wolfs fingers tweak at his pearled nipples. Stiles arches into the touch, biting into his bottom lip.\n\n“What do you want sweetheart?” Peter asks, fingers trailing between the dip between Stiles collarbones. Leaning forwards he sucks a nipple into his mouth biting lightly, gifted a moan within seconds.\n\n“I want you.” Stiles begs, opening his legs wider for Peter to step in-between them.\n\nReleasing Stiles nipple Peter says. “You have me.”\n\nStiles growls making Peter grin. “I want you to fuck me Peter.”\n\nIn seconds he has his mate naked and spread out before him on the table. Still fully clothed himself Peter's eyes drink in his fill of his beautiful mate. Stiles is staring up at him, pink lips wet from licking and biting at them, watching Peter look at him.\n\nA slim palm slips under his shirt, grabbing the hem till it's ripped off Peter's chest and tossed aside landing who knows where. Stiles hums happily, kissing Peter's bare chest, caressing it lovingly.\n\n“You're so handsome.” Stiles says, kissing at Peter's neck his tongue sweeping out to lick at his pulse point. Clever fingers work their way down his chest, pulling at his belt and unbuttoning his pants pulling them down just enough to release his hard cock.\n\nStiles grins, stroking him till he's panting and growing. Not one to just take from his lover he pushes his boy back till he's laying across the table, Stiles finds his knees at his chest and Peter's big palms holding him in place.\n\n“Look at you.” Peter praises, eyes on his waiting hole.\n\n“Peter, please.” Stiles begs, big eyes growing bigger as he begs.\n\nDropping to his knees Peter's buries his face between those lush cheeks, tasting his boy. Teasing him.\n\nStiles shouts, bowing off the table, slim fingers tangling in Peter's hair, demanding more. Peter grins against his skin, while he did love to tease Stiles for some time, he knew his boy couldn't handle that tonight. Falling forward Peter buries his tongue deep, licking at the soft walls inside his wonderful mate, loving the taste of him.\n\nStiles screams, whimpering as Peter eats him out, holding onto his wolfs hair for all his worth. Loving every stroke of that clever tongue stabbing into him. Loving every slurp and growl as Peter taste him.\n\nHis eyes roll into the back of his head when a thick finger makes it's way inside, it burns slightly but he's always loved it. Loved Peter inside him, no matter what part it was. Loved that his mate took so much time to prep him properly.\n\nOne finger became two, stroking and thrusting into him, then two became three, making him pant and moan at being breached. Peter stretches and thrust, working him open so wonderfully he could cum from this alone if he really wanted to. He didn't, he wanted his wolf in him, hard and fast.\n\n“Peter, Peter please!” Stiles begs, pulling on his hair, trying to get Peter do as he wanted.\n\nFingers rub against his prostate, making him cry out in pleasure, then his wolf was pulling away and standing. Stroking that long thick cock, hovering over Stiles ready hole but not entering.\n\n“Look at you sweet boy.” Peter growls, bending to kiss him. Stiles can taste himself on Peter's tongue and lips. Peter rumbles deep in his chest, fingers sinking into Stiles head to deepen the kiss, loving when he had the chance to worship his boys pretty lips.\n\nThick fingers bit into Stiles ass as Peter positions himself, cocks rubbing at the waiting hole in front of him. His saliva would have to be good enough for lube at the moment, while he knew Stiles loved the burn, he still preferred to have the extra lubrication to prevent tearing.\n\nPlanting his feet flat, and pulling down his jeans a bit more, Peter pops the head of his cock inside, watching Stiles face for pain. Stiles whimpers, pushing back against the cock entering him. There's no trace of pain. Grinning Peter thrust hard, slamming forward till he was buried deep as he could go. Stiles screams, hands falling above his head to hold onto the table, his legs still firmly held in Peter's big hands.\n\n“Yes.” Stiles hisses, “Fuck, you're so big.”\n\nPleased, Peter pulls back then thrust in hard once more, the slap of skin echos in the library, bouncing of cement walls. Stiles curses, always so vocal when they made love or fucked like animals. Peter loved it, loved to hear Stiles get pleasure from him. He keeps his pace slow at first, pulling out and thrusting back in hard. Loving the blissed out look on Stiles face as he was taken apart.\n\n“Faster Peter.” Stiles demands, “Fuck me faster.”\n\n“Hold on tight sweetheart.” Peter pants, pulling his boy down till his ass was hanging off the table. He spreads Stiles legs out farther, getting a better view of his lovely face. Buried deep within his beautiful mate Peter leans down for a moment to give him a sweet kiss.\n\nThen he lets loose thrusting hard and fast, working his cock harder and deeper. Spurred on by every whimper and every scream of pleasure. Every thrust got him a pretty moan, every retreat a sad sigh. Each slam of that bundle of nerves deep within Stiles lite him up like a firework, had him crying out and begging for more.\n\n“Oh, fuck.” Stiles shouts, holding tight to the table, loving every slam of Peter's cock buried deep within him.\n\n“Oh god, don't stop!” Stiles shouts, back bowed, legs shaking as he took every fast thrust. His cock laid across his belly, bouncing and drooling against his skin.\n\n“Take it.” Peter moans, slamming harder, pushing deeper.\n\n“Love your cock.” Stiles sings, moaning loud, uncaring if anyone could hear them from down here.\n\nPeter suddenly releases Stiles legs, hands and arms work their way around his boys back till he's being lifted off the table and cradled against Peter's strong chest. Stiles cries out at the change in position, think arms making their away around Peter's neck as his legs wrap tightly around Peter's strong hips. In this position Stiles cock is trapped against their bellies, rubbing between warm sweaty skin as Peter's thick fingers take handfuls of his ass bouncing the boy onto his cock.\n\nStiles can do nothing but hold on for the ride, trusting Peter not to drop him. Loving how deep his cock can reach like this, loved being held as he was fucked into oblivion.\n\n“Oh god!” Stiles cries, head tilted back, mouth opened as he pants through his pleasure. Loving every rumble and growl Peter lets loose as he fuck's up into him.\n\n“Cum!” Peter demands, jerking him down hard onto his stiff cock. Stiles can do nothing but obey. Screaming through his orgasm as it rocks through him. The room seems to darken as he slumps forward against Peter, body shaking with the after shock. He can feel Peter's cock jerk in him, filling him up and he loved every second of it.\n\n“I love you.” Stiles pants, kissing Peter's neck.\n\n“I love you always.” Peter says in answer.\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n "}
+{"text": "Only once the onigiri was cleared and Osamu had gone back to work, did Atsumu finally decide to regale the others with the basics of his plan. The idea had been floating around in his mind since yesterday morning as nothing but a distant, formless concept. But now that Sakusa was on board and worth every ounce of his salt, it was beginning to take a very real, very solid shape.\n\n‘We’re going classic,’ he told them. ‘A good, old fashioned heist by the book. Hit ‘em with the Uno reverse.’\n\nHinata’s shoulders sagged. ‘So, no helicopters?’\n\nAtsumu shook his head.\n\n‘No fireworks?’\n\nAtsumu shook his head again.\n\n‘Spray paint?’\n\n‘Nope.’\n\nSakusa closed the lid of his laptop. ‘What’s the catch?’ he asked. ‘There has to be one. I find it hard to believe you of all people would pull a stunt so… ordinary.’\n\nSakusa probably meant that in a derogatory sense, but it was actually the nicest thing he’d said to Atsumu all day. If he gave  a single shit about what Sakusa thought, he might have even blushed.\n\n‘I’m glad you asked, Omi-Omi!’ Atsumu interlocked his fingers and stretched them out in front of himself until the bones cracked. ‘But first, answer me this: what is the most humiliatin’ experience known to humankind?’\n\nBokuto raised a hand and said immediately, ‘Shitting yourself in an inescapable public setting.’\n\nAtsumu snapped his fingers and pointed at him. ‘Correct.’\n\nSakusa had tucked his mask beneath his chin to eat and forgotten to replace it since, so Atsumu could see the way his face pinched in disgust. ‘You’d better elaborate on that right now, Miya.’\n\n‘Sure, sure. Listen closely, kids.’ Atsumu leaned forward and beckoned the others to do the same. Hinata and Bokuto were enthusiastic and cupped their hands around their ears; Sakusa barely moved an inch. ‘The night of the gatherin’, we’re gonna make the Adlers metaphorically crap their own pants, right in front of the whole damn thievin’ community.’\n\n‘How are we going to do that, Atsumu-san?’ Hinata whispered.\n\n‘Since the Adlers have the paintin’, they’ll be hosting the gatherin’, correct?’ Everyone nodded. ‘Right, so they’ll be the ones to unveil it to the crowd and announce themselves as the winners, yeah?’ They nodded again. ‘But what if the paintin’ they unveil isn’t actually the paintin’?’\n\nHinata gasped. Bokuto smiled and said, ‘Oh?’\n\n‘What if some Super Sexy Stealth Jackals had already sneaked their way in the night before and—’\n\n‘—and replaced it with an identical replica,’ Sakusa mused.\n\nAtsumu grinned. ‘Precisely, Omi-Omi. What d’ya think? That extraordinary enough? We three hooligans meetin’ yer expectations?’\n\nSakusa considered him. It was only for a moment, but to Atsumu it felt like an eternity. His gaze was doing that thing again, the thing it had done in the IT office, the thing that made Atsumu feel as though his soul was lying bare on an operating table, and Sakusa was the surgeon picking it apart.\n\nHad Osamu turned the heating up in the restaurant?  \n\n‘I think there’s still room for improvement,’ said Sakusa. ‘But it’ll do, I suppose.’\n\nAtsumu blinked. And here he’d been expecting Sakusa to shoot him down, to scoff at him and mock him and offer up a far more boring plan of his own. Instead, he carried on surprising Atsumu by pulling out a small pen and notepad from his jacket pocket and saying, ‘What are we going to need?’\n\n‘Huh?’\n\n‘For the heist and the unveiling.’ He tapped the pen against the paper. ‘We’re working without Meian’s budget and access to MSBY’s supplies, but we’re going to need stuff, right? A convincing replica, a getaway car, earpieces, probably some woollen blankets to avoid the thermal imaging cameras. Make a list,’ he said. ‘I’ll buy it.’\n\nWho the hell did this guy think he was? A fucking billionaire?\n\nMeian’s budgets could stretch hundreds of thousands if the job demanded it; clients paid handsomely for the priceless items the Jackals stole. But The Monster Heist was considered extra-curricular - even when Meian had been on board he’d set them strict allowances. It was why Atsumu had resorted to stealing a fire truck rather than just buying one. There was absolutely no way one person could foot the bill of a heist – not on such short notice. Atsumu had already started forming contingency plans for the things the Jackals combined pockets couldn’t afford.\n\n‘The hell d’ya mean you’ll buy it? That shit’s expensive, Omi, forget it. I was just gonna—’\n\n‘I don’t care what you were just gonna do.’ Sakusa looked bored by the whole thing. He kept spinning the pen artfully around his fingers, and Atsumu was not watching them. He wasn’t. ‘I don’t do things unless I do them perfectly, so tell me what it’s going to take to pull this off, and I’ll take care of it.’\n\n‘Woaaah, Omi-san.’ Hinata’s eyes bulged, and his lip wobbled. ‘That’s the coolest thing I’ve ever heard, and Atsumu-san says cool stuff all the time.’\n\n‘I need a van!’ said Bokuto. ‘A white one! With a minibar in the back.’\n\nAtsumu watched in horror as Sakusa nodded and wrote it down.\n\n‘Wha—’\n\nHinata threw a hand up. ‘Ooh! I need a pair of suction-cup gloves! To climb the walls! Atsumu-san won’t buy me them because he thinks I’m going to use them to climb the Sky Tree, but I won’t, I promise! Pretty please, Omi-san!’\n\nSakusa’s scrawled the words suction cup gloves in hideously illegible cursive.\n\nSuddenly, Atsumu felt very left out. ‘Fine!’ he huffed. ‘I’ll bite. What’s yer budget?’\n\n‘There is no budget.’\n\n‘That’s really hot of you to say, Omi, but everyone has a budget.’\n\nAtsumu liked to say that all the time when he was footing Jackals’ food bill because it made him look like the charming heartthrob that he was, but there was always a voice in the back of his head reminding him how much he could spend before it would start to cut into his rent payments.\n\nIt was quickly becoming apparent that Sakusa didn’t possess that voice at all. He said, ‘And I’m telling you there isn’t one.’\n\nWas Sakusa secret royalty or something? An anonymous CEO? The son of a president? How could he say shit like that so brazenly? Atsumu narrowed his eyes in a sceptical question. ‘So, what? You’d buy me a building if I asked?’\n\nThe pen swapped hands, and Sakusa switched up the pattern he used to twirl it. ‘If you needed it for the heist, then yes.’\n\nOsamu really needed to turn the heating down in this place, why was it so goddamn warm?\n\nWith a look of complete exasperation, Atsumu turned to Bokuto and Hinata, offered his upturned palm and said, ‘We did it, boys. We’ve finally bagged ourselves a sugar daddy!’\n\nHinata and Bokuto took turns low fiving him.\n\nWith drawl so deadpan it just sounded dead, Sakusa said, ‘Absolutely do not call me that ever again.’\n\n‘Sure, dad—’\n\n‘I’m serious.’ Sakusa stopped spinning the pen. ‘Say it one more time and the next thing I buy will be a hit on your life. I know a guy who’ll make it so that you won’t even see it coming, and another guy who’ll make it so your body will never be found.’\n\n‘Oof.’ Atsumu fanned his face with his hand. ‘You gotta lay off the dirty talk, Omi, or I’m gonna start thinkin’ you like me.’\n\nSakusa cleared his throat. ‘It’d be a cold day in hell, Miya.’\n\nAtsumu propped his elbows up on the table and rested his chin in his palm to leer at Sakusa -  his face had reddened, probably because he was angry, or maybe it was because of Osamu’s evident heating problem. Though, it didn't seem to bother Hinata or Bokuto.\n\n‘I wouldn’t sound so sure ‘bout that y’know. I’ve heard global warming is fuckin’ up a whole bunch of things.’\n\nSakusa gave Atsumu an acetic once over and said, ‘Evidently.’ Then he slid the notebook and pen across the table in Atsumu’s direction. ‘Get me a list by tomorrow.’\n\nAtsumu tucked the notebook into his pocket and the pen behind his ear. ‘Roger that, Captain Moneybags.’\n\nIf Sakusa wanted his list so bad, Atsumu would get him his damn list and then some.\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\nTuesdays were always slow. The office, despite not even being a real office, was so depressingly silent, Atsumu swore he could feel it sucking out his lifeforce. It made the urge to get up and bother Sakusa surprisingly overwhelming, and he had to remind himself more than once that he couldn’t; they were due to meet later at a coffee shop near Atsumu’s apartment for the list handoff and he had a whole speech planned for each of the items he knew Sakusa would quiz him on.\n\nAcross the office, Hinata and Bokuto were still committed to their respective sulks, though they had traded sleeping atop their keyboards for sitting up and staring blankly at the walls. Occasionally, one of them would drop the act to pick up their phone and send Atsumu a text.\n\nThis time, it was Hinata.\n\n \n\n\n(11:35) From: shouyou \n\n\ndo u really think omi-san is going to buy us all that stuff?????\n\ndo u think he’s rich????\n\n???????\n\n \n\nAtsumu had contemplated the very same thing the night before as he’d gotten into bed and started writing his list, but no matter how hard he tried to picture otherwise, he just couldn’t envision Sakusa being anything other than filthy rich. He had that laptop and mouse, and God knows how many other gadgets lying about. Atsumu certainly couldn’t afford them on his shaky wages. Everything he used – gadgets, disguises, cars - was a part of MSBY’s stock.\n\n\n \n\n\n\n(11:37) To: shouyou\n\n\nprobably\n\nhackers r always rich boys\n\ntoo much time on their hands\n\n \n\n\n(11:38) From: shouyou\n\n\nhmmmmmmm\n\ntrue\n\n\n(11:40) From: shouyou\n\n\ndo u think u could find a way to make a dog part of the heist so omi-san will buy me one?\n\ni’ll take good care of it\n\n \n\n\n(11:41) To: shouyou\n\n\ni’ll see what I can do 4 u my precious boy\n\n \n\nChess and minesweeper had lost their touch, so once he’d helped Hinata with picking hypothetical puppy breeds and names, Atsumu loaded up Miami Shark, because there was something entrancingly therapeutic about tearing down helicopters with the digital jaws of a voracious apex predator. It helped clear the mind.\n\nBut Atsumu only got as far as sinking a cruise liner before he was interrupted by his mouse suddenly developing a mind of its own, closing the web browser and opening a notepad document.\n\nHe pushed himself and his wheeled office chair away from his desk and stared wide-eyed and terrified at the screen as words started to appear. Miami Shark didn’t contain viruses… right?\n\n\n3F supply room in ten minutes.\n\n\nAtsumu glanced around, but nobody else seemed to have a computer possessed by the Ghost of Christmas Future. Hinata and Bokuto were sitting like zombified bookends. Adriah and Barnes were busy with calls. The blinds to Meian’s office were half-closed, but Atsumu could still see him through the slats, reading a book with his feet up on the desk, unbothered.\n\nIt wasn’t a virus then. It was clearly just an Atsumu Problem. Those seemed to crop up pretty often these days.\n\nHe wet his lips nervously and turned back to his screen where the cursor was blinking at him, awaiting a response.\n\nGod, he typed cautiously, is that you?\n\nHe really hoped it wasn’t. That would probably be really, really embarrassing - blasphemy was his middle name, after all. But maybe it wasn’t a god, maybe it was a ghost. Like the one from that movie Osamu had forced him to watch last Halloween. That would be in line with Atsumu’s luck, for the ghost to haunt the wrong fucking twin.\n\nThe reply was fast:\n\n\nNo. It’s Sakusa\n\n\nAtsumu wheezed and dropped his head atop the keyboard so that the next typed words were just strings of jumbled letters.\n\nOf course it was fucking Sakusa, he scolded himself. Who else would it be? They were unwilling partners now; he was going to need to contact him somehow and he’d run off last night before Atsumu’d had the chance to get his number.\n\nOnce his heart had dislodged itself from his throat and returned to his chest, Atsumu rolled up his sleeves and typed earnestly:\n\n\nif u wanted to get me alone that badly u could have just asked for my number ;)\n\n\nSakusa’s next reply took a little longer. If I wanted your number at all, I’d already have it by now.\n\n\nBecause I could hack it, I mean, not because I would ever \n\n\nThe words started to delete themselves. Then Sakusa gave up and just kept typing regardless.\n\n\nThis doesn’t even matter. Just find a way to get to the supply room without raising suspicion. I need to talk to you.  \n\n\n\nEasy as pie omi. U can watch me from inu-san's monitors if u want. observe the master at work. Ive heard security cameras make my ass look gr8 ;)\n\n\n\nI will be busy walking to the supply room, Miya.\n\n\n\noh yea. cool. Of course. Ok. C u ther.\n\n\nThe notepad closed.\n\nMiami Shark resumed.\n\nAtsumu blinked at the GAME OVER screen and wondered what the hell had just happened.\n\nIf Sakusa could remotely control Atsumu’s computer, did that mean he could do it to anyone’s? Bokuto’s? Meian’s? The Adlers’? His mind started to burn with questions, the most pressing being what the hell was so urgent that Sakusa couldn’t wait until after work to discuss it with him. He supposed there was only one way to find out.\n\nWithout bothering to shut his computer down, Atsumu grabbed his coat and his wallet and made a beeline for Meian’s office door.\n\n‘Mornin’, Meian-san,’ he said as he poked his head around the door. ‘Thought I’d take my lunch early, get the office a round of coffee, liven’ the place up. You want the usual?’\n\nMeian looked up from his book and smiled. ‘Sure, Miya, that’s a great idea. Hey, here,’ he held up a hand to stop Atsumu walking off, then proceeded to fish his own wallet from his pocket. ‘Use the company card. Don’t hold back, yeah?’\n\nAtsumu took the card with two fingers and used it to salute Meian. ‘When have I ever, boss?’\n\nOn a separate page of Sakusa’s little notepad, Atsumu made a show of walking around the office and jotting down everybody’s coffee orders, then he took the elevator down to the ground floor, and climbed the stairs two at a time, all the way back up to the third.\n\nSakusa was already waiting for him outside the supply room, tapping his foot and checking his wrist for the time like Atsumu had kept him waiting two hours rather than two minutes. The moment Sakusa saw Atsumu approach, he turned on his heel and used his lanyard key to open the door. He didn’t bother holding it open; Atsumu had to sprint to catch it with his foot before it slammed and locked again in his face.\n\nThe supply room was just that: a room filled floor-to-ceiling with heist supplies. In his time as an MSBY thief, Atsumu had used almost everything inside it at one point or another, from the boxes of rolled up blueprints, to the bags of rope, and tubs full of lockpicks and forged keys. There were racks of clothes in all sorts of styles and sizes, mannequin heads displaying various wigs and caps, and crates of shoes, boots, and slippers to match. Spare console towers were stacked against the walls with baseball bats and wire cutters and sledgehammers resting against them in duffel bags.\n\nSakusa stalked past all of it to a secluded corner at the back.\n\nThe fit for two grown men in a cluttered supply room was tight; they ended up standing as close together as they had done at Onigiri Miya’s entrance last night. Atsumu wondered if that was OK now that they weren’t arguing, but Sakusa didn’t seem to mind.\n\nAtsumu spoke first. He leaned one shoulder against the metal shelves and looked up at Sakusa. ‘Did ya have to contact me so dramatically? I almost shit my—woah, hey, Omi, you doin’ OK? Ya look like hell.’\n\nIt wasn’t a jab, or a lie – just an astute observation. Sakusa looked as though he hadn’t slept a wink since they’d parted ways the night before. His hair was ever so slightly askew of its usual parting, his tie was crooked, and there were deep, dark circles cutting lines beneath his bloodshot eyes. He still smelled great -like strong coffee and cologne - but it was the unruliest Atsumu had ever seen him; he hadn’t even bothered to put on a mask. It felt wrong, like Atsumu was seeing something he shouldn’t be.\n\nSakusa clicked his tongue and tucked his hands into his trouser pockets. ‘Gee,’ he said, ‘thanks.’\n\n‘Hey, I don’t mean it like that, I’m just— You get any sleep last night?’\n\nAtsumu would never admit that it was genuine concern pushing him to ask. He just didn’t want Meian asking questions when he caught Sakusa walking around like a zombie, that was all. He didn’t know how far Sakusa’s acting skills could stretch.\n\n‘No,’ Sakusa admitted. ‘I was busy trying to get into the Adlers’ system.’\n\n‘Shit,’ said Atsumu. If Sakusa had called him here, then that could only mean one thing. ‘How bad is it?’\n\nSakusa ran a hand through his hair and spoke to the ceiling rather than Atsumu. ‘I’ve made a start on breaking through the code passwords,’ Sakusa sighed as Atsumu counted the moles on his neck. There were four, starting from the base of his throat, and climbing their way up to his jawline that moved each time he spoke. For a brief, mortifying second, he wondered if they continued below the line of his shirt. Atsumu shook the thought away and Sakusa continued, ‘But it’s useless. They’ve got thumbprint recognition technology.’\n\n‘Shit,’ Atsumu said again. With feeling. It was no wonder Sakusa was acting suspiciously like the end of the fucking world was nigh. Atsumu was no expert, but he knew how tough systems like that were to crack. ‘Shouyou-kun mentioned they’d had a new system installed. I didn’t think it’d be that bad.’\n\n‘It’s not just bad, Miya, it’s—’ Sakusa let out a breath and pinched the bridge of his nose. ‘It’s the end of the line. I can’t access anything. You could give me all the time in the fucking world, but the cameras, the lasers, the doors; I can’t touch a single one of them. Not without an Adler thumbprint. Ushijima’s got us.’\n\nAtsumu paused. A thumbprint? All Sakusa needed to force the Adlers’ to their knees was a measly thumbprint? He would have laughed if he wasn’t so concerned that Sakusa might reach for one of the baseball bats and club him with it.\n\nAtsumu shrugged and said like it was no big deal, ‘Then I’ll just get you a thumbprint.’\n\nSakusa scowled at him. ‘And how the hell are you going to manage that in ten days?’\n\n‘Oh ye of little faith.’\n\n‘I’m serious, Miya.’ The scowl deepened, and Sakusa crossed his arms over his chest. ‘I’ve run jobs like this with Meian-san before. It can take months to get clean prints, and that’s with direct access to the mark. Even worse, the Adlers know us all by face. You’re good, but you’re not that good.’\n\nAtsumu did laugh that time. ‘Y’know, yer funnier than I thought, Omi.’ He reached out, intending to pat him condescendingly on the shoulder, but then he remembered Sakusa didn’t like to be touched and picked up a wrench from the shelf beside him instead. As he considered it, an idea popped into his head. ‘We can go and get yer prints tomorrow, if ya like?’\n\n‘We?’\n\n‘Yeah, Omi, we. It’ll be a two-man job and I don’t trust Bokuto ‘Shovel-Hands’ Koutarou, or Hinata ‘Butter-Fingers’ Shouyou to lift delicate prints.’\n\n‘Why can’t you do it?’\n\nAtsumu grinned. ‘Because I’ll be busy doing something else. You got a kit?’ Sakusa nodded, because of course he had a forensic fingerprint kit just lying about. ‘Great, let’s go. I’ll tell you ‘bout the plan over coffee.’\n\nSakusa stilled. ‘Just tell me here.’\n\n‘No can do, Omi-Omi. I’ve got orders to pick up and calls to make. Yer gonna have to come with. Betcha haven’t eaten yet either, right?’ He flashed Sakusa the company card. ‘Meian-san’s treat.’\n\nSakusa looked as though he was about to refuse, but then his stomach growled loud enough for Atsumu to hear. He waved the card again.\n\n‘Fine,’ said Sakusa. ‘Wait outside. I’ll go get my coat.’\n\nSakusa led the charge towards the door, but he stopped short when he arrived and Atsumu almost crashed into him again. ‘Ya gotta stop stoppin’, Omi! Yer gonna cause a collision one of these days. I’m a big boy, y’know, I might break somethin’—hey, what’s the hold up? You gonna open the door or what?’\n\n‘I can’t,’ was all Sakusa said.\n\n‘The hell d’ya mean ya can’t. It’s just a door, how hard can it be?’\n\n‘I can’t.’ Sakusa rattled the handle so hard Atsumu thought he might break it. ‘It’s locked.’\n\n‘Uh. What? How?’\n\nSakusa ignored him. ‘Great.’ He turned around, thumped his head back against the door and closed his eyes. ‘This is just great. To be locked in a room with you of all people.’\n\n‘Hey, what the fuck?’ They weren’t friends by any means, but Atsumu had thought they’d made some real progress over the last two days. He certainly didn’t think the idea of his company warranted such a negative response – Sakusa looked a minute away from picking up the sledgehammer and bashing his way out.\n\n‘Lotsa people in this office would kill for this kind of opportunity y’know. I was voted MSBY’s Most Handsome three years runnin’.’\n\n‘Not by me,’ Sakusa grumbled.\n\nAtsumu stuck his tongue out at him. Usually, he reserved such ugly and childish tactics for when he was losing an argument against Osamu, but it hardly mattered now; Sakusa already thought the worst of him. ‘Doesn’t matter,’ he sneered. ‘Still won it.’\n\n‘You also won Most Likely to Lead MSBY into Financial Ruin, and Most Likely to Get Arrested.’\n\n‘Yeah, well, you won Biggest Prick.’\n\n‘That wasn’t a category.’\n\n‘Is now. And you’ve just won it. Unanimously.’ He clapped his hands. ‘Congrats, Omi.’\n\nThe last thing Atsumu expected Sakusa to do was laugh. It was more of a huff, really, a slight releasing of air through his nose, but in Atsumu’s eyes, Sakusa might as well have doubled over wheezing. Perhaps more importantly, he caught the beginnings of small smile tugging at the corner of Sakusa’s lips. It made Atsumu pause to see - a genuine Sakusa Kiyoomi smile – even if it was at his own expense.\n\nSomehow, it made him want to delve deep into the recesses of his brain for more jokes, for quips or witty sayings – something, anything, to make the smile last just a little longer—\n\nDid MSBY also have a heating problem? Why did he suddenly feel the need to loosen his tie? Maybe he was just coming down with something.\n\n‘Can’t you, um,’—he cleared his throat– ‘Can’t you just, like, hack us out of here? Isn’t the door digital?’\n\nSakusa hummed. His smile had faded and Neutral Sakusa had returned. ‘I left my phone in the office.’\n\nAtsumu held out his own phone. ‘So use mine.’\n\n‘I can’t. It doesn’t have the software.’\n\n‘Tch,’ Atsumu scoffed. ‘I s’pose brawn is better than brain after all.’\n\n \n\n \n\n\n(12:20) To: the bokkunator\n\n\nbro I am literally locked in 3f supply room\n\ncome get me out\n\nbe discreet\n\n\n(12:21) From: the bokkunator\n\n\nON MY WAY CAPTAIN!\n\nRemember to breathe!\n\nBut not too fast or you might use up all the air and die?\n\n \n\n‘Bokkun’s on the way,’ he said and pocketed his phone again. ‘He’ll get us out.’\n\n‘No he won’t,’ Sakusa said with far too much certainty. Atsumu thought he was about to insult Bokuto’s abilities, but instead he said, ‘We’re not getting out of here until he decides we can.’\n\nSo now Sakusa was some kind of prophetic messenger? What next?\n\n‘Who’s he?’\n\n‘Inunaki.’\n\nAtsumu tilted his head. Why would Inunaki lock them in the supply room? He’d given Atsumu his word he’d help them, not hinder them. Was this a double-cross? Was he Meian’s spy all along?\n\nThe room suddenly felt even smaller, the distance between them shorter, the mannequin head staring at Atsumu with its fuck-ugly button eyes that much creepier.\n\n‘He betrayin’ us or somethin’?’ Atsumu shifted his weight nervously. ‘We about to get busted?’\n\nSakusa gave another contemplative hum. ‘No,’ he replied. ‘Inunaki just fancies himself a comedian, that’s all. Don’t worry. once we get out of here, I’ll make sure to tell him not to quit his day job.’\n\nAtsumu didn't know what to say to that, so he pulled the list out of his pocket and handed it over to Sakusa. It was three pages long, double sided. \n\n'Your handwriting is atrocious,' Sakusa said as his eyes scanned the words.\n\n'Thanks. So is yours.'\n\n'Why do we need a Corgi?'\n\n'Shouyou wants one.'\n\nSakusa narrowed his eyes. 'OK. And the crates of vintage wine?'\n\n'To help us grovel at Meian's feet once we've won.'\n\nBefore Sakusa could quiz that any further, Bokuto’s voice came thundering through the doorframe. ‘I’M HERE!’ he shouted, a little out of breath. ‘I’M GONNA GET YOU OUT, TSUM-TSUM!’\n\nSakusa pocketed the list, but didn’t bother to straighten from his lean against the door. He just shook his head knowingly while Atsumu shouted back, ‘Thanks for being discreet, Bo! Much appreciated!’\n\n‘NO PROBLEM, MAN! HERE, LEMME SEE.’\n\nThere was a beep, like Bokuto had just scanned his lanyard against the lock, but it was closely followed by a No Access Buzz.\n\nMaybe Sakusa was right about Inunaki after all.\n\n‘HUH? WHAT’S WRONG WITH THIS THING?’\n\nFour more beeps sounded in close succession - then four denying buzzes.\n\n‘I THINK IT’S BROKE.’\n\n‘Yeah, maybe you should go and ask Inu—’\n\nAtsumu was cut off by a huge thump against the door that rattled it in its frame. Sakusa jumped and turned around to scowl at the noise. ‘What the fuck is he doing?’\n\nThere was another thump.\n\nAtsumu winced. ‘Uh, Bokkun?’ Thump. ‘What are ya doin’, bud?’\n\n\nThump.\n\n\nIf Meian decided to pay the IT office a visit, they were going to be absolutely fucked. \n\n‘DON’T WORRY! I’VE GOT THIS!’ Thump. ‘KUROO TAUGHT ME ABOUT THIS THING CALLED QUANTUMN TUNNELLING!’ Thump. ‘IF I PUNCH ENOUGH TIMES,’—thump!—‘THERE’S A CHANCE MY HAND WILL EVENTUALLY GO THROUGH THE DOOR CELLS AND I’LL BE ABLE TO OPEN IT!’\n\n\nThump.\n\n\n‘Somewhere,’ Sakusa told Atsumu, ‘that man is depriving a village of its idiot.’\n\n\nThump.\n\n\n‘Don’t tell him that,’ Atsumu replied solemnly. ‘He’s trying his best.’\n\nThere was one more thump, and then the door clicked – probably because Inunaki was tired of watching Bokuto mutilate his own fist.\n\nBokuto shouted, ‘HEY! IT WORKED!’\n\nWhen the door swung outwards, Atsumu was met by blinding sunlight and Bokuto’s open arms. He got pulled into a bone-crushing hug. ‘You’re safe now, Miyaa-Tsum,’ Bokuto told him. He looked up and found Sakusa standing by awkwardly. ‘Oh hey, Omi! You’re here too.’ He pulled Atsumu around to his left arm and extended his right. ‘You want in?’\n\n‘I would rather die,’ Sakusa said, and then stalked right past Bokuto towards the IT office. Atsumu watched him disappear inside and slam the door behind him so loudly the entire hallway shook.\n\nBokuto shrugged. ‘Maybe next time.’\n\n‘Yeah, Bo.’ Atsumu patted him on the back. ‘Maybe next time.’\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\nTo absolutely nobody’s surprise, Sakusa’s pick from the entirety of the coffee shop’s illustrious menu was a single black coffee and a pistachio cookie. Atsumu couldn’t even find the strength to tease him about it; it was the most ordinary thing to happen all morning.\n\n‘Spit it out, Miya,’ Sakusa said as he squirted a hefty dollop of sanitizer into his palms. It smelled so strongly of pure alcohol that Atsumu had to blink the burn of it from his eyes. ‘What’s the plan?’\n\nAtsumu held out his own palm. Sakusa frowned at it, but gave him some nonetheless. ‘In due time, Omi. First, I need to make a very important call.’\n\nSuna answered the third time Atsumu called him, which was only slightly mortifying when Sakusa was right there opposite him, watching him get ignored.\n\n‘Sunarin! Thanks for finally pickin’ up ya fuckin’ useless piece of shit.’\n\n‘I do aim to please, babe.’\n\nAtsumu made a face at the phone. ‘Ew,’ he said. ‘Wrong twin, dumbass.’\n\n‘Nope. Definitely the right twin. If you were Osamu I’d be calling you sugar ti—’\n\n‘Aaaah! No! Stop! I don’t wanna hear it! I called to ask you for a favour, not turn me off my muffin.’\n\n‘Hmm? Well, whatever it is, it’s gonna cost you,’ Suna replied. ‘My services don’t come cheap.’\n\n‘Yeah, yeah. Just put it on my tab. Where are ya right now?’\n\n‘The restaurant. Why?’\n\n‘I need you to go out and get some things for me.’ Atsumu relayed the list: ten rolls of toilet paper, hair bleach, toner, marker pens, and a heavy-duty toilet plunger.\n\nSakusa gave him a look as he picked apart his vomit-cookie, one that could only read as: what the fuck does that mean?\n\nAtsumu returned it with a wink that said: trust me, Omi.\n\n‘Is this what I think it is?’ Suna asked.\n\n‘Absolutely, yes,’ Atsumu replied. ‘Tell ‘Samu to book cover for tomorrow and make sure you pick the toilet closest to the door, yeah?’\n\n‘I’ll text you when it’s done.’\n\nThe line went dead. Atsumu put his phone down on the table and took a smug sip of his caramel macchiato.\n\n‘A toilet plunger?’ Sakusa asked. He said it like the words were foreign and he couldn’t quite understand them.\n\n‘Yer not the only one with special talents, Omi,’ Atsumu grinned. ‘I’ll have you know that aside from bein’ a thief, I’m also a qualified electrician, dog groomer, and plumber.’\n\nSakusa’s face cycled through ten different emotions in the space of three seconds. Eventually, it settled on horrified.\n\n‘You’re not going to—’\n\n‘Break another one of the Adlers’ toilets? No, I’m not.’ Sakusa sighed in relief. ‘Suna is.’\n\n‘Wha—’\n\n‘The Adlers are gonna need a plumber to fix it, right? Well, there’s one right here.’ Atsumu jabbed his thumb into his chest. ‘And yer gonna be my apprentice-cum-forensic scientist sweepin’ the entire room for prints while I work.’\n\n‘That’s… actually not half bad,’ said Sakusa. Dare Atsumu say he actually looked sort of impressed?\n\nDamn right he should be impressed. Atsumu was a genius.\n\n‘I thrive on positive affirmation.’ Atsumu cupped a hand around his ear. ‘Keep ‘em comin’.’\n\nSakusa ignored him and sipped at his drink; he didn’t even blink at the bitterness of it. ‘That explains the toilet paper and the plunger,’ he said. ‘But what about the hair dye?’\n\n‘Don’t worry,’ Atsumu chuckled when he clocked Sakusa’s warning scowl. ‘I won’t be touchin’ a single hair on yer perfect little head, Omi. That shit’s for ‘Samu.’\n\n‘For your brother?’ Sakusa asked. ‘Why?’\n\nAtsumu broke his muffin apart and picked out the chocolate chips to eat first. He popped one into his mouth. ‘Who d’ya think’s gonna be me for Meian-san while I’m off playin’ plumber?’\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n‘If you fuck this up, the next meal I cook will be yer last.’\n\nAtsumu slapped another dollop of bleach onto Osamu’s head and brushed it through. ‘I ain’t you,’ he spat. ‘I’ll never forget the shitty dye job you did for me in high school for as long as I fuckin’ live.’\n\nOsamu sighed happily at the memory of Atsumu’s piss-coloured nightmare. He still had the video of Atsumu crying at his own reflection in the mirror hidden away somewhere as a deterrent. ‘Neither will I,’ he said wistfully.\n\nThey were in Osamu’s apartment, because after a day spent working, Osamu refused to make the journey over to Atsumu’s place. Plus, he had the upper hand when it came to the political sibling minefield of who was indebted to who.\n\n‘I’m already doin’ ya this huge favour,’ he’d said over the phone. ‘Least you can do is come over and bring some food with ya.’\n\nSo, Atsumu had brought over all of Osamu’s favourites and once Suna returned from gathering the supplies, they spent the next two hours dying Osamu’s hair to mirror his own.\n\n‘As horrendous as this is going to be,’ Suna said to Osamu from beside his candlelit shrine in memory of Osamu’s dark hair, ‘it’s kinda sexy of you to be going undercover.’\n\nOsamu grimaced. ‘It’s really not, Rin. Actin’ like ‘Tsumu is super hard. Bein’ a brat just doesn’t come naturally to me like it does to him.’\n\nAtsumu slapped his head with his gloved hand. ‘Yer actin’ like one right now, fuckin' scrub.’\n\nOsamu elbowed him in the stomach. ‘That’s because I’m already gettin’ into character.’\n\nDoubled over, Atsumu wheezed, ‘Geez, it’s no wonder you and Omi get on. Yer both fuckin’ evil to me. Actually, Omi’s nicer. At least he doesn’t gut me with his fuckin’ knife elbows.’\n\nThat seemed to be the wrong thing to say, because Suna suddenly started to smile at Osamu in a very unsettling way. It reminded Atsumu of that moment in Onigiri Miya yesterday, when Osamu had smiled his secret-keeping smile.\n\n‘What?’ Atsumu asked. He pulled Osamu’s hair back until he was looking him in the eye. ‘What did I say?’\n\n‘Oh nothin’,’ said Osamu. ‘S’just that you’ve been talkin’ an awful lot about Sakusa recently. Like, more than just the usual whinin’ that he doesn’t pay attention to you like everyone else does.’\n\n‘Pfft, what? No I haven’t.’\n\nHe hadn’t? Had he? He'd been talking about Sakusa a normal amount. Just as much as he talked about Hinata, or Bokuto. Right?\n\n‘Yer tellin’ me you haven’t been gushin’ about the fact that Omi-Omi basically hacked the Adlers in less than twenty-four hours, ‘Samu, how cool is that? Omi said he was impressed by my plan, ‘Samu. Omi laughed at my joke, ‘Samu. Omi, Omi, Omi!’\n\nAtsumu narrowed his eyes. ‘I don’t like the tone yer usin’, ‘Samu.’\n\n‘Not my fault that’s what you sound like.’\n\n‘You do sound like that,’ Suna added. Atsumu threw the empty bleach box at his head, but Suna ducked just in time.\n\n‘Whatever,’ Atsumu grumbled. ‘Yer makin’ it sound like I like him or somethin’, but I don’t. We’re incompatible. Total opposites. Plus, Omi probably hates me.’\n\nAtsumu thought back to Sakusa’s reaction when Inunaki had locked them in the supply room.\n\n\nTo be locked in a room with you of all people.\n\n\nYeah, Sakusa definitely hated him. He was only working with Atsumu to get his revenge on Ushijima. Once they’d won, he’d go right back to pretending Atsumu didn’t exist.\n\nAnd, Atsumu supposed, he was no better; he’d told Sakusa he’d rather work with a feral goose.\n\nBut then Osamu had to go and say, ‘Then why’d ya look at him like he’s the most interestin’ thing in the whole universe?’\n\nAtsumu shook it off by pushing Osamu off his chair at the time, but he thought about that later when he almost drowned Osamu with the shower head.\n\nHe thought about it when he bid his brother goodnight, and when he took the taxi home.\n\nHe thought about it when he showered, and when he sat at his desk to solidify his plans.\n\nHe thought about it when he climbed into bed at nearly two in the morning, and in the moments before he fell asleep.\n\nIt was just the bleach fumes messin’ with ‘Samu’s brain, Atsumu told himself. He didn’t look at Sakusa like that.\n\nHe didn’t look at anyone like that."}
+{"text": "'We'll see,' Sam said with a smirk. 'Go and order two milkshakes, I don't care what flavour, and you can even keep your clothing in order for now. I'll tell you the rest when you get back.'\n\nSam waited patiently, allowing her heart rate to settle after her previous ordeal, though the thought of what she was going to make Lucy do next made it difficult to stay cool, which she felt was ironic. Simply watching her friend walk in the dress she'd chosen made it difficult to stay cool, in fairness, though. Sam had long considered herself open-minded, curious even, but something about Lucy made her want to put thought into practice.\n\nWhatever it was, Lucy brought it back with her a couple of minutes later when she strutted back to the table along with the two milkshakes.\n\n'Here you go,' Lucy said, putting them both on the table. 'One banana, one strawberry. Take your pick.'\n\n'They're both for you,' Sam replied with a wicked grin.\n\n'What would I want with two whole, large milkshakes?'\n\n'It's your dare. Empty one into your knickers, the other into your bra.'\n\nLucy looked stunned for a moment. 'Y-you're serious?'\n\nSam just nodded.\n\n'Oh my God. My underwear can't hold all that,' Lucy laughed. It'll go everywhere!'\n\n'Yep.'\n\n'Sam, come on.'\n\n'We can just say I won if it's too much.'\n\nLucy paused again, seeming to genuinely consider the prospect. 'Alright,' she said at last. 'Fine. I see how it is. Just remember - you started this.'\n\n'No I didn't. It was your idea!'\n\n'True, but I didn't get you messy. Not yet, anyway.'\n\nSam laughed now. 'So you were going to get me messy.'\n\n'Well, of course. That's the whole point. But not like this. Not so... obviously.'\n\n'Alright. You've made your point. Now are you going to do it or not?'\n\n'I never knew you were so pushy,' Lucy joked. 'I said I'll do it. Here.' She picked up the banana shake in her right hand, using her left to pull the neckline of her dress even wider than it already was. Sam wasn't shy about enjoying the enhanced view - it was a bit late for being coy after what she'd just done. Lifting the cup, Lucy took a breath, gritted her teeth and upended it all over her chest. The lid immediately fell under the weight of the thick slime within, and yellow gunk splattered pleasingly across her naked flesh.\n\nLucy let out a high-pitched gasp, then sucked air in through her teeth and gritted them once more. She naturally wanted to gasp and shriek at the cold slime now sloshing around her breasts and down her tummy, but she knew better than to yell out and draw attention to herself. She settled for mouthing several obscenities while alternating between gasps and giggles as semi-melted ice-cream oozed down her stomach. Some pooled around her waist but plenty stayed where Sam had intended - Lucy's impressive, now slippery cleavage.\n\nTo the surprise of nobody, but the great enjoyment of Sam, Lucy's nipples were clearly visible now, jutting out through the skimpy, slimy clothing she wore. Lucy noticed Sam looking, but was cut off because she could make any kind of quip. 'Quit stalling,' Sam told her. 'You still have one to go.'\n\nLucy shot her friend a playful glare, but it was hard to maintain any expression that wasn't some mixture of discomfort and self-depreciating laughter.\n\n'Alright, alright. Hang on.'\n\nLucy lifted the front of her dress, mimicking Sam's previous ordeal. It didn't take much lifting, thanks to the fact that it barely covered her matching white panties anyway. If anything, Sam enjoyed this view more than the previous one and enjoyed it just as brazenly. It almost seemed like a waste to ruin such pretty underwear - white silky material, edged with sheer lace - but they would look even better filled with milkshake, she knew.\n\nAfter some understandable hesitation, Lucy poured the second cup and giggled loudly as soon as the slop hit. Sam couldn't blame her. She knew just how it felt, and knew she would have squealed and giggled just as much, if not more. Even Lucy couldn't keep her voice down this time, and attracted several quizzical looks from passers-by. When they looked down to see what she was squealing about, their expressions quickly change to something more like bafflement or, occasionally, excitement.\n\nThe knickers, beautiful though they had been, were no match for a large milkshake. They filled and began to sag in no time. About half of the soft ice-cream was oozing down Lucy's thighs and pooling on the floor around her feet. The other half was doing the same, but inside her tights, trapped against her legs and creating a pair of absurd-looking bulges around both of her knees.\n\n'Ah,' interrupted Sam. 'Hold on.'\n\nRelieved, Lucy stopped pouring. She thought for a second that Sam would let her off, since it was clear to everyone that her knickers could take no more.\n\n'Put the rest in the back,' she added with a cruel grin.\n\n'Oh, you bitch,' Lucy shot back, but it was clear from her expression that she had already resigned herself to this messy fate. After all, what was half a cup of strawberry milkshake at this point?\n\nShe shifted position in order to reach behind herself with the cup still in-hand. It was much more awkward this way, but Sam offered no help at all. Eventually, Lucy settled for holding her tights and panties open with the thumb and forefinger of her right hand, and propping the cup between them with her left. It meant the cup was almost perfectly vertical. Instead of a steady, manageable flow of slime, the remains came out in one heavy blob, eliciting from Lucy the latest and loudest in a long line of squeals.\n\nDespite the awkwardness of the positioning, her aim had been unfortunately perfect: ice-cream oozed right between her full, fleshy cheeks, coating them both, but also dribbling down the gap between them. Everything between her waist and her thighs was coated in milkshake and her knickers sagged under the weight. In her eagerness to keep it all in one place, she let the elastic of her tights and panties snap back into place and regretted this immediately when ice-cream squelched against her tingling pussy, soft buttocks and everything in between.\n\n'How's that feel?' Sam cooed, her gaze swapping between Lucy's everchanging expression and her messy, bulging underwear.\n\n'I don't even. I can't. Oh my.'\n\n'Alright. Well done. You can stop.'\n\n'Obviously I can stop,' Lucy replied, still a little more high pitched than usual. 'I've run out of milkshake!'\n\n'You almost sound upset about it. You can always go get more.'\n\n'Ha,' said Lucy. 'Not a chance. I think one knicker-full is enough for one day, thank-you very much.\n\n'You're welcome.'\n\n'Funny. We'll see who's laughing after your next dare.'\n\n'Probably both of us,' smiled Sam.\n\n'Probably,' Lucy agreed. She shifted awkwardly as she spoke, this way and that, trying to figure out the best way to move while causing the least amount of unwanted goo motion. Nothing seemed to work, and she soon gave up, accepting that she would have to settle for being constantly reminded of her slimy knickers at every turn.\n\n'You can't just use Maccies again,' Sam interrupted. 'We'll have to go for a wander while you make your mind up.'\n\n'Oh, you bitch,' Lucy laughed, knowing full well that Sam was deliberately trying to make this is as awkward for her as possible. 'Fine, come one. I know where we'll go.'\n\n'Great, lead on. I'll be right behind you.'\n\n'Yeah, I bet you will,' Lucy replied, shaking her hips playfully to make her ass jiggle. She regretted it when the ruined milkshake jiggled and squelched too. 'Oh, god, I wish I hadn't done that.'\n\nSam, nearly bent double, was too busy laughing to reply with anything sensible.\n\nEven Lucy, usually so full of beans, had nothing to add. She set off across the food court instead, squelching with every step. Sam followed, her eyes begrudgingly leaving her friend's shapely, slimy bum every so often to check she wasn't walking into anything.\n\nStill, it was Lucy who eventually broke the silence: 'judging by the look in your eyes, you must be hungry.'\n\nSam had the good grace to look embarrassed at being caught gawking, but she smirked playfully. 'I have been staring at some tasty-looking jelly for a while. Can you blame me?'\n\n'Not at all. But didn't Queen Elizabeth once say \"I don't think you're ready for this jelly?\" Pretty sure it was her, anyway.'\n\n'Sounds about right.'\n\n'I heard you're quite fond of noodles, so...' Lucy trailed off, nodding sideways at a little noodle bar by the name of Naughty Noodles. 'How very appropriate.'\n\n'How did you hear about that?' Sam asked, but quickly realised it was a stupid question. 'Frank.'\n\n'He's very talkative around me for some reason. I can't possibly imagine why.'\n\n"}
+{"text": "\n Beyond the Wall \n\n\nIn the shroud of darkness, Chihiro and Ako struggle to pull Yoichi's sled through the blizzard as they follow the Child. Heavy snow blows around them as they struggle to make their way through the darkness of the night. \n\nChihiro looks at Yoichi, the omega still in the warg state with his eyes whited out. \n\n\"I'm so sorry.\" The beta tells him, still distraught over the loss of Estle. \n\nYoichi continues to have visions as he combs through history while in his warg state.  \n\n\"Where are we going?\" Ako asks the Child. \n\n\"Just follow me. I'll explain when Yoichi returns from the warg state.\" The Child tells them. \n\nChihiro glances back at Yoichi with watery eyes as the omega continues to see visions of history. \n\nIn his mind, Yoichi sees an entire chunk of history. Some recent and others dating back to when The Night Queen was created. \n\n\nTwo men and the Master of War prepare casks filled with wildfire and store them under Shibuya, specifically the Sept and the surrounding areas. This is done by the Mad King's orders, this was before the rebellion broke out. \n\n\n\nA large dragon's shadow makes its way to cover a large section of Shibuya in darkness. \n\n\n\nThe Night Queen raises her hands as the red of her eyes become more pronounced. She meets the eyes of the alpha as the legions of dead stand behind her. \n\n\n\nAn omega woman with her skin and body intact, looking recently dead has her eyes reddened out. She looks like a recent part of the Army of the Dead, not yet a bloodsucker. \n\n\n\nYoichi sees himself fall from the tower again after Lord Kureto pushed him off it. \n\n\n\nAn alpha man's throat is slit at the Red Wedding, it must be Seishirou Hiiragi. He looks exactly as he did in the past.  \n\n\n\nA large red and black dragon flies in the stormy sky. \n\n\n\nA young and beautiful omega man, around Yuu's age stands naked as people bow to him. Three dragons hang off his ash-covered body as a small red and black one perches off his shoulder. \n\n\n\nA baby is carried by a pale bloodsucker in a white cloak somewhere beyond the wall. \n\n\n\nThe Night Queen makes her way to the child and stares into its eyes. She touches his cheek as his eyes turn a red color. \n\n\n\nKing Nikolai sits on the Seraphin Throne with a murderous glare in his eyes. \n\n\n\nA man has his head sliced off in Shibuya from the blind killing. \n\n\n\nNight slowly turns to day. \n\n\n\nCrows fly in the snow-covered forest at night. \n\n\n\nThe Master of War pours wildfire into more casks. \n\n\n\n\"BURN THEM ALL!\" King Nikolai shouts. \n\n\n\nThe wildfire explodes under the city of Shibuya as a green fire consumes the bottom level. \n\n\n\nGuren stabs The Mad King in the back. \n\n\n\n\"Yuuichirou like the great wolf King.\" The whore tells Guren. \n\n\n\nA bloody hand on a bed falls still. \n\n\n\nThe Child stabs the young omegan girl with the pink-hair. \n\n\n\nGuren sits on the throne as he waits. \n\n\n\nThe Night Queen lowers her hands as the dead rise around her. \n\n\n\nYuu swings his sword in the snowy blizzard. \n\n\n\nYoichi is grabbed on the wrist by the Night Queen as he screams out in pain. \n\n\nYoichi's pupils finally return as take in the weight of all he just saw. It was a fast run through, but he'll go back in and learn more. \n\nYoichi looks around as Chihiro, Ako, and the Child perk up around him as they have made camp for the night. \n\n\"Yoichi.\" Ako says. \n\nYoichi realizes Estle is not there as the weight of the sweet alpha's death hits him in his heart. He can feel the pain there at never seeing the gentle giant again. \n\n\"Estle.\" Yoichi says with watery eyes. \"I'm so sorry.\"\n\n\"We know.\" Chihiro tells him with a pitiful look on her face before moving to embrace the omega. \"But, he sacrificed himself for you. Make sure it wasn't in vain.\"\n\nChihiro rubs his hair to soothe him which barely does anything to calm him. The tears continue to pour as Ako watches them. \n\n\"He's awake now.\" Ako says to the Child. \"What next?\"\n\nYoichi turns to face the Child as she turns to him. \n\n\"Yoichi Saotome must complete his transformation and fully become the Three-Eyed Raven.\" The Child tells them. \"He can only do that by gaining the knowledge from a Heart Tree. That is where I am taking you.\"\n\nYoichi nods sadly.\n\n\"The Three-Eyed Raven still lives within you. Your friend, Estle, he also lives within you. His entire life and what he has done will be at your discretion. Everyone's will.\" The Child tells him. \"You will be the new Three-Eyed Raven.\"\n\n\"What happens after that?\" Yoichi probes. \n\n\"You will know what you have to do after you have the past, present, and future in your head.\" The Child tells him. \"It will be up to you after that.\"\n\n\"What is your name?\" Yoichi asks her. \"I never asked you it.\"\n\nThe green Child studies the omega with a weird look on her face, \"Bud.\"\n\n\"Bud.\" Yoichi says, \"Thank you.\"\n\nThe Child only nods her head.\n\nYoichi, Ako, and Chihiro continue to mourn their losses for the rest of the night.  \n\n\nHarajuku \n\n\nMitsuba pulls the gray rag from the basin of water before squeezing it once. The alpha is clad in the knee-length black dress and white sandals. \n\nThe alpha girl silently rinses the body of an old man. A cloth covers his manhood as the omega runs the washcloth over his pale limbs and torso. \n\nWhen she finishes she takes the pincers and clips his finger and toe nails. Then, she rubs a balm on their skin to preserve their bodies. She covers his body with a rag. \n\nMitsu knocks on the door at the front of the room when she finishes with the man. \n\nTwo men in black robes enter with the gurney, Mitsu taps her fingers as they load the corpse onto the stretcher. The other door at the end of the room is opened by another man and when they walk through it is immediately closed. It's been like this since she was brought here by the Waif. But, today is different. \n\nThe door is only almost closed today, the door remains open just a smidge. \n\nMitsu stands there, contemplating whether or not she should take the risk.\n\nShe looks at the open door at the front of the room before deciding to take her chances. She slowly and quietly makes her way towards the door. \n\nWhen she is almost there a pale hand shuts the door and quickly moves to lock it. \n\nMitsu turns to see that the hand belongs to the Waif who glares at her. \n\n\"What are they doing with the bodies?\" Mitsu asks. \n\n\"Get back to work.\" The Waif admonishes as she turns to leave the room through the front. \n\nMitsu follows after her, \"No! I’ve been here for weeks. I’m not scrubbing one more corpse until you tell me why I’m doing it.\"\n\n\"You will know why.\" The Waif says. \n\n\"When?\" Mitsu asks.��\n\n\"When it’s time. Not before. Get back to work.\" The Waif tells her.\n\n\"When do I get to play the game?\" Mitsu asks. \n\n\"Game?\"\n\n\"The game. The game of faces.\" Mitsu says. \n\n\"You tried already. You failed.\" The Waif smugly tells her. \n\n\"I didn’t even know I was playing.\" Mitsu says. \n\n\"Who are you?\" The Waif asks. \n\nMitsu hesitates before saying, \"No one.\"\n\n\"Get back to work.\" The Waif's blonde bob turns away from Mitsu. \n\n\"Well who are you? What are you doing here? How’d you get here?\" Mitsu argues. \n\n\"I’m from Westeria. Just like you. Daughter of a Lord. Just like you. Except I was an only child. Heir to his fortune. My mother died. My father remarried and his new wife gave birth to a girl. My stepmother didn’t want any rivals for his precious daughter so he tried to kill me with poison. I found out, sought help from the Faceless Men and my father was widowed again. I’ve been serving them ever since.\" The Waif tells her carefully with a small smile. \n\nMitsu smiles at the other alpha. \n\nThe Waif's face falls as she steps closer to Mitsu, \"Was that true or a lie?\"\n\nMitsu's smile falls from her face. \"What?\"\n\n\"Did you believe every word I said?\" The Waif asks her. \n\nMitsu stumbles and her face remains uncertain despite not saying a word. \n\nThe Waif turns away and throws back a, \"Get back to work.\"\n\nTwo more men carry another corpse on a gurney as they enter. \n\nMitsu lies in her bunk at night, remaining cautiously asleep. She is in the white nightgown of the House. \n\nMitsu turns on her side to find Nix in his white-gray robe and carrying a lantern.\n\n\"Who are you?\" Nix asks. \n\nMitsu sits up out of the covers and at the edge of her bunk. \"Mitsuba.\"\n\n\"And where did you come from?\" Nix asks her. \n\nMitsu stands in front of the alpha. \n\n\"Westeria. My family home is Snowstorm. I’m the younger daughter of a great lord. But, the man that I saw as my true father was Guren Ichinose. He died in battle.\" Mitsu says trying to lie. \n\nNix hits her swiftly with the large stick causing Mitsu to gasp a breath at the sharp pain in her arm. \n\n\"A lie.\" Nix says. \n\n\"After he was executed I fled the capital. Had to kill a stable boy. Drove my sword through his back.\" Mitsu lies again. \n\nNix hits her with the stick again. \"A lie.\"\n\nMitsu pauses for a moment before continuing, \"I stabbed him in the gut. I tried to find my brothers. I never did. They were murdered and betrayed. An outlaw kidnapped me. A man called Pollick.\"\n\nNix hits her again. \"A lie.\"\n\n\"A woman called the Hound. My sister Aoi Sanguu. She was wounded in a fight. She begged me to kill her but I wouldn’t. I left her in the mountains to die. I wanted her to suffer, I hated her.\" Mitsu says. \n\nNix hits her again. \n\nMitsu is taken aback, not catching her lie before she repeats, \"I hate her.\"\n\nNix hits her again. \n\n\"I hated her!\" Mitsu shouts in frustration at Nix. \n\nNix hits her again. \n\n\"That is not a lie!\" Mitsu shouts again. \n\n\"The girl lies. To me. To the Many Faced God. To herself. Does she truly want to be no one?\" Nix asks her. \n\n\"Yes.\" Mitsu says after a moment passes. \n\nNix hits her with the stick, this time in the face. Mitsu falls to the ground and looks up at the alpha, blood falls from her lip. \n\n\"I’m not playing this stupid game anymore!\" Mitsu shouts at Nix. \n\n\"We never stop playing.\" Nix tells her as walks past her and out of the room.\n\nIn the grand room of the House of Black and White, Mitsu scrubs the stone floors in the dark room. Torches give the room a night blue hue with orange in small areas where fires are lit. \n\nAn omega man carries a young omegan girl in. Mitsu watches as he walks towards a pool and sets her down near the edge. She leans on the stone border as the man looks around before his eyes find Mitsu. \n\nHe makes his way towards her, \"Valar morghulis.\"\n\nMitsu looks up, \"Valar dohaeris.\"\n\n\"I have nowhere else to go. I’ve taken her to every healer in Harajuku. I’ve spent every penny I had. She suffers every day of her life. I just want it to end.\" The omega tells her. \n\nMitsu looks the man in the eye before looking at the girl who leans on the fountain ledge. \n\nMitsu looks around to see if anyone is around before sitting right next to the girl's head on the fountain edge. She squeezes the girl's arm gently. \n\n\"It hurts.\" The girl tells her weakly. \n\n\"I know. Don’t be afraid. I used to be like you.\" Mitsu says before her eyes dilate when she recalls what Nix told her last night. What this truly is, it's all part of the Game of Faces and they never stop playing. She goes along with it and finally understands before she begins to play the game. \"I was sick. I was dying. But my father never gave up on me. He loved me. More than anything in the world, just like your father loves you.\"\n\nThe girl looks down as Mitsu continues. \n\n\"So he brought me here. My father prayed to the many faced god. And I drank the water from this fountain. It healed me.\" Mitsu tells the girl as she turns to the water. \n\nThe alpha girl takes one of the small bowls and fills it with the water before offering it to the omega girl with kind eyes, \"I’ve devoted my life to him now. You don’t want to hurt anymore. Drink.\"\n\nMitsu brings the cup to the girl's mouth before she accepts and begins to sip it. The alpha watches carefully as the girl gulps down to water. She knows now what they do and where the bodies she washes comes from as the girl drinks the water. \n\nAll three in the room remain unaware of Nix's eyes watching Mitsu from behind the pillar. \n\nMitsu fixes the hair of the same dead omegan girl as she lies on the table, now a corpse. \n\nMitsu looks up towards the open door at the end that she was trying to get into before when she sees a dark shadow appear in the corner of her eye. She turns to find Nix in his gray robe, staring at her from the doorway. \n\nThe man remains silent before turning away, quietly beckoning for Mitsu to follow after him with the look he gave her. \n\nMitsu looks at the other open door at the front before hesitantly walking through the door at the end. \n\nMitsu follows the alpha down a dark staircase, lit with plates of lit coals to provide a guiding pathway. They pass multiple entry halls where she sees more men with gurneys and bodies being carried by them. \n\nMitsu finally reaches the bottom of the steps and follows Nix to two enormous doors. \n\nMitsu's eyes widen in shock when she steps inside, Nix moves aside to let her walk further into the dimly-lit grand hall. \n\nThe alpha girl looks around in awe as she looks at the numerous stone pillars which contain thousands of faces belonging to dead people on them. Alpha, beta, and omega. Men, women, and children. Old and young. All kinds of faces are in rows that go around the circumference of each of the stone pillars. All of the eyes on the faces are closed shut. Small lamps light the bottom of the pillars. \n\nMitsu ascends the steps in awe as she looks around. She makes her way towards one pillar and studies the faces. \n\nNix appears beside her, \"Is the girl ready to give up her ears, her nose, her tongue, her hopes and dreams, her loves and hates, all that makes a girl who she is, forever?\"\n\nMitsu steps closer as her eyes falls on an old lady's face. She touches the skin gently with her index finger and strokes down to feel the leathery skin, almost like a mask. She can't remove her eyes from the face. \n\n\"No.\" Nix says. \n\nThat catches Mitsu's attention and causes her to pull away.\n\n\"The girl is not ready to become no one. But she is ready to become someone else.\" Nix tells her. \n\nMitsu's hand falls as she watches the face in front of her in shock, awe, and intrigue. \n\n\n Riverlands - The Borders of Nagoya\n\n\nIn the afternoon a good distance further from the church, Aoi and the followers of Brother Ritsuo form a circle around the alpha Septon. Brother Ritsuo stands in the center of the circle as the followers sit and stand around him, their attention entirely on him as he speaks to them.\n\nAoi stands at the border of the circle, behind the entire flock of them. The wooden church framing stands on a hill behind them where they remain in a trimmed grass clearing. \n\n\"I was a soldier once. All my superiors thought I was brave. I wasn’t. I mean, I never ran from a fight. Only because I was afraid my friends would see I was afraid. That’s all I was, a coward. We followed orders no matter the orders.\" Brother Ritsuo tells them, \"Burn that village. Fine, I’m your arsonist. Steal that farmer’s crops. Good, I’m your thief. Kill those young lads so they won’t take up arms against us. I’m your murderer. I remember once a woman screaming at us, calling us animals as we dragged her son from their hut. But we weren’t animals. Animals are true to their nature and we had betrayed ours. I cut that young boy’s throat myself as his mother screamed and my friends held her back.\"\n\nRitsuo sits on a stump near one of the men and rests his hand on his shoulder. \n\n\"That night...I felt such shame. Shame was so heavy on me, I couldn’t eat and I couldn’t sleep.\" Ritsuo tells them as Aoi lowers her eyes in shame from having similar experiences where she was the inflicting party, \"All I could do was stare into that dark sky and listen to that mother screaming her son’s name. I’ll hear her screaming the rest of my life.\"\n\nRitsuo stands and makes his way back to the center of the circle as all the followers look at him with rapt attention.\n\n\"Now, I know I can never bring that lad back. All I can do with time I’ve got left is bring a little goodness into the world. That’s all any of us can do, isn’t it? Never too late to stop robbing people, to stop killing people. Start helping people.\" Ritsuo says as Aoi really listens to his words. \"It’s never too late to come back.\"\n\nAoi looks up to find his eyes already on her face. The sound of neighing in the distance catches her attention as she looks to see three men ride towards them on horseback. Aoi's eyes widen as her tension increases.\n\nThe faint scents of one alpha and two betas come into her nostrils as they get closer. Aoi walks closer into the circle of villagers, both to blend in and to distinguish herself for intimidation amongst the followers as she looks up at the riders. \n\nBrother Ritsuo watches as the men ride towards them. \"And it’s not about waiting for the gods to answer your prayers. It’s not even about the gods. It’s about you. Learning you have to answer your prayers yourself.\"\n\nThe three men reach the group and stop at a short distance away as Ritsuo moves out of the circle to meet them. All of the followers stand as they take in their appearances. The alpha has horrendous black bangs, one beta has blonde hair a darker yellow than Aoi, and the other has pink hair. \n\n\"Seven save you, friends. How can we help you?\" Brother Ritsuo asks them. \n\n\"What are you doing here?\" The black banged one asks. \n\n\"Well, we’re talking about life. You?\" Ritsuo asks. \n\n\"Protecting the people.\"\n\n\"Well, we thank you for your protection. Who are you protecting us from?\" Ritsuo says. \n\nThe man looks around the area before asking, \"Do you have any horses?\"\n\n\"No horses. No gold. No steel.\" Brother Ritsuo says. \n\n\"Food, then. Protecting the people is hungry work.\" The black-banged alpha says. \n\n\"I’m sure it is. You’re welcome to stay for supper, but we have hungry mouths here.\" Brother Ritsuo says as Aoi readies herself to fight. \n\nThe alpha's face hardens before his voice drops into a cold octave. \"Stay safe. The night is dark and full of terrors.\"\n\nBrother Ritsuo nods as the three men simply turn their backs and leave the grassy clearing. \n\nWorry and relief both fill Aoi as she watches them leave. \n\nAoi splits wood on the chopping block with the large axe in a secluded part of the forest, away from everyone in the camp. She sees Brother Ritsuo approaching her out of the corner of her eye, but continues to chop. \n\n\"“Seven save you, friends.”\" Aoi mockingly repeats Ritsuo's words as he approaches. \n\n\"I’m a fucking septon. What was I supposed to say?\" Brother Ritsuo retorts. \n\n\"They don’t believe in your Seven. They’re from the Brotherhood. They follow the Red God.\" Aoi tells him. \n\n\"Aye, well, all are welcome here. Anyway, we got nothing for them.\" Brother Ritsuo shrugs simply. \n\nAoi stops chopping wood and glares at the man, \"Sure, you do. You’ve got food, you’ve got steel even if you say you don’t. And you’ve got women and omegas.\"\n\n\"What do you want to do? Fight them? Kill them?\" Brother Ritsuo challenges. \n\nAoi only shrugs and sighs. \n\n\"It’d be you against all of them. I mean, these people don’t know how to fight.\"\n\n\"You do.\" Aoi retorts. \n\n\"I’m done with fighting.\" Brother Ritsuo says. \n\n\"Even if it’s to protect yourself?\" Aoi challenges. \n\n\"Violence is a disease. You don’t cure a disease by spreading it to more people.\" Brother Ritsuo says. \n\n\"You don’t cure it by dying, either.\" Aoi says before turning back with her axe to continue chopping. \n\n\"You’ve done enough work for one day. Come on up for some supper.\" Brother Ritsuo says after a moment before turning back on the path. \n\n\"It’s gonna be a cold night. We’ll need firewood.\" Aoi huffs defensively and dismissively. \n\n\"I’ll save you a bowl of stew. Might even have some ale hidden away.\" Brother Ritsuo says with a small smile. \n\nA ghost of a smile appears on Aoi's face before she continues her task after Brother Ritsuo is gone. \n\nThe sun is setting as Aoi, chops some wood from the fallen branches of the tree. She slices the leaves off with a machete before bringing out her water-skin. The alpha woman takes large gulps of water after tossing the machete down. She sighs and heaves breath after working so hard all day. \n\nSuddenly she freezes as the faint and distant sounds of screams fill her ears. She turns towards the direction which is the direction she came from. It's where Brother Ritsuo's camp is.\n\nThe alpha's eyes widen as her feet move before she can even think. \n\nAoi rushes through the woods, not even picking up the machete.\n\nBy the time, Aoi finally escapes the forest to find the bodies of all of the villagers littering the grass and the three perpetrators gone already. \n\nBlood pools with the brown and green grass. Arrows, sword, and knife wounds pierce the skin of every villager in Brother Ritsuo's camp. \n\nAoi passes a young omegan girl on the ground with an arrow in her back her alpha mother and beta father not far from her. There are no survivors in Aoi's sight as she watches in distraught horror and carefully makes her way through the camp. \n\nBowls and tables littler the ground, clearly showing how the entire camp was ransacked and destroyed. \n\nAoi's feet lead her closer towards the wooden framing for the church as the alpha is unknowingly guided towards it. \n\nHer face falls when she sees what hangs inside of the church frame at the center. \n\nAoi walks closer towards the hung corpse of Brother Ritsuo that is hung at the top of the church like some chandelier. The man has bloody wounds littering his face as Aoi looks at him. The man's skin is pale and his eyes are wide. \n\nThe anger and fury has been slowly climbing within her to overtake her horror as she made her way through the now destroyed camp. Now, it is at its peak as she looks at the other alpha's corpse.  \n\nAoi steels herself and turns back before her eyes find the chopping block. She takes heavy stomps towards it and picks back up the axe before heading back into the forest.\n\nThe three men sit around a campfire with two other younger men, they look to be small teenagers that are lanky and have not yet grown into themselves yet. One of them even an omega boy, the other a beta.  \n\n\"I was a famous kisser. You lads know how to kiss proper?\" The black-banged alpha asks. \n\nThe two young men look at each other as the other two older betas smirk to themselves. \n\n\"Course we do.\" The young beta says. \n\n\"This is for masters, this technique. You’re not ready.\" The black-banged alpha says. \n\n\"I’m ready.\" The omega stands. \n\n\"He says he’s ready.\" The pink-haired beta says. \n\n\"All right.\" The black-banged alpha says before standing up and making his way towards the young omega. \n\n\"Now, pay attention. You put your left hand on the back of the omega’s head.\" The alpha says as he puts his hand on the back of the omega's head before moving his other hand to his lower back. \"Your right hand holds the small of the lady’s back like so.\"\n\n\"Very romantic. Take your middle finger, yeah, and you jam it right up their bunghole.\" The alpha says before shoving his hand down the omega's pants causing the omega to scream and push the man away. The betas burst out laughing as the alpha disgustingly smells his finger. \n\n\"So fucking close!\"\n\n\"Ah, it smells like cunt to me.\" The alpha says. \n\n\"Look at him. You get hard, boy?\" The beta shames the omega. \n\n\"Fuck you! Disgusting old twats.\" The omega says before taking his seat. \n\nThe blonde beta's eyes dial in on Aoi's approaching body with an axe. \n\nThe two other betas and the omega finally dial in on the alpha girl as the alpha man turns around when he sees them all fall silent. \n\nAoi only growls and swiftly decapitates the alpha's head off his shoulders. His neck spurts blood before falling to the ground. The hand bounces onto the ground. \n\nAoi turns and drives her axe into the chest of the pink-haired beta. The axe becomes stuck in the man's chest as she tries to pull it out allowing for the blonde beta to unsheathe his dagger and stab her in the side. \n\nAoi winces in pain as that was one of the areas that were still healing from when she was thrown off the mountain. She turns and strikes the beta hard across the face before pulling out the dagger. The blonde beta staggers and by the time he regains his senses Aoi has lodged her knife deep in his skull. \n\nAoi turns to the young omega seated and swears another man was there. The omega trembles in fear as he looks up at Aoi. \n\nThe young beta tries to stab Aoi from behind with his sword but another blade pierces clean through him. \n\nAoi turns as his body falls to the ground she looks up to see a cloaked figure holding the sword. She's ready for another fight before he pulls down his hood. \n\nA wave of familiarity overtakes her as she inhales this beta's scent. \n\nAoi turns back to the omega, \"You better fucking run.\"\n\nThe omega scurries away from the alpha and the beta. \n\n\"You look fucking familiar.\" Aoi says. \"Who are you?\"\n\n\"Lady Sanguu, you don't remember me?\" The beta boy asks. \n\nThe dark hair, submissive and accommodating eyes, and beta scent and figure all look familiar to Aoi for some reason. This beta should be unremarkable, but he remains familiar to her. \n\n\"I wouldn't fucking ask if I did remember you.\" Aoi says. \n\n\"I'm Junji. Junji of House Haiyama. I was squire to Lord Shinya Hiiragi. We fought in the Battle of Bluewater together.\" Junji tells her. \n\nAoi takes a moment before her mind pieces together who this is. This was the little beta that followed Shinya around when he was Hand of the King three years ago. Aoi now recognizes him. \n\n\"You're hurt.\" Junji says softly as he sees her bloody hip. \n\n\"Aye.\" Aoi shrugs. \n\n\"I can heal you.\" Junji says. \n\n\"You're not fucking taking me back to Shibuya.\" Aoi says heatedly. \"You saw what I can do with just this axe and three men, imagine how much I can slowly kill you when I give you my full attention.\"\n\nJunji steps back with his hands raised in defense and his face slightly fearful, \"I am not going back there either. Lord Shinya sent me away before his trial so that I would be safe from his family.\"\n\n\"Shinya's trial?\" Aoi asks. \n\nJunji nods. \"I can tell you everything after you let me heal you.\"\n\nAoi remains hesitant as she studies the beta before she deems him unthreatening. \"Fuck fine. But, spare no detail on everything.\"\n\nJunji nods complacently as Aoi sits while the beta moves to heal her wound. \n\n\nShibuya \n\n\nLord Kagiyama walks through the familiar streets of Shibuya with two guards following behind him as he heads to the Royal Keep.\n\nKagiyama passes men clad in black robes with shaved heads and seven-pointed stars carved onto their foreheads. \n\n\"Lord Kagiyama.\" A deep voice causes the sly beta to stop.\n\n\"Yes?\" Kagiyama says before turning to see Hozumi Iwasaki with a larger party of faith militant, \"Hozumi Iwasaki.\"\n\n\"Brother Hozumi. We abandoned our family names.\" Hozumi tells the man as he moves to stand in front of him. \n\n\"Well you never really had your House's name, did you?\" Kagiyama tells him. \n\n\"The city has changed since you were here last. We flooded the gutters with wine, smashed the false idols, and sent the godless on the run.\" Hozumi tells Kagiyama. \n\n\"Well done.\" Kagiyama says before taking a step forward.\n\nHozumi puts a hand on his shoulder to stop him as Kagiyama's men's hands fall to their sword handles.\n\n\"I’m here on urgent business for the Queen Mother. Should I send word that I’ll be delayed?\" Kagiyama tells the petulant child. \n\nHozumi's hand falls as he warns the beta, \"Step carefully, Lord Kagiyama. You’ll find that there’s little tolerance for flesh peddlers in the new Shibuya.\"\n\n\"We both peddle fantasies, Brother Hozumi. Mine just happen to be entertaining.\" Kagiyama tells the beta as he brushes past him.\n\nKagiyama sits across from Mahiru in her royal chambers as the omega studies the beta man over her goblet of wine. \n\n\"Do you think it’s wise, Your Grace, arresting the heir to Akino?\" Kagiyama asks. \n\n\"The Faith arrested the heir to Akino.\" Mahiru says dismissively. \n\n\"Of course. And the Faith were armed on your orders.\" Kagiyama retorts. \n\n\"The King’s orders.\" Mahiru enunciates, \"Is the King to blame for Ser Reo’s infidelity?\"\n\n\"House Inoue won’t tolerate these insults.\"\n\n\"House Inoue won’t tolerate it?\" Mahiru gasps in faux exasperation, \"I’m the insulted party, Lord Kagiyama. Ser Reo was married to my sister, instead he chose the company of others who were not his wife.\" \n\n\"One’s choice of companion is a curious thing.\" Kagiyama tells her in a knowing undertone. \n\n\n\nMahiru remains silent for a moment as she ponders the implication of Kagiyama's words on her relationship with Kureto. \n\n\n\n\"Most curious. Fumie Hyakuya for instance. A sorely repellent woman. Forgive me. I know you’re still in mourning.\" Mahiru says. \n\n\n\n\"Fumie was a good omega. A kind omega.\" Kagiyama says. \n\n\n\n\"She was neither of those things, we both know it. Still, I pity her son. How fortunate that the young Lord of the Vale has a new father to counsel him.\" Mahiru tells him with a sickly sweet smile. \n\n\n\n\"I know how hard it can be to lose both of your parents at such a young age.\" Kagiyama says. \n\n\n\n\"If war comes to Westeria will the Knights of Ebina fight for their King?\" Mahiru asks after a beat passes. \n\n\n\n\"Young Lord Ryuki heeds my advice. And I have always counseled loyalty to the throne.\" Kagiyama says. \n\n\n\n\"Good.\" Mahiru nods before getting up to refill her goblet, \"If there's nothing else-\"\n\n\n\n\"There is another matter, your Grace. Something so urgent I couldn’t trust the words to a raven. You once charged me with finding Mitsuba Sanguu. To my shame I failed you. But I have found Shinoa Hiiragi. Alive, and well, and home again. In Snowstorm.\" Kagiyama tells her. \n\n\n\n\nMahiru looks up as she retakes her seat and shakes her head, \"That’s not possible.\"\n\n\n\n\"My sources are well placed.\" Kagiyama says, \"They tell me Shoya Hanayori plans to marry her to his son, Ky, a bastard recently legitimized by King Tyuri.\"\n\n\n\n\"Shoya Hanayori is Warden of the North by the grace of my uncle.\" Mahiru seethes. \"We were fools to trust a turncoat.\"\n\n\n\n\"Marrying his son to the last of Guren's children, let alone a Hiiragi gives him more legitimacy in Nagoya than an alliance with a hated southern house.\" Kagiyama tells her.\n\n\n\n\n \"I will skin him and his bastard like that wretch on that bloody sigil.\" Mahiru says vengefully. \n \n\n\n\n \"I would counsel patience, Your Grace.\" Kagiyama says. \n\n\n\n \"Patience? Shinoa helped murder my son, Shoya Hanayori is a traitor.\" Mahiru says. \n \n\n\n\n \"Guren's bastard, Yuuichirou Amane still lives, but at Ikebukuro. If that boy has any of his father's sense or honor than he will go to war eventually for Snowstorm to get his home back. Let the Amane boy and the Hanayori's battle, let the enemies of the throne slaughter each other and when they’re done seize Snowstorm from whichever thief survives.\" Kagiyama tells her.  \n\n\n\n \"Nagoya is 1,000 miles away from here. The weather has already begun to turn.\" Mahiru says. \n \n\n\n\n \"That is why it is critical to strike when the victor still licks his wounds. Surely your family could muster a force.\" Kagiyama says. \"Ser Kureto?\" \n\n\n\n \"Kureto is away on a sensitive diplomatic mission. I’ve no idea when he’ll be back.\" Mahiru says. \n \n\n\n\n \"Perhaps I can help. The Knights of Ebina are some of the best fighters in Westeria, trained to battle in the ice and the snow.\" Kagiyama says.  \n\n\n\n \"Forgive me Lord Kagiyama, you have a reputation as a money lender and brothel keeper, not a military man.\" Mahiru says.  \n\n\n\n \"You wouldn’t risk a single Hiiragi soldier or a single coin from the Royal Treasury. What do you have to lose, a brothel keeper?\" Kagiyama entices her.  \n\n\n\n \"And if you succeed?\" Mahiru asks in interest.  \n\n\n\n \"Name me Warden of the North.\" Kagiyama says.  \n\n\n\n \"I’ll speak to the King this evening. Have him issue a royal decree.\" Mahiru says after a moment of contemplation.  \n\n\n\n \"I’ll not rest until the lion flies over Snowstorm.\" Kagiyama says.  \n\n\n\n \"And I’ll l know you’re a man of your word when I see that cunt Shinoa’s head on a spike.\" Mahiru says.  \n\n\n\n \"As I said. I live to serve.\" Kagiyama says with a ghost of a smile.  \n\n\nA carriage rides to Shibuya outside of the city and on the muddy Kingsroad. \n\n\"HALT!\" A rider shouts as the green and gold carriage stops. \n\nThe window opens from inside as Lady Kimiko Inoue recoils at the smell. \n\n\"Oh! You can smell the shit from five miles away.\" Lady Kimiko complains before shrugging and raising her voice, \"Well, why are we stopped, go on.\"\n\nIn the gardens of Shibuya, the newly arrived Lady Kimiko and Queen Rika stroll through and discuss the state of their house. \n\n\"Rumors and gossip, that’s all they got. It’s theater, nothing more. If they arrested all the adulterers in Shibuya there’d be no room left in the dungeons for anyone else.\" Lady Kimiko says. \n\n\"Everyone knew about his leniency.\" Rika says. \n\n\"No one cared when Tenri Hiiragi did it. No one cared when Mahiru Hiiragi did it. No one cared when Kureto Hiiragi did it. But, they still knew.\" Lady Kimiko says before shaking her head. \"No, no, no, no, this is unacceptable.\"\n\n\"Mahiru is behind this.\" Rika says with a miffed look overtaking her face. \n\n\"Of course she is. She wants to drag our names through the dirt. Put us in our place.\" Lady Kimiko says before turning to Rika, \"Get some rest, dear, you look appalling. Let me deal with Mahiru Hiiragi.\"\n\nIn Mahiru's chambers, the Queen Mother writes at her desk without even acknowledging the old lady in front of her.\n\n\"Your Grace, I have travelled a long way.\" Lady Kimiko finally says after having enough. \n\n\"You must be exhausted.\" Mahiru remarks as she continues her action.\n\n\"Put the pen down, dear, we all know you aren’t writing anything.\" Lady Kimiko calls out Mahiru's bullshit. \n\n\"Ah, yes, the famously tart-tongued Queen of Thorns.\" Mahiru puts down her pen to give the old omega her attention. \n\n\"And the famous tart Queen Mahiru.\" Lady Kimiko bites back. \n\n\"Beg your pardon.\" Mahiru's face falls. \n\n\"I know you’re behind this absurd incarceration of my grandson.\" Lady Kimiko says. \n\n\"If you apologize for that comment perhaps-\" Mahiru starts. \n\n\"You’ll get your apology when I get Reo.\" Lady Kimiko says. \n\n\"I was as shocked as anyone when The Faith arrested Ser Reo. I have no love for these fanatics. But what can the Queen Mother do?\" Mahiru says with a sigh. \n\n\"Has the crown suddenly stopped needing the troops, gold, and wheat my house supplies?\" Lady Kimiko asks. \n\n\"I assure you our alliance with House Inoue remains-\" Mahiru starts. \n\n\"Do you expect the alliance to continue after you’ve thrown our future into prison?\" Lady Kimiko interrupts. \n\n\"As I said, I didn’t imprison anyone. As for your veiled threats-\" Mahiru starts. \n\n\"What veil?\" Lady Kimiko retorts. \n\n\"The Hiiragi-Inoue alliance brought peace to a war-torn country. Do you really want to see the Six Kingdoms slide back into warfare?\" Mahiru asks.\n\n\"I didn’t trust your father or you uncle. I didn’t particularly like them. But I respected them. They were not fools. They understood that sometimes we must work with our rivals rather than destroy them.\" Lady Kimiko says. \n\n\"House Hiiragi has no rival. The High Septon has called for an inquest, not a trial. Just a small hearing to determine whether the charges against Reo have merit, which I’m sure they don’t. Reo will be freed, our happy alliance will continue, and we’ll forget this unfortunate conversation ever happened. Good day, Lady Kimiko.\" Mahiru says as she turns back to her fake writing. \n\nLady Kimiko knows she will not get anywhere and sighs before getting up and exiting Mahiru's chambers. \n\nAs soon as she's gone Mahiru puts down the quill and paper before looking up with a ghost of a content smile. \n\nIn the chambers of the High Sparrow, the barefooted man paces on the stone floor in front of a seated Ser Reo. Lady Kimiko, Rika, King Tyuri, and Mahiru sit in front of the beta man. The man's clothes are dirtied as is his blonde hair. He has a blonde beard growing from being so unkempt. An empty chair is placed beside Lady Kimiko.\n\n\"You are aware of the rumors concerning you and the omegas and alphas you bed.\" The High Sparrow says. \n\n\"I don’t pay attention to rumors.\" Ser Reo says. \n\n\"Some died and you were spoken of as being despondent and inconsolable. You waited by their bedsides as they passed.\" The High Sparrow says. \"Do you deny all of the charges against you? Fornication, infidelity, blasphemy.\"\n\n\"Of course I deny them.\" Ser Reo says. \n\n\"You never lay with any omega outside of marriage.\" The High Sparrow says. \n\n\"Never.\" Reo says definitively. \n\n\"Nor any other beta nor alpha.\"\n\n\"Never.\" Reo reiterates.\n\n\"That will be all Ser Reo.\" The High Sparrow says. \n\nReo rises and retakes his seat. \n\n\"Well I think that’s quite enough of that.\" Lady Kimiko says before moving to stand. \n\nThe High Sparrow moves to stand before them before saying, \"Faith calls Queen Rika forward.\"\n\nRika's eyes dilate, \"You call me forward?\"\n\n\"Yes. We have some questions for you.\" The High Sparrow says. \n\n\"I am the queen.\" Rika tells him almost offended. \n\n\"You are. And according to Law of the Seven, neither Kings nor Queens are exempt from testimony at a holy inquest.\" The High Sparrow says as Rika glares down the line to find Mahiru's smug eyes on her. \n\nRika releases her breath before standing and moving towards the backless seat where Reo was before sitting down. \n\n\"How do you respond to these charges against your brother?\" The High Sparrow asks. \n\n\"They are lies.\" Rika says bluntly. \n\n\"All of them?\" The High Sparrow says. \n\n\"All of them.\" Rika agrees. \n\n\"Queen Rika, in the presence of the gods, do you swear that your brother is innocent of these charges against him, to the best of your knowledge?\" The High Sparrow asks the omega.\n\n\"Yes, I swear it.\" Rika says. \n\n\"Thank you, Your Grace.\" The High Sparrow says as Rika rises and retakes her seat. \n\nA door is opened and Olyviae is escorted in by the members of the Faith Militant. Reo's heart stops and Rika tenses slightly as the omega takes a seat. A thin smile appears on Mahiru's face. \n\n\"Do you know this man?\" The High Sparrow asks the omega. \n\n\"Yes, very well. He is Ser Reo Inoue, heir to Akino.\" Olyviae nods. \n\n\"How did you come to meet?\" The High Sparrow asks. \n\n\"I used to walk by the training grounds with the other omegas. He took a liking to me and summoned me to his chamber the first day we met.\" Olyviae recounts. \n\n\"And what occurred in his chamber?\" The High Sparrow asks. \n\n\"We engaged in intimate relations.\" Olyviae says. \n\n\"You laid with him?\" The High Sparrow asks. \n\n\"That night and many others.\" Olyviae nods. \n\n\"Liar! He’s a liar!\" Reo shouts angrily. \n\n\"Is there anyone else who can support your claim?\" The High Sparrow asks. \n\n\"Yes, yes, Queen Rika.\" Olyviae says as Rika feels Tyuri's eyes turn to her lowered face. \"She walked in on us once not long ago. She didn’t seem surprised.\"\n\n\"This testimony is an insult to a great house. Why should The Faith or anyone else take the word of a squire over the heir to Akino?\" Mahiru talks for show to appear innocent. \n\n\"He has a birthmark, Your Grace. Quite high on his thigh, wine-colored, and roughly the shape of Harajuku.\" Olyviae says. \n\n\nA ghost of a smile overtakes Mahiru's face when Reo lunges towards the omega, but being pulled back by the Faith Militant before he can lay a hand on him. \n\n\n\n\"Liar! Liar! Liar!\" Reo shouts. \n\n\n\nRika and Lady Kimiko stand and moves towards the door to leave when Reo is taken out of the door, but the Faith Militant block their exit. \n\n\n\n\"What are you doing? Let us pass.\" Lady Kimiko says. \n\n\n\n\"The Faith is satisfied that there is enough evidence to bring a formal trial for Ser Reo...\" The High Sparrow tells them, \"And Queen Rika.\"\n\n\n\nRika's eyes widen and the omega stiffens. \n\n\n\nFury is etched in Lady Kimiko's voice as she shouts, \"WHAT?\"\n\n\n\n\"Bearing false witness before the gods is as grave a sin as any.\" The High Sparrow says before addressing the two men. \"Take her.\"\n\n\n\nRika's arms are grabbed by the dark-robed alphas as they force her out of the room. Tyuri turns to his Kingsguard who move before being stopped by the Faith Militant. \n\n\n\n\"No, Tyuri! Tyuri!\" Rika shouts as she is dragged away. \n\n\n\nTyuri looks around the room, unsure of what to do. He raises a hand. \n\n\n\n\"You can’t do this, I am the queen! Tyuri, Tyuri! I am your queen, how dare you!\" Rika shouts at the High Sparrow on the way out the doors. \n\n\n\nLady Kimiko glares at Mahiru as the purple-haired omega smiles smugly at her.  \n\n\n\n Shinjuku - The Countryside Outside of Valyria \n\n\nNear the sea, Ser Lacus looks at the greyscale patch on his wrist before covering it with his yellow shirt sleeve.\n\nShinya returns from relieving himself, \"So, those villages we were supposed to find. We can’t live on berries and roots.\"\n\n\"I can.\" Ser Lacus says. \n\n\"You’re not hungry?\" Shinya asks. \n\n\"Of course I’m hungry.\" Ser Lacus says. \n\n\"You’re an awful travelling companion, do you know that? Possibly the least charming man I have ever met. And this is including alphas who are just unpleasant for an omega to deal with.\" Shinya says. \n\n\"I am not your travelling companion.\"\n\n\"We are travelling together. In each other’s company. Therefore...\" Shinya trails off.\n\n\"Do you ever shut up?\" Lacus asks. \n\n\"I sailed from Shibuya to Kyrna in a crate. Without ever saying a word.\" Shinya says. \n\n\nLacus moves to sit closer to where Shinya is at. \n\n\n\n\"Why?\" Lacus asks. \n\n\n\n\"Never occurred to you to ask why until now? You never wondered why Shinya Hiiragi decided to visit a brothel in Asshain.\" Shinya says. \n\n\n\nLacus raises a brow that tells him to continue. \n\n\n\nShinya sighs before speaking, \"I killed my uncle. He wanted to execute me for a crime I didn’t commit.\"\n\n\n\nSer Lacus stands. \n\n\n\n\"As miserable as you are, Welt, at least your father was a good alpha.\" Shinya says. \n\n\n\n\"What do you know about my father?\" Lacus asks. \n\n\n\n\"I visited him when I was much younger, sometime after the rebellion.\" Shinya says. \"How do they say it in the North? “We shall never see his like again.”\"\n\n\n\n\nSer Lacus looks at Shinya with a stunned look. \n\n\n\nShinya's eyes widen as a realization overtakes him, \"You didn’t know. I’m sorry. I am.\"\n\n\n\n\n\"How?\" Ser Lacus asks with glassy eyes. \n\n\n\n\"I only know what I heard.\" Shinya says. \n\n\n\n\"How?\" Ser Lacus asks insistently. \n\n\n\n\"He was leading an expedition. There was a mutiny. He was murdered by his own men.\" Shinya says. \n\n\n\nLacus nods before standing, \"We better get moving.\"\n\n\nSer Lacus walks away before Shinya soon follows after him. \n\nShinya and Lacus make their way through an open green valley. \n\nShinya's curiosity takes over when a thought enters his mind, \"Why Mikaela? Why is he worth all this? As I recall, the Welt's fought against the Shindo's during Hiiragi’s Rebellion.\"\n\n\"Do you believe in anything?\" Ser Lacus asks after a moment passes. \n\n\"I believe in many things.\" Shinya says. \n\n\"In something greater than ourselves, I mean. The Gods. Destiny. Do you believe there's a plan for this world?\" Ser Lacus asks. \n\n\"Not really, no.\" Shinya says. \n\n\"Neither did I. I was a cynic, just like you. Then I saw an omega boy step into a great fire with three stone eggs. When the fire burned out I thought I’d find his blackened bones. Instead I found him. Mikaela. Alive and unhurt, arguably more powerful than I've ever seen him. Holding his baby dragons. Have you ever heard baby dragons singing?\" Ser Lacus asks. \n\n\"No.\"\n\n\"It's hard to be a cynic after that.\" Ser Lacus says. \n\n\"Doesn’t mean she’s going to be a great queen.\" Shinya argues. \n\n\"No. it doesn’t.\" Ser Lacus says. \n\n\"The Shindo's are famously insane. What if he conquers the world? Then what? 1,000 years of peace and prosperity?\" Shinya asks. \n\n\"First we have to conquer the world.\" Ser Lacus says. \n\n\"We? Alright, let’s assume your dreams come true. He’s ecstatic when you bring him this enemy omega. He hacks off my head and restores your position. You command his army, sail to Westeria, defeat all your enemies, then watch as he climbs those steps and sits on the Seraphin Throne. Hurrah, long live the Queen. Then what?\" Shinya challenges.\n\n\"Then he rules.\" Ser Lacus says. \n\n\"So an omegan man who has not spent a single day of his adult life in Westeria becomes the ruler of Westeria? That’s justice?\" Shinya asks. \n\n\"He is the rightful heir.\" Ser Lacus says. \n\n\"Why, because his father who burned living men for amusement was the King?\" Shinya asks. \n\n\"You know, you are awfully cynical for an omega who crossed the Blood Sea just to meet this omega. Why were you doing that again? Because your family tried to kill you for a crime you didn't commit?\" Ser Lacus raises his voice defensively, \"You're saying your family is doing a better job of running that kingdom because that's why you're here to see Mikaela? In fact, look no better place of this omega's mercy than in your case of your beloved Guren.\"\n\nShinya stiffens. \n\n\"That omega had every right and opportunity to kill your alpha. But, he saved his life and gave him purpose despite knowing what his true motives always were. If he were really his father, your alpha would be nothing more than ashes blown away in the wind. But, he still lives because Mika let him. He serves Mika now, willingly and completely. It's why I'm here now!\" Lacus tells Shinya. \n\nShinya looks down in silence before stalking off. \n\nSer Lacus follows after as they head closer to the sea. Shinya is caught in his own thoughts until Ser Lacus roughly pushes him down to hide behind a rock. \n\n\"What?\" Shinya shouts. \n\n\"Shh! It’s a slave ship.\" Ser Lacus says, peeking over to see the large brown ship. \n\n\"Why is it anchored?\" Shinya asks as he now looks over. \n\n\"They probably came ashore for-\" Ser Lacus starts. \n\n\"Water.\" A voice behind them finishes. \n\nShinya and Ser Lacus turn to find themselves surrounded by alpha and beta men with swords pointed at them. \n\nA large and bald alabaster-skinned man smirks down at them. Most likely their leader. \n\nShinya and Lacus' hands are bound as they are made to kneel near the slavers' small rowboats by the shore. \n\nSer Lacus is punched by the leader. \n\n\"Got a lot of fight in you, huh?\" The leader says as Ser Lacus rises before punching the beta down again. \n\n\"Salt mines.\" Another slaver says as the leader moves to stand beside him. \n\n\"That or a galley slave. He looks strong enough.\" The leader says. \n\n\"What about the omega?\" The slaver says. \n\n\"Whorehouse, until then we can use him.\" Another slaver says.\n\nShinya stiffens as fear overtakes him.\n\n\"Whorehouses will give more money for untouched omegas, and they'll smell us on him. No one touches him until we get him to one.\" The leader says, \"The pretty ones like this slut fetch larger prices too.\"\n\n\"Queen Mikaela has outlawed slavery.\" Ser Lacus says. \n\n\"We’re bound to Asshain, not the Bay of Slaves. Besides, he reopened the fighting pits. I never heard of free men fighting in the pits.\" The leader tells Ser Lacus. \n\n\"The fighting puts in Meeridan! You’re in luck then, you’re about to be rich. You are looking at one of the great warriors in the Six Kingdoms.\" Shinya says desperately. \n\nThe leader laughs at Shinya. \n\n\"Him.\" Shinya gestures to Lacus. \n\n\"Him? He's not even an alpha.\" The leader says. \n\n\"Sure, we can all see that. But he is a veteran of 100 battles. They wrote songs about him!\" Shinya says. \n\nThe leader gestures for the men to bring Ser Lacus closer to them. \n\n\"Is that true?\" The leader asks Ser Lacus. \n\nLacus only nods. \n\n\"He won the tournament at Hiiragsport, unseating Ser Kureto Hiiragi himself.\" Shinya says. \n\n\nThe leader laughs, \"Jousting. You’re talking about jousting. A fancy game for fancy lads. The men who fight at Meeridan will swallow him whole.\"\n\n\n\n\"I killed a Dothraki blood rider in single combat.\" Ser Lacus says truthfully. \n\n\n\nThe leader comes to attention in shock and gets close to Lacus' face before sneering, \"Liar.\"\n\n\n\n\"It’s no lie. His name was Quatho. He was bloodrider to Khal Makoto. Take me to the Bay of Slaves, put a sword in my hand, and I’ll prove my worth.\" Ser Lacus says with a fierce determination. \n\n\n\nThe leader only nods as a slow smile crosses his face. \n\n\nIn Asshain at the Slaver's auction, the slaves are led onto the stage. \n\nShinya and Ser Lacus have cuffs placed around their wrists and necks that are bound to large and heavy chains. \n\nShinya is whipped by one of the men and grunts in pain as he is led to the stage with Lacus. \n\nSlaves are sold before Ser Lacus is brought onto the stage. \n\n\"A rare find for the fighting pits, my friends. Not your usual street tough old drunken pirate. This one’s a Westerian knight from an ancient house, trained in sword and lance. He fought beside the Lion King Tenri on the far side of the Blood Sea. He was first from the breach during the siege of Ryke, slaughtering fifty men with his flaming sword. He killed the great Khal Makoto in single combat. Betrayed by his omega, he sold himself into slavery to repay his debts. Bidding begins at twelve gold honors.\" The leader announces to the crowd of slave owners. \n\nA hand goes up. \n\n\"13. Do I have 14?\" The leader asks. \n\nAnother hand goes up.\n\n\"15? 15 gold honors. Do I have 16?\" The leader asks. \n\nAn alpha in the front wearing a dark brown robe, pants, and boots raises his hand. \"20.\"\n\n\"Sold!\" The leader shouts. \n\nSer Lacus is taken away by the man as Shinya's eyes widen in fear. \n\n\"Wait! You have to buy me as well.\" Shinya shouts to the brown-clad alpha. \n\n\"Why?\" The alpha asks.\n\n\"We’re a team. I’m a great fighter, too.\" Shinya says. \n\nThe crowd laughs all around as the man looks at the slave leader. \n\n\"He’s funny. You have to give him that.\" The leader says. \n\nThe rage in Shinya grows as the alpha holding his chain laughs at him. Shinya pulls the chain causing the alpha to fall to the ground before continuously beating him down with the heavy chains. The crowd roars as Shinya's eyes meet the ones of the brown-clad alpha. \n\n\"Alright. He’s funny.\" The alpha says, \"If he can't perform, I'm sure I'll find other uses for such a pretty omega.\"\n\n\nShinya cringes internally above all of the underlying relief flowing in him. The alpha hands the leader the coins. \n\n\n\n\"Thank you my Lord. Thank you.\" Shinya says to the man who turns his back on him. \n\n\n\n\"Yes.\" The alpha says as he tries to move away past the two.\n\n\n\nShinya walks with him to where Ser Lacus is at. \n\n\n\nSer Lacus nods to him as Shinya and he follow after the party of purchased slaves for the fighting pits. \n\n\n\n Shinjuku - Meeridan \n\n\nAt the docks of Shinjuku, Mikaela Shindo and Guren Ichinose stand with a sizeable guard of Untainted with the two. A medium-sized ship stands behind the alpha, the passengers on the ship are limited to a minimal amount of crew and merchants to make it look conspicuous. The sun is currently setting at the harbor. \n\nMika is clad in a white dress that's over his dark riding slacks and boots. His hair is down in more braids for mobility, in case something happens. Guren turns back from the ship and directs his gaze at Mika who has his hands clasped as he walks toward the alpha. The alpha is in his normal slacks, doublet, riding boots, and black cloak. \n\n\"Well, Lord Guren, I have never been known for giving good farewells.\" Mika tells him with a smirk. \n\nGuren huffs a chuckle, \"You're doing just fine, Your Grace.\"\n\n\"Flatterer.\" Mika chuckles and lets a beat pass before continuing. \"Three years ago, it was one of the first things I noticed about you.\"  \n\n\"It has gotten me far.\" Guren says. \n\n\"I agree. I hope you don't see yourself as the Kingslayer anymore, Lord Guren. You are no longer that in my eyes and you haven't been for a long time.\" Mika now looks at the ship.\n\n\"Of course, Your Grace.\" Guren says gratefully. \n\n\"It should be a relatively safe trip to the harbors of Westeria.\" Mika remarks has he studies the impressive ship. \n\n\"Where will it stop?\"\n\n\"I believe it's the Riverlands, a harbor near Ebina.\" Mika says. \"Figured it would be safer than sending you to Shibuya.\"\n\nGuren nods. \n\n\"Are you ready?\" Mika asks. \n\n\"No.\"\n\n\"Scared.\"\n\nGuren looks at the omega's probing sapphire eyes. \"Do you want me to be honest?\"\n\n\"You should never not be honest when talking to me.\" Mika says. \n\n\"I am. I have a small curdling in my gut that's telling me to stay. But, it's a small part.\" Guren tells Mika. \n\n\"And the rest?\"\n\n\"The rest has to know what happened to Yuu, Shinya, and the others.\" Guren says. \n\n\"Lord Guren, I do know this is something of a delicate situation.\" Mika faces the alpha. \"I want to let you know that your focus should be on ensuring your family is safe. I will be fine over here. But, you need to take care of yourself first over there. You're an alpha who is supposed to be dead, many would want to see your head on a spike. You have to be careful.\"\n\n\"I know.\"\n\n\"You have to stay safe because when I go over there, I want you to be the one that shows me the North.\" Mika tells him. \n\nGuren's eyes widen. \n\n\"I want to see you ruling your home when I get there, so that when I arrive you will be the one who shows it to me.\" Mika says. \"I know your allegiance is to me, but I know that your heart will always belong to Nagoya.\"\n\n\"Your Grace-\"\n\nMika raises a hand to stop him, \"I'm not saying you won't serve me. I'm telling you that your priority needs to be finding your family and getting the North back from the Hiiragi's. You don't need to spread my name around, I'll be doing that plenty when I arrive. When I go back home, I want to see you in Nagoya with whatever remains of your family. When I come to the North, you will be the one who shows me the beauty of it.\"\n\n\"Your Grace.\" Guren can only say as he's overwhelmed with emotion. The alpha doesn't know what to say so he just bows his head to the omega. \n\nMika smiles before moving to hug the alpha. Guren freezes and stiffens before returning the embrace.\n\nMika leans up to whisper in his ear, \"Win back your home and find your family, Lord Guren. I'll be there shortly.\"\n\nMika pulls away. \n\n\"Take care, Your Grace.\" Guren says, \"You're not your father and I know you never will be. You're something different and better than both of your parents. You are exactly what this shitty world needs. I'll support you anywhere I go. You are the rightful heir to the Seraphin Throne.\"\n\nMika's smile widens and he nods.\n\nThe ship's bell start ringing announcing that all should get on board. \n\n\"You should get going.\" Mika tells him. \"Be careful and don't forget, I'll be waiting to see the beauty of Nagoya.\"\n\nGuren bows, \"Of course, Your Grace. There is no place more beautiful.\"\n\nMika nods as Guren rises and moves to climb the wooden plank onto the ship. \n\nMika looks at the alpha as he safely gets on and turns to look at the omega. \n\nBoth keep their eyes locked as the ship's anchor is pulled up and it begins to slowly sail away. \n\n\"Don't take too fucking long!\" Guren shouts back at Mika in his alpha voice. The alpha has glassy eyes. \n\nMika laughs, \"I'll try not to!\"\n\nMika's eyes water a little as he watches the alpha's ship leave. The omega turns back and realizes that he's finding the amount of advisors he has in his retinue slowly dwindling. \n\n\n Nagoya - Snowstorm \n\n\nAt night in her chambers, Shinoa sits at her vanity and looks at herself in a mirror. She's not exercising vanity, but merely observing how much years have passed and how she's actually matured since the last time she really looked at herself. The omega's dark hair is down and she is in a grey dress robe. \n\nSuddenly a knock on her wooden door catches her attention. Shinoa rises after the second knock to open it. \n\nThere stands Sayuri Hanayori in a dark green gown. \n\n\"What do you want?\" Shinoa asks her. \n\n\"My Lord Father sent me to draw your bath, My Lady. You want to be clean and fresh for your new husband don’t you?\" Sayuri asks. \n\n\"They usually have servants for that.\" Shinoa says. \n\n\"It's what Father and Ky want.\" Sayuri says. \n\nShinoa hesitates before opening her door wider and letting the omega in. \n\nIn the large circular bucket, Shinoa lies in the tub with her head leaning out as she looks up at the ceiling. She tries to ignore the other omega as she is forced to let her rinse the black dye from her hair. \n\n\"Your natural purple hair is so beautiful and unique.\" Sayuri remarks as she rinses the black into a basin of water beside the tub. \n\n\"Thank you.\" Shinoa says politely. \n\n\"You’re so beautiful. But you need to keep him happy. Ky gets bored easily. You don't want to end up like... Well, like the others.\" Sayuri tells her. \n\n\"What others?\" Shinoa turns her head slightly to her. \n\n\"I shouldn’t gossip. It’s good to see the purple again. No point in hiding anymore.\" Sayuri falsely tries to change the topic. \n\n\"What others?\" Shinoa asks more insistently. \n\n\"Let’s see. There was Kieron. The blacksmith’s son, an omega. He was short. Like you. Lovely figure. But he talked and talked and talked and… Ky got tired of that. Then there was Violet. She had gorgeous blond hair. But she got pregnant and, well, that was boring.\" Sayuri tells Shinoa with a dangerous undertone as Shinoa pulls away and sits up in the tub. Sayuri begins to scrub her back. \"Then Tamsin. Such a sweet omega. Of course sweet girls get a bit dull after a while, don’t they? Ky let me come with him on that hunt.\" \n\n\"Hunt?\" Shinoa asks tersely as she gets an idea of the kind of alpha she is dealing with. \n\n\"Mm. Have you ever seen a body after the dogs have been at it? Not so pretty. But it’s your wedding day, why am I talking about such things?\" Sayuri tells her with a sickly sweet smile. \n\n\"Sayuri.\" Shinoa says. \n\n\"Yes?\" Sayuri asks. \n\n\"How long have you loved him?\" Shinoa says before turning to the omega whose gaze turns to a glare and her posture stiffens as she freezes. \"Did you imagine that he would be with you forever, is that it? Then I came along and ruined it.\"\n\n\nShinoa's glare darkens as she looks at the frozen Sayuri. \n\n\n\n\"I am Shinoa Hiiragi of Snowstorm. This is my home and you can’t frighten me.\" Shinoa declares to Sayuri. \n\n\n\nA moment passes before a small shameful smile crosses Sayuri's lips as she lowers her gaze. \n\n\n\n\"Are you done with your bath, Lady Shinoa?\" Sayuri asks. \n\n\n\n\"Go. I can finish on my own.\" Shinoa nods her head to the door. \n\n\n\nSayuri's face falls before she rises and exits without any fanfare as Shinoa watches her leave. \n\n\nShinoa stands in her chambers in her white wedding dress. She hasn't even noticed that the snow has begun falling outside her window. The white dress is long-sleeved with a white fur shawl that covers her shoulders, yet leaves the front and back of the dress entirely visible. The white dress has lilac zig-zags embroidered on the gown. Every inch of her skin is covered with the thick white fabric, except for her hands. It's almost like an armor she wears. The gown has an ivory underdress. The sleeves have a rolled up cloth as the end of each one, almost like it was folded up, yet looking natural. Her purple hair is braided and wrapped around her skull in a bun of Northern braids. She looks beautiful by every standard in something she would have dreamed of wearing as a child, this makes her unease grows as she knows that she's marrying Ky Hanayori. \n\nAnother knock at her door catches her attention. \n\nShinoa turns, \"Yes?\"\n\nThe door opens and Kimizuki enters. He's clearly bathed for this moment. His pink hair now visible after all the dirt and grime has been washed away. He is clad in a dark black feathered cloak over his black doublet, slacks, and boots. His face is clean, yet it still has that ashamed and terrified look on it as he refuses to meet Shinoa's eyes. He still looks pitiful in Shinoa's eyes while Kimizuki makes the connection of her beauty in that dress. \n\n\"I’ve come to escort you to the Godswood, My Lady. If you please, My Lady, will you take my arm?\" Kimizuki weakly stutters out as he barely holds his hand out. \n\n\"No.\" Shinoa strongly declines. \n\n\"Lord Ky, he said I am supposed to take your arm.\" Kimizuki tells her. \n\n\"I’m not touching you.\" Shinoa reiterates in disgust.\n\n\"Please. He’ll punish me.\" Kimizuki begs, but remains impassive because underneath it all he understands why she wouldn't do it. \n\n\"Do you think I care what he does to you?\" Shinoa sneers at her former brother. \n\nShinoa makes her way past Kimizuki as the heels of her white boots click. Kimizuki looks at her back when she passes as the shame overtakes him.\n\nShinoa follows behind Kimizuki on the familiar path to the Godswood where torches illuminate along the way. Snow falls from the sky as they make their way. \n\nThe party near the white tree with red leaves and a face carved on it soon becomes clearer as they get closer. Shinoa's unease and tense feelings mount and climb with every step she takes. She's not ready for this, but she has to be. She knows what she has to do tonight, but it does not make the situation any better. \n\nHanayori men, Wakiru, and Sayuri stand along the side and form the aisle that Shinoa walks down. At the end of a tree stands, Ky and Lord Hanayori. Both are clad in black with Ky being clad in a dark cloth cloak and wears a doublet with a long neck. The outfit is a higher class version of Kimizuki's. \n\nLord Hanayori steps forward, \"Who comes before the Old Gods this night?\"\n\n\"Shinoa of the House Hiiragi comes here to be wed. An omegan woman grown, trueborn and noble. She comes to beg the blessings of the gods. Who comes to claim her?\" Kimizuki recites with his head lowered.\n\nA moment passes before Ky steps forward. \"Ky of House Hanayori. Heir to the Frightfort and Snowstorm. Who gives her?\"\n\nSayuri looks down as tears come into her eyes. \n\n\"Shihou of House Kimizuki. Who was… who was her adopted brother.\" Kimizuki says. \n\nShinoa closes her eyes before opening them again, not like it was a lie. They all grew to become true siblings from a terrible situation that got worse. \n\n\"Lady Shinoa, will you take this man as your alpha?\" Lord Hanayori asks the omega. \n\nShinoa's eyes drift to him before landing on Ky. The omega remains silent for a long pause as Ky gives her an expectant, almost impatient look. Sayuri's nails dig into her palms as she feels the growing fury and jealousy within her. \n\nShinoa finally steps forward after a long moment's contemplation, knowing that she has no other option. \n\n\"I take this man for my alpha.\" Shinoa says as the tense atmosphere dissipates at her words.\n\nA smile slowly crosses Ky's face that looks more sinister than joyful.   \n\nKimizuki meekly opens the door to Ky's chambers.\n\nShinoa enters as Ky follows behind her. She looks at the bed covered with a large amount of furs. Shinoa turns to face the alpha. \n\n\"Are you pleased, My Lady?\" Ky asks Shinoa with a smile.\n\nShinoa nods tersely. \n\n\"Good. I want you to be happy. My father said you’re still a virgin.\" Ky tells her. \n\n\"Yes.\" Shinoa says as she looks back at Kimizuki who still remains with his head lowered. \n\n\"Why? Why are you still a virgin? Afraid of knights?\" Ky asks her in a creepy tone.\n\n\"Ser Reo was kind, he was gentle. He never touched me.\" Shinoa says. \n\n\"You’re not lying to me?\" Ky asks. \n\n\"No, My Lord.\" Shinoa says. \n\n\"Lying to your husband on his wedding night. That would be a very bad way to start a marriage. We are man and wife, alpha and omega now, we should be honest with each other, don’t you think?\" Ky asks. \n\n\"Yes.\" Shinoa says. \n\nKy's hand comes up to cup her cheek. It's cold, almost like he's dead. He leans in and kisses her. Shinoa stumbles before reciprocating in disgust. Kimizuki keeps his eyes downcast.\n\nShinoa turns it into a more falsely passionate affair as Ky pulls away from her. \n\n\"You kiss very well for a virgin.\" Ky says. \"Are you sure you're not lying to me?\"\n\n\"Yes, My Lord. I swear.\" Shinoa says before looking down in false shyness, \"I'm just excited to be with my husband on our first night.\"\n\nA smirk appears over Ky's face at the sight of the blushing omega. \"Good. Now take off your clothes.\"\n\nShinoa's eyes dilate, but she keeps her small smile in place until she can turn her back to the alpha. Kimizuki turns to leave as Ky turns to him now. \n\n\"Oh, no, no, no. You stay here Reek. You watch.\" Ky says with an evil smirk. \n\nShinoa stiffens, but finally removes her fur shawl, leaving her in just a gown. Kimizuki returns to the open door, but still keeps his eyes lowered. \n\n\"Reek? I told you to watch.\" Ky tells him as Shinoa begins to unbutton her dress by removing the clasped wolf and lion pins. \n\nKimizuki finally looks up with tears in his eyes. \n\n\"You’ve known Shinoa since she was a young omega girl. Now watch her become a woman.\" Ky says before turning back to Shinoa. \n\nShinoa huffs a breath, \"Ky, can you-\"\n\nShinoa huffs another breath when she feels the back bodice of her dress being ripped open. She's had enough of this. She is not going to be some alpha's pawn. She is not going to be anyone's pawn ever again. She will not be a victim. She can't do anything about Kimizuki watching, despite how uncomfortable it is, but she can do something about making sure she has some semblance of power on her wedding night. No matter how disgusting this is and how much she doesn't want to do this she has to. There was no way to avoid this, so she has to take charge to make sure she does not ever become a victim again. She knows what's coming and she has to make the best of it. \n\nShinoa immediately turns back as Ky runs a hand down her naked back, the alpha opens his mouth to order her to turn back. Before he can to that the omega crashes her lips into her new husband's. Ky immediately begins to reciprocate, not expecting this from the omega. \n\nKy pulls away and caresses her cheek, \"You're not like the others, are you?\"\n\nShinoa smirks as she shoves down her disgust before leaning in, \"I'm making sure my alpha doesn't get bored with me.\" \n\n\"I can't imagine I will.\" Ky tells her. \n\nThe alpha leans in and Shinoa unwillingly meets him halfway with as much false passion she can curdle. \n\nKimizuki watches in complete discomfort. He can tell what Shinoa is doing and knows the omega is doing what she has to survive. If only he was strong enough to do anything. Tears pour down his face as he watches what Shinoa is reduced to doing. \n\nShinoa pulls away and removes the large top later of her dress leaving her in the underdress, \"Take off your clothes, I want my alpha to have the best experience.\"\n\nKy smirks at her in intrigue before taking off his top coat and doublet. Shinoa's eyes meet Kimizuki's watery ones before they return to her new husband. \n\nOnce Ky has his shirt and boots off, Shinoa immediately returns to kiss him as he lifts her off the ground. Shinoa's legs wrap around his waist as she is carried to the bed. \n\nShinoa is grateful that this angle will not give Kimizuki much of any view of her. Shinoa feels her slick producing as her omega instincts take over. \n\n\"Alpha.\" Shinoa falsely calls out. \n\nKy growls thinking that Shinoa means it before he unlaces his breeches to free his cock. \n\nThe alpha immediately moves to thrust into the omega's wet and slick heat. \n\nShinoa feels tears come to her eyes at what she has been reduced to doing, but she powers through it. She fakes all of her moans and groans of pleasure despite some of it feeling unwillingly good because of her omega's satisfaction. \n\nShinoa suddenly feels the pain in her neck when Ky bites down on her neck and marks her as his omega. The bite on her neck draws blood and she feels only pain as he licks it away. \n\nKy finishes inside of her not long after and collapses beside the omega.  \n\nKimizuki looks at the omega's daze and can only find the need to cry harder at the sight of Shinoa's state.\n\nShinoa's face remains frozen and she feels like she's in a wide-eyed daze as she looks up at the ceiling. She feels Ky's bite stop bleeding and take form, marking her as his omega. She knew it was coming, but she could not help feeling this way. Shinoa was now bound to an alpha who would have raped her if she did not take charge of the situation. She's bound to a torturous, murderous, and dangerous alpha who has broken Kimizuki who was one of the strongest alpha's she knew. As she looks up at the ceiling she knows she did the best she could, but the situation she is in is still terrible. She only wanted to be mated to one alpha her entire life and that was Mitsu. Now she was bonded against her wishes to an alpha that she let do this to her. All Shinoa knows is she cannot stay here anymore, she is not safe or protected in the one place she always used to feel that. She has to get out of Snowstorm before her heat comes and Ky puts a child in her, otherwise then the bond will have taken and will be almost irreversible. "}
+{"text": "“Well?” the shortest in the group pressed.\n\nDanny hesitated. It wasn't like he didn't want to talk to the League, or probably just Batman from the sound of it, especially since he had been invited and they went through the trouble of finding him. But… he really didn’t want to leave Amity. Especially not for the League. Okay, so maybe he didn't want to talk to the League, but it was their fault.\n\n“Fine,” Danny grumbled when he couldn't find an excuse to stay. The team of younger heroes had already managed to sink everything he'd tried. “Just, give me a second to get things a little more… organized.”\n\nDanny drifted up and away from the other teens before activating his Fenton Phone and waiting for his friends to answer. It barely took a minute, and both of them answered at almost the same time, groggily talking over each other.\n\n“Easy guys,” Danny cut them off in Esperanto, an unspoken signal to be careful passing between them. “There’s no fire. Some big names just want to talk to me, so I need to leave town for a while. Possibly the whole night.”\n\n“And by ‘big names’ you mean…” Tucker trailed off.\n\n“Probably the League, techno-geek,” Sam answered promptly. “Exactly how paranoid are you being right now, Danny?”\n\nDanny's eyes flicked down to his company, “Batman’s name came up more than a few times, and one of the messengers is wearing Big Blue’s symbol. I'd rather not take any chances.”\n\nThere was silence on the other lines. “Are you sure this is a good idea?” Tucker began.\n\n“Yeah, Danny, with everything that's happened you can't possibly want to do this.”\n\n“You're right, it's a very bad idea that could cost me my identity. But these guys came prepared for an argument, and I might be able to get some answers anyway.”\n\nOnce again silence was the only response. Both of Danny’s long-time friends were wide awake by now. “We’re comi-”\n\n“No, you're not,” Danny said, cutting off Sam. “I called because I need you on patrol while I'm gone. And the less they have to tie us together the better.”\n\n“Come on, Goth Girl,” Tucker practically begged, “I know you want to keep Danny safe and finally get to meet tall, dark, and brooding, but the best thing for us to do is stay here and hold down the fort.”\n\n“You can't possibly be okay with this!”\n\n“Oh, I'm not. I think Danny should run and never look back. It's not like they have anything to catch him with. But we can't make Danny do anything, if not because we're his friends, then because we have no idea where he his and can't get to him.”\n\nDanny had to stop himself from laughing out loud at his friend’s very pointed comment. “What the geek said. And anyway, running would make me look like a criminal and sooner or later they would get their hands on the family’s tech. Which would probably lead to the realization that I use it.”\n\n“Fine,” Sam said, a rustling could be heard as she pulled herself out of bed. “Just get going before I change my mind and come find you.”\n\nDanny grinned and said his goodbyes before hanging up and turning to the seven protégés on the rooftop. “So, where to now?”\n\nTurned out, they were going to take him to their base via their Bioship, or, in Danny’s words, an honest to God Martian spaceship. Danny spent most of the ride trying not to freak out over the fact that he was sitting in a spaceship with two aliens, and, as a result of his struggle to keep his excitement from showing, he missed the fairly obvious telepathic conversation going on around him.\n\nThe team may have been having a debate about ghosts and whether or not they should really be trusting Phantom, but at least they were keeping it to themselves and only throwing a few wary glances and the rather energetic teen. Some of them were wondering how he went from mostly subdued and more than a little cautious to grinning while his gaze kept wandering, trying to take everything in and bouncing in his seat like a young kid on their first plane ride.\n\nThings went downhill after Danny met Batman.\n\n“I’m inviting you to join this team,” Batman said, wrapping up his speech.\n\n“Wait, what!?” Kid Flash cried out, with Artemis echoing him.\n\n“But, he’s a criminal!” Artemis yelled.\n\n“Yeah! And we don't even know what he is! All we've ever gotten are vague piles of crap with no scientific backing!” Kid Flash continued.\n\n“Enough,” Batman growled. Both of the young heroes looked like they were just beginning to build up steam but fell silent and shrunk under the glares being sent by Batman and Danny.\n\nZatanna opened her mouth to respond but was cut off by the very pissed off ghost teen, “First of all, Kid Flash, check your sources. There is science for what I am. It might be a work in progress and come from some biased individuals, but what is there in terms of biology is mostly accurate. Second of all, um, Archer?”\n\n“Artemis,” she grumbled.\n\n“Right, Artemis, you know nothing about those events and everything I've had to deal with because of it, so don't pretend you know what's going on.” Danny turned his attention to the Bat, floating a little higher to bring himself closer to eye level as he glared.\n\n“Speaking of what's going on, Batman. You opened with the wrong question and it is way too late now.”\n\nThe team shifted uncomfortably. They'd never seen anyone address Batman like that. They didn't like their odds if they had to fight him, even with Batman there.\n\n“You're attempt to recruit me has made it clear that you know exactly what has been going on in Amity Park,” Danny began slowly. “Which would mean that the League knows about a few events where they definitely should have gotten involved but hasn't even asked a single question about what the hell is happening! Amity Park gets overrun by ghosts turning even the most hardened skeptics in town into firm believers? Nothing. The town disappears for at least twelve hours and returns with stories of invasion, siege, and another dimension!? We definitely don't need to look into that. A global weather anomaly seems to be originating from Amity where they have a mayor that claimed to have a device to control the weather and had a horrible storm literally right before the entire rest of the world got hit by a clearly unnatural storm and then get perfectly clear skies? That's not suspicious at all. A plant ghost takes over the minds of the citizens and has them tearing their own city to pieces and the local hero is nowhere to be found for four hours after the initial confrontation where he was forced to retreat? There's no need to get involved. For the love of God, where were you!?”\n\nBy the time Phantom had finished his rant, eyes blazing a brighter green than usual. The team was silent and wide eyed. This was not what they had expected.\n\n“We didn't-” Batman began calmly, looking unphased by Phantom’s verbal attack.\n\n“Don't you dare say you didn't know,” Phantom hissed. “If you know enough to want me on your team, you know about that. If you had only learned recently, either I would have heard about you asking around, you would have already asked me yourself, or it would still be at the top of your to-do list in regard to me. Your first question was ‘want to join our covert ops team of teenage superheroes?’ not ‘okay, so, how did this happen and how did you stop it?’”\n\nBatman was silent and seemed to be raising an eyebrow. Danny’s brow furrowed. “Wait, then… who have you been…” He blinked, then put his head in his hand, his other arm still crossed over his chest. “Please tell me it wasn't Vlad.”\n\n“Who is Vlad?” Aqualad questioned.\n\n“A manipulative jerk,” Danny spat. “And he's the only one that would've kept his mouth shut about talking to you, so I wouldn't hear about it.” Danny frowned again, “Well, I suppose, uh, Red Huntress would've as well. I haven't exactly heard from her in a while.”\n\nIt was Batman’s turn to be confused, “Red Huntress?”\n\n“So, Vlad it is,” Danny grumbled. “Alright, what did he tell you?”\n\n“Tell us who Red Huntress is first,” Robin said, having gotten his wits back. This was a new player on the board, or, more accurately, a player they hadn't been aware of.\n\nDanny frowned down at him, “She's a ghost hunter. She tends to think along the standard lines of ‘ghost equals evil,’ but I think she’s starting to get past that… a little.”\n\nBatman gave a subtle nod of approval to his protege before launching into a summary of everything the mayor of Amity Park and the owner of the only large company with a research department dedicated to ghosts and ectoplasm-based technology had told him. When he finished Phantom blinked and was silent for a moment. “That was actually pretty accurate,” he said slowly.\n\n“Mind telling us what we got wrong?” Miss Martian asked a bit hesitantly.\n\n“Obsessions, for one thing,” Danny started. “They're not always easily defined, and some ghost actually have multiple, and though they're usually related, they don't have to be. The core he theorized about isn't much like a heart, but that is the best analogy in living biology. It produces energy and allows it to be directed. But only a specific type of energy which varies by ghost, the rest is either absorbed from the environment or produced by the ectoplasm that makes up the ghost’s body.” Danny thought for a moment. “Vlad missed a few things about how ghosts govern themselves in the Ghost Zone, but that's not surprising seeing as he’s not a ghost.” More accurately, he is a ghost, but he hasn't gotten involved in that part of their politics yet. “Everything else seems fine to me.”\n\n“You're not going to tell us how things actually work in the Ghost Zone?” Kid Flash accused, still a little uncomfortable with the idea of ghosts.\n\n“It's not really relevant,” Phantom shrugged. “Those rules only really apply in the Ghost Zone, and even then, the big points he missed wouldn't affect you due to a bunch of non-interference rules. Unless there's a ghost that's actually going to wipe out life on earth, they don't step in.”\n\n“I take it you don't like them very much,” Zatanna observed, “whoever they are.”\n\n“Not really, no. But I have bigger things to worry about. Anyway, I should be going.”\n\n“Wait,” Robin said, “what about the offer?”\n\nDanny hesitated, “I might not be as mad as I was earlier, but I'm still not happy with the League. And anyway, I've already got my hands full with Amity.”\n\nBatman nodded before anyone could say anything else. “Here,” he said as he handed a small box to Danny, “it’s a communicator. Call us if you need anything, and we’ll do the same. But we’ll try to leave you alone.”\n\nDanny gave the communicator a quick once over before giving Batman a quiet thanks and following a couple team members back to the Bioship and heading home to his no doubt exhausted friends.\n\n“Wait,” Artemis started after the group left, “we never found out what actually happened with the whole criminal thing.”"}
+{"text": "*****\n\nReal estate viewing proved to be costly.\n\nMy wife Kathy and I have been looking for a new house for months; we scanned the Sunday real estate section every week for our dream house. Nothing peaked our interest; most new houses are large enough but built so close together that you could shake hands with your neighbor out of the kitchen window.\n\nWe found a listing for a new housing development that featured large lots up in hill country. This place built around a canyon and a lake, sounded like what we were looking for in a neighborhood.\n\nWe drove up one Sunday to check it out. We meet Chad, the sales guy at the main office and looked over floor plans, lots, etc. Chad looked the part of a real estate developer, chino slacks, pink polo shirt and sock-less in loafers.\n\nThe sample house / office was a huge single story four-bedroom house loaded with every feature that the builder offered. The rear patio even had a pool and Jacuzzi, with a fantastic view of the canyon lake.\n\nThe lot sizes bumped up the price to almost unaffordable for us. Chad sensing our sticker shock said, \"I'll let you go up to the sample homes and they will sell you, just with the view. When you are done, stop back and I can answer any of your questions.\"\n\nI liked Chad's laid back sales style, not too pushy or slick.\n\nHe gave us directions and handed us the keys. It was short drive up to the sample house through the forest surrounding the lake. There are only a few houses already built but they are almost not visible from the street.\n\nAs we pull up to the front of the sample, I loved it; they had an all-stone courtyard in the front that separates the front entrance from the street.\n\nOpening the door you went into a large foyer you could see the large stone fireplace directly ahead in the living room with cathedral ceilings. The house was huge, over four thousand square feet, two story with three-car garage and four bedrooms and three full bathrooms. This was a lot of house for us, maybe too much space.\n\nThe house is fully decorated to highlight every room; each has the appropriate furniture and lighting. We quickly inspected each room downstairs and started up to see the second floor.\n\nWe went into the master bedroom upstairs and wow, what a view! I would love to see this every morning, the sun was reflecting over the lake and the canyon all around it looked more like a picture than reality. We stepped out on the balcony and the view was more panoramic. We held hands and hugged each other while gazing at the lake view.\n\nOnce back in the bedroom Kathy laid down on the bed and said,\" I could see us living here.\" motioning me to join her on the bed.\n\nAs we, both laid on the bed a very sexual feeling came over me. I started kissing Kathy and soon we were undressing each other. We were going to christen our 'new house'. Kathy got up and walked to the balcony totally nude, she felt comfortable and relaxed.\n\nAs she stood on the balcony, she suddenly said, \"What if someone comes?\"\n\n\"Not to worry we are all alone.\"\n\nShe beckoned me out to the balcony, it must be the fresh mountain air, but we were as horny as teenagers being left alone at home. There was a patio lounge on the balcony; we sat there caressing each other until we started feeling like dogs in heat.\n\nAll that pent up passion let loose and we started fucking. Kathy was on her hands and knees and we were going at it doggie style since the lounge was too short to use like a bed.\n\nKathy screamed out as she was about to orgasm, \"Fuck me, fuck me ... harder , Oh.\"\n\nThe sound seemed to echo through the canyon, I hoped it hadn't.\n\nAfter a few jerks and spasms, she was spent. Something about this house turned her on, she wanted to check out every room again, totally naked. I don't know if it was the strange house, the setting or the thought that someone could come in and see her naked. She is recharged by the time we get to the kitchen; she wanted to be fucked again but now on the huge dining room table. It was set up as people were coming to dinner, nice china, silverware, and white napkins all carefully placed.\n\nI can't say we have ever fucked on a dining room table, but we did now. It isn't the most comfortable place to fuck, but I must say it was different.\n\nKathy said she wanted to look at the courtyard again, as she opened the front door and went out into the courtyard.\n\n\"See, I can be naked in the courtyard and you can't see me from the street.\"\n\nThen the fascination left and she went back inside. For some reason she like prancing around making her tits bounce up and down, she skipped like a kid all the way back to the bedroom.\n\nAs we put our clothes back on she said, \"There is an energy about this place, I feel so sexy.\"\n\n\"I know, I feel it too.\"\n\nI said, \"Let's get back to the main office, before they send a search party for us.\"\n\nPart 2\n\nAs we entered the main office, Chad was there to greet us.\n\nSmiling, Chad said, \"I can see you liked the place. How was that view?\"\n\nBefore we could answer, Chad said, \"I see that you two like showing off.\"\n\nI am sure I had a puzzled look on my face, when Chad said, \"We do have cameras all over the place, you know.\"\n\nI am thinking 'Oh, shit', I didn't see any cameras.\n\nKathy just looks at me and sheepishly asks Chad, \"You mean you saw us on camera the whole time?\"\n\nChad replied, \"Yes and I especially like the balcony scene.\"\n\n\"Well Chad, we didn't think anyone would mind if we got a little busy in the place ... we didn't hurt anything, we were careful.\"\n\n\"No problem, did you two enjoy yourselves at our expense?\"\n\n\"I didn't think it would harm, we just got carried away ... you know ... with the view and all.\"\n\nChad replies, \"You do know it was all recorded ... you know for insurance purposes.\"\n\nKathy's face gave away her panic, \"You have it all recorded ... everything was on camera .. I'm so embarrassed.\"\n\n\"You guys aren't the only ones that have been turned on by the 'view'; I have recorded a few more just in the last few weeks.\n\n\"Chad what are you going to do with the recordings? .. we would hate for anyone to see ... our ... well our ... \"\n\nChad interrupts Kathy, \"What I do with them is all up to you two.\"\n\nI can see where this is going; we are going to be blackmailed into buying this house. Oh shit, I can't really afford this place.\n\n\"Don't worry Bob and Kathy; I am not going to force you guys into buying this house. I would have liked you to buy it. But I know it's a lot of money for you guys.\"\n\n\"I am going to make you the same offer I did to the other couples, take it and the video goes to you. Refuse and I'm not sure what will happen to it.\"\n\n\"What's the offer?\" we say in unison.\n\n\"I am having a cocktail party next weekend and I need help to serve and attend to the guests.\"\n\nI am thinking what does attend to the guests mean. I hope it's not fucking them or something. Kathy is almost ready to cry, she doesn't like the sound of this offer.\n\nChad anticipating our caution says, \"It's nothing, really. Just bring around drinks and Hor d'oeuvres to the guests. Everything is being catered all you will have to do is keep the guests filled with food and drink.\"\n\n\"If you agree, be here next Saturday at 6:00, uniforms will be provided for you. Afterwards I'll give you a DVD with your video to do with as you wish.\"\n\nWe are really put on the spot; Chad is looking at us for an answer. I look at Kathy and she is agitated but is keeping her anger under control.\n\n\"That's all we have to do is serve drinks and food for one night and we get our video?\"\n\n\"That's it, I am really in a bind and I need the help for the party, so Yes, that's it.\"\n\n\"We are going to wear uniforms and you are providing them, right.\"\n\n\"Yes, everything will be provided for you.\"\n\n\"Ok, we will be there at 6:00 Saturday.\"\n\nPart 3\n\nWe have discussed our situation and both agree that we are screwed, if the video gets out. I could just picture us on YouTube with the whole world seeing us fucking and walking around totally naked. Kathy has been almost on the verge of an anxiety attack for days. Luckily, she has some Valium to take the edge off. I just keeping thinking, what a stupid fucking thing to do, fucking on camera, where someone else controls the video.\n\nOn the drive to the party Kathy is shaking visibly, I keep saying, \"Calm down, we're almost done and will be over with it soon.\"\n\nChad meets us at the door and motions us to come into the living room, where he introduces to another couple, Vivian and Dale. They appear to be in their fifties and somewhat affluent by the way they are dressed. They hardly look like the type to be servants for the evening.\n\nThe doorbell rings and Chad leaves to answer it. Kathy whispers to Vivian, \"Did you guys get caught on camera too?\"\n\nVivian face goes very red, almost matching her hair; Dale just looks down at his shoes as if we can't see him blush.\n\n\"It was only a moment of passion, we were enjoying at the hilltop house. We had no idea we were on camera.\"\n\nWe can hear Chad arguing with whoever is at the door, he finally says, \"Ok.\"\n\nChad escorts in two lovely long blonde hair young women, maybe in their early twenties. As they get closer, we can see they are twins slightly shorter than Kathy's 5' 3\" stature.\n\n\"This is Tracy and Lacey; they will be assisting you all, tonight. They have made the same transgressions that you all have made and are here to make amends.\"\n\n\"Traci's boyfriend has let her down and is not coming, but Tracy's sister is filling in for him.\"\n\nI look at Tracy's body thinking, I would like to see that video, she is hot. We all stand there trying to make small talk until Chad says, \"I'll get your uniforms.\"\n\nChad returns with handful of strings and cloth, apparently string bikinis, saying, \"They are one size fits all, so pick one ladies.\"\n\nReaching for another bag, Chad produces some thongs for us guys.\n\nVivian snorts, \"No fucking way am I going to wear this.\"\n\n\"You want your video?\" Chad responds back.\n\nVivian looks at her husband and he just nods yes.\n\nVivian chose a blue bikini and was about to ask Chad where she could change when Chad said \"You can change right here, I have already see you all naked.\"\n\nVivian reluctantly takes off her clothes, trying to stay behind Dale. The bikini is just not big enough to contain Vivian's ample body. The suit just barely covers her nipples and the bottoms are barely covering her large trimmed red bush. Her all white body looks like sunshine has never been on her body, not even a hint of a tan.\n\nDale struggles to fit in the thong, his pot belly hanging over the waist strings.. Dale and Vivian are embarrassed and frustrated at their 'uniforms.' Vivian points her finger at Chad, you can tell she is a woman who's used to getting her way, saying, \"I can't wear this it's too small, you have to get me something else.\"\n\nSensing a power play Dale chimes in, \"I need something else also.\"\n\nChad says, \"OK, I can see your point take them off and give them back.\"\n\nVivian and Dale think they have bested Chad and forcefully throw the suits back at Chad.\n\nChad says, \"Fine, you two are demonstrating the Jacuzzi on the patio.\"\n\n\"Where are our suits?\"\n\nChad responds, \"What suits, you gave them up.\" as he escorts them to the Jacuzzi on the patio.\n\nHe explains the controls and tells Dale, you have to turn the timer on every 15 minutes to keep the Jacuzzi running.\n\nYou could hear Dale tell Vivian, \"I told you to keep quiet.\"\n\nSo there is Vivian completely naked, totally white skin and huge red bush trying to ease into the Jacuzzi, while Dale fumbles with the timer. Not exactly a Kodak moment.\n\nTracy and Lacy took the hint and put on their bikinis without a word of protest. They both have totally tanned buff bodies; you could tell they sunned themselves quite often. They both had tits with to die for with long nipples that longed to be sucked and shaved pussies fashioned in a vertical stripe.\n\nYou can hear them arguing in low voices, \"We would not be here ... your pussy boyfriend ... keep his dick in his pants. This is the last time ... you out.\"\n\nBut back to us, Kathy put on the skimpy bikini and like the others it barely covered her medium size tits, her large nipples are pressing at the fabric. She wasn't planning for a bikini showing, she is more embarrassed at not having a trimmed bush, than being in a skimpy bikini. I mentally make a note to remind her to shave her pussy, maybe a vertical strip like the twins.\n\nI can't say that wearing a thong in public would have been my choice of attire but it was somewhat comfortable. It's nothing more than strings holding a black pouch for my cock and balls.\n\nChad explains our duties, Tracy and Lacey are to pass around Hor d'oeuvres, Kathy is serving champagne, and I am tending bar and keeping Kathy's champagne glasses filled.\n\n\"Just mingle, serve the guests and stay quiet. You are not here as guests, you are wait staff. No playing with cell phones, texting or anything else, you are here to work.\"\n\nPart 4\n\nAbout 7 pm, guests start arriving and milling around the living room. I watch the twins, with each step their tits look like they are going to fall out of their tops. Every time I focus on the twins, Kathy shot me a look. I look away and attempt to see Vivian and Dale on the patio; I can see people standing around the Jacuzzi looking down at Vivian and Dale. The Jacuzzi stops and now there is no bubbles camouflaging their naked bodies.\n\nReluctantly Dale got out, cock swinging and ass cheeks jiggling as he walks to the wall to twist the time for another 15 minutes of bubbles. You could see a few women trying not to look at Dale, but they were compelled to watch his long cock swing as he returned to the Jacuzzi. Vivian kept her arms crossed to cover up her ample pale white tits.\n\nPeople are trying to interact with Dale and Vivian, but they just act as if they are manikins in the Jacuzzi.\n\nThe twins are getting the most attention, I see one guest try to feel Tracy's ass or is it Lacey's as she offers the tray of hor d'oeuvres. They look almost the same, I'm sure there must be a way to tell who is who.\n\nKathy is passing out drinks and every time she returns for more glasses, I can see her nipples are hard. I think she likes showing off her body. I am going to feel her pussy next time to see if it's getting wet.\n\nWith more champagne, the crowd gets friendlier with the twins and Kathy; they are getting their asses caressed by both men and women. I can see one woman put her hand on Kathy's tit, sliding her fingers inside the top and running it up and down as if to inspect the fabric. Kathy just stands there holding her tray of drinks, until the woman starts rubbing her nipple. A few minutes of this and Kathy excuses herself to serve other guests. I can see Kathy is getting uncomfortable and wants to stay away from this woman's roving hands.\n\nThe twins come over to the bar and I ask, \"Who is who?\"\n\nTracy replied, \"Orange for Tracy and green for Lacey. Can we get a drink, we need something stiff.\"\n\nI am thinking I have something stiff, but just hand them each a shot of tequila, \"How's this, it's the strongest thing behind the bar?\"\n\n\"What, no lime?\" Tracy says jokingly as she downs the shot quickly. Lacey does the same.\n\nLacey says, \"How long is this going on, I can't keep the women from feeling my ass.\"\n\nI want to feel her ass myself, but decided that Kathy would kill me if she saw. Up close the twins are awesome, I can feel Lacey's hard nipple press on my arm as she leans over and whispers, \"I love your package, is it growing for me?\" She is pointing at my cock bulging at the thong's fabric.\n\n\"Yes, it's all because of you.\"\n\nLacey slides her hand down to feel my cock, I am about ready to pull it out and let her play with it now.\n\nTracy says, \"Come along Lacey, we better get back to work, Chad is giving us the evil eye.\"\n\nPart 5\n\nI look out at the Jacuzzi and Chad is telling the crowd, \"Feel free to join Dale and Vivian the water is nice and warm.\"\n\nIt suddenly occurs to me, what is the purpose of this party, are these Chad's friends or are they customers. I'll have to ask Chad that question, when I get the chance.\n\nThe Jacuzzi stops and everyone is looking at Dale, they know he has to get out and turn the timer again. As Dale gets out, some short older gray haired woman grabs for his cock, Dale is totally flummoxed. The old woman holds onto his cock all the way to the wall and back again to the Jacuzzi.\n\nThe crowd is cheering her on. Dale must have liked it and you can see he is getting erect. Dale ties to free cock from the old woman's grip but she keeps hanging on and starts tugging away watching it grow with each stroke.\n\nVivian stands up and steps out of the Jacuzzi and grabs the older woman and says, \"That's my dick, let it go.\"\n\nThe scene of a large white naked Vivian facing down a puny old woman is too much for the crowd. They start chanting \"Vivian, Vivian, viva Vivian.\"\n\nPeople start stripping and getting into the Jacuzzi with Dale and they help Vivian back in. Vivian is getting her large tits felt by an unidentified hand as she is helped back into the Jacuzzi.\n\nBy now, Kathy is getting tired of serving drinks and being felt up, she is about ready to tell Chad screw it and leave.\n\nShe comes over, I give her a tequila shot, and she calms down. \"How much longer do we have to do this?\"\n\n\"I don't know. It shouldn't be much longer, just tough it out.\"\n\nThe twins come over and ask for another shot of tequila. Lacey puts her hand on my cock as I hand her shot, I don't mind but Kathy does. She reaches for Lacey's shoulder and says, \"Back off, that's my husband's cock.\" as she tries to spin Lacey around she grabs her top strap and it comes undone. Lacey is standing there with two gorgeous tits in full view, she doesn't skip a beat and grabs for Kathy's top causing it to break.\n\nNow the two of them are facing each other topless and looking like they are going to duke it out, when Tracy separates them and comments to Kathy, \"Those are nice tits.\"\n\nKathy looks down at her bare tits and says, \"They are not as good as Lacey's.\"\n\nTracy says they are, and says put them together and we will see. Tracy just wanted to keep the girls from fighting by providing a distraction.\n\nLacey stands next to Kathy, they are both holding their tits side by side and waiting for the pronouncement of whose tits are better. They look to Tracy and then to me, by now a crowd is forming around us.\n\nTracy says to the crowd, \"Who has the nicer tits?\"\n\nSomeone in the crowd yells out they have to feel them to tell.\n\nTracy says, \"Everyone gets one feel of each tit and they have to vote on the best.\"\n\nNow this has gotten out of hand, Kathy and Lacey are going to have about fifteen people feel their tits, which are out for everyone to view.\n\nOne by one, they start feeling Lacey's then Kathy's tits, Tracy had to stop one guy who wanted to suck Lacey's nipple while he felt. Kathy and Lacey were even in votes, which made me proud that my wife's tits were equal to a twenty year old's. What I didn't notice until now, this whole exhibition was being recorded with cell phones and tweeted out for others to watch. Probably someone even recorded video for YouTube or DailyMotion.\n\nHoly shit, the reason we were doing this was to keep from being exposed; now Kathy is being videoed by a group of strangers and broadcast all over the internet. I know it's going to be on YouTube. Fuck. It's not as bad as our fuck video, but the thought of having Kathy's beautiful tits on the internet was somewhat erotic. Hopefully, they have Lacey's also.\n\nThe crowd yells out for Chad, he has to cast the final vote, it's a tie.\n\nChad comes over, Tracy tells him the story, and now he has to make the final decision since it's a tie. Chad carefully feels Lacey's tit, inspects it closely then moves to Kathy.\n\nChad was about to check out Kathy's when there are screams coming from the patio, Dale slipped and fell while going to the timer. His head is bleeding profusely and now everyone is going to the patio to see what's happened. Tracy, Lacy and Kathy are quickly forgotten as the crowd leaves for the patio.\n\nSomeone put a towel on Dale's head to stop the bleeding, while another calls 911. The crowd, hearing that an ambulance is on the way, decides to wrap it up and leave before the authorities show up.\n\nWe quickly dress and Chad hands us our DVD. I did want to stay until I could find out how Dale was doing, but Kathy said, \"Let's get out of here now.\"\n\nThe twins are right behind us, still in their bikinis, clutching their clothes and heading for their car.\n\nAs we started down the road, the ambulance passed us followed by a police car.\n\n"}
+{"text": "\nHarry turns over on his back, using his arms to prop himself up, with his fingers digging into the dirt, just in time to stare directly at the lit end of Not Sirius’s wand. \n\n\n \n\n\nThe small glow floods the area, and for a flicking second, there’s something faltering about Not Sirius’s expression, immediately replaced by a set jaw and steely, piercing gray eyes. Behind him, Not James Potter blinks, owlishly. His mouth opens, then shuts, and his hand flies through his hair, messing it up, sending a surge of uncontrollable annoyance jolting through Harry’s veins. \n\n\n \n\n\nIt’s a welcome distraction from the pain shooting through his leg, white hot and unexplainably violent, as if the tree had stabbed him instead of tripping him with its giant roots. \n\n\n \n\n\nHe sort of wishes he had been stabbed.\n\n\n \n\n\nThat’s decidedly less humiliating than being captured by the enemies because he’d tripped and fell in the dirt. \n\n\n \n\n\n“What are you doing here?” demands Not Sirius, while Not James backs up, disappears into the darkness. Only the vague outline of his figure remains visible. \n\n\n \n\n\n“What?” Harry’s voice is hoarse with pain. \n\n\n \n\n\nThere were Death Eaters in disguise, right? Right. These two wizards were the enemy, his enemy, so why were they looking at Harry like that? Like they’re shocked to see him? Questioning why he’s there when they’re the ones who set the trap? \n\n\n \n\n\n“You tell me,” says Harry, finally, tilting his head back in agitation, in pain. \n\n\n \n\n\n“He needs a healing charm,” says Not James, dubiously, stepping back into the small area lit by Not Sirius’s wand. \n\n\n \n\n\nBefore Harry can react, or tense up, another wand is pointed at him, and there’s a cooling sensation spread through his leg, fighting back the pain into a dull ache. \n\n\n \n\n\n“Are you one of Dumbledore’s?” asks Not Sirius, refusing to lower his weapon. His words sound more like an accusation than a question, one that confuses Harry even further. \n\n\n \n\n\n“One of Dumbledore’s…” repeats Harry, looking back and forth between the two men. That’s pretty obvious, or at least it should be, if these were really Death Eaters. “Well yeah, beats the alternative, wouldn’t you say?” \n\n\n \n\n\n“A lot of alternatives are better than being a child soldier,” says James, grim.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Oh, yeah, like what? Like being a Death Eater?” \n\n\n \n\n\n“A what?” asks James, slight amusement trickling into his voice. \n\n\n \n\n\nIt’s with this that Harry puts his Death Eater disguised as loved ones theory to rest. Death Eaters aren’t clever enough to laugh at themselves, even while pretending. And all these brilliantly acted theatrics doesn’t serve them. Not in the end. Orchestrating an illusion is too drawn out, takes too long, and Voldemort had never shown patience in killing him before. \n\n\n \n\n\nWhat’s worse is the realization that hits him after. That Sirius and James are just as suspicious of him as he is of them.  \n\n\n \n\n\n“Haven’t heard that one before,” says Sirius, also hiding a laugh. “Is that what that old fool is calling us now?” \n\n\n \n\n\n“Imagine that, Padfoot, us, \n\nDeath Eaters.”\n\n\n\n \n\n\nJames and Sirius laugh, and a ripple of pain pulses in Harry’s leg, injury overcoming the charm. \n\n\n \n\n\nIt’s all disorienting. \n\n\n \n\n\nHis father, alive, mocking him, and Sirius, younger and brighter and somehow more alive than the version Harry knows, the one he’s supposed to be saving. \n\n\n \n\n\n“Look,” says Harry, gritting his teeth through his pain. “Is Dumbledore here? He can clear this up. Really. We should all go and talk to him.” \n\n\n \n\n\nWhatever weird, chaotic and nonsensical thing is happening to him - to \n\nthem -\n\n Dumbledore can explain it. Make sense of it. Except James and Sirius stop laughing, stop smiling, at the mention of his name, and Harry gets the feeling he normally only gets after saying Voldemort’s name out loud in a room full of people. \n\n\n \n\n\nJames turns, and adjusts his attention to only Sirius. “Did you Confound him?”\n\n\n \n\n\n“No,” says Sirius. He loosens his grip on his wand, the glow from the light shifts around in the dark forest, and Harry’s reminded that he isn’t completely helpless. His own wand is still tucked into his pocket. “He’s lost a lot of blood…”\n\n\n \n\n\nHarry’s eyes snap towards the wound on his leg. His jeans are torn, showing a deep gash, with blood soaking the surrounding fabric and dripping down and seeping into the forest’s floor. Seeing it sends an unbearable wave of pain and panic through him. He sits up, and he’s ready to cover the wound with his hands when -\n\n\n \n\n\n“-don’t touch it,” orders Sirius. “It’s probably cursed.”\n\n\n \n\n\n“Cursed?” \n\n\n \n\n\n“Yeah, mate,” says James. “That’s what happens when you go around setting fires and scorching part of the forest. Can’t really expect it to take that sort of a beating without biting you back, can you?” \n\n\n \n\n\n“\n\nThis\n\n forest, especially,” agrees Sirius. “It’s always been a vengeful, unforgiving beast.”  \n\n\n \n\n\nThe absurdity of the situation, for just a brief moment, outweighs the pain in his leg. That he’s in the middle of the Forbidden Forest listening to his very alive father and definitely not in danger godfather speak about a forest as if it’s a god to be worshiped and feared. \n\n\n \n\n\nHe supposes it makes sense. \n\n\n \n\n\nThe Marauders spent more time in the Forbidden Forest during their years at Hogwarts then even Hagrid had, or at least that’s the way his Sirius makes it sound in the stories he tells. \n\n\n \n\n\n“Ok, great,” says Harry. “The forest bit me. Will it ever stop bleeding?” \n\n\n \n\n\n“Maybe,” says James. “If you apologize.” \n\n\n \n\n\n“But you have to sound like you mean it,” adds Sirius.\n\n\n \n\n\nHarry pauses, but doesn’t waste any of his time or energy apologizing to the trees. He rolls his eyes, out of annoyance, not really sure how he’s supposed to feel about being confronted by a dead father and a different godfather. \n\n\n \n\n\n“I didn’t start the fire on purpose,” says Harry, strangely defensive. He still isn’t sure about James, isn’t sure what he is, if he’s even real, but even so, Harry doesn’t want him to think he’s an arsonist. Or has something against forests. \n\n\n \n\n\n“Oh,” says James. “So you accidentally cast a Fiendfyre?” \n\n\n \n\n\n“A what?”\n\n\n \n\n\n“The curse you accidentally cast,” he explains, with a frown, a hint of doubt lining his words. “That’s what it’s called.”\n\n\n \n\n\nSomething prickles at the back of Harry’s mind, and he doesn’t like it, doesn’t like not knowing how or why he’d picked that particular curse. It’s enough, isn’t it? Knowing that it had been necessary at the time is enough, he decides. It’s enough. \n\n\n \n\n\nHe recalls the panic, the confusing and dark hallways of the Department of Mysteries, Death Eaters chasing him and his friends. Someone had been screaming, a detail he remembers even if he can’t place who it had been, even as he strains and tries. \n\n\n \n\n\nHis memories are blurry, like trying to see through fog, but what he understands with clarity is that he has to get back to the Department of Mysteries, has to get away from whatever strange place he’s landed in and back into the fight. \n\n\n \n\n\nEven if he’s curious about his father. Even if this more-alive version of Sirius is seeing what his life should have been. \n\n\n \n\n\nHe has to get back to reality. \n\n\n \n\n\nHarry tries to move around a little, but the agony in his leg keeps him pinned to the ground. That time, he does cry out in pain, and James has the decency to put another healing charm on his leg. \n\n\n \n\n\n“We should get him to Poppy,” says James. “Everything I can do is just temporary.” \n\n\n \n\n\n“Riddle won’t like us bringing one of them into the castle,” says Sirius, finally lowering the wand from Harry’s face. “Let’s do it. It’s been awhile since His Highness has gotten all red in the face and yelled.”\n\n\n \n\n\nIt’s another instinct. A reflex. Harry hears the name Riddle, and his hand flies to his wand without a second thought. \n\n\n \n\n\n“\n\nExpelliarmus\n\n,” says James, lazily. Harry’s wand slips through his fingers, soars across the open space, and is caught by James. “On second thought, maybe we should let him know we’ve caught an intruder, \n\nand \n\ntake him to the Hospital Wing.”\n\n\n \n\n\nAnd Harry thinks, against his own common sense, that maybe he should’ve just apologized to the trees. \n\n\n \n\n\nJames and Sirius make him struggle and limp up to Hogwarts Castle, while they hang several feet behind him, whispering at each other in urgent, panicked tones. Once or twice, Harry catches Sirius saying \n\ncheck the map \n\nand \n\nit doesn’t lie\n\n, and it becomes clear to Harry that they are rattled by him, distressed about what his last name might be. \n\n\n \n\n\nBut they don’t ask him his name. \n\n\n \n\n\nNot now, or during that short interrogation. And by the number of times Sirius repeats his pleas, Harry guesses that James doesn’t actually check the Marauder’s Map. \n\n\n \n\n\nIt’s a relief, knowing that James doesn’t want to know, or maybe isn’t ready for the information. That despite him appearing to be calm and collected, he’s privately losing his mind, just like Harry.  \n\n\n \n\n\n*******\n\n\n \n\n\nMadam Pomfrey bandages him up, muttering about the dangers of the Forbidden Forest and ordering him to lay still, the exact thing Harry doesn’t want to do. \n\n\n \n\n\nBeing still is the opposite of what he should be doing, and now that Pomfrey has his wounds on the mend and he can feel the pain ebbing away for good, he needs to be on his way back to his own reality.\n\n\n \n\n\nThat’s where he is, and he understands that now. \n\n\n \n\n\nA parallel dimension. An alternate reality. Just like in the science fiction novels that Muggle boy he’d lived with used to read. \n\n\n \n\n\nThe answer had slipped into his mind, as if it had always been hidden there, while James and Sirius helped him climb up the stone steps of Hogwarts and towards the Hospital Wing. Now, laying flat on the twin hospital bed, he can’t let go of the idea. \n\n\n \n\n\nIt’s true, without a doubt, and Harry doesn’t have to question it. He \n\njust knows.\n\n And with that knowledge, a familiar peace spreads through his body, warms him up. \n\n\n \n\n\nIf there’s a way into this version of reality, then there’s a way back home. Harry just has to find it. \n\n\n \n\n\nEven with his new burst of optimism, he has to admit, there’s going to be some obstacles. \n\n\n \n\n\nLike the current one. \n\n\n \n\n\nJames keeps a watchful vigil from the other side of the Hospital Wing. Opting to sit on a nightstand by an empty bed, he twirls Harry’s wand through his fingers and basks in the moonlight pouring in from the open window. \n\n\n \n\n\nHe’s young, Harry notices, but older than the pictures Harry’s seen of him. He catches himself thinking about this world’s Harry. If he’s alive, and if he isn’t, what’s happened to him. \n\n\n \n\n\nBut he shakes himself out of it. \n\n\n \n\n\nHis wand. He needs to get it back. He’s got to focus. \n\n\n \n\n\n“Can I have my wand back?” asks Harry, daring to sit up, only to have Pomfrey push on his shoulder until his head is back in the pillows. \n\n\n \n\n\n“Not a chance,” says James. He doesn’t even bother looking at him. \n\n\n \n\n\n“Okay, I’m all finished,” says Pomfrey. She puts her own wand back into her robes, and for a few seconds, Harry thinks about stealing hers, but his window of opportunity passes. She walks away, only to return with a goblet. “Here. Drink this.”\n\n\n \n\n\nHarry stares at it. He doesn’t take it from her. “What’s that?” \n\n\n \n\n\n“Just something to help you rest, a sleeping potion,” says Pomfrey. “I don’t know what you’ve - well, I just can’t imagine what you’ve been put through, being-”\n\n\n \n\n\n“-he can’t drink that yet,” says James, cutting her off. He shrugs away from the nightstand, and pockets Harry’s wand. “Sirius has gone to tell Tom. He’ll want to have a chat with him first.” \n\n\n \n\n\n“He’s just a boy.”\n\n\n \n\n\n“I’m fifteen,” offers Harry, dumbly, and although James turns his head and gives him a funny expression, the two adults don’t acknowledge he’s said anything. \n\n\n \n\n\n“Surely you must see the res-”\n\n\n \n\n\n“-Poppy,” says James, gently, tearing his eyes away from Harry and looking back at Madam Pomfrey. “They’re all just kids. Last week Sirius almost got his arm blown off by a twelve-year-old. We’re not the ones turning them into soldiers, but that doesn’t make them any less dangerous.” \n\n\n \n\n\nMadam Pomfrey steps away from Harry’s bed, taking the sleeping potion with her, and leaving him feeling guilty for something he didn’t do, something he’s not. Whatever’s going on here isn’t his fault. He’s not part of it, so why should he be treated like a criminal by his own emotions? \n\n\n \n\n\nHe tries shaking it off, but the feeling lingers, leaving Harry wishing he could still feel the pain in his leg. \n\n\n \n\n\n“Make sure he drinks the potion,” says Madam Pomfrey, pushing the goblet into James’s hands. “Once Tom’s done interrogating the injured child.” \n\n\n \n\n\nShe retreats from the room, leaving James and Harry alone, and an awkward silence settles over them. It’s a twisting knot in his gut, knowing this alternate version of his father thinks he’s some dangerous child soldier, ready to attack at any moment. \n\n\n \n\n\nIt’s also an obstacle on top of an obstacle. \n\n\n \n\n\nHe’s never getting his wand back as long as James believes he’s ready to curse them all with another Fiendfyre, or worse, blow off Sirius’s arm. \n\n\n \n\n\n“I really didn’t mean to set the fire,” tries Harry, not really sure what he could say to prove himself. “I’m not - I’m not whatever it is you think I am.” \n\n\n \n\n\n“Who were you running from?” asks James, question fired off without warning. Harry stutters out a few \n\nwhats\n\n and James elaborates. “I’ve been an Auror for a while. I know what it looks like when someone is running away, and you weren’t running from us until \n\nafter\n\n the fire started, so that means there was somebody else in that forest with you.” \n\n\n \n\n\nThe question is impossible to answer without sounding like he’s completely lost his mind, so Harry doesn’t say anything, just lets the sound of a soft breeze blowing through the window fill the empty space, let’s James pick up the conversation where he left off. \n\n\n \n\n\n“Unless, of course, you really do have it out for the forest.”\n\n\n \n\n\n“It’s possible,” says Harry. “A family of giant spiders live in there, you know.” \n\n\n \n\n\n“I do know,” laughs James. He stops laughing, but his smile stays. “How do \n\nyou\n\n know that?” \n\n\n \n\n\nThere’s a causal light-heartedness about James, even now, even in what Harry understands is supposed to be a prelude to an interrogation. He wants to tell him the truth, and he wants to keep talking to his dead father, to keep hearing him laugh. \n\n\n \n\n\nBut this isn’t his home. Harry doesn’t even have the information James assumes he does, and he can’t let himself forget it. He can’t get caught up in a different war, a war that isn’t his. \n\n\n \n\n\n“We could help you,” continues James. “You just have to work with us.” \n\n\n \n\n\nJust as Harry’s about to tell James he’d been alone in the forest, the double doors to the Hospital Wing slowly creep open. A tall, older man step inside, walk closer to where Harry lay on his bed. \n\n\n \n\n\nTom Riddle doesn’t look anything like the Voldemort of Harry’s world, but Harry recognizes him immediately. His hair is short, dark silver. He’s got a nose, and he’s wearing a scowl as he sets his eyes on him. \n\n\n \n\n\nHarry supposes Tom Riddle’s hatred for him is one of those anomalies that’s true in every universe. \n"}
+{"text": "Klaus collapsed into his chair at the dinner table, he felt dead. So very tired from the effects of the weed wearing off and from being drunk. He was surprised he hadn't been sick yet, that would probably come after this meal. \n\nThe meal in question was, pasta. Nothing too bad, there were mushrooms mixed through it though. Klaus wasn't very fond of mushrooms. They felt fucking weird in his mouth, only mushrooms he liked were magic mushrooms. Speaking of- they would be a fun thing to have next time. After he's run out of weed.\n\nKlaus just began picking at his food, he supposed he was quite hungry. Even if he also felt sick. That's fine though, just as long as no one else noticed that he was drunk and smelt like whiskey. Oh and weed. That would be a big giveaway. He should have put some sort of aftershave on before leaving his room. Too late!\n\nHe was given strange looks from  the rest of his family as he picked all the mushrooms off his pasta, placing them to one side and then eating his pasta without the mushrooms on it. Klaus just ignored them, choosing to instead look at his plate. Fuck off, assholes.\n\nBen was eating his food just fine, he wanted to get some more reading of his book in and then sleep. He was quite done with today, it had been a lot. Hopefully Klaus wouldn't come and talk to him or try to sleep with him. He didn't know if he'd be able to restrain himself. \n\nProblem was, that he could smell the whiskey coming from Klaus' direction. Which meant everyone else probably knew too. Dad hadn't mentioned it though, luckily for Klaus. Maybe he was just sick of Klaus being such a disappointment. He always told Klaus that he was the biggest disappointment of the family. A waste of time. \n\nKlaus had finished eating the pasta with the mushrooms sitting on the side of the plate. He fidgeted with his sweater as he waited to be able to leave. Watching as Mom came and cleared the plates from the table. then they were allowed to go.\n\nHe got up, walking slowly towards his room. Putting focus into walking normally.\n\n\"Why do you smell like whiskey?\" Luther asked him, he had been walking behind him.\n\nKlaus froze, and swallowed. What to say- \"I was out on a walk, some dude spilled it on me. Haven't been for a wash yet.\" He responded without looking at One. Please leave me alone.\n\nLuther huffed, \"You're a liar. Not surprised that you're going back to being like that. Dad always said you were the disappointment.\" He said curtly before walking past Klaus, leaving him standing there with a heavy heart.\n\nKlaus felt his mood shatter. He felt so alone. He wasn't going back to being like that. He was fine.. it was just, just because they were so horrible to him. All of them. They never took him seriously, always left him out. Thought he was weird. \n\nHe thought for a moment to go and speak to Ben to try and cheer himself up, but he decided against that. He locked himself in the bathroom, curling up in the bathtub without any water. \n\n\"I hate it here.\" He whispered, scratching at his arms. \"I hate everyone.\"\n\nHe didn't know what to do with himself. He was honestly sick of just about everything. Only reason he liked sticking around was because of Ben. The fun he would have with Ben. All because he loved Ben with his whole heart.\n\nBut Ben must hate him. He was a fucking junkie, he was turning into one again. All over again, life was repeating itself. Except this time everyone else was better off, and Klaus felt even more alone than before. \n\n\"Should just end it.\" he murmured, looking around the bathroom for something. Something to make him go numb. He didn't want drugs right now, or drink. He wanted to hurt. \n\nBen had decided to go to Klaus's room to check on him. He had heard Luther in the hallway, he knew how hard that would hit Klaus. Being told that from Dads favourite. He was surprised that Klaus wasn't there, looked like he had never gone back into his room since dinner.\n\n\"Klaus?\" Ben called, looking for him around the hall. He was confused until he heard a clatter from the bathroom. Ben frowned, walking towards the bathroom, he wondered who was in. He tried the door, it was locked obviously. \n\n\"Hello?\" he asked.\n\nKlaus heard Ben on the other side of the door. \"Shit.\" He muttered, looking around the bathroom for something to clean up what he had done. There was only the perfectly clean white towels that Mom had spent so long on. \n\nHe grabbed one though, a smaller one. Pressed it against his leg. He didn't answer Ben yet. \n\n\"Klaus are you in there? Let me in.\" Ben said after a couple of minutes had passed and there hadn't been any response. The bathroom had seemingly gone silent. \n\nKlaus frowned, looking down. It was beginning to... stop now. He raked through the cabinet and found some dressings. He quickly wrapped up his thigh, tying it in a knot at the side and stuffing the towel out of sight. \n\n\"Klaus, seriously. Answer me.\" Ben sounded like he was getting angry. \n\nKlaus quickly flushed the toilet and then unlocked the door, opening it and smiling at Ben. \"Sorry, was busy.\" he laughed a little hoping it didn't sound fake. \n\nBen looked around the bathroom suspiciously before he looked back at Klaus. \"Are you good?\" He questioned. \n\nKlaus nodded enthusiastically, \"Perfect.\" He grinned, moving to walk past Ben, but Ben blocked his way. \n\n\"What were you doing?\" Ben didn't trust that Klaus had been using the toilet. He would have just told him to go away straight away, but the fact that there had been no response for around 5 minutes. \n\n\"Toilet. Want to know all about my bowel movement? Are you really that interested.\" Klaus retorted, pushing Ben a little. \"Let me go, I want to go to bed.\" \n\nBen glared at him. \"Klaus, I don't believe you, tell me.\" \n\nKlaus just shook his head at Ben. \"The fucking toilet, I told you.\" He didn't want to let Ben know what he had done. Ben would be so mad and upset with him. Ben never knew that he used to do that. But it helped, it really did.\n\nBen stepped back, giving in. \"Fine.\"\n\nKlaus pushed past him, walking to his room with a slight limp. His thigh ached, but it was nice to feel something other than his heart aching. His heart ached too, but the pain in his thigh acted as a slight distraction for what was going on elsewhere.\n\nBen noticed the limp, he wondered if Klaus had... he wouldn't. He'd never done that, he used drugs when he was feeling down. He didn't hurt himself... unless he did? He followed his brother, beginning to feel upset. He didn't want Klaus to be hurting alone, he wanted to make him feel better.\n\n\"Klaus can I come hang out?\" He asked as they reached Klaus's door. He noticed the way Klaus faltered in his actions, his shoulders stiffening. \"I'd like to hang out.\" Ben said again after a moment. \n\nKlaus shook his head a little before speaking, \"No.. well, um, I guess you can for a little. But I'm tired.\" He lied. He just ached all over at this point, everything hurt and he just wanted to sleep forever. Hopefully without the nightmares and the dead that haunted him constantly.\n\n\"Okay, I won't push you too hard then.\" Ben teased a little, trying to lighten Klaus's mood, but Klaus didn't even laugh. He just walked in, getting into his bed.\n\nBen inhaled slowly and exhaled before walking in too, shutting the door softly. \"Want to just talk?\" he asked, sitting down on the end of the bed.\n\nKlaus shrugged, \"About what?\"\n\n\"I don't know, anything?\" Ben replied, looking at his brother. He looked so broken, he could see it in his eyes. Even if he was trying to make himself seem fine. All these years of being left out and their father treating him horribly. \n\nKlaus just shrugged again, biting his bottom lip. He looked over at Ben, he didn't know whether to tell Ben how horrible he felt or whether to pretend that he didn't feel like utter shit. It hurt so bad and he just wanted Ben to make it go away. He had wanted to go away, but Ben had come knocking. Suppose he had maybe saved Klaus from making a bad decision. \n\nBen sighed, \"Klaus, please talk to me. I can see it in your eyes.\" he said softly, he felt like he needed to protect Klaus. Get him out of this house as soon as they were 18. Not too long.\n\nKlaus let out a small whimper, \"I just- I..\" he faltered, chewing on his bottom lip for a second. \"I'm sick of being alive.\" He admitted to Ben, hanging his head.\n\nBen looked at Klaus with sad eyes, \"Klaus.. you know that's not a good idea. Don't do that please, I would miss you so much.\" he moved closer to his brother, gently touching his thigh.\n\nKlaus yelped a little, pulling away. \"D-Don't touch that.\" \n\nBen frowned, he knew now what Klaus had done. \"Did you..\" he questioned, gesturing to his leg. \"Because you know what doesn't help anything.\"\n\nKlaus shrugged a little. \"It does sometimes.\" He muttered in reply, looking away. \n\n\"Do you know how much pain I feel constantly. I'm so lonely..\" Klaus sighed, \"My heart aches all day, it hurts all the time. It hurts so much not being able to have what you want. Being known as the sibling that everyone hates. The one with a useless power, my power isn't even a power, I feel like it's a disability.\" Klaus let out a choked sob. \n\nHe was drunk still, but not as much. The pain in his thigh was beginning to sober him up. And so was this chat with Ben. \"Ben, it just.. hurts so much. I want everything to be numb. I'm so done. I feel like I'm only really sticking around for you.\"\n\nBen gently touched Klaus' arm instead. \"Then at least you have one thing to stick around for. Screw everyone else.\" He told him quietly. \"Why does your heart ache?\" He asked, hoping Klaus would admit his love again, because after seeing him so broken like this. He just wanted to keep him close and look after him.\n\n\"It's your fault!\" Klaus shouted, breaking down. \"It's always been your fault..\"\n\nBen was taken back by the way Klaus admitted this time. Before it had been in a moment of bliss, this time in a moment of utter despair and so much pain. \n\n\"Klaus.. I didn't, I'm sorry.\" Ben was sorry, he didn't realise how much pain Klaus had been in everyday. No wonder he had turned to drugs, especially after he had died the first time around.\n\nKlaus shook his head, \"It hurts to love someone you can't.\" He said through tears, \"It's wrong, but.. I just..\" he didn't know what to say. He just wished Ben would return his love, make him feel better.\n\n\"Klaus, I don't know what to say.\" Ben said quietly, looking down at the bed. He wasn't sure if he returned the love quite as strongly as Klaus. He admitted he was quite infatuated with Klaus, he liked him. He did. Maybe just not love yet.\n\n\"I do.. like you, but not love.\" Ben told him, looking up, feeling terrible at the heartbroken look on his brother's face. \"I want to love you, though. I want to leave here with you, go somewhere away from all of this. Then we won't have to worry about all of them. All of this.\" He repeated. \n\nKlaus just nodded sadly, \"I knew you didn't love me back, I don't think you ever will. I'm hard to love, I don't understand how you could ever even like me.\" he was slurring his words through his tears. \"I'm sorry for loving you Ben.\"\n\n\"Don't ever be sorry for that, Klaus.\" Ben touched his cheek gently. \"Don't you dare apologise for loving someone.\" \n\nHe leant over gently to a press a soft kiss against Klaus's swollen lips. He felt Klaus kiss back weakly, his own heart began to ache for how upset his brother was. \n\n\"It'll be okay, Klaus. I promise.\" Ben murmured, pulling Klaus into a gentle hug and letting him sob his broken heart out. \n\n\"I love you, Ben.\" Klaus cried, gripping onto Ben tightly. \n\n\"I know, I know Klaus.\""}
+{"text": "Bruce isn’t surprised to find Clark waiting for him in the cave, but that doesn’t make him any less pissed off about it, either. \n\n“Stalking me now, Clark?” he asks, slamming the car door shut with more force than he needs to. Petty, yes, but it's been a long night, a League mission that went south followed by several hours on patrol and he’s too fucking tired to deal with this right now. “That’s not very Superman of you.”\n\nClark crosses his arms. “I wouldn’t have to if you hadn’t run off earlier.” \n\nBruce walks right past him and doesn’t spare him a second glance.\n\n“Getting lectured by a boy scout isn’t exactly high on my list of favourite activities.” \n\nBruce heads for the stairs but Clark suddenly disappears, superspeeding away before reappearing directly in Bruce's path. Bruce has to stumble back to keep from running right into him.\n\n“Get out of my way, Clark.” \n\nBruce’s voice is very quiet. It’s the voice he uses when he’s on patrol, the voice that makes the average Gotham lowlife second-guess themselves and wonder if maybe the stories were true — that the Bat wasn’t just a man, or even a superpowered man; it was the voice that made them wonder if they’d found themselves face to face with some kind of demon. \n\nSomething flickers in Clark’s eyes before that goddamn stubbornness takes over again.  \n\n“Not until you tell me why took that stupid risk on the mission today.”\n\nBruce smiles. His split lip re-opens, staining his teeth, and Clark actually flinches at the sight of his bloody grin. \n\n“What’s the matter, Clark? A little blood make you uncomfortable?” Clark’s eyes harden and Bruce's smile widens. Good, Bruce thinks. This he can deal with. “It’s not like you haven’t given me worse. Now get out of the way and get the fuck out of my house.” \n\nHe shoves past Clark and heads upstairs, taking two and three at a time, ignoring the pain in his hip where some asshole had landed a well-aimed kick. The house is silent — Alfred is away for the night, probably having decided to make himself scarce after letting Clark into the cave, and all Bruce wants to do is shower and collapse into bed for a few hours. He starts stripping off the batsuit as soon as he’s in his bedroom. Normally he’d have gotten changed in the cave but there was no fucking way he was staying down there while Clark shot him disapproving glares. Being civil — friendly, even — while the rest of the team are around is one thing; putting up with this boy scout bullshit in his own goddamn house is another. \n\nBruce is down to his underwear when he realises that he’s no longer alone. He can only blame his tiredness for not noticing sooner.\n\n“For god’s sake, Clark.” Bruce throws his undershirt into a corner and glares at him in the doorway. “What part of ‘get the fuck out’ did you not understand?”\n\nBut Clark just looks more determined than ever, stalking into the room without an invitation, just doing whatever the fuck he wants to do because right now he's not Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter — right now he's Superman, and Superman doesn't need permission to do anything. \n\n“Why did you go after him on your own?” \n\n“I don’t have to justify my actions to you —”\n\n“You do when your actions could get you killed!” Clark rarely raised his voice but there’s enough force in it now that it actually rattles the furniture. With visible effort, he reins it in. “If you would just listen —”\n\n“To you?” Bruce steps closer. He's almost naked, no suit, no cowl, but Bruce sees Clark tense, knows that Clark is looking at him and seeing Batman stalking towards him and not fragile, weak — human — Bruce Wayne. “I’ve been at this for more than twenty fucking years, Clark. I don’t need your approval, or your permission. I know what I’m doing.”\n\n“Do you?” Clark stands firm, not backing up even a step as Bruce gets closer and closer. “Looks to me like all you know how to do is run away.” \n\n“Run away?” Bruce stops when he’s within arm’s reach. “You said it yourself, Clark. I went after the guy, I didn’t run away.”\n\n“Maybe not from him, no.” Clark’s eyes are hard, but there’s something bright about them too, bright and hot and — angry, Bruce realises. Clark is truly, genuinely angry with him. “But from everything else? That’s all you ever fucking do.”\n\n“Oh, swearing now, too?” Bruce grins. “Playing at being human doesn't really work when you're in costume.”\n\nHe starts to turn away but Clark grabs his wrist, not hard enough to hurt but tight enough that Bruce can’t pull away. Annoyance turns to anger and anger starts turning into something else, something he usually keeps so viciously sealed away that Bruce can actually feel his self-control starting to crack, muscles tensing and heart rate doubling as he contemplates whether it’s worth a dislocated shoulder to yank himself free. It’s too late for this; he’s too tired for this. He’s too fucking old for this. \n\n“Let go of me, Clark.” The grin is gone and he can hear his voice shaking with things he can barely suppress. \n\n“No.”\n\nBruce decides the dislocated shoulder is worth it and tries to walk away but Clark was ready for it — he lets Bruce finish the motion before he pulls Bruce back, a hard firm tug that should have made Bruce stumble into him — but Bruce had been ready too. He’d known there was no way Clark would let him hurt himself. Bruce uses the momentum of the tug to take Clark by surprise, pushing off the ground and ramming his shoulder right at Clark’s chest. They crash into a table, knocking it over as drawers fall open and spill out all over the floor, but Bruce doesn’t care, just keeps pushing and shoving until Clark's back hits the window with a loud hard thud. At the back of his mind he knows that Clark had allowed it, that if he really wanted to stop Bruce all he had to do was stand still. And then no amount of momentum or preparedness or clever tricks would matter at all, because Clark was absolutely immoveable when he wanted to be. \n\n“What are you going to do, Bruce?” Clark smiles, an edge of mockery in his voice. “Hit me? Good luck Batmanning with a broken hand.” \n\n“Right now, I’m thinking it might be worth it.” \n\nClark’s eyes flash with anger. \n\n“No, you’re not. You’re not thinking that.”\n\n“How would you know what I think?” Bruce leans closer. “You think you know me, Clark? You think because we’re on a team that means we’re friends?” Bruce shoves him against the glass again, hard enough that the whole wall of windows, floor to ceiling and corner to corner, shakes with the force of it. “You don’t know anything about me, Clark. Or what I’m capable of.” \n\n“I know you weren’t always like this.”\n\n“Like what,” Bruce snaps.\n\n“Hard. Brutal. Angry.” Clark looks him right in the eye, unflinching and unafraid, because why would he be? There's nothing Bruce can do to him and they both know it. Clark licks his lips. “You wouldn’t have taken on a Robin—”\n\nBruce’s fist is flying before he’s even aware of what he’s doing but Clark is even faster — he’s out of Bruce’s grip in less than a blink of an eye, fingers tight around Bruce’s wrist to stop him from smashing his fist into the glass now that Clark’s no longer leaning against it. \n\nBruce closes his eyes and forces himself to stay still despite the white-hot rage in his veins. On some level he knows his anger is misdirected but Clark is still the most convenient target, and Bruce is so fucking tired, of Clark and his disappointed frowns and unearned trust and unwavering belief that people were worth saving — always, everyone, even Bruce. \n\nHe opens his eyes and catches Clark by surprise — Clark's gaze snaps up quickly, but not before Bruce saw him looking... elsewhere. \n\n“Well, well, well,” Bruce says, keeping his voice low. The faintest hint of pink flushes Clark’s cheeks and Bruce smiles again, but not like before — this is sharper, knowing, and Clark's jaw tightens when he sees it. Bruce drops his head a little and looks at Clark through his eyelashes. “Is this what it’s really about, Clark? You could’ve just asked.”\n\nClark lets go of his wrist. “What are you talking about?”\n\nBruce spreads his arms. “Go ahead and look, Clark.” He does a slow turn and can almost feel Clark’s eyes on him, gaze running up and down his back, his arms and legs, his shoulders and chest. His cock twitches but Bruce doesn’t even care anymore; Clark could probably smell it on him anyway. And when they’re face to face again Bruce sees the growing evidence of something he’d always suspected and always purposely ignored, because he knew that nothing would ever come of it — not with Clark, and definitely not with Superman. That is, not until now. \n\nBruce might be the one in nothing but his underwear but the full Superman suit is just as useless to Clark in hiding it. He watches Clark swallow and smiles again, knowing he's somehow ended up with the upper hand after all. \n\n“I’ve seen you looking before,” Bruce adds, pressing his advantage. “You think you look away fast enough, you think I don’t notice. But I notice everything.” He steps closer, crowding Clark against the window. “Is looking all you’re going to do, Clark?” \n\nClark takes a deep breath. He flushes a deeper shade of pink but when his eyes meet Bruce’s again, they’re just as determined as ever. \n\n“Why did you go after him alone?”\n\nBruce grins and ignores the question completely. “Don’t tell me you’re afraid to do more than look?”\n\nSomething flares his Clark’s eyes; it could be anger, it could be lust, more likely it was both. \n\n“I’m not the one who’s afraid, Bruce.” His head suddenly darts forward, far enough that their lips would have met if Bruce hadn’t instinctively jerked his own head back. Clark smiles with humourless satisfaction. “Like I said,” he adds. “Always running away.”\n\n“How’s this for running away?” Bruce asks, and starts palming Clark’s cock through the suit. \n\nThe back of Clark’s head hits the window as he gasps in surprise. \n\n“Bruce —”\n\n“Isn’t this what you wanted?” Bruce steps even closer, nosing at Clark's neck, breathing in the scent of him, the heat. “Or did you want even more?” He feels Clark’s cock twitch against his hand and smiles again. “More it is, then.”\n\nHe manages to give Clark’s cock another rough stroke before Clark suddenly pushes him away. Bruce laughs a little, watching Clark take several deep breaths — as though he actually needs them, as though breathing isn't just another one of dozens of affectations he takes up to hide what he really is.\n\n“What’s the matter, Clark? The real thing a little too much to bear?” Bruce’s eyes are hard. “Or a little too disappointing?” \n\nClark looks him in the eye, gaze as steady as his breathing is uneven. \n\n“Is this the real thing, Bruce? Because I don’t think it is.” He shakes his head. “Seems like just another mask to me.”\n\n“I’m not the one in costume.” \n\n“Yeah,” Clark agrees, watching him with a strange expression on his face. “Superman is my mask. Just like Batman is yours.”\n\n“Batman’s not the mask, Clark.”\n\nClark laughs, but it’s a bitter sound. \n\n“I know that’s what you want me to believe. Maybe what you want to believe, too. But that’s bullshit, Bruce.” Clark runs his gaze all over him again, lingering on the many, many scars that litter his whole body — from old faded scratches he’d gotten as a boy to ugly, twisted cords of tissue from wounds that nearly killed him. “You want me to believe you’re not afraid? You want me to believe that this is the mask?”\n\nClark strips off the Superman suit. It doesn’t take long, and in less than a minute he’s standing naked in Bruce’s bedroom — naked and hard and unapologetic about both.\n\n“Tell me to leave again, Bruce.” He takes another deep breath, and if it’s a sign of nerves the look in his eyes is as unwavering as ever. “Walk away without touching me.” \n\nAnd Bruce — Bruce does try. He looks away, curls his hands into fists, wills his pulse to slow down to normal levels. But Clark is so close, so close Bruce can smell him, so close that Bruce can feel his body heat; Clark is close and hard and willing, offering even — and offering it all to Bruce, of all people. Has been for a while, considering how often Bruce caught Clark looking at him with something hungry in those dangerously pretty eyes.\n\nBruce meets his gaze again and steps forward, into Clark’s personal space.\n\n“No.”\n\nClark licks his lips. “No?”\n\n“No.” \n\nAnd Bruce grabs him by the shoulders and turns him around before shoving him face-first against the window. Clark manages to stop himself from crashing into the glass, superspeed allowing him to brace both hands against it just in time. \n\nBruce presses himself against Clark’s back and smiles when he feels Clark shiver. \n\nHe slips his hands around Clark’s torso as he leans in, one palm coming up to rest against Clark’s chest and the other against his stomach, breathing hotly against the side of Clark’s neck.\n\n“Is this what you wanted?” Bruce whispers into Clark’s skin. “Every time you looked?” \n\nHis fingers find a nipple and Clark gasps, back arching into the touch. It makes his bare ass rub against Bruce’s cock and Bruce tugs him closer, rocking his hips until Clark is panting is his arms. \n\nBruce lets the hand on Clark’s stomach drift lower, sliding slowly into the hair at his groin. He can see their reflections in the windows, the low light effectively turning them into mirrors, and Bruce can see how tense Clark’s face is, can feel how taut his muscles are as Bruce’s hand keeps inching closer and closer to his cock. \n\n“Answer me, Clark.” Bruce shifts his hips, erection finding the cleft of Clark’s ass and he watches Clark’s face in the window as it twists with need. He gives Clark’s nipple another hard pinch and Clark’s jaw drops as he shudders against Bruce’s chest.\n\n“Yes,” Clark pants. He licks his lips again and meets Bruce’s eyes in the window. “And before.” \n\n“Before?”\n\nBruce takes hold of Clark’s cock and Clark tilts his head back against Bruce’s shoulder, not breaking eye contact. \n\n“When we fought,” he says, chest heaving as Bruce’s hand starts moving over his cock. “Before Doomsday. You were — I’d never —”\n\nBruce tightens his grip and Clark has to shut his eyes, moaning as he thrusts into Bruce’s fist. \n\n“Keep going,” Bruce insists. He licks at Clark’s neck, nibbles on his earlobe, and Clark makes a strangled sort of noise, head tipping forward to give Bruce better access.\n\n“I’d never been — overpowered, before,” Clark says roughly. “By a human. You were — I thought about —”\n\nBruce thrusts his hips against Clark’s ass again and Clark cuts off with another moan.\n\n“This?” Bruce asks. “Me inside you?” He licks at the back of Clark’s neck, tasting what must be Kryptonian sweat — salt and musk and something faintly metallic, too. It makes his mouth water, makes him wonder what other parts of Clark might taste like, what they might feel like against his tongue. “Or you inside me?” \n\n“Both,” Clark whispers, closing his eyes as his face flushes with heat. “Either. Any, I don’t care, just —” He cuts off when Bruce starts stroking faster, long smooth pulls that make Clark gasp. Bruce can feel the tremor in his back where it’s pressed hard against his chest. \n\n“Say it,” Bruce insists. “I want you to look at me and say it.”\n\nClark opens his eyes. Bruce sees open lust there but something else too, something he doesn’t understand — something darker and wilder and more intense than even this, and it makes Bruce remember that as similar as they may look, as familiar as it is to have a body in his arms responding to his touch, Clark is still absolutely alien, and Bruce is in no less danger now than he ever is when Clark looks at him with heat in his eyes. That this heat is from desire rather than anger makes no difference. \n\n“I want,” Clark says slowly, clearly, eyes boring into his, “I want you to fuck me, Bruce.” He takes a breath. “With nothing in between.” \n\nThe words hit Bruce like the blows he took during the mission earlier, knocking the air out of his lungs even as his cock gets impossibly harder. His mind brings up the potential dangers as quickly as it dismisses them — as volatile as things between them could be Clark wouldn’t suggest anything that could hurt him, Bruce is certain of that. Still, he knows it isn’t entirely safe — but then, nothing about any of this is safe. And not just physically, some small part of him thinks, but he shoves that thought away in favour of giving Clark’s cock one last rough stroke before he takes a step backwards.\n\nHe takes another step to the side, watching Clark watch him in the window as he pulls his underwear off. Clark licks his lips when Bruce is finally naked, gaze raking over Bruce’s body like he wants to devour him alive. It’s not much different to how he’d looked when he lifted Bruce up by the throat and threw him into a parked car and the thought makes Bruce even harder. \n\nThere's a convenient tube of lube on the floor — probably from the broken table — and he gets himself slicked up quickly. He strokes himself lightly, and very briefly — he’s painfully hard already and knows he won’t last long. But Clark’s eyes darken immediately, fingers twitching a little against the glass like he’s forcing himself to stay still. \n\nBruce steps up behind him again. He slowly trails a fingertip down Clark’s back, from the nape of his neck and down along his spine and then even further down than that, slipping into the cleft of his ass until Bruce finds what he was looking for. He doesn’t press in, not yet, just rubs and teases until Clark is pushing back against his hand, sucking in breaths like he’s been hit with a blast of kryptonite. Bruce reaches around him with his free hand and grabs his cock and Clark squeezes his eyes shut, looking almost like he’s in pain.\n\n“Bruce,” he chokes out. “Would you just — oh, fuck,” he gasps, when Bruce suddenly pushes in. Clark pushes back against him and his greed for more makes Bruce groan. Clark is so tight around his finger, so tight and hot, that the prospect of feeling that bearing down on his own cock makes Bruce gasp, the mere thought alone almost enough to make him come.\n\nClark sees his reaction in the window and smiles, even as he moans when Bruce pushes a second finger in. \n\n“I can make it good for you, Bruce,” Clark says, voice low and rough and breathless. “I’ve thought about it often enough. I know I can make it good.”\n\nAnd Clark’s eyes are so full of heat, his voice so thick with need, that the last of Bruce’s self-control turns to ash under the force of it. He pulls his fingers out and grabs Clark by the hips, then lines himself up and pushes in with one long, slow thrust. \n\n“Bruce, fuck —” Clark moans, eyes falling shut as Bruce fills him up. “Yes, more —”\n\n“Clark —” Bruce gasps, panting hard and fingers digging into Clark’s hips as he desperately tries not to come at once. Clark around his fingers was nothing, nothing like Clark around his cock, a searing heat and tight pressure that’s so good, so good it’s actually painful, so good Bruce knows he’ll never be able to get past this — he'll never be able to look at Clark again and not remember what it was like to be buried deep inside him. Then Clark clenches around him and Bruce whimpers, actually whimpers, pressing his forehead against the back of Clark’s neck as his hips start moving on pure instinct, thrusting into the perfect heat of Clark’s perfect, willing body. \n\nBut Clark is just as far gone, fingers scrabbling at the window as Bruce fucks him hard against it, as Bruce pulls out almost all the way before slamming back in again, over and over, harder and harder, so hard that Bruce would be leaving bruises and drawing blood if it was anyone other than Clark pressed against him. And Clark just takes it, welcomes it, meeting him thrust for thrust, moaning his name and gasping obscenities that Bruce never thought he’d ever hear coming out of that sweet farmboy mouth. \n\n“Look at me,” Bruce whispers into his ear, one hand pumping Clark’s cock in time with his thrusts and the other tangled tight in Clark’s soft, dark hair. “Look at us. Look at what we’re doing.”\n\nWith effort Clark lifts his head and their eyes meet in the window again. Clark’s whole body is flushed, chest heaving, arms shaking as he holds himself up against the force of Bruce pounding into him, again and again and again. His lips are parted, hair in disarray, cock hard and leaking in Bruce’s tight fist. Compared to how he normally looks, unassuming in his neat plaid button-downs or radiating pure power in the Superman suit, right now he looks utterly obscene, a pornographic fantasy ripped straight from some dark corner of Bruce’s labyrinthine mind. \n\n“Is this how you imagined it,” Bruce asks, unable to stop himself. “Hard,” he gasps, slamming in again, “and rough?” He lets go of Clark’s cock and his hair, gripping his hips instead to get better leverage as the tension in him spins inexorably out of control. “Did you want to see my scars?” He suddenly slows down, so slow that he and Clark both cry out, shuddering hard against each other. Clark eyes are still on him, still watching his every move in the window, and Bruce can’t stop the words that fall from his lips, escaping from hidden places, ugly and unfiltered and raw. “See every mark — god,” he moans, speeding up again, “— of every failure on this fragile —” another thrust, “human —” and another, “—body?” \n\nHis last words are punctuated by thrusts so brutal that Clark doesn't even respond, head bowing against the force of Bruce pounding into him. The sight of their reflections makes Bruce groan and he knows he's seconds away from coming. And then Clark lifts his head again, a sudden smile spreading across his face, like he knows exactly how close Bruce is to losing it — and something flashes in those bright blue eyes that makes Bruce’s gut clench in apprehension. And then — \n\nClark suddenly tightens around him, hard and deliberate and shockingly strong — so strong that Bruce comes in an instant, his orgasm forcibly ripped right out of him. He cries out again, helpless to stop it, shuddering against Clark’s back, hands tight around Clark’s hips as he comes and comes, spilling into Clark’s body and panting hard against the back of his neck. It’s harsh and violent and unbearably, excruciatingly good, and the thought of what Clark was capable of, of how much control he must have over his own body, just makes Bruce come even harder.  \n\nHe tries to get his breath back when he’s finally spent, gasping a little as he pulls out. But as soon he takes a step backwards Clark moves faster than he’s able to see and the next thing Bruce knows, his back is against the window and Clark’s hands are on his chest, keeping him firmly in place. \n\n“Clark,” Bruce starts, but finds he has no idea what to say. \n\nHe can feel his heart beating against Clark’s palms, a rapid thud that he knows Clark can hear as clearly as Bruce's voice saying his name. Bruce is still panting, the violence of his orgasm still stealing his breath, and staring at Clark now, at the intense expression in his eyes and the clear implied threat in his hands over Bruce’s heart, Bruce knows he’s short of breath for another reason, too. \n\n“You’re afraid of me,” Clark says suddenly. “Even now, you’re afraid of me.” He shakes his head a little, disbelieving despite the fact that he’s got Bruce pressed against the window like a moth pinned to a board. “Me,” he repeats. “Not Superman. Me.” \n\nBruce says nothing, but his racing pulse is answer enough. Clark stares at him for a moment, the expression on his face entirely unreadable before he slowly, slowly leans in. Bruce stays still but just before their mouths collide Clark ducks his head, and it takes far longer than it should for Bruce to understand what Clark is actually doing: he’s kissing every scar he can find, systematically brushing his lips over the multitude of marks scattered all over Bruce's skin — carved into his chest and shoulders, etched into his hands and arms. \n\n“Don’t,” Bruce says. His voice is unexpectedly rough and it ends up sounding more like a question than an order. \n\n“Yes.” \n\nThe word is breathed into one of Bruce’s biggest, ugliest scars, the one that rips across his shoulder and down over his chest. Serrated blades, Bruce remembers, made of some alloy the batsuit hadn’t been able to deflect yet. He'd gotten more than one scar that night, cold metal repeatedly piercing his skin and slicing his flesh, barely missing several vital organs, and Bruce still remembers how white Alfred’s face had been when he finally came to — white as a sheet, white as a ghost, staring at Bruce like — like he was the ghost.\n\n“You see these as marks of failure,” Clark says, lips finding another scar, near his nipple this time — a faded pink stripe from an old fight Bruce no longer remembers the details of. Bruce gasps a little when Clark’s tongue licks over it, flicking over his nipple too. “You see failure,” Clark repeats. “But I see survival.”\n\nHe moves down Bruce’s torso, hands trailing down as he goes, the soft press of his lips and the careful flicks of his tongue keeping Bruce in place as effectively as the hands on his chest did before. Those hands are at Bruce’s waist now, and Bruce closes his eyes when Clark gets down on his knees, finding more and more marks to bless with brutally gentle kisses. \n\nClark mouths along another long scar, one that follows the curve of his hipbone, and Bruce’s breath hitches when his mouth finds the one that creeps up his inner thigh, the one he got when Robin —\n\n“Clark.” \n\nThe word comes out like a plea and Clark stills, lips still grazing Bruce’s damaged skin. \n\n“You see weakness,” Clark says softly. “I see strength.”\n\n“Not enough.\" The words scrape painfully over Bruce's throat, bone-dry and squeezed tight with things long-buried. “Never enough.”\n\nClark stands. He waits until Bruce meets his eyes before he speaks again. \n\n“Maybe not on your own,” he says. “But you’re not on your own. Not anymore.” He seems to hesitate, then adds, “Maybe you never were.”\n\nBruce tries to look away but Clark grabs his jaw and forces him to maintain eye contact. His grip isn't painful but it certainly isn’t gentle, either, and neither is the look in his eyes as he stares Bruce down.\n\n“You’re afraid of me because you look at me and you see what I could do,” Clark says. \n\n“You could snap me in half like a twig, Clark.”\n\n“I could,” he agrees. “But I won’t. I wouldn’t.” Something flashes in his eyes again, something almost like desperation, or despair. “Why can't you look at me and just see what I'm doing now, instead of what I could do?”\n\nBruce swallows. \n\n“And what are you doing right now, Clark?”\n\n“This.”\n\nFor a split second he's gone in a sudden gust of wind, but before Bruce even registers what's happening Clark is lifting him up by the waist like he weighs nothing at all, holding him up against the window as he presses a finger into him. \n\n“Fuck,” Bruce gasps, unprepared but not — not unwilling. Clark's finger is wet with lube and Bruce moans a little at the thought of how fast Clark must have moved to get his hand slicked up without Bruce even seeing it. He instinctively wraps his legs around Clark's waist and Clark hoists him up even higher; it makes his stomach brush over Bruce's oversensitive cock and Bruce gasps again, pleasure-pain shooting through him, not knowing whether he wants more or less of it. Clark pushes another finger in, staring at him like he's the only thing left in the entire world. \n\nThen Clark adds another finger, and all three curl and hit Bruce in just the right spot, and against his will Bruce shudders hard before going boneless against the glass, Clark's superhuman strength the only thing keeping him upright. \n\n“No,” Bruce tries to say, but the word dissolves into a moan as his head tips back and his hips push forward, trying to get more. Because he does and he doesn't want it; he wants Clark inside him but not — not like this. Bruce wants to be taken like he took Clark, a hard brutal fucking, just another fight like the ones they’ve had before but with the contexts flipped around. Not like this, this slow and careful undoing, this measured application of — not force, Bruce realises with a moan, as Clark replaces his fingers with his cock and Bruce can do nothing but close his eyes and take him in. This is something far worse, a controlled execution of something that hits more deeply than a physical blow ever could. \n\nBut Clark is relentless, single-minded in his attack. He fucks Bruce agonisingly slowly, hitting his prostate with merciless accuracy, until Bruce is shaking in Clark's arms, hands clutching his shoulders like he's a lifeline. Clark's face is flushed, with concentration as much as pleasure, and Bruce tries to turn away from the intensity in those damned blue eyes but Clark refuses to give him that, too — one hand comes up and cups the back of Bruce's head, fingers tangling in his hair and holding him in place, forcing Bruce to look him in the eye. \n\n“I thought about it like this too,” Clark rasps, his voice so deep and rough that Bruce can practically feel it, dragging over his skin and sinking into his bones. “Nothing,” Clark adds, briefly closing his eyes when Bruce clenches around him, “nothing in between.”\n\nClark leans forward but stops when Bruce wrenches his head free, turning away and saving himself from that one last intimacy, despite knowing full well that Clark could take that by force as well. But Clark doesn't, and Bruce knew that he wouldn't, and it's that irrefutable truth that makes Bruce look back at Clark's face, where he sees a look in Clark's eyes that's far, far too understanding, too accepting by half. \n\n“Nothing in between,” Clark repeats, voice barely audible, when Bruce meets his eyes again. He emphasises his words with another torturously slow thrust, and this time — this time Bruce doesn't look away, even though Clark is no longer holding his head still. He just stares back, and he doesn't know what he's seeing in Clark's eyes but he hopes whatever Clark can see in his is something less open, less exposed, less — weak, he thinks, but knows at once that that's a lie. Clark is staring at him just like he's fucking him — raw, bare, direct, the look in his eyes so clear it's impossible to misunderstand what he means. \n\nThis is the opposite of weakness, and they both know it. \n\nAnd Clark must see it, see the understanding in the depths of Bruce's eyes, because he makes a choked sort of noise and slams Bruce against the window, and whatever control he showed before cracks wide open as he starts fucking Bruce for real. Not as hard as he could, nowhere near that hard, but hard enough that Bruce can do nothing but take it, the rest of the world obliterated by the feeling of Clark moving inside him, Clark's arms around his waist, Clark's unrelenting gaze staring right into him. It's almost too much for Bruce to process, tension building in him again even though he's already come, but Clark feels unbearably good inside him, like satisfying a craving he hadn't even known he'd had, and Bruce wishes he could be hard again for this, that he could feel it as intensely as Clark is feeling it now. \n\nNeither of them speaks, neither of them can speak. Not with words, at least, because Bruce is sure that Clark is telling him something with every desperate thrust, with every moan that Bruce feels breathed out against his own skin. And Bruce tries to control it, bites his lip to stop it escaping, but his answers fall out anyway, quiet gasps and tiny wordless noises of his own, and it's not just because he's being fucked raw by someone who could destroy the whole goddamn planet if he wanted to. But that's just the point, Bruce thinks, as Clark hits his prostate again and again, as Bruce clenches around Clark's cock and drags out another low moan. \n\n\nSee what I'm doing, not what I could do.\n\n\nClark lifts one hand away from Bruce's waist, still effortlessly holding him in place, and touches Bruce's face, his neck, his chest. His fingers find Bruce's scars again and he traces over them like braille, like he can read their histories through his fingertips, and something inside Bruce twists when he realises that Clark's own skin isn't as unmarked as he thought it was. There is one scar, just one, faint but visible if you know where to look — and Bruce does know, because he's replayed the moment Clark got it over and over in his head a dozen, a hundred, a thousand times at least.\n\nBruce tries to look away again but Clark shakes his head, a desperate wordless plea, and Bruce can't refuse him this, not now that he's remembered. Not when Bruce can feel that Clark is almost, almost there, so close his whole body is shaking with it. So Bruce keeps looking, hands moving up from Clark's shoulders and tightening around his neck, and Clark leans forward again until their foreheads meet. They pant hard against each other’s open mouths, breathing each other in, so achingly close the temptation is maddening — but Clark doesn't move any closer, and Bruce can't take something he's no longer sure is being offered. But still they maintain eye contact, all filters gone, and as Clark drives into him again and again, shuddering with the effort of maintaining some sense of control, time loses all meaning until Clark screws his eyes shut, whole body tensing for a drawn-out second before he finally, finally comes. Bruce can feel it when it happens, Clark's cock pulsing inside him, and again he wishes he could be hard for this, that there was some way he could release the tension that's still building even now as he watches Clark lose himself in it, in Bruce's own body. Clark is utterly silent as he comes, biting his lip, the hand on Bruce’s waist squeezing hard enough to bruise, the fingers on Bruce’s chest curling over the racing heartbeat there like he wants to hold it in his hand and never let it go.\n\nThey stay like that for a while, Clark still buried deep inside him, Clark’s eyes still shut tight. And for the first time ever Bruce lets himself stare, lets himself run his eyes all over Clark’s face in a way he never has before: at the way his hair curls at the nape of his neck, at the sheen of sweat on his skin; at the sharp angle of his jaw and the dark sweep of eyelashes where they rest against his cheek. \n\nAnd then Bruce looks down, over Clark's throat, across his chest, and his eyes land on the mark that he can hardly bear to look at, let alone touch. But Clark is still inside him, still wrapped around him, and — Clark had gotten what he’d wanted, Bruce realises, because there’s nothing in between them now, nothing at all. Bruce takes an unsteady breath but he bows his head anyway, pressing his lips against the one and only imperfection that mars Clark’s otherwise flawless skin. For a second or two Clark goes absolutely still, so still he must have stopped breathing, and it’s far too close a reminder of why Clark was scarred in the first place that Bruce’s fingers tighten reflexively around Clark’s neck. He hears Clark’s breath hitch; feels it too, stuttering through his chest, and Bruce presses another kiss to the scar before he opens his mouth and says:\n\n“Stay.” He brushes his lips over the mark again and feels Clark’s heartbeat pound hard against his mouth. “Tonight.”\n\n“Just tonight?”\n\nBruce closes his eyes. \n\n“Making promises isn’t wise for people in our line of work.”\n\nAnother hard thump of Clark’s heart against his lips, and then another and another.\n\n“That’s an excuse, not an answer.”\n\nClark’s voice is quiet but utterly resolute and really, Bruce hadn't expected anything less. \n\nHe can feel Clark’s eyes on him, watching, waiting, asking for nothing. Asking for everything. \n\n“Stay,” Bruce repeats. Clark tenses, waiting for the caveat, the clause. But Bruce is silent, and Clark inhales sharply before he speaks again. \n\n“All right,” Clark says eventually, one hand tight around Bruce’s waist, the other warm and heavy on Bruce's chest. “Okay.” \n\nIf his voice is a little unsteady, they both pretend to ignore it.\n\n*\n\nSunlight streams in through the windows, hitting Bruce full in the face. His eyes flicker open but he has to shut them again quickly, the room far brighter than it usually is when he wakes up in the morning. It must be late, he thinks. And then the bed shifts beside him, and Bruce remembers — everything, really. \n\nHe turns his head.\n\nClark is lying next to him, slowly coming awake too. He stretches like a giant cat, arms pulled taut over his head as his back arches up off the bed. Morning light catches the sharp jut of a hipbone, the curve of his bare chest, before Clark lays back again and just soaks it all up, practically glowing with it, warm and gold and — alive. \n\nWhen he opens his eyes he’s looking right at Bruce, like he knew he was being watched. Like he knew, maybe, what Bruce was thinking. What Bruce was going to say.\n\n“Waking up in a glass box seems to be good for you.”\n\nClark stares at him for a moment.\n\n“I’m not sure it’s just the box, though.” \n\nBruce can think of a dozen different ways to end this before it inevitably gets out of hand, ways to make Clark look at him with something he can handle better than the way Clark is looking at him now. But he's the one who asked Clark to stay, and Clark had done as he was asked, and seeing him now, the barest hint of tension in his body as he lays there on Bruce's bed, watching Bruce with eyes that are still stubbornly unguarded despite the increasingly lengthy silence, Bruce knows there's really only one thing he can do. \n\nHe reaches over and touches Clark’s chest, covers the faint mark there with the palm of his hand. Clark’s heartbeat is strong and steady and if there's anything Bruce might be inclined to count on, surely this would be one of them. \n\n“Maybe we should find out,” Bruce says, and feels the heart under his hand skip a beat. \n\nClark briefly closes his eyes. And then he smiles, just a little, and if Clark doesn’t mention it then maybe Bruce can pretend his own pulse doesn’t pick up at the sight of it. \n\n“Sounds like a plan,” Clark says. He sits up a little and reaches out too, fingers sweeping over Bruce’s arm and shoulder before coming to rest against the side of his neck, thumb brushing over his stubbled jaw.\n\n“I'm told it's what I do best,” Bruce replies. “Making plans.”\n\nClark's smile widens. \n\n“So I’ve heard.” He shuffles closer, slowly, giving Bruce all the time in the world to move away. Bruce stays right where he is. “Do you take suggestions?” Clark asks, gaze lowering to Bruce’s mouth before flicking back up again. \n\nBruce doesn’t answer. But when Clark leans down and kisses him, Bruce just pulls him closer and kisses him back. "}
+{"text": "Going back to class made Clarke happy. But not as happy as walking there hand in hand with Lexa.\n\nThe blonde couldn't stop smiling. She was literally glowing. \n\nLexa blushed shyly from time to time and Clarke found it adorable and endearing. The blonde couldn't be more in love.\n\nThey kissed briefly in front of the lockers and Clarke teased Lexa about how cute her ears looked all red.\n\nDuring lunch they sat with the gang, ate, revised their notes about the upcoming and important math test.\n\nClarke observed Lexa while the brunette talked with Murphy. Being finally able to act like any other couple was so great. \n\n\"God you're practically drooling\" Raven rolled her eyes at the blonde.\n\nClarke raised an eyebrow at her friend \"Envy is a bad disease, Raven. I hope you get the help you need\"\n\nRaven snorted \"Very mature, Clarke\"\n\nThe blonde simply smiled shaking her head and returned her gaze to Lexa. The brunette found her hand under the table and they laced their fingers together.\n\n \n\n----\n\n \n\nLexa hugged Clarke from behind as the blonde opened the door of their house.\n\n\"Aren't you tired?\" Clarke asked, grinning as Lexa kissed her neck and hugged her more tightly \"Today was a long day\"\n\n\"I'm feeling fresh and renewed now\" Lexa smirked kissing the blonde's neck again.\n\n\"Good\" Clarke chuckled and turned her face to press her lips to Lexa's in a loving kiss.\n\nClarke giggled quietly while Lexa dropped more kisses on her neck as they walked like that into the living room.\n\nA firm cough broke the moment the girls were immersed. Lexa's smile faded away when she saw her father standing there.\n\nClarke grew serious too and wanted to complain when she felt Lexa pulling back from her body. She gazed at the brunette and held her hand reassuringly. Lexa offered the blonde a soft smirk in return and held her hand more firmly.\n\n\"Abby is working tonight\" Marcus began statically \"I'm going to make the dinner\"\n\n\"We can take care of that\" Clarke offered while looking at Lexa \"Right?\"\n\nThe brunette looked back at the blonde and nodded \"Yeah\" she brushed her thumb over her hand.\n\n\"If you want\" Marcus shrugged \"Ok\"\n\nWhen the girls changed their clothes they began with the cooking.\n\nLexa sticked out her tongue in concentration as she cutted the vegetables and potatoes. Clarke seasoned and cut the chicken with a smile.\n\n\"I hope we still do this when we live together\" Lexa said distractedly.\n\n\"We already live together\" Clarke chuckled.\n\nLexa smiled \"Yeah. But I mean when we live outside the Campus\" she began while putting the cut vegetables and potatoes inside the casserole \"In our own apartment, you know\" she smiled at Clarke \"Or maybe in a loft. That would be cool\"\n\nClarke stared at the brunette in total awe and adoration.\n\nLexa frowned \"Clarke, the chicken\" she pointed at the counter where the chicken was waiting to join the casserole \"Clarke?\"\n\nBut the blonde simply closed the short distance and kissed Lexa. Long and lovingly. She wanted to pour everything she was feeling in that moment into that kiss.\n\nLexa's hands rested on the blonde's hips as she pulled back a little \"What was that for?\"\n\n\"I love you\" Clarke started emotionally. Her blue eyes shinning \"And I can't wait to live with you in our own place. Apartment, loft or shoes box, I don't care as long as we're together\"\n\nLexa smirked and moved one hand to caress the blonde's cheek \"I love you too, my love\" she kissed Clarke once more before pulling back with a smile \"A shoes box, really?\n\nClarke laughed merrily, grazing her blunt nails over the back of Lexa's neck \"I admit we'll be a little tight, but that doesn't have to be a bad thing\" she pecked the brunette's lips sweetly \"We can be cuddling all the time\"\n\n\"Yeah?\" Lexa bit her lip.\n\nClarke nodded happily.\n\n\"And what about a tent in some campsite?\" Lexa continued, enjoying the blonde's bright smile.\n\n\"Would do too\" Clarke shrugged.\n\n\"A black one?\"\n\n\"Green\" Clarke clarified running her thumb over the brunette's jawline.\n\nLexa smirked \"Will you marry me?\"\n\nFor a moment Clarke froze unsure if what she heard was real or not. She stared at Lexa in total surprise. Her heart pounding so hard and loud that she wonder if the brunette could hear it too.\n\n\"When we finish College\" Lexa continued, looking at the stunned blonde lovingly \"Will you?\"\n\n\"Yes\" Clarke choked, she was already crying without noticing \"Yes\" she repeated more loudly, more happily. Lexa's green eyes grew watery too and Clarke cupped her face smiling through her own tears \"Yes, I will totally marry you, Lexa\" \n\nLexa smiled and trapped the blonde's lips in a intense kiss.\n\nClarke rested her forehead against the brunette's when the kiss ended. Her heart racing and a permanent smile on her lips.\n\n \n\n----\n\n \n\nThe dinner wasn't as awkward as they expected. Marcus was silent, but Clarke and Lexa couldn't stop glancing and smiling at each other.\n\n\"How are things going at high school?\" Marcus asked while picking a piece of chicken with his fork. His eyes on the plate.\n\n\"Good\" Lexa replied simply.\n\n\"I can't believe we're gonna graduate in a few months\" Clarke said cheerfully, gazing at Lexa with a grin.\n\n\"But first is your birthday\" the brunette smirked and pointed her fork at Clarke.\n\nMarcus cleared his throat, making both girls to look at him \"Did you....apply for College, Lexa?\"\n\n\"Yes\" the brunette nodded seriously \"Now I have to wait\"\n\n\"And soon I'll be applying too\" Clarke added happily.\n\n\"Where?\" Marcus asked rasing his eyes to the blonde.\n\n\"Polis UC\" Clarke glanced at Lexa with a smile.\n\nMarcus chewed his food \"Are you going to go to College together?\"\n\n\"That's the plan\" Lexa bit a potato.\n\nMarcus simply nodded and grew silent for a couple of minutes \"Polis is really far away from here\" he said after taking a sip of his water.\n\nLexa and Clarke exchanged curious looks before the brunette replied to her father.\n\n\"Only 5-6 hours in car\"\n\nBoth girls stared at Marcus. Waiting for him to say something.\n\nBut he nodded again and continued the dinner in silence.\n\n \n\n----\n\n \n\nThe next morning was grey and the air is crispy and cold. Even with the Spring around the corner, the town was loyal to its usual weather. \n\nBut inside Lexa's bed they felt warm, calm and happy.\n\nAfter the dinner last night, they washed the dishes and Marcus retired to his study mumbling good night, and basically disappearing for the rest of the night.\n\nBut Clarke was more than happy to drag Lexa into her room and kiss her passionately, before undressing in front of hungry, eager green eyes.\n\nThe brunette's question about marriage still fresh and vivid on the blonde's mind. Making her heart race uncontrolled and static.\n\nAnd there they were. Naked, flushed together, satisfied and blissful.\n\nLexa sighed softly as she started to wake up. Clarke running her fingertips over the brunette's arm around her waist.\n\n\"I have to go to the arts club\" the blonde whispered lazily, breaking the peaceful quietness of the room.\n\nLexa sighed again but didn't move.\n\nClarke smirked and slowly turned around, pressing her body to Lexa again,  and tangling her legs with hers.\n\n\"Come on\" the blonde urged gently \"I want to have breakfast with you before leaving\"\n\nFinally Lexa's green eyes opened a little. A tiny smirk dancing on her lips.\n\n\"Or you could stay here and I'll bring you the breakfast to bed\" the brunette offered with sleepy voice.\n\nClarke smiled widely and pressed their bodies impossibly closer \"Come on, baby. Rise and shine\" she cooed cheerfully.\n\nAfter sharing sleepy, lazy kisses for long solid minutes, Lexa went to shower first as Clarke gave the last touches to the drawings she needed to take to the arts club.\n\nClarke went to shower after the brunette emerged from the bathroom, and kissed her full lips with a hum of pleasure.\n\nLexa dried her hair and dressed before descending the stairs. Marcus was on the kitchen sipping at his coffee, dressed and ready to leave for work.\n\n\"Good morning\" Lexa said softly, opening the fridge and grabbing the orange juice.\n\n\"Good morning\" Marcus replied looking at his watch \"Abby is still sleeping after the night shift. I'm leaving now, ok?\"\n\nLexa nodded and poured two glasses of juice.\n\n\"I made french toasts\" Marcus spoke again after clearing his throat \"The mail is on the coffee table\" he instructed before grabbing his briefcase \"Clarke's magazine about art is there\"\n\nLexa smiled softly, despite how cold things were between her and her father. It was clear the man was trying. In his own way, but trying at least.\n\n\"Thank you, dad\" the brunette finally said.\n\nMarcus nodded and left the house. Lexa shook her head with a smirk.\n\nThe brunette was tempted to call Clarke and tell her to hurry up. But Abby was sleeping and she didn't want to disturb her rest.\n\nSo she walked to the living room while waiting for the blonde, and grabbed the mail from the coffee table around a big yawn.\n\nClarke's arts magazine was effectively there. The blonde subscribed a couple of months ago.\n\nLexa smirked and put the magazine over the table again. She frowned when she saw a different envelope under one of the bank's letters.\n\nWhen she grabbed the envelope and fully saw it, she widened her eyes and opened it without care.\n\nShe read the words a couple of times trying to convince herself it was real. And it was.\n\nThe brunette jumped with a happy yell and ran upstairs calling out Clarke.\n\n\"Clarke!\" she climbed up the stairs in big strides \"Clarke!\"\n\nThe blonde opened her bedroom door confused and alarmed. Her hair still wet \"Lexa, what's wron--\" but she couldn't finish because the brunette hugged her and twirled her around as she laughed with happiness.\n\n\"I'm in, Clarke!\" Lexa exclaimed when she put the blonde on the floor again. Her smile radiant and wide \"I'm in! I'm going to Polis UC!\"\n\nClarke smiled brightly \"You're in!\" she cupped the brunette's face.\n\n\"I'm in!\"\n\n\"You're in!\"\n\nThey kissed lovingly, dizzy.\n\nLexa laughed again and lifted the blonde, twirling her around the room.\n\nClarke's laughter joined the brunette's."}
+{"text": "The problem with having a doctor for a parent is that hiding injuries or illness is much more difficult. Taehyung already knew this, but he never thought this would be something he would have to worry about. He tells his fathers everything already, so he didn’t think he would ever have to hide something like that from them.\n\nThankfully, no bruises formed by the time he got in the car to go home. Unfortunately, he was still feeling the side-effects of having his head slammed against the wall so violently as well as the shock of his boyfriend doing something so brutal to him. \n\nHe had a bit of trouble maintaining his balance for the rest of the day, stumbling whenever he needed to pick something up. He even bumped into corners a few times, which was pretty unpleasant. On top of all of that, he was having trouble remembering things that occurred that day. Taehyung definitely remembers how his injury happened, but he doesn’t remember much else about the day.\n\nDid he do his presentation with Jackson today? He can’t remember. Did it go well? He thinks today was supposed to be the day of the project, but he can’t really remember. “How was your day, Tae?” Jin had asked as soon as Taehyung got in the car. He seemed to think nothing was abnormal about his son, but Taehyung’s account probably isn’t the most reliable.\n\n“It was okay,” Taehyung said, which was obviously a lie. The only thing he can definitively remember about his day was the pain Jackson caused him, so he would definitely consider that a bad day. \n\nJin, Jimin, and Jeongguk didn’t have anything else to say about Taehyung. He probably didn’t seem suspicious. He hardly said anything for the duration of the drive, after all. \n\nWhen he arrived home, however, things took a turn for the worse.\n\nTaehyung’s head was already pounding by the time he arrived home, which was something he could live with. It’s just a headache and he can handle that. If he took any medicine for it, his parents and brothers would probably get suspicious because he doesn’t usually get headaches. \n\nOn top of his ever-present headache, however, Taehyung was beginning to feel nauseous.\n\nIt started during dinner. The smell of the japchae was simply too much for himto handle. He usually loves the dish, so when Taehyung hardly ate any of it, Namjoon could tell that something was the matter. \n\n“Are you feeling alright, Tae?” Namjoon asked, looking at his son curiously. “You’ve hardly touched your food.” Japchae is something Taehyung loves, so it came as a bit of a surprise when he hardly ate any of it. \n\n“Um...yeah,” Taehyung had responded. He knew it was a bit too slow, so the suspicious looks from his family came as no surprise. “I’m just...not really hungry right now.” \n\nThat’s even more suspicious, because Taehyung isn’t a picky eater. He doesn’t eat as much as Jimin and Jeongguk do (those two could probably finish an entire buffet by themselves), but he’s much more open to eating different foods than Hoseok and Yoongi. Yoongi is the pickiest eater of the bunch, so it isn’t unusual for him to leave a large portion of his meals untouched if he doesn’t like them.\n\nStill, Namjoon decided to let it slide. Maybe Taehyung had a tough day at school. As long as he’s still saying he’s okay, Namjoon believes him. He’s never had a reason not to trust the boy before (other than the little pranks and shenanigans he and Jimin do, but that’s a different story).\n\nHowever, when Taehyung suddenly stood up from the dinner table and ran to the bathroom, everyone was surprised. No one spoke for a moment, simply looking at each other and the direction in which Taehyung took off. \n\n“Should someone...?” Jimin began to ask, concerned for his brother. He seemed just fine this morning, so it would be rather surprising to learn that he hadn’t been feeling well all day. Something must have happened at school today, then. There weren’t many times during the day that Jimin wasn’t with Taehyung, except for the classes they didn’t share and at lunch, since Jimin was sitting with his new friend group.\n\n“I’ll go check on him,” Namjoon said, standing up slowly, pushing his chair in. Jin nodded, deciding to leave the situation to his husband. While Namjoon dealt with whatever was going on with Taehyung, he would help the kids currently at the table relax, and reassure them that his brother is just fine despite not knowing the answer himself.\n\nThe second Taehyung bursts into the bathroom and immediately throws up into the toilet, he knows his fathers are going to have a hard time believing that he’s fine, as he has been saying recently. He’s especially worried about Namjoon. He knows his father is a doctor, so that makes hiding his injuries even more difficult.\n\nEven though Namjoon is a cardiac specialist, he’ll still know much more about health than anyone else in the family. So, when his father opens the bathroom door and gives him a sympathetic look, he isn’t surprised.\n\n“Sorry,” Taehyung chokes out, flushing the toilet. He tears off a piece of toilet paper to wipe his mouth with. “I don’t know what’s going on with me.”\n\nThat much is very true. Taehyung knows he is in way over his head when it comes to Jackson. Sometimes he feels bad for lying to his family so much about everything. Actually, he feels that way most of the time. Maybe it would be better to just tell his fathers. Maybe it would be better to break up with Jackson even if he’s afraid of the consequences.\n\nHe knows that Jackson won’t ever stop. No matter how many times his boyfriend apologizes, he knows his words mean nothing. Maybe it would be better to tell someone and get it to stop already. \n\nWhatever. It’s not like he can even form a coherent sentence right now.\n\n“It’s fine, Tae,” Namjoon says, giving his son a hug. He doesn’t feel a fever, so he isn’t quite sure what’s wrong with the boy. He might have to dig a little deeper if he wants to figure out what’s going on. “Can you tell me a little bit about your day while you rest?”\n\nNamjoon leads Taehyung to the boy’s bedroom, allowing him to lie down on the bed. Taehyung looks exhausted, and Namjoon wonders what’s going on with him. How much does he not know about Taehyung?\n\nAsking the boy about his day seems like a good start. Depending on how well he can recall the events of the day and depending on what those events were altogether will tell Namjoon a lot about the boy’s condition.\n\n“I don’t know,” Taehyung says. His words are becoming a bit slurred, which Namjoon suspects might be either from exhaustion or...something else. “It was okay, I guess. I think I did my project with Jackson today.”\n\n“Jackson,” Namjoon thinks aloud, trying to recall why that name sounded so familiar. “That’s the boy you’re interested in, right?” he asks.\n\n“Yeah,” Taehyung responds. “He’s my boyfriend now, Appa. He’s on the football team and he’s sooo cute. I really like him.”\n\nThat comes as a shock to Namjoon. Boyfriend? Since when did Taehyung have a boyfriend? He knew about his son’s crush on his classmate, but he didn’t know they were officially together. That sounds like a pretty big thing to hide from his parents. Namjoon wonders if the other boys know about this. \n\n“Oh,” Namjoon says. “That’s...that’s great, Tae. I’m really happy for you.” He’ll have a more in-depth conversation with his son about the matter later, but he needs to treat him gently for now, since he still isn’t entirely sure what’s going on. “Do you sit with Jackson at lunch, or are you and Jimin still as close as ever?”\n\nNamjoon would be able to tell a lot from the boy’s answer. If Taehyung isn’t hanging out with Jimin anymore, then this Jackson guy must be a very important person to Taehyung. He isn’t sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing.\n\n“I don’t know,” Taehyung says. He huffs out a sigh and covers his eyes with his arm. “Jiminie and I had a fight a while ago, so he stopped sitting with me at lunch. I’ve been sitting with Jackson since then. We made up on your birthday, but Jimin still sits with his own friends.”\n\nThat is news to Namjoon.\n\nHe had a feeling that something was strange between Jimin and Taehyung recently, as did Jin, but he didn’t realize it had become a bigger issue. Perhaps Taehyung is simply trying to replace Jimin with Jackson, even if they have supposedly “made up.” That’s what it sounds like, anyway.\n\n“Okay,” Namjoon says. “This Jackson guy...does he treat you well, Tae?” That’s a very important question to ask. If Jackson isn’t good for his son, then he won’t approve of the relationship. If Jackson isn’t an absolute gentleman to Taehyung, then Namjoon doesn’t approve.\n\n“Sometimes,” Taehyung responds. His words are becoming even more slurred, and Namjoon thinks he has an idea of what is going on with his son. “When he’s nice, he’s really nice. But when he’s mean, he’s really mean. That’s normal, though, I guess.”\n\nThat’s definitely not normal. With all of Namjoon’s life experience, he knows that relationships will have their ups and downs, but a partner should never be “mean” in a relationship, especially if it’s Taehyung who’s saying that; Taehyung, the boy who thinks highly of even the worst of people. If Taehyung is calling his own boyfriend “mean,” Namjoon isn’t sure what to think.\n\n“Oh,” Namjoon says again. He has a feeling that Taehyung wouldn’t be telling him all of this if he wasn’t in the state he’s currently in. “Okay.”\n\nIf Namjoon wants to get to the bottom of this strange situation and ensure his son’s safety, he’ll have to ask the difficult questions. If he’s wrong about his suspicion, then he might lose Taehyung’s trust. If he’s correct, though...\n\n“Do you want to tell me how you got that concussion, Taehyung?” Namjoon asks. He says this gently yet sternly as if to tell Taehyung that there isn’t any room for excuses. \n\nTaehyung’s breath hitches in his throat. Did he say too much? He must have, if his father is asking him something like that. How did he know it is a concussion, anyway? Oh, right. His dad is a doctor. Of course he would know right away. Of course he would know even when Taehyung himself didn’t know.\n\n“I-I...” Taehyung struggles to come up with an answer. He’s pretty sure that even if his brain was functioning normally, he wouldn’t be able to. “I can’t say, Appa.” A brief pause. Then, “You already know.”\n\nThat’s all that Namjoon needs to hear. \n\n“Okay,” he says, stroking his son’s hair. He is sure that the boy needs all the kindness and gentleness he can get right now. “Get some rest, Tae. You’re in no condition to go back to school tomorrow, so don’t worry about waking up early. Sleep as long as you’d like, okay?”\n\nTaehyung doesn’t have the strength to argue, so he simply nods. He rolls over on his side and allows himself to relax for the first time in days.\n\nWhile he does so, Namjoon gets up to find his husband. “Jin, honey?” he asks, seeing the man beginning to clean up after dinner. Unfortunately, neither Namjoon nor Taehyung had the opportunity to eat much of it, but that’s the last thing on his mind right now. “We need to talk.”\n\nJin looks surprised. “I need to finish cleaning,” he says, though there is no conviction in his voice. If it’s serious, he’ll drop everything he’s doing at a moment’s notice. If it isn’t, he would rather finish cleaning up first.\n\nNamjoon shakes his head. “No, Jin, we need to talk now,” he says, much more seriously this time. Jin can tell that the man is angry, but he knows that anger isn’t directed towards him. It probably isn’t directed towards Taehyung, either, so Jin is very confused.\n\n“What’s going on?” Jin asks after he and Namjoon head to their shared room. Namjoon sucks in a deep breath. Jin can tell that whatever he’s about to say is going to be extremely serious. His usually-happy and kind husband hardly ever gets upset like this. \n\n“It’s Taehyung,” he says. “I think...I think he’s being abused.”"}
+{"text": "“Ah… she finally returns” Alex says as I walk into the room.\n\n“Yeah” I nod. “After I met Rhian I went for a walk.”\n\n“How’d it go?” Alex asks with a small frown.\n\n“You know, it’s a break-up” I say with a shrug. “It’s not exactly going to go smoothly.”\n\n“Was she angry?”\n\n“No Alex, she was jumping for joy” I reply sarcastically. “I really don’t want to talk about it, I feel like a horrible person.”\n\n“Ok, I get it” Alex says, nodding her head. “FYI, you’re not a horrible person.”\n\n“Thanks.”\n\n“Open up, its Kelley” I hear shouted followed by a bang on the door.\n\n“What’s up?” I ask when I open the door.\n\n“I think I left my room key in here and I don’t think my roomie is back” Kelley says as I move out of the way to let her in.\n\n“Christen’s back, I was just with her and I walked her to your room” I say, slightly confused.\n\n“She isn’t answering when I knock on the door so I need my key” Kelley says. “Where could I have left it?”\n\n“Check the table by the window” I say as I take a quick look around the room. “Hold on, I’ve got it.”\n\n“Thanks Tobs” Kelley says as she grabs the key from me. “Christen must be in the shower or something.”\n\n“Must be.”\n\n“How did it go?” Kelley asks.\n\n“I will tell you tomorrow” I say with a sigh. “Alex and Christen have both asked but I don’t really want to discuss it.”\n\n“That’s cool Tobster, see you tomorrow.”\n\n“See you tomorrow” I say with a wave after I walk Kelley to the door.\n\n“Bye KO” Alex shouts from the bathroom.\n\n“G’night.”\n\n~\n\nIt has been a hard week and a half of training but I’m glad of that. I like that I could just throw myself into my soccer and try to forget any personal issues I have been having. My intent for this camp is to get my football back on track, I haven’t played since my last game at PSG all those weeks ago so to say I am more than ready to play would be an understatement.\n\nAs we are lining up for the national anthems I can feel my blood pumping through my body, even in a friendly this team still treats it like a final. There is nothing like the feeling of playing for your country, especially when you are facing one of the best teams in the world.\n\n“Let’s go and win this” Becky shouts after we have our team huddle.\n\n“Come on” Alex’s scream follows a few other screams from my teammates.\n\nFrom the very start of the match the competitiveness and drive was showing from both teams. It was constant pressure and fight. That’s what we need though.\n\n“Nice goal by the way Tobster” Kelley tells me as we walk back to the locker room at half time.\n\n“Thanks” I reply. “It was a good ball from Crystal, all I had to do was get it on target.”\n\n“Don’t be so modest” Kelley tells me.\n\n“We are still down two to one though” I say.\n\n“Don’t worry, we will pull it back” Kelley assures me. “There is no way Hope is being scored on again, did you see her face after the second one went in?”\n\n“She looked like she was going to kill you” I say.\n\n“I don’t blame her, I can’t believe I let that forward in behind me” Kelley says angrily. “She was too quick for me.”\n\n“Don’t worry about it, we all know you won’t get caught again.”\n\n“I certainly won’t, let’s go inside and see what the coach has to say” Kelley says, leading the way into the locker room.\n\n“You ladies played ok out there but we need to be tighter this half” Jill tells us. “There were too many loose balls. If you lose the ball, get it back immediately. Quick turnovers are what we are aiming for.”\n\n“Yes coach” We all shout.\n\n“How’s the ankle?” I ask Alex. Alex took a bit of a rough knock just after Japan scored their first goal.\n\n“It’s ok, I’m not playing the second half” Alex tells me. “The trainer has told me to ice it and rest otherwise I will only make it worse.”\n\n“That sucks” I say sadly.\n\n“I know, coach is putting Press on instead which is good” Alex says with a smile. “Did you see those shots she was hitting in training, the girl is certainly ready for this camp?”\n\n“She looks healthy again” I say, momentarily distracted by looking over at Christen who is having an animated conversation with Ali and JJ.\n\n“I was in my junior year of college and we were playing Stanford, I think it must’ve been Press’s senior year” Alex starts. “It was the thirtieth minute and out of nowhere Press hit this booming shot from nothing right into the upper ninety.”\n\n“Yeah I know, I was there” I say proudly. That was one of the few games I got to see Chris play live when she was in college. She played awesome that day.\n\n“You were there?” Alex asks surprised.\n\n“Yeah, some of my high school friends and I travelled up for the game” I say. “Quarter finals, right?”\n\n“Yeah” Alex says. “I can’t believe Stanford won that day.”\n\n“It was a good game to watch actually, both teams were playing really well” I say. The game was pretty good, obviously I was rooting for my girlfriend’s team but as an unbiased spectator it was probably one of the best college games I’ve watched.\n\n“Did I ever play you in college?” Alex asks, looking deep in thought.\n\n“You might have, I don’t really remember” I say with a laugh. I am not really one for remembering these types of things, I only remember playing against my friends if we were friends at the time or if the game had a deep meaning to it. Alex probably would’ve been two years below me in college so our paths never crossed until we were both on the national team. I’ve played that many games over my career that it’s impossible to remember.\n\nOnce we are all ready we head back out to the pitch so we can get the second half underway.\n\n“Gather round ladies” Becky shouts to get us all to huddle up. Carli gives her usual speech; reaffirms the game plan with us one last time and then we head back onto the field.\n\n“Let’s go Pressi” Kelley screams as she pats Christen on the back. Christen and Allie are the only subs to come on at half time. “Let’s do this Long.”\n\n“Come on” I say with a nod, doing a quick handshake with Allie before fist pumping Christen.\n\n~\n\nThankfully we managed to end the game with a tight victory of three to two. It wasn’t by any means our best game but we got the victory in the end. Jill took us to a restaurant so we could have dinner and have a quick debrief of the game and then Jill let us free to make our own plans.\n\nOur own plans turned into Kling and Kelley dragging us all to this bar with the promise that it is more for the dancing than the alcohol. We are still in the middle of a camp so I don’t suppose Dawn or any of our coaches would be pleased if we all turned up to training with a hangover tomorrow.\n\n“Hi” I hear from behind me as I sit at a table with Allie.\n\n“Hey… Rhian” I say, feeling really awkward. I didn’t know she was still in Florida.\n\n“Oh jeez, I think I just saw someone I know” Allie says before quickly departing, leaving me alone with Rhian. With Alex and Kelley’s big mouths, it didn’t take long for word to spread around the team that I had broken up with Rhian.\n\n“Tobin, can we talk?” Rhian asks me.\n\n“Eh… ok” I answer, following Rhian over to a separate table.\n\n“I watched your game today, you played awesome” Rhian tells me.\n\n“Thanks” I say politely. I really don’t know what to say to Rhian. “How are you?” I ask. It’s only been just under two weeks since we split up.\n\n“Ok I guess, you?”\n\n“Yeah, ok” I shrug.\n\n“I am sorry for storming out the other night” Rhian apologises but I wave it off.\n\n“You don’t need to apologise, I get it.”\n\n“I miss you Tobin.”\n\n“I miss you too” I answer honestly.\n\n“Probably not in the same way that I miss you though?” Rhian asks. “Tobin, what happened? We were good.”\n\n“You deserve someone better Rhian” I say with a sigh. “The differences between us is too big now, it started out as fun and light hearted but then things got serious and deep down we both know it would never work.”\n\n“Can’t we work on our differences?” Rhian asks. “I know I am acting pathetic but you are the first woman that’s ever made me feel this way, you are different from my exes. I am not just going to throw away something I think is worth fighting for.”\n\n“I can’t fight for us Rhian” I say. “For the last few months I have been trying to fight but I am too tired, I just want to be me.”\n\n“You can be you and be with me” Rhian says. “I know long distance is hard sometimes but we aren’t always apart.”\n\n“It isn’t the long distance Rhi, I can handle that” I say. “It’s the other aspects of our relationship, we want completely different things. I’m getting older now.”\n\n“You’re twenty six Tobin, it’s hardly old” Rhian tells me. “I know it is hard to have a proper relationship when we are both traveling all the time but that will settle down eventually.”\n\n“I know that but for me that will be a lot sooner than you, our relationship was getting to the point where we had to force ourselves to arrange time together.”\n\n“That’s not true” Rhian disagrees.\n\n“Rhian, I know you didn’t want to be in France a few months ago when you could’ve been at that meeting with your dad” I say. “I also know that when you spent a week with me in LA, you could’ve stayed another week. Your dad didn’t need you back so soon.”\n\n“I just…”\n\n“I am not blameless either, I could’ve flew to New York more, I could’ve spent longer with you after my last national team camp. There are so many times when we both could have made more of an effort” I say.\n\n“Maybe we weren’t as invested as we should’ve been but we still supported each other when it mattered” Rhian says. “We just need to work harder.”\n\n“I don’t think it’s a case of that Rhian, we both know we are not who we were at the beginning of our relationship” I say. “You know what I am saying is true.”\n\n“I… how did I not notice this?” Rhian asks with a sigh, suddenly processing what I am saying. “I used to buy you a gift every month and then I just stopped… why?”\n\n“The same reason that I stopped buying us a plane ticket each month so we could have our monthly date night together… we gave up” I answer. “We didn’t mean it, it just happened.”\n\n“This is really it then, this is how it ends?” I nod my head at Rhian’s question. “How could I be so blinded by this, I should’ve seen this happening?”\n\n“We were both too busy to realise, our lives always ran parallel to one another but they never intertwined” I say. “This doesn’t mean that I didn’t care about you Rhian because I did, I still do.”\n\n“I know” Rhian says. “I guess I was more into the idea of being in love rather than actually being in love with you as a person.”\n\n“When you fall in love with that girl who is the one for you then what you felt for me won’t even enter your mind” I say. “She’s out there, I know she is.”\n\n“How do you know all this stuff about love and being in love?” Rhian asks.\n\n“Experience I guess” I answer with a soft chuckle.\n\n“Your ex, you were a lot more serious about her than you led me to believe” Rhian asks but I know it is more of a statement than a question. “Your relationship with your ex ending was a bigger deal than just her hurting you, right?”\n\n“Yeah” I say quietly.\n\n“Why did you never tell me the whole story?” Rhian asks. “All I know is that you were together for a number of years and then she left you.”\n\n“You were my girlfriend, you were probably the last person who would want to hear about my relationship with my ex” I say, a soft smile on my face. “I wanted to forget about all the hurt and what I lost, talking about it would only bring that back.”\n\n“I would’ve listened you know.”\n\n“I know you would’ve Rhian but being with you should’ve been enough to erase the pain” I say softly.\n\n“That’s why you knew we weren’t working out, you didn’t feel for me what you felt for her.”\n\n“I wasn’t comparing you two, it wasn’t like that at all…”\n\n“I didn’t mean to imply that you were, I just meant that you know what a good healthy relationship should feel like and that wasn’t us” Rhian says.\n\n“I’m sorry” I apologise again.\n\n“Don’t be, I get it now” Rhian says truthfully. “Our relationship fizzled out, truthfully I think it fizzled out a while ago and we’ve been acting like best friends not girlfriends for a while now.”\n\n“Thank you for the times we had, I mean it when I say that. You were there for me at times when no one else was” I say, squeezing Rhian’s hand.\n\n“Ditto, I don’t regret you being in my life even though I am super sad” Rhian says.\n\n“The woman you are going to truly fall in love with is out there. Meet and fight for her Rhian.”\n\n“Yeah” Rhian nods. “I would say the same to you but I think you’ve already met your one true love.”\n\n“I’m sorry.”\n\n“Stop saying sorry Tobin, you don’t need to” Rhian says. “I am a big girl, I can handle this.”\n\n“I know you’re strong, that’s what drew me to you.”\n\n“How serious were you with your ex?” Rhian asks.\n\n“Very serious, I had it all worked out how I was going to propose to her” I say. “I only had to buy the ring and pick when to do it. My biggest decision was whether to do it right away with a cheaper ring or whether to wait until I could afford a decent ring” I say with a smile. “That’s how serious it was.”\n\n“At twenty-two you wanted to propose?” Rhian asks, looking a little shocked.\n\n“Yes, I really did.”\n\n“Our differences are really that big, I guess you were right” Rhian says before chuckling softly. “I thought I was in love with you Tobin but jeez if you proposed to me I would’ve ran a mile.”\n\n“I know you would have” I say. “I know this is going to be awkward for a while but just because we are broken up doesn’t mean that you can’t come to me if you need anything. I still care about you.”\n\n“I know” Rhian says with a nod. “It’s probably best we don’t contact one another for a while because even though I understand it now, I am still hurt.”\n\n“I get that” I reply. “Look after yourself Rhian.”\n\n“You too” Rhian replies before giving me a quick hug. I am not going to say it wasn’t awkward but I am glad we have talked again. “I don’t know exactly what your ex done to hurt you but maybe she’s worth a second chance.” And with that Rhian walks off.\n\n~\n\n“Your girlfriend is over there” Kling says to Christen with a laugh.\n\n“It’s not funny Meghan, why did you need to mention I was single?” Christen asks.\n\n“What’s going on?” I ask confused. After Rhian left I had a quick talk with Alex before we went to join the other girls.\n\n“This woman kept staring at Pressi but Press wouldn’t do anything so Kling went up and gave the woman a drink claiming it was from Press” Kelley says laughing. “Now the woman keeps staring over.”\n\n“Why don’t you two worry about your own love lives or lack thereof in someone’s case Kling” Christen says with a bit of a bite.\n\n“Wow, that hurt Press” Kling says, mockingly offended.\n\n“I am really not interested in dating right now” Christen says.\n\n“It’s been a while since you last dated, never mind had a relationship” Kling says.\n\n“Thank you for that Meghan” Chris says annoyed.\n\n“We live together, I know these things and it worries me.”\n\n“Correction we don’t live together anymore.”\n\n“Maybe not anymore since we are on different teams in Sweden now” Kling says. “I still care about you though, you need to date again.”\n\n“I don’t need to do anything” Christen says, gulping down her glass of water in one sip. “I am going back to the hotel.”\n\n“Don’t storm off” Kelley says.\n\n“I’m not storming anywhere, I am just not in the mood for drinking and dancing tonight” Christen says. “I just want to get an early night before training again tomorrow. I was going to leave when JJ and Ali did anyway.”\n\n“Fair enough” Kling says before adding. “You’re a catch though Press, you should get out dating again.”\n\n“Oh definitely” Kelley adds.\n\n“Right Tobin?” Kling says. “She’s a catch?”\n\n“You’re a catch” I say with a cheeky grin causing Christen to grin. I love it when she smiles.\n\n“Have fun” Christen says with a smile before putting her coat on and standing up.\n\n“I will walk with you, I am not really in the mood for drinking tonight” I say, standing up.\n\n“Come on, not you as well” Kelley complains. “Why is everyone leaving so early?”\n\n“Maybe because we have training tomorrow” I answer. “We won the game today but that doesn’t mean we don’t need to train for the next friendly in a few days.”\n\n“It’s just a couple of drinks” Kelley says.\n\n“Yeah, I am just going to have a beer and then drink water for the rest of the night” Kling says.\n\n“Have fun, goodnight” Christen says with a smile to everyone before I follow her out of the door.\n\n“How are you?” I ask Chris as we walk back to the hotel. “I feel like we have barely spoken to one another this past week.”\n\n“I am good Tobin, I’ve just been trying to give you some space” Christen tells me.\n\n“You don’t have to avoid me you know” I reply.\n\n“I know and I wasn’t, I was just giving you space” Christen says. “You played amazing today.”\n\n“Thanks but what about you; a goal and an assist to win the game for us” I say with a smile. “You really are a talented player Chris.”\n\n“Thanks” Christen says with a slight blush.\n\n“Where did you learn to nutmeg like you did to that poor Japanese left back on a number of occasions tonight?” I ask, a small smile on my face.\n\n“Where do you think Tobin?” Christen asks as she hits my arm lightly. “When I was in college I got fed up of my girlfriend megging me when we would have a kick around so I got her to show me some tricks.”\n\n“Your girlfriend must have felt strongly about you to show you the secrets to her tricks” I say with a smile.\n\n“Yeah well, I showed her some tricks of my own in return so she was pretty happy” Christen says with a playful wink making me blush. In return for showing Christen how to nutmeg and fool other players into which way she was going with the ball Christen promised me a lap dance. She definitely didn’t fail on her promise that night, I can assure you.\n\n“I remember” I say with a smile.\n\n“Me too” Christen replies. Both of us slightly caught up in the memories of our past. “Kelley is planning a movie night tomorrow, are you coming?” Christen breaks our silence.\n\n“That depends on the movie, what is it?”\n\n“Apparently it is a surprise” Christen answers. “She thinks if she reveals the title then some of us will bail and say we don’t like it.”\n\n“I guess I will come but if I don’t like it then I will bail, you know me I get twitchy when I’m bored” I say, smiling at Christen’s laughter. “Why is that funny Press?”\n\n“It not really that funny, it just made me think of something funny” Christen says.\n\n“What did it make you think of?” I ask.\n\n“That time we went to that Art museum in North Carolina when I came down to visit you” Christen says. “You were that bored you tried to convince me that the place was haunted and tried to tell me there was no paintings left to see on four occasions.”\n\n“Chris, it was an art gallery” I say. “You know I hate all that stuff. I tried to suck it up for you as much as possible but it was five hours of walking around looking at colors on a page.”\n\n“Colors on a page, that’s harsh Toby.”\n\n“I have a lot of respect for artists and what they do but that was five hours of my day that I will never get back” I say.\n\n“I know exactly how you feel Tobin” Christen says. “Remember that six hour bus trip you took us on so we could attend that soccer camp but you took us on the wrong weekend and the camp wasn’t on until the following week.”\n\n“Planning was never my strong point” I say with a laugh. “We made it a good weekend though, right?” I ask with a wink. “If I remember correctly we barely left the hotel room.”\n\n“I guess it turned out ok in the end.”\n\n“You guess?” I ask with a cheeky smile.\n\n“It was an amazing weekend, every memory we shared together was amazing” Christen responds.\n\n“Even the bad memories like when I threw up in your car” I ask with a frown.\n\n“Maybe not the disgusting ones Toby” Christen says. “You did really make it up to me though.”\n\n“I had to, I had never been more embarrassed and ashamed in my life” I say, laughing nervously.\n\n“Really, what about that time your dad walked in on us having sex?” Christen asks.\n\n“Jeez Chris, I had actually forgot about that” I say. “Why did you have to remind me?”\n\n“Trust me, I would much prefer you throwing up in my car to anyone walking in on us, especially one of our parents” Christen says. “I was mortified Tobin, I couldn’t look your dad in the eye for at least a year.”\n\n“My dad got over it pretty quick” I say, nothing seems to embarrass my dad.\n\n“I didn’t Tobin, I was horrified.”\n\n“It wasn’t that bad, we were pretty well covered and it was dark” I say. “My dad done the same thing to Jeff a few years later, my dad clearly wasn’t able to comprehend that when one of his kids are alone in their bedroom with their girlfriend it doesn’t mean they are playing Uno all the time.”\n\n“Yeah” Christen says with a laugh. As if right on cue we end up outside my hotel room.\n\n“This is me” I say, pointing my thumb at the hotel room.\n\n“Goodnight Tobin, sleep well.”\n\n“Night Chris” I reply, kissing Christen’s cheek. I don’t know where that came from, it was just instinctive.\n\n“Bye” Christen smiles, watching me walk inside.\n\nAs soon as I close the door I take a deep breath; what an eventful day. First it was the game and then there was Rhian and now there’s Chris; the woman I will always be connected to.\n\n~\n\n“What are we watching?” I ask as I enter the room with Alex and Allie. We had a pretty easy day today. Some of us done some light training whereas the rest of us done some recovery and now we have the rest of the day off to relax. Alex and Allie have practically forced me to come to ‘movie night’ as Kelley calls it.\n\n“Guess” Kelley yells.\n\n“At least tell us the genre” Allie says. “We could be here all day.”\n\n“It’s Disney” Cheney says.\n\n“I’m out, I am not watching Disney” I say, trying to head out the room but Alex stops me.\n\n“Just stay, you never know you might like it” Alex says. “Nearly every Disney film is a classic.”\n\n“What Disney film is it?” I ask with a sigh. “If it is Snow White then no, I hate that film.”\n\n“Is it Frozen?” Allie asks excitedly.\n\n“Well done” Kelley says with a smile.\n\n“You gots to stay Toby, Frozen is so cool” Alex says.\n\n“Fine but if I get bored by half an hour then I am leaving” I say.\n\n“Fine” Kelley says before instructing us to all get comfortable before she plays the movie.\n\n“FYI Alex, don’t call me Toby” I warn.\n\n“Whatever” Alex waves it off before looking at Kelley. “Did you kick Christen out of the room or was she not interested?”\n\n“She’s supposed to be here but she got held up when she was running errands” Kelley answers.\n\n“Is this it or is anyone else joining?” A-Rod asks. It’s only Kelley, Cheney, A-Rod, Alex, Allie and me that seem to be here.\n\n“No one else was interested” Kelley answers.\n\n“I don’t blame them” I mumble under my breath.\n\n“Stop moaning” Alex warns me.\n\n“Why do I have to sit and watch a stupid movie when everyone else got to decline?” I complain like a child.\n\n“Because you never watch movies with us anymore and you promised you would” Allie says. “We don’t get to hang out as much anymore.”\n\n“I get it, you guys love me and everyone wants to spend time with me” I say with a smug grin. “I guess I will stay.”\n\n“Just watch the movie” Allie instructs. I nod my head and then go and sit next to A-Rod on what I presume to be Christen’s bed. It’s a lot neater than the bed Allie and Alex are occupying so I presume the messy one is Kelley’s.\n\n“Frozen is not really my thing either” Amy whispers to me. “Ryan has watched it more times than I can count so I’ve lost interest in it.”\n\n“Why are you here then?” I whisper back.\n\n“Same reason we are all here, I miss hanging out with you guys” A-Rod says with a shrug. “Me, you, Cheney and Kelley are the longest standing in the movie group. It’s our thing you know.”\n\n“Yeah” I say with a smile. Sometimes life gets so hectic that you forget all the traditions you started. For example Kelley, Ashlyn and I are the surfing group; Alex, Allie, Kriegs and HAO are the group that always get their nails done during camp; there’s the yoga group and various others.\n\n~\n\n“Whose teddy is this?” Alex asks when she picks up the item when she comes out of the bathroom. “Is it yours or Christen’s?”\n\n“Christen’s” Kelley answers. “She’s had it since she was eighteen or something.”\n\n“It’s cute” Alex says. “It’s like that teddy Tobin has.”\n\n“You have a teddy?” Kelley asks before bursting out laughing.\n\n“Jeez, it’s not that funny” I say, slightly offended.\n\n“I remember that time Ryan stole Tobin’s teddy” Cheney says with a smile. “Thankfully he got bored of it and Tobin eventually got it back.”\n\n“It has sentimental value to me” I say. “My sister gave it to me when I was a kid.”\n\n“Where have you been?” Kelley asks when Christen enters the room.\n\n“Sorry, I lost track of the time” Christen apologises. “Did I miss the full movie?”\n\n“You did” Kelley says.\n\n“Oh well, it’s not like I haven’t seen Frozen before” Christen replies. “Are you watching another movie?”\n\n“That was the plan but we all can’t seem to agree” Alex answers. “Kelley, Tobin and A-Rod want something scary and Allie, Lauren and I want something cheerier.”\n\n“Looks like you have the deciding vote Press” Kelley says. “It’s three each so what’s your decision.”\n\n“What scary movie is it?” Christen asks. “I can watch almost every happy movie but there are some scary movies I don’t like.”\n\n“Christen won’t watch any scary movie so we may as well admit defeat” I say, throwing Christen a cheeky smile. Christen likes to think she can watch a movie and not get scared but she can’t, hence the reason she almost broke my hand by squeezing it too tight when we were nineteen and I took her to the movies to see ‘The Last Exorcism’.\n\n“Actually I will” Christen says stubbornly. “Whatever scary movie you have Kelley, put it on.”\n\n“Trying to prove a point Chris?” I ask teasingly.\n\n“Not at all” Christen answers with a smile.\n\n“Alex where did you put Press’s teddy, she may need it if she gets scared” I say, earning a laugh from most of the group.\n\n“You think you are so funny don’t you?” Christen fires back.\n\n“That’s because I am.”\n\n“Play the movie KO” Christen instructs before she joins me on her bed, taking up the place A-Rod was occupying before she went to sit on the floor.\n\n“I can’t wait to see your face when you get a fright” I whisper to Chris.\n\n“I can’t wait to see your face when you realise I am no longer scared by horror movies” Christen whispers back.\n\n“Bring… it… on” I say, tickling Christen in-between each word.\n\n“Tobin stop” Christen squeals causing the others to look at us.\n\n“She’s practicing her screaming for when she gets scared” I say with a smile before taking a pillow to the face. “Thanks for that Chris.”\n\n“You’re welcome” Christen smirks.\n\n“Are you two quite finished?” Alex asks with a raised eyebrow. “Can we get this movie started or do you wish to flirt some more?”\n\n“Sorry, we’re good” Christen apologises before Cheney plays the movie.\n\n“Put the light off Kelley” Allie instructs. “There is no point watching a scary movie in bright light.”\n\n“I am going” Kelley mutters before we all end up in darkness. “Great, now I can’t see my way back to sit down.”\n\n“Ssh” A-Rod and Alex scold at the same time.\n\nI turn to Christen to offer another cheeky remark about her being scared when it suddenly becomes apparent to me how close Christen is sitting next to me, her presence invading all of my senses.\n\n“Are you looking at me?” Christen whispers confused into the darkness. “You are trying to creep me out aren’t you?”\n\n“Not at all” I say, a sly smirk on my face as an idea pops into my head. I know the perfect way to scare Christen. “I heard there are cockroaches in this movie.”\n\n“Are there?” Christen asks, seemingly quite nonchalant. I guess she is either not afraid of them so much anymore or she knows I am lying. Probably the latter.\n\n“You know there is no cockroaches don’t you?” I ask.\n\n“Yes, now be quiet” Christen hisses.\n\n“Sorry.”\n\nThe movie doesn’t seem that scary to me, it’s mostly just boring to be honest. It doesn’t help that it is boring because it just makes me talk more. I’ve already been told to shut up on a number of occasions by just about everyone because I keep making silly remarks about how unrealistic the plot is.\n\n“You ok there Chris” I whisper. “Are you scared yet?”\n\n“No, so be quiet” Christen responds.\n\n“You can hold my hand if you want” I offer with a smirk.\n\n“I am fine thank you” Christen answers.\n\n“You sure?”\n\n“Yes” Christen states.\n\n“Can you two shut up?” Amy asks. “We are trying to follow the plot.”\n\n“Sorry mom” I say cheekily, receiving a glare from A-Rod. “Alex pass me Pedro please?”\n\n“What?” Alex asks confused.\n\n“Christen’s teddy; Pedro” I say.\n\n“Right” Alex says before throwing the toy dog at me. “Can you shut up now?”\n\n“Yes Al.”\n\n~\n\n“What are the thoughts on banning Tobin from future movie sessions ladies?” Cheney asks.\n\n“Hey” I object.\n\n“I am thinking it is a good thought” Kelley says, still clearly annoyed that I kept disturbing the movie.\n\n“I agree” Alex adds, Allie and A-Rod nodding.\n\n“I wouldn’t object to that” Christen says as she helps to tidy up the room. “I missed the majority of the movie because she kept whispering in my ear.”\n\n“I did it for your own good Press” I say. “If I hadn’t been distracting you then all of these women would have seen how scared you were and would’ve had to endure all your screaming and hissing.”\n\n“No, no Toby” Christen says as she points at me. “That is so not true.”\n\n“I am just lucky I didn’t get my hand broken this time” I say, earning a slap on the arm from Christen. “My hand wasn’t broken but it may as well have been, you squeezed it way too hard during ‘The Last Exorcism’ and also ‘Reservoir Dogs’ which wasn’t even scary.”\n\n“Do you really wanna go down this road?” Christen challenges and I shrug. “Ok Heath, you make fun of me so I will make fun of you.”\n\n“What ya got Press?” Kelley asks clearly interested.\n\n“Guess what Tobin’s favorite movie is?” Christen asks. Oh shit.\n\n“That’s easy, ‘Bend it Like Beckham’” Alex says, looking smug.\n\n“That’s what she tells people but no, it isn’t” Christen says. “It’s actually ‘The Notebook’.”\n\n“No way, is it?” A-Rod asks.\n\n“Is that why you wouldn’t watch it with me?” Cheney asks.\n\n“You have no idea what you have done here Chris” I warn playfully. “You reveal my secrets so I will reveal yours.”\n\n“I don’t really have any secrets” Christen says. “Not juicy ones anyway.”\n\n“Come on, spill” Allie says.\n\n“I have a secret involving Pressi” Kelley declares. “It’s from college.”\n\n“Tell us” Alex says.\n\n“I once walked in on Christen and her girlfriend having sex but she had no idea it happened” Kelley says.\n\n“Um… no you didn’t” Christen says with a frown.\n\n“How do you know she didn’t Pressi, Kelley said you never found out” Alex asks with a smirk.\n\n“I know she didn’t, there is no way Kelley would walk in and then manage to keep quiet for five years or more” I say.\n\n“Ok so I made that up” Kelley says. “You were pretty boring in college actually, if you weren’t studying or playing soccer you were on the phone to your girlfriend.”\n\n“Just because I was studious and preferred to talk to my girlfriend than attend any of your juvenile college parties doesn’t make me boring” Christen says.\n\n“College parties were so fun though, meeting people, hooking up” Kelley says.\n\n“There are other ways to meet people plus I wasn’t remotely interested in hooking up” Christen says. “Having a girlfriend and being in love is way more fun than hooking up with a different person at each party.”\n\n“I suppose from your point of view that makes sense, I mean you were with your girlfriend since you were like six” Kelley says.\n\n“I wasn’t six” Christen says with a sigh. “I was sixteen.”\n\n“Whatever” Kelley says. “Thank goodness you are not as boring now.”"}
+{"text": "So many days I spent on the beach in front of my little cabin, my eyes searching the sea for her.\n\nI knew what I had seen, the beautiful naked creature on the beach was not of land. My simple gift had caused her eyes to light in pleasure, her smile was a sight for an old man like me to behold.\n\nYes, just a foolish and lonely old man, but smitten nonetheless. How could I not be, she knew no shame, she had squatted down before me as I poked and prodded for a trinket in the sand. It wasn't to expose herself, she was simply curious as to what I had found.\n\nWhen she noticed, realized my eyes fell on her she had apologized and closed her legs slightly, but there was no sense of modesty at all.\n\nThe sand had given up a fine Golden chain with a small jade pendent, her eyes had sparkled, I knew she wanted it.\n\nSo I simply reacted to the impulse, handed it to her. She had stepped forward, pressed to me. The touch was a flash of fire I had long before forgotten, her kiss was salty, sweet with joy.\n\nThen she turned, ran into the sea, and was gone.\n\nI had used my computer to search for \"mermaids\". I used every variation I could think of, nothing really fit until I spotted one word I didn't know.\n\nSelkie.\n\nI read page after page of folklore, I read the words of Walter Dennison, who wrote Orkney tales of the Selkie males and their stepping from the sea when women wept, to take them, bring them joy.\n\nYes, often even an invasion into the sanctity of marriage, just spirits of the sea, no thought to the ways of land bound mankind.\n\nFolklore. Nothing but fantasy, yet I had seen her. She had hugged me, pressed her naked flesh against me, kissed me. There was a magic in that kiss.\n\nI remained an old man, yet I was somehow awakened.\n\n\"I will come to here, to see you again.\" she had said, the worlds escaping her lips with an odd ring, almost like an echo.\n\nThen she had grabbed the wrap, cast it around herself and dashed into the surf.\n\nMy first thought was that she had given her life, some kind of pain deep down inside that I did not see?\n\nI ran into the surf, thrashing this way and that, trying to save her to no avail. Then as I sat in shock on the beach, I had seen the imprints from her toes as she had dug into the wet sand to run.\n\nThose were not the marks a human foot would leave, I had seen many of those in the damp sand as I searched the beach.\n\nThese were webbed.\n\nSo now I walked the beach each day, sometimes even during storms, my eyes casting fruitlessly at the crests of waves. I hoped against hope that she would return. Sometimes I would see a dark spot floating in the surf, my heart would leap. Then I would hear the bark of a Seal, and I would go back to my endless search.\n\nSeveral years went by, and I felt my body failing me. Each day it was harder and harder to arise, handle my daily chores, then make the short trek to the sand. I had to tred with care in the dry and softer sand above the surf line to keep my balance.\n\nI often took my metal detector, using that to kill the time. I found a trinket now and then, a coin, once a ring with a black stone set in Gold.\n\nUsually my treasure for the day was simply the castoffs of man, I always kept them and disposed of them back at my cabin.\n\nThe days grew cold, then warm, then cold again. I made my daily walks, sometimes on warmer days I saw other people. I would watch them closely for some sign, I saw nothing out of the ordinary.\n\nThere was one moment of shock, I saw a female figure lying on the beach far away, basking in the sunlight. I saw the long dark hair and excited, I hurried her way, saying a hello as I approached. The woman grabbed her bikini top, pulled it over her bare breasts and scowled at me.\n\nIt was not her, I beat a hasty retreat.\n\nOne day I got a heavy sound from my metal detecter, it was deep. I reached for my shovel, began the task of digging up the item. About a foot down, I used my probe, felt the tip touch something firm. I flipped it loose, pulled it free.\n\nIt was a beautiful Gold chain, a small feminine pendent of Jade hung from it. It was the same trinket I had given to the naked young lady years before. I stood holding it, realizing my first thought must have been correct.\n\nThere was no other reason for the gift I handed her to be back in the sand unless it was pulled from her lifeless body by the sea.\n\nFor some reason, she had ran, cast her life into the sea. I walked to the edge of the surf, where the last traces of each wave slid up to dampen the sand.\n\nAnd I, a foolish old man, could not see the signs, could not save her.\n\nA tear formed in my eye, dropped into the sea.\n\n\"Hello.\" The voice was right at my side, it startled me.\n\nI turned, it was her, naked, natural, unashamed. I just stared, I had no voice. Her long dark hair seemed alight, it flowed outward in curls. Her breasts, so perfect for her trim body were as I remembered. The flow of her hips, so slender yet muscular, the untrimmed tuft of dark pubic hair did not hide the pinkness that lay underneath.\n\nI almost could not breathe.\n\n\"You found it, I thought you would.\" Her smile was dazzling.\n\n\"I have looked for you for so long.\" was all I could manage. Then I handed her the necklace, she slipped it on. Again, the flash of Gold against milk chocolate flesh.\n\n\"We know no thought of time.\" she said.\n\n\"We waited for you to prove yourself.\"\n\nI was confused, I didn't understand.\n\n\"Prove myself?\"\n\n\"Yes, I came and buried your gift for you to find again. You cast a tear for me into my world, you called for me.\"\n\nShe held up something, a wrap of some kind. I looked at it closely, it had spots, it looked like...\n\nA Sealskin? A baby Sealskin? I glanced down at her feet, yes, they were webbed.\n\n\"Remove your garments, take this. You may join us.\" Again that smile, that wonderful echo in her voice.\n\n\"Please?\"\n\nMy hands tripped the buttons on my shirt, I cast it to the sand. I struggled with my shoes, my trousers, hesitating at my boxer shorts.\n\nShe stood there holding the warp, watching me. Her eyes glanced downward, expecting. I pulled my boxer shorts down and off, realizing as I did that I was erect. It had been a very long time since I was erect.\n\n\"Take the wrap.\" She held it out to me. I reached and touched it, felt something flash over me. I pulled it tight around me, feeling slightly dizzy at the sudden sensation.\n\n\"I don't know your name.\"\n\n\"Name? I have no..name?\" She turned and ran towards the sea. I didn't hesitate, I ran with her, keeping up easily. I leaped into the breakers, my body bit into the water and I flowed under and through the waves, effortlessly.\n\nOnce I stopped and looked back at the shore. The body of an old man, naked, lay on the beach.\n\nThat was the moment I knew.\n\nShe had given me a gift in return.\n\nWe swam together, sliding our bodies against each other in play, in joy. I was young again, strong and free.\n\nSometimes on a warm midsummer's eve I come ashore, I hide my wrap amongst the rocks. I enter the old cabin, now used by others but often vacant. There is a computer there, I use it to tell my story.\n\nThere are many of us, we are all one. We graze on sea and sky, we join in love.\n\nSometimes one of us chooses. Sometimes we just give the gift of love. The choice of what you receive is always yours.\n\nSo come to me when you are in need. Come and weep, cast seven tears into my sea. I or one of my fellows will bring you joy, and perhaps..just perhaps?\n\nIf you prove yourself?\n\nA gift of life.\n\n"}
+{"text": "\nGotta Take a Bow, Do it Your Way (It’s Okay)\n\n\n            Keith has rules about dating. Keith, in fact, has rules regarding most aspects of his life. He likes order, organization and structure. He has a collection of color-coded sticky notes lined up on his kitchen counter. He can spend literal hours in office-supply stores. He got excited when highlighters with built in sticky-tabs first came out.\n\n            (Despite how impulsive he is, how prone to reckless, hair-brained, spur-of-the-moment decisions like asking out random strangers who hit him with mailboxes – Keith is a very orderly person. Shiro calls it the great contradiction of his personality. Shiro needs to find someone else to psychoanalyze.)\n\n            But back to Keith’s Rules About Dating, filed under ‘Personal Life’, in subsection ‘Relationships with Other Humans – you know you should have those, right?’. (Keith’s pretty sure the only thing keeping him from the loony bin is the fact that he has never written any of these specialized categories or rules down. They are safely in his head where no one can look at them and say, ‘wow, this guy is completely nuts’.) Rule number one is ‘Don’t Ask Anyone Out Right Before Tech Week’. This rule was amended to ‘Before or Immediately After Tech Week’ after he, in a sleep-deprived haze, flirted with someone already in a relationship and got sent to the ER for his troubles. Shiro wrote the new and improved rule on his cast because Shiro is the best/worst brother ever. Who also happens to work in the ER.\n\n            The follow-up to that rule is ‘If You’re In Rehearsal, Warn Them About Tech Week’. Because Tech Week is not normal. Tech Week is a hellish time not comprehensible by mortal minds. Tech Week is the reason Keith started drinking black coffee. Tech Week is the source of his caffeine addiction and the reason most of his relationships crash and burn.\n\n            One month into his (impulse, impulse, impulsive) relationship with his klutzy neighbor, Keith forgets to explain Tech Week.\n\n…\n\n            Day 1\n\n            “What were you saying?” Keith interjects when he realizes that Lance has been speaking for the past three minutes and Keith has failed to comprehend a single word.\n\n            “You all there, babe?” Lance furrows his brows at him and looks two seconds away from actually checking his forehead for a temperature. Keith hasn’t been the focal point of so much nurturing energy since he lived with his brother. It’s…not bad…it’s nice, actually. Really, really nice.\n\n            “Sorry, thinking about work.”\n\n            “Yeah?”\n\n            “We’re a week away from opening night.”\n\n            “Shouldn’t you be, I don’t know, a tiny bit more excited?”\n\n            “I’m a stage manager. I had my emotions surgically removed upon graduation.”\n\n            “Now I know that’s not true,” and Lance is giving him that look that’s half flirtation, half invitation to laugh and Keith would respond, but he’s kind of dead inside and 50% of his brain is definitely still hung up on the last minute changes the director hurled at him last night. Instead he offers a weak smile and lets Lance continue babbling about…something at the Community Center? With the kids? He hears the word ‘Milk-pocalypse’ so it was probably pretty intense.\n\n            Dammit, this director needs to stop changing the goddamn staging.\n\n…\n\n            Day 2\n\n            “Find your fucking light!”\n\n            “Holy shit!”\n\n            Keith wakes up flailing and shouting - flailing and shouting even more when his sudden jump from unconscious to conscious has him thwacking his skull against…another skull?\n\n            “Light cue go…” Keith mutters groggily, blinking in the dimness.\n\n            “Holy shit,” Lance is sitting on the coffee table, his shape a vague silhouette in the darkness. He’s running his hands over his face and something twists in Keith’s stomach.\n\n            “Oh god, did I - ?”\n\n            “Headbutt me when I tried to do the nice thing and wake you up so you don’t ruin your spine sleeping on that couch? Yes, yes you did.”\n\n            “Is it bleeding?” Keith asks vaguely.\n\n            “Is what bleeding?”\n\n            “…Anything?”\n\n            “No, my beautiful face was spared your uncalled-for violence.”\n\n            “Sorry,” Keith mutters into the couch cushions. His watch’s glowing face tells him it’s three am and he definitely just got home an hour ago.\n\n            “Do you want to go to…? You’re asleep. You’re totally asleep. Already. It’s like a totally useless superpower.”\n\n            “Standby sound,” Keith mumbles incoherently.\n\n…\n\n            Day 3\n\n“Keith. Babe. Keith.”\n\n            Keith can’t really pay attention to whoever is trying to distract him right now; he has to re-write the whole damn cuebook because some idiot spilled coffee on his original and this is why food and beverages belong outside the control booth.\n\n            “Keith, you’re vibrating. Like, literally shaking like a Chihuahua.”\n\n            “Did you bring me coffee?”\n\n            “No, I’m trying to bring you some sanity, but I’ll settle for common sense.”\n\n            “Okay.”\n\n            A sigh and a hand on his shoulder, “I really don’t get what’s up with you and you’re really freaking me out, dude.”\n\n            “Yeah, okay.”\n\n…\n\n            Day 4\n\n            “CoffeeCoffeeCoffeeCoffeeCoffeeCoffee.”\n\n            “Keith?”\n\n            “Morning, Hunk.”\n\n            “What are you?”\n\n            “Morning. Coffee. Need.”\n\n            “Why are you in our kitchen?”\n\n            “Coffee maker broke. Dumbwaiter works both ways. Coffee.”\n\n            “Oh, so you’re just…taking the whole coffee maker? Well…okay, then…bring it back when you’re done?”\n\n            Keith pauses at the dumbwaiter, cradling the coffee maker, sure that he’s forgotten a few social niceties and also vaguely certain that he needs to apologize to Lance for something but too sleep-deprived to know what, exactly. “Thanks for the coffee. Tell Lance I’m sorry.”\n\n            “For what?”\n\n            “Um. Sorry.” Keith’s brain has reached its limit for non-essential thought. Caffiene had better be imminent or he’s just going to shut down. He escapes through the dumbwaiter before he can mangle the conversation further.         \n\n…\n\n            Day 5\n\n            Keith gives up and just sleeps at the theatre. Tomorrow is the preview show. Tomorrow it all ends. He feels like there’s something he’s forgetting, someone he needs to contact or communicate something to…but it slips away, just outside his awareness. He feels a twist of guilt, the constant fear that he’s forgotten something; that he’s messed something up. He’s destructive like that.\n\n            But he can’t for the life of him remember what it was so he slides into an uneasy sleep curled up on a couch in the green room.\n\n…\n\n            Day 6\n\n            The preview show goes well. The cast is elated; Keith is wound tight and jittering with exhaustion and…OH FUCK.\n\n…\n\n            Day 6 – midnight – technically Day 7\n\n            “What the – Keith? What are you doing? Aren’t you cold?” Lance is sleep-rumpled and unbearably sweet, leaning out of his window to peer down at Keith – who is, in fact cold, standing in a snowdrift underneath his window.\n\n            “Yeah, actually. My shoes aren’t waterproof. Or snowproof.”\n\n            “It’s kind of the same thing.”\n\n            “Yeah.” Keith blinks, sways, god he’s tired, “Wait, no, I came here for a reason.”\n\n            “Wait, no, really? You didn’t just randomly decide to chuck rocks at my window?”\n\n            “It’s actually a rubber bouncy ball. Some actors were fooling around with it backstage so I took it.”\n\n            “Very enlightening,” and Lance is grinning at him, crooked, eyes soft like Keith is something special, before he abruptly straightens and glares, “Hey, no, you don’t get to be weird and endearing, I’m pissed at you!”\n\n            “I know, I’m – ”\n\n            “Nope! Nononono, nope! I refuse to be mature about this! I refuse. Shutting my window now so I don’t have to listen to you stand out there and talk about reasons. Nope! I’d rather it be a mystery. A nice, safe, ignorable mystery!” And then he’s struggling with the window but apparently closing it is harder than opening it was so he’s just sort of tugging futilely at it.\n\n            “Um. Since you’re not actually going anywhere, can I talk now?”\n\n            “No! I have metaphorically left this conversation and cannot hear you.”\n\n            “I’m gonna talk now. Just so you know. If you want to pretend you can’t hear me?”\n\n            “Ugh, you’re seriously going to make me stop trying to close this stupid defective window to clap my hands over my ears and go ‘lalalalala-can’t hear you’ like a toddler?”\n\n            “Or you could not do that. That is an option.”\n\n            “Ugh. Fine, explain why you’re breaking up with me. For the record, if this situation arises ever again, if we’re like one of those sitcom couples that keeps dating and breaking up and dating and breaking up, I’d rather it be left a mystery and oh shit, we’re Janice and Chandler from Friends, that is what is happening right now. I’m Janice. Weird, I always thought I was Chandler…”\n\n            “LANCE!” Keith finds himself shouting, something’s tight in his chest and he’s fighting his way around it to shout through Lance’s storm of words, “I’M NOT BREAKING UP WITH YOU.”\n\n            “…Because I’m very funny and not terribly good with, you know, attractive other people or relationships but I have these really solid friends, you know? Not to mention the New York thing, except we don’t live in the city…so I always thought I was Chandler, but you’re like, I dunno, perfect or something so you can’t be Janice…”\n\n            “SHUT UP, LANCE, I LOVE YOU.”\n\n            “…wait, what?”\n\n            “Dumbass,” Keith finishes the sentence mulishly but at much lower volume.\n\n            “Wait, skip back to before you were insulting me.”\n\n            Keith narrows his eyes, “I don’t think you deserve it.”\n\n            “Please. I called you ‘perfect or something’…”\n\n            “You also thought I was going to break up with you!”\n\n            Lance laughs awkwardly. He’s given up on trying to close the window and is instead leaning into the frame, looking down on Keith. His face is soft, open and unsure. “Well, you’ve been really weird the past few days? And totally work-obsessed and then you were just gone and I kind of...got the message? And then Hunk said you told him to tell me you were sorry and, just so you know, them’s breaking up words.”\n\n            “Apologies?”\n\n            “Vague apologies via third parties!”\n\n            “Oh.”\n\n            Lance rolls his eyes, “’Oh’ he says. You had me freaking out, I didn’t know what was up with you!”\n\n            “You kept trying to take care of me,” Keith says slowly. He’d realized this a few hours ago but it still feels weird to say out loud. He can feel it sing in his blood and fizz on his skin, the happy thought that someone out there cared, without having to, without being told to. Someone tried to take care of him just...because. “It was tech week and I was freaking out and running on, like two hours of sleep a night and a nightmare person to be around and you kept trying to take care of me.”\n\n            “Well, yeah, duh. I was really worried, you jerk!”\n\n            “Sorry. For everything. The week before a show is always a trainwreck and a lot of stuff came up at the last minute…”\n\n            “Hey, don’t worry about it.”\n\n            “No, it’s important and I’m sorry and…”\n\n            From the room beside Lance’s, a window slams open. Pidge’s catastrophic starburst of wild blonde hair jabs itself out the window and she squints aggressively at them, “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to witness the death of Lance’s dignity. It lived a short life. Now would you two stop being completely fucking high school about everything, and go make out somewhere that’s not here?”\n\n            Keith’s pretty sure his face is red to the roots of his hair, but he waves to Pidge anyway, “Hi, Pidge.”\n\n            She grunts at him and ducks back inside, slamming the window shut behind her.\n\n            Lance laughs awkwardly and peers down at him, “Soooo, wanna go be really high school and make out on your couch?”\n\n            “Can we be actual old people instead and just fall asleep watching reruns in an actual bed? I’m really tired.”\n\n            Lance beams at him and it’s like the sun, “Why don’t we do a little of both?”\n\n            Keith gives him a shaky smile, “Sounds good.”\n\n…\n\n            Day 7\n\n            “You’re not going to go out with the cast and get drunk?” Lance is leaning against the wall outside the theatre after the show – he’d tried to get tickets but couldn’t on such short notice.\n\n            Keith offers him a small smile, “I can do that at home with more interesting people.”\n\n            “Flattery will get you anywhere. And by anywhere, I mean my pants.”\n\n            “Wow, I did not get that subtext at all until you explained it in a really obvious way,” Keith says flatly, accepting the hand Lance holds out to him, tangling their fingers together and letting himself be pulled over to the car.\n\n            “Aww, but you love it.”\n\n            Keith groans theatrically.\n\n            “Yooou admitted it. Now you’re stuck knowing that I know that you looove me.” Lance swings their joined hands between them, sing-songing the words. He suddenly pauses, though, and spins around to face Keith, bringing them almost nose-to-nose. It’s cold, the winter air still nipping at their skin and turning their breath to clouds of steam. “Hey,” Lance’s voice is serious now, softer, “You know I do too, right?”\n\n            “Love you?” Keith says, trying to retain some of that distance, physical, emotional, whatever, despite the fact that any distance there might have been is effectively gone.\n\n            Lance rolls his eyes, “Love you,” and then again, in case Keith hadn’t gotten the message, “I love you. Despite the fact that you lose your mind and turn into some kind of coffee-stealing-head-butting gremlin the week before a play opens.”\n\n            “I’m a stage manager, it happens.”\n\n            Lance kisses him on the forehead and then both cheeks with a resounding smack. “Come on, let’s go home.”\n\n            Keith lets himself be tugged forward just enough to encroach on Lance’s space and kiss him once, soft, on the lips. “Thank you.”\n\n            “For what?”\n\n            “Being you.”\n\n            “You mean being excellent.”\n\n            “See, this is why I don’t compliment you.”\n\n            “Yeah, but you looove me.”\n\n“Just drive us home.”\n\n…\n\n            Lance was right that night they met – it is totally true love or something.\n\n "}
+{"text": "\nFOUR - ADOA\n\n\n\nThe ride to Mystacor had been fun, Micah playing a bunch of oldies while doing a horrible attempt to sing along. Bow and Glimmer had happily joined while Frosta just watched the scenery from the window. Micah had rented a van so we could all travel together, and I was only a bit bummed that Scorpia and Catra had decided to drive separately. I had a feeling that was more for Catra’s sake than anything but it would have been fun to have her here to witness this hot mess. \n\n\n\nAngella would smile over at her husband as he poorly belted out, sometimes even giggling at his theatrics. Every attempt to rope Frosta into a song was harshly ignored, but Micah didnt seem deterred at all. \n\n\n\nFrosta had demanded she sit next to Glimmer, and Glimmer had refused to let Bow sit anywhere but near her, so I was left with the back booth seat all to myself. Which was nice seeing as I could stretch out a bit. Damn long legs. \n\n\n\nOnce we arrived Casta was already waiting for us. And it was no shock that she instantly launched into prying for juicy gossip. Which of course Glimmer groaned and quickly left to settle into her room. \n\n\n\nI had smiled as I left Angella and Micah to deal with the woman. \n\n\n\nAgain it came as no shock to find a present waiting on the pillow of my bed. Casta was always knitting and I had not once left an interaction with her without a lovingly made sweater to go along with it. I also knew I would be expected to wear it at some point during the trip. \n\n\n\nI wonder what pattern Bow and Glimmer got as I stared down at the unicorn on my own. \n\n\n\nWhen my phone went off I was gifted with the picture of both Glimmer and Bow already in their sweaters, apparently we were getting this tradition out of the way as soon as possible. Glimmers had a big half moon on hers, while Bows had a bundle of arrows with a flowy ribbon wrapping them together. Glimmer didnt smile for the photo but Bow was gleaming. He always loved the sweaters. He would most likely wear his more than once. \n\n\n\nRolling my eyes I slipped into my own and sent a photo in return. \n\n\n\nWe agreed to meet up and rejoin the group in a few minutes. Catra and Scorpia were still driving as they left an hour or so after we had. \n\n\n\nCatra really hadnt been what I expected. She was blunt, a bit moody, and quick witted. And a huge flirt if she was in the mood. Sometimes she would say some things that were just down right raunchy, but only really over text. But other than that she was also really sweet. \n\n\n\nLike when she let me stay in her room even after it had been made clear she didnt like people in her space. \n\n\n\nWe had talked and laughed for hours before we realized it was late and I needed to go home. \n\n\n\nShe had even shown me a few sketches that she did. She was really talented and had a serious knack for realism. The charcoal on her papers brought faces and scenes to life. It had blown me away. Made me wonder if one day I could convince her to do one of Swifty, my great dane dalmatian gentle giant. Who was staying with Razz over the weekend. I would most likely come home to find him well overfed. Razz just had a soft spot for that giant doggo. Always slipping him food she knows he isnt allowed to have. \n\n\n\nI headed down to the lobby and instantly had to hold back laughter. It seems we all had the same idea. Angella’s sweater had a crown, Micahs had a staff thing, Frosta had a huge snowflake. It was perfect. \n\n\n\nGlimmer stared me down, “Go on. Get it all out, Greyskull.” \n\n\n\nA snort escaped me as I waved my hands, “No, no. Im good.” \n\n\n\nShe quirked an eyebrow, paired with Bows beaming face. I lost it. It was just too good. \n\n\n\nAlso Frostas sweater was just a bit too big and hung off her which just really sold the brooding glare she was sending my way. Her little fists clenched. Priceless. \n\n\n\nFinally my laughter petered out enough for me to take in the oddly empty lobby. Usually when we visited the place had more foot traffic. It wasnt overly crowded but there was always someone around. \n\n\n\n“Slow weekend?” I asked as I glanced around. \n\n\n\nGlimmer shrugged, “Aunt Casta said things have been slower since the Thaymor incident.” \n\n\n\nRight, Thaymor. It was a small town not too far from here, but it had been one of the many places recently on the Prime hit list. Cult Prime had been hitting the news left and right. Bomb threats escalating as everyone did their best to try and figure out exactly where this ‘Lord Prime’ was hiding out. \n\n\n\nThe loon had propaganda and people following in his footsteps to do his dirty work. His followers going so far as to call themselves ‘clones’. \n\n\n\nEach bomb threat so far had been handled and some were even false calls, but Thaymor had not been so lucky.\n\n\n\nSomehow someone had slipped into the small police station and sent the thing up in flames a week ago. It had been a multiple point attack as the fire station had also been targeted. They were too far away from Brightmoon for Station 18 to be called in for assistance but we had been geared in ready on the off chance we got called. \n\n\n\nNo one really knew why these attacks were happening or what was on Primes agenda, we just knew that the attacks had been rising recently and it didnt look good. \n\n\n\nGuess it was enough of a scare for people to not go to a usually populated resort. \n\n\n\nMakes sense. It was the definition of the places Prime had targeted in the cults early days. Unfortunately it seemed as time passed he began going after more official business and emergency services, and less tourist locations. \n\n\n\nHe was all over Etheria which made it really hard to track down where he was hiding. Worst of all, we couldnt really pull in any of his ‘clones’ as the attacks were mostly spearheaded by suicide bombers. Preaching that they were ‘in Primes light’ and seeking ‘eternal peace’. \n\n\n\nIt was just down right creepy. \n\n\n\nIt kind of made me feel bad for being here, while others were too scared to. There wasnt much the station could do in this instance, but I still felt uneasy with not helping more. But then again, Brightmoon hasnt had any incident with the cult. \n\n\n\nI was pulled out of my musing by the sound of cackling. Turning I found Catra smirking at the group. \n\n\n\n“Oh thats just precious.” She drawled out. \n\n\n\nIt was a totally weird feeling seeing Catra with my bag slung on her shoulder. I wonder what she would look like in one of my shirts. \n\n\n\nGlimmer propped her hand on her hip, “Horde scum.” \n\n\n\nAh, the old Brightmoon Academy vs. Horde High rivalry. Nice. Awkward. \n\n\n\nCatra wiggled her fingers at Glimmer, “Sparkles.” \n\n\n\nBefore Glimmer could throw out a no doubt nasty comment, Casta walked up the group, holding her hands to her face as she took us all in, “Oh, you wore them! Do you like them?” \n\n\n\nWe all nodded along, she asked every time. \n\n\n\nScorpio perked up, “You made those? Thats amazing!” \n\n\n\nCasta blushed slightly as she smiled from the praise, “Oh thank you. Just a little hobby of mine, you know.” She offered her hand out, “Please, call me Aunt Casta. You must be Scorpia and Perfuma.” \n\n\n\nScorpia took the offered hand, “Oh, well. Sort of. Perfuma couldnt make it so I brought my friend Catra along. I hope thats alright. Oh, shoot. Im sorry. I should have asked.” \n\n\n\nCasta waved her off, “No worries, happy you both could make it. Though, the sweater may not fit.” She pursed her lips as she took in Catra, most likely having gotten measurements from either Bow or Glimmer. Hell maybe even Micah. \n\n\n\nCatra raised an eyebrow at that, “Say what?” \n\n\n\nGlimmer smirked as she approached the tan girl, throwing an arm around her shoulder, “Aunt Casta made sweaters for \n\neveryone.\n\n” \n\n\n\nCatras smirk dropped as Scorpia damn near jumped with glee, “Oh thats so exciting! I cant wait to wear mine!” \n\n\n\n“Yippie.” Catra deadpanned as she shrugged Glimmer off. \n\n\n\nI was once again holding back laughter. Oh this was going to be a fun weekend. \n\n\n\nCasta left with the two newcomers, having to do a room change as Scorpia originally booked a one bed. \n\n\n\nThey promised to meet up with us when they were finished, Scorpia boasting that she too would be joining in her sweater and even going so far to ask for a group photo. \n\n\n\nAs I followed the group out onto the grounds I sent Catra a quick text.\n\n\n\nAdora\n: Excited to see whats on your sweater\n\n\n\nYou wont catch me dead in this thing :\nCatra\n\n\n\nAdora: \nNot even a picture?\n\n\n\nAlready asking for pics? Bold move. :\nCatra\n\n\n\nMy face heated up as I read that. Nope. Nope. Mind out of the gutter. I decided not to respond, not that I would have a good one anyways and slipped my phone back into my pocket. \n\n\n\nWe all made slow work of going through the outside buffet, Micah offering to help Frosta fill her plate. To which she sassily responded that she wasnt a ‘kid’ and could do it herself. Though she did ask Glimmer a few times to help her reach the food in the back of the lineup from time to time. Micah sulked a bit as Angella patted his shoulder. \n\n\n\nBy the time we pushed some tables together and sat down Catra and Scorpia were making their way through the line. Catra was still in her crop top and flannel, while Scorpia was proudly wearing the sweater with a scorpion on it. Looks like Casta didnt get too creative with it. \n\n\n\nCatra and Scorpia took the open seats next to me, Catra raising her eyebrows as she took in the two plates I had in front of me. \n\n\n\nWhich shouldnt be that odd, Scorpia had two plates too. \n\n\n\nLunch went by pretty smooth, though Catra and Glimmer did get in a few jabs at one another. Which Frosta seemed to thoroughly enjoy. At one point Bow had to intervene and distract Glimmer before food started getting thrown. \n\n\n\nI leaned over whisper, “Having fun?” \n\n\n\nShe snorted as she looked over at me, “A blast. Getting under sparkles skin is what I live for.” \n\n\n\nI rolled my eyes, “Did you like your sweater?” \n\n\n\nShe in turn rolled her eyes, “Desperate for that pic, are you?” \n\n\n\nMy blush crept back up to my cheeks, “I wouldnt say desperate.” \n\n\n\nHer eyes gleamed as she leaned on the table to rest her head on her shoulder as she watched me, “How does needy sound?” \n\n\n\nOk, the way she said needy was just unfair. And it was clear we were no longer talking about a sweater picture. \n\n\n\nShe chuckled at my lack of response and settled back in her chair as she crossed her legs, her foot skimming up my shin one before going back to its rightful place, “You’re fun.” \n\n\n\nHow do I respond to that? \n\n\n\nI gave a sheepish smile, “uh, thanks?” \n\n\n\n“Hey, useless lesbians.” Glimmer called over to us, “You done? We’re trying to figure out what to do next. Your input would be nice.” \n\n\n\nMy blush intensified as all eyes at the table were looking at us. \n\n\n\nCatra crossed her arms, “Yah, I dont know what \n\nyoure\n\n doing. But I was promised a spa. And \n\nplenty\n\n of alone time.” \n\n\n\nGlimmer gave her a too sweet smile, “Perfect. Now that that is settled. Adora, what are \n\nwe\n\n going to be doing.”\n\n\n\nOnce again the tension was back at the table but broken slightly by Frostas far too eager smile at the interaction. \n\n\n\nAll eyes were on me. I really wanted to go with Catra, just to have some time with her and get to know her but she had made it clear she wanted \n\nalone\n\n time. So maybe I was supposed to hang out with the group and leave her be unless she sought me out? \n\n\n\nMicah took pity on me after a long silence, which Glimmer did not let up on her pointed stare, “Well, Casta has set up a nice little beach picnic for us for dinner, so perhaps we should all enjoy the day? Regroup later?” He turned to Angella who was politely smiling but offering absolutely no help, “Sound good, dear?” \n\n\n\nAngella gave her husband a knowing look, “Sounds lovely.”\n\n\n\nGlimmer did not seem at all pleased with the outcome and turned to Bow, “Guess we’re on our own.” \n\n\n\nBow sent me an apologetic smile before turning to his girlfriend, “We could go snorkeling?” \n\n\n\nStill seeming unpleased, “Come on.” She stood from her chair before sending a look towards Catra. \n\n\n\nScorpia let out a low whistle, “Well...that was something.” \n\n\n\nI chuckled, “Yah.” \n\n\n\nCatra shrugged as she too stood and sauntered off. Do her hips always sway like that? \n\n\n\nScorpia turned to me with a sheepish smile, “Wanna go check out the rink? Maybe get some practice in?” \n\n\n\nI nodded gratefully at her. \n\n\n\nIn the end Frosta ended up joining us while Micah and Angella went off for a walk through the meditation gardens. \n\n\n\nIt was a bit weird having Frosta along without her parents but she quickly proved to be far more capable on her own. She took to the ice far easier than I ever did. \n\n\n\nWe passed the puck back and forth for a bit, just getting into the motions of it. But Frosta also proved to be highly competitive and before I knew it Scorpia and Frosta were teaming up against me. \n\n\n\nThough Scorpia really hung back at the goal and let Frosta take the lead. \n\n\n\nIt was fun and really helped ease the tension of lunch. Casta had popped in for a time but just watched, cheering on her niece as she actually put up a good game. \n\n\n\nOnce Frosta made the next score we called it a break, promising the twelve (Soon to be thirteen) year old we would do this again before the trip was up. Maybe even get a few more people to join the fun to actually get a solid game going. \n\n\n\nThere was still a few hours before the dinner thing Casta had promised so I decided to just wander around. I had been curious about the hot springs but I also didnt want to intervene on any of Catra’s alone time if she was there. \n\n\n\nIt was nice, beautiful even. Mystacor had beaches dominating one side while the other half was all cliff edges overlooking the expansive sea. It was a large resort so it didnt really feel like wasting time when every step showed me something different. \n\n\n\nThough I had stumbled upon a very nice looking gym and made promises to revisit it later. Even found a trail that looped around the resort, another promise was made for my morning run. \n\n\n\nBy the end of my journey I actually stumbled on Bow and Glimmer as they were heading back up to change for dinner. Glimmer was in higher spirits and even talked excitedly about some of the things they saw. Bow had been stung by a jellyfish but it was a small mark that was already covered in cream. \n\n\n\nJust before we were all expected to head down to the beach I deemed my sweater time over and headed to my room to change. \n\n\n\nNights at mystacor were cooler than the days but still warm so I slipped on a tank top and some swim trunks, just in case. \n\n\n\nJust as I was about to text Glimmer and Bow to see if they were ready a knock came at my door. \n\n\n\nI was a bit shocked to find Catra standing in the hall but I couldnt deny the excitement that bubbled in my chest as she looked up at me, \n\n\n\n“Hey, Adora.” Her grin down right taunting. \n\n\n\n“Oh, hey Catra.” I leaned against the door slightly. \n\n\n\nShe raised an eyebrow, “Mind if I come in?” She lifted the little bundle of clothes I hadnt noticed, “Scorp is using the shower and I kinda need one before the whole dinner thing.” \n\n\n\nI stepped aside, “Yah, of course. You can use mine if you want.” \n\n\n\nShe snorted as she walked passed, “Kinda why im here.” \n\n\n\n“Right.” I shut the door, but then wondered if I was supposed to leave so she had privacy. \n\n\n\nCatra didnt seem off put with me still there as she made her way to the bathroom and shut the door, so I decided to wait for her. \n\n\n\nSitting at the end of the bed I sent a message to the group chat for them to head on without me. Only Bow responded. \n\n\n\nI didnt have to wait long before the bathroom door was once again opened, letting some of the steam out. Her hair was still dry but her skin was flush from the heat. \n\n\n\nCatra, without a doubt, would be the death of me. \n\n\n\nShe was in loose black shorts that really showed off the expanse of her legs and a tank thing that tied at the neck but completely exposed her shoulders and back. And if the strap free back was any indication, she wasnt wearing a bra. \n\n\n\nShe quirked an eyebrow at me as she sent that devilish smirk my way, “Feeling alright, hero?” \n\n\n\nRight, I was just staring. In a room. Alone. With Catra. \n\n\n\nI nodded, “Yah. You ready?”\n\n\n\nShe shrugged, “As Ill ever be.” Though she made no move towards the door. No this drop dead dangerously gorgeous woman moved so she was standing between my legs with her knees against the bed, “Are you?” \n\n\n\nWhat was the question? \n\n\n\nShe chuckled as I just blinked up at her. \n\n\n\n“Come on, dork. Before Sparkles leads a search party.” She grabbed my wrist and tugged me to the door. \n"}
+{"text": " \n\n \n\n✪★ Ch. 6 ★✪\n\n \n\nDusk is approaching when James determines that nothing more can be gained from continued surveillance of the hospital. \n\nSilently, Steve is relieved. He’s never been particularly great at ‘hurry-up-and-wait’, and he suspects that his inability to sit with the same level of uncanny stillness that James has maintained for hours on end has managed to agitate the former assassin. \n\nAfter a final visual sweep, James puts away his scope and they abandon the rooftop, moving down to ground level and heading for the hospital entrance. \n\nBoth Steve and James had agreed upon civilian clothing for this op, tactical gear being far too conspicuous for the public setting. For the same reason, the shield, too, had to be left behind. \n\nLow-drawn baseball caps help to conceal their features, the growing length of Steve's hair and beard providing him with an extra bit of coverage. That had been James’ suggestion, and Steve has to admit that the new, longer length—so different from the clean-cut style Captain America is known for—has done remarkable things for his ability to fly under the radar.\n\nShapeless, nondescript clothing completes their look, making Steve and James appear as close to average civilians as possible.\n\nAs they head inside the building, Steve instinctively adjusts his movement to match James’ deliberate, slightly expedient stride and tries not to be surprised at how easily it gets them through the lobby. \n\nIt’s something Natasha has spent a good amount of time working to teach him. How to modify his body language, use it to manipulate others’ perceptions—the basics of Spy 101. ‘Most people,’  she’d told him, once,  ‘-won’t attempt to stop a person if they walk purposefully enough, don’t allow for eye-contact, and generally appear to know what they’re doing and where they are going.’  \n\nJames apparently follows this same line of reasoning. \n\nSteve will never be as good as Natasha, certainly not the Winter Soldier, but there’s no denying that Nat’s lessons are working in his favor, now.  \n\nHe and James head straight for the elevator on the far side of the lobby and nobody approaches them. Even the friendly-looking staff at the front desk don’t attempt to engage them. Steve’s shoulders ease just slightly, and he drops down to the next goal on his mental checklist: finding the encoded message located somewhere within the building. \n\nHours of reconnaissance had made it apparent that whatever Hydra-related activities are—or were—carried out at this site, the place still houses a fully functioning hospital, complete with non-Hydra personnel and ordinary patients. \n\nHydra seems to have an affinity for infiltrating established corporations; burying its enterprises beneath the cover of legitimate businesses. Since the fall of SHIELD, Steve and his team have come across a number of establishments that were completely unaware of Hydra’s infiltration—until confrontation forced the neo-Nazi organization to reveal itself. \n\nWhether that is the case with this hospital or not, Steve suspects anything Hydra-related is likely to be found below-ground, concealed from non-Hydra personnel. \n\nSure enough, once they get inside the elevator, a hidden panel slides away at the press of James' thumb, revealing access to a sub-level within the building.\n\nJames spares a glance in Steve’s direction, ensuring that he is ready, before he pushes the button, triggering the elevator to begin a smooth descent.\n\nThe doors, once they reach the sub-level, open whisper-quiet to reveal a long, dimly lit corridor stretching out before them. The only light comes from the backup LEDs glowing murkily along the upper walls, and the bright interior lighting spilling from the elevator. At the end of the corridor, Steve's enhanced vision can just make out what appears to be a wide space, filled with some kind of equipment.\n\nJust as he's beginning to wonder whether they should have brought flashlights, James steps from the elevator, activating what must be a motion sensor, triggering the bright lights in the ceiling to switch on one by one, down the corridor and into the room at the end. Steve fights a twinge of unease, the display dragging up the memory of stepping into Zola’s “brain”—the very nerve-center of Hydra’s organization, burrowed beneath SHIELD's foundation like a particularly bloodthirsty tick.\n\nJames follows the progression of the lighting, a quiet stalk down the corridor, drawing his gun from a hidden holster. Steve, drawing his own weapon, follows at his six. \n\nThe room, when they reach the end, is larger than Steve had expected and looks to have been abandoned with some haste, it’s floor scattered with loose papers, doors and drawers of various refrigeration units, storage shelves, and metal racks left hanging askew. \n\nA good deal of shattered glass crunches underfoot as they move carefully through the room, ensuring that the vast space is as empty as the silence would suggest. \n\nSpaced evenly down the center of the room are what look like small surgical “stations”, each furnished with industrial-grade lighting angled over large, stainless-steel tables equipped with heavy-duty restraints. \n\nWheeled, surgical stands are situated at each station, one of which still holds what looks like a bone saw; dull and rust-stained. Silent. Impotent.\n\nSteve forces himself to look away from the tool, to suppress the nauseating horror that twists through his gut when he considers the implications of  restraints  being coupled with things like surgical equipment and bone saws. \n\nHe turns, only to have his gaze fall upon the barred cells lining the walls down the right side of the room, each containing a bolted down cot with further adjoining restraints. \n\nCots and restraints. Barred cells and man-sized steel tables. There is no way for Steve to fool himself. No way that he can deny what is right in front of his eyes. It’s quite clear: This place was designed for, and had functioned as, a site for human experimentation. \n\nUnhelpfully, the scene calls to mind the dozens of photographs Steve had found stored within the Winter Soldier’s file. Hydra had spent a great deal of time surveilling the effects of the numerous experiments they’d subjected upon their most valuable prisoner. One image, in particular, forces its way to the front of Steve’s eidetic memory: “the subject” crouched and naked, plaintively gripping the bars of his cell. Though his body language was pleading, it was visibly apparent that the man in that cell didn’t expect any help from his captors; his head had been angled downward; long, dark hair completely obscuring his features. \n\nSteve’s chest squeezes, fingers clutching numbly around the grip of his gun.  It could have been here,  he thinks. Bucky—James—could have been kept in any one of these cells. Could have been tortured and experimented upon in this very room. \n\n \n\nHe swallows tightly, bile burning hot at the back of his throat as he jerks his gaze away from the cage-like compartments, dragging in a quiet, shuddering breath.\n\n-  \n\nThe Soldier moves through the experimentation lab with the Captain at his back and tries not to wonder if Hydra’d ever held him in this specific location. He doesn’t remember, and all attempts to pull forth a memory only serve to remind him of the echoing blankness where memory should lie. \n\nThere is nothing—specifically—about this particular place that is familiar. \n\nAt the same time,  everything about it digs claws into his fractured mind. \n\nHis eyes catch on old IV bags—dried-out and limp, left hanging from various stands and crumpled atop stainless-steel workbenches—and the acid burn of experimental drugs being pumped into his bloodstream echoes through his veins; frozen fire that would begin with the bite of a needle, then spread, slowly, relentlessly, through his whole body.   \n\nHe steps around a number of scalpels scattered across the floor—left as they’d been dropped by people in too much of a hurry to retrieve them, gleaming dull beneath the bright light from above—and recalls, intimately, the searing bite of their blades. \n\nHow, at first, there is no real pain. Not because he’d been given any anesthetics; because, when that sort of trauma is introduced, there is always a short, adrenaline-fueled moment where the brain scrambles to interpret what is happening; a quiet, dread-filled numbness extant even as the razor’s edge cuts deep through tissue and muscle. Only then,  after, comes the bright agony of flesh splitting open; the animal-like terror of having one’s insides exposed to a room full of ruthless, hungry-eyed scientists; the nauseating sensation of blood spilling warm and wet over blanched-white skin. \n\nThe muffled crack of his bones being broken, again and again, so that the doctors could record specific variances in his healing factor under a range of different circumstances—sleep-deprivation, starvation, exsanguination—is another not-distant memory, and the sight of a rust-stained bone-saw lying harmlessly on one of the surgical trays has his body breaking out in a cold sweat. \n\nThe metal arm recalibrates—a mechanical manifestation of his distress—and he rolls his shoulders, forcing himself to loosen clenched muscles, mentally shoving the unwelcome echoes of his own panic-stricken terror into the darkest corner of his mind. \n\nDeliberately, he re-centers his focus. Goes to that quiet space inside his head where nothing touches him. Where the only important thing is completing the mission. \n\nThoughts composed, emotions shut away, he ghosts through the remainder of the lab and feels nothing at all. \n\nAt the far end of the room, an open doorway leads to another, smaller room, and as they approach, the Soldier can hear the faint mechanical whir of machinery coming from within. Stepping inside reveals rows of filing cabinets, shelves covered with dusty boxes, and a small accumulation of computers. \n\nThis has to be where the signal is coming from.\n\nThe Soldier moves to tuck away his weapon when something draws him short. \n\nHe stops, executing a slow pivot, glancing back the way he and the Captain had come, and hears it again: the low whir of the elevator descending. The soft, whisper-shush of its doors sliding open. \n\nWere he not enhanced, he’d never have picked up on the faint sounds. As it is, the quiet thuds of at least a dozen sets of booted feet filing from the elevator reaches his ears, even at a distance of more than two-hundred feet, even with walls between him and the source.\n\nJudging by the way his body has gone taut, the Captain has caught the sounds too, his hand tightening around the grip of his weapon as his gaze darts to the Soldier’s. \n\nHis brow is deeply furrowed, eyes dark and uncompromising, and the Soldier knows, with a sudden surety, that the Captain has no intention of shrinking back from what is almost certainly going to be a deadly confrontation. That he means to fight. \n\nGood. The Soldier means to fight as well. \n\nHe dips his head, offering a shallow nod of acknowledgement, and moves to press himself against one side of the doorway, weapon raised and ready. The Captain, with a small nod of his own, mirrors the Soldier’s position on the opposite side. \n\nSilently, they wait. \n\n- \n\nAs the sounds of booted feet travel from the elevator toward the lab, moving steadily closer, Steve counts footfalls, estimating somewhere around a dozen potential hostiles.  A surreptitious glance around the doorway confirms his guess as three, four-man units file through the doorway on the far side of the room. \n\nEven without the red insignia affixed to their tac gear, Steve doesn’t doubt that these operatives are Hydra. Armed with deadly assault rifles, they move through the lab with practiced proficiency, quickly sweeping the room. It won’t be long before he and James are discovered, positioned just inside the computer room. \n\nThey need to engage. It’s now or never. \n\nJames, evidently, has come to the same conclusion. In one fluid, lightening-quick movement, he leans around the corner, takes aim, and fires off three successive shots, ducking back behind cover immediately afterward.\n\nShouts of alarm precede the sound of three dead operatives hitting the floor, and a rapid scuffling follows as the remaining Hydra agents scramble for cover. There isn't much to be found, in that room. A factor which tilts the odds ever so slightly in Steve’s and James’ favor. \n\nSteve takes aim during the brief chaos and picks off another two of the operatives, keeping a mental tally of how many bullets are left between him and James. \n\nTheoretically, based solely upon the number of Hydra operatives still alive, there are more than enough rounds between the two of them to take down all of their enemy. \n\nRealistically, however, the Hydra agents are armed with weapons that are both substantially more powerful, and have considerably more ammunition. Against that sort of firepower, the wall behind which Steve and James are taking cover won’t hold for long. If they stay where they are, they’re little more than sitting ducks. \n\nThe best way to even the odds—the only way he can think of, at the moment—is to force the agents to engage them in close combat. He and James are stronger than the operatives, Faster. Certain to prevail if guns are taken out of the equation. For that to work, though, they’ll need to jump right into the middle of things; avoid getting pinned down; and hopefully, not get shot in the process. \n\nThey’ll need a distraction. \n\nSteve glances around—looking for something he can use, wishing, fervently, that he had his shield.  \n\nA voice calls from the other room, the clipped, rapidly-spoken Russian incomprehensible to Steve. He glances to James for clarification, and sees a flash of something like guilt flare in silver-blue eyes, there and gone again in little more than an instant. \n\n“They want me to surrender,” James translates, voice low; inflectionless. “They say they’ll spare you, if I surrender. They’ll let you go.” \n\nSteve squares his jaw, face set in what he knows are stubborn lines. “Even if that were true,” he says, reaching to grab a chair from one of the computer stations. “I wouldn’t go.” \n\nHe takes a precious moment to pause and meet James’ eyes. Holds on to that pale gaze. “Not without you.” \n\nThen he hurls the chair as hard as he can into the room where Hydra waits, aiming for where his near-perfect recall identifies as a strategic position for the operatives to have taken cover.\n\nIt’s the best diversion he can come up with on such short notice, and he uses the small advantage it offers, darting out into the lab as the agents instinctively aim at the thing hurtling toward them, going for whoever he can take out amid the distraction.\n\n-\n\nThe Soldier follows the Captain into the lab without hesitation, charging into the room full of armed hostiles at the other man’s heels. Mentally, he curses the Captain’s recklessness even as he wonders at his own instinctive reflex to follow him right into the proverbial lion’s den. \n\nStill, rash as it was, using that chair as a distraction allows the Captain to take out another Hydra agent, dropping their numbers to a far more manageable six. \n\nThe Captain darts into the middle of a small cluster of three, slashing at one with a sharp blade while simultaneously slamming his knee into the gut of another, yanking that agent’s gun from his loosened grip and using his momentum to bring the weapon crashing into the third operative��s temple.\n\nA few feet away, the Soldier takes out another enemy, driving his metal fist into the combatant’s face and crushing his skull, effectively stopping him from depressing the trigger of the rifle he’d had aimed at the Captain.  \n\nAnother operative goes down with the Soldier’s ka-bar embedded in his throat, and then, just like that, there is only one agent left to take care of. \n\nThe Soldier turns his attention to the remaining operative, the pale-faced man already backing away, hands raised and rifle abandoned in the face of what he clearly recognizes is his imminent demise. The Soldier stalks forward, ready to end this even as his tactical brain snags on the fact that Hydra had sent only a dozen agents to bring in the Winter Soldier. \n\nEven without the Captain’s support, the Soldier’s training and enhancements make it highly unlikely that such a small team of operatives could bring him down. Not with him working at full capacity. Not without major injuries or a significant amount of drugs slowing him down. \n\nMaybe this paltry sum of operatives is all that Hydra’d had to work with. With Pierce dead, and so many of the world’s governments actively working to destroy what’s left of Hydra’s remains, it’s likely that their numbers are dwindling; bleeding out alongside whatever lingering power or authority they might have left. \n\nNo wonder they are so keen to get the Soldier back. \n\nWith their most valuable asset back under their control, Hydra wouldn't have to worry about scrambling for power. They could go underground. Rebuild their strength and bide their time. Wait for another, convenient opportunity to strike; a move big enough to put their players back on the board. Hydra thrived amid chaos, and the Winter Soldier was trained to create it. To cause havoc. Reap war. Change history. \n\n\n Shape the century. \n\n\nAll they had to do was get him back. And they  would , the Soldier knew. They’d stop at nothing to force him back under their control. He’d broken for them once already. It would be so easy for them to do it again. Press along barely-healed fractures; shatter him back to pieces.\n\n\n ‘Wipe him and start over.’ \n\n\n No.  The Soldier’s left arm whines, metal plates shifting and tightening in a rapid series of sharp movements.  That isn’t going to happen. Because he’s never going back. He’ll die first. And if he can’t quite manage it himself, the Captain will. He promised. \n\nThe Soldier doesn’t have to look to know that the Captain has finished neutralizing the three operatives on the other side of the room. He closes in on the last remaining enemy, set to eliminate whatever small threat he poses. \n\nThe sound of the elevator descending makes him pause, gaze swiveling toward the doorway.. \n\nHis eyes catch upon the single figure stepping from the lift.  Male  , his mind catalogs rapidly, automatically.  Dark-haired, thickly bearded.  Moving purposefully toward the room, but not hurrying. Outfitted in dark tac gear.  Threat assessment— \n\nHe doesn’t recognize the man. He doesn’t, but… \n\n\n  —high. \n\n\nA shiver of unease scrapes down the Soldier’s spine. \n\nThere’s something about him. Something that has the Soldier’s brain shrieking in recognition, fighting to unearth long-buried memories.  \n\nHis attention is split between the final operative and the new arrival for only a second, but it’s enough of a window for the retreating Hydra agent to pull his sidearm, firing upon the Soldier while his gaze is turned elsewhere. \n\nThe Captain’s shout of alarm resonates beneath the report of the gun as the Soldier jerks his chin to the left, barely managing to avoid the brunt of the bullet’s trajectory, the shot carving a searing line along his cheekbone. His gaze has left the other man, the newcomer, for the barest of moments.  \n\nIt’s all the opening the other man needs.\n\nIn an instant, the newcomer is slamming into the Soldier, sending him flying across the room from the force of a single, powerful kick. \n\nThe Soldier crashes into a refrigeration unit, glass door shattering as he smashes bodily through the front of it. Knife-like shards dig deep into his back, slicing even deeper as he rolls quickly back to his feet. \n\nThis man, the newcomer, is  fast. Strong. As strong as the Soldier himself. \n\n Enhanced, the Soldier’s mind whispers, struggling to unearth the knowledge running just beneath the surface of his frozen, wasteland of a memory.  Dangerous. \n\nHe’s one of Hydra’s. A soldier. A killer. Like the Winter Soldier but…different. There’s more, much more to it than that, but the Soldier can’t remember.   \n\nHe shakes his head, advancing toward the enhanced operative, metal arm whirring. It doesn’t matter, he concludes. The newcomer is just one more enemy. A threat—substantial as it may be — that the Soldier needs to take down. \n\nHe reaches for a blade, brain catching on the disconcerting realization that the enhanced operative hasn’t pulled a weapon of his own, and then—\n\n“Желание.” \n\nThe Soldier stumbles.  “Нет.” \n\nThe operative watches him, eyes cool. Intelligent. Calculating.  “Ржавые.” \n\n“Stop.” He raises a shaky hand to his temple. “Стой.” \n\nThe operative doesn’t stop. \n\n- \n\nSteve turns away from tying up the unconscious body of the agent who’d fired upon James— who’d jerked with the force of the shot, and Steve had thought.  For a moment he’d been  sure  that James had been hit…and Steve had  lost  it, launching himself across the room, slamming his clenched fist into the wide-eyed agent’s jaw and dropping him like a ton of bricks…  \n\nHe’d heard glass shatter a moment later, and had known that the other operative—the bearded man who’d stepped from the elevator—was in play.  \n\nNow he sees James stumble, face stricken, as the bearded man begins to utter a familiar set of Russian trigger phrases.  \n\nJames is pale, his voice shaky as he says,‘Stop’, in English. Again in Russian.\n\nThe bearded man pays no mind to the plea, the desperate quality of James’ voice. He goes down the list of trigger words with ruthless indifference, the fourth falling from his lips just as Steve barrels into him, knocking him to the ground. \n\nThe operative flips back to his feet with a snarl, that cold, calculating gaze suddenly turned upon Steve, and the sudden shift in attention reminds Steve of fighting the Winter Soldier. \n\nOn the Helicarrier, and that bridge in DC, the Winter Soldier’d had eyes only for his mission. He’d ignored everything outside of that, engaging others only when they came between him and his target. This operative shares a similar methodology, his attention fixed on Steve only now, when Steve’s put himself between James and him.\n\nHe draws his sidearm, but Steve moves faster, knocking the weapon from his grip before he can fully raise it. \n\nThe operative pulls a knife next, swiping at Steve with vicious intent and Steve blocks the attack, driving a kick into the operative’s gut, knocking him back once more. The operative is  strong, stronger than any normal man—but Steve is stronger. \n\nHe’s got an advantage of experience—has fought plenty of enhanced individuals, including those with the single-minded ferocity of the Winter Soldier—and, for once, has zero hesitation about throwing everything he has into this fight. \n\nThe helpless horror he’d felt during his first passage through this room, with its remnants of Hydra’s inhumane experiments on blatant display; his fury at discovering further evidence of James’ subjection to such sadistic treatment; his vehement determination to keep Hydra from  ever  getting their hands on James again—all of these add fuel to Steve’s blows, and he brings the operative down, quick and merciless, dragging him into an unforgiving chokehold. He doesn’t release the agent until the man goes completely still, lack of oxygen forcing him unconscious.  \n\nSteve wants to kill him—this man who’d made James look so afraid—but he makes himself let go, removes his hands before he stops the operative’s breathing entirely. Killing this man, a possible supply of valuable intel, is tactically unsound, he tells himself. He should call in Tony and the others. Let them see what information they can get out of him about Hydra’s plans. \n\nThe operative drops from Steve’s grasp, a dead weight, and Steve leaves him where he falls. Turns, instead, to crouch before James: sunk to one knee, unmoving. \n\nHis expression is distant, haunted. Barely visible behind the dark tangle of his hair.\n\n“James,” Steve says, soft. \n\nJames doesn’t so much as twitch. \n\nHis head stays angled downward and Steve aches to reach out and touch, to try to ground him, but doesn’t dare. \n\n“You’re okay,” he murmurs, offering platitudes in place of contact.“You’re okay, James. Come back, please. Come back to me.” \n\nA muffled scrape sounds from behind him, and Steve jolts, glancing over his shoulder to see the Hydra operative raising a gun.  Stupid, stupid,  he berates himself, even as he automatically angles his own body to cover James’. \n\nIt’s been barely a minute. Far too soon for the operative to have awoken. But that’s no excuse. Steve should have never allowed himself to get so completely caught off guard. He should have tied the man up—made sure he was completely restrained—before getting so focused on James he’d all but forgotten the murderous threat behind him. \n\nNow it’s too late. The operative’s finger curls around the trigger and the only thing left for Steve to do is— \n\nThe shot rings out, a sharp  crack  that cuts through the silence in the room. \n\nSteve—entire body braced for impact—feels nothing, only a jolt of shock as the perfect circle of a bullet wound blooms on the operative’s forehead, centered neatly between his eyes. Relief, bright and visceral, slices through him as he watches the operative’s body slump to the floor, blood pooling around his head like a gruesome, crimson halo. \n\nHe turns back to find James lowering his gun, expression only marginally less empty than it had been moments ago, gaze fixed on the dead operative.\n\nSteve draws a shaky breath. \n\n“James. You with me?”\n\nJames blinks in rapid succession, gaze sliding quick across Steve’s face. \n\n“Да.”\n\nHe doesn’t know if James realizes he’d spoken in Russian but this word, at least, Steve understands and the confirmation is enough. He briefly closes his eyes, shoulders relaxing ever so slightly. \n\n“Okay.” \n\nDragging a hand through his hair, he lets out a quiet breath. “Good. That’s— I’m gonna call Tony. Have him get a containment crew down here to deal with…” he waves a hand to indicate the unspoken ‘all of this.’\n\nJames says nothing. Doesn’t move. His eyes rove in slow, restless sweeps, stopping for short increments upon the doorway; the myriad of dead operatives; the pool of blood inching gradually closer to his left boot. \n\nSteve forces himself not to press. To stand and step away, pulling out his phone as he goes. \n\nThe ensuing conversation is…frustrating. In the end, though, it accomplishes what Steve wants, which is Tony agreeing to send in people to handle the clean-up and retrieval of all useful intel.\n\nAs soon as he gets Tony’s confirmation, Steve hangs up. \n\nHis gaze sweeps across the demolished room littered with bodies, crushed glass, and bullet-holes, and settles upon the doorway leading to the small computer room. The steady hum of the machines beyond reminds him that he and James have yet to check for another segment of code. \n\nHe wonders if there’s even anything  to  find. Perhaps this altercation, this ambush, had been the only reason behind leading them here. Maybe this was the end goal; to capture the Winter Soldier. Kill him if that turned out to be impossible. Steve doesn’t know. Can’t know, without more information. \n\nWhatever the case, looking at James—back on his feet, expression shuttered and unreadable—Steve wants nothing more than to leave this hellhole; to put this mission on hold; to  take a break, if only for James’ sake.\n\nThere’s no chance of that happening, Steve knows, but he can’t help the feeling of disappointment when James states flatly, “The code. We still need to access it.”  \n\nWith James, Steve is beginning to realize, the mission comes first. It is his singular focus, rarely impacted by variables like  discomfort  or  unease. \n\nThis realization is further cemented when James, after waiting for Steve’s nod, turns and heads decisively for the computer room exposing his back for the first time.\n\nSteve, who’d started to follow, stumbles, drawing in a sharp breath. \n\nHis back.\n\nHis back is—\n\n“James.”\n\n- \n\nIngrained conditioning has the Soldier freezing mid-step in response to the Captain’s tone. \n\nThe sound—the urgent quality of the Captain’s voice—raises his hackles, and he glances over his shoulder, instinct driving him to search for the threat. All he finds is the Captain, gaze fixed intently upon the Soldier’s back.\n\n“Your back,” the Captain says. “Your back it’s— You’re  bleeding.” \n\nHe strides forward, hand outstretched as if to touch, and the Soldier tenses, twisting to angle his mangled flesh out of the Captain’s reach, backing away from his approach. \n\nThe Captain freezes at the response, eyes darting up to meet the Soldier’s. His mouth is tight and unhappy, but he doesn’t try to move any closer.\n\n“They are,” the Soldier reports, defensive, off-balanced, “predominantly superficial wounds. From falling through the glass. They are not mission-critical.”\n\nThe Captain’s brows draw together, the words having directly the opposite effect the Soldier had intended. “B— James. I don’t  care  about—” The Captain cuts himself off, takes a deep breath. “Let me check them, please? Can I just—see for myself that they are not as bad as they look?”\n\nThere is no order hidden within the Captain’s words. The Soldier seizes upon the allowance, the small freedom to choose, and shakes his head. \n\nWith his attention focused upon them, the wounds  hurt —searing pain that spans from the tops of his shoulders all the way down to his hips. \n\nThe hurt is bearable, if he focuses his thoughts elsewhere. Most pain is. \n\nBut that doesn’t mean he wants the injuries laid out beneath the Captain’s scrutiny. Just the thought of that, of the Captain at his back, assessing gaze on his torn flesh, close enough to  touch  if he felt so inclined— \n\nThe Soldier swallows, stomach twisting into a tight knot. He can’t think of something he’d like less.\n\nExcept then the Captain’s face falls, visibly disappointed by the Soldier’s refusal, and he finds himself assaulted by another, equally unpleasant sentiment. \n\n It’s unfair, the Soldier thinks, bitterly. \n\nWith a single look, just the expression on his face, the Captain has managed to drag out of him emotions the Soldier can hardly  identify, let alone  combat. \n\nNot for the first time, the Soldier feels the unwelcome urge to give in. To surrender to the Captain’s request, without even understanding  why. \n\nFor a split second—a bare, frustrated moment—the Soldier almost wishes the Captain would order him. Then, at least, the Soldier could lose himself in blind obedience, allowing all of the confusing emotions to be buried beneath the ingrained compulsion to  comply.\n\n- \n\nJames is very clear about not wanting Steve to get anywhere near his injuries. More than just refusing, he angles his entire body away from Steve, muscles gone tense, pale gaze wary and watchful, as if he expects Steve to ignore his refusal, to do what he wants regardless of James’ resistance. \n\nSteve keeps perfectly still. While the realization that James considers Steve capable of such a thing makes his stomach roil with nausea, Steve really doesn’t have to wonder  why  James might come to such a conclusion. The very room they’re standing in attests to the fact that James’ has had his agency taken from him far too many times. \n\nAnd… James doesn’t know him. \n\nIt’s understandable that he’s wary of Steve, that Steve will have to give him time. Time to learn that he isn’t a threat. That James can trust him.  \n\nFor now, Steve decides to let the matter drop. There’s still the mission, and they should focus on handling it and getting out of here before Tony’s crew comes through. James definitely won’t want to be around when that happens. \n\n“Alright,” Steve relents, taking a small step back and changing the subject. “Let’s go see if there’s anything on the computers.” Giving James a wide berth, he heads toward the computer room, allowing James to follow, to keep Steve in his sight.\n\nIt turns out that there is something there to find on the computers after all. As soon as James activates it, another screen fills with unrecognizable, scrolling script. \n\nJames’ reaction is much the same as it had been the last time he’d been exposed. \n\nThis time, when Steve murmurs his own trigger phrase, he endeavors to catch James as gently as possible, careful about the glass embedded in his back, the bloody wounds still seeping crimson into his dark clothing.\n\n- \n\nJames heads for the bathroom almost as soon as Steve unlocks the tiny motel room he’d reserved for the night—delaying only as long as it takes to do his usual, careful sweep of the interior. \n\nWatching him go, Steve drops his duffel onto one of the two beds, unzips it, and pulls out the first-aid kit he keeps inside. He takes a moment to steel himself, certain that what he plans to do next will not be easy, and then approaches the bathroom, hovering just outside the doorway.\n\n“James, can I… Would it be okay if I took a look at your back now?” \n\nHe chooses his words carefully, avoiding anything that could sound like a command, but unable to quash his urgent need for James to, for once, just let him help. \n\nJames glances Steve’s way, turning his gaze from where he’d been assessing the damage through the mirror and lifting one shoulder in an impassive shrug. Steve suppresses a wince. He can’t imagine that it doesn’t hurt—to move in that way—though James’ expression offers no indication of pain. \n\n“Unnecessary,” James says. “It will heal on its own. I’ve had worse. It always heals.”\n\nSteve forces himself not to think about what ‘worse’ entails. It’s a horrific concept, and he doesn’t want to get sidetracked.\n\n“Maybe,” he concedes. “But it’ll heal much more quickly if we tend to it. There’s probably pieces of glass still in the wounds. They need to be cleaned out.”  \n\nJames motions to the tiny bathtub, as if in compromise. “I’ll shower.”\n\n“That’s not—” Steve pushes down helpless frustration. “That isn’t good enough.” \n\n“I don’t need—” James begins, and Steve takes a quick step forward. Only one, but James still startles, backing into the counter behind him. \n\n“Please, B—” Steve swallows. Draws a shallow breath. “Please,” he repeats, voice quiet and even. “Let me do this. Please let me help.” \n\nFinally, James relents. \n\nJaw clenched tight, he slowly turns to  face the mirror, mutely presenting his back to Steve. \n\nHis whole frame is stiff with tension, and though Steve doesn’t glance up to look, he can feel the intensity of James’ gaze, tracking his every move through the mirror.\n\nSteve ducks his head, avoiding that gaze as he steps forward, focusing instead on the task before him. \n\nThe shirt is a lost cause. The dark fabric is ragged with tears, tacky with drying blood, and Steve feels no compunction about cutting it off with the medical-grade scissors in the first-aid kit. \n\nThe material sticks, in places, to wounds where James has bled more extensively, but when Steve pauses, thinking to wet the cloth to make the separation less painful, James simply tears the shredded garment from his torso, dropping the fabric onto the floor and causing a number of the bloody slashes to reopen.\n\nSteve frowns at the harsh treatment, but keeps his mouth shut. Despite the popular theory, he knows when to pick his battles, and getting a good look at Jame’s injuries—many of which are weeping anew—is where his focus is better aimed. \n\nHe leans in a bit closer, looking but not touching, and sees that he was right about the glass. Dozens of tiny shards glitter across James’ back, buried in his wounds, glinting beneath the bathroom light. \n\n“These need to come out,” Steve says, briefly lifting his gaze to meet James’ through the mirror. “I’m going to get them out.” \n\nJames doesn’t answer, and Steve hadn’t really expected him to; had only wanted to offer a fair warning before he grabs the tweezers and begins the thankless task of removing all the shards from James’ skin, dropping the fragments into the sink one by one.\n\nJames remains silent; keeping still; not even flinching when Steve has to dig into some of the wounds to get at pieces lodged more deeply. \n\nWhen he’s sure that all the glass is gone, Steve soaks a cloth in lukewarm water and gently, carefully, washes James’ skin, rinsing and repeating until all of the wounds are clean, dabbing up the excess water with a segment of gauze. He pauses, then, taking a moment to survey James’ back with a critical eye.\n\nWith most of the blood out of the way, Steve can see enough to be sure that he won’t need to do any stitching and he grabs the salve with a silent breath of relief, turning the small jar of soothing ointment in his hands as he sweeps his gaze from James’ shoulders to hips, and decides he might as well start from the top. \n\nDipping his fingers into the salve, Steve smooths the balm gingerly across James’ tender skin, carefully addressing each wound. He keeps his touches light, moving as gently as possible, focused on minimizing any pain. \n\nFor a long moment, his world narrows down to this task; making sure he doesn’t press too hard, touch too rough. \n\nMaybe that’s why he doesn’t realize, at first, that something’s changed. That, while his back stays just as rigid as it’s been since he’d turned, and he still hasn’t made a sound—James is…moving . \n\nIt’s subtle, almost imperceptible, but once Steve starts paying attention it’s hard to miss the fact that James is listing forward, body arching  away  from Steve’s hands, trying to avoid, as much as possible, the way Steve is now touching him. His own hands, metal and flesh alike, have slid forward to curl around the lip of the sink, gripping tight to the porcelain edge as his body adopts a fine tremor, muscles shivering beneath Steve’s fingers.\n\nSteve freezes. \n\nSlowly, carefully, he lifts salve-slick fingers away from James’ skin, raising them into the air where they hover; no longer touching. His gaze darts to the mirror, eyes searching James’ face for signs of distress, but beyond the dark curtain of his hair, James’ expression is almost completely blank. His eyes are open, but empty, staring vacantly into the middle-distance, the smallest of furrows etched between his brows. His jaw is tight, mouth pressed into a flat, inexpressive line. \n\n“James,” Steve says, voice low, almost a whisper. “Are you alright? Am I— Am I hurting you?”\n\nSteve’s voice—or maybe it’s the fact that he’s removed his hands—seems to draw James back from wherever it is that he’d gone and he blinks, lashes fluttering as his eyes lose some of that unfocused haze. He swallows, tongue darting across red, chapped lips before he finally responds to Steve’s question. \n\n“Doesn’t—” He cuts off, dragging in a stuttering breath. “Doesn’t hurt.”\n\nSteve’s eyes catch upon the unsteady rise and fall of James’ chest, the way his shoulders are rounded ever so slightly forward. “Should… Can I…?” His hands linger in the air above James’ back; still not touching.\n\nJames nods, a small jerky movement. His grip stays tight around the sink. \n\nSteve isn’t convinced. James clearly doesn’t  want  Steve touching him. But. His back still needs the attention, and Steve might as well finish what he’d started. \n\nWhen Steve puts his hands back on him, James shudders all over, sliding right back into that blank place he’d gone to before and Steve…\n\nSteve  hates  it. It feels a little bit like heartbreak, watching James go away like that, knowing it’s because Steve is touching him. He swallows bitterly, attending to the rest of the lacerations as quickly as possible, wiping his hands clean on the washcloth beside the sink when he’s done.\n\nIt takes a moment, once Steve’s taken his hands completely away, but James finally blinks back from wherever he’d gone, glancing at Steve through the mirror to be sure he’s finished.\n\n“All done,” Steve confirms, and James nods, unclenching his hands from the fragile porcelain of the sink and sliding away, distancing himself as much as he can in the small space. \n\nHe watches silently as Steve packs away the medical supplies, zipping up the small bag and leaving it on the countertop.\n\n“Go ahead and take a sponge bath tonight,” Steve says on his way out, turning back to face James once he’s stepped past the threshold. “So you don’t end up washing the salve off. You can take a real shower in the morning.”\n\nJames’ mouth thins, flattening into a grim line. Without a word, he reaches for the door, shutting it in Steve’s baffled face.\n\nMinutes later, while changing into clothing more suitable for sleep, Steve realizes he’d ended up giving James orders after all.\n\n-  \n\nSteve takes position near the window, ready to take the first watch of the night, and thinks about asking. About the enhanced soldier—the operative James had shot dead in that Hydra base. \n\nHis brain jumps from one question to the next, restless and inquisitive. Apart from James, Steve’s never seen another enhanced soldier so similar himself. He’d thought James was the only one, but after seeing the operative in the Hydra base... \n\nIs it possible…? Could there be  more  soldiers out there, like him? Like James? How many had Hydra created? \n\nAnd—a thought that makes his stomach clench with guilt—if there  are  others, how can he be sure that they are loyal to Hydra? What’s to say they’re not like Bucky—like James—had been; brainwashed operatives with no will of their own?\n\nHe wants to ask. Needs to know why James hadn’t seemed at all surprised at encountering another enhanced soldier. But when James comes back into the room he studiously avoids Steve’s gaze, expression tight and closed-off, and Steve bites his tongue, swallowing back the veritable barrage of questions. \n\nJames looks—ragged.  Exhausted. And no matter how good he is at hiding it, Steve knows he’s got to be hurting; back as torn up as it is. \n\nSo Steve decides to let the questions lie, for now. \n\nLet James get some sleep, he thinks. Let him have a reprieve, even if it can only be—by necessity—a short one; they can only leave off the conversation for so long.\n\n \n\n—\n\n\n\n\n\n\n"}
+{"text": " \n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n Castiel's neighbour is singing again and it takes all of his willpower not to laugh. \n\n \n\nIt’s not that he's a bad singer, quite the opposite, in fact, he's brilliant. It’s just that without fail every time the man steps into the shower he will power belt of all things: Disney songs. Castiel has never been one to judge another man’s music tastes. He listens to everything from classical music when he's working, to the hardcore screamo of his teen years. His Spotify playlists are practically the definition of organised chaos. It’s just that the man next door, is literally the definition of that very stereotype. With his Golden hair; broad shoulders and a muscle car he pays to park in two spaces he's the perfect all-American boy. But God does that man love Frozen. \n\n \n\nWhen Castiel smokes out the window he hears everything from \"At last I see the light  \"   to   \"Tale as Old as Time\"  because the guy always showers with the window open. The songs are almost always love songs. Always filled with sweet sentiments and sung by a man that sings like sex personified. It’s the best part of Castiel’s day but it’s also the worst. \n\n \n\nBecause Castiel’s neighbour is unspeakably hot. He's exactly the type of man Castiel would flirt with if giving half the chance. Except for every time the guy steps into the elevator with Castiel or they pass each other getting mail, Castiel has to look away. For fear that if he makes eye contact, he'll burst out laughing at the adorable mess of contradictions. \n\n \n\nThankfully they seem to be on opposite schedules. Castiel works most nights at the bar, often passing the guy on his way out the door. So Castiel doesn't feel the need to laugh all that often. Which is both a curse and a blessing in disguise. Castiel doesn’t want to make the man uncomfortable or ashamed. Especially because his passion is oddly kind of sweet. So, he keeps his distance, watches the sunsets and listens from the window. \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n \n\nCastiel's bar does live music sometimes. He works in the kind of \"classy\" establishment that requires its staff to wear waistcoats and ties but for some reason, it brings in the hipster crowd. Castiel blames the fairy lights that cover the support beams. Meg, his fellow server, blames the fact they've got a smoking garden bigger than a postage stamp. They're probably both right because the crowds come in droves. Gabriel as the owner is the kind of man that can see money in a cornfield. So naturally, he caters to his crowd. They do movie nights every two weeks, board games every month and every Saturday there's a gig. \n\n \n\nCastiel loves working the gigs, the bands are always different. Sometimes its rappers, sometimes indie pop. Tonight's group is set up to be a classic rock cover band and the crowds coming in droves. Castiel sells so much IPA he has to go down to the basement and get another keg. And that's just before the show starts. He's just pushing open the basement door, keg balanced on his shoulders. When the band comes in he almost drops the keg on his foot. \n\n \n\nStanding on the stage, plugging in a guitar is Castiel’s neighbour. He's wearing ripped jeans, plaid shirt pulled up to reveal a collection of dark tattoos. Castiel forces himself to look away from his forearms and get back to work. If he begins humming \"Zero to Hero\" under his breath that’s his own business. \n\n \n\n\"Hey all,\" Castiel's neighbour says to the crowd. His voice is almost as deep as Castiel’s. \"My names Dean Winchester and we are Impala.\" \n\n \n\nThe crowd cheers and catcalls, some girls scream, making Dean smile. \"I’m happy to see you too,\" he says. He's got fucking dimples. Castiel almost spills the mojito he's been mixing. \n\n \n\n\"What’s up with you?\" Meg asks, giving him a weird look. \n\n \n\nCastiel flushes, \"The guy singings my neighbour, I didn't know he was in a band.\" \n\n \n\n\"Ah,\" Meg says, eyebrows raised as she looks from Dean to Castiel and back again. \"He's hot right?\" \n\n \n\nCastiel swallows and gives a panicked nod. He has no idea how he's going to deal with the Dean singing something over than Disney’s greatest hits. The set starts with the blonde drummer hitting her synths as the giant man with a guitar starts to play the opening chords to \" Immigrant Song\" . Dean screams \"  Ahhhh \" into the mic and the crowd goes wild. \n\n \n\nDeans a great performer he tips the mic just right, bounces and dances when he can, and he sings like a rock god. His band works well together as well. Dean seems to half dance; half compete with the long-haired guitarist when playing the bass. Nodding or dancing beside the redhead on the keyboard and stamping his feet with the girl playing the drums. Castiel ends up taking one of his two allotted shots of tequila. Meg whooping in the corner. Forcing himself to look away, from the gorgeous sight, Castiel serves the thirsty and sweaty crowd their IPA beer. He's swimming in drink orders in no time, but he keeps his ears tuned to the band.\n\n \n\nEventually, the band stops, Dean smiles, wiping sweat from his brow with the back of his sleeve. \"Holy shit you guys are great,\" He says enthusiastically. \"We're going to take a little break but Sammy over here placed a bowl on the bar during set up. If you want to request a song write it on the paper and we'll see what we can do.\" \n\n \n\nThe band disappears into the glorified closet that is the \"green room\" as a tsunami of customers surge towards the bowl. Castiel bites his lip, serves his next pint, then picks up a pen. \n\n\n\n\n\nThe band returns more energetic than ever, the cute blonde drummer coming down to pick up the bowl. \"Okay let’s see what we got here,\" Dean says, grinning into the mic. He chuckles reading the selection, \"Oh Jo you're going to love this one,\" The band crowds in as Dean passes the sheet between the four of them and the blonde girl - presumably Jo - fist pumps the air. Dean picks up the bass and they start playing \"Styx - Renegade\" almost perfectly. \n\n \n\nThey keep playing through the requests, some songs Dean throws down claiming they don't know the tunes. There’s a lot of rock covers and some indie numbers. Jo ends up moving the mic to sing Taylor Swift. Dean playing the bass and shaking his hips along to \"Shake it Off.\" Castiel resigns himself to his song being in the reject pile. He makes enough drinks that he ends up loosening his tie. \n\n \n\n\"Okay,\" Dean pants, leaning on the mic stand. \"I think we've got one more left in us, let's see what we got here.\" He reaches his hand into the bowl, placing it on the ground and clearing his throat. \"Drumroll please, Jo.\" He jokes, actually getting one as he opens the paper. Castiel watches as his eyes widen in shock. \n\n \n\n\"Um,\" He flushes looking around the crowd. Just like in those godamn Disney movies Dean loves, Castiel meets Deans gaze through the crowd. Dean flushes and looks away, \"This is not what I was expecting but I think we can make it work, right guys?\" Dean passes the note back. Sam nodding after a booming laugh. \n\n \n\nJo, the redhead and Sam start playing a shockingly familiar theme. Dean leans up against the mic, smirks then sings a rocked-up version of \"Let it Go.'\n\n \n\nSurprisingly the crowds into it. Enthusiastically headbanging and power belting the words. \"You gotta love hipster,\" Meg says head-bopping despite the sarcasm in her tone. Castiel laughs turning away and watching the show. When it’s over, Deans beaming at the crowd. \n\n \n\n\"You know I teach kindergarten and you guys might have been more into that song than my little guys,\" Dean says dimpling again. Castiel flushes, his sweet, manly, endearingly contradictory neighbour is in a band and a teacher! How is Castiel going to handle that? No one is equipped to deal with that much perfection and not fall madly in love. \n\n \n\nThe crowd starts cheering the band’s name as they disappear and Castiel taps Meg's shoulder, \"I'm going for my smoke break.\" He says, desperately needing some air. Meg nods, gesturing to Anna who's working the floor to help her out while Castiel leaves. \n\n \n\nOutside Castiel stands by one of the tables, breathing in the cool air in relief before pulling out his packet of smokes.\n\n \n\n\"Those will kill you; you know.\" A deep voice says from Castiel's right. Castiel jumps and looks over to see none other Dean Winchester. Castiel drops his lighter.\n\n \n\n\"Here,\" Dean says, picking it up and turning it on. Castiel blinks then lean's into his personal space, lighting the cigarette with ease. Dean licks his lips. \n\n \n\n\"We've all got our vices,\" Castiel’s says after a drag, \"I smoke, you sing Disney in the shower.\" He says, aiming for nonchalant. \n\n \n\nDean blinks, \"You can hear me?\" He asks cheeks flushed. \n\n \n\nSeeing him up close Castiel notices he legitimately has Disney princess eyes. Castiel can't control the laughter anymore, \"Yeah I can hear you,\" Castiel says chucking still. Dean grimaces. \n\n \n\n\"So, you picked that song to make fun of me?\" Dean asks, eyes hard. Castiel fucking knew this would happen. \n\n \n\n\"No not at all,\" He says nervously, putting out his cigarette. \"At least not in the way you're thinking. I like hearing you sing.\" \n\n \n\n\"Yeah,\" Dean asks, looking at Castiel through his eyelashes. \n\n \n\nCastiel swallows. \"Yeah,\" He says, his voice rough, \"I just find it funny, you're not the kinda guy that I'd expect to sing Disney. The contradiction amuses me.\" \n\n \n\n\"Oh,\" Dean says, looking like he's not sure whether he should be offended or not. \n\n \n\nCastiel groans and runs his hands through his hair. \"Let me start over, I'm Castiel,\" he says, sticking out his hand. \"I really like your voice and your taste in Disney movies.\" \n\n \n\nDean smiles at Castiel's fumbling, \"Dean,\" shaking hands. \"I was not expecting the guy who has a herb garden on his window to be a hot bartender.\" \n\n \n\n\"I cook too, the herbs are for that,\" Castiel says fighting a smile. \"I could cook for you sometime if you want?\" \n\n \n\nDean raises an eyebrow, staring Castiel down. He swallows hard, face flushed. Finally dropping Deans hand. \"I'd like that,\" Dean says, grinning. \n\n \n\n\"I've got to get back to work,\" Castiel says sighing in relief. \"Knock at my door tomorrow, around 6ish. I make a mean burger.\" \n\n \n\nDean bites his lip. \"I do like a burger,\" he says watching Castiel’s ass as he goes. \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n \n\nDean comes over, moans at Castiel's cooking and laughs at his collection of board games, mixed in with fencing gear. In the morning he sings \"Your welcome\" in Castiel's shower, Castiel laughing into the pillow after having the best orgasm he's had in years. \n\n \n\n "}
+{"text": "\n“Yuwen Yong’s people called it a “cardiac event,” I’m still waiting on confirmation from the hospital,” Bian Yanmei said, frantically texting in the seat next to Yan Wushi, Yu Shengyan merging into traffic.\n\n\n\nYan Wushi had been on and off the phone since well before sunrise, suppressing misinformation, having his contacts at news outlets push other stories to the forefront, and providing just enough to the press to avoid a complete feeding frenzy. Yuan Xiuxiu was not, strictly speaking, an ally, but they were friendly enough when their interests coincided. Yan Wushi would gut Hehuan given the first opportunity, and he knew Yuan Xiuxiu held similar sentiments about Huanyue, but they were united in their contempt for Sang Jingxing and their need, at present, for Yuwen Yong to stay in his seat of power. Yuan Xiuxiu had enough invested in Qi Corporation and enough sway over their president, Gao Wei, that the disruption in her business caused by political upheaval would be less than ideal, especially with her uncertain control over Hehuan now that she could no longer rely on Sang Jingxing’s support.\n\n\n\nTheir current problem, which Yan Wushi had brought up to Yuwen Yong countless times, was his utter waste of a son.\n\n\n\nYuwen Yun was self-obsessed and untalented; utterly spoiled by an affluent upbringing, he was devoid of any of his father’s vision or restraint, pretending at being filial in the public eye while he spent his leisure time throwing his family’s money at high end debauchery. His very public marriage to Puliuru Jian’s daughter was meant to yoke him to a respectable lifestyle. Instead he bucked it resentfully at every opportunity.\n\n\n\nFrom what Yuan Xiuxiu had pieced together, Yuwen Yun had been a fixture at an establishment operated by Sang Jingxing for months. Evidence of compromising activity had made its way across Yuwen Yong’s desk in the form of blackmail, but what the photos or videos contained was anyone’s guess; no one could find them. This came on the heels of  the announcement of Yuwen Yong’s campaign strategy for reelection next year, focusing on the Premier’s commitment to fairness and his strong moral character. The situation exacerbated Yuwen Yong’s preexisting heart condition, and he was now undergoing a series of tests to determine the best course of action.\n\n\n\nGiven what Yan Wushi knew firsthand of the man’s stubbornness, Yuwen Yong did have a chance, however slight, of recovery. In the meantime, Yan Wushi made contingency plans.\n\n\n\nYuwen Yun was more than aware of what Yan Wushi thought of him, as Yan Wushi had essentially told him to his face on a number of occasions. To allow the Yuwen family’s political reach and financial resources to fall under Yuwen Yun’s control would be more than just a headache for Yan Wushi; years of political maneuvering gone to waste in an instant, and the benefit of the occasional blind eye Yuwen Yong graciously turned toward Yan Wushi’s less above board antics suddenly replaced by a vindictive little shit with a chip on his shoulder.\n\n\n\nYan Wushi’s train of thought was interrupted by a series of insistent push notifications, indicating activity over the last few hours. Swiping away from his messages, he opened another app and looked through his most recent updates.\n\n\n🔵  SQ Baidu search: China Daily\n\n🔵  SQ Baidu search: Banbu\n\n🔵  SQ Baidu search: Yan Wushi\n\n🔵  SQ Baidu search: Yan Wushi Huanyue\n\n🔵  SQ Baidu search: Shen Qiao Xuandu\n\n🔵  SQ Baidu search: Civil Affairs Bureau\n\n🔵  SQ Baidu search: Civil Affairs Bureau Phone\n\n🔵  SQ Voice Call: Civil Affairs Bureau Duration: 47 minutes\n\n🔵  SQ ICBC Account Login\n\n🔵  SQ CMBC Account Login\n\n🔵  SQ Email Account Sign In\n\n🔵  SQ Email Sent. Recipient: [email protected]\n\n🔵  Location Services: Disabled\n\n🔴  Application has been deleted from paired device, please adjust settings to continue\n\n\nYan Wushi raised an eyebrow, smile curling up at the corner of his mouth, a little impressed.\n\n\n\n“Laoban?” Bian Yanmei asked, confused.\n\n\n\n“It’s nothing,” Yan Wushi said, closing his phone and redirecting his attention to the matter at hand.\n\n\n\nOne problem at a time.\n\n\n\n\n\n-\n\n\n \n\n\nShen Qiao cleaned up the glass first, in single minded focus. He made more tea, drank it, mechanically ate breakfast, showered.\n\n\n\nHe moved around the apartment listlessly, standing in front of opened drawers full of his own carefully folded clothes, taking out an article of clothing and then folding it again, abandoning the prospect of packing his things and then returning to it minutes later, trapped in a cycle of confusion and paralysis. He’d taken a suitcase of Yan Wushi’s and hesitated, uncomfortable by the idea of stealing something from him, and then had to sit on the floor for fifteen minutes at the ludicrousness of the concept.\n\n\n\nHe opened his laptop to work, answered a few emails, deleted several hundred more, and closed it again. He wanted to will himself to break down, to cry, something that would lift this feeling of wrongness that had settled into every corner of his being, but he felt trapped, suspended in this strange state of shock.\n\n\n\nYan Wushi was a liar. Yan Wushi was a liar so convincing that some of the things Shen Qiao had imagined through Yan Wushi’s description still felt like real memories, real conversations. His thoughts were a mess of differentiating the last eight months of Yan Wushi’s focused adoration and his willful deception.\n\n\n\nWhat Shen Qiao couldn’t figure out was why?\n\n\n\nHe opened his phone, running cursory internet searches on himself, on Yan Wushi, trying to parse truth from fabrication. He found and disabled the browser plug-ins installed on his phone and deleted some of his apps, checking through articles and news stories, scouring his personal records, credit cards, bank statements and accounts for outside logins from 8 months prior, and started to piece together how Yan Wushi had meticulously built so credible a cover story.\n\n\n\nShen Qiao was an easy mark, he knew. Isolated, career obsessed, stressed beyond his limits, grieving. Lonely, if he was being honest. Yan Wushi had learned everything about him and presented himself as exactly the kind of person Shen Qiao could rely on without question. Never tried to be too perfect, didn’t change to fit some ideal Shen Qiao might have fantasized about. Just planted the idea that Yan Wushi was already the person Shen Qiao had chosen, and Shen Qiao, always accommodating, afraid of hurting someone he loved any more than the trauma of his fall and injuries already must have, had eagerly been taken in.\n\n\n\nIt was clever, really; Yan Wushi himself never professed to being a good man. Had even made it a point of fact that he wasn’t, on multiple occasions. He’d lied to Shen Qiao over countless minutiae, stupid little anecdotal evidence to build what was between them now. Had been controlling him from the beginning, Shen Qiao was certain, for access to inside information on Xuandu. Perhaps even strictly for his own entertainment, because having Shen Qiao make a fool of himself amused him. He had dissected Shen Qiao’s existence before their paths had crossed and pinned him down so thoroughly that fitting himself into the empty spaces in Shen Qiao’s life was neat, nearly seamless.\n\n\n\nBut Xuandu was intact. Shen Qiao’s bank accounts, his investment portfolio, real estate holdings, Qi Fengge’s estate, all easy marks for Yan Wushi to profit from had been left completely untouched.\n\n\n\nEven the physical aspect of this entire affair. Shen Qiao thought back through their more intimate moments as the realization that he’d been the one to initiate everything settled like a stone in his stomach. All of this must be by Yan Wushi’s design, but what was the motive?\n\n\n\nYan Wushi had broken him into fragments and examined every part of him, held him up to the sunlight in a way no one ever had before. The scrutiny, the invasion of privacy, being known by Yan Wushi so intimately; of course he wanted answers, even if the only thing he was left with was ownership over how humiliated he felt. He’d seen glimpses of Yan Wushi treating people with this epicaricacy before, and he had still somehow convinced himself that he was Yan Wushi’s singular exception.\n\n\n\n…What was wrong with him? Why wasn’t he more horrified?\n\n\n\nHe recalled fighting with Yu Ai eight months ago, the memory finally in vivid detail. Their conversation had soured in the car on the drive over and they quietly continued in the alcove outside the restrooms on the rooftop of Banbu. As the argument escalated in volume enough for Shen Qiao to feel it was inappropriate, he had walked away from Yu Ai rather than making a scene.\n\n\n\nHe’d already felt poorly before taking a glass of champagne from a tray to calm his nerves, but it only served to exacerbate the dizzy, nauseous feeling. He couldn’t comprehend the idea that he’d been drugged, then. That Yu Ai, someone he considered family, could be that sort of person.\n\n\n\nKunye had approached and sequestered him to talk more privately about Xuandu’s potential as a publicly traded company. Shen Qiao had shut him down, trying to hide the sweating and disorientation, and attempted to excuse himself. Kunye became belligerent, crowding him against the edge of the balcony, hurling quiet insults and accusations in his face, talking about promises Yu Ai had made about a partnership. Shen Qiao took a step backward, another, reached for anything to steady himself.\n\n\n\nThe railing tipped backward with a scrape of metal on metal, swinging on the hinge of its remaining bolts, and Shen Qiao was in free fall.\n\n\n\nHe twisted in the air, making contact with the brick facade, the friction of his clothes on the rough surface changing his trajectory slightly and sending him spinning. He caught himself on an advertising banner three floors below, long enough to slow his descent, but didn’t have the strength to hold on.\n\n\n\nThree, four more floors. He hit an awning, the fabric collapsing in on impact, and then hit another, several floors directly beneath it. It held, taut enough to bounce him once before he was rolled off by the steep angle. He remembered seeing a car parked in the no parking zone in front of the building, and nothing after that.\n\n\n\nYan Wushi had taken him to a hospital run by people he knew to be discrete, had protected him when he was at his most vulnerable. He’d hidden him from the people who would have taken immediate advantage of his weakness and asked for forgiveness later, allowed him to recover in private, given him the resources to do so at great personal expense. He had been attentive, affectionate even. Those things didn’t feel fake.\n\n\n\nWhy did the liberties Yan Wushi had taken with him feel so different from what Yu Ai had done? Wasn’t their goal the same? Why was it so hard to find forgiveness for Yu Ai, while he was standing in the home of a man who had forged and filed their marriage license while Shen Qiao was comatose, hesitating to end this farce with Yan Wushi as if he was afraid to upset the balance of their life together?\n\n\n\nWhat life together? What did that mean, knowing what he knew now? He had almost- they had almost-\n\n\n\nPart of Shen Qiao still wanted to-\n\n\n\nHe shut down this line of thinking entirely. He needed to pack his things and run. He should hire an army of lawyers, should have Yan Wushi arrested, should take out a restraining order against him.\n\n\n\nHe pulled the cutting board out from under the kitchen island and started slicing vegetables.\n\n\n \n\n\n-\n\n\n \n\n\nYan Wushi’s hand paused on the handle of the door. This would be the first time in a long while that he’d be coming home to an empty apartment, and the reality that he was already so affected by Shen Qiao’s absence irritated him to no end. He couldn’t help but find it convenient that Shen Qiao was the type to extricate himself from Yan Wushi’s life without making a scene. Any longer in his presence and Yan Wushi might have needed an exorcism.\n\n\n\nHe opened the door.\n\n\n\nShen Qiao was standing over the range, prodding at the aubergines he was stir-frying with long metal chopsticks. “I had a little time to cook, so I thought I might try yu xiang qie zi,” he said, meeting Yan Wushi’s gaze from across the room.\n\n\n\nYan Wushi toed off his shoes, hanging up his coat and placing a cake box on the counter next to Shen Qiao on his way by. “You don’t like food that spicy,” Yan Wushi commented, projecting amusement as he shrugged out of his suit jacket and walked into his bedroom to hang it up. He returned to the kitchen, untucking his dress shirt and unbuttoning his cuffs, rolling them to his elbows and undoing his top three buttons.\n\n\n\n“Mn. You enjoy it. I think if I had it more often I could get used to it,” Shen Qiao replied offhandedly, concentrating on the wok.\n\n\n\nYan Wushi leaned his forearms on the marble surface of the countertop, watching as Shen Qiao fussed over their dinner as though nothing out of the ordinary had occurred between last night and this morning.\n\n\n\nYan Wushi was used to being the one who kept people on their toes. He was unused to being the recipient of this kind of behavior, and he didn’t particularly like it. If and when Shen Qiao’s memories returned, he’d been counting on that overdeveloped sense of personal shame to send him running from Yan Wushi. This Shen Qiao was not what he was expecting.\n\n\n\nShen Qiao was aware of what Yan Wushi had done. Even if he hadn’t had it confirmed by his phone, Yan Wushi could feel it in the atmosphere between them, see it in the red rims of Shen Qiao’s eyes and the way he was slightly on edge. His posture and mannerisms had changed, more sure of himself and more guarded, catching Yan Wushi’s notice immediately because he’d studied Shen Qiao so closely for so many months. Shen Qiao obviously saw benefits to playing dumb, and that piqued his interest. If Shen Qiao wanted to pretend everything was fine, then Yan Wushi would play along for now.\n\n\n\nThat didn’t mean he’d make it easy for Shen Qiao.\n\n\n\nHe stood behind Shen Qiao, sliding one arm around his waist. Taking hold of him by the chin and tilting Shen Qiao’s face toward him, Yan Wushi pressed their lips together. Shen Qiao pulled away slightly with a breathy exhale.\n\n\n\nIn a fit of childishness, he chased his mouth, kissing Shen Qiao again, filthy, feeling the tension in Shen Qiao’s arm as he clenched one hand into a fist, before ultimately acquiescing and letting it drop to his side. He gently reached up to hold Yan Wushi’s shoulder as if remembering himself.\n\n\n\nYan Wushi pulled away, waiting for the strike, for the accusations, for the truth to finally boil over and ruin everything it touched. He looked into Shen Qiao’s eyes in anticipation.\n\n\n\nShen Qiao’s expression was open and searching, confusion and helplessness settling into the crease of his brow. He opened his mouth to speak.\n\n\n\nYan Wushi took a breath.\n\n\n\nShen Qiao closed his eyes. “Is everything… alright? With work?” he asked softly. “You were out longer than expected.”\n\n\n\n“…Not an issue with Huanyue, but some troubling developments with Yuwen Yong,” he said, after regarding Shen Qiao for a moment. He moved out of Shen Qiao’s personal space and he resumed cooking, turning off the range and pulling two shallow dishes from an upper cabinet, opening Yan Wushi’s unobtrusive rice cooker and plating out their respective servings.\n\n\n\n“Is he alright?” Shen Qiao asked with genuine concern. He’d coincidentally met Yuwen Yong once on the way out of a doctor’s appointment, and had a favorable impression of the man. “Ah, did you manage to eat lunch today? You left before breakfast,” he recalled. It felt like a hundred years had passed since then.\n\n\n\n“He’ll be going in for surgery sometime this week. We’ll see how it goes,” Yan Wushi said, cocking his head to the side with a smile. “I survived. Yu Shengyan brought me enough coffee to reanimate the dead.”\n\n\n\nShen Qiao made a noise in disapproval, adding an extra serving of vegetables to Yan Wushi’s plate. “Su-yisheng is going to yell at you again.”\n\n\n\nYan Wushi untied the cake box with a laugh. “Su-yisheng is younger than Ah-Qiao and I don’t have nearly as much incentive to listen to him,” he said, sliding a small dessert and two little cakes out on a gold tray. “I was in the neighborhood this morning and picked up that guava & passion fruit tart you like. They weren’t out of the osmanthus cakes this time, I know you wanted to try them.”\n\n\n\nShen Qiao flushed a little. “I never mentioned-”\n\n\n\n“You were looking at the sign in the display case like it hurt your feelings. You didn’t have to.”\n\n\n\nShen Qiao set their dishes on the counter, Yan Wushi stealing a piece of aubergine before either of them sat down, chewing thoughtfully. “…Probably for the best that I stopped. There’s no way Ah-Qiao is going to be able to finish this.”\n\n\n\n“…Is it that spicy?” he asked, a little dismayed.\n\n\n\nYan Wushi picked up a piece and offered it to him. He gave Shen Qiao that expectant look again, like he was bracing himself, before Shen Qiao gingerly took the offered bite.\n\n\n\nHe chewed and then swallowed slowly. “I’ll… manage,” he said as Yan Wushi sat down next to him. \n\n\n\nYan Wushi found the stir-fry to be spiced to his taste level, and he finished his portion without much fuss. Watching Shen Qiao choke down his meal, sweat beading on his forehead in visible distress, was a highly entertaining bonus. Shen Qiao was quiet about his preferences, Yan Wushi had discovered, and would eat things he didn’t like rather than waste food. That was Shen Qiao really, wasn’t it? Graceful acceptance in the face of all the things that wanted to hurt him.\n\n\n\n“I’ll be cleaning up this mess for ages,” Yan Wushi muttered in exasperation as he perused news sites and gossip rags on his tablet after dinner, Shen Qiao in his usual spot tucked into Yan Wushi’s side, reading a book. “Don’t wait up for me,” he said after noticing Shen Qiao yawn for a second time, pressing a kiss to his hair.\n\n\n\n“Mm,” Shen Qiao hummed in agreement. “I should turn in, it’s been a tiring day. …Try to get a little sleep, please,” he requested, pausing to consider it for a moment before kissing the white at Yan Wushi’s temple, stretching and leaving for bed. Yan Wushi watched him go, gaze darkening.\n\n\n\nHours later, he stood over Shen Qiao’s sleeping form, sprawled across Yan Wushi’s pillow. He made an injured sound in his sleep, his face a picture of distress as he was seized by a nightmare, and Yan Wushi leaned in, brushing the hair out of his face, caressing Shen Qiao’s cheek.\n\n\n\n“Lao Yan…” Shen Qiao murmured, still dead to the world, sighing and settling himself deeper into the bedding, looking so soft and so very inviting.\n\n\n\nSomething inside of Yan Wushi howled. He pulled back his hand as if he’d been burned, smothering whatever residual feelings he had left, resentful, and buried them as deep as they could go.\n\n\n\nIn that moment, Yan Wushi hated him.\n\n\n \n\n\n-\n\n\n \n\n\nYan Wushi thought this unbearable tension would last a day, maybe two, before they had it out in a confrontation and he could ruin Shen Qiao and be done with it.\n\n\n\nBy the end of the week, with no fracturing in Shen Qiao’s calm demeanor beyond scrutinizing Yan Wushi with the occasional intensely searching look, the suspense of constantly circling Shen Qiao like a tiger waiting for the opportunity to strike was wearing on his nerves.\n\n\n\nPerhaps Shen Qiao thought that hiding under Yan Wushi’s umbrella of influence to protect himself and his interests was a safer bet than going up against his enemies alone.\n\n\n\n“Do you have an appointment near here?” Shen Qiao asked curiously, looking out the window onto the busy, unfamiliar street.\n\n\n\n“I thought Ah-Qiao might help me with an errand,” Yan Wushi replied, downshifting in the traffic. This part of the city was mostly an entertainment district; densely packed shopping areas stacked on top of clubs and restaurants, taking up multiple floors of the surrounding buildings. They passed by a pay-by-the-hour hotel with animated hearts illuminated on the neon sign and a line of lottery kiosks, and Yan Wushi put on his blinker, pulling the car into a nondescript parking garage, descending several floors before finding an open space.\n\n\n\nShen Qiao felt uneasy and took Yan Wushi by the elbow, holding onto the fabric of his shirt and following him to the underground elevator.\n\n\n\nIt had been a miserable few days for Yan Wushi and Shen Qiao had barely seen him, the man climbing into bed at all hours only to tuck Shen Qiao under his arm and go to sleep.\n\n\n\nNeither of them had broached the topic of that night or the following morning.\n\n\n\nShen Qiao had barely even processed any of it himself. He was hurt and confused, angry, but at least that he’d expected. Being on edge, looking for a confrontation, that seemed natural. He hadn’t considered the grief, mourning little details of a relationship that had never happened. And every time he attempted to work himself up about it, to shatter this horrible unspoken truce they had entered into, he couldn’t help reviewing the entirety of his acquaintance with Yan Wushi with deeply conflicted emotions, losing his nerve and changing the subject.\n\n\n\nThey took the elevator to an unnamed corporate suite on a floor somewhere in the middle of the high-rise, Yan Wushi giving his name to a pretty receptionist who allowed them to bypass the imposing front desk. There were no windows in the hallway, no light beyond the widely spaced brass wall sconces corresponding to each closed door.\n\n\n\n“You haven’t even asked where I’m taking you, Ah-Qiao,” Yan Wushi said, breaking the silence between them.\n\n\n\nShen Qiao had been too lost in his thoughts to pay much attention to their surroundings, and didn’t immediately answer.\n\n\n\nYan Wushi brought them to a stop in front of a door at the end of the hallway, brushing his fingers against Shen Qiao’s cheek, tilting his face up. “How have you survived this long, putting so much faith in people you have no business trusting?”\n\n\n\n“Yan Wushi? What are you-” Shen Qiao said, trying to shrug off his touch.\n\n\n\n“Yan Wushi, Yan Wushi, what happened to Lao Yan?” he asked with a soft laugh. “Ah-Qiao, I’m so… disappointed. You let everyone around you walk all over you, use you in such vile, self serving ways. All I had to do was show the barest interest and you spent eight months eating out of my hand. So starved for affection that you’d settle for Yan Wushi’s? Isn’t it too humiliating to be so desperate?”\n\n\n\nHe pushed open the door, the firm hand on Shen Qiao’s back guiding him into the room in front of them.\n\n\n\nIt was the kind of space furnished by someone with the interior design sensibility of a spy thriller villain. Sitting on top of the glossy black tile flooring, an intimidating marble topped desk with brass accents was centered near the farthest wall from the door, severe modernist furniture surrounding a mahogany coffee table to the left, looking out at a view currently obscured by an automated black out shade. To the right of the room, an enormous bronze replica of Perseus Slaying Medusa sat on a narrow pedestal. Three of the walls were unadorned save for dark wood wainscoting, while the wall behind the desk was taken up entirely by a frankly enormous aquarium housing a two hundred kilogram circling bull shark.\n\n\n\n“Yan Wushi, you have such a way with words. Truly, I’ve missed you,” Sang Jingxing said in an acknowledgement to what he’d overheard, turning his attention away from the aquarium glass in front of him, the water’s movement illuminating his silhouette in cool blue light. He walked toward the desk, taking out two tumblers. Chipping ice from a small bucket and then picking it up with a pair of specialty tongs, he added two cubes to one glass, before pouring two fingers of single malt whiskey into both. He moved the tumbler without ice to the edge of the desk as an unspoken offer to Yan Wushi, keeping the other for himself.\n\n\n\n“I know about your current agreement with Yuan Xiuxiu, but I can’t think of anything I’ve done recently to merit a visit. Unless you’ve finally come to settle the personal score between us…?” Sang Jingxing asked, genuinely curious.\n\n\n\n“Neither,” Yan Wushi replied, using the proprietary hand at the small of Shen Qiao’s back to propel him forward.\n\n\n\n“Is this…” Sang Jingxing said, giving Shen Qiao a dismissive once over. “Supposed to capture my interest somehow?”\n\n\n\n“This is Shen Qiao.”\n\n\n\nSang Jingxing’s eyes narrowed. “Qi Fengge’s…?  From Xuandu Enterprises? …What, did Yan Wushi finally learn how to share his toys?”\n\n\n\nYan Wushi held up the hard drive in his hand. “Qi Fengge’s body of work. Tan Yuanchun was surprisingly forthcoming about it’s contents when he was under the impression I knew where it was. Finished projects, plans, designs, schematics, research, unrealized ideas… And the contents of Xuandu’s entire R&D server. Accounts, itineraries, shipping manifests, parts, confidential suppliers. All of their manufacturing secrets. The sole copy of their next ten years are right here. If you were curious as to why they didn’t have a presence at Canton or Yiwu this year…” Yan Wushi tapped the plastic.\n\n\n\nShen Qiao’s stomach was twisting itself into knots.\n\n\n\n“You want me to extort Xuandu? Yan Wushi, what an appalling suggestion. Criminal activity?” Sang Jingxing said in mock dismay. “I’m an honest business man.”\n\n\n\n“Yu Ai is desperate to take Xuandu public.” Yan Wushi added. “If word got out that they’ve been lying about everything that’s ground to a halt since this went missing, that they have nothing… Xuandu would never recover. They’ll do anything to get this back. Xuandu’s competitors already smell blood in the water. If you’re looking for a buyer, you have options.”\n\n\n\n“Fine, fine,” Sang Jingxing replied, waving a hand. “You have my attention.”\n\n\n\n“More interestingly…” Yan Wushi continued. “You know Hulugu’s been looking for a foot in the door in Shanghai since that lover’s spat with Qi Fengge drove him out of the country twenty years ago. Duan Wenyang and Kunye have already given Xuandu substantial resources. If you were looking for a strong partner and leverage over Xuandu… Duan Wenyang’s door is certainly open.”\n\n\n\nSang Jingxing hummed in consideration. “Now tell me what this has to do with your charming little boytoy.”\n\n\n\nThe corner of Yan Wushi’s mouth twisted into a smile. “Shen Qiao is the only person who can decrypt any of it.”\n\n\n\nSang Jingxing gave Shen Qiao a look that would be pitying if he were capable of it. “Shen Qiao,” he drawled. “Yan Wushi is so fickle, isn’t he? Whatever did you do to end up in a room alone with two wolves like us, and no one to protect you?”\n\n\n\nShen Qiao, eyes closed, gently curled his hands into fists, but didn’t respond.\n\n\n\n“You’ve been so naive, Ah-Qiao,” Yan Wushi said, finally directing his attention toward him. “Yu Ai, Qi Fengge’s friends on the board of directors. Was Qi Fengge’s body even cold before they set their sights on his legacy? Tan Yuanchun, Gu Hengbo… even little Yuan Ying wouldn’t stand up for you in the end.” He pulled Shen Qiao in close, nose brushing against his temple in a pseudo-affectionate gesture. “Yu Ai was right about one thing, if nothing else. Give your stake in Xuandu to me, Ah-Qiao. Transfer your shares, sign over ownership, let me load it up with debt and break it apart in front of them, piece by piece,” he murmured in his ear. “The profits are yours. Minus my consultation fees, of course,” he finished.\n\n\n\n“You…” Shen Qiao laughed lightly, completely sick inside. “Naive? That’s fine, isn’t it? Without gullible people like me, how would Yan Wushi have his fun?”\n\n\n\nYan Wushi laughed. “Ah-Qiao, Ah-Qiao… Principled people like you are so rare. You should have died out with Qi Fengge’s generation. That world doesn’t exist anymore. You’ve been living by rules that were outdated before you even started playing the game.”\n\n\n\nSang Jingxing interrupted. “You’ll forgive me if I think this seems too generous of you, Yan Wushi. It took you a decade to crawl your way out of the hole that Cui Youwang buried you in. You barely survived,” Sang Jingxing reminded him with no little amusement, finishing his drink and rattling the ice in the bottom of the glass.\n\n\n\n“And he didn’t. What a tragedy that must have been for you.” Yan Wushi replied, pleasant, as though he was expressing his condolences.\n\n\n\n“What do I possibly have to offer in return?” Sang Jingxing asked.\n\n\n\n“Taihua,” Yan Wushi replied. “Sign it over to me.”\n\n\n\nSang Jingxing laughed out loud. “Taihua? It’s an empty shell of a company, completely worthless. The last assets were liquidated while our dear mentor was still alive. I’ve only kept up the trademarks to commemorate your humiliation. Yan Wushi, don’t tell me you’ve become sentimental in your old age.”\n\n\n\n“My possessions never stop belonging to me,” Yan Wushi stated. “It’s simply a matter of whether they’re useful enough to hold my present interest.”\n\n\n\nSang Jingxing casually waved a hand in the air, done with the conversation. “I’ll have my office send over the paperwork tomorrow. Poor Shen Qiao, how does it feel to be traded for a senile old man’s useless trash?”\n\n\n\nYan Wushi turned his attention back to Shen Qiao then. “You had fun, didn’t you? Playing house together?” Yan Wushi took his hand, rubbing a thumb over his knuckles. “It’s a shame that I became bored of you so easily. No hard feelings Ah-Qiao. After all,” he said, placing the hard drive in Shen Qiao’s hands and walking toward the door, “it’s just business.”\n\n\n\nThe latch clicked, and Shen Qiao was left alone with Sang Jingxing.\n\n\n \n\n\n-\n\n\n \n\n\nSang Jingxing regarded him for long moments, seeming to enjoy the appraisal of his newest acquisition.\n\n\n\n“Ah, Shen Qiao… a miserable old fuck like Yan Wushi truly doesn’t see your value,” he said, taking a lock of Shen Qiao’s hair and rolling it between his thumb and forefinger. “Join my team. If you play as nicely with me as you did with Yan Wushi… someone as fine as you? I’ll treat you as gently as you deserve.”\n\n\n\nShen Qiao didn’t move from the spot where Yan Wushi had left him, despondent.\n\n\n\nSang Jingxing put an arm around his shoulder. “Shen Qiao…” he murmured, lightly tracing his knuckles down Shen Qiao’s cheek, “I can be nice, or I can be mean, but either way you’re not leaving this building until I have what I want from you. Be a good boy for me, hmm? I don’t want to do this the hard way.”\n\n\n\nShen Qiao looked to the floor with the slightest of nods, Sang Jingxing noted with pleasure, leading him to the computer terminal behind the desk. Shen Qiao sat at the chair and placed the hard drive down gently. Moving Shen Qiao’s hair over one shoulder, Sang Jingxing settled his chin in the crook of Shen Qiao’s neck and shoulder. “Show me.”\n\n\n\nShen Qiao inhaled, calm. “Sang-xiansheng-”\n\n\n\n“Don’t you mean Sang-laoban,” Sang Jingxing breathed against his ear.\n\n\n\n“…Sang-laoban. There are failsafes I soldered inside the case before I closed it, I need a specialty screwdriver to open it and disable them before I can safely upload everything to your server.”\n\n\n\n“Happy to provide,” Sang Jingxing said, shooting off a text before continuing to lay his hands on Shen Qiao’s person. He could see why he’d held Yan Wushi’s interest; the man really was fun to fuck with.\n\n\n\nWithin minutes there was a knock and one of Sang Jingxing’s subordinates passed a small electronics toolkit through the door.\n\n\n\nSang Jingxing resumed hanging all over Shen Qiao as he began his work. Removing four screws, he popped the plastic casing off the hard drive and gently pried off three chips, setting them aside. Extending a small cable, he plugged it into Sang Jingxing’s computer.\n\n\n\nWhen a command screen popped up on the desktop, Shen Qiao began typing.\n\n\n\n“Ah ah, turn off the privacy settings, I want to see,” Sang Jingxing commanded.\n\n\n\nShen Qiao nodded, changing his settings with a few clicks before typing out a long series of letters and numbers.\n\n\n\n“Did you memorize all of this?”\n\n\n\n“The pass code changes by the minute. It’s connected to an equation that corresponds to the date and time; you plug in the time, day, month, and year to their respective places and then solve before the minute changes.” Shen Qiao responded gently, brow furrowed in concentration. “The correct entry is the full question and- ah,” he said, keying in the last few digits and pressing enter. “The answer.”\n\n\n\nThe password protection disappeared, opening a home folder. The only thing in it was a file titled shanhetongbei.exe.\n\n\n\n“Where’s the rest of it,” Sang Jingxing asked, suspicious, as he toyed with the collar of Shen Qiao’s shirt, flicking open the top buttons.\n\n\n\n“Once I execute this command,” Shen Qiao explained placidly, “it will start downloading the permissions to give you access to my private accounts. I’ll need to send you a link through your email to add you to my server.” \n\n\n\nIt took a few minutes to install shanhetongbei.exe, and for Shen Qiao to sign into and out of his own email address and send the files from his cloud server to Sang Jingxing. He moved the chair aside, gesturing to the desktop.\n\n\n\n“Sang-laoban, you have to sign in and click the link.”\n\n\n\nSang Jingxing stepped away from Shen Qiao to complete his instructions.\n\n\n\n“…What is it doing,” he asked, squinting at the screen, where a number of windows were opening and closing, completing the installation. Sang Jingxing attempted to press buttons on the keyboard to get the machine to respond.\n\n\n\nShen Qiao placed the chips he’d taken from the hard drive and the tool kit into his inner jacket pocket, slipping the snake shaped ice pick out of Sang Jingxing’s expensive bar set. “Installing ransomeware across your entire network,” he replied with no inflection, taking the ice pick in his hand and stabbing the exposed circuit board and platters multiple times in succession, hard enough to puncture through the hard drive and chip the marble surface of the desk.\n\n\n\nThe moment between Sang Jingxing’s shock and his understanding was enough time for Shen Qiao.\n\n\n\n“You fucking bitch,” Sang Jingxing snarled, lunging across the desk.\n\n\n\nShen Qiao attempted to dodge, but Sang Jingxing was faster, catching him by the braid and toppling the chair as Sang Jingxing landed two punches to his face. Shen Qiao crawled across the floor, attempting to roll away, but Sang Jingxing had the advantage. Wrapping the braid around his fist, Sang Jingxing slammed his face against the desk, pain exploding across his vision. “Shen Qiao, I warned you about the hard way,” he said, shoving a knee between Shen Qiao’s legs as he struggled underneath Sang Jingxing.\n\n\n\nShen Qiao managed to slide himself off the desk by pushing backward and dropping his weight to one side. Hooking an ankle around Sang Jingxing’s feet, he swept both legs out from under him, sending them both reeling backward to the floor. Shen Qiao landed better this time, scrabbling for purchase on the smooth black tile, but got himself to standing and made it halfway to the door.\n\n\n\nSang Jingxing vaulted the desk and got a hold on the back of his shirt before getting in a few solid hits to the chest. Shen Qiao, already winded, couldn’t block the knee to the stomach that followed, and Sang Jingxing got a hand around his throat, pinning him against the base of the large Perseus statue one handed. “What was your thought process here, Shen Qiao, making yourself worthless to me?” he said smoothly, squeezing his hand and watching Shen Qiao struggle. “That’s always the problem with Yan Wushi’s investments,” he chuckled, leaving behind a streak of blood as he wiped his nose and mouth with the back of his hand. “They depreciate in value so quickly.”\n\n\n\nShen Qiao lifted his leg around Sang Jingxing’s body, kicking out for purchase, only to meet the wall behind him.\n\n\n\n“Yan Wushi appreciates dramatic gestures. I’ll send him one of your hands as a souvenir before I feed the rest of you to Huo Xijing,” he said through clenched teeth, blood and saliva speckling against Shen Qiao’s face.\n\n\n\nShen Qiao balanced his back against the narrow pedestal, placing both feet against the wall and pushing with all of his strength.\n\n\n\nThe base tilted, sending the sculpture on a direct trajectory with the aquarium.\n\n\n\n“No!!” Sang Jingxing shrieked, Shen Qiao hitting the underside of Sang Jingxing’s wrist with an open hand to break the hold on his neck, diving for the front of the desk.\n\n\n\nThe crack of plexiglass was the loudest sound in the room.\n\n\n\nThe tank exploded outward, large, intact shards of acrylic slamming into Sang Jingxing and knocking him into unconsciousness as the water propelled him over the floor.\n\n\n\nThe weight of the marble desk blocked the brunt of the debris, barring some shards that embedded themselves into the arm Shen Qiao had thrown up to protect his face. He was somersaulted across the room, back slamming the door open as thousands of litres of water emptied out into the rest of the suite and escaped through walls and light fixtures to flood the floors directly below.\n\n\n\nShen Qiao’s back was slammed upside down into the wall outside the door by the force of the water, legs in the air, holding his breath until the it receded enough that he could shakily stand on the saturated hall carpet.\n\n\n\nHe limp-jogged down the hallway, soaking wet, coughing and wiping salt water out of his eyes. The receptionist, who was now standing on top of her desk, dumbly watched him stumble out of the suite. Passing a number of Sang Jingxing’s men as shouts sounded from inside the office, he made for the fire escape.\n\n\n\nBypassing the stairs entirely, he swung over the railing and dropped, catching himself on another railing every third floor or so. The adrenaline was overwriting the pain he was feeling at present, but he had no idea how long that would last.\n\n\n\nHis feet hit the concrete floor signifying the lobby level, and he burst out of the emergency door with a slam, drawing attention from office workers walking through to the elevator bank. He tried to act casually, but it was difficult when he was wearing a suit drenched with water, blood from the wounds he’d sustained fighting off Sang Jingxing painting his forehead and left cheek in blooming crimson.\n\n\n\nHe dabbed at his face self consciously with the back of his sleeve. The security desk at least was crowded, fielding angry calls from multiple floors, and Shen Qiao walked by unnoticed, accidentally bumping into a woman with a mumbled apology as he pushed through the front door and made it to the street level.\n\n\n\nBai Rong had been distracted by a strange login request on her phone for the last ten minutes, not noticing the man walking in her direction across the lobby. After they made contact, his apologetic muttering gave her pause. “Was that Shen-lang?” she wondered aloud, whirling around in recognition. He was already gone.\n\n\n \n\n\n-\n\n\n \n\n\nShen Qiao made it two blocks before pulling himself up another fire escape, unlatching the outer door to the second level of a clothing manufacturer’s bulk exports office. Crouching in the stairwell, Shen Qiao popped the case off of his waterlogged phone, peeling two damp thousand renminbi bills out of the back.\n\n\n\nEntering the building, he walked up and down the stacks of containers until he found an unbranded sweatshirt, sneakers and pants in his size, grabbing the first baseball cap and face mask he saw and approaching an administrative desk.\n\n\n\nThe young woman manning it was eating her lunch, startled into dropping her gaifan back into its container. “C-can I help you…?”\n\n\n\nShen Qiao gestured to the items in his arms, peeling off a bill and setting it in front of her. “Is this alright?” he asked softly, trying not to look threatening.\n\n\n\nShe looked at the items, and then at Shen Qiao in disbelief. “Gege, we don’t really do that…”\n\n\n\nShen Qiao gave her a truly pathetic look. “Please…”\n\n\n\nShe looked around to see if anyone was watching, before sliding the bill toward herself and placing it into an open accounts folder in a drawer. “The bathrooms are back that way,” she gestured with a nod.\n\n\n\nShen Qiao bowed his head in thanks and all but sprinted toward the bathrooms, locking himself inside. He cleaned up with an available stack of paper towels, emptying his pockets and laying everything out on the ledge of the sink. Taking a first aid kit from the wall, he plucked the shards of plexi out of his arm and wrapped it in gauze, taping a bandage over where his forehead was still bleeding sluggishly.\n\n\n\nShucking off his clothes into a pile, he pulled on the white joggers and tightened them around his waist, tying it off with a bow. He shoved his feet into the pair of light blue and white sneakers, pulling the pale blue hoodie over his head and attempting to pull it down. Looking in the mirror, he realized he’d taken it from the wrong bin; the ribbed hem ended just above his navel. He tugged at it again in frustration, before looking heavenward and breathing out a heavy sigh.\n\n\n\nHe pulled on the cotton face mask and tucked his hair up into the light blue cap— a sitting moomintroll embroidered across the front with a white bow sewn to the top of the closure— and shoved the rest of his possessions, including the toolkit and somehow Sang Jingxing’s ice pick, into the pockets of the joggers.\n\n\n\nGathering his wet clothes, he nodded at the wide eyed girl behind the desk on his way out, tugging the hoodie down over his stomach again self consciously. He stuck close to crowds and populated areas, head down, recognizing some of Sang Jingxing’s associates talking heatedly on their phones on the sidewalk across the street from a line of taxis.\n\n\n\nShen Qiao dumped his clothes in the trash outside the metro station and loaded up a smart card with cash, shoving the change into the cropped hoodie. Finding an open maintenance door in an isolated part of the tunnel, Shen Qiao slipped his phone between the hinges and pushed, snapping it in half. He tossed half the phone under the tracks and got on the next arriving train, managing to find a space against the wall to lean on in the crowded passenger car. Body shaking, he shoved the other half of the phone under a seat as he folded his arms in on himself and closed his eyes.\n"}
+{"text": "-\n\nFinally, after a full weekend of preparation, a full day of celebration, and a night of dancing, Kara slowly makes her way back to the head table to breathe. Alex and Kelly, looking stunningly beautiful, are swaying close together as the band plays one of the only slow songs of the night so far. Alex is whispering in Kelly's ear, who laughs in response, and Kara can't help but smile at the couple. She nurses her drink, deciding then that this should be her last one of Aldebaran rum before switching to water, and looks around the room. \n\nThe sun went down long ago, and the barn is lit up with white string lights and candles, giving everything a soft, flickering glow. Most people have taken the lull in dancing to take a break, refilling drinks or sitting down for the first time in a few hours. In true Superfriend fashion, the wedding reception has been quite a riot. The band is excellent at keeping everyone out on the floor, playing song after song that has all their friends singing and dancing and drinking to their hearts' content. Now, only a few couples linger around the newlyweds as the band slows down, and Kara can't help but feel a little relief after stepping away. \n\nIt's been a beautiful but exhausting day. She's happy to take five minutes to sit in her seat and simply observe. \n\n\"Now, does alcohol really affect Kryptonians, or have I just assumed you've been a heavyweight all these years?\" \n\nLena approaches from her left, fingers curled delicately around a glass of red wine, and Kara smiles up at her, nodding to the seat next her in invitation. Their shoulders brush as Lena sags into the seat next to her. Lena, for her part, looks just as danced out as Kara, flyaways falling out of her intricate updo and shoes nowhere to be found. \n\nBut Rao, if she isn't stunning. \n\nShe's in a silky red dress that stops mid-calf with a devastating slit up the right side that exposes her smooth alabaster skin as she crosses her legs. Kara blames her inability to stop her eyes from trailing up Lena's figure on the alien alcohol, and promptly ignores the warmth spreading through her system at the sight of her best friend looking like that right in front of her. The thin straps and low neckline expose her collarbone beautifully, and Kara definitely does not follow the movement of her throat when she takes a sip of her drink.\n\nShe clears her throat. \"Human alcohol doesn't affect me, no. But a few alien spirits do, and Alex happened to pull some strings to keep the bar stocked.\" \n\nLena nods and raises an eyebrow. \"So every time we drank wine with our dinner you were just drinking bitter grape juice for fun?\"\n\n\"Hey, I've become a bit of a wine connoisseur over the years,\" Kara defends, tipping her glass towards Lena. She glances down at Lena's drink and adds, \"I do have to confess that I prefer white wine to red.\" She grins mischievously, and Lena scoffs in response. \n\n\"What? After all this time?\" Lena's hand flies to her chest dramatically. \"You wound me, Kara Zor-El.\" \n\nShe feels heat rise to her cheeks at the sound of her real name lilting over Lena's lips. She laughs it off. Must be the rum. \n\nLena breaks into a laugh and bumps her shoulder against Kara, perhaps a little affected by her drinks tonight as well, and Kara is struck yet again by how lucky she is that they can do this. Sit shoulder to shoulder. Laugh together. Joke about her secret. Kara's laughter trickles off. She tears her gaze away from Lena to look back onto the dance floor. \n\nAlex and Kelly are still pressed close, foreheads touching. She loves them, she's happy for them, and yet she can't shake the loneliness that sits deep in her chest. She loves them and envies them all the same. \n\n\"Did I ever thank you for forgiving me?\" Kara asks suddenly, still looking at her sister.\n\nLena jerks her head toward Kara but doesn't respond. The alien alcohol makes her honest, which is definitely dangerous for how much baggage she has buried deep inside her, ready to bubble up at any moment.\n\n\"Because I didn't deserve it, don't deserve it, but I'm grateful. I couldn't have done, well, a lot of things, if I didn't have you. So thank you. For this, being here with me. For me, I mean.\" \n\nKara is still looking at her sister, her married and ridiculously in love sister, when she feels a hand on her knee. She grabs it instinctively.\n\n\"Hey, we could go back and forth on this forever,\" Lena says. Kara stares at their interlocking fingers and swallows thickly. \"I forgave you, you forgave me, and now we're here. We made it out, no more bad guys —\" \n\n\"There's always more bad guys,\" Kara interrupts before she can stop herself, bitterness seeping out into her tone unexpectedly. She takes a big sip of her drink, fighting a cough as it goes down. As she looks back up to Alex and Kelly, she wishes just for a moment that this was their life. Uncomplicated, safe, normal. Just family and friends coming together for a wedding, not a team of superheroes taking one night off from their full-time job of danger. And she could just be the younger sister and maid of honor, not the Kryptonian on the sidelines with no one to grow old with.\n\nTears spring into her eyes, and she clears her throat to cover them up. Too much rum, she thinks to herself. \n\n\"Hey, look at me.\" \n\nShe slowly shifts her gaze to Lena, who's a lot closer than Kara anticipated. Kara can smell the perfume and hairspray mixed with sweat, and her eyes are round with worry and softness, and there's an eyelash under her eye that she desperately wants to brush away, and her thumb is tracing circles on the back of Kara's hand, and her senses are over overwhelmed with Lena, Lena, Lena. She swallows thickly and keeps her eyes focused on Lena's. \n\n\"We're all safe right now. Nxly is gone, we're all here together. It won't last forever, you're right about that.\" Lena squeezes her hand and Kara smiles. \"So let's enjoy the peace while we've got it, yeah?\" \n\nAt that, Kara nods, emotion and alcohol still making her throat tight and vision blurry. Rao, what she would give to feel any resemblance of peace. She sighs and rests her head on Lena's, who shifts even closer to glue her side against the Kryptonian. Kara can feel every inch of contact and wills herself not to react. Their fingers are still interlocked in Kara's lap, and she's hyperaware of the image the two best friends are displaying. \n\nIt's undeniably romantic. \n\nIf Lena notices a few of their friends glancing their way curiously, she doesn't mention it. \n\n\"Does this feel like an ending to you?\" Lena asks suddenly. \n\n\"What do you mean?\" \n\nLena glances down at their hands and back up at the crowd in front of them. More couples are coming back to the dance floor as the slower songs continue, dancing close to each other and smiling while they twirl around on the floor. \n\n\"We've been moving at break-neck speed every single day for months, and now we're . . . Not. I won't wake up early to get to the Tower. I won't stay up late in the lab creating some new tech. I won't be up all night worried about . . .\" She trails off. \n\nKara moves her head to stare at Lena, who looks up at her with wide eyes, like she didn't mean to say that. \n\n\". . . Me.\" Kara finishes. Lena shrugs. \n\n\"I'm always worried about you.\" \n\nKara can't force herself to look away from Lena's intense gaze. She doesn't know how to respond to that. Of course, objectively, she knows the people in her life worry about her safety. Supergirl isn't the safest career she could've chosen. But to hear Lena say it so plainly, that she loses sleep thinking about her, has her frozen to her seat. \n\n\"Dance with me.\" The request bursts out of Kara without a warning, and they both startle backwards just an inch. \n\n\"What?\" \n\n\"Dance with me,\" Kara repeats desperately, and in that moment she realizes she doesn't think she'll survive if Lena says no. \"Please. Before we have to go back to risking our lives for some new bad guy.\" \n\nLena looks down at their hands, out to the dance floor, and back up to Kara. A smile grows on her face and she nods. \"Okay.\" \n\nKara stands and pulls her best friend to her feet. They both kicked their shoes off hours ago, yet Kara still leans a few inches over Lena as they stand impossibly close. Kara pulls Lena behind her as they slowly drift towards the dance floor, nervousness bubbling in her chest. She ignores the clear looks of shock and excitement from their friends in favor of pulling Lena as close to her as possible. Lena's arms snake around Kara to rest on her shoulder blades while Kara places her hands on the small of Lena's back, pulling them as close as physically possible, foreheads touching as they breathe the same air.\n\nThis is new, Kara realizes, and yet it doesn't feel out of place. More like the culmination of everything they've been working towards. The connection they've felt from the day they met has never fizzled out, even when they were fighting. Working together the past few months has been noticeably different. There was always tension in the air when they worked together, as Kara tried to understand the totems and Lena practiced her newly discovered magic. It always felt like just the two of them in a room. A Super and a Luthor. \n\n\"You're right,\" Kara murmurs in Lena's ear. \n\n\"Hmm?\" Lena doesn't lift her head from where it rests against Kara's cheek, eyes closed in contentment. \n\n\"It does feel a bit like an ending.\" \n\nThe worlds melts away and it's just them. Kara and Lena. \n\n\"But I've always been a fan of beginnings.\" \n\nLena pulls back to rest her forehead against Kara's, green eyes bright with tears.\n\n\"Think this could be one as well?\" Lena whispers, looking up at Kara through her eyelashes, an undeniable glimmer of hope in her gaze.\n\n\"I've never wanted anything more.\" \n\nIt's unclear who leans in first, but in the end it doesn't really matter. Lena's hands slide to Kara's neck as their lips come together, and it feels like the world around them lets out a sigh of relief. Lena tastes like tart red wine and something akin to magic and Kara struggles to keep her powers in check to prevent them from floating. \n\nKissing Lena feels like a beginning to something that should have started ages ago. Kissing Lena feels like holding a cup of tea close to her chest and letting the warmth seep through her bones. Kissing Lena feels like the yellow sun dancing on her skin, radiating through her body and renewing her strength. Kara feels a contentment settle in her soul as they come up for air, noses bumping gently as they look up at each other. She blinks a few times as Lena's features come back into focus. The slope of her nose, the eyelash under her eye, the smudge of lipstick on the corner of her mouth. For a moment they just stare at each other. \n\nAnd then, Lena smiles. \n\nShe smiles so radiantly, with that softness reserved only for her, that Kara can't help but lean in and kiss her again. \n\nAnd then she hears the vague sound of clapping. \n\nThey break apart to see Alex and Kelly pointing at them while Nia and Brainy whoop from side of the dance floor. \n\n\"Are you really trying to steal my spotlight at my own wedding?\" Alex shouts, and Kelly elbows her in the ribs playfully.\n\nKara blushes profusely while Lena just shrugs. \n\n\"Can't keep a Luthor out of the limelight that long, Mrs. Danvers,\" Lena jokes back, and then everyone is laughing, and Kara can't stop beaming, can't believe she is so lucky to have a family like this. \n\nThe band catches on to the newfound energy in the room and picks up the pace, and suddenly the dance floor is full and lively again. Everyone is singing and dancing with drinks in their hand and Kara catches a few of her friends tipping their glasses towards her in a toast. She laughs and twirls Lena around to hug her from behind as they sway to the music. She rests her chin on Lena's shoulder, still chuckling a little as she watches Nia reluctantly give Brainy a twenty dollar bill.\n\nAs she catches Alex's gaze from across the floor, full of love and pride for her sister, she holds Lena even tighter. She swears she's never felt more content in her life, holding Lena like this, surrounded by her favorite people in the world. Lena fits into her just right, like they were made for each other, and maybe they were, in some impossible cosmic way. Lena looks up at Kara, smiling so wide it takes her breath away. Kara presses a kiss to her temple. \n\n\"A Super and a Luthor, huh,\" Lena murmurs, eyes closing in contentment. Kara rests her chin on Lena's shoulder again and chuckles, any remaining tension leaving her body as she relaxes against her love. \"Who would've thought?\" \n\nKara smiles. \"Well, I always hoped.\""}
+{"text": "Chapter 24. Alex. (May 2001)\n\nAlex was a member of a Russian trade delegation touring the region looking at various local companies; hubby's being one of them. The delegation was staying at one of the hotels in town and hubby, whose company was among the first to be visited, had arranged for us to meet Alex in the bar that evening. It was apparent from J's excitability that he envisaged more than just a drink!\n\nWhen introduced to Alex I found him to be a really well-built guy, who spoke good English but with a strong guttural accent which I'm certainly not going to attempt to replicate here. I've no idea what hubby had told Alex about us but during the introductions the guy seemed to be undressing me with his eyes.\n\nThe conversation at our table seemed forced and stilted, as though we were waiting for something to happen. Eventually Alex stood up, and holding his hand out to me said, \"Coming?\n\nI looked at hubby and he told me to go ahead and enjoy myself.\n\n\"What about you?\" I asked him.\n\n\"I'll wait here. The delegation will be in the hotel for three nights, so assuming your happy I'll get to watch another night.\"\n\nWell the big Russian took me up to his room and immediately began undressing. For some unaccountable reason I was feeling a bit nervous and uncertain. Should I follow suit or would Alex want to undress me? God he's big though I thought, on seeing the barrel-chested Alex without his shirt. I ran my eyes over his torso, the rippling muscles of his upper arms, while he continued to undress.\n\n\"Oh my god!\" I couldn't prevent the exclamation on seeing Alex's cock.\n\nIt was huge! Most definitely the biggest I'd seen.\n\n\"Big heh, you like?\" He grinned aware from my response that I did.\n\nI was on my knees in a flash, grabbing his thick cock by the root to run my tongue lovingly along its length and round the glans. The big Russian stood grinning down at me, hands on hips and feet apart, while I kissed and licked his cock. It was only when I turned my attention to his equally large and heavy looking balls, licking and kissing them, that Alex began to respond by uttering strange mooing sounds. Turning my attention back to the guy's cock I took it into my mouth with some difficulty.\n\nMy God I'm going to be fucked by this monster I thought, sucking on Alex cock. He was forcing his big cock further into my mouth and my lips felt stretched to breaking but I continued sucking almost desperately at it. Tasting pre-cum I stuck to my task but almost gagged when Alex came, forcing his cock right down my throat to release a thick torrent of cream.\n\nLifting me to my feet, Alex then placed me face down over the end of the bed and pushed my skirt up over my waist. Next he ripped my panties down and as he yanked them off I thought for a minute he was going to mount me straight away. Instead he sat on the floor and pulled my legs backwards onto his shoulders, one each side of his head. I squealed with delight when his tongue bored into my cunt to lap round and round. His hands were on my bottom and I knew instinctively where his fingers were going when I felt them exploring my flesh. As expected a finger drove into my anus while his tongue continued its gorgeous work on my cunt. Sucking at my clitoris, fingers drilling in and out of my anus, Alex brought me to a very noisy and violent orgasm before deftly picking me up to lay me full length on the bed. Then he mounted me.\n\nMy scream of delight when the guy's huge cock powered into me must have been heard the length of the corridor I should think and my ecstatic cries continued to ring out all the time he fucked me, culminating in another gigantic orgasm.\n\nHis cock thrusts continued and Alex pushed my top up before reaching around to unclip my bra, something he accomplished with ease. He seized my bared breasts, sucking and biting at my nipples, while continuing to fuck me lustily.\n\nSuddenly he withdrew, flipped me over and raised me up onto my knees. It all happened in an instant and I barely had time to draw breath before the big cock powered into me again. Grabbing my dancing breasts Alex held on to them while fucking me, this time keeping going until he came, loud grunts breaking from his lips, cock jerking and discharging deep inside me.\n\nRearranging my clothing later I had to search the room for my panties, eventually locating them in the corner but they were torn and not worth putting on. I smoothed my skirt down as best I could but it still remained creased from being bunched up around my waist for so long and it was the first thing hubby commented on when we rejoined him in the bar. I don't know about Alex but I was really thirsty so hubby went off to the bar to fetch drinks for us. A grinning Alex groped and squeezed my thighs under cover of the table while we waited for our drinks. In fact he couldn't keep his hands off me and when we left, having arranged to meet him again tomorrow evening, Alex came out to the car park with us and put his hand up my skirt while J opened the car door. While hubby sat in the car patiently waiting, I stood with legs apart enjoying the feel of Alex fingering my cunt and thinking happily that I'd have his huge cock again tomorrow.\n\nJ wasn't as patient when I told him about the size of Alex's cock though; he could barely contain himself at the prospect of watching me being fucked by such a monster!\n\nWe arrived at the hotel early but Alex soon appeared in the bar and greeted us with a smile. No polite small talk tonight though, we went straight up to his room. This time I began undressing directly we were inside, the guys watching, and Alex slowly taking his own clothes off as he did so. Naked, I sat on the end of Alex bed waiting while he finished undressing and hubby's tense excitement was plain to see as he too watched, eager to see the cock I'd been so fulsome in my praise of. Alex slowly lowered his underpants well aware of the effect he was having. Hubby's mouth dropped open and he leaned forward to the edge of his chair when Alex revealed his mighty organ.\n\n\"Good God!\" Hubby exclaimed standing up. \"You had that inside you yesterday.\"\n\n\"And she will again today.\" Alex smirked.\n\nDirectly I saw his cock I spread my legs without thinking, a sort of automatic response I suppose. Alex bundled hubby aside to get at me, kneeling on the carpet and putting my legs up over his shoulders like yesterday but face up this time. His tongue bored unto my cunt and I lay back on the bed squealing. Again like yesterday I felt Alex's fingers seeking for, and locating my anus to probe inside. Hubby was beside the bed then, cock in hand. He couldn't see everything that Alex was doing to me but had a good idea by my wild and vociferous response.\n\nAfter bringing me to orgasm Alex got to his feet, a big grin spreading across his face when he saw hubby masturbating. However it was J, quickly shedding his trousers and underpants, who suggested a comparison. The guys stood facing one another and the difference in cock size was plain to see, as was hubby's excitement when he realised that Alex cock was more than twice the size of his own.\n\n\"Fuck her, fuck my wife now. Let me see you do it to her!\" J urged, his voice breaking with emotion.\n\nAgain the laughing Alex thrust hubby aside, almost contemptuously this time, before turning towards me. I quickly shuffled backwards until I was full length on the bed and reached out to him, spreading my legs wide as I did so.\n\nThere was something of a swagger about Alex now as lifting my ankles to double them back, he mounted me.\n\n\"Put my cock inside her then husband.\" Alex grinned down at me as he said it.\n\nWith my legs pinned down by his shoulders Alex ran his hands through my hair so I knew the fingers spreading my cunt lips must be hubby's. I felt the fingers guiding Alex cock into me and realised that J must have had to reach between the guys legs to accomplish it. Again Alex looked pleased with himself, his cock sinking deeper inside.\n\n\"Good, now stroke my balls husband while I fuck your wife.\" Alex snapped over his shoulder.\n\nHe was fucking me lustily now, stifling my ecstatic cries with his mouth pressed to mine. J stroked Alex balls the entire time the guy was fucking me and probably contributed to him coming quicker than he might otherwise have done.\n\nWhen it was over Alex stood laughing while hubby masturbated, staring fixedly between my thighs and muttering about how open my cunt looked after the pounding it had received from Alex big cock.\n\n"}
+{"text": "Katsuki woke to a warm body moving under the covers—trailing dual temperature hands across his bare torso and sliding down his boxers.\n\n“Thought I told you to give me back my key.” The only answer Katsuki got was the feeling of wet heat enveloping his cock. He groaned quietly and reached under the covers to fist at silky hair as his length swelled to full hardness. Shouto relaxed, letting the growing thickness press past the cavern of his mouth and deep into his throat—nose still buried in golden curls. \n\nWhen he was sure Katsuki was fully hard he came up for air, sucking on the flushed head as he swirled his tongue and dipped it into the leaking slit. “F-fuck, Icyhot—shit, w-what a way to wake up…” \n\nHe felt a smile against his skin before his cock disappeared again and Shouto went to work bobbing his head as he massaged his sack. Katsuki didn’t even try to stop the low moans that spilled from his lips as his cock was expertly worked. \n\nHe loved how it felt when Shouto took him to the base and rhythmically swallowed, like he was trying to milk Katsuki’s release from him. He was so close, he could feel it in the way his balls tightened, tension building in his core. \n\nShouto went to pull off, but he fisted his hair harder, shoving him down and finally causing the little slut to gag. He was struggling, hands coming up to press at Katsuki’s thighs and legs shaking as saliva poured out from around the thick cock.\n\nWhen he finally realized the struggle was useless, Shouto grabbed Katsuki’s testicles again and  squeezed—causing him to release a started shout. But dammit if he wasn’t a bit of a masochist because the sudden pain had him arching off of the bed, pulling even more roughly at mismatched hair.\n\nShouto’s face was pressed fully against his body as Katsuki filled his throat. He was so lost in his post-orgasmic haze that it took the sudden searing pain of Shouto’s left palm before he was releasing the suffocating villain. \n\nShouto pulled the covers off of himself and shot Katsuki a look that was probably supposed to be intimidating, but lost heat due to his red rimmed eyes and the cum leaking from his nose. \n\n“God I fucking hate you.”\n\n“Yeah, I know Icyhot. Not come sit on my cock like I know you want to.” \n\nHe narrowed his eyes before petulantly wiping his nose on the sheets and climbing on top of Katsuki. Shouto reached around, pulling a long plug out of his ass before sliding it back in. Katsuki watched him fuck himself, eyes closed and brows furrowed. He was biting his lip, working the toy quickly and the sight caused Katsuki’s dick to twitch. \n\nThe fucking brat  would choose to fuck himself like a goddamned tease while there was a perfectly good cock not 12 inches from his greedy little hole. It was all Katsuki could do not to force his cock in alongside the toy, really split him open and make him scream. He had an excess of pent up aggression given that Shouto had fucked up one of his jobs the past week by showing up and trying to kill him before he could take out his mark. \n\nShouto released a lewd moan and the last thread of Katsuki’s patience snapped. He growled low, strong arm coming up to curl around his slim waist as he flipped them. Katsuki slapped a cool hand away and swiftly pulled the toy out of the slut’s ass, causing Shouto to choke on his gasp. \n\nIn one smooth motion, Katsuki buried himself to the hilt inside of his slippery channel—basking in the way Shouto’s ass sucked him in like it was made to be fucked. He was  so fucking tight. It didn’t really help that the toy had been much too slim to emulate Katsuki’s thickness. \n\nHe pulled out quickly, twisting him at the waist and straddling a thigh. He spread Shouto wide, throwing the other leg over his shoulder and using it as leverage to fuck into his narrow passage. Katsuki pulled all the way out with each thrust, watching how the red rim slowly loosened until it was wide open and winking from the continuous assault. \n\nFor his part, Shouto was actually being pretty quiet, taking it like a good, obedient cock sleeve—well Katsuki didn’t want that. He removed his cock and grabbed the discarded toy from the bed, pressing it in to tease the bundle of nerves inside him. He worked the plug swiftly, smirking at the way Shouto grit his teeth, fisting the sheets as he fought the moans threatening to work their way from his throat. \n\n“Fuck—look at you. You’re taking this fake fucking cock so well. Bet your pretty little hole wants more, doesn’t it? Jesus, Icyhot—“ Shouto was slowly losing it, the aggressive stabs at his prostate too much to take. “You want more, don’t you? Want to be ripped apart.” \n\nKatsuki stopped thrusting the plug in favor of lining up and pressing in beside it—spurred on by the scream that finally left Shouto’s lips. When Icyhot finally came untouched it was messy and loud and made the room smell like smoke as he burned a hole in the sheets.\n\nIt wasn’t long before Katsuki came too, pulling out completely and aiming each pump at Shouto’s stretched hole. He stood up, walking into the bathroom and turning on the shower. He was in the middle of brushing his teeth when an annoyed looking half and half bastard came striding into the room. \n\n“Umm—what are you doing?” \n\nKatsuki spit into the sink and made eye contact with Shouto through the mirror. “Bout to take a shower, the fuck’s it look like I’m doing?” \n\n“ It looks  like you’re not planning on fucking me again, which is crazy, right?” \n\nHe rolled his eyes, stepping into the warm spray and wetting his hair. \n\n“ I said, that’s crazy r—“ \n\n“Fuck! I know what you said, you needy bitch. I’ve got plans. Shit to do today.”\n\nShouto slung the shower curtain aside, earning a jump from him. “What plans?”\n\n“Jesus fucking —I’ve got to go see the nerd!” \n\nIcyhot’s look went from questioning to livid in less than the time it took Katsuki to blink the soap out of his eyes. \n\n“Let. Me. Get. This. Straight.”  Well shit.  “You’re choosing to see Izuku,  instead of me?”  \n\n“What the fuck is wrong with you? You know, maybe if you hadn’t fucked up my goddamned job on Thursday, I wouldn’t have to see fucking Deku at all!” \n\nKatsuki was so confused. What was the half and half bastard so pissed for? This was just a fucking truce, it’s not like they even got along. \n\n“But Sundays are  our  days.” Shouto didn’t seem angry anymore. If anything he would say his voice sounded small, almost unsure.  Was he fucking pouting? \n\n“What are you, my fucking girlfriend?” Katsuki punctuated the question by flicking water at him.\n\nShouto wiped his face, leveling him with a seething glare. “Asshole.”\n\n“Spoiled brat.”\n\n“Piece of shit.”\n\n“Princess with daddy issues.”\n\n“PSA for anger management.” \n\n“Fucking multiple personalities having bitch.”\n\n“Well at least my hair doesn’t look like an aborted dandelion.” \n\n“And that bullshit you got going on is better, you fuckin’ Zuko ass candy cane!?” \n\nShouto slid the curtain shut and stormed out of the bathroom, stomping around loudly. Fucking hell, the two of them may have had a truce, but that didn’t stop Icyhot from breaking shit in his apartment. \n\nKatsuki quickly rinsed off, slinging a towel around his hips and racing toward the bedroom. The bed was a mess, Shouto  and the toy suspiciously missing. A loud noise drew his attention and he followed it into the kitchen.\n\nShouto was dressed, banging through cupboards and pulling out a mug when he found them. Katsuki wasn’t sure he’d ever seen someone brew coffee so passive-aggressively. “Is this really such a big fucking deal?” \n\nHalf and half wouldn’t look at him. He kept his back to Katsuki, staring at the coffee pot as it brewed. He rolled his eyes and walked up behind him, cupping his ass and eliciting the sluttiest moan from Shouto.  So that’s where the plug went. \n\n“You fucking jealous, Icyhot? My little whore angry ‘cause I’m choosing to work instead of using you as a cock warmer all day?” Shouto didn’t respond but the way he leaned back into the touch said enough. \n\nKatsuki dropped the towel, sliding his pants past the swell of his ass and running his fingers around the flared base of the toy. The tension left Shouto’s shoulders as Katsuki pulled it out, replacing it swiftly with his cock to ensure that none of his earlier release leaked out. \n\nThe sigh that left his lips at the feeling of being filled again was so damned contented that it caught Katsuki off guard. “Damn, you really fucking needed this—didn’t you?” Shouto nodded quickly, gripping the counter and pressing back into each languid thrust. “Shit—okay baby. If the jealous slut needs my cock, he can have it.” \n\nKatsuki  really had to go see Deku today, but damned if Shouto didn’t know how to get his way. He pressed him into the marble countertop as he moaned, pounding into his used hole with the kind of brutality expected of him. \n\nSex in the kitchen turned into fucking against a wall on the way to the bedroom, which turned into Shouto riding him within an inch of his life; and by the time the half and half bastard was satisfied enough to let Katsuki go see the nerd it was late afternoon. \n\nHe got dressed, grabbing his jacket from the closet and his keys from the counter before turning to see why Shouto was following behind him like a goddamn lost puppy. \n\n“Can I fucking help you with something?” \n\n“Nooope.” He was rocking back and forth on his heels and Katsuki narrowed his eyes.  The fuck was he playing at? Much to his annoyance Shouto followed him the entire way to the League’s stronghold, staying quiet save for a few random comments. Katsuki chose not to acknowledge the clingy fucker, hoping that being ignored would cause him to go away. \n\n“Ah, Kacchan! You made it!” Deku was beaming at him from his desk, situated behind a wall of monitors. “...and Shouchan? What are you doing here?” \n\n“Just keeping Katsuki company.” Shouto sat down on one of the desks. His quiet moan was missed by the nerd, but Katsuki knew the fucking masochist was only sitting to put more pressure on the toy plugging him up.\n\n“Oh that’s right! It’s truce day, isn’t it?” Deku went back to typing, not paying attention to either of them. \n\n“Where’s the fucking file on Yamamoto?” Green eyes widened and the nerd shook his head. “Ahh—no, sorry Kacchan. I gave that job away.”\n\n“You fucking what!?” \n\nDeku gave him an apologetic smile, eyes flickering over to Shouto in the corner. “Well, after Thursday I didn’t think you planned on finishing the job, so I transferred the contract to Hagakure.” \n\nKatsuki could feel his blood boiling. “You didn’t think I’d finish the job!? Who the fuck do you think I am you stupid fucking quirkless goddamned Deku? And to top it off you give it to that fucking John Cena bitch!?”\n\nShouto snorted at the nickname, earning him a warning glare from Katsuki and an affectionate smile from the nerd. \n\n“Listen, I’m sorry Kacchan. If you want I can issue another contract, but if she gets there first then the money goes to her.” \n\n“Like she’s ever gonna be able to get the job done. Tsk.” Katsuki reached out for the new file, yanking it out of Deku’s hand and spinning on his heel to leave. \n\n“Just remember! Yamamoto is a very powerful man and I still haven’t been able to gather much intel about his quirk, so be careful—“\n\n“You—shut the fuck up, I don’t give a shit what quirk he’s got.” Katsuki moved his finger from pointing at Deku to Shouto. “And you—get up, we’re fucking leaving.”\n\nIcyhot obeyed, waving at the nerd as he trailed behind Katsuki. \n\n“Bye Kacchan and Shouchan, try not to kill each other once truce day is over, finding competent contract killers is such a hassle!” \n\nKatsuki ignored him, blasting through the door and making his way out of the maze that was the League’s base.  Fuck, he was pissed. He’d do the job alright, but not before taking out his anger on the very excited,  very willing man with him. \n\nThis time when Shouto followed, he wasn’t annoyed by it, just grateful that he didn’t have to physically drag him. On the way back Katsuki set several alarms for before midnight, he didn’t want to risk another incident like the week before. \n\nThey’d barely made it back through the door before Katsuki was pouncing. The two villains came together in a frenzy of limbs and teeth, stumbling toward the bedroom and discarding clothing as they went. Katsuki silently took back every insult he’d had about Shouto being needy, because in that moment he understood perfectly. \n\nThe sex that morning had been rough and wild and everything it normally was, but  this—this was manic, a feverish collision born from frustration and anger. Shouto was a messed up fucker, everyone knew it. Katsuki could see it in the shift in his personality, the way he went from hot to cold and back again just like his quirk. \n\nIt was no secret that he’d had a fucked up past—daddy  and mommy issues to boot. Most of the time the knowledge pissed Katsuki off. He might be a fucking villain, but he still had some morals, damnit! And that tiny little voice that was his shriveled up conscious told him that he hated Shouto’s parents for what they’d done to him.\n\nThe larger voice in his head, however, was currently thanking every fucking god he could think of, because Katsuki had unparalleled anger issues and Shouto took the abuse  beautifully—begged for it even. \n\nKatsuki ended up confiscating the copied key and kicking Shouto out with forty-one minutes left till midnight. Sure, he could have cut it closer, but he had work to do. Thursday’s plan had taken over a week to work out the logistics of and had been completely fucked over by one petty half and half bitch in less than an hour. \n\nThis plan had to be flawless,  and if he timed it right, he could have the job done and still be able to fuck Shouto’s brains out next Sunday, given that nothing went wrong. But whatever happened, there was one thing Katsuki was certain of.\n\nYamamoto was a deadman."}
+{"text": "\n L.Felix \n\n\n\n| X516.06.13 |\n\n\nGreed had a more practical method of transport which was nice. Felix enjoyed flying, but it was nice to take a car and keep his feet on the ground. \n\n\"So where are we going?\" Felix asked curiously, his eyes looking for anything that might hint where they were heading. They were on a side of town Felix wasn't familiar with though. \n\n\"Just a little shopping spree. There's a few things I wanna get you still.\"\n\n\"You don't have to ge-\"\n\n\"I know, but I want to treat you.\" Greed insisted. \"Once you make a final decision, I want to make sure you're properly provided for. I can't exactly trust my brothers will spoil you like I want to.\" \n\n\n Spoil? Is that really all he wants to do? He basically wants to be a sugar daddy? \n\n\n\"Well...I appreciate the generosity.\" Felix replied, hoping to kind of stay on the other's goodside. \n\nGreed just let out a chuckle. \"I wouldn't really call it generosity if it's more of a personal gain to me.\"\n\n\"And why would that be?\" \n\nGreed shrugged. \"You'll understand if you pick me.\" \n\n\"Let's say, I do end up choosing you...what would that mean?\" Felix asked, wondering if he'd get the same answer as he did from Gluttony. \"What would happen?\"\n\n\"If you chose me then I'd make sure you'd have everything you've ever wanted. We'd be together for all eternity and-\"\n\n\"And what would happen to my friends?\" \n\n\"My brothers would leave their bodies and your friends would return to normal.\" Greed replied. \"I would of course stay and Jisung's soul would...pass on.\" \n\n\n Maybe this really is true then... \n\n\n\"And what would our future look like?\" Felix asked, leaning more to favor the other's wants and desires. If he wanted more answers to more pressing questions then he'd have to be willing to play along. \n\n\"Do you really want to know?\" Greed asked, Felix nodding intently. \"I know you're curious and want answers, but I hope you remember that knowledge has a price. These answers you want will add up if you aren't careful.\" \n\nA numbing tingle at his side reminded Felix of the deep cuts he received after viewing what his friend's witnessed. They weren't the most terrible things but he was sure his skin would always be scarred there. \n\nWould each answer be worth only that much? \n\n\"I will say...you are a top choice on my list to pick. I'm just a little more curious on what our days would look like together.\" Felix tried to persuade, letting his fingers lightly caress the other's hand playfully. Felix wasn't a professional when it came to flirting, but he did have an advantage of knowing how to make his friends flustered. He only hoped the Sins might react the same, though he was doubtful.\n\n\"Oh really...\" The other inquired, a small smile tugging at the corners of his lips. \"Well, let me treat you to a shopping spree without declining anything, and I'll give you an answer.\" \n\nNodding as the Sin parked the car, Felix unbuckled his seatbelt and got out of the vehicle. Greed was already at his side after the blonde closed the door, reaching over to intertwine their fingers as they walked which Felix allowed. \n\n\n Greed might be easier to persuade than I thought... \n\n\n\n If he just wants to buy me stuff than- \n\n\nA pull in the back of his mind stopped his thoughts. \n\n\"Felix?\" It was Jeongin. \"C-Can you hear me?\" \n\n\n Yeah, I can. Is something wrong?  \n\n\n\"I just...the others are resting, and I saw you with Ji-I mean Greed, so I wanted to make sure you're okay.\" Jeongin replied. \"And Chan said he was able to visit you and I just...I wish I could too.\"\n\nFelix found himself smiling. It was rare for the younger to express his worries verbally, so it made Felix wonder just how much stress the other was feeling. \n\n\n I'm doing okay, Jeonginnie. I hope you are too. \n\n\n\"Yeah, I'm doing fine...I guess.\" Jeongin said. \"We're-\"\n\n\"Here.\" Greed stated, extending out a pile of clothes in his arms. Confusion was all the other could show as he tried to remember even walking into and picking stuff out. \"You spaced out again, didn't you?\" \n\n\"Sorry.\"\n\n\"And here I thought you were really going to give me a chance.\" Greed pouted. \n\n\"I am, I just...all these clothes are a little overwhelming.\" Felix lied, hoping it was a decent enough lie. \n\nA mischievous smile grew on the other's face. \"Are you insinuating that you need me to help you?\"\n\nFelix quickly shook his head. \"No, I'll be fine.\" \n\n\"Are you sure?\" \n\nFelix nodded with a weak smile as he entered the dressing room stall. He closed the door behind him and locked the door. It was set in his mind that he wouldn't try on everything but he would humor the other for a bit to continue to act interested. \n\nPulling the white t-shirt over his head, Felix picked up the first shirt in the pile.\n\n\"Lix?\" The connection returned quickly, Felix feeling his head throb a little. \n\n\n Hyunjin? Is Jeongin still there? \n\n\n\"Yeah, he's sleeping now...\" Hyunjin replied. \"I just wanted to apologize for what's happened to you. I feel-\"\n\n\n You don't need to apologize. I know it isn't really you. \n\n\n\n\"But it's still my body. It's still my-\"\n\n\n\n But it's not your intention and it's not you. \n\n\nFelix couldn't express himself enough. Hyunjin was just as much as a victim as he was. They all were. \n\n\"I just...I love you.\" The older confessed. \"I never wanted to hurt you ever but...I was scared. I was scared I'd lose you.\"\n\n\n I love you too, Jinnie. I always will. \n\n\n\n\"I mean it, Felix. I love you...as more than friends. We all do and we just...\"\n\n\nThere was a bit of frustration that Felix could sense growing in the other's tone. \n\n\n I know, I- \n\n\n\"You don't know!\" The other suddenly snapped. \"You have no idea how much it hurt watching you be so cuddly with the others. How much I hated seeing you give attention to anyone else when it wasn't me. Are you that much of an attention whore? I bet you knew exactly what you were doing when...\"\n\nThere was a silence, Felix unable to even form words. Was that really how Hyunjin felt? Did Hyunjin really see Felix that way? \n\nUsing the back of his thumb, Felix wiped away a few tears that slipped down his cheeks. \n\n\"I...I didn't mean that. I don't know what came over me.\" Hyunjin quickly stated. \"I'm sorry. I didn't mean any of that. I...I don't know what's happening. I don't-\"\n\n\n How long?  \n\n\n\n\"What?\"\n\n\n\n How long have you guys liked me? In the romantic sense? \n\n\n\"I'm not sure about the others, but I know it was probably around the same time. After you collapsed from overworking yourself, I knew right then how I really felt.\" Hyunjin admitted. \"I...I'm sorry.\"\n\n\n Don't be.  \n\n\n\n\"This place it's...I think it's doing something to all of us and-\"\n\n\n\"Felix? Are you sure you don't need help?\" Greed asked from the other side of the door. \n\n\"I'm fine.\" Felix replied. \"I was just going through the pile is all. I'm almost done.\"\n\n\"You didn't want to show me any?\" Greed pouted. \n\n\"I'll show you the next one.\" Felix promised, feeling the tug in the back of his mind disappear. Hyunjin was gone. \n\n \n\n\n° ° ° ° ° ° °\n\n\n\n Lust \n\n\n\n| X516.06.13 |\n\n\nIt was boring without Felix around. The Sin liked teasing the blonde, seeing his blush. It was cute. \n\nHis brothers had their chances with the blonde and Lust felt it was his turn. He'd wait for the blonde to return before making a move of his own. \n\nFelix would pick him at the end of all this. Lust was certain.\n\nSmiling to himself, Lust closed his eyes. His powers were manifesting much more now, the Sin confident of what he could do with just one look. His brothers wouldn't stand a chance. \n\n \n\n\n° ° ° ° ° ° °\n\n\n\n L.Felix \n\n\n\n| X516.06.13 |\n\n\nAlmost dropping five of the bags, Felix was glad they were heading to the car. They had spent the whole day at the mall, Greed insisting on buying pretty much anything Felix said he liked or anything Greed loved on the boy. It was more clothes and accessories than Felix knew what to do with. \n\nPutting all twenty plus bags into the trunk of the car, Felix felt thirty pounds lighter. Getting in the passenger side, Felix let out a heavy sigh as he relaxed. \n\nThe sun was setting and Felix was glad the day was almost done, he was ready for bed. \n\n\"Are you ready for that answer now?\" Greed asked, Felix raising a brow. \n\n\"Answer?\"\n\n\"You stuck to our deal by not denying anything I bought for you so I'll give you an answer to that question you wanted. What our future would look like if you picked me.\"\n\n\n Right... \n\n\nFelix had forgotten he asked that. He wanted answers but was that really one he wanted to see?\n\n\"Can I change the question?\" Felix asked curiously, knowing there was a bigger question he wanted an answer too. \n\nGreed pursed his lips for a few seconds, thinking. \n\n\"I guess. I think I know what you're going to ask for so just give me your palm.\" Greed instructed. \"A few of my brothers showed you so I might as well be next, right?\"\n\nTaking one of the keys, Greed let the ridged side cut across the pad of his finger, Felix wincing for him. Blood flowed up to the surface, the Sin reaching over and holding the back of Felix's hand as he let his blood draw out the familiar symbol. \n\n\"See you soon, Lixie.\" Greed winked, drawing one last line before things went dark. \n\nOpening his eyes, Felix wasn't surprised to be in a void of darkness, the chill even colder than last time. He took a step forward, shielding his eyes as the white light consumed him, warming him.\n\nThere was a slight breeze that reached his skin, the air warm. \n\n\"You can open your eyes now.\" Jisung chuckled, Felix slowly letting his eyes peek open. \"Surprise!\" The other cheered quietly as Felix took in the feast in front of him. It all looked so good. \n\n\"I thought we said no surprises this year.\" Felix said, his mouth moving on its own as the words formed without thought. \n\n\"I know, but I couldn't help myself. After you made me like three cakes yesterday for my birthday, I figured I should do something nice too.\" Jisung insisted, his arms wrapping around the other's waist as he rested his chin on the younger's shoulder in a loving back hug. \n\nFelix could feel all the warmth from the past two years in the older's embrace, the blonde trying to piece together what he missed. \n\n\"So you made all this?\" Felix asked, amazed. Some reason he knew the other had never cooking in their two years of dating. \n\n\"Ha, of course not.\" Jisung replied. \"Believe me, I tried, but things weren't quite working out. I even had Minho try to help me, but he even said I was a hopeless case.\"\n\nFelix chuckled, lightly patting the other's head for reassurance. He appreciated the effort. \n\n\"So I ordered from your favorite restaurant and compiled it into a picnic.\" Jisung concluded, removing himself from the other and sitting down on the blanket.\n\n\"Thanks, Jisungie.\" Felix grinned as he sat down beside the older, excited to eat. \n\nJisung wrapped and arm around Felix's waist, keeping the boy close as he reached over for the box of fried chicken. It wasn't exactly the fanciest meal but Felix didn't mind at all. It felt more...natural and intimate this way.\n\n\"I was thinking tomorrow we could have a game night with everyone? I know they wanted to get together this week to celebrate all together.\" Jisung suggested, taking a bite from a piece of chicken first\n\n\"Sounds great to me.\" Felix replied, allowing himself to take a bite from the food Jisung offered. \n\nThe two ate peacefully together, Felix feeling comfortable in the silence between them. Jisung kept an arm around Felix the whole time which was comforting. \n\nFelix continued to eat his share of the food, his attention currently on the water beside him. \n\n\"I've been thinking about this for a while, but I think I'm ready now.\" Jisung began to say, Felix placing down the cup in his hand. It sounded serious and he wanted to give Jisung his undivided attention. \"I know it's only been two years since we started dating, but we've been friends for so much longer. I know the kind of person you are through your good and your bad, and I want to be by your side through it all. I want to spend the rest of my life with you, and I hope you want the same. Lee Felix, will you marry me?\"\n\nThe older opened up a small ring box revealing a gold ring inside. Felix was genuinely shocked, the words unable to leave his mouth. In that instant it was as though all the things he missed out on flooded his memories. All the dates. All the intimate moments they shared. All the laughs, smiles, tears, and arguments. They all came back and the blonde burst into tears. \n\nHe loved Jisung. He could feel it in his heart that he did so genuinely and the older felt the same way. \n\nFelix could only nod as he wiped his tears, Jisung cooing as he wrapped the boy in an embrace.\n\n\"I'll take your tears as a yes?\" Jisung asked with a chuckle, petting the back of Felix's head to try and calm him. \n\n\"Y-yes.\" Felix stuttered, trying to hold back his tears. \"I love you, Jisung.\"\n\n\"I love you too, Lixie.\"\n\nSqueezing his eyes closed Felix suddenly felt cold again, Jisung's arms now gone. Opening his eyes, the blonde found he was in an unfamiliar place...a home. \n\n\"Felix, can you get the door?\" Jisung called down from the upper floor.\n\n\"Yeah, I got it.\" Felix called back, walking over to the front door. He fumbled with the lock before pulling the door open, quickly getting wrapped up in a hug that almost sent him falling to the floor. \n\n\"Happy birthday slash anniversary!\" Hyunjin cheered, squeezing the life out of Felix as the rest of the group tries entering the house around them. \n\n\"Thanks, Hyunjinnie.\" Felix managed to mutter out. \"How have you guys been?\"\n\n\"Bored.\" Seungmin replied, closing the door. \n\n\"Ever since you and Jisung moved away, we don't hang out as often as we used to.\" Chan admitted. \"But we try about once a week.\" \n\n\"Are you saying Felix and I are the life of the party?\" Jisung questioned as he came running down the stairs. \n\n\"I mean, there's only so much fun I can have teasing Seungmin and Hyunjin.\" Minho said. \"I need more variety to work with.\"\n\n\"Then I guess we'll have to visit more often.\" Felix replied with a smile, feeling a little sad to hear they don't hang out often anymore. \n\n\"Space was needed for a while anyway.\" Seungmin admitted. \"I mean, you remember how upset we all got when we found out you guys were engaged.\"\n\nFelix furrowed his brows, the memories not quite there. \n\n\"But we're happy for you both.\" Chan quickly assured. \"Just had to get over the little heartbreak.\"\n\n\"As long as I can still get some brownies, it's all good here.\" Hyunjin stated, walking off towards the kitchen area it seemed. \n\nJisung's hands found Felix's shoulders, his thumbs massaging out the younger's shoulders. \n\n\"Well, there's pizza and stuff in the kitchen so help yourselves. I'll get the game console turned on.\" Jisung announced, the group quickly racing to get to the kitchen before Changbin while Felix and Jisung stayed behind. \n\n\"I thought we said no surprises this year.\" Felix said, his words on autopilot still. \n\n\"I figured this would be a present for the both of us.\" Jisung replied, leaving a kiss on the blonde's shoulder. \"I know how lonely you were without them. I was too.\" \n\nFelix grinned, turning to face his husband. He let their lips meet again, leaving just a peck before embracing the other tightly. \n\n\"Thank you.\"\n\n\"No need to thank me. I love you.\"\n\n\"I love you more.\"\n\n\"And I'd love you both more if you'd keep the PDA to a minimum.\" Minho cut in, both boys turning to see a few of their friends occupying the door frame.\n\n\"So you're saying we can't do this?\" Jisung asked, turning Felix's head and crashing their lips together. The kiss was quickly deepened, Jisung's tongue slipping past Felix's lips as he lightly tugged at the blonde locks. \n\nThe sounds of exaggerated gagging could be heard, Felix pulling away first from Jisung. \n\n\"Wanna mess with them some more?\" Felix whispered, earning a nod from Jisung. \"Then take me...\"\n\nThe world began to fade, Jisung's presence becoming nothing but a cold afterthought as Felix shielded his eyes from the bright light. \n\nOpening his eyes again, Felix was in the place with the altar. It still looked identical to the previous times with the pillars and strange mirrors. \n\nJisung's quiet sobs could be heard echoing around as Felix began to move forward. He wasn't quite sure what to prepare himself to see, but he wasn't that surprised to see his body a bit mangled and bloody. \n\n\"Why did you have to run out like that? Why did you run into the road?\" Jisung muttered angrily. \"Why did I have to...why did I have to be the one that made you upset?\"\n\nLooking to his right, Felix saw Seungmin at the altar, Hyunjin at an altar to the left. \n\n\"I never wanted this. I never wanted to...\" Jisung broke down again, Felix resting his hand on the other's shoulder even though he knew the older wouldn't feel it. \"I'm so sorry. I just wanted you to be happy. I just wanted...\"\n\n\"You wanted to keep him safe. Wanted to protect him.\" Another voice echoed, Felix feeling the pull again. \n\nGripping Jisung's shoulder, Felix hoped it would keep him grounded long enough to at least get more information from what happened next. \n\n\"I can help you with that. I can make it so you never have to lose him like that again.\" The voice continued, Felix's eyelids beginning to grow heavier. \n\n\"He's already gone.\" Jisung cried, sounding disgusted that someone would suggest Felix was alive. \n\n\"He's not. The body you're holding is merely a figment of your imagination. A dream.\" The voice continued. \"The real Felix is still alive. He's looking for you actually.\" \n\nFelix tried hard to fight his conscious state but eventually the pull was too strong. His eyes closed shut and he was enveloped in darkness once again. \n\nShooting awake, Felix let out a whine as the stinging pain near his hip felt ten times worse than the other three. \n\n\"That's what happens when you try to learn more than what you're supposed to know.\" Greed chuckled, dabbing a napkin over the wound to try and collect some of the blood. Felix continued to whimper at the pain, trying not to squirm away too much.  \"But I don't blame you for your curiosity. It's only natural after all. I just hope it doesn't kill you.\" "}
+{"text": "James tries not to think about it. \n\n \n\nIt’s a dangerous thought, at least for the present, and it’s a tricky one to shove down and forget about. Looking at their very young intruder is just like looking at a picture of himself at age fifteen. Except his green eyes. A feature that makes it even more difficult to ignore the thing Sirius insisted on bringing to his attention the entire trek up to the castle. \n\n \n\nHe’s unable to stop his thoughts once they start spiraling. \n\n \n\nHis brain processes the evidence of the kid’s striking appearance so fast, like he’s let go of his broomstick and is free falling through cold, winter air, only to hit the ground with a sudden jolt as the next logical conclusion smacks him in the face. \n\n \n\nFifteen is the right age. \n\n \n\nThat boy - the strange one laying flat on the hospital bed in front of him - he’s fifteen. \n\n \n\n He’s Harry . \n\n \n\nAnd Harry’s come back. Just like Lily always said he would. \n\n \n\nBut James can’t think about it, can’t let that hope well up inside him. \n\n \n\nNot yet. \n\n \n\nHe shakes it away, even while he stares at maybe-Harry, and watches those daring green eyes narrow in on Tom as he enters the room, approaching them both wearing his usual scowl. James can’t say he blames the Headmaster for walking around like a perpetual dark cloud. \n\n \n\nIt’s been a stressful decade of fighting, the war is nowhere near over, and they’re all tired of it. \n\n \n\nTired of this, most specifically. Tired of dueling and interrogating brainwashed kids that should be students wandering around Hogwarts and getting themselves into the safe kind of trouble. \n\n \n\nTheir intruder grips bits of bed sheets between his fingers, and doesn’t look at Tom long before adjusting his gaze back down into his own lap, refusing to make any further eye contact. \n\n \n\n“Right,” says Tom, letting go of a weary sigh. He looks down at the boy, and something flashes across his face. He’s landed on the same conclusion as Sirius. James can tell by the way Tom’s eyes flicker from the boy and back to him, again and again. “Let’s get straight to the point, and then we can all go to bed. What are you doing here? Why has he sent you?” \n\n \n\n“Uh,” says the boy. “Nobody sent me. I - I don’t know how I got here.” \n\n \n\n“You don’t know?” questions Tom, a note of disbelief coloring his voice. “It’s very hard for me to believe you stumbled across the Forbidden Forest and Hogwarts by accident. This castle - “\n\n \n\n“-is protected by many charms, yeah, I know,” he says, irritated. He sounds just like Evan and Prim after being told off by Lily. But  no.  James isn’t thinking about it. “I was in the Department of Mysteries being chased down by  your Death Eaters, then suddenly, I’m in the forest.” \n\n \n\n“And what does Dumbledore want from the Department of Mysteries?” asks Tom, softly, while James is hung up on that term again. Death Eaters. It sends a chill down his spine. \n\n \n\n“Not Dumbledore,” he answers. “It’s you that’s after it, actually.” \n\n \n\n“I have little use for the haphazard work of the Unspeakables,” says Tom, coldly. “Whatever Dumbledore has told you is no doubt another lie to get you to do his bidding. What is your name?”\n\n \n\nIt’s clear the kid doesn’t want to answer. He breaks eye contact with Tom, and refuses to look at him or James, redirecting his stare at the blanket covering his legs once again. \n\n \n\nAnother horrible thought slices through James as the silence settles over the Hospital Wing. It’s entirely possible that this boy is Harry, that he  knows he’s Harry and what that entails, and doesn’t want anything to do with him or Lily. Maybe, he even hates them. \n\n \n\nIt’s just like Dumbledore to manipulate children, and maybe-Harry has had eleven years to be conditioned by a mad man. What sort of  things had Dumbledore taught him to think about people like James? About his own parents? What sort of person had Dumbledore raised his son to be? \n\n \n\n\n No.  \n\n\n \n\nHe’s getting ahead of himself. Again. \n\n \n\n“You’ve met my friend James,” says Tom, a bit impatient. James notices a flash of something dangerous in the kid’s eyes. It’s the same look Lily gets when somebody is threatening someone she loves. “He’s got a very interesting map.” \n\n \n\n“Very interesting,” says James, conversationally, though he’s fighting back dread and nerves. “Very informative.” \n\n \n\n“Finding out who you really are would be as easy as -”\n\n \n\n“-A simple passphrase and the tap of a wand?” asks the kid, cutting off Tom. “Let me guess, something like ‘I solemnly swear I’m up to no good?’” \n\n \n\n“How… how do you know that?” asks James, letting emotion drip into his voice for the first time. \n\n \n\n“Interrogating me isn’t the fun type of mischief, though, is it?” maybe-Harry keeps going, ignoring him. “Someone should let Fr -”\n\n \n\n“-James,” Tom cuts in, and the kid’s voice dies off, as if he had been waiting for a reason to stop talking. Tom’s hand bumps against James’s arm, nudging him towards the double doors of the Hospital Wing. “Let’s step away, shall we? Have a talk privately.” He turns his head, looks at maybe-Harry. “You stay there.” \n\n \n\nMaybe-Harry narrows his eyes, but doesn’t protest them leaving. He keeps a watchful, suspicious eye on them from his hospital bed, and James feels a pang of sympathy. \n\n \n\nFifteen is too young to be a soldier, and it’s sure as hell too young to be a prisoner of war. \n\n \n\n“I think you should let me speak with him,” says Tom, in a low voice. “Alone.” \n\n \n\nJames frowns. \n\n \n\nTom isn’t one to confer with others about his actions before carrying them out. \n\n \n\nUsually, with much annoyance from James’s superiors in the Aurors office and other high-ranking officials in the Ministry, Tom acts without permission, without seeking counsel, or at least, that’s the way it appears from outside the small, separate army that Tom had formed to fight against Dumbledore. \n\n \n\nIf Tom’s seeking his permission to use legilimency on the boy, it can only mean one thing. The thing James is avoiding. \n\n \n\n“And you’re asking because -”\n\n \n\n“-This one is yours,” says Tom. “Don’t live in denial, James. The truth is written all over his face. And his eyes.” \n\n \n\nJames sighs, and lets his shoulders drop their tension. He looks back over at maybe-Harry, who quickly adjusts his gaze to the open window, as if he were trying to pretend he hadn’t been watching them the entire time. \n\n \n\n“I don’t know what any of this means,” admits James, quietly. He’s a mess of mixed emotions. Happiness. Relief. His son is alive, in the room with them, but he belongs to Dumbledore. And nothing in this war, nothing done by Dumbeldore, is an accident. Was the return of his son supposed to be a taunt? A trap? “I don’t know what Dumbledore’s playing at.”  \n\n \n\n“Neither do I,” says Tom, grim. “But Harry can help us shed some light onto it, whether he wants to or not. The situation may not be as grave as it seems.”\n\n \n\nHis missing son’s return shouldn’t be described as grave. \n\n \n\nJames knows this, logically, but he remembers what it was like being an Auror out in the field, dueling with teenagers wearing masks, teenagers fighting for their master Albus Dumbledore. Harry might have been one of those kids. Might still be. \n\n \n\n“He doesn’t seem like the others,” Tom offers, letting his dark eyes drift back over to the boy. “He may be able to be rehabilitated.”\n\n \n\nJames nods, choosing to agree with Tom for the moment, because it’s easier than voicing his doubts. Maybe-Harry hadn’t seemed very keen on offering up any information to James before Tom had entered the room. He hadn’t even told him who or what he’d been running from. \n\n \n\n“There might have been someone else out in the forest,” James tells him. “Sirius and I think he may have been running from someone.” \n\n \n\n“That’s… interesting.” \n\n \n\n“Whoever it was, they’re gone now,” says James.\n\n \n\n“I’ll see what I can find out,” says Tom, leaving James by the door, and re-approaching the boy on the bed. \n\n \n\nJames slips out from the Hospital Wing and steps into the corridor, releasing another deep breath as the door shuts behind him. He doesn’t know how to feel. It’s a miracle shrouded in a dreaded mystery, one James prefers not to investigate but knows he must. \n\n \n\n*\n\n \n\nSirius is waiting for him out in the corridor, leaning against the castle’s wall and watching him with intent. James knows what he’s about to say before he says it. \n\n \n\n“We’ve got to check the map,” he says, for the thousandth time that night, though this time is different. \n\n \n\nThis time James agrees without hesitation. Seeing the truth laid out on the map is, perhaps, the only way he’ll get over his reservations, his reluctance to fully accept that this is happening. \n\n \n\nHe pulls the map from his cloak, taps and says the phrase the kid impossibly knows. He and Sirius huddle together, their heads almost touching as their eyes trail towards the Hospital Wing. It’s spelled out in maroon ink. Two footprints labeled Harry Potter are stationary next to two more labeled Tom Riddle Jr.  \n\n \n\nSomething light and warm washes over James, and for a moment, he allows himself to forget about Dumbledore, about all the complications that have been plaguing his mind since seeing the boy out in the forest. This is what he’s wanted for eleven years. This is what Lily never gave up on, and now it’s happening. \n\n \n\n“I have to tell Lily,” says James, now that the truth has hit him. Now that he’s ready for it.\n\n \n\nSirius is still staring at the map. At the Harry Potter footprints. “Do you think he remembers me? Or any of us?” \n\n \n\n“I don’t know,” says James. \n\n \n\nAdmittedly, he doubts it. \n\n \n\nHarry was only four when he was taken. He probably doesn’t remember any of them. Probably doesn’t know them at all outside of the stories Dumbledore and his followers have told him, if they’ve bothered telling him anything about where he’s come from. \n\n \n\nSirius laughs, sudden and booming and real, like they were teenagers again, like they were roaming the corridors after curfew, playing harmless pranks on the uptight Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Riddle. \n\n \n\n“I can’t believe he’s come back,” says Sirius, still smiling. “And he’s taken out a chunk of the Forbidden Forest as his grand entrance.” \n\n \n\n“Accidentally,” muses James, a soft smile forming. He still can’t figure that one out. How a teenager could accidentally cast a dark curse that powerful without meaning to. “I still like to know what he was doing here in the first place.” \n\n \n\n“Does it matter?” asks Sirius. \n\n \n\nJames wishes it didn’t, but it bugs him, nags at him. He doesn’t want to get Harry back only to lose him a second  time. \n\n \n\n“Maybe he was running away from them,” says Sirius. “Maybe he does remember, and knew coming here was a refuge.” \n\n \n\nBefore James can ponder on that, the doors to the Hospital Wing come open and Headmaster Riddle steps out, a perplexed expression on his face. He doesn’t speak until the doors close again. \n\n \n\n“This is going to be more complicated than I thought,” Tom tells him. James and Sirius wait for him to elaborate. Tom opens his mouth, and shuts it, several times before he settles on the right words. “He thinks he’s from another reality.” \n\n \n\n“What?”\n\n \n\n“One where I’m a homicidal maniac, and don’t have a nose.” \n\n \n\n“Did he at least bring any pictures?” laughs Sirius, which earns him a disapproving glare from Tom. Sirius straightens out, but the humor is still in his voice. “It’s a clever lie-”\n\n \n\n“-he isn’t lying,” says Tom. “He really believes it, or is actually, dare I say, from another reality. I suppose it isn’t impossible.” \n\n \n\n“In his reality,” starts James. “Where are Lily and I?”\n\n \n\n“Dead. Both of you,” says Tom. He turns and looks at Sirius. “You were in prison until recently, which is just about the only part of that world that sounds remotely appealing.” \n\n \n\n“Tom, you don’t actually believe this,” says Sirius, blowing off the jab with an effortlessly elegant smile. “There’s no travel between dimensions. Even the Unspeakables -”\n\n \n\n“-It’s never been done before,” says Tom, with a slight roll of his eyes. “I don’t think it’s very likely. But the boy believes it, and he believes it for a reason. I suspect Dumbeldore’s been messing around with his memories. They’re too blurry and vague for me to make sense of…”\n\n \n\nIt’s unsettling that Tom had been shifting through Harry’s brain, attempting to read his thoughts and his past, more so now that James knows he’s definitely Harry. Though, it’s even more disturbing to think about all the ways Harry’s mind had been violated before now, for him to be so confused and misguided about the world around him. \n\n \n\n“Do you think… Do you think it’s fixable?” asks James. “His memories?”\n\n \n\n“Most things are,” says Tom, brightly. “But we’ll need time to wear him down, and we won’t have any if the Ministry catches wind of us capturing an intruder who managed to break onto school grounds undetected and burned down a part of the forest in the process.” \n\n \n\n“Then we’ll keep him hidden,” says James, without thinking. \n\n \n\nIt isn’t the first time they’ve had to hide captured kids from the Ministry, who rather chuck them into Azkaban than deal with rehabilitating them. They’re criminals, technically, but misguided and young, and nobody really deserves the wrath of the Dementors, especially kids who never had a choice or a chance in the  first place. \n\n \n\n“Lily and I got a spare room in our quarters. He can stay there.” \n\n \n\nThe room had stayed empty since the Potters had permanently moved into the castle. Ever since Lily got a job as a Professor, and James had been assigned as a guard. They never really closed the space in their lives that Harry had left behind, and now, James supposes that it's a good thing that they didn’t. \n\n \n\nTom nods. “He’ll stay a secret. For a few weeks, at least, then Sirius can tell the Ministry he rescued him during a raid. We’ll keep it between us, Lily, and Poppy.”\n\n \n\n“And Remus and Peter,” insists Sirius. \n\n \n\n“And Severus,” says Tom. “Don’t look at me like that, Sirius. He’ll be useful. All three of you need to grow up and get over your childish differences. You’re all on the same side of this war, for Merlin’s sake.” \n\n \n\nJames silently disagrees. \n\n \n\nHe’s willing to work with Snape, just for now, and only because Tom likes and trusts him, but there will never be a time James believes, not even for a millisecond, that Severus Snape is fully on their side. \n\n \n\nFor this, though, it doesn’t. This is something they need to keep hidden from the Ministry of Magic, not from Dumbledore, so James bits his tongue and doesn’t say anything. It’s easier that way, with Tom, who can’t have sense talked into him when it comes to Snape. \n\n \n\n“Fine,” says Sirius. “But if he breathes a word of it, it’s me who’ll be throwing  him into Azkaban, personally.” \n\n \n\n“Noted,” says Tom, through gritted teeth. He releases a frustrated breath, as if he’s a long-suffering parent without a clue as to why his kids can’t get along. As if one of them doesn’t have SPY written across his face. “We won’t be able to leave Harry unsupervised until we’re sure he isn’t dangerous.” \n\n\n\n\n\n“Remus and Peter can help us keep an eye on him,” says James. \n\n \n\n“And I’ll keep him company while you tell Lily,” offers Sirius. It’s confirmed with a nod. There isn’t anyone else James is willing to leave Harry with at the moment. \n\n \n\nSirius disappears into the Hospital Wing, and James forces his legs away from his son, starts towards where Lily is no doubt waiting up for him. Tom stops him one last time. \n\n \n\n“James,” he says. “I know it’s Harry. I know he’s your son, but… we’ve got to be careful. Dumledore - well, the old man’s always got something up his sleeve, doesn’t he?” \n\n \n\n*\n\n \n\nThe living room is lit and warmed up by the fireplace when James arrives home. \n\n \n\nLily’s curled up on the couch, with a book opened, and when she sees him, she smiles, until she looks at him long enough. \n\n \n\n“What’s wrong?” she asks. She sits up, and puts the book face down on the coffee table. “Why does your face look like that? What’s happened?” \n\n \n\nSo, James sits down next to her on the couch, and he takes her warm hands into his cold ones, and he tells her that Harry’s back. That he may be a different Harry, from a different world, but that Tom believes it’s some kind of ruse. \n\n \n\nThat it’s likely Dumbledore had been twisting and distorting Harry’s reality. \n\n \n\nLily listens with a creased forehead, and once James is done explaining the absurdity of the night, the living room is quiet except the crackling of the fire eating away at the logs. \n\n \n\nBut it’s lighter now. The truth. Both of them shouldering it together shines a brighter light on the whole situation. \n\n \n\n“Lily -”\n\n \n\n“-is he tall?” she asks, finally finding words after the shock of what had just been said. “Does he still look like you?” \n\n \n\n“Fortunately for him, yes,” says James. Lily laughs, wipes away a few tears. “But you were right, Lily. You always said we’d get him back.” \n\n \n\nEven as James fell into a depression, and crawled out of it only by accepting that his firstborn was probably dead. That he’d never see him again. But Lily always believed they would. \n\n \n\n“He’s been without us for eleven years,” whispers Lily. “Without any of us, James, he might be so - he must feel so lost. It’s no wonder he believes any of Dumbledore’s lies… I - I need to see him.” \n\n \n\n“Sirius is bringing him,” James tells her, and then explains about their son’s injured leg and that he must stay there as a secret. Nobody can know. “Not even Evan and Prim. At least not right away.” \n\n \n\n“Yeah,” she agrees, softly. “That’s for the best, anyway. Let him adjust before we introduce them all.” \n\n \n\nIt’s a jovial idea. \n\n \n\nOne James never thought would be a reality. All three of his children meeting. His family together and whole, and something warm, like content, spreads in his chest. A dangerous feeling considering all the ways this could go wrong. \n\n \n\nBut it’s as if Lily can read his mind, read the worry seeping into his relief. \n\n \n\n“This is the best night, James, really. It will work. We’re all together again, and that’s all that matters.”\n\n \n\nJames allows himself to think about it. \n\n \n\nAll the ways that this could go right. With Lily’s hands intertwined with his, he believes her, catching a bit of her hope, and with that, he lets himself fall."}
+{"text": "It will come as no surprise at this point in my story that I will state this: I like rooftops.\n\n\n‘As you all know’ narrative device—\n\n\nShut up. That doesn’t apply here.\n\nNot when I’m overlooking my adopted city from my own rooftop, the cold wind of early evening rustling my hair behind me after letting it loose as I grasp the white, metallic railing in front of me with both hands.\n\nThere are a few buildings taller than my own, breaking up the skyline with jutting spires of concrete, steel, and glass, but most of Brockton Bay is below me, particularly when I look down the slope that ends on a beach that should be more of a tourist attraction than it currently is.\n\nEven from here, I can see the sand is too uneven, patches of almost white marred with detritus, and flotsam, surrounded by the brown that was always the natural color of this area and that the local government no longer has the funds to cover with ever diminishing, prettier sand.\n\nIt’s a very Brockton beach: the echo of better times trying to endure as the underlying poverty is laid bare, growing with every day that passes.\n\nIt’s also dirty.\n\n… And probably has quite a few corpses and needles buried in it.\n\nYeah. Very Brockton.\n\nBehind me, the door to the roof opens and closes with that gentle forcefulness that is so quintessentially Taylor as she first throws the door open and then remembers herself and pulls on the handle, accompanying it back so that it closes with a click rather than a crash.\n\nMy girlfriend, everyone: a careful bull in a china shop.\n\nI guess I’m the china in this instance.\n\nOr so it would seem when the gentle tips of her fingers lay on the right side of my back, below my shoulder, near my spine, just… just barely enough that I can feel the reassuring pressure, her presence, through my white jacket.\n\n“Dinah is back with her parents,” she says.\n\nI nod, the wind rustling in my ears when I change the angle, the sea briefly disappearing from my view before I hurry to look back up, to see the unending stretch of blue darkening as it nears the horizon, the shadowed part of a world getting away from the light of the Sun.\n\n“Lisa—”\n\n“Your wording,” I cut her off.\n\nShe pauses. Then she steps near, her palm following her fingers, the pressure increasing.\n\n“Yes?” she says.\n\nI close my eyes. Take a deep breath.\n\n“Back with her parents. Not ‘I escorted her back to her home,’ or ‘She’s safe,’ or even ‘Dinah is still worried about you.’ No, you specified that she’s back with her parents,” I tell her in a clinical summation.\n\n“I did,” she answers with all the detachment of somebody who can hide her feelings in a swarm.\n\n“Which was… a prompt. A non-intrusive way to get me to talk about my parents, except I’m me, and you may as well have screamed what you wanted.”\n\nThe hand leaves my back before it drops on my left shoulder, and Taylor pulls and spins me around until the cylindrical railing digs into my lower back, and I look up into her seafoam green eyes, remembering a young, beautiful woman reading to me from a book with tall, hard covers. Telling me of a mermaid who became seafoam because she didn’t want to hurt anyone, because she had already lost her voice, yet didn’t want to lose her soul.\n\nI wonder what Taylor would’ve done? No. No, I don’t.\n\nBecause I know.\n\n“Sometimes, it’s really hard to be your girlfriend,” she says, still inexpressive even as my chest presses against hers, and I can feel our mingled heartbeats over her immobilized arm.\n\n“Some?” I ask with all the eyebrow arching such a statement merits.\n\n“Yes. Some. Because loving you is… it’s easy, Liz. You’re… you’re light, and wit, and beauty. You’re the kind of girl I never wanted to be, because it was a ridiculously unachievable goal. You’re the main character in a fairy tale, evil dragon included—”\n\n“Coil was—”\n\n“Snakes count. And yes, I realize the irony of me beating the other dragon before meeting you, but I’m still more suited to the role of prince than that of princess, but…” Emotion is now in her voice, reverberating across it, and I stare in fascination at green eyes unveiling yet another thing they kept hidden from me. “But I don’t mind. I no longer mind, Liz, not if it’s you who is the princess.”\n\nShe stops, just looking at me, her free hand gently pinching my chin, redundantly making sure that I can’t look away.\n\nNot from her.\n\n“Yet, sometimes…” I prompt her.\n\nAnd she sighs with a weary, smiling exhalation.\n\n“Sometimes… I know that you know. I know that you get what is hidden behind a gesture or a particular word choice, that you’ll always know. And so, when I try to be indirect, it’s in the labyrinthine fashion of somebody just saying aloud that they’re going to say something and that it should be taken as indirect.”\n\n“Yeah, that sounds about right,” I tell her with my own chagrined smile.\n\n“It usually works. But then, sometimes, you get in a mood, and outright ignore us both knowing that you know. You act out, treating the conversation as something different than intended, just because on the surface it is, and I… I don’t like it when you do that.”\n\nHer fingers are still gentle on my chin. Gentle enough that I can close my eyes and lean forward until my forehead rests on the side of her neck.\n\nAnd the arm wraps around me with trembling, suppressed strength.\n\n“I’m sorry,” I murmur, my breath warming the air trapped between the two of us.\n\n“I know. Or I think I do.”\n\nShe rocks back on her heels, making me sway in an ancient, soothing rhythm that is sometimes found near big, tall books with hard covers and black-and-white engravings of a woman with a fishtail and a lost voice.\n\n“You’re no garden of roses either,” I tell her with something akin to my usual smile.\n\n“Shut up. I’m trying to love you with all my heart at the moment,” she says with…\n\nWith something quintessentially Taylor.\n\nSo I clutch my arms around her waist, keeping her close to me, no longer wanting to feel cold on the open expanse of my top laid bare by my jacket.\n\nThis high? Atop one of the tallest buildings in the city? There are no smells. Nothing but the slight hint of concrete powder being lifted from the gravel roof by the wind sweeping in from the open sea.\n\nI could imagine it reaching us, adding to our slight rocking the sound of gentle, lapping waves, splashes of saltwater comfortingly stinging sun-heated cheeks. I could imagine the two of us floating, surrounded by nothing but blue that becomes darkness below, a bright sky above us.\n\nI could imagine fishtails twinned and a foolish prince being forever forgotten after my lover decided not to give up her own voice.\n\nI…\n\n“I love you. I don’t even have to try, Tay, it’s… It’s like breathing. Something I do. Something I need to do,” I say, still breathing air that flows between us like water through craggy rocks.\n\nHer arm tightens, our chests pressing harder.\n\n“You’ll be all right,” she says, declares, even as she asks.\n\nAnd I…\n\nI slide my cold hands beneath her own jacket, the black blazer I bought her what seems like years ago, the one I deemed suitable for ‘hot college girl Taylor.’\n\nShe doesn’t shiver. I suspect power shenanigans.\n\n“I don’t know how you did it,” I finally say. “Every day, going back, passing by that locker, seeing them. I don’t know how you were able to confront your trigger every day, without rest, when a single visit has left me… like this.”\n\nShe kisses the side of my head, pushing forward through wind-swept hair until her lips meet my scalp.\n\n“I didn’t. Not really. I… I was there. I saw it all, experienced it, but… but I didn’t confront anything. There was… There was this wall between me and the world, Liz, this wall made of daydreams about a life they could not touch, being a hero who was above it all, away. I… I never really thought about… I thought about them. About their cruelty, their monstrosity, the utter pettiness of their entire existence.\n\n“But I didn’t think about me.\n\n“I didn’t think about my wounds.”\n\nI shudder in something that has nothing to do with the chill of the wind coming from the ocean, and I press my cheek against her collarbone.\n\n“Didn’t. In the past,” I tell her, mirroring my earlier picking apart of her statement.\n\nShe… chuckles.\n\n“I… I am with you, Liz. It’s impossible not to be introspective now, even if by proxy,” she condemns me with a smile and another kiss, this one on the side of my forehead.\n\nMy eyes are still tightly shut, the darkness behind my lids maybe redder than that of a deep ocean.\n\nYet Taylor’s voice…\n\nIt’s about right for a mermaid.\n\n“You’re braver than I am,” I whisper.\n\n“That’s not true,” she almost brusquely answers.\n\n“I ran away, Tay. I… I left my home, my family—”\n\n“You left, and that took more courage than it would’ve for many to stay. And then you got here, and… you know what you’ve gone through. I’ve seen you fight with your life on the line, Liz. I’ve seen you offer your life up for me.”\n\nI remember. I remember Taylor bleeding, her life dripping away from me, my fingers only steady through Power’s reassurance that we knew what we were doing, that we could stop death from claiming my love.\n\nAnd I remember standing up, facing Victor, my arm stretched out in an offering, a bargain.\n\nTay wouldn’t have been able to operate on me.\n\nI knew.\n\nYet I forbade myself from thinking about it.\n\n“More cowardice. I feared living without you.”\n\nThe palm lying on my back rises and clutches my hair before pulling back, making me let out an embarrassingly surprised gasp.\n\nAnd then I’m looking yet again at angry, seafoam green eyes.\n\n“Don’t you dare do something like that ever again,” she says.\n\nAnd kisses me.\n\nAnd… It’s the kind of kiss I dreamed about when I was young enough to remember all those tales between hard covers and with engravings rendered in black and white. The kind of kiss girls dream about when they still believe in true love.\n\nIn fairy tales.\n\nIt’s the kind of kiss that burns through you, that consumes you without harming, white ashes being carried by upward drafts of heated air until, amidst the blaze, only something… something purer remains.\n\nSomething worthy of being loved with such intensity and devotion.\n\nI do my best to return it.\n\nI don’t know if I manage.\n\nBut that’s all right: we have a whole life to practice.\n\n***\n\nI love my apartment. It’s the first thing that became mine after I was trapped, and I made it more so with every little touch, with accessories, and furniture, and paint color.\n\nSo I clung stubbornly to it when Victor breached the safety it represented. I claimed, ‘This is mine, and nobody will force me ever again to abandon something of mine.’\n\nFuck you, Panacea.\n\n“I didn’t even realize there were so many of them,” Taylor mutters as her Beelzebubian host crawls, flies, leaps, or is otherwise transported into partitioned, opaque cages.\n\nWith the ease of long practice, I refuse to shudder.\n\n… I admit the jumping spider on Taylor’s shoulder adorably waving at me helps a teensy, tiny bit.\n\nTheir mating habits are horrifying, but, well, that’s nature for you.\n\nAaaand this is a very bad time to ponder just how much mental feedback Tay gets from the creatures psychically linked to her in this allegedly psionics-free world.\n\nRight. Just return the friendly waving to Taylor’s emissary, and go back to carefully choosing which piles of clothes go into the suitcases and which should go back to the closet they were hastily pulled out of before I attacked them into neatly organized stacks on top of my bed. Not because I’m a neat freak or anything, but—\n\n\nExerting control over environment while undergoing stressful—\n\n\nYeah. That. Thanks for ruining the subtext, jackass.\n\n\nZoological unlikelihood of—\n\n\nDon’t make me laugh. My girlfriend already thinks I’m enough of a weirdo after our last vocalized exchange.\n\n\nTaylor Hebert’s propensity to liking behaviors usually categorized as ‘adorkable’—\n\n\nDon’t make me blush, you jerk—Taylor’s hugging me.\n\nFrom behind.\n\nAnd you distracted me.\n\n\nAnthropomorphizing of parahuman interface abilities—\n\n\nI don’t know whether to feel mad or mushy.\n\n“We’ll come back. Soon,” she says as her arm crosses in front of my breasts so she can brush my hair behind my ear to lay a soft, lingering kiss on the outer ridge of it that makes my toes curl before tension leaves my shoulders and I lean back against her.\n\n…\n\nMushy. I’m settling on mushy.\n\n***\n\nOf course, the mushiness only lasts for so long.\n\nIt is, thankfully, replaced by hilarity.\n\n“No. No, please, no,” Brian says, metaphorically paling if not physically.\n\n“Look, I pay you, I pay for your living accommodations, and I know every single one of your darkest secrets. There’s absolutely no reason why being roommates once again could ever lead to something you’ll live to regret,” I calmly tell the broad-shouldered man standing in the open doorway to the former site of Redmond Welding.\n\n“… That must’ve been the most worrisome phrasing you could have come up with on the way here,” he says, showing once again why we worked so well together.\n\n“Not even in the top ten! Now, unless you want a breakdown of my greatest hits, how about lending me a hand with carrying the luggage in before Taylor is too much of a Taylor and does it herself despite still being under hopeless orders to rest from two of the world’s greatest Tinkers?”\n\nBrian’s eyes shoot up as he looks to the back of the hastily rented U-Haul, where, of course, Taylor is struggling to single-handedly dislodge one of my suitcases from the pile, and, being the white knight that he is (heh), he rushes out to help her.\n\nI look at them for a brief moment, at the spark of comradery, at Tay no longer shooting furtive looks at biceps that seem to swim below the short sleeves of his Yale blue shirt (somebody was feeling ambitious—or the color ran out in the washer, one of those two).\n\nSo, with a peaceful look at the two of them arguing over upper body strength, I…\n\nI step back into my former lair.\n\n“Back again?” Rachel asks, rubbing Brutus’ belly as the ecstatic dog wiggles over the floor, rubbing his back on the rough concrete as he struggles between the urges of receiving a vigorous scratching and pleadingly looking at the collar and leash Rachel is taunting him with.\n\n“Yeah. Taylor and I will stay for a few days. Maybe a couple of weeks,” I tell her with a soft, slow smile that I manage to keep at the level where she doesn’t feel threatened.\n\nShe looks at me from where she’s kneeling on the floor, her fingers stopped just below the orange patches of fur at the top of Brutus’ chest, and her eyes meet mine for a stretched period of silence that only breaks with the petulant whining of a dog reclaiming his owner’s attention.\n\n“Good,” she says as she resumes her foremost duty.\n\nAnd I…\n\nWell, she’s not looking at me, so I’m free to smile a bit wider, a bit more like myself, as I start pondering just how to better mess with Alec’s global ranking on Call of Douchery.\n\nAnd with his games. That too.\n\n\n \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n==================\n\n\n\nThis work is a repost of my second oldest fic on \n\n\nQQ\n\n\n, where it can be found up to date except for the next two chapters that are currently only available \n\n\nelsewhere\n\n\n. Unless something drastic happens, it will be updated at a weekly rate until it’s finally over (or my brain is consumed by the eldritch manifestation of the DVB, whichever happens first).\n\n\n\nAlso, I’d like to give a particularly enthusiastic “thank you” to my credited supporters for going above and beyond: Niklarus, Tinkerware, Varosch, and Xalgeon!\n"}
+{"text": "It was the time of year for clothes shopping. Once winter set in and everyone realized how woefully unequipped they were to face the coming onslaught of snow and ice, they flocked to stores to restock on essentials. That, and of course, the holidays were coming. Stede needed a new pair of gloves, and he had promised Mary he would pick up Christmas gifts for Alma and Louis. Ed needed a new pair of work pants. Both of them were sorely lacking in wool socks. \n\nOf course, whenever Ed went clothes shopping with Stede, they never restricted themselves to buying what they needed. “We’ll just have a look around,” Stede would say, before they inevitably walked out with more than they had planned for. More clothes to stuff into their wardrobe, which by now was surely reaching such levels of internal pressure that it would explode at any minute.\n\nEd didn’t mind this so much. It felt nice to pick things out for pleasure during what were supposed to be utilitarian shopping trips. This time, however, he wasn’t having much luck. He thumbed through the clearance rack, stopping every now and then to pull out a potential pair of pants only to get a good look at them and immediately put them back.  Boring, won’t fit, hideous, he thought as he replaced them. Surely there must be something decent available that he wouldn’t have to pay full price for.\n\nHe stopped when he moved the next hanger aside. Someone, whether out of carelessness or as a joke, had hung a skirt up in the men’s section. It was a rather simple garment; black and pleated like it was part of a Catholic school uniform. It probably would have covered him to just above the knee. He should have pushed right by it, but something about the skirt had captured his attention. There was an itch in his hands, a compulsive tingle that told him to grab the skirt, feel the fabric, imagine himself in it.  Try it on, something in him urged.\n\nEd looked up. Stede was still looking over the shirts, carefully searching through them to find a color and texture combination that he might actually like. There was probably no other task that Stede approached with such single mindedness. Stede was so wrapped up in it, Ed was sure that he could slip away to try the skirt on and Stede wouldn’t even notice. He could put it on, ask Stede what he thought, and then they would laugh about how ridiculous he looked.\n\nHe snuck off to the dressing room without a word.\n\nHe toed out of his shoes and shucked off his pants. He took the skirt off the hanger, looked at it, and briefly thought for a moment,  man, what am I doing? before he went ahead with the whole charade. \n\nHe stepped into the skirt and slid it up his body, feeling the pleats drag over his leg hair. When he got the thing up to his waist, he did up the zipper on his hip and turned to consider himself in the mirror.\n\nHe supposed it wasn’t that much different from wearing shorts, length-wise. It was quite a bit looser, and there was the space of air moving between his legs, but he didn’t really mind that. It was cool and pleasant. He did a little turn, felt the pleats of the skirt lift away and spread around him like petals. He felt a delightful little  woosh  of air against his bare legs.\n\nEd giggled, a quick little laugh that bubbled out of him unbidden. Stede would probably tell him he was being silly. \n\nWhen he came out of the changing room, Stede was still bent over the rack, diligently picking through the shirts.\n\n“What do you think?” Ed asked. He struck a pose, putting one hand on his hip and the other behind his head.\n\nStede turned around, smiling. “What’s that, darling?” He asked, and froze when he saw what Ed was wearing.\n\nEd laughed at Stede’s mildly shocked expression. He expected that Stede would recover and eventually laugh with him, but he didn’t. Stede just stared, and at first Ed was unnerved. Did Stede hate the skirt that much? But then Stede started looking him up and down in the middle of the department store like a goddamned meal, and Ed felt a sudden heat in his cheeks. When Stede stepped towards him, Ed saw his eyes were dark, his pupils wide and hungry.\n\n“Like that, do you?” Stede asked, voice low.\n\nEd did a little  swish  with his hips. “I’m thinking about getting it.” He said, rather enjoying the blush in Stede’s face.\n\n“Oh, you’re definitely getting it,” Stede said. He grabbed Ed’s wrist and pulled him back towards the changing room.\n\n“Where are you going, love?” Ed asked.\n\n“Oh, I saw a button was loose on your skirt,” Stede explained, voice breathy, as he pulled Ed into the stall. “I’m going to help you with it.”\n\n“I don’t think this skirt has buttons, love.” Ed teased.\n\nStede answered by pushing him up against the door. Stede kissed him roughly, running his hands over Ed’s pecs down his torso to his legs, pushing under the skirt and grabbing the bare flesh of Ed’s thighs. It was the same way Stede kissed him when he had been traveling for work and they hadn’t seen each other for a week, like he needed Ed more than air to breathe or water to drink.\n\n“You’re so fucking sexy in this,” Stede growled into his mouth, gripping the hem of the skirt in his fist. “I  need  to fuck you in it.”\n\n“Right now?” Ed asked. \n\n“I thought about taking you home first, but honestly I can’t wait that long.”\n\nEd was pretty sure it wasn’t the best etiquette to fuck people in the dressing room at your local department store. That being said, Stede’s mouth was blistering warm and wet against his, and Stede was rubbing his cock through the fabric of his underwear. Plus, Ed had to admit that he loved the way the skirt felt and it was honestly kind of doing it for him. He kissed Stede back. “Fuck it, let’s do it,” he told him.\n\nStede knelt, kissing down Ed’s body as went. Ed felt Stede’s hands under his skirt, pulling Ed’s boxer briefs down to his ankles. Ed whimpered when he felt Stede’s hand close around his rapidly hardening cock, rubbing his thumb over the head. Ed had to actively stop himself from moaning when Stede burrowed under the skirt and took Ed’s cock in his mouth, licking him from base to tip before enveloping him completely.\n\nHe imagined wearing the skirt at home. It would be so much easier for Stede to suck him off. No messing with buttons or zippers, no pulling pants down. Ed could just spread his legs, open and aching, and Stede would be there, ducking under the skirt and sucking Ed’s cock whenever he wanted. He imagined Stede in a skirt of his own, so he could return the favor.\n\nEd bit his lip as Stede began to bob his head. Sometimes he would stop at the tip and swirl his tongue or lap at Ed’s slit, and Ed would have to bite the back of his hand to ensure that some poor department store employee wouldn’t have to hear him moaning like an overly dramatic porn star. His other hand would be in Stede’s hair, tight in those golden curls and holding on for dear life. When Ed hit the back of Stede’s throat, he cried out and wrapped one of his legs around the back of Stede’s head, the edge of an orgasm drawing dangerously near.\n\nEd got his breathing under control and kept himself from coming, tortuous though it was. He pulled the skirt back, far enough so he could see Stede’s face again. “Fuck me, I want to come on your cock,” he panted.\n\nStede was up in an instant, pulling Ed’s shirt off of him and kissing his neck and bare chest. “God, I love the sound of that,” he groaned, biting down on Ed’s neck. Ed wanted to ask him to bite harder, but he also understood that it might look a tad odd if he walked out of the store with a new array of splotchy purple bruises on display.\n\nSuddenly Ed’s face was up against the door, and Stede had rucked up the skirt, exposing Ed’s bare ass to the cool air. Ed felt slick fingers slide between his cheeks, moving over his hole in rapid circles.\n\n“What the fuck, do you have lube on you?” Ed asked.  \n\n“I keep a little bottle on my person for emergency purposes when we go out.” Stede said, voice casual as if he was doing anything other than sliding a first finger into Ed.\n\n“Oh, so you were planning on fucking me in Macy’s today?”\n\n“No, darling,  that  was a happy accident. I just like to make sure I’m always prepared.” Stede was working in and out of him now, spreading him open. Ed felt Stede’s hand splay on his back, holding him against the door while Stede fucked into him with his fingers. Ed tried to stifle his moans as Stede curled his finger, added a second. He was positive it wasn’t working.\n\nEd heard the clink of a belt buckle and the zipper of Stede’s trousers. That was all the undressing Stede could be bothered to do before his attention was back on Ed. Knowing Stede was still almost entirely clothed while Ed was left in nothing but his skirt, that Stede wanted him so badly that getting completely undressed was a distraction, it sent a bolt of pleasure right to his cock.\n\n“Look at you, love,” Stede breathed, gripping Ed’s ass and spreading him wide. “You’re so pretty in your skirt for me.” \n\nEd felt the heat of Stede’s cock bumping against his hole before sliding in, slow and heavy and raw. \n\n“Fuck,” Ed gasped. “Call me that again.” \n\n“What, ‘pretty?’” Stede asked as he began to thrust.\n\n“ Yes. ”\n\n“Oh, my darling Ed, you’re so pretty.” Ed felt Stede grip his ponytail and pull. \n\n“So pretty with your hair up high, so pretty with my cock in your ass, my pretty girl.” Stede snapped his hips forward, punctuating the last word by hitting Ed’s prostate and making Ed whine. They were being much too loud, certainly someone was going to hear them, but at this moment the only thing Ed could bring himself to care about was how Stede’s words made his entire body pulse with pleasure.\n\nStede pressed up against his back, his mouth right up against Ed’s ear. Stede was breathing hard, and his voice was hoarse with need. “I bet you’ll be even prettier with my come in your mouth,” he growled into Ed’s ear.\n\n“ Fuck! ” Ed was amazed he didn’t come then and there, but he was getting close again. He wrapped part of the skirt around his cock and began to jerk himself off, relishing in the slight burn of the coarse fabric against his hot, sensitive flesh.\n\nStede kept talking as he thrust into Ed. Where Stede found the stamina to do so, Ed would never know. He was amazed he was coherent enough to hear Stede’s words at all, given the delicious way that Stede was hitting his prostate.\n\n“I must say, darling, if you wear one of these around the house, I won’t be held responsible for my actions.”\n\n“Oh really?”\n\n“Really. You’re so easily accessible like this. The moment you bend over, I’m done for.” Stede’s fingers were digging into his hips, and as much as Ed tried to stifle his moans, the slap of skin on skin was deafening.\n\n“Maybe we ought to get you some pretty panties to wear under your skirt, hm? Or maybe a pretty new plug with a jewel on the end. Pretty accessories for my pretty Ed.”\n\n“Stede,” Ed whined, desperate and so close.\n\n“My pretty, perfect, amazing Ed.”\n\n“I’m gonna-”\n\n“Come for me, darling.” Stede said, and kissed the back of his neck.\n\nA moan was ripped from Ed as he came into the fabric, soiling his skirt. It was a good thing it was black.\n\n“Yes, darling, that’s it.” Stede moaned. “Oh, I’m close-”\n\n“Pull out,” Ed told him.\n\nWhen Stede withdrew completely, Ed spun around and sank to his knees, marveling that his orgasm had left him with enough fine motor skills to allow him to do so without falling over. He gripped the base of Stede’s cock and sucked him into his mouth. It only took a few bobs of his head for Stede to tip his head back towards the sky and fill Ed’s mouth with a silent scream.\n\nEd sat back and waited for Stede to catch his breath. When he saw he had regained Stede’s attention, he opened his mouth to show off Stede’s come.\n\n“Fuck,” Stede breathed.\n\nEd swallowed.  “How did I look? Prettier than you expected?” \n\n“Darling, if I were a younger man, I would have you up against the wall right now.”\n\nEd smirked. “Maybe you’ll recover by the time we get home.” He looked down at his skirt, saw a faint wet patch from his come and felt the stickiness from inside. “Well, I guess we have to get it now.”\n\n“Oh, most certainly,” Stede agreed. “I’ll get you a second one too, though. You deserve to have more than just a stained skirt.”\n\n“It’s probably going to get stained anyway, mate. Stains kind of tend to happen when we fuck.”\n\n“Well, you can keep the stained one for fucking, and the clean one for everyday wear,” Stede said.\n\n“Really? You won’t think it’s weird if I wear one?”\n\n“Why would I?” Stede helped Ed get to his feet. He kissed him gently, once on the lips and once on the nose. “If you like it, you should get it. I think it makes you look rather dashing.”\n\nSome part of Ed was still expecting Stede to be joking, that this was all a fun game to initiate a very daring round of sex, but when he looked in Stede’s eyes all he saw was earnestness and warmth. Ed smiled, kissed him back. “Alright,” he said. “I’ll get it.”\n\nStede beamed at him. “Wonderful, I know you’ll look just lovely.”\n\n“But you can’t just bend me over wherever you want when I wear one. Only when I wear the sex skirt.”\n\n“That will be quite an arduous task,” Stede said gravely, “but I’ll try to manage it. Now come on, let’s get out of here before they call security on us.”"}
+{"text": "\n\"Peter!\" Yondu yelled from somewhere below deck, probably in the boarding port of the ravager ship. Peter scurried down to him, it didn't take long to find him. Peter had spent the last four years learning every crevice of this ship, he had even found a small bay, more like an empty space probably used to hide contraband that Yondu hadn't noticed when he stole the ship all those years ago. Peter decked out his little space, calling it his 'hideout' (he thought it sounded cool). It was accessed through the floor of the pantry in the kitchen. The floor opens to a little space only about 2ft by 2ft, but that's just a decoy. Hidden under the floor of that space was a ladder that leads to the hideout. All of that means one thing, it's a miracle that Peter had gotten a couch, three blasters, and various other objects Yondu has been looking for for months down there without anyone noticing. It's practically impossible but hey, Peter was King of the impossible. That whole impossibility thing was the whole reason Yondu had called him down.\n\n\"What's up, Yondu,\" Peter said, trotting in front of him, a smaller ship behind Yondu being filled up with fuel. It was the ship Yondu regularly used on missions that required more stealth or just random adventures that required fewer men. Peter was really hoping it was the former, he had only been on little trips. Catch some guy, steal more fuel, get groceries. It's not fun, but Peter was 12 now! He could handle a big mission, Yondu said it himself 'you're skinny, good for thieving'. But maybe Yondu was lying since he had yet to take him on a mission that requires any thieving, only point and shoots.\n\n\"My boy, I need a bit of a hand on the next one,\" He said, placing a hand on his shoulder, Kraglin watching the whole thing, \"There's a vault, one with walls that none of my boys can crack. You thinking' you can bust it down?\" Yondu was asking, but he was already loading Peter into the ship and tossing some spare supplies in. Everyone in the crew had a healthy respect for a hungry Quill, ever since that incident with 'Peter's special freezer' being unplugged, and they choose to avoid that to the best of their ability. So more supplied where added.\n\n\"I can crack It, let's go-\" Peter looked back at Yondu, quirking an eyebrow and crossing his arms in that odd manner only a kid could do, \"You said I can't use my powers,\"\n\n\"This is an exception, kid,\" Yondu said, patting him on the head as they boarded the ship, \"Only use them in emergencies, or if I tell ya you can. If word gets out I think it might be a bit more difficult for us to get around,\" Peter nodded than ran up to the co-pilot's seat. With a glance from Kraglin, he trotted out of the seat and into one of the back rooms that had the best views of the stars. \n\nTime for his first mission\n\nAfter the first one, each mission came more often. Most of them were actually utilizing his natural thieving skill, a few had required a hand from his kagune. At the age of 15 Yondu had given him a bit more leash. Letting him choose which missions he partook in, even starting a few of his own (with the addition of a few trusted crew members). One of those missions led to him acquiring a ship he named the Milano that he stole from a very uptight criminal. Peter loved that ship like a baby, forgoing his usual time spent in the hideout for his ship. When he was 20 his ship was one of the best ships in the reachable galaxy if he did say so himself. It even had a second 'special cooler' filled with various alien meats. All of them perfectly organized by color in terms of taste. Naming the packets 'Kree bicep' might have been off-putting to any toll booth inspector to happen by. He was actually quite proud of his spectrum of meats, he was like a ghoul chef. It was almost impossible to find an alien he hadn't yet sampled, but there was still more galaxy he hadn't seen and he was excited to see the rest of it. So he kept thieving\n\nAt 25 and 2/5 he had run into a bit of a snag. That snag being some idiot not telling the crew Yondu had set up that the fricken building was being monitored by the Nova Corps! What were the million units in weaponry worth if a third of the ravager team got caught doing it. That was what Peter was thinking as the platoon of Nova corps approached. He was running out of options. He and his comrades had been forced to drop their weapons. Handcuffs were approaching quickly. A life behind bars, starving to death, was approaching quickly. This was an emergency. There was only one thing he could do. \n\nHis eyes turned back, all the ravagers around him pailing at the site and leaning away. They had all seen portions of the carnage he could do and they weren't too keen on getting in the away.\n\nWithin a minute 30 Nova corps officers where dead. On the good side, Peter got to figure out what a new alien species tasted like. For the record, Xandarians tasted slightly sweet.\n\nOn the bad side, a bounty of about 100k units was now on Peter's head along with a picture of his appearance being sent out across the whole entire Andromeda Galaxy. \n\nAfter another five years, his taste for treasure and blood had become well-known throughout both most intergalactic police force and the underbelly of the space. His name was whispered in fear or awe. Officers were trained on how to detain him and cells where made in some of the larger prisons just in case after his first escape. After that, another 100k was added to the bounty and it kept growing. Yondu gave him a clap on the back each time units where added, telling him someday he might reach the million Units Yondu has if he got lucky. Peter would laugh and say someday he'd double it."}
+{"text": "“You’re working with Silas?” Elena asked, disbelief coloring her voice. Her dark brown eyes flicked between the two. “Bonnie, he killed  Jeremy .”\n\n“‘Bonnie, he killed Jeremy,’”  Silas mimicked, rolling his eyes. “Please. Do you even hear yourself? So whiny? So nasally? Save you fake moral outrage for someone who cares.”\n\nElena glared at him. “You’re a monster.”\n\n“Well, duh,” Silas countered. “So’s your boyfriend. So are you. Or have you forgotten that?”\n\nElena shook her head, disgust curling her lip. “We’re nothing like you.”\n\n“Agreed,” Silas replied easily. “You’re so much worse. Sure, I’m an evil bastard, but at least I admit it. I don’t go around pretending to be something I’m not. While you, dear doppelganger, live in some delusional fantasy where you never switched off, never attacked people that you claim to care about, and never murdered an innocent waitress just to to prove a point. And let’s not forget that  Signor Salvatore  over there not only murdered Bonnie’s mother, but he also caused the death of her beloved Grams, and systematically raped and tormented one of your so-called  best  friends. Not to mention the  countless times he’s betrayed his own brother. And for what? A woman? Women? Honestly it’s hard to tell if it’s you he’s hung up on or Katherine. Kind of murky in there.” He tapped his index finger to his temple.\n\n“Back off,” Damon snapped, moving in front of Elena, his shoulders drawn back. “All that shit, it’s in the past.”\n\n“Ah, Damon. So eager to play the hero. Even though everyone here knows that’s not your role, is it? Nobility was never your strong suit. It’s not a good look on you.” Silas leaned forward, lowering his voice. “Besides, you don’t have the hair for it.” He cocked his head a bit, turning towards Stefan. “Speaking of people pretending to be something they're not– do you have any commentary on Bonnie’s choice of allies here, Ripper?”\n\nStefan shrugged, placid despite the taunts. “You’re a dick, but that’s not her fault.”\n\n“But that is her type,” Silas responded with a grin. “Something Bonnie has in common with her  besties . Each one of them is a sucker for a bad boy, right ladies? Hell, you even shared some of them.” He flashed a grin, gesturing towards them conspiratorially, turning to face Bonnie.“Wanna compare notes with Caroline?”\n\n“If there is a point to your being here, I suggest you get to it.” Klaus interjected sharply, stepping forward. This was a conversation not worth having, in his opinion.\n\n“What’s the matter, hybrid? Afraid of a little gossip?” Silas tipped his head. “It’s not a secret anymore, is it? I mean Tyler already knows about you and Caroline. Caroline now knows about you and Bonnie. Elena tapped danced all over the brothers and Damon has dipped his wick in just about everyone in Mystic Falls. I, for one, am dying to get the juicy details on which one of you is the better lover. My money’s on Stefan…he is my doppelganger, after all, so here’s hoping he got some of the talent–”\n\nBonnie watched the exchange, drowning out the words as the voices around her rose and tempers flared. Tyler and Klaus in one another’s faces, fangs bared while Silas continued taunting Damon, and Elena and Caroline ineffectually trying to reign it all in. Bonnie could feel her own burning anger coil in her gut. Her daughter was in danger. Hope’s very life was at stake, and all anyone wanted to do was throw around petty insults and play into Silas’s hands. \n\nIt hurt.\n\nTo feel insignificant again.\n\nBut more than that, it forced her to make a conscious choice–right then and there. Hope would not be some incidental in their lives–overlooked and neglected in the face of their petty jealousies and fragile egos.\n\n\n No. \n\n\nShe wouldn’t allow that.\n\n “Enough.”  The word cut itself from her mouth–sharp and final. Power pulsed around her, the shockwave of it enough to throw the squabbling vampires, with the exception of Klaus, through the air and tumbling across the drive. The vehicles rocked on their wheels, teetering just shy of tipping over.\n\nBeneath her feet the soil cracked.\n\nOverhead clouds writhed across a darkening sky.\n\nDazed eyes blinked up at her as her friends slowly picked themselves up off the ground.\n\nSilas gave her a slow smile as he rose, dusting himself off. “That felt like Expression,” he commented, watching her.\n\nBonnie didn’t bother to respond. He wasn’t entirely wrong, she surmised. Where once before Expression had felt like a completely separate magic to her, it was now blended with her own–as much a part of her as nature was. \n\n“I’m assuming you’re here with something useful,” she said in return, pointedly ignoring the questioning looks her friends were giving her. She did not have the time nor the inclination to soothe or reassure them at the moment. \n\nIn response to her question, Silas simply smiled wider. “You’d be surprised how  useful  I can be when I want something.”\n\nBonnie shook her head, turning away from him. There was something almost predatory in his eyes that made her slightly uncomfortable and flustered.\n\n“Enough games, Silas,” Klaus snapped. “You may be immortal, but answer me this: do your limbs grow back?”\n\n“You’re no fun,” Silas replied, hopping onto the hood of the nearest SUV. He leaned forward, placing his elbows onto his knees. Suddenly one hand clutched his stomach as he doubled over, gasping. His eyes squeezed shut as a low voiced, “Fuck,” was exhaled between his teeth. \n\n“Silas?” Instinctively, Bonnie reached out, placing her hand on his arm to steady him as he swayed dangerously.\n\nA few deep breaths later and he was sitting upright again. He blinked a couple of times. “Good news is that wasn’t anyone you know,” he said, wiping his lips. He glanced down at the hand on his arm, raising a brow.\n\nBonnie snatched it back quickly.\n\n“And the bad news?” Klaus demanded, pulling Bonnie behind him.\n\n“The covens are up to something.”\n\n“Care to be more specific?” Klaus questioned.\n\n“Secret midnight meetings, sigils showing up all over New Orleans, children going missing. You know, generally not good shit where witches are concerned,” came Silas’s impatient response. \n\nBonnie felt something sick and clammy in her throat hearing that children were going missing. Of course she wanted to protect Hope above all else, but knowing that there were other families suffering through her worst nightmare…she swallowed hard. \n\n“The Hollow is enjoying her vampire body,” Silas continued. “But it is limited. She's feeding–but her host is fading and she can’t access much magic. What she does have is borrowed, being transferred to her from her acolytes. If I was the wagering type, I’d be betting that right now she’s looking for a way to fortify herself. She expected you,” he gestured to Klaus. “She wasn’t expecting you.” He gave a matching gesture toward Bonnie. “Now she’s scrambling.”\n\n“And in doing so, she is causing some collateral damage,” Elijah provided.\n\n“If that’s what you want to call a bunch of dead people,” Silas shrugged, unconcerned. “Sure.”\n\nOver Bonnie’s head Elijah glanced at his brother. “Scrambling could be good for us. It may be time to check in with Marcellus.” \n\n“Agreed,” Klaus nodded.\n\n“What can we do?” Caroline asked.\n\nBonnie glanced at her friends, seeing them exactly as they were nearly a decade past. So much of her life back then had been fragmented by the choices she had made.  Her  choices, her consequences, but the reasons…well, they all stood before her now.\n\nShe couldn’t make those same choices anymore. \n\n“You should go.” The words were said quietly, but Bonnie knew they all heard them. \n\nCaroline blinked, uncertain. “Bonnie…?”\n\n“You should,” she confirmed, lifting her chin. “You all have your own lives and you should get back to them. This fight–it’s not yours.”\n\n“Bonnie, no,” Elena shook her head, joining Caroline. “We lost you once. We’re not going to walk away now.”\n\nBonnie’s smile was fleeting and edged with sadness. “You didn’t lose me, Elena. You let me go. There’s a difference.”\n\nKlaus felt her words heavy in his chest.  “You didn’t lose me. You let me go.”  While meant for her friends, he knew they were just as true for him. A truth that he regretted to this very day, but one he had not ever acknowledged–at least not to the person that needed to hear it. \n\nExhaling, he turned to the interlopers in his yard. One issue at a time.\n\n“Well then, it would seem that your invitations have been revoked. If you all would be so kind as to immediately vacate the premises. I’d hate to get blood on my shirt. It was a gift.” Klaus smiled, motioning them along.\n\n“We’re not going anywhere,” Caroline countered. \n\n“I believe the request was clear.” Elijah commented idly as he unbuttoned his suit jacket.\n\nCaroline inhaled, but didn’t move from her spot. “You’re going to have to make me.”\n\nElijah smiled easily, his eyes crinkling at the edges, giving him an almost approachable appearance despite the clear threat he presented. “You think I won’t?”\n\nCaroline’s gaze flickered to Klaus, her brows furrowing. A small part of her expected him to intervene, but his face remained impassive. \n\n“We’re here to help.” Stefan spoke, coming forward. He ignored everyone else, keeping his eyes on Bonnie. He stepped closer, so close that she had to tilt her head up to look at him. He gripped her arms gently, holding her gaze. “After everything you’ve done for us, after every battle you saw us through, it’s our turn. We failed you before. We won’t fail your daughter.”\n\nBonnie blinked at the sudden, unexpected sting of tears in her eyes. “Stefan…”\n\n“Let us help you,” he urged quietly; sincerely.\n\nBonnie looked up into Stefan’s face. He stared back with openly, without expectation. Whatever she decided, he would honor. She could see it. Slowly, she nodded. “Okay.”\n\n“Good.” He smiled at her, rubbing a hand along her arm.\n\nKlaus’s eyes narrowed on the gesture. \"I assume you know of the enemy we face?”\n\n“Only that it’s a malignant dark force and that you’re going to need all the allies you can get,” Stefan provided, stepping back. “Tyler knows more.”\n\n“Does he now?” Klaus sent Tyler a searching look. It was not a friendly one. \n\nTyler met it directly. “I do. That bone you had me bring–it’s one of the remains of a witch named Inadu. The Lockwood family didn’t just safeguard this one bone, they kept records of names, dates, and other families that were in charge of watching over the Hollow’s remains.” \n\n“Why would that be?” Elijah questioned.\n\nTyler’s lips thinned. “Werewolf business.”\n\n“It is  my  business if it relates to  my  daughter,” Klaus countered with a growl, moving towards the younger hybrid.\n\nTyler didn’t budge. “Then I guess you’ll hear about it when I fill  Bonnie  in about what relates to her daughter–after we’re all settled.” Turning to Bonnie, he gave her a soft, steady look. “We have a promise to keep, Bennett. No backsies.”\n\n“No backsies,” she agreed, voice raspy. They were staying. They  wanted  to stay. It did not erase the old hurt, it did not make those choices okay, but it meant something to her that they were willing to try.\n\n“So that’s it? We’re staying now?” Damon asked, voice incredulous. “All of us in that cozy little farmhouse? Kinky.”\n\nWell,  most  of them wanted to stay, Bonnie mentally amended, cocking her head at Damon. He smirked at her, waggling his brows. It wasn’t quite the same gesture as Tyler or Stefan’s but she got the message. Smiling a bit in return, she nodded. He would never be her favorite person, not after everything, but he was welcome, too. \n\n“You’ll be in the barn,” Klaus clarified. “Stablehand quarters. Or not here at all.”\n\nStefan snorted, amused, as he made his way to his bike, grabbing his pack. “My usual room free?”\n\nKlaus gave a small nod, gesturing for Stefan to follow.\n\nBonnie glanced between the two.  Usual room ? How often did Stefan visit them here? And if he had been here before…well, that certainly explained his lack of surprise where Hope was concerned. \n\nElijah stepped quietly beside her. “Is this what you really want?” \n\nShe tipped her head, murmuring, “We could use the help.”\n\n“Very well.” Elijah re-buttoned his coat. Reaching down he grasped her hand, bringing her knuckles to his lips. He brushed a quick kiss over the ridges before releasing her. He watched her walk off with a curious Elena and Caroline towards the barn. Once she was a fair distance away, he turned to face Silas. “Silas, a word, if you please.” \n\nSighing, Silas rolled his eyes. Before he could so much as blink, Elijah stood before him, scant inches away.  Stealthy fucker.  “Is this the part when you warn me away from Bonnie?” he queried, cocking his head. “Gotta tell you, big guy, between you and Klaus, all these threats, they get old.” He reached up and adjusted Elijah’s tie. “Besides, I’m unkillable. Remember?”\n\nElijah smiled, an amused huff escaping as he glanced down, then back up. “While I do not share my brother’s flair for the dramatic, nor his imaginative dismemberment methods, you should know that if Miss Bennett comes to any harm, in any way, I will personally see to it that every supernatural in all sixty-four counties of Louisiana is slaughtered. Gruesomely.” Elijah placed his hand on Silas’s shoulder giving a non-too-gentle squeeze before walking away.\n\nSilas winced, rubbing his arm. “Good talk.”"}
+{"text": "~^~\n\n“Q.”\n\nThe Quartermaster jumped as 007’s hand snaked out and caught his, despite the fact that the agent had been sitting on the couch and apparently focused on a tense, heated phone conversation with M and Q had been just walking by behind him.\n\nAll 007 did then was tug Q forward by the wrist until he could deposit the phone in the smaller man’s commandeered hand. “M wants to speak with you,” was the brief explanation.\n\nCocking an eyebrow, Q brought the cell-phone to his ear. “M. This is Q. Am I correct in assuming that 007 overstepped his phone privileges?”\n\n“He’s lucky he’s so good at his job, or I’d have dropped him in the Thames by now,” was M’s immediate and pert response – she clearly meant what she was saying. “Has Bond informed you of the plan?”\n\nWary of saying yes and realizing that he really had no idea, Q hummed for a brief moment as he circled the couch to sit on it. 007 would eavesdrop shamelessly, but this way, it seemed like Q was letting him. Bond arched one eyebrow. “Let’s just assume he hasn’t, for the sake of everyone being on the same page.”\n\n“Probably wise,” the woman admitted. “While I was skeptical at first, I’ve come to agree with Bond’s assessment of your safety.”\n\n“Which is what?”\n\n“That stronger measures need to be taken to ensure it, and keeping you in Bond’s care might be the best option. He has extensive experience in guarding an asset – just as much as he has experience at killing marks, truth be told – and for those reasons I’m willing to put your care in his hands.”\n\nQ was still a bit troubled that no plan had been explicitly told to him, which either meant he wasn’t going to like it, or… “What care has 007 suggested?”\n\n“I don’t know. Bond has made it clear that he intends to remove you from danger, but the exact location is known only to him,” M admitted, voice still as stern and imperious as any mountain. Q had noticed that even when 007 was at his worst, M remained an impermeable fort – an angry impermeable fort, but still ultimately untouched by Bond’s shenanigans.\n\nCutting a look Bond’s way – and finding those blue eyes watching him steadily, maybe somewhat challengingly – Q sighed past pursed lips and decided, “I’ll need to drop into MI6 first. If I have to go another day without some of my tech, I’ll go insane before anyone ever tries to kidnap me again.”\n\n~^~\n\nUnexpectedly, 007 agreed to the plan, although it was clear that he didn’t like it. In fact, Q got the distinct impression that the blond-haired agent wanted to keep him in the flat, which was odd because Q got the impression that no one else ever stayed here besides Bond himself (and perhaps not often him either). Plus, there was the fact that Q had just beaten him soundly at Go Fish. The agent had taken the loss with poor grace, glaring at Q for the next five minutes before just deciding to call MI6 – the phone call that Q had finished up just now. The way that Bond had hovered around his Quartermaster, however, almost to the point of hemming him in as he got ready to leave for MI6, made Q think that Bond didn’t like the idea of leaving. Even when Q had been changing back into his own clothes (wrinkled from being slept in, and still smelling slightly of stale fear), Bond had inserted himself into the situation like a herding dog crowding its flock of one. Since Q was coming to accept the fact that modesty had no place in 007’s company, he’d simply stripped down and changed while the agent sat on the bed and watched. His blue eyes had tracked Q’s every move in silence, naturally attentive.\n\nBond had been Q’s shadow to the car, and kept up small talk during the drive. It was like when they’d first started running into each other back in Q-branch, with 007 playing the perfect gentleman and talking about anything and everything that was required of him while they played chess. This should have been nice. After all, at least when Bond was talking about senseless nothing, he wasn’t needling at Q and trying to take him apart piece by informative piece. However, the Quartermaster was irked to find that now his mind wasn’t engaged – apparently verbal sparring with Bond was not only incredibly frustrating, it was challenging – so instead he was thinking about guns in his hand and people he hadn’t wanted to kill.\n\nBy the time they had stopped in the MI6 carpark, Q felt jumpy and uncomfortable inside of his own skin, and he’d stopped paying attention to 007 as he instead drowned slowly in the worst memories from the recent kidnapping. He didn’t know how 00-agents did it: they killed for a living, and in far more vicious, cold-blooded fashions, and had to do it repeatedly.\n\nQ halted with a jolt as warm, calloused fingers on his nape yanked him back to reality. They’d been walking away from the car, with Q on autopilot and 007 as lethally alert as ever – it was both unsettling and surprising that Q had managed to ignore the agent, despite what he knew about him. Now the Quartermaster blinked and dragged his attention back to the present, glancing to the side where Bond was standing placidly next to him. Instead of the usual expressions the man wore – glimmers of dangerous amusement, faked interest, or slow burning lust that immolated what it touched before long – there was simply a watchful, patient blank. Q blinked at him, confused for a second, before he realized that this was the most truthful expression he’d ever seen on Bond’s face.\n\n“How do you do it?” Q asked quietly, easily accepting the slowly moving grip on his neck. The way it was starting to knead slowly at the edges of his cervical vertebrae was reminiscent of his idle touches, or the way he’d kept Q from falling in the shower. “How do you just end a life?”\n\n“The point isn’t ending another life – it’s not letting it end you,” was all the 00-agent would say, voice calm and uninflected. Then he nodded in the direction they’d been heading, and said as he let his hand fall from the smaller man’s neck to trail absently down to the small of his back, “Come on, Q.”\n\nQ let the touch urge him forward, his mind now preoccupied with teasing apart the puzzle of 007’s words, and the strange sincerity he’d just seen in a blank, expressionless face.\n\n~^~\n\n“Quartermaster,” M greeted them once they were in the heart of MI6 – home once again. M was as fierce and sharp-eyed as always, as she took in Q with a sweep of her crystalline eyes before turning a warier look to 007. She dipped her head in a brief nod to him, too. “007. Good to see you both back.”\n\n“Not for long,” Bond reminded, hooded eyes meeting his superior’s unflinchingly.\n\nFor her part, M merely nodded. “This is an unusual situation, and I have agreed that the best way to respond is with an unusual answer – as you have agreed, Quartermaster.” Q nodded. As much as he hated the vagueness and lack of facts he was getting, he was willing to trust Bond’s expertise in this case. The agent had shown him the same courtesy in the past. “MI6 will provide you with a car, and Quartermaster, you are responsible for what else you deem necessary.”\n\n“Yes, ma’am,” the bespectacled young man nodded respectfully, and turned to be about his business. There was no point in dallying around, and one thing that M and Q agreed on totally was a general hatred for wasted time. However, M called out before he and Bond were more than a few steps away.\n\n“Quartermaster?”\n\n“Yes?” He turned. Bond kept walking and gave the appearance of not listening.\n\n“After you’ve seen to your Branch, come back to my office. There are some things I wish to tell you,” the woman said in her usual prim tone, but there was something in her eyes – something deeper. They looked almost sad, beneath the iron shielding.\n\nPuzzled and curious, Q tilted his head a bit, but nodded again. “Of course. I’ll be back within the hour.”\n\n~^~\n\n“I’m surprised you aren’t requesting more guns.”\n\n007’s mouth kicked up at the edges. “Quality over quantity, Q,” he replied with his usual, effortless charm. “Although I can’t say the same for your choices.”\n\n“Hey,” Q defended as he continued to load up the supplies he wanted for this mystery trip, “I asked you if there would be internet, and you said no, so that means I have to bring more tech to set up my own internet.” Plus whatever else he felt he might need, which was a pretty long and varied list, because 007 was a cagy bastard and refused to say where they were going. It was insane that Q was trusting him on so little data, but apparently he’d realized that Bond was invested in his safety some time ago.\n\n“What even is this?” the agent asked from the duffel bag Q was meticulously packing his things. While Q had been grabbing the cords he’d need, the agent had apparently gotten bored or nosy. Probably both. Now Bond was wrinkling his nose at a small square of metal in his fingertips.\n\nQ immediately darted over, feeling like he was babysitting. “That’s a bug – which you’ve used multiple times, by the way.”\n\n“I’m sure I’d remember,” Bond argued back as smoothly as silk, even as he let the Quartermaster disengage the little listening device from his fingers. Blue eyes watched as it was returned to its separate pouch within the duffel bag. “Maybe you just think you gave me toys like that, Quartermaster.”\n\nChuckling dryly, Q went back to coiling cords as he corrected, “Maybe you broke them before they could do you any good. That might explain why they left no imprint on your memory.”\n\nBond was definitely grinning, a glass-cut expression that felt as handsome as it was dangerous – although Q knew instantly that the danger didn’t apply to him. How long had he known that? “Ah, yes. That might explain it. You should make them tougher.”\n\n“You should stop breaking my things.”\n\n“How else am I to get your attention?” teased the larger man with that wolfish smile still in place. His blue eyes danced like sun glinting off dangerous waters, and it was probably that look that was keeping the rest of the Q-branch staff at a distance. They’d been elated to see their Quartermaster again, but the day would never come when they were at ease with a 00-agent in their midst – this was even more the case with 007, who unsettled Q-branchers on a level that put his fellows to shame.\n\nQ’s mind drifted to just how skilled 007 was at getting his attention, and had to give himself a mental shake while his hands froze at their work. Silently, but like a ship moving close in the night, Bond approached until Q could feel heat at his back. “Quartermaster?” asked Bond in a deceptively light voice.\n\nRecalling that he was in the middle of Q-branch (with at least four of his underlings watching him worriedly at this very moment, as a known dangerous agent pushed the boundaries of personal space), Q deftly slipped around Bond to put his cords in the bag, zipping it closed. “You have everyone’s attention just by entering a room, 007,” Q replied in a mollifying tone and with a patronizing little smile meant to rankle – it did, and now it was Bond’s turn to frown at Q. One point for the skinny boffin. “Now: you stay here. Actually, I take that back. If I leave you here you’ll unleash pandemonium in my Branch,” Q evaluated unabashedly, hefting his bag with a whuff of breath as he realized just how heavy he’d made it. On second thought, maybe he’d have Bond take that out to the car. “I’ve got to go see M, but you can make yourself useful by moving this to the car. I believe MI6 has cleared us for one on the second level of the carpark.”\n\n“Whatever you say, Q,” 007 said in a put-upon tone. Q couldn’t help but be jealous but also impressed as 007 hefted Q’s bag as well as his own, which held the guns he’d requested for himself. Each got slung over a shoulder, muscles taking the burden and flexing as they adjusted to the weight. Bond’s cocky expression showed that he was willfully showing off just a bit.\n\nQ could have told him that he hardly needed to. The Quartermaster had seen all of that strength at work on missions, and all the man had to do was move for people to realize that he was a powerhouse. Sighing at the theatrics, Q picked up his personal laptop bag and headed for the door. “Come on then. I’ll show you out.” He left instructions with R and the others as he left, promising to be back soon without admitting that he had no idea when exactly. 007 followed like an obedient shadow, silent except for the creak and shift of the bags he carried.\n\n“Take your time, Q,” 007 drifted past the smaller man once they’d left Q-branch, somehow managing not to bump him along the way, although he brushed against the computer bag and made Q reflexively want to move the tech out of the agent’s reach. The blonde-haired man was moving off down another hallway, though, presumably to wreak havoc in someone else’s life. Havoc was what Bond specialized in, when he wasn’t focused on espionage. That left Q to walk by himself down to M’s office, feeling both light and strangely lonely without the omnipresent 00-agent by his side. Q realized that he’d gotten used to Bond – from his homicidal tendencies to his constant need to touch.\n\n“M?” Q was let into her office by a sympathetic Eve Moneypenny (whether she sympathized with Q for having been targeted by criminals, or because he was stuck with 007, remained to be seen). “You wanted to see me before 007 and I made our exit?”\n\n“Yes, Quartermaster. Before you pull your temporary disappearing act,” said M, looking unexpectedly grim, her thin lips pressed together, “I think there are some things you need to know. Sit.”\n\nFeeling uneasy himself now, the young man nonetheless did as he was told, settling into the uncomfortable chair across the desk, putting his laptop case down next to him.\n\nM started immediately, efficiency being a coat she’d worn long and well. “How much do you know about James Bond, Q?”\n\n“Um…?” Unsure how to answer, or how much to say without things getting uncomfortable, Q thumped his fingertips on the chair-arm and mentally scrambled a bit. “Well, I’m aware of anything that was on his files. Nearly impossible track record for mission success – equally high marks in marksmanship and general destruction. I know that Medical is baffled at his continued state of being alive, while Psych doesn’t know whether to label him as a sociopath or keep mum to avoid possible repercussions on his part.” Q sighed, recalling some of the earlier missions he’d handled with 007. “I also know that he’ll sleep with anything that moves.” Specifically women on cameras that Q was watching. And possibly Q, if the Quartermaster would let him. A flush of confusing feelings – interest, anxiety, excitement, and nearly visceral fear – roiled through him like a flash-fire, quickly burning down again.\n\n“It’s actually his predilection for sleeping with dangerous people that I wish to talk about. Now – before you say anything-” M lifted an imperious hand just as the Quartermaster drew in a breath to speak. “-I’m well aware of Bond’s growing interest in you. I’m old, not blind. You should know that Bond doesn’t usually show an interest in anyone when he’s off-mission, so it’s a bit easier for me to spot than you’d think.”\n\nQ couldn’t keep his mouth shut. He was already blinking like an owl newly out in the sun, frowning as the given facts refused to mesh. “I thought he slept around prolifically off-mission?” He already had more than enough proof of 007’s rampant sexuality on-mission.\n\nM cast him a hard-to-read little smile. “I said ‘interest in,’ not slept with – and he doesn’t have an ounce of interest for any of those pretty faces he sleeps with around London,” she replied tartly and without doubt, “And before you ask how I know all of this, you must realize that you’re not the only one who has a certain skill for remotely monitoring an asset.” With a resigned sigh, M sat back a bit, and admitted, “For the past few years, Bond has been a round-the-clock headache who requires constant watching.”\n\n“You actually put tails on him?” Q asked, shocked.\n\n“Carefully and from a great distance. I’m sure he’s aware of nearly all of them, but he’s a good enough sport to benevolently tolerate it.” Which was shocking in its own right, because 007 was benevolent about basically nothing – which explained M’s next rueful sentence: “The real problem is finding agents who aren’t too intimidated by 007’s reputation to do the job.” At that point, M’s mouth twitched in a cunning, tiny smirk, and she explained, “We call it training. If new agents can follow 007 for even a few hours without him doubling back, catching them, and pleasantly threatening to feed them their own fingers, they get promoted.”\n\nUnsure whether to be amused or disturbed by this use of a 00-agent as training material, Q asked cautiously, “And if they can’t?”\n\n“Remedial training. Bond never damages them too much.” That said quite a lot about Bond’s relationship with MI6 and with M: in Bond’s position, Q was very sure that he would have gotten incredibly angry by now, but instead, it sounded like Bond treated it all like a necessary game. Perhaps it also had the pleasant side-effect of keeping him from getting bored off-mission. “That’s not what I’m here to talk about, Q. I’m here to tell you some things about 007’s past that are not in his file, and which I don’t see him telling you himself. Honestly, I don’t even know if he can tell you. The man you know as James Bond is more broken than you think.” While Q stared at M with narrowed, suspicious eyes (feeling defensive but not knowing whether it was for himself or for the agent in question), the older woman folded her hands upon her desk and asked, “Have you heard of the woman called Vesper Lynd?”\n\nQ’s brows drew down lower behind his glasses, and he agreed slowly, “Yes, she was involved in one of Bond’s earlier missions. He was newly promoted to 00-status.”\n\n“Yes, he was, and he was already promising,” M nodded, “Vesper was a distraction, however, and no one quite realized how quickly he became attached to her. It’s a usual mistake for new agents – getting romantically involved with people they meet on the job – but we hadn’t honestly thought that Bond would make that mistake, because he’s always been quite like you know him now. Cold, calculating, and morally deficient enough to make him an incredibly useful and flexible spy. But there was something about Vesper…” M sighed, and there was true regret in her tone. Suddenly, her eyes looked older, as if their bright and wintry spark was dimmed by the smoke of old memories. “It’s possible that we will never know her whole story – she had handlers of her own, and it’s been inferred that she had some of the same ethical gaps that 007 does, although I suspect to a lesser extent.” Pride reignited that light in the woman’s eyes, and she stopped looking off into the distance to fix Q with an indefatigable look. “Bond was the better agent, even back then. When the dust settled, he was alive and she was dead by questionable means.”\n\n“He killed her? That’s not what the file says.”\n\n“The file is inconclusive,” M said with a mien of troubled discontent on her face that was quickly eliminated. “I know that Bond can destroy or change evidence to his own liking, and that situation was so mucked up that I honestly have no idea what happened. But what I do know is that when Vesper left, she took whole chunks of James Bond with her. She’d tangled them together – so he had to rip off pieces when they came apart.” M’s eyes were now as cold and frostbitten as the deepest north, the look of a mother wolf when a snowstorm challenges her and is found lacking. Q found himself glad that he was not this Vesper Lynd, and that Vesper was dead – because he’d never seen M so transparently hate a person with frigid, controlled fury. Again, it was a fleeting impression, before M composed herself and looked off to the left, merely aloof and cool. “Bond was dangerous before, of course. Cunning, quick, ready to be brutal when needed. But Vesper broke him.” Hard grey eyes snapped back to Q. “And he put himself back together more dangerously than before.  She broke his heart in such a deep way that I don’t even know how he recovered, but when he did, it was with all of his razor edges intact and all of the underlying softness sharpened to points. James Bond was dangerous – Vesper made him lethal. I don’t know whether I should thank her or hate her for that, because now MI6 has a weapon that it never would have dreamed of before.”\n\nQ was stunned. He’d always had nagging questions in his head, questions regarding Bond’s history and whether he’d always been like this, or whether his particular brand of psychosis had roots in some past event. He’d somehow never considered, however, that it could be a violently broken heart that could do it. Maybe it was because Q always thought of broken hearts as crippling things, rather than scalpels that cut away weaknesses and left only an armor of shards behind. Once, Q had held a piece of polished obsidian in his hand: small, black, and slightly translucent if held to the light. Then someone had told him that if you broke that little oval stone, the pieces you had left in your hand were sure to have edges sharper than razors. Bond had always been an obsidian stone, it sounded like – dark and graceful on a grand scale, deadliness hidden at his core – but Vesper had put a hammer to him, and only a man made of scalpel sharp pieces had walked away from that.\n\n“I’m not telling you this because I want to deter you from him,” M continued, “Although perhaps I should. Up until recently, I would have told anyone interested in Bond as anything more than a quick and good fuck that he has a heart made of razors, and he stopped loving things ages ago.” M’s assessment was blunt and without pity, as befitted a head of MI6. But then she cocked her head slightly, and added with a shrewd look at Q, as if she couldn’t figure him out, “But he seems interested in you, and I haven’t seen that in years. I’m not sure what to make of that. Regardless, I felt it was past time that you knew this. You are dismissed.���\n\nStill reeling from the whirlwind meeting that he honestly had never expected, the Quartermaster stood automatically, movements wooden. “Who else knows this?” he had to ask.\n\nM’s face was unreadable again, but her answer was telling, “Just you and myself know the entirety of the story. Don’t misuse this information.”\n\n“I won’t,” Q promised sincerely. He could feel his brain going over the information, turning it around gently like a prismatic sculpture in new light. “I value 007 as an agent…and also as a person, vexing as that person may be,” he admitted carefully after a moment. “Seeing as I’m going to be stuck with him for an unknown amount of time now, I’m probably going to need to understand him a bit better anyway,” Q tried to finish with a joke, then turned to leave.\n\n“Just so you know, I don’t think that Bond regrets what happened. With Vesper,” M called just as Q was reaching for the door, her voice level. She had that mother-wolf look again, and Q truly began to appreciate how driven M was to defend her agents – even if she sometimes had to also turn around and send them to their deaths. It was a tricky balance, but this woman met the challenge unhesitantly and without restraint. “Don’t pity him. It won’t get you very far.”\n\nQ’s brows beetled, truly not understanding. In a perplexed tone, he replied, “I know. I don’t see any more reason to pity him than to pity the guns he uses – both are liberally abused, I admit, but both do the job and do it fabulously. There’s nothing to pity.”\n\nM, in one of the rare instances that Q had ever seen, smiled. “Good luck, Quartermaster. I hope to see you back inside MI6 soon, when this is all sorted out.”\n\n~^~\n\nQ’s hand had been in his pocket ever since he’d left M’s office, holding the tiny lump he’d noticed when he’d bumped the edge of the chair while leaving. It had done quite a lot to turn his mood from thoughtful and introspective to rather homicidal.\n\nAs if waiting for the explosion that he’d had a hand in causing, 007 was only a few hallways down, leaning laxly against the wall with his hands braced unconcernedly behind it. All that the harmless pose served to do was allow the Quartermaster to walk right up to him until Q was practically standing on Bond’s toes. Glaring firmly, Q placed a loosely closed fist right under 007’s nose without any hesitation. “What is this?” Q demanded in a no-nonsense voice.\n\n007 looked blandly at Q’s angry expression for a few seconds, then leisurely dropped his eyes to the smaller man’s hand. After another few seconds of calculated length, the maddening agent grunted, “I’m not a mind-reader, Q.”\n\n“And yet I bet you could tell me, right now, everything that was just said behind closed doors in M’s office,” Q retorted, then gave up on making the agent talk and instead presented the evidence by unfolding his fingers and revealing the same small device that Bond had played with back in Q-branch earlier. “You bugged me.”\n\nStill for all appearances unbothered by Q’s apparent temper and serious encroachment on his personal space, Bond let the silence stretch just far enough to be rebellious. Q wasn’t breaking, though, and continued to wait with the evidence between the two of them. Putting on a mutinous expression and narrowing his blue eyes, Bond replied eventually, “And where’s your proof, Quartermaster?”\n\n“I know my tech, 007. This was in my duffel-bag last I looked, and you’ve got the best sleight-of-hand in MI6. I can put two-and-two together.”\n\nNo answer from 007. His eyes had gone cool and aloof, and he’d apparently clammed up. He was still allowing Q to stand with barely inches between them, however, untroubled by the combative posture or Q’s clearly unhappy frown. It was so rare to see Bond in such an undefended posture as he was now, with his hands still tucked away behind him instead of ready to go for his gun. If anything, he was rather relaxed, and Q found his temper fading instead to curiosity, and then to understanding.\n\nQ cocked his head, inspecting that handsome mask Bond called a face. “You really wanted to listen in on my talk with M, didn’t you?” he asked in a far less combative tone.\n\nAgain, no response. Merely blue eyes that tracked every minute movement Q made, calm and remote as a mountain lake. It was as good as a confession to the smaller man, who had come to recognize so many of Bond’s little quirks and tendencies, the way he hid things so well and yet was so transparent sometimes that Q wondered if it could be anything but purposeful.\n\nThis time, it seemed as though Bond – who never seemed to care or fear for anything – had been intensely interested in finding out how Q had taken the story about a woman with invisible iron claws and a man made of razor blades.\n\n“Why don’t you just ask?!” Q whispered with confounded sympathy, shaking his head in wonder at all of this. Then, because he couldn’t see any other, better way to respond to this confusing man, the Quartermaster took hold of the situation in both hands and closed the distance to catch Bond’s mouth with a sudden, impulsive kiss.\n\nThere were about a million negative ways in which 007 could have reacted. As a 00-agent, he was trained to react to surprises with caution at best, violence at worst, and Q knew that Bond tended towards the latter side of the equation. When Q’s mouth pressed to his, however, the agent tensed just enough for it to be perceptible, but he otherwise didn’t move. His hands stayed behind his body, his back remained pressed idly to the wall. The only point of contact was on his mouth, and he moved his lips softly against Q’s, tongue snaking out encouragingly even as Q felt himself drawn in.\n\nQ pulled back, breathing faster and feeling his pulse already in his ears, just before the kiss could get intense. Those uncanny blue eyes were still watching him, alight now with some internal fire that enthralled even as it promised to burn. Q hitched his computer bag strap a bit higher up on his shoulder and stepped back, unconsciously touching his tongue to his lower lip where he could still feel the faintest impression of teeth, although he couldn’t even remember 007 biting him. “You always think that you have to get what you want by stealth – by lying and tricking the answer out of me,” Q said, but without any anger. If the bespectacled young man hadn’t been working at MI6 where dysfunction was the name of the game for dangerous spies, perhaps he would have been less understanding. “Normal people, though, like me, would prefer if you just asked if you wanted to know something.” Q paused, still feeling the contact of lips on his mouth, which he’d initiated for once. His memory brought up dozens of other impressions, all including warm commanding hands on his body and a mouth making promises on his skin. “Or if you ever wanted something.”\n\nFeeling that he’d given Bond all the information he needed to, Q turned and left, directing his feet to the parking lot. They both had days ahead of them that promised to be rough and trying…wherever it was that Bond was taking them.\n\n~^~\n\n "}
+{"text": "Killua sighed in appreciation as he gazed out the window of their personal room, the nighttime cityscape was glorious as always. Stars sparkled in the sky, and the beautiful marbles of not-so-distant alien planets hung in the inky expanse. The moon was a sparkling half circle, shining down upon the city that was a night sky all on its own.\n\nThe Valkyrie stood with his arm braced against the window, and his forehead leaned against it. Fluffy white hair, mussed with sleep, framed his face messily. It was growing out, and was well in need of a haircut. His tail was flopped lazily across the ground behind him, sprawled about like a snake.\n\nAs beautiful as this scene was… it was nothing compared to the boy standing next to him.\n\nGon's tan skin reflected the light from the stars and the city, making him glow against the night. His amber eyes held a dull shine to them, just barely illuminating the air around him. His eyes were like fireflies, their meadow the cityscape. His hair was floppy and limp, pressed up against one side of his head, the side he slept on. He wore nothing but his undershorts, and the sculpted planes of his chest and stomach drew Killua's eyes and warmed his lower belly.\n\n\"Killua,\" he whispered, Kurapika and Leorio dozing in their respective rooms.\n\n\"Hm?\" the Valkyrie hummed in his throat, glancing out the corner of his eye at the hybrid, and the object of his every waking thought. His mind was always on Gon, especially since the wall had come down. He thought about his eyes, his dark toned skin, his coarse hair that hung low and lazy into his eyes whenever he first woke up in the morning. He thought about his voice… that silky tenor just on the cusp of baritone, a voice that sang to his soul and whispered in his ears in the dark of the night.\n\nHe thought about his sculpted body, years of training built up in that impeccable physical form. The chemical that lay beneath his veins, waiting to morph him into a being of chaos and destruction. He thought about the slick toxin that secreted from his neck, powerful enough to lay waste to a king serpent, and potent enough to break through even Killua's poison defenses.\n\nHe really was an incredible being… but his personality was even more incredible.\n\nHe danced with Killua in ballrooms stock full of beautiful and rich girls, he tugged him along on incredible adventures. He met his gaze, not in fear but in friendship. Never once had it crossed his mind to turn Killua over to his family for compensation, or to drug him in the night and sell his blood to rogue sorcerers. He stood by Killua, and kept his hand on his shoulder in the hardest of times…\n\nHe was his greatest friend.\n\nBut there was this haze against Killua's vision. A haze against his consciousness. He knew he did nothing but sap off Gon's light like some sort of wretched parasyte… but he wanted more. He wanted to feel that tan skin beneath his hands, he wanted to taste that smiling mouth. He wanted to drown beneath that powerful weight, he wanted to be drawn in close never to be relinquished again.\n\nHis heart ached with longing, he liked him so much…\n\nBut that was all for naught.\n\nBecause never could Gon like him back. Never could those feelings be returned.\n\nWhy couldn't Killua just take him as a friend? Gon took him as he was, why couldn't he take Gon for what he was? A best friend? Why did he long for more, for the soft smile of a lover in the place of the sparkling grin of a brother? For the passionate embrace of a partner for life rather than the casual sling of an arm around his shoulders?\n\nHe'd wanted to be closer to Gon since the moment he'd laid eyes on him.\n\nBut it so seemed that he'd always want to be closer to Gon.\n\nKillua wanted to get as close as he possibly could, with souls so entwined and bodies so close that there was no room left to breathe.\n\nThe impossibility of it was suffocating to say the least.\n\nBut Killua found himself unable to quell these feelings… no, they were here to stay.\n\nHe could live with this… he could live with this unbearable distance between the two of them.\n\nHe could live with those tan fingers hung at Gon's side rather than reaching out to cup Killua's cheek–\n\nThe Valkyrie inhaled sharply as rough fingers grazed his cheekbone. The sensation sent shivers down his spine and heat through his face and groin. He blinked, scared to gaze directly into those eyes because what would he find there? Friendship? Or the far worse alternative? An alternative that would have Killua tumbling from the sky, head over heels with no turning back whatsoever? An alternative that scared Killua as much as he longed for it?\n\n\"You're… really pretty,\" Gon murmured.\n\nKillua's breath hitched in his throat, and he moved his eyes to focus on Gon's. Locked in a cage of sparkling amber, he felt his face go slack. Those words had been everything he had wanted to hear since he had come to terms with what he was feeling for this boy. And that look in his eyes… was everything Killua could have ever begged for and more.\n\nIt was something that he could only dream into reality–\n\nGon gazed up at him, up at Killua who was a mere two inches taller. His fingers traced along that pale cheekbone, and down along a sharp jawline. The Valkyrie was frozen, unable to move and unable to process. The only thing he was aware of was this moment.\n\nThe hybrid's amber depths glowed softly at Killua, emotions swirling lazily in those brilliant tawny pools. His eyes said it all–\n\nAll that Killua had been longing for these past couple of days had been for Gon to look at him like that. For him to look at the Valkyrie with the same eyes that he himself hid beneath silver bangs and sassy remarks.\n\nThose fingers twisted slowly to cup Killua's chin, and a thumb poked up and brushed leisurely against his mouth.\n\nThe silver haired boy's lips tingled, and the thumb stayed in place.\n\n\"So soft,\" Gon whispered as he stepped forwards, eyes low lidded and fixated on Killua's mouth, which had gone slack in surprise.\n\nThe hybrid leaned further forward, up on the tips of his toes to meet Killua's height. He braced one strong hand on the back of the Valkyrie's neck, and left the other cupped against that pale chin, bringing his thumb down to free up Killua's lips.\n\nThe Valkyrie's heart pumped loud in his ears, and his cheeks flared red.\n\nGon shut his eyes, and Killua kept his eyes open. He was far too frozen and longing to close them now, no, he had to see for himself–\n\nThick dark lashes reflected the silver light of the moon, and a soft pair of lips brushed against Killua's. The kiss was so soft and innocent, yet it made Killua weak in the knees. He moved his hands to Gon's hips to steady himself, and his palms felt feverish as they came into contact with the hybrid's bare skin.\n\nThe hand on Killua's chin moved to the back of his head, slipping into his silvery locks and keeping him in place. He finally closed his eyes as Gon tilted his head to deepen the kiss, waves of emotion crashing over his head. His soul wanted to both dance for joy and melt into a puddle at the same time.\n\nGon was so incredibly gentle, as if Killua were a pane of glass ready to shatter at any given second. Was this really happening? Could this really be reality? How did Killua deserve to be this happy?\n\nThe assassin was still frozen on the spot, barely having the mind to kiss Gon back. Needing to brace his hands on the stranger's hips just to keep his feet under him. His tail remained still as death, a reflection of his nerves.\n\nGon's other hand slipped up to grip Killua's hair, and the Valkyrie moved his hands to the other boy's shoulders, feeling unsure about where they should be. Gon sighed out of his nose, breathing against Killua's mouth and causing him to shudder and release a little mewl. The hybrid hummed against the Valkyrie's lips in response, taking the noise as a sign to move forward.\n\nHe tightened his hands, gripping Killua's hair in a vice. He angled his head and the kiss picked up pace, gaining heat by the second. Killua's heart was a racehorse in his chest, the heat pooling in his stomach leading him to move his hands to Gon's hair, gripping on for dear life. He tugged at the coarse strands, and the hybrid purred low in his throat, the sensation vibrating against Killua's mouth.\n\nEgged on by the new stimulation, Gon parted his lips and a hot tongue licked gently against Killua's mouth. The Valkyrie gave a shuddering gasp, and obeyed. He cracked his lips open, and then there was no going back. Gon's tongue thrust into his mouth without hesitation, slipping up against Killua's and sending stars flashing behind his lids.\n\nThe horned boy stepped forward, pushing Killua against the window and pressing them flush together. The contrast between the chilly glass and Gon's scalding skin made Killua shiver, and the hybrid explored the inside of his mouth with fervor. The kiss was fast and sloppy, sending heat directly to Killua's pants. Gon crushed up against him, rolling his hips slightly and sending sparks flying–\n\n…\n\nKillua awoke with a start, flinging the blankets off of his sweating body and tossing Gon's stolen pillow to the floor. He was sweating like crazy, and he could feel that his face was flushed. The remnants of the dream were still fresh in his mind, and he found himself disoriented and wondering where Gon had gone. His lips were still tingling from the imagined sensation, and he brushed his fingers across them.\n\nThe Valkyrie's chest was aching, and butterflies danced in his stomach.\n\nHis heart raced a million miles an hour.\n\n\nThat dream was–\n\n\n\nIn my dream I was–\n\n\nKillua glanced down, still unable to properly process what he had just woken up from. What he found when he looked downwards, however, filled him with a sense of dread, shame, and self-disgust. His undershorts were tented, and he was hard as a rock.\n\n\"Shit,\" he breathed. Killua drug his hands through his messy white hair, tugging at his scalp in a meager effort to punish himself. \"I can't believe this.\"\n\nHe was horny as fuck, and the images from that dream continuously flashing across his mind were not helping. His tail twisted and swished behind him, like a cat in heat. A comparison that was not entirely inaccurate.\n\n\nI got a hard on from being all close to Gon yesterday, and my thoughts have been entirely consumed by him ever since the barrier was broken. And now those thoughts and desires have slipped into my dreams.\n\n\nKillua bit his knuckle, mind hazy and clouded. His erection was throbbing and begging for attention, but–\n\n\nNo!\n\n\n\nI can't do that!\n\n\n\nI can't defile Gon like that.\n\n\n\nThis can't happen, he's my friend!\n\n\n\nI can't feel this way! Or at least, I can't act on it. I– these feelings are not going away, that much is clear… but that doesn't mean I can stain Gon's sparkling image with my own stupid horny shit.\n\n\nKillua launched himself out of the bed, landing silently on his feet. He rushed silently to the bathroom, wishing that he weren't lurching with every step. The Valkyrie slipped into the cold tile room, and shut the door noiselessly behind him. Free to make noise now that he was surrounded by these thick walls, he aggressively flipped the light switch and slammed his palms onto the counter.\n\nHe gazed into his own reflection, sapphire eyes dilated and dark with lust.\n\nHe hated that expression.\n\nBecause he knew that it had come from him thinking about Gon.\n\nGon who was a clean and untarnished presence in Killua's life, Gon who did not under any circumstance deserve to be dirtied by Killua's mortal desires.\n\nHating seeing his own stupid sweaty face too much, the assassin turned his back on his reflection and crossed the bathroom. He was still uncomfortably hard, and he had to get rid of this somehow. He knew that this was not a boner that would go away with determination and a fiery will.\n\nNo, he was far too riled up for that.\n\n\nStupid fucking dream.\n\n\n\nMy stupid fucking brain.\n\n\nKillua switched the water on, and put it on the coldest setting. He pulled his undershorts down, hissing as he was fully freed and bared to the chilly bathroom air. His tail was still swishing around behind him, and he hated that so much. If he ever got worked up like this in front of anyone–\n\nGods fucking dammit.\n\nThere would be no hiding it.\n\nNo, not with his fucking tail right there translating his every thought.\n\n\nWhy the fuck didn't I seal my tail. Why the fuck didn't I seal my tail?!\n\n\n\nI wouldn't be dealing with this SHIT if I hadn't been too big of a fucking pussy to seal my goddamn tail!\n\n\n\nSo what if it fucking hurts like a bitch?! So what if it hurts worse than getting your dick cut off?!\n\n\n\nI fucking \n\ndeserve \n\nto have it retracted back into my spine!\n\n\n\nIt's the least I could do to atone!\n\n\n\nWhat the ever loving FUCK is wrong with me.\n\n\nTears pricked in Killua's eyes, and he trembled with emotion. He wanted to bash his head against the tile walls, but that would make too much noise. Not to mention that the scent and aura of spilled Valkyrie blood would attract too much attention.\n\nKillua stepped into the shower, wincing at the sub-freezing temperature. He forced himself to stand under the ice cold rain until he calmed down and had flattened back out. Then he stayed there, for punishment. The water hurt, and his sensitive tail was burning as it dropped below his necessary body temperature. He felt his wings rustling beneath their seals, straining to instinctively cocoon Killua's body and defend him from the cold.\n\nWhenever his wings pushed against the seals like that…\n\nKillua felt incomplete.\n\nHe was all too aware of his wings, their presence, and the fact that they weren't there.\n\nHe had gotten used to it, but every now and then he wouldn't be able to control the unsavory sensation. He felt so trapped whenever they wrestled with their thorny bondage. Like he was stuck in a tiny box and unable to move or even breathe.\n\nHe hated feeling this way, and it made him want to lash out.\n\nIt made him want to get violent, to scream and destroy.\n\nBut no.\n\nHe couldn't do that.\n\nNot just because he couldn't destroy private property and he didn't want to bother the others with his shit, but because he deserved to feel like this right now.\n\nKillua sank down in the shower, and sat directly beneath the spray with his legs drawn up and his arms wrapped around his knees. He rested his head in the nest of his arms, and fought off that stupid and cowardly urge to cry. Tears were still threatening to spill down his cheeks, but he didn't deserve to cry.\n\nNo, crying was for people that had real problems and good reason to bare their raw emotions to the world.\n\nKillua was just a stupid, disgusting, animal of a person who couldn't stop getting all hot and bothered over the thought of his best friend.\n\nHe hadn't felt this down in the dumps and dejected in a long time… not sense he had been wandering aimlessly in between leaving home and finding the Hidden Oasis.\n\nGon… I care about you way too much. Way too much for normal.\n\n\nYou mean the world to me, and I can't begin to understand why you would want someone like me by your side… nor can I begin to understand how someone like me can be so happy when I'm around you.\n\n\nYour friendship is everything I could have ever wanted, it is everything.\n\n\nBut why am I still greedy?\n\n\n\nWhy do I still long for more?\n\n\n\nWhy can't I just… be grateful and happy with what I have?\n\n\n\nWhy can't this be enough for me?\n\n\n\nCause… this \n\nhas \n\nto be enough. I can't allow myself to long for you like this!\n\n\n\nI'm so sorry, Gon.\n\n\n\nI'm so, so sorry.\n"}
+{"text": "\nIn the beginning, there was life. Life that had begun shortly after the planets had been created due to the melding of atoms and molecules created during the “Big Bang”. \n\n\n\nAngels had been the first to take form, followed shortly by demons in the hellish realm. The angels were His children, and they did good deeds in His name for they loved him as a Father, and He loved them as His children. \n\n\n\nOne day He decided to create something new on Earth. He created a garden that was set apart from the molten landscape, and populated it with animals. Then, He began to experiment with his most beloved creation, humanity. All His attention focused on giving them form, life, sentience. He wanted them to be as similar to Him as possible, and was satisfied with the results.\n\n\n\nAs He played with humanity, some of His children felt forgotten. Most of all was Samael, whom in response had played with stray molecules floating around in the universe, never able to leave well enough alone, and had created stars that shone brightly in the night sky. As he played and created constellations, he sought God’s approval. Mother had given him her approval, but God remained silent. \n\n\n\nCurious on what had drawn his Father’s attention so completely, Samael went to Earth to meet these humans whom God loved so much.\n\n\n\n_________\n\n\n\n He landed gently in the garden and let his wings remain at his side as he took in the beauty of this new world surrounding him, amazed at how magnificent his Father’s creations always were. \n\n\n\nA unicorn crossed his path, and he noted the apparent divinity that seemed to trail the animal’s single most defining feature. He watched curiously as it ran away, wondering why something divine had been allowed to walk amongst this feral landscape.\n\n\n\nHe continued through thick brush, having thought he had seen some semblance of what he perceived humanity to be from his time in the sky. He spotted a creature at last through a thick limb. He watched curiously at its reaction. It was hairy, and seemed intelligent. The creature had opposable thumbs and grabbed a fruit from a nearby tree. It stopped, notincing Samael, and watched him. Then it scratched its hindquarters and wandered off.  Samael laughed, thinking His father was quite funny, a concept that felt new. The thing did not walk civilized, only managing to wander by utilizing its knuckles low to the ground. Was this what Father had loved so much, that had caused Him to neglect His family? \n\n\n\nThen he saw her. Long hair trickled down to a waist, as she walked upright. Bare skin caressed her brunette locks. Soft green eyes, gleamed with intelligence, and curiosity as she watched the other creature shuffle off. Her gaze eventually fell to Samael. Glory filled her gaze as she noticed his grand white wings. She approached, caution not a concept she was familiar with, as she reached out a hand to him.\n\n\n\nHe watched her fascinated, as she stroked his feathers, which had never been touched by another. A new sensation ran through him as he allowed it, watching her with pure fascination.She continued to pet him, enthralled by the softness, and silkiness, that his white downy feathers provided. She was enchanting.\n\n\n\nHer hands continued to explore his features, moving from the wings to his clothed form. She curiously played with the layers he was wearing, seemingly confused when a piece of him was able to be peeled away without harm. Samael helped her remove the clothing until he stood with her bare for her inspection to continue. A smile crossed her face as she felt the familiar skin that looked similar to hers. \n\n\n\nSensations new to him swelled up inside him as her hands explored his features, similar, yet different to hers. He noticed a change beginning to take place with his own physical form, and felt drawn to explore her as well. \n\n\n\nHis hands reached for her long hair, similar to that of some of his sisters, yet he had never touched them, not in this new and interesting way before. He explored her face, caressing her cheek, then.. lips. She puckered then, and explored his fingers with them. Curious, she came closer to him and did the same. Her fingers ran over his lips, and he felt their sensitivity, and curiosity overcome him, as he drew them to her lips. \n\n\n\nLips pressed together softly, and at first the sensation felt unnatural, until she decided to explore further with her tongue. What started as sloppy, swiftly became skilled, as they explored with each other’s mouths. Heat unlike anything he had felt before began to flood through him, as he grew an incessant need to close the remaining distance between the two of them. As he did so, he noticed that a part of his anatomy had fully changed form and become engorged, feeling her press against it, sent a sensation though his entire body, and he craved more.\n\n\n\nThe kissing became heated as the flames grew more intense. He pulled her down to the ground as he continued to explore her features with his hand. Her breasts were shapely, and nipples perked in excitement. Bumps had formed over her naked skin, and she was now reverberating soft moans, and tremors, that only enhanced the sensations coming from his erect anatomy. \n\n\n\nHis hands continued to trail down her soft skin until he found something wet, and slippery. Touching her there sent caused similar reactions from her that had from when he had felt her touch his anatomy. He played there, enjoying her delight and was fascinated by what reaction would take place if he continued. \n\n\n\nAfter a time she arched below him, shivering at his hands, pleasure seeping all over her face as she felt the need to draw him in. He obliged, pressing against her, finding the smooth slickness of her  pleasurable against his penis. He pushed into her, and a strong reaction emitted from both of them. This was marvelous. He began to steadily slip in and out, in what became the most intense physical sensation he had yet experienced. His pace quickened, his desire deepened, until all at once everything was released. A wetness escaped from him, into her, and he was overcome with uncontrollable shivers that started there and continued all the way through his neck and down to his toes.  It was surreal. God had done fine work. And although this creature wasn’t divine, she was magnificent. \n\n\n\nHe removed himself from her, still trying to process this new and fascinating sensation, as he once again fit himself into clothing. \n\n\n\n“Eve,” she pressed her hand to her bare chest.\n\n\n\nHe looked at her and smiled, she could speak! They really were sentient just like his siblings!\n\n\n\n“Samael,” he responded, indicating himself.\n\n\n\nThe brush behind him moved, and Samael watched as another, more similar to himself appeared. Eve smiled and walked to the other human.\n\n\n\n“Adam,” she indicated to Samael. \n\n\n\n“Samael,” the angel introduced himself.\n\n\n\nAdam approached, and started to explore Samael the same way Eve had. Samael allowed it, and happily explored the differences between the two, as Eve joined in again to recreate that ever so pleasant experience. The three continued this activity well into the night, enjoying the pleasure that emitted from the overwhelming physical release. Adam and Eve eventually fell asleep by Samael’s side, not able to keep pace with the angel’s divinity.\n\n\n\nSamael clothed himself, then returned home.\n\n\n\n_________\n\n\n\nHe told his siblings of his discovery. They listened intrigued, some were worried of him wanting to explore Father’s creations, thinking that it wasn’t their place, as they had no orders to interfere. Samael did not see the harm of it, and was taken by his experiences there. Mother and Father remained silent, and did not tell him it was not allowed.\n\n\n\nSamael chose to return, within a few month’s time. Curious to learn more about this fascinating creation.\n\n\n\n__________\n\n\n\nWhen he arrived, he saw Eve collecting berries, while Adam was watching a squirrel.\n\n\n\nEve smiled excitedly. “Samael!” she called, waving her arms.\n\n\n\nSamael came to her. She demonstrated her activity, and Samael began to help her. He held up a berry, and wondered if it had been given a name. \n\n\n\nEve looked at him curiously, seeming to understand.\n\n\n\nSamael spoke in the language of the heavens, trying to relay the closest word that would reflect the fruit he held in his hand.\n\n\n\nEve tried to replicate his speech, but was unable to make certain sounds with her different anatomy. She shook her head in disappointment.\n\n\n\nAdam approached them then. “Blueberry,” he called, giving it a name. \n\n\n\nEve nodded her approval proudly. “Blueberry,” she repeated.\n\n\n\nSamael smiled, and they began to name the creatures and animals around them, forming the first language, allowing Adam and Eve to communicate more efficiently. \n\n\n\n_________\n\n\n\nSamael returned to heaven after a time. He excitedly told his brothers and sisters about his second experience with humanity, and what good he had done for them. He was proud of his accomplishments, helping to advance his Father’s most beloved creations. \n\n\n\nSamael sought his Father’s approval, but was again, met with silence. \n\n\n\nPerhaps he was simply not doing enough? He chose to return to Earth to see what more he could do for the lovely creatures his Father so adored.\n\n\n\n_________\n\n\n\nSamael returned, seeing Eve and Adam sitting around a deer that was laying down, not moving. They curiously poked, and prodded the creature but found it did not stir. He walked towards them, curious himself on why there was no response. Adam and Eve looked to him, they smiled, but concern showed through their features. \n\n\n\nSamael bent down and touched the creature, finding no steady thump of a living heart. Dead. This was a facet of mortality, that his sister Azrael had been so endlessly fascinated by. He turned the animal’s head and saw a trail of red liquid flowing out the side of the creature. Blood. Another sight he had never before witnessed, only heard of through his sibling’s descriptions. She had explained that certain mortal creatures had to consume one another to survive, needing sustenance and nutrition, and to cut down on the population of those that ate the plants.\n\n\n\nHe looked to the humans, curious if they could eat meat. Samael had knowledge of the microscopic organisms that resided on the planet, and knew how to rid them so that disease could be avoided. He instructed Adam to fetch wood, and asked Eve to join him. \n\n\n\nHe found a rock that was sharp, and asked Eve to cut into the dead animal. She was trusting, and did as she was told. After it was cleaned, and the meat was collected, Adam returned with wood.\n\n\n\nSamael taught them how to start a fire, using kindling and rubbing two sticks together to create a spark. They replicated his actions, and were quick to learn the process. He instructed them on a fire’s properties, and what to do to ensure it would not burn out of control. Then he skewered the meat, and proceeded to cook it over the flame. Once it was done he offered it to them.\n\n\n\nAdam was the first to bite into it. A smile crossed his face as he enjoyed the new flavor that crossed his tongue. Eve followed suit, and they ate the meal happily together. \n\n\n\nAfterwards they sat quietly by the fire, enjoying its warmth. The heat, and closeness led to them exploring the fun physical sensations they had partaken in before. Samael had found that they had been practicing this on one another, as they were able to bring about pleasure from him in new and intriguing ways. They continued into the night until they were spent.\n\n\n\nIn the morning Samael awoke to see the brightest of his creations winking at him from the sky above. It was beautiful. His heart felt full, being bathed in all of the beauty his Father and Mother had been responsible for. What a glory it was to be alive, in this new and untamed world! \n\n\n\nHe began to sing in spite of himself. An activity his siblings had invented, and his favorite to partake in amongst the silver city.\n\n\n\nEve stirred awake, and watched him curiously, as he sang the ethereal song in his native language. He watched as she stood, and began swaying to his tempo, adding to the energy of the moment. \n\n\n\nThe swaying turned into flailing. Wild and untamed. She had no inhibitions, no doubt or worry. She moved her body exotically, every inch of her curves sultry and seductive. Her long dark hair radiated in the reds and orange of the rising sun. She looked as if she wanted to be the fire that had been sparked the night before. Her eyes spoke of the thrill that rushed through her movements, becoming more elegant and controlled as she learned of the energy and spirit of the song Samael sung.\n\n\n\nAs the sun rose, dancing was born. \n\n\n\nAdam awoke soon after and watched her radiance, taken by her beautiful form as much as Samael was. He stood up and joined her. The spark and electricity between the two of them was vivacious and uninhibited. Samael watched and sung as the two of them grew closer, drawn to each other, passion sparking a new sensation between the two. Forming a bond that had suddenly begun to grow from something to simple to something more.\n\n\n\nSamael saw this connection, but did not understand it completely, but felt the joy that permeated from them until his song was done. \n\n\n\nThe pair held each other once he had completed his celebratory song, lost in their newly formed feelings for each other.\n\n\n\nSoon after Samael returned home, and shared his experiences once more. He spoke of what he did not understand, and found that none of his siblings understood it either. But he could see the joy it had brought them, and he sought his Father’s approval for helping them to find that. He was still met with silence.\n\n\n\n________\n\n\n\nSamael continued to return between Eden and Heaven, teaching the humans about art, poetry, tools, and building. His siblings worried about their brother’s love for humanity, but approved of everything that he gifted them with. He grew the title of Lightbringer, as he brought light into the sky, fire to Earth, and richness to the human’s souls. The title suited him well, and he never failed to impress them with his stories on how easy it was for humans to learn.\n\n\n\nEvery time he returned to Heaven, he longed to hear his Father’s praise, and was always met with silence. Now the silence came from Mother as well, and he longed for the days that his family were together, singing about the glory that was their home. \n\n\n\nHis heart grew steadily sadder as time went on. Many of his siblings sympathized with their beloved brother, as they too felt the sting that came from the silence from those who used to present so much joy towards them. He would greet these siblings every time upon returning, and they would share stories of their own experiences in trying to impress Father and Mother to no avail.\n\n\n\nSamael asked why, and never received an answer. \n\n\n\n_______\n\n\n\nOne day on Eden, Samael, Eve, and Adam walked through the forest of the garden. Samael spotted a tree that beared fresh fruit, untouched by any animal.\n\n\n\n“Why has no creature eaten from this?” he asked, knowing that nothing poisonous existed within the garden, only on the outside where the dinosaurs were roaming and ever evolving, God’s experiment with life more untamed than this haven.\n\n\n\n“We just don’t,” Adam answered. “It never looked quite right to consume,” \n\n\n\n“There’s something about it. Something that feels… I don’t know if there is a word for it, but it's wrong somehow.” Eve added.\n\n\n\nSamael studied her reaction, and could see her uneasiness towards the tree. Something that resembled fear that he had seen from demons whom he had visited once long ago from his exploration of Hell, a place he had loathed and had chosen never to visit again.\n\n\n\n“And what would you wish to call that sensation?” he asked.\n\n\n\nThey gave it a name in their language - fear. It was a sensation that they claimed to not feel anywhere else, and was something they wished to avoid if at all possible.\n\n\n\n“Why do you avoid it?” Samael asked. “Don’t you want to explore all sensation life offers?”\n\n\n\nThey looked to each other, then to Samael, completely baffled by why anyone would want to choose to do something that would make them uncomfortable, yet intrigued by the possibility of new sensations that would be offered as a result.\n\n\n\n“Why would we choose to do something that may harm us?” Adam asked.\n\n\n\n“For the thrill of it of course,” Samael said, a smile curling his lips.\n\n\n\n“I don’t think that’s something we want to partake in,” Eve said, holding his arm gently in an attempt to turn him away from the temptation.\n\n\n\nSamael wasn’t so easy to turn aside. He always had a tendency to lean towards his curiosities. He approached the tree, and picked a fruit from its limb. It appeared to be a type of apple, different from all of the others found in this area. He found it odd that there was only one tree in all of the garden that bore this fruit, and was located directly in the center. Almost as if Father were highlighting it to the humans. Yet why were they afraid of this simple fruit? \n\n\n\nHe brought it closer to his face and examined it, not finding anything particularly abhorrent in its shape or color. He proceeded to smell it, and found its scent delightful in its richness. \n\n\n\nHe heard a flap of wings, and soon saw his brother Amenadiel standing before him, large black wings splayed out to their full length.\n\n\n\n“Put the apple down brother,” he ordered.\n\n\n\n“Why?” Samael asked.\n\n\n\n“The humans are not meant to eat it,” he replied.\n\n\n\n“Brother, its an apple!” Samael said with a laugh. “What’s wrong with this fruit?”\n\n\n\n“Fear, is not an emotion God wants these humans to feel. They shouldn’t even have a name for it! What you are doing is wrong, and will cause them pain and suffering. These are creatures you adore, don’t make them experience that, put the apple down,” Amenadiel stated.\n\n\n\nAdam and Eve were not moving. They stared where Samael had been before. Samael walked towards them curiously, in awe of their lack of motion. They were not dead like the deer had been before, but were slowed down. He looked to his brother. They had been learning that each angel hosted an ability, and Samael was now seeing Amenadiel’s in action. He smiled, impressed at how powerful his brother was.\n\n\n\n“Amazing brother, did you know you could affect this world like this?” Samael asked, continuing to pace around the humans with curiosity fully in his gaze.\n\n\n\n“No… I did not…” Amenadiel said, just as amazed as his brother.\n\n\n\nTime passed slowly. Samael threw the apple up and caught it once more, turning the attention away from the humans as he pondered.\n\n\n\n“Brother, if Father loves these creatures so much and doesn’t wish them harm, then why would he have created this tree and placed it in their garden in the first place?” Samael questioned.\n\n\n\n“Perhaps it is so that they may learn the importance of obedience,” Amenadiel responded, holding out a hand to indicate that his brother should give him the apple.\n\n\n\n“Right,” Samael said. He strongly respected his older brother, and knew that he always knew what was best. Samael gave the apple to his brother, who placed it gently next to the tree.\n\n\n\n“Father loves you brother, but please be careful, I’m concerned with what some of our siblings are starting to say back home.” Amenadiel warned.\n\n\n\n“What is it that they are saying then dear brother?” Samael asked, curious as to what could possibly disturb his righteous brother.\n\n\n\n“That Father may have forgotten them. They say it is something you spoke of first,” Amenadiel said. “Father will never abandon you brother, do you not believe in Him?”\n\n\n\nSamael shook his head. “I have never said that, only that I can never impress him. All I’m asking for is a thank you, is that really so much to ask? I have helped these creatures, I’ve taught them how to fend for themselves, how to build structures, create art, sing, but Father remains silent. Does he not appreciate what I’ve done? They are his favorite creatures after all,” his shoulders rolled forward, and his gaze became forlorn. “If He still loves us, why doesn’t He ever express it?”\n\n\n\nAmenadiel placed a hand on his brother’s shoulder to comfort him. “I don’t know brother, but you should have more faith in His devotion to us. We are His children, beloved and holden unto Him. We share His home, whereas these poor creatures will never see the light of the city, we have that, and we have each other. Come home brother, please, spend time with the family that still cares for you,”\n\n\n\nSamael conceded to his brother’s request, and returned home, leaving Adam and Eve to their paradise, and the tree that caused them discomfort.\n\n\n\n_____\n\n\n\nHeaven itself did not subside Samael’s desire for comfort. He learned from his brothers and sisters about all of their excursions traveling the stars of his design, and the worlds Father and Mother had created. They were all taken by the marvels of these creations, and all sang glory to their Parents’ names.\n\n\n\nSamael began to grow colder and more distant from them the more time he’d spent there. His siblings longed for him to concede the foolish notion that Father and Mother did not appreciate their work. They were enjoying the work of their children from afar, could they not simply celebrate as siblings for their accomplishments?\n\n\n\nThe disquiet from Samael’s coldness began to affect his siblings closest to him. Azrael, and Raguel were the most susceptible to his woes. A new emotion had been created from the trio, sadness was born out of a loss for a time when their family had been close. They discussed it together, and confided in one another. This in turn led to others in the large family of heaven learning of it, and it spread amongst the heavens. It became a negative hole that spread in a place meant to be pure and bright.\n\n\n\nOther angels saw this negativity and knew it to not be meant for their divine home. Amenadiel was chief among those who began to worry over this ongoing despair that was beginning to wreck the halls of the pure and devout temple. It had all started with Samael, the one who shone the brightest, now tainting this place with darkness. He longed to appease his brother whom he loved so dearly, but every time he tried it was Samael’s stubbornness that kept him from understanding how Father and Mother’s silence could be a good thing. \n\n\n\nThere came a day that Samael no longer could stand in Heaven without being overwhelmed by these feelings of abandonment. He chose to return to Earth, this time not to appease his Father or Mother, but to be amongst the creatures who longed for his companionship.\n\n\n\n_______\n\n\n\nEve and Adam were in their shelter when he returned. They were intertwined with one another, lost in the moment, and failed to see the angel standing before them. For some reason unbeknownst to him Samael felt he was intruding on something sacred, and private. He chose not to let himself be seen, and decided to wander and let them finish their courtship in private.\n\n\n\nAs he wandered the forests of Eden, he came across the tree once more. Still bearing its many fruits. He was aware of the seasons that took place outside of the garden, and had seen how the environment had changed throughout the centuries to now be cold, snowy and dark. The dinosaurs that once roamed the rest of the planet were now replaced by mammals similar to creatures of the garden, who held lots of fur and weight to protect themselves from the harsh environments. Yet Eden never changed. It remained pure, and untouched by time or elements. There was a peace here that Samael could no longer even find at home, a place he once revered.\n\n\n\nThe sadness that had slowly grown in him began to well into his throat, as he started to release it in song. A pained lullaby that was new and different rang from a voice that had only ever sung of praise and joy before then. He did not know how long he sat there, relishing in the release of emotion that had overcome him, but he did see that the sun had begun to set. \n\n\n\nA gentle hand touched his soft feathers, and he turned to see Eve, who had wetness in her eyes as she comforted him, not knowing what it was she felt. Samael leaned into the touch, and tried to find peace there near her. He noticed the apple he had picked before still resting next to the tree unspoiled although it had been years since it had been touched. It was as unnatural, as these feelings appeared to be. \n\n\n\nThey held each other, before giving into the passion still present between them. On release, Samael found the comfort he had so desperately sought, given by this creature whom his Father had come to care for over himself. \n\n\n\n______\n\n\n\nWhen morning came he awoke, still holding Eve, until Adam came and found them there. She stood up quickly. Samael looked between the two of them curiously as to why they were reacting the way they were.\n\n\n\n“Why are you here?” Adam asked.\n\n\n\n“I came to visit, like I’ve always done,” Samael said confused.\n\n\n\n“Not you. Eve.” Adam indicated her. “We were with one another, why did you come to be with him?”\n\n\n\nEve looked between the two of them. “It's what we’ve always done,” she said.\n\n\n\n“No, it's different isn’t it?” Adam asked. Samael noticed an odd cracking in the man’s voice as he began pleading with Eve. “Do you rather lay with him than I?” he asked.\n\n\n\nEve looked at Samael lost in thought, and did not give an answer.\n\n\n\nSamael remained confused as to why Adam was reacting the way that he had. “Would you care to join us?” he asked.\n\n\n\n“What?” Adam responded.\n\n\n\n“Would you care to lay with us?” He asked again simply.\n\n\n\n“I felt things last night Adam. Things I’ve never felt before. I wanted to lay with Samael,” Eve responded finally, looking at Samael, and stroking his feathers playfully.\n\n\n\nAdam’s eyes became wet, similar to how Eve’s had been the night before. He shook his head and walked off without another word.\n\n\n\n“What’s happening?” Samael asked curiously to Eve.\n\n\n\n“I’m not sure,” Eve replied.\n\n\n\nShe looked at him in the same way he had seen her look at Adam the night the two had danced. Suddenly feeling an unease settling in his stomach he turned back to the tree. The apples still hanging temptingly from the branches. He stood to pick the same apple off the ground, and examined it once more, the sweet smell of it tempting his growing hunger.\n\n\n\n“What is it like outside the garden?” Eve asked. “Where do you go when you leave us?”\n\n\n\nSamael looked at her, the same feeling locked in his gut as he pondered a response.\n\n\n\n“The Silver City. It’s nothing to crow about really, once it was where I felt appreciated and respected. Lately it has felt empty and quiet, even though the angels still sing, and the halls are forever full.” he said.\n\n\n\n“What changed?” Eve asked, touching the soft skin of the apple he held.\n\n\n\n“Father and Mother remain silent, as they prefer to spend their time watching you.” Samael said.\n\n\n\n“I appreciate and respect you Samael,” she took her hand away from the apple, and began to play with Samael’s arms.\n\n\n\nHe paused for a moment, an idea striking him. “Outside the garden there is a whole planet untouched by humanity. We could go there together, start something new with just each other, away from Father’s prying eyes” \n\n\n\nHe offered her the apple.\n\n\n\n“What do you desire?” Samael asked.\n\n\n\nHe felt a strange sensation as he waited for a response. Was it her will that he sensed when he asked the question? She gave into his question fascinated by his whole being, “I want to be with you Samael,”\n\n\n\nShe looked down at the apple he’d offered her, and proceeded to take a sensuous bite. After swallowing she fully wrapped her arms around his waist, pulling him closer to her still naked form. They kissed passionately, the apple falling to the ground once more, as the first sin was born from a rush of lust that threatened to destroy the paradise they stood amongst. \n\n\n\n_____\n\n\n\nThey made their way to the gates of the Garden. It was encompassed by plants that reached all the way up to a towering walls of stone, an opening Samael had witnessed the centuries he had flown here was wedged between where two stone walls had met. They came close to the entrance and Samael stopped, seeing the cold harshness of the outside, knowing the creatures out there were prepared for the harsh environment, while Eve, lovely as she was, stood next to him bare skinned.\n\n\n\n“Do you still hunt?” Samael asked.\n\n\n\nEve looked at the path before them, then looked back up to him. “Yes, why?”\n\n\n\nHe grabbed her hand, “We need to find the hairiest beast here and hunt it so that we can have food for our trek, can you do that while I start a fire for the night,”\n\n\n\nEve looked at him curiously, “There are beasts out there,” she said.\n\n\n\n“Yes, but it’s cold out there and you need protection from the elements,” Samael explained.\n\n\n\nShe looked at him blankly, clearly not understanding. That feeling in his stomach returned as he asked her again to find a creature with lots of fur. She obliged him and wandered into the garden to hunt. Samael began to collect fruits and berries that could help them.\n\n\n\nAs the hours passed and darkness began to creep in, Adam eventually appeared, drawn to the light Samael always seemed to possess even at night time. Samael stopped picking the blueberries and looked at Adam curiously.\n\n\n\n“Would you care to join us tonight?” he asked.\n\n\n\n“Why her?” Adam asked.\n\n\n\n“I’m inviting you as well. Are you well Adam, you have been acting unusual lately,” \n\n\n\n“Why do you want her? Why not someone, anyone else?” Adam continued to move towards him.\n\n\n\n“Adam, I’m not playing favorites. That’s Dad’s jam, not mine. What is distressing you? What is it you desire?” \n\n\n\nAdam paused, mesmerized by Samael’s gaze. Samael felt that odd tingling sensation as he somehow felt Adam concede to his question. “I want her, only her. I want you to go away and leave us alone so that we can be happy, like we always were. But the way she looks at you, the way she holds you, it makes me feel like she will never want me again, and that feels…”\n\n\n\nThe way he’d felt about his Father, the loss, the… sadness… it was present in Adam’s features as well. While he understood that feeling of sadness, the other sensation that was running through him was entirely new and unexpected. His stomach was tightening as he experienced guilt for the first time since his creation. It felt horrible, and he did not understand why or how it was happening, or how to make it go away.\n\n\n\n“She wishes to leave Adam, she wants to see more beyond this garden. I think you should join her. I’ve taught you about hunting, fishing, and other methods you will need to employ to survive, but I’ll need to teach you about clothing before you can both go. Eve is hunting at the moment, why don’t we start a fire and we can talk,” Samael offered, fighting back that tightening sensation that had now moved to his throat whenever he swallowed.\n\n\n\nAdam agreed. Soon after he had the fire started. Samael joined him and sat down.\n\n\n\n“Why do you want only her? Am I not worthy of you as well?” Samael asked as he began to stroke Adam’s arm, an action he had done numerous times with a pleasant response. This time Adam pulled away, seemingly distraught at the gesture.\n\n\n\n“It's not about you Samael. It’s about her wanting to leave me to be with you,” Adam said.\n\n\n\n“We never excluded you Adam, you just weren’t there last night that’s all, nothing about this is any different,” He remembered the way Eve had looked at him the previous night, the sharp tightening in his stomach returned. What if he was wrong?\n\n\n\n“I don’t believe that Samael. Although I don’t believe you had any bad intentions either, just know what I ask and keep it in mind for the future?” Adam asked.\n\n\n\nSamael nodded in understanding, agreeing to do his best.\n\n\n\nEve returned with many numerous animals that sported fine, thick coats. Samael helped them skin the animals, and taught them of clothing and its use. Before the end of the next day both Adam and Eve were wearing fur for the first time. Samael tried to explain the harshness of weather, but the pair remained confused with the concept, it was simply something they would have to bear witness to. They were as prepared as they ever would be. Samael escorted them to the entrance of the garden.\n\n\n\n___________\n\n\n\nWhen they left Adam and Eve felt the coldness of the air threatening their bare skin. Beyond the wall there stood a mighty angel holding a long blade lit aflame by Samael many centuries ago in the kingdom of heaven when they were fledglings together. The blade was reputed to be able to cut through anything, including the gates of heaven itself. Gabriel’s eyes met Samael’s as he saw the two humans outside of the paradise that had been created specially for them, the most beloved of Father’s creations. They were shivering, and appeared weak and unprepared for the harshness of this new world.\n\n\n\n“Samael, brother, what have you done?” the archangel asked in horror. “No mortal being is ever allowed to enter or leave this place. It was an order given by Father shortly after its creation. Now that they have left, they can never return,”\n\n\n\nAdam and Eve looked to Samael with fear in their eyes. \n\n\n\n“Out here time and age are existent not eternal. They will wither and die. Is that what you sought for them?” Gabriel asked exacerbated by the ramifications that may come from this choice.\n\n\n\n“Gabriel, I am simply helping them achieve their desires.” Samael smiled proudly, clearly feeling no shame from the act “That is my gift from Father Gabriel. This is what they want, I helped them to make that choice. Father will finally see that I am worthy of his love for helping the humans make that leap which they never would have been able to do without me,”\n\n\n\n“Brother you are misguided. They will suffer for the choice that they have made today,” Gabriel sadly spoke.\n\n\n\n“I’ve done nothing wrong brother,” Samael said, taken aback by the hurtful words coming from his beloved brother.\n\n\n\n“I am sorry brother, what is done is done,” He looked to the humans with deep compassion and sorrow. “I am sorry, but you must leave here and never return,”\n\n\n\nAdam and Eve clung to each other. \n\n\n\n“This won’t be forever,” Samael said to them. “Take care of each other, and I will make sure you get back home one day, I promise,” \n\n\n\nSamael stood in shock as they did as Gabriel said and left the only home they had ever known, to a fruitless, cold and cruel world. He watched them on their journey, and turned to his brother. \n\n\n\n“Why would you do this to them?!” he asked, wetness streaming from his face. “That was their home, why would you cast them out? They have done nothing wrong!”\n\n\n\n“They chose to leave when it was made clear they weren’t allowed to brother. They sealed their own fate, this was Father’s command,” Gabriel explained.\n\n\n\n“I don’t believe that brother. If he loved them, he would never have abandoned them!” Samael said, when another new emotion was flowing through him, anger. “I’ll see what my siblings have to say about this!”\n\n\n\nHis gossamer white wings unfurled as he made the trek to the heavens from where he was created. Gabriel stayed, following the orders of his Father loyally with concern for his brother’s future fate.\n\n\n\n____________\n\n\n\nIn the halls of the Silver City, Samael explained his position. He described the unjust nature that had befallen the humans he closely regarded as friends. Many agreed with his plight, and argued with him that what was done had been unfair. They sided with him, as he argued again and again about how they had been abandoned, and were now making the wrong choices that were harming the creations Father had held so dear.\n\n\n\nThe arguments continued for years, never fully gaining any ground, and heaven became infested with the anger, hatred, and pain that resulted from these feuds. \n\n\n\nOne day Samael stood off in an alleyway, far from the throne of his Father where many of his brothers and sisters continued to sing His praise. He had finished speaking to Azrael on the topic when Amenadiel approached him. His brother had continued to be on Father’s side, always claiming that there was a larger purpose to Father’s actions, and his faith never wavered.\n\n\n\n“Brother, I am concerned with what I have been hearing,” Amenadiel spoke, pulling Samael into a hug, who did not reciprocate it. “Please stop with these wild accusations, you are tearing apart what makes this city Holy,”\n\n\n\n“Do I?” Samael, pushed him away violently. “Do I really brother? Am I that much of a nuisance to our home?!” his glare grew intense towards his brother at this accusation. Dark eyes glared menacingly. “If I’m that much of a bother, perhaps He should cast me aside like he did his precious humans!” he said, his voice rang loudly throughout the halls as angels nearby grew into silence. “I’m done speaking brother, I’ve had it,” he pushed past his brother and left the hallway, beckoning many of his siblings to his side.\n\n\n\nGathering his siblings together as they had been discussing for weeks at this point, they collected weapons that had been assigned to them since near the beginning of time and decided to finally take action. Samael had decided that perhaps this would be the only way to receive his Father’s attention, and make it clear that many of the angels were not happy. He did it for them, and he did it for the humans who were unjustly cast from their paradise, a fate they never deserved. Father would pay for his treachery to the beings he had loved so deeply, to the family He had abandoned when they only sought his love.\n\n\n\nIt was the day all of Heaven cried. The day war had been invented through rebellion, and the day Samael’s army was defeated by the other archangels of heaven. The beaten angels were placed upon the throne to be judged. \n\n\n\nMichael, highest of all of the angels looked over them in sadness. “Fighting has no place in the halls of heaven, and whilst many of you fought I feel as though you were deceived by only one among you who has spread false truths that have harmed our house,” \n\n\n\nSamael looked up towards his mighty brother, nothing but scorn emitting from his eyes.\n\n\n\n“Samael, you are the only one who is to be judged today. If the fighting begins again, know that the rest of you will be judged!” The silver angel watched as his brothers and sisters were released from their chains and flew away free, saddened by whatever fate fell their brother, the most beloved light in their skies.\n\n\n\n“Samael…” Michael began, voice ringing with a beautiful sorrow. “Your pride has been your downfall brother, you did not help the humans, and you have brought turmoil to your home.” \n\n\n\n“I did what I had to! What none of you had the guts to do brother! Don’t you see? He’s abandoned us! He stopped loving us long ago!” Samael objected.\n\n\n\n“Father loves you Samael, as do we all. You could never admit that you are wrong about any that which you spoke,” \n\n\n\n“Why won’t he just say it? Why isn’t he HERE?! Does he care so little about us brother? Why do you always follow whatever choices He makes for you? Let me go! I’ve done nothing wrong brother! Can’t you see that?” Samael pled to his brother, tears streaming down his cheeks. “Am I so horrible that I’m not worthy of your love either?”\n\n\n\nMichael shook his head, sorrow feeling his every being. “You are not worthy of this life brother. Father has commanded your sentence,”\n\n\n\nSamael watched, scared of what his brother would say next. The chains that bound him could not hide the shrinking of his figure, his pure white wings bound within them puffed and stretched, making appear larger, like a cat frightened of being caught. He wanted to run, to flee, life had been too short to see it end so abruptly when all he wanted was to be accepted. Everything in his body shivered uncontrollably as Michael approached.\n\n\n\n“Brother-” Samael began.\n\n\n\n“You are never to return Samael,” His brother spoke softly, as he placed one sorrow filled hand on the chains that bound the beloved Lightbringer.\n\n\n\nThe chains grew heavy, and hot against Samael’s skin. His wrists burned as he felt the weight begin pulling him down. He fell, down into the abyss, through the heavens, past the stars that still shone brightly with his light, past the earth where he had treacherously aided the humans in leaving their own paradise, and into the fires of Hell where the demons resided, and would regard him in trepidation and fear as he created a new home for himself in a fiery damnation he could never fully escape.\n"}
+{"text": "\n Stratos’s Apartment, Siena - July 3rd, 1999 \n\n\n \n\nRosalie Øllegaard was in a terribly good mood, all things considered. \n\nThe woman sauntered down the hall of the Siena flat humming softly to herself and thinking about the excitement of the previous day.\n\nShe could feel the smooth silk of her short nightgown swish back and forth across her bare skin, bringing her mind back to one exciting event in particular.\n\nRaymond Reddington had snuck into her room, teased her into a frenzy,  and robbed her not only of speech, but of her panties.\n\nIf she focused, Rosalie could still recall the feel of his heavy shaft rocking against her sensitive flesh without mercy, driving her right to the edge.\n\nGod was  that  a thrilling and excruciating interlude  . \n\nRosalie had tossed and turned for hours afterward, trying to key down her roaring libido. She finally succumbed to her need in the early morning light, rocking against her trembling fingers until she was gasping and writhing beneath the sheets, her mind firmly fixed on the man down the hall.\n\nThe young innkeeper grinned at the thought of her wanton behavior, a small giggle escaping her chest without warning. She planned to regale her early morning activities to Red as soon as possible, looking forward to the predatory look which would darken his handsome features.\n\nNo, her cheery demeanor had nothing to do with her upcoming date with Raymond Reddington, nor his late night panty raid…or at least, that’s what she told herself.\n\nThankfully, Rosalie reached her bedroom without encountering anyone. The house was quiet. The late-night festivities had left many of their household sleeping in, which suited her just fine.\n\nShe strode casually into her bedroom, hanging her towel on the hook before wandering about the room to begin packing some of her things. They would be leaving Siena the following day for Greece, as Stratos had business which needed Raymond’s attention. \n\nRosalie was pleased at this, for she very much liked the debonaire Greek and his boyish charm. He was endlessly polite and terribly funny, a true joy to be around. \n\nMore than anything, however, she loved seeing the obvious friendship between Stratos and Raymond. \n\nThey were quite the sight, chortling and swaggering about like a pair of bantam cocks in a hen yard. The women wandering about Siena certainly took notice, giggling and whispering behind their fans to each other as the men dealt, bet, and bribed the week away. \n\nRosalie couldn’t blame them. \n\nThe men were certainly handsome, not to mention their old fashioned charm. Their gate and stature held an aura of power and masculinity which beckoned the attention of every female in a few block’s radius. Rosalie had pointed this out one afternoon, laughing merrily as Stratos preened under the comment.\n\nThere were endless stories being bandied about between the two.  Most were meant to tease or embarrass each other for the group’s enjoyment, however, some were truly wild and enthralling.  Rosalie had listened to each and every one, giggling at their shenanigans and commiserating with their foibles.\n\nAnother giggle escaped her as she pulled out her overnight bag and set it on the bed. From the corner of her eye, Rosalie noticed something out of place.\n\nA white card lay propped up on the bed, plain and unassuming. \n\nThe woman plucked it from the coverlet with a wide grin.\n\nWritten in a familiar, neat script, was a note from Raymond.\n\n\n Third Bay, Fifth Shelf, White Bow. \n\n\n\n -R \n\n\nRosalie sighed excitedly, the message sending her scurrying for the lounge.\n\nRaymond’s deep, soothing drawl could be heard within, making the little woman’s stomach flip as she silently turned the handle. \n\nThe quiet room was glowing pink in the morning sun, casting a rosy light over its sole occupant.\n\nRed sat behind the large desk, talking with an associate, pinching the bridge of his nose. His shoulders were tense and his usually warm voice had become clipped and sharp.\n\nA rueful smile twitched at Rosalie’s lips. He looked awfully surly. \n\nAn overwhelming playfulness came over her, determined to give the man something to smile about.\n\nShe strode casually toward the third bay of books, garnering his undivided attention. \n\nRaymond eyed the scantily-clad form as she sauntered along without a care in the world, his voice dropping lower of its own accord while he watched her hips sway this way and that. \n\nShe was in the same negligee as the night before, and from the looks of it, hadn’t sought out any lingerie after he had unceremoniously stolen hers. The knowledge made his cock twitch.\n\nRosalie stopped in front of the requisite bay of books and cast her eyes upward. There, on the fifth shelf, was a thick tome with a white ribbon tied in a neat bow.\n\nShe reached up onto her tiptoes, wiggling slightly as she tried to reach the book. \n\nRaymond couldn’t help the small smile playing on his lips. \n\n“No, go ahead, I’m listening,” he lied to the man on the other line. Red was far too preoccupied with the hem of the negligee inching its way north, ready to give him a long-awaited peak at the prize beneath.\n\nHaving a good idea where his eyes were, Rosalie spread her legs minutely, enjoying the hell out of the sharp inhale which issued from behind her. \n\n‘ Damnable little minx, ’ he thought. He longed for a glimpse of the little pink treasure residing just out of view. Tilting his head to the side, Red leaned till he was all but lying his head on the desk, mentally willing the garment to move just a fraction of an inch higher. \n\nRosalie let out an amused scoff as she realized there was no way she could reach the book. She danced about on the tips of her toes, attempting to gain purchase on the elusive item, blissfully unaware she was driving a certain fugitive out of his mind.\n\nTaking pity on her fruitless pursuits and his throbbing erection, Raymond stood, leaving the phone face up on the desk. His associate continued to blather on about some nonsense issue in Singapore while Red’s attention shifted to more exciting possibilities.\n\n“May I assist?” He rumbled, appearing behind her and catching her off guard.��\n\nRosalie leapt away from the shelf, bouncing off his solid chest. “Oh, um, yes. Please.” She added, her expression sheepish.\n\nRather than reaching up for the book, the man bent down and wrapped his arms about her thighs. Rosalie squealed her surprise when he lifted her skyward.\n\nHer hands dropped to his broad shoulders, stabilizing herself with his solid frame.\n\nRaymond smiled up at her, enjoying the feel of the soft, warm bundle in his arms. \n\nRosalie looked down, pleased to find him in a better mood. Forgetting her task for the moment, she bent and placed her lips to his. Her nimble fingers stroked through his hair, sending goosebumps along his neck.\n\nRaymond responded in kind, deepening the kiss and sucking her bottom lip between his teeth.\n\nThe action pulled a tremulous noise from his captive, her hands moving to run up and down his back and shoulders.\n\nRed hummed his contentment, swiping her kiss-swollen lips with his tongue. \n\nRosalie opened to him, moaning when the muscle danced playfully with hers.\n\n“Red?” A voice could be heard calling quietly from the phone. \n\n“He’s busy.” The woman sighed against his mouth wrapping her legs possessively about the man’s waist.\n\nRed chuckled darkly and pressed her into the bookshelf. His mouth continued to explore hers, enjoying each little mew and sigh he garnered along the way.\n\n“I take it you found my note?” He questioned heatedly, carrying his lips down her neck. \n\n“Y-yes,” she stammered as his tongue flicked languidly back and forth over the spot where her neck and shoulder met. \n\n“ Raymond… ” He had found a sweet spot, and the woman positively squirmed in praise of his discovery.\n\n“Oh, you like that, don’t you?” His sharp teeth nipped the same spot as a cascade of goosebumps rippled along her skin. \n\n“ Yes ” She hissed her pleasure as his warm hands gripped the backs of her thighs. The tips of his fingers were so close to her sex, it made the wet little alcove throb painfully. \n\n“You’re burning up, little dove.” Red purred knowingly, his fingers digging into the giving flesh of her bare backside.\n\nHe was trying like hell to hold himself in check, but her body was calling his name. He could feel the heat rolling off her, and the knowledge her panties were tucked safely in his jacket pocket only added to his delirious desire.\n\n“...Ray?” came the voice from the phone.\n\n“Duty calls,” pouted the woman, her tongue still rolling sensually against his.\n\n“It can damn well wait.” Insisted Raymond, fully intent on the task at hand. He deepened the kiss, groaning his pleasure when Rosalie nipped him in response.\n\nHer little hands stroked his neck, helping them both to cool their ardour. Slowly, they shifted to a softer, gentler exploration.\n\nRosalie’s nose nudged Raymond’s chin, exposing his jaw and throat to her affection. She peppered the stubble with soft kisses, humming her contentment as she did so.\n\nThe affectionate gesture soothed him further, quieting the roar of his arousal to a soft purr. \n\nRed realized as a book shifted behind her, he was rapidly developing a habit of pinning the woman to any and all available surfaces. The thought made him laugh, the warm sound vibrating against Rosalie’s lips pleasantly.\n\n“What, pray tell, has you so amused?” She asked, reaching a hand up to card lazily through his hair.\n\n“I seem to have developed a fondness for backing you into hard objects and ravishing you against them.” He noted, shifting more of her weight to his arms. “Are you uncomfortable?”\n\nRosalie snorted her amusement. “I am perfectly fine, and as a matter of record, I very much  like being stuck between you and any available hard place.”\n\n“Is that so?” He barely held his intrigue, eyeing her rosy lips and pleasantly disheveled curls with a serious facade. “I didn’t realize you enjoyed such antics.”\n\nHer long lashes batted coyly up at him. “If you stop pinning me to things, Raymond Reddington, I’ll be terribly cross with you.”\n\nRed chuckled, brushing his nose against hers. “Duly noted, little dove. We’re still on for tonight?”\n\nThe dark grey eyes sparked with excitement. “I’ll be there with bells on.” \n\nShe reached for the book with the bow above her head, pulling it out gingerly. \n\n“ And  a wealth of knowledge about...” she glanced at the cover, “...ranunculus?” Her amusement grew by leaps and bounds.\n\nThe quip made Raymond laugh, a deep, sultry sound that rumbled joyously against the young innkeeper’s skin.\n\n“Your wit is dazzling, but I have to see to a bit of business today.” He grumbled, turning and shifting her carefully back to the floor.\n\n“Something thrilling, no doubt, judging by your phone call.” She teased, gesturing at the phone still lying on his desk.\n\nThe associate still hadn’t given up, echoing Reddington’s name again as both fugitives sniggered.\n\nRosalie slid down Red’s tall frame, her night dress riding up ever so slightly.\n\nRaymond made the mistake of looking up into the mirror hanging on the wall behind them, catching an unadulterated peek at one firm, rounded cheek of her backside. The sight made him ache all over again. He silently cursed his lot in life as he stared dazedly at the expanse of pristine, soft skin. \n\n\n Damn it all to hell.  \n\n\nRaymond could feel his traitorous body responding all too readily to the view.\n\nAnother giggle escaped Rosalie as she attempted to shift her attire. She moved to shoo Red’s hand away, but he dodged her expertly, his large palm sneaking past to cup the exposed mound.\n\nRosalie arched into his grip, a soft groan issuing from her throat.\n\nThe man grunted his desire, watching his masculine fingers curl into the delectable curve, gripping it possessively.\n\n“I can’t take much more of this.” He vowed, eyes never leaving the exquisite view in the mirror. He kneaded the supple curve once more before reluctantly shifting the hem of her negligee back down and kissing her temple.\n\n“I’m picking you up at seven.” He decided.\n\n“How about six?” Rosalie joked, hoisting her book more securely in her arms.\n\n“Perfect.” Red responded casually, smirking at the surprised look on her face. “It will make the tedium of today go by so much faster.”\n\nRosalie beamed at him, reaching on her tiptoes to kiss him softly. “It’s a date.” She sighed.\n\n“Go, read your book, have some coffee and relax today.” He advised, tucking an errant curl behind her ear. \n\nRosalie’s eyes softened as she looked at him, his suggestion sounding delightful. “I’ll bring you a cup.” She offered, heading for the door.\n\nRed nodded his thanks and picked up the burner phone with a sigh. “Sorry Max, dozed off for a moment. You were saying?”\n\nRosalie stifled a laugh as she stepped out into the hall, catching part of his poor cover story. \n\nShe set about returning to her room, intent on getting ready for the day. She admired the book’s cover while she walked. It held illustrations of several flowers including bluebell, lilac, and tulips.\n\nThe young woman broke out into another grin as she tugged on the bow, eager to see why Raymond had lead her to this particular text.\n\nRosalie padded into the room, nose in her book, heading for her wardrobe; the woman had just stepped over the threshold when something caught her attention. \n\nShe took one step backward out of the closet to see a large assortment of flowers in a tall vase waiting on the dressing table.\n\nThe sight elicited a delighted gasp from Rosalie, who wasted no time in crossing the room to examine the beautiful array.\n\nIt was truly a gorgeous arrangement, brimming with black-eyed white anemone, lush silverston roses, and palest blush ranunculus. The flowers were magnificent, creating a unique and fragrant bouquet unlike anything Rosalie had received before.\n\nThe book Raymond had given her suddenly made much more sense.\n\nIt was an encyclopedia of sorts, showing illustrations of hundreds of flowers, various information about the genus, its uses, and the meaning behind each bloom.\n\nAnother white card was tucked in the page titled, ‘Anemone.’\n\n\n My Dear Rosalie, \n\n\n\n A little token to entertain you in my absence. \n\n\n\n Looking forward to tonight, \n\n\n\n -R \n\n\nThe note made Rosalie’s entire body flush and her insides squirm excitedly.\n\nBefore she could settle into her intriguing task, Rosalie dressed and went to grab a large cup of coffee per Raymond’s suggestion.\n\nHorace and Dembe were already eating breakfast in the kitchen. Both men grinned knowingly at the chipper woman when she appeared.\n\n“Good morning, boys.” She practically sang, pinching Horace’s side and giving Dembe a playful peck on the cheek.\n\n“What have I said about trying to corrupt Dembe?” A deep voice accused from the doorway. \n\nRosalie squeaked, turning and beaming at Raymond, who practically prowled into the kitchen. She pulled out another cup and poured him some coffee, holding it out with a smile. “Long time no see.” She crooned.\n\nHe took the cup gratefully, taking a long sip of the hot liquid as he flashed her a wink.\n\nRosalie glanced surreptitiously up at him. “I forgot to say so earlier, because, well…”\n\n“My tongue was in your mouth?” Red supplied in a low purr, cocking his head confidently. He had rather enjoyed their rambunctious interlude against the bookcase.\n\nHorace looked up, utterly appalled, as Dembe’s shoulders shook with silent laughter.\n\nRosalie blushed scarlet and nodded, her dark eyes dancing with mirth. “I wanted to say thank you for the book, and the flowers, they’re absolutely exquisite.”\n\nRaymond’s lips twitched into a warm smile as he wrapped himself around her feminine frame. “I’m glad they’re to your liking. I trust you’ve unearthed the purpose of the book?”\n\n“I have, you clever man. You certainly know how to keep a girl occupied.”\n\n“Sweetheart, you have no idea.” He laughed, thoroughly enjoying the double entendre. His eyes flitted up to meet the dark, chastising orbs of Rosalie’s guard. “Give her enough books to build a castle.” Raymond lied smoothly, his eyebrows quirking upward as he gave the man an innocent nod.\n\nWhile still very much in the guard’s line of view, Red met Rosalie’s gaze and mouthed emphatically, ‘ Not at all what I meant.’ \n\nThe innkeeper covered her mouth, trying desperately to smother her laughter.\n\n“You’ll have to tell me what you’ve learned tonight.” He continued, enjoying her amusement.\n\n“Is there going to be a quiz?” Rosalie quipped, tentatively nuzzling his jaw, unsure how he would feel about showing such affection in front of the boys.\n\nSensing her train of thought, Raymond leaned forward, encouraging such familiarity. “Multiple choice-” his breath hitched as she placed her lips to his pulse point, “and a few essay questions.”\n\nHorace mimed vomiting into his bowl, earning a scowl from his charge.\n\nWaylaying the upcoming battle, Red refilled Rosalie’s cup and nudged it toward her. \n\n“Read your book and relax today.” He reminded, “I’ll be here at 6 to pick you up.”\n\n“Is this your way of telling me to behave?” She teased with an impish eyebrow raise.\n\nRed grinned, kissing her once more before shooing her back toward her coffee. “Ready, Dembe?”\n\nThe young man turned and nodded, ruffling Rosalie’s curls before striding after him.\n\nThe innkeeper quickly snatched her coffee and headed for her room.\n\n“Rosie,” began Horace, feeling he should talk with her about Reddington.\n\n“ No ” She responded merrily, pattering out of the kitchen.\n\n“No?” Horace called after her, leaning back in his chair.\n\n“No.” She agreed, “I have a puzzle to solve, you have bacon to eat. We’ll talk on the way to Jacopo’s for lunch.” Her voice echoed down the long hallway before the man heard the snap of her door closing.\n\nThe bodyguard shook his head, laughing reluctantly. The little hellcat was on a mission, and she’d be damned if he got in her way.\n\nIn the quiet of her room, Rosalie finished the last of her packing, leaving out clothes for the following day, any necessities, and most importantly, her dress for that night. The opaque garment bag hung over the door to the wardrobe, waiting patiently.\n\nA knock sounded on the door, followed by Stratos’ voice. “May I come in?”\n\nThe woman answered in the affirmative, as the older man strode casually into the room. “Good morning, Stratos,” she smiled warmly, “Did you sleep well?”\n\n“I did, thank you.” His boyish gaze turned to the bouquet on the dressing table, “I see Raymond has taken to the task of pursuing you with gusto.” \n\nRosalie blushed, carefully bringing the large arrangement  to the console table at the end of the bed. “He has, he’s been very thoughtful.”\n\nStratos beamed at the blooms, reaching out to cup one of the pale purple roses. “The man always has been a hopeless romantic.” He chuckled roguishly, “I was sad to hear you two won’t be joining us for dinner in Onda tonight; but upon hearing the reason why, I was terribly pleased.”The young woman tittered nervously, “Yes, we have a bit of a prior engagement.”\n\nThe statement made Stratos laugh heartily. “From what I’ve heard, it's been a long time coming.”\n\n“My goodness, do Dembe and Horace do anything but gossip like little hens while Raymond and I are distracted?” She asked, garnering another laugh from him.\n\n“No, and you two have been very...distracted while you’ve been here.” teased Stratos, “I have learned a great many things.”\n\nRosalie shook her head for his amusement.\n\n“I am glad you two are pursuing a bit of romance.” The man murmured thoughtfully, still eyeing the flowers. “I’ve known Ray for quite some time, but I have yet to see him have this simple joy others are so easily afforded.”\n\nRosalie’s eyes softened at the statement, unable to school her expression any longer. “I’m terribly nervous.” She confided in a quiet voice.\n\nStratos dropped his hand to his pocket, grinning broadly at her expression. “Raymond loves puzzles. Intricacies and duality are endlessly appealing to him, as they are part of him. This comes out in spades when he is showing affection for someone. He will learn you. Will know your every want, what it takes to win your heart, to earn your trust. From what I understand, you are cut from the same cloth.”\n\n“Oh?” she asked, not sure what he meant. \n\n“Dembe has intimated you have the same proclivity for knowing the man’s wants before he gives them voice.” \n\nA pleased smile broke across Rosalie’s face, confirming the tale told by Red’s bodyguard. \n\nStratos’s eyes softened at her reaction, finding it quite endearing. “I thought so. You have nothing to worry about piccola, you will be in the best of hands. If anyone is worthy of such a lover, it’s Reddington.”\n\nRosalie’s cheeks flushed a vibrant pink as she took in his words.\n\n“Now, being my clever self, I have unearthed where Ray is taking you.” Chortled Stratos in a conspiratorial tone, “Do you have a gown?”\n\nRosalie nodded with a small laugh, striding over to the wardrobe and unzipping the garment bag, nervously awaiting the man’s verdict.\n\nStratos loped gracefully over with a look of boyish delight. He reached out a hand to touch the smooth silk, a deep chuckle building in his chest. “Oh, piccola,” he sighed, reaching an arm around Rosalie’s shoulders, “Try not to kill him, will you? I very much enjoy working with the man.”\n\nRosalie’s eyes widened fretfully, but Stratos reassured her, “I only jest, it is perfect for tonight.” \n\nHe zipped the bag closed, still chortling to himself. Raymond would certainly have his work cut out for him with the young woman. Stratos wasn’t sure she even realized how much the beautiful gown was going to torment him. \n\nStratos stood clapping his hands together once before patting Rosalie’s cheek fondly. “I must go assist your love interest with a bit of business, I’ll ensure he’s back in time for your date.”\n\nRosalie nodded and thanked him as he strode from the room, leaving her to relax in peace.\n\nFinally, she was able to pull out the book Raymond had given her.\n\nClimbing onto her bed, she took a sip of her coffee before setting the book into her lap and opening it. She turned to the section on anemone, the crisp page showed the flower in a variety of its colors. The ones in the arrangement were alabaster white except for the dark bluish black of its stamen. \n\nAccording to the book, anemone was symbolic of anticipation, the excitement of what was to come.\n\nThe passage made Rosalie smile broadly. \n\nThere certainly was a great deal of anticipation for tonight. She was practically vibrating with impatience, willing the clock to move faster.\n\nRosalie allowed the tip of her finger to trace the illustration in the book before reaching up and touching the real thing. The petals were silky soft and curled ever so slightly upward like little teacups.\n\nExcited to see what other meaning lay within the beautiful bouquet, Rosalie selected another flower at random.\n\nTucked prominently in the lush bundle were several tea roses Rosalie recognized as Silverstons. Silverston roses were of a pale purple color with a unique silvery hue. \n\nHaving grown roses at Break Maiden, Rosalie knew these were incredibly difficult to find. She couldn’t help but wonder why Raymond went through all of the trouble of getting them.\n\nHer curiosity roaring to the fore, she turned to the section on roses. \n\nRoses were a classic symbol of love, but there were very different meanings ascribed to each color. White meant innocence, while red meant love and desire. Rosalie thumbed through the colors, finally locating purple. \n\nPurple roses were a symbol of enchantment, of love at first sight. \n\nRosalie’s heart squeezed at the thought.\n\nShe had known Raymond was an old fashioned romantic, it was evident in the way he carried himself and how he interacted with women. What she hadn’t known was there was a huge difference between observing those behaviors and being on the receiving end of them. \n\nRaymond had taken something as common as flowers before a first date and elevated the whole tradition by choosing blooms that not only looked stunning together, but also had a wealth of meaning laced into them. She was overwhelmed and delighted by the level of intricate detail the man had put into the simple gesture.\n\nShe found the symbology of the remaining flowers and greenery without much ado, and by the time she had reached the last one, her eyes were shining with emotion.\n\nShe now had a better understanding of why he had been so adamant on dating her. This was who he was, at his very foundations. Raymond was kind, chivalrous, affectionate, and thoughtful. He had been so deliberate on which flowers were in the bouquet and had led her to a book on their meanings so his intentions with her were very clear. \n\nHe didn’t just want to bed her. He wanted a relationship, in every sense of the word.\n\nHe was willing to wait until the moment was right for them, and not one second earlier. He could see their relationship being so much more than just physical desire, and he wanted Rosalie to understand his intent before tonight. \n\n Raymond Reddington wanted to woo her , she realized with a grin. \n\nThe young woman leaned back into the pillows, gazing in misty affection at the blooms. It was a stunning arrangement, and Raymond had put so much thought and romance into the gesture, it made her heart thrum with appreciation.\n\nShe turned and snagged her satellite phone, dialing the familiar number.\n\nDembe’s calm voice echoed over the connection. “Rosalie.”\n\n“Dembe, is he already in the meeting?” She asked, nibbling her bottom lip.\n\n“No, we just arrived.” He held the phone out to Raymond, “Your lady calls.” \n\nHis tone was teasing, but the young man immediately stepped out of the vehicle, giving them a moment’s privacy.\n\n“The florist didn’t sneak anything crude in there like carnations, I hope.” The rumbling voice carried through the line, garnering a tinkling laugh from the other end.\n\n“No, no carnations.  I just wanted to say thank you again.” Her voice was soft and warm, “The flowers are just lovely, and so incredibly thoughtful, and...”\n\nHe could hear her fidgeting on the other end. \n\n“And...I just cannot wait for tonight.”\n\nThe man beamed triumphantly. He had indeed been quite persnickety about the flowers in the arrangement, seeking to tell her of his intentions and his excitement in his own way. The florist had been rather irritated with him by the end of it, truth be told. Raymond had a sneaking suspicion the man didn’t get many three a.m. calls demanding silverston roses and silver brunia. \n\nHe had still gotten the rare blooms, calling in a favor to an associate from Warsaw. He was terribly pleased she was so appreciative of the gesture as a whole.\n\n“Shall we move it up to five?” He quipped, delighted to hear that tinkling laugh again.\n\n“Yes, please.” She sighed, wanting the day to fly by.\n\nRaymond perked up at her immediate agreement, for he hadn’t expected it. A fond smile lit his features as he realized he’d been waiting for a partner like this for some time. Someone who didn’t question or manipulate their emotions and just voiced what they felt. Someone who was open with their affection and their desire.\n\nHis deep chuckle resonated through the connection, making Rosalie bite her lip and grin at the ceiling.\n\n“We’ve waited long enough, haven’t we?” He crooned softly.\n\n“Too long.” Rosalie agreed, enjoying the mental picture of Raymond in the sleek black sedan, murmuring intimately into the phone.\n\nDembe knocked twice on the window, alerting him to the arrival of the other party.\n\n“I’ll let you get to your meeting.” smiled Rosalie, hearing the telltale noise. “Good luck.”\n\n“Until tonight, my dear.”\n\nThe connection ended and Raymond peered thoughtfully down at the phone.\n\nIt had felt so delightfully normal, so incredibly ordinary.\n\nSending her flowers, kissing her that morning, her calling simply to be sweet and to wish him luck, it made Red’s insides squirm pleasantly.\n\nThe man wondered if this was what other people experienced on a day to day basis. Having someone of his own was quite nice. \n\nLike the early days of their partnership, Raymond was marveling at how easily he could get used to having Rosalie with him in such a capacity.\n\nStepping out of the car, he handed the phone back to Dembe. “Would you mind being our detail for tonight? She’s much more comfortable when it’s just the three of us.”\n\nThe younger man grinned at him. “Not at all, my friend.”\n\n**********************************************************************************************************************************************\n\n\n Stratos’s Apartment, Siena - Early Evening \n\n\n \n\n“Where’s Rosalie?” Raymond asked, removing his hat and stepping into the cool kitchen.\n\nHorace’s dark eyes glanced up momentarily before returning to his book. “Upstairs getting ready, we got back from Jacopo’s an hour or two ago.”\n\n“Anything eventful to report?”\n\nMan’s tanned face crinkled in amusement. “Not unless you want me to spoil the surprise of her attire tonight, which Rosalie has assured me she will have my left bollock for if I do.” He continued, “She and Marquesa were making a few last minute alterations.”\n\nRaymond winced. “Is Marquesa the one I have to thank for that damn romper?”\n\nHorace let out a barking laugh. “She certainly had a hand in it.”\n\n“My God, I’m going to come back from this date a broken man, aren’t I?” Red asked, the joyful tone in his voice incredibly amusing.\n\nThe bodyguard looked up at him, his jaw tight and his lips pursed. “Rosalie… Well, she certainly doesn’t do anything halfway.” He bit back a grin, patting the man on the shoulder before heading to check on his charge. \n\n“She says go with the taupe suit, by the way.”\n\nRed nodded, pouring himself a drink before heading upstairs, his heart pounding like a freight train within his chest. He pulled the light suit from the closet, laying it out on the bed before heading for the master bath.\n\nOnce he was showered and his libido had keyed down, the man set about getting dressed for their date. As he donned a fresh shirt, he settled into a more purposeful mood. \n\nHe and the little blonde down the hall had come a long way to get to this point. It was the culmination of a long year’s worth of fighting what now seemed inevitable. She was his, and he was going to prove it tonight. \n\nRaymond had strode confidently over the lines they had drawn, intent on wooing the woman in every sense of the word. \n\nHe would become her lover, but his ambitions didn't stop there. \n\nRed wanted to be her closest friend and confidant. \n\nHe wanted to convince Rosalie she was safe with him. \n\nHe wanted to show her the man he held carefully guarded within, for her to well and truly know him. \n\nHe wanted her to see the depths of love to which he was capable.\n\nIt was a different Raymond Reddington who donned the suit tonight, and he was determined to win her love in return.\n\nDown the hall, Rosalie fussed in the mirror once more, not entirely convinced of her attire. The dress she chose was daring, even with the modifications. She and Marquesa had shortened the straps to bring the neckline higher, and lowered the split in the leg so her entire hip wasn’t on display. She thought the garment fit her very well, she just hoped the fugitive down the hall would like it too. \n\nWith a nervous sigh, she grabbed her clutch and headed for the door. \n\nHorace was stood in the doorway, chortling at her fussing about like a hen.\n\n“Oh, shut up.” She growled, second guessing the dress all over again. “I’ve just realized in the past ten minutes, I haven’t been on a date in a few years.”\n\n“How the hell did you go without a date for several years?”\n\n“It wasn’t  several  ,” Rosalie snipped her pique, “and I was rather busy, mind, building my network and making sure I didn’t  die .”\n\nHorace shook his head ruefully, “Imagine, forgoing sex for the sake of business.”\n\n“I never said-” Rosalie halted her statement, catching herself before she said something too revealing.\n\nToo late.\n\n“ Really ?” her guard practically howled, his surprise evident. “Florian Armel’s sainted pride and joy, a wicked little rapscallion like the rest of us?”\n\nThe ridiculous statement made Rosalie burst out laughing.\n\n“You know what? I’m rather proud.” Confessed Horace, “I didn’t think you had it in you.”\n\nRosalie scowled at this, “What on earth gave you the impression I was such a prude?”\n\n“I…” The bodyguard looked confusedly at her, “I have no idea.” \n\nHe wrinkled his nose, suddenly looking like someone’s old babushka. “Oh saints alive, is this where I find out you’re some kind of insatiable she-devil? If I find you and Reddington in every available corner-”\n\nThe young woman scoffed indelicately, applying a quick swipe of mascara in the mirror. “There are much more exciting ways to find out I’m an insatiable she-devil. All of which can be avoided by you learning to  knock .” \n\nHorace grinned wolfishly, “Just try not to give the old man a heart attack, ok Rosie?”\n\nHer eyes narrowed moodily at him, “He’s not old, and I’m not trying to kill him.  Why  does everyone keep saying that?”\n\n“Could’ve fooled me,” quipped the bodyguard, ignoring the rhetorical question. “With that dress, I could see this evening going either way.”\n\nRosalie looked nervously down at her attire. “Oh no... It’s not too much, is it?”  She fidgeted about, turning this way and that in the mirror, eyeing her reflection critically.\n\n“The dress is perfect.” Soothed Horace, patting her shoulder fondly. He stood beside her, catching her dark eyes in the mirror with his obsidian ones. \n\n“It takes a very particular woman to stand toe to toe with Reddington. The woman wearing this dress? She is the only woman I would believe capable of walking at his side without living in his shadow. It’s perfect Rosie.”\n\nThe young innkeeper rested her head on his shoulder, her eyes misting slightly. “I just want tonight to go well.” She confided, her nerves getting the better of her.\n\nHorace nodded knowingly, “It’s going to be fine, this is just like those late night excursions you’ve been engaging in for the past year. The only difference being, this time you  know  you’re dating.”\n\nThe woman laughed at the little jab, patting Horace’s cheek in thanks. He was right, she was being ridiculous.\n\nRosalie’s nerves didn’t return until it was time to meet Raymond. She strode through the hall toward the staircase, her heart hammering in her chest.\n\nWhen she descended the stairs into the foyer, it was not to the playful, facetious Raymond Reddington who always accompanied their late-night shenanigans.\n\nThis man was someone else entirely.\n\nHe looked at her with a new emotion, something honest and impassioned.\n\nThey had lowered the barriers separating them, opening the door to the possibility of what they could be, together.\n\nIt was a new beginning, frightening and thrilling at the same time.\n\nRaymond understood what Horace had meant the moment Rosalie stepped out onto the top of the stairs.\n\nHis gaze travelled hungrily up her form, utterly shell shocked at her beauty.\n\nThe dress was a magnificent creation, perfect for an evening out on a warm, Italian summer night. It had a clean, simple cut with no beading or embellishments. A small v neckline cradled her ample breasts while thin, crossing straps left her delicate shoulders on full display. \n\nWhat truly floored Red was the color. The silky material shone softly, like liquid metal. \n\nIt was as if someone had poured rose gold over her form, following the nip of her waist into the full curve of her hips in one uninterrupted river of glimmering fabric. A generous gap parted on one side, allowing a tiny glimpse of her beautiful legs with every step.\n\nThe overall effect was positively stunning. \n\n“ Exquisite .” Raymond breathed, watching her saunter gracefully toward him, a warm smile playing at her lips.\n\n“Too much for a first date?” She asked, dropping her eyes to the garment.\n\n“No.” Red assured her, reaching out and pulling her close. A low, rumbling growl snuck out of his throat as he ran the backs of his fingers up and down her waist. \n\nRaymond’s adam’s apple bobbed as he caught the outline of a tight little nipple perking up against the fabric. His mouth watered at the sight and his thumb immediately sought out the stiff peak, brushing it this way and that. \n\nRosalie gasped softly, pressing into his outstretched hand \n\n“You’re going to torment me all night, aren’t you?” He asked with a grin. \n\nHe couldn’t imagine a sweeter form of torture.\n\n“Just a little.” Sighed Rosalie, her tone playful as she arched closer to his skillful hands.\n\n************************************************************************************************************************************************************\n\nThe drive took only a few minutes, the airstrip they had arrived on earlier that week materializing around them.\n\n“We’re taking the jet?” asked Rosalie, her surprise evident.\n\nRaymond cocked his head, smiling serenely at the bird. “We are. I don’t know about you, but I have no interest in Jacopo, Stratos, or any other residents of Siena joining us tonight.” The green eyes shifted to her, glinting in amused sincerity.\n\nThe young woman flushed with pleasure. She had truthfully been worried about such an occurrence, and had hoped Raymond would pick somewhere out of the way, but this…this was unprecedented. The effort he was putting forth to ensure their date was perfect was so overwhelming it made her tummy flutter. \n\nRosalie’s lips broke into a bright smile, “My, my, you’ve thought of everything haven’t you?”\n\nThe man beside her let out a sensual chuckle. “I told you last night, I have been looking forward to this for quite some time.”\n\nThe simple comment made Rosalie’s stomach backflip all over again as Red stepped casually from the car.\n\nHe came around to her door, opening it in a gentlemanly fashion before holding a hand out to her.\n\nThe deep grey eyes moved up his arm, her hand reaching out to grasp the offered support.\n\nThe action warmed Raymond from the inside out, urging him to pull her close once she exited the vehicle. “I adore you.” He crooned, nuzzling her cheek in open affection while his strong arms snaked around her curvaceous frame.\n\nRosalie giggled, kissing his cheek gently before looping her arm through his. “The feeling is very much mutual, darling.”\n\nThe pair moved around the car and headed toward the plane.\n\nDembe was quietly grinning at his shoes, attempting to give them some semblance of privacy. \n\nRosalie reached out and threaded her other arm through his. “Come along, sweetheart, you have the unfortunate job of being our third wheel again.” Her tone was teasing, and she was glad to see the young bodyguard fall into step with them, laughing softly at her joke.\n\n“I’m happy to assist, but if you start making moon eyes at each other I’m leaving you for the cockpit.”\n\n“Too late.” Rosalie grinned slyly at the younger man before batting her long lashes at Raymond.\n\nRed simply chuckled, reaching out to thumb the woman’s chin.\n\nThey ascended the short set of stairs into the jet, laughing merrily. Raymond became distracted halfway up, finally laying eyes on the back of the woman’s dress. \n\nThe thin straps coming down from her shoulders crossed once before attaching at the waist, leaving the delectable majority of her sunkissed back bared to his gaze.\n\nDembe prodded his backside impishly, fully aware of what had drawn the man’s attention. \n\nRed shrugged, he certainly couldn’t be blamed for his pause, the view was unbelievable.\n\nDembe closed the jet’s door before heading quickly for the safety of the cockpit. His knowing eyes flitted softly up to the amorous couple, finding them completely focused on each other as he sequestered himself with the pilot.\n\n“Have I ever mentioned how much I adore Dembe?” Rosalie sighed, glancing about the empty cabin.\n\nRaymond let out a barking laugh. “Perhaps you’d rather he be your date?” The man feigned a pout, determined to turn her attention away from his young, strapping bodyguard.\n\nRosalie’s slender arms snuck around his torso to stroke up and down his back. \n\n“No.” She murmured, her voice dropping to a sultry little purr. “I’ve been waiting for the man in the hat, and no other will do.”\n\nThe assurance brought a sly smile to Red’s lips, made all the more broad by a pair of feminine eyebrows waggling playfully at him.\n\n“That’s better,” he rumbled, cupping her cheek. His lips met hers, caressing her slowly as he held the woman close.\n\nRosalie responded in kind, matching his languid strokes and sinking into the warmth of his embrace.\n\nRaymond moaned into her mouth as his hands ran up her back, stroking the expanse of satin skin. He had longed to touch her like this, ached to feel her soft, feminine form beneath his roughened palms.\n\nThe soft touches sent shivers along Rosalie’s body, coaxing her deeper into his hold. A needy little mew hummed against his lips as her hands wriggled their way beneath his jacket to run over his chest and back.\n\nHe felt her smile against his mouth when she bumped his firearm, the action reminding him of something.\n\n“I hesitate to ask where you’ve hidden yours this time.” He growled, running his hands along her torso. Surely, there was nowhere for it to go?\n\nRosalie but her lip, “I- I don’t have mine tonight, there was no possible way I could hide it under this.” She confessed, adding, “I do have a few knives hidden on me, but I’m trusting you to keep me safe tonight.”\n\nThe innocent little statement stroked something primal in Red. He liked the idea of her putting her safety in his hands, very much. The man leaned in and kissed her again, his body humming with masculine pride.\n\nThe plane jolted them slightly as it taxied, preparing for takeoff.\n\nRed’s arms tightened around Rosalie’s unsteady form, examining her rosy lips and hazy eyes. \n\nReluctantly, they untangled themselves and moved toward their seats.\n\nRosalie stopped and pulled two glasses from the bar. \"Let’s have a drink shall we? I want to hear about your day.”\n\nThe simple comment brought a bright smile to Raymond’s features, and with scotch in hand, he regaled her with the events ofhis meeting with Stratos.\n\nThe flight was short, only a half hour and they were beginning their descent into wherever Red was taking her.\n\nAs they exited the plane for the comfort of the waiting sedan, Rosalie couldn’t figure out where they were. The signs at the little airstrip were all still in Italian, however nothing gave the name of the place.\n\nRaymond caught her looking about and laughed, “All in good time, my dear,” and ushered her into the car.\n\nAs Rosalie slid gracefully into her seat, her dress parted to give Red an unfair peek of her thigh, shimmering and silky soft in the evening light.\n\n“Is everything alright, Raymond?” Rosalie questioned innocently, noticing the placement of his eyes and his shortened breathing.\n\n“I’m trying to think of every available reason not to ditch Dembe and run away with you to some hideaway in the cliffs.” He joked in an undertone, closing the car door only to reappear on the other side, pulling the woman across the backseat so she was nestled against his side.\n\nRosalie laughed when his large hand palmed her hip possessively. “Where’s a blacksite when you need it, hmm?” she purred, leaning to kiss his chin.\n\nThe comment made them both laugh. A blacksite would certainly be ideal for what they wanted.\n\nRaymond hummed his enjoyment, pulling her tighter and dipping his lips to meet hers. The soft, warm mouth melded into his instantly, matching his sensual rhythm, coaxing his arousal back to the fore.\n\nThey were too busy kissing and nuzzling each other to notice much of the Italian landscape as they were driven toward their destination.\n\nDembe cleared his throat when the car pulled up to a large stone building perched on a cliff overlooking the sea.\n\nRosalie giggled, righting Raymond’s attire, as she had at one point been using his tie for leverage.\n\nThe man smirked for her good humor, allowing her every whim. When he was once again presentable, he stepped out of the car and held a hand out to his date.\n\nShe took it gently, rising out of the car to stand beside him, her features alight with excitement.\n\nThe young valets gawped appreciatively at the woman, but Raymond was thrilled to find her eyes were only for him. Even Dembe, whom she adored, got little more than a passing glance as he lead her into the building. \n\nThe restaurant’s owner greeted them at the door, guiding them straight through the building and out onto the back veranda. \n\nThe sight stole the breath from Rosalie’s body.\n\nThe veranda showcased an unrivaled view of the sea and the nearby cliffs. The pristine blue waters twinkled in the evening light, and a warm orange glow was cast over the whole scene.\n\nThe young woman turned to gape at Raymond, whose eyes were glued to her, taking in every nuance of her expression.\n\n“Raymond, this is magnificent.” She breathed stepping into his arms and kissing him softly.\n\nThe man leaned into the affection with a chuckle. “Shall we head to our table?” He asked, shifting to the side so she could see what was behind him.\n\nRosalie let out a surprised gasp upon seeing the beautiful cliffs, which held a spacious dining room within the natural opening of a large cavern. The room was dotted with small tables covered in pristine white linens. There, tucked in the outer corner of the cliff and away from prying eyes, was an intimate setting overlooking the sea.\n\n“Oh, Raymond.” She cooed, taken aback by the unique and beautiful space.\n\nRed preened at her awed expression, taking her hand and placing it gently in the crook of his arm.\n\nThe pair took the stone steps casually, enjoying the trek down to the cliff side. Once they reached the cavern, they were led through the bustling crowd to the private, secluded grotto in which their table had been set.\n\nThere on the table was a miniature of the flowers Red had sent her, flanked by two tall candles.\n\nRaymond pulled Rosalie’s chair out for her, ensuring she was comfortably seated before taking his place across from her\n\n“Raymond, this is absolutely stunning.”\n\nHe smiled as he settled in and ordered a few bottles of wine. “We’re in Polignano a Mare, a darling little sea-side gem in Southern Italy.” He divulged, looking wistfully out at the view. “This limestone grotto overlooks the Adriatic Sea, and offers some of the most incredible Apulian cuisine you’ll ever find.”\n\nHis green eyes shifted to her, the affection bright in their depths. “This is a natural grotto, not man made.” He leaned forward in his seat, taking her hand in his and stroking his thumb lazily back and forth over her fingers. “People have been using it for important events since the early 1700’s. It’s an old, natural wonder, a perfect mix of earth and sea.” He nodded thoughtfully at their joined hands, the sound of the waves crashing in the distance adding to the atmosphere.\n\n“I thought there could be no better place for our first date.”\n\nRosalie found herself taken aback at the man’s sincerity, the thought and effort he put into this moment. It made her heart ache and swell with affection and appreciation. “You were right, it is absolutely perfect.” She said, squeezing his hand and flashing him a radiant smile.\n\nThe pair sat some time later, leisurely swapping stories as was their custom on nights out. \n\nAs their first course was cleared away, Red grinned warmly at his counterpart. “Tell me what you learned today.” He crooned, taking her hand back in his.\n\nRosalie beamed fondly at him, picking up the miniature of her arrangement and setting it in the center of the table. \n\n“I learned you are a hopeless romantic,” she teased, earning a sensual chuckle.\n\n“Are you susceptible to romance?” He quipped playfully, thrilling at the blush which stained her cheeks.\n\n“As it turns out I’m terribly susceptible.” She admitted, thinking of how he had played on her heartstrings all day.\n\nHer eyes turned back to the arrangement, her hand reaching up to stroke one of the blooms.\n\n“I learned anemones are associated with anticipation, excitement for things to come. You were telling me how you have been anticipating us dating, looking forward to the potential of a relationship.” \n\nRed nodded softly in response.\n\n“There were silverston roses, which, apart from being rather rare, are symbolic of love at first sight, of enchantment.” Her dark eyes flitted up to his, “I would be lying if I said I wasn’t enchanted by you the day we met.”\n\n“I share that sentiment,” he agreed, “I didn’t recognize it at first, but once you were in my lap, I quickly realized it would take very little to have me wrapped around your switchblade-happy fingers.” \n\nThe quip had Rosalie issuing that tinkling laugh Raymond enjoyed so much. The sound was so soft and warm, it lit up the room. The man idly realized he often couldn’t help himself when he heard it echoing in the halls of the safe houses, finding himself chuckling along with her. The thought brought a broad grin to his mouth.\n\nRosalie continued, cradling a pale pink bloom. “These are ranunculus, which symbolize being dazzled by one’s charms. Whether you’re dazzled by mine or you were indicating I would be dazzled by yours, I’m not sure.”\n\nRed sniggered, tilting his head back and forth in a noncommittal way.\n\n“The greenery in the bouquet is eucalyptus, which symbolizes wealth, abundance, and foretelling, and tucked neatly near the edges is valerian, which stands for readiness.”\n\nHeavens knew they were ready. They had wasted so much time fighting the inevitable between them, it felt wonderful to finally pursue their connection. Her thoughts seemed to show in her expression as Raymond grinned knowingly at her.\n\nShe continued, “These are silver brunia, which stand for chivalry, and those are oregano flowers, symbolizing substance.” Rosalie looked thoughtfully at him. “You were telling me of your intentions.”\n\nHe nodded, pleased at her perceptiveness. “I wanted you to understand before tonight, I can see our relationship being much more than physical attraction. I want to date you because I believe there is something of substance between us. I can see a life with you.” His eyes bore into hers, their openness and frankness breathtaking. \n\n“I don’t, well,  haven’t  dated for this very reason. Rare is the woman I could see in such a light.”\n\nThe statement gave her chills, the sincerity in his voice robbing her of all thought.\n\nThe last flowers in the bunch were white wild roses. The meaning had piqued her curiosity back at the safe house. \n\nHer slender fingers stroked the white blooms, drawing Red’s attention to them.\n\n“Wild roses mean confidentiality.” Raymond inclined his head toward her. “In the Roman era, the term sub-rosa was used to indicate a meeting being held in confidence. If we are to pursue this, Rosalie, I will keep no part of myself from you, aside from my name.”\n\nUnderstanding dawned on Rosalie’s face. The side of him she had seen tonight, the openness, the sincerity, he was sharing part of himself which he kept safely hidden from the rest of the world. \n\nShe was meeting the man within.\n\nHer eyes shone in recognition, he was trusting her to hold these moments in confidence, trusting it was enough for her to be the only one allowed to see him in such a light.\n\nHer other hand dropped to hold his, cradling the large appendage in her two small ones. “Raymond, this is truly a gift.” She murmured, bringing his hand up so she could kiss his palm. “One I will not take for granted.”\n\nA tension Red had not known he had been feeling seemed to release from the man’s shoulders. His hand turned to cup her cheek and draw his thumb across the rosy blush. “Will I have the hidden parts of you, as well?” \n\nHe couldn’t help the question, his hopefulness thrumming palpably in the air.\n\n“You and only you will have them.” She agreed, a lone joyful tear clinging to her lashes.\n\nRaymond swiped the drop when it fell. He stood and pulled her close, claiming her lips, sealing the promise. \n\nThe action made Rosalie’s knees feel weak. Her hands gripped his chest for support, touched by the moment and its meaning.\n\nThis was the beginning of something incredible.\n\n*************************************************************************************************************************************************\n\nAn hour later, the pair were happily ensconced in their own private world, the topic of discussion having turned to the beginnings of their attraction.\n\n“When did you know I was interested?” Rosalie asked, curious to hear his viewpoint.\n\n“Oh, in Munich, what you said to Altan.” Red nodded firmly, recalling the phrase quite clearly.\n\nThe woman’s brow furrowed, unable to remember what she had said.\n\n“‘ I made the bed and beckoned him to it ?’” He quoted, grinning slyly at her.\n\nRosalie gasped and placed a hand over her mouth, the altercation hurtling back into her mind.\n\n“My God, what a comeback.” Red crooned, dying to know where the spectacular rejoinder came from. Truthfully, he had found her fiery retort utterly charming. It brought about something primal and possessive in the man which, at the time, had taken him completely by surprise.\n\nRosalie dropped her chin with a grimace. “Sorry about that. I found his attitude incredibly grating.” Her eyes flashed their annoyance as she remembered Altan’s accusations. “I needed to knock him down a few pegs. He just assumed you were bedding me.”\n\nRaymond laughed, “I wholeheartedly agree, my dear. He undermined your hard work and cunning by attributing your success to my libido.” \n\nHe placed a finger under her chin, guiding her gaze upward, the look telling her in no uncertain terms there was no merit to Altan’s words.\n\n“You built an empire so enticing I chased you across an entire continent to get in on it.” He reminded, “Bedding you was not part of my plan.” \n\nRed made certain she understood his meaning. \n\nIt might not have been part of his plan initially, but it damn well was now. \n\nHe wouldn’t stand for her thinking his actions came from any place other than desire for her. \n\nThe intensity of Red’s gaze made the woman blush furiously, her eyes falling to his chest again. “Still,” she murmured, “I could have demolished his rampant ego without dragging you into the fray.”\n\nRaymond chuckled darkly, “Don’t ever apologize for such a well-aimed barb,” he advised, then added, “I, for one, enjoyed it immensely.”\n\nRosalie looked up at him, amused. “Oh really?”\n\nHis green eyes shone with a powerful mixture of pride and adoration. “It was brilliant. Like a heat-seeking missile, you found the man’s soft underbelly, then blew a magnificent and irreparable hole in it.” Red smiled to himself, replaying the exchange over and over in his mind. \n\nShe had been something,  someone else entirely in that moment, and Raymond was one of very few people who could appreciate the duality. \n\nRosalie the woman and Rosalie the criminal were two separate personas, yet as much a part of each other as the etchings on a coin. Like him, she had learned to completely and comfortably occupy either side of that coin at a moment’s notice.\n\nKnowing the limits of each side and which to choose in a conflict was one of the keys to their survival. Reddington had found himself inundated with both attraction and intrigue at the quick wit Rosalie had shown.\n\nHe sometimes forgot she was still rather new to their world. To see her blushing, unsure of her own prowess was rather endearing, truth be told. He was, however, looking forward to watching her confidence grow, to see more of the formidable hellion he saw that night in Munich. The image was very, very alluring.\n\nThe young woman blushed again at his praise and his intense stare. Raymond was a powerful man who dealt with his fair share of vicious and ruthless criminals. He wouldn’t sugarcoat his opinion for anyone, even her.\n\nAs their main course was cleared away and the cork popped on another bottle of Masseto, talk turned to their recent adventures in Siena.\n\n“What did that Stefano fellow say to you, after the race?” Red asked, he had meant to question her about the exchange last night, but more enticing opportunities had come up.\n\nRosalie wrinkled her nose in distaste. “He made a comment about my looks. Said a young little thing like me should be more careful about what men’s toes I step on.” She met Raymond’s gaze, her slate eyes sharp and narrowed. “I didn’t take kindly to it.”\n\nRaymond held his amusement, “I’m dying to know what fiery retort you lobbed his way.”\n\nA reluctant smile plucked at her full lips, “I might have dragged you into it.” She murmured ruefully, unsure how he would respond.\n\nThe man let out a barking laugh. “I figured by the way you grabbed my arm,” he noted, “Now I’m doubly interested.”\n\nRosalie shook her head, unable to meet his eyes. “I threatened to funnel all my assets into ensuring Pantera became the next Nonna. I then proceeded to tell him he should be more careful about the women he threatens. He didn’t have the slightest clue who I was or who I belonged to, and that could end up getting him killed.”\n\nShe fidgeted with the napkin in her lap, finally hazarding a glance at her date.\n\nRaymond’s face was warm and, for lack of a better word, delighted. “That’ll teach him.” He quipped, still reeling at her choice of words. ‘ Who I was or who I belonged to .’ The phrase excited him immensely.\n\n“Do you, belong to me?” He asked softly, green  eyes watching her features hungrily.\n\nShe blinked up at him, blushing and nervous. “I would like to.”\n\nThe statement made his heart swell almost painfully. Raymond lifted her hand and placed his lips to its soft surface. “I think it’s time I took you for a spin on the dance floor.”\n\nThe woman tittered softly as he stood, keeping her hand in his. She was pulled into his waiting arms and guided smoothly onto the floor as the band tucked back in the cave struck up a slow, swinging ballad.\n\nThey danced slowly, swaying gently in each other’s arms. Both couldn’t help but recall the eventful night in New York which had slowly led them here.\n\nThey alternated between dancing in comfortable quiet and talking further. Finally, Rosalie remembered her own question about the prior day’s excitement.\n\n“How did you make out at the Palio? Your bribe.” She asked, curiosity evident in her features. \n\n“I made several bribes.” Evaded Red.\n\n“You know what I mean.” She laughed, “the last minute one you and Dembe were all hush-hush about.”\n\nRaymond nodded, it seemed nothing could be put past her. “You may have noticed the jockey for Pantera walked out with different security than when he walked in?”\n\nRosalie’s brows knit together. She hadn’t noticed this at all.\n\nHe continued, “Those were my associates. I bribed him to take the fall. Pantera had a very good horse and with even a reasonably good jockey were too likely to win. Taking their jockey out of the running early in the race backpedaled their potential significantly.” \n\n“The contrada was going to kill him for that, why was it so important to take him out?” \n\nRaymond’s  eyes were warm and honest as he looked down at her. “I connected the outcome of the Palio with the likelihood of you accepting me as a suitor.” He shrugged, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.\n\nRosalie flushed a bright pink, “Could there really have been any doubt in your mind?”\n\nHis lips twitched slightly. “I prefer not to put the horse before the cart. There was certainly the potential you didn’t want a relationship.” The notion she might not want him in the same capacity as he wanted her had plagued him all week.\n\n“I would be a terrible fool not to want that.” Rosalie replied, leaning to rest her head on his chest. She felt his lips meet the crown of her head, a soft chuckle vibrating against her ear.\n\n“Thank goodness you’re no fool.” He murmured softly, spinning them again.\n\nA few songs later, and the pair made their way back to their table, intent on dessert. Raymond garnered a chiding laugh from his counterpart as he immediately nabbed her plate, bringing it over to his side and sat with his legs crossed.\n\n“ I believe you have something of mine .” She quoted, coming to stand by him, shaking her little gold spoon at him in open chastisement.\n\nRed laughed at the picture, snaking an arm around her waist and pulling her into his lap. \n\n“I thought we might share.” He purred, taking her spoon and setting it on the table.\n\nRosalie peered at him, surprised when he picked up his spoon, took a swipe of her dessert and held it out to her. She leaned forward hesitantly, wrapping her plump lips about the confection.\n\nRaymond watched avidly as the little pink tongue snuck out to swipe at the sweet cream. The sight was nothing short of sinful, coaxing an aroused grunt from his throat while he watched her swallow.\n\nA pair of molten grey eyes peered heatedly up at him. She reached for her own spoon, gently batting his hand away as he tried to waylay her. She mirrored his actions, taking a spoonful of his chocolate confection and holding it out for him to sample.\n\nThe man relaxed into the proceedings, realizing her intent. The robust confection tasted divine, and seemed that much better when offered up by such a mesmerizing creature. \n\nThey took turns holding out morsels for each other to taste. \n\nRosalie held out a spoonful of her own treat, silently offering him a bite. \n\nRed had taken it, humming softly at the delicious taste of cinnamon and pistachios. \n\nRosalie had giggled at his small sweet cream mustache, leaning down to kiss the remnant from his lips.\n\nIt was an incredibly erotic exchange. By the time they were finished and summarily informed that Dembe was waiting with the car, there was a stifling tension thrumming between the two. Not a crumb remained on their plates, and the last of the wine had been shared between them as they murmured sensually about everything and nothing.\n\n***********************************************************************************************************************************************************\n\nThe ride back to the plane was comfortably quiet, an array of silent communication occurring in the backseat.\n\nAs the trio quietly made their way into the plane, Raymond silently and stealthily removed his tie. He followed Dembe toward the cockpit, murmuring quietly to both him and Edward before closing the door behind him.\n\nRosalie noted the lost accessory immediately, a tinkling laugh escaping her lips. “Did you just put your tie on the door knob?”\n\nHe grabbed her hand and tugged her toward the back of the plane, into the small, secluded office.\n\n“I want no interruptions.” Growled Red, backing her toward the desk and lifting her onto its gleaming surface. His fingertips stroked her thighs and hips appreciatively as he leaned forward to nibble at her neck.\n\n“If you’re looking for another trinket, you’re out of luck.” Rosalie whispered in his ear, garnering his undivided attention.\n\n“I’ve nothing for you tonight.”\n\n Jesus wept . The woman could tempt satan himself and come out holding the keys to the gates of hell. \n\nHer vital young body thrummed with excitement at his obvious interest, willing him to call her bluff.\n\n“Let me see.” He commanded, his strong hands pressing at her knees.\n\nShe opened them slowly, deliberately driving him spare.\n\n“I don’t think you want to tease me with such a thing, Rosalie.” He warned, but she merely laughed.\n\n“Oh, I think I do.” she giggled, echoing his sentiment from earlier that week. “I told you I’d have you climbing the walls,” she reminded, placing her hands between her thighs and gripping the edge of the desk. \n\n“Tell me, darling,” she leaned so she was a hair’s breadth from his lips. Red could feel them move against his just barely when she spoke. \n\n“ Are you on the walls yet? ”\n\nRed’s powerful form pressed its way between her thighs, bending her back onto the desk. “Oh little dove,” he rumbled, “You should be more careful what you wish for.” \n\nHe wasn’t just climbing the walls, the man was practically on the fucking ceiling for want of her. \n\n“I’m going to have you shaking like a leaf, begging me to take you right here on this desk.” His scorching mouth nipped and licked at her neck, leaving a smattering of love bites in his wake.\n\nRosalie moaned brokenly, the visual he painted all too arousing. “I’ll beg you to take me right here on the floor, if it means I can have your cock.” Her dirty talk made Raymond chuckle darkly, the thought more than enticing. However, he already had plans in motion, and he desperately wanted to keep them.\n\n“Not yet.” He admonished, pressing against her, “But I have something which might soothe us both for a bit.”\n\nHe stepped back slightly, admiring the view of her spread open for him atop the desk. The slit of the dress had fallen between her legs, carefully covering the valley from view.\n\nAgonizingly slowly, Red’s hand slid up the woman’s leg, catching the hem of the garment.\n\n“Tell me you want this.” He murmured, his thumb stroking back and forth over the sensitive expanse of her inner thighs.\n\n“Raymond, if you don’t touch me I’m certain I will scream.” Rosalie retorted blithely, her nerves crackling with need..\n\nThe statement was confirmation enough for the man, and he happily shifted the silky material away from his prize.\n\nThe sight of her sweet little mound wet and waiting for him nearly took Red to his knees. The soft, neatly trimmed curls were a shade darker than the waves cascading down her shoulders. The little lips were a pretty pink, glistening tantalizingly with her arousal. \n\n“My God, do you have a pretty little pussy,” he moaned, reaching to cup the mound. She was hot and so, so ready for him.\n\n“And this sweet little clit.” His thumb swiped gently over the tiny hood peeking out from between her lips, earning a broken moan from Rosalie. “You have no idea how much I want this in my mouth.” He sighed, stroking the nub harder, making the woman squirm.\n\n“Raymond, please.” She whimpered, arching into his touch. Every stroke felt amazing, but she needed more.\n\nHer small hand reached between them gripping his throbbing erection through his slacks. Her eyes widened as she felt the thick, hard appendage fill her hand to capacity. “ Oh ”\n\nRed let out a confident growl, smirking as he rocked against the little hand experimentally. A shiver ran his body at the sensation, her small fingers felt wonderful wrapped around his turgid member.\n\nReluctantly, Raymond pulled her hand away, stepping closer into the valley of her thighs so his heavy, fabric-covered cock was nestled intimately against her wet slit.\n\nAs he had the night before, Red set a steady, rocking rhythm against her sensitive flesh.\n\nThe movement sent jolts of pleasure through them both, and the woman whimpered her longing for release.\n\n“You needed this, didn’t you, Rosalie?” Red grunted, pressing her back into the hard wood of the desk. “God knows I did.” He confessed, moaning against her neck, the warmth and wetness of her center teasing his shaft just right.\n\n“I want you.” She moaned plaintively, “I-I want you inside.” \n\nRaymond’s already thin resolve shook with the effort of holding himself back.\n\n“Soon, sweetheart. Soon.” He placated, thrusting against her endlessly.\n\nHis cock stroked her perfectly, teasing her little clit without mercy.\n\n“Please,” she wailed, “Oh...oh please, don’t stop.”\n\nRed grinned darkly, “Not a chance, little dove.” He assured her, rutting hard against her wet slit. He was determined to make her come, to prime her soft, gentle body for his possession. \n\n“I’m going to make you  shatter .” He assured her, reaching up to palm one of the ample breasts. \n\nThe woman keened beneath him, bending up into his touch as he rolled the nipple into a taught peak. \n\n“I’m going to ravage this sweet little body.” He ground out, enjoying how her body tightened at his words. “You’ll never want for a damn thing.” He promised boldly, revelling in the feel of her thighs quivering around his waist.\n\nHis words were setting the whimpering woman ablaze.\n\nRosalie scrambled for purchase as she felt her orgasm come roaring through her out of nowhere.\n\nRaymond could feel her shaking, desperately seeking release. “That’s it, let it out. Come for me.” He coaxed, feeling the beginnings of his own orgasm forming. \n\nRosalie reached for the collar of his shirt, pulling his mouth to hers in a silent plea. She wanted so badly to come, to give in to the pleasure he was giving.\n\nHe leaned forward with a snarl, pinning her hard to the desk and kissing her heatedly as he continued his strong, deliberate strokes.\n\nA wanton moan met his ears and he leaned back to watch enraptured as her lithe body bowed in pleasure. Her orgasm tore through her, leaving her unable to speak as another wave of arousal gushed over the front of Raymond’s trousers. “Yes,” she finally managed to eek out in trembling delight, a primal groan of completion following thereafter. “Oh God, Yes, Raymond!”\n\nThe sight and sound of her unmasked pleasure had Red’s hips jerking against her without rhythm. His legs shook slightly as he felt her hand reach down to cup his testicles, rolling them gently.\n\nRaymond grunted, the slight touch just the incentive he’d needed to come hurtling over the edge.\n\n“Rosalie,” he hissed, pleasure rocketing through his every nerve ending. “ Yes… Just like that”  He groaned his approval, thrusting hard against her. He rapidly hurtled toward his climax, his husky murmuring turning his partner on to no end.\n\n “Fuck, I’m coming .” He gasped hips shuddering.\n\nThe declaration was met with a mew of arousal as Rosalie doubled her efforts, cradling his balls gently in her hand as her still-quaking hips ground against his pulsating erection.\n\nRaymond came with a guttural, rumbling growl, riding hard against the wet woman beneath him, his cum lubricating his thrusts.\n\nRosalie moaned as she felt the heat of his release through the wet fabric, adding to her arousal.\n\nThe pair were left in a panting, trembling heap on top of the desk. \n\nRosalie adored the feel of Red’s ragged breath ghosting along her neck. The sensation made her squirm, coaxing a husky moan from her partner as her hips ground against his sensitive cock head.\n\nRaymond’s bulk pinned the little woman tightly to the surface of the desk, ceasing her wriggling and making her sigh contentedly.\n\n“ Wow” Rosalie gasped as she caught her breath, holding Raymond tight to her. “I can’t tell you how badly I needed that.” Her body felt boneless, minute aftershocks rippling through her skin intermittently.\n\nRed exhaled, a smug expression overtaking him. He kissed her languidly, their lips moulding together in a soft, sensual dance. “I have wanted to make you come for what feels like decades.” He muttered against her mouth, moving to lift himself.\n\nThe woman’s arms and legs wrapped around him. “Not yet.” She mewed, wanting to remain pinned beneath him a little while longer.\n\nHis sensual chuckle filled her ears as he leaned forward, nuzzling into her neck. “We are going to land soon.” He informed her regretfully, wanting nothing more than to doff the suit and bend her over the desk for round two.\n\nAs though on cue, a soft knock could be heard coming from the cockpit door. Dembe’s voice could be heard from the other side. \n\n“Ten minutes.”\n\nRosalie groaned her dissension as Red stood, righting his attire. \n\nA lewd chuckle filled the air as he looked down at his sodden trousers.\n\nThe young woman sat up to see what had him so amused and found herself immensely aroused by the outline of his well-endowed member against the soaked material. “I owe you a pair of slacks.” She mused, slightly embarrassed for her shameless response.\n\nRaymond strode over to thumb her chin. “I can’t think of a better way to tarnish a perfectly good suit.” He grinned like the cat who caught canary, “I’m going to consider it a personal mission to see to the ruin of my entire wardrobe via your pleasure.”\n\nThe comment removed any embarrassment on her part and replaced it with heated amusement.\n\nThe man righted her, kissing her lips once before leading her out into the main cabin. He casually draped his jacket over his lap as the plane touched down on the tarmac.\n\n***********************************************************************************************************************************************************\n\n\n Stratos’s Apartment, Siena - July 4th 1999 \n\n\n \n\nThey had reached the apartment around one in the morning, the other occupants were blessedly asleep, allowing Raymond to walk Rosalie to her door in peace.\n\nShe rested against the door’s facing, looking up at him as though he hung the very moon in the sky.\n\nRed leaned one arm on the door frame, the other held her waist as he brushed his nose against hers.\n\n“I had an amazing time tonight, Raymond.” She sighed happily, tilting her chin up to meet his caress.\n\n“What time can I pick you up tomorrow?” Replied Red, smiling at the soft laugh which danced from her lips.\n\n“Hmmm…Seven?” She offered, pleased there would be a second date.\n\n“I think you meant six.” He teased, kissing her once again.\n\nRosalie giggled, “Any time will do.”\n\n“Until tomorrow.” He murmured, meeting her in a kiss that made her toes curl before pressing off the wall and sauntering toward his room.\n\n“Good Night,” She said warmly, glancing back at him as she closed her door.\n\nRaymond couldn’t help the broad grin which lit his features. “Good Night, Little Dove.” He whispered, stepping into the cool dark of his bedroom.\n\n***********************************************************************************************************************************************************\n\n\n Stratos’s Apartment - July 4th, 1999 \n\n\n \n\nRaymond and Rosalie woke with serene smiles later that morning, The pair and their guards grabbed a quick breakfast before getting ready for their flight to Greece.\n\nJacopo had stopped by to say farewell and implore them to attend the next running in August. \n\nRosalie was going to miss the boisterous old Sienese. She planned to ask Raymond if they could make the Palio an annual tradition. It had certainly been a fun and eventful week.\n\nOnce the well-wishers were gone and the house was quiet again, Rosalie snuck off to the lounge where she knew she would find Raymond. \n\nStratos and their guards were conveniently packing, leaving an uninterrupted window for the pair to be alone.\n\nHe had been waiting for her. \n\nThe moment she had closed the door, Red had scooped her up and carried her to the loveseat, sitting so she straddled his hips.\n\n“How did you sleep?” She asked, carding her fingers through his hair.\n\nRaymond leaned into the gesture, a soft hum leaving his throat. “Better than I have in weeks. You?”\n\n“The same.” Nodded Rosalie, dipping to kiss his jaw line.\n\nA pair of large, masculine hands gripped her hips, sliding back to squeeze her backside fondly.\n\n“We needed a little release, didn’t we, little dove?” He crooned, opening more of his neck to her affectionate touch.\n\nRosalie moaned in response. “You know, we have a few hours before we need to head for the plane.” She intoned slyly.\n\nRaymond’s eyes rolled playfully, the ghost of a grin floating across his features. “My dear, a few hours won’t cut it. When I take you I’m going to need a few  days .”\n\nRosalie couldn’t help the shiver that ran along her body. At the sound of a knock on the door, she heaved a forlorn sigh. “I hate to burst your bubble darling,” she grumbled, “but the way our schedule runs I doubt we’ll be able to have a few days to enjoy ourselves properly.”\n\nShe climbed off his person and straightened her clothes before calling, “Come in.”\n\nHorace poked his head into the room. “Rosie, I have the property manager in Trinidad on the phone. He wants to speak.”\n\nThe woman let out a little growl her eyes flitted to Raymond, scrunching her nose before heading out the door with her guard.\n\nAs she left the room the thought occurred to Raymond that she was, in fact, correct. They would play hell trying to get more than a few hours to themselves. This thought did not sit well at all with the man. \n\nThey had spent so much time fighting what was going on between them, now they were finally ready to explore that avenue, and they didn’t have the time or the privacy in which to do so. Raymond consider the issue as he drank his coffee and enjoyed his breakfast. The notion was bothering him greatly.\n\nRaymond wanted their first time to be intimate, private, as it should be. He wanted to revel in their union. He wanted to learn her body’s every dip and curve. He wanted to watch her come undone in the dead of night and the early morning sun, wanted them to walk around the house in whatever state of undress they preferred, and make love where and whenever the mood struck. \n\nThey certainly couldn’t do that with Horace and Dembe floating around.\n\nRed snorted. Well, they could, but he was a tad selfish and didn’t want to share the delights of her body with anyone.\n\nDembe strode into the room, looking thoughtfully at Raymond’s scowl. “You are wondering how to get her alone.” He nodded sagely.\n\nThe older man didn’t want to know how his guard was so perceptive. \n\n“It’s not wrong to want a little time to ourselves.” Grumbled Reddington, shifting slightly.\n\n“It is not.” Dembe agreed, “It is, however, unfortunate you did not pursue this at Break Maiden, where you had a bit more free rein.”\n\nA thought struck Red, and he looked up, beaming at Dembe. “You’ve given me an excellent idea.” He murmured.\n\nThe young man’s eyes crinkled their amusement. “How can I help?”\n\n "}
+{"text": "April 16th 2040\n\n \n\n \n\nSo far he's answered one quick call from North, telling her that he and Connor were at the DPD and they were okay, and to tell everyone not to worry.\n\nBut Markus is worried. Not so much about the fallout, (fuck, there is going to be such a fallout,) but about Connor, who's sitting at Fowler's desk staring into the middle distance with that slight frown of his, all his happiness from the night before just wrecked. Because he thinks this is his fault.\n\nReally it's kind of Markus's fault, because he'd been getting on Connor's case so much about being paranoid, telling him to ease up a little. Even so, Markus wants to straight up murder whoever it was that put that look on Connor's face.\n\nThe next call is the one he's been really dreading: Carl.\n\n“Hang on,” he says to Connor, “I have to take this.”\n\nConnor just gives him a spaced-out nod.\n\nThe first thing Carl says is, “You okay, Markus?”\n\n“Yeah,” Markus says. Then: “No.”\n\n“Yeah,” Carl says, “well, I didn't expect you to be. The first thing you need to hear from me is that none of this is your fault. Nor is it Connor's. It's the fault of whatever scum violated your privacy.”\n\n“I know.” A shamed murmur is all he can manage.\n\n“The second thing you need to hear is that I would never disrespect your privacy by allowing even a single image of that to pass my field of vision. So if you're worried about me seeing anything that would upset you, put that worry to bed.”\n\n“Thank you.” A little better, maybe.\n\n“The third thing I'm going to tell you is...ha...Maybe I shouldn't. Oh well. There's a tape of me somewhere out there too. Probably pretty similar.”\n\n“What?” It comes out so sharply that Connor looks up at him, questioning. Markus shakes his head: Nothing, it's okay.\n\n“The 90s were wild times, Markus. I was pretty wasted. My partner and I weren't aware we were being recorded, but it happened all the same. It was a different time, the 90s, and I wanted to be the cool, laid back artist, you know? So we played it off like it wasn't a big deal. We even got a copy and showed it to our friends at a party. I think we felt like if we laughed it off and  pretended it wasn't so bad, maybe it wouldn't be.”\n\n“Wow,” is all Markus can manage.\n\n“But it destroyed us,” Carl says. “I think if we'd taken it as seriously as it felt, we might have been able to deal with it. If we'd admitted that it was a criminal act and that we'd felt violated by it, we could have gotten through it.”\n\n“I'm sorry,” Markus says. \n\n“Oh well,” Carl says. “Who knows what would have happened? Maybe I wouldn't have met Leo's mother. Maybe I wouldn't have had the accident. And maybe I wouldn't have met you, son. I can't be anything but thankful.”\n\nMarkus feels tears spring to his eyes. For the first time in a very long time, he doesn't know what to say.\n\n“What I'm saying to you, Markus, is that I don't want you and Connor to let this fuck up a good thing. Just... make sure you handle it together, okay?”\n\n“I...we will.” He glances over to Connor, who is still looking at him with a question in his eyes. “Thank you. For telling me all of that.”\n\n“I love you, son.”\n\nMarkus chokes on the words. “Love you too.”\n\nWhen Carl disconnects, Markus goes to Connor and sits on the desk in front of him, taking his hands.\n\n“Hey,” he says. “This is a big deal. But it's going to be all right. All right?”\n\n“Yes,” Connor says. He takes a second to process that; to let Markus convince him, like he always does, for better or for worse. Then, with more conviction he says, “Yes. Of course. It's a big deal, but it's nothing we can't handle.”\n\n \n\n \n\n** ** **April 15th 2040\n\n \n\nRecon 7 can't take much more of this, honestly. It was bad enough that he had to watch them do... do that. But now the 200 is wandering around in his pants and open shirt, and the 800 is wearing literally nothing but the 200's long coat, and the 200 is yammering excitedly because he found a piano backstage.\n\n“Do you want to have sex on it?” the 800 asks, from where he's--it--is looking through a rack of theater costumes. \n\n“What? No, for godsake,” the 200 says. Then he takes a second to think about it and says, “I don't mean no, because yes, but it wasn't my first thought.”\n\n“Oh?” The 800 pulls something off the costume rack, fucking licks it, then puts it back.\n\n“My interest in pianos does extend to their traditional purposes, you know,” the 200 says.\n\nThe 800 keeps wandering around, picking things up, turning them over in his hands, and putting them back. At one point he finds a prop crown and sets it on his head. \n\nThe 200 picks a few keys of the piano, which sounds like it's broken or missing some notes or something. And then it starts singing. It's standing at the piano singing a fucking Neil Diamond song, but the weirdest part is, it's using its own voice and style. Androids can easily just play music through their speaker or whatever. That's what the godawful There 4 U “band” does. (Recon 7 doesn't even like calling them a band. It's not even music.) This android sings, though, putting his own spin on it. “You are the sun, I am the moon, you are the words, I am the tune, play me...”\n\nThe 800 stops poking around and stands there acting like it's listening; its LED going from blue to yellow, probably trying to download data on the song or something.\n\nThen the RK200 plays something by Elton John on the piano, and then sings a new one by fucking Beyonce. Whatever pleasantness exists in the android's voice just incites more rage in Recon 7. These androids earned none of what they have. They never took music lessons; they were just programmed to be good at shit. They were programmed at the beginning to imitate soulfulness. \n\nSo why do they bother to do things like this when it's just two of them? \n\nFinally the RK200 seems to notice that the other android is too quiet. It stops singing and looks over to the wing, where the 800 is just standing there staring (the front of the long coat just... totally open, the crown still sitting stupidly on its head.)\n\nThey stare at each other for a few seconds like they just discovered the other was still there.\n\n“My crown is in my heart, not on my head,” the 200 says. \n\nThe 800's LED goes yellow for a second before it answers, “My crown is called content, a crown it is that seldom kings enjoy.”\n\n“That's some true shit,” the 200 says, grinning.\n\nThe RK800 crosses the stage to the other wing and all but tackles the RK200 onto the piano.\n\nFuck, not again.\n\n** ** **\n\n \n\n \n\nApril 16th 2040\n\n \n\n\nFANDROIDS FORUM\n\n\n\n--Alleged Sex Tape Chat--\n\n\nArtThot39: Umm guys, you should probably remove “alleged” from the name of this chat, js.\n\nDeviantAsTheyCome: I'm sorry was that Beyonce I just fucking heard Markus sing? Because... that's brilliant.\n\nKillingMeOftly: Yes but also BENNY AND THE JETS? Obviously they know ~~the classics~~ but that is just hilarious\n\nArtThot39: Oh...my... Did that just happen. Is there gonna be sex on a piano because I don't think I can handle that. \n\nArtThot39: Okay. I am now officially on life support.\n\nMrsKamski: How is this real life. How is this real life right now.\n\n** ** **\n\n \n\nApril 15th 2040\n\n \n\nThat piano is taking some abuse; some keys were already missing, now it's jangling all sorts of notes as Connor backs Markus up against it. They're kissing as Connor starts pulling at Markus's pants and shirt. The kissing is kind of mad-passionate-crazy, but Connor's hands are slow, gentle, and precise at the buttons of Markus's shirt – like he's being careful.\n\nAndrea sees why once the shirt is gone. Markus is just... he's covered in scars. She had known in theory that he would be; they had talked enough about his history in the forums, and knew from what little he'd said in past interviews that he'd been shot by police and left in a mass grave for androids. And she'd seen on TV the footage of the androids' first freedom march, she and the world had witnessed him being shot then, too.\n\nBut it looks so much more savage when she sees it, her eyes grow hot with tears. There are places where his skin just doesn't cover anymore, and when Connor gets to his pants, kneeling down to gently pull them off, she sees that his legs are scarred, too. Connor gently rubs his hands up and down Markus's calves, making him take a shuddery breath, before he rises up to his feet again. He skims his fingertips down the front of Markus's chest, over the gashes and divots – Markus allows this without flinching or looking away.\n\n“The fire that breaks from thee then, a billion times-told lovelier, more dangerous, oh my chevalier,” Connor says.\n\nShe'll definitely keyword search that later, probably so will everyone in the forums to see what he's quoting and theorize about what it means to them... but no, she won't be going back there; not after this. Not after she betrays them. Her friends there might never know. But she will.\n\nMarkus gives Connor a shaky laugh and adjusts the prop crown he's still wearing, then he turns around and leans over the smooth surface of the piano, his hands leaving prints in the dust. Connor has to take off the crown and set it aside before he lowers his mouth to the back of Markus's neck.\n\nMarkus makes the skin retract from his entire back. She's seen so much of android anatomy, so it's not like it's the first time seeing what their spines look like, but it's still a little shocking – the lack of actual vertebrae, and the way wires weave in and out of blue plates, sparking.\n\nConnor is still wearing Markus's long coat so it's impossible to see any details, but it's pretty obvious by the way that he pushes forward and Markus cries out his name. His fingers start detailing the grooves and divots along Markus's spine, and Markus is panting against the top of the piano.\n\nIt's still Recon 7's hacked feed that Andrea is watching, and that shithead must have done something to one of their cameras, because the angle shifts to the front in a quick motion.\n\nConnor stops. Looks up. His pupils constrict to points, and now his eyes are dark and dangerous, narrowed and focused, like he heard something. His head tilts to the side. \n\nAndrea can almost feel Recon 7 holding their breath, wherever in the world they are; she holds hers, too. But if there ever was a time to put a stop to this, it's now. She hopes for it to end. She'll be in deep shit, she'll never get her dog back if she doesn't deliver. But she's still rooting for Connor to trust his instinct and catch them. Maybe he can catch them in time to help her, too? God, if only she could send a message. But there's no way.\n\n“Connor.” Markus's voice is sharp now; his focus is back, he's not going to pieces anymore, like he was able to simply shut it off.\n\nConnor's eyes soften and he murmurs a quiet apology before grabbing Markus by the hip and pushing forward again. He ducks his head and puts his tongue into the port at the back of Markus's neck. Markus's head falls forward onto his arms and he practically wails. Connor's fingers resume their mapping of the wires along his spine, and tracing the damaged parts of his frame.\n\n“We're nowhere near done yet,” Connor says in his ear.\n\n“Yes, yes,” Markus says. “We have time, I-- yes, anything, anything.”\n\nPlease, Andrea thinks. Please don't let this ruin them.\n\n** ** ** **\n\n\nNEW DETAILS OF SHOCKING SEX TAPE EMERGE\n\n\n\nPolice have found the location where android leader Markus and his bodyguard, police model and DPD employee “Connor” were secretly recorded having sex last night. Detectives are looking for leads on who is responsible for recording them. Authorities have not yet confirmed that the recording is real.\n\n\n\nComments:\n\n\n\nBadRobot: Deep Fake my ass! Even if it was, that would still be a crime! WHEN are we going to leave androids alone, I mean if we as humans are not going to help them, do we have to keep fucking them over??\n\n\n\nKamskisManBun: Of course it's real. With any other androids you could say that they just got some doubles because most of them look alike. But the RK models are prototypes and both are one of a kind. Of course it's them but so what. Androids can fall in love. So what. Leave them alone.\n\n\n\nHumanChloe: FUCK! If your man doesn't fuck like Connor, what even is the point of your man!\n\n\n\nAlex: OK thats not fair. No-one can live up to that. This is literally the problem I have with androids & I think it's the problem everyone has with them like...... we can't be as good as them at ANYTHING. Thier better @ sports music  teaching working at jobs we use to do, we always knew there better @ sex because of eden clubs. We cant compete with androids so why don't we just give up??? Sad. What I am saying is when Eden was open, men were finally happy and getting what we wanted. And that is BECAUSE OF THE FACT that we can't live up to android perfection so men were going the one place it didn't matter......eden \n\n\n\n              reply to this\n\n\n\n              PenIsMightier: Okay dipshit, but you do realize that women went to Eden Club also? That there were male android models for women to fuck?\n\n\n\n\t\t\tReply to this\n\n\n\n                                   Alex: Thank you for proving my point tho. Women were going to eden club for sex because those male Traci's were perfect in a way that human men could never be. that's what i'm saying it just not fair\n\n\n\n                                reply to this\n\n\n\n                                     PenIsMightier: Holy shit. You really can't argue with stupid. I'm going to finish watching the video in peace, thank you very much, and I hope you dream about it tonight. Toodles. ^_^\n\n\n \n\n** ** ** **\n\n \n\n \n\nApril 16th 2040\n\n \n\nBy now there's a crowd of humans outside the glass doors of the DPD, and thirteen drones flying overhead. A strange, creeping apprehension winds up Connor's spine, making him want to stay in Fowler's office with Markus until they all leave. He's never felt this way before. Or – maybe he has. Maybe even lately—four times, five if you counted the slightly nervous feeling he couldn't shake the night before—he's been experiencing sensations he can't quantify. Not exactly seeing movements in his peripheral vision, but expecting to see them. It's bothersome.\n\nMarkus is on the phone again, this time with President Warren. His pacing is giving Connor another sensation he can't quite place. Irritation? Nervous energy? He digs his quarter out of his pocket and starts rolling it. What is she saying to Markus? He could probably listen in. But Markus will tell him once he's off the phone. Probably.\n\nNo, of course he will.\n\nHow could he have let this happen? He knew. He knew. There was a moment last night when he heard a two-point-five second sinusoidal tone at 9Hz. And he had ignored it in favor of lavishing attention on Markus.\n\n“Okay,” Markus says into the phone. “Thank you. I appreciate it.”\n\nThat doesn't sound too bad, at least. “It went well?” \n\nMarkus runs his hands over the short hair on his head. “Sort of. She's going to formally condemn it. There will be consequences if the parties involved are found, but she can't spare a lot of resources to find out who did it.”\n\n“I'll find out.”\n\nMarkus turns to him, again with that look in his eyes: a warning. \n\nConnor holds up his hand before Markus can say his name in that tone. “I let this happen, so I should be the one to fix it.”\n\n“Okay,” Markus says. “Okay, back up. This is solely the fault of whoever has been following us around. Connor, hear me out. Of course we're going to find out who did this. I don't think they were expecting to see what they saw last night; they were probably looking for something incriminating or compromising, but there was nothing, so they just went with what they thought would be scandalous. Humans can be prudish over things like this. But that doesn't change the fact that whoever did this probably had--has--something more dangerous planned. You're the head of Jericho's security, and my personal security, and you're still the best there is, so I won't ask you to step back, okay? But I'm not going to let you blame yourself. I'm not.” He gets to his knees in front of the chair that Connor's sitting in, and takes his hands. “I'm not. And it's not going to stop us from being who we are. We're fighting for the rights of androids to be free and happy, and that includes us.”\n\nConnor opens his mouth to speak, finds he doesn't know what to say—it was probably going to be a denial or a logical argument—and quickly closes it again. Markus waits patiently for him.\n\n“It isn't easy,” Connor says. “I mean, to...to relax or whatever it is I need to do. It's not in my programming, first of all. Second, recent events have... have--” He tries to gesture with his hand, but Markus is still holding it.\n\n“Yeah, it's taken a toll on all of us. Just don't give up, okay? I need you. You, not a bodyguard or cop. People are going to forget about this when the next big thing comes along. Just trust me, okay?”\n\n \n\n** ** **\n\n\nFANDROID FORUM\n\n\n\n--sex tape chat--\n\n\nREDLED: HOLY SHIT. I'm seeing something I'll never forget for as long as I live. I'm gifing every second of this. My life now has meaning. Play this at my funeral, I'm serious.\n\nMrsKamski: This video should be required viewing in sex ed lmaoooooo. Fucking 101.\n\nArtThot39: 101? No way, this is next level fucking. This is like the calculus of fucking. The quantum physics of fucking. Only geniuses can understand it. This is mastery. Where is Andy? She needs to see this, so she can die with the rest of us. ANDREA. WHERE U AT GIRL\n\nReinOnMe: This turned my software into hardware.\n\nArtThot39: Okay, but real quick. Since I have no life and I can't stop thinking about this. There was a TED talk a while back about androids and the mechanism by which they could feel and I remember something about... in the end it doesn't matter. If something tells you that it can feel, IT DOES. That's 101 philosophy, speaking of 101 levels. Androids don't have like, seratonin or whatever, or any of the chemicals that make humans feel fear or love (the two driving forces of life right? When you think about it?) So if they don't have those things and they still feel those things (see point A, if they say they do, then they do. Otherwise WHY BOTHER??) then there must be something at play here. The TT I watched was saying that we need to take another look at spirituality because of androids being alive.\n\nMrsKamski: Oh wow cool. Btw Connor's fingers stroking the wires in Markus' back has me DEAD you guys.\n\nReinOnMe:  lol true true. Oh, I was gonna search for whatever it was that Connor was quoting, what was it, anyone know?\n\nArtThot39: It was from a poem called The Windhover. Ummm you guys... it's about jesus O_O Just saying.\n\nReinOnMe: So... is Connor saying... ????\n\nArtThot39: I mean I don't know? Maybe but maybe not, maybe he was just referencing the way suffering can make you stronger or more beautiful or something. There are also many many interpretations of Jesus himself and not all of them are *air quotes* divine.\n\nMrsKamski: Connor's cock is devine\n\nArtThot39: lol yes on that I believe we all agree!\n\n \n\n \n\n** ** **"}
+{"text": "The ride to the capitol was pleasant. Reinette traveled inside the carriage, of course, but Rose alternated between sitting on the driver’s bench with Mickey or alongside the carriage on Reinette’s mare, Ladybird. They paused each night in one of the villages as Reinette had refused to sleep in a tent or the carriage house.\n\nRose didn’t mind their stops. It gave her time to mingle with people, to see the world outside of their own estate and town for the first time since she was ten. It was refreshing to blend in and not have anyone automatically associate her with her family. As for the path through the countryside and forests, it was absolutely beautiful. The world was much larger than she had imagined it, and each village and town grew more larger and prominent the closer they drew to the capitol.\n\nIt was well after noon when the tallest spire of the castle became visible on the horizon, and Reinette ordered them to keep going. Mickey only slowed log enough for Rose to pull Ladybird up alongside and leap into the saddle. Then she untied her lead from the ring on the carriage. When they entered the city, people watched them pass, and a few of the children waved at her. She smiled back at them, keeping her posture straight and proud just like her father had taught her.\n\nThe guards at the gate to the palace stopped them, checked who they were by the invitation, and let them pass. Rose gasped as they went under the portcullis and entered into a sprawling, perfectly manicured, pathway leading up to the white walls. Even from this distance, she could see the palace doors open, and two men step out. As she rode closer, she saw they were of similar heights and hair color, but that’s where resemblance ended.\n\nOne man, in tailored brown trousers with a blue linen shirt, was thin and lean. He held himself with an air of confidence and humility perfectly blended. His hair was combed up into a perfect tousling, like he himself had just finished riding, and his sideburns came down to a clean shaven jaw. The other man was more muscular, with slightly darker hair cut just a bit shorter. He wore grayish pants tucked into boots, a tailored white shirt, and a broad silver band on his head.\n\nMickey pulled the carriage to a halt, climbed down, and bowed before opening the door. The prince, obviously, stepped forward and held out his hand for Reinette, who took it and exited gracefully. “Your Highness.” Her tone was utter charm, eyes flirtatiously cast down, as she curtsied low.\n\n“You must be the Lady Reinette Poisson O’brien.” The Prince kissed her knuckled and pulled her up to stand. “You are more beautiful than rumor has made told.” Then his blue eyes glanced upwards to Rose as she dismounted and executed a low curtsy, which was odd in riding trousers. “And who might you be, my lovely lady.” He took her hand and kissed her knuckles as well, signaling her to stand.\n\n“Rose, Your Highness, I am Lady Reinette’s handmaiden.” She kept her eyes cast down as she was trained to do. Keeping her voice light and servile.\n\n“Prince Jack, forgive me.” The other man stepped forward, smiling at the Prince in a friendly way. “But, I’m not mistaken when I point out that Lord Martin O’brien did father an illegitimate daughter named Rose.” She felt her heart sink, realizing that this is exactly why her mother had sent her, to be degraded an embarrassed. “Perhaps, this is the same woman.”\n\n“Well, Ladies, will one of you verify James’ observation she is Rose O’Brien?” The prince arched an eyebrow at them.\n\nRose swallowed and squeezed her lips shut. She wanted to scream that yes, she was a motherless child, but she was still human and still had pride and dignity. Then she saw the other man, James, smirking at her in an unreadable manner. She yearned to reach up and slap it off his face.\n\n“Yes, my Prince, Rose is indeed my half sister.” Reinette’s voice was even, but Rose knew that she was internally contemplating a raging tirade should this news screw up her chances.\n\n“I see, well, then she won’t be serving as your handmaiden.” Prince Jack’s words made Rose glance up and stare at her sister, who looked just as stunned. “See, I’m trying to make things more like Boeshane, where my mother is from. There, legitimacy of one’s birth is not dictated by marriage outside of royal families. So, while Rose is here, she will be a guest.” He gestured to James, who was grinning broadly. “My good friend James here will escort you to the guest suite you’ll be staying at Rose.” He offered his hand to Reinette. “I’ll take the Lady here to hers.”\n\nFrom the corner of her eye Rose saw Mickey trying hard not to chuckle at the look of contempt Reinette was throwing. For the first time in her life, she was not afraid of being punished for angering her sister. After all, she and her mother had forced Rose to come. “Miss Rose,” James touched her arm lightly, his brown eyes sparkling as he extended his palm. “Shall we.”\n\n“Of course, mi’ Lord.” Rose caught Mickey’s wink as he talked to the stable hands who had come around. She took James’ hand and let him lead her inside.\n\n“The Lady Reinette seemed none too pleased about these arrangements.” He chuckled, looping her arm through his in a friendly manner. Now that she wasn’t distracted by the conversation and shock, she saw he was as handsome as the Prince, but more in a bookish way than a valiant knight. “Also, I’m not a Lord. I’m Prince Jack’s man servant, friend, and closest advisor. However, that is merely because I was the only one his age in the castle growing up. My mother is the royal midwife and a nanny.”\n\n“Oh.” Rose let herself return his broad grin. Things here were different, it seemed. James wasn’t of noble birth or title, but the servants in the palace seemed to give him the respect of one. “So, this doesn’t mean I have to take part in the things the other women are doing.”\n\n“Oh, only if the Prince invites you. See, he wants to change the laws regarding people like you, but he can’t until he’s king. He can’t be king til he marries.” James turned her down a hall to the right. “So, no, you won’t be one of his potential brides, but he’ll more than likely extend a friendship to you.” He paused outside of a door. “As mentioned, I’m James Smith. This will be your room.”\n\n“Thank you, James.” Rose felt like she was caught in a whirlwind. In literally a matter of breaths she had gone from being nothing to being treated well by the prince. She placed her hand on the knob and made to turn it.\n\n“Wait.” James eyes glanced over her riding with a look of scrutiny. “I’m assuming you only brought attire suitable for a handmaiden.” His voice wasn’t condescending, but held a sort of irritation at the situation. “Those should be fine for now, but I’ll see about getting you something more appropriate for a guest.”\n\n“I don’t want to be a bother.” Rose forced herself to meet his eyes. It was as if the prince and this man were trying to thwart her plans to escape. She knew they weren’t but still. “My new dresses are just fine. In fact, I should probably go change out of these traveling clothes now.”\n\n“I understand your hesitance, Rose, but at least consider the offer.” He held up a hand as she opened her mouth to reply. “As for now, the entire castle is open to you, barring the royal north residential wing without an invitation from the Prince or the King.”\n\nRose made to open the door again, but she turned. “Are there going to be many women here, to see the Prince?” She hoped so, that way Reinette could know what it was like to not be the center of the world.\n\n“There were only ten invited, five of whom know the Prince already.” As if catching on to her line of thinking he flashed her a toothy smile. “While your sister is stunning, so are the others.” He gestured broadly as a servant came hurrying with her tiny trunk. “Go and change. I’ll wait out here to give you the tour.”\n\nRose followed the servant inside and gasped. Her room was double the size of Reinette’s at home. The bed was marvelous, large enough for at least three people, covered in plush looking blankets and pillows in a rich blue and silver. Fresh flowers were in vases around the room, and the heavy curtains were tied back from the windows. The warm spring air billowed into the room, stirring the opaque silk that was still loose. She did take a peek through the two doors on the other side of the room. The one on the right led to a closet and the one on the left led to a sprawling boudoir complete with a stone basin for bathing, that looked like it had pipes that fed the water inside.\n\nRose grabbed the pink dress and quickly donned it. She tightened the laces easily, taking the time to check her reflection. The dress was just as flattering as before, and she eyed the bottles of fragrant oils on a table near the bed. She sniffed one, finding it a woodsy but also smelling like the vanilla oils her mother sometimes traded wine for. She dabbed some behind her ear and hurried back out to the hall.\n\nJames was seated on the floor, one leg up and supporting a book. The other leg was stretched out lazily. A pair of spectacles were perched on his nose, as he absentmindedly ran one hand through his hair. Rose was again struck by how stunning he was. On his feet he had been a coiled spring, ready to run, and jabbering away. Like this, she was reminded of a cat basking in the sun, graceful and languid without doing more than breathing. She had never before admired a man that way, although it had been assumed by everyone that she and Mickey were going to end up together. “What are you reading?” Those warm eyes found hers, and the smile that graced his lips made her grin reflexively.\n\n“A book on astronomy, and how it does actually have an impact on our seasons and even the different types of harvests that will grow.” He snapped the book shut, before scrambling to his feet. He opened the door to his right, set it inside, and closed it quietly. “Mine and my mother’s suite.” He explained as she opened her mouth to ask.\n\n“So, you said something about a tour.” Rose tucked her hair behind her ear, eager to get a basic layout of the palace. It would be easier to sneak out if she knew exactly where she was going. She held at her arm, and he took it in true gentlemanly escort fashion.\n\n“So I did. Would you like to see the castle itself, or perhaps the gardens and stables?” James led her back into the hall, and she could tell he was working to keep his long stride in step with hers. “There’s also a substantial library, my favorite part besides the kitchens.” That smile was back, sort of a combination of flirtatious and rogue. “We have about three or four hours before dinner.”\n\n“Um.” Rose was at a loss. She really wanted to see the layout of the palace itself, but she also needed to know how to get to the gardens so she could sneak out of the grounds. “You pick. You're the expert.”\n\n“Well, I can almost guarantee that your sister will be in the gardens.” He rolled his eyes in a playful manner. “Prince Jack took the first two ladies there when they first arrived.”\n\n“Oh, who else has shown up?” She was curious what notable women her snobbish sister would be competing against.\n\n“My cousin Donna Noble, and Lady Amelia Pond.” James turned them down a hall, pausing to point out a door massive door. “Throne room and coincidentally the ballroom for the first dance once all the ladies have arrived.” He paused only long enough to breathe. “Donna and Amy have been to the castle many times before. Donna, to visit my mother and because her father was an ambassador for King Rassilon, and Amy because her mother and Jack’s mother grew up together in Boeshane before marrying into our land.”\n\nRose nodded, not really paying much mind as she memorized each way they went. So far he had shown her the way to the infirmary area, the main dining hall, the kitchens, and he rambled on about who was coming and what would be going on. She plastered on her best smile, giving half conscious affirmations as she mentally recalled the distance of each room to the main entrance and side kitchen exit. She vaguely realized he had asked her if something was a good idea. “Yeah, that sounds wonderful.” She squeezed his arm in a friendly manner and turned her gaze up.\n\n“Brilliant, my mother will be so delighted to meet you.” He reached out with a finger to playfully tap her chin. “She’s always wanted a daughter, and once you are my wife she will.”\n\nJames’ words made her stumble to a stop, and she couldn’t bite back her shocked exclamation. “Your wife?! What?” Her heart rate jacked up as he flinched back a bit, looking suddenly hurt. “Oh no! No! I barely know you. Why in the world would I marry you?” She jerked away from him, backing a few steps to create a gap between them.\n\nHis seriously wounded face held for a set of heartbeats before he burst into a roar of laughter. “Always, always pay attention to conversations here in the capitol, Rose.” He wiped the tears of amusement from his eyes with his palm. “Your face, my gods, your face!” He shook his head, still chuckling as she felt relief wash through her, followed by burning embarrassment. “Now, if you’re quite done calculating the best route out of the castle to run away, I can actually show you the best way to escape undetected.”\n\nRose stared at him, feeling her cheeks flaming still from her faux pax. “I’m not plotting an escape or running away.” She was an adept liar. Not even Mickey was able to tell when she was hiding something. “I was just thinking about what it would be like to work at the palace versus the estate is all.”\n\n“So, there’s a reason Jack keeps me around, and if I’m going to be your escort for the majority of this visit, it’s only fair I should warn you.” He stepped past her to open a door and waived her inside. “Because, out of all the people in this Castle, Rose, I’m the only one you can’t ever lie to.”\n\nRose’s curiosity was piqued, and she stepped inside the room. It was dark, but there was a snap of fingers and a torch blazed to life, then another, and another. With a startled gasp, she realized they were in some part of the library, far away from the windows and main area. Bookshelves towered around her. Then, her mind made the connection, as James was standing there with one hand up like he was about to snap again. The only difference was, a small flame danced between his fingers. “Magick?! You’re magick?!”\n\n“Yep.” He popped the p with a wink and blew the flame away. “Like my mother, of course. From my father, may the stars rest his soul, I inherited telepathy.” He wiggled his fingers at her. “I have to touch bare skin to do it though. You were broadcasting so loudly, I was able to pick it up when my thumb grazed your wrist.” He drew a breath, his eyes softening as they darted between hers. “I apologize, it was an accident. I normally have barriers in place, but you really do broadcast your thoughts quite powerfully. I wasn’t expecting it.”\n\nRose swallowed hard and quickly tugged her sleeves down. Anger flitted into her chest. This man, this stranger, had gone into the one place that was hers and hers alone. She turned away from him. “Go away. I can find my own way back.” She squared her shoulders, jerking away as he touched her sleeve. “I said go away, and don’t come near me again.”\n\n“As you request, my lady.” She could hear him execute a bow. “I won’t tell anyone of your plan. I understand why you want to run.” She heard the door open. “Feel free to borrow any books you wish, as this library is open to all castle inhabitants and guests.” The door closed\n\nRose chanced a look over her shoulder, and found the alcove they were in empty. “I’m not a lady.” She spat into the silence, stepping out into the rows that led to the main atrium of the massive room. It had to be ten times the one at the estate, with shelves that spanned to the ceiling. There were some people loitering about, mostly servants or what had to be their young teen children. None of them paid her notice as she walked the lines of shelves.\n\nSoon, she found herself in the section that must have been fiction. Fiction and fantasy had been her favorite when she was a child, before her mother had banned her from any reading materials outside of what was necessary to perform her duties. Her fingers found a book of short stories, almost identical to the one her father had given her for her thirteenth birthday. She had never finished it. Rose pulled the hulking volume from it’s spot and opened it up. It was the same collection, only far more intricately lettered and illustrated.\n\nHer anger forgotten, she hurried back to the alcove, out the door. She made her way back to her room, running into a woman about her age wearing a nearly identical dress coming out of her guest room. “Hello, are you Rose O’brien?” Her eyes darted down at Rose’s book and dress\n\n“Yes, and who are you?” Rose tried not to sound rude, but she didn’t like when people called her by her surname.\n\n“Gwen. I’m to be your sister’s handmaid while she is here.” The look on her face said that she had already gotten to know Reinette. “I was told to tell you dinner will be ready soon, in the main dining hall, mi’lady.” She executed a quick curtsy.\n\n“Please don’t do that.” Rose sighed and shook her head. “I’m not a lady. I’m usually Reinette’s handmaiden.”\n\n“I know.” Gwen gave her a nervous look. “Mr. Smith told me when he asked me to fetch you for dinner, but he also said that the Prince decreed you’re to be given the same courtesies as any titled visitor.”\n\n“Mr. Smith huh?” Rose rolled her eyes and sighed. “Well, you can just call me Rose. No courtesies needed, Gwen.”\n\n“Yes, of course.” Gwen’s nervous look faded a bit. “If I may say, you are a spot nicer than your sister.”\n\nRose giggled and patted Gwen’s arm. “A hornet is a spot nicer than my mum and sister, Gwen. Thanks for finding me. Let them know I’ll be right down.”\n\nShe watched as the woman hurried away before stepping into her room. In the growing sunset, a few oil lamps had been lit, along with candles in the sconces on the walls. Her dresses had been unpacked, and the trunk sat empty and open in the corner. Rose felt her heart drop. She rushed over, tossing her book aside and stared into the trunk. It was empty except for a folded paper. The paper had a three number combination with the word ‘headboard’.\n\nDashing to the bed, she found it was carved with vines and orchid flowers. One of the orchids moved, and behind it was a small dial. She turned the combination and found her purses. “Please, please.” She opened them, and sighed out loud as the coins were all still there. She quickly hid them back, and memorized the combination before tossing the paper in the small fire burning in the hearth.\n\nShe noted the closet was slightly ajar, and she opened it to find her clothes hung up along with two dresses. They weren’t extravagant gowns like a noblewoman’s, but they were pretty and more akin to what a successful merchant or scholar’s wife might wear. Rose almost refused to wear them, but the thought of rubbing it in Reinette’s face was too tempting. She picked out a black and red one, quickly stepped into it, and reached back to get the laces done.\n\nWhen she looked into the mirror on the wall she gasped. The black bodice clung to her curves, far more fitted than any dress she had ever owned, pushing her breasts up pleasantly, and the sleeves bubbled up into cute cap sleeves just. The skirt was loose and flowing, from her hips down, the red material pooling just barely to the floor. A belt hid the seam where the materials joined, decorated in simple black and red glass beading. She quickly combed her hair, admiring the way the beads sparkled in the firelight. As she set her comb down, she eyes fell on a white wrapped package she had missed on her bed.\n\n“What?” She moved towards it, picking up the folded blue parchment that was on top. She opened it up to find elegant looping script.\n\n\nRose,\n\n\n\nI honestly did not mean to cause offense this afternoon with my poor judgement. I humbly offer my apologies, as well as my knowledge of the castle for you plans. Please take this gift, as an offering of peace and friendship, knowing that they will prevent another violation of your mental sanctum.\n\n\nSincerely,\nSir James Smith\nFirst Man of the Prince\n\nRose felt her anger rising again at the incident that had occurred. She did not want to forgive him, but he had been nicer to her than many others had in her life. She set the note aside and opened the neatly folded tissue paper. Inside was two sets of gloves, one in black and one in white. They were long enough to reacher her elbows and made of soft flexible material. “Okay, James.” She picked up the black ones and made up her mind. He was her ticket out of here. “I accept your apology.” She slipped the gloves on and quickly stepped into the hallway to make her way to dinner. "}
+{"text": " \n\n \n\nFinding the other side of the bed empty is extremely unlikely so when Diluc runs his hand on the right to feel only the cold mattress, his eyes immediately spring open.\n\n \n\n \n\nIt was very unlikely for Kaeya to be up so early, especially when he's in the middle semesters of pregnancy. Usually, he'd love to sleep in where both he and his child can have a rest after staying up so late.\n\n \n\n \n\nOf course, Diluc is a very protective husband. Taking care of his wife is his top priority and so it isn't unknown that he'd be concerned about where Kaeya could've gone. \n\n \n\nBathroom breaks were also expected, but not for this long, neither with the scents of fresh cake batter permeating throughout the manor.\n\n \n\nSmells of delicious breakfast begin to strum his stomach, his feet already quickly leading him towards the kitchen. \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\nAnd he should've expected it once reaching the dining room, yet he could never stop the breath stifling in his throat. His beautiful wife turned to him once hearing his footsteps follow behind, a sweet smile tugging on his lips at his presence. \n\n \n\n \n\nWearing a snug maid dress, the apron easily defined the round healthy bump of his, all for Diluc to see and cherish. Kaeya's hand held a spatula, and Diluc could see from behind him where the delectable scents were coming from.\n\n \n\nThe usual maid dresses that were appropriate to wear in the manor were cut short, only barely covering over his thighs thanks to the swelling of his stomach lifting up the skirt.\n\n \n\nDiluc could recognize the outline of stockings holding up Kaeya's thighs, and the clear signs of marks were slightly visible from underneath Kaeya's dress.\n\n \n\n \n\n\"Master Diluc, you're awake\" Kaeya hummed in acknowledgment, the greeting as alluring as it could get.\n\n \n\n \n\nDiluc gulped, not knowing whether he should play along or have his fill of breakfast as soon as possible.\n\n \n\n \n\n\"Please have a seat, I've cooked something simple but it should be enough to satisfy you for the time being\" Kaeya smiled professionally, indicating him to sit down on the chair clearly moved back.\n\n \n\n \n\nDiluc took his seat, interested in what Kaeya would be serving him. With the seat being taken, Kaeya turned, a flutter of his skirt following alongside him. \n\n \n\nDiluc's eyes wandered on Kaeya's exposed back. The shoulder blades were defined, and the bared neck with purplish bruises was enough to get his cock pulsating.\n\n \n\n \n\nHe would've gotten up just to press himself against Kaeya's back, but as the master, he strived to keep himself together as long as he could.\n\n \n\n \n\nAnd perhaps it felt like the longest morning ever; his patience dwindled as his finger tapped on the table, while hs eyes wandered down to Kaeya's long legs that wore tight black-silked stockings.\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\nSoon before he could stand up, Kaeya turned towards him, his hips swaying as both of his hands held a plate. Diluc glanced up at Kaeya who was focused on arranging the table; and with his hair tied up in a ponytail as it brushed over his revealed shoulder, Diluc couldn't help keeping his eyes on Kaeya's eyelashes that fluttered when redirecting to him. \n\n \n\nKaeya's starry eye locked onto him, teasing with a crinkle as he pulled back to let him focus on the contents for breakfast.\n\n \n\n\"Please have a try, Master. I hope it'll be to your liking\" Kaeya placed his hands over his bump, eager to see how Diluc would react to his surprise.\n\n \n\n \n\nDiluc nodded, taking the fork and his knife in his hands, he ignored his hard-on beneath the table, instead focusing on his wife's hard work.\n\n \n\n \n\nKaeya smiled gleefully once Diluc's expression brightened, one bite turned to two and two bites turned to three.\n\n \n\n\"It's delicious\" Diluc commented, licking his lips.\n\n \n\n\"Come, have a try\" Diluc ushered, taking Kaeya's arm and gently pulling him forward.\n\n \n\n \n\nKaeya nodded with a blush, nearing Diluc's fork, he drew his hair behind his ear and opened his mouth. Diluc swallowed dryly, placing a serving of pancake with whipped cream in his mouth.\n\n \n\n \n\nKaeya's lips shut once the food was settled in but he couldn't help the whipping cream slipping down his chin and onto his apron.\n\n \n\n \n\n\"Oh dear\" Kaeya murmured, flicking a finger upon the cloth and bringing his finger over to his lips until Diluc grabbed his wrist and licked his finger for him.\n\n \n\n \n\nKaeya squeaked, his waist being clutched lightly by Diluc's hesitant, yet daring hands. He could see the burning fire in Diluc's eyes, looking up at him while he began to sit himself on Diluc's lap.\n\n \n\n \n\n\"Master Diluc, you've yet to finish breakfast\" Kaeya whispered in his ear, sensing the gloveless hand run up his naked back.\n\n \n\n\"I'm a bit thirsty, but I don't see any drinks on the table. An incompetent maid you are\" Diluc murmured with a prepared rebuke, untying the apron that loosely covered over Kaeya's chest.\n\n \n\n\"Oh, it's because we... hngh- we ran out of milk\" Kaeya shuddered at the hot tongue that lapped against his shoulder.\n\n \n\n\"Then? You won't leave your master thirsty will you?\" Diluc frowned mildly, moving closer that his breath ran across Kaeya's collar bone.\n\n \n\n \n\nKaeya's breath hitched, the apron slipping down until his full, plump chest revealed. \n\n \n\n \n\n\"This dress is too loose, you planned this didn't you?\" Diluc smirked, brushing his lips against Kaeya's breast.\n\n \n\n\"I-I don't know what you're talking about, Master\" Kaeya bit his lips, looking down to see Diluc meeting his gaze.\n\n \n\n\"A slutty maid you are, I ought to punish you\" Diluc spoke with finality, licking a stripe against the aroused nip.\n\n \n\n \n\nKaeya moaned softly, his bump pressing against Diluc whilst his hands grasped on Diluc's hair.\n\n \n\n \n\nDiluc used his hands to grope the breasts, astonishing when warm milk began to dribble down and sully the loose apron, alongside Diluc's sleeves. \n\n \n\n \n\n\"Do you see how sloppy you are? Already ruining my clothes\" Diluc clicked his tongue; twisting the pink nipples, milk easily began to gush out.\n\n \n\n\"M-Master... if-if you do that then nngh... it'll be hard to clean up...!\" Kaeya gasped, his eyes half-lidding.\n\n \n\n\"Then I'll just have to clean it up for you\" Diluc licked the milk that flowed down his hands, his fiery eyes on Kaeya's whose glistened with tears.\n\n \n\n \n\nDiluc didn't give Kaeya enough time to adjust, his hands working down Kaeya's thighs while his mouth led straight to the swollen nip.\n\n \n\nKaeya mewled, his hands trembling upon Diluc's red locks. He could feel Diluc's tongue twirling and pulling on his nipple, and with that, the heaviness in his chest eased amidst Diluc's intense suction. \n\n \n\n \n\nKaeya caressed Diluc's head whilst his own head pulled back in cries, the dampness coming from Diluc's mouth was jolting and Diluc's warm hands squeezing his thighs felt extremely soothing.\n\n \n\n \n\nDiluc looked up, his chin resting on Kaeya's chest to see Kaeya's blissful expressions. Kaeya's mewls and moans were delightful to listen to, and having his own appetizing breakfast made it all the better.\n\n \n\n \n\nWarm milk slid down his throat, sweet and thick just like his gorgeous wife. \n\n \n\n \n\nHe could feel Kaeya thoughtlessly grind his ass against his erection, the sensation of wetness clinging to his bulge was enough to know that Kaeya was just as aroused, if not the moans already making it obvious.\n\n \n\nKaeya held his hair, yet the pulling wasn't searing. His lips quivered, kissing against his crimson locks.\n\n \n\n\"Luc- Master...! I-It's too... it's too much\" Kaeya whined, his arms securing around his neck to keep him from shuddering back.\n\n \n\n \n\nDiluc pushed his own hips upward, his erection touching against Kaeya's cunt, stroking upon the wettened lips.\n\n \n\n \n\n\"M-Master, are you still unsatisfied? I-I'm afraid I've run out of milk as well\" Kaeya sniffled pitifully, clutching his fingers to the swelled breasts.  \n\n \n\n \n\nDiluc licked his lips, finding himself not yet satiated.\n\n \n\n\"My pretty maid, I've yet to receive the main course\" Diluc smirked, rubbing his crotch onto Kaeya's cunt.\n\n \n\n\"On the table. Bend over\" Diluc ordered.\n\n \n\n \n\nKaeya purred in arousal, albeit reluctantly releasing himself from Diluc's warm embrace, and finding his legs wobbly once touching the floor. \n\n \n\n \n\nDiluc reached out to help him, taking his hand into his own, he bent over the table. His pregnant bump brushed against the soft tablecloth, and with his ass perked up, he could feel the skirt immediately lift up on its own, revealing his slick-soaked thong and meaty thighs seeping from the stockings. \n\n \n\nKaeya could feel hands run up from behind his knees upwards towards his thighs. A warm finger slid against the lips of his wet cunt while a hand squeezed the plumpness on his thigh. \n\n \n\n \n\nKaeya sighed out loud, the heels of his feet lifting higher. He shivered once hot breath licked against his cool skin; pulling down the panties, a string of slick followed with the undergarment.\n\n \n\n \n\nDiluc licked his lips; presented to him was a drenched pussy, the same one he'd love to savor all for himself. \n\n \n\nUsing his fingers to make a V, he parted the labia lips, observing how the pink layered upon coats of slick. The cunthole throbbed with his moist breath touching against it, and Kaeya's whines made it all the more rousing.\n\n \n\n \n\nEnough was said, the slick sliding down Kaeya's thighs was plenty to be regretful of, and Master Diluc wasn't one to waste his food.\n\n \n\nSweeping his tongue against every exposed part of skin, he could relish in the better breakfast given to him. And for sure, he wouldn't be left starving, taking his time to dish out on the meal granted to him.\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\nKaeya cried out as a tongue draped against every part of his pussy; licking up his slick, the tongue lapped upon the folds and sections that made his toes curl.\n\n \n\n \n\nKaeya grabbed onto the table's edge, keeping himself stable. His heels were already lifting off the tiles, and glancing back, he could see his husband giving him the fittest punishment. \n\n \n\nHis heart swooned while Diluc feasted on him, head bobbing as he focused on eating him out.\n\n \n\n \n\n\"Ooh! R-Right there Master...~! \" Kaeya shuttered, his legs giving in if not for the fact Diluc's hands held him up.\n\n \n\n \n\nDiluc thrusted his tongue in, his thumb meanwhile reaching up to rub into the small sensitive bundle of nerves. Kaeya gasped as the sensations overcame him; pushing himself back against Diluc's face to get him to lick around that place as well, he sobbed anew.\n\n \n\nHis thoughts were easily read, sucking on Kaeya's delicate clit and lips of his cunt, Diluc could listen to Kaeya's guttural whimpers for days. \n\n \n\nHe occasionally flicked the clit, nibbled the puffed cuntlips, including diving in the slippery entrance. Kaeya's cries grew in pitch as the seconds passed by. \n\n \n\n \n\nKaeya pressed his whole weight against the table, holding onto it for dear life. \n\n \n\n\"Master Diluc oh, please- please, it's so good...!\" Kaeya's voice was indistinguishable between the sobs, including the words and the moans mixing together that it only seemed like he was mumbling. \n\n \n\n\"Ah... A... Luc--... \"  Kaeya peeped out, his eyes widening.\n\n \n\n\"I'm going to come- going to come!\" Kaeya gasped, his eyes blurring with white that he could've sworn he was starting to see stars.\n\n \n\n \n\nHis feet were already raised off the floor, the glistened thighs squeezed together in an attempt to get the best climax but Diluc pulled the legs apart. \n\n \n\n\"Luc...!\" Kaeya's thick teary sob echoed in the manor, and thankfully, just this once, he had thought twice in letting Adelinde begin her shift early.\n\n \n\n \n\nDiluc couldn't get enough, slurping up Kaeya's sweet spent. Squirts of clear juices spilled down, the sounds of it splashing against the tiled floor were unclear from the heavy moans and breathing.\n\n \n\n \n\nKaeya weakly fell back on the table, his lips spasming with drool throughout the time they slacked-out with long pants.\n\n \n\nDiluc licked downwards, examining how the pussy flushed out and enlarged. Pulling back, the beautiful sights of his wife reddened against the table was what made him realize his cock was still painfully untouched. \n\n \n\n \n\nZipping down his fly, the throbbing on his cock relieved once hitting the dampened air. Pressing it against the swollen folds, the wet squelches made his breaths heavier.\n\n \n\n \n\nKaeya rose up weakly, his legs felt like jelly. Without glancing back, he could already discern the hardness of Diluc's cock rubbing against him.\n\n \n\n \n\nHe wiggled his hips, pushing back so the cock would sink into the lips. \n\n \n\n\"What a slut\" Diluc smirked, spanking Kaeya's ass. \n\n \n\n \n\nKaeya moaned, his body squirming with the heat rushing to his cheeks. A red handmark formed upon the brown glistened skin. \n\n \n\n\"You like that, don't you?\" Diluc demanded, spanking Kaeya's assets, predominantly near his cunt.\n\n \n\n\n\"Y-Yes, M-Master Diluc!\" \n\n\n \n\n \n\nDiluc gripped firmly on Kaeya's waist; roaming his hand around, he held the smooth curves of Kaeya's stomach in his palms.\n\n \n\n\"Beg for it\" Diluc whispered.\n\n \n\n\"Please Master, need- need your cock\" Kaeya pleaded, panting lengthy gasps.\n\n \n\n \n\nDiluc leaned forward, his chest pressing against Kaeya's back while his cock nuzzled in the maid's swollen labia.\n\n \n\n \n\nDiluc rolled his hips, pushing his lips onto Kaeya's nape.\n\n \n\n\"M-Master Diluc, just- oh, like that...!\" Kaeya moved up, his hand caressing Diluc's cheek.\n\n \n\n \n\nKaeya pressed small kisses on Diluc's cheek, his eyes were teary but he could slightly see Diluc gazing at him fondly through the blurriness.\n\n \n\n\"Kae, don't move too much. Let me do it, alright?\" Diluc nestled his nose in Kaeya's hair.\n\n \n\n \n\nKaeya nodded, using one hand to keep him up on the table while the other reached down to lead Diluc's cock to his hole.\n\n \n\nHe looked down, even though he clearly couldn't see the cock align with his entrance, still, a purr escaped his throat at the thought of getting full.\n\n \n\n \n\n\"Master, now please\" Kaeya grounded his cunt against the head of Diluc's cock.\n\n \n\n \n\nDiluc breathed in, carefully thrusting in. Kaeya gripped the table, leaning forward as the cock began stretching his walls.\n\n \n\n \n\n\"O-Oh...\" Kaeya whimpered, his tongue hanging out while his eyes enlarged.\n\n \n\n \n\nDiluc sunk in, his hands intertwining with Kaeya's. With his chin resting on Kaeya's shoulder, he could hear the laborious moans more clearly.\n\n \n\n \n\nEnamored by the sight of Kaeya's tears slipping down his cheek, he found himself pushing forward.\n\n \n\n \n\n\"Kae, you're so beautiful, my obedient wife\" Diluc spoke mesmerized.\n\n \n\n\"Luc, please need more, hicc- you'll give me it, r-right...?\" Kaeya cried blissfully.\n\n \n\n\"Don't worry, your husband will give you what you want\" Diluc crooned.\n\n \n\n \n\nDiluc moved back, emptying Kaeya of his cock and with only the tip left behind, he snapped his hips forward. \n\n \n\n \n\nKaeya moaned out loud, his legs trembling like an infant learning to walk. \n\n \n\n\"You're so perfect, Kae\" Diluc groaned, nibbling on Kaeya's ear.\n\n \n\n \n\nKaeya mewled at the praise, the stretching and the fullness was making him blank out. Thankfully, Diluc was behind him to keep him from tipping over.\n\n \n\n\"I-I... Oh... Luc i-it's too much, so full-\" Kaeya could barely speak through the gasps.\n\n \n\n \n\nWith Diluc firmly locked in his pussy, he couldn't help clenching even more with Diluc's heavy breathing on his neck. \n\n \n\n\"You're doing so well, Kae\" Diluc praised.\n\n \n\n\"So tight for me, I knew you'd be so good from the moment I saw you\" Diluc groaned near his ear.\n\n \n\n\"Wearing this lewd attire, you just wanted me to destroy your pussy huh?\" Diluc smirked, rocking his hips that the sounds came out more obscure.\n\n \n\n\"Do you hear that? How desperately your cunt is trying to keep my cock inside?\" Diluc cooed, his hand sliding down the side of Kaeya's thigh.\n\n \n\n \n\nKaeya shuttered, his hand meeting with Diluc's.\n\n \n\n\"Say it Kae. Why did you wear this slutty dress?\" Diluc whispered, his thrusting pace picking up.\n\n \n\n\"O-Ooh- Y-Yes...! I did it so M-Master Diluc would look at m-me!\" Kaeya confessed, his eyes rolling behind.\n\n \n\n\"That's a good girl\" Diluc answered with a spank.\n\n \n\n \n\nKaeya yelped, holding onto the table, his eyes were unbearably blurry with tears and pleasure. With his cunt sopping wet, the slick drenched every part of his skirt and splattered everywhere.\n\n \n\n \n\n\"You're making a mess, Kae\" Diluc punished with a slap. \n\n \n\n\"I-I'm sorry Master- nNNH~\" Kaeya apologized once more before he cried out at the cock pressing on his cervix.\n\n \n\n\"Sorry for what?\" Diluc smiled, nudging his tip against the tight cervix.\n\n \n\n\"Oh- s-sorry for ruining your floor, ah-! A-And your clothes, Master\" Kaeya bit his lips, moaning out his replies at every slam.\n\n \n\n \n\nThe burning on his cheeks and the large length deepening inside overweighed anything else. His legs were on the verge of sinking down- he was holding onto nothing but a wooden table that shook at every thrust.\n\n \n\n \n\n\"I'm close, I'm close Luc!\" Kaeya whined, sobbing to the point that the whole manor filled with his cries.\n\n \n\n\"It's so good, please Luc- oh I'm going to come!\" Kaeya shivered, trying to hold his legs together. \n\n \n\n \n\nDiluc grunted, locked inside Kaeya, all he could feel was the hot constricting snugness; even when he wanted to last longer, he knew he couldn't with Kaeya's entrancingly erotic moans and pleads.\n\n \n\n\"Luc Luc I'm going to burst- it's hicc- too much\" Kaeya shook his head desperately as he got closer to coming.\n\n \n\n \n\nHis mind is melting, tongue sprawled out while Diluc's cock prods against every single part of his cunt, the shameless moans were out for everyone in the vicinity to hear.\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\nHowever, soon, whatever words that were coming out of Kaeya's throat next, died down immediately as the heels of his feet stretch impossibly far. His cunt creates a remarkably wet noise once everything inside Kaeya breaks.\n\n \n\n \n\nKaeya wails out, his hands clenching anything yet nothing. Diluc similarly blanks out when Kaeya's pussy engulfs all his worth.\n\n \n\n \n\nQuite possibly the best thing he could've woken up to, Kaeya squirts everywhere, his blissed-out face screaming ecstasy just from the way his eyes dim with tears and his mouth contract uncontrollably.\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\nKaeya felt so full as if he could get impregnated ten times over. The overstimulation and just the pure stuffing that Diluc gave him was enough to send him reeling if not for Diluc keeping him steady. \n\n \n\n \n\nDiluc is locked in for just a few seconds, giving time for Kaeya to adjust until he began slipping out. Kaeya whined out, his sobs bursting from his throat as all that was left was emptiness.\n\n \n\n \n\nDiluc astonished toward Kaeya's pussy which gaped with semen and slick, now dribbling down to the puddle on the floor. \n\n \n\n \n\n\"You know, Master Diluc, a picture would last longer\" Kaeya songfully teased, trying to catch his breath between the words.\n\n \n\n \n\nDiluc spanked Kaeya once more, a loud moan gracelessly escaping from Kaeya's lips answered his teases.\n\n \n\n\"I'll have a lot of cleaning to do\" Diluc huffed, looking down at the puddle of spend.\n\n \n\n\"I'd love to see Master Diluc as a maid one day\" Kaeya chuckled.\n\n \n\n\"I think I'd prefer having you make breakfast instead\" Diluc smiled.\n\n \n\n\"It was great, thank you Kae\" Diluc pressed a kiss on Kaeya's perspiring forehead.\n\n \n\n\"Just a wife doing his job\" Kaeya beamed, and sometimes Diluc forgets Kaeya is all his, but it's a good thing he has Kaeya to remind him every night.\n\n \n\n "}
+{"text": "When morning came, Gilbert found himself anxious. He wasn’t entirely sure why, he and his brother both rarely experienced any sort of nervousness. As he got dressed, he scolded himself for not knowing the cause of this small dose of adrenaline, and scolding himself for feeling it at all.\n\n \n\nWith an impending sense of deja vu, Gilbert returned down the same path that he walked yesterday, his sunglasses perched over his nose, his hands tucked tight into the pockets of his white leather jacket. When he came to the spot on the sidewalk where he had tackled Roderich, he stopped and leaned against the wall of the nearest building. He pulled his cellphone out of his pocket with one hand, and brushed his pale fringe to the side with the other.\n\n \n\nSeconds after sending a message asking “where are you?” he felt a tap on his shoulder. He pivoted around on his heels in surprise, seeing Roderich right behind him. He looked very put-together, from his side-swept hair to his purple coat and perfectly squared collar. Gilbert’s residual anxiety picked back up as he now felt underdressed.\n\n \n\n“Grüß Gott,” Roderich said, extending a polite handshake. Gilbert hesitated, taking it after a moment of confusion.\n\n \n\n“You can’t say that in Berlin, Wienerblut.” Gilbert said smugly, trying to calm his own nerves.\n\n \n\n“Excuse me for trying to be polite.” Roderich said, retracting his hand. He looked disgustedly up at Gilbert, his eyes hidden by the faint glare of sunlight on his glasses.\n\n \n\nGilbert immediately regretted his words. “Hey, sorry, I don’t want to get off on the wrong foot. Just poking a little fun at you.”\n\n \n\nRoderich paused and turned to face the direction Gilbert had walked from, not looking him in the eye. “I’ll resist saying something about how Germans need to be careful about their xenophobia, no matter how playful.”\n\n \n\nGilbert crossed his arms. “Excuse me?” He scoffed. “Look, I didn’t come here to argue with you, Roderich. I came here to give you a second chance.”\n\n \n\nRoderich’s eyes suddenly darted back to Gilbert’s sunglasses. “I’m the one giving you a second chance, Gilbert.”\n\n \n\nNow feeling personally offended on two levels, Gilbert raised his sunglasses above his eyes just slightly. “Listen. We both apparently messed up the other day so let’s not have a repeat. Did you want to hang out or not? I can turn around and go right back home if you just came here to be pissy.” Looking Roderich straight in the eyes, he swore he saw his determination falter just slightly.\n\n \n\n“...I do want to spend some time with you. I’m just a little on edge, it would seem.” Roderich broke eye contact to look down before glancing back up and re-squaring his shoulders. “Many apologies. Let’s go enjoy ourselves.”\n\n \n\nDeciding not to be too concerned with the level of sincerity any longer, Gilbert sighed and turned to face the Brandenburg Gate. “What would you like to do?” He asked politely.\n\n \n\n“Well, I thought it would be best if you chose, as you are from Berlin and would laugh if I told you where I’d like to go.” Roderich plainly stated.\n\n \n\nGilbert turned back to him and lowered his eyebrows. “What? Tell me.”\n\n \n\n“No, you choose.”\n\n \n\n“You can’t just drop something like that on me, dude.”\n\n \n\n“I apologize, as I just did.”\n\n \n\n“Well, you’re the guest in my city.” Gilbert immediately scoffed at himself. His city.\n\n \n\n“I don’t know anything about Berlin.” Roderich responded.\n\n \n\n“Apparently you do. Just tell me where you want to go!”\n\n \n\nRoderich paused and looked away for a moment. “The musical instrument museum.” Gilbert grinned as Roderich looked back at him. “See, I told you it was ridiculous.”\n\n \n\n“No, no,” Gilbert said, beginning to walk away. “I just think it’s cool, I’ve never been there either, so let’s go.” He let his smile continue, deciding that it was probably best to keep both of them in a better mood.\n\n \n\n“I’ll see where it is,” Roderich said plainly, pulling his phone jacket pocket.\n\n \n\n“Yeah, just google it.” Gilbert said, shifting back on his heels awkwardly for a moment. As soon as the words left his mouth he was filled with regret, remembering those were the last words Roderich must have heard him say before the train doors closed. Apparently, those were not the Last Words that were hidden under Roderich’s sleeve. Roderich didn’t seem to think anything of his sentence, though, and poked on his phone screen for a few moments.\n\n \n\n“It’s not far from here, actually,” he noted, pocketing his phone. “Right across the street from the Philharmonic.” He looked from side to side, trying to assess his location.\n\n \n\nGilbert’s smile sunk on one side into a grin that was more smug than polite. “I’ll get us there, don’t you worry. It’s this way.” He began walking, waiting briefly for Roderich to catch up. “Have you… been there before?”\n\n \n\nRoderich looked ahead; Gilbert could tell he was avoiding looking at his sunglasses. “No, actually. Strange that I haven’t, with as many music festivals as I’ve attended in Berlin.” He waited for a moment. “Have you?”\n\n \n\n“Oh, no.” Gilbert shrugged. “My classical musician days are behind me; I don’t have much interest anymore. My heart is really in rock music now, but even then I haven’t touched my guitar in months.”\n\n \n\n“It can be daunting.” Roderich stated plainly. “Practicing is often difficult for those of us who are not as disciplined.”\n\n \n\nGilbert turned to look at his companion, rather surprised. “You say that like you’re not a disciplined guy.”\n\n \n\nThe smug look that had inhabited Gilbert’s face had now jumped ship onto Roderich’s. He pushed his glasses a little further up the bridge of his nose and looked rather mischievous in doing so. “I did all my practicing when I was a child, I’ve done my time, you could say. The discipline I appear to have just an illusion; a façade I carry even into the professional world. I’m not particularly motivated to do much besides compose.”\n\n \n\nHe liked this new look on Roderich, he hated to admit. Seeing the barriers of formality come down was an interesting experience, and he wondered how long it would last. Maybe, Gilbert thought, he could make it last longer by playing along. He wondered if it counted as flirting. “I didn’t realize you were involved in theatre as well as the other fine arts.”\n\n \n\nThe smirk stayed present on Roderich’s face and Gilbert felt a little accomplished. “I have some experience. I was in a production of Les Miserables when I was in university.”\n\n \n\n“So you sing, too?” Gilbert laughed. “Is there anything you don’t do?”\n\n \n\nRoderich turned to look earnestly up at him. “Brass and percussion.”\n\n \n\nGilbert only laughed more. “I knew you were smart.”\n\n \n\nRoderich countered his laughter with a small smile. “I knew you were, as well.”\n\n \n\nA little surprised, Gilbert allowed the stop in conversation. Just like that night at Nollendorfplatz, the silence wasn’t awkward nor did it seem dared to be filled. He appreciated how natural it felt to just walk next to the man who was supposed to be his soulmate.\n\n \n\nAfter a few minutes they approached the building, and Gilbert hurried ahead for the door. He pulled the handle and opened it before Roderich caught up with him. “After you, sir.” He said, half-polite and half-flirtatious.\n\n \n\n“Thank you, sir.” Roderich said, in the same tone, raising an eyebrow up at him playfully. Gilbert felt his heart beat ever so slightly faster.\n\n \n\nThe pair approached the counter, Roderich already immersed in his interests. He looked around the wide-open room, his eyes gleaming with excitement in the sunlight streaming in. Gilbert watched him for a moment, liking the continued streak of breaking his stoic look. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a sign propped up on the desk that read Enrich Your Museum Experience! Audio tours, only 3€.\n\n \n\nHe then turned his attention to the woman behind the counter playing on her phone. Without looking she slid two small slips of paper across to him. “Six euros per person.”\n\n \n\nKnowing that he owed Roderich after leaving him with the bill the other night, he dug his wallet out of his pocket. He sorted through his cash before putting down twelve euros worth of bills. “Could I get two audio tours, also?” He asked.\n\n \n\nThe woman exhaled an exasperated sigh and put her phone down slowly, opening a drawer. “Six euros.” She slapped two little audio devices with attached earbuds onto the counter.\n\n \n\nRoderich had already wandered off a few steps, beginning to read the plaques labeling an old harpsichord. “Yeah… uh…” Gilbert paused. He only had four more one-euro coins. “Okay, just one. Sorry.” He placed the three coins on top of the bills and took one of the devices as the woman rolled her eyes and returned to her phone.\n\n \n\nGilbert approached Roderich, who was staring in awe at the huge pipes on an organ. He had no idea that Gilbert was there. “Hey, Weinerblut,” he interrupted. Roderich jumped just a bit, turning to see him. He held out the little device with a smile. “Thought this would enrich your museum experience.”\n\n \n\nRoderich’s eyes widened, looking down at it and back up at Gilbert. “…where’s yours?”\n\n \n\nGilbert shrugged. “Ah, didn’t have enough money on me. Don’t worry about it. I owe you for leaving you with the bill the other day.”\n\n \n\nRoderich looked back down and took the device from his hand, brushing his fingers slightly. “Well… thank you. It’s… very thoughtful of you.”\n\n \n\nGilbert shrugged. “Don’t worry about it.” He noticed that Roderich looked awfully sheepish. “What’s wrong?”\n\n \n\n“Ah, well, I hate for you to miss out. You didn’t have to get this for me.” He said, slowly putting in an earbud.\n\n \n\n“Again, don’t worry about it. I thought you’d enjoy getting as much information out of this as possible. This museum doesn’t look too terribly interactive.” Gilbert put his hands in his pockets and stared ahead at the huge piano-thing that Roderich was so interested in.\n\n \n\nThe two stared at it for a moment before Gilbert felt a push on his arm. He looked over to see Roderich holding out the other earbud. “We should share it, then.” He stated.\n\n \n\nGilbert smiled and accepted the offer. “How cute.” He put the earbud in his ear and stood shoulder to shoulder with his companion.\n\n \n\n“Cute?” Roderich said, sounding a little offended. “I’m just being nice!”\n\n \n\nGilbert laughed, looking smug. “Don’t get all romantic on me, Weinerblut. I’m going to have to hold your hand or something and knowing you, you probably won’t like it.”\n\n \n\nGilbert’s attitude changed quickly when he felt Roderich’s fingers slip through his own. The warmth of his palm pressed to Roderich’s shot through his entire body and his heart beat increased. He looked down at Roderich suddenly, who was too busy finding the buttons on the audio tour player. “You don’t know me as well as you think you do, Gilbert.” He pressed play and pocketed the little remote, staring ahead at the organ in front of them.\n\n \n\nGilbert’s already pale face could not have become any whiter with embarrassment. He followed Roderich’s actions and stared straight ahead at the instrument, trying to focus on the exhibit rather than how much he enjoyed the feeling of Roderich’s hand in his.\n\n \n\n“Wilkommen auf die Berlin Musikinstrumentmuseum…”"}
+{"text": "Sandra is Different\n\nby Vanessa Evans\n\nPart 5\n\nI arrived at the university's gym at the time agreed with Isla which was 30 minutes later than the previous week, and I had to wait a few minutes outside for her. I saw one guy come out carrying his kit bag and when he saw me he turned around and went back in. I wondered if he'd gone earlier hoping to see me and then left when I didn't appear at the same time as the previous week only to see me outside and decide to have another workout.\n\nWhen Isla arrived I turned and we went in. The ladies changing room was empty and within seconds we were both naked and putting our trainers and our leotards on.\n\n\"You look good Isla.\" I said as I looked at her pokie nipples and the difference in colour of her nipples and areolae to the rest of her tits through the black, see-through leotard. I could also see her slit.\n\n\"So do you Sandra, that white leotard may cover you but it certainly doesn't hide anything.\"\n\n\"I'm not done yet.\" I replied as I bunched the crotch and made it disappear between my labia and on one side of my clit.\n\n\"I'm going to do that later.\" Isla said.\n\nWe went to the workout room and I was happy when I saw that there were indeed more young men, and more girls, although I didn't know if the girls were there to look at me and Isla or just to workout. Some of the guys were definitely there to watch Isla and me, their eyes having found us just as soon as we walked in.\n\n\"Shall I follow you round Sandra, Suzie seen as we're in flashing mode.\"\n\nWe giggled a little then I replied,\n\n\"Okay Kat.\"\n\nWe started doing my routine round the machines and before long I noticed that the crotch of Kat's leotard had disappeared between her lips although her clit was still covered and not even protruding like mine was. All of a sudden I was grateful for my longer than average clit that never wants to hide below its hood.\n\nThere was 2 notable machines that gave us a lot of pleasure, the first was the exercise cycle where we pushed each other, on seats that was too high, until we'd both had an orgasm. We were both reasonably quiet and neither of us knew if any of the other people in the room had realised. The second pleasurable machine was the hip abductor where we both strained to keep our legs spread wide, and our pussies on display, to the small group of others, including 2 girls, in the room, some of whom had gathered in front of the machine.\n\nWhen it came to the floor exercises Kat stood beside me and copied everything that I did, including the leg stretching. Kat really had to concentrate when I was doing my Katas, there's a lot to remember so I did them slowly so that she could copy each move.\n\nI decided to add 1 exercise to my routine, standing splits. I had been reminded of them one time recently when I'd been browsing the internet looking for exercises that would really display my pussy, especially in the leotard that covers next to nothing.\n\nWhen Kat saw me going into that pose I saw her jaw drop then turn into a big smile as she lifted her right leg and pulled and pushed it until her foot was way above her head. The 2 of us stood there like that appeared to please our little audience because I could see a few growing bulges in the guy's shorts. I also saw 1 of the girls licking her lips and I wondered if she'd still be around when we went to the changing room.\n\nFloor exercises over, we were stood getting our breath back when a couple of the guys came over to us, both asking if we could 'spot' them.\n\n\"Sure,\" I replied, \"we'd be pleased to help you.\"\n\nKat looked at me wondering what we were talking about so I said,\n\n\"Just follow me, it's easy and I guarantee that you'll enjoy it.\"\n\nAnd like having a guy's face so close to her mainly uncovered pussy Kat did. Two different young men actually, because after the first 2, 2 more guys asked for our help as well. By the time we left the workout room I'm sure that Kat was just as wet and horny as I was.\n\nAs we walked back to the changing room I told Kat that I was thinking of adding some yoga poses to the end of the routine.\n\n\"Ones that really show off our pussies I hope.\" Kat said.\n\n\"Of course, there's no point in doing them if we can't show our pussies at their best. Have you ever done any yoga Kat?\"\n\n\"No, but I watched a bit on the TV once.\"\n\n\"I'll look on the internet, there's bound to be some there.\" I replied. \"You will be coming again next week won't you?\"\n\n\"Try and stop me Suzie, I might even come another day this week. Now that you've given the courage to make it a lot more fun I think that I'm going to get a lot fitter.\"\n\n\"I've given you courage? It's more like you've given me some. Let me know if you come any other time, I might just join you.\"\n\nThere was a third girl in the showers, the one that had been staring at us and licking her lips when she could see our pussies. No sooner that Kat and myself had started soaping each other than the third girl turned to face us revealing her bald pubes and tits about the same size as Kat's, and said,\n\n\"That was quite a workout you two just had, and I have to say that I liked your outfits probably as much as the guys in there did, Are you two sisters or something?\"\n\n\"No.\" Kat replied.\n\n\"Lovers?\"\n\n\"No,\" I replied this time, \"just friends who think the same way.\"\n\n\"Well I like the way that you think, where did you get the leotards?\"\n\nI told her then added,\n\n\"We'd prefer to workout totally naked but we're not sure that the management would approve, not like the swimming pool where we're going next and no one there seems to care.\"\n\n\"You swim naked at the pool? Oh, I'm Sofia by the way.\"\n\nI introduced Kat and myself (Suzie) then said,\n\n\"Yes, we've been skinny dipping there the last 2 weeks and no one has complained.\"\n\n\"Interesting,\" Sofia replied as I started soaping Kat's tits. \"So you 2 are not sisters or lovers, it's just that .......... \"\n\nI instantly realised what Sofia was thinking and replied,\n\n\"We both get so horny showing our naked bodies that we just have to do something about it and it's always better when someone else is playing with your tits and pussy even if it is another girl. That's not a problem here is it?\"\n\n\"Not at all, I couldn't agree more, even seeing other girls expose themselves makes me horny, never mind exposing myself.\" Sofia said, \"would you mind if I caressed your tits Suzie? They're so unique, fabulous, I wish that mine were the shape of yours.\"\n\n\"Only if we can caress your body as well Sofia.\"\n\nThe 3 of us smiled and all 3 of us were soon caressing each other all at the same time. The inevitable happened and minutes later all 3 of us were enjoying the afterglow of our orgasms.\n\n\"So,\" Sofia said once our arousal had diminished a little, \"you two are going nude swimming now are you?\"\n\n\"Yes.\" Both Kat and I said almost at the same instant.\n\n\"Are you coming with us Sofia?\" I added.\n\nSofia said nothing for a few seconds then replied,\n\n\"You know, I think that I will, I've never been skinny dipping before.\"\n\n\"You'll enjoy it, and you'll enjoy the men looking at you.\"\n\nAs we were getting dressed I noted that Sofia also didn't put any underwear on and she was wearing a short floaty skirt. As we walked over to the swimming pool I asked Sofia if she always went without underwear.\n\n\"I didn't before I came here, my mother would have thrown a right wobbler if she found out. I did occasionally and if my brothers found out they'd start tickling me and we usually ended up on the floor with me with my skirt up around my waist. I sort of liked them seeing my pussy but it was a good job that they never started tickling me when my parents were around.\"\n\n\"So your brothers seeing your pussy turned you on Sofia?\" Kat asked.\n\n\"I never really put 2 and 2 together back then but yes, I suppose that it did.\"\n\n\"So would you let your brothers fuck you Sofia?\" I asked.\n\n\"Wow, direct and to the point Suzie,\" Sofia replied, \"just like your tits. You really are a lucky girl Suzie, my tits are just 'average'.\"\n\n\"Yes she is lucky.\" Kat added.\n\n\"They're just tits.\" I replied. \"I like all of yours, nice and soft and sensitive. I bet that all those girls with melons on their chests wish that theirs were like either of yours.\"\n\n\"Or yours Suzie.\" Kat added.\n\n\"But mine are a bit freaky, okay, some younger girls have them like this to start off with but they develop into ones that look 'normal', mine have never done that.\"\n\n\"But you like them don't you Suzie?\" Sofia asked.\n\n\"I do, I like being different even if it is freakish.\"\n\n\"Well I'm sure that they guys like them.\" Kat said.\n\n\"They seem to, look at that guy at the Funfair yesterday, he couldn't take his hands off them.\"\n\n\"You let a guy at a Funfair grope your tits Suzie?\" Sofia asked.\n\n\"She did,\" Kat replied, \"and you should have seen the dress that she was nearly wearing.\"\n\n\"So you like flashing a lot of skin do you Suzie?\" Sofia asked.\n\n\"I think that all 3 of us do.\" I replied.\n\nWe were still giggling a little as we entered the pool building.\n\n\"Are you sure that this is okay?\" Sofia asked as the 3 totally naked older teen girls headed for the archway between the girls changing room and the pool, none of them trying to cover their bits with their hands.\n\n\"No,\" I replied, \"but no one said anything last week so what the hell, let's do it girls. What's the worst that can happen?\"\n\n\"We can get thrown out and barred from coming here again.\" Sofia replied.\n\n\"Who will know, no one checked our student IDs when we got here. In fact there was only that girl in reception and she looked so bored that a football team could have walked in and she wouldn't have noticed.\" Kat replied.\n\n\"I wouldn't mind a football team seeing us like this right now.\" I said.\n\n\"Me too.\" The other 2 said at the same time.\n\nThere were a few more people, guys and girls, in the pool than the previous week and I again was happy that I'd decided to go a bit later. No one said anything and only a couple of the guys stopped what they were doing and stared. We went to the end and dived in, having an informal race to the other, shallow end.\n\n\"Wow,\" Sofia said when she stood up next to Isla and me. \"That's an amazing feeling, whoever invented girls swimming costumes wants shooting. Every girl should experience swimming naked.\"\n\n\"Even when you get the guys perving on you as often as they can?\" Kat asked.\n\n\"Especially when you get the guys perving on you as often as they can?\" I replied.\n\nWe all giggled a little then headed off back to the other end of the pool.\n\nWe did a few more laps, usually stopping at the shallow end and standing up to talk for a while before swimming again. Most of the guys there stopped at the shallow end some of the time and had a good look at our tits, a couple of them trying to talk to us be each time we cut them off and they gave up.\n\nWhen we'd had enough we got out at the shallow end and took our time walking back to the changing rooms letting everyone there see all of our naked bodies.\n\nIn the showers there was no touching each other but I had a play with my clit and had a nice little cum before we got out and dressed. As we left the building Sofia asked Kat and me if we minded her telling all her friends that Monday afternoons and evenings were nude swimming. Both Kat and myself said that we didn't mind but secretly I was a bit disappointed because I like it when I am the only one naked and all men's eyes are on my naked body but I told myself to stop being selfish.\n\nThen Sofia asked,\n\n\"Do you think that we could be naked for our workouts as well?\"\n\n\"Now that would be really good.\" I replied, \"but let's tackle one problem at a time.\"\n\nWe agreed and Sofia went off on one direction and Isla and me in another. As Isla and I walked I remembered what Lisa had said about working at the erotic equipment convention so I said,\n\n\"How do you fancy a day out Isla, working at an erotic equipment convention demonstrating sex toys to the public?\"\n\n\"That sounds 'interesting', keep talking, what's an erotic equipment convention?\"\n\n\"I don't know all the details yet but I do know that it's promoting sex toys but there is one drawback.\"\n\n\"What's that?\"\n\n\"We'd have to be naked all day in a place with hundreds of people walking around.\"\n\n\"How's that a drawback? I'd consider it a benefit. Do they pay us as well?\"\n\n\"I have no idea, but I'd do it for free just for the benefits.\"\n\n\"So would I Sandra. Where and when, I'll happily skip a class or lecture to do that.\"\n\n\"I don't know any of the details but if you're happy to do it then I'll pass that on. I'll let you know any more when I do.\"\n\nWe parted with a reminder of where and at what time we were meeting on the Wednesday.\n\nThere was only Andy in the common room when I later went to make myself a coffee before going to bed. We both said hello but he seemed engrossed in something on his laptop and he ignored my nudity.\n\n*****\n\nOn the Tuesday afternoon when I got back to my room I decided that I was hungry, and as I didn't think that any of my flatmates were at home I went to the kitchen totally naked and got on with preparing my food. No one had returned when it was ready so I sat on one of the sofas to eat it. As I was eating I realised that I was quite tired and when I finished eating I put the plate on the floor and decided to have a minute's rest before going to wash my plate.\n\nThe next thing that I knew was Geoff and a couple of his mates were looking down on me and Geoff was saying,\n\n\"Hi Sandra, are you dead or alive?\"\n\n\"Oh hi Geoff,\" I said when I was awake enough to do so, \"brought more of your friends to perv on my body again have you?\"\n\n\"This is Simon and Oliver, remember them, they've come to make a cast of your chest.\"\n\n\"What!? Oh yes, you haven't actually managed to get some Plaster of Paris have you?\"\n\n\"We have,\" Simon said, \"I'm doing an Arts course and we use it to make models.\"\n\nI was still groggy and was cursing that I's agreed to it but as I started to come round I decided that it could be fun.\n\n\"Okay, where do you want me, what do I have to do?\" I asked.\n\n\"Well,\" Simon said, \"if we were doing this with most girls we'd make the cast with the girl on her hands and knees and her tits hanging down but you doing that wouldn't make any difference so we were thinking that you could lay on the table and we'd rub the mixture over your tits and pussy. Sorry, did I say rub, I mean spoon it on and then smooth it with the back of the spoon.\"\n\n\"I think that it will be easier if you use your hands,\" I replied, \"you can get more in your hands than a spoon.\"\n\nI watched Simon and Oliver grin at the thought of putting their hands on my tits. Then I thought,\n\n\"What the hell, may as well let them do my pussy as well, they'll only pester me until I agree.\"\n\n\"Okay,\" I said, \"go and mix the stuff.\"\n\nGeoff interrupted before I could finish speaking.\n\n\"I'll clear the table and get you spread out ready Sandra.\"\n\n\"I was going to say that you could do my pussy as well but it sounds like you were intending to do that anyway.\"\n\n\"We thought that once we'd got your nipples really hard you'd want us to do your clit as well.\" Geoff said.\n\n\"And I suppose that you'll be helping them as well Geoff?\" I asked.\n\n\"Is that a problem Sandra?\" Geoff asked.\n\n\"I guess not.\" I replied.\n\nSimon and Oliver appeared to be taking a long time getting their mix ready and as I lay there, spread eagle on the table, my nipples and clit were starting to tingle. Geoff was looking down at me and after a while he said,\n\n\"They're taking their time, I'll just get started making your nipples get really hard, I'm assuming that you'd want them at their best in the mould Sandra.\"\n\nI didn't say anything as Geoff's hands started playing with my nipples causing me to moan a little and the tingling to get stronger.\n\nI was just getting really excited when Oliver appeared and said that they were nearly ready.\n\n\"Shouldn't you rub some grease or oil on my skin first to make sure that you can get the cast off in one piece?\" I asked.\n\n\"That's what I've come over to do.\" Oliver said as a bottle of cooking oil appeared from behind his back. \"Will you help me please Geoff?\"\n\nSeconds later 4 hands were rubbing the cooking oil all over my chest and I was starting to think that if the kept going I'd have an orgasm. Then Simon appeared with a big plastic bucket and plonked it down on the table between my legs.\n\n\"We have to do this fast,\" Simon said, \"If we spend too much time tweaking her nipples this stuff will go as hard as her nipples before we've got it in place.\"\n\nGeoff backed away saying,\n\n\"You 2 get on with slapping it all over her chest, I'll work on her clit to get that really hard.\"\n\n\"That shouldn't take long.\" Simon said, \"it looks as hard as my little finger already. Don't forget the oil Geoff, we don't want to have to rip it off.\"\n\n\"I don't suppose that would be any worse that ripping wax off her,\" Geoff replied, \"Do you wax Sandra, or do you shave? Or have you had it all lasered off?\"\n\nI don't know why I answered that but I told him that I shaved every morning.\n\n\"Just like me.\" Geoff replied.\n\n\"You shave your pubes and cock every day Geoff?\" Oliver asked as he put another handful of cold, Plaster of Paris on my left tit and started spreading it all over that area.\n\n\"No stupid, I was talking about my face.\" Geoff replied.\n\nIn between my moans and wondering how long I could hold back the orgasm that was starting to build inside me. I thought about me giving a blowjob to a man who had no hair there. I almost instantly wished that all men shaved their pubes, I'd developed a hatred for getting pubic hairs stuck between my teeth or stuck at the back of my mouth.\n\nOther than a sort of wet feeling, my chest and tits felt nothing as the Plaster of Paris started to dry. Not only did it cover my tits bit it covered most of my ribs as well.\n\nMeanwhile, Geoff was playing with my clit with one hand and rubbing the oil all around my pussy with the other hand. The inevitable happened and I orgasmed with the 3 of them looking down on me.\n\nWhen I'd just about got back to normal I first heard Geoff say,\n\n\"Now that we've got that out of the way we should be able to get a cast of her pussy without her jerking about.\"\n\nSimon then said,\n\n\"Shit, this damned stuff has gone hard, I'll have to mix some more. Give me a hand please Geoff.\"\n\nSimon and Geoff went to the kitchen and Oliver stepped close to me and said,\n\n\"Do I need to get you off again Sandra, we don't want you cumming when the mix is drying.\"\n\nI looked up at Oliver and smiled. I didn't need to say anything because I soon felt the finger of one of his hands enter my hole and a finger from the other hand rubbing my clit.\n\nI was still quite aroused so it didn't take long for me to be going over the edge again. I was still coming down from that high when I felt a dollop of the new mix land on my pussy. I gasped then said,\n\n\"Fucking hell, that was a shock.\"\n\nIt's a good job that you don't have any of those flaps that get all over the place Sandra. I'd hate for a flap to get trapped when we pull the cast off.\n\n\"So would I.\" I thought, again pleased that I had no inner labia.\n\nAs the cast of my pussy was drying the guys started to take off the cast off of my chest. I was expecting some of my skin to be stuck to the Plaster of Paris but with Simon on one side of me and Oliver on the other they gently eased the mould off me. When it was free I could see the shape of my chest, and in particular my tits. To me they looked more pointy and prominent that when I look down at the real thing. I felt proud of my shape.\n\n\"Spray it with silicone then peel it off and we have the basis for a jelly mould.\" Simon said.\n\n\"Hey Simon,\" Oliver said, \"what's the chances of you being able to use the Art department's 3D printer? It looks big enough to be able to scan then print a perfect silicone replica of Sandra's body.\"\n\n\"You mean like one of those Chinese sex dolls?\" Geoff said.\n\n\"That wasn't what I was thinking,\" Oliver said, \"but yeah, it would be like that, a mannequin, like fucking the real Sandra anytime that we wanted.\"\n\n\"Hey guys,\" I said, \"I'm still here, and who says that you can't fuck the real thing anytime that you want, none of you have asked me. But I do like the idea of a perfect, silicone copy of me being out there. Is this stuff on my pussy dry yet?\"\n\n\"Err probably.\" Simon replied.\n\nAs he and Oliver started to ease the cast off my whole lower abdomen Simon said,\n\n\"It would take a couple of days to print something the size of Sandra, maybe if we could get Sandra there on a Friday afternoon after the Lecturer and staff have left we could get it started and leave it running all weekend. What time are you free on a Friday afternoon Sandra?\"\n\n\"About 2, are you seriously thinking of making a 3D model of my whole body? Ouch, steady guys, that's my clit that your pulling on.\"\n\n\"Sorry Sandra,\" Simon said, \"the Plaster of Paris had moulded round the shape of your clit which has a little bell-end on it, I'm sure that if we take it easy it will come off. Can I let you know when we want you to come and be scanned. It doesn't hurt or do any damage to you, we scanned one of the students head the other week and he's still as stupid as he was before he got scanned.\"\n\nI thought for a couple of seconds. The idea of a perfect replica of me knocking around somewhere sounded great. I wondered if Simon could print lots of them and sell them.\n\n\"Okay,\" I replied, \"just let me know when.\"\n\nThe cast came off me without any further problems and as I looked at it I liked the shape of my pussy, especially the hollow where my clit had been. I was quite proud of those casts but as I got up onto my elbows I saw that there was bits of dried Plaster of Paris all over me around where the casts had been.\n\n\"I'm going for a shower.\" I said as I got off the table.\n\nAs I was walking to my room Emily was arriving and when she saw me she said,\n\n\"What the hell happened to you Sandra?\"\n\n\"Geoff and his mates.\" I replied, \"go and see what they've got.\"\n\nEmily looked puzzled but she went to the common room and I continued into my room and the shower.\n\nI didn't go out of my room again that night although I did think about when I'd said 'who says that you can't fuck the real thing anytime that you want, none of you have asked me.' and wondered if it had registered with any of them and if they'd ask to fuck me. I also smiled at the thought of Lisa's shop replacing all her mannequins with perfect copies of my body, and the real me standing next to a couple of them, all naked and wondering if the customers would realise that a real naked girl was stood there watching them.\n\n*****\n\nIt was when I was idly toying with my clit immediately after I woke up that I realised that I no longer had any bras of knickers to wear under my old school uniform for Master Thomas. I thought that he'd want me to be wearing underwear like schoolgirls do so that he could slowly strip me. I'd have to get some. I decided that I'd go to the Gentlemen's club via Lisa's shop, that way I could buy some and put them on in the shop without any problems. Okay the underwear that Lisa sold wasn't exactly aimed at schoolgirls but it would have to do. If Master Thomas said anything I'd just tell him that I put on my sexiest set specially for him.\n\nI found it hard to concentrate on my class that morning, my brain was getting all excited about what the afternoon would bring, and my pussy was doing the same. I found myself pressing my knees together then opening them quite a lot of the time and I'm sure that the technician running the class saw a lot of my bare, wet pussy because he kept looking my way.\n\nFinally it was time to leave and I rushed back to my room for another shower and shave before donning my old school uniform which consisted of knee length white socks, flat shoes, a plaid skirt (that I rolled the top a couple of times), a white blouse and the school tie that matched the skirt.\n\nAs I looked at myself in the mirror I was happy with my look but didn't remember me looking that good when I wore that uniform to go to school.\n\nWith my little shoulder bag I set off and rushed to the shop. As I walked in Bella immediately asked me what I was doing there.\n\n\"I'm in a rush, I need a bra and some knickers.\" I replied.\n\n\"I thought that you'd stopped wearing underwear Sandra.\"\n\n\"I have, this is for a man to strip me before he spanks me.\"\n\n\"What! You're going to get spanked.\"\n\n\"Yeah, can I tell you all about it tomorrow, I'm in a bit of a rush.\"\n\nBy that time I was looking through the displays.\n\n\"Judging by what you are wearing Sandra I'm guessing that you want something that a schoolgirl would wear, a sexy schoolgirl.\"\n\n\"Yes.\"\n\n\"Well a sexy schoolgirl might wear these.\" Bella said holding up a see-through set that was quite small.\n\nBella held them up against me and they looked good.\n\n\"Come on,\" I said, \"I've got to put them on.\"\n\nI quickly led Bella to the changing rooms and I quickly stripped with Bella stood where the curtain would have been if either of us had bothered to close it. Putting the bra and thong on I looked at myself in the mirror and thought,\n\n\"I never remember any of the sluts at school looking like this when they got dressed after PE.\"\n\n\"What the hell, they'll do.\" I said just as Lisa appeared.\n\n\"What's going on here? Sandra what are you doing here and what are you doing wearing underwear?\"\n\n\"I'm in a rush,\" I replied, \"Bella will tell you a bit about it, can I explain the rest tomorrow and can I pay for these tomorrow?\"\n\n\"I'm sure that I can trust you Sandra, and I look forward to hearing all about it tomorrow.\"\n\n\"You will, if I'm still alive or not in hospital.\"\n\nBy then I had put my skirt and blouse on and was fastening up the buttons. Grabbing my bag I almost pushed Bella out of the way and shouted \"Bye\" as I headed out.\n\nIsla was waiting when I got to our meeting place and I took a deep breath then said,\n\n\"You look good Isla, or are you Kat this afternoon?\"\n\n\"I used Isla on Reddit so I guess that we are Isla and Sandra this afternoon.\"\n\n\"Okay, I only invented Suzie to make if difficult for the guys at uni to track me down anyway. Hey, are you wearing underwear Isla? I just had to go out and buy some on the way here.\"\n\n\"Yeah, I kept one of each just in case. Are you ready to get your backside tanned Sandra?\"\n\n\"Let's go.\" I replied and linking arms we set off to walk down the street to the entrance to the Gentlemen's club.\n\n\"May I help you ladies?\" the old man in some sort of uniform said as we opened the door and walked in.\n\n\"I hope so.\" Isla replied, \"we're here to see Master Thomas.\"\n\nThe old man looked puzzled for a couple of seconds then replied,\n\n\"Oh Thomas, that explains it, follow me ladies.\"\n\nAs we started to do so I looked around. The place looked like it was built and decorated in the nineteenth century. Not that it looked run-down or anything in fact it looked very smart, just old fashioned.\n\nWe were led into a big room that had lots of old, big armchairs, some on their own and some in groups. Each individual or group had a coffee table, most with cups of tea or coffee and some newspapers on them. Most of the men were just sat there reading or sleeping but we were led to a group of 5, middle-aged but distinguished looking men, all of them quietly reading.\n\nThe man who led us in coughed and waited. When one of the sat men looked up the old man said,\n\n\"Thomas, your guests have arrived.\"\n\n\"Thank you Jeeves, that will be all.\"\n\n\"Thank you sir.\" The old man said then turned and walked away.\n\n\"Girls.\" Master Thomas said, \"which one of you is Isla?\"\n\nIsla lifted her right hand.\n\n\"So you must be Sandra.\" Master Thomas said as he looked me up and down.\n\n\"Yes sir.\" I relied.\n\n\"Has Isla told you why you are here Sandra?\"\n\n\"I've been a naughty girl and I've been send here to be punished.\"\n\n\"That is correct Sandra, and how do you expect to be punished?\"\n\n\"Spanked sir.\"\n\n\"Good, we're all on the same page. Isla, Sandra, these gentlemen are George, Harry, Edward and Charles but you don't need to worry about remembering their names, just call them sir.\"\n\n\"Yes sir.\" Both Isla and I said to Master Thomas.\n\n\"No girls, they are sir and I am Master Thomas.\"\n\n\"Yes Master Thomas.\" Both Isla and I said and the same time.\n\n\"Now girls, I don't believe in spanking a girl who has clothes on so please disrobe, both of you.\"\n\nBoth Isla and myself slowly started taking our blouses off then our skirts. We both stopped there knowing that that wasn't what Master Thomas had told us to do.\n\n\"Everything girls.\"\n\nWe took our bras off then our knickers and stood in the classic ENF pose.\n\n\"Are you deaf girls, or are you asking for your punishment to be extended?\"\n\nFinally, we took our shoes then socks off and gain stood in the classic ENF pose but this time totally naked.\n\n\"About time girls. Now put your hands behind your heads and interlace your fingers, then spread your feet about a metre apart.\"\n\nWe did then I saw Master Thomas pick up a smallish, brass bell and shake it before putting it back down on the table.\n\nThe whole room was silent and I slowly turned my head and saw that not only was Master Thomas and the 4, middle-aged looking at us but just about every other man in the room was as well. The only ones that weren't looked like they were asleep.\n\nNo disrespect to Isla but I was sure that most of the male eyes were staring at my cone shaped, little tits. I guessed that all the men there were used to seeing the sagging tots of their wives.\n\nAfter a good minute Jeeves appeared and Master Thomas said,\n\n\"Jeeves, get the Sybian and set it up on the big table please.\"\n\nI wondered what a Sybian was.\n\n\"Yes sir.\" Jeeves replied.\n\nWhilst we were waiting Master Thomas told us to rotate 90 degrees, wait for 10 seconds then do the same again until we were back facing him. Isla and myself did and I wondered if her puss was as tingly and wet as mine was. I could see that her nipples looked as hard and mine were.\n\nI saw Jeeves return with a heavy looking box and put it on the table. Then he took out a blanket and spread it on the long, solid looking, highly polished, wood table. Next out of the box came what looked like half a small barrel which he lay on its side. Things fell into place when I saw Jeeves attach a dildo to the curved side (top)of the barrel.\n\n\"Oh my gawd, he's going to make us ride that thing.\" I thought, \"well at least it's better than a hairbrush or a cucumber.\"\n\nI watched Jeeves connect some cables then plug the longes cable into a power supply socket.\n\n\"He's going to give us some electric shocks.\" I thought, still not realizing that the dildo was a vibrator.\n\n\"Come with us girls, and keep those hands behind your heads.\"\n\nMaster Thomas led Isla, myself and the other 4 middle-aged men over to the table when I got a closer look at the big dildo sticking up in the air. It looked rubbery and at the base, at what I assumed was the front of it, I could see what looked like an upturned scrubbing brush. The though of my clit pressing on that both frightened and thrilled me.\n\n\"Now,\" Master Thomas said, \"any volunteers to go first?\"\n\nNeither Isla nor myself said anything so Master Thomas continued,\n\n\"Isla, well volunteered, up you get, I think that you can work out what to do.\"\n\nIsla climbed up onto the table, straddled the Sybian, went down onto her knees and stopped with the tip of the dildo just touching her pussy.\n\n\"Impale yourself girl.\" Master Thomas said.\n\nIsla must have been as wet as I was because she easily lowered herself, moaning as she went, and bottomed out. A thought crossed my mind,\n\n\"Okay, that looks fun but there's not much of her butt showing for Master Thomas to spank.\"\n\nMaster Thomas was way ahead of me,\n\n\"Now bend forwards Isla until you can put the palms of your hands way in front of your head which needs to be touching the table.\"\n\nMore and more of Isla's butt became visible as she bent forwards, gasping and moaning as the dildo moved around inside her. I didn't know if it was painful or pleasurable.\n\nThen Master Thomas said,\n\n\"Don't even move 1 millimetre Isla.\" And ho took hold of what I assumed was a control box and Isla screamed then moaned over and over.\n\nI guessed that the dildo was a vibrator as well and that maybe the scrubbing brush was as well. My clit tingled a lot more at the thought of what that scrubbing brush would do to my clit.\n\nThen Master Thomas started spanking Isla's butt. I observed that Master Thomas didn't raise his hand really high before bringing it down on Isla's butt, something that made me think that, although it would certainly make her butt sting, it wouldn't do any real damage to her.\n\nPoor Isla must have been as confused as I knew that I would be, the pain, the pleasure, all at once.\n\n\"Aargh, ooh, ouch, oh fuck, aargh, ouch, ooh, shit, ooh, aargh.\"\n\nOn she went as Master Thomas rained the swats down on her bare butt until after about the fifteenth swat Isla added to the list of expletives,\n\n\"Oh fuck, I'm cuuummmiiinnngg,\"\n\nMaster Thomas stopped swatting her butt and we all just watched as Isla's orgasm took its course then started to recede.\n\nJust when I started to think that her spanking was over Master Thomas stepped back and one of the other middle-aged men took his place and started spanking her butt with his right hand as Master Thomas said,\n\n\"No swearing this time Isla or we will start from scratch.\"\n\nThe swats continued and Isla's expletives were repeated, without the word 'fuck' or 'shit'.\n\nI saw Master Thomas do something with the control box and Isla immediately gasped some more.\n\nThe inevitable happened and Isla orgasmed again.\n\nThis was repeated until Isla had cum 5 times, each with a different one of the 5 middle-aged men spanking her. As her last orgasm faded into history Master Thomas said,\n\n\"That's it Isla, your punishment is complete, I trust that you have learnt something today. You may get down now and stand where you were with your hands behind your head and your legs spread with. Sandra, it is your turn to be punished now, up you get and assume the position that Isla was in.\"\n\nAs Isla climbed down I got a glimpse of her butt. It was red, very red, but none of it was that horrible dark red and I guessed that it wouldn't take more than a couple of days for the red to disappear.\n\nAs I climbed up and took Isla's place I was a bit nervous and worried that I might not be able to take both the swats and having 5 orgasms, never mind what the vibrator would be doing to my insides. Isla had looked like she'd been crying and apart from her butt she looked okay. I hoped for the best.\n\nThe dildo wasn't the biggest thing that I'd had inside me, that was a cucumber, but I'd never tried moving the cucumber around inside me and I was pleased that I easily slid down and bottomed out before bending forwards. It certainly felt strange as I bent forwards as far as I had to, but it wasn't really painful so I decided that I only had to worry about the swats. Never having been spanked before, not even playfully, I didn't really know exactly what to expect.\n\nMaster Thomas let the first swat land before he switched the vibrations on. I quickly forgot my stinging butt as the pleasure of the vibrations really made me happy. I just knew that I had to get myself a proper vibrator, maybe 2 or 3 of them, just as soon as I could.\n\nThe subsequent swats took my attention away from the vibrations and I was left with the mixture of pain and pleasure, all at the same time.\n\nAfter something like a dozen swats I realised that I hadn't been cussing as much as Isla had and I wondered if my butt was hurting as much as hers had when Master Thomas was spanking her.\n\nWhat I did know by then that there was every chance that I would get an orgasm from each of the men's spankings, the first one was rapidly approaching.\n\nA split second before it hit me I heard myself letting everyone in the room know that I was about to cum. And it was a good cum, longer and stronger than when my fingers earn their keep.\n\nThe same routine was followed for all the other 4 men and, although part of me wanted them to start over, the other part of me didn't know if I'd be able to stand on my feet when I got off the table. They didn't start over and I did manager to stand on my own 2 feet when I slowly managed to climb off the Sybian and off the table. Although my brain was in a daze and my body was feeling the pain coming from my butt.\n\nAs the daze slowly cleared the pain in my butt increased but I realised that I hadn't cried and that I was feeling that afterglow of not 1, but 5 wonderful orgasms. Also, I was feeling tired and knackered.\n\nMaster Thomas and the other men, the 4 who's spanked me and they others in the room, were still staring at Isla and me but my brain was so mixed up that I didn't register the pleasure of them watching me.\n\n\"Come girls, back to where you were.\" Master Thomas said and we followed him back to the place where we'd stripped and Isla and I assumed the same standing position.\"\n\n\"Would you like a drink girls?\" Master Thomas asked.\n\nWhen we both said that we would and Master Thomas rang the bell again. Jeeves was soon there.\n\n\"Two colas please Jeeves.\"\n\nI'd been hoping for something stronger but I guessed that naughty schoolgirls don't get given alcoholic drinks. As we waited for the drinks my brain was clearing and, although the pain wasn't decreasing slightly, the pleasure of the situation was increasing and I started thinking more about all those men looking at my naked body.\n\nThe drinks arrived and soon disappeared inside Isla and me. When we put the glasses down Master Thomas said,\n\n\"Okay girls, that is the punishment over. These are for you.\n\n\"Master Thomas put 2 envelopes on the table then continued,\n\n\"If you would like the opportunity to make some old men happy and earn some extra money you can come and sit on the lap of any of the gentlemen in this group.\"\n\nIsla looked at me and I looked at her, then our arms dropped and we went round the table and gingerly sat on a man's lap.\n\nAbout an hour later and with 5 lots of male cum mixed with the cola in my stomach, I stood and said.\n\n\"Sorry, but I'm too knackered to do anything else.\"\n\nIsla agreed and we went around the table and I asked where our clothes were. Master Thomas pointed to another little table where I saw 2 little piles of our neatly folded clothes. I smiled to myself assuming that Jeeves was responsible. Then Master Thomas said,\n\n\"Girls, please can you leave your phone numbers so that I can contact you for another punishment session, and I also have another proposition for you for which I need photographs of both of you. Just stand there with your hands behind your heads whilst I take them.\n\nI watched Master Thomas take the photographs and the other men putting more money into the envelopes and when Isla and myself got dressed, Master Thomas said,\n\n\"Girls, I am looking for some girls who are prepared to take some sleeping tablets and then whilst they are asleep, a distinguished gentleman will come to your hotel room and use your body.\"\n\n\"What?\" I asked.\n\n\"These distinguished gentlemen cannot afford for their identities to be revealed and they like the idea of having sex with a girl who is unconscious.\"\n\n\"Weird.\" Isla said.\n\n\"Maybe but they are willing to pay a considerable amount of money for privilege of using your bodies.\"\n\n\"Let me get this straight,\" I said, \"these rich men want to do anything that they want to our bodies without us knowing what they are doing or who they are?\"\n\n\"That pretty much sums it up but I have their assurance that they will not do anything to you that you wouldn't do with a lover and they would never damage you in any way, and, as I said, they are prepared to pay you £1,000 for a couple of hours of your time.\"\n\nI looked at Isla and saw a glint in her eye, she was definitely interested.\n\n\"Make it \"£5,000 each time regardless of which of us it is.\" I said.\n\n\"£2.000.\" Master Thomas replied.\n\n\"£4,500.\"\n\n\"£3,000.\" Master Thomas replied.\n\nI looked at Isla and saw the smile on her face. I nodded and she nodded back so I turned to Master Thomas and put out my hand.\n\n\"Deal.\"\n\n\"Deal.\"\n\nWe shook hands and I said,\n\n\"So when, and how will it work?\"\n\n\"I don't know when, but soon. I've thought about the plan and what will happen is that you will go to a decent hotel where a room will have been booked, and paid for, in your name. When you get to it you will strip naked, bathe then take the pill that will be waiting for you. You will then get into bed, still naked, and go to sleep. The pill will knock you out for around 2 hours and will do you no harm other than make you sleep. When you wake up the man will have gone and you can get up and resume your life. The money will be in an envelope with your clothes. If you have any problems phone me and I will sort it out.\"\n\n\"What do you think Isla?\" I asked.\n\n\"You do promise that no harm will come to us Master Thomas?\" Isla asked.\n\n\"I do, and only 1 of you will be 'in play' at one time so you can easily check with each other after the 2 hours.\"\n\n\"Okay then, let's do it.\" Isla replied.\n\n\"Okay Master Thomas, we look forward to hearing from you. Jeeves will show you out.\"\n\nMaster Thomas rang the bell again, Isla and I picked up our envelopes that were struggling to hold all the notes. Nothing was said by any of the 5 men about the fact that neither Isla nor myself had put on our bras or knickers, we'd both stuffed them in our bags.\n\nJeeves arrived then led us to the front door.\n\n\"Are you okay Isla?\" I asked as we walked down the steps to the footpath.\n\n\"I'm good, are you Sandra?\"\n\n\"Yeah, I'm good too. How much cash do you thing there is in these envelopes?\"\n\n\"Maybe a thousand.\"\n\n\"Not bad for a couple of hours work was it? Will you check my butt please Isla, it's hurting like hell.\"\n\nNot caring that I was about to lift the back of my skirt revealing my bare, red butt to anyone who cared to look, I turned my back to Isla and did lift the back of my skirt.\n\n\"It's very red Sandra, but there's no skin broken and no deep red marks so it won't hurt for long but it will probably be red for 2 or 3 days, what's mine like?\"\n\nWe reversed our positions and I told Isla that her butt was the same as mine.\n\n\"I'm really pleased that there's no real damage.\" I said as we started walking again, \"Will you go again if Master Thomas phones you Isla?\"\n\n\"Hell yeah, as many times as they want, that Sybian machine, those orgasms, I'd go through that every day if I could.\"\n\n\"Me too,\" I replied, I wonder how much those Sybian things cost, I'd like to own one.\"\n\n\"More that we just earned.\" Isla replied.\n\n\"How do you know?\"\n\n\"I saw one for sale on the internet, but at least we'll be able to buy some vibrators with the money that we've just earned.\"\n\n\"Yeah,\" I replied, \"I want to but some new clothes as well, I might be broke again by the time we go to the gym on Monday.\"\n\n\"I'm going to get one of those Hitachi Magic Wands,\" Isla said, \"a girl at school had one and she said that it was the best thing her boyfriend ever bought her.\"\n\n\"Hitachi Magic Wand eh, I'll look that up. I know, I'll talk to Lisa tomorrow, I'm sure that she'll be able to recommend some good ones.\"\n\nWhat about this anonymous fucking when we're unconscious Isla? I've pretended to be out cold when I was fucked once and that was fun. Not having to talk to them, just get fucked.\" I said.\n\n\"They might be fat or ugly.\" Isla said.\n\n\"We'd be out cold so we wouldn't know.\"\n\n\"£3,000 for 2 hours laying on our backs, I think that it could be an easy way to get some money and because we'd never see them it wouldn't matter if they were old, fat or ugly.\"\n\n\"Maybe we could setup one of those concealed cameras and record what they do to us, it would also tell us who it is that fucked us.\"\n\n\"Yes, now that we've got some money we could definitely do that, maybe we'd get some videos that we could use to blackmail them.\" Isla said.\n\n\"I'm not sure about that, I'm also not sure that I want to know who it was or what they did to us. I might not like what I find out. I think that I'd like to keep it all anonymous, but you can if you want Isla.\"\n\n\"Maybe you're right Sandra, maybe it's better if it remains anonymous, for £3,000 I can live with not knowing. Hey, do you fancy going for a drink Sandra? It's only early.\"\n\n\"Sorry, I'm too knackered, but I'll take a rain check if that's okay with you?\"\n\n\"Sure, I'm quite knackered as well. I've never had 5 really strong orgasms in such a short time before.\"\n\n\"Me neither, you don't know of any parties this weekend do you Isla, I need to pick-up a guy and get my brains fucked out.\"\n\n\"I'll ask around, there's bound to be a few going on somewhere, I could do with my brains being fucked out as well. I'll phone you.\" Isla replied.\n\nWe parted and as I walked back to my room I was thinking, I'd really enjoyed myself and the idea of being fucked, and other things, whilst I was asleep sounded 'interesting', Isla had told me that one of her boyfriends had woken her by fucking her and she said that it was an amazing way to wake up but with Master Thomas's plan we wouldn't wake up until after the guy had left. I decided that I was happy to try it and see how I felt afterwards.\n\nThen I started thinking more about the immediate future, would I go to the common room naked with my butt still bright red? When would it stop hurting? Would I be able to sit still in my class the next morning? Would I loose my voice telling Lisa and Bella all about what had happened to me? What clothes was I going to buy?\n\nAs I walked into my building I realised that I was hungry,\n\n\"Sod it.\" thought, I'm going to get a pizza delivered, \"I can afford it now.\"\n\nAs soon as I got naked in my room I looked at my butt in the mirror. It was bright red but thankfully, as Isla had said, there were no dark red marks and no broken skin.\n\n\"Give it a few days.\" I thought.\n\nThen I went online after slowly sitting on the duvet on my bed. The first thing that I did was order a pizza and a bottle of cola. It would take about 40 minutes so I started browsing for vibrators. I found lots of them and I bookmarked a few that looked interesting, making a note of the names for my talk with Lisa. Then my phone rang, it was the Pizza guy to tell me that he was coming up the stairs.\n\nNot even thinking about clothes, I picked up my purse and went to the flat door. As I left my room I saw Andy in the corridor. We said \"Hi\" with him staring at my naked front and I remembered that I was naked. The doorbell rang and I thought,\n\n\"Sod it, give the guy a nice surprise.\"\n\nI was just opening the door when I heard Andy say,\n\n\"Fucking hell Sandra, what happened to your butt.\"\n\nWith the door wide open I said \"Hi\" to the Pizza guy. I saw his jaw drop as I turned to tell Andy that I'd explain in a minute and giving the Pizza guy a look at my red butt.\n\n\"Sorry about that,\" I said turning to face the dumb-stuck Pizza guy.\n\nAfter 4 or 5 seconds silence I said,\n\n\"Pizza for Sandra?\"\n\n\"What? Oh yes, sorry, it's my first day on the job and they told me that I would probably see a few naked university girls but I didn't believe them. Yeah, Pizza for Sandra, that will be £13.99 please.\"\n\n\"Well I guess that taking that job was worth your while then? I replied as I handed £15 over.\n\n\"And some, do you order a lot of pizzas?\"\n\n\"This is my first here but it probably won't be my last.\"\n\n\"I'll keep an eye out for your address then.\" The guy said as he handed me the pizza and bottle of cola.\n\n\"Thanks.\" I said as I closed the door with the guy still stood there. Then I heard him say,\n\n\"Wow, those tits.\"\n\nI smiled and turned to go to the common room to eat. Andy was still stood staring at me and as I was walking towards him he said,\n\n\"Did someone hurt you Sandra?\"\n\n\"Obviously yeah, but it was consensual so you can relax.\"\n\n\"You let someone do that to you?\"\n\n\"Yeah, and they made me cum 5 times so it was worth it.\"\n\n\"I would have made you cum 5 times without doing that to you Sandra.\"\n\n\"Maybe but would you have paid me £1,000 for the privilege?\"\n\n\"Are you turning into a whore Sandra?\"\n\n\"No, it's not like that, this was just a bit of fun.\"\n\n\"That's quite some fun you've obviously had.\" Geoff said as he waked into the room, \"does it hurt?\"\n\n\"Of course it hurts.\" I replied at I took a bite of a slice of pizza then went and sat on one of the cushion on one of the sofas.\n\n\"So tell us who did this to you Sandra.\" Geoff said.\n\n\"Not telling, but I will tell you some of the details.\"\n\nAs I ate I did tell them, but not who, where or what the place was like, just the details from getting on the Sybian to getting off it. I didn't want to risk them finding out anything about Master Thomas.\n\n\"Fucking hell.\" Geoff said, \"and that thing that you had to sit on, it was called a Sybian?\"\n\n\"So they told me. I'm going to look it up on the internet when I've finished this, do you guys want a slice?\"\n\nAs we finished the pizza Geoff and Andy tried to get more details out of me but I didn't tell them anything else. Then I got up and put the pizza box in the trash bag then took the rest of the cola to my room.\n\nI did some more browsing for vibrators then went to sleep on my stomach with my right hand under me and toying with my clit.\n\n*****\n\nI woke with plenty of time to get to my class. As I looked at my butt in the mirror I couldn't decide if it was any less red. After my bathroom routine I decided on the white, lightweight, skater type skirt, knowing that it wouldn't cause me any discomfort as I waked around in it. On my top I wore a pink tank top with spaghetti straps. There were little pokies in the front but not bad (good) ones so when I was ready I set off.\n\nIt was chilly outside so the little pokies became big pokies but I expected them to become smaller when I got into the warm uni buildings.\n\nI had an uncomfortable lesson and I so wanted to just stand up and walk around but I couldn't and I was really happy when the lesson was over and I was walking to my bank to deposit the cash into my account. I got a bite to eat in the food hall in the shopping centre before going to Lisa's shop for my afternoon shift. Bella pounced on me as soon as I entered the shop demanding to know what I had been up to and why I suddenly needed some knickers and a bra. I answered her by turning my back to her and lifting up the back of my skirt.\n\n\"What the fuck! Have you been spanked Sandra?\"\n\nAs I started to give her a brief summary Lisa came over and Bella told me to turn my back to Lisa. When I did Bella lifted my skirt and said,\n\n\"Look at that boss.\"\n\n\"Wow Sandra,\" Lisa said, \"was that caused by what I think it was?\"\n\n\"Yes, I've had my first ever spanking.\"\n\nI started at the beginning again whist Bella went and served a customer. Again I didn't give all the details and I didn't mention what Master Thomas wants Isla and me to do for some anonymous 'distinguished' gentlemen.\n\n\"So you enjoyed your first spanking then Sandra?\" Lisa asked.\n\n\"I did, although it's been a bit painful ever since.\"\n\n\"I'm not surprised, and you're thinking of going back for more?\"\n\n\"For that sort of money, yes, and being spanked whilst on that Sybian thing was out of this world. Talking of sex toys, you're a woman of the world, which sex toys would you recommend Lisa?\"\n\n\"Well, you said that Isla was going to get a Hitachi Magic Wand, well I agree with her, Every woman should have one of those for when she's on her own and wants a bit of pleasure, let Hitachi do the work. Another thing that I think you will enjoy, you being an exhibitionist, is one of those remote controlled vibrators that has a pinkish antenna sticking out of your pussy, a Lovense or an Ohmibod. I think that you will enjoy people being able to see the antenna hanging down between your legs. Of course both those are better if someone else is controlling them, and you, but they have a 'random' feature that can make life quite 'interesting'.\"\n\n\"Yeah, I saw those when I was looking online last night, I also thought about people seeing the antenna hanging below my skirt. What about a Sybian, have you got one Lisa?\"\n\n\"No, Steve and I have a big mortgage and we don't have that sort of money spare. Steve gives me all the fun I can cope with but I've used one and yes, it was amazing. You might be able to use one at this erotic equipment convention, Steve tells me that he's got girls booked for the Friday and Saturday but you and Isla can do the Sunday for him is you like.\"\n\n\"Which Sunday is that?\"\n\n\"A week after this coming Sunday.\"\n\n\"Can I send a quick text message to Isla please Lisa, check that she's free on that Sunday?\"\n\n\"You can, then can you start and do some work please, there's a lot of stock to get out onto the racks.\"\n\nI sent the text and got an almost immediate reply, yes, Isla was free that Sunday. When Lisa came by later I told her that Isa was free and she told me that she would tell Steve and he would let me know where and when.\n\nBella must have told the other girl working that afternoon about my red butt because Charlotte collared me when I was checking the changing rooms and she asked to see my butt. I had just lifted the back of my skirt with Charlotte squat behind me when a customer walked in and gave us a funny look. Charlotte and I both giggled then Charlotte asked me for all the details. I know that the customer heard us because when she came out of the changing room she was smiling and she asked me if I'd be going back for more.\n\nDuring a quiet period I went round the shop and picked out a couple of semi-sheer tops and a couple of those really short skirts that are shorter at the front than the back and went and tried them on. Bella came and watched me as asked if I was going clubbing.\n\n\"No, I just want to let people see my assets.\"\n\n\"Well if you don't wear anything under those they certainly will.\"\n\n\"That's the idea.\"\n\nI put the tops and skirts to one side and at the end of the day I took them to Lisa and told her that I wanted to buy them, and pay for the bra and knickers from the previous day.\n\nLisa gave me a really good staff discount and I decided that I do my clothes shopping there again.\n\nWhen I got back to my room I stripped and looked at my butt in the mirror. It wasn't quite as red and it didn't hurt as much. I decided to go and prepare myself some food without putting any clothes on.\n\nNot only were Andy and Geoff in the common room but all my other flatmates were there as well. All of them had seen me naked in there before, and in the kitchen area so seeing me naked again was no big deal for them but Andy or Geoff must have told the others about my spanking because as soon as I walked in both Lizzy ans Zack asked me to turn round so that they could see my butt.\n\n\"So Andy wasn't joking about you being spanked?\" Emily asked.\n\n\"No he wasn't.\" I replied.\n\n\"And you let some old man do that to you for £1,000?\" Emily asked.\n\n\"Five of them actually.\" I replied.\n\n\"Hmm, let me know if they want some else to spank.\" Emily said.\n\nI smiled and said that I would.\n\n\"So how bad does it hurt?\" Lizzy asked.\n\n\"I guess that it isn't too bad, it isn't like they broke my skin or drew blood, that would have been a lot worse.\"\n\n\"So how did your class go this morning, I bet that it was uncomfortable sitting on that?\" Geoff asked.\n\n\"Shall we say that I had trouble concentrating.\" I replied.\n\n\"I bet that you did.\" Emily said, \"so will you be going back for more?\"\n\n\"At £1,000 per time! Of course I will.\"\n\n\"What if they want to fuck you Sandra?\" Andy asked, \"would you let them?\"\n\n\"No, not for £1,000.\"\n\n\"£2,000.\" Geoff asked.\n\n\"I doubt it.\"\n\n\"£3,000.\" Zack asked.\n\n\"I don't know, I'd be a whore if I did.\"\n\n\"Hey, a girl has to do what a girl has to do to survive these days.\" Emily said.\n\n\"True.\" Lizzy added.\n\n\"So I'm living in a flat with 3 prostitutes am I?\" Geoff asked.\n\n\"Think what you want Geoff,\" Lizzy said, \"us girls have to do what we have got to do, go and find a rich Cougar then see if you are so judgemental.\"\n\n\"I didn't mean it like that.\" Geoff said trying to defend himself.\n\nThere was a few seconds silence so I continued to the kitchen area and prepared my food.\n\nThat evening I went online and ordered a Ohmibod Esca2 and a Hitachi Magic Wand before my fingers got busy between my legs.\n\n*****\n\n"}
+{"text": "Steve sits opposite you, a tender smirk manipulating his lips. He keeps averting his gaze whenever you try to catch him in the act of gawking, which only makes him smile harder. “I know you’re watching me Rogers,” you mutter draining your wine glass before standing up to pour yourself another. “Quit it.”\n\nEveryone else has already left Stark Tower, eager to get an early night after the difficult mission you’ve just returned from and you, Bucky and Steve are the only ones left.\n\nYou don’t have to be a mind-reader to know why the two of them are still hanging around.\n\nYou were always so eager to please. So eager to comply to other people’s needs. So eager to make them come. It was if you lived for nothing else. Like the thought of not being able to satisfy someone was a cardinal sin. The first time you knelt at their feet, cocks stuffed to the back of your throat, was after a night playing drinking games with the two of them and Nat. It happened entirely by accident but watching them squirm and writhe beneath your spit-stained lips turned you on like nothing before. Giving oral had never felt that intoxicating.\n\nAfter that first taste, it became almost like an addiction. You would scout out willing guys in nightclubs who didn’t know your face in an attempt to replicate the high. You lost count of how many times you’d exit a toilet stall, come sticky in your hair from where they got too carried away, wanting to spunk all over your face like the good little cock slut you were. \n\nWatching them both unravel beneath your touch was almost hypnotic. To have those powerful, strong men reduced to sweating, writhing messes once you’d finished licking up every ounce of their cum made you feel fucking invincible. The other guys did the job to an extent but deep down you just wanted Bucky and Steve, the high you were so desperately chasing only ever fully sated after you tasted them. Their familiar faces screwed up in pleasure as you took them to the peak of their orgasm, pushing them over the edge. \n\nTheir tastes in technique were what got you most. The complete opposites of the personas they showed the world. Bucky liked to be nibbled on as he had his balls played with, your hands softly tugging and kneading his flesh while Steve liked to bury his hands in your hair as he fucked your throat raw. That’s what you wanted most; what got you off most nights. Laid in your bed at home, fingers knuckle deep in your pussy as you imagined your tongue licking its way up and down their shafts, swallowing every delicious drop of come as they came apart beneath you. It was a few months after that first time that you jokingly brought up giving them head for a laugh as they complained that they hadn’t seen any action in a while. As soon as the words tumbled from your lips, you regretted them but they just stared at you seriously. You couldn’t believe your luck when they agreed and you slipped eagerly between Steve’s thighs initially, letting your mouth pop deliciously over his considerable length, the sound of his breathless moans spurring you on hungrily before doing the same to Bucky.\n\nYou came so hard that night your whole body trembled.\n\nWeeks after, you eventually came to a mutual agreement and you soon became their go-to if they needed to blow off some steam without the worry of attachment. And the more they asked, the more you craved to answer the question. At first the arrangement suited you perfectly - some quick fun that required very little emotion - your thirst quenched. You could still go out on dates, have one night stands but as time went on, you found yourself wanting to be more than just a mouth to them. The nameless men you’d take home soon became faceless as you’d envision Steve or Bucky below you, riding yourself to orgasm on their marvellous cocks.\n\nSteve takes a swig of his beer followed by a gentle chuckle. “I don’t know what you mean.”\n\nYou scrunch your nose up. “I know what you’re trying to do.”\n\nHe’s amused by your statement. Smirking with a tilt to his head as his tongue pokes out between ivory teeth. “And what’s that?”\n\nYou finish filling up your glass and make your way back to your spot on the couch opposite him. He sits so leisurely against the leather - one hand propped over the back clutching his bottle of beer, the other in his lap, thumb slowly moving back and forth over his crotch.\n\n“Well you and Buck aren’t loitering because you enjoy listening to me talk.”\n\n“That’s very presumptuous.” His voice is so deep it pinballs right through you until it settles in your core, uncomfortably warm.\n\n“Am I wrong?”\n\n“Oh no, I enjoy something else your mouth can do much more.”\n\nYour eyes are locked on his and you expect yourself to move first but Steve surprises you, leaning forward to place his half full bottle down. He fingers open his pants and pulls his already stiff cock free.\n\n“C’mere, need some help with this.”\n\nYou hate how easily you drop to the glass floor, knees smooth against the cool panes of glass as you scuttle towards him. Pre-cum already weeps from the slit as he pumps his shaft upwards, letting it slow as he brings his hand back towards his pelvic bone.\n\nYou reach him in a matter of seconds and lean forward, kissing the tender dome. Cum sticks to your stained lips, the saltiness mingling with the sour taste of the wine you’ve just downed. Steve’s fingers quickly find their way into your hair, the buds of his fingertips pressing sharply into your skull. You love the way he loses control when your lips make contact with his skin and even more so when you swallow him to the back of your throat.\n\nYou lick up his thick shaft, mouth agape ready to take him deep when the door clicks open. You both know it has to be Bucky but it doesn’t stop you from both freezing to the spot as he enters, clutching a new case of beer.\n\n“Starting without me huh?” Bucky smiles, throwing Steve a wink before his gaze drops back to you.\n\n“Sorry—“ You try to excuse your eagerness, letting go of Steve’s cock and begin to push yourself to your feet.\n\n“Oh no doll, don’t stop on my account,” Bucky replies dropping the case to the table before sinking into the space next to Steve. You drop back to your knees between the super soldier’s thighs. “You couldn’t wait five minutes for me to get back?” Bucky aims the question at his best friend.\n\n“You took too long. And her mouth was just crying out to get fucked.” Steve comments nonchalantly, eyes on you but they’re not focused. A wry smile pulls at the corners of his lips as he curls his fingers around your chin, pulling you back towards his thick girth.\n\n“You heard Buck, don’t stop.” Steve purrs, finally making discernible eye contact and his cerulean blue stare has heat flooding your sex within milliseconds. You hate how turned on you get by Steve’s dismissiveness the moment he’s horny but at the same time you thrive on it.\n\nYou already can’t wait to get back to your apartment to wear out the batteries in your vibrator. \n\nYou close your eyes as you envelope your lips around Steve’s thick length and slowly begin to suck. He groans instantly, his body sagging further into the plush leather. You splay both hands at the base of his shaft, making sure your mouth does all the work. Steve’s hands are already tangling in your hair, tightening his grip the harder you choke.\n\n“Open your eyes Y/N, wanna see you.” Bucky mutters softly. Your eyes flutter open to their stares - Steve’s lazily smirking, tongue poking out between his teeth and Bucky’s grinning wide.\n\n“You like sucking Steve’s cock don’t you? Does he taste good?” Bucky continues with his hand on his slowly swelling cock, stimulating it gently with his palm. You hum your reply, your lips still wrapped firmly around Steve’s length. “Do you want to taste me too?”\n\nYour gaze flits upwards to catch Bucky’s eye - they’re almost black with lust - before it flutters towards Steve who smiles idly down at you, nodding breathlessly almost to give you permission. You shift your weight, crawling the few centimetres towards Bucky and place yourself between his legs. You can see he’s already rigid through his pants and that thought alone makes you throb. \n\nSteve’s languidly masturbating now as he watches you. Sitting up onto your heels, you push Bucky’s shirt up to his chest and begin kissing a light trail down his abdomen, over the dainty cluster of hairs just below his belly button until you reach the waistband of his pants. You don’t need to wait - Bucky’s already pulled himself free, dick standing to full attention. You love how willing he is, how desperate, how needy. You kneel up, widening your mouth enough to take as much of Bucky as you can, one hand curled around the last inch you can’t fit while the other cups his balls.\n\n“Fuck Y/N,” Bucky curses, hands tightly gripping your shoulders. You’re soon dribbling spit and cum down your chin. “God, you look so fucking hot when you’re sucking my dick. Doesn’t she Steve?”\n\n“Mm-hm,” Steve replies quietly, staring down at you with your mouth stuffed with Bucky’s length. His usually gorgeous light eyes are glossed over in darkness, the dominance in them making you squirm. “But she looks better gagging on mine.”\n\nYou start to alternate between the two of them - when you aren’t getting Bucky off, you’re pumping his shaft and when you don’t have your lips stretched around Steve, your hands are working him until he’s swearing on a constant loop.\n\nThey’re both so close - you can tell from the way they equally fall silent, heads tipped back, lips caught between teeth. Bucky comes first, shooting his thick load to the back of your throat, while your hands continue to massage his tight balls and you swallow every last drop, licking the corners of your lips like you’ve just devoured a milkshake. Steve always comes second, wanting all of your attention so he can fuck your mouth until he explodes.\n\nIt doesn’t take long for Steve to burst with a low inhuman growl, his hot sticky cum coating your tongue. His fingernails leave stinging crescent moons in the crown of your skull, the sharp throb making your scalp ache. As you pull back, you watch the two of them sag against the back of the couch, brows furrowed and sweaty while they attempt to regain their breaths. You’ve never seen either of them look so attractive in this most vulnerable state. It makes your underwear flood, wishing they had come elsewhere inside you, warming you from the pussy outwards.\n\nYou slowly pull yourself to your feet, wiping away the lasting remnants of the act you’ve just performed from your mouth with the back of your hand and smooth out the wrinkles in your dress. Now they’ve got what they wanted, you may as well make your exit and prowl a bar until you find a man who could resemble either of them if you squint hard enough. Legs trembling, you begin to step away when you hear Steve call out to you.\n\n“Where you going Y/N? Some place else you need to be?”\n\nThey’re both redressed and composed when you turn around - the only clue left to show they’ve just had their dicks sucked is their slightly flushed cheeks and hooded eyes. Steve is already on his feet and Bucky is pulling himself upright while he takes a quick gulp of beer.\n\n“I, um, was gonna go home,” you lie. “Been a long day.”\n\n“That’s a shame. ‘Cause me and Buck have been talking and—“ Steve says as he reaches you, giving Bucky a sly side ward glance.\n\n“— we wanna return the favour.”"}
+{"text": "“Didja know glass eyes ain’t made o’ glass no more? It’s true!”\n\nHorus stands on the stage, tossing a little lump of something in the air and catching it. His hair is lank and blond and his one eye is blue, and his green jacket and red shirt are grubby and torn. He stops playing with the little item and holds it up; it’s the false eye which belongs in his face. The socket is ringed with scar tissue.\n\n“They make ‘em out of plastic now. It’s lighter and won’t break so easy. They’re not round, like in cartoons, either - eye-ther, hehehe. See, it’s sort of squashed and curved? Makes it easier to get in under yer eyelid. What they do a lot now is surgically put a ball into the socket which don’t ever come out, and that ‘elps hold this bit in place so it won’t slide ‘round.” He shivers. “That’s what they usually do but I, um, ‘ad me reasons not to.”\n\n\nInstead of a spotlight, a movie fragment; he scrapes up white powder into a tiny ziploc bag with a razor blade, and tucks it into his socket.\n\n\n“Don’t look at me like that. Man’s gotta live, right?”\n\n\nA man, and a group of other men. Bearded and clean-shaven, filthy and all with eyes as glassy as the one in Horus’ hand. They too have razor blades and bags of powder, though none have so convenient a place to hide them.\n\n\n“Had some associates, y’know? A big operation it was. Big.”\n\n\nAnother man. Shorter and rounder with a long brown beard. On the tape he sticks close to Horus. Very close.\n\n\n“That’s, uh, Gimli. ‘E’s my…” Horus makes an odd gesture with his hand that seems more dismissive than anything. “Well, we tell folks ‘e's me uncle.”\n\n\nDrug dealing is not their only crime. Various members observe the Damsel as she goes about her business. Dressed in silks and snappy sunglasses, with an incongruous heavy gold pendant.\n\n\n“That bauble belonged to one of our old mates. One of the ones who the boss…” He draws a finger across his throat. “ ‘E’d sent it off to his family ‘fore we got ‘im, and when we saw her wearin’ it… She was the right age to be ‘is kid, and it looked like she’d come into a lotta cash. We thought it was a lucky adoption, y’know? So we figured, ransom. We wasn’t gonna hurt ‘er. Least me an’ he weren’t. We scared her, yeah, but ye don’t mess with ransom victims or you just get revenge from their families ‘steada cash.”\n\n\nA stakeout of sorts. The dead of night. A few cloths soaked in just the right amount of ether. A silenced scream.\n\n\n“We didn’t hurt ‘er. Didn’t even rough ‘er up or nothin’ like that. Just ‘auled her off… we were gonna bring ‘er back.”\n\n\nA warehouse. Gray walls. The woman’s eyes open in a locked and windowless room.\n\n\n“She… uh, she kinda hurt us. In a metaphorical sort of way… but that was… it was sorta my fault. Got careless.”\n\n\nHe’s supposed to be watching her, and he’s playing games on his phone. He’s aware enough to point a gun at her when she goes for the door, and when a gaunt-faced man with a beard and a pet monkey on his shoulder looks in he hurriedly puts the phone back in his pocket and stands to attention. The Damsel keeps an eye on which pocket he puts it in.\n\n\n“Smart one, I’ll give ye that. Got it off me afore I realized it an’ dialled up somebody ‘fore I knew it was gone. Mighta helped if I ‘ad vision on that side, but then I didn’t feel it either.”\n\n\nBlaring sirens and flashing lights. A woman speaking hurriedly. Some men shouting orders. More screaming curses.\n\n\n“So, we got caught an’ it was all my fault. I won’t pretend like it wasn’t. Still don’t think that makes it right, what ‘appened after that.”\n\n\nPoisonous glares. Muttered cussing. A crowded cell. Horus cowers before a sea of blazing eyes.\n\n\n“Six of us in there. Me an’ Gimli, and two other fellers, and the boss, an’ ‘is, um, enforcer.”\n\n\nA short thin man with a dark beard and a yellow coat. A dour man with dreadlocks and scars. The gaunt man, now without his pet. And a hulk with a shaven head and more piercings than one can count.\n\n\n“They didn’t get the chance to do nothin’ to me at first, ‘cause some coppers came in. We thought they was gonna take us off to interrogate…”\n\n\nThey do not. One strides forward and seizes Horus. Another joins him when the man offers resistance.\n\n\n“You ‘ave to unnerstand, I’m not a big bloke. Mighta been able to fight off one man, but two? Forget about it. Best ‘ope I ‘ad was to slip away and make a run for it, but you try findin’ a place to run in a jail cell.”\n\n\nThere isn’t anywhere to go. The guards grab Horus and force him up against the bars. Like the Lord, like Changeling’s friend, like the Star. It goes a very long time before ending. \n\n\n“Even as they were doin’ it I…” A shudder. “I kept strugglin,’ see? They didn’t like that much.”\n\nHold still, snaps a man in blue, hold fucking still or we’ll pop out that eye of yours and fuck that hole instead!\n\n“They didn’t.” A sound somewhere between a laugh and a sob. “They didn’t.”\n\n\nHe holds still, and lets them finish. Gimli watches in horror, restrained by more officers; for him it takes three. The others watch dispassionately. Indeed, thoughtfully. Horus sags against the bars, weeping like a child.\n\n\n“They left me, and I thought it was over…”\n\nThe pierced and shaven hulk grabs Horus’ shoulder. The other two grab Gimli. The gaunt-faced boss says Steady his head, and sticks a finger in to pop out the glass eye, which patters onto the floor.\n\n“They…” He puts a hand over his eye socket. “There isn’t really enough space in there. They ‘ad to break me cheekbone. I don’t think they could’ve punched right through to me brain, but I can’t say I’m certain they couldn’t, so I ‘eld really, really still, just in case.”\n\n\nGrunting and moaning and hands in his hair. Tears streaming down one side of his face while blood smears the other. Across the cell Gimli is crying too.\n\n\n“I don’t… I don’t even know ‘ow to describe what that felt like. It hurt, but it hurtin’ isn’t all of it. I felt sick. Think I was sick. They took even longer’n the guards did. Prob’ly ‘cause it weren’t too comfortable for them either, not that that ‘elps me.”\n\n\nWhen they finish, Horus slumps forwards and his forehead hits hard against the floor. He is shaking and whimpering as red and white and pink dribble down his cheeks.\n\n\n“I don’t know what would’ve ‘appened if another cop ‘adn’t come in. I thought she was gonna do somethin’ else, and she didn’t, but…”\n\nA blonde female sergeant enters and screams. One of the ones from before comes running, and she demands, What did you do to him?! The male cop is as shocked as she is, looks at the other men in the cell, and calls for backup.\n\n“… she didn’t give a fuck about me.”\n\n\nHorus is hauled away to the medical bay. The female cop returns with rubber gloves and disinfectant, and under the watchful eye of her comrades she scrubs up every molecule of the mess on the floor, ignoring the man who bled it there entirely.\n\n\n“Not that I minded. I was just glad to get to the ‘ospital wing. They couldn’t get to me there.”\n\nHe lies on his side, shivering and shaking. His eye, or at least one like it, is returned to his person if not his face. A doctor removes the blood and the other from his cheeks, from the backs of his legs and between them. A kit is done but never tested.\n\n“No surprise there. Them coppers weren’t gonna risk… their information gettin’ mixed with the rest, now were they?”\n\n\nThe trials come and go. He sees the Damsel in the dock, glaring at him with contempt. He cries during testimony and her expression softens, just a touch.\n\n\n“ ‘Course the sad thing is the Damsel weren’t even old Bootstrap’s kid. ‘Er boyfriend was, ‘e gave her the stupid pendant in the first place… Anyway, we got off pretty light. Kidnappin’ is serious business, the rest of ‘em got five to ten, but Gimli an’ me, we made a case for duress an’ got probation. But probation for violent crime in Cali carries a year in the county jail afore they let yer go, and…”\n\n\nHis former co-workers are in medium security and he’s in minimum, out of their reach. The officers are not.\n\n\n“Now, a lot of ‘em were kinda wary ‘bout me. On account of the… the…” Horus stops and points at his empty socket. “So a bunch of ‘em left me alone… but not all.”\n\n\nAgain. Never as many as five, but twos and threes are nothing to scoff at.\n\n\n“Happened again, couple times. Gimli tried to stop ‘em, but… we were prisoners. They were the guards. Not much ‘e could do.”\n\n\nAgain and again. They never hurt Horus as badly. He does not resist. Eventually his sentence comes to an end and he leaves without looking back.\n\n\n“We got out a few months ago. Him an’ me. Found ourselves a place in the downtown. It ain’t much, but it’s enough. Better than it was before.”\n\n\nA tiny apartment. A scruffy mongrel dog. They both keep their appointments with their probation officers like clockwork and make sure to give no hint of wrongdoing. Anything is preferable to going back there.\n\n\n“We got a dog, heard pets can ‘elp with… people who’ve been messed up bad. Was a rescue, didn’t look like ‘e’d been treated too well either. He’s a good dog. He ‘elps.”\n\n\nA card with a phone number, pinned to the back of a bus seat. An assessment with Mother Superior. Horus steps inside the Palace and comes face to face with the very same young woman from before.\n\n\n“None of us touched her, an’ like I said we weren’t gonna. But she was really badly scared we might, and that’s not good either. We, uh… it’s our fault. The boys did threaten her, me an’ him too. The idea was to keep ‘er scared enough not to try to escape. See how well that worked, huh?”\n\n\nThe ensuing conversation is less that and more a screaming match on one side.\n\n\n“I… can’t really blame ‘er for that.”\n\nEventually the woman calms. The two stand there, arms crossed, peering at each other suspiciously. Eventually the silence breaks. What… happened?\n\n“Didn’t know what to say to that. Still pretty shaken up, I was.” Horus snorts. “O’ course I seem to have found the words now, ‘aven’t I?” He nods to the Damsel, in the audience. “She spent that ‘ole year terrified we’d come back for ‘er when we got out. Now she’s met us again, and found out what we got for it. Guess that’s what ye call ironic.”"}
+{"text": "Sandra is Different\n\nby Vanessa Evans\n\nPart 9\n\nWow, that exhibition hall was big but all the stalls and other 'things' were at one end leaving enough space for a football pitch.\n\nThe place was buzzing with people running around, presumable getting themselves organised for the day and I was disappointed that I couldn't see a naked girl anywhere. When we got to Steve's stall I saw that there was lots of space with a gazebo with sides on it.\n\n\"Is that where we'll be getting fucked?\" Isla asked.\n\n\"No one will complain if you get fucked anywhere today Isla.\" Steve said, then added,\n\n\"There's a little stage over there where some of the people who will be coming here like to get a bit personal with other people.\"\n\n\"When does that start?\" I asked.\n\n\"Any time after 10 when the doors open.\" Steve replied.\n\n\"So when can we get naked?\" Isla asked.\n\n\"Any time that you want but there's something that I need you to wear all the time, hang on a sec.\"\n\nIsla looked as disppointed as I felt because I was expecting to be naked all day.\n\nSteve came back carrying some small plastic bags and from one he pulled out a couple of T-shirts. When I held one against my chest I saw his business name and phone number printed on the front and the back. Then I realised that the length of them would have been suitable for someone half my age, it only came down to my waist.\n\nI smiled and thought,\n\n\"Maybe this won't be so bad.\"\n\nThen Steve gave us each a smaller bag with what turned out to be a Sash with his business name and phone number printed on it.\"\n\n\"That's more like it.\" I said, \"this doesn't cover my tits.\"\n\nWithin seconds Isla and I were wearing only the Sashs and our heels. Isla looked as happy as I felt. We had both arranged our sashes so that the front went down between our tits. I looked around and saw quite a few people walking passed, but none seemed to be at all interested in the 2 naked teenage girls.\n\n\"Come on girls,\" Steve said, \"we've still got some setting up to do.\"\n\nThe setting up was slow progress as both Isla and I kept seeing toys that we'd never seen or heard of before and we'd stop Steve to ask him about them. We also had to uncover some of the larger items like fucking machines. When Isla took the cover off the first one she stared for a few seconds then asked Steve if she could have a go on it.\n\n\"Of course you can Isla, but not right now, we have work to do. I couldn't get the girls the last 2 days to go on them, they said that I wasn't paying them enough but I couldn't afford any more.\"\n\n\"Well we'll go on it more than once if you want us to Steve, won't we Isla?\" I said.\n\n\"Hell yes.\" Isla replied.\n\nIt was the same with all the fucking machines that Steve had on display although it was difficult for me to count them because I didn't know which bits went with which other bits, and some involved frames that had me puzzled. There was one very basic item that puzzled me. It was a metal dildo on a metal pole that was attached to a big metal plate. It had some wires attached that went to a black box about the size of a shoe box.\n\n\"What's this?\" I asked Steve.\n\n\"A cageless prison.\"\n\n\"I don't understand.\"\n\n\"You will when I put you on it later.\"\n\n\"Okay.\" I thought as I guessed that I would impale myself on it but didn't have a clue what would happen next.\n\nIt was the same for the 'machine' that I uncovered next. It was simlar but it had two split blocks of wood at the base with a spring between the splits and wires going to each block of wood. I guessed that Steve would explain later as well.\n\nAs we were putting out some of the smaller items we came across some pasties.\n\n\"You'll never get me trying to hide my nipples,\" Isla said, \"I'm proud of my pokies.\"\n\n\"Me too.\" I added.\n\nMost of the pasties were stick-on but there was a couple of them that confused me, what's more there was a hole in the middle of them, big enough for a nipple to go through.\n\n\"Steve, how do these work?\"\n\nHe walked over to us and picked one up.\n\n\"They aren't really pasties, they're nipple enhancers. Let me show you.\"\n\nSteve put one on my right tit, my already hard nipple going therough the hole. Then he pulled on my protruding nipple whilst pushing the 'pastie' further onto my tit then twisting it.\n\n\"Ouch,\" I said. \"that hurts.\"\n\nThen I qualified it by adding,\n\n\"Not much. It was just the surprise.\"\n\n\"There, Steve said, \"that won't fall off, and it keeps your nipple hard.\"\n\n\"I don't think that I need that to keep my nipple hard today Steve, but I can think of times when a pair could come in handy. It hurts a bit, a bit like a small cut does, but I could easily live with that for a few hours, or days.\"\n\n\"Can I try one?\" Isla asked.\n\nSteve put the other one of the pair on Isla's right tit, her moaning a litle as he did so.\n\n\"Leave those on for a while, let people see them and ask questions, they're only £9.99 a pair.\"\n\n\"Do they come in different colours and shapes?\" I asked.\n\n\"They do but flourescent red does sort of attract peoples attention, that man over there was staring at you two.\"\n\n\"How do you get them off?\" Isla asked.\n\nSheve showed us and we took them off, neither of us wanting to hide any part of our tits but I did think that there might be occasions where it would be nice to have a pair of brightly coloured ones.\n\nWe finished setting everything up then Steve gave us some money and told us to go and get some coffee's before the doors opened and he pointed us in the right direction.\n\nNo one took any real notice of the 2 naked teenage girls as we walked through the people still setting up their own stalls but we did pass one stall where we saw another naked girl. Even at the sort of makeshift cafe our nakedness was ignored even by the middle-aged woman serving. I guessed that naked girls would become more common place as the day wore on and I have to say that I was a little disappointed.\n\nJust as we were getting back at Steve's stall we saw a mass of people heading our way and I guessed that the main doors had opened. I also got a little excited at the thought of all those people seeing me naked.\n\nSome of the crowd stopped at Steve's stall and started looking at some of the products and I noticed that a couple of the guys seemed more interested in Isla and me. Steve had been talking to a guy but when he saw the guys looking at Isla and me he turned and asked the 2 guys if they would like a demo of one of the machines.\n\nIsla's and my eyes lit up and we looked at each other knowing that she was thinking the same as me,\n\n\"I'm going to get fucked in public, albeit by a machine, and strangers will be watching me get fucked.\"\n\nWell I hoped that it woud be my turn first, although I wouldn't be upset if Steve chose Isla first. With both Isla and I looking at Steve he said,\n\n\"You go first Sandra, don't worry Isla, I'm sure that it won't be long before you're on your back with a dildo pounding in and out of you. Oh, and don't try to hold back either of you,, if you want to cum then cum, no one will mind, in fact they will be hoping thaat you will. The pair of you work out how to setup the first machine in the line and Isla can operatr the controls. If you have any problems I'm sure that those 2 guys will help you.\"\n\n\"No one will mind if Isla cums!\" I thought as I looked around.\n\nThere were about a dozen men watching us and I was 100% sure that they all wanted to see both Isla and I cum, and both Isla and I wanted to cum for them.\n\nThe first machine was quite straightforward, as part of the seting up we'd spread out spong mats like they used at my Katate lessons and Isla was soon on the floor on her back with her legs spread wide either side of a relatively straight forward looking machine, A heavy looking metal box with a silicone, bendy dildo on a metal bar that was just the right height to invade her pussy.\n\n\"Shuffle your butt over to the dildo Isla I said as I worked the control so that the dildo moved backwads and forwards. Isla stopped it as far away from my pussy as it would go and I shuffled myself so that the tip of the dildo was just inside my vagina.\n\n\"Ready girl?\" Isla asked.\n\n\"Bring it on sister.\" I replied.\n\nSo she did, slowly at first then after a couple of deep penetrations she turned the speed up a bit.\n\n\"That's fucking amazing.\" I said between moans.\n\n\"Literally.\" Isla replied and turned the speed up a little more.\n\nAll the people around me, including Isla, were watching the dildo go in and out of me and watching how the skin around my vaginal entrance was moving.\n\nAs we were all watching I heard a man stood next to Isla say,\n\n\"She's got nice tits, it's not very often that you see a pair as firm and pointy as those.\"\n\nUnsurprisingly, I orgasmed quite soon and some of the people, yes, a couple of girls had joined the audience, started clapping. I wondered if Isla would leave the machine running until I had a second orgasm but she decided against that, maybe because she was quite impatient to have a go my herself. She turned the machine down so that the dildo was only going into me quite slowly, then she turned it off.\n\nI looked at Isla's face and saw her grinning, she knew that I'd enjoyed every second. Isla put out a hand to help me get up and as I did I slid her butt back then got to my feet.\n\n\"That was awesome.\" I said as I turned and got a couple of wetwipes to clean the dildo.\n\nI saw that most of the little adience were walking away but a couple were talking to Steve and I hoped that he was making a sales.\n\nA man who hadn't watched me came over to us and asked me how much a different machine was.\n\n\"Sorry sir, we're just the models that Steve hired for the day, you'd need to talk to Steve about prices.\" I replied pointing towards Steve.\n\n\"Any chance that one of you could demonstrate one of the machines for me, I want to visualise what my wife would look like using it.\"\n\n\"Certainly sir, which machine were you thinking of?\" Isla replied.\n\nIsla and I saw him point at another machine, this one was mounted in a frame and instead of the dildo going parallel to the floor it was going vertically but the motor and the non-business end of the steel bar were mounted at the top of the frame. Isla and I looked at each other then sge said,\n\n\"You do it Sandra.\"\n\n\"It's your turn Isla.\"\n\n\"I know, but you go Sandra, I want to watch you.\"\n\nI wasn't sure how I was supposed to get my pussy to the tip of the dildo that was about half a metre in the air. Steve rescued us.\n\n\"On your back Sandra, lift you legs then hold your knees by your shoulders.\"\n\nIt was starting to make some sense so I did as instructed the Steve and Isla lifted the whole frame and moved it so that the tip of the dildo was just above my vaginal entrance. Then he did some adjustments to the frame until I felt the tip of the dildo touching my pussy.\n\nI spread my legs as much as I could then said that I was ready.\n\nDown came the dildo and I had to move my lower body a little to allow the dildo to perfectly align with my vagina. The next downward movement was much more comfortable and pleasurable. I looked around and saw strangers all around me. I was in heaven.\n\nDown and up went the dildo, slowly getting faster and faster and I wished that Isla had my camera so that she could have recorded my first machine fuck but my thoughtd soon changed as the nice feelings got nicer and nicer.\n\nThe anticipation of going to be naked in front of lots of strangers, then actually being so and finally being fucked by a machine with lots of strangers seeing the dildo go in and out of me was just too much for me to last very long before cumming and cum I did, and letting everyone around me know that I was cumming.\n\nThat was one of the best orgasms that I have ever had. I didn't know if it was Isla or Steve who was controlling the machine but they didn't turn it off when my first orgasn arrived and the dildo kept going down and deep into me then withdrawing so that the tip of it was juat inside me, until I orgasmed again. And it was just as good as the first one.\n\nThankfully, the dildo stopped going down and up and when I had some control over my body again, Steve and Isla moved the frame so that I could lower my legs. I lay on the mat with my legs spread wide open for at least a minute before getting to my feet and saying that that was fucking awesome.\n\nAs I went over to Isla I saw that a couple of men were trying to talk to Steve and I hoped that my demonstration had got him a sale.\n\nShortly after that Steve uncovered what looked to me like an exercise bike. Because of my thoughts I hadn't taken much notice of it but when the cover came off I saw that it was 'different' to the exercise bikes that I'd seen and used in the university gym. This bike had some extra bits on the upright below the saddle and a hole in the saddle.\n\nIt only took a couple of seconds from when I saw Steve attaching a dildo to the gubbings below the saddle that I realised what the bike really was.\n\n\"Isla,\" Steve said, \"come and get on the bike.\"\n\nI was a little jeleous that she was going to use it first but I kbew that I'd be on it sometime before the day was out.\n\n\"Ouch.\" Isla said just after Steve had told her to start pedalling slowly. Then,\n\n\"Oh that's nice.\" As she obviously got the dildo lined up properly and I saw it disappear.\n\nThe little audience saw it too and Steve told Isla to pedal as quick as she could.\n\nWe all watched Isla bringing herself to an orgasm, me wondering how I could get the university to replace their existing exercise cycles with ones like Isla was riding right then.\n\nSteve turned to me and asked me if I was okay.\n\n\"How could I possibly not be. I wouldn't have missed this for the world, thank you so much Steve.\"\n\n\"My pleasure Sandra, and I've got somewhere for you to sit and watch Isla.\"\n\nSteve took me over to what to me looked like one of those frames that you see in people's gardens with a swing attached for their kids to play on. There wasn't a swing attached but Steve opened a box and got out 2 short lengths of rope. On one end of each of them was a metal karibina. And the other end of each of them had a webbing loop.\n\n\"Step into those and pull them up to your thighs.\" Steve instructed.\n\nThen he lifted me up with one arm and used his other arm to clip the karibina to the top of the frame. Then he went to my other side of me and did the same so that when he released me I was free to swing backwards and forwards. I could even open my legs wide.\n\n\"Comfortable?\" Steve asked.\n\n\"Yes.\" I replied.\n\n\"Would you like something to keep your legs spread so that your audience think that it's not your fault that your legs are wide apart?\"\n\n\"Good idea Steve, but how?\"\n\nSteve smiled, went to a box then came back with what I found out were ankle cuffs.\n\n\"How are those going to help?\" I asked.\n\n\"Patience pointy tits. patience.\"\n\nAs Steve was putting the ankle cuffs on me I said,\n\n\"So do you like my little pointy tits Steve?\"\n\n\"Hell yes, don't tell Lisa but I wish that her tits were like yours Sandra.\"\n\n\"I think that Lisa's tits look great Steve,\" I replied, \"not too big and her nipples do her proud.\"\n\n\"Yes, I'm happy that she hates bras.\"\n\nSteve stood up then went and got what looked to me like a broom handle. As he attached each end of the wooden pole to my ankle cuffs I realised that I was stuck. unable to close my legs or get off the swing.\n\n\"So how is someone supposet to fuck me like this\" I asked.\n\n\"They'e not, well not with that spreader bar attached, I thought that you might like to be displayed like that for a while, well until Isla has worn herself out on that exercise bike.\"\n\n\"I was hoping to have a go in tha bike.\" I said.\n\n\"And so you shall Sandra, I just want to put some more things on you to see how you feel.\"\n\n\"What?\" I asked.\n\nBut Steve didn't answer, instead he walked over to his sales counter and got talking with a potential customer leaving me sat there on the swing. I thought for a minute and realised that he was right, I was going nowhere, and my spread pussy was on full display. Some of the potential customers who were watching Isla saw me and came to have a good look at me and I was loving it. I could feel my nipples and clit tingling something rotten and I just knew that my pussy was dripping onto the floor below me.\n\nOne of the potential customers went over and interrupted Steve to ask him if it was okay to take some photographs. Steve must have said that it was okay becase the man came back with his phone out and sarted clicking away. The other people staring at me must have assumed that if it was okay for the first man to take photographs then it was okay for them to, and out came more phones.\n\nThe tingling got stronger and the puddle must have got bigger as all I could think about was those strangers staring at my spread pussy and taking photographs.\n\nThen I felt something on my neck and I jumped, well as much as I could in the position that I was.\n\n\"Relax Sandra,\" I heard Steve say \"it's only me, I'm just putting this collar around your neck.\"\n\n\"What!\" I replied as I took one hand off the ropes and using touch I confirmed what Steve was saying.\n\nI didn't need touch to see what Steve did next, he put wrist cuffs on me as I said,\n\n\"I didn't know that you sold bondage equipment Steve?\" I asked.\n\n\"Yes, well just the fun stuff, not the serious BDSM stuff. Do you like the collar and cuffs Sandra?\"\n\n\"I think that I do, they attract people's eyes but I guess that it depends on what you're going to attach them to.\"\n\n\"Nothing at the moment but you don't need a collar and cuffs to attract people's attention Sandra. Those tits and protruding clit do that for you.\"\n\nI giggled a little and felt a little proud of my body. I looked over to Isla and saw her body shaking and her pedallng slow down. I guessed that she'd cum again and needed a bit of a rest.\n\nI looked back at Steve and saw that someone had caught his attention so I looked round the little audience and saw a few phones taking photos so I lay back as much as I could and revelled in my exposure.\n\nA few minutes later I opened my eyes and saw Isla stood neat me. I smiled and asked,\n\n\"Good ride?\"\n\n\"Hell yeah, I wish that they had bikes like that at the uni gym, I'd be there every day.\"\n\n\"I thought that as well.\"\n\n\"Great minds. Are you enjoying yourself sitting there with your legs spread wide Sandra? Sorry. silly question, the puddle on the floor answers my question. And what's with the bondage stuff?\"\n\n\"The jury is still out on these things, Steve thought that I might like to try them.\"\n\n\"I don't fancy them myself.\" Isla replied.\n\n\"Not even the cuffs so that some gorgeous hunk can tie you to his bed and ravish your body for days on end Isla?\"\n\n\"Maybe the cuffs do have their good points.\" Isla replied.\n\nI smiled just as Steve came back. With Isla's help Steve got me off the swing and as he did so he told me that the last man that he spoke to was interested in buying 20 of the swings, apparent;y he's a film producer and was thinking about having a line of girls swinging on those swings.\n\n\"Do you think that he's a porno film produced?\" Isla asked.\n\n\"No idea, I didn't ask, what anyone does with anything that they buy from me is their business not mine.\" Steve replied, then added,\n\n\"Sandra, do you fancy going and riding the bike for a while. Isla, have you heard of a Sybian?\"\n\nI didn't need to be asked twice and as I got on the bike and impaled myself I watched Steve uncover a Sybian, but this one was different to the one Master Thomas had, this one was mounted on a frame so that once the rider was properly mounted she was stuck there because the height of the frame meant that her feet couldn't touch the floor, she was at the mercy of whoever had the control in their hand which was Steve after he helped her mount the Sybian.\n\nAs I started to pedal I saw Isla gasp and guessed that Steve has switched it on and I thought that the totally naked Isla, well apart from the sash, looked great sitting on the Sybian with the dildo insde her and her feet just hanging there, unable to touch the floor.\n\nMeanwhile I was again wishing that the university would replace their exercse cycles with ones like I was currently riding.\n\nAfter my first orgasm on the bike, and after my brain had got back to normal, I looked around and saw that the place was crowded. I guessed that the public were expecting to see scantily clad, ot naked girls. After my second orgasm on the bike I stopped pedalling and climbed off because I didn't want to run out of energy, I was hoping for a lot more fun before the day was out.\n\nOnce Isla couldn't take any more I helped her get off the Sybian and Steve told us that we could take a break. He told us that we might enjoy just walking around for a while or going for a coffee or something to eat. He stuffed a £20 note in a little pocket on the inside of the Sash that that I was wearing.\n\nJust as we turned to walk away Steve told us to stop. We turned to face him and saw him put his hands into a big box. When they came out he told me to turn around and put my hands behind my back. I did and the I felt him put something on the wrist cuffs that joined them together, I was stuck with my hands behind my back.\n\n\"What's that for?\" I asked.\n\n\"Just to make life a little more interesting for you Sandra.\" Steve replied as he attached a leash to my collar and gave the other end to Isla.\n\n\"What the hell.\" I thought, then, \"maybe this will be fun.\"\n\nI saw Isla smile as she gently tugged on the lease telling me to follow her. As we walked away Isla said,\n\n\"Come on doggy, walkies.\"\n\nIt felt strange being led through the crowds like that, a sort of helpless, vulnerable. exciting feeling. Although my Karate lessons meant that I could still defend myself I sort of felt that this must be what a slave feels like. I turned to Isla and said,\n\n\"I guess that I'm your slave Mistress, that I have to do whatever you tell me.\"\n\nIsla got into the dominate role and replied,\n\n\"Yes slave, if I tell you to do something you have to do it, for starters suck my right tit.\"\n\nWe stopped, turned to face each other and my mouth went to Isla's right tit. Her nipples had been erect all day but I felt the one in my mouth get very hard as I sucked it and teased it with my tongue. As I did so I heard some nice complimens from the strangers around us.\n\nAfter a couple of minutes Isla told me to stop, saying that she might just cum if I kept going, then telling me to start walking again.\n\nWalking around in amongst lots of fully clothed people whilst I was virtually naked was an experience that made me feel very horny, something that I wanted to do over and over again. Although I didn't want to get into a conversation with any of the strangers I did enjoy them looking at me and making the odd complimentary comment. It would appear that quite a few people there liked the shape of my tits and a few people liked that I was cuffed and on a leash.\n\nAs we walked around the big hall I saw a few girls either topless or naked. One topless girl smiled at us as our paths crossed. I saw a few other stalls selling toys with scantily clad girls tryng to lure men in, but I didn't see any stalls where live demonstrations were going on. I guessed that Steve had got one up on them.\n\nWhen we got to the little cafe area we joined the queue to be served. Isla was in front of me and when we got to the serving lady she ordered for both of us then told me to turn around. She unclipped one of the cuffs saying,\n\n\"There slave, you can carry the food and drinks for us.\"\n\nIsla went to get the money out of my sash and in doing so she managed to run a finger along my slit and flick my clit causing me to moan. The lady serving us looked me up and down with an expression of disgust on her face that made me smile.\n\nAfter Isla had paid the lady she put the change back in the pocket on the sash but didn't touch my slit of clit. Then we went to sit at a table and eat the salads.\n\nAgain it felt strange sitting there totally naked with all those clothed people around us. Isla and I talked about our day so far and she confirmed what I had thought, that she was enjoying herself just as much as I was. Whilst we were sat there there was quite a few people walking around and as I watched some of the men I realised that they were taking the long route and deliberately walking passed our table and looking at our tits. When I mentioned it to Isla she said that she'd never seen my nipples so big for so long.\n\nLunch over Isla putt he karabina back on my wrist cuffs and led me out into the passing crowds. I guess that by then I was getting used to being naked in amongst clothed total strangers but it was still very arousing.\n\nWe came across a raised area where a naked girl was dancing on her own so we joined the little audience to watch for a minute or so. Just as we were about to leave and continue our walk a man came onto the stage and thanked the girl. Then he announced,\n\n\"Thank you ladies and gentlemen, I'm sure that Candy enjoyed performing for you. Now, someone has told me that there is a slave girl somewhere around here who needs to have a gynaecological examination performed by many men. Can anyone here see a slave girl?\"\n\nAs soon as I heard the words 'slave girl' I guessed that he was refering to me as I was the only naked girl with her hands cuffed behing her back that I had seen all day. My heart started pounding and my nipples and clit throbbed even before he mentioned a gynaecological examination.\n\n\"Oh my gawd,\" Isla said, \"that's you, come on, lets get out of here.\"\n\nI felt a tug on the leash but I didn't move.\n\n\"Come on Sandra, you can't stay for that, it's going way too far.\"\n\nI knew that Isla was right, for her, but for me it sounded just what I wanted.\n\n\"No Isla,\" I replied, \"I'm staying, please take me up onto that stage.\"\n\n\"Are you sure Sandra, it's one thing working out in those leotards and skinny dipping but who knows what those men will do to you.\"\n\n\"What's the worst that they can do Isla, fuck me?\"\n\n\"I guess so.\"\n\n\"Come on, or does the dog have to lead her Mistress?!\n\nIsla started walking to the stage and the little audience parted to give us the space.\n\n\"Oh look, our little naked slave is with her naked Mistress.\" The man said as we climbed up onto the stage.\n\n\"I think that we can forgive the advertising across their chests folks, you can't blame a guy for free advertising. So what is you name?\" the guy asked Isla.\n\n\"I'm Kat and my slave is called Suzie.\" Isla replied.\n\n\"So Kat, was the little birdie right, do you want your slave gynaecological examined?\"\n\n\"Only if it's by at least a dozen men.\" Isla replied.\n\n\"Well I'm sure that that won't be a problem, what sane man wouldn't want to get his hands on and in a body like hers?\"\n\n\"Quite,\" Isla replied, \"and she does have a really cute pair of tits doesn't she?\"\n\n\"She sure does, I haven't seen a pair so perky for a long time. I bet that it's difficult to stop those from drilling through all her clothes.\"\n\n\"Who says that I let her wear clothes?\" Isla replied and got a little laugh from some of the audience whose numbers were increasing.\n\n\"Okay, I can see why you keep her naked, she's a lucky slave. Now, when the little birdie told me what you wanted for your slave I went round all the vendors here and managed to borrow an examination table. It's not quite the standard variety that you'd find in your GP's surgery, more what you'd fing in your local dungeon, but maybe that's what she's used to.\"\n\nThe guy then turned to face the side of the stage where I saw 2 hunky men with some sort of an examination table. He nodded to them and they wheeled the table over. Oh my gawd, it was nothing like the table that I'd seen at my GP's surgery. Okay the victim still had to lay on her back but the table was in the shape on an inverted 'Y' with straps hanging down the sides.\n\n\"Can you un-cuff Suzie please Kat?\" The man asked.\n\nIsla did and I was then instructed to climb onto the table where the 2 cute guys proceded to strap me on. My wrists were attached to something above my head which was on some sort of pillow, there were straps above and below my tits, over my waist and over each thigh. The legs of the 'Y' were raised quite high and my ankle cuffs were attached to the bottom ends of the 'Y'. I was well and truly restrained with my little tits pointing to the roof and my pussy spread wide open. What's more, my pussy was leaking something rotten because I was feeling soo horny.\n\n\"Well Kat, now that your slave is well and truly imobalised would you like to be the first to examine her?\"\n\n\"That's okay, I'm quite familiar with every square millemetre of her body, you can be her first for today.\"\n\nThe man, who I never did find out his name, put a hand on one of my tits and squeezed it a bit.\n\n\"Wow, your GP will struggle to find any lumps in those, they're one big solid lump, have you had steel cone shaped implants put in those?\" The man asked.\n\n\"No, those are 100% natural.\" Isla replied.\n\nThe man's hands moved to my nipples and it felt soo good.\n\n\"Like that do you slave?\" The man asked as I started moaning.\n\nThen he lifted his head, looked at the audience and continued,\n\n\"You're going to like these, our slave is very sensitive.\"\n\nHis hands slid down my torso to my clit.\n\n\"Wow folks, when did you last see one this big?\"\n\nHis finger touched the end of my clit and I moaned even louder. Then he stoped and moved his hands away from me. He turnrd to the 2 hunks and said,\n\n\"Okay guys, take the slave for a ride. Feet first, the first thing that people should see is her cunt, not the top of her head.\"\n\nThe 2 hunks easily lifted the examination table with me strapped onto it, down off the stage and I started my journey of goodness knows what, but whatever it was going to be I just knew that I was going to enjoy it.\n\nThe 2 hunks obviously weren't in a rush to parade me around the hall because it wasn't long before they stopped near a group of men and one of them asked the hunks if they could touch me, and they did. Because my head was raised up a bit I could see everyone who was groping me, and what they were doing to me. It was sooo cool, all those fingers all over me and inside me. Then I heard and saw a man asking one of the hunks if he could fuck me.\n\n\"Only if you wear a condom, her Mistress would get a bit pissed if you made her pregnant.\" The hunk replied.\n\nI thought about telling them that I wouldn't get pregnant but quickly decided against it, I didn't want to discover if they had something nasty in a week or so.\n\nThe man who asked obvioulsy wasn't shy because he dropped his trousers and I watched him roll a condom over his cock right there in the walkway with lots of strangers watching.\n\nHis cock looked quite average, and even though my pussy was leaking like a sieve, I gasped as he entered me. Because I was so highly aroused by the whole situation, it wasn't long before I was cumming. My body couldn't shake or jerk like it normally does when I have an orgasm but my mouth wasn't covered and I involuntarily let everyone around me know that I was cumming.\n\nThe man inside me didn't last long either. I could feel him shooting his load and hear him grunting. I was finally getting my wish to be fucked in public.\n\nThat man certainly wasn't the first to grope and fuck me as the hunks wheeled me along the main corridors of the erotic equipment convention. I have no idea how many men, and girls, played with my tits and clit, finger fucked me and actually fucked me. I lost count when it got into double fingers annd it was the same with the orgasms.\n\nI couldn't believe myself when we got near to the stage and I was hoping for it to be over, I needed a bit of a rest, but it certainly wasn't over. After we got to the stage the 2 hunks lifted the examination table back onto the stage and then proceded to fuck me from both ends. When I realised what they were going to do I looked out at the audience and my arousal level shot up. This was going to be even better than being fucked along the corridors.\n\nAnd it was. I orgasmed 4 times and when it was all over and the hunks unstrapped me from the table, it took me a couple of minutes before I could get off and stand on my feet.\n\nWhen I looked around I saw Isla standing there with a big grin on her face. I smiled back and said,\n\n\"Come on Mistress, your turn.\"\n\n\"What! No, no, I couldn't do that. I sort of want to but no, I'd die.\"\n\n\"No you wouldn't, but it's your choice, no one is going to force you to do anything. Are you going to cuff me and lead me back to Steve?\"\n\n\"Now that I can do, come on slave, turn around.\"\n\n\"Take it slow Mistress, my legs haven't completely recovered yet.\"\n\nKat did and I reveled in the attention that we attracted as we walked through the crowds which seemed greater than they had been earlier.\n\nBack at Steve's stall he greeted us with a big grin and the question,\n\n\"Are you okay?\"\n\n\"Did you see Sandra?\" Isla asked.\n\n\"I did, she certainly looked like she was enjoying herself.\"\n\n\"I was, it was awesome.\" I replied.\n\n\"Good,\" Steve replied, \"you now have the choice of prison or a spanking. Which do you want first?\"\n\n\"What!?\" I said, \"You're going to spank us?\"\n\n\"No I am not, I have a nice little machine that will do it for me.\"\n\n\"Interesting.\" I replied.\"\n\n\"Tell you what girls, one of you can go to prison whilst the other gets spanked.\"\n\n\"Okay, I guess,\" I replied. \"so which of us is going to which first?\"\n\n\"Toss a coin fot it.\" Steve replied. \"Oh wait, no purses.\"\n\n\"Actually,\" I interrupted, \"I do have some coins, change from our lunch.\"\n\nI dove into the pocket on the sash, pulled out the coins and handed them to Steve.\n\n\"Thanks.\" Steve said and put all but 1 coin into his pocket, tossed the remaining coin and covered it with his other hands.\n\n\"Who's calling?\" Steve asked.\n\n\"You can Isla.\" I replied.\n\nShe did and she got it right.\n\n\"Can I get spanked first?\" Isla asked.\n\n\"Okay girls, help me drag the parts of the machine over to the front so that everyone walking by can see it in action.\"\n\n\"So that's what this is?\" I said as we dragged the 2 parts across the area.\n\nOnce we'd got it where Steve wanted it he said,\n\n\"This will take a few minutes to get setup right, if I get it wrong Isla's backside will hurt so much that she'll have to lay across the back seat on the journey home so I'll get you locked up first Sandra, that will only take a minute.\"\n\nWe went over to these 2 metal poles that are attached to metal plates and have a metal dildo on top of them, the tip of the dildo being about at pussy height. Both poles were also at the front, just a metre from the passing people.\n\n\"Which one do you want Sandra?\"\n\nI compared the 2 and then said,\n\n\"The one with the wooden blocks on the metal plate please.\"\n\n\"Brave girl.\" Steve replied, \"do you know what you are letting yourself in for?\"\n\n\"Not a clue.\" I replied.\n\n\"Okay, stand with your feet either side of the pole on the balls of your feet with your heels on the wooden blocks.\"\n\nAs I got into the position I fely the wooden blocks go down and the tip of the metal dildo just touch my pussy.\n\n\"Good Sandra, now go up onto the balls of your feet then I'll adjust the height of the dildo so that it's inside you.\"\n\nSteve did, his face right in front of my pussy. There was no resistance as the dildo slid up into my hole and I felt the tip touch my cervix then go back down just a little.\n\n\"Good Sandra. I'm going to switch it on now. If your legs get tired and you start to transfer your weight onto you heels the wooden block will go down a bit and the metal plate under it will go down and make conact with another one. That will send some electricity to the metal dildo.\"\n\n\"You're going to electrocute Sandra?\" Isla asked.\n\n\"Don't worry Isla, it won't kill her, just give her a jolt.\"\n\n\"Inside her pussy?\"\n\n\"Yes.\"\n\n\"Sandra, make sure that you stay on the balls of you feet.\" Isla said.\n\n\"I intend to.\" I replied, \"but I necer had ballet lessons as a kid and I don't wear heels often so I might not last long, bye Isla, it was nice knowing you.\"\n\n\"Before I switch it on try and get off the dildo.\" Steve said, ignoring what I hoped was a joke.\n\nI thought for a second then tried to lean forward in an attempt to pull myself up and off. As I expected, there was no way that I could free myself. The pain as I leant forward was too much to bear as soon as I leant forwards even just a bit. I was stuck and I just hoped that I could stay on the balls of my feet until Steve decided to release me or switch the power off.\n\nI watched Steve pick up the power control and twist a knob.\n\n\"I've set it on low power Sandra, just try going down onto you heels so that you can get an idea of what it will be like if you weaken.\"\n\nI gingerly slowly lowered my heels with my heart pounded in anticipation of getting the shock that I expected to be nothing like I had ever had before. It still caught me by surprise and I screamed when it his me. Insinctively my heels lifted up and the power was cut.\n\n\"Fucking hell!\" I said, \"that was, that was nothing like I expected, not that I knew what to expect.\"\n\n\"You can get vibrators that give you random shocks like that.\" Steve said.\n\n\"Oh yes,\" I replied, \"you'll have to tell me what they are called.\"\n\n\"So you liked it then?\" Isla asked.\n\n\"I wouldn't go that far,\" I replied, \"but it did turn me on a bit.\"\n\n\"Bloody hell Sandra, I doubt that it would do that to me, more like make me piss myself.\" Isla said.\n\n\"Okay girls, you can talk about it later, Sandra I'm turning the power up and leaving you to it, Isla, come on, it's time to strap you down ready to be spanked.\"\n\nI watched with interest as Steve and Isla went to the spanking machine.\n\nFirst Steve got Isla to bend over this sort of wooden frame. Her legs were spread quite wide as he strapped her ankles to the frame. From where Steve had setup the frame everyone walking by would be able to see Isla's spread pussy. Then he moved to her arms and strapped her wrists to the frame, she was going nowhere.\n\nNext Steve moved the metal stand with the machine on it to where he thought it should be. The spanking arm had this viscious looking cane attached to it and I thought that it could do a lot of damage to Isla's butt. Steve moved the arm so that the cane was just touching her butt.\n\nNext Steve surprised me a bit by detaching the cane and getting a number of 'weapons' out of a box. He studied each one then decided to go with a long, leather paddle which he attached to the machine's arm.\n\nMeanwhile, my legs were starting to ache a little.\n\nI kept watching Steve and Isla's butt as he made a final adjustment then switched the machine on. The arm slowly moved back then, like a huge spring being compressed, then the arm sprang forwards, the paddle hit Isla's butt and she screamed.\n\nNeedless to say that the loud scream attracted the attention of the people passing by who had not seen her and around 30 pairs of eyes were now focusd on Isla's butt as the arm of the machine slowly moved away revealing a red strip across both of Isla's butt cheeks.\n\nMy pussy leaked a but more at the thought of it being my butt that had just been whacked. I concentrated my eyes on Isla's butt, or more specifically her wet pussy that everyone could see and I saw a couple of little bubbles of her juices coming out of her vagina.\n\nThe arm on the machine went as far back as it could then the spring was relased again. I swear that I could hear a short 'whoosh' as the arm of the machine flew forward followed by a loud crack as the paddle landed on Isla's butt, then a scream as Isla felt the pain.\n\nAs the arm slowly moved back I heard a couple of comments from the audience, both of them liking what they were watching.\n\nThree more times that arm was released and 3 more times Isla screamed before Steve switched off the machine and went and stood near Isla's head. He stood so close to her that I thought that he was going to get his cock out and stuff it into her mouth, but he didn't. I could see that he was talking but I couldn't hear what he was saying.\n\nAs Steve went back to the machine my aching legs really made their presence known. I didn't know how much longer I could stay up on the balls of my feet.\n\nFive more times I saw that paddle land of Isla's butt and I heard her scream. I wondered how much more she could take although her butt looked very red I couldn't see any real damage to her skin.\n\nSteve went and had another word with Isla and as he did I unexpectedly felt an electric shock inside my pussy. I too screamed and my body lifted up as I went back onto the balls of my feet. I hadn't realised that my legs were slowly weakening as much as they obviously were and that my heels were going down.\n\nThe audience's attention turned to me when I'd screamed and I felt a little rush of pussy juices and I wondered if they were starting to run down the part of the dildo that wasn't inside me, and the metal pole. I had the horrible thought that if they reached the bottom of the pole something would short circuit and I would get a constant electric shock.\n\nI took a deep breath and pressed down on my toes.\n\nFive more times that paddle swung and landed on Isla's butt and 5 more times she screamed, although the screams weren't as loud as the original ones.\n\nAs the fifteenth swat landed on Isla's butt my leg muscles gave way again and I too screamed but this time I wasn't so quick at going back up onto my toes and the electric shock lasted longer. What's more I realised that it wasn't that bad after the initial shock and it seemed to stimulate my arousal. But I still went back onto my toes.\n\nSteve stopped the spanking machine and again went round to Isla's head. After a short conversation Steve went and started the machine again. After the third (eighteenth) swat Isla didn't scream, in fact I could see that her body was shaking.\n\nI'd just made that realisation when my leg muscles had finally turned to jelly and my weight went onto my heels. This time it wasn't a scream that came out of my mouth it was a long groan as I resigned myself to a constant electric shock inside my pussy until someone switched the power off.\n\nI hadn't realised before, but I could feel that my vaginal muscles had clamped onto the dildo and I was pleased that it was a smooth dildo, if it had had ridges on it I feared that it would never come out of me. I too started shaking, but it was more like muscle spasms.\n\nOn and on went the spasms, and the groans. At the time my brain wasn'thinking properly but deep inside it was obviously getting more and more aroused because I remember thinking that I was orgasming. I vagually remember thinking that I was going to die and that it was a wonderful way to go as the feelings went on and on.\n\nHow I managed to stay on my feet and upright I will never know, but what I do know was that if I did fall forwards I would have done myself sone very serious internal damage.\n\nFinally, I realised that the electric shocking had stopped but my body kept spasming and orgasming for quite a few seconds before they too started to slow and stop. When I managed to lift my head I saw Steve standing in front of me with a big grin on his face.\n\n\"Are you okay Sandra?\" Steve asked.\n\nAfter the third time of asking I magaed to reply,\n\n\"I've, I've never cum for so long. It felt like that one lasted for hours.\" I replied.\n\nSteve squat down in front of me and lowered the dildo so that it was no longer inside me and as I felt that it was gone my body relaxed and Steve managed to catch me as my legs gave way and I collapsed forwards.\n\nSteve easily carried me over to one of the sponge mats and lay me down. I smiled as I realised that once I was on my back he'd lifted my legs and spread them wide. As I lay there I could almost feel the electric shock still torturing my insides.\n\nAfter a while I saw Isla looking down on me.\n\n\"Are you okay Sandra?\" Isla asked.\n\n\"Give me 5.\" I replied, \"how are you?\"\n\n\"My butt hurts but I'm good.\"\n\nIsla turned to let me look at her red butt and said,\n\n\"I won't sit next to you if you don't mind.\"\n\nI laughed a little and lifted my arm for her to pull me up. When I was on my feet I saw Steve talking to potential customers so I turned to Isla and said,\n\n\"Thanks, you've got to try that, it really is torture but when it hits you, wow, that really was a new experience.\"\n\n\"A good experience?\" Isla asked.\n\n\"Yes, and no. I was hell at first but ......\"\n\nI didn't finish the sentence, instead I took Isla's hand and led her over to the same 'prison'. I put her in the same position that I had been in then raised the dildo until it was inside her hole.\n\n\"Up on the balls of your feet.\" I said, then I raised the dildo a little before tightening the bolt to fix the dildo at that height.\n\n\"Ready?\" I asked.\n\n\"No.\" Isla replied but I ignored her and went to the control box.\n\nI looked at Isla's face and saw that 'shit scared' expression but I just knew that she wanted to try it.\n\n\"Go down onto you heels Isla.\" I said.\n\n\"No.\"\n\n\"Isla.\"\n\n\"No, I'm scared.\"\n\n\"Isla.\"\n\n\"No.\"\n\nI went behind Isla, squat down and pressed on one of the wooden blocks.\n\nIsla screamed and I lifted my finger off the block and went round to her front.\n\n\"Still alive I see.\" I said.\n\n\"Bitch.\" Isla replied. \"I'm going to get something to give those cute little tits of yours a shock like that.\"\n\n\"Promises, promises.\" I replied.\n\nJust then Steve came over as said,\n\n\"Having fun girls?\"\n\n\"Yes, ....... no,\" Isla replied, this is horrible, Sandra tried to kill me.\"\n\n\"No she didn't,\" Steve replied, \"that thing won't kill you, just keep you on your toes.\"\n\n\"Very punny.\" Isla replied.\n\n\"Come on Sandra,\" Steve said as he took my hand and led me towards the spanking machine, \"time for you to be spanked.\"\n\n\"HEY,\" Isla shouted, \"you can't leave me here like this.\"\n\nSteve and I both ignored her, Steve saying that Isla would be fine.\n\nI turned my head to look at the little audience as Steve strapped me in place and I saw about 20 people looking at me. I felt happy. The anticipation that I felt whilst Steve made adjustments to the machine really was making my pussy leak and I wondered if my audience could see my juices escaping.\n\nI heard a short 'whoosh' and then I screamed although it was just as much from surprise as it was from the pain. Yes it had hurt but not as bad as I was expecting. For a split second I wondered it Steve had set the machine so that it didn't hurt me as much as it had Isla.\n\nThat thought went completely out of my head when the second swat landed. I didn't scream but the long grunt that came out of my mouth told everyone that could hear that it had hurt me.\n\nAs the whacks continued I wondered if the electric shocks that I had had inside me had de-sensitized the pain sensors in my butt.\n\nSteve didn't come and check that I was okay and my count of whacks went into double figures. It was round about the fifteenth swat that I felt that wonderful feeling of arousal and the knowledge that an orgasm would hit me if things went on as they were, and around the twentieth whack it arrived and hit me like, like, like something that I couldn't describe.\n\nMy body started shaking and if the straps would have let me my audience would have seen my body jerking although I couldn't stop myself from annoucing that I was cumming.\n\nThe spanking machine kept going and I wondered if Steve was waiting to see if I'd cum again but then it stopped and Steve came over to me and started unfastening the straps whilst apologising for not switching it off sooner, something about talking to a customer.\n\nWhen I was free and properly on my feet I turned to look at Isla and saw her, still locked on her prison, her whole body was shaking and her eyes looked very blank.\n\n\"Steve,\" I said, \"Isla.\"\n\nSteve turned, swore and rushed over to turn the power off to Isla's prison.\n\n\"Jeez girl.\" I said as I knelt in front of Isla to lower the dildo, \"there's rivers running down the insides of your legs.\"\n\nSteve and I caught Isla and took her to the mats where we lay her down, me moving her feet well apart so that all of her pussy was on display.\n\nI looked down at Isla and saw that she was breathing heavily but she still had that blank expression on her face so I slapped her face. Her eyes started blinking then she said,\n\n\"What was that for?\"\n\nI laughed then bent over and kissed her on her mouth lips.\n\n\"So do you want to buy one of those prisons Isla?\" I asked, \"They can't be that expensive.\"\n\n\"Only to stick up a guy's arse to keep him hard longer.\" Isla replied.\n\nSteve laughed and went over to someone who looked like he wanted to talk to him. I sat on the mat, wincing as my painful butt made contact with the mat, next to Isla and asked,\n\n\"So did you enjoy that?\"\n\n\"Ask me again tomorrow, my insides are still recovering.\"\n\nA short while later Steve came over to us and we got to our feet.\n\n\"How's it going girls?\" Steve asked, but before we could answer he continued, \"Why don't you go for a wander, have a proper look at everything.\"\n\nI still had the ankle and wrist cuffs and the collar on, but my wrists were not fastened together, nor did I have the leash on, but we both still had our sashes and our heels on as we left Steve and slowly walked in amongst all the clothed people. I again found being naked in amongst clothes stangers very arousing. I hope that I never get used to it and get immune to that feeling.\n\nWe saw quite a few 'sights' as we walked, quite a few topless and a few naked girls. I wondered if they were as aroused as I was. We also saw a couple of guys wearing bondage gear. Neither were hunky men and I thought that they looked silly.\n\nSteve was right when on the journey there we'd see things that we'd never even imagined. We had to stop at one stall and ask the man there what a couple of things that he had on display were. When he told us he asked us if we'd like to try them but we both declined. One was a pump that goes over your tits and using suction makes them a lot bigger. I told the man that I was quite happy with my tits as they were.\n\nWe also saw little shows being put on in different trader's areas. One girl was actually getting fucked as she bent over a table. When we got to the stage where I'd been fucked we stood and watched a sort of erotic dancing show with 2 totally naked girls who did get fucked whilst we watched. I didn't think that it was very erotic but Isla said that I would have thought different;y if I'd been one of the girls. She was probably right.\n\nWhilst we were stood there watching a couple of guys just had to make some complimentary comments about our naked bodies. All 4 of our nipples had been rock hard all day amd I was proud of mine and the tits that they were on the front of.\n\nThe other thing of mine that had been rock hard all day was my clit and at one point I wondered why the female body hadn't been designed with our pussies more visible all the time.\n\nWhen that show finished Isla and I continued our walk and I noticed that there weren't as many people walking about. When I mentioned it to Isla she wondered what time the convention closed. When we got back to Steve we saw that he was starting to pack things into boxes.\n\n\"When's the next one of these erotic equipment conventions?\" Isla asked Steve as soon as we got there.\n\n\"Enjoyed yourselves have you girls?\"\n\n\"Is the Pope a catholic?\" Isla replied.\n\nSteve and I both laughed then Steve said,\n\n\"I'll let you know.\"\n\nWe helped Steve box everything as the visitor numbers diminished until I saw only people carrying boxes.\n\n\"Steve,\" Isla asked, \"there's one hell of a lot more boxes to go to the van than we brought in, do we have to carry ALL this lot out to the van?\"\n\n\"We have to get it out to the van but we don't have carry it all, there's a trolley in the back of the van that will help us.\"\n\n\"Shall I go and get it?\" I asked.\n\n\"Okay, thanks Sandra.\"\n\nSteve gave me the van keys and off I went. It was only when I got to the exit that I remembered that I was naked,\n\n\"Sod it,\" I thought and kept walking.\n\nAs soon as I went out of the door I realised that I wasn't as much on display as I had hoped, it was well after sundown but there were some street lights. A few people looked at me, which was nice but the main thing was that it was cold outside. My nipples and clit had been hard all day but the reason for that was now the cold. I walked quickly and quickly got the trolley out of the van.\n\nOn the way back in I got stopped by a security guard wanting to know where I was going. After I explained he let me continue and I decided that he only wanted to spend a few more seconds looking at my body close up.\n\nWe had to make 2 trips out to the van and by the time everything was in the van I was feeling quite cold.\n\n\"I hate to say this Steve, but where are our clothes, I'm freezing and I need to put my dress on.\"\n\n\"Me too.\" Isla added.\n\n\"Where did you put them girls?\" Steve asked.\n\n\"We gave them to you this morning when we took them off Steve.\" Isla replied.\n\n\"Ahh, in that case they will be one of the boxes in the back of the van.\"\n\n\"Well I'm too cold to get them now,\" I said, \"can we ride home like this and get them when we get there and the van's heater has warmed us up?\"\n\n\"You want us to ride home like this?\" Isla asked.\n\n\"Yes, why not, unless you object Steve?\" I asked.\n\n\"Not at all girls, it's dark so there's litle chance of anyone seeing you or the cops stopping us.\" Steve replied.\n\n\"But we're high up in a van!\" Isla said.\n\n\"Shut up and get in girl, I'm freezing.\" I said.\n\nWe did, and Isla and I stayed naked throughout the journey. It was mostly on open roads and it was only when we got into the city centre and had to stop at traffic lights that I saw that a couple of young men had seen us but by then I had warmed up and I turned to look out of the van door window so that the young men could get a better look at my tits.\n\nSteve had been talking to Lisa on the phone during the journey and she'd invites Isla and me to their house for a meal.\n\n\"Saves me cooking something, thank you Lisa.\" I said with her on speaker.\n\nSteve and Lisa live in a big house on the outskirts of the city and there was plenty of space in their driveway for his car, Lisa's car and the van.\n\n\"This is nice.\" I said as I opened the van door to get out causing my nipples to go rock hard instantly.\n\nLisa must have heard or seen the van arriving because she was coming out to greet us.\n\n\"Where are your clothes girls?\" Lisa asked.\n\n\"In the back of the van somewhere.\" I replied.\n\n\"Never mind those for now, come on in where it's warm.\" Lisa said.\n\nI could see Isla start to say something but she stopped herself and we followed her into the house only to be greeted by a couple in their late twenties who were both grinning. Lisa introduced them as Martin and Charlotte, their neighbours.\n\n\"Don't worry about being naked girls,\" Charlotte said, \"we've been naked here quite a few times, Steve and Lisa hold some very interesting parties at times.\"\n\n\"Sounds like fun.\" I replied.\n\nI looked at Isla and saw that she looked like me, quite relaxed about being naked, after all we'd been naked all day and there had been hundreds, if not thousands of strangers looking at us.\n\nWhen I'd first walked in and seen Martin and Charlotte I'd felt a little uncomfortable, not because I was naked, but because I would no doubt have to talk to them, not something I like to do but both Martin and Charlotte, and Lisa and Steve are all very easy to talk to and I was quickly feeling comfortable as we talked and drank as we all helped Lisa finish getting the meal ready then sat around a big table eating,\n\nOne subject of conversation whilst we help Lisa was Isla's and my still red butts and both Lisa and Charlotte told us that they too had red butts at times, it appeared that spanking girls butts was more popular that I had thought.\n\nIsla and I told them about our gym and swimming sessions, and our trip to the funfair whilst the others recounted some of their adventures. The ones where Lisa and Charlotte were naked on holiday really got me thinking and the idea of spending the next summer somewhere like Ibiza started to develop in my mind.\n\nIsla and I volunteerrd to do the washing-up and Lisa let us get started but soon after all the dishes were in the kitchen both Lisa and Charlotte re-appeared, both as naled as Isla and I were.\n\n\"We don't see why we can't have as much fun as you two.\" Lisa said to Isla and myself.\n\nBy that time Steve and Martin were opening more wine bottles, and getting aroused by the 3 naked girls around them.\n\nYou can probably guess what happened next, and you'd be right and it was the early hours of the next morning when any of us got to sleep. The only combination of couples having some sort of sex that I didn't see, or take part in, was Steve and Martin which, upon reflection, pleased me. For some unknown reason the thought of 2 men having sex doen't appeal to me at all and I can't understand why they would want to, especially when there were 4 naked girls there, all wanting both cocks inside them.\n\nIt was around 7:00 a.m. when I woke up, on a bed sandwiched between Steve and Lisa, with Steve's cock slowly sliding in and out of my pussy. It was just after 8:00 a.m. when Steve went and got Isla's and my clothes out of the van and put them on a radiator to warm up.\n\nTen minutes later Isla and I were in Lisa's car heading into town where she dropped us off outside our accommodation buildings.\n\nWell, that's what happened during my first new weeks at university and I am really happy to say that I loved every minute of it. Up to the Christmas break I did lots more of the same and really did make up for the lack of sex before going to uni, and I did learn that interacting with other people isn't as bad as had been before going to uni.\n\nI did go on one escort job that Master Thomas fixed up for me and I did get a really nice dress out of it, oh, and a couple of thousand pounds, but afterwards I told Master Thomas that I'd like to stick to the spanking and the anonymous, out-cold fuckings in hotel rooms for a while and to ask me again in the new year.\n\nOh, one more thing, the number of girls going to the gym and then the swimming pool doubled before Christmas.\n\nIt was a different, and quite richer, Sandra who went home to my parents hpuse for a few days at Christmas.\n\nvanessa.asslr.org\n\n"}
+{"text": "For those who have followed Sandra's resort adventures, this story takes place before her public display at the hot tub, and certainly before her night-time tryst on beach beds. If you've not read other stories about Sandra at the resort, you might like \"Barside\", \"Do You Trust Me?\", and \"Hot Tub Tantra Chair. \"Hot Tub Competition\" is a Sandra-inspired story, although written in a different voice. I learned my lesson on that based on your feedback and will be happy to re-write it on request.\n\nSome have asked if a resort like the one in these stories is real. If you'd like to learn more about that, send me a PM and I will be happy to point you in the right direction.\n\n*****\n\nIt was midday and the hot sun was high in the sky. Most people had fled the beach for the air conditioned indoors. But my wife Sandra and I had decided to stay outside, under the shade of the palm fronds over our beach bed. Between the late nights in the disco, the early beach mornings that we loved, and all the tropical drinks we'd had, we were a bit tired and our eyes were starting to sag. The resort was adults-only, and clothing optional, so we were lying naked with our legs intertwined. It was an incredibly comfortable and soothing way to be with each other. I loved being skin-to-skin with Sandra. Whether it was a cool night and we huddled together for warmth, or a hot and steamy one with our sweaty skin slippery against each other, I absolutely craved physical contact with her. And I knew she felt the same way.\n\nWe shifted, never losing contact with each other. Sandra rolled into her favorite position with me, spooning curled on her side, with me tucked in close against her back. She wiggled her wonderful, naked butt against my crotch trying to find the most comfortable position for herself. My cock responded instantly, growing hard as her smooth skin rubbed over me. The harder I got, the more she squirmed against me. It wasn't very long before I was rigid and throbbing. I knew that neither one of us was going to fall asleep.\n\nSandra moaned quietly. I nibbled at her ear and ran my tongue wetly across it the way I knew she liked. She rolled her head and shoulders toward me, making it easier for me to please her. As she moved, she pulled my hand onto her breast, telling me silently that she wanted to feel my hands and fingers please her there, too. I didn't need to be asked twice for something that gave me as much pleasure as it did her. I rubbed the palm of my hand over her nipple and felt it grow hard. Her hip motions changed from simply grinding against me to a definite pelvic thrust so that my swollen cock slid up and down the crack of her butt. I could feel her cheeks gripping my hard-on as she subtly flexed her hips. It was an incredible sensation, and it caused me to grow even harder.\n\nOut on the beach, even in the relative privacy of the beds, we were not supposed to engage in open sex. It was one of the rules at the resort, which otherwise encouraged sexual activity amongst the guests. Because of that restriction, we tried to be discrete and pretend that we were napping. Sleep, however, was on neither of our minds.\n\n\"Mmmm,\" Sandra moaned quietly. \"You feel so big.\"\n\n\"You make me that way,\" I whispered back.\n\nShe reached back and raked her nails passionately along the outside my thigh. I thrust my hips forcefully against her so that my cock slid deeper between her butt cheeks. She clenched them hard around me. I moaned, letting her know that I liked it, and pinched her nipple with my free hand, thereby eliciting her own groan of pleasure.\n\nAs if lazily changing positions, Sandra stretched her arms up over her head, faked a yawn, and rolled over onto her back. As she moved, she hooked my leg with hers and pulled my knee over onto her groin. She spread her legs wider and pushed her hips up against me, grinding her pussy against my knee. I shifted, and rested my head and hand on her chest. In that position, my hand was free to rain delight onto her breasts. I lost no time using that new freedom and swirled my palm over her nipples, feeling them harden under my touch. I added firm tugs and pinches until I heard her quietly moan with satisfaction. She bent up one knee, making it easier for me to reach her pussy, and silently telling me that she wanted my hand there. It also further shielded her from the view of any casual passersby. Heat radiated from her groin and I knew what she wanted. Sandra thrust her hips against my leg and slid her hips sideways, pressing herself more firmly against my aching, hard cock.\n\n\"Mmmm,\" she moaned quietly again.\n\nI slid my hand slowly down her body from her breasts to the small tuft of hair above her pussy. I let my hand linger there for a brief moment, gently toying with her, before sliding it down over her smooth, bare pussy lips.\n\n\"Oh!\" she gasped and pushed her hips hard against my hand.\n\nI shifted some weight off my leg, which was draped over her, so I had more room to fully explore her. I slid my hand unhurriedly up and down her smooth and now very wet labia, pressing and massaging her as she swelled there. I could feel her lips dampen and pout open, spilling her luscious juices out over my hand, inviting my fingers to penetrate her. I took a moment to please myself, and pulled my hand away from her to suck her juices off my fingers.\n\n\"I love the way you taste,\" I whispered hoarsely in her ear. She responded with a groan.\n\nI resumed stroking and rolling her labia between my fingers as I rubbed up and down their length. I pressed the flat of my hand against her clit and massaged it in a circular motion, allowing my fingertips to drape down and caress the outside of her anus. Her breathing quickened and her pelvic thrusts became more urgent.\n\n\"Oh god, that feels so good,\" she said.\n\nI slowly slid my finger between her ready pussy lips and stroked over the hard nub of her clit.\n\nSandra whimpered and bit her lip trying her best to stay quiet.\n\n\"Baby, I want to make you cum,\" I murmured into her ear, and swirled my tongue there for her to enjoy. \"I want to feel you cum in my hand. Cum hard for me!\" I urged. I punctuated my desire by sliding my finger deep into her and over her rough G spot.\n\nSandra gasped and arched her back, encouraging me to press harder and deeper into her. I knew she was lost in her own world of pleasure, on a one way journey to climax.\n\nI continued to alternately stroke Sandra's labia, and slide my fingers into her pussy and over her G spot. My head remained on her chest , in a weak simulation of sleep. I could feel her heart pounding and the sound of her breathing coming in faster and shorter, ragged gasps. I knew that she was right on the edge of orgasm. With each thrust of my fingers, she rocked her hips against me, pulling me harder onto her G spot. Together we had set up a fantastic rhythm of carnal pleasure.\n\n\"Shit, shit, shit! I'm cumming,\" Sandra croaked out.\n\nI felt her body stiffen against me and her hips push hard into my hand. My fingers were deep inside her rubbing furiously on her G spot while her pussy clenched around them. She remained frozen in orgasmic ecstasy for a long time before I felt her relax, and gasp in lungfulls of air. I slowed my finger movements as the waves of her climax faded. Sweat stood out on her body and she was panting. My hand was soaked and slippery wet in her cum. I continued to gently stroke her, enjoying the feel of her warm, slick, wetness against my hand as she returned to earth.\n\n\"That was incredible,\" Sandra said.\n\nWe were both startled to hear giggles coming from the bed right next to ours. We looked at each other wide-eyed.\n\n\"Yes it was incredible,\" a female voice said from the other side of the curtain separating the beds. \"I came at the same time that you did.\"\n\nOur pretense of napping was over. I rose up on one elbow to look to where the voice had come. Diane stuck her head through a gap in the thin curtain, which was the only thing separating our beach bed from theirs.\n\n\"You know that you really shouldn't do that out here on the beach,\" she said with a wicked grin.\n\nWe had met Diane a few days earlier by the pool. She and her husband were swingers - \"in the lifestyle\" as the saying went. She enjoyed the company of both men and women, but like so many lifestylers that we met, was nonjudgmental about the fact that Sandra and I did not want to be sexually engaged with anyone but each other.\n\nDiane's reprimand was indeed true. The resort rules were very clear: no sexual activity in public spaces such as the beach. Diane's grin betrayed her true feelings however, which was that rules were meant to be bent.\n\n\"It was so hot listening to you two. I couldn't help but get off myself while you were playing,\" she added.\n\nDiane slipped through the gap in the curtain and knelt next to us while she was talking. She was just as naked as we were, and the sight was quite pleasant. She was roughly our age (more than forty) and in good shape. Kneeling on our bed, she was respectful, but at the same time completely unabashed about moving into our space while Sandra recovered from her climax. I could see Diane's nostrils flaring as she took in the scent of Sandra's dripping orgasm.\n\n\"I love hearing and seeing other people enjoy themselves. And you obviously did,\" she said smiling broadly and looking directly at Sandra.\n\nIt was a little weird for me having her so close to us after we'd just finished doing the most intimate act possible between two people. But Diane's openness, the ease with how she talked, and her comfort and open passion, made it feel very normal.\n\nIn a relaxed fashion, Sandra's hand rested on my naked hip as she gently stroking me there. Diane continued to chat a one-sided conversation. Before long, Sandra's gentle strokes on my hip changed to something more deliberately sensual. She moved her hand and I felt her fingers begin running through my pubic hair. I saw Diane's eyes drift to my crotch as she continued to talk and Sandra continued to rub me. Unexpectedly, I found this public display very exciting. A familiar and pleasant achiness grew in my balls, and my cock began to stiffen.\n\n\"I think you need to do something about that,\" Diane said to Sandra, as she looked at my now rigid cock. \"I'll play lookout while you satisfy him the way he satisfied you.\" She turned and sat crossed legged with her back to us at the end of our beach bed, looking out toward the ocean\n\nThe feel of Sandra's hand on my cock always made me weak. That time was no exception. Propping herself up on one elbow, she firmly pushed me back flat onto the bed and stroked up and down the length of my now throbbing member, raking her fingernails over my smooth, hairless balls. I moaned, letting her know how much I enjoyed what she was doing. Counting on Diane's watchfulness, and at the same time completely ignoring her presence, I spread my legs wide giving Sandra easy access to my most intimate areas. She took full advantage of that, and rubbed up and down the full length of my throbbing cock, over my balls, and down over my sensitive anus.\n\n\"Oh God that feels good,\" I moaned trying not to be too loud.\n\nSandra grinned and sat up so that she now had two hands free to use on me. \"You like that?\" she teased.\n\n\"Yesss!\" I panted.\n\n\"You want more?\"\n\n\"Yes, yes. I want everything,\" I gasped. I didn't care if Diane heard me.\n\n\"Your wish is my command,\" I heard her say right before I felt her mouth engulf the head of my swollen cock.\n\nAt the touch of her tongue, I gasped again - this time a bit louder. Diane glanced over her shoulder to look at what we were doing. I could tell that Sandra knew she was being watched, and that turned her on. She got even more enthusiastic with her lips and tongue. I struggled not to scream out too loudly as Sandra bobbed her head up and down on me. Instead, I arched my back and thrust my cock upward so that she could take me as far into her mouth as possible. When she leaned back to catch her breath, I saw her glance over toward Diane, checking that she was still watching us. I was surprised that being watched was as much of a turn on for me as it clearly was for Sandra.\n\nDiane wasn't just glancing at us. She had turned all the way around and was unabashedly staring at us. She was sitting upright cross-legged at the foot of the bed so that her body was blocking us from view of the beach. We had complete privacy from everybody except her. Sandra smiled and I saw her eyes twinkle with enthusiasm.\n\nSandra knew how much I love feeling her grip on me, and the hand job she gave me that afternoon was unbelievable. One hand was wrapped around my aching cock, the other caressed over my surging naked balls and down over my sensitive anus. Lubricated by her saliva and my leaking pre-cum, she rubbed me, squeezed me, and probed me with her fingers, stimulating me everywhere, making my head spin. I could see that Diane was stroking her own pussy, masturbating herself, while watching Sandra bring me toward orgasm. I'm not sure who was panting more: me, Sandra or Diane.\n\n\"Oh god!\" I moaned as quietly as I could. \"I'm gonna cum.\"\n\n\"Yes. Cum for me baby. Cum,\" Sandra said pumping hard on my cock.\n\n\"Yes, yes! Cum!\" I heard again, but this time from Diane.\n\nI arched my back, grunting \"Unnhh,\" and shot a thick stream of warm, sticky semen across my abdomen and chest. I heard Diane gasp in time with me as I shot my load. I'm sure she came at the same time as I did, fingering her clit while watching my orgasm.\n\nMy climax gradually faded. Short spurts of cum dribbled out of my cock as Sandra massaged the last few drops out of me. My vision cleared and I caught my breath.\n\n\"You two are so cool. It was beautiful watching you please each other. Thank you so much,\" Diane said. She leaned forward and gave Sandra a chaste peck on the cheek. In a flash she scooted back to the other side of the curtain.\n\n\"I thought it was great too. I came twice just listening to you,\" we heard a second female voice say from the other side of the curtain.\n\nWe looked at each other surprised that we had put on a show not just for one, but for two people. \"Wow!\" we said in unison and smiled at each other.\n\n"}
+{"text": "It is midnight after the trial, after retrieving yet another totem, after everything, and Hugo thinks he might be sick. \n\nToo close, he thinks.  Too close.  Everything that’s happened, everything he’s been doing… and Donella was  there. She saw him, she met his eyes—pretended she hadn’t known him, kept his cover, and yet the unease is still there, itching beneath his skin, restless in his hands. Donella. There. The group had clashed with her. She’d warned them about the Library. Varian had said— \n\n\n I won’t let you stop me! \n\n\n—and she’d smiled. Smiled. Like she knew something Varian didn’t. \n\nNothing happened, Hugo reminds himself. It’s dark now—gone straight through evening right on to night—and their small group has settled down by the city limits, half-way in the trees. Yong has the campfire already lit and burning under Nuru’s supervision; Nuru has the maps spread out on her knees, plotting the best route towards the next kingdom. It’s domestic and normal and  natural  —and it makes Hugo want to scream, almost. When did he get  used to this? It makes him feel jittery and thin and small, because for the first time in a long time—in months! Goddamn!—he’s been reminded, forcibly and irrevocably, of just how little he belongs here.\n\nNuru had noticed, earlier. Of course Nuru had noticed—she’s the most focused of the four of them, the most eagle-eyed, as one should be when making maps out of stars.  Did you know her?  she’d asked him then, after Donella had vanished, her voice low as they’d run and left the kingdom behind them.  That woman?  And when Hugo’s throat had sealed up, sudden and sharp and awful, Nuru had looked him full in the face and said,  Oh. Never mind. \n\nSo stupid, Hugo thinks, leaning against a tree to hide the weakness in his knees, watching Nuru fuss over the maps. So, so stupid of her. Where has all her suspicion gone? She was always the most critical of him—he knows that, he remembers that, how can he not—even though she was never there for the beginning. And now— now.\n\n\n Oh. Never mind. \n\n\nHis fingers curl in his sleeve. He chances a glance back, through the trees. Varian is off to the side, away from the fire, deeper in the shadows, his own private set up for a new experiment of his. He’s been there for a while, now, ever since they settled down to camp. Had said, laughingly, that he wasn’t sure if he wanted to mess with this compound around the fire,  start dinner without me— and Hugo can only just barely see the shape of him through the shadows of the trees. That dark head of hair is bowed low over the makeshift workbench; he can’t see Varian’s face, but Hugo can imagine the focus of it, the intent. Trust. If Hugo is really going to start berating this group about faith, shouldn’t he start with the worst offender?\n\nHe’s only here at all, Hugo knows, with a sudden twist to his gut, because months ago Varian decided to have faith in him. For some reason. For… \n\nHugo doesn’t even know why. He’s never asked. It’s… never mattered before.\n\nBut Donella’s smile plays out in his head, and Nuru’s voice says, soft and careful— Never mind— and Hugo is walking over to Varian before he even knows, truly, what he’s doing. \n\nIt’s quiet here, away from the main camp. There is something strangely secret about it all, about the distance and the darkness and the way Nuru and Yong’s voices have faded to whispers behind him. The lamplight of Varian’s staff casts a quiet green glow across everything; it should be sinister, in a way, and yet it just feels warm. In the light Varian himself is focused entirely on the project before him—he likely hasn’t even noticed Hugo is there, Hugo thinks faintly, and for some reason, despite everything, this almost makes him laugh.\n\nHe leans against a nearby tree, arms crossed, and says, “Pretty sure that element explodes under heat, you know. I  do  hope you know that. Why are you trying to set it on fire?” He grins. “Oh! Oh, don’t tell me, did you mistake it for lithium? That’s adorable. Beginner’s mistake. So cute.”\n\nVarian’s shoulders tick up, and his hand spasms, the vial almost dropped. “Gah!” His eyes flash sideways, narrow beneath his goggles. “Stop  doing that! Why do you always sneak up on—never mind, doesn’t matter, shut up, I know what I’m doing.”\n\nHugo hums, as skeptical as he can, if only to make Varian scowl. “You’re doing it wrong.”\n\n“Ha, ha,” Varian says, sarcastic, but the old bite is worn now, almost fond, though he sounds a little annoyed regardless. “You don’t even know what I’m making, shove off.”\n\n“…True.” Hugo leans against the tree, sliding down until he’s sitting, one leg drawn up. He rests his elbow on his knee and watches Varian work. Whatever he’s making, it’s lovely—all silver and bronze and glowing solution like a liquid gold. For all his doubts on its application, Hugo can at least appreciate the aesthetics of it. It’s probably important. Probably for the machine, the gateway to the Library. Probably…\n\nProbably something Donella would want him to steal, eventually.\n\nThe tightness returns, winding vicious in his gut. Hugo looks away, and lets the conversation drop, unsure of how to continue it, if he even wants to. Varian goes back to work without comment, obvious dismissal, and Hugo stays sitting there, awkward, feeling out-of-place and unsure of why. \n\nBut Varian hasn’t asked him to leave, yet—not that Hugo would even if he had, but whatever—so he stays, lingering on the fringes, watching Varian work. For all of Hugo’s teasing, Varian really is clever. The focus in those blue eyes, the intent line of his mouth—this is Varian thinking, Varian with the world spinning out in blueprints behind his eyes, and Hugo has always admired that feeling, always loved it, always appreciated the fact Varian knew and understood it the same way he did.\n\n He leans his head back against the tree, and sighs. \n\n“So,” Hugo says, finally, absent and casual and  not-that-I-care-but , eyes deliberately turned away, “what’s your deal with me, anyway?”\n\nVarian hums, not listening. Then the words actually compute, because he snorts suddenly, and pushes his goggles away from his face. “What?”\n\nHe’s smiling. Something about that sits wrong with Hugo; it flutters in his chest like a wound. Hugo tries not to scowl.  Casual,  damn it. “What do you mean,  what? ” He rolls his eyes. “This weird… I don’t even know. Faith, or whatever. I mean, seriously.”\n\n“Excuse me?”\n\n“I mean, even from the beginning…” All of Yong’s protests, Nuru’s suspicions—and Varian, who listened and nodded and then waved them away.  We’ll see,  he’d said, to their fears. And to Hugo:  I’m trying to trust you. Don’t prove me wrong, okay? \n\nHugo hadn’t cared, then, about the  why.  He hadn’t… it had been an in, an easy entrance, and so he’d never thought to question it. So what if Varian was naive, too trusting for his own good—all the better for Hugo, wasn’t it? And so Hugo had never asked. He’d barely even wondered. \n\n“Why,” Hugo says, months too late but wondering all the same, “do you  trust me so much?”\n\n“Hmm.” Varian has raised a vial to his face, peering into the contents. He waves a dismissive hand, absent-minded. He’s not even listening, Hugo realizes, and it’s like a hot knife to his gut. “Why not?”\n\n“I—” And oh, fucking hell, that had almost come out strangled. Hugo snaps his mouth shut, feeling slapped and not entirely sure why. For the love of… this is what he gets for being open, Hugo supposes. This is what he gets for asking too late. Gods. Screw this, anyway.\n\nHe climbs to his feet, face flushed, hands curled. “Whatever.”\n\nHe’s making back for the campfire when Varian’s voice stops him cold. “Wait.” Despite himself, Hugo looks back. Varian has lowered the vial. He’s looking at Hugo now—actually,  truly looking, with a sudden intent that makes Hugo straighten on instinct. In the pale green glow of the staff, Varian’s eyes are sharp as glass. \n\nVarian searches his face, and whatever he finds there makes his expression twist. “Oh.”\n\nHugo bristles. “ What ?”\n\nVarian is quiet. His lips press. The sudden focus of his gaze is gone—now he seems drained, almost tired. He pushes his hand back through his hair, and his gaze wanders to the ground, and then, absently, he says, “When I was fourteen, I almost killed my dad.”\n\nHugo opens his mouth. Hugo closes his mouth.\n\n“I mean, I—didn’t. Obviously. But I… I mean, he should be dead, actually, laws of reason dictate, and I’m pretty now it was only magic that… but I didn’t know that at the time, so really my belief was more denial than sense, in hindsight? And I’m still not sure how to feel about that... anyway.” Varian presses his lips together, the ramble cutting short. His hand is tight on his sleeve—so tight his hands must be white-knuckled under the gloves, and all the color seems to have drained from his face. He looks—older, in this light, with this expression. He looks exhausted.\n\n“I was angry,” Varian says, simply, when Hugo doesn’t respond. “Um. Very… very angry. And I hurt… a lot of people. Some of them I knew. Most I didn’t. And some…” His hands curl. “Never mind. It’s not important. I— told you I’ve been in prison before. Right? I mean, I’m pretty sure I mentioned it, like, once— anyway. Um. Three counts of attempted murder, high treason, kidnapping, attempted regicide, drugging a whole castle with truth serum without their consent, I could go on, but. You probably get the idea.”\n\nYeah, Hugo does get the idea. The idea is straight-up freaking unbelievable.  What? He… he can’t even fathom that. He’s seen Varian angry, he knows Varian can be dangerous, but…\n\n“I don’t understand,” he says, before he can stop himself, and Varian curls in on himself with a laugh that sounds very hollow. \n\n“Yeah, I—I get that. I don’t know myself, really. Why I reacted that way. I’ve thought about it over and over, and I don’t… maybe it was one thing? Or maybe it was everything. My dad was gone. I was alone, I guess. And—and in the end, it just felt… like a betrayal. Like my friends, like my town, like  everyone  had turned their backs on me, on my dad. And I just… I couldn’t stand that.” He shakes his head, voice going small, murmuring. “  Betrayal. Dark word, isn’t it? Never done well with being… well.” Varian laughs. It sounds forced. “Um. This is all speculation, anyway.”\n\nHugo says nothing. The ground feels very shaky, suddenly; he feels fever-hot and sick. “Oh,” he says. He realizes suddenly his hands are shaking, and tucks them in his pockets. The ground has fallen out beneath his feet; the pieces have clicked into place. He understands. He does. It’s the answer to a question he’d never been able to ask, and even though it's exactly what he expected, it still guts him whole. “…Oh.”\n\nAnd he thinks:  When this is over, you’ll never forgive me. \n\nVarian laughs again. “Yeah,” he says, muted agreement. He draws his legs up close, criss-cross, and rests gloved hands on his ankles. “But… I guess, to answer your question... Even after all that, despite everything—  someone still believed in me. Someone was willing to give me a chance. She—even though she had the most reason out of anyone to hate me… she still offered me her hand.”  \n\nVarian tilts his head. He meets Hugo’s eyes. He smiles. “That’s why,” he says. “I trusted you because someone once trusted me. And I was right, wasn’t I?” He shrugs. “I trust you  now because you’ve earned it.”\n\nHugo’s mouth is dry. His throat aches. He wants, bizarrely, to scream. “…Right.” How stupid. So, so fucking stupid of him. He’d gotten his second chance months ago, without ever realizing, and he’d thrown it back in Varian’s face before he’d even really known him. So fucking stupid. His head spins. “Right.”\n\nVarian nods. His eyes drift away again. “Sorry,” he says, absent-minded. “For dismissing the question before. I thought you were joking, at first.”\n\nHugo shakes his head, thrown. “I… it doesn’t matter, it—” He exhales, sharp. “Why… why did you tell  me this?”\n\n“It seemed important to you.” Varian looks at the ground, gaze distant, like those words aren’t yet another gut-punch.  Important to you.  Like easing Hugo’s fears are worth spilling secrets for, worth—whatever this is. Goddamn. God  damn. And Varian smiles then, a halfway-smile, a wry crook of his mouth that creases at his eyes, and something in Hugo’s chest misses a beat. “And faith always matters.” \n\n“And what if Nuru was right?” Hugo doesn’t know why he says it, and wants suddenly to slap himself. The fuck? But still: once again, he can’t stop himself from asking, from digging in the knife. “When she said I couldn’t be trusted. What if you’re wrong?”\n\n“Nuru doesn’t say that anymore. What’s with you today?” Varian rolls his eyes, briefly, then turns and fixes Hugo with a smile, bright and blinding. “Besides.  Am  I wrong?” \n\nAnd the worst part is—the absolute worst part—is that he says it dryly, says it sure, says it—like Varian knows, implicitly, that the answer is no.\n\n Yes, Hugo thinks. “No,” he forces out, and smiles, and hates it.\n\n“There you go.” Varian shrugs and turns back to his experiment, conversation over. Hugo stares at the back of his head. He feels sick. He feels dizzy. He feels like all the world has dropped at his feet, everything he’d never even known he wanted placed right in his hands—and the loss is sudden and sickening, because Hugo has already given this all away, handed it off long before he’d ever known what this treasure was worth. \n\nStill. “Thanks,” Hugo says, through his teeth, and just barely manages to keep it from shaking.\n\nAnd it’s terrible, all of it—the way Varian ducks his head, the way his shoulders curl, the way the other hides his smile against his arm like Hugo can’t see the gleam of his teeth in the dark, the gentle joy.\n\n“Of course.”\n\nAwful.\n\nHugo walks back to the fire. Yong is laughing at a joke. Nuru, once so suspicious, smiles up at him—then sees his face, and the smile falters. She frowns, suddenly, her brow furrowing. She says, “Hey, Hugo, are you okay?”\n\n Never mind,  she’d said earlier, all of Hugo’s secrets there before her to unravel.  I want to trust you,  Varian had said, months and months ago, offering his hand to a boy who’d already made the choice to betray them.  Faith always matters. \n\nDonella, smiling. \n\n“Fine,” Hugo says, with a smile he doesn’t feel, but the truth beats behind his skull like a heartbeat, and behind his back his hands are shaking. He’s played himself into a corner—caring about these people, about  Varian  especially. Hugo, the greatest fucking fool of them all, wanting to live up to their expectations only  now , when its already too damn late.\n\n“Just fine,” Hugo says, and settles by the fire, Yong’s chatter and Nuru’s worried eyes and Varian’s distant humming—and closes his eyes to it all, holding his breath, as though if he stays still and quiet and careful he can stretch this moment out, keep this moment here, and make it so he doesn’t have to lose them at all. \n\n "}
+{"text": "They still had some of Sakusa’s appointment time to kill after changing out of their overalls and back into their office-wear, so Atsumu suggested they use their plumbing money to catch some breakfast. Sakusa agreed, on the condition they returned to the coffee shop they’d gone to the day before.\n\nTrue to form, Sakusa re-ordered himself the same pistachio cookie and black coffee, while Atsumu ordered something fruity and spent the rest of the money on snacks for Osamu, Bokuto, and Hinata.\n\nGod it felt fantastic to waste good Adler money.\n\n‘How long d’ya think it’ll take ya to see if those thumbprints are any good?’ Atsumu asked him once they settled into the same seats as yesterday too.\n\nSakusa gave it some thought. ‘A day or two. There are a lot of prints, most of which will probably be useless, but I have to try them all.’\n\n‘Can I help?’\n\n‘Not this time.’\n\n‘You sure?’\n\n‘Positive.’\n\n‘Can’t I just—’\n\n‘No.’\n\nAtsumu sucked at the straw of his drink until it made a horrible sound. He never did like resting on his laurels. Keeping busy was the best way to ensure victory, but this kind of heist hinged entirely on a tech; Atsumu, Bokuto, and Hinata would only be kept busy buying supplies and sitting on standby until it was time to sneak in and steal the painting.\n\nThat was why Atsumu preferred to do things the fun way.\n\n‘How’d ya do it so fast, anyway, Omi-kun? I know you’re better than Ushijima, but he’s a genius too, right? I mean, if not for the prints, you’d have gotten ‘em in twenty-four hours.’\n\nSakusa sniffed, but Atsumu could tell he was soaking up the compliment. ‘Ushijima is the kind of hacker that specialises in extracting information. He could steal your banking details in the blink of an eye, dig up the dirty past you’re trying to hide, or locate what offshore account you’re piling illegal money into.’\n\n‘Sounds scary,’ said Atsumu.\n\nSakusa hummed. ‘It is, and it works surprisingly well for heists. You don’t have to sneak through the back door if you’re already holding a metaphorical knife to your opponent’s throat. Some people send the Adlers their prizes gift-wrapped just so Ushijima won’t destroy them.’\n\n‘I heard somethin’ ‘bout that,’ Atsumu grumbled.\n\nA while back, a client had hired the Adlers to steal a jewelled brooch from the collection of one of Japan’s wealthiest CEOs. It had seemed an impossible task considering she wore it ninety percent of the time, but a week later, the woman had turned up personally to hand Ushijima the brooch. According to Hinata who’d heard it all from Kageyama, she’d also gone as far as to make them up some goodie bags and apologise for the trouble she’d caused.\n\nIt made Atsumu’s blood boil just to think about it.\n\n‘It’s good, but it also means Ushijima’s a little slower than I am when it comes to breaching security. That’s not to say he can’t do it, obviously. He can just fine. I’m just faster. And better.’\n\n‘Because you make the software, right?’\n\nSakusa nodded. ‘I don’t think they know, but the new model the Adlers installed is based on one of my designs. All I had to do was start running an algorithm to work out the number codes for their locks and I already had the rest worked out. That was, until I realised they’d added an extra layer.’\n\n‘Thumbprints,’ Atsumu mused.\n\n‘There are only so many number combinations you can create with four digits.’ Sakusa sipped his coffee. ‘But the number of possible thumbprint configurations is so high I’d probably die of old age three times over before I got through them all. The only way to break them is to steal the original print. If this doesn’t work—’\n\n‘It will.’\n\n‘But if it doesn’t—’\n\n‘It will,’ Atsumu said again. Sakusa looked pissed off to be interrupted twice, but Atsumu didn’t care. Negative energy was not welcome in the Super Sexy Stealth Jackal workspace. ‘Besides, I also have like, three other backup plans to get prints if for some reason it doesn’t. So don’t worry about it.’\n\n‘Wha—’ Sakusa spluttered. ‘If you had other ideas, why did we risk entering enemy territory first?’\n\n‘Because that plan was the quickest and we’re short on time.’\n\nAs much as Sakusa probably wanted to, Atsumu knew he couldn’t argue with that. ‘Oh,’ Atsumu added. ‘That reminds me, gimme yer phone.’\n\nSakusa didn’t even take a breath before saying, ‘No.’\n\n‘Fine, then here,’ Atsumu dug his own phone out of his pocket and slid it towards Sakusa. ‘Put yer number in it.’\n\nSakusa eyed the device like it contained various contagious diseases. ‘Why?’\n\n‘We’re gonna have to start keepin’ in contact outside of work and I’m not havin’ you hijacking my fuckin’ microwave to do it in Morse code.’\n\nAtsumu didn’t even know Morse code.\n\nGingerly, Sakusa picked it up and held it out for Atsumu to input the passcode. Atsumu shook his head at him. ‘You’re the hacker, Omi-Omi, guess it.’\n\n‘Just put the code in, Miya. Or I’ll blow your phone and your microwave to pieces.’\n\nAtsumu grinned and raised a suggestive eyebrow. ‘Ooh? And then what?’ He laughed when Sakusa’s nose wrinkled right on cue, then he sat back in his seat with his drink and insisted, ‘How’s this? If ya get it in three or less, I’ll grant you a wish.’\n\n‘A wish,’ Sakusa repeated, totally deadpan. ‘Are you ten years-old?’\n\n‘An Atsumu Wish is a priceless gift, Omi-kun. It means I’ll do just about anythin’ so long as it doesn’t directly result in my death.’\n\nThree years ago, he’d given an Atsumu Wish Voucher to Suna as a gift for his birthday. He’d drawn it up on a post it note and packed it in a box ten times larger, partly because he was lazy, but mostly because it was the kind of gift Suna treasured the most; the opportunity to humiliate a Miya twin. He certainly hadn't disappointed.\n\nSakusa pursed his lips as he pondered that. ‘What about the death of someone else?’\n\n‘OK, that’s fuckin’ terrifyin, but sure, I guess? Depends on who it is.’\n\nWith a nod, Sakusa said, ‘Deal.’\n\nFrom his short distance away, Atsumu could see very clearly the first four numbers Sakusa typed without a moment’s hesitation: 6969.\n\nHe choked on his fruit drink.\n\n‘What?’ Sakusa asked with a small frown. ‘That’s the kind of moronic thing you would do.’\n\nWas he really that predictable? Or was Sakusa just a genius? Probably, he realised grimly, a sad mixture of both.\n\n‘I mean, yer not wrong. Yer just a month too short, Omi,’ he wheezed around the pain of something citric burning his nose tubes. Sakusa passed him a stack of napkins and Atsumu spluttered gratitude. ‘That was it before I found out Shouyou and Bokkun had the same one. We all had to change ‘em because we took the prank text thing a little too far.’\n\n‘See?’ said Sakusa. ‘Moronic.’\n\n‘Whatever. You’ve got two guesses left, Omi. Make ‘em count.’\n\nSakusa’s thumbs hovered contemplatively over the numbers. ‘This is the most pointless thing I have ever done,’ he said. ‘I could just write my number down on a—’\n\n‘Aaah, but that’s no fun, Omi. Hurry.’\n\n‘Fine,’ he huffed, and tugged the phone closer to his chest to hide it from Atsumu’s craned neck.\n\nFor all of his complaining that it was a pointless task, he certainly took it seriously; the face he made as he mulled it over made Atsumu think he was taking an exam rather than guessing a passcode.\n\nEventually, after another typed attempt, Sakusa scoffed, held up the unlocked phone and said, ‘You are either incredibly narcissistic, or far sappier than you’ve led me to believe.’\n\nAtsumu sat up straight and his head tilted in confusion. ‘Wait, you actually got in?’\n\nThat wasn’t supposed to happen. Sakusa was supposed to try and guess random combinations and get them all wrong, and Atsumu was supposed to laugh about it and—\n\n‘Of course I got in,’ Sakusa said as he started inputting his number into Atsumu’s contacts. ‘You hardly made it difficult.’\n\nWhile that might have been true for someone like Osamu or Suna, Atsumu certainly hadn’t thought Sakusa of all people would even know his birthday, never mind remember it. They’d known each other for years, sure, but they weren’t exactly close. Before now, their conversations had never ventured beyond light arguments or irritable insults thrown in the office corridors.\n\nAtsumu definitely didn’t know Sakusa’s birthday.\n\nIt made him think he probably should.\n\nIt almost maybe kind of made him think he wanted to know more than just his birthday.\n\n‘Oh,’ came Sakusa’s voice to break him from his reverie. ‘Osamu is calling you.’\n\n‘Huh?’\n\nSakusa wiggled the phone. The screen was lit up with Osamu’s contact picture; the ugliest shot of him in Atsumu’s arsenal. He’d probably kill Atsumu for letting someone else see it, but the fact that he was calling right now meant that he probably deserved it.\n\n‘Oh,’ Atsumu said. ‘Oh, shit.’\n\nHe accidentally declined the call in his effort not to make skin-to-skin contact with Sakusa’s hands and had to call Osamu back. He answered after one ring, but Atsumu didn’t give him a chance to talk. ‘What is it? What’s wrong, ‘Samu?’\n\nOsamu’s voice was a hurried whisper. ‘Shit, Tsumu. You gotta get back. I’m hidin’ in the toilet right now, but I think yer boss is gonna call the hospital if I don't get out soon.’\n\n‘What, why? What the fuck happened?’\n\n‘I dunno! One minute I was playin’ Bubble Shooter 3, and the next thing I know, Meian’s tappin’ my shoulder and askin’ me to follow him to his office ‘cause he’s got a possible job he wants you to look at! I tried to get Bokuto and Hinata to get the hint and save me, but Meian waved ‘em off and said I could just tell them ‘bout it later. Ya told me business was slow, Tsumu! What the fuck?’\n\n‘It was! Shit! Fuck! How long have you been hidin’ for?’\n\n‘Uhh… twenty minutes or so? Meian came to check on me at one point and I had to play a video of explosive shit noises and cry to get him to leave.’\n\n‘Jesus fuckin’ Christ, ‘Samu! I told ya to use Plan Diarrhoea not create a fuckin' Shitpocalypse.’ Atsumu didn’t even want to think about the consequences of that. He groaned and ran a hand through his hair. ‘Just stay there. We’re five minutes away.’\n\nAtsumu ended the call, stood up and motioned for Sakusa to do the same. ‘Code red, Omi. Apparently, Meian-san thinks I’ve been experiencin’ Shitmageddon for the last twenty minutes because my brother is a fuckin' moron.’\n\nSakusa sighed, neatly wrapped his untouched pistachio cookie in a napkin, and pocketed it. ‘Don’t expect me to drive any faster than usual.’\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\nIt took some skilful manoeuvring to get to the second-floor bathroom without Meian spotting them, but they managed it and sent Osamu home with a bagful of snacks and an Atsumu promise to beat his ass into next week the next time he laid eyes on him. For all the panicking he’d done on the phone, Osamu certainly seemed to find the whole thing hilarious now that Atsumu had successfully rescued him; he played an excerpt from the video of shit noises and Sakusa had to shake Atsumu’s shoulder to get his soul to return to his body.\n\nHow the fuck was he supposed to look Meian in the eye?\n\nThey parted ways at the stairwell, but before he disappeared with his duffel bag, Sakusa turned back and promised to delete the CCTV footage of the double Miyas, and to text Atsumu the moment he found any matches on the prints.\n\nAs Atsumu watched him go, it almost felt odd to think that just a few days prior they’d been at each other’s throats. Contrary to Atsumu’s beliefs, they worked far better together than he’d ever thought possible; whatever wavelength Atsumu found himself surfing, Sakusa seemed able to tune himself into the same frequency with practised ease. He supposed his company wasn’t so bad either. Sakusa was mean, sure, but in the same kind of upfront and honest way that ‘Samu and Suna were. The kind of way that made Atsumu feel warm and safe in the knowledge that he didn’t really mean it, not like the people he’d grown up with at school or the scrubs at his old job.\n\nThat train of thought escorted him all the way to the office floor, and all that remained was for Atsumu to make the walk of shame back to Meian’s room. As he hunched, clutched at his stomach, and shuffled up to Meian’s door to knock it, he could feel the rest of the office watching him intently. Bokuto’s stare was the hardest of them all, like a firm, apologetic hand on the back. Atsumu pulled as much strength from it as he could manage and knocked on the door.\n\nWhen Meian answered he looked down at Atsumu so pitifully, that Atsumu thought about running away again. To somewhere extremely far away. Somewhere like a deserted island with a population of minus-one where he could wallow in his own misery alone. Forever.\n\n‘Yikes, Miya.’ Meian rubbed at the back of his neck and winced at him. ‘Rough day?’\n\nAtsumu gritted his teeth. ‘Samu must have fed me somethin’ rotten,’ he ground out. ‘Gonna leave such a bad review on Yelp.’\n\nRight after he killed him and buried him four-thousand feet deep in an unmarked grave.\n\n‘If you’re not, uh,’—Meian cleared his throat—'feeling a hundred percent, you can just take the rest of the day off, you know. Maybe find some medication for your, uh. For you.’\n\nAtsumu wanted to die. Right there in Meian’s office, in the most dramatic and terrible way imaginable. If his head suddenly exploded into a billion bloody pieces, maybe Meian would stop looking at Atsumu like he couldn’t stop recalling the sounds of his overactive bowel.\n\n‘No,’ Atsumu shook his head. ‘I’m fine, Meian-san, It’s not that bad, really. I’m, uh… recovering fast. You can carry on with what you were sayin’ earlier. Somethin’ ‘bout a job? Maybe it’ll distract me.’\n\nMeian’s eyebrows pulled together in an are you sure about that kind of way. Atsumu ducked under his arm by way of response and seated himself in the chair opposite Meian’s desk. The sooner this was over with, the better.\n\nWarily, Meian took his own seat and gave Atsumu a final once over. Whatever he saw in Atsumu’s eyes seemed to satisfy him. ‘Bigshot guy came calling last night,’ he began. ‘Wants an envelope from the safe of a high-rise penthouse. He’s willing to pay huge numbers if we can get it to him within two months.’\n\nThat didn’t sound too difficult. Atsumu could easily juggle that whilst continuing with the Monster Heist. It would also provide him with excuses to leave the office whenever he pleased; Hinata and Bokuto were starting to look a little pale being kept behind their desks for so long.\n\n‘Easy,’ Atsumu said. ‘We’ll start plannin’ right away.’\n\n‘Glad to hear it,’ Meian said. ‘But I also have a condition before I let you agree officially.’\n\n‘Hm?’\n\n‘I want you to put aside your differences and work it with Sakusa.’\n\nAtsumu wasn’t really paying attention. He was busy sorting through his thoughts, both for the new heist and the opportunities it would provide the Monster Heist, so he forgot he was still supposed to hate Sakusa when he shrugged and said, ‘Sure, OK.’\n\nMeian continued, ‘Look, I know you two don’t get along, but I’ve done some research into the building you’ll be infiltrating, and it looks heavily fortified. There’s a pretty solid combination on that safe, and a team of—Wait. Did you just agree? I thought you were going to burst a vessel.’\n\nShit. Whoops? Was it too late to start throwing a tantrum?\n\nProbably.\n\nAtsumu dug around in his metaphorical brain-filing-cabinet for a bullshit excuse. He landed on, ‘We’re beyond desperate, Meian-san. If we can’t get our paintin’ back, then we need somethin’ to distract ourselves with. If that means we gotta work with Om—Sakusa, then so be it. I’m sure Hinata and Bokuto will be fine with it too.’\n\n‘Ha,’ Meian said with a surprised smile. ‘Wow. Seems like stopping you guys from participating in that heist was a good idea after all. For a moment there, I was starting to worry it wasn’t.’\n\nPoor bastard, Atsumu thought. He had no idea what the MSBY Monsters were about to unleash upon the Adlers in nine days’ time.\n\nAtsumu hoped he had life insurance. He was probably going to need it.\n\n‘Yeah, I’m growin’ as a person, or whatever. Just let me sign off on it.’\n\n‘I’ll have to talk to Sakusa first. Get him on board. Swing by tomorrow morning and we’ll iron out the details.’\n\n \n\nThe fax machine beside his computer was busy printing something when Atsumu slumped back down into his chair. Atsumu waited patiently for it to churn out the single piece of paper and almost choked when he read it:\n\nIt was the front face of a ‘Get Well Soon’ card, only, whoever had sent it had spent a lot of time defacing it with explosions and poop emojis.\n\nHe got up and stalked over to Hinata and Bokuto’s desks. They were huddled and hunched over Hinata’s phone, watching a video of Kageyama falling down the stairs set to music.\n\n‘This you?’ he demanded, holding it out for them both to see.\n\nThey looked up at the same time, eyes wide and mouths gaping like gutted fish.\n\nHinata took the sheet and started laughing uncontrollably the second he realised what he was seeing. Bokuto joined in shortly after, his laugh raucous enough to startle a curse out of the nearby Adriah. He slapped Atsumu on the back. ‘Oh god,’ he said. ‘I wish I’d thought of that.’\n\n‘What d’ya mean ya wish you’d thought of it. It was you two, right? Who else could it be?’\n\nHinata shook his head as tears rolled down his cheeks. ‘No, Atsumu-san,’ he wheezed and held up his hands defensively. ‘It wasn’t us, I swear. We were planning on using our lunch break to buy you medicine, though.’\n\nBokuto reached the conclusion first. ‘Ohohoh! Never thought I’d see the day that Sakusa made a joke! ‘Specially not one that funny!’\n\nAtsumu looked down at the paper. Sakusa hadn’t sent him this, surely. He was… adept with a computer, petty, and the only other person besides Osamu who knew about the whole thing.\n\nSakusa had sent it.\n\nHe snatched the paper from Hinata and stormed back over to his desk. For ten minutes he tried to think of something mean to reply with, but his mind remained frustratingly blank. He settled for texting him instead and scoffed when he realised what name Sakusa had saved his contact details under.\n\n \n\n \n\n\n(11:30) To: Work Associate Sakusa Kiyoomi\n\n\nTysm 4 the kind words omi u fkn asshole\n\n \n\n \n\n\n(11:31) From: Work Associate Sakusa Kiyoomi\n\n\nWhat the fuck does any of that even say?\n\nAlso, you are welcome.\n\n \n\n\n(11:33) To: Work Associate Sakusa Kiyoomi\n\n\n(link)\n\nthats urban dictionary. work it out scrub\n\n \n\n \n\n\n(11:34) From: Work Associate Sakusa Kiyoomi\n\n\nThat is a link to a Rick Astley song.\n\n \n\n\n(11:34) To: Work Associate Sakusa Kiyoomi\n\n\nHA\n\n \n\n\n(11:38) From: Work Associate Sakusa Kiyoomi\n\n\nWhat did Meian-san want?\n\n \n\n\n(11:39) To: Work Associate Sakusa Kiyoomi\n\n\nnew job\n\nalso heads up\n\nhes about to come ask u to work on it with us\n\nI know itll be mega fucking hard for u\n\nbut try to act like u hate me when he does ;)\n\n \n\nThe reply took longer to come back this time. Atsumu drummed his fingers against the desk as he waited.\n\n \n\n\n(11:45) From: Work Associate Sakusa Kiyoomi\n\n\nWhy would he suddenly want us to work together? After all this time?\n\n \n\n\n(11:46) To: Work Associate Sakusa Kiyoomi\n\n\nso many questions omi\n\n\n \n\n\n\n(11:46) From: Work Associate Sakusa Kiyoomi\n\n\nJust answer them.\n\n\n \n\n\n\n(11:47) To: Work Associate Sakusa Kiyoomi\n\n\nidk smth about a safe???\n\nwasn’t rlly listening\n\nbut it’s a good thing\n\nmeans i have good reason to barge into ur office to bug u whenever I want\n\n \n\n \n\n\n(11:49) From: Work Associate Sakusa Kiyoomi\n\n\nDo not come to this office, ever again.\n\nYou are absolutely NOT welcome.\n\nIf I have to create and install anti-Miya security I will.\n\n \n\n\n(11:51) To: Work Associate Sakusa Kiyoomi\n\n\nu wouldn’t\n\ni can see it in ur eyes omi\n\nnobody is immune to my\n\nme\n\n \n\n\n(11:51) From: Work Associate Sakusa Kiyoomi\n\n\nYour you?\n\n \n\n\n(11:52) To: Work Associate Sakusa Kiyoomi\n\n\nyea I was going 2 start listing my good qualities\n\nbut there are so many it would take 2 long\n\nalso\n\nclear ur schedule tomorrow\n\n \n\n \n\n\n(11:53) From: Work Associate Sakusa Kiyoomi\n\n\nNo.\n\n\n(11:55)\n\n\nWhy?\n\n \n\n\n(11:56) To: Work Associate Sakusa Kiyoomi\n\n\nur the sugar daddy with the coins omi\n\nwe gotta start shopping\n\n \n\n \n\n\n(11:57) From: Work Associate Sakusa Kiyoomi\n\n\nI’ll just give you my card, Miya.\n\n \n\n\n(11:58) To: Work Associate Sakusa Kiyoomi\n\n\nNooooopeee\n\nur not getting out of this\n\nnow that we’re meian approved and don’t hav to sneak round\n\nits time for a fun day out of ~team bonding~ \n\n \n\n \n\nAtsumu didn’t get another text until later that night. He was busy rustling himself up some food and sending pictures of it to Osamu’s ‘Rate My Plate’ group chat when Sakusa’s name dropped down in a notification.\n\n \n\n\n(7:28) From: Work Associate Sakusa Kiyoomi\n\n\nThanks for today.\n\n\n \n\n\nFor what? Atsumu pondered. Getting him the prints? Buying him food? That odd moment they’d shared in the bathroom?\n\nMaybe he’d done something else nice without realising it. Though that was highly unlikely. Atsumu didn't do nice things for people very often.\n\nSakusa probably wouldn’t answer honestly even if he asked, so in the end Atsumu just replied with a serious, Any time, Omi, like he’d known all along.\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\nAtsumu had been stuck in Meian’s office all morning signing documents and talking with the client over the phone. The guy was a total asshole, the kind who kept asking Atsumu to speak clearer and provide proof that he was qualified for the job and not just some mouthy kid. It took every ounce of Atsumu’s concentrated willpower not to call him something unforgivable, and by the time Meian was through bombarding him with files of information and promises that he’d persuaded Sakusa to ‘cooperate’ it was already passed ten in the morning, and he was exhausted.\n\nFinding Bokuto, Hinata, and Sakusa in the carpark standing in a line beside a huge white van with their thumbs up was almost too much for his brain to handle.\n\nHe pointed at them, and then at it, dumbstruck. ‘What the fuck is that?’\n\n‘Sakusa bought me the van I asked for!’ Bokuto grinned, twirling a set of keys around his fingers. ‘Isn’t it cool, Tsum-Tsum?’\n\nAtsumu blinked at Sakusa. ‘You what?’\n\n‘I told you I’d buy whatever you needed,’ he said nonchalantly. ‘Plus, your old van was disgusting. You couldn’t pay me to get inside it.’\n\nAtsumu eyed Hinata.\n\nHinata eyed Atsumu.\n\nThey both broke into sprints at the same time and wrestled each other to the passenger side door. Hinata was both deceptively strong and fast; he managed to push Atsumu out of the way and climb inside with a smug smile before Atsumu’s hand had even reached for the door handle.\n\n‘Hahah!’ Bokuto laughed from somewhere behind him. ‘That’s my disciple!’\n\n‘Unfair!’ Atsumu yelled. ‘You got a head start!’\n\nHinata poked his tongue out. ‘Your just getting old and out of shape, Atsumu-san! Enjoy the back seat! I hear it’s seventy-percent less fun than the front!’\n\nSakusa laughed at that, nasty and dry, and Atsumu turned on him with an exaggerated scowl. ���Don’t you start! Yer in the back seat too, ya fuckin’ idiot. Seriously,’ he groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. ‘Feels like I’m livin’ in the fuckin’ twilight zone this mornin’.’\n\nBokuto got into the driver’s seat, and Atsumu and Sakusa piled into the three seats directly behind, one seat left empty and awkward between them. As per Bokuto’s request, Sakusa had somehow managed to find a van with a fully stocked minibar installed in the back area, but the mod cons didn’t stop there: there was a desk built into the left wall for a tech with a chair folded up beneath it, an electric fan nailed to the upper right corner, and a few stacked boxes packed with various useful pieces of equipment that definitely did not belong to any of them.\n\n‘Any more surprises I should know about?’ Atsumu leaned over to whisper once Bokuto had gotten them on the road.\n\nSakusa’s eyes rolled upward as he contemplated it. Then he leaned in too so that Atsumu could smell the coffee clinging to his breath, and whispered, ‘Ah, yes. There is one. I got Hinata the dog.’\n\n‘What?’\n\nOne of Sakusa’s eyebrows raised in a challenge and there was a small flash of teeth as he smiled a wicked sort of smile. Atsumu was forced to retreat because his face suddenly flushed, and his heart decided to leap into his throat. Somewhere inside his brain, and alarm bell rang. Somewhere else in his brain a voice told him to inch closer and say something he wouldn’t be able to take back.\n\nFuck, fuck, fuck. That was probably not a normal thing to think about your Work Associate Sakusa Kiyoomi.\n\n\nShit.\n\n\nSakusa opened his mouth to answer, but Atsumu didn’t get to hear it – thank fucking god – because the van was suddenly flooded with the opening notes of Pitbull’s ‘Hotel Room Service’ and the booming reverberations of Bokuto’s ‘Mr. Worldwide!’\n\nThat was as good excuse as any to lean back into his seat and forget about Sakusa’s smile altogether. There was no time to think stupid, dangerous thoughts about other people's mouths and how soft they looked when he was too busy chanting alongside Hinata and Bokuto, ‘WE AT THE HOTEL, MOTEL, HOLIDAY INN! WE AT THE HOTEL, MOTEL HOLIDAY INN—SING IT OMI—’\n\nAtsumu and Hinata turned to look at him, holding out imaginary microphones for him to sing along, but Sakusa just looked straight ahead at Hinata’s headrest like he was hoping it might grow hands and arms and use them to strangle him to death.\n\nThey shrugged and continued without him, ‘HOLIDAY INN!’\n\nThe van bounced ominously beneath their restrained dancing, and it took four more songs before Sakusa loosened the death grip on his seatbelt. By the time they stopped in the carpark of an outlet mall, he’d relaxed enough to start bopping his head along, though Atsumu would wager he wasn’t familiar with any of the songs on Hinata’s playlist.\n\n‘That sound system is awesome,’ Bokuto bragged as they climbed out. He gave Sakusa a thumbs up. ‘Thanks a bunch, Omi!’\n\n‘I regret it entirely.’\n\n‘I speak fluent Omi now,’ Atsumu cut in. ‘That means “You’re welcome, Bokkun. I’m glad you like it.”’\n\nBokuto beamed. ‘Aw, good! ‘Cause I was gonna say, you can’t have it back now. It’s mine. You’d have to wrestle me for it.’\n\nAtsumu whispered to Sakusa, ‘And you definitely wouldn’t win that fight, Omi-Omi, trust me. I still can’t feel my left ass cheek.’\n\n \n\nTheir first stop was a craft store, stacked floor-to-ceiling with so many different colours it was almost headache inducing. It was quiet before they had entered; only two elderly women were inside, perusing the selection of crochet patterns and yarn, but they made quick exits once Hinata and Bokuto started talk-yelling.\n\nSakusa doused his own palms in hand sanitizer, then Atsumu held out his, then Hinata, then Bokuto. Then they each took a comically tiny metal basket and started loading them up with packets of confetti, balloons, pompoms, and stickers.\n\n‘Woah, hey there, Omi-Omi,’ Bokuto said when he eyed Sakusa’s basket. ‘Isn’t glitter a bit too mean spirited? They’ll be scraping that out of their cracks for years.’\n\nSakusa looked him dead in the eye and said, ‘Precisely.’\n\nAtsumu gasped and his eyes lit up with an idea. ‘That’s perfect, Omi! I saw this trick once where this guy made a balloon explode usin’ the juice from orange peel skins.’\n\nSakusa nodded. ‘We can fill the balloons with glitter and rig them to fall over the Adlers’ heads.’\n\nAtsumu grinned and snapped his fingers. ‘Then we open fire with orange-juice-infused water guns. We already need them for what I had planned with the paintin’. Ha! It’s genius!’\n\nBoth Sakusa and Atsumu started loading their baskets with unholy amounts of glitter and balloons. Atsumu almost felt bad for the money Sakusa was going to have to fork out for so much stuff, but Sakusa didn’t seem to care. His basket was packed higher than anybody else’s and he was still adding more. Disturbingly, his hands were even hovering over the selection of multi-coloured thumbtacks.\n\nHinata shivered as he watched them. ‘Scary,’ he said. ‘You two are scary!’\n\n‘Maybe you were right in hating each other before,’ Bokuto agreed. ‘Maybe it was supposed to be that way so the world would know peace.’\n\n‘Shut up and put more glitter in yer damn baskets. Don’t you want to see the Adlers lookin’ like extras from a fuckin’ Barbie movie?’\n\nNeither needed more convincing than that. Bokuto gave his basket to Hinata, made a makeshift basket of his own by pulling up the hem of his shirt, and scooped a whole shelf into it. ‘Let’s go!’ he cried.\n\n \n\nTheir second stop was a toy store, for the water guns.\n\n‘I didn’t know they did so many different kinds these days,’ Hinata said in awe as they stared at the wall of plastic. He was right; there were large ones, small ones, ones that were dual-wield, and other, more advanced ones that were shaped concerningly like rocket launchers and assault rifles. ‘It’s like I’m in a real spy movie!’\n\nThey put more than they needed in the cart. Sakusa insisted it was better to be overprepared by having one of each, than to leave it to chance. What if their streams weren’t strong enough, or didn’t reach far enough?\n\n‘Hmm, you’re right,’ Bokuto hummed. ‘We have to test them out. On each other.’\n\n‘No,’ said Sakusa. ‘We don’t.’\n\n‘Yes,’ said Atsumu. ‘We really, really do.’\n\nThey bought the vintage wine from a specialist store, and three new sets of skin-tight black heist-wear. Sakusa took them to his favourite gadget store and bought ridiculously expensive earpieces for each of them and something else Atsumu didn’t know the name or function of for himself. They bought rope, woollen blankets, and umbrellas, then finished off the rest of Atsumu's list in a discount store.\n\nMidday, they stopped for food in a fast-food restaurant, and Atsumu watched with a small smile as Sakusa talked passionately and in depth to Hinata about something or other.\n\nAt first, Atsumu had been worried Sakusa would refuse to mingle. That he’d drift awkwardly around on the outskirts like a vampire without permission to enter their home. But he’d done the opposite all day; he’d bought Bokuto his van and hadn’t complained that loudly at Hinata’s crass choice of music. His snipes had lost their vitriol, and he’d smiled more than Atsumu had ever seen him smile before. He'd fit in so quickly, and so seamlessly, it was as though he’d been a part of the team since the start, like they hadn’t spent the better half of four years refusing to compromise with each other for the sake of their own pride.\n\nMore than anything, Atsumu was glad; it felt like the final piece of the puzzle had slotted into place.\n\nWhy the fuck hadn’t they done this sooner?\n\n‘There’s one more thing we need to do,’ Sakusa said once they’d finished their ice cream. ‘Hinata, Bokuto-san, there’s a pet shop over that way. You should go and pick out some stuff for Hinata’s new dog.’\n\nHinata screamed, loud and with the intensity of a banshee. ‘Seriously? Omi-san?’\n\nHe held out his bank card. ‘It’s ready to pick up next Monday. You should prepare for it.’\n\nHinata took the card and looked at it like it contained the answer to the universe. ‘Oh my god! Thank you so much, Omi-san! I’ll never forget this! I’ll name it after you! Do you want to be its godfather? I can make the certificates!’\n\n‘That’s fine,’ Sakusa said with a grimace. ‘Please call it a normal name.’\n\nHinata saluted him and dragged Bokuto off to the pet shop. Sakusa turned to Atsumu once they were gone and said, ‘My cousin owns an art shop that way.’ He pointed in the opposite direction to the one Hinata and Bokuto had just taken. ‘He’s also an art forger. We can commission the painting from him.’\n\nNot many things surprised Atsumu, but Sakusa managed to every five minutes. He hadn’t said out loud that he’d been worrying about securing a forger quick enough and talented enough to create the replica he needed. But Sakusa had already picked up the slack. ‘Woah, Omi-kun. So many underworld connections. Should I be concerned?’\n\n‘Always. Let’s go.’\n\n \n\nIt turned out that Sakusa’s cousin was called Komori, and Komori was both hilarious and mildly terrifying. Atsumu wondered if it was genetic.\n\n‘Oh?’ he said as he leaned forward on the counter. ‘This is the Miya Atsumu you keep talking about? I see, I see, it all makes sense now.’\n\nAtsumu raised an eyebrow. ‘You talk about me to yer cousin, Omi-kun? That’s cute.’\n\n‘Only to complain about your abundant faults,’ Sakusa said without removing a, quite frankly, terrifying glare from his cousin.\n\nKomori didn’t seem to be fazed. He smiled at Atsumu. ‘If you not having any faults is considered a fault then yeah, sure. He waxes poetic about that all the time.’\n\nSakusa picked up a pencil from a nearby pot, sharpened it using the electric sharpener on the edge of the counter, and aimed it at his cousin. ‘The only reason you are still alive right now is because cleaning up after your murder would be too much of an unsanitary hassle.’\n\nAtsumu plucked the pencil from his grip and put it back into the pot. ‘Ok, let’s maybe, not do that, considering we need to commission yer good cousin here, yeah?’\n\nAlso, Atsumu was staring to like the guy already.\n\nSakusa huffed. ‘Two reasons,’ he said begrudgingly.\n\n‘Yeah, yeah, sure, you dramatic sack of shit. Come on into the back so we can talk business.’\n\nKomori lifted the countertop and led them through to the back room. The whole room stank of paint fumes and something else acrid and chemical, and there were easels everywhere, displaying paintings ranging from finished pieces to mere sketches and outlines. The guy obviously had a talent, Atsumu could see that; there was an exact replica of Monet’s ‘The Water Lily Pond’ lying listlessly next to a series of Manet masterpieces.\n\nKomori took a seat on the couch occupying the only corner not to display a canvas, and Sakusa followed suit without the usual evaluation of cleanliness. Atsumu didn’t miss the way Sakusa’s foot kicked out discreetly at Komori’s leg.\n\n‘Kiyoomi already sent me the gist of what you guys need done,’ he said, voice pinched, hand rubbing at his shin. ‘You said you needed it to dissolve?’\n\n‘Under water, if possible,’ Atsumu nodded.\n\n‘That shouldn’t be too difficult. Most ordinary people can’t tell the difference between water-based and oil-based paints anyway. Plus, the painting isn’t a classic, right? It’s just—’\n\n‘One they found at a pawn shop,’ Sakusa drawled. ‘Yes.’\n\nKomori chuckled. ‘Come back in five days,’ he said. ‘I’ll have it all made up for you in time for your little game. On a special cousin discount, too, since I care about your happiness so much, Omi.’\n\n‘I don’t want your shit discounts. Do it properly or I’ll turn you in to the police for fraud.’\n\nThey shook on that, and spent a while longer discussing details. Atsumu had questions about the durability of the dissolvable paper canvas that Komori was happy to answer, and Sakusa spent a little while longer still catching up with his cousin.\n\nAtsumu listened carefully, happy to pick up what little fragments of insight into Sakusa’s life outside of work they left behind.\n\n "}
+{"text": "\ni\n\n\n \n\nGreg has been reliably informed by a variety of people that he’s not that good at most things. His mother always told him he didn’t need to be a genius to be happy and his grandpa liked to agree because it was clear Greg was never going to do anything worth mentioning.\n\nWhat working at Waystar and becoming closer with the Roy side of his family has shown him is that maybe he is good at something after all, even if that thing is just stopping his cousin’s brand new husband from having a meltdown every few hours.\n\nTo be honest, he kinds of likes it. Tom is incredibly insecure and maybe borderline insane, but he’s really kind sometimes – he bought Greg shoes after all. And three suits. And an overcoat because he said Greg’s anorak was giving him allergies. Plus he bought him all the clothes he needed to wear at the wedding because he said he couldn’t have Greg embarrassing him.\n\nSo even though Tom is a dick a lot of the time, Greg kind of owes him because they’re sort of friends and sometimes Tom really does act like he cares about him. And maybe Greg really does like him more than he should. He definitely owes him enough to go check on Tom when he comes back from talking to Shiv looking murderous, throws out the guy Greg is 99% certain his cousin is having an affair with, and then disappears outside with a whole bottle of whisky, leaving his own wedding reception behind.\n\nIt's not as easy to follow Tom as he thought. It’s like he’s swallowed up by the shadows the minute he leaves the party. Greg stumbles around the building, trying to spot him somewhere. Thankfully a member of staff points him onto the gravel path leading to the garden and when he gets just far enough away from the reception that he can barely hear the thumping bass of the music, he finds Tom. He’s sat on a bench with his head in his hands, suit jacket draped across the seat next to him and his shirt sleeves rolled halfway up his forearms.\n\n“Tom?” Greg asks, approaching him slowly. Tom isn’t fond of being startled. “Are you okay?”\n\nTom doesn’t look at him, just sits up and takes a swig from the bottle he carried out with him. “Sure, Greg,” he says, voice rough from the liquor. “I’m fucking great.”\n\n“Okay.” Greg nods. “Sure, yeah. It’s just that you don’t um… You don’t really seem that fine? If that’s okay for me to say?” Tom ignores him and just has another sip of whisky. “Can I sit? I’m gonna sit.”\n\nHe does sit, shuffling onto the bench next to Tom. He doesn’t know what to say, doesn’t want to bring up that Nate guy or even Shiv right now. But at the same time, he wants Tom to know that he’s there for him. His hands curl and unfurl in his lap and then one of them hovers over Tom’s knee, uncertain until it’s not. His hand settles gently and he can feel the heat of Tom’s skin through the fabric of his pants.\n\nTom looks at Greg’s hand, a little crease appearing between his eyebrows. “Greg? What the fuck are you doing?”\n\n“I, uh…” Greg makes to withdraw his hand, but Tom covers it with his own. “Tom?”\n\nHe doesn’t reply, doesn’t even look at Greg. He just shakes his head and squeezes Greg’s hand.\n\n“I’m not okay,” Tom says quietly. “She… Greg, she asked me for – ” He swallows hard and Greg pretends not to see the tears in his eyes.\n\nHe doesn’t finish his sentence and Greg doesn’t push. “It’ll be okay, Tom.”\n\n“Uh-huh.” Tom nods too quickly for it to be sincere. “Uh-huh, sure. Yeah.”\n\nHe looks over at Greg, something wild in his eyes and Greg has about five seconds to worry that Tom is about to punch him before Tom puts down the whisky, grabs Greg’s face with both his hands and kisses him. Later, Greg will find it in himself to be embarrassed about how quickly he kisses back, arms winding around Tom’s neck, shifting closer to him. Right now though, his brain is just a cacophony of panic and want and relief that this has finally happened.\n\nThen Tom pulls away and there’s a moment that goes on forever but lasts no time at all where he looks like he wants to kiss Greg again. But when Greg blinks, it’s gone and Tom is getting to his feet with a manic grin plastered to his face.\n\n“Well, I guess I should stop skulking in the dark and get back to my party!” he announces loudly enough that Greg jumps. “I’m a married man now, Gregory, and this is the – ” he falters, the smile wavering on his face for a moment. “This is the happiest night of my life,” he finishes.\n\n“Yeah,” Greg says. “I know, Tom. I know.”\n\nTom nods and forces his smile even wider before turning and walking back to the castle and his wedding and his wife.\n\n \n\n\nii\n\n\n \n\nAfter whatever the fuck Boar on the Floor was Greg can’t sleep. He spends nearly an hour in the shower, trying to scrub the anxiety, the worry that he’s fucked up again and this time no one will be able to help him from his skin. It doesn’t work.\n\nLying in bed with the sheets pulled all the way up to his chin, he finds it impossible to sleep. He sees Tom’s face every time he closes his eyes. The way he didn’t just look embarrassed, or like he was angry at Logan but so deeply sad, like this was all inevitable and he’d spent his entire life waiting to be humiliated and degraded like this. Like he deserved no more than this.\n\nEventually, Greg gives up trying to sleep. He gets out of bed, pulls a jumper on over his pyjamas and slips out of his room.\n\nTom’s room is right next to his, he knows because Tom had made an odd joke about keeping Greg awake. He lifts his hand and knocks softly on the door – loud enough that Tom can hear him but not so loud that everyone else in their part of the house will too.\n\nThere’s no answer.\n\nHe should take the hint and go back to bed but he can’t imagine a world where Tom is actually asleep right now. He knocks again and then again. Tapping relentlessly like an overgrown woodpecker until he hears movement inside the room and the door opens.\n\nTom looks a little surprised to see him but mostly he just looks tired. “Greg,” he says monotonously. “I thought you were Logan and his cronies, here for more hazing.”\n\n“No,” Greg says. “It’s just me. Greg.”\n\n“Why are you here?” Tom asks, resting his head against the door like he can barely keep himself upright.\n\nThere’s a lot Greg wants to say. Like ‘I’ve missed you’ and ‘I couldn’t stop thinking about how defeated you looked when Carl took the sausage from you’ and ‘You kissed me on your wedding night and never again and I want to do it again so badly’. In the end, he just gives Tom an approximation of the truth.\n\n“I uh, I didn’t want to be alone after… all that.”\n\nAt his core, Greg knows that all Tom really wants is to be wanted, to be needed. And while he wants comfort right now, he also knows it will help Tom to know that someone wants him even if his wife and her family don’t. They’re symbiotic parasites the two of them and they’re happiest using each other.\n\nTom sighs and steps aside. “Come in.”\n\nThere’s a couch at the end of the bed but Greg forgoes it and perches on top of the rumpled bedding. A tumbler of dark golden liquor is on the bedside table and Greg nods at it.\n\n“Can I have one of those?”\n\nA glass is poured for him and Tom sits next to Greg once he’s handed it to him, their shoulders brushing. Greg drinks what he assumes to be bourbon in one gulp.\n\n“Tonight was kinda uh…” he fumbles for words. “Intense?”\n\nA hitching breath escapes Tom as he drinks his own bourbon. “I don’t want to talk about it, Greg. As far as I’m concerned, it never happened.”\n\nGreg ducks his head in a nod. “Sure yeah, never happened. Like the thing with the papers or the, uh, thing at your wedding.”\n\nTom sucks in a sharp breath. “I don’t know what you mean.”\n\n“Come on, man,” Greg says with a frown. “You know what happened. You kissed m–”\n\nA large hand is clapped over his mouth. “Shut up, Greg. Or I’ll forget to be nice and throw you out on your ear.”\n\n“Mmph,” Greg says, pushing Tom’s hand away. “Tom, do you not think that maybe we should talk about it?”\n\n“No, Gregory, I don’t,” Tom says primly as if they’re not both sat in their pyjamas, dancing around a kiss like two middle schoolers. And Greg almost believes him except for the way Tom’s hand is inching across the space between them, little finger brushing Greg’s.\n\nGreg looks down at his lap and tries to hide his smile. “Tom?”\n\n“What, Greg?” Tom asks stiffly, hand slowly covering Greg’s, fingers intertwining.\n\n“Can I stay here tonight? With you?”\n\nTom doesn’t answer him, just shuffles back on the bed until he’s lying down. He tugs on Greg’s hand, pulling him with him until they’re lying next to each other. In a move that has his stomach doing a little backflip, Greg shifts and rests his head on Tom’s chest. Almost immediately, Tom’s hand settles in his hair, stroking softly and Greg’s eyes slide shut.\n\nWhen Greg is just about to fall asleep and Tom’s breathing has evened out, his rhythmic petting of Greg’s hair slowing, he asks what had really been keeping him awake.\n\n“Why did you keep it quiet? About my pre-meeting with that writer? You could have told Logan to save yourself.”\n\nThere’s a long silence and eventually, Tom mumbles: “Shut the fuck up, Greg.”\n\nGreg adds it to the list of things they don’t talk about.\n\n \n\n\niii\n\n\n \n\nGreg has had enough. It’s not that he thought he was as important to the company or the family as Shiv or Roman, definitely not as important as Gerri or Logan himself. But he thought he was more than ‘sprinkles’. A garnish that’s all they see him as. Fucking expendable.\n\nHe paces the floor of his cabin, trying to work up the courage to say something, to maybe confront Uncle Logan and tell him he can’t just throw Greg to the wolves, or to go and tell Kendall that he has a way out for both of them stashed in an envelope under his bed at home. He knows he probably sounds crazy, talking to himself like this but his whole body is shaking and he feels like he might vibrate out of his skin at any moment.\n\nWhen there’s a knock on the door he jumps a foot in the air, hands fumbling with the handle and lock. Tom stands outside, looking dishevelled and upset and fucking angry and Greg – Greg does not want to have to deal with his shit.\n\n“What?” he asks, sounding braver than he feels. “Tom, why are you here?” Tom pushes past him into the room, jaw set and his hands curled into fists. “I’m really… I’m not in the mood to be yelled at Tom. If this is one of my last nights of freedom, I don’t want to spend it fighting with you, alright?”\n\n“I think my marriage is over,” Tom says and Greg deflates.\n\n“Oh. Oh, I’m sorry, Tom.”\n\n“Uh-huh.” Tom nods, keeping his chin high like he’s ready for a fight. “The thing is, shithead. That everything is a little precarious now and you… you’ll be okay because you’re just the sprinkles. It’s me they really want.”\n\n“That’s not… I’m more than just sprinkles, Tom.”\n\n“Yeah,” Tom says, finally really looking at Greg. “You are.”\n\nAfterwards, Greg couldn’t say which one of them actually moves first. He just remembers the collision, Tom’s mouth on his, hands sliding into his hair, his own arms pulling Tom closer and then letting go so he can divest himself of his clothing and strip Tom of his.\n\nHe allows himself to forget everything except the way Tom clutches at him too hard, too desperately and keeps mumbling things that don’t make any sense at all – maybe not even to Tom himself. But Greg needs this, needs to know he’s not alone, that he’s making the right decision. He’s doing this not just for himself but for Tom too and to show the rest of the Roys that he is more than just their expendable cousin. He is someone and they’ll regret taking him for granted.\n\n \n\nWhen he walks to the helicopter with Kendall, Tom is still sleeping in Greg’s bed where he left him. Greg watches the yacht grow smaller and tries to ignore the pit in his stomach that tells him he should have woken Tom and asked him to come with him.\n\n \n\n\niv\n\n\n \n\nThe door looks a lot hazier than it did the last time Greg was here, stumbling towards Tom and Shiv’s apartment at two am. He has a key, doesn’t need to knock but he does anyway because he isn’t actually sure that Shiv knows he has a key.\n\nTom answers the door. There are pillow creases on his face but he’s still dressed in shirtsleeves with his suspenders hanging off his waist. He looks tired, like an old bloodhound and Greg, in his slightly manic state, wants to either slap him or kiss him. Anything to bring out the energetic Tom he is used to.\n\n“Is Shiv here?” he asks Tom who has already gestured for him to come in. “Not that it isn’t cool if she is. It’s very cool. Fine in fact.”\n\n“She isn’t,” Tom says, collapsing onto the couch. “She was but she went out again, said not to wait up.”\n\n“Oh,” Greg nods. “Cool.” He doesn’t wait for Tom to ask why he’s here, instead showing him his wrist. “I got the watch. It doesn’t work and I had to spend forty grand on it and I know I’m like, rich now? But that’s a lot of money, Tom.”\n\nTom is looking at him like he just started doing the macarena while reciting Russian poetry, confusion painted on his expressive face in broad strokes. “You came here at two am to tell me you bought a broken watch? What the fuck, Greg?”\n\nHe pushes Greg’s arm away from his face and Greg shakes his head. “No, I came because… I don’t know. I thought being with Kendall... we’re doing the right thing, aren’t we? Trying to make Waystar better? And like, you wanted to stay at ATN and I don’t. So I thought me and Ken, we could be a team?”\n\nTom is still staring at him and Greg notices the hurt on his face, but can’t stop talking.\n\n“Like, I liked being on a team with you, Tom but we want different things. So I thought: Kendall. But Kendall, man, I don’t know. He’s not what I thought. It’s all parties and talking – he talks so much, Tom, but he doesn’t say anything? And he doesn’t get what it’s like to be the little guy! Forty K for a broken watch Tom! And he wouldn’t buy it for me even though that’s definitely what he said he was going to do! Like he was all ‘Hey Greg, you need a watch, I know a guy let me –”\n\nHe’s interrupted in the middle of his admittedly mediocre Kendall impression by Tom bursting into hysterical laughter.\n\n“Uh, Tom?” Greg asks, a little concerned. “Are you alright?”\n\nTom sniffs, still laughing. “Oh, sure, Greg. It’s just ironic that you’re here – rat-arsed on some sort of drug you got from Kendall – complaining about how he won’t buy you a watch while I’m preparing to go to prison and waiting for Shiv to divorce me.”\n\nGreg is a little stumped, unsure of what to say while Tom continues to chuckle to himself. He can’t find any humour in the situation. “Is that why you asked me to come over? Because you’re scared of going to prison?”\n\n“Scared?” Tom scoffs. “I’m not some teenage girl afraid of her first fuck, Greg. I’m just trying to plan for all eventualities of what could happen in there.”\n\n“Right, sure, Tom. But like, you don’t even know for sure that you’ll be going,” Greg says. “Right?”\n\nFinally, Tom seems to sober. “Right. Nothing is set in stone. Nothing really matters anymore either though.”\n\n“Uh…”\n\nWith a heavy sigh, Tom shakes his head and gets to his feet. “I’m going to bed. Turn the lights off when you leave.”\n\nGreg watches him walk away, then hurries after Tom, clutching at his shirttails the way he did when he followed Tom to the panic room.\n\n“Go home, Greg,” Tom says, brushing Greg’s hands off without even looking behind him. His voice is thick and cracks a little on Greg’s name. “I don’t need you and your sad cow eyes staring at me all night.”\n\n“Tom?” He stops halfway up the stairs, looking down at Greg and for probably the first time since he met Tom, Greg struggles to work out what he’s thinking. “Are you gonna be okay?”\n\nTom clenches his jaw and nods. “Sure.”\n\n“Okay. I guess… I’ll see you at work, then.” Greg turns and makes it to the second last step when Tom says his name. “Yeah?”\n\nTom hesitates, teeth gritted, then shakes his head. “Nothing. Just – I’d have bought you the watch.” He turns on his heel and carries on upstairs.\n\nGreg remains frozen, staring at the space Tom occupied for far too long until he manages to convince his leaden limbs to carry him to the front door.\n\n \n\n\nv\n\n\n \n\nIf he’s totally honest, Greg isn’t quite sure what just happened. Tom came into his office, all bravado and false ego, talking about Romans and slaves and castration and prison – and the next thing Greg knew he was being told to fight Tom, then being yelled at, and then Tom was gone, leaving chaos in his wake like a tornado.\n\nGreg looks around, hoping there will be someone he can exchange an incredulous glance with but as so often when things happen between Tom and him, there’s no one there. If he didn’t know Tom was truly in love with Shiv, he’d think Tom had just offered to throw her under the bus so he and Greg could be together.\n\nStill, behind all the incoherent rambling and macho-façade, Greg is pretty sure Tom is just afraid. He’s heard what others at Waystar are calling him, knows that everyone is certain Tom will end up in prison. Greg doesn’t know how to feel about that. He and Tom haven’t been that close recently, haven’t had a conversation that isn’t just passing on information about the civil war they find themselves in for weeks (apart from when Greg went to Tom’s apartment and ended up leaving feeling more depressed than when he got there). But despite the newly acquired distance between them, Greg finds he still has a sense of loyalty towards Tom.\n\nAnd maybe there’s something else there too. Something he buried deep in himself when he realised that chasing after yet another uninterested, married man wasn’t the way he should be spending his life. So he leaves the storage room Tom had given him as an office and makes his way upstairs to find Tom.\n\nHe’s not in his office, that much is clear through the glass walls. But Greg goes in anyway, hoping to find a clue as to where he might be. Turns out doesn't need to look very hard for one because he hears loud sniffing from behind the panelled door leading to Tom’s private bathroom.\n\nThere was a time before all this when Greg was allowed to use that bathroom, instead of having to use the communal ones. A time when every now and then, Tom would follow him into said bathroom and press Greg against the sink and himself against Greg until they were both happy, slightly guilty messes.\n\nWhen Greg opens the door, very slowly so as not to spook Tom, he feels his heart clench in his chest. He has seen Tom angry, happy, anxious, spitting feathers with tears in his eyes, in manic phases, and in slow moments when he can barely keep his eyes open. He has never seen Tom cry, not like this, not crouched on the closed toilet with his head in his hands and his whole body shaking as he tries to contain his sobs.\n\n“Tom?” Greg stumbles over the word as he steps into the small space and closes the door behind him.\n\n“And my humiliation is complete,” Tom says, more to himself than Greg. “What the fuck do you want?”\n\n“I just wanted to check on you,” Greg says hands reaching for Tom but hovering just shy of touching him. “You seemed… not okay.”\n\n“Oh, I wonder why that is?” Tom sneers, though the effect is ruined by his puffy face and the way he lets out another hiccupping sob halfway through the sentence. “Fuck off, Greg.”\n\n“Uh, well, I think I maybe won’t do that, Tom. Because you look pretty upset and I don’t know if it is, ah, wise to leave you at the present moment?”\n\nTom laughs wetly and then starts to cry again. Greg’s hands flutter uselessly before he decides to just give in to his desire to pull Tom into a hug. Almost immediately, Tom buries his face in Greg’s neck which is admittedly kind of gross because he’s still crying and could do with blowing his nose. Nevertheless, Greg holds him and lets him cry, gently patting Tom’s back like he remembers his mom doing for him a long time ago.\n\n“Is it, uh, is it the prison thing? Is that why you’re so upset?” Greg asks softly. “Because Tom, you keep saying you’re going to prison but it’s… it’s not a sure thing.”\n\nTom pulls away, scrubbing his hands over his face. “Sure, but I volunteered for it. Told Logan I’d go to prison if he needed me to.”\n\nGreg gapes at him. “What? W-why would you do that, Tom?”\n\n“Because…” Tom swallows and his lower lip is still trembling in a pathetically endearing way. “Because it’s the best thing for me to do now. At least that way I can be useful to someone.”\n\n“You’re useful,” Greg says and Tom scoffs.\n\n“Sure, Greg – but to whom exactly? Not to Shiv, or Logan, or Kendall. Not to y– to anyone.”\n\nGreg’s heart is racing faster than the last time Kendall gave him a bump of coke. “To me? You are useful to me, Tom. But you don’t need to be, we’re friends.”\n\n“Friends,” Tom repeats, jaw stiff. “Sure, buddy, we’re friends. And as my… friend, I think you’ve done your duty here. So fuck off and know that if you tell anyone about this then I’ll hunt you down and let a man I’ve paid a shit tonne of money to break your kneecaps.”\n\nThere’s none of his usual vigour in the way Tom is threatening him and there is no fucking way Greg is leaving him when he’s looking Greg like he killed his puppy.\n\n“No offence, Tom, but I don’t know that you’re being all that truthful right now.”\n\nTom scowls, finally some of his familiar anger behind his eyes. “Are you enjoying this, Greg? Seeing me with my pants around my ankles? Humiliating me? Was rejecting me not enough for you? Do you have to come and rub in how pathetic I am?”\n\nHe almost hears a record scratch in his brain. “Rejecting you? I – what? When did I… you’re with Shiv, Tom. You told me that.”\n\n“Before the yacht. I told you that before the yacht,” Tom mumbles. “And Shiv… she doesn’t care about me, Greg. No one does.” He hangs his head self-pityingly and Greg’s chest is in knots.\n\n“I…” If this was a year ago – even three months ago – Greg wouldn’t have hesitated to say that he does care, that Tom wanting him is all he's wanted. But now things have changed and Greg is no longer just Tom’s lackey and he wants to be someone. And Tom, frankly, doesn’t have the juice to get Greg where he’s going anymore. So he does hesitate. For just long enough that Tom’s face closes off completely.\n\n“Get out,” Tom orders.\n\n“Tom –”\n\n“Out!” The word reverberates around the tiled room and Greg flinches. He reaches for Tom and has his hand slapped down. “Don’t. Do not patronise me, Greg.”\n\n“I’m not, Tom. Can we… could we please talk about this?”\n\nTom shakes his head. “Come see me when I’m out of prison, Greg. We can talk then.”\n\nHe pushes past Greg, so close that their chests brush when he squeezes through the doorway. And Greg, he feels fucking helpless, all the things he wants to say collecting on his tongue and tangling together. Tom has returned to his desk, shuffling papers and looking faux-industrious. Greg glances around. He can’t see anyone outside in the hallway, but still closes the blinds, drawing them all the way across the obnoxiously clean glass wall.\n\n“What are you doing?” Tom asks.\n\nHe doesn’t bother to answer, crossing the room and taking Tom’s face in his hands like Tom did to him what seems like a lifetime ago. He kisses him hard enough that he can hear the click of their teeth knocking together. Tom makes a startled noise, hands clutching at Greg’s jacket before they slide underneath, running over his shirt, warm and slightly damp.\n\n“I don’t want you to go to prison,” Greg says when he breaks for air, forehead pressed against Tom’s. “But if you do, I’ll uh… I’ll wait or visit you or whatever.”\n\n“You’ll wait?” Tom sounds like he wants to tease him but is too stunned to do so. “And visit?”\n\n“Y-yeah,” Greg nods, accidentally banging his head against Tom’s chin.\n\n“You know, Greg,” Tom says quietly, rubbing over Greg’s back, hand still tucked under his jacket. “I think I almost believe you.”\n\n \n\n\n+ i\n\n\n \n\nIt’s freezing cold in the car park outside Otisville. Greg stuffs his hands in his pockets, wondering whether he should have just waited in the car. He’s spent Christmas Eve in worse places, though never actually at a prison before.\n\nHe glances over at the news van and the small huddle of journalists and paparazzi that have not-so-sneakily been taking pictures of him since he arrived ten minutes ago. It was a big story: Shiv Roy’s husband going to jail and divorcing her because he was having an affair with her second cousin. Still, Greg didn’t think there would actually be people waiting to film Tom when he’s released.\n\nThere’s a buzzing sound that signals the gate opening and Greg turns and opens the car door. Mondale bounds out, jumping up at Greg who grabs the lead he’s trailing on the ground behind him.\n\n“Come on, Mondale, let’s go see your, dad!”\n\nMondale’s tail nearly wags off his body – almost as if he knows what Greg is saying. Fifteen months without Tom have felt like a lifetime for both of them.\n\nGreg trudges over to the slowly opening gate, trying to ignore how the journalists behind him are jumping into action. He can hear the clicking of the camera shutters, sees the flashing of lenses out of the corner of his eyes. He forgets it all when he sees Tom.\n\nDressed in the same slacks-shirt-cardigan combo he wore when he went in, he looks smaller, slightly more diminished, but still like Tom. Mondale nearly tugs Greg’s arm out of its socket when he catches sight of him, desperate to get close to him. For his part, Greg just takes several long strides towards Tom and wraps his arms around him.\n\n“Hey,” Tom says into his shoulder, returning the hug while trying to fend off an ecstatic Mondale. “It’s good to see you.” He laughs. “Well, I saw you last week but –”\n\nGreg cuts him off with a hard kiss, which Tom returns eagerly. The camera clicking speeds up into a frenzy and he’s sure that tomorrow morning their picture will be everywhere, but he can’t find it in himself to care.\n\n“So,” Tom says, a little breathlessly when they part and start walking back to the car. “To Canada?”\n\nGreg nods. “I really think you’ll like it, Grandpa Ewan said we can use the house for as long as we want. Your parents should already be there by the time we’ve driven up - your mom is, like, crazy excited to spend Christmas with us.”\n\nTom nods, looking a little overwhelmed. Greg gives him a moment to himself as he loads Mondale into the back seat and secures his harness to the special dog-seatbelt Tom insisted he buys. By the time Greg climbs into the driver’s seat, Tom is on the passenger side, a small smile on his face.\n\n“Ready to go?” Greg asks and Tom snorts.\n\n“Yes, Greg. I am very ready to go.”\n\nGreg puts the car in gear and pulls out of his spot, reaching across the console to hold Tom’s hand, as they drive away from the last hold Waystar had on them."}
+{"text": "So there she was - only half awake, zip tied to her own balcony railing in the broad daylight of what turned out to be Monday morning, with her own phone attached to the railing, pointed with the camera right between her spread legs. Of course, this would be quite a situation to be in, however, Sandra's nakedness made it slightly more intense. Now, it was not the first time for Sandra to venture out to her balcony opposite the university dorm rooms in the nude. She did it sometime in the night, sometime even sitting down with a glass of wine, enjoying the fresh air on her slim and tender body, sometimes even caressing her tight pussy.\n\nSometimes she also went out to hang up the laundry, on a whim deciding to also hang up the lingerie she was wearing while doing the laundry. Actually, not that she thought of it - she never was really dressed, when out on the balcony. After all, that was one of the main reasons for her to get this apartment a couple of months ago, the location was perfect: The huge bedroom window and the balcony both faced a busy street, with a few cafes and the university dorm on the other side of the street. The apartment being on second floor meant that she could expose herself easily, giving everybody a good peek without being too close to the actual action. Well - so she quite often sat out there, gingerly touching her usually wet, tight pussy.\n\nHowever, this morning was different. She was spread eagle, she was groggy after being passed out for god knows how long, and a camera was pointed straight at her pussy. Her pussy however, oh well, as she explored it in her half-awake state, it looked quite different than it did on friday when she set out for her little adventure. Not only were two more rings added to her now quite swollen lips, also her wide-open pussy stared back at her in an angry-red, gaping open obscenely after the fucking she obviously received over the last couple of days.\n\nAlongside her intruding fingers there still were a couple of used condoms deep inside her. Absentmindedly, as she started to regain her conscious, trying to recover her memory of the last days, she started dragging them out ever so slightly, only to push them back in with more vigor from thrust to thrust. Oh, the camera was still pointed right at her pussy, she knew, and she looked forward to exploring the footage.\n\nWhat Sandra, however, at this moment did not yet know (or remember?) was the nature of the footage or the question how it all came together. She had it all so perfectly arranged before she drugged herself out on Friday afternoon at the park: She had removed the pin-code from her phone, logged into all her social media and mail accounts to give whoever was willing to play with her full access. She wanted this person to have full access, to be able to look at her pictures and videos while fucking her pussy, while abusing her body, while hopefully exposing her all over the city. What she might have not considered is, that somebody with less than pleasant intentions might also use this full access to her life to share her sluttiness with the world.\n\nAnother one of her preparation saw her putting a little letter with her address, with her office address and carefully assembled all the fitting keys into her purse - before she sent herself to a long sleep, with her legs spread wide in the park. She wanted to be abused, to be humiliated and little did she know, how true this dream would become.\n\nSo let us look back at what happened - all of this captured not only by dozens if not more other phones, but also by her own. As the five homeless guys found her on Friday evening on \"their\" park bench, with her legs spread so wide, the bottle of sleeping pills next to her, and the dildo slightly sticking out from her swollen cunt, they knew what to do.\n\nAs a first instinct, they of course started mauling her body, pulling on her pierced nipples and pinching her a-cup tits, before pulling on her pussy rings, stretching her wide open. They barely could believe their luck and only slowly put all the puzzle stones together - the pretty girl in the summer dress bunched around her waist. The sleeping pills in the bottle that had her name written on it, the phone and the keys in her little purse. Oh, they would have fun with her, that they knew. And the area was just becoming a bit more crowded, soon - they knew - more than 20 other hobos and junkies would fill the place in the park.\n\nAnd so they did - it did not take long for them all to have her way with her, multiple ways too. Oh how much fun it was for them to fuck this pretty girl with their unwashed dicks, cum all over her pretty face, all the while capturing the action on their old smart phones. However, they realized that there was more fun to be had with her. The thing with junkies like Old George is - they usually don't get to have fun. They don't get to do, what they really feel like doing and at least Old George had a nice and twisted mind, he knew very well what he wanted to do with a girl that likes to show-off - he wanted to make her dream (or what he thought might be her dream) come true.\n\nOne of his friends asked George - shall we rip her dress off, rip it to shreds? But George just smiled - no, they still would need her dress, they would need to make her look presentable - later. However, they all agreed that the dress as it was, was still far too conservative for what they had in mind with Sandra. So, with a rusty old knife, they cut off a good part of it, making sure it was just long enough to cover the upper part of her pussy, if she would stand perfectly straight. Of course, that made most of her cute little butt hang out and her glistening pussy lips were still perfectly exposed.\n\nJust the right outfit, George and Joe agreed laughing. But for now, they were not done with the pretty little doll they had laying in front of them. Wouldn't it be fun to see what else this swollen pussy is capable of, they wondered? They all had their way with her already once, fucking her one after the other, everybody adding to the cum that was deposited deep inside of her. After all twenty-two guys had her way with her (some of them also coming all over her face, but with most of them opting to deposit their semen deep inside her, hoping to impregnate her) they decided to get more creative.\n\nYou see, men who are shunned from society and often just looked at in disgust by the likes of Sandra, they sometimes develop a slight tendency to sadism. So, it came as no surprise, that most of them wiped their dirty cocks either in her raven black hair or on her white summer dress, that already was completely stained from being dragged through the dirt and the piss puddles on the floor. The dildo, Joe grinned, is much too proper for a bitch like Sandra - much to clean too, he added. So, off they were to find more fun objects to jam up Sandra's cunt. The easy solution was one of the beer bottles that was laying around on the ground next to where the men had their way with her. With little care for her wellbeing, it was jammed into her.\n\nIn the meantime, George took hold of her phone, smiling at how easily it unlocked without giving him any trouble. Oh, the opportunities! when he took it from her purse, he had just thought of trying to wedge it into her already stretched out cunt, but the access it provided to learn more about the pretty, abused nymph laying in front of him proved to be worth so much more. Looking through her Facebook account he smiled to himself - that would be a good day - as he started to take pictures of her ordeal. He was not a professional cameraman, but he understood what he wanted - and probably what she wanted: Great pictures that highlight the abuse, that show her overly stretched cunt, while making sure that her face is in the picture.\n\nThe beer bottles the boys tried to insert into her - with the neck first - were not among the cleanest, obviously. They had been laying around this desolate, wasted area of the park for ages and god knows, how many dogs might have already pissed on them and through how much shit they had already rolled. Now, one would think that a girl as pretty as Sandra deserved at the very least a clean beer bottle to be shoved into her gaping cunt, but the boys disagreed - the dirtier, the more defiled, the better it was.\n\nGrinning a mostly toothless smile, Tim brought the most rotten bottle he had ever seen. The paper cover was ripped to shreds, some stale liquid seemed to be in the bottle but that's not the worst part of it, as he happily announced: it was one of those, that the junkies used to hide away their used syringes. So about three or four used needles were tangling around the bottle. Now if THAT would not make a great video, what would?\n\nSo happily, they ripped out the old coke can one of the guys had jammed up her cunt, leaving her snatch gaping wide for a moment.\n\nSeeing how stretched Sandra already was, as she was propped up on a park bench, lit well by one of the lanterns right above her, Tim decided to go for the money shot - wrestling the thick end of the dirty bottle into her gaping pussy. Her rings helped - he was pulling on them, trying to get her as far open as possible. What a contrast it was: The pretty 28-year-old Sandra, with her quite pale skin, the noble face, her cute a-cup tits - and the grotesquely stretched cunt, from which a dirty beer bottle, half filled with some rotten liquid and some used syringes was sticking out. George made sure to capture it all on picture and video. Finally, he laughed, he also would be kind of an Instagram star.\n\nNow, while this picture with her and bottle sticking out like this made for a great picture, the evil grin of Tim and George was not satisfied: With more than 20 men cheering them on and laughing at the used Sandra, he ripped the bottle out of her, only to turn it around and jam it back up into Sandra's sleeping body. The boys wandered what the old liquid might have been - spit? piss? old beer? a mixture of everything? They did not really know, but the thought that this vile mixture was pouring into the pretty girl's cunt was exciting.\n\nThey took a few more pictures of her, before they ripped the that was nearly all the way inserted in her cunt, out of her again. To their enormous laughter, the bottle was empty - the contents were dripping out of her swollen, gaping cunt slowly. To their even more joyful excitement they also noticed - the used syringes that were in it, must have also slipped out, remaining in her cunt. Well, George, I am not going to put my hands in this abused cunt, Tim laughed, god knows what is going on with these fucking needles - don't wanna catch any shit! George agreed - they might be homeless, but dumb they were not, no good reason to risk an infection from pricking their fingers on a used needle.\n\nHowever, they also agreed - they need to get these needles out of her eventually, if they wanted to continue fucking her. So there came the leather gloves - with a brutal motion, George jammed half his hand into her, feeling around in her extended snatch until he caught the three syringes that have lodged themselves inside her. With little regard for her wellbeing he dragged them out and put them right on her pubic area. - For the Instagram, what else, the boys laughed.\n\nTim's cruelty was it that took over - you know, George, these needles lying on her cunt might look sweet on the picture. But the bitch seems to enjoy some piercing action - wouldn't it make for a much nicer picture to jam them right in her clit or her pussy lips? Well, George was not to argue with such creativity, so both men took one of the needles and carefully - not to hurt themselves - stick it into the soft flesh of her inner pussy lips.\n\nLaughing, they decided to put the third needle straight into her clit. How obscene she looked in the street light - dozens of homeless men kneeling around her, some of them pulling on her cunt, with three obviously used and dirty needles sticking out of her soft flesh. The pain, however, was probably enough to wake her up ever so softly.\n\nShall we pop her a few more of her sleeping pills? It is nice playing with her as it is, Tim grinned. But George did not agree - he had something far better in mind. Yes, a sleeping bitch was fun to play with, but honestly he wanted to expose her more and for this it would be better if she would be awake, at least kind of. Here, take this pill and pop it into her mouth. She will be awake - not coherent, probably, but awake.\n\nAnd just in the very moment, before the boys could slip the pill in her mouth, Sandra woke up - blinking, looking around in a dazed state. Don't... don't... please don't, she half mumbled. Please don't stop, don't you dare stopping with whatever you're doing she pleaded. Abuse me, please, ruin me, destroy me, utterly destroy me. I - I need this to happen -- drug me if it gives you a kick, send me back to sleep, keep me awake, I don't care.\n\nSandra was wide awake now, panicking that they might stop the abuse they're clearly doing to her. To accentuate her point she looked down her own body, with all the homeless and junkies watching on, moving her tender hand to her abused and hurting cunt. She found the needles sticking out of her soft flesh and grinned a wicked smile. Making eye contact with the ugliest man she could find in the group of onlookers she grabbed a hold of one of the needles that were stuck in her soft pussy lips, ripping them out with one quick motion.\n\nPlease, she begged again, abuse me - give me your worst. Impregnate me, infect me, ruin me -- and make sure the world will know! With this final begging she put both needles in her right hand, while spreading her cunt lips as far as she can with her left hand. With the curious gaze of around 20 men Sandra jammed the needles deep inside herself, piercing the pink tender meat of her exposed cunt. Go, now, give me your worst, she begged over and over again. Make it public, make me famous, show the world what I really am. Oh well - the men grinned - this should be possible.\n\nLet's get going with her, the boys agreed - her adventure was only to begin. She wanted to be the worst slut the world has ever seen, and boy, would the world see Sandra. She would become a porn star, she would become the most degraded porn star the world has ever seen, with just one difference: She would be a porn star among her own friends, among her own co-workers, colleagues, and acquaintances. And Sandra beamed: She wanted it, she wanted everyone in her life to know that she was to be abused, that her pristine pussy, that her most private places and experiences were not meant to be private or pristine anymore. Sandra wanted the world, her world to know, that her cunt was only there to be abused, a cum dumpster, hell, if needed even a real dumpster. Give me your worst, she repeated over and over again, as they planned out her little adventure.\n\nThe advantage of city living is the public transport. Now, during the day George and his gang usually avoided it, as they dreaded the attention. However, if you want to parade a half-naked, abused, slightly drugged-out girl as pretty as Sandra through the city, the public transport is all you really need. They had Sandra dressed up again, although she would have rather stayed naked, proudly parading her abused body. She insisted, however, that her dress would be kept wet, and that they cut off a bit more of it, making sure that even as she was standing still, her pussy was in clear sight - she did not want the world to miss the show she was offering as they stammered towards the tramway station.\n\nThe boys had taken some toys with them and of course made sure, to film her every move - as she pranced through the old town, stopping at nearly every street light to rub her cunt against the lamp post, to spread her legs in front of every house where she hoped somebody might still be awake. George made sure to film it all, while in the less eventful moments going through her social media accounts with a wicked grin.\n\nOh, this bitch would be still so much fun, there was such a craziness in her. Honestly, the homeless men could barely keep up with her, as she pranced through the city, through all the little streets she usually went through during the day. And she was looking to humiliate herself even more, even more than they could imagine.\n\nClose to the tramway station she realized she might need to at least partially cover herself, at the off-chance that somebody might be around who had a problem with her behavior. But before reaching this more well-lit spot she needed one more turn-on, one more kick. She found a somewhat well-lit corner that looked exceptionally grim. It reeked of stale piss, trash was on the floor, beer bottles rolled around.\n\nWatch me, she screamed, ripping off her dress for now. Finding a puddle of piss, she threw what remained of her dress in it, before grabbing a hold of one of the beer cans she found on the ground. This one seemed half way full, god knows if it was beer, spit or piss, but she was to find out. Holding the can up to her mouth, she slowly tilted it, pouring the content in her pretty mouth. Barely choking on the vile concoction in the can, she only finished it half, before putting it to the ground again. The men could barely believe what they not only captured with their own eyes, but also with the cameras - one of them Sandra's own phone, live-streaming to her twitter account.\n\nSandra sat down on the dirty ground, making sure to find one of the piss puddles, one of the most vile spots in that corner. Grabbing the beer can she spread her legs as wide as she can, before tugging at her pussy rings, stretching her swollen cunt lips. Get a good picture of this, look at this - look at my swollen cunt, look at how abused it is. With these words she jammed the beer can violently inside herself, opening first, making sure the old piss and spit in the can would flow in her cunt. Satisfied, she jammed the can as far inside her as possible, until it was barely visible anymore - just her stretched-out, ruined cunt showing what was going on. Come here, boys, please, I beg you - I need so much more than this, Sandra pleaded. Honestly - the men barely knew how to more drastically abuse Sandra, but she was there to please and to help: See that dumpster over there? Bring me the most rotten shit you can find there, please, bring me more material for my abuse.\n\nOh the treasures the boys found - a couple of used condoms, quite a few more used needles (Sandra gasped in delight - finally the drug problem in the city would pay off for her), and a dirty looking box filled with some pills. Alongside the men brought a few bottles of varying sizes, prepared for Sandra's further self-humiliation. While carelessly playing with the beer can lodged in her cunt and tugging at the rings in her stretched-out lips, Sandra looked at the treasure - what might these pills be? The men grinned as she opened the box, looking at them - no inscriptions, no descriptions, god knows which pills some junky might have thrown away.\n\nAgain, making eye contact with some of the more vile looking man she snatched the dirty can - now empty - out of her cunt, telling them to have a good look at her gaping cunt, before taking out three of the pills, only to push them deep inside her own cunt. Another two pills she slipped in her mouth, asking for one of the half-filled bottles to be given to her. She took a sip of some stale beverage with a sour aftertaste, to wash down the unknown pills. Well, let's see what happens, right boys? She laughed, before pushing the can again deep inside her, moaning softly as she was stretched again to her maximum. Give me those needles, she demanded, pleadingly with a soft voice. Looking at them, they did not look clean - they did not look very sharp either.\n\nTaking the first needle she started pulling at her already professionally pierced nipple. Moaning, halfway closing her eyes she jammed one of the used needles from the dumpster right through her abused nipple, squealing and laughing at the same time, before doing the same to her second nipple. Satisfied with the look she grabbed her too short dress from the piss puddle - half soaked it had become quite transparent, as she slipped it over her aching body.\n\nLooking down at herself she liked the picture she was giving to the world: it was clear that the crazy bitch Sandra had some used syringes stuck in her nipples, her pussy was clearly visible from every vantage point and what's even better - it was clear that it was over-stretched. In the morning as she had gone to work, she looked at herself on the tramway, lifting her dress for a moment to admire the pretty pussy of hers: the silver rings, the neat pussy lips.\n\nNow, she looked down at her swollen lips, stretched to their maximum, shining in a bright red. Shaking her head, she realized - that was not extreme enough. She needed to make it worse, just in case anybody had any doubt about what she was to become. Grabbing two more needles, she placed each of them carefully against her cunt lips, before with one quick motion per side stabbing herself as deeply as she could.\n\nImpregnate me, infect me, she mumbled grinning again. Satisfied with her look, she wondered how she must look now. Take a good video of myself, she screamed staggering under the light of a street lamp. And George sure did - the terrible man made sure to capture the beauty of Sandra, standing there in the street, 3am in the morning, just two blocks from main square where some nighthawks would still be up and awake. Satisfied, Sandra demanded to see the video, George had captured on her very own phone.\n\nAnd he showed her, of course: There she was, in all her beauty. The light of the lamp clearly highlighting every detail, showing her beautiful and tender face. And then the contrast: a nearly transparent summer dress, halfway ripped open exposing one nipple completely, while making clear that both her nipples were not only pierced with rings, but with some old needles thrown away by some addicts. Panning further down her body, you could see what once must have been a nice dress, just now it wasn't: it stopped a little bit short of her cunt, a swollen, ripped-open, gaping cunt, where clearly a can was sticking out ever so slightly. If this was not enough to show the world what she was, two needles were jammed in her engorged cunt lips.\n\nThe tramway driver barely believed his eyes, as six homeless men, accompanied by a half-naked girl entered the wagon. If you let us play, you will get your turn too, they told the tramway driver, once they finally made it in there. Your turn and a little bag of weed, do we have a deal? And of course, they had a deal, so they put her into the backend of the wagon, of course video capturing the whole process on Sandra's phone. When the men had thought, that the worst humiliation must have already been over, they did not account for Sandra's creativity.\n\nFlopping down in a seat in the last row, she put her legs as far apart as she could, putting them on the back rests of the seat in front of her. Her pussy now spread in the most obscene way, it was so evident how ruined it was, especially in the bright light of the tramway. Who has my bag, Sandra demanded, only to have one of the man throw it at her.\n\nWhile I look in there for some things to have more fun, - do what it takes, boys. I need more pain. Sandra was increasingly feeling some kind of high, probably from the pills that she swallowed and that she had lodged inside her pussy. The homeless men did not need to be told twice, with an evil grin two of them came forward and looked at her gaping cunt, dripping wet from her own juices. Let's take this can out of you, darling, one of them smiled as he ripped it out, careful not to touch the dirty needles stuck in her cunt lips.\n\nYou want the worst, cunt, he asked. Grimacing, Sandra nearly yelled at him - don't you see I do? Do your worst to me, but make sure to capture it. I want everybody to see. With this, she took out her photo ID she carried in her purse, with her full name, her date of birth, and her address in it. Her, have a good look at this, she said, carefully placing the ID right over her cunt, make sure to capture it in your videos, in your pictures. I want the world to know whom this cunt belongs to -- well, it belongs to the world now, but you get my point, she laughed. In the meantime, the two man carefully removed the needles from her lips, putting them to the side. Both of them starting pulling on her cunt lips, trying to open up her cunt as far as possible for what was to come.\n\nInserting a few fingers first, they soon were at the point of fist-fucking Sandra's once pristine pussy. Their unwashed hands were pushed into her, deeply, touching her cervix, while spreading her further and further. George, in the meantime, had Sandra's phone centered on her, making sure to capture her distorted face, her moaning, her half-naked body, her wide-spread cunt with a fist pumping in and out of it, while her ID with all her personal data is so clearly visible.\n\nNo, the world would never forget who Sandra Wilder really was - everybody who cared to know would know, that her pussy is not a pristine one anymore, everybody who cared to know would know, that she was willing to take every possible abuse - even in a well-lit tramway wagon, with the world watching on. She particularly enjoyed the stops at the station, knowing onlookers from the real world would capture what's going on - google me, Sandra Wilder is the name, she yelled out once while the dirty fist was buried at her when the doors opened for a moment.\n\nThere seemed to be no way to satisfy her, the man realized as they withdraw their fists from her well used cunt. Sandra had one more idea - spread my cunt lips as far as you can, see how I still gape open? Give me those needles, give me them right now, she demanded with a slightly shaking voice. I don't want to feel them in my cunt lips, I want to feel them as deep inside me as possible. Spread me, spread me open as far as you can. I need to know that I am ruined, that nothing will be as it was. I need the world to see how I ruin my own body, risk my health, ruin everything!\n\nAnd so, the men did, tugging at her cunt lips, spreading her open with two hands, her cunt still pulsating from the thorough fist fuck she just had received. With this she took the needles, punching them deep inside her, feeling the nearly unbearable pain deep inside her soft and tender flesh, dangerously close to her cervix. Oh god, that's it, as she shuttered in the most mind-numbing orgasm of her life.\n\nWhat a sight she was, as the video captured all of this: Sandra, clearly identifiable by her ID, her address, her pretty face, her cunt spread open, in a public tramway car, surrounded by homeless men and junkies. Two of the most vile beasts of them nearly ripping apart her cunt with their unwashed, dirty hands, while she jammed used and dirty needles deep inside her, puncturing the soft flesh around her cervix. Moaning, cumming, being videoed, screaming her own full name, to make sure the world knows who she is. How could this humiliation, this destruction be topped?\n\nNow, back to monday morning - Sandra was still propped up on her balcony and only slowly recollecting what happened to her. Yes, the used condoms that now tangled from her pussy lips, and the one filled with unspeakable filth that was hanging from her abused asshole spoke a clear story. Also, the additional rings in her cunt kind of gave her an impression of what happened. She still had not bothered to take her phone until now, instead idly playing with her abused pussy, indifferent to the city life happening just a few meters away from her.\n\nOnly now did she slowly grab for her phone, turning the display towards her, stopping the recording of herself. What she saw surprised here: Dozens of missed calls from her co-workers and friends, more than hundred notifications from her Instagram and even more from Facebook and WhatsApp. Now, Sandra was a popular girl in town, well connected - maybe not one of those influencers, but she was somebody, people of her age group knew.\n\nStill, so many notifications were unusual, she mused, while opening the first one. Private messages mostly, she saw, as she looked through all the people who had written to her. Her heart skipped a beat or two when she opened one of the messages sent to her by a co-worker, whom she had kind of a crush on: There were five messages from him, but as she scrolled up, she saw MANY messages sent from HER account. Actually, no, not messages - pictures, mostly.\n\nSome videos, that still would need a while to load, but pictures of what she recognized to be her cunt in different places and conditions. Her heart started racing when she saw one of herself in a public bus, legs spread wide, tits hanging out of her ripped dress, with a coke can sticking out from her ass and what must have been ten... needles???... stuck into the soft skin of her cunt lips. What the hell had happened, had her dreams finally become true? It took her a while to find her memory after everything that happened.\n\nBut there was so much more. One picture showed her in her favorite shop, a popular department store in town, as she immediately recognized. However, they have these neat little changing cubicles all over the shop floor, covered by curtains - well, usually covered by curtains. In the picture however, the curtain was drawn wide back, instead of the curtain you saw a very naked girl, very busily trying to pull something out of an overly stretched cunt - Sandra's very own cunt, as she realized. On closer inspection, somebody (let's not kid ourselves, most likely herself) had pushed some bikini bottom deep inside her open cunt, with it now half-way dangling out.\n\nOh god - how much worse could things become, as she continued to scroll through the message thread. The next picture she immediately recognized - it was the little bar where she went nearly every day after work, people knew her there, people knew who she was and where she worked. Hell, she went there with her coworkers nearly every day. So it was no surprise to see on the picture the waitress, Sam, smiling at... well, smiling at a very naked Sandra, that was obviously tormented by the bartender. She was propped up at the table right by the window, with her legs obscenely bound and pulled back right to her head. That left her cunt not only gaping, but both her asshole and cunt totally exposed. Luckily, both holes were not openly accessible now, as she noticed with slight satisfaction, as both were completely filled with bottles: a small beer bottle was stuck in her asshole, while her cunt had to accompany a much wider wine bottle. Oh god what a sight it was, she marbled, before she realized - no, this is happening.\n\nNot only had she been abused like this, but pictures were made, and obviously they were shared all across her social media. Her life - her reputation - her career, everything was ruined. She did not sob, though, but began to masturbate furiously, pulling on the rings in her cunt, ripping it open as far as she could, before jamming three fingers into the overstretched opening. Deeper and deeper she shoved the used condoms, hoping this would be the biggest surprise - a pregnancy as the result of her own actions, of her thoroughly planned self-rape.\n\nLittle did she know, how many cocks, and how many foreign objects had been jammed in her waiting cunt and her asshole. Little did she know, how many needles that were used by the junkies in the park and at the railway station, her found their way into her cunt, into her clit, and into her tongue. Little did she know, how utterly ruined she was, and how well everyone around her was aware of it. She also did not know yet, that her own private home was not private anymore: keys were duplicated dozens of times and handed out, making sure everybody would always have good access to Sandra and her thoroughly abused body. Nothing was private anymore - her body was shared with the world, and not in an anonymous way: she had made sure that her humiliation was final and lasting, her name would forever be connected to the adventure she endured.\n\nIt was monday morning. Friday evening, saturday, and sunday were missing - it must have been quite the adventure, she wondered, looking forward to exploring all the abuse she might have suffered.\n\n"}
+{"text": "I don't want there to be anybody left out there, who doesn't know the look of my gaping cunt, I don't want to have friends or colleagues who don't know all the things I did, who don't know my complete destruction, my humiliation and how much it gets me off. Sandra sure was vocal about what she wanted, as she talked into the camera, that Old George, the homeless man who fostered her abuse over the last couple of hours, held towards her face.\n\nI want to do it all - I want to further ruin my body, ruin my cunt, hell - even ruin my health if I need to. I want to expose everything, I want there to be nothing private left, I want to be available - to everybody, without any further limits. This weekend, the next few days - they will destroy everything I've worked for, every ounce of decency in my and show the world what I really am - Sandra Wilder, sex toy, nothing but a wide-open cunt, a cum bucket, a dumpster for the most defiled, for the most vile.\n\nWith this the camera panned down along Sandra's mostly naked body, only covered by the remains of her partially ripped dress, and towards the background: She was sitting with her legs spread as far as seemed possible, masturbating furiously with what seemed to be an empty wine bottle that she jammed into her sore cunt, while pulling on her nipple ring with the other hand. All this happened in the street light of the railway station, where she was half-propped on a dirty bench. Graffiti, grime, and dirt shaped the scene - that and the curious looks of multiple on-lookers, who in a fascinated way watched Sandra's wild performance.\n\nIt was around 11pm on a Saturday night - so not too many were around and honestly - most people who were still around were not the ones to complain about a mostly naked girl performing lewd sex acts. What a day it had been for Sandra, the star of the scene, the new-found local celebrity she had become over the last 24 hours, give or take a few. Stepping back to the previous night, Sandra found herself after being paraded naked throughout the whole city in the early morning hours back at her own place, where she invited the four homeless men who supported her repulsive acts and who made sure to share every little detail of her self humiliation on her social media channels - she wanted to be famous, after all.\n\nSo there they were, entering her cozy apartment, where she so graciously invited them. And boy had she invited them, after all the terrible things she had done to herself that day and that night, even those disgusting men were more than happy to settle down - and she insisted, that they take the king size bed. And again, they were happy to oblige, having had planned something special for Sandra anyway.\n\nSee, Sandra had over-performed in this night: She had inserted every terrible thing they had found on the street and in dumpsters into her cunt and asshole, she had let them run a train on her (or rather - she begged them to), she had allowed them to fist her in public, she had exposed herself to hundreds of people while drugged-out in broad daylight in the park. But, travelling home, still with the broken needles stuck in her cunt, she had insisted that she doesn't want her exposure and humiliation to end, just because the night was over.\n\nSo, it was not the bed for her that night - that would have offered far too much privacy for dear Sandra Wilder, instead she insisted to sleep out on her lawn chair on the balcony. It was a warm summer night, so she would not need a blanket - no, she would not even need any clothing, she demanded. So, out she went, followed by the wide-eyed men, who could barely believe what they saw: Yes, they saw Sandra humiliate herself all over time, but on her own balcony, with neighbors and friends potentially looking on, that was nearly too much to grasp even for them. Sandra, however, was not satisfied: See, it was not the first time she was naked out there, some of her neighbors might have seen quite a lot of her already in the past. So for today, this did not seem enough, it still seemed to good, to clean, to normal for how she wanted this night to end. But worry not, she laughed, she had something prepared - go to my room, you will find everything you need there, prepared on my nightstand.\n\nAnd off one of the men went, only to come back a minute later with more than a wicked smile on his face: Carrying he was some zip ties, a dildo that seemed far too big for Sandra's tiny frame, and more importantly: a speculum. What are you waiting for, she demanded with a voice loud enough to attract attention at this time of the night - but that's what she needed, hoping soon some lamps around her own well-lit balcony would come on, investigating the noise. Spread me open, she urged, plunging down with her legs spread wide on her lawn chair.\n\nYou, tie my legs to the railing of the balcony, so there is no hiding, she told one of her tormentors, who laughingly complied with her wish. In the meantime, she started fucking her own cunt with the dildo - it still being sore from the needles she had jammed in their earlier and now carelessly thrown on the balcony floor. When she was satisfied with the abuse she had given her stretched out cunt, she pleaded George to insert the speculum as deep in her as possible, and then to open it as far as he could. Making sure to capture every moment of this amazing performance on Sandra's phone, he happily complied.\n\nWhat a sight she was. It was still dark outside, but the light on Sandra's balcony illuminated her perfectly - showing off her trim body, but more importantly: her grotesquely opened up cunt. The speculum inside her prevented it from closing up, providing every onlooker insight into her once most private places. Yes, this is what she needed, her cunt to be stretched and destroyed, her health to be at risk, and her reputation to be ruined. Everybody should know what she looks like naked, and even more - every single spot of her body and the inside of her cunt should be public knowledge.\n\nWhen she awoke it seemed to be the middle of the day. Scared and terrified she immediately reached down to her cunt, only to find it still spread open, hurting from the uncomfortable position and sore and red and swollen she found her own cunt. - She was satisfied, not knowing how many people must have seen her, how many people must have taken videos and pictures of her situation. As soon as the men realized that Sandra had woken up, they came storming out to her balcony. You want even more, don't you? The rotten men surrounded her, while making sure she was still visible from the street and garden - and she just nodded. Give me your worst, as I said. The men didn't need to be told twice - here, prop her up a bit more, I want her cunt to be facing up, George demanded, and the boys helped. So now she was here, grotesquely spread apart, her cunt facing upward, perfectly exposed to the world.\n\nWith that, one of the man leaned forward, hovering over her spread open cunt and started - spitting into it, with the others cheering him on. And round and round they went on, making sure to hurl up as much spit as they could muster, spitting it into Sandra's wide open cunt, while she had started to violently rub her clit, begging them for more. They hadn't seen her that excited yet, despite all the crazy acts she had performed. When they deemed the spitting not enough anymore, George leaned forward, with his nose right over her grotesque cunt he started to spit mucus and snot into her waiting cunt - and so did all the others. When they were done with this humiliation, they all were nearly as aroused as Sandra, who was still masturbating like a possessed woman, was.\n\nIt would be a good day, they all agreed - but first they needed some food. However, they were not in the mood to get it themselves - what else did they have a little plaything like Sandra for. While slowly untying her, they told her, they wanted to send her down to the bakery on the corner. But Sandra begged: I cannot go - I am so full of your snot, of your filth, of your spit - please, I need this shit to stay inside of me, I need it - I need it to infest me, I need your snot and your mucus in my cunt. And the men agreed - it would not be fun, to just make her get dressed and go to the bakery. Where would be the creativity there?\n\nFirst, they decided to remove the speculum from her overstretched cunt - not that it would really close up all too well on its own after the last 12 hours of fucking and violating it, but it would be a start. What's next - the girl loves pain anyway, doesn't she? So let's give it to her. Somebody get some safety pins, they are in the bedroom, first drawer, Sandra urged, while the men carried her inside, careful not to spill Sandra's cunt filling. Bring me the safety pins, George repeated her request - we are gonna make sure her cunt is nicely shut.\n\nWith that he jammed the first safety pin through her stretched out cunt lips, only to repeat it at the second side. And again, and again, and again, until four safety pins were jammed through her most sensitive part. Oh, she did feel the pain, but the ecstasy she felt was even more intense than the pain. She looked at the monstrosity of her once pristine cunt: Sandra touched her lips, swollen red, pierced not only by the rings she had in there already for ages, but now also by safety pins, knowing to be filled up not only with the remains of cum from the day before, but with the spit and snot of those homeless junkies. God, what a way to begin the day.\n\nIn the meantime, the men were excited to pick up something fun for her to wear, looking at her various short dresses, mini skirts, half transparent tops, and low cut blouses. What they did not find however - oh, Tom yelled towards Sandra, who was still gleefully pulling at her engorged cunt lips. Sandra, bitch, where you keep the underwear, we want to put something revealing on her - but Sandra just shook her head. Silly, I threw it all out - underwear, this topic is over for me. You're gonna keep me half-naked or naked, remember? Clothing is from now on only made to parade me around as risky as possible, clothing is only here to accentuate my body and to keep me from being constantly arrested and jailed. No, no underwear for me, nothing decent for me anywhere - my body is public property.\n\nThe men still could barely believe what they found with Sandra - the most sex-crazed plaything in history. And, she added, we will go shopping today, we need clothing more extreme, it just cannot be that with some of those things my cunt might be hidden from the public! And the men agreed - for her outing to the bakery they needed to pick something... fun. Yes, something fun indeed, they thought rummaging through the wide array of what you could barely identify as clothing. Satisfied, they came to a conclusion: a completely sheer babydoll dress, that was obviously meant to be worn only inside, with the curtains closed, and even then it might still be considered provocative.\n\nBut now it would have to fit for Sandra's trip to the bakery: It barely covered her ass or her cunt, even standing up without moving and without the wind of the street. Not that it might have covered much to begin with - the boys just hoped it would be enough to not get her arrested. Honestly - deep inside they knew that there was quite a high chance she would get arrested - her nipples were at prominent display, highlighted by the rings in them. Her cunt - oh what a sight it was, there was no hiding the abuse it went through, with all the needles stuck through her cunt, that still could not prevent all the slime from leaking out of her. But she was insisting it would be perfect for her trip to the bakery - and off she went, leaving the men back to rummage through her belongings.\n\nSandra had her first orgasm just while reaching the store - dozens of men stared at her on the way there and what's even better: she knew all of the people she passed, they all knew her by name, they all knew who she was and could barely believe what they saw, a virtually naked Sandra with slime dripping from an abused cunt, where a day before a pretty, pristine pussy would have been visible. Cumming in front of the bakery, she takes a deep breath before stepping inside.\n\nIn the meantime, the dirty men went through her belongings - carefully she had prepared for somebody to not only abuse her body, but to take over all of her life. They easily were able to log into her bank account, with all the information they needed neatly written down with instructions, to take everything, to spend everything, to make sure she would have nothing left in life but sex, exhibitionism, and her body. All the social media feeds were by now already filled well with pictures and videos of her abuse, the boys having made sure that everybody who knew Sandra Wilder, would now also know her inside out - quite literally, as the pictures of her spread cunt made sure. And what amazing pictures they were - the ones with the used needles stuck into the tender flesh next to her cervix. The one of more than five used, dirty, rotten condoms sticking out of her abused cunt. The video of her lapping up a piss puddle at the tramway station, while cum was dripping out of her cunt. Yes, she was a celebrity now.\n\nWhen she came back, the boys immediately saw that she had not only brought back some food for them, but that she also must have received quite a fucking and more. The safety pins were gone from her cunt, her babydoll was wet and soaked and stained, and cum was dripping down her legs. Somebody must have had fun with her, they all agreed. Sandra would have been pleased, had she known, that all her bank accounts were already empty and that a letter of resignation was sent to her employer - attached to it a multitude of pictures of the night before.\n\nA long and perverted day lay between her nearly naked trip to the bakery and what happened that evening at the railway station. Nearly naked, at a dirty bench at the railway station she was masturbating furiously with an upside down wine bottle, neck first she jammed it repeatedly into her cunt. Now, the curious on-looker might assume that the bottle started out empty, or that Sandra was just on some drugs and acting wildly, but neither was the case. Sandra was as sober as they come (and boy, did she come) this late evening. The bottle, however, had a bit of a history.\n\nSandra had come to the railway station together with the four homeless men she had chosen to be her supporters for the weekend - and probably for the months or years to come. When she had arrived there, oh my, what a sight she had been: see, they had bought a dress today, quite sheer and far too short - it actually was less of a dress and more of delicate lingerie. But who is keeping track? Either way, it definitely was not meant to be worn outside, even less so on a saturday night in a seedy railway station. So, obviously she drew a crowd quite fast.\n\nWhen she sat down at one of the benches, putting one of her long legs up, thereby spreading her legs quite a bit, the curious onlooker got quite the surprise, if he was so inclined to look between Sandra's long, tender legs: Her pussy - was more of a severely abused cunt, it was spread wide open. Now, this was not just the consequence of the fucking she had received over the day, not even the consequence of the fisting she had received at the little city beach earlier. No, it was part of a more delicate plan: Sandra's cunt lips are pierced, with silver rings being drawn through them. Now, not caring about pain or any level of decency anymore, she had come up with a special something for the show she wanted to provide.\n\nDrawn through those rings were thin rubber bands, nearly invisible to the on-looking eye but strong enough to do their job. With the ends tied around her respective upper legs, those bands were tugging hard at her rings, pulling her cunt open with every step she took - now with the transparent \"dress\" she had on, she was quite a sight during the bus ride, and quite a few unknown hands found their way to her dripping cunt, with one daring guy even shoving a couple of rough fingers deep inside of her.\n\nBut now she had arrived - sat there with her cunt spread open in the most vulgar way imaginable, and started to slowly caress her clit that was sticking out proudly. Soon, she drew quite a crowd - now, this was not the crowd that you usually would enjoy, randy man, drunkards, junkies, homeless and wanderers. Soon they formed a circle around her, making sure no police or security might wonder in, as they watched with rising curiosity and arousal what was transpiring in front of their eyes. More and more furiously Sandra began to masturbate, as more and more people watched. You all will get your chance to fuck my cunt, if you even deem it good enough for you. If you don't - well, you can have my asshole, it might be in a better shape, Sandra grinned at the evil and vile looking men around her.\n\nWith this, George and Tom came forward to help her with the show she had planned. Tom had found an empty wine bottle in a dumpster, that he handed to Sandra. Of course, every halfway sane woman would have been disgusted - the bottle was dirty, ants were running around it, and it overall would have seemed quite off-putting to most. But Sandra gave the rim a quick lick, only to immediately push it into her wide open cunt without and concern for her physical well-being. After a few minutes and to wild cheering of the crowd, she ripped the bottle out, turned it around, and began shoving it wide end first into her abused snatch.\n\nMoaning, she finally succeeded and continued to push it all the way to the hilt, until just the neck of the bottle was still outside her cunt. With this she waved to one of the heavily tattooed and honestly quite dirty onlookers, to come and help her out. Here, fuck me with this bottle until I scream. And scream she did after just a few moments, as she came crashing down in one earth-shattering orgasm.\n\nWith this, she pulled the bottle out of her cunt, nearly prolapsing herself, as the wide bottle pulled at her tender flesh. Passing the bottle to George, she offered to the men - who wants to fist fuck me? I want all your dirty hands inside my cunt, rip me apart and spread me open until I will never enjoy a normal cock again.\n\nNow, the men did not need to be told twice - the first guy eagerly stormed towards her, first trying to seek to push three of his deformed and dirty fingers into her - only to find that indeed, Sandra's cunt would be able to take his whole fist. What was supposed to be a fist-fuck turned into him more or less punching his fist into her cunt, bottoming out at her cervix, over and over again - and he was only the first of nearly 20 men to do so.\n\nIn the meantime, George was busy as well - pissing into the wine bottle she gave him, before handing the bottle to another lost-looking man, telling him to do the same. After that they watched Sandra's cunt being destroyed further and further, as the men did their best to showcase their cunt-fisting capabilities - and Sandra came over and over again, as these unwashed, dirty fists kept pounding away at her wide-open cunt.\n\nTime to wash her cunt a bit, George laughed, moving forward, pushing the fist-fuckers to the side, and having Sandra look wild-eyed (and wide-spread, indeed) at him. As her loose cunt gaped open, George waved the wine bottle now mostly filled with piss at her: Time to wash this cunt for what's about to come next, he laughed while the rest of the crowd erupted in laughter as well. Who could imagine something like this - a beauty like Sandra, with her tender soft body, her long legs, and her angel-like face willingly being abused, fisted, exposed to the world, and now a piss-filled wine bottle would be jammed into her cunt? Now, that is a sight to behold. And with this, George jammed the bottle inside her, only for her to take over and to start fucking herself with the bottle, in the process pouring the stale piss deep inside of her, having it of course run out of her cunt and down her legs in the process.\n\nNow, with her freshly piss-washed, still-gaping cunt, Sandra was finally happy with the crowd she had drawn. Throwing away the bottle and slowly getting to her feet (she did not bother with shoes these days) she motioned the men to follow her - and so they did. Gleefully she staggered towards the train station restrooms - the male ones obviously. And as she entered, the terrible smell of shit, of stale piss, and god knows what else filled her nostrils. Feeling like she was in heaven, she ran towards the row of pissoirs, only to drop down there on her knees. NOW the show could begin.\n\nAnd she wanted to show these men - the most vile men of the city possibly - that she was worse than all of them combined. Did you guys know, I am a trained dancer? I can do the splits, she exclaimed, before finding one of the bigger puddles of piss. Watch me! And with these words she carefully lowered herself into a full split, spreading her pussy lips until they hovered over the dirty, unspeakably filthy floor or rather - the puddle of disgusting piss.\n\nNow I will need some help - gentleman. And as one guy reached out to her to help her get back up she shook her head violently - no, not for that. Push me down, handsome! Push me down, drag my cunt through the piss, why the hell would I want to get up? The guy could barely believe it - did this beauty really want her cunt, her exposed cunt, to be dragged through old stale piss and dirt? And oh she did. As he pushed her down, she reached down, making sure to spread her cunt open - she did not want the outer lips to get dirtied, no - she wanted the tender flesh of her abused cunt to soak up as much of the filth as possible. Dragging her cunt lips through the dirt and piss she was in heaven, what could be more vile? Her cunt was ruined, in every sense, worthless to anyone with the slightest rest of dignity.\n\nThis went on for a few minutes, until Sandra was satisfied with what she had done. Honestly, most of the men at this point did not know whether to be disgusted or aroused, they had never seen something like this. Now, who would want to fuck this cunt? Over-stretched, dirty, full of piss and ruined in every way. That she explained to them, but she had more to offer. Kneeling down in front of the dirties pissoir she could find, she started to lick the outer rim, making sure to catch every drop of stale piss, every dried-up stain there was. Turning around she begged the men - for fuck sake, finally start fucking my asshole at least!\n\nAnd they agreed - that's the least they could offer to her. So while she kept licking at the urinal, licking up the piss, they started to bang her asshole. These dirty cocks, unwashed for days or weeks probably, entered her body with ease and with a full disregard of her comfort. More than once her face was pushed into the urinal itself, leaving her nearly chocking, lapping up the piss and the stale dirty water in it. No, she did not make them use condoms, of course, she thought to herself - what would be the fun of using condoms? No risk in that, no fun in that - the dirt and grime on the cocks that pounded away at her asshole made it interesting, the risk of ruining her own health by having these drug-abusing, potentially sick, homeless guys making her asshole their toy - that's what she was in for.\n\nNow, George knew, that she had planned more. Her cunt was not done for the evening, oh no - the grand finale was still planned. George and Tom stepped out, walking from restroom to restroom, their hands in leather gloves, carrying a bag. And after a few minutes they found their way back to Sandra, who was orgasming from having a cock in her ass and a fist in her cunt, while her head was hanging in the urinal.\n\nThey had collected her present - her present of choice. Now see, the men had gone from restroom to restroom, finding the worst filth they could find. Used condoms. A piss-soaked rag. More syringes than they could count. And even more used condoms, some of them already stuck together - they knew the drill, all these things would need to find their way into Sandra's cunt, and she would insist to be ruined like this. They waited until everybody was done cumming in her ass, until Sandra turned around to sit down on the cold, wet tiles of the dirty toilet. Leaning back, spreading her legs, she knew what was to come and so did her lovers. Give me the needles first, she demanded - and somebody spread open my cunt as far as you can. And that they did - after all the fisting it opened easier, revealing the tender ring of her cervix that received such a thorough pounding.\n\nI need - uh - I need all these needles to be shoved right there. Punctuate the flesh inside me, ruin me, oh please ruin me so thoroughly. Gooood, I wonder which junky shot up heroin with this, I wonder where these rusty dirty needles are from, she moaned. And George did his job - one after the other he jammed the dirty, sometimes rusty, sometimes wet needles deep inside of her cunt, pushing it as deep into her tender flesh as seemed possible. Sandra was crying half from pain and half from joy, as she orgasmed over and over again. Oh god the humiliation, oh god the risk - how will I even survive this? She screamed begging for more.\n\nThere, close your legs now, with the needles inside you, one of the man told her. And so she did - it would make the pain tenfold worse, risking one or more of the needles to break and to make it nearly impossible to ever get them out again. Like this she even managed to walk around the dirty bathroom, screaming from pain and cumming without a break. Exhausted, she plopped back down, and asked for the needles to be removed again. George managed to get most of them out of her, however, with a slight worry, he realized that some might have broken at the tip, leaving metal splinters and the tips of the needles lodged within her tender flesh or even shoved inside of her uterus - as the cruel man had pushed two needles right through her cervix. Oh well - that would be fun to explain to a doctor, how did a used needle end up inside of Sandra's uterus?\n\nBut Sandra did not care, or rather: She did. That's what she had hoped for, the ultimate destruction of her cunt. And now - and now, how many used condoms did you find around here? George had not counted - it was not one of his strengths, but he guessed it must have been around 20. That seemed enough, and obviously Sandra wanted to do the favor herself: Give them to me. Now some of them were obviously filled with old stale cum, some were coated outside with slime and dirt - just the right filling for her abused cunt.\n\nNow, with the remains of some of the needles still lodged inside her abused cunt, she started pushing the used, dirty, infested condoms deep inside of her, making sure to not lose any of them. She counted herself - 22 used condoms were as much as she could fit inside of her gaping cunt. The remaining three she took in her mouth, licking them, savoring the disgusting taste, making sure every last drop of filth would make it into her belly.\n\nNow - that was the show for the evening. Holding her cunt as far shut as possible, she staggered to her feet - it was time to go home, to settle down on her balcony, with the cum-filled, disgusting condoms staying in her cunt over night. But first, she needed to make it home - and it would be quite a walk, she knew. Smiling, she and some of the boys left the railway station, with a naked Sandra leading the way.\n\n"}
+{"text": "He did not want to let go. Did not want to move away.\n\nMoving away, stopping kissing her, meant facing everything else. Seeing his ring on his finger, remembering Helen’s words, looking into another face that did not believe his curse would end their life. \n\nIt also meant looking into her eyes and accepting what he had done, what he had let himself feel again. After all he had lost. Choosing to have something else to loose. It meant facing all the pain it would take to back away again, to hurt her yet again. Or even worse, accepting to take her with him, to do another round and try his luck to get back out a second time. \n\nBut this time, she was in too. And taking them both out would be tempting fate.\n\nHe felt her hands about to snake around his neck and everything seemed to crumble.\n\nHe backed off almost as if he was burnt.\n\n~***~\n\nHer brain was tumbling in the wind somewhere and had only left her a few brain cells to pass the same realization over and over again.\n\n\nJohn is kissing me. John is kissing me. John is kissing me. John is kissing me.\n\n\n \n\nAnd what a kiss it was.\n\nIt wasn’t a gentle pressure on her lips, a rose petal on the water. It wasn’t the kiss the prince gave in the fairy tales. It was hungry and emotional and raw. Teeth, tongue, lips, she could barely remember which ones were hers.\n\nIt felt like a hello and a goodbye all at once.\n\nIt felt like a yes and like a no. \n\nAnd then it stopped as quickly as it started, leaving her panting and lost, hands still half-way in the air. The ghost of lips on hers and of hands on her face. She finally focused on John that looked even worse. His eyes were wild and hurt, looking at her like he couldn’t believe what he had done. On that she felt the same.\n\n \n\n“John.” She breathed out, embarrassed at the shake in her voice.\n\nThe moment she saw his eyes glance to the side, she launched herself, barely managing to catch his forearm as he attempted to leave. Again.\n\n“John. No.” Since he stayed quiet, she kept going. “I- I have no idea what just happened, well, what it said or meant at least… But you cannot just- You can’t leave after that!” Her mind was still reeling to stay grounded, to understand, to remember. “I don’t care if you say it was a mistake or anger or a reflex but- You need to tell me.”\n\nHis brown eyes met hers again. They reminded her of the second time he had cooked for her and his eyes had lighted up for a few seconds before going back to himself. Hope, content…. Vulnerability.\n\n“John… Please…”\n\n“I can’t.” He sounded so defeated that she didn’t know what to do or say. “If I let you close, you’ll die. They won’t let me get out a second time.”\n\n“John. I can help-“\n\n“You cannot.”\n\n“Then you don’t know me very well do you?”\n\n \n\nThought were flying free in her head and it was harder to catch them by the second. Everything was leaving until all that was left seemed to be that they just shared. The gentle slide of his knuckle on her cheek broke any semblance of sentence she had prepared. His eyes were not on her lips or her eyes, they seemed to scan her entire face, commit it to memory.\n\n“People I care about don’t stay alive for long.”\n\n“John-”\n\n“Are you sure?” It didn’t sound like a question, more like a warning.\n\nShe let herself smile, wondering how much he had changed since she had come to Italy. She was a fighter, not a little frightened woman anymore. And he had lived in that world of his, hunted by every single assassin in the business.\n\n“You know me; I can’t afford to get out without saving someone else along the way.”\n\n \n\nThis time, he simply pulled her into his arms. Protective. Warm. He didn’t have to ask for her to answer it as she buried her face in the crook of his neck, standing on her tip toes. They let themselves enjoy the moment, strip back to their beginning as unplanned roommates in a messy apartment. When they never really touched each other yet kept themselves in one piece.\n\n“We’ll have to talk about that kiss someday, John.” She pointed out, glad of the cover her position gave her, hiding the red of her face from him.\n\nHe simply hummed and she smiled. \n\nYes. This was enough after all.\n\n~***~ \n\nAs an apology and out of necessity, John helped her move and burry the corpses. Francesco came out with puffy red eyes to help the duo dig and to thank them for helping out. Again, he was simply unable to look at her in the eyes.\n\nIt’s with a heavy heart that she finished filling the last of the hole. A glance toward the house proved her that her friend had watched her all the while when she saw him move away to join Gina at the dinner table. A sign escaped the doctor for the fifth time since they had started.\n\n“They will get over it.”\n\nShe turned to John, a hint of anger in her eyes. “That’s rich of you to say.” Her eyes moved back to the cottage, yearning. “I enjoyed my time with them. They were nice to me, patient… I took care of them too in some way. It will hurt to leave.”\n\n“You want to stay.”\n\nA smile. “I can’t. I miss my house and New York and my friends and family. I miss people being rushed and taxis almost running me over when I cross the street. But I will miss the horse rides and the smile of the young girl at the market as well as them both, no matter how much they hate me.”\n\n“I don’t think they hate you.”\n\n“Come on. Trust is won by drops and lost by litres. They will not trust me again, at least not before I leave for New York.”\n\nHe nodded this time, grabbing the tools to place them back by the shed. “You should go to sleep; we need to leave tomorrow.”\n\n“Will you stay?”\n\n“What?”\n\n“With me. Not in that terribly uncomfortable chair of course. The bed they landed me is not really a double, but you’d have space.” Realising how her proposition could be heard as, she started fidgeting. “We’d have enough space to not even touch each other! I’m not- Sleep! Sleeping as in sleep- Not- Oh my lord.”\n\nHer rambling made her unable to hear him as he got closer and she jumped when a hand fell on her shoulder. “It’s ok. I’ll be there.”\n\nLetting out a relieved sigh, she nodded. “Thanks.”\n\n“I’ll be back in a few minutes.”\n\n \n\nWhen he turned his back and started walking away to the bag of guns they had looted from the goons, she wasn’t worried about him running away. He wouldn’t. Not this time. And if he did, she was willing to hunt him down as so many were already doing.\n\n“Amelie? Shit- Sorry I know that’s not really your name but-”\n\nShe turned to face Francesco with a tired smile. “Hey. It’s ok, call me whatever you want.”\n\n“You’re leaving?”\n\n“Yeah, tomorrow. I did enough hurt here anyway.”\n\nHe was looking at her a was she wasn’t completely comfortable with. “It could have been worse… All I see is that you lied about your name and shot a man to help us out. That man was worse.” His eyes hardened. “He wasn’t a doctor; you were burning with fever you could have died!”\n\nHis outburst took her by surprise. “I am fine, the fever-”\n\nHe stepped into her personal space to take her by the shoulders, shaking her slightly. “You could have died! Dios Mio, Amelia! He could have murdered half a nation in cold blood I don’t think I would be as mad! Do you even know how you looked like? Half-dead on your bed? Calling out names no one knew and begging for forgiveness?” He kept going as she was about to answer. “And I don’t know who this Larry or Wagner are supposed to be, but I will kill them, for whatever they did that made you ask to-”\n\nHis shoulders slumped and his hands felt as they were only staying on her shoulders with gravity. She raised a hand to place it on his cheek, raising his face toward her. “Fancesco… I don’t remember what I said, but they are gone now. I lived a lot I wish I hadn’t. I saw a lot I probably shouldn’t have… But I’m better now. I pulled trough. I’m stronger than I ever was and-”\n\nWhen his hands framed her face to make sure she would watch him, it wasn’t gentle. It was desperate. It almost hurt. \n\n“I’m not whatever he is or whatever you are. I barely know how to shoot a can or disarm someone. But what I know I am not is someone that can watch the woman he loves suffering and begging for someone to end her life while someone claim to be a doctor to stay by her side.” \n\n“Francesco I-”\n\n“I know I can’t offer much but-”\n\n“Francesco I can’t stay I-” \n\n“For me! For Gina! For Luna or the rabbits or sheep I don’t care, just stay!”\n\n“I lied to you for months-”\n\n“I don’t care!”\n\n \n\nPanic was slowly filling her. Not that he would ever raise his hand on her, but the situation was getting out of hand really fast. She might have known he was harboring feelings towards her, but never imagined them to be this strong. Especially after she had shown her true self.\n\n“Francesco.” She stated softly, holding his cheek again, this time more to make sure he wouldn’t try anything rash by holding him back. He looked like what she had felt only a few hours prior. When John was about to leave her again and asked her if she wanted him to. “Francesco, I consider you my friend. You helped me out, you cared, you still do and I can’t thank you enough, but I have to go home now. My family-”\n\n“We could visit them! You don’t have to go back there, you’re happy here!”\n\n“I’m lonely here, Fran-”\n\n“I’m here! You don’t need to be alone…” He was subtly pulling her closer but she stood her ground and pushed him back a bit, more out of pity than anger. “I’m here for you Amelie.”\n\n“You’re a friend, Franc. A very good friend, but I can’t leave my family alone, my friends alone. I’m a doctor and I want to go home.”\n\n \n\nThis time, he sighed. Her heartbeat quickened in fear when he moved closer, but relaxed as his lips touched her forehead.\n\n“You know I love you.”\n\n“You know I don’t love you that way.” \n\n“Yes…” \n\n“I’ll come visit.”\n\n“You better. Gina will kill me if she learns I scared you away for good.”\n\n“It takes a lot more to scare me.” \n\n“I know.”\n\n“Also, Gina is way scarier than you.”\n\n \n\nHe chuckled, pulling her into a hug that she wholeheartedly answered in kind. It felt odd, this friendship. But no one could force romance, and being friends would be enough for him.\n\n“I’ll miss you Amelie.” \n\n“I’ll miss you too, Fancesco.”\n\nIn the back, leaning against the stabbles’ wall, John watched them both. There was no jealousy in his heart, she wasn’t the kind to give her feelings out easily. Their embrace just made him sad somehow. He could see how much both of them hurt in similar way. Leaving each other.\n\nHe could relate.\n\nHe just did not know the last meeting was a goodbye beforehand.\n\n~***~\n\n���John, I swear to all that is holy, if you even think about putting that blanket and pillow on the chair or the floor, I will kick your ass so hard you’ll arrive to New York early.”\n\nHe wasn’t used to her holding her ground as she currently was. Hands on her hips in a too-big T-Shirt that barely covered her shorts – not that he would point it out – and her hair that had grown, tied in a messy bun for her nightly routine. She was fluming, and he knew that she wouldn’t bulge no matter what he would try.\n\n“I won’t ask again. Put back the pillow and blanket and get into the damn bed.”\n\nThat had the merit of being clear. \n\nWith a sigh, he put the couch cushion back in his place and the still folded blanket on the armrest. Turning to her he wondered when. When had she made him go back to his unburdened self. The John that went out for groceries and liked to read books and sit on a couch to drink coffee before the day started. The question remained as he slipped under the covers, at the side closest to the door, careful to stay as close as he comfortably could from the edge.\n\nThe mattress dipped and he heard her sigh contently.\n\n“Goodnight John.”\n\nAfter a small pause, he closed his eyes. He bid her goodnight the same as she did and fell into a restless sleep.\n\n \n\nOn her side, the doctor wasn’t sleeping, far from it. No matter what she tried, her closed eyelid apparently only had one movie in stock: Kiss land and what-the-heck-do-we-do-with-that-John. She became increasingly aware of his warmth that she could feel on her back. Of his smell that only contained a small lingering bit of his usual cologne. It was horribly distracting. While, a long time ago, she could move around a room without him even stopping snoring, she didn’t think getting out of that bed would go unnoticed. After her outburst, there was no way she would be allowed to sleep on the floor or the chair or even the uncomfortable half-a-place couch. She was stuck.\n\nIt did not help that the last time they had been in that situation, she had awoken, drooling on his chest, holding to him like a koala. Or maybe that was just her imagination running it worse than it had been. She just didn’t think that after his kiss, they would react the same if they woke up over each other… Okay… Mostly her over him.\n\nHer feelings were not especially clear at the moment. She had barely gotten to know the man before Italy, and then hadn’t seen him in months while the entire world was trying to get his head. Then a small come and leave that did not really make her believe he cared much about her more than her passing being a hindrance, one less ally in an unforgiving situation.\n\nBut now? He had asked her if she wanted to stay with him. He had kissed her and it had been desperate, true.\n\nAnd it was really messing her up. \n\nShe reached for the alarm clock and turned it to check the time. Eleven PM. Gosh she was old… Old and stuck since turning around in bed was not an option for someone in her situation. Great. Bloody great. Maybe if she only managed to change her mind.\n\nShe ended up giving a disappointed sigh and turn around.\n\n \n\nJohn’s reflex was all that stopped her from falling off the bed as she came nose-to-nose with the object of her thoughts.\n\n“You can’t sleep.” He pointed out as she tried to calm her breathing.\n\n“You kind of scared the shit out of me.”\n\n“Sorry.” \n\nGosh he looked good. “No need to be.”\n\nHe nodded and closed his eyes. Now how the heck was she supposed to sleep since on of his arm was now swung over her waist, unmoved from his previous save. Slowly, she let herself remember her way here, to Rome, to the Continental, to Tina, to John. They would talk tomorrow. Now she needed sleep.\n\nShe scooted closer to him to enjoy the safe feeling he always gave her and closed her eyes.\n\n“Goodnight John.”\n\nHe answered in kind with a soft voice and she fell asleep with a smile on her lips. \n\n~***~\n\n“Tell me again why we have to go to the village?” Asked Fancesco from his spot next to Gina on the back seat. “Don’t you two have to leave as fast as you can?”\n\n“I need to stop my memberships, Franc.” She answered, looking at the fields with nostalgia, trying to burn them into her memory. “I don’t plan on people coming to you two to ask why I didn’t pay the second payment or something.” \n\n“But why is he here too? You said he might be searched for.”\n\n“John can take care of himself.” \n\nThis time, only a sigh answered her. \n\n“Which one?” Asked John from behind the wheel, back into his farm-doctor ensemble with an added worn baseball cap and sunglasses.\n\n“Just leave me at the other corner, I know the way.”\n\nShe was dropped by as asked and turned to the driver again, handing him a list and a card. “Here’s the groceries list, please to bring them both there and help them with the flour bag. I’ll join you there in an hour or less.”\n\n“You’re sure?” He simply asked, taking the items trough the window.\n\n“I’m a big girl, John. Anyway, I have high doubts about being hurt there. I have friends that I believe to be high-grade.”\n\n \n\nOn this, she turned around and started walking, hands in her pockets. The sound of the engine slowly moved away to mix with the others in the nearby street. Adjusting her bag, she started jogging. Better start her muscles before whatever Angelo would have prepared.\n\n“Hey, you, Bella!” Called a man sitting on his porch. “Why don’t you come give me a kiss?”\n\nShe ignored the catcalling, keeping her steady rhythm. \n\n“Bella, come on!” Added another one, younger. “You don’t have any headphones on, don’t try to make us believe you can’t hear us!”\n\n“Oh, no.” She finally answered without even slowing down or turning her head. “I though I was very clearly ignoring you. My bad.” \n\nThe following shocked silence was worth more money that she could make. The following footsteps were not as welcomed. A hand closed itself on her shoulder and she began. Groin, plexus, throat. Bent, Empty, Close. The old man fell on the sidewalk and she looked for the second opponent. Not one, they were three. Four if she counted the wheezing form at her feet. The street was too wide, too well-known for them. She ran.\n\nThe small jog had done its job and the sprint wasn’t too damaging. She could see the cross of the church right beside Angelo’s place. She wouldn’t make it fast enough. Oh well- \n\nJohn turned the corner on foot, almost making her stop in shock. But she knew that stance. She had seen Angelo do it. Grabbing his extended hand, she felt him twist on himself to improve her momentum.\n\nWhen the sole of her shoe connected with the closest man, his jaw cracked soundly. The high kick usually gave her trouble, especially to end up on her feet. John’s hand on her waist annulled the problem in its entirety. A punch on the second man’s ear brought her back to herself as she crouched down to sweep the last man’s feet, a smile making its way to her face as he fell on his back loudly. There was no doubt John could have done all of it without her, but him letting her fight by his side was a gift she hadn’t foreseen. She felt… Equal. \n\n“You know Angelo.” He pointed out.\n\n“Yeah. I need to get to his place to say I’m leaving… He will be disappointed.”\n\n“Maybe.”\n\n \n\nThe duo went on their way, leaving the four bruised men on the ground, shocked, and very, very confused.\n\n \n\n\nTo be continued...\n"}
+{"text": "Derek looked over worriedly at the motionless teenager sitting next to him in the Camaro. Stiles was silent. Stiles was never silent. There should be arm flailing, and the rapid bounce of words hitting his eardrums with relentless energy. Now there was nothing. Zilch. Nada. Stiles was silent.  Derek cleared his throat uncomfortably.  Amber eyes locked onto his face.\n\n“Thank you Sourwolf” the whispered words were solemn and heartfelt “I don’t know what I would have done if they had taken me away from my Dad” the rest of the sentence was mostly muttered under his breath but Stiles had to know that he would be able to hear them. Before Derek could even respond, Stiles seemed to remember something, Derek could see the curiosity creeping into the kid’s eyes as Stiles turned his body to face him and he perked up a bit. “Did they have communication devices in their ears? What did you hear just before we left?” he asked his eyes gleaming.\n\nDerek actually smothered a grin “Some guy threatened them with the Hulk if they didn’t let you go” Stiles perked up even more “Seriously?” he gaped “Wow ultra-cool dude”\n\n“Stiles” Derek’s tone was familiar in its long suffering grumpiness “Don’t call me Dude”. Stiles actually laughed and Derek’s eyes gleamed with satisfaction behind his sunglasses.  He could smell the stress, anxiety and adrenaline easing off in the kid. He might be following the Sheriff’s order to watch out for the boy but he had always liked the sarcastic little shit anyway. He was much more entertaining than Scott, who really should have been a Were Golden retriever not a wolf. Despite Scott’s so called morality and puppy dog eyes, Stiles was more loyal and utterly ruthless when it came right down to it. He would have made an excellent Beta. He would make an even better Alpha.\n\nDerek was angry, he was always angry but when the kid was still trying to deal with the fact that he had been kidnapped and beaten by that psychotic old bastard Gerard Argent and no one had come to save him especially not his damn best friend, he now had to deal with some fucking interfering secret agency and their not so fucking secret superheroes trying to take him away from his Dad. It made Derek really, really angry.   Derek knew the agony of losing family. Stiles had suffered through that once with his Mom, there was no way in hell Derek could sit back and watch Stiles lose his scary father. Anger boiled in his veins like lava. Those interfering assholes wouldn’t want to see him angry, there would be teeth and claws and throats being ripped out. \n\nDerek pulled something out of his jacket pocket and threw it Stiles, “Ring your Dad and tell him we are on our way” he growled. Stiles gaped at him as he found his own phone back in his lap. Stiles gave a surprised chuckle “That Hawk guy didn’t even see you move Der Bear, you must have scared the crap out of him”, there was gleeful vengeful satisfaction in the kid’s tone and Derek hid another smile. He didn’t even cuff Stiles’ head for the stupid nickname.\n\n“Dad” John Stilinski closed his eyes with relief as he heard Stiles’ voice. He didn’t care that both Parish and the God of Thunder were sitting in his office with him whilst they waited for the rest of the SHIELD/Stark circus to arrive.\n\n“Stiles honey, are you ok? Are you with the Deputies that were despatched? Did anyone hurt you? What did Stark do to you?” The rapid fire questions were getting increasingly desperate yet didn’t allow Stiles a chance to answer. Thor watched with interest.  Parish raised one eyebrow in surprise, the Sheriff was normally imperturbable even when Stiles had a mishap. His actions against the Argents were the result of a cool manipulative highly intelligent and ruthless strategist. The Sheriff’s reaction to Stiles call was so out of character that Parish knew there was something major behind it, and had he mentioned Stark as in Tony Stark? Another Avenger and the team mate of the Alien blonde bombshell who was sitting next to him enjoying some pop tarts.  What the hell was going on?\n\nDerek heard the Sheriff’s reaction and wondered if Stiles’s behaviour had finally rubbed off on the man. Derek had assumed that when he was tasked with looking out for Stiles it was protection against the supernatural. The Sheriff hadn’t told him anything about problems with the Avengers for god’s sake but when he was making his way through the cemetery to Mrs Stilinski grave after he had been notified by the Sheriff that Stiles was going there and he was to keep an eye on him, he had overheard Stark’s words and Stiles’ response. He had seen the same shade of eye colour in Stark and Stiles. He didn’t know what the actual story was, but it didn’t really matter. The Sheriff was Stiles’ father and the kid adored him. Shit Stiles had lied to the damn man for months about the chaotic and dangerous supernatural insanity in Beacon Hills just to keep him safe. Whatever Stark’s reasoning, and wasn’t the guy supposed to be some sort of genius, turning up with his pack of lycra clad assholes and allowing them to frighten the kid was a big mistake. One the Iron Man was going to live to regret if he wasn’t already, judging by the Sheriff’s tone of voice. The Sheriff was freaking dangerous and he didn’t need any gimmicks, superpowers or secret agencies.\n\n“Dad, let me get a word in” Stiles gave a weak laugh, appreciating the irony of what he had just said and he heard an answering snort of amusement from his Dad. “I’m with Derek, you know Derek Hale? He got me out of there” There was a pause then Stiles offered “Stark wasn’t alone, he had some of the Avengers with him and the Black Widow, she tried to make me go with them Dad, well they all did towards the end but Mrs Oakley was there and she and Derek stopped them” there was a sound suspiciously like a sob before Stiles carried on “Derek’s bringing me to you Dad, and they are following. What are we going to do?”\n\nThe Sheriff listened to his son’s voice become more fearful as he relayed the events and his rage grew.\n\n“Stiles, you are safe with Derek. No one is going to take you away from me. You come straight here and we will deal with this kiddo”\n\nBy the time Tony had parked his roadster in the Station parking lot, Jarvis had supplied full information on Mrs Eleanor Oakley retired teacher, widow and great grandmother extraordinaire, the disturbing story of Derek Hale’s life to date and Bruce Banner had interrupted their conversation and told him in no uncertain terms that he would be a complete moron if he allowed anyone to take Genim away from the Sheriff unless the kid was in imminent and present danger from the man.\n\nHe glanced curiously at the madly abandoned white SUVs that he presumed had something to do with Coulson and his gang. He was incredibly pissed off at everyone right now, especially SHIELD, the vehicles that the rest of the team had used were all parked and they were waiting for him outside the entrance. That sweet ride the Camaro was empty, with no sign of its hot growly driver or his young passenger with the Stark DNA.  Another presumption, but they could paint him yellow, give him dungarees and call him a freaking minion if the kid wasn’t already crying on the shoulder of his infamous assassin alternative father. Damage limitation time. Well he was good at that, he could have the board of Stark Industries bending over backwards to tie his shoelaces if he put his mind to it, but then again they loved the fact he made them money. He had to take the personal out of this. He had to find a way to get them both to be reasonable. Hmmm. Let’s see how that conversation was going to start. “Well Sheriff my team mates decided to kidnap the kid, frighten him half to death and then follow him to his father in the hopes of intimidating the man they believed had put the kid in danger because he was the infamous Scimitar. Oh Genim what’s that, you didn’t know that the man who brought you up saved your unborn life after being contracted to kill your Mom, one of many in a highly successful murderous career?” That was so going to go down well. Like a helicarrier with defunct engines. And Pepper thought the explosions in his lab were bad! He was so gonna need his suit for this conversation.\n\nBut first, there was the little matter of his team mates. The three Sweethearts waiting for him outside the Sheriff’s station, one of whom was shuffling his feet and looking at him sheepishly. The faint flush of shame across Steve’s cheeks reduced Tony’s ire slightly as did the memory of his scolding at the hands of the indomitable Mrs Oakley but Romanov and Barton were well past due for a Stark diatribe.\n\nNatasha’s face was calm and expressionless, one eyebrow raised as Tony walked towards them. Barton still had a defiant little smirk on his face but his eyes were assessing.\n\n“What the hell did you trio of moron’s think you were doing? Did you deliberately set out to destroy any hope of a relationship with the kid?” Barton snorted and Tony turned to glare at him, “Christ Stark what relationship? You pissed the kid off royally asking him for a hug for his old man”  \n\nBefore Tony could retaliate, and by god he really wished he had even just his gauntlets so he could blast the birdbrain when Steve interrupted. “It wasn’t like that Tony, it wasn’t planned, but did you see the way the boy’s body language reacted to the potential threat, there’s something wrong, you know there is. When Natasha called it, it seemed like a good idea to just get the boy out of the situation to allow us to assess the danger properly” Tony could hear how earnestly the man with a plan believed what he was saying but he was watching Romanov. Barton interjected suddenly “Tony, Scimitar is dangerous, don’t care how long he’s been inactive, the guy is dangerous. Your relationship with the boy, well I hope it works out but we can’t in good conscience leave your son with the guy” Barton’s sincerity was obvious but Tony hadn’t moved his eyes from the still silent redhead who hadn’t taken her attention off him. He liked Clint, he was entertaining and snarky, and kept most of his feelings to himself. Tony was sure that Clint was worried about his son in the clutches of Scimitar, there was obviously history there but right now, Tony was fixated on Natasha Romanov. Fucking spies and their fucking manipulations. Tony asked coldly “Tell me Clint did you agree this course of action with Red here, because Capsicle wasn’t aware of it was he until it happened” Clint’s eyes flickered to Natasha and then back to Tony. He didn’t say anything but his face tightened fractionally. Not that Clint would ever leave Natasha floating in the wind. Tony’s eyes were cold, and still glued to the Widow but he was aware that Steve had stiffened and was throwing an incredulous but increasingly angry glance at both Hawkeye and the Black Widow. Captain America drew himself up to his full height and coldly demanded “Did Fury put you up to this Agents?” Clint’s mouth dropped open as if he was going to say something then his eyes flickered to Natasha. “Fuck Nat” he muttered under his breath but he didn’t respond to the question.\n\n“Steve, I am going in there alone, I have bridges to build and a frightened teenager to apologise to, so you keep this pair here and find out what the fuck is going on.” He felt Steve’s hand clasp his shoulder as he walked past them towards the entrance. The murmured apology from the man was acknowledged with a slight nod.  Tony stopped right next to the Widow without looking at her. “If Coulson has harmed my child or the Sheriff in any way including emotionally or you don’t tell the Captain here what your instructions were, I am calling in Bruce, and you can explain this all to the Other Guy. Then I am going after Fury”"}
+{"text": "He wakes up screaming. \n\nIt was less than a year ago that he survived a beating that nearly killed him. His last few months in prison, freedom was so close. He was on high alert at all times, just wanting to make it out alive. He barely slept. Not that sleep had ever come easy locked up. They never turn off the lights there, people yell all night long. But he held it together, he kept it together, and he got out. \n\nAnd last night, well in this moment, his brain isn’t letting him remember last night. His brain is punishing him for relaxing. For letting his guard down. His brain can’t keep up, isn’t explaining to him where he is. All he feels is the adrenaline boiling in his veins. His flight or fight response has been activated and it’s all fight. \n\nHands are touching him. To restrain him. To stab him. To assault him. Fight Fight Fight. He snaps and grabs his assailant by the throat. \n\nBut his vision clears and reality crashes into him. He is in Betty’s room. He has her shoved against her headboard with his hands around her neck. \n\nHe lets go and scrambles away from her out of the bed to the other side of the room. She looks absolutely terrified. Of him. Fires inside him rage. The fighting for his life response is replaced by ugly self loathing, blistering anger at himself. He needs somewhere for the fire to go. \n\nHe punches her wall until the drywall cracks and his knuckles bleed. \n\n“Jughead, STOP,” he hears her hoarsely call out. He stops but doesn’t turn around to face her. \n\n“I’m sorry, Jesus. Betty, I’m so sorry.” He leans his forehead to the wall and tries to control his breathing. But memories from last night crush him. Betty’s flushed face, touching her again, her touching him. The tenderness. The heart splitting tenderness she showed him, and she allowed him to show her. \n\nYesterday was the most beautiful dream. And even though he had actively tried to fight against it, he couldn’t help it, hope had snaked its way into his head and heart. Nothing concrete, he didn’t allow himself to fantasize about anything tangible. But he went to bed last night with the hope that maybe, just maybe, this wouldn’t be the last time he fell asleep with the love of his life. \n\nHe hears her get out of bed and walk toward him. Before she can get too close he turns to face her and puts his hands up.\n\n“Don’t come any closer,” he warns her. She stops and looks scared but determined. More memories from yesterday slam into him and he can hardly bare it. She’s standing in front of him in her tiny sleep clothes, her cheeks pink, her hair slightly tousled. She’s a goddamn Angel and he’s a monster. “This,” he hisses, “is why I didn’t want you near me ever again. I am fucking ruined.” \n\n“No.” Betty is shaking her head, “No, this isn’t you. I know you’ve been through unimaginable trauma,” she stutters but Jughead cuts her off.\n\n“You have no idea what I’ve been through.” Watching his back all the time, from a Ghoulie, or a guard, or a traitorous Serpent. Walking around knowing any second someone could jump him. Stab him. Kill him. He knows these feelings and this anxiety will never leave him. “I will never get over it. This is who prison made me. This is who I am now. I don’t want you anywhere near me.” He pulls on his jeans and makes to leave. \n\n“Don’t you dare leave me again.” He can hear the rage building in her voice. “You’re going to quit without even trying? Without even trying to get better for me?” \n\n“I just fucking strangled you!” he explodes. “If anybody else put hands on you like that, I’d kill them and happily go back to prison for the rest of my life. Do I need to say it again? Prison fucking ruined me. What, you think I need some therapy? All this shit inside me, it makes me dangerous, and volatile. And I think you were on a pretty good fucking path before I showed up again. I bet before I got out no one was putting hands on you first thing in the morning.”\n\n“Why is it so easy for you to walk away from me?” she asks delicately, with shame and disappointment in her tone. And it cuts through him, because doesn’t she know? Nothing has ever been harder, but he also has never loved anything more. He almost falters when he looks into her eyes. There are still traces of fear, but what he mostly sees is sorrow. But then he sees the red marks on her neck, the marks from him.\n\n“I’d rather never see you again than have anything close to what just happened ever be repeated.” \n\nBetty steps closer to him. He tries to keep her at bay with a warning look. But since when did he ever have any control over Betty Cooper? She brings her hands up to hold his face and he wants to jerk away from her, but she’s always been able to disarm him.\n\n“You need help,” she says, but not accusatorially. “I know that. I understand that. Today, I’m going back to Brooklyn. I’m going to work my job. I’m going see my friends. I am not going to get back together with the boyfriend I broke up with the second I found out you were getting released.” That statement makes him want to look away, but she holds him firm in her hands. “And you are going to go to F.P.’s. You’re going to let him help you. You’re going to see a therapist. You are going to start a life with the money from the book advance. You are going to work on yourself. Hell, maybe even try dating. And someday, maybe soon, maybe not so soon, you’re going to come find me. And I’m going to be waiting for you.” Her gaze seers into his. \n\n“I don’t want you to wait for me,” he challenges. Betty doesn’t deserve this. Just like she doesn’t deserve a serial killer dad and a control freak mom. She doesn’t deserve waiting around for her excon boyfriend to get enough therapy so his PTDS doesn’t make him attack her. It makes him sick. \n\nHe watches her jaw set in defiance and he knows she’s going to fight him. He doesn’t want her to wait around, but it’s something else too. And he owes her the truth. “And what if - what if I never get better?” he whispers. \n\nHer features stay strong as her eyes search his face, she’s still cupping his cheeks. “Yesterday, when I picked you up, I didn’t have a plan. I didn’t know what I wanted. It was an out of body experience. I couldn’t stop myself if I wanted to. But I know now, just like I knew when you told me not to wait for you six years ago. I can’t, Jughead. Maybe when you’re out there getting better you’ll meet someone. You can try to date. You can see what it’s like trying to be with someone who’s not your soulmate.” She takes a breath and steps closer to him. “When you were in prison, I tried. I lived like you were died. Like there was no chance we would ever see each other again. I dated, I had a boyfriend, and Jug, I tried with him. I really tried. But there was always this little piece of me that wasn’t in it. I decided the piece must have died with you. But now you’re here, and I’m alive again.” Her eyes shine as she speaks. \n\n“Betty, I’m not the person who left you. I’m so much worse.” He feels defeated.\n\n“Jughead, do you still love me?” she asks in a hushed tone. His throat closes up because how can she even ask him that? He wants to tell her she's everything, but he fleetingly thinks she’ll probably read his book soon enough. Instead of confessing out loud, he simply nods. \n\n“Why don’t you understand? I love you as much as you love me.” His heart flutters and his hands shake and he can’t stop himself from placing them on her hips and rubbing his thumbs against the bare skin of her waist. With his touch her whole body releases tension and he can’t believe she’s finding comfort in him after what just happened. \n\n“I’m going back to New York,” she states again. “I am going to live my life, but part of me, a big part of me, will always know you’re out there. And even if I try my best I know I will always be waiting for you. So, please,” she pleads, tears are rolling down her cheeks now. “Please, come find me.” \n\nHe can’t speak. His hands move from her waist to her back as he pulls her to him. They hug and feel each other's heart beats rattle their bodies. He wishes he could promise her a future. He wants to give her anything and everything, but he’s so, so scared. He’s scared he’ll become a statistic and end up in prison again. Scared he’ll turn to alcohol like his father did so many times in the past. Scared this violence inside him will never leave and he’ll always be a powder keg waiting to go off. He’s scared this is the last time he’ll ever hold Betty Cooper. He never wants to let her go.\n\nBut, eventually, he’s the one that untangles them. If he stays one second longer, he may never leave her, and they are both not ready for that. \n\nAs he goes to leave, he hears her strangled voice. “Jughead, if you really still do, could you - could you say it out loud?” She’s blinking back tears again. “I just haven’t heard it in so long.” \n\nHe’s suffocating for a moment, there is no air in his lungs to get the words out. Because all this terrifies him. These feelings and these words, they keep him tied to her when he knows he should leave her. But they hum through him, the words that were his mantra in prison. His heart is in his throat and he can’t deny her. He looks into her eyes.\n\n“I love you. I’ll never stop loving you.” \n\nShe inhales lips parted. He opens the door and leaves."}
+{"text": "\nTony was not sure how long he remained there on his knees - long enough for the tick on his back to act up and his legs to cramp up in protest. He also wasn’t one hundred percent sure as to how he had managed to get himself to the kitchen, but there he was, with a drink in hand next to the kitchen sink. \n\n\n\nTony sighed, leaning his elbows on the table as he dropped his head with a defeated groan. He could not believe what a mess he had made of things. And, the worst part, he had no real idea how to fix this. Would Stephen be amenable to pretend nothing had happened tonight? Could they go back to being - probably somewhat strained - friends again? He could probably come up with some halfway decent excuse that they could use to justify tony’s reproachable behavior, but Tony was not optimistic enough to assume their relationship would be the same as before. \n\n\n\nAnd, truly, that’s what hurt him the most. In but a second he had managed to destroy one of the most precious relationships he had with one of the few people that had befriended Tony not only because of what he could do for the Doctor but rather because he simply enjoyed spending time with him. It was one of the few healthy relationships he had left, and he could not bear the thought that he had ruined it for good. \n\n\n\n“Tony?” Asked Carol as she quietly walked into the kitchen, a worried frown on her face. \n\n\n\nTony jumped a mile high, having assumed he was alone in the compound. “Jesus, Carol, warn a guy next time.” He said as he clutched at his chest, thankful that he hadn’t been holding his drink for he was sure it would be shattered on the floor otherwise. \n\n\n\n“Sorry,” She said with a sheepish smile. “I didn’t know you were in the compound - thought it was just me tonight.” \n\n\n\nTony tensed slightly. “Yeah, I… just got here a minute ago,” Tony said without looking at his friend. “I didn’t realize you were coming back tonight.” \n\n\n\n“I wasn’t supposed to come back for another week, but I finished my mission early, so I figured I’d give myself a treat and come home early. Is it alright that I decided to crash here? I… well I got to New York and I realized I didn’t really have anywhere else to go, but I should have-”\n\n\n\nTony stopped her nervous rambling by placing a warm hand on her shoulder. He looked at her, feeling truly touched by her genuine concern of having overstepped a boundary. “This is your home too - for as long as you want or need it.” \n\n\n\nShe gave him a dazzling smile. “Thank you, Tony. I really appreciate that.” She stepped closer then to envelop the man in a hug. “Now, you wanna tell me what’s up? You’re not looking real swell tonight.” \n\n\n\nTony could not help but tense in her arms. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” \n\n\n\nShe snorted. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,” she said as she leaned her chin against his shoulder. “But don’t pretend you’re okay. I know you, Tony - and I know I haven’t known you for long, but I \n\nknow \n\nyou, so… if you wanna talk, I’m here.” \n\n\n\n“Am I breaking up a moment, because if so, I am so sorry,” Hope said from the kitchen door, looking slightly nervous to be standing there.\n\n\n\nTony and Carol whirled around, both clearly surprised. Tony looked up at Friday “You know a little warning every time someone is about to scare the shit out of me by stealthily walking into the room would be nice, baby girl.” \n\n\n\n“Sorry, boss. I saw no risk of threat,” Friday said with a hint of humor in her voice; never let it be said that his children did not have the power to find pockets of space where it was safe to tease him. \n\n\n\nTony shook his head but smiled at his newly arrived guest nonetheless. “I must admit, I wasn’t expecting to see you tonight, Ms. Van Dyne”\n\n\n\n“Hope,” she corrected softly with a small smile - a small reminder of their last conversation. “I… um, well I was hoping to speak to you actually. I had so many things in my mind I forgot to call. Sorry about that,” she said with a small grimace. \n\n\n\nTony softly moved away from Carol’s embrace in order to approach Hope, offering her his hand. “It’s alright, no harm done. How can I help you?” \n\n\n\n“Um, I am not sure actually,” she said, her voice sounding watery as she slowly approached the kitchen. “God, it’s silly, I shouldn’t have come.” \n\n\n\nCarol placed her hand atop the other woman’s offering her a small smile. “Listen, I don’t know you very well-” that was an understatement, she had only seen the woman twice and had filled in the gaps with the profile sheets Tony had provided “- but I think I can speak for Tony and I when I say it’s okay; we are a team now. That means we’re there for each other, no matter how small or silly your issue may seem to you.” \n\n\n\nTony swallowed hard, feeling Carol’s comment strike him to the bone. It had never been like that with the old team; the most he had been able to hope for was not to be too terribly judged if he ever dared have an issue. \n\n\n\nHe shook the pain off, plastering a smile on his face as he nodded in agreement. “C’mon, I’ll make you ladies some tea if you want? Or something stronger?” \n\n\n\n“I will have some of what you’re having,” Carol pointed to Tony’s scotch glass and the man nodded. \n\n\n\n“Make that three,” Hope said with a sigh as she heaved herself into a seat on the kitchen Island. \n\n\n\n“So, I take it we’ve all had shit nights then?” Tony asked as he poured two drinks and slid them towards each woman. \n\n\n\n“I spoke with Scott today,” Hope explained taking  a gulp of her drink. “Thank you, by the way, for convincing them to let me do that.” \n\n\n\nTony nodded. “How did it go?” \n\n\n\n“He doesn’t remember anything - well anything other than what we already knew-” she said as she took another big gulp before covering her eyes with her free hand. “I just… it’s very frustrating. I \n\nknow\n\n she’s trapped in there - I know it - but there’s no leads and Scott just… I know it’s not his fault. He genuinely tried to help me today,” she said, mostly reminding herself of that fact. \n\n\n\nTony sighed and walked around the table to sling his arm around her shoulders to bring her closer. “I am sorry, Hope,” he said honestly. “Would you like me to look at the math for the tunnel? Maybe I can help somehow there.” \n\n\n\nShe gave him a watery smile. “My father will never agree to that, but I’ll try to bring some of our research here next time I come so we can look at it together.” \n\n\n\nTony nodded, rubbing her arm comfortingly. “Don’t lose hope yet,” he teased, feeling a spark of warmth fill him as she chuckled, looking a bit more relaxed. \n\n\n\n“Alright, enough about me, why are you two having bad nights?” She asked, taking a second to look at them both. \n\n\n\n“Ladies first,” Tony said as he turned to look at Carol, who chuckled. \n\n\n\n“I had to deal with a Kree emissary on my last mission,” she revealed, leaning on her elbows as she stared at her drink. “It was… I don’t know,” she said, shaking her head. “I lived with them for six years where I had no idea who I had been before. I was just Vers. I trained with them, I laughed with them, I went to battle with them - \n\nI was one of them\n\n - and I know I was never really a part of them, but…” she swallowed hard, shaking her head. “A part of me will always hate them, but there’s also a part of me that was… is… one of them. And I don’t know if that makes me just as much of a monster.” \n\n\n\n“You’re not a monster,” Tony defended immediately, reaching over to tilt her chin up so she would look at him in the eye. “You are \n\nCarol Danvers\n\n, a former member of the US Airforce that was captured and used in a heinous way for six years. Whatever crimes you committed while under their influence were not done by choice and yes, you may have Kree blood running through your veins now, but that doesn’t have to define who you are.” Tony moved his hand up to her cheek to wipe a tear away. \n\n\n\nCarol choked back a sob and leaned into the touch, holding Tony’s hand there with her warm hand. \n\n\n\nHope, for her part, also reached out, and squeezed Carol’s free hand, giving her a reassuring smile as she said “haven’t you been kicking ass around the universe saving everyone and anyone for the past twenty years? If anything, you’re a hero.” \n\n\n\nCarol snorted, chuckling despite herself. “Sorry, I am not usually this… “ she shook her head. \n\n\n\n“We’re here for each other right? You said it not even ten minutes ago,” Hope reminded her. \n\n\n\nCarol nodded, smiling softly before turning her gaze to Tony. “Right, so now that we’ve spilled our guts it’s your turn mister. What happened tonight?” \n\n\n\nTony groaned, burying his face in his hands as he walked away from hope to stand at the head of the Island, not quite looking at either woman. “I… fucked up.” \n\n\n\n“That’s not much of an answer,” Hope said dryly as she picked up her drink. “What happened, Tony?” \n\n\n\n“I kissed Stephen,” Tony half whispered, sounding strangled. “And I am pretty sure that, with that, I managed to ruin one of the few good friendships I have made in my life.” \n\n\n\nCarol half gaped at him. “Wait, did he… what did he say?” \n\n\n\n“He didn’t say anything. He didn’t… well he did absolutely nothing, really. He just stood there, frozen, looking like an old computer with a virus,” Tony said as he picked up his drink and knocked it back. “God I’m such an idiot.” \n\n\n\nHope grimaced. “Maybe he was just surprised?” \n\n\n\nTony snorted “please don’t try to make me feel better about the fact that I forced a kiss on my \n\nco-worker\n\n.” Tony groaned again. “God, what is wrong with me? I mean, for fuck’s sake, we’re supposed to work together for the Avengers and I went ahead and just-” \n\n\n\n“Okay, no, stop, don’t do that to yourself,” Carol said, placing her hand on his shoulder. “You are making this bigger than it has to be. What did you do exactly? Did you step away as soon as you realized he wasn’t reciprocating?” \n\n\n\n“Yes, of course, but-” \n\n\n\n“Then you took the cue and didn’t pressure him. I mean, yeah, it may get a bit awkward but to be fair, when I first saw you two together, I thought you were a couple. So it’s not like you kissing him is a crazy out of left field idea, Tony. Just… apologize next time you see him, and I can help you by always being in the room when he’s there to make it less awkward if you want.” \n\n\n\nTony couldn’t help but laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation. “A time machine would be great right about now,” he said with a self-deprecating smile. “Anyway, I am gonna give him some space and apologize next time I see him.” \n\n\n\n“And, I know this is not exactly helpful, but you have us now too, so it’s not like \n\nall\n\n your friends are gone,” hope teased. “Also, you have that Colonel of yours who keeps making heart eyes at Carol.” \n\n\n\nTony guffawed as a blush crept up Carol’s neck. “Oh, come on, you didn’t think no one would notice,” Tony said with a smile, sending Hope a thankful look for her prompt change in topic. \n\n\n\n“Okay, listen, we’ve only gone on \n\none \n\ndate so neither of you can breathe a word about this to anyone.” \n\n\n\n“Have you kissed yet?” Tony asked, as bluntly as ever, his eyes shining with childish excitement. \n\n\n\nCarol couldn’t have blushed harder if she tried. “Oh god, I can’t talk about that with you. You’re his best friend!” \n\n\n\n“So? He knows in explicit detail all the dark and kinky shit I got up to when I was younger. Why can’t I know about his new - and most precious - paramour?” \n\n\n\nCarol couldn’t help but snort, smacking him softly on the arm. “You’re awful.” \n\n\n\n“Did you get to second base? Did he even try to get to second base or was he a prude and kissed you chastely goodnight?” \n\n\n\nCarol covered her ears. “I am not listening anymore.” \n\n\n\nTony suddenly straightened, his eyes turning neon blue. “We have an intruder,” Tony said as he moved away from the table, his suit quickly forming around him. \n\n\n\nNeither woman questioned him, both getting up immediately to follow behind him, Carol’s hands glowing brightly as she summoned energy from within her. Tony flew quickly through the compound, reaching the main entertainment room in record time. He had felt the disturbance before Friday had had a chance to warn him thanks to his new connection to the network, but it was no less worrying to know someone had managed to get that far into the compound undetected. \n\n\n\nHe brought his hands up as soon as he was close enough to devise a feminine shape in the shadows. Whoever it was, she didn’t look to be armed, but Tony had learned long ago that that meant little. With a mere thought, the lights flickered on, shining a bright light on a short, lithe woman with lovely, brown, wavy hair. Tony frowned, sure that he had seen her soft features before.  \n\n\n\nSuddenly, it hit him. \n\n\n\n“Laura Barton?” \n\n\n\nThe woman turned at the sound of her name, grimacing softly. “Bishop,” she said almost too quietly for Tony to hear. He was sure he would not have heard her without his new enhanced body. \n\n\n\n“I looked for you,” Tony said, tilting his head as he let the suit retract back into his skin, though he was sure his eyes were still glowing bright neon blue. “You disappeared almost as fast as Rogers and co. did. I thought you were with them.” \n\n\n\nShe shook her head. “I haven’t seen Clint since he left to help his precious Captain America,” she hissed out, her jaw clenching involuntarily. “I knew trouble would come if we stayed, so I took the kids and went into hiding.” \n\n\n\nTony frowned. “How did you even know where to hide? You deleted all your tracks. You disappeared from \n\nevery database.” \n\n\n\n\nShe smiled, looking a little proud despite herself. “I know you met me as Clint’s wife, but I had a life before him you know? I was Laura Kate Bishop once, before I became Laura Barton.” \n\n\n\nTony stepped slightly closer, curious now. “And who is Laura Kate Bishop?” \n\n\n\n“She used to be SHIELD’s top agent before she retired. She is also the only agent at SHIELD that could ever best the Black Widow at hand to hand combat,” she said, her eyes gaining a faraway look that made Tony’s heart ache. “I admit, I am a bit rusty now.” \n\n\n\n“I must admit, if you’re not here because Clint sent you, then I am at a loss as to why you decided to come out of hiding to break into the compound,” Tony said slowly, not willing to drop his defenses. \n\n\n\nShe grimaced. “Sorry about the break-in,” she said immediately. “I didn’t want… anyone to see me aside from you, not yet.” She sighed. “And you’re right, I am not here because of Clint, and I sure as hell don’t want to talk about him right now.” \n\n\n\nTony nodded. “Why did you come out of hiding Laura?” \n\n\n\nShe bit her lip, and began pacing slowly. “When Natasha released SHIELD’s information, a lot of people I knew got hurt. My information was leaked too, but I had Clint so we tried to rationalize it, and ignore the fact that someone out there could get their hands on my info and eventually find out my connection to him. So, when Clint left, I ran. I wasn’t stupid though, I kept tabs on what was happening. I got myself a copy of the accords to know why exactly everything had gone to shit.”\n\n\n\nTony didn’t say anything, knowing the woman needed to get this out of her chest or she would implode with the rage and hurt so clearly visible on her face. \n\n\n\n“I’ve been tracking your movements since the scuffle with the rogue Avengers, because I wanted to know… I needed to know if I could trust you,” she said quietly, looking at Tony with sad eyes. “My… Clint was wrong to join Steve Rogers, and I told him not to go but he wouldn’t listen. And because of that, now my family has been dragged into this mess. And I don’t want them to grow up in hiding, feeling ashamed of who they are, not knowing who to trust.” \n\n\n\nTony nodded, but sighed. “If you’re here to ask me to get him a pardon, you should know that I-”\n\n\n\n“I told you already, I am not here because of Clint. He made his choice, and he should pay for it,” she corrected, her eyes burning with anger. “I am here to help you,” she explained, turning slightly to open her bag to pull out the Accords. “Like I said, my family’s already been dragged into this, but if we have to stay in this mess, then I am going to do it on my terms. I know something is coming - I can see it from the way you are frantically rebuilding the earth’s defenses. And I want to help you protect the earth.” \n\n\n\nTony gaped at her, finally noticing she was holding the accords alongside a pen. “But… what about your children?” \n\n\n\nShe smiled sadly. “After a lot of video surveillance and character analysis, I realized there was no safer place for them than with you - that is here, at the compound. With your help, I can keep them safe and let them have as normal a life as possible.” \n\n\n\nTony couldn’t help but feel touched at the trust she was placing in him. She had not allowed herself to be swayed by Rogers or even her husband. She hadn’t blamed Tony for that altercation from the get go; rather, she had gone digging, trying to find the objective truth in order to make her decision. And she had chosen to leave behind all that she knew and found comfort in to rely on Tony. \n\n\n\n“I promise you, I will do everything in my power to keep your children safe,” Tony vowed quietly but honestly. “You can all stay at the compound, and, if you truly want to join the Avengers, then I will have my lawyers come over later this week so we can tailor a contract for you to sign, okay?” \n\n\n\nShe nodded, giving him a weak smile before tentatively stepping closer. Tony noticed the hesitance, but he also noticed the warmth in her eyes and he knew exactly what she was silently asking for. He didn’t have to think twice; he closed the distance between them and enveloped her in a comforting hug similar to the one she had given them once upon a time in her farm when she had seen him looking broken and bruised. \n\n\n\n“I am so sorry you and the children were dragged into all of this,” Tony whispered into her hair. She did not answer, simply wrapped her arms tighter around him and allowed herself to weep. \n\n\n\nStephen’s brain went back online much after Tony had already left, running away via the portal Stephen himself had made him. He looked towards the now empty space, grimacing as he berated himself for taking so long to react. \n\n\n\nBut it wasn’t exactly his fault, not really. The kiss had really come out of left field for him. Yes, he and Tony flirted a lot, and yes he was half in love with the man, but Tony flirted with \n\neveryone\n\n, so that wasn’t much of an indicator. More importantly, as much as he loved the man, Stephen had never allowed himself to consider the possibility of reciprocation or the possibility of a relationship. \n\n\n\nHe had buried any and all feelings deeply inside of him and had locked that door with thrown away the key because this was worse than a bad idea; this could break them. \n\n\n\nNeither he nor Tony had a very good track record when it came to relationships but, most importantly, their jobs added a dimension most relationships would never have to deal with. Stephen was the sorcerer supreme, he could not afford to be bogged down by… well by love. He had to be above the rest, putting the safety of the world above all else. He had to be willing to sacrifice anything and everything if it meant keeping the earth - and the stone - safe. And how was he supposed to do that if he was in love? \n\n\n\nThey would both be less effective if they allowed themselves to be bogged down by love. \n\n\n\nNot only that, but they also had the team to consider. Tony was effectively leading the new Avengers, and Stephen was meant to be aiding him in that task, but a relationship between the two could damage the team interactions if things went south. \n\n\n\nThere were so many reasons to say no to a relationship between them - so many logical reasons that dictated they stay away from one another - and yet Tony had kissed him. Tony had thrown caution to the wind and he had taken a shot - and Stephen wanted \n\nmore. \n\n\n\n\nGod, how he wanted. He wanted to press the man close and never let go. He wanted to protect him, to love him, to \n\nconsume him \n\nand damn the consequences. \n\n\n\nStephen groaned and shook his head, slowly making his way to the training grounds. He couldn’t make a decision when his emotions were so unfocused and raw. What he needed was a clear mind and some distance from the situation; only then could he make the right choice, both for himself and for Tony. \n"}
+{"text": "\n\nH.Jisung\n\n\n\n\n| X516.06.13 |\n\n\n\nIt was beginning to get more and more difficult to stay awake. It seemed as though when one was awake, the rest were sleeping. It was a never ending fatigue that always lingered in every aspect. Physical. Mental. Emotional.\n\n\n\nWhat made it worse was that as much as Jisung wanted to speak with Felix, his mind was plagued by what Greed was taunting him with, driving his energies elsewhere. \n\n\n\nHe knew what Greed wanted in the end and Jisung wanted to keep Felix as far away from it as possible. Felix wasn't the type to be treated like a doll. He wasn't the type who could be controlled like that. It would break him. \n\n\n\nIt would be everything Jisung didn't want for the one he loved. \n\n\n \n\n\n° ° ° ° ° ° °\n\n\n\n\nL.Felix\n\n\n\n\n| X516.06.13 |\n\n\n\nWith the snap of the Sin's fingers, all the clothes Greed bought was neatly put in Felix's closet. The quick clean up kind of impressed the boy. \n\n\n\n\"Are you sure you don't need help dressing your wound?\" Greed asked. \n\n\n\nFelix nodded, wanting some space now. \"I've got it. Thanks though...for today.\" \n\n\n\nGreed grinned. \"Anytime. Have a good night, Lixie.\"\n\n\n\nThe older left the room, closing the bedroom door behind him which allowed the blonde to relax. He was happy to be alone. To be able to think for a second. \n\n\n\n\nGreed seemed like he was sort of fooled, but maybe I should try someone else? Things might go quicker? \n\n\n\n\n\n...\n\n\n\n\n\nSo Jisung made a deal with the Sin because he didn't want to lose me? They all did? \n\n\n\n\n\nWhat were they promised though? Because I doubt they would've agreed to some sort of possession.\n\n\n\n\n\"I didn't think you'd ever be back.\" Lust said, entering the bedroom without knocking. \n\n\n\nFelix closed his eyes a laid back on his bed. \n\n\n\n\nSo much for being alone. \n\n\n\n\n\"To be honest, I didn't either.\" Felix replied, flinching when cold fingers lightly touched the cut on his side. \n\n\n\n\"He showed you?\" Lust asked curiously, Felix avoiding eye contact as he nodded. \n\n\n\nSomething felt different...off about the Sin. While Lust was always a little coy, there was an unusual air about him now. A bit of pride or smugness as if he knew something Felix didn't. As if he held all the power here but was playing innocent. \n\n\n\n\"He did.\" Felix replied, wondering if this might be his chance to get some real answers before the Strawberry Moon.\n\n\n\n\"Then I guess he really thinks he stands a chance.\" Lust mumbled with a slight smile.\n\n\n\n\"I told him he was up on my list for who I might pick.\" Felix admitted. \"But if I'm being honest, I think you're higher.\" \n\n\n\nLust grinned, amused. \"Flattery won't get you very far with me, Felix. I know what you're trying to do, but I'm not like my brothers. If you want answers, you'll have to...how shall I put it...\"play nice\".\" \n\n\n\nFelix stiffened a little, wondering if Lust was mocking what Chan had told him or if it was just a coincidence?\n\n\n\n\"I have my times of patience, but I'm starting to lose it with you.\" Lust continued to say, moving closer to the blonde on the bed. \"I'll give you the answers you want, but you'll have to indulge me first. I've tried being nice, but I'm getting a little bored.\"\n\n\n\nLust moved quickly, trapping Felix on the bed before he could run away. Jeongin's body was a lot stronger than when they first met back in college, and Lust's powers only seemed to multiply that strength. \n\n\n\n\nMaybe this wasn't the best option? It doesn't seem like he'll let me go though. \n\n\n\n\n\"Don't be scared. I won't hurt you.\" Lust cooed, Felix slightly meeting the other's gaze. \n\n\n\n\nWere his irises always a dark pink? \n\n\n\n\n\"I just wanna have a bit of fun.\" The other purred, making the other shiver as his breath tickled his ear.\n\n\n\nThe younger's hands began to roam under Felix's shirt, his skin heating up with every touch or glide of his fingers. It sucked the warmth from his body, his skin aching for warmth that the other seemed to possess. \n\n\n\nMeeting the other's gaze more directly, Felix let himself get lost in the way the pink irises almost pulsed a lighter pastel in tune with his heart beat. \n\n\n\n\nSo pretty...\n\n\n\n\n\"Hmm...don't get too spaced out on me.\" Lust tutted with a chuckle as he moved Felix's hand away from cupping the Sin's face. \"Perhaps you'd be more comfortable in a different space? Or perhaps with someone else?\"\n\n\n\nFelix didn't have time to really think, his mind too focused on the warmth the other was providing his cold body, his eyes closing. Jeongin's touch had never felt so...addictive before. \n\n\n\n\"F-Felix?\"\n\n\n\nOpening his eyes, the blonde felt a little giddy seeing the once pink irises were now their familiar dark brown. \n\n\n\n\"Innie?\" Felix breathed out, letting out a low groan when the younger's hand slipped under the waistband of his pants. \"H–Help me. It...it's so cold...\" \n\n\n\nThe younger looked distressed for some reason, Felix unable to wrap his mind around why that could possibly be. \n\n\n\n\nDoesn't he want this too? \n\n\n\n\n\nDoesn't he love me?\n\n\n\n\n\"I-I'm sorry. I can't control...\" Jeongin's voice strained as if struggling to hold something back. \"I'm so sorry.\"\n\n\n\nFelix let out a moan as the younger's hand palmed at his growing erection, the older practically melting at the touch. \n\n\n\nReaching up, Felix let his fingers tangle in the other's hair. \n\n\n\n\nSo soft...\n\n\n\n\nPulling the other down, Felix connected their lips, a shiver running down his spine as he desperately chased the warmth from the other's lips. Jeongin's lips seemed hesitant to move at first, Felix doing all the work for a while until the younger seemed to have a wave of confidence to take the lead. \n\n\n\nLetting the other's tongue slip past his lips, Felix allowed the other to explore his mouth, a moan escaping him as he felt the other gently squeeze his hard member. \n\n\n\n\"Felix...\" The younger breathed out, pulling away far enough so that Felix couldn't reach his lips. \"Look at me...please.\" His tone was gentle, Felix obeying in hopes the younger would continue on. \"Do you really want this?\" \n\n\n\nFelix nodded quickly, his eyes traveling elsewhere. \n\n\n\nStrong fingers gripped under the older's chin, turning his attention back to Jeongin. \"Look at me, Felix, please...Do you want me to continue?\" \n\n\n \n\n\n° ° ° ° ° ° °\n\n\n\n\nY.Jeongin\n\n\n\n\n| X516.06.13 |\n\n\n\nIt was nice to be back in his own body, but he wished it was by his own free will. He was still a puppet for the Sin to use...to manipulate. He wasn't really in control, he was just the face of all that was happening to his precious friend. \n\n\n\nFelix was out of his own headspace, his whines and moans doing nothing to help Jeongin's sanity. This was something he'd dreamed about before, just not like this. The only thing that made him feel less guilty was trying to get some sort of consent from the older, even though it didn't really matter. Lust was going to make him keep going regardless and Felix was already under his spell. \n\n\n\nHolding the other close, Jeongin tried not to think too deeply about what was happening. He hated how good it felt being inside Felix. How it felt as though the older was made for him. \n\n\n\nJeongin wanted to hate the way Felix was grinding his hips down in the younger's lap, but it was impossible. Felix was a sin of his own kind and Jeongin was falling deeper and deeper into the temptation. \n\n\n\n\"Need more...\" Felix breathed out, frustration in his tone. \"Please Jeonginnie...want you...\"\n\n\n\nRaising himself up and letting himself fall back down on Jeongin's cock, Felix let out a frustrated whine. It was obvious the older wanted Jeongin to move, but the younger was still hesitant. \n\n\n\n\"What are you waiting for?\" Lust asked, his voice taunting the younger. \"Aren't you gonna give him what he wants?\"\n\n\n\n\nYou did this to him. \n\n\n\n\n\"I only heightened what was already there.\" Lust chuckled. \"You might want to start moving before he moves on to someone else. Something tells me he's getting rather...impatient.\"\n\n\n\nA particular move by the other had Jeongin letting out a surprised moan, Felix's walls clenching around him in a tempting way. \n\n\n\nFelix looked utterly blissed out and needy, a light sheen of sweat glowing against his skin as he continued to roll his hips down.\n\n\n\n\"You've wanted this for so long.\" Lust continued to taunt. \"I'm feeling rather kind right now so don't let this opportunity go to waste.\"\n\n\n\n\nI don't want to hurt him.\n\n\n\n\n\"You're only hurting him the more you sit there like a statue.\" Lust argued, Jeongin hating the way Felix looked so desperate for the younger to thrust into him. \n\n\n\nCurling his lips in, Jeongin gave an experimental thrust up, a satisfied moan leaving Felix's lips. Moving his hips in a slow, hesitant pace, Jeongin listened to the older's moans. It filled him with a little more confidence that the older wasn't in pain, but a guilt still lingered in the back of his mind. \n\n\n\nWas he taking advantage of the older? Would Felix hate him after he snapped out of it? \n\n\n\n\"Mmm...feels good.\" Felix moaned, his lips capturing Jeongin's in a desperate kiss. \n\n\n\nSpeeding up his thrusts, Felix's moans became louder and higher pitched, music to Jeongin's ears. \n\n\n\n\nI shouldn't be enjoying this. \n\n\n\n\n\nThis is wrong. \n\n\n\n\n\nThis isn't how it was supposed to be.\n\n\n\n\nFeeling his hips growing sore from their current position Jeongin laid them back down, Felix wrapping his legs around Jeongin's torso as the younger continued to thrust into him in a rhythmic way. \n\n\n\nFelix felt so good around him...looked so beautiful under him. He looked so helpless, so meek as his hands grabbed at the younger's biceps. \n\n\n\nChanging the angle of his thrusts, Felix let out a moan that was much different than the others, Jeongin stopping his movements. The higher pitched sound was much more raw than the others and seemed to be punched out of him, the older even seemed surprised.\n\n\n\nA smirk tugged at Jeongin's lips, feeling a bit happy to have found the younger's sweet spot. Ramming his hips forward in a quick motion, Felix let out another pleased noise, Jeongin now focused on hitting that spot. \n\n\n\nThe sweet sounds coming from Felix were neverending as Jeongin felt himself drawing closer to his release, his thrusts becoming more erratic and rough. He was still feeling guilty, but the pleasure was becoming more and more addicting. He wished this wasn't the way things were, but spending this moment with Felix was everything the younger wanted. \n\n\n\nHe wanted Felix to be his. He wanted to shower the other with care and praise. He wanted to be by Felix's side for the rest of their lives. He wanted to protect and love the older as much as he could. \n\n\n\nFeeling a tightness in his stomach, Jeongin gave one final thrust, filling the younger with his cum while Felix spilled over his stomach. \n\n\n\nCollapsing on top of the older, Jeongin muttered out apologies like a matra. \n\n\n\nHe couldn't believe he did that. He couldn't believe he didn't regret it much either. \n\n\n\nLooking up at Felix, Jeongin found the other had his eyes closed, asleep already. \n\n\n\nUnable to help himself, Jeongin leaned up, letting his lips press against Felix's forehead. \n\n\n\n\"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.\"\n\n\n \n\n \n\n\n1.) Purple Hyacinth\n\n\n\n\n2.) Blue Violet\n"}
+{"text": "“I promise that I’ll take really good care of Pess,” Trucy solemnly told him.\n\n“I’m sure you will,” Miles agreed. “How many cups of kibble at breakfast?”\n\n“We’ve already been over this,” she groaned, rolling her eyes.\n\n“You shouldn’t have brought it up,” Phoenix stage-whispered to his daughter.\n\nThey were waiting just outside of customs at the airport. The traffic wasn’t bad that evening, especially when compared to the sights he had encountered in the past. Kay and Franziska were to the side, sipping overpriced coffee and giving them time to say their goodbyes. The reign of terror during their extended visit was finally coming to a close. Now they could conspire about the ideal colour for the wainscotting in their home, rather than his.\n\n“How many?”\n\n“Two and a half unless she had a treat the night before,” the girl recited.\n\nMiles had designed a helpful guide for Trucy, so that she would have no trouble being a good dog owner in his absence. It helped quell his fears as well. He knew Trucy was responsible when put to the test, but Pess could be a handful if she wanted to. Miles wasn’t sure how Pess would take separation for almost a week. They hadn’t gone long times without seeing each other before. He might be left sleeping on the couch for a while when he got back. Keeping her happy while he was gone would mitigate whatever damages she wrought.   \n\n“What is the ideal length of walk?”\n\n“Add a minute for every extra biscuit I give.”\n\n“I know for a fact you don’t follow either of those things,” Phoenix interjected. “Just the other day you gave her your leftover peanut butter toast and then had a nap on the couch!”\n\nImpossible! How had Phoenix noticed when he was very subtle about handing it to Pess under the table?\n\n“Nevertheless,” Miles began, folding his arms\n\n“We can have Pess call you every day if that will make you stop worrying,” he teased.\n\nHe scowled, and looked away from the Wright’s sappy, grinning faces.\n\n“That isn’t… necessary.”\n\n“Aw, Sweaty-”\n\n“Don’t you mean Sweetie?”\n\n“Nah,” Phoenix squinted at his list. “There aren’t two Es there. And you did begin to sweat when I pointed out that your dog is absolutely spoiled.”\n\n“Ngh!”\n\n“Are you done tormenting my brother?” Franziska called over to them\n\n“Almost!” Phoenix replied. “Truce, go say bye to your aunts.”\n\nTrucy did as she was told, giving them room to have a proper farewell. Phoenix’s grin became more shy than smug. Phoenix angled his head, also looking to the side. The trio were sharing hugs, and no doubt planning when Trucy could come visit them.\n\n “I should still keep an eye out for that,”  Miles remembered.  “I wouldn’t put it past Kay to recruit Trucy while we’re off guard.” \n\n“It’s kind of strange, isn’t it?”\n\nHis attention snapped back to Phoenix.\n\n“What is?”\n\n“It used to be the other way around,” he elaborated. “I was the one who would leave.”\n\nNow he understood. During that time, when he had been seeing Lang, and not even considered Phoenix Wright in that sense. It felt like an eternity ago, when in actuality, it had been less than a year. That was the funny thing about time, of course. Perceptions of it changed with age, and experience. So did opinions of other people. To think that he would be in a committed relationship with the man...\n\n“Indeed.”\n\n“That’s all you have to say?” Phoenix asked, spreading his arms for a hug.\n\n“It’s all I can think of.”\n\n“Stay out of trouble,” Phoenix mumbled into his shoulder.\n\n“I feel as if though it is I  who would be saying that to  you.” \n\n“Nothing’s stopping you from saying so,” he replied. “I just figured you should know I want you back here when it’s all over.”\n\nPhoenix clung to him a second longer. Trembling fingers ever-so-slightly dug into the fabric of his coat. Franziska was staring daggers at them now, her eyes pointedly flicking between their luggage and the clock overhead.\n\n“We’re being glared at,” Miles warned.\n\nPhoenix let go, and they rejoined the group.\n\n“Take care,” Phoenix said to the women.\n\nPhoenix offered them both a hand. Kay made finger guns, pointed in his direction.\n\n“Right back atcha’.”\n\n“You as well, Phoenix Wright.”\n\nFranziska hesitated, and shook his hand with an awkward motion. She was crushing his wrist, even if it wasn’t her intention to intimidate. Phoenix cringed, and tucked away his victimized hand in his hoodie pocket.\n\n“Where’s Trucy?” Phoenix asked, glancing around.\n\n“Bathroom.”\n\n“Kay.\"\n\n“S-she really is!” the thief said, holding her arms. “Fran back me up here!”\n\nHalf a second he had looked away from the trio, and now Trucy was gone. It didn’t help that she was so capable at disappearing acts.\n\n“Even if she wasn’t, her education would hardly be lacking,” Franziska said, wagging a finger. “She would be studying under two of Interpol’s finest agents!”\n\n“Neither of you are  borrowing  my daughter,” Miles snapped.\n\nSilence.\n\n“What are you gaping at me for?”\n\nHad he said something without realizing it? Accidentally slipped to German? He’d been speaking in it with the couple more often, so his accent would be up to snuff for the lectures. It was probable something like that could have happened without him being aware. His question would never be answered, for it turned out they really hadn’t let Trucy stow away in their suitcases.\n\n“There you are,” Phoenix sighed.\n\nThe man kept a protective hand on Trucy’s shoulder this time. There would be no more chances for vanishing performances that day. It would’ve been awkward to explain to security why there was a child hidden in the largest suitcase.\n\n“Where did you think I would be?” asked the girl.\n\n“Germany.”\n\nEveryone double-checked that they had the essentials with them, and then they parted ways. Getting through the airport security was an art that he and Franziska had perfected over the years. Kay remained on their coattails, making sure that they didn’t fall behind on schedule. The typical fuss that many went through with their luggage was avoided, a few well-placed glares prevented any “random” selections from their group. Passports were in order, tickets weren’t lost, and they were boarding the plane with plenty of time to settle in.\n\nThe flight was a long hall, and the view from the window mostly uninteresting. City lights glimmered for a time, drawing together in clusters of lines. Then they were over the ocean, and there was nothing to see but pitch black, and his tired reflection. Miles’ original plan had been to prep a bit on the plane, review his notes for the first of his speeches. While he put in a good fight, reviewing the cue cards Phoenix had designed for him, the battle was eventually lost. He tucked them back into his carry-on and rested his head against the cool surface of the window.\n\nSleep was light. Miles could hear muffled voices- the couple smothering words behind their hands. They had opted to stay awake, and were enjoying their second cups of coffee. He preferred sleeping longer to adjust to the time change, so their conversations mingled with his dreams.\n\nTrucy wanted him to bring back the entire autobahn, or maybe teach her how to drive on it? In his car no less. He decided to import a second one from Europe, so that way if she harmed his during the drive there would still be a back up- but for some reason the manufacturers had given him the wrong shade of red. It was closer to Apollo’s blazer- the upholstery was made of Apollo’s blazer, which was why he never wore a jacket in court. Of course! It all made sense! How had he not logically realized that before?\n\nMiles woke up near the end of the flight, because of air turbulence. Kay squeezed his arm and they practiced calm breathing together. He was fortunate that it left quickly. It was still dark when they landed, because they had flown west. It still felt like morning to him. Franziska had called their elder sister while they retrieved luggage. The woman still lived on the family estate. It had drafts, nosy servants, awful childhood memories, and how she tolerated it was beyond him. But this meant there was a driver waiting to escort them to Franziska’s not haunted, less ostentatious, apartment.\n\nKay fiddled and swore with her set of keys, while Franziska leaned heavily against the railing.\n\n“Here we are.”\n\nThey stumbled inside together, leaving their bags by the door. Not in any mood to be polite or explore around their apartment, Miles kicked off his shoes and lay down on the couch.\n\n“Wonderful. If I’m not awake by eleven tomorrow- today, wake me up.”\n\nHe fell into a pattern of relaxed breathing, and listened to their stirring around the apartment. Lights were flicked on and off, one of them dragged a suitcase away.\n\n“I think our fish died.”\n\n“We don’t have a fish.”\n\n“I think someone broke in and gave us a dead fish in a bowl while we were gone.”\n\n“That’s not a fish that’s our  eel.” \n\n“Fish are eels!”\n\n“Is it dead?”\n\n“I believe that is is sleeping.”\n\n “I would like to sleep,” he reassured them, twisting onto his side.\n\n“Sorry.”\n\nNow that they were in, Miles thought of texting Phoenix to say that they had arrived without mishap. No luggage had been stolen or lost in the system, their direct flight had not been stalled at any point. Exhaustion won over, he wound up sending a simple “here” to the man.\n\nAnd so began day one of six."}
+{"text": "“I shared all my dirty secrets, now it’s your turn.” Emily smirked over her whiskey, she was sat on the opposite end of the couch facing you with a devilish look in her eyes. You knew that starting a conversation like this would be a bad idea, especially with the amount of alcohol you had both drank. Asking Emily about her sexual experiences was inappropriate and you knew this, she was your boss but she also was your best friend and it would be lying to say you’d never wondered before.\n\nListening to the tales of her sexual adventures was an interesting way to spend your Saturday night, you had invited Emily around for drinks mostly because you were lonely but also because she was the best company. The topic about sex had come into play after Emily had confessed it had been almost a year since she had slept with anyone, picturing her in bed had made you blush but you encouraged her to keep talking; the sweet tingle in your stomach was too intoxicating.\n\n“I haven’t got anything as good as yours.” You laughed awkwardly, taking a sip of your drink in the hopes it would give you courage. None of your stories were that great, they were all awkward and ended poorly but you were too embarrassed to actually say that.\n\n“Come on, (Y/N)! You’ve got to give me something! Tell me some filthy shit like…” Emily paused to think, staring at you from across the couch. “What’s the most times a guy has made you come?” She looked very proud of her question, going to take a sip of her drink before realising it was empty and pulling a very confused face.\n\nYou could have lied. You didn’t have to tell her that no one had been able to make you come during sex, that you faked it every time because you didn’t want them to feel bad. She didn’t have to know; but you told her anyways.\n\n“Um, like..zero?” You tried to joke around with it, hoping that she wouldn’t judge you or think you were weird. “I don’t know, I guess no one’s worked out how to do it yet.” It wasn’t like orgasms were this mystical thing you’d never experienced before, you could make yourself come by yourself but whenever someone else was involved, it just never happened. Part of you felt a little broken, like you’d never be able to be pleased by another person and therefore were just there for their pleasure.\n\nEmily looked even more confused than before, staring at you intently for at least fifteen seconds before understanding what you meant. She didn’t look at you with pity in her eyes, rather genuine curiousness. You watched as she put her empty glass down on the coffee table and sat up straight, crossing her arms slightly in a way that unpurposefully empathised her cleavage.\n\n“You know that’s normal, right? One in three women find it difficult to achieve orgasm, it’s not rare.” Her words brought a little comfort to you but you still felt embarrassed, maybe Emily wasn’t judging you but you still felt like this inexperienced little girl when compared to her.\n\n“Thanks Reid.” You laughed as she leant forward to hit your leg playfully, pretending to be more offended than she actually was. Instead of leaning back, she sat closer to you, taking your glass from your hand and putting it down on the table.\n\n“Stop me if I’m being too inappropriate.” Emily clarified beforehand, your nerves kicking in. Your mind raced with all the possible things she could ask next, if asking you to tell her about your sex life wasn’t inappropriate enough then what could be worse than that? “Maybe the reason you haven’t been able to come with other people is because you haven’t been comfortable around them, they’ve all been hookups not actual relationships. So, maybe if you try it with someone you’re comfortable around, you could get there.”\n\nEmily was right, you hadn’t seriously dated someone ever, all the sexual experiences you’d had were from tinder matches or one night stands in gross nightclubs. Her words made sense, if you were with someone you trusted and who made you comfortable, your body might relax.\n\n“Are you suggesting we fuck?” The words came out of your mouth before you could process them, you tried to play it off as a joke but by the way Emily was looking at you; it was clear you’d guessed her plan. You had never been with a woman before, thought about it, sure, but never had the courage to actually pursue someone. Emily was a very beautiful woman and you were definitely attracted to her, but the flirtatious had always been friendly, it was just how the ladies at the BAU were to each other.\n\nSilence hung thick in the air, Emily was looking at you and you were looking at her and neither person knew what to say exactly so silence was the best option. Eventually however, Emily was leaning over and then her lips were on yours.\n\nHer lips were so soft, they slid over yours perfectly and became the perfect fit. She tasted like cherries from her lipstick and the whiskey she’d just finished and it was intoxicating, it was different from kissing men, her kiss made you felt like she truly cared about your pleasure. You obsessed over the feeling of her body against yours, her hand resting on your thigh and how you could feel her breath against your lips whenever she pulled back for a second for air. Never had you been kissed in such a way, you felt that tingle in your stomach begin to grow.\n\n“I want to help you, can I?” Emily’s voice was always hot, husky and dominant but considering the circumstances it was so much hotter. She was hovering above you now, her nose brushing against yours and her eyes trailing down your body. God, just knowing that she wanted to get you off was almost hot enough to make you come right there. There was a tiny voice of doubt in your mind wondering if you should be doing this, it wasn’t professional in the slightest and could lead to awkwardness in the future but right now, why not try it?\n\n“Go ahead, Prentiss. Impress me.” You didn’t know where that confidence came from but you were thankful for it as it made Emily kiss you again, rougher than before. Now she knew that you were okay with everything, her mannerisms changed. She was always a take charge kind of woman but you could already tell she was the dominant one in bed, you felt yourself melt back into the couch as Emily moved on top of you, knees either side of your waist.\n\nHer hands began to wander, stroking up your thighs and then up your shirt, her cold fingertips against your skin. Every touch had you keening, this was like nothing you’d ever experienced before, she hadn’t even touched you sexually yet and you could already feel the heat between your legs. You groaned against her lips and pressed your hips upwards, wanting any friction you could get.\n\n“Do you have any idea how long I’ve wanted you?” She husked against your neck once she pulled away, leaving slow kisses against your pulse point. You couldn’t form any coherent words so you just moaned, feeling so needy for her touch. As if she read your mind, Emily slipped her hands out of your shirt and began unbuttoning it, taking her time until she was done, helping you remove it from your body. “I’m going to take such good care of you.” She whispered before her mouth was trailing down to your collarbone, her skilled tongue tracing around the curve of your breasts in your bra.\n\nShe knew exactly how to touch you, this wasn’t like those inexperienced boys who just cared about getting their rocks off. Her hand snaked around to your back to unclip your bra, looking up at you to check you were still okay; instead of talking you just slid your bra straps down your arms and took it off yourself. Emily was looking at you like you were the most delicious thing she’d ever seen, and she intended to taste every part.\n\nEmily was intent on taking her time. She continued to kiss around your breasts, interlocking her fingers with yours so she could pin you down on the couch. Slowly, she progressed down undoing your jeans to then help wiggle you out of them.\n\n“Fuck, you’re gorgeous.” She made herself at home between your thighs, brushing her dark hair out of her face before diving in. She licked you over your panties, smirking as your thighs tightened around her. Emily didn’t want to tease you this time, her focus was on showing you what you’d been missing out on or at least having an enjoyable experience. After peeling your panties off, she took a second to look at the most intimate part of you before her mouth started to water and the urge to taste you as too intense.\n\nYou weren’t prepared for her mouth, it was apparent she was no stranger to this anatomy because she knew exactly what she was doing. You’d never had good oral sex before, it was always from guys who were just doing it so you’d then give them oral in return so to have someone actively eager to please you was hot in itself. Her tongue flicked against your clit and you were putty in her palms, your head thrown back and mouth agape.\n\n“Oh my god!” You gasped as your hands found their way down to Emily’s hair, tangling themselves in it to keep her in place. You weren’t sure how long it normally took people to come but with the way her tongue would slide against your folds or how when she wasn’t paying attention to your clit with her mouth she’d use her thumb to rub tiny circles - it wasn’t going to be long until you exploded.\n\nIt wasn’t until you felt two of Emily’s fingers slip inside of you that the feeling really set in, that rush of adrenaline you felt by yourself when you knew you were on the brink. Her fingers curled inside of you as she slowly pumped them in and out, substituting your clit for your g-spot. Feeling her rub against that extremely sensitive spot was enough, you looked down at Emily for a second caught her looking back at you, the sight of her between your legs was all you needed.\n\n“Emily!” You cried out, your back arching up as you came, she continued to eat you out whilst you orgasmed, only pulling away when you collapsed a heaving mess. To say she was proud would be an understatement, she licked over you one last time before pulling away, licking her lips. “…Fucking hell.” You managed to say breathily, watching as Emily crawled up your body.\n\n“What can I say, ladies know how to take care of ladies.” Emily collapsed next to you with a grin, wiping your wetness off from around her mouth. All you could do was nod before you had to kiss her again, the urge was too strong. You felt her smiling against your lips which in turn made you smile, you were thankful that Emily had given you this and were hopeful it wouldn’t be the last time."}
+{"text": "Chapter 13\n\nLucky Latchkey Life\n\nFive managed a smile.\n\nHe managed to scrape up enough effort from the bottom of the empty reservoir inside of him. He managed to turn exhaustion into effort, into energy, into enough bullshit patience to curl his mouth into some semblance of a grin. It was all so pointless and dumb, and fucking trivial in the dullest senses of formality.\n\nIt was almost mechanical the way that his mouth worked. It was a force of wills, a fight against gravity, a brainteaser on how to work his own fucking mouth because he didn’t want to smile. He didn’t want to play nice in the final round.\n\nHe didn’t want to be here anymore.\n\nAll he wanted – no. No. All he needed was the key to the bathroom so that he could leave Klaus, and Diego, and the whole damn city behind. But no.\n\nNo.\n\nOf course not.\n\nHe was stuck in this stalemate of stale smiles and way too many fucking teeth, moving at a half speed so slow that it felt like he was suffocating above water. After a while, a smile was just a smile, and after too long, it meant something sinister.\n\nThey were grimacing pointless politeness to each other while not quite letting go of the cards that they still had to play. It was verbal poker. It was Texas Hold ‘Em in nonverbal cues. There was a tension building up to a point because Klaus was crazy, and Five was feral, but despite every lie and story that could weave, Lance truly did hold the last card.\n\nFive was stuck playing nice, playing polite, playing this topsy-turvy game of power Jenga. He was stuck working a Rube Goldberg contraption of complex mental pullies from his brain to his mouth just to prop up the corners of his lips. It was expected of him to smile, to be grateful despite the fact that he had to fight just for the inch of give that he got.\n\nIt was a kid thing.\n\nKids were always supposed to be grateful no matter how they got things. Kids were supposed to smile and say thank you,  and kids got what they wanted, but kids had to wait patiently for adults to get over themselves.\n\nBy all definition, Five was not a kid.\n\nHe was technically a teenager and only really in age, but teenager just meant kid in the eyes of some people.\n\nHe wasn’t a kid.\n\nOrphans weren’t allowed to stay children for very long because kids got hurt and kids got crushed under rocks and choked on dust and needed help that wouldn’t come. They got held and protected and loved and were supposed to be safe. Kids got what they wanted in the very end because kids got happy endings.\n\nFive never got anything that he didn’t have to fight for.\n\nFive didn’t even have a name.\n\nHe had calloused fingers on calloused hands and scars everywhere else. He had trauma on top of trauma written in brief therapy sessions. He had nuns and he was bleeding. He had been attacked and shot at, and he had crawled his way out of hell through broken windows.\n\nThe walls pressed in close. His lungs burnt a claustrophobic fire. All he so desperately needed was that fucking key.\n\nHe was not a goddamn kid.\n\nThere was still blood beneath his fingernails, blood clotting on his bottom lip, blood seeping through his shirt, vest, jacket. It was all his and that only furthered his point.\n\nKids didn’t bleed this much without someone noticing.\n\n“I’ll take the key,” Five drawled out through his split lip, through exhaustion and frustration, and a thin patience. His blood-tacky fingernails tapped against the table in time with the tick of the clock. “Now.”\n\nFive was not a kid, but he looked like one.\n\nFive was not a kid, but he had the face of one.\n\nFive was not a kid, but he was not taken seriously like one.\n\nThe clock on the wall ticked, ticked, ticked the seconds by as Lance B. – Floor Manager thought that he still had options to take back control. It ticked, ticked, ticked as Lance gritted his teeth and crossed his arms, huffing. It ticked, ticked, ticked as he took in a breath, took in his indignantly and his anger at being backed into a corner by a kid.\n\nTime was crawling by like it was crawling over broken glass, and Five felt every cut on his skin. He felt it echoed in the hollow of his cheekbones, in the tired exhaustion draining blood inside of him. He was so close to the plan coming together, to the end, to the exit. He could taste open air on his tongue and he needed it.\n\nHe was going to get it, one way or another.\n\nHe didn’t have the fucking patience for this anymore.\n\nThis stalemate was pointless. Card games were stupid, mental or otherwise, and the tension that was building was towering over. Five was going to cry.\n\n“I’ll start crying,” He threatened, voice as cold as ice on a July summer day. It was melting quickly into something wet at the back of his throat and the corners of his eyes. He curled his shoulders in and sniffled, but his eyes stayed defiant. “I’ll cry right now, and I’ll tell a story so much worse than anything that Séance can come up with, Mr. Biggs. Those guards will be in here any minute now and I won’t just get you fired. I will ruin your goddamn life if you do not give me the key. Now.”\n\nFive looked like absolute hell, worse since he walked into this room. Klaus was still bleeding from his forehead, silently watching from his chair with an amused grin, “Might want to listen to the kiddo, man.”\n\nFive ignored him.\n\nHe didn’t take his eyes off Lance B. – Floor fucking Manager. He was bleeding all over with intensity and intention, and finally. Finally, Lance broke his standoff with a sigh and the security guards came into the room.\n\nOne was a tall man with broad shoulders and blond hair stuck up under a hat that said ‘security,’ stepping into the room before assessing it. He moved the way that overeager soldiers moved, reacting before realizing what he was reacting too. He dropped his hand from his gun, “Sir?”\n\nThe guard that came in after him was slower in her movements – squared shoulders, cheap suit, caramel colored hair. She moved with a purpose, assessing the situation with a laser-focus and finding it not worth her time. Five could not fault her for that.\n\nHe let his eyes slide sideways off her back to Lance and the way that he crumbled under the delusion of his own power. He let his cards drop to the table, he folded. He pitched forward, resting his elbows on his knees and his forehead against his fist, and Five managed to smile again.\n\nThere was an ease to the pulley system that wasn’t there before, something like satisfaction oiling the strings as everything started to slot into a place that he found manageable. Klaus waved off the security guards with a grand gesture, coming up with a believable story about tripping and hitting his head, “And poor Lance here, had such a fright at the sight of blood. We thought he might pass out.”\n\nFive barely noticed anything beyond Lance’s defeated pinch to the bridge of his nose and his deep heavy sigh as Klaus said, “Luckily we’re not the type of people to sue.”\n\nFive allowed himself to breathe just a little. He could almost have laughed when Lance had straightened his spine and snapped his fingers at the woman, “New girl.”\n\n“Carol, sir.”\n\n“Carol, yes. Get the first aid kit for Mr. Hargreeves.”\n\nFive could squeeze warmth back into his fingertips when he had a purpose as meaningful as this. He could force himself to lean off the desk without feeling black-spotted and dizzy. He could ignore the aches and the pains in every movement because he won.\n\nHe picked the right horse this time.\n\nHe got the good cards. He got first place. \n\nSo, he smiled.\n\nHe said, “We would really appreciate that.”\n\nIt was a misshapen little smile, stretched and misplaced on his face. It pulled at all his frayed ends and tangled them together in a knotted-up smile, but it was a smile because Klaus pulled through. It was an ever-polite presentation of teeth that backed a big man into a corner, and Five smiled gratefully, “I’m glad that we could come to an understanding, Mr. Biggs.”\n\n“Mr. Katz,” Lance sighed, straightening up in the illusion of middle management power as he addressed the guard with blond hair. “Please give Mr. Hargreeves’ son the key to the restroom in the back and escort him there.”\n\n“Oh, please, Mr. Hargreeves was my father, call me-“\n\n“That won’t be necessary, I know the way,” Five said, dropping his smile into something severe as he held his hand out for the key. “No, thank you.”\n\n“Sir, that bathroom is under-“\n\n“You have five minutes in there,” Lance sighed, turning back to his guards and telling them, “Tell the construction workers to take their next break. It’s not a request. Radio that to them. And Carol, where is that first aid kit?”\n\n“On it, sir.”\n\nFive smiled.\n\nIt felt almost surreal.\n\nAfter so long of so many things going wrong, the key felt like a finality in his hand. It was a conclusion, a dream come to fruition. It was heavy like implication, like doors opening up for him and relief because he was moving forward. The end was weighty and heavy, and triumphantly there within his reaches.\n\nFive was standing at the cusp of a new age, one where he could breathe, and the walls were distant, and things went right. Klaus had called for him to wait a second, but Carol was back with the first aid kid and Katz wanted her to watch how to patch up customers if needed. Five didn’t wait.\n\nKlaus didn’t even notice, too busy asking the guard, “So, you said that your name was Dave, right? Dave Katz, that’s a nice name. Do you like to dance?”\n\nFive kept his fingers looped around the key tight.\n\nHe kept it close to his chest as he walked to the back of the store once more. He followed the same path and walked, and walked, and walked until he met the plain backwall again. He walked, and walked, and walked with his heart low in his chest and his blood pumping, and an air of anticipation buzzing inside of his bones.\n\nThis was what he wanted.\n\nThis was what he was getting.\n\nA plan complete. An end in sight.\n\nIt wasn’t ideal. It was messy as all fucking hell, and he was going to have to forget his duffle bag. He was going to have to drop everything and run, forget Diego and his thieving hands, forget the doughnut shop, forget the masks and the guns. He was going to have to leave the city.\n\nHe was going to break the city limits and lay low just to be able to breathe. He just had to get one thing before he could do that.\n\nFive slid the key into the lock and pushed the door open. He let it bounce on its hinges and close behind him as he stepped into the small windowless room. It pitched into a single-bulbed darkness, throwing shadows on every wall.\n\nFive breathed out, “Okay.”\n\nHe took in a breath that tasted stale and chalky, took in the room for what it was worth, and he assessed his plan.\n\nThe inside of the bathroom was small, picking at his claustrophobia like a needle beneath the skin but he pushed the thought down. The single exposed light fixture above him casted the three stalls on the right and the sinks on the left into darkness. It left the room in an almost eerie state of demolition.\n\nThe piping under the sinks were gone. Two of the three stalls doors were taken off already and discarded in the corner. There was a layer of dust that permeated the air and crawled into his mouth, and a portion of the floor tiles had been ripped up. Five let his gaze linger around the room and wrinkled his nose.\n\nHe took in a dusty breath and held it for a second before letting it go, watching his shadowed reflection in the mirror as he repeated the action. He was here, not anywhere else. It was dark because the lights were off. It was dusty because of the work. The room had solid walls and high ceilings, and he only had five minutes.\n\nHe took another breath.\n\nHe let his hands brush down his rumbled damp jacket and pushed it back. Even in the dim light, he could see the red that had seeped almost black through his vest, “Shit.”\n\nHis actions were careful but hurried as he pulled up his vest and his collared shirt to the swollen skin and the broken stitches beneath. The wound was still seeping blood but most of it had dried and clotted, radiating a warmth that foretold a possible infection. Five swore again, squeezing his eyes shut as he rolled back down his shirt.\n\nHe didn’t have time.\n\nHe buttoned his jacket and told himself, “Deal with it later.”\n\nHe told himself, “Forget the bag, drop everything. Run.”\n\nHe told himself, “You have five minutes.”\n\nWhen he opened his eyes again, all he could see was his own pale face and his sunken hollow eyes. His hair was a mess like he never kept it, his uniform unkept. He felt gross, but he pushed it all down and told himself that he had a job to do.\n\nHe lost his duffle bag and his whole life that was packed inside of it. He lost his room at the orphanage to gun violence. He lost a lot of blood and he was going to lose Delores too. There was no getting to her with his duffle bag gone and a target on his back.\n\nI’m sorry, he wanted to tell her. I know that you’d understand, but I’m so sorry. \n\nHe had to go.\n\nDelores was the smartest person that he had ever met, and he knew that she would understand. It wasn’t abandonment, it was about survival. He was a danger to her, he was in danger. He would try to come back for her eventually, but – but everything was so big and a lot, and if he was honest with himself, he was so out of him depth.\n\nThere was no way to really articulate the fear that rolled inside of him. He could place himself in the shoes of all those comic book characters, but Diego outlived the monster that had adopted him and broke him. Five just wanted the chance to be able to breathe, so he had to lose everything that he had to do it.\n\nHe’d lost everything before.\n\n\nBut not Delores. Never Delores. \n\n\nShut up, he scolded himself mentally.\n\nThe pain in his chest was blossoming into something barbed at the edges, catching on the corners of his plans and tearing into them because no. He had to force himself to move forward because if he thought about leaving her behind than he would never move again.\n\nHe didn’t want to leave without her. He vowed to her unhearing ears as he moved into the last stall, “I’ll come back for you, Delores.”\n\nHe vowed, “I’ll figure out what to do next and I will come back.”\n\nHe could hear her voice like velvet and marshmallow peanut butter sandwiches in the corners of his mind, washing over like a blanket. She was there like she was always there, you must take care of yourself. You must help yourself. Be careful, Five. \n\n\nI love you. \n\n\nDelores was smarter than he would ever be, and he knew that. HE could admit that in this empty room and this empty stall. He could admit it in the same way that he knew that he could live without her, without his duffle bag, without his plans, but he didn’t want to.\n\nFive blinked back the heat behind his eyes.\n\nHe swallowed down the wetness choking up his throat.\n\nHe got to work.\n\nFive knelt onto the dirty floor next to the toilet, feeling the grainy press of broken tiles digging into the bandages on his knee. He ignored the pain as he wedged himself closer to the vent at the back of the stall.\n\nIt was a boxy stretch of ventilation, square with four screws holding it in place. Five ignored the way that the skin on his fingertips snagged and tore as he worked all four of the screws out of place and dislodged the vent.\n\nHe smiled a little to himself as he reached inside and pulled out a blood splattered briefcase. He laughed a little, surprised that it was still there honestly.\n\nThe briefcase had been nothing but surprises.\n\nIt had been a topic of conversation when the man at the diner had let it slip that it was a very powerful leveraging chip right before his head got blown off. It had been a snap decision to grab the case and run into the back. It had been a calculated decision to wedge the thing into the ceiling tiles at the doughnut shop and a calculated decision to go back for it when he was attacked. It had made sense to hide it in Grimbel’s because Grimbel’s was a safe place.\n\nAnd it was here.\n\nAnd now, Five could leave.\n\nHe took a breath and he laughed a little more, unbelieving.\n\nThe laughed died on his lips when he heard the bathroom door open and close again. He sighed and he rolled his eyes, calling through the stall door, “I do not need you anymore, Séance. Leave.”\n\nThe footsteps came a little closer and Five sighed louder. He unsnapped the clasps on the briefcase, reaching into the pocket where the man said he kept extra money. He tossed out a little role of twenties, “Here, I paid you in abundance. Go.”\n\n“Klaus, I told you-“ Five snapped when a hand rested heavy on his shoulder as he snapped the briefcase closed. He turned his head to glare at the hand with an insult on the tip of his tongue, but it all died a quiet death.\n\nThere was a bite mark on the hand.\n\nThick fingers curling into the fabric and the imprint of teeth in the flesh. Five felt very cold, very suddenly. His eyes traced the bite mark up the dark fabric of a cheap suit to that of a metal mask.\n\nThere were only two works spoken, muffled, “Times up.”"}
+{"text": "While Oliver wanted to attempt to fix his relationship with Felicity right away, he knew he should give her space. He needed space himself and time to mull over all he had learned that day.\n\nIn theory the day he got his memories back after two long months should have been filled with relief and celebration. Instead it had turned out difficult and exhausting. He had no one to blame but himself, he knew that, but even so a part of him was angry. Granted, the anger was mostly directed at himself since he hadbeen that kind of guy before the Gambit had gone down, but there was anger directed at the people around him as well.\n\nProving that he had changed wasn’t new to Oliver. On the contrary it was exactly what he’d been striving to do for the past two years, since his return from the island. However, seeing how everyone kept their distance after just two months of behaving like his old self left him feeling weary.\n\nDid they still think him so fickle that he would truly revert back to being as spoiled and self-absorbed as he was, even now after his memory had returned? After two years of trying to prove that he was a different man now?\n\nThat night upon returning home and informing his mother and sister about his recovery, he saw that the answer to those question might be affirmative. Even though his mom and Thea were extremely happy and relieved that he had gotten his memories back, the way they looked at him had changed. They seemed…distant.\n\nIn his mind Felicity and Diggle were completely justified in being puzzled and not liking who he had been before, but he felt hurt that his family obviously felt that way. Sure, for his first year back he had tried to throw people off the scent by promoting a public persona in line with the one he had before the island, but he had struggled to turn that around since then. He’d undertaken the responsibility of being the CEO for Queen Consolidated, and had even done well. Even more than his public image though, he had strived to prove to his family that he had changed. That he was no longer a selfish bastard, but a caring brother, son and friend.\n\nWhich apparently hadn’t been enough, since just two months of acting like the Ollie of old had made people view him as a live grenade ready to explode any minute.\n\nThe unfairness of it all made something tighten in his throat, which was made worse after a few hours spent with his mother and Thea that night. The looks they shot him when they thought he wasn’t paying attention were enough to make him crave some solitude, so he quickly excused himself and went up to his room.\n\nHe changed and got ready for bed, going through the motions, his mind still trying to process all he had learned and remembered that day. He needed this time alone. He needed the time to come to terms with what had happened to him, what he had done. To look at the memories of the past two months through the eyes of ‘Oliver’ and understand what he had to do to fix the things he was responsible for breaking.\n\nHe got in bed not expecting to sleep any time soon. What he also didn’t expect was that the minute his breathing slowed down, the moment he pulled the memories of everything that had happened that day to the forefront of his mind, his heart would speed up. Faster and faster it beat until his breaths became pants and a vice tightened around his chest.\n\nThoughts of strategizing and fixing things flew from his head as he shot up and hunched his shoulders, trying to slow down his breathing. It didn’t work. Instinctively he got up and started pacing, somehow thinking that releasing some of the energy that was fuelling him would slow down his heart.\n\nWrong.\n\nUnhelpfully, the memories bombarded his mind. Thinking back on what he’d done right after the accident he recalled how as Ollie he wasn’t so much troubled by the absence of memories when his condition was explained to him. He’d figured that even with seven years gone by, everything would be just as he’d left it and while he’d been confused at the changes around him, self-medicating through alcohol was the surefire solution he’d turned to.\n\nNow though, as he relived the terrible sensation of having dark, unknown gaps in his mind he felt…adrift. Delayed reaction to past events, his brain provided, but that didn’t make his heart settle down or the tightness around his chest ease. Even the thought of her, the thought he’d always invoked when he’d lost the battle with his nightmares in the past, didn’t soothe him. For now the image of her face didn’t bring him peace. Instead he thought of all the ways he had screwed things up with her.\n\nAt that his breathing became labored, so he tried clearing his mind. Focusing on a landscape painting hanging on the wall above his bed, little by little he tried to steady himself.\n\nHe didn’t know how much time he spent like that. All he knew was that he felt every single second of it.\n\nIt felt like hours.\n\nWhen he finally felt calm enough to move, he walked to his desk, picking up his phone on the way and then falling heavily on the chair.\n\nCarefully he focused once more on what had happened to him. He had to think things through but first he needed to make sure he could handle it. Stubbornly, he recalled every time he’d been a dick to the people he cared about and waited for his heart to start racing again.\n\nWhen it didn’t, he dropped his head back, closed his eyes and attempted to reason everything out.\n\n/////\n\nThe shadows faded slowly around him, as the soft, lavender light of dawn filtered through the trees outside his windows. The room brightened until golden rays of sun invaded every corner of the room.\n\nHe was in the same place the dark of night had left him. He sat there on the desk chair and as the sunlight fell on him, one by one the shadows inside him scattered.\n\nHe’d kept the video playing on a loop for hours. Time and time again he heard himself telling Felicity – or more accurately her door- that he loved her until the echo of the words, the tone he’d used to say them had settled in his bones.\n\nThe alert of his battery getting low finally had him dropping the phone on the desk in front of him. Slowly, with eyes gritty from sleeplessness he looked around the room.  Everything around him held a memory of his life before the island, nothing betraying the man he thought he had become except the increased number of business suits in his walk-in closet.\n\nAnd after the night he just had he decided this had to end.\n\nSlowly, he got to his feet taking the time to stretch and get rid of the kinks the night of stillness had brought to his body.\n\nHe had things to do.\n\n*******\n\nWhen Oliver walked into Queen Consolidated later that morning with Diggle in tow, it felt like he hadn’t done so in ages.\n\nWith renewed purpose he walked into his office ready to get things back on track. One by one everything that had taken the backseat in his life would be put to rights. Starting with his company.\n\nThe next few hours flew by as he arranged emergency meetings with the department heads, made conference calls to most international subsidiaries and firmly stood his ground against the decisions Isabel had taken that he disagreed upon. All to establish that he was back, all he could towards safeguarding Queen Consolidated.\n\nStubbornly he resisted the urge to get in the elevator whenever he escorted someone there, refusing the compulsion to travel down the eighteen floors that separated them.\n\nSpace. He needed to give her space.\n\nSoon, he promised himself as he stared longingly at the closed elevator doors.\n\n********\n\nBy lunchtime he knew Diggle was getting impatient.\n\nOliver had told his friend they would talk later when he had driven him at work this morning, and while the other man usually had the patience of a saint, the visible fidgeting clearly showed he was at the end of it. Twice during the morning hours, Oliver had caught Digg on the phone, carefully not looking his way, betraying it was Felicity on the other end of the line.\n\nThe thought brought a soft smile to his face. If she was calling John then she hadn’t given up on him completely. There was still hope. And while Oliver had prepared for the event of there not being any chance she’d hear him out, now that he knew that there was, made him all the more determined to do this right.\n\nAfter ending the last morning conference call, Oliver stood up and buttoned up his jacket, noticing from the corner of his eye that Diggle straightened up as well.\n\nWithout hesitation he strode to the outer office. “I’ll be back in an hour, Mrs. Fitzhughes,” he said, ignoring the disconcerting feeling at the sight of the woman in Felicity’s desk. Glancing at Digg he turned towards the elevators, sure that his friend was following. “Big Belly Burger?”\n\n“I’d say we need it,” was all his friend said.\n\nBy unspoken agreement neither of them said anything else until they arrived at the diner. They situated themselves in a booth by the window and ordered after exchanging small talk with Carly.\n\n“So,” Digg brought his hands together on the table.\n\n“So,” Oliver repeated and stared steadily back at him.\n\n“You know what you’re going to do,” came Digg’s as always astute observation.\n\n“Yes,” he paused to take a sip of coffee. “I spent all night thinking about it. Everything.”\n\n“And?”\n\n“It wasn’t easy,” Oliver let out a deep breath searching his mind for a place to start.\n\n“I didn’t think it would be,” Digg said. “What happened, Oliver? You went to her apartment drunk?”\n\nOliver’s eyes snapped to Digg’s in surprise. He had forgotten that his friend didn’t know about what Tommy told him. Here he was gearing up to explain everything he’d thought about his life and get his friend’s input, when they hadn’t discussed one of the most important factors. So haltingly he told Digg everything Tommy had said. After he was done, Oliver fished his breast pocket for his phone and finding the video, set it down on the table pushing it towards Digg without a word.\n\nOliver watched the other man’s face as the video went on and mirrored every wince. Soon enough it was over and the phone was silently returned to him. He remained stoic waiting for Digg to pass judgment on what he had seen. Several minutes passed and they only spoke to thank Carly as she set down their food on the table but neither made a move to eat.\n\n“When was this?” was the first thing Diggle asked.\n\nEasy enough to answer. “About three weeks ago. I told you was going to stay in but I didn’t. I headed out after you dropped me off at the mansion.”\n\n“And that worked out great,” Digg said picking up his burger.\n\n“Clearly.”\n\nJohn looked back at him plainly while he took his time chewing the bite he had taken. After taking a sip of water he finally spoke. “What do you want me to say about it?”\n\n“Usually you’re very vocal about these things.”\n\n“I’ve never been vocal about you and Felicity. I’ve kept all my thoughts to myself and if you ask me I was right to do so.”\n\n“Why?”\n\n“You’re two of the most stubborn, guarded people I know. If I had said anything to either one of you, you’d have pulled away from each other in denial.”\n\nThinking it over as he started eating, Oliver couldn’t deny the truth of Diggle’s words. Before any of this happened he’d have refused to vocalize his feelings for Felicity no matter who asked him or how insistent they were. Now though, now that everything was out there, the tables had turned. He realized last night that he couldn’t take anything back nor did he want to. Being in love with her had felt like a close guarded secret before; buried deeply inside him never to see the light of day, but now it was the exact opposite.\n\nHearing himself uttering the words in the video, letting them color the air around him, had been liberating. So much so, that it felt like those three little words had become a tangible thing, an armor covering every inch of his skin. Something to be shown off and not hidden; something to bask in and relish. He could no more shut it away than he could stop breathing. It was now a part of him, and not a deeply hidden one, but something as essential as air or sunlight that he couldn’t shy away from.\n\nSo he accepted it.\n\n“How about now? Still nothing to say?” he finally asked his friend, focusing on the present.\n\n“I didn’t say that,” Digg said, balling a napkin and throwing it on the table. “But first, tell me what you’re going to do about what you showed me,” he said, waving towards the cell phone on the table.\n\n“There isn’t a plan. Not exactly.”\n\n“Then what?”\n\n“It’s more of a conviction. I’m done screwing things up,” Oliver said softly, steadily looking back at John, hoping he conveyed his determination in following through on what he said.\n\nDigg simply nodded. “That’s a good objective. How will you get to it?”\n\n“I can’t change who I was in the past no matter what I do.” Oliver laughed hollowly at the thought. “Even when I think I’m done with that part of myself, it comes back to haunt me. I can’t keep rejecting it, hiding from it, ignoring it. So I’m accepting it. No more roles and identities. Just me. Oliver Queen.”\n\n“Does that mean no more…green?” Diggle asked, his eyebrows raised at what he was hearing.\n\nOliver shook his head slowly. “No. I can’t stop being…green. I can’t stop all the lies. But I can stop running away from myself. Both who I was before the island and on it. So, if you’re free tomorrow and willing to listen…maybe we can get a drink?”\n\nOliver held his breath, wondering whether Diggle understood what he was asking. For months his friend had asked him to open up about the island. It was a point of contention between them, and Oliver last night had realized that if he wanted to move forward, if he wanted to be the man he wanted to be, he had to open up. The two parts of him, the playboy and the soldier had to come together.\n\nThe silence that followed his stilted suggestion was short lived. “You asking me out, Queen?” Diggle asked, making them both laugh.  They sobered up quickly enough, though a knowing smirk remained on Digg’s face. “Why tomorrow?”\n\n“I have some place to be tonight,” Oliver answered seriously, smiling when his friend nodded.\n\n“Fair enough,” Digg said, throwing money on the table and moving to get up.  “You’re buying tomorrow. We’ll probably need a bottle.”\n\n“Let’s keep it at the mansion then. Neither of us will be fit to drive afterwards.” Oliver tried to make light of it, pushing against the usual reticence that gripped him at the thought of opening up about those five years.\n\n“Just because you threw tomorrow at me doesn’t mean I didn’t notice the subject change,” Digg threw over his shoulder and then held the door for Oliver to pass in front of him.\n\n“I assumed as much.”\n\n“And?” Digg asked, as they walked to the car.\n\n“I’ll try to make it right. Whatever it takes,” Oliver replied seriously, holding his friend’s eyes as he ducked into the car.\n\nDigg said nothing until he was situated in the driver’s seat. “Make sure that you do.” His stare even reflected from the overhead mirror was no less meaningful. A hard, protective stare, not unlike the one Tommy had given him when they’d talked about Felicity. In an instant however it was gone, replaced by a humorous glint. “And so we’re clear, despite all the heart-to-heart shit: We still ain’t dating.”\n\n“Now, you’re just playing hard to get.”\n\nThey both smiled, Oliver feeling lighter despite his trepidation about sharing secrets he’d thought he’d never have to.\n\n“What are you going to do to fix it, then?” Diggle asked some time later.\n\nOliver swallowed heavily and looked out the window at the passing traffic before turning back to meet his friend’s eyes in the mirror. “Anything. Anything I have to.”\n\n*******\n\nThat night after hours of internal pep talk and going through scenarios in his head, Oliver braced himself and knocked on Felicity’s door.\n\nShe’d probably been expecting him, because it only took a few seconds and there she was in colorful, flannel pyjama bottoms and a t shirt calmly looking back at him.\n\n“Will you be yelling at me this time?” she asked, the small curl of her lips both an olive branch and an ice breaker.\n\n“No,” he said solemnly. Taking a deep breath, he fought against the fear inside him and hoped she wouldn’t close the door on his face. “But I can’t promise I won’t beg again.”"}
+{"text": "Loki is lying on a meadow, facedown, limbs sprawled outwards, blades of grass tickling his nose. He lifts his head, his gaze sweeping the landscape of the richest green stretching out towards the horizon, where the God of Thunder and Odin Allfather stand on the edge of a cliff. He recognizes the land in which once dwelled the Vikings and tries to prop himself up, shouting his brother’s name but he realizes that he does not have a voice.\n\nThere is a storm coming, says Odin solemnly, and isn’t it rather odd, Loki thinks, that he can hear his words as if he is standing right next to him even though the visual distance between them is so great that Odin and Thor are merely a few inches tall on the horizon.\n\nHe turns around and, the Allfather is right, there is a storm coming, no, not a storm, a tornado, a swirling tornado of ice that is rapidly approaching, spluttering snowflakes into the air. Fear settles into Loki’s stomach and he begins to crawl away, towards Thor and Odin, but his limbs are leaden and the distance between him and them does not shrink even though he is moving forward. He cries out again, cries out without a voice, and then the tornado is upon him and out of the violently rotating column of icy air step three giants that swiftly grow in size until they are eighteen feet tall at least, towering above him in whirls of snow.\n\nHere he is, one of them says as he reaches for Loki’s right ankle, pulling him off the ground by his feet, dangling him head down at his side.\n\nYou come with us, snarls another.\n\nHelp me, Loki shouts, dread robbing his body of its breath, but the words do not make a sound when they leave his mouth. Please, help me!\n\nOdin and Thor stand, unmoving.\n\nBrother, please.\n\nLoki thrashes in the giant’s grip, limbs trembling, but the giant shakes him so violently that every sinew in his body seemingly comes unstrung.\n\nThey hid you from us long enough, says the third. You cannot escape any longer.\n\nThe other two grunt their approval and Loki gasps as they step into the spinning tornado and the icy air swirls around him, numbing his face, and his sense of gravity dissolves and he is thrashing once more and screaming and there is a sound coming out of his mouth now, a horrid screech, and there is a weight on his shoulders, another pair of hands grabbing him, shaking him, pressing him down, and the back of his head is touching something soft and where is that softness coming from, all of a sudden and why is there—\n\n\nLoki!\n\n\nThat voice …\n\n\nLoki, wake up!\n\n\nHe realizes then that the giants and the spinning vortex of ice are not real, that they are not really there, and he pulls away from the scenery, pulls, pulls, pulls, until his eyes snap open and he stares into the blurred features of his brother’s face, who towers above him, his hands on his shoulders.\n\n“Loki?”\n\nA wail of terror tears out of his throat unrestrained, leaving him shaking.\n\n“It was just a dream,” Thor murmurs, his hand traveling from Loki’s shoulder to the side of his head, stroking his hair. “Just a dream.”\n\n“No,” Loki whispers breathlessly as the significance of the nightmare registers on his consciousness. He glances at his hands, lying unmovable at his side, their sapphire blue contrasting sharply with the pristine white of the duvet. “It was not just a dream. That is precisely the problem.”\n\n“I am sorry,” Thor mumbles, his white, warm, fleshy Aesir hand lingering, stroking him.\n\n“Will you stop touching me?” Loki hisses before he can restrain the words. “You aren’t mother and, quite frankly, I find your display of physical affection eerily unsettling.”\n\nMother. The mother that is no longer his and it is quite unfair, is it not, that Thor deserves the whole of Asgard and you don’t even deserve to know your own identity?\n\nThor draws back his hand, his teeth pulling at his bottom lip. “I am sorry.”\n\n“Stop apologizing,” Loki snaps because it sets his teeth on edge that his brother is always sorry about the things that are beyond his control but never about those that are not. “If you apologize one more time, I am going to transform you into a slug as soon as my magic is restored.”\n\n“I am,” Thor begins, interrupting himself with a swallow. He holds up his hands, palms outstretched. “Understood.”\n\nLoki blows out a sharp, annoyed breath. He is vaguely aware that none of this is Thor’s fault. It is not Thor’s fault that he is a Frost Giant—and, by the Norns, that name still fills his mouth with the taste of vomit—by birth. It is not Thor’s fault that Odin brought him into Asgard to raise him as the second prince. It is not Thor’s fault that Odin and Frigga have lied to him for centuries. No, his brother revealed to him the truth as soon as he discovered it but still Loki feels waves of rage and resentment surge upwards from the depths of his stomach because Thor will not ever have to face a dreadful realization such as this after years of suspicion that he doesn’t belong scarring the core of his very existence.\n\n“Did you ever wonder,” asks Loki, an edge of hostility in his voice that genuinely surprises him, “what you might be underneath all that perfect muscle? A dwarf, maybe?”\n\nThor’s face falls.\n\n“You didn’t even think to ask them,” Loki says and it is not a question. “Of course you didn’t.” He snorts. He doesn’t want to lash out at his brother, he really doesn’t, no, he loves Thor, he does, but there is that part inside of him that wants to hurt Thor the same way he has been hurt. “You see, this right here, this is the difference between us. Even after coming to know that I am not an Odinson, you never even thought that the same might be true for you. Not the Mighty Thor, no. You did not even question your heritage even after you learned that mine is a lie because you belong here. You have always known that you do and you do not question it. Not even now.”\n\nThe look on his brother’s face is one of pure terror.\n\n“If our positions had been reversed,” Loki concludes bitterly, “this would have been my first thought.”\n\nThor gulps. “I am sorry.”\n\n“Slug it is,” Loki snaps.\n\n“B-but,” stammers Thor. “N-none of this is my fault. I swear to you I had no knowl—”\n\n“I didn’t say it was your fault, now, did I?” Loki interrupts him in a soft growl that he doesn’t even recognize as his own voice.\n\n“Then why are you being so hostile?” Thor yells. He springs to his feet at the sound of his brother’s foreign voice, anger flashing across his face, and Loki hears a soft thunder rumbling in the distance. “I spent five days by your bedside, never leaving your chambers because I care for you, reading about your ancestors in those norndamned books of yours, trying to make you feel better and in turn you try to make me feel horrible!”\n\n“Because you don’t understand!” Loki yells back because his inability to pull himself together angers and frightens him in equal parts and because he despises himself for the fact that Thor had to spend five days watching him in all his vulnerable glory.\n\n“That is right, I don’t,” replies Thor, his wrath slowly burning down to a smoldering fire of anger and disappointment. “And how could I? How could I possibly understand anything if you choose to fool me with your lies and your tricks instead of trusting me with what is on your mind as you once did?” He draws a deep breath. “I will not stand for these accusations,” Thor grumbles, turning away.\n\nA shock jolts through Loki’s body. The sensation refills his depleted strength, allowing himself to prop himself up into a half-sitting position at last. “No, p-please,” he stammers, tears welling into his eyes. “I a-am sorry, brother. Puh-please, don’t g-go.”\n\nA trembling breath rolls out of Thor’s mouth. “None of this is my fault,” he repeats, his back still towards him.\n\n“I know,” Loki whispers and all the anger inside him withers. “I know. P-please just … don’t go.”\n\nHis hands fisted at his side, the veins sticking out, Thor draws in a deep breath and, eventually, he does turn around, his fingers slowly unclenching. “I know you are distraught,” he whispers, almost tonelessly, his rage shrinking until there is nothing left of it but a slight tremble in his voice. “But please, Loki, please know that if there was anything I could do to lift the burden of that knowledge off of you, I would do it without hesitation.”\n\nLoki waits a few beats, a thin smile creeping into his voice. “You could have some more mead brought to us or, even better, you could go and sneak some of Odin’s prized wine out of his secret cellar.”\n\n“Should you really—” Thor begins but then interrupts himself when he sees Loki’s eyebrow hiking up. “I am not mother, understood.” He nods his agreement and then takes his leave.\n\nLoki exhales a deep breath as soon as the doors have clicked shut behind his brother. He tries to prop himself up further and, with a grunt, he manages to heave his leaden body into a sitting position against the headrest of his bed. His gaze sweeps the chambers in which he grew up in the belief that he was an Asgardian prince.\n\nA lie, all of it.\n\nNo, not all of it. Thor is still is brother even though … he glances down at his hand, flexing his fingers, before raising his arm, slowly, very slowly, bringing it closer to his face. His blue fingers are still long and slender but the veins on the back of his hand stick out more prominently than before. He lifts his hand all the way to his face and presses it against his lips. His skin is harder than he remembers it but it is not cold and it does feel like skin. It feels a lot more like skin than Thor’s or Frigga’s hands did when they touched him.\n\nThe truth of that sensation fills his eyes with new tears but, curiously, he also experiences a tremendous sense of relief because he finally has answers to the questions that tormented him for so long. Because his silent and sometimes not so silent suspicions are finally confirmed.\n\nLoki ponders over this, trying for once to tap into his emotions and not suppress them, until Thor clatters back into the room carrying a barrel of wine upon which he balances a plate filled with meats, bread and fruits. “I suppose you are hungry, too?” he asks, placing the barrel down beside the bed.\n\nHe is not, not really, and the smell of the meal Thor brought him hooks into his nose and churns his stomach. “No, I think I’ll pass.”\n\nThor raises an eyebrow at him from where he crouches on the floor, tapping the barrel. “Alright,” he mumbles as he fills the mug from the nightstand. “I hope this isn’t going to kill you, brother,” he jests, handing it to him.\n\n“It might,” Loki mumbles and then brings the mug to his lips with both of his weakened arms. He takes a sip, waiting for the sweet taste to explode in his mouth and run down his throat, trickling into his empty stomach, but this particular wine is oddly crude and stale. “Where did you get this from?” he complains. “This has no taste.”\n\n“Yes, it does,” Thor objects after taking a large slurp of his own mug. “It tastes … Oh.”\n\nLoki glares at him. “What?”\n\n“I think it might be your Jötunn taste buds,” says Thor, almost apologetically motioning his head in the direction of the pile of books on the windowsill. “You know, according to those, your folk sustains themselves with ice, which apparently contains nutrients for you?”\n\nLoki’s mind goes blank at this for an instant, the sensation the information awakes in his stomach eluding all attempts at verbalization.\n\n“Maybe we can freeze the drink into icicles for you,” Thor suggests, a flicker of mischief in his eyes, a grin tugging at the corners of his mouth.\n\nDespite everything, a laugh rises in Loki’s throat. “This is not funny. Stop.”\n\n“So that you can, I don’t know, suck on them, maybe?” Thor finishes, snorting out the laugh he tried to suppress.\n\n“You really are the worst, brother,” Loki gasps but he is laughing too because this is all so incredibly absurd and isn’t it quite hilarious how his life turned into a theater of the absurd within just a few days? “Y-you will spend the rest of your days as a slug for this. You will ascend to the throne in your slug form.”\n\n“I suppose that is only fair,” Thor wheezes.\n\n“It absolutely is,” Loki cackles and takes another sip of the wine that no longer tastes like wine. “Because even with this face, I will still be prettier than you in your fat, Jörmungandr-sized, slimy, squidgy slug form.”\n\nThey both laugh for a good long while and when their laughter subsides, Loki feels comfortable enough around his brother to carefully approach the truth of his heritage. “Did Odin tell you who my father is?” he asks, softly.\n\n“He did not confirm it when I asked him but his tale made it sound as if you,” Thor pauses and takes a sip to steady himself, “were the son of Laufey.”\n\n“Laufey?” Loki echoes. “Well, that means I am a prince after all, aren’t I?” He cackles. “So, at least the ‘both of you were born to be kings’ part of the Allfather’s narrative wasn’t entirely a lie.”\n\n“I suppose not,” Thor presses out, his face twisting into a deep frown.\n\nLoki hesitates before asking the next question because he has a sense of foreboding that the answer will be devastating. “How come he took me?”\n\nThor seems to think the same, for he replies with, “That I do not know,” avoiding his gaze.\n\n“Brother,” Loki sighs and Thor shifts in the armchair he has sprawled into. “You are a terrible liar. Just tell me.”\n\n“They abandoned you,” his brother whispers. “The Jötnar … they left you … to die.”\n\nThe Jötnar. Thor has not called them Frost Giants once, Loki realizes then. He has never once said … but that does not even matter, does it, because they left you to die. “W-why? Be-because I …” His thoughts fail him for a moment. “Because I was too small?” He really doesn’t have the size of a giant, does he, no, and what if they cast him out because they didn’t want him because of that? Because they thought he wouldn’t ever fit in with them either?\n\n“We should got to Jötunheim to find out,” Thor announces all of a sudden, placing his mug on the nightstand. “Everything we know about your ancestors comes from these books, from father’s tales. We have no way of knowing that this is all there is to them. I mean, you turned out halfway decent, so maybe the Jötnar aren’t all bad.”\n\nLoki chokes on a laugh.\n\n“I mean it,” Thor insists. “As soon as your magic is restored, we should travel there. Visit them. See what they are really like. And even if it remains forbidden, I am sure you will find a way for us to slip past Heimdall’s gaze.”\n\n“I could do more than that,” Loki whispers, thinking of the secret portal to his birth planet that he discovered with Amora. “But are you sure you would … break the Allfather’s laws?” He gulps. “For me?”\n\n“Brother, I would do everything for you,” Thor replies without a moment’s hesitation and Loki’s heart takes a tiny leap of joy. “I will admit that I find your company insufferable at times,” he continues in a half-jest. “You are terribly obnoxious, you have grown quite antagonistic, and your sharp humor exhausts me sometimes but none of these things are ever going to make me love you any less.”\n\nA sob rises in Loki’s throat.\n\n“Nor is this,” Thor continues, his outstretched palm indicating Loki’s skin. “You are my brother and you will remain my brother until the day Ragnarök befalls us and nothing could ever change the fact that I would do everything for you.”\n\n“N-nothing?” Loki stammers.\n\n“Nothing,” Thor confirms, his tongue lying a little heavy in his mouth. “Because, let’s face it, we wouldn’t make sense without each other.”\n\n“Where did you pick up that line, uh?” Loki teases him. “No, don’t say anything, let me guess. This is Kvasir’s mead we are drinking here?”\n\nThor shakes his head, a half-grin playing upon his lips. “Kvasir’s mead is nothing but a myth.”\n\n“Forgive me, brother, if I can’t seem to tell myth from truth these days,” Loki replies solemnly and the grin on Thor’s face dies.\n\n“Do you really think I might be a dwarf?” he asks, hesitantly. “Or was that just …” His voice trails off.\n\nLoki hesitates for a few beats before he replies. “No,” he whispers. “I have no doubt that you are Odin’s trueborn son. But speaking of dwarves,” he continues, his gaze flitting to one of his bookshelves, “I think there is something you can do to help me after all.”"}
+{"text": "Nino didn’t think that he could have been surprised anymore. The last week he had been on a rollercoaster, with figuring out the truth about Lila and breaking up with Alya to the events of today he was exhausted. Marinette had assured him that she didn’t need him to do anything until tomorrow, so he was hoping to distract himself by working on his music or finishing up some assignments. He certainly didn’t expect there to be a knock coming from his window.\n\nHe turned, eyes widening in surprise before he quickly rushed over to greet the two heroes. If they were here, then that must mean that an akuma was out and either after him or Carapace was needed. Given how, as far as Nino knew, Chat Noir didn’t know his identity, he was assuming it was a case of the first.\n\nA chill ran down his spine, as he realized that it would mean that Alya got akumatized. His fear vanished, though, upon opening the window and the two heroes stepped in with smiles, showing no concern about there being an akuma on the loose.\n\n“Nino Lahiffe. We have some important information for you, as well as a very special request.” Ladybug turned to Chat and he picked up where she left off.\n\n“Due to some circumstances, we are switching out some of the old holders. That means that you will no longer be Carapace. However, we both agreed that you do make a good hero, so we figured that you could receive a different miraculous if you would like to continue being a hero.”\n\nNino’s eyes widened. He felt a little sad about not getting to be Carapace or see Wayzz again, but getting a different miraculous?\n\n“Why am I getting a different miraculous if I can still be a hero?”\n\nThe two holders exchange a look before Ladybug answered.\n\n“I made some bad choices with a couple of the past holders. It didn’t result in anything too bad happening, but there was a possibility of something bad happening if I had continued to keep them as heroes. I wanted to ensure that no past hero would feel victimized for no longer being a holder, so we are making any remaining holders switch miraculous. If you want to continue being a hero, you would be getting the fox.”\n\nHer serious expression changed as she offered a sly smile.\n\n“I remember you directing a movie project with your classmates a while back. Being able to direct what happens in an illusion is key. You can be as imaginative as you want with creating the illusion, but if there’s no direction in it then it all falls apart. Do you want to do this?”\n\nDoes he want to do this? He actually had time to think about it, what with no akuma attacking and no pressing motivation. Nino enjoyed his time as Carapace, not for being known as a hero but just being able to help save Paris. Plus for some reason the two heroes decided to keep him on, instead of just telling him about whatever excuse they told the other holders they let go. He was important enough to be wanted. He nodded, mind decided.\n\n“I’d be honored.” \n\nThe two heroes smiled and Ladybug opened her yo-yo, pulling out a foxtail necklace.\n\n“Well then, welcome to the team again.”\n\nNino eyed the miraculous. Why was she handing it to him now? There wasn’t actually an akuma right?\n\n“You’re not giving me it to keep, right?”\n\nChat was quick to shake his head.\n\n“No. We figured it might be a good idea to take out the new holders on patrol. Maybe let them test their powers if it’s safe enough to use outside of an attack.”\n\nNino sighed in relief. He didn’t want to say it, but he was worried about Alya sneaking into his room or bag and stealing it from him. It was only after he broke up with her that he realized how invasive she could be. If she would look and find a miraculous… well he was pretty sure that she would want to take it. \n\nOnce he slipped on the necklace, an orange ball of light formed. Then appeared a small fox kwami. It had a mischievous look on its face. \n\n“The name’s Trixx, it’s nice to meet you. All you have to do is say ‘Trixx, let’s pounce.’”\n\nNino nodded. \n\n“Trixx, let’s pounce!”\n\nLadybug and Chat Noir watched as he transformed, not bothered by the flash of light. Nino looked down at himself. His suit was more of a brownish orange than Rena Rouge’s, and he could feel that he had a cape. \n\n“So, foxy, got a hero name figured out?”\n\nHe thought for a minute before responding.\n\n“Let’s go with Fennec.”\n\n“Well, Fennec, let’s get going on patrol. We can show you our main route before maybe letting you test your powers.”\n\nWith a nod, the three were out of his room and off towards the rooftops. During his previous times as Carapace, he had experienced the feeling of being transformed and running along the rooftops. However it was always during an akuma, and he was too focused on the battle to think of anything else. \n\nNow, being transformed and not having to worry about being hit by an akuma, Nino could appreciate the feeling more. The power coursing through himself and the energy it gave him, not to mention how cool the city looked while he was above it. He understood why the two heroes did patrols. \n\nNino followed their pathing, zipping across buildings just slow enough for them to point some things out.\n\n“We usually split patrols fifty fifty between looking for trouble on the rooftops and going on the ground to talk to civilians. It helps people feel safer, not to mention that the kids love it. Today we won’t be going on the streets unless there’s an akuma, but be prepared for it on later patrols.” Chat explained.\n\n“I’m patrolling again?” \n\nLadybug laughed at the excitement in his voice.\n\n“Yes. With the switch off of heroes, we figured it would be the easiest way to get people used to the new faces. Even after all the hype has died down, having more people to help, as well as letting the holders get more used to being transformed, would be beneficial.”\n\nNino grinned. He couldn’t wait to get to go out like this again. They continued to go around and say different things about their usual route before they stopped.\n“Okay. I think that should be good enough. Now we should go somewhere so that you can try out your powers.”\n\nNino nodded and Ladybug led the way towards an outer part of the city that he hadn’t been to before. It was void of all people, which he supposed was important since he would be using his powers.\n\n“Since you’ve worked with Rena Rouge before I know you know the general power of the fox miraculous but I can explain it further. In order to cast a mirage you have to focus on what you want the illusion to be like. Once you have a clear image, you cast your magic by playing your flute and saying the word ‘mirage.’ \n\n“If you want to get rid of the illusion then you say the word ‘reality.’ You can either cast an illusion at a general place or you could even cast an illusion on yourself to make yourself look different. If anything touches the illusion then it will disappear. Do you want to give it a go?” \n\nNino grabbed the flute and looked at it. He had seen Rena Rouge cast her illusions before so he did know, at least slightly, what he was doing. However he didn’t have any goal to focus his illusion on now. Sensing the unsaid issue, Chat prompted him.\n\n“Try casting an illusion on yourself. Maybe into someone you can easily recall?” \n\nNino’s eyes lit up and he was already focusing on someone. He brought the flute to his lips and played a few notes before holding the weapon out and saying “mirage!” In a flash his image changed. \n\nOnce the mirage was fully casted, he looked at the two heroes to see how well he did. Ladybug smiled, but it seemed to be more of a smirk. Chat blinked before shrugging.\n\n“I guess the guy whose face is plastered all around Paris is easy enough to recall.” \n\n“I’d say you look spot on Nino.” Chat glanced over to Ladybug and smirked at the pun she made. \n\nNino felt like there was something else going on in their interaction, but quickly brushed the feeling off. It wasn’t important. \n\n“Well he is in my class, and is my friend so- hey… wait my voice is different!”\n\nLadybug let out a giggle at that.\n\n“Yeah, that comes with your powers. It wouldn’t be too effective if you could look like someone or cast an illusion of someone but didn’t sound like them.” \n\nNino guessed it made sense. That had actually worked similarly for while he was Carapace. He heard his voice in some video clips and he sounded different. Before he could speak again, a distinct beeping was heard. \n\n“Well I guess this will be all for now. Dispel the illusion and we’ll take you back home.”\n\n“Actually, my lady,” Chat interrupted as Nino said the word ‘reality’, “you’ll have to do it. I need to get to my thing before I’m late.”\n\nLadybug frowned and checked her yoyo.\n\n“It’s almost six already? I didn’t even realize how much time had passed. Well I’ll see you tomorrow Chat.”\n\nHe gave one final wave before he bonded off the rooftops. Ladybug swung her weapon in a lazy loop as she smiled at him.\n\n“Let’s head back. If you reach a minute before we get close, we can just land on a roof and I can carry you back.”\n\nBefore he could respond, she threw her yoyo and swung off, prompting him to follow her. Luckily the trip back was quick enough that he was able to land inside his room before the final beeps were heard and his transformation came undone. As he took off the necklace and began to hand it to her, Ladybug held out a hand.\n\n“Actually, you should keep it for now.”\n\nHe frowned. \n\n“I thought that I wasn’t keeping it.”\n\nThoughts of Alya discovering the miraculous came to his mind. Even though she was currently avoiding him that didn’t mean that she couldn’t notice the necklace. But even if Alya wasn’t a concern, he didn’t know how he felt about keeping a miraculous with him.\n\n“It wouldn’t be permanent. It’s a special circumstance. I’m sure you’ve heard about the drama happening at Françoise Dupont by now. Well, there is almost no uncertainty that someone will be akumatized over it.”\n\n“I understand that, but what’s that have to do with me keeping the miraculous even temporarily.”\n\nLadybug looked out the window before sighing.\n\n“I unfortunately cannot give all the details, but Chat and I were informed that we would need the fox miraculous soon for an akuma. We are going to be getting all the new holders out for patrol for the rest of the week, but we started with you first because of that. Chat and I agreed that it would be best for you to keep your miraculous until that battle happens, just in case we cannot get the miraculous to you while the akuma is out. The next akuma attack there is, just transform and meet us.”\n\nNino nodded, deciding to just trust the heroine.\n\n“Is there anything else that I need to know?”\n\n“Yes. It’s most likely that Lila will be akumatized and will get some form that allows her to look like us or other people. If you want to know if it’s Chat or I, press the button at the base of your flute. It will cause our weapons to beep. No beeping means that the person you’re seeing is the fake. Also if we see Adrien Agreste or Marinette Dupain-Cheng while Lila is an akuma, we are going to assume that they are fakes as well.”\n\nThe dj’s mind flashed to a video he saw when Lila first got akumatized, and the idea of the real Adrien being dangled over the top of the Eiffel Tower before being dropped made his stomach turn.\n\n“But what if they are actually real?”\n\n“They should know to go and hide during akuma attacks. Besides, Lila likes to use fakes of people more since it makes the situation easier to control. And in the off case that they are real, the cure will save them. They’ll be okay, Nino. I promise. Now are you okay for keeping the miraculous until then?”\n\nNino paused before nodding.\n\n“Trixx will explain some other things to you about your power and also what they eat. If you need to reach out to me then you can shoot an emergency message while transformed. My kwami will feel the magic and then I can transform and read it. Any questions or worries that I can answer while I’m here?”\n\nHe shook his head and she offered a smile.\n\n“Well I’ll be off then. Enjoy the rest of your evening.” \n\nAs Ladybug swung out and away from view, he turned to his companion. The kwami’s eyes seemed to sparkle with mischief. \n\n“Well kit, if you could get me some grapes so that I can recharge then I can begin to explain some more things about your powers. I think you’ll find them a lot more powerful than you first thought.”"}
+{"text": "‘’ Come on Ned.’’ Arya hits him with her practice sword before dancing away. Edric huffs once before getting back into his fighting stance.\n\nIt had been weeks since his name day and they never spoke of what had happened. Allyria said he was being stubborn and stupid, ‘some misplaced sense of honor’ she called it. So Arya had taken to avoiding it because if he was being stupid than let him be stupid. Thankfully, he hadn’t avoided entirely and they still sparred.\n\n‘’ You’re never going to wield Dawn like that-‘’ she yelped as Ned tripped her with his sword sending her to the floor. She scowled as he circled her with a smug smile on his face. ‘’ That was a dirty trick.’’\n\n‘’ All’s fair in war my lady.’’\n\n‘’ Is that so?’’ Arya takes hold of the wooden sword and pulls him down with her, quickly straddling him and pointing the weapon at his neck, ‘’ and may I remind you I’m no lady.’’ She wiggles a little and brushes her lips against his as he groans.\n\nHe sits up and Arya thinks that he is going to push her off but instead he pulls her closer and tilts her head down till his lips meet hers. He is more forceful than the other night; tugging at her hair and pulling her closer until there’s no space left in between them.\n\nWhen they break apart Edric places his forehead on hers and chuckles, ‘’ you’re going to kill me.’’ Arya hums but doesn’t say anything, twisting the hairs at the nape of his neck and tightening her legs around his hips trying to find relief from ache that is building in her.\n\n‘’ Gods, ‘’ he moves his lips down to her neck, sucking and biting; keeping her hips in place when she tries to squirm. She’s never felt anything like it and to her shame it brings a flush to her cheeks, (it’s certainly becoming a common occurrence), ‘’ I’ve wanted this for so long.’’ He whispers in her ear and she can only whimper as he cants her hips to his.\n\nGods, if he doesn’t stop soon-\n\n‘’ Arya! Edric!’’ Allyria’s voice echoes down the hall cooling Arya’s blood. She scrambles back running her fingers through her hair and picking up her practice sword. Edric does the same and Allyria enters the hall moments later with a smile on her face.  ‘’ Supper is ready.’’\n\nEdric clears his throat, ‘’ Thank you- Arya why don’t you go ahead and I’ll clean up here.’’ Arya licks her lips and she can’t help but grin at the flash of hunger in his eyes.\n\nWhen they’re far enough away Allyria nudges her, ‘’ so…’’ Her eyes are full of mirth and if Arya didn’t like her so much she would slap her.\n\n‘’ I hate you.’’\n\n‘’ I know.’’ Allyria laughs.\n\n-----------------------\n\n‘’Allyria?’’ Arya puts her ear to the door, frowning as she hears coughing from the other side.\n\n‘’ Come in Arya.’’ She cautiously opens the door to see Allyria wiping her mouth with a handkerchief.\n\n‘’ Are you alright? Should I get the maester?’’ Allyria smiles before tears start to run down her cheeks.\n\n‘’ Allyria-‘’ Arya takes tentative steps towards the woman, hugging her as Allyria begins to shake with sobs.\n\n‘’ I’m with child.’’ Allyria mutters into her neck.\n\n‘’ Oh,’’ Arya knows that Allyria and Beric are to be married when he comes back from Kingslanding-, ‘’ does he know?’’ Allyria shakes her head. ‘’ Oh,’’ Arya says again and she winces from how much she sounds like a crow. She thinks of Jon and how mistreated he was, how he had winced when they had called him bastard and looked down on him, but then she remembers the youngest sand snakes. How happy they were playing and laughing in the pools; taking turns riding Nymeria and presenting flower crowns to Arya, and how Ellaria looked on with love and pride in her eyes.\n\n---------------------\n\nArya chews on her lip as she begins to write her father.\n\n\nFather, \n\n\n\n       How are you? I know it must be stressful to be the Hand but I am sure that you do it well, and I am sure that Sansa is enjoying herself. It is all that she has ever wanted and more. Please give her my regards. \n\n\n\n       I am sorry that I’ve not written you in so long. I have been quite busy helping Allyria get ready for the child- it is hard to imagine that she is eight moons along. Robb writes that Bran has awoken and has gotten the plans for the wheel chair, I hope it helps. That is not why I wrote this letter though. \n\n\n\n         I know I was stubborn and angry when you first told me I was to go to Starfall and marry Edric, but now I am grateful. I was afraid of being shackled but you have truly given me my freedom. I ride along the beach and practice with my sword in the gardens and play with Oberyn’s youngest daughters in the Water Gardens. They love Nymeria as much as I do, and tell everyone to bring their wolves with them for the wedding as I’m sure Dorea and Loreza would enjoy it. \n\n\n\n        And Edric- Edric is a good man and I cannot wait for you to meet him, and Allyria as well. They are like family to me now, although I still ache for you and mother and Robb, Bran, Rickon, Jon, and even Sansa.  You know I miss the Godswood most of all? I even dream of it sometimes. \n\n\n\nI cannot wait to see you again, and I pray to the old gods to keep you safe. \n\n\n\nArya\n\n\n------------------\n\nAllyria fans herself as she lies in bed, belly large with child.\n\n‘’ And so the High Septon crowned Aegon Targaeryn the first of his name-‘’\n\n‘’ I can’t take this anymore-‘’ Allyria wipes the sweat off her forehead as Arya shuts the tome and places it on the bed. ‘’ I’m miserable Arya.’’ She whines. Arya rolls her eyes and places a cool cloth on her forehead. Allyria clutches it gratefully and wipes her face.\n\n‘’ You’ve only got a few weeks left.’’\n\n‘’ Yes just a few weeks.’’ Arya watches as Allyria rubs her stomach a smile on her face.\n\n‘’ Has Beric written yet?’’\n\nA small frown appears on the Dornishwomans face, ‘’ no- nothing of late. The last letter he wrote, your father was sending him on an errand. Help me sit up.’’ Allyria pushes herself up before freezing. ‘’ Arya it’s time-get the Maester.’’\n\n‘’ Nymeria,’’ the wolf pops her head up, ‘’ go get maester Ardin.’’ Allyria shoots a confused look at her but Arya just presses another cool cloth to Allyria’s cheek.\n\n‘’ You trust her to find him?’’\n\n Arya shrugs. ‘’ She found Sunspear without me, I’m certain she can find the maester.’’ Minutes later Nymeria comes back dragging the poor old man who is maester Ardin with her.\n\n--------------------\n\nAllyria labors a full day before Arthur is born.\n\nPlaced in a lavender swaddling blanket he looks up with curious eyes as Nymeria sniffs him and then lays her head on Allyria’s lap, closing her eyes.\n\n‘’ He’s perfect.’’ Allyria whispers tiredly. Arya touches the small patch of gold hair on his head.\n\n‘’ He is.’’ Edric watches from across the room with happy eyes. He had nearly killed his horse just to come in time for the birth, riding a day and a night from Sandstone.\n\n‘’ The lady needs rest.’’ Maester Ardin holds his arms out for the child which Allyria places gratefully in his arms. She slumps onto the pillows finally able to rest. Edric crosses the room and kisses his aunt on the cheek commenting on her beauty for which she swats him playfully on the shoulder.\n\nArya yawns and gets up from her place beside the bed taking one last look at mother and child before exiting the room.\n\nShe hears Edric behind her, and steps to the side when she reaches her chambers, inviting him in. \n\n Edric plops down on the bed, ‘’ is this appropriate?’’ Arya rolls her eyes and pulls off her breeches and tunics, crawling under the silk sheets letting them cool her heated skin.\n\n‘’ Of all the things to deem inappropriate, it’s this?’’ Edric grinned and stripped down to his breeches joining her in her bed. She closed her eyes as he kissed her eyelids, and cheeks, and shoulders-\n\n She sighed and let herself drift back to the night when he had taken her under the stars.\n\n-----------------\n\nArya watches as Allyria walks around the room, rocking Arthur in her arms.\n\n‘’ Nymeria.’’ Arya hisses at the pacing wolf. Nymeria answers with a bark which sends Arthur crying. ‘’ Out.’’ Nymeria goes with a whimper, her tail between her legs.\n\n‘’ What’s wrong with her?’’\n\nArya sighs, ‘’ I don’t know she’s been acting like this all day.’’\n\n‘’ My lady.’’ Maester Ardin hands her a letter, sealed with red wax. But why would-\n\nArya only reads the first sentence before letting it drop onto the floor. She sees Allyria and maester Ardin look at her with concern, but she doesn’t care. Why should she? Why? Just why?\n\nShe doesn’t realize that she’s running until she is out of the castle, but she still doesn’t stop until she reaches the cliffs.\n\nIt is then, and only then, that she screams, the waves crashing against the rocks, muffling the sound. She screams until her voice is hoarse. Then she paces, moving back and forth along the cliffs edge.\n\nWhy would they do this? Her father was a good man. This has to be some sort of trick. It cannot be true-\n\nHer thoughts whirl around her head, spinning, making her dizzy until she can’t breathe.\n\n     It is nightfall before Edric finds her. ‘’ Arya,’’ He steps toward her slowly, but she puts her arms out and steps back, willing him to stay away; willing him to just let her be.\n\nHe doesn’t though. Instead of the slow and sure he had been taking he rushes to her and wraps his arms around her. She pushes him away, ‘’ don’t touch me! Don’t-‘’ she repeats it over and over again; pounding her fists on his chest until she collapses at his feet sobbing.\n\nAll while he looks at her with sad eyes and wraps his arms around her; letting his tears soak his tunic, and when her tears dry her lifts her up and carries her back to the castle."}
+{"text": "\n“You might be wondering why I’m here trying to talk to… Well, you.” Miyeon raises one of her eyebrows, before she smirks a little. Minho doesn’t let it affect him, a tight grip on the beer in his hands as he locks eyes with Miyeon, not letting any emotion show. \n\n\n \n\n\nIn the past years Minho’s learned how to annoy Miyeon too, it’s a two-sided fight. Like a cat and dog.\n\n\n \n\n\n“No, doesn’t really interest me at all.” Minho says, before taking a small sip from his drink. Disgusting. \n\n\n \n\n\nHe’s really not used to the taste of alcohol, sue him for being a well-behaved teenager.\n\n\n \n\n\nMiyeon smiles at that, though, and turns around in the kitchen as she makes her way towards the table full of bottles of alcohol, her long hair braided on one side. The hairstyle looks perfect and Minho feels a little jealous, thinking about how her good looks got her Jisung. “I’ll mix you something good, you just wait until you taste this,” She says, and Minho barely hears her sickly sweet voice over the loud music. \n\n\n \n\n\nHere she comes with the poison, trying to kill Minho.\n\n\n \n\n\nMinho has hardly any time to empty his mind from all the unsettling thoughts before Miyeon’s standing in front of him again, pushing a cup into his hands.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Try it,” She forces, a tight smile on. “It will make you loosen up, I promise.” \n\n\n \n\n\nMinho knows he shouldn’t accept anything from this girl and he knows Miyeon can surely tell he doesn’t trust her either. “Do you really think I would do something to harm my, well, \n\nbrother-in-law\n\n?” It doesn’t really sound like a question, but rather a statement. Her cheeks turn rosy in the dim lighting and Minho almost chokes on air when he realises Miyeon isn’t joking about this.\n\n\n \n\n\nMinho drowns the drink in one go. It only burns a little bit.\n\n\n \n\n\n“I hope we can leave the past behind us, Minho oppa. I mean you’re almost like a brother to Jisung oppa and I know it’s what he would want.” \n\nShut up shut up shut up.\n\n\n\n \n\n\n“And considering he doesn’t have any other siblings, it’s really important that we two get along.” Like a punch to the gut. If Minho could let his dramatic side out right now, he would fall to the ground while gasping for air, eyes shining with unshed tears.\n\n\n \n\n\nBut Minho smiles, nods even a little at the girl in front of him. Even though all his mind has been repeating for the past minute is \n\nbrother brother brother brother brother brother-\n\n\n\n \n\n\nLike a mantra.\n\n\n \n\n\nBut they’re not brothers.\n\n\n \n\n\nMinho didn’t fall for his own brother. \n\n\n \n\n\n“Can you make me another one of these?” Minho says much to his own surprise, shaking the empty cup in Miyeon’s face, his already blurred out vision making him miss the suspicious smile that spreads across Miyeon’s face.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Sure.” \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMinho’s leaning his whole body weight against the wall, his eyes drooped close as he hums to the familiar pop song. He doesn’t know how he ended up next to the dance floor, dance corner or whatever teenagers call it these days, but he knows he’s ready to show off some real moves. \n\n\n \n\n\nHe just needs to rest for a second. Just a small second. \n\n\n \n\n\nA heavy hand rests on his shoulder and Minho’s eyes would fly open if it weren’t for the alcohol in his veins making him somehow so much slower than usual. \n\n\n \n\n\n“Minho hyung, where have you been?” Jisung asks over the loud music, even leaning a little bit closer. He looks good and he smells good and Minho’s trying so hard not to say anything but again, he wants to blame the alcohol because it’s so damn fucking hard to stay quiet.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Were you worried?” Minho feels himself slur the question out, the hand on his shoulder burning his skin. \n\nYou didn’t seem so worried when Miyeon literally dragged me away from you.\n\n\n\n \n\n\n“Of course I was, you dumbass.” He says, no bite to his words and Minho feels even dizzier, if it’s somehow possible. \n\n\n \n\n\nJisung locks eyes with him and Minho tries so hard to not fall into them. His beautiful Jisung, standing right in his reach, looking at him like that.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Well, you don’t- don’t have to.” Minho says, standing up straighter and making Jisung’s hand fall down. He misses the body heat already. “I’m not your fucking-”\n\n\n \n\n\n“My fucking what, Minho hyung?” Jisung cuts between, his eyes finding Minho’s so quickly, even if Minho tries really hard to avoid any eye contact, and the serious look he gives Minho makes a shiver run down his spine. The effect the younger has on him is mind-blowing.\n\n\n \n\n\nIt’s then that Minho realises Jisung probably already knows. Jisung might have overheard them \n\nor \n\nthe whole conversation with Miyeon might have been Jisung’s own idea, Minho doesn’t know and frankly doesn’t care which one of these options it is. Because either way it hurts just the same. \n\n\n \n\n\n“Leave me alone, you don’t have to look after me,” Minho pushes Jisung further away and turns away from him, “I’m my own family, I can take care of myself.” \n\n\n \n\n\nHe heads straight to the crowd, not looking back once.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMinho’s never been in a more crowded place as the sweaty bodies dance and jump around him, trying to suffocate him. He would probably be dead by now if it weren’t for the alcohol bumping in his veins, keeping him alive and making him follow the others around him. \n\n\n \n\n\nHe feels himself letting loose, his body becoming one with the other drunk kids around him, probably just as fucked as him.\n\n\n \n\n\nHe tries not to think about how he hurt Jisung and how Jisung hurt him and how they’ve been doing this for years, even centuries, without giving each other a break. His thoughts really don’t go well with the hype music that’s blasting loudly, and so he pushes them far away, just like he pushed Jisung away.\n\n\n \n\n\nHe thinks his mind is playing tricks with him when a pretty girl from a class younger, with long legs and a skinny waist and really \n\nreally\n\n long hair that somehow shines under the light starts giving Minho more attention than the other guys around her, her arms circling around Minho’s neck as they sway together, super close to each other. Minho doesn’t really say anything to her, finding no harm in this as it seems just like casual dancing.\n\n\n \n\n\nBut when she turns around in his arms and starts grinding her ass against his crotch, Minho feels disgusted with himself. Suddenly, he feels like the jeans he’s wearing are too tight and he can’t breathe properly in this outfit.\n\n\n \n\n\n“I don’t-I don’t wanna-” Minho leans over her shoulder, trying to talk to the attractive girl. If only someone turned the music down.\n\n\n \n\n\n“You don’t wanna do it here?” The girl laughs, her unfocused eyes locking with Minho’s. She has pretty eyes, but they could never compare with Jisung’s. “Let’s go upstairs then.”\n\n\n \n\n\n“N-No, I mean, I’m not-” Why is talking so incredibly hard? “I’m not really i-into you.” \n\n\n \n\n\nThe girl stops dancing instantly, facing Minho again but now with a forced smile on her lips. “Well, you think I’m ugly?”\n\n\n \n\n\n“No, no, I mean-”\n\n\n \n\n\n“Because I’m the best you can get, let me tell you that.” She furiously rambles, and Minho wants to run for his life as she looks into her disappointed and annoyed face. \n\n\n \n\n\n“It’s not about you.” He wants to apologise but he doesn’t even know the girl’s name. He shouldn’t really care.\n\n\n \n\n\n“You already have a girlfriend? Because baby I don’t care about that, trust me she will never find out.” She says then, the real smile returning to her face. Her eyes look hopeful again and Minho realises she’s not okay. Really not okay. And Minho can’t listen to this anymore. “I’ve seen you around in school, but you have never looked this good before, oppa. Let me make you feel good, I promise I’m better than your girl-”\n\n\n \n\n\nWord vomit.\n\n\n \n\n\nAnd Minho’s far too gone to stop it now. \n\n\n \n\n\n“I’m gay.” Minho feels like the whole world just went quiet as he blurts the words out. Eveything stops, his heartbeat stops and the words echo everywhere around him. Did he really just come out to a stranger?\n\n\n \n\n\nThe said stranger takes a quick step back, her eyes looking like they’re about to pop out of her head. “You’re what? What the fuck?”\n\n\n \n\n\nShe looks like she wants to scream and for once Minho’s glad for the loud music. “You let me do that shit to you while knowing damn well you’re-you’re, well, you know damn well what you are! You’re fucking sick dude.” She turns around and storms away, somehow easily finding a way out from the crowd. \n\n\n \n\n\nMinho doesn’t realise the consequences his words will have as he pushes himself past the kids dancing, far away from the mess. He needs to breathe, to take a second and close his eyes. Maybe act like this never happened.\n\n\n \n\n\nHe finds the balcony, and considering how the house was fully-packed inside, the place is weirdly empty. But maybe it’s finally Minho’s luck turning, because that’s what he wants and needs right now. A place where he can be alone and sober up as quickly as possible.\n\n\n \n\n\nHe stumbles a little when he tries to stand up straight, so he leans against the wall, the fresh air working wonders. He lets his eyes close slowly and deeply breathes in the cold air, trying to keep himself from having a panic attack. \n\n\n \n\n\nMinho prays the girl doesn’t say a word about his sexuality. The fact that he’s gay.\n\n\n \n\n\nHe’s gay he’s gay he’s \n\ngay-\n\n\n\n \n\n\nBut maybe Minho should’ve taken church more seriously, because this is definitely God’s payback. A group of boys Minho barely recognises from school suddenly opening the balcony door with a loud bang, like they had been looking for Minho.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Heard there’s a fucking faggot here,” One of them spits, and Minho realises it’s one of the guys Jisung hangs out with. \n\n\n \n\n\nJisung.\n\n\n \n\n\n“You really dare come here, huh.” He steps even closer, cornering Minho. His face shows no emotion, but he’s angry, Minho knows. Maybe Minho would feel more confident right now if he were taller. And weren’t completely alone. “And touch our girls with your dirty, dirty motherfucking hands.”\n\n\n \n\n\nMinho wants to run, but the damned alcohol in his system has made him weak.\n\n\n \n\n\nA little voice in his head tells him he has always been weak.\n\n\n \n\n\n“I didn’t do anything to her.” Minho whispers, his voice barely audible in the dark. He wishes he hadn’t said anything though, because his voice seems to trigger the other.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Don’t fucking talk to me, you fag.” He says, before Minho feels the guy’s fist connect with his face. To be more exact, nose. Minho’s eyes close instantly and he falls to his knees, grabbing his face and already feeling the warm liquid run down his chin. He’s bleeding, of course. \n\n\n \n\n\nAtleast he doesn’t feel any pain. Yet.\n\n\n \n\n\n“It’s that Changbin’s impact, huh?” One of them asks and Minho feels his blood boil. “He put some gay spell on you, didn’t he.”\n\n\n \n\n\nThe group of people laugh at him and Minho wishes the ground would swallow him because even at a moment like this, where he’s torn between collapsing and fighting back for Changbin, his mind goes back to thinking about Jisung.\n\n\n \n\n\nHow Jisung took care of him when his nose started bleeding after the nightmare. How he always helps him after those terrible sessions, even if he’s tired and really doesn’t have to. His Jisung. So kind and caring and helpful-\n\n\n \n\n\nBut Jisung will never speak to him again after this, he knows.\n\n\n \n\n\nIf only he had stayed home.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Just let me leave, please.” Minho learns how to speak again, even if he doesn’t dare to open his eyes. It takes too much energy and he would probably end up crying. He hears the guys around him laugh again, and realises there’s even more people standing outside.\n\n\n \n\n\nBut of course no one’s helping him.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Why would I do that?” Another kick at him, but this time he receives the punch in his lower stomach. Some screams, whistling and yelling, and Minho’s vision blurs out completely as he tastes blood. \n\n\n \n\n\nHe loses count of the punches he receives and realises he doesn’t even care anymore.\n\n\n \n\n\nHe feels like he has died already.\n\n\n \n\n\n“What the fuck is going on here?” Someone yells and Minho only registers the sentence in his head because he knows the voice, knows the person. “Get the fuck away from him.”\n\n\n \n\n\nMinho feels hands resting on his back as he stays kneeling on the ground, eyelids too heavy to even open them. Everything has started to hurt and the cold wind touching his scars doesn’t make it better, but somehow Jisung’s warm touch makes it more bearable. Jisung’s touch always works wonders.\n\n\n \n\n\n“You’re really stepping out for a faggot now?” Someone barks, but Jisung seems to ignore them, because there’s no answer coming from him. \n\n\n \n\n\nIt’s when Minho feels another pair of hands touching him, softly grabbing at him that he moans in pain. \n\n\n \n\n\n“Hyung, hyung are you okay?” Jisung whispers close to him and to Minho he sounds furious. “Oh, don’t you fucking touch him,” He hears Jisung yell over him and Minho has honestly never heard him this angry. The other pair of hands let go of him and Minho hears shuffling over him. \n\n\n \n\n\n“Jisung, he’s my cousin, let him help.” Another voice. Minho doesn’t recognise it anymore, though.\n\n\n \n\n\n“He could be the president for all I care, but he’s not touching Minho hyung.” \n\n\n \n\n\n“Jisung, Woojin hyung could really help!” Minho notices how desperate and scared the stranger sounds, he ends up feeling bad for the guy. Minho must be the first person he’s seen getting beat up. \n\n\n \n\n\n“Unless you have a car, I don’t see a way you could be helpful.” \n\n\n \n\n\n“I do! I do have a car! Let me drive you guys somewhere far from here.” Another stranger says, with a deeper voice, before Minho finally feels himself giving him, feeling safer knowing Jisung is by his side. He blacks out and hits the ground, no strength in his body left.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n"}
+{"text": "Tim calmed down a little by the time they entered the sport center. Damian, along with Bruce, Talia and Ra's went to the changing rooms while the rest looked for seats. Because of Barbara they took the seats in the first row, for which Dick was really happy, but Jason and Tim couldn't help but make a face. Damian was competing in kata, kumita and kihon, all of them paced out thorough the whole day, and even if they didn't count the ceremony which will be at the very end of the day. And if they sat in the first row, it will be much more obvious if they fell asleep or started playing on their phone.\n\n\"It's not like anyone will care, too many people will be running around for them to notice just the two of you, so quit bitching,\" Barbara said from her place beside the row.\n\nJason sighed and threw his arms over Tim's shoulder to lean it onto his seat.\n\"I'm just saying, that when you want food, I'll be the first one to leave for it,\" he said as he leaned his head back. A woman behind them shushed them, giving Jason a very angry look, but the man only glared back at her.\n\n\"And you wouldn't even come back,\" Dick gave him a soft smile, before apologising to the woman behind them. He charmed her enough so she was paying more attention to him in the end than her kid who was performing the katas.\n\n\"And why the hell are we already hear? The brat will come on after an hour and we're supposed to sit here and watch the kids? Why couldn't we just come here later?\" Jason asked and pointed at the  tatami where a new pair of kids took their places. They were around ten years old, and Damian was in another age category so they were nowhere near his turn.\n\nTim leaned against Jason's side and took out his phone.\n\"Because Bruce thought it would be better if we all came with the minibus because this was he knows that everyone is within the building,\" he answered, opening a file the man sent him previously. As much as him and Barbara tried, there was too much work with the Christmas merchtravaganza and with making sure everything went well, so he gave some of it to Tim.\n\n\"Great. Fucking amazing,\" Jason groaned and slid down on his seat. \"Wake me up if I snore too loudly,\" he leaned a little more heavily against Tim.\n\n\"You guys have been so attached lately,\" Dick commented softly, giving them a gentle look. He didn't want to bring it up in front of Damian, not knowing how he would react in front his mother and grandfather. But now he wasn't there.\n\n\"I'm just making sure that creep stays away,\" Jason answered, not even bothering to open his eyes.\n\n\"So it's really him,\" Dick sighed catching Tim's gaze over the man between them. Tim nodded his head softly.\n\n\"But Ra's isn't here right now,\" Barbara commented from Dick's other side. She Pulle doubt her laptop from the bag she hung on the back of her wheelchair. She opened it up and turned it on with a few quick movements.\n\nJason gave her a death glare.\n\"You seriously want to have this conversation now?\" he asked. Barbara barely glanced at him from the corner of her eyes with a smirk dancing on her lips.\n\nShe shrugged.\n\"I'm just pointing out facts,\" she said, opening a document she was working on.\n\n\"I need a smoke,\" Jason moaned with a pained expression on his face. He rested his head on the back of his chair.\n\n\"You only have so many cigarettes on you and we'll be here the whole day,\" Dick sing-sang, obviously enjoying the situation. He clapped along with the crowd when this pair of kids finished their routine.\n\n\"This is hell,\" Jason murmured. Tim patted his thigh in commiseration before turning back to his work.\n\nClark arrived with Jon a few minutes before Damian's first number, so by the time the boy stepped onto the tatami, they were sitting beside Tim, both cheering loudly when Damian stepped onto the tatami. Damian's eyes widened slightly when he saw them in the first row, but then he quickly scolded his face into a frown before wiping his face completely void to focus on his task.\n\nEventually Bruce also joined them when Damian only had one last presentation to do. Jason and Tim took the chance to get some food for both themselves and the boy, leaving their seats for the first time in hours. His legs felt numb as Tim stood up, an she clung onto the other for a little to stabilise himself. They came back with a vegan burger for Damian and two bags of stuff for themselves, decidedly ignoring that Dick has also asked them to get him something. Tim eventually gave him his fries to shut him up.\n\nRa's and Talia took their places, so Tim sat onto the ground, leaning back against Dick's legs, to put some distance between himself and Ra's even in these last minutes. He had less than twenty hours to go, and even if Damian continued to bitch about everything, Tim could see how he was enjoying the attention a lot.\n\nHe bitched how the kids around them were loud and nobody knew anything about karate, yet he answered every single one of Jon's questions and took him around the venue. He hated how the parents were filming their children left and right, and yet he made sure to show off a little more whenever he saw that Bruce was watching. It was both hilarious and endearing in a way. It proved that even though he was a little weird, Damian was also just a child at the end of the day. \n\nDamian acted like a king as they made their way home. He told everyone where they could sit (meaning that he sent Tim and Jason into the back so he could sit next to Dick), demanded extra food for his pets for that night and they ate his favourite meal that Alfred prepared for the special occasion. \n\nNeither of them were the least bit surprised when the gold medal was placed around the boy's neck. He would've beaten anyone there, and just as Talia has commented, restraining him into his age category was humiliating. But even so, Dick engulfed Damian into a bone crushing hug as he gushed about how good he was and so on, and Barbara called ahead to let Alfred know how to prepare for the night. \n\nTalia and Ra's weren't even the last bit impressed with him, and they made that very clear. Bruce and Dick kept shooting them warning glances, but the two kept on ignoring them. If it hurt Damian, he didn't show it. \n\nTim locked his door after himself when he went to bed. He knew better than to try and go work downstairs when Alfred was out for him. Less than twelve hours to go. If he was lucky, he may even be asleep when Ra's and Talia left and wouldn't need to see him again. And even if he wasn't so fortunate and someone woke him up before then, he would only a few hours left if he survived the night. \n\nHe wrapped himself tightly into a blanket cocoon even he will have a hard time getting out of, so no one else would pry away his blankets, before he closed his eyes.\n\n****************\n\nThe mattress dipped in beside him and Tim's eyes snapped open. His heart went from zero to one hundred within a second, his breath caught painfully in his chest. He closed his door. He locked his door. And yet as he lifted his eyes from his pillows, he saw Ra's al Ghoul sitting by his side. The man didn't touch him, he was just sitting there, watching over him.\n\n\"It's a bit over one in the morning. I honoured your request, Timothy and kept to myself during Damian's day as foolish as I think it was,\" he started. The moonlight highlighted the gray locks in his hair, his white dress shirt seemed to shine in the dark. It may have been just the play of the lights, but he seemed completely unaffected by the late hour. \n\nTim sighed. He, on the other hand, was tired. He sat up in his bed, still keeping his blanket-wrap around himself.\n\"Don't you think this proves that you may have some sociopathic tendencies? No normal person would wait up for this loophole,\" he said, pulling back against the headboard so there was some more distance between them. \n\n\"I think it would be wise to quit insulting me before I get angry, dearest,\" Ra's said, moving slightly closer to Tim. \"I think we have already established that I am stronger than you and can use that power over you any time I want. I don't want to have to resort to force this time, my heart,\" he said, grabbing the blankets and pulling them away from Tim's body.\n\n\"What do you want, Ra's? I don't want to make a scene, but I'll yell and everyone will be here within seconds,\" Tim tried to pull his blanket back, but Ra's yanked it from him before he had a chance to make any movement. He fell forward as the material was pulled from underneath him, and then Ra's hand was back at his neck. Tim's eyes widened and his pulse sped up once again. His head knocked against the headboard as Ra's slammed him back against it, climbing over him.\n\n\"You don't want that, sweet,\" he murmured softly, leaning into Tim's face. The moonlight reflected back from the poison irises, and Tim suddenly understood how a tiny mouse might feel when facing a snake with its jaw unhinged. Ra's finger kept on caressing the vein on his neck, strumming against it gently with every pulse. Tim didn't even dare to breath, and slowly but surely spots started dancing in his vision.\n\n\"I'm going tell you what's going to happen now, dearest. You're going to be the good boy I know you can be when you're not acting rebellious. You're going to quietly pack a bag of your essentials, and we are going to leave. I've already arranged the plane for us,\" he said, giving Tim a soft smile. He gave Tim an affectionate peck on the forehead. \"You're perfect for me, darling. I only need you to see reason and quit your childish games,\" he said, and even if his tone was gentle, there was an underlying warning in it that didn't skip Tim's attention.\n\nTim opened his mouth, but no sound came out. Ra's fingers were still pressing down on his pulse with every heartbeat in his chest. He couldn't breathe, as if hundred bricks weighed down on his chest. But Ra's was leaning closer, his eyes never once breaking away from his and Tim felt like he was going to throw up, even if his stomach felt to be the size of a child's fist. He forced himself to take a shaky breath.\n\n\"Help! JASON! HELP!\" He screamed out as loud as he could, before starting to trash in Ra's hands. \"ANYONE! HELP! Please...\" the last bit came out a bare whisper as Ra's pressed down on his throat again, grabbing it just to slam his head against the headboard again.\n\n\"I warned you! Keep quiet and obey the rules I set! This is ALL I asked you to do, and I will give you the world!\" he snarled. He lapped Tim across the face, not minding how Tim's fingers clawed into his hand that held his throat. Tim's cheek throbbed, the back of his head pulsate, and tears of frustration leaked from his eyes. He was powerless in the man's hold.\n\nBut instead of slapping him again, Ra's gently took Tim's face into his hand, caressing his cheek softly.\n\"When will you learn? I don't want to hurt you, dearest. You make me do this, and I...\"\n\n\"And you will take your hands off him before I shoot you in the head,\" Jason's voice was steady and deep, and Tim let out a sob. Ra's turned towards the door, his hand still holding Tim's throat. And to Tim's terror, Jason as holding a gun.\n\nRa's chuckled softly.\n\"You don't think this seriously, child. Put that down before I take it away myself,\" he said, like he was talking to a naughty kid.\n\nBut Jason only clocked the gun.\n\"Try my, asshole,\" he growled. His hands were steady, his hold perfect.\n\n\"Jason, put it down. Please, we don't need to take this that far,\" Dick said as he stepped into the room. He lifted his hands into the air to show he wasn't armed.\n\n\"I'll put it down once he steps away from my boyfriend,\" Jason said, not even glancing at Dick.\n\nAs much as Dick wanted to push Ra's away from Tim, he couldn't make a move until Jason was holding the gun.\n\"Please, Jay. You can't do this to Damian. Isn't that why you guys kept this a secret?\" he asked.\n\nRa's pulled Tim to the other side of the bed, still holding his throat with an iron grip. He pulled Tim in front of himself, putting the boy in the line of fire.\n\"Listen to him, Jason,\" he said, but his voice got overshadowed. \n\n\"Do what you need, Todd.\" \n\nThey all turned to look at Damian who stood behind Dick by the door.\n\"And don't think I didn't know. I overhead Drake telling it to Todd right after the original assault,\" he said in a matter-of-fact tone. He looked at them with a raised eyebrow. \"Why do you think I wanted to be at Grandfather's house for two weeks?\" he asked. \n\nTim's heart sunk. Damian knew and yet he still invited Ra's over. He knew the boy hated him, but he never would've thought it was to this extent. And by the broken look on Dick's face, he wasn't the only one who thought this. \n\n\" Dami...\"\n\n\"I worked a bit overtime than my original schedule, but I still managed to find enough evidence to put him behind bars, even if Drake doesn't wish to testify, be it as foolish as it is,\" Damian said. \n\n\"What did you just say?\" Ra's asked. Surprise mixed with rage in his voice, and even if it was only for a second, his hold weakened. And Tim went for it. He threw himself out of the man's hold, ignoring how Ra's finger jabbed into his vein when he tried to re-establish his grip. But Tim was already out, and he ran right into Jason who only let the gun down once he had Tim within an arms reach. \n\n\"I said that you're going to jail, Grandfather. I have found the messages you exchanges with numerous hitman and assassins to kidnap Drake next week, shall your attempt today not succeed. I also have your emails printed, in which you blackmailed the Drakes, threatening to leak Drake's info to the press. And let's not forget the evidence we have on photographs and multiple eye-witness testimonies that you attempted rape and physically assaulted him. And currently I don't even want to go into detail about the tax-frauds and embezzlement I found out about,\" he said, letting Dick step in front of him when Ra's stepped forward. He may be a martial artist, but with a gun aimed on him, and two another well-versed people in the room, even Ra's didn't try his luck. \n\n\"Father is already outside, leading the police here,\" Damian finished with a smug grin as he watched Dick bind Ra's hands behind his back with Tim's sheets. \n\n\"You're a disgrace to our name,\" Ra's spat as he looked at his grandson. They could already hear the police running up the stairs. He could struggle, but then he would've lost his dignity. It wasn't worth it. \n\n\"I don't care. I already have the papers filled out to change my name to Wayne,\" Damian countered. His expression was cold, his hands behind his back. He looked at Ra's like he was just shit on his shoes. \n\n\"So you're going to be marked with the name of sex-worker? Serves you right, shows your true value,\" he said, not even looking up onto the officer who took his from Dick's hold, clicking the handcuffs onto him beside the sheets. \n\n\"At least here we value consent,\" Damian answered, looking as Ra's was lead down the corridor. \n\nJason put his gun down and pulled Tim against his chest even tighter.\n\"Fucking hell,\" he muttered, pressing a kiss against Tim's dark hair as the younger clung onto his shirt. \n\n\"Shit...\" Tim whisperer, burying his face into Jason's shoulder. He didn't care that the others were around, he didn't care that the police wanted to question him. Jason' scent overwhelmed his senses, his warm embrace made him feel safe again. He didn't even care for the gun anymore.\n\n\"Now, if I can interrupt, give me the gun, Jason,\" Bruce said, making them look up. He was standing beside one of the officers. He held his hand towards Jason.\n\nThe man rolled his eyes but gave it to him. Dick watched the exchange with slight horror written on his face.\n\"Why do you even have a gun in the first place?\" he asked. \n\nJason shrugged as he put both his arms around Tim again.\n\"Stole it from set. It's the one we used for Red Hood. Made me feel powerful so I took it,\" he answered nonchalantly.\nDick winced.\n\"That... doesn't exactly make me feel calmer...\" he whispered.\n\n\"Gentlemen, if I may,\" one of the officers stepped forward. \"I need you all to come in to the precinct so we can question you and record your testimonies,\" he said, strumming his pen against his notebook. Tim turned his face away from Jason's shoulder to look at him, but Bruce stepped in front of them before he even had time to open his mouth.\n\n\"Alright. We'll drive there as soon as possible, just let us change into a more formal clothing,\" he gestured down his body to show that all of them were in their pajamas, standing barefooted in Tim's room.\n\nThe officer nodded.\n\"We'll be awaiting for you. Until then, we need to take some pictures of the room,\" he said, as another few men came forward, followed by a woman holding a camera. Bruce agreed, but Jason only snorted.\n\n\"Look, Timmy, you'll be on the police record as a slob,\" he commented with a demented giggle. Tim hit him on the chest.\n\n\"Shut the fuck up,\" he groaned but couldn't help the smile that sneaked onto his lips.\n\n\"Officer, who do I need to give the evidence I collected?\" Damian asked as he turned towards the policeman. The man was clearly shocked at how the young boy spoke to him, so he sputtered over his words as he answered: \"Me... Please, give it to me.\" Damian nodded before turning on his heels, but before he disappeared, Tim called after him. When the boy turned back, Tim caught his eyes.\n\nHe gave Damian a small smile.\n\"Thank you.\"\n\nDamian frowned.\n\"Don't flatter yourself, Drake. I didn't do it for you,\" he answered and left before any more words could be exchanged.\n\nBruce sighed, and even if he tried to hide his emotions, there was a soft smile on his lips.\n\"Everyone dress up and get ready. We should leave as soon a possible, so we can come home early and get some sleep,\" he said, and patted Jason's shoulder before leaving. Dick looked after him, and almost left with him but then he turned back towards Tim and Jason and gave them a big hug. He squeezed the breath out of them, before pressing a kiss onto Tim's head.\n\n\"See you guys in a few,\" he said and ran out of the room.\n\n\"Idiot...\" Jason groaned and shook his head. He looked down to meet Tim's gaze. They just watched each other for a second before Jason leaned down to press their lips together in a chaste kiss. \"Come on, you can borrow my hoodie. Let's leave them to work,\" he patted Tim's lower back gently to lead him out of the room."}
+{"text": "The low rumble of the train is peaceful. The heavy vibrations and even the occasional metallic whine as something scrapes against the track as distance closes between them and Cheongju.\n\nShe'd see her family again, and that's a warm thought. They'd get to meet Ryujin, which she knows will go over just fine. Ryujin is charming, and she knows the second they let her in the kitchen, she'll win everyone over. It's not even a concern she's entertaining.\n\nThese thoughts anchor her, along with the persistent hand holding from Ryujin. The way she toys with each finger boredly while staring out the window. Jungeun knew her attention would be on the book, so she'd forfeited the coveted window seat. As she goes over the section detailing Minji's death she wonders if maybe staring outside would have been the healthier option. Her eyes sting.\n\nShe sniffles, roughly swiping at her face quickly to catch a tear that'd escaped, but it's not missed by Ryujin who snaps her head over to look at her.\n\n\"You okay?\" she asks, and Jungeun only nods, chewing on her lower lip while still reading over the lines. Ryujin gives her hand a little squeeze.\n\nThe chapter about Minji ends with the line: I never would have guessed that the worst thing to ever happen to me would be followed by the best thing that could ever happen to me.\n\nAnd the following chapter starts with the story of how she broke Toshio's arm when she met Jungeun. Her breath catches in her throat. With just a few simple lines on a page, she has that Jinsoul shaped wound in her heart torn open again and it bleeds and bleeds and bleeds.\n\nShe tries to keep reading. She gets to where she mentions how happy she was when she got to stay and be friends with Jungeun after her name was cleared and the first time Jungeun fixed her uniform bow for her and she can't take it anymore. She closes the book draft.\n\nWhen they finally make their arrival, they're given a warm welcome. Though Jungeun's mother can tell something is off immediately.\n\nI'm just tired, she tells her, and to Jungeun's benefit, she backs off. It's not the reunion either of them were hoping for, but Jungeun makes a promise to herself to be especially sweet after she's been given an opportunity to shake off this feeling that's gripped her.\n\nAnd as expected, Ryujin is immediately a hit. She's charismatic as ever and has them laughing within minutes of meeting, and the sound of it puts Jungeun immediately at ease. And while Ryujin is putting on the charm, she still spares that sliver of her attention for Jungeun. Maintaining that silent sort of reminder that she's there at a moment's notice if Jungeun needs her.\n\nAnd she does. When they get to her parents' house and lug all of their things up the stairs to her room, she has to stop and cover her face.\n\n\"I don't want to be like this,\" Jungeun says, exasperated. Sad. \"This is an important week.\"\n\nRyujin is there in an instant, holding her, kissing the side of her head and muttering reassurances that don't really sink in. But they're still nice to hear.\n\nPulling her hands from her face, Jungeun takes a deep breath and lets herself rest her chin on Ryujin's shoulder while she's held.\n\n\"You're gonna see Yerimie again and feel ten times better,\" Ryujin says confidently, and Jungeun thinks she might be right. They hadn't seen each other in a while.\n\nPulling back, Ryujin holds Jungeun at the shoulders and angles her head to try and connect their eyes.\n\n\"You're gonna be okay. We'll get through this week and make some happy memories with everyone. You shouldn't go living in the bad ones in that book.\"\n\nJungeun nods numbly. She knows she's going to read it again the moment Ryujin is out of the room.\n\nShe leans in, planting another noisy kiss on Jungeun's forehead with a loud \"Mwah!\" before letting her go.\n\n\"I'm gonna help appa with dinner,\" she says before slipping out of the room.\n\nAnd, of course, the second she's out the door, Jungeun is fishing the draft out of her laptop bag and opening it as she sits on the bed. From where she continues, the book details her friendships with Jungeun, Jiwoo and Hyunjin and how they helped her cope despite never having known there was anything wrong. Something about it twists a knife in Jungeun's gut. She wishes she'd known.\n\nThere isn't too much focus given to her time in high school. Even if Jungeun would gladly read about how much Jinsoul preferred math to history, or about her favorite lunches, she knows these things aren't relevant to the message being delivered. Still, there's a heartfelt mention of Yerim that's kept that manages to make Jungeun smile.\n\nRather, the part focusing on her teens has more to do with her developing relationship with Kang, and the realizations they were having about themselves. Callbacks are made to sections in Kang's section of the book--Jungeun still doesn't bother to read the first half, though. It makes little difference to her what Kang went through. She cares only about the ripple effect it had on Jinsoul.\n\nThough Jungeun finds out she's the reason Jinsoul had begun to question things. Sure, she'd started looking at girls a little differently in the locker room, or when walking down the hallway. But she didn't link feelings to it until Jungeun had come to join her in high school a year later.\n\nThe realization that the two of them had been quietly pining for each other for that long makes her laugh. It's certainly a mirthless sort of laugh, though. Again and again, Jungeun was becoming aware of how cruel the fates are. But in a way that almost has her smirking. Oh if only you knew, she thinks, reflecting on little fifteen year old Jungie.\n\nExplicitly, it mentions that she realized she was in love with a girl when this girl was taken by someone else. Jungeun remembers Haseul. Remembers how Jinsoul was suddenly there when she needed her most during the breakup.\n\nAnd then the book mentions Busan.\n\nNot... in any great detail. And for that, Jungeun is grateful. But it's mentioned all the same. Treated as a place that mattered a lot to her and how her memories during that time are something she thinks about every day. It makes Jungeun's chest tight.\n\nClosing the book, Jungeun remembers their game. She remembers her walk on the tightrope.\n\nShe remembers not knowing anything and believing the wrong things. Believing what Jinsoul was saying, but not what she was showing.\n\nShe swallows dryly, her breath feeling too hot in her throat as she tucks the book back into her laptop bag. She can smell dinner is almost ready and thinks to finally get back downstairs. She hadn't seen her family in months after all.\n\n\n♡♤ Three years earlier, New Years Eve ♧♢ \n\n\nThe sidewalks feel so packed. So cramped. Despite the chill in the air and the snow starting to fall again, Hyeju feels too hot, too stifled. Her eyes burn as she pushes past people, weaving through them. She thinks she hears someone call out to her.\n\nDepravity. Morality. Dignity. The words all stung. Worst of all, the look on Jungeun's face. Horrorstruck and humiliated.\n\nHyeju didn't think people like that existed anymore. Not outside of bantering politicians with an agenda--and maybe that's exactly what he was. Hyeju couldn't know. All she knows is that this was the reality she'd have to face if she wanted to be happy. If she was going to be honest with herself.\n\nShe thinks of Hoseok. That boy she didn't even dignify with a breakup. She wonders if she could meet another like him and settle into a quiet life where people like that loud man back at the exhibit couldn't make a mess of things. She wonders if she could pretend to be happy with some boy for the sake of keeping a healthy relationship with her parents. She wonders why her happiness has to come at a cost.\n\nAnd she stops. The heat built up in her chest and throat and eyes suddenly burning up from secondhand humiliation into anger. Into a defensiveness. Into a want to protect people like Jungeun who are too scared to speak up for themselves. She wants to turn on her heel and find that man and make him pay.\n\nInstead she finds herself frozen. Stuck on inaction. What does she do? How is she even meant to feel about all of this? God she wishes Sooyoung was there to tell her.\n\n\"Hyeju!\" she hears, and suddenly realizes she did have someone calling after her.\n\nWorst of all, it's Chaewon.\n\nOut of breath, she stops in front of her, fixing Hyeju with a look that's somewhere between angry and concerned.\n\n\"What are you doing?\" she asks and Hyeju wishes she had an answer.\n\n\"I can't do this,\" Hyeju finally says, fear winning out over anger.\n\nChaewon does a double-take, puzzled. \"Can't do... what?\"\n\n\"This!\" Hyeju answers, raising her voice, frustrated as she gestures between the two of them.\n\nChaewon recoils, hurt, and the sight of it forms a lump in Hyeju's throat. She can't look at her. She feels like a coward.\n\n\"So... What then? We're over before we even get started?\" Chaewon asks, half smiling in disbelief.\n\nHyeju doesn't answer. Looks up and away, swallowing down the lump, but it refuses to leave.\n\nThere's a hurt, mirthless laugh out of Chaewon when she realizes she's not even going to be dignified with an answer.\n\n\"Unbelievable,\" she mutters, but a moment after she steps closer, grabbing Hyeju by the lapels of her coat. It catches her attention and she looks down at Chaewon, finally facing the angry sadness in her eyes. She didn't think Chaewon cared enough to feel so strongly--but here Hyeju has no choice but to face it.\n\n\"I didn't wear you down to walk away with nothing,\" she says bitterly, and it's all the warning Hyeju gets before she's pulled down and Chaewon kisses her. It's fast, and for a split second Hyeju actually reciprocates. It stirs up such an intense conflict of emotions at once but the one persistent thought is how she doesn't want things to end like this.\n\nBut Chaewon steps back and Hyeju watches her. Sees the disappointment and the... heartbreak? She doesn't wanna believe it's heartbreak written on her face.\n\nThen again, why does she feel compelled to follow? To take it back?\n\nInstead she just watches. Rooted to the spot as the head of blonde hair disappears into the crowd.\n\n/\\/\\/\\/\n\n\"Did you ever find Hyeju?\" Jungeun asks as Sooyoung takes her coat for her.\n\n\"Nah. I'm sure she and Chaewon either went off to be alone somewhere or she went to give that asshole a piece of her mind.\"\n\n\"Right... Long as she oka--Wait what am I doing here?\"\n\nJinsoul and Sooyoung both stop and look at her like it's the weirdest question to come up all night.\n\n\"Jiwoo's not back,\" Jinsoul says, like it's the obvious answer.\n\n\"Huh?\"\n\n\"You hate being alone,\" Sooyoung supplies, completing the thought, \"You also just went through something kinda...\" She pauses for a second, toeing off her shoes, \"I don't like to throw around the word traumatic, but...\"\n\n\"Traumatic,\" Jinsoul says with some finality, Sooyoung making a noise in agreement.\n\nJungeun deflates a little. They aren't wrong. She didn't need a reminder of her humiliation. But Jinsoul immediately takes notice and closes the gap between them, grabbing her hands and drawing her to come sit on the couch with her.\n\n\"You'll stay the night with us. We'll watch movies, make you laugh and you can forget that guy,\" Jinsoul reassures.\n\nJungeun frowns. \"I don't think I'll ever forget that guy,\" she mutters. But a second later Jinsoul kisses her. First on the cheek, then the forehead, then on the lips and then just all over. A rapid fire kiss machine, making Jungeun giggle and sputter until she's leaning away and Jinsoul is on top of her, unrelenting.\n\n\"Ugh. God, you guys are gross,\" Sooyoung says, though there's a layer of affection to it as she flings the blanket from the back of the couch over them. \"Can you scoot over so I can sit please?\"\n\nJinsoul finally eases off, pulling Jungeun upright, though just as Sooyoung is about to sit, there's suddenly banging at the door as someone frantically starts beating.\n\n\"... Who the hell?\" Jinsoul mutters, looking to Sooyoung for answers who shakes her head and shrugs. The both of them rise, though Jungeun grabs Jinsoul's arm a second later in a quiet bid to make her stay close. Sooyoung gestures for them to stay put as she approaches the door to check the peephole.\n\n\"The fu--\" is all Sooyoung manages to get out before she's flinging the door open and pulling the person inside. Jungeun quickly recognizes the coat as Hyeju's, though her knitted cap is pulled low and her scarf is around her face.\n\n\"What are you--\" Sooyoung goes to ask, but cuts herself off when Hyeju pulls her hat off, revealing a nasty rugged looking wound on her forehead, like she'd be knocked into a concrete wall--or a sidewalk.\n\n\"What happened?\" Jungeun asks, sitting up and watching over the back of the couch.\n\nSooyoung quickly helps Hyeju pull her winter layers off, saying nothing. Though even at a distance, Jungeun can see the poor girl is in distress. Tear-streaked face, bloodied forehead, and once the scarf is gone, she can see the flaked blood under her nose. She looks like she got into a fight.\n\nSooyoung gets her onto one of the barstools and remains wordless as she gets a wet washcloth to clean the blood from her sister's face. Jungeun can see her touch is just the right amount of rough to clean, making Hyeju recoil just barely, but she sits as still as she can. Though the longer Jungeun stares, she realizes: Anyone who'd known Hyeju for more than a few minutes can tell those tears weren't out of pain.\n\nOnce she's satisfied with how much she'd cleaned her up, Sooyoung gets rid of the washcloth in favor of the first aid kit. Then comes the question.\n\n\"What happened, Daechu?\" she asks, and Jungeun is caught off guard by how gentle it is. She almost feels bad for listening.\n\nHyeju doesn't answer at first, and then there's a hiccup and Jungeun realizes she's started to cry again. Something about seeing the tough younger sister get emotional draws a reaction out of her and she unconsciously reaches for Jinsoul's hand.\n\n\"I got scared,\" she explains, her voice low and stuck in her chest, \"And then I got angry.\"\n\n\"Will you tell me from the beginning? Are you in trouble?\" Sooyoung asks, her voice still so gentle as she carefully gets gauze taped over the wound in her forehead.\n\n\"That man. The one who started yelling. Freaked me out,\" she explains, her sentences short because it's clearly hard to string together the thoughts and produce them audibly. \"I left. Chaewon found me and I told her I couldn't do it.\"\n\n\"Hyeju...\" Sooyoung murmurs, almost cooing but clearly trying not to lapse into being condescending or infantilizing.\n\n\"She was upset. And I got upset at myself for hurting her. Then I saw him.\"\n\nThe air in the room suddenly grows tense.\n\n\"... You saw him?\" Sooyoung repeats, \"Outside? And then what happened?\"\n\nHyeju chews the inside of her cheek for a second and looks away before finally getting to the explanation they'd been holding their breath for:\n\n\"I tripped him.\"\n\n\"Oh my god...\"\n\n\"Then I got on top of him and punched him in the face a couple times.\"\n\n\"You WHAT?!\" And this response comes from two people: Sooyoung and Jinsoul. While Sooyoung sounds mortified, Jinsoul sounds... almost impressed? And a little amused.\n\nHyeju looks between the two of them, acting a bit like a kid who got caught stealing a candy bar.\n\n\"He shoved me off and I hit the ground hard. He tried to grab me, but I slipped away and ran like... I don't know, five blocks to shake him? Then I got a cab here.\"\n\nSooyoung brings her hands to the sides of her face, looking at Hyeju with wide-eyed disbelief. Meanwhile, Jungeun thinks Jinsoul wants to high-five her.\n\n\"For fuck's sake, Hyeju... He-- oh my god. He probably reported you to the cops. You could be expelled.\"\n\n\"... Can I lay low here for a little while?\" Hyeju asks in a small voice, earning a groan out of her older sister.\n\n\"What kind of a big sister would I be if I didn't harbor my criminal little sister?\"\n\n/\\/\\/\\/\n\nYerim doesn't know why she thought getting the late train home would be a good idea. Something about spending extra time with family, probably, but as she's dragging her suitcases through the school courtyard and up the dorm steps, she suddenly regrets everything.\n\nTo her surprise the dorm is quiet. Usually even at midnight, there'd be noise coming from at least one of the rooms, but she figures since she came back a little early, maybe the party monsters were still back home or out in Itaewon.\n\nThough she does notice one of the girls standing outside a room, poking her head in, talking softly. And she realizes she's looking into Chaewon's room. When she gets closer, she recognizes her--Yujin, a taller girl who had the tendency to be a bit of a worrier despite her cool exterior.\n\nConveniently, she pulls back just as Yerim approaches.\n\n\"What's going on?\" Yerim whispers, Yujin jumps, not having heard her approach.\n\n\"Oh, Yerim-unnie. It's Chaewon. She hasn't left her room all day. She won't tell us what's wrong.\"\n\nYerim frowns at that.\n\n\"Will you talk to her?\" Yujin asks, brows upturned and hands pressed together as though to plead.\n\nOf course I will, Yerim thinks, as if the answer is the most obvious thing in the world. She holds out the handles of her two suitcases.\n\n\"Go roll these into my room for me. I'll take care of her,\" she insists. Yujin whispers a fast thank you and immediately takes the suitcases, scurrying down the hall to Yerim's room. Everybody knew where her room was--half of the first years practically thought of her as their own big sister.\n\nShe gives the door a couple of soft knocks before quietly turning the knob and nudging it open. Inside, she's met with Chaewon, who...\n\nHonestly, she's too pretty to be this sad, Yerim thinks.\n\nYerim finds her sitting on her bed with nothing but a dim lamp on, but it's enough to see the tear streaks down her face and how puffy her eyes are. There's a little waste bin next to her bed full of wadded up tissues and Yerim's heart breaks.\n\n\"I'm fine,\" she says, her voice nasal and an octave lower than usual.\n\nYerim doesn't wait for permission. She steps in, closing the door behind her carefully--being mindful of Chaewon's sleeping roommate.\n\nAt first, she comes to sit on her haunches in front of Chaewon at the side of her bed, reaching forward to hold her hands. Chaewon doesn't pull away, but she doesn't meet her eyes.\n\n\"Talk to me,\" Yerim says softly, giving Chaewon's hands a soft squeeze.\n\nApparently the tiny nudge had been too much. Chaewon grimaces, taking her hands from Yerim's and covering her face. It catches Yerim off guard and she quickly gets up on the bed to hug her from the side.\n\n\"What happened?\" she asks, though it takes a few minutes for Chaewon to even pull her hands from her face.\n\n\"Hyeju...\" she starts, and Yerim braces herself, \"Doesn't want anything to do with me.\"\n\nNow that's just not true, Yerim thinks, but obviously she can't say that.\n\n\"Did she say that?\"\n\nChaewon nods. \"We were at Jungeun's exhibit on a date and some old man said some things that scared her. She ran away. When I chased her down she said she couldn't do it anymore.\"\n\n\"What...? What did he say??\"\n\nChaewon grimaces again, another wave of emotions hitting her.\n\n\"Stupid stuff. It doesn't matter.\"\n\n\"No. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked,\" Yerim quickly says, hugging her a little closer for a second. \"Hyeju likes you, Chaewon. I think she just got scared...\"\n\nShe shakes her head, looking down at the tissue in her hand.\n\n\"She made her choice. It's fine. It's not like we were that close.\"\n\nYerim takes a deep breath, tilting her head into Chaewon's for a moment. Even if she was trying to play things off as no big deal, the evidence was already mounted in the other direction. Clearly Hyeju meant more to Chaewon than she could have expected.\n\n\"Don't give up, okay? We'll talk to her.\"\n\nAnd once again, Chaewon shakes her head. And Yerim knows she can't be reached anymore. Not tonight at least. So she gently takes the tissue from her hand, dropping it in the waste bin and moves the tissue box to the edge of her nightstand, still within reach.\n\n\"Get some sleep, okay? I wanna take you to breakfast tomorrow.\"\n\nChaewon nods numbly and doesn't protest when Yerim flips off the lamp and sees herself out. Though Yerim nearly walks directly into Yujin the second she gets out.\n\n\"Oh--\"\n\n\"Is she okay?\" Yujin asks, brow knit with worry.\n\n... Well if Hyeju won't date her... Yerim muses, letting that thought float away.\n\n\"She will be. She's getting some sleep now.\"\n\nYujin looks past her at the door, seeming to consider an option before giving it up.\n\n\"Thanks unnie. I've been worried about her.\"\n\nYerim smiles warmly, but then shoos her off in the direction of her room.\n\n\"Go, go. It's late and you'll worry yourself sick,\" she insists, earning a giggle out of Yujin before she sees herself off to her room. Then, Yerim pulls out her phone.\n\nCYr: Baby\nCYr: Please be awake\nCYr: I need to talk to you\n\nHyunjin responds with a gif of a cat with its legs tucked under its body, face down in the carpet.\n\nCYr: Chaewon and Hyeju broke things off\n\nKHj: Huh?\n\nCYr: Hyeju broke things off bc she got scared\n\nKHj: Is everybody bad at having a relationship but us?\n\nCYr: You didn't even know we were dating\n\nKHj: ...\n\nThere's a solid minute long pause.\n\nKHj: Aeong...\n\nCYr: Make it up to me and talk to Hyeju. Talk some sense into her!!\nCYr: And please eat something if you haven't\nCYr: I love you\n\nAnd to cap off the conversation, she sends a string of hearts and sparkles. Very Kim Jiwoo of her.\n\nKHj: I'd like to make it up to you other ways too\nKHj: :)\n\nYerim's mouth falls open at that and it takes her a moment to realize she's just been standing in her dark dorm room with her phone in hand. The message, innocent as it might seem on the surface, had managed to ignite a number of thoughts Yerim preferred to save for when she was alone.\n\n/\\/\\/\\/\n\n\"I should come over more often,\" Hyeju mutters, digging her spoon back into her omurice. Naturally, staying with her sister meant she was being treated to some pretty good food, and she's come to realize just how much garbage she's been putting in her mouth compared to the kinds of things Sooyoung can throw together in half an hour.\n\nSooyoung approaches from behind, flicking the back of Hyeju's head with her free hand while the other scrolls through her phone.\n\n\"What I've been saying,\" she grumbles with a sigh before taking the seat next to her.\n\nHyeju grunts angrily in response, food in her mouth. Sooyoung and Jinsoul both had been making a habit during their waking hours to periodically check their phones for any news regarding crime reports. Hyeju was effectively under house arrest until they figured out how serious this was going to pan out.\n\n\"Ah! I found something!\" Jinsoul calls from the couch, Jungeun stretched across the cushions with her head in her lap. She shows it first to Jungeun who bursts out laughing, then to Sooyoung who comes to stand behind the couch.\n\n\"Assault occuring on December 31st at approximately 10pm,\" Sooyoung reads, \"Gwan Hangyeol, a local politician, reported the unprovoked battery to the police, stating the assailant is likely still at large.\"\n\nSooyoung then bursts out laughing, \"Perpetrator described to be male, approximately 188 centimeters and 90 kilograms.\"\n\nHyeju, with food still stuffed in her cheeks, looks up, blinking.\n\n\"Hang on. Hang on,\" Sooyoung says, still laughing as she taps something into her phone. A moment later she's laughing even harder.\n\n\"It is him!\" she howls, showing the search results for Gwan Hangyeol. Sure enough, it's the same man from the exhibit. Apparently he was on the city infrastructure board or something equally boring. Hyeju doesn't care. She just thinks his face is infinitely more punchable when he's smiling for the camera.\n\nScoffing, Sooyoung pulls her phone back, pocketing it.\n\n\"He probably didn't want to admit his injuries were from a girl,\" Jungeun chirps, earning a thoughtful noise out of Jinsoul.\n\nSooyoung nods, \"I think that's exactly it. Daechu is a free woman.\" She holds up a finger, adding, much more seriously: \"But if you ever do something like that again--\"\n\nHyeju waits, starting at Sooyoung, food still stuffed in her cheeks.\n\n\"Call me, dummy.\"\n\n/\\/\\/\\/\n\nStepping into her dorm, Hyeju is relieved to finally be back in her own space. Much as she's come to enjoy spending time with Sooyoung, she's not sure how much more of Jinsoul and Jungeun she could stomach. Not after what happened with Chaewon.\n\n\"Oh good, you're back,\" Hyunjin greets, sounding a bit more chipper than usual. It immediately puts Hyeju on her guard and she looks up to see her getting off her bed. that also has Hyeju perplexed. Was she going in for a hug?\n\nBut then she sees her reach back--\n\n\nWHAP.\n\n\nWith hardly a second of warning, she swings her pillow directly into Hyeju's face, almost knocking her off her feet.\n\n\"Idiot,\" she says coolly, and yeah. Alright. Maybe Hyeju deserves that.\n\nShe fixes her hair and sets out a sigh, staring Hyunjin down, trying to wear her out fast with a classic Hyeju glare. But, it has absolutely no effect. Hyunjin stands ready, pillow coiled back, ready for another swing, and a huge smile on her face.\n\nHyeju realizes: She doesn't just have this coming.\n\n\nThis is revenge.\n\n\nShe holds a hand out to try and block the angle the next swing might come from.\n\n\"What did you say to Chaewon?\" she asks with saccharine sweetness and Hyeju suddenly feels dread wash over her.\n\n\"... I told her I couldn't do it, becau--\"\n\nNope. She's not allowed to finish. And Hyunjin swings the pillow from above so she can't block with her hand.\n\n\nWHAP.\n\n\n\"Fucking-- Kim Hyunjin! Let me explain!\"\n\nNope. WHAP.\n\nThis time swinging in from the side so once again Hyeju can't block. Rather than trying to stop the assault, she brings both arms close to her head to keep the blows from hitting her face. Hyunjin can't stop grinning.\n\n\"You finally--\"\n\n\nWHAP.\n\n\n\"--meet a nice girl--\"\n\n\nWHAP.\n\n\n\"--who takes you out for sushi--\"\n\n\nWHAP!\n\n\n\"--and you throw it all away!\"\n\nHyeju tries grabbing the pillow, now getting to her own boiling point. She already feels awful for the way she ended things. She can't stop thinking about the way Chaewon kissed her. Now she has to suffer through this?!\n\nBut Hyunjin manages to wrench it out of her grip, winding back for another powerful hit, but holding it there.\n\n\"I got scared!\" Hyeju says, serious this time.\n\n\"Scared of what?\" Hyunjin asks in a low voice, threatening.\n\n\"There was this asshole that showed up and started saying all this stuff. It made me realize that people like me--\"\n\n\"Us,\" Hyunjin corrects, and something about it stings. In a single word, Hyunjin made a point of calling Hyeju a coward.\n\n\"... People like us aren't allowed the same right to be happy.\"\n\n\"So you think breaking things off with Chaewon is going to make you both happier?\" Hyunjin asks, almost mocking. And Hyeju knows she deserves it.\n\nAnd that's the point that really makes it sink in.\n\nHyeju doesn't want another Hoseok. She doesn't want to fake anything so shitheads like Gwan Hangyeol are more comfortable.\n\nHyeju wants an annoying blondie that gets under her skin.\n\nHyeju wants Chaewon.\n\n\"You're gonna talk to her, right?\" Hyunjin asks, pulling Hyeju from her thoughts.\n\n\"Are you gonna hit me again if I say no?\"\n\nAnd Hyunjin feints, causing Hyeju to reflexively bring her arms up again as she flinches.\n\n\"Yes! God. I'll... talk to her during practice or something.\"\n\n\nWHAP.\n\n\n\"Good!\"\n\n/\\/\\/\\/\n\nReturning to class after the exhibit feels... odd. Jungeun knows she did well, but she's also certain word has spread about her humiliation. And if not by now, then certainly by the end of the week.\n\nAnd, inconveniently, the moment class ends, her professor calls her over, meeting her in the middle of the class before leading them both off to his office. While she manages to keep a calm facade, her insides churn with anxiety as the door closes behind them and he shutters the blinds.\n\n\"Here's this...\" he murmurs, gesturing to a set of for pictures carefully bubble wrapped and leaned against the wall, \"They saw that your work was taken down after the exhibit, though Mr. Lee himself stood in your place, singing your praises after you'd taken an early leave.\"\n\nProfessor Boem comes to stand behind his desk, hands folded plaintively in front of his stomach like he has something he needs to say, but feels awkward about it.\n\n\"He also wanted me to extend his deepest apologies once again, for what happened.\"\n\nJungeun remembers Hyeju and the incident report they found and has to restrain a smile.\n\n\"Please tell Mr. Lee that I'm alright, and that I don't blame him at all for what happened.\"\n\nThat seems to quickly assuage any lingering anxieties and the professor relaxes, finally finding his seat and gesturing for Jungeun to take the one across from him.\n\n\"I hope that you'll forgive the informality of this meeting,\" he starts, and Jungeun almost wants to laugh, \"But, I have to admit I'm a little too... excited to simply keep the news to myself while I wait for the actual award certificate.\"\n\n\"Award?\" Jungeun asks, confused.\n\n\"Yes, they've begun making calls for which students will be welcomed to join the exchange program in the event any of those students were looking to make any transfer plans or changes to their living situations.\"\n\nJungeun's mouth falls open, and Professor Boem purses his lips to hide a smile he can't fully restrain.\n\n\"It probably goes without saying, but you've been chosen early, Jungeun. Along with a second year culinary arts student.\"\n\nJungeun's breath suddenly gets caught in her lungs, mouth still hung open as she tries to quickly work through the disbelief.\n\n\"I'm going to Japan?\"\n\nThe professor grins, chuckling low. \"If you choose to accept, yes. I'd recommend seeking out a Japanese tutor.\"\n\nAn invasive thought enters her head as she's reminded of Nako. It makes her chest ache. She hopes she's well.\n\n\"I don't even know what to say,\" Jungeun blurts, which stirs up an even louder laugh from the professor.\n\n\"Well, hopefully you'll say yes, but give yourself a little time to consider, hm?\" \n\n/\\/\\/\\/\n\nSlipping into the auditorium, Hyeju pulls her sweater off over her head, leaving her in just a loose t-shirt and sweats. It immediately annoys Chaewon that she finds herself staring. That she can't help but notice how good she looks.\n\nHyeju shakes her head to straighten her hair, running a hand through it, feeling how messy the wind had blown it. She apparently feels eyes settle on her as she approaches, her nose still a tiny bit swollen and the gauze on her forehead isn't placed well. She looks like she just got in a fight.\n\n\"What?\" she asks gruffly, and immediately the rest of the dance team straightens themselves out.\n\nExcept Chaewon, who stares with a mixture of contempt and interest. She didn't think Hyeju would show up again. She'd even had a discussion with Jinsoul prior to this that they may need to adjust the routine to make up for Hyeju's absence.\n\nInstead, she's shown up. And now she has to deal with being in her arms again.\n\nIt makes Chaewon's stomach lurch and she considers leaving. Until she catches a strangely encouraging look from Jinsoul.\n\nHer frustration comes in the form of a sigh and she knows her movements are a bit stiffer than normal when the music starts. But Hyeju seems oddly determined. Each run-through, she hoists Chaewon up with practiced ease, and razor precision. Even if she hadn't been a dancer before this, she continues to move like she has something to prove.\n\nIt makes her chest feel tight each time. Hyeju makes such prolonged, intense eye contact and Chaewon has to swallow back the urge to stop and fix the gauze on her forehead.\n\nShe hates the way she's gotten under her skin. How Hyeju's ice has slipped into her veins, giving her chills every time those eyes meet hers.\n\nThe moment practice is over, she puts space between her and Hyeju, fetching her water bottle and phone to make herself seem occupied as she cools down. Though she's not given the chance to even unlock her phone before Hyeju's shadow is darkening her corner.\n\n\"Can we talk?\" she asks bluntly, wringing her sweater between her hands. It's weird seeing her nervous.\n\nChaewon takes a deep breath. She doesn't want it to show that she'd spent the better half of two days crying. Over someone you had one and a half dates with, she thinks bitterly, What's that even about?\n\n\"You said enough the other night. I get it,\" Chaewon says, not dignifying her by looking her in the eye.\n\n\"... Please,\" she says, much quieter. Much sadder. It makes Chaewon's stomach twist painfully.\n\nDon't do it. Just get over her, she tells herself, against every urge to just say yes.\n\n\"Please.\"\n\nShe turns on the balls of her feet. It's so sudden it startles Hyeju.\n\n\"You get one minute,\" Chaewon says. Then Hyeju takes her hand, pulling her backstage, away from the rest of the team.\n\n\"I'm sorry,\" she starts, eyes pointed at the floor, \"I got scared and what I said was stupid.\"\n\nChaewon almost wants to dig the knife in a little deeper and tell her just how much it hurt, but she doesn't. She listens.\n\n\"I still haven't completely figured myself out. I had a boyfriend I didn't care about, then I had feelings for Yerim and then you... you got under my skin and I can't stop thinking about you.\"\n\nSomething we have in common then, Chaewon thinks, and she can feel the rime on her heart beginning to thaw. She almost hates how effective this is. In so few words, even.\n\nShe finally meets Chaewon's eyes and she's not prepared for it when she continues. \"Hyunjin made a point. That not being with you isn't going to make either of us any happier.\"\n\n\"What makes you think being with you makes me happy?\" Chaewon counters, and she knows it's a defense mechanism. Hyeju was tearing down her walls too quickly, so she opts for ballistics.\n\nA half smile tugs up the corner of Hyeju's lips, it'd be a smirk if it didn't look so goofy. So lovestruck.\n\n\"Do you sit in the grass and tell everyone about how much you miss your family? Or how you want to write your mom's biography?\"\n\nChaewon opens and closes her mouth. Admittedly, she hadn't ever told anyone that last part.\n\n\"Do you normally kiss someone goodbye when you're mad at them?\"\n\n\"Don't get cocky.\"\n\n\"I'm not. I'm hoping you'll do it again. Without the goodbye part.\"\n\nIt's definitely been longer than a minute. And a tension comes to live between them at that last part that Chaewon can't ignore.\n\n\"Will you give me another chance? A third date?\"\n\nShe's not sure why, but her eyes feel hot again. Some part of her doesn't want to believe this is happening.\n\n\"... You're buying. Don't mess it up this time.\"\n\n/\\/\\/\\/\n\nIt was one of the rare occasions where Yerim had homework to do on her own. Specifically for a literature class. Hyunjin and her couldn't very well read the same book and write the same report, so this time they'd have to work separately.\n\nNot that Yerim minds! She loves spending time with Hyunjin, obviously, but working on separate assignments also gives her an excuse to go elsewhere. Hyunjin loves her routines, loves their table at the library and orders the same thing every time at the campus coffee shop, and sometimes getting her to move outside of these little routines of theirs is a bit like pulling teeth.\n\nSo she'd taken advantage of it. During their last date when they'd walked along the Han, she'd spied a quaint little coffee shop advertising homemade donuts and wifi. It was only a short bus trip away, and there's something soothing to her about watching the people outside the window go about their lives.\n\nSo much so that it's actually a bit of a distraction from her homework. But at least the donuts are good.\n\n\"Hi, excuse me,\" comes a voice next to Yerim, making her jump. She finally tears her eyes from the window to the source and she actually catches her breath at the sight of her. Black hair pulled into a tight ponytail, and features so so sharp. At a glance, she almost looks like one of those girls that knows they're prettier than everyone else. But with her upturned brows and nervous smile, Yerim is immediately taken by how gentle she seems.\n\n\"Is it okay if I sit with you? Just for a little bit. This is one of the only tables with an outlet and I...\" She holds her laptop awkwardly in front of her with the coiled up power cord. It takes Yerim's brain a second to catch up before she's quickly scrambling to clear the space in front of her.\n\n\"Please, of course!\" she says and the stranger lets out a sigh of relief as she takes the spot.\n\n\"Thank you so much. I don't normally do this, but there's an electrician over at my shop and--\" she stops herself, smiling even wider and Yerim can tell she's so nervous for some reason. It's immediately endearing.\n\n\"I... Yeah. Thank you,\" is all she says, cutting herself off as she quickly flips open the laptop.\n\nYerim watches her for a moment. Almost transfixed until she realizes she's staring. Doing that gay thing she'd been teased about by her classmates back in high school when she'd get hung up checking a girl out and have to literally shake herself out of it.\n\nYerim was never made for closets. You can't look at pretty girls inside a closet.\n\nAnd she can't explain why, but she wants to talk to this girl. Thankfully that's one thing she's always been good at. Even as a kid, she'd make friends with strangers--much to her mother's chagrin when they'd be out grocery shopping. A lot of strangers had their pant legs tugged on. Yerim just has so much to say.\n\n\"Are you a student?\" she asks, skipping all pretense and smiling with her coffee brought up to her lips, \"I feel like I'd remember seeing you on campus if you were...\"\n\nThe girl looks up at the sound of Yerim's voice, seeming surprised to have someone talk to her.\n\n\"A student? Oh. No, I didn't really get the chance. My mom got sick.\"\n\nOof. Yerim winces, mouth open, ready to sputter an apology.\n\n\"Oh, she's okay now! But I've decided to take over her shop, so I'm sort of... skipping college, I guess,\" she says sheepishly, a little nervous laugh leaving her that sounds so pretty.\n\n\"Oh thank goodness,\" Yerim says, deflating into her seat dramatically for a second before sitting upright. \"What sort of shop is it?\"\n\n\"Ah... It's...\" She turns her laptop screen to face Yerim, showing her the virtual shop front of a florist--the same one she'd passed on her way here, in fact.\n\n\"You're a florist?\" Yerim asks, eyes alight, earning another smile out of the girl, who nods.\n\n\"Yeah, we grow a lot of our own flowers. We also teach flower arrangement to stay-at-home moms, but mostly we attend funerals, and weddings. A lot of weddings.\"\n\nYerim leans in, so much more invested now.\n\n\"I love weddings.\"\n\nThe girl's face immediately goes pink and she brings a hand to her mouth, giggling at Yerim's sudden enthusiasm. \"Me too! It's why I decided to take over.\"\n\n\"My mom was a seamstress back in Cheongju, so she got commissioned to alter and fit a lot of wedding dresses,\" Yerim sits upright, folding her arms over the surface of the table and leaning in. The two of them go back and forth, discussing their favorite things about weddings, and exchanging anecdotes. For her new friend, her love is appropriately grounded in the flowers and the theater of it all. She puts a lot of thought into the meanings of the flowers used in the ceremonies when couples come for consultations.\n\nMeanwhile, Yerim's love comes from the outfits. Obviously the both of them are children from their roots, but there's an appreciation and a curiosity from both ends as a result. They talk and talk and Yerim learns the meaning of at least five flowers and she shows her new friend some pictures on her phone of some of the dresses her mom helped alter.\n\n\"So I'm guessing you're a design major?\"\n\nThe question makes Yerim sit upright. She hadn't decided yet, but she was quickly approaching the point where she'd have to pick.\n\nMaybe this is her turning point, she thinks.\n\n\"No, I uh... I haven't decided yet, but...\"\n\nThe girl grins, but there's no nervousness there anymore. A little shy, maybe, but so earnest. Then Yerim remembers her manners.\n\n\"We've been talking for...\" She checks her phone, \"Two hours?!\"\n\n\"That long?\" she asks, similarly disbelieving.\n\n\"I haven't even given my name, I'm so sorry. My name's Yerim.\"\n\n\"Yeji,\" she says, gesturing to herself. \"It's nice to meet you, Yerim.\""}
+{"text": "It was late and Magnus was already getting ready for bed when he heard someone knocking at his door. He sighed exasperated, wondering who on earth would bother him at such an hour, but he got up to open the door. “Alexander?” he asked, pleasantly surprised, when he saw who it was. “I thought you had to attend your parents’ dinner party?” Magnus knew Alec had been dreading it for weeks because it would be the first one in which he wouldn’t have his siblings by his side.\n\n“I did,” Alec confirmed and he looked quite shacked. “I left early,” he explained.\n\n“Early?” Magnus couldn’t help the incredulous laugh that escaped him. “It’s almost one a.m.” \n\n“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have come here so out of the blue,” Alec apologized and no, that was not what Magnus had meant. “I can come back another time,” he said, turning to leave.\n\nMagnus caught him by the arm. “Stay,” he asked quietly. “You know you are always welcome here,” he added when he saw the other man remained unsure. He kept holding his arm until Alec nodded then he smiled and stepped aside to allow the taller man to enter his apartment. “Do you want something to drink? I have tea, and coffee.”\n\n“Something stronger maybe,” Alec answered and Magnus’s suspicions were confirmed, something was definitely wrong. He desperately wanted to ask what it was but he knew Alec would tell him when he was ready. He had come to Magnus’, after all. So instead of pushing he just got the vodka and made a couple of cocktails, one with far less alcohol than the other.\n\n“Here,” he said handling that one to Alec who had made himself comfortable in his couch.\n\n“Thanks,” the other man answered drinking half of it in one go.\n\n“Wow, slow down, tiger,” Magnus joked, trying to get Alec to relax. “It’s not like we are on a hurry.”\n\n“Sorry,” Alec grimaced. “I just had a rough nigh,” he explained looking intensely at his glass.\n\n“Do you want to tell me what happened?” Magnus asked trying to convey that it was also fine if Alec didn’t want to. “I’ve been told I’m a good listener.”\n\n“It’s just my parents, you know,” he started sounding so sad Magnus' heart broke for him. \"They are always so obsess with impressing their friends and colleagues. And I usually try to avoid having to do the impressing because Izzy and Jace are great at dazzling people but tonight it was only me so I had to sit there and answer endless questions about my career and my future and about when am I going to find a nice girl.” His voice grew bitter at the end. “Luckily, Lydia was there and she stood with me when I had to do the rounds. It was getting almost bearable until mother made a joke about how Lydia and I should get married because we work so well together, even though she knows about Lydia and John,” Alec kept going, his voice growing more and more anxious. “So Lydia told her that she didn’t think her boyfriend would like the idea. And I just knew mom was about to make some comment about how beneath all of us John apparently is and I was just so fed up with everything that I, well...” he stopped himself, drinking what was left of his cocktail. “I may have said that I didn’t think my boyfriend would like the idea either,” he ended looking sheepish.\n\n“You did?” Magnus was torn between being delighted and worried. “I’m so proud of you,” he told him causing Alec to smile shyly. “How did she take it?” Magnus asked, already dreading the answer when he saw how Alec’s smile fell.\n\n“She just... She laughed,” he told Magnus sounding extremely hurt. “It wasn’t a joke and everyone knew that but she just pretended it was, made a comment about me always kidding around and resumed her conversation.”\n\n“Oh, darling,” Magnus said placing a hand comfortingly over Alec’s. “I’m so sorry”\n\nAlec stared at their joined hands, unable to meet Magnus eyes. “I always knew she wouldn’t like it, specially not if I blurted it out in front of everyone she knows. But she just dismissed it, completely. Like it was something she could decide it didn’t exist. And dad just didn’t say anything, didn’t try to contradict mom.” His voice broke. “I’ve always done everything, Magnus, everything that they’ve asked. And I’ve never complained. Ever. But I can’t do this.” He was sobbing now and Magnus moved closer, trying to offer him any comfort he could. “I can’t find a girl and fall for her, not now, not ever. I can’t do it and I don’t want to do it, not when I have you,” he added making Magnus smile. “I can do everything else though, I have done everything else, shouldn’t that be enough?”\n\n“You should be enough, angel,” Magnus whispered. “You are enough,” he corrected. “And If they don’t see that then it’s their problem, not yours.”\n\n“But what if I’m actually not good enough?” Alec moved his eyes from their hands to Magnus eyes. “What if mom is right?” he sounded terrifyed and Magnus felt the urge to strangle Maryse.\n\n“What’s your mother opinion on Izzy?” his boyfriend asked him. “About her clothes, her relationships, her desire to study to be a forense pathologist?”\n\nAlec blinked confuse. “She doesn’t like it,” he answered slowly, like fearing it was a trick question.\n\n“She disapproves,” Magnus confirmed. “She doesn’t think Izzy is good enough either, then. She thinks there are things Isabelle should change about herself. Do you think she’s right?”\n\n“Of course not,” Alec sounded insulted. “Izzy is perfect,” he stated causing Magnus to smile.\n\n“And so are you,” he told him making his cheeks blush. “And your mother is wrong about you, Alec, just like she is wrong about her. You’re more than good enough. You are amazing. And that’s my opinion, and Izzy’s and Jace’s. Okay?” he asked and Alec just smiled at him. “And really, if someone is not good enough it’s her. It’s a wonder the three of you have ended as great as you are with her parenting skills if you can even call them that.” Magnus scoffed.\n\n“I... You... You are amazing too,” Alec stated, surprising Magnus. “I... Thank you, Magnus,” he told him smiling bashfully. “Can I stay tonight, please? I really don’t feel like facing her, yet.”\n\n“Of course,” Magnus smiled. “I told you, you are always welcome here.”\n\n "}
+{"text": "The ship was massive!\n\nWell, sort of. Luke had been on bigger ships before, but they’d all had so many people on them. This was just for the three of them and was so shiny and sleek that Luke literally saw himself in the metal as they loaded up the ship.\n\nThey were moving. Which was different somehow from being on the move, but Padme said it firmly like it was an event so Luke nodded and left them to it. It did mean that he’d had to say goodbye to the tally chart he’d kept on the floor under his bed that told him how long he’d been with Padme and Anakin. It was at sixty-three when he left.\n\nHe was sleeping on the ship tonight. They were doing a night flight so that they’d be in Naboo by the time that Luke woke up. And Naboo was where Padme was from so it was going to be a good place.\n\nIn fact, the ship was Padme’s which explained a lot, Luke thought. There was a fancy conference part of the ship with the softest chairs and a table that you could pull up a holo on. Padme said that sometimes she talked to people about the galaxy around that table.\n\nHe jumped up on to it and swirled the Delta 7 around, quietly making the noises to himself. Then he leapt on to the sofas opposite, twirling the ship into a complicated arch and imagining doing it at the controls. He continued swirling it around, jumping from seat to seat and sometimes back to the table.\n\nWhen he looked up, Padme was standing at the door, hands on her hips and watching him with an expression that didn’t quite stay steady.\n\nUnsure, he paused.\n\nThey stared at each other for a few seconds. “What is furniture meant to be for?” Padme asked and there was a wobble in her voice that didn’t feel threatening.\n\nLuke looked around the cabin. “Telling people what to do?” he tried, scrunching up his face as he thought.\n\nHer lips pressed together and she lifted a hand to almost cover them. When she moved a little, he could see that she was trying to hide a smile and it made him feel warm. Grinning, he leapt down and ran over to her to rest his head on her stomach and stick his tongue out up at her.\n\nIt made her laugh, like he’d hoped it would. She dropped her hand down to his face and stroked his cheek with her thumb. “It’s not for jumping on,” she said softly.\n\nHe turned back to look at the cabin, leaning into her as he peered, then turned to look up at her again. “Where can I jump?” he asked earnestly.\n\n“When we get to Naboo, we’ll jump,” Padme said. “I’ll teach you to jump across the rivers and on trees.”\n\nHe liked that idea. “Just us?” he asked.\n\n“Maybe Anakin too,” Padme said and there was a flicker of something on her face. “Come on. Do you want to see if you can help fly?”\n\nHelp fly?\n\nLuke nodded, eyes wide as she took his hand and led him up some steps and into the pilot’s cabin. It was a spacious area, enough for a co-pilot and some benches close. The viewer was narrow and pointed and Anakin was at the controls. He turned to look at Luke and gestured him forward with his metal hand.\n\nLuke wasn’t allowed to study it because it was attached to Anakin’s nerves which was a bit annoying. He found it oddly fascinating, but Anakin had stopped wearing gloves when they were out and about so he saw it more and more. Anakin said he’s lost his arm once because he’d been impatient, but Luke wasn’t sure how that worked.\n\nThe stars were in the viewer and Luke sucked in a breath, oddly fascinated. He’d never really had a chance to see space – no-one wanted him up in the pilot’s cabin and he’d seen it, just never had the chance to stare.\n\n A playful tug brought him closer to Anakin and he grinned as the man sat back a little, offering up his lap. Luke scrambled up and Anakin winced slightly then wrapped his flesh arm around Luke. “Want to help us jump to hyperspace?”\n\nYes! Luke twisted a little to look up at him and grinned. Padme had taken the seat next to them and was pressing some of the buttons and adding in some co-ordinates.\n\nAnakin shifted them forward and guided Luke’s hands to the lever. Their fingers linked as they held the bar and Luke stared down at the sight.\n\nTogether they pushed and then the stars in the viewer started to streak as if they were pulling them from their place. He could feel the ship getting ready and Luke sucked in his breath, in awe as they entered.\n\n“Have you ever seen it before?” Anakin asked quietly.\n\nLuke shook his head as the ship suddenly lurched forward. It was a smooth motion; he’d been on ships that jerked and creaked on the entry. This jump was amazing and he leaned forwards, wanting to watch forever.\n\n“How is the siege going?” Padme asked quietly.\n\nLuke felt Anakin shrug. “They’re going,” he said. “Destroying the factory on Geonosis will make a huge difference.” He sounded unhappy.\n\n“Ahsoka and Obi-Wan have worked together many times before,” Padme said gently, but Anakin didn’t respond. “Who else will go with them?” she asked in a different voice.\n\n“Master Mundi,” Anakin said. “And Vos.” He said the second name like he wasn’t sure what to make of it.\n\n“I imagine Obi-Wan was delighted with that,” Padme said with a small smile.\n\nIt seemed to make Anakin lighten a little. “I told Ahsoka to record his reaction,” he said with a grin. “It was glorious.”\n\nPadme laughed and batted at his shoulder, then ruffled Luke’s hair. “I think that was an impressive first jump,” she offered.\n\nLuke blinked and then tipped his head back so that his chin was up to the ceiling. “You’ve jumped to hyperspace before?” he checked.\n\n“It was our first jump,” Anakin said smoothly. “As a family.”\n\nHmm.\n\nLuke pulled his thoughts away from that and looked away. They kept making those sorts of comments at the moment and it made him feel…bubbly. Like something might pop and everything was a bit jittery and unsteady. He felt Anakin sigh as if disappointed and continued to stare out the viewer.\n\n“Ani,” Padme said gently. “Just leave it.”\n\n“Yeah,” he said, sounding a bit annoyed still. He ruffled Luke’s hair and then shifted forward to the controls. He was fiddling though, Luke could feel that and it felt like Luke had done something wrong, but he wasn’t sure what.\n\n“Come on,” Padme said and, when Luke turned, he could see that she was standing. “Shall we get you ready for bed?”\n\nAnakin kissed his head as Luke shifted off his lap, but didn’t say anything. His face looked tight, as if he was annoyed by something and Luke didn’t want to ask. Instead, he reached out for Padme’s hand again.\n\nIt was like they weren’t on a ship. There was a fancy cabin off of the room that Luke had been in earlier and it had a huge bed that bounced softly under Luke when leapt at it. \n\n“Come on,” Padme encouraged. He lifted his arms and let her pull off his shirt and put his pyjamas on. \n\n“Is Anakin mad at me?” Luke asked as she reached to pull back the covers.\n\nShe paused and then shook her head. “No, sweetheart. He isn’t mad at you.”\n\nLuke hummed at that and snuggled down. “Are you sure?”\n\nShe tucked him in and sat down on the edge of the bed. “I promise you,” she said, looking it his eyes firmly, “Anakin isn’t mad at you. He’s just…he loves you. We both do. Sometimes he is just a bit impatient. He wants you to be happy and safe.” She stroked his hair. \n\n“I am.” \n\nHe liked it when she smiled in that gentle, secret way that made him almost sure she didn’t smile at anyone else like that. “Good.” She gave his cheek a kiss and then put the Delta 7 on the covers for him. “I still think we should give you something softer to sleep with.”\n\nLuke shook his head firmly and gathered the ship up close.\n\nXxx\n\nHe didn’t need to be in the pilot’s seat. Auto-pilot would work fine, but there was something about knowing that his son was on-board that made him just want to be sure.\n\nWhen Padme’s hand slid down his chest from behind, he turned his head into her, pressing a kiss to her lips, still a little distracted.\n\n“Ani,” she said in a way that made him want to snap at her. He restrained the urge and glared ahead. She must have picked up on it because she made her own annoyed sound and pulled away, turning the co-pilot’s chair so that she was sat facing him. “He’ll do it in his own time.”\n\n“Yeah,” Anakin said, not looking at her.\n\n“He thinks you’re angry with him.”\n\n“What?” Anakin whirled around to her. She was watching him carefully, her brown eyes assessing in the way that she did in a diplomatic conference. He hated the fact that she was dealing with him like that and it was only the knowledge that Luke was downstairs that kept him from snapping at her.\n\n“You bring it up and then get frustrated when he doesn’t reply. He’s seven-”\n\nHe shoved the auto pilot on and stood, determined not to have that argument.\n\n“Anakin, would you talk to me?”\n\n“We don’t even know that,” he hissed. “We don’t know our own son’s birthday. We do know he was shoved in the corner of some kriffin’ ship like cargo. Force knows whether he should be eight by now or-”\n\nShe grabbed at his arm and he stopped, staring over the top of her head. When her hands cupped his face, he resisted for a moment and then gave in to her.\n\n“I know,” she said firmly. “I know.”\n\nYeah.\n\n“I…I need him to know,” he said as he leaned down to touch his forehead to hers. “It won’t…I…” he pulled back. “I just want him to say it.”\n\nShe stroked his face. “I know,” she said, her own face sad. “But he needs to be ready, Ani. Dr Firra said-”\n\nYeah, he knew that the good doctor said. Luke could keep attachments relatively casual on purpose. It could be years before he’d name them as Mom and Dad. He might never. He understood he was in the past, would talk about his parents and he’d talk about Padme and Anakin, but he’d never link any of those things together.\n\nIt made him ache. The idea that his son had been so lost in the universe, so alone made him want to choke something and rip a ship apart and he didn’t know how to deal with it.\n\n“Is your mom finally accepting that?” he asked, turning away and sitting down on one of the benches, keeping one eye on the controls.\n\nPadme hummed at that. “We’ll see how that one goes,” she said.\n\n \n\nXxx\n\n \n\nThey arrived early in Thebes. Luke was still completely out so Anakin gathered him up, wrapping a blanket around him and settling the boy against his shoulder. His son shifted and snuggled in to Anakin’s neck.\n\nHe picked up the Delta 7 and rolled his eyes and the thing. Not that he didn’t approve, but he really did wish that Luke had found something softer to attach himself to. The amount of bruises that they’d all gotten from rolling on that force forsaken toy was idiotic.\n\nDawn was just coming up on the city and he’d forgotten how quiet the place could be, how peaceful. Strangely, Anakin wasn’t entirely sure that it wasn’t worse to be so quiet and he shifted Luke a little closer in his arms.\n\nThe streets were familiar, vaguely, from the last time they’d been here. He could remember Sola’s thoughtful gaze as she glanced between him and Padme. The worry from her mother and the frown on her father’s face as they’d all skirted around the issue of the fact that she’d needed a Jedi Knight to protect her.\n\nIt was different, he thought as she pressed a kiss to Luke’s head. He hadn’t really appreciated a parent’s fear before. He’d accepted it and known to expect it, but if in fifteen years’ time, Luke came home with an assassin on his tail-\n\nAnakin scowled at the thought. They’d be dead, that he knew.\n\nThis time, when they entered Padme’s parents’ house, they were greeted at the door by her mother. It was early, Jobal must have been up at the crack of dawn to get ready and she hugged Padme to her with a fierce grip that made Anakin look away.\n\nHis mother would have adored Luke.\n\nThe sadness was like a blaster to the guts. The shock and pain of it almost robbed him of breath and he stood, almost adrift for a moment.\n\n“Ani?” Padme said softly.\n\nHe stepped into the house, following the women down a wide, spacious hall that quickly opened to the dining room he remembered from last time. Through into a few steps and then up into the lounge area that opened up into the beautiful garden where he had once played with Padme’s nieces.\n\nHis nieces too now, he supposed.\n\n“Oh Padme,” Jobal said, turning and looking at Anakin. “He’s beautiful,” she whispered, her eyes on Luke. “Is he completely asleep?” she asked, almost sounding amused.\n\n“He might wake,” Anakin said gently. “He’ll go right back to sleep though do don’t worry too much.”\n\nJobal’s eyes met his and she smiled. “And my son-in-law,” she said. “I told you,” she added with a sly grin at Padme who actually flushed a little and for a moment looked awkward which Anakin was almost sure he’d never seen.\n\nAmused, he looked at his wife. “She told you?” he questioned, smiling.\n\n“Handsome,” Jobal said, busying about with some tea. “I said that you would make a lovely pair. I was right.”\n\nThat was…huh. She might actually be the first person who had reacted to the news of their marriage with pleasure. Not sure what to do with it, Anakin glanced down at the seats.\n\n“Oh, please. Do sit. I imagine the little one isn’t as light as he looks.”\n\nHe was. Heavier than he had been because Luke had been almost scarily thin when he’d first arrived. But he was still light and slight. At his age, Anakin hadn’t had that same waif like look to him; he doubted Luke would ever fully grow out of it. Padme fussed as he sat down, still a little red cheeked as she tucked the blanket carefully around Luke.\n\n“Handsome,” he teased.\n\n“She said it. I didn’t,” Padme muttered, her cheeks going redder.\n\n“She didn’t argue,” Jobal said to Anakin, as if spilling some secret. “My daughter always argues unless she agrees.”\n\nIt made him laugh, even as Padme looked skywards as if for help. \n\nThey talked a little. Sola’s twins were Luke’s age which would be good for him. They’d debated going up to the lake again, but Anakin wasn’t sure he or Luke would cope with being quite that remote. And Luke did need to socialise and keep up his appointments talking to someone.\n\nRuwee came in a little later. He’d been a mild-mannered man when Anakin had met him and he hadn’t really known what to make of him. He remained quiet and Anakin found himself almost hyper aware of Ruwee and he wasn’t really sure why.\n\nBy the time Luke stirred, they’d been in Thebes almost an hour. He could feel his son’s presence flicker a little as Luke naturally reached out and then contracted away again, hiding.\n\n“Morning,” Anakin whispered to him and Luke lifted his head to blink blearily up at him. Luke made a noise which Anakin easily interpreted, being used to it. He reached with the force and pulled the Delta 7 over and Luke tucked it under his arm and snuggled in again, awake but apparently not ready to wake up properly.\n\n“What ship is that?” Ruwee asked.\n\n“Delta 7,” Luke mumbled. He yawned and then turned a bit in Anakin’s arms to face the man. “The Jedi…” he trailed off a little and Anakin could feel his son waking properly now to try and assess what he was allowed to say. “Who are you?” he asked curiously, one hand reaching up to bunch in Anakin’s shirt.\n\nRuwee opened his mouth.\n\n“This is my father,” Padme said, cutting in smoothly. “Ruwee.”\n\nHe felt Luke whisper the name to himself, apparently committing it to memory.\n\n“And Jobal, my mother.”\n\nLuke twisted, almost impossibly twisted, to blink owlishly at Jobal. Then he turned back to Anakin and looked a little unsure.\n\n“Do you want to try some tea?” Anakin asked and Luke nodded as Anakin brought the cup close with his metal hand. He let Luke take a sip and then almost laughed at Luke’s disgusted face. “No?”\n\nLuke shook his head, eyeing the cup warily, like it might leap out at him. He sighed and buried his head back into Anakin’s neck. Then craned a little to whisper in Anakin’s ear.\n\n“They’re watching,” Luke said, so quietly it was like he was hardly speaking.\n\n“Shall we hide for a bit?” Anakin asked, whispering back in his son’s ear. Luke nodded quickly and Anakin caught Padme’s eye and shook his head. Her face fella little, but she nodded and glanced towards the garden. “Luke, why don’t you show Anakin how to climb a tree.”\n\nLuke show him?\n\nAnakin rolled his eyes, even as Luke’s cheeky face appeared, apparently delighted. “You can climb trees,” Luke laughed, suddenly like a different child. “You have to,” he added, swinging around to look at Padme. “Ahsoka said it was in the Jedi data guide.”\n\nJedi data guide?!\n\n“There’s a data guide?” Jobal asked, in an amazed voice.\n\n“My former Padawan thinks she’s funny,” Anakin said, standing and lifting Luke over his shoulder so that his son dangled down and cackled with laughter. “You know she’s fibbing,” he added to Luke.\n\n“Ahsoka said you have to crash at least three times too,” Luke added and Anakin imagined his cheeks were turning red. “She said you’re the expert.”\n\nHe and his former padawan were going to have words. “That is not true,” he said as he strode to the beautiful glass doors that opened onto the gardens. “I am not the expert in crash landings.” He glared at Padme when she didn’t look convinced. “I’m not.”\n\n“Gosh,” Ruwee said suddenly as Anakin's hand rested on the door handle. “Do you remember Padme’s flying test?”\n\nHis wife suddenly looked mortified. “There’re many trees outside,” she tried weakly, but Luke had already gotten himself back up and was sitting on Anakin’s left shoulder, head tilted curiously and there wasn’t a sith alive that could turn Anakin away from that nugget of information.\n\n“Her flying test?” Anakin asked, looking back at the man as Luke clambered back down to his arms and then jumped to the floor, though he stayed very close to Anakin’s legs. “You’ve never mentioned that,” he realised, looking at his wife.\n\n“Ruwee,” Jobal said in a mock scolding tone. “Really, if Padme wishes to keep her crash landings quiet, then she should be allowed to.”\n\nWhat?\n\n“Really?” Anakin asked, oddly delighted. “You crash land, do you?”\n\nPadme glared at him. “Do not even go there,” she instructed. “There is no way my stories are as bad as yours.”\n\n“Didn’t crash in my flying test,” Anakin said with a shrug. “In fact, I got a perfect score.”\n\n“And a speeding ticket five minutes after leaving the centre.”\n\n“There was Jedi business,” Anakin said dismissively.\n\n“That’s convenient.”\n\nLuke was glancing between them, like it was a beep-ball tournament. At some point, his eyes fixed on Jobal and he was smiling shyly at her when Anakin looked down.\n\n“Padme said her mom had cookies,” Luke suggested sweetly. “I like cookies.”\n\nIt made Jobal laugh. “Cookies and then climbing trees?”\n\nLuke nodded seriously and then turned to Anakin. “Cookies first,” he said in a grave tone, as if Anakin was a misbehaving child. And then, with that, he scampered to follow Jobal into the kitchen.\n\n“He’s a little champ,” Ruwee said suddenly and Anakin suddenly realised the man had been watching Luke all along. He gave Padme a gentle kiss and Padme leaned into her father with a strange noise and Anakin realised, startled that she was trying not to cry.\n\nHe left them alone, oddly aware that she might need some time to be with her parents. So he went outside, feeling that uncomfortable stillness within him, as if he were trapped in a vast empty room and deeply aware of nothing happening.\n\nHe had no idea why he suddenly wanted to call Obi-Wan.\n\n \n\nXxx\n\nHaving Luke in Naboo was unbelievably soothing. Her son was such an easy going child that before long he was running around the house and the garden as if he’d always been there. Pooja and Ryoo had come over to play too and the three of them spent most of the afternoons after school running around the gardens. The first time, Luke had been adorned by a crown of flowers and seemed unfazed by it, giggling like a mad thing every time someone pointed to it. If he tired of their games, he'd just wander off and play with his ship, though Ryoo seemed to be equally fascinated, especially when Anakin made it fly.\n\nIt was Luke’s nature. He was so much like her father, she’d realised. They both found a simple joy in life and had easy going natures. There was perhaps a stubborn core and a flicker of a temper to Luke that her father lacked, but it crashed over him and was gone quickly. The day that Pooja had called his Delta 7 poodoo, Luke had turned away and refused to speak to her for the rest of the afternoon. But he’d accepted the apology and seemed to have forgotten about it the next day, even as Anakin glowered at Pooja.\n\nIt was Anakin that she worried about.\n\nThey’d settled into a routine of sorts. They’d get up early and have a walk together as a family. Anakin would spend the mornings out by the lake doing exercises while Padme and Luke found a quiet place to meditate then they would swim. Sometimes Anakin joined them. Then he and Luke would spend the afternoon together while she was at the palace. There had been scattered conversations about places that she should buy, areas that they could look into, but it had never gone further than that because it wouldn’t.\n\nAnakin was calmer, but she could feel that he was going to get restless. He dabbled with repair work and upgrading some of the palace ships. He’d taken some of the pilots out to teach them manoeuvres. He meditated and had even made some half-hearted noise about helping to train up the clones, especially in their piloting, but she knew. And she thought he did too.\n\nThis wasn’t for Anakin. In fact, she was starting to think there was only one thing for Anakin, but she had no idea how that would work, or even if it could.\n\nThere were beautiful moments though. \n\nAnakin was in the garden with the children and he and Luke were play-fighting with sticks. Anakin was playing the role of villain as he held Pooja with one arm and the little girl shrieked with joy. Luke and Ryoo were trying to ‘save’ Pooja with big smiles of their faces and a lot of squealing. Especially from Ryoo as her braids dangled in the wind.\n\nHe was a wonderful man, she thought as she watched and sipped her tea. She loved it when he smiled the way he was now, all easy confidence and eager fun. Watching him surrounded by children seemed right somehow and it still stole her breath when she found him and Luke curled up together or whispering with each other.\n\n“He’s a rare one,” her mother said, standing with her. “Like a child himself sometimes.”\n\nYes. But she wondered about that little boy that she’d met so long ago and how much of a chance he’d actually ever had to be a child. Maybe, somewhere, it was balancing out for him, giving him a glimpse at a life he had never had.\n\n“He’s a wonderful father,” Padme said quietly. \n\n“Do you think you’ll have more?” her mother asked. “The more conventional way,” she added with a smile.\n\nMore? The idea of Anakin with a baby took her breath away a little. It came with a slight ache that they’d never got to have that with Luke but…another youngling?\n\n“He needs to find something first.” Anakin let out a dramatic cry as Ryoo ‘wounded’ him and he fell to the floor. The girls looked a little worried but Luke, evidently sensing that Anakin was perfectly fine, threw himself down to the floor and clambered on top of Anakin like he was conquering a mountain. “He misses being a Jedi.”\n\n“Will they have him back?”\n\n“No.” That was irrevocable. “But you do not need to be Jedi knight to fight at their side and use the force.”\n\n“And you?”\n\n“I can take less diplomatic missions. Attend meetings more remotely. I think…I think I’m starting to realise how I want to balance this. And he,” she said, watching her son as he howled with laughter at something Anakin said, “is what I want to prioritise. And Anakin…he needs to find his own way to balance all of this.”\n\nXxx\n\nThat night, as they lay in bed, Padme turned to him.\n\n“Geonosis isn’t far from here,” she pointed out softly. “How is the siege going?”\n\nAnakin turned to her, blinking in confusion. “Not well,” he said, not even pretending that he hadn’t been keeping on contact with either Ahsoka or Obi-Wan. Probably both, knowing him. He sat up slowly. “The factory is well guarded, no matter how much of the planet we take. As long as those droids are being pumped out...\" He trailed off, head tilting in the way that Luke had picked up from him. \"What does it matter how far away it is?”\n\nShe watched him.\n\nHe was tempted, she could tell. Reaching out, she smoothed a hand down his chest. “We need to find something that works for us,” she suggested. “Would you go, if it wasn’t for Luke?”\n\nHe looked torn. “But Luke…”\n\n“I went away for a few days,” she pointed out. “You won’t be far. If he needs you to come back-”\n\n“It’s a war zone,” Anakin pointed out, but he looked already more focused.\n\n“The factory is the last problem. The planet’s mostly under the republic’s control. Of course, I suppose that might not be interesting enough for you-”\n\nHe kissed her with more heat than he’d shown in weeks. She sucked in a breath, as he rolled them back down the bed. “I don’t want to leave you,” he whispered.\n\n“I know who you are,” she murmured into his lips. “You’re a hero, Anakin. You can’t sit on the side lines for long. The fact that you have…I love you for that.”\n\nHis hand stroked down her side, fingers touching in a barely there caress as he looked down at her, eyes darkening. “You and Luke,” he vowed to her. “You are everything.”\n\nShe took hold of his face so that he looked at her properly. “Go,” she said, smiling.\n\nBut a mischievous smile was twisting his lips. “Now?” he asked, as his hand slipped under her night dress. \n\n“Tomorrow,” she amended and gasped as his clever fingers got to work."}
+{"text": "Tony enjoyed spending some time with Loki & Thor and their mom - she \"mom'd\" him too, which was nice (kinda melancholic, but nice), but he was glad when they headed off to Jotunheimen Park together.  \n\nOf course he'd set up a place for them, complete with AI support. Jarvis was awesome enough to monitor their location in case they needed him, and they could use google for practically anything else. And he was independent enough to help them out in case they were a \"little too Asgardian\" for comfort. \n\nThere weren't any issues re. Loki anymore, thank goodness. Once Tony'd given the evidence he'd compiled to the UN and the US government re the attack and related brainwashing, charges had been dropped. The fact that Loki had actively assisted in the recovery of NYC cemented his acceptance - there was even some talk of making him an ambassador, which Tony found unsurprising and hilarious at the same time. \n\nEventually, Frigga and Thor gave Tony a head's up that they'd decided it was time to return to Asgard and have a \"conversation\" with Odin. OH, to be a fly on that wall, Tony thought. Loki was to remain on earth, under his own AND his mother's protective spells to keep him safe from prying Asgardian eyes - they covered Loki himself, as well as the Jotunheim Park house, Stark Tower, and Malibu locations. \n\nDid Tony say Frigga was awesome? Yeah, she was. \n\nThey'd been gone for a few earth days when Jarvis alerted Tony that Loki was in distress. \"Try my panic-attack protocols and see if they help\", Tony responded. \n\nTony hadn't been super excited about therapy - a few tell-alls from previous experiences in his youth had left a really bad taste in his mouth. But he'd done some research and found some... \"interesting\" people, and managed to find someone he thought he might be able to trust and might understand the rather special circumstances of the situation. (Seriously, what was his life where finding a therapist required someone who could deal with alien-attack-related-PTSD on top of the \"generic\" human stuff?!?\". In the meantime, yeah - DIY panic-attack management. \n\nTony asked Jarvis if he knew what triggered the problem, and in a million years, Tony would never have guessed what had Loki so unsettled. A movie - granted, a good one, one he'd enjoyed himself.  Now that Tony thought about it, he wasn't entirely surprised, because yeah, after their reasonably in depth conversation way-back-when, with the shitty family history and overall insecurity - it would have been a bit of a shock.\n\nSeconds later he had a slightly panicked demi-god in his living room. Jarvis was still talking, and Loki seemed to be calming down, gradually becoming aware of his now-not-Norwegian surroundings. \n\n\"Hey Reindeer Games,\" Tony figured calm and relaxed was the best way to go (hopefully not for too long, because, well - that wasn't exactly his default setting). \n\nLoki looked at him, and said in such a lost voice, \"I don't know who I'm supposed to be!\",  then just collapsed to the floor, breathing heavily. And yeah, Tony could identify with that a bit. He'd been - literally - blown apart and had to remake himself - it was a work in progress. He said as much to Loki. \n\n\"You can be yourself here\", Tony reassured him, \"and it doesn't matter what form that takes\".  Tony meant it; he was 100% done with trying to be what other people expected him to be (media BS aside). It was still a work in progress because of the old baggage and new traumas that had piled on since Afghanistan. Tony was going to make damn sure Loki got the support he needed to be able to reach that place as well.\n\nHe joined Loki on the floor, looking out at the skyline, doing his best to give off an \"I'm here for you\" vibe and feeling pretty sure he was sucking at it as the silence stretched on. \n\nUntil ice crystals started to form on the floor and the temperature dropped noticeably along his side. He turned to face Loki and couldn't restrain the hushed \"wow\" when he saw the deep blue of Loki's skin and the vibrant red of his eyes. Then he noticed the fear in those eyes and the expectation of rejection, and he said the first thing that came to his mind.\n\n\"I see you, Loki\". Tony smiled - he was a smart-ass, yeah, but he was also completely serious. \n\nLoki managed to combine an eye-roll, an exasperated sigh, and an appreciative smirk in response. \n\nThey were both completely aware that a single movie wasn't going to change the world, but a healthy shift in perspective, however minor, would never be taken lightly.\n\n \n\n*****\n\nTime passed.\n\nLoki's case had been presented to the United Nations, along with every scrap of evidence Jarvis was able to discover, the power of Stark Industries Legal, and a magic user willing and able to provide reparations. Agreements were made to address the damage and to provide aid in future protections. It didn't hurt that part of that aid was the possibility of a relationship with Asgard. Loki was a skilled politician in his own right, and after a magically-facilitated back-and-forth with Frigga and Thor, Ambassadorship was on the table, and was an opportunity to make things right, improve earth's position on the galactic stage, and NOT be around Odin - a win/win/win all around. The only downside was having to head back to Asgard - however briefly - to make it official. \n\nWhile his \"Bros-in-arms\" were away, Tony built & tweaked suits, Jarvis continued digging through Shield, and the Spy-Assassin-Twins came and went (they were pretty fun for spies, Tony had to admit - snark to rival his own).\n\nIf his military schedule allowed, Cap visited occasionally - usually when Clint & Nat were in town. They'd do pizza and movies, and sometimes Cap would spend time with Jarvis to do more in depth \"future\" catch-up (Jarvis could answer pretty much any question without Tony's snark, so Tony had to admit that was the better choice). Both Tony and Steve had been hit with a \"baggage\" clue-by-four and dealt with their initial oil-and-water-personality conversation/glow-stick-of-destiny-inspired insult-fest. While they weren't expecting to be best friends, they saw each other as individuals instead of the caricatures they'd walked into their relationship with. It was a vast improvement. \n\nThings were going smoothly all around. \n\nUntil Jarvis uncovered HYDRA.\n\n \n\n***\n\n \n\nTony hoped Thor and Loki were having a better time than he was. \n\nTony was tempted to reach out to Fury, but had to wait till the one-eyed pirate contacted him; the waiting was, ha - infuriating! Tony didn't envy the amount of crap the man was going to have to deal with, but considering their \"ends justify the means\" operating system and the fact the world's greatest threat was growing inside their supposedly \"good guy\" operation, yeah - he was hoping some introspection was on the horizon.\n\nWake up calls were a bitch, but he was glad he'd had his. \n\nJarvis, of course, was still working his way through the system. There was NO WAY Tony was going to NOT keep an eye on Shield-ra now, with that threat level cranked up to 20 on a scale of 1-10. \n\nHe did suddenly have a taste for calamari, though. \n\n \n\n****\n\nThor and Loki were not having a better time than Tony. \n\n "}
+{"text": "“I’m gonna turn out the light, okay?” Eiji says sleepily, reaching over Ash to shut off the lamp on their nightstand.\n\nReluctantly, Ash grumbles and sets down his book on the bedside table, pulling off his reading glasses. He massages the bridge of his nose where they had left indentations and lays down against the pillow, feeling Eiji cuddle up against him, wrapping an arm around his waist, his soft breath ghosting over the back of Ash’s neck.\n\nAsh’s heart swells, still not quite able to accept that he’s allowed to feel like this. He’s safe, in the arms of his love, far away from the guns and bloodshed of New York, thousands of miles across the ocean in their new apartment in Japan. It still doesn’t quite feel real. He’d always thought he would die in New York, choked by the stench of blood and smell of garbage, buried as another no-name youth killed in a meaningless gang war.\n\nHe drifts off, the arms of his love securely around him. But in his dreams, the comfort of the present bleeds away, and once more he drowns in the dark streets of New York.\n\nHe’s walking down a dark alley, surrounded by the familiar sounds of water dripping and the echo of police sirens in the distance. Ash shoves his hands deep into the pockets of his jacket, tracing his thumb over the familiar shape of his gun. The environment and its sounds are as familiar to him as the back of his hand, yet that fails to lend to a sense of security. Night has always heightened his senses, honing them razor sharp.\n\nSuddenly, a figure steps out from behind the corner of a nearby building, its face lit harshly by the fluorescent yellow light.\n\n“Yo, Ash.” Arthur smiles, a sinister grin on his lips.\n\nAsh’s blood runs cold.\n\n“You’re supposed to be dead.”\n\n“I...I killed you.” His voice shakes. He still remembers the feeling of twisting the knife into Arthur’s gut and the dead, empty expression that had stared up at him when he had peeked down from the train overpass.\n\n“Or so you thought,” Arthur chuckles, and steps further into the light, twirling his knife between his fingers.\n\nBefore Ash can react, Arthur’s goons materialize around him and hands grab him from behind, pinning him against a wall with his arms above his head. He curses, spitting and thrashing, as one of them reaches into his pocket and tosses his gun to the side. It clatters on the pavement, outside of his reach.\n\nHe can’t move his arms or legs, held down by rough, heavy hands as Arthur comes towards him, brandishing the knife and licking his lips.\n\n“Finally, I get to have my revenge on the little lynx who nearly bit my fingers off.”\n\nHe grabs Ash’s chin, tilting it upwards with his thumb, a sadistic glint dancing in his eyes.\n\nArthur’s hand begins to skim up Ash’s thigh.\n\nHis mind goes white.\n\n\n No. \n\n\n—-\n\n\n Hm? \n\n\nEiji blinks open his eyes to bleary darkness. He had only been asleep for a short while, but something had woken him up.\n\nHe feels Ash’s body, tense underneath him, a garbled moan escaping his lips.\nEiji carefully wretches his arm out from underneath Ash and sits up, looking at him. His breathing is fast, eyes screwed tight, murmuring terrified, half formed words and syllables.\n\n\"Ash...” Eiji felt his heart constrict, like the wind had been knocked out of him.\n\nIt always hurt, seeing Ash in the clutches of a nightmare.\n\nIt made Eiji feel powerless, seeing Ash battling with his demons in a land he could not set foot in.\nHe put his hand on Ash’s bicep, shaking him gently.\n\n“Ash, wake up!”\n\n—-\n\n“Arthur, what the  fuck!” He thrashes, trying to pry his arms free. “Get your hands off me, you sick fuck!”\n\nTerror floods his system—an injection of ice water through his veins. He can feel himself starting to go numb.\n\nHis surroundings swim in front of him.\n\nThe world sounds muted and faraway to his waterlogged ears.\n\nHe can’t feel anything. It doesn’t matter. Arthur can do whatever he wants to him and it won’t matter if he can’t feel a thing.\n\nArthur’s voice reaches him garbled, as if underwater.\n\n\"You ain’t ever gonna be the same when I’m done with you.”\n\nThe goons holding him down laugh at him. “You got it comin’ kid,” says the one in aviator sunglasses with a pathetic, greasy-looking mustache.\n\nArthur’s hand skims over his thigh, pushing up the hem of his t-shirt, exposing his hip.\n\nThe rush of blood in his ears and his ragged breath are the only sounds he’s aware of, overpowering everything.\n\nHis fingers hover over Ash’s waistband, then retract. As Arthur’s hand leaves him, Ash sees him reach into his own pocket, for his knife. He leans forward to whisper in Ash’s ear, knife resting threateningly low, teasing the waistband of his jeans.\n\n“I’m gonna cut your dick up just like you did to my fingers.”\n\nPanic slams into Ash so hard that he wretches his hands free, cutting his knuckles on the teeth of the man he socks in the mouth who had been holding him down.\n\nHis eyes lock on Arthur, an unholy cocktail of fear and panic singing in his veins.\n\nAdrenaline is the only thing he knows at this point. Logic is gone.\n\nHis instincts propel him and he pulls back his arm, locking eyes on Arthur’s disgusting face. His fist connects, striking Arthur square in the jaw and—\n\n—-\n\n\n “—Aarugh!!” \n\n\nHuh?\n\nHe looks around himself, drenched in sweat, and Eiji is crouching on the bed a few inches away from him, holding both hands over his nose, blood dripping onto the mattress.\n\nThe gears turn in his mind.\n\n Shit, Shit, Shit.  \n\n\n“Eiji—fuck,” Ash pulls several tissues out of the box near their bed and thrusts them toward him. “Tip your head back,” he helps Eiji position himself, a guiding hand on his back. “Yeah, like that...good.”\n\nThere were tears in Eiji’s eyes, and although he knows they’re probably involuntary from the impact, Ash still feels shame grip his heart like a vice.\n\nHe keeps his hand on Eiji’s arm, rubbing it apologetically, until the bleeding seems to slow.\n\nA blanket of silence falls over them, neither of them speaking, the only sound between them their equally uneven breathing.\n\n“Fuck, Eiji. I’m so fucking sorry.”\n\nThis was why Ash had been nervous when he and Eiji had begun sleeping together in the same bed. When they had lived in the condo, as much as he would have loved the feeling of sharing Eiji’s warmth and as much as Eiji would have allowed it, he had insisted on maintaining the distance between them, for his own safety, he supposed.\n\nHe’d known something like this would happen eventually.\n\nHe felt so disgusted with himself that he wanted to scream. It was over. The violence was over and here he was again, bringing it back into Eiji’s life. Polluting their happily ever after all because his mind still couldn’t let go.\n\nHe dug his nails into his scalp, a shaky sob wracking through him.\n\n“Ash, look at me.” Eiji clasped a hand on his shoulder.\n\nHe didn’t even realize he was shaking.\n\n“I’m okay. I know you didn’t mean to hit me on purpose.” Eiji’s tone is even, steady, as if he’s talking to a spooked animal.\n\n“No, Eiji—you’re not fucking okay, you’re fucking bleeding!” His voice cracks with a sob. He wants nothing more than to claw his skin off, dig his nails into himself and tear it from his flesh.\n\n“It’s my fault…” he croaks out, tears spilling free and falling down his cheeks.\n\nEiji must be terrified of him, or hate him. He wouldn’t be surprised if Eiji flinched away from his touch and kept his distance.\n\nEiji’s heart constricts painfully again, yet he finds his throat dry, at a loss for words.\n\n He’s just scared. It was just a dream. He wants to reach out and touch Ash, but he himself is still shaking, the bloody tissue in his hand.\n\n What can I do about this so he feels safe and I don’t get hurt again, Eiji thinks, squeezing his eyes shut.\n\n“Ash, is there anything I can do better next time? So I won’t wake you up so suddenly?”\n\nAsh remains silent.\n\n“…I don’t know.”\n\nHis voice sounds hollow, a million miles away.\n\nEiji feels the weight shift on the mattress, realizing Ash has gotten up.\n\n“I’m going to go sleep in the living room,” Ash announces, voice still raw. Before Eiji can protest, he slings the blanket over his shoulders and grabs his pillow.  \n\n“Ash wait—”\n\nThe bedroom door slams shut, Eiji’s words dying in his throat.\n\nThe spot on the bed next to him is empty, and his limbs feel heavy and cold."}
+{"text": "\nIt’s a week to the day he had arrived here.\n\n\n\nA year has almost passed and he is freaking out because he has been called out to the back of the school and though he supposedly is alone with this girl he can feel the piercing stares, eyes closed and an awkward smile, ‘Those little fuckers better walk the hell away…’\n\n\n\n“Umm… Takemichi, I was just wondering… would you like to go out?!?!”\n\n\n\nPlay dumb.\n\n\n\n“Uh out where? ‘Cuz uh… we’re already outside?”\n\n\n\nToo dumb.\n\n\n\nA smack could be heard, the motion of hand slapping a forehead comes to mind, but the blonde keeps a confused and innocent face as he looks at the girl earnestly. Just a bit more and she’d likely leave in embarrassment, it would be embarrassing for both of them, but he really didn’t want to go out with her, he’d leave the first date to the actual Takemichi.\n\n\n\nGod he hoped he came back…\n\n\n\nShe looked red, Hinata Tachibana was a cute girl, one of the most popular girls at the school from what he heard, well liked, and very attractive, him getting asked out by her was something he should be proud of. \n\n\n\nStill…\n\n\n\n“No I- Uh I mean would you-”\n\n\n\nThen the sweet, sweet sound of a teacher yelling at his friends who were hidden behind a bush invaded their senses, Hinata seemed to burn even more red and Takemichi just continued to look at her confused.\n\n\n\n“Umm… well I gotta go if you still need to talk about it you can ask on monday?”\n\n\n\nHe gave her a warm smile as jogged away meeting his friends who had been caught out by the gym teacher, a charming smile, and an easy explanation got them off with a warning, but the piercing stares would not leave him.\n\n\n\n“Sooo….”\n\n\n\nYamagishi had a teasing grin, and Makoto elbowed him, \"What did she say?!\"\n\n\n\nTakemichi played the dense idiot, \"She said she wanted to go out, I didn't really get it because we were already outside.\"\n\n\n\nTakuya shook his head, hand hiding a smile, Akkun looked embarrassed for the both of them but mainly for Tachibana. Makoto and Yamagishi looked at him like he was the stupidest man alive, then looked at one another doing that weird silent communication thing, simultaneously they spoke, \"You are an idiot.\"\n\n\n\nA shocked and terrified look crossed the blonde's face, \"I am deeply offended and slightly nauseous that \n\nyou\n\n would say something like that to me.\"\n\n\n\nOffended sounds escaped them as the three of them fell into a play fight that might have ended up with one of them getting their hand bitten.\n\n\n\nTakuya laughed and Akkun rolled his eyes, shaking his head as if done with them though the smile evident on his face showed his amusement. \n\n\n\n.\n\n\n\n.\n\n\n\n.\n\n\n\n\"So… how are you doing? There's only a day until the deadline, what'll you do if he doesn't come back?\"\n\n\n\nThe blonde laid on the roof of his house. Takuya had stayed with him worried he would do something drastic, he might have felt the clawing feeling of… something.\n\n\n\n\"I don't know… I kind of really hoped that I would disappear or something, but I kind of hoped it would take me when I had least expected it. It would hurt less you know, but now… I don't know, I'd like to say I've got it all figured out but most likely I'll throw up, have a panic attack and then fall asleep hoping this was just like a real long coma dream. I mean I lost everything. \nEverything.\n Takuya… I just don't know.\"\n\n\n\nTakuya bit his lip before taking in a breath, \"If it makes you feel any better, if you're still here the day after tomorrow, I'mma stick with you. You're just as much my friend as Takemichi was.\"\n\n\n\nWith those words he left.\n\n\n\n.\n\n\n\n.\n\n\n\n.\n\n\n\nIt was 3 minutes before midnight.\n\n\n\n3 minutes before January 1st.\n\n\n\n3 minutes before he would likely have to accept that yeah he was dead, and yeah he would never see his family ever again, and yeah he still had to live for however long this body would last, because unfortunately as he had said he was too much of a pussy to take himself out.\n\n\n\nAnd because maybe he wanted to live…\n\n\n\nHe wanted to be…\n\n\n\nThe alarm on his phone rang.\n\n\n\nIt was silent and nothing had happened.\n\n\n\n\"Shit.\"\n\n\n\nHe laid on the floor he felt dizzy and light, yet at the same time heavy because now he had to take charge again. God… he really was going to throw up.\n\n\n\n.\n\n\n\n.\n\n\n\nAfter emptying out his stomach he walked out of his house in an effort to escape the feeling of dread and emptiness. He was truthful with Takuya. He had no idea what he was going to do, this was life, not just the main character from a delinquent manga. He had a life, he had dreams and aspirations and family and duty, he had money and independence and here he was again, a child.\n\n\n\nA neglected child for sure, but 14 again.\n\n\n\nSighing as he snuck into a 7/11, buying chips, he gave a weak smile to the cashier who, like a zombie, stared at him unseeingly, walking out he opened the beer he had stolen.\n\n\n\nSticking a tongue out he sat heavily on the empty park bench, \"I forgot beer tastes like shit…\"\n\n\n\nHe leaned back, head snuggled into a balck hoodie he pondered the meaning of his existence for maybe a moment or two, before hearing the rumbling sounds of a murder of motorcysles looking over he saw the flapping wings of a black jackets. \n\n\n\nHe felt sick.\n\n\n\nHe wished he had stayed home.\n\n\n\nStanding he left the park, but not before gaining the attention of some of it’s more unruly members after all not all of them could be admirable delinquents with strong morals and even stronger wills, some were just bullies using the Toman name to throw their weight around in their own small ponds.\n\n\n\nIt was a shit pull though, that they chose to rough up a half depressed and half insane individual.\n\n\n\nStanding over the faces of beaten up Toman members, a crying Takemichi wiped his nose, “God why… what the hell was this shit, fucking delinquents… fuck I’m a delinquent too.”\n\n\n\nHe left them like that, murmuring all the way he ran, not wanting to deal with them anymore. They would have gone after him, but had to hurry back, but their pride was hurt and a plan was forming. Their bruised and roughed up expressions pulled some raised brows, but they ignored it or bowed depending on who it was from, a fanged and long haired teen laughed at the sight of them.\n\n\n\n“You get your asses beat by that scrawny piss-haired brat?!”\n\n\n\nBaji had never had a delicate bone in his body, the boys tensed, before nodding, the teen cackled, “Man either you guys are weak as shit or he was strong as fuck either way… next time don’t fucking lose.”\n\n\n\nThey tensed necks aching as they kept their bow, the biggest of them was kicked, but he barely let a sound fall as his legs wobbled in an effort to keep him up, soon enough Baji left them to it.\n\n\n\nThe boy tried to regain his breath, “We gotta kill that guy.”\n\n\n\nTruly it was embarrassing, after all they are the ones who picked a fight thinking it would be an easy mark.\n\n\n\n.\n\n\n\n.\n\n\n\n.\n\n\n\nAt home Takemichi grumbled, eyes blurry with tears and dull as though they could see nothing, “Fuuuuuuck… this body has shit alcohol tolerance…” he bumped into the doorframe and opened up the fridge taking out a water bottle, the sight of senbei on the counter made his stomach grumble, “Aw~ maaan~... what am I gonna do, I’m so goddamn short, and scrawny in this body even after eating healthy and working out…. I FUCKING WORKED OUT FOR THIS GUY AND HE DIdn’t even have the decency to come back…”\n\n\n\nHe sniffled as he fell to the ground and cried like a child, like the child he was.\n\n\n\n“Mamá… mamá perdóname… perdón…”\n\n\n\nHe fell asleep on the kitchen floor, half eaten senbei gripped in his hand, as he snored snot and tears drying on his red face.\n\n\n \n\n\n.\n\n\n \n\n\nTakuya found him in a supremely embarrassing position, sighing as he put the soup on the counter as he squatted before the other boy.\n\n\n\nHe was an ugly sight. Poking at the other cheek the boy opened up crusted eyes, before they closed again face grimacing in pain and regret, “The hell happened to you?”\n\n\n\nThe other boy grumbled unwilling to speak much less look at the boy, finally though he looked up, his nosy and cheek had a nasty bruise and blood was smeared across his face, “I’m still here, I threw up, left in the middle of the night, stole beer, got beaten up, ran away and then fell asleep while eating senbei.”\n\n\n\n“That’s kinda pathetic man.”\n\n\n\nRenewed tears escaped him as he grunted and sat himself up, “I knooooow~, but I panicked and honestly I should’ve stayed home, but honestly I didn’t want to contemplate my existence and stuff…”\n\n\n\nTakuya stared at him eyes soft and kind, and pulled the bag full of food down, nudging it towards him, “I brought sustenance, you can tell me what you think or we can eat in silence…”\n\n\n\nRubbing his eyes he gave the other a watery smile, “Sorry, sorry, here I am a whole 19 year old, crying to a kid…”\n\n\n\nPuffing out his cheeks, “I’m fourteen you know.”\n\n\n\n“Still a kid man, you’ll get it when you're older, even 17 year old's look like babies to me.”\n\n\n "}
+{"text": "Getting back to Solitude was a challenge. Once we were clear of the Embassy grounds, we found a nice, quiet spot for me to squat down and push as much of the troll's mess out of my ass as I was able; I conjured up a still-energetic Jex to help with cleanup as well. Fortunately, we were not followed and were able to find our way to the road and trudged back toward Solitude. \n\nI wished I'd smuggled in some warmer clothes, I was shivering all the way back. Dravos, now once again disguised as an olive-skinned Imperial, hugged me close to his side and I conjured up some fire in my hands to try and keep warm. Jex even bumped his flank against my hip in an effort to keep the chill out. When we approached the gates, the guards on duty looked us over and saw me shivering in the torchlight. \n\n“What happened to you lot?” he asked. \n\n“My friend here lost his cloak, unfortunately,” Dravos said, rubbing his hand over my side. “Doing our best to keep him warm until we can get to an inn.”\n\n“Well, Winking Skeever's probably got rooms,” the guard said, jerking his thumb over his shoulder. Then I saw him twitch his nose. “Smells like you were out having a good time, huh?”\n\nI felt my cheeks warm up in spite of the nighttime chill. “Yes, it's been a very...eventful night.”\n\n“I'll bet,” the guard said and walked over to me. “How many men did you take, Argonian? I can smell the cum on you from here.”\n\n“Oh, uh...” I flushed again and the guard laughed. \n\nHe turned toward Dravos and asked, “Hope you don't mind if me and some of the boys take turns keeping your friend warm?”\n\n“Provided he's willing,” Dravos said and moved a hand down to squeeze my ass. “He has had a long night.”\n\n“Tempting though it is, I should really go get some sleep,” I said. Normally, I wasn't one to turn down a good time, but I was sore from dealing with that troll and suddenly very tired on top of everything else. “Maybe tomorrow if I'm free?”\n\n“I'll hold you to that,” the guard said and gave my ass a swat as he let us pass through the gate. It was sorely tempting, but I had to deliver the goods first. \n\nWe made it back to the Winking Skeever and crept up toward the rooms we had rented, sneaking in and closing the door as quietly as possible so as not to wake any of our companions. I pulled the folders out of my shirt and handed them to Dravos, who looked at them curiously. \n\n“Hold on to those,” I said quietly. “They won't be able to find them if you have them.”\n\nDravos smirked and nodded once, disappearing in a flash of violet light. I started to strip out of my clothes when I heard rustling on one of the beds nearby. Enough moonlight was shining down through the window for me to get a glimpse of pale, Nordic skin and long, dark hair. I saw Kai lift a hand to stifle a yawn and turn his head toward me. \n\n“Keeran?”\n\n“Yeah, I'm back,” I said. “I got what we need.”\n\n“Good.”\n\nHe took hold of my wrist and tugged me right over to the bed; I didn't resist. Kai made room for me under the blankets and I eagerly snuggled up against him, starved for warmth after that trek through the chilly night. My people were not made for these frigid conditions. Kai wrapped his arms around me and rolled me onto my back, sliding himself over top of me and between my legs. I wrapped my legs around his waist and the head of his cock found my sore pucker as if he'd been waiting for me all night. He slid into me with ease and pressed his mouth hard to mine to stifle a nascent cry of pleasure. \n\nI was still sore from that troll, but Kai was someone who could have it whenever he wanted it. Right now, he wanted it badly and so did I. \n\nThe bed creaked lightly under us as Kai rolled his hips and my legs squeezed around his waist, my hands gripping at his naked back. I panted against his ear and felt him bury his face into my neck, his lips pressing a line down the side of my neck to my shoulder. I heard rustling in the bed on the other side of the room, but paid it no mind. I just squeezed my eyes shut and held tight to my loving housecarl as he took me.\n\nAnd after so long without release, I sprayed my load between us, making a mess of Kai's belly. With a deep-chested groan of effort, he repaid me, flooding my already-sundered guts with his own seed. He panted heavily and lifted his head, pushing his hair back with one hand. By the pale moonlight coming in through the window, I saw him grin. \n\n“Happy to have you back in one piece, Thane,” he said. \n\n“So are the rest of us,” Lydia's sleepy voice said on the other side of the room. “Save the noise for the morning, please?”\n\n“Heh, sorry,” I said and felt something tugging at my arm. I looked over to see Jex still sitting patiently at the bedside, cocking his head and panting expectantly. “All right, all right, get up here and clean us up...”\n\n* * * \n\nWith the morning came relief and the sudden realization that the bed was far too small to comfortably accommodate myself, Kai and Jex. I imagine this is what it was like having an actual dog. I gently nudged myself out from under the four-legged Daedra and sat up, groaning a bit. Inigo and Lydia had fallen right back to sleep on the other side of the room. I felt the bed shifting and a pair of arms slid around my middle from behind. Kai peppered my neck with kisses by way of 'good morning', sending pleasant shivers down my spine. \n\n“Good morning to you too,” I said and leaned back into him. He wordlessly tightened his arms around my middle. “Anything happen while I was gone.”\n\n“All quiet here,” Kai said, resting his chin on my shoulder. “Are you okay?”\n\n“Been better,” I sighed. “May as well go wake everyone up, we need to figure out a plan.”\n\n“Right,” Kai let go with clear reluctance and just then, the door cracked open and Hjoromir poked his head in, sagging with relief when he saw me. He held up a finger and retreated again, I assume to get the others. \n\nAt least everyone else remembered to wake up early. It wasn't long before the rest of my companions had all filed in, everyone in various states of undress. It felt more like another orgy was about to break out than a discussion on our attempted espionage against the Aldmeri Dominion. Tyr had also stopped in under the guise of a regular civilian to check in on us and sidled into the room, shutting the door so we could begin our talks in peace. \n\nI relayed everything that had happened in the Embassy with some help from Dravos. He calmly explained that he'd been pulled aside by guards and accused of snooping around, to which he repeatedly replied that he had no idea what they were talking about. He and Malborn had been dragged off toward the dungeons, where they'd assumed the “spy” had been hiding. \n\n“So, what does this mean for us?” Ghoro asked. “Do we need to leave Solitude?”\n\n“Probably not the best idea,” Tyr said. “You all leaving the Embassy the morning after a break-in? They'll be staking out the road for anyone who looks even a little bit suspicious. They'll have eyes on the docks, too, so leaving by boat is just as risky.”\n\n“So stay in the city walls and act like everything is normal?” Lydia asked, sounding very skeptical. \n\n“For at least a few days,” Tyr replied. “The only one who would be in any trouble is Keeran if they're looking for an Argonian, and he's hardly the only one in the city. It's not like they have any proof.”\n\nI sighed and pinched my eyes shut. “Those guards saw us come back in last night. If anyone asks guards from the night shift, they'll give me up.”\n\n“I'll deal with it,” Tyr said, his expression stern. “How many were there?”\n\n“Just one that I saw. He propositioned me,” I said, rubbing the back of my neck. “What are you going to do?” \n\nTyr smirked a bit, “Gently ask some questions about last night and make sure everyone's story stays straight.”\n\n“All right,” I sighed, rubbing my hands over my face. I didn't like the idea of staying, but Tyr knew the Dominion better than we did. I trusted him. “As for the information I found, probably best if Dravos keeps that in his little pocket of Oblivion for the time being. The Thalmor won't be able to find it there and it's honestly safer if no one else looks at those files until we're well outside the city walls.”\n\n“If they're after this old man in Riften, shouldn't we try and get to him first?” Hjoromir pointed out. “If they're after him, he's in danger.”\n\n“That prisoner we rescued hadn't broken yet,” I said. “They seemed to think he knew something, but whatever he does know, he didn't tell them. That should buy us some time, we just need to be smart about our movements.”\n\n“Any chance we could get a message back to, uh, our friend?” Inigo asked, looking at Tyr and lowering his ears apologetically. “Sorry, probably best if you don't know who that is...”\n\n“No offense taken,” Tyr said and rubbed his chin. “Might be safe to send a coded letter out with a courier. In the meantime, I would stay put for two or three days.”\n\n“What are we going to do in the meantime?” Inigo asked, his ears perking right back up. \n\nI just gave my friend half-smile, “Inigo, what else do we ever do with our free time?”\n\n* * *\nTyr had very handily dealt with the issue concerning the night guard, seeding some story about how I was a prostitute hired by one of the Legion officers at Castle Dour and he was investigating as the Legion officially disapproved of such behavior. But the city guard had no such restrictions, so that gave them plenty of freedom to hire me out. \n\nOnly problem was that public nudity was apparently frowned upon in Solitude. The guards “hauled me in” and I found myself locked in some stocks in the dungeon of Castle Dour. I was stuck there until someone came to “pay my bounty”. The guards on duty left me there for all to see, guardsmen and Legionnaires alike lining up to have a turn at my ass, my already-sore backside left gaping and raw, a constant trickle of seed dribbling from me. Others lined up to use my mouth, leaving a mess on my face more often than not. \n\nIt was nice to have things largely back to normal after sneaking around like a spy. \n\nEventually Tyr came and “rescued” me from my predicament with a set of clothes in hand. I washed up and walked out of the dungeon, clothed and carrying a sizable sack of gold. \n\n“I thought the Legion disapproved of that sort of thing,” I said. \n\n“Officially,” he clarified, giving me a sly half-grin. “You know how I feel about that rule. And speaking of official, I've been thinking. Do you think your merry band of dragon slayers has room enough for one more?”\n\nI perked up at that, “I'd be happy to have you along, but would you be able to get away from your post here?”\n\n“General Tullius was at Helgen too,” Tyr said. “I think he'd agree that having a task force to deal with the dragon threat would be a good thing. And since the Stormcloaks already have a representative in your ranks, I think he'd want to match that for fear of looking bad in the eyes of the people. If he looks like he's putting politics ahead of people's safety, it would only strengthen Ulfric's cause.”\n\nI smirked and asked, “So you only broke me out of jail to talk business, huh?”\n\n“No, I fully intend to take you back to the inn and have my way with you for a bit,” Tyr said and I felt his hand squeeze down on my backside. “We have some time, we may as well make the most of it, right?”\n\nHard to argue with that logic. We went back to the Winking Skeever to make the most out of those rooms, and as sore as my backside was from the treatment it had gotten the last few days, Tyr was kind enough to focus on my mouth instead.  And by that I mean he laid back on one of the beds and let me pleasure him at my leisure. He ran his fingers through my crest and I felt his fingertips brush over the old scar on the back of my skull. I had barely been aware of that since I could start using magic again without blinding headaches. I thought back to when Tyr and his men hired me in Helgen, I received that message from Inigo and felt over the scar while sitting in that tavern. \n\nNow we were both in a city on the other side of Skyrim doing the same thing. Was I suddenly going to get a message from my missing uncle before we left? Probably too much to hope for. For now, I could just enjoy being a whore again. A very important whore, but a whore nonetheless. \n\nI bobbed my head between Tyr's legs until the Imperial shuddered and drew his legs up, holding my head steady to feed me a fresh load of seed. I gulped him down hungrily and pulled my head back with a gasp to see him smiling down at me. \n\n“You are a man of many talents, my friend,” he sighed, folding his arms behind his head. \n\n“I find it good to be versatile,” I said as I crawled over him and straddled his waist. “It's important to have a lot of skills at your disposal if you're going to do the adventuring thing, you know?”\n\n“Better to wiggle your ass than brandish your sword?” Tyr asked with a hearty slap to my naked backside. \n\n“Well, I can do that too, just in a different fashion,” I teased and leaned forward, laying over him. “Speaking of which, is there anything I can do to further convince dear old General Tullius that making you part of my 'dragon task force' is a good idea?”\n\n“If you're thinking along that route, you may want to stop,” Tyr said dryly. “General Tullius doesn't exactly fancy other men as far as I'm aware. He went to that bath house near the Blue Palace and was apparently put off by the men there propositioning him.”\n\n“There's a bath house?” I asked, perking up. \n\n“Keeran, please focus.”\n\n“Right, sorry,” I muttered. “Fine, I guess I can be diplomatic and remain clothed.”\n\n“I appreciate it. Let's go get cleaned up and have a word with him, shall we?”\n\n* * *\nFreshly bathed and dressed, I followed Tyr to Castle Dour after we had rounded up Kai, Inigo and Lydia. Tyr claimed that having both Thanes of Whiterun present would probably help sway the General's decision. Inigo didn't much like it, but I could tell he was more amenable to meeting with Tullius given his severe dislike of everything even remotely related to Windhelm. As Tyr led us through the front doors, he leaned over to whisper to me. \n\n“I thought being a Thane was an honorary title,” he muttered.\n\n“Yeah, so did I,” I whispered back. “Just be polite and follow Tyr's lead. We can always turn on the charm if need be.”\n\n“Hard for you to do that with your pants on, my friend,” Inigo said, earning some barely-constrained snickering from Kai. \n\nTyr turned his head to shush us as he led the four of us back to an office where we were met by an older Imperial man in full Legion regalia. He looked us both over, his expression clearly skeptical. Whether that was just because that was just because he had to be skeptical or because of other reasons, I couldn't immediately tell. I'd at least give him the benefit of the doubt – Tyr clearly respected him. \n\n“Thanes Keeran-Rei and Inigo, I presume?” he asked. “I am General Tullius, military governor for Skyrim. You have my thanks for aiding Captain Tyronius at Helgen.”\n\n“I had the pleasure of meeting him before the incident at Helgen occurred,” I said, giving Tyr a little half-smile and did my best not to emphasize the word 'pleasure' too much. “I consider him a good friend.”\n\n“And from what he tells me, the feeling is clearly mutual,” Tullius said and took a few steps forward. “He's also told me about your efforts about the dragons, so I'll ask plainly – what can the Legion do to assist you in that endeavor?”\n\nStraight and to the point – very Legion-like. He didn't seem like the type to put politics ahead of the people's safety. \n\n“Captain Tyronius has asked to join me, so I would like him to accompany us for the time being,” I said. “At the moment, we're mostly collecting information on why and how the dragons are returning. We have a lead or two, but nothing entirely solid yet.”\n\nTullius simply nodded and rubbed his chin, looking thoughtful. “I see. Is there any information you're able to share with us?”\n\n“Nothing useful,” Inigo said.\n\nHe met my eye and then Inigo's and considered that for a moment, as if trying to seek out the lie. I wasn't about to tell him that I'd broken into the Thalmor Embassy and stolen secret files from the First Emissary's own office. After a moment, he nodded his head slowly. \n\n“Well, hopefully that will change,” he said. \n\n“There is one other thing I feel I should share in the interest of honesty,” I added. “Ulfric Stormcloak has committed one of his own men to my group in the interest of stopping the dragons.”\n\nTullius' eyebrows went up at that and he turned toward Tyr. “Captain, is this true?”\n\n“It is, sir,” Tyr said. “I've confirmed that a Stormcloak officer is present here in the city in Thane Keeran's company for that express purpose.”\n\nTullius nodded again, “Very well. I appreciate your honesty, Thane. I'll allow Captain Tyronius to travel with you for the purpose of investigating and dealing with the dragon threat as a representative of the Imperial Legion. Captain, I'll expect regular progress reports from you.”\n\n“Yes, sir,” Tyr said and snapped to a salute.\n\n“Good. If there's nothing else, I have a meeting with the Jarl soon, I should get over to the Blue Palace. Best of luck to all of you.”\n\nWith that, Tullius left flanked by two soldiers, one of whom looked at me curiously and then suddenly blushed before hurrying off after the General; it was very tempting to ask him how he enjoyed his time in the dungeon, but there was no point in getting the poor bastard in trouble. I exhaled once everyone was gone and turned to look at the others. \n\n“Well, that was surprisingly easy and painless,” I said. \n\n“Yes, to be honest, I was expecting a bit more resistance,” Inigo added. \n\n“The General's a very busy man and he takes his position very seriously,” Tyr said. “Though I fully expect he'll try to arrest Soren as soon as the opportunity presents itself.”\n\nI sighed, “Great. Well, I think we'll be okay for now. And if we're going to stay in the city for another day or two, maybe we can go visit that bathhouse you mentioned earlier...?”\n\nEveryone perked up at that and Tyr turned toward Lydia to give her an apologetic look. “Yes, but it's a 'men's only' bathhouse, if you get my meaning...”\n\nLydia pouted, “Damn. All right, go have fun. I'll go track down and Soren and make sure he hasn't been arrested.”\n\nWe exited Castle Dour and parted ways with Lydia, following Tyr in the direction of the Blue Palace. The entrance to the bathhouse was discreetly tucked away in an alley, giving the whole affair a rather scandalous feel. We entered a finely-decorated reception area and a handsome Nord man standing at the counter requested that we pay a small entry fee before going inside. \n\n“And please remember that we have a no clothing policy in the bathing area proper,” he said, scooping up the gold we laid out on the counter. “Sexual activity is allowed as well provided that all parties consent, so if anyone starts getting pushy with you, please speak with one of the attendants.”\n\n“I like this place already,” I said and followed the others into the next room where everyone disrobed and put up their weapons and armor. “How long has this been here?”\n\n“Quite a while, apparently,” Tyr said, now completely naked. “Come on, I think you'll like what they have going on here.”\n\nKai slipped his arm around my waist and we followed eagerly, walking through the next door and into a gorgeous room with a marble balcony and high ceiling that let sunlight stream in from windows set up high. Down below I could hear a gentle murmur of indistinct voices and the splashing of water. The room we entered ended at a balcony that overlooked a huge bathing room with a large pool in the center of the room where men were lounging and swimming around. Others walked around the edge of the pool stark naked and I could just make two men in an alcove having a bit of fun with each other. \n\n“Seems like our sort of place,” Kai said as he moved his hand down to cup my naked backside. “Surprised there isn't anything like it in Whiterun.”\n\n“There's the bath chambers in Dragonsreach,” I pointed out. \n\n“Mmm, not quite the same,” Kai said, giving my ass a squeeze as we descended the fine marble steps into the chamber. “You may have to do something with all that gold you're making, Thane.”\n\n“Don't tempt me, you know I'll do it,” I said and turned to grin at my faithful housecarl. Kai simply smirked and tightened his grip on my ass. He used that grip to tug me in close and kissed me firmly on the mouth. I draped my arms around his neck and returned the kiss in earnest, hearing a few delighted chuckles echo through the chamber as the other patrons were no doubt enjoying the show. \n\n“Well, don't you two make a lovely pair,” a deep and friendly voice said from somewhere to my left. \n\nI turned to see an impressively naked and handsome Nord man leaning against the nearby wall. He had long, dark blond hair hanging down past his shoulders and a wonderfully long and thick cock hanging between his powerful thighs. He looked like a character pulled straight out of an erotic story. Then again, a good number of the Nord men I've fucked could be described that way. \n\n“I take you two are new here?” he asked, stepping forward and giving us both approving looks. “I'd love to give you both a tour if you're willing.”\n\n“Oh, we most certainly are, isn't that right, Keeran?” Kai asked and punctuated the question with a sharp swat to my ass. I couldn't help but giggle and stumble toward the towering dream of a Nord. \n\n“We most certainly are,” I said and laid my hands over that rippling chest. Oh, there was no way he could be real. “Where does the tour start?”\n\n“Down there,” the big man said, nodding toward his waist. \n\n“I was hoping you'd say that,” I said and immediately dropped to my knees, grasping that heavy prick and stroking it firmly. Kai playfully nudged his own against my cheek and I reached up to occupy my other hand with his, working the two well-hung Nords until they were both good and stiff. \n\nPast my new friend, I could see Inigo chatting merrily with two other men, another Nord and a Redguard, both of whom were getting a nice feel of Inigo's fur. Tyr had disappeared from view, but I could only imagine he had found someone to play with as well. With my own playmates now stiff and waiting, I went to put my mouth to work. I took the new fellow first and he groaned appreciatively as I slid my mouth down over his shaft, bucking his hips toward me in response. \n\n“He's very good, isn't he?” I heard Kai ask. \n\n“Oh, he is excellent,” the Nord groaned and I pulled off him with a wet pop, grinning up at the towering man before turning my attention to Kai. I hadn't gone down on him very far when a third member was brushing against the side of my head. \n\n“Room for any more?” I heard a voice ask above me. I pulled back from Kai's cock long enough to voice an affirmative and went right back down on him. \n\nWithin moments, I was surrounded. Two more men approached and I found myself in the center of a circle of swollen, throbbing pricks, working my hands and mouth around to make sure each and every one of them received some attention. Between everyone's legs, I could see Inigo bouncing on the Redguard's cock while the Nord pumped into his mouth. Lucky him. \n\nAt one point, my new friends must have decided that I was getting uncomfortable being on my knees and one of them laid down, pulling me over to straddle his lap and lined his spit-shined cock up under my tail to press into me. I slid onto the Nord with a happy groan and another of the newcomers slipped right back into my open mouth the moment the opportunity presented itself. Each of my hands grasped another length of needy manhood as I was set to bouncing, dribbles of precum slicking my palms and wrists. Before long, those dribbles turned into pearly ropes of seed splattering against my arms and into my mouth. \n\nYeah, I think I could stand to follow Tyr's advice. Staying in Solitude for a bit seemed like a good idea..."}
+{"text": "“You don’t even know what the positions are and you’re trying out for the team?”\n\nYoongi can’t really believe that it’s happening, either. It was a spur-of-the-moment idea that he never thought would actually come to fruition. He is surprised that Jin and Namjoon even allowed him to try out in the first place. They care a lot about his and the other boys’ safety and, to be honest, they tend to worry over nothing most of the time, so it really came as a surprise when they decided to let him play a sport this dangerous. He doubts that he’ll make the team anyway, but it’ll be fun to try.\n\nWait, fun? Yoongi has never thought about this kinds of situations as fun before. He’s always thought that auditioning, trying out, or having to show off his skills in any way is completely nerve-racking and terrifying, but now he thinks this could be fun? Strange, he thinks.\n\nRight now, the coach is yelling at him. It’s pretty understandable, too. He was asked which positions he was hoping to get, and Yoongi responded by saying the he has no idea what the options are. Understandably, the coach seems somewhere between shocked and furious. If Yoongi were the coach, he would be yelling at himself, too, so he doesn’t take it personally. This is a pretty weird situation, after all.\n\nYoongi was asked to wear shorts and a loose-fitting t-shirt for the tryouts. He doesn’t normally wear shorts or short-sleeved shirts because more of his body gets exposed to the heat or cold that way and it gets to be too uncomfortable for him. The only times he ever wears clothes like that are when it’s way too hot not to, and during the annual family beach trip. \n\nHe’s really looking forward to that this year. It’ll be his last before he goes off to college. The thought makes him a bit nostalgic.\n\n“Yes, sir,” Yoongi responds. He knows better than to say anything that will risk the coach getting even more upset at him. The yelling doesn’t bother him much today, but he definitely doesn’t like to be screamed at. If he were feeling any more sensitive at the moment, he might have had a meltdown already, but he’s feeling okay today. He’s feeling confident. “I just wanted to try out.”\n\nHe hears some of the other boys laughing at him, but he tries not to pay attention to it even though the noise makes his ears burn in embarrassment. He isn’t sure why they are laughing. Did he say something weird? \n\nThe coach glares at him as if inspecting him. Then he eventually says, “You’re a weird one, Min Yoongi. If you want to try out, be my guest. Just make sure you can keep up.” He seems to get an idea. “Say, what are you good at? What makes you think I’ll choose you for my team?”\n\nYoongi has thought about it for a while. If he wants to join the team, he has to be especially talented in some way. There are guys that can throw the ball extremely far, run incredibly fast, or tackle the opposing team’s players. He’s thought about what he’s good at and he knows what it is by now.\n\n“I’m very precise, sir,” he says. The coach seems inquisitive, raising an eyebrow in curiosity. He hears the other boys muttering amongst themselves, but he knows what the reason is: it’s a strange answer. Almost everything Yoongi does is strange to other people. He knows that his autism makes him act differently than most people do, but he doesn’t mind. He’s never really had a desire to fit in, which helps give him some peace of mind.\n\n“You’re going to have to demonstrate that for me, boy,” the coach says. “You do realize that you still have to complete the same tasks as everyone else, right? You still have to run, throw, and kick your heart out.”\n\nThe wording doesn’t really make sense, but Yoongi gets the idea. He nods, saying, “I do. I’ll try my best.” The coach says nothing more, walking away from Yoongi as he blows the whistle to get the other boys to pay attention.\n\nHe explains that tryouts will take anywhere from one to two hours and that it will be very physically demanding. Yoongi sees a water cooler by the sidelines, so he knows he’ll be okay as long as he can get a water break at some point. He isn’t sure what to expect, but he’s a bit excited. \n\nThe first assessment (as Yoongi likes to think of it) is sprinting. The coach lets them stretch for a few minutes before they are to line up on one end of the field and get prepare to sprint all the way to the end and back while the coach times them.\n\nThe rest of the boys seem to know exactly how to position themselves to start, but Yoongi just stands there. He isn’t a very fast runner, so he knows he won’t do very well in this part. The boys who are slightly crouched with their hands on the ground as they prepare to sprint give him weird looks. It’s probably because he’s just standing there, he thinks. Maybe he should do what they’re doing and—\n\nBefore Yoongi can contemplate his positioning any further, the coach blows the whistle and the boys start running. It takes Yoongi a second longer to start running since he wasn’t prepared, but it’s not like it matters. He knows he’s coming in last place anyway.\n\nHe runs as quickly as his body will allow him, but that still isn’t much compared to the others’ sprinting. He sees one boy who is leaps and bounds ahead of everyone else and it makes him feel even more incompetent. But Yoongi isn’t going to allow himself to be discouraged. He knows where his strengths lie, and sprinting just isn’t it.\n\nYoongi finishes last, as expected, and tries desperately to catch his breath. He rests his palms on his knees, bending over slightly in an attempt to cool down. He sees sweat drip from his face and he wonders if he should be this sweaty after running only two hundred yards. \n\n“43.1 seconds, Min,” the coach says, pressing his stopwatch. He doesn’t look impressed, but Yoongi isn’t surprised. He isn’t a runner. In fact, he hardly ever runs. It’s partially because Hoseok isn’t allowed to run very much so he doesn’t want his brother to feel left out, and it’s also partially because he doesn’t enjoy running in the first place. “That’s a new record low. Congratulations.”\n\nIt doesn’t bother Yoongi. Well, it kind of does. He doesn’t like that this adult man is being so cruel towards a teenage boy who is just trying his best, but he knows better than to voice his opinion right now. Besides, he’s breathing too heavily to say anything.\n\n“Wang,” the coach says. “18.6 seconds. Even better than last year.” It looks like he’s referring to the boy who finished first and was incredibly far ahead of his competition. \n\n“Wang...” Why does that name sound so familiar? Then it hits him: that’s Taehyung’s guy. Jackson Wang who is in Taehyung’s chemistry class and looks like an athlete. Yoongi didn’t receive much about Jackson’s physical appearance other than “he’s so hot, hyung,” but he knows this is him. It couldn’t be anyone else.\n\nYoongi has a new objective: talk to Jackson. That’s much easier said than done, especially since Yoongi has zero social skills and Jackson seems to be incredibly popular (he’s already high-giving the other boys, so he must know everyone really well), but he’s going to do it for Taehyung. \n\nHe just needs to find an opportunity to talk to him. \n\nThe next assessment is kicking. Yoongi isn’t really sure how far or how high he can kick a ball since he’s never really tried before, but he doesn’t think he’ll be as bad as he was with the sprinting. \n\nWell, he isn’t very good at kicking, either. Every time he thinks he’s kicking the ball as far as he possibly can, it always ends up a few feet shorter than the others’. Yoongi is starting to get a bit discouraged. \n\nMaybe this whole thing was a bad idea. He should have never tried out. It was a stupid idea to begin with. Who was Yoongi to think he could make it on the football team even though he’d never played a game of football in his life, much less known anything about the sport itself? \n\nHe goes to retrieve his ball and comes back to his original position, but he just stands there idly. The other boys have so much athletic ability and Yoongi is just...there. He’s obviously the odd one out. Even the boys who are going to be cut from the team are probably doing better than him right now.\n\nWhy did he ever think this was a good idea?\n\nAs Yoongi begins to put himself down more and more, he eventually sits down on the ground. Feeling the grass beneath his fingers helps to ground him a bit despite the yelling of the other boys and the intensity of his emotions. He briefly wonders what life would be like if he were like the rest of the boys at his school. Would he be happier? Would he make the football team? Would his brothers still love him?\n\nHe is snapped out of his thoughts when a hand touches his shoulder. Yoongi reacts immediately, turning around with wide eyes. His immediate thought is that it is the coach coming to scold him for sitting down in the middle of the assessment. Much to Yoongi’s surprise, it turns out to be Jackson Wang.\n\n“What are you doing on the ground?” he asks. He has a smile on his face. It seems genuine, but Yoongi isn’t the best at reading emotions. Maybe if he were better at it, he would be able to help Taehyung out more. “We’re in the middle of assessments.”\n\nIt takes Yoongi a moment to respond due to the ringing in his ears. It’s too noisy, but being able to focus on Jackson and his words is helping to distract him. “Sorry,” Yoongi mutters. “I was just...overwhelmed. I needed a minute.”\n\nJackson nods. It seems like he understands. At least, that’s what it seems like to Yoongi. “I get it,” he says. “This segment’s about over, though. We’re supposed to try passing next. Do you wanna be my partner for that?”\n\nIt’s a bit ironic that Jackson keeps pairing himself up with Yoongi and his brothers, but it’s not like Yoongi is in much of a position to refuse right now. It’s not like he wants to be put with any of the other boys that were laughing at him earlier. Besides, he finally has the perfect opportunity to get some information for Taehyung.\n\n“Sure,” Yoongi says, acting like it isn’t a big deal even though he is freaking out on the inside. “You’re Jackson Wang, right?”\n\n“Yeah,” he says. “How’d you know?”\n\nYoongi hopes he isn’t being too obvious. To be fair, he only knew once the coach said his name. Taehyung barely gave him a description of his physical appearance, so it’s not like he had much to go off of. “Um, the coach was praising you a lot earlier. You had the fastest sprinting time.”\n\n“Oh, right,” Jackson laughs. “And you’re Yoongi. Min Yoongi, right?” Yoongi nods. He has a feeling of why Jackson knows his name, but he’s too embarrassed to suggest it himself. “The coach was kinda berating you earlier. Sorry about that, man. He’s always like that, though. Don’t take it personally.”\n\nYoongi already got that feeling, but it’s nice to have it confirmed by someone else. “How do you know?” he asks. “Do you know him?”\n\n“Oh, yeah,” Jackson says as if he had forgotten something. “I’ve been on the football team since my freshman year. Hopefully, this’ll be my third year. Are you a freshman?” \n\nYoongi flushes at the question. He isn’t sure whether he is embarrassed or insulted. Probably both, he thinks. Yeah, he’s shorter than most of the kids his age, but that doesn’t mean he’s a freshman. “I’m a senior,” he murmurs, looking at the ground.\n\nIf this is Jackson’s third year, then that means he’s a junior. So Hoseok’s age, basically. It’s a bit of an age gap, Yoongi thinks, but at least Jackson isn’t a senior. That would be a bit much. \n\n“Oh, sorry man,” Jackson apologizes with a laugh. “I didn’t mean it like that. I was just asking since I haven’t seen you at tryouts before. Do you just want a change of pace?”\n\n“Something like that,” Yoongi says. It looks like the others are getting ready to transition from kicking to passing, so he thinks this is a perfect time to sneak in the question that has been lingering in his mind for a while now. “By the way, do you happen to know Kim Taehyung?”\n\nFor some reason, Jackson looks less happy than he was a moment ago. He seems more guarded. But maybe it’s just Yoongi reading too much into things. “Yeah, he’s my partner for this chemistry project,” he says. “Why?”\n\n“He’s my brother,” Yoongi says. Jackson looks surprised. They do have different last names, after all, and they don’t really look alike, either. It makes sense that he would be surprised. Most kids aren’t adopted, Yoongi reminds himself. “I was just asking because he seems really happy to be working on that project with you.”\n\nSomething glimmers in Jackson’s eyes. “Oh, really?” he asks, sounding amused. “That’s good to hear. We’ve only met up once after school, but I’m looking forward to getting to know him some more.”\n\nYoongi has successfully completed Operation: G.I.F.T. (Get Info For Taehyung)."}
+{"text": "\nShall I Compare Thee \n\n\n \n\nTechnically speaking Anakin is fine. The medical droid on board has been very clear on this - the bruises scattered here and there on his tan body are an unpleasant affair but routine after two years at war and the bulge on his neck, where the dart pierced the skin, will reduce in a matter of days even without the application of bacta. The effect of the poison is a whole other story.\n\n\"Well, it could be worse\" Ahsoka decides with a cheerful voice and though she sounds and feels sincere, it's evident what she's trying to do. \n\nObi-Wan takes his eyes off the sandy-haired boy beyond the glass to focus on his grand-padawan with a dark glance that he hopes convey exactly his reluctance. \"Your Master has been shot with a poisonous serum that is obviously tampering with his ordinarily faulty brain-to-mouth filter, which is causing him to ramble on and on about me in un inappropriate manner for a Jedi, and you honestly think it couldn't get any worse\" he says anyway, just to make sure that the young Togruta is actually conscious of the situation, tone loaded with a mix of doubt and sarcasm.\n\nIn all fairness, Ahsoka really seems to give it a thought and the fact that she doesn't retract her statement is testament to how Anakin has rubbed off his sometimes senseless optmism on her. \"Think about it, Master,\" she starts, resembling her real mentor even more so, \"we could be at the Temple and someone else could hear him.\" \n\nIt goes without saying that the someone she's referring to is any member of the Jedi Order or worse the High Council. That would be a disaster. Fortunately they have still many hours - around twenty-six - to arrive on Coruscant and with the just amount of providential help from the Force Anakin will be truly fine by then.  \n\nObi-Wan returns with the attention to a bare-chested Anakin, regretting to not have insisted more on letting him go of his inclination for partial nudity. With a hum he concedes Ahsoka's a point. \n\n\"You should see him in action, my little friend\" Anakin is saying, eyes bright with enthusiasm and childish amusement, smiling even more when R2-D2 starts to beep furiously. \"Yes, Artoo, I know you see him everyday but not as I do and, let me tell you, he's kriffing majestic. The lightsaber seems like an extension of his arm and his movements are so kriffing graceful. I'd give my right hand to see him fight without all the kriffing stupid tunics\" he concludes, the dreamy look dampened only a little by a tiny sliver of frustration, which explains the rich rhetoric. \n\nGenerally Obi-Wan is good at controlling the colour increasing of his neck and cheek mostly because there aren't many things that cause it - praises are never been a problem until now. He clears his throat twice. \"I'm sure he means it for a strictly scientific purpose - you know, muscles and...\" he trails off because he has no idea of how to finish the phrase, because it's evident that's not the case. The combination of Anakin and scientific motives is even more laughable than his attempt. \n\nAhsoka hurrumphs, an amused aura all around he frame, and she has no right to sound like Master Yoda. \"At least he wants to sacrifice his mechanic hand.\" \n\nObi-Wan sighs. Qui-Gon as his Master, Anakin as Padawan and Ahsoka as Grand-Padawan - it's a miracle he still has his sanity for putting up with the three of them without dire consequences, there should be a special rank for Jedi this brave. \n\n\"But that would be so uncivilized\" Anakin resumes, doing a more accurate impression of Obi-Wan's accent now than when he's not under the influence of an inhibitor venom. \"It's not proper for a Jedi to show skin or sweat in public or not, Force forbid. He gets this little line between his eyebrows, that he blames on me by the way, every time I suggest to spar shirtless and, trust me, Artoo, I've lost count of all the times I've tried. Or he pinches the bridge of his nose. Or strokes his beard. Force, I love his kriffing beard.\"\n\nThe Jedi Master chooses to pointedly ignore the L-word and the spark of something in his chest, and is grateful when Ahsoka too keeps quiet, though she's clearly on the edge of a laughing fit. \n\nR2-D2 beeps again what hopefully is an invitation to finally shut up based on the outraged expression on Anakin's face. \n\n\"What? No! It doesn't make him look old.\" \n\nFigures. Leave it to Anakin to be so horrified by a rude comment to his Master's beard. No, not Master. Not anymore, corrects himself Obi-Wan, as usual. But still a Jedi, supplies a voice in the back of his head that resembles dangerously Mace Windu's. \n\n\"It gives him a refined style. Just like his hair. Can you believe Obi-Wan invented the definition of bed-head, Artoo? I don't know why he insists on combing it. He looks so soft in the morning with his messy, adorable hair out of place. It's a torture to not go and touch it, I swear.\" Anakin's flailing arms, probably to stress the urgency of his just expressed desire, almost sends the glass of water flying. He poutes - such a childish look hasn't any reason to be endearing on a grown-up man and normally Obi-Wan wouldn't find it so, but Anakin has always managed to surprise him. His younger friend is immensely cute and he hates himself a bit more for thinking it. \n\n\"Speaking of, he's so touchy-feely lately. His hands are always all over me, on my shoulder or my knee or arm. He touched my chest two weeks ago! And I wasn't even hurt, Artoo. How I am supposed to focus like that? If I didn't know Obi-Wan to be so kriffing oblivious, I'd say he's doing it on purpose to drive me insane. Maybe my stealth wooing is working and now I need to use a more direct approach, what do you say?\"\n\nAhsoka has abandoned every pretence of control the moment Anakin's mentioned exemples of Obi-Wan's hands on him, belly-laughs climaxing with something in between a snort and a grunt at the part on stealth wooing. Obi-Wan, instead, runs a hand over his face and tunes out R2-D2's blat, fighting against to many urges to pick up one: the blushing, the impulse of chastising Ahsoka, the desire to put a pillow on Anakin's mouth and finally stop him from talking. He does nothing, especially entering the medbay because he dreads what Anakin would say if he saw him and more importantly his own reaction at that. \n\n\"Or maybe it's best to leave things as they are. I don't wanna drive him away. I don't know what I'd do with my life without Obi-Wan in it.\" \n\nThere's a moment of silence after that. Obi-Wan is vaguely aware of Ahsoka awwing and his heart beating faster, his chest getting incredibly warm and tightening at the same at time, taking in the sad expression on Anakin's face. His stomach drops at the realisation of how much guiltly pleased he is at these words - obviously he wishes everything that's good in the galaxy for Anakin but he would be lying if he said that the prospect of his best friend helpless without him isn't somewhat moving, albeit in a very twisty way. And Obi-Wan understands the feeling so perfectly because, at least to himself, closed behind his shields, he can admit to be irreversibly, deeply, recklessly attached to Anakin, way over point of no return. Of course he's not oblivious as Anakin wants to believe, of course the stealth wooing has not gone unnoticed (possibly due to Anakin's lacking abilities rather than anything else) and of course Obi-Wan's thought of giving in to temptation, more than once if he has to be honest. \n\nHe looks at Anakin with old and new eyes, thinking that whatever he chooses to do, he needs to find a solution. Fast. \n\nAnakin pulls out of his contemplative state and shrugs. \"I guess, I can always ogle his ass from afar, uh, Artoo.\"\n\nFine. Pillow it is. "}
+{"text": "Dabi freezes the moment they step through the gates, and he watches Hawks’ figure make its way up the stairs.\n\n“Maybe this was a bad idea,” he says, but the wind catches his words and throws them away. He doesn’t know anyone here, aside from Shouto - not that he’d recognize Dabi, not like this. Would he? \n\nHe can’t decide which he’d prefer.\n\nBut everyone else at this event, they’re all strangers aside from Hawks. Not that he has trouble socializing, but these people...Hawks had called them family, and the sudden, overwhelming pressure to impress drops onto his shoulders.\n\n“Coming?” Hawks calls from the door, and Dabi runs a hand through his hair and takes a step forward. He can hardly turn back now, especially not after being the one to suggest he come along. Hawks sticks a hand out as Dabi climbs the stairs, and he takes it.\n\nHe expects Hawks to knock, so he’s mildly surprised when he just pushes the door open and drags Dabi inside. As quickly as he can, he lets his gaze sweep the space he can see: the sofa looks well-worn, blankets drape the cushions, and he can see a few people bustling around the kitchen with bright grins. On the other side, a long dining table extends for ages, and a few people sit around it with various drinks in hand. \n\nHe’s not exactly sure what he anticipated, but the place feels lived in, nothing like the sterile house he’d inhabited for so many years, nor like the apartment he barely does much more than sleep in. No, this place is a home, at least for someone.\n\n“Hawks!” A green-haired kid bounds up to Hawks with a bright grin on his face. “You made it! Aizawa’s gonna be- well, you know him. But Mic’ll be really excited to see you!” He glances over at Dabi, then, and - somehow - his smile widens even further. “Dabi, right?” he asks, and Dabi’s brows lift just a bit.\n\nSure, he knew Hawks had mentioned he’d be coming, but he hadn’t expected anyone to really remember. Or know his name. \n\n“Yep,” he shrugs, then glances over to find Hawks grinning at him. Maybe this was worthwhile, just to make Hawks happy. And…\n\nHe glances around over the kid’s head, searching for a familiar face. But he doesn’t see it, at least not right away, and he’s distracted by the green-haired kid sticking his hand out.\n\n“Midoriya Izuku,” he says, and Dabi glances over at Hawks again before shaking it. Hawks seems utterly over the damn moon, and he wonders if he’s gonna have to hide his own grin all night. He hadn’t expected Hawks to be this pleased, and it’s making his chest feel all fluttery.\n\n“I’m sure Hawks will introduce you to everyone, but we’re really glad you could come too!” Someone shouts ‘Midoriya’ from somewhere upstairs, and the kid’s head whips around. “One sec!” he calls back, then flashes another smile at Hawks and Dabi. “Anyway, it was really nice to meet you!” He throws a quick wave over his shoulder when some girl with pink hair shouts his name again from the top of the stairs.\n\n“Are they all like that?” Dabi mumbles as he leans into Hawks’ side. Hawks just laughs, then drags him into the kitchen. He’s admittedly grateful for the fact that Hawks hasn’t let go of his hand - he’s a bit overwhelmed by all the people. This is what they’d consider a ‘small dinner party’? Not to mention there are evidently still some people elsewhere in the house.\n\n“Hawks!” He seems to get an equally enthusiastic greeting from a girl with black hair tied up in a ponytail, and a vague flash of a memory creeps into his head. Right at the same time, her gaze lands on Dabi, and it darkens. “What the hell is he doing here?” \n\nAll at once, Hawks starts rambling about how Dabi’s not like that, his friend was the asshole, and so on, and god these kids must really trust him - the girl gives him a narrow-eyed glare, but doesn’t say any more than that, and Dabi almost feels bad. He’d apologize, but he doubts she or her friend - oh, that pink-haired girl at the top of the stairs…right - would want to hear it from him anyway.\n\nDabi suddenly feels like he’d like to go back to his apartment and curl up under the covers, but Hawks’ grip tightens on his hand as if he’s read his mind.\n\n“I mean,” some guy with yellow hair waves a knife around like it’s any other utensil besides one that could literally cause extreme bodily harm, then points it at Dabi. “He wasn’t really much of an asshole.” Dabi’s not sure if that’s meant to be a compliment or not.\n\n“He didn’t exactly help though,” ponytail girl says back.\n\n“I dunno, if Hawks has been dating him for the past, what, six months?” Yellow-hair turns to Hawks and Dabi, and Dabi’s eyes widen.\n\n“Almost seven?” Hawks says, and Dabi turns to stare at him - he’s got a perfectly neutral expression, and if Dabi didn’t literally know better, he’d probably believe him. \n\n“Yeah, I mean he can’t be a bad guy, Hawks wouldn’t be dating him if he was.” Yellow-hair shrugs and turns back to whatever he’d been chopping, and Ponytail makes some kind of grumbling sound, then grabs a stack of plates and finds somewhere else to be.\n\nDabi’s admittedly still reeling from finding out he’s been dating Hawks for nearly seven months now. How the time flies.\n\nHawks drags him from the kitchen and into a hallway, one apparently empty of anyone to overhear them.\n\n“I feel like I should’ve mentioned-” Hawks starts, and Dabi lifts his brows.\n\n“What, that we’ve been dating for over half a year?” He shakes his head - what the hell was he thinking?\n\n“Well it sorta snowballed…” Hawks seems to be finding anywhere to look except at Dabi. “They were sorta...well, it sounded weird to just be like ‘let me bring my brand new boyfriend’, so I said we’d been dating for a while, and they were all like ‘oh, well how long?’ and-”\n\n“And you said six months.” Dabi shakes his head. In a way, he understands - it was kind of strange to bring him after being together- “Boyfriend?” He hadn’t really thought much about it, but he hadn’t really had much time to.\n\n“I- uh, I mean...if you want?” Dabi exhales a breath of laughter at Hawks’ sudden lack of confidence.\n\n“I mean, we have been dating for almost seven months now...” Dabi tilts his head, letting a smirk touch his lips. Hawks’ mouth twists up into a grin, one that looks a little like a smirk as well. But Dabi can see the genuine smile behind it. \n\nHis boyfriend. Fuck, Dabi had better live up to the part.\n\n------\n\nHawks drags him around the party, introducing him to everyone - not that he seems to need the introduction, the immediate reaction to his hand in Hawks’ is apparently ‘oh, so you’re Dabi!’. He’s long since forgotten names, if he’s honest, but all the kids seem to have different hair colors, so he’s just differentiating them that way in his head. \n\nIn spite of his excuse for tagging along, Hawks ends up doing most of the talking, fielding all the questions about how they met. He’s spinning it wildly, though, making claims that Dabi was the one flustered by Hawks’ flirting, that he’d been clumsy and nearly spilled his drink everywhere, that Hawks had been the one to suggest they go out on a date. He’s also definitely making it sound less risque. \n\nAlthough, to be fair, if he sees these people more as family than friends, he’s probably not about to divulge the details of their hook-up. \n\nDabi plays along, though, happy to pretend he’d been the lovesick fool at the start. Mostly because he sort of had been - and still is. Every now and then, he’ll catch himself just staring at Hawks as he spins a tale about their first meeting, or some date they’ve supposedly been on, or something else entirely. He’s entrancing.\n\nHe can almost feel the loss when Hawks excuses himself to grab another drink.\n\n“Just so you know, Dabi,” Dabi turns to find Yellow Hair staring at him, eyes narrowed, “if you do anything to hurt Hawks…” he leaves the threat dangling in the air, and Dabi’s not sure if he should take it as a joke or actually come up with a response to that.\n\nOut of nowhere, though, someone bursts out laughing, and Dabi turns to find a guy sitting on the sofa, his arm around Red Hair - he’d met that kid earlier, he thinks - and a brow quirked.\n\n“He said the same thing to me, don’t take him too seriously,” he advises, and Red Hair frowns.\n\n“Wait, seriously Denki? Did you threaten Bakugou?” Dabi’s brows quirk up, suddenly caught in the middle of this family feud. Yellow Hair sputters out some nonsensical response and tips his drink back, and Dabi’s eternally grateful for Hawks’ return. He does much better hanging onto Hawks’ arm than he does as the center of attention.\n\n“Who’s threatening you?” Hawks chimes in, handing Dabi another drink - he must’ve made them, Dabi hasn’t seen anyone else with any kind of cocktail. This Bakugou kid waves a hand at Yellow Hair, and Hawks raises his brows.\n\n“Yeah okay, Kaminari, you’re not fooling anyone. Sorry, but Bakugou here would beat you to a pulp in a matter of seconds.” He tips his drink back, like he has the empirical evidence to back up his claim, and Bakugou coughs out a laugh.\n\nThe guy beside him giggles as well, but he hides it behind a sip of his own drink, and Kaminari’s left with his mouth wide open, glancing between them all. A purple-haired kid walks in - he’s pretty sure he’s met this one - and stops in the doorway.\n\n“Whatever it is,” he says, eyes fixed on Kaminari, “count me out.” \n\n“No no no,” Kaminari stomps over, dragging on the guy’s arm, “tell them I could beat Bakugou in a fight, I totally could!” Dabi watches with amusement as Purple Hair’s face shifts from one emotion to the next. He finally looks over at Kaminari.\n\n“Bakugou would probably rip you in half, if he were really trying,” the guy says, and the whole room breaks into laughter. Dabi finds himself smiling at the banter.\n\nWhich is why it takes him more than a few seconds to notice the person climbing down the stairs, head dipped as he says something to that Midoriya kid who’d greeted them at the door.\n\nThe second he does, though, the whole world fades into nothing around him.\n\nShouto looks...well, he still has the scar. Which he’d definitely had before Dabi left, but a fresh wave of anger bubbles up in his chest - Dabi hadn’t been able to protect him, then. But Shouto seems okay now, at least. Midoriya’s hand rests on the small of his back, and he leans into the kid’s side. Dabi’s heart thuds in his chest, a steady rhythm of Shouto’s okay Shouto’s okay Shouto’s okay.\n\nHalf of him wants to run over and sweep Shouto into a hug, apologize for leaving, for everything, say all the things he’d never heard as a kid, that he was loved and accepted and valued. The other half demands he stay utterly still, give no indication he knows Shouto at all.\n\nThis was stupid - what right does he have to barge in here, into the place Shouto’s made into a home, and dredge up old memories, bring things back from the dead? He’s probably buried them, made peace with them, and here Dabi is, threatening that peace. Threatening the stability Shouto has built for himself.\n\n“Hey, I’m gonna, uh,” Dabi hikes a thumb over his shoulder, not really sure where he plans on going but needing to escape for just a minute. Hawks’ eyes widen, like he’s about to ask something, and Dabi shakes his head, hoping it’s enough to stave off a question. Hawks squeezes his hand and lets it go without a word, and Dabi slips through the kitchen and back toward that hall he and Hawks had been in earlier.\n\nHe’d really meant to just stand there for a while, piecing his thoughts back together into something coherent, something that’d help him get through the rest of this without breaking down. Until he notices a door at the end of the hall with an inset window, and he makes the split-second decision to go outside instead. Besides, it’s far less likely anyone will find him awkwardly standing out there and try to make small talk when they’re all bunched together out of sight of the door.\n\nThe cool air feels nice after the warmth of so many bodies, and it helps clear his head of whatever’s been stuffed in there.\n\nIt also brings him a sense of clarity around Shouto - he shouldn’t have come here, it’d been wrong to try to insert himself back into Shouto’s life. Dabi had made the decision to leave, to break all ties with his family, and he has no right to go back on that just because his brother happens to live in the same area now.\n\nAnd he doesn’t have the right to steal Shouto’s family from him. Dabi’s long since broken away from his past, changed his name and his look and his identity, and he has no idea if Shouto’s done the same. But it isn’t his place to bring that all to light again, or to make his friends - his new family - doubt him. \n\nDabi focuses on his breathing, on the slow inhalation and exhalation of the night air. Clouds block out most of the stars, but a few shine through little cracks, and the moon makes an appearance after a few minutes of sitting in silence.\n\nHe wonders if he should text Hawks, tell him he’s not feeling well or some other half-assed excuse to get out of here. He’d been right from the moment he stepped through the gate - this was a mistake.\n\n“I’m not surprised you’re out here.” The voice behind Dabi startles him, and he turns to find Shouto standing in the doorway. His head feels like a mix of cotton balls and ‘this was a mistake this was a mistake this was a mistake’ running on repeat. “I also like to get outside whenever it’s too much.” \n\nDabi watches his gaze flick up to the sky, his arms crossed over his chest. All the words he’d thought he’d say, everything he wanted to tell Shouto, it all blows away in the cool evening breeze.\n\n“I don’t know why you’re here,” Shouto says, but his eyes never drop back to Dabi, “but you shouldn’t be.” He inhales, exhales. “Father found me, he might be looking for you as well.”\n\nDabi’s eyes widen, then they narrow. How dare that bastard- if he destroyed Shouto’s peace, he’ll have hell to pay for it. Touya didn’t know how to fight back, but Dabi sure as fuck does.\n\n“Don’t go after him,” Shouto says - Dabi wonders if Shouto’s always been this way, cold and emotionless, or if he has Enji to blame for yet another thing. “It’s what he wants.”\n\nDabi swallows the protest that’d been building in his throat - of course it is. His father wants what he’d had for so many years: control over them, control over their whole family. But with him and Shouto both gone, he no longer has that. And Dabi will be damned if he gives that bastard the satisfaction.\n\n“You’re happy,” Dabi says - the first words he’s said to his brother in years, in so many damn years. Shouto tilts his head, then closes his eyes, and Dabi wonders if he’s crossed some boundary - he’s his brother, but are they really siblings any longer? Were they ever, in any way that really mattered?\n\nHe’d never stood up for Shouto, never stood in the way of his father’s heartless brutality, never held his brother’s hand when things felt impossible, when Shouto had to be feeling so alone. No, he’d run away instead, found an escape that never really felt much like an escape. And he’d left Shouto alone, or nearly as good as alone. \n\n“I think so,” Shouto says, finally, and Dabi exhales. He doesn’t ask for forgiveness - he can’t, he could never forgive himself, and he would never expect Shouto to do so. But knowing that he’s happy, or he’s somewhere near that...that’s enough.\n\n“Are you, Touya?”"}
+{"text": "Alucard rolls onto his back and exposes his belly In an attempt to cheer up his lady companion. He is met with a blank stare, although her eyes are on him, he can tell her mind is somewhere else. After a few seconds of whimpering to get her attention, he rolls onto his side and his body slumps in defeat. \t“Damn, usually rolling around like a new puppy is a guaranteed way to get her to smile”. He almost shakes his head at his own foolish behavior. He knows he is acting way out of character, but he almost can’t help it seeing her act like this. Every passing second he can almost hear her heart shatter into continuously smaller pieces. He almost prefers earlier when she was crying, now she looks so empty. Like if her tears carried away all her emotions with them. \tEmphasis on almost. Truthfully, he can barely deal with his own emotions of being left behind by Sypha and Trevor on a daily basis, and now he has to deal with this? He turns to look at her blank expression, poor thing she looks like she hasn’t slept in days. A twinge of guilt creeps up on him as he thinks of his earlier selfish thinking. \tSleep. Maybe he can help her with that if he can’t make her smile. He curls his large frame around her in a protective circle with his head in her lap. He almost rethinks this move until he feels her hand on his head. If he wasn’t in his wolf form currently his cheeks would definitely be turning pink because of her touch. He starts to scold himself mentally for making such a big deal about her small sign of affection, but his thoughts are interrupted by the sound of her voice.\t“I am sorry. I am probably bumming you out. Maybe I should go back home? I don’t want to ruin your mood. Which would be a real shame considering how nice it is today.” You can’t help but sigh as you say this. You start to get up but you grunt as you feel the wolf put his whole body weight on you. You frown as you look down at him and scoff as you notice his golden orbs for eyes are shooting daggers at you. “Fine! You are so stubborn”. Though you don’t want to admit it, you are glad he doesn't want you to leave. You feel so safe and comfortable with him surrounding you like this and you are so damn tired.\tAlucard can’t help but feel a bit sad as he watches her already start to fall asleep. Being alone with her thoughts clearly has taken a toll on her. He feels a mix of anger and frustration start to bubble up inside him as he recalls her saying that when the search party went looking for the missing boys all they found was one of the boy’s severed hands gripped tightly around a bloody pocket knife. Ever since his friend’s left, he has always patrolled around the area taking care of whatever night creatures he ran into. What is strange, is he has not seen any signs of even one wandering these parts in a while, yet this tragedy has happened. He can’t help but feel at least somewhat responsible. To make it worse, his neglect has hurt his friend.\tFriend? He hesitates at the thought of considering her a friend, but then again he is currently snuggled up to her. You would have to at least be friends to be doing something like this. There is just no avoiding it. He puts his paws over his head in frustration, but his theatrics are quickly interrupted by a small snore.\tHe looks up at her to find her finally asleep. It’s good she stopped fighting it, she needs rest. She looks so peaceful now. The face that was minutes ago tormented by dark thoughts, is now peacefully unaware of the world. Looking at her sleep like this makes him realize that she is a very pretty young maiden. Because of the unfortunate circumstances of their first encounter he knows she has a nice figure, but he never  really had a chance to take in her facial features until now. Afterall, he was raised to never stare at a lady like that, it is rude and could understandably make a maiden uncomfortable. However, with his head in her lap like this it is not like he can look at much else right now. \tSomething about her face makes her seem so approachable. If he didn’t know her already, he could walk up to her and just know somehow that she is a good person. Something about her seems so innocent, he can’t help but want to protect her. \tHis eyes widen at that thought and he tries to think about something else but her sleeping face brings his mind right back to that subject. His heart starts to beat a little faster and he can feel butterflies start to form in his stomach. In an attempt to distract himself he tries to think about how he can perhaps patrol the woods more often to try and find what is probably a night creature causing all this harm. They aren’t very smart, so maybe he just needs to be out more often to find it. \tSuddenly he hears a small whimper escape from her lips. He looks up to find her still asleep. He almost starts to wonder if he is hearing things when she whimpers again. This time her body twitches some. She must be having a nightmare. He thinks back to when he used to have nightmares as a child. He tried so hard to be independent and not bother his parents when they happened but sometimes he just needed someone's touch to calm him down. His heart aches some as he recalls his mom holding him and whispering into his ear until he fell back asleep. Maybe his companion needs the same. But, would it even be appropriate for him to touch her like that? Especially, since she is not even conscious to consent to such a thing. Plus, it is not like he ever held Sypha when she was upset. But then again, at least Trevor was there to do that for her. No one is here but him in this situation. \tHis thoughts are interrupted by her mumbling panicked nonsense in her sleep. She then grabs a chunk of his fur and pulls on it. Alucard can’t help but yelp loudly and scramble away from her grip. He looks at her, expecting her to have been awoken by his noises and his movement, but somehow she was still asleep and with a chunk of his fur in her hand nonetheless.. Her sleeping face is now twisted up in discomfort. She almost looks like she is in pain. He almost wants to wake her, but he thinks twice since sometimes waking someone in the middle of having sleep terrors could result in them waking up panicked and lead to them maybe hurting themselves. \t“Fuck it.” He mutters as he shifts into his human form. He frowns when he hears her whimper again. He approaches her slowly and kneels down in front of her sleeping form that is leaned against her favorite tree. He gently puts her hands in his. She whimpers again and her body twitches at his touch. He hesitates, but then puts his forehead to hers and whispers, “Shhh, it is ok. You are safe. I am here. I won’t let anyone or anything hurt you.”\tHe is pleased when he sees her body relax. His thoughts about his mother comforting him almost makes him want to hold her the same way. If that helped comfort him, why wouldn’t it help her? But he decides against it, it seems a bit much for someone who is just a friend. Instead he sits next to her and carefully places her head on his shoulder. \tMaybe he should take this opportunity to nap as well?  After all, he will have a lot of patrolling to do tonight."}
+{"text": "Professor Severus Snape couldn’t have anticipated the chaos of the day ahead.  Indeed, he’d challenge anyone--Sybil Trelawney be damned--to foresee the literal fireworks and shite show that was to come. \n\nWaking at his normal half-past five, Severus stretched before throwing off the bedcovers.  Just as an Ukranian Ironbelly was compelled to breathe fire, Severus always woke at dawn. After decades of poor sleep, taxed by constant insomnia and stress, his body didn’t allow for lie-ins however much he wished for them.  He had grown to accept this part about himself over the past seven years following the end of the War. It was just too difficult after four decades of abuse, be it kin, peer, or workplace, to convince his body that things were safer--better--now and he could risk sleeping in.\n\nDuring his morning routine, his body went on autopilot and his mind cleared: showering for exactly eleven minutes, shaving with a sharp straight razor, and finally dressing in freshly pressed black wool trousers with a crisp white long-sleeved shirt.  After making himself presentable, Severus enjoyed his first cup of self-brewed black coffee in his sitting room while he riffled through correspondence. He had found the private--silent--first dose of caffeine necessary to better prepare for the theatrics of Hogwarts’ youths.  Unknowingly to Severus, no matter how much stimulant he’d consume this morning it wouldn’t be enough.\n\nAt exactly a quarter to seven Severus tucked in his shirt, buttoned on his dark wool frock coat, and then shrugged on his outer robe.  He rolled the tightness out of his shoulders. After slipping his letters in a pocket, Severus hid his wand in a sleeve. Regarding his reflection in the purposefully silent mirror, Severus adjusted the buttons at his neckline one final time.  He deftly flicked his inky hair over his shoulders, and smoothed some errant folds on his robe. Severus passed his daily inspection. Methodically neat, and put-together, he looked every bit the part of a respectable Potions Master. On his way out, Severus adjusted his cuffs until both coat and shirt aligned perfectly and pinned them in place.  Old habits die hard; this daily discipline had given him an inch of control during the worst of his past, when he had very little autonomy to speak of.  \n\nThe Bloody Baron stopped him on his way up the stairwell to the main floor to warn him that he had overheard a group of plotting third-year snakelets in the toilets.  Apparently, they were planning a spot of revenge over an inconsequential matter with some Gryffindors. While the choice to hold court in a toilet was idiotic and conspicuous, it didn’t seem to be serious enough to follow-up on before breakfast--no bloodletting or petrifying had been spoken of--so Severus thanked his informant and proceeded to the Great Hall.\n\n I’ll have to deal with that sticky wicket soon or risk falling behind on the House Cup,  Severus thought.   I’d really like to win that bet against Minerva that we can capture it two years in a row. \n\nHe was pleased to find that he was the first to arrive for the day, even entering prior to Burchard--a prefect, allergic to tomatoes--who seemed curiously hellbent on memorizing the entire Library’s collection on Divination as of late.  The silence of the empty room was meditative, and the only thing that echoed in the space as he approached the High Table were his footsteps. Indeed, Severus had found that his mood was infinitely improved if he didn’t arrive to the Great Hall when it was already at full capacity with the volume cranked up to eleven.  On those rare mornings when he was tardy, he would fleetingly desire to cast a  Mimblewimble on the entire jabbering lot. If nothing else, the fantasy of shutting up the masses was incredibly emotionally satisfying.   \n\nA cup of steaming coffee, and two pieces of toast with a side of butter materialized in front of him as Severus took his seat.  As the rich, dark liquid passed his lips he felt himself relax, and his shoulders dropped away from his neck.  The blend is superb today.  If tea could be said to taste better when prepared without magic, the opposite could be said about coffee.  Severus was half-convinced it was the way the Elves crushed the beans. When he was asked to return shortly after the War he had attempted to make a footnote in his contract that he would be privy to the method.  Unfortunately, the Elf Matron had turned out to be quite a ruthless negotiator and Severus had to drop the matter lest he be cut off from his main source of hydration entirely.\n\nSeverus pulled out his correspondence from the day before and began to write out a few replies so they could go out with the morning mail.  Pleasingly, in contrast to a decade ago, his letters were of nothing pressing; an apothecary inquiry, a dry reply to Lucius about Draco’s career ambitions, an altogether different and more supportive note to his godson, and a settling of his tab from the Three Broomsticks.  \n\n Draco may do better away from the Manor for a while, Severus thought as he finished his letter to the younger man.  He wrote a quick postscript that he had an Alchemical contact on the continent if his godson wished to be connected.  Merlin knew that Lucius could be a bit pompously overbearing at the best of times. Separating the Malfoy men may ease relations until Lucius could pull his head from his arse.   \n\nSomething unusual near the back of the Hall caught Severus’ attention.  He turned his head and observed how the colors from the stained glass flickered across the grey stone floor.   Is that a rare streak of February sunshine peeking through the east windows? Yes, I do believe it is.  Above him, the charmed ceiling had the promise of a hint of blue sky, despite the cold, wet weather that was more familiar to this particular spoke on the Wheel between Winter and Spring.  Severus allowed himself a contented sigh. Things were good. Slowly, the room’s population rose as students and professors rambled to their seats. As he signed the bill to Rosmerta with a flourish Severus felt someone settle next to him at the High Table.  \n\nLooking absolutely drained, Professor Granger muttered with a frown, “Good morning, Severus.”   Immediately, a plate of two decadent chocolate waffles topped with whipped cream, and a small pitcher of syrup popped into existence in front of her.  “Oh, put your eyebrow down,” she scolded him as she observed his reaction.\n\n“Indulging this morning, are we?” Severus asked as he folded his letter and placed it with the others in front of his place setting.   Is she hormonal or merely trying to pre-emptively up her chocolate intake ahead of the mid-February hedonism? If it’s the former, I dare not ask more.  I like my bollocks attached to my body. \n\n“I had the first half of the overnight patrols last night, if you must know.” \n\n“Ah.”   That explains it.  The only other duty that was more undesirable than night rounds was manually mucking out the blast-ended skrewt pen when Hagrid fell ill or was otherwise indisposed.  Severus watched with morbid fascination as she poured syrup over her plate. At first, Granger was paying careful attention to fill each pocket of her waffles equally.  Then with a sigh she dumped the rest of the pitcher’s contents over the entire stack.\n\n“It was awful,” Hermione continued, stabbing her first bite with enough force that the fork scratched against the plate.  “Seven students out of bed! Three of them were in that alcove behind Julio Furtado’s tapestry.” Before Severus could process that completely she barrelled onward, “I swear it’s the weather.  The students are so cooped up that they’re actually willing to do anything to escape the monotony. Even if that means scandalizing a seventeenth-century weaving of a man with his prized braguette.”\n\nRemembering the proud stance of the Portuguese wizard in the tapestry in question, Severus replied sarcastically, “Minerva thought the wall hanging would horrify the wee bairns.  That’s why it’s hanging so far off the beaten path on the fifth floor.”\n\n“On the contrary,” Granger said with a sniff.  “It only seemed to inspire them last night.” Almost like an afterthought she muttered, “Pomona really has her hands full this year with her sixth years.”\n\nIn an effort to steer the discussion away from the sexual exploits of the rutting badgers, and recalling the earlier glimmer of actual sun, he said, “It looks like the weather is taking an unusual, pleasant turn.  Perhaps today will grant us a reprieve from the idiocy of our charges.”  \n\nShe hummed in reply as she slipped the fork into her mouth.  The pair fell into a comfortable silence as they finished their breakfast.  Severus began to reflect on his friendship with the woman at his side. Hermione had been the Arithmancy Professor for the last five years.  When Vector wished to return for good to her family’s villa in Italy, her successor was clear; there was no one more qualified. Former War Heroine and Cursebreaker, Granger outshone all other candidates.  Indeed, her professorship has been an overall success; there have been more students enrolled in NEWT level Arithmancy courses than when Severus first joined the staff.\n\nTime had truly worked its magic for the two Order of Merlin recipients; there was little that would add animosity in their relationship now beyond Pre-War house prejudices.  As this was Hermione’s first year as Gryffindor’s Head of House, Severus had tested those waters more purposefully as of late. Minerva proved to be a loyalist to the very end of her tenure as Head; he needed to know where Hermione stood in her convictions to better craft his arguments at any meetings where he’d have to defend his Slytherins.  The first time he took more than ten House Points from one of her students this year she didn’t later demand an explanation from him. When she came across Severus ranting at Walsh--second-year, loves toffee--who had pushed Jenkins--first-year, often homesick--in a corridor, Granger didn’t try to gaslight him and switch the narrative painting her student as the victim.  How easy it would have been for her to come to her cubs’ defense at the cost of all others, feeling like she had something to prove. Yet, Hermione had not questioned any of the point deductions or detentions given out by anyone.\n\nAfter being on the receiving end of the nasty literal fanged bite of reality, a period of self-introspection followed and Severus realized that he didn’t want to follow the antiquated way of thinking regarding house divisions and bigotry any longer.  It bred nothing but ignorance. At best, the world was grey. Placing children together for socialization within a found family was all fine and good. However, people couldn’t--nor shouldn’t--be exclusively cloven to the tidy stereotypical bullshite expelled by the Sorting Hat.  While it had seemed that Hermione agreed with him through her actions, time would tell if she really didn’t play favorites or respect old party lines.\n\nHis musings were interrupted when the hatch on the ceiling opened with a loud creak.  Through the opening, the morning’s Owl Post began to flutter into the Hall. If Severus were more observant of the student body rather than being distracted by his thoughts about the woman beside him he might have noticed the calm before the storm.  Indeed, he might have observed how four students from Slytherin had strategically placed themselves along the edges of the room. In retrospect, one couldn’t blame the Hufflepuffs; as they were fellow dungeon dwellers the two houses could be surprisingly chummy at times.  But perhaps, in this one instance, the badgers should have been a tad more suspicious of the two interlopers at either end of their table.  \n\nUnfortunately, as with everyone, Severus was completely blindsided when his third-years released several Weasleys’ Wildfire Whiz-bangs into the air, impeccably timed to the entrance of the avian post carriers.  The resulting boom of several Whiz-bangs colliding was closely followed by the parliament of owls dropping their letters and packages en masse and fleeing back into the hatch to get out of the line of fire.  \n\nIn her haste to mitigate the disaster, the Headmistress attempted to vanish the fireworks immediately before they did any more damage.  Regrettably, Minerva had forgotten that these specific pyrotechnics were charmed to multiply when hit with  Evanesco.  She swore and the fireworks obliged by mockingly spelling out  TALLYWASHER over the Ravenclaw table.  Severus tried to keep a running tally of the many infractions his students had just earned and how many House Points were now at a loss, but he found himself distracted. And how could he not be?  The gold sparklers danced across the room and hit the flying, flaming pink pigs, which then caused stars to shoot off into the corners of the Great Hall.  \n\nSeverus slowly rose from his seat.  Putting aside the obvious fallout of this mess--floo calls home, detentions, probations, and the very great chance that this stunt had cost them the House Cup this year--it really was a spectacular show.  In a pinch of nostalgia, the pyrotechnics reminded him of the joyous Bonfire Night celebrations when he was a child. They had been chaotically massive displays, at least until the mills had closed; there wasn’t much joy for many in Cokeworth after that.  If there was any justice in the world, the chance for merriment--for proper fireworks--would only increase for these children in front of him, students who had grown up in the shadow of the War. Severus found comfort in that hopeful feeling; that his and so many others’ sacrifices had been worthwhile.  His gaze softened as it followed the jets of light crossing the Hall, exploding into new variations when they collided. Yellow daisy chains broke off to become bubbles, pink hearts curved under white hopping rabbits. The student body, however, was either mesmerized or terrorized at the anarchy reigning around them.\n\nFilius lifted his wand to attempt to stall things but Minerva stopped him with a raised hand.  She didn’t want a repeat of her earlier mistake. By the pinched look on the Headmistress’ face, it was clear that Slytherin’s hourglass was going to be quite depleted before the first block of the day.  Despite the obvious rule-breaking, more than a few teachers seemed to be in awe. The last time these fireworks were deployed in the Castle, the majority of the staff weren’t witnesses to it as the pink-clad autocratic hag Umbridge had locked the Great Hall down for her draconian exams.  Professor Sinistra looked on in amazement, hands clasped at her chest. Likewise stunned, Sybill was in a trance, but the bright reflections on her eyeglasses hindered Severus from getting a more accurate read on her reaction. Filch, though, appeared to be absolutely disgusted. Severus was surprised.  One would think Argus would be gleeful at the prospect of more detentions but perhaps the caretaker hadn’t thought that far ahead yet.\n\nAs the combustible reactions finally started to naturally wind down, the prank’s purpose soon became apparent.  The reason behind Filch’s offended reaction became more clear. The Gryffindor table, located directly under the main hatch of the owlery, was unfortunately where a hundred frightened owls literally had the shit scared out of them.  The table and its occupants were covered in bird droppings. Only a few students had donned hats to stave off the morning chill, and the rest now had white sticky head coverings. The entire house was still as they took in the appearance of their peers.  A diminutive first-year gingerly reached up to her hair and recoiled her hand in horror. Their plates of food--once oatmeal, crepes, and fresh fruit--were coated with a glossy patina of shite. A smelly plume of ordure was thick in the air.\n\nSeverus turned slowly to Hermione.  This act of public hooliganism was unacceptable and Severus was fully expecting her to aggressively come to her cubs’ defense.  But to his surprise, her shock didn’t ebb into a Dumbledorian disappointment or righteous anger. Hermione instead broke into a fit of laughter.  The explosion of mirth didn’t truly last for more than a few heartbeats and she managed to hide it behind a hand, but Severus witnessed it all the same.  In that instant, he found her to be absolutely beautiful.\n\nHermione’s brief moment of amusement, of finding humor in an act of desecration against her House, caused an odd feeling to unfurl in Severus’ chest.  He suddenly felt a fondness for her that had leapt beyond simple friendship.  What is happening... \n\nHowever, the pyrotechnics then truly ceased, and incensed yelling immediately broke out amongst the tables.  Severus would have to analyze this newfound feeling at another time; there were more pressing matters to attend to.  Hardening his expression, he thought, I need to set this mess to rights.\n\nBut his new feelings overtook his sense of responsibility again almost immediately.  “A reprieve from idiocy, you said?” Hermione murmured low as she touched his arm commiseratingly.  She turned to hurry down the dais to her panicked and filthy charges.  \n\nSeverus was once again stunned.  How easy it would have been for Hermione to stab him with a sharp word about her suspicions regarding Slytherins and their innate desire to always play the villain.  There was no better proof of her turning away from past prejudices and house allegiances. She truly was no longer the girl from her youth who demanded immediate justice without knowing the full story.  Recalling a conversation from earlier this morning, Severus thought,  I need to track the Bloody Baron down, he’ll know what precipitated this action.   \n\nHe felt Minerva moving behind him, already on the warpath; just because Hermione showed leniency, he couldn’t--wouldn’t--expect it from the Headmistress.  Beyond House loyalties, she had an institution to run and Merlin knew she abhorred theatrics such as these. He would too if he was still responsible for the paperwork.  As Severus descended the dais behind Minerva he spared a glance over at Hermione.\n\nWith the help of the Ravenclaw prefects she was  Scourgifing each individual pupil.  Hermione had just finished with the small first-year from earlier, the one who had been horrified by her hair.  The girl--Morris; Muggleborn, proficient at ballet--pointed aggressively at one of the guilty third-year Slytherins that had been rounded up by Minerva.  Hermione gently placed her hand on Morris’ arm and lowered it. With a shake of her head, she cupped her student’s face and whispered something with a smile.  Whatever she had said had the desired effect; Morris visibly relaxed. Hermione looked up at that moment, and caught Severus’ gaze as he walked down the length of the room.  Her smile didn’t falter in the least. If anything, it finally reached her eyes.\n\n\n Oh. \n\n\nSeverus suddenly felt lightheaded, and he knew he couldn’t blame it on the residual effects of the flashing or booming Whiz-bangs.  He felt anxious and frustrated over his students’ behaviors, true. But there was something else tumbling in his chest; the fondness that had been sparked earlier was now a fully flickering flame.  Severus was unable to deny it. The realization was too steady, and only growing exponentially with every interaction.  \n\n I fancy Hermione Granger.\n\n \n\n \n\n\n\n"}
+{"text": " \n\n✪★ Ch. 8 ★✪\n\n\n\n\n\nWhen Steve calls Bruce, he gets Tony instead. It’s the second time in as many calls that Tony’s inserted himself between Steve and the person he’d been trying to reach, which has Steve wondering if Tony’s been screening for him. If, in his own stunted way, this is Tony trying to show that he cares. \n\nSteve knows Tony still feels guilty about the first and only time he’d come face to face with James—even if Tony would go on a coffee strike before admitting to it. And while Steve still doesn’t know exactly what was said, Tony’s genuine attempts to make up for it means it must have been pretty bad. \n\n“Brucie bear is sciencing at the moment, mon Capitaine,” Tony says. “But your favorite billionaire genius is happy to be of service in the meantime. What can I do you for?”\n\nSteve explains the situation as succinctly as he can manage. \n\n“My people came across some pretty nasty stuff when they were doing cleanup,” Tony says, once Steve’s finished. “Bruce and I have been analyzing the samples so we know most of the compounds in that lab were still in the experimental stages but... The stuff they were cooking up, Steve, was— Well, it was biohazardous for sure but  also: the way they were designed to interact with the human body? It’s inhumane, Cap. Cruel. If your boy was exposed to any of that…”\n\n“He got knocked through one of the refrigeration units,” Steve says, limbs going shaky with dread. “His back was all cut up from the glass. Based on what he’s going through now, I’m pretty sure he was exposed to whatever toxins were stored in there.”\n\n“Shit.” Tony blows out a breath. “Well  shit. Let me see if I can find out which stuff he fell into. Call you back.”\n\nTony hangs up and Steve spends the subsequent wait pacing the room, stomach churning unpleasantly. Thankfully, the wait isn’t very long, Steve’s phone buzzing in his hand less than ten minutes later. \n\nTurns out Tony’s clean-up crew had gathered samples of all the substances Hydra had left behind, thoroughly sanitizing the place of any and all remaining evidence once they were done. The substances within the crushed refrigeration unit where James’ blood had been found and collected had been inventoried along with everything else.\n\n“We think Barnes was exposed to a variant of super-virus,” Tony tells Steve, getting straight to the point. “This one apparently acts as a carrier for different types of pathogens, while initially presenting itself as something relatively harmless. So, like, a person might get diagnosed with an ordinary cold, right? No big deal, not really a cause for alarm. So that person goes home, unsuspecting and then, bam. Suddenly the virus releases what it’s  really  been carrying, something far deadlier than any cold, and no one saw it coming because it was hidden inside the ‘harmless’ cold virus.”\n\nSteve sinks onto the edge of the bed across from James, gazing at his flushed face, his shivering form.\n\n“What does this mean for B—for. For James,” he asks, lowly. \n\n“It’s dangerous,” Tony says. “Scratch that,  highly  dangerous for a normal human. No surprise: Hydra scientists are evil assholes. But for someone with the serum, someone like you and Barnes, we’re thinking it’s probably not as big a deal. The only reason he even contracted it is because it was directly introduced to his bloodstream.”    \n\nRelief, almost painful in its intensity, washes over Steve, and he slumps forward, bringing up a hand to cradle his forehead as he exhales a long, steady breath. There’s a faint sound of shuffling over the phone followed by an indignant squawk from Tony, and then Bruce is on the line. His voice is calmly reassuring as he informs Steve that James’ fever likely means the serum’s already fighting the virus in his system, that it shouldn’t be too long before he comes out on the other side.\n\n“It’s horrible,” Bruce states, “But I’m pretty sure Hydra used Barnes as a guinea pig for these viruses. There were some notations about an enhanced test subject in the files Tony’s team recovered. And it makes sense that they’d use him. With someone enhanced, Hydra would have had a better chance of testing their deadly pathogens on a subject they wouldn’t have to worry about dying on them.”\n\n Of course.  Steve grinds his teeth. Of course they’d used James as their test subject. Just when Steve thinks he’s learned everything Hydra put the Soldier through, some new, horrific gem of information pops up. \n\n“There’s a silver lining in all of this, Steve,” Bruce says. “Barnes survived. Which means he will again.”\n\nSteve slowly unclenches his jaw, anxiety beginning to recede even as the bitter sorrow of learning yet another cruelty James had been subject to rises in its place. \n\nStill, James is okay. He’ll be okay, Steve reminds himself. That’s what matters. He’s strong. He’s made it through countless tortures; he’ll make it through this virus just the same. He’ll make it through, and Steve won’t lose him, again, so soon after he’s gotten him back.\n\n“You’re right,” he manages. “Thank you, Bruce.”\n\nBruce tells Steve about the plan to reach out to Cho and Strange, and any other medical professionals they can be sure aren’t Hydra, with the goal of formulating cures for the biohazardous horrors Hydra’d cooked up in that lab. About how familiarizing themselves with Hydra virology has made top priority. \n\n“If these viruses somehow got released, they could wreak havoc on the human population,” Bruce says, and Steve feels a wash of pride, of  gratitude  that there are people like Bruce, Cho, and Strange—counterparts to the evil of Hydra, willing to help rather than hurt. \n\n“You should work on keeping Barnes hydrated, and have him rest as much as possible,” Bruce says before they end the call. “Typically, fever in adults is okay so long as it doesn’t go above 103 degrees, but keep an eye on him just in case. If he seems like he’s getting worse, let us know right away. I’ll be near the phone. So will Tony.”\n\n-\n\n\n The Asset shivers convulsively, teeth chattering as the body is pummeled by a powerful current of freezing, pressurized water.  \n\n\n‘Hurry up with that, the chair’s waiting.’\n\n\n Fire spills across its back.  \n\n\n‘Отказ требует дисциплины, Солдат.’ \n\n\n The Asset lies prone on scorching desert sand, waiting for its target, the scope of its rifle hot against its face. Heat beats down on the body, steady and unrelenting. The lips are cracked, tongue swollen. It’s going on hour four and the target has yet to appear. Grit has snuck into the Asset’s tac gear, coarse and unforgiving, rubbing deeper into raw skin with every minuscule movement.  \n\n\n\n Every breath hurts, whistling hot and dry through its parched throat. The rapid flutter of its heart tattoos against its sternum, each beat accommodated by a pounding rhythm of agony within its head; nausea in its belly. The view across the dunes wavers dizzyingly, bright, bright sun constant, piercing, neverending— \n\n\nSomething ice-cold touches his forehead and the Soldier rolls, landing in a crouch on carpeted floor, limbs shaky and alarmingly weak. \n\nThere is a sound above him, a voice speaking nonsense syllables and the Soldier recoils, pitching backward to press himself into the cramped corner where bed frame and wall meet, making himself as small a target as possible. \n\nFire explodes across his back as his body meets the wall and a raw, grating sound slips from between his lips before the Soldier clenches his jaw tight, muffling any further expression of pain. The Soldier— The Asset—  It is not allowed—\n\n“James.”\n\nThe Soldier jerks, startled from his spiraling thoughts. His breath hisses sharply through his teeth—too fast, too loud— \n\nHe tilts his chin, a tiny movement just enough to part the strands of hair falling over his face. A man—tall, blond hair—stands beside the bed the Soldier must have been lying on before— \n\nBefore this. \n\nThe Soldier darts a surreptitious glance around the room and recognizes nothing. He doesn’t know where he is. \n\nHe must be— Had he been on mission? His back spasms in renewed pain and,  no.  Pain like this indicates disciplinary correction. Punishment. Had he passed out in the middle of it? That’s happened before. \n\nThe man—handler?—watches him, eyes calculating, and the Soldier keeps perfectly still, anxiety ratcheting higher with every silent heartbeat that passes. \n\n“Don’t be afraid,” the man tells him. “Please. I’m not going to hurt you.” \n\nThe Soldier stares. Pain is inevitable. The only unknown variables are how soon and how much. His back throbs, underscoring the point. The Soldier is already hurt. Why would the man bother with such an obvious lie? \n\nUnless the man's words are meant to convey that he won't hurt the Soldier  any more.  \n\nSometimes,  rarely, pain and punishments can be mitigated by compliance. \n\nThe Soldier forces tense muscles to relax, working to appear unafraid, as directed, and parts dry lips to relay the expected response: “Я-Я готов ответить.” \n\nPerhaps, the Soldier dares, his compliance will be enough. Perhaps the body will not be subjected to further pain at this time.\n\nBut the man’s expression falls, clearly disappointed, and the Soldier realizes with dismay that he’s somehow managed to say the wrong thing, do the wrong thing. Dread coils sour in his belly.\n\nHe waits—prey caught in a hunter’s snare—for the man to act. \n\nThe man doesn’t move toward him, as expected. He doesn’t move at all. But his expression is still unhappy as he says, “James it’s—it’s me. Don’t you know me?”\n\nThe Soldier swallows, dry throat clicking in tandem with the loud pounding of his heart. It’s clear what the blond man  wants  him to say, and the Soldier could lie. He could. But if he gets  caught  in the lie… \n\nThere is no right answer to the question, and the Soldier is bitterly, painfully aware of this as he opens his mouth. Rasps, “I—please. I’m. Sorry. S-sorry—” \n\n ‘Shut your fucking mouth, Soldier. Weapons don’t  beg.  And I’ll cut out that tongue again if that’s what it takes to teach you.’ \n\nThe Soldier’s jaw snaps closed so fast his teeth clip his tongue, blood filling his mouth as his too-fast breathing goes shallow, the rapid beat of his heart growing even louder in his ears. His fists are clenched and—clenched fists are a sign of aggression. He forces his fingers to uncurl, clutching tightly at his raised knees instead.\n\nThe blond man lifts a hand and the Soldier flinches, barely registering the words spilling quickly from the other’s mouth,\n\n“It’s fine James, it’s okay. You’re  okay.” \n\n-\n\nIt’s Winter all over again. Locked inside the containment room in the tower, spiraling into a panic attack brought on by Steve’s mere presence. \n\nExcept this time there is no glass window for Steve to retreat behind, and no way he’s going to leave James alone in his current state; weak and afraid and—Steve fears—likely to bolt given half the opportunity. \n\nHe lowers himself to the floor, slowly. Puts himself at eye level so that he’s no longer looming over James, trying to curtail, as much as he can, the threat of simply being. Luminous eyes track him from behind dark hair, James’ breathing coming quick and erratic.\n\nSteve wants so very badly to move closer. To touch and soothe away this terror the way he could have, and  had, seventy-some years ago in the wake of Zola-fueled nightmares. But this isn’t Bucky. Not in the same way. James has been broken much more thoroughly than Bucky’d ever been. The knowledge of that, the helplessness it engenders, makes Steve violently angry.\n\nWatching James, knowing that Hydra had done this to him, to Bucky,  purposely—that they’d broken him down piece by piece, made him like this,  seen  him like this, lost and terrified and defenseless, and had  hurt him anyway—stokes the fury burning deep in the pit of Steve’s stomach. \n\nHe forces himself to swallow it down, to bury it deeper because, right now, he absolutely  cannot  let that anger rise to the surface. Right now, James’ needs take precedence. \n\nSo Steve checks himself. Says, voice steady, expression open and hands to himself, “Hey.” \n\nJames, attention unwavering, says nothing, but his breathing is still too fast, and so Steve decides to start there.\n\n“Hey, buddy I need you to breathe with me, okay? Nice and slow, in and out. Like this, see?”\n\nSteve slows his breathing, making it deep and even, and James, ever obedient, matches him breath for breath. \n\nGradually his breathing begins to ease, and Steve offers a small, encouraging smile counting it as a win, a single step in the right direction. “That’s great, pal. Really well done.” \n\nJames watches him, all guarded focus and carefully bridled fear, and Steve knows the next step out of the dark pit James had woken up in is to help James ground himself before this fragile moment of calm has a chance to break apart. \n\nHe sifts through his memories, thinks back with bittersweet emotion on the sort of practice he’s had in this area. \n\nAfter Azzano, Bucky’d been plagued by nightmares to such a degree that it wasn’t all that rare to find him mumbling his name, rank, and serial number, blank-eyed and shell-shocked and unable to slough it off as easily as he did during the daylight hours. \n\nBack then, physical touch tended to be the best way to bring Bucky around. How that touch was delivered, though, was entirely dependent upon Bucky. \n\nWhen he was in a calmer frame of mind, Bucky’d allow Steve to touch him. Simple touches—a hand combing through his hair, arms around him in a loose hug, gentle fingers down his back. These went a long way toward soothing Bucky when he was fresh out of a nightmare. \n\nMore often, Bucky preferred to control the touching. He’d pull Steve close, run his hands over Steve’s frame, press his face into the join between neck and shoulder and breathe him in until the shakes subsided and the remnants of his nightmares cleared from his eyes. Times like that, Steve kept his hands to himself, allowing Bucky to take comfort where he would, not touching until Bucky let him know it was okay.\n\nWith James, Steve has no doubt that touch is completely off the table. He won’t seek it out, and Steve doesn’t even consider taking the initiative himself.\n\nBut, Steve remembers, there had been once or twice where it was the same with Bucky.  During those times, when Bucky would cower away, lost and confused and not seeing Steve at all, touch was out of the question. \n\nIt had come down to talking, then. Or more accurately,  Steve  talking, while Bucky—curled up and wild-eyed and looking much the same as James does now—listened. \n\n“Your name is James Buchanan Barnes,” Steve begins, same as he always had. “You were born March tenth, nineteen seventeen, to George and Winifred Barnes. Today is Tuesday. It’s 0100 hours. You’re in a motel, and besides us, there is no one else in the room.” \n\nJames is watching him avidly now, and Steve continues, relaying as much information as he can, filling in blanks which have doubtlessly played part in provoking James’ anxiety. \n\n“We’ve been tracking down coded messages, but you were injured yesterday and exposed to a toxin. That’s why you’re not feeling well. Your body needs rest so that you can heal. I— I’m Steve. I’m not your handler, and I’m not— I won’t hurt you. Not ever.” \n\nAs he speaks, something shifts in those blue eyes, and when he’s finished Steve thinks he can tell that he’s talking to James again, rather than Winter, or the Soldier. “You know me?”\n\nJames dips his head in a tiny movement, still wary but at least no longer panicking, and Steve offers another small encouraging smile. “Good, that’s—” Steve releases a short breath, a huff of relief. “That’s good to hear, pal.”\n\nHe gets to his feet, putting space between them, not wanting James to feel crowded against the wall. It’s reflex to offer James a hand, something he’s done for Bucky throughout their entire lives.  \n\nJames studies the hand with the tiniest of frowns—as if Steve has presented some sort of test, something with terrible repercussions should he make the wrong decision—and Steve feels a tangled mix of sorrow, anger, and stupidity, even though offering had been done on autopilot, unthinkingly. \n\nHe’s about to pull back, to stuff his hand in his pocket and apologize, when James cautiously extends his own hand, the left one, smooth metal digits sliding across Steve’s palm. \n\nSteve’s heart misses a beat. \n\nIt picks up again as he tugs James to his feet, a hard-hitting, rhythmic thud against his sternum. \n\nJames, unaware of Steve’s emotional state, sways where he stands, and Steve reluctantly releases his hand, feeling a little like he’s tearing himself away as he forces himself to retreat, to turn to the tangled sheets on James’ bed.\n\nJames has managed to show a bit of trust, and Steve is grateful for it.  But, Steve reminds himself,  that certainly doesn’t mean he’s in any kind of state to give more. And it doesn’t change the fact that he still doesn’t truly  know  Steve. Now, when he’s sick and vulnerable, is not the time for Steve to weigh him down with intemperate pining.\n\nSteve takes a moment to pull himself together, straightening the bed as he does so, pulling the top sheet out of the way to make it easy for James to settle back onto the mattress. James does, too weak to do much of anything else. He sits shivering and miserable at the head of the bed. \n\n“Here,” Steve says, proffering the sheet, and James takes it, tugging it over himself and gripping it tight. \n\nSteve goes to the kitchen next, returning with a glass of water which James drinks avidly. His eyes are already drooping by the time the glass is empty, and Steve takes it before it can slip from shaky fingers. \n\nHe steps purposefully back from the bed after that, turning around and and moving away. He’s halfway to the kitchen when he hears the rustle of cloth, the sound of James lying down, and knows he’d read the situation right; James is more willing to lie down when Steve isn’t hovering over him. \n\nHe takes his time refilling the glass. Putters about the kitchen. Allows James whatever time he needs to fall back asleep.\n\n \n\n \n\n-\n\n \n\n \n\n "}
+{"text": "Scott had texted the wolves, even Derek. Scott hoped Derek did not bring his pack.  However, Scott felt he had no choice but to include Derek as it did involve his family. Also, Scot knew that sooner or later, Derek would find out about Theo, his new pack member. Scott texted for everyone to meet at the edge of preserve near the old Hale house burnt out remains.\n\nWhen he arrived, Derek wore his traditional ‘something stinks,’ diva frown. That was the first thing Scott noticed. Derek's dark jeans, well-worn Henley, and leather jacket were so consistent, Scott wondered if the man ever bought new clothes. The older wolf had dragged along his mismatch pack of Isaac, Erica, and Boyd. Isaac wore his clearly new clothes with a cocky smile that Scott felt made him look smarmy, if possibly—secretly—a bit hot, but not really. It reminded him too much of Jackson for Scott to be too open or comfortable about his possible hint of attraction to Issac. Erica stood with her hands on hips in impatience, matching in some unsettling way with her perfectly polished red lips and nails. She wore an impractical leather mini skirt and a too-tight t-shirt. At least her leather jacket seemed somewhat reasonable. Boyd had his arm snaked around her in a possessive hold with his silent intimidation turned up to thirty billion in his dead eyes and dark clothes.\n\nTotally over the odd pack of misfits, Scott found himself puffing out his chest in pride at Theo’s understated blue jeans and black t-shirt. The clothes subtly highlighted his muscles without having an air of bragging. \n\nDerek spoke first, annoying Scott further, “What the hell are we doing here?”\n\nScott stood a bit taller, seemingly trying to assert dominance over the situation, as he said, “Look, it was supposed to be just you, but whatever. Stiles says Peter is missing. Deaton backed him up saying last he knew Peter was having control issues and was last seen entering the preserve. Thought, being his blood relative, you may want to be included.”\n\nDerek growled low.\n\nScott assumed the growling was at his own not noticing that Peter had gone missing. Scott knew Derek could not possibly have known already since Scott only found out about an hour ago. He continued, “I figured you could join our efforts to look for him so we can take him to Deaton. He’ll  make sure Peter’s okay. I had assumed it would be just you, but I guess they can look too. I think we should—”\n\nDerek rudely cut him off, saying, “Fine. Boyd and Erica. You go together, I’ll take Issac. You, Scott, can take whoever that is—“motioning toward Theo—“and… where is Stiles?”\n\nScott barely suppressed his own growl. He took a deep breath to tamp down the frustration he felt, and then spoke, “Stiles is researching. He is looking into some stuff about the preserve. I agree on the break down. And this is Theo. He’s my beta, from the lacrosse team.”\n\nTheo stood a bit straighter. His muscles even relaxed a bit at being introduced, it seemed.\n\nScott smiled at Theo with pride. Scott could make betas, too. He was perhaps even better at it.\n\nDerek nodded stiffly at the information provided.\n\nScott nodded as well and motioned to Theo for him to follow as Scott left the other pack, so he could start the search first.\n\n---------------------------------------------------\n\nDerek and his pack stayed still and silent, waiting for Scott and Theo to be out of hearing range. He spoke quietly though, just in case: “Okay, if you find Peter, text me. Do not approach.  Will deal with him myself. Got it?”\n\nIsaac’s brow furrowed, but he simply said, “Okay.”\n\nBoyd gave a nod, looking to Erica lovingly before pulling Erica away. He took her into the preserve from a different direction than Scott and his ‘buddy’ had gone.\n\nDerek took Isaac with him to go into the preserve from a different angle than the others with the hope of his pack getting to Peter before Scott.\n\n---------------------------------------------------\n\nMonths before…\n\nAfter he had driven Lydia to meet with the others and save Jackson, Stiles had to face the lack of a shit that anyone gave for him. He also saw that Peter was back. He could not contain his own anger at being left out of so much all the time. In that moment, Stiles decided he was his own person, and if he had to face things like Gerard’s torture without anyone seeming to notice, then his choices from here on out didn’t have to be noticed either.\n\nEveryone was distracted by everything else going on. After the heartbreak and tears involved in the process, Lydia was able to save Jackson. Then, there was dealing with Gerard. He was killed due to Scott. He had secretly dosed Gerard with Wolf’s Bane earlier in the evening, so Scott knowingly forced Derek to bite the elderly creep for him to die of bite rejection. Of course, being the humble jerk he was, Scott didn’t bother to tell anyone that. However, he also was in a fight with Allison who was drinking Gerard’s Kool-Aid, so who really knew anymore what Scott was thinking.\n\nInstead of giving people drives home or even sticking around to address the chaos of the aftermath, Stiles slipped around and grabbed Peter by the arm. When Peter looked to him, Stiles put a finger to his lips, signaling for Peter to be quiet.\n\nPeter stayed quiet but had an insanely annoying smirk on his face.\n\nStiles tugged him around to his jeep while the others were a mix of relief, betrayal, and pride. Stiles motioned for Peter to get into the jeep while moving to the driver’s side. Stiles did not even consider the man refusing as he had cooperated so far.\n\nStarting the jeep up, Stiles heard Peter get into his jeep. Stiles didn’t look over to him until a few blocks away when he had to stop at a red light.\n\nBefore Stiles could speak, Peter did, saying, “Whisking me off to ravish me?”\n\nStiles growled in a way that could nearly put a wolf to shame. He then said, “No. We’re going to rescue Erica and Boyd from Gerard’s men.”\n\nThat made Peter growl, all smirking playfulness replaced with an unnerving amount of teeth in his serial killer smile. He then spoke around his wolf fangs as they dropped, “Well, maybe I am not as sane as I told Derek I was.”"}
+{"text": "Sometimes, it seemed that no good deed went unpunished.\n\nThis was turning out to be the case for Izuku Midoriya ever since the class’s trip to the beach last week (he still wasn’t very clear on how frolicking in the sand and surf was going to help their development as heroes, but everyone seemed to be having so much fun that he couldn’t bring himself to mind). It had been fairly uneventful, unless you counted the usual antics that ensued whenever swimsuits and teenagers were involved. Izuku himself tended to burn easily if he stayed in direct sunlight for too long, so he spent most of the time just hanging out in the shade near the boardwalk. He was perfectly content to just do the homework he’d brought with him, chat with his classmates once in a while, and listen to the sound of the ocean.\n\nUnfortunately, things hardly ever stayed so peaceful for long.\n\n“Hey, what’s going on out there? Is that Uraraka?” Kirishima piped up from where he was getting a drink from the vending machine near Izuku’s study spot. The green-haired boy’s head whipped up at the sound of his friend’s name, and he followed Kirishima’s gaze to see Uraraka bobbing in the choppy water, separated from his other classmates and waving her arm.\n\nHe was in the water before five seconds had gone by, his body crackling with Full Cowling.\n\nShe thrashed and kicked when he took hold of her arms, which was understandable since that was the typical thing people did when they were drowning and panicking, but what worried Izuku was when she went limp, her head lolling in exhaustion. The water crashed around them, and only then did Izuku notice that the ocean was trying to pull them away from the shore, lapping over them relentlessly over and over—a rip current. Water rushed up around his chest and splashed up to his mouth, and he lifted his chin and held his breath. He held Uraraka as high as he could, his heart pounding as memories of green sludge seeping into his lungs and suffocating him flashed through his mind.\n\nBut he wasn’t helpless like that anymore.\n\nHe let the power of One For All fill his body again, gritting his teeth as he forced the water to release its hold and kicking furiously to get them back to shore. They rocketed through the water like a speedboat. The muscles of his legs burned, and his chest ached with the exertion from holding his breath. Distantly, he registered the confused and anxious shouts of his classmates, but right now he was only concerned with getting Uraraka to safety.\n\nHe gasped deep, desperate lungfuls of air when he reached the shore, as if making up for all the breaths he had been unable to take when the water was surrounding him. His t-shirt was dripping, the fabric clinging to him uncomfortably. Laying Uraraka gently on the sand, he brushed her drenched chestnut hair away from where it was plastered across her forehead and cheek. She was almost as white as her swimsuit, her usually-rosy cheeks pale. When he turned her face to let water drain from her nose, her head flopped to the side lifelessly. He couldn’t feel any air coming from her mouth or nose when he centered it again, and her chest wasn’t rising or falling.\n\nHis heart rate sped up again, adrenaline pumping through his veins. Something like terror raced down his spine like an icy hand. Though the shadows of the other members of Class 2-A fell over the two of them, Izuku’s focus had no room for anyone but Uraraka.\n\nHe didn’t think twice about what he did next.\n\nCPR wasn’t something he’d ever performed in real life, but he knew the theory well enough. He tilted Uraraka’s chin up, pinched her nose, and delivered rescue breathing. He had to give five puffs of air, one after the other, just as the training had taught him.\n\n“Oh my god, is she okay?” Ashido’s anxious voice said from somewhere to the rear of them.\n\n“Of course she’s not!” Kaminari hissed. “Just look at her!”\n\n“Shut up, guys!” Jirou interjected. “Back off and give them some space!”\n\nBefore he could even finish giving the fourth breath, Uraraka’s face twitched. His gaze moved over her, taking in every movement as her eyes fluttered open halfway. “You’re okay,” Izuku murmured as he held her cheek, not knowing if he was talking to himself or Uraraka. Then his friend’s face twisted in discomfort, and Izuku sat up to allow her to curl over to her side and cough the water from her lungs. Her breaths were ragged, her shoulders trembling, but as she propped herself up on one elbow and groaned, Izuku felt a rush of overwhelming relief. She was alive! He clenched his hands into fists to stop their shaking. A lightheaded feeling swept through him, and he sat back on his heels, suddenly feeling as if a light breeze could blow him over.\n\n“Everyone back up!” Aizawa barked, shouldering through the ring of concerned onlookers. “I leave you kids alone for five minutes… What in the world was that useless lifeguard doing?!”\n\nIzuku hauled himself to his feet, his knees wobbling as they barely supported his weight, and stepped back to allow their teacher to kneel down and examine Uraraka. When she was pulled to a sitting position and wrapped tightly in a towel, Izuku couldn’t help noting how small it made her look. She didn’t look like the strong, independent Uraraka he knew. She looked vulnerable, even helpless. Izuku decided he really didn’t like seeing her like this.\n\n“Well, we were lucky,” Aizawa informed them when she’d been checked over. “There wasn’t much water for her to dispel.”\n\n“I don’t know what happened.” Uraraka’s voice was hoarse, quiet, and her eyes were a little glazed. She was staring at the clumps of sand between her toes, but it didn’t look like she was really seeing it. “I’m good at swimming, but… the water suddenly dragged me away from everyone…”\n\n“Rip currents are very dangerous,” Aizawa told her, and perhaps it was Izuku’s imagination, but he thought the words directed towards Uraraka were more gentle than usual. “Even strong swimmers get caught up in them.” He turned his attention to the rest of the class. “No one else is going swimming today, needless to say.” Some of the students made noises of disappointment, but most of them nodded solemnly. The thick tension that hung in the air still hadn’t entirely dispersed. “Well, what are you all still standing around for?” he prompted them then. “Stop crowding her. Asui, please take Uraraka to the first-aid area to get changed into dry clothes.”\n\nThe frog girl nodded and stepped forward, helping Uraraka to her feet as the rest of the class separated into groups. Izuku watched as Asui—no, Tsuyu-chan—and Uraraka made their way up to the boardwalk slowly.\n\n“Your quick thinking may have saved Uraraka-kun’s life,” Iida said, clapping a hand on Izuku’s shoulder. It was probably supposed to be a gesture of reassurance, but instead it felt kind of like a karate chop. He stumbled slightly at the force, stifling an oof.\n\n“I—I just did what we’ve been trained to do,” he said. “Anyone else could have done it.”\n\n“Nonsense. You’ve done something commendable and you should be acknowledged for it,” his taller friend insisted. He turned to their teacher, who was watching Uraraka’s progress as well. “Isn’t that right, Aizawa-sensei?”\n\n“Well, to be honest,” said Aizawa, hunching his shoulders and sticking his hands in his pockets, because even at the beach he dressed like a shabby ninja, “she would have been fine without the rescue breathing.”\n\nIzuku and Iida stared. “Huh?” Izuku squeaked.\n\n“She simply needed her airway cleared,” Aizawa clarified. “However, you performed the procedure exactly as you were instructed, so your actions are indeed worthy of praise.” He shuffled up to them and patted Izuku’s mess of wet curly hair once. “Nice work.”\n\nFrom Aizawa, this was indeed exultant praise. “Th-Thank you, sir,” he replied as their teacher wandered off to round up the other kids.\n\n“Did I hear that correctly?” Ashido asked from behind them, and Izuku jumped as he whirled to face her. She was wearing a purple bikini that exposed a lot of rosy pink skin and which made him uncomfortable to look at, so he fixed his eyes three inches from her left shoulder instead. “Uraraka didn’t actually need rescue breathing?”\n\n“Um,” said Izuku, feeling sheepish, “that would seem to be the case, yes.”\n\nShe grinned wider than Izuku thought appropriate, given that one of her classmates had just nearly drowned. Her gold eyes gleamed. “So there was no reason for you to kiss her like her life depended on it?”\n\nHis mouth dropped open. “Wh—wh—?!”\n\n“I mean, I get it,” said Ashido, holding up her hands. “Uraraka’s a cutie. But isn’t it a little crass to kiss her if she’s unconscious?”\n\n“I—I wasn’t—!” Izuku’s mouth opened and closed like the drawbridge of a very stupid castle. His cheeks felt like two miniature suns.\n\n“How dare you!” Iida interjected, his hands sawing the air in agitation. “Midoriya-kun was merely doing his duty as a hero and a friend! He had no ulterior motives!” Izuku shot a grateful glance at him, since his mouth still wasn’t working properly.\n\n“I’ve got to agree with Mina,” Jirou put in, coming up behind her pink classmate. Her swimsuit was more modest—a black one-piece, plain but flattering—so she wasn’t quite as hard to look at. She rested one hand on her hip, twirling one of her earlobes around a finger with the other. “You should probably apologize to her for stealing her first kiss.”\n\n“B-B… I…!” His mouth was working about as well as the Tin Man’s before Dorothy had found the oil can. Her first kiss? Stolen by him? That was ridiculous. Mouth-to-mouth was nothing like kissing. …Well, it was a little like kissing, if you called it mouth-to-mouth, but the objective was definitely different!\n\n“I thought it was sweet!” Hagakure’s voice chirped, her pink halter-top two-piece bouncing over to them. “It reminded me of Sleeping Beauty! Except instead of a dragon, Midoriya fought the whole ocean to save his princess!”\n\n“Don’t tease him like that, guys,” Ojiro scolded them from a short distance away. “Midoriya, you did the right thing. They’re just giving you a hard time to lighten the mood since everyone was kinda scared for a while there.”\n\nIzuku just nodded dumbly as the three girls cracked up.\n\n \n\nOchaco found herself wondering if everyone could somehow read her mind.\n\nLast week at the beach, she’d nearly drowned. That had sucked, needless to say. Deku had pulled her to shore and saved her, because of course he had since he was Deku. Her memory of the incident was a blur of panic and desperation. If she hadn’t been so freaked out by the water sweeping her away, maybe she would have done the intelligent thing and levitated herself out of the water, but alas, her mind had only been a chaotic rush of OhMyGodTheOceanIsTryingToKillMe  and AmIReallyGoingToDieInARufflyBikini? The first thing she recalled after losing consciousness was being wrapped up in a towel, suddenly able to feel the warmth on her skin again. When she had recovered, she’d thanked Deku profusely for rescuing her, and he had turned red and told her not to worry about it. That didn’t seem out of the ordinary, really.\n\nWhat was out of the ordinary was that every time she teetered on the border between sleep and wakefulness since then, she found herself thinking of him leaning over her, looking down at her in concern as he held her cheek gently, and kissing her awake.\n\nMaybe most girls would enjoy the recurring dream of the person they sort-of-maybe-perhaps had the tiniest little itty-bitty bit of a giant crush on kissing them, but for Ochaco, it just felt like another reminder that she let herself get distracted too often. She’d tried a number of methods in first year to curb the feelings—snapping a rubber band on her wrist (that had ended up getting suspicious since she snapped it constantly whenever she talked to him), imagining him as a potato whenever he popped up in her thoughts (that had led to her just craving potatoes all month), even avoiding him (that had been unbearable after only two days—the heartbroken look on his face when she turned away from him and walked off without a word shattered her resolve nigh-instantly). No matter how often she mentally told her feelings for him to take a hike and get out of there, they lingered around, sprawled across a mental sofa and refusing to leave the mental house while they just grew and grew.\n\nStill, though, she hadn’t ever had indulgent dreams like this. Maybe once or twice she’d idly entertained the idea of what it would be like to kiss him, but she never got very far in imagining it, because she’d remember his fierce, single-minded determination to become a hero and instantly feel ashamed of herself for getting lost in something as juvenile as high school romance. Why couldn’t she dedicate herself to her dream the same way he did? Did she just not want it as badly? Or—and this was a scary thought—was she so weak that she wanted another person more than she wanted to be a hero?\n\nAnd so she pushed aside these thoughts whenever they occurred. She did not pay any mind to the fluttering of her heart when he smiled at her; she ignored the butterflies in her stomach whenever they brushed hands; she fought the floaty feelings that could rival the effects of her Quirk whenever he praised her. Rather than beating against her chest like a caged bird, her heart merely ruffled its feathers a little when he was near, and if she really concentrated, she could turn those butterflies in her stomach back into caterpillars that just sort of wriggled around and made her vaguely uncomfortable. She was a pro at dealing with this whole burying-her-feelings thing by now. And these dreams were totally screwing that up!\n\nThe worst part was that she didn’t really want the dreams to go away, if she was being honest with herself. It was probably the closest she would ever come to actually kissing him. Maybe, a part of her tried to convince herself, if she had these dreams, she wouldn’t crave the real thing?\n\nNo, that was stupid. So very, very stupid.\n\nDespite how persistent and consuming they were, Ochaco had always thought herself to be rather good at concealing her feelings for him. Sure, people had occasionally figured it out—Aoyama had been the first, but eventually nearly all the girls in her class had caught on—but even then she’d just carried on as usual until everyone seemed to forget about it. Maybe one day even she would forget about it.\n\nIf Deku would ever stop being so damn likable, that was.\n\nShe had been keeping a lid on her feelings for as long as she’d known what they were. She had never outright confessed them to anyone, and she was almost positive that the boys in her class didn’t have a clue (They rarely had a clue about anything).\n\nSo why was it that now, everyone seemed to be murmuring to each other with secret smiles when she and Deku sat together or ate together? Why had she once caught Kaminari making a kissy face at them when they walked by? Why would Mina’s eyes dart between Ochaco and Deku before she shot Ochaco a mischievous wink?\n\nShe didn’t know how, but her classmates suddenly all seemed to know that she was head-over-heels for her best friend, and they were making sure she knew they knew. These days she found herself looking around to check if anyone had seen whenever she accidentally let her gaze linger a little too long on him, or deliberately sitting on Iida’s other side at lunch instead of having Deku in the middle like usual. Her tall friend made a very effective wall. But still, everyone looked at her like they knew exactly who she wanted beside her. Who she dreamed of every night.\n\nWhen the bell rang Friday morning, Ochaco ducked her head, avoiding Jirou’s knowing smirk as she returned to her seat after bidding Deku a rushed good-bye.\n\nIt had been about a week, and Izuku was getting a little frustrated with his classmates.\n\nHe knew they meant well. They would never do anything to hurt him on purpose (well, aside from Kacchan, who even now in second year took a little too much delight in hurting him when the opportunity presented itself), and their jokes were mostly harmless.\n\nBut he couldn’t help but feel mortified during instances like Monday’s, when Kaminari had glibly asked “Where’s Sleeping Beauty? Does she need a prince’s kiss again?” when Uraraka hadn’t arrived in homeroom yet.\n\nOr Tuesday, when Sero had casually walked by him and asked “Hey Midoriya, how’s your girlfriend doing?”\n\nHe was startled out of writing something in his notebook, so he had answered without thinking. “Oh, she’s fine now!” he said with a quick smile, and then immediately felt his cheeks color. “I mean—wait, no—I—” But his stammering protests fell on deaf ears as Sero merely laughed and walked away.\n\nThere had also been Wednesday’s visit to the pool after school, during which a few of his classmates had begun floundering in the water. “Help me, I’m drowning!” Kaminari had lamented dramatically. “Where’s Midoriya? I need… the kiss of life…!” He extended a grasping hand to the sky, as if waiting for a large bird to snatch him up.\n\n“Oh no, I am sinking!” Kirishima had added. His acting skills were more reminiscent of something wooden than something made of rock. “Wherever is my manly and heroic savior?”\n\n“I’m not swimming with you guys anymore,” Izuku had muttered darkly, climbing the ladder out of the pool and stalking away dripping wet. They’d called out apologies after him, but he wasn’t in a very forgiving mood for once.\n\nIzuku had a reputation for being kind, non-confrontational, and frankly, easy to walk all over. The fact that people were teasing him was nothing. He was used to it. He’d been mocked and derided his whole life. But the fact that they were dragging Uraraka into it, fluttering their eyelashes at the two of them and winking and making Uraraka’s face cloud over with uncertainty and confusion, was something he wasn’t as willing to put up with.\n\nWhen Hagakure had giddily asked him at lunch Thursday when he first realized his feelings for Uraraka (which was a question that Izuku didn’t even know how to properly answer—which feelings was he supposed to “realize”? There were a lot of feelings and some of them he wasn’t quite sure he was willing to classify as “realized”!), he finally lost his patience.\n\n“Listen, you’re all wrong!” he declared, having clambered atop a table for emphasis. Ordinarily he wouldn’t do something like this, but drastic times called for drastic measures. Uraraka herself had gone to the restroom, so he felt reasonably certain that talking about it now would be less risky. Class 2-A’s voices petered out as they offered their attention, and Izuku clenched his fists by his sides as he continued. “I… I’ve had lifeguard training before! I would have done what I did for Uraraka-san for anyone!”\n\nHe glared around at them all as they stared, and nobody spoke for a moment.\n\n“Even Iida?” Ashido broke the silence.\n\n“Of course!” he answered immediately.\n\n“That’s very chivalrous of you, Midoriya-kun,” his friend said graciously. “However, I must insist that you get down from that table at once.”\n\n“Would you even do that for Bakugou?” some foolish person that sounded like Kaminari asked.\n\n“Absolutely!” Izuku shouted before the question was even finished, and then instantly recognized that he had made a grave error. “Wait, no,” he backpedaled desperately, waving his hands around. “M-Maybe everyone except—”\n\n“Deku,” Kacchan growled dangerously, cracking his knuckles. His face was twisted into a snarl. “I’m not a total monster, so I’m going to give you 5 seconds’ head start before I start trying to kill you.”\n\nIzuku gulped. “Good call,” he squeaked, and then booked it out of there at a speed that would make Iida proud. Lunch was better when enjoyed outside anyway.\n\n \n\nAfter a week of everyone acting like they knew Ochaco’s secret, she and Deku finally found a savior in the form of Tsuyu Asui. Placing an oversized hand on Izuku’s shoulder, she called everyone’s attention with a “Listen up, everybody, kero!” as they spilled into the common area of the dorm after class let out Friday afternoon. Ochaco herself hung back towards the rear of the group, curious about Tsu’s serious tone. “I’ve been noticing lately that a lot of you have been teasing Midoriya-chan for what happened at the beach,” the frog girl began. “You should leave him alone. Ochaco-chan was truly in danger, and he did whatever he could to save her. I don’t think that’s something we should ridicule him for. I thought you all were better than this, making someone feel bad for doing something heroic.”\n\nOchaco tilted her head, confused. Why would anyone tease Deku for bringing her to shore? Through the gaps between her taller classmates, she could see the green-haired boy duck his head, hiding his face in apparent embarrassment. Curiously, everyone else seemed to be also hanging their heads. Tsu had a special talent for getting everyone to behave and listen to reason. She was like a big sister to the entire class.\n\n“We’re sorry, Midoriya,” Kaminari spoke up. “We know you would have helped anyone if it came right down to it, not just her.” Everyone else present murmured their apologies as well.\n\n“We didn’t mean to make you feel ashamed of doing a good thing,” Mina agreed. “It was just fun to tease you and Uraraka about it because of your super obvious crushes on each other.”\n\nIzuku’s head whipped up, and he blinked dumbly. Ochaco, meanwhile, was frozen in place, Mina’s words echoing over and over again in her head like the ringing of a bell. Super obvious? Super obvious?\n\n\nEach other?\n\n\nSero smacked her arm. “Ashido!” he hissed. “Don’t just say it out in the open!”\n\n“Our,” said Deku with a gulp, “our super-obvious what now?...”\n\nJirou sighed, massaging her forehead. “Nice going, Mina.”\n\n“What?!” the pink girl burst out defensively, throwing her arms in the air. “It’s true! We all know it!”\n\n“Our,” murmured Izuku again, “our what?”\n\nKirishima smacked Ashido’s arm too. “You broke Midoriya, you jerk!”\n\nOchaco finally found her voice. “H-Hold on, everyone!” she said, her voice coming out a high-pitched squeak. She could feel her face flushing, but she decided she needed some questions answered whether she looked like a tomato or not. She shouldered her way through the group, standing at the front of them. “You’ve been teasing Deku? What are you talking about?!” Maybe if she asked them about that, everyone would conveniently forget what Mina had said.\n\n“The same thing we’ve been talking about all week, silly!” Tooru said brightly. Her sleeves moved together as if she was clasping her hands in front of her chest. “The super heroic and gallant way that Midoriya saved you when you were drowning!” She sighed dreamily. “Reviving you with a kiss… it was like something out of a fairy tale…!”\n\n“Wait, what?!” Ochaco squawked. When in the world had he revived her with a kiss? A quick glance at Deku revealed no explanation, since he was covering his face with both arms in a manner that was reminiscent of a vampire going out in the sunlight. “I… hold up, what happened?!”\n\n“She didn’t even remember?” Sero said, and then shook his head. “Harsh. Guess it wasn’t too memorable, Midoriya. Sucks for you.”\n\nAs she stood before her classmates, flashes of sensation began to rise to the surface of Ochaco’s mind, emerging from the murk like the answer pyramid in a Magic 8 Ball. A blur of blue and white. Shouting for help. Sinking through cold darkness. Being lifted up as everything went black. Something soft against her mouth. Terrified green eyes looking down at her as her own fluttered open. Bright sunlight blinding her. Turning over sideways and coughing up water.\n\nHer knees felt weak. “That… that…!” She held her red face between her hands. “That wasn’t a...” Dream?  she finished internally. Her thoughts whirled dizzyingly as her brain tried to reconcile what was memory and what was fantasy. Where was the overlap? Had her thoughts of him gently holding her cheek been a memory in disguise as well? Had everyone known about her first kiss before she did? Did that even count?\n\nKaminari smacked Mina’s arm this time. “You broke Uraraka now, too!”\n\n“I didn’t even say anything this time!” Ashido protested. “And stop hitting me!”\n\n“I, um,” Deku’s voice stammered, and Ochaco accidentally locked eyes with him for a second, which somehow felt like someone wrapping a hand around her heart and squeezing. He went even redder, which was an incredible feat really, and shook his head as if to dislodge an inconvenient thought. “I have to go!” he proclaimed, and before anyone could protest, he had pushed through the group and run out of Heights Alliance.\n\n“He ran away?” Kirishima said, sounding disappointed. “That’s not very manly.”\n\n“I can’t say I blame him,” Kaminari remarked. “That guy gets embarrassed when he sits with a girl, never mind being reminded that he kissed one.”\n\n“It wasn’t really a kiss, though,” Jirou reminded him. “And like he said before, he would have done that for anyone that needed it.”\n\n“I don’t know about that,” Kaminari said in a singsong voice.\n\nOchaco stared after where Izuku had disappeared, questions zooming through her head so fast it felt like they could give her whiplash. He saved me, even more than I realized, and he never wanted to take credit? Why has he been putting up with everyone giving him a hard time because of me? Why didn’t he just tell me what happened? Does mouth-to-mouth  count  as a first kiss?\n\nAmid the quiet chatter of her classmates, Ochaco had almost forgotten that Tsu was standing at the front of them all, too. She jumped when her friend patted her back gently.\n\n“You should talk to him, Ochaco-chan,” she advised quietly.\n\nOchaco bit her lip. She had been afraid someone would say something sensible like that. “I-I don’t know,” she said hesitantly. “Won’t talking about it just make things even more embarrassing for him?”\n\nTsuyu shook her head. “Even if it does, I think you should at least tell him thank you.” She rested her index finger on her chin thoughtfully. “After all, now you know what he’s been dealing with all week.”\n\nShe groaned in an I-know-you’re-right-and-that’s-really-annoying-sometimes kind of way. “Okay.” Taking in a deep breath, she slapped her cheeks twice to psych herself up. “I’m gonna talk to him!”\n\n“Good luck, kero!” her friend called after her as she turned and went off in pursuit of her rescuer.\n\n***\n\nHe looked up at her approach, but didn’t move from his spot under the large tree he liked to train near. His head jerked in a quick nod of acknowledgment.\n\n“Hi,” she said awkwardly, looking at the ground instead of at him as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Can I sit?”\n\nIzuku nodded, so she plopped herself down next to him. She could sense his shoulders stiffening at the proximity, so she scooted a few inches away. His legs were crossed, and hers stretched out flat in front of her as she rested back on the heels of her hands. If she wanted to, she could easily lay a reassuring hand on his knee. She felt that her friend might freak out if she did that, however. The grounds were quiet, save for the occasional bright twittering of birdsong, and the tree was a welcome source of shade from the harsh afternoon sunlight.\n\n“So,” said Ochaco haltingly after a few moments of silence. “You… saved me. With rescue breathing.”\n\n“Um...” His mouth was moving, but no sound was coming out. He swallowed and tried again. “Yeah. I-I guess.”\n\n“And ever since then,” she continued, “everybody’s been teasing you about it?”\n\nHe nodded, his freckled cheeks lighting up in a blush.\n\nBending her legs and scooting them towards herself, she buried her own face in her knees. “I’m so sorry. You endured all that just because I’m a dummy who couldn’t recognize a rip current...”\n\n“It’s all right!” he said quickly, holding up his hands and waving them like spastic jazz hands. “I’m… I mean, it’s not exactly anything new. I got teased a lot more than this in middle school!”\n\nIt was just like him to instantly try to reassure her, to try to alleviate any feelings of personal blame despite him being the one who needed the comfort. She withdrew her head and smiled at him. “But this time it was my fault you got teased.”\n\nHis brows angled down, but the expression was more adorable than intimidating. “No it wasn’t,” he insisted. “You were in trouble; I helped. It’s as simple as that.”\n\nShe rested her chin on her knees. “Simple, huh,” she repeated.\n\nThey sat in silence for a while.\n\n“Deku,” she started.\n\n“Yeah?”\n\n“Would you really have done that for anyone?”\n\nShe swore she could actually see him start to sweat. “I—I mean, I’ve been trained even before UA; m-my mom made me attend a seminar, so—”\n\n“You’re not answering my question,” she pointed out.\n\nHe clenched his fists in his lap. “No,” he finally got out. “At least, I don’t think so?... I don’t know. I didn’t think about it, when it happened. I just...” His shoulders slumped, and his voice got even quieter than it had been before. “...wanted to save you.”\n\nOchaco wondered if that meant he really would have done it for anyone, since he generally wanted to save everyone. She hugged her knees to her chest. “Was it… strange?” she mumbled into her skin. She wasn’t sure if she really wanted the answer.\n\n“Strange?”\n\n“Did you…” Against her will, she felt her cheeks heating up. “Did you dislike it?”\n\nDeku scrunched up his face in thought. “Well, I thought you were dying, so it wasn’t exactly a fun time,” he said bluntly.\n\nA laugh burst from her before she could stop it. Deku was always completely honest, for better or worse. It made her want to be more honest, too. Maybe more honest than she’d been in a long time. She scooted her feet out again, resting her arms on her knees and tilting her head at him a little. “How about now?” she asked.\n\n“What do you mean?”\n\n“Well, do you think the idea is strange now?” She laced her fingers together. “As much as the others teased you all week, you never seemed to regret what you did.”\n\n“That’s because I don’t.” His voice was as matter-of-fact as someone claiming that the sky was blue. “I could never regret something like that. I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”\n\nHer own heartbeat picked up. “Really?”\n\n“Of course!” He sounded dismayed that she could ever think otherwise, his expression earnest. “I don’t want to lose you!”\n\nButterflies rapidly broke free from the cocoons she’d kept them in for too long, swirling in dizzying formations in her tummy. “I don’t want to lose you either,” she admitted, not fighting the smile that spread across her face. Maybe smiles were better when you let them happen. Maybe a lot of things were better when you let them happen. “Hey, um… Izuku.” The name felt strange but pleasant on her tongue.\n\nHis head whipped up in surprise. “Uh, yeah?”\n\nRather than butterflies, it felt more like frogs hopping around in there now. “It’s… kind of not fair that I’m the only one who doesn’t remember it. When you saved me.”\n\n“Oh,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. “Um, you didn’t really miss much.”\n\n“I want to know how brave you were,” she continued, resting her back against the tree and looking up into the branches. Glowing sunlight spilled down through pinhole-sized gaps between the dark leaves. It reminded her of stars. “Pulling me out of the water like that. Knowing just what to do.”\n\nThe blush that seemed to spread all the way down to his neck was gratifying to her. “Y-You’re making it sound a lot better than it was,” he mumbled.\n\nShe shook her head. “Deku… I might not remember, but I can almost picture it in my head.” And oh boy, did I picture it,  she added mentally. Multiple times. Because I thought it was a dream.  “I want  to remember, though.” She wished she could just say the words that were hiding behind these ones: Make me remember. Do it again. \n\nHis face, when she glanced at it, seemed almost sad, his brows lifted and his mouth turned in a frown. “I’m sorry,” he said.\n\nShe almost laughed again, but instead just smiled. “What in the world for?”\n\nHe was rubbing the back of his neck and looking away again sheepishly. “Well, that I can’t help you remember.”\n\nYou can, though!  she shouted in her head. You very easily can, you adorable idiot! “Maybe if I drowned again, huh?” she quipped.\n\nThe horrified look on his face indicated that he hadn’t picked up on her teasing tone. “Please don’t do that!”\n\nOrdinarily she’d just drop it as a failed joke, but he was too cute. She couldn’t resist messing with him a little. “Why not?” she said, playing at innocence. “Surely you’d just rescue me again.”\n\n“Well of course, b-but...” He bit his lip. It made her want to kiss it. “I don’t know if I could take seeing you like that again, to be honest. I was… really scared, Uraraka.”\n\nShe remembered how terrified his eyes had looked when she blinked her own open on the beach, and instantly felt ashamed of herself for making light of it. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to scare you.” Not knowing what else to do to reassure him, she leaned against him, resting her head on his shoulder. He froze up like he’d been hit with Todoroki’s ice Quirk, but he didn’t move away. “Hey, Deku,” she said then, her voice dropping to just above a whisper. Her heart pounded. There was something else she wanted to say, and though she felt it was no longer wise to swallow important words, she still had no idea whether she’d have the guts to say them. “What if I told you I was drowning right now?”\n\n“Huh?” he said, perplexed. “But… we’re not in the water.”\n\n“I can’t breathe,” she told him, her fist closing around a handful of grass. “My lungs feel like they’re getting squeezed. My heart’s shriveling up, and my vision’s tunneling.”\n\n“A-Are you all right?!” he stammered, turning to grab her shoulders and give her a little shake. “Should I take you to the nurse?”\n\nShe shook her head. “I don’t need a nurse.” Ducking her head to hide the blush on her cheeks, she finally got it out: “I just need you.”\n\nHe stared at her.\n\nShe waited.\n\n“Huh?” he said.\n\nOchaco sighed, frustrated, and grabbed his shoulders in return. Izuku , I love you, but you are such a dummy sometimes. “I’m telling you I’m drowning right now! Save me!”\n\nIzuku squinted at her like she was a complicated math problem. “But you’re not—” And then comprehension dawned across his face, his eyes widening to the size of saucers and his mouth dropping open. “...Oh,” he squeaked, a flush coloring his face up to his ears. His fingers, still on her shoulders, started to tremble.\n\nShe just glared at him, refusing to break eye contact. “Running out of time here,” she prompted him. “I’ll be dead in 3… 2—”\n\nHis lips were on hers, and it was a good thing she wasn’t actually drowning, because all the air froze in her lungs and for a moment she forgot what it was to breathe. He was soft, so soft, and warm, and gentle, and everything. She leaned into the touch, lifting her chin and returning the light pressure.\n\nIt was over far too soon. Her eyes fluttered open, and the green ones that met hers were terrified this time, too, as he dropped her shoulders like she’d burned him. “What do you look so scared for?” she giggled. “I mean, I thought it was obvious, but I’m not actually dying.”\n\n“You’re not mad?” Deku asked, surprised.\n\nOchaco tilted her head. “Why would I be mad?”\n\n“I—I didn’t do the wrong...” He shook his head and started over. “Was that the right thing to do?”\n\nShe bumped her forehead into his. “Yes. You always do the right thing.”\n\n“You actually, um, wanted me to—?” The voice that was spilling out was timid and halting, and he was so close that she could easily capture him in another kiss if she wanted to (and she did want to).\n\n“I wanted you to,” she confirmed.\n\n“Oh,” he said simply, his eyes flitting away from hers. “Good. Um… me too.”\n\nWas that his strange, Deku way to say that he’d wanted to kiss her, too? She smiled at him and reached over to take his hand. It was rough and gnarled beneath her fingers, not at all matching the softness of its owner. “Thanks for saving me,” she whispered.\n\nHis hand curled around hers in response. “I’d do it again in a heartbeat,” he said once more.\n\nAnd he did."}
+{"text": "This all felt eerily familiar, the way his feet were pounding against the ground as he sprinted down the path and all the frantic screaming in his mind. It was too much like the day he lost his family. For a moment, he thought that Zenitsu was guaranteed to be dead when he finds him and the world will sink in on itself just like before. But thinking like that never got him anywhere, it only made him spiral and he had no time to do that. He needs to be optimistic, that’s what his mother used to say to him. Despair won’t get you anywhere but hope will take you everywhere.\n\nTh gems on the wall slowly began to disappear and the path darkened. Tanjirou gulped, shutting his eyes as he tried to trace the smell of peaches through the mines. Finally, he made into the largest chamber, the walls entirely made of gemstones and in the middle laid Zenitsu, face down.\n\n“Zenitsu!” Tanjirou exclaimed, rushing forward and kneeled next to him. He wrapped his arms around him, checking him over. The blonde was covered in bruises and cuts, blood coming out of his head, arms and legs. His haori was stained red and Tanjirou shook with anger, “Oh baby no…” He caressed his cheek, trying to wipe away the blood.\n\nZenitsu groaned, whimpering in pain before slowly opening his eyes. Gold met ruby and he whispered, “T-Tanjirou…?”The redhead let out a small sob of relief, pressing their foreheads together with a shaky smile, “Yeah, sunshine, I’m here. I’m here now, everything is going to be okay. Thank god you’re alive…!”Zenitsu seemed to be processing for a moment, not entirely being sure where he was. Suddenly his eyes widened and he started pushing against Tanjirou. crying out, “Go…! You ha-have to leave, you need to leave…!”“What? No! I just found you again, I’m not leaving!” Tanjirou argued, holding him tighter, “I’m not leaving you; I love you!”The blonde stared for a moment before he started to cry, still trying to push him away, “I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! I was too weak and now you’re here and…! You have to run, Tanjirou!”“What?”\n\nThere was a sudden bang and a sharp pain ripped through Tanjirou’s shoulder, the force sending him to the floor. He shouted out before suddenly being hit in the ribs roughly, sending him careening into the wall. As he thumped into the ground, he shakily tried to get up, the aching of his chest making him wince. He saw a figure walk towards Zenitsu with a cackle, swinging around a gun on a finger while carrying a large mace.\n\n“Oh, that was too easy! Do you realize how easy it was to do that?! I just had to put the guy in front of you and you were already charging in without even looking anywhere else!” The demon grabbed onto Zenitsu’s hair, pulling him up roughly and the blonde whined out, wincing, “Good job, blondie.”He grits his teeth as he looks at Tanjirou, “I’m so sorry…!”\n\nThe demon huffed, throwing Zenitsu onto the ground and giving the redhead a smile, “So you are the famous demon slayer with the hanafuda earrings! I have heard so much about you. Word gets out fast in the demon world.  Especially when a mere human is on the radar of the Big Man in charge? That’s almost impressive. I want to know what makes you so important. The names Katsuro. You’ll want to know that when you scream for your life.”Tanjirou stood up, gripping his sword and choosing not to answer, instead rushing forward as fast as he could. He slashed down quickly at the demon, but he wasn’t there. He looked around, frantically trying to figure out where he went.\n\n“Behind you.”\n\nKatsuro swung his mace down hard, sending Tanjirou flying before he hit the ground. The sound of something cracking made Tanjirou wince. That was definitely a rib. He took labour breaths and stood up shakily, gripping his sword so hard that his knuckles turned white.\n\n“Oooh, you’re getting back up! So you’re not a wimp!” Katsuro taunted, smirking, “But you’re definitely not going to be able to hit me though. See, there’s this thing I can do that’s really helpful. It’s teleportation and your human legs can’t keep up with that.”Tanjirou gritted his teeth, replying, “I wouldn’t be too sure about that.”\n\nThe redhead rushed forward again, only to be shot in the shoulder. He screamed out, gripping onto the wound as he started to bleed. Katsuro grinned, shooting more bullets that embedded into Tanjirou’s arm. He bit his lip hard enough to bleed and he had to transfer his sword to his other hand. Panting, he stood his ground.\n\n“Just come at me!” he shouted, his arm shaking.\n\n“Well if you insist.” Katsuro mused before disappearing.\n\nTanjirou shuts his eyes, trying to focus on the demonic smell and where it was. Breathe, take a deep breath and focus. The smell seemed to move around all over the chamber, until he could sense it next to him. He quickly blocked an incoming hit from the mace, smirking. Katsuro didn’t even flinch as he shot a bullet into Tanjirou’s collarbone, making him stumble back. He barely had a moment before he was suddenly being hit across the ground. Katsuro kept teleporting back and forth, hitting the redhead with his mace over and over again like he was some sort of ball. Tanjirou could feel his bones crack, hitting the ground with a splat as he coughed. As he panted, he saw blood on the ground and he gulped, feeling it run down his chin.\n\n“Aw, does the little demon slayer have enough?” the demon mocked, swinging his mace around his finger.\n\nTanjirou shakily got up, spitting out some blood that pooled in his mouth as he replied, “Not even a little.”He stood up to try and use a special attack, but he was hit in the face with the mace and fell to the ground, groaning in pain.\n\nKatsuro walked over to him, kicking him onto the ground when he tried to get up, “You’re nothing special. You can barely last ten minutes in a fight with me and you’ve barely even hit me. Face it. You’re not really a demon slayer. You’re just a kid who’s trying to grow up.” He stepped on top of Tanjirou, grinding his foot into his ribs, “You’re not even a challenge.” The demon smirked as he grabbed onto the redhead’s arm, twisting it painfully as Tanjirou screamed in pain, “You’re weak.” He gripped harder before suddenly snapping it, the sound reverberating in the room, “You’re nothing.” As Katsuro went to break Tanjirou’s other arm, he was suddenly grabbed.\n\n“S-Stop! Leave him alone!” Zenitsu panted out, trembling on his legs as he struggled to stay up. He fumbled with his sword, his fingers too broken to hold onto it.\n\nThe demon seemed amused, turning to meet the blonde’s angry eyes, “I’m surprised you can still stand. Especially after what I put you through. It hurt so bad that you begged for it to end, and yet here you are, defying me and trying to save your cute little boytoy. What happened to that fear?”Zenitsu gritted his teeth, “I love him more than I am scared of being hurt by you.”\n\nKatsuro stared for a moment before laughing loudly, grabbing onto Zenitsu’s hair roughly and throwing him down, “Big mistake.” He kneeled over him, grabbing onto his leg. Then, with a crack, he broke Zenitsu’s leg. The blonde screamed, sobbing as Katsuro grabbed the other leg and broke that too, “You’re both so foolish! Risking everything just to save one person! And you just get hurt because of it. Sacrificing everything for one person. How fucking stupid.” The demon stood up, staring Zenitsu down, “You should’ve feared me more, blondie-!”\n\nIn a moment, a blade flashed through the demon’s neck and suddenly he was kicked to the side, with Tanjirou glaring at him.\n\n“You talk too much.”\n\nThe redhead panted, a wave of exhaustion washing over him as he fell to his knees and onto the ground. Groaning, he tried to look at Zenitsu, who was trying to crawl to him, despite his broken legs.“Tanjirou!” he exclaimed, grabbing onto the ground and pulled himself over, “Y-You came for me…!”“Of course I did! I will always come for you!” Tanjirou replied, tears in his eyes as he as used his good arm to touching Zenitsu’s hair softly, “Always.”\n\nZenitsu gave him a tired smile, leaning in and kissing the corner of his lips, “Thank you…for saving me.”“Thank you for saving me.” The redhead said, pressing his lips on Zenitsu’s cheek lovingly, “You really did.”\n\n“No… no no no no no no no nO NO NO NO NO!” The duo turned their heads to see the demon’s head on the floor screaming angrily, practically foaming at the mouth, “THIS IS NOT HOW I WAS MEANT TO END! I WASN’T SUPPOSE TO DIE BECAUSE OF TWO STUPID LOVESICK BRATS! NO! I WON’T GO DONW LIKE THIS!” Suddenly, what remained of his body pulled out a large button, “IF I’M DYING, I’M TAKING YOU ALL DOWN WITH ME!” Katsuro grinned with a manic expression as he pressed the button and above them, something detonated and the ceiling began to crumble. Distantly, another explosion was heard. “Everyone in my group has a detonator! Soon, this entire mine will go down! Have fun dying you shits!”\n\nTanjirou watched as the demon disappeared and frantically started to get up, “We need to get out, now!” He groaned at the pain in his ribs, trying to ignore it as he grabbed Zenitsu and tried to pull him up. Struggling, he started to drag him, “C’mon, let’s go!”\n\nZenitsu tried to get up using his arms, but he could barely even keep his head up as he slowly realized something, “Tanjirou. Tanjirou! It’s no use! I can’t run, or even stand! You need to go!”“What?! No way! I’m not leaving you here!”\n\n“I’ll just slow you down! Please, you have to go!”“No! I’m not going to leave you!” Tanjirou shouted, tears welling up as he furiously tried to pull Zenitsu towards the exit of the chamber. Exhaustion screamed in his bones and he collapsed, landing onto his broken arm, making him cry out in pain.\n\n“Tanjirou! Stop! You’re hurting yourself; you need to stop trying, please!” The blonde exclaimed, sobbing, “Tanjirou!”The redheard covered his face, trying to force himself up, “No no no no no! I’m not going to! I refuse! I can’t lose someone I love again! I can’t do it! I won’t be able to handle it!”\n\n“Sweetheart…” Tanjirou fell quiet at that, shaking with sobs and Zenitsu crawled over to him, cupping his face, “Sweetheart, look at me.” The redhead shook his head furiously, trying to pull Zenitsu forward and keep going, biting his lips to keep him from crying out, “Tanjirou, sweetheart…my love. Look at me.”\n\nDefeated, Tanjirou looked up, shaking as he said, “I can’t…I can’t lose you too…I’m not ready to lose this! It’s not enough time…!”Zenitsu nodded slowly, pressing their foreheads together, trying to breathe through the pain, “I know…I know…”\n\n“It’s not fair! I just want one thing to stay! One thing! Everything keeps disappearing or changing and I…I’m so tired of losing…” the redhead whispered, raising his only good arm up and touching Zenitsu’s cheek, breathing in the peaches and letting the blonde press a kiss on his scar.\n\n“I know.” Zenitsu pulled back a bit, eyes softening as tears streaked down his face, “Sweetheart…I love you. I love you so much, more than anything else in the world. You know that…You know I’ll always love you no matter what happens.”\n\n“Mmhm…I love you too. So please, just live for me! We need leave together!” Tanjirou argued, trying to find the strength to pull Zenitsu up, but he could barely even stand, “God damn it! Damn it!”\n\nThe blonde gently pulled Tanjirou in, hugging him close as he pressed kisses into his neck. The world was crumbling around them, the sounds of the other bombs going off in the distance. The pair held each other, sobbing at the thought that this could be the way they end.\n\n“Tanjirou! Zenitsu!” Their eyes shot up, looking at the entrance to the chamber to see Shinobu, looking haggard and ragged. She ran over, looking frantic, “Can either of you stand?!” Zenitsu shook his head and Tanjirou struggled to, but couldn’t seem to get his legs to move. The pillar looked between the two of them, looking worried, “I-I’m only strong enough to carry one of you, oh no…”\n\nTanjirou could see the gears turning in Zenitsu’s arm, “Zenitsu, no! No, you’re not!”The blonde looked up at Shinobu with pleading eyes, “Shinobu, please take Tanjirou and get out of here. Please.”“A-Are you sure?” she asked, and Zenitsu nodded with the most serious expression.\n\n“Yeah, I am.”\n\n“Okay.” Shinobu bent down and lifted Tanjirou up, making the boy try and thrash, but have no energy to do so.\n\n“Shinobu! Shinobu, stop! No!” he exclaimed, hitting his fist against her back, but not affecting her, “Zenitsu, no! Please! Please don’t do this!”The blonde smiled sadly at him, crying as he reached up, caressing his cheek, “I love you, Tanjirou Kamado…” He pulled him in, kissing him deeply, making Tanjirou sob against his lips and cling harder onto him before being ripped away as Shinobu ran towards the exit.\n\nAs they ran away, it felt like the world was in slow motion and it didn’t feel real for a moment. Tanjirou saw the rocks falling slowly as Zenitsu sat in the middle of the chamber, watching them go with tears and a sad smile. He barely registered his own screaming, his own thrashing, nothing seemed to be processed. Just the fact that his entire world has once again, been uprooted and crushed. He just kept losing.\n\nShinobu saw the exit from the mines and dove for it, sending Tanjirou flying into Inosuke, who had been staying at the entrance with a worried expression, half-tempted to run back in. The rumbling finally stopped and everyone could take a breather, for just a moment.\n\nInosuke looked around, counting the Pillars, with Nezuko on Obanai’s back and then Tanjirou. They were all here, except…\n\n“Monjirou? Where is Tenistu?” he asked, looking at his friend who seemed to be in shock, staring at nothing as he cried silently, “Monjirou?”\n\nTanjirou shakily lifted his head up, turning to look at the mine entrance, how blocked up it was, how much stuff had been falling. He seemed to slowly process again and he let out a blood-curdling scream, sobs wrecking his body as he slammed himself into Inosuke, who seemed to catch on as he looked at the mine in horror.\n\n“ZENITSU!”"}
+{"text": "Frigga climbs down the roots of Yggdrasil that will lead her into the cave of the Norns and, for what must be the tenth time, she almost loses her footing on the bark that is wet and slippery from the moisture rising up from the well in the cave. She reaches for a crevice in the thick roots, trying to steady herself, and a trembling breath of frustration escapes her lips. To visit those who weave the threads of fate for all beings in the Nine Worlds is a strenuous journey from Asgard even when one is in the best of health, for their lair is the only place that the Aesir cannot access with the help of the Bifröst or through portals. No one should be encouraged to seek out the counsel of the Norns on a whim and the hardship the Gods have to take upon themselves to arrive there ensures that the journey is not taken unless dire hardship demands it.\n\nThe Queen herself has never traveled to the Norn cave before and she feels the strain of the voyage in every fiber of her being because she is not in the best of health. Her attempts to determine the origin of the black magic the Enchantress used to poison her youngest son have almost drained her mental strength and she is beginning to suspect that the crystal containing the dark magic she has been carrying with her for the past three days is depleting her physical strength. It is not poisoning her as it poisoned Loki but having been subjected to its black energy is taking its toll nonetheless.\n\nHer head is dull and aching. Her vision is fuzzy at the edges. Her knees are weak.\n\nShe feels ill prepared descending into the cave but she knows that she must carry on. That she owes it to her son not to return home without an answer. Not that anyone ever feels prepared for a visit of such significance, she muses, for the Norns instill such awe in even the strongest of the Gods that Odin himself dared to travel here only once during his reign as Allfather, to ask the Norns’ advice concerning another truth that she helped him conceal by manipulating Asgard’s memory with her sorcery, and his body was still trembling upon his return to the palace.\n\nThat recollection, along with the realization of what their secrecy did to Loki’s mental wellbeing, sits heavy on her chest. Until a few days ago, Frigga has always obeyed her husband’s and king’s commands in the firm belief that he meant to protect his children and keep them out of harm’s way. She still doesn’t doubt that Odin loves all of them, in his own distant manner that comes from having to watch over everything that transpires across Nine Realms, but Thor has helped her see that, sometimes, love such as this alone is not enough. Especially not when it prompted her to withhold a truth from Loki that she knew he would have desired just because she was afraid to lose his trust and his love. It wasn’t until Thor blatantly asked Odin who he was to decide what mattered and did not matter to Loki that Frigga realized she had done harm too, even if she had acted out of what she thought of as love. Yet, that kind of love, her kind of love, is not what Loki needs after the revelation because no amount of love she has for Loki will ever restore the relationship they had before the painful truth of his lineage came to light in such a way. No, what her youngest needs at this moment is not the love of a mother who lied to him but the boisterous, unconditional, unprejudiced love of a brother that Thor carries inside of him and that allows him to be befriend the unlikeliest of creatures with a bewildering ease.\n\nFrigga knows that Loki now needs Thor more than he needs her and the knowledge gnaws at the core of her existence but, despite the sorrows thrashing in her chest, her lips curl into a smile when she tries to bear in mind how protective Thor has always been of his little brother. She still fondly remembers the first time Thor laid eyes upon him, remembers how his small face lit up with a giant smile when he stretched out his little hand and touched Loki’s cheek, marveling at its warmth and promising his baby brother, in a solemn whisper, to keep him safe.\n\nAnd he has abided by that promise all his life. Thor has always kept Loki safe.\n\nHer sons could not possibly be more different and, yes, they fight constantly, especially now that Loki has grown increasingly suspicious of his identity and his place in the world and sometimes takes it out on Thor, which Thor does not understand because he is too young to imagine how life could possibly be difficult for anyone. Yet, despite all the fighting and despite all the insults flying back and forth between them, despite Loki’s tricks and Thor’s explosive temper, Thor has always tried to keep Loki safe. He has always looked out for him, always protected him from anyone who deliberately or unconsciously meant him harm.\n\nAnyone.\n\nIncluding Odin.\n\nIncluding herself.\n\nFrigga marvels at how much Thor has emotionally matured in the past years without her truly noticing and she feels a pain of regret stabbing into her chest when she realizes that she has underestimated her eldest. Thor is not usually the one to rely on his wit but his reaction to Loki’s Jötunn heritage has proven to her that he is very smart and very capable of handling emotionally challenging situations in ways she didn’t catch on to before. She knows it is unfair to wish for this because her firstborn should not carry such a responsibility but, still, she prays to Thor in silence. Please, my love, ensure that the revelation does not tip Loki’s mind over the edge. You are the only one who can do that. Right now, you are the only one who can make him feel genuinely loved. Please do not fail him as we did.\n\nAs if some higher power decides to punish the Queen of Asgard for such an atrocious thought, she once more slips on the wet bark, finally losing her footing and sliding down the thick root. A hawk cries out somewhere in the branches of Yggdrasil above her and then swoops down, flapping its enormous wings. She blindly tries to find another crevice in the bark, trying to decelerate her fall, trying to focus her energies at the same time, but the hawk is right next to her now, its piercing gaze meeting hers for the fraction of a second before it snatches the little sachet she has tied to her leather belt away with its beak and then takes wing again with an almost mocking screech.\n\nFrigga attempts to shapeshift into a bird herself on impulse because that guise would allow her to chase after the hawk that just stole from her the black crystal in which Loki’s magic is stored but she is still sliding down the slippery roots of Yggdrasil, trying to regain her footing and there does not seem to be a crevice left in the bark for her hands to hook into and her burned-out glamour stubbornly refuses to comply with her silent demands, and she is sliding, sliding, sliding, sliding, ever further down, until she lands feet first on the hard rock soil of the Norn cave, splintering both of her ankles upon the impact.\n\n“We have a visitor,” announces Urᵭr, one of the three main fate weavers, in a high-pitched voice that bounces off the walls of stone, creating an eerie echo.\n\n\nWe have a visitor … ave a visitor … visitor … isitor …\n\n\n“Is this what I think it is?” Thor exclaims as he fishes a little dark-brown leather pouch out of the treasure chest that Loki has kept hidden behind a row of books. He holds the pouch up by its drawstring, dangling it in front of his face, but there is no doubt really, is there, for his brother has prefaced his imperative to retrieve the chest with the words, “Speaking of dwarves.”\n\nA smirk ghosts Loki’s dark blue lips.\n\n“You possess one of Eitri’s pouches?” Thor continues, awe overwhelming him. “How did you come by this?”\n\n“That doesn’t matter, does it?” Loki asks on a shrug, taking another sip of the wine he claimed to be so tasteless.\n\n“Yes, it does,” Thor replies. “Does mother know you have this?”\n\nLoki bursts out in a cackling laugh, almost spluttering his drink.\n\n“Granted, that last question was rather foolish,” Thor admits. “But honestly, where did you find this? I am willing to help you but I am expecting you to trust me.” He locks eyes with his brother, flashing him a challenging smirk. “We cannot go on as we did before.”\n\n“Fine.” Loki blows out a breath. “I stole it.”\n\nThor’s jaw drops. “From whom?”\n\n“From the King of Alfheim,” Loki admits. “The prince bragged about it being in his father’s possession after a few sips of mead too many at the feast held after the last diplomatic reception.”\n\nThor grimaces at the memory of that reception because he is certain that none of the attendees will ever forget the glorious sight of the God of Thunder suddenly wearing a flowing white bridal gown in their midst. It looked so real, the Lady Sif told him later, barely containing her laughter. Loki is truly mastering the art of sorcery. You even had flowers in your hair. Pink flowers. That shenanigan enraged the God of Thunder to such an extent that he did not speak a word to his little brother for four whole days, punishing him with silence because silence is what unsettles Loki the most. But thinking of the incident now, while simultaneously seeing his brother in his Jötunn form, chained to his bed, confronted with his own vulnerability, his otherness, he can’t be angry anymore, not even a little.\n\nNo, instead of anger, a sense of dread is submerging him once more, for the pouch that he is holding is one of five leather pouches that Eitri once crafted at Bor’s command and that allow its holder to soak up all the magic in the vicinity to store it and later unleash it for all kinds of purposes. After his father’s death, Odin grew increasingly wary of such power until he forbade their use and demanded all five of them to be found and stored in the vault of Asgard. Four of them have been found long ago. The location of the last has been a mystery to this day. And isn’t it quite typical that his mischievous little brother is the one who has stumbled upon it after all this time? Well, stumbled upon it might be a little too generous an expression. “So you just traveled to Alfheim and stole it from them?” Thor asks, the questions tumbling out of his mouth before he can stop them. “How did you do that? And why? And why didn’t you hand it to father? You know how dangerous these are.”\n\n“I thought it might be useful to have in the future and, lo and behold, it is becoming quite useful in this very moment,” Loki replies with a self-satisfied grin, ignoring the rest of Thor’s questions entirely.\n\n“Wh-why, what do you want me to do?” Thor asks.\n\nLoki draws a sharp breath before he replies. “I want you to take it to the Hall of Yggdrasil, soak up a little of the World Tree’s magic and bring the pouch back to me so that I can absorb it to restore my strength.”\n\n“A little of the World Tree’s magic?” Thor echoes. “You must be insane, brother. I can’t possibly open this pouch in the Hall of Yggdrasil. What if all of its magic streams into that pouch? What if the pouch is going to tear open or Asgard is going to implode? This is impossible.”\n\n“You just have to be gentle,” Loki tells him. “Just open it a tiny little bit and then close it again as soon as you felt some of it stream into the pouch.”\n\n“Gentle,” Thor repeats, snorting the word out. “You very well know that being gentle is not among those characteristics I excel at. What makes you think I could close it again even if I wanted to? We can’t risk that.”\n\n“Do you actually remember what you said to me only moments ago?” Loki asks, a faint shimmer enveloping him, and the Thundergod’s jaw drops when the shimmer turns into a semi-translucent, well, almost translucent illusion of his own face that overlays the facial features of his brother. “Nothing could ever change the fact that I would do everything for you,” Loki repeats in Thor’s voice. “I am beginning to think we have a different understanding of the scope of everything,” he adds, his voice transforming back into his own.\n\n“What do you need Yggdrasil’s magic for, anyway?” Thor asks, the realization suddenly clattering into his mind with the force of a cannon ball. I have sustained the prince’s body with healing glamour. It will not replenish his strength but it will keep him alive. “You are using magic right now.”\n\n“What?” Loki asks back, his confusion manifesting itself as a blank stare. “I am not using magic? What are you talking about?”\n\n“Alright, that’s enough wine for you, little brother,” Thor decides and snatches the mug out of Loki’s hands.\n\n“Hey,” Loki complains. “Give that back.”\n\n“What do you know about healing glamour?” Thor asks, holding the mug out of his reach and feeling a childish and possibly very misplaced satisfaction in response to Loki’s feeble attempts to reach for the mug.\n\nLoki’s expression transforms into a question mark. “What? Why?”\n\nThor smirks, waiting for the moment he is going to be able to rub it in his smart little brother’s face that he has figured something out before him. “Just answer the question.”\n\nLoki breathes out his annoyance in an overdramatic sigh. “Healing Seiᵭr is not like other types of magic. It is … Let me just think of how to explain this to someone as dense as you,” he says and Thor does not even bother with hiding the smirk that is widening across his face, tugging at his lips. “It is a type of fuel that preserves you, ensuring that your bodily functions will not fail, but its name is quite misleading, for healing glamour cannot truly heal you unless it coalesces with …” His mouth gapes open as the realization trickles into his consciousness. “It will only heal you when it taps into the magic you already possess. It can’t … The flame of Asgard,” Loki continues, his eyes widening as the wheels of his mind finally begin to turn again at a dazzling speed. “It’s a spark of Yggdrasil’s magic in its pure, unharnessed form,” he whispers and then delivers an explanation for what Thor has figured out even though he doesn’t quite understand the workings behind it. “He did not transform me into an Aesir. He must have hid my true form beneath the mightiest glamour in all the Realms we have access to and then layered the spell turning me Asgardian over it.”\n\n“Which means that the barrier of magic concealing your Jötunn form was so strong that whatever poison Amora gave you did not penetrate it,” Thor replies, still holding the mug too high for Loki to reach it.\n\n“The Jötunn magic I was born with, the magic that Odin concealed, was not infested, no, but the barrier, as you call it, was. Otherwise Odin wouldn’t have had to lift that spell as well but still I am using my natural powers right now,” Loki concludes, his lips standing slightly open until he speaks again. “The ones I never even knew I had. That’s why I am even awake!”\n\n“Someone as dense as me, huh?” Thor echoes, playfully punching Loki’s arm with a little more force than he has intended. “I thought of that before you did!”\n\n“And you won’t ever let me forget that, will you?” Loki grumbles, his face twisting into a grimace, and the God of Thunder cannot tell whether it does so because he is in physical pain or because he is humiliated.\n\n“Not ever,” Thor confirms, handing the mug back to his little brother with one hand and petting his head with the other. “But well done. You passed the test.”\n\n“Stop it,” Loki hisses and then takes a long drink, keeping the sweet liquid in his mouth before swallowing it, pausing thoughtfully. “But you’re right,” he says eventually. “Forget Yggdrasil. I need sustenance.” His eyes linger on the mug in his hands for a moment. “Real sustenance.” He glances up at Thor, a flicker of determination in his blood-red eyes. “I am afraid you’ll have to fetch me some ice.”"}
+{"text": " \n\n\n\n\n\nVioletti (purple hair) and Tidus (blond hair)\n\nThis drawing is made by @patchyegg87, based on these guys:\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\nThe link to her Tumblr post is right here~\n\n \n\n \n\n“Man, I’m glad that’s over!” Floyd yawned as they all filed out of their History classroom. \n\n“It was not as difficult as I thought it would be,” Jade said, joining their classmates heading to Alchemy. \n\n“Yeah!” a smiling Kalim appeared beside them. “Jamil’s a really good teacher. I’m pretty sure I passed that test!”\n\n“Hey!” Floyd grinned at the Scarabia students. “That’s good news for Azul! Sea Snake’s gonna teach him to fly, right?”\n\n“I can’t teach him anything if he keeps postponing the lessons,” Jamil said pointedly, looking at Azul who was walking beside Jade. \n\n“I’ve told you,” Azul frowned, “we’ll start with the lessons as soon as you come up with a favor to ask of me.” \n\n“The Flight test is next week,” Jamil reminded him. “If you fail, Coach Vargas might fail me too.”\n\n“You can do it, Azul!” Kalim smiled encouragingly. “You weren’t very scared of flying when we were on the carpet, right? Jamil was beside you then too, so you know you can trust him not to let you fall!”\n\n“Oh?” Jade said with interest. “You flew on the magic carpet, Azul?”\n\n“Class is starting,” Azul said as they entered the Alchemy classroom. “We have a test, focus on that.” He did not want to discuss that carpet ride. \n\nThey went to their seats and put on their lab coats and goggles. Kalim sat beside Azul; they were going to present a particular potion today as their special project and exam. \n\nAzul laid out the ingredients on their table, carefully placing them in the order that they should be put in the cauldron. \n\n“Thanks again for getting our ingredients!” Kalim said. “I wouldn’t have known where to find those things.”\n\n“Jade found them,” Azul explained. “I asked him to do so in exchange for a day off. And making a potion like this was your idea in the first place.”\n\n“And I’m happy you agreed with it!”\n\n“Settle down, puppies.” Professor Crewel took his place on his desk and waited for the chatter to dwindle. “I have assigned each group with a different potion to brew. You all have one hour to make those potions, and you will present it in front of the class. Remember the safety guidelines and keep your goggles on at all times.” He looked at the clock on the wall, “Begin.”\n\nCauldrons were uncovered, test tubes tinkled, and the sound of chopping boards could be heard as everyone promptly started on their potions. Soon enough, the air smelled of spices from the various concoctions that were brewing, the open windows allowing for ventilation and preventing them from inhaling all the fumes. \n\nThe minutes went by, and Azul made sure that he and Kalim strictly followed all the instructions on the list he had prepared. Sweat was forming on his eyebrows, but he didn’t lean away from the steaming cauldron. Their safety goggles were fog-proof anyway, and it was important that he see what the potion looks like from up close; he wouldn’t accept anything less than perfect considering his performance last time. \n\nAt last, Azul stood up straight and smiled in satisfaction. Kalim, who was already complimenting their work continuously about halfway through, held the jar steady while Azul carefully poured in the potion. \n\n“Time’s up!” Professor Crewel said just as Azul was sealing the jar with its lid. “Get ready to present your works. First up,” he looked at his alphabetized list, “Ashengrotto and Asim!”\n\nThey walked to the front of the class and Azul placed the jar on Professor Crewel’s desk. \n\n“I thought you were going to attempt the Fire Flask again?” the professor asked them, raising his eyebrow at the greenish-blue liquid. \n\n“No,” Azul adjusted his glasses. “You told us to make a potion that provides light, heat, and is portable.”\n\n“So we did that, but with water!” Kalim smiled proudly and put his hands on his hips. \n\n“We infused our potion with bioluminescent algae,” Azul waved his magic pen and dimmed the classroom. \n\nThe jar glowed from the inside, bathing the room in a soft blue radiance. It was almost like they were underwater. \n\nAzul took several moments to bask in the impressed wonder on the faces of his teacher and classmates before making their classroom lights go back to normal. \n\nKalim picked up the jar, “And because we also added calcium carbide, it heats up! All you gotta do is open the lid to expose the liquid to the air and activate its magic, then you can close it again and it will generate heat for about two hours!” He opened the lid and closed it. \n\n“Of course, the heat won’t be strong enough to cook anything,” Azul explained as the room started to get warmer, “but it could keep a room warm and could reheat food if placed close enough to it. And it is far safer to carry around than a Fire Flask because it doesn’t generate any actual flames.”\n\nProfessor Crewel nodded, “Not bad, you two. It wasn’t what I expected, but I admire your creativity. You may go back to your seats.”\n\nThe other groups presented their potions, and the class ended without any accidents like spontaneous fires or indoor rain. They all filed out of the classroom, Jade and Floyd heading back to Mostro Lounge to manage the lunch break shift. \n\nAzul started to make his way to the field where the third-years were having their Flight class. He needed to talk to Idia about modifying the schedule of the Boardgame Club meetings; the Flight exam was next week, and they all had to prepare for it.  \n\nHe saw the students in the distance zooming back and forth on their brooms, though Idia was mostly just floating around and wobbling from time to time. Azul realized with dread that Idia was doing much better than he did in his Flight class that morning. \n\nHe stopped walking and watched them, deciding to just talk about the Board Game Club later, when Idia wasn’t near Coach Vargas and Azul wouldn’t risk getting scolded or forced to run laps. \n\nConsidering the result of his and Kalim’s potion earlier, he only had the Flight exam left to worry about. He didn’t usually stress over exams, but flying wasn’t exactly something he could learn through his notes. \n\n“I hate flying,” he grumbled out loud. \n\n“And I hate failing,” a familiar voice said behind him. \n\nAzul turned around and saw Jamil standing there with his arms crossed. \n\n“So are we gonna do those flying lessons now? Remember that 20% of my grade would depend on your grade.”\n\n“I know that,” Azul said defensively. He didn’t like it either that Coach Vargas was forcing Jamil to teach him. “What are you doing here?”\n\n“I was on my way to the cafeteria, and I saw you here staring daggers at those flying brooms,” Jamil smirked. \n\n“Fine,” Azul relented. He didn’t want to fail either, and he certainly didn’t want to inconvenience someone else with his failures. “How about we practice after lunch? We’re free for the rest of the day, anyway.” \n\n“Sounds good,” Jamil nodded and continued his walk to the cafeteria. \n\nAzul followed and had been walking beside him for a few moments before he realized that Jamil might find it odd that he was suddenly following him. It was just an instinctive decision because Azul had been intending to go to the cafeteria too after talking to Idia, but he decided to fill the silence anyway.\n\n“Have you thought about—”\n\n“No,” Jamil cut him off. \n\n“You don’t even know what I was going to ask,” he frowned. \n\n“You were going to ask if I had reconsidered joining your staff in Mostro Lounge, or if I already have a favor to ask you as payment for teaching you to fly. And my answer to either one is no,” Jamil said.  \n\n“Well,” Azul huffed, he was going to ask about the latter but he supposed he didn’t need to. “It seems I’ve become a tad predictable, haven’t I?”\n\n“Your annoying nature is very consistent,” Jamil replied, though he didn’t sound annoyed at all. \n\nThey approached the buffet table and got their lunches; Azul taking some fried chicken and Jamil getting a bowl of dumpling soup.  \n\n“Is it okay if I sit with you?” Azul asked when they had paid for their food.\n\n“As long as you don’t talk to me about joining Mostro Lounge or asking favors,” Jamil said, sitting at the table they found. \n\n“Not to worry,” Azul took a seat across from him, “I simply want to discuss the schedule of our flying lessons. When are you free this coming week?”\n\nJamil thought about it. “The Flight exam is the last one we have to worry about for now, so I’m pretty much free for about 2-3 hours after classes, depending on whether we have basketball practice. And I have to get back to Scarabia in time to help with dinner.”\n\n“Okay then, how about 2 hours after classes starting on Monday?” Azul suggested. “I shall take care of some things in Mostro Lounge first and arrange the staff schedule over the weekend to make time for those lessons.”\n\n“Yeah, that works.”\n\n—— \n\nThe lights in Mostro Lounge still glowed softly an hour after closing time as Azul and the Leech twins sat around the table having their nightly meeting that Sunday.  \n\n“As usual, profits have increased during the exam period,” Jade said. “Students want to earn a lot of points to get the chance to ask for favors.”\n\n“Yep,” Floyd agreed. “The special food-and-drink set is still the most popular. Even when we ran out of those yesterday, a lot of customers pre-ordered them.”\n\n“I can see why,” Azul was looking at the receipts. “Most of those purchases are from first-years, and while our exams are almost over, theirs would just be starting next week.”\n\nJade nodded, “Indeed. I will order more ingredients for our most popular items to make sure that we keep up with the demand.” He wrote it down on his notepad. \n\n\nPING!\n\n\nJade looked around and frowned. “What was that?”\n\n“It wasn’t mine,” Floyd checked his phone. \n\n“And it wasn’t mine either,” Jade said, gesturing to his phone on the table. \n\nThe twins turned to Azul. \n\n“It’s a text alert, calm down.” Azul looked down at the receipts again, hoping that he wouldn’t be asked any questions.\n\n“Yes, but from whom?” Jade inquired. “Floyd and I are here.”\n\n“And our suppliers for the Lounge have Jade’s number, not yours,” Floyd pointed out. \n\n“It’s probably my parents,” Azul said, already knowing that wasn’t the case. “I’ll read it later.”\n\n“Your parents always call,” Floyd said between sips of his drink through a swirly straw. “They don’t just text.”\n\n“Maybe they did this time. And why does it matter, anyway?” Azul said irritably. “Why are we stopping the meeting just because of a text?”\n\nFloyd gasped, the straw dropping out of his mouth. “Is it Sea Snake?”\n\n“Jamil?” Jade furrowed his brows at Azul. “Why would Jamil have your number?” \n\n“Coach Vargas is making him teach me to fly, remember?” Azul said. “I gave him my number so we could schedule the lessons easily and get them over with.”\n\n“You… gave him your number,” Jade repeated. “He didn’t even ask for it? You just did so?”\n\n“Yes, and it could prove useful in convincing him to join us here in Mostro Lounge if we could easily contact each other.” It sounded like a good enough plan for Azul, he didn’t understand why his friends were making a big deal out of it. \n\nJade and Floyd exchanged glances.\n\n“What?” Azul demanded, looking at each of them. \n\n“Ah, it is nothing,” Jade smiled, assuming his businesslike tone again. “My apologies for interrupting the meeting,” he put his hand on his chest. \n\nAzul narrowed his eyes at them but said nothing. He didn’t want to prolong that conversation. \n\nIt wasn’t until they all got back to their dorm rooms that he finally felt comfortable taking out his phone from his jacket pocket to look at the message. \n\n\n“This is Jamil. Has your injury from the fire healed yet? I’m asking because it might affect our flying practice tomorrow.”\n\n\nAzul raised his eyebrows. He had a feeling the text would be from Jamil saying something about the flying lessons, but he didn’t expect him to ask about that. \n\nThen he remembered how he shouted in pain when Jamil grabbed his injured arm last time. Jamil probably didn’t want a repeat of that; it had been embarrassing for the both of them. \n\n“It has healed already,” he started typing. “Don’t worry, despite my reputation with flying, I will do my best to not give you much difficulty.” \n\nThis would have been much easier if Jamil had asked him for a favor already; they would both feel more certain about their arrangement. \n\nAzul sighed and put his phone on his nightstand; double-checking if his potion was there in case he had nightmares, before he lay down and closed his eyes. \n\nHe wondered if he should just give Jamil a bottle or two of that potion again as payment for the lessons, so it would be a done deal already. Then he drifted off to sleep. \n\n—— \n\nJamil put his backpack on a bench near the field and set down his broom. He looked around; it seemed like a good enough place to practice. It was after classes, so there weren’t any students in the area, and the late afternoon sun made it comfortable enough to fly without getting sunburned. \n\n“Hello.”\n\nHe turned to see Azul setting down his things, too. \n\n“I hope I haven’t kept you waiting,” Azul walked over to him with his broom. \n\n“No, I just got here.” Jamil looked at his watch to see how much time they had, “You ready to start?” \n\n“Yes,” Azul adjusted his glasses. \n\n“Put your broom down.”\n\nAzul frowned, “What?”\n\nJamil extended his arm to the side and his broom flew from the bench to his hand. “The first lesson in flying is creating a bond with your broom. You must be attuned to it enough that you can summon it with no problem.”\n\n“Right,” Azul nodded, seeming to remember that from their Flight class. He dropped his broom on the grass and extended his hand over it. \n\nAzul was frowning and concentrating so much that Jamil could see a vein on his temple. \n\n“Not like that, you’re too tense,” Jamil said. “The bond is magic, and you know that magic needs to flow freely.” He threw his broom as far as he could. “Take a breath and slowly release it, summon the broom as you exhale.”\n\nJamil lifted his hand towards the broom, took a breath, and slowly exhaled. He kept his focus on it and the magic connecting them, feeling the invisible threads that bound broom and mage. \n\nThe broom sailed smoothly back into his grip.\n\nHe turned back to Azul. “See?”\n\nAzul looked down at the broom by his feet and extended his hand again, taking a deep breath and exhaling gradually. \n\nIt wobbled a little and then shot up into his palm. \n\nAzul was so startled that he stepped back and almost dropped it. “I did it,” he looked at Jamil in surprise. \n\nJamil couldn’t help smiling in amusement. “Of course you did, you’re a good mage. You just get nervous when it comes to flying. Now onto proper gripping,” he held up his broom. \n\n“Place your dominant hand on the broom above your other hand—not on top of your hand—still on the broomstick, just placed above your left hand. That way, you’ll have more control of your broom,” he showed Azul the grip. \n\nAzul followed his instructions, imitating even his posture, and Jamil realized that Azul’s analytical mindset was what would help him learn better. He made a mental note of it for future lessons.\n\n“After mounting the broom,” he continued, “kick off from the ground like you’re jumping, but in a forward diagonal direction instead of just straight up. Keep your knees close to the broom and keep them folded so that your legs also point diagonally towards your back, that would minimize air resistance and allow you to be more aerodynamic.”\n\nJamil demonstrated, kicking off from the ground and flying about five feet. “To keep your balance, don’t lean too much in any direction. Relax your posture and don’t grip the broom too tightly. Now you try.”\n\n“Alright,” Azul mounted his broom and took a deep breath. He kicked off from the ground. “AAAA!”\n\nJamil’s eyes widened as Azul shot 10 feet into the air; he quickly followed and flew next to him.\n\nAzul was almost hugging his broom, eyes shut tight and teeth clenched as he hovered in place. \n\n“Hey, hey, Azul,” Jamil tried to calm him down, but he wasn’t sure if Azul could even hear him. “Azul, look at me—don’t look down—look at me.”\n\nJamil watched as Azul slowly opened his eyes, feeling slightly alarmed at the fear he saw in them. “Look at my posture, and try to do the same,” he turned sideways and showed how he wasn’t leaning too far forward or backward. \n\nAzul shakily tried to sit up straighter, keeping his eyes trained forward and not towards the ground. \n\n“Now,” Jamil continued, “to lower the broom, slowly lean back and gently pull the handle a bit closer to you so that the broom tilts back a little. Come on, let’s do it together.”\n\nAzul looked uncertainly at his grip on the broom. \n\n“Together,” Jamil reminded him encouragingly. \n\nAzul nodded, still pale and silent. \n\n“One, two…” Jamil leaned back and slowly lowered his broom, watching as Azul followed. Hesitantly at first, but soon enough the both of them were smoothly descending to the grass. \n\nThey hopped off their brooms and Azul leaned forward with his hands on his knees, taking deep breaths. \n\n“Are you okay?” Jamil asked. “Do you need to take a break?”\n\n“No no,” Azul straightened up and adjusted his glasses. “I’m fine. Thank you,” he averted his eyes. \n\n“You did a good job landing your broom, you did it smoothly on your first try,” Jamil didn’t want Azul to only focus on his mistakes. “Let’s keep practicing on how to control the altitude.”\n\nJamil mounted his broom again. “Don’t kick as hard as you can, try to give it just enough momentum to propel you to a safe five feet, and just control it from there.” He kicked off and flew up. “We’ll stay at this height since it’s what’s only required for the exam.”\n\nAzul kicked off more confidently this time and flew up next to Jamil, wobbling and wrestling with his broom to keep his balance. \n\n“Your arms are too tense,” Jamil pointed out. “Take a deep breath and slowly exhale when you need to relax.”\n\nAzul closed his eyes and inhaled, opening them as he slowly released his breath. He stopped wobbling. \n\n“There you go,” Jamil said. \n\nThey kept practicing how to raise and lower the broom and turning it in different directions. Azul could manage well enough, but he was still having trouble with balance; he kept leaning too far left or right. His glasses also seemed to be making him anxious; every time he had to let go of the broom handle to adjust it, the broom wobbled. \n\n“At least I haven’t fallen off yet,” Azul said as he struggled to stay still on his broom, “that’s something.”\n\n“Yeah, that’s a good first step,” Jamil said, flying across from Azul. “Once you get used to staying long enough on your broom, we can get to practicing—”\n\n“LOOK OUT!” A bright blue figure was flying straight at them so fast that Jamil barely had time to react before it slammed into Azul and knocked him off his broom. \n\nJamil swooped down and caught Azul in mid-air, wrapping his arm around his chest. The sudden added weight threw the broom off-balance, and Jamil barely managed to slow down their fall before they both tumbled to the ground. \n\n“Hiya, guys!” Cater gracefully flew down on his own broom and walked over to them. “I see you’ve met my student!”\n\nJamil and Azul got up and looked at where Cater was pointing. \n\nIdia had flown right into a tree and was trying to untangle himself from its branches. He finally succeeded and fell to the ground with a yelp, his broom following and falling on his head. \n\n“Ow,” Idia grumbled, putting his hand on his fiery hair. “S-sorry!” he said when he saw Azul and Jamil looking at him. He picked up his broom and ran up to them. \n\n“What are you doing here?” Azul asked in surprise. “Why are you outdoors?”\n\n“Coach Vargas said Cater should help me with flying lessons,” Idia mumbled. \n\n“Yeah!” Cater said cheerfully. “Idia and I are hanging out a lot more now than we ever had!”\n\nJamil’s watch beeped. “I gotta get to basketball practice,” he said, looking down at it. “We can practice flying laps tomorrow when you’re ready for it,” he continued his interrupted sentence from earlier. \n\nAzul nodded, “I’ll be here at the same time as earlier.”\n\nJamil said goodbye to Idia and Cater too, and left.\n\n——\n\n“10,000 madols?” Azul asked in surprise, holding the recipe book he had been perusing in Sam’s shop. He had wanted to do some early shopping for Mostro Lounge before classes started. \n\n\n“Yes! That is the only surviving copy of that recipe book from the 18th century!” Sam said with his usual showmanship. “It’s one of a kind!”\n\n“You’re aware that your shop is in a school, right? You expect students to pay for these prices?”\n\nSam laughed heartily, “Ah, but you’re not just a mere student, Azul Ashengrotto! Your establishment is just about as popular as mine!”\n\n“So that’s what this is?” Azul narrowed his eyes. “Are you saying that you see me as a rival?”\n\n“I’m saying you can afford my prices, fellow businessman!” Sam spread his hands and gestured to his wares. \n\n“Can I see that book?” Jamil appeared behind Sam; he had entered the shop without either of them noticing. \n\n“It’s a 300-year-old recipe book,” Azul handed it over to Jamil as Sam stepped aside. “I’m looking for dishes to introduce in Mostro Lounge.”\n\n“Then this book is perfect!” Sam insisted. \n\nJamil flipped through the book carefully, even looking closely at the cover and binding. “It’s about 300 years old, yeah. But it doesn’t even have any magical shielding from water or fire damage. There’s a basic spell on it to keep the paper from crumbling due to age, but that’s it. You can see in places that some of the ink has bled because of water droplets, and there are a few scorch marks on the cover. I'm assuming they’re from when chefs left the book near a stove or open flame.” He held up the book and pointed out the features he was describing.\n\nHe closed it and handed it back to Azul, “This is one of a kind, but it’s nowhere near 10,000 madols. Maybe 5 or 6,000.”\n\n“Okay, okay, lil’ devils!” Sam said. “I can be reasonable! You can have it for 9,000 madols!”\n\n“Even I don’t treat my customers that way, Sam,” Azul said. “I’m not paying that much.”\n\nSam shrugged, “Suit yourself. Just put it back on the shelf and be on your merry way!”\n\nAzul frowned, he really wanted this recipe book but he would not pay such a ridiculous amount. “6,000 madols.”\n\n“Uh-uh,” Sam shook his head. “It’s 9,000 or nothing!”\n\n“Wait,” Jamil stepped forward. “Sam, do you have my order ready? I came to pick it up.”\n\n“Ah! Yes! I shall go and get it!” Sam exclaimed and disappeared into the back of the store.\n\nJamil turned to Azul, “It’s for you.”\n\n“What?” Azul asked in confusion.\n\n“The thing I ordered, they’re special goggles you can wear while flying, so you don’t have to keep adjusting your glasses and letting go of the broom,” Jamil said casually. \n\n“What—why…” Azul trailed off. As far as he was aware, he was the one who owed Jamil a favor, not the other way around.\n\nJami crossed his arms, “You won’t learn properly if you’re always worried about your glasses falling off, and that’s bad for the both of us.”\n\n“You bought me special goggles?” Azul said incredulously. “I haven’t even repaid you for the flying lessons! And how did you know my eye grade?”\n\n“Ugh,” Jamil put his hand on his temple. “I knew you would be like this. You can pay for the goggles along with that recipe book. As for your eye grade, I asked Floyd about it during basketball practice yesterday.”\n\n“Here it is!” Sam reappeared, proudly showing the goggles in a transparent case. “Shock-proof and fog-proof as requested,” he handed the case to Jamil.\n\n“Give it to him,” Jamil nodded his head at Azul. “7000 madols for the recipe book and those goggles.”\n\n“Oh? Hmmm…” Sam considered, stroking his chin. “Ah, why not? I can make such a deal for loyal customers!” \n\nAzul gave him the payment and took the items. \n\n“Thank you, fellow entrepreneur!” Sam lifted his hat. “Come back anytime you like!” \n\nAzul turned to remind Jamil not to do him any more favors, but all he saw was the shop door closing as Jamil left. \n\n—— \n\n“There you are.” Azul approached Jamil and sat down across from him at the library table. Their classes had just finished, and they had a few more hours before their scheduled flying practice. “I’ll be helping you with Alchemy homework.”\n\n“Why? And how did you know I was here?” Jamil frowned. \n\n“I asked Floyd, given that it was his fault that I owe you another favor yet again. He told me you were planning to go here.” Azul took out his notes and put them on the table. “And I’m helping you so I can repay that favor immediately; you’ll take a long time again if I leave it to you to think of what to ask.”\n\n“What favor?” Jamil’s voice rose, earning him frowns from the nearby students. He noticed and lowered his voice to an angry hiss. “You paid for the goggles!”\n\n“You still made the order and haggled with Sam so I could get those goggles and the recipe book.” Azul absolutely could not let his debts pile up. \n\nJamil crossed his arms. “What makes you think I even need help with this homework?”\n\n“Floyd said you were going here because you thought the homework was difficult and you’d prefer to have easy access to Alchemy books while working on it.”\n\nJamil frowned and looked away. \n\n“Right,” Azul adjusted his glasses. “Let’s get to it, shall we?”\n\n—— \n\n“Ow,” Azul winced as he got up from the ground. He had fallen off his broom three times already; it surprised him that he still hadn’t broken any bones. \n\n“Your turns are too sharp,” Jamil descended and hopped off his own broom. \n\n“Yes, I realize that,” Azul grumbled. \n\n“You shouldn’t lean too much—”\n\n“Hiiiii, guys!” \n\nThey looked up to see Cater and Idia flying above them on his broom; Cater smoothly circling down while Idia descended diagonally with his eyes wide. \n\n“I knew we’d see you here again today!” Cater said cheerfully. “How’re you guys? Me and Idia are having fun hanging out! We’ve never really hung out before, so I’m super stoked that Coach Vargas assigned me to teach him!”\n\nAzul looked at Idia’s resigned expression behind Cater; he didn’t seem to share the same excitement. \n\n“We’re taking a break right now, do you guys wanna join us? Oh!” Cater’s face brightened like he just had an idea. “Jamil! We should buy snacks for all of us! It’s the responsible thing to do as teachers, right?” He grinned expectantly.\n\n“We’re kind of in the middle of something,” Jamil explained. “Azul still hasn’t learned to do turns.”\n\nIdia rushed forward. “B-But, m-maybe Azul wants to take a break, too! I saw him fall earlier, maybe he c-could use a rest?” His voice faded out uncertainly. \n\n“Oh, right,” Jamil touched the back of his neck and turned to Azul. “You did fall off three times already, you might break an ankle or something if we keep going at this rate.”\n\nAzul frowned, confused by Idia suddenly speaking up and Jamil somehow being convinced. “No, I can continue. I’m alright.” \n\n“You said the same thing when your arm got burned in Alchemy,” Jamil reminded him. “And you had that injury for days.”\n\n“My, you are never gonna forget about that, are you?” \n\n“Just—” Jamil closed his eyes for a moment and sighed. “Just take some time to refocus. You’re feeling too pressured about the turns so you’re attempting them aggressively. We’ll be right back.”\n\n“Yeah! Don’t fly anywhere!” Cater said in amusement before leaving with Jamil. \n\nAzul turned to Idia. “What was that? I don’t think I’ve ever heard you interject in a conversation before, and certainly not that loudly.”\n\n“Sorry!” Idia replied. “But I needed them to leave so I could ask you something.”\n\n“What is it?” Azul furrowed his brows, wondering what it could be that needed to be asked in private. \n\n“Let’s switch teachers!” Idia stepped closer to him, hands together as if in prayer. “Please! Cater is— He’s too much! He always wants us to take selfies, he talks all the time, and he says we should hang out more after this! He wants us to bond, Azul!” Idia’s eyes shone with fear. \n\n“And… And you think Jamil would be a better teacher for you?” Azul asked, stalling for time. He didn’t quite like the idea of switching coaches with Idia, though he wasn’t sure exactly why. \n\n“Yeah! He doesn’t talk half as much as Cater, and he likes Moirai of the Cliffs, too! So at least we can talk about that if it ever gets awkwardly silent.”\n\n“Moirai… the band?” The name rang a bell, but Azul couldn’t always keep track of Idia’s interests. \n\n“They’re a three-person idol unit! But—” Idia made noises that Cater might call a ‘keyboard smash’ while he raised his hands in frustration. “That’s not the point! Let’s just switch teachers, please! You can handle Cater better!”\n\nAzul fidgeted with his goggles uncomfortably, remembering in the back of his mind that Jamil had it made for him. “I’m afraid I can’t do that, Idia. I’ve gotten used to Jamil’s teaching methods and I don’t have the time to adjust to another coach.”\n\nIdia put his face in his hands and took a deep breath. “Okay, okay. I know what you want.” He looked straight at Azul. “I want to ask for a favor. I want to make a deal with you, Azul. Or— or a contract or something, I dunno, however that works now.”\n\nAzul had not expected that; Idia had said a few times that he wouldn’t be interested in making any deals with him, especially not after that whole anemone fiasco. \n\n“Come on!” Idia implored. “You never turn down someone asking for a favor, right?”\n\nHe was right; Azul had never turned down any potential client before. And yet… “I’m sorry, Idia, I truly am. I wish I could help you, but— but I can’t afford to risk adjusting to a new coach this close to the exam.” \n\nIdia sighed in defeat, his shoulders slumped. “Are you sure you won’t reconsider? I mean, we’re board game buddies!”\n\nAzul shook his head. “Our friendship is irrelevant to my chances of passing the test.”\n\n“We’re back!” Cater’s voice rang. “Let’s all fuel up before we get back to flying!”\n\n—— \n\n“Look alive, students!” Coach Vargas said when they all arrived in class. “It’s two days before the exam and you better be in shape! We’ll start the laps in two minutes!”\n\nThey all readied their brooms, a few of them doing some warm-up stretches or taking a drink from their water tumblers. \n\n“Hey.”\n\nAzul looked up from his watch and saw Jamil holding a wrapped sandwich. \n\n“I made too many for Kalim’s lunch, it’ll be a waste if I just throw it away.”\n\n“Why don’t you have it?” Azul frowned in confusion. He glanced at Kalim who was already on his broom, laughing and flying around in small circles. \n\n“I packed some food for myself, too. This sandwich would just go stale if no one eats it at lunchtime after this class.”\n\nAzul took the sandwich, still frowning. “Wait, is this because I helped you with Alchemy homework yesterday?” He raised his voice because Jamil was already walking away. \n\n“It’s just a sandwich, Azul.” Jamil replied, not even looking back at him. \n\nAzul sighed, he didn’t think Jamil would give him so much trouble when it came to repaying favors.  \n\nA shrill whistle joggled him out of his thoughts. He joined the other students as they all flew in the air for the laps. \n\nAzul managed to remain on his broom, though he couldn’t go as fast as the others without risking compromising his balance again. \n\nThey were on the third lap when someone zoomed past him; he startled and adjusted his grip before he noticed that it was Floyd who seemed to have lost control of his broom.\n\nHe watched as Floyd collided with a long-haired student several feet in front of him, and after a moment of panicked shoving and yelling, Floyd and Jamil fell off their brooms and hurtled to the ground. \n\nWithout thinking, Azul whipped out his magic pen and conjured a cushion of wind to guide the two safely to the grass. \n\nThere was a whistle again and Coach Vargas ordered everyone to stop. “Leech! What happened?” He walked over to where Floyd and Jamil were picking themselves up from the ground. \n\n“Heh-heh,” Floyd smiled. “I wanted to speed up and I kinda lost control for a sec.”\n\n“Kinda?” Jamil said indignantly, one hand on his torso. “You elbowed my ribs.”\n\n“Sorry about that, sea snake!” Floyd ruffled Jamil’s hair, making the latter huff and lean away in annoyance. \n\n“Nice catch, Ashengrotto!” Coach Vargas pointed up at Azul. “Now, everyone continue your laps!” He whistled again. \n\n“Thanks, Azul!” Floyd flew up next to him before speeding off. \n\nJamil hovered next to Azul, too. “That was for the sandwich, wasn’t it?”\n\nAzul hadn’t even thought of that, but it made sense. That was probably why he instinctively did what he did. “Now we’re even,” he said and flew after Floyd. \n\n—— \n\n“Man, I can’t believe you won again,” Idia said, rearranging the mancala pieces so they could start another game. \n\n“I’ve been playing since I was a child,” Jamil shrugged. “I’ve had a lot of practice.”\n\nJamil was with the Board Game Club waiting for Azul, they had planned to meet here before heading to their last flying practice for the exam tomorrow. Cater and Ortho were with them too, Cater insisting on “more hang-out time” with Idia.\n\n“Uh, you have a text,” Cater said when Jamil’s phone on the table vibrated. \n\n“Yeah, hang on,” Jamil was in the middle of his turn and he didn’t want to stop and forget where he last put the game piece in. \n\n“It’s just a phone number,” Cater frowned, looking at Jamil’s phone screen. \n\nOrtho spoke up, “That is the phone number of Azul Ashengrotto, Prefect of Octavinelle and manager of Mostro Lounge.”\n\nJamil snatched his phone off the table, cursing internally. He didn’t save Azul’s name in his phone precisely for that reason; he didn’t want people to see that he had his number. \n\n“Whaaaaat?” Idia said wide-eyed. “Even I don’t have Azul’s number! And we’re in a club together!”\n\n“You have Azul’s phone number memorized?” Jamil directed his question at Ortho, not knowing how to explain why he has that number. \n\n“I have everyone’s phone number memorized!” Ortho said cheerfully. “Just in case Big Brother ever needs to contact them!”\n\n“Whatever,” Jamil muttered, opening the text. \n\n\n“I won’t be able to make it for our last practice today, Mostro Lounge is packed and we’re short on staff. I shall repay you for those flying lessons as soon as I am able to. And please tell Idia I can’t attend the Board Game Club today if you’re already there.”\n\n\n“Azul says he can’t attend your club meeting today, they’re short on staff at Mostro Lounge,” Jamil told Idia and then stood up. \n\n“Where are ya going?” Cater asked. “Are you gonna practice flying by yourself?”\n\n“Um...” Jamil wasn’t sure if he should explain but it’s not like he had anything to hide. “Octavinelle needs help with Mostro Lounge, I’m going over there to see what I can do.”\n\n“You mean Azul needs help,” Cater grinned. \n\n“You guys have really gotten close already, huh?” Idia added. \n\n“No,” Jamil said immediately. “I’m just going there because he helped me and Floyd earlier in Flying class. He’s all about getting even with favors, right? I just don’t want him to think I owe him one.” He turned to leave but Cater spoke up again. \n\n“Wait, I’m going, too!” He quickly stood up. “How about you, Idia? Wanna go hang out at Mostro Lounge and help our friend?”\n\nIdia fidgeted with the game pieces. “Ehhhh not really, Mostro Lounge is crowded,” he shuddered at the thought. \n\n“Alright, see ya later, then! See ya, Ortho!” Cater led the way out of the classroom.\n\n“Azul doesn’t like people helping him for free,” Jamil told Cater as they walked to the Mirror Chamber. “Maybe you should just go back to Idia.” He didn’t want Cater to be around them and get more ideas about how “close” he is with Azul. \n\n“It’s okay!” Cater waved his hand. “I’ll just ask him for a favor later!”\n\nJamil sighed, maybe that was for the best. Cater would see that they really weren’t close.\n\nThey arrived at Mostro Lounge and there was chatter in the air as the customers talked with each other and ordered their meals. Everywhere Jamil looked there were staff walking around; even Azul was waiting tables. \n\n“Whoa!” Cater said in amazement. “Look at this place, it’s like half the school is here!” \n\nJamil followed Azul into the kitchen, Cater walking close behind him. \n\n“Cater and I’ll be helping today,” Jamil found an apron and began tying it around his waist, not giving Azul time to protest.\n\nAzul whipped around, setting the used plates carefully on the sink. “What? What are you two doing? You don’t work here!”\n\n“Relax!” Cater got an apron, too. “We’ll ask for favors later!”\n\nJade walked by carrying a tray of freshly-cooked stew. “We could use the help, Azul,” he exited the kitchen. \n\n“Fine,” Azul took extra notepads and pencils from a shelf and handed them to the newcomers. “Take people’s orders and help bring out food, too. Don’t mess up.” He got the tray of fries and sandwiches that was just laid out and took it outside. \n\nThey all worked continuously, bringing people their food, cleaning out tables, and washing dishes. Azul remained charming to every customer, never breaking a sweat despite Jamil not seeing him rest or even sit down. \n\nAfter closing time, Azul insisted that he pay Jamil and Cater. \n\n“I’d be okay with another favor, you know?” Cater said. “You don’t have to pay me.”\n\n“No, paying you is much simpler,” Azul replied. “If you want a different favor, you can always ask me personally, or Jade or Floyd.”\n\n“Okay, I get ya,” Cater received the money. “I gotta go now, Riddle will get mad if I’m not back before dinnertime. Thanks for letting us hang out!” He waved goodbye while jogging away to the portal to the Mirror Chamber.\n\n“I didn’t ask you to come here,” Azul told Jamil when it was just the two of them in the otherwise empty lounge, handing him his payment. “That wasn’t my intention when I sent you that text.”\n\n“I know,” Jamil pretended not to notice the small envelope. “But you helped me and Floyd at Flying class earlier. Consider that debt paid.”\n\n“Wha—” Azul sputtered, the envelope still in his hand. “That was for the sandwich you gave me, I told you that! You can’t repay me everytime I do something for you!”\n\nJamil smirked. “It’s annoying, isn’t it? So maybe don’t count every single thing as a favor,” he turned to leave and started walking away. “Good luck with the exam tomorrow.”\n\nJamil was glad to be finally leaving. He wasn’t entirely sure what made him stay the entire day to help with Mostro Lounge; it wasn’t like he was obsessed with repaying favors like Azul was, he didn’t have to be there the entire day just because Azul helped him earlier. \n\nLately he hadn’t been feeling quite himself, like he wasn’t as grounded as he should be. But thinking about it only gave him a headache, so he decided to just push down those thoughts as he usually did. \n\n\nRed sand swirled around as his magic lifted him from the ground. Praises from the Scarabia residents echoed in his ears—\n\n\nJamil gasped, stopping in his tracks and blinking rapidly. What was that? He put his hand to his chest to steady his breathing, and almost screamed when he saw black ink running down his arms. He blinked again and tried to get a hold of his mind. \n\nThe ink flickered momentarily, but it kept coming back, like an unstable hologram. Jamil fell to his knees, a dark red glow clouding his vision before fading to black.   \n\n \n\n“Jamil?” Azul was about to head back into the kitchen when he heard Jamil gasp. He had turned to see him clutching his chest before falling to his knees and collapsing. “Jamil!” \n\nHe rushed to his side and knelt down. Beads of sweat had formed on Jamil’s forehead and his eyes were closed. Azul called his name and shook his shoulders, but he wasn’t waking up. \n\n“Jade! Floyd!” Azul yelled for them as loud as he could. \n\nMerely seconds later and the twins burst out of the kitchen, running towards him and Jamil’s unconscious figure. \n\n“What happened?” Jade asked when he and Floyd had knelt down around Jamil. \n\n“I don’t know,” Azul shook his head, “he was walking and then he just gasped and fainted.”\n\n“Do you think he got too tired from working all day?” Floyd asked in concern. \n\n“No,” Jade said, checking Jamil’s wrist for a pulse. “He has been a servant his whole life, he is used to working. And he’s part of the Basketball Club, has he ever fainted during practices or games?”\n\n“Nope, never,” Floyd replied. “You two didn’t get in a fight and start dueling, right, Azul?”\n\n“No!” Azul bristled at the accusation. “I told you he just fainted. Should we bring him to the infirmary?” \n\nHe knew that Jade was right about Jamil being used to working hard, but what if the work at Mostro Lounge had been the cause of this? Jamil had never worked in the Lounge before, and today had been one of the busiest days. Azul had let him work for hours; he couldn’t help but feel somehow responsible. \n\n“Yes,” Jade took out his phone. “I’ll call them right now and let them know we’re coming.”\n\n—— \n\nJamil woke up from feeling too warm; his blanket was pulled up to his chin and he could feel sweat on his forehead. \n\nHe slowly sat up and tried to get his bearings. The familiarity of his bedroom greeted him, but he didn’t remember getting there. \n\nMemories of the last few hours flooded back to him and he was suddenly wide awake. \n\nHe had visions of his Overblot, but he hadn’t been sleeping. He was awake and yet he saw those things. That had never happened before. \n\nLooking at the clock on the wall, he saw that it was almost dinnertime. He would head down to the kitchen to prepare dinner and ask Kalim how he got all the way back to his room.\n\n—— \n\n“Of course I can attend the meeting, we don’t have to postpone it,” Azul told Jade. \n\n“Are you certain? If you have other priorities, it’s perfectly alright—”\n\n“The Lounge is my priority,” Azul said with an edge in his voice. “And frankly, I don’t appreciate you insinuating otherwise.” \n\n“Azul?” a surprised voice said behind him. \n\nHe turned to see Jamil in the kitchen doorway. \n\n“Apologies,” Jade’s voice said on the phone. “Oh, and while you’re there, perhaps you can ask Kalim again how you can return the favor to him.”\n\n“What?” Azul said distractedly. He was caught off-guard seeing that Jamil was already awake and looking quite well; he didn’t fully catch on to what Jade was saying. \n\n“Because he helped you in Alchemy class,” Jade reminded him. “You haven’t forgotten, have you?”\n\n“Of course I haven’t,” Azul said. “I have to go, I still need to help set up the table. I’ll be there for the meeting, don’t postpone it,” he emphasized before hanging up. \n\n“What are you doing here?” Jamil went to the counter, looking at the dishes that Azul had prepared. \n\n“I thought it appropriate to take over your dinner duties for the night,” Azul began untying the apron that he borrowed, “seeing as you had fainted outside my establishment.” \n\n“You didn’t have to do that,” Jamil frowned and crossed his arms. “Did you think you had to return the favor again? Because I showed up unannounced in your kitchen earlier, you felt like you had to invade mine?”\n\nAzul hung the apron back on its hook and adjusted his glasses. “I felt that because you had fallen unconscious after working for me—and stubbornly not accepting payment, if I might add—the least I could do was help prepare food for your dorm. I didn’t even do half the work that you did in the Lounge, and Kalim helped as well.”\n\nJamil sighed and leaned against the counter, closing his eyes. His arms were still crossed, but he didn’t seem angry anymore.\n\n“Are you alright?” Azul instinctively asked when he saw how tired Jamil looked. \n\nJamil opened his eyes but kept them on the floor. “It wasn’t your fault that I fainted,” he mumbled. \n\nAzul stayed silent, noticing that Jamil didn’t really answer his question but not knowing whether he should push the subject.\n\n“Was it Overblot visions?” Azul asked carefully. \n\nJamil looked at him in surprise. “Did you…?”\n\n“Yes,” Azul leaned against the counter, too. He suddenly felt tired. “I experienced them as well. I had to take a week off from the Lounge because I wasn’t sure when the visions would appear, and I couldn’t risk the customers noticing.” \n\nJamil nodded in understanding. “Azul?”\n\n“Yes?” He looked at Jamil. \n\n“Thank you,” Jamil said, sincerity evident in his tired eyes. “For—”\n\n“Azul!” Kalim’s voice called out. “I finished setting up the table—” He appeared in the doorway and gasped when he saw Jamil. “You’re awake!”\n\nHe ran to Jamil and hugged him tightly. “We were all so worried! I’m really glad you’re here now! How are you?” Kalim asked tearfully. \n\n“I’m fine,” Jamil awkwardly patted Kalim’s back before he was set free from the hug. “How did I get here?”\n\n“Azul and his friends brought you here!” Kalim smiled. “Oh, uh, first they brought you to the infirmary, then when the nurses said you’re okay to go, they brought you here! Are you sure you’re really okay?”\n\n“Yeah,” Jamil looked at the food. “I’m just a little hungry, I guess.”\n\n“No problem! Azul made dinner for all of us! He even made you a batch of curry!” Kalim grinned and proudly gestured at the covered pot on the stove.  \n\nAzul walked towards the doorway. “Now that dinner is done and you’re awake, I should probably take my leave.” Seeing the Prefect and Vice Prefect of Scarabia talking in their kitchen, he felt strangely out of place. \n\n“What?” Kalim said in concern. “You’re not staying for dinner? But you made all of this!”\n\nAzul smiled politely. “Thank you for the invitation, Kalim, but I still have a meeting at the Lounge.”\n\n“Awww! Just stay for a few minutes, just have one meal with us! I’m sure Jamil would want you to stay! Right, Jamil?” He smiled at his Vice Prefect. \n\nJamil’s eyes met Azul’s, and for a moment he felt a spark of hope in his chest; perhaps Jamil might ask him to stay. \n\nAzul internally scolded himself. Why would he need Jamil’s invitation? Kalim was right, he made that entire dinner, and he would stay or leave on his own accord. \n\nHe saw the uncertainty in Jamil’s eyes and felt that he was right not to hope; Jamil had no reason to want him to stay. That was obvious. Jamil was just feeling pressured by Kalim to invite him to dinner.\n\n“I shall be going now,” Azul maintained his polite smile. “Enjoy your dinner.”\n\n“Wait!” Kalim ran up to him before he could turn to leave. “We’ll have a birthday party tomorrow for Tidus, one of our residents. It’s also gonna be a celebration for the end of our exams! It’s right after Flying class. Can you please attend? We’d love to have you as a guest! And Jade and Floyd! To thank you guys for bringing Jamil safely back to us. Please? You don’t have to bring any gifts!” \n\nThe mention of Jade reminded Azul of what he said on the phone about repaying Kalim’s favor. \n\n“Will you let me help with the preparations?” Azul asked. “I still haven’t repaid you for helping me with Alchemy last week. I know you don’t want me to repay you at all,” Azul held up a hand before Kalim could object, “but since you want me to attend and I want to repay you, it’s a good compromise, don’t you think?”\n\n“Hmmm, okay!” Kalim grinned. “I’m just happy you’ll be at the party!”\n\nAzul smiled and nodded before walking out of the kitchen. \n\n“Oh!” Kalim said and went back to Jamil. “Azul told me to give you this when you wake up.” He got something out of his pocket and handed it over.\n\nJamil took the bottle, noticing the familiar blue of the potion that Azul had given him many nights ago. \n\n“He said it would help make you feel better,” Kalim explained. \n\n“Thanks,” Jamil managed, pocketing the bottle. He wondered if Azul gave him that potion again as his payment for working at the Lounge.\n\n“Come on, let’s eat!” Kalim smiled and took a tray from the counter. \n\nJamil helped him bring all the food to their dining table. \n\n—— \n\n“Good job, everyone!” Coach Vargas yelled proudly after the Flying exam. “You’re very lucky to be learning from me. Your flying has improved a lot already! And I knew I made the right decision to assign some students to teach the others! Clearly I have brawn and brains. We all did a great job!” He grinned widely. \n\nThe students sighed in relief and some clapped each other on the backs. Floyd rode his broom and flew in circles while whooping with joy and saying that they can finally rest from exams.\n\nJamil went to get his things when Coach Vargas dismissed them. He had just picked up his backpack and broom when he heard Floyd’s voice behind him. \n\n“Sea snake!”\n\nFloyd had his arm around Kalim, and they were both grinning widely. \n\n“It’s party time! Let’s all head together to Scarabia!” \n\n“Jade and Floyd wanna help with the preparations, too!” Kalim said as Jade and Azul appeared behind him. \n\n“We thank you for your invitation,” Jade said with a hand to his chest.\n\nJamil looked at Azul to see if he would say something; maybe a sentence or two about how he could finally repay Kalim’s favor, but Azul stayed quiet, standing beside Jade with his bag and broom and not looking at any of them. \n\n“Let’s go,” he said when he realized they were just waiting for him. \n\n—— \n\nKalim had wanted it to be a pool party, so it was going to be held at the oasis. Jamil assigned the Scarabia residents to bring out the long dining tables and set them up. The tables had to be far away from the pool to make room for the parade that Kalim wanted to do; the Light Music Club was going to perform some songs and then everyone would walk to the pool while the other Scarabia residents joined in playing the lively music. \n\nJamil also assigned the Octavinelle Trio to help with the dining set-up while he prepared the smaller tables and cottages around the pool area. He wanted to be as far away from Azul as he could, especially after last night. \n\nHe had felt vulnerable when he was thanking Azul, it was just luck that Kalim had interrupted them before he could say anything else. And he had almost asked Azul to stay for dinner, despite hearing him say blatantly that the Lounge was his priority. He was glad he didn’t ask him to stay; he obviously didn’t want to, judging from how quickly he left at the first opportunity.\n\nJamil knew he shouldn’t let anyone get too close, especially not someone who was only interested in balancing favors and profiting from poor students he could swindle. He was glad that the Flying exam was over and he wouldn’t have to spend time with Azul anymore; he just had to come up with a favor to ask from him and they would never have to interact again. \n\nHe froze momentarily while setting up one of the foldable wooden tables. Something seemed to catch in his throat at the thought of that, at the thought of never spending time with Azul again. \n\nHe shook his head to clear his thoughts, lightly punching the surface of the table. The sting on his knuckles helped him think more logically; he must have just gotten used to seeing Azul every afternoon for flying practice. He quickly got used to his presence, he would quickly get used to his absence as well. \n\nJamil didn’t notice that the table was on fire until the flames reached his knuckles that were still pressed against the wood. \n\nHe jumped back and got his magic pen from his pocket, summoning water from the pool and drenching the table. \n\n“Vice Prefect?” \n\nJamil whipped around and blocked the scorched and dripping table from view. “Yes?”\n\n“Which snacks should we bring over here?” Violetti asked. The purple-haired resident was Tidus’ best friend and was one of the main people helping out for the party. Jamil should have expected him to be here. \n\n“Uh, mostly the chocolates and chips, just the light ones so no one would get in the pool with a full stomach,” Jamil replied. \n\nVioletti nodded and left as quickly as he appeared.\n\nJamil sighed. He knew that Violetti was one of the few residents who still didn’t fully trust him ever since his Overblot. Some of them wouldn’t even talk to him unless absolutely necessary. He was just relieved that Violetti didn’t see him set the table on fire; he didn’t need rumors to spread that he was sabotaging parties now. \n\nLooking around to make sure that there was no one else in the area, Jamil inspected the table. Almost the entire surface was burnt and it would take a long time to fix it with magic, if he even dared to do that. His magic was being unstable, and he didn’t want to use it until he figured out what was happening. For now, the tablecloth would have to suffice in covering up the damage. \n\nHe took a few moments to calm down and then went to put away the few brooms that were scattered around; some residents had come straight from Flying class too before helping set up the oasis, and they had left their brooms there when they went to help with the dining area. \n\nJamil picked up a broom that looked similar to Azul’s, and it reminded him of a particular practice session when Idia and Cater arrived; the Ignihyde Prefect had collided with Azul, and Jamil had been terrified when he fell off his broom.\n\nIt didn’t make sense to him afterwards why he felt that way, because he’d seen Azul regularly fall down at Flying class and he had never been worried. But on that day, he couldn’t explain the fear he felt when Azul fell, much less the surge of relief when he managed to catch him. \n\nJamil threw down the broom in anger, then blinked in confusion about why he felt angry in the first place. \n\nHis vision began to turn red at the edges, and as the color grew to cover everything in a scarlet hue, so did the anger grow inside him. \n\n\nNo. \n\n\nJamil tried to run to one of the cottages and hide, but he barely made it a step before he felt his anger spike and he dropped to his knees, his hands on the sand. He could feel his magic inside him like an angry beast waiting to be unleashed, and it was all he could do to remain in control of his mind while flickering black ink started to pool under his palms.  \n\n“Vice Prefect?” Violetti's voice called out.\n\n\nNo. Leave. \n\n\nJamil tried to shout a warning, but all that came out was a hoarse gasp as his mind kept slipping. \n\nWith all the energy he could muster, he got up and walked away as fast as his shaking legs could carry him, not knowing where he was headed. \n\nThe scarlet hue in his vision turned darker and darker, and he felt himself collapsing again as his strength left him. \n\n \n\n\nThud! \n\n\n“Damn,” Azul cursed and brushed the sand from his pants as he stood up. \n\nHe had been hanging party streamers around the few trees that were in the desert when he stepped too far to the side and fell off the ladder. He really wasn’t made for being high up.\n\n“Oof,” he heard Tidus say behind him. “Are you okay, Azul?” \n\nThe blond birthday celebrant had insisted on helping prepare the party despite Kalim telling him that he shouldn't, so Azul respected him despite having a loud and airhead energy that reminded him of Ace. Everyone else had gone to Scarabia to get the food and it was just the two of them at the moment.\n\n“Yes,” Azul adjusted his glasses, missing the convenience of the special goggles that never needed adjusting. “At least the sand here is softer than the grounds in Flying class.” He moved his ankle back and forth, frowning at the dull ache.\n\n“Sorry,” Tidus scratched his head. “It was Violetti's idea to put up streamers, I'd told him that we always had those at my birthday parties at home.”\n\n“Hm, how thoughtful,” Azul said nonchalantly as he stared up at the trees, wondering whether he should attempt to put more streamers in the higher branches. As the owner of the Lounge, he must keep up his reputation of being able to decorate any place for celebrations.\n\n“Why don't you just levitate the streamers up there?” Tidus asked. \n\nAzul looked down; he didn't want to explain that he had been afraid to use magic ever since he saw Jamil pass out from Overblot visions. That was none of anyone's business. \n\n“I left my magic pen in the pocket of my dorm uniform, it's at the bottom of my bag and would be a real hassle to get.” It was true, he buried it in his bag so he wouldn't get tempted. “Besides, this is a simple task that even non-magical people can accomplish.”\n\nHe was about to climb the ladder again when he heard a voice calling out. \n\n“Help!” Violetti flew in on his broom. “Vice Prefect fainted in the pool! I can't swim, I'm sorry—” his terrified eyes were filled with tears. \n\n“What?!” Tidus' voice rose in panic. \n\nAzul felt his breath stop like his heart had fallen to his stomach. \n\nHe reached out and his broom flew to his hand. \n\n“Whoa!” Tidus looked back and forth between the dining table and Azul. “Wasn't that on the chair a second ago?”\n\nAzul mounted his broom and kicked upwards, ignoring the sudden pain in his ankle as he flew up. \n\nHe leaned as far forward as his balance would allow him, willing the broom to go faster. \n\nThe pool appeared, glittering in the distance. Azul spurred his broom directly over it and jumped. \n\nBubbles covered his vision as he went underwater. He adjusted his glasses and frantically looked around for any sign of Jamil. \n\nThere he was, his unmoving form steadily sinking to the bottom of the pool. \n\nAzul kicked to propel himself forward—“AGH!” \n\nA blinding pain shot up from his ankle and brought tears to his eyes. \n\nHe helplessly looked at Jamil getting further away as he realized that the injury on his ankle must have been a lot worse than he thought. \n\n“No, Jamil…” \n\nHe’d never reach him in time using just one leg to swim. \n\nUnless… \n\n \n\nJamil felt his lungs filling with water as he sank deeper. He had tried to swim at first, but his limbs felt like lead, and he was barely hanging on to consciousness. \n\nHe felt something soft firmly wrap around his waist and slowly lift him.\n\nHe wasn’t sure if he was already hallucinating from the lack of oxygen, but he thought he saw a few more of those things fitted with suction cups. \n\nAre those… tentacles? he thought before the darkness overtook him. \n\n——\n\nJamil squinted and shielded his eyes from the bright light above him. He felt a blanket and heard the hum of an air-conditioner. \n\n\nSitting up slowly, he looked around and confirmed that he was in the infirmary. \n\n“How do you feel?” \n\nHe turned and saw Azul sitting on the edge of the bed next to him. \n\n“The truth, please. Don’t just say you’re fine, you were underwater for quite some time, you know.”\n\nJamil shifted in his seat. “I’m still feeling a bit out of it. How long have I been out?”\n\n“A few hours,” Azul glanced at the clock. “They postponed the party to wait for you to wake up; the nurses just had to tell them to wait outside because they were crowding you. Kalim was crying.”\n\nJamil was about to ask why Azul wasn’t ushered out when he saw the bandage around his ankle. “What happened to you?” He nodded at the bandage. \n\n“Ah,” Azul looked down at his ankle like he had forgotten about it. “I fell from the ladder while hanging up party streamers. No one cried over it.”\n\nJami couldn’t stop the chuckle that escaped him. He noticed Azul’s damp hair and change of clothes for the first time, and remembered what he had last seen before losing consciousness. \n\n“Azul?” He furrowed his brows. \n\n“Hm?”\n\n“Did you rescue me in your merform?” He decided it was best to get straight to the point.\n\nAzul opened his mouth to say something, but closed it again and bowed his head like he was ashamed. \n\n“Thank you,” Jamil said gently. He didn’t know why Azul seemed embarrassed, but he hoped he hadn’t said anything bad. “You’ve repaid me for those flying lessons now,” he said, trying to lighten the mood. \n\nIt was Azul’s turn to chuckle. “Yes, I suppose I have.”\n\nThey sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes, lost in their own thoughts. \n\n“I should let the others know you’re awake,” Azul said. “So they don’t worry so much.” He stood up and walked to the door, a slight limp in his stride. \n\nJamil watched him walking away and realized he didn’t want the others to show up just yet. He wanted to cherish these quiet moments with Azul. \n\n“Azul?” He said again just before Azul reached the door. \n\n“Yes?” Azul turned to face him. \n\nMaybe he could ask him to stay. Just this once. “We don’t owe each other anything anymore.”\n\nAzul blinked and nodded slowly. “That is correct.”\n\n“I don’t think…” Jamil took a breath. He had to say it. To spare both of them any further pain. “I don’t think we should do each other favors anymore. We’ve been doing favors for each other this past week and it got pretty difficult to keep track of who owed what. I just don’t want a repeat of that and…” I don’t want to end up relying on you. \n\n“I understand,” Azul replied, standing up straighter. “Expecting favors from each other might become a bad habit, yes?” His smile didn’t seem to reach his eyes. \n\n“Yeah, exactly,” Jamil looked down; he wasn’t sure what he was seeing in Azul’s eyes but he didn’t want to see it anymore. \n\n“I should call the others,” Azul went out the door. \n\nThe sound of it closing behind him felt like a punch to Jamil’s chest. \n\n—— \n\n\nSwirling sand. The air bathed in a bright red glow as Jamil forced the Scarabia residents on their knees, a deranged laugh emanating from his mouth. Robotic praises rose around him as the mindless residents obeyed his whims. \n\n\nJamil sat up in bed, gasping. He saw his bloodshot eyes in his bedroom mirror and he threw the nearest thing he could grab, shattering the glass and destroying his image.  \n\nHe pulled his knees up to his chest and hugged them, sobbing silently into his lap. It seemed like this was one of those nights. \n\nAfter his tears subsided, he wondered what he had thrown at his mirror. He walked over to it and saw the potion bottle lying on the floor, still intact with the blue liquid lying peacefully inside it. \n\nThat was it; he just needed to drink the potion. \n\nHe went back to his bed and gulped it down, barely noticing the curry taste. \n\nHe held the empty bottle in his hand, staring at it for a few minutes before realizing that maybe he needed something more than a bottle of drinkable comfort food. \n\nHe needed… \n\n \n\nAzul woke up when his phone rang from his nightstand, wondering who on earth or underwater would call at this hour. \n\n“Hello?” He answered it sleepily with his eyes closed.\n\n“Bad habit, I know, but I need you right now.” \n\nJamil’s voice startled him awake and he sat up. “Jamil?”\n\n“Can you help me out?” His voice sounded a little strained, like he had just been crying. \n\n“I’ll be right there.”"}
+{"text": "~*~\n\nWhen Jaskier woke it was to a steel-gray sky, neither raining nor windy, but heavy all the same. Geralt was already moving around the camp when Jaskier sat up, scrubbing his hands over his face. He stared up at the impenetrable gray. “Did I--?”\n\nGeralt nodded. “I calmed you down.”\n\n“I don’t remember.” His heart felt as flat as the sky.\n\n“I...held your hand until it went away.” Geralt looked uncomfortable and turned to pull food out of his bag.\n\nJaskier looked down at his empty hands. “Oh.”\n\nGeralt tossed him the last of their bread and an apple, and they ate a quick breakfast in silence. Jaskier stole glances at Geralt, who wouldn’t meet his eyes.\n\n“What’s the matter? You’re even more taciturn than usual.”\n\n“Nothing at all,” Geralt replied, though it sounded like a lie to Jaskier’s ears. “Just thinking ahead to the day.”\n\n“Ah. Right, Yennefer.” He drawled out her name with theatrical dread, though the sentiment was real enough.\n\nGeralt gave him a sharp look and he ducked his head, chastened. Geralt saddled Roach while Jaskier cleaned up their camp, working in practiced motions around each other like well-oiled cogs in a clock. There was comfort in the ritual.\n\n“With luck we’ll find her in the next few hours, and you’ll be able to sulk and scream and laugh as much as you like,” Geralt said neutrally, tying off the last of their bags onto Roach’s saddle. “We’ll ride together. It’s not far to the town.”\n\nJaskier knew it was such a short amount of time really, that they were lucky to be so close to his possible salvation, but time seemed to slow, and all he could think of was how much longer he’d have to hold it together. All he wanted was to go back to pining in silence and sublimating any wayward emotions that might jeopardize his friendship with Geralt.\n\nSecondary only to his fear of Geralt finding out his true feelings, was Yennefer finding them out. He knew that she’d be able to read him as easily as a book, if she got her fingers in his brain, and given his recent luck with witches it seemed likely that he’d be sharing all of the most intimate parts of himself very soon, and with someone he loathed.\n\nAnd he absolutely knew that, no matter his self-control, it would only take one moon-eyed look from Geralt in Yennefer’s direction and there would be scorch marks at their feet from a lightning strike.\n\n~*~\n\nIt was unsurprisingly easy to locate Yennefer’s latest abode. Geralt and Jaskier stopped at the first tavern they came to and asked after a sorceress with purple eyes, and were immediately directed to a red-bricked villa that overlooked the town. As they approached the hill and the elaborately curved wrought iron gates came into view, Jaskier’s stomach turned sour at the thought of her.\n\n“Awfully convenient that she happens to be so close when we need her. Were we headed for her all along, Geralt? Is that why you knew where she was?”\n\nGeralt grunted and didn’t answer for a while, and Jaskier bit his tongue. It was none of his business. It shouldn’t matter. Finally Geralt just said, “We never seem to be very far from each other.”\n\nJaskier held his breath until lights danced before his eyes, then he let it out in a steady stream. The sky remained gray and still.\n\nYennefer met them at the gate in a black dress heavily embroidered with white roses, her hair caught up in an intricate tumble of curls, and a wry smile on her perfect face. “Must you only turn up when you want something?”\n\n“How do you know we--oh right. Magic.” Jaskier didn’t roll his eyes, but it was a close thing.\n\n“Yenn,” Geralt said, his voice softer than usual, “It’s good to see you. And we do need your help.”\n\nThey dismounted and she led them toward the stable, indicating it with a graceful sweep of her hand. “I’ll be in the garden when you’re finished. Bard, with me.”\n\nJaskier followed her to a walled garden next to the main house, exquisitely designed with a winding gravel path and a riotous abundance of flowers, almost certainly tended by magic. She sat on a marble bench under a heavy arch of lush scarlet roses, and after an awkward moment he joined her there. He didn’t explain his situation, as it appeared he didn’t need to.\n\nShe stared at him for a while, and her gaze was shrewd, piercing. “I can see it as plain as day. It’s an inventive curse, but one cast in haste. There should be gaps I might pry into, if we’re lucky.”\n\nHe felt such a visceral rush of heart-pounding relief that the sky began to darken, and Jaskier covered his face with shaking hands and breathed slowly, focusing on the scent of the roses until the gathering storm clouds dissipated. “I wasn’t built for this kind of thing. Moderation of emotion.”\n\nYennefer smiled, and it was only a little sarcastic. “I imagine you’ve never had a moderate day in your life, bard. That’s no doubt why this curse was chosen for you.”\n\nJaskier nodded. “She chose perfectly.”\n\n“How did it happen?” Her voice was dry, unaffected, but her purple eyes glinted with curiosity. “Did you sleep with her? Steal from her? Did you compose a terrible song for her?”\n\n“She killed twelve people and stole their organs to try to create the eternal youth that Aretuza denied her.”\n\nYennefer blinked.\n\n“We tried to stop her. She cursed Jaskier and portalled away,” Geralt said, joining them and standing at Jaskier’s side. He briefly touched Jaskier’s shoulder, and Jaskier shivered. A flicker of her shadowed eyelids told him that it hadn’t escaped Yennefer’s notice.\n\n“Why Jaskier, of all people?” She spoke to Geralt as though Jaskier wasn’t even there.\n\nJaskier frowned at her. “So I’m not worthy of even a curse, now?”\n\n“Jaskier.” Geralt didn’t sound amused, but Yennefer laughed.\n\n“Only you, bard, would take that as an insult.”\n\n“She thought he was feisty, and she looked inside his mind. She said he was hiding secrets, called him ‘lightning in a bottle.’”\n\nJaskier swivelled to look up at Geralt. “Can I tell my own story, please?”\n\nYennefer tilted her head. “What was her name?”\n\n“Theda.”\n\nHer face did a complicated thing that Jaskier couldn’t quite read. Her hands twitched in her lap, just enough to catch Jaskier’s attention.\n\n“You know her?” Geralt asked, stepping close enough to brush Jaskier’s arm where he sat. He couldn’t help but lean ever so slightly against Geralt’s warmth, a nearly imperceptible touch.\n\n“I know of her,” Yennefer clarified. “She came long after my time at Aretuza, but there have been rumors. As I heard it, she was the first of her class to catch lightning in a bottle and the first to master alchemical creation. She also cursed two of her classmates who looked as though they might surpass her in power, and one of them died. She was denied final transformation and expelled.”\n\nJaskier scoffed. “Seems like the wrong tactic to take with someone who is powerful and crazy.”\n\nYennefer smiled wryly. “I’ll be the first to tell you that not everything that occurs within Aretuza’s hallowed halls is right, or fair.”\n\n“Yenn, can you help?” Geralt’s tone was soft with her, always, and it made Jaskier’s chest tighten painfully. He found his gaze drawn to Yennefer’s, and he was curiously able to bring himself under control before even a breath of wind could disturb them. Yennefer nodded slightly, approving, knowing.\n\n“I can try,” she answered, looking up at Geralt. “I’ll need to examine him first.”\n\n“Whatever you need,” Jaskier said, getting quickly to his feet. Geralt’s hand was briefly at his back, steadying him. “Point the way.”\n\nYennefer led them through the villa, past servants who bobbed in deference while she breezed by without notice. It was a beautiful place, and everywhere were Yennefer’s touches of decadence. Rich colors and luxurious textures everywhere lent an air of sensuality that made Jaskier both intrigued and slightly nervous. He expected to see an orgy in every room they passed, but the villa seemed to be occupied only by Yennefer and the servants.\n\n“Where is the gentleman of the house?” Jaskier asked archly.\n\n“Oh, he doesn’t live here,” Yennefer said with a wave of her hand. “This is for my personal use. His wife prefers it that way. As do I.”\n\n“You’re using him to get his house?”\n\n“He’s more than happy to be used, trust me.”\n\nJaskier stole a glance at Geralt, whose face was as impassive as ever.\n\nThey followed her to a richly furnished library with tall windows that overlooked the gardens. The room now clearly served as Yennefer’s workshop. A large table held glass jars of mysterious concoctions, fragrant powders in bowls, stones that glittered. Books with tattered pages lay strewn about beside quills and ink pots and dried bundles of herbs. It was nothing at all like Jaskier would have imagined, had he given any thought to such a thing.\n\n“How do you find anything here?” he asked, poking at a large crystal. Yennefer glared and slapped his hand.\n\n“I have a system,” she said. “No one has had any complaints about my quality of service.”\n\n“And what service do you provide, exactly?”\n\n“The service of curing rude bards of their unfortunate curses, out of the goodness of my heart.”\n\n“You have one of those?”\n\n“Jaskier.” Geralt pinned him with a quelling look.\n\nJaskier bit his lip and tried to look innocent.\n\n“I think we could all do with some wine first, don’t you?” Yennefer’s voice was richly amused, and when Jaskier turned to look at her she just raised an eyebrow.\n\n“I could drink,” Jaskier replied.\n\nGeralt shrugged.\n\n“And for the gods’ sake, Geralt, take off your swords. You’ll find no harpies here.”\n\nJaskier opened his mouth, and then closed it again when Geralt pointed a finger at him.\n\n~*~\n\nTwo glasses of wine later Jaskier found himself collapsed sideways on a reclining couch beneath the tall windows, his head on a cushion and his wine glass dangling over the edge. He blamed his sudden weakness on sleeping poorly the night before, but it was possible that Yennefer had slipped something into his wine. He wouldn’t put it past her. Geralt was seated in a wingback chair with his own glass of wine, looking distinctly uncomfortable, and Yennefer was at her table flipping through a book that looked at least as old as she probably was.\n\nJaskier drained his glass in defiance of his possible poisoning, and watched Geralt, who was watching him back. “What?” he asked finally. “Did I spill wine on myself?”\n\nGeralt’s lips did a thing that almost looked like a smile. He shook his head.\n\n“Your clothes may be free of wine but they are full of dust and sweat and who knows what else. You’re both bathing before you even think of sleeping here.” She didn’t bother to look up at either of them.\n\nJaskier felt a blush rise in his cheeks, and Geralt looked at the floor.\n\n“Alright,” Yennefer said finally, closing her book and setting aside a chunk of citrine she had been idly playing with while she read. She came around her table and strode purposefully toward him. “I need a peek inside your head, bard.”\n\nHe had known it was coming, but it still filled him with dread. “There’s really no other way, is there?”\n\nYennefer’s gaze softened minutely. “Not if you want me to understand the curse.”\n\nJaskier set down his glass and started to sit up, but she forestalled him with a hand on his shoulder. She urged him to lie on his back on the couch just as he had been, and she sat down beside his hip.\n\n“This should hurt far less now that you’ve relaxed a bit.”\n\n“Of all the things I never wanted to hear from Yennefer of Vengerberg…” It wasn’t his wittiest response, but he was nervous, and it made Yennefer purse her lips almost fondly. Geralt didn’t say a word.\n\n“If you’re quite finished,” she said, and reached for Jaskier’s head. He caught her wrist in a reaction that startled both of them.\n\n“Can we do this without--without an audience?” he asked carefully, and before Yennefer could even open her mouth Jaskier heard the quick, heavy tread of Geralt’s boots and the closing of the door.\n\n“Well, that was...odd. Then again, it is Geralt,” Yennefer said, staring at the door.\n\nJaskier swallowed hard. “I’m ready, so do your worst. Well, actually, please don’t. You know what I mean.”\n\nYennefer hesitated. “I don’t know what it was like when Theda did it, but I’ll certainly see things you don’t wish me to see. If I could look away, I would, believe me. I have no desire to see your intimate exploits with barmaids any more than you wish to show them to me, I’m sure.”\n\n“We’ll just have to agree not to say anything about it, then.” It was a vain hope, he knew.\n\n“Hmm,” she said, sounding like Geralt, then her cool fingers were pressed to his temples and she was inside his head like a thousand radiating silver threads of a spiderweb. It wasn’t agony like before, but it still felt invasive and he shrank from it as the threads caught and tugged on pieces of himself he’d rather keep hidden.\n\n“Jaskier,” he heard her say from a long distance, “relax. Breathe deeply.”\n\nHis body breathed for him at her insistence, but his mind still struggled in her web. Dimly he heard the sound of rain and the howl of wind.\n\n“Let go of it, Jaskier. I need to see it.”\n\nHe could feel tears rolling down his cheeks, could hear the rain on the window, and he let her see.\n\nAfter Yennefer removed her fingertips from his skin they sat quietly for a minute while the storm raged outside. There were many emotions on her face, half turned away from him, but surprise wasn’t one of them. Jaskier wiped the tears from his cheeks and sat up, hearing a banging sound. Yennefer moved gracefully to the door and opened it for Geralt, who looked worried to the point of anger.\n\n“What happened?” he growled, striding over to Jaskier, who looked away.\n\n“It was difficult to see how interwoven the curse is with his mind,” Yennefer said briskly. “I had to follow some of the paths that Theda took.”\n\n“Can you not see what I see out there?” Geralt demanded as he pointed to the window, and there was nothing soft about his voice now. “That’s what he feels right now.”\n\n“Calm him, then. I have no talent for such things.” She retreated behind her desk and picked up her crystal again, turning it over and over in her hands.\n\nGeralt took Jaskier’s hand and pulled him to his feet. “Jaskier, look at me.”\n\nHe looked into Geralt’s frustrated golden eyes and lightning flashed outside. Thunder rattled the glass panes and Jaskier whimpered. Geralt tipped their foreheads together and his breath washed warm across Jaskier’s cheek.\n\n“Focus,” he said, and Jaskier squeezed Geralt’s hand, focusing on the strong grip, the callouses, the scarred knuckles. In the midst of his torment he forgot to be afraid, and there were no more flashes of light, no more thunder. The wind died down and the rain fell softly against the glass.\n\nWhen even the rain was gone Jaskier stepped away, releasing Geralt’s hand. Oddly, Geralt looked just as bereft as Jaskier felt. Yennefer cleared her throat and Jaskier jumped guiltily.\n\n“Well, I’m afraid the garden may not recover,” she said drily, but her gaze was on Jaskier and not the garden.\n\nHe scrubbed his hands over his face. “Sorry,” he muttered, and looked out at the slate-gray sky. No sunlight tried to shine through this time.\n\n“I can’t break this curse.”\n\nHer words were followed by silence. Outside, water dripped from the top of the window frame to the bottom, a slow and steady metronome.\n\nJaskier went to the side table to refill his wine glass and no one stopped him.\n\n“If not you, then who?” Geralt sounded bewildered, something that Jaskier couldn’t recall Geralt being before. It said a lot about his unshakeable faith in her.\n\nYennefer’s mouth twisted. “Theda.”\n\n“Bollocks,” Jaskier whispered, then sighed.\n\n“She may have cursed you in haste, but it was far more seamless than I had expected.”\n\n“Meaning?” Jaskier took a healthy swallow of wine and it burned in the back of his throat.\n\n“Meaning there are no places to dig in my fingers, so to speak, without ripping out parts of you altogether.” She rolled her crystal from one hand to the other, her rings clicking on the stone. “Which I can do, if you wish. But you’ll never get those pieces back.”\n\n“No. We’ll find her, we’ll do whatever it takes,” Geralt vowed, and Jaskier looked at him, startled, then nodded.\n\n“I’d rather keep all the parts of myself intact, thank you. For better or for worse, they are mine.” \n\nYennefer shrugged. “Then your only option is to find Theda and get her to remove the curse.”\n\n“But how are we supposed to do that?” Jaskier threw his arms wide, encompassing the whole of the rain-drenched countryside out the window. “And how many times will I put people in danger as we search? One of these storms might turn into something deadly. They’re getting harder to stop.”\n\n“What about the castle you saw through the portal?” Geralt asked, and Jaskier paused, remembering.\n\n“Describe it to me,” Yennefer said, curious.\n\nJaskier recalled every detail he could, down to the crumbling outer wall and the town at the base of the hill, a glittering lake beyond, a mountain with three peaks in the distance. Yennefer smiled triumphantly when he was finished.\n\n“I’ve been there,” she said, turning to sift through the chaos that was her work table. “Very interesting little place. I spent a month there selling charms, and no one tried to extort me. They’re very tolerant of magic wielders, which is likely why she chose to go there. I imagine she thought she could hide in plain sight for some time.”\n\nGeralt let out a relieved sigh, and Jaskier darted a glance at him. Jaskier was also obviously relieved, but he was surprised to hear Geralt express it.\n\n“Can you take us there?” Jaskier entreated, watching Yennefer shuffle aside papers with a slight frown. “And what are you looking for?”\n\n“I can open a portal for you.” She peered inside a small chest and nodded to herself. “As to what I’m looking for, I’ll explain tomorrow. Tonight you’ll stay here.”\n\nJaskier shifted uncomfortably. “I’m sure if you just open the portal now, we could--”\n\n“It’s nearly sundown,” she pointed out. “And you won’t find her at night. You can rest here, we have plenty of rooms. And bathtubs.”\n\nGeralt hummed and nodded. “Thank you. We’ll do better after a good night of sleep.”\n\nJaskier bit his tongue and looked away from both of them.\n\n~*~\n\nAfter a brief and awkwardly tense dinner, in which no one said much of import and they each seemed to be dancing around something unspoken, Yennefer escorted them to the guest rooms. Jaskier’s room was pointed out first. He watched Geralt walk down the hall beside Yennefer and had to swallow around the lump in his throat. He had to take several deep breaths before he could look away.\n\nThe room Jaskier had been offered was more than adequate, with a spacious bed that looked decadently soft, and a bathing area separated from the main room by a partition. Servants brought in buckets of hot water while Jaskier pulled out his clothes from his bag. He had nothing clean to change into, besides spare smallclothes.\n\n“I’m instructed to take your clothes for washing,” a maid said, appearing at his elbow. She watched while he undressed unselfconsciously, and gave him a slow, sideways smile as she took the pile of clothes from him. Jaskier understood her meaning well enough. He thought for a moment about indulging himself, though it would be a poor substitute for the pleasure he longed for. In the end he just returned her smile with an apologetic expression and a little shake of his head.\n\nHe wandered to the window to watch the sky while the servants finished filling the bathtub, making sure that the weather remained stable in spite of the jealousy roiling in his gut. He didn’t know for sure where Geralt was spending the night, but he had a pretty good guess. He only hoped they were on the far side of the villa so he wouldn’t have to hear them.\n\nBefore he stepped into the bath Jaskier removed the bandages on his hands. Geralt’s salve had done quick work, and the rings on his wrists were nearly healed, leaving faint red lines. His knuckles were still a little raw where he had punched the tree, and he felt ashamed of himself and his lack of control. He wondered if there would be scars.\n\nJaskier sank into the water and sighed, letting the heat pull the tension out of his shoulders. He washed slowly with the lavender soap that had been provided, grateful for the luxury of a bathtub he could easily fit in and the collection of oils and salts on a little shelf within reach. It had been many, many months since he’d had such a pleasure.\n\nSoon, however, his thoughts came back around to Yennefer and Geralt, and he felt a rising tension that was both bitter jealousy and hot desire. Not for Yennefer, though she was beautiful enough, but for imagining Geralt in a decadent bed like the one in his own room, silk sheets and a velvet counterpane in rich jewel tones that would complement Geralt’s pale skin. \n\nJaskier felt his cock begin to fill and he snuck his hand around it, slipping in the warm water. He thought of Geralt’s pleasure soaked sighs, which he had heard through the fabric of tents and the thin walls of rented rooms. It was impossible to know a man for a decade and not hear such things. He knew that Geralt was not a vocal lover, no more so than he was in conversation, but his shuddering sighs were more than enough to fuel Jaskier’s fantasies.\n\nHe groaned quietly, squeezing his cock harder and lifting his hips into the sensation. He imagined Geralt’s hand on him, larger and more calloused, rougher than Jaskier was used to, and he trembled enough to splash water up the sides of the tub. He opened his eyes, startled, and happened to look at the window as he reoriented himself.\n\nLightning flashed in the distance, and the branches of the tree outside his window waved in the wind. Jaskier cried out in dismay and yanked his hand away from his cock, taking heaving breaths and gripping the sides of the bathtub until his knuckles cracked.\n\nThere was a knock on the door and Jaskier squeezed his eyes shut. “A moment, please,” he called, trying to make his voice as even and calm as possible.\n\nHe dried himself quickly and put on the only thing he had to wear, his smallclothes, and went to the door. He was shocked to see Geralt in the doorway, a concerned look on his face.\n\n“I…” Geralt began, looking at Jaskier’s bare chest and then up at his face. “Are you alright?”\n\n“Fine,” Jaskier said stiffly, glad that his cock had softened at least, though the tension that coiled through him still remained. “Just a bit overwhelmed, I think.”\n\nGeralt looked over his shoulder to the window, and Jaskier glanced at it too. The storm had continued to brew, the tree now lashing at the glass. “Do you need my help?”\n\nJaskier bit his lip and shook his head. “Best not, I think,” he said, but was unable to offer any further explanation when Geralt tilted his head in confusion.\n\n“I’ll leave you to it, then,” Geralt said slowly, turning away.\n\nHe hadn’t made it five paces before Jaskier called out, “Geralt. Would you?”\n\nGeralt came back and nodded, relief clear in his eyes. “What do you need?”\n\n\nYou. Always you.\n\n\nThe lines were blurring, his desires confusing, but still he held out his hand. Geralt didn’t hesitate to take it, and Jaskier closed his eyes. His heartbeat kicked hard in his chest, but as he forced himself to breathe he heard Geralt doing the same, giving him a slow rhythm to try to match. Geralt’s hand squeezed his and he returned the gesture, and eventually he calmed.\n\n“Good,” Geralt whispered, and Jaskier opened his eyes. The wind had died down again, and the storm was dissipating. He took a deep breath and tried on a relieved smile.\n\n“Thank you, Geralt,” he said, and Geralt nodded.\n\n“I can stay.”\n\n“Stay?” Jaskier asked, slow to understand.\n\n“If you want. For the dreams.” He looked earnest and serious, and Jaskier raised his eyebrows.\n\n“And what of Yennefer? Won’t she be waiting for you?”\n\nGeralt frowned. “Yenn is in her room, I suspect. I have my own.”\n\nJaskier stared, still uncomprehending.\n\n“She’s not waiting for me,” Geralt clarified.\n\n“Oh,” Jaskier said, and then without fully appreciating the consequences he stepped aside and let Geralt in. It was only then that he noticed Geralt was only wearing his smallclothes and a clean shirt that clung to his damp skin, and his hair was still wet from his bath.\n\n“You’ve let your hair tangle again,” Jaskier said, smiling in spite of everything. “Come here.”\n\nGeralt followed him silently to the bathing area and sat on a stool there for Jaskier to comb out the tangles for him. It was a time-honored tradition, platonic yet intimate, that always soothed Jaskier’s heart. He might not be allowed to touch anything else, but he could do this for Geralt. He could take this small pleasure for himself and hold it close.\n\nOnce finished, he set the comb aside and ran his fingers through Geralt’s hair, checking for tangles, and Geralt leaned into the touch with a little hum. Gently, Jaskier removed his hands and backed away. He busied himself with stoking the fire in the hearth until it was high enough to warm the room again, then looked back.\n\nGeralt had climbed into bed, carefully occupying no more than his share of the bed despite his muscular bulk. The sight of him against midnight blue silk sheets made Jaskier’s mouth water and his belly tighten. Geralt’s white hair spilled across the pillow like moonlight, Jaskier’s poetic heart noted, and he cursed himself for his foolishness. \n\nJaskier slid in beside him and lay on his back, staring at the ceiling. Beneath the bedclothes, Geralt’s hand tentatively tucked Jaskier’s into a loose grip, reassuring and solid. Jaskier closed his eyes and breathed. He wanted, and wanted, and wanted, but it was nothing new. He’d lived with this for years, he reminded himself, and he’d live with it for years to come. He must.\n\nHis fingertips rested on the pulse in Geralt’s wrist, and he fell asleep counting the slow beats.\n\n~*~"}
+{"text": "“Entrance exam tomorrow, hm?” Kakashi bounces a rubber ball off the wall. He catches with his left, throws it, catches it with his right, throws it. It snags oddly off the corner of peeling wallpaper and shoots by his ear, crashing against the post of his rickety bed that creaks ominously. After a few seconds, the bouncing dies down, and it rolls somewhere to be never seen again.\n\nKakashi sighs and leans on the back legs of his chair, throwing his head back. “Maa,” he says to the upside-down crayon drawings tacked up above his bedspread, “what a situation I’ve found myself in. School.”\n\nThe crayon drawings, predictably, do not reply. Kakashi stares at the scribbled mess of blonde hair wearing a bleach-white smile that stretches just slightly too far from the confines of Minato-sensei’s lopsided head. Sighs.\n\nThe television crackles in the background, volume turned down low.\n\nKakashi rights himself with a thud of the chair’s legs on the ground, winces—that was not a very comfortable position for his neck—and stands, achingly slow. He pads over to the bathroom, twists the cold tap, cups water in his (too-small) hands and splashes it on his (too-small) face. He avoids his reflection as he pats his face dry, eyes zeroing in on the bottle of hair dye sitting innocently on his counter.\n\nAh. He’d nearly forgotten.\n\nPicking it up, Kakashi squints at the bottle, twisting it over in his hands, distorting the words with the water left on his hands. Sterling Silver, it proclaims, best offer you’ll ever get! The price tag is scribbled out in sharpie. Overtop it is a bright red sticker that says 50% OFF, BUY ONE GET THREE FREE!\n\nKakashi eyes the cabinet under his sink where the other three bottles hide.\n\nSterling Silver. It was the cheapest one at the store…\n\nWhat a stupid name.\n\nHe raises his eyes to the mirror, braving his reflection. He needs a haircut. Slowly, Kakashi combs out his hair with a few fingers, brushing in front of Obito’s eye. Hm. That could work.\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\nHis seat is 19B.\n\nKakashi could find his seat, or he could head over to the only empty one. When he reaches his seat, a predictable 19B emblazoned across it, the test is slated to start in thirty seconds.\n\nThe packet on his desk is thick, a standard pencil set beside it. He slides into the seat just as the examiner stands up.\n\n\"You are allotted three hours for the test. Cheating will result in expulsion from the Yuuei and any subsequent hero schools, plus a mark on your record. Raise your hand if you have any questions. Begin!\"\n\nThe room fills with the rustling of paper, and Kakashi leisurely flips through the booklet, reading everything with a half-lidded gaze.\n\nThe physical exam is mostly for the hero course, so he has to do good here to make it into General Education…\n\nIt's only cheating if you get caught. Kakashi sighs, then hunches over his paper. It's only cheating if you get caught, yes, but Kakashi didn't burn entire history books into Obito's sharingan for nothing.\n\nHe breathes out, softly, and starts on the math portion first. This one should be relatively easy, at least. \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\nKakashi's got to look like he's trying, right? He meanders out of the bus last, hands in his pockets, lurking at the back of the crowd. The bustle of people is loud—too loud—and he squeezes his eye shut briefly, like it'll help with the sound, then immediately opens it. He gives the mob of participants a cursory glance, noting the anxious ones and the confident ones.\n\nHe sweeps another look back over and his eye catches on a shock of familiar lavender hair. Cat kid. Immediately, he slips away, inconspicuous as possible, trying to put more distance between them.\n\nOf course he investigated the boy. Shinsou Hitoshi. Single mother. Quirk: brainwashing. Barely scraping by. Scars on the back of his head and the bridge of his nose where a muzzle would rest. No faith in authority figures, so Kakashi would be safe until he found, say, a more permanent solution to silence the boy.\n\nHe’s loath to kill children, but he does what he has to.\n\nHe always does.\n\nA minute ticks by, the crowd shifting and muttering in front of him. Kakashi stays far away from Shinsou.\n\n\"START!\" a voice shouts. Kakashi snaps his eyes up, scanning for the source. It's a figure, high above, half his height seemingly made up of hair.\n\nResisting the urge to dart into the opening gates, he instead hovers uncertainly with the rest of the classmates. This kind of hesitation would get you killed on a battlefield. He watches the gates yawn open into a city made of concrete, stone arching up into the sky. Sighs. This isn’t a battlefield, though.\n\nHair man shouts something along the lines of Villains won't wait for you! and the crowd gets moving, dust kicking up. Kakashi stays with the pack until it peters out, the test-takers splitting into side streets and running for the giant hunks of metal. Kakashi looks around if distressed, running towards a robot and watching as it blows apart due to someone’s quirk. Some sort of laser.\n\nHe jumps from fight to fight, rubble and rebar tumbling around him. Kakashi rounds a corner and stumbles across Shinsou trapped under a slab of concrete, not injured, just pinned. The concrete is propped up by half a fake, broken storefront. He hesitates, but then, a smile curling across his lips, moves to go help.\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\nHitoshi is going to die. Perhaps a tad overdramatic, but…\n\nHe takes a deep breath in, trying to calm himself. The blackness creeps in on him, thick and tight and suffocating. If he listens closely, he can almost hear the skittering of bugs beside him.\n\nHitoshi tries to take another calming breath. His throat catches. Fuck. Only two minutes in and he's already done for. Great.\n\n“Hello,” a voice says. “Need any help?”\n\nHitoshi cranes his neck up to meet brown eyes. Brown eye. The other is covered by a wash of grey hair. “No,” he answers, despite the very obvious need for help.\n\nThe boy stays solemn. “You look like you need help,” he says, flicking a strand of grey hair away from wire-rimmed glasses.\n\nIf he accepts… he’ll be in debt… “Fine,” Hitoshi says sharply. “Hurry it up.” He rankles at the thought of owing someone, but he needs to get out of here.\n\nThe boy struggles to shift aside the slab but manages, sweat beading on his brow and arms trembling. “Go,” he wheezes out.\n\nHitoshi scrambles away without a second thought, then pauses. Remembers the touch of a warm hand and waking up healed in an alleyway, a cat sleeping peacefully next to him. Unharmed.\n\n“Thank you,” Hitoshi says, the words fighting out of his mouth. He bows, stiff. “I am in your debt,” he spits, and runs to get points before they’re all gone.\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\nKakashi smiles, a faint twitch of the lips. Good. The kid hadn’t recognized him—it stands to reason most other people wouldn’t, either.\n\nHe brushes away the chakra-induced sweat and adjusts his fake glasses, tucking a strand of hair behind his ear that pops out right after. Presses a finger over his bare chin. Contemplates.\n\nHe’ll be home soon.\n\nA loud rumbling begins, the zero-pointer rising up tall. Screaming echoes from the other side of it, and he watches its back as it begins its trek forwards.\n\nPeople run past him, in the direction of safety, and he lets himself be pulled along into its current, yells and shouts echoing in the distance.\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\nKakashi doesn't bother with a greeting as he sweeps into the bar, avoiding the creaky floorboards and grimacing under his mask—a full face one, this time, like his ANBU one used to be—when he steps on a sticky patch of something. Equal chances to be piss or beer, considering where he is: a seedy bar smack dab in the middle of the red light district.\n\nQuietly, he slips into his usual chair in the corner, the one that faces all the exits with a wall to his back. Prime seating he had to fight for.\n\n\n\"That's my spot, loser.\" The slim woman spits at him, the table smoking where it lands. The acrid smell of burnt plastic and charred, chemical-treated wood curls up into the air, framing the woman's forked tongue.\n\n\n\nThe bar goes quieter, eyes turning their way, the clatter of glasses and chatter lowering in volume.\n\n\n\nKakashi doesn't flinch, slumping farther into his seat. \"Ha! You're funny!\" he exclaims, raking his eyes over her. A red-orange tail swipes back and forth behind her. A lizard quirk with acid spit, maybe. \n\n\n\n\"Take it outside!\" The bartender scowls at them, waving a hand at them as if to say shoo!\n\n\n\n\"Sure!\" Kakashi chirps, rising. He hops out of his seat and trails after the woman with a flowing grace, his movements smooth and his footsteps silent, the door shutting behind them with a click.\n\n\n\nThey exit into an alleyway. The air outside smells like weed and stale cigarettes, not much better than the smell inside.\n\n\n\n\"Who're you to sit there?\" the woman asks, fingers elongating into wicked sharp claws.\n\n\n\nRocking back onto his heels, he clasps his hands in front of him as if in prayer. \"Nobody, really,\" he says cheerfully. \"Just your friendly neighborhood villain.\"\n\n\n\nThe woman leaps at him, teeth bared and tail lashing out. Kakashi manages to sidestep, bounding backwards. \"Now, now,\" he chides, flashing forwards to kick the woman in the stomach, \"that's not very nice, is it?\"\n\n\n\nStumbling backwards, she wheezes, the air knocked out of her. \"Shut up!\" She straightens despite her obvious discomfort and spits at him. It goes farther than it should, grazing Kakashi's shoulder. The acid doesn't hit his skin, but he darts away all the same, baiting the woman into another, more enclosed alleyway. She follows.\n\n\n\n\"Too slow,\" he taunts, then races forward and slams her in the jaw, fist following through as her head snaps up almost comically. She's out before she hits the ground.\n\n\n\nKakashi, in a rare show of compassion, hides her limp body behind a dumpster, piling garbage up in such a way that nobody will see her from a glance inside the alley. There's no telling what kind of people will stumble across her. An attractive woman passed out in the red light district? No way someone won't try to take advantage of her. He checks over his handiwork with a nod, then leaves.\n\n\n\nHe re-enters the bar, everyone hushing at the sight of him without the woman behind. Money exchanges hands. Cheekily, he gives a little wave, then sits pointedly down at his chair. \"Don't stop talking because of me!\" he calls after a minute of near-silence.\n\n\n\nSlowly, conversation resumes. Nobody tries to challenge his spot.\n\n\nKakashi sighs, bracing his chin on his hands. \"Get me your cheapest beer,\" he tells the bartender, if only to appease the man. He won’t be drinking anything tonight.\n\nThe bartender nods, then says, “Sure.”\n\nTapping his fingers on his chin, Kakashi waits calmly. He listens carefully to the chatter in the bar, collecting gossip like one might collect stamps or precious metals.\n\nWhen the bartender absently slides a glass across the tabletop, Kakashi doesn’t spare a second glance, keeping it by his elbow and not touching it. Of course, he can keep alcohol as well as any ANBU. Could flush it out of his system with chakra, too, but this body is weak and Kakashi needs all the chakra he can spare.\n\n“Hey.”\n\nHumming blithely as answer, he slots on his mask of indifference to hide the way he catalogues everything about the man who sat down, from the black shoes to the ruffled hair to the way he smells like ash.\n\n“Interested in getting some cash?” Giran, information broker, says. Raises an eyebrow.\n\n“Depends,” Kakashi replies, adding a bit of cheer to his voice. “How much?”\n\nGiran smiles knowingly, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a folded paper. He slaps the table with it, then flicks it over.\n\nCautiously, Kakashi snags it from the air and unfolds it. Inside, it reads—\n\n“Is this a recruitment flyer?” Kakashi asks with a hint of disbelief.\n\n“They’re calling themselves the League of Villains,” Giran drawls. “Say they’ve got a plan to kill All Might.”\n\nKakashi laughs. It’s sudden and he almost chokes on it, wheezing with mirth. “Alright,” he manages to get out, wiping at where his tears would be if he wasn’t wearing a mask. “Anything else?”\n\nGiran frowns, small and slight and fleeting. “They’re the real deal,” he insists, not moved by Kakashi’s weak attempt at directing the conversation.\n\n“How much are they paying you to spew that kind of stuff?”\n\n“They’re—a lot,” Giran admits, cutting himself off. “Gotta go where the money’s good.”\n\n“Anything else, then?\n\n“Hey. Well…” Giran leans closer, as if spilling a secret. He glances around. “I heard All for One is backing them.”\n\n“That ghost tale? I thought he was made to, you know,” Kakashi says derisively, wiggling his fingers for emphasis, “scare children and all that.”\n\nGiran shakes his head before standing. “Well, spread the news, hm?”\n\n“Of course!” Kakashi exclaims, fake-happy. “Won’t let you down!”\n\nAll for One. Finally.\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\nHitoshi yawns, sliding open the door to General Education. The desks are set into partners and then rows. And… he's the first one here.\n\nHe glances at a window and frowns—no wonder. It's still early as fuck. Rubbing at his eyes, he staggers over to a desk near the back of the room and slumps down it, pressing his forehead to the cool wood.\n\nCarelessly, he tosses his bag over the chair beside him, freeing up his arms to pillow his head. Shutting his eyes, he tries to sleep. It comes, eventually, despite the awkward position.\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\nHitoshi awakes to a low chatter and the fading echo of the first bell. He keeps his head down, letting the sound wash over him.\n\nLethargically, he lifts his arms up to stretch, exhaling softly when his bones creak and pop.\n\nThe door slides open as the second bell rings. Hitoshi pays it no attention, eyes instead fixed on the loud Present Mic chatting with a blue-haired boy near the front of the room.\n\n\"Ah, listener, just on time!\" Present Mic exclaims, leaving the blue-haired student to scuttle back to his seat.\n\n\"Hello, Present Mic-san,\" an all-too familiar voice replies.\n\nIt’s the boy from the entrance exam. Shit.\n\nPresent Mic brightens. \"Take a seat! We should have enough time to do a speedy introduction before orientation!”\n\nQuickly, Hitoshi sweeps a glance across the room. He counts the empty seats frantically, realizes there are none, and turns his gaze slowly to the single empty seat beside him.\n\nThe one with his bag on it. That he forgot to move. So nobody sat there and now Entrance Exam boy who had to save him gets that seat of honour.\n\n\"Excuse me.\" Exam boy stands next to the empty seat, stare boring into Hitoshi’s skull.\n\nHitoshi yanks his bag out of the seat beside him. Decidedly does not look at the boy and instead fixes his stare out the window. Exam boy shuffles, sits, shoes scuffing against the floor.\n\nHitoshi begrudgingly looks back at the front of the room when Present Mic speaks again. “You listeners can call me Yamada-sensei, ‘kay? I like chinese food.” The man cocks his head, much like a puppy, and eagerly gestures for someone in the front row to continue.\n\nChair legs screech across the ground. The girl stands up, leaf-green hair sweeping down to her shoulders. “Uhm, hello!” Her eyes are fixed somewhere to the left of the whiteboard. “My name is Saito Hanabi.” She dips her head in a quick half-bow. “My quirk is photosynthesis. I can convert light to energy”—she lifts a hand, producing a pale emerald glow that glints off her glasses—“but it doesn’t stay for long outside my body. Please take care of me.\"\n\n“Cool,” someone whispers. Hitoshi glares at nothing.\n\nSomeone else stands after she sinks back into her chair; her desk partner. He introduces himself in a lazy drawl, displays his webbed fingers as his quirk, and sits back down.\n\nThey keep going, one by one. Most state their name, their quirk, maybe a favorite colour. One boy with big, hooped silver earrings has an uncomfortably long introduction. The rest go quicker after that.\n\nAnd then it’s Exam boy’s turn.\n\n“My name is Akatani Mumiko. I like dogs.\"\n\nHuh.\n\nHitoshi begins his introduction before Present—Yamada-sensei calls on him to do it. \"Shinsou Hitoshi.\" His heartbeat thunders irrationally loud in his chest; he scowls. \"I'm not here to make friends,\" he says, blunt. \"Most of you here have probably tried and failed to make it into the hero course. I have, too. The difference between me and the rest of you is that I'll make it.\"\n\nExam boy coughs. The drag of wooden chair legs on the ground is too loud in the silence. Hitoshi tries not to sink into the floor.\n\n\"Well!\" Yamada-sensei claps his hands together, surveying them with a smile. \"Wonderful to meet you all. Orientation starts… very soon, actually, so let's get moving!\"\n\nHitoshi refuses to shy away.\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n“Hello.”\n\nHitoshi blinks the sleep from his eyes. “What,” he mutters, flattening the end into a demand rather than a question, then yawns. He squints at his seatmate. A small smile crinkles the other’s eyes as he offers a slow blink, mirroring Hitoshi’s own half-asleep state.\n\n“Oh,” Hitoshi realizes after a moment, “you’re Akatani.”\n\n“Yup,” he begins, “and I’m cashing in that favor you owe me.”\n\nHitoshi bristles. “I don’t owe you anything,” he shoots back automatically, then winces. He kind of does. He even said that he was in his debt.\n\n“Eat lunch with me.”\n\nPausing, Hitoshi mentally runs through the conversation again. “...what,” he manages.\n\n“Eat lunch with me.”\n\nAkatani tugs Hitoshi up by the arm, either oblivious to the way Hitoshi stiffens or uncaring.\n\nAkatani pulls Hitoshi along, nearly toppling their desks as they go. Hitoshi’s no choice but to follow or trip over his own feet—something he’d rather not do in front of the slowly emptying classroom.\n\nThe noise level rises with his entrance into the hallway. Students jostle and talk and yell and bump into each other. It makes for a very unpleasant sound, the voices grating and harsh on his ears, but he endures it.\n\nAkatani leads Hitoshi through the crowd. Hitoshi tries to dislodge the hand a few times but the grip is firm. He’s strong, and eventually Hitoshi relents and lets himself be led away.\n\nThey order from Lunch Rush. Well, Hitoshi orders. Akatani half-smiles and tells Lunch Rush to make two. Akatani refuses the little juice box Lunch Rush offers on the side. Hitoshi takes it.\n\nIt’s mango-pineapple.\n\nPrecariously balancing his tray, Hitoshi trails after Akatani, resigned to his fate. The boy strides past all the tables, going right out the doors instead of sitting down to eat. Hitoshi sighs, squares his shoulders, and follows.\n\nThey make their way through the school to an empty stairwell tucked behind the music room. A wide window sends afternoon sunlight splashing across the concrete floors, deepening the shadows around Akatani’s face.\n\nA tray lands with a clatter. Hitoshi startles, gripping his own tighter.\n\nAkatani looks up to him on the floor. “Sit down.”\n\nHitoshi complies, sitting down slowly. He snaps open his chopsticks. It echoes. Akatani stares him in the eye. Hitoshi sets down the chopsticks next to his juice box, opens his mouth, picks his chopsticks back up. What is there to say?\n\nAkatani lifts the tray up to his face. Hitoshi resists the urge to slap the underside and send the fried rice up his classmate’s nose, instead watching with tired eyes as Akatani—sniffs? What the fuck. Akatani just sniffed his food. Seemingly satisfied, the boy puts the tray back down, mutters a quick thank you for the meal, takes a few grains of rice and eats only that.\n\nAkatani then pulls out a small novel from inside his jacket pocket, leaving the rice alone. Hitoshi catches a glimpse of a dragon and a tall tower on a page; in fact, Hitoshi actually knows this story. It’s a fantasy, centered around a ‘damsel’ that can turn into a dragon and the troubles that come with it. It’s… pretty bad.\n\n“You going to eat,” Hitoshi says flatly, ignoring the book in the other’s hand.\n\n“Mhm,” Akatani says agreeably, burrowing his nose deeper into the pages of his book.\n\nThey spend the rest of the time eating in awkward silence. Well, Hitoshi eats. Akatani sits there and reads his novel. Someone’s footfalls thud through the stairs, at one point, but otherwise all is still.\n\n“Why are we here,” Hitoshi says finally. Evenly, without the hint of a question.\n\n“Nobody much comes here, since the garbage cans are right by the door.” Akatani shrugs absently, tapping his chopsticks on his tray. “It’s quiet.”\n\nHitoshi desperately wants to ask Why do you know this, it’s the very first day, but restrains himself. “No, but, you and me…” Hitoshi sits back in a bid to seem more intimidating, eyes narrowed. “You and me,” he repeats. “Why are we eating together.”\n\nAkatani shrugs again. “We need to eat lunch sometime, maa?”\n\nHitoshi opens his mouth to reply, but the bell rings, cutting him off and signaling the end of lunch.\n\n“Better return these trays,” Akatani says, stretching his hands above his head with a satisfied sigh. “Coming?”\n\nHitoshi nods.\n\nWait, when did Akatani finish off his food?\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\nThe next school day, Akatani arrives just on time again. Hitoshi fixes his eyes on the front and tries to listen to Present Mic talk. And talk. Present Mic talks a lot. But then the other teacher comes in quietly, nods to them, writes their name in chalk with quick, even strokes. Cementoss’ voice is even, steady, a low rumble about the pre-quirk era authors compared to the ones today, and Hitoshi fights the urge to nod off.\n\nHitoshi listens, takes notes, answers questions dutifully when called, ignores the way his muscles pull oddly, and when the lunch bell rings there’s a hand on his desk.\n\n“Eat lunch with me,” Akatani says again, leaving no room for argument.\n\n“Sure,” Hitoshi says listlessly back, but makes no move to stand. “One second.” He thins his lips and stands a bit unsteadily, wincing when his leg knocks against the desk leg. “Let’s go.”\n\nAkatani steps back, watches with unreadable eyes. Hitoshi nudges the other boy aside to get to the door. He makes his way to the cafeteria, winces when someone smacks into him, and waits in line silently.\n\nAkatani’s not far behind, of course, and this time when Hitoshi orders his eyes land on the ramen. It’ll be hell to bring back to the stairwell, but he shrugs and decides why not.\n\n“One miso ramen,” Hitoshi requests, holding up a finger in case Lunch Rush can’t hear him. His sleeve slips down his arm, and he tugs it back with an annoyed sigh.\n\n“One miso ramen for me, too,” Akatani adds, stepping over to Hitoshi’s side, and Lunch Rush slides a second ramen next to the first.\n\n“Thank you,” they say in tandem. Hitoshi scowls and takes the food.\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\nKakashi groans, flopping down on his rickety bed. He stays there a moment, then rolls over to check his phone. He unlocks it with an overly long password, exits the 102k smut book he'd been working on finishing, and clicks open google.\n\nHe sighs as autocorrect fills in 'fucking' and backspaces a few times. Recent searches pop up—how to make a child stop crying, how to comfort a lost child, why is my teenager acting weird, how to make friends—and he clicks the wiki link for how to make friends and skims the entire thing again, despite having it committed to memory.\n\n\"Take the first step.\" Kakashi groans again. \"Alright, what do I do now?\"\n\nHaving no friends is oftentimes more suspect than having friends. So he's... Kakashi squints at his screen. So he's getting himself out there. Making friends.\n\nHooray.\n\n\"Are you proud of me, Minato-sensei?\" A half-chuckle escapes him. \"Finally making friends.\"\n\n "}
+{"text": "Molly holds Sherlock's hand tightly as they go back into the restaurant and over to John and Mary's table. They sit across from the other couple. Molly and Mary greet each other and Molly greets John but the words die on her lips when she realizes that the two men are staring each other down. John sits back with his arms folded across his chest and Sherlock lounges languidly in his chair, feigning bored indifference. The fact that he can lounge in a restaurant chair as gracefully as he can on a sofa makes her a little sorry that she insisted on going out this morning.\n\nMolly gives their food orders while the two men continue to glare at each other.\n\nFinally Sherlock sighs. \"Okay, John. How did you figure it out. Please stun me with your massive brilliance.\" Molly kicks him under the table.\n\n\"You can blame her date,\" he says, gesturing to Molly. \"He felt so bad about her having to rush back to work that he suggested we bring her some dinner. So we did. Oh, Molly it was a beautiful spinach ravioli in cream sauce. Which we ended up taking home with us because, when we got to Bart's not only was Molly not there, but no one had seen her since she left at six, no one had heard from her via text or any other channels, and she certainly didn't leave any work undone. They seemed to think that was quite funny, Molly, the idea you'd leave work undone. So well done on the work ethic.\"\n\n\"Thank you,\" she says, looking intently into her cup of coffee.\n\n\"So anyhow, we knew something was fishy but we were also a bit worried so we phoned Sherlock. Went straight to voicemail. This git never shuts his phone off. You can hardly get him to put it on vibrate. So off we went to Baker Street. It's dark and empty there and Mrs. Hudson hasn't seen you since that afternoon when you'd left the flat wearing what she called shamefully tight dungarees. We figured you had to be holed up together at Molly's place, but we weren't going to interrupt. Luckily, Mary remembered that you love this place, Molly. You brought Mary here to recover after her hen night. We figured why not. If we didn't run into you we'd have a nice brunch then pop round to Molly's after since it'd be a more suitable hour. But here you are, walking in smelling like a bordello with your face all glowing.\"\n\n\"Very good, John, I'm glad it only took you several months to figure it out.\"\n\n\"I didn't just figure it out, you prat. We just never caught you.\"\n\n\"Why didn't you just ask me, or Molly?\"\n\n\"Because I shouldn't bloody have to,\" John says through clenched teeth. Molly realizes that John is more hurt than angry, but she's not sure that Sherlock realizes it yet. She gives his thigh a squeeze, trying to communicate to him to be careful. He rubs her hand gently.\n\n\"You're right.\"\n\nEveryone at the table gapes at Sherlock.\n\n\"What?\" Sherlock asks. \"He's right. We were wrong. There was no real reason to hide our relationship from John and Mary. They wouldn't tell anyone or let it slip. So has everyone who needs to know been informed or do we have to tell Lestrade, too?\"\n\n\"Wait, Mrs. Hudson knows?\"\n\n\"Yes, apparently she's known for a while but just let us know she knew yesterday. So how does it feel to be out sleuthed by an old woman?\"\n\n\"This has been just another bloody game to you, hasn't it? Anything else the two of you need to get off your chest, then? Secret marriage? Love child?\"\n\n\"Well, if you must know—\" Molly elbows him in the ribs.\n\n\"John,\" she says, \"That's it, no more secrets. We were just being overly cautious.\"\n\n\"Sherlock, this had better be the last time you ever lie to me, do you understand?\" Something in John's voice makes Sherlock drop all pretense of nonchalance.\n\n\"Yes.\"\n\n\"Right. So, how long has it been, then?\"\n\n\"I kissed Molly for the first time in August, but because of scheduling and a few murders we didn't go on our first date until October.\"\n\n\"October?\" John sputters. \"Sherlock, it's May.\"\n\n\"Fantastic observation, John. Here comes our food. How about we all shut up and eat?\"\n\nJohn opens his mouth again, but then shuts it, shrugging and digging into his food. He is two bites in when Sherlock's text alert goes off.\n\nMolly knows by the way Sherlock smiles that it is a case. John realizes it too and groans.\n\n\"Perfect timing as usual,\" John mutters, throwing his napkin on the table.\n\nSherlock is already up. He gives Molly enough cash to pay for all their meals and kisses her on the forehead before heading to the door.\n\n\"John, I'll have to stop by my flat for a change of clothes. You head to the crime scene.\"\n\nJohn nods and kisses Mary. He takes one last longing look at his meal, grabs a piece of toast, and follows Sherlock out the door.\n\nMolly and Mary stare at the overabundance of food at their table, then burst out laughing. The waitress comes over to refill their coffee and surveys the scene.\n\n\"Well, they had to rush off, didn't they? What are they, surgeons or something?\"\n\n\"No, erm, they're dog whisperers,\" Mary says.\n\n\"Yes,\" says Molly. \"Just got a frantic text from a client. Standard poodle that's developed a bit of a crush on the cat.\"\n\n\"Oh, well, I'll just put this in takeaway boxes then?\"\n\n\"Thank you,\" says Molly. She looks at Mary after the waitress leaves. \"Dog whisperers? Is that the best you could do? I nearly pissed myself.\"\n\n\"Well, I couldn't say detectives, could I? She might have put two and two together and recognized them, despite that awful getup Sherlock is in.\"\n\n\"That's one of John's jumpers, you know.\"\n\n\"Yes, I know.\"\n\n\"So, you're not mad, then?\"\n\n\"A little irritated I've missed out on all these months of relationship talk. All of the girls at work are single and I just can't relate to that whole walk of shame, knickers in your handbag stuff anymore. But no, I'm not mad. I do hope you know that you can trust us.\"\n\n\"I do. And I'm sorry. Really.\"\n\n\"It's okay. So, have you finished that book I lent you, or have you been too busy shagging Sherlock?\"\n\n\"Mary, keep your voice down. And I'm almost finished. It's brilliant. And that's not all we do, by the way.\"\n\n\"Yeah, I guess you are far enough into the relationship for that to be true.\"\n\nMolly's text alert rings before she can retort.\n\n-Got more info from one's only a seven. Should be wrapped up by tomorrow evening if no exciting twists pop up. Pencil me in for a late dinner. SH—\n\n\"Well, looks like my day just opened wide up. Want to see a movie?\"\n\nMary is looking at a text of her own. \"Why not? But let's stream something so we can watch it in our pyjamas.\"\n\n\"Brilliant,\" Molly says. Her text alert rings again.\n\n-You were fantastic, by the way. Glad I didn't have to face him alone. Love, SH.—\n\nShe fires off a reply before turning back to her friend and her meal.\n\n-Always.—"}
+{"text": "\nJunho stepped into the shower, hot water running down his body as he rested his hand against the cold tiles, leaning forward and closing his eyes. His mind kept going back to Youngwoo from earlier, her face so close to his as she looked at him with those big wide eyes. \n\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n\nHer lips were parted, soft puffs of air ghosting across his face and he had to hold himself back from pressing his own to hers. He had seen how she tensed, her thighs pressing together, the little shiver that passed through her when he had pressed his lips to her soft skin. He wondered how she would react when his lips would ghost over her skin, kissing her in places she couldn’t even dream of. \n\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n\nWhat if he had laid her across his bike and slipped his hand up her pretty dress right there and then, pressing it between her legs? Would she have been wet for him? Would she beg him for more? Her soft little voice whimpering for his touch as she spread her legs, unable to wait any longer?\n\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n\nHe reached down, gripping his cock in his hands as he stroked himself slowly, his breathing picking up, letting his fantasy play behind his closed eyes. Maybe he would have her bounce on his cock right there, dress half unbuttoned, his mouth wrapped around her breast as she buried her hands in his hair, tugging on them hard. Pretty moans would spill out of her lips and he would have to silence her, not wanting anyone to know what they were upto, slipping his fingers into her mouth and making her suck on them. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n \n\n\nOr he could have those sinful lips wrapped around his cock as she struggled to take all of him in, gasping for breath. He would need to guide her slowly and tell her how perfect she was, how perfect she looked like that with his cock down her mouth. \n\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n\nJunho groaned, stroking himself faster at the vision. She would be so good for him, eager to please and his body tensed at the mere thought and it didn't take him long to reach his climax, coming hard onto the tiles in front, his breath coming out in harsh pants as he rested his forehead against the wall. He composed himself before he cleaned and washed himself off quickly, eager to get back to Youngwoo who he had left deep in conversation with Myeong Seok. \n\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n\nHe knew that his fantasies would probably never come true but he was okay with that, knowing that having her around him was all he ever actually wanted. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\nMeanwhile, Youngwoo was sauntering along the dimly lit hallways of Junho’s safehouse, stopping to examine each and every object that caught her eye. Su-yeon had been showing her around before she had been called away for an emergency and Youngwoo had reassured her she would be fine on her own while she waited for Junho.\n\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n\nJunho had gone to wrap up some work while Youngwoo caught up with Jung Myeong Seok, the talk mostly consisting of him answering all her questions about working as an unofficial mob lawyer patiently. “Is Hanbada treating you well?” he had asked. “Yes, I like working there and the people have become more accepting lately too.” He had expressed his happiness at that, glad she was being recognised for her talents and not her disability.  \n\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n\nHe had to leave soon after for a scheduled call with a client he couldn't disclose to her and she had bid him goodbye, taking up Su-yeon’s offer to show her around.\n\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n\nNow she found herself alone but she didnt mind one bit, occupying herself with looking around. She turned around the hallway, frowning when she found it familiar from a few moments ago. Had she been going around in circles? Smacking herself lightly on the forehead she turned to go back the way she came. She walked back slowly, trying to map the house in her mind, decisively gripping the doorknob before she pushed it open, just to be met with an unfamiliar bedroom, frowning at her wrong door choice. \n\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n\n“Why is this house so huge?” she mumbled to no one in particular.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n\n“Youngwoo?”\n\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n\n“Junho-ssi?” she peered into the room, eyes searching for the man she had been waiting for only for him to step out of the open closet with just a pair of grey sweatpants hung low on his hips, water droplets making way down his toned chest and stomach, his hair still wet from the shower. “Where’s Su-yeon?” he asked, walking towards her as she stared at him wide-eyed. \n\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n\n“Sh-she got called away,” she stammered out, breathing picking up a notch when he trapped her against the wall, her eyes staring a hole in the wall behind him. “Eyes up here kitten,” he mumbled softly, smiling when she made eye contact, her hands clenching and unclenching around thin air. “J-Junho,” she breathed out again, her heart beating faster when his thumb came to rest on the edge of her bottom lip. “So pretty,” he whispered, leaning in more, hot breath brushing against her ear. \n\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n\nHis hand reached around her neck, tugging her headphones away gently before he placed them on the bed behind, his gaze falling on the necklace he had gifted her now that it wasnt obstructed.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n \n\n\n“A-ah” she whimpered out, hands hesitantly resting on his shoulders. \n\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n\n“You want me to stop, you tell me to stop yeah?”\n\n\n \n\n \n\n\n“Y-yes.”\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n \n\n\n“I need to hear you say it Youngwoo-yah.”\n\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n\n“If-if I tell you to stop, you stop?”\n\n\n \n\n \n\n\n“Not a question. I stop.”\n\n\n \n\n \n\n\n“Okay.”\n\n\n \n\n \n\n\nAs soon as that word left her mouth, his lips descended on hers, lips hot and desperate as she whimpered against him. His kiss was rough, ravaging her mouth as she clung to him desperately. “Ah- ah ah” she called out, pulling away finally for air, her hand extending into the air, flapping wildly as he moved back, panting heavily. \n\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n\n“Stop?” he asked, only for her to shake her head. “Again,” she whispered, standing up on her tip-toes to touch her fingers to his lips in wonder. He obliged albeit slower this time, her lips timidly moving against his. \n\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n\nHe pressed her into the wall, her hands hovering uncertainly between them. She felt his large hand enclose around her wrists, tugging them up above her head and pinning them there and her knees shook, almost giving way at the sudden act of strength. His hand steadied her, tugging her closer but he did not break the kiss. He finally pulled away, resting his forehead against hers, thumb caressing her cheek softly. \n\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n\n“My pretty girl, you have no idea what you do to me do you?” \n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n\nShe shook her head, looking away from his intense gaze and chewed at her lip trying to calm her racing heart. “You drive me wild, the things I want to do to you,” his voice was low and deep and she could feel it down there in her stomach, heat rising from within. “Wh-what do you want to do?” she asked dazedly, tracing her finger against a tattoo of a coiled black snake that snaked up his arm. \n\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n\n“You want to know?” he asked and she nodded reflexively. \n\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n\n“Are you scared of me?\" he asked again, lips trailing slowly down her neck as she cocked her head to the side. \"Aniyo I am not scared of you. You may appear to scare someone because of your intimidating nature but otherwise you are-\" voice hitching when his lips pressed against the swell of her breast over her dress. \"Mhm continue\" he said but her mind couldn't get back to the train of thought, now only focused on the hypersensitive touch of his lips over her clothed skin, brows furrowing. \n\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n\n\"Speak baby, what's going on in that smart little brain of yours?\" he asked, slowly kneeling down as she gulped and looked at the ceiling. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\"J-Junho, I- is this a one time thing?\" she suddenly asked as he looked up in surprise at the question posed. \"One time thing?\" \n\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n\n\"L-Like a hookup?\" she blurted out, making him stare at her before he stood up. \"Hookup?\" he repeated. \n\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n\n\"Yes? Yes I- uh I don't want to continue if th-that's the thing on your mind. I know I am not someone who can be loved easily and I seem stupid to most people but I am okay with that. Y-You can have anyone you want, no one would ever say no to you and you have probably been with a lot of people before but not me. I have never even kissed properly before a few moments ago. Don’t- don’t guide me on if you are doing this for fun. Just don't do this and then leave the next day, I won't h-handle it well-\" she broke off, tears forming in her eyes, her lip quivering as she wrung her hands somewhat agitatedly, Junho blinking at the sudden change in her behavior. \n\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n\n\"Youngwoo? No I would never- hey look at me,\" he said quietly wiping away her tears but they only started to fall harder, her body shaking. \"Please don't,\" she cried just when his arms wrapped around her firmly, pulling her into his chest. “I am sorry, shh, I am sorry, don't cry, please don't cry,” he whispered again and again till he felt her slowly relax in his hold, her cries dying down. \n\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n\nHe turned her around slowly, brushing the stray tears that clung to her clammy skin away with his digits before he guided her over to the bed onto his lap, her legs on either side of him. \n\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n\n“Who filled that in your brain hm? Who told you that you are hard to love?” he asked, playing with the ends of her hair. “It's true, I am not a part of the world you live in and society doesn't like people who don't fit in,” she said quietly, her eyes darting across her lap. \n\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n\n“But I seem to fall more in love with you every moment sweetheart. Maybe we can just build our own world hm? Only you and me?” he teased, brushing his fingers against her waist making her move away, a small smile gracing her lips. “And whales,” she added. “Of course, whales are a must. Gimbap too.” It made her laugh as she nodded and wiped her hand across her eyes, trying to get rid of her blurry vision.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n“This is not a one time thing,” he said turning serious, his voice deliberately slow. “This is not a one time thing,” she repeated in a hoarse voice. “I am crazy about you, I don't know why or how but I am Youngwoo-yah. I think about you a lot and its driving me mad. I can’t seem to concentrate on work knowing I could be with you like this, so close, kissing you all over until that brain of yours only remembers my name,” he breathed out. \n\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n\n“Y-you occupy my mind too,” she blurted out, eyes fixed on his shoulder. “I do?”\n\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n\n“Yes, m-more than whales and dolphins, but you aren't one.”\n\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n\n“Well that's disappointing kitten, do you wish I was one?”\n\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n\n“Aniyo- that would be silly. I like you like- like this.”\n\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n\nA chuckle escaped his lips at the blush that rose on her cheeks. “Makes me very happy to hear \nthat,” his hands caressed her waist, lips pressing soft kisses against her nose and eyes. \n\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n\n“D-do you like me too?” her words made him pause. \n\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n\n“I think I need to show you in a better way how much I adore you,” he said and before she realised, her back was against the mattress, Junho hovering over her, eyes holding such an intense expression it made her shiver. “You” \n\nlips pressing against the corner of her mouth\n\n “are” \n\nlips against her jaw\n\n “so” \n\nlips mumbling against the pulse of her neck\n\n “precious” \n\nlips hovering against her collarbone\n\n “I” \n\nlips brushing against the side of her breast \n\n“lo-”\n\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n\nA deafening sound of what could be a gunshot rang somewhere, Youngwoo flinching, her hands coming to press against her ears. “Fuck” Junho cursed, glancing at Youngwoo who lay below him with her flushed cheeks and mussed up hair, eyes looking at him worriedly before they heard another sound, this time much closer. \n\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n\n“Up,” he said, his voice suddenly harsh, making her scramble up. He stumbled to his closet, hand closing around the firearm he always had at hand before he turned to see Youngwoo staring at him in shock. Her breathing picked up when he stepped closer, almost as she was afraid, her eyes trained on the gun in his hand. \n\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n\nHe reached out for her, almost as if to reassure her that he would never hurt her only for the window in the room to shatter, raining glass inside. He snapped out of his daze, grabbing her arm and her headphones from where they lay on the bed before he opened the door to the bathroom, pushing her inside and securing them over her ears. \n\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n\n“Lock the door from inside and stay quiet, you only open it when I come back and these stay on until then” his tone leaving no room for argument. “D-don't- dont get hurt,” she sniffled, wiping at her face with the back of her hand. “I can’t promise you that, but I promise I won’t let anyone even touch a hair on your head,” he said, stepping back before he left, closing the door softly, unknowingly taking along a piece of her heart with him.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n"}
+{"text": " \n\nFelix can’t believe he’s going to do this again. After his last time at the bookshop he promised himself he’d not follow the couple again if they went to a secluded area. Yet, there he stands, hidden behind a bookshelf whilst he watches Minho stack books as he waits for Chan so they can probably suck face. At least that���s what happened last time… among other steamier things that make Felix blush if he thinks too much about it. Which again, is more than enough reason for him not to be there. He feels guilty.\n\nThis was supposed to be about taking cute photos of the couple’s wholesome moments but it’s gone far beyond that. He realises now he’d been overstepping several moral boundaries by watching the couple so intently for so long. He’s… he’s a stalker, isn’t he? Fuck, he totally is. He might not follow them home, but with how much he’s captured of their lives on camera, he’s definitely in the category.\n\nNot only that. Now he’s stooped to a new low. Watching the couple be together like this when they clearly sought privacy – although still in a public place – was so wrong. However, he couldn’t stop himself from following Minho when he climbed the stairs again, and he can’t control his finger as he takes some pictures of him from the slit in the row of books. These aren’t photos he’ll be posting though. These are just for him.\n\nJust shows how much of a stalker he is. Damn. He’s ashamed, he truly is. He’s been taught better than that. His mother would give him the scolding of his life if she ever knew about it. Even Hyunjin would. But neither Hyunjin nor his mother are there to stop him, and the weight on his conscience loses to the desire to see the couple together again. They sound so pretty while they kiss, the few words they shared and he managed to hear were teasing, sexy. The hushed whispers he couldn’t make words out of were even worse, instigating his imagination to fill in the gaps.\n\nChan passes by the section he’s in without noticing him, a tall pile of books shielding him. Differently from the previous time, Minho sees him coming, beckons him with a wiggly finger and a sly smirk, one of someone who knows how sexy he is. And fuck, he really is. Felix has to wipe drool from his lips, because just seeing Minho like this gets him going. It’s so wrong; these expressions aren’t even for him, they’re only for Chan, and yet there he is, witnessing everything first hand. It’s like a forbidden apple, and Felix is risking everything to take a bite out of it. If only he knew how into it the couple is…\n\nJust when Chan is within reach, Minho pulls him by the collar of his shirt, dragging him to the back of the corridor, his back hitting the books harshly as he loses his footing. Minho doesn’t let that stop him though, kissing Chan like nothing happened. Felix holds his breath as he watches them.\n\n“You’re being too loud baby,” Chan says lowly, voice dropping an octave. He grabs Minho’s hair and pulls it back, making him look into his eyes. Minho usually stands a centimetre taller than Chan, but with him backed up against the bookshelf he looks a bit smaller, and Felix has difficulty seeing much of him. What he can see, though, is Minho looking smugly at Chan, that cheshire grin never leaving his face. Felix bites his lip.\n\nSexy.\n\nMinho is effortlessly sexy, making Felix’s mind reel at the thought that this isn’t something new between them if they’re so comfortable doing these things in public. For the first time he wonders if maybe the couple doing it in public like this might mean they actually like the idea of someone watching them like he is.\n\n“And what are you gonna do about it, huh?” Minho challenges Chan. “You say we gotta be quiet, yet here we are.”\n\nChan groans as Minho hits the jackpot. Yeah, he likes this too, whatever. “You’re such a brat, Min, no need to rub it in, baby, you like it too.”\n\nDaddy, is the thought that crosses Felix’s mind. He’s never thought of calling anyone that, but Chan? He craves it. It feels right. Holding back a whimper, he digs his nails into his palm to keep himself from doing something shameful. Gosh, he wishes so bad he could see Chan’s face when he’s called that. Would he like it? Would that make him pin him to a wall like he did with Minho that first day on the second floor?\n\nA flurry of motion and a dull thud take him from his spiralling thoughts. Chan turned Minho around, shoving him face first against the books. Minho moans louder as he’s pressed to the bookshelf, Chan’s whole body pushed against his. “You need to shut your mouth if you don’t wanna get us caught, Min.” Chan says the words sternly and bites at Minho’s ear. Felix is glad Minho whines, because he lets out a little sound of his own as well. They’re so hot, he can almost taste blood from how hard he’s biting down on his lip to keep quiet.\n\nFrom then onwards Minho doesn’t talk anymore, and Felix watches raptly as Minho scrunches his eyes and puts a hand over his mouth as he tries to keep quiet. Chan’s body covers most of what they’re doing, but Felix can see how he rocks his hips against Minho’s ass, the hand that is not in Minho’s hair pushing him to the wall going around Minho’s body to his front. What that hand is doing there is left to his imagination though. Is Chan’s hand inside Minho’s pants or outside, teasing him to no end? He can’t tell, but he needs to know.\n\nHe might be insane, but he decides to move closer, and silently enough that the couple’s ragged breathing covers for any sound he might make, he kneels down and pulls three books further ahead on the shelf away, lower so he faces more of their middles than their faces, and sets them down on a pile beside him. The new spot is dangerous, he can almost see Chan’s face if he looks up, but he gets almost a side view of them, meaning he can see the heel of Chan’s hand grinding on the obvious bulge of Minho’s pants, the arch of Minho’s back and the roll of his hips pushing back against Chan’s hard-on.\n\nHe can see Minho’s thick thighs so fucking close, quivering and working along with his hips, the veins and muscles on Chan’s arm tensing as he cups Minho’s dick through his trousers. Minho’s mouth is still covered, but the tiny sounds that slip through are so airy and pretty, fitting perfectly with Chan’s grunts and groans.\n\nFelix wants to touch himself so fucking bad, this is better than any porn he has ever watched. His dick twitches and rubs against his pants as he squirms in place, and when they start talking to each other again, telling each other how good they feel, how much they love each other, how they’d fuck each other silly if they were at home... Felix thinks he might cream his pants without even touching himself after all.\n\nThe closer Minho gets to coming, the whinier he gets, and to help him reach his orgasm, the hand on Minho’s hair lets go and trails down to find one of Minho’s nipples, teasing it in circles, pinching it until Minho’s hips stutter and he starts warning Chan of his release. “Chan-nie, p-lease,” Minho hiccups amidst moans, “G-gonna c-cum, f-fuck–” He cries quietly, holding back his noises to the best of his ability.\n\nFelix wants to come as well, wants to beg them to let him, but he holds back from touching himself altogether. He’s already gone too far, and he doubts he can keep quiet if he dares wrap a hand around himself. He blushes at the thought, how much of a pervert he is if he’s even considering whipping his dick out in a public bookshop while voyeuring an unsuspecting couple? Or as unsuspecting as one can be doing all that in public… Fucking hell, just thinking how they would punish him if they were ever to find out he was spying, how hard would they be on him?\n\nMinho gasps, and before he can outright scream into the air in the silent bookshop, Chan puts a hand over his mouth, cutting his sound almost completely. Minho’s eyes roll back, as do Felix’s as he soils his pants along with Minho. He holds his breath and slumps against the shelf while the couple winds down as well. He can’t even tell if Chan came, but he’s gonna guess he did. There’s no way he could’ve not when Minho is just so pretty unraveling like that.\n\nAfter Minho and Chan leave their little corner, Felix walks away too, leaving the bookshop without looking at the couple as shame heats up his ears and coils around his stomach. He promises himself he won’t be back, that he’ll put an end to his madness. He’s better than a pervert that watches people in their private moments… He really is…\n\n\nHe… he is… right?\n\n\n \n\n \n\nHe’s... not.\n\nHe’s in fact a filthy pervert who is spying on the couple again. Minho is against the wall again, this time with his legs spread as he sits on top of a tall stack of books, Chan grinding their dicks together while sucking at Minho’s neck and talking dirty by his ear. And Felix is at his new spot, kneeling on the ground and hiding behind the shelf like it's his reserved spot for a show. Minho and Chan do make a show out of it though.\n\nHushed whispers, quiet moans and hands exploring, they leave nothing behind. And today Chan seems to be twice as hungry, tasting the sweat that builds on Minho’s skin like it is water in the desert, Minho holding on to him for dear life as the stack of books sways underneath him from the strength of Chan’s hips against him. \n\nPerhaps it’s because he’s not been caught after so much has happened, but Felix is feeling bolder today, and before he can grasp what he’s doing, his hands are on his dick over his well-fitted jean shorts. He almost chokes as his hand finally gives him some relief, and right away he can tell this is a big mistake. He’s not used to being quiet, he’s as whiny as one gets, and he’s treading turbulent waters already just with the visual stimulation. The rough fabric over his soft underwear gives him that much friction though, and the pressure of his hand throws him into a haze in which his only thought is to seek more.\n\nHe watches Minho and Chan basically dry hump each other over their clothes, mouths less than an inch apart and breathing hot puffs of air in each other’s faces. They look starved for each other even if they clearly get it on often. It only makes it hotter for Felix, to see such passion between the couple he’s seen being so soft for so long. It’s so different to see this fire between them, burning hotter than hell and as intensely as their love, their hot embers making Felix burn as well.\n\nMinho and Chan come, their voices mingling so prettily together as they keep grinding until they’re both done and only their quiet heaving fills their little corner. Felix is close too. He’s so into it, he’s so close and their lazy aftermath kiss, all tongue and drool and so fucking messy throws him over the edge. But he slips up. He comes with a high-pitched moan, not too loud, but loud enough there’s no way the couple hasn’t heard it.\n\nHis eyes shoot open and he panics, pulling away from the bookshelf he had leaned his forehead on and falling to his ass. He tries to get up quickly and get the fuck out of there before Chan puts those huge arms to good use on Felix and not in a way he’ll like, but his legs feel like jelly under him and he trips, falling again and even letting his phone slip away from his grasp.\n\nHe looks forward to where it slid to the entrance of the section he’s in. His breath is punched away from him, his blood drains from his face and limbs so fast his vision even darkens for a second. His phone is beneath a foot. Minho’s foot. And behind Minho is Chan. Fuck. He’s so fucking fucked. As fucked as someone will ever be. He can see his name in a newspaper cover already: “bookshop pervert caught spying on people”. This is how his life ends.\n\nHe can’t breathe or get up, and with both of them standing there he doubts there’s any point in trying to run anyway. He’s been caught.\n\nMinho takes his phone and saunters over to him with Chan on his tail.\n\n“Tsk tsk, naughty boy~” Minho says slowly, his index finger tutting along with him. Felix is trembling, stuck in place since his body has decided that running isn’t an option. He’s scared, Minho has a dangerous look on his face that Felix can’t really discern what it means, although it seems to hold some amusement. “What shall we do with you, hm?”\n\n“Minho, you’re scaring him,” Chan reprimands Minho, then crouches in front of Felix, raising a hand to his cheek, fingers brushing lightly over his skin, as if he’s trying to show he means no harm, but Felix flinches all the same. “You poor thing, don’t be so scared, we’re not mad.” Chan smiles softly at him, doing his best to sound soothing and not horny with the whole ordeal.\n\nFelix perks up at his words, looks up at Minho, who’s still standing, with wide eyes, then back at Chan, as if he can’t believe it. “Y-you’re not?”\n\nBoth Chan and Minho’s eyes widen, Chan looking up at Minho and scoffing in disbelief. Felix’s voice is nothing like they thought it’d be. It’s so deep, not fitting the moan they heard or his cute face at all. It’s hot though, and Chan can already imagine how much Minho will love getting him to crack and moan all high-pitched and cute for him. Well, Chan will enjoy doing that very much too. That is, if Felix agrees to their proposition.\n\n“We knew you were there from the beginning.” Minho smirks, crouching beside Chan and offering Felix his phone back as if to show him it was ok. “We’ve seen your thread. We’ve been watching you too, you know?” Minho smiles when Felix takes it with a shaky hand. “Our very own little stalker.” Minho titters.\n\nFelix pales again despite both saying they aren’t mad. “Y-you- I- I’m so sorry, I can delete it! And I didn’t record anything up here I promise–” he tries to apologise, but is interrupted by Chan’s finger on his lips. He gulps loudly, cheeks flaring.\n\n“We’re not mad, Felix,” Chan says, “but sneaky perverts need to be punished, don’t you think, little pixie?” he smirks, biting on his lip as his eyes rake Felix’s tiny frame. He’s Chan’s height, but sitting on the ground and watching them with big wary eyes he looks so small. He’s thinner than both of them too, doesn’t have all the meat Minho has on his thighs or the build of muscles Chan has on his arms and shoulders.\n\nChan’s way of putting it seems to finally hit Felix, and once more his eyes flick between Minho and Chan, trying to assess if he’s understanding well what is going on. His throat feels dry at the pet name, he likes it way too much. Chan’s voice is like honey to his ears, sickly sweet and enticing. It feels like a dream, but he’s getting whiplash from all that is going on. First he discovers they knew he was there… for how long? And if they knew why did they let him continue…? Does that mean it was ok that he did it? Did they like knowing Felix was there?\n\n“I… I don’t think I understand…”\n\n“Oh, I think you do, little pixie.” Minho smirks as Felix’s pupils double in size at the nickname, then he kneels and leans forward. Felix can’t even move to lean away, just gasps when Minho’s face stops an inch away from his. “Do you want to join us? Wanna let us put you in your place? We’ll take very good care of you, I promise you that.”\n\nFelix gawks, looks at Chan, then at Minho again, trying to gauge if he’s going insane and imagining the whole thing.\n\n“Only if you want to…” Chan says, “but like I said… naughty boys like you need to be punished, don’t you think, pixie?” Chan tilts his head to the side and raises an eyebrow.\n\n“J-join b-both of you…?” he croaks out, then clears his throat, “A-are you sure? I…”\n\n“Only if you want to, of course.” Chan reassures him. “If you don’t want to, you can just walk away.”\n\nLike Felix would ever refuse such an opportunity.\n\n“I want to, I’d love to…” he blushes, avoiding their intense gazes on him.\n\nChan and Minho smile at him, bright and satisfied, and help him to his feet. There’s a moment of silence and then Chan extends his hand to him. “I’m Bang Chan, nice to meet you Felix.”\n\nFelix blushes, reaching his hand out to shake Chan’s. “Uh.. nice to meet you.”\n\n“Well, aren’t you two cute?” Minho rolls his eyes. “I need to get back to work, but you should discuss things with him, Channie-hyung.”\n\n“T-things…?”\n\nMinho blinks blankly at him. “Boundaries. If we’re doing this we have to set some, know what you’re comfortable with.” Felix nods eagerly, still unbelieving that this is really happening. Is this really ok? He had been doing something so wrong, and yet they’re acting as if everything is fine.\n\n“If you have time, we can sit at the bookshop’s cafe and talk a bit,” Chan offers, knowing very well that Felix has at least two more hours free, because he’s usually watching him flirt from afar with Minho whilst he works.\n\n“S-sure… but…”\n\nBoth of them stop in their tracks, waiting for what Felix has to say.\n\n“Isn’t it better to wait for all of us to be together…? I…” he doesn’t know how to put it, but it’s kind of hard to believe both of them are really agreeing with this. Why would they even want Felix, their stalker, to do anything with them when they have each other?\n\n“I’ll join you guys whenever I catch a break, but don’t worry, I trust Chan to discuss this with you, and this whole thing was my idea anyway, so…” Minho shrugs, as if it’s nothing much. To Felix it is a whole lot though. Minho had planned this? This... what? Is he falling into a trap? Will Minho call the police while he talks to Chan?\n\n“Hey,” Chan snaps him out of his own head, “If you’re not comfortable with this, you can walk away anytime, no hard feelings.” Felix searches his eyes for lies, a trick, anything, but he can’t find any. He… Chan seems like someone he can trust, although he’s probably biased from watching him from afar too much.\n\n“O-ok, let’s talk.”\n\nWith that, Minho goes to his station behind the central counter, and Chan accompanies him to the cafe. They sit at the last table, close to the mathematics section, where Chan knows there’s usually no one sticking around for too long and they’ll have more privacy. Felix sits down first, Chan pulling his chair close to his by the round table so they can talk more quietly without risking anyone eavesdropping on them. Although the only one who would do such a thing in this bookshop sits next to him.\n\n\nFinally.\n\n\nAn awkward silence settles between them, with Felix fiddling with his fingers and looking down at his hands or away from Chan, feeling both a bit wary of the situation and shy.\n\nChan clears his throat, trying to drown his natural awkwardness by leading the conversation. Usually he’d leave that to Minho, since he’s much more blunt with what he wants, but he can do this. He wants to make this work. He’s about to try and make at least small talk and break the ice when Felix beats him to it.\n\n“Is this really ok?”\n\nChan tries to read Felix’s expression – he looks worried. Well, if Chan had been caught doing what Felix did… he'd be as well.\n\n“It really is, don’t worry, Felix,” Chan says reassuringly, “You know, a friend of ours found your thread many weeks ago. And although I was kind of scared at first,” Chan laughs, continuing before Felix starts apologising again, “Minho was really eager from the start to play with you. I ended up being swayed pretty easily too.”\n\n“But… why?”\n\n“You’re cute. Your reactions to us are nice, your view on our relationship is adorable, and you’re a bit of a pervert.” Chan sees Felix’s eyebrows frowning again and rushes to add, “That was a compliment, by the way.”\n\n“O-oh,” Felix’s blush spreads to his ears, from this up close, Chan can almost count his pretty freckles. And just like that it’s like a switch is flipped in him, his awkwardness swiftly drifting away.\n\n“Do you like that, pixie? Like being called a pervert?” He whispers, watching how Felix’s Adam's apple bobs as he swallows, his teeth catching his lower lip briefly as he nods positively. “I need words, pixie.”\n\n“Y-yeah, I like it,” Felix answers, his gaze still not meeting Chan’s.\n\n“And do you think you can be a good boy for us?” Chan tests the waters, knowing very well that Felix might not be into what both of them want from this encounter even if he enjoyed spying on them during their little adventures.\n\nFelix gulps, face red as a tomato. He wants to. It’s very embarrassing, but he really wants to be good for them.\n\n“Only if you’re comfortable with it,” Chan adds, a little flustered himself.\n\n“Is Minho-ssi really okay with this?”\n\nChan scoffs, shaking his head. “He’ll get off on it as much as I will, don’t worry. You can ask him later if you’d rather confirm with him too. You can also call him hyung, he’ll like that a lot,” Chan smiles.\n\nFelix can’t believe it’s really happening. However the more he talks with Chan the more he learns he means every word he says. So they keep chatting, Felix loosening up little by little as they wait for Minho to show up, and once he does, he sits at the table with the biggest smile ever. He kisses Chan softly, then winks at Felix, as if it is a treat to him and not his boyfriend. It sends all kinds of butterflies in his stomach flying.\n\n“So, what did I miss?”\n\nChan fills him in on some things Felix and him discussed, like a safety system in case any of them got uncomfortable, in which they settled for the colour system for the sake of simplicity, some of Felix’s hard noes and some of theirs that Chan had told Felix about. Minho hummed and listened in silence for the most part, nodding at times to confirm he was paying attention.\n\n“So what I gather from all this is that little pixie will be a very good boy, hm.” Minho grins, a fingertip rubbing the back of Felix’s hand as he leans to whisper in Felix’s ear. “Are you, little pixie? Will you be a good boy for Channie-hyung and me?”\n\nFelix feels like he must’ve been a saint in his previous life to deserve Minho and Chan talking to him like that, scrambling his brain with sugary words that sounded so dirty. “Yes…” Felix looks at Minho, “I’ll be good for hyungs.”\n\nFor the first time since Minho joined them he’s the one a little flustered. Of course, there’s no problem with that. It’s not like Minho isn’t used to being called hyung, it’s more about how adorable Felix looks as he says it, with those big innocent sparkly eyes that make him want to do unspeakable things to him.\n\n“Did the fairy catch your tongue, baby?” Chan teases him, breaking him out of the daze Felix had put him on. He blushes, being put in the spotlight like this.\n\nHe stammers a quick “s-shut up” and stands up. “Well, since we’re done here, I’ll get back to work. Set up a meeting with him, Channie-hyung! Bye~” he runs away from the scene, leaving a chuckling Chan and a shocked Felix behind.\n\nAnd so the conversation goes for long minutes, with Minho sometimes showing up again, being mostly covered by a very grumpy Changbin. By the time they’re done and Felix gets up to go home, his legs feel like gelatine under him, and he’s sure it’s because all his blood is concentrated in his flaming cheeks and his hummingbird heart.\n\nHe has… a threesome scheduled… with none other than his favourite couple.\n\n "}
+{"text": "The drag contest? A weird joke, but fine. Any other year but this one, it was entirely voluntary right up to the day of, so that one got a pass.\n\nBut an actual beauty pageant? For teenage girls, with an audience of mostly guys? That was creepy. Again, it usually got a pass since it was voluntary, but a certain new teacher just had to get her hands on the controls. She cranked it all the way up from ‘off-putting’ to ‘what were you thinking?’\n\nNot that most of the crowd complained.\n\n“Man, we scored this year!”\n\n“I know, right? Yukiko-chan and Risette? I think the universe is paying us all back for how sucky this year started!”\n\n“Hey, quiet down! You really want Narukami to know you’re eyeing up his girlfriend?”\n\n\n Even if they weren’t vocal about doing so (and \nsetting aside that Rise wasn’t his girlfriend\n), Yu knew. He knew without \nactively\n trying to read the crowd. They acted like any other audience for the ‘Miss’ Pageant, but now that it was real women \nwho\n were coming to the stage, he felt like the sheer weight of their combined stares should have pressed its boards into wood pulp.\n\n\n\nSex sells. Plain and simple. He knew a few brokers who’d have all of Yasogami by their wallets in an hour if they had the chance.\n\n\n\nSurprisingly, there were more than a few girls in the audience, too. It looked to be about a third, by Yu’s estimate. None of them were staring down the stage with the same slack-jawed demeanor as the guys, so he ruled \nout the possibility of them being\n a gay crowd covertly expressing their orientation. What could they be hoping to get out of this? He tried to tune into a group of them talking nearby. They had the decency to whisper properly, but with a little effort, he could still make out what they were saying.\n\n\n“You’re kidding, right? It’s not even a fair fight. Kashiwagi is going to get her butt handed back to her.”\n\n“Yeah, but like, by who? Sure, Risette is popular and all, but Amagi is a local legend. You know, that stupid Amagi Challenge?”\n\n\nAh. That explained it. From the looks of things, Kashiwagi had earned a great deal of scorn. Rise was her main target, but any girl who had a mote of popularity was fair game for her ridicule. No one was going to openly call out a teacher, though. The next best thing? Watching her go up in smoke against the student body she tried to lord over.\n\n\nYu occupied himself with his idle observations and eavesdropping. Much could be learned if you were willing to drift into the background and listen. Parsing out the din of a hundred overlapping conversations wasn’t quite as relaxing as sinking in the babbling of a river, especially the Samegawa, but it beat letting his mind roam on memories best left buried.\n\n“Say, wasn’t Shirogane signed up, too?”\n\n\n “Wait, what? The Detective Prince, \nthat\n Shirogane!?”\n\n\n\n Hmm. There was a new thread \nfrom one of the women clusters\n. Yu tilted his head just so. Enough to hear them more closely, but not so much as to make them suspect him.\n\n\n\n “\nI heard someone put her name on the board, and Kashiwagi wouldn’t let her drop it.”\n\n\n“Ugh, that’s horrible… But, she does have a mysterious charm to her. Think she could take the win?”\n\nIn the span of a sentence, their thoughts turned from empathy to examining it as another part of the act. Disgusting.\n\n“Hmm… I don’t know. She hides so much under that big coat, and looking around, I think most of the votes here will be looking for a fuller figure.”\n\n\n “I guess so. She’ll \nhave\n to show what’s under that thing for the swimsuit part, though. She might surprise us.”\n\n\n\n That was when it became harder to hear them. Not because the chat ended, nor because they lowered their voices, but because the tapping of Kanji’s foot drowned them out. He was staring at the back of the next seat, his hands locked together over his mouth. \nThe look in his eyes was one of rabid anxiety.\n\n\n“Just had to be a swimsuit part. Would’ve been fine if she could stay in her coat, but no, they’re making her do that shit.” He must’ve been overhearing them, too. Knowing Kanji, it was gnawing at him all day, and them talking about it in earshot made those thoughts even more ravenous. “What pinhead thought that was a good idea?”\n\nYu couldn’t do much to assuage Kanji’s worries directly, but he could probably help derail them for a few moments.\n\n\n “Hanako.” His voice was a puff of air, only holding his words long enough for himself and Kanji to hear them. “She and Kashiwagi talk a lot. I overheard them brainstorming ways to show up the others, and Hanako said that Rise might \nuse some fancy idol costumes to ‘trick,’ her words, the guys into thinking she’s pretty. It was a short jump from there to taking away the clothes advantage as much as possible.”\n\n\n“...Yeah, that makes sense.” Kanji brought his thumbs up to massage the bridge of his nose. It was like his brain was having indigestion at the thought. “And, sure as shit, Kashiwagi couldn’t help herself when she realized she could make guys look at her in the next smallest thing to underwear.”\n\n\nAs quickly as the fires in him were stoked, they simmered down, leaving Kanji once more as a wildly crackling mess. In any other setting, Yu would have applauded him for not lingering on his anger to cope. Considering what he was stuck on instead, though, it wouldn’t have been the best timing. Maybe he could bring it up later, depending on how this went.\n\n\nAny further need for distraction ended with the heavy clack of stage lights. Conversations sped up to finish their final thoughts, then died out.\n\n\nFrom stage left, the announcer emerged, refreshed and ready to rumble. He left the goofy pink wig behind, letting his short, windswept hair breathe. He kept the sunglasses and bow tie, though, which was understandable. Those bright lights could do a number on the eyes, and the bow kept some heat off his neck. Maybe he skipped the wig specifically because it was getting too stuffy. Even with the pink streak gone, his voice still bounced with \npep\n.\n\n\n\n “\nWelcome back to the show, everyone! I hope you saved some energy, because now, it’s time for the Miss Yasogami Pageant!”\n\n\nAs the crowd went wild, Chie stared out from stage right. She knew how it must have looked when she stormed off for the dressing room with all that thunder, but now that she was actually at the show itself, her heels were quickly going cold.\n\n“So… This is how it looked for those guys, huh? It, uh… It’s really something...”\n\n\n “\nIt’s okay, Chie. Focus on your breathing.” Rise was doing just that, honing in on the methodical rise and fall of her chest. Besides that, she was as cool as a summer breeze. “Remember what I showed you for the concert and you’ll be just fine.”\n\n\n“This isn’t like the concert, though.” Even as Yukiko tried to follow Rise’s advice, she couldn’t help the unease welling up inside her. How her Shadow managed to flaunt for a camera before, she would never know. “Everyone there was having fun with us. Now, they’re the only ones having fun.”\n\n“Butterflies in you stomach? What a shame.” Well, them and a few key others. Whenever Kashiwagi deigned her competition worthy of her attention, her gaze was always laced with bitter cruelty. She rarely shied from baring her fangs, but now, in the dark where no one else could see her, the real ugliness of her heart bloomed like bouquet of hemlock.\n\nBut then, you couldn’t have a bouquet with only one flower. Enter Hanako.\n\n\n “It’s no fun to beat someone that’s not even trying. Why not let them run away? \nThen we wouldn’t have to wait so long to win.\n” \nHer own taunts were so funny to her that she went into a fit of mocking laughter, broken up by labored snorts for air.\n\n\nThat sound. That gasping, croaking sound set the hairs on the back of Chie’s neck to rise. She remembered all too well when that pig’s snoring kept her from sleeping. When she was driven so mad that she risked expulsion just to get away from it. Suddenly, whatever she was worried about went out the window. It was a whole lot easier for her to focus when she was pissed off.\n\n“And before we forget, let’s welcome our guest judge for the evening, Mr. Teddie!” The announcer stepped aside, letting the winner of the last pageant take his rightful place.\n\n\n When he reached the stage, the real reason why the announcer wasn’t wearing that wig came to light. It was sitting proudly on top of Teddie’s head. He had even personalized it, moving the rose bro\no\nch from his shirt up to the side of his new afro, right where the pick would have been sticking out in \nan old disco video. He was dancing the part as well, sliding on stage with his arms spinning around each other and his head bobbing. The crowd ate it up, cheering and laughing almost as much as when he won that spot in the first place.\n\n\n\n “Thank you all for the warm welcome! But, I’m sure we have something even \nhotter\n, right?”\n\n\n\n “That we do, my friends!” \nThe announcer pulled out a handful of cards, fanning himself off with them as he continued. “Yasogami is a land of beauties, and a handful of them have come here today to prove they’re the best of the best!”\n\n\nRight. They ‘came’ here, Naoto thought to herself. Much like how lions and tigers ‘came’ to the zoo. She was glad she could disappear behind the dueling egos backstage, but how long would that last in front of a crowd? She could only hope.\n\nHer hopes fizzled as the announcer began to read his list.\n\n“First up is the mysterious transfer student, of the first-year’s class one, Miss…!”\n\n\n “\nHey!\n”\n\n\n Naoto jumped from one shock to another as any and all pretense of civility fell from Kashiwagi like a musty coat. She glared from behind the curtain with murderous intent at the student who dared place someone ahead of her. He was paralyzed by her interjection, which was surely heard beyond the stage as well, but he was thrown back into gear when she tapped at her nonexistent watch. He cleared his throat, hastily shuffled through his cards, and began again. Much to Naoto’s relief, she saw her card had been relegated to the bottom of the deck.\n\n\n “\nMy bad, folks. What I meant to say was, our first contestant is, naturally, the very first brave beauty who answered our call...” Even spooked into compliance, that announcer tilted the show in his favor, albeit subtly. Kashiwagi couldn’t see the way he rolled his eyes from behind him, but the audience in front of him caught it loud and clear.\n\n\nKanji seemed to enjoy it, breaking out of his spiraling panic to crack a grin.\n\n“That ain’t helping her vote, is it?”\n\nTeddie ran to the other end of the stage, leaving one judge on each side.\n\n“The terrific teacher here to tutor the tots thereafter…!”\n\nAnd like that, Kanji lost his grin. In fact, he was downright bewildered.\n\n“Senpai, when and why the Hell did you teach that bear sarcasm?”\n\n“Wasn’t me.” Yu lifted his palms in surrender, a light chuckle breezing out with the claim. “He probably picked it up from Yosuke.”\n\n“Kashiwagi-sensei!”\n\nOh, now that was interesting, Yu thought. Both of the judges said her name, but he noticed that Teddie only mouthed the honorific. He didn’t actually call her ‘sensei.’ Of course, Kashiwagi herself didn’t notice as she strutted to the stage, much to the tepid cheers of the audience. She must have filled in the missing clamor herself, as she didn’t drop her sexier-than-thou demeanor.\n\n\n “\nGood afternoon, my dear students. Are you ready for a \nspecial lesson\n?”\n\n\nThe crowd’s response was superficially positive, but behind the polite clapping and the one-or-two people who actually liked her act, a few guys muttered what they really thought.\n\n“Yep, just like having class with her.”\n\n“She really thinks she knows what we like, doesn’t she?”\n\n“You know, setting aside how she’s twice our age.”\n\n“Eh, if it were only that...”\n\nAny and all praise, no matter how watered down it was, got soaked up by the dry sponge of Kashiwagi’s heart. She basked under the stage lights as a sunflower, tilting her head back in a haughty laugh. Yukiko rolled her eyes, but Rise was using hers diligently.\n\n“Hey, look, I can see her crow’s feet.”\n\n“Finally, someone else noticed those things!”\n\n“Ah, how wonderful to have such adoring fans.” Kashiwagi was deaf to criticism, turning to the backstage with an invitational wave. “Hanako, dear, come here and feel the love.”\n\n“Okay, Ms. Kashiwagi!”\n\nThe announcer put on a brave face, but he visibly withered inside as the reins of his show were yanked from his hands. He sighed away from the microphone before attempting to cover the usurpation.\n\n“And here comes our second contestant, from the second-year class three, Hanako-chan!” He decided to skip the gag portion of his written notes. He had an intense premonition that there would be enough of an introduction already. The mild applause refreshed for the second coming, and...\n\n“Hey, you like what you see!?”\n\n...Yep, there it was.\n\nThe two of them waved out to the crowd, but the way they held their noses up said that the cheering, no matter how much they enjoyed it, was to be expected. It was only natural for them to be showered with all the attention they wanted.\n\nTeddie stood in the wings for a few moments, glancing between them and their ‘adoring’ public. Kanji happened to glance over just as an idea struck the pink-haired bear.\n\nFor a brief second, he swore up and down that it looked like an assassin closing in with a knife. It was gone before he could commit it to memory, leaving him to wonder if he hadn’t just imagined the unadulterated malice in their softest member’s face.\n\n“Wow, you two are positively glowing!” Teddie was acting all happy and bouncy, like usual. Maybe Kanji was mistaken after all. Just as he was shaking the fever dream, though, he saw a glint of steel in Ted’s eyes. And his smile was a little too wide, a little too sharp. Hungry. “Is our humble pageant all you hoped it would be?”\n\n“Yes, it’s lovely!” Kashiwagi preened on, unaware of Teddie’s piercing stare. “Stars can only shine their brightest on the right stage. And this, hmhm, is the perfect stage for us.”\n\n“Everyone knew we were great before, but now we can show them our best!”\n\n“Too true, Hanako, too true!” Kashiwagi laughed into her hand, winking coyly at the students. “I only hope our bright selves haven’t blinded everyone. Otherwise they won’t even see the other… contestants.”\n\nFurther back in the audience, many openly winced at the claim. She was trying to mask her contempt for girls who weren’t her or her bootlickers, but it wasn’t working. Everyone already knew she thought at least one of them was ‘jailbait.’ Kanji wasn’t surprised, but he was disgusted nonetheless.\n\n“Someone should tell her she ain’t in a swimsuit yet. Way too early for this much bare ego.” As Kanji shook his head, he noticed that Yu was smirking. He relaxed in his seat like he was thoroughly engrossed in the show. “Senpai, don’t you see this shit every day? Why’s it got you hooked now?”\n\n“Did you notice Teddie?” It was almost like Yu had marched right on by the question, but Kanji trusted him to not be so dismissive. He must’ve been going somewhere with this.\n\n“You mean how he looked like he was gonna jump her and slit her throat?”\n\n“That, and what he said. Did he ask them to gloat?”\n\n“Uh, no. The question was kinda… normal, I guess. Just what they thought about the...” That’s when it clicked. Kanji was left staring as he stumbled into what caught Yu’s attention. “What they thought about the pageant. And those two think it’s an excuse to show off.”\n\n“A classic trap.” Yu wished he had brought some popcorn. This was turning out to be quite the spectacle. “Hand someone else the shovels, and let them start digging. Leaves them holding all the dirt.”\n\n“...Again, what the Hell are you teaching this bear?”\n\n“More than I thought, obviously.”\n\n“I hope you’re having fun so far, but we’re just getting started!” The announcer sprung in as soon as there was a lull in their dialogue. He didn’t lose his last show to Bara-Monroe or the Ice Queen, and he wasn’t about to lose it to two girls who didn’t know a high school pageant from a red carpet event. “Our third contestant is a firebrand from the second-year class two. Many unlucky guys out there know her well as the hot-tempered dragon guarding one fair maiden’s heart.”\n\n“Wha- Is that what they all think of me!?” She could have played ignorant, but Chie saw recognition run in streams through the crowd. In fact, she could remember a couple of those faces particularly well. She knew Yosuke’s would be among them if he had been there.\n\n“Introducing Chie Satonaka! Come on out, Chie!”\n\n“You’ve got this.” Yukiko saw her off with a smile and a firm fist pump. “You wooed me without even trying, so those guys should be a breeze.”\n\nHa. Good to see Yukiko could look back and laugh. If nothing else, Chie could call that a victory. She still felt the thrums of pressure as she made to present, something Rise couldn’t ignore.\n\n“Remember. Just breathe, and keep your eyes on the prize.”\n\nRight. The prize. As Chie made her way to center stage, followed by the gaze of a cheering crowd, she saw Kashiwagi and Hanako all but looking down their noses at her. Those smug jerks. Her temper flared, and the frost of caution melted from her steps. Those two were her opponents here, no one else.\n\nIt was hard to think that way when she faced the crowd to introduce herself. Suddenly, it was like staring into the headlights of a passenger plane as it came crashing down on her head. Just as she was about to lose her cool, Teddie jumped in and blotted out a solid quarter of the staring student body.\n\n“Welcome to the show, Chie-chan! Are you as fired up as the other girls here?”\n\nChie felt a pang of familiarity in how he said that. It was almost like when he was the one watching over their battles. He used that exact tone of voice when pointing out enemy weaknesses. Was that what he was doing, pointing out the gap in their enemy’s defenses?\n\nBecause, it was kind of working. She was about to retreat into her shell, but she couldn’t beat them if she shrank in on herself now! No way! Teddie won his way into that wig by being bolder than the rest, and if Chie couldn’t muster up more guts than a red-and-blue pretty boy bear, what kind of fighter was she!?\n\n“You bet I am!” She snarled through her grin and spat smoke as she pointed defiantly into the crowd. “If you think you’re getting close to anyone else up here with me around, you’ve got another thing coming!”\n\nThey wanted to call her a vicious dragon? Fine. Then she’d give them what they wanted! Those knights she struck down as they ventured after Yukiko’s attention saw their old foe return, and while some slumped into their seats at the sting of old wounds, many others chose to laugh and clap.\n\n“Hey, from way over here, isn’t her attitude kind of charming?”\n\n“I get what you mean. Now that she’s not barking after us, she’s like a… scrappy underdog taking on Kashiwagi.”\n\nKanji overheard them, and he shook his head.\n\n“They’re just happy she’s taking on someone they don’t like this time.” Still, Kanji looked on at Chie’s vigor with no small amount of respect. She was owning her reputation well.\n\n“Woo, it’s getting hot up here! How could we possibly make it hotter?” The energy was spiraling up around the stage. From Teddie, to Chie, and now back to the announcer. He signaled a pass to the audience as he launched the hot potato like a fastball. “How about with the princess this dragon’s been keeping to herself? Freed from the tallest tower to walk among the peasants, it’s Yukiko Amagi of the second-year class two!”\n\nThe crowds were especially loud as the potato detonated in their fingers. Kanji covered his ears so he wasn’t deafened by the verbal blast.\n\n“Damn, they really have a thing for Yukiko-senpai.”\n\n“Clearly.”\n\nHe and Yu shared a look. They weren’t about to out her aloud, but they knew what they were both thinking. ‘Too bad she doesn’t have a thing for them.’\n\n“Okay, you deal with people all the time. Just like hostessing at the Inn.” Yukiko breathed in, and when it came out, it was like a robe being draped over her. Her head was straight forward, and her steps were short and even. Rise nodded approvingly.\n\n“Pulling inspiration from different places, nice! That’s how you give people a one-of-a-kind act.”\n\n“I-is that so?” It was probably too late to be asking herself, but did Naoto have any transferable skill sets like that? Professional interviews, no matter how sensationalized, differed a bit too much. As did her elementary school keyboard concerts, or the full concert she played in a few scant weeks ago.\n\nAs Naoto let herself get lost down another whirlpool of half-baked solutions, Yukiko entered the light to overwhelming applause. The hands she had crossed in front of her tightened their grip slightly, but beyond that, she held off any visible reaction.\n\nTeddie noticed this, as well as the distinct manner she portrayed herself. She settled into her spot on the stage, and he was there to greet her.\n\n“Thank you for gracing us this evening, Amagi-chan. And, might I say, your complexion is dazzling in these stark lights. Is this the famous Amagi Inn hot springs at work?”\n\n“Yes, it is.” Yukiko let her cheeks relax and tick up in the most subdued of smiles. “The warm mineral water is relaxing and cleansing. If you’re ever in the area, please give us a visit.” She bent down in a smooth bow, and as she came up, the waves of her hair trailed gently along. She was as the river, aloof, yet mesmerizing in her grace.\n\nThe crowd more than made up for her own lack of zeal, their cheering redoubled. This was the Yukiko Amagi so many of them pined for. Distant, but almost within reach, like a spirit dancing in the mist.\n\nYu almost had to laugh. It was like watching sailors telling each other about the mermaids they saw at sea. Yukiko was playing the part of the legend they wanted swimmingly. And, at the same time, she was weaving in endorsements for her family’s business. It was a class act, one he would have to compliment her on later. And Ted for catching onto it, of course.\n\n“Thank you very much for the invitation, Yukiko-chan! It sounds like a lovely time.” The announcer gave away a hint of his burgeoning excitement as he saw who was on his next card. He cleared his throat, then launched back into the performance with enthusiasm to spare. “Now, we’ve seen the fire and finesse of our very own Inaba, but how will it hold up against the best that Japan at large has to offer? Please, put your hands together for Rise Kujikawa!”\n\nSome small part of Yu noticed that he failed to mention which class she was from. But then, no one really needed to have who Rise was clarified. They all knew her. The auditorium was already sounding like one of her normal venues with the racket that the guys were raising. The girls largely sighed and rolled their eyes at the idol fever, though a few joined in on the fun.\n\nHis attention returned to the stage just in time to see Rise skipping up front. She was waving both hands in quick, sweeping greetings, making sure they faced every direction at least once. It was a small way of making the audience feel like she was aware of, and grateful to, each and every person in attendance even though her eyes were closed. A way to keep the initial burst of those stage lights from blinding her and making her wince, most likely.\n\n“Hi-hi! My name’s Rise Kujikawa!”\n\nAh, ‘my name is’ instead of ‘I am.’ She was acting as if this was her first appearance, her chosen response providing her name instead of assuming people already knew it. No subtlety of the kind cut back on just how loud the crowd was at her entrance, but it implicitly undercut the idea that she was at all conceited in her fame.\n\n“I’ve only been in town a little while, but it’s a great place and I’m one hundred percent thrilled to be here!”\n\nNow, that was how you endeared yourself to people. Where Kashiwagi’s introduction felt like she expected them to like her already, Rise’s went out of its way to make them feel special even though they actually liked her from the get-go. Or, more aptly, that was part of the reason why people liked her. She never forgot she was there for them, not the other way around.\n\nIt was a shame the structures built up around idolhood wore her down so much, Yu thought. She was a natural talent. Some investors just didn’t know how to properly care for a good thing when they found it. Short-sighted pricks.\n\nWhen Rise opened her eyes, her gaze happened to link with Yu’s. There was an initial thrust of shame in how obvious he made it that he was looking right at her. After everything he had put her through these last few months? But then, she smiled a little wider. Almost imperceptibly so. A wave of warmth washed over Yu’s heart, and for a little while, he felt clean again.\n\nMother always warned him about girls like her. They knew how to entice your fortune right out of your pocket, and you wouldn’t even know it until you were looking at her from the other side of a divorce hearing.\n\nWell, Mother-dearest could go choke on her fortune. Yu was actually happy here. In fact, he was so happy that he didn’t notice time pass as the announcer thanked Rise and she moved back into line with everyone else. He only snapped out of it when Kanji elbowed him in the ribs.\n\n“Earth to La La Land, you there Senpai?” He had a wry grin on his mug, and a mischievous gleam in his eyes. Yu felt the pink rising to his cheeks.\n\n“Yes. I am. Sorry, don’t know what happened.”\n\n“Sure you don’t.”\n\nYu hadn’t felt this short on words for several months.\n\nBut to Naoto, it was a new experience entirely. No matter how she twisted the pieces, she couldn’t find a way out of this predicament. And now, standing alone backstage, she knew her luck was running dry. The flap of shuffling note cards filled her with dread.\n\n“Now that we’ve seen the beauty, here comes the brains. An enigma stalking the murky streets, she’s stepping into broad daylight for all to see!”\n\nWhile Naoto respected the creativity behind her introduction, it felt like a handful of mud being slapped in her face. Her supposed brains weren’t doing her much good. Their gears were clogged by all this filth.\n\n“Next is the mysterious transfer student, of the first-year’s class one, Ms. Naoto Shirogane!”\n\nHer waning pride was a bitter lump to swallow as she shuffled out of her vestigial cover. The trench behind her, she was left to face the booming cheers and piercing gazes of no man’s land. They were staring at her, picking her apart like maggots chewing through a rabbit’s corpse.\n\nShe sank deep in the shame, hiding behind the flaps of her coat’s neckline. It didn’t do much to cover up her missing hat, however. Normally, the longest strands of her hair were tucked up so that it didn’t surpass her chin. Now, the navy blue locks flowed free, rolling down almost to her shoulders. That one gap in her disguise shattered the illusion of androgyny she carefully constructed. She stood on that stage, undeniably, as a girl, and most everyone down below watched her with certain expectations.\n\nOne smart guy noticed how unsettled Naoto was, and he found a devilish grin. A pair of fingers lifted up to his lips. He took a deep breath. He was ready to blast the high and mighty Detective Prince with the whistle to end all catcalls.\n\nA sharp slap to the back of his head made all the air whump out of him like a broken whoopie cushion. He spun around in his seat, ready to give the bastard who hit him a piece of his mind.\n\nAll that rage froze in his throat when he saw the scowl chiseled onto Kanji’s face. There was murder in those eyes. The would-be catcaller slowly turned around, sat down, and tried to make himself look as small and meaningless as possible.\n\nThe exchange slipped past Naoto’s notice. Her field of view was fuzzy at best, like her brain was preemptively repressing the experience. She couldn’t see any single person, but she was sharply aware of their combined presence. It was one thing to be watched by a normal studio audience for a news broadcast. It was another for that audience to be all but picking the clothes off her with their eyes. She was crushed under the weight of their hungry expectations. Her voice could only escape as a mouse-like squeak.\n\n“H-Hello. I’m… Naoto Shirogane.” Her normal tone was unfamiliar on her tongue. It was physically easier to speak, but mentally, it hacked at her confidence with every letter. This wasn’t what the person she wanted to be sounded like. Not at all. A detective spoke with confidence, not demure resignation. She felt her stomach churning…\n\n“It’s great to have you here, Shirogane-san.” She was shocked when one person came into clear view. Teddie was as goofy looking as ever with that wig on, but the way he spoke was more measured than usual. Loud and performative, but not immature. It was a few paces closer to the sort of announcer she was used to conversing with. “If you don’t mind me saying, though, you seem a little high strung at the moment. Let me guess, work’s been rough?”\n\nOh thank God. A professional topic. And it came bundled with an excuse for how reclusive she was behaving. What little control she had left over herself immediately piloted the rest of her shambling meat suit to follow that thread.\n\n“To put it lightly. I was up late… investigating a robbery.” The thing that was stolen being her self-respect. Oh, look, she found a few grains of it. She would need that in a bit. “Crime never sleeps. And neither do I, apparently.”\n\nOkay, she sounded like a narcoleptic Batman, but it was preferable to sounding like a curvy airhead. She could stomach this result.\n\n“I think I speak for everyone when I say, thank you for your service.” The announcer filled in for her lacking energy, tipping over in a bow so low that one of his legs lifted off the ground behind him. “And for finding the time to join our show! We’ll have some coffee waiting for you during intermission.”\n\nShe gave him a halfhearted nod of acknowledgment before scurrying to the end of the lineup. She was still visible, but much less so in the shadows of more popular girls. Rise leaned over an inch and whispered.\n\n“You’re doing great. Just one more part to get through and we’re done.”\n\n“Perhaps.” Now that she was allowed to breathe again, Naoto was reminded of how hard her heart was pounding. Her chest was being repeatedly battered by a drumstick. “But it’s the next part I’m dreading most.”\n\n“And with that, all six uniquely beautiful contestants are on stage!” The announcer stepped up to the forefront, conveniently standing right in front of Naoto. His blessing, though, came with a curse. “But sit tight, because this year, there’s a twist! By the suggestion of one enthusiastic sponsor, the Miss Yasogami Pageant will now feature a swimsuit competition!”\n\nHe held out the microphone expectantly, but the rebound added was only a drop in the bucket next to the earth-shattering cheers leased by his ravenous crowd. Caught in the middle of it, Kanji’s anger was left to simmer.\n\n“Don’t these idiots know there’s swimsuit shit all over the net for free?”\n\n“Rule one of adult entertainment; the market doesn’t bloat. People always want more.”\n\n“Fucking animals.”\n\nThe announcer took back his mic with a flourish, nearly yelling to be heard.\n\n“We’ll take a short break while our contestants change. Don’t go anywhere, because the show will go on in just ten minutes! After you, ladies.”\n\n“Let’s go, Hanako-chan. It’s time to sweep these pretenders off their feet.”\n\n“Hehe, yeah!” Hanako was close on Kashiwagi’s heels, the two sustaining each other’s egos as their ‘adoring’ public was left in the dust.\n\n“Grr… Still hate them. Hate them SO much.” Chie hoped they choked on their chortles. Yukiko walked by, her aloof act creaking open as the mics went silent.\n\n“Just stick it out a little longer. It’ll be great to watch them eat their words, right?”\n\n“Oh it better be. If I go through all of this and don’t get a front row seat to it blowing up in their faces, I’ll blow up!”\n\n“Don’t worry, you’ll get that seat, Chie-senpai.” Rise winked as she passed. “Those two think that slapping on a swimsuit and jiggling a bit is enough. There’s a technique to this sort of thing, though. You want some tips?”\n\nNaoto was the last girl on stage, trudging along behind the rest. Every second under the harsh lights was draining her, and soon, her skin would be exposed to its searing rays. She glanced out at the audience one last time, knowing that they would eat her alive anew in a few short minutes.\n\nBut she didn’t see the wide, faceless mob this time. Instead, she somehow found herself looking right at Kanji. He was staring down at the row in front of him with a scowl. When he looked up and saw her, his expression softened. He gave all the sympathy he had to her in that exchange, and sealed it with a low thumb-up.\n\nIt was a small gesture, and she only saw it for a second before slinking into the dark backstage again, but any assurance was welcome. At least there was one person down in that pit who was on her side in all this.\n\n \n\n-\n\n \n\nThe first thing Naoto did when she got to her makeshift changing room was throw her coat over the mirror. The curtains hung up around her kept anyone else from seeing her, and now, she couldn’t see herself.\n\nIt was a comfort that couldn’t last long. She kept her eyes level as she changed from there. The most she saw was her exposed shoulders. Even with these layers of defense, when she picked up her… stage outfit, she shuddered at the sheer lack of layers.\n\nIt was the best Rise could find in her size, though. That woman was infuriating sometimes, but if she could have found a more reserved option, she would have gotten it for Naoto. Junes didn’t stock school-sanctioned one-piece swimsuits. All they had were bikinis. And for Naoto’s size, there wasn’t anything available with longer skirts like Yukiko’s, nor concealing sportswear like Chie’s. It was just a pair of cups and brief bottom piece. It might as well have been waterproof underwear.\n\nAt least it was a flattering color. Dark blue, a cool, calming shade. Maybe she could hide in the dark of the stage yet.\n\nIt wasn’t too uncomfortable to put on or wear either. The bottom didn’t cut into her skin, and the top was supportive enough without squeezing excessively.\n\nOh joy, so she could use the full capacity of her lungs to hyperventilate when everyone started staring at her. That was just wonderful. No, really. Next she’ll get the choice of what knife to plunge into her own heart.\n\nShe was in her swimsuit relatively quickly. It was on before anyone else. But she couldn’t bring herself to leave the booth from there. She sat in front of the coat-blocked mirror and shut down. She would hold onto whatever privacy she could get for as long as she could keep it, because after this, her body would be an open secret. What privacy could she get when everyone had seen her stripped down like this?\n\nThe classroom door opened and closed a few times. The others were finishing up. Soon, the excuses would run out. Their footsteps grew quieter and quieter, until only one set remained in the room with her. The last one left came close to her booth.\n\n“Are you okay? Do you need help? Or, someone to talk to?” Rise’s voice was soft and worried. She must have thought Naoto was blacking out again, just like when they found out about the involuntary sign up.\n\n“I’m roughly as okay as I can be, given the circumstances. And the… swimsuit wasn’t difficult to put on. Thank you for helping me find this one.”\n\n“No problem. I’m always here if you need me.” She didn’t sound convinced that Naoto was alright. Naoto wasn’t much convinced either. “So, how do you think you look?”\n\n“I don’t know. I covered the mirror.”\n\n“Ah. I see.” A silly question, but not one she could really be blamed for. “Shows like this suck, right? They call it a beauty pageant, but the judges are always narrow-minded about what looks good or not. People have different tastes. The girls in them have different tastes.”\n\nBeauty is in the eye of the beholder, they say. In Naoto’s experience, it was a quote that everyone knew, but that very few used earnestly.\n\n“I appreciate what you’re trying to do with this small talk, Rise, but it’s only delaying the inevitable.”\n\n“I’m actually trying to make a point!” Rise took a breath to gather herself, then she continued. “That narrow view I mentioned, it hurts a lot more than just girls in pageants. People think that a girl trying to look good anywhere is vain, or stupid, or some crap like that. It’s people who think like that who made you so worried about being seen as a girl at all. Right?”\n\n“...You could say so, yes.” The sting of exclusion was still fresh. It always would be, she feared. If it was between her and Rise, maybe she could open up about it. “In an isolated sector such as law enforcement, people look for whatever they can to discredit newcomers. The cards were already stacked against me, since they saw my name and age and thought I was just some brat parading around in my parents’ shoes. If they saw me as a girl on top of that, or saw anything about me that so much as hinted that I wasn’t serious… I never would have made it this far. Doors would have slammed shut.”\n\n“I realize that linking all of it to just my gender was a mistake on my part, that they still saw me as a brat and excluded me anyway… But...”\n\n“But you’re still afraid that them seeing you as anything but the Detective Prince will make you lose everything you’ve worked for.”\n\nNaoto didn’t answer. She couldn’t. Rise had hit the nail on the head, and it hurt.\n\n“...You see what I mean? They look at a girl being a girl and see stuff like this. Beauty pageants and skimpy outfits. But people are more than just that. I mean, do you look at me and just see some dumb idol?”\n\n“No… I see someone with a passion for making people feel better. Someone who has worked hard to get where she is.” Naoto crossed her arms on her desk, and she glanced back with a small, wry smile. “And I see a devil who enjoys pressing people’s buttons a little too much.”\n\n“You’re dang right!” It was good to laugh. Naoto spent enough of her life not being able to do that. “What I’m trying to say is, people will always try to put you into boxes you don’t belong in. You can let them, you can try to make them put you in a different box… Or, you can be yourself. Anyone whose opinion is worthwhile will see you for who you really are. You think someone will really look at your record, at all the crooks you’ve caught, and throw it all away just because you’re a girl? Only an idiot would do that.”\n\nRise’s idea sounded… nice. Utopian, even. But, it felt too out of reach.\n\n“That’s easier said than done, you know. After all the repression I’ve undergone, I can’t even look at myself without feeling sick. Let alone allowing anyone else to see more than my face.”\n\n“And that is why I’m making you an offer.” A note of determination hit Rise’s tone, a sharp pang of confidence that made Naoto listen. “Like I said before, everyone has their own tastes in looks. This showy swimsuit stuff? Obviously not you, but it’s what you’ve been forced into thinking a girl should look like. It’s what all those kids out there think looks good. But I want to help you find what you think looks good.”\n\nNaoto nearly laughed again, but much more pointedly.\n\n“Are you genuinely trying to help me… with a makeover?”\n\n“Hey, laugh all you want, but I’m serious.” Rise turned around, leaving with one last pearl of wisdom. “The first step in making others accept you is being able to accept yourself. And I know one of the first times I was ever able to accept myself, was the first time I could look in the mirror and like what I see. Everyone deserves that much.”\n\nRise tapped away after that, the door closing behind her with finality. Naoto was left alone with her thoughts, and Rise’s thoughts.\n\nShe spoke a lot of truth. Being buried in unfair expectations was a sad fact of life. Responding to them somehow came naturally, either by sinking into them or actively refuting them. What kind of person would it take to march through them without a second thought?\n\n‘Haven’t we been screwed over by stuff like that enough?’\n\nKanji’s advice arose as briskly as it first arrived. Rules that weren’t even rules… Boxes that you were filtered into without reason… Those things were linked. Naoto was preemptively sorted out as a bratty little girl, and bratty little girls, they decided, didn’t deserve respect as a detective.\n\nIt was a straightforward claim. If X, then Y.\n\nBut the statement was flawed. Despite being a girl, Naoto had filled the role of her station. She was among the few who knew the supernatural bent of the Inaba murders. She was closer than anyone to finding the killer. She was a Shirogane, through-and-through, not just some brat dumped into the name by circumstance.\n\nThey couldn’t call her a brat and retain their respect, so they would call out her womanhood instead. And yet, she wasn’t a brat either. Neither the root of their disrespect nor the smokescreen meant to cover it held water. It was all a fallacious cycle of self-aggrandizement to which they meant to sacrifice her for their precious status quo. And she had allowed it to chew her up, to mangle her view of herself.\n\nShe had allowed them to create shame in the idea of being anything less than perfect. In the idea of simply being herself.\n\nShe looked up at the covered mirror, and with a dry gulp, she reached towards it. Her fingers were heavy. Her bones were leaden weights. Her heart pounded, and her lungs tried to make her take in air to compensate, but she forced her breathing to remain slow and constant. She wouldn’t fuel the trepidation of her heart, and when it burned through its fuel, it slowed.\n\nShe reached the coat. And she pulled it down.\n\nThe face staring back at her wasn’t some monster. It wasn’t repulsive, no matter what the wheezing of her stomach said. It was just a face. Her own face, bordered by her own hair. The tips of it laid daintily on her collarbone, coming to little blue curls as they rested. She lifted her heavy hand and made her stiff fingers run through it. Her hair was soft and smooth all the way down. She let her fingertips linger at the curled ends of her hair, rolling it between them. These longer strands, that she had hidden for so long, were still pleasant to the touch.\n\nShe took in the shape of her face, too. Now that it wasn’t tucked between a high collar and a low cap, she noticed that the sides of her head were gently curved. They paired well with the long strands of hair running beside them. This was the first time she had looked at herself so directly since she was twelve, at least. When did her features become so… soft?\n\nAnd yet, when she looked at her eyes, her gaze wasn’t any less attentive. They flicked to every minute detail, finding and exploring the curves and bumps of her appearance with studied ease. The thoughts in her head didn’t suddenly cloud, either. If anything, having something brand new to examine like this was a treat to her inquisitive mind.\n\nNo matter what she looked like, nor what she registered as how she looked, she was still the same Naoto inside. She was still the Detective Prince. She was still a Shirogane.\n\nBut then, that was about as far as she was willing to explore at the moment. She noticed that she was holding her coat in a way that hid anything below her neck from view. She wasn’t ready to see that particular aspect of herself just yet. Exposure therapy worked best in increments.\n\nIt was for the best anyway. This swimsuit, she decided, was absolutely not for her.\n\nAnd why was she wearing it? Just to appease the ego of one powerless teacher? Did Kashiwagi think her fair game just because she was, technically, a girl with notoriety? The same narrow box she stuffed Rise and Yukiko into? Ludicrous. Simply ludicrous.\n\nHer internal ranting was interrupted by a knock on the classroom door. It didn’t open, but a voice came through it instead. She recognized him as one of the stagehands for the pageant.\n\n“Excuse me, Shirogane-chan? The show is about to start. Is everything alright?”\n\nNaoto took one more look at herself in the mirror. She looked into her eyes, as if discussing it with herself, then nodded in agreement.\n\n“Yes, everything is fine. Tell them to run the show without me.”\n\n“Huh? I mean, the show is already going. Your part is coming up...”\n\n“And I have decided to not participate further. I apologize for any inconveniences, but my choice is final.”\n\n“Um… Okay. If you say so.” Seeing no way to cut through the awkwardness on his part, the stagehand opted instead to leave it at that. He walked away, Naoto’s resignation in hand.\n\nKashiwagi would certainly take it as a victory. She would think Naoto left because she couldn’t handle competing against her anymore.\n\nShe could think that as much as she wanted. Naoto truly could not care less. Right then, all she cared about was getting out of that glorified bra and into clothes that were more her taste.\n\nAh, speaking of taste, she forgot all about her coffee. It was cold, but she was fine with that. Her eyes were wide open.\n\n \n\n-\n\n \n\nRise skipped back into the line, her feet kicking up to obscure just enough of her backside to keep anyone from getting too clear a view of her butt. A professional tease was a delicate balance of what was and wasn’t shown. It wasn’t easy to strike that happy middle without an editor splicing film, but Rise knew enough to get close to the mark all on her own.\n\nShe tried to impart that knowledge onto Chie and Yukiko, but the two still felt wildly out of their depths sandwiched between a trained idol, two clearly untrained attention seekers, and a whole lot of hungry glares. Yukiko’s distanced act was looking more and more like an unevenly painted daruma doll. She wished they hadn’t bothered to paint in her eyes.\n\n“How did you keep up with stuff like this every day?”\n\n“I didn’t.” Rise kept her happy-go-lucky demeanor outwardly shining while her voice hissed like a deflating balloon. “Now you see why I dropped being an idol.”\n\n“...Yeah, I definitely understand.”\n\nRise didn��t lie about how tiring it all was, but at the same time, she sort of missed the thrills that came with the back-breaking work. The hearty applause she got for her performance was a warm broth she had yet to find a substitute for. It was fulfilling to be back in the saddle one more time.\n\n“Thank you very much, Risette!” Their announcer was all charged up. One performer’s spirit jump-started another’s, and he was running all the way home with it. “Don’t use up all that excitement just yet, people, because we still have one more beauty to behold!”\n\n“Here it comes.” Kanji shuffled uncomfortably in his seat. The guy in front of him jumped on reflex, but it flew under his radar. The only shithead trying something funny now was a teacher, and Kanji couldn’t slap her for it even if he wanted to. He was about half-and-half on that, honestly. Which way he tipped depended on the next few minutes.\n\n“You did everything you could. We all did.” Yu hunkered down, his eyes shaded over by the tilt of his head. “Now, we’ll see if it worked.”\n\n“Last time, everyone put your hands together for…!” The announcer raised a finger to the sky as if to call down the thunder, but the weatherman was distracted by someone inching out of stage left. A stagehand was barely visible, a hand cupped around his mouth. His whispers scratched the mic. Not even Yu could decipher it. Only the announcer was privy to the details. “Really? You’re sure about that? Okay, okay.” The stagehand vanished, and their host stuttered back into character with a conspicuous cough.\n\n“There’s been a small change of plans, unfortunately. It seems Naoto-chan has opted out of this part of the show.”\n\n“Ha!” Kashiwagi didn’t need a microphone to be heard all around the room. Her haughty laugh likely crossed the school on its own. “That’s one twerp down, three to go. We’re on a roll, Hanako-chan!”\n\n“Huh. Would you look at that.” The tension that had been coiling up in Kanji as a hissing cobra misfired all at once. He didn’t know what to do with the broiling nerves he had been sitting on now. “She actually took my advice. Heh. Who would’ve thought.”\n\nYu let out a sigh, though it wasn’t in relief. It was more like the beep of a bomb being disarmed. The announcer pointed to the back of the auditorium, and other stagehands began passing out slips of paper and pens.\n\n“With that, all our contestants have strutted their stuff, but who among them shined the brightest? That’s for you in the audience to decide!”\n\n“Make your choice! But keep it a secret!” Teddie huddled with a finger held over his lips. “Where’s the suspense if it isn’t a surprise?”\n\nThe lead-up was part of the fun, sure, but Yu knew who Kanji was picking. His Kohai didn’t wait a second past getting his ballot to fill it out. Yu took a few seconds more to decide, but this last round sealed his vote rather well. Took guts to show up in a swimsuit. It took more to throw it back in a corrupt despot’s face.\n\nThough, he voted with some certainty that his and Kanji’s calls would be little more than cries into the void. Guys showed up wanting skin, and Naoto hadn’t shown them any. He heard a few among them chatting about it against Teddie’s request, and every name on that stage popped up across the board. It was a chorus of unorganized chicken scratch.\n\nBut then, he noticed that there was much more consistency among the softer tones. His eyebrows lifted with great intrigue.\n\nHelpers collected their ballots in a sealed box, and after a few minutes backstage, the results were handed to the announcer on one last slip of paper.\n\n“And the votes are in! Hold onto your seats, because this will be winner takes all.” He opened the final tally with a fanciful flourish, though he exposed its face only to himself and Teddie. The latter made quick work of the numbers.\n\n“It looks like you fellas out there were in a heated struggle for the top pick. It’s neck-and-neck across the stage for the guys’ votes!”\n\n“But for all your struggling, the decision was made by an uproar of support from the ladies. It’s a landslide! We’ve never had a gap like this, people!” Spotlights followed them as they spread to opposite sides of the stage. A drum roll tapped along as they held out for any suspense they could wring from the moment. “Miss Yasogami 2011 is…!”\n\nThe lights dimmed. Everyone was at the edge of their seats, waiting for one brilliant beam to rain down on the victor. They were all blinded when the whole stage lit up, and the hosts proclaimed, “Miss Naoto Shirogane!”\n\nThere was much bewilderment to be had. The guys were looking around like a bunch of chickens dumped in an unfamiliar coop. About a sixth of them were left to cheer for their pick, and though Yu and Kanji ranked among them, they held their peace for the moment. Yu in particular found it pleasing to turn his ears on the quiet cheers and high-fives spreading among the girls.\n\nHe was almost as pleased to see how Kashiwagi and Hanako’s faces withered at the revelation. The dams were breaking. And it seemed Yu’s own prodigy was as keenly aware of it. Teddie took a sidelong look at their devastation, and that evil gleam came back with unsheathed fury.\n\n“Yes, her dedication to the detective arts let her steal all your hearts, as the competition falls apart! She might not be here, but if we clap hard enough, she’ll have to hear us anyway! Come on, make some noise for our big winner!”\n\nThough many of their votes were for naught, no one in the audience wanted to be a party pooper. They clapped and hooted and hollered per Ted’s orchestration, their exuberance crashing hard against the fragile shores of Kashiwagi’s ego. The dam burst, and as she grit her teeth to hold it in, her frustrations came screaming out as a torrent of tears.\n\n“H-how… How… How could I lose a BEAUTY PAGEANT!?”\n\nBeside her, Hanako felt no rage. Only crushing defeat. She sobbed and hiccuped as their fantasies shattered around them like so much glass.\n\n“Miss Kashiwagi… I-I can’t believe thi-i-is!”\n\n“Oh Hanako!”\n\nThe two receded into their bubble of self-pity, a star imploding into a black hole of despair. With them sucking up all the sadness in the room, Chie snickered in the abundant leftover happiness.\n\n“Got stuck in this dumb swimsuit by Yosuke again. Worked myself up for a fight. And we were all beaten by someone who didn’t even show up. That’s… actually pretty funny.”\n\n“Shame she wasn’t here to see it herself.” Yukiko watched the high-and-mighty Kashiwagi lose all her bluster as closely as possible. She was going to relay it all to their champion, down to the smallest detail.\n\nMeanwhile, Rise could only nod, graceful in defeat.\n\n“I knew you had it in you, Naoto.”\n\nYu couldn’t hide his smirk if he tried. All around him, obscured by the clamor of Ted’s calculated assault on their enemies’ weak point, the girls celebrated their victory. This wasn’t just a bunch of people having the same idea on a whim. It was a conspiracy to put a shared enemy in her place, and Naoto was their unwitting ringleader.\n\nHis mother told him how dangerous a conniving woman could be. Perhaps she wasn’t completely full of it, for once.\n\nHis eye trailed over to Kanji, who found a good use for his nervous energy. He craned back in his seat, faced up at the heavens, and he laughed. He was a captain at the head of his ship, watching a galleon sink before him. The crown wasn’t his that day, but he sure as Hell felt like the king of the world."}
+{"text": "Alicante Academy was an amalgamation of every fancy boarding school shown in movies and on television. The buildings were red brick, the lawns were immaculate Kentucky green, and the uniforms were plagiarized from much older schools in much older countries. The dark gray commemorative plate near the entrance proclaimed the institution’s establishment in 1872.\n\nRaphael found his own way to the Administrative Building, accepted a thick stack of paperwork from the woman behind the counter, and followed a senior student named Underhill along winding, gravel pathways to his designated dorm building.\n\n“That’s the Science Building,” Underhill said, gesturing to a wide, rectangular box with polarized windows. “You’ll be spending at least half your class hours in there, so try to memorize the floor plan as soon as you can.” His long, pale arm swung in the opposite direction. “Gym’s over there: workout room, Olympic pool, and three halls for indoor activities like tennis, basketball, soccer, archery, kendo, what-have-you. Outdoor courts, track and field, and shooting ranges are behind the chapel on the back forty with the horse stables.”\n\n\nBecause of course they have horse stables. \n\n\nRaphael rolled his eyes. He trailed after Underhill who rattled off more orientation stuff, moving rapidly past three or four other buildings before they arrived at the dormitory.\n\n“This is Blackthorn Hall, your home for the next two years.” \n\nThe building was not what Raphael had expected. It was an old two-story Tudor, whimsical chimneys and all. Triangular gables protruded from the length of the steeply pitched roof, framing diamond-grill casement windows. Craftsman timber on top of old-world masonry.\n\nRaphael wanted to puke. Everything about the place was anathema to him.\n\n“You’ll get used to it,” Underhill said as if he’d read his mind.\n\nHis room on the second floor was little more than a shoe box with a twin bed, a desk, and a window.\n\n“We don’t do roommates at Alicante,” Underhill explained, “but that means some of the rooms are pretty small, and naturally, seniors get first choice.”\n\n“It’s fine.”\n\nRaphael wasn’t even lying. He couldn’t care less if they stuck him in a coffin and buried him alive.\n\n“Right-o.” Underhill shot him a funny look, but at least he didn’t pry. “Dinner starts at six. Mess hall’s in the Lightwood Building. Don’t be late.”\n\nThe door closed behind him, leaving Raphael alone with his thoughts. He pulled out his phone. No messages. It was 4:48 pm. He didn’t remember what being hungry felt like.\n\nWith no interest in anything, and nothing but meaningless time stretching ahead of him, Raphael dropped the suitcase on the bed and walked away.\n\n“Hey, are you the new guy?”\n\nHe fled from the unpleasantly chipper voice behind him, and burst through the pressed wood front door with its fake iron hinges, no idea where to go except out.\n\nThe gravel pathways extended across the grounds. Raphael followed them for lack of any other kind of direction. The next time he looked up from his feet, he was standing in front of the chapel Underhill had mentioned earlier.\n\nIt was a small stone building with stained glass windows, a single steeple, and an old copper weather-vane with a bright green patina at the top of its shingled spire. The door at the entrance was thick, actual wood. Dark brown and weathered, it smelled like moss and furniture polish, and the black iron bar handle was worn to a smooth gray shine where people’s hands had grasped it a million times.\n\nRaphael curled his fingers around the handle and pulled. The door was heavy. It felt solid and real like nothing else had in days.\n\nThe church was quiet. His footsteps echoed on the stone floors and the pew creaked in protest when he sat down, halfway between the entrance and the altar. He wasn’t ready to go up there and kneel. He wasn’t ready to talk.\n\nSo, he sat quietly and looked at the familiar surroundings and tried to remember all the times his father had taken them to Sunday mass. Raphael didn’t remember the first time, of course, because he’d been going from birth. \n\nThis was the type of church where they should have held the funeral service. Camille hadn’t even allowed them that dignity. Instead, she’d arranged for a non-denominational service at the funeral home in Connecticut, right next to a bland, beige room with empty caskets.\n\nHis family’s remains had been cremated within twenty-four hours of arriving at the New York City morgue. A clerical error. Bile rose in Raphael’s throat every time he thought about it. His parents and siblings were dead, burned, gone.\n\nAshes to ashes and dust to dust.\n\nHe should be with them.\n\nA heavy hand on his shoulder jolted him awake. Raphael had no idea when he had fallen asleep or what time it was. He looked up into the concerned face of the priest who had woken him.\n\nThe man was in his thirties. His tight black curls were shorn close to his head and the lower half of his light brown face was covered by a neatly trimmed beard. His bushy brows furrowed, but there was a gentle smile on his wide lips.\n\n“I’m sorry to disturb your sleep, son, but I have to lock up for the night.”\n\n“What time is it?” Raphael asked, wiping the sleep from his eyes.\n\n“Nine-thirty,” the father said.\n\nRaphael’s eyes were wide open. He had slept clear through dinner.  \n\n“I’m afraid it’s past curfew.” The father stepped back, allowing him to scramble out of the pew.\n\n“I’m sorry, Father,” he said honestly. “I have no idea how this happened.”\n\n“It’s all right. We all take comfort in the Lord’s presence.”\n\n“Yeah.” Raphael swallowed uncomfortably, acutely aware that he had never said a word to God the whole time he’d been here.\n\n“Why don’t I take you back to your dorm?” the father offered, motioning toward the door. “I might be able to negotiate some leniency from your Residential Head.”\n\n“I couldn’t…” Raphael didn’t deserve leniency, definitely not at the expense of someone else.\n\n“Nonsense.” The father placed a hand on his shoulder and ushered him out the door. “I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t make sure you get back safe.” He paused as if something had just occurred to him. “This is the first time I’ve seen you. You must be a new student. What’s your name?”\n\n“Raphael Santiago, Father.”\n\n“Raphael,” the father repeated his name with a smile. “The healer.” He locked the door to the church behind them and guided Raphael onto the gravel path that led back to the main building complex. “My name is Victor Aldertree. I’m the school chaplain.”\n\nThey walked in silence back to Blackthorn House, and Raphael was relieved that Father Aldertree didn’t ask him any questions.\n\nThe head of Raphael’s dorm was Iris Rouse, a pale, narrow-faced woman with a long nose, thin lips, and a sharp tongue. She was not impressed by his chaperone.\n\n“I don’t care if he’s out feeding the homeless or converting people to your cause. Curfew is at 9 pm.” Her gaze moved sharply from Father Aldertree to Raphael. “That’s one demerit.”\n\n“Actually,” said Father Aldertree smoothly, “curfew can be extended under special circumstances with permission from a member of the faculty. I have enlisted Raphael to help clean the chapel before closing.”\n\nRaphael snapped his head around to look at Father Aldteree, shame slithering down the nape of his neck. The priest had just lied on his behalf. He opened his mouth to protest, but the father cut him off with a reassuring hand on his shoulder.\n\n“Raphael will be needed between the hours of 8:30 and 9:30 pm, Monday through Saturday. Additional hours may be needed on Sundays. I’ll be happy to send you a copy of the permission form.”\n\nMs. Rouse’s eyes narrowed even further as she looked between the two of them. Raphael wasn’t sure she wouldn’t slam the door in their faces until she stepped aside with a derisive sniff.\n\n“Make sure you do,” she said.\n\nRaphael slipped past her with hunched shoulders and only turned back long enough to throw a grateful look at Father Aldertree who stood on the doorstep as if no evil could touch him.\n\n“Good night, Raphael.”\n\n“Thank you for your kindness, Father.”\n\nThe next morning, Raphael dressed in his brand-new uniform for the first time. The arctic green blazer clashed with his dark honey skin tone, and the silver-and-mint striped tie was a backhanded slap in the face of fashion.\n\nHis itinerary for the day started with a morning assembly in the auditorium of the Lightwood Building at 7:45 am. He found his way to the building in question by following the map in the school's app and the hundreds of students in arctic green blazers that dragged him along like a churning river.\n\nThe swell pushed up a flight of wide stone steps, divided between two sets of glass double-doors, and spilled into a large entrance hall with granite floors and panoramic windows. Raphael let the stream carry him forward, down a long hallway until they all ended up in an auditorium big enough to sit two hundred people with room to spare.\n\nHe watched the other students pick seats at random, any rows except the first two directly in front of the stage, and ended up somewhere toward the back, one seat away from the very end of the row close to the sound-proof wall.\n\nThe hard plastic seats on either side of him were still empty by the time the teachers climbed the steps onto the stage. Raphael breathed a sigh of relief. He allowed himself to relax and draped his arm over the seat on his left.\n\nA square-jawed woman in her late fifties, presumably Headmistress Imogen Herondale, stepped up to the high-tech podium at the center of the stage and cleared her throat. Her makeup was too dark for her sallow complexion, and the microphone whined at her first attempt to speak into it. She clearly had trouble moderating her voice. \n\n“Good morning,” she said.\n\nHer next words flew right over Raphael’s head because someone slipped into the seat beside him and, in the same liquid motion, snuggled up against his side.\n\n“Thanks for saving me a seat, cinna-bun. Did I miss anything important?”\n\nThe irreverent purr belonged to a lithe boy with golden-brown skin, spiky black hair, and a stunning pair of dark brown cat-eyes.\n\n“Whu-um-huh?” Raphael’s brain was having trouble making coherent words.\n\n“Pleasure to meet you,” purred the cat-eyed boy. “I’m Magnus. Now, hush, we wouldn’t want to miss what I’m sure is going to be a riveting speech by our merciless leader.”\n\nRaphael was too stunned to move when Magnus grabbed his arm, snuggled closer and linked their fingers on his bony shoulder, keeping Raphael trapped in a position that made them look like a couple. \n\nHe tried to pull his arm free. Magnus tightened his grip. His skinny fingers were unnaturally warm and strong, and the edges of several rings bit sharply into Raphael’s skin. He relented.\n\nUp on the stage, Headmistress Herondale had continued her prepared speech, blissfully ignorant of what was happening in the back rows.\n\n“We are here to welcome three new students into our fold: Clarissa Fray, daughter of alumna Jocelyn Fairchild, and Simon Lewis, recipient of the Fairchild scholarship, both from Manhattan, New York, as well as Raphael Santiago from New Haven, Connecticut, whose aunt, Senator Camille Belcourt, has graciously agreed to sponsor our upcoming Fall Formal.”\n\nThe students cheered.\n\n“Ow, ease up on the grip, cinna-bun,” Magnus murmured in his ear.\n\n“Miss Fray, Mister Lewis, and Mister Santiago, would you please rise?” the headmistress ordered them with a sweeping motion of her hands.\n\nRaphael unclenched his fingers, and Magnus released him so he could get up. The two other students stood up on the opposite side of the center aisle, closer to the front. The girl was a tiny red-head and the boy a lanky brunet who wouldn’t let go of the girl’s hand even though he was vibrating with anxiety.\n\n“Welcome,” Headmistress Herondale looked at each of them before she turned her predatory gaze to the crowd at large. “Please, ensure that the transition for our newcomers is as smooth as possible and show them that our motto extends not only to flesh and blood but to everyone here at Alicante Academy. Familia Ante Omnia.”  \n\nWhile the student body dutifully chorused the school motto, Magnus muttered beside him, “Familia anima obruat.”\n\nRaphael had never taken Latin. He could cobble together the official school motto, thanks to being bilingual in English and Spanish, but Magnus’s phrase was a mystery. All he knew for sure was that the enigmatic boy didn’t agree with the idea of putting ‘family before everything’.\n\nRaphael dropped back into his chair and pointedly crossed his arms in front of his chest. Magnus ignored the gesture and leaned closer. Vexed and embarrassed, Raphael stewed in silence while Headmistress Herondale went on and on about the upcoming dance.\n\n“Fall Formal, seriously?” he growled between clenched teeth. “Why not just call it Homecoming like everyone else?”\n\nMagnus chuckled. “Darling, we’re more special than that,” he purred, warm breath tickling the sensitive skin on Raphael’s neck. “We have one of these for every season. Spring Fling, Summer Slummer, Fall Fuckfest, and the Winter Wonderland. Of course, that’s not the official nomenclature.”\n\nRaphael could feel heat climb up his neck and spread on his face like lava. Why did he have to ask? He hooked two fingers behind the Windsor knot in his tie and pulled, suddenly feeling suffocated by the ugly-ass uniform and everything that came with it.\n\n“Awful, aren’t they?” Magnus flipped the length of Raphael’s tie between his index and middle finger. “It’s like they’re trying to get us used to being on a very tight leash.”\n\nRaphael noticed that Magnus wore his tie loose, with a haphazard knot dangling in front of his sternum.\n\n“I hate the colors,” he admitted.\n\n“That’s because they were chosen to flatter their pasty-ass complexions.”\n\nRaphael followed Magnus’s dancing fingers to the two rows right in front of the stage. The seats everyone else had avoided were now taken by a gang of eight, four boys and four girls.\n\n“Who are they?”\n\nMagnus somehow slid even closer and placed his lips right by Raphael’s ear, making him want to crawl out of his skin.\n\n“The blond bad boy at the end of the front row is Jace Herondale. Next to him is Helen Blackthorn, then her special friend Aline Penhallow, and next to her is Isabelle Lightwood. Notice a theme?”\n\nEvery family name Magnus had mentioned belonged to a building on campus, and the boy named Jace was probably directly related to the Headmistress. Raphael nodded, and Magnus made a sarcastic little affirmative noise in his throat before he continued.\n\n“Second row features Sebastian Verlac and Jonathan Morgenstern, Lydia Branwell and… Oh. My. If that’s who I think it is, someone grew up tall and hot.” He shook himself. “Sorry. What I meant to say was, I think that’s Alexander Lightwood, back from an extended stay in rehab. Excuse me, Europe.”\n\nRaphael closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The concept of high school royalty wasn’t new to him. Despite that, his previous school was an all-boys Catholic school where guys like Magnus and “special friends” like Helen and Aline simply didn’t exist.\n\nThe absence of his best friend Lily hit Raphael like a sucker punch in the ribs. She would have put herself between him and Magnus and provided the snarky quips that Raphael could never come up with on his own. Instead, Raphael swallowed the lump in his throat and nodded dumbly.\n\nHeadmistress Herondale’s sharp order of “Dismissed!” unexpectedly saved him from having to try to say something clever.\n\nThere was a cacophony of noise as everyone got up from their chairs at the same time and broke into disparate conversations. Raphael wanted to use the opportunity to get away, but Magnus made it impossible, sticking to his side like glitter glue.\n\n“What’s your first class?”\n\n“I don’t know.” Raphael shrugged and pulled out his phone to check. “AP Physics?”\n\n“Bummer. Are you in AP Chem?” Magnus nearly climbed on him to get a peek at the screen. \n\n“No.”\n\nWhile Raphael tried to squirm out of his grip, Magnus opened his mouth to say something else but he never got the chance.\n\n“Magnus!”\n\nA sharp female voice barked somewhere behind them. It belonged to a tall black girl who stalked up the gravel path like a soldier. Her eyes were narrowed to the point that all you could see were the thick, long lashes, and the tiny braids in her elaborate up-do rustled with every resolute thump of her heavy boots on the ground.\n\nMagnus froze and held Raphael stiffly to his side. “Don’t move. Pretty sure her vision is based on movement.”\n\n“Where have you been?” The girl stopped right in front of them and made a disgusted noise in her throat. “Ugh, you look like you just crawled out of bed … and not your bed.”\n\nHer nimble fingers flew through Magnus’s hair, fixed his collar, and straightened his tie, all before Magnus had a chance to even raise his hands in protest.\n\n“Catarina, stop fussing,” Magnus whined.\n\n“I will if you stop showing up to morning assembly disheveled and reeking of sex.”\n\n“I do not reek of sex,” Magnus insisted, only to turn wide eyes on Raphael. “Do I?”\n\nRaphael took an involuntary deep breath. He had no idea what sex smelled like, but Magnus smelled like sage and spearmint chewing gum.\n\n“No?”\n\n“Don’t sound so hesitant,” Magnus complained and sniffed at himself. “No, I’m fine.”\n\n“Who’s he?” Catarina asked, pointing a finger at Raphael before she turned her head to muster him like he was trying to join the army.\n\n“Weren’t you paying attention?” Magnus teased. “He’s Raphael Santiago from New Hav—”\n\n“New York,” Raphael interrupted sharply. “I’m Raphael Santiago from Harlem, New York City. My parents were Antonio and Guadalupe Santiago.”\n\nMagnus muttered something under his breath that sounded like, “Prepare to die.”\n\n“What?” Raphael’s vision turned dark.\n\n“Sorry, cinna-bun.” Magnus snickered. “You were having a very ‘Inigo Montoya’ moment there.”\n\nThe death of his parents was not the punchline of a joke. Raphael exploded.\n\n“Fuck you!” He roared and pushed Magnus away from him. “They meant everything to me. You might not give a shit about family, asshole, but if you ever – ever – joke about their death again, I will kill you.” His hands were shaking, his heart was pounding, and he could barely see through the darkness blurring his vision.\n\n“Whoa, shit. I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.”\n\n“Good going, dipshit.” Catarina slapped Magnus upside the head.\n\n“I had no idea.” Magnus flapped his hands in distress. “Honestly, Raphael, I would never have made that joke if I’d known. I swear. Please, let me make it up to you?”\n\nMake it up to him? This wasn’t like Magnus had accidentally spilled a drink on his shirt or stepped on his toes. Raphael hoped the expression on his face managed to convey what he was thinking because words, as always, failed him.\n\n“I get it,” Magnus said, and his quiet voice for once lacked any purr or drawl. He met Raphael’s gaze head on, all playfulness vanished like it had never existed. “I lost my mom when I was nine.”\n\nRaphael knew he was telling the truth. The loss was carved on Magnus’s soft, rounded features, older and more subdued than Raphael’s own pain, but there all the same. He accepted the apology with a stiff nod.\n\nIt took Magnus less than five seconds to drop the shroud of glamour back over his face and break out in a brilliant smile.\n\n“I pick him,” he announced, firmly cupping his hands around Raphael’s shoulders.\n\n“Excuse me?” Raphael shook his head, confused.\n\n“Are you sure?” Catarina sounded skeptical. “You just screwed up big time, magpie. Maybe he doesn’t want to be picked.”\n\nRaphael was losing his patience, overwhelmed by Magnus and Catarina’s ability to switch gears so quickly. Lily could have kept up with them, which reminded him that she wasn’t there, which only irritated him more.\n\n“What are you talking about?”\n\n“You, cinna-bun.” Magnus booped the tip of his nose. “Every year since Sophomore, Catarina and I each pick one person whom we take under our wing and raise to the heights of Olympus, using the considerable powers of our popularity and style. This year, I pick you. You’ll be my final project, my pièce de résistance, David to my Michelangelo.”\n\n“I’d rather not.”\n\n“Oh, don’t be a spoilsport. If you don’t let me pick you, they’ll assign Underhill as your student mentor and you will d—” Magnus cut himself off, switched gears again, and continued in a sultry drawl. “You will be so bored you’ll come back begging me to pick you.”\n\nCatarina snickered. “That’s a challenge if I ever heard one.”\n\nRaphael clenched his jaw. “I don’t beg.”\n\nMagnus pouted, furrowed his brows, and widened his eyes in a creepily convincing impression of a cajoling puss-in-boots. Raphael rattled off his father’s favorite expletives under his breath and looked to heaven for patience and guidance.\n\nHe was stuck at this school for the foreseeable future without any of his friends. Aside from Father Aldertree, Magnus was the only person who had approached him, and it seemed that despite his overbearing personality, there was a genuine soul underneath it all who at least was able to partially understand what Raphael was going through.\n\n“Fine.”\n\n“Wonderful!” Magnus actually jumped on his heels and clapped his hands. “But first things first, we gotta get you to class. You do not want to be late for AP Physics with Ms. Graymark. That woman is fierce. And let me see your schedule so I can figure out if we have any free periods at the same time.”\n\nCatarina remained behind in the middle of the gravel path. “And what am I supposed to do?”\n\nMagnus looked back over his shoulder. “Find your own pick. Time’s ticking. Only two weeks till FF.” He rolled his hand in an elegant shooing motion. \n\nClasses were not significantly different from Raphael’s old school. The plethora of individual styles of clothing on his new teachers took some getting used to, but the basic personality types were by and large the same. He made a mental note to steer clear of the I-just-wanna-be-your-pal Econ teacher.\n\nRaphael went through the first part of the day on autopilot, walking into the mess hall around 11:30 am because his schedule said so. He accepted his tray of food without looking at it and picked a solitary spot near the windows.\n\nIt turned out he did share the same lunch hour as Magnus and Catarina when they suddenly surrounded him. A loaded food tray clattered down next to his on either side. Magnus dropped onto the chair to Raphael’s left while Cat scraped her chair closer to him on the right.\n\n“I picked someone,” she announced proudly.\n\n“That was quick,” commented Magnus as he reached for his glass of orange juice.\n\n“It was divine intervention, really. A sign from God.” She fluttered her hand and reached around Raphael with cat-like speed to snatch the brownie from Magnus’s tray.\n\n“Hey!” Magnus protested. “I wanted that!”\n\nRaphael pushed his tray closer to him. “You can have mine.”\n\n“Thanks, cinna-bun, you’re the best.” Magnus kissed the air in his direction and snatched the brownie from his tray. “So, who’d you pick?” he asked Catarina with a glare as she shoved Magnus’s brownie into her mouth.\n\n“Phy-mon Loo-iph.”\n\n“Try that again with less than a pound in your mouth.”\n\nCatarina crossed her eyes at Magnus and somehow managed to stick her tongue out without getting brownie everywhere. Then she gulped down the food with a bit of juice and repeated herself more clearly.\n\n“Simon Lewis,” she said. “We have Comp Lit together and he dropped his pencils in front of me.”\n\nMagnus rolled his eyes and even Raphael couldn’t stop himself from raising his brows with a grimace of pity and disbelief.\n\n“You pick the guy who’s trying to upskirt you on his first day?”\n\n“No! That’s the thing.” She bounced with excitement, stifling a cackle. “It was a genuine accident. Like he didn’t drop a pencil, he dropped all his pencils. We’re talking dozens of them. He must be an artist or something. I don’t know. Anyway, he got so flustered, he banged his head on the desk, twice, and the whole time he’s babbling about how he’s not looking up my skirt and he didn’t mean to and I swear he had his eyes legit squeezed shut, trying to fish for his pencils blind. It was so damn cute. How could I not pick him?”\n\nMagnus and Raphael exchanged a look.\n\nMagnus sighed exaggeratedly. “Cat has this thing for lost causes. If they allowed pets here, she’d be the one with a zoo full of strays stashed in her room.”\n\n“Not fair,” Cat grumbled. “Plus, he’s hot, too. Like nerd-hot. I don’t know, it’s something about the way he wears his glasses, maybe? Anyway, he has the biggest brown puppy eyes and I’m pretty sure there’s a toned body under that uniform. I’ll find out when we go shopping.”\n\nMagnus snickered. “The poor boy. Does he even know you picked him yet?”\n\nCat bit her lip and shoved a fork full of macaroni and cheese in her mouth. She looked altogether too interested in her food for a moment. Raphael knew that expression, had seen it on Lily’s face a million times when she hadn’t thought one of her crazy plans all the way through.\n\nHe chuckled. Then he caught himself and quickly sobered up, feeling guilty.\n\n“Hey, that was a real smile.” Of course, Magnus couldn’t just let it go. “Nay, a whole chuckle!”\n\nRaphael sank low in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest.\n\nMagnus flashed his eyes at Catarina, drawing attention to the thick lines of guy-liner that emphasized their shape.\n\n“So, what? Were you just planning to sneak up behind him, drop a hood over his head, and kidnap him to the mall this weekend?”\n\n“No!” she protested, shoving a few more bites of food in her mouth. “I’ll figure it out,” she mumbled. Her umber cheeks suddenly developed a deep cherry undertone. “God, I’m starving.”\n\n“Here.” Raphael pushed his tray in her direction, putting her out of her misery. “You can have mine. I wasn’t hungry anyway.”\n\n“Thanks, babe,” she said with a genuine smile and pulled his tray in front of her.  \n\nMagnus drummed his fingers against his chin and pursed his lips in a dramatic fashion.\n\n“Oh, I know!” he suddenly exclaimed, a spark of something truly wicked in his eyes. “Invite him to my party tonight. Bring him as your plus one. A couple drinks, a wink, a nudge, maybe a hug against your ample, loving bosom. He’ll be yours before he knows what happened.”\n\nRaphael’s eyes froze in a hard stare as he furrowed his brows at Magnus. He couldn’t understand how Magnus talked so casually about breaking the rules and about Cat’s body. The only bosoms that ever got mentioned at full volume around Raphael’s old school belonged to Jesus Christ or the Holy Virgin.\n\nCat didn’t seem fazed. Her hand flew around Raphael to smack Magnus in the shoulder and she rolled her eyes.\n\n“You know you’re just jealous you don’t have the same awesome powers my boobs can wield.”\n\n“Oh, honey, you know I do. My powers just happen to be farther due south.” Magnus waggled his brows.\n\nRaphael felt the lava crawl up his neck and all over his face. He brought a hand up against his forehead and reached for his phone with the other. Lunch had to be over soon.\n\n“Don’t be embarrassed, cinna-bun,” Magnus purred in his ear. “You’ll get used to us. Now, tell me, what house are you in? Just so I know where to pick you up tonight.”\n\nRaphael glared through his fingers. “I’m not going to some unsanctioned party. I almost got a demerit last night for staying out past curfew as it is.”\n\nMagnus interlaced his fingers, pulled out the cajoling puss-in-boots eyes, and wheedled. “Please? I promise it’ll be fun, and small, and you won’t get caught.”\n\n“No.” Raphael shook his head firmly.\n\n“But—\"\n\n“Don’t push him, magpie,” Cat said sharply. “You heard him say no.”\n\n“Fine.” Magnus sat back with a pout that would have made a five-year-old proud. “Spoilsport.”\n\n“Besides,” Raphael pointed out. “I already have some place I need to be tonight. I’m helping out at the chapel until 9:30.”\n\n“Yeah, right,” Magnus drawled. “Tell me another one, choir boy.”\n\nRaphael’s back stiffened. He had figured that Magnus wasn’t religious, but he still didn’t like the way he had made it sound.\n\n“Wait,” Magnus said the next second. “You’re serious. This is actually a thing for you.”\n\nSuddenly there was a nervous tension in Magnus that hadn’t been there before. He pulled back and sat up straighter, all his flirtatious behavior gone up in smoke.\n\n“Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea,” he said quietly. \n\n“Why?” Raphael asked with an edge to his voice. “Afraid to be hanging out with a religious nut? Don’t want to be seen with a bible thumper?”\n\nCat choked on her food.\n\nMagnus stiffened. His slim shoulders tightened and he blinked glittering eyes at Raphael.\n\n“More like I’m not interested to hear I’ll burn in hell when you catch me making out with a guy.”\n\nRaphael narrowed his eyes. “Just because I believe in God, doesn’t mean that I agree with every single one of his followers or what they said. Leviticus was just one of them, and he was wrong about shrimp and mixed fabrics, too.”\n\nMagnus relaxed marginally. “So, we’re good?”\n\nRaphael shrugged. “If you can keep yourself from making fun of me,” he said, glancing in Cat’s direction before he added, “or God.”\n\nCat looked confused for a second until her eyes widened and she realized what Raphael was referring to.\n\n“You know,” she said, “I kinda meant that. I mean, what are the chances that I’m desperately looking for a person, and then the perfect guy, the new guy, actually sits next to me and drops a whole bunch of pencils right in front of me. There’s got to be some higher power involved in that, right?”\n\nRaphael looked her up and down, trying to gauge how serious she was. Cat swallowed nervously and looked down at her lap. She fiddled with the collar of her perfectly straight uniform and revealed a delicate gold chain around her neck. A tiny gold cross dangled from the end.\n\n“Team Jesus, represent,” she mumbled quickly and shoved the cross back under her shirt. “But don’t make a big deal out of it. Okay?”\n\nHe raised one eyebrow, looking at her skeptically, but there was a tiny part of him that felt better. Relieved. Like he wasn’t all alone.\n\n“Okay.”\n\nThe second half of the day passed by in a blur of lectures and assignments. Raphael skipped dinner in favor of hiding in his room, not interested in a repeat of listening to Cat and Magnus chatter about the party or Magnus trying to not-so-subtly get Raphael’s dorm info out of him.\n\nAt a quarter past eight, Raphael left Blackthorn Hall and made his way to the chapel to meet Father Aldertree. He had no idea what sort of help the father needed at the chapel on a daily basis, but Raphael was happy to have an excuse to spend time at the church. He still wasn’t ready to talk to God, but at least he could show that he hadn’t turned his back."}
+{"text": "Chapter 62\n\nSeptember 5th, 1994\n\nHogwarts\n\nIf there was anything to be said about Mad-Eye Moody's teaching methods, it was that they were certainly 'unconventional.' From the very first day in DADA, the eccentric man had made it abundantly clear that he didn't give a rats arse about the Ministry approved curriculum and would be teaching them more about the dark arts than how to defend against them. Not that Harry could complain, considering all of the illegal and highly dangerous spells he'd learned on his own over the years.\n\nAt the end of the first week, Moody introduced the class to the unforgivables. Moody's chosen victim was a small bird with black wings and dark eyes. It was sat innocently in a cage atop his desk at the beginning of class and most didn't notice the timid little thing's presence until the professor brought attention to it by flicking open the cage. The bird was in the middle of its desperate escape when it was hit by a plume of hazy yellow smoke and changed courses, slowly flying back to Moody's desk.\n\nFrom there, the wizard's mismatched eyes filled with wild anticipation as his fun began and he made the bird fly all over the room. It nipped at fingertips and tittered cheerfully in ears, eliciting a wonderful chorus of laughter and shouts of surprise. At one point, it even attacked a Hufflepuff's hair with its small wings, ruffling the carefully styled locks much to the squawked indignation of the girl. Harry was one of the few who watched in apprehension, knowing that the Imperius curse was no laughing matter, it could make people do horrible things, and that there was a reason it was called an 'unforgivable.'\n\nSomething darkened in Moody's expression as he forced the bird over to a basin of water and it flapped helplessly over the still surface, unable to fight against the curse. Laughter dried up quickly at the panicked chirps coming from the small creature.\n\n\"Shall I make it drown itself? I could.\" The simplicity of the statement had the entire class slowly realizing the power of the curse and just how dangerous it could be. After a moment of silence, Moody brought the bird back to his desk and looked out over the room of pale faces that didn't meet his eyes. \"Some might say that the imperius curse is the least harmful of the three, but I'd beg to differ. Every day, we take advantage of our free will, unable to imagine what it would be like to be imprisoned within our own bodies, completely at the mercy of another.\"\n\nMoody looked down at the bird on his desk, still under the influence of the unforgivable.\n\n\"Does anyone what the next one is?\" Moody spat out in distaste as he scanned the room. Knowing where he was going with that line of questions. Harry spoke after Moody prompted with an impatient gesture.\n\n\"The cruciatus curse, sir,\" Harry answered blankly, hoping that he was wrong about what might happen next. Harry hated unnecessary suffering and especially hated the Unforgivables after what had happened during the World Cup. He would not react well if Moody tried to torture the bird, in front of a class full of near-children, no less.\n\n\"Crucio!\" Harry closed his eyes as the bird he had been looking at began to screech and flap helplessly against the desk as it suffered unimaginable pain. He heard the startled and distressed complaints of his peers at the gruesome display, even though their 'instructor' seemed to be lost within his own mind as he tortured the innocent creature.\n\nRealizing that 'Moody' would not be stopping any time soon, Harry took matters into his own hands. Not moving an inch, Harry sent a wandless cutting curse at the bird's neck causing the little creature to crumple onto the desk, suddenly still and put out of his misery. Moody jolted, shock momentarily sparking in his face before he seemed to come back to himself and clear his throat as he realized what he'd done.\n\nMoody looked up at Harry, then, something unreadable in his eyes as the air slowly warmed. Harry's face remained completely blank under the professor's scrutiny. Their staring was interrupted by one of the other students speaking up in the otherwise silent class.\n\n\"Professor, does the cruciatus curse usually kill its victims like that?\"\n\n\"Only if the victim is very weak or ill before-hand and after a long period of time.\" He answered distractedly. The same student spoke up again.\n\n\"Was the bird sick?\"\n\nAt this, Moody's eyes shifted to a chilling glacial green that pierced through him and left a cold sweat on the back of his neck.\n\n\"Perhaps.\" Was all the man said before returning to his lesson—though he seemed rather distant and a bit shocked for the rest of it—choosing to teach the last unforgivable only in theory since his test subject was already gone.\n\nXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX\n\nThe week following was far more interesting than the first, seeing as Moody made it his duty to make sure that his students knew how to actually fight off an imperius curse. After the rather grim note, the previous lesson had been left on, Moody had decided to once again aim for a more light-hearted approach and kept the commands he made of the students under the curse quite silly. Such as, jumping on one foot or making animal noises.\n\nHarry lingered near the back of the class, trying—unsuccessfully—to go unnoticed, as he despised the idea of being under the influence of the curse. Harry would be the first to admit that he had problems relinquishing control to another. If it could be helped, he knew he would never do as such unless it was to someone he completely trusted. And he certainly did not trust Moody that much!\n\nEventually, though, Moody called Harry forward with an interesting light in his eyes. Harry barely had time to prepare himself before the Imperius rolled onto him\n\nHarry could feel the insistent press of Moody's will against his own, but his mental shields where unyielding and he remained outwardly unaffected. Professor Moody grinned at the challenge and doubled down on Harry. A faint sheen of sweat formed on Harry's forehead as he continued to resist. Harry had very little practice with the imperius curse—which meant none—and so he was putting unnecessary amounts of energy and magic into resisting the cruse. He was doing it with brute magical force, and it was already beginning to drain him.\n\nHe only technically needed to shield his mind, but he couldn't risk shifting his magic while the blunt edge of the curse was pressing in on him. The briefest moment of hesitation could allow Moody in to control him. By the time Moody finally relented, he was also sweating and a bit red-faced as he grinned almost victoriously. Harry was breathing a little heavy and had to quickly swipe the sweat from his brow, but was composed once again after only a minute or two. Moody had boasted to the class about Harry's success in resisting and even made Harry share some techniques he'd used.\n\nWell, that was fun Harry thought.\n\nMoody's approach to teaching DADA was undeniably rough and brazen. Harry had even heard that one of the Gryffindor students had had a particularly hard time with the initial unforgivables lesson and had to be comforted after class. However, nobody dared go and complain to their head of house or another professor about the unconventional methods. Because, despite the slight danger and uncomfortably gruesome topics, none of them could deny that Moody was an amazing instructor. Moody didn't tiptoe around anything because of their age and was working hard to make sure that they knew as much as possible."}
+{"text": "By the time morning came around, Camilo's eyes had returned to normal and he'd managed to get some more sleep than before.\n\nThis time, when they gently coaxed him awake, he didn't panic and immediately shift.\n\nPepa took that as a good sign, showering her hijo in love and affection, and making him laugh. \n\nThe sound was like music to her ears and if it wasn't so important to get Camilo eating regularly again, she'd cuddle with him all day in the blanket fort Felix had helped him build the night before.\n\nSeeing him cuddled up in a nest of blankets and pillows with Lola secure in his arms had been enough to bring tears to her eyes.\n\nShe still could hardly believe that her baby was home. She'd been so afraid to go to sleep. What if she did and woke up only to find out that it had all been a dream?\n\nThat would break her.\n\nEventually, Felix had convinced her to join him and Camilo in the fort and waking up to find her hijo's peaceful sleeping face right there helped calm her initial panic.\n\n\"How are you feeling mijo?\" She asked as they got ready for the day. \"Are your eyes better?\"\n\nHe nodded before briefly disappearing under his ruana as he tugged it over his head. He'd changed clothes again, keeping to the familiar colours of yellow and brown.\n\nHe looked better at least. Less like he was about to collapse if the wind blew wrong.\n\nHis ruana hid most of how thin he was except for his face and he held his chameleon plush close to his chest.\n\nThat had been a brilliant move on Felix’s part. The toy meant a lot to Camilo and he hadn't had it for two years. The comfort it brought him was worth learning about the state of her baby's room.\n\nShe hoped they could fix that soon.\n\n\"Are you ready?\" Felix asked gently. \"You don't have to go if you don't want to. We can have breakfast up here and Dolores will join us in a heartbeat.\"\n\nCamilo shook his head though. \"I want to eat with mi familia,\" he mumbled into the top of the plush's head.\n\nPepa smiled gently at him and walked over to wrap her arm around his shoulders.\n\n\"And they will be thrilled to see you there,\" she reassured. \n\nHe leaned into her side and smiled up at her. His smiles were still a little dim but they were more frequent at least.\n\nFelix moved to stand on Camilo's other side and ruffled his hair.\n\n\"Let's get some breakfast hmm?\" He suggested.\n\nThey walked out of the room together and Pepa felt like she was walking on air.\n\nCasita flipped her tiles at their feet and Camilo smiled a little.\n\n\"Hola Casita. I missed you,\" he murmured.\n\nTheir house shuffled her roof tiles happily and Pepa knew without a doubt that if anyone tried to touch Camilo right now, Casita would physically throw them out a second-story window.\n\nAs they moved towards the stairs which Casita helpfully shifted towards them,  Camilo stumbled to a stop.\n\nThey looked down at him in concern before following his shocked gaze.\n\nPepa swallowed hard as she looked at the dark door.\n\n\"It went dark right after you went missing,\" Felix told him quietly. \"Locked up too. Casita only opened it last night so that I could get Lola.\"\n\nCamilo looked shaken by the sight so Pepa nudged him.\n\n\"Just gives me an excuse to cuddle with you more,\" she told him in a whisper and was relieved when he smiled a bit in response.\n\nHe glanced at the door one more time before they headed down the stairs.\n\nThe kitchen was noisy as usual, already bustling with activity.\n\nCamilo leaned a little further into Pepa's side as they got closer but he didn't hesitate so they walked in.\n\nDolores was immediately there, smiling at the sight of the chameleon toy before she tugged Camilo into a hug. He returned it happily while Julieta came over with Antonio.\n\n\"Gracias,\" Pepa told her hermana gratefully as she accepted her youngest.\n\nWhen she looked back at her niños, she had to bite her lip to keep from laughing. Camilo was already craning his head to try and see his hermanito.\n\nHe was too adorable.\n\nFelix shooed them all to the table where Camilo sat next to Pepa with Dolores on his other side.\n\nFelix sat next to their hija and Pepa couldn't blame him for wanting to keep their niños between them.\n\nCamilo was still trying to peer at Antonio so Pepa shifted a bit to let him get a better look.\n\nShe was doing her best to ignore her mamá for the moment. She didn't want to lose her temper again.\n\nIsabela, Luisa and Mirabel greeted Camilo with beaming smiles that he did his best to return before focusing on Antonio again.\n\n\"Morning Antonio,\" he whispered to the curious baby.\n\nAntonio waved his arms at Camilo with a wide grin. It was enough to draw a proper smile from Camilo again.\n\nJulieta quickly got everyone seated and eating and Pepa didn't miss how she'd prepared Camilo's favourite breakfast.\n\nHer hijo was quick to tuck into the food and Pepa couldn't be happier.\n\nHer family was together and eating at the same table again.\n\nA quiet part of her mind pointed out that Bruno wasn't there so it wasn't the whole family.\n\nShe didn't want to ruin Camilo's first family breakfast back though, so she pushed that thought aside.\n\n\"Everyone's back together,\" Dolores murmured.\n\nPepa glanced at her to find her staring intensely at the family tree. A little odd but it had been a hectic time lately. Dolores was still just sixteen so it was understandable if she acted a little oddly after all of that.\n\n\"Sí,\" she murmured, heart heavy in her chest as she thought of Bruno.\n\nShe couldn't help but wonder if he would have seen the danger coming if he'd stayed.\n\nShe couldn't help but wonder if they would have blamed him for any vision he did have.\n\nShe'd never know.\n\nAnd it was her own fault.\n\nBehind the kitchen wall, a man in a tattered ruana covered his mouth to muffle his relieved sobs at the sight of his sobrino.\n\nAlive.\n\nCamilo was alive."}
+{"text": "Intro...\n\nHi my name is Sara. I'm 22 years old and bisexual. I am permanently horny 24/7, which is a curse because I have trouble focusing on anything other than sex. I have been reading the stories here at Literotica for a couple of years now because they help to get me off, especially the 'Loving Wives' stories for some strange reason. I'm very broad minded and in to most things except scat (eeuww!).\n\nI've been sexually active for a while now, I was definitely an early starter although obviously we can't discuss underage sex here. I've decided to start writing about my sexual exploits here as a creative way to try and deal with my obsession. I hope you will like my efforts.\n\nSara at the Nudist Beach\n\nMy grandparents live in beautiful sunny Tenerife and I usually visit at least twice a year for a cheap holiday in the sun.\n\nOn one of my earliest visits to the island they introduced me to their good friend Sue. Sue is in her mid thirties and widowed. Sue and her husband were naturists and swingers I discovered gradually.\n\nSue was really nice and drove me around the island, showing me the tourist sites etc and introducing me to some of her younger friends, which was nice as my grandparent's friends were mostly older people that had retired to the sun.\n\nSue rang early one morning and asked if I would like to go to the beach with her. I said yes and she picked me up around 11 just as the heat of the day was beginning to build.\n\nAs we were driving she explained that the beach we were going to was popular with naturists and it was one of her favourites that she used to visit often with her husband. She said that clothing was optional but that there was no pressure to be naked and that there was usually a mix of naturists and non naturists.\n\nWell I've always been broad minded and certainly not embarrassed to be seen naked. Truth be told I've always been an exhibitionist and enjoy people ogling at me. So I was really looking forward to our day.\n\nThe 'beach' such as it was turned out to be a rocky promontory that extended out into the Atlantic Ocean. Amirilla (Yellow) Mountain they call it.\n\nSue led me too the very far end of the outcropping, a difficult walk over some rough terrain, and we passed a few people who, as Sue had promised, were in various states of undress, all very laid back and casual.\n\nThere wasn't any sand at the 'beach' but rather many areas where the rock had been worn very smooth and was ideal for getting comfortable.\n\nWe found a small secluded spot, got naked and spread ourselves out to catch some of the gorgeous sunny rays.\n\nAs the day progressed the area got busier and busier and was filling up quickly. It was a beautiful day and Sue informed me it was a bank holiday in Spain therefore there were more locals than usual.\n\nAbout 2 O'clock a couple of very tanned local guys approached asking did we mind if they shared our bit of rock as there were very few decent spots left.\n\nWe made room for them and chatted casually whilst they got themselves comfortable. Kiko did most of the talking as his English was the best. They began to disrobe and I pretended to be staring out to sea. However, I couldn't help but sneak a few crafty glances at their emerging bodies.\n\nThese guys definitely worked out, a lot, they were in great shape and almost black from their time living in the hot tropical sun.\n\nI was just wondering to myself would they be getting totally naked, when Kiko whipped off his tight speedos just a few feet from my face. I feigned disinterest and continued looking out to sea for any passing ships.\n\nThen it was Paco's turn. He was wearing baggie surfer shorts which he slowly pulled down his thighs. As he did so the largest penis I've ever seen popped out to say hello, it reached most of the way to his knees and was very fat. I continued to stare nonchalantly out to sea but I'm sure everyone must have noticed that my eyes nearly popped out of my head. If they didn't notice that then they must surely have heard my huge intake of breath.\n\nSue continued the conversation with them whilst they got comfortable on their towels. They pulled out some suntan oil and began to cover their bodies. Neither of them were shy and they were very careful about making sure their cocks were well covered in the oil.\n\nThey then asked would we mind doing their backs for them. Well this was obviously a terrible chore for us, not! We gently applied the oil to their backs, I did Paco.\n\nWe then got into a conversation about suntan oils and how to get rich deep tans such as theirs. They insisted that the oil they used was their secret weapon and that we should try it. So that's how we came to have two hot guys massaging oil into our backs.\n\nI was laid face down and Paco was gently applying the lotion to my back. He was very gentle and the massaging rhythm was making me feel pretty good. I'm sure that my back was well protected by now but he continued to stroke my skin and I was in no mood to stop him.\n\nI glanced over at Sue who was laid on her back with Kiko massaging oil into her legs. I don't know why that was necessary but from the look on Sue's face who cares.\n\nPaco was now massaging oil into my bare ass. His gentle caresses were making me so horny I thought I would come just from this simple pleasure. I felt a finger gently running down the crease of my ass and begin to nudge at my ass-hole.\n\nI looked round at Paco and our eyes met. He inquired with his eyes 'do you want me to stop?'. I closed my eyes and laid my head down on the towel. He took this as a green light and his finger slipped gently into my ass.\n\nI sighed audibly, not caring if anyone heard. Paco's finger began to wiggle in my ass. He pushed harder and I knew it was all the way in. I felt him adjusting his position beside me and when I opened my eyes his huge cock was inches from my face.\n\nI closed my eyes again and he began working his finger in and out of my ass quickly building up a rapid tempo. I was squirming hard now bucking against his firm hands, I'd never cum from anal sex before but this was quickly getting me to the point of no return.\n\nI had to look around to see if anyone had noticed what was going on. I glanced at Sue who was on her back with Kiko's fingers working in and out of her pussy, she was totally oblivious to anything and clearly at the point of cumming herself.\n\nI looked down the cliffs and everyone seemed to be going about their own business. Then Paco directed my gaze up the cliffs to where a single guy was sat wanking his hard cock not 10ft away with his eyes glued to the action.\n\nThat was enough for me, the sight of guys wanking is one of my biggest turn ons. I ground my ass hard into Paco's hand and had a huge orgasm. My sphincter muscle was pulsating around his finger clenching and unclenching wildly.\n\nAs I relaxed I looked around at Sue who was sat looking at me with the biggest most satisfied grin I'd ever seen. 'Wow!' she said, 'how amazing was that?' Pretty god-damned amazing I admitted.\n\n'So what are you going to do for us?' asked Kiko.\n\nI looked around and there was Paco with his giant manhood stood at full attention. It had to be well over 10 inches long and fat as fuck. Obviously we had to return the favours but we were in the middle of a public beach.\n\nI looked to Sue for guidance and she was already pushing Kiko onto his back. She swung a leg over and quickly mounted his solid shaft. I looked around to see who might be watching and still everyone appeared to be busy with their own lives.\n\nI glanced up at our voyeuristic friend who was still wanking his own hard member and was gesticulating for me to follow Sue's example.\n\n'Oh fuck it' I thought 'what the hell', I pushed Paco down and straddled him. 'Fuck' I thought 'I'm never going to get all that cock in my tight little pussy'.\n\nI didn't have to worry long though, as soon as I was in position Paco grabbed my hips and speared himself into my cunt. I gasped with shock and pain but quickly stretched to accommodate him. He held my hips tight and held me firm on his huge cock. I began to squirm, rotating and grinding my hips into his pelvis, he held me firmly in place impaled on his engorged cock.\n\nI could feel another orgasm quickly mounting, my hips began to squirm and rotate faster and faster, I wanted to buck and slide up and down but he held me firmly down on his cock, I could feel the tip of him way up inside, his massive girth was stretching my pussy lips wide.\n\nThen the waves broke, I could feel myself gushing all over his cock, his whole body went rigid and he forced himself even further up inside of me, I thought he would puncture my lungs, and then the delicious spurt as his hot spunk splashed against my inner walls.\n\nI collapsed on top of him, drained and shaking, I looked up to see our friend shooting a stream of spunk all over his belly. I looked around at Sue, at some point they had switched positions and Kiko was now on top, he pulled out of Sue and sent a stream of spunk shooting up her belly towards her tits.\n\nSue looked at me and smiled contentedly, Paco and Kiko exchanged an exaggerated high five and then we all collapsed in a fit of hysterical giggles.\n\n"}
+{"text": "\nSteve’s first feeling upon graduating high school was relief. \n\n\n \n\n\nHe wouldn’t have to see Eddie every day anymore, and maybe, just maybe, those feelings would fade away. They hadn’t in the years that had passed between that summer and freshman year, but maybe that was because he had only just recognized what those feelings were. Maybe now that they weren’t newly realized, they could disappear.\n\n\n \n\n\nAnd they almost had, in the year that had been consumed by the Mind Flayer and its aftermath. He hadn’t thought about Eddie much at all when he had been getting the shit beat out of him by real-life Russian spies or running for his life from unearthly horrors for the third time in as many years. He hadn’t thought about much besides surviving.\n\n\n \n\n\nThen Dustin started high school. And he joined Hellfire Club. \n\n\n \n\n\nInitially, Steve had been stoked that there was someplace that Dustin could feel at home in his nerdiness, especially when the Byerses moved to California and Dustin’s original D&D party was fractured into a million little pieces. His excitement was dampened when he remembered that Eddie was still in high school and Dustin started talking about how \n\ncool \n\nthe club president was and every other word that left his mouth was \n\nEddie. \n\n\n\n \n\n\nDustin accused him of being jealous that he had another older friend, but that wasn’t it at all. He was jealous that \n\nDustin\n\n got to listen to all of Eddie’s stories, for hours and hours on end. He hated how much he wished that it could be him. He even considered going inside the school and listening when he came to pick Dustin up from his meetings, but he restrained himself. Eddie wouldn’t want him there. Eddie never wanted to see him again. \n\n\n \n\n\nAs it turned out, Eddie didn’t have a choice, and neither did Steve. Eddie had to go and get himself tangled up in the Vecna ordeal. It was hardly his fault that a girl had died on his ceiling. Steve knew that, but he couldn’t help but be annoyed with the other boy for not being careful. And with himself. Steve wished he had been able to protect Eddie from this. \n\n\n \n\n\nHe’d tried. He’d tried to protect Eddie and \n\nall\n\n of Hawkins from this thing, but it was so much bigger than him. It was too big to beat off with a stick. Or a bat covered in nails. \n\n\n \n\n\nEverything happened so quickly: Eddie, at Skull Rock, crouched like a terrified, wounded animal in a place he had once been so happy. Eddie, in the boat, watching Steve as he stripped off his shirt, too scared to even enjoy the weight of Eddie’s eyes on him. Eddie, throwing his stupid fucking vest in his face for his \n\nmodesty\n\n, and Steve’s stomach turning when he pulled it on, fully enveloped in the smell of \n\nhome\n\n. Eddie, telling him to go for Nancy, as if everything Steve wanted wasn’t standing right next to him, frightened and beautiful, in that fucked up Bizzaro version of the woods where they had spent that perfect summer. Eddie, roughhousing with Dustin as they prepared for the battle with Vecna, making it so easy to imagine a world after all this blew over where all three of them were friends, instead of civilly sharing custody of the boy they had both adopted as a little brother. \n\n\n \n\n\nEddie. Bleeding out in front of him, when Steve \n\ntold\n\n him not to be cute, not to be a hero. That was \n\nSteve’s\n\n job. He had promised himself. \n\n\n \n\n\n\nI’d never let anything get you, Eds.\n\n \n\n\n \n\n\nBut he’d promised that before he’d known about any of this, about Venca and demodogs and flesh-eating bats. \n\n\n \n\n\nNow, all he could do was keep Eddie alive. \n\n\n \n\n\nThey’d been dropped off Hopper’s cabin in the woods to hide out until everything settled down. The rest of the group had gone with Max to the hospital. He couldn’t think about Max (her arms and legs twisted at inhuman angles, the blood streaming from her eyes); he was sure he would vomit if he let himself fully process just how much pain she must be in. \n\n\n \n\n\nNow, he was standing over Eddie, unconscious on the couch, and he couldn’t breathe. He didn’t know how long he’d been standing there, staring. It felt like hours. Eddie was so still, so quiet. It was so easy to imagine him in a casket.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Steve, we need to change your bandages,” Robin said softly, tugging at his arm. \n\n\n\nHe brushed her hand away, collapsing to his knees next to the couch. \n\n\n\n“Steve.”\n\n\n\n“Him first,” he whispered, brushing Eddie’s hair away from his forehead. \n\n\n\n“I don’t even know where to start with him,” Robin said, unable to hide the tremor in her voice. \n\n\n\n“Get the first aid kit,” Steve said, motioning towards the kitchen. “And a knife.”\n\n\n \n\n\nRobin handed him both. He took the knife and began cutting away Eddie’s shirt, carefully pulling the tattered fabric away where it stuck to Eddie’s wounds. \n\n\n \n\n\n“You clean his arms. I’ll do his…” Steve motioned vaguely to the entirety of Eddie’s torso. \n\n\n\n“Okay,” Robin whispered. \n\n\n \n\n\nThey started dousing cotton balls in rubbing alcohol. \n\n\n\n“This is gonna hurt, Eds,” Steve said softly, even though he was sure the other boy couldn’t hear him. “I’m sorry.”\n\n\n\nHe dabbed at the wounds on Eddie’s stomach, heaving a sigh of relief when he found they weren’t that deep once the blood was cleaned away. \n\n\n\n“Steve?” Robin asked, holding up Eddie’s arm gingerly. \n\n\n\nSteve turned to look at her, expecting to find that she had found a place where the bats had chewed through to the bone or had torn out some vital artery. \n\n\n\nInstead, he found Robin looking down at Eddie’s bracelet, stained brown with dried blood. She had the bead with the barely visible ‘S’ stamped into it pinched between her fingers.\n\n\n \n\n\nShe had asked Steve about his own bracelet a million times, and he had always brushed it off. “It’s just someone I used to… care about,” he’d say. There must have been something in his voice when he said it because Robin had quit asking. Sometimes, he’d catch her looking at it with a sympathetic glint in her eye, but she didn’t bring it up again. Until now.\n\n\n \n\n\n“What’s this?” she asked quietly, watching him carefully.\n\n\n\n“Later, Rob,” he said, turning back to begin work on Eddie’s chest.\n\n\n\n“Your ‘E’. I always figured it was an Emily or an Emma. Maybe an Eleanor. But it’s Eddie, isn’t it?” she pressed on. \n\n\n\nHe didn’t answer. \n\n\n\nShe reached out, stilling his hands where they were on Eddie’s chest.\n\n\n\n“Steve.”\n\n\n\n“Yes, okay? It’s Eddie,” he said, pulling his hands back. He took Eddie’s right hand and turned it over, showing her the scar before she found that, too, and began asking more questions.\n\n\n\nRobin’s eyes went wide.\n\n\n\n“You said that scar was from an accident,” she breathed. \n\n\n\n“I said it was a mistake,” Steve said, dropping Eddie’s hand carefully and cleaning the wounds on his neck. “Not an accident.”\n\n\n\n“What is it?”\n\n\n\n“It’s from a blood oath. We promised we’d always be friends.”\n\n\n\n“I didn’t know you knew each other,” Robin said.\n\n\n\n“I didn’t want you to,” Steve said. “It was embarrassing.”\n\n\n\n“It’s not embarrassing to care about someone,” Robin said, going back to tending to Eddie’s wounds on his forearm.\n\n\n\n“It’s embarrassing when they hate your guts,” Steve said.\n\n\n\n“He doesn’t hate you,” Robin said, dropping a blood-stained cotton ball into their growing pile of discards on the floor. \n\n\n\nSteve paused. \n\n\n\n“What makes you think that?”\n\n\n\n“I spent a lot of time watching you, Steve, remember?” Robin said, moving around the couch so she could tend to Eddie’s other arm. “So, I noticed when other people were watching you.”\n\n\n\n“You’re saying \n\nhe\n\n watched \n\nme\n\n?” Steve asked, his breath catching in his throat. He watched Eddie incessantly. He would have noticed if Eddie was watching him in return. \n\n\n\n“All the time,” Robin said. “I figured he had a little crush on you.”\n\n\n\n“No,” Steve said, laughing humorlessly. “No, he was probably plotting my demise.”\n\n\n\n“I’ve never seen someone look so fondly at a person while plotting their death,” Robin said.\n\n\n\nSteve shook his head. \n\n\n\n“He hates me, Rob,” he said. “He probably wouldn’t even want me to help him if he was awake.”\n\n\n\nRobin fell quiet.\n\n\n \n\n\nHe picked up a tube of medicated ointment, slathering it over the wounds they had already cleaned. He began wrapping Eddie’s arm, securing the gauze with medical tape when he finished. \n\n\n \n\n\n“Help me lift him,” Steve said. \n\n\n\nRobin hooked her hands under Eddie’s shoulders, struggling to lift his dead weight off the couch. Steve worked quickly, wrapping gauze haphazardly around Eddie’s torso. When Robin set him back down, the wrap job was messy, but it was good enough to make sure the medicated ointment stayed on and any additional bleeding would be soaked up. \n\n\n \n\n\nSteve rummaged through the bedroom that had once been Hopper’s. He found a moth-eaten flannel and brought it out to Eddie, gingerly pulling it onto the other boy’s body. He buttoned it up to hold in what little warmth Eddie’s body was capable of retaining. Robin appeared with an equally ratty blanket, handing it to Steve so he could cover Eddie. \n\n\n \n\n\n“Do you think he will be okay?” he asked, his voice barely above a whisper.\n\n\n\n“It’s not as bad as it looked when we found him,” Robin said, taking Steve’s hand in hers. “He’s in shock, I think. But he’ll be okay.”\n\n\n\n“It hurts,” Steve said, remembering his own wounds for the first time in hours. He brought a hand to his stomach, his skin burning hot under the wrappings. The wounds throbbed, threatening to bring him to his knees. If he felt like this, he couldn’t imagine how Eddie would feel when he woke up. “He’s in so much pain.”\n\n\n\n“We’ll give him something when he wakes up,” Robin said. “Now, let’s take care of you.”\n\n\n\nHe let Robin lead him into the kitchen, cutting away the cloth that wrapped around his stomach. He hissed as she wiped his wounds with rubbing alcohol. \n\n\n\n“Is it bad?” he asked, unable to look down.\n\n\n\n“It’s not good. Definitely not as bad as Eddie’s, but also not ideal,” Robin said. She looked a little green in the face as she began wrapping him with clean bandages. “Do you need painkillers?”\n\n\n\nSteve glanced towards the couch, towards Eddie. \n\n\n\n“Save them for him,” Steve said. \n\n\n\n“He’d want you to take them if you need them,” Robin said.\n\n\n\n“Save them,” he repeated.\n\n\n\n“Steve, do you…” Robin trailed off, looking up at him questioningly.\n\n\n\n“Do I what?”\n\n\n\n“Define care,” she said. “When you say you cared about Eddie.”\n\n\n\n“It’s kindergarten-level vocabulary, Rob, you know what I mean,” Steve said, glaring at her.\n\n\n\nShe took his hand again, squeezing it.\n\n\n\n“I’m just wondering if you’re using that word when you really mean a different four-letter word. A bigger, scarier one,” Robin said.\n\n\n\nSteve let his eyes find Eddie again, his heart clenching at the motionless figure on the couch.\n\n\n\n“Sometimes I wish you didn’t know me so well,” he said, his voice faltering. “But yeah. Yeah, I love him. I have for a long time.” \n\n\n\n“When did it start?” Robin asked.\n\n\n\n“1978,” Steve said.\n\n\n\n“Tell me,” Robin said. \n\n\n\n“It’s a long story.”\n\n\n\n“We have time.”\n\n\n \n\n\nSteve sighed. \n\n\n\nHe sank down into the kitchen chair across from Robin.\n\n\n\nHe began talking.\n\n\n\nRobin listened.\n\n\n \n\n\n****\n\n\n \n\n\nHe’d taken it upon himself to stay with Eddie. He’d only left once, to go sit with Max for an hour while the others went home to shower and change and then go home and shower himself.\n\n\n \n\n\nBut he wanted to be there when Eddie woke up.\n\n\n \n\n\nEddie began to stir around six in the evening on the second day.\n\n\n \n\n\nSteve was sitting at the kitchen table, sorting through the new first aid kit Robin had dropped off. \n\n\n \n\n\n“Hello?” a broken, raspy voice asked, making Steve jump.\n\n\n \n\n\nHe hurried over to the couch, crouching next to Eddie.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Hey,” Steve said, his throat tight. “Hey. You’re awake.”\n\n\n\n“Stevie?” Eddie asked, his face lighting up as he tried to sit. He grimaced when he found he couldn’t. “Fuck, that hurts.”\n\n\n\n“I know,” Steve said.\n\n\n\n“Did we get him?” Eddie asked. \n\n\n\n“We got him,” Steve said, smiling. \n\n\n\n“Max?” \n\n\n\n“She’s… alive,” Steve said, tentatively. “In worse shape than you. She’s still unconscious.”\n\n\n\n“Is she going to be okay?”\n\n\n\n“We don’t know, Eds,” Steve said.\n\n\n\nEddie tried to lift his hands to his face but found the movement hurt too badly, too.\n\n\n\n“Fuck. Is there any place they didn’t fucking bite?”\n\n\n\n“Your face looks okay,” Steve said, touching the cuts on Eddie’s chin, then his cheek. “Just a couple of nibbles here and there.”\n\n\n\n“As long as I’m still pretty, that’s all that matters,” Eddie said with a weak smile. \n\n\n\nSteve smiled back, shaking his head.\n\n\n\n“What’d you have to go and do that for?” Steve asked, his fingers tracing the line of Eddie’s cheekbone. “You scared the shit out of me.” \n\n\n\n“I wanted to help,” Eddie said.\n\n\n\n“You could have done that without getting eaten alive,” Steve said. \n\n\n\nEddie shrugged. \n\n\n\n“I said I wouldn’t let anything get you,” Steve whispered.\n\n\n\n“It wasn’t your fault, Stevie,” Eddie said. “You couldn’t save me from myself.”\n\n\n\n“Don’t do it again,” Steve said. \n\n\n\n“Trust me, I don’t plan to.”\n\n\n\n“Good.”\n\n\n \n\n\nEddie laughed, cutting himself off with a wince.\n\n\n\n“Now that you’re awake, let’s get those bandages changed, huh?” Steve said, getting up to get supplies from the kitchen.\n\n\n\n“It’s going to hurt like a motherfucker, huh?”\n\n\n\n“It’s not gonna feel good,” Steve agreed. \n\n\n\n“We have anything to take the edge off?” Eddie asked.\n\n\n\n“I have some pills, but they won’t kick in straight away,” Steve said.\n\n\n\n“I was thinking something more of the liquid variety,” Eddie said.\n\n\n\n“I have whiskey,” Steve said.\n\n\n\n“That’ll do,” Eddie said.\n\n\n\nSteve brought over the first aid kit and the bottle of whiskey. \n\n\n\n“Just a little bit,” Steve said, taking off the lid. “You’re really dehydrated. Open.”\n\n\n\nEddie opened his mouth and Steve poured out a generous gulp, pausing to let Eddie swallow. Steve wiped an errant drop from Eddie’s lower lip with his thumb. \n\n\n\n“More?” Steve asked.\n\n\n\nEddie cleared his throat.\n\n\n\n“Maybe a little,” he said. \n\n\n\nSteve tried to avoid making eye contact with Eddie as he poured out another mouthful. A heat spread through his belly as if he were the one taking shots instead of administering them. He fixed his eyes on the line of Eddie’s neck, as if that was somehow safer than his eyes, watching the muscles move as he swallowed again. When that did nothing to quell the heat in his stomach, he turned away and took a swig from the bottle himself. He went back to the kitchen and washed his hands.\n\n\n \n\n\n“How’d you end up playing Florence Nightingale for me? Did you draw the short straw?” Eddie asked. \n\n\n\nSteve returned to his side, kneeling on the floor next to the couch. He took the little medical scissors from the new kit and began cutting the bandages away from Eddie’s arm. \n\n\n\n“I volunteered,” Steve said, gingerly pulling away the wrappings. “Actually, I insisted.”\n\n\n\n“Oh.”\n\n\n\n“I can see if someone else would stay with you if you’d be more comfortable with that,” Steve said, tentatively.\n\n\n\n“No,” Eddie replied quickly. “No, I’d like you to stay. If you want.”\n\n\n\n“I do.”\n\n\n\n“Okay, cool,” Eddie said.\n\n\n\nSteve inspected the newly uncovered wounds. They looked alright. They almost looked like a bad case of road rash, but nothing more sinister than that.\n\n\n\n“These are looking okay,” he said. \n\n\n\n“That’s good,” Eddie replied.\n\n\n\n“I don’t really know what I’m doing here, but I feel like we should let them breathe for a second, right?” Steve said, picking up the scissors again.\n\n\n\n“You’re the nurse here, not me. Do whatever you think is right,” Eddie said.\n\n\n\n“This is going to hurt more,” Steve said, turning his attention to Eddie’s torso. “They’re the worst of them.”\n\n\n\nEddie nodded, screwing his eyes shut in anticipation of the pain. \n\n\n\nHe hissed, his hands clenching into fists as Steve began to gently pull the gauze away.\n\n\n\n“I know, I’m sorry. I know,” Steve murmured as he unwrapped Eddie. “Almost done. You’re doing so well, Eds.”\n\n\n\nHe did his best to pull the wrappings out from under Eddie so he wouldn’t have to sit up until it was time to rewrap him. \n\n\n\nThere was more dried blood on Eddie’s torso than there had been on his arms. Steve carefully cleaned it away, wincing in sympathy each time Eddie’s stomach spasmed at his touch.\n\n\n\n“Now we’ll have more matching scars,” Steve said, cleaning a gash next to Eddie’s navel.\n\n\n\nHe had expected Eddie to chuckle at that, or at least give an amused huff.\n\n\n\nBut Eddie surprised him like he always did.\n\n\n\n“I’m sorry, Stevie,” he whispered. \n\n\n\nSteve glanced up at Eddie’s face and shook his head.\n\n\n\n“Save that sorry for when you have more strength, Munson.”\n\n\n\n“I should have said something when I came back, I just didn’t know… We were so different,” Eddie continued.\n\n\n\n“Eddie. Later.”\n\n\n\n“But I–”\n\n\n\n“You almost died. We can talk about it later. Right now, I’m just glad you’re talking at all,” Steve said his voice firm.\n\n\n\nEddie fell quiet, watching as Steve applied disinfectant to his wounds, his hands clenching and unclenching at his sides.\n\n\n\n“Told you so,” Eddie said. \n\n\n\n“Told me what?” Steve asked, spreading a thin layer of Neosporin over a graze on Eddie’s hipbone. Eddie’s skin was too hot, feverish, under his fingers.\n\n\n\n“That you’d be good at this. Taking care of things,” Eddie said. “When you wanted a dog, remember?”\n\n\n\n“You’re not a dog, Eds,” Steve said, unable to keep a smile from his lips.\n\n\n\n“The way I acted, I’m as good as one,” Eddie said.\n\n\n\n“A dog wouldn’t have treated me like that,” Steve said.\n\n\n\n“You’re right,” Eddie said. “And you’re taking care of me, anyway.” \n\n\n\nSteve swallowed.\n\n\n\n“I can’t believe you remember saying that,” Steve said, quietly.\n\n\n\n“I remember everything, Stevie,” Eddie said, his eyes fluttering shut as Steve started applying the ointment to his arms. \n\n\n\nThe words hung between them as Steve finished cleaning and medicating Eddie’s wounds. \n\n\n \n\n\n“Do you think you can sit up?” Steve asked. \n\n\n\n“Do I have a choice?” Eddie asked, grimacing.\n\n\n\n“Not really,” Steve said.\n\n\n\n“Then I guess the answer is yes,” Eddie said. “Give me a hand.”\n\n\n \n\n\nSteve stood and took both of Eddie’s hands, hauling him up into a sitting position.\n\n\n\n“Fuck,” he groaned. “That’s awful. It’s really fucking terrible, Steve.”\n\n\n\n“I’ll make it quick,” Steve promised, picking up a roll of gauze and beginning to wrap at Eddie’s waist. \n\n\n\nEddie’s breath quickened. His hands gripped the edge of the couch cushions as he struggled to keep himself upright.\n\n\n\n“Hold onto me, Eds,” Steve said. \n\n\n\nEddie’s fingers scrambled for purchase until he hooked them into Steve’s belt loops with such force Steve was sure he would rip them off. \n\n\n\n“Steve,” Eddie breathed, his face twisted terribly with effort. \n\n\n\n“You’re okay. I’ve got you. Just a couple more seconds,” Steve said, abandoning any hope that his dressings would be neat in favor of getting Eddie comfortable. \n\n\n\n“Alright,” he said after securing the bandages.\n\n\n\nHe dropped the gauze into the open first aid kit, taking Eddie’s hands from his waist and guiding Eddie back down onto the couch.\n\n\n\n“Why does it hurt so bad?” Eddie asked. \n\n\n\n“I don’t know. Can bats have venom?” Steve asked.\n\n\n\n“I don’t think it matters what normal bats can have. These are like… Evil, fucked up bats. They can have \n\nanything\n\n,” Eddie said.\n\n\n\n“Then maybe it’s that,” Steve said.\n\n\n\n“Maybe. I just know it hurts and I’m tired,” Eddie said.\n\n\n\n“Then sleep,” Steve said, smoothing a hand over Eddie’s hair.\n\n\n\nEddie closed his eyes.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n****\n\n\n \n\n\nEddie slept through most of the third day. The pain pills made Eddie tired, but when he was awake, he was incredibly silly. Steve worried that he had maybe given him too high of a dose. \n\n\n\nSteve was checking under Eddie’s bandages before he went to sleep on the pallet he had set up next to the couch. The areas around the wounds were still a little red, radiating heat. He pressed his hand against Eddie’s forehead and found it a little clammy, but not over-warm. \n\n\n\nEddie startled him by speaking, his eyes still closed.\n\n\n\n“Feel weird,” Eddie mumbled.\n\n\n\n“I’m sorry, Eds,” Steve said. “But the good news is you’re not hot, so that means no fever, which means no infection.”\n\n\n\n“\n\nYou’re\n\n hot.” \n\n\n\nSteve felt his own forehead. It felt fine. He wasn’t surprised; his own wounds were healing quite nicely.\n\n\n\n“No, I’m fine, too.”\n\n\n\n“Stupid. You’re stupid, Steve,” Eddie mumbled, glaring at him.\n\n\n\nSteve shot him a puzzled look.\n\n\n\n“Not as stupid as you, Mr. Hero,” he retorted. \n\n\n\n“No, not as stupid as me,” Eddie agreed with a chuckle.\n\n\n\n“Go back to sleep, Eds,” Steve said.\n\n\n\n“Don’t leave.”\n\n\n\n“I’m not going anywhere, Eddie,” Steve said.\n\n\n \n\n\nHe put Eddie’s bandages back in place and laid down on his makeshift bed on the floor. He had only just settled in when Eddie spoke again.\n\n\n\n“Steve?”\n\n\n\n“I’m still here,” Steve said.\n\n\n\n“Just checking.”\n\n\n\n“Okay,” Steve said, smiling to himself in the darkness.\n\n\n\n“Stevie?” \n\n\n\n“What, Eddie?”\n\n\n\n“Still here?” \n\n\n\n“Yes, Eddie,” Steve laughed. “It’s only been about ten seconds.”\n\n\n\nHe’d have to take Eddie’s dosage down tomorrow.\n\n\n\n“St-”\n\n\n\n“Eddie. I am and will continue to be here,” Steve said. “Go to sleep.”\n\n\n\n“Wasn’t going to say that,” Eddie said.\n\n\n\n“What were you going to say?” Steve said.\n\n\n\n“Thank you,” Eddie said.\n\n\n\n“Oh,” Steve said. “You’re welcome.”\n\n\n\n“You didn’t have to,” Eddie said. “Do this, I mean.”\n\n\n\n“I know that. I wanted to,” Steve said.\n\n\n\n“Thank you. For wanting to,” Eddie said.\n\n\n\nSteve stared up into the darkness, his cheeks burning, a pleasant feeling bubbling up in his chest. \n\n\n\nHe didn’t say \n\nI’ll always want to, Eddie.\n\n\n\n\nBut he hoped Eddie knew, just the same.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n**** \n\n\n\nOn the fifth day, Eddie was able to get up and move around on his own.\n\n\n\n��I would kill for a fucking cigarette,” he said, sitting up on the couch. \n\n\n\n“I don’t know, Eds,” Steve said warily.\n\n\n\n“Come on. Half of one. Split it with me,” Eddie pleaded. \n\n\n\n“Okay, but outside so the others don’t smell it,” Steve conceded. \n\n\n \n\n\nThey sat on the front steps, passing the cigarette back and forth between them. \n\n\n\n“So let me get this straight. You’ve been dealing with this for years, and you still graduated before me?” Eddie asked.\n\n\n\n“Yep,” Steve said.\n\n\n\n“That doesn’t seem fair,” Eddie pouted. \n\n\n\n“Oh, yeah, it’s totally unfair that I graduated high school while dealing with horrors beyond human comprehension,” Steve rolled his eyes. \n\n\n\n“Not all of it was horrors. Some of it was espionage,” Eddie pointed out.\n\n\n\n“That was after high school,” Steve said.\n\n\n\n“You really took down a Russian spy operation in a tiny little sailor suit?”  Eddie asked, taking a drag off the cigarette before shooting him a leary smile.\n\n\n\n“Mhm.”\n\n\n\n“Steve Harrington, you’re my hero,” Eddie teased.\n\n\n\n“Shut the fuck up,” Steve laughed.\n\n\n\n“I saw you at the mall, you know. Before it blew up, obviously. But I saw the sailor suit,” Eddie said, passing the cigarette back to Steve.\n\n\n\n“Jesus Christ. You must have thought that was really funny,” Steve groaned.\n\n\n\n“Funny? No. That’s not what I thought,” Eddie said.\n\n\n\n“What did you think?”\n\n\n\n“\n\nHelloooo\n\n, sailor,” Eddie grinned, wagging his eyebrows.\n\n\n\n“Now you’re just being mean,” Steve said, glaring at Eddie as he took a draw on the cigarette.\n\n\n\n“No, I really mean that. I love a man in teeny, tiny uniform. The teeny, tinier the better, that’s what I always say,” Eddie said.\n\n\n\n“I’ve never heard you say that.”\n\n\n\n“Well, I say it. All the time,” Eddie said. “Do you still have the uniform?”\n\n\n\nSteve hesitated.\n\n\n\n“No.”\n\n\n\n“Oh my god, you \n\ndo\n\n,” Eddie said, and Steve didn’t love the look on his face. He felt like he was a tiny animal being stared down by an apex predator. A very handsome apex predator.\n\n\n\n“I don’t.”\n\n\n\n“You totally do.”\n\n\n\n“No.”\n\n\n\n“Can I see you in it?” Eddie asked, leaning forward.\n\n\n\n“You already saw me.”\n\n\n\n“Can I see it again?”\n\n\n\n“No.”\n\n\n\n“Can I try it on?”\n\n\n\nSteve paused, considering this for a moment. Eddie in those little shorts was too good to pass up.\n\n\n\n“Maybe,” he said, finally. \n\n\n\n“So you \n\ndo\n\n still have it,” Eddie said, triumphantly.\n\n\n\nSteve reached out to slap him (gently, of course, as he was still healing) but Eddie caught his hand. Steve’s breath hitched as Eddie didn’t drop his hand, instead, manuvering it so he could link his pinky with Steve’s, letting their joined hands rest between them on the porch stairs.\n\n\n \n\n\nHe swallowed, looking away from Eddie. He looked up at the night sky, his eyes catching on a familiar spot of light that hung there amongst the stars.\n\n\n\nHe felt Eddie studying him, wishing desperately that the other man would look away.\n\n\n\n“Do you think they could still live happily ever after?” Eddie asked.\n\n\n\n“Who?” Steve asked.\n\n\n\n“The knight and the weary traveler,” Eddie said.\n\n\n\nSteve sighed. \n\n\n\n“I don’t know, Eds,” he said.\n\n\n\n“The traveler has kind of been a piece of shit,” Eddie said.\n\n\n\nSteve laughed. \n\n\n\n“Yeah. Yeah, he has,” he agreed. \n\n\n\n“But he’ll do anything to make it up to the knight,” Eddie continued, falling into their old rhythm, his pinky tightening around Steve’s.\n\n\n\n“Then he should rest and get better before he worries about anything else,” Steve said.\n\n\n\n“Is that really all he has to do?” Eddie asked, bumping his shoulder against Steve’s.\n\n\n\n“And never, \n\never\n\n almost get killed again,” Steve added. \n\n\n\n“That’s reasonable,” Eddie laughed. \n\n\n\n“And stop pretending I don’t exist,” Steve continued.\n\n\n\n“I thought we were talking about the knight and the traveler,” Eddie said.\n\n\n\n“\n\nEddie\n\n.”\n\n\n\nEddie shifted uncomfortably where he sat.\n\n\n\n“I won’t pretend you don’t exist,” he said quietly. “Almost getting eaten alive by hell bats on steroids makes you really stop and think about what’s important to you.”\n\n\n\n“It does tend to have that effect,” Steve said. \n\n\n\n“Turns out, your existence is pretty high up there on the list,” Eddie said.\n\n\n\nSteve closed his eyes.\n\n\n\n“Number one on the list, actually,” Eddie said.\n\n\n\nSteve nodded, feeling more than a little shaken. He wasn’t ready to talk about this, even though he had spent a better part of a decade waiting. The reality of Eddie, friendly and sweet and right there next to him like he had been all those years ago, knocked him flat on his ass. \n\n\n\n“Stevie –”\n\n\n\n“Let’s get you back inside, huh? You need to eat,” Steve said, pulling his hand away as he stood from the step.\n\n\n\nEddie looked up at him for a long stretch before nodding.\n\n\n\n“Yeah, okay,” he agreed. “But you have to let me help make dinner.”\n"}
+{"text": "If you asked Jason, Dick Grayson was dating all the wrong men. He had bad taste in people as a general rule, everyone knew it, but it seemed to Jason that the older he got, the worse his taste in partners got. He’d some good people when he was younger: Barbara, Kori, and Roy to name a few, but his current fling was just disturbing. It was an all new low for Dick Grayson: disaster extraordinare. It was so bad that Jason didn’t even want to think about it, because if he did he threw up in his mouth a little.\n\nDick Grayson was dating Slade “I kill people for a living” Wilson.\n\nJason had been reasonably sure his eyes were deceiving him, but the kiss had just gone on for so long. Slade had Dick wrapped up in massive arms, while Dick’s hands wound their way into Slade’s hair.\n\nThey’d been working with Slade because being around Dick usually made his dubious morality come out and play and they’d needed a known mercenary to go undercover for them. Jason was regretting asking him now, now that he had big hands spread over Dick’s back, and one hand in particular was reaching farther and farther toward indecency. Jason watched, one eye twitching, as they finally broke the kiss. Dick smiled lightly and ran his hand through Slade’s hair.\n\n“Thank you for helping,” he said softly, like they were having some quiet emotional moment or something. Jason felt a little bit like he was going to puke.\n\n“Anything for you beautiful,” Slade replied. Jason choked on air. Slade finally turned away and jumped off the roof, his grapple line catching and swinging his body away.\n\nThere was silence for a long moment as Dick stood watching Slade retreat. The line of his shoulders was tense, and he wouldn’t look back at Jason. Jason who hadn’t really known up until this point that the golden boy was dating the world’s worst. Which was a lot of hypocrisy to come from Bruce’s little “no killing” prodigy. How many times had he lectured Jason for not being a better man? Then he goes and sucks face with one of the worst men in the world. Jason folded his arms across his chest and felt a lecture brewing.\n\nFinally Dick sighed.\n\n“Lay it on me,” he said, resigned.\n\n“What the fuck, Dickie?” Jason snapped.\n\n“Look, it was a long time coming. We’re just seeing where it goes,” he replied. That didn’t make any more sense to Jason than the rest of the situation did.\n\n“What the hell are you talking about? The guy’s got to be at least a decade and a half older than you! Plus, he kills people for a living! What the hell do you have to say about that? What does Bruce think?”\n\nDick sighed, and turned fully to look at him.\n\n“Bruce knows, and he doesn’t like it either. Look, Jason, I get it, okay? I don’t think it’s going to last, but I’d like to at least see where it’s going. Slade and I have a long history together, it’s worth a shot.”\n\nJason felt like oddly like he was in an episode of the Twilight Zone, or maybe Punk’d. He subtly looked for cameras or maybe Ashton Kutcher.\n\n“Dick, what are you going to do when you’re on opposite sides, or when he kills someone who didn’t deserve to die?” Jason asked. He wasn’t thinking about himself, not really, but it was hard not to be at least a little bit jealous. Slade was worse than Jason by all accounts, and really, what did Slade Wilson have that Jason didn’t? It wasn’t really that Jason had a thing for Dick, only, he sort of did, but so did pretty much everyone who laid eyes on Dick. He was the ultimate kind of handsome. Jason had his first sex dream about Dick, and while he wouldn’t go so far as to say he was in love with him or anything, he wouldn’t have said no if given the chance to go out with Dick. Only, here was Slade Wilson, Deathstroke, holding Dick, touching him like he owned him, and it made Jason sort of furious.\n\n“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” Dick said. If anything that just shocked Jason even more. Did he think they were going to last long enough to face that situation? Was he so serious about Slade that he would be willing to compromise on his twisted morals and his job as a mercenary? Jason didn’t want to admit it, but Slade must really mean something to Dick if he was willing to look past all that. Would he be willing to look past it for other people, too? For Jason?\n\nNo, he was stopping that train of thought right there. There was no need to continue along those lines, especially when Dick was clearly into someone else.\n\n“Is it serious?” Jason asked. That was the more pressing issue here, anyway. Dick sighed, then shrugged.\n\n“I can’t say yes,” he said.\n\n“But you can’t say no, either,” Jason finished for him. Dick nodded.\n\n“This is ridiculous, Dick, he’s a  villain ,” Jason protested, bewildered.\n\n“Like you’re one to talk.”\n\n“I’m not a mercenary!”\n\n“No, Jason, you’re just a crime lord.” With that final remark, Dick twisted off the roof and flew through the air, headed back in the direction of his apartment. Jason stood there, a little hurt but mostly confused. It was true, he’d been a crime lord, sort of still was. Only he hadn’t been a  real  crime lord. He’d killed people and assimilated territory, sure, but he was only doing it to dismantle the really bad syndicates, and to put a better one in their place. He had hard limits. No people trafficking, no drugs to kids, no prostitution. He’d say that compared to some of the other syndicates he was down right Mother Teresa. Only, maybe not when compared to Deathstroke. They were too similar for Jason to be entirely comfortable. Neither of them could claim to be good people, and yet Dick wasn’t willing to give up on either one of them, not like someone else might have so easily.\n\nJason sighed, it wasn’t really his place to question Slade or Dick, but someone should before Dick did something he’d regret.\n\nJason turned in the opposite direction and began the long journey back home. He flew through the rooftops, contemplating the night’s events. If it was true that Bruce knew about Dick and Slade, then Jason might just have to go see the Big Bad Bat, and see what he really thought about his precious golden boy dating a killer.\n\n----\n\nJason landed hard on his fire escape and pried open the window. He slipped inside and felt himself relax at the sight of the penthouse apartment he shared with Roy Harper.\n\n“Hey, Jaybird,” Roy called from where he sat on the couch playing with Lian. They were playing some kind of card game that looked a little too much like poker. Lian held her cards in front of her face, which was expressionless, as she stared her father down. Roy held his cards a little bit lower so she could see the ridiculous expressions he made as he studied his hand. Jason smiled at them and made his way to the kitchen.\n\n“Do we have anything for dinner?” He asked.\n\n“Just take-out unless you want to make something.”\n\nJason nodded and pulled out a pot for spaghetti. He gathered the ingredients for meat sauce and began to boil water. He was silent for a long moment before deciding to confide in Roy.\n\n“Hey, Roy?”\n\n“Yeah?”\n\n“Did you know Dick’s dating Slade Wilson?”\n\nThere was a sharp gasp and then silence from the other room. Jason heard footsteps and turned to see Roy standing in the doorway, a completely dumbfounded look on his face.\n\n“What the fuck?”\n\n“Yeah, I had to do a case with them tonight-”\n\n“That private security deal? The one with the human traffickers and their mercenary army?”\n\n“Yeah, that one. Anyway, I was working on it with them, and it all went smoothly, which, of course, is a first, but then we met up at the rendezvous, and Slade kissed Dick goodbye. And not like a peck on the cheek or some shit, but a full on scar me for life french style goodbye kiss,” Jason said, sounding a little desperate.\n\n“Wow,” Roy said, dazed. “Isn’t that against his little holier than thou bat code?”\n\n“No shit, and then he said it had been a long time coming. What the fuck does  that  mean?”\n\nRoy shrugged. “I mean, he isn’t wrong. They’ve sort of had a lot of weird unresolved sexual tension for a really long time. Slade used to hit on him a lot when we were younger, nothing ever happened, but I guess we’re all older now.”\n\n“Not that much older! Dick’s twenty-two, he can barely drink legally. He shouldn’t be fooling around with freaking Deathstroke! I mean I’m pretty sure dating someone with that name alone breaks about every rule in Bruce’s little Robin handbook. I mean, you saw how he reacted when I came back, he’s got to be pissed about this.”\n\nRoy didn’t argue.\n\nLian came wandering in and reached up for Jason, who picked her up and put her on his shoulders. Her little fingers went straight for his mess of black hair and set about tangling it up.\n\n“So has he told Bruce?” Roy asked, idly stirring the spaghetti while Jason was occupied with keeping Lian from falling off his shoulders.\n\n“He said he did, and that Bruce isn’t happy, but that’s all he said. I almost want to go talk to Bruce and ask him what he’s thinking letting Dick shack up with the likes of Slade.”\n\nRoy shrugged. “Maybe you should,” he said.\n\nJason jerked around to look at him.\n\n“What do you mean maybe I should?”\n\n“I mean just that. In this particular case I think you and Bruce are probably on the same side. He probably hates this just as much as you do. If you guys work together maybe you can get Dick to see the error of his ways and put a stop to it before it ever really starts.”\n\nJason raised his brows. “That might be a great idea, Roy.”\n\nRoy shrugged. “I do my best.” He moved the pot off the stove and drained the spaghetti. Jason put Lian down and got to work on the sauce.\n\nWhen the food was finally ready Jason piled two plates high, and made a smaller plate for Lian. Roy set the table and they all sat down to eat.\n\n“I’ll tell you one thing though,” Roy said around a bite of spaghetti, “you’d better hope Damian already knows.”\n\n----\n\nDamian did not already know.\n\nJason, like an idiot, pulled into the Batcave, stormed up to Bruce, and just shouted, “What the fuck is up with Dick and Slade Wilson?”\n\nDamian, who had been hidden behind his father’s cloak, stood up sharply.\n\n“What? What are you talking about, Todd? Father? What is Todd talking about?”\n\nBruce sighed and rubbed his forehead. He shot Jason a small mostly weary glare.\n\n“Dick and Slade are… involved,” he tried. Jason gave him points for effort, but it didn’t stop Damian’s face from purpling with anger.\n\n“ What!?  And you allowed this? Father! How could you allow Deathstroke to defile Grayson!” Damian bellowed. Jason only felt a little bit bad. Damian was right after all, and Bruce deserved some sort of comeuppance for letting this happen.\n\n“Damian-”\n\n“What, Father? What could you possibly say that could excuse this outrage you’ve allowed to happen?”\n\n“I didn’t allow him to do anything, he just did it, you know how he is.”\n\nThat didn’t placate Damian in the slightest. His little face was turning a truly fluorescent shade of puce.\n\n“Still! He listens to you, and you could’ve stopped him!”\n\nAlfred appeared out of nowhere and quickly made his way toward them.\n\n“Master Damian, I suggest you come upstairs for dinner. Master Bruce and Master Jason need to have a private conversation,” Alfred said sharply, grabbing Damian’s wrist.\n\n“Unhand me Pennyworth! I am not finished speaking!”“Damian!” Bruce snapped. “Go upstairs. Now.”\n\nDamian huffed, spun sharply on his heel and stomped all the way out of the cave. Jason forgot how young he was sometimes. He forgot that Damian still threw tantrums like the child he was. Maybe Jason would’ve remembered if he was around more often.\n\nBruce and Jason faced each other in tense silence until the sounds of footsteps disappeared.\n\n“I think he made some excellent points,” Jason said suddenly. “Like, for example, how the fuck could you let this happen?”\n\nBruce sighed and pulled the cowl off. Now, with the cowl down and Damian gone, Jason could finally see the stress in his shoulders, the lines in his forehead. He looked like he’d aged a decade in seconds.\n\n“Like I said, I didn’t let him do anything. Dick never asked for my permission, he just informed me of his decision. When I tried to talk sense into him he brushed me off and just threw Selina in my face. I told him Selina never killed anyone, but he wasn’t having it. He said I didn’t have to like it, but that I couldn’t do anything about it, and he’s not wrong.” It was probably the most Bruce had spoken to him in a long time. Jason felt his defenses drop, and he slumped into a chair.\n\n“I need to stop this,” he said. Bruce glanced at him.\n\n“Why you?” He asked.\n\n“Because- Because I just- Because he doesn’t understand that I-” Jason cut himself off. He sighed. “Because someone has to, and maybe he’ll listen to me.”\n\n“No,” Bruce said.\n\n“No?”\n\n“No.”\n\n“Why not?”\n\n“Because you want him, and that’s why you want to stop it.”\n\nJason glared at him, “No, I don’t.”\n\n“Yes you do, Jason, you always have. Only recognize that the reasons you’d give Dick for why he shouldn’t be with Slade are the same reasons why he shouldn’t be with you.”\n\nJason stood sharply. “You really are the most unbelievable ass,” he snarled. Bruce looked up at him.\n\n“All the same, I’d rather he be with you. At least I wouldn’t worry about him if he were with you.”\n\nJason stood frozen, completely flabbergasted.\n\n“What the fuck are you talking about?”\n\n“You’re not stupid Jason, don’t act like you are just because you don’t like what I say,” Bruce sighed.\n\nJason swallowed hard. Bruce wanted Dick to be with him. No- no he preferred Dick with him over Slade. That was an important distinction. Bruce didn’t approve of Jason, he was just the lesser of two evils. Jason nodded.\n\n“Well, even I know I don’t deserve him, so I won’t insult you by saying I’m any better for him than Slade. I don’t think we’ll ever be together, but the least I can do is get him away from Slade,” Jason said decidedly. Bruce nodded, like it was exactly what he expected. It probably was.\n\n“Just be careful with him Jason, he’s always been emotional, you know that.”\n\nJason nodded. He did know that, they all knew it.\n\n“See you around, Bruce.” With those final words, Jason got back on his bike and rode out of the cave.\n\n----\n\nIt turned out that Jason saw Slade again before he saw Dick.\n\nJason was posing as Red Hood looking for a new drug supplier, and was waiting for a meeting with an up and coming distributor whose operation he was planning on dismantling. He was sitting in the VIP section of a very exclusive club for very bad people while waiting for his meeting, when Slade sat down next to him.\n\n“Red,” Slade greeted. Jason honestly wasn’t sure if Slade knew who he was. Slade knew the Robin’s well simply on the principle of being one of their collective biggest foes, though he’d definitely had more run-in’s with Dick than anyone else. Jason wasn’t sure if Slade had ever recognized his fighting style (though this was unlikely given how much he learned while abroad after the pit), or if Dick had ever told him, but he never called Jason anything other than Red or Hood, and since he referred to the Robin’s generally by first name, Jason had to assume he didn’t know who he was.\n\n“Wilson,” Jason snarled, not even bothering to hide his contempt.\n\n“Dick told me you don’t approve,” Slade began. Jason snorted. That was an understatement.\n\n“No shit,” Jason muttered.\n\n“What I’d like to know is why your opinion matters. Dick wouldn’t tell me, so I thought I’d go to the source.”\n\nThat was mildly surprising.\n\n“Fuck off, Wilson, that’s between me and Dick, and if he’s not telling you shit, I don’t know why you think I would.”\n\nSlade gave him a considering look.\n\n“I didn’t really think you will, but I had to ask. No one really knows who you are, so it’s mostly a mystery as to why the bats let you hang around given their general aversion to firearms and murder. I have a theory, of course.”\n\n“Of course you do,” Jason sighed, taking a big swig of his beer.\n\n“My theory is that Jason Todd didn’t actually die in that explosion. Somehow he got away, fooled Batman and the rest of the family into thinking he was dead, and then went off to become a psychopath. Of course, it’s just a theory,” Slade smirked. The fucker knew he was right, but Jason wasn’t about to encourage him. Jason’s greatest strength was the perfect anonymity his death had given him. He wasn’t about to give it up for Slade Wilson.\n\n“Wow, Slade, how one man can be so close and yet so completely wrong I have no idea, but you’ve somehow managed it. I’m not the kid that got blown up by the Joker, shithead.” It was true, he wasn’t, that kid had been killed by a crowbar and a warehouse fire.\n\nSlade looked a little miffed, but it wasn’t Jason’s job to contribute to his ego.\n\n“Look, I’m going to be straight with you here since I don’t like you: Stay the fuck away from Dick Grayson before I make you,” Jason growled. Slade raised an unimpressed eyebrow.\n\n“No,” he said simply. Jason swiftly pulled out his gun and clicked off the safety.\n\n“And why, pray tell, not?”\n\nSlade was silent for a long moment. He watched Jason with a considering look, his eyes only minutely flickering down to the gun in Jason’s hand.\n\n“Because I care about him, and I don’t want to let him go,” Slade finally replied. Jason could admit to being shocked, both with what Slade said and how bluntly he said it.\n\n“That’s selfish.”\n\n“I’m a mercenary, being selfish doesn’t even crack the top fifty on my list of sins.”\n\nJason couldn’t exactly argue with that logic.\n\n“You don’t deserve him.”\n\n“Certainly not, but I have him, and I’m not going to be the one to make him leave.”\n\n“I’m going to shoot you.”\n\n“Go ahead, but maybe later when you don’t have a position to compromise.”\n\nJason shot him anyway.\n\nThe bullet went straight into his abdomen. Slade honestly looked a little surprised, Jason noticed smugly. The patrons of the bar jumped, and looked around at them, but quickly returned to their drinks. This sort of thing happened all the time in this particular establishment.Jason smirked as he watched the wound sluggishly pump out dark red blood.\n\n“Dammit, the bullet didn’t go all the way through,” Slade sighed. Jason snorted.\n\n“I’m sure Dick would be happy to dig it out for you,” he shot back, taking another sip of beer. Slade glared at him, grabbed the knife off the table, and proceeded to dig the bullet out of his gut.\n\n“He’s going to be pissed when I tell him about this,” Slade muttered.\n\n“Let him be, he’s already pissed at me for existing,” Jason shot back. Slade glared at him again, and finally rooted out the bullet. He dropped it and the bloodied knife on the table, then stood. Jason watched in annoyance as his skin began to knit back together.\n\n“Look, kid, I know you hate it, watching me have someone you obviously want-” Jason spluttered, ready to argue, but Slade cut him off, “but he’s mine now, and you need to be a grown up about it because for some reason you and your opinion matter to him. He’s better than all of us, you should really treat him like it more often. Maybe if you did, he’d be with you, not me.”\n\nWith that final wisdom Slade stalked away, leaving Jason red-faced and furious. Did everyone know he had a thing for Dick? Had he been that damn transparent?\n\nHe stood briskly from the table, and kicked down the door to the office of the supplier he was supposed to be meeting there. The man looked up from the paperwork he was filling out, and his eyes widened in surprise at seeing Jason there. Jason didn’t even bother with a witty remark, he simply pulled out his gun and unloaded in the man. He snatched the bloodied paperwork off his desk and stalked out of the bar, gun still in hand. A few security guards tried to stop him, and Jason grinned under his helmet. He holstered his gun and went in for a fist fight. He was in the mood for a good old fashioned beat down. The first guard that came at him was no bigger than a minute, and Jason had the man flipped and his neck broken within seconds. The second man who came after him met the unfortunate end of some of the bar’s finest silverware. The third man came after Jason with a gun, which Jason snatched from him, and then used to shoot out both knee caps before shooting the guy in the head. Jason threw the gun to the ground and made his way out of the bar. No one else tried to stop him.\n\n----\n\nWhen he got back to his apartment that night Roy and Lian were nowhere to be seen, but Dick was sitting at his kitchen table in a pair of jeans and a worn blue sweatshirt. Jason sighed as soon as he saw him, and removed his helmet and domino mask. He knew Dick would just get mad if he left it on. He didn’t like talking to the helmet; it was the same with Bruce’s cowl. He really had all of them wrapped around his little finger. Even Slade Wilson, apparently.\n\n“Slade told me what happened at the bar.”\n\nJason shrugged.\n\n“I didn’t take him for a snitch,” he sniffed. Dick sighed.\n\n“Jason, I know you don’t approve but you can’t just shoot him.”\n\n“Why not?” Jason asked petulantly. Dick’s lips thinned.\n\n“Because it’s wrong, and before you go and make a fuss about Slade’s wrongness, you can’t judge someone based on past actions.”\n\n“Yes, you can Dick, that’s the whole fucking point of them.”\n\n“I don’t judge you,” Dick said, unfairly in Jason’s opinion.\n\n“Look, Dick, there’s a big leap between running a mob to keep all the really bad mobs out of Gotham, and killing people for money, even I know that. I know I’m no peach, but Slade’s a bad guy, Dick, and people like that don’t just reform. You can’t help him,” Jason protested. Dick shook his head.\n\n“You don’t know that.”\n\n“Yeah, I think I do. You can’t reform me and I’m not half as nasty as Deathstroke.”Dick sighed and leaned back in his chair.\n\n“You’re right, you’re not as bad as he is. This will probably end up being a huge mistake that ends in a world of hurt, but I think I have the right to make that mistake. I’m my own person Jason, and neither you nor Bruce can make my decisions for me.” His eyes blazed like blue fire, and Jason found himself cowed by their intensity. Dick was right, of course, he always was.\n\n“I know, I just don’t want to see you hurt,” Jason muttered, looking away. Dick smiled softly at him. He reached across the table to grab Jason’s hands and uncrossed his arms for him.\n\n“I know,” he said, holding Jason’s hands in his, “and I love you for that,” Jason’s heart skipped a beat, “but I need to see this through. As weird as it sounds, I care about Slade, and he cares about me. I’ve been in a lot of relationships where that hasn’t been the case. I deserve to see where this goes now that I’ve started it.”\n\nJason didn’t want to agree with him, but he couldn’t disagree, not when Dick was being so reasonable.\n\n“Dickie, this is a terrible idea,” he pleaded. Dick smiled a sad little smile.\n\n“I know,” he replied, unrepentant.\n\nJason sighed and pulled away. He leaned back in his chair and fingered the blood on his pants.\n\n“I’ve got to change, want to stay for dinner?” He asked. Dick smiled brightly at him.\n\n“Sounds awesome, what’re we having?” He asked. Jason stood up and grabbed the cordless phone from it’s charging station.\n\n“Pizza, you call it in. Get me pepperoni.” He threw the cordless phone at Dick and walked off to his bedroom, ignoring the sound of Dick dialing.\n\nJason stripped off his uniform and threw it in the blood hamper. He and Roy each had two dirty clothes hampers. One for regular laundry, and one for bloody laundry. He made his way to the shower and turned the water on as hot as he could stand. He needed to burn the night off of himself. Dick knew being with Slade was wrong, knew that it was going to end in pain, but he didn’t care, no instead he wanted to see things through. Jason stepped under the spray and watched the pink tinted water swirl down the drain.\n\nOnly Dick Grayson could do something stupid on purpose and keep doing it just to see how it ended. Slade was unbelievably bad news, but it looked like Jason wasn’t going to get anywhere with that argument. Not when Dick knew and acknowledged that it was true.\n\nJason grabbed the soap and began to scrub himself clean. His traitorous cock began to stiffen at the attention, and the persistence of Dick in his thoughts didn’t help. Jason, just this once, just to get back at Dick for being so purposefully stupid, let his mind wander. He imagined Dick in his Nightwing suit, skin tight polymer sticking to his skin, showing off the best ass on earth. Jason imagined getting his hands on that ass, all clad in black bodycon, squeezing handfuls, and then pulling Dick sharply back to him. He would grind his cock into that ass, listen as Dick moaned in pleasure. He would pull down the suit’s zipper until it ended just above his ass, and pull the top of the suit completely off of Dick, exposing his cock to the cool air. He’d get his hands around Dick’s cock and stroke until Dick cried out, throwing his head back as he came. Then Jason would shove Dick down to his knees, and Dick would smirk up at him as he pulled Jason’s cock out of his pants. Jason would grab fistfulls of pitch black hair and fuck Dick’s face on his cock until he finally came, spilling himself down Dick’s throat. Of course he’d pull out at the last second and cover Dick’s face in his come. Jason imagined the look on Dick’s face, sated and satisfied, with fucked red lips and come clinging to his eyelashes, and came.\n\nJason slumped back in the shower, and let the water wash his shame down the drain. He looked up at the ceiling as his breathing returned to normal. He was still angry, and now a little bit ashamed. Dick made him crazy, there was no doubt about that. Maybe it would be better if he avoided him while Dick was with Slade.\n\nThe thought only lasted a second. He knew he could never leave Dick alone, not ever, and certainly not now that he was letting Slade in close. Jason was resigned to his fate to forever be one step behind Dick’s many, many conquests. He didn’t even know if he wanted to be part of that whole situation; that toxic will they won’t they relationship that Dick seemed so fond of. He just wanted Dick. He wanted to live in his space, to make him dinner and patch him up after patrol. He wanted to be happy, but he was Jason Todd, and he knew better than to believe in happy.\n\n----\n\nJason walked back out into the living room dressed in sweatpants and a worn red t-shirt. Dick smiled at him when he walked in. Dick was sitting in front of the TV, which was turned to a sitcom that had ended a few years prior. He liked watching comedy shows, he said they were something he didn’t have to worry about.\n\nJason sat down next to him and laid back. He spread one out along the back of the couch, Dick just beyond his reach.\n\n“Which one’s this one?” He asked.\n\n“Karen’s supposed to write an essay on friendship for her psychology class, but all her friends are idiots,” Dick replied. Jason nodded, he remembered this show well. It had been one of his mother’s favorites. She used to put it on a lot while she got high.\n\n“Oh, yeah, I remember this one. Sort of a shitty episode,” he said. Dick snorted.\n\n“Better than a cop drama, which is the only other thing on right now.”\n\n“Fair enough. I don’t think there’s anything I hate more than a cop drama.”\n\n“A vigilante drama?”\n\n“Okay, you got me.”\n\nDick laughed and leaned back. If Jason reached just a little bit further he could probably brush Dick’s hair.\n\nBefore he could gather the courage to try, the doorbell rang, and Dick stood up to pay the pizza guy. He brought the pizza back to the couch complete with paper plates and napkins.\n\n“Want something to drink?” He asked.\n\n“Yeah, I’ll have to grab it though. I hide the booze so Roy doesn’t see it,” Jason said. He stood up and went back to his room to grab a bottle of whiskey. It was the only alcohol in the apartment, and it was mostly for emergencies. He’d used a bit of it to clean out a bullet wound, but there was plenty left for two people. It was a big bottle.\n\nHe brought the bottle back and noticed that Dick had grabbed two glasses from the kitchen. He filled them both a third of the way and grabbed a slice of pepperoni. Dick dug into the other box and pulled out an absolute monstrosity of a slice covered in a dozen different toppings. Jason snorted.\n\n“I don’t know how you keep that perfect ass of yours with a diet like that,” he muttered. Dick raised a brow at him.\n\n“It’s because my ass is magic,” he said.\n\n“I’m sure Slade would agree,” Jason shot back. Dick made an afronted noise and smacked his arm. Jason just laughed.\n\n“All right, drink up, magic ass.” Jason handed Dick the drink, which he shot back in one swallow. Jason willed himself not to get hard.\n\n“Oh, I see, it’s going to be like that, is it?” Jason asked. Dick smirked at him, and Jason grinned back. He shot back his own drink and refilled the glasses.\n\nThe pizza boxes emptied slowly, while the bottle of whiskey emptied much more quickly. Jason poured himself the last of the whiskey and shot it back while Dick watched with rapt attention. When Jason finished it off Dick cheered and laughed. He was shit at holding his liquor, and was already very tipsy. Jason was made of sterner stuff, and so he was a little more coherent, but not by much.\n\n“You know when you swallow your adam’s apple goes up and down and up,” Dick laughed, demonstrating with his finger, his eyes on Jason’s neck.\n\n“Yeah, that’s sorta how it works, Dickie,” Jason slurred. Dick giggled, and put his finger on Jason’s neck.\n\n“Do it again,” he said. Jason swallowed obediently and Dick laughed, his finger following the movement up and down Jason’s neck. Jason felt his cheeks flush and his cock start to stiffen.“Get off,” he grumbled, shoving Dick’s hand away. Dick rolled his eyes as he listed a little to the side.\n\n“Y’know you grew up really well,” Dick said suddenly. He put his hands on his hips and looked Jason up and down.\n\n“You’re so tall,” he muttered petulantly. “It’s not fair, I don’t know why I never got tall, but I never did! Everyone’s taller than me. Except Tim, of course.”\n\nJason choked on a laugh. “Tim’s a fuckin’ hobbit, Dick, no one’s shorter than him. Oh wait, fuck, am I taller than Slade?” He asked. Dick considered him for a long moment.\n\n“No,” he said finally.\n\n“Fucker.”\n\nDick shrugged. “Sorry, buddy, but he’s like a million feet tall, don’t tell anyone, but I have to go on my tippy toes to kiss him, isn’t tha’ weird?” He asked. Jason nodded vigorously.\n\n“Really weird, you should date someone shorter, like me,” he said, then froze. He hadn’t meant to say that outloud. Dick giggled. He crawled toward Jason and stopped to kneel in front of him.\n\n“I should date you, huh? I dunno Jay, aren’t we sorta like brothers?” He asked. Jason, for some ungodly reason, shook his head.\n\n“No, Bruce didn’t adopt you until after I died, plus I was dead, I barely lived with Bruce for like two, no three, no two, no- fucking whatever, it wasn’t long. Plus we’re not actually related,” he explained. Dick thought carefully about that, and nodded decidedly.\n\n“Good point,” he said. Then he grabbed Jason’s shoulders and pulled him close.\n\n“I think I’m gonna kiss you,” he said softly, looking down at Jason’s mouth. Jason licked his lips and Dick’s eyes followed the movement.\n\n“Okay,” Jason said. Dick smiled and moved forward. He pressed his lips to Jason’s, and kissed him hard and deep. Jason grabbed his hips and pulled him forward sharply, so he was sitting in Jason’s lap. Jason grabbed two handfuls of Dick’s ass, and kissed back, shoving his tongue in Dick’s mouth. Dick moaned and sucked on Jason’s tongue. He smiled into the kiss and pressed forward, pressing his hard cock into Jason’s stomach. Jason pulled him down hard, and ground up into his ass. Dick moaned and threw his head back at the sensation. Jason immediately attacked his neck, kissing and sucking at it. Suddenly Dick stopped moving. Jason, undeterred, kept sucking at his neck. Dick shoved him back, and leapt off the couch. He stood with wide eyes, and his hand against his mouth. Jason looked up at him confusedly, before realization dawned on him.\n\n“I have to go,” Dick said quietly. Jason shook his head, which was sobering quickly and ruthlessly.\n\n“Not in this state. Take my room, I’ll sleep on the couch,” he said. Dick nodded and walked off, not sparing Jason another glance.\n\nJason laid back against the couch, and even in his inebriated state he could understand the horror of what had happened there. He’d kissed Dick, no-  Dick  had kissed  him .\n\nOnly Dick was with Slade, and Slade would not be happy when he found out about this. Jason felt terror strike through his heart. What if Slade got really mad? What if he hurt Dick? What if he killed him?\n\nJason forced himself to swallow down those thoughts. Slade wouldn’t kill Dick, by his own admission he cared about him. If he wouldn’t kill Dick before they’d started dating, he sure as hell wasn’t going to now. Jason forced his eyes closed. He needed to sleep off the alcohol.\n\nJesus, no wonder Roy got off the sauce. It was nothing but trouble and regret.\n\n----\n\nWhen Jason got up the next morning Dick was gone.\n\nHe wasn’t surprised.\n\nJason spent the day in his apartment. He watched shitty TV and ate Dick’s leftover pizza, which, for all it’s weird toppings, was surprisingly tasty.\n\nRoy got home later in the day, carrying groceries in one hand and Lian in the other.\n\n“So, did you see Dick last night?” He asked as he began taking out the cold things for Lian to put in the fridge.\n\n“What?” Jason asked, jerking upright and nearly dropping his pizza. Roy looked over at him and his eyebrows shot into his hairline.\n\n“What the hell happened to you?”\n\n“Swear jar, daddy.”“Sorry, pumpkin.” Roy fished a dollar out of his wallet and put it in the jar marked ‘Lian’s Candy Fund.’\n\n“Dick and I made out on the couch,” Jason muttered. Roy dropped the pickle jar, which shattered against the countertop and spilled pickle juice everywhere.\n\n“Shit, fucking dammit,” he snapped.\n\n“Daddy.”\n\n“Yeah, I know kiddo.” He grabbed a stack of paper towels and swept the whole mess into the garbage. Then he fished four dollars out of his pocket and threw them in the jar. Fuck was a  very  bad word, so it meant two dollars in the jar.\n\nRoy sprayed the counter and wiped away the sticky pickle juice residue, then turned to Lian.\n\n“Honey, Daddy and Jason need to have an adult conversation, why don’t you go to your room and play with your dollies, okay?”\n\nLian looked at him suspiciously. She probably thought he didn’t want her there so he didn’t have to donate the entire remaining contents of his wallet to the swear jar.\n\nShe wasn’t wrong.\n\n“ Fine, ” she sighed dramatically. She made her way out of the kitchen, and it wasn’t until he heard her bedroom door close that Roy reacted.\n\n“ What the shit, Jason!?”  he hissed. “The fuck do you mean you and Dick made out on the couch? The same fucking Dick that’s dating fucking  Deathstroke!?  The man whose name literally means fucking killing blow!? God dammit Jason, he’s going to come here to fucking kill you! Dammit! He’s going to come  here  to fucking kill you! He knows where you live! He’s going to kill me and Lian! Dammit Jason if Deathstroke comes here to kill me and Lian because you couldn’t keep it in your fucking pants around Dick fucking Grayson, I’m going to kill you!”\n\nJason blinked up at Roy.\n\n“You owe twenty dollars to the swear jar,” he said. Roy’s face turned the same shade of red as his hair. Jason watched it with fascination.\n\n“Jason!”\n\n“What?”“You fucking macked on Deathstroke’s fucking boyfriend!”\n\n“Twenty-four dollars.”\n\nRoy let out a frustrated noise and snatched his wallet off the counter. He fished twenty-four dollars out of his wallet and shoved them into the jar. Then he turned back to Jason. His face was now redder than his hair.\n\n“Jason!”\n\n“Look, Roy, I know, okay? I fucked up. We were drunk, and he was talking about how Slade’s really tall and he has to stand on his tippy toes to kiss him, and I said you should date someone shorter like me, and he was like okay, and he fucking kissed me,” Jason’s voice got very high pitched toward the end, and Roy couldn’t stifle his laughter.\n\n“Shut up fucker! This is serious! Deathstroke’s going to fucking kill me!”\n\nRoy rolled his eyes. “Now he’s worried. By the way that’s six dollars, shithead,” he realized what he’d said and rolled his eyes. “Dammit.”\n\nJason pulled out six dollars and Roy grabbed another two.\n\n“Look, my advice is to stay out of their way. Dick’s going to tell Slade, you know he is, and when he does you probably don’t want to be within a mile of either of them, so I suggest staying home tonight.”\n\nJason shook his head.\n\n“What if he hurts Dick?”\n\nIt was on the tip of Roy’s tongue to say he’d brought it upon himself, but he didn’t. That would be needlessly cruel and Jason didn’t need it right now.\n\n“Watch from a distance. Keep an eye on them, but keep out of their way. Got it? You don’t want to be in the middle of that argument.”\n\nJason nodded.\n\n“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”\n\n“I usually am, now put that pizza down, it’s my turn to make dinner tonight and you’re not getting out of it by claiming to be full.”\n\n----\n\nThat night Jason kept to the shadows as he made his way to Dick’s side of town. He hadn’t heard any chatter of Nightwing out on the streets, and he was a little worried that Slade had hurt Dick so badly he couldn’t go out.\n\nJason made his way slowly to Dick’s building and jumped down softly onto the fire escape. He crept down the side of the building until he reached Dick’s floor. He rolled his eyes again at how shitty Dick’s apartment was. He insisted on living off of a cop’s salary, even though his millions of dollars inheritence was tucked nice and tight in his bank account. Jason looked through the window to the living room, but he didn’t see anyone. He jimmied open the window and slipped inside. Dick might be laid up in bed, or cleaning a wound in the bathroom. Better safe than sorry.\n\nJason crept through the apartment in the direction of the bedroom before he heard something that made his heart stop.\n\nSomebody, Dick, cried out, and something slammed into the wall.\n\nJason quickened his step and made his way to the bedroom, where he peeked through the crack in the door.\n\nWhat he saw made his stomach sink.\n\nDick was laying on the bed, ass up in the air, as Slade slammed into him from behind so hard the bed smacked into the wall. Dick moaned and Slade wrapped a hand around his throat, pulling him up until his back was flushed with Slade’s massive chest. Slade’s hand tightened on Dick’s throat and Jason’s hands tightened to fists, despite Dick’s moan.\n\n“That’s it Dick, you’re going to act like a slut then I’m going to treat you like one.” He gave a particularly vicious thrust and Dick cried out as he came, untouched. Jason’s cheeks flushed as Dick leaned back into Slade, panting. He was covered in a fine sheen of sweat and his body was flushed red from exertion. Slade pulled out carelessly and Dick moaned, dropping forward onto the bed. Slade turned him around, and Dick sat up. Slade stroked his cock hard and fast and let out a long moan as his orgasm hit him, his come covering Dick’s face. Dick’s eyes, lust blown and vividly blue, shot open as he looked up at Slade. Slade smiled down at him, and took Dick’s face in his hands. He kissed him hard and claiming.\n\n“You’re mine, pretty bird, and don’t you forget it,” he hissed. Dick could only nod.\n\nJason didn’t need to see any more. Heart in his stomach, he turned on his heel and slipped out as quietly as he’d arrived."}
+{"text": "The images restarted. Gobber lifted the gate to the training arena. Hiccup winced. The Gronkle at Gyda's feet winced as well. Her ears lowered and she laid her head upon her paws.\n\n[I am so sorry, youngling,] she said.\n\n[Why are you apologizing?] Toothless asked. [What will this show?]\n\n“Just watch, Toothless,” Gyda said. “You will see. Just remember there is more than meets the eye.”\n\nToothless stared at her but the images began before he could ask anything.\n\n/Welcome to dragon training./\n\nThe teens walked in, looking around. \n\n/No turning back.\n\nI hope I get some serious burns.\n\nI'm hoping for some mauling, like on my shoulder or lower back.\n\nYeah, it's only fun if you get a scar out of it./\n\n[Tuff, why would you want to get burnt?] Shadowfire asked. [Ruff, why would any mauling be a good idea? And Astrid, your definition of fun is vastly different than mine.]\n\n[Mine as well,] the female Gronkle said.\n\n[Scars means wounds,] the Terror said. [Wounds means pain. Some wounds are hard to recover from. Some don't recover at all.]\n\n“Who?” Hiccup asked as the Terror shuddered and curled in on itself.\n\n[My parents. They led the flock and died defending our tree from another flock.]\n\nHiccup gathered the Terror closer. Toothless stared at both for several heartbeats then leaned over and nuzzled both of them.\n\n[You have a new flock now,] Toothless said.\n\nThe Terror curled his neck, staring at Toothless. [You're sure?]\n\n[I'm sure.]\n\n[Thank you, Protector.]\n\n“Why do you call him Protector?” Hiccup asked. \n\n“Ah, don't answer,” Gyda said. “That will be explained later. There are somethings the Vikings do not know.”\n\n[They do not know about her?] the other Nightmare asked, its voice female.\n\n“Her?”\n\n“Hiccup, please, do not ask for things ahead of the tale. All will be revealed and understood at the end. I promise.”\n\nHiccup stared at Gyda but nodded his head. He trusted her as he had trusted no one except Toothless. She accepted him and defended him. She raised a dragon from an egg. Not something most would do. The images restarted with himself quipping a sarcastic response to Astrid's comment about scars.\n\n/Yeah, no kidding, right? Pain. Love it./\n\nThe teens turned and several groaned. \n\n/Oh, great who let him in?/\n\nGobber stepped forward before anyone could answer Tuffnut. \n\n/Let's get started! The recruit who does the best will win the honor of killing his first dragon in front of the entire village./\n\n“His?” Astrid asked, spinning to stare at Gobber. “There were two girls there, Gobber.”\n\n“Eh..” Gobber rubbed the back of his neck to the laughter of Vikings and dragons alike. \n\nSnotlout's voice from the images pulled everyone's attention back to the images.\n\n/Hiccup already killed a Night Fury, so does that disqualify him or…./\n\nSome of the teens laughed before walking further into the arena.\n\n/Can I transfer to the class with the cool Vikings?/\n\nGobber walked over and placed an arm around Hiccup's shoulders, guiding him into the arena.\n\n/Don't worry. You're small and weak. That'll make you less of a target. They'll see you as sick or insane and go after the more Viking-like teens instead./\n\nGyda groaned and pinched the bridge of her nose. Hiccup turned from the images to stare at her in concern. \n\n“Gobber,” Gyda began, “you lot believe dragons are mindless beast that just attack and kill. You tell this to everyone who will stand still long enough to listen. You write it in a book over and over. Correct?”\n\n“Yes,” Gobber said slowly.\n\n“So, why then did you tell Hiccup that? Mindless beasts will not look at a group of kids and go – hm, that one is healthy looking so I should attack it, but that one over there is small and might be the easier target...oh, nope should leave it alone. Beasts will always...always go for the easier target. Predator versus prey at its finest.”\n\n“I wanna him ta feel better,” Gobber replied.\n\n“By telling him the other teens were 'more Viking-like'? What did he say to you at his house before you convinced his father to put him in the training?”\n\n“Oh.”\n\n“Right, oh.” Gyda looked at the other Vikings. “You lot speak and don't think, ever. You just run your mouths and don't care what or who hears you. Here we have a saying: Stick and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. That is a lie. Words can kill just as effectively as sword.”\n\nShe turned back and waved her head. The images began once more. Gobber pushed Hiccup into Fishlegs before moving to a cage door. \n\n/Behind these doors are just a few of the many species you will learn to fight. The Deadly Nadder.\n\nSpeed eight. Armor sixteen./\n\n[Uh, youngling, what did that larger youngling mean?] the female Nadder asked, head tilted.\n\n“I'm not entirely sure,” Hiccup replied. \n\n“Stats,” Fishlegs said. “To determine strength and weaknesses so we can know what dragon is good or bad at what.”\n\n[Who determined these numbers?] the female Gronkle asked. \n\n“Uhm, I did,” Fishlegs whispered. “After reading the dragon manual.”\n\n“Smart,” Gyda said. “Knowing what your enemy is good or bad at is always a good idea.”\n\nThe images continued with Gobber announcing different dragon species and Fishlegs continuing to add his stats.\n\n/The Hideous Zippleback.\n\nPlus eleven stealth. Times two.\n\nThe Monstrous Nightmare.\n\nFire power fifteen.\n\nThe Terrible Terror.\n\nAttack eight. Venom twelve.\n\nCan you stop that?! And… the Gronkle.\n\nJaw strength eight./\n\nHiccup chuckled as the images showed Fishlegs lean over and whispered the last stat. The images showed Gobber grip one of the levers next to a reinforced door which shook. That caused Snotlout to jerk and step forward.\n\n/Whoa, wait. Aren't you gonna teach us first?\n\nI believe in learning on the job./\n\nGobber pushed. The lever lowered. The log lifted. The Gronkle barreled out. The teens scattered. Gobber's voice was calm even as chaos reigned in the arena.\n\n/Today is about survival. If you get blasted, you're dead. Quick, what's the first thing you need?\n\nA doctor?/\n\n[That's for after, Alpha,] Shadowfire said, snickering.\n\n/Plus five speed./\n\nHiccup, Gyda, and all the dragons turned to stare at Fishlegs. Said teen just laughed nervously. The images began again.\n\n/A shield?\n\nShields go./\n\n“Of course, my daughter gets the right answer,” Eydis said as the images showed the teens scramble for various shields laying around the arena.\n\n/You're most import piece of equipment is your shield. If you must make a choice between a sword and a shield, take the shield./\n\nGobber aided Hiccup to secure his shield. Tuff and Ruff fought over a single shield.\n\n/Get your hands off my shield.\n\nThere are like a million shields.\n\nTake that one, it has flowers on it. Girls like flowers./\n\nEveryone watching winced as Ruff cracked the shield over Tuff's head. She then held it out.\n\n/Oops, now this one has blood on it./\n\n[Youngling,] the female Nadder began, [are those two, hm, how do humans put it..]\n\n[Not right in the head?] Toothless asked.\n\n[Completely insane?] Shadowfire supplied.\n\n“Devotes to Loki?” Gyda offered.\n\n“All of the above?” Hiccup quipped.\n\n“They know us,” Ruff said.\n\n“Spies,” Tuff said. “Or the witch can read minds and H's learned by sitting beside her.”\n\n“Not a witch,” Gyda said. “And I can't read minds. I just know quite a bit about you two.”\n\nThe images continued. The Gronkle fired, hitting the shield. Ruff and Tuff spun before hitting the ground. Gobber called them out. The Gronkle flew on, leaving the twins on the floor. Hiccup frowned. \n\n“You only hit the shield and not them,” he said, looking down at the Gronkle.\n\n[The point of the lesson was to teach survival,] Gronkle said. [Hurting the younglings would be counterproductive. Myself, the Spike-thrower, and the Double-mind have been in that stone den for several months, teaching many of your previous flock to fight against dragons. If we harmed any humans we were not fed.]\n\nHiccup's eyes narrowed. He leaned around the Terror and scratched the base of the Gronkle's closest ear. The Gronkle gave a contented growl and wagged her tail. Gyda giggled and moved her legs before the Gronkle's tail hit her. Hiccup stopped scratching and the Gronkle tilted her head.\n\n[Sorry,] she said.\n\n“Not a worry,” Gyda replied, pointing at Shadowfire. “Remember, I raised him.”\n\n[Mom,] Shadowfire whined.\n\nGyda chuckled. “What?” she asked, looking up at him. “I had a lot of whelps and bruises until you learned to control your tail. Lot of broken toes too until you stopped stepping on them.”\n\n[Mom!]\n\nThe dragons and Hiccup laughed. Hiccup saw the Vikings staring across the barrier. Some, the mothers mostly, stared with fond looks of remembrance. Some held disbelief on their face. Some smiled. Others stared with disgust or anger.\n\n“We should continue,” Gyda said, drawing Hiccup's attention. She was smirking. “Before my son dies of embarrassment.”\n\n[Mother!]\n\nGyda giggled and scratched Shadowfire under the chin. He grunted but Hiccup could tell he was not all that annoyed. Hiccup turned away. They held a better relationship than he and his father and it hurt. He felt Gyda's hand on his shoulder and Toothless nuzzle him. Then the Terror, the Nadder, and the Gronkle nuzzled him as well. Shadowfire lifted his head, curled his neck around and nuzzled him as well.\n\n/Those shields are good for another thing. Noise. Make lots of it to throw off a dragon's aim./\n\nThe images showed the remaining recruits, including Hiccup, gathered close and began banging their weapons against their shields. Hiccup frowned when the images shifted, showing a warbled image. His eyes widened when he realized it was from the Gronkle's point of view after the images showed the Gronkle shake her head. He looked down.\n\n“Did that hurt?”\n\n[Yes,] the Gronkle replied. [A dragon's hearing is sharp. My kind have worse than others but ours is still better than a human's. That banging always makes my head feel like boulders are falling on it.]\n\n“I'm sorry. I will find a way to get you and the others out of there.”\n\n[We are safe there, youngling,] the Gronkle said. [Only the Flame-skin is in danger.]\n\n“Flame-skin?”\n\n[Your kind call them Nightmares,] the Gronkle said. [They light their skin on fire when they fight.]\n\n“Do all dragons have different names for their species?”\n\n“Eh, Hiccup, we really don't have time for this, my friend,” Gyda said softly. “The message must be delivered and you all returned.”\n\n“Oh, sorry,” Hiccup said. \n\n“It's okay, Hiccup. Let's just keep watching.”\n\nGyda waved her hand and the images began again. \n\n/All dragons have a limited number of shots. How many does a Gronkle have?\n\nFive!\n\nNo, six.\n\nCorrect, six. That's one for each of you!\n\nI really don't think my parents would-/\n\nFishleg's shield got blasted, cutting him off. Snotlout, watching, crowed. \n\n“That's what know-it-all's get, Fishface!”\n\nGyda and Shadowfire snorted. Hiccup looked over only to have Gyda point back to the walls. He turned and sighed as the images showed Gobber yelling at himself.\n\n/Hiccup, get in there!/\n\nHiccup watched himself step away from the wooden half wall. The images switched, focusing on Astrid. Hiccup could not help but smile. As with everything she did, Astrid was focused. He watched Snotlout walk up.\n\n/So anyway, I'm moving into my parents' basement. You should come by sometimes to work out. You look like you work out-/\n\nAstrid rolled away. The Gronkle blasted Snotlout's shield. Hiccup snickered and scratched the Gronkle's ear. \n\n“Good girl,” he whispered.\n\nThe Gronkle chuckled. Out of the corner of his eye, Hiccup saw Shadowfire lift his head and turn towards the barrier. \n\n[Shouldn't have sought to court Alpha's mate,] he said. \n\n“Huh?” Hiccup asked.\n\n“Don't worry about it, Hiccup,” Gyda said. “Just keep watching.”\n\nHe stared at her, eyes narrowed, but she merely waved her hand and the images began again.\n\n/Snotlout, you're done!/\n\nAstrid rolled to a stop beside Hiccup. Watching, Hiccup winced at his voice breaking when he posed a question to her.\n\n/So, I guess it's just you and me, huh?\n\nNope, just you./\n\nAstrid rolled away. The Gronkle blasted Hiccup's shield. Hiccup took off after it.\n\n/One shot left!/\n\n“Gobber,” Stoick began, “why didn't you end the lesson? Astrid was the last standing.”\n\n“Eh, uhm, I don't rightly know.”\n\n“Gobber.” Stoick's voice held a tone of warning. “You can't play favorites in dragon training.”\n\n[At least he gives the youngling a chance,] the male Nightmare said, walking over. \n\nHe stopped behind Toothless, who shifted so he could see the Nightmare.\n\n[And you are?] Toothless asked him. \n\n[The one they are training to kill.] The Nightmare stared down at Hiccup. [I knew what I was there for. The Double-mind told me my first night in that stone den. I hated all of you, but now I understand.] The Nightmare turned to Gyda. [I know you do not want the tale told before its time, but I must know.] He tossed his head towards the barrier and the Vikings on the other side. [Do they learn the truth?]\n\n“Of?”\n\n[The war and the youngling both.]\n\nGyda hummed and tipped her head once.\n\n“Witch!” Stoick bellowed. “If we learn these truths then why are we here?!”\n\n[I believe I know,] the Nightmare said before Gyda could answer. [You lot might learn the truths, but you still may not gain understanding. These visions are to teach that understanding.]\n\n“Aye,” Gyda said. “The present is but a product of past events that shape it. While the truths are learned sadly some are not kept. And that is all I will say on the subject.”\n\n[Fair enough,] the Nightmare replied. [Protector, may I sit behind your brother?]\n\n[Hiccup?]\n\n“I don't mind.” Hiccup shifted so he could look over his shoulder at the Nightmare. “Though, why do you all ask Toothless if he's just going to ask me?”\n\n[He is the elder in your flock, youngling,] the male Nadder said.\n\nHiccup shifted again. To his surprise, Shadowfire immediately stepped back so Hiccup could see the Nadder. \n\n[If an outsider to a flock needs to approach a flock member they must approach an elder first. To otherwise would be the height of dishonor.]\n\n“Okay, that I get.” Hiccup turned around, facing Toothless. “And you ask me, why?”\n\n[You have the right to make your own decisions, brother. Had you've said no at any point, I would have refused all of their requests.]\n\n“Really?”\n\n[Really.]\n\nHiccup blinked. He looked over at Gyda then past her to his tribe. None of them had ever asked his opinion or he desire on anything. Not even Gobber. He heard a shuffle of more feet and turned to find the other dragons had moved closer to Toothless. Toothless stared at them. The other Nightmare tipped her head down.\n\n[We also wish to sit near your brother, if we can.]\n\n[All of you?]\n\nThe other dragons nodded. Toothless turned to Hiccup.\n\n[Your call, brother,] he said. \n\n“You all want to sit with me?” Hiccup whispered. \n\n[Yes,] the other Gronkle, a green one that sounded male, said. \n\nHiccup looked around, stunned. No one had ever wanted to sit with him. Most of the time he sat by himself, especially when in the Great Hall. The only times he ever sat with anyone were times other tribes visited and his father made him to sit with him at feasts held in the visiting tribe's honor. Even then the others were required to be there. None wished to. \n\n[Brother?] Toothless asked. \n\nHiccup blinked, realizing he had yet to answer. “Uh, yeah, I don't mind,” he whispered.\n\n[Brother?]\n\n“No..no one ever wanted to..”\n\nToothless nuzzled him as did the Terror.\n\n“Thank you,” Hiccup whispered.\n\nThe other dragons moved to find seats around Hiccup. The male Gronkle ended up in front of the female Nadder. The other Nightmare sat next to male one. The two Zipplebacks found their places behind Toothless and beside the female Nightmare. Shadowfire returned to his spot behind Gyda's right shoulder. Hiccup turned when the female Gronkle suddenly gasped.\n\n[My apologies,] she said looking at Gyda. [I asked your son and not you. I should not have assumed he was the elder of your flock.]\n\n“It's okay. Most times the dragon is the oldest. How could you have known our flock would be different?” Gyda looked over her shoulder at the male Nadder, who kept to his place between Shadowfire's body and the barrier. “You can move closer if you want. I don't mind.”\n\n[Thank you,] the male said moving to the space beside the bench. \n\n“Now that everyone's settled once more,” Gyda said, “let's continue.”"}
+{"text": "Well, that certainly had been a birthday party that we would talk about for awhile, don’t you think? Haha! I mentioned a couple of chapters back that I felt as though my clothes were thoroughly safe, when I stashed them in a Sunday school room and it turned out they weren’t.\n\nAs the summer wore on, I began to experience extreme feelings of horniness. This was due to school being out and not seeing Mr. Boyd and Thad Jenkins, our assistant minister, was finally given a church of his own. Go Thad! But it was too far away for me to visit.\n\nI still didn’t have a boyfriend; certainly not because I hadn’t been asked. Practically every boy I knew had asked me to be his girlfriend. Boys have a tendency to want to have a girlfriend, who enjoys stripping herself stark naked all the time. But I hadn’t met anyone yet, who had made my heart go pitty-pat much less any other part of my body.\n\nThe boy, who I had seen on that one ill-fated Sunday that Mrs. Bulldyke, or whatever her name was, caught me flashing suddenly reappeared one Sunday morning late in June. I was determined this time to meet him.\n\nAgain during the closing prayer, I looked up and saw him looking directly at me. This time I made damn sure no one was watching us and then I did something I had never risked before and, to this day, I still can’t believe I did it.\n\nI reached down to the hem of my choir robe and pulled it completely off my body. I was standing in church during a service stark naked! I didn’t even have shoes on. Then I ran my finger slightly along my pussy lips.. He appeared stunned for a second and then was grinning broadly at me and waved. I quickly slipped the robe back on with no one being the wiser.\n\nAfter the service, I observed him attempting to make his way toward the choir. He finally was able to push his way through the crowd of well wishers and family members and reach me.\n\n“Hi, my name is Frank – Frank Stein,” the young man introduced himself. He stood somewhat taller than me, but was not a giant by any means. He had longish wavy dark hair, brown eyes and one of the cutest smiles I had ever seen.\n\n“I’m,” I began, but then he interrupted.\n\n“I know who you are,” he informed me. Frank went on to explain that he had asked around the last time he had seen me and discovered who I was, but couldn’t find out anything else, such as where I lived, etc.\n\n“I’m flattered,” I replied shyly, acting as though me showing him my totally nude body had nothing to do with it.\n\n“Hey, Sara!” The discordant voice of Audrey the young woman, who sat next to me in choir jarringly interrupted our conversation.\n\n“What, Aud-rey,” I said with a long sigh indicating to her that I was plenty put out by her interrupting us, but that I would deal with it.\n\n“The choir director said we needed to turn in our choir robes immediately, so they can be gathered for dry cleaning. You wanna give me yours now?”\n\n“No!” I shouted, drawing attention from several people. “No,” I reiterated in a lower tone. “I’ll give mine over in a minute.”\n\nAudrey stuck her tongue out at me and replied, “Geez! Some people! You try to help them and they throw up all over you.”\n\nAudrey turned her back to Frank and I. I could just see myself acceding to her request and handing over my choir robe to her. Man, that would have been something! Since I wasn’t ready for a public stripping of that magnitude, I suggested to Frank that he come along with me, while I retrieved my outfit in order to turn in the robe.\n\nOf course he dutifully agreed and traipsed after me downstairs to the classrooms. Once inside the correct room I went straight over to where I had left my clothes. And they weren’t there!\n\n“Oh shit!” I exclaimed. “My clothes are gone.”\n\nFrank wandered over to where I was standing. “Are you sure?” he asked, peering around owlishly.\n\n“What’d you mean – am I sure?” I responded angrily. “Of course I’m sure! I left them right there. Do you see any clothes?”\n\nFrank shook his head silently. Just then Audrey’s unpleasant drone cut the tension in the room. “Hey, Sara! Are you in there? I have to get that robe. Hey, why’d you have the door locked?”\n\nNow I was between a rock and a hard place. My clothes were missing, they wanted the choir robe and Audrey was attempting to get in the room. I had no choice at this point, but to hand my choir robe out to Audrey through the cracked door.\n\nAs I handed it out to her, making sure to keep the door closed enough so she couldn’t see anything, I explained, “I have the door locked because I’m in my underwear.”\n\n“Oh yeah,” Audrey replied sarcastically. “Hehe, you don’t wear underwear, Sara. You’re probably naked in there.”\n\nI was beginning to realize that my sexual proclivities were becoming too well known. I breathed a sigh of relief when I heard Audrey’s high heels clicking away down the hallway.\n\nTurning to Frank, whose mouth was completely agape at the sight of me standing next to him stark naked. I was blushing furiously. I know, you gonna say why, that I was just standing in front of him nude out in the church.\n\nWell, that was completely different. He was a lot further away from me and we were in a room full of people. Now it was just me and him and he was standing right next to me as I was completely nude and I didn’t have on stitch of clothing to put on. And I had just met him!\n\nI noticed immediately that he either had an erection or a mouse in his pants. So I reached down there and felt around. Sure enough, it was an erection and it was getting larger. I pulled his zipper down and reached in and released it. I gave it several yanks and he suddenly went off like a sky rocket!\n\n“Oh Sara!” he exclaimed.\n\nI pulled his handkerchief out of his suit pocket and handed it to him. “Here, clean yourself up and then stash that.”\n\nI realized I was being abrupt, but I had some things I needed him to do and there wasn’t much time. After Frank had completed his task, I explained to him. “I need you to go down to the janitor’s closet and bring me back some rope. And hurry!”\n\nI’ll say this for him. He obtained that rope about as quickly as he had his orgasm. Then I instructed him to find Audrey and bring her back to me and don’t let anybody see him. You see, I had figured out who had taken my clothes. It suddenly occurred to me whose perfume I had smelled in the corner of the room when I went to search out my clothes.\n\nA few minutes later, Frank knocked gently on the door and I allowed him and Audrey to enter. Her eyes became as large as saucers, when she obtained a good look at my total nakedness.\n\n“Sara! Whatever are you doing and where are your clothes?”\n\n“I think you know where my clothes are, Audrey,” I accused.\n\n“Now how would I know that?” the girl inquired suddenly appearing quite malicious.\n\n“Give it up, Audrey,” I retorted. “I smelled your perfume over there where my clothes had been. Now I want them back this instant!” I demanded taking a step closer to her.\n\n“Well, you’re right, I did take them,” the girl whined. “But I can’t give them back because I destroyed them!”\n\nI reached out and grabbed her by the right upper arm and shook her as I exclaimed, “You’d better be kidding, Audrey.”\n\n“Well, I’m not,” Audrey replied in a ‘what are you going to do now’ tone.\n\n“Then I’ll just have to take yours,” I retorted grinning evilly at her.\n\n“What!” the girl screeched.\n\n“Grab her,” I ordered Frank, as I looked around for something to gag her with.\n\nSpotting his cum rag, I jammed that into her whiny, obnoxious, screeching wide-open mouth! Mwahaha!\n\nWhile Frank held Audrey in a vise like grip, I quickly denuded the young woman. I even took her underwear off, even though I didn’t want it for myself. Man, you should have seen her blush.\n\nIt turned out that, beneath all that staid clothing Audrey wore, she was actually quite attractive as is often the case with young women, who for some reason or other don’t feel they are pretty and hide their beauty under a bushel. She had long light red hair, a cute face peppered with freckles, pert little breasts with large nipples and a big red-haired muff.\n\nI handed the rope to Frank, who quickly hamstrung her by tying her wrists together behind her back and then tying her ankles together and then joining her wrists to her ankles via the long rope. I checked the ropes to assure they were secure and then complimented Frank on a good job. He was a natural. Good thing we weren’t interested in serial killing, we’d have made a good team. Haha!\n\nUpon my encouragement, Frank set Audrey up against the back wall so she could watch if she so chose.\n\n“Take your clothes off,” I ordered Frank.\n\nHe stripped completely down to the buff in no time. I had been right. He was fine looking with good body definition, a narrow waist, long legs and a big prick. I cast a quick glance at Audrey, who had been assiduously studying Frank’s nude form and only turned her head when she noticed me looking at her. I giggled softly to myself thinking that I was getting ready to really give her something to stare at.\n\nI sank to my knees and placed his penis in my mouth and quickly sucked on it ‘til it reached its full length. I swear I heard Audrey moaning lowly to herself. I bet she hadn’t seen many erections, if any.\n\nAfter laying myself down directly in front of the blushing young woman, I directed, “Come on, Frank, hop aboard! We haven’t got all day, you know.”\n\nThe young man quickly dropped to his knees in front of me and leaned over and began to suckle my nipples. God, that felt especially good considering the circumstances with being in the Sunday school room and having Audrey watching us. She hadn’t been able to even tear her gaze away for a few seconds.\n\nAs Frank was busy sucking on my aureoles, I stroked his elongated sexual organ until unbelievably it grew even lengthier. My labia was wide open in invitation and I was already dripping wet just from having Audrey witnessing our love making. I am twisted, I know that.\n\nI guided his seven-inch tool into my wide-open pussy and whispered to him to get on with it. Frank began literally pounding into my body. I guess he wasn’t kidding around anymore. Man, I couldn’t remember when I had felt so good, but I realized I was extra horny due to not having much sex all summer.\n\nI glanced up at Audrey and it appeared to me as if our sexual interaction was really getting to the young woman, but she was unable to effect anything herself because of being tied. She still appeared to be attempting to move her legs up and down having them tied at the ankles in an effort to rub her pussy lips together. Haha! I almost felt sorry for the poor hypocrite – almost!\n\nWhen Frank continued to pound his seven-inch erection into my labia, I suddenly began to orgasm. I came and came and came and came; in other words, I came a lot. I crossed my legs in a vise like grip on the young man’s hardened penis and he could barely move it and the feelings must have been out of this world for him as he shouted, “Oh sweet Jesus!” as he shot his torrent of hot sperm into me.\n\nI thought his crying out for Jesus was highly appropriate since we were in church at the time. After that he collapsed beside me and we lay and cuddled for a few moments, before I advised him we’d better be on our way before someone came to investigate where Audrey might have disappeared to.\n\nWe dressed hurriedly and then we untied our would be voyeur. I had decided it was much crueler to allow Audrey the run of the church completely naked than to leave her tied up and have her family or friends find her, which would probably elicit their sympathy. This way Audrey really couldn’t say anything about me without incriminating herself. She had tears running down her face as she pleaded with me to at least leave her the bra and panties to wear.\n\nI laughed in her face. I retorted, “You were going to leave me without any clothes, so deal with it bitch!”\n\nI took Frank by the hand, strolled out of the church and never looked back. I never did really hear what happened to Audrey after we left. I think she had to be hospitalized for awhile because of a nervous breakdown and then once she did return to the choir she sat way over on the other side away from me. But I never did have any more trouble out of her.\n\nThe End\n\n"}
+{"text": "Tomorrow was a new day indeed, a very chaotic one, but not for the sleepy Monkey King who was huddled up in a nest of sheets and pillows.\n\n----In an unknown location  \n\n\"UGH! How much I want to crush that monkey's skull! He got away again! We lost like fools!\" Spider Queen was furious as she trashed the new hideout spot, her henchmen far from her violent outburst. Macaque just stared silently tucked in a dark corner with his shadows.\n\n\"On the contrary my Queen, we managed to find our needed artifact while the enemy was distracted. And it also seems like one of your henchmen managed to contain the Great Sage's magic in a container. The knowledge this investigation could provide us could define our victory.\" A soft voice emerged from the shadows, coming near the Queen unhinged by her fury. Macaque’s fur stood up as he remained far away from the demoness yet he remained with a sharp look.  \n\n\"You sure you aren't playing any tricks?! Cause you promised my destiny!\" The Queen pointed at the girl, her voice full with venom and she showed her fangs in a hiss.\n\n\"And you will fulfill your destiny when the time comes, but one must first push towards it.\" LBD answered as her eyes went towards Syntax, the Queen followed with her gaze.\n\n\"Syntax! Give me a status on that ape's magic we took!\" she hovered threateningly over the scientist who took a step back.\n\n\"My Queen, I need more time and the proper equipment to analyze the data. The only information I have is that the monkey's magic seems to be fluctuating abnormally.\"\n\n\"That's not enough info!\"\n\n\"I would need the proper equipment as my last one was incinerated.\" Syntax explained, also pissed off that his precious data went to waste.\n\n\"How long till you build a new one?\" Spider Queen wondered as she brushed her hair straight in an attempt to keep her composure.\n\n\"Perhaps a month-\" \n\n\"A month?!\"\n\n\"-if we move quickly to find the pieces.\" and that composure would have been lost again if it weren’t for the intervention of LBD.\n\n\"No need to alarm my Queen, while your scientist does his project we could continue with the extraction of the artifacts we miss.\" her voice, clear as day yet as smooth as a whisper. The Queen took a fine breath, she had no choice but to follow with that girl’s advice.\n\n\"Fine, Huntsman! Strong Spider! Find the materials Syntax needs!.” Spider Queen yelled before facing LBD, “And you girl, we will find the position of the next artifact.”\n\n---------Back at Red Son's medical bay\n\nWhen Sun Wukong opened his eyes with the sound of a curtain moving, he was surprised by the amount of sunlight that came from the window. He groaned as he turned over in an attempt to keep sleeping, the sheets felt the right amount of comfy and warm. But just when he was finally dozing off again a beeping sound went off. That was the last straw.\n\n“Okay okay! I’m up. Turn that thing off.” his voice croaking and his orange fur sticking out in random directions all messed up.\n\n\"Sleeping beauty finally woke up.\" joked Red Son as he made some quick examinations on him, fixing his medical bracelet.\n\nMonkey King glanced at the clock. \n\n1pm. Damn.\n\nWukong scratched his neck as he rolled his eyes comically. \"Try it when you are hungry as heck but gag at everything. Haven’t had a good meal since the attack.\" \n\nRed Son’s eyes opened like plates. \"Wait! You haven't eaten any food since the attack?!\"\n\nWukong winced at the sudden shouting as he waved it off, \"Relax kiddo, of course I have, I had tea after waking up, oh! and a mango at like midnight or something.\"\n\n\"This doesn't suffice the nutrition you need!\" Red Son replied as his hair bursted in flames.\n\n\"Well it's not like I want to starve! Your mom is a witness of that. Oh yeah, quick note, your mom knows about my-..situation.\" Wukong said as he played with his tail and avoided the fire demon’s eyes.\n\n\"Not surprised, my mother has a witted mind. Now that she knows you could seek her knowledge and experience on the topic.\" Red Son’s mouth turned into a proud smirk as he spoke, his hair no longer avid flames.\n\n\"Yeah.\" was all that the monkey replied as he remembered the conversation he had with PIF last night. \"Where is she?\"\n\nRed Son frowned, \"First you eat, then I will tell you.\"\n\nSun Wukong chuckled, \"Okay kiddo, I'll let you have this one.\"\n\n----\n\nThe hallways of DBK’s castle were surprisingly not as deadly as MK told him when he and the others ended up there. \n\nMaybe because Red Son deactivated the traps, he will have to ask him when he returns from visiting MK and Mei at Pigsy's restaurant, to keep them at bay.\n\nSun Wukong took the liberty to wander off, his tummy happy after having a fulfilling breakfast. It turns out that he can eat many types of food, he just has a strong dislike for food that he was already very familiar with like peaches and Pigsy’s noodles which was both a blessing and a curse. And all that was for now, who knows if it’ll change or not? Luckily he just needed to watch out for those foods and take his vitamins for the meantime.   \n\nAfter going through a couple more hallways Sun Wukong had finally found the training pitch, where the flame boy told him his mother was.\n\nHe took a peek inside and saw PIF who was polishing her weapon. She seemed calm and not busy, perhaps he could talk to her a bit more, she did say her doors would always be open for him right?\n\nSun Wukong was about to enter the room but doubt suddenly invaded his mind, maybe it was too soon? He began reconsidering his choices as he took a step back.\n\nHe felt a small wind and just as he turned he saw her, PIF face to face with him, weapon at his throat. \n\n-------- Pigsy's noodle shop\n\nMK was beaming at Red Son when he visited the shop. As soon as he entered the shop he ran straight for a hug, crushing a very flustered flame boy. \n\n\"M-MK! Unhand me this instant!\" Red Son cried, red as tomatoes, giving a fake cough to regain composure just as MK released him \n\n\"Sorry! I'm just happy to see you Red.\" MK replied as he gave him a quick peck to his cheek. Red Son's heart skipped a beat but he quickly returned the gesture, thinking of it as some weird human couple custom that he was giving his best to reciprocate in order to show his devotion for MK. Stuff like this he could do, hugs were still a work in progress.\n\n\"Hey! Leave all that sappy stuff at the door! This is a restaurant!\" Pigsy yelled from the kitchen to the couple.\n\n\"Awwww how could you say that?! They look so cute!\" Mei awed with her phone already taking dozens of photos. \n\n\"Delete those dragon girl!\" \n\n\"Call me Mei first and try again!\" Mei replied as she pulled out her tongue. \n\n\"MK!\"\n\n\"She does have a point, Red.\" MK laughed as she signaled discretely towards Mei to send him those photos later. \"By the way, why are you visiting? Aren't you taking care of Monkey King? He's sick!\" MK continued, quickly escalating before Red shushed him.\n\n\"I know MK. I came here to give you all a status of him, to ease all your worries.\" Now that got the attention of Tang, Pigsy and Mei; Sandy was back at his ship.\n\n \"Oh! How's he doing?\" Tang wondered after a bite of noodles.\n\n\"He is doing okay, he will be taking a couple of weeks off to rest, just to be sure.\" Explained Red Son, now more comfortable with letting MK lean on him as he stroked his hair.\n\n\"Can we visit him?\" Mei asked\n\n\"Sure, starting tomorrow, just send me a notice so I can get you there with my flames, I know my place is quite far.\"\n\n\"And if you're here, how do you keep track of him? You know, if there's an emergency?\"\n\n\"Simple, he has a medical bracelet that detects any abnormal vitals and sends me an alert on my phone.\"\n\n\"Oh! Like that one that says abnormal adrenaline spike?\" Mei said as she pointed out a notification on Red Son's phone screen.\n\n\"Yes just like- WHAT??! I need to leave\" Red Son exclaimed in a hurried manner, ready to use his flames as he let go of MK.\n\n\"Wait! We'll come as well!\" Said Tang with eyes full of concern, Pigsy following behind.\n\n\"I can't teleport everyone! Max two!\" Explained Red Son.\n\n\"Then Mei and me!\" Replied MK as both stood in front of him, faces full with determination, there was no way of telling them no.\n\n\"Okay fine, let's just hurry!\" Red Son said as he grabbed both of their hands and quickly summoned his flames, teleporting them back at the medical bay at his place.\n\n------- Red Son's place\n\nSun Wukong felt a small wind and just as he turned he saw her, PIF face to face with him, weapon at his throat. \n\nFortunately, after seeing his face PIF quickly backed off, retrieving her metal fan.\n\n\"Woah woah! Relax PIF, just good old Monkey King.\" Sun Wukong laughed nervously as he stood in defense, arms protecting his middle.\n\nPIF made a small bow with her head, \"Apologies, old habits. Let me compensate for my rudeness, how can I help you?\" her voice being firm but open.\n\n\"I just came to seek your precious knowledge on inmortal pregnancy.” Sun Wukong joked as he made a grand gesture with his arms. “Also your son said I could.” He added with a nervous smile, “I hope that’s okay.\"\n\nPIF eyes slightly opened as he gestured towards a near seat. “Oh, will you continue the gestation?”\n\nSun Wukong followed her, his tail twitching from one side to the other as he scratched his ear, “Uh, maybe?... Should I?”\n\nPIF took a seat next to the monkey, setting her weapon aside.“I can’t decide for you. You must decide or you could discuss it with your partner.\"\n\n\"I know.\"Wukong let out a heavy sigh as he took a seat on a softest spot.\n\n\"Speaking of partners, where are they?” PIF wondered as Wukong felt as his heart was pinched with a needle.\n\n“Take a guess, princess.” The monkey gritted his teeth in a forced smile, trying to give the hint that he wanted to just save himself from the embarrassment of a confession yet PIF gave him a confused look clearly unamused. \n\nOf course she needed direct answers, Wukong cursed to his insides. “It’s Macaque.” he spat out as if his name was vinegar.\n\nPIF hummed at the answer as she closed her gaze, “The six-eared monkey. I thought you were enemies.”\n\nMonkey King let out an annoyed sigh as he played with the cushion, “Long story.”\n\n\"Care to share?\"\n\n\"Not really, maybe another day.\" he replied, avoiding her eyes.\n\nPIF tone subtly changed, \"He didn't-?\"\n\nWukong interrupted her, just like he did with his son before, why was everyone coming up with that conclusion? \"All consensual. I just don't want to talk about it.\"\n\nPIF’s features relaxed slightly as she resumed her polishing of her fan. “That's okay. What’s his opinion on the matter?” \n\nAll PIF received was a crooked smile from the monkey, “He doesn’t know, heck I didn't even know!” He said as the realization hit him.\n\n\"I see.\"\n\n\"Yeah.\"\n\nBoth stayed for a moment in silence, neither knowing how to continue the conversation until PIF spoke once again.\n\n“Do you want him to know?”\n\nWukong's heart skipped a bit and his breath shortened, “Maybe?\"\n\n\"Why maybe?\" PIF was confused, she wasn’t very used to indecisiveness, where she came from every decision was taken with determination and assertiveness, very common amongst demons at her times.\n\nWukong's eyes suddenly flashed doubt as he hugged himself with his arms and tail, \"I don't know.\" the words slowly dragged out of him.\n\n\"What's the impediment?\" PIF replied a bit more firmly.\n\nSun Wukong quickly stood up in front of PIF, an unbelievable look on his face as he extended his arms, \"Many!\"\n\n\"Well, then don't.\" PIF answered as if it was the most logical answer.\n\nWukong stuttered as he paced near PIF, his tail frantically fidgeting, \"That doesn't sound right either.\"\n\n\"Then just pick the best one.\"\n\n“It’s not that easy!” Wukong’s breath quickened its pace with his heart, the lights were suddenly too annoying. \n\n“How do you know if you don’t choose?” PIF pushed and that touched just the right nerve. \n\nSun Wukong turned abruptly at her, his fur all stood up, \"That 's the thing!I don’t know and it sucks! Choosing sucks!\"\n\nPIF opened her eyes in slight surprise as she put her weapon away, \"Sun Wukong-\"\n\nWukong grabbed his tail and squeezed it hard as he stared at PIF, eyes slightly bright, \"I know it will all be over if I just terminate but a part of me wonders the other route, I don’t know, maybe being a parent? It’s not like I never want to be a parent, it just never crossed my mind that this could happen. What if I don’t ever get a chance like this, of having a kid on my own? And if I decide to have them then what?! Do I raise them on my own? Will I even tell Macaque?! What if he tries to hurt them? What if it’s selfish of me to want children because it puts them at risk of every enemy I have? I DON’T KNOW!”\n\nPIF stayed silent, listening, which helped Sun Wukong ground himself as he realized what he just did. He flopped down at his seat, defeated; he covered his face with his hands,“This sucks.” As those words left his mouth he felt the warmness of a hand caressing his back and that’s when he looked back at PIF, now taking deep breaths, “I’m sorry.”\n\nPIF nooded, “Don’t need to, I’m sorry if I crossed a line.”\n\nWukong shook his head, “Don’t be, you were just telling the truth. You have done nothing but help me despite our history.”\n\nPIF frowned as she kept caressing his back, “And I will continue to aid you, history has been settled. You mentioned before wanting to know about inmortal pregnancy from my experience. We could start with that if that helps.” She offered to a now calmer monkey.\n\nSun Wukong let out a big breath fixing his fur,“Yeah, thank you.”\n\nJust as he said that MK, Red Son and Mei bursted through the door and rushed towards them surrounding the monkey.\n\nMK was the first to speak, his eyes teary, \"OMG! Are you okay? Are you hurt?\"\n\nRed Son followed concerned, \"I received an alert telling me you were experiencing an abnormal level of adrenaline. Couldn't stop them from following me.\"\n\nMei just smiled, \"Who do I have to murder?\"\n\nSun Wukong was too perplexed to say anything at all, still recovering from his conversation with PIF when said princess stood up and raised her hand for silence. \"No need to worry young, Sun Wukong and his unborn are just fine.\"\n\nSun Wukong suddenly felt as if time slowed down, feeling all eyes in the room pierce his soul.\n\nWait.\n\n\"WHAAAAA-?????!!!\""}
+{"text": "The sun was just rising when Sakura eventually showed up, running as fast as she could into the Nara Forest. Itachi was waiting at the base of a large, gnarled oak tree. She stopped when she reached him, panting.\n\n\"You're late, Sakura.\" Itachi said coldly.\n\n\"Sorry, sensei! My mum woke up when I snuck out of bed; I had to wait for her to fall asleep.\" Sakura explained.\n\nItachi grunted in acceptance of her excuse and jerked his head towards the tree behind him, \"Can you climb this?\"\n\nSakura's large eyes scanned the tree's bulk. She looked down at herself. \"No, sensei. I'm too small.\"\n\n\"Wrong,\" Itachi said, \"Size doesn't account for anything in the ninja world. Tell me, can you pump chakra to your feet?\"\n\n\"Yes.\" Sakura said without hesitation.\n\n\"Do it. Put one foot on the tree like this,\" He demonstrated, \"And walk up.\"\n\n\"Aren't you going to show me how?\" Sakura asked, confused.\n\n\"I've told you what to do. You don't need me to hold your hand and help you climb a tree. Do it.\"\n\nSakura frowned, intelligent eyes measuring the tree's width and length. She looked at her tiny feet.\n\nShe concentrated, pushing all of her chakra down to her feet. They throbbed in response to the sudden chakra overload.\n\n\"Well done.\" Itachi said with a slight smile. Sakura had caught on quicker than he expected, \"Now climb.\"\n\nHer foot looked silly when she placed it on the tree, but she followed through, picturing her feet sticking to the bark with her chakra. The transition from ground to tree happened smoothly. Sakura simply walked up the tree.\n\nItachi's smile grew.\n\n\"Like this?\" She asked, turning around to face Itachi, both feet firmly glued to the tree.\n\n\"Yes. You learn quickly. Keep it up.\" Itachi frowned suddenly, \"I wonder… what subjects are you best at in your school?\"\n\n\"Genjutsu and academic.\" Sakura said, \"My chakra control is good and I'm the best in my class when it comes to learning.\"\n\n\"Better than that Sasuke boy you talked about before?\" Itachi asked carefully.\n\n\"I guess.\" Sakura shrugged.\n\n\"Right. Sakura. I need you to do something for me. I need you to talk to a woman named Yuhi Kurenai. She's a genjutsu expert. I believe she was promoted to jounin recently. Ask her to tutor you in genjustu. I can help you learn how to dispel genjutsu, but the type of genjutsu I use is too difficult for you to learn at the moment.\" Itachi said. Kurenai had been a chuunin when he knew her, but he had always admired her genjutsu capabilities. Sakura could learn well from her.\n\n\"OK.\" Sakura nodded obediently.\n\n\"I will focus on improving your stamina and your taijutsu. How are you in one-to-one combat?\"\n\nSakura blushed. \"Bad. Very bad.\"\n\n\"I see. Then we will begin with the basics.\" Itachi said leniently.\n\nSakura looked relieved.\n\n\"Hit me.\" Itachi said.\n\n\"Sensei?\" Sakura said, puzzled.\n\nItachi did not repeat himself.\n\nSakura set her face in a determined frown and charged.\n\nShe was on the floor in seconds.\n\nItachi had barely moved, and yet she was sprawled on the ground.\n\nSakura fought the urge to cry when her wounds began to sting.\n\n\"Good.\" Itachi said tonelessly.\n\nShe pushed herself up off the ground, determined not to give up. If she became a strong ninja, Sasuke would like her. That was what she had promised herself.\n\nEven at six years old, Sakura's stamina was awful. A few minutes of sparring had her panting for breath.\n\n\"Stop.\" Itachi finally commanded.\n\nSakura lurched to a halt.\n\n\"Sakura, is there anything that drives you to fight?\" Itachi asked. Without something to aim for, Sakura would never really reach her full potential. Itachi himself had nothing driving him to fight. He hated every battle and hoped it would be over as quickly as possible. His pacifist nature made it almost impossible to be a ninja.\n\n\"Sasuke-kun.\" Sakura whispered, wiping her face.\n\nItachi closed his eyes. He rarely lost his composure, but seeing this girl care so much about his poor little brother was… emotive. There was one thing Itachi used to drive himself. It seemed as though he and Sakura had something in common.\n\n\"And why do you like him so much?\" Itachi asked.\n\n\"He is alone, like me.\" Sakura said, almost as though she was talking to herself. Her smile was wistful, \"I don't have any friends, and he doesn't want any. So we're always alone at playtime. That's... that's why I noticed him.\"\n\nItachi's stomach clenched.\n\n\"Picture his face when you fight. Pretend you are fighting each battle to protect him.\" Itachi said.\n\nSakura nodded, her little face grim.\n\nItachi smiled. He knew what would get Sakura fired up to fight.\n\nHe cast a genjutsu, a weak illusory technique that any genin could see through.\n\nSuddenly, Sasuke tottered up to them. He was covered with cuts and bruises, his face desperate with fear.\n\n\"Sakura-chan!\" Sasuke cried, staggering, \"Please – please help me!\"\n\nSakura gritted her teeth.\n\nShe raised her hands, \"Kai!\" She shouted.\n\nItachi blinked, taken aback. Sakura had seen through his technique and had repelled it.\n\nSakura's face screwed up in effort, her eyebrows drawing sharply together, her jaw clenched.\n\nItachi's sharp eyes caught sight of the illusion flickering into place.\n\nSakura was attempting to recreate the jutsu Itachi had used against her, from memory, from scratch, having never done it before. At six years old. Perhaps Itachi truly had stumbled upon another genius.\n\nSasuke flickered into view, a perfect mirror image of the illusion Itachi had created. Itachi stared at the bleeding, desperate vision of his little brother, and broke the genjutsu abruptly.\n\nSakura panted and fell, exhausted. Itachi caught her easily.\n\n\"I didn't tell you to repel my jutsu, or to recreate it.\" Itachi said sternly, \"But, well done. Who taught you how to do that?\"\n\nShe looked up at him with a wide, smug grin, \"I did. I read a book and it showed you how to do it.\"\n\nSo, she was self-taught. The sooner she went to go see Yuhi the better. Her genjutsu skills could be even more advanced than he had suspected.\n\n\"A girl spoke to me today.\" Sakura said suddenly, beaming.\n\n\"What?\" Itachi frowned. What had that got to do with anything?\n\n\"She said I shouldn't hide my forehead with my fringe. She said I should show it off. Then I wouldn't be bullied anymore.\"\n\nWhat awful advice, Itachi thought to himself. Sakura's forehead was average-sized, but showing it off would just give the bullies more material to mock Sakura with.\n\n\"Talk to Yuhi, Sakura. She'll help you.\" Itachi said wearily. He wasn't the person to go to when you had emotional problems. He was a missing nin, and he had never been the most social of thirteen year olds, even before the massacre. He only knew how to repress and hide emotion.\n\n\"OK! Um, sensei… is it alright if I tell my mummy where I go when I come to train with you? She'll get worried if I don't…\" Sakura mumbled.\n\n\"No,\" Itachi said sharply. Sakura may not see him for the murderer he is but her mother certainly would, \"Tell her you are with a friend.\"\n\nSakura peeked up at him through the pink strands of hair covering her eyes and said shyly, \"Are you my friend, sensei?\"\n\nItachi felt amused. How wonderful it would be, to be thirteen and to have friends... How amazing to be a genin, going on missions with friends, coming home to a welcoming family, not living on the run, bearing the burden of your village's hatred.\n\n\"I'm your teacher, Sakura. I'm just here to help you.\" Itachi said, ignoring the melancholic tone colouring his words. He felt the loneliness then all too keenly – the knowledge that his new home was a hideout for criminals and his new family were monsters.\n\nSakura mulled that over for a while and then looked up, her eyes bright and intelligent, \"Why are you teaching me, sensei?\"\n\nTo keep you alive and give Sasuke some of the happiness I robbed from him, Itachi thought.\n\n\"I sensed that you had potential, Sakura. I didn't want to see it going to waste.\" Itachi said. It wasn't exactly a lie, though he hadn't truly noticed her potential until she reversed his genjutsu.\n\nIt made Sakura smile unreservedly, chirping, \"thank you, sensei!\"\n\nItachi looked at the sun with a calculating eye, \"You should be able to find Yuhi now. She'll most likely be on a mission, but you should still ask around the village for her.\"\n\n\"OK!\" Sakura agreed brightly.\n\nShe set off at a run and then hesitated. She turned back and hugged Itachi quickly around the waist. Itachi froze.\n\n\"Thank you for believing in me, sensei.\" Sakura said quietly. She released him and ran off.\n\nItachi breathed out sharply when she left. She reminded him of Sasuke so much… her fawning adoration, her easy displays of affection, her wide, proud grins…\n\nHe climbed a tree easily and sat down on a thick branch, wiping away the excess leaves and moss. It was dangerous, visiting Konoha so much, but how could he stop? He could just ensure that Sakura had enough skill to defend herself, and then he would be back to full concentration, able to do his duty to his village.\n\nxxxxxxxx\n\nSakura ran through the village. She stood out from the crowd with her pink hair and the many cuts and bruises adorning her skin. She didn't care about the pain that running brought her. She had a sensei! Her very own sensei!\n\nShe skidded and came to a halt when she saw a few jounin hanging around the ramen shop.\n\n\"Excuse me, please, is there, do you know…\" Sakura stammered, mixing up her words. There were three jounin and they were all staring at her.\n\n\"What is it, young one? Are you lost? Are you in need of assistance from Konoha's Sublime Green Beast of Prey?\" A very large man in green boomed at her, his eyebrows alarmingly large and his teeth abnormally shiny.\n\nSakura shrank away from him in fear.\n\n\"You're scaring the poor girl, Gai.\" The single woman amongst the three of them scolded. She was very beautiful, her dark hair fell in waves and her eyes were piercingly red.\n\n\"What's up?\" The last man asked. His face was covered by a dark mask and his hair was silver, like an old man, despite his voice's obvious youth.\n\n\"I… I… Do you know where Yuhi Kurenai-san is?\" Sakura managed to say despite her embarrassment from having grown-ups stare at her.\n\nThe two men looked at the woman they were with.\n\n\"That's me,\" Kurenai said seriously, \"Did someone have a message for me?\"\n\n\"P-Please train me in genjutsu!\" Sakura cried out.\n\nKurenai blinked, \"What? I'm not a sensei yet. I can't train you.\"\n\n\"But… but you're the best in the village.\" Sakura said, despairing. If she returned to her sensei without Kurenai's training, would he be disappointed in her?\n\n\"Who said that?\" Kurenai asked sharply.\n\nThe masked man scratched his head, puzzled.\n\n\"Everyone says it.\" Sakura said, lying smoothly. Her sensei may not approve of using such underhand tactics in order to secure Kurenai's help, but it was all Sakura could do. Especially when the large green man with the eyebrows kept grinning at her.\n\n\"They do?\" Kurenai's eyebrows shot up. She looked as though she was trying to suppress her pleasure at the compliment.\n\nThe masked man coughed, \"It doesn't matter how good your teacher is, kid. You're only what, five, six? Genjutsu is complicated. You have to have excellent chakra control and high intelligence.\"\n\n\"That's true. I'm sorry, I'd teach you if you could – \" Kurenai began to say before she was interrupted.\n\nSakura's hands formed the seal she had watched her sensei make.\n\nThe masked man pulled down his mask slightly, revealing both eyes. One of them was scarred, and blood red.\n\nA clone of Kurenai walked over to them, mimicking the posture of the jounin. She was a perfect copy of the real thing, only a slight waver in her appearance where Sakura had not quite got her eyes right.\n\n\"Wow.\" Kurenai said, eyes wide. She put her hand out to touch her clone. Her hand when through it, \"It's not a clone, just an illusion. But a clever one! Who on earth taught you that?\"\n\nThe pupil in the masked man's red eye began to spin around as he stared at Sakura.\n\n\"I read it in a book!\" Sakura said defensively.\n\n\"You taught yourself how to project perfect illusions?\" Kurenai said flatly, \"At your age?\"\n\nSakura nodded firmly.\n\n\"Well, I admire your resolve, seeking genjutsu training at such a young age. I might be able to pass on some techniques to you.\"\n\n\"Really?\" Sakura said, beaming.\n\n\"I'll be hard.\" Kurenai warned.\n\n\"I don't mind!\" Sakura said sincerely.\n\n\"I think she can handle it.\" The masked man said, his red eye still focused on Sakura's face suspiciously.\n\nxxxxxxxx\n\nSakura was returning to the Nara forest to see her sensei when something caught her eye.\n\nSasuke was walking down the street, alone. He never seemed to want company. Sakura could remember when they had both been younger, seeing Sasuke with his friends. He smiled back then, and laughed openly. Now, he ignored his old friends and never smiled at all. It made her feel sad. Sakura did not like being sad, it was like when her tummy hurt, but it would not go away, not even when her mummy made her soup or rubbed her stomach for her. Sasuke did not look as though he had anyone to make him soup or even care when he was sad.\n\nShe allowed herself a second to watch his progress. He looked tired and beaten down.\n\n\"Sa-sasuke-kun!\" She called out, jumping in front of him.\n\nHe froze. She smiled encouragingly at him. He glared at her, \"What do you want?\" He spat.\n\nHer smile wavered slightly, \"I made you something, Sasuke-kun!\" She pulled out the bento and offered it to him. She had seen Maiko-chan share her bento with Kenji-kun, once, though he had not liked it very much. She hoped Sasuke would like hers.\n\nHe barely glanced at it. He walked around her, ignoring the outstretched bento.\n\n\"Sasuke-kun…\" She mumbled, \"I- I made you –\"\n\n\"I heard you before.\" He said coldly, \"Why did you make me a bento?\"\n\nShe blushed, \"Because, because I love you, Sasuke-kun!\"\n\n\"You don't even know me.\" Sasuke said harshly.\n\nSakura lowered the bento. Her tummy ached.\n\nHe walked off, hands in his pockets.\n\nSakura was left standing alone in the street, clutching the bento.\n\nxxxxxxxx\n\nItachi sat in the tree, contemplating his burden. He had killed his own family in the name of a village that despised him. He had to sneak into the village these days. He wondered, yet again, if he had made the right choice. He had left Sasuke alone with no family. Sakura was his last chance to make things right.\n\nHe heard a rustle in the bushes to his left and he had a kunai in his hand before he knew it.\n\nBut it was only Sakura, pushing her way noisily through the bushes. Itachi made a note to teach her about stealth.\n\nHe dropped down from the tree.\n\nSakura was wearing a new red bow, tying back her hair and revealing her forehead. It was obvious she had been crying, her eyes were red and sore-looking.\n\n\"Did she teach you?\" He asked in a low voice.\n\n\"Yes.\" Sakura nodded, \"She said I have a natural aptitude for genjutsu and I'm very smart.\"\n\n\"Good. Why have you been crying?\"\n\nSakura rubbed at her face with a scowl.\n\n\"I made Sasuke a bento. But he didn't want it! I told him I love him and he said I didn't even know him. I don't like him anymore.\" Sakura said childishly.\n\nItachi sighed. Sasuke would never have rebuffed a girl so bluntly before. He had witnessed his behaviour with girls in his class, he was meek and overly polite, most of the time. Either he really did not like Sakura, or he had simply changed since Itachi last knew him. He suspected the latter.\n\nSakura gave a great big sniff, eyes tearing up again.\n\nItachi shook his head. \n\n\"I'll build up your stamina and your strength. I don't live in this village, so don't expect me to be here whenever. I will summon a crow and have it come to your window when I am in the village. When that happens, come to this forest. I will continue to train you.\" He said. Sakura might not be able to offer Sasuke love, but if she stayed alive, Itachi was certain she would affect Sasuke for the better.\n\nAfter knowing Sakura for such a short time, he did not want to return to Konoha and find only a grave, a sad relic to mark a wasted life. He had seen too many children die.\n\nHe would train this little girl and keep her alive, his own quiet kind of repentance for the deaths he had caused."}
+{"text": "Jaskier wasn’t much of a hunter. He had managed to scrape up enough to keep himself alive, from age seven until he showed up on the doorstep of Oxenfurt, and during the winter months when Geralt disappeared to his mysterious hidden witcher whose location no outsider could ever know, but in general, he preferred to pay to have other people do that for him.\n\nBut Villentretenmerth refused to leave the cave for even a second, so hunting duties were split between Jaskier, Teá, and Veá.\n\nJaskier was the worst at it.\n\nAnd every other traitor in the cave thought that was just hilarious.\n\n<If you keep laughing at me like this, your hatchling is going to come out a bully,> he said. Teá snorted as she skinned the tahr. The stringy, wimpy looking tahr.\n\n<Yes, thank you for your wisdom, Elder Julialfrepankratz,> Villen said.\n\n\n<Jaskier, please.>\n\n\n\n<Is that not your human alias?>\n\n\n<No, Julian Alfred Pankratz is my human alias. Jaskier is my name, just… translated. A concept I’m sure you’re familiar with, Mr. Three Jackdaws,> he said. <Say, where’d you get the name Borch from? Did you just pick it at random?>\n\n\n<A long time ago, a human named Borch was kind to me. He saved my life and allowed me to recover in his home for the winter. I carry his name to honor him.>\n\n\n“Borch was Zerrikanian,” Veá said proudly.\n\n<Yes, he was,> Villen said. <A credit to his people. He went on to become one of the very first priests at the dragon temples.>\n\n\n<Ah. You know, I’ve never been to the dragon temples? I keep telling myself I’m gonna go someday but Geralt never has a reason to travel there. Almost no monster problems at all in Zerrikania.>\n\n\n“We are protected,” Teá said.\n\n<Yeah,> Jaskier said. <Who knows? Maybe I will go down there after this. Once the baby is settled.>\n\n<A fine idea,> Villen said. <Zerrikania is a beautiful land. Warm and away from the dangers of human society.>\n\n“If I might ask, where are you from, Jaskier?” Veá asked.\n\n\n<The Kestrel Mountains. Mine is Lettenhove. Though, really, it’s not actually mine, per se. I’m living out of my parents’ old cave. I’d go find my own, it’s just, there’s not much point, is there? It would take a lot of effort to transport their old hoard. And I’m young, I’m not even thinking about courting. I just don’t need a cave of my own, really.>\n\n\n<There is no shame in waiting,> Villen said kindly. <As you said, a young hatchling such as yourself has no need of a cave yet. Better to wait and find the right one than hurry into the first hole in the rock you stumble across.>\n\n\n<I’m not a hatchling, old man.>\n\n\nHe huffed. <You’re a hatchling, alright.>\n\nThis was the most over-protected egg in the history of eggs.\n\nWell, it wasn’t, Jaskier knew some dragons were full-on paranoid, but still. Since Villentretenmerth literally never left the cave himself, he instead politely asked Jaskier to run a full sweep of the mountainside three times a day in his stead. Veá and Teá also ran patrols (separately from Jaskier, so there were more patrols per day) at dawn, mid-morning, mid-afternoon, and dusk.\n\nVillentretenmerth, it turned out, was yet another terrifyingly powerful gigantic softie. The egg couldn’t be moved from its place by its mother’s dead body, but it needed to be kept warm, so Villen would often lay along it’s other side or blow a small stream of fire onto it.\n\nWhenever the old man did step away for a few brief moments, Jaskier immediately took his place.\n\n\n“Her current is pulling you closerAnd charging the hot, humid nightThe red sky at dawn is giving a warning, you foolBetter stay out of sightI’m weak my love, and I am wantingIf this is the path I must trudgeI welcome my sentenceGive to you my penanceGarrotter, jury and judge.\n\n\n“What do you think, little egg? Does that get the whole… general point across?”\n\n“If the point is that you had a bad breakup, then yes,” Teá said.\n\nHe sighed. “I was going for force of nature disaster storm sort of energy.”\n\n“You achieved that,” Veá said.\n\n“Thank you, Veá, my favorite Zerrikanian.”\n\n<If I might make a request?> Villen asked.\n\n“Yeah! Yes, you may.”\n\n\n<A blessing for my child?>\n\n\nHe nodded. “Give me a minute. The better the song, the more powerful the enchantment.”\n\nVillen nodded, and the two sisters shared an excited look.\n\nHe took a week to compose the song.\n\nIt had to be perfect.\n\nEveryone had heard it a hundred times over and declared it good, fine, just get on with it, by the time he decided it was ready.\n\nJaskier put the full force of his magic into his voice.\n\n\n<First dragon of the new ageGreatest hope of us allThey’ll sweep through the valleyA force who can’t be cagedA long life well livedSpreading peace and goodwillFirst dragon of the new ageGreatest hope of us allThe bridge of love traversedA draconid leaderWith flame brighter than starsA new course they will stakeThe child born of goldSaved through force of loveWill bring a new type of wisdomFirst dragon of the new ageGreatest hope of us all.>\n\n\nHe paused. Magic tinkled in the air even after the last note ended.\n\nJaskier wriggled closer to the egg between Villentretenmerth and the dead body. He breathed fire on it.\n\n<Thank you,> Villen said.\n\n<It’ll take better the more it’s sung,> Jaskier said.\n\n“Even by humans?” Teá asked.\n\n\n<Yes. Music is music.>\n\n\nThe baby’s song became the anthem of the cave. Veá hummed it while tearing bones out of fresh kills. Villentretenmerth sang it awkwardly, stilted and out of tune. It never failed to make Jaskier smile and join in. Teá was more confident with singing it on her own, and would often drum the beat of it with her fingers.\n\nJaskier poured peace and longevity and love and wisdom into every word he sang. The egg pulsed with magic. The lifeforce in it was strong, growing stronger by the day. It was fed a constant stream of heat and music. Fire and magic.\n\nJaskier was out on patrol one day when a massive ribbon of fire lanced into the sky from the direction of the cave. He turned on point of his wing and raced back as fast as his wings would carry him.\n\nHe hit the ground outside the cave running, bounding inside in a streak of red. Villen was trying to keep up a continuous flame surrounding the egg. Jaskier added his own fire to it.\n\n<Catch your breath, I’ve got this for now,> he said. He thanked Melitele for mindspeak.\n\nVillen laid down on the cave floor, slitted eyes fixed on the egg. Jaskier may not have all the experience of the old geezer, but he did have his voice lessons from Oxenfurt, and the improved lung capacity did transfer over.\n\nHe blew. The tiny crack in the egg got bigger. The hatchling was strong, it was working fast. Probably very easy to with this nice and warm fire around them.\n\nJaskier can and has sung for hours before, sometimes through most of the night with only minimal breaks. But that wasn’t going to be necessary here. Villen budged him out of the way just a few hours in and took over. It was his egg, after all.\n\nThey switched on and off throughout the night and the following day and the night after that. In an ideal world, a hatching would have a whole great family in attendance, having flown in from all over the Continent to guard the egg and keep it warm as it cracked. But there weren’t that many dragons anymore. These days, even an esteemed golden one only had one helper at the hatching, and not even family at that.\n\nThen the egg was shattered and a tiny, slimy green dragon lay in its place. The hatchling basked in its father’s fire, letting out a happy little chirp.\n\nTeá and Veá rushed forward with a bucket of water and some cloths and began cleaning the baby.\n\n“A girl,” Teá said. “What will you call her?”\n\n<Saesenthessis,> Villen said. Protector of all.\n\n<Saesenthessis,> Jaskier repeated. He would die for this little girl, he realized. Kill for her too. It was a good thing he never met Geralt’s Child Surprise, or he’d have been doomed from the start.\n\nSaesenthessis tried to stand up and fell over on her face and started crying. Jaskier nosed her up gently, cooing.\n\nThere wasn’t much to pack up. Myrgtabrakke and Villentretenmerth had not been true mates, simply paramours—hence the separate caves. Her hoard would stay where it was. Her body, too.\n\nHer place of living would be her place of resting. Any dragon who came across it would turn around and leave, even after her scent faded. Only after her bones had faded to dust would the cave be considered empty.\n\nSaesenthessis was situated in the place of ultimate safety between her father’s wings, with Teá riding behind her to make triply sure she didn’t fall off mid-flight. Jaskier was carrying what minimal supplies they did have in a net lashed around his stomach. Veá would be riding on him.\n\nThis was not, in any way, because Villentretenmerth was incapable of carrying both humans. He could have a whole small village on his back and it wouldn’t even slow him down. On the contrary, they split the warriors between the two dragons “just in case.”\n\nJaskier pointedly did not comment.\n\nWhich was for the best, really, because he had absolutely no say in that decision.\n\n“Is everything ready?” Teá asked her sister, the last one out. “The cave is completely empty?”\n\n“Save for how it was when we arrived,” Veá confirmed, jumping up to settle on Jaskier’s back.\n\n<Let’s ride,> Villen said.\n\nThe gust of his wings taking off nearly pushed Jaskier down for a moment, and efforts to disguise this motion failed when Veá—the traitor—laughed at him.\n\n<See that I don’t fling you off my back then, you can walk to the Fiery Mountains,> he muttered.\n\n“I apologize,” she said, voice still full of mirth. “I merely was not expecting that.”\n\n\n<Just because I’m not a billion year old golden dragon the size of a castle…>\n\n\n“You are very impressive,” she said. She stroked along his neck, and, well. That helped.\n\nThey flew southwest. The Dragon Mountains, ironically, were not a main hub of dragon civilization. That was the Fiery Mountains, the ones right along Zerrikania and above the Korath Desert. Zerrikania was set aways from most of the Continent’s inhabited lands. It was pretty much just them and the dragons out there.\n\nParadise. Or so Jaskier had been told.\n\nThey couldn’t actually travel as-the-crow-flies. They had to take the most desolate, deserted route, the one farthest from any human habitats. They flew over the Kestrel Mountains (Jaskier pointed out all the sights to Saesenthessis as they went) and straight through Kaedwen. Then came the Mahakam range and a twisted, convoluted path through all the many cities of Aedirn. On past Lyria, the Solveiga Gate, and finally, the Fiery Mountains.\n\nThe whole journey took nine days.\n\nVillen’s cave was exactly as opulent as Jaskier had expected. He had a whole room just for his hoard—which was almost entirely golden objects, no big surprise there. He also had a cave in the system that opened up to huge pools of hot springs.\n\n<Ohhh now this is the life,> Jaskier said, sinking into the water. <That’s it. I’m never getting out of this water. I live here now.>\n\nNo one else was in the room with him, but that didn’t matter, with mindspeak. He could be a nuisance from the whole other side of the cave if he wanted. And that was Villentretenmerth’s problem, for ever letting him stick around for more than a second.\n\nOne week in, Saesenthessis had mastered walking. She was a walking expert. She could scurry with the best of them. She was already trying to climb up walls.\n\nShe had immediately discovered the fun of chasing other people’s tails and trying to catch them.\n\nJaskier was pretending he was not aware of the infant dragon behind him. He dragged his tail across the ground verrrrry slowly. Clawed little paws pounced on it, and Jaskier whirled around, yanking his tail away. Saesenthessis skittered after it but Jaskier swooshed away again right as she got close. The hatchling raced off in the new direction. She got her claws around his tail right as Jaskier stood up and “ran” away.\n\nTheir chase was epic. The stuff of legends. And afterwards, when Saesenthessis was purring herself to sleep, snuggled up against him, Jaskier began to compose the epic.\n\nIt morphed and took on a life of its own. Saesenthessis’s little play hunt turned into the story of the only-slightly-more-real dragon hunt to find and rescue her.\n\nHe sang of her mother, defending her to her last breath, dying beside her egg in a last attempt to keep her warm. Of her father gathering his team of heroes and infiltrating the hunt. Of the witch and the witcher who fought off those who would harm her.\n\nThe tragic twist where it was revealed the witcher had tried to force the sorceress’s love with the power of a djinn. And the sorceress, powerful beyond belief, turning her back on him without a thought.\n\nA final end verse where Saesenthessis was safe and cared for with her father, Teá and Veá, and the humble bard who was just along for the ride.\n\n<You can never sing that in public,> Villentretenmerth said.\n\n<I know,> he said. <But Saesenthessis deserves to hear it.>\n\nThe gold dragon nodded. <Thank you, then, for your kind words.>\n\nDragons do not age like humans do. Their development is completely different. Saesenthessis was walking and seeing within days of hatching. She could project simple concepts with her mindspeak shortly after that.\n\nAnd now she was happily exploring her physical limitations.\n\n<Up!> she said. <Up up up!>\n\n<Alright, give me a moment, give me a moment,> Villen said. He scooped her up by the scruff of her neck and deposited her on a low shelf in the rock.\n\nSaesenthessis’s eyes widened comically. Jaskier laughed.\n\n<Not so fun once you’re actually up there, is it?> he asked. <Here.>\n\nHe hunched down next to the shelf and Saesenthessis crawled onto his back, settling in between his wings.\n\n<Up!> she said again.\n\n“She’s a true adventurer at heart,” Veá smiled.\n\n“She’s already had one epic written about her. I imagine there will be more,” Teá agreed.\n\n<Hey, speaking of that,> Jaskier said. <She needs a human alias. Or at the very least a nickname, like what I use. She can’t stay in this cave forever, and the name Saesenthessis is a tad obvious.>\n\n<A translation will be acceptable,> Villen said. <But Protector is hardly a regular human name either.>\n\n“In certain languages it could pass,” Teá said.\n\n“There are names that have meaning. Surely one that means protector,” Veá said. “I could look into it. There are books on the subject. I could purchase one at the market.”\n\n<That would be greatly appreciated, thank you, dear Veá,> Villen said.\n\nJaskier ambled around the cave at a slow pace, trying to jostle Saesenthessis as little as possible.\n\n<Vrrrrrrrooooom,> he said. <Zoooooooooom. Vvrrrrrrooooooom.>\n\nSaesenthessis laughed gleefully.\n\nThere was a small stream that fed into the Solveiga and ran right by Plaoi Cror, Villen’s mountain. It was at burbling stream levels in several points. Perfect for Saesenthessis to splash around in and learn the concept of swimming. So far her only experience with water was drinking it out of bowls that Teá and Veá had poured it in.\n\nJaskier trotted out into the center of the stream and stomped around. <Look, Saesenthessis. It’s… splashy.>\n\nThe little hatchling peered out from her safe place on Villen’s back. Wide blue eyes took in the stream, the sunlight, the tittering birds.\n\n<Do you want to go explore, little one?> Villen asked. Saesenthessis slid down the steep (for her) slope of his back. She tilted her head up, and Villen walked right alongside her to the water’s edge. He put his forelegs into the shallows.\n\nSaesenthessis sniffed the water, and wrinkled her snout when it sprayed up her nose.\n\n<It’s water. Like what you drink, but more. See?> Jaskier demonstratively drank some. Saesenthessis took a hesitant sip herself.\n\n<Water,> she said.\n\n<Yes, water,> Villen said. <You can swim in it, too. See what Jaskier is doing?>\n\nJaskier was almost entirely submerged, with just his snout, tail, and the top of his back out of the water. He was doing his best impression of a crocodile, which was always fun no matter what age you were, and was also socially acceptable if you happened to be a reptile.\n\nJaskier waggled his eyebrows at her.\n\nSaesenthessis touched the water with one paw.\n\n\n<Cold!>\n\n\n<It is cold,> Villen agreed. He stepped deeper into the stream. <It’s also perfectly safe. But you don’t have to get in if you don’t want to.>\n\nJaskier snorted out bubbles at her and Saesenthessis laughed.\n\nTen minutes later, she was happily splashing around in the shallows and projecting vague thoughts about being the water snake she had seen.\n\nWhich was really cute right up until the point she tried to sink her fangs in Jaskier’s neck."}
+{"text": "My next adventure happened in the middle of summer. Let me tell you a little of what led up to it.\n\nMike was home for the weekend to see his buddies and me I guess. On Friday night Chris came over to hang out for a bit before they went out. It was the first time I had seen him since our encounter. He was cordial as was I but the tension in the air was stifling as far as I was concerned. I don't know if he felt it the same way. He told Mike and me he was going to California for a job as a co-op while finishing school and we probably wouldn't see him for quite a while.\n\nBefore they went out Chris said good bye to me and went to give me a hug like he always had. Mike was out in the hall when Chris hugged me and gave my ass a squeeze saying, \"Still nice Mrs. H.\"\n\nNothing happened except me fingering myself to sleep that night.\n\nAbout three weeks later I got a call from Mike that he was offered a job and accepted it in Atlanta. They would pay for him to finish his education while he worked for them. I felt at first I didn't want him to go but it was a good opportunity and I couldn't get in his way, besides he is a grown man now and has been on his own for some time. I decided I was going to pay him a visit and say good bye in person, wish him well.\n\nI got a hotel room near his college and spent Saturday and Sunday with him. He left Sunday night but I decided to stay a day or two longer and just hang out and enjoy the pool and area shopping.\n\nWhile I was shopping at the nearest mall I got to thinking even though I was going to miss my son immensely, I was now also free to do what ever I felt without need to be concerned with consequences other than my own safety and such.\n\nI decided to look at some outfits I'd probably never wear outside in public, just to see how they made me feel. I took a few things in the fitting room of one store to try on but didn't like them much. I went into the next store and there was only one other lady in there. I picked out a short skirt and white top, like a sort of school girl outfit, and tried them on. The skirt was a bit shorter than I thought, just below my butt, so I figured since there was only that one lady in there I'd go out and look for a bit longer one without changing first.\n\nJust before I left the fitting room I heard a lady say, \"I'll be out in a few minutes.\"\n\nAnd a man's voice say \"Ok but don't take all day!\"\n\nI thought what the hell it's just her husband and went out anyway. I walked up to the rack where the skirts were and noticed her husband sitting on a chair waiting. He wasn't alone, he had a friend with him. I was about 15 feet away and noticed a mirror behind me. I decided to see if they were paying any attention to me so I bent over to look at a tag on one of the skirts. I saw the married guy's buddy nudge him and point at the mirror behind me. They stopped talking for a minute. I was feeling frisky now and walked around with my back to them facing the rack with the mirror in my view too. I bent over again and peeked in the mirror to see their reaction. They're eyes got big and grinned. I knew they could see my panties easily and stayed in that position for about a minute, then stood up straight and took the slightly longer skirt back to the fitting room with me. I didn't care too much for the white top, I'm a little old to be playing the school girl anyway, so I put it back when I came out and the shorter of the skirts.\n\nJust after I paid for the skirt and walked out the door I noticed one of the men follow me for a short distance. I stopped to look at the window of a lingerie shop, looked back at him and smiled then went inside. He didn't follow me in but was still there when I came out.\n\nHe approached me and said \"Excuse me for being so forward but would you be interested in maybe dinner or a drink some time? My name is Mike and I just thought you were so cute I didn't want to pass up the opportunity to meet you.\"\n\nI said \"I don't know, I don't usually do blind date things or pick ups. No offense though, you seem nice but I am only here for a day or two.\"\n\nMike said \"No offense taken. Then tonight might be the only chance huh?\"\n\nI laughed and said \"Funny and persistent, cute.\"\n\nHe said \"Here, let me give you my number and you can think about it. I have to get back to my friend.\" Then he wrote down his number on a receipt he had and gave it to me and left.\n\nMy guess was he was in his early to mid 30's, a little cushy in the waist but nice friendly face and confident attitude. I put his number in my purse and went on my way shopping. I bought a few things but my mind was occupied with what I should do about this guy. By the time I left the mall I decided I would give him a call when I got back to my room.\n\nI put my stuff down and found his number and called about 6:30. When he answered I said \"Hi this is Sarah, how are you?\"\n\nHe said \"Sarah who?\"\n\nI realized I hadn't given him my name before and said \"The lady in the mall today. You gave me your number? Or are there more ladies you gave your number to today?\"\n\n\"Damn!\" he said \"I was really hoping you'd call but never though you would! Can I tell you I think you are so hot, I mean real pretty! I don't want to seem too forward but can we meet tonight?\"\n\n\"Yeah, about that.\" I said\n\n\"I see,\" he said \"well I had to try. Thanks for calling then to let me know.\" He sounded so dejected.\n\nI said \"I didn't say no, I was just going to say that maybe if we met there should be others around so I'd feel safer. After all, I don't really know you. What about your friend, is he married? Maybe they could join us?\"\n\nMike said \"Wow, really? You'd really meet with me? I'll ask, just a minute!\" He muffled the phone but I could hear male voices in the background, then he came back. \"Chris, that's my friend said his wife has a baby shower tonight so she couldn't go but if you felt ok with it he'd join us so, is that ok?\"\n\nI thought, oh shit, Mike and Chris, what are the odds they have the name of my son and his friend that had his way with me to start this whole thing. I started having second thoughts but figured, what the hell they probably are the most common names out there.\n\n\"Ok\" I said. \"How about in the lounge at the hotel here?' and I told him which hotel I was at.\n\nHe said \"Sure, what time?\"\n\n\"I need time to freshen up. About 8:00? I asked\n\n\"That's great!\" he said. We said good byes and hung up.\n\nWhat was I going to do now, I started thinking. I looked over my purchases of the day and wondered what I should wear. Am I planning on just getting to know them or going MUCH further? As I looked over my potential outfits I knew I wanted it to go much further at some point. I made a game plan to not look too eager or sluttish, at least not right away. Let me get to know what they are like first.\n\nI had purchased a burgundy tank top with ties at the top that were a little thicker than a good shoestring, maybe a half inch thick. Also a beige cover up in kind of a thin gauze material, very easy to see through, more like an accent to the top underneath. It was wide at the shoulders just enough to hang a bit off of one side or the other. I also got at the lingerie shop a burgundy lace bra with satin straps and lace thong. I don't have the ass for the thin string kind and haven't had the desire to stick a string up my butt so this was a little bit wider in the butt area but still let my ass show well if I wanted.\n\nI decided on the bra, tank top and cover up with blue jeans and a plan. I went down to the lounge at about 8:05. They were both there having a beer at a table not too far from the bar. There was music playing but only about 10 people there. I could tell Mike was happy to see me arrive. He asked if I drank beer and I said I did and he bought me one. I told him my son's name was Mike and had just left for his job, that's why I was in the area.\n\nChris was married 10 years and had 2 kids. Mike worked for Chris at an engineering firm. They were best friends since college.\n\nWe visited and listened to the music for a bit.\n\nChris then went and got beers for us. When he came back he said \"I see they have a pool table over there, do you want to play a few?\"\n\nI said I wasn't very good but would try, so we went by the pool table. They had is situated so it was around a corner from the rest of the lounge area but with a mirrored wall on the far side. I assumed it was so the bar tender could keep an eye on kids and such while they were playing. I told them I was expecting a call from a friend in the area and may have to go by her later if she couldn't get a ride from a co worker. I suggested first the guys should play so I could watch and then play the winner. Mike won easily so it was my turn to play him.\n\nI kept an eye on the guys through the mirror and out of the corner of my eye to see what they were looking at as I played. When I bent over facing them it was hard to see too much of what they were doing but as I turned away I could see in the mirror they were checking out my butt and trying to see down my top. I had the strings tied tight enough not to show too much but I am sure they could either see my bra or some cleavage. To my amazement I won!\n\nNow it was time to play Chris. I excused myself to go to the ladies room. While in there I loosened my top strings a little to give a little more show, but not so much as it would be obvious. When I came back Mike had bought more beer for us. They seemed a little chattier, started getting a bit more provocative. Maybe the beer was getting to them too. Chris seemed to set me up to have to stretch and reach more, causing me to bend over more than before, but I didn't mind. I lost this time.\n\nAs they began to play my cell phone buzzed, I got a text. Mike looked concerned as I read it. I told them I had to go talk to my friend and that I'd be back in a few minutes. I actually set my alarm on my phone and had no plans to meet anyone but it gave me a way out if needed or an excuse to go to plan B.\n\nPlan B is was! I went to my room and took off my blue jeans and put on the short skirt I bought earlier. Much to my surprise I must have put the wrong skirt back on the shelf, this was the 'too short' one! It did have some elastic material at the top so I could slide it down some to make it look longer and my top and cover up were long enough to cover the top of the skirt. I also decided it was time to take off my bra. I liked the way my top now swayed and jiggled with my tits unencumbered. I loosened the strings for my top and retied them so it hung lower giving better opportunity for them to look down and also to help cover the top of my skirt. Time to go back down.\n\nI went around to the pool table area and said \"Good news, I don't have to go!\"\n\nThey both looked at me and got big smiles while looking over my outfit change. Mike had won the last game and told me to rack em up while handing me another beer. I carefully squatted down to get the balls in the rack and had to bend over a bit to set it. I looked up to see Mike peering down my top smiling. He broke them and left the Q-ball in the middle of the table for me. I decided to get the ball rolling. I picked a ball away from them to hit and went on the side they were standing on. I leaned way over to reach the Q-ball causing my skirt to ride up and give them a peek and my cheeks and maybe undies. By the look in the mirror they liked what they saw, I missed the shot. Mike missed his shot but it seemed like he did on purpose and left the ball near the middle again. This time I picked a ball to hit facing them. I had to bend way over to reach the Q-ball giving them an easy look down my top and made my ball, but in doing so also left myself with a tough shot where I would have to stand right in front of them and bend far over the table to reach my next shot. I stretched over having to lift one leg giving what I can imagine a great shot of my ass and lace thong, I missed my shot. Mike went on to win the game and had to play Chris again. I sat on a stool and drank my beer giving a little glimpse from time to time up my skirt.\n\nJust when Chris won the game I said I had to go to the ladies room. Chris said he'd go get more drinks while they waited. I did my duty and looked at myself in the mirror, 'not bad' I thought but needed a little adjusting. I took off my panties and put them in my purse, then pulled up my skirt, just a little so it was right at the bottom of my butt. I also loosened the strings a bit setting the top just a bit lower but still with the cover up on, and went back to play more pool. Mike must have racked and Chris was just breaking when I got there. He made a couple balls and left me with an easy one. I made it then had to reach for my second. I was facing them with the mirror behind me. As I bent over Mike almost choked on his beer. He must have seen my ass in the mirror with no panties. I missed and then Chris set me up for a tough shot right in front of them. I had to get on my tip toes and bend over to reach the ball. I knew they had a close up of my ass and pussy up under my skirt and I heard a little snicker and small applause as I missed. Chris won the game.\n\nI suggested we stop playing pool and go to my room. They both agreed. I started up the stairs with them following me. As we got to the top I realized I left my purse at the pool table and said I'd be right back and told them my room number, to wait for me there.\n\nWhen I got to my purse the bar tender was there cleaning up the drinks.\n\nHe looked me in the eyes and said \"When your done with them call me at extension 155 and I'll come take care of you.\" I went to turn away and he grabbed my hips pulling my skirt up so over half my ass was showing and said, \"That's how you wear it.\"\n\nHe reminded me of Sam Elliot with his deep manly voice, only he was a bit bigger in the chest and shoulders and had a pony tail. He looked like a rugged biker type.\n\nI went around the corner and noticed the last few people there were watching the whole thing. There were three guys at one table and a couple in the corner at another. I went up stairs. The guys were waiting by my room when I reached the hall. I turned around to show them my butt showing and they laughed.\n\nAs I started walking toward them I reached up and untied one side of my tank top and they said \"You wouldn't dare!\"\n\nI untied the other and just as I did an older man came out of his room and started walking my direction. I kept walking and my top slipped off my tits just before he got to me. I thought it would stop at my waist but it fell right to the floor. He turned around just as I was bending over to pick it up giving him a clear shot at my ass too. I stood up and walked toward Mike and Chris and opened my door. I walked in and put my top on the table and saw Mike and Chris come in then turned away from them wiggling my hips. I pulled my cover up off and threw it by my other top. While swaying my hips back and forth I slide my skirt up higher to reveal my whole ass and bent over to give them a full view. With the top of the skirt at my belly and the bottom at my hips I turned around to show my pussy from the front. Much to my surprise the old man from the hall was standing there too. He must have followed Mike and Chris in.\n\nMike and Chris sat on the couch but the old guy just stood there watching. I walked over by Mike and straddled his legs with mine putting my hand on the top of the couch leaning in to hang my tits in front of his face. He reached up with both hand and cupped them taking one then the other to his mouth to kiss each one on the nipples. I let out a sigh as he started licking and sucking on the left one. Not to be left out Chris took the right one to his mouth and began kissing and sucking it as well. I leaned over and put my legs out so one was between each of their legs to give Chris a better angle. I felt one of each of their hands rubbing and kneading my ass while the other hand worked on my tits.\n\nThen suddenly I felt a hand from behind reach up between my legs and start rubbing my pussy. I tried to look back but couldn't see, and then a finger went in me. I let out a deep groan and started moving in rhythm with his finger. Mike and Chris then each reached around and spread my pussy with their hands and I felt a cock enter me from behind. I couldn't see around so I looked down to see two legs with pants around their ankles moving as he thrust into me. With two guys working my tits over and another fucking my from behind I let out a big gasp and came hard on the older guy fucking me. It didn't take him long to unload his hot cum into my pussy. He pulled out and rubbed his soaked cock head on my ass.\n\nMike slid out from the couch and dropped his pants and came around behind me. Chris pulled his off too. As I bent over to start working on Chris's with my mouth Mike entered me. He was much bigger than the older guy but with all the juices already there entered me easily. Chris grabbed my hair as Mike grabbed my hips and worked me like a piston between them. I then felt a pinching of my boobs and looked at the older guy pinching and pulling them, stretching my nipples in different directions. I felt a wave go through me and shook like there was an earthquake happening in my core.\n\nChris lay on the floor and Mike stood up helping me to straddle Chris's cock and lower my self onto him. Mike then offered his cock to my mouth and I took it in as much as I could. I could taste my juices as well as the old man's cum on Mike throbbing cock making me want to swallow the whole thing. It didn't take Mike long to start spurting into my throat and mouth. He pulled back just a bit and I held my mouth open for him with my tongue out to catch as much as I could. He sprayed my face and hair and stroked onto to my tongue his last drops. I closed my mouth and swallowed it. This sent Chris off as he filled my pussy with his own load of sperm.\n\nI reached out to hold onto something as I came hard again and found a cock in my hand swelling up. The old guy started rising again much to his own surprise. As I started calming down I took his cock into my mouth to get it harder for more work. It took him a little while but he started moaning and pulled his shaft from my mouth and sprayed my face and tits with his cum. He didn't have as much as the first time but it was thick and hot on me.\n\nMike helped me off of Chris's now softer member and pushed my face and shoulders onto the couch bending me over with my ass out. He said \"This fucking bitch wants it bad, so I'll give it to her bad.\"\n\nHe started fingering my pussy with two or three fingers and told Chris to hold me there. Chris sat on the couch and pulled my hair putting his cock in my mouth holding me tight. Then Mike took his fingers out of my pussy and put one in my ass and started going in and out.\n\nHe said \"That should be enough.\"\n\nI thought he meant he was done, but then felt the tip of his cock press against my anus. He pulled my cheeks wider and pushed in. I had never had a cock in my ass before and it felt very uncomfortable but I couldn't scream or say stop or anything with Chris's cock in my mouth. Chris held me tight as Mike went deeper inside my ass. I felt my nipples being pulled again, I assumed by the old man. Mike's thrusting sent a wave through me like I have never felt deep inside my ass. With all that was going on my head was spinning and I came harder than before. Just as I did I felt Mike spew hot cum in my ass sending me over the edge. I shook and shook for what felt like five minutes but I'm sure wasn't that long and collapsed. Chris slid out from under me and they all got dressed and left.\n\nI stayed half on the couch and half off for several minutes, too tired and sore to move. Then I remembered the bar tender telling me to call him, but I was in no condition for more, or so I thought.\n\nI reached for the phone and called 155 and he answered. I said \"I can't, I can't.\" in a faint voice and hung up.\n\nI heard a door key and my door opened. He walked in and looked me over. I couldn't move, laying there with cum dripping from my pussy and ass, hanging from my face and hair and tits.\n\nHe circled around me and said \"Damn, how many were there?'\n\nI muffled \"Three\"\n\nHe said \"Let me guess, the old man down the hall?\" I just nodded.\n\nHe got a warm wash cloth and wiped my face and tits off, then wiped off my pussy.\n\nLifting my hips to get me on my knees he said \"No need to waist a good opportunity.\"\n\nHe unzipped his pants and pulled out his stiffening cock. I looked over my shoulder and saw the thickest cock I ever saw.\n\nMy eyes got wide and said \"I can't, please, I can't!\"\n\n\"Oh sure you can.\" Was all he said and he shoved it in my ass with one quick move.\n\nI thought I was going to split open. He just kept going until it was all the way in then worked me over like a fuck doll.\n\n\"Wow\" he said, \"you are one fucking hot slut! I bet you're kind of new to this too, aren't you.\"\n\nI nodded again.\n\nHe fucked my ass like a jack hammer then groaned heavily and pumped his cum deep in my ass sending heat throughout my body. When he finished he pulled out and I lay on my back grabbing my pussy and rubbing it hard till a little squirt came out and just shook all over.\n\nHe smiled and said I'd be welcome back any time and left. I stayed there for what felt like hours actually falling asleep for a bit. When I awoke I had thick sticky cold cum all over and went to soak my sore body in the shower until I was sure it was all off of me. Then I ran a hot bath and soaked in there too. The next day when I got ready to leave, my ass, pussy and tits were so sore I couldn't wear underwear. I wore enough to not show but enough to be comfortable for my ride home. The bar tender saw me leaving in the lobby and just smiled and winked at me.\n\nI had never been used like that or called a bitch or slut, but somehow I guess that's what I've become. Did I mind? Was I trying to be? Not sure yet. But somehow I knew I wasn't done seeking for more answers or for more adventures.\n\n"}
+{"text": "Ian loads his duffel bag into the back of Gordie’s van. It’s actually Linus’ duffel bag, one he had to borrow when he realized it would be embarrassing to show up with a laundry bag full of his shit. He’s already feeling weird about the weekend, just a little out of place as some unfamiliar techno music blasts from the speakers. \n\nTheo is sitting in the front passenger seat so Ian finds himself sitting next to some guy he doesn’t know with purple nail polish and a purple beanie. \n\n“Oh, Ian!” Gordie says as they hit the road. “You’ve never been to Theo’s lake house before.” \n\n“Yeah,” Ian says. He wants to mention he’s only known the guy for a month or so. \n\n“Oh you’re gonna fuckin’ love it. His parents have this thing where they hire a guy to come make churros, it’s insane.” \n\nIan knows what a churro is, although he can’t recall if he’s ever had one. Most likely not. He wonders how much it costs to hire a guy to come to your house and make churros all weekend. He wonders why anyone would want this when they could just buy a batch of them from somewhere, pre-made. It's just a sweet pastry, after all.  \n\n“Ian’s a freshman,” Theo says to the rest of the van. “We met at a frosh party.” \n\n“Leave it to you to find the prettiest freshman on campus,” one of the girls in the van jokes. \n\nIan feels flattered and just a little bit objectified but there’s something about being called pretty that he unironically enjoys. \n\n*\n\nIt’s only been ten minutes on the road and already Ian is getting a headache from the weird electronic techno music that’s been playing repetitively. No lyrics or anything, just strange mixes of sounds. \n\nAs if reading his mind, Theo turns in his seat to look at him. “You like the music?” he asks. “Kenny made it. He’s a music genius.” \n\nKenny is in the van, in the seat behind Ian’s. He is forced to turn and nod to Kenny, “Oh cool,” he says. “This music is sick.” \n\nInternally, he wants to die because now there is no chance in hell they’re going to be ok with a request to switch to other music. \n\n* \n\nIan texts Mickey about the terrible music but receives no response that day. He figures Mickey is busy dealing with his own shit but he finds he wants so badly for Mickey to respond with a joke at Kenny’s expense, to validate Ian’s opinions on this garbage music. \n\nHe doesn’t even know what kind of music Mickey listens to but he can be sure it’s not this. \n\nKenny taps Ian on the shoulder to show him something on his phone. “You should follow me on soundcloud.” \n\n“Oh, I don’t have that,” Ian says. \n\n“It’s really easy to make an account,” Kenny says. “I’ll text you the link to my account so you can follow me.” \n\nHe can see Kenny's name on soundcloud is \"Kenny the G\" and doesn't know how to react appropriately to this. \n\n* \n\n“So how’re you finding your classes?” one of the girls asks. Ian really needs to start learning some names. \n\n“Oh they’re not too bad,” Ian says. “I like linguistics.” \n\n“The study of language,” she nods. “I’m a big fan of Chomsky’s works, particularly On Nature and Language. It really opened my eyes to the way language functions in society and the way it relates to our cognition.” \n\nIan blinks back at her. “Are you in linguistics?” \n\nShe laughs as if it’s a ridiculous question. “No, no. I’m a sociology major but I got into a really deep Chomsky binge the past summer, read a bunch of his books and sent him a few emails after asking for his opinion on the positive aspects of globalization.” \n\n“Oh, cool,” Ian says. \n\n“Personally I find his views on Israel a bit too extreme,” Gordie says from the front seat. \n\nIan sits back and wonders if he’ll ever be able to really partake in these discussions, to even understand what the words mean. He wonders if he’s in the wrong field too, like maybe he should have chosen something a bit less intense like Astrophysics. \n\n* \n\nThey stop at a gas station to fill up on gas and Ian goes with Theo to the convenience store for some snacks. \n\nUsing the gas station wifi, Ian googles Noam Chomsky and is surprised this man is still alive, much less receiving emails from college girls. \n\n* \n\nIan would normally buy some pop, some beef jerky or chips. Maybe even a Kind bar when he’s feeling healthy. But Theo stacks up on those green bottles of San Pellegrino that Ian has never tried and white cheddar popcorn. Ian follows suit and does the same. \n\n“We’ve been obsessed with white cheddar popcorn lately,” Theo says. “Like legit addicted.” \n\nIan smiles politely at that, and imagines everyone in that van munching on those bags of popcorn the same way his father guzzles beer at the Alibi. He imagines everyone having to go to AA but for their white cheddar popcorn addiction and laughs to himself. \n\n* \n\nThe white cheddar popcorn isn’t that bad but it leaves Ian with an empty feeling, one that is definitely not satiated by what turns out to be soda water with maybe a hint of lemon or something. Ian has never craved a beer and a cigarette more in his life. \n\n* \n\nThey arrive at the lake house and Ian doesn’t know why he expected some cabin on Lake Michigan when they arrive and it turns out to be five times the size of the Gallagher house with a pristine white exterior and a car parked in the driveway with a boat attached to it. \n\n“Just a heads up,” Theo warns Ian as they grab their things from the back of the van, “My parents can be really overbearing. Dad’s pretty conservative, mom’s hella liberal. So no politics or else things can get really heated. And if you’re a Marxist, definitely don’t say anything.”\n\nIan frowns as he follows the group into the house. He wasn’t going to talk about politics, wouldn’t even know where to start. But he does know that Theo’s parents’ marriage sounds like a prison sentence.  \n\n* \n\nThe inside of the “lake house” looks like it came straight out of an Architectural Digest magazine with various vases and artwork of ships that Ian is sure cost more than his yearly tuition. \n\nThe rest of the gang trickle in, completely used to the surroundings, as if they haven’t just been teleported to a different dimension. \n\n“Holy shit,” Ian can’t help but say. “If this is your lake house then I can’t even imagine what your actual house looks like.” \n\n“My parents just like big spaces because they’re obsessed with throwing huge parties,” Theo says, as though it is a casual reason for owning a second mansion in what is possibly the wealthiest town in all of Illinois. \n\nIan thinks about how his family back in the southside always loved throwing backyard parties and barbecues, how much they could do with such little. He can’t even imagine the Gallagher clan stepping into a home like this, tracking in mud and looking out of place in their secondhand coats that are always torn and pilling. \n\n“Where’s the bathroom?” Ian asks, feeling overwhelmed. \n\n“The closest one is down the hall,” Theo says. \n\n* \n\nIan sits at the edge of the marble bathtub, feeling ashamed to even piss in such a luxurious bathroom. \n\nHe checks his phone. No response from Mickey still. \n\nHe considers calling but imagines Mickey in the middle of some family bullshit and becoming annoyed seeing Ian calling him just because he’s feeling a little anxious. \n\nWhen he finally emerges six minutes later, more people have arrived -- some people he has briefly met before and others he has never met and already does not want to. \n\nTheo offers him a beer and he takes it. \n\n* \n\nLater, when Ian is buzzed enough to double text Mickey, he sneaks off to the bathroom again. \n\nIan (7:04pm): what the fuck I miss you\n\nHe looks at the text and figures he can regret it tomorrow when he’s sober. \n\n* \n\nIan has no idea what’s going on -- whether the party has already started or if this is just the warmup. The house is packed with people, including all of Theo’s friends, his cousins that show up, and parents who have their own friends. It’s only Friday so Ian can’t even imagine what the actual weekend will look like. \n\nThere is no churro man in sight so Ian figures the festivities will truly begin tomorrow and for now they’re just having a casual dinner which apparently consists of wooden trays absolutely toppling with various cheeses and cold cuts. There are weird chunks of dark chocolate and nuts scattered randomly across them too. It looks like a strange meal, one a chimp would throw together. But then someone calls it “absolutely stunning” and he realizes it’s a matter of class differences. \n\nHe gets introduced to Theo’s parents. “This is my friend, Ian,” Theo had said. \n\nBy the look his parents had given Ian, he can tell Theo is very much not in the closet and the parents know they’ve banged at least once. His mom is very friendly and touchy, incredibly warm with Ian right away while the father just nods stoically and gives him a generic \"It's a pleasure to meet you, hope you enjoy the weekend.\" \n\nWhen it becomes late, they trudge to their separate rooms. Even in a house as big as this, people have to share rooms and some get the couch. Ian, however, gets to stay in Theo’s room. The only problem is Theo is also there and Ian, despite being buzzed, still feels a bit weird about it. \n\nHe wants to take his pills, but needs to remove them from his duffel without raising questions. \n\nTheo, annoyingly, is not drunk at all and lingers around Ian to try and get him comfortable. “Make yourself at home,” he keeps saying. Ian doesn’t know how to tell him this is an impossible task. \n\n* \n\nWhen Ian successfully makes it to the bathroom with his pill bottle gripped in his right palm, he briefly checks his phone. His heart sinks when he realizes he missed a call from Mickey. \n\nIt’s nearing one in the morning but still he calls him back right away, three hours after Mickey had initially called him. \n\nThe phone rings for a really long time and Ian is just about to hang up when Mickey answers. \n\n“Hey.” \n\nMickey’s voice is gruff, as if Ian just awoke him from his sleep. \n\n“Shit, did I wake you?” Ian asks.\n\n“No,” Mickey says, clearly lying. “You ok?” \n\n“Yeah. I saw you called.” \n\n“Oh yeah. Got your text. Was worried you were losing your mind.” \n\nIan leans against the door and breathes a sigh of relief. The sound of Mickey’s voice soothes him immediately. “I don’t know if I can survive this weekend. Everyone talks about philosophy and art and who knows who. It’s too much and I can’t keep up.” \n\n“You’re being dramatic,” Mickey says. “You’re the bougiest person I know, you probably fit right in.” \n\n“What? I’m not bougie. Why would you even say that?” \n\n“You always act like if you don’t pile your plate up with fruits and veggies, you’ll die.” \n\n“Health is important, Mick. Just because you live on carbs and weed--” \n\n“I’m not done,” Mickey interrupts. “You also use the word ‘brunch’ like that’s a normal thing people do. You know who goes to ‘brunch’? People with no fuckin’ job.” \n\nIan can’t even argue. He likes the idea of daytime drinking with breakfast food -- mimosas and omelettes. He’s never gotten to try it because the prettiest brunch places are always so overpriced, but he does recall bringing it up to Mickey as a possible hangout option at one point. Mickey had laughed at him; told him if he wanted, he could just go buy some orange juice and make his own mimosa and eat the scrambled eggs offered in the dining hall. \n\n“Ok well maybe I strive for a higher standard of living,” Ian mumbles, “I’m still uncomfortable as hell here. Wish I could hop on a bus back to campus right now without telling anyone but then I’d have to delete Facebook and transfer schools to never have to deal with the repercussions of that.” \n\nMickey snorts. “Just enjoy your weekend, Ian. These people aren’t better than you, they just have more money.” \n\nIan sighs, checks his watch. He knows Theo is going to start to wonder what’s taking so long. Ian figures he’ll lie and says he has stomach problems if Theo tries to fuck tonight. \n\n“You doing ok?” Ian asks quietly. \n\nMickey is quiet for a few seconds. “Yeah, I’m good. Also can’t wait for the weekend to be over.” \n\nIan wants to ask what happened, wants to know about Mickey’s day and whether he had to deal with bullshit from his father. But Mickey is tired and says, “I’m gonna go back to sleep now, ok? Just try to relax. Don’t go insane.” \n\nIan laughs. “Yeah ok. I’ll drink myself through it all.” \n\nThey exchange goodbyes and Ian hangs up, looking at his reflection in the opulent mirror. He looks out of place in this house, this he knows. In fact, he’s felt out of place the entire day, surrounded by people in clothes that make his own look like scraps, rolexes that make his own watch look like he won it through a claw machine at a fair. \n\nHe knows it’s partly in his head, that no one questioned why he was there. Everyone was friendly, accommodating. The sinking feeling, he realizes, is homesickness. \n\n* \n\nIan decides to try not to text Mickey all weekend. He falls asleep in Theo’s bed and, thankfully, Theo doesn’t try anything. Maybe they really are just friends now. Maybe Theo realizes how sexually incompatible they are. It’s strange too, because Ian has never considered himself sexually incompatible with anybody. \n\n* \n\nIt is the following day that more people arrive, when everyone emerges dressed in thick knits and a whole lot of Ralph Lauren. Ian is wearing one of his beige henleys, not being able to help but notice how the material is so much thinner than everyone else’s cotton blends. \n\n“Ian!” Theo’s mother calls out through the crowd. She offers him a champagne flute and puts an arm around him. “Theodore tells me you’re a freshman studying linguistics.” \n\n“Yeah, that’s accurate,” Ian says. He doesn’t quite understand Theo’s mom’s fascination with him but ever since the day before, she’s been mothering him like he was her own son. \n\n“That’s really great. A great field to go into. What are you planning to do with your degree?” \n\nIan is a bit miffed by this question. He’s only been studying linguistics for a little over a month and knows just as much about dead Russian playwrights than he does about the science of language. \n\n“I’m just taking as many courses as I can,” he explains. “Trying to see what I like best.” \n\n“Of course, of course,” she replies. “You know speech pathology is a quite lucrative field. My sister in New York runs a speech pathology clinic. Now you tell me if you ever want me to introduce you to her, I’m sure she can offer you some valuable advice.” \n\nIan nods, grateful for the offer but confused as to why she’s offering this to someone she just met -- a freshman at that. \n\nShe leans in and whispers. “You know before I met my husband I was working paycheck to paycheck, trying to get through law school while trying to prevent getting into too much debt. I know what it’s like.” \n\nIan is left speechless as she grazes his arm tenderly and walks off to greet a gaggle of new guests. He had never mentioned his upbringing to Theo or anybody. No one knows he’s from the southside. But perhaps, it was a lot more obvious than he had initially thought. It sends a chill down his spine. \n\n* \n\nBecause Ian is actively trying not to bother Mickey, he calls Lip and tells him about what happened with Theo’s mom. \n\n“They can probably smell it on you,” Lip says. “The poverty.” \n\nIan groans. “Don’t say that word. We’re not in poverty, we’re just… low-income.” \n\n“Yeah, ok, don’t think there’s much of a difference in their eyes.” \n\n“I’ve wanted to leave since yesterday,” Ian admits. “And now I feel like I have to. Did they just invite me here because they feel sorry for me?” \n\n“I thought you got invited because you’re boning the host.” \n\n“Not so much boning anymore,” Ian says. “I think he might have expected a blowjob last night but he didn’t say anything or push it, just asked if I was tired and I said yes.” \n\n“Hm.” \n\n“I’ll probably visit home next weekend. This whole thing made me miss the chaos of being back at home. Also wanna grab a few things for Mickey.” \n\n“Like what?”\n\nIan laughs lightly. “I don’t know, some random scraps and junk to put in a box and sell to dumbasses on the internet.” \n\nLip doesn’t even ask Ian to expand on that. “Grab some of Frank’s shit-stained boxers. Either that or we’re gonna have to burn them ourselves. How is Mickey anyway?”\n\n“I don’t know, he doesn’t tell me that shit. I’m not even sure if he’s staying at his dad’s or crashing on some guy’s couch.” \n\n“Couch, huh? Maybe he’s got a side piece at home, you don’t know.”\n\n“Shut the fuck up, Lip. I don’t need to think about that. Also, I’d be the side piece in this situation.” \n\nThere’s some commotion in the background which Ian knows means Fiona just came home with groceries. \n\n“Gotta go,” says Lip. “If I catch Mickey around town with his secret boyfriend I’ll let you know.” \n\nIan hisses a curse as Lip hangs up. He didn’t need that imagery in his head, in fact he hadn’t even considered it at all. Mickey could very well be fucking other people, maybe not on campus but back in the southside. He had definitely lost his virginity somewhere and the way he fucks is way too aggressive to not have originated on those streets. \n\n* \n\nIan tries to think of other things. He tries to engage in conversation with everyone, to look like he’s having a great time. \n\nThe churro guy shows up, this middle-aged Mexican man, who stands behind his stall for what looks like will be the entire day, in front of a giant vat of oil frying up the crispy treats. Ian does want to try one but the man is so busy fulfilling everyone’s requests that he feels too guilty to approach. \n\n“Try one,” Theo urges, putting a hand at Ian’s waist and guiding him to it. \n\nTheo orders two, one filled with dulce de leche for himself and a chocolate one for Ian. And he feels childish and uncultured for asking for the basic chocolate one because he didn’t know how to pronounce dulce de leche. \n\nThe churro is good but he doesn’t know if it’s necessary to have them freshly made by this singular man. \n\n“Miguel is like family,” Theo explains when he catches Ian staring at the man. “His face just looks like that but he actually does really enjoy it. Churros are his passion.” \n\nIan guesses if anyone has to be passionate about anything, churros is a good thing to choose. \n\nHowever, he keeps making eye contact with the help -- the various cleaners and caterers and servers carrying around silver trays -- and he can’t help but think that he has more in common with them than anyone else at this party. He feels like he’s violated some sacred space and that it’s only a matter of time before he’s called out for fraud. \n\nTheo leans in to whisper something in Ian’s ears and he feels the hair on the back of his neck rise at the sudden closeness. “Do me a favor?” he asks. “I hate to do this to you but my ex is here so can you…” \n\nIan looks up to see a kid their age who has entered through the gates and into the back lawn, and Ian can see that Theo’s ex is not so different in appearance from himself. The guy is tall, with light brown hair and a soft face. \n\nSuddenly Ian realizes why he’s even there at all. \n\n“Yeah, ok,” he says easily, putting an arm around Theo’s shoulder. He’s honestly just relieved he’s found a purpose. \n\n* \n\nWhen night falls and half the party migrates to the docks to watch fireworks from their boats, Ian and the rest of the Northwestern gang stay back and get into the jacuzzi. \n\nIan is used to swimming in his backyard but Theo’s jacuzzi is massive and embedded into the ground, its edges crafted in some sort of stone masonry. It makes him feel like those Japanese snow monkeys that spend their days soaking in hot springs. \n\nHe stayed by Theo’s side the entire day, letting Theo get intimate with him even to get some sort of reaction from his ex -- all of which led to nothing as the ex stayed mostly civil. Ian even began to wonder if this guy had any feelings left for Theo at all.\n\nNow they’re all in the jacuzzi -- Theo, his ex, Danny, Nimi, Kenny, Gordie and the rest. When Theo maneuvers Ian’s chin to give him a soft peck on the lips, Ian has to try not to look at the ex right after. \n\n“So Ian,” Nimi says, “How was your first Indigenous Peoples' Day celebration?” \n\nIan flushes as all the attention turns to him, the clear newbie. “Really awesome,” he says. “I’ve never been to a party like this before.” \n\n“Ian, you’re a first year at Northwestern, right?” Theo’s ex suddenly asks. \n\nIan doesn’t even need to answer because Theo does for him. “He’s a freshman, yeah. Took a two-year gap after high school which makes him the same age as us.” \n\nTheo’s ex nods. “Where did you spend your gap years?” \n\nIan thinks about the honest answer. Gay clubs in Boystown. \n\n“Travelling. Working,” he says simply.\n\n“Oh neat. Where in the world did you travel to?” \n\nAlready, Ian feels himself sinking deeper into a lie. “Ukraine,” he says, not knowing exactly where it came from but also knowing it tumbled out of his mouth because Mickey has been weighing heavily on his mind. \n\n“Ukraine?” Gordie snorts, yet not in a disbelieving manner. “What were you doing there? Charity work?” \n\n“Yeah, uh, just thought it would be an interesting experience. I didn’t wanna travel to someplace everyone goes to. I just needed to get away for a bit, threw a dart at a map and it landed right there.” \n\n“Fuckin’ awesome,” Kenny says. “I’ve always wanted to do that.” \n\n“No wonder you’re close with Milkovich,” Nimi says. “I’ve never seen a more Ukrainian looking dude.”  \n\nIan’s head snaps in her direction. “You know Mickey?” \n\nShe shrugs. “We all do. He sells us all our weed.” \n\nJesus Christ, how did Mickey get such a monopoly on the weed business on campus? He panics for a moment, wondering how close he is to involuntarily outing Mickey. \n\n“Yeah he’s my RA and we got a class together,” Ian says. \n\n“A friend of mine runs the Ukrainian Student Society on campus,” Nimi says. “They’ve been trying to get Mickey to join all of last year thinking it’ll get them free weed.” \n\n“Just put his name on the mailing list, he’ll show up to an event if there’s free food,” says Ian. \n\n* \n\nIan stays back in the jacuzzi with Theo while everyone wanders off, getting ready for bed. \n\n“Thanks for today,” Theo says. “I only get like once a year to make him jealous.” \n\n“What’s the situation there?” Ian asks. \n\n“He wanted to go to Dartmouth, I wanted to stay in Chicago and go to Northwestern. Long distance is tough so he broke up with me our senior year of high school, wanting some fancy New Hampshire dick I guess. But our families are close so I have to see him all the time at these get-togethers.” \n\n“Tough,” Ian says. He thinks that must be the most boring breakup story ever told and regrets how much acting he had done that day to provide some spice to the drama. \n\nTheo looks at Ian, giving him a curious glance. “Did you really spend like two years in Ukraine?” \n\n“No, I lied,” Ian sighs. “I danced half-naked for older men at skeevy bars for some cash. Barely finished high school, got lucky with a scholarship for lying in front of a truck transporting gay youths to a conversion camp.” \n\n“Shit,” Theo says. “You’re more interesting than I thought.” \n\nI wish I could say the same about you, Ian thinks. He nearly rolls his eyes. “Just don’t tell anyone. I don’t need them having that mental image of me.” \n\n“But you told me?” \n\nIan doesn’t know how to tell Theo it’s because he truly does not give a fuck about what Theo thinks of him and how that may affect their interpersonal relationship. \n\n* \n\nOn Sunday, Ian finally gets to experience brunch. It’s the wind-down day, before they all pile into Gordie’s van and head back to campus. \n\nIan hasn’t texted Mickey at all as was his goal but he is still bummed to see Mickey hasn’t reached out to him. He wonders if maybe Mickey died, that maybe his dad found out he was gay and really did put a bullet between his eyes. That is the only reasonable explanation for why Mickey would go this long without even a short text, Ian decides. \n\nIan (11:36am): having brunch \n\nHe includes a picture of his avocado toast and grapefruit mimosa and the large trays of sliced fruit and belgian waffles. \n\nMickey texts back five minutes later and Ian feels a wave of relief. \n\nMickey (11:41am): what the fuck is that green shit \n\nIan (11:41am): please tell me you know what an avocado is\n\nMickey (11:42am): sure but whys it spread on bread like peanut butter \n\nIan (11:42am): im making this for you on monday so you can try it. Maybe itll change ur life \n\n“Who are you texting to be smiling at your screen that hard?” Nimi asks from across the table. \n\nIan has to control his expression. “My brother just had a baby,” he lies. Tammi is nowhere close in her pregnancy to be giving birth yet. \n\n“Oh my god, congrats!” Nimi says. “You’re an uncle.”\n\nEveryone starts congratulating him like he pushed the baby out himself. \n\n* \n\nIt’s on the drive back to campus that Kenny is finally able to push Ian into creating a soundcloud account to follow him. \n\n“Yeah,” Ian says as the techno music starts up in the van. “Music kicks ass, Kenny.”\n\n“Thanks,” Kenny says coolly, not catching the lack of enthusiasm in Ian’s voice at all. \n\n* \n\nHe is happy to see that things between him and Mickey have not changed much. It’s Sunday night and Ian, after giving Linus a brief greeting, headed to Mickey’s room immediately after. They spend the evening relaxing against the headboard of Mickey’s bed.\n\nThey both have to catch up on their reading for drama but since neither want to do it, Mickey searches up Marriage Nikolai Gogol on Sparknotes only to realize it’s too obscure to even be on there. They end up reading the plot on Wikipedia instead. \n\n“Why do they all have to have such long Russian names,” Ian complains, unable to keep up with the characters. “And why do these stories all have to be so mundane? Like anyone cares if some guy named Podkolyosin gets laid or if three hags move to Moscow or not.” \n\nBut still, Ian can’t help but feel like this character, Podkolyosin, is very much like himself in a way.  Podkolyosin, too, strives too hard to create a life for himself that he has romanticized, believing that his wife has to be beautiful and French. Ian is beginning to hate how these ‘mundane’ plays reflect his own life so much. \n\nMickey laughs. “You’re not a fan of these long Russian names, huh? Or are you jealous because yours is like a syllable long?”\n\n“It’s two syllables, actually,” Ian says, knowing enough linguistics by now to count his syllables correctly. \n\n“Een,” Mickey says. “You’re gonna lose your mind when you learn my full name.” \n\n“Mikhailo Milkovich isn’t your full name?” Ian thinks that if he read a long Russian play about a character named Mikhailo Milkovich he might be interested, if only for the alliteration and the way it rolls off the tongue.\n\nMickey reaches toward his backpack on the floor and fishes out his ID, showing Ian his full name: Mikhailo Aleksandr Milkovich. \n\n“Were you your parents’ favorite child?” Ian asks. “Cause you got a brother whose name is just ‘Colin’.”\n\nMickey shakes his head. “I think my dad just got really into Ukrainian nationalism around the time I was born.” \n\nThis time, Ian laughs, suddenly remembering the lie he had told in the jacuzzi. He tells Mickey about it, about his ‘gap year’ in Ukraine. Mickey nearly loses his mind -- “And they believed that shit?” he says. “You know no one goes there unless they’re Ukrainian themselves.” \n\nIan rolls his eyes. “It can’t be that bad.” After all, he grew up in the southside. He can’t imagine Eastern Europe is any better or worse than Chicago. \n\n“Well I never been,” Mickey shrugs. “But if they’re churning out pieces of shit like my father then I’m good.” \n\nTo, for no real reason, prove Mickey wrong, they search up Ukraine tourism and watch travel vlogs of people exploring the city of Kiev. Turns out, it’s not so bad. The people seem friendly, the food looks decent, and the markets eccentric. \n\n“We should go,” Ian murmurs. \n\n“Ok after our trip to Italy, we’ll go to Ukraine,” Mickey says a bit sarcastically. “You cannot force me to eat that borscht shit though.” \n\n* \n\nIan sleeps a lot better in Mickey’s bed. He missed the sex, even though Mickey is back to not kissing him. It was a one-time thing, he supposes. Maybe watching people go through torture traps just turned Mickey on. \n\nHe feels comfortable cuddling in close to Mickey after sex, so unlike the way he instinctively jerked back when his bare leg brushed up against Theo’s. \n\nMickey doesn’t even ask about the weekend and Ian just tells him some minor details -- he talks shit mostly, about how they had a Mexican man make churros for them all day and the terrible music he had been forced to listen to. \n\nHe shows Mickey Kenny’s soundcloud and is satisfied when Mickey snorts and says the music sucks. \n\n* \n\nThe next morning he wakes up to Mickey’s head nested in the crevice where his neck meets his shoulder. He feels the wetness of Mickey’s mouth on his shoulder blade, a bit of drool dribbling onto his bare skin. \n\n“Gross,” he says to himself but doesn’t move or wake Mickey. He only grabs his phone from between the bed and the wall and checks his notifications to see he has none except an email that his stats assignment was graded and he got a 97. \n\nMickey is in such a deep sleep that Ian, out of boredom, starts reading Marriage for real, to prep for the class discussion later that day. He finds this character Podkolyosin even more annoying than before. Fyokla, the matchmaker, is trying to set him up with a merchant’s daughter named Agafya and just on the name alone this bastard Podkolyosin assumes she’s an old maid. \n\nHer property. What about her property? Tell me again. he says to the matchmaker \n\nA grand estate, a house, a two story stone house. It’s a pleasure to see. There’s a shop on the ground floor, pays seven hundred. There’s a beer cellar in the basement that also brings a lot of people. There are two additions-- a stone one and a wooden one – rented to very nice tenants, each brings 400 apiece. There’s a little garden elsewhere, three years ago an older gentleman rented it for cabbage. Such a nice, sober man he was too. He never took a drink and had three sons: two of them were married. “As for number three,” he’d say, “he's a youngster, let him sit around and take some of the load off me”— the matchmaker is saying \n\nHe cuts her off. So? Agafya? What does she look like?\n\nThis guy is really starting to get on Ian’s nerves. If he were to take Lip’s advice on writing essays, he would for sure argue that this guy is gay as hell. He talks about his shoes too much and is way too picky about a wife despite being chronically single. \n\nWhen Mickey wakes slowly, Ian tells him his theory that Podkolyosin is probably super gay for those reasons. Mickey just scoffs, not even caring about the puddle of drool he’s left on Ian’s collar bone. “Sounds pretty straight to me.” \n\n* \n\nThey go to the market on campus to buy sourdough bread and avocados. Mickey grumbles the entire time but when they get to the cash register he pushes Ian aside and pays for the items himself. \n\n“Broke bitch,” he says before Ian can be sentimental and thank him. \n\nThey walk back to Sargent’s dining hall and Mickey takes a seat while Ian goes to toast the bread. He comes back with utensils and begins cutting the avocados, not really sure the best way to do it. It turns out very messy but still he manages to smear it onto the bread and sprinkle salt and pepper on top. It may not look as great as the one at Theo’s house which, to be fair, was made by a professional chef, but he’s still proud of it. He almost wants to snap a pic. \n\n“This tastes like nothing,” Mickey says after one bite. “The avocados were like two dollars each.” \n\nIan takes a bite as well and sure it isn’t as great as the one at brunch but it isn’t that bad. “Well it’s healthier than pancakes and bacon,” he says weakly. \n\n“God look at this shit,” Mickey is still complaining about the avocado toast. “The avocado shit is already going brown. Fuckin’ gross, throw it out.”\n\nIan begrudgingly tosses it in the garbage. “I put my heart and soul into that,” he whines. He feels like the avocado toast represents something about his life but he’s no English major, he can’t just pluck metaphors out of thin air like that. \n\n* \n\nKochkaryov: Rubbish, rubbish! I'll get you married so quickly you won't feel a thing. We'll go to the bride right away and you'll see.\n\nPodkolyosin: Right now? No… \n\nKochkaryov: Why not? What’s stopping you? Just look for yourself: what’s so good about this single life of yours? Have a good look at your room! What do you see?\n\nPodkolyosin: A shoe, some tobacco, a broken mirror-\n\nKochkaryov: Garbage! It’s all garbage! And all you can do is lie around the whole day like a stuffed beaver.\n\nPodkolyosin: it’s true. I’m a mess.\n\nIan had pretty much spaced out for the entirety of linguistics but now that he’s in drama sitting next to Mickey, he’s alert to the class discussion. The entire class is rightfully tearing into Podkolyosin and his petty bourgeois ways. \n\n“Comparing this play to The Three Sisters what can be said about Russian society back then?” the professor asks. \n\n“Rich people liked to complain about circumstances completely within their control,” a student answers. \n\n“And is that so different from now?” the professor asks. “This play was published a generation before the Bolshevik Revolution--”\n\nThis is Ian’s cue to zone out. \n\n* \n\nIan missed studying in the library with Mickey. They’re sitting not so far from where Mickey first kissed Ian. He wonders if maybe Mickey will do it again tonight. \n\n“Do you wanna rent a movie after this? I think Piranha is on DVD now.” \n\n“Already seen it,” Mickey replies. “It wasn’t even good. Nothing but tits.” \n\n“Total turn off, huh.” \n\n“Yeah, I guess? Those spring breakers had it coming anyway, swimming in a lake.” \n\nIan is anxiously bouncing his leg and Mickey puts a hand on it to stop the motion. “Jesus, what’s with you?” Mickey asks. “Have too much coffee?” \n\n“Jittery, sure,” Ian says. “Waiting for you to maybe kiss me again.” \n\nMickey huffs a breath. “You and your library kink, where the hell did that stem from anyway? Did you get your first boner in a library?” \n\n“A library in the southside?” Ian laughs. “No, I got my first boner watching Justin Timberlake in an NSync music video. What about you?” He tries to ignore the fact that Mickey is trying to lighten the conversation instead of moving it toward a kiss.  \n\n“Don’t even remember,” Mickey says. “Probably when I was a kid watching TV while I was home alone.” \n\nLatchkey kid, Ian thinks. \n\n“Might have been during the Simpsons,” Mickey adds, causing Ian to blow air out his nose. \n\nMickey removes his hand from Ian’s leg, much to his disappointment. He doesn’t know how they had been able to take a step forward only to have taken two steps back. He wants to feel Mickey’s lips on his again, wants to taste his stupid mouth. \n\nIan leans in after checking their surroundings first, noting the emptiness of their little corner of the library. “How mad would you be if I kissed you right now?” he asks. \n\nMickey frowns. “I wouldn’t be mad, I just don’t get why you want to.” \n\n“It was so fun last time,” Ian says. “You’re a good kisser.”\n\nMickey turns red at that. “Ok fine, you can kiss me while we fuck. But I’m not dropping my pants in a library.” \n\nIan figures he’ll convince him one day. But for now, there’s a more pressing matter. “What about when we’re not fucking?” he asks. “What about when we’re just studying in the library and you look really hot and I want to kiss you?” \n\n“Then you’re gay as hell.” \n\n“Yeah.” \n\nMickey’s face is positioned in not the most convenient of places but Ian still tries, scooting in closer and leaning his head in, angling his mouth to get at Mickey’s. At first, Mickey is slow to lift his mouth to meet Ian’s but then their lips touch and within seconds they’re kissing for real. \n\nTheir tongues briefly meet before Ian deepens the kiss, getting his hands in Mickey’s hair. And their makeout session is loud in the silent library but Ian doesn’t care and surprisingly Mickey doesn’t either. \n\nBut it is Mickey that breaks the kiss, pulling away from Ian with wet lips. “You happy now?” he says, as if the kiss had just been meant to satiate Ian. \n\n“Are you?” Ian asks. \n\n“Don’t worry about me,” Mickey says, annoyingly casual. “Can we finish this assignment now?” \n\n* \n\nAgafya: And how old is he?\n\nFyokla: A youngster. About 50\n\nAgafya: And what’s his last name?\n\nFyokla: His last name? Omelette.\n\nAgafya: Omelette? That’s his last name?\n\nFyokla: That’s his last name.\n\nAgafya: Gosh, what a last name! Fyokla what is this?! If I married him Iwould be called Agafya Tikhonovna Omelette!\n\nTheir assignment is to recreate the play in the form of a short story set in contemporary society. \n\n“They had omelettes back then? In 1800s Russia?” Ian asks. It is what sticks out to him the most as absurd. \n\n“Russians love their omelettes man. You of all people should know that since you love brunch so much.” \n\nIan scowls. He is trying to focus on writing his short story but Mickey keeps distracting him with his existence. And irritatingly enough, Mickey has already written up the short story -- completed it within an hour, in fact -- although he refuses to show Ian. \n\n“You could at least help me with mine,” Ian says. \n\n“Fuck that, my mind has checked out for the day. I could help you by giving you a blowjob though, might clear your mind a little, make you less intense and weird.” \n\nIan considers that and agrees that he is in no place to start writing a short story unless he can first properly bust a nut. The kiss with Mickey had gotten him really horny and he’s been packing a half-chub ever since. \n\n* \n\nIan sits at the ledge of Mickey’s bed but Mickey shakes his head. “I’m not getting on my knees, lie down on the bed.” \n\nIan has no qualms about this. \n\nHe knows Mickey refuses to kiss him after a bit of ass-eating but he’s pretty sure Mickey would be fine kissing him after letting Ian cum in his mouth. It makes no sense to be ok with one but not the other, unless Mickey secretly thinks Ian’s mouth is dirty. \n\nOnce Mickey begins to suck at the head of his dick, Ian immediately enters a state of euphoria. He wants to believe Mickey is so good at this because he’s watched a bunch of porn and not so much due to experience. The thought of Mickey being like this with anyone else almost drives Ian into a rage. \n\n“You’re so good at this,” Ian sighs. \n\nMickey lifts his head. “Then why do you keep guiding my head?” \n\nIan’s hand has been gripping the back of Mickey’s head, clenching his dark strands of hair. “I’m not!” Ian exclaims. “I just need to hold onto something while I get my world rocked, is that ok?” \n\nMickey shrugs. “Push my head down one more time and you can go get your dick sucked by Linus.” \n\nIan blows out a breath because Mickey is back to sucking his dick before he can even get a word out. He is careful not to push, scared shitless that Mickey will legitimately kick him out half-naked. \n\n* \n\nIan decides to write his short story on a dating show, not too dissimilar from those Bachelor series. He’s never seen an episode of the show, but he gets the gist. \n\nHe creates a character named Tom, the most basic name he can think of. Tom is a middle-aged white man that works in stocks. He makes 100k a year and has a full head of hair. The only problem is that he wants badly to have the picture-perfect marriage -- he wants the beautiful trophy wife, the children who look exactly like him, and all the perks that come with being a married man. \n\nBut once Tom is meeting all the contestants, all these beautiful ladies in evening gowns, he begins to pick apart each one: \n\n\nThat one has weirdly shaped toes\n\n\n\nThat one has a crooked smile\n\n\n\nThat one was wearing black shoes with a red dress\n\n\nThat one is the child of divorced parents. She’s no good \n\nAll these beautiful women are obsessed with him but he finds flaws with each one so in the middle of the night he jumps out of his hotel window and runs back to his mother’s house. \n\nHe lets Mickey read it before they sleep and finds it incredibly satisfying that Mickey laughs throughout. “It’s his gayness,” he says, explaining Ian’s character to Ian. “He’s gay as fuck. Gayer than you.” \n\n* \n\nThey kiss more regularly now, always in private. And always as a prelude to sex. \n\n* \n\nThe week after, they get their assignments back and Ian is asked by the professor to see her after class. \n\n“She hated your story so much she wants to kick you out of this class,” Mickey says. \n\n“Shut the fuck up, Mickey.” \n\n* \n\nMickey accompanies Ian after class when he approaches the professor’s desk. She is sitting there in her little cardigan and Ian spots a copy of Lenin’s The State and Revolution on her desk. \n\n“You wanted to speak with me?” Ian asks nervously. \n\n“Ah yes, Ian,” she says kindly. “I was quite impressed with your story, how you captured the humor and essence of Gogol’s work but managed to stick to the assignment and make it incredibly contemporary. Your writing, it is quite impressive. Have you ever considered entering local writing contests?” \n\nIan is a bit stunned by this. “No,” he says. “I don’t really write unless I have to.” \n\n“Well, you should consider it,” she tells him. “Finalists get quite a lot of money and get to be published. This looks great on future resumes.” \n\n“Oh, I’ll think about it, I guess.” \n\nShe goes on. “It is your prose I really find impressive. You have quite a Dickensian manner of writing, has anyone ever told you this?” \n\nIan feels his face heat up at the flattery, even though he has no idea what Dickensian means. “No,” he says a bit bashfully, almost wishing Mickey wasn’t around to witness this. \n\nBut Mickey finds the entire thing humorous. “What about me?” he asks loudly. \n\nThe professor looks up at him through her glasses and squints as if she doesn’t recognize him at all and hadn’t even known he was standing there. \n\n“Oh, Mikhailo,” she says, putting him together. “Yes, your story. Are you familiar with the works of R.L Stine? You are like him in a way.”\n\n“Cool,” Mickey shrugs. \n\nShe gives him a pointed look. “It was not a compliment.” \n\n* \n\nThe professor emails Ian a list of various on-campus writing contests and it overwhelms Ian immediately. He and Mickey are walking to get lunch at the dining hall when Ian asks to read Mickey’s short story out of sheer curiosity. \n\n“You must have written something really weird,” Ian says. \n\n“You can’t read it but I’ll tell you the plot.” \n\nIan listens as Mickey explains the short story he had written -- a man with memory loss wakes up everyday forgetting he is married and his wife has to watch him ogle at other women and every time that he is reminded he is married he finds a new thing to criticize about his wife. I would never marry someone with such an ugly perm he would say on one day and then I would never marry someone with such small tits on another. And then finally, one day, his wife snaps and cuts his dick off. \n\nHe lost some points on the story because it was a “happy ending”. \n\n* \n\nMickey thinks Ian should enter the contests for a chance at the cash prizes but Ian realizes there are some fees to enter -- the cheapest one being a $25 \"reading\" fee. \n\n“Look, man, I’ll cover the cost of that for you, just write something and enter,” Mickey says. “And then when you win you can split the prize money in half with me.” \n\n“Split it in half?” Ian asks. “Why the hell would I do that?” He’s joking though because he’d do it in a heartbeat. \n\n“You would have never even finished that assignment if I didn’t suck you off as good as I did,” Mickey says. \n\nIan considers that a fair point. “Yeah, maybe I’ll submit something if I can even think of a story to write.” \n\n“Since when do stories have to be about anything? So far all we’ve read in that class is Russian people being unhappy with their lives.” \n\n“So what should I do?” Ian asks. “Write about how much I hate being a janitor?” \n\n“Yeah, why not?” \n\nIan shrugs. “I’ll see what I come up with and let you know.” \n\n* \n\nLater when Ian is on the phone with Lip, he tells him all about the play, the short story, and the writing contests. \n\n“You should enter some of them,” Lips says. \n\n“That’s what Mickey said.” \n\n“Hanging out with Mickey a lot these days?” \n\nIan will never know why Lip is always so curious about his love life because for their entire lives, Ian could never be bothered to even pretend to care about Lip’s. “I haven’t slept in my own bed in weeks,” Ian says as a response. \n\n“So what, then? Is it official? Bringing him home for Thanksgiving?” \n\nIan laughs. “It’s far from official, I think Mickey is allergic to commitment. Plus, he’s still in the closet.” \n\n“So you’re both still seeing other people?” \n\n“I don’t know,” Ian says. “I guess technically I am but I can’t stand any of them. Being with Theo is like watching paint dry, his only positive trait is that he’s nice and smart and wealthy.” \n\n“Those are some pretty good traits. Marry him and then divorce him, you get half his trust fund.” \n\n“I don’t know if I’m in the mood for a long con, just kinda wanted to meet a normal cute guy and start something stable for the first time in my life, why is it so hard? Am I Podkolyosin?” Ian says dreadfully. \n\n“I don’t know what that is,” says Lip. “Why don’t you try dating other people who aren’t Mickey or Theo?” \n\n“Ugh,” says Ian. “Because Theo knows every gay guy on campus and I don’t want to be messy.” \n\n“Date someone off-campus. Expand your Grindr radius,” Lip offers. \n\nIan forgot he even had Grindr. He turned notifications off a while ago and now that he thinks of it, he has never heard that sound go off on Mickey’s phone since the first time they hooked up. \n\nHe continues talking with Lip, things about his own life, Tammi’s pregnancy, baby names, how things are back home. \n\n“You coming home for Halloween?” Lip asks. “We were gonna take Liam to the west side to go trick or treating.” \n\n“No, I have plans,” Ian says. “Did I not tell you about the Halloween party? Me and Mickey got matching Halloween costumes even.” \n\n“Huh,” says Lip, amused. \n\n“What? We bought them together.” \n\n“Uh huh.” \n\n“Whatever Lip, I’ll call you tomorrow.” \n\nHe hangs up and walks down the hall to Mickey’s room. The door is unlocked because Mickey’s been expecting Ian, as it’s just a regularity now to sleep in the same bed even when they don’t have sex. \n\nMickey is finishing up an assignment at his desk and gives Ian a casual greeting, passing him a bag of chips to eat. Ian sits on Mickey’s bed, leans up against the wall, to watch Mickey work. \n\nEvery so often, Mickey gets a text and the sound goes off on his phone. Curious, Ian pulls out his phone, opens Grindr and messages ‘Colin’ again. \n\nIan (9:46pm): wanna bang? \n\nA few seconds pass, then a whole minute. The Grindr notification never sounds on Mickey’s phone, nor can Ian even see the flash of the lock screen signalling a new notification. \n\n“The fuck you lookin’ at, homo?” Mickey says. \n\nIan cuts away his gaze even though his stomach fills with warmth. “Just an ugly bastard,” Ian answers. “Finish your homework.”"}
+{"text": " \n\nDuring the week, they chat about all the other details that could have escaped their minds during the talk at the bookshop’s cafe, which gives Felix confidence that it’s okay that he’s standing in front of Chan’s door. The wait for any of them to answer the door is excruciating, Felix’s anxiety flying through the roof. Not because he’s having second thoughts, but due to the fact his skin is buzzing with excitement. They’ve discussed more or less what they’ll be doing, although some of it was left in the air so they could also enjoy the flow of things.\n\nAll he knows is that he’s in for some good spanking, getting his life fucked out of him, maybe he’ll get his mouth fucked too, and be edged if the mood is right. He pinches himself just to make sure he’s really not dreaming; this is too good to be true.\n\n“Hey!” Minho greets him, pulling him inside excitedly and shutting the door behind him. “Channie-hyung is getting some stuff in the convenience store nearby, he’ll be here in a moment.” He sits on the couch, and upon noticing Felix is just kind of standing awkwardly in the middle of the living room, he beckons him with a wiggly finger and pats the spot by his side on the couch.\n\n“H-hi, good evening,” Felix greets him shakily as he sits down on the couch beside Minho, keeping a friendly distance between them.\n\nMinho scoffs and scoots closer to him, all over his personal space. Felix is looking around, very obviously trying to avoid his eyes, so Minho turns his head with a fingertip to Felix’s chin. Their lips almost touch with how close he’s put himself to the boy, and Felix’s eyes flit to his lips, a tiny gasp slipping through what Minho assumes is supposed to be a calm façade. “Are you nervous, pixie? Or are you having second thoughts?” Minho asks, making sure Felix’s gaze doesn’t leave his. “It’s ok if you don’t want to anymore. And we can change anything we agreed on to make you more comfortable at any point, understood?”\n\nFelix nods slowly, talking past the knot in this throat with difficulty, “I’m just nervous, hyung, don’t worry.”\n\nMinho hums, gently caresses Felix’s cheek. “There’s no need to be nervous, we’ll take good care of you, hm? Do you trust hyung?” Felix nods again, leaning into Minho’s touch, eyes fluttering closed.\n\n“Good pixie…” Minho says, smiling back at Felix when he beams at the praise. “Can I kiss you, Felix?”\n\n“Y-yea, please,” is all Minho needs before capturing Felix’s lips, the hand on his cheek quick to find its way to his hair, not pulling, just feeling the soft strands as their mouths move slowly together. Felix is the one to deepen the kiss, seeking to taste more of Minho’s strawberry lip balm. Minho smiles into the kiss when Felix kitten licks at his lips, entertained by his eagerness, and lets him explore all he wants, giving way into his mouth and even allowing Felix to lead them for a little bit.\n\nThat doesn’t last long, for Minho is only so giving with Chan, and Felix is taken by surprise when Minho takes over, sucking at his tongue and nibbling at his plush lips until they’re a pretty shade of red. The grip on Felix’s hair tightens as he’s pulled to Minho’s lap, his leg being pulled over Minho so he can straddle him. What Minho had intended to be a quick make out session to loosen Felix’s nerves gradually evolves to Minho guiding Felix’s hips to grind against his, the little stalker’s oh so pretty, gravelly moans filling their living room as the boy on his lap gets lost in the feeling.\n\nMinho gets lost as well, feeling the gentle slope of Felix’s ass in his hands, his tiny waist under his nails, the wet heat of his mouth on his tongue. They both are so into it they don’t even register Chan freezing by the door at the heavenly scene he’s greeted with.\n\nHe quietly makes his way to his room without interrupting the two of them, setting the contents of the plastic bag on his small nightstand – flavoured lube, three water bottles, some protein bars and wet wipes in case they get lazy. No condom, as they had agreed beforehand, but if Felix changes his mind he has some in his drawer for emergencies that will do just fine.\n\nWalking back to the living room, he thanks the heavens for, one: Jisung won’t be home until tomorrow for sure, because he made sure his boyfriend would keep him busy; second: he must be blessed for getting to see Minho getting it on like that with such a pretty boy and to get to join them. Which reminds him… they should’ve started together.\n\nFelix startles as Chan closes in behind him, looming over both of them as he pulls them apart, Felix with a gentle pull to his hair, Minho with a harsh tug. The messy lip-lock Minho had him in creates a string of spit connecting them until Felix follows Chan’s hand and looks up at him, the sticky line breaking on his chin, adding to the wet sheen already there. He can only guess they’ve been at this for some time. Giving Felix a small smile as a form of greeting, he looks at Minho, who’s also looking wrecked already, although much more composed than Felix, whose gaze seems distant, lost in a land of pleasure.\n\n“Really? Starting without me, baby? Didn’t we agree to start after I was home?” he asks, tilting his head to the side with eyebrows shot up.\n\n“He was just so tempting, can you blame me, hyung?” Minho licks over his teeth, smirking proudly since he got the reaction he wanted from Chan.\n\n“You’re so mean, baby, I even got us your favourite flavoured lube,” Chan tsks, tugging harder at his strands although there isn’t really any bite to his words. Felix gulps loudly between them, blushing hard as Minho’s eyes flick to him knowingly when his dick twitches in interest.\n\n“Don’t worry, Channie, you didn’t miss the best part, we were just… warming up.” Minho looks at Felix with the cheshire grin that never fails to send shivers down his spine. “We have a long night ahead of us.”\n\nLetting go of Minho’s hair, Chan holds Felix’s jaw to make him look at him. “Are you still okay with all we discussed? Anything you want to change?” Felix shakes his head. “And you remember what to do if you want to slow down or stop…?”\n\n“Green to continue, yellow to slow down, red to stop. If I can’t speak I tap three times. Safeword is moonlight,” Felix says confidently, and Chan smiles at him. “Good boy, pixie.”\n\nAll technicalities out of the way, Chan leans down to steal a kiss of his own, pausing just an inch away from Felix’s lips just to make sure it’s okay, loving how Felix closes the gap with a little peck and waits for him to continue, then melts under him, moaning deeply as Chan’s tongue meets his. It’s so different from kissing Minho. Between them it’s always a tug of war, in which he has to pull hard or Minho tries to take over, but with Felix there’s no fight, he just melts under them and allows both of them to lead, to take what they want without question or struggle.\n\nAnd don’t get him wrong, he loves kissing Minho, there’s something invigorating about having to fight for dominance and not getting anywhere with it because neither of them will relent, but just getting to do what he wants is also pretty nice, and he knows Minho shares the feeling.\n\nStill on the couch, Minho and Chan start to take things further. Chan lifts Felix from Minho’s lap, manhandling him to sit between his legs, Felix’s back to his chest, and Minho gets up from the couch to kneel on the ground, throwing a pillow under his knees so they won’t hurt. The shift is so smooth Felix thinks the couple probably discussed how they would tear him apart and then put him back together, and the thought that these two spent time thinking about him when they already have each other makes his head spin.\n\n“Let’s get these off, yeah?” Chan says softly, pulling at the hem of Felix’s shirt, and the boy lifts his arms to help him get it off. As Chan works on that, Minho takes Felix’s pants off, leaving him in his underwear. Felix feels shy under their heated gazes, but any chance at covering himself is prevented by Chan’s arms around him keeping his arms locked by his sides.\n\n“Such a pretty little thing,” Minho marvels as his hands knead at Felix’s thighs, slowly moving upwards from his knees until he reaches where they’re meatier and then where they connect with his crotch. Felix’s hips twitch at the attention, at the prospect of getting touched where he needs most, but Minho keeps his hands away from his dick, just teasing around it, nails trailing featherlight on his hips, up his abs and chest, then back down, raising goosebumps on his skin.\n\nMeanwhile Chan kisses his neck, nibbles on spots where he feels Felix is more sensitive, humming his agreement with Minho and murmuring his own praises on his skin. “Such a pretty pixie, all for us to ruin.”\n\nFelix tries not to let himself get too riled up so soon, but Minho had already kissed him silly, and now being played like a doll by the couple... he’s losing it fast. Chan’s hands don’t take long to find his nipples, and once they deem he’s squirmy enough, Minho starts mouthing at Felix’s clothed cock, working his tongue on the wet spot Felix’s tip has made until it spreads, his spit soiling it even more as he tastes the salty precome collecting there while one of his hands fondles his balls.\n\nHe is turned to jelly in their hands, writhing in their hold although he’s trying his best to stay put, to be good for them. His low-pitched moans begin to shift to higher, whinier ones, his eyes start to water from pleasure. Once Minho’s mouth finally wraps around his dick, he’s already fighting the coil in his stomach.\n\nAnd Minho sucks Felix’s dick like he was born to do it, taking him to the back of his throat, making the boy squirm and try to close his legs as his orgasm approaches. It doesn’t help that Chan’s mouth doesn’t stop whispering filth in his ears, telling him how good he is, how pretty he’s going to look when he’s getting spanked over his lap. When he’s not saying something to send Felix’s mind into a comfortable haze, he’s mouthing at his neck, biting and sucking until he leaves dark marks behind. A nice reminder of a night Felix is sure to never forget.\n\nHis legs can’t stop trying to close on Minho’s head. “Don’t be bad, pixie, keep them open so bunny can choke on your pretty cock just like he likes it, yeah?” Chan tuts him, and with his hands behind Felix’s knees he spreads his legs more, keeping them open by hoisting them over his own knees. Not a minute after, Felix is the one choking, but on his sobs, trying his best not to come.\n\n“Hyun– g-gon-na c-um,” he warns as best as he can, and he doesn’t even know if he’s warning Chan or Minho at this point. He whimpers loudly as Minho pulls off with a wet pop, his hips bucking up and trying to chase him. Minho looks up at him smugly, a hand wrapped around his base to stop his orgasm, and through his tears he can see him licking at his lips, as if Felix is the prey he just caught in his claws. Felix certainly feels like he is.\n\n“Not yet,” Chan says, placing a kiss on his temple and running his hands up and down his thighs to soothe him. “You still have your punishment to take, don’t you, pixie?” Felix nods weakly, his bottom lip trembling until his teeth latch onto it to stop another embarrassing whimper. “Are you ready for it? What’s your colour?”\n\n“Green,” he sighs as his orgasm slowly drifts away and Minho lets go of his dick.\n\n“Good pixie, you’re doing so well,” Minho praises.\n\n“Over my lap, pixie, ass up,” Chan taps his thigh, and with Minho’s help he gets up from between Chan’s legs. Then he’s pulled over his lap stomach down, his ass on display for Minho and Chan, his painfully hard dick hanging between Chan’s spread legs. Minho pulls the rest of his underwear down and starts stripping himself whilst Chan tells Felix the rules he’s supposed to follow.\n\n“We’re doing ten, pixie – five for taking photos of us without our knowledge, five for being a perverted little voyeur.” Chan waits for Felix’s good to go, rubbing his hand over his ass lightly, warningly.\n\n“Y-yes, hyung.”\n\n“You’re going to count each of them for us.”\n\n“Yes, hyung.” Felix looks to his side, watching Minho place the cushion on the floor in front of them, now in his full gloried nakedness, close enough so he can stroke Felix’s back reassuringly and land a few spanks as well.\n\nThe moment of silence before the first slap has Felix’s insides bubbling in anticipation, but he doesn’t rush Chan, just braces himself for the impact as they keep caressing him gently. It’s good that they’re having a moment of pause, it helps Felix calm down a little, not only from his nerves but also his raging boner. Before he knows, he’s relaxing fully on Chan’s lap, basking in the soft touches and just letting himself drift into a headspace of trust and comfort.\n\nOf course, that’s when the first one comes, not as hard as he imagines Chan can go, but hard enough that he jolts forward from more than the startle of the impact, a current of pain spreading through his ass cheek where Chan’s hand landed loudly. He’s so startled he doesn’t even scream, just gasps and grips the couch cushion hard, his eyes going comically wide.\n\nMinho and Chan calm him right after with delicate hands, Minho’s trailing up and down his spine, Chan’s over the spot he just hit. “One,” Felix counts steadily.\n\n“How was that, little pixie?” Chan asks, smiling fondly as Minho kisses the tip of Felix’s nose. “G-good,” he swallows thickly, “you can go harder, hyung.”\n\nChan curses under his breath and Minho chuckles. “Such a naughty little pixie,” Minho says, “no wonder he’s a pervert that spies on people.” Felix whines, hiding in his hands, squeaking a moan when Chan lands the second hit without warning, harder as Felix guessed he could. Tears spring to Felix’s eyes, and he blinks quickly to keep them from spilling, his toes curl, and even Chan’s soothing hand stings a bit, making him squirm on his lap.\n\nBy the fifth spanking he’s drooling a bit on the cushion below him, his hips twitch and his cock hangs heavy again between Chan’s spread legs. His ass burns, his counting is a babbled mess, but at least they accept it. There’s a sinister smile that never leaves Minho’s face, and it only turns Felix’s insides more.\n\nMinho joins Chan to soothe his abused skin, the last smack was so hard Felix almost fell from Chan’s lap if it were not for Minho holding him in place. Minho can’t get enough of the warmth of Felix’s skin. A fair amount of times he has spanked his partners in the past – although he’s never done it with Chan since he’s into the giving end of the spectrum – yet he’s never seen an ass look so pretty all marked up, never seen anyone take it so well.\n\n“Your tiny ass looks so pretty all red like this, pixie, makes me wanna bite it,” he giggles as he does just that, nibbling on the heated skin of Felix’s ass, making him whimper, though his hips chase the bite instead of shying away from it.\n\n“You like that?” Chan asks rhetorically, “Is our little pervert a painslut on top of a voyeur?” Felix nods eagerly, looks back at Chan pleadingly, “D-daddy, p-please…”\n\nThe couple’s eyes go wide, Minho looking at Chan to see his reaction, meeting his dilated pupils and flushed cheeks. Oh. Minho smirks, and Chan gulps. Damn, this might come back to bite him in the ass later, but fuck if he’s gonna pass up this opportunity. Not that his lovingly evil boyfriend would let him anyway. “What did you say, pixie?” Chan asked.\n\nOnly then does Felix seem to notice what he’s called Chan, and he whines, hiding behind his forearms as he tries to curl himself up on Chan’s lap. “It’s okay, pixie, I liked it. Say it again for me, hm?” Chan reassures him, petting his head. Minho watches with interest as Felix slowly relaxes, letting out a shaky, long-drawn sigh.\n\n“M-more daddy,” Felix begs, and Chan moans, his hand squishing one of Felix’s ass cheeks as Minho watches them with a heated gaze.\n\n“You want daddy to spank you, pixie?” Minho asks just to be a menace, but Felix is past his shyness, just desperate for more already.\n\n“Y-yeah, want daddy and hyung to spank me,” he says, his freckled cheeks burning hot, his toes curling. Minho takes a big breath, not expecting to be thrown into the mix, but he’s not complaining.\n\n“Daddy will give it to you, pixie. You’re doing so well for us.”\n\nFelix readies himself, arching his back to give Chan the best angle, but at the first hit, the slap doesn’t come like he’s expecting it. Instead he feels Minho’s loose fist around his cock, his hips trying to chase the feeling and get more from the simple touch. Chan keeps him from squirming too much though, lands another blow on his ass, making Felix wail and grip at the couch with all this strength. “Shi–“ Minho flicks his wrist and digs his thumb into his slit, spreading his precome around the head with the lightest of touches. Felix falters, his legs giving out underneath him as he still tries to fuck into his fist. “Hyung– aaah–“\n\n“C’mon, pixie, be good and count for daddy,” Minho taunts him, voice dripping sweetness that really doesn’t match the cruel smile on his face.\n\n“H-hyung,” Felix whines, moaning into his fist as he tries to keep his sounds in check, fighting the urge to kick his feet in frustration.\n\n“Colour?”\n\nFelix groans, “G-green.”\n\n“Then count,” Minho’s brows furrow and he digs his thumb harder into Felix’s slit. His cock is so sensitive at this point, the head a deep red and begging for release. Tears flow down Felix’s face as he tries to get his wits together. “S-six.”\n\nChan then switches with Minho, soothing Felix as Minho hits his ass hard three consecutive times, leaving his handprints on top of Chan’s. Up to the final blow, Minho keeps teasing his cock’s head, and when Chan lands the last spank, he holds the base of Felix’s dick again, stopping him from another orgasm.\n\n“Were you gonna come without hyung’s or daddy’s permission, little pixie?” Chan asks after they’ve raised him from Chan’s lap.\n\n“I- I’m sorry d-daddy.” Felix cries. Minho kisses his tears away and Chan pets his head, gently scratching at Felix’s scalp to calm him down. “Shhh, it’s ok, pixie, just don’t do it again, yeah? You took your punishment so well. Now let us take care of you, yeah?”\n\nMinho carries Felix to Chan’s room princess style as Chan strips on the way, then he lays Felix down on the bed carefully, mindful of his sore ass. Felix still hisses at the feeling of the sheets against his raw skin, but soon settles with his back against the fluffy pillows. Chan’s bed is small, made for a single person, but the couple is used to messing around on it so much that an extra person should pose no obstacle.\n\nFelix drinks a bit of the bottled water Chan had set beside the bed, Minho helping him by holding the bottle for him. It’s really happening, huh? He still can’t believe it, and seeing two Greek gods in front of him isn’t making the whole ordeal seem any more believable. Chan literally looks like a marble statue in front of Felix, sculpted by the most capable of artists in ancient times, it feels almost criminal getting to put his hands on him, as if he’s desecrating a worship totem.\n\nAnd Minho, although his thighs rival that of statues as well, has softer curves, a lean but not as defined tummy perfect for Felix to dig his nails into, the reaction he gets once he does it just fueling his desire to touch every part of Minho until he maps out each and every single one that will get him to let out the same airy moan into his mouth.\n\nSoon he’s manhandled on all fours though, so before even getting to touch much of Chan he’s facing away from him, his reddened ass facing him whilst his head stops just short of Minho’s dick. What he sees has his breath hitching, his tongue sitting heavy in his mouth. Minho smirks once their eyes meet. “Like my toy, pixie?” he says as if he doesn’t have a huge butt plug in his ass on full display for Felix in its black heart-shaped jewelled glory. \n\nChan giggles behind him, catching his attention. “I’m gonna eat you out, little pixie, so give your hyung some attention, yeah?” Chan says as if it’s a suggestion, but something in his tone tells Felix it is an order, one he’s eager to follow.\n\nMinho taps his dick on Felix’s lower lip, so Felix doesn’t even wait for Chan to put his mouth on him, lowering himself on his elbows and mouthing at Minho’s cock, tasting the layer of sweat and Minho’s precome before engulfing him fully into his mouth, punching another breathy moan from him. Not long after he feels Chan’s fingers lubing his entrance, his tongue kitten-licking his rim teasingly. He moans around Minho, causing his hips to buck up and choke him on his cock.\n\n“S-shit, you ok there, pixie?” Minho asks concerned, and in response Felix only sucks harder on him, making Minho throw his head back and curse, his hand weaving in Felix’s blond strands and clutching hard at them. In no time Minho plants his feet on the bed and starts fucking up into his mouth. Felix gags and gurgles around him as Minho hits the back of his throat repeatedly, but in no time he adjusts to the intrusion and starts sucking earnestly on Minho’s cock, slurping on it as if it’s the most delicious treat he’s ever had in his mouth. It kinda is.\n\n“Fuck, pixie, your mouth feels so fucking good, made to suck dick, so good,” Felix preens under the never-ending praises Minho gives him with his voice strained. “Relax your throat for hyung, pretty,” Minho smirks, cheshire-like, his sweet voice layered with faux sweetness.\n\nFelix does as he’s told and closes his eyes as tears flood them again. Minho fills his mouth so nicely, reaching deep into his throat but not deep enough that he can’t take it. He swallows around him, twirls his tongue as much as he can, although he eventually gives up and just slacks his jaw and lets Minho use him, incapable of focusing with Chan licking and fucking his tongue into his hole, circling around his rim only to then dip back in again in a cycle that has him feeling dizzy from pleasure.\n\nThe sounds echoing through the room are filthy, sinful, a mix of Minho’s moans, his gurgled sounds around Minho’s cock and Chan’s groans and slurps on his asshole, all five sensory stimuli scrambling Felix’s brain much like Chan’s tongue seems to be doing to his insides. Once again he’s climbing to his high quickly, but this time Minho and Chan can already read his signs, and without him saying anything Minho gets up from underneath him so he won’t come just yet, joining Chan opening him up.\n\nBoth of them start opening Felix up together, Chan fingering him while Minho rims him with teasing licks while giving his still sore and red ass a squeeze or two. Chan is careful, adding more lube at each newly inserted finger, waiting for Felix to fuck back on the first before adding the next one and so on. And once he’s three fingers deep, Felix is flipped around and laid on his back.\n\nMinho sits between his spread legs, both of them kissing as Chan takes his plug out and sets it aside, making sure Minho is well stretched to take his cock.\n\nFelix can barely hold himself together when Minho slides inside him slowly in one long move, gripping at his thick thighs for dear life. He tries to fuck himself on Minho’s cock, putting his feet on the bed, but he’s stopped by Chan lifting his legs from the mattress and putting them around Minho’s and his waist as he slots himself behind Minho, looking at him from over Minho’s shoulder with a smug smile. “Is this position ok, pixie?”\n\nMore than ok, it’s perfect. He’ll get a full view of Minho’s body as he fucks him, his own dick slapping on his tummy, and Chan biting at Minho’s neck from behind, marking him up as his right before Felix’s eyes, all as he fucks Felix through Minho, as if he’s his as well. Felix kind of wants to be. “Pixie? Aren’t you gonna answer your daddy?” Minho asks with a quirked eyebrow and he notices he had gotten lost inside his head.\n\n“Y-yeah, it’s perfect, daddy.” Felix flushes, still shy about calling Chan that in spite of both liking it so much.\n\nChan slicks himself with more lube just to be sure, and slowly pushes into Minho, groaning at the tightness despite all their efforts at opening him up before Felix had arrived. Minho moans at the stretch, sharing the feeling of finally being filled with Felix, who relaxes underneath the couple as if his strings had been cut. “S-so full, d-daddy,” he stutters out, his small hand on his belly as if he could feel Chan inside him along with Minho.\n\nOnce Chan bottoms out, his dick twitches inside Minho, making him squirm and circle his hips a little, fucking himself on Chan’s cock but also moving inside Felix. “D-damn, pixie, I could say the same.” he huffs, circling his hips a bit more to feel Chan's cock deeper inside him, humming in pleasure and throwing his head back on Chan’s shoulder.\n\nChan huffs, both in an effort to contain himself and let Felix adjust to all the sensations and at Minho’s words. In a minute Felix is whining, begging for them to move already. His nails scratch at Minho’s abs, trying to get him to fuck him, and Minho pins Felix’s wrists above his head. “Sshh, hyung and daddy will take care of you, pretty pixie, you just lie there and take what we give you, yeah?”\n\nHow could Felix ever say no to that? So he takes it like the good pixie he is. Minho starts railing him like his life depends on it while Chan slams into him so hard Felix slides up the mattress. Chan aims for Minho’s prostate head-on whereas Minho swivels his hips with expertise, clenching around him just right while teasing Felix’s prostate so the boy doesn’t come too fast.\n\n“Y-you t-take me so well, p-pixie,” Minho moans, phrases punctuated by Chan’s thrusts inside him, “F-feel so g-good~”\n\nFelix hiccups moans as he calls for daddy and hyung, unable to say anything else as he’s fucked silly, his limbs going limp under the couple’s touch, his mind fogging up with lust and pleasure and the desire to please and to come. Chan fucks Minho hard, hitting his sweet spot with scary precision and almost growling as he praises Felix too. “Such a good pixie for us, taking us so well, the perfect little hole for us.”\n\nMinho starts fucking Felix harder, getting Felix and him close to the edge quickly as it also means he fucks back on Chan’s cock faster, so Chan lets go of one of Felix’s thighs and wraps a hand around Minho’s throat, not cutting his air supply but putting enough pressure that Minho’s breathing is labored. Felix feels like he is on the cusp of coming, and he is too lost in the sensation to worry about whether he’s gotten permission yet or not. Chan’s other hand went to Minho’s hip to keep him snug against Felix’s ass, with his dick buried deep inside him and without being able to move, effectively edging Felix again, although it’s safe to say it could be the same for Minho.\n\n“What do you think you’re doing, pixie?” he asks Felix, “Were you gonna come without asking daddy or hyung, hm?”\n\n“N-no, dad-dy,” Felix lies through his teeth, trembling as his orgasm ebbs away, tears clinging stubbornly to his lashes and making him blink hard to have them flow so he can see Minho’s debauched state above him. Felix whimpers, looking pleadingly at both of them as Minho rolls his hips whilst avoiding his prostate, seeking relief for the ache for his cock without giving Felix much of anything.\n\n“Little pixie thought daddy wouldn’t notice?”\n\n“P-pixie’s s-sorry, d-daddy,” Felix whimpers, whereas Minho doesn’t stop rolling his hips as best as he can with Chan’s death grip on his waist. “P-please let me cum, dad-dy~ h-hyung~ ple-ase,” he begs mindlessly over and over again with tears running down his face and making his freckles shimmer in the room’s light.\n\nChan and Minho moan, feeling defeated with Felix begging so prettily for them. Yet, Chan doesn’t let go of Minho’s waist or his throat, knowing the bruising touches will help Minho get to his release sooner as he picks his pace back up to ram into Felix as he keeps him in place, the movement jostling him up the bed a bit, nonetheless.\n\n“I’m gonna cum like this, pixie, with your daddy’s cock buried deep inside me and your cute cock neglected on your pretty tummy,” Minho growls, hips losing coordination as he gets closer to the edge.\n\n“C-can I c-cum too? P-pretty please?”\n\n“No, not yet pixie,” Chan’s strained voice says from behind Minho, his face hidden between his boyfriend’s shoulder-blades. Felix sobs, clutching at the sheets underneath him. “Colour?”\n\n“F-fuck– aaahh, green g-green,” Felix rushes out.\n\nNot a second later Minho pulls out and covers Felix with his come, some of it even hitting the boy’s chin, and before Felix can come as well, Chan holds the base of his cock tight, leaving him aching once again. Felix sobs, writhing in Chan’s and Minho’s hold as another orgasm drifts away from him. “Shhh, be good and wait to cum from daddy’s cock fucking you, pixie,” Minho smooches Felix’s temple, then lies by his side on the bed, spent. He holds one of Felix’s hands for support as Chan fucks Felix to completion, the boy’s vision turning white from the force of it, his whole body convulsing as string after string of come joins Minho’s come on his stomach and chest.\n\nChan moans brokenly as Felix’s walls spasm around his cock, clenching so hard on him that it sends him over the edge as well, and he comes inside Felix with a silent scream.\n\nIt takes a long while for all of them to recover their breath, the water bottles are emptied, Felix getting some help from Minho to drink his again while Chan wipes down most of the mess they’ve made of his front and his ass. They snuggle together, taking small bites of their protein bars in a comfortable silence, Felix eventually drifting off to sleep.\n\nMinho and Chan organise the room a bit, and Chan turns Felix around so they can put some cream on Felix’s ass cheeks. Minho stays with Felix in case he wakes up while Chan runs a bath for them, hoping that they’ll find a way to fit together in the small bathtub somehow. He calls Minho once the bath is done, Felix being woken up by the latter with soft kisses to his face and a promise of a relaxing time cuddled up together.\n\nThey talk comfortably as they bathe, Minho massages Chan’s arms and Felix’s back, Chan and Felix ganging up on him afterwards to massage his thighs with no second intentions at all. When the bath runs cold they finally get out, and work around each other quickly so they’re quickly all dry and cuddled up in bed with Felix wearing some of Chan’s boxers and one of Minho’s t-shirts.\n\n“Was everything ok, Lix?” “Was anything too much?” they ask Felix before he falls asleep again.\n\n“Everything was perfect. I’d love to do this again sometime,” Felix admits, putting a smile on the face of his favourite couple and giving them good dreams for the night.\n\n \n\n \n\n\n Six months later… \n\n\nEven before Chan enters the flat he can hear a faint buzzing behind the door. The small smile that paints his face is inevitable, even more so once he manages to open the door despite his hands being full of grocery bags and finds Minho and Felix laughing about something in their open kitchen. He closes the door with his butt and walks over to them, smelling vanilla and coffee in the air and the fainter scent of spices on the way. Dropping the bags on the floor since the small kitchen island is occupied by ingredients, ranging from pork and herbs to batter and sugar, he greets Felix and Minho.\n\n“Hi babe!” they say in unison, looking up from their tasks. One would think they had planned it, but it has just become so common for Chan to get home after the two of them that it comes naturally. He goes behind each and gives them a quick kiss to their lips as they turn their heads, not risking to disturb them any more than that; it’d earn him a loud nagging from Minho.\n\n“The store was so packed today, I guess everyone left to buy their Holiday’s groceries at the last minute.” He huffs, pulling a stool from the island and setting it on the edge of the kitchen to sit down and watch his boyfriends work. It’s good that they decided to get a bigger flat; if they had gotten the one Felix wanted, Chan would probably be kicked in the shins by Minho daily – his man really doesn’t like people in his way when he cooks. Well, perhaps Felix is the exception, seeing as he’s baking right by his side and taking over more than half of the small island.\n\nChan feels like an idiot, smiling at his boyfriends doing something so mundane. Looking at them like this, in their full domestic beauty, he kind of understands Felix’s fixation with photographing Minho and him back when everything began. His eyes sparkle when Felix wipes his hands and pulls his phone from his apron’s pocket, snapping a quick shot of Minho seasoning the pork with stars in his eyes. He would wonder if that’s how he looks at them too if Felix hadn’t already shown it to him through his pictures. Still, he can’t help but feel like what he sees will last much longer than any photo Felix takes.\n\nThe flash of Felix’s camera startles him, and he pouts at his boyfriend. Felix giggles, “Sorry, hyung, you looked in love.”\n\nChan shakes his head, his smile never leaving his face. “Well, that’s because I am.”\n\n“You two are going to ruin my pork with all this sweetness,” Minho says as if he’s complaining, but he’s blushing and smiling like an idiot too. He might not use many words, but both of them can feel Minho’s love in each meal he cooks for them, each smile he pretends isn’t reserved just for them.\n\n“With how messy Felix is, there’s probably sugar from his cookies in there anyway.” Chan avoids a ball of parchment paper Felix throws at him. “Sorry, sorry~”\n\n“If you’re not going to help then go hang some fairy lights, hyung,” Felix says with furrowed brows, and Chan raises his arms in defeat, leaving his boyfriends to their kitchen adventures as he goes to the living room to do as he was told. One would think he’d be the one giving orders, all things considered, and he usually is, but put a kitchen into the equation and he can’t do or say much.\n\nTheir flat looks very cute already. The three of them had decorated the Christmas tree the day before, and Minho had added some decorations to his bookshelves already. It’s amazing how far they’ve come in only six months. From a couple and a stalker in a bookshop, to three guys messing around and then in a week they were already dating. Some would say they’re going too fast, but to them it doesn’t feel like it. It just feels right having Felix with them.\n\nAfter a few minutes, Chan hears his phone ping, the sound of Twitter being enough to make him quickly set the fairy lights he started hanging aside to check the notification.\n\n\nFelix pictures just Tweeted\n\n\nHe must be done with the cookie batter and is letting it rest. He unlocks his phone and goes straight to Felix’s profile instead of checking the notification, giggling to himself as he recognises both pictures that serve as a cover for Felix’s new pinned thread. The first one is Minho posing for the camera with a ladle on the day he first tried to make parboiled octopus. The second one is Felix and him on the day they woke up hungry in the middle of the night and decided to make bibimbap.\n\nHe doesn’t remember that picture being taken, and judging by the fact he’s not looking at the camera, he bets Minho took it secretly. Great, now he has two little stalkers at home.\n\nBut they’re his little stalkers, so it’s ok.\n\n "}
+{"text": "‘Why is this necessary?’\n\nAtsumu and Sakusa were delegated to the back seats of the van again, one tension-filled space separating them still. They were on their way to a photography studio because an idea had come to Bokuto in a dream that was just too good to pass up on.\n\n‘For the memories, Lord Sakusa!’ Hinata called from the front seat. Since Sakusa had told them both about the successful security breach, Hinata hadn’t stopped treating him like royalty. They hadn’t been able to stop whooping and smiling, either, Atsumu included. ‘You’ve got to make every moment count on heists like these.’\n\n‘Damn right,’ said Bokuto. ‘Tetsu’s helping me make an album of my best moments. This will be a perfect front page!’\n\nSakusa made a face. ‘I understand the need for the pictures,’ he said. ‘I just don’t understand why we need to wear these.’\n\nHe gestured down to the clothes Atsumu had forced him into. They were all wearing matching sweaters; horrendous mustard yellow turtlenecks tucked into high waisted denim jeans. Atsumu had also spent a whole hour in the office breakroom combing the team’s hair through with gel and styling it into slicked down comb overs.\n\nTrying to get Sakusa to comply was like trying to wrestle a hostile cat, but Atsumu had managed it in the end. He had also gotten Sakusa to put on his glasses too, and bagged himself the chance to run his fingers through Sakusa’s curls multiple times in the process.\n\nIt had been a great Monday morning.\n\n‘It all adds to the drama,’ Atsumu told him. ‘The Adlers think they know provocation, but they don’t know the half of it.’\n\nThe photos they’d sent of them playing in front of the painting had been infuriating, to say the least. But that just meant the Jackals had to do one better. A few snaps on their phones simply would not cut it.\n\nSakusa’s scowl looked ten times cuter with his hair slicked back. Atsumu could see both of his eyes clearly and free of shadow. Sakusa asked, ‘Won’t the four-thousand tons of glitter be enough?’\n\nAtsumu laughed, then Hinata joined in, and Bokuto too. ‘When it comes to us, nothin’ is ever enough, Omi-kun. Bigger and stupider is always better. Get used to it.’\n\nWhen they walked into the photography studio looking like an awkward 80s family, the photographer greeted them with a laugh and said right away that she understood the vibe they were striving for. She pulled some strings and alternated the usual white background for a dark grey that reminded Atsumu of his school pictures, and applied a filter to her lens that she insisted would make the photos look ‘organically vintage’.\n\nThey started simple: the classic ‘shortest sit on chairs in front, tallest stand at the back’.\n\n‘Channel Kageyama,’ Atsumu told them when the camera started clicking and flashing. They stretched their faces into smiles so uncomfortable it looked more like they were grimacing, Bokuto’s hands clamped down on Hinata’s shoulders, Sakusa’s resting awkwardly on Atsumu’s.\n\nAfter that, Hinata hijacked the chairs and took a whole set of photos posed on Bokuto’s lap like his doting son.\n\nAtsumu then pushed the chairs aside and got on to the floor with Bokuto. They laid on their sides and put one leg up and one arm behind their heads like heartthrobs from teen calendars. Bokuto also somehow managed to rope Sakusa into a few; he held himself up on his hands, and Sakusa took his legs like he was steering a wheelbarrow.\n\nAfter that, Atsumu grabbed Sakusa for their turn. For one, he got Sakusa to hold him in a headlock, and for another they posed back-to-back with prop guns that the photographer provided. At one point, Sakusa and Atsumu held Hinata upside down by his ankles like a freshly caught fish while Bokuto stood beside them with his thumbs up.\n\nThey stood in a height ordered line and posed with one hand on their hips, looking over their shoulders at the camera with the same pained grimaces. They took one where they spelled out MSBY with their bodies, one where they lied on top of each other in an uncomfortable dogpile, and one where they held their hands up like Jackal claws.\n\nThen they finished with one of them hugging in a line like a group of happy bridesmaids; Hinata and Atsumu facing each other with connected arms, Bokuto hugging Hinata’s back, Sakusa Atsumu’s. It didn’t escape Atsumu’s notice that Sakusa had been surprisingly OK with touching the rest of the Jackals, maybe it was because Bokuto and Hinata were just as wary of Sakusa’s personal space as Atsumu was.\n\nFlirt relentlessly until he gets so flustered, he has no choice but to just push you up against a wall, Suna’s voice reminded him.\n\n‘Ya gotta get a little closer than that, Omi,’ Atsumu whispered over his shoulder. ‘You might not fit in the frame.’\n\nThat was a blatant lie, the frame was huge and Sakusa was already pretty close, arms wrapped timidly around Atsumu’s waist. He sensed the deceit and pinched Atsumu’s side through his sweater so hard that Atsumu hissed.\n\n‘Stop fidgeting,’ Sakusa murmured in to Atsumu’s ear. ‘Look at the camera.’\n\nAtsumu’s face warmed, but then he broke into a grin. Now that he had a game plan, his thoughts no longer scattered like pigeons every time Sakusa breathed in his direction. He removed his hands from Hinata’s for a moment and used them to pull Sakusa’s arms so close that their bodies were flush against each other.\n\n‘That’s better,’ Atsumu said as he wrapped Sakusa’s arms tighter around himself and patted them for good measure. ‘Smile big, yeah?’\n\nHinata looked at him strangely when Atsumu returned his attention to him. His eyes kept darting from Atsumu to Sakusa and back again in a question. Atsumu winked in response and Bokuto burst out laughing.\n\nAtsumu beamed. ‘Say “Super Sexy Stealth Jackals!”’\n\nThey all shouted it in unison, with huge genuine smiles instead of their Kageyama Grimaces.\n\nAfter much debate, they settled on the picture of them turned over their shoulders for the Gathering Finale, and Atsumu chose several more to frame and hang up in his apartment. Bokuto and Hinata ordered one of each picture, and even Sakusa chose a couple of his favourites; a few for frames, one for a keyring, and one for a mug.\n\nTo Sakusa’s mortification and abundant complaints, they didn’t have time to change out of their clothes before they went shopping for suits, and as they walked through the shopping centre, they garnered more than a few strange looks.\n\nWhile they were waiting in line to order coffees, a group of young girls approached and asked if they were a famous comedic quartet. Atsumu said they were and happily signed the backs of some receipts and scrap pieces of paper under Osamu’s name, then Bokuto started reeling off some awful jokes he’d definitely picked up from Kuroo and Kenma, and Atsumu watched the girls’ excited smiles die in real time as they tried to fake laughter and find a polite way to leave.\n\n‘We’ve gotta look the best at the gatherin’,’ Atsumu insisted as they perused the collection of woollen suits in an upmarket haberdashery. The tailor was busy in the backroom, so Atsumu told everyone to pick out something that they liked ready for his return. ‘We’re gonna be the main characters, so we—What the fuck are you holdin’ Omi? Put that shit down.’\n\nSakusa was holding the most dreadful suit Atsumu had ever seen up to his chest. It was red and green plaid, with contrasting gold buttons and accents. It would have been fine if the dress code was Celtic Christmas. Or Fuck Ugly.\n\nAtsumu would sooner die before he would let Sakusa put an arm into the sleeve of that atrocity.\n\n‘What’s wrong with this?’ Sakusa asked very seriously.\n\nAtsumu’s eyes widened. ‘Please tell me yer jokin’.’\n\n‘I like green,’ Sakusa said like that was a reasonable explanation.\n\nHinata joined them and said, ‘I think it brings out milord’s eyes, Atsumu-san!’\n\n‘There’s no saving you,’ he said to Hinata. ‘But I thought you were at least somewhat fashionable. I mean, ya turned up to karaoke lookin’ like that.’\n\nAtsumu still thought about him in that turtleneck quite frequently. The memory was ingrained within his brain; every time he found himself lying on his back to sleep, Sakusa would be there, looming over him.\n\nSakusa’s nose wrinkled. ‘Motoya picked that out.’\n\nVery suddenly, Atsumu was reminded of what Sakusa had said about almost wearing his sports jacket that night and slapped a hand to his forehead. He needed to get a hold of Komori’s number to thank him.\n\nBokuto could be trusted: he refused to wear anything other than black tuxedos to fancy events because they looked the coolest, and he had Kuroo ‘Suit Aficionado’ Tetsurou to guide him into picking suitable ties and cufflinks.\n\nBut Hinata lived with Kageyama, who thought that graphic t-shirts and blazers were a suitable combination, and now Sakusa ‘Sportswear’ Kiyoomi was apparently a walking fashion disaster.\n\nOf all the things.\n\nThat was fine; Atsumu already had more than a few ideas on how to style Sakusa’s underappreciated proportions.\n\n‘Jesus Christ. OK. Put that back before it blinds me. I’ll find ya somethin’.’ He looked to Hinata who was eyeing up a similar suit of blue and orange plaid and pulled him away from it by the back of his collar. ‘Both of you.’\n\nIt was when Bokuto had gone to peruse the hat collection and Hinata was having his new navy suit measured by the tailor that Sakusa finally stepped out of the changing room in the dark green three-piece Atsumu had picked out for him.\n\nAs Sakusa fiddled with the length of the sleeves, Atsumu couldn’t stop his gaze from wandering. It was a near perfect fit already without adjustments; the low cut of the vest drew the small of his waist in and forced the eye towards the broadness of his shoulders. With his hair slicked back and his glasses on, Atsumu felt the need to reach for his phone and dial 119 as a precaution. Green really was his colour, when it wasn’t the shade of radioactive acid.\n\nHe got up and approached Sakusa with a wolfish grin. ‘That’s much better,’ he said and held up the gold tie he’d picked out whilst Sakusa was changing. He raised an eyebrow in a question. ‘Can I?’\n\nSakusa shrugged and let Atsumu reach around the back of his neck to start putting on the tie. He took his sweet time, eyes focussed on what his fingers were doing, taking extra care not to mess up one of the more impressive knots he knew how to fold. The whole time Sakusa’s eyes were on him, Atsumu could feel the stare like it was a tangible pressure, intense and loaded with tension. But Atsumu only dared to look up when he was through tightening the knot and moving it up to the base of Sakusa’s throat.\n\n‘There,’ Atsumu hummed as he smoothed his hands over the tops of Sakusa’s shoulders and experimentally down the length of his arms. ‘Do you like it?’\n\nSakusa’s eyes were so dark Atsumu thought he could probably see his own reflection in them if he got close enough. They flickered from Atsumu’s hands on his own arms, to Atsumu’s lips like they had done Saturday night.\n\nThey both stopped breathing.\n\nIt felt like Sakusa was staring into Atsumu’s soul when he said, low and heavy, ‘Yes.���\n\nAtsumu had a feeling he wasn’t really talking about the suit.\n\nSuna was definitely on to something with that advice.\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\nTuesday was MSBY’s Monthly Sparring Day. Meian liked to make sure that everyone was able to defend themselves should they encounter guards or hostile threats during heists, so once a month, they cleaned out their largest conference room, covered the floor with thick fighting mats, and tested their strength against each other. After warmups, Meian would host a friendly tournament; the winner got their lunches and coffees bought for them for the rest of the month.\n\nEvery month Atsumu got to the final, and every month, no matter how often he went to the gym or practiced beating the shit out of Osamu, Bokuto was crowned the undefeated champion.\n\nIn the four years Atsumu had worked at MSBY, Sakusa had never attended it, not even once. He was a tech, after all, and techs usually hid somewhere safe during heists, like a nearby building, or the back of a getaway van. Atsumu had been expecting the same this month - the room could get crowded and sweaty and loud - but ten minutes into the final tournament, Sakusa walked in with a mask on and his hands tucked into his sweatpants pockets. He found Atsumu’s eye immediately and settled into the empty spot next to him to watch Hinata and Adriah’s match.\n\n‘Hm?’ Atsumu leered. ‘What’s this? Omi-sama is gracin’ the rabble with his presence?’\n\n‘I want to see it,’ Sakusa said cryptically as he followed Hinata’s erratic movements around the mat. Adriah was having a hard time keeping up with him. Hinata could dodge just about anything.\n\n‘See what?’\n\n‘You. Fighting Meian. I wanted to see for myself if you were lying.’\n\nAtsumu folded his arms over his chest. ‘Sure yer not just here to watch me and Bokkun roll around all hot and sweaty?’\n\nHe’d put on his good spandex sparring shorts and shirt - the ones that were tight against his skin and hard to grab, because he was nothing if not extremely serious and dedicated to beating Bokuto this month - and he’d worked up a healthy glow practicing against Inunaki. ‘I don’t blame you,’ he continued. ‘We’re a spectacle. Whole office is bettin’ on us.’\n\nWell, they were betting on how fast Bokuto would win, but that was besides the point.\n\nSakusa averted his eyes back to Hinata’s match. He had Adriah pinned and Bokuto was counting him down, crouched on the floor and smacking the mat like a real wrestling referee. Once he'd been declared the winner, Hinata jumped up and cheered and Bokuto picked him up like he was the future king of Pride Rock.\n\n‘Ooh, would ya look at that, Omi-kun?’ Atsumu nodded towards the whiteboard across the room that detailed the fight brackets. His fight with Meian was up next. ‘Looks like yer wish is about to come true. Lucky boy.’\n\n‘I’ll be cheering extra hard for Meian-san,’ Sakusa drawled. ‘I can’t wait to see him suplex slam you into finally shutting up.’\n\nAtsumu laughed and made his way towards the mats. He said over his shoulder with a confident smile, ‘You’ll be waitin’ an awful long time Omi. Watch close.’\n\n‘Miya,’ Meian said as he stepped onto the mat and started circling him. ‘I’ve been looking forward to this rematch. I’m not going to let you get away with your shit this time.’\n\nAtsumu dropped into a low fighting stance. ‘Be careful you don’t throw yer back out, old man.’\n\nMeian fought classically, lots of powerful body shots and sweeping legs, but he didn’t think much when he threw his punches, which was why it was so easy for Atsumu to start predicting his moves. Meian insisted Atsumu fought dirty, but what he really did was focus on exploiting his opponents’ weaknesses to turn the tides in his own favour.\n\nMeian’s was that he always expected Atsumu to dodge, never to catch and counter.\n\nAtsumu deflected a few punches, dipped out of a few attempts to grab at his spandex shirt, and took a few unavoidable kicks to the thigh and back. He bided his time, waiting for Meian to get pissed and a little desperate to make Atsumu eat the floor. The opportunity came when Meian lunged forward and grabbed at Atsumu’s throat with one strong hand. ‘Caught you,’ he grinned.\n\n‘Oh dear,’ Atsumu replied as well as he could manage with half a windpipe.\n\nMeian wound his other fist back to land a guaranteed punch, but then Atsumu slammed his wrists down into the crook of Meian’s elbow, grabbed him by the shoulder to push him forwards and threw a hard knee into his stomach.\n\nMeian doubled over and his laugh was breathless. ‘There it is,’ he wheezed. ‘You conniving little bastard.’\n\n‘Cheer up, boss,’ Atsumu said. He rubbed at his sore throat with one hand and patted Meian on the back with the other. ‘There’s always next month.’\n\nMeian straightened and shook it off. ‘Like hell am I done.’\n\nThe next bout was nastier, but Atsumu had been expecting that after provoking him so hard. Meian grew warier of attacking, which meant that Atsumu had time to fight more offensively. He copied some of Meian’s moves; he successfully swept Meian’s legs out from beneath him, threw his kicks a whole lot higher, and landed punches more times than they got blocked.\n\nIt wasn’t completely one sided, however. Meian did land a solid right hook to Atsumu’s face that shook his brain around in his skull for a solid ten seconds, but it wasn’t enough to beat him.\n\nIt wasn’t the longest they’d ever sparred, but it was definitely the most intensely they’d ever fought. By the time Atsumu finally managed to pin Meian down with one hand at his throat and one knee to his chest, he was panting and eager to get some ice on his face.\n\nAfter a three count, Bokuto declared him the winner and slapped Atsumu’s ass so hard he swore he saw the eyes of God.\n\n‘Good work, Miya,’ Meian said as he grabbed Atsumu’s hand to shake it. ‘It’s nice to know our Monsters are still Monsters. Sorry about the right hook. You were pissing me off.’\n\nAtsumu beamed despite the pain. Coming from Meian, that was the highest form of compliment Atsumu could ever have wished for. ‘Thanks, boss.’\n\nWith a spring to his step, Atsumu made a beeline for the table of drinks and ice and downed a whole bottle of water before grabbing another and a bag of ice. Hinata congratulated him and ran through all of Atsumu’s moves that were his favourites: the arm chop, the thing he did with his elbow, the kick so high that Meian had to block with his forearms.\n\n‘I’m usin’ them on you next, Shouyou-kun, don’t forget that.’\n\nHinata bristled. ‘Ah! I totally forgot. I’m not going to lose, though, Atsumu-san! I’ve been practising a whole bunch. Bokuto’s taught me a new special move.’\n\nThey high fived and Hinata ran off to referee Bokuto’s match against Inunaki. That left Atsumu free to gloat.\n\nOver the last few days, Sakusa’s stares had been frequent and intense, and in as much time Atsumu had grown used to them, expected them, craved them, even. But this time, when he slumped back against the wall at Sakusa’s side, Sakusa avoided meeting his eye at all costs.\n\nCurious, Atsumu leaned forward, cradling the ice pack against his cheek. ‘Did ya see me, Omi-kun?’\n\n‘I saw you,’ came Sakusa’s mask-muffled reply.\n\n‘And?’\n\nSakusa still wouldn’t turn to look at him. Atsumu wished he could see what was going on beneath his mask. He had a vague idea, judging by the red tint to his ears.\n\nHe cleared his throat and said quietly, ‘You were amazing.’\n\nOrdinarily, Atsumu would have jeered at that, would have jumped up and gotten Sakusa to repeat it for the whole room. Hm? What was that, Omi-kun? Why don’t you say it louder so that everyone can hear?\n\nBut this time, Atsumu wanted to keep it for himself. That little admission would come so easily and casually from someone else, someone like Meian, or Hinata, or Bokuto. Their flippant praises were abundant. But from Sakusa it meant so much more; he wasn’t the type to mince his words or unnecessarily sugar-coat anything. If he said Atsumu was great, then he truly meant it.\n\nIt felt like he’d won more than just a fight.\n\nAtsumu didn’t know how to respond.\n\nSakusa didn’t miss that. He finally looked over at Atsumu and his brows drew together in concern. ‘What? Why isn’t your head inflating?’ he asked. ‘Did Meian actually break your mouth? That punch looked pretty hard, are you—’\n\n‘I’m fine.’ Atsumu was the first to look away. He pressed the ice bag hard against his cheek to squash his smile and turned his attention to Bokuto’s match, though he wasn’t really paying attention. He said, ‘You just made me real happy, that’s all.’\n\nIn his periphery, Atsumu saw Sakusa turn to watch the match too. ‘Oh,’ he said.\n\n‘Yeah.’\n\nAtsumu’s fight with Hinata took longer than Meian’s; he was fast and highly offensive, throwing punches and leaping at Atsumu from distances that should have been impossible. Hinata’s weakness was tougher to exploit in the thick of a bout, Atsumu had to pay careful attention to everything Hinata did and wait patiently for his overzealousness to breed mistakes. When his footing was off, or his eye was distracted, Atsumu would strike with low, unavoidable sweeps of his feet to trip Hinata up and knock the wind out of him. Keeping him down was hard too, even beneath Atsumu’s weight he kept finding ways to wriggle free and keep fighting.\n\nHis stamina ran out eventually though, after ten iterations of his ‘special move’ which was actually just a tackle and duck under that didn’t work because Atsumu’s foundations were far too stable to displace.\n\nThis time, when he won, he threw a peace sign out at Sakusa that he returned with a hesitant ‘OK’ of his own.\n\n‘Aaagh! I’ll get you next time, Atsumu-san!’ Hinata growled. ‘I promise!’\n\nAtsumu ruffled his hair. ‘Hell no, Shou-kun. I’m prayin’ to god yer in Bokkun’s bracket next month.’\n\nThe final against Bokuto went about as well as expected: Atsumu lost. Again.\n\nThinking didn’t work against Bokuto. His attacks had no rhyme or reason, no rhythm or regularity. He did whatever he thought of in that moment, whatever would look the coolest, and Atsumu still had no idea how to combat it.\n\nThey fought without games or pretences, just pure strength and agility, both of which Bokuto had the slight edge in. At one point, he had Atsumu yelling for mercy when he climbed onto a nearby table and attempted a diving elbow drop. Atsumu narrowly missed it cracking his ribs by rolling out of the way in time, but that only gave Bokuto ample opportunity to sit himself down on Atsumu’s back until Atsumu had to tap out.\n\n‘Yer gonna kill me one of these days, Bokkun!’ he cried as Bokuto helped him to his feet. ‘Yer worse than Samu!’\n\nBokuto laughed and brought him in for a sweaty hug. ‘Hey, hey! I’m supposed to be the best at fighting, aren’t I? I’m the brawn! The muscle! The beefcake!’\n\nThat was true. Didn’t make the loss taste any less sour, though.\n\nThe only consolation was that out of all the fights that day, only Atsumu’s had made Bokuto reach for the ice table.\n\nAfter the award ceremony – which was just a vow from everyone present that they would honour Bokuto’s victory - Meian let the office off early to go home, shower, and recuperate. Atsumu, however, lost the losers’ coin toss and bagged himself clean up duty. Everyone else went on ahead and he was left milling about the conference room binning empty water bottles and wiping down icy tables while he gathered the strength and mental fortitude to put the mats away.\n\nHe didn’t even notice Sakusa had stayed behind until he cleared his throat in the silence and made Atsumu yelp in surprise.\n\nAtsumu tilted his head. ‘What are you still doin’ here? Everyone else is goin’ home.’\n\n‘I know,’ said Sakusa. He still had his hands tucked into his pockets and his mask high on his face, expression inscrutable beneath.\n\n‘Aww, you feelin’ sorry for me? You here to help me clean up the—’\n\n‘No.’\n\n‘Ah.’\n\nSakusa’s eyes looked like he wanted to say something else, so Atsumu stayed quiet and waited for him to form the words. For a while, the only sound to fill the room was the rhythmic plonk of plastic bottles hitting the bin.\n\nWhen the words came, they were not what Atsumu had been expecting. ‘I want to fight you.’\n\n‘Huh?’\n\n‘You heard me.’\n\nOh, Atsumu had heard him. Perfectly fine. He broke into a smile. ‘You sure about that, Omi-kun? I don’t play nice.’\n\nSakusa walked over to the mats and stood slightly off centre. He used one of his pocketed hands to gesture to the space in front of him and said, ‘I’m counting on it.’\n\nAtsumu threw the bin aside and jogged over. Ever since he’d felt the strength of Sakusa’s upper body he’d been itching to know how good he was in a fight. He’d never thought he’d ever actually get the chance to find out. It didn’t matter that he was aching and bruised and worn out, all of his energy returned the moment he saw the challenge in Sakusa’s raised brow.\n\n‘Should we set up some rules, first?’ he asked, hopping from foot-to-foot in a warmup. ‘Like, how are ya with touchin’ and grabbin’? I don’t wanna overstep or make you uncomfor—oof!’\n\nSakusa’s foot whipped out, hooked around the back of Atsumu’s knee and swept him forwards. He went down hard, back against the mat, cuss lodged in his throat. ‘Just fight,’ said Sakusa.\n\nAtsumu scrambled to his feet and dropped into the same low stance he’d used on Meian. He wouldn’t let Sakusa get a shot like that in a second time.\n\nTheir first bout was cautious – Atsumu was still apprehensive when it came to manhandling Sakusa, so he spent the first few experimental attacks trying to learn how Sakusa fought, how he moved, and what style he leaned on. True to form, Sakusa remained a mystery; he dodged each attack fluidly with a flexibility Atsumu hadn’t expected from him and his hands still tucked into his pockets.\n\n‘You ever gonna get serious, Omi?’ he asked as Sakusa dipped out of the way of another torso jab.\n\n‘Only once you do,’ he said and kicked at the back of Atsumu’s leg again so that it gave out and he was down on one knee. When Atsumu looked up at Sakusa, he could almost see the smirk beneath his mask, like a cat toying with its prey.\n\nAtsumu forgot everything other than the overwhelmingly petty need to win.\n\nThey fought harder after that. Atsumu’s attacks came faster and Sakusa’s breaths came shorter as he tried to keep up. For each punch he threw that Sakusa dodged, he twisted and threw another so that Sakusa had no choice but to pull his hands from his pockets to block it or push it away with his forearms.\n\n‘That’s much better,’ Sakusa crooned as he caught one of Atsumu’s fists with his own. Atsumu’s tongue darted out to wet his lips as he analysed the situation, and then Atsumu learned something very interesting.\n\nIn the split second that Sakusa’s gaze flickered to the movement of Atsumu’s tongue, his grip on Atsumu’s fist loosened ever so slightly. Just enough for Atsumu to capitalise on and twist his arm around and out of Sakusa’s.\n\nNow free, Atsumu jumped back and grinned. Sakusa looked bewildered, like not even he knew how that had happened.\n\nAtsumu knew his weakness, all he had to do was exploit it.\n\nTo test his theory, Atsumu made it his goal to get as close to Sakusa as he could manage with each attack. When Sakusa’s foot flew out in a sharp roundhouse kick he caught his leg and pulled himself into Sakusa’s space instead of away from it. Sakusa tried to wrangle himself free, but Atsumu winked, Sakusa stuttered, and Atsumu was able to kick at his standing leg and bring him to the floor.\n\nAtsumu clapped and did a lap of the mat like he was hyping up a wrestling crowd while Sakusa got back to his feet.\n\n‘You sure you don’t wanna tap out, Omi? Seems like I’m startin’ to get the upper hand.’\n\nSakusa scowled and shook himself off. ‘Shut the fuck up, Miya.' He resumed his stance. 'Again.’\n\nThe next time Atsumu came at him, Sakusa tried to grab at his shirt to pull him off, but his fingers slipped across the spandex, and he was forced to wrap a strong hand around Atsumu’s bicep instead.\n\nAtsumu glanced down at Sakusa’s hand and said, ‘It’s not just for makin’ my ass look good, huh?’\n\nSakusa’s grip faltered again and Atsumu used the momentum to shake out of his grip, step around to Sakusa’s back, and force his arms up in a full Nelson hold.\n\n‘Any last words before I make you eat mat?’ Atsumu said into his ear.\n\n‘Yes,’ said Sakusa through gritted teeth.\n\n‘Go ahead,’ Atsumu hummed. Sakusa could probably feel how rapidly Atsumu’s heart was beating against his back. At least he could blame it on the strenuous exercise. ‘I’m always listenin’ to you.’\n\nSakusa’s head turned slightly, and he said, ‘Let me know what it tastes like.’\n\n'Huh?' It was Atsumu’s turn to falter. Sakusa twisted his shoulders and dipped out of the hold with ease, then he knocked an elbow into Atsumu’s gut, and another onto his back once he’d doubled over.\n\nAtsumu’s face hit the mat and this time it was Sakusa laughing. Atsumu growled, kicked at both of Sakusa’s ankles and brought him down to the ground so he could laugh too.\n\nIn a blur, Sakusa was on top of him, sat on Atsumu’s groin, leaning forwards with his hands pinning Atsumu’s hands above his head. Atsumu suddenly forgot that they were fighting and melted beneath the touch.\n\nIt wasn’t quite a wall, but he supposed it would do.\n\n‘Oh,’ Atsumu smiled as his laugh petered out. ‘This feels familiar.’\n\n‘Meian was right,’ Sakusa breathed. ‘You do fight dirty.’\n\n‘There’s no such thing,’ Atsumu insisted. ‘Only winners and sore losers.’\n\nSakusa narrowed his eyes. ‘I am currently pinning you down. If this were real, you’d have lost ten seconds ago.’\n\n‘Ah, but have I really lost though?’\n\nSakusa swallowed, released Atsumu’s hands, and leaned back so that he was just sitting ordinarily. ‘Yes?’ \n\nAtsumu huffed another breathless laugh and pushed himself up onto his elbows to chase after him, to keep their faces close. ‘You should enter next month. You’d do well.’\n\n‘I don’t want to fight anyone else.’\n\n‘Hmm. Why not?’ One of Atsumu’s hands wandered up to the mask still on Sakusa’s face. He waited for Sakusa to bat his hand away as he reached behind his ear for the string, but it never came. ‘You’d probably be a good matchup against Bokkun.’\n\nThe mask fell aside, hanging off one ear.\n\nSakusa said without the fabric muting the words, ‘Because you’re the only one I’m interested in.’\n\nAtsumu pushed himself up higher on to his palms. They could only have been a maximum of five inches apart and yet he still wanted to be closer.\n\nSakusa’s shoulders squared, and his half-lidded gaze fell to Atsumu’s mouth again. He seemed to do that often, drop his stare and then pick it up like he’d fumbled it unintentionally. Atsumu watched the way his eyelashes drew shadows upon his cheeks, and the way his jaw tensed like he was clenching words behind his teeth.\n\nDo it, Atsumu’s brain encouraged. Do it. Do it. Do it.\n\nSakusa’s hand came up to Atsumu’s face, but he lowered it again before it made contact with skin. Atsumu reached out and took it.\n\n‘That OK?’ he asked.\n\nSakusa only seemed capable of nodding.\n\nAtsumu guided Sakusa’s hand back up to his face and placed it on the cheek that Meian had punched. It was warm, they were both sweaty, both nervous and wary of messing whatever this was up.\n\nSakusa moved his thumb over the bruise Atsumu could feel forming on his cheekbone and what Atsumu saw in his eyes almost scared the fucking hell out of him. For a moment, it looked like Sakusa actually felt—\n\n‘Atsumu-saaaaaan! I left my bag!’\n\nThey both whirled around to the sound of Hinata’s voice echoing down the hallway. The moment he burst through the doors, Atsumu took advantage of the distraction and used it to clamp his thighs around Sakusa’s middle and flip them around so that he was on top.\n\nSakusa made a surprised noise, something between a yelp and a huff, and glared up at Atsumu with a furious blush.\n\n‘One! Two! Three!’ Atsumu called with a smile that was restraining a monumental amount of disappointment and anger. He’d never wanted to smother Hinata so badly in his entire life. ‘Ah, looks like I’m the winner today. Better luck next time, Omi-kun!’\n\nHe got up and held a hand out for Sakusa. Briefly, Atsumu was scared that Sakusa would see this as a rejection and shirk him off, but he took Atsumu’s hand and Atsumu gave it a squeeze he hoped Sakusa understood: I wanted it just as much as you.\n\n‘Are you two sparring? Why didn’t you say? I would have stayed behind to watch!’ Hinata cried. ‘I bet it would have been so cool if everyone saw. Nobody’s ever seen Omi-san fight before. You’ve probably got tons of cool secret moves waiting to be showcased, huh, Sakusa-san?’\n\nAtsumu gave Hinata’s back a heavy pat and resisted the urge to body slam him. ‘Omi-kun doesn’t like crowds, remember?’\n\n‘Ohh yeah! Forgot about that, sorry!’\n\n‘It’s fine,’ Sakusa grumbled. He turned to Atsumu and said, voice a little shaky with whatever he was feeling, ‘I got a text from Motoya earlier. The painting’s ready, so I’m going to go and pick it up.’\n\nFor the first time in a whole year, Atsumu found himself not giving a damn about the heist. He just wanted to lock Hinata out of the room and pick up where they’d left off, wanted to finally close the distance, wanted to kiss Sakusa senseless until he forgot how to scowl.\n\n‘Cool!’ said Hinata. ‘Can I come, pretty please, Omi-san? I’ve always wanted to meet a real-life art forger!’\n\nAtsumu opened his mouth to decline on Sakusa’s behalf, but Sakusa said, ‘Sure. Grab your bag. We’ll go now.’\n\n‘Omi—’ Atsumu started. He could go too! He didn’t care if three was a crowd, or if he was wanted, or needed, he just knew that he had to stay close to Sakusa or this whole day would feel like a loss.\n\nSakusa clamped a hand down on his shoulder and smirked. ‘Have fun putting the mats away, Atsumu.’\n\n \n\n "}
+{"text": "~*~\n\nJaskier had rolled into Geralt’s space in the night, of course he had, because luck was not with him lately. It wasn’t the first time it had happened in the history of bedsharing with Geralt over the years, but it was the first time Jaskier had buried his face in the crook of Geralt’s neck, breathing in the clean, sleep-warm scent of him and, and tucked his body in like he belonged there. His hand rested over Geralt’s medallion on his chest. His foot was hooked over Geralt’s muscular calf.\n\nSlowly and carefully he rolled away, knowing that Geralt was awake with his eyes closed, hoping they could both just pretend it hadn’t happened. He stretched and looked out the window at a clear dawn, sighing in relief.\n\n“I, ah, Geralt. If I dreamed--” he said, remembering half-shrouded wisps of longing, glints of golden eyes, and Geralt gave up the pretense of sleep.\n\n“You did,” he murmured, and nothing more was said about it.\n\nTheir clean clothes had been laid outside Jaskier’s door, and it made his cheeks flush to realize that everyone knew Geralt had slept there. They both dressed in silence, but the atmosphere wasn’t as awkward as he’d expected it to be. Yennefer summoned them for breakfast out on the garden terrace, and her gaze was inscrutable as she looked them over.\n\n“I hope you’re well rested,” she said neutrally, elegantly spooning some raspberry compote onto her toast.\n\n“Yes, thank you,” Jaskier managed to respond, since it was true, and felt a truly odd urge to explain that nothing had happened between himself and Geralt. He ate a wedge of an orange instead.\n\n“I won’t be joining you,” Yennefer explained after she had pushed her plate away. “I refuse to entangle myself in Aretuza’s business again. I’ll portal you to where you last saw her, and it will be up to you to catch her.”\n\n“And how are we expected to do that?” Jaskier asked. “She could be anywhere by now. There’s nothing that says she stayed there.”\n\n“You’re monster hunters,” Yennefer said, turning to stare unblinking at Geralt. “So hunt.”\n\nGeralt nodded, seemingly at ease. Jaskier didn’t feel nearly as confident.\n\n“What are we to do when we find her? Geralt’s magic might not be enough to subdue her.”\n\nYennefer indicated a pouch on the table. Geralt opened it and pulled out two slender cuffs linked by a chain. “Those are dimeritium, to use once you catch her. That will constrain her magic completely. And this,” she said as she slid an object across the table to Jaskier, “is what I was searching for last night. It will alert Aretuza’s rectoress that you need her assistance after you’ve cuffed the witch.”\n\nJaskier picked up a small sapphire brooch, delicately wrought of silver, and pinned it to his doublet. It glinted darkly against the light blue silk. “How does it work?”\n\n“Simply enough. Just hold it in your hand and say, ‘Tissaia.’ She’ll come to you, though she’ll most likely be expecting to find me on the other end.”\n\n“Are you sure you won’t come?” Geralt asked, and his voice was soft but somehow more distant than usual. Jaskier wondered if they had fought the night before, prior to Geralt coming to his room.\n\n“I’ve washed my hands of all the politics. I’ll help you because it’s you.” Her violet eyes held a wealth of memories, and an uncharacteristic sadness.\n\nJaskier looked at the sky, expecting lightning, but there was just a swirling breeze.\n\nAs they left the table Yennefer stopped Jaskier with a touch to his sleeve. “Walk with me,” she said, and it didn’t leave room for refusal. “Geralt, wait for us in the library.”\n\nThey walked slowly through the garden, where dew still clung to the petals of flowers and the soil was still dark from rain. Yennefer stopped beside a bed of yellow buttercups and leaned over to trail her fingers over their tops.\n\n“You should tell him,” she said gently, not looking at Jaskier. She shaded her eyes in the morning light and watched the sky, which was grayer than it had been before. Clouds formed and rolled over the sun, and she dropped her hand.\n\n“I should not,” Jaskier replied, a tremble in his voice. “I’d rather keep silent than risk losing him.”\n\n“You should tell him.”\n\n“He’s my whole life,” he said, spreading his arms in distress. The air crackled, static snapping at their hair. “I’ve given it to him, with no expectation of more in return than what he already gives me. And he won’t give me more, that’s clear to me after all these years. And it’s fine! It’s fine. He doesn’t feel that way. He calls me his friend, and do you know how many years went by before he could do that? That’s a gift. It’s enough.”\n\nLightning flashed jaggedly across the darkening sky. Jaskier looked helplessly at Yennefer, who wouldn’t meet his eyes. Wind tossed the black cloud of her hair.\n\n“You should tell him,” she said, and walked away. Jaskier stood in the garden until the sky cleared, and all he could hear was his own thundering heartbeat.\n\n~*~\n\nAfter gathering their belongings they met Yennefer in the main courtyard. Geralt brought Roach from the stable, tacked up and ready to go, and he spoke softly to her before placing his hand above her forehead and forming a sign. She nudged him calmly with her nose.\n\n“What did you do?” Jaskier asked, slightly alarmed.\n\n“Just Axii. She doesn’t care for portals. It wears off quickly.”\n\nYennefer stepped forward and placed an oddly hesitant hand on Geralt’s arm. He looked down at her and covered her hand with his. Jaskier felt that he should look away, but was mesmerized by how small she looked at that moment, how very human.\n\nWhen she turned away she looked straight at Jaskier, and there was a flinty sort of determination in her eyes, almost a challenge. He recalled her words in the garden and bit his lip until it hurt.\n\n“Find her, subdue her, give her to Aretuza,” Yennefer said to both of them, lifting her arms to form the portal.\n\n“And break the curse,” Jaskier reminded her.\n\n“I doubt she’ll do it out of the goodness of her heart,” she replied, “but I’m sure you’ll find a solution somehow. You’re frustratingly tenacious that way.”\n\n“Thank you?”\n\nYennefer gave him a hint of a smile over her shoulder and opened the portal. There was the castle wall, the town and the lake. Geralt led Roach forward and Jaskier followed them, then the portal spat him out on the other side and he stumbled to his knees on the dirt road, wheezing.\n\nGeralt looked down at him with amusement. “Maybe I should have used Axii on you as well.”\n\nJaskier glared up at him. “Now you tell me that was an option?”\n\n“Come on,” Geralt said, offering him a hand up. He pulled him to standing and Jaskier found himself chest to chest with Geralt, close enough to kiss. He couldn’t help the way his eyes flickered down to Geralt’s mouth, but he turned away quickly so he didn’t have to see Geralt’s reaction.\n\n“Well, let’s get to it,” he said, too brightly, glancing at the sky. “Lovely weather we’re having today, don’t you think?”\n\nGeralt smirked and led Roach forward down the road. “Shall we ask at the castle gate if she’s been there?”\n\n“It’s too bad she doesn’t have any memorable features,” Jaskier mused as they walked. “This would go so much easier if her eyes were red, or her hair was blue, or some such thing. It’s never hard to locate Yennefer.”\n\nThe guards at the gatehouse had no memory of a woman in a green dress coming to the castle, and directed them to the town instead. One guard suggested that they might ask at the market about any new magic wielders in the area, though that might give them a longer list than they had bargained for. So Jaskier and Geralt rode down into town and found a stable to leave Roach, then set out to find the market.\n\nThe town was a bit larger than it had first appeared, vibrant and bustling. Jaskier felt his spirits lift as they passed bakeries and bookshops, clothiers and toymakers. Sometimes he didn’t realize how much he’d missed civilization after weeks on the road, until he found himself surrounded by these little luxuries.\n\nThe market wasn’t hard to find, located in the main square in the center of town. There was a large tiered fountain in the middle and the market stalls wrapped all around it, colorful and inviting. Jaskier felt sure that a town this charming must also have a charming gossip mill. It was just a matter of finding the pulse of it.\n\nBy the time they arrived and took their measure of the place Geralt’s face was already looking pinched with tension. With this many people around, Jaskier knew that Geralt would not only be dealing with the sudden riot of sounds and smells, but also the inevitable stares as they passed.\n\n“Cheer up, witcher, you’ve received a warmer than usual welcome here so far.” Jaskier nudged Geralt with his elbow.\n\n“Hmm.” Geralt replied, nudging him back. “Perhaps they’ve heard your songs.”\n\nJaskier grinned. “Do you think so? Ah, Geralt, I’ve just had the most marvelous idea.”\n\n“No.”\n\n“Why do you always assume that my ideas will end badly?”\n\nGeralt arched an eyebrow at him.\n\n“Well, at least I didn’t sleep with anyone questionable this time. And anyway, I just want to make sure that we’re going to get some honest answers from people.” He swung his lute around from back to front with a sunny grin.\n\n“Jaskier,” Geralt warned, reaching for his doublet and swiping at air. “Jaskier!”\n\nHe glanced over his shoulder and saw that Geralt was serious, so he paused in the act of climbing up onto the wide edge of the fountain. “What?”\n\nGeralt finally caught him and yanked him back into the shadow of a building. “If we draw attention to ourselves she might see us, and disappear. We’re risking enough just asking around about her. And what happens if your playing brings a storm?”\n\nJaskier hung his head and scrubbed his hand over his face. “I just wanted to charm them into sharing information.”\n\n“It...wasn’t a bad idea.” Geralt wrapped his hand around Jaskier’s shoulder. “How are you feeling?” He glanced at the sky meaningfully.\n\n“I’m fine,” Jaskier declared, and then Geralt’s thumb swept across his collarbone, right where his doublet hung open from his shirt, and Jaskier amended, “Perhaps I should have an ale just to be sure.” He pulled away from Geralt’s touch and turned to look for a tavern.\n\n“Question first, drink later. Unless you’re content with carrying around someone else’s chaos.”\n\nJaskier deflated. “I hate it when you’re correct, especially when it deprives me of the pleasure of ale.”\n\n“You’re rarely deprived of pleasure, Jaskier.”\n\nThe tone in Geralt’s voice was at odds with the smirk on his face, but Jaskier shrugged it off. “Well, it will be a pleasure to sing a melancholic ballad again without bringing down an entire lake’s worth of rain, so onward we will push.”\n\nThey had no luck at the baker’s stall, except to find the most delicious sticky buns Jaskier had ever tasted, and he loudly praised them as they walked. As he sucked the honey from his fingertips Geralt said, “Bard,” in a strangled voice.\n\n“Do not tell me you aren’t enjoying that, Geralt, because I won’t believe you.”\n\nGeralt was staring resolutely at the bun in his hand. “They’re...very good.”\n\n“A fine concession. Come, there’s the jeweler’s stall.”\n\nThe jeweler wasn’t aware of anyone like Theda coming to town, but he tempted Jaskier into opening his purse to purchase a new silver ring for his collection. He found one etched with tiny flowers and was pleased to see that it fit his pinky finger perfectly.\n\n“How many rings do you need, anyway?” asked Geralt curiously when Jaskier showed him.\n\n“How many fingers do I have?”\n\nGeralt rolled his eyes.\n\n“May I buy you one, dear witcher? Your fingers are extremely naked.”\n\n“No.”\n\n“But, Geralt--”\n\n“No.”\n\n“Well. I daresay my hands could be considered weapons by this point, with all this silver. I’d send the monsters running from my fists. You could learn from my example.”\n\nGeralt let out an actual chuckle, low and rich, and a shiver ran down Jaskier’s back. “Let’s continue, bard, before you spill all your coin on luxuries. We’ll need it for lodgings tonight.”\n\nThe next stall sold ribbons, and the next shoes, and on and on down the row of stalls with no luck until Jaskier thought he would scream. Most people were as helpful as they could be, but no one remembered a stranger in a tattered green dress, and Jaskier had no better description to give. It was probable that she had changed her dress anyway. His exuberance from earlier had evaporated, leaving helplessness weighing down on his chest. Geralt placed a steadying hand between his shoulder blades and tried to encourage him.\n\n“That’s one we haven’t tried,” he said, pointing meaningfully at the stall of a palm reader. Draped in billowing silks that were frayed around the edges with age, the stall contained an older woman with heavy gray braids wrapped in coils at the nape of her neck. Her face was lined and her dark eyes were aloof, and she looked absolutely unfazed to see a witcher at her doorway.\n\n“Good madam,” Jaskier began, sweeping her a courteous bow before stepping into the tent. “My friend and I are in search of someone. Perhaps you’ve seen her, or heard of her--”\n\nThe woman held out her hand at Jaskier, who said, “Oh,” and reached for his purse, prepared to pay for answers.\n\n“Your hand, boy,” she said impatiently.\n\n“My dear lady, you flatter me. I haven’t been referred to as ‘boy’ for...well, let’s say a few years, anyway. But you are free to do so as much as you like.” He ignored Geralt’s snort and seated himself in the chair opposite her. He laid his hand in hers and waited.\n\nHer gaze wasn’t on his hand, however, but his eyes. “It won’t last forever. Nothing ever does.”\n\n“What won’t?”\n\n“The weather. Your search. Your secret. Take your pick.” She finally looked down at his hand and traced a line on his palm, after the fact.\n\nJaskier cleared his throat. “The woman--”\n\n“Ask the apothecary,” she interrupted calmly, and squeezed his hand. “You are stronger than you believe.”\n\nInexplicably, Jaskier felt the hot sting of tears behind his eyes, but the old palm reader held his hand until the silks stopped tossing in the sudden wind.\n\nGeralt led him away from the stall, guiding him into the mouth of an alley. “What was that about?”\n\n“I…” Jaskier said, his mouth dry and his words gone. Geralt waited, and he slid his hand around to cup the back of Jaskier’s neck. Helplessly, Jaskier leaned into the touch, and didn’t feel strong at all. “The apothecary,” he said hoarsely. “Let’s check there.”\n\nGeralt’s expression seemed oddly disappointed, maybe a little bit resigned, but his hand fell away and he followed Jaskier out into the sunshine.\n\nThe apothecary kept a tidy shop tucked back on a side street away from the bustling market, and Jaskier stepped aside to let Geralt take the lead as soon as they went inside. A stooped older gentleman stood behind the counter, shrewdly appraising Geralt while his eyes only skipped dismissively over Jaskier.\n\n“Haven’t seen a witcher in ages,” he said, flattening his palms on the countertop. “Have you brought me anything to trade?”\n\nGeralt shook his head. “Sorry, not this time. We’re looking for information.”\n\nThe apothecary gestured at his shop. “I only have tinctures, salves, powders, and oils here, as you see.”\n\n“Surely for the right price,” Jaskier began, but halted when Geralt put up his hand.\n\n“Do you have asphodel? My supply is low.” He hesitated and glanced at Jaskier, then back at the old man. “And chamomile oil. A bottle of that.”\n\nJaskier was pleased that Geralt remembered his favorite moisturizing oil, though he was a little surprised that he would want to buy it for him. Geralt was being oddly solicitous lately, and for some reason this particular thing brought that into clarity for Jaskier. He supposed that it was because of the curse, that perhaps Geralt pitied him, and that took some of the shine away from the moment. He had been clinging to the little touches that Geralt gave him, the brief, warm glances, the gentle words. He wondered if they would all disappear once Jaskier was free of the curse. They had certainly been few and far between before.\n\nThe items were produced and an amount agreed upon, but Geralt slid twice that amount across the counter. The man narrowed his eyes at the coins and then tilted his head, just a bit, letting them know he was listening.\n\n“A sorceress,” Jaskier said, stepping forward, “possibly wearing a green dress. Faded blonde hair, a little crazy around the eyes. She would have arrived three days ago. We were told you might know her.”\n\n“What do you want with her?”\n\n“Does it matter to you?”\n\n“Mere curiosity.”\n\nJaskier crossed his arms over his chest. “She cursed me, and I’d like her to take it back.”\n\nThe old man laughed. “I’ve known a few sorceresses in my day, and not a one of them ever took back a curse for saying ‘please.’”\n\n“I never said we’d give her the option,” Jaskier said seriously. “I don’t believe in pleading with murderers.”\n\nThe man sobered and sighed. “She’ll be back tomorrow at noon to pick up some supplies I didn’t have on hand when she visited me.”\n\nJaskier slumped with relief and found that Geralt was close behind him, propping him up. “I’ll make sure you get your payment from her, for your troubles,” Geralt said, then tucked his purchases away into his pockets and they left.\n\nFor the first time in days Jaskier could take a deep breath, filling his lungs and his heart with hope. “Well, I don’t know about you, Geralt, but I could do with some dinner. Shall we find some fine establishment to feed us?”\n\n“I’d settle for some stew in a rented room,” Geralt replied, nodding toward the swinging sign just down the street from the apothecary that advertised ‘The Nesting Hen.’\n\nJaskier sighed. “Your tastes are so pedestrian.”\n\n“You’re just feeling spoiled after a day with Yen.”\n\n“I will say this about her, the woman does appreciate the finer things in life. It’s been quite some time since I’ve had a bath like that one.”\n\n“Hmm,” Geralt agreed.\n\nJaskier paid for supper and lodgings, then they were shown to a smallish room on the second floor with a smallish bed and a smallish window.\n\n“We’ve definitely gotten more for less before,” Jaskier pointed out, “but at least the window overlooks the apothecary so we can keep an eye out for her.”\n\n“It’s fine,” Geralt said, shrugging at the state of the room. “Bed looks clean.”\n\n“It really says a lot about our standards that we’re excited about that.”\n\n“You could always go live at Yenn’s. Plenty of bedrooms there.” Geralt smirked faintly as he opened the door for a nervous maid carrying two steaming bowls of stew.\n\n“There’s plenty of Yennefer there,” Jaskier replied. “You’re right, this place is fine.”\n\nThe maid looked pleased that he’d said so.\n\n~*~\n\nThe stew was actually quite good, with big chunks of carrot and potato, and meat that was recognizably beef, and Jaskier felt his spirits brighten a little with a full belly and a real possibility of breaking his curse. “Well,” he said, patting his stomach, “it may not be up to Yennefer’s standards, but in this case your pedestrian choice was a good one.”\n\n“You seem better,” Geralt said, eyeing him cautiously. “More relaxed.”\n\n“I have hope that we’ll find her, now. Before it seemed hopeless.”\n\nGeralt gave him a lopsided smile. “You know I won’t stop until we find her. Whether that’s tomorrow or a year from now.”\n\nJaskier’s eyes widened, both at the emotional declaration and the notion of a long term search. “Gods forbid. Can you imagine me, like this for a year? I’d go mad. I’d have to buy boring clothes so as not to excite myself.”\n\n“That would be a tragedy,” Geralt agreed, but his raised eyebrow said otherwise. He leaned back slightly in his chair, rocking on two legs.\n\n“Stop it, you love my colors. I’m a brightly feathered songbird. Think how drab your world would be without me.” Jaskier realized too late that he was skirting a topic too intimate for good sense to allow.\n\nGeralt tilted his head a little, his gaze warm. “Drab indeed.”\n\nJaskier swallowed hard. “Well. Anyway. It would be a shame if both of us wandered the Continent together garbed in black and gray, with no music to accompany us.”\n\n“I’d probably get more done. The monsters wouldn’t hear us coming.”\n\nJaskier grinned, but it fell quickly from his face. “Geralt. I’m nothing without music. If I can’t play, if I can’t…feel, what am I? What good am I?”\n\nGeralt’s chair settled with a solid thump on the floor. “Don’t do that.”\n\n“What?”\n\n“You’re worth more than your music, Jaskier.”\n\nJaskier looked away, his heart in his throat. He was afraid to desire more, having already received more from Geralt in four days than he had in years of knowing him. He shouldn’t be greedy.\n\n“Thank you,” he finally said, clearing his throat and glancing quickly at Geralt, who was looking out the window.\n\n“We’ll find her tomorrow. All this will be nothing more than a song to be written beside a campfire.”\n\nJaskier took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He watched Geralt’s hand tighten around his tankard of ale, his knuckles whitening, and Jaskier’s own hand felt empty.\n\n~*~"}
+{"text": "Scott looks like he just ate the last cookie in the jar, and Stiles knows there's nothing good about that look.  Because that's the look he had when they were seven and he broke Stiles' action figure, and when they were twelve and he told the sheriff about them playing with his guns, when he got bitten, and when he and Kira almost missed graduation.\n\n\"What did you do?\" He asks, narrowing his eyes. Scott  winces.\n\n\"So, um. You know that thing you told me never to tell anyone ever?\"\n\n\"Scott. \"\n\n\"I told Derek.\"\n\n\"Oh my god.\" Scott flinches back, looking guilty. \"Scott!\" He screeches. Honest to god screeches. He may hurt the ears of Beacon Hills' werewolf population. But Scott deserves it. Because he swore – swore, damn it – that he would never tell a soul. Especially not Derek, who has claws and fangs and hates his guts and could kill him.\n\n\"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to! It just sort of...slipped?\"\n\nThere's smoke coming out his nose. Scott gulps.\n\n\"Okay, so, you see, we were - well. We were talking about you...\"\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n\"Don't you think we should talk to Stiles about this?\" Scott asks, raising an eyebrow. He knows he sucks at planning and strategy, okay, but Derek really isn't that much better than him.\n\n\"No.\"\n\n\"Why not?\"\n\n\"Because.\" He snaps, the way he always does. \"He could get hurt.\" Which, what?\n\n\"What? No. We should tell him. He could help. He's way better at this then we are anyway.\" He frowns. Stiles getting hurt? Over something like this? Scott's only known what Stiles was for a few years now, only since the summer before they started high school, but he's fairly certain that, if everything in the past hadn't hurt him, then this wouldn't either. He's pretty indestructible.\n\nDerek doesn't seem to feel the same.\n\n\"What part of 'he could get hurt' don't you understand?\"\n\n\"Dude, I think it's pretty hard to hurt a dragon.\" He scoffs. \"And besides, he loves you too much not to -\" oh.\n\nOh shit.\n\nHe did not do what he thinks he just did. He can't have. Stiles'll –\n\n\"What.\" Derek says, and he sounds angry. Well, he always sounds a bit angry around Scott, but this is angrier. Like, 'rip your throat out angry'.\n\n\"Nothing.\" He tries. \"I didn't say anything.\"\n\n\"He what?!\" Derek looks pretty pissed, and Scott - well, Scott doesn't care too much about that, because Stiles is so much scarier when he's angry, and he's probably gonna be furious when Scott tells him what happened. Though, he really doesn't get why Derek's so angry. He thought there was maybe something going on between him and Stiles already, so the news that Stiles loves him really shouldn't be such a shock. Does he really not like him this much?\n\nOh man, this is gonna crush Stiles.\n\n\"Um.\" Scott backs away. \"Yeah. I’m gonna go.\"\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\nStiles frowns down at his hands.\n\n\"He was pissed?\" He wonders. Scott nods. \"Oh. So he doesn't - oh.\"\n\n\"I'm sorry bro.\"\n\n\"No, it's - it's fine. He's not obligated to like me back. It's okay.\" He feels pretty far from okay, but he'll get over it. Eventually.\n\n\"I just don't get why he was so pissed man. Everyone in the pack can tell, I don't -\"\n\n\"Please stop talking about it.\" He sighs. \"Just - please.\" Scott shuts up. \"You should go.\"\n\n\"I really am sorry, Stiles.\"\n\n\"Yeah, I know you are buddy.\" He doesn't even have the energy to be mad at Scott right now. Mostly, he just wishes he was old enough to do a full shift, and fly like his mom used to.\n\n\"Are you gonna a be okay?\"\n\n\"I'll be fine.\"\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\nStiles is a dragon?\n\nThat doesn't make any sense. He would have seemed if there was something different about Stiles. He doesn't spend much time around humans, sure, but he remembers what they smell like. Lydia always smelled a bit different, but that's because she's a banshee. Right?\n\nBut maybe she smells normal, and Stiles is the one who smells off? He's been basing the scent of a normal human off what Stiles normally smells like. But apparently He's the most dangerous creature in the pack, so he's not exactly human at all. But he smelled so familiar. He -\n\nHe smells like his mom. Claudia Stilinski, the only other human who ever came to the Hale house. So of course he would smell familiar. His mother was Derek's baby sitter until Laura was old enough to drive.\n\nClaudia was a dragon.\n\nScott didn't seem surprised. In fact, he seemed to think it was weird Derek didn't know. So does the whole pack know?\n\nLooking back on the past few years, it seems kind of obvious, now. Stiles is never really hurt. If he is, the injuries don't last long. When they were fighting the Alphas, Stiles completely shattered his wooden bat, which now that he thought about it, is impossible for a human to do. And he sleeps in a nest of blankets on his bed (that last one might just be a Stiles thing).\n\nWhy didn't he say anything?\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\nIt's probably strange that Stiles is used to being slammed into hard surfaces by now.\n\n“Why didn’t you tell me?” Derek growls.\n\nOh, so they’re talking about this now?\n\n“I thought you knew.” Stiles gets out. God, Derek’s really pissed about this. There’s no doubt in his mind now that he’ll be kicked out of the pack for this. It hurts. He probably could have handled a polite let down, maybe even Derek not talking to him. He could. But this? This, he doesn’t think he can handle.\n\n“Don’t you think I would have said something if I did?” Derek snaps. He shoves him harder against the wall before just letting him go. Stiles rubs a hand across his face.\n\n“Maybe you were being nice about it.”\n\n“Nice about it? There’s nothing to be nice about, Stiles. We’re pack. We tell each other things like this.”\n\n“I’m still pack?” After all the growling and snapping?\n\nDerek frowns. “Of course you are. Why would you be?”\n\n“You’re not gonna feel, uh, weird? Around me?” Stiles asks, fidgeting. He kind of wants Derek to leave, so he can deal with the fact that he’s been rejected in peace.\n\n“What? No? I’m just – I’m angry. I wish you’d told me.”\n\n“It took me seven years to even hint at Lydia that I like her. What makes you think I’d tell you I’m in love with you if you don’t even love me back?” He huffs, annoyed.\n\n“I – wait, what?” Derek blinks. “In love with me?”\n\n“Is that not what we’re talking about?” Stiles asks, feeling nauseous all of the sudden. Did Derek really not know?\n\n“Scott told me you’re a dragon, not – you’re in love with me?”\n\n“You didn’t know I’m a dragon?” Stiles shakes his head. “Jesus. Derek, actual smoke comes out of nose sometimes. I warm my coffee just with my hands. The whole pack knows! How oblivious are you?”\n\n“You love me.” Derek says again.\n\n“Yeah.” He takes a breath. “Yeah I do.” Derek just blinks at him. “Look, I get it if you don’t want me to –”\n\n“I – me too.” Derek blurts. Stiles raises an eyebrow. “I mean. I love you too. I’m in love with you. Jesus, Stiles – I’ve been in love with you for years.”\n\n“Oh. I – oh.” His eyes widen. “You –”\n\n“Shut up.” Derek breathes, and then he leans forward, puts his hands on either side of his face, and kisses him. Now, he doesn’t have anything to compare it to, but it’s probably the best kiss he’s ever had.\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n“Derek didn’t know I was a dragon!” Stiles announces at the next meeting. Derek puts his head in his hands, and Isaac makes a face.\n\n“Oh my god.”"}
+{"text": "In the next six months they make an effort to cross as many things off of their list as they can.\n\nThey finally see Christ the Redeemer when they take off to Brazil after a rainy afternoon spent on the couch when Louis turned to him with mischievous eyes and said, “I wonder what the weather’s like in Rio?”\n\nPeru, a new addition to the list, is only a short plane ride away so they fly across South America to climb the Incan Trail and walk amongst the ancient ruins of Machu Picchu.\n\nThey end up on the Greek island of Santorini after a few restless weeks back at home, and then one day out of the blue Louis decides he wants to try surfing, so they catch the next flight out to Australia. They tour the Sydney Opera House and tan on the best beaches they can find. They both learn to surf even though Louis turns out to be the only one who’s actually good at it, and before they leave they get the opportunity to sail out to a small island along the Great Barrier Reef for a dive.\n\nThey experience things together that most people only ever dream of and Harry appreciates every memory, but he finds that even with all the bright and colorful distractions around them Louis is never far from his mind or his heart.\n\nHarry gets good at reading his different smiles and grows fond of watching him nap against the windows of airplanes. His chest balloons each time Louis proudly takes his hand as they’re weaving through crowded streets and markets, and his heart nearly stops each time Louis chooses to kiss him rather than marvel at the beautiful things surrounding them.\n\nAt first Harry thinks he’s crazy with how much he feels just from being near the boy; it doesn’t take long before he realizes that he’s in love.\n\nIt’s not surprising really considering it is something that has always been there, but once Harry can put a name to it, it’s all he can think about. He doesn’t know if he should just say it or wait for Louis to do it first, but he decides that he can’t wait any longer one night when Louis comes over after spending the evening with his family.\n\nHe lets himself in with the set of keys that he insisted on having made when they first started dating and finds Harry in the kitchen. He immediately buries his nose in the layers of Harry’s hair when he hugs him from behind. “You smell really good.”\n\n“Took a shower a little while ago,” Harry tells him. He turns away from the pot he had been stirring to give Louis the attention he’s obviously looking for with the way his hands are traveling along his waist. He takes Louis’ chin to tilt his lips up to his level. Louis makes a pleased sound, rising up on his toes to chase Harry’s tongue. His face crumples when Harry pulls back with a soft, “I missed you.”\n\n“Cleary not a whole lot or else you would still be kissing me,” Louis mumbles.  Harry won’t fall for his guilt routine; not again anyway.\n\n“I have to finish cooking.”\n\nLouis sneaks his devious hands under Harry’s shirt to run his nails along the plane of his stomach. “Fuck dinner,” he smirks. “Come hang out with me instead.” Harry laughs at the tempting offer, knowing that a ‘come hang out with me’ from Louis has a completely different meaning than it would coming from most people. Harry has burned a lot of meals from falling for that line.\n\nHe politely declines and manages to squirm out of his reach to return to the food. Louis complains about it, but only for a couple of minutes before he takes a seat at the kitchen table to wait him out.\n\nHarry sneaks glances at him from over his shoulder, and the urge to shout out what he’s feeling is overwhelming.  He has loved Louis for months, but tonight the feeling is amplified each time Louis glances up from his phone and meets his eyes. He wonders if Louis can tell how fast his heart is beating when he decides that now is as good of a time as any to let him know.\n\n“Hey Lou? I was thinking about it earlier and I can’t remember the last thing we added to the list…”\n\nLouis frowns, briefly looking up from his phone. “It was The Great Wall,” he says matter-of-factly.\n\n“No, I think that was right before the other one you added... Could you please go get it for me so I can check? I would but,” Harry gestures at the pot of sauce he’s stirring and Louis hangs his head back like it’s a death sentence, but complies.\n\nHe returns a minute later with the journal; their list, a handful of pictures, and a pen sticking out from the pages. He places it down on the island before hopping up to perch himself on it as well.\n\n“I’m telling you it’s China. I wrote it myself,” Louis says with absolute certainty.\n\n“Could you check really quick to make sure?” Harry gives him his best puppy eyes as he points to the food he’s busy watching over. Louis rolls his eyes at him and mumbles something about him being hopeless as he pulls the list from the journal and unfolds it.\n\n“I swear you are like the most forgetful person I’ve ever met. It’s going to say The Great Wall and then you’re going to be mad when I gloat because you know I’m always r-”\n\nHarry turns to watch him as his words die on his lips.\n\n“…What does it say, Lou?”\n\nA stubborn grin breaks out on Louis’ face from having to admit that he’s wrong about the last thing written there, yet his voice is soft and full of emotion when he answers.\n\n“It says, ‘to fall in love’.”  When Louis tears his eyes away from the words on the page, the strings of nerves that had wrapped themselves around Harry’s heart fall away. He never really doubted that Louis loves him, but being the first one to voice it is still a bit scary.\n\nHarry takes the pen from beside him and draws a thick, black line right through the center of the words he wrote less than an hour ago. He drops everything he’s holding when Louis reaches for him.\n\n“I love you too,” gets repeated half a dozen times between their lips, causing Harry to smile with each new declaration.\n\nThe sauce he’s supposed to be stirring starts bubbling angrily on the stove out of neglect, but Louis is so intent on holding Harry there that he locks him in the triangle of his legs and crosses his ankles so he can’t move.\n\nHarry cackles into his mouth when he isn’t able to step away. “Lou, the food! We can’t just-”\n\n“Yes we can. I already told you, fuck the food,” he says under his breath. Harry manages to break away and has just enough time to turn off the stove before Louis ropes him back in and slots their mouths together in another heated kiss. Harry wants to point out the fact that they’re not going to have anything to eat later, but he loses his train of thought when Louis deliberately shoves his tongue in his mouth.\n\nWith him being the most impatient and impulsive person on Earth, Harry had half expected for Louis to strip down right where he is and bend himself over the island or at least the table (it wouldn’t be the first time it’s happened), which is why Harry’s surprised when he chooses instead to slide off the countertop and starts walking them in the direction of Harry’s room.\n\nIt’s a long journey through the house that lands them right in the center of the bed. Louis tugs at his waist until his body is flush against him, pressing him down into the mattress with his weight.\n\nHarry could spend all night lying here with Louis beneath him this way. He loves the amount of emotion that Louis brings to their kissing even when it isn’t leading up to something more. Tonight is no exception, especially with the way Louis keeps nipping at his bottom lip to make his heart pound inside of his chest. He savors every bit of it while he can, because he knows from experience that this sweet, tender version of Louis will fade just as soon as arousal hits and his attention span reaches its end.\n\nAs if on cue he starts tugging at their clothes with hurried hands. Harry chuckles, causing Louis to narrow his eyes at him.\n\n“What are you laughing at? Take this off,” he complains while trying to pull Harry’s shirt over his head. He throws it somewhere in the room and then heads straight for the drawstring of his joggers. He unties the bow holding them on Harry’s hips and sits up to shove them down his thighs to pool at his knees. He stops, just short of wrapping an eager fist around him when Harry chokes back another laugh.\n\n“You do realize I’m the only one naked here, right?” he asks looking between them.\n\nLouis frowns down at himself and the erection visible against his zipper and immediately starts working to pull off his shirt. Harry helps out by unbuttoning his jeans. He grins when he recognizes them as his own, now realizing why he couldn’t find them a few days ago and also why he thought Louis’ ass looked particularly enticing earlier.\n\nThey push their abandoned clothes to the floor when they’re finally bare, and when Harry kisses him, this time it’s not as rushed. Louis is so hard that he’s already leaking between them as Harry sets their new pace.\n\nIt has always interested him, how docile Louis becomes once they get to this point. Louis is always the loudest person in the room, no matter what. It’s such a stark contrast to what he’s like when he gets all worked up this way. It’s almost like looking at a different person with the way he lets Harry handle him.\n\nA quick dig around the inside of his bedside table produces the lube and a condom, and Louis’ eyes darken, watching as Harry pops the cap and squeezes a few lines onto his longest fingers. He settles down where Louis’ thighs are open for him. He bites a trail down to his opening and licks over it before gently working the tips of his fingers inside.\n\nLouis’ eyes are closed where he’s resting against the pillows, his chest heavily rising and falling with each shaky breath that his fingers draw from him. “I love you,” Harry whispers just to see his reaction. It’s a glorious one that causes Louis’ dick to twitch where it’s curved up against his stomach. His eyelids flutter open to reveal a sliver of dark blue that has Harry reaching for his own dick when it twitches on instinct.\n\n“I love you too,” he gasps when Harry twists his fingers inside of him and his eyes roll back again. The words are still relatively new. They said them for the first time less than half an hour ago. He’s still getting used to hearing them, but the tingle they leave on Harry’s skin still feels just as wonderful.\n\nHe dedicates a few more minutes to opening him up before letting his fingers slip out of him. He moves to align their chests again.\n\nWhen he meets Louis’ eyes he finds that his face looks pinched from concentrating so hard to not touch himself. Harry kisses his lips and reaches down to give him a few long strokes to take the edge off.\n\n“Ready?” he asks when Louis’ head leaves the pillow from trying to chase his mouth. He flops back down with a soft whine when Harry circles a teasing thumb around the tip of his dick. He bites down on a smirk when Louis is only able to breathe a quiet yes. “You’re sure, Lou?” he asks again, partly to be certain that he won’t hurt him, but mostly because it’s always fun to tease him for a change.\n\nWhen Louis nods, Harry gathers his lips in another long kiss before sitting back to open the condom and slip it on. He sits between Louis’ thighs, inching forward to line himself up. The two of them lock eyes and take a deep breath before Harry slowly pushes himself inside.\n\nLouis’ face is the picture of concentration as he breathes through the stretch. Harry admires his focus, feeling his own features tightening with each second that passes that he’s not allowed to move. Harry waits for him though, even when the pressure feels so tight that it’s almost painful to stay so still.\n\n“Now?” he grits out when the seconds start to bleed into minutes and he’s honestly hanging on by a thread.\n\nHe lets go of the breath he was holding when Louis gives him a quick succession of nods, consent that has Harry immediately retracting his hips to push back in.\n\nEvery soft roll of his hips has Louis clinging to him and panting in his ear, holding on as he’s being rocked into. His ankles are hooked together below Harry’s bum to help him get deeper inside. Harry can tell that it isn’t working a few minutes later when he still hasn’t found his spot.\n\n“Turn over,” he instructs as he gently pulls out of him. He strokes himself while Louis hurries to settle down on his stomach.\n\nHarry straddles him, his knees bracketing Louis’ thighs as he sits back to admire the line of golden skin that leads from the nape of Louis’ neck down to the roundness of his ass. His hands grip into as much of it as they can. He bites back a moan seeing how wide he’s already stretched.\n\nHe positions himself so that he’s looming over Louis’ body, his front parallel with the slight dip of Louis’ back as he reaches a hand between them to guide himself inside again. Louis’ fists grip into the sheets where his hands are splayed by his side as Harry experiments with different thrusts. He knows he has finally gotten it right when a ragged moan rips from the back of his throat.\n\nUp until now, Louis had been pretty quiet. His silence used to concern Harry, seeing as how any other time he never seems to shut up. He used to spend inordinate amounts of time checking and double checking that he was alright, however the deep sounds he’s making now let Harry know that he’s feeling great without even having to ask.\n\nHarry lets out a cry of his own when Louis rises up a bit on his knees to fit his hand between himself and the bed. It’s an unexpected move that pushes him back and has Harry’ stomach clenching to keep from coming too early.\n\nHis grip tightens around Louis’ shoulder as he tries to regain control when he can feel himself going over the edge. “I’m close,” he warns with bated breath. Louis nods, unable to say anything as his hand works somewhere that Harry can’t see. He gets lost watching the muscles of his shoulders work combined with the bit of sweat running down the slope of his spine and he feels himself slipping.  “Lou,” he warns again when he can feel he orgasm building from within. To his relief, Louis comes just a few seconds before him when every sound he suppressed before comes out in a loud whine into the mattress.\n\nThe visual, the sounds, and the feeling of Louis tightening around him are all too much. Harry’s stomach tugs downward as he comes, his nails leaving imprints on Louis’ skin when his orgasm tears through him.\n\nThe room is blurrier than Harry remembers when he cracks his eyes open. He pulls out and ties the condom off, but he can’t make it any further than that before Louis is grabbing for him. He comes down with Louis lightly scratching against his scalp in the quiet. He kisses his lips, and Harry’s heart starts racing all over again when Louis whispers that he loves him.\n\nIt’s still early, but they lie there for so long and he’s so comfortable where Louis’ cradling him against his chest that he feels as though he could drift off for a nap. Unfortunately, he gets dragged back into consciousness when Louis’ voice rumbles against his ear.\n\n“Haz?”\n\n“Hmmm?”\n\n“Are you asleep?”\n\nWell not anymore, he isn’t. “Nope. Wide awake,” he answers sleepily.\n\n“Oh…that’s good…”\n\nThere’s a short pause between his words that makes Harry wonder what he wants.\n\n“Why? What’s up?” Harry asks curiously.\n\nThere’s another long pause before Louis reluctantly answers him. “Haz, I’m really hungry,” he whines, causing Harry to snort a laugh into his chest. He pulls back to see Louis’ face pinched together from the ‘I told you so’ he thinks is coming. Harry takes pity on him though and refrains from saying it even though he really, really wants to.\n\nLouis gives him the most pitiful expression that Harry’s ever seen. He caves in an instant with a fond roll of his eyes.\n\n“I’ll go finish cooking dinner.” The ‘even though I tried to tell you that you’d be hungry later’ goes unsaid.\n\nLouis sighs with relief and rewards him with a sloppy kiss for not gloating. “Thank you so much! I’m literally starving,” he claims, making Harry laugh again and shake his head at the idiot grinning down at him.\n\n“Remind me why I keep you around again?” Harry asks. His stomach flip flops when Louis’ fixes him with a look of complete adoration.\n\n“Because I’m in love with you, and you love me too,” he says simply, and Harry can’t really argue with him when he knows every word to be true."}
+{"text": "“Our visitor has arrived,” announces Urᵭr and her sisters chitter in excitement, the sounds leaving their mouths bouncing off the walls of the cave in an eerie echo once more. The air in the dark cave is so cold that a shiver tears through her body. Moisture hangs in the air, dampening her clothes and hair almost instantly. The atmosphere is oppressive, sucking the air out of her lungs. The Norns themselves are three shapes sitting around a well that is made of cobbled stone and that, covered with moss and grime, looks old and dirty but the surface of the water in the well is as smooth and pristine as polished glass, a distant light shimmering from deep within it.\n\nThe light from which once sprung all life in the Nine Realms.\n\nThe shapes that are the Norns are wearing dark, hooded cloaks that seem to be one mass of flowing fabric and their faces are gaunt and of a pale turquoise, their eyes black with a sliver of white in them instead of irises and, when Frigga looks closer, it appears that their cloaks are one with the well too. They are not corporeal either, not fully at least, for their form seems to be pulsating between the corporeal and the translucent with every blink of her eye, their existence meant to baffle even the Gods. One of them, Verᵭandi, if the depictions in the old books are to be trusted, is spinning a thread from the water, white sparks erupting around her hands and rising up into the air.\n\nFrigga rises to her feet, silently chanting a healing spell to mend her fractured ankles in the hope that her burned-down glamour will allow her this little mercy, and then bows before them. “Esteemed Norns, I have come to seek—”\n\nSkuld, the third of the sisters, raises her hand and brushes a turquoise, seemingly fleshless finger against her dark lips to silence her before she turns her attention to an entanglement of thick root, behind which Frigga glimpses a flash of gold. “You may step out now,” the Norn says.\n\nThe Queen’s lips part in surprise when an all too familiar shape emerges from the shadows, searching for her gaze, stupefied with amazement.\n\n“Odin,” she whispers, her hands clutching her chest as if to take her heart in her hand when a wave of existential dread floods through her. “W-what … Why are you here?”\n\n“Heimdall cannot see her,” replies the Allfather in a gruff voice as he crosses the distance between them in three large strides. He takes her hands in his and gives them a squeeze that is meant to be reassuring but does very little to mask the worry flickering in his seeing eye. “Amora has shrouded herself from the gatekeeper’s gaze.”\n\n“I have not been fortunate either,” Frigga whispers, the failure of her unsuccessful attempts to determine the origin of dark Seiᵭr and her inability to guard the magic of her son sitting on her chest like a boulder. “And I fear she might have stolen the crystal containing Loki’s magic,” she mumbles, for the animal that attacked her only moments ago was no ordinary hawk, no, she thinks, her mind swiftly piecing the puzzle together, no, that was most certainly Amora, she is quite sure of that, because she has never been quite able to shake off the feeling that she was being followed ever since she left Asgard. “I was unable to defend it.”\n\n“The two of us, outwitted by that young thing,” Odin snarls, pounding Gúngnir onto the rock in a sudden flash of hot, white anger, shaking the pebble on the ground and startling the surface of the well. “Tell us,” he demands in an angry growl, turning his attention to the fate weavers, “how this is possible. What bestowed upon the Enchantress such powers?”\n\n“And now?” asks Thor, eyes alight with joy. His brother’s facial expression reminds Loki of the Midgardian animal that the mortals call dog and that communicates its excitement through extensive tail wagging. He is quite certain that, had the God of Thunder had a tail, he would be wagging it at this very moment. Not that Loki does not feel a tingle of excitement as well. Ingesting the ice Thor has brought to his chambers from the part of Midgard where the cold never recedes even when the rest of their world blossoms into summer has indeed fueled his strength, finally allowing him to swing his legs out of the bed he has been chained to for the past days. Ingesting the ice is also fueling his mental strength and he is beginning to understand that none of the spells he practiced in the past will be lost to him because wielding magic is learning how to manipulate energetic impulses drawn from other dimensions to disrupt the code programing the current reality. Luckily, everything he learned about sorcery is still in his mental possession.\n\nWell, luckily for him.\n\nLoki smirks at his brother. “Retribution,” he says and flicks his fingers.\n\n“Nooooooo!” Thor yells as brownish-red slime spreads across his skin and he begins to shrink in size. “Don’t,” he begs until his words trail off. “Loki, please, don’t! Stop … N-n-no no …”\n\nLoki glances down at his brother, whose slug head barely reaches his hips and erupts into a gleeful, self-satisfied chuckle. “You brought this one upon yourself with your inconsiderate ice jokes.” Thor opens his slug mouth, rubbery slime lips moving soundlessly. “Uh-uh. Slugs can’t speak.” He grabs his chest in mock sympathy. “I’m truly inconsolable. Now, if you’ll excuse me,” he says, flitting a nervous glance towards the door leading to his bath, “I need to … refresh myself.”\n\nLoki turns away from Thor, who moves with a faint squish-squash sound that is undoubtedly going to leave a slimy trail on the floor tiles but that will be worth it, will it not, oh yes, and softly pushes the door to his bath open. The room has not changed, of course it hasn’t, why would it, but somehow Loki expected the large bathtub and the sink to look different for it can’t be only you who is no longer the same. The door clicks shut behind him and the familiar sight unsettles him because … He doesn’t even know why exactly, except for maybe the spiteful voice that arises from the cesspit beneath his consciousness into which he has banished his self-destructive, self-rejecting thoughts; that spiteful voice telling him that all of this is a lie. That his existence is a lie. That he is a Frost Giant runt that doesn’t deserve the chambers of an Aesir prince.\n\nLoki tries to smother the thought but his mind is drawn to its fervor as a moth is drawn to a flame.\n\nThey are brutish and unruly beasts that know no warmth. They abandoned you. They left you to die. Midget. They didn’t want you. Runt. Mutt. They are beasts. They cast you out. They left you to die. They left you to die. They. Left. You. To. Die. TO DIE. No one wants you, no one.\n\n“Stop it,” Loki whispers because he knows that the voice is lying.\n\nNone of these things are ever going to make me love you any less. You are my brother and you will remain my brother until the day Ragnarök befalls us.\n\nLoki steps forth and forces himself to look at his Jötunn face in the mirror. He knows what he is going to see because he saw the blue face with its silver markings and its blood-red eyes before but that knowledge does little to shield him from the shockwave of repulsion exploding in his chest. He sucks in a shaky breath, trying to soothe himself, but the air does not calm him because even though he always suspected that he was not like the other Asgardians, not in a million years would he have expected his otherness to wear such a horrid visage.\n\nHe steps even closer, raising his hand, stretching it out towards the mirror’s surface, and recoils when his palm touches that of his reflection. This is you, his accursed inner voice tells him in a grotesque snarl. Unworthy runt. This is what you are. This is how you look. This is you. Putrid monster.\n\nLoki casts a simulacrum of the Aesir face he has been wearing for centuries over his Frost Giant skin almost on impulse because, while having learned to change the form of others, he has not yet mastered the art of shapeshifting. Unfortunately, the sight does not calm him either because it is a lie, isn’t it, yes, everything is a lie, everything, oh yes, that face is as much of a lie as the love Odin claimed to have for him because there is no way in Hel the Allfather could bring himself to ever truly love a Frost Giant.\n\nYou are not like them, Loki. I can sense it in you. Do you not see that they are afraid of you? Do you not see that your mother is merely pretending to teach you because she is scared of the power that slumbers within you? Do you not see that, if you were to discover your true potential, they would all tremble before you?\n\nThe illusion in the mirror vanishes when a single thought clatters into Loki’s mind.\n\n\nHow did Amora know?\n\n\nAnger sears through him, almost blinding him.\n\nThat scheming little quim.\n\nLoki turns on the faucet of the sink to splash water into his face out of habit but as soon as his hands touch the spurt, he feels the erratic pulse of raw, untamed magic in his fingertips and, before his mind has the time to grasp the implications behind the sensation, the water crystallizes into solid ice upon his touch. He mutters a string of expletives under his breath and flees the bathroom, enraged by the realization that he now possesses powers he will have to learn to control from scratch.\n\nSlug-Thor has made his way to the doors of Loki’s chambers and the sight of his brother in a state of utter helplessness instills in him at least some minimal degree of satisfaction. Yet, he knows deep inside of him how uncalled for the sensation is because this mess is not his gullible, good-hearted twerp of a brother’s fault. Loki blows out a breath and flicks his fingers, dissipating the spell.\n\n“I am going to kill you,” Thor grumbles as soon as he has vocal cords again.\n\n“Yeah, well, I am going to look for Amora,” Loki retorts, despising himself for the slight tremble in his voice.\n\n“Alone?” Thor asks, genuine worry twisting his features when he becomes aware of Loki’s brittle state of mind. “I am coming with you, of course,” he announces forcefully.\n\n“You don’t have to,” Loki growls, snatching the pouch from the armchair where the God of Thunder has so mindlessly tossed it upon the accursed book about accursed Jötunn magic.\n\n“Don’t be foolish, brother,” Thor replies and Loki hates how the moniker makes him feel undeserving of the Aesir life given to him once more. “Father has been looking for her for five days. If he hasn’t returned by now—”\n\n“He clearly isn’t doing an all too marvelous job with tracking her down,” Loki snaps.\n\n“I was going to say, ‘Who knows in which hel-mouth she is lurking?’ but …” Thor swallows audibly. “Do you know where she is?”\n\nLoki shakes his head. “No,” he whispers in defeat. “But I might have a fairly good idea where to start looking.”\n\n“Did you not hear me?” Odin repeats and Frigga is quite certain that the anger dripping from her husband’s every word will not aid their quest for knowledge. The Norns chitter, exchanging glances, their shapes fluttering in and out of translucence once more, their cloaks wafting about them even though there is no breeze. “You rule the destiny of us all! Tell me why you would weave such a thread of fate for my son!”\n\nFor the fraction of a moment, the Queen is convinced Odin will level Gúngnir at the Norns and she tugs at his arm, holding him back. “Please,” she urges the beings before her in a solemn whisper, “we wish to help him.”\n\n“The prince will help himself,” says Urᵭr.\n\n“Where dwells the Enchantress?” Odin bellows before Frigga even has a chance to respond. “What gave her the powers she possesses?”\n\n“Amora dwells outside the Realms,” says Verᵭandi and the thread she is weaving begins to glow brighter as her words echo through the darkness cold and damp. “As does the Seiᵭr that poisoned the prince.”\n\n“What did you mean when you said Loki will help himself?” Frigga asks before Odin has a chance to bark at them once more.\n\n“His destiny is no longer in your hands,” says Skuld in a voice that instills a sense of terror and foreboding in the heart of the Queen before the Norn turns to Odin. “You sought our counsel eons past, Allfather, about your firstborn child, and it grieves us to see that you have not yet abandoned your old ways.”\n\nA trembling breath slips past the Queen’s lips because she has always feared the consequences of manipulating Asgard’s memory to help her husband conceal a truth that would later make the Aesir think of Thor as the Allfather’s firstborn child. She feared that those consequences would come back to haunt her one day but she complied anyway, perhaps out of love, perhaps out of naivety, and now the Norns are punishing her for her misdeeds past and present.\n\n“I have,” replies Odin but the tremor in his voice belies the conviction displayed on his face. “I have tried to protect him from the same destiny. I have tried to help him.”\n\n“Your help is not what he needs, Allfather,” says Skuld.\n\n“The prince will help himself,” repeats Urᵭr. “He will help himself with the aid of whom he thinks of as his brother.”\n\n“They are departing Asgard as we speak,” says Verᵭandi and a sense of urgency slams into Frigga, knocking the breath out of her lungs.\n\n“They will travel to the Svartur and they will face grave dangers,” says Skuld and Frigga’s heart stops beating in her chest for a moment because last she saw him, Loki was in no condition to travel anywhere and, even if she has underestimated Thor’s emotional maturity, they are children still, the both of them, they are young and reckless and impulsive and inexperienced and the Svartur …\n\nThe Svartur.\n\n“How can we aid our sons?” pleads Odin, his wrath suddenly extinguished at the mention of that name.\n\n“You must not think of aid in the way you thought of it before,” counsels Urᵭr and with that, the Norns lapse into silence.\n\n\n\n"}
+{"text": "\nOnce the Jiang delegation had neared the Cloud Recesses, Wei Ying had slipped away to Caiyi Town. He wanted to get a taste of Emperor’s Smile and it wouldn’t hurt to have a bit of a pick me up before transitioning into the allegedly ascetic lifestyle of the Lans. \n\n\n\nThe errand didn’t take too long but, since the Jiang delegation had already been set to arrive late in the day, it was already dark by the time he made it to the Cloud Recesses. He didn’t mind, though.\n\n\n\nUntil he was turned away at the gates.\n\n\n\n“Curfew is at 9,” one of the guards said. “No entry until 5.”\n\n\n\n“5 in the \n\nmorning?\n\n!” Wei Ying was unwilling to believe anyone could be functional so early. \n\n\n\nThe guard simply nodded, completely stone-faced. \n\n\n\nWei Ying groaned. “Couldn’t you make a little exception? I’m with the Jiang delegation. I didn’t know there was a curfew. Just tonight?”\n\n\n\nThe guard didn’t even bother to look at him. “No entry after curfew.”\n\n\n\nWei Ying huffed. So rigid! Forget his previous speculations that the rumors about the Cloud Recesses’ discipline was overexaggerated, they were all that he heard and more.\n\n\n\nWell, he supposed he might just have to sleep out in the forest tonight. Or…\n\n\n\n“Ah, I suppose I must wait, then,” he said, turning around and strolling away.  “I’ll just find a nice patch of leaves, maybe some springy moss…”\n\n\n\nHe kept on until he deemed himself far enough away, then he turned back, bolting around to a wall out of the guards’ sight. He stared up the wall consideringly, then glanced at a tree that was a few feet away.\n\n\n\n\nAll right! \n\nHe slung the jars of alcohol over his shoulder, then climbed up the tree. He wiggled across a branch that stuck out towards the wall, eyed the distance, then jumped.\n\n\n\nHe caught onto the wall and hung there for a moment, heart pounding. Rather than fear though, his blood sang with excitement. He pulled himself up, hitching a leg over to get him full atop the wall, then sat there a moment, looking around the Cloud Recesses from his vantage point.\n\n\n\n\nWow\n\n, he thought to himself. The Lan might be strict and stuffy but the Cloud Recesses was undeniably beautiful. The buildings were graceful, wood shining faintly in the moonlight. Combine that with the dark green of the plants and the mist hanging low, the scene looked ethereal. He couldn’t help but stare.\n\n\n\n“No entry after curfew,” a deep voice stated. \n\n\n\nWei Ying started, head whipping around to the right to see a young man in white. The young man had ebony black hair, in contrast to the stark white of his clothes. When he looked closely, though, he saw that the cloth had a faint pattern of light blue. He wore a cloud-patterned forehead ribbon and his eyes shone a clear gold.\n\n\n\nHis first thought, oddly enough, was that the people of Gusu were even more beautiful than the scenery. \n\n\n\nHis second thought was \n\noh, shit!\n\n\n\n\nThe other man had his sword drawn and pointed at Wei Ying. He immediately put his hands up placatingly.\n\n\n\n“I’m not an intruder, I swear!”\n\n\n\nThe man narrowed his eyes. \n\n\n\n“Really! I’m with the Jiang delegation. I just had an errand to run and, by the time I got back, it was already past 9.” Wei Ying smiled, channeling all his charm.\n\n\n\nIt didn’t seem to work, though. The man continued to stare with a blank expression, until his eyes dropped to the jars still slung over Wei Ying’s shoulder. At that, his expression broke into a small frown.\n\n\n\n“Drinking alcohol is forbidden in the Cloud Recesses,” he said with an icy voice.\n\n\n\n“Ah, but I’m not in Cloud Recesses yet, am I?” Wei Ying gave him a cheeky grin.\n\n\n\n“Your alcohol will be confiscated. Hand it over.” The young man stepped towards Wei Ying, hand reaching out to grab the jars.\n\n\n\nWei Ying jumped up and backed away. “No way, I paid good money for this!” He clutched the jars to his chest. \n\n\n\nThe small frown on the other man’s face deepened. “Hand it over and your punishment will be lenient.”\n\n\n\n“Punishment? Well, if I’m going to be punished anyway, might as well drink my Emperor’s Smile.” At that, he opened one of the jars and tipped his head back, pouring the liquid into his mouth. The taste was so delightful, so refreshing, that he barely even heard the other man’s choked “You-!”\n\n\n\nBut he did hear the whistle of a sword cutting through the air. He glided back, glancing up at the other man with a pout. His eyes widened when they landed on the other man. \n\n\n\nA pair of ice blue horns jutted out from just above his forehead ribbon. His gold eyes were somehow even more intense, now with slitted pupils. When he exhaled, a breath of frosty air was released, crystallizing into tiny fractals of ice. \n\n\n\nAn ice dragon.\n\n\n\nHe barely had a moment to stare in awe before he had to dodge. The man had leapt into the air and hurtled now toward Wei Ying with his sword aiming for the jars. \n\n\n\n“I’ve never seen a dragon before!” He couldn’t help but exclaim even as he danced around to avoid the sword point. “You must be a member of the main Clan, then. Lan Xichen?”\n\n\n\nThe other man didn’t react.\n\n\n\n“No? Maybe Lan Wangji?”\n\n\n\nThe other man’s shoulder pulled up for a brief second. \n\n\n\n“So, you are Lan Wangji! I’m Wei Ying, courtesy Wuxian. You know, I heard so many rumors about you and your brother. Twin Jades with jade-like beauty and all that. You really live up to expectations.” He winked with a sly smile and watched in delight as Lan Wangji’s ears reddened, jaw clenching.\n\n\n\n“Shameless!”\n\n\n\nWei Ying laughed, gleeful at the reaction he was able to pull out of the stone-faced man. In that brief moment of distraction, Lan Wangji struck, sword piercing one of the jars, shattering it.\n\n\n\n“Hey!” \n\n\n\nLan Wangji lunged forward and Wei Ying tried to back up but found himself with his back pressed against a watch tower. He tried to hold the remaining jar out of reach, but Lan Wangji evidently had longer arms and grabbed it with no trouble, taking it away.\n\n\n\nWei Ying felt a pang of disappointment but it was quickly overshadowed when he saw something that was uncovered when Lan Wangji raised his arm, making his sleeve drop. \n\n\n\nA red ribbon. Worn and frayed. And familiar.\n\n\n\nHe froze, staring at it. \n\n\n\nWithout even thinking about it, he reached out to try to touch the ribbon, but Lan Wangji jerked his arm away, his other hand coming up to cover the ribbon.\n\n\n\n“Don’t touch it!” Lan Wangji glared at him.\n\n\n\nWei Ying didn’t even blink, staring at the hand that covered the ribbon. “But that’s...mine...I gave it to a child in...white.” The realization struck him and it seemed to strike Lan Wangji at the same time.\n\n\n\nHe moved his hand, uncovering the ribbon. \n\n\n\nWei Ying was certain now that the ribbon was close enough to feel the faintest traces of his mother’s energy, still clinging to the fabric. A protection charm cast over a decade ago and still present. \n\n\n\n“You…” He looked at Lan Wangji, seeing the same shocked expression that was undoubtedly on his face, as well. \n\n\n\n“Did you...did you come back?” He couldn’t help the vulnerable tremble in his voice.\n\n\n\nLan Wangji nodded, a jerky motion. “I went back to the alley but you were gone.”\n\n\n\n“Uncle Jiang-uh-Jiang Fengmian. He found me and took me with him to Lotus Pier.”\n\n\n\nLan Wangji frowned slightly. “I have not heard of a fox among the Jiang.”\n\n\n\nWei Ying tensed, a reflex reaction to years of hiding his shift. “How do you-” He realized immediately. “Ah. You saw my ears that time.”\n\n\n\nLan Wangji nodded. “I listened for any rumor of a fox child but I never heard any. I assumed that the Wens had...gotten you.”\n\n\n\nWei Ying huffed a laugh. “Good to know my efforts worked.” At Lan Wangji’s confused look, he elaborated. “When I got to Lotus Pier, Madame Yu insisted that I hide my fox shift to avoid attracting the Wens' attention. Since then, I haven’t shifted at all.”\n\n\n\nLan Wangji hummed with a faint frown. When he met Wei Ying’s eyes, Wei Ying suddenly noticed how close they were. Lan Wangji seemed to notice as well, jerking back. \n\n\n\n“You may join your delegation,” he said, smoothing his features back into a blank expression. “This will be your only warning. Please familiarize yourself with the rules.”\n\n\n\nWei Ying beamed. “I will! Ah, but…”\n\n\n\nLan Wangji looked at him questioningly.\n\n\n\nWei Wuxian scratched his cheek self-consciously. “I don’t know where to go…”\n\n\n\nLan Wangji blinked. “Follow me.”\n\n\n\nHe turned and jumped down from the wall, landing gracefully. Wei Ying smiled and followed.\n\n\n \n\n\n----------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n \n\n\nAs Lan Zhan walked through the Cloud Recesses, heading to the guest quarters, he couldn’t help but sneak glances at Wei Wuxian. The young man walked with a sense of restlessness, his entire body moving. His eyes constantly flitted around, fingers tapping against the hilt of his sword, head turning this way and that. \n\n\n\nLan Zhan thought of the hungry young child he’d met a decade ago and marveled at the vibrant young man he’d become. That child had been skinny and still, curled up tightly to take up as little space as possible. This young man, however, was lean but with a healthy glow to his cheeks and an aura that made his presence enormous. One thing that hadn’t changed, though, was the life within his eyes. Even when he’d been a hungry child, Wei Wuxian’s eyes shone with an unquenchable fire. \n\n\n\nWei Wuxian glanced over at him and met his eyes, smiling brightly when he did. \n\n\n\n\nAh, \n\nLan Wangji thought. \n\nSo that hasn’t changed, either. \n\n\n\n\nThat smile, full of joy and kindness, had lingered in his memory, fed the hope that one day he’d meet the boy again. Now, unexpectedly, here he was. \n\n\n\nLan Wangji didn’t know how to tell him that he’d saved his life. \n\n\n\nWhen he’d been given the ribbon, he could sense the power within it, but he was much too young to be able to identify what it was. \n\n\n\nIt became clear, though, on a snowy day just a few months later. \n\n\n\nHe’d been walking through the back mountains after a visit day. The day after his scheduled monthly visit to his mother always left him melancholy. That day, he’d been distracted, upset because his mother was ill and they hadn’t been allowed to visit her. \n\n\n\nHe hadn’t realized he’d left the boundary of the Cloud Recesses. Until he heard the snarl of a corrupted animal. Before he’d even had the chance to look around, the creature, what used to be a mongoose, leapt at him. \n\n\n\nThen, the ribbon he’d tied around his wrist warmed and a wave of energy pulsed out, repelling the creature. While the creature was off-balance and dazed, Lan Wangji had run back within the borders. \n\n\n\nIt was later, when he’d been clear-headed enough to think about what happened, that he’d figured out the ribbon had some kind of protective charm woven in it. \n\n\n\nIt had saved him again after that. On his first night hunt, when it let out a pulse of energy to repel a fierce corpse that he didn’t dodge in time. On another hunt, when he had more experience but made the mistake of looking away from the water ghoul for a moment. \n\n\n\nHe eventually learned that it couldn’t exorcise anything but it could expel small bursts of energy to repel low level creatures. And each time it did, he remembered that bright smile, the cheerful “\n\nnow, we’re even\n\n!”\n\n\n\nWhen he reached the guest dorms, he felt a tug of reluctance. He’d just found the boy he’d been looking for, he didn’t want to part again so quickly. Something in his heart ached at the thought of it. \n\n\n\nBut he shook it off. \n\n\n\n“The Jiang delegation is in that building,” he said, with a nod toward the quarters. \n\n\n\n“Thank you,” Wei Wuxian said with a smile in his direction. He took a couple of steps to the building, then paused and looked back. \n\n\n\n“Um...talk to you tomorrow?”\n\n\n\nWei Wuxian looked apprehensive, eyebrows pulling in slightly. Lan Wangji felt the unease he’d had about parting settle when he realized that Wei Wuxian seemed just as reluctant. \n\n\n\n“Mn. Tomorrow.” \n\n\n\nWei Wuxian grinned at him, then continued on his way to the building. \n\n\n\nLan Wangji couldn’t wait for tomorrow to come. \n\n\n \n\n\n——————————————————————-\n\n\n \n\n\nWei Ying wanted to die. \n\n\n\nIt was 5 in the morning, so early that the sun hadn’t even fully risen and not only had he been woken up but he was expected to start his day. \n\n\n\n“Nooooooo,” he groaned into the pillow. \n\n\n\n“Wei Wuxian!” He felt a pillow smack into his back as Jiang Cheng berated him. “Get up!”\n\n\n\n“Nooooo, too early,” he whined, voice muffled by the pillow. \n\n\n\n“I will dump cold water on you, don’t test me,” Jiang Cheng hissed. \n\n\n\n“What!” Wei Wuxian jerked his head up. “That would get the bed wet, too! It would take forever to dry, you wouldn’t do that to me, would you?”\n\n\n\n“Better get up before you find out.” \n\n\n\n“Ughhhh,” he groaned. “My shidi is evil, cruel, heartless.” He looked at Jiang Cheng with his best pout. \n\n\n\nJiang Cheng was utterly unimpressed. “Nice try,” he said drily. \n\n\n\n“Fine, fine!” Wei Wuxian said, pulling himself up into a sitting position. “But I hope you know this is physically paining me.”\n\n\n\n“Yeah, whatever.” Jiang Cheng rolled his eyes, then chucked a bundle of cloth at Wei Wuxian. “Get dressed, we’re going to be late for breakfast.”\n\n\n\nWei Wuxian sighed but got up to change. \n\n\n\n“By the way,” Jiang Cheng said with a steely look in his direction. “Don’t think I didn’t notice you sneaking in late.”\n\n\n\n“Ah, that was-“\n\n\n\nJiang Cheng held up a hand. “I don’t want to know. Just...try not to get us kicked out on the first day.”\n\n\n\nWei Ying raised three fingers, looking at Jiang Cheng with his best attempt at a solemn face. “I promise I won’t.”\n\n\n\nHe must not have been very convincing because Jiang Cheng simply gave him a skeptical look before turning to the door. \n\n\n\nWei Ying grinned and followed behind. \n\n\n\nAs they walked to the dining hall, Wei Ying thought that the Cloud Recesses were just as beautiful in the day as it was at night. \n\n\n\nThe morning sun shone gently, scattered by the ever present mist. The greenery that was visible at night was vibrant in the day. \n\n\n\nIt truly was a place of tranquility. \n\n\n\nAs he thought about that, he was reminded of the still-faced Lan Wangji, tranquil as his home. At least, until Wei Ying poked the wrong nerve. \n\n\n\n\nI wonder if I’ll see him at breakfast, \n\nhe mused to himself. His heart beat a bit faster, palms tingling at the thought. He couldn’t tell if it was nerves or excitement. \n\n\n\nMaybe both. \n\n\n\nWhen they entered the dining hall, Wei Ying immediately started scanning the room. \n\n\n\nIt didn’t take long for him to find Lan Wangji. He sat at the front of the room beside someone who looked remarkably like him, if more expressive. Undoubtedly his brother. Also beside him was an older man, clearly related to the Twin Jades. \n\n\n\n\nTheir father? No, Qingheng-Jun is in seclusion. Ah, he must be their uncle. What was his name…?\n\n\n\n\nAs he pondered what the name of the older Lan was-he knew he’d heard it-Lan Wangji met his eyes. \n\n\n\nWei Ying froze in place, heartbeat speeding up further. He lifted a hand and waved hesitantly but Lan Wangji simply looked away. \n\n\n\nHe pouted, a stab of disappointment-was that a bit of hurt?-piercing him. \n\n\n\nHe looked away and sat beside Jiang Cheng, focusing his attention on the food. \n\n\n\nHe immediately regretted it. \n\n\n\n\nWhat the hell is this?!\n\n\n\n\nBreakfast consisted of a bowl of plain rice and a thin broth with a few shreds of some type of leaf floating within it. \n\n\n\nHe looked around, wondering if there was a plate missing from his table but everyone else had the same. Nobody else seemed bothered, though. \n\n\n\nHe sighed internally, resigning himself to the bland meal. \n\n\n\nWhen breakfast was over, they were directed to the meditation rooms. Lan Wangji was at the lead, giving Wei Ying no chance to speak with him. \n\n\n\nOne hour of meditation later (not that Wei Ying really meditated, distracted by his anxious need to speak to Lan Wangji) they were off to lessons with Lan Wangji’s uncle, who Wei Ying finally remembered was named Lan Qiren. \n\n\n\nOnce again, Lan Wangji was seated at the front, too far for Wei Ying to speak with him or even pass him a note. \n\n\n\nHe immediately tuned out the lesson, pondering instead how he might get Lan Wangji’s attention. \n\n\n\n\nOh, I know! \n\n\n\n\nHe grabbed a paper, writing a brief note on it, then folding it up into a little bird. He drew a sigil on it, activating it with a small push of energy. The paper bird fluttered up, flying to land on Lan Wangji’s desk. \n\n\n\nLan Wangji’s head turned slightly when the bird landed. He picked it up and examined it, glancing back at Wei Ying, who smiled at him. Instead of opening it, though, he slid it beneath his notes. \n\n\n\nWei Ying pouted. Why wasn’t Lan Wangji talking to him?\n\n\n\n“Wei Wuxian!” \n\n\n\nThe shout startled him, making him sit upright. Lan Qiren glared at him from the front of the room. \n\n\n\n“Since you seem to be so knowledgeable that you don’t need my instruction, why don’t you answer the question?”\n\n\n\nWei Ying blinked, staring at Lan Qiren, who simply looked expectantly at him. \n\n\n\nWei Ying spoke hesitantly. “What was the question?”\n\n\n\nLan Qiren’s eyes narrowed. He spoke in a hiss. “What enables shifts?”\n\n\n\nWei Wuxian responded immediately. “An affinity that one is born with combined with cultivation of a more stable and powerful shift.”\n\n\n\nSomehow, Lan Qiren didn’t seem pleased that he’d gotten the answer right. “And what kind of cultivation is required?”\n\n\n\n“Cultivation of spiritual energy, with stronger cores enabling stronger shifts. Though,” he added, tapping his chin in thought, “one could also use demonic energy to strengthen a shift.”\n\n\n\nLan Qiren scoffed. “That is only true of fox shifts, due to their affinity for resentful energy.”\n\n\n\n“Not necessarily,” Wei Ying insisted. “It might be easier for a fox shift but any shifter can do it with enough care and training.”\n\n\n\n“You-! Do you seek to encourage the corruption of shifters?”\n\n\n\n“Why does it necessarily have to lead to corruption? Anyone with an affinity for one source of energy can learn to use others. It might even-“\n\n\n\nHe stopped to duck a book that was chucked at his head. \n\n\n\n“Get out!” Lan Qiren shouted, face red, a vein in his temple throbbing. “You will copy the precepts thrice for your blasphemous words!”\n\n\n\n“Three times?!” Wei Ying protested. “That will take forever!”\n\n\n\n“Five times! Now, go!”\n\n\n\nWei Ying opened his mouth, but thought better of it. He simply got up, bowed, gave Jiang Cheng (who was glaring at him) an apologetic look, and left. As he did, he heard Lan Qiren speak. “Wangji, go with him and supervise his punishment.”\n\n\n\nHis heart skipped a beat when he heard the soft rustle of clothes as Lan Wangji rose and the near-silent sound of his footsteps. He slowed down, allowing the other to catch up. They walked silently, Wei Ying slightly behind Lan Wangji, since he didn’t know the way to the library. He felt the question he wanted to ask burn on his tongue, but he held back, the eyes of others holding him back.\n\n\n\nWhen they got to the library, Lan Wangji led them to a secluded corner, where he laid out papers and a copy of the precepts on a table. Wei Ying watched him, seated at the table, until he sat down as well. Then, the question burst out.\n\n\n\n“Why won’t you talk to me?” He blurted out. Lan Wangji looked at him with a slight widening of his eyes but, before, he could speak, Wei Ying continued. “Did I do something that upset you? Uh, other than the thing with the alcohol last night? Do you not want anyone to know we know each other? Did I...did meeting me disappoint you?”\n\n\n\nHe finally stopped, chest tight and breathing faster than normal. He looked at Lan Wangji, heart in his throat as he waited for an answer, hoping that he hadn’t already run Lan Wangji away. \n\n\n\nLan Wangji’s face was still, eyes blinking slowly. As the seconds went on, We Ying felt his stomach grow heavier. “You don’t need to worry about sparing my feelings,” he said quietly, looking away.\n\n\n\n“Wei Wuxian, I wasn’t...intentionally not speaking to you,” Lan Wangji finally said.\n\n\n\nWei Ying looked up, a spark of hope lighting.\n\n\n\nLan Wangj sighed. “Have you read the rules?”\n\n\n\nWei Ying looked away, scratching his cheek sheepishly. “Ah, no, not all of them. We got the booklet before we came and I started looking through it, I swear. I just...never finished.”\n\n\n\nLan Wangji shot him a look of disapproval. \n\n\n\n“What? They’re not exactly riveting to read,” Wei Ying defended himself.\n\n\n\nLan Wangji sighed again. “One of the rules is that there is no talking permitted during mealtimes.”\n\n\n\n\nOh. \n\n“I...didn’t know that,” he said meekly. Then, he remembered his other grievance. “But! What about the note? You didn’t even bother to read it!”\n\n\n\n“I was paying attention to the lesson. I intended to read it afterwards.”\n\n\n\n“Oh,” Wei Ying said, the wind taken out of his sails. He really got worked up over nothing. Actually, now that he really thought about it, it was a bit odd that he was even that upset over being ignored by someone didn’t really know. \n\nMaybe because we met before, so it feels like I know him better?\n\n\n\n\n“Um,” he said sheepishly, “sorry for attacking you like that.”\n\n\n\nLan Wangji shook his head. “I apologize for giving the wrong impression.”\n\n\n\n“Ah, that wasn’t really your fault. I guess I let my worries get the best of me.”\n\n\n\nLan Wangji frowned slightly and opened his mouth, but Wei Ying interrupted, wanting to end the conversation before he let any more vulnerabilities slip. “I should probably start copying! I’ve got a long way to go, after all,” he said with a smile.\n\n\n\nLan Wangji hesitated for a moment, then hummed in agreement. As Wei Ying began copying, he saw Lan Wangji turn his attention to a book and they sat in companionable silence for several minutes. \n\n\n\nIt didn’t take long for Wei Ying to get bored, though.\n\n\n\n“Hey, Lan Wangji.”\n\n\n\n“Hm?” Lan Wangji didn’t look up.\n\n\n\n“Lan Wangji!” Wei Ying repeated, wanting those gold eyes on him, for reasons he didn’t fully understand. \n\n\n\n“Yes?” Lan Wangji still didn’t look up.\n\n\n\nWei Ying decided to try a new method. “Lan Zhan!”\n\n\n\nLan Zhan’s head jerked up, startled eyes meeting Wei Ying’s. Then, he narrowed them. “Shameless.”\n\n\n\nWei Ying grinned, delighted anew at ruffling Lan Zhan’s feathers….or would it be scales? Whatever. “Come on, Lan Zhan, we’re already close, aren’t we? You can call me by my birth name, too.”\n\n\n\nLan Zhan’s ears reddened. “Close?”\n\n\n\n“Of course! Basically childhood friends. You already know my most closely guarded secret, after all.” Actually, thinking about it that way, they really did have a...unique relationship. They didn’t really know each other but, at the same time, Lan Zhan already knew about his shift, had seen him at his lowest. Not to mention the odd desire Wei Ying had to have Lan Zhan’s attention on him.\n\n\n\n“Then, Wei Ying,” Lan Zhan said and Wei Ying immediately froze, brain screeching to a halt. \n\n\n\nHe really needed to think before he spoke because, \n\nreally\n\n, how was he supposed to be functional with Lan Zhan saying his name in that smooth voice? \n\n\n\nHe almost didn’t hear Lan Zhan continue, brain still reeling. \n\n\n\n“...if I may ask, you mentioned that you have not shifted since you were taken in.”\n\n\n\n“What?” Wei Ying was taken off guard by the topic. “Yeah, so that the Wens didn’t find out about me.”\n\n\n\n“Why did this require that you never shift?”\n\n\n\n“What do you mean?”\n\n\n\n“You could shift in private. It is detrimental to never shift between forms.”\n\n\n\nWei Ying recoiled internally. He didn’t like to think about his shift, especially not that he was forbidden to shift. Externally, he let out a shaky laugh. “Why does that matter? It’s not a big deal.”\n\n\n\nLan Zhan frowned. “It is not good for a shifter to abandon either form. One can lose the ability to shift entirely.”\n\n\n\n“I said it’s not a big deal!” Wei Ying stiffened when he heard his own tone, flinching back at the faint look of surprise on Lan Zhan’s face. “Sorry, I’m sorry. It’s just...Madame Yu doesn’t allow it. And really, you never know who’s watching so, better safe than sorry.”\n\n\n\nLan Zhan pressed his lips together, clearly dissatisfied with the answer. “Do you practice cultivating resentful energy?”\n\n\n\n“Of course not, that would give me away as a fox, too.”\n\n\n\n“Then, am I to understand that you do not shift to your other form and you do not practice the cultivation that your shift has a unique affinity for?”\n\n\n\nWei Ying crossed his arms. “I would have thought you didn’t like demonic cultivation, with what your uncle said.”\n\n\n\n“Demonic cultivation is dangerous for most but it is natural for fox shifts. Your potential-”\n\n\n\n“Lan Zhan, it’s fine! I’m fine. I don’t need to shift and I don’t need to practice any other type of cultivation. Just drop it.” \n\n\n\nLan Zhan’s expression stiffened. “As you wish,” he said, icily, returning his eyes to the book. \n\n\n\nA knot of guilt twisted inside Wei Ying, but he ignored it. \n\n\n\nThey passed the rest of the afternoon in silence.\n"}
+{"text": "\"Let's review what we have,\" Hotch said, his feet crossed where he sat. The clouds passed them by as they soared through the sky.  \n\n\"We have potential women missing,\" Emily offered, sitting across from him in the jet. \"But only one confirmed missing woman.\" \n\n\"Kelly Beckett,\" Reid supplied.  \n\n\"She used to meet her sister every week at Café Dulché, but last Tuesday she was a no-show.\" Derek Morgan remained unconvinced.  \n\n\"Over the last decade, 43% of victims targeted by serial killers have been sex workers,\" Reid offered. He sat with his legs tucked underneath him, crosslegged, next to JJ. \"It's possible there are 200 active serials at any given time. There's a high probability that a large percentage would target sex workers.\"  \n\n\"With no bodies it's nearly impossible to determine the type of killer we are dealing with here,\" Rossi huffed. \"We can't review crime scenes, and we can't examine bodies post mortem.\"   \n\n\"There's no way to determine if the unsub has a signature,\" Reid added.  \n\n\"We don't have enough for a profile,\" Hotch said, eyes never leaving the tablet in front of him.  \n\n\"How can we make a profile out of this, man?\" Derek asked, annoyed. He turned away, watching out the jet window.  \n\nHotch rubbed his head. \"Reid, you're with me. We'll head to the precient, introduce ourselves to Sheriff Locke. See if you can get started on a geographical profile.\"  \n\nReid nodded.  \n\n\"Prentiss, Rossi, head to the local shelter. Talk to Rosie Donovan and see what information you can gather about the women she thinks are missing.\"  \n\nRossi fiddled with the watch on his wrist in answer. \n\n \n\n\"Morgan, JJ, talk to the owner of Café Dulché, see if the owners have anything to offer. Then swing by and talk to Sarah Beckett in person. Get a statement from her.\"  \n\n\"Maybe we can dig up a case,\" Morgan muttered under his breath.  \n\n****** \n\nThey precinct was small and dismal. A few cops eyed them with barely concealed contempt as they entered.  \n\n\"Agents,\" a voice called, and both Hotchner and Reid turned their head to the portly man making his way to them.  \n\nHe was stout, and balding, with curious splotches of red dotting his face. He offered a hand to Hotch to shake.  \n\n\"Hello. I'm SSA Hotchner, and this is Dr. Reid.\" Hotch gestured to Spencer, who in lieu of a shake, raised his hand awkwardly to wave. \n\n\"I'm Sheriff Locke,\" the man replied, tearing his curious gaze from Spencer. \"I thought your team would be...larger.\"  \n\n\"We wanted to hit the ground running,\" Hotch assured. \"My agents are out questioning potential witnesses now.\" \n\n\"I see.\" Locke ran a hand over his balding head. \"Well, come on ahead back to my office.\"  \n\nHe started heading back towards a door near the rear of the building. They passed tables scattered about, cluttered with knick-knack and baubles and a nameplate identifying it's accompanying officer. Many of those men glared at them as they passed.  \n\n\"Not exactly a warm welcome,\" Reid muttered, angling to avoid the outstretched shoulder of a cop as he passed by. The man smiled sardonically at him, and Reid caught the name Ritters on his gold nameplate. \n\n\"I've warned everyone to be on their best behaviour,\" Locke said, motioning them inside his office door. The room was small, the tawny carpet here just as stained as the rest of the precinct.  \n\n\"They're not happy I invited the FBI here to assist,\" he explained.  \n\n\"We're simply a tool to be used. Any arrests that need to be made will he handled by your office.\" Hotch remained standing while Sheriff Locke plopped loudly into his seat.  \n\n\"Truth be told,\" the man said, glumly, \"I can barely keep these guys under control.\"  \n\n\"They're your men,\" Hotch said, incredulously. \"You're the Sheriff.\"  \n\n\"Only for a couple months now. And only just barely.\" Locke motioned to a black and white picture on the wall. A young child sat on the shoulders of a man in uniform. \"I got this position because my Daddy had it before me. Until he passed away, he was Sheriff. And so far, if you ask those men out there, I ain't living up to expectations.\"  \n\n\"I'm sorry for your loss,\" Hotch said. \"But I'm going to need cooperation from your men on this.\"  \n\n\"And like I said, I've warned them to behave.\" Locke sighed. \"Officer Hodges and Ritters have always been some of the best men the precinct has. I'm going to assign them this case to work the closest with you.\"  \n\nReid couldn't stop his eyebrow from shooting up. Officer Ritters had just tried to shoulder bump him on the way to this room. He suddenly had very low expectations of the best that Paxville had to offer.  \n\n\"We'll need a room to set up in,\" Hotch responded. \"And an evidence board.\"  \n\n\"Done,\" Locke agreed. \"Though, we are small here. It will have to be a small room.\" \n\n\"We'll make due,\" Hotch said, easily.  \n\nLocke nodded, then suddenly screeched, \"Ritters!\"  \n\nReid startled at the noise. A moment later the office door opened, revealing that same sardonic smile that had tried to trip him on his way in.  \n\n\"Yes, Sheriff?\" Ritters asked. Hotch frowned slightly at the patronizing note in the officer's voice.  \n\n\"This is Agent Hotchner,\" Locke pointed a stubby finger at the elder agent, \"And Dr. Reid. You and your partner will be working closely with the BAU agents for now.\"  \n\n\"My pleasure,\" Ritters said, offering a hand to both men. His eyes darkened ever so slightly at Reid's small wave. The smile stuck on his face never reached his eyes.  \n\n\"We'd like to get started, if you don't mind,\" Hotch implored, turning back to the Sheriff.  \n\n\"Of course!\" He responded. \"Ritters, please show the men our spare conference room.\"  \n\n\"Sure thing, Sheriff,\" Ritters said. His blue eyes sparked with indignation. Reid found himself shrinking away as he followed Hotch out the door, the officer following behind.  \n\n\"Up there, on the left,\" Ritters spoke, breezing past them. He led them to a room even smaller than Sheriff Locke's office.  \n\n\"This is it,\" he said, flicking on a light. It seemed to sputter for a moment before finally igniting. Pale light flicked across the room.  \n\n\"Thank you.\" Hotch maintained his impassive facade, but Reid found himself frowning at the dust that covered every surface. Including the evidence board and the map already pinned to it.  \n\n\"Yep. I know you FBI folks gotta have the best,\" Ritters practically sneered. His tone caused both Hotch and Reid to turn in his direction.  \n\n\"We are here to help,\" Hotch said coolly.  \n\n\"Of course, of course.\" The man raised his hands in a gesture of mock peace. \"Good luck, agent. You too, doctor.\"  \n\nAnd then he turned and strolled from the room, locking his fingers through his gun belt.  \n\nFrowning, Hotch turned to Reid. \"Ignore it,\" he commanded. \"Start working on the map.\"  \n\n\"Yes sir,\" Reid replied, slicking his hair back. \"I think I'd rather be interviewing Sarah Beckett.\"  \n\n\"You and me both.\" \n\n***** \n\n\"It seems like no one cares about these woman,\" the woman said, nervously twiddling her thumbs. Her dark hair was pinned up and out of her face, showing off her deep olive skin and large expressive eyes. She wore plain clothes, with an apron tied around her waist, but they felt rich in comparison to the rest of the room.  \n\n\"It's why I started the Patch Your Heart Foundation,\" she continued. \"I care about these people, even if it seems like society doesn't.\"  \n\nEmily eyed the room, watching as the women who found themselves homeless settled into their temporary resting spot. Many wore clothing that was mere rags at this point, and several had unkempt tangled masses if hair. All held bowls, greedily slurping it's contents into their mouths.  \n\n\"You seem to be doing a good job helping them,\" Emily supplied kindly. And it did. Rosie Donovan seemed to be filled with compassion, and she had set up a respectable building here.\"  \n\n\"Thank you. Me and my husband Elliot set it up together. It's the least we could do. Paxville used to be such a wonderful place before the drugs.\" \n\n\"Isn't that just the way of it?\" Rossi asked in his usual dry way.  \n\n\"Tell us about the women you think are missing,\" Emily prodded.  \n\n\"Well, the nature of homelessness is unpredictable, of course,\" Rosie began, leading them around the building. \"We have room for about 50 here, so our occupants tend to change based on who holds onto their spot. But, we do have regulars.\"  \n\nShe stops, squatting by an elderly woman. The woman smiles a toothless grin at the agents, her face wrinkling.  \n\n\"This is Debbie,\" Rosie explains. \"She's been here every night for months.\"  \n\nThe toothless woman waves, then returns to her steamy soup.  \n\n\"But?\" Emily asks, following Rosie as she leads them back to the kitchens.  \n\n\"But I noticed some of our regular women, like Sheila, haven't shown up in weeks. Or months. And I've overheard some of our, um, working women speaking about the women they've known who've vanished.\"  \n\n\"Do you have a list of the woman you think might be missing?\" Emily asks. \"And names of the women you've overheard talking.  \n\n\"Oh, yes,\" Rosie said. \"But I can't guarantee that any name you see will be real. We require the woman who sleep here to sign in, but it's not like we double check to see if any of the names are real.\" She frowned slightly. \"And I doubt that they'd speak to the FBI.\" \n\n\"We only want to talk to them and see if they've seen anything suspicious,\" Rossi assured.  \n\nRosie pulled a folded up piece of paper from her pocket. \"These are the names of the woman I think might be missing, along with some descriptions of them.\"  \n\nRossi took it, eyes widening a little as he read it. \"There's 20 names on here,\" he said, meeting Rosie's eyes. \"You think 20 women have gone missing from this area?\"  \n\nRosie nodded determinedly. \"Yes. I do.\"  \n\n\"Well, alright,\" Emily said, meeting Rossi's look for a moment. \"Thank you, this has been a big help.\"  \n\nSmiling, Rosie opened the door to the kitchen. The smells of garlic assaulted their senses.  \n\n\"Smells good,\" Rossi said, sniffing the air.  \n\n\"Elliot is a good cook,\" Rosie replied, the smile evident in her voice. She led them around a corner, passing a stainless steel shelf.  \n\n\"This is my husband, Elliot,\" she said, gesturing to the man who stood by a stovetop ocean, slowly stirring the contents of a saucer. He wore a plain black top and jeans, and had light blonde hair.  \n\nHearing them, his head popped up, and he flashed a questioning look to his wife.  \n\n\"These are FBI agents,\" Rosie supplied, carressing his hand softly.  \n\n\"Ah,\" he replied, flashing light eyes to both of them. He wiped his hands on his jeans before presenting one to Rossi. \"I'm Elliot. I run this place with Rosie.\"  \n\n\"I'm Agent Rossi, and this is Agent Prentiss.\"  \n\n\"Hello,\" He cast a polite smile to Emily. \"What can I, uh, do for you?\"  \n\n\"Have you seen anything suspicious? Men hanging around here?\" Emily watched as Rosie threaded an arm through his.  \n\n\"No, nothing like that.\" Elliot carefully extracted his arms. Emily cocked an eyebrow, and shot a look to Rossi. He nodded his head slightly. Marriage trouble. \n\n\"But, Elliot isn't here very much,\" Rosie added, playing with a strand of dark hair that had fallen loose. \"Me and Eli created this place together, but I spend most of the time here, running it. Elliot takes care of our home while I'm here.\"  \n\n\"I tell her that she spends too much time here,\" Elliot joked.  \n\nShrugging, Rosie met the agent's eyes. \"I have to, you know? Somehow has to care for these women.\"  \n\n\"Of course.\" Rossi fingered the list of names he held. \"It's very admirable what you're doing.\"  \n\nIt was silent for a moment, penetrated only by the slight sounds of soup bubbling. Elliot frowned towards the stove.  \n\n\"Well, I'll walk you out,\" Rosie said. She led them back through the kitchen doors, back to the room holding the unfortunate people who found themselves needing.  \n\n\"The women,\" she continued, softly, causing both Rossi and Emily to lean in, \"That I overheard talking, one of them goes by Farrah. She's white, and has blonde hair with purple streaks. I haven't seen her in weeks now though.\" Sadness engulfed Rosie's features. \"She's on that list of missing women I gave you.\"  \n\n\"Anyone else?\" Emily asked. She didn't need Reid here to tell them the statistics of finding Farrah to question her.  \n\n\"Daisy Cavos. She's a black girl. She was here a couple days ago.\" Rosie smiled hopefully.  \n\n\"Thank you.\" Rossi watched as Prentiss immediately retrieved her phone. \"You've helped us tremendously.\"  \n\n\"I hope so,\" Rosie replied, before turning and heading back into the shelter.  \n\n\"Garcia?\" Emily asked, phone pressed to her ear. \"I need you to run some names for me. Daisy Cavos. Black woman. And Farrah. Both possibly arrested for solistitation?\"  \n\n\"My vexing compadre,\" Garcia's chipper voice responded. \"I may be amazing and and all knowing and equipped with magic fingers, but even I know the name Farrah will not be enough.\" Regardless, the telltale sound of Garcia's keyboard filtered through.  \n\n\"Just see what you can find,\" Emily tried.  \n\n\"There is no Daisy Cavos, but there is a Daisy Cavenda, arrested thrice for solisiting?\"  \n\n\"Awesome. An address? Any way to contact her?\"  \n\n\"No dice. But I'll send a picture to you.\"  \n\n\"Thanks, Garcia,\" Emily sighed, opening up the SUV's door.  \n\n\"As for Farrah, there's nothing. Nada. Zilch. There aren't even any birth records for that name in surrounding counties.\"  \n\n\"Okay, thanks anyway.\" Prentiss wiped her forehead with the back of her hand. The Arizona heat had been oppressive from the moment she stepped off the plane.  \n\nClosing her door, she turned to Rossi. \"Next time we're going somewhere cold.\" \n\nHe raised a bushy brow, wordlessly turning the AC to full blast. \"Reid might disagree.\"  \n\n\"Reid can kiss my ass,\" she muttered, settling into the car.  \n\n******* \n\nSarah Beckett's apartment was small, but it was well kept. Pictures dotted her pale green walls, of Sarah with Kelly, and people who must be their parents. JJ found her eyes kept returning to a picture of Kelly and Sarah together, arms wrapped around each other's faces, smiles lighting their faces.  \n\nSarah herself sat in a plushy seat, holding a trembling mug of steaming tear. She watched them with saddened green eyes, her blonde hair fanned out around her face. \n\n\"I don't know what you want to know,\" she confessed.  \n\n\"Anything you know about Kelly. Where she spent her time when she wasn't around you. Men she had around,\" Derek said. He sat on the very edge of Sarah's flowered couch, opposite her. JJ sat beside him.  \n\n\"She, well. She spent a lot of time with me. Obviously.\" Sarah avoided eye contact. \n\n\"Did you know any of the men she would see?\" JJ asked gently.  \n\n\"No, and I doubt she did, either. They were just men who wanted her….services.\" The hands holding the cup of tea tightened slightly.  \n\n\"Where did she stay?\" Derek asked.  \n\n\"Wherever she could. Sometimes at the shelter in town. Sometimes benches in parks.\"  \n\n\"Was she on drugs?\"  \n\nSarah's eyes flashed to Morgan's, angry. \"Yes, alright, she did. But it didn't make her a bad person. She was just a little lost.\"  \n\n\"Ma'am,\" he started, carefully. \"We are not here to judge your sister. We are only here to help you find her.\"  \n\n\"Rocky,\" Sarah said, sighing. \"I know she bought them from some guy named Rocky. I don't know his last name. Kelly bought drugs from him right outside the café that day, right before she came in. I was biting mad at her that day.\" She laughed softly, guiltily.  \n\n\"What did he look like?\" JJ laid a comforting hand on her arm.  \n\n\"White. Tattoos. Like full sleeve. Um, bald.\"  \n\n\"Is there anything else you can think of?\" Derek had already risen off the couch, but he waited, phone in hand for her thoughts.  \n\n\"No, I'm sorry,\" she whispered. \"I can't think of anything else.\"  \n\n\"You did good,\" JJ assured. She could hear Derek speaking into the phone.  \n\nShe rose, heading towards the door, but that picture caught her eye again. Kelly and Sarah, frozen in time, an endless loop of joy on their faces. She turned back to Sarah's huddled form.  \n\n\"Why did you meet her every Tuesday at the café?\" She asked.  \n\n\"She's my sister,\" Sarah responded, her stare level. \"I couldn't give up on my sister. After our parents died, Kelly and I only had each other. Sure, she's going down a hard path right now. But meeting her at the café? Getting to sit down with her and eat and talk to each other like normal sisters? It means everything to me. It reminds me that just maybe we could have a happy ending.\"  \n\n\"I had a sister,\" JJ said, words slipping forth before she had a chance to filter them. \"Roslyn.\"  \n\n\"Kelly means everything to me. Sarah closed her eyes. \"You don't forget your sister.  \n\nJJ found herself lost for words.\n\n \n\n*****\n\n \n\n\"You wanna tell me how we got stuck making two stops?\" Derek asked, maneuvering the car into the parking lot of Café Dulché.  \n\n\"Consider it a compliment,\" JJ said, taking in the restaurant. Small, like just about everything else in this town, but it was homey and cozy. The exterior was a warm colored wood, framed by a sign declaring it's name in twirling cursive. \n\n\"Complement, sure,\" he scoffed. Donning his dark sunglasses, he stepped out? of the SUV.  \n\n\"God, it's hot,\" JJ complained, the heat hitting her like a wave. She fanned her face with her hand.  \n\n\"Tell me about it. I bet Reid would love this.\"  \n\nA few cars dotted the parking lot, but the resturant appeared mostly empty. Yanking open the café doors, Derek was hit by mercifully chilled air. He sighed in appreciation.  \n\n\"Can I help you?\" A man asked, a tray of food balanced on one hand. He was a large man, and his shaggy blonde hair was held back by the net he wore on his head.  \n\n\"We got a couple questions to ask you,\" Derek said, stepping across the mosiac tiled floor. He was already reaching into his pocket for his badge.  \n\nThe man grunted in response, eyeing both his and JJ's identification.  \n\n\"I'm busy,\" he said, gruffly. \"I don't got a lot of time here.\"  \n\n\"We'll be quick,' JJ promised.  \n\n\"One sec,\" the man said, unceremiously dropping the food off to a table where two older women sat. They watched the scene with fascination.  \n\n\"What do you want?\" He asked, rubbing his hands on his pants. They left greasy stains.  \n\n\"I'm agent Jareau, and this is agent Morgan.\"  \n\n\"Darrin Chanders,\" he replied. \"I own Café Dulché.\"  \n\n\"Do you know Sarah Beckett?\" JJ asked.  \n\n\"Oh yeah. I know Sarah.\" Darrin paused, looking to a round table on the left wall of the resturant. \"She comes here all the time. Usually sits right there.\" \n\n\"And her sister?\" Morgan questioned.  \n\n\"Kelly.\" The man nodded to himself. \"She's technically a regular, too. Comes in every tuesday with Sarah. Sarah'll buy her a muffin, or bagel or milkshake or something. Kelly looks pretty rough. I wouldn't let her in here if it weren't for Sarah.\"  \n\n\"Rough? How?\" JJ put her hand on her hip.  \n\n\"All skinny. Marks on her skin. Pretty obvious she uses.\"  \n\nThe door jingled as a man walked in, looking curiously at the two FBI agents.  \n\n\"Just a minute and I'll be with you,\" Darrin called to the man, turning back to the agents. \"I really am busy here.\"  \n\n\"We're almost done.\" JJ smiled. \"Have you seen anything out of the ordinary?\"  \n\n\"Out of the ordinary?\" Darrin's lips creased. \"How do you mean?\"  \n\n\"Strange men hanging around, either inside or outside. People acting different. New people dining here,\" Derek offered.  \n\n\"This is a business in a small town. If a new person shows up to dine here I count myself lucky.\" Darrin chuckled to himself.  \n\n\"Did you see anything different about Sarah or Kelly?\" \n\nDarrin shrugged, his eyes darting back to the patron. \"I got no idea. Nothing I can think of.\" \n\n\"Okay. Thanks for the time.\" Derek turned on his heels, clearly irratated. This trip had provided them with no new information.  \n\n\"You work this place on your own?\" JJ asked. \"That seems….hard.\"  \n\nDarrin laughed, but not in a happy way. \"No, usually I have help. Samuel, a friend. He's my server. He called in sick today last minute.\"  \n\n\"What's Samuel's last name?\"  \n\n\"Ness.\" Darrin frowned. \"Why? He's a good guy.\"  \n\n\"Just protocool.\" Derek said, his stride paused on the way to the door. \"We're covering our bases.\" \n\nHe turned, heading for the door.  \n\n\"Thanks so much,\" JJ said. \"You've been a big help.\"  \n\n\"A server.\" Hurrying to Morgan, JJ thought aloud. \"He could have met Kelly here. That's maybe a connection.\" \n\n\"We might finally be onto something with this case,\" Morgan agreed, already connecting a call to Garcia. \n\n\"Well hello there, my chocolate god,\" Garcia spoke. \"What can I do for you? Please say something dirty.\"  \n\nMorgan couldn't surpress a chuckle. \"How about a dirty word? Pyschopath.\" \n\n\"Ugh, ewww,\" Garcia lamented. \"I meant something funner. Sexier.\"  \n\n\"Tomorrow, babygirl. There's always tomorrow.\" Out of the corner of his eye he could see JJ shaking her head with a grin on her face.  \n\n\"I'm holding you to it,\" Garcia promised, and Derek could hear the smile on those dirty little lips of hers.  \n\n\"Look up Samuel Ness for me. N-E-S-S.\" \n\n\"What are you looking for exactly?\" \n\n\"Anything that could show he's a deranged pyscho.\" \n\n\"Hmm. He's got a record. Assault in '88. Used a bat to beat up an ex-girlfriend. Icky.\" \n\n\"Anything else?\"  \n\n\"That's about it. Born here in Paxville. Works at our Café Dulché. Mother passed away about a year ago. No mention of father.\" \n\n\"Alright, babygirl. Send it over to us.\" \n\n\"Done.\" \n\nMorgan snapped his phone closed, catching JJ's smirk. \"Don't start,\" he warned, buckling his belt.  \n\n\"Wouldn't dream of it.\" But that smirk never left her face."}
+{"text": "\n“i’m still expecting you to talk it out,” he says, eyes focused on sunoo although he’s talking to the both of them.  “the tension in the room is off, i can tell you haven’t without even asking.  you can kiss and mess around all you want, but it won’t change anything.  talk it out, i’m serious, riki-san,” he glances towards niki at the end of his sentence, feeling the need to remind him of that specifically.  “we’ll let you know about your appointment later,” heeseung too, is gone just as quickly as he came. leaving the two younger males alone. \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\nexcept now, it’s fucking awkward.  great.  will riki even want to talk it out? will he refuse? sunoo feels uneasy again.  still—laying in the younger’s bed. that won’t work.  sunoo goes to pull off the covers, pulling his legs off the bed.  he’s stopped immediately.  what did he think was going to happen? \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n“i don’t think so,” niki carefully readjusts sunoos body back on his bed, just like before, standing directly next to it with his arms crossed.  \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n“so…”\n\n\n \n\n\nsunoo trails off, pretending as if he didn’t just give the younger a nasty look.  he crosses his arms—leaning back in nikis bed whilst looking up at him.  sunoo always struggled with maintaining eye contact with anyone, regarding the fact that he was rather confident.  but niki? with niki it just made matters worse.  ten times worse.  niki held a piercing gaze, completely unreadable and sunoo fucking hated that.  he hated it so much that just by looking at the others’ stupid face made him want to lash out.  thus, sunoo shouldn’t hit niki anymore.  he should’ve never.  that wouldn’t set a good example at all, and that’s all he’s wanted to do for niki. \n\n\n \n\n\n“are you feeling okay?” niki asks quite blankly, blinking down at the boy in his bed.  sunoo slowly maneuvers his head up and down, forming a weak nod.  “i said,” the younger male starts, “are you feeling okay? use your words hyung.  i can't understand you,” \n\n\n \n\n\n“you can understand me just fine riki,” \n\n\n \n\n\nsunoo snaps back as if that’s going to help anything.  niki only scoffs in response. \n\n\n \n\n\n“then we’re done here,” \n\n\n \n\n\nsunoo swears he sees nikis pupils dilate.  he suddenly became so serious once the other hyung’s intervened.  they ruined a lot of things nowadays.  niki turns on his heels to walk toward the door, but sunoo is quicker.  much quicker.  niki wasn’t necessarily trying to race out of there but—sunoo was still proud for being able to get up and launch himself toward niki with a hurt ankle.  the smaller boy wraps his hands around nikis waist, hugging his body close to his.  he’s putting all of his support into niki, which maybe wasn’t the best idea but he was already here so no there was no going back. \n\n\n \n\n\nniki stops abruptly of course as there’s now another human hanging onto him.  sunoo pouts, nuzzling his face into nikis back.  riki seems to be puzzled on what to do.  “sunoo hyung,” he calls gently, immediately lifting his hands to place them on sunoos.  he attempts at prying him off but it’s practically no use.  “what’re doing?” he tries, looking for really any response at this point.  he gets it, though one he wasn’t necessarily expecting.  soft sniffles echo throughout the shared bedroom—as if someone had caught a cold and just sneezed.  it was really just sunoo crying.  beginning to, at least.  \n\n\n \n\n\n“please riki-yah, please,” \n\n\n \n\n\nsunoo pleads in this agony-like tone.  niki doesn’t even know what he’s begging for.  \n\n\n \n\n\n“what’s the matter? let go of me so i can see you—“ \n\n\n \n\n\n“i like you, nishimura riki,” \n\n\n \n\n\nhere we go. \n\n\n \n\n\n“everything that happened was a mistake.  what i did was wrong, and i regret everything i’ve put you through for the last three months.  but i miss you, miss you so damn much.  i miss playing games with you, your teases, cleaning up after your messes and helping you improve your korean.  i miss your laughs and your giggles, your jokes that never fail to cheer me up.  i miss your scent and your clothes and your bed.  i miss…i miss you.  i need you to understand how hard this was for me.  to process it all, especially with being an idol.  it’s important you take the time to look at both sides of the story, just—anything.” \n\n\n \n\n\nsunoo chokes back a sob, not wanting to appear as weak or foolish to niki.  he wanted to stay strong, in case the other continued to reject his advances or still not believe him. sunoo also prepared for the worse—though that didn’t seem to be helping since he was certainly expecting niki to understand or hell, at least fucking try.  niki was young and naive.  all the things he thought he knew, the ways he thought were best for handling difficult situations like this weren’t perfect, that was clear.  riki was so damn stubborn.  sunoo couldn’t see how he was in the wrong, rather niki, of course.  thus, sunoo believed he himself was stuck up.  \n\n\n \n\n\n“don’t walk out on me again, i don’t know what else i’ll do.  as much as i love my job, i value whatever relationship we have now way more.  it means practically nothing to me if it’s compared with you,” \n\n\n \n\n\nsunoos cheeks swell in a rosy red shade, a thick layer of tears running down from his eyes.  they were lonely and sad tears.  just like sunoo was.  he maintained his death grip—not wanting to give niki any way of escape.  the room fell silent and that terrified sunoo.  he was waiting and waiting for what niki would do or say.  waiting for anything.  any sort of rejection or lecture.  whatever he would receive, he’d have to learn to accept. \n\n\n \n\n\nsunoo loved niki.  meaning he’d respect all of his wishes and desires.  and if that meant sunoo where to stay away from him, then so be it.  so fucking be it. \n\n\n \n\n\n“what do you want me to say here, hyung?” niki asks in a questioning tone as if sunoo could read his mind.  \n\n\n \n\n\n“i don’t know riki…whatever you want to say, but what i said, is the truth,” sunoo wasn’t sounding very convincing to niki.  but what else was he supposed to do? \n\n\n \n\n\n“how do you expect me to trust you?” \n\n\n \n\n\nthat’s it, sunoo is fed up and certainly not taking that as an acceptable response.\n\n\n \n\n\nhe cuts riki off in a hurried manner; voice certain.  “no matter how upset you are with me, you can’t possibly say that you don’t reciprocate your feelings,” \n\n\n \n\n\nniki is quiet after that. \n\n\n \n\n\n“you wouldn’t have helped me out.  you wouldn’t have let me lay in your bed and you wouldn’t have gotten me medicine and water.  you wouldn’t have pretended to care about me—you wouldn’t have kissed me,” sunoos voice begins to sound whiny, little voice cracks all throughout his sentence, beginning to cry again.  he nuzzles his face right into the clothing niki wears, tears and snot probably rubbing off on it too.  he hiccups. \n\n\n \n\n\n“you’re right, i wouldn’t have,” nikis fingers run soothingly over sunoos.  perhaps to ease his mind—calm him down. \n\n\n \n\n\n“but you know that—you knew that.  you’ve known how i felt about you, ever since i first kissed you back in that parking lot.  you don’t just kiss anyone, y’know?” niki turns his head to peer over his shoulder, attempting to get a glimpse towards sunoo.  he’s completely hidden himself, face smooshed into the younger boys back like he’s hiding from a monster.\n\n\n \n\n\nthis time, sunoo remains silent. \n\n\n \n\n\n“nor would you kiss back if feelings aren't…reciprocated,” niki purposely chooses sunoos previous word choice.  he’s listening.  he pays attention to what his hyung says, and he wants him to know that without outright saying so. he believes sunoo likes him too. \n\n\n \n\n\n“y-you know i like you too.  i’ve said it a lot,” sunoo finally croaks up a response, sounding as if he hadn’t drank water in days.  his voice was raspy and felt like it was stuck in the back of his throat.  all the crying made him feel dizzy, not to mention the sudden throb his ankle started to possess.  but it was all worth it.  all worth it to get niki back in his arms.  \n\n\n \n\n\n“you need to let go of me,” he starts.  sunoo doesn’t budge, not even a little.  niki tsks, shaking his head from side to side with a little smug smile.  “sunoo-ssi, please, for me? i don’t want you standing on your ankle this long, i’m sure it’s hurting you,” \n\n\n \n\n\nsunoo rolls his eyes at that stupid nickname.  niki always thought he was all big and mighty when dropping honorifics.  as much as it was adorable, sunoo would still protest.  “why did you have to say it like that?” sunoo pouts. \n\n\n \n\n\n“huh?” niki barely gets out a mumble before sunoo is speaking again.\n\n\n \n\n\n“please, for me.  how can i not listen when you say that?” sunoos arms fall to his side, lightly shoving niki off in front of him.  he notices he left his towel behind, forgotten and simply collecting dust, located on nikis bed.  he was in a hurry and bringing something with him to cover himself just wasn’t on the mind.  it didn’t matter, not at all actually, since he was with niki anyway.  sunoo wasn’t a pervert but they’ve participated in worse activities.  \n\n\n \n\n\nthus, sunoo still hurried back to the bed, sitting on the edge of it with the towel lazily thrown over his lap.  it covers what needs to be covered and that was really all that mattered.  he remains seated with his hands laying in his lap.  niki finally turns around, facing sunoo with his arms crossed once again.  why was he acting like he had so much authority? this brat was going to get it. \n\n\n \n\n\n“can you forgive me…eventually? it doesn’t have to be now, i just—miss you.  every single part,” sunoo trails off, not finishing what he wanted to say.  he figured he’d be able to tell niki another time.  at a more appropriate time. \n\n\n \n\n\nniki shakes his head, a devilish grin appearing on his lips.  he bites down on his bottom lip, slightly shaking his head from side to side.  niki eventually looks down to the floor, leaving sunoo confused.  he doesn’t even say anything to what the older male just had said.  how strange. \n\n\n \n\n\n“what?” sunoo questions, eyes curiously observing as much as niki as they possibly could.  fuck teenagers going through puberty.  he blames that on niki not being as readable as he used to be.  thus niki is well out of his puberty stage.  hell, he was almost an adult.  that’ll be a freaky day.  sunoo refuses to believe it or even acknowledge it, in fact.  \n\n\n \n\n\n“it’s just funny…” niki starts, head raising to connect eyes with sunoo once more.  “don’t you realize—no, how couldn’t you? look at you, kim sunoo.” niki speaks so cockily, laughing like a fucking saint.  who does this kid think he is? just because he was hot didn’t mean anything, not one thing.  and sunoo, sunoo was baffled.  what had gotten into him? sunoo swears his dongsaeng is bipolar. \n\n\n \n\n\n“what’s—what’s wrong with me?” sunoo glances down at himself before looking back up at niki.  he feels how harsh his heart is beating and just how rapidly it does.  his cheeks are definitely hot, polished in red from his sudden blushing.  the things niki did to him.  unacceptable. \n\n\n \n\n\n“sitting on my bed, tears sprinkling your cheeks that make your eyes all red and glassy.  you’re naked—only thing covering you is a towel, hair still wet and messy whilst you plead for forgiveness? you’re practically begging me to fuck you,” niki shows his big bright beautiful teeth from smiling so silly.  he laughs, chuckles—over and over again.  sunoo can’t recall when niki exactly moved closer to him either.  he was losing his mind. \n\n\n \n\n\nsunoo gasps at how naughty niki is speaking. he can’t believe he had the balls to just—to just outright say something like that! where did he even get that from? who is he learning from? it’s fucking hot but jesus christ.  who was he kidding, he wanted niki so bad.  he’d do anything.  anything for him. \n\n\n \n\n\n“what—? cat got your tongue? or is it the way your legs have spread open further and further throughout the course of this conversation?” nikis face becomes dark—dropping to something much more serious.  he approached sunoo now. \n\n\n \n\n\n“should i just take you right here right now?” nikis fingers find their way on top of sunoos covered thigh, desperately trying to find the opening underneath the towel.  he’s met with soft, milky skin, immediately gripping onto the base of the towel after.  sunoo panics.  mentally and physically—jaw falling slack.  \n\n\n \n\n\n“r-riki,” he breathes out, shaking his head as his gaze moves from the others’ hands to his eyes.  niki cocks his head to the side, eyelids hooded, staring hungrily at sunoo.  at this point, sunoo doesn’t care if niki won’t forgive him after this.  not at this moment of course.  sunoo wants him so badly.  he has for way too long not to go through with this.  “r-riki i—” he stares directly up at niki, lips slightly parted.  they crave to taste him—sunoo wanting to dive into niki, to drown in him.  \n\n\n \n\n\nniki raises his eyebrows; “hm? speak up for me,” he grabs sunoos chin with his free hand, raising the latters head.  sunoo obliges immediately.  “i want you,” although sunoo didn’t intend to beg—that’s exactly how it sounds and looks.  needy and just so whiny.  niki feeds off it.  he adores it.  so, niki plans to give sunoo exactly what he wants. \n\n\n \n\n\nbut he can’t. \n\n\n \n\n\n“i’m not going to fuck you,” niki begins, turning around and approaching the bedroom door.  he locks it nonchalantly, not wanting anymore unwanted interruptions.  “what? why?” sunoo sounds so panicky, how cute.  “your ankle.  i really don’t want to hurt it more than it already is, especially if it’s already broken or sprained.” niki explains, turning around to walk back in sunoos direction.  sunoo of course, disagrees.  “b-but riki, you won’t—you won’t hurt it, please i really need…” \n\n\n \n\n\n“i’m still going to give you what you want,” niki cuts sunoos begging spree short.  he could listen to it all day, he really could, but the younger male started to feel bad.  sunoo looked really out of it, especially because of before, when he was in the middle of getting off and couldn’t exactly do so.  niki would be able to drag this on another day, perhaps when they were alone and sunoo wasn’t injured.  but for now, they weren’t as lucky. \n\n\n \n\n\n“how could you give me what i want? i want you,” sunoo grabs at nikis shirt, tugging the bottom of it anxiously.  he pouts and niki can’t help but chuckle. \n\n\n \n\n\n“you’re being ungrateful hyung, sounding like a toddler being so demanding.  i could give you nothing, would you want that?” niki cocks his head to the side, much like before, and sunoo wants to fucking rage.  he stares angrily, knowing that he doesn’t have much of a choice.  so he agrees.  desperately, at that. \n\n\n \n\n\n“n-no! okay okay, i’m sorry.” he didn’t intend to stutter either, yet here he was, practically begging for cock.  must be his favorite thing to do, beg.  he sure was good at it. \n\n\n \n\n\n“that’s more like it,” niki smirks, running his fingers through sunoos hair affectionately.  and sunoo melts into his grip, practically purring like a cat.  he wants this more than he’s ever wanted anything in his life.  he was certain that he was in love with niki. \n\n\n \n\n\nwhen niki reconnects their lips this time, it’s much different from all their previous kisses.  it’s slow—niki takes his time with sunoo—it’s passionate—sunoo kisses niki like he’s a painting in a museum, his most prized possession—it’s calm and collected—niki shows just how much sunoo means to him by treating him with care and respect—most importantly, it’s meaningful.  this is something both sunoo and niki have longed for, and now that they’ve finally gotten it uninterrupted, they’re going to take advantage of it. \n\n\n \n\n\nniki maneuvers onto the bed beside sunoo,  sitting closest to the headboard of the bed.  he skillfully does this all without ever breaking the kiss—bringing sunoo closer so that he’s straddling nikis lap.  at this point, the towel is long forgotten once again, sunoos length laying flat against his tummy that happens to be rubbing against niki each time they move.  it’s killing sunoo.  but he has to be patient.  he knows niki knows.  \n\n\n \n\n\nniki breaks away for only a few seconds, allowing for the two to catch their breaths.  thus he goes in, attacking sunoos neck leaving as many hickeys and kisses as possible.  niki figures that sunoo will have to sit out from activity for a while anyway due to his ankle, so why not leave a few indications that he was there and that they had a good time together? niki was all for it, and figured sunoo was too by the sudden noises he was making. \n\n\n \n\n\nsunoo moved his head to the side to grant niki better access to his neck.  with each bite—each kiss or even lick, left sunoo in shambles.  he whined and groaned and moaned any chance he got.  he just couldn’t help it, niki made him feel so good.  inside and out.  “r-riki—please, hurry for hyung.  it hurts,” sunoo pleads, and niki will oblige just this one time.  they needed to get a move on anyway.  it was getting late and soon enough, sunghoon or jungwon would come knocking on the door.  or maybe, just maybe, they could take a fucking hint and give them some space.  niki rolls his eyes mentally at that.  \n\n\n \n\n\n“gonna make you feel good,” niki murmurs against sunoos skin, removing his hands from the depths of sunoos body.  he rushes  to undo his belt, pulling at the buttons to remove his blue jeans.  sunoo becomes extremely excited at the sight.  \n\n\n \n\n\nniki finally tears his lips away from sunoos skin; the younger male squirming at the sight of his hyung, naked on top of him.  it practically sends niki off to la la land, his arousal finally catching up to him.  “so pretty…” he coos, trailing his fingertips up and down sunoos skin.  riki had some sort of infatuation with sunoos thighs, the elder not really understanding it.  they were slender and pale, that’s all. \n\n\n \n\n\n“riki—”\n\n\n \n\n\nniki cuts sunoo off; “yeah yeah, i know,” he really does.  niki was so precious.  \n\n\n \n\n\nniki takes his cock out from his pants, his plan to satisfy the both of them at once.  he hated rushing but there wasn’t much he could do besides that.  it was late and the others could be coming any minute now.  “i’m going to jerk us off, together,” niki stares at sunoo—wanting to see his reaction.  consent was really important to the younger boy and if that was something sunoo didn’t want then it wasn’t going to happen.  thus, knowing sunoo—he nods eagerly, desperately wanting attention on his cock.  niki coos once again.  \n\n\n \n\n\n“r-riki—yah i can’t—i can’t, i—” sunoo starts to mumble a whole bunch of bullshit once niki wraps his hand around the base of his cock.  he slowly starts to stroke sunoo up and down, thumbing at his tip.  he uses the sudden ooze of pre-cum to make the slide easier, this time picking up the pace at which he jerks sunoo off.  he wants to get the older going before adding his own dick in—just made the experience better in nikis opinion.  he may not have done any of this before, but he’s watched more than enough videos to know what to do.  he even considered himself a professional.  teenagers. \n\n\n \n\n\nsunoo has his head thrown back already—naughty noises croaking from his throat each time niki strokes him just right.  and the latter finds this absolutely amusing, the effect he had over his hyung was like no other.  he could sit here and watch this for days—observe sunoo unravel on top of him.  but niki was too impatient and they really needed to move along at a steady pace.  curse sharing a room.  it wasn’t fair that heeseung got his own anyway!  \n\n\n \n\n\n“here we go hyung,” niki says as a warning that he’s going to add himself in the situation—slowing his hand movements until it’s at a complete stop.  sunoo is breathing like he just ran a marathon, just nodding as a response.  usually niki wouldn’t take that, wanting something verbal.  but again, they had no time to waste so he just went with it.  niki aligns their cocks together, his being visibly longer and overall thicker.  sunoo just had a cute tiny cock.  niki would take advantage of teasing him for that later—but at the same time adored it so much.  \n\n\n \n\n\n“please please—please riki,” tears spill over sunoos eyes, a few of them flowing down his cheeks at a time.  niki hadn’t a clue sunoo could get this worked up so easily.  it was quite cute, but it made niki want to give sunoo what he wanted immediately.  sunoo always called him the little shit—but it was most definitely the other way around.  \n\n\n \n\n\n“calm down sunoo-ssi, hyung’s got you,” niki emphasizes the hyung, knowing damn well that’d get underneath sunoos skin.  the elder was so against niki not using honorifics.  how would he feel when niki referred to himself as hyung rather than sunoo?  “nishimura riki—d-don’t you start with me,” sunoo gasps, head coming down to rest on nikis shoulder.  holding himself up was hard enough, he couldn’t even imagine how he’d feel once they actually have sex.  probably like floating on clouds and swimming through heaven.  though he already felt that way just by being with niki.  \n\n\n \n\n\n“or should i make you call me oppa? cause’ that’s just what you are, right? a girl? want oppa to fuck you like a girl?” niki flicks his wrist relentlessly—making sunoo scream.  the pleasure was so overwhelming that sunoo didn’t even know what to fucking do with himself.  he blushed and squirmed at nikis filthy words—doing his absolute best not to let it affect him.  it was almost impossible, especially when niki kept pushing on it.  \n\n\n \n\n\n“you’re so wet—so messy, almost like you have a cunt, sunoo-ssi.  are you my little princess? hm?” niki teases viciously and it only makes sunoo turned on even more.  which he didn’t think was possible.  “r-riki i’m cumming—!” sunoo whales, nails digging into nikis bareback.  somehow sunoo managed to wiggle his fingers underneath nikis shirt.  he doesn’t even remember doing so, so don’t ask him.  \n\n\n \n\n\n“i don’t think so.  not until you say my name,” niki removes his hand from their dicks, smirking so evilly it’s practically sinful.  “niki-yah, please, don’t do this to me,” sunoo begs but he knows how stubborn niki is.  he won’t let up until he gets what he wants. \n\n\n \n\n\n“just say my name, hyungie~” \n\n\n \n\n\nfuck him. \n\n\n \n\n\n“p-please let me cum o-oppa,” sunoo then begins to lazily mouth at nikis neck, becoming desperate though he already was.  he squeezes the latter harshly—doing anything in his power to get niki to start moving again.  the younger male seems satisfied in his response, so he begins to stroke them off together again. \n\n\n \n\n\nand instantly, sunoo cums.  he cums with another scream, which niki tries to muffle with his hand.  warm white liquid squirts from sunoos throbbing cock, and niki follows shortly after.  \n\n\n \n\n\nsunoo lays blissfully on nikis chest, holding the boy close to him as the sudden tiredness takes over his body.  niki knows they can’t just stay there looking like that.  his bed his dirty, as well as both of their bodies.  they needed to wash up.  luckily the hallway is dark and completely empty whilst niki carries sunoos limp body to the bathroom.  he managed to remove his bed sheets and dispose of them properly, all without waking up sunoo, too.  now that was a mission accomplished. \n\n\n \n\n\ninstead of a shower, niki runs a bath for sunoo.  he makes sure it’s warm and bubbly, wanting to keep sunoos skin as soft as a baby’s bottom.  it felt nice when they laid skin to skin, niki wanted to do that more often.  \n\n\n \n\n\n“wake up sleepy head, let me wash your hair,” niki tsks, rolling his sleeves up past his elbows.  sunoo surprisingly blinks a few times, recognizing the change in his surroundings and the fact that he wasn’t in nikis arms anymore.  “do you really have to do all this?” sunoo pouts.  niki rolls his eyes whilst dumping shampoo in his hands.  “do you really have to complain about everything? let me do something nice,” sunoo obliges because what else can he really do in this situation? he liked when niki took care of him anyway.  he liked when the other gave him all of his attention.  made sunoos cheeks flush a deep shade of red. \n\n\n \n\n\n“i’m not a baby riki, i can wash my own hair,” he closes his eyes and smiles when niki applies the shampoo, scrubbing his hair thoroughly.  niki doesn’t reply, only continues his work.  once he rinses out the shampoo, he adds the conditioner, waiting a little longer to rinse that out.  it’s always good to keep your conditioner longer than the shampoo, in nikis opinion.  makes your hair softer.  “let me wash your body too,” \n\n\n \n\n\nsunoo was not having that.\n\n\n \n\n\n“no way,” he immediately protests, turning his body away from niki.  the bubbles thankfully hid all his private parts from anyone being able to see; “as if i haven’t seen it all before,” niki coos, ruffling sunoos wet hair.  it’s almost as if he can read minds. sunoo slowly turns nikis way, a sad pout anchored on his lips.  niki thinks it’s quite adorable—of course he does.  “can we get this over with?” sunoo requests demandly, crossing his arms over his body.  “calm down sunoo-ssi, it’ll only take a bit,” niki rubs the body wash together in his hands.\n\n\n \n\n\n“don’t call me that,”\n\n\n \n\n\n“you seemed to enjoy it while i was getting you off just a few minutes ago,” \n\n\n \n\n\nsunoo gasps.  “don’t you say that out loud,” he glares angrily at niki.  and niki tsks.\n\n\n \n\n\n“i haven’t even accepted your apology yet and you're already giving me this?” niki says. \n\n\n \n\n\n“you still don’t forgive me?” sunoo peers up, giving the puppy dog eyes. \n\n\n \n\n\n“i don’t,” niki smirks. \n\n\n \n\n\n“asshole,” sunoo splashes niki with some of his bath water. \n\n\n \n\n\n“so that’s how you wanna play?” niki splashes sunoo right back. \n\n\n \n\n\n“i’m the one already wet! it’s not as effective for you,” sunoo sticks out his tongue and niki cocks his head to the right.\n\n\n \n\n\n“you’re right—you were so wet, just like a girl,” \n\n\n \n\n\n“shut up!” \n\n\n \n\n\nsunoo splashes much more this time, drenching niki in warm water.  they both start to chuckle—sunoo giggling whilst niki shakes his head to get some of the water out of his hair like a dog.  then, they lock eyes.  so cliché these two.  time practically slows and niki is giving sunoo that same look he did earlier—hunger.  curse him.  sunoo was so in love it wasn’t even funny. \n\n\n \n\n\n“come in,” sunoo suggests faintly, and niki is already taking off his shirt.  seems as if they both had similar thoughts.  thus, niki smiles innocently and hops in the bathtub, sitting on the opposite side of sunoo.  he pats his lap suggestively.  “so warm,” he gives that boyish smile.  niki is such a boy.  he smells like one, sweats like one, acts dumb and playful like one, dresses like one and behaves like one.  it makes sense because niki is a boy.  but niki is so boy.  sunoo couldn’t explain it but he knew he loved it.  he loved his sweaty smell and his adam’s apple.  he loved niki.  he ate that right up—the fact that niki was a boy.  sunoo was definitely gay. \n\n\n \n\n\nthe latter climbs his way over and up on nikis lap, straddling him much like before.  nothing naughty takes place, sunoo only lays comfortably on the younger’s chest.  it was times like these that sunoo forgot he was an idol in the first place.  like he was free to love niki in public, free to flaunt him and go out with him.  it wasn’t fair that he couldn’t.  he planned to stay with him all the way up until enhypen would finally disband, years into the future, and then finally post pictures of them kissing or something.  that felt so romantic to sunoo. \n\n\n \n\n\n“what’re you thinking about?” niki asks softly, bringing his hand up to casually run through sunoos hair whilst the other caresses his back.  sunoo smiles—niki knew him so well.\n\n\n \n\n\n“you,” he says. \n\n\n \n\n\n“just me?” niki questions. \n\n\n \n\n\n“us,” sunoo corrects himself. \n\n\n \n\n\nniki hums in response. \n\n\n \n\n\nthere was so much to talk about with plenty of time to do so.  sunoo was way too sleepy for any of it.  he figured niki could tell, by the way he was replying.  simply.  they were both exhausted.  sunoo really didn’t want to deal with whatever was to come tomorrow, so he takes the opportunity to fall asleep soundly where he always wants to be. \n\n\n \n\n\nin nikis arms. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n"}
+{"text": "Everyone needs a hobby. That's what they say isn't it? Truth is, I've always been interested in art and this evening class is the perfect excuse to indulge that passion while getting me out of the house for a few hours each week. Much as I love my husband, we all need a little personal space now and again.\n\nClutching my drawing materials, my heels click steadily along the tiled corridor of the local school which hosts the lessons. The eerie quiet of a school during evening time is not something I think I will ever get used to. My gaze moves disinterestedly over the various posters and flyers pinned to the noticeboards advertising after school clubs and other scholastic activities. I sniff as the faint whiff of bleach permeates the area.\n\nI walk head back and erect. It is amazing what being short does for one's posture -- anything to gain that extra inch or two. I'm 5'0 without my heels, slim, large brown eyes, brown hair down to my shoulders and 34C breasts which are slightly too big for my frame...although I don't often get complaints about that, I admit.\n\nThe balmy warmth of the summer air is detectable even in the usually cool hallways. My pretty summer dress is white with large blue flowers printed erratically across it and is made of a light, breathable, material that floats pleasantly against my bare legs beneath, hem tapping rhythmically just above my knees as I walk.\n\nAs I approach the door to room 3C I catch sight of one of the other class regulars approaching from the opposite direction. We are into the second month of lessons, and I know most of the members of the group as we often go for a drink together after class. The fact that most of the other students are male does not hurt, although a few are rather boorish for my taste.\n\n\"David, how are you?\" I ask pleasantly as we arrive at the door together. I catch his eyes quickly flickering up from scanning my lightly tanned, smooth legs as he smiles.\n\n\"I'm great Mrs. Sarah, really looking forward to tonight's class. Allow me...\" He replies, pulling open the door to let me pass into the room as I note his unusually high level of enthusiasm.\n\nUpon entering we both pause as the class is much busier than usual. Most of the hard-core regulars are sat at their usual places, but they have been joined by an array of semi-familiar faces that have only attended one or two of the previous lessons and seem to have all chosen to mysteriously rekindle their interest in art at the same time. Also, and even more surprising, the other female members of the class seem to be entirely absent.\n\nFrowning, I make a beeline for one of the empty chairs, David following and slipping into the seat next to me. Having a little more time to process the attendees I reflect on the fact that I am the only woman this week and can't help but wonder why.\n\n\"I knew it would be busy this week.\" David leans over and nods wisely, looking around the room and waving at a few of the men we know. He even seems to receive a wink from Jason, one of the most arrogant and chauvinistic amongst the group.\n\n\"What made you think that?\" I ask casually, as I also acknowledge the regular students and am rewarded with friendly smiles in return...and the occasional smirk from the more laddish contingent -- including from Jason, obviously.\n\nI pause as I sense David looking at me in surprise. I turn to him and raise my eyebrows quizzically.\n\n\"Don't you remember the schedule we got in week one? It is the life drawing class tonight.\" He prompts as he grins, giving me a nudge and eyeing me closely as the words sink in. Only after hearing the explanation do I notice the set of solid, low, wide boxes creating a make-shift stage with a solitary, lonely chair in its centre, and a small stand-alone folding screen behind.\n\n\"Ah that explains it\" I sniff, irritated that the men are here for such adolescent reasons instead of for the love of art. I pout as I huffily pull out my paper and pastels, setting the coloured sticks neatly in the narrow, grooved ledge of the provided easel. Still, I think, surely the women haven't all stayed away because of that, have they? Very strange.\n\nI ignore David as I sense his grin remains as he watches me for a few seconds longer before breaking the spell and sorting out his own kit. As he does so, the clock on the far wall moves to 8pm and, simultaneously, the instructor, Mr. Perry, enters. A stickler for punctuality, we often joke about his metronomic arrival each week.\n\n\"Evening class\" he says gruffly. A shortish man, Mr. Perry fits the starving artist cliché perfectly. Disheveled and scruffy but with an intense peering gaze trained to observe all details, he clatters to the front and stumbles onto the boxed stage-like construction to address us more formally.\n\nAn expectant hush descends on the room. I look around to see if anyone else has followed him in, but he is alone and clears his throat to say, somewhat sheepishly,\n\n\"Uh, frightfully bad news you know -- awfully sorry and all that -- I'm afraid the model has had to, well, that is to say, she is not able to...tonight...uh, she isn't coming.\" Dropping the bombshell with a fluttering of hands and stuttering of words.\n\nI look down and consciously suppress a smile as I listen to the sighs and grumbles of the men. 'Serves them right for only being here to stare -- perverts' I think to myself, amused and -- to some extent -- relieved that tonight will revert to a standard art class, one more in my comfort zone. The moans continue and sound rather over-done to my ears, almost like a bad actor over-playing their part.\n\n\"But we were promised life drawing!\" The exclamation coming from Jon, one of the more irritating members of the group. The wheedling, almost child-like plea is highly satisfying to me, and I can't stop my smile appearing as I look at his forlorn expression. He catches me smirking and is about to smirk back but seems to catch himself and, instead, he scowls darkly.\n\n\"Well, uh, as you see that, well best of intentions and all that...you get the idea but fear not dear aspiring Michelangelos...and Michelangeloesses of course...\" he adds as an afterthought, bowing theatrically in my direction \"for I have, that is we always have, some, uh, excellent -- what I like to call...STILL LIFE!\"\n\n\"Maybe you could get a volunteer\" states Jon firmly, glaring at the instructor and the unappealing thought of spending the next two hours painting an apple. After the words hang in the air for a second, he looks directly round to where I am sat -- the eyes of the class following his gaze.\n\nI freeze as all attention turns to me. My mouth opens then closes as I cross my arms defensively over my chest, the movement pressing my dress against the lace bra beneath. \"Well, I hardly think...\" I begin, indeed finding it hard to think before I alight on an excuse \"...in this modern day and age that it needs be a woman -- why don't YOU do it?\" I say, satisfied, as I turn everyone's attention back to Jon.\n\n\"I suppose that's your feminist principles coming through Sarah?\" he responds evenly, trying not to let his emotions show. \"I know from our debates you are all for equality so why don't we draw lots for it.\" He finishes, leaning back and watching me as I realise it is almost impossible for me to refuse.\n\n\"To be fair we should all put our names in\" I insist, certain that at least some of the group will refuse and the whole idea will be abandoned. To my surprise, however, there is instant agreement from everyone, one might even describe it as enthusiastic agreement. I feel startled but calm myself with the thought that the odds are well in my favour now -- maybe 12 or 15 to 1 against my being the chosen model.\n\n\"Splendid, uh, yes indeed splendid, spiffing work all, let me hand these out -- write your names on the paper please and drop in the metaphorical hat, by which I mean this cardboard box.\" The instructor chortles happily, rapidly handing out small, pre-prepared, rectangles of paper to us all and placing the box at the front of the stage.\n\nMy fingers tremble as I take the proffered slip of paper. 'How did this happen?' I ask myself. Logically I know the chance of being chosen is small, but logic holds no sway against my body's fight-or-flight instinct. I feel my pulse rate increasing as I scrawl my name using one of the pastels, fold the paper, and drop it into the box.\n\nI close my eyes for a second to compose myself. My mind fills with the sounds of the room as chairs are scrapped back and heavy footsteps trudge to the box and back. I exhale evenly and slowly to calm myself and re-open my eyes as the instructor lifts the box, shakes it a few times and dips his hand ominously into the scraps of paper.\n\nWith a flourish, he pulls out a single slip and holds it aloft as he carefully places the box on the table to the side.\n\n\"And the winner....\" He jokes, smiling around the room and being rewarded with delighted chuckles from some. He pauses dramatically as I hold my breath. I look left and right but the men seem far more relaxed than I about the situation -- perhaps that is just the way men are -- showoffs.\n\n\"...is...\" he grins, enjoying his moment of power. I narrow my eyes in annoyance, and, as I turn my head my gaze meets Jon's who is, for some reason, smiling at me. A smile that only widens a second later as we all hear,\n\n\"SARAH! Oh well done my dear, uh, splendidly well done I must say! Many congratulations my baby girl!\" Enthuses the teacher as he quickly drops the slip of paper back into the box along with the others.\n\nTime stands still. I hear the happy mumblings of the class and observe Jon's gleeful smirk of triumph. These observations suggest that time must be moving -- but it also stands still. My mind shrinks back in its skull looking for a safe place to hide. I might have sat frozen like that forever had it not been for an eager nudge from David alerting me to Mr. Perry's outstretched hand.\n\nI reach for the hand, the only steadying presence in my world, and am led behind the rickety screen on the makeshift stage. I can hear him speak but must force myself to register the meaning of his words.\n\n\"Thank you so much Sarah, and I think I speak for all the men here, when I, uh, say that we are extremely pleased you volunteered as it were. Now just pop all your clothes off there's a good girl -- all in the name of art, eh?!\" He smiles, leaving me behind the screen, partially hidden from the rest of the class.\n\nI blink as I gradually come to my senses. Hearing the noise of my classmates shockingly, intimately close as I fumble with the zip at the back of my dress, the sudden loosening of its hold results in a soft whoosh as it slips over my body and puddles around my ankles and heels. I gingerly step from it and pick it up, glancing around but seeing no obvious place to put it I hang it over the top of the screen aware that it can now be half seen by all.\n\nI bite my lip to steady myself once more, stood just in heels and underwear in the suddenly draughty art room, I reach behind my back. The familiar bra clasp defeats me for a moment. Like a young man's fumbling attempts to discover the mystery of female underwear I tug helplessly at it for a moment before muscle memory kicks in and I feel the restraint give.\n\nThis second loosening is much worse than the first. I feel the sensation of my chest falling forward, the usually supportive material sagging off them. I glance down at my exposed breasts, harsh in the light of the room, small nipples tingling at their unexpected freedom. I quickly look away, the sight of their wanton roundness worsening my nerves. I look at the useless strip of material in my hand and hang it up over the screen on top of my dress. It may have been my imagination, but I thought I heard a scurrying to and from the screen then a low, whispered, '34C'.\n\nI pause for a second as I attempt to steady myself. Inhaling deeply and forcing my breathing to slow as I kick off my heels. The resulting reduction in height emphasises my reduction in confidence as I grip the waistband of my black lace panties with my thumbs and strip them down my legs and off. The ball of lace in my hand takes on a mind of its own and snags and falls back against my face as I attempt to lay it over the top of the screen. I scowl but my second attempt is more successful and my panties balance precariously on top of the rest of my clothes.\n\nMy hopes for a few extra moments to collect myself are instantly dashed as the appearance of my panties upon the screen signals my full state of nudity and acts as a siren call to Mr. Perry who pops his head around the screen.\n\n\"Ah there we are now Sarah, that's a girl, eh?\" He smiles at me as his eyes dart over my newly exposed form, whether to appreciate the artistic possibilities or for other reasons I cannot say.\n\n\"Now, I'll put your personals away for safekeeping\" he continues as he collects my clothes and places them in a wooden cupboard at the back of the room a few feet behind me. \"If you'll excuse me, I'll just...\" I watch as he bends down directly in front of me to collect my shoes, his face mere inches from my exposed shaven pussy. I can't help but place a small hand over myself, covering between my legs as he rises once more and locks everything away, pocketing the key in his worn jacket.\n\n\"There now\" he smiles \"out you pop and sit on the chair -- the men are eager to get started!\" says Mr. Perry. I can imagine they are indeed eager but, trying not to think of that, I purse my lips and gather my courage before moving to the side of the screen and quickly padding to the chair, careful to keep my legs jammed together as I sit, arms crossed over my chest in a somewhat unnatural position.\n\nSilence rules for a second. The dozen or so men in the room taking in my exposed skin with their triumphant gazes. All thoughts of art seem to have deserted them as the moment extends tensely before Mr. Perry, the first to remember why we are here, continues,\n\n\"Right, well then, there we are, isn't that just, I mean isn't Sarah...that is we should start drawing! ART! DRAWING! Come along now gentlemen, let's get those pictures going -- you wouldn't want to miss taking a record of this would you?\" He jokes to some polite chortles.\n\nAs the silence of the room is replaced with soft scribblings of pastels on paper, I begin to feel my heart rate return to normal. Slowly I come to terms with the situation, glad that the instructor let me keep my chosen pose. Here I am, nude in front of all the men in a school room but at least I am partially covered. The feel of my nipples pressing against my covering arms provides some comfort as I stare directly at the front wall.\n\nMoments pass and the strange situation begins to feel normal. As it does, I decide to take a chance and move my vision from a fixed point on the wall and direct it cautiously around the room. I catch sight of the first few men focussed on my form and their drawings and I begin to wonder if this is not so bad after all when I make the mistake of catching Jon's eye. He is looking directly at me then slowly moves his eyes up and down my exposed body before giving me a cheeky wink -- the nerve of the man!\n\nI frown and look back to the blank wall. Slowly I start to count backwards from 100 to distract myself and pass the time until this is all over. From my current position I can't see the clock, which is behind me, and my phone is still in my handbag which I left by my seat in the earlier confusion -- not that I would be allowed to move to retrieve it anyway. My self-hypnosis drifts me into a reverie until Mr. Perry breaks the spell.\n\n\"Right, I think we have just about exhausted that pose -- so to speak -- so let us, er, you know, have a different one shall we.... now then, what would be good?!\" He says, pausing with a thoughtful look upon his face, finger tapping at his lips as he ponders his (and my) next move.\n\n\"Perhaps one foot lifted onto the seat of the chair?\" Suggests Jon innocently, looking at the instructor but only after a sly grin in my direction.\n\nMr. Perry looks over at the unexpected interjection \"Oh Jon, yes, well, er, interesting idea I suppose, what exactly...? That is, how exactly do you envisage the, uh...Well, why not come up and show us...position her as you envisage, please.\"\n\nBefore I can object Jon is up out of his seat and towering over me. He pauses for a second until I meet his eye then calmly, slowly, reaches down and runs his hands down my lower leg until he grasps my ankle. Half bent forward he looks back up at me as he begins to lift it causing my knee to bend and leg to rise.\n\nI feel my chest tremble in alarm, my arms instinctively folding tighter in surprise as my leg begins to lift, moving to the side a little and parting from the other. I look at Jon, but he is still grinning as he places my foot gently but firmly flat onto the seat of the chair. The movement has opened my legs a little but also moved my body position so that my pussy is now on show to half of the room.\n\n\"Ah yes!\" exclaims Mr Perry \"I see your intention -- extending the leg muscles just so.... Gives a certain dynamism to the whole tableaux! Wonderful!\"\n\nI am highly sceptical that that was indeed Jon's intention but hardly have time to think about it as Jon turns back to the instructor,\n\n\"...and then the arms like this?\" as, without waiting for reply, he lifts my arms from their protective position and moves them behind my head. The resultant movement of my torso pushes my naked breasts forward and presents them fully to the room.\n\n\"Wonderful Jon, you have an eye for these sort of things -- that's perfect -- back to your place now and let's draw!\"\n\nJon smiles at the instructor's compliment and nods, turning casually, his trailing hand moves lightly across my breasts, the touch innocent and accidental looking but having the effect of hardening my already sensitive nipples and causing me to wriggle slightly.\n\n\"Don't fidget Sarah -- stay still!\" admonishes Mr. Perry firmly and I, chastened, freeze in place once more.\n\nThis time is different. Acutely aware of how much more I am showing, my mind refuses to be distracted by the wall or the time or counting or...anything that isn't my current situation. I swallow as I try to bring some moisture back into my dry mouth.\n\nI know I shouldn't, but I look over at Jon, almost desperate to irritate myself further as I see my nemesis's enjoyment of the situation he has put me in. Of course, he lifted my leg that was furthest from his side of the room, so he now has an unobstructed view of both my breasts and my bare pussy. He lounges back in this seat as his eyes move down to rest between my legs. I gulp as I feel my pussy respond to the attention and quickly avert my eyes before it gets too involved.\n\n\"Uh Mr. Perry?\" asks Jon \"I'm not sure I will have time to finish this sketch during the class, would it be all right if I...?\"\n\nI hear his words but am no longer looking in his direction so miss his intention completely as he takes his phone out of his pocket and lifts it as he waits for a response.\n\n\"Oh, why yes, well, this is, er, normal, to work from materials, I mean we can't expect to perfect everything immediately can we now? Not even our star pupil.\" as he smiles indulgently at Jon \"Go on, my sweet Caravaggio...as you will! Perhaps you could share it with the WhatsApp group for the class? -- useful homework for the men who couldn't make it this evening...and the women of course\" he adds with a chuckle.\n\nWondering what they are referring to I turn my gaze back round at exactly the moment when Jon's camera phone clicks, thus presenting him with a full frontal -- of both my nakedness and my face. I gape in surprise and can hardly react before I see him quickly tap at his phone and suddenly the familiar WhatsApp chime emits from several phones in the room -- including the one still in my handbag.\n\nI bite my lip in fury and frustration, wanting to object but knowing there is little point now that the picture is out there never to be retrieved. I shudder, realising that any future visits to the pub after class will be with men who can dip into their pockets at any point and review my naked, exposed body at their will. The heated arguments will have an extra edge to them.\n\nMind gnawing on this unexpected development I pay no attention as Mr. Perry glances at his phone. The picture has arrived along with a text. A second later his phone starts ringing.\n\nI jump as the sudden ringtone echoes off the bare walls of the art room. The instructor quickly lifts his mobile to his ear and talks into the line \"What? Oh yes of course, well that is, er, yes, it is, I will come right away\". Hanging up, he hurriedly makes a beeline for the door \"Sorry class, slight emergency -- I need to step out for a moment -- back in 5 -- take a break -- have coffee!\" he calls over his shoulder as he rushes out in a whirlwind of arms and legs.\n\nI blink at the sudden exit. A moment later I gasp as I realise he has left with the key that unlocks access to my clothes. I jump up, nude, forgetting myself, as I move to the door and peer out...but he is already gone. I look helplessly left and right along the deserted corridor before a sudden voice brings me back to reality:\n\n\"Here you go Sarah, I got you a coffee...\" says Jon smoothly as I turn back to him, taking it automatically and only then understanding that holding the cup prevents me covering myself with my hands.\n\n\"She does a great job modelling, eh guys?\" he grins as the other men happily gather around my naked frame leaving me no option but to stand and chat. The illusion of a professional, above-board model now destroyed as I must engage with these men I know, have sketched with, talked with, socialised with, drank with, debated with, and argued with.\n\n\"Sure does!\" enthuses Jason as he quickly, lightly slaps my naked ass -- the resulting sound adding to the general mirth. I'm about to complain as I would when clothed but it seems far more difficult to do so while nude.\n\nThe shadow feeling of his bare hand on my bare ass is difficult to shake. My mind senses where he spanked me, the skin burning hot from shame rather than pain. I feel the small plastic cup of coffee shaking a little in my grip as my gaze moves back up to meet Jon's.\n\n\"Look! Nice, eh?\"\n\nHe smiles as he lifts his phone, turning it as he does so, presenting me with the image he captured a few moments ago. I look at the smaller version of myself - nude, surprised, easily recognisable, captured forever, future viewers entirely under the men's control.\n\n\"Yes\"\n\nI hear someone answer. A beat passes before I recognise the voice as my own. Horrified as I realise my instinctive response has bypassed my brain. The answer catches them all by surprise and I see Jon's gaze move down to my breasts and, as it does so, I feel my small sensitive nipples harden dramatically.\n\nI close my eyes for a fraction of a second. My brain chewing on the situation, aware of all the men in the room, all the cocks in the room hanging or hardening between their legs. I can almost smell the masculinity and desire emanating from each male. I open my eyes as I feel a finger and thumb delicately gripping my left nipple.\n\n\"You are not drinking your coffee.\" Jon states while he calmly holds my nipple, watching me, gauging my reaction.\n\nI stare back, lifting the trembling container to my drying lips as I try to keep control. I feel his grip tightening slightly as I do so, pulling a little, teasing. I swallow -- the liquid and my excitement -- as I part my legs slightly to balance myself.\n\n\"She's loving it!\" gloats Jason in amazement as the parting of my legs shows the clear glistening of my pussy. The undeniable bodily responses act as an invitation and he caresses my other breast as I squirm into, not away from, him.\n\n\"Let's give her what she's missing at home.\" Jon nods to the surrounding men in a signal understood by all.\n\nA soft moan leaves my body as I feel the strong hands lifting my naked form. My body pliant as they lay me back on the table, ensuring my legs are fully spread, shaven, tight, married, wet pussy explicitly, obscenely, on display.\n\nNo sooner am I positioned than I feel it. A thickness rubbing between my legs. A hardness probing urgently around my eager pussy lips. I grit my teeth at the sudden pressure there followed by a satisfying give, a shunt, and he is inside me.\n\nMy back arches as my desperate pussy receives Jon's big thick cock. Much bigger than I am used to, the cock fills my pussy, presses against the sides in a deliciously satisfying way. His rapid thrusts pushing his shaft up and causing my clit to respond, tingling with the motion.\n\nI know he is bare, deliberately so, but I don't care. My arms extend to the sides, hands opening to welcome two further cocks. I grip their throbbing hardness tightly, steadying myself and exciting them.\n\nI can guess at least one owner of a cock now in my hand. I confirm my suspicions as I glance up, seeing Jason, looking down at where my small fingers hold his solid erection, playing with it, pulling at it. Never during all our conversations could he have dreamed that one day I would be naked in front of everyone giving him a hand job.\n\nI moan as I feel Jon's big cock moving inside me, pushing, throbbing urgently. I try not to think of it being him, him of all people, fucking me now, but I can't help my mind fixating on the idea -- the fact we have never gotten along is surprisingly exciting for me and I can feel my orgasm hinting at its approach.\n\nAn echo seems to fill the room before I realise the repeated moan is not mine but his. Instinctively my hands tighten around the cocks they hold, my fingers feel the tension there, the urgency...my eyes widen as I feel them both release within seconds of each other. The grunts of the men and the thrust of their members alerting me to the orgasms a second before I feel their cum splatter warmly against my naked body.\n\n\"Oh fuck\" gasps Jon as the sight of me being covered in their seed is the final straw. He thrusts hard into me, pressing his big cock fully into my married pussy as he starts to shudder. The sensation of his cock beginning to unload inside me triggers my own orgasm and it thunders through my body in sympathy, crashing in waves, obliterating all thought and action as its pleasure fills me completely.\n\nWhen, a few moments later, I am recovered enough to open my eyes, I watch Jon as he gently pulls his shrinking penis from me. Expecting an expression of gloating triumph, I am surprised to see a relief, almost a gentleness there, a gratefulness for the pleasure shared. He exhales, placing his cock back in his clothing and suddenly leaves the room for a second, returning a moment later he hands me the locker key without a word.\n\nI slip unsteadily off the table and rush to get dressed, glancing at the clock, I notice the time and jump into action. The class is due to finish in one minute and my husband promised to come and meet me for a drink after class. I only just manage to get my clothing on -- sticking slightly against parts of my body before the door opens and Keith walks in.\n\n\"Hey honey, had a good class?\" asks my husband as he glances around, sensing some tension in the air \"Ready for a drink?\" he asks.\n\n\"Why don't we all go and get one?\" Smiles Jon, shaking hands with him \"We can tell you all about it!\".\n\n************------------************\n\nMr Perry sits back in his chair at home and opens the envelope. He smiles as he flicks through the sheaf of banknotes.\n\n\"Not bad for a day's work.\" He thinks as he sets it aside, recalling the events in the pub last week after I had left; Jon devising the plan and encouraging the other men to go along with it. Truth be told, he would have happily done it for nothing but there was some work involved after all.\n\nHe had had to let the model know she was no longer needed, prepare the box and slips of paper, send out an e-mail to the other female members of the class telling them the class had been cancelled, and a further mail to all the less regular male class members letting them know of the special fun to be had this week and so not to miss it!...Not to mention acting innocent as he declared the 'winner' - fully aware that every slip of paper had 'Sarah' written upon it.\n\nHe stretches as a soft chuckle emits from his lips. He remembers the private text he had received from Jon along with the picture during class \"gr8 work Mike, ur quite the actor, we have left ur money in the first locker in the hall, leave the key there when you go, will ring u now\" and then the moment later when Jon dialled his number and quickly slipped his own phone back into his jacket leaving Mr Perry to talk into the empty line as me made his excuses and left.\n\n\"God, I loved taking that snooty bitch down a peg or two.\" He laughs to the empty room, lifting his whisky and taking a satisfied sip as his mind recalls the sight of my naked body, the pert breasts and shaven, vulnerable, tight pussy.\n\n\"Which reminds me!\" He exclaims, taking out his phone and pulling up my naked picture. Taking his time, he undoes himself and pulls out his thick cock, already hard at the explicit photograph before him, as he begins to stroke.\n\n\"Ah, it's a hard life being an artist.\"\n\n"}
+{"text": "“Rise and shine, slave.”\n\n \n\nKatara’s slow, unsteady return to consciousness was abruptly hastened by the feeling of the golden collar around her neck digging in tight, roughly pulling her up and to her knees.  Sputtering, it took her a moment to focus before she realized that Azula was before her, and unlike yesterday seemed to have no interest in giving her time to prepare.\n\n \n\nInstead of being either fully clothed or naked, this time the Firelord wore a slimming corset in bright red leather that emphasized her modest curves, along with silken stockings that went up to her thigh and matching leather gloves that stopped at her shoulder.  Her cunt was fully exposed, and it took a moment for Katara to realize she’d been staring before turning away, her shame at having given in so easily yet again last night filling her less with anger at her captor and more at her own weakness. \n\n \n\nShe’d had a private interest in women that she’d known of for a few years, but this particular woman, and in this situation?  That was madness she didn’t dare entertain if she could help it.\n\n \n\nBut then she thought, noticing the glittering gem of her mother’s betrothal necklace already on Azula’s neck, for now she didn’t have much say in the matter.  Patience offered little comfort, but she could hardly afford to be picky.\n\n \n\nWith every day the full moon came closer, and the chance for her freedom with it.\n\n \n\n“On your knees,” Azula finally declared, and compelled by her subconscious programming, Katara immediately complied.  “I have something special in mind for you today.”\n\n \n\nAt first, Katara could hardly imagine what would qualify as ‘special’ given what she’d already endured at the Firelord’s hands, but when Azula turned to face her, she held only a simple red sash, doubled over into a bandanna that she held between her, as if to give it a significance to her prisoner that was lost on Katara until Azula simply placed it over her eyes and fastened a knot securely behind her head.\n\n \n\nKatara could now see nothing—blackness with the slightest crimson tint—and being robbed of one of her senses gave her a renewed feeling of anxiety.  She hadn’t realized until this exact moment how much at least a vague idea of what was coming from her captor had given her even a small bit of twisted comfort.  Any sort of knowledge was better than absolutely nothing.\n\n \n\n“Plant your face on the floor and stick your ass up for me.  Hands behind your back, slave.”\n\n \n\nKatara felt herself gasp as her cheek abruptly smacked against the cold tile, the odd feeling of being completely helpless to control her own body magnified as it simply did as Azula commanded.  A cruel, satisfied ‘hmph’ from off to her left indicated that the Firelord had confirmed what Katara herself had surmised: the programming Azula had imprinted that caused Katara’s movements to conform to her will didn’t require her to have constant visual awareness of the betrothal necklace to function.  Seeing it on Azula was the only trigger the conditioning had needed to kick in.\n\n \n\nShe isn’t prepared at all when there’s the slightest, gentlest touch of leather-clad fingers along the inside of her knee trailing ever-so-slowly up her thigh, and the way her body tenses in anticipation elicits the slightest smug chuckle from Azula, leaving Katara to grimace shamefully into the floor. \n\n \n\nShe’s even less prepared for the firm open-palmed slap on her left butt cheek that makes a loud crack in the air, knocking the wind out of her from shock so fast she doesn’t even have the chance to shout out in pain.  But just as the pain had begun to settle in, a pair of Azula’s fingers were teasing between her legs, and unable to control herself Katara let out a little mewl of pleasure.\n\n \n\nThere was hardly a pause as Azula smacked her ass again—this time on the right side—before stroking her fingers along Katara’s clit again, and the Water Tribe girl felt herself respond positively to the motion. \n\n \n\n“How does it feel, slave?”\n\n \n\nKatara bit her lip as Azula hit her rear again, horrified to realize that while it hurt just as much as before, there was something else mixed in with the pain… a sensation she tried to fight off even as it redoubled from the feeling of smooth leather on her nerve center once more.\n\n \n\n“Answer me.”\n\n \n\nShe had to obey, Katara grimly realized.   Her conditioning wouldn’t allow her any other option, no matter how badly she wanted to hold her tongue.\n\n \n\n“G-good…”  She managed just as Azula spanked her twice on each side of her ass, making Katara jerk her hips up as her voice died in a high-pitched yelp, leaving her so disoriented she couldn’t hold back the deep moan that tumbled out of her as Azula’s hand cupped her pussy, firm and possessive but steady. \n\n \n\n“Hmm.  Good girl,” Azula praised her mockingly, and as she spoke again Katara felt that same hand pull away from her (she couldn’t help jerking her hips back, almost instinctively chasing that touch) before it smacked with an audible clap right between her legs, directly on her swollen clit.  “I’m glad to see you being so honest.”\n\n \n\nKatara felt her eyes bulge behind the blindfold, her body going rigid before collapsing onto the floor in violent shuddering, her lungs filled with a deafening gasp that never quite left her mouth.  She could feel herself nearly go right over the peak of orgasm, held back only by the virtue of her conditioning, and the sensation was utterly maddening.  She could feel herself twitching, soaking the ground, but the distinctive feeling of release was simply… not there.  Somehow, this was even worse than being made to come at Azula’s command, and in the face of such a distressing state her gradually crumbling resistance and defiance quickly faltered.\n\n \n\n“P-please Master, let your Slave come,” Katara muttered, body shuddering and squirming even as she raised her ass once again, nearly automatically.\n\n \n\n“Such a good, good girl you’re becoming,” Azula replied, clearly pleased with Katara’s ‘progress.’  “But you’re going to have to be patient a bit longer, Slave.  Now don’t move.”\n\n \n\nWithout another word from Azula, Katara dimly heard her rise to her feet and walk off to some other part of the room, feeling her back begin to ache the longer she stayed in place until there was the patter of Azula returning to being behind her, followed by the slow but unmistakable squelching of liquid, the friction of a hand moving rather deliberately up and down.  Moments later Katara gasped as she felt something cold and oily sliding down the crack of her butt, yelping as Azula’s fingers slowly began to tease around the rim of her asshole. \n\n \n\nKatara squirmed instinctively at first, snapped out of her lustful stupor by the boldness of Azula’s actions and the decidedly foreign sensation of having her ass played with, but as the Firelord continued—her pace steady and deliberate, almost considerate even—she gradually felt herself relax bit by bit, the tension and reflexive fear melting away, replaced by a dull sort of arousal that tickled somewhere deep in the pit of her stomach.  Even as Azula pressed a single finger into her sphincter, then a second, before spreading and scissoring them inside her at that same maddening pace, Katara felt a low moan rumbling in her throat, breathing even but shallow as she felt herself begin to dampen the floor anew. \n\n \n\n“That’s right.  Just relax, Slave.  I’d like this to go as smoothly as possible.”\n\n \n\n“Wh… wha…?”\n\n \n\nAzula said nothing, but somehow even with her vision obscured, Katara could almost feel the smirk she was certain the Firelord was making.  After a moment, she stopped and withdrew her fingers, but just as Katara was starting to almost miss the oddly arousing pressure, she felt something hard, cool and slickened with oil press against her now-stretched anus, Azula’s long fingernails digging into her hips as her hands settled on either side of her waist.  Somehow, Katara felt a strange sort of anticipation well up inside her, amplified by her blindfold and the almost possessive way Azula was holding her in place. \n\n \n\n“Now… would you care to repeat your request from earlier, Slave?”  Azula asked, the smugness palpable in her voice.  As she did so she shifted forward ever so slightly, the cold smooth object she was pressing against Katara’s sphincter sliding in just a bit with her motion, and she knew almost immediately what was going to happen at the Firelord’s slightest whim or movement.  “If you do a good job, I just might reward you.”\n\n \n\nKatara was silent for a long, long moment, before she finally spoke, quiet but certain.\n\n \n\n“Please Master… let your Slave come.”\n\n \n\nAnd with that, Azula grunted as she thrust forward, and another glass phallus—much like the one from yesterday, Katara realized, but textured and ribbed instead of smooth—slid deep inside Katara’s ass, only stopping once Azula’s hips met her own buttocks with a powerful clap of skin against skin. \n\n \n\n“Come, Slave.”\n\n \n\nKatara had been mid-gasp, just barely starting to process how Azula was fucking her, when the order hit her and she simply came undone, practically howling with a bit of pain, but far more pleasure than she’d anticipated—and combined with the climax she’d been denied before, she was far from capable of downplaying the intensity of her honest physical reaction.  She was profoundly aware of how hard she was coming, leaking all over the floor as she trembled violently, her tongue lolling as she struggled feebly to calm herself.\n\n \n\nFor the longest time, Azula simply stayed where she was, hilted inside her, almost as if she was giving her time to adjust to the sensation of being penetrated like this.  But soon enough Katara felt her pull back, the phallus inside her drawing out until only the head remained within (the feeling of Azula withdrawing was nearly as overwhelming, and she may very well have come even without being ordered to) before she thrust in again.\n\n \n\n“Come, Slave.”\n\n \n\nKatara came hard again, audibly squirting on the floor, her toes curling as she arched her back, her moaning more guttural and deep than before.  She heard Azula chuckle darkly behind her before there was a sharp pressure against the back of her scalp, and through the sudden added rush of intense sensation realized that Azula was pulling her braid, forcing her to bend back until she held her firmly in place, spine aching from being forced into such an awkward position. \n\n \n\nAnd yet somehow for Katara, as Azula began to set her pace and firmly, steadily began to properly fuck her, this didn’t feel humiliating or shameful.\n\n \n\nIt felt… amazing.\n\n \n\nTo be certain, the humiliation and shame were there, but rather than overwhelm the maelstrom of reactions and sensations Katara was losing herself in, they complemented the raw pleasure, along with the physical pain as well.  All she had to do was… simply do as she was told, and come when she was ordered, and it was almost enough to make her forget that this was a punishment of sorts; that even slightly indulging this was practically a betrayal of everything she had believed in and fought for up to now.\n\n \n\nHer thoughts were interrupted by Azula’s signature cruel laughter, and the sweet added sensation of the Firelord’s fingers messily playing with her sopping wet cunt, juices flowing freely over those slender digits.\n\n “You really are born for this, my little Water Tribe whore.  Even the best of my little pets didn’t enjoy getting fucked in the ass the first time this much.  You’re just loving this, aren’t you?”\n\n \n\n“Y-yes, Master,” Katara stammered through Azula’s now-brutal pace, surprising herself with the immediacy of her response.  “It… It feels so good…”\n\n \n\n“I’m sorry, it’s simply too funny to me,” Azula mocked, pulling Katara’s braid just a bit harder, eliciting a squealing, strangled yelp of arousal as she brought her free hand up to lock her fingers into Katara’s mouth, clawed fingers stroking her extended tongue, giving her the slightest taste of her own liquids.  “Such a strong, prideful Bender like yourself—I hate to say it, possibly even a match for me in a fight—and yet here you are, coming yourself silly like the masochist slut you really are.  Don’t you agree?”\n\n \n\nMaybe the arousal was simply too much for her to focus, or some hint of her old pride had resurfaced at the slight, but Katara said nothing aside from her own moans and whimpers of pleasure, at least until Azula clutched her firmly by the jaw and craned her head back so their faces were mere inches apart, the heat from Azula’s own face apparent to Katara even through her blindfold.\n\n \n\n“Answer me properly, or I’ll stop.”\n\n \n\nKatara hated the idea of giving Azula the satisfaction of her admission, but there really was no choice; the conditioning thanks to the trigger of her mother’s necklace was going to force her to speak the truth anyway, and somehow that gave her an odd sense of comfort even in as depraved a situation as this.\n\n \n\nThis wasn’t her.  Not really.  This conditioning was forcing her to behave this way, and all she had to do was endure just a little longer.  Even if all this was starting to make her realize things about herself that she’d never have admitted to with anyone, things she hated and was ashamed of, soon she’d be free and all this would be a bad memory. \n\n \n\nWhat was the harm, then, in giving Azula what she wanted, so she could indulge herself just a little bit and pass it off as being out of her control?\n\n \n\n“Y-yes.  You’re right… Master, you… you fucking my ass feels so fucking incredib--!”\n\n \n\nSuddenly Azula returned to railing her, even faster than before, and combined with three fingers hammering away inside her cunt, Katara felt herself go from simply passively accepting Azula’s ministrations to actively meeting them.  Giving into the situation, Katara began to bounce back against Azula’s pelvis, resting her weight on one arm so she had a hand free to play with her own clitoris while Azula continued to finger her. \n\n \n\nSteadily, Azula ordered her to come, nearly once for every time she bottomed out inside her rear, until finally she simply collapsed on the now soaking wet floor, completely spent.  As Katara panted weakly, her eyes rolling back in her head behind the scarlet blinder, she felt Azula finally pull out of her with a slick pop, punctuating her dominance over the utterly exhausted Katara with a final smack on her abused ass.  There was a commotion as Azula shuffled around the room—no doubt collecting her clothing—before she felt the Firelord’s presence close to her once more, and the slight tug and loosening of the sash around her face indicating that Azula was finally taking it off. \n\n Katara blinked hard as light flooded her senses for the first time in what felt like hours, and as her sight came back into focus Azula was looming over her, her face inscrutable as her clawed fingers brushed along her jaw in a gesture she might have even considered affectionate if she didn’t know far better.\n\n “Good girl,” Azula leered, and Katara felt almost ashamed at the spike of lust that pooled weakly between her legs at those words.  She felt like she could drift off for hours, days even, right then and there, but then she realized something rather peculiar the longer she looked up at Azula.\n\n \n\nOr rather, it was the absence of something that brought back a touch of lucidity.\n\n \n\n“Wh… where’s the necklace?”\n\n \n\n “Hmm?  What’s that, Slave?”\n\n \n\n“My… mnh…” Katara struggled to sit up, her exhausted body barely cooperating, fingers struggling to find purchase on the slickened floor, before ultimately giving up and laying back down, gazing up at the kneeling Azula.  “My mother’s… necklace.  The one… you’ve been using on me…”\n\n \n\n“Ohhh, you mean this?” Azula inquired with mock astonishment as she produced it in her hand from behind her back.  “Hmm.  I suppose it must have come off at some point, silly me.”\n\n \n\nKatara blinked, and too worn out to put much effort into disguising her reactions, the look of slow, absolute horror that crept over her face seemed to bring a warped smile to Azula’s own.\n\n \n\n“Wh… What do you mean?  Haven’t you been wearing it this whole time?”\n\n \n\nThere was a desperation in her voice now that Azula appeared to be doing her absolute best to not gloat over too obviously.\n\n “Well, it’s hard to say, isn’t it, Slave?  I definitely had it on when we started, but… well, you were so… ‘enthusiastic’ that I simply can’t remember.  Best not to dwell on it too much, hmm?”\n\n \n\nA stunned silence hung in the room, and after Azula gave Katara a moment to absorb the weight of her implication, she simply moved to the door.\n\n \n\n “Sleep well Slave,” Azula called mockingly as she exited, and once the door had shut Katara felt her hand slip over her mouth, her breathing quicken as she be began to panic.\n\n \n\nShe was absolutely certain that Azula had made her mother’s betrothal necklace her conditioning trigger.  There was no doubt at all about that.  And she was equally certain there was no way it could have simply fallen off.  Which left only a pair of questions that for the first time in this ordeal left her shaken to the core.\n\n \n\nHow much of this—her reactions, her behavior—had been the conditioning? \n\n \n\nAnd how much of it had been her?"}
+{"text": "Alessandra sat behind the moderate sized desk reading through correspondences that Winky had placed on her desk that very morning. Things were finally getting into some semblance of order since she and her counterpart Mercy had been hired on as personal assistants to Lord Black-Potter. \n\nMercy was far busier than she at the moment with dealing with the mess that was Lord Black-Potter fan-base. Mercy was working diligently with the Potter-Black legal counsel on the illegal use of the Potter name for products that were sold since the first war ended. \n\nAlexandra however was his personal assistant for his business dealings as well as the foundation that he was trying to get off the ground. At some point in the future she knew she would have contact with his legal team as well as the people working for the foundation.\n\nDraco entered the office with his usual flare. His hair was hanging loose around his face. He had grown out of slicking his hair back from his face. It had grown significantly over the last two years. \n\nHe had arrived at Devonsgale Hall only to find out Potter had relocated his office. He had been by on multiple occasions to speak with him however, he was always out. He had just exited the floo network into the main sitting room as Alessandra was exiting the kitchen area with a steaming mug in her hand. \n\nShe observed him as he took in the room. Although his expression remained blank she knew he was curious as to what her boss was up too. \n\n“Good morning Sir how can I be of assistance this morning,” Ambrose greeted him as he neared the welcome desk. \n\n“Draconius Malfoy to see Lord Black-Potter,” He informed the witch with an heir of arrogance. \n\n“I’m sorry Mister Malfoy; Lord Black-Potter will be out of the office today,” Ambrose informed him.\n\n“What do you mean he’s out of the office? Didn’t that Marcy or Mary or whatever her name is tell him I needed to speak with him,” Draco questioned annoyed at Potter’s blatant disrespect. \n\n“I cannot say Mister Malfoy as I wasn’t the person you spoke with. Now would you like to schedule an appointment to speak with Lord Black-Potter?” \n\nAlessandra held back the giggle wanting to escape. Mercy had ranted for thirty minutes after his first impromptu visit to speak with their boss. He was just as arrogant as he is being now. \n\nMercy had taken great pleasure in telling him that Lord Black-Potter didn’t have a clear appointment until for another three weeks. Of course it wasn’t a lie at the time but the repairs at Hogwarts had been completed faster than he’d anticipated. The war hadn’t mellowed him out any. \n\nIt was quite amusing to see the blonde wizard storm back to the fireplace flooing out without setting an appointment. She guessed, for Draconius Malfoy, he wasn’t used to being told no. \n\n“What’s his issue?” Ambrose asked noticing her standing there. \n\n“I’m guessing the pampered Prince isn’t use to be denied what he wants,” Alessandra chortled causing Ambrose to fall into a fit of giggles. \n\n“Should I schedule him an appointment?” Ambrose questioned. \n\n“There really isn’t a need I’m sure he will be back again tomorrow,” Alessandra assured her before heading towards her office to get some work done. \n\nThe outcome of Lord Black-Potter’s meeting today will determine how they would be handling his business interest. \n\n________________________________\n\nThe Wizarding Nations Building was fairly empty when he arrived by floo except for the lone security person sitting at the desk to check the wands of visiting witches and wizards entering the building. \n\n“Welcome to the Wizarding Nations Building. All visitors are required to have their wands checked,” the guard informed him. \n\nHarry handed over his wand without question. The guard placed his wand in a square magical device. Moments later a slip of paper appeared with his wands’ information. (Holly with Phoenix core in use since 1991 bonded to Hadarian Potter-Black)  \n\n“What is your business here today Lord Potter-Black?” the security wizard questioned as he handed Harry back his wand. \n\n“I’m here for Britain’s Wizengamot Session?” Harry replied slipping his wand back into its holder on his arm. \n\nThe British Wizengamot has been assigned to Meeting Chamber 10 located on level four,” the guard said directing him towards the correct lift. \n\n“Thank you,” Harry replied quickly walking in the direction of the lift. The lift opened when he reached it the door closing as soon as he entered. \n\n“Welcome to the Wizarding Nations Building press your destination please.” \n\nHarry was startled by the voice before snorting in amusement as he touched the four key on the key panel on the wall of the lift. It was much like its muggle counterpart. \n\nIt had taken them weeks to get the necessary information on the separation of magic between beings and magical humans. Harry had tried requesting the creature restrictions and classification laws several times without success. He was being blocked at every turn. However, he had been determined and with the help of his personal assistants Alessandra and Mercy, he got all the information he needed before they would be able to approach the Magic Council.\n\nHe had nearly given up. It was Alessandra that suggested they seek out the Goblins. In that moment Harry could have kissed her. Chief of the Goblin relations was very reluctant to allow him and his assistants, access to the information until Harry thoroughly explained what access to the information could mean to the magical community and its importance to wizarding law. The goblins; May the Goddess show them favor, were more than helpful. Their archives were even more extensive than the Ministry’s and Harry was able to get around all the red tape that the Ministry Department was trying to force him to go through.\n\nHe wasn’t surprised at the skepticism received by the goblins. History of Goblin Wars proved the relationship between magical beings and magical humans was a long fought battle. A battle, that Harry was hoping to end, if they were able to get an invitation to the Magic Council in the Outer Realm.\n\nNow all they needed was for the Wizengamot to vote in favor of the new magical covenant. The restructuring of the laws would take some time but Harry was sure they would be able to find common grounds with the other magical beings of the magical world. It was time the world of magic reunited as the Goddess meant for it to be. \n\n“Level four,” the ethereal voice announced a few moments later before the door to the lift opened. Quickly exiting the lift Harry walked through the small waiting areas towards the main hall.  \n\n“Harry,” Kingsley called spotting the younger wizard.\nHarry turned spotting Kingsley he headed towards the older man. \n\n“Good you’re here early, I can go over a few things with you before things get started”, Kingsley stated.\n“Sure,” Harry readily agreed following the older man. Andromeda and Kingsley had prepared him as much as they could for today and he hoped that he was able to keep a level head with dealing with not only the strictly light families as well as the supremist dark families. \n\nHarry sighed running his hands along the deep burgundy dress robes that he was currently wearing with black tailored slacks and black silk dress shirt under it. Today his hair was pulled back with a leather strap and his wand was in an invisible holder on his right arm. \n\n“I know that you’re nervous Harry but you’re going to be fine,” Kingsley assured him. \n\nHarry looked at him in astonishment, “I honestly feel a bit nauseated,” he sighed, “my stomach is total knotted up. Why did I let you and Dromie talk me into this?” \n\n“You were born to do this,” Kingsley kindly reminded him, “it’s in your blood and don’t let anyone in there tell you that you don’t belong.” \n\nHarry sighed, he really truly didn’t want any of this but he knew that he would never deny his heritage. \n\n“You’ve researched this issue and with the help of the order you have the information you need to argue and win,” Kingsley assured him with a smile, “do not doubt yourself and have confidence in the research and work you’ve put into this. I owe your girls a gourmet meal for their efforts.” \n\n“I’m sure Alessandra and Mercy will hold you to that,” Harry chortled thinking about his personal assistants. He had been skeptical about the two women at first but neither seemed to think him any different from any other wizard. He was just their boss and that was it. he hoped one day that he could consider both young women his friends. \n\n“I will put forth the motion to repeal and review for the creature laws and classifications after you have gotten the Magical covenant to a vote. This will pave the way for the laws to be reviewed and repealed,” Kingsley informed him,\n“Lord Prince will put the motion in for Hogwarts.” \n\nBlowing out a breath Harry sighed he wished the queasy feeling would pass. Deciding to read over the information he was presenting while he waited for the meeting to begin. Nodding his head in understanding, he wondered if Snape was nervous at all about this mission of subterfuge. \n\nHe was sure the Wizengamot would be outraged if they were aware that Kingsley sought the help of what many considered a vigilante group to investigate and research what he needed to get the magical world where it was meant to be. \n\n“In a few minutes I will lead you into the small anti chamber in the meeting hall. Try to relax yeah” Kingsley said before leaving the room. \n\nHarry looked skeptical at the advice. He wished he had forgone breakfast that morning. His stomach was completely knotted with anxiety. He never felt this nervous or unsure before not even when he faced his imminent death he didn’t have this fear. He probably should have taken a calming draft before he arrived. \n\nAs promised a few minutes later Kingsley returned leading him into the small anti chamber. \n\nSeverus was surprised when it was revealed to him that Potter had ended his friendship with the other two-thirds of what Hogwarts deemed the golden trio. Hermione was still dealing with the loss of her friends; she had tried to keep her melancholic episodes from him. However, on more than one occasion he had came upon her curled into herself as silent tears streamed down her face. \n\nA part of him ached for her; he understood how, our decisions could have an unexpected impact. He learned that very hard lesson at sixteen years old. Lily had forgiven him for uttering the cruel words yet she had ended their friendship. \n\nThe same as Potter, he hated to think that he was the cause of her losing her friends. Yet she had assured him, through her tears that the fault was her own. The promises she made and failed to keep had ruined the friendship she had with Lord Black-Potter, a friendship he believed that she regretted losing. \n\nGreg acknowledged his entrance by a slight bow of his head. Harry nodded in kind. Harry noticed he had lost a lot of weight since the war but he still looked healthy but had a deep sadness around him. Harry thought it was partly due to losing his father and seeing his best friend die as a result of his own spell. \n\nSnape’s brow rose at Goyle’s subtle greeting towards Potter. He wondered what led to the respect that his former Slytherin student was showing the former Gryffindor. He was proud however, to see that many of his students had survived the war intact. \n\nPansy Parkinson was sitting engaged in a conversation with Nott and they had yet to notice his entrance.\n\n“Lord Black-Potter,” Neville greeted him as he entered the room. His grandmother Augusta sitting in a comfortable arm chair looking over the young ones who are going to take their place among people far older than them. \n\n“Lord Longbottom, it’s great to see you again,” Harry replied in kind shaking his hand. \n\nNeville was dressed in khaki colored slacks with a matching dress shirt and elegant deep forest green robes that flowed around his form. \n\n“Dowager Longbottom,” Harry greeted kissing the older woman’s hand before releasing it. \n\n“Lord Black-Potter, it’s a pleasure to see you again. Neville speaks of you often,” Augusta Longbottom replied. \n\nHarry was surprised to see several of his now former school mates. “Kingsley didn’t mention anyone else taking their family seats today.” \n\n “Are you ready for this?” Neville asked quietly not wanting to draw attention to them. \n\n“Honestly no, but what choice do I have Kingsley is depending on us to push this stuff through to better our world,” Harry replied noticing they had eyes on them. \n\n“Have you told your grandmother anything?” Harry asked, wondering if the older woman would agree with what they were trying to do. \n\n“No, I thought it best if she had deniability you know,” said Neville sheepishly. \n\n“Good thinking,” Harry said with a mischievous smile.\n\nAugusta sat observing her grandson with the wizarding world’s hero. The pair had developed a very close friendship, much like the friendship her Frank had with Gideon and Fabian Prewett before the war had decimated entire family lines. \n\nAlthough both were young in age, they had a maturity about them that spoke of the impact the war had on them. The ugly battles of war leaves a person changed in ways they would have never thought possible.\n_________________________\n\n \n\n(Chamber outside of Meeting Chamber Ten)\n\nKingsley entered the meeting room taking his place among the members of the Wizengamot waiting for the new members to enter to take their place among them. \n\nDimitri Flint had been appointed interim Chief Warlock until a proper election would be conducted. There had been many speculations about the man’s ties with Voldemort however none of rumors were founded. Being born to a family with a dark inclination for magic did not make one a death eater. \n\nAs Kingsley took his seat waiting for the others to be seated Dimitri stood quietly waiting to make the opening call for the meeting. \n\n“The 35th Session of the 505th year of the Wizengamot on this 28th day of October in the year of 1998 is now in session. Is there any new order of business?” Dimitri questioned. \n\n“This governing body recognizes Minister Shacklebolt,” Lord Higgs announced from where he was sitting.\n“There are several requests to claim inherited seats on this governing body,” Kingsley in formed them before retaking his seat.\n\n“Very well, step forth;” Flint ordered, wondering who could be claiming seats on the first meeting since the war.\nLucius Malfoy found he was curious as well to find out who could be joining their mix. The families who are considered pureblood supremist were in the majority over the light families and Lucius hoped that didn’t change any time soon. He feared what kinds of damage the blood traitors and muggle lovers would do to the magical world. Lucius took pride in with his vote counting for not only the Malfoy seat but the Lestrange and Black seats as well.\n\n“I Severus Dominic Snape-Prince, Lord of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Prince, here by claim my rightful seat on this governing body on this 28th day of October in the year of nineteen hundred and ninety-eight.”\n\n“This governing body recognizes your claim Lord Prince please take your place,” Flint replied. Muttering was heard from the light families that the murderer of the Albus Dumbledore would be able to take his inherited seat on the governing body.\n\nLucius held in his shock at seeing Severus. He hadn’t seen the man since he heard the man had survived the war. Severus had avoided contact with any known deatheater families not that he blamed the man.\n\nSeverus however surprised him further when he took the empty seat beside him; acknowledging him with a simple nod of his head but nothing more.\n\nSnape ignored the mutterings of those loyal supporters of Dumbledore even after the man had been dead two years passed.\n\nTheodore let out the breath he had been holding before stepping into the room. “I, Theodore Delanius Nott, Lord of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Nott” here by claim my rightful seat on this governing body on this 28th day of October in the year of  nineteen hundred and ninety-eight.”\n\n“This governing body recognizes Lord Nott”, Dimitri replied and recognizes your claim please be seated.\nTheo could hear muttering coming from what he thought to be older witches and wizards. He wasn’t sure if it was to do with his age or because his father is a convicted deatheater. Theo walked towards the seating area not really sure where to sit.\n\nLucius watched Theo with an appraised look wondering which side this young man would choose to vote with. Lucius was well aware that the young man escaped the Dark Lord’s ranks; however, he was from a pureblood traditionalist family.\n\nTheo took a seat in the middle where mostly families who were more gray than dark sat. Lucius wasn’t too worried about that, however, he was sure the young man would see to vote with their side of things.\nGreg found himself nervous. He never was truly good with speaking before a crowd; releasing the breath he didn’t realize he was holding, “here goes nothing he muttered to himself before walking from the small chamber.\n\n“I, Gregory Maximus Goyle, Lord of the Most Valliant House of Goyle, here by claim by rightful seat on this governing body on this 28th day of October nineteen hundred and ninety-eight.”\n\n“This governing body recognizes your claim Lord Goyle please take your place,” Flint replied.\nMore muttering was heard, as Greg took the seat beside Theo. Interesting Lucius thought watching the pair with an inquisitive gaze.\n\nPansy sighed she truly didn’t want to sit on the Wizengamot she didn’t have any desire to vote on any changes in the government but she was the only direct member of the family now. With her father kissed, her mother killed during the war and her brother dead she had very little choice in the matter.\n\nWith a sigh Pansy entered the meeting room.\n“I Pansy Lorelei Parkinson, Lady of the Ancient and Noble House of Parkinson here by claim by rightful seat on this governing body on this 28th day of October in the year of  nineteen hundred and ninety-eight.”\n\n“This governing body recognizes your claim Lady Parkinson please take your place,” Flint replied.\nMore muttering was heard, as Pansy took the seat between her two former class mates. There was definite unrest among the members now.\n\nLucius couldn’t hold in his smirk. The light would have a time getting any bills passed now that the dark families truly had the majority vote. It was a good day indeed.\nMean while in the anti room\nHarry paced the floor out of nervousness.\n“Calm down Harry you’ll do fine,” said Neville holding his dear friend hand briefly before walking out leaving him alone in the room.\nHarry nodded his head yet he couldn’t help but feel nervous his stomach felt as it were filled with worms.\nAugusta followed her grandson into the meeting room giving her unyielding support.\nNeville walked in the room nervous his grandmother standing beside him with an encouraging smile.\n“I, Neville Lysander Longbottom Lord of the Most Ancient and Noble House Longbottom, on this 28th day of October nineteen hundred and ninety-eight hereby claim my rightful seat on this governing body. I also claim the inherited seats of Crouch through blood right and Lestrange right of conquest.”\nThe muttering rose to high levels. “Preposterous,” An old man who Neville didn’t recognize, but his grandmother however did.\n“Lord Higgs I would advise you to hold your tongue,” Augusta Longbottom stated, coming to stand beside her grandson.\n“Surely you aren’t relinquishing your seat to your grandson,” another asked.\n“The Longbottom seat is my grandson’s birth right” Augusta stated simply. “I however will still be apart of this body make no mistakes about that. I will just be controlling the Lestrange vote.”\nLucius sat his face calculating. “I’m sure there is proof of this claim” Lucius Malfoy questioned his voice drawled out.\n“Of course,” Neville stated handing the papers over to the Chief Warlock.\n“Is this your wish Lord Crouch Longbottom,” Chief Warlock Flint questioned.\n“Yes, I do request my grandmother Dowager Longbottom to sit as head for the Lestrange vote,” Neville Confirmed.\nFlint looked over the documents. He knew about the damage the Lestrange family had done to the Longbottom heir and he was granted not only their inherited seats but their estates and vaults in reparation.\nThe Crouch seat however surprised him, but He was the most directly link descendant to that particular line of the Black family.\nDimitri Flint handed the documents back to Neville. “Everything is order Lord Longbottom this governing body recognizes your claims please take your place.”\nNeville followed his grandmother to where Lady Marchbanks was sitting. Are their anymore request for claiming of seats? Flint questioned.\n“Are there any other’s?” Lord Flint asked\nHarry stepped before them.\n“I, Hadarian James Orion Pyrite-Peverell-Black-Potter, Lord of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Potter, Black, Pyrite and Peverell on this 28th day of October nineteen hundred and ninety-eight do here by claim the seat of Potter, Black, Peverell and Pyrite by birthright on this governing body.\n“The floor recognizes Lord Pyrite-Peverell-Black-Potter,” Flint stated shocked.\nThere was an immediate uproar.\nLucius paled, those two brats had just pushed the votes into their favor. The light side now had the majority vote.\n“I questioned the legality of seats Black, Peverell and Pyrites,” Lucius stated waiting to see how the brat would get out of showing the necessary documents.\n“Do you have proof to support your claim Lord Potter-Black?” Flint questioned.\nHarry handed over a blue file filled with documents. He paused at seeing that Potter was in fact a pureblood. Interesting Higgs thought to himself. Flint looked over the remaining documents.\n“It says here Lord Potter-Black that you are the direct descendant of the youngest Peverell brother. Therefore you are entitled to the seat. The Black seat you are also entitled too because you are a Black by blood. I’m aware that you are related to the Blacks distantly however you would not be entitled to the seat because the most direct blood would be Lord Malfoy’s son through his mother Flint stated simply reading further through the documents.\nLucius smirked so the brat can’t claim the Black seat after all he thought holding back a cackle of glee.\n“If you read further I’m sure you will see that I’m not only entitled by will but also by blood…” Harry assured him.\n“Indeed,” Flint stated after viewing an updated birth certificate that proved his blood line. “Lord Potter-Black is by birthright entitled to the seat of Black due to blood adoption by way of the congnationen hereditatem potion since July of 1981.”\n“He is also entitled to the Pyrite family through the direct line though Lady Phoenix Cassiopeia Potter ne Pyrite-Black-Evans and Peverell through his father James Potter,” Dimitri Flint’s voice rang out in the chamber.\n\nFlint returned the documents to Harry. “This governing body recognizes your claims Lord Potter-Black please take your place.” Harry walked over taking the empty seat beside Neville.\nHarry looked at Lucius Malfoy with an innocent smile on his face before heading towards Neville and his Grandmother. This would be interesting,” thought Harry. He felt light at having gotten one up on Lucius Malfoy. It gave him a warm fuzzy feeling inside.\n“Next order of business,” Flint stated once Harry was seated.\n“The floor recognizes Lord Higgs.”\n“The Department of Child Welfare as put forth a proposal, for a protective ordinance for magical children. This ordinance will provide protection for magical and non-magical children born into all magic wizarding families to prevent abuse and placement within proper wizarding families.”\nIt reads as thus: This Law concerns the welfare of underage witches and wizards who are orphaned or in abusive homes or non-magical children who are born into magical families. \n\n1. Any magical child suspected of being abused must be removed from the family until an investigation can be conducted. Should the allegations be proven false the child will be returned to their home until they are of age. Should the allegations be proven true the child is to be placed into magically run orphanage or foster care provided with another wizarding family. \n\n2. Any non-magical child born into a magical family must remain within the magical world. They can be placed in foster care with a squib family who will care for them or be placed in an orphanage within the magical world. \n\n3. All magical children currently living in muggle ran orphanages are to be removed and relocated into a magically run facility. All magical children who are born to non-magical parents in the muggle world should be monitored to ensure their well being. If it is deemed the child is in danger of abuse the child should be removed from the home and placed in a magically run facility. \n\nLucius frowned; squibs being born into magical families were viewed negatively. Parents often abandon those children some had even killed the child to prevent their family being shamed.\n“I will back this proposal Harry said in a calm voice that could be heard clearly throughout the chamber. I Second Neville replied. I third his grandmother stated wondering what her grandson and Lord Potter-Black were up too. I fourth that Proposal Kingsley stated before retaking his seat.\n“What do you suppose the wizarding world do with squibs that are born? Wouldn’t it be more prudent to put them with muggles who are more like them,” Theo questioned.\n“I agree with Lord Nott,” Lucius stated, “it would be far kinder to place squibs into the muggle world where they will be with non-magic users.”\n“I disagree,” Harry replied. “Although squibs do not have active magic they do not belong in the muggle world. They are from magic and capable of producing magical children even though they don’t have magic themselves.”\n“Placing squibs into the muggle world not only opens the opportunity for magical children to be produced with muggles which opens the door for a magical child to be abused and the potential breach in the statute of secrecy,” Harry continued.\n“That leads me to wonder if supposedly muggle born wizards and witches aren’t simply the by product of squibs producing magical children.”\n“That’s preposterous!” Lord Higgs voice could be heard throughout the chamber.\n“It isn’t really,” Harry replied, “My mother is living proof that two non-magical children born in pureblood families can produce a magical child. My maternal grandfather Marius Black was the squib brother of Dorea Black who was abandoned in the muggle world for being a squib and Ortilya Pyrite also a squib born into the Pyrite family.”\n“What do you suggest be done Lord Potter-Black,” Flint questioned curious as to what the wizarding world’s savior would have to say.\n“I suggest that we fix the mistakes that we in the magical community have yet to correct. Magical children do not belong in the muggle world. They are misunderstood, mistreated and often abused by those responsible for their care. Allow families who have lost their heirs and are not capable to producing another heir to blood adopt these children making them theirs by blood rite.”\n“All magical children should be removed from the muggle world that are in orphanages and allow families who are without heirs to magically adopt them. There were a lot of families lost during the war on both sides. I don’t think that the magical community can afford to allow family lines to end no matter which side of the war the families were on. If that isn’t possible I have another solution,” Harry continued\n\n“Are you suggesting that we allow death-eaters to adopt these children.” A woman snarled.\n“Madame I must warn you about placing your thoughts or words into my mouth. What you may not have contemplated is that many who joined Voldemort’s cause were not aware of the deeds they would be force to commit. ”\n“I’m in no way absolving their crimes. What I can do is understand that sometimes we make bad choices and those choices can affect the lives of not only ourselves but our families. I also know that Voldemort wasn’t a wizard that they could walk away from with their lives if they refused to serve him.”\n“Yes we were at war and the light suffered many losses but so have those families who are considered dark. So don’t talk to me about loss because I’ve lost greatly for the wizarding world. Prejudice has never gotten anyone anywhere and if we continue on the road that we are traveling Voldemort’s terror will be but a chapter in wizarding history because another will follow.” Harry snapped his magic crackling around him like a whip, breathing trying to calm himself down Harry pulled his magic back within himself without trouble.\nHe really hated losing control of his magic.\nSnape looked over at the Potter heir, he knew the boy was powerful but the way the boy had control over his power was unimaginable. He never seen anyone control their power the way he just seem to pull his magic back within himself after it seem to whip around him so fierce and overwhelming not even the dark Lord’s magic felt so imposing.\n“What is it that you suggest Mr. Potter?” Septimus Weasley questioned shocked by the young man’s power display had brought an odd sort of calm in the chamber.\n“I’ve been working with Gringotts and the Child Welfare Department at the Ministry to set up my foundation. This foundation is dependant upon the child welfare proposal.” Harry replied.\n“Why is that?” Lord Flint questioned.\n“The Coventry Foundation will provide services for the international and local covenant for magical child welfare and children orphanage for the magical community. The Coventry foundation, will comprise of counselors, case workers who will work directly with the Child Welfare office here in the wizarding world, and the social services department in the muggle world so that we can keep track of magical children to ensure that they are healthy and being properly cared for. It will also provide the monetary assistance needed to send each child to a magical school.”\n“Coventry Hall” has already been cleared by the ministry and is ready to accept all magical and non-magical born wizarding children. Here in Britain and around the world.” Harry replied. “We can not afford to have another Tom Riddle.”\n“How is the ministry supposed to finance such a venture? Amelia Bones questioned. “Surely you’ve considered what this sort of galleons this course of actions will take?”\n“I have indeed considered the cost effectiveness of this venture. However, this will not cost the ministry in a monetary sense. All I request is that the Ministry provides me with a competent qualified unbiased person to train my staff so that they will be able to handle child welfare cases.”\n“The sole purpose of this foundation is to provide proper care and guidance for young squib, witches and wizards, by placing them in suitable homes where they will thrive and be loved. Donations are welcome and can be sent directly to Gringotts in care of Apponox who is the account manager for the foundation but at the moment the foundation has enough funds to run itself,” Harry replied.\nLucius had a calculating expression on his face Potter was proving to be intriguing.\n“I put forth that all magical children entering the wizarding world from the muggle world be given the blood inheritance test to determine which family lines they come from. Mr. Potter has made some valid points, if his mother was the byproduct of two squibs producing a magical child we have to be able to confirm the rate and stop it from happening going forward,” Amelia added as a addendum to the ordinance. \n\n“All in favor of the child welfare ordinance raise your hand, Flint called, all against he questioned. 38/22 for, Amelia stated the child protective ordinance bill is passed.\n“Next order,” Flint stated waiting.\nSnape stood, “The floor recognizes Lord Prince”\n\n“I’m here representing the interest of Hogwarts and Headmistress Minerva McGonagall requesting amendments to the schools charter and curriculum,” Snape began. \n\n“Although Hogwarts is a great school, they are far behind in magical standard then other prominent magical schools, in Greece, Australia, the United States, and Brazil.\n“The proposal reads as thus.” \n\n“All magical children who are of age are invited to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. This honor is extended to all children, witches, wizards and magical beings.”\n\nMuttering could be heard from a group Harry thought to be former Dumbledore supporters. It seemed to Harry that light families prejudice was just as bad if not worse than the dark families.  \n\n“All first years who are muggle raised will be required to take the following classes.” \n\nMagical theory class before they are allowed to take classes that require magic. This is to better prepare them to learn. \n\nAll students who are muggle raised will be required to take Wizarding Traditions classes so that they will better understand the world to which they now belong. \n\nAll students will be required to take a writing mechanics class to teach them how to properly research and write essays for class. \n\nElective Classes that start third year will now include Art which will train students to draw, paint sculpt and photography and music arts which will include learning to play an instrument and singing in the school choir. \n\nElectives being offered in 6th Year will include theory of offensive magic, ancient studies, elemental magic, alchemy, advance arithmancy and introduction to spell weaving. \n\nHogwarts will also incorporate classes such as archery, sword fighting, elemental magic, theory of blood magic, theory of dark magic, spell crafting, lost arts and runic magic courses,” Snape finished reading retaking his seat. \n\n“Preposterous!”An older woman shouted, “We can’t condone dark magic being taught at Hogwarts.”\n\n‘I don’t think the proposal said anything about dark magic being taught at Hogwarts it says theory of offensive magic. Which means it is a non-magic use class,” Harry replied. \n\n“Be that as it may Mr. Potter,” a man argued.\n\n“Lord Potter-Black,” Harry corrected the older man, “I haven’t given you permission to address me with such familiarity.”\n\nLucius smirked at Potter's rebuttal, \"Familiarity indeed.\" he thought.\n\n“Dark magic is against the law and as such a class such as that will circumvent the laws around dark magic use,” he continued not willing to listen.\n\n“When are we as wizards going to accept that people can not help their magical inclination? We are born in an affinity for different types of magic, whether it light, gray or dark. Magic isn’t dark or light,” Harry stated, “it’s the intent of the caster that makes it so.”\n\nLucius brow rose at Harry’s forceful words. This had Dromie written all over it he was sure of it. The woman’s intellect was far beyond her years. \n\n“Are we going to continue to make unscrupulous laws outlawing every spell that is used negatively so that it can’t be used again or are we going to start punishing the actions of the individuals using the spells to cause harm? The spell it self isn’t evil it’s the intent of the caster. These laws make no more sense than the numerous irresponsible magical decrees that stifled the magic at Hogwarts,” Harry finished retaking his seat.\n\nMany members winced at their actions three years prior. \n\n“You’re suggesting that we abolish laws that protect the community from curses that are so heinous that they can end a witches or wizards life,” Another wizard questioned.\n\n“The real question is; are you suggesting that only a dark spell can cause harm or death?” Harry retorted silencing the man. He never thought he would be among the most prejudice members of society that seemed so far in their fear and beliefs that they couldn’t accept the reality of what magic was.\n\n“No light wizard would use spells to cause harm to anyone,” an older man with salt and pepper hair replied. \n\nHarry's expression darkened, \"You sir are delusional in your views. Light does not mean innocent and dark definitely does not mean evil. You've proven a point, light witches and wizards are just as prejudice against dark wizarding families as dark families are against presumed muggle borns. A bit hypocritical isn't it.\"\n\nNeville snorted in disbelief. Even he wasn’t stupid enough to believe that light wizards were exempt from wanting to cause someone else harm. The number of hexes that were fired over the years in the halls was enough to quall that notion. \n\n“And light wizards call dark wizards prejudice and self centered,” Neville thought to himself. \n\n“The wizarding world is outlawing spells that one person used in anger to cause harm or the death of another person. The spell didn’t change, the intent of the wizard did,” Harry rebutted calmly. \n\n“What is your point Potter,” Nott questioned irritated by the Gryffindor’s ignorance. \n\n“My point is that it’s never the spell that is good or evil, light or dark, it is the intent of the witch or wizard who uses it. Healers used spells that could be viewed as dark but there are accepted. Outlawing the spell isn’t the solution, punishing the perpetrator is.”\n\nHarry sat down and allowed them to think on his words. \n\nSnape remained silent he wasn’t worried about the ordinance being put to vote. He was sure the golden boy would get it to the vote. \n\n“I will back this proposal,” Neville stated. “I second,” agreed Augusta Longbottom she couldn’t’ fault the young man’s logic. “Intent Indeed,” she thought. \n\n“I third,” Septimus Weasley stated. “I fourth,” Lucius Malfoy stated shocking the entire assembly. Even Snape brow rose at Lucius agreeing with Potter of all people. \n\n“Call this to vote,” Flint stated, “32/28 for the proposal, Hogwarts proposal bill is passed.” \n\nOver the next hour Harry spelled a dicta quill to make notes on the session. He was anxiously waiting for the proposal on the magical ordinance for all magic wielders. \n\nA woman that Harry didn’t recognize stood, the Department for the Control of Magical Beast puts forth the motion to revisit the classification of magical beings and the laws of their restrictions. \n\n“I will back the proposal,” Harry announced, causing the witches and wizards from the light families to mutter in outrage. \n\n“I second the motion,” Neville concurred. \n\nDowager Longbottom watched her grandson and Lord Black-Potter with a curious expression. It seemed the pair had formed an alliance of sort. It was rare for a person to win an argument let alone be taken seriously. These two would be formidable once they have learned a bit more, not that they were doing badly now. \n\n“Lord Black-Potter, surely you misunderstood what she is suggesting,” Lord Doge questioned. \n\n“I assure you Lord Doge, I’m well aware to what she was referring. I’ve completed extensive research on the classifications that was developed after the disaster of the all magical council in the 1400s,” Harry retorted. \n\n“Those classifications are for the protection of the wizarding world,” Higgs insisted. \n\n“Those classifications were made out of prejudice nothing more. Magic is not meant to be separated. The increasing number of squibs being born in all magic families cannot be blamed on inbreeding alone. Magical separation is a factor as well. You may suffer under the delusion that your blood is pure, but there isn’t a family alive that can honestly prove they do not have some type of magical being blood in their family history no matter how diluted the blood may be,” Harry challenged. \n\n“What does that have to do with anything?” a grizzly looking wizard snapped in irritation.\n\n“You can’t predict if a magical born will manifest that gene and become the very magical being that you scorn and detest. The lack of new blood is stunting the magical ability of the next generation of witches and wizards. You all are harping so much on purity of blood that you would marry your cousin just to keep your line pure, when in fact it isn’t pure by any means,” Harry continued before retaking his seat. \n\n“I third the motion,” Amelia Bones stated with a thoughtful expression on her face. She always thought that the magical populace lacked logic. \n\nSnape watched Potter, overwhelm the governing body with pure logic. He almost made it look easy. He wondered if the boy had applied himself to his studies as he’d done in this governing session, how he would have turned out. \n\n“Call this to vote,” Flint stated, “33/27 for the proposal\n\nThe rest of the session passed without comment from Harry. They had done what they had come to do. They would work towards changing the laws and better the wizarding world a battle at a time. Harry thought as he stood to leave the chamber. \n\n“See it wasn’t so bad,” Neville said as they were heading from the chamber. \n\n“Wasn’t so bad,” Harry questioned with an incredulous expression, “were we in the same meeting?” \n\nNeville laughed in amusement. His friend wasn’t aware of his ability to get people to listen. He knew if Harry ever desired to run for Minister of Magic he would succeed. \n\n“I’m just glad it’s over,” Harry admitted, “I’m sure Dromie is going to grill me on how I think I performed.”\n\n“Not bad for your first session Lord Potter-Black,” Septimus Weasley stated, as he passed heading towards the floo network. \n\n“Thank you Lord Weasley,” Harry replied, “We’ll meet for lunch tomorrow, say around one, bring Daph” he suggested.\n\n“Sure, that will be fine,” Neville responded, “Shall I make the reservations or will you?” \n\n“I’ll send you an owl with place and time,” Harry said cheekily.\n\n“Dowager Longbottom it was truly a pleasure meeting you,” Harry said taking her hand kissing it briefly before wishing them both a nice evening. \n\nHe noticed that Snape hadn’t stuck around after the meeting had let out. He figured the man had returned to Hogwarts to give Professor McGonagall the good news. \n\n__________________________\n\nSnape stepped from the fireplace into McGonagall’s office, “Well Headmistress the boy wonder does it again,” he said by way of greeting the older woman. \n\n“Tea,” McGonagall asked as Snape approached her desk sitting in the comfortable arm chair.\n“Please,” he answered allowing himself to relax for the first time that day.\nDumbledore’s painting was empty at the moment and Snape couldn’t help himself to wonder where the old man could possibly be. This was his first time in the office since before the war and he felt disconcerted and unsettled.\n\n“That’s wonderful news,” McGonagall replied with a large smile on her face. She was truly excited about the prospect of the school becoming a school the founders could be proud of. She was determined to bring the school from the depths in which Dumbledore allowed it to fall. \n\n“We’re going to have our work cut out for us arranging the dorms to house the magical influx of students. This is going to be a huge undertaking,” Snape mentioned sipping the hot liquid. \n\n“Things should be easy enough,” McGonagall insisted, “I will run the ad of all the classes that we are now going to provide and open the positions up to the magical community. We only have to worry about the influx of employment applications.” \n\nSnape snorted into his tea, “Indeed.” \n\n“We will have a better idea of school attendance once we send the letters out.” \n\n“Are you expecting a large number of students to return?” Snape questioned. \n\n“I can’t be certain,” McGonagall admitted “however, we will move forward with the reopening.”\n\nSnape nodded at her reasoning. He wondered that Dumbledore’s thoughts were about the changes being made at Hogwarts? He was sure the older woman had spoken with the portrait on matters dealing with the school not that Dumbledore could prevent any of it from happening.\n\nThe pair enjoyed the afternoon over a game of chess with Snape telling McGonagall about Potter’s foundation and how the foundation could help students who need help with tuition to attend Hogwarts and get their school supplies.\n\nWhen Snape was ready to leave he was surprised when McGonagall hugged him. “You’re truly a remarkable wizard Severus Prince, and I’m honored to be able to call you a friend.”\n\nSnape couldn’t help but feel humble. It was with McGonagall’s thoughts of praise that he left the castle disappearing with a displacement of air."}
+{"text": "Eric called on the radio every night after dinner. I could tell he missed his daughter, but said there was lots of work to be done at Simon’s outpost. I held the walkie-talkie up to Abby during every conversation so he could hear her coo or cry, and he listened intently, as if he was hanging onto every single sound she made. I reassured him she was well, though the little one was certainly keeping me on my toes.\n\nOne night when he called, I put Abby back in her crib and sat down on my bed, clutching the radio in my hand. I hated that I didn’t get to see Eric every day. Now that Amy was gone, I found myself opening up to him and looking forward to his daily calls. Negan was busy leading the Sanctuary, and Vivienne had her garden to work on. Although I was in a huge community full of people, I somehow felt very alone.\n\n“You okay?” Eric’s voice came through and I pressed the talk button quickly.\n\n“Yeah, sorry…” I mumbled, rubbing my eyes. “I’m probably just tired.”\n\n“Well I hope you know I appreciate everything you do for Abby. She’s lucky to have you.” Eric’s voice inflected a bit, hinting there was something else on his mind. I paused a few seconds and then replied.\n\n“How are you holding up?”\n\nEric sighed into the radio and then let out a dry chuckle.\n\n“I don’t know. Sometimes I wish I hadn’t come here. There’s some…interesting people here.”\n\n“What do you mean?”\n\nHe didn’t answer right away and I pressed on.\n\n“Eric?”\n\nStatic came through and then he spoke.\n\n“Some of the men have pictures hanging up of these brutal murders…like gore and blood. It’s disgusting, but I think it’s people they’ve killed...or people Negan’s killed.”\n\n“Why would they do that?” I asked, ignoring the chill that was running through me. My mind instantly brought me back to the hallway outside of the principal’s office where I listened to the sound of Derek’s head being crushed.\n\n“I don’t know. But Elle… Many of them look exactly like when you bashed Adam’s head in. They display them like trophies. I’m not sure we’re on the right side here…”\n\nI knew Negan could be cruel with his punishments, but I’d never witnessed firsthand how he handled his other communities. I remembered the first time we met him and how he’d said he usually beat someone to death to prove how serious he was. He’d showed us mercy, but Eric was looking at photo proof that others weren’t so lucky.\n\n“I’m not so sure there is a right side anymore,” I said, trying not to picture the bloody sight of Adam at my feet.\n\nHow could I possibly judge Negan for bashing in someone’s skull when I had done the exact same thing?\n\nAfter Eric said good night, I took out a stack of notebooks where all the points had been tallied for the day. It was a meticulous job, but I was glad Negan was willing to let me work. As I scanned over the many names listed and the points earned, I double checked math to make sure no one was cheating the system—not that the system itself was fair to begin with.\n\nNegan’s Saviors didn’t have to work for points, only the members of the Sanctuary did. His Saviors were allowed to take whatever they wanted, and this caused a bit of a problem with keeping track of items. Where one person might have to save up weeks just to earn a desired new piece of clothing, a Savior could just go to the marketplace and take it.\n\nI approached Negan about the issue on the first day of my new job, suggesting that if the Saviors also worked for points and we kept everyone on the same standards, it would be more fair. He brushed me off as he went into a meeting and told me ‘nothing is fair anymore’.\n\nA few days after I’d started counting points, the whole Sanctuary was buzzing with talk that the people who’d stolen medical supplies had returned to beg for Negan’s forgiveness. They said one of them didn’t make it, but the married couple didn’t want to chance surviving out on their own. I had thought it was just rumors, but then Negan called a meeting for the entire Sanctuary and announced there would be a public punishment that evening before dinner. Attendance was mandatory.\n\nDuring lunch, I saw Vivienne sitting at a table eating some rice and vegetables. I had to give it to the cook—they knew how to make good grub. The Sanctuary members were kept well fed, and because of Vivienne’s hard work, they’d been able to incorporate more produce in their meals.\n\nSetting my plate down on the spot in front of her, I smiled.\n\n“Hey stranger,” I said. She glanced up from her fork and looked confused.\n\n“Hey, Elle. Where’s Abby?”\n\n“She’s with Frankie and Tanya,” I quickly explained. Negan’s wives had offered to watch her any time I needed a break, and although any interaction with them made me uncomfortable, I was grateful to have a few minutes to myself. “Mind if I join you?”\n\nVivienne gestured for me to sit, and as I did, she took a bite of rice.\n\n“How are things with the greenhouse?” I asked. It felt like forever since I had gotten a chance to speak with her. She was always working her ass off.\n\n“Very good. We’ve got plenty of seeds, and soil is good. We gotta make sure we keep things watered. I certainly have lots of room. We’re not just using the greenhouse. Negan’s got me planting things everywhere.”\n\nVivienne seemed very proud of her work and I grinned as she talked. I was happy to see that, much like her garden, she was flourishing here.\n\n“That’s great, Viv. I know he appreciates it.”\n\n“Would help if some Saviors would stop plucking food from the vine before it’s ripe. The tomato plant I grew last time we were here has been completely raided. Thankfully one of those brutes didn’t eat the seeds and was wise enough to keep them.”\n\n“I talked to Negan about that, but I don’t think he’s willing to make changes,” I said, taking a bite of rice. Vivienne shook her head.\n\n“No, it’s fine. The Saviors work hard to keep us safe. It’s just a plant…” She avoided my gaze and I reached out to touch her hand.\n\n“Vivienne, what’s wrong?”\n\nA nervous smile painted her face and she fidgeted with her hands.\n\n“Nothing. I’m fine. I’m just trying to mentally prepare for tonight. That’s all.”\n\nI didn’t understand at first, but then I remembered Negan was going to punish the thieves.\n\n“You don’t have to go, Viv,” I said in a low voice.\n\n“Of course I do.” She looked shocked that I would suggest such a thing.\n\n“Well I’m not going.”\n\n“You have to!” Her voice raised and she stared at me appalled. “He has to punish those who screw over the rest of the community!”\n\nI stared at her wide eyed. Seeing her get so defensive over Negan was off-putting and I frowned as she watched me sternly.\n\n“Why are you suddenly drinking the kool-aid?”\n\n“It’s how it has to be, Elle. I know it’s not great, but without order, these people would just take whatever they want all the time. It would be mass chaos. There has to be punishments when people do something wrong.” She swallowed hard and lowered her voice. “We don’t have to like it. That doesn’t matter. But we have to respect the system.”\n\nI could have argued about it more with her, but I could already tell her mind was made up. Perhaps it had been the trauma of losing Amy and Ryan, or maybe she truly believed what she was saying. Either way, she was more than willing to play by Negan’s rules. I wasn’t as agreeable to his violent nature, and refused to accept it.\n\nWe ate the rest of our lunch in silence. Afterwards, I left Vivienne in a hurry, storming off to head for Negan’s bedroom. I pounded on the door a few times, and when no one answered, I decided I would check the main floor. As I entered the stairwell, I was met with the sight of a woman puffing on a cigarette and leaning up against the wall.\n\nShe was pretty, with medium-long, soft brown hair and a thin build. My eyes went from her face to the tight-fitting black dress she was wearing. I stood there gawking at her as she took me in. Then, she moved out of my way so I could head down the stairs.\n\nBut I was frozen in place, unable to look away from her.\n\nI glanced down at the heels I knew would be strapped to her feet. She looked away, as if she was hoping I would just go on and stop blatantly staring at her. I felt like throwing up, but I pushed past the sick feeling and walked down the steps, doing my best to ignore the woman that was still smoking behind me.\n\n\nNegan had taken another wife.\n\n\nWhen I came to the main floor, I could hear a deep voice talking to someone, demanding they hurry up. As I crossed the room, I noted there were four armed Saviors standing guard nearby him and a few more up on the catwalks. They peered down at me through the yellow bars as I made my way to Negan.\n\nAt the center of the room in front of a fire pit, there was a man sitting in a chair with his hands tied behind his back. He had stringy, blonde hair that was pulled back into a ponytail and light-colored facial hair covering his upper lip and chin. His head was hanging down and he looked utterly defeated. Negan was staring over the shoulder of the Savior working the fire pit.\n\n“Having trouble igniting the flame, Fat Joey? Bet you can’t get it up either.” He teased the man.\n\n“Negan?” I called out, hearing the irritation in my voice. He turned and looked back at where I was, completely unaffected by my tone.\n\n“Hello, Elle.” He greeted me nonchalantly, as if there wasn’t a man tied to a chair only a few feet from us.\n\n“This is wrong,” I stated, loud enough so I knew everyone in the room could hear me.\n\n“You know full well this is how we do things. Besides, this fucker’s lucky to be alive.” He gestured to the man in the chair who wasn’t even acknowledging us. As much as I pitied the man awaiting his punishment, it wasn’t why I had started this confrontation.\n\nTaking a step closer to Negan, I lowered my voice.\n\n“You took on another wife?”\n\nNegan’s cocky visage didn’t crack and he shrugged. “It doesn’t involve you.”\n\n“Like hell it doesn’t!” I exclaimed. My raised voice seemed to take the stringy-haired man off guard and his head shot up. Glancing down at him, I noticed he was watching me, looking distraught.\n\nThen I realized it wasn’t my loud outburst that had affected him.\n\n“There was a woman in the stairwell...she was smoking. Is she your wife?” As I spoke, he glanced away, trying hard not to meet my eyes. I took a step towards him, hoping to get him to look at me, but Negan stepped in my way, blocking my sight of the tied up man.\n\n“This doesn’t fucking concern you, Elle.”\n\nI attempted to look past him, but the man was squeezing his eyes shut and had his head tilted down. I hadn’t thought he could look more miserable, but after learning about his wife’s fate, he became even more dispirited.\n\nLooking back up at Negan, I scowled at him.\n\n“You’re so full of shit, you know that?” I snarled. “You said you married those women to protect them. This is just heartless.”\n\n“Sherry offered!” Negan said, unaffected by my words. “And we haven’t made anything official. She’s just trying on the dress. Making sure it hugs all the right places.” Negan’s eyes went over to the man in the chair and he waggled his brows mockingly. “She begged me not to kill Dwight here, but I think she just wanted to know what it’s like to be with a real man. Well now she knows.”\n\nAs he spoke, I knew he was trying to upset Dwight, but in his efforts, it was as if he’d forgotten I was standing with them. My eyes widened as I absorbed what he was saying.\n\n\nHe’d slept with this woman.\n\n\nSo many emotions ran through me in the next few seconds. He had already told me he was still sleeping with his other wives, but learning he’d taken on a sixth was like a punch to the gut. I stared up at him as he continued to taunt Dwight.\n\nAnd I saw red.\n\nReaching up, my hand connected with his face as I slapped him.\n\nThe sound echoed throughout the room. Within a fraction of a second, his men raised their guns and aimed them at me. I didn’t care and glared up at Negan. His head was turned to the side from the force of the slap and he reached up to touch his face. Then his eyes went to me. Where I thought I’d see fire I saw genuine confusion.\n\nHe looked past me at a Savior that was pointing his weapon at my head, and only then did he become angry.\n\n“Put those fucking things down!” he shouted. As they lowered their weapons, I continued to scowl at him through tear filled eyes. I wanted to yell, but I couldn’t find my voice. I felt so exposed standing in front of all of his men that I suddenly felt very trapped.\n\nTurning from him, I went to step away when a Savior blocked my path. I froze, meeting the man’s gaze. We stared each other down for a few seconds before Negan cleared his throat.\n\n“Let her go,” he ordered.\n\nI didn’t look back and rushed out of the room. Going outside, I saw a supply truck had just pulled up into the yard and that the gate leading into the yard was open. Sprinting over to the truck, I got into the driver’s side and found the keys were still in the ignition and the engine was running. I heard shouting as I put the truck into drive and stepped on the gas. Within seconds, I was speeding away from the Sanctuary.\n\n\nFuck him.\n\n\nI squeezed the wheel and glared out the windshield. Of course he would take on another wife. Why wouldn’t he? It’s not like we were in a relationship. Sherry was a beautiful lady—they all were. Negan was like a king in his castle and he got whatever the fuck he wanted. Hell, even Vivienne was totally on board with his games now. She’d probably make an argument for him on why he needed multiple women to fuck.\n\nI’d almost driven for an hour, flying down the road and getting more upset with each minute, when the truck started to slow. I furrowed my brow in confusion as it came to a halt in the middle of the street. Glancing at the gas gauge, I let out a frustrated sigh. It was empty.\n\n“GODDAMMIT!” I yelled, slamming my hand on the steering wheel multiple times. Tears welled up in my eyes as my anger boiled over. It was like the straw that broke the camel’s back—I had been so focused on getting away from the Sanctuary that I hadn’t stopped to think what I was doing. Now I was stranded out in the middle of nowhere.\n\nExcept it wasn’t nowhere.\n\nStudying my surroundings, I realized I knew exactly where I was. The familiar signs made me feel a little better that I wasn’t miserably lost.\n\nLeaving the keys on the seat of the truck, I hopped out and shut the door. I figured Negan’s men would retrieve it sooner rather than later. Checking around to make sure there weren’t any nearby walkers, I continued making my way down the street.\n\nIt took about an hour of walking, but eventually I came to a road I knew all too well. As I made my way down it, I heard a strange sound. At first it was far away, but the more I walked, the closer it got. Every few moments there was a sharp ringing noise, as if someone was banging on metal. I knew it couldn’t be walkers, and was too curious for my own good. Stepping off the road, I chose to walk in the trees and creep forward until I could see the wall that wrapped around the school. I got as close as I dared, and then hid behind a tree to see what I was hearing.\n\nIt didn’t take long to figure out someone was trying to mend the gate. As the banging noise continued, I waited patiently and wondered if I should approach. Perhaps Negan had sent some of his men to fix the school for me?\n\nWhen the gate swung open to reveal the person patching the broken metal piece, I stared in surprise. Charlotte wiped at her sweaty brow and tested the gate to make sure it moved properly. I remained hidden, studying her from a distance. She looked exhausted; she was clutching a hammer in her hand, and after opening and closing the gate a few times, she went back to trying to fix the latch.\n\nI noticed there were a few walker bodies laying on the ground near the gate, and wondered if she’d had to kill them due to the noise. I also couldn’t help but wonder how she would react to seeing me. I was happy she was alive, but knew she hated me for what happened to Derek.\n\nI watched her work on the gate for a long time, debating if I should reveal myself or not. I wanted so desperately to talk to someone and wished we could go back to the day we’d met in her treehouse. It had felt good to open up to someone—to talk to a person with an outsider’s perspective. But Charlotte wasn’t that person anymore, and she’d never want to talk to me. Not after what I'd done.\n\nEventually, the gate was pulled closed and Charlotte seemed content with her work. After locking the metal into place, she gathered her tools and returned to the school building. I placed my hand on the bark of the tree I was leaning against and started to cry as I looked at the gate.\n\nDoveport wasn’t mine anymore.\n\nIt only felt fair Charlotte should inherit it. She deserved to have a safe place to call home. It would never be enough for taking her brother away from her, but it was a start.\n\nAs I tried to collect myself, I realized Negan was wrong. His way wasn’t the only way to survive in this new world. There were still good people making a living—still better ways to handle things without burning faces and bashing in heads.\n\nCharlotte was proof of that.\n\nDoveport was still proof of that.\n\nAs the sun set, I eventually left the trees and headed back down the road. I didn’t have any food or water, and my sore stomach and dry mouth were already a sign this trip home would be hell. It would take me all night to walk back, and that was if I didn’t run into any problems.\n\nSure enough, walkers began to catch sight of me and followed me down the road. I walked briskly, keeping ahead of the threat. There were only about five of them, but I didn’t want to waste my energy killing them off. As long as I moved fast, I could keep a good distance from them.\n\n\nIf only I could have stolen a truck with a full tank of gas.\n\n\nTwo hours later, I’d made little progress. The sky was a deep pink and orange, and I was panting in the Virginia heat. The group of walkers had tripled and was fast becoming a serious threat. I couldn’t stop, although my feet were already sore and tired. I mentally kicked myself for putting myself in such a stupid position.\n\nThe sun had barely disappeared on the horizon when a supply truck came speeding down the road. I watched as it flew past me and did a U-turn, only to pull up next to me and stop. I looked through the window to see Negan peering out at me. As we stared at one another, I glanced over at the hoard of walkers that were quickly closing the distance. I really didn’t want to have to suffer the awkward ride, but it beat becoming a snack for the dead.\n\nGetting into the truck, I pulled the door shut and Negan hit the gas. We sped away from the group of walkers and I watched them disappear in the rearview mirror.\n\n“Here.” Negan offered me a water bottle and I took it. Not caring how it looked, I chugged the water gratefully, finishing half of it within seconds. Negan watched me out of the corner of his eye, but I ignored him and turned to look out the window. We spent the remainder of the car ride in silence, though I could tell he was itching to say something. I wished he would have just sent one of his men to fetch me.\n\nWe reached the Sanctuary and Negan parked the truck near the entrance to the factory, but didn’t get out. I placed my hand on the door handle just as he began to speak.\n\n“I want you to come up to my bedroom…” His voice was stern, as if he wasn’t asking. I didn’t look at him.\n\n“Why don’t you just have Sherry do it?” I muttered, opening the truck door.\n\nNegan got out just as I did, but he slammed the door shut so loud it rocked the entire truck. Rolling my eyes at his childish behavior, I headed into the Sanctuary. I decided I would let him lecture me in the hopes I could go to bed and get off my aching feet.\n\nAs we walked down the hallway, I glanced into my room to see Tanya was holding Abby and sitting on my bed.\n\n“Oh, Negan!” she said, standing up. “I just-”\n\n“Not now,” he barked, ignoring her big eyes and entering into his bedroom. I gave her an apologetic look and then followed him in. I had stormed off and left Abby behind, and Tanya had become responsible in my absence. I never planned on abandoning her, but knew that if Amy was still alive, she would be furious with me. Not because Tanya wasn’t capable, but because I had promised her I would watch over her child.\n\nTaking a deep breath, I closed the door behind me and then faced the beast.\n\n“That little fucking adventure you went on could have gotten you killed!” Negan bellowed the second the latch clicked. “I know you’re pissed off about the whole wife situation, but I can’t have you disrespecting me in front of my men like that.”\n\n“Fine. Anything else?” I gave him a scathing look, hoping to cut this short.\n\n“What the fuck has gotten into you? You’ve been acting so fucking cold ever since you moved here!”\n\n“I’ll be sure to work on that,” I replied, my voice dripping with sarcasm. “It’s not like I just watched my friends die or anything. Oh, and I just LOVE looking at this growing collection of women you’re accumulating!” I gestured in the direction of the parlor room and my saccharine tone faded away and was replaced with one of frustration. “It fucking kills me that you’d take on another wife. You said before that you hated having to drive to Doveport, but now I’m here, and you’re still sleeping with them. It was never about the distance. You’re just fucking selfish!”\n\n“I was trying to do the right thing!” he shouted. “Tina needed meds. She was fucking diabetic and couldn’t afford insulin. I offered for her to become a wife so she wouldn’t have to work anymore, but she didn’t like that either, and instead, she chose secret option C. The three of them robbed us and fled. She died out there, and Dwight and Sherry realized they fucked up. I was going to kill them both, but Sherry is practical. She didn’t want me to kill Dwight, so she offered to marry me.”\n\n“But you could have said no!”\n\nNegan let out a sigh and shook his head. “What’s done is done. It doesn’t change the way I feel about you…” He was shifting gears; his tone becoming soft. I looked away and scoffed, disgusted with him.\n\n“Oh, just stop, Negan.”\n\n“Fuck, Elle! It’s not like we’re fucking married!” he argued.\n\nHe was right—we weren’t committed to each other, but that remark caused me to wonder about something…\n\n“Did you sleep with other people when you were with Lucille?” I asked suddenly. As I said her name, Negan’s hardened features cracked and he became confused. Then my words sunk in and a look of guilt spread across his face, giving me my answer.\n\n“What the fuck does that have to do with anything?” he muttered, looking away to avoid my gaze.\n\n“Did you cheat on her?” I refused to let him dodge this.\n\nHis jaw became stiff and he tensed up. His eyes went to the barbed wire bat that was leaning against his nightside table.\n\n“Negan, did you cheat-”\n\n“Yes.”\n\nHis confession felt heavy, and we both stood there soaking in such a simple word. I remembered back to our fight—the ugly argument we’d had months prior, before we’d met Derek and right after I’d finished my rehab from the pain pills. I’d asked Negan if Lucille knew she wasn’t enough for him in attempt to get under his skin, and it had worked. I’d never thought more about what that insinuated, until now.\n\nNegan sat down on his bed and stared off into space. He appeared distraught, and I thought he wasn’t going to talk anymore. Then he swallowed hard and looked down at his hands.\n\n“She fainted one day. It just happened out of fucking nowhere. One minute everything was fine, and the next I’m rushing her to the hospital. Doc said it was cancer. I held her in my arms while she cried. I knew I couldn’t fix it…knew that our time together had an expiration date. I tried to focus on being a coach, and I hit the gym every day, but it wasn’t enough of a distraction…”\n\nHe trailed off and closed his eyes, then took a deep breath before continuing.\n\n“I was already cheating on her before we got the diagnosis. Back then it was an occasional fling, but after she got sick, the affair became weekly. It wasn’t that I resented her, or that I stopped loving her. I never stopped loving her…I just wanted to feel something other than this fucking emptiness eating away at me. The guilt was easier to handle. But I realized too late that I was wasting what little time we had left—that all I needed was her. So I ended the affair and committed myself to Lucille.”\n\nHis voice cracked as he said her name. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise that he had been unfaithful in his first marriage, and yet I found myself shocked. The way he spoke about Lucille, I never would have thought him to have cheated on her in a million years. But he had…\n\n“She knew about the other woman, and was mad I ended it. She couldn’t understand why I would pick 'the sick one’, but she let me stay with her...after all the crap I’d put her through...She started chemo, and we bullshitted like we used to, but it wasn’t the same. Then her hair… Her beautiful, dark locks fell out and she had to wear those fucking cancer scarves. She said she felt so ugly, but she was still so fucking beautiful. I brought her to every appointment and anywhere she wanted to go. We used to go to the park and feed the birds, before she got too weak to get out of bed. I stayed by her side up until the very end, when she had tubes shoved down her throat and in her nose…”\n\nMy heart felt like it stopped when I realized he was crying. Negan hung his head down to hide his face, and his voice was strained as he fought the tears.\n\n“That’s when the world ended. The dead came to life just as she died. I couldn’t save her from the cancer, but I can keep others alive now.” Negan looked up with watery eyes and a stern expression.\n\n“The rules have kept us safe. Dwight and Sherry stole medication and had to be punished. Being a wife is Sherry’s punishment, even if it was her idea. She knows how shit works around here. People have to be kept in line. There are tons of Sherrys and Dwights just waiting to fuck us all over. When they see the ones who try get reprimanded, it ensures order.”\n\n“But you slept with her, Negan,” I whispered as I studied his face. I never thought I’d see him cry.\n\n“Because I feel like I’m losing you,” he said quietly. “You haven’t been the same since Amy died. I know you need time to grieve, but it’s like you’re still at that fucking school. There’s this distance between us, and I can’t stand it.”\n\nHe shook his head and took a deep breath. “Marrying Sherry was a mistake. I fuckin’ know that. And I know I’ve only added to that distance, but if I could fuck up the good thing I had with Lucille, it was only a matter of time before I fucked it up with you. I’m still that same, stupid man cheating on his wife. I’ve always been an asshole, but now I’m so much worse. I’ve done things for the Sanctuary… Unspeakable fucking things, Elle…” He put his face into his hands and tried to hide the fact he was weeping.\n\nI wanted so badly to go to him—to comfort him—to forgive him.\n\nBut I couldn’t.\n\nMy feet were frozen in place as I watched this man fall apart before me. I knew he was right—I hadn’t been the same since Amy passed. I didn’t feel like myself anymore, but he could have talked to me. We could have tried to fix things.\n\nInstead, he took on wife number six.\n\nI was sick of sitting back and letting him do whatever he wanted with these women. I felt neglected and taken for granted. I wanted what we had to be more than sex, but the romance felt like it was dying. I could either put up or shut up. It was time to lay all my cards on the table.\n\n“I can’t do this anymore,” I said quietly. It came out more monotone than I intended. I stood there like a statue and wanted so badly just to feel something other than this horrible numbness.\n\n“What if I stopped sleeping with them?” he asked through misty eyes.\n\n“That’s not the point.” I shook my head and looked away. It was difficult to see him with tear-stained cheeks, knowing I was the one causing him to feel guilty. “You don’t get to have me and those other women. It doesn’t work that way.”\n\nFinding the courage to move, I stepped over to the door and fought my own tears that were building. I hated the finality in my voice, but knew if i didn’t say my peace—if I didn’t give him this ultimatum now, I’d regret it.\n\n“I’m not Lucille—I don’t want you to pick them. I want you to pick me.”\n\nI hated how selfish I sounded in that moment. I knew he didn’t care about his wives the way he cared for me, but I still envied them. They caused a rift in our relationship, and the only way I could move forward was if it was just us. I didn’t want to have to wonder if he would be spending the night with me or one of them. I wanted all of him, not just a part.\n\n“Me or them. You have to choose.”\n\nBall in his court, I turned away and opened the door. As I stepped into the hallway, I heard his voice.\n\n“Elle…” he called, sounding desperate. I stopped for only a second, and when he didn’t say anything, I let the door fall shut. Turning back, I thought maybe he would chase after me. When he didn’t, I pressed my ear against the wood and listened. At first I heard nothing. Then, I heard the muffled sound of his voice.\n\n“I’m sorry.”\n\nHe had no way of knowing I heard him, but I had. He sounded remorseful, and it killed me. I’d sent him on one hell of a guilt trip, and I wanted so badly to go back into his room and assure him everything would be okay.\n\nI wanted to forgive him.\n\nLucille had—but I couldn’t.\n\nStepping away from his door, I felt hot tears spill down my cheeks. I hated this. I hated how this choice was hard for him.\n\nBut he still needed to make it.\n\nWiping at my eyes, I did my best to get my bearings and then headed for my bedroom where Tanya and Abby were waiting for me.\n\n\nPlease choose me.\n"}
+{"text": "Shibuya \n\nIn the late afternoon, the sun shines down as Kureto enters through the front gates of Shibuya on horseback with Aiko following close behind him. Their large party and guard follow close behind them. He looks around to see various men with short, near balding hair and black robes walking throughout the capital with hard black sticks in their hands. \n\nAs the beta enters commoners and citizens take note of him and his golden hand. The citizens move to bow as Kureto rides past them towards the Royal Keep, barely acknowledging them. The dark robed men eye him with scorn and wariness. \n\nKureto turns away from them and looks ahead as his eyes fall on the faint outline of Mahiru's chamber window near the top of the castle as he feels the anticipation and nervousness for their reunion building within him.\n\nInside Mahiru's chambers, the omega sits in her chair with a goblet of wine. Her purple hair still a short pixie cut, yet growing longer at the ends. She is clad in a pink dress with red embroideries.\n\nMahiru looks somberly at the ground, depressed that Tyuri has not come yet to see her. Mahiru's eyes look towards the door in excitement when it opens as hope fills her. \n\nKureto enters through the door as Mahiru's feels the disappointment settle within her. She is relieved to see Kureto, but she would much rather see Tyuri. She can't help the way she feels as Kureto's eyes widen when he takes in her state and new appearance. \n\n\"You changed your hair.\" Kureto observes. \n\nA wistful smirk settles on Mahiru's face as she turns back towards the window from her chair. \"Not of my will, of course. I would never choose to look like a little omegan boy, if I had any say in it.\"\n\nKureto walks towards the omega before kneeling down in front of her. Mahiru keeps her eyes ahead. \n\n\"What happened when I was gone?\" Kureto asks. \n\nMahiru looks at him before looking back out the window, \"I never should have sent you away.\"\n\n\"What happened?\" Kureto implores. \n\n\"The High Sparrow.\" Mahiru says after a beat passes, \"I brought the Faith Militant back to the forefront of Shibuya and appointed the High Sparrow their leader because I wanted to rid myself of those fucking Inoue's, especially that simpering cunt, Rika.\"\n\nKureto keeps his eyes on her. \"Those were the men in the dark robes patrolling the streets?\"\n\n\"It worked for a while before it all turned back on me.\" Mahiru says with a nod, \"The old cunt Inoue, I know it was her, she must have told them about what I did with you, Hozumi, and Goshi. Every bad thing I've done. The only way that she could have known any of that is, if she had someone who was around us all of this time.\"\n\n\"Kagiyama?\" Kureto suggests correctly. \n\nMahiru nods tearfully, \"They threw me in the black cells beneath the Sept. I was there for so long.\"\n\nKureto listens on as he feels his blood boil.  \n\n\"But, then I confessed to what I did to Hozumi.\" Mahiru says. \"I denied everything else because, I can't lose you. It's the reason why you were not accosted by the Faith in the streets. I can't give you up.\"\n\nKureto feels his heart stutter as a warm feeling fills his body when Mahiru tells him this. \n\n\"Because I did not confess to all of the supposed crimes, they allowed me to return to the Royal Keep to await a further trial to decide my fate.\" Mahiru says bitterly before her eyes grow dark and sad, \"The only way they would let me return was by walking back here to atone for what I confessed to with Hozumi.\"\n\nKureto's gaze turns murderous and his eyes grow dark. \n\nTears begin to pour from Mahiru's eyes as she cries out, \"They cut my hair and stripped me naked. The High Sparrow forced me to walk like that back here for all of Shibuya to see! Every one of those fucking peasants shouted curses at me and threw every revolting thing they could find as I walked back here. The ground was so hot my feet were bleeding by the time I returned.\"\n\nKureto immediately moves to consume the crying omega. He embraces his sister as he feels love for her protecting him fill him. He feels the fury and murderous destruction towards those who wronged her grow as he listens to her sobs. \n\n\"I'm back now. You and Tyuri are the two most important things to me.\" Kureto tells her soothingly. \"I am going to protect you both now, no matter what happens.\"\n\nMahiru pulls away to look at Kureto. She sees the serious intent of his gaze and feels the sincerity of his words give her comfort. \n\n\"Tyuri hasn't even come to see me since I've returned.\" Mahiru tells him.  \n\n\"I'll talk to him.\" Kureto tells her. \"I'll make sure he comes.\"\n\nMahiru still has water eyes when she tells Kureto, \"He's all I have left. He was always the good one from our children. I always thought if I could make something so good, so pure...maybe I’m not a monster. It's only a matter of time before he's dead in the ground like Takashi.\"\n\nKureto looks up at her in shock before shaking his head, \"They were my children and I failed them as a father.\"\n\n\"No, I knew this would happen.\" Mahiru looks away from his eyes, \"The witch told me years ago. She promised me two children. She promised me they’d die. And gold their shrouds. Everything she said came true so far. You couldn’t have stopped it. It’s prophecy. It’s fate.\"\n\n\"You don’t believe that.\" Kureto tells her. \n\n\"Of course I do.\" Mahiru meets his gaze, \"You told me yourself when father and uncle died. You said we had to stay together. You said people would try to tear us apart, take what’s ours. That was a prophecy, too. I didn’t listen to you, and everything you said came true.\"\n\nKureto places his flesh hand on Mahiru's cheek. Gentle, yet firm on the soft flesh of her cheek as he gazes up at her. \n\n\"Fuck prophecy. Fuck fate. Fuck everyone who isn’t us. We’re the only ones who matter, the only ones in this world. And everything they’ve taken from us, we’re going to take back and more.\" Kureto declares to her. \n\nMahiru nods and leans in. Kureto knows he shouldn't, but he can't help the love he feels for this omega. Despite what he and Aiko talked about on the tour of the Riverlands, he can't stop his love for Mahiru, especially after knowing what she did for him.  \n\nKureto leans in to meet her halfway before kissing her passionately. Mahiru returns it for a moment before pulling away from her brother. \n\nKureto embraces and holds her against his body. Mahiru's head rests on his shoulder as she stops crying from the words the Kureto has told her. Kureto closes his eyes as his hand rests on her naked nape. \n\n\"We’re going to take everything there is.\" Kureto tells her intimately. \n\nMahiru hardens her gaze as she agrees while finally returning Kureto's embrace.\n\nIn her black cell, Rika sits on her knees with her head lowered before a standing Septa Kiyomi. The gray-robed septa with the matching barbette headdress reads dully from \"The Seven-Pointed Star.\" Rika's blonde's hair is stringy and she is covered with dirt. The imprisoned omega is clad in her knee-length grey-brown dress. Hay litters the floor of her dark cell.\n\n\"“The Seven Hells brim with the souls of saintly men. They scream in agony and their shame is so great, they do not feel the flames, for now they see if not for a single sin they concealed, they were saved.”\" Septa Kiyomi reads to Rika. \n\n\"I’d like to see my brother.\" Rika says. \n\n\"Confess.\" Septa Kiyomi tells her.\n\n\"Please. How is he? At least tell me that.\" Rika pleads slightly. \n\n\"Confess.\"\n\n\"I am the Queen and I demand to see my brother.\" Rika says lowly. \n\n\"Sinners don’t make commands. They make confessions.\" Septa Kiyomi says. \n\nA dark sneer covers the alpha woman's face before she slams the book shut and approaches Rika aggressively. Rika recoils back into the room, preparing herself for Septa Kiyomi's merciless reprimand. \n\nSuddenly, the lock on the door is pulled off and the door opens. Septa Kiyomi stiffens. \n\n\"Septa Kiyomi.\" The High Sparrow's voice rings around the cell as he enters. The High Sparrow sighs before telling her, \"Our other guests need you.\"\n\nSepta Kiyomi curls her lip in disgust at Rika before turning and exiting out the black cell, leaving just Rika and the High Sparrow. \n\nRika glances up as hair covers her face to watch the alpha leave.\n\nThe High Sparrow approaches her and gently brushes a large section of her blonde hair over her shoulder. Rika tenses slightly, letting out a surprised gasp before meeting the old alpha's eyes as he stands above her. \n\n\"There.\" The High Sparrow whispers soothingly to the tense omega. \n\n\"Septa Kiyomi can be overzealous at times. I’ll speak with her.\" The High Sparrow tells Rika. \n\n\"My brother, can you tell me how he is?\" Rika looks up at the man. \n\nThe High Sparrow sighs before taking a seat on a wooden bench, \"It isn’t Ser Reo that brings me here. Your husband misses you dearly. The love between a husband and wife is sacred. It reflects the love the gods have for all of us. But sin leads us away from the sacred. And only confession can purge sin.\"\n\nRika looks at the man before slightly shaking her head, \"I have nothing to confess.\"\n\n\"So you believe you are pure? Perfect? Wholly without sin?\" The High Sparrow asks her. \n\nRika looks down in contemplation at his words before shaking her head. \"None of us are.\"\n\n\"You have started down the path. But you have many miles to go.\" The High Sparrow tells Rika. \n\nRika looks up at him and meets his gaze. The alpha rises off of the bench, Rika watches him leave before moving to hug her knees in contemplation as a plan begins to formulate in her head. \n\n\n Harajuku \n\n\nA man makes his way down the street of Harajuku where it is known that beggars lie. A beta woman holds out an open pot for him to put some coinage in, but he ignores her and walks further down the street. The man turns the corner, walking past an alpha girl in brown robes. \n\nThe blonde head of hair looks up blindly to reveal the white pupils of Mitsuba Sanguu. The alpha is covered with dirt from begging and being chased away after blindly stealing scraps. She's been unable to see anything for almost a month since Nix forced her out of the House of Black and White. Mitsu's tattered blonde hair goes down to her middle back. The alpha holds a bowl in her hands as another alpha man walks pass her to throw a coin into it. The sound alerting her towards the direction where the man walks as she remembers to hold out the bowl.   \n\n\"Thank you.\" Mitsu says in the direction the man came from. \n\nMitsu falls silent and begins to listen once again to the chatter of the common folk as they pass by this little blind girl. \n\n\"Are you listening, blind girl?\" The Waif's familiar voice says in front of Mitsu. \n\nMitsu looks up in the direction of the voice. Her ears pick up on the sound of the end of two sticks hitting the ground as the Waif turns them. \n\n\"Do you hear them talking? Do any of them talk to you? No. So sad.\" The Waif mocks. \n\nMitsu huffs a breath. \n\nThe Waif holds out a stick to her before remembering Mitsu is blinded. The Waif tosses the stick and when it lands on Mitsu's lap, the alpha drops her bowl in shock. The sound of coins clattering to the ground fill her ears as Mitsu grabs the stick. \n\nThe Waif approaches a still sitting and confused Mitsu. She hits Mitsu on her right arm causing the woman to cry out in pain. \n\n\"Stand and fight, blind girl.\" The Waif tells Mitsu. \n\nMitsu stands, she breathes out in both frustration and fear. The alpha holds the stick pointed in the direction she believes the Waif to be.\n\n\"I can’t see.\" Mitsu says with a slight plea in her voice.\n\n\"That’s your problem, not mine.\" The Waif says. \n\nThe Waif hits her in the leg causing Mitsu to stumble, yet remain standing. \n\nMitsu swings in the direction the hit came from, only to find air as the Waif moves around her. Mitsu moves to the spot where the Waif was originally and turns to point her stick across from the Waif. \n\nThe Waif backs away before jabbing her in the stomach and striking her in the knee causing Mitsu to fall onto the ground with two pained groans. \n\nMitsu rises quickly and swings angrily at the Waif as she switches places with the Waif who moves to the spot Mitsu just was. \n\nThe Waif hits her right cheek before striking her left cheek harder causing Mitsu to fall to the ground as blood begins to fill her mouth. Mitsu grunts before standing and swinging randomly, hoping to hit the Waif.\n\nThe Waif jabs Mitsu in the stomach twice, before raising her stick to hit her chin, and finally hit her side. Mitsu falls to the ground as the pain grows from the Waif's continuous assault. \n\nMitsu struggles to rise and tries to stand with the help of her stick before the Waif knocks it causing her to fall again. \n\nMitsu quickly grabs the stick and points it in the direction of the Waif's footsteps as she stands in front of her. \n\nThe Waif looks down at her blankly before saying, \"See you tomorrow.\"\n\nMitsu keeps her stick raised as the footsteps draw further from her. She lowers it when she cannot hear them anymore. Mitsu pants as she looks down while blood pours from her mouth.   \n\n\nShinjuku - Meeridan  \n\n\nFrom the bottom of the Great Pyramid of Meeridan, Yukimi and Shinya exit the door onto the streets of Meeridan. Shinya has his silver hair in a ponytail while wearing the white underdress with a brown robe over it, dark slacks, and black boots. Yukimi has her blue hair in one braid and wears a similar outfit to Shinya. \n\n\"We’re never going to fix what’s wrong with this city from the top of an 800-foot pyramid.\" Shinya tells the omega as a commoner walks past them. \n\nYukimi looks over her shoulder at the commoner.\n\nShinya notices this before sighing at her, \"We’ll be fine. We’re dressed like common merchants.\"\n\n\"You walk like a rich person.\" Yukimi tells the other omega. \n\n\"You’ve spent a lot of time studying the way rich people walk?\" Shinya asks teasingly. \n\n\"You walk as though the paving stones were your personal property. I used to steal from people like you when I was a girl.\" Yukimi tells Shinya. \n\n\"And how did that work out for you?\" Shinya asks as they come upon a woman on the street cradling her baby. \n\nShinya makes his way to her as Yukimi follows taking coinage out from his pocket. \n\n\"For your baby. To eat.\" Shinya attempts in Valyrian. \n\nThe omega woman cowers away from Shinya and clutches her baby tighter. \n\n\"She thinks you want to eat her baby.\" Yukimi tells Shinya. \n\nYukimi kneels before taking the coin from a gaping Shinya's hand, \"His Valyrian is terrible. He only wants to give you money, so your baby can eat.\"\n\nYukimi hands the woman the coin as Shinya smiles in slight embarrassment. The woman gestures her hand to her forehead in a gesture of thanks. \n\nBoth omega's nod before continuing on down the street. \n\nShinya and Yukimi walk past a wall that has written on it in black ink, \"KILL THE MASTERS.\" Under it is written in red \"MHYSA IS A MASTER.\"\n\n\"Mhysa means mother in Valyrian.\" Yukimi explains to Shinya. \n\n\"I know what mhysa means.\" Shinya says rolling his eyes. \n\n\"Who wrote it?\" Yukimi asks. \n\n\"Hard to know. Our queen is not as popular in Meeridan as he used to be.\" Shinya says. \n\n\"The Sons of the Harpy?\" Yukimi asks. \n\n\"Very possibly. Mikaela Shindo took away their most valuable property, told them human beings weren’t even property to begin with. You can see why they’re unhappy. Of course, it could also be the freed men.\" Shinya ponders. \n\nShinya and Yukimi look behind them as a group of commoners enter a tunnel. The two omega's glance at each other before moving to follow them. \n\nInside of the tunnel, a large group of around fifty commoners surround a beta man in a red robe that stands on a box and preaches to the group in Valyrian. A red priest, most likely. \n\n\"For the night is dark and full of terrors.\" The group of commoners say as Yukimi and Shinya listen. \n\n\"The Lord of Light sent the Mother of Dragons to you, and those who love the darkness chased him away.\" The Red Priest tells the group. \n\n\"Many of the former slaves feel that Mikaela has abandoned them.\" Shinya says.\n\n\"He did fly away on a dragon and not come back.\" Yukimi points out. \n\n\"How will you respond? Will you wring your hands, while you wait for the Mother of Dragons to return? Or will you take up his flames yourselves? Will you fight for your own salvation, now that Queen Mikaela is not here to fight for you?\" The Red Priest tells the crowd. \n\n\"It’s a problem.\" Shinya says as he and Yukimi head towards the courtyard at the end of the tunnel. \n\n\"Fear has brought Meeridan to a standstill. Whoever you are, wherever you go, someone in this city wants to murder you. We can’t fight an enemy we don’t know.\" Shinya says to Yukimi when they enter the courtyard. \n\n\"The Sons of the Harpy planned their attack in the fighting pits very carefully, which means they take orders from someone.\" Yukimi says. \n\n\"And have you started looking for that someone?\" Shinya asks. \n\n\"My little birds have already taken wing. Soon they’ll return, singing songs of men in gold masks.\" Yukimi smirks. \n\nSuddenly a shout sounds off as Shinya and Yukimi look towards the open entrance of the courtyard. A bell begins to toll as a flood of people begin to run inside. \n\nShinya turns back to look at Yukimi before the two move towards where everyone is running from. \n\nThe two omega's proceed to the archway and head towards the harbor where everyone seems to be running from. \n\nShinya and Yukimi's eyes widen when the see a large clout of smoke and hear large screams come from people as they rush away from the harbor. \n\nShinya and Yukimi both openly gape in shock at the large amount of ships burning in the dock. Smoke coming from the burning wood and leaving a great deal of wreckage when it comes to the numbers in Mika's fleet. \n\nShinya and Yukimi's faces fall before looks of frustration appear as they realize the Harpy problem in Meeridan is only growing the longer that Mika's gone. \n\n\"Well, we won’t be sailing to Westeria anytime soon.\" Shinya remarks as he and Yukimi watch a large portion of Mika's fleet burn to ashes in the sea. \n\n\n Shinjuku Countryside - Near the Dothraki Sea \n\n\nIn the countryside, Ser Lacus and Shahal ride along grass-covered rocky mountains. They begin to ride further up the mountain before a large black circle filled with bones catches their eyes. \n\nSer Lacus rides closer as Shahal follows after. The beta man dismounts from his horse as he enters the dark circle and kneels to pick up the charred skull of a ram. Makoton took Mika here that much is clear, but there is not a sign of either of them. \n\n\"Goat?\" Shahal asks, still mounted. \n\n\"Ram.\" Ser Lacus says simply.\n\n\"You think our friend got him?\" Shahal asks. \n\n\"Don’t know anything else that can melt a ram’s horn.\" Ser Lacus says as he scans the skull. \n\n\"We’re on the right path, then.\" Shahal says, looking around. \n\nSer Lacus nods before returning to his horse and mounting it. \n\nThe two men ride down the mountain countryside. \n\n\"Perhaps he’s tired of being queen. I don’t think he likes it very much.\" Shahal says. \n\n\"He’s too smart to like it.\" Ser Lacus tells Shahal. \n\n\"Maybe he’s flown somewhere else, somewhere far away from men like us.\" Shahal says. \n\n\"I’ve been all over the world. There’s no escaping men like us.\" Ser Lacus says. \n\n\"There’s no escaping her, eh?\" Shahal asks teasingly, yet tensely with a jealous undertone. \"You keep coming back. Why?\"\n\n\"You know why.\" The beta says. \n\n\"Isn’t it frustrating wanting someone who doesn’t want you back?\" Shahal asks. \n\n\"Of course it is.\" Ser Lacus says simply. \n\n\"You’re a romantic. I admire that. Sometimes I look at you and I think, “So that’s what I’ll be like when I grow old.”\" Shahal tells Ser Lacus, mockingly.\n\n\"If you grow old.\" Ser Lacus retorts. \n\n\"If I grow old.\" Shahal agrees before continuing, \"I hope I do. I want to see what the world looks like when he’s done conquering it.\"\n\n\"So do I.\" Ser Lacus says. \n\nSer Lacus stops his horse while Shahal continues to slowly pace his head. The beta pulls down the purple sleeve of his shirt to see the advancing patches of greyscale growing more on his arm, it almost covers his entire forearm. \n\nSer Lacus looks back at Shahal before joining him as they continue to ride down the countryside. \n\nThey stop when their eyes fall on something in the grass. Large circular swathes of horse tracks that stretch around the area making the grass black, it surrounds a small circle in the center that remains perfect, green, and untouched. \n\n\"Huh, an army?\" Shahal asks. \n\nSer Lacus shakes his head as a realization strikes him, \"Not an army. A horde.\"\n\nThe two men ride towards the circle. Ser Lacus dismounts to get a closer look as Shahal grabs the reins of his horse. \n\nThe beta looks around as he stands in the green circle before his eyes meet Shahal. \n\n\"Dothraki?\" Shahal asks. \n\nSer Lacus remains silent before looking down, his eyes fall on something silver right near him. \n\nSer Lacus kneels and picks up a silver ring with black edgings. On top rests a white pearl. \n\nSer Lacus' eyes hone in on it with familiar recognition. This is Mika's mother's ring, the one he has always worn since Ser Lacus first met him. \n\nSer Lacus looks back up at Shahal with worry evident on his face. \n\n\"They have him.\" Ser Lacus says as unease fills him.\n\nShahal sighs and looks around. Ser Lacus closes the ring in his palm and places it in his pocket.   \n\n\n Shinjuku - Dothraki Settlement Camp in the Shinjuku Arid Lands\n\n\nThe Dothraki Horde travels together in great numbers inside of the sand-covered pits and valleys. \n\nMikaela Shindo walks alongside two Dothraki alpha bloodriders. The omega's long, pale blonde hair has grown completely undone and frizzes slightly in the heat of the burning sun. His white dress has turned mostly dark grey with black edges from the amount of dirt he's around. He still has his dragon necklace on him. The omega's hands are tied together. Mika squints his eyes as he tries to avoid getting any sand in them. It's unlucky for him that there's a hole in his path that he stumbles and his step falters causing him to almost trip. The omega catches himself and rises, but he cannot avoid the bloodrider's whip on his back as he curses the omega. The bloodrider laugh as Mika grunts in pain. \n\nThe omega looks up at the bloodriders, gritting his teeth in murderous annoyance. The alpha's only laugh at him as they look down superiorly at him. \n\nMika turns back and keeps his eyes ahead making sure to watch his step as he walks. \n\n\"Maybe he saw a ghost. My friend’s mother saw a ghost and her hair turned white.\" The bloodrider next to Mika tells the other one about him in Dothraki. \n\nMika can understand every word they're saying and it only adds more fuel to his fury.  \n\n\"Pink people are afraid of the sun. It burns their skin. This one stands too long in the sun and his hair goes white.\" The other one mocks about his pale blonde hair. \n\n\"You think he’s got white hair down there too? You ever been with an omega with white pussy hair?\" The alpha asks the other one. \n\n\"Only when I was fucking your grandma.\" The other one says as the other one chuckles. \n\nThey both eye Mika before the one nearest to him makes kissing faces at the omega to get his attention. Mika turns with irritation written on his face. \n\n\"I’ll ask Khal Doro for a night with you. What do you think?\" The man asks Mika.\n\n\"Pretty, but he’s an idiot.\" The other one says as Mika turns his hate-filled gaze onto him. \n\n\"He doesn’t have to be smart to get fucked in the ass.\" The first bloodrider says to the other.\n\nMika looks back ahead and slightly shakes his head at the situation he's found himself in. \n\n\"I like to talk when I’m finished. Otherwise, we might as well be dogs.\" The other one says. \n\nMika looks back up as they enter into Khal Doro's large camp, fury curdles in his stomach and only grows. \n\n\n Nagoya - Snowstorm \n\n\nStorm clouds cover the sky surrounding Snowstorm, Hanayori bannermen stand posted outside the castle gates.\n\nIn the cold room where the Maester performs his healing duties, Ky and Lord Hanayori stand over Sayuri's pale corpse lying on the table before them. The Maester of Snowstorm stands further away from the two. \n\n\"She was so sweet when she came out of her mother.\" Lord Hanayori reminisces mournfully. \"A quiet and peaceful child, the maester in the Riverlands had to smack her ass four times before she began to cry. Sayuri always had this way of taking pain.\"\n\nKy nods bitterly in melancholy. She liked him being rough with her when they fucked, he supposes it makes sense. \"I remember I was only five when I first saw her.\"\n\nLord Hanayori nods. \"I brought her to you after her mother died.\"\n\nKy looks down at her closed eyes, never to open again. \"She was so small and smelled like dog. Everyone was already afraid of me by then, but she never was. She told me, \"What could I do to her that those hounds couldn’t?\" She was fearless. There was nothing she wouldn’t do for me.\"\n\nLord Hanayori grunts in agreement. \n\nKy places a cold hand onto the omega's forehead, \"Your pain will be paid for a thousand times over. I wish you could be here to watch.\"\n\nKy's eyes begin to water as he looks at the omega he loved for a long time. He feels like he's about to cry, but he holds it in before his father's dead gaze. \n\n\"Shall I have a grave dug for her, My Lord? Or would you rather the men build a pyre?\" The Maester asks Lord Hanayori.  \n\n\"Burn her.\" Lord Hanayori says. \"When the bloodsuckers come for us all, I don't want to see her as one.\"\n\nKy nods before looking back down at Sayuri's beautiful and cold face. \n\nKy and Lord Hanayori walk down the halls of the castle. \n\n\"Your command of the cavalry was impressive. Thanks to you, the holdfast is back under our thumb. Do you know who struck the killing blow?\" Lord Hanayori asks. \n\n\"No.\" Ky answers with a slight shake of his head.\n\n\"A shame. I’d reward the man. Still, a great victory. Do you feel like a victor?\" Lord Hanayori asks. \n\nLord Hanayori stops walking, Ky walks one more pace before stopping and turning back. \n\nKy stares at his father over his shoulder. \n\n\"I rebelled against the crown to arrange your marriage to Shinoa Hiiragi. Do you think that burning wagons in the night and mowing down tired, outnumbered Northerners is the same as facing a prepared and provisioned Hiiragi army?\" Lord Hanayori asks Ky testily. \n\n\"No.\" Ky replies unsteadily.\n\nLord Hanayori walks past Ky and enters the Great Hall of Snowstorm. \n\n\"A reckoning will come. We need the North to face it. The entire North. They won’t back us without Shinoa Hiiragi. We no longer have Shinoa Hiiragi. You played your games with her. You played your games with the heir to Osaka Bay and now they’re both gone.\" Lord Hanayori coldly reprimands. \n\n\"I have a team of men after them with some of my best hounds. They won’t get far.\" Ky tells his father. \n\n\"I’m glad to hear it. Without Shinoa, you won’t be able to produce an heir. And without an heir, well…\" Lord Hanayori trails off as a worried look crosses Ky's face. \"...let’s hope the Maesters are right and Lady Wakiru’s carrying a boy.\"\n\nKy's eyes widen as he watches his father coolly take a seat in front of him. Ky looks down as his father moves to pour himself wine. \n\nKy gulps slightly and curls his lips inward as he feels an unsettling feeling in the pit of his stomach. His fingernails curl into his rough palm until blood is drawn in crescent-shaped marks. \n\n\n Nagoya - The Winterwoods \n\n\nKimizuki leads Shinoa through the Winterwoods as they run frantically from their former home. Snow cushioned their fall and they only have minor pain, but they know that they have to keep going otherwise Ky will catch them. They run through the forest of naked snow and ice-covered trees. The cold weaken their strengths as it consumes them. \n\nShinoa huffs breaths as she runs through while struggling to follow after the alpha. She stops and begins to heave breaths, feeling herself unable to continue. \n\nKimizuki stops and runs back before grabbing her arm to pull her onward, \"Come on, let's go.\"\n\nShinoa tires as they hear the sound of barking dogs in the distance which only motivates Kimizuki more. \n\n\"We can’t stop.\" Kimizuki tells her as they continue to run. \n\nThey come out of a large clearing where a large snowy river flows with water. \n\nKimizuki stops as they reach the large and slightly shallow body of water, Shinoa stops when he does. \n\n\"We have to cross here.\" Kimizuki tells her. \n\nShinoa moves to step onto a patch, only for it to be thin ice. Her boot sinks into the water and she can even feel the coldness of it through her boot as she quickly pulls it out. \n\n\"I can’t.\" The omega shakes her head. \n\n\"It’s the only way to throw off the hounds.\" Kimizuki says before grabbing her arm to pull her. \n\nShinoa remains steadfast as she meets Kimizuki's reddish-brown gaze, \"But it’s too cold. I can’t. I won’t make it. I’ll die.\"\n\n\"I’ve seen what his hounds do to a person. This way is better.\" Kimizuki tells her with a firm and frozen grip on her cloak. \n\nShinoa contemplates this as she huffs chilled breaths. \n\nKimizuki puts his feet in the water, yet ignores the coldness. He gently guides Shinoa into the water. \n\nOnce the omega's legs enter the water, her breaths grow more labored as the cold inside of her intensifies. \n\nKimizuki pulls her along, keeping his face stoic and trying to ignore the coldness. Shinoa gasps at the cold of the icy river with every breath she takes as the two wade through the body of water together. \n\nKimizuki leads Shinoa out of the water and onto the other side of the snow-covered woods. The alpha and omega are both blue with coldness, but they can no longer hear the barking of the hounds. \n\nKimizuki grabs Shinoa's arm to help her as she heaves breaths. \n\nKimizuki looks up and his eyes widen when they fall on something in the distance. \n\nKimizuki grabs Shinoa's arm, \"Over here. Come on.\" \n\nShinoa struggles and her breaths grow weaker as she lets Kimizuki lead her. \n\nKimizuki makes his way towards a large overturned tree. The roots big enough to function as a small cave and shelter the two from snow.\n\nKimizuki runs back to where Shinoa struggles behind him and wraps an arm around her shoulders as he guides her to sit under the large tree. \n\nShinoa sits there while Kimizuki watches her with worry and wariness beside her. They both shiver, but Shinoa does to a larger extent while panting breaths. \n\n\"Shinoa. Shinoa.\" Kimizuki tries to get the omega's attention, but she remains dazed as she looks ahead of her. \n\nKimizuki watches her in slight contemplation before he wraps the omega in his embrace. He rubs Shinoa's back as she rests her head on his shoulder. \n\nShinoa feels at peace in her Kimizuki's arms, more than she has felt in such a long time. The same goes for Kimizuki who is glad to embrace the omega. The two were the most distant siblings from each other when they were growing up. But, now when they are uncertain about where they'll end up, they can't help but feel the most comfort either have felt in such a long time. Shinoa closes her eyes as she leans into the alpha's embrace and soothing stronger scent. Kimizuki feels calmer with Shinoa's sweet floral scent and closes his eyes. Both are so exhausted and are glad to be together with each other as themselves.\n\nThey sit like this for a few moments before the sound of barking in the distance and coming closer causes Shinoa's eyes to jump open. \n\nShinoa pulls away as Kimizuki opens his eyes and quickly turns around as the sound of Hanayori men shouting catches his attention. \n\n\"Stay here. I’ll lure them away.\" Kimizuki tells his sister. \n\nThe alpha rises, but Shinoa grabs her brother's arm. \n\n\"No, I won’t make it without you.\" Shinoa says. \n\n\"You will.\" Kimizuki says before leaning his face down, \"Go west and remain only north. Yuu is Lord Commander at Ikebukuro. He’ll help you.\"\n\nShinoa's breaths grow more silent as she stares at Kimizuki's reddish-brown gaze. Kimizuki looks at his sister in melancholy, knowing this may very well be his last stand. \n\nThe alpha stands and runs out from behind the tree. He runs down towards the entrance to the path that he hears the barks of the hounds coming from. \n\nImmediately as he reaches the entrance, Kimizuki is stopped by five Hanayori men. Four are on horses and one stand before him with two barking hounds. \n\n\"Where is Lady Hanayori?\" The lead alpha Hanayori guard asks Kimizuki from his horse. \n\nKimizuki looks down at the hounds before saying, \"Dead.\"\n\n\"Liar.\" The lead guard sneers at him darkly. \n\nShinoa curls herself further into the roots of the tree to stay hidden as she hears the exchange behind her.\n\n\"She broke her leg jumping from the ramparts. I left her to die in the snow.\" Kimizuki tells the guard. \n\nThe hounds bark and charge in a direction, but the guards pull them back. Kimizuku shifts his eyes nervously, the guard with the hound catches him doing so. The guard takes it as his cue to loosen his grip on the hounds so that they can lead him towards where Shinoa's scent is at. \n\nThe guards on horseback follow closely behind as Kimizuki rushes to head back to the fallen tree. \n\nShinoa curls in as the men circle the path towards the tree, the hounds bark as they finally find their target. Shinoa curls under the tree from the hounds when they try to jump at her before they are pulled back by the guards. \n\nKimizuki reaches back next to her as the men all look at the two. Shinoa cowers from the barking hounds. \n\nThe lead guard meets Kimizuki's eyes before telling the alpha, \"I can’t wait to see what parts Ky cuts off you this time.\"\n\nKimizuki looks back as one of the men have dismounted from their horse and begun to grab Shinoa, trying to pull her to her feet. Shinoa grunts and tries to get out of his hold as he gets her to stand. \n\nSuddenly, the sound of a horse whinnying causes all action to stop amongst the two parties. \n\nKimizuki looks back as the sound of two more horses come into his sight.\n\nThe lead guard draws his sword as Aoi charges him with her sword on horseback. \n\n\"It's a fucking woman.\" The lead guard says before Aoi slices him across the throat with her sword causing him to get knocked off of his horse. \n\nHis corpse hits the ground with a splattering of blood. \n\nShinoa's eyes widen as Junji charges one of the men on horseback. Both begin to clash swords and trade blows. \n\nAoi rides past before turning back. Two men on horseback engage her. Aoi dodges the strike of one man as they charge each other. The other man directly behind her hits her harshly on her chest armor causing her to fall off of her horse. \n\nAoi falls on the ground with a thud as Shinoa glances at her in recognition and shock. Kimizuki looks around at the fighting going on around them. \n\nAoi rolls over as the man who knocked her over dismounts from his horse. Shinoa gasps and bristles. \n\nAoi grabs her sword as the man approaches her before rolling over to dodge a kick. She rises and parries the man. They both trade blows as their swords clang before Aoi goes right when he swings heavily down on her left. She dodges and slashes across his back. The man falls to his knees before Aoi comes around and cuts his throat with a shout. The man's corpse falls to the ground as blood pours on the icy snow. \n\nJunji continues to engage his guard. The other man on horseback neighs his steed loudly to catch Aoi's attention. \n\nAoi turns as the man charges her. She spins around to dodge his swing while slicing him in the side with her sword causing him to fall off with the horse landing on top of his legs. \n\nKimizuki turns to see Junji still fighting the same man. The beta still continues to trade blows with the other one. Kimizuki looks around before his eyes fall on a sword a few feet away. Kimizuki picks it up without alerting the guard holding the hounds. He is uncertain of his skill considering he has not used a sword in such a long time, but he'll do what he can to protect Shinoa. \n\nJunji finally gets an opening and stabs the beta in the stomach. He impales the other man causing them both to fall off of their horses as Junji pulls out his blood-covered sword. \n\nThe man that Aoi knocked off the horse struggle to get his leg out from under the horse. The last man ties the hounds to a tree before drawing his sword on Junji. He rises as the alpha man comes toward him. Junji dodges and pulls back when the man swings wide. \n\nAoi's eyes fall on the man struggling under the horse and she crawls towards him. \n\n\"No, please!\" The man begs when she gets close enough. \n\nAoi grabs his knife from its holster before slitting his throat. The alpha woman sits back and pants tiredly. \n\nJunji and the man continue to fight each other. The man swings his sword strongly when Junji cannot parry and the sword is knocked out of the beta's hand while he also loses his balance. Junji lands on the ground and his sword is far away from them. \n\nJunji backs away from the man as he hones in on him and comes closer towards him. \n\nThe man raises his sword to strike him before Kimizuki enters the sword right through his throat. The man's corpse falls to the ground next to Junji who looks up at Kimizuki. Kimizuki glares with hatred and vengeance at the fallen Hanayori man he's just killed. \n\nJunji stands while Shinoa gapes at the fight and carnage before her. \n\nAoi makes her way towards her and stands at a distance across from her. \n\nShinoa rises unsteadily as Kimizuki runs to stand next to her protectively. \n\nJunji similarly moves to stand with Aoi.  \n\nAoi and Shinoa look and study each other, seeing how the other has changed since the last time they saw each other on the night of the Battle of Bluewater.\n\nAoi notices that the omega is still very petite despite having grown taller. She sees how Shinoa's face looks more mature and world-weary, yet still childish. A beautiful young omega woman that has grown from the naïve omega girl she last saw in Shibuya. \n\nShinoa also notices that the woman has not changed much in terms of size and looks. Her face looks more worn and tired, like she's just done with all of the world. She is still rather pretty, yet rough looking. Her fight moves are jerkier, despite still being excellent, meaning she might be healing from other wounds. \n\nAoi takes the first step forward with her sword turned so that she holds the end of the blade in her right hand and the hilt in her left one. The alpha lays the sword at Shinoa's feet before kneeling before her.\n\n\"Lady Shinoa, I offer my services once again. I will shield your back and keep your council and give my life for yours if need be. I swear it by the old gods and the new.\" Aoi says as she looks up at the omega. She knows this is the only way to speak to the omega so that she will let Aoi protect her and she means what she says.  \n\nKimizuki looks at her quizzically, clearly someone that Shinoa knows.\n\nThe omega looks at her alpha brother for confirmation. Kimizuki gives her a nod that he has no problem, the two of them did just save Shinoa and him. They can clearly trust what she says to them and Shinoa seems to.\n\nShinoa looks back down at her and nods, \"And I vow...that you shall always have a place by my hearth and...\"\n\nThe omega trails off, not remembering the rest. \n\n\"Meat and mead at my table.\" Junji finishes helpfully. \n\n\"Meat and mead at my table.\" Shinoa finishes quickly before speaking up again, \"And I pledge to ask no service of you that might bring you dishonor. I swear it by the old gods and the new. Arise, Lady Aoi Sanguu.\"\n\nKimizuki's eyes widen at the last name, so that's Mitsu's sister. He should have been able to tell with one look, but he can see where she got her fighter spirit from. \n\nAoi rises to stand in front of Shinoa. Shinoa's parted lips slowly form into a small smile as Aoi's lips form a ghost of one. \n\n\n Nagoya - The Nightfort \n\n\nAko and Chihiro wheel Yoichi on top of the wagon as the omega looks up at the Nightfort castle before them. \n\nThis will be the first time in two years that he won't be beyond the wall, he'll be back home in Westeria. \n\n\"Well, it looks to have barely changed since we were last here.\" Yoichi says. \n\n\"We're the ones who changed, especially in numbers.\" Chihiro says. \n\nA tense and sad silence overtakes the group of three. \n\n\"Hopefully, it's still abandoned.\" Ako says, deciding they should not waste any more time out in the cold. \n\n\"It's been abandoned for a long time, and it will continue to be.\" Yoichi says. \n\nThe three look up at the fortress as black as the night sky. \n\nAko starts a fire while Yoichi sits nearby in contemplation. Chihiro has gone to gather more wood to keep as kindling for the fire.\n\nWhen Chihiro arrives back with a snow rabbit and wood, Ako has already gotten the fire started for them to warm themselves by. \n\n\"You found dinner?\" Yoichi asks. \n\n\"Yes, little Lord.\" Chihiro says.\n\nThe beta woman moves to skin and cook the rabbit while Yoichi watches her do so. Ako cleans her dagger near the light of the fire. \n\n\"When we go back to Westeria, we are not going to Snowstorm or Ikebukuro.\" Yoichi says. \n\nChihiro looks up at him in annoyance, \"But, your brother is at Ikebukuro. I can understand Snowstorm, but your family is at Ikebukuro. He can keep you safe and give you protection.\"\n\n\"We can't go there, not yet.\" Yoichi starts. \"I saw something in my vision.\"\n\n\"What did you see?\" Ako asks.\n\nYoichi looks at them and contemplates for a moment before telling them, \"I can't tell you both. It's something that must remain a secret, but I need to find proof that would completely answer all of the questions about this secret with complete certainty, I cannot tell you any more about it than what I've just.\"\n\n\"Where would we have to go?\" Chihiro sternly asks Yoichi. \n\nYoichi tenses before saying, \"For what I need to see, we would have to go to the Citadel in Wisetown.\"\n\nYoichi has to find out the truth about Tenri Hiiragi's child and relationship with that whore. The only place that would have record evidence is the Citadel. \n\nChihiro and Ako take that in as Yoichi decides to continue. \n\n\"You both would be safe there, it's the home of Maesters.\" Yoichi tells them, \"House Saotome has the ability to sway them to do their bidding because our House is renowned for creating Maesters.\"\n\n\"How far would it be?\" Ako asks. \n\n\"The center of Westeria.\" Yoichi says. \"More towards the Westerlands than the Riverlands.\"\n\nYoichi looks at the two before Ako pipes up after a moment of contemplation. \n\n\"I'll take you.\" Ako says. \n\nChihiro openly gapes at her. \n\n\"He's the Three-Eyed Raven now and that comes with responsibilities.\" Ako tells Chihiro before looking at Yoichi, \"If this is what he has to do to carry out his duties as the Three-Eyed Raven, then I'll help any way I can.\"\n\nChihiro looks uncertain when she nods, \"We've carried you this far, there's no chance of us ever being at peace until you're safe with your family.\"\n\nYoichi nods. \"If I find what I'm looking for at the Citadel and I'm pretty certain I will, then wherever my family is at will be where I'm be going next. I swear it on the old gods and the new.\" \n\nChihiro nods her consent. \n\n\"Though before we go to the Citadel, there is one place before Wisetown I have to go to.\" Yoichi says. \"You both will be completely safe there, even more so than the Citadel.\"\n\nBoth Ako and Chihiro give him curious looks that tell him to continue.   \n\n\"I'm going to Hawkhill Castle, the castle of House Saotome.\" Yoichi says. \"I want to meet my family by blood before I return to my family by choice.\"\n\nAko and Chihiro nod their assent. \n\n\"Thank you both for being here and protecting me all this time.\" Yoichi says gratefully to the two beta women. \n\nThey smile at him. \n\nYoichi nods to them as his thoughts drift towards returning to a place that he hasn't been to since he was born. He's going to his home.  \n\n\n Ikebukuro \n\n\nThe morning light of the sunrise begins to fill the dark night sky of Ikebukuro. The snow-covered roofs emphasize the black castle's darkness as fog fills the air around the courtyard.\n\nAsu howls in the night from his cage. \n\nIn the same spot as before in the corner of the courtyard, Yuuichirou Amane's corpse lies in the snow. A pool of blood covers the white snow while a cross with the words, \"TRAITOR\" written on it is planted in the dirt behind the former Lord Commander and Warden of the North. \n\nYuu's green eyes are open and his skin pale, it almost looks as though his lifeless body were looking up at the sky. \n\nInside of his pen nearby, Asu stands on his hind legs and howls louder while pushing against the door to his pen. \n\nSer Kouta sits in his chambers awake before the growing sound of howling catches his attention. \n\nSer Kouta exits his chambers and goes out to stand on the stairway in the courtyard. The beta man looks around before his eyes fall on someone's corpse lying in the snow all the way across the courtyard. \n\nSer Kouta quickly descends the steps as he runs towards the patch of bloody snow. His eyes pick up on the indigo-black hair that looks so familiar to him. \n\nSer Kouta stops when he realizes who is dead on the ground before slowly making his way towards him while gaping. \n\nOther brothers begin to approach after hearing the howls of Asu. \n\nSer Kouta kneels down in shock as he takes in the sight of Yuu's pale corpse. \n\n\"It’s the Lord Commander!\" One of the brothers shout in shock. \n\nSer Kouta looks up and sees the cross and immediately knows who did this. \n\nTadayo runs to the front of the pack of four brothers of the Watch. He stops short when he sees Yuu on the ground. \n\n\"Help me get him inside.\" Ser Kouta tells the men before moving back to let them pick up Yuu's body. \n\nTadayo watches in shock before going with the men as they carry Yuu towards the room. Ser Kouta looks back at the remaining pool of blood in the snow, just staring at it. \n\nWhen the sun has just fully risen, the shouts of guards sound off as Kusunoki emerges from the stairwell and enters the courtyard. \n\n\"OPEN THE GATES!\" \n\n\"OPEN THE GATES!\"\n\n\"Who the fuck is it?\" Kusunoki calls out from the bottom of the gates. \n\nThe old guard turns to see Kusunoki and more men coming to stand behind him in curiosity. \n\n\"It's Lord Ichinose.\" The older guard says in shock as he says it. \n\n\"What the fuck are you getting at?\" Kusunoki shouts, thinking he's being messed with. \"The fucker's dead.\" \n\n\"No, Ser Kusunoki.\" The old guard says sincerely. \"He's outside.\"\n\nKusunoki's eyes widen in shock before giving the order out of curiosity and certainty that Guren Ichinose won't be behind those gates, \"OPEN THE GATES!\"\n\nThe gates open and Guren Ichinose rides through the gates of Ikebukuro on a brown horse. He wears a dark black cloak and his indigo hair is slicked back. His violet eyes meet Kusunoki's shocked and gaping gaze. The alpha wears dark slacks, a black doublet, and black riding boots. His face looks mature and still very handsome, despite age taking its toll on him. Mito watches from the top of the stairs. \n\n\"Lord Ichinose.\" Kusunoki says, gaping like a fish. \"We thought you died in the capital.\"\n\nGuren stops his horse and dismounts to greet the beta. As a large group of men begin to join the two others. \n\n\"I didn't.\" Guren simply says, looking around for Yuu. \"I escaped and hid in Shinjuku for four years, then I came back when I heard that my son no longer holds Snowstorm and that all of you escaped to Ikebukuro. I'm here to get back House Ichinose's home.\" \n\nKusunoki can only stare at Guren as he says this, in complete shock that the man still lives after all this time where everyone in Westeria thought he was dead. Many of the men look at Guren in awe and reverence as he stands before them. \n\n\"Where is he?\" Guren asks. \"Where's Yuu?\"\n\nKusunoki tenses and stiffens because Guren could kill him with one swing of his sword. \n\nKusunoki places a false somber expression on his face as he looks down before meeting Guren's eyes, \"Your bastard, he died.\"\n\nGuren's eyes widen as a rage and melancholy both fill him. \"You're lying to me.\"\n\n\"I wish I were, My Lord.\" Kusunoki tells Guren sadly.\n\n\"How long ago?\" Guren asks. \n\n\"Not even three days have passed since he died.\" Kusunoki says. \"We only found out the day before today.\" \n\nGuren now gapes in horror and despair. \"How did it happen?\"\n\nKusunoki meets his gaze and sighs before telling him, \"Let's go to the mess hall so that I can tell all of the men how their Lord Commander died.\"\n\nKusunoki walks past Guren and leads him towards the familiar mess hall of Ikebukuro.   \n\nGuren's eyes fall on something as he moves to follow behind the men while looking around the courtyard. \n\nHe sees the word, \"TRAITOR\" written on a cross before his eyes move slightly downward to find a pool of blood in the snow. \n\nA pang of suspicion fills Guren as he looks back at Kusunoki before entering the mess hall.\n\nTadayo clears off the scrolls on Yuu's table in the Lord Commander chambers. The brothers lay Yuu's cold body onto the table. \n\nSeishi enters the room with Haruki and his baby in tow. The beta gasps and stutters at the sight of Yuu's corpse as tears bubble in his eyes. \n\nSeishi places his hand on Yuu stab wounds and getting his fingers stained red with his cool blood. He closes Yuu's eyes shit with his other hand. \n\nSer Kouta and Tadayo watch in sadness. \n\n\"Kusunoki did this.\" Seishi says darkly. \n\n\"How many brothers do you think we can trust?\" Ser Kouta asks Tadayo and Seishi. \n\n\"Trust? The men in this room.\" Tadayo says. \n\n\"Does the wolf know you?\" Ser Kouta asks. \n\nSeishi nods, wiping his eyes as Haruki comforts him while holding his child. \n\n\"We need all the help we can get.\" Ser Kouta tells Seishi. \n\nSeishi nods and moves towards the door to get Asu. He is about to open it before a knock comes from it. \n\nThe brothers inside draw their blades. The room tenses.  \n\n\"Who is it?\" Ser Kouta asks. \n\n\"Ser Kouta.\" Mito's muffled voice says through the thick, wooden door. \n\nTadayo and Seishi return their gaze to Ser Kouta for his consent. Ser Kouta nods as the men replace their swords. \n\nSeishi moves to open the door. \n\nMito stands outside in her red cloaked dress, her matching hair done in a bun. \n\nMito enters as she takes in the sight of the brothers in the room. Seishi exits to go get Asu when Mito passes. \n\nMito's eyes widen when they fall Yuu's corpse, she looks distressed at the sight. \n\nThe omega moves closer to the alpha man on the table, coming to stand next to Ser Kouta. Mito moves forward, staring at his wounds before her eyes land on his face.\n\n\"I saw him in the flames, fighting at Snowstorm.\" Mito says, at a loss for words. \n\n\"I can’t speak for the flames, but he’s gone.\" Ser Kouta tells Mito. \n\nMito brings her warm hand up and rubs his cold cheek with the back of her knuckles as she stares down at him. \n\n\"His father, he's here.\" Mito says. \n\nSer Kouta looks up as Mito meets his gaze. \n\n\"His father is dead.\" Ser Kouta says in confusion. \n\n\"No, he lives and he needs to see this.\" Mito says. \"The men took Guren Ichinose into the mess hall.\"\n\n\"YOU FUCKING DID WHAT?!?!\" Guren shouts in anger to Kusunoki as he stands before the beta sitting at the head table on the platform where the Lord Commander would sit. Anger, hatred, and rage etched on the alpha's face. \n\nUproars sound along the crowd as everyone shouts at one another in the mess hall after Kusunoki has told everyone that he has murdered Yuu. \n\n\"He was our Lord Commander!\" A younger brother shouts. \n\n\"He never should have been!\" Another older brother with Kusunoki shouts. \n\nGuren only meets the beta's eyes with a murderous glare, ready to pounce on him to end his existence. \n\nKusunoki slowly rises and pounds his fist harshly three times on the table and the room quiets down as they look at the blonde man that stands elevated above them. \n\n\"You all know why you’re here. Yuuichirou Amane is dead.\" Kusunoki says. \n\n\"Who all killed him?\" An elder brother asks. \n\n\"I did.\" Kusunoki says as Guren grinds his teeth to keep his composure.\n\n\"And Boward and Othellian and the other officers in this castle.\" Kusunoki says. \n\nGuren closes his gloved hands into fists to try to restrain himself. \n\n\"Murderers!\" \n\n\"Traitors!\"\n\n\"YOU FUCKING BASTARD!\" Guren growls, \"I ALWAYS KNEW WHAT A SHIT YOU ARE, BUT I NEVER TOOK YOU FOR A TREASONOUS CUNT!\"\n\nBanko moves to stand alongside Kusunoki at the high table as the shouting resumes.\n\nKusunoki pounds on the high table three times to get their attention.\n\n\"You’re right!\" Kusunoki shouts his eyes meeting Guren's head on. \"We’ve committed treason, all of us. Yuuichirou Amane was my Lord Commander. I had no love for him, you all know this. It was no secret. But I never once disobeyed an order. Loyalty is the foundation on which the Night's Watch is built, and the Watch means everything to me. I have given my life, we have all given our lives to the Night’s Watch. Yuuichirou Amane was going to destroy the Night’s Watch. He let the Wild Ones through our gates, as no Lord Commander has ever done before. He gave them the very land on which they raped and murdered. Lord Commander Amane did what he thought was right, I’ve no doubt about that. And what he thought was right would have been the end of us. He thrust a terrible choice upon us, and we made it.\"\n\n\"I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!\" Guren growls out again. \"I am the Warden of the North, I have the power here!\"\n\nMurmurs of equal balance between agreement and disagreement go off around the crowd in the mess hall. \n\n\"No, Lord Ichinose.\" Kusunoki sneers down at Guren, \"You are not, you were five years ago, but not anymore. The true Warden of the North is Shoya Hanayori. You have no power here and we could kill you to make sure you stay dead, finish the job for the Hiiragi's. You left Nagoya in your bastard's hands and he lost it. We were all forced to come here. You hold as much blame as him for why we're here, if not more.\"\n\nMurmurs of agreement with Kusunoki grow more around the room as Guren looks around to find the support of his men decreasing.  \n\nAround half it seems willingly side with Kusunoki while the other half unwillingly cannot argue with him. \n\n\"Now, Lord Ichinose.\" Kusunoki says. \"You are welcome to stay here at our mercy as another brother of the Night's Watch. If you act in any way that I do not like, we'll send you to meet your bastard.\"\n\nGuren growls and grits his teeth at having his hands tied before stomping out of the mess hall.\n\nSer Kouta makes his way out of the Lord Commander's chambers into the morning light of the courtyard.\n\nThe beta's eyes scan around the empty courtyard. He still sees the empty pool of blood with the cross in front of it and in front of the puddle, an alpha man looks down. He has a murderous look of hatred on his face that is coupled with mournful eyes that look like they're about to water. \n\nHe looks the spitting image of Yuuichirou, especially with that angry look etched on his alpha face. He has slicked back indigo-black hair with violet eyes. \n\nSer Kouta breathes out a gasp before making his way towards Guren Ichinose. \n\nGuren is looking down at the puddle of his son's blood with the word, \"TRAITOR,\" written on the cross behind it. \n\n\"Idiot Yuu, what did you get yourself into?\" Guren asks in despair to himself. \n\n\"Lord Ichinose.\" An unfamiliar voice says from behind him. \n\nGuren growls as he turns, ready to kill the brother for interrupting his moment of grieving. \n\nHe takes in the beta's kind dark brown eyes and medium length black hair. \n\n\"What do you fucking want?\" Guren asks roughly. \n\n\"I have the Lord Commander's body in his chambers.\" Ser Kouta tells Guren. \n\nGuren's eyes widen. \n\n\"Would you like to see him?\" Ser Kouta asks Guren. \n\nGuren studies the young beta wondering if this is a possible ploy to get him to follow him to his death. But, it's not like Guren has much to lose any more anyway. He could easily cut down ten of these brothers with barely a scratch, if he needed to. \n\nGuren nods his assent as Ser Kouta begins to lead him.\n\nSer Kouta gestures a hand into the Lord Commander's chambers, indicating Guren should enter first when the door opened for them. \n\nGuren glances at him warily before entering through the open door as he sees a brother put his sword away. \n\nGuren sees a beta standing by Yuu, an omega with a child seated on the crate, and an alpha staring him down. Five other Watch brothers stand behind the alpha. \n\nGuren's eyes fall on the familiar wolf with red eyes nudging Yuu's large hand, hoping the alpha wakes up. When he doesn't move, she whimpers sadly.  \n\nHe feels a bit of nostalgia and relief at seeing Asu so close and watching over Yuu because he couldn't. Direwolves are like that with their masters. \n\nGuren makes his way towards his son. His footsteps feel heavy as he takes each step. Guren finally looks down at the cold and dead corpse of his son. Yuuichirou has definitely grown taller since he last saw him. The alpha now taller than him. Yuu has slight stubble on his face and the childish features of his face have almost gone away to fill out more handsomely. He has also filled out in his body with more muscles and broad shoulders. The one thing Guren is grateful for is that he has the same bird's nest of black hair on top of his head that he always did. His alpha boy had become an alpha man while he was gone. He missed it all. Guren feels his eyes water at the thought of never seeing Yuu open his emerald eyes and gaze at him. Dying before never seeing his father again. A large pang of regret hits Guren as he allows the tears to pour over.  \n\n\"Who the fuck is that?\" Tadayo asks Ser Kouta. \n\n\"That is Lord Guren Ichinose.\" Ser Kouta says from behind Guren. \n\n\"Yuu's father?\" Seishi asks curiously, \"I thought he was-\"\n\n\"Dead.\" Guren finishes, glancing back at them. \"I never was, though everyone had to think I was for a long time. I only hoped I could make it back before any of my children died.\"\n\nGuren looks back at his son as the others look at him in shock, awe, and unease. \n\n\"Kusunoki has made it official now. Ikebukuro is his.\" Guren says as Asu comes to nuzzle his gloved palm. Guren rubs the wolf's head.  \n\nSer Kouta looks back at him before meeting Tadayo's gaze. \n\n\"He’ll have seen we didn’t come.\" Ser Kouta says. \n\n\"I don’t care who’s sitting at the high table. The Lord Commander was our friend, and those fuckers butchered him. Now we return the favor.\" Tadayo says with a slight growl. \n\n\"We don’t have the numbers.\" Seishi says simply. \n\n\"Kusunoki intimidated even those who hate him onto his side.\" Guren says before muttering to himself. \"I never should have left Snowstorm.\"\n\n\"We have a direwolf.\" Tadayo points out. \n\n\"It’s not enough. I didn’t know Lord Commander Amane for long, but I have to believe he wouldn’t have wanted his friends to die for nothing.\" Ser Kouta tells them all. \n\n\"If you were planning to see tomorrow, you picked the wrong room. We all die today. I say we do our best to take Kusunoki with us when we go.\" Tadayo retorts. \n\n\"We need to fight, but we don’t need to die. Not if we have help.\" Seishi says. \n\n\"We don't exactly have much help here.\" Guren points out. \"Who else is left?\"\n\nSer Kouta's eyes widen in realization when the answer hits him. \"We’re not the only ones who owe our lives to Yuuichirou Amane.\"\n\nSeishi's eyes light up as he gets it before it hits Tadayo, as well.\n\n\"Who is it?\" Guren asks in confusion. \n\n\"The Wild Ones.\" Seishi says. \"They owe the Lord Commander more than anyone.\"\n\n\"I remember Kusunoki mentioning something about that in the mess hall. But, can we trust them?\" Guren asks in hesitance. \"They are Wild Ones.\"\n\n\"Lord Ichinose the situation with the Wild Ones has changed very much since you were last here.\" Seishi says. \"The Lord Commander saved them all from certain death.\"\n\n\"Okay.\" Guren nods his assent. \"Not like we have much other option left.\"\n\n\"Seishi, come with me.\" Tadayo says as he heads towards the door. \"We'll bring the army.\"\n\nSeishi kisses Haruki on the forehead before following after Tadayo. \n\n\"We'll be back as soon as we can.\" Seishi says. \n\nThe two men leave the room with Ser Kouta, Haruki, Little Seishi, Asu, and Guren left behind among the five Watch brothers. \n\n\"Bolt the door. Don’t let anyone in.\" Guren tells Ser Kouta. \n\nSer Kouta nods and moves to action. Guren tenses in the room before turning to Haruki.\n\n\"We're going to be in here for a long time.\" Guren says, taking a seat next to Yuu's body as Asu sits beside him. Guren pets the wolf with a sad smirk.  \n\nHaruki nods tensely as he holds Little Seishi tighter.\n\nIt is late afternoon by the time Kusunoki finally engages them. \n\nMen stand outside around the courtyard with swords drawn and crossbows pointed at the locked Lord Commander chambers. Seishi and Tadayo have already managed to sneak out with two other men behind them. \n\nKusunoki cloaked in a black feather cloak ascends the stairs with three senior officers behind him. \n\nThe beta enters the hallway before standing in front of the door and knocking tree times on it. \n\nSer Kouta and Guren look at each other. The alpha's hands moving towards his sword while the other five brothers have already risen to draw their ones. Ser Kouta and Lord Guren stand near the door while Asu growls at it. \n\n\"Lord Ichinose. Ser Kouta. We have no cause to fight. We are all disgraced men with no honor left.\" Kusunoki says through the thick door. \n\n\"Hear that, men? Nothing to fear.\" Guren tells the men behind him. \n\n\"I will grant amnesty to all brothers who thrown down their arms before nightfall. As for you two, Ser Kouta and Lord Ichinose, I will allow you to travel south, a free men with a fresh horse.\" Kusunoki says. \n\n\"And some mutton. I’d like some mutton.\" Ser Kouta says.\n\n\"What?\" Kusunoki asks in confusion.\n\n\"I’m not much of a hunter. I’ll need some food if I’m gonna make it south without starving.\" Ser Kouta says.\n\nGuren picks up on what the beta is doing. \n\n\"We’ll give you food. You can even bring the Red Woman and that omega in there with you if you like. Or you can leave them here with us, whichever you choose. But surrender by nightfall or this ends with blood.\" Kusunoki tells him. \n\n\"Thank you, Ser Kusunoki. We’ll discuss amongst ourselves and come back to you with an answer.\" Ser Kouta says. \n\nKusunoki sneers silently before turning on his heel and stomping away. Guren and Ser Kouta hear the sound of loud footsteps going further away from the room. When they're gone completely Guren and Ser Kouta turn to face the other men. \n\n\"Boys, I’ve been running from men like that all my life. In my learned opinion, we open that door-\" Ser Kouta says. \n\n\"And they’ll slaughter us all.\" Guren finishes in agreement. \n\n\"They want to come in, they’re gonna come in.\" Haruki says. \n\n\"Aye, but we don’t need to make it easy for them.\" Guren says. \n\n\"Seishi and Tadayo are our only chance.\" One of the brother's with them says. \n\n\"It’s a sad fucking statement if Tadayo is our only chance.\" Another brother jests. \n\n\"There’s always the Red Woman.\" Ser Kouta brings up.\n\n\"What’s one redhead gonna do against forty armed men?\" Guren asks. \n\n\"You haven’t seen her do what I’ve seen her do.\" Ser Kouta tells Guren definitively.\n\nMito sits in her chambers near the comforting warmth of the fireplace. Her red hair is in a single thick braid going down her back and she is only in her red dress with her red necklace. \n\nThe omega runs her left hand over the smooth skin of her right arm. Mito looks up and her eyes land on a mirror. \n\nMito comes to stand in front of the mirror, the reflection of her youthful face staring back at her with something painful in her purple eyes. \n\nMito braces herself as she slowly unties the ribbon around her dress before unhooking the clasp that keeps it closed. \n\nThe omega opens the gown to reveal her naked form. Her naked breasts and vulva are revealed as the omega lets the gown fall to the ground. \n\nMito looks at herself, the necklace still around her neck. She takes in the sight of her pale and perky breasts. Their rounded pink nipples. She looks downward at her bright red pubic hair. There is not a wrinkle on this omega's body. She looks at herself with pity and despair in her eyes, almost ruefully studying her youth. \n\nThe closes her eyes before bringing her hands up towards her red jewel in the center of the cage necklace glimmers before she unhooks it around her neck. She sets it gently down onto the table beside her. \n\nWhen the omega opens her eyes, her true form is revealed in the dim candle light. The reflection that looks back at Mito now is that of an extremely old lady. Her head is almost bald with a thin layer of grey, stringy hair that covers her scalp, yet goes down past her shoulders. Her vulva is now covered with a small amount of grey pubic hair. The omega's breasts are sagging on her stomach. Her violet eyes cold and dead. Wrinkles cover every part of her body. Pale skin and stomach fat accumulate on her abdomen. She can barely stand straight, almost like a hunchback. Her face old and aged almost deathly. Her backbone visible through her skin. \n\nMito stares coldly at her true self in the mirror before she turns back and heads towards her bed. The omega pulls the thick brown furs up before crawling under the covers and pulling them up so that it covers her entirely in darkness.  "}
+{"text": "\nThe woodshed finds itself mysteriously filled sometime in the week following Mu Qingfang, Liu Qingge, Shen Qingqiu, and Luo Binghe’s return to Cang Qiong, and thereafter stays filled no matter how much wood Mu Qingfang burns to boil water. Not long after, the larder is supplemented by some beasts the older Bai Zhan disciples had managed to hunt with their Shifu in a last-minute night hunt on Mount Yu Jun. The only reason Mu Qingfang even elected to keep their quarry was because some of the organs of the \n\nyao\n\n they’d hunted had strong medicinal capabilities that Mu Qingfang couldn’t bear to waste. Perhaps a week after \n\nthat, \n\nLiu Qingge comes bearing an armload of tools and a small army of Bai Zhan peak students to fix various things around the peak.\n\n\n\nWhile Mu Qingfang certainly is grateful for the help, he tugs Liu Qingge aside after he’s gotten down from the younger disciples’ dormitory roof and demands answers.\n\n\n\nLiu Qingge’s brows tug down in a frown when he asks, “Are you dissatisfied, Mu Qingfang?”\n\n\n\n\nAh. So he’s back to names, then\n\n is the first thing that comes to Mu Qingfang’s mind, and he immediately feels a bit guilty about it. “No, I’m not dissatisfied in the least but - I don’t understand. Why are you doing this?” he asks, glancing over at a few Bai Zhan disciples who are walking and chatting alongside some of his Qian Cao disciples. It’s comfortable and friendly in a way that doesn’t come so easily to the rowdy Bai Zhan kids - though perhaps familiarity and cooperation had eased some of their relations. \n\n\n\nLiu Qingge freezes up at that, an oddly guilty look on his face. So perhaps he wasn’t supposed to hear what he’d said that night, all those weeks ago. “I - W-We -” he coughs and clears his throat, pulling his shoulders back and trying to regain composure. “Bai Zhan peak has long inconvenienced Qian Cao. After consulting a few of the other peak lords -” \n\nthat must mean Shen Qingqiu\n\n, Mu Qingfang thinks wryly - “I decided as Peak Lord that it is time we began to repay our dues.”\n\n\n\nMu Qingfang can’t help it - he snorts. Wielding his finger like a weapon, he pokes it straight into the center of Liu Qingge’s chest and says, “If you want to repay your dues, you can start by following the advice I give you \n\nevery time you visit\n\n.”\n\n\n\nLiu Qingge stares down at the offending finger and blinks up at Mu Qingfang. \n\nOf course\n\n, Mu Qingfang thinks, \n\nof course he’s forgotten the \n\none \n\nthing I’ve ever asked for\n\n. “\n\nTrain your students\n\n. Stay on your peak for more than a few days at a time! Give them your attention! Teach them some discipline!” he says, with the same firm authority he uses when he’s ordering his disciples around in the clinic.\n\n\n\nLiu Qingge practically \n\nflinches back\n\n with every word coming out of Mu Qingfang’s mouth, and he almost wants to laugh. “You’ve been a good help these past few weeks, but these are all things we can handle on our own, with time.” Mu Qingfang says. “If you want to help, stay and be a proper peak lord.”\n\n\n\nMu Qingfang probably hasn’t ever seen Liu Qingge look so young and unsure. It'd be a little funny, if it weren't kind of sad for the Bai Zhan disciples. With a long sigh, Mu Qingfang pats his shoulder and says, “It’s not as hard as you think it is. Even Shen Qingqiu managed to get better at it, somehow.”\n\n\n\nLiu Qingge makes a complicated face and bows his head. “...I understand,” he says, after a long moment. Seeing the way his proud shoulders slump just the tiniest bit, Mu Qingfang pats Liu Qingge’s shoulder again. With as reassuring a smile as he can muster, he says, “Come on. Gather up your disciples. It’s nearly dinner; we’ll eat in the mess hall before you go.”\n\n\n\nLiu Qingge is downright docile as he follows after, though as more and more of their disciples gather, his demeanor returns to its usual prideful posturing. As the number of Bai Zhan disciples increases, as does the number of behaviors - it’s not an especially long walk down to the mess hall, but Mu Qingfang already notices Liu Qingge’s students pushing and shoving one another, playing around and scrambling to show off in front of their impassive Shifu.\n\n\n\nOn the other hand, the Qian Cao disciples who are steering clear of the mass of Bai Zhan disciples walk at a quick, purposeful clip. Most of them go alone, or in groups of two’s and three’s, either tired from a long day of treating patients, braindead from Yi Qingzhi’s extensive lessons, or coming off the leisure of their day off, dreading the bone-aching exhaustion waiting for them tomorrow. Liu Qingge keeps his gaze forward, but Mu Qingfang knows he’s curiously observing the difference in their disciples’ demeanors. \n\n\n\nThere’s a line coming out of the mess doors - not unusual, given that it’s the dinner rush and there’s an unexpected excess of students - and Mu Qingfang is content to wait. While his students quietly grumble to themselves and wait more or less patiently in line, Liu Qingge’s students become more and more agitated with each passing minute. Once or twice, he hears a few complaints, which are silenced by a sharp glare from Liu Qingge, but they keep cropping up.\n\n\n\nOnce they’ve gotten maybe a few feet from the entrance, Mu Qingfang hears a muffled yelp and then all of a sudden, yelling and jeering breaks out. Liu Qingge is the first to move, stepping towards the cluster of students making space for the fight, but it’s Mu Qingfang, sharp voice echoing like a cracking whip, that gets the crowd to pause. “Tan Mingyuan, you let go of that girl right this second and come here,” he all but snarls, and in the gaps between the onlooking students, he sees Tan Mingyuan drop his hands immediately. Only vaguely is he aware of the intimidated \n\noooh\n\n's of the nearby students.\n\n\n\nThe girl he’s fighting with still keeps her hand fisted in his shirt, refusing to let go until she sees Liu Qingge’s sharp glare. Once she lets go, Tan Mingyuan immediately trudges over to Mu Qingfang, his lips twisted together in unvoiced protest. Oh dear. His cheek is definitely going to bruise. But Mu Qingfang keeps his face level and stares down at Tan Mingyuan with disapproval. “Tan Mingyuan, what is the first and fundamental rule of Qian Cao Peak?” he asks, voice flat and unimpressed.\n\n\n\n“Do no harm,” Tan Mingyuan says quietly, cowed. His face is red and his eyes are glossy with frustrated tears, and he doesn’t look Mu Qingfang in the face.\n\n\n\n“And what did you do?” Mu Qingfang inquired, his voice just the slightest bit exaggerated. As expected, it makes Tan Mingyuan fidget uncomfortably.\n\n\n\nTan Mingyuan squirms under his glare and mutters something under his breath.\n\n\n\n“I’m sorry?” Mu Qingfang presses, crossing his arms over his chest. It makes him look bigger and more intimidating, and while normally Mu Qingfang would hate to use this tactic, Tan Mingyuan crumples like wet paper before him.\n\n\n\n“She insulted you in front of everybody!” Tan Mingyuan burst out, with more vehemence than Mu Qingfang had ever seen from the boy. “She said all these - these terrible, untrue things things about you and the peak and how we’re cowards for not drawing our swords and how we can’t even -”\n\n\n\n“Did those words hurt me? Did they physically harm the peak?” Mu Qingfang asks, his voice just this side of sharp.\n\n\n\nTan Mingyuan mumbles a “No,” under his breath.\n\n\n\n“Then it did not warrant the violence you inflicted,” Mu Qingfang says firmly. “We do not harm those who set foot on our peak. I don’t care if she started it first - you have my permission to protect yourself, but not to undo the very cornerstone of our practice! If you want to use your fists, you can try your luck at Bai Zhan. Is that what you want?”\n\n\n\nTan Mingyuan’s voice breaks a little when he says, “No.” Mu Qingfang’s heart goes out to him, but he doesn't let it show on his face. He’ll reason with the boy later.\n\n\n\n“Go and fetch your dinner. You’ll be spending your evenings in the library reviewing our rules by copying the first peak lord’s manifesto. Don’t forget to make yourself a cold compress on your way over,” Mu Qingfang says, nudging Tan Mingyuan into the mess hall ahead of the other students. While the onlooking Bai Zhan students open their mouths to protest, the Qian Cao students immediately part for him, watching him with big eyes.\n\n\n\nBy the time Mu Qingfang is done dealing with his student he catches sight of Liu Qingge literally \n\nsitting\n\n on his. Underneath him, she’s struggling and spitting curses, but ultimately, she can’t shake him off. One of her arms lies uselessly against her side, and a small bloom of pride wells up in Mu Qingfang’s chest, even despite the punishment he dealt Tan Mingyuan. The boy was getting better at locating pressure points.\n\n\n\n“Liu-Shixiong,” Mu Qingfang says a little breathlessly. It’s difficult to hold in his laughter, and it doesn’t help that Liu Qingge grins at him with his eyes.\n\n\n\n“As soon as she calms down, she’ll be removed from your peak,” Liu Qingge assures him. “She has brought shame to Bai Zhan peak. She won’t do it again,” The serious tone of his voice is undermined by the way the girl keeps trying to buck him off, but somehow, he manages to keep his face straight.\n\n\n\n“No, I sincerely hope she doesn’t,” Mu Qingfang agrees. “Why don’t you send your students on ahead? They’re probably quite hungry. I’ll stay out here with you until she calms down.\"\n\n\n\n“Mn,” Liu Qingge says, and he glares up at the gawking students. “You heard him. Line up and eat. Once you’ve finished, head back to the peak on your own and start your night training.”\n\n\n\nAll of Liu Qingge’s disciples make some noise of acknowledgement and scramble to follow suit, save for the one currently losing steam underneath him. Some terrible, vindictive part of Mu Qingfang enjoys watching the way her energy wanes, to the point where her constant struggling eventually slows, interspersed with sudden bursts of violent activity, and then finally fizzles out altogether. Begrudgingly, she says in a quiet, miserable voice, “Shizun, \n\nplease \n\nlet me go.”\n\n\n\nLiu Qingge looks down at her, an eyebrow cocked, and says, “You couldn’t even last thirty seconds, even when I went easy on you. You’ve been slacking.”\n\n\n\n“Yes, Shizun,” she says, and there are angry tears glittering in her eyes.\n\n\n\n“I don’t want to see you again until you can lift a log the size of pillars in the third hall. When you’ve done that, then you can come back and apologize to your Shibo. Bring gifts,” he says, and he gets to his feet. Immediately, the girl gets up and brushes herself off, glaring up at Mu Qingfang. She looks like she’s got more to say, but as agreed, she holds her tongue and runs in the direction of the rainbow bridge.\n\n\n\nMu Qingfang feels kind of bad for her, but even she looked like she recognized where the blame lay. Liu Qingge glances at Mu Qingfang almost - almost as if to figure out his opinion of all this. Mu Qingfang gives him a pointed look and sighs. “You shouldn’t have had to physically restrain her,” he says, to which Liu Qingge frowns and crosses his arms.\n\n\n\n“That’s how it’s always been done at Bai Zhan,” he says, his tone almost petulant. “We test our might against one another. Only the strongest deserve to stay.”\n\n\n\n“Yes, and because of your over-competitive posturing, \n\nthis \n\nhappened,” Mu Qingfang points out. “Power is one thing, and discipline is another. Just because \n\nyou \n\nhave it doesn’t mean \n\nthey \n\ndo. Most of your students are young - no older than teenagers. They just want to be worthy of your attention. That means trying to stand out in front of a bunch of other blockheads who’ve got the same idea. And the only thing that’s impressive to someone like that is power. They don’t know how to be strong without proving someone else is weak.”\n\n\n\nLiu Qingge opens his mouth, his brain clearly racing to come up with a counter-argument. But with one sharp look from Mu Qingfang, it dies in his throat. Together, they walk into the mess hall, and Mu Qingfang points out the frighteningly clear division between his students and Liu Qingge’s. While there were a smattering of students from both peaks that mingled together, a majority of Mu Qingfang’s students ate and chatted with their friends in small groups, or otherwise studied quietly on their own. They kept their spaces clean and kept their heads down. Liu Qingge’s students, on the other hand, either gobbled down their food and rushed out to train without heeding their spaces, or lingered in large circles, coming up with inane competitions and goading each other into eating increasingly disgusting-looking concoctions. At the moment, one girl, whom Mu Qingfang recognized as a semi-frequent visitor to Qian Cao, was staring down a piece of duck covered in a very… colorful coat of. Other things that probably were not duck and should not be eaten with duck.\n\n\n\n“It’s not a bad thing for them to compete. It’s a natural part of being a kid. But your job as a peak lord goes beyond making them strong. Their discipline needs to go beyond fighting and survival and your approval - Speaking of survival, you might want to put a stop to that before she has to stay here overnight,” he says, nudging Liu Qingge toward the girl.\n\n\n\nIt didn’t take long for Liu Qingge to break up the circle, and soon, the remaining Bai Zhan kids were shoveling food down their gullets and rushing out to get their night training done before they lost too much sleep. In the interim, Mu Qingfang had gone to fetch their dinners and find a seat. By the time Liu Qingge returned to Mu Qingfang’s side, he had a thoughtful look on his face, tugging his brow down imperceptibly.\n\n\n\n“Teach me,” Liu Qingge says, taking the bowl of rice Mu Qingfang offered him and easily accepting the meat and vegetables Mu Qingfang offered from a small sharing plate.\n\n\n\nMu Qingfang paused in his chewing and glanced up at Liu Qingge. “Teach you what?”\n\n\n\n“How to make them better,” Liu Qingge said, his eyes looking past Mu Qingfang to observe his students.\n\n\n\nMu Qingfang snorted around his mouthful of food. “That’s not really my expertise. You’ve got your work cut out for you - my peak has always been this way. There’s a certain kind of person that’s attracted to Qian Cao, like how certain kinds of people are attracted to Bai Zhan. Our approaches are different by default,” he reasons, after chewing and swallowing. “Stay on your peak and build relationships with your students. Get to know them. I can help you figure out any specific behaviors, but you need to know your kids first.”\n\n\n\nLiu Qingge did not seem especially pleased by Mu Qingfang's answer, but he didn't push the matter further. Mu Qingfang steered the conversation into more manageable waters, and before long, Liu Qingge was on his way with that determined look on his face. For once, Mu Qingfang actually had hope that maybe, just \n\nmaybe\n\n, he could count on Liu Qingge to follow through.\n\n\n \n\n\n--\n\n\n \n\n\nMu Qingfang doesn’t see Liu Qingge for three weeks, until the man shows up at his doorstep, looking haggard but otherwise unharmed. Mu Qingfang excuses himself from showing a set of younger students the proper way to suture a wound shut, and rushes toward him.\n\n\n\n“What’s the emergency, Liu-Shixiong?” he asks. Liu Qingge rarely shows up to Qian Cao without good reason, and it’s even rarer still that he doesn’t have some sort of gaping wound in his stomach.\n\n\n\n“No emergency,” Liu Qingge rasps, blinking his eyes slow as if he were hoping to get any modicum of additional rest from it. “Carry on.”\n\n\n\nMu Qingfang stares at him strangely, before hesitantly nodding and returning to his class. Liu Qingge stays at the back of the room, leaning against the doorframe, shoulders slumped with exhaustion. His eyes stay on Mu Qingfang as he delivers what is probably the most distracted lesson of his entire teaching career, though if the students pick up on it, they don’t mention anything. Good kids.\n\n\n\nHe ends up pricking himself with the needle two or three times when his attention strays back to Liu Qingge, and by the time he ties his last knot he’s about ready to vibrate out of his skin. God he hasn’t felt this unnecessarily rattled since he was 22 and being observed as he sewed up his first heart valve.\n\n\n\nNormally, he would have lingered, would have allowed his students time to ask questions and clarify, but after checking to make sure the stitches weren’t \n\ntoo\n\n sloppy, he couldn’t stop his immediate impulse to join Liu Qingge at the door. “I’ve got some time before my next lesson, Liu-Shixiong. How can I help you?” he asked, leaning into Liu Qingge’s space so as not to let his voice carry too loud.\n\n\n\nLiu Qingge, who had looked calm and almost meditative as he watched Mu Qingfang’s lesson, straightens up immediately, his eyes widening as he imperceptibly backs away. He catches himself quickly, however, and gestures with his head towards the students currently packing away their supplies. “They’re so… calm,” he says.\n\n\n\n“Well, they’re practicing on peaches. Wait until they’ve got an actual person in front of them and you won’t see them quite so calm,” Mu Qingfang chuckles, as he leads the way out of the clinic classroom.\n\n\n\n“Mn,” Liu Qingge hums, following absently after Mu Qingfang. His quiet is a bit unnerving; he normally would’ve said something by now.\n\n\n\n“Liu-Shixiong, are you alright…?” Mu Qingfang asks, tilting his head towards him. \n\n\n\nLiu Qingge blinks at him slowly, before glancing quickly away. “I’m fine,” he says tersely. Mu Qingfang quirks an eyebrow as he waits for him to elaborate. Apparently, even Liu Qingge can be unnerved with enough politely quiet staring, and eventually, he says, “Teaching is harder than I expected it to be.”\n\n\n\n“I’m glad you noticed,” Mu Qingfang says drily. It doesn’t last long, though, as the corners of his mouth turn up and the laugh he’d been holding back bursts out. Liu Qingge tries to frown, but Mu Qingfang sees the corners of his lips turning up, as well.\n\n\n\n“Young people… are exhausting,” he says, after a turn. “Even when they like you.”\n\n\n\n“\n\nEspecially\n\n when they like you,” Mu Qingfang readily agrees. “They only want your attention and they’re not old enough to remember that thirty other people want your attention, too.”\n\n\n\nThe ferocity with which Liu Qingfang nods in agreement makes Mu Qingfang laugh and laugh. \"Sick of them already?\" he asks with a grin.\n\n\n\nLiu Qingge's voice fills with dread as he says, quite emphatically, \"\n\nYes\n\n.\"\n\n\n\nMu Qingfang pats his shoulder in sympathy and tugs him closer. Only vaguely is he aware of the way Liu Qingge whips his head up to look at him, his face redder in the sunlight than it looked back in the clinic. “Come on. We can commiserate over tea at my cottage - Shen Qingqiu sent me some a couple weeks back as thanks for the Grasping Vine.”\n\n\n\nLiu Qingge nods agreeably and lets Mu Qingfang lead him to the cottage. He doesn’t mention the hand that lingers on his bicep, and Mu Qingfang himself doesn’t realize the overly-casual touch until it’s too late to pull away.\n\n\n \n\n\n--\n\n\n \n\n\nThey end up talking - a \n\nlot\n\n, if you consider how taciturn Liu Qingge generally is - and it’s honestly rather surprising how stressed out he is. Liu Qingge isn’t exactly the nurturing shifu \n\ntype\n\n, and trying to act like one has him all out of sorts. As Bai Zhan’s war god, he’d always just… gone on ahead, devastated the enemy forces, and left the stragglers for others to deal with. He’s never had to worry about \n\nteamwork\n\n, let alone getting \n\nothers \n\nto work as a team. He was a one-man wrecking crew, existing only to follow one man’s orders, or give out orders as if his words were absolute. Half the time he didn’t even need to worry about strategy - having him there and fighting \n\nwas \n\nthe strategy.\n\n\n\nWithout the impetus of violence to spur the disciples into obedience, Liu Qingge's authority was not followed quite so absolutely anymore, and that fact alone had Liu Qingge puzzled.\n\n\n\nAnd without a doubt, his kids were in chaos, trying to figure out how to handle the new leaf their Shifu was trying to turn over. Liu Qingge was new and learning, but he was getting a \n\nfew \n\nthings right - for one, his discipline was consistent and fair, and for another, his students still idolized him. But hardly being used to controlling a group of 30, he had no mind for the organization and procedures he had to put into place, and with all of his students previously being self-studies, he had no understanding of how to assess and group students of similar skills. Besides, all of his skills were so long ingrained, he had no fucking clue how to explain them besides showing the motions over and over again.\n\n\n\nMu Qingfang could sympathize, to an extent. After all, he’d had to learn this over the course of the 15-ish years they’d been peak lords, too. Unlike Liu Qingge, however, he had a fresh start and centuries of precedence to work with. Liu Qingge was working against the status quo, handling a bunch of rowdy, cock-sure kids who’d until just recently been allowed to grow wild and free. What he was attempting was not unlike rebuilding civilization after some devastating cataclysm. Given Liu Qingge’s introverted tendencies and his love for travel, it was no wonder he was exhausted.\n\n\n\nStaring at the dregs of tea at the bottom of his cup, Mu Qingfang asked, “What if you took some time to observe the other peak lords? See if you can glean some strategies from them? Take a few days a week to teach, and give them a few days for self study. The change is probably stressing them out, too.”\n\n\n\nLiu Qingge blinks at him, and then nods slowly, considering it with the same seriousness he dedicates to just about anything he sets his mind to. “Alright,” he agrees. “I will visit your peak first, then.”\n\n\n \n\n\n--\n\n\n \n\n\nInviting Liu Qingge to come observe was a mistake, Mu Qingfang quickly realizes. On any given day, Mu Qingfang is being observed - by Yi Qingzhi, by other older students, by the children he’s teaching, and even on occasion, by Yue Qingyuan or a guest to the peak. However, none of them stare at him with the intensity that Liu Qingge stares at him. His constant attention makes his skin prickle unbearably, to the point where he almost wants to tell Liu Qingge to go off and make himself useful elsewhere. But that’d defeat the entire purpose of the exercise. \n\n\n\nBy the second hour of Liu Qingge’s neverending stare, Mu Qingfang caves and pulls him to the front of the classroom and has him participate. Well, if using him as a model for qi circulation counts as participation. He stands extremely still as Mu Qingfang traces the path of qi from his stomach out to his extremities and back again, mimicking the flow of qi during resting state, active use, and deviation.\n\n\n\nLiu Qingge twitches, just once, when Mu Qingfang explains qi deviation, his eyes going bright and a little bit wild, his breath speeding just a half-pace faster. As if to drive the stake in further, a student’s hand shoots up, and before Mu Qingfang can even call out to her, she blurts out, “What does qi deviation feel like?”\n\n\n\nLiu Qingge’s adam’s apple bobs as he swallows hard. His stare goes stony and a little bit far away, and Mu Qingfang knows he’s going nowhere good fast. Gently, he squeezes his wrist, just enough to remind him that he’s here. He wants to do more, but it would be too embarrassing, too intimate, to hold the man close in front of a group of disciples. “It feels like death,” Liu Qingge says quietly, gravely.\n\n\n\nThe entire room falls silent, their young eyes huge. It feels like the air in the room goes a few degrees chillier, like the spirit of death had actually come to visit. “It’s not like physical death. But mental death. Emotional death,” Liu Qingge clarifies. “For some people, it’s a sudden spark, but for me, it dragged on for months. For days at a time, I felt nothing at all. And then I’d feel these flashes of indescribable rage; I’d have nothing but blankness and violence in my mind.” God, he’s trembling. The thin skin of his wrist is cold and clammy, and his face has gone pale, emphasizing the high flush on his cheeks and the manic shine in his eyes as he continues. “I was powerless to control it. It almost killed me. It almost killed Shen Qingqiu. I would rather be torn limb from limb than let the deviation take me again.”\n\n\n\nMu Qingfang lets Liu Qingge’s wrist drop to his side and starts rubbing circles into his back. With a shaky smile, he says quietly, “Thank you, Liu-Shixiong. Are you alright?”\n\n\n\n“Mn,” Liu Qingge says, nodding his head stiffly. He stays quiet from then on, eyes glassy and a little far away, but he leans into Mu Qingfang’s touch. Gently, Mu Qingfang eases Liu Qingge down until he’s sitting down and leaning against Mu Qingfang’s shoulder.\n\n\n\nClearing his throat, Mu Qingfang brings the class’s attention away from Liu Qingge and towards him. “Now, you’re too early in your core formation to do this, but if you do witness someone in the middle of a qi deviation flare, there are ways to minimize the damage…”\n\n\n \n\n\n--\n\n\n \n\n\nLiu Qingge is a little bit quieter for the rest of the day, but he comes back to himself in bits and pieces, so that by the time they leave the classroom, he’s almost to his usual brand of stoicism. Mu Qingfang opens his mouth to apologize to him, but Liu Qingge beats him to it. “I’m sorry,” he says, his voice gravelly.\n\n\n\nMu Qingfang puts his hands on Liu Qingge’s shoulders and turns him bodily to face him. “No. Don’t,” he says quietly, firmly. “You don’t need to apologize for the things illness did to you. In fact, I should apologize to you for bringing it up at all. Are you okay?”\n\n\n\n“Mn,” Liu Qingge says, blinking his eyes slow and breathing in one deep breath. \n\n\n\n“What can I do to make things better?” Mu Qingfang asks quietly, letting his hands drift down to hold him loosely at the biceps.\n\n\n\nLiu Qingge looks at him for a long time before letting his gaze drop. “Just stay close to me,” he says quietly. “Don’t let me go.”\n\n\n\n\nOh\n\n.\n\n\n\nIt is 100% absolutely the wrong time to think about \n\nthat incident\n\n, but he can’t help it. His heart pounds hard against his ribcage as his skin crawls with the desire to get closer and the need to stay away. Stiffly, he lets go of Liu Qingge’s arms, but stays close as promised, so that every other step has them brushing shoulders. After the third or fourth bump of their arms, Liu Qingge lets his palm rest against Mu Qingfang’s, their fingers tangling of their own accord. Mu Qingfang can hardly hear a thing with the sound of blood rushing in his ears so loudly.\n\n\n \n\n\n--\n\n\n \n\n\nDespite his disastrous first visit, Liu Qingge takes to stopping by two or three times a week, to the point where Mu Qingfang honestly wonders if he’s actually visiting other peak lords. It’s not bad, though, having Liu Qingge around - he’s strong, reliable, and has steady hands. He’s attentive when following orders, and picks up skills and techniques readily. While he doesn’t interact much with the students the kids get used to him quickly anyways.\n\n\n\nBy the end of the day, Liu Qingge is still tired and looks more than ready to hole up and train in seclusion for a week or two, but he still returns to his peak to oversee night training or prepare for the next day’s lessons. As the weeks pass, Liu Qingge seems more… confident? Or at least, he has less and less to complain about over their shared meals, to the point where Mu Qingfang wonders if he’ll eventually stop visiting the peak and observing Mu Qingfang’s interactions with his students. But no - Liu Qingge continues to stop by, even occasionally helping in the clinic, on days where Yi Qingzhi takes over classroom duties.\n\n\n\nOnce, Liu Qingge finds himself assisting Mu Qingfang as he treats a student he himself injured. The Bai Zhan disciple’s eyes go kind of watery, his expression more than a little starstruck as Liu Qingge helps to wrap his knee. Mu Qingfang is about 99% sure the boy had not heard a single thing he’d said about how to keep the wound safe, but it’s hard to bring himself to care when the he looks so ecstatic. Mu Qingfang just makes a mental reminder to write it down for him. By the time they’re done, the boy looks like he’s witnessed god, and Mu Qingfang can’t help but excuse himself to calm down, before he bursts into laughter right in front of them. When he returns, the boy is blabbering at Liu Qingge about something or another, his hands gesturing wildly as he makes \n\nsound effects\n\n, and while Liu Qingge doesn’t quite \n\nget it\n\n, he still nods along.\n\n\n\nWhen the boy is escorted out by one of Mu Qingfang’s disciples, Liu Qingge has a faint smile on his face, and oh, boy, there goes his heart again.\n\n\n\nIt’s been happening a lot, lately. By now, Mu Qingfang should be used to Liu Qingge’s close proximity, his intense stare, the touch of his calloused hands. But every single fucking time, Mu Qingfang’s chest throbs with an unnamed want. His skin tingles with the need to touch, the need to stay close enough to feel the heat radiating off of Liu Qingge’s skin, and it isn’t even a sexual impulse. He just instinctively wants to be close. On days like that, Mu Qingfang stays pointedly away, though if Liu Qingge picks up on it, he doesn’t say anything. If anything, Mu Qingfang sometimes finds Liu Qingge edging closer, unconsciously trying to maintain the equilibrium they’d established over the weeks.\n\n\n\nIt’s maddening.\n\n\n\nWhat’s even more maddening is that every once in a while (and once, even on a day where Liu Qingge should’ve been busy with his disciples) Mu Qingfang falls asleep on his break and wakes up with Liu Qingge’s outer robe draped over him. On days like that, there’s usually a meal from the mess waiting for him on the counter that had \n\nnot \n\nbeen that organized when he’d fallen asleep and a faint, lingering, mountainy scent pervading the room. On those days, he can usually find Liu Qingge outside observing and assisting his disciples with their self-defense training, or otherwise helping at the clinic under Yi Qingzhi’s scrutinizing stare. It makes Mu Qingfang feel weak and hollow with an affection he knows he’s not allowed to harbor.\n\n\n\nLiu Qingge still takes missions from Yue Qingyuan, which is in turns both a welcome respite for Mu Qingfang’s poor heart and a refresher on bitter longing. Mu Qingfang, for all his restraint, \n\nmisses\n\n his friend, having grown used to his company. Besides, the likelihood of Liu Qingge returning grievously wounded is much higher after a mission, and it keeps Mu Qingfang on edge until the man inevitably comes back for treatment. It’s never long enough - Liu Qingge has started deigning to catch up with his students’ training in the following days, rather than spending more time recuperating at Qian Cao.\n\n\n\nBut once, just once, Mu Qingfang wakes up from one of his naps with the smell of rust and herbal medicine in the air, overwhelming even the clean scent of Liu Qingge’s outer robes around him. There’s an unfamiliar weight at his side, the tickle of something silky smooth along his cheek and neck, and when he’s awake enough to look down, he sees Liu Qingge’s head tucked against his shoulder. Still asleep enough that any concept of shame and propriety is thrown out the window, Mu Qingfang instinctively throws a hand around Liu Qingge’s waist and tugs him closer. It’s when he meets bare skin that he startles awake, and when he gives the man a proper look-over, he finds him stripped to the waist, the bandages clumsily wrapped around a shoulder already spotting with blood. His other arm is in a sling, hastily splinted and wrapped and resting safely in the space between them. It’s clear that Liu Qingge had done this himself - even \n\nwith \n\nthe broken arm?! - and hadn’t even thought to get proper care before he rushed to Mu Qingfang’s side. It awakens something indignant and soft inside Mu Qingfang. He wants to scold him for his carelessness; he wants to kiss him for his sweetness.\n\n\n\nInstead, he sighs and pulls himself onto his two feet. Liu Qingge grumbles a soft, sleepy protest, but doesn’t wake. It’s frighteningly easy to lift Liu Qingge up and into the reclined chair and start inspecting the wound. The man is completely defenseless in a way Mu Qingfang \n\nknows\n\n he isn’t when he’s off the peak, and it makes something warm and tender bloom in his chest.\n\n\n \n\n\n--\n\n\n \n\n\nThat girl shows up - the one that’d fought Tan Mingyuan all those weeks ago, the girl that started Liu Qingge’s quest to become a better peak lord. She comes with her head bowed low, her sweaty hands clutching a basket of freshly-picked herbs and the carcass of a Lightning Strike Deer slung across her back. In the basket, Mu Qingfang recognizes some of the herbs he’d pointed out to Liu Qingge nearly two months ago. There’s even a few sticks of that plant they’d snacked on as they worked.\n\n\n\n“Thank you,” Mu Qingfang says graciously, taking the weight of the Lightning Strike Deer off of her back. “Why don’t you come with me to the store room? Tan Mingyuan might be there. Perhaps you can finally apologize to one another.”\n\n\n\nThe girl startles at the suggestion, her eyes wide and her face full of dread. It makes Mu Qingfang laugh. “Don’t worry - I’ll be there to keep anything from happening. Besides, Tan Mingyuan is a good boy. He might have given a bad first impression, but trust me, he’s not a fighter.”\n\n\n\nThe girl snorts and crosses her arms over her chest. “O-Of course he’s not a fighter. He made a bunch of rookie mistakes. I would’ve pounded him to the ground if it weren’t for -” she glances at Mu Qingfang’s face and wilts under his unimpressed stare.\n\n\n\n“Of course he’s not a fighter. That’s not our profession here,” Mu Qingfang says, firmly but gently. “He only needs to know enough to defend himself and immobilize his attackers. And besides, if he wanted to, he knows plenty of other ways to hurt a person.”\n\n\n\nThat alone is enough to quiet her down. Their conversation turns to other, safer topics - the girl finally introduces herself and tells Mu Qingfang to just call her A-Bao (she used to hate that nickname, but once, Liu Qingge had said it suited her, and from then on, she kept it), she confirms that yes, Liu Qingge had advised her on what to bring after she’d finally (if only barely) managed to survive 30 seconds against him, and she went on to explain all the most delicious ways to prepare Lightning Strike Deer (Mu Qingfang politely ignored the way her stomach growled a little as she talked about what to roast the leg meat with). It doesn’t take long at all to get to the store room, and A-Bao honestly looks a little disappointed that they’d reached their location so quickly.\n\n\n\nTan Mingyuan is indeed there, and as soon as he sees A-Bao he points his finger (rudely) at her, his voice gone low and stormy when he says, “\n\nYou\n\n!” Honestly, if the boy weren’t 5’3” and maybe 100 pounds soaking wet, Mu Qingfang might have even flinched back a little.\n\n\n\n“Tan Mingyuan, A-Bao is here to apologize,” Mu Qingfang says gently.\n\n\n\n“W-well, she needs to apologize to you first!” Tan Mingyuan insists, crossing his arms over his chest. Mu Qingfang wants to laugh.\n\n\n\n“She already has,” he says, gesturing to the deer he was holding and the basket of herbs in her hands. A-Bao, somehow, manages to look exceptionally nervous, and also exceptionally smug.\n\n\n\nTan Mingyuan’s lips press together, his voice coming out a little wobbly as he says, “W-well!” He didn’t look like he’d thought this far ahead, and his barely-there adam’s apple bobs as he swallows hard and scrambles to come up with something especially self-righteous to say. As if the boy had a self-righteous bone in his body. “Let’s have it then! I’ll accept your apology if you admit you’re completely wrong.”\n\n\n\nOh boy. Mu Qingfang needs to nip this in the bud.\n\n\n\nBut A-Bao steps up to the challenge and says, “But I’m \n\nnot \n\nwrong! If you didn’t do that weird thing with my arm, I would’ve kicked your ass! Your punches were nothing!”\n\n\n\nTan Mingyuan must’ve been really riled up, if he didn’t even think to glance up to seek Mu Qingfang’s approval. “Yeah, well that’s what we \n\nd-do \n\non this mountain! We’re not - we’re not \n\nbrutes\n\n, like you!”\n\n\n\n“We are \n\nNOT \n\nbr -” A-Bao all but screams, before Mu Qingfang moves bodily between them.\n\n\n\n“Alright, alright, that is where we’re stopping. I thought you came here to apologize, A-Bao,” he says, his voice going firm. Tan Mingyuan startles at his tone, taking a step back and staying up at Mu Qingfang with big eyes. “And \n\nyou\n\n, A-Yuan. When someone comes to apologize to you, you take it gracefully. You should know better.”\n\n\n\nA-Bao turns to Mu Qingfang and crosses her arms, demanding, “If you got into a fight with Shifu, who would win?”\n\n\n\n“He would, obviously,” Mu Qingfang said immediately. “He’s the head of Bai Zhan peak for a reason. Is this what you fought about?” he asks, frowning at Tan Mingyuan.\n\n\n\n“N-no!” Tan Mingyuan stammers. “I told her and her friends that they were being annoying and loud and she said she could break my spine like a twig and I told her she could try, but not before I stopped her with our martial arts, and she called our peak horseshi - Um.”\n\n\n\nMu Qingfang nodded, gesturing for him to continue. “And then she said we were cowards and didn’t fight for the peak when - when Luo-Shixiong attacked,” he said, his voice growing quiet and shy at the end. “And then she said a bunch of other rude things about you.”\n\n\n\nA-Bao opened her mouth to protest, but to her credit she closed it quickly and looked away. “I- I didn’t mean it. I was just saying things because I was mad,” she said. “A-and! I apologized, didn’t I?!” she asked, staring up at Mu Qingfang with big, angry eyes.\n\n\n\n“You did, but that was unkind. Your Shifu wouldn’t like that, would he?” Mu Qingfang asked.\n\n\n\n“N-no,” A-Bao mumbled, fidgeting under Mu Qingfang’s disapproving stare. “B-but I’m right! You even said so!”\n\n\n\n“Being right and being a good person are not always the same thing. Besides. It isn’t impossible to overcome Liu-Shixiong. If we did not have swords, and with the right luck, I think I could hold my own against him.”\n\n\n\nThat had both of the children’s attention, and before either of them could say anything, a familiar voice came up the road to say, “You think you could hold your own? Want to test it?”\n\n\n\nSpeak of the devil. Of course Liu Qingge would have the \n\nimpeccable\n\n timing to show up just when things were getting resolved.\n\n\n \n\n\n--\n\n\n \n\n\nThey decide to turn it into a lesson. Mu Qingfang supposes he’d feel a lot more nervous about it if he were expected to win, but he’s going up against the Bai Zhan peak lord. As long as he can draw it out long enough for his students to see the practical uses of pressure points as a supplement to the fighting style taught on the peak, there’s no shame in losing. At least, that’s what he tells himself when he looks across the training room and sees Liu Qingge limbering up. \n\n\n\nHe’s got a slew of students sitting on the side with the addition of A-Bao, Tan Mingyuan, and Yi Qingzhi as commentator. He hopes to any gods out there that this lesson won’t be in vain, that they’ll actually learn something from him humiliating himself. Fat chance, though. Liu Qingge promised that he’d go easy, but, well his definition of easy doesn’t ever quite line up with anyone else’s.\n\n\n\n“Ready, Liu-Shixiong?” Mu Qingfang asks, more to take up time than to confirm. Liu Qingge is always ready for a fight.\n\n\n\nLiu Qingge nods and looks to Yi Qingzhi to get the match started. Briefly, she outlines the rules for the observing students - no weapons, no qi, no dirty moves, Liu Qingge was to fight with the intent of defending himself and immobilizing Mu Qingfang, and Mu Qingfang was only to use the martial arts taught at Qian Cao. Only at her signal were they to start, and at her signal, they were to immediately separate and return to their starting points. The disciples were to study the fight and observe only. No cheering, no jeering, just observing.\n\n\n\nWith that, Yi Qingzhi signals for them to start. The moment she calls out, Liu Qingge surges forward, and Mu Qingfang moves on autopilot. It’s been a while since he’s had an actual spar with someone that wasn’t his own student, and rarely are they ever as aggressive as Liu Qingge is, so the first few seconds of the fight, Mu Qingfang spends getting back into the rhythm of evading. For all that Liu Qingge moves like a hurricane, Mu Qingfang moves like a feather, his every movement attuned to Liu Qingge’s.\n\n\n\nOf course, this can’t last forever. As they get into the rhythm of the fight, Liu Qingge gets faster, occasionally clipping Mu Qingfang’s sleeves and barely snatching Mu Qingfang’s wrists before his grip is broken away. Finally, after maybe the third or fourth deflected strike, Mu Qingfang caves and goes for one of the pressure points governing the movement in his shoulders. Liu Qingge sees right through him and knocks him flat on his ass. Absently, he’s aware of Yi Qingzhi’s voice calling for them to return to their corners, but it’s hard to focus on anything that isn’t Liu Qingge.\n\n\n\nLiu Qingge holds a hand out to help him up, and all Mu Qingfang can hear is the blood singing through his veins. He grins at Liu Qingge, and Liu Qingge grins back. He’d come to the training hall today with dread in his heart, the exercise done out of obligation more than anything else. But seeing Liu Qingge’s spirits up, seeing the battle god in something closer to his natural environment, has him wanting more. \n\n\n\nIt’s exhilarating.\n\n\n\nHe feels, rather than hears, Yi Qingzhi start up the next round, and this time, he’s on the offensive. Liu Qingge barks out a - a laugh? As he evades Mu Qingfang’s calculated swipes. He can see Mu Qingfang going for his chest, his arms, and goads him into chase. It’s hardly dignified, but fights rarely are. Liu Qingge moves like a river, and Mu Qingfang feels helpless against it. But it doesn’t feel bad - it feels like, like they’re young again, two pups play-fighting, two young bucks knocking heads before their horns grow in. It’s good. Mu Qingfang likes it.\n\n\n\nEventually, Liu Qingge gets tired of evading and turns the tides back on Mu Qingfang, and within seconds he’s got one of Mu Qingfang’s arms in an iron grip. However, it it also brings him just close enough that Mu Qingfang can strike, with an accuracy whose origins even he’s not sure of, a pressure point in Liu Qingge’s abdomen. That one jab has Liu Qingge’s left knee crashing down, and he releases Mu Qingfang’s arm in surprise. Yi Qingzhi’s cry echoes sharp in their ears, alien from the animal space of mind that’s consumed Mu Qingfang, and he steps back. His eyes glance out to the audience, seeing but unseeing, and he feels the way they lean forward, too intimidated by Yi Qingzhi’s overbearing presence to cheer. \n\n\n\nBeside him, Liu Qingge grunts, and Mu Qingfang helps him to his newly-weak legs. They stay there, leaning against one another for a long minute, before Liu Qingge nods his head and Mu Qingfang lets him wobble back to his corner. In the infinite space of the seconds before Yi Qingzhi calls for them to continue, Liu Qingge grins feral at Mu Qingfang, and Mu Qingfang grins back. \n\n\n\nThey expose their teeth like wolves.\n\n\n\nYi Qingzhi starts the match up again, and this time, Mu Qingfang goes for the throat. He’s bigger, his reach long and his body heavy, and before long, Liu Qingge forgets his weakness and falters. The world narrows in to nothing but the space between their bodies, the heaving of their chests, the ragged wisps of breath, the flush high on Liu Qingge’s smiling cheeks.\n\n\n\nLiu Qingge is caught under him, his fists thrusting up and scrabbling for purchase. Being on top of Liu Qingge - or rather, \n\nstaying \n\non top - is a challenge, one that he loses, and then wins, and then loses again. Liu Qingge’s fists are making a mess of the polished floors, but at this range, Mu Qingfang is quicker. He gets his legs hooked under Liu Qingge’s, rolls them both over, and pins him with his weight. He bears down on him, hips flush together in a way that’d have Mu Qingfang blushing if he were on the outside watching. But this, this is just a matter of dominance, the primal urge to push someone down and -\n\n\n\nLiu Qingge bucks under his weight once, twice, and when he tries to overturn him, Mu Qingfang jabs his hands into Liu Qingge’s chest and arms, rendering his right arm useless. Liu Qingge manages to clip him in the chin with his left and turn them around again, slamming Mu Qingfang’s skull into the floor hard enough that he sees stars. Outside of this tiny world they’ve created, he thinks Yi Qingzhi is yelling at them to stop, but Liu Qingge grunts, no, and Mu Qingfang wholeheartedly seconds the sentiment. Besides if they wanted to keep going, there’s no one on this mountain that could stop them.\n\n\n\nMu Qingfang sucks in deep breath after deep breath, unable to get enough air as he blinks the sparks out of his eyes. Liu Qingge struggles to keep his arms pinned, despite his useless right. When he’s recovered, Mu Qingfang breaks his hold easily, knee coming up to sweep Liu Qingge off his already unsteady pin, and in seconds, he’s sitting on Liu Qingge’s hips, his weight bearing down on Liu Qingge’s good arm. With his one leg weak and his right arm splayed uselessly on the ground, it’s completely his loss. Liu Qingge gives it a token struggle, before finally, finally dropping his head to the floor and calls mercy. In an instant, the room erupts into cheers and screaming.\n\n\n\nIt makes laughter bubble up in Mu Qingfang’s throat, and Mu Qingfang’s laughter sets Liu Qingge to grinning, and \n\noh\n\n, Mu Qingfang’s heart throbs. He hasn’t felt like this since he was young.\n\n\n\nIt takes… much too long, honestly, for the rest of the world to register, and in that time Yi Qingzhi is able to loom over them both, their army of disciples making a very loud, very excitable circle around them. Mu Qingfang ignores them in favor of rolling off of Liu Qingge who, despite his weakened limbs, is in high spirits. “How’s your head?” Liu Qingge manages to rasp, and oh, ow, there it is.\n\n\n\n“I’m alright. What about you? Mu Qingfang asks under the clamor of students.\n\n\n\n“My right arm is completely numb,” Liu Qingge says, the cadence of laughter bleeding into his words.\n\n\n\nAbove them, Yi Qingzhi looks very irritated at being ignored for so long, but before she can properly scold them both, Mu Qingfang prompts, “Follow up lesson, my dearest, most skilled, most intelligent Head Disciple?”\n\n\n\nYi Qingzhi makes a face of utter disgust and says, “You owe me, Shizun.” Before herding the children away. Mu Qingfang absolutely intends to take the rest of the day off, citing his oh-so-painful (the pain is already starting to fade, actually) head wound, and besides, \n\nsomeone \n\nneeds to keep an eye on Liu Qingge, right?\n\n\n\nThey both lay on the ground for a good five or six minutes, catching their breaths and breaking into winded fits of giggling. Eventually, Mu Qingfang has the gall to ask, “Just how easy were you going on me, anyways?”\n\n\n\nTo which, Liu Qingge snorts, “Not even 70%”\n\n\n\n“Oh, come on!” Mu Qingfang groans, but there’s still a smile on his face.\n\n\n\n“We should do this again. Without students watching. I’ll do you \n\n75%\n\n next time,” Liu Qingge promises, to which Mu Qingfang shoves him. \n\n\n\n“Cocky words for a man who’s won't be able to walk for the next two hours,” Mu Qingfang says, but there’s no real bite to it.\n\n\n\n“You did this to me. Take responsibility.” Liu Qingge shoots back, and Mu Qingfang moves over and tugs him up by the good arm.\n\n\n\n“Can you even get up?” Mu Qingfang asks, and Liu Qingge snorts.\n\n\n\n“If I can’t, you’ll just have to carry me,” he says, though he does inevitably make a good effort of it because that’s how Liu Qingge is. \n\n\n\nTheir good mood lasts all day, though it calms significantly in the time it takes for the adrenaline to peter off. Liu Qingge tries his best to walk all the way to Mu Qingfang's cottage, but it's slow going with him leaning awkwardly on Mu Qingfang. The line of his body is a searing brand against Mu Qingfang's side, and it makes Mu Qingfang's skin hypersensitive and hyperaware. Now that the adrenaline's worn off, Mu Qingfang has time to think about - about the fight, how beautiful and dangerous Liu Qingge was - \n\nis -\n\n how he'd rolled them both over in one smooth motion, weakened leg be damned, how he'd smashed his head to the floor and kept him there, how he'd thrust their hips together, the strength of him nearly enough to topple Mu Qingfang. The growled \n\nno\n\n in his ear, the hot, wet heat of his breath, the flash of his eyes.\n\n\n\nIt sparks something low and dangerous in his gut, an all-too-familiar feeling that makes the air go thin and hot and uncomfortable. Mu Qingfang prays that Liu Qingge does not notice.\n\n\n\nThey enter the cottage, and Mu Qingfang helps Liu Qingge into his bed, and \n\noh \n\nthat isn't smart but there's nowhere else to let an injured man rest and he makes some offhand excuse as to why he has to leave - to get food, to wash up, to get something for his head; even he's not sure what he said - and he escapes the stifling heat of Liu Qingge’s company. \n\n\n\nIt’s easier in the warm midday air, away from the temptation of Liu Qingge’s fierce eyes, but not by much - not when Mu Qingfang knows exactly what he sounds like when he moans, knows the precise shape of his body when he writhes, knows the slick heat of his skin. The thought of it has him tugging at his clothes, ready to drown his inappropriate attraction in his little pool out back.\n\n\n\nHe slides in, the water cool despite the coming summer heat, and it’s a welcome reprieve from the fire burning under his skin. But even here isn’t safe - not when he thinks of Liu Qingge pulling himself out of this very same pool, his skin sparkling and wet, his brow tugged down with frustration, his eyes sharp and determined. The spirit is strong but the body is weak, and whatever progress was gained by slipping into the water is lost very, very quickly with every lascivious, unbidden thought of his Shixiong.\n\n\n\nThere’s no point in prolonging it, if he’s already at this point. Or at least, that’s what Mu Qingfang tells himself when he wraps a hand around himself. He tries, at the very least, to keep his mind blank as he works himself over, but it’s no use - not when less than an hour ago, Liu Qingge was on top of him, pushing him down with those skilled hands. How much different would things have been if he hadn’t held back? How much longer would he have been able to hold Mu Qingfang down?\n\n\n\nMu Qingfang sincerely hopes that Liu Qingge can’t hear him splashing around in the pool, though between the splashing and the low, bitten-off moans, he would prefer the splashing. \n\n\n\nHe thinks of that single bark of laughter, the exhilarated grin, the way his body moved like an inescapable force of nature, and \n\noh\n\n, that’s good. Mu Qingfang lets his legs spread a bit further, lays his head against the rocks, closes his eyes as he thinks of Liu Qingge wanting him and \n\ntaking \n\nwhat he wanted. His unyielding grip on Mu Qingfang’s wrist, his sharp knees, the flash of his teeth. Mu Qingfang knows he’s panting like an animal, and it’s the animal part of him that thinks of Liu Qingge lying in \n\nhis \n\nbed, thinks of Liu Qingge doing inside what Mu Qingfang is doing out here, thinks of that single desperate plea to \n\nlet him have it, he’s ready, he can’t be hurt\n\n - \n\n\n\nMu Qingfang goes weak kneed, spilling into the water with a sated sigh. He relishes in his orgasm for exactly twenty seconds before gathering what he can of the cum in the water and tossing it out onto the grass. \n\nGross\n\n.\n\n\n\nAfter that, he splashes around, dunks his hair in, scrubs off the sweat and prays that Liu Qingge doesn’t know what he’s just done.\n"}
+{"text": "Chapter 63\n\nOctober 30th, 1994\n\nHogwarts\n\nOctober came fairly quickly with the Scottish summer being short at best and the light, warm rain gradually transitioned into heavier, cold rain. The leaves of the Forbidden forest began to change, the Whomping Willow moulted and an autumn mist began to settle over the Black Lake in the mornings.\n\nThe coming of October was also synonymous with the beginning of the Triwizard Tournament this year and its approaching advent had been all anyone was talking about.\n\nHarry felt ready to see his girlfriend again.\n\nAlthough His skepticism about the tournament hadn't been particularly helped by the fact they were looking at a piece about one of the final years of the tournament. The first event had resulted in all three champions being killed by an irate dragon.\n\nHarry reassured himself though that the organizers would have learned their lesson and it was unlikely they would include some form of large, dangerous magical creature in the opening round this time. It made it marginally less likely that whoever was foolish enough to get selected would die straight away.\n\n'Aren't Beauxbaton and Durmstrang's students meant to be arriving today,' Joe asked from across where he sat.\n\n'I think so,' Harry said 'but I don't know how they're arriving.' which was true that no one had told him how Beaubatonx would be arriving.\n\nA burst of startled exclamations from by the window drew the attention of everyone in the hall.\n\n'It's a bird,' someone called out.\n\n'No, it's a plane,' a Muggle-born student cried out to a few sniggers and more than a few blank looks from those raised in the magical world.\n\n'It's Beauxbatons' flying carriage,' Ashlee said as it drew closer. 'It's pulled by Abraxan horses.'\n\nBeaubatonx\n\nThat meant Fleur would be here soon.\n\nTheir coach was pale, pastel blue and rather ornate. The coach soon disappeared behind the central tower and Harry returned to his book again.\n\nHarry was more than a little amused at the air of excitement around him.\n\nSure he was excited to see Fleur but not to this amount\n\n'Something's happening to the lake,' a first-year squeaked.\n\n'It's bubbling,' someone cried in surprise.\n\n'There's a ship.'\n\n'It must be Durmstrang,' someone said.\n\n'Do they know about the giant squid?' a guy asked from behind him. Harry bit back a laugh. That could be a nasty surprise for Durmstrang.\n\n'If everyone could find a seat on their house tables,' Dumbledore suggested, his wand held against his throat to magnify his voice over all the excitement. 'Let's give a good impression to our guests.'\n\nThe Durmstrang students were confusing as they were dressed for cold weather the likes of which Scotland had never seen before. Their headmaster, a silver-haired, sour-faced man with a short, pointed goatee came last, his arm draped about the broad shoulders of his final student.\n\n'That's Viktor Krum,' Catherine hissed. A murmur of surprise and admiration spread as the prodigious young seeker entered the hall.\n\n'Igor,' Dumbledore welcomed, arms outspread and eyes twinkling beneath his spectacles. He received a sharp, curt nod in return, something Harry thought looked slightly rude.\n\n'Madame Maxime is on her way,' the foreign professor announced in surprisingly unaccented English. 'She stopped to give more precise instructions to your gamekeeper about her Abraxans.'\n\nDumbledore let his arms drop and continued to smile magnanimously as his counterpart joined him at the elevated table and his students, following Krum's lead, found space on the Slytherin table.\n\nThe hall began to fill with whispers as they waited for the French students to arrive.\n\nAs the Beaubatonx students arrived they were led by the largest woman he had ever seen in his life. Many people gasped as they saw this woman. Harry believed he had only ever seen one person as large as this woman in his life, and that was Hagrid; in fact, he doubted whether there was any difference at all in their heights. Yet somehow, this woman that was now looking around the astonished crowd seemed even taller and larger to Harry. Her hair was drawn back in a shining knob and she was dressed from head to toe in black satin, with many magnificent opals dangling off her person.\n\nDumbledore started to applaud; the students began to follow his lead. The woman relaxed into a gracious smile and walked towards Dumbledore while extending a glittering hand. Dumbledore, while rather tall himself, barely had to bend to kiss it.\n\n\"My dear Madame Maxime,\" he said. \"Welcome to Hogwarts.\"\n\n\"Dumbly-dorr,\" said Madame Maxime in a deep voice. \"I 'ope I find you well?\"\n\n\"In excellent form, I thank you,\" replied Dumbledore.\n\n\"My pupils,\" said Madame Maxime, waving one of her enormous hands behind her.\n\nHarry, who like many of the students had been watching the exchange between Madame Maxime and Dumbledore, turned to look at the emerging girls. He estimated about thirty students in total. They seemed to be shivering, which was unsurprising, given that their robes seemed to be made of fine silk, and none of them wore cloaks. A few had wrapped scarves and shawls around their heads. Some of them were staring as Hogwarts with apprehensive looks on their faces.\n\nLooking carefully he saw the face of his girlfriend who looked at him with a smile while also chattering in the cold.\n\nXXXXXXXXXXXXXX\n\nFleur entered the castle looking up as the Beauxbatons delegation set foot in the entrance hall. Although it was not Beauxbatons, she really had to admire the magnificent hall; with the tall roof and marble staircase off to the side, it did have quite nice architecture.\n\nShe was with her old friend Cosette and two new friends she had made Danielle Darrieux and Julie Gayet\n\n\"Come on, let's go find seats!\" Fleur looked down to see her friend Cosette beckoning her to follow her into the Great Hall. After stepping foot in the Great Hall, she and the rest of the delegation stopped again.\n\n\"Wow,\" many of them murmured as they looked around the beautiful and extravagant hall. The Hall stretched out long and wide and featured four separate tables, each with a different colored banner flying over them. At the end of the hall stood a single long table that had a black banner flying over it with what she guessed was the Hogwarts coat of arms. The roof (or was it a roof?) seemed to be enchanted to her so that it reflected the sky, something she thought was rather impressive and clever. She then decided to glance around the hall and was unsure of where to go now.\n\nShe decided to look for her boyfriend first though\n\nSoon she meets his eye by the Ravenclaw Table.\n\n\"Where do we sit?\" Isabelle Duchesnay asked as the delegation was now unsure of where to sit at for the feast.\n\n\"Let's sit under the blue banner,\" Fleur responded as she walked towards the Ravenclaw table, which was set to the very right of the room when entering from the entrance hall, with the rest of the delegation following closely behind.\n\nHarry rose to meet her.\n\nThey shared a quick kiss.\n\n\"I'm glad to see you Arry,\" She said.\n\n\"You to Fleur\" He murmured back \"Come sit\"\n\nThey sat near the back of the hall, where the table had been slightly extended, along with the Slytherin table which was positioned at the very left of the hall. As Fleur sat down in between Harry and Cossette, she saw that the Durmstrang students had sat at the Slytherin table, while the rest of the Hogwarts students filed in and sat according to their respective houses.\n\nTheir friends looked at them in surprise.\n\n\"Whos the girl Harry,\" A Dark-eyed girl with black hair said looking at them in surprise.\n\nHer own friends seemed surprised that this was her boyfriend.\n\nWell, they had never said much about how much time they spend together.\n\nThankfully the French gossip columns had gotten the students at Beaubatonx aware of her relationship.\n\nAnd they would not do anything to protest it due to the power of her father.\n\nBut apparently, Harry's friends were a bit out of the loop.\n\nAs well as several of the students at the table who were looking confused.\n\nNeither of them noticed the shocked looks given from several at the Staff Table and at the table across the way.\n\n\"Guys,\" Harry said taking her hand and turning to his friends \"This is my girlfriend Fleur Delcour\".\n\nThey looked shocked at first.\n\nAnd then a student chuckled \"Well then you've got a lot to tell us about Potter\" He said.\n\nHarry smiled as they all took their seats.\n\nThe students around the table listened with rapt attention as Harry and Fleur told them the basics.\n\nSeveral of Harry's classmates seemed shocked at first but then where soon congratulating Harry for \"Bagging a real looker\".\n\nThey both could not stop blushing at that one.\n\nAllthough they did realize that their was truth in that statement.\n\nFleur knew that her body was considered beautiful to many with her hour glass figure and her large E cup breasts.\n\nBut she also knew that Harry was one of those people that did not care for her looks and saw her for who she was.\n\nThat was one of the reasons she loved him so much\n\nAnd then soon afterwords everyone broke off into conversation.\n\nThankfully both Harry and Fleurs friend groups got along fine with each other.\n\nIt helped that her friends had a good knowledge of English.\n\nTheir conversations soon turned quite pleasant.\n\n\"I will say the architecture here is quite impressive,\" Cosette remarked as the Beauxbatons students began to converse quietly, awaiting everyone else to sit down. \"Obviously I prefer Beauxbatons, but this will suffice for the year, don't you think Fleur?\"\n\n\"Yes, it's quite cozy,\" Fleur replied as Dumbledore, Madame Maxime, and Karkaroff filed in and sat at the long High Table at the very back of the hall. Dumbledore remained standing and the hall became silent almost immediately.\n\n\"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, ghosts and – most particularly – guests,\" said Dumbledore, beaming at the foreign students and Hogwarts students alike. \"I am honored and have the great pleasure of welcoming you all to Hogwarts. I hope and trust that your stay here will be both comfortable and enjoyable.\"\n\n\"The tournament will be officially opened at the end of the feast,\" continued Dumbledore. \"I now invite you all to eat, drink, and make yourselves at home!\"\n\nThe moment Dumbledore sat down, Fleur saw the empty plates in front of her immediately filled with food. She noticed some French dishes were mixed in along with the English dishes that seemed to be rather different in design and style. At once her friends engaged in conversation and she talked with Harry.\n\n\"So, who do you think will be the Durmstrang and Hogwarts champion?\" Catherine asked them as she began to eat a plate of ratatouille.\n\nThey all shrugged.\n\nXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX\n\nAfter dinner was completed, Dumbledore stood up once again and began to talk more about the tournament. 'Now that our guests have arrived it is time we come to the main attraction of the year.' The headmaster approached the lectern at the head of the hall. 'It is time for the Triwizard Tournament to begin, but first, the rules.'\n\n'First of all, it should be made very clear that nobody below the age of seventeen is allowed to enter.' The hall erupted into groans of disappointment.\n\nFleur watched as he then introduced Department Heads from the British Ministry of Magic (Bartemius Crouch of the Department of International Magical Cooperation and Ludo Bagman of the Department of Magical Games and Sports). He then proceeded to talk about the champions, which was when Fleur and everyone around her immediately focused their attention on Dumbledore.\n\nDumbledore, noticing the sudden attentiveness of the students, smiled and said, \"The casket, then, if you please, Mr. Filch.\"\n\nEveryone turned to watch Filch approach Dumbledore carrying a large wooden chest encrusted with jewels. Many students started to murmur in excitement as the chest was placed carefully on the table before Dumbledore.\n\n\"The instructions for the tasks the champions will face this year have already been examined by Mr. Crouch and Mr. Bagman,\" said Dumbledore. \"Necessary arrangements have been made in preparation for each challenge. There will be three tasks, spaced throughout the school year, and they will test the champions in many different ways…their magical prowess – their daring – their powers of deduction – and, of course, their ability to cope with danger.\"\n\n\"As you know, three champions compete in the tournament,\" continued Dumbledore. \"one from each of the participating schools. They will be marked based on how well they perform each task and the winner of the Triwizard Cup will be announced at the end of the third task. The champions will be chosen by an impartial selector: the Goblet of Fire.\" Dumbledore took his wand out and tapped it on the lid of the chest, which slowly opened to present a large wooden cup that had blue and white flames dancing within. The goblet was carefully placed on top of the closed chest, where it was visible for everyone in the Hall to see.\n\n\"Anyone wishing to submit themselves as champion must write their name and school clearly upon a slip of parchment and drop it into the goblet,\" said Dumbledore. \"Aspiring champions have twenty-four hours in which to put their names forward. Tomorrow night, on Halloween, the goblet will return the names of the three it has judged most worthy to represent their schools. This goblet will remain here, where it will be freely accessible to all those wishing to compete.\"\n\n\"To ensure that no underage student yields to temptation,\" said Dumbledore with a twinkle in his eyes, as he looked around at the various Hogwarts students (his eyes lingered on the Weasley twins), \"I will be drawing an Age Line around the Goblet of Fire once it has been placed in the entrance hall. Nobody under the age of seventeen will be able to cross this line.\"\n\nMost of the students in the hall had already started searching for pieces of parchment, ink, and quills during Dumbledores speech as if the first few to enter might have some advantage.\n\n\"I must warn all that wish to compete; this tournament is not to be taken lightly. Once selected by the Goblet of Fire, you are obliged to see the tournament through to the end, as selection constitutes a binding, magical contract. Once you become a champion, you remain a champion. Therefore, please be certain that you are willing to participate in the tournament. Now, I think it is time for bed. Good night to you all.\""}
+{"text": "Nia had no idea where she was.\n\nSharp light stabbed against her eyes the moment she opened them, forcing her to close them again with a hiss. Her mouth felt dry, her tongue thick in her throat. She’d felt this way before, usually after coming out of some pretty heavy-duty anaesthesia, but whatever this stuff was, the dosage had definitely not been medically advisable.\n\nIt slugged through her body, making the room spin when she tried to catch a glimpse of her surroundings. Nia swallowed sharply, urging away the vertigo before giving it another shot.\n\nThis time, the world stabilised.\n\nWhich didn’t exactly help.\n\nShe wasn’t anywhere she recognised. The room was large, cold, empty - probably some kind of warehouse. An onset of grey-on-grey stared back at her, a mile of concrete beneath her feet. The light responsible for her pounding head was a fluorescent panel in the ceiling, blinking intermittently.\n\nNia groaned. What the hell had happened?\n\nWhen she’d gained enough of her senses, she surveyed her body. She was sat in a sturdy chair, the metal of which bled cold through her bones, even through her costume. Instinctively, Nia reached for her face, wary that her mask might have been removed, only to jerk in belated surprise when her arms remained exactly where they were, causing an ache to jolt sharply through her joints.\n\nNia blinked down at the heavy-duty cuffs locking her wrists into place. The sight of them reminded her none to gently of an all too familiar scenario. A warehouse just like this, when she and Brainy had been separated from each other, when-\n\n\nOh, god.\n\n\n\nBrainy.\n\n\nThey’d been together, right? Ferociously, Nia wracked her brain for an answer, but she came up blank. Whatever drug her captors had used had a hell of a kick to it, she was barely able to focus on anything at all.\n\nBut something in her gut told her that she hadn’t been alone tonight, that she’d been patrolling with a partner.\n\nWith-\n\n“’ia?”\n\nNia jerked back in surprise, gasping when the chair dug into her spine.\n\nSomething flashed in front of her, a static burst of colour before it petered out again. Nia blinked, her mouth falling open in confusion. Part of her was pretty sure she was hallucinating.\n\nBut then it happened again.\n\n“Nia!”\n\nA bigger burst of static and, this time, a shape. A very person-sized shape, appearing before her like some kind of apparition.\n\nWait, no- not apparition…\n\nThere was a pop in the air, another buzz of electric distortion, and then Brainy’s image fully actualised itself in front of her.  \n\nHe was in his new costume, the light cores of which glowed with a shocking brightness even in holographic-form. Nia thought she remembered that, remembered being out with him, relaying with Kara over comms. But then their comms had gone dark.\n\nAn ambush. Too many people far too quickly for either of them to calculate. Nia hadn’t had a dream about it, or maybe she had…? It was all so blurry, so difficult to piece together. And her head still hurt. \n\n“Nia? Can you hear me?”\n\nNia blinked. Brainy’s dark hair was a little frazzled, his eyes wide and incredibly concerned. He was scanning every inch of her, no doubt already putting a plan into place. She nodded weakly.\n\n“I hear you,” she said, clearing her throat with some effort. “Where are you?”\n\n“I imagine not far, or else the projected image may not have held,” Brainy said, eyes narrowing as he glanced somewhere over Nia’s shoulder. “Unfortunately, my position is no better than yours.”\n\n“Did they drug us?”\n\n“I believe so. A crude composition, but non-lethal. I was able to filter it from my systems.” He winced. “I wish I could do the same for you.”\n\nNia smiled at that. “It’s fine, Brainy, I can deal with it.” She flexed her hands experimentally, waiting for a spike in her wrists to signal her dream energy’s presence. When she felt nothing, she dug deeper, hoping for the usual electric warmth that filled her chest and stomach just before she summoned it through her fingers.\n\nAgain, nothing.\n\nAn inkling of panic worked its way into her throat. “Brainy,” she said carefully. “Why can’t I use my powers?”\n\nBrainy’s expression turned serious. “Short range energy inhibitors. It appears they knew enough of your powers to ensure their necessity, although they do not seem to know of my physiology, which at least allows us to communicate.” His eyes narrowed again. “I have had a chance to study the inhibitors visually; they are far weaker than your capabilities, Nia. I can talk you through how to bypass them if you will let me.” He lifted his arm as though to conduct his explanation, only to immediately drop it again. Nia watched in alarm as Brainy's image flickered. When it returned, he bent in on himself with a hiss.\n\nNia’s heart dropped. “Brainy, what- hey, what’s wrong?”\n\n“It’s fine,” Brainy said, although he still hadn’t been able to fully stand upright again. His dark hair curtained his face, but Nia could see the pain creasing the corners of his eyes, twisting his lips into a tight grimace. “Everything will be fine. I just-” He winced again, running his arm around his ribs. “The countermeasures I inputted to numb the pain have worn off, that’s all.”\n\nNia jerked at that, the anaesthesia all but forgotten. “Brainy. What pain?”\n\n“It’s nothing,” Brainy gritted. “Just- just, please, listen to my instructions.”\n\nBut Nia wasn’t hearing him anymore. Blood was rushing through her ears, hot and fast. “Why can’t you get out?” she demanded. She glanced at her bindings. “These cuffs, they’re electronic, right? If they’re not using power dampeners on you, then-”\n\n“It’s nothing,” Brainy said again, shaking his head. “A mild concussion. I have had worse.”\n\n“Oh yeah? Then what’s wrong with your chest?”\n\n“Nia, please, for right now, I need you to-”\n\nNia didn’t let him finish. Instead, she closed her mind off to the world entirely. She was well practiced in the art of astral projection by now, and although she still overshot it at times, with the energy suddenly coursing through her, she realised Brainy’s walk-through wouldn’t be necessary. Her dream energy surrounded her heart like a welcoming hearth, a calming blue haze drowning out her vision just before she lost the connection to her body entirely.\n\nSometimes, it took so much to connect to a specific person, but every thought Nia had at that moment was reserved for Brainy, concern for him so powerful it left a physical ache in her chest. It only took seconds for her to actualise in front of him.\n\nThat’s when she saw it. All of it.\n\nNia's chest locked.\n\nBrainy had been hiding a lot from her with his hologram. For starters, in the real world, his image inducer had been knocked out. His green skin was paler than it should have been, and there was a deep gash sliced into Brainy’s bottom lip. His blond hair clung to his face, loose strands congealed and stuck to his mouth with dry blood. His cheek was swollen, bruising that was far too fresh to appear clearly already working its way along his jawline. His eyes were closed and dusted with shadow as his expression flickered, his own mind so far away, focused adamantly - she realised - on projecting a perfect image that wouldn't cause her concern.\n\nNia’s stomach bubbled.\n\nThere was clearly more damage beneath his clothes if the way he was hunched in on himself was any indicator. Nia thought back to the way Brainy had crumpled in on himself, how he had cradled his chest as though something had been broken on the inside. \n\nSomething white hot flashed in the back of Nia's eyes.\n\nBrainy had told her the truth about the cuffs, they looked about the same as hers, the room just as wide and forebodingly bare. He should have been able to break free, but if what he’d said about a concussion was right…\n\n\nThose bastards. \n\n\nThey’d hurt him in a way they probably didn’t even realise, but that didn't matter. It was clear what this had been for. Nia had heard of it before. Goons grabbing vigilantes off the streets, beating them to an inch of their life in the hopes of finding Supergirl’s whereabouts, Supergirl’s identity. Nia had no doubt in her mind that this was exactly that, she didn’t need a dream or a vision or anything to tell her as much.\n\nHer hands burned. \n\nThat’s why Brainy had been so desperate to get her out. Because he’d been hurt, because he’d known she’d be next, because-\n\nNia’s rage surged into her arms, shooting into her wrists.\n\nBy the time the energy had actualised itself in her palms, she was back in her own body again, the solidity of the chair helping her collect her bearings. She clenched her hands as the energy finally built to a crescendo, raring to go in the form of a destructive blast. Blue light exploded from her hands; Nia gritted her teeth with the shock of it. There was a clash of metal before the cuffs were flung from her wrists so harshly that they snapped from their hinges, shooting halfway across the room before scattering across the concrete.\n\nNia stood fluidly. Ignoring the vertigo, ignoring the ache in her head. None of that mattered. She had enough rage to fuel her, enough to find whoever was responsible for this and destroy them.\n\nBrainy’s eyes flickered with surprise before relief overtook his expression. He still had an arm wound around his diaphragm and, desperately, Nia wanted to reach out for him. But his image wasn’t real. No, the real Brainy was somewhere in this warehouse, bleeding and injured. In need of her help.\n\n“Don’t move,” Nia said tersely. “I’m coming for you and then we’re both getting out of here.” She flared her hands, bright blue curls of energy sparking from every digit. “If these assholes try to stop us, I'll turn their whole world into a living nightmare.”"}
+{"text": "\nMinho easily falls back into a routine after spring break, from home to school to back home again. Sometimes he still meets up with Changbin, but with college getting closer the older has started to pick up more shifts to earn more money and so most of the time Minho just accompanies the older at the cafe he works at. \n\n\n \n\n\nThe thought of running away with Changbin, starting a new life and spending his time studying dance again is the only thing that still keeps him going. Even when school days are like living hell for him and at this point Minho’s pretty sure there’s not a single soul here who hasn’t heard about his sexuality.\n\n\n \n\n\nHe’s still anxiously waiting for Mrs. Han to say something. He knows she must’ve heard about it too. Everytime Minho walks around the Han’s household, he feels like he’s stepping on glass, waiting for it to break under him.\n\n\n \n\n\nBeing tossed around and teased by his schoolmates for years, Minho doesn’t really pay that much attention to the snarling and ugly remarks being thrown his way every time he walks through the school halls. It’s only the word faggot that seriously stops his heart for a whole minute and makes him want to vomit, but as time passes by, he stops noticing it too. \n\n\n \n\n\nHe feels emotionless, tired, broken, like an old toy that no one cares about. The only time he truly smiles is with Changbin, and he knows it’s not healthy nor good but there’s nothing he can do. It’s too late for Minho to start again in this town. He just needs to survive until he can finally leave for good.\n\n\n \n\n\nHe’s made up his mind.\n\n\n \n\n\nWanting to stay here for Jisung was a crazy and reckless idea, just a stupid feeling he had. Jisung will feel better once Minho leaves, he’s sure about it. Mrs. Han and Jisung have done nothing wrong and they don’t deserve to be around his miserable, unlucky ass. They deserve to be happy. Free.\n\n\n \n\n\nThe more he thinks about it, the more he feels like he doesn’t deserve to be in this car right now, breathing the same precious air as Mrs. Han and Jisung. He should get out, stop wasting their air, stop being in their way. He’s never been good at reading his own emotions, but right now he feels like a knife is scratching the inside of his throat and he’s gonna cry. He’s gonna sob so loud if he doesn’t run away right now. Away from his thoughts and this place and Han Jisung who’s currently pressing his thigh against Minho’s and looking at him with full concern in his eyes.\n\n\n \n\n\nHe’s never seen Minho cry and he never will.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Are you okay?” Jisung whispers, probably trying not to catch Mrs. Han’s attention. She would worry too much. \n\n\n \n\n\n“Yeah,” Minho says, blinking away the tears. Jisung’s skin is hot against his and it somehow calms him down, even if the thought of the younger seeing him cry had his heart beating out of his chest just a second ago. Minho really wants to hide everything from Jisung.\n\n\n \n\n\nHe’s calm. He’s okay. But he hates himself for letting Jisung control his emotions. He’s weak. He will never be okay.\n\n\n \n\n\n“We’re here.” Mrs. Han finally chirps from the driver’s seat as she parks their car close to the church and Minho basically falls out of the car as he rushes to open the door. One more minute in that car and his thoughts would have suffocated him. And maybe Jisung’s body heat too.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMinho walks behind Mrs. Han and Jisung as the two greet their neighbours and friends, all walking the same path to the only church in this town, gathering all the people Minho dislikes or really doesn’t care about. It’s only Minho’s luck that his parents’ death anniversary fell on the same day as sunday church service. \n\n\n \n\n\nNo one seems to think about it yet, maybe they don’t even remember right now, but Minho knows his parents death will be mentioned in today’s speech and it’s gonna crush another piece of Minho’s soul. Like for the past seven years it has. Every single spring.\n\n\n \n\n\nThey go to the last aisle and Minho lets Mrs. Han and Jisung sit down first before he takes the last place, ready to run out of here the minute they’re done talking about God. And Minho’s parents. He’s like a ticking time-bomb, knowing it’s only gonna get worse as time goes on. Thankfully Jisung nor his mother notice anything, or even if they do, they don’t mention it. \n\n\n \n\n\nThere’s not much they could say anyway. It’s not like they can just fix this with some meaningless sentences. \n\n\n \n\n\nMinho just quietly listens to the priest, lets all the words go in from one ear and out from the other. He waits and waits and waits, waits for this to finally be over so he can go and see his parents graves. Be alone with them.\n\n\n \n\n\nHe’s so engrossed in his thoughts, he doesn’t even notice the priest talking about his parents, saying how it’s already been 8 years since that tragical night until Jisung looks at him and slightly nudges him. He motions Minho to look down, bow, for the moment of silence. Minho follows him, but he can’t keep his eyes from looking around. \n\n\n \n\n\nMinho watches as everyone lowers their heads for \n\nhis \n\nfather, \n\nhis \n\nmother, mourning them. It’s unbelievable. He watches all the happy kids sitting next to their parents. He watches the priest from the corner of his eye and can’t help but think if God really cares about his people, why did he make Minho suffer so much? Some lessons we really only learn through pain, but this is too much pain for anyone to handle. And Minho doesn’t even get the lesson he’s supposed to learn through this. Trust no one?\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n“I-I’m gonna go for a walk.” Minho motions to the back of the church. “You can go home without me, if that’s okay.”\n\n\n \n\n\n“Oh, honey, are you sure?” Mrs. Han asks, her warm hands holding Minho by his shoulders. She’s worried and Minho hates it. He never lets her worry. But lately, with the shit that’s been going on, Minho’s walls have started to crumble down and you really can’t blame him. \n\n\n \n\n\n“Yeah, I’m sure. Don’t worry.” Minho says, taking a step back. He misses the warmth of Mrs. Han, but one more second here and he might do something stupid. Something he would regret later. \n\n\n \n\n\nLike breaking down in tears. \n\n\n \n\n\n“What if Jisung comes with you?” She says, but Minho’s already out of their reach and so he decides not to say anything as he pushes past a couple of people walking by. Minho knows Jisung won’t follow him. He lets himself think he knows Jisung atleast that much.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe graveyard is beautiful like always. It’s clean and taken care of, and the peaceful sight itself brings back so many memories. Good and bad - Minho has spent a lot of his time here. That’s why he didn’t even have to think, his legs were moving on his own. \n\n\n \n\n\nBut he knows today, out of all the days he’s been here, is different. He doesn’t sit on the white bench by his parents grave nor does he just stand there. He feels his legs collapse underneath him the minute he sees the familiar place and he just falls down on the ground without much thinking. He’s tired, he’s so incredibly tired and his life really has hit rock bottom. \n\n\n \n\n\nMinho doesn’t know what to do as he stares at the ground where his parents are supposed to be. \n\n\n \n\n\nHe doesn’t blame anyone, it’s really no one’s fault that he has no parents, but he can’t help but think why him out of all the people? Most of the people here in this horrible town have their parents, their own home, but it just had to be Lee Minho who lost his.\n\n\n \n\n\nIt’s shitty and crappy and Minho finally feels sorry for himself. He feels all the cries he has never left out in the pit of his stomach, in the back of his throat. It stings. He knows he’s crying, oh, he’s crying so loud but he doesn’t care.\n\n\n \n\n\nLee Minho never cries. \n\n\n \n\n\nWhat a bullshit. \n\n\n \n\n\n“Minho hyung?” A warm hand rests on his shoulder and Minho jumps back a little, he hadn’t heard anyone coming. Well, he hadn’t really been paying attention anyway. \n\n\n \n\n\nMinho looks up to the owner of the voice and at first doesn’t believe his eyes. \n\n\n \n\n\nBecause looking right back at him is Han Jisung. Han Jisung with his beautiful eyes filled with concern and confusion. He has never seen Minho cry before. \n\n\n \n\n\n“You shouldn’t be here.” Minho tries to wipe his tears away but he knows his face is bloated and his cheeks are red and there’s just no way hiding this from Jisung. There’s no way Jisung won’t think differently of him now. \n\nFuck\n\n\n\n \n\n\n“Minho hyung, it’s okay.” Jisung leans closer to Minho, his other hand gently lifting Minho’s chin. His touch is warm and \n\nso so \n\ncaring. “Please don’t cry anymore.”\n\n\n \n\n\nTruth be told, as Minho stares into Jisung’s brown eyes, looks at the curve of his small nose and plump lips, the last thing he wants to do is cry. So maybe love does really work wonders, considering how he had been crying his soul out just a minute ago, but now he feels nothing and everything at the same time. It’s overwhelming.\n\n\n \n\n\nJisung is overwhelming.\n\n\n \n\n\nAnd he’s too fucking close.\n\n\n \n\n\nAt the end, Minho isn’t sure about who closes the gap between them, but it doesn’t really matter anyway. They kiss slowly and gently, there’s feelings and passion and so much hurt hidden in it and Minho loves every second of it. He loves how Jisung almost whimpers out loud and how shy and careful he is. \n\n\n \n\n\nThe Jisung kissing him right now is a completely different person from the Jisung Minho is used to.\n\n\n \n\n\nAnd Minho knows better not to get used to this.\n\n\n \n\n \n\n "}
+{"text": "It was now summer and the weather was touch 90 degrees everyday. Lucky for me, Jason's family has a pool that is quite large and beautiful. I decided to accept the offer made by Jason to come over on a Saturday and enjoy the pool. I appeared at the gate to their back yard around two in the afternoon. I opened the latch and let myself in.\n\nI came down the walk and past the hedges and I saw a truly beautiful site. I saw Jason's mom wearing an extremely tight fitting all black bikini. I knew she was in great shape for a women her age but I was truly shocked! Her long gray tinged brown hair cascaded over her shoulders. She had the body of a teenager, all tight and thin and sexy. She looked like an older Jennifer Love Hewitt. She had nice size breast for a woman her size; they had to be small b cups. She saw me and waved.\n\n\"Hi Sarah! How is my little nudist?” she said with a wink. I smiled and said I was feeling good. She looked my body up and down and said, \"Where is your bathing suit?\"\n\nI said it was in my bag and excused myself to go to the changing room. She looked and me and said, \"You don't need to worry about that Sarah. Its not like I haven't seen you before.\"\n\nI was surprised to say the least. I thought about it for a second, was had to be a recipe for disaster, but then the exhibitionist in me took over. I smiled at Jason's mom and I grabbed my tank top at my shoulders and gave a good yank. I pulled the fabric over my head and stood there in my bra in front of my boyfriend's mom. I then reached behind my back and took a deep breath. I unhooked my bra and I let it fall on the grass. Jason's mom didn't say a thing. She just watched. I then proceeded to unzip my pants and they dropped on the ground. I grabbed the waistband of my panties and gave a quick pull. I was now completely nude in front of my boyfriend’s mom. I started to wonder if I should get into my suit right away or let this moment last for as long as I could stretch it. I decided to stretch it.\n\nI leaned back and straighten my back so she could see me in all my naked glory. I asked her where Jason was as I proceeded to look through my bag for my bathing suit. She told me Jason and his father went to the pool store to purchase some chlorine they should be back at anytime. I continued to ruffle though my bag and looked for my bikini. “I think I must have left it in my car. Darn it. I don’t want to put all my clothes back on. This sucks.”\n\n“Here honey”, said Jason’s mom, “just wrap my towel around yourself.”\n\nI took her towel and wrapped it around my waist and headed towards the gate. It was such a turn on thinking about walking out to the curb with my breast exposed. I came to the gate and my heart was racing. I lifted the latch and proceeded outside the fence.\n\nI didn’t see anybody as I slowly crept to the car parked on the curb in front of the house. My pussy was almost dripping it was so wet. I got to my car and saw my bikini on the floor in the back. I was just about to grab it when I changed my mind. This day was getting interesting and my bikini would only get in the way. I turned around and walked back towards the gate. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Jason’s elderly neighbor staring at my naked tits! I just waved to him and said “Nice day isn’t it?” I don’t think he would complain!\n\nI walked back to the pool and said, “I can’t find that darn thing anywhere. Whatever shall I do?”\n\n“Don’t worry about it Sarah. You don’t have to pretend that you can’t find your suit. I have the feeling you just want to be naked in front of me and my family. Am I right?”\n\nI lowered my head. “Your right. I’m sorry for lying. I can get dressed if you want me too.”\n\n“You don’t have to apologize Sarah. When I was your age I never wore clothes unless I was at school or church,” She laughed and continued, “If I still had a body like your I might join you.”\n\nI was about to tell her that her body was as good as mine if not better but I decided there was a better way to express this. I walked up in front of her, our breast almost touching. I reached around her neck and in a quick motion I untied her bikini top and I watched as it fell around her waist. Her breasts were simply perfect and her nipples were small and perky. I reached around her back to unhook her straps and our nipples pressed together. I unhooked her straps and her bra fell on the ground.\n\nI didn’t know what to do next but then I heard a loud noise to my right. I looked over and saw Jason and his father with their mouths gaping open and the bucket of chlorine on the ground. “Hey guys. Sarah is here. I hope you don’t mind if she swims nude. It makes her feel more comfortable.”\n\nNot surprisingly, Jason and his Dad were very agreeable. I decided to break the tension by taking off my towel and jumping in the pool. Jason and his Dad went to their bedrooms to change and Jason’s mom, still topless, hoped into the pool with me. It seems to take 20 seconds for the two men to change into their suits. I could clearly see the bulges in both of their trunks and they came to the pool. They jumped in and everybody tried to act normal. But with two topless females, this swim was anything but normal. We swam, we tanned, we sat around the patio table and chatted and I never bothered to put my clothes on or wrap a towel around me. I was surprised to see Jason’s mother didn’t bother to cover herself either.\n\nI said, “Now I can see why you are always so horny Jason. With a mom like that you should be.”\n\nEverybody thought this was funny but I could see the lust in his eyes. Imagine discovering someone your mother turned out to be an exhibitionist and a very sexy one at that. I wondered if their house would ever be the same after today.\n\nWe swam for a while longer and it was getting near dark. I didn’t want the day to end but I had to work early the next morning and I would have to at least get myself off twice before I go to bed. I said goodbye to Jason and his parents and then I put my bag over my shoulder and walked to the gate naked. “Mom do you mind washing these clothes for me? I can pick them up tomorrow after work.”\n\nShe smiled and said yes as I walk out of the gate once again nude. I saw the same elderly neighbor in his yard. I don’t think he had moved since six hours before. I waved and told him I would be by tomorrow. I couldn’t wait to get home and masturbate myself to sleep.\n\n"}
+{"text": "\n“Okay, are you ready?”\n\n\n \n\n\n“Yes!” Tommy whined. “You’ve been talking for at \n\nleast \n\nthirty minutes!” Phil had offered to teach Tommy to fly because–well, he literally had his wings for what, a few weeks? Not that he told Phil that. Just that he didn’t really have anyone to teach him. \n\n\n\n\n\n\nWhen he offered, long after his leg was healed, Tommy was expecting to start the flying bit straight away, but \n\napparently, \n\nthere were more important things than flinging himself off of a cliff and hoping for the best. \n\n\n \n\n\nImportant things like the wing movements, what feathers did the actual flying parts, and which were just for show. \n\n\n \n\n\n\nGod, \n\nTommy didn’t even know how actual birds dealt with that. Maybe it was just Phil’s overprotectiveness.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Okay… but we are \n\nnot \n\njumping off of a cliff! This is a good place to start, a hill, which you will be able to glide off of.”\n\n\n \n\n\n“Oh, come on! All the mama birds push their babies out of their nest!” \n\n\n \n\n\nPhil huffed, crossing his arms and giving Tommy a look similar to one a father would to a disciplined child. “Well, I’m a good mama bird!”\n\n\n \n\n\nThey both froze at that, a red coming up on their faces. Thankfully, Phil didn’t comment on it, choosing instead to walk towards the ledge.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Okay, so how do I do this– do I jus–”\n\n\n \n\n\nAnd then, as if to challenge what Tommy said, Phil \n\npushed \n\nhim off the hill. Tommy screamed, the\n\n manliest \n\nscream ever, a screech so loud that it felt like his lungs were on fire.\n\n\n \n\n\nAnd at first, Tommy felt like he was flying. The wind flowed through his feathers as he soared through the sky with ease. It felt so freeing. If he was a bird, he would probably never leave the sky.\n\n\n \n\n\nAnd then he fell.\n\n\n \n\n\nTommy tumbled into the grass, falling on his butt. Phil was there in less than a second, huddling closer to Tommy than anyone has ever done, checking his arms and legs for injuries, and then– his hands were in Tommy’s wings, and he couldn't help but freeze up. \n\n\n \n\n\nA chirp left his lips before he had a chance to stop it and he is quick to cover it with a cough. Phil paused, eyes dilated and breath stuck in his chest. When he got his breathing back to normal, he gave Tommy a gentle smile and chirped right back to him.\n\n\n \n\n\nTommy chirped again, sounding strangled by his attempts to keep it down, and he scowled.\n\n\n \n\n\n“It’s natural, mate. Don’t try to stop it.” \n\n\n \n\n\n“But it’s fucking weird!”\n\n\n \n\n\n“Who’s going to judge you, the crows?” Phil turned back to the hill where all the crows were cawing and jumping, a few flying over when the two looked at them.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Well–”\n\n\n \n\n\n“I am literally a bird too,” Phil laughed.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Okay, fair…” Tommy groaned, leaning back to lay in the grass. It tickled his wings and they fluff up. Phil booped his nose and Tommy’s face scrunched up. The older blonde cackled, pulling his wing in front of himself, and started pulling at the loose and disorganized feathers.\n\n\n \n\n\nTommy perked up, watching with fascination as he went through each and every one with great precision and practice. Phil seemed to notice this because his hands stopped moving, Tommy meets his eyes and kind smile. It made Tommy’s heart ache, it had been so long since anyone had ever looked at him with a look of real care. Not that Phil cared about Tommy, no one did, and he was fine with that. Phil was just pitying him.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Do you want to try?”\n\n\n \n\n\nTommy sputtered, looking away, picking at a scab on his hand in an attempt to do something, anything, to distract himself from his irritating thoughts. “Oh no, no, it’s okay. I wouldn’t want to intrude.”\n\n\n \n\n\n“No mate, really! I don’t mind.” Phil spread his wing over Tommy’s lap, his own wings shivered slightly for some undetermined reason, a curious trill bubbling up in his throat. “You know how to preen, right?”\n\n\n \n\nI didn’t even know that birds preened their wings until two days ago, Tommy thought with furrowed brows, but he nodded anyway, hesitantly placing his hands on the wing while Phil moved on to the other one– apparently okay with Tommy touching his wing. The amount of trust that Phil had put in him was probably more than anyone he knew from before he died.\n\n \n\n\nWas he even dead? Maybe in a coma. Are people able to know that they are in a coma? If that’s the case, then he was probably dead. \n\nMaybe you can remember your past life in the afterlife.\n\n \n\n\n \n\n\n\nOr \n\nthis was his limbo. Maybe everyone he loved in this world would die repeatedly as punishment for killing h–\n\n\n \n\n\n“Tommy?”\n\n\n \n\n\n“Oh right, sorry.” Tommy ran a hand down the wing, it was soft. The feathers were silky black like the crows that follow him around, and they look so nice and flawless. How could anyone find anything bad about them! He sighed, all he had to do was find the dirt and pull out the broken feathers. Easy, right?\n\n\n \n\n\nWrong. They look practically \n\nflawless, \n\nit was a shock Phil was able to find anything wrong with them\n\n.\n\n\n\n \n\n\nBut, it seemed as the gods were on his side, for he found one out of place and \n\nyanked. \n\nObviously, that was probably not the smartest thing to do because Phil squawked, blood dripping down the limb. He pulled his wing out of Tommy’s lap and his stomach turned.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Mate– seriously?” Tommy wilted when he glared at him with great annoyance. The look softened at his fearful expression, but then he just looked disappointed, which Tommy didn't think was any better.\n\n\n \n\n\nHe sighed. “It’s fine, please be careful, okay?” And then the wing was placed back on his lap. Phil confused Tommy greatly. Even after he had injured Phil, he still trusted Tommy? He looked back to the wing, and there was a string of blood dripping down it in the area where Tommy had plucked his feather, soaking the others around it.\n\n\n \n\n\nGuilt ate him from the inside, out. His shoulders tensed as he decided to just run his fingers through the wing instead. It looked fine anyways.\n\n\n \n\n\nIn the end, Phil didn’t seem to mind, and they spent the rest of the afternoon lazing around in the grass, sure, it wasnt a great start to his flying experience but at least he got to make some pretty flower crowns with the pink carnation patch he found just a little ways away.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe two were lounging outside of the house eating lunch. Phil had made them some sandwiches, and Tommy found it amusing to make the crows bring him gifts for crumbs. Snickering when one of them brought a gapple from Phil’s chest, said man scowled at the bird and shooed the rest of them off, ending their little game.\n\n\n \n\n\nBut then one particular bird came flying over with a piece of paper in it’s beak and Phil gasped, heading towards the new bird with eagerness.\n\n\n \n\n\nTommy perked up as well, joints popping when he stood up to investigate. “What is it?” He asked, curiously peaked as Phil untied the string tying it together and unraveled the papers. One of them was a photograph of two guys looking to be in their early twenties, shoulder to shoulder with big grins on their faces as they faced the camera. The one on the left, a brunette, had an obnoxiously orange coat. The sleeves were black with little pockets scattered around the fabric, cuffs striped orange against black, and his pants… his pants were as well, neon orange. It was truly blinding. On his back were two huge brown and black speckled wings, one wrapped around the other guy, while the other limb was folded neatly behind his back.\n\n\n \n\n\nThankfully, the other man has better taste in clothing, wearing a standard black suit with a red tie. His brown, fluffy hair had a pair of curly ram horns, twisting down and under his non-human looking ears, rather fluffy and animal like.\n\n\n \n\n\nOne of the papers was a flyer. The title reading \n\n‘EARTH SMP’ \n\nin big text. The rest of the writing was information that Tommy was quick to skim over before Phil’s eyes moved to the next piece of paper. That one seemed like more of a personal letter, so Tommy decided not to read it. \n\n\n \n\n\nPhil gasped and Tommy’s wings fluffed up.\n\n\n \n\n\n“What is it?”\n\n\n \n\n\n“Oh, it’s just Wilbur! He’s starting up an SMP!” Phil smiled at him with an excited grin and Tommy tilted his head, confused. More than one question bubbling up in his thoughts.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Who is Wilbur?”\n\n\n \n\n\nPhil hummed subconsciously, looking back to the letter to read over it again. \n\n\n \n\n\n“Wilbur? He’s my son.”\n"}
+{"text": "When the first rays of light pierced the darkness of the pastures, paddocks, and barns, Jaime was leading Donus into the arena. For about thirty minutes daily he got out of his head and became part of Donus. Claire watched him from the bedroom window and was captivated. Her guilty pleasure in life was staring at this man when no one would see her. After his usual course of heart-stopping jumps he walked Donus smiling and laughing as he talked to him. Jaime jumped down and ran for the arena gate. It took Donus three seconds to gallop after him coming to skid stop at his right shoulder. Jaime looked up at the huge gelding laughing and rubbing his neck.\n\nClaire watched Jaime, unguarded and playful. “In the distance between the arena and barn, the rider gives way to the businessman.” She said out loud.\n\nClaire went home to work on her pool before meeting with Lance. She didn’t mind the weight training now that she wasn’t sore anymore. She knew she was stronger for it and that is what mattered. Lance had Claire lay on her side on the mat, one leg extended. He placed a thirty-pound disc on her inner thigh and told her to lift it off the ground. Jaime slipped into the gym and watched them from behind the observation window. Lance saw him, smiled and waved. Jaime could see Claire struggling. Her face was red and her leg was starting to shake. He saw her bare down and grit her teeth. Jaime was done watching her suffer and shot a look at Lance that said I’m going to kill you if you don’t let her stop. Lance laughed and shook his head no. Jaime couldn’t cope so he left and punched his truck before he got in. \n\nHe picked up his cell phone and dialed Lance’s number to leave a message.”Hey, it’s Jamie. Claire needs the best possible cardio boost she can get in three weeks. She can’t run like she wanted so can you give her some options. Thanks Lance, you and Missy should come for barbeque. As soon as we get back from Claire’s show we’ll do it.” \n\nJamie walked into the barn and almost ran into a striking gentleman waiting for Claire. Jaime decided he was Hollywood handsome with a British accent and impeccable manners. “I have an appointment with doctor Beauchamp. My name is doctor Ethan Grey.” Jaime felt his spine stiffen. “She willna be back soon, can I help ye with somethin.” Dr. Grey was almost as tall as Jaime, easily meeting his eyes. “Has she found someone to manage the equine therapy horses she brought from Boston?” Jaime held his chin for a moment, “ah! Yes, she surely has. A very nice lass has already agreed and doctor Beauchamp trusts her implicitly. So… I can tell her ye came by.” Grey pulled a business card from his perfectly tailored breast pocket. “Thank you, sir. Who are you?” the doctor leaned in slightly. “Jaime Fraser.” ‘Her everything’ he wanted to say. He waved goodbye to the duped doctor and marveled at his complete lack of guilt or conscience.\n\nJaime had a secret he shared with no one, he smiled at the warmth he felt by it. That is my future wife yer askin about doctor Grey. She’ll no see the likes of ye until her name and mine are the same. \n\nJaime’s mam taught him about the sanctity of marriage that would bind him to one woman for the rest of his life. During his years as a rider, he often wondered if there could ever be one woman to claim his heart for eternity. He rather doubted It. His life was a smorgasbord of women that was continuously refreshed. He wondered if he would have seen Claire as unforgettable then. He rather thought he would. A diamond is a diamond no matter where or when you see it. \n\nJaime looked through his mail and pulled out a heavy linen envelope from the Arizona Equestrian Association. The annual auction to raise money for the coming year. Jaime always attended and donated something of value to do his part. He wasn’t crazy about cocktail parties with the elite but hopefully this year he would introduce his new rider and maybe pull the interest of new investors. \n\nHe brought back the image of Claire gritting her teeth to hold the weight up off the floor. The lass wants it. Like he wanted it. When she’s strong enough, she will pull the rest of Jag’s power out and they will be unstoppable. Jag was young, only five years old, and giving about fifty percent of his ability. If she wins Novice he could ask sixty thousand for him. But, it ceased being about the money a while ago. Maybe it was when he saw Claire sitting on the coral bars reading to him. Or when he first saw them jump the cross country. What he did know is Claire surrendered in a hail-Mary-ride and relied on Jag to see her through it. They went in as individuals, they came out as a team. Jag would be officially hers when the transfer of ownership was complete. It will be a surprise and she will be over the moon. What troubled him was Jag might be the very thing that takes her away from him. If she is invited to show abroad will she go? Jaime had to love her enough to let her choose her path, and he would. \n\nClaire was helping Rupert get the horses brushed and wrapped for transport to the show. She was riding the two remaining greenies in equitation, dressage, and hunter jumper. She wanted them to sell so she could get them off her to do list. \n\nFred and Ginger got a warm goodbye hug and Claire felt her guilt rising. She ran an online ad for an equine therapy manager and emailed back and forth with numerous interested people. One man stood out. A fellow equestrian and partner in a four-physician pediatric practice. He had the children in need of Fred and Ginger’s special talents and boundless love. She never met the man but he left word at the barn that his plans had changed. Too bad she thought.\n\nShe only had two more weeks to prepare for the horse trials in Palm Springs. Lance bumped her routine up to include twenty minutes of incline treadmill after every session with him. She hated it but really wanted to live through the four brutal miles of cross country they would ride. \n\nHorses loaded, tack stowed, food loaded into Angus’s truck, they were ready to go. Jaime whistled for Pup but no soft brown dog bounded out of the barn. Claire’s heart was in her throat and she started running straight to Jag’s stall. One of the Pony club kids was playing her music excessively loud until Claire’s finger hit the ‘off’ button. Then she heard it. There was only one dog in the world who hupped and she found him growling and pulling on Jag’s halter and hupping to make him stand up. Jag was having none of it and opted to lay in his wood chips and sleep. “C’mon Pup. It’s Jag’s day off and we gotta roll.” She walked briskly back to the truck and Pup was already in Jaime’s lap, tongue out, and panting. “Jesus! I should be sitting in his lap, panting with my tongue out you little idiot.” Jaime laughed as did Claire and they were off.\n\nThe show was the usual fun, chaotic, two days of events. Rupert and Angus got drunk in the hotel bar, Jaime met with buyers, and Claire’s riding was flawless winning her three of the four events she entered. Her one loss was from number 68 almost falling asleep midway through an eleven jump course. Both horses sold so they would be hauling an empty trailer back tonight.\n\nWhen she got back the hotel she showered and laid on the bed naked feeling dreamy and worn out. Her eyes closed and she slipped in and out of sleep. She dreamed that Jaime’s mouth was kissing her between her legs. She felt his tentative tongue slip in and out of her. She heard herself panting his name and soon figured out this was no erotic dream. His fingers were invading her and tongue flicked her heat until she was groaning. Her legs opened and he finished her savagely. ”Claire was launched into the exquisite bliss while her body pulsed. Jaime kissed her several times before she opened her eyes. “Why are you clothed? Come here and let me fix that.” He stilled her hand. “Canna, must meet the guys for dinner and get on the road.” Claire made a face. That hardly seems fair.” Her sleepy smile made Jaime weak. “I have somethin for ya once yer dressed.”\n\nClaire gathered her purse and gave Pup a kiss. “No hupping” she scolded pointing at him. Before she could reach the door Jaime grabbed her and popped the button on her jeans. He lifted her sweater and exposed her nipples. Then he kissed her, long and deep. Asking for her tongue. Claire felt him dab something on her nipples and between her legs. She broke the kiss as he was fixing her sweater and buttoning her jeans. “What on earth was…Christ! What is that, what is so, God almighty, so, oh shit, Jaim…it is so hot.” He smiled at the look of pure arousal on her face. “Ready Sassenach?” She was not able to speak at the moment so he pulled her along. Now Claire, you must pull yourself together he laughed. She walked stiffly, eyes half closed, smiling. Jaime pulled her into the restroom hallway and kissed her. When he touched her nipple she gasped loudly. “I'm not hungry Jaime lets order room service. He pulled her along to the restaurant.\n\nThe guys congratulated Claire on her wins but she was distracted and flighty. “Ah, myyyy wins…hmm,” several seconds passed, “ah, thank you gentlemen.” Rupert and Angus looked at Jaime with eyebrows raised. “Oh, we started celebratin and Claire’s a bit of a lightweight with alcohol. In other words, the lass is hammered.” The guys were very appreciative of Claire’s condition like she had been inducted into the good-ole-boys club. If either of them had known the look of an aroused woman the ruse would never have worked. Claire would look at each of them now and then and wonder what the conversation was about. Then she would sit back in her chair and feel the magic going on between her legs. Jaime watched her eyes sparkle like diamonds. Her erratic breathing was making it hard for him, literally. \n\nClaire was coming back to her senses as dinner was finishing up. Jaime had her dinner in a container because she didn’t take a bite. He shouted for the guys to be careful on the road and they were gone. Once everything was in the trailer they pointed toward Phoenix. Jaime handed Claire a small jar that said Kuma Sutra on it. Inside was a green gelatinous substance that smelled divine. “Is this what you put on me?” Jaime smiled sheepishly, I’m sorry lass! I dinna expect your reaction, just wanted to surprise ye with something nice. \n\nIt was pushing ten o’clock when they were still an hour away from Phoenix. Claire unbuttoned her shirt and removed it. Jaime paid close attention. She removed her bra and dabbed the green stuff on her nipples. It took about twenty seconds before she started to purr. Next, she took off her boots and pants. Now in her tiny panties, she dabbed the goo on her heat. There was just enough time to smile up at Jaime before, “Oh, Christ! That is, wow… Jaime, oooh it’s getting hotter! He couldn’t watch her wiggle in delight because he was cutting straight across the desert to put some distance between them and the road. He held Claire back when he skidded to a stop and jumped out of the truck. He spread out a bedroll that was kept in the trailer for emergencies and this was the very definition of an emergency. \n\nClaire leaned back on the seat and closed her eyes because the feeling of the gel was so intense. She felt Jaime’s arms come under her and she smelled the amazing desert. He laid her on the blanket and started ripping his clothes off watching her spread her legs wide and arch her back. “Holy mother of God” he whispered. He slid next to her and put more goo on her nipples before he sucked one into his mouth. Claire almost screamed. “That is wow.” She forced her eyes open and asked Jaime to sit up on the side of the truck. When he did she put her face in his lap and Jaime closed his eyes when her warm wet mouth wrapped around the head of his cock before it slid down him. She rocked back on her heels and then forward until he banged into her throat. She held him and buried her face in his balls coming back to slide her mouth around him again. “Jesus yer good at that lass.” Her eyes shot up to his in delight as she tried to say “really?” But having her mouth full at the moment it was unintelligible. Jaime grabbed her shoulders and dropped onto is back pulling her to straddle him. \n\nShe lifted up and dropped her body down on him and gasped. Jaime couldn’t help smiling at his uninhibited lover who was demanding, and bold, and highly aroused. It had been weeks since she was in this position and her mind went blank except for the non-stop porn going on in her head... “Lass?” Claire wasn’t moving. She tried so desperately to remember. Jaime could see the goo was wearing off and he finally realized that she didn’t know how to move. “I’m sorry lass.” He sat up inches from her face. Rolled her to her back, “look up love.” She gasped at the sky so full of stars. Another moonless night like when they went to Silly mountain. \n\nJamie was pushing her legs open. Claire tried to keep her eyes open, watching the amazing sky but Jaime’s tongue won and she peeled off for another trip into her orgasm. Jaime laid beside her, his cock like a granite club and waited for Claire. He was definitely getting rid of the gel. It was a bit much for his sweet no-brake Sassenach. But…it won’t hurt to use a little more out here in the desert. He put a large dab on her nipples and clit and counted from twenty to “God…..damn! Ooooh, hot, so hot! Oh my, yesss.” She was squeezing her thighs together so Jaime gently pushed them apart. When the cool night air hit her core she went silent and arched her back pushing her legs open wider. She was panting and asked “please touch it. Right now, touch me.” she whispered. He sucked her nipples and she reached for his hand pulling it to her. “ah, ye want me to touch ye here where ye so wet and swollen? He wasn’t moving his fingers so she moved her hips against them. Jaime was ready to explode watching Claire in this hyperaroused state. \n\nJaime gave Claire the most exquisite orgasm. When she dropped back to earth she wanted more. ”I want you to pound into me and not hold back Jaime, I need a brute right now.\" One brute coming up! He thought. He spun her around, “drop down to your elbows lass.” When she did he drove himself deep into her. Thrust after thrust she moaned and cried out. His arm came around her and he pulled her up against his chest then pushed her legs wide and sinking deep into her body. “Oh God Jaime!” He pumped her over and over, pushing deep into her. He flipped her around and her legs were up in the air. She wanted nothing in the way of what was coming. He thrust into her, “are ye gonna come for me lass?\" He drove into her again. She was panting and growling as Jaime pushed deep into her scraping his stomach against her throbbing. When he knew she was tumbling he let himself become the brute she asked for and finally exploded deep inside her. They clung together, panting and dripping with sweat. She pressed her face into his neck. “God I love you Jaime.”\n\n“Sassenach, if ye get any better at doin what ye do to me I will lose my mind,” he panted. He buried his face in her hair and growled pulling great giggles from a smiling Claire. Once they were dressed and back on the road Claire turned on the radio and sang to the western songs. “I am starving! Got any cookies or peanuts in here?” She ran her hand along the cubbies and the dash, looked in the glove box, and her hand ran into the Styrofoam container with her dinner. She leaned her back against Jaime and stuck her feet out the window while she ate ribs and sang him home."}
+{"text": "Billy was giving his new job second thoughts for the hundredth time that day as he scanned his security badge into the elevator. A badge that allowed him entrance to a penthouse that the tenants were unable to leave.\n\nFrank said it was for their own safety, that the omegas were far too valuable to risk falling into the wrong hands, but Billy had a feeling the omegas’ personal safety was the least of this company's concern.\n\nThe unfortunate truth, Billy realized, was that he needed the money more than he could afford being critical of his new employers. It still didn’t make it any easier for Billy to wrap his mind around the job.\n\nAs the elevator doors opened, Billy was struck with how hollow the large apartment felt even compared to yesterday when he first laid eyes on it.\n\nHe remained in the entryway, unsure how to proceed. Billy was supposed to introduce himself to the omegas and find a rhythm in his new job. But acting as a personal bodyguard to a single person felt a whole helluva lot different compared to this.\n\nBilly took a deep breath and stepped into the foyer. Confidence was key when it came to establishing yourself as an authority figure.\n\nHe was hit with numerous smells and sounds all at once. Happy, chattering voices mixed with breakfast food and multiple omegas. Voices that died down once his presence was noticed.\n\nThere were six omegas lounging on the plush couches, and one in the kitchen, boys and girls alike. All eyes were on him.\n\nBilly cleared his throat. “Hi, My name’s Billy.”\n\nHe was met with silence.\n\n“Uh, I’m your new security guard.”\n\nA few of the omegas on the couches shared cautious glances. Billy could smell the fear coming off of some of them. “Listen, I’m just planning on settling in and getting to know everyone. You don’t have to worry about me.”\n\n“Wow, you’ve never done this before have you?” An unknown voice spoke up from down the hall.\n\nBilly turned to watch an eighth omega enter the kitchen.\n\nThe first thing he noticed what how unafraid he smelled compared to the other inhabitants. The second was how breathtakingly handsome he was.\n\nThe omega was wearing dark baggy pj pants and a white cotton t-shirt. The wardrobe seemed to perfectly compliment his thick dark hair that framed soft features and deep brown eyes.\n\nBilly thought of a hunting trip Neil took him on long before he ever presented as an alpha. It was the first time he’d ever seen a deer in the wild. A doe with wise bright eyes. She was standing in the middle of a clearing, watching Billy, unblinking and unafraid.\n\nNeil shot her clean between the eyes and laughed at Billy when he cried.\n\nThe brunet staring defiantly at Billy reminded him of that doe as he leaned over and grabbed an orange from the breakfast spread on the kitchen counter. “The last thing Brenner will want you to do is get to know any of us more than you have to.”\n\nBilly didn’t fail to notice how the man had strategically placed himself between Billy and the omega girl in the kitchen, or how all the other people in the room seemed to give him their undivided attention. Billy was most likely looking at their de facto leader. Befriending him would probably make his job worlds easier.\n\nBilly shrugged. “From my past experience, it’s better if I’m friends with the people I’m supposed to protect.”\n\n“Mmm, protect.” The omega repeated.\n\nBilly watched as the girl offered the brunet some kind of salve. Without speaking, the omega accepted it and tugged at the neckline of his shirt, revealing a series of bite marks all along his collarbone. He winced as he massaged the ointment into the wounds. “Trust me William, it’ll be better for everyone if you keep your distance.”\n\nBilly didn’t know what to say, especially after having his first name thrown back in his face with such vehement rejection. The other man was just verbalizing what Billy had been feeling the entire commute to work. That this company was balancing on the edge of a knife between professionalism and fucked-up, and Billy had made himself partially responsible for it by taking the job.\n\nThe marks on the omega’s skin only seemed to confirm that feeling.\n\nBilly licked his lips before speaking, “Look, I know you have no reason to trust me. Hell, you probably have good reason to fear me. But I’m not here to hurt you. I want to help in whatever way I can.”\n\nThe girl leaned into the other omega and whispered. “He doesn’t talk like the others, Steve.”\n\nBilly quickly committed the name to memory. Steve. It suited him, Billy thought as he watched Steve scoff and disappear down the hall back to where the bedrooms were located.\n\nThe room fell silent again, and not for the first time Billy found himself wishing Frank had given him some kind of roster with everyone’s names on it. This was a lot to remember for the first day, and Billy felt like he was already losing his footing.\n\nAs if reading his mind, the girl previously standing next to Steve moved forward and extended a hand.\n\n“I’m Carol,” she gestured towards the occupants of the living room. “On the couch are Brett and Lori, they’re twins.”\n\n The two siblings cautiously waved in response as Carol continued introducing the other omegas. “And that’s Nick, Claire, Tonya, and Beth.”\n\n Billy listened intently to Carol, knowing how important it was to be able to quickly identify his new charges. Despite the luxurious setting, Billy felt like he was at a pet shelter looking at a bunch of strays.\n\nBrett and Lori were sitting close enough that their legs were pressed against each other, as if physical separation would equate to losing a limb.\n\nBeth, a petite woman with olive skin was curled up in the couch corner like a small cat. Billy was sure any sudden movement would send her bolting from sight.\n\nNick reminded Billy of some of the guys he used to know back in California. Sunny bleached blond hair and tanned skin. His cloudy eyes and relaxed posture spoke of years of self-medication.\n\nThe girl next to Nick, Claire, reminded Billy of his little sister back home. Billy wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad thing considering where Claire was working, but he couldn’t deny that her fiery red hair and sharp blue eyes brought some familiar comfort.\n\nTonya on the other hand, reminded him of Neil. Her steel grey eyes seemed to be analyzing and picking him apart. The sneer tugging at the corner of her mouth let Billy know that she was not impressed with what she saw.\n\n Carol nudged Billy with her shoulder. “Don’t worry about Steve, he’s always a little grumpy in the morning.”\n\n “Is he alright?” Billy found himself asking, gesturing to his own collarbone.\n\n Carol’s smile faltered as she looked to where Steve used to be. “Some... customers like to get rough with us. Steve volunteers for those clients as much as possible. I think he’s trying to protect us, but it takes a toll.”\n\n“It’s not like any of us ask him to do that,” Tonya rolled her eyes. “I don’t see why you guys act like he’s such a martyr. The freak probably gets off on those kinds of people.”\n\nBilly turned to Carol, ignoring Tonya’s comment. “Does he need anything? Medicine or bandages...?”\n\n Carol shook her head. “We get everything we need from the medical wing.”\n\n Billy nodded and turned back to where Steve had disappeared. All the different scents in the space were extremely dulled down (probably from the collars), but he still found himself desperately trying to catch a whiff of the omega’s scent.\n\n “Were you being serious when you said you wanted to help?”\n\n Billy snapped his eyes back to Carol. She was self-consciously tugging at the collar around her neck, her eyes looked cautiously hopeful. He nodded.\n\n “Do you think you could get a message to-“\n\n “Carol!” Steve snapped as he walked back into the common area. His eyes were darker, filled with a stern warning as he handed Billy a sheet of paper.\n\n “Here’s our weekly schedule. It might help you actually do your job.”\n\n Billy accepted the slip of paper and looked around the room at the omegas staring back at him. That’s when he realized... he was just another Frank to these people. Hired muscle. An enforcer. Someone to keep them all in line.\n\nIt would take a lot more than kind words and a smile to make them see him as anything else.\n\nAs if on cue the elevator doors pinged open and Frank stepped out. Half the omegas instinctively averted their eyes or shifted to more submissive, unassuming postures.\n\nFrank was either oblivious or used to that behavior, because he didn’t miss a beat as he held three small pieces of paper above his head. “Dance-cards are in ladies and gentlemen.”\n\nEven Steve’s head snapped to attention as the larger alpha made his way around the room.\n\n“Tonya,” Frank read off one of the cards, “you’ve been requested for the end of the week. It’s a new client so go easy on him.”\n\nThe omega sighed and pouted up at Frank. “Pity, I usually like my alphas with a little bite to them…”\n\nBilly didn’t miss Steve huffing a strand of hair out of his face in annoyance.\n\nFrank shook his head and stepped away. “Pity I don’t make the rules around here sweetie.” He said with a wink.\n\nThe exchange left Billy feeling gross. He was beginning to see why Steve was trying to keep him at arm's length from the other omegas. It was too easy for someone like Frank to step in and abuse the power he had over them.\n\nFrank walked to the end of the couch. “Twins! Very exciting news. You two are going abroad.”\n\nBrett glanced at his sister as he hesitantly accepted the card. “We are?”\n\n“Yeah some Ukrainian guy Brenner met is interested in this place. So interested that he’s requested the two of you for the week. We’re leaving in thirty minutes so pack your things.”\n\nLori stood and pulled her brother off the couch and towards the bedrooms. Neither of them looked excited at the news.\n\n“Aaaannd last, and arguably least: Carol.” Frank turned on his heels and handed her the last card. “That Williamson guy must have taken a shine to you because he wants another round tonight.”\n\nSteve stiffened as Carol took the card. Billy could smell the fear wafting from her as she looked up at Frank. “Tonight? But you’re leaving with the twins so who--?”\n\n“Mr. Hargrove over here will escort you.” Frank interrupted and slapped Billy on the back.\n\n“I thought you said I wouldn’t be in charge of taking any of the omegas to their appointments.” Billy interjected.\n\nHe could see Frank’s jaw tighten at being challenged. “Yeah well, your job description just expanded. Congratulations. Carol will show you what to do once you get to the hotel.”\n\nThe alpha made sure Billy was paying attention as he pointed to the omega in question. “She is not allowed out of your sight. Ever. During transit the windows will remain up and she will not be in contact with anyone except her client. Got it?”\n\nFrank didn’t wait to hear his response. Instead he turned and shouted down the hall, “Hey! Dee and Dum! Get your asses moving!”\n\nThe twins had one bag between the two of them as the darted past Billy, only risking a quick goodbye to the rest of their friends before being herded into the elevator.\n\nThere was almost a somberness to the way the omegas departed. As the doors closed Billy could almost swear he saw Lori trembling.\n\nThe remaining occupants stayed motionless for a moment as they heard the elevator descend.\n\n“Fuck.” Steve growled and began pacing the kitchen.\n\n“They’re going to come back.” Nick offered from where he was still slouched on the sofa.\n\n“Really?” Steve rounded on the other omega. “Just like Stacy came back?”\n\nClaire leaned forward from where she was sitting. “That was different, Stacey’s contract was up and she was able to go home.”\n\n“Yeah I’m sure that’s what they want us to believe.” Steve turned back to the kitchen. There was something about his state that reminded Billy of his life with Neil. Like he was a caged animal that was slowly but surely going crazy.\n\n“Well,” Carol began, “I guess I’d better get ready.”\n\nShe held the card in her hand like it might burn her as she shifted from one foot to the next, clearly nervous. That’s all it took to bring Steve down from whatever manic state he was psyching himself into.\n\nSuddenly his fiery eyes were back to soft pools of warmth. “Do you need me to help?”\n\n“No, I can manage.” Carol smiled weakly and began to make her way down the hall.\n\nBilly once again found himself as a loss for what to do. He never imagined he’d be taking one of the omegas to a client on his first day. That was both an incredible responsibility and a sickening task he didn’t know if he was prepared for.\n\nBilly didn’t feel like Frank, he didn’t want to feel like the other alpha. But he wasn’t any closer to the omegas either. He felt stuck somewhere in the middle, unsure as to what side he truly belonged on.\n\n \n\nBilly and Carol stood in silence as the elevator descended to the building’s garage.\n\n“He is nice when you actually get to know him.” Carol spoke.\n\nBilly turned, but the small omega next to him kept her eyes on the doors. “Huh?”\n\n“Steve. He’s just angry and misses his friends.” She looked down at her shoes. Something told Billy that Steve wasn’t the only one who missed people on the outside.\n\n“Did you two know each other before this?”\n\nCarol looked up with a sad smile and nodded. She wasn’t Billy’s type, but there was certainly an undeniable beauty to her features. She reminded him of the women depicted in renaissance paintings. Bright, full-figured, and possessing the perfect harmony of strength and grace.\n\n“We went to school together, shared friends, and were planning on going to the same college.” Carol brushed away a tear from her face, careful not to smear her makeup. “Things changed when Steve and I presented as omegas, god that feels so long ago…”\n\nBilly offered her a tissue that she graciously accepted. “I think I’d be pretty angry too if I had to leave that life behind.”\n\n“Oh, Steve’s not mad about that,” Carol laughed bitterly and shook her head. “His parents sold him to Brenner Relations in exchange for stock in the company. They’re literally making money from whoring their son off to the highest bidder.”\n\nBilly felt his stomach churn at Carol’s words. What kind of person does that to their own son?\n\nNeil would have, if he had the chance. But he didn’t, because Billy was an alpha. Steve’s hadn’t been that lucky.\n\n“I’m sorry.” He offered lamely, knowing that sorry didn’t begin to cover the fucked-up life that these people were coerced into living.\n\n“How did you…?” Billy began, unsure if he could, or even wanted to finish the question.\n\n“How did I end up here?” Carol finished, handing the tissue back. “Brenner Relations offers a five-year contract to any interested and unbound omega. I get five percent of whatever I make, and I get to keep the clothes and trinkets that clients bought me at the end of the contract.”\n\n“Five percent?” Billy stared in surprise. That was nothing!\n\nCarol sadly shrugged. “It doesn’t sound like a lot but it’s a pretty sizeable nest-egg for when I get out of here. I couldn’t afford to live anywhere after high school. This place was kind of my only option. I’m actually lucky I got in…” She trailed off, half-heartedly.\n\nBilly was still in shock. “You consider yourself lucky to be here?”\n\nCarol frowned. “Almost all of us do, but I wouldn’t expect you to understand.” She turned away from Billy, staring resolutely at the empty elevator wall.\n\n“How could you?” She whispered, “How could someone who chooses this kind of job ever understand people who never had a choice.”\n\n \n\nThe hotel suite looked more like an apartment to Billy. But then again, anything would look absolutely lavish compared to the closet he was renting.\n\nThere was a fully stocked kitchen and spacious bathroom, but the obvious focal point within the space was the queen-sized bed. Billy felt like he was more uneasy than Carol when they entered the room.\n\nThe omega hadn’t said much on the drive over, but this clearly wasn’t new territory for her.\n\n“Banana Bread.” She said as she reached for a wrapped present on the bed.\n\nBilly turned in confusion. “Sorry?”\n\nCarol unwrapped the gift to reveal a school-girl’s outfit. Her expression remained uncharacteristically blank. “That’s my safeword. If I say it during any part of the night then you need to step in.”\n\n“H-how will I hear you? Is there a room I’m going to be listening from…?”” Billy looked around the suite again, but he couldn’t see any obvious spaces.\n\nCarol shook her head. “You have to stay and watch.”\n\n“Excuse me?”\n\nThe omega pointed to a chair in the corner of the opposite end of the room. “Frank usually sits there. You don’t have to say or do anything. The client will probably pretend you’re not here anyway. You just need to make sure he doesn’t get too rough.”\n\nBilly felt sick to his stomach as he stared at the corner. “How will I know?”\n\nCarol shrugged and looked down at the outfit in her hands, gently rubbing the material between her fingers. “If he starts getting too violent. Mostly if he tried to damage this.”\n\nShe vaguely gestured to the collar around her neck. “I need to get changed. You should probably make yourself comfortable, he’ll be here soon.”\n\nBilly sat down in the chair, feeling utterly helpless and out of place. He didn’t know if he could actually go through with this, watching Carol submit to some rich perv. This wasn’t the job he signed up for.\n\nWith nothing else to do, Billy reached for the “dance card” that Frank had given Carol earlier. At first it looked like some kind of business card, but upon closer inspection Billy realized it was more like a restaurant ticket for sexual fantasies.\n\n\n“Student/Teacher fantasy (uniform provided). Virgin-fantasy. Resistance. Oral & Penetration.”\n\n\nIt felt so dehumanizing to see Carol’s night printed out for her like she was some customizable toy. That’s probably all she was in the eyes of her clients.\n\nBilly was on the verge of bolting and taking Carol with him when there was a knock at the door.\n\nCarol emerged from the bathroom dressed in the school girl’s outfit. “Just remember the safe word.” She whispered to him before reaching for the doorknob.\n\nThere was a brief moment where Carol seemed to take a deep breath and collect herself before she pulled the door open with a smile.\n\n“Mr. Williamson! Thank you so much for coming!” She stepped aside and allowed her client to enter.\n\nWhatever Billy was expecting, Williamson did not match up.\n\nThe guy genuinely looked like a college professor! Which granted, could easily just be part of the fantasy, but Billy’s gut told him this was an outlet for Williamson to experience things he wanted to enact in reality.\n\n“Miss Harper,” Williamson removed his glasses and looked her over. “I’m hoping you know why I asked to meet.”\n\nCarol brought delicate, painted nails up to her face in contemplation. “I thought you wanted to talk about my grade on the last test.”\n\nWilliamson smiled and shook his head. For a split second he met Billy eye and they both acknowledged each other’s presence, but then the man slipped back into his fantasy.\n\n“As a matter of fact Miss Harper, it’s come to my knowledge that you cheated on that test.”\n\nCarol gasped in shock and Billy had to hand it to her, she could sell a scene. “That’s no true! How could you say something like that?”\n\nWilliamson stepped into Carol’s personal space, backing her up against the bed. “It doesn’t matter if it’s true or not, the school board will have you expelled once they hear about this.”\n\n“No.” Carol whispered as she fell onto the bed. “There has to be something you can do, you have to believe me!”\n\nWilliamson smiled and tugged at one of the buttons on Carols blouse, popping it open and revealing some cleavage. “Well, I’m sure we can come to… some kind of agreement…”\n\nCarol’s eyes widened as she held her arms protectively over her chest. “No Mr. Williamson please!”\n\nShe turned to her side, eyes misting over with tears. “I-I’m saving myself for someone…”\n\nThere was something to the delivery of that line that struck Billy. It made him wonder if there was someone out there waiting for Carol.\n\nWilliamson laughed and pulled her hands away. “Frankly my child, I don’t care what you want.”\n\nHe dove on top of Carol, her screams filling the room as he tore away her clothes and hiked up her skirt, revealing pink lace panties.\n\nBilly was frozen on the edge of his seat. His eyes remained focused on Carol’s face, waiting for her to call out her safe word.\n\nBut it never happened, not when Williamson pinched and twisted her breasts until they were red, or even when he turned her over and forced himself inside her.\n\nCarol screamed and cried almost the entire night. But she never called for Billy to save her.\n\nThe minute Williamson left the apartment, Billy was on his feet and running across the room.\n\n“Are you alright?” He reached out, but was afraid to touch her.\n\nCarol looked absolutely spent, and there were still tears falling down her face. Her eyes refused to focus, but she managed to give a nod. “C-could you help me to the shower?”\n\nBilly didn’t think twice before gently scooping her up and carrying Carol to the bathroom. Even to Billy’s nose, she stank of alpha and sweat. He couldn’t imagine how she must be feeling.\n\nCarol stood against the tiled shower and took a few shaky breaths. “I’ve got it from here.\n\nThanks.”\n\nBilly didn’t want to leave. But he didn’t want Carol to feel any worse than she obviously already did. Which is why he found himself back in that awful chair, resolutely not looking at the bed and messy sheets in the middle of the room.\n\nThe only thing he seemed to be able to focus on was the muffled sound of Carol crying.\n\n \n\nThe drive back home was even worse than the drive to the hotel. Billy felt sick to his stomach, and Carol seemed almost entirely checked out.\n\n“Is there anything I can do? Anything I can get you?” He offered.\n\nCarol slowly turned to stare at him. Her eyes were distant and red-rimmed from the crying. “Can you go back in time and make sure I never present as an omega?”\n\nBilly frowned and turned his eyes back to the road. He heard Carol sigh.\n\n“Yeah, I didn’t think so.” She leaned her head back and stared up at the stars through the car window.\n\n“I used to love the stars.” She half-whispered to herself. “I liked the idea that they were somehow responsible for our traits and destinies.”\n\nBilly watched as Carol blinked away more tears and stubbornly rubbed at her nose. “But now I hate it. I hate that maybe someone or something out there always meant for me to be an omega, to suffer. The stars seem so cold and far away now. Just like everything else.”\n\nThe car was once again filled with silence. Billy absently wondered how Frank handled these situations. The shattered aftermath that must have occurred after every client.\n\nFrank probably would have kept Carol in the backseat, refusing to acknowledge or attempt to fix any of this wretched night.\n\nBut Billy wasn’t Frank.\n\nHe pressed a button on the console, and Carol’s window began to roll down.\n\nShe stared in surprise at first, her eyes suddenly alert as she turned to Billy, checking to see if this were some kind of trick.\n\nHe merely kept his eyes on the empty road and gave a small nod.\n\nCarol slowly smiled before she leaned out the car window and felt the cold night air blowing past her face for the first time in years, completely disregarding any rules or restrictions that previously held her prisoner. Her thick brown hair blew all around her, tangling carefree in the wind as Carol began to laugh. Her voice sounded raw and scratched, and Billy tried not to think about the night’s events that caused it.\n\nBilly still felt sick to his stomach after the hotel room. But a small smile crept along his face as he watched Carol look at the stars and stick her hand out to feel the wind pushing back at her.\n\nHe might not have been able to protect her from her client. But he could do this.\n\nFor a small window of time, in the dead of night where no prying eyes or rough voices could hurt her, Carol was free. If only for just a moment.\n\nBut maybe a moment was enough for now.\n\n \n\nBy the time they got back to Brenner Relations, the entire building was dark. Carol was still smiling as they rode the elevator up to the penthouse. She hadn’t spoken much, but Billy didn’t expect her to.\n\nHe was surprised to see Steve waiting for them when the doors opened. The omega was sitting on the couch, a blanket bunched up in his hands as if he had been wringing it all night.\n\n“Steve!” Carol whispered and happily bounced into his personal space.\n\nSteve stood and pulled her into a hug. “Are you alright?”\n\nCarol sighed and nodded into his shoulder. “It wasn’t so bad. He didn’t want me the entire night.”\n\nThey remained like that for a moment, allowing the two omegas to even out their breathing and relax into each other’s arms. Eventually Steve pulled Carol at arm’s length and looked her over. He frowned when he noticed her wind-blown hair.\n\n“What happened to your hair?” He asked, reaching out and trying to detangle the mess on top of her head.\n\n“Oh!” Carol smiled and looked over her shoulder. “Billy let me put my head out the window on the drive back. It was amazing, you should have seen the stars!”\n\nBilly watched Steve focus on him as if the omega hadn’t noticed his presence until now. Those eyes that were so guarded earlier this morning now held something that resembled soft curiosity.\n\n“You did that for her?”\n\nBilly shrugged, suddenly extremely self-conscious under Steve’s gaze. What was it about the omega that completely evaporated his defenses? “I… I just wanted to help.”\n\nSteve slowly detached himself from Carol and shuffled over to where the alpha still stood in the entryway. For what felt like forever, all Steve did was stare as if he were searching for something in Billy’s deep blue eyes.\n\nWhatever it was, Steve must have found it because he slowly offered his hand to the alpha. “Thank you.”\n\nBilly felt like a seventeen-year-old with a crush as he shook the omega’s hand, trying not to react to how soft and warm it felt. It was nothing like Frank’s, or any alpha’s handshake for that matter. There was no show of dominance or strength. It felt genuine, and welcoming.\n\n“Don’t mention it.” Billy mumbled as he turned back to the elevator.\n\n“Good night Billy!” Carol whispered.\n\n“Night,” Billy turned back as he walked away, which resulted in him walking into the elevator doors as they opened.\n\n Billy felt like such an embarrassing idiot, until he heard a soft laugh behind him. Turning again, Billy watched as Steve covered his mouth, trying to conceal the grin that had spread across his face. Steve’s laugh wasn’t cruel, or mocking. Billy could listen to that sound for the rest of his life and never get tired of it.\n\nAs the elevator doors closed in front of him, Billy licked his lips. “Good night Steve.”\n\nThe elevator began to move downwards. But Billy’s enhanced hearing was still able to pick up the words Steve whispered after the doors closed.\n\n\n“Good night, Billy.”\n"}
+{"text": "As Catra slowly exited Adora’s room, she found herself in a large hallway that stretched in both directions. Unsure of which way to go, she decided to head left. The worst thing that could happen was that she would have to turn around, right? Catra kept walking until she seemed to reach the end of the hallway, where she stood in front of two massive doors and heard conversating behind them.\n\n\nMaybe this leads to the great hall?\n\n\nCatra pushed open the door on the right, peaked her head in and immediately regretted her decision.\n\n\nWhat’s going on here?\n\n\nInside, sat the Queen of Bright Moon high on her throne, most of the royal guard, some servants and what Catra assumed were other important people based on their uniforms.  It appeared that they were having some kind of meeting? Whatever it was, Catra did not want to stick around to find out.\n\nShe tried to slowly back her way out of the entrance, but the door let out a loud creak. Suddenly, all eyes were on her, and Catra tensed immediately.\n\n\nFuck.\n\n\n“Adora? What a pleasant surprise!” The queen greeted her. “I did not request your presence in this gathering today, what brings you in?\n\n\nOh Gods. Oh Shit! How would Adora respond? Think Catra! Think!\n\n\nStill barely peeking out from between the doorway, Catra tried to think on the spot. She knew that Adora was always respectful to people in charge, even if they were awful people like Shadow Weaver. So, she decided that she should try to keep this conversation very formal and end it as quickly as possible.\n\n“Good morning your…majesty. I was… just checking in to see…who was attending this meeting…to make sure that I didn’t need to take notes…for those individuals who did not attend.” Catra smack herself mentally. To her, the answer seemed really dumb, but she hoped the queen would buy it.\n\n“Oh, Adora, you know there is no need for you to do that.” Angella spoke softly. “The royal scribe is present at all times, and anyone who misses a meeting can refer back to these notes at any given time.”\n\nCatra didn’t know how to respond.\n\nThe Queen gave her a soft smile before speaking again. “Always thinking about work, aren’t you? Promise me one of these days you’ll take a day off please.”\n\n\nTake a day off? Ppsssstttt. When did Adora ever do that?\n\n\n“Right… the royal scribe… guess I forgot about that. I’ll try to relax more, I promise.” Catra affirmed.\n\n\nPromise.\n\n\n\nHuh.\n\n\nProbably another one Adora wouldn’t be able to keep even if it came out of Catra’s mind.\n\nCatra then realized that she had just been standing there idly in the doorway for a few seconds and decided that this would be her best chance to try an escape this very awkward encounter.\n\n“Sorry for the intrusion your majesty, but I should really be on my way, your daughter is waiting for me after all!”\n\nShe shut the door behind her as quickly as possible and headed off towards the other end of the hall as fast as Adora’s stupid legs would take her. Adora’s body was built for strength, not agility like Catra’s body.\n\nStill walking down the hallway, she took in the many murals that seemed to line these walls. She saw many figures she didn’t recognize, but she did spot the Horde soldiers that appeared in some of the murals. Surprisingly, they weren’t portrayed as evil, just as a foe of the Rebellion. Catra just assumed that it probably be too graphic to depict the realities of war on the castle walls. These pictures were meant to tell a story, not to scare the living shit out of Bright Moon’s citizens.\n\nShe kept walking.\n\nIn reality, Bright Moon was much easier to navigate than the Horde. At least it would have been if she knew where she was going. Here, it seemed that all rooms and corridors branched out from this main hallway, unlike the Horde where you could get easily lost in the many twists and turns of its layout. Catra took a mental note of Bright Moon for future reference.\n\nNever know when I might have to sneak in on a stealth mission, she thought.\n\nNot that she had ever thought about sneaking in before.\n\nTo see Adora.\n\nNo, never.\n\nFinally, Catra found herself in a large open area, which she assumed could only be the great hall. Her suspicions were confirmed when she spotted Glimmer and Bow, who stood facing each other, talking about something that Catra couldn’t quite hear. From what she could see, however, was Bow was gesturing wildly and Glimmer was almost doubled over in laughter. Whatever they were talking about must have been funny. Dare she say, she almost kind of felt left out?\n\n\nStupid human ears, and why do I even care. They aren’t my friends.\n\n\nAs Catra approached, they both gave her questioning looks.\n\n“Hey, I’m ready. Are we leaving soon?” She said as she came to a stop next to the duo.\n\n“How are you ready?” Bow questioned. “You literally don’t even have any shoes on!”\n\nRight…Adora did where shoes. Good thing the Queen didn’t see that.\n\nGlimmer eyed her too. “And your hair is still down! You never leave the castle without your hair up.”\n\n\nWhoops.\n\n\nBow looked her over again. “And the sword! You’re always carrying it around!”\n\nIn this moment, Catra was failing miserably at being Adora.\n\nShe had completely forgotten about the sword in her daze that was waking up in Adora’s body. Would it even work for her? Not being able to turn into She-Ra would give her away. But, did she even want to be She-Ra?\n\nThe thought made her shiver.\n\n“Oh yeah… I was just testing you both to see if you’d notice…” Catra gave them a weary smile.\n\n\nWhat a fucking stupid answer.\n\n\n“Give me one sec and I’ll be right back!” Catra turned around and made her way back to Adora’s room to put on shoes, pull back her hair and grab the sword, leaving Glimmer and Bow in the great hall.\n\n“She’s acting really weird today right?” Bow asked as he turned to face Glimmer.\n\n“Yeah, totally.” She nodded. “I just thought that she was just being strange after the nightmare she had, but the breakfast incident and now this … it’s definitely out of character for her.”\n\nBow pondered for a moment. “She has been very standoffish too. Maybe we should ask her questions on the way to the ruined city to see if we can help her out? Maybe something is bothering her?”\n\n“Good idea, I want to get to the bottom of this. She’s our friend and if she needs help, we should be there for her.” Glimmer said confidently.\n\nCatra entered the bedroom again and slipped on a pair of socks and Adora’s ridiculous boots, which were way too hot for this time of year and attempted to pull her hair into a high and tight ponytail with that stupid little poof that she always had. She didn’t even need that poof anymore; it was just a leftover side effect from the bangs incident a few years ago in the Horde. Which was hilarious. The two of them had found a pair of scissors in an abandoned storage closet a few years back. Catra had dared Adora to give herself bangs, which she would only agree to if Catra cut her hair too. Adora left the storage closet with lopsided bangs and Catra with a patchy undercut.\n\nCatra smiled to herself as she reminisced the event, even when she remembered the repercussions they faced when Shadow Weaver found out.\n\nContinuing with the ponytail, Catra’s eye was drawn to something in particular on Adora’s body. While she still had both hands in her hair, she noticed how the muscles in Adora’s arms moved with every adjustment Catra made to the ponytail. It was fascinating. She managed to put up her hair fairly nicely, surprising even herself, but she couldn’t resist raising up her right arm and curling up her bicep.\n\n\nAm I really flexing right now?\n\n\nCatra couldn’t help it. She didn’t have the muscle mass that Adora had, and to be honest if she was Adora she would be flexing at every opportunity that she had. Which who was she kidding, Adora basically did flex at every opportunity, especially when she was She-Ra. Speaking of which.\n\n\nWhere’s that sword?\n\n\nCatra glanced around the room briefly before finding the sword on the right side of the bed that she had woken up in hours ago. How had she not noticed that before? She hesitantly walked over to it and grabbed the hilt. It felt physically lighter than she remembered, but mentally it almost felt like a burden. Catra inspected the sword seeing her reflection, or rather Adora’s reflection, shine back at her. Would this thing even work for her now?\n\n\nI’m really about to try this aren’t I?\n\n\nShe sighed and raised the sword above her head.\n\nShe could recall these next words at any moment, she has heard them at least a dozen times.\n\n“For the honor of Grayskull!”\n\n…\n\n…\n\n…\n\nNothing.\n\nCatra had expected there to be some kind of blinding light and transformation, but the failure was rather lack luster.\n\n\nWell, this isn’t good.\n\n\nShe strapped the sword to her back and left the bedroom with uncertainty written across her face.\n\nReentering the great hall, Catra tried to remain cool, and kept the thought of not being able to turn into She-Ra in the back of her mind. Glimmer noticed her first and a huge smile spread across her face and Bow happily clapped his hands together.\n\n\nGross. How can they be so enthused this early?\n\n\n“Finally! Come on let’s go!” Glimmer cheered as Catra joined them again.\n\n“Adventure!” Bow cheered.\n\nGlimmer pinched the bridge of her nose. “Bow… stop.”\n\nHe frowned slightly. “What it’s cool when Sea Hawk says it!”\n\n“You… ARE NOT SEA HAWK!” Glimmer shouted.\n\n\nUgh, so fucking annoying! How am I supposed to put up with these two for a whole day!?\n\n\nThe trio walked out the main entrance, and Catra took in the sights around her. Bright Moon really was a beautiful place when it wasn’t being attacked by the Horde…by her. The runestone illuminated the entire kingdom giving an ethereal lightness to the whole place. If there was any place that Adora should be able to relax it would be Bright Moon, but Adora being Adora, it didn’t surprise Catra that even here, she wouldn’t be able to.\n\nThey entered the Whispering Woods, still slightly damaged from freezing over during the battle, but steadily growing back. Catra, made a mental note to report this if she ever made it back to the Horde. The refortification of the Whispering Woods would definitely hamper another attack on Bright Moon.\n\nShe noticed as they were walking that Bow and Glimmer seemed to keep their pace in front of her, so she remained in the back. Weird, she sarcastically imagined that the ‘best friend squad’ would hold hands and skip everywhere they went.\n\nThe thought made her chuckle slightly to herself.\n\n“It shouldn’t take us long to get back to the civilian town, or I guess ruins now.” Bow pulled out his tablet. “My tracker pad says probably a few hours.”\n\n\nAhhhh, so that where we’re going…and a few hours? Geez did these guys really walk everywhere. No wonder Adora has legs of steel.\n\n\n“Great! Just enough time for some quality bonding! Right, Bow?” Gimmer asked as she nudged him in the side with her elbow.\n\n“Sure is Glimmer!” He returned the gesture.\n\n\nOkay, so these two are acting weird now.\n\n\n“Soooooo… Adora… what’s your favorite animal? Glimmer asked as she looked back at Catra who was still trailing slightly behind them.\n\nThey didn’t really have animals in the Horde, so Catra struggled slightly. She knew about the thing Adora rode around on, but she had no idea what it was called.\n\n“Uhhhhhh… my companion?” She answered unsurely.\n\nThis answer made Bow and Glimmer look at each other.\n\n\nGuess that was the wrong answer?\n\n\nBow then asked another question. “What would you say is your worst habit?”\n\nThis was an easy question. Catra knew that Adora couldn’t stay still to save her live.\n\n“Not being able to keep still, or I guess not being able to relax in any way according to the people around me.” Catra said with an involuntary grin on her face.\n\nGlimmer laughed.\n\n\nGuess she liked that answer?\n\n\n“Okay, biggest pet peeve?” She continued to question her.\n\n\nMaybe, people asking me so many fucking questions!?\n\n\nObviously Catra couldn’t say that, and there were so many things that Catra did that she knew pissed Adora off, but what was something that would still pertain to her now?\n\n“When people take my stuff.” She said as she shrugged her shoulders.\n\nGlimmer smiled at her. “Yeah that’s for sure. You get heated if anyone tries to take your sword away from you!”\n\nCatra definitely knew all about that…\n\n“Favorite food?” Bow asked.\n\nThat question threw Catra off slightly. “At the Horde? Definitely the grey ration bars. Now…?”\n\nAnother shared glance between Bow and Glimmer.\n\nMentioning the Horde was a slip up. Catra didn’t really know if Adora had a new favorite food outside of the Horde, so she came up with the best answer she could think of. A very Adora answer she thought.\n\nShe eyed the two before attempting to correct her answer. “I’m not really sure, everything is sooooooo tasty out here!”\n\nThat answer came out a little more sarcastic than she intended it to.\n\nGlimmer was looking a little skeptical now.  “Okay… tell me what’s your favorite color?\n\nOh, Catra knew the answer to this question in a heartbeat.\n\nShe smiled to herself. “Well…that’s kind of a trick question. I have two favorite colors, blue and yellow obviously.”\n\n\nWhat was this anyway? 20 questions? Maybe these two didn’t know as much about Adora as I thought. This all seems very one-sided too. \n\n\n\nAre they starting to get suspicious of me?\n\n\nWhat Catra didn’t know was that Glimmer and Bow were doing this on purpose. Asking her questions, that they already knew the answer to, to see if something was up.\n\n“Adora… could you give Glimmer and I a moment for a sec? Bow said as the group stopped walking.\n\n“Ah, sure? I guess I’ll just go over here?” She said as she thumbed to a general area of the woods.\n\nAs Catra walked away and leaned against a nearby tree, Bow turned to face Glimmer.\n\n“This is incredibly weird right?! Like, she’s getting most of the questions at least half right, but it’s like she’s not herself, like she only knows bits and pieces of her own personality!” Glimmer whisper shouted as she looked over to where Catra was standing.\n\nBow looked at her two as Catra picked at her nails. “Yeah, it’s almost as if she only knows the stuff she knew about herself when she was… still in the Horde… you don’t think?”\n\nGlimmer’s eyes widened. “SHE LOST ALL HER MEMORY ABOUT US AND IS ONLY PLAYING ALONG NOW?”\n\n“No, Glimmer. Calm down.” Bow said as he placed his hands on her shoulders to ground her. “This is going to sound crazy, but what if Adora, isn’t Adora?”\n\n“WHAT!?’ Glimmer shouted a little too loudly.\n\nCatra glanced at the pair, but still couldn’t hear their conversation.\n\n“Shhhhhhh! Bow shushed her.\n\nGlimmer narrowed her eyes before lowering her voice. “What do you mean Adora isn’t Adora?”\n\n“I think that Adora’s body is still here, but here consciousness isn’t. I mean, think about it. Why else would she not be able to answer simple questions about herself? She only knows the answers to them as if she knew herself only when she was in the Horde. Almost as if she were a friend of herself and not her.” Bow attempted to explain but he was thinking but Glimmer still looked doubtful.\n\n“Bow, that’s insane! How would that even happen?” She asked.\n\n“Oh, I don’t know Glimmer! Etherian magic? Being able to turn into an 8ft tall warrior princess? Witchcraft? A curse? Take your pick!” Bow exclaimed as he listed off all the possibilities as to how this could have happened.\n\nGlimmer crossed her arms over her chest. “No, need to get snippy Bow!”\n\nBow felt guilty. “Okay, I’m sorry… maybe it has something to do with us leaving Adora in the ruins by herself yesterday?\n\n“I knew we shouldn’t have left her alone!” Glimmer said as she perked up slightly. “How are we even supposed to figure out who is in Adora’s body?”\n\nBow pondered this question for a moment before he smiled and brought his right fist down into his left. “Hit ‘em where it hurts?”\n\n“Yeah!” Glimmer smiled before becoming confused. “Wait… what?”\n\nHe laughed slightly at his friend’s sudden change of emotions. “Ask her about the only thing Horde soldiers are uncomfortable with; relationship questions.”\n\nA mischievous smile broke across her face. “Brilliant!”\n\nAs Catra was leaning on some tree, watching Glimmer and Bow as the seemingly argued with each other for the umpteenth time today, she really wondered how she found herself in this situation. What would drive Adora to go this far? Why would she want to switch bodies with her of all people? Her thoughts were interrupted by a flail of Glimmer’s arms, which she assumed was her signal to rejoin the duo.\n\n“You guys done asking me questions yet?” Catra asked as she sauntered her way over to the pair.\n\n“Not quite, we have one more for you.” Bow said.\n\nCatra rolled her eyes.\n\nGlimmer raised an eyebrow before speaking up; looking way too smug for Catra’s liking.\n\n“Have you ever been in a relationship?” She spoke in a teasing tone.\n\nCatra was confused. “A what?”\n\n“Come on Adora! We’ve been over this!” Bow said playfully. “A relationship is between two, or more people in some cases, that deeply care for each other. Their love is more that platonic and they are romantically involved.”\n\nCatra really didn’t know how to respond to this question, they didn’t really have relationships in the Horde. By the sounds of it, Adora and herself may have been in a relationship. All the gentle brushes against one another in the hallway, the handholding, heated sparring, cuddling…\n\nA blush spread across her cheeks as Bow and Glimmer grinned at her.\n\n\nOh, they’re still waiting for an answer… and I think they definitely think something is up now.\n\n\nAnd if they were getting suspicious of her, she might as well have some fun.\n\nA smug smile graced Catra’s face. “Oh, you mean like me and Glimmer?”\n\n“WHAT!” Glimmer shouted.\n\nCatra disregarded her tone. “Yeah, aren’t we like a thing?”\n\nGlimmer was really getting frustrated at this point.\n\n“NO! THAT’S ENOUGH! TELL ME WHO YOU ARE!” She shouted.\n\nCatra, suddenly found herself pinned against a tree, with Glimmer staring up at her. She had a firm hold on Catra’s shoulder, her right fist was raised, and it was surrounded by pink energy. Catra could really squirm away from this hold if she wanted to, but honestly, she was finally having fun now.\n\n“Take it easy there Sparkles, you might run out of juice again.” She said to egg her on.\n\nThe stern expression on Glimmer’s face fell at the realizeation, but it quickly turned into something a little harsher. “Sparkles? Wait… CATRA?!?!?!?”\n\n“Awww, you finally figured it out.” Catra mocked.\n\nGlimmer tightened her hold on Catra’s shoulder and the energy around her fist glowed brighter.\n\n“What have you done to Adora!” She asked in a harsh tone.\n\n“What have I done?” Catra chuckled and rolled her eyes. “More like what has Adora done to herself and to me!”\n\n“Come one guys, settle down.” Bow interjected. “Glimmer please release Ador… Catra and we can try to figure this out together.”\n\nGlimmer remained firm. “Not until she gives us answers Bow!”\n\n“I don’t think you want to do that.” Catra said calmly.\n\n“What are you gonna do? Lick me again?” She scoffed.\n\nCatra smirked again. “If you want me to princess. It would probably be more fun as Adora anyway.”\n\nWith a wink, Catra saw Glimmer’s face flush red.\n\n\nHa! It’s too easy messing with her. Almost as easy as messing with Adora.\n\n\n“But seriously, it’s not like I’m going to run off. I have nowhere to go and I’m definitely not going back to the Horde looking like this!” Catra exclaimed.\n\nGlimmer slowly released her grip from Catra and the energy around her fist slowly dissipated. The two harshly glared at each other before Glimmer spoke up again. “Fine, but now we need to find Adora, the real Adora.”\n\nCatra pushed off the tree and smoothed out her shirt. “Look at us, finally able to agree on something.”\n\n“Great!” Bow said as he body relaxed from the standoff ending. “Now that we’re all on the same page, where do you think we can find her?”\n\nShe thought for a second. “Well, you all had this expedition planned since last night, right? If I know Adora, she’ll try anything possible to meet up with you guys because she knew where you were already going to be, which means…\n\nCatra was suddenly cut off by Glimmer.\n\n“…she’ll be heading towards the ruins too!” She shouted excitedly.\n\nCatra let out an irritated grunt and then mumbled “Yeah…that’s exactly what I was going to say.”\n\n“That means we have no time to lose! According to my tracker pad we can get there in an hour or so if we jog.” Bow stated as he looked down at the tablet.\n\n“Or I can just teleport us there.” Glimmer interrupted. “I know where it is and it’s not that far.”\n\n“Nope, no way, nuh uh.” Catra refuse.\n\n“Come on! Don’t you want your body back! This is the quickest way to do it.” Glimmer said as she tried to convince her.\n\nAfter internally debating with herself and weighing the pros and cons, Catra made up her mind.\n\n“Fine.” She relented.\n\nShe held out an arm and Glimmer looped her arm around hers to lock their elbows together. The trio was then engulfed in pink magic and Catra remembered how much she had hated this feeling.\n\nWhen the group had rematerialized, they had arrived at the ruins."}
+{"text": "The next practical saw 1-A assembled at one of the outdoor training grounds. The staff had been rotating to cover Aizawa’s lessons while he recovered from the USJ attack, and All Might had been chosen to cover their next practical. Still following Aizawa’s lesson plans, of course. Izuku had been tasked with reporting back to his mentor whether or not any changes had been made from his instructions, and after the first time someone decided to go off his carefully structured assignments none of the substitutes were willing to press their luck again. Izuku wasn’t quite sure what Aizawa had done, but it made Hizashi laugh every time it was mentioned, so he assumed it had to have been good. \n\n\tWith the Sports Festival only a week away, they were all focusing on getting in as much training as possible. It was different from before though. None of them could deny that. Izuku knew his own reasons for feeling off, and there was no telling what the others had been through when they were scattered through the USJ or blocked by the warp villain. It was with only a little hesitation that he had passed on what he saw to Aizawa. If he had been at school, Aizawa would have noticed in a second what was wrong with his class. It was only fair that someone tell him how they were doing so he could adjust the lessons as needed. \n\n“Freeze tag?” \n\nThe group huddled around All Might as he explained the lesson Aizawa had prepared for them, looking at each other as though they weren’t quite sure they had heard the hero correctly. Aizawa’s lessons were always much more complicated than freeze tag sounded. Simulations and scenarios that pushed them to think through their problems and apply their skills in different ways. School had only started a short time ago, but they knew Aizawa well enough to know that there was more to this activity than it seemed. \n\n“Yes, young Ashido!” All Might’s voice seemed to echo in the empty city street. The training ground was very similar to the one they had used in All Might’s first lesson with them with tall building, looping wires, and pipes raised high about the ground. “Freeze tag! Although there will be a few rules, of course!” He winked with a smile, and Izuku choked back his laughter at his classmates confused faces. Aizawa hadn’t filled him in on his lessons ahead of time-that would be cheating even if Izuku happened to be his personal student-but he thought he could see where this was going. \n\n“The rules are simple, but make sure to listen! Aizawa-sensei will have all of the footage from this class as well, so don’t forget that he will be watching! Expect some notes on your performance to be emailed to you by the end of the day! There are a few things you will be graded on. We will have three randomly chosen seekers at one time. Seekers will gain points based on the number of people they tag. There will be a time limit for each round, so don’t waste it! If you get tagged, have no fear! This is freeze tag, after all. You will have a chance to try again. Points for the rest of the class will be determined by the number of classmates you unfreeze, so no running away from these fights! Use your quirks as you see fit, but remember we do not want to visit Recovery Girl because of reckless quirk use! Make smart choices.” \n\nHis instructions were so much better than their first class. It was easy to see that he had taken Aizawa’s and Hizashi’s advice to heart. Izuku and Denki exchanged a quick look, grinning. All Might had seemed nervous about covering their class during their last training session with him, but he seemed to have gotten over it. As for the activity itself, Izuku couldn’t hold back his excitement. This was just the thing the class needed to get in a better headspace before the Sports Festival. Something fun that still required them to strategize and work together. A way to ease them back into using their quirks around and potentially on each other. Making it so that students could only get points for unfreezing their classmates meant that everyone would have to be involved in the action at some point while putting the seekers at a disadvantage. \n\nAll Might tapped at the tablet in his hand and then held it up for everyone to see the three names in the middle of the screen. “Our first seekers are: Iida, Asui, and Uraraka! You have two minutes to prepare. The buzzer will sound when the round begins! Good luck!” \n\nIzuku and Denki wasted no time. Two minutes wasn’t a lot of time, and with Iida’s quirk they needed to put as much distance between themselves and the starting point as possible. While they would still need to be close enough to get points of their own, it wouldn’t do them any good to get caught in the initial wave of tags. Iida was a bad draw for their first round, and Asui and Uraraka were almost as troubling. Asui had reach, and Uraraka had a grin on her face that was entirely too familiar for him to think that she would be easy to avoid. \n\nAizawa would have been disappointed had he actually been there, because Izuku was so focused on figuring out what Uraraka might have been planning to give her such a look that he only noticed that he and Denki were being followed a moment before she spoke. \n\n“Hey, guys! You look like you know what you’re doing! Mind if I tag along?” \n\nIzuku and Denki exchanged another look without breaking stride. Izuku wasn’t sure that he had ever had a real conversation with Ashido before, and he was fairly certain that Denki hadn’t been that close to her before they became friends either. So why did she suddenly want to team up with them? It could be as she said. Izuku and Denki had immediately reacted when All Might had started their count down. For some reason, Izuku thought there was more to it than that though. Still, there was no reason for them to refuse. Ashido hadn’t been anything but polite to Izuku, and she hadn’t been one of the ones who had looked at him warily when they learned that he was quirkless. That was good enough for him at the moment. \n\n“Sure!” Denki said, shooting her a grin over his shoulder. For a second, Izuku couldn’t help but marvel that Denki had understood his thoughts on the situation without him having to say a word, but then he remembered that they were in the middle of an exercise, and their time would be running out soon. \n\n“This kind of activity works better with a team, so thanks for the help, Ashido!” Izuku added, wanting to make sure she knew that it wasn’t just Denki who was okay with having her along. She grinned in return, and they lapsed into silence until they turned the corner of a building and slipped inside. By Izuku’s count they still had thirty seconds until the seekers would be released, but they should have moved far enough away to have a moment to get a better plan together. \n\n“Ashido, did you see where everyone else went when All Might started the count down?” \n\nThe three had crouched down near the doorway of the building, out of sight of anyone who happened to run by but with a clear view of the street leading back to All Might. They couldn’t stay long, Izuku knew. Getting trapped in the building was a sure way to end up tagged, and they would have to venture out to earn points of their own, but it would keep them out of the fight for the moment. \n\n“Everyone kind of scattered,” Ashido said, tilting her head to peek around the doorframe. “I think Blasty wanted to hang back and fight straight off, but Kirishima was pulling him down the street before I caught up with you.” \n\n“Blasty?” Izuku covered his mouth with his hand so that he wouldn’t laugh. Denki didn’t even bother hiding it. \n\nAshido smiled with a sheepish shrug. “Yeah? Bakugou’s still refusing to call us by name, right? He has all those silly nicknames? So, I though he deserved one of his own. At this point, I’m not sure if that’s just a thing he does, or if he really doesn’t know our names. Either way, I’ve probably said it to his face a dozen times now, and he hasn’t blown up on me. I’m taking that as his seal of approval!”\n\nShe wasn’t wrong to take it that way, Izuku felt sure. He hadn’t spent much time around Katsuki since started school, but he knew that if he really didn’t want Ashido to call him that he would have told her so. Loudly. With his quirk to help get the point across. It was another reminder of how much Katsuki had changed in the recent months, and it made him wonder again what exactly had happened to his old childhood friend while Izuku had been distracted with his training. Something for him to worry about later. \n\n“Not everyone went as far as us though!” Ashido said, bringing Izuku back to the conversation. “I saw a few people duck into the buildings closer to All Might. Probably hoping they can unfreeze the first people tagged.”\n\n“Even though they’ll probably actually be the first people tagged,” Denki said, leaning into the wall beside him. “Iida’s too fast.” Just as he spoke, there was the sound of an explosion in the distance. Their time was definitely up now. They needed to be moving soon if they wanted to get any points. \n\n“Looks like Blasty got his wish,” Ashido said, laughing. “I wonder how mad he’s going to be once he gets tags? I bet it’s going to be Uraraka who does it. He’s been spending a lot of time with her and Kirishima lately.” \n\n“I guess we’ll find out if he actually decided to just fight them head on,” Izuku said, running through everything he knew about Iida, Uraraka, and Asui’s skills. “Head on confrontation isn’t going to work. This is set up so that people will have to end up getting tagged, not matter how much space is in the training ground. If we only get points for unfreezing people, then everyone is going to be drawn to the same general area. I think our best bet is to get in and get out. Find someone who has been frozen, tag them, and then get out of the main conflict as quickly as we can.  The seekers don’t get points for keeping people frozen, so there’s really no incentive for them to keep watch of them once they’ve been tagged. As long as we can get in and out without getting noticed, we should be fine. If they’re smart, Iida, Uraraka, and Asui will work together to corner people to tag, which should leave everyone else fairly open. We make sure to move together, and if we get split up we meet back outside the main fighting. Sound good?” \n\n“Wow, Midoriya! You really put a lot of thought into this!” Ashido said. \n\nIzuku thought is said a lot about how far he had come that only looked for a double meaning in her words for a second before realizing that she was completely genuine. Compliments from his friends or Aizawa and Hizashi were one thing, but it was still odd for other people to take note of his skills. He rubbed at the back of his neck awkwardly, refusing to look at her or Denki. “It’s really nothing.”\n\n“Don’t sell yourself short, Izuku!” Denki said, and Izuku noticed Ashido’s eyes widen slightly at the use of his name. “That’s a great plan! If we stick together, I’m sure we can rack up a ton of points.”\n\nIzuku grinned at the two of them, and reached for one of the pouches at his belt. “One more thing…” \n\nThey headed back towards the base without another word, sticking to the sides of the buildings as they hurried down the side walk. It wasn’t just the sounds of explosions they could hear as they moved closer, and Izuku wasn’t surprised when they turned the final corner to see that their class had descended into chaos. For a moment, Izuku’s thoughts shifted to the last time he had seen his class in such disarray, and there was a tightness in his chest as he stared at the scene. Denki and Ashido stopped on the sidewalk a few steps ahead of him and looked back at him, their confusion clear. \n\n“Izuku?” \n\n“Midoriya, are you okay?” \n\nShaking away the images from that day, Izuku hurried to catch up with them. “Sorry, guys. Memories.” Denki frowned, but didn’t press him, reaching over to give his hand a squeeze. \n\nAshido shuddered. “I get that. As if the nightmares aren’t bad enough. Do you want a minute?”\n\nIzuku could tell she meant it. They had agreed to work together, and their grade for the practical was dependent on them getting out there, but if Izuku said that he needed a second to pull himself together then Ashido wasn’t going to complain. It was such a small thing. Kindness from someone who understood what he was going through. But for someone who had only recently started receiving that kindness from people his own age, the gesture meant more to Izuku than he cared to put to words. \n\n“I’m good! Let’s go get some points!” \n\nHe hesitated only a second before removing his practice rods from where they were secured to his belt. They didn’t feel the same in his hand as his normal ones, but that was the point. It was one step closer to getting back on track, and it was a step that he could make without pushing his comfort zone too far. Aizawa would kill him if he thought that Izuku was trying to rush through his recovery in time for the Sports Festival, and Izuku didn’t want to let him down. He knew it would only hurt him worse in the long run. Besides, as Aizawa had told him many times since their initial conversation about his mental block, eskrima wasn’t the only trick he had up his sleeve. \n\nIt seemed that Izuku’s analysis had been correct. Most of the class had gathered in the open area of the base once the round truly began, and while it was clear that some of his classmates had the same idea of getting in and getting out again, the seekers were too good of a match up. From what Izuku could see, half of their class was already frozen with Asui and Uraraka on both sides of the streets waiting to pick off anyone who tried to get close enough to unfreeze them. \n\nAshido let out a quiet giggle as they approached. It seemed that she had gotten her wish after all. Katsuki stood to the right of Uraraka fuming, his arms crossed. If Izuku didn’t know better, he almost would have said he was pouting. Uraraka kept sending glances his way, trying to cover her own laughter with her hand. It wasn’t working though, and Izuku could hear the popping of Katsuki’s explosions grow louder the longer Uraraka struggled to contain her glee. \n\n“This is going to be harder than I thought,” Denki said. Hagakure seemed to be having the most luck breaking into the crowded mess. Izuku could only follow her trail by the people who suddenly broke away from the crowd. Sero had used his tape to pull himself out of reach a second before Iida grabbed him again, slapping Ojiro as he went passed. Ojiro managed to block Iida’s next attempt to tag his with his tail and tagged Sato. It was hard to keep track of with everyone shifting, but then Todoroki was suddenly moving again, sending a wall of ice that cut off Asui from the rest of the group, and then Katsuki was letting off an explosion that almost knocked Uraraka to the ground. Their training together seemed to have paid off though, because Uraraka hardly seemed phase, lunging to freeze him again. \n\n“It’s now or never!” Ashido said brightly, starting towards the chaos. Izuku and Denki had no choice but to follow. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect as they slipped into the fray. Iida had managed to tag Ojiro again, but it was only a second before Tokoyami was there to unfreeze him. Iida was facing off against both of them, as they managed to keep him at an arm’s length through Ojiro and Dark Shadow’s blocking. Asui was trying to make it around Todoroki’s wall, and Uraraka was still fighting Katsuki, both of them grinning. Izuku wasn’t quite sure how that friendship had started, but he would have to get the story from Uraraka later. As he watched, Kirishima joined Bakugou’s side. They fell into a rhythm almost instantly, but Uraraka was still holding her own. \n\nThe trio headed to the center of the crowd, unfreezing people as they went. Izuku didn’t both to keep track, as he tried to watch all three of the seekers at once. Asui made it around the wall, immediately tagging Aoyama and Kouda who seemed to be working together. Iida pushed passed Dark Shadow, diving underneath him to tag Ojiro again. Without Ojiro’s assistance, it was only another moment before Iida managed to distract Tokoyami long enough to tag him as well.  Kirishima and Katsuki were still going strong against Uraraka, which left only the two seekers to deal with. \n\n“We can’t get out!” Denki said, backing up until he could feel Ashido and Izuku beside him. Even with Uraraka busy, Todoroki’s ice had cut off a large part of their escape route. Going by Katsuki was out unless they wanted to risk getting caught up in that fight, and Iida turned from Tokoyami and Ojiro to lock eyes with Izuku through the crowd. \n\n“Too late. Iida’s spotted us. Remember the plan?” They both nodded, and Izuku’s grip on his practice rods tightened. They couldn’t show their hand too early. The timing had to be perfect. The space between them opened up as Iida approached, and Ashido took the opportunity to launch acid into Iida’s path. It didn’t make him choose a different target, but it did force him to slow down, edging around the path that Ashido was creating. Iida veered right away from Asui and the wall, and that was when Denki struck. His control had gotten so much better since working with Aizawa and All Might. Iida almost tripped avoiding the blast, another throw from Ashido sending him stumbling back towards the left where Asui waited. \n\nIzuku ran to meet him, rods raised to knock his hands aside. Iida feinted left, but Izuku was already moving, ducking under his swing to come up behind him and throwing a small blue ball at his feet before Iida could recover, refusing to think about the last time he had used one. The ball exploded, covering Iida’s feet in the sticky material that would keep him from taking another step. \n\nHe only had a moment to appreciate the stunned look on Iida’s face before he yelled out, “Asui! Uraraka! Midoriya’s got-”\n\nIt didn’t matter though. Ashido had moved the moment that Iida was secure, tossing the ball that Izuku had given her towards Asui with a cry of “Catch!” Asui raised her hands instinctively, catching the movement a moment too late. Blue covered her hands the moment the ball made contact, and Asui cheered. \n\nThe last ball, given to Denki, exploded at Uraraka’s feet as she jumped out of the way of Kirishima and Katsuki’s joint attack. After that, it was only a matter of unfreezing the people who had been tagged before the buzzer sounded ending the round. \n\n“That’s all for round one! Take a break, everyone, and we’ll draw names for round two! Midoriya, could you please release your classmates?” \n\n“Of course, All Might!” Izuku said, his face going red. He reached into his pocket again, passing a vial of the solvent to Denki and Ashido, while he leaned down to pour his own vial on Iida’s shoes. “Don’t worry, Iida-kun. This won’t stain your shoes. It will just break the compound down, so you don’t have to wait for it to break down naturally.”\n\n“As expected, Midoriya,” Iida said. “A brilliant plan, with a simple solution!”\n\n“Thanks?” Izuku responded, not quite able to keep the confusion from his voice. Yes, Iida had apologized to him about their first training exercise, but that was a long way from what he was saying now. \n\n“Ah,” Iida said, looking at him as Izuku straightened up. “About what I said before. I have to apologize to you once again, Midoriya-kun. What you did at the USJ…The situation might have been far worse if it hadn’t been for your quick thinking and action. You were a true hero that day, and I will be looking forward to seeing what you can do in the future.” The words were punctuated by a sharp nod, and then Iida was off, heading towards Asui before Izuku could fully process what he had said. \n\n“What was that about?” Denki asked, coming back to his side, Ashido following a moment after him. \n\n“Another apology. I think?” \n\n“Iida’s a tough one to read, even though he seems so straight forward,” Ashido said, shaking her head. “But look at us! If we don’t have the most points after that round, I’ll be surprised! It worked just like you said, Midoriya!” \n\nShe grinned at them again, and he could feel Denki watching him for his reaction. “Only because you and Denki timed it perfectly! We couldn’t have done it without you.” If possible, her grin grew wider, and Izuku couldn’t help smiling in return. \n\n“Hey, Ashido,” Denki said, throwing an arm over her shoulder. She blinked, surprised, her eyes drifting to his arm and then back at Izuku, but she didn’t step away from him. \n\n“Yeah, Kaminari?” \n\n“How do you feel about coffee ice cream?” \n\nOnce again, Denki had somehow managed to read Izuku’s mind, and Izuku didn’t have a problem with it one bit."}
+{"text": "Steve checks his watch again, the third time in the last few minutes.\n\nIt’s 7.34pm.\n\nHe’s late.\n\nIt was an obsession, an addiction really, and it had only started three weeks ago. Three weeks ago he had almost walked into Sam when he moved to get a glass. Sam had said nothing and just motioned towards the door, where two people were slowly walking in, completely absorbed in their conversation. Steve knew Sam only had eyes for the redhead, her hair that hung over her shoulders, her black ripped jeans and her London Calling the Clash t-shirt, as she walked in, her ankle boots caked in mud and her blue eyes outlined with thick black eyeliner, Steve couldn’t deny that she was gorgeous. But Steve only had eyes for the brunette standing beside her, the brunette in undeniably tight black jeans that made Steve’s mind wander, and a dark blue knitted jumper that made the blue of his eyes stand out. His dark hair was ruffled, almost like he had just rolled out of bed, but that sort of thinking was not helping Steve as he was supposed to be making a drink. His name was Bucky and hers was Natasha, and Steve had never spoken to either of them.\n\nSure, he had watched from a far, half focused on working and half simply admiring Bucky from where he stood. Sometimes Bucky sat by himself; furiously scribbling into the leather notebook that he constantly had with him. Sometimes he simply stared out into the mall, as his right hand slowly swirled the spoon around his cup of coffee. Sometimes Bucky sat with Natasha, grinning and laughing and chatting, and making Steve want to both rip out his intestines at the sight of the two of them together and also die of happiness every time he saw a smile touch Bucky’s lips.\n\nThere was nothing he knew about Bucky, not really, he never really ordered the same thing; sometimes it was tea, sometimes it was coffee, sometimes something sweet, sometimes something savoury. But then again, he had only been in a few times now, but Steve was already looking forward to him coming in, he partially knew Bucky’s schedule, and he knew today was the day that Bucky came without Natasha, well for the first twenty minutes at least.\n\nSteve physically aches to see Bucky smile at him the same way he smiles at Natasha, or to make Bucky’s lips curl or have him wrap his arm around him and plant a kiss of his forehead before he leaves. Part of him hates seeing Natasha and Bucky together, for one reason and one reason alone, because he wants it to be him not Natasha. Even if Sam manages a minor miracle, somehow achieving the impossible and getting Natasha to date him like he so desperately wants, Bucky could never like Steve, and Steve knows that.\n\nLooking over at the door again, Steve sighs before looking back down at his sketchbook. Despite how hard he tries, he simply can’t get Bucky out of his head, and ever since he learned his name, courtesy of Sam who overheard the two of them speaking only yesterday, his obsession had only increased. Steve felt that name was perfect for him, and last night in the shower he had slowly sounded out the name, glad that Sam was out and that the water would cover his voice as he repeated the name aloud, wondering what his name would sound like rolling off Bucky’s tongue.\n\nTrying to push Bucky out of his head for few seconds at least, he focuses on his sketchbook, continuing to work on the second floor of the apartment building he had seen this morning on his detour from college to work, he was running a little late, and he was sporting a bleeding nose. It wasn’t his fault really, that guy shouldn’t have been such a creep, that woman needed his help and despite the almost broken nose that Sam clicked into place only about two hours ago, that creep learnt his lesson so it was definitely worth the pain.\n\nSteve often found himself in those sort of situations, even before when he was skinny and small and he was beaten the shit out of, the only difference was now he could actually win and he usually did, but sometimes when something caught him off guard, like today, he still managed to get himself injured.\n\n A glass shatters, drawing Steve’s attention forcing him to glance up from his sketch book before he sighs. He knows that Sam is stressed and tired, and as he stares blankly down at the glass in shards around his legs, with water splashed onto his jeans, Steve waves him off, silently telling him to dry his pants. Dropping his pencil and shutting his sketch book before grabbing a tea towel, Steve squats down, hovering over the glass, as he inspects the shards more closely. This is one of the things he hates about working at Shield, at least in a clothing store he wouldn’t have to deal with this, although from the stories Sam still tells he would have to deal with some pretty unsavoury costumers. Carefully avoiding the glass as he uses the tea towel to soak up the water off the floor, Steve wonders where Bucky works, and what is taking him so long.\n\nLost in thought, Steve reaches for the dust shovel. Throwing the soaking tea towel in the basket, he sweeps up the shards of glass, wondering what it is about Bucky that took him less than an hour to adore him. Maybe it was his bright blue eyes that Steve couldn’t fail to notice the second he walked in, or the smile that he wore, the sound of his voice, although admittedly, he had never heard it close up, perhaps it was the expression he wore of quiet contemplation when he sits there alone in silence, or the way he laughs. Maybe it isn’t just one thing, maybe it’s everything. Steve just doesn’t know but he does know without a shadow of a doubt that it wouldn’t work, even now, now he’s taller and stronger and broader, a guy like Bucky wouldn’t go for a guy like him.  Steve sighs, the glass and water is gone, but he still has a few hours of work left before he has to go back to his apartment and study. Placing his palm on the ground without looking, a sharp shot of pain makes him wince as he pushes himself to a standing position.\n\n“Fucking brilliant.” Steve sighs as he notices the shard of glass sticking into his palm. Pulling it out, he reaches for a tissue and holds it to his palm.\n\n“What di-” Sam starts as he stops in front of Steve, his pants now dry. Steve tries to wave him off again, like he did before but Sam isn’t having a bar of it. Taking a step towards Steve, he wets another tea towel and presses it against Steve’s hand before he lifts up, checking for glass.\n\n“I’m f-” Steve starts, but Sam gives him a look and he immediately shuts up. They can hear voices behind him, its dinner time, so of course it’s getting busy but luckily today neither of them are serving customers. Steve didn’t exactly hate his job, sometimes he enjoys it, and he did prefer it to the other sorts of jobs he could have encountered, at least this one was in the warmth, inside and didn’t contain anything overly disgusting or exhausting. And anyway Shield is close to where he shares an apartment with Sam, and it was close to the university, and it’s not bad work, plus it means he can look at Bucky, but that was a relatively new perk. The hours were flexible and he wasn’t paid awesomely, but there was a fair bit of down time so it meant he could draw.\n\n“You’re lucky it’s not deep.” Is all Sam says as he puts on a band-aid. Opening his mouth to say something more, something catches his eye, and from the small smile on his lips as Sam looks down at Steve, he knows who it is. “This oughta cheer you up.” Sam adds with a grin.\n\n“It’s not- I don’t-” Steve starts, his eyes still on his palm as he presses down on it lightly with his thumb, not able to look at Sam and definitely not able to turn around and look at who he knows just walked it.\n\n“Really Rogers? Don’t even try, it’s just pathetic listening to you-” Sam interrupts, grinning madly down at Steve as he speaks. For the last few months he had been trying to get Steve to go on dates with him, but Steve had refused, and when he finally went out it was obvious that he would rather be at home. It wasn’t until the third time Bucky came in that Sam had realised why Steve had no interest double dating with Sam or with any of the girls Sam had pointed out, Steve wasn’t into those girls, no, not at all, and three weeks later, Steve was seriously crushing on Bucky.\n\n“Wow.” Steve almost moans, as he lets out a puff of breath. Bucky has some stubble, some completely and totally perfect stubble which Steve cannot help but admire, the smile on his lips as he watches Bucky is not helping Steve’s failing attempts to convince Sam that he is not at all in love with him. Sam opens his mouth but before he can get a single word Steve mutters, “Shut up.” Bucky also happens to be wearing a long sleeved navy blue shirt which is a tighter than any of the other shirts he has worn in the past three weeks, which is not helping Steve’s expression at all. The black skinny jeans and the book he holds in his right hand, are both additions that are making Steve’s smile grow, as he feels himself melt.\n\n“He’s cute, you sho- Shutting up.” Sam stops as Steve shoots him a look and Bucky approaches the two of them, almost within earshot. “For now.” Sam adds, grinning at Steve before he disappears into the kitchen. As the door swings shut behind him, Steve remains still, his eyes now on his hand, as he tries to regulate his breathing, trying to keep himself from hyperventilating.\n\nReturning back to his sketch book, Steve lowers himself onto the stool and waits for something to do. His back to Bucky, he closes his eyes and takes a deep breath in, he knows that Bucky is sitting down now, he must be, and he knows that he will need to return to working, and as he takes another breath in, Steve slowly stands up and heads into the kitchen.\n\n\n...\n\n\n“Oh yes.” Sam breathes, almost twenty minutes later. Steve is hard at work, he hasn’t forgotten about Bucky, but he is trying to be more focussed on working than on Bucky, and now that Natasha is here, it will be even harder to not think about Bucky. When Bucky sits alone, he is silent, but when he sits with Natasha, Steve can hear him laughing and all he wants to do is to see the smile that accompanies it as he aches to be near Bucky.\n\nIt takes another five minutes before Steve is out of the kitchen, sitting back on his stool his pencil in hand as he does a quick sketch of Bucky in the bottom right corner of his page. This isn’t the first time he’s drawn Bucky, but slowly his drawings are getting bigger, mixing up different drawing techniques as he does so, he knows that by this time next week he will have a whole page dedicated to Bucky, perhaps more.\n\n“They aren’t dating.” Sam reasons, partly for Steve’s sake but partly for his own. Steve raises an eyebrow and Sam sighs. Natasha has her hand resting on Bucky’s thigh, and she is practically sitting on him as she laughs, leaning against her shoulder, before she whispers something into his ear and the two of the fall into laughter again. “They’re just close.” Sam adds, and Steve sighs louder this time.\n\n“Maybe they are just affectionate people, you don’t know.” Sam says quietly, not quite believing his own words. Steve hates it, but he understands it. He knows that even if by some miracle Bucky was interested in men, he wouldn’t like Steve. Steve who had barely even been kissed, who no one had really cared about until he hit puberty and grew taller and broader, Steve who wasn’t able to really date anyone, because he wanted someone who he wouldn’t have been invisible to before he, well became hot.\n\nHe wanted someone who saw him for him, not someone who saw him for what he looked like now, he wanted to be seen by someone who would have seen him when he was invisible. Steve was fine with barely kissing anyone, on some level at least, he wanted to wait for something more, but now he was beginning to feel like he had waited too long. He was into his twenties and unlike Sam he had never slept with anyone, or done anything more than a quick kiss, but with Bucky, he reckoned that Bucky would have seen him when he was invisible, if only he would see him now, that was the problem.\n\nAlmost to press the issue, someone walks past their table and Natasha murmurs something and Bucky’s lips twitch for a second before he erupts in laughter and Natasha picks up his coffee and takes a sip as she smiles into the cup. Steve sighs again and turns back to coffee he is making. He lets Bucky’s laughter fill him up as he steams the milk.\n\nIt hurts to see them like that, Bucky and Natasha sitting so close to one another, clearly enjoying each other’s company. But what hurts more, is that Steve doesn’t care who makes Bucky smile, he just loves to see the grin on his face, and hear the sound of his laughter, no matter who is the instigator of his happiness.\n\n\n...\n\n\nThe next two days are completely uneventful. Steve hauls himself out of bed in the morning, goes for a run for about half an hour and then heads into his morning lectures. Work in the afternoon is dull, and there is no sign of Bucky, no matter how much time Steve spends looking longingly at the door and ignoring Sam’s remarks, Bucky still doesn’t show for two days. Natasha is this afternoon though there, with a few of what looks like must be her friends, and it only hurts Steve more. Natasha doesn’t act the same way with any of them as she acts with Bucky, and although Sam has been attempting not to notice for the past half hour, Steve knows what it means, they must be dating, which means that Bucky is two things, not single and utterly uninterested in him.\n\n“Still convinced?” Is all Steve says, and Sam shrugs before going back to work.\n\nSam doesn’t mention the lack of Bucky on their way home, and neither does Steve, but Sam can’t fail to notice the look on Steve’s face as they walk in silence, their music blaring and both headphones in. Sam doesn’t say a word instead he sends a few texts, and avoids Steve’s questioning gaze.\n\n\n...\n\n\nStill in clothes fresh from work, Steve has only been home for about three minutes before there is a knock on the door and the persuasion begins. It is now obvious who Sam was texting, and considering he was wanting Steve to come out with them, his choice of person probably wasn’t the smartest decision.\n\n“Come on Steve you have to come.” Sam insists. Steve sighs. He thought that Sam had stopped trying to persuade him already. For the past two weeks Sam had been buzzing about a party that was happening at someone’s flat that they absolutely had to go to, in all honesty all Steve wants to do was order pizza, collapse on the couch, watch some terrible movie on tv with Sam, maybe sketch a little and then get some much needed sleep.\n\n“Yeah Rogers.” Tony adds with a smile. He is leaning against the front door of Sam and Steve’s flat, exuding the air of confidence and cockiness that he always has, without fail. They only just got home about 5 minutes ago and Sam is ready and waiting for Steve who is leaning against the kitchen bench, a half-drunk glass of water in his hand as he shakes his head.\n\n“I have an early class tomo-” Steve starts, wishing that they didn’t insist on him having a social life so often. He was fine with staying in, he actually wanted to, but Sam wanted to go out tonight, and he wanted Steve to come.\n\n“So only stay for an hour.” Sam suggests. Tony is simply watching the two of them now. Sam has his phone in hand, and is pulling on his shoes, as he stares up at Steve with pleading brown eyes. Sam doesn’t want to force Steve, but he wants Steve to have a good night out. The past two months have been pretty hectic for the two of them either studying or working. Sam needs a night out, and so does Steve, or at least so Sam thinks.\n\n“I ju-” Steve says after a pause. He can’t think of a real reason not to go, he doesn’t absolutely despise the idea, he frankly just can’t be bothered, but he knows he isn’t going to be able to hold out any longer, Sam will convince him he knows, it’s just a matter of time.\n\n“There will be tonnes of gorgeous wo- no, men there.” Sam corrects himself as he straightens up, both shoes on, ready to go.\n\n“I’m not fucking interes-” Steve starts, raising his glass to his lips as he talks. He is starting to bend towards going, he knows he is, but he still isn’t sure.\n\n“In anyone except that brunette from h&m” Sam finishes for him with a smile. Steve sighs and takes a sip of water as Tony looks from Steve to Sam wondering.\n\n“Oh the one with that great bone struct-” Tony almost shouts out in realisation, a grin on his face as he looks at Steve who almost groans.\n\n“Shut the fuck Tony.” Steve cuts across flatly and Tony stops talking but continues to grin at Steve, giving him a small nod, effectively telling Steve he approves of his taste. Steve sighs as he turns to Sam, wondering how much liquor will be there tonight.\n\n“You coming then?” Sam asks, ignoring the looks that Tony and Steve are exchanging. Tony is still grinning at Steve who is trying not to roll his eyes as he takes another sip of water. God, Tony is like a horny teenage boy sometimes, Steve thinks. Looking over at Tony, Steve is about to roll his eyes when Tony makes a small gesture that Sam misses, but causes Steve to choke of the water he was attempting to swallow.\n\n“Shit. Fine. But only for an hour.” Steve says, looking straight at Sam, completely avoiding Tony who is doubled over at the door laughing at Steve’s choking and failed attempts to clear his throat inconspicuously. Sam is looking from Steve to Tony in confusion before he shrugs and grins at Steve, and shoos him into his room to get change.\n\n\n...\n\n\nHe told them he didn’t want to come. He knew he wasn’t going to enjoy it, and yet here he was, just under an hour in, wearing a pair of jeans and a simple grey t-shirt. All he wants is another scotch, but while he waits he is like a gazelle in the Serengeti, about to be hunted. Part of him preferred being invisible, because then he was basically ignored as he waited by the bar, but at least now he could order a drink, but he did have to put up with woman batting their eyelashes at him, woman who would have ignored him before. He tries not to hold a grudge against them, he truly does, but there is no way in hell he will ever date someone as shallow as most of the people unashamedly eyeing him up. He isn’t bitter... not really.\n\n“Hey.” A brunette says, a smile plastered on her face, along with a solid inch of makeup. Her hair is meticulous, it probably took an hour to do, she looks pretty but Steve can read someone like her from a mile off. He had noticed her the minute he arrived, and not in a good way. Unlike some of her ‘friends’ she has been unmistakably glaring at people since Steve arrived, and had ‘accidently’ tipped her drink on a woman who was wearing a similar dress to her.\n\n“Hey.” Steve answers flatly. Needless to say this woman does not have a snowballs chance in hell.\n\nFive minutes later, Steve is waiting for a fresh scotch, when another woman approaches him, this one looks friendly, but that doesn’t change the fact that Steve has no interest in her, or anyone at this party.\n\n“Hey I– oh my god, is that Tony Stark?” The women almost shrieks as she glances over Steve’s shoulder. He winces at the sound of her voice so close to his ear and simply nods without looking over to where Tony Stark is no doubt standing, with his arm slung around someone. “Are you like friends?” She asks, staring intently at Steve who opens his mouth to reply but before he can get a word out she adds, “That is so cool, don’t you-”\n\n“Sorry I have to take this.” Steve interrupts, waving his phone at her as she stands frozen in front of him. Her smile falters for a second before she nods her head and her happy expression returns. Steve holds his phone to his ear as he walks towards Tony. “I am going to kill you.” Steve glares as he tucks his phone into his pocket.\n\n“What did I ever do to you Rogers?” Tony answers. The strawberry blonde standing in front of Tony gives him a smile before leaving Tony and Steve as she goes to grab another drink. Tony watches her walk away, his eyes on her ass as Steve waits for Tony’s upstairs brain to regain control.\n\n“Four people have hit on me in the last twenty minutes. Two wanted to talk to you and one was an utter bitch.” Steve moans as he steals Tony’s glass and lifts it so his lips.\n\n“That’s not water.” Tony says quickly, but Steve has already downed half of it. Tony grins as Steve finishes the rest before he adds, “You said four.”\n\n“Fourth one went to high school with me.” Steve answers with a sigh. This night was already awful, but at least the booze were free, the apartment was nice and the chairs were comfortable, so it wasn’t too bad, but Steve was still longing for his bed now more than ever.\n\n“And?” Tony prompts as he scans the room, wondering where the strawberry blonde went.\n\n“Her boyfriend enjoyed shoving me into lockers.” Steve sighs. He hated high school. It was utterly awful, utterly and completely. It was not a portion of his life he would like to revisit, but when part of it is obliviously hitting on you at a party you can’t avoid it.\n\n“Well that’s not ba-” Tony starts as Sam walks up beside them, two drinks in his hand. Steve takes the shot and downs it before giving Tony a scathing look, cutting him short.\n\n“At her request.” Steve says, a hint of sadness on his face. High school is hell, for almost everyone, and it was particularly dreadful for him. Being different is one thing, being small is another, but willing to stand up for what he believed in was something that ensured he didn’t have an enjoyable high school experience.\n\n“Oh.” Tony breathes. Sam is silent beside the two of them, taking a sip of his beer as he surveys the room. Steve knows that he is trying to move on from Nat, he thinks she is gorgeous, which Steve has to agree with, but he doesn’t feel for her the way Steve feels for Bucky, so them dating is not taking the same toll on Sam’s emotions as it is on Steve’s.\n\n“Didn’t even recognise me.” Steve sighs as Sam smiles over at a woman across the room, she smiles back and Sam’s smile grows. Looking back at Steve, Sam pats him on the back and gives him a supportive smile.\n\n“I’m not into dudes, but that one’s cute, you could be into hi-” Tony says, pointing towards a man, albeit a good looking man, who is leaning against the doorframe, a beer in his hand as he stares down at his phone, in all likelihood texting his girlfriend, or boyfriend.\n\n“God Tony, stop talking.” Steve places his hand on Tony’s pushing it down before the man can notice that he is pointing at him. Tony just smiles and Sam takes another sip of his beer as he makes eyes at the brunette across the room, who while talking to woman that Tony was looking for, is smiling back at Sam. She laughs and her head shakes, her brown hair tumbling over her shoulder and Sam finds he no longer cares for Steve and Tony’s conversation.\n\n“What he ain’t as perfect as h&m guy?” Tony jokes, smiling at someone across the room before he looks pointedly at Steve, who can’t say to that.\n\n“Bucky.” Steve corrects before he bites his tongue. Giving Tony more information about him was not a smart move by any measures. Sam is smiling and Steve shoots him a look, still smiling Sam takes another sip of his beer before his gaze falls on the brunette again, still smiling as she talks to the woman seated in front of her.\n\n“Bucky? Bucky Barnes?” Tony says slowly, looking at Steve with a curious expression before he shrugs and waves hello to someone across the room, and smiles at someone else.\n\n“Bucky Barnes.” Steve repeats, a smile curling onto his lips as he sounds the words out in his head, in his heart. Beside him, Tony shakes his head and rolls his eyes. It has only being a few weeks but Steve loves everything about Bucky. He is perfect.\n\n“This is actually painful to watch. Have you even talked to him?” Tony asks. Behind him Sam shakes his head and Tony smiles.\n\n“Well no  bu-” Steve starts, his cheeks reddening, which only makes Tony smile wider. Sam pats him on the shoulder again before slipping past him, over to the other side of the room, where the brunette is sitting, the brunette that has already made him forget about Natasha, the brunette who is gorgeous and all Sam wants to do is talk to her, for now…\n\n“Oh Rogers.” Tony grins. Steve says nothing, silently wishing for more alcohol, but knowing with a lecture tomorrow, more alcohol is not the best plan, but it would make this party, this conversation far more bearable. He looks over at Tony who is smiling at someone else, of course he knows everyone, how couldn’t he, when something occurs to him.\n\n“How the fuck do you know his name?” Steve asks, looking at Tony curiously. If Tony knows him does that mean Bucky will be, oh, shit.\n\n“I know things Rogers when are you going to realise it. Your boy’s good. He’s smart.” Tony says as someone hands him a drink, it barely touches his palm when Steve yanks it out of his grip and takes a long sip, swallowing before Tony finishes talking and hands him back his beer.\n\n“Shit.” Steve sighs. If Tony thinks he is smart, if he’s smart by Tony’s standards, means that he really doesn’t have a chance does he?\n\n“Not a genius like me but-” Tony starts, smiling as he thinks of how smart he is, and trails off as he stares dreamily straight ahead causing Steve to groan inaudibly before he takes Tony’s drink again and as another sip.\n\n“Like too smart for me?” Steve asks as he hands what’s left of Tony’s drink back to him. Tony downs the rest before he looks Steve up and down and gives him a small sympathetic smile.\n\n“Seriously Steve, stop. You could totally nab him if-” Tony starts, smiling at someone across the room as he talks, his attention not completely on this conversation, but the amount of attention he still has for this conversation with Steve is particularly perplexing to Steve, this is Tony Stark after all.\n\n“Wait why aren’t your being your usual asshole of a self?” Steve interrupts, looking at Tony curiously. Tony and him are friends sure, Steve is as much of a friend as anyone can be with Tony, who is slightly self involved, and can drone on and on about himself at times, and be a down right dick sometimes. Tony is kind sure, but he has never had a conversation with Steve for this long, or being this invested, or even this nice.\n\n“Oh Rogers you say the sweetest things to me.” Tony smiles without missing a beat.\n\n“How much have you had to drink?” Steve asks, raising his eyebrow as he looks Tony up and down, wondering if maybe he should get him to sit down. But Tony is standing steady and his voice isn’t slurring, he can’t be drunk, but he must be for this amount of attentiveness for a conversation where the subject is not himself.\n\n“Enough to be able to talk to you for a few minutes. So a lot.” Tony grins and Steve sighs again. “Anyway where was I, I get it Barnes is crazy bangable hot, I know that you really want to...” Tony adds. Steve is silently beckoning for Sam to come over, for Sam to stop this conversation, to distract Tony, anything.\n\n“I beg you to stop talking.” Steve cuts him off, giving him a look that he regrets instantly when the corners of Tony’s mouth curl upwards into a smile. Tony’s mouth opens, no doubt about to say something that Steve does not want to hear come out of Tony’s mouth ever, when Sam reaches them and Steve cannot help but grin, especially when Tony turns and turns a little red.\n\n“Hey Ton.” The strawberry blonde for before says, and all Tony can do is look at her for a few moments before he remembers to talk.\n\n“Pepper, you look...” Tony starts, smiling at her, as Sam and the brunette smile at one another, their hands almost touching as they stand side by side. Tony stops, as his eyes skim over her again, searching for a word.\n\n“Gorgeous.” Steve mutters, quiet enough that no one apart from Tony can hear.\n\n“Gorgeous.” Tony finishes with a smile. Pepper smiles at him and takes a step closer.\n\n“And that’s my cue to leave. See you guys later.” Steve says before slipping past Sam and the brunette standing beside him. He can tell Sam wants to say something but the brunette holds out her hand, and asks him to dance, and as much as he wants Steve to stay, he isn’t going to miss an opportunity to dance with her. Steve gives him a smile before he pulls the door shut behind him, and Sam smiles back.\n\nAll the party had done was make Steve pine for Bucky more, and the entire walk home he sounds the name in his head, ‘Bucky Barnes’, wondering what he will learn about him next, and he can’t wait to find out. As he imagines scenario after scenario, Steve is smiling crazily by the time he gets into bed, and drifts off thinking of Bucky.\n\n\n...\n\n\nWith only a slight hangover his lecture isn’t as hellish as one would expect after that many shots, but coming to work and having to put up with a full hour of Sam practically gushing about the brunette that he met at the party the night before is not fun at all. Maria was her name, and she hadn’t kissed Sam but she almost did, and she had given him her number and she was just wonderful in every way under the sun, and Steve is finding it hard to bear Sam’s upbeat energetic self when his headache starts to kick in. What doesn’t help matters is how busy the café is, and the people in the queue speak with loud, whiny, high pitched voices that make Steve start to feel like ripping out their lungs. He sighs for what feels like the fourth time, inwardly of course, in the last three minutes, when the arrogant man in front of him continues to talk in such a condescending tone that Steve is fighting the urge to stab his hand with a fork.\n\n“I don’t get why that is s-” The man continues, but Steve is only half listening. Standing behind him, slightly to the side, cowering in terror, about to be reduced to tears is a little girl, she must be about 3 by Steve’s guess, and she is looking from side to side, staring up into the crowd of people, only seeing legs and feet, and she is very obviously lost. Steve can’t concentrate, but he selects the order that the man is asking for, and nods, as he keeps an eye on the little girl, wishing that the queue wasn’t this long.\n\n“Someone should control that child.” The man scowls as the little girl cries, a little strangled throat in the back of her throat sounds as she twists her neck, and stares upwards, trying desperately to find someone familiar as tears roll down her cheeks.\n\n“Yo-” Steve starts, not able to control himself. The snide look on the man’s face makes Steve want to punch him, but firstly he wants to help the little girl. The little girl that nobody is helping, that nobody is even really looking at for more than a second, before they continue on their conversations or their busy lives, not wanting to be saddled with the responsibility of caring for another human being.\n\n“Hey.” Bucky says, his voice cuts through Steve’s thoughts, and he turns his head quickly. He didn’t notice Bucky get up; he didn’t notice him until he heard his voice, cutting him short. Steve sees the top of Bucky’s head, he is bending down, so that he is at the same level as the little girl and Steve finds it hard to breathe, how can this guy be so amazing. “What’s wrong?” He asks, not even sounding like he is talking to a child, his tone is soft and Steve’s heart melts. He may not be able to see him, but he is sure that his blue eyes are shining, and his soft expression is not doubt a source of comfort for the crying child who Steve can see is looking at Bucky, her eyes wet and round, as she clings onto the fringe of her shirt.\n\n\"I'm lost.' She whimpers, her voice breaking and her grip on her shirt tightening. Steve notices the look of annoyance on the customers face, so he returns to his order, only half listening to what the man is saying, frankly he couldn’t care less. He is wondering how he is managing to even select the items the man is ordering, when his mind is occupied by the conversation he can barely hear.\n\n\"Well that's never good. I lost my friend too, but I'll tell you what, why don't you hang out with me till you get unlost.\" Bucky answers. Steve takes the man’s cash and quickly gives him change, as he focusses on breathing in and out. This the first time he has really heard Bucky’s voice, and like everything else he knows about him, he loves it just the same.\n\n\"Ok.\" She says, a smile breaking on her face. Steve can’t see anything but the top of Bucky’s head, but he has a clear view of the little girl, as the douchey customer heads over to a table and the man behind him steps up. Steve wishes he could get a better view and that he could breathe properly but knows it’s not likely when he is in such proximity to Bucky.\n\n\"What's your name?\" Bucky asks softly, no doubt one of his smiles, that Steve loves to adore from afar, on his face. Steve is listening to the man’s order, but he doesn’t care that he wants a double shot expresso and a piece of caramel slice.\n\n\"Emily.\" She says taking a small step towards him. She is almost smiling now, and Steve’s heart is pounding in his chest, wishing desperately that there wasn’t a massive queue he had to work through.\n\n\"I'm James, but you can call me Bucky, all my friends do. How old are you Emily, you look proper mature.\" Bucky answers, Steve can practically hear his smile as he talks.\n\n\"I'm 3.\" Emily answers as she holds up three fingers. Steve can see the smile on her lips as she takes another step towards him.\n\n\"Three wow, that is impressive.” Bucky says, and the girl grins, before her stomach rumbles. Without missing a beat Bucky adds, “I'm starving, you hungry?\" Emily nods in reply and Steve can see the top of Bucky’s head move, and he can see his face, his bright blue eyes twinkling as he glances at the glass cabinet before turning back to Steve. It was only about a second, but Steve can hear the pounding of his heart in his chest, even a second of Bucky with that soft look on his face and that smile, Steve is leaning against the bench, wondering whether he will ever be able to see Bucky and not feel this way.\n\n\"I don't know about you but I can only see the sandwiches from down here, so why don't we look at the cakes.\" Bucky says. Steve is waiting for the woman to put in her pin, so he glances over to where Bucky is still squatting in front of Emily, his hands reaching out towards her, moving slowly, and that small motion, that consideration, is not helping Steve. Bucky is moving slowly just in case Emily doesn’t want to be picked up, and Steve’s lips curl into a smile as Emily steps towards him, wanting to be held. In a few seconds, Bucky is standing up, Emily resting on his hip as he points at the cakes and Steve can no longer focus on anything but them. \"Now what do you usually get?\" Bucky asks, and Steve gives the woman her receipt and is glad the next person in the queue is looking undecided, and somewhat perplexingly unaffected by Bucky and Emily, while Steve is losing it.\n\n\"That.\" Emily says pointing at the biggest slice of mud cake. Bucky grins and laughs, and the little girl chuckles before pointing at a slice, much smaller and sadly a lot healthier looking. Steve takes the man’s order as he watches Bucky glance at the two items, as Steve decides he is looking to see if she could be allergic to anything in the mud cake, god, Bucky is actually killing him.\n\n“That piece is ginormous, you couldn’t possibly eat alone!\" Bucky answers. Emily laughs and holds onto Bucky’s arm, she may have only known him for a few minutes but she was comfortable and felt relaxed, with his strong arms holding onto her, and Steve couldn’t blame her one bit, for a moment he wonders what it would feel like, but those sort of thoughts do not help him focus one bit, so he bites down on the inside of his cheek and forces himself to focus. Steve looks up at Bucky, who is pausing for a moment before he grins again, \"We'll have to share it then.\" Emily grins and Steve tries to hide a smile as he places in an order for a toasted sandwich.\n\n\"Steve when you have a sec, your biggest slice of mud cake and two forks for Princess Emily and me.\" Bucky says, smiling at Steve, who can feel his heart stop, Bucky’s blue eyes are on him and Steve can’t remember how to breathe. Steve who was basically on autopilot since Bucky had stooped down in front of him, somehow despite all odds, manages to give him a smile and nod his head as he counts the man’s cash out. For a moment, Steve pauses and looks up but Bucky is already walking back to his table with Emily still resting on his hip. A question bubbles to the surface of his mind as Steve hands the man his change, how on earth did Bucky know his name. Sure he had known Bucky’s name for a little over a week now, but he had no idea how Bucky could possibly know his. Turning to grab the man a bottle of coke from the fridge behind him, it dawns on him, of course, his name tag.\n\nSomehow he manages to work with an almost clear head for the next seven minutes, until the line is clear, by some miracle he made his way through without getting any orders wrong, and as he hands the woman her number he glances over at Bucky and Emily, their order still fresh in his mind. Steve gives an audible sigh at the sight in front of him. Emily is sitting on Bucky’s knees, a grin on her face and a smile on his. He hadn't thought it was capable to love Bucky anymore, but as he notices the pencil in her hand, as she continues to draw all over a piece of paper that Bucky had no doubt ripped out of the book that he so often sits there with.\n\nAs Emily giggles and Bucky says something that Steve is too far away to hear, Steve figures that if hearts could melt, his would. Grabbing the cake out of the glass case, he motions to Sam, who understands immediately. With the cake on a plate, Steve makes his way over to Bucky, somehow managing to put one foot in front of the other, while attempting to stop his hand from shaking, with no success.\n\n\"I'm not really a princess though.\" Emily says when Steve gets within ear shot, his walking slows hoping to catch as much of their conversation as he can as he makes his way over, hoping not to trip or do anything embarrassing, as Bucky slowly guides a pen across the page.\n\n\"Neither's my friend Nat, but she's amazing. She would be more like a super spy, or an astronaut or a warrior, like you.\" He finishes, as an even wider smile splits across Emily's face. Her eyes move from his face to the paper in front of her and she grins again. \"I'm rubbish at drawing really, nowhere near as good as you, but you can't be good at everything that wouldn’t be fair.\" Bucky adds with a grin, and Emily laughs, Steve is having trouble putting on foot in front of the other, and is barely moving as he slowly approaches them.\n\n\"I'm rubbish at counting.\" Emily sighs, and Bucky gives her a look before she adds, \"But it wouldn’t be fair if I was good at everything.” She may only be three but she learns fast, and Steve cannot help but smile at the two of them.\n\n\"And anyway warriors don't need really counting, wonder woman never did and she still kicked as- butt.\" Bucky replies, before his blue eyes glance up at Steve who is two steps from their table now. Steve can feel his heart pounding in his chest, and he opens his mouth to say something, anything, perhaps something witty but his mind is blank, utterly and completely blank. Fucking brilliant, he thinks.\n\n\"The biggest slice of chocolate mud cake the world has even seen.\" Steve says as he places the plate on the table, before looking at Bucky and his legs sway beneath him as Bucky smiles. Glad he has already placed the plate on the table, Steve’s hand trembles and his heart pounds and his breath hitches and his face blushes.\n\n\"Thanks Steve.\" Bucky answers. Steve turns away from him, a smile spreading across his face. It wasn’t that he disliked his name, but no one had ever made his name sound quite that good, he liked the way it sounded coming off Bucky's tongue, and as he struggles to make his way back to behind the counter without fainting or tripping, he tries to ignore what else would sound better coming off Bucky's tongue.\n\nWhy does he have to be so fucking perfect, Steve moans inwardly as he leans against the counter, trying not to let his eyes stray to Bucky and Emily; but knowing it is only a matter of time, he lets himself succumb and he regrets his decision immediately when he meets Bucky’s blue eyes and he flashes him another smile. Steve’s legs shake and he miraculously manages to smile back.\n\n“I found it!” Sam announces ten minutes later as he heads out of the kitchen and towards Steve who hands a woman her receipt. Sam is smiling and his hand is in his other phone, and Steve can just tell from the look on his face that he is debating whether it is too soon to call Maria, and Steve can’t help but smile, it’s good to see Sam so happy.\n\n“Found what?” Steve asks, not turning to face him, instead he leans down against the counter, glad that they queue is finally empty, he can finally relax for a few moments. Closing his eyes, he tries to relax as he waits for Sam to answer.\n\n“Your name tag you idiot.” Sam answers, pushing Steve’s badge into his hand as Steve opens his eyes and stands up.\n\n“Thanks.” Steve smiles gratefully as he pins it to his shirt before his smile falters, if he wasn’t wearing his tag then how did Bucky know his name? Steve shakes his head, he is thinking way too much about this. Sam is staring at his phone again, and Steve smiles, pushing Bucky not out of his mind, but to a corner, so he can focus on Sam.\n\n“Wait why are you still here? Your shift ended like five minutes ago.” Sam questions as he looks up at Steve from his phone. He still hasn’t called Maria, or texted her, he can’t think of a single intelligible thing to type, he wants to send something witty but simple, something to show that he has been thinking about her but not to seem desperate. It was all about the balance, which is why, he still hadn’t sent anything.\n\n“Oh.” Steve breathes, he can’t help it but his gaze strays, landing on Bucky and Emily who are still laughing and smiling away, making Steve’s heart beat quicken as he tries not to melt at the sheer adorability of the whole thing. He looks back at Sam hoping he hasn’t noticed, but of course Sam has and he smiles at Steve who looks back over at Bucky, only briefly before looking back at Sam.\n\n“You want to see the big reunion don’t you? Don’t worry I’ll keep you posted.” Sam says with a smile, knowing full well that is exactly was Steve wants. Steve doesn’t want to leave, but he does have work to do, he has another lecture this evening, and he has to get some work done before hand, and he also needs to have a shower and eat something. Steve doesn’t have time to argue, before Sam is pushing him out of the front door, as he passes him his bag, and his sketchbook, and with one last look at Bucky who seems completely absorbed in Emily who is looking up at him adoringly, Steve heads home.\n\nThe entire way back, all Steve can think about is the smile on Bucky’s face, the way he was with Emily, the way he was, no is just so fucking perfect. He is smiling to himself as he climbs up the steps, not even pissed off that the elevator isn’t working today, and as Steve locks the front door behind him, his phone beeps. He doesn’t even have to check it to know it will be from Sam, who else can it be.  Unlocking his phone, he goes into his messages and smiles.\n\n\nThe cub has been located.\n\n\nSteve drops his sketchbook on the table and drapes his bag over the chair as he yanks open the cupboard and grabs a glass, his eyes fixated on his phone, wanting for Sam to send another text.\n\n\nLion and lioness are here.\n\n\nHis phone lights up as he pours himself a glass of water, and he smiles, wishing he could be there to see this first hand.\n\n\nGranted with big creepy smiles, but they look nice enough.\n\n\nSteve takes another sip as he walks to his bedroom, eyes still on his phone, waiting for Sam’s next text. He can imagine it happening, the arching of Bucky’s brow, the smile on his face, the way his eyes would... his phone beeps, disrupting his line of thought.\n\n\nTiny human looks pleased.\n\n\nSteve smile broadens, he loves when Sam calls people tiny humans.\n\n\nDaddy looks like he is going to hug Bucky.\n\n\nOf course he does, who doesn’t want to hug Bucky, Steve thinks as he smiles. Grabbing a towel and a clean pair of briefs, Steve looks expectantly at his phone wanting it to light up again. He loves Sam’s recount, but he still wants to see it, he thinks it would have been better if the phone was lighting up with Bucky’s texts, and that thought makes him grin and he falls back onto his bed, grinning up at his ceiling, as he lets the feeling of happiness wrap around him and he just breathes. His phone beeps again, and he holds it up over his head, his arms outstretched as he unlocks his phone.\n\n\nWoomp there is it, a big handshake and a huge smile.\n\n\nSteve wonders whether the smile is two sided, and wonders how the corners of Bucky’s lips curved, but that thought was leading him down a dangerous path, now all he could think about was Bucky’s lips... his phone beeps again and he looks up at it.\n\n\nOh how cute Emily is hugging your man goodbye.\n\n\nSteve types out a quick reply, He’s not my man.\n\nHe smiles as he looks up at his phone, waiting for reply. He knows he should get into the shower, that he should be doing something, but he doesn’t care. Lying on his bed, staring up at the ceiling, with a stupidly huge smile on his face, he doesn’t mind, and all he can think about is Bucky. His phone beeps again and he smiles at the message.\n\n\nNot yet at least.\n\n\nHis thumb moves across the keyboard starting to type out another reply when his phone beeps again.\n\n\nShit I see why you love him, he is freaking perfect.\n\n\nSteve grins, he ponders a reply but only seconds later his phone beeps again.\n\n\nWhat did I just text?\n\n\nSteve laughs and waits for his phone to beep again.\n\n\nGod I’m turning into you, this is frightening.\n\n\nA smile on his lips so large is mouth is starting to hurt, Steve laughs again, as he tries to remember the last time he felt this happy... his phone beeps again and he stops trying to remember.\n\n\nHe is pretty hot though and that smile... man oh man\n\n\nSteve is grinning as he types a quick reply, Hands off, he’s mine.\n\nHe waits for his phone to beep again, and he closes his hands, smiling up at the ceiling, wondering how a man who has only spoken to for the first time today can make him feel like this. But the look in his eyes, the sound of his voice, it was perfect. And even though Steve was trying not to dwell on it, Bucky knew his name, he knew his name and he wasn’t wearing his name badge. That had to mean something right? His phone beeps again and his eyes shoot open.\n\n\nAnyway reunion over, the little chick has left the nest, and your boy is all alone. You should come and hug him, or whatever.\n\n\nSteve smiles and quickly replies, Don’t tempt me. \n\nStanding up slowly, he grabs his towel and heads to the bathroom, leaving his change of clothes on his bed, he glances down, his phone still in hand, waiting for it to beep again, waiting for an update. Placing his towel on the drying rack, he turns the shower on, as he phone beeps.\n\n\nTold you you wouldn’t miss much.\n\n\nTesting the temperature, Steve kicks the door shut behind him, and locks it out of habit.\n\n\nNat’s here though, just arrived. Now that is perfection.\n\n\nSteve smiles and types a single word before hitting send, Maria?\n\nHis phone beeps just as the message sends, and he smiles, glad that Sam will never change.\n\n\nNot that I still like her.\n\n\nHe is obviously meaning Nat, and Steve smiles as he adjusts the temperature, waiting for the next text.\n\n\nMaria’s gorgeous too. \n\n\nSteve smiles and his mind floats back to Bucky, who is gorgeous too, those bright blue eyes and his smile, and his dark brown hair that Steve just wants to run his fingers through... his phone beeps pulling him out of his imagination.\n\n\nMaria’s utter perfection, god I should really text her. What should I say??\n\n\nSteve sighs, why on earth would Sam be asking him for relationship advice of all people. His track record wasn’t poor, it was non-existent. Plus he was completely and utterly in love with a man who had only just talked to, so he was in no position to give advice even he had had any to give, which he did not. Sure he’d seen enough rom coms and other movies to know how these things were supposed to go, but he lacked real life experience, which was ultimately what was needed here, not Hollywood advice that probably had a pretty poor rate of success in reality.\n\n\nI mean I could\n\n\nSteve looks at the message, wondering what Sam is trying to tell him with his four word message as he pulls his shirt over his head.\n\n\n Shit Furys giving me the evils, should stop texting.\n\n\nOf course, his previous text was cut short. Steve smiles at the phone, as he imagines the look Fury gave Sam, the look that never failed to make Sam turn a little red and stare at his feet.\n\nSteve types a quick reply, See ya later. Before he places his phone on the edge of the sink, strips off and jumps into the shower, pulling the shower door shut behind him as he adjusts the temperature quickly, he isn’t preparing for hell after all, it could be a little colder, he wasn’t a huge fan of scorching water, that would no doubt burn is skin off. Smiling as the warm water ran down him, he closes his eyes and thinks of Bucky...\n\n\n...\n\n\nThe next day passes without a single interaction with Bucky. Steve doesn’t even see him, the cafe is so busy while he is working, even if Bucky made it in, he probably would not have noticed, but with Steve checking the door and scanning the tables as often as he could, he was sure Bucky wasn’t in. He had an afternoon lecture, and turned down an invite to another party, this time one of Sam’s friends from his football team was hosting one, and Steve had no interest what so ever in going, so spent his evening sketching while he watched the Dark Knight, before spending a few hours on work from his lectures.\n\nA Bucky-less day was not at all what Steve had in mind, and as he lies awake in bed, on the brink of sleep, he wonders if he will see him the next day, wonders if yesterday when he knew his name, was something that Steve was simply making far too big a deal out of, or if it actually meant something. One day without even a glimpse of Bucky, and all could think about was the way that his name sounded rolling of the tip of his tongue.\n\nWhen Sam finally came home, he found Steve asleep in bed, a small smile on his face, as he lay on his stomach, lost in a dream, a dream filled with Bucky.\n\n\n...\n\n\nSteve wouldn’t mind going out with Tony for lunch, not really, but when he gets the invite the next day, he cannot be bothered accepting the invitation. Except, he can’t not accept the invitation, Tony doesn’t really give him a choice. Obviously not getting the message when Steve doesn’t reply to his text, apart from a short, ‘Can’t today’, Tony is there waiting when Steve gets out of a class, a smile on his face and a bag slung over his shoulder.\n\n“Uh-” Steve starts, unsure what to say. He is busy, sort of. But he doesn’t start work for another hour and a half, and while he has another assignment that he is only half way through, it isn’t due for another two days. Usually Sam is the one who ends up going out with Tony, but Sam is working, and Tony’s lecture finished only a few minutes before Steve’s, and Steve knows how Tony hates being alone for too long.\n\n“You free for lunch?” Tony asks nonchalantly attempting to not let on how much he actually wants Steve to join him. It isn’t that he loves Steve, but he doesn’t dislike him, and he can be pretty decent company, and after a day like today, Tony is finding that company is what he needs at lunch, spending another hour trapped in his head probably won’t bode well for the early lecture he has tomorrow, that he needs to attend without a throbbing headache.\n\nSteve hesitates, he cannot think of a single acceptable reason to turn down the lunch, and as the smile on Tony’s lips lingers for another moment, the cockiness dampened by the hopeful look in his eyes, that makes Tony seem, well, almost human, just as vulnerable as Steve, Steve isn’t sure that he wants to say no anymore.\n\n“Come on Rogers, I know you’re burning to find out some more on your boy Barnes.” Tony grins, turning away for Steve as he speaks, knowing full well that Steve will follow, he has known him long enough to know that he won’t not come, and with the limited information Sam had given him on Steve’s relationship with Bucky, or serious lack of, he knows that Steve cannot resist the bait, he needs to know more about him, his curiosity has often gotten the better of him.\n\n“Fine, but only for an hour.” Steve sighs, falling into stride with Tony. Part of him wonders if Tony has any information to offer him, but then again Steve will take whatever he can get, he knows basically nothing about Bucky, and despite his various attempts to find out more about him than his name and where he works, he knows nothing.\n\n“I’m buying...” Tony starts after a few minutes of silent walking. Steve has a headphone in one ear as he walks beside Tony, whose steps are slightly slower than usual, on account of the sheer amount of books and notepads and random assorted crap in his bag today.\n\n“If...” Steve prompts, knowing there is some sort of catch, there always is with Tony, he can’t help himself. From the glint in Tony’s eyes, he knows that there is more than one reason that he picked Steve to have lunch with, when he had at least a dozen other options, all of whom would be far less reluctant than himself, and probably far better company Steve thinks to himself. Tony doesn’t say anything for a few steps, and Steve waits, somewhat patiently for Tony to answer. They reach the cafe, still in silence, and Tony drops his bag into an empty chair, before slumping into the chair beside it. Steve lowers himself onto the seat opposite Tony, and waits.\n\n“So Pepper...” Tony starts after a few seconds of Steve staring at him, prompting him to answer. The waitress has spotted them, and gives them a small wave, telling them she will be over in a few minutes.\n\n“Pepper Potts? You’re keen on Pepper, shit you do-” Steve starts, before he stops. He notices the look on Tony’s face, a look that looks foreign displayed across Tony’s features, taking a small breath in, Steve stares at Tony for a second, as his brain slots into place, he remembers the party, how could he not have remembered? “You fucking like her? What? Since when?” Steve demands, his voice a little louder than usual but he doesn’t care. The two of them are sitting out the front, being bathed in sun, Steve knows he is going to get a little hot, sitting here in tight black jeans and his leather jacket. The slightly torn grey t-shirt he is wearing underneath is bound to make an appearance before the lunch is over, he won’t survive in his jacket for over an hour under the hot sun.\n\n“I don’t l-” Tony starts, sounding somewhat unlike himself, his words don’t have the certain confidence that usually accompanies them, and the smile on Tony’s face isn’t one that Steve has ever seen him wear before. He pauses as the waitress reaches them, handing them both a menu and leaving seconds later with a promise of water and two glasses on the way.\n\n“You fucking do, you like her, you gotta crush on her don’t ya?” Steve teases as soon as the waitress is three steps away from them, he is grinning, clearly enjoying how the tables have turned, it isn’t Tony with the upper hand anymore, this time he gets to do the teasing. Tony opens his mouth to say something, but Steve quickly adds, “I have to put up with you being an asshole, you gotta put up with me,” as he continues to grin at Tony.\n\n“I don’t want to make you regret this Rogers.” Tony says, his usual grin returning, as the confidence starts to fill his words once again. Steve however no longer cares, he is enjoying this far too much.\n\n“Whatcha going do Stark? You go-” Steve smirks, looking like the little shit that he can so easily be. Tony is shaking his head, and Steve’s smile only grows wider. Despite not wanting to go to lunch with Tony, he hasn’t eaten a thing and he is already enjoying it, teasing Tony is not something that he has had many opportunities for, but Tony has had plenty to tease Steve, so Steve is simply returning the favour.\n\n“One word.” Tony says quietly, and Steve’s smile falters, the smirk itching at the corners of Tony’s mouth, is one that is far too familiar. “Bucky.” Tony smiles as Steve tries his best not to groan.  He looks down at his menu for a second before looking back up at Tony.\n\n“And we’re done with the teasing.” Steve says sweetly, smiling over at Tony who gives a smile in reply. Shockingly, at least in Steve’s mind, the next thirty minutes is enjoyable. They spend a while making pleasant conversation, which Steve wasn’t entirely sure Tony Stark would be able to make, with him at least, and then they spent another ten minutes talking about Pepper. An entire ten minute conversation on Pepper, that Steve had to bite his tongue several times to stop himself from teasing Tony. Just as Steve predicted, his leather jacket was sitting on the back of his chair, the sun warming him just a little too much. As they lapsed into silence for a few minutes, Steve waits patiently, not wanting to seem too desperate, not wanting to bring it up, but knowing that in a matter a minutes he will. The waitress takes their plates from the table, and Tony shuffles back into his seat, his eyes fixed on Steve as the waitress walks away.\n\n“Any updates on Wilson’s love life?” Tony asks, not saying what Steve was expecting him to, he had waited, somewhat patiently, for a little information, and none had been presented. Remaining silent, Steve gives a small shrug, his eyes resting on Tony as he waits.\n\n“Geez Rogers, quit looking at me like that, I’ll tell you about Barnes, no need to glare.” Tony smiles, seemingly enjoying the scowl lingering at the corners of Steve’s mouth, he knows that Tony is going to tease him, it is Tony after all, but after resisting the urge to tease him, he thinks that Tony could at least return the favour.\n\n“Bucky Barnes.” Tony says slowly. “Bucky, Barnes.” He repeats, sounding the words out as he leans back into his chair. Steve glances around them, checking that Bucky isn’t here, not that he would be, but still, Steve checks all the same, he doesn’t want him to overhear him, or possibly worse, overhear Tony.\n\n“Tony.” Steve warns, settling into his chair as his gaze remains fixed on Tony, waiting for him to give him something, anything to go on, he needs details, he doesn’t care that he feels like a bit of a stalker, he is only lightly stalking, and he more curious than creepy, he just wants to know something, he needs to know something about Bucky, he hasn’t seen him in two days now, he needs something.\n\n“Eager are we, you really like him don’t ya?” Tony teases, causing Steve to sigh and take a sip of water while he tries not to sigh. Truth is he does really like Bucky. Truth is he may even love Bucky. Which is ridiculous, he barely knows anything about him. But that doesn’t matter, he is gorgeous, and not just to look at, he has a kind face, a hot kind face sure, but a kind face all the same.\n\n“I didn’t tease about Pepper.” Is all Steve says, as he falls to push the memory of Bucky and Emily out of his mind, that may have been two days ago now, but he still manages to make his insides melt.\n\n“Because you’re nice like that, I never promised I wouldn’t tease Rogers, I said information, not niceties.” Tony grins. Steve rolls his eyes and takes another sip of his water while he waits. They sit in silence for a few seconds as Tony checks his phone, he sends out a text and then looks up at Steve, who is watching him, waiting. “What do you want to know about Barnes?” He asks.\n\n“Do you know a Natasha?” Steve doesn’t want to ask that question, he doesn’t want to at all. He knows that they are dating, he’s seen them together, it’s completely and utterly obvious, but part of him wants confirmation, because there is a tiny part of him that hopes, foolishly and naively, hopes that perhaps they aren’t dating, which means he has a shot. Tony of course, knows none of this as he scans his own brain, thinking of all of the Natasha’s he knows.\n\n“Red hair, blue eyes, looks like she could kill you, absolutely stunning, and is utterly lethal?” Tony asks, settling on the only Natasha that he knows who lives around here. Steve nods, and Tony smiles before he adds, “That’s Natasha Romanoff. Everyone’s either in love with her, or shit scared, sometimes both. Why’d you ask?”\n\n“No reason.” Steve says, his voice far quieter than he intended. The look of adoration of Tony’s face at the mere mention of her name does not bode well for Steve, if he thinks she is so amazing, surely Steve doesn’t have a chance in hell with Bucky, who obviously isn’t shit scared of her, so he must be completely in love with her, and if she has any sense, Steve thinks, she will be completely in love with Bucky. The waitress approaches the table again, and Tony pays, while Steve sits in silence.\n\n“Barely any free time that boy.” Tony says after a few seconds of silence, with Steve lost in thought and Tony wanting to have captured slightly more of Steve’s attention than he currently has, he knows Steve is thinking about Bucky, and despite pretending not to be at all interested in Steve’s love life, a smile tugs at the corners of his lips, it’s good to see Steve happy.\n\n“How do you know?” Steve asks, pushing some, but not all, thoughts of Bucky, slightly to the side. He needs to see him smile, he needs, well whatever he can get, and for now information is all he is going to get.\n\n“Never comes to parties.” Tony answers, his tone implying that perhaps that is meant to be a bad thing, but in Steve’s eye, that is just another thing that he loves about Bucky.\n\n“Maybe he isn’t social like you.” Steve says, a small smile growing on his lips. He toys with the idea for a few seconds, toys with the idea of the two of them snuggled up on the couch watching Netflix, eating pizza and pretending the world outside the apartment doesn’t exist.\n\n“That isn’t it.” Tony says, snatching Steve’s dream straight out of his head and crushing it. Steve sighs, and tries to hold onto that image, the image of them on the couch together, but it’s too late, it’s gone.\n\n“How do you know?” Steve says, almost demanding.\n\n“When are you going to accept that I know everything?” Is all Tony says in reply, and as the waitress returns, Tony gives her cash before resting his eyes on Steve, waiting for Steve to agree with him, waiting for Steve to give up waiting, and prompt him for more.\n\n“Then enlighten me.”\n\n“He works at h&m...” Tony starts.\n\n“I know that already.” Steve sighs. He wants new information, he needs new information. No, he needs Bucky, but Bucky has Natasha, Bucky would never go for him, not as a boyfriend, and certainly not as friend. But Bucky is an addiction, and Steve needs more.\n\n“If you shut up and let me finish...”\n\n“Fine.” Steve sighs again. This was the Tony he was familiar with, not the one that made pleasant conversation, but the one who could be a total pain in the ass, the one who loved attention, and enjoyed dragging a story on.\n\n“Do you want to know? Because if you keep interrupting I wo-” Tony replies, fighting to keep the smile off his face, and failing miserably as he smirks at Steve who gives another exasperated sigh.\n\n“Tony.” Steve says softly, a glare touching the corners of his eyes.\n\n“He’s doing med, planning on being a surgeon, and is well on his way from what I’ve heard.” Tony says. Steve’s expression falls even further. Surgeon, right, that means potential god complex, that means genius, that means he is way of his league, utterly out of his league.\n\n“So he’s like crazy smart? That’s brilliant, just brilliant.” Steve groans. His head falls into his hands as he sighs. Sure Bucky has a girlfriend, well, probably, almost definitely, but now Steve doesn’t even have a small chance, at all. Tony sighs, somewhat loudly, and as Steve remains slumped over on the table looking utterly defeated, Tony sighs again.\n\n“Look I don’t want to have to say this, but since Sam isn’t here to get all soppy with you, you gotta hear it from me. Firstly, shut your goddamn mouth.” Tony’s words are weighted, and he is talking far more slowly than usual, and as Steve half listens, Tony tries his best to be kind.\n\n“What?” Steve looks up from the table, staring up at Tony, as he raises his eyebrow, wondering what on earth Tony is on about now.\n\n“Secondly, you are a catch.” Tony says with a smile, before he adds, “Well sorta.”\n\n“Thanks.” Steve says sarcastically.\n\n“Look... miss?” Tony starts, before he looks around the faces that surround them, he is waving at a young brunette now, who is not so patiently waiting for her coffee to arrive, and seems somewhat disinterested in her own conversation. Steve groans, this cannot end well, Tony has never done this before, but Steve can imagine.\n\n“What the fuck are you doing?” Steve mutters, his voice low as he leans across the table, the woman is standing up from her chair and walking towards them now, her eyes on them, almost assessing.\n\n“Shut up Steve.” Tony mutters back before turning to face the brunette who has almost reached their table. “Would you consider my friend hot?” He asks as she stops in front of them, looking down at them expectantly.\n\n“Uhh-” She starts, her cheeks going slightly red as she looks from Steve to Tony, then back again, wondering what to say.\n\n“Yes or no?” Tony cuts across, he cannot be bothered waiting for her to think it out, he just wants an answer, sometime today would be nice, but he considers saying that might only annoy her.\n\n“You don’t have to ans-” Steve starts softly, trying to hide the scowl on his face, the scowl that he wishes to direct straight at Tony, but as the smug look on Tony’s face only grows, Steve instead stares at the woman in front of him.\n\n“Yes.” She decides, smiling at Steve before smiling at Tony.\n\n“Thanks.” Tony says in reply, waving the woman off. She lingers for a moment, thinking possibly that one of them is going to ask her out, ask for her phone number, or give her one of theirs before she leaves. But as Tony looks around the cafe, and Steve tries not to blush, she realises that none of what she wishes is a possibility, and heads to her seat.\n\n“Excuse me, could I just-” Tony starts, as he beckons to a guy about their age, who is wearing a baseball hat, the wrong way around, and worse still, he is actually sitting inside. Steve isn’t picky about a lot of things, but hats inside, especially hats the wrong way around inside, just does something to him, and not something good, he absolutely despises them. The guy seems nice enough though, and not everyone can be perfect, but Steve doesn’t let the hat thing go.  “Is he hot?” Tony asks.\n\n“Dude I’m n-” The guy starts, looking scandalized, and almost a touch insulted. Tony fails to conceal a sigh, and Steve is feeling somewhat less sympathetic towards this guy than he did the chick.\n\n“I’m not questioning your sexuality, calm down, I just want to know if you think he is good looking.” Tony says in a bored tone. He motions over a Steve, and the guy looks Steve up in down, a little more critically than Steve had been prepared for.\n\n“Yeah.” The guy shrugs, rather noncommittally.\n\n“Yeah?” Tony repeats, looking up at him, demanding a more concrete answer. Steve is blushing a little bit now, well a little bit more than he was already, and kicks Tony under the table, who ignores him. “I’m not asking if you get a hard on when you see him, just is he-” Steve kicks him harder this time and Tony pauses.\n\n“Your friends hot. You’re hot.” He says first to Tony and then he looks at Steve and gives him a small smile before he glances back at Tony, almost asking permission to walk away, he wants to go and sit down.\n\n“Thanks.” Tony says, waving him off with a flick of his hand. The man turns and heads away from their table, and Steve is still blushing, but is now somewhat glaring at Tony.\n\n“What exactly was that supposed to prove?” Steve almost hisses. This is exactly why he hates having lunch with Tony, or Sam, well any of his friends really, they seem to enjoy taking opportunities to embarrass him in multiple ways, and today was no exception.\n\n“Look they both say you’re hot. You seem to have a certain allure I guess, you can be considered smart, and you are nice and shit. Look, Barnes would be lucky to have you.” Tony says, shrugging as he says it. Without Sam here, he needs to be the nice one, he needs to be the one telling Steve that although he is completely insecure, he doesn’t have any reason to doubt himself so much.\n\n“Naaaw Ton, you looove me.” Steve coos, grinning at Tony.\n\n“I-” Tony starts, his turn now to glare, annoyed by Steve, although to be completely honest, he has been expecting it, there was only so much Steve would put up with before acting like the little shit he can so often be.\n\n“You can deny it, but we’re totally besties now.” Steve grins, his fingers curling around his glass as he raises it to his lips, he pauses as he takes a sip, and Tony is now giving him a soft glare.\n\n“I’m going to...” Tony starts, looking amused by Steve as he takes a sip of his water. He has known Steve long enough, far too long he sometimes reckons, but long enough to know that Steve is still a sarcastic little shit, no matter how tall and broad he has become.\n\n“Make us friendship bracelets?” Steve cuts in, grinning at Tony.\n\n“I can see why you get beaten up so much.” Tony sighs, a smile in his eyes.\n\n“Love you too Ton.” Steve continues to grin, even though Tony could be an asshole, and he was a little more of Sam’s friend than he was Steve’s friend, Steve still considered Tony to be one of his closest friends.\n\n“I take it back, you suck, he will hate you.”\n\n“You looove me.” Steve continues, grinning as he ignores Tony’s remark, he is starting to laugh now, and Tony continues to watch him, a tell-tale smile twitching at the corner of his mouth, that is set in mock annoyance, well at least half mock annoyance, maybe half real annoyance.\n\n“I am never taking you for lunch again.” Tony says with a shake of his head, wondering why he picked Steve to take to lunch today. But as Steve continues to grin, Tony realises he needed Steve being an annoying little shit today, this was exactly what he needed.\n\n“Yes you will, because you love me.” Steve smiles, Tony shrugs and looks down at his phone again, a smile twitching at the corner of his lips.\n\nFive minutes later they are standing up, Steve’s jacket draped over his arm as he looks at Tony expectantly, waiting for something, waiting... Tony raises his eyebrow as he stuffs his phone into his back pocket and repositions his bag, Steve sighs in response.\n\n“There’s something you aren’t telling me. Something about Bucky.” Steve says. It has been obvious for the last ten minutes, obvious that there is something that Tony is not telling him, there is something that Tony knows, something that he won’t tell him, and for the life of him, Steve doesn’t have a single inkling about what that might be.\n\n“Yeah there’s a tonne of stuff. Like did you know his favourite colour is blue? Or th-” Tony starts, a smile dancing on his lips, he knows exactly what Steve is talking about, he does, but he was trying not to make it too obvious, it is Steve’s fault that he is so perceptive about things, although he can be so oblivious about others.\n\n“Tony.” Steve warns. He needs to get to work, but he can’t go, not without knowing.\n\n“You know those protests you lark on about at least twice a-” Tony starts, his gaze settling on something to the right of Steve, Steve was right, there was something that Tony didn’t tell him, wouldn’t tell him, couldn’t tell him.\n\n“They ar-” Steve sighs.\n\n“Barnes’ does them too.” Tony finishes, cutting across Steve as he gaze flicks back to Steve and he gives him a small smile as Steve’s eyes light up.\n\n“He, really? Wait, that isn’t it!” Steve grins before he stops, his eyes brush over Tony’s expression and it’s clear that wasn’t what Tony was keeping from him, that wasn’t it at all.\n\n“Look I’m not a total asshole, everyone has secrets that only they are allowed to tell.” And with that Tony turned, walking down the street away from Steve who was left standing, staring after him, not really focused on Tony who got smaller and smaller, but what could possibly be something that Tony had refused to tell him, something that was completely Bucky’s business. Tony told everyone everything, he didn’t care, so what was this, something that even Tony refused to share without Bucky knowing.\n\n "}
+{"text": "“We are not going trick or treating!” Seokjin says for the fifth time as Taehyung, Jimin, and Jeongguk follow him around the house.\n\n“Come on Jin hyung, we never ask you for anything!” Taehyung says with an exaggerated pout and Seokjin turns an unimpressed look on him.\n\n“You ask me for stuff all the time. You literally asked me to brew a potion for you yesterday,” The older wizard says pointing at Jimin who just shrugs.\n\n“That was yesterday, this is today. Come on hyung, don't you think it would be cool to go trick or treating with werewolves, vampires, and a demon?” Jimin asks looking far too hopeful for Seokjin's liking.\n\n“Guys, we are too old to go trick or treating. That's for kids,” Seokjin says and he's terrified when Jeongguk's eyes light up and his smile widens.\n\n“Then why don't you make us little kids?” Jeongguk asks clinging on to Seokjin's shirt.\n\n“What do you mean?” Seokjin asks hoping that Jeongguk isn't talking about what he thinks he's talking about.\n\n“I've seen a cloaking spell in the book before and I'm sure you know the spell. You and Jimin can make us look like kids to other people and we can still go trick or treating,” Jeongguk says ignoring Jimin's grumble about him using honorifics. Seokjin is going to break. He's going to give in because he's weak to these idiots and he hates himself for it.\n\n“Yoongi, help me out here,” Seokjin pleads to Yoongi who is sitting in Hoseok's lap at the moment while he runs his fingers through Namjoon's hair.\n\n“Actually, it does sound kind of fun, we don't ever get to go out in our true forms and what's better than free candy?” Yoongi asks with a shrug and Seokjin glares at him.\n\n“Traitor,” Seokjin says before turning back to their three maknaes. They are all staring up at him with exaggeratedly wide eyes and he hates how soft he is for these idiots.\n\n“Ugh, fine. There's no point fighting a rising tide. But, we're doing this my way, ok?” Seokjin says with a calm smile. Too calm of a smile actually.\n\nSeokjin has been brewing the potions for about an hour now and its finally starting to sink in that this maybe wasn't a good plan after all. “Did you see the way his eyes sparkled? His eyes only sparkle like that when he's about to turn me into a woodland creature or something,” Taehyung whispers conspiratorially to Hoseok who just rolls his eyes.\n\n“You asked for this so now you're going to get it,” Hoseok says with a shrug. When Seokjin finally emerges from the basement with the finished potion, Jeongguk notices that there are only three vials full of it. He looks at him confused but Seokjin just continues to smile.\n\n“So, since you three wanted to go trick or treating so bad, this potion is only for you,” Seokjin says before calling for Jimin and Namjoon to come into the living room. When everyone makes it into the room, he hands the maknaes their vials. “Well, drink up, we don't have a lot of time to waste,” Seokjin says nodding at the vials in their hands. Jimin, Jeongguk, and Taehyung share a nervous look before downing the awful tasting contents in the vials. Nothing happens for a solid minute but, with a cloud of pink sparkly dust, the three start to change. They start to shrink?\n\n“Oh. My. God. They're so adorable!” Namjoon says rushing over to pick Taehyung up and spin him around in the air. Since when did Namjoon get so tall anyway? Taehyung thinks as Namjoon spins him.\n\n“What happened?” Jeongguk asks and his voice sounds so small. So childish. Hoseok and Yoongi crowd him and Taehyung and, as soon as they look at each other they scream.\n\n“You turned us into kids?” Jimin screams kicking his tiny legs out to try to get out of Hoseok's arms.\n\n“You said you wanted to go trick or treating and now you can. I'm giving you guys exactly what you wanted,” Seokjin says trying to stifle a laugh at the three little angry faces staring up at him.\n\n“Well, what costumes are we gonna wear?” Jeongguk asks blinking wide eyes up at Yoongi who literally coos at him.\n\n“I don't know, but I do know that you guys are just adorable!” Namjoon says nuzzling his face with Taehyung's. Taehyung giggles as Namjoon tickles his chubby stomach.\n\n“Well, after you three put it in my head I actually went out and picked out a few costumes for you to wear,” Seokjin says summoning the little outfits to his side. The outfits are adorable, of course, and they're all dressed as a tinier version of themselves basically.\n\nJeongguk is dressed as a little devil, Taehyung is dressed as a tiny werewolf, and Jimin is dressed as Harry Potter. Hoseok and Namjoon squeal as soon as the three youngest come out dressed and even Yoongi sends them a wide smile.\n\nAfter they all get ready and once everyone stops cooing at how cute at the smaller boys look in their costumes, they decide to drive around see who is handing out candy. Namjoon is adamant about having one of the maknaes in his arms at all times and they don't protest when he smothers them with kisses. (“How are you guys not freaking out right now? They're adorable and I love them,” Namjoon says hugging Jimin tightly and covering his face in kisses.)\n\nThey visit a few dozen houses and, by the time they're heading back home, the younger boys' bags are full of candy and even the older four have some candy of their own. Jimin and Taehyung are passed out in the car and Jeongguk looks seconds away from falling asleep as they pull into their driveway.\n\n“This was the best Halloween ever,” Jeongguk says clinging on to Namjoon as he's carried into the house. After the three youngest are put to bed the older four collapse in the couch in the living room.\n\n“This was a sweet thing to do for them Seokjin hyung, I'm proud of you,” Yoongi says kissing Seokjin softly and Seokjin nods.\n\n“Yeah well, I'm weak for all of my idiots,” Seokjin says earning a smack from Hoseok and all is well.\n\nAll is well until they wake up the next morning to find that Jimin Jeongguk and Taehyung are still children. “Uh, Jin hyung, what happened?” Namjoon asks confused and Seokjin just smirks.\n\n“Since the little brats forced me to make them children, they get to stay like that for a while,” Seokjin explains ignoring the children's whines.\n\n“And how long is a while?” Hoseok asks to which Seokjin just shrugs and leaves the room.\n\n“Well, that doesn't sound good,” Yoongi says watching Seokjin walk away from them.\n\nAfter a very hectic month in which Yoongi, Hoseok, and Namjoon are forced to care for children while Seokjin sits back and watches, the maknaes finally return to their older selves.\n\n“Don't ever ask him to do anything for you again,” Yoongi says falling back into the couch.\n\n“Noted,” Jimin says while Seokjin sips his tea and laughs to his evil little heart's content."}
+{"text": "\n\nL.Felix\n\n\n\n\n| X516.06.14 |\n\n\n\nEnvy was already trying to stop the bleeding from Felix's hip when the blonde woke up from the vision. It stung, but the Sin was surprisingly cautious with the amount of pressure.\n\n\n\nTrying to ignore the stinging pain, Felix did his best to sit up from the other's lap.\n\n\n\n\"W-why would you show me so much?\" Felix asked, hissing as the Sin pressed a bit harder on his wound. \n\n\n\n\"A few of my brothers have already shown you what happened to your friends. It may just be me being a bit jealous that they have the upper hand.\" Envy replied, seeming much calmer than he usually was. \"Don't think this is just me being kind. I have my own reasons for doing this.\" \n\n\n\n\"Let me guess, you want me to choose you because you showed me the most?\" Felix guessed, hissing again as the Sin gave a purposeful squeeze to his hip. \n\n\n\n\"I'd hoped it would bring me higher, but that's not entirely why.\" Envy replied. \"You want to save your friends, but what if I told you what you saw would be your fate in the future?\" \n\n\n\n\"What do you mean?\" \n\n\n\nEnvy let out a chuff as if he was unbelieving Felix didn't understand. \"What I'm saying is that Hyunjin and I aren't so different. Eventually, he will snap and try to lock you away from other's eyes to avoid the envy he feels whenever you're with others. It'll start out small with little gestures and comments about how bothered he is. Then it'll grow into more desperate actions. Isolation. Complete control over your life.\"\n\n\n\nFelix shook his head. \"He's not like that. He wouldn't do that.\"\n\n\n\n\"But how do you know?\" Envy questioned, his words sinking into Felix's mind. \"What your friends saw in their dreams were manifestations of what they really want. As messed up as it may seem, those feelings they harbor towards you will only become more and more tainted, and you'll be the one who suffers. Maybe you'd be best just letting your friends die?\" \n\n\n\nFelix instantly shook his head, confident the Sin was wrong. \"That's not an option. They're good people, they wouldn't be like that.\"\n\n\n\nEnvy just shrugged, removing the blood soaked cloth from Felix's hip. \"Believe me or not, it's up to you, but don't say I didn't warn you.\"\n\n\n\n\nHe's wrong.\n\n\n\n\n\nMy friends won't be like that...\n\n\n\n\nThinking back, Felix could only remember the good times. He could only remember the love he felt whenever he was with them. There was never any signs of anything negative between them besides maybe the occasional annoyance. Thinking back to their years in college, Felix realized that maybe all the gestures, touches, and comments he received from the others weren't as platonic as he once thought. Maybe those were advances that Felix never really thought too hard about because there was no way his friends loved him as more than a friend. At least, that's what Felix originally thought.\n\n\n\n\"Come on, I'm taking you out for a few hours.\" Envy said, standing up from their spot on the ground. \"You've spent enough time with the others lately. It's my turn now.\"\n\n\n\n\"I went on a date with you two days ago.\" Felix reminded, wrapping his arms around the Sin's neck. \n\n\n\n\"Which was too long ago, and I had to share you.\" Envy argued. \"Tonight is gonna just be you and me.\" \n\n\n\nFelix wasn't sure he liked the sound of that. Envy had yet to really prove himself as delightful company, but as long as Felix wasn't tossed around like some toy in the sky, he'll call it progress. \n\n\n\nHolding on tight while the Sin flew them into the sky, Felix felt a tug in the back of his mind. Someone was trying to talk to him again.\n\n\n\n\"Felix?\" It was Jisung. \n\n\n\n\nYeah, I'm here.\n\n\n\n\n\"I just wanted to make sure you were safe.\" The other said, sounding relieved. \"Hyunjin was a little worried about you. He told me that Envy was upset about...well, you probably already know.\"\n\n\n\n\nYou could talk to him? Minho told me only one of you is ever really awake at a time.\n\n\n\n\n\"Yeah, sometimes we are able to talk with each other briefly, but it's been a while since all of us have been awake.\"\n\n\n\n\nSo how are you doing?\n\n\n\n\n\"As fine as I can be stuck in a dark void, but I have the others, so I'm okay.\" Jisung replied. \"I miss you though, it's not the same without you here.\"\n\n\n\n\nI miss you guys too. I'll get you all back in your bodies soon though.\n\n\n\n\n\"Just stay safe out there. Greed isn't exactly going to sit back anymore. He's planning something.\" \n\n\n\n\nThanks for the warning. \n\n\n\n\nThe connection died away, Felix now aware of the eyes trained on him. \n\n\n\n\"Hearing voices again?\" The Sin asked, his tone insinuating he already knew the answer. \n\n\n\n\"It's not like you're one to talk.\" Felix replied. \"You just like to traumatize me.\"\n\n\n\n\"And I'll gladly do it again.\" Envy argued. \"So I suggest you stay on my good side tonight.\"\n\n\n\nThe Sin flew them down to an empty side street, Envy reluctantly letting Felix go but grabbing hold his hand instead. \n\n\n\n\"This way.\" Envy said, guiding the other along through the streets. Felix was again confused by where he was exactly, not having been to this side of town.\n\n\n\n\"Where are we going?\" \n\n\n\n\"Some place I think you'll like.\" Envy replied, leading them around the corner, Felix just letting himself be pulled.\n\n\n \n\n\n° ° ° ° ° ° °\n\n\n\n\nH.Jisung\n\n\n\n\n| X516.06.14 |\n\n\n\nThe void was becoming more and more...cold. Even staying awake was nearly impossible now, let alone enough to talk with Felix for long. \n\n\n\nThey were running out of time. \n\n\n\nFeeling his head pound, Jisung pressed his palms to his temple. Greed's visions and thoughts invaded his own mind, forcing themselves in. \n\n\n\nThe Sin had a plan and Jisung was unable to stop it. As much as he wanted to warn Felix, his mind and body were slowly succumbing to sleep. \n\n\n\n\"Jisung? Are you awake?\" Hyunjin's voice asked from the other side of the room. \n\n\n\n\"Ye...yeah.\" The other managed to get out. \"But I don't know for how much longer.\" \n\n\n\n\"Do you think Felix is going to be okay?\" Hyunjin asked.\n\n\n\n\"I'm sure he'll...\" Jisung let out a yawn. \"He'll be okay...\"\n\n\n\nUnable to keep his eyes open, Jisung let them close, Hyunjin's voice lulling him to sleep. \n\n\n \n\n\n° ° ° ° ° ° °\n\n\n\n\nL.Felix\n\n\n\n\n| X516.06.14 |\n\n\n\nDinner with Envy was surprisingly uneventful. The Sin stayed calm and didn't do anything traumatic, but Felix had been on edge the whole time. He still couldn't completely trust Envy, but he was glad the Sin showed him what he did. It helped give him a better understanding about what his friends went through. What they really felt when it came to Felix. \n\n\n\nStepping through the front door, the blonde was unable to even blink before Greed was in front of him, Jisung's warning still lingering in his thoughts. \n\n\n\n\"I need your opinion on something.\" Greed said, taking Felix's hand and beginning to drag him towards the stairs. \n\n\n\n\"Not so fast.\" Envy stopped, grabbing at Felix's other hand. \"He's spending the rest of the night with me.\" \n\n\n\nGreed let out a scoff. \"I think he needs some space for a while. He seems a bit tense in your presence, but I don't blame him. Not after all the things you've done to him.\"\n\n\n\nThe tension in the room seemed to grow tenfold, the two Sins staring each other down. \n\n\n\n\"Um...why don't I just go help Greed and then I'll come back down?\" Felix suggested, not wanting to be in the middle of a fight right now.\n\n\n\nThe two remained quiet, still caught up in their silent battle. If looks could kill, both would probably be dead. \n\n\n\nSlipping his hand from Envy, Felix tried to usher Greed up the stairs. When they got to the top, the blonde flinched at the flash that greeted him. \n\n\n\n\"Welcome home.\" Gluttony said, his attention on the polaroid printing. \n\n\n\nA shudder ran through his body, Felix continuing to rush Greed along. He wanted to get things over with so he could eventually have time to think of a plan to get his friends back. \n\n\n\n\"Spacing out?\" Greed asked as he opened the door to his room. \"I hope Envy didn't scare you too bad.\" \n\n\n\nFelix shook his head as they entered the dark room. \"He wasn't terrible today.\"\n\n\n\n\"But you have blood on your shirt.\" Greed pointed out, slipping his hand off of Felix's as he walked over to his closet. \"Let me guess, he showed you what Hyunjin saw, didn't he?\"\n\n\n\nFelix nodded, standing awkwardly near the center of the room. \n\n\n\n\"Here, you can put this on.\" Greed said, tossing the other a new shirt. The younger was surprised that it was just a plain T-shirt, since the Sin's room was decorated rather finely with expensive looking decor. \n\n\n\n\"Thanks. So what did you need my opinion about?\" \n\n\n\nA grin spread across the Sin's face. \"Just wait there for a second.\"\n\n\n\nRaising a brow, Felix let his eyes follow the other as he disappeared into the bathroom. A chill hit his body but his attention was forced elsewhere as the walls of the room slowly began to fade away. It started with the roof and quickly moved down the walls until they were completely gone, revealing nothing but darkness. \n\n\n\nIt was reminiscent of the void Felix would always start in whenever he was shown a vision, but this time there was something else with him. A cracked mirror. \n\n\n\nTaking a few steps forward, Felix flinched as another voice called his name. The familiar warm tone making the younger want to cry. He was almost scared to turn around, wondering if he'd even see the person he hoped it'd be.\n"}
+{"text": "Cynthia was very good at compartmentalization. Her ability to remove things from her memory and seamlessly retain them whenever necessary was a valuable skill to have. And never was it more valuable than during a particularly awkward encounter.\n\nIn the days following the incident by the pool, Cynthia was able to carry on as normal. Despite seeing her stepson's best friend in the nude and discovering he had an immensely attractive side to him, she was able to move it to the far back of her mind and not allow it to consume her. Besides, she was busy enough with work and taking care of the house while Frank was gone on business. This was no big deal.\n\nWhat also helped was the fact that she didn't see much of Kevin and his buddies as they went about their summer home from school. This made it easy for her to move on from the events of a few days earlier and go back to being herself.\n\nHowever, with every rule there is always an exception. For Cynthia, that was when she was safely in her own bedroom with the door locked often late at night following her shift. This was when she enjoyed her alone time. At thirty-nine, her sexual libido never felt stronger. She almost always masturbated before bed, especially when sleeping alone. She had a whole range of sex toys to choose from, many of which were not unknown to her husband. In fact, they often used them together.\n\nAs she fetched her favorite one, a lifelike bright pink dildo about eight inches in length, she couldn't help but notice that Peter's cock was probably bigger. To Cynthia, she never imagined a real world phallus to outstretch her favorite masturbatory companion, but Peter seemed to do just that.\n\nCompartmentalization was easily defeated once she made contact and instantly imagined the young man being the one to please her. She pictured what he looked like fully erect, having seen just a preview of that the other day. As a twenty year old, there was no doubt he could probably get hard as a rock and last much longer than an older man.\n\nAs she playfully thrusted the toy in and out, she happily moaned to herself with her eyes closed, picturing what it would be like to accept such a generously sized unit from Peter.\n\nIt was normally easy for Cynthia to cum alone. She knew what buttons to press and when. It was even easier when her mind drifted to her recently discovered favorite cock. Her imagination put her and Peter in many different scenarios, often culminating in him spraying her with what she fantasized to be a whole lot of cum.\n\nAfter she reached orgasm, she tossed her toy aside and began to drift off to sleep. She instantly thought about other mundane things; work, finances, Kevin, and sometimes Frank. But Peter never made another appearance in her cluttered mind until the next night when it was time to have fun again.\n\n------------------------------\n\nCynthia was about to call it a night. It was ten o'clock, the house was empty and she was on her third glass of wine. That was usually a sign it was time to turn in. Besides, she was eagerly anticipating another powerful orgasm alone in her room.\n\nThat's when she heard the door open and voices coming in from the front of the house. Kevin was home.\n\n\"Oh hey Cynthia, I didn't think you'd be up,\" Kevin said as he entered the kitchen. Cynthia was sitting at the countertop reading a book. \"Hi, honey,\" she said.\n\nBehind Kevin, Charlie emerged... followed by Peter. \"Hi Cynthia,\" said Charlie with a smile. He stopped calling her \"Mrs.\" a few years back. Peter nodded solemnly.\n\n\"Where were you guys tonight?\" Cynthia asked, very careful to be as normal as possible. This was the first time she saw Peter since the incident.\n\n\"O'reilly's. Then Charm. Then a bunch of other places,\" said Charlie. \"We had a day.\"\n\n\"I'll say. I hope you Ubered,\" said Cynthia.\n\n\"Pshh. Of course we did,\" Kevin said as he tossed the others a beer. He then walked over and refilled Cynthia's wine glass for her.\n\n\"Thank you, honey. How do you guys even get into these places?\" she asked as she took a sip of her Cabernet.\n\n\"No one cards in this town,\" Peter said as he took a seat at the kitchen counter. \"They're just happy to have the business.\"\n\n\"Learn something new everyday I guess.\"\n\n\"Can we go outside and smoke a joint?\" Kevin asked, although he was clearly at an age where he didn't really need her permission.\n\n\"Everyone's staying over?\" she asked.\n\n\"Yup.\"\n\nFor some reason, Cynthia felt a tingle between her legs when Kevin answered that everyone would be staying. Of course, this had to do with Peter. The idea of him staying in her house with his big penis was slightly thrilling to her. But she kept cool. \"Fine by me, guys. That is, only if you share!\"\n\n---------------------------------\n\n\"You ok dude?\" Kevin asked, cracking up laughing. Charlie sat back in the lounge chair staring up at the night sky with a permanent grin on his face. The others knew this was his M.O. anytime he smoked. As a usually loud and comedic guy, he would often get very quiet and subdued when he got high. Tonight was no exception. \"Huh?\" he asked as he snapped out of it.\n\nKevin laughed even harder. \"Go to bed dude. It's 1am.\"\n\nCynthia yawned as she covered her mouth. \"Oh, my goodness. I should head to bed too. I didn't realize how late it was. You guys must be good company.\"\n\n\"Or just good weed,\" said Peter. Cynthia smiled and nodded as the two made prolonged eye contact for the first time all night.\n\n\"Alright,\" Kevin said as he leaned forward and slapped his thighs. \"I'm hittin it.\"\n\nThe four of them trudged inside. Kevin went upstairs and Charlie headed for the basement. \"You know where everything is down there guys, right?\" Cynthia asked. They nodded. \"Good night, guys!\" she called out as she headed for her room down the hall. Once she got in, she couldn't wait to masturbate. She had been thinking about it all night long.\n\nShe grabbed her dildo and jumped into bed. Just as she went to turn off the light, she couldn't help but think about the back door. Was it locked? She always worried about that even though she normally remembered to lock it. Reluctantly, she headed for the kitchen to make sure.\n\nOnce she got there, she was surprised to see she had forgotten to lock it. \n\n she thought to herself. That's when she noticed him. Peter was still outside, drinking a beer under the stars. She opened the door.\n\n\"Everything ok?\" she called out.\n\n\"Hmm? Oh yeah, thanks. I just wasn't ready to sleep just yet.\"\n\nCynthia paused a moment before grabbing her wine glass from the sink. She poured one for herself and headed out. \"Can't let you sit here alone. You mind company?\"\n\n\"Not at all, have a seat. It's so nice out.\"\n\n\"I'll say. I love it out here.\" She turned to Peter. \"Hey, how's your leg?\"\n\n\"It feels much better,\" he said as he placed his hand where the gash was. \"Looks nasty but it's not painful.\"\n\n\"Oh, good. I'm glad. I fixed that stupid ladder the next day. I feel terrible.\"\n\n\"Don't be. If it wasn't for you, I'd probably still be bleeding out in the pool!\"\n\nCynthia smiled as she looked at Peter. He was looking up at the sky. She glanced at his crotch and could definitely see a bulge. She thought about how it must be hard to conceal such a big penis most of the time. She wondered how after all these years, she never noticed it herself.\n\nThe two made small talk for a few minutes. Peter was surprisingly very easy to talk to. He wasn't awkward or shy. He always asked good questions. Cynthia found that charming and endearing. Then things took a turn.\n\n\"Sorry I got so weird the other day. I'm normally not like that,\" he said.\n\n\"Hmm?\"\n\nHe turned to her. \"Ya know, when you had to take my clothes off. I was acting like a doofus.\"\n\n\"Ohh, don't even worry about it. It's not everyday you're getting completely nude in front of your friend's stepmom!\" she said.\n\nPeter chuckled. \"I think I've seen a few movies that start out like that!\"\n\nCynthia snorted as she laughed. \"Don't make me laugh when I'm drinking or I'm gonna stain my clothes!\"\n\n\"Sorry,\" Peter said as he looked back up at the sky. \"I'll go back to telling bad jokes.\"\n\nCynthia joined him by looking up. \"Ya know, Peter. Charlie's always going on and on about his latest fling with the ladies, but I never hear about you. Are you seeing anyone these days?\"\n\n\"Ugh,\" Peter sighed. \"I'm in a dry spell.\"\n\n\"Oh no! I'm sorry. That happens to everyone though. You know that.\"\n\nPeter turned to her. \"I almost hooked up with this girl I was after for a little while.\"\n\n\"Yeah?\" she asked, turning to him as well. \"And?\"\n\n\"She kinda ran out on me. Wasn't my proudest moment.\"\n\n\"On you? Lies! You're a sweetheart. What happened?\" she asked.\n\nPeter set the moment up beautifully. He craved the opportunity to talk about it with Cynthia. He sort of felt she would be open to talking about it as well.\n\n\"Well, we were kissing and all that. Then things started to get a little more serious,\" he stared.\n\n\"Spicy!\" Cynthia said as she kicked her legs up on the chair and angled her body towards Peter. \"Then what?\"\n\nPeter laughed. \"She, ummm.... She saw it. And pretty much freaked the fuck out and said no way.\"\n\n\"No!\" Cynthia shouted. \"You're kidding me!\"\n\n\"Honest to God! I'm not lying. She took one glance and lost it.\"\n\n\"I'm sorry I'm laughing,\" said Cynthia. \"This is not funny. You poor thing.\"\n\n\"Oh, you're fine. Honestly, like I said, not my proudest moment. But ya know what? What are you gonna do? God gave this to me. It's certainly not gonna be for everyone.\"\n\nCynthia smiled and nodded. \"That's a great perspective.\" After a pause of silence, she spoke again. \"Besides, there are plenty... and I mean plenty of women out there that would be over the moon for what you have.\"\n\n\"Really?\"\n\n\"Oh, really. Believe me. I'm one of them.\" Cynthia's crotch tingled after admitting to Peter that she was into larger penises. She rarely spoke about it, but tonight was different. She wanted the young man to know he had exactly what she craved. Plus, the wine helped.\n\nPeter turned to her in shock. His mouth dropped. \"Really?\" he whispered, suddenly very cognizant of their environment. She nodded excitedly. \"Really,\" she said.\n\n\"But mine's, like, ridiculous. It's not just big, it's obscene. Sometimes I look at it and I'm just like what the fuck is this thing, ya know?\" he joked. \"Like it's out of a horror movie.\"\n\nCynthia laughed as she leaned forward clutching her belly. \"What did I tell you about making me laugh too hard!\"\n\nAfter a moment of pause, she turned to him. \"How big is it?\" she asked with genuine curiosity.\n\nPeter looked up. \"Well, we measured it a few months ago. 'We' meaning me and this girl I was with at the time. I swear it was like nine inches I think. Or just over nine.\"\n\n\"Your penis is nine inches?\" Cynthia asked. \"You're not serious.\"\n\n\"Oh, I am,\" he laughed. \"I told you it's a freakshow.\"\n\n\"Not to me. I think it looks nice. I told you that.\"\n\nPeter nodded. \"Oh believe me, I remember. Those sorts of things stay in your mind, ya know?\"\n\nCynthia nodded in agreement. She knew all too well about things popping into your mind. As Peter looked up again, she looked down. She noticed he had his hands neatly folded on his lap. They were positioned in such a way, he appeared to be hiding something. She clearly knew what it was. \"Peter?\" she asked, softly.\n\n\"Yes?\"\n\n\"Are you trying to hide something?\" she asked, giggling while nodding towards his crotch.\n\n\"Are you gonna think I'm a creep?\"\n\nCynthia laughed. \"I'm thirty-nine. There's no shame anymore. I've seen it all. A boner's a boner. May as well let it breathe.\"\n\nPeter laughed. \"Touche,\" he said as he casually removed his hands, revealing a sturdy tent popping up under his shorts. \"And there he is,\" he announced.\n\n\"There he is,\" she repeated. \"He still looks a little cramped, huh?\"\n\n\"You want me to take it all the way out?\" Peter's cock throbbed at even the idea of being completely exposed to the beautiful Cynthia.\n\n\"If you want to!\" she said. \"I'm not gonna stop you, that's for sure.\" She checked the house behind them. \"They're all asleep,\" she whispered.\n\nPeter eagerly slid his boxer briefs down to his ankles, kicking them off to the patio below. He then picked up his cock at the base and held it up proudly. He smiled as he checked Cynthia's reaction.\n\nShe didn't show any emotion at first. Instead opting for an acknowledging head nod. Almost as if to say \"Yup, there it is.\" After she stared at it for a few moments, she couldn't help but burst out laughing.\n\n\"What?\" Peter asked, confused. \"Should I not have done this?\"\n\n\"Oh heavens no, honey. You're fine. I don't mean to laugh. It's just that... my goodness you're a big boy, that's all!\"\n\n\"Heh, yup. I told you,\" he said, glancing down at his hard-on. \"It's a beast.\"\n\n\"It's long and thick. You sort of check both boxes there, don't you?\" she said as she propped her head up with her hand, as if she was watching a movie or something.\n\n\"I think it's the thickness that scares people,\" he admitted while still looking at it.\n\n\"That's the best part,\" Cynthia whispered playfully. \"Believe me.\"\n\nThe two of them stared at it a bit longer. Peter even stroked it ever so slightly, unsure if Cynthia could even see that he did. \"Can you tell he's enjoying this?\" he asked, referring to his penis in the third person.\n\n\"It's impressive! You look like you're ready to burst over there,\" she said. Cynthia could feel herself warming up. She was desperately entranced by the young man. She had allowed herself to be this free and open so far, there was no sense slowing down. \"You can if you want to, ya know.\"\n\nPeter turned to her with a surprised look. \"Really? You don't care?\"\n\n\"Why would I care? It's a normal thing we all do, Peter.\"\n\n\"So, where? Like, just right here?\" Peter asked. \"In front of you?\"\n\n\"Well, don't make a mess! But sure. Right here. Why not?\" she asked as she took another sip of wine. \"May as well show me what those big balls of yours can produce, right?\"\n\n\"Right,\" said Peter as he nervously began stroking his cock in front of Cynthia. \"Speaking of which, that's another thing that scares girls.\"\n\n\"Oh does it now?\" Cynthia laughed. \"Am I in for a show?\"\n\nPeter bit his lower lip as he jerked off. \"You might be!\"\n\nCynthia crossed her gorgeous legs and in doing so, slipped a hand between them. This way, she could subtly play with herself without Peter knowing. She wasn't quite ready to show all her cards anyhow. Her pussy felt great as she secretly massaged it while watching Peter masturbate. Her eyes got heavy with lust as she watched him cradle his balls with one hand and stroke with the other. He repeatedly licked his palm for lubrication.\n\n\"How's it feel?\" she asked, breaking the long silence.\n\n\"Really good. It feels really, really good.\"\n\n\"I'm glad.\"\n\nPeter then used two hands to jerk off, much to the amusement of Cynthia. She had never seen a man with a big enough cock to use two hands and still have more room. It was quite impressive. Without the support of his hand, his big balls slapped up and down with feverish movements.\n\n\"You getting there?\" she asked quietly. Peter made eye contact and nodded. He was very close.\n\n\"Don't be too messy, remember!\" she teased.\n\nPeter put all his focus on his cock. He was so close to orgasm. It didn't matter that his best friend's stepmom was watching. Or that his friends were asleep inside. Nothing else mattered. He just wanted to cum.\n\n\"Argghhhh!\" he belted out. Cynthia giggled and made a \"Shoosh\" sound while she eagerly watched the first thick, white cumshot spew out his cock onto his belly.\n\n\"Whoa,\" she said quietly.\n\nPlenty more came out as Peter kicked his legs and jutted his butt up in the air. He shot six, seven, eight thick loads all over his body. Several were shooting so far, they went over his head.\n\n\"Oh my God!\" Cynthia said quietly. She was in shock with how much he was cumming. \"You cum so much!\"\n\nPeter kept going as more shots were fired with less velocity, landing harmlessly on his belly. All said and done, he came twelve blasts as he relaxed, panting, and clutching his hard cock for dear life.\n\n\"Peter!\" Cynthia gasped as she looked around at the cum he left everywhere. \"How on Earth?\"\n\nPeter turned to her and sheepishly laughed. \"I told you, Cynthia. It's an insane amount.\"\n\n\"Peter this is not normal,\" she said, still surveying the cumshot. She looked up at him. \"Believe me, I'm a nurse.\" They each cracked up laughing.\n\nPeter peered around to see where he got it. It had landed on the patio behind where his head was. Three thick blasts. \"Oh fuck,\" he said. \"I'm sorry.\"\n\n\"Wait right there,\" Cynthia said as she darted for the kitchen leaving Peter lying naked, covered in his own spunk and an erection that didn't seem to go down.\n\nAfter several minutes, she emerged from the sliding door with a towel. She approached Peter. He held his hands out to accept the towel, but Cynthia went to work herself. She gently wiped the cum from his belly and chest. She chuckled as she cleaned some that landed on his face. She cleaned off the back of the chair before looking at his penis. It too was covered in sticky cum. She casually lifted it up with one hand while using the towel to clean it dry. She worked methodically and calmly, much like she did at work when caring for a sick patient. She had a professional calmness to her that made Peter feel at ease. It was nice to be taken care of by her.\n\nWatching her slender and neatly manicured fingers handle his large cock was mesmerizing. Her hands were petite. The giant slab of meat made them look even smaller. Peter couldn't help but notice any time some of his cum accidentally got on her hand. There was certainly enough of it around.\n\n\"There we go. Think I got it all?\" she asked, inspecting her work.\n\n\"I think you did,\" he agreed.\n\n\"Oh wait, your balls!\" Cynthia then handled each large orb with extra care. She held them up with her hand while using the towel to carefully scrub them clean. She laughed to herself. \"You shoot so much. I seriously can't even get over this.\"\n\n\"Thanks,\" Peter said, unsure how to respond to her praise.\n\n\"I can see you're enjoying this, huh?\" she asked as she squeezed the base of his dick. Her fingers couldn't quite touch when they encircled him.\n\n\"I have a tendency to stay like this for a little bit.\"\n\n\"It's a good skill to have. The women probably don't complain,\" she said as she gave him a couple of playful strokes before letting it back down.\n\nCynthia stood back up, hands on her hips looking around. \"You'll have to get the hose for the rest. I'm not cleaning the patio,\" she announced. \"And Jesus there's a lot on there too! You're something else, Peter.\"\n\nPeter stood up next to her to see what she was talking about. It truly was everywhere. \"No problem, Cynthia. I can clean this up.\"\n\nCynthia looked down at his still erect cock. She put her hand on it yet again. \"Nine inches. Look at this thing,\" she said. \"You've got a talent Peter.\"\n\nPeter let her stroke it without protesting. He felt as if he could cum again. \"Feel free to just keep doing that if you want.\"\n\nCynthia looked up at him and smiled. \"You're cute,\" she said. \"Maybe next time,\" she whispered. \"You and this dick of yours should go to bed. Make sure you're not like this before joining your buddy down there, ok?\"\n\n\"Heh, ok, ok. Goodnight,\" he said.\n\nCynthia kissed him once on the cheek before looking down at his cock. She stroked it, this time harder and longer. She let it go and looked up at him. \"Goodnight.\"\n\n"}
+{"text": "\"I don't care about what you do for this years cultural festival. Just as long as it isn't something that I have to help with okay?\"\n\nShota Aizawa then collapsed to the floor in his yellow sleeping bag as his class erupted into chatter.\n\n\"MAID CAFE\"\n\n\"Shut up Mineta!\"\n\n\"Let's change things around a bit and make this something to be in the books as the best U.A can provide!\"\n\n\"Plus Ultra!\"\n\n\"What's something they wouldn't expect Class-A to do, but would still be a classic?!\"\n\nOchaka Uraraka felt a zap strike into her mind.\n\n\"What about a haunted house!\"\n\nPeople gradually noticed the idea.\n\n\"Yeah! This'll show Monoma!\"\n\n\"We couldn't do anything like this at the summer camp! It's our turn this time!\"\n\n\"Great idea Uraraka! I, myself am not good at scaring others. However, with the U.A standards set high by our seniors we must try to achieve!\"\n\nIida chopped his hand dangerously close to her head while Uraraka sheepishly rubbed her head.\n\nUntil she noticed Midoriya who looked down with a shadow over his eyes, shaking as if he was remembering something which should have never happened.\n\n\"What's wrong Deku? Are you okay?!\"\n\nHe looked back at them with a pale face sporting two sunken eyes.\n\n\"What's wrong Midoriya! Should I transfer you to the infirmary?!\"\n\nHis shaking stopped and fist unclenched.\n\n\"No...\"\n\nUraraka didn't believe it for one second. She grasped her hands over his shoulders and shook mildly in case he had somehow broken a bone.\n\n\"What is it?!\"\n\nHe looked down to the floor.\n\n\"I'm... really bad with being jump scared...\"\n\nUraraka felt her laughter burst out.\n\n\"You'll be the one scaring so I think it'll be okay! Do not fret Midoriya, I shall (stop laughing Uraraka it's a perfectly reasonable reaction!) watch to make sure you don't fall victim to any silly pranks!\"\n\n—————\n\nIt was finally the night of their performance!\n\nWell, not exactly night, but still!\n\nYaoyorozu and Iida were bound by their duties as class representatives to greet whoever were to come in.\n\nShoji, Aoyama, and Mina worked as both the make up specialists and jump scared those who'd enter by the front. Uraraka thought they made a pretty good trio at that.\n\nJirou hid at the end with a camera to get a picture of fright from whoever was to chase victims out.\n\nTokoyami might have gotten a bit to carried away with decorations in Uraraka's option however. They'd all been dressed up in some of the many capes which hung around his closet.\n\nMeanwhile the rest of them had been split into different areas to scare people in. Uraraka privately believed that she had gotten a good placing while poor Midoriya had to be close to the beginning.\n\nFinally she heard her first scream of the night.\n\nIt echoed out across the maze they'd made from all the spare materials U.A had lying about.\n\nSo she prepped herself in the corner.\n\nOne adjustment here, slouch over a bit, get ready, pull a weird face.\n\n\"Okay, this should be good when-\"\n\nA blur ran past her station in a flash of orange.\n\nShocked she took an instinctive step back and from her new advantage point could see what was clearly the results of some sort of speed quirk being used.\n\nWhy would anyone use their quirk though?\n\nThroughout the rest of her time she only managed to scare a couple of people who stopped to take a breather.\n\nShe knew now though that somebody must have scared them away.\n\nWho?\n\nThe day nearly came to its close and Uraraka decided that if nobody was going to stop over at her station she might as well check out whoever was in front of her.\n\nShe was a woman on a mission!\n\nUraraka hide behind walls miming a gun while shooting at invisible opponents.\n\nShe was not a Hero no longer! Now she was a spy looking for a story to give to their local newspaper while playing it off that they actually were just a regular kid and then they would get promoted to an editor for the company-\n\nWait! Uraraka shook her head.\n\nShe couldn't be distracted on this mission!\n\n\"So this is what those 1-A flunkies think they can beat our class with? Hah! The scares here aren't even enough to scare a puppy!\"\n\n\"Shoji seemed to scare something a bit different from a puppy Monoma.\"\n\n\"I WASN'T SCARED!\"\n\nUraraka held her breath and hid behind a conveniently shaped lamp which was being used as a prop. Just in time!\n\nMonoma, Kendo, and Tetsutetsu came out from behind the walls right after Uraraka had finished getting into place. Now she would see who really was the scarer!\n\n\"It's a bit lame, but I bet Kiri-Bro's part will be awesome!\"\n\nKendo's finger absently trailed over the rail prop until she stopped and checked her hand muttering\n\n\"Their props are great quality.\"\n\nMonoma shook his head wildly\n\n\"No! See?! It's just U.A that did the items! 1-A can't do anything on their own just like the babies they-\"\n\nA scratching noise came from down a hallway on the right. Stifling any conversation left over.\n\nThis was it.\n\n\"Hah! You 1-A have to resort to cheap tricks and they still don't even scare us! Come out and we'll forgive your horrible acting skills!\"\n\nA male child's voice rang out from the shadows.\n\n\"My friends don't want to play with me.\"\n\nA shiver ran down her spine as Uraraka realised this voice was unlike that of anybody in her class or age group.\n\n\"W-What?!\"\n\nThe trio took a minor step backwards as a dark shadow grew less and less hazy as it seemingly floated forwards.\n\n\"They're so mean. Nobody ever wants to play with me.\"\n\nSickly green eyes opened and glowed in the darkness as Uraraka could finally make out blood splatters on the rags the short child was wearing.\n\n\nWhy couldn't she breath?!\n\n\n\"Will you play with me?\"\n\nMonoma shrieked and slid with his friends who couldn't seem to move.\n\n\"Come on! Get away from us!!!\"\n\n\"W-What is that?!\"\n\n\"It's gonna eat us!\"\n\nA horrible smile broke out across its face.\n\n\"Playtime.\"\n\nThe trio ran down the hallways at last screaming in terror. While all Uraraka could do was hide.\n\n\nWeakling.\n\n\nThe monsters presences was barely there. It dwindled then struck like some kind of snake, no, monster in the shadows.\n\n\"Oh! Again?\"\n\nUraraka felt lighting bubble under her skin.\n\n\nMidoriya!?!\n\n\nThe creature took off a now obviously fake rag from Tokoyami's closet and sat down sighing.\n\n\"I wanted to do my roof climbing thing one more time. Guess I can't now...\"\n\nThe Earth was shaking around Uraraka.\n\nNo.\n\nMidoriya?!\n\nHow did he do that?!\n\nWas their something wrong with-\n\nOh.\n\nUraraka felt faint thinking back to all of his fights and the scary expressions he had worn while doing unspeakable things to his own body.\n\nHe really was a monster."}
+{"text": "\"That was some fuckin killer weed,\" Charlie said as he sprawled out on the couch and stretched his arms. The comment woke Peter who was on the opposite sofa. He rolled over with his eyes still closed.\n\n\"Dude,\" Charlie repeated, looking over at Peter.\n\n\"What?\" he responded, eyes still shut.\n\n\"I said that was some killer weed.\"\n\n\"Mmm hmm,\" Peter said, dismissively, unwilling to engage in conversation just yet.\n\nCharlie suddenly burst out laughing. This caused Peter to finally open his eyes and look over. \"What?\" he asked.\n\n\"Your fuckin dong is out!\" Charlie blurted out as he laughed uncontrollably. Peter frantically looked down to see his penis head poking out under his boxers that had ridden up as he slept. He urgently tucked it back in. \"Jesus,\" he muttered to himself before joining Charlie in laughing. \"Fucking thing.\"\n\n\"Legit never knew you had such a huge one, dude,\" Charlie said. \"When you got cut the other day.. Cynthia was probably like 'what the fuck'?\"\n\nPeter replayed her reaction to him ejaculating on the patio late at night. If only Charlie knew what had happened. \"I guess,\" he responded humbly.\n\n\"How big are you hard though?\" Charlie asked, never one to shy away from awkward conversations.\n\n\"Huh?\"\n\n\"Your dick, dude. When you're hard it must be a foot long.\"\n\nPeter closed his eyes again. \"I dunno, man.\"\n\n\"Bullshit,\" Charlie laughed. \"You know exactly how long it is. If I had that, I'd be proud of it. I'd have pictures of it up on the fridge.\"\n\nPeter turned to him and smirked. \"I am proud. Believe me.\"\n\nCharlie laughed again. \"You fuckin' dog, bro. Let's go upstairs. I'm fuckin' starving.\"\n\n-------------------------\n\n\"I'm gonna pretend I didn't hear that,\" Cynthia said, smiling. \"I am the most senior person in this room. Someone needs to tame you guys!\"\n\nCharlie had just told another off color joke as the three boys and Cynthia sat around the kitchen table drinking coffee and eating pastries. Despite being twenty years old, Charlie still acted like a teenager sometimes, often unaware of his audience when going on a comedic tangent.\n\nKevin remained mostly quiet, having a bit of a hangover from the night before. Peter joined in on the jokes, making sure to steer Charlie back on track for the sake of everyone else.\n\n\"Oh yeah, Charlie. I'm sure she's definitely going to respond to you,\" Peter said sarcastically, referring to a girl that Charlie certainly left unimpressed with his antics. He smiled around the room, landing on Cynthia as they two made eye contact. She responded with a warm smile and a glimmer in her eyes.\n\nHer beauty even in the morning with no makeup was unrivaled. Peter had always found her attractive, even as a young boy. But after last night, the two had a newfound connection that he could not take his mind off. His heart raced at even the slightest interaction with her. They had a secret. An unlikely encounter had left them in a unique predicament. But Peter loved it. He smiled back at her.\n\n\"I'm going back to bed,\" Kevin said, rubbing his temple.\n\n\"I'm going to Jane's house,\" said Charlie, clearly facetiously as he had just finished telling a story of his failed attempts at courting her.\n\nKevin retreated to his bedroom while Charlie went downstairs to gather his things. Peter and Cynthia were left to clean up breakfast together. Once they were safely at the sink with the running water, Cynthia playfull elbowed Peter. \"And how are you feeling this morning?\"\n\nPeter checked the area to ensure no one was around. \"I'm good. I feel refreshed. You?\"\n\nCynthia nodded as she scrubbed a plate. \"I'm good, thanks. You probably slept well huh?\" As she cleaned the plate, her large breasts bounced under her t-shirt. Peter could see that she wasn't wearing a bra. His cock lurched at the glorious sight. He nervously laughed. \"I did sleep well.\"\n\nCynthia crept up closer to him so that her left breast was touching his arm. Peter didn't protest as he continued to go about cleaning dishes. \"I've never seen a display like that,\" Cynthia whispered. \"You came so much!\"\n\nPeter stopped what he was doing and smiled down at Cynthia. He was about six inches taller than her. \"That wasn't even my record either,\" he said slyly.\n\n\"My goodness. You have some serious gifts, Peter.\" She pressed even closer to him, this time reaching over and rubbing his thigh. \"Some very serious and big gifts,\" she repeated.\n\nBy now, Peter was sprouting an erection, plainly visible through his shorts. Cynthia eyed it and smiled. She tapped the head of his protruding cock with her finger. \"Good morning, sir,\" she said teasingly. She and Peter laughed together.\n\n\"Is there any more coffee left?\" a deep voice from the other side of the kitchen emerged. Peter immediately recognized it as Cynthia's husband and Kevin's father, Frank. While Cynthia carried on washing dishes, Peter froze in place. He had an aching erection and was about to have a very uncomfortable encounter.\n\n\"On the table in the carafe, honey!\" Cynthia called out. Peter pretended to be preoccupied washing a plate that was blatantly already clean.\n\n\"Kevin's friends are actually doing something useful around here?\" Frank asked as he poured himself a cup of coffee. He had a way about him that it was difficult to tell if he was actually joking or not.\n\n\"Gotta do my part somehow, Mr. Myers.\" Peter couldn't turn around as he still sported a sizeable half erection.\n\n\"I didn't even hear you come home, honey,\" Cynthia said.\n\nFrank sat down at the table, crossed his legs and opened the newspaper. \"I came home late last night. Flight kept getting delayed over and over again,\" he said without looking up from the paper. Peter carefully watched for Cynthia's reaction, but she didn't seem phased by the conversation.\n\n Peter asked himself, as he frantically replayed the events of last night, unsure if he had been caught.\n\nFrank was a mysterious character around the house. Peter and Charlie barely knew him as he traveled so much, but his large frame and deep, commanding voice often left them feeling intimidated. If he had seen what happened last night, Peter didn't know what he'd do. He admitted to himself he would have to fight. Not just Frank, but maybe Kevin as well. This would not be good. The fear and urgency of the situation allowed him to completely soften between his legs, enough that he could now turn around. Frank still didn't look up.\n\n\"That barbecue place on Pleasant is already gone,\" he announced. \"No one seems to survive that corner.\"\n\n\"It's doomed,\" Cynthia added.\n\n\"Doomed forever,\" Frank agreed.\n\nCharlie emerged from the basement. \"Welp. I'm hittin the dusty trail folks. Oh, hey Frank, didn't know you were home.\" Frank ignored Charlie as he continued to peruse the newspaper.\n\n\"Yeah I'm gonna get going too. Thanks for letting us stay here last night,\" said Peter.\n\n\"So soon?\" Frank finally looked up. \"Was it something I said?\" He looked at Peter square in the eyes. He had not even flinched when Charlie announced he was leaving, yet something piqued his interest. His gaze was punishing. Peter's stomach dropped.\n\n\"Uhh, yeah. I have to work... so...\"\n\nFrank turned back to his newspaper. Peter didn't dare look at Cynthia until he was well out of the kitchen and in the foyer. Cynthia followed shortly after. As Charlie headed for the car outside, she placed her hands on Peter's shoulders and smiled. \"Relax,\" she whispered. \"We'll talk soon.\"\n\nPeter dashed for the car and jumped in. \"You alright dude?\" Charlie asked. \"You look like you just saw a ghost.\"\n\n\"I'm good. Let's go,\" said Peter.\n\n\"Did Cynthia just give you a quick reach around?\" Charlie joked as Peter glared at him.\n\nPeter looked out the window as they drove off. \"Do you think Kevin's dad is an asshole? He was being kind of a dick, right?\"\n\n\"He's always been like that. Ever since we were kids. The guy has a giant stick up his ass all the time,\" said Charlie.\n\nPeter couldn't help but wonder if Frank knew what happened on the patio. In the heat of the moment, the last thing he was thinking about was checking to see if someone was watching.\n\n\"Fuckin Cynthia's so hot, man,\" said Charlie. \"Walkin' around without a bra. My God. You know what I mean?\" he turned to Peter.\n\nHe smiled and nodded. \"She's a smoke, for sure.\"\n\n\"Can't believe she saw you naked too. I guarantee you she thought about your dick. Thousand percent.\"\n\nPeter didn't respond, opting to stare out the window instead. He had something else on his mind.\n\n------------------------------\n\nSince his parents moved to Florida when he left for college, they didn't sell the house that Peter grew up in. Instead, they held onto it so he could stay there when home from school.\n\nPeter jerked off constantly the following few days. He couldn't stop thinking about what happened and yearned for another opportunity with Cynthia. She told him they would talk soon, but aside from him returning to Kevin's house, he had no idea when that would happen.\n\nOne afternoon, he was lying on the couch playing with his cock watching porn when his phone vibrated. It was an unknown number.\n\n\"Hi\"\n\nPeter didn't respond.\n\n\"It's Cynthia.\"\n\nPeter then stroked his cock excitedly before he typed back.\n\n\"Hi how r u?\"\n\n\"I'm thinking about you sweetie,\" she said. \"We should get together again soon. Not here tho lol\"\n\nPeter continued to jerk off. He was desperately horny and she wrote to him at the exact right time. \"What are you thinking?\" he replied.\n\n\"Maybe we can get a hotel or something\" Cynthia typed back.\n\n\"That would be awesome. Tomorrow?\" Peter replied, maybe a bit too eager. He didn't get a response. His confidence deflated. Maybe he was being too forward with his best friend's stepmom, after all.\n\nNearly fifteen minutes passed until his phone went off again. \"You're cute. How about Thursday?\"\n\nThursday was three days away. It would have to do. Peter responded with the thumbs up. Just as he was about to put his phone down, another message arrived.\n\n\"Send me something to look at until then.\"\n\nIt couldn't have been a better time to send a picture. Peter was throbbing hard. His dick looked perfect as he held it by the base, sprawled out on the couch. Precum leaked from the tip, traversing his bloated cock head. He snapped a couple pictures, picked the best one and hit send.\n\nAfter only a few moments, he got a response.\n\n\"You're huge. You're amazing.\"\n\nPeter smiled satisfactorily as he stroked his cock. He typed out a response. \"I need to empty this thing now.\"\n\n\"Not there! You're going to ruin Sharon's beautiful couch.\"\n\nThe comment reminded Peter of who he was flirting with. This woman, although younger than his mother, knew her well. They went to the boys' sports games together. They served on the parent teacher council together. It was all so bizarre...\n\nSuddenly, the moment arrived. Peter came fast and hard, squirting thick loads straight up into the air of his quiet living room. He moaned as he jerked himself off, shooting his cum in the air like a fountain. It came splashing back down on his belly and legs, coating himself in a familiar sticky white goop.\n\nAfterwards, he laid there calmly, surveying the mess he made. He then snapped a photo of his deflating cock, resting on his belly surrounded by a massive mess of sperm. Without even thinking, he sent it to Cynthia.\n\nAgain, no response. Peter panicked. Did someone else have her phone? Why would she not respond to that? He tossed his phone aside and ran to the shower to clean up. As he scrubbed himself down, he thought about what he'd do if someone saw that message. Like Kevin or worse, Frank. He would have to just be honest and face the consequences.\n\nHe hurried back to the living room naked and unlocked his phone.\n\nOne new message. \"Looks good enough to eat.\"\n\nHe breathed a sigh of relief as he plopped back down on the couch. Crisis averted.\n\n----------------------------------\n\nCynthia and Kevin sat outside on the patio having dinner one night. As they chatted, Cynthia eyed the lounge chair behind Kevin. No more than a week ago, her stepson's best friend was stretched out on that chair jerking off in front of her. In fact, he had probably ejaculated close to where Kevin was seated at that very moment. She snapped out of it and turned to Kevin.\n\n\"How's work going?\"\n\nKevin shrugged as he chewed his salad. \"I cut grass. That's work.\"\n\nCynthia nodded. \"Money's money, right?\"\n\nKevin looked out across the pool. \"I just wanna graduate and do a real job.\"\n\n\"You should work for your father.\"\n\n\"Oh yeah? And be gone 90% of the time on a plane to God knows where? No thanks.\" Kevin always dismissed his father's line of work. He hated that he never saw him and vowed to never get wrapped into a career like that. Besides, he enjoyed the time at home with just Cynthia. She was so easy going and things were far less stressful without Frank around.\n\n\"I agree. The travel part is hard. Money's good though,\" Cynthia commented as she pointed to their surroundings. The backyard was expertly manicured and the pool was modern and lavish.\n\nKevin nodded. He had thrown one too many parties at the house all through high school and afterwards. It was good to have a nice house, plenty of money and a stepmother he got along with.\n\nCynthia's phone buzzed. She ignored it as she poured another glass of wine. \"That thing's been ringing off the hook. You starting a business I should know about?\" Kevin asked.\n\nShe smiled. \"Robocalls. They never stop.\" Kevin nodded in agreement.\n\n\"Hey listen,\" Cynthia started. \"I'll be gone tomorrow night. Nurse's conference in the city. I'm gonna get a hotel with a coworker. Judy. You remember her.\"\n\n\"With the hair?\" Kevin asked.\n\nCynthia laughed. \"With the hair. But yes, just one night. Your father comes back the next night so we'll all be back together then.\"\n\nKevin nodded, although appeared disappointed. \"What, so no movie night anymore?\"\n\n\"Rain check?\"\n\nKevin shook his head. \"Unbelievable,\" he decreed facetiously.\n\n\"Have Amy over!\" Cynthia suggested to which Kevin glared at her. \"Meh,\" he said, uninterested. He was always hot and cold with his girlfriend.\n\n\"You'll be fine,\" Cynthia said as she grabbed his arm and gave it a soft rub.\n\n------------------------------\n\nThe hotel was well off the beaten path. Far outside the city center in an industrial park, the Courtyard Marriott was nondescript and only sparsely populated with business travelers. As Peter pulled in, he immediately noticed Cynthia's car parked in the back row underneath a large tree. He decided to drive around and park far from her car, just in case. His nerves were shaking. His heart didn't stop racing. He felt naughty and mischievous.\n\n he thought to himself. Part of him worried he wouldn't be able to fit inside her and he'd never get another opportunity.\n\nShortly after just two knocks on the door, he could hear the deadbolt followed by the door opening a crack. \"Come in,\" he heard from inside as he pushed the door open.\n\nCynthia was already headed towards the back of the room, carrying a wine glass. She wore a black summer dress and was barefoot. She turned back to him and smiled as he followed her. \"Do you feel like James Bond?\" she asked.\n\n\"Kind of!\" Peter said, at ease from the opening joke.\n\n\"Have a seat. Pour a drink. Relax.\"\n\nPeter grabbed a wine glass and helped himself. He didn't normally drink wine, but figured it was better to be classy tonight. He wore skinny jeans and a v-neck t-shirt that outlined his figure boastfully. He sat down on the couch, opposite Cynthia.\n\nCynthia crossed her legs and bounced her bare foot in the air. She smiled as she took a sip, never breaking eye contact with Peter. \"You gonna whip it out?\" she asked.\n\nPeter was dumbfounded. \"Really? Right now?\"\n\nCynthia burst out laughing. \"No, honey. I'm kidding. Relax. We're here now. It's safe.\"\n\nPeter laughed. \"Ok, but if you want to see it, you know you can. You probably have twenty pictures of it by now anyways.\"\n\nCynthia shook her head. \"All deleted sweetheart. I enjoy the moment, but cover my tracks.\"\n\n\"Ahh, very smart.\"\n\n\"You know,\" Cynthia said as she switched which leg was crossed. \"Frank can't ever find out about this. I'm serious. He can never know.\"\n\nPeter became solemn. \"Absolutely. I would never dare.\"\n\n\"Good,\" she said as she studied his face. She determined him to be trustworthy and a safe option for what they were about to do.\n\nFor the next hour, the two spent time getting acquainted. As good conversationalists, there was never a dull moment. Peter made her laugh with silly jokes. He was charming, funny, and seemingly more and more at ease. Cynthia migrated to the couch so they were next to each other. She propped her feet up on the coffee table and noticed Peter was checking them out.\n\n\"You like feet, huh?\" she asked as she stretched out her painted toes.\n\n\"I like yours,\" Peter clarified. \"They're slim, petite. Well manicured.\"\n\n\"Pedicured,\" she corrected him.\n\n\"Whatever,\" he laughed. \"You have really pretty feet. In fact, all of you is very pretty. But you already know all this.\"\n\n\"Thank you, honey.\" Just then, Cynthia's phone buzzed. She picked it up so see a text message. 'I miss you.' She placed it back down without responding and focused all her attention on Peter. \"Now, what do you say we see that penis of yours I hear so much about?\"\n\nPeter laughed as he put his wine glass down next to Cynthia's sexy feet. \"Oh yeah?\" he asked, reaching for his belt. \"That's how this begins?\"\n\n\"Sure is,\" she said, laughing, as she placed her glass next to his and got comfortable. \"I'm so excited!\" She clapped a few times.\n\n\"That makes two of us,\" Peter said before pulling his jeans down and sitting back down in his black boxer briefs. He then eyed Cynthia's bust line with a look of desire. \"Do I get to see anything too?\"\n\n\"In time,\" she reassured him. \"Show me him again first.\"\n\nPeter was very obviously hard as he tucked his thumbs under his waistband, delaying the reveal intentionally. He looked up at Cynthia whose eyes were glued to the massive tent standing up underneath. \"C'mon!\" she shrieked in excitement, like a young teenager who just had a first kiss.\n\nHe then proudly pulled his boxer briefs down. His heavy cock flung back with force, resting against his belly. Cynthia gasped as she studied its underside. \"It's so big,\" she repeated like last time. \"It's bigger than any man I've ever seen.\"\n\n\"You want me to jerk off again?\" he asked. Cynthia didn't respond. Instead, she picked it up with her dainty hands. She began to stroke him herself. Peter moaned softly as he sunk into the couch. He spread his legs, revealing his heavy and full balls.\n\nFor several minutes, Cynthia rubbed him in silence. One hand rested on his thigh while the other did the work. \"I can get two hands on you,\" she said as she now jerked him with both.\n\n\"Probably three,\" Peter estimated as they both watched her masturbate him. \"Can you spit on it?\" he asked.\n\nCynthia tucked her hair back behind her ear and leaned forward. At first, she had a hard time getting spit out. They both laughed at the insufficient amount that dribbled out. \"It's hard!\" she said as she caught her breath and got ready to try again. \"Ok, ok, ok,\" she said. She then was able to spit a decent amount that dripped from her mouth down to his aching cock. She dispersed it with both hands. \"How's that feel?\" she asked.\n\n\"So good.\"\n\n\"Yeah?\" she asked. \"Good.\"\n\nShe continued to jerk him off as he moaned in delight. The imagery of her beautiful hands, dangling breasts, and blonde hair constantly getting in the way was sending him rapidly towards the edge. He even heard her moan tiny little noises every once and again. It was all culminating rapidly for Peter and he sensed he was about to cum.\n\n\"Wait, wait, wait, stop,\" he said as he grabbed her wrist. \"I don't wanna shoot off too early.\"\n\nCynthia looked perplexed. \"I thought you could stay hard after?\"\n\n\"Well, yeah, I can... I mean I normally do, but... is that what you want? To do more?\"\n\nCynthia smiled warmly at the young man. His hesitancy was charming. \"I have big plans for you,\" she said as she continued jerking his cock. \"Let's get this first one out of the way and put you out of your misery.\"\n\nA split second afterwards, the first blast of cum came rifling out the tip and into the air. It was a gusher. Cynthia squealed in excitement as she watched it go up in the air and land back down on Peter with a splat. \"Ohhh!\" she shouted out.\n\n\"Oh fuck!\" Peter said in strained pleasure as he continued to cum from Cynthia's glorious hands. White cum spilled out, much of which fell back down onto her hands while she never stopped stroking. She bit her lip in concentration as she proudly coaxed a massive orgasm out of him.\n\n\"Keep going,\" he said. \"Oh fuck, that's good.\"\n\n\"It doesn't stop!\" Cynthia whispered, admirably watching as the ninth and tenth blasts of cum exited the spasming penis. \"You are such a good boy,\" she said much like a nurturing mother would.\n\nAs the final bead of white cum dripped out, Peter let out a sigh before laughing uncontrollably. \"Holy shit!\" he said. \"I just got a handjob from my best friend's stepmom!\"\n\nCynthia released his cock and held up all ten fingers, covered in cum. \"Yes you certainly did!\" Cynthia looked around, noticing cum all over Peter's stomach, the couch, and the table in front of them. \"You went everywhere. You're incredible!\"\n\n\"You are,\" he said. \"You legit are incredible.\"\n\nCynthia wiped the excess cum on Peter's thigh without protest from him. She then lovingly picked up his cock and gauged its hardness. \"Does it ever go down?\"\n\nPeter grinned and shook his head. \"Not around you. What else should we do?\"\n\nCynthia rested it back down on his stomach and then looked up at him. \"I have a few ideas.\"\n\n"}
+{"text": "**********************\n\nBeth Anne’s House - Late Sunday Afternoon\n\n**********************\n\nSonny slowly pulled his SUV into Beth Anne’s driveway and put it in park. Him and Amanda then hopped out and headed to the back of the car to get the girls out. Sonny lifted Jesse, who had unbuckled herself from her booster seat, out of the vehicle while Amanda placed the box of zeppole she was holding on top of the SUV and went to remove Billie from her carseat harness. \n\nSonny held onto Jesse’s hand, walked around to Amanda’s side of the vehicle and then grabbed the box. “Ready?”\n\nAmanda nodded as she set Billie down on the ground and took ahold of her hand. The foursome then proceeded to the front door.\n\n“Can I ring the doorbell?” Jesse asked her mother once they reached it.\n\n“Yes.” Amanda told her. “Just once.”\n\nJesse excitedly hit it and a few moments later Jim Rollins appeared before them.\n\n“Grandpa!” Both Jesse and Billie exclaimed as they each immediately went to give him a big hug.\n\nThe girls then quickly brushed passed him and hurried inside looking for their grandmother.\n\nJim went to hug Amanda and then turned his attention to the counselor and shook his hand. “Sonny, nice to see you.”\n\nSonny gave him a small smile. “You as well, sir.” \n\nHe then stepped aside and motioned for them to come in.\n\nThe couple walked inside and made their way toward the kitchen where the girls were sitting down at the table drinking from juice boxes and Beth Anne was standing by the stove, stirring a pot. \n\nShe put her spoon down on the counter and grinned. “Amanda, Sonny.” \n\nAmanda walked up to her mom and gave her a hug. “Hey mom.”\n\nWhen they broke apart Beth Anne turned her attention to a smiling Sonny who, after giving her a hug, presented her with the box of zeppole. \n\n“Thank you for having me.” He said to her.\n\nBeth Anne nodded and set the box down on the counter. “Of course. You’re always welcome.”\n\nWhich he was. Sonny had sat down for dinner with Amanda’s mom before. Beth Anne had actually insisted he come over for dinner soon the last time she saw him about a month and a half ago when he brought Amanda, who’s car had broken down, up to get the girls from her house. \n\nSo when Amanda called her mom to see if she and her dad were free on Sunday and would want to have dinner and visit with her and the girls, she was secretly hoping Beth Anne would ask her to bring Sonny along and she did, much to her relief. Because she didn’t want to go into dinner with her folks suspicious as to why she wanted Sonny there. While she was ready to reveal the relationship, she was hoping to do it in her own way.\n\n“Where’s Mason?” Amanda asked as she looked around. \n\nHer mother picked up her spoon and resumed her stirring. “At a sleepover.”\n\nAmanda nodded and then smiled as she watched Sonny, who had taken a seat at the kitchen table, exchange funny faces with Billie. \n\nShe then turned her attention back to Beth Anne and Jim, who had joined everyone in the kitchen, and the three adults began to engage in idle chit chat.\n\nXXXXXXXXXXXX \n\nJesse and Billie were served dinner first not long after the four of them had arrived. Amanda then got the girls settled in the family room, turned on the Amazon Firestick for them and selected the Disney Plus app.\n\n“Here you go Jess.” Amanda said to her oldest daughter as she handed her the remote. “Me, Sonny, Grandma and Grandpa are right outside if you need us.”\n\n“OK.” Jesse said as she pulled up the movie ‘Encanto.’ Her and Billie then sprawled out on the couch together.\n\nAmanda smiled and joined Sonny and her parents out on the patio. It was an unusually warm March day and her mother thought it’d be nice if they ate outside.\n\nTalk during dinner was kept very much at the surface level. Sports, the weather, etc. Once they were almost finished, Amanda and Sonny exchanged looks and, realizing the evening was starting to wind down, decided it was time to share their news. \n\n“Mom, dad.” Amanda said clearing her throat. “There’s somethin’ I wanted to talk to you about. Something I wanna tell you.”\n\nShe took in a deep breath and told them, “So Sonny and I…we umm…are a couple.”\n\nAmanda and Sonny quietly waited for some sort of a reaction from her parents, who didn’t give them much of one. \n\n“We know.” Jim finally told them.\n\nShe started to stutter. “H—how did…you—“\n\n“Jesse told me.” Beth Anne said, cutting her daughter off. \n\n“Only after you coaxed it out of her with ice cream.” Jim added.\n\nAmanda rolled her eyes. “Really mom?”\n\nShe then let her mind briefly wander to Jesse. \n\nWhen Amanda and Sonny first got together they hadn’t been sure what and how much to say to the girls about it. Jesse in particular. Especially since they were keeping it quiet in their public lives and amongst their families. But off time they had together usually needed to be spent at Amanda’s and while the two were good at keeping things G rated around the girls, they found it difficult and unnatural to always have to refrain from innocent forms of affection, like hand holding and cuddling, at home.\n\nSo while they would’ve preferred waiting a bit, the couple ultimately decided to be upfront and honest with Jesse about the relationship early on. But when they sat her down to explain the situation, the two were surprised to learn that while happy about the news, Jesse was unaware this was a new development and had thought Sonny and her mom were already a couple for a much longer period of time than they actually had been. Since Jesse didn’t see it as a big deal and never went around announcing it to anyone when she mistakenly assumed they were dating, they weren’t concerned she’d bring it up to people. Even if she did, they agreed to deal with it when and if it happened. Neither Sonny or Amanda were going to ask the 6-year-old to lie for them. So though it was a little unexpected, she wasn’t shocked Jesse told Beth Anne and she assumed Sonny wasn’t either.\n\n“Well I had my suspicions and wanted to know so I asked her about it the last time I saw her a couple weeks ago.” Beth Anne said to her daughter shrugging, adding. “Because for whatever reason you’ve been keeping it from me. Which I don’t understand because you know your father and I both like Sonny.”\n\nAmanda sighed as she absentmindedly played with her fork. “I know you do and we weren’t purposely only hiding it from you. We just wanted to keep it between ourselves for a while and take some time to feel it out. Billie’s too young to really get it, but we told Jesse because she’s older and is very perceptive. It also just didn’t feel right keeping it from her. But she was the only one we told. Sonny’s family still doesn’t know either and we hadn’t said anything to Liv or anyone at work until a few days ago. We ended up staying quiet about it a lot longer than we anticipated, but it wasn’t intentional.”\n\n“How long have you been a couple?” Jim asked as he took one last bite of his steak.\n\n“Since early June of last year.” Sonny said to him.\n\nBoth Beth Anne and Jim raised their eyebrows in surprise.\n\n“Well I wish you had told me earlier. But considering your history, I’m happy to hear you’ve been taking it slow.” Her mother finally told Amanda. “The last thing I’d want is for you to rush things and end up pregnant with a third baby.”\n\nIt was in that moment the color in both Amanda and Sonny’s faces instantly dissipated and they immediately diverted their eyes away from her.\n\nBeth Anne’s gaze shifted back in forth between them and she sighed. “Jesus Christ, have you ever heard of birth control?” She asked her daughter.\n\nAmanda rubbed her temples. “I was on it mom.” She muttered quietly.\n\nHer mother sat staring at her for a while before finally saying. “Can we talk alone in the kitchen please?”\n\nAmanda fixed her mouth to speak, but was interrupted by Sonny, who had been relatively quiet through out much of the exchange but now felt the need to insert himself more into the conversation. He knew she had wanted to take the lead on this but he could see she needed him.\n\n“Beth Anne with all due respect I’d appreciate hearing whatever is you wanted to say to Amanda privately.” He told her honestly. “Her and I are together and this is my child so it concerns me.”\n\nShe nodded her head slowly. “OK.” Beth Anne said simply and immediately started explaining to her daughter exactly how she felt about this situation.\n\n“You should’ve made more of an effort to prevent a pregnancy. You didn’t need another baby right now, if ever. Because while I think Sonny’s a good man and I’m happy to see you’re giving someone like him a chance instead of the kind of guys you typically wasted your time on, you two might not be a good fit for each other. You’ve been together for several months, but that’s still not enough time to really know if this is something that’ll last. What if it ends up not workin’ out? You’re gonna be a single mom with THREE kids.” \n\nAmanda sighed and quietly processed what her mom said, but before she could say anything her mother spoke again.\n\n“I’d worry about you.” Beth Anne said a little sadly, her tough exterior softening. “You, the girls, and the baby. Because I know how hard it’s been for you with just Jesse and Billie. I can only imagine how hard it’d be with three.“\n\nSonny had been prepared to go on the offense in rebuttal to whatever Beth Anne was going to say, but he could tell that she was just genuinely concerned for her daughter and grandchildren. So when he saw that Amanda appeared to be at a loss for words, he decided to step up and respond to each of her mother’s points for her in a gentle, but still assertive, manner. \n\n“We weren’t reckless.” Sonny felt the need to highlight to Beth Anne. “We took precautions. Because while Amanda and I hadn’t gotten around to having a serious conversation about whether we’d want a baby together later on down the road, we both knew it wasn’t something we wanted at this stage of our relationship. But at the end of the day, things happen and while this baby was unplanned the two of us see him or her as a blessing.”\n\nHe paused for a moment and then resumed speaking.\n\n“I can understand why you’re worried that this might not be a good thing. How if it didn’t work out and we broke up, Amanda would be left in a less than ideal situation. Well, I don’t like playing the ‘what if’ game but if we must do it I want you to know that even if Amanda and I were to split, I’d NEVER leave her alone to parent like she’s had to all these years. As the mother of my child she will forever be considered my family, regardless of whether or not her and I are together. I’ll always be there to support her and the kids. Physically, financially, and emotionally. And when I say kids I mean kids. Because while Jesse and Billie might not biologically be my daughters, I love them as if they were. I’ve been part of their lives since they were born and I would never abandon them.”\n\nAmanda blinked back her tears and smiled at him softly. \n\nSonny set his hand on top of hers and gave it a light squeeze.\n\n“All that being said,” He continued. “I don’t plan on us breakin’ up. Because this relationship is somethin’ we both take very seriously and have wanted for a long time. It’s precious to us. And though we’ve been together for less than a year, it feels much longer because we were such good friends beforehand and know each other inside and out. Amanda’s seen me at my highest and lowest moments and I’ve been with her through hers. While everything’s gone pretty smoothly so far, I’m not naive to think there won’t be challenges and difficulties. But what I do know is I love Amanda with all my heart and I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure what we have goes on forever. I won’t let her down. I promise.”\n\nJim, Amanda and Sonny sat quietly staring at Beth Anne who remained silent for a long while as she took in everything he had just said to her before finally telling him, “I’ll hold you to that.”\n\n“Please do.” Sonny said to her.\n\nShe slowly nodded and then gave him a small smile, which brought much relief to both Amanda and Sonny. \n\n“So when is this new grandchild of ours going to be here?” Jim asked the couple.\n\n“I still need to confirm that with a doctor.” Amanda told her father. “But I’d say sometime in November.”\n\n“Around Jesse’s birthday?” Beth Anne asked curiously.\n\n“Possibly.” Amanda said. “We’ll find out soon.”\n\nHer mother nodded. “She’s a good big sister. I’m sure she’ll be OK sharing her birthday with the baby if he or she ends up being born on the same day.”\n\n“I think so too.” Amanda agreed.\n\n“Well I’m looking forward to November.” She told the couple. “It looks like there’ll be lots to celebrate.”\n\nSonny nodded. “That there will.” \n\nBeth Anne took a deep breath and looked around the table. “It’s gettin’ cold. Since everyone’s done, why don’t we head back in?” She then stood up, grabbed her plate and glass and walked back inside the house toward the kitchen. \n\nAmanda, Sonny, and Jim got up from their chairs as well, picked up their plates and glasses and followed her in.\n\nJust as they had all made their way into the kitchen, Jesse and Billie came scurrying in.\n\n“Can we have some zeppole?” Jesse asked Sonny as she walked up to him.\n\n“Sure you can.” He said to the girls as he grabbed a few napkins from the counter and headed toward the kitchen table, where the box sat. He grabbed two and handed one to each of them, but then picked up a third.\n\n“Do you think Bruno might want one too?” Sonny, with a mischievous looking grin on his face, asked the girls.\n\nJesse and Billie’s jaws dropped.\n\n“Uncle Sonny,” Jesse admonished as she then made a reference to the movie he had figured her and Billie were watching, “We don’t talk about Bruno.” \n\nSonny feigned ignorance. “Really?”\n\n“You knew that.” Jesse said as she shook her finger at him.\n\n“No I didn’t.” He stated very matter of factly. \n\n“Yes you did!”\n\nHe put down the dessert and started tickling both girls. “No I didn’t!” Sonny then scooped Billie up into his arms and continued tickling her. \n\nJesse set hers down on the table. “Me next! Me next!”\n\nHe put Billie down, picked Jesse up and started tickling her, causing the six-year-old to giggle incessantly. \n\nAmanda smiled at the three of them and then looked over at her mother, who she saw was also smiling at them.\n\nXXXXXXXXXXXX \n\nAbout an hour later the foursome said their goodbyes and began the drive home.\n\nAmanda turned her head to look at the girls in the backseat of Sonny’s SUV. When she saw that both of them were past out, she said to him, “Thank you. For having my back in there tonight. And for saying everything you said.”\n\nSonny, who noticed it was starting to rain, turned on his windshield wipers. “I meant every word of it.” He told her as he kept his eyes on the road but reached a hand out toward hers and gave it a gentle squeeze.\n\n“I know.” She said, giving him a small grin.\n\nHe briefly looked her way, smiled, and then turned his attention back to the road and hopped on the highway.\n\n**********************\n\nAmanda’s Apartment - Friday Night\n\n**********************\n\nThe week after the reveal to Beth Anne and Jim was fairly uneventful for Sonny and Amanda. Work proceeded normally for Sonny and while McGrath ended up keeping Amanda on desk duty, he didn’t suspend her. She was happy about not being suspended, but disappointed about the desk duty, especially because she knew if it’d been solely Liv’s choice, her Captain would’ve taken her off and let her continue to investigate in the field a bit longer. But considering the circumstances Amanda figured she should just accept it without any pushback. As much as she hated it, she knew it was going to have to happen at some point because of the baby and that it wouldn’t be forever.\n\nSonny’s folks got back from their vacation on Wednesday and tonight was the night he was going to have dinner with them so he could tell his mom and dad about their relationship and the baby. It was weighing heavily on her, but she did her best to keep herself occupied while he was out and focused on other things. There was one thing in particular she’d been wondering about. So with Sonny in Staten Island and Billie with Al for the weekend, Amanda thought it was a good time to dig into it.\n\n“Hey Jess,” Amanda called out to her daughter from the kitchen. “Can you come here?”\n\nJesse emerged from her bedroom a few moments later and her eyes lit up when she saw two banana splits on the kitchen table.\n\n“Is one for me?” She asked hopefully as she sat down in a chair beside her mother.\n\n“Yup.” Amanda told her as she handed Jesse a spoon.\n\nThe two sat quietly eating their banana splits for a while when Amanda asked, “So Jess, when you’re at grandma’s how do her and grandpa act around each other?”\n\nJesse shoved a big spoonful into her mouth. “What do you mean?”\n\nAmanda poured some more chocolate syrup on her ice cream. “Do they act like Sonny and I? Are they a couple?”\n\nJesse picked up her cherry and ate it. “No.” She said, laughing as if it were a silly notion.\n\nAmanda sighed with relief.\n\n“Grandma dates Bob.” Jesse offered up without any probing.\n\nAmanda raised an eyebrow at her. “Bob?”\n\nJesse nodded. “From the gas station.” She then picked up a piece of chocolate covered banana and put it into her mouth.\n\n“Bob from the gas station, huh?” Amanda muttered to herself.\n\nThe two continued to eat their banana splits and talk when a few minutes later they heard Sonny enter into the apartment.\n\n“Hi Sonny.” Jesse said with her mouth full of ice cream. “Look, mommy made us banana splits.”\n\nSonny hung up his coat and set his keys down on the counter. “I see.” He sat down across from the duo at the table.\n\nJesse shoved on last big spoonful into her mouth. “That was really good. Thank you for making it for me.”\n\nAmanda smiled. “Alright, it’s getting late. I want you to go wash your face and brush your teeth, OK?“\n\nJesse nodded, got up from the table and headed toward the bathroom. Amanda got up, brought Jesse’s bowl to the sink, grabbed a clean spoon and handed it to Sonny.\n\n“Banana splits at 8:30p right before bed?” Sonny asked as he scooped up some ice cream from her bowl. “Rollins, she’s gonna be up for hours.”\n\nShe shrugged. “Well it’s the weekend so I figured why not.”\n\n“There was no other reason?” He asked curiously. “You weren’t using it to get information. Like your mom did?”\n\n“I mean, I asked her some questions while we ate, but no I wasn’t bribing her.”\n\n“Sure you weren’t.” Sonny chuckled. “What were you trying to find out?”\n\nAmanda sprayed some more whipped cream on top of the ice cream. “Just wanted to make sure my parents’ relationship was still platonic and that he’s only there because he needs a place to stay.”\n\n“Why didn’t you just ask when we were there on Sunday?“ He asked. “It would’ve been a good time to do it since we were all together having a serious, honest conversation with each other.”\n\n“I was afraid of how I would’ve reacted had they told me they were a couple.” Amanda admitted. “Because while I’m happy they can coexist with each other, they should never ever be more than friends. Not after how my dad treated her over the years.”\n\n“I agree.” Sonny said nodding. “So are they together?”\n\n“No.” Amanda said as she set the whipped cream can down. “Jesse told me my mom’s dating Bob from the gas station. Whoever that is.”\n\nHe nodded and fixed his mouth to say something else when Jesse came back into the kitchen. “I know it’s almost bedtime, but I’m not really tired. Can I watch a movie on my iPad?”\n\nAmanda nodded. “Yes, just put your headphones in, OK?”\n\nJesse nodded then gave them each a hug and said goodnight. She then headed off to her room and closed the door. \n\nOnce Jesse was out of sight, Amanda wasted no time getting to the subject that had been on her mind all day. \n\n“So how did it go tonight?” She asked, biting her lip. \n\nSonny’s seemingly relaxed nature a few moments earlier dissipated and Amanda could see him tense up a bit.\n\n“It was…fine.” He told her, without elaborating.\n\nAmanda stared at him intently. “That’s all? I wasn’t expecting a play by play, but I thought you’d tell me a little more than it went ‘fine.’”\n\nHe sighed. “It could’ve gone a little better.” Sonny finally admitted. “My mom is definitely goin’ to need some time to process everythin’ but…she’ll come around.”\n\nAmanda frowned. “What does that mean? Can you please just tell me what happened? And don’t sugarcoat any of it.”\n\nSonny set his spoon down and nodded. “OK.”"}
+{"text": "The dam had finally broken, the curse escalated its behavior and I didn't really know what to do about it.\n\nFrom this point on, my life began taking an almost surreal bent, and yes,I mean more than it had previously.\n\nThankfully, there seemed to be minimal consequences from my humiliation at the party and the one at the bar, but that didn't mean things didn't escalate.\n\nAs before, there was this relative stealthy nature to the curse; even if I were to be stripped naked and debased in public, people seemed to just \"forget\" about it, and I use the word lightly because it seemed people were aware of these incidents, they just shrugged them off.\n\nHowever, from this point on things changed slightly, people would still recognize that I was the girl at the center of all these incidents, but instead of simply ignoring them and disregarding them, people seemed to take that as an invitation to enact whatever scenario would get me \"tricked\" into stripping.\n\nOnce more, I chose these words not in a literal sense, these pranks and tricks people were pulling on me were nothing more than flimsy excuses intended to justify stripping me in public.\n\ntake for instance that time that Gary and I were heading to the mall, the month was coming to an end and I wanted to go shopping now that my paycheck had arrived.\n\nWe got to a mall that had alot of great shops, and we started to browse for fun and cute things.\n\nGary didn't really mind going shopping with me since he enjoyed having input on the clothes I wore, it was up to me to decide in the end, but I enjoyed giving him the illusion of choice just as much as he enjoyed having it.\n\nAt one shop, I found a couple of nice pieces to wear, and wanted to try them out, I got in the changing booth and started trying out clothes.\n\nI heard Gary tell me he'd be going to the bathroom and that he'd be right back, I called back in acknowledgment, too engrossed in what I was doing to notice that my clothes that I came with, were gone from the booth.\n\nNot only that, even my purse was stolen! I was left with nothing but my underwear and the clothes I brought in to try out, I didn't know what to do so I put on a dress I had brought in with me and headed out to the cashier.\n\nI explained my dilemma to the cashier, and asked if she could help me out by giving me some clothes, they were okay with it, but I should have known not to get my hopes up, because she next asked me to pay for it:\n\n\"Er, I... I don't have any money...\" I stammered, knowing where this would lead me yet again.\n\n\"Well, I'm sorry then, I'll have to take the clothes back.\" the cashier sighed, putting her hand out.\n\n\"Can I at least go back to the changing room?\" I pleaded, falsely looking to preserve any amount of modesty, in reality I was more than willing to strip, but I wanted to put on a show of resistance just in case.\n\n\"Why? You're going to walk out of here looking the same.\" the cashier shook her head and eyed me suspiciously, it seemed that I made her distrust me, and so I, defeated, began to take the dress off in the middle of the store, where everyone could see me.\n\nIt would probably be a good time to mention that, as a surprise for Gary at the end of the day, I had worn a special set of lingerie, so here I was in public showing off the lingerie I intended for my boyfriend's eyes only.\n\nNaturally, people were staring and laughing at my embarrassment, I ran out of the store looking for Gary, only to run into him right outside the store, he laughed as he saw my appearance and wasted no time squeezing my butt.\n\nHe suggested we go to the security booth and look for my things there, all while toying with my body, he wouldn't let me rush or cover up until we got there, meaning I was seen by who knows how many people getting groped by Gary, they didn't do or say anything (beyond the occasional laugh or whisper), but that didn't make it any less embarrassing.\n\nThe security guard was amused, but didn't give us any trouble, when we searched the lost and found, we found my purse, money intact and everything, which was both comforting and strange, not my dress though, because I guess the curse didn't want me dressed yet.\n\nThe guard made sure to warn me about running around in such an indecent state, and that he might detain me if I don't fix it, but the way he said almost made it sound like a lewd joke as opposed to a serious threat, either way we decided to go back up to the mall to buy some clothes.\n\nWe went back up to the mall and once again I had to endure the laughs and stares of everyone as we looked for the same store as before to get me something to wear.\n\nOnce inside, I grabbed anything that I could get my hands on from before and immediately bought it, and as soon as the cashier rang my purchase up I rushed to the changing booth, as I took a deep breath of relief, Gary walked in on me.\n\nIn my shock, I was taken by surprise when he began kissing me deeply, telling me how sexy I looked in the lingerie, I was melting in his arms as he began to undress me, and I was naked and making out with him before I knew it.\n\nGary snapped me out of my rapture as he stepped away, leaving me a little horny.\n\n\"I'll leave you to pick out something to wear and we'll pick this up later.\" He said,but just as he was stepping out, I noticed that my purse, the clothes I bought AND my underwear were now missing.\n\nI stopped Gary from leaving and told him about my missing items, he peaked out and told me there was nothing outside, I did note that Gary didn't have my things, so it couldn't have been him, I was wondering if someone recognized me and was playing a prank on me, but I hadn't seen anyone familiar.\n\nOnce again I had to step out to the cashier with Gary, this time I was completely naked!\n\nWe tried to tell the cashier, this time it was a different lady from the one before, about the situation, but just like the other one she was unsympathetic to what had happened, she rolled her eyes and told us that she was informed about someone trying to scam them out of clothes by pretending to have things stolen from them.\n\n\"I wasn't pretending! I really did get things stolen from me!\" I protested, feeling frustrated about the mistrust.\n\n\"Twice? Besides, you said earlier you had your purse stolen, but I saw you walk in with it, I bet you have it stashed here somewhere!\" the cashier retorted angrily, and I was at the verge of tears.\n\n\"Come on lady, we don't care what it is, just give her something to wear, I'll pay for it.\" Gary tried pleading with the cashier, but I knew he hadn't gotten paid yet this month, so I doubted he had much on him. The irritated cashier sighed as she looked at me, I guess she was starting to feel guilty watching me stand here naked and about to have a breakdown in the middle of the store, that or she wanted to avoid making a scene.\n\n\"Fine, you can have some of our off-season stock, but you have to put it on right here in front of me and leave immediately.\" the cashier left for a bit, and came back with what I can only describe as one of the skimpiest micro bikinis I have ever seen, the top was barely two pieces of cloth sown to a few strings that were tied together, the bottom was even less.\n\nAnd so I got dressed as hastily as possible before getting escorted out of the store again, only difference was that I was nearly naked this time around.\n\nIt was only when we were outside that I noticed, on top of the bikini being so tiny, it was so thin it was practically see through, the top would constantly shift off my nipples, and everyone in the mall might as well have seen me naked, and I wish that was the end of it\n\nAs we were walking through the mall amidst the leers and laughs, hoping to get out of there and cut my losses after this humiliating ordeal, I felt a tug against my flimsy bottoms, and was surprised to see a girl running away with it in hand.\n\nI looked down at my now bare hips and crotch, still shocked, then looked back up to see Gary running after the thief, and within a few seconds, someone took my arms behind my back and tied them together, I looked down to see myself completely naked, my top gone as well.\n\nI felt blood rush to my ears, people around me chattering busily as they watched on without anyone offering to help, and at the same time I felt my nipples were aching painfully, some juices began trickling down my legs, somehow, in this situation. I found myself instantly horny.\n\n\"I knew it was 'streaker Sarah' the moment you walked in!\" I recognized the voice, it was the first cashier who forced me to strip, I felt her hands pinch one of my nipples and let out a moan against my will \"I told my friend that we could play a little prank on you.\"\n\nI turned my head back only to see the second cashier in front of me, she stuffed something in my mouth, it was my stolen bottoms!\n\nThe two girls began playing with my body, squeezing my breasts, twisting my nipples and fingering my pussy, I had been stripped so easily by two strangers and was now being paraded in front of a crowded mall, nobody bothered to help me, in fact, many people took out their phones and began recording, I was already a named celebrity and this was business as usual to everyone in town.\n\nThe thought of anyone being able to strip me without suffering consequences essentially flipped a switch in my brain, and I came on the spot, orgasming for the cheering crowd as my juices squirted out as I stood there in the middle of the mall.\n\nI wasn't allowed to rest as the girls smacked my ass and pushed me into the crowd, hands began crawling all over my body, my breasts continued to be groped, my nipples pinched and flicked, my ass spanked and squeezed and my pussy fingered even more.\n\nJust as I was about to have a second orgasm, Gary returns after his futile chase, only to see me in my humiliating state, he laughs and jokes about how he can't leave me alone.\n\nHowever, instead of helping me, Gary took out his cell phone, told me to say cheese and hit record just as I had my second (but not last) orgasm of the day.\n\nI was then paraded around the mall as the two girls proceeded to invite every other mall goer to molest and play with my body like I was public property, I wondered if the security guard from earlier would swoop in and put me out of my \"misery\", only to notice him in the crowd as he approached... and began squeezing my breasts.\n\nMy humiliation was complete, I had no escape, I was now the town exhibitionist, my boyfriend was content taking pictures of me as I had yet another orgasm in public.\n\nI have to say, I didn't mind that much either.\n\nGary finally took me home after the ladies gave him my clothes and purse back, not to me though, I had to walk back to the car naked as everyone watched me stumble back.\n\nWe reached the apartment building, and Gary told me that if I get stripped without him around not to feel too guilty about what I'm made to do, as long as I was safe.\n\nI didn't know how to feel about that, it was nice knowing he cared about my well being, but I just had to roll my eyes when he told me to try my best to get him a video of whatever happens.\n\nThat said, I did feel a little tingle thinking about what would happen to me.\n\n"}
+{"text": "\nStiles meets Cora at the end of year party. There’s too much alcohol and he is on top of the world with the whole of summer looming ahead of him. She’s pretty enough, and she’s funny and smart and she’s only in town until the end of summer. She’s not looking for anything serious – just a summer romance with a cute boy, maybe? – and Stiles thinks that maybe that’s good enough for him.\n\n\n\nThey meet up again the next day at the only cafe in Beacon Hills, this time without the haze of vodka, and Stiles still likes her well enough. She’s not Lydia by any standards, is something grey and pale in comparison, but maybe that’s not a bad thing. Maybe after all the drama he’s had to deal with later he needs someone a little less fiery. Cora ticks all the right boxes and says all the right things at all the right times, and by the end of the first week Stiles thinks maybe he could love her for it, one day. Because Cora is easy and she doesn’t push him or ask questions.\n\n\n\nAnd even though she’ll be going off to college in September and he’ll still be here in Beacon Hills for one last year of school, he doesn’t mind. Because six weeks isn’t long enough to fall in love with someone, is it, so it’s not like he’ll end up getting too attached.\n\n\n\n*\n\n\n\nAt the beginning of the second week of summer, Cora invites Stiles over to her place to stay the night, and Stiles doesn’t really understand it but he says yes anyway. They watch a chick-flick tucked up in her bed, and when they have sex for the first time it’s gentle and it’s nice enough and it’s easy. She curls her slight frame up around him afterwards and falls asleep, dark hair fanned out across the pillow. Stiles thinks she looks like an angel, sweet and soft. He thinks that maybe an angel isn’t quite what he’s looking for, though.\n\n\n\nStiles can’t fall asleep as easily as she can. He lies there next to her for a while, listening to her breathing, but then he gets fidgety and decides to go down and get a glass of water from the kitchen. He tiptoes down the stairs in a pair of sweats and a t-shirt, careful not to wake her. \n\n\n\nThe kitchen light is already on. Stiles is sure that Cora turned it off.\n\n\n\nThere’s a man in there when Stiles walks through the door. He’s tall, much taller than Stiles. He turns around at the sound of his footsteps, and Stiles’ breath catches in his throat. He has the same dark hair as his sister, except short and styled upwards and a darker shade of ebony. His lips are pink and set in a thin line, and his skin is alabaster. He’s wearing nothing but a black towel, slung low off of his hips. He’s…he’s so fucking broad, is the thing. Stiles doesn’t think he’s seen anything like it before, the definition of his muscles and his abs and the size of his arms. Jackson is the most built guy he knows, and he doesn't even come close to this dude. He’s beautiful, Stiles thinks, but he quickly swallows the thought down.\n\n\n\n“Hi,” the man says, looking Stiles up and down and then turning back around again. Stiles is momentarily distracted by all the muscles in his back that flex when he moves.\n\n\n\n“Sorry, dude,” he manages to say then. “I didn’t realise anyone else was here. I thought-”\n\n\n\n“-that Cora owned a three bed apartment?” he suggests flatly. “She’s seventeen.”\n\n\n\n“Right,” Stiles says. \n\n\n\nThe guy gives him a look as he reaches up to pull a bowl out of the cupboard behind him. The towel around his waist shifts slightly; dips to show off the shape of his perfectly sculptured V, the smooth expanse of his hips and the smattering of dark hair there disappearing down beneath the towel. \n\n\n\nStiles clears his throat. “And who are you, exactly?”\n\n\n\nHe looks up and fixes his green eyes on him in mild surprise. “She didn’t tell you?”\n\n\n\n“No,” he frowns. “She doesn’t really tell me much at all, actually.”\n\n\n\nHe takes a seat at the kitchen table, resting his endless bare legs up onto the top. “That sounds like Cora,” he says mildly. “I’m Derek, then. Her brother, part-time guardian and full-time pain in the ass. And you are?”\n\n\n\n“Stiles,” he says, shaking his hand. “Her…well. Sort of friend, I guess.”\n\n\n\n“Not for much longer, pal.”\n\n\n\n“Sorry?”\n\n\n\n“She won’t keep you around,” Derek shrugs. “Cora likes a challenge. She’s an adrenaline junkie, but you don’t make her scream.”\n\n\n\nStiles just stares at him. “Pardon?”\n\n\n\n“When you fuck her,” he says, all matter-of-fact. “You don’t make her scream. She’s had boyfriends that make the whole apartment shake, but not you.”\n\n\n\n“Oh,” Stiles says weakly.\n\n\n\n“Paper walls,” Derek shrugs again. He takes a slow mouthful of cereal. “…not saying she didn’t enjoy it, pal. I guess girls like a little bit of gentle love-making from time to time.”\n\n\n\nHis voice is dripping with sarcasm and Stiles thinks the guy might be a right little shit, actually, beautiful face and body aside. Still, Stiles forces a smile. “I guess they do.”\n\n\n\n“Nothing beats a good fucking though,” he says then. “Having someone wreck you and tear you apart and fuck you up. That’s my kind of sex.”\n\n\n\nStiles feels a little hot under the collar. He should leave, he should go back up to Cora, but he can’t tear his eyes off of the man in front of him. There’s something about him that makes Stiles’ skin prickle, makes his pulse quicken. “That’s, uh…that’s good to know,” he says.\n\n\n\n“Yeah,” Derek, says. Their eyes meet across the room, green on brown, and their gazes linger a little too long. Stiles swallows hard, and Derek’s tongue darts out to wet his lips – Stiles can’t help but feel that there’s something predatory about it. “Yeah, it is.”\n\n\n\n*\n\n\n\nAfter that Stiles finds any excuse he can to spend time at the Hale apartment. He tries to ignore the sinking feeling that settles deep into his bones when Derek isn’t there, sprawled across the sofa or leaning against one of the metal beams stretching from floor to ceiling. He is there mostly, though. Stiles starts noticing all sorts of little things about him, even when they don’t usually actually talk to each other; the way he runs his fingers through his hair, teasing it upwards into it’s usual quiff, the way he hardly ever wears clothes around the apartment, the way his voice is especially raspy first thing in the morning. Stiles doesn’t know why, but he likes knowing all these little things. He wants to learn more, wants to pick them up one by one over time and catalogue them in his mind in the forbidden little special corner reserved just for Derek Hale.\n\n\n\nCora doesn’t notice. She doesn’t notice the way Stiles always suggests they watch tv in the living room instead of in her bedroom. She doesn’t notice the way he sometimes catches himself just staring at her brother from across the room. She doesn’t notice the way that most of the time when he tumbles over the edge of his orgasm he has the image of someone else burnt into his mind, and she definitely doesn’t notice the way he has to clamp his mouth shut to stop him crying out the wrong name. Cora doesn’t notice, and Cora continues to be nice and sweet and funny and smart and easy, and so Stiles doesn’t say anything.  He doesn’t tell her that for some ungodly reason he finds her brother obscenely attractive and he certainly doesn’t tell her all the things he’d like to do to him if he only had the guts.\n\n\n\nStiles starts dreaming of Derek at night. Stiles hasn’t had a wet dream in almost seven years, until he meets Derek. Now, more often than not, Stiles jolts upright in the middle of the night with sticky sheets, gasping at the air, someone else’s green eyes still seared into the backs of his eyelids.\n\n\n\n*\n\n\n\nAt the end of the second week, Cora goes on a trip out of state. \n\n\n\nShe’s visiting a friend of hers who moved out there on a gap year. She’s almost apologetic to Stiles when she tells him, and that makes him feel as if he should’ve answered with something a little more distraught than a shrug – because they are together, after all, and he shouldn’t be looking forward to her leaving town. Especially not so that he can spend time with her older brother.\n\n\n\nShe leaves on the Friday morning. He turns up outside her apartment early Saturday evening with a dish in his hand – because Cora had once mentioned how much the Hale’s loved cherry pie and he couldn’t resist spending the entire afternoon perfecting one.\n\n\n\nDerek opens the door. Just the sight of him makes something inside of Stiles’ flip – makes it twist and churn and flutter. Makes him feel alive.\n\n\n\n“Hi,” he says brightly, pasting on a smile. “Is Cora in?”\n\n\n\n“She’s not here,” Derek says slowly. Always slow, always sexy, always such a huge fucking temptation. He studies Stiles’ face with dark eyes. “She’s out of town.”\n\n\n\n“Really?” Stiles says, his eyes wide with perfectly honed mock-surprise. “What’s she doing there?”\n\n\n\n“Visiting a friend,” he frowns. He opens the door slightly and Stiles catches sight of some skin. A lot of skin, actually, even more so than last time – and jesus fucking christ this guy is going to be the death of him if he keeps insisting on not wearing clothes around the house. “She didn’t tell you? She’s known about it for months.”\n\n\n\n“Not that I remember,” Stiles lies smoothly. He lets out a long, weary sigh. “Shit, I feel like a right dick now. I thought we were going to have a nice night in. I baked a pie and everything.”\n\n\n\nThe door opens a fraction more. “A pie? What flavour?”\n\n\n\n“…cherry?” he says hopefully.\n\n\n\nDerek opens the door fully in one swift movement, and Stiles feels a rush of relief. “Well we shouldn’t let a good pie go to waste,” he says briskly. “I suppose I can entertain you for a while.”\n\n\n\nThey go into the living room. Derek sets them up on the bigger of the two sofas, with a tray for the pie and a spoon each. He switches on the television and they just sit there, side by side, each of them dipping into the dessert silently as they watch the screen.\n\n\n\nOr, rather, while Derek watches the screen. Because Stiles’ whole body is thrumming, alive and wired with energy. Because Derek has never been this close, and he is only wearing a pair of patterned board shorts and he looks so fucking good. So Stiles watches Derek instead, and only misses his mouth once with the spoon when he gets particularly distracted by the way Derek swallows down his pudding, Adams Apple bobbing obscenely.\n\n\n\nThey finish the pie, and the programme on the television draws to an end. Stiles doesn’t remember what it was, but Derek sighs a lot and starts flicking through the programmes trying to find something else to replace is with.\n\n\n\n“Saturday night tv is shit,” Derek complains eventually, switching the box off completely. “No wonder I never watch it.”\n\n\n\n“No?” Stiles says. “What do you do instead?”\n\n\n\nThe older boy runs a hand through his curls and furrows his eyebrows a little, and it shouldn’t make his heart stutter but it does anyway. “Well, Saturday night is date night,” he shrugs. \n\n\n\nStiles processes the information, tries not to picture him out on a date with a hot girl. “You don’t…you haven’t got anyone? For date night, I mean?”\n\n\n\n“Like who?” Derek asks, turning on the sofa so that they’re face to face.\n\n\n\n“Like…I don’t know. Like a girlfriend, maybe?”\n\n\n\nHe looks like he wants to laugh. Stiles wants to laugh too, deep in the pit of his stomach. He can feel it bubbling up, just beneath the surface, hysterical and ready to erupt – and it’s Derek that does this to him, Derek that makes him feel so unstable. “Stiles, I haven’t had a girlfriend since I was eleven.”\n\n\n\n“Oh,” Stiles says.\n\n\n\n“No boyfriend, though,” he hums. “Not at the moment. Not for tonight.”\n\n\n\n“Oh,” Stiles says again, his voice thick. “I’m sorry.”\n\n\n\n“No you’re not.”\n\n\n\nAnd Derek is looking at him, studying him, watching him, his green eyes fixed so resolutely on him that he can feel his skin prickling underneath his scrutiny. And it’s intense – everything about Derek fucking Hale is intense. \n\n\n\n“No,” Stiles mutters finally. Because he’s the best liar he knows, but right here, right now, he can’t do it for shit.\n\n\n\n“Have you ever been with another guy, Stiles?” Derek asks, his head tilted to one side, his eyes focused. \n\n\n\n“No,” Stiles squeaks. But what he really means is I never wanted to before you.\n\n\n\n“You should,” Derek says thoughtfully. “It’s good, Stiles. So much better than a girl. So much more. Because I’ve tried both, you know? Fucked both, been fucked by both. And girls are okay but they’re not the best. Boys are best. You haven’t lived until you’ve been properly fucked by a boy.”\n\n\n\nStiles let out a little noise. “R-Really?”\n\n\n\n“Really,” Derek nods. “Boys just know what other boys like. They know where to put their hands, and what to do with them. And their hands are so big, Stiles. So much bigger. They can do so much more. I’ve never met a girl who has me begging for it as much as a boy could. Boys really make me beg, Stiles. Down on my hands and knees, begging. I’d do anything for a boy. Boys are hot, aren’t they? Don’t you think?”\n\n\n\nStiles just looks at him, his hands trembling and his breathing irregular, and swallows hard.\n\n\n\n“Yeah,” Derek says. “Thought so.”\n\n\n\nHe leans forward on the sofa so that his mouth is inches from Stiles’, his breath light across his lips. “I could fuck you so good, Stiles,” he murmurs. “I could get you so worked up. I could have you underneath me, begging me, chanting my name.”\n\n\n\nStiles can’t move, can’t make a single noise because his voice is so dry with longing. Derek shifts closer, runs his hand gentle up Stiles’ thigh. And Stiles should move, Stiles should say something, Stiles should push him away because he knows that Derek is teasing, he knows that Derek is mocking him. But he can’t. \n\n\n\nThe older boy’s hand inches closer to Stiles’ crotch, and then his palm is ghosting across Stiles’ growing bulge. Stiles inhales sharply and tries desperately not to explode.\n\n\n\n“Hmm. A straight boy that likes men, huh?” Derek drawls, his voice saccharine. He gives Stiles’ thigh a squeeze and then sits back on the sofa again, putting distance between them. “Well aren’t you just the sweetest of contradictions?”\n\n\n\nAnd yeah, Stiles is sort of royally fucked.\n\n\n\n*\n\n\n\nStiles can’t sleep. He tries, at first. He tosses and turns in his bed but his mind keeps wandering back to Derek, to all the things he said and the way he looked and the way he smelt and the stupid little smile he does when he lets his guard down and Stiles is too wired to sleep because everything is Derek and he doesn’t know how to stop it – doesn’t know if even wants to.\n\n\n\nHe doesn’t know why he goes back over there. Or, rather, he does know why – he just can’t believe he actually follows through with it. Maybe it’s because the thought of Derek won’t stop pulsing through his veins and maybe, just maybe, he can have this one dirty little secret. It’s dark out and Beacon Hills is still and his fingers drum impatiently against the steering wheel of his jeep as he drives.\n\n\n\nHe pulls up into one of the empty parking spaces outside the building a few minutes later. He pulls himself together before he climbs out, pulling at the bottom of his jumper and ruffling up his hair with his fingertips. He knocks on the front door, once, twice, three times.\n\n\n\nIt takes a moment for Derek to answer, and in those seconds Stiles feels like he might just die. But then the door is being pulled open and Derek is right there in front of him – and it’s only been an hour or two since he left but Stiles has almost missed him, and now that he’s here again everything around him has come back into focus, sharp and clear and beautiful.\n\n\n\n“Stiles,” he says, clearly surprised. He’s changed out of his board shorts and now all he’s wearing is a pair of tight boxer-briefs, ready for bed. “Did you forget something?”\n\n\n\n“Sort of,” Stiles mumbles. He steps forward onto the doorstep and looks up at the older boy through his eyelashes, his hands shaking and his heart pounding. “It’s, er…it’s about that whole fucking-me-so-good thing? Was that a promise, or…?”\n\n\n\nRealisation dawns across Derek’s face, lighting up his green eyes. Stiles half expects him to tease him again and torment him further, but he doesn’t. He just gives him a filthy smirk and pulls Stiles forward into the house by the front of his shirt, and slams the front door shut after them.\n\n\n\n*\n\n\n\nBeing with Cora is easy, because Cora is sweet and nice and smart and funny in equal measures, but being with Derek is breath-taking. Derek is a little wild and rough around the edges, and he’s often sharp and regularly unpredictable and he’s always, always exciting  - and he turns out to be more of a handful than Stiles could ever have predicted. \n\n\n\nThey see each other every day that Cora is away. Mainly at night, but sometimes during the day too. They just fuck, mostly. Derek takes him apart piece by piece and he wrecks him and fucks him up and he has Stiles chanting his name just like he promised like it’s a fucking mantra, and Stiles loves it. \n\n\n\nBecause Stiles always shied away from excitement, like he shied away from Lydia, and he’s always chosen the easy route, like he chose Cora. Derek isn’t easy, though, but Stiles soon realises that he’s everything he never knew he wanted instead. \n\n\n\nEach time they meet, they stay together a little longer. Hurried goodbyes turn into pillow talk, which soon stretches out into real conversation. Derek and Cora are so similar that it actually hurts, sometimes, except everything with Derek is emphasised and amplified until the proportions are so, so out of touch. So he’s a handful, and sometimes he makes Stiles frown and sometimes he makes Stiles cry with laughter but he always makes Stiles happy so he’s more than worth the effort it takes to keep up with him.\n\n\n\nStiles realises it’s gotten out of hand somewhere in the middle of the fourth week of summer. He realises it when Derek mentions another boy and jealousy shoots through him, white hot and burning. He realises it when he finds he’s memorised the shape and shade of the other boy’s lips. It’s sort of a sinking feeling, that realisation that he’s started falling when it was only ever supposed to be a crush. Because there is just two weeks of summer left before he has to go back to school and that’s not long enough but it’s also too much at the same time, so Stiles doesn’t think about it. \n\n\n\n*\n\n\n\nThe night before Cora comes home to Beacon Hills, Derek sleeps at Stiles’ house. He doesn’t mean to, but it happens anyway. The Sheriff is working the late shift so they don’t worry about him, and now it’s late, and they’ve spent the best part of four hours having mind-blowing sex and aggressively battling each other at cards. Stiles shouldn’t find it so endearing when Derek snorts with laughter or throws his hand down in a huff, but he does.\n\n\n\nNow the older boy is curled up in Stiles’ double bed, his hair dark against the pillow. His thick eyebrows are furrowed in sleep, his lips parted, and Stiles thinks that maybe he should look like an angel because he’s so goddamn beautiful, but he doesn’t. He looks like the devil, tempting and volatile and dangerously attractive, and somehow that is a million times better.\n\n\n\nMainly, though, Stiles just thinks he looks perfect – and when Derek rolls over in his sleep and reaches for his hand, Stiles holds him back twice as tight.\n\n\n\n*\n\n\n\nCora comes back. \n\n\n\nShe’s caught a bit of a tan from the good weather and she looks really happy and healthy and pretty, but Stiles can’t look at her the same. Her hands are the wrong size in his, her hair too long, her lips too full, her body too curvy. Stiles feels so guilty that it makes him feel sick. He feels guilty and dirty and wrong, but that’s wrong in itself because being with Derek could never be anything other than very very right. Before, being with Cora was easy. Now it is difficult, so so difficult. Now every second is a lie and every second is Stiles wishing he were somewhere else. Wishing he were with Derek. \n\n\n\nThe first time she invites him round, he goes – but only because he knows Derek isn’t in. it’s not that he doesn’t want to see him, exactly – except it is. He wants to see him and he doesn’t want to see him in equal parts. He doesn’t know what it is; all he knows is that when Derek is around, it’s easier to catch his breath.\n\n\n\nThe second time she invites him round, he refuses, because he knows Derek is there doing some reading for work. So she comes round to his house instead, and they watch a film and kiss a little and the whole time Stiles thinks of someone else.\n\n\n\nDerek turns up at the house not even half an hour after his sister leaves.\n\n\n\n“You smell like her,” is the first thing he says, and it almost sounds like an accusation. Stiles sniffs at the collar of his t-shirt, and sure enough Cora has left her mark there, sweet and floral. Stiles doesn’t want sweet and floral. Stiles wants musk and spice and man.\n\n\n\n“She just left,” Stiles says. Derek steps over the threshold and into Stiles’ house, crowding him. Stiles thinks that maybe that’s the way it’s always been since the first time they met four weeks ago – enveloped and surrounded and swallowed whole by everything that is distinctively Derek.\n\n\n\n“You haven’t been round.”\n\n\n\n“I know,” Stiles whispers. And he promised himself he wouldn’t do this, that he wouldn’t do this to Cora, but he can’t help the way his pulse quickens or his heart stutters in his chest, because it’s Derek and he has become so much in so little time and Stiles still hasn’t gotten his head around it, because it was only ever supposed to be one good fuck.\n\n\n\nDerek reaches out, brushes his fingertips against the skin of Stiles’ arm; alabaster against alabaster, like two sides of the same coin. “She doesn’t have to know, Stiles. We can…we can keep this between us.”\n\n\n\nStiles swallows hard. Because he wants this, he wants to believe this, but he can’t. He can’t keep on keeping all these secrets. “I can’t lie, Derek. Not to your sister.”\n\n\n\n“Because she’s a girl?”\n\n\n\n“Because she’s my girlfriend. And you’re just…”\n\n\n\nDerek freezes. “Just what?”\n\n\n\n“You’re just you and I’m just me and we were just having a good time, weren’t we?” Stiles says. Even though it’s a lie. Even though he thinks maybe he loved Derek right from the very start. Except that’s just his problem, isn’t it? Falling in love with people who don’t have the capacity to love him back. Stiles always loved faster, harder, more – and that wasn’t Derek’s fault in the slightest but it stung all the same. “You were just showing me how it could be, weren’t you? With a boy. You were just showing me.”\n\n\n\n“…yeah,” Derek says eventually, frowning a little. “Yeah, obviously.  But…that’s it? Fun over?”\n\n\n\n“I can’t see you both,” Stiles says weakly.\n\n\n\n“No,” he says. He scratches the back of his head, ruffles his hair, looks back at Stiles with blank eyes. “I guess not.”\n\n\n\n“I’m sorry,” Stiles mumbles, but what he really wants to say is I’m sorry, I would chose you if I could, I think I might just love you, but that’s far too much.\n\n\n\n“Why? It was just fucking, pal. Don’t overthink it.”\n\n\n\nStiles feels his stomach sinking down, down. Because it was never just fucking, not for him. Not even at the beginning. “Right.”\n\n\n\nDerek’s face softens. “You’ve got my number.”\n\n\n\nStiles nods glumly. Derek steps forwards, hesitates, and then raises his arms to cup Stiles’ face in his huge hands. He ducks his head until his lips are pressed against Stiles’ own, and it’s brief and chaste and gentle and then Derek is gone without another word, disappearing off down the path and into the darkness.\n\n\n\nStiles brushes his mouth with his fingertips, and his breath catches in his throat as he realises that after all this time, that was their very first kiss.\n\n\n\nAnd if he didn’t know it before, he knows for certain now that he’s so absolutely and completely fucked that he doesn’t even know where to start.\n\n\n\n*\n\n\n\nStiles calls Derek before the fifth week of summer is even up. He hasn’t said a word to Cora, but everything is so out of focus, everything has shifted and changed and blurred and if Stiles doesn’t get the clarity that Derek brings soon he is going to explode.\n\n\n\nDerek doesn’t ask questions. He turns up on the doorstep ten minutes later and leads Stiles up the stairs to his room. He fucks Stiles into the mattress as good as always, but this time he leaves trails of kisses in his wake. This time, instead of just a good fuck, it feels something like sex.\n\n\n\nDerek doesn’t say anything about the fact that Stiles’ eyes are damp after, even if he can still see the tears shining there. Stiles is eternally grateful, because he wouldn’t know how to talk about it. Wouldn’t know how to put all that he was feeling into words. Wouldn’t know how to tell him how much it scared him to feel this much, to fall so hard.\n\n\n\nDerek doesn’t say a word. He just pulls Stiles closer underneath the covers and curls himself around him, curls until they are an intrinsic tangle of limbs, and then holds him tight.\n\n\n\n*\n\n\n\nStiles wakes up on the first morning of the last week of summer with a sinking feeling deep in the pit of his stomach. One more week, and then all this will be over. Cora will be at university and he will be at school and his summer will have faded away as nothing more than a distant memory.\n\n\n\nThat day he sees both of them. Cora first, round at her apartment. Derek’s there, Stiles knows it, but they don’t cross paths. Cora talks excitedly about moving on with her life and leaving Beacon Hills. Stiles really, really wishes that he cared. He wishes he’d fallen in love with her this summer, instead of her brother. He wishes it was her who filled every one of his thoughts, because that would be easy. But he didn’t and so it’s not and so when he kisses her goodbye as he leaves, he’s careful to just miss the edge of her mouth.\n\n\n\n“I can taste her,” Derek says later that night.\n\n\n\n“You can’t,” Stiles argues.\n\n\n\nDerek just looks at him, a frown tugging at his lips. Stiles lets out a soft sigh and reaches out to pull him closer, to kiss him long and hard and thorough until they are both panting and rutting against each other needily.\n\n\n\n“Better?” he whispers, his forehead pressed against the older boys, brown eyes looking imploringly into green. Derek just nods and leans forward to steal another kiss.\n\n\n\n*\n\n\n\nThey don’t have sex that night. They kiss a whole lot, though, and Stiles thinks that he might just prefer that.\n\n\n\nDerek asks to say. Stiles says yes. They curl up in Stiles’ bed and speak in murmured conversation until the sun starts to rise above the town outside the window. “Are you still sleeping with her?” Derek asks, his voice a whisper, on the very edge of sleep.\n\n\n\n“No!” Stiles whispers back, his face flushing. “No, I…I couldn’t. I can’t. I only think of you.”\n\n\n\nDerek doesn’t say anything for a long moment, and Stiles lies there frozen, his thoughts swirling at a hundred miles an hour. But then Derek reaches over and takes Stiles’ hand in his own beneath the sheets, pulls him close, buries his face into Stiles’ chest. “Good,” he whispers. “That’s good.”\n\n\n\n*\n\n\n\nDerek sees Stiles kissing her. It’s the briefest of kisses, just a press of lips on lips, but Derek sees it. Later, when the three of them are in the kitchen, Derek tries to talk to Stiles. Stiles shoots him a look and nods at Cora and then he suggests out loud that the two of them go into her room to watch a film. They leave. Derek is alone.\n\n\n\nDerek is furious. He doesn’t understand why. He’s not mad at Stiles and he’s not mad at Cora and he’s not really even mad at himself for getting into the situation in the first place. He’s just mad, and it simmers under the surface for the rest of the week. He doesn’t text Stiles back, doesn’t answer his calls, doesn’t see him. And it almost kills him, how much he misses him.\n\n\n\nThat’s when Derek realises how deep he’s fallen. And it was supposed to be one good fuck, it was only ever supposed to be one good fuck, but Stiles has turned out to be so much more. It’s only been six weeks, but it feels more like a lifetime.\n\n\n\nDerek has to see him. It’s pouring with rain and the air is heavy with a summer storm and the sky keeps flashing lilac with lightening, but still Derek goes. He runs the whole way, doesn’t stop until he’s at Stiles’ door. \n\n\n\n“Derek?” Stiles frowns when he opens it up. “What the fu-”\n\n\n\nDerek cuts him off with a kiss, deep and rough and possessive. Derek claims him. Derek claims all of him and he clutches him so tight. He never wants to let him go.\n\n\n\n“What’s wrong, Derek?” Stiles says when they finally break apart. “Where have you been? I’ve missed you.”\n\n\n\n“I’ve missed you too,” he says. “But I can’t carry on like this.”\n\n\n\n“Like what, Derek?”\n\n\n\n“This. You avoiding me in front of her. You kissing her instead of me. I don’t want to be your dirty little secret, Stiles,” Derek says, his voice choked. “I thought I could do this, but I can’t. I can’t share you, for fucks sake. I want all of you. I want you to be mine.”\n\n\n\n“I always have been,” Stiles tells him, fast and firm and reassuring. He can’t believe what he’s hearing, can’t believe that maybe for once someone fell just as hard and fast as he did. His heart soars, up, up , up. “Always will be too, if you’ll let me.”\n\n\n\n“Please,” Derek begs. Stiles wraps his arms around him and holds him close, pulls him out of the rain and kisses his hair until he stops shaking.\n\n\n\n*\n\n\n\nCora isn’t surprised when Stiles turns up on the doorstep the next morning and tells her that he thinks she’s lovely but that he has to end things for her own sake.\n\n\n\n“It was just for the summer anyway,” she shrugs, and he’s never been more grateful of how sweet and smart and funny and easy she is. “But I’m still glad I met you.”\n\n\n\nStiles is glad he met her too. More glad than she’ll ever know.\n\n\n\n*\n\n\n\nSummer draws to an end. \n\n\n\nStiles and Derek decide to keep whatever it is they have under wraps until Cora has left for college. Then there will be no more sneaking and no more hiding.\n\n\n\nIt’s a Saturday when she finally goes. She looks pretty and happy and ready to move on and start the new chapter of her life. She doesn’t even blink when Stiles comes over to wave her off and stands just a little too close to her brother. Maybe she knew all along. Stiles certainly did.\n\n\n\nThe two of them stand there in the middle of the road, waving at her in the wing mirror until her car is out of sight. They carry on standing there even when she’s gone, even when it’s finally just the two of them. Stiles feels something settle inside him. He doesn’t know what will happen now, or how long this fire for Derek inside his chest will keep on burning for. All he knows that he fell in love with the unexpected. He has Derek and Derek has him and they had their summer – and Stiles hopes with everything he has that they will have many more summers to come. \n\n\n\n“She’s nice,” Stiles says eventually. The sky is still impossibly brown and the sun is still impossibly bright and Stiles is finally ready for what comes next. “Cora is really, really nice.”\n\n\n\n“She is,” Derek nods. And there’s so much more he wants to say, so many words right on the tip of his tongue, like I want you and I need you and I love you and please let me keep you.\n\n\n\n“But she’s not you,” he adds.\n\n\n\n“She’s not me,” Derek agrees, and his hand finds Stiles’ and holds it tight.\n"}
+{"text": "Peter was terrified. The encounter with Frank shook him to his core and he decided to dial things back with Cynthia. He didn't outright tell her why, but instead made up vague excuses as to why he couldn't meet. He knew this wasn't a long term solution. If he didn't disclose his fears to Cynthia, he would run the risk of hurting her and losing her forever.\n\nHe decided to spend more time with Charlie and Kevin. They just assumed things between him and Amanda had fizzled out again.\n\n\"How's Cynthia doing these days?\" Charlie asked before he took a swing of his golf club. The three of them were lined up at the far end of the driving range. A bottle of Jameson sat on a small table with three red Solo cups.\n\n\"What?\" Peter asked, caught off guard.\n\n\"I'm talking to Kevin. I wanna know how that bodacious babe is doing these days,\" Charlie laughed.\n\n\"Dude. Fuck off. Ok? Just fuck off,\" Kevin said as he took a shot of Jameson.\n\n\"I'll fuck off... to your house,\" Charlie said again. This time Kevin raised his golf club as if he was going to slam it down on Charlie's head. He jokingly held up his hands to protect himself.\n\n\"You still think your old man is sleeping around?\" Charlie asked, this time being serious.\n\n\"When's he not?\" Kevin responded.\n\n\"That's bullshit,\" Peter said. \"If I were your stepmom, I'd just leave him.\"\n\n\"Yeah, well... she doesn't,\" Kevin grumpily muttered.\n\nThe boys were well versed in Frank's apparent adulterous activities away on business. Just a few years prior, a fling with a flight attendant across the country threatened their marriage, but they worked things out privately. Cynthia and Frank were rarely seen together as he traveled a lot and she didn't really seem to mind much.\n\n\"I wouldn't wanna be the guy who steps in on their marriage,\" Charlie said, to no one in particular. \"Your Dad is one bad motherfucker.\"\n\n\"Yeah, well. Fuck him is what I say,\" Kevin declared before launching a golf ball into the stratosphere.\n\n\"I'm out, guys,\" Kevin said. \"Goin' to Amy's.\"\n\n\"Pound town?\" Charlie asked.\n\n\"Naw she's on her period. Maybe a blowie,\" Kevin responded with a smile. \"Maybe a couple blowies,\" he laughed.\n\nCharlie responded by miming a blowjob and pretending to do a gag. \"Ugh it's so big, I can't get it all down my throat!\" he said in a high-pitched voice. Everyone cracked up laughing as Kevin took off.\n\nCharlie and Peter had a few more shots, hit a bunch of balls and ultimately called it a night an hour or so later.\n\n\"Dude,\" Charlie said as they walked towards the parking lot. \"Kevin's stepmom is seriously so fucking hot. I never really noticed it until recently. I mean, I know we all used to joke about her tits when we were younger, but she is legit doing it for me these days, bro.\"\n\nPeter nodded, while looking down as they walked. He pictured Cynthia's mouth wrapped around his cock. He vividly remembered the feeling of her tight pussy pulsing on him as she came. He pictured her perfect body being showered in thick white ropes from his spasming penis. \"Yeah dude,\" he agreed. \"She's pretty hot.\"\n\nPeter checked his phone in the car and, sure enough, Cynthia had texted him several times. She also called him, something she never did. Peter decided to call her back. He was feeling really charged up and pondered setting up an impromptu meet. Besides, it had been a while since they got together.\n\n\"Hey,\" he said cheerfully. But the voice on the other end was not so cheerful.\n\n\"Peter, I need you to come over.\"\n\n\"What's wrong?\"\n\n\"Can you come by the house?\" she said in a concerned voice. Something was not right.\n\n\"Yes, I can. But you need to tell me what's wrong. Are you in danger?\"\n\n\"I'm not in danger. But we need to talk.\"\n\n\"Ok?\"\n\n\"I'll see you soon,\" she said softly before hanging up. Peter was dumbstruck. As he frantically drove over to her house, he imagined what he'd do if Frank were to attack him. He contemplated turning around, but Cynthia's voice made it seem serious. He couldn't leave her with him in case Frank was violent.\n\nPeter had never been in such a situation before and didn't truly have a good plan. He didn't even really know what he was walking into, but it certainly wasn't good.\n\nHe slowly and carefully approached the front door of the house. The lights were on. He tried to peer inside and get a glimpse of what was happening before entering. The sun had just set so it started to get dark. He couldn't see anything.\n\nHe raised his hand to knock, but the door opened before he could do so. \"Hi honey,\" Cynthia said as she stood in the doorway. She reached out and gently grazed Peter's cheek with her hand. \"Hi handsome,\" she said.\n\n\"Are you ok?\" he asked, concerned as he stepped inside.\n\n\"I'm fine. It's ok,\" she said quietly. Peter suspected she didn't want to be heard. \"Come with me,\" she said as she led him through the house towards the kitchen.\n\nShe poured a glass of wine for both of them. Peter tentatively took a sip. \"Cynthia, you're scaring me,\" he said. \"You're acting strange.\"\n\n\"I'm going to be straight with you, Peter. He knows. He knows everything.\"\n\nPeter's stomach dropped. His worst nightmare was confirmed. His first instinct was to run out of the house away from her and never see her again. His second, more leveled instinct was to stay... and fight. \"What?\" he asked, stunned.\n\n\"He told me he knows about us. He saw us in the park. He's seen your car parked around the corner. He's no dummy, Peter.\"\n\nPeter took another sip, more generous this time. He leaned on the kitchen island with both hands, staring at the granite. He remained silent.\n\n\"It's not what you think. He's not mad, believe me. He's hurt more than anything,\" she said. \"Peter, look at me.\"\n\nHe looked up.\n\n\"I had a sense this would happen. You probably did too.\"\n\nHe solemnly nodded. It was true. There was no way their fling was going to go the distance undetected. Something had to give. Now it was time to pay the price.\n\n\"Listen, he's coming home any minute. But I don't want you to run. I want to confront the situation together. I promise he's not angry or upset.\"\n\n\"He's not angry?! How can that be? He knows I'm fucking you regularly!\" Peter began to become agitated. He didn't believe Cynthia. He didn't want to stick around for when Frank came home. Nothing about that scenario seemed appealing to him.\n\n\"Can you please just stay by my side, Peter? I adore you. I adore him too. I want to be able to work through this together.\"\n\nA car door slammed outside. It was time.\n\nPeter suddenly looked towards the window in a panic. \"He's here?\"\n\nCynthia nodded. \"Please just stay here. Follow my lead, ok?\"\n\nPeter's heart nearly jumped out his body as he heard the door open. What on Earth was he about to get into? This was not how he envisioned his fling with a married woman would end.\n\nFootsteps came closer and closer towards the kitchen. Cynthia stared at the doorway to the hallway waiting for him to emerge.\n\n\"Hey,\" a familiar voice called out.\n\nIt was Kevin.\n\n\"What's happening, guys?\" he asked before he hugged Cynthia and nodded towards Peter. He poured himself a glass of wine.\n\n\"Hey man,\" Peter said. He felt relieved it was Kevin instead of Frank. Perhaps he could plan an escape now instead of confronting Frank with Cynthia.\n\n\"I told him,\" Cynthia said. \"I told him everything.\"\n\nPeter's mouth dropped. \n\nCynthia hugged Kevin again. \"I'm so sorry sweetie,\" she said.\n\nKevin didn't say a word. He gulped down another sip. \"Does he know?\" he asked.\n\nCynthia shook her head. \"Why don't we go into the living room, shall we?\"\n\n\"Guys, what the hell is going on?\" Peter asked. Kevin walked over and patted him on the back. \"Just follow me, bud. We have a lot to discuss.\"\n\n-----------------------------------------------\n\nWhat happened next, Peter could have never even imagined. Over several glasses of wine in the living room, Cynthia and Kevin divulged their nearly two year long relationship, unbeknownst to Frank, Peter, or anyone for that matter. It was kept completely secret.\n\nA mutual disdain for Frank and his extramarital behavior led the two to become closer. Their proximity in age also allowed for more intimate moments to develop over long nights and deep conversation. At some point that neither of them could exactly recall when, the relationship transitioned from support to fully sexual.\n\nCynthia and Kevin have been having consistent sex for almost two years.\n\n\"I can't believe this,\" Peter said in shock. His best friend was fucking his own stepmother. Almost forgotten in his mind was the fact that he too had been having sex with the same woman.\n\n\"We have a special bond,\" Cynthia said in a delicate way. She was very aware of the sensitive situation unfolding. \"As do we,\" she assured Peter.\n\nThe two went on to share how Kevin ultimately found out about Cynthia and Peter. It was not very difficult according to his detail.\n\n\"She stared at it, dude,\" Kevin said, referring to Cynthia's first discovery of Peter's special gift. \"I knew that look. Because she looked at mine the same way,\" he said, eyeing Cynthia. She blushed. Kevin laughed and turned to Peter. \"Did you know she's obsessed with big dicks?\"\n\nAll three laughed, before the seriousness of the situation returned. \"Guys, I need to say something,\" Cynthia said. \"I'm so, so, sorry for what happened. There's no denying this is my fault. I just don't want anyone to be hurt.\"\n\n\"It's my fault,\" Peter interjected. \"This is my fault. I didn't know about you two. I let my stupid horny ass ruin everything. I should go. I don't want to wreck this whole thing.\"\n\nPeter stood up, but Cynthia motioned for him to stop. \"Peter, no. That's not what we want.\"\n\n\"She's right, man. Have a seat. There's a solution here.\"\n\nPeter cautiously sat down. First, he felt like a home-wrecker and now he was a third wheel. \"What?\" he asked.\n\nCynthia smiled. \"We can still have fun.\" She turned to Kevin. \"All of us.\"\n\n\"All of us?\" Peter asked, to which Cynthia excitedly nodded. \"Yes, Peter. That is, if you're up to it. Kevin and I discussed and we're open to being... well... open.\"\n\n\"So you're just gonna sleep with both of us?\"\n\n\"Yeah man,\" Kevin said. He was still unsure if Peter was going to be on board with this.\n\n\"At the same time?\" Peter asked.\n\n\"Yes! And separately. Whatever the moment calls for,\" Cynthia said as she poured another glass of wine. \"The point is, we can all co-exist and no one's feelings will be hurt.\"\n\nPeter ran his fingers in his hair, flabbergasted with the strange proposal. How did it come to this? First, he's fucking his best friend's stepmother and now they're proposing an open relationship and threesomes. He couldn't help but nervously laugh. \"Oh man,\" he said. \"I dunno about that.\"\n\nThe group spent the next thirty minutes discussing what the potential arrangement would look like. Peter gradually became more comfortable with at least trying it. His biggest issue was hurting one of them and his second biggest issue was being naked and sexual around his best friend. That part scared him probably more than anything.\n\nThere was one simple rule they all decided on. \"If anyone gets hurt, we stop. All of us. It's over. Do I make myself clear?\" Cynthia said with authority, directly addressing Peter's primary concern. Both boys nodded in agreement. It was a fair ask.\n\n\"Good. Now, why don't we all go take a dip in the hot tub. Let's all go naked so we can feel a little more comfortable, ok?\"\n\nKevin stood up and began to unbutton his jeans.\n\n\"Wait,\" said Peter. \"What about Frank?\"\n\nThe subject of Frank had not been brought up in much detail. Cynthia had a habit of moving on from that topic sooner than later. \"He's away for a week,\" she said, not directly addressing the bigger issue, but instead assuring Peter he wouldn't catch them. For now, that will have to do.\n\n--------------------------\n\nThe group continued their chat in the hot tub, transitioning away from the deeper topics and instead having a light-hearted conversation. Like one would be amongst any group of friends. Peter only saw Kevin naked for a brief moment as he slid into the hot tub. Knowing that Cynthia has an appreciation for larger penises, he wondered if Kevin was equipped like he was. In conversation, Kevin often joked about being small, but Peter assumed that was not true.\n\n\"So, Kev. Does this arrangement mean you've got what I have under there?\" he asked, attempting to make light of the situation.\n\nCynthia beamed with excitement now that the two were getting more comfortable. Her nipples hardened as she sat with them entirely exposed above the surface of the water. It was hard for the boys not to look at them repeatedly.\n\n\"Fuck no man. Yours is fucking huge,\" Kevin laughed. \"Trust me, I've heard the stories.\"\n\n\"From who?\"\n\n\"Who do you think?\" Kevin asked as Cynthia raised her hand as if to say 'Guilty.'\n\n\"Jesus,\" Peter shook his head. \"Nothing stays secret around here.\"\n\nThe group had managed to move on from the deep and telling conversation from earlier and were now having a great time. Casual conversation about their naked bodies was flowing easily. Peter allowed himself to relax and was becoming more and more aroused at the idea of being with Cynthia again. Even with Kevin there too.\n\n\"Show him,\" Cynthia said. \"Kevin has a nice one too. Are you hard, honey?\"\n\nKevin stood up, out of the water, revealing that he did indeed have an erection. He turned to the side and held it by the base. \"Seven inches proud.\"\n\nUnsure how to react, Peter awkwardly looked at his friend's dick and nodded. \"Nice,\" he said, quickly determining that sounded weird. He laughed at himself.\n\n\"Nice, indeed,\" said Cynthia. \"You both have such beautiful penises. What about you, Peter? Are you hard yet?\"\n\nPeter fondled his soft cock under the water. \"I can get there.\"\n\nTo help, Cynthia beckoned Kevin to come over to her. He climbed up out of the water and walked around the tub deck to where she was. His firm cock swayed with each step. Cynthia hoisted herself up further out of the water, so that only her legs were submerged. She sat on the deck and reached up, taking hold of Kevin's aching dick.\n\n\"See if this helps,\" she said, looking at Peter as she inserted Kevin's cock into her mouth. She sucked and stroked him while Peter watched, playing with himself underwater. \"Whoa,\" he said.\n\nCynthia couldn't deep throat Kevin, just like she couldn't Peter, but she made a very valiant effort. Nearly five inches of his hard shaft filled her mouth. She fondled his drooping balls as gurgling sounds escaped from the depths of her throat. Peter noticed Kevin's balls were even bigger than his.\n\n\"Oh fuck, that's good,\" said Kevin. \"That's fucking so good, Cynthia.\"\n\nIt was bizarre to watch her suck Kevin off. In that moment, Kevin was no longer a person he had known almost his whole life. He was no longer a brother to him. Peter was starting to be able to compartmentalize his relationship with Kevin and remove boundaries. His cock started to throb underwater as he watched the blowjob.\n\nCynthia was an expert. With her eyes closed, she slid up and down the big cock. Her boobs bounced back and forth as Kevin helped himself to a handful every once in a while. She had her legs now up and out of the water. Her toes curled with excitement. Peter imagined her pussy to be soaking wet as it was out of his view at that moment.\n\n\"Holy fuck!\" Kevin suddenly said. He had turned his attention towards Peter.\n\nCynthia popped his cock out of her mouth to look and see. They each marveled at the sight. Peter's hardened dick was so big, it was sticking out of the water. All that was visible was the bloated head and some of the thick shaft.\n\n\"My God,\" said Kevin in shock. \"That thing gets huge, huh?\"\n\n\"Stand up sweetie. Show him the whole thing,\" Cynthia instructed.\n\nPeter hoisted himself up so he was sitting on the edge of the hot tub. He proudly jerked his big cock once for all to see. It was so big, it stretched up past his belly button. He then cupped his big hanging balls, letting them drop back down again. It was truly an impressive scene.\n\n\"Ok, fuck. I think I'm gonna rethink our arrangement,\" Kevin said, facetiously. Peter responded by playfully wagging his cock in Kevin's direction.\n\n\"Wait till you see it shoot,\" Cynthia said.\n\n\"Of course, he's a shooter.\" Kevin said, shaking his head in disbelief.\n\n\"I've been known to sling a few ropes, yes,\" Peter said as he continued to stroke his cock.\n\n\"Sling a few ropes. What are you, a cowboy?\" Kevin poked fun at Peter's corny line. He then looked back down as Cynthia continued to suck his cock. She now did it with more ferocity and passion. Kevin responded by holding his hands behind his back and lightly thrusting. \"Oh God, that's it,\" he said.\n\nPeter felt more comfortable now. With Cynthia occupied and Kevin in the zone, he snuck out of the tub and walked over to them. Kevin winked at him as he approached them. Peter began to stroke his cock as he stood next to his pal. Cynthia had her eyes closed but could tell he had arrived. She reached up and stroked Peter's cock while not skipping a beat with Kevin.\n\n\"I could cum like this,\" he declared. \"It feels so good.\"\n\n\"Looks it,\" Peter said. His own cock was starting to feel overly sensitive as Cynthia expertly stroked it.\n\nCynthia then popped Kevin's cock out of her mouth and glared up at the two of them. \"Can someone please fuck me before you cum?\"\n\nTaking charge, Kevin helped Cynthia to her feet before he spun her around. He played with his cock between her ass crack, running it up and down the gap. He even playfully poked her asshole with his cock head to which she responded with a slap. \"Easy, big boy,\" she warned.\n\nCynthia then bent over, reaching for her toes. Kevin immediately slid his cock deep into her pussy. She moaned loudly from the initial penetration. \"Mmmmm God, Kev,\" she said. \"You're so deep in me.\"\n\nKevin braced his legs and began to thrust. He plowed his hard cock deep inside his stepmother, grunting with every movement. He was rougher than Peter, who always took his time. Perhaps it was because of his larger size and fearfulness he would hurt her. Kevin took a different approach. He fucked Cynthia with passion and force.\n\nAs Peter jerked off watching, he wondered if Cynthia preferred this type of sex. All of a sudden, he felt unsure of himself, something he hadn't felt in a long time.\n\n\"Oh God, you're so fucking tight. Mmmm fuck you feel good,\" Kevin said. The sound of his bulbous balls slapping against her ass could be heard by all.\n\n\"Oh! Fuck! Fuck! Right there, Kev! Keep going! You're gonna make me cum!\"\n\nPeter was excited watching. He even felt he would nut soon. At that moment, Kevin went down to his knees as did Cynthia. This created an opportunity for Peter to get involved. He walked over and joined them, lowering to his knees in front of Cynthia. She took his cock into her mouth immediately.\n\nKevin and Peter made eye contact. They smiled at one another. Like two pals telling a joke. Kevin was the first to extend his hand. Peter slapped him high-five.\n\nWith a mouth full of Peter's cock and a pussy getting impaled by Kevin, Cynthia came easily. Her orgasm that night was like many others. Loud and involved. She took a break from sucking Peter's dick as her moans took over. She closed her eyes and screamed at the ground while Kevin planted his cock the deepest it had been all night.\n\nPeter watched intently. He loved seeing Cynthia cum. She was so beautiful at that moment. He clutched his cock, desperate for release himself. Seeing Cynthia in that state, enjoying so much pleasure from her own stepson, Peter's best friend, was the straw that broke the camel's back.\n\n\"Oh shit,\" he announced as he squeezed his cock. He was trying his best to hold off, but it was a losing battle.\n\nKevin surprisingly had the best view. He watched Peter try and stave off an orgasm to no avail. Peter's mouth formed a circle as he unloaded a thick rope of white cum across Cynthia's back. It was easily a two foot, unbroken rope directly across her muscular surface.\n\nIt stretched so far, it reached her ass crack, dangerously close to where Kevin was thrusting. He looked up in horror, afraid the next one was coming for him.\n\nBut Peter turned just in time as he sprayed his next shots into the water of the hot tub. \"Ohhh!\" he moaned loudly, somewhat embarrassed to make that sound in front of his friend. \"Ahh shit!\" he screamed in pleasure.\n\nCynthia's orgasm had subsided and she now looked up to watch Peter cum. \"Good boy, Peter. Let it out. You're such a good boy. I bet that feels so good.\"\n\n\"Holy shit, man,\" Kevin also commented. \"You're getting it past the entire hot tub.\"\n\n\"Yeah this is a whole lot,\" Peter said in a strained voice as he was still going. Cum shot out towards the tub and residual drops bounced off his cock onto Cynthia and the deck. \"Oh fuck,\" he said.\n\nCynthia laughed as the ninth and final cumshot dropped to the ground. Peter, completely spent and out of breath, stepped back, nearly falling over as he held onto his aching cock. \"I told you!\" she said. \"Look at all that!\"\n\n\"It's all up your back,\" Kevin said. He had not stopped fucking Cynthia the entire time Peter orgasmed. In fact, he had decided to wait until Peter was done before he would release his own cumshot. \"Ok, Cynthia,\" he tapped her on the back. \"You ready for another load?\"\n\n\"Give me your cum, honey,\" Cynthia said as she spun around and knelt in front of Kevin. Instinctively, she reached for Peter's cock and pulled him near. Despite having just ejaculated, he was still hard as per usual. She stroked Peter while Kevin braced for orgasm.\n\n\"Argghhh!\" Kevin groaned as he stopped closer. His cock was only a few inches from Cynthia's wide open, waiting mouth. Unlike Peter, he wasn't normally a shooter. So he stood on his tippy toes as he angled his cock head directly over Cynthia's mouth.\n\nHe then deposited thick loads into her mouth as he moaned. At least four healthy shots made it into her mouth with a fifth straggler dangling from his tip. He used his hand to help get it in.\n\nPeter found himself looking at Kevin as he orgasmed, albeit very briefly. It was an expression he never imagined seeing from his friend. A moment normally reserved for very private settings and not meant to be shared with friends.\n\nCynthia then took Kevin's cock into her mouth and sucked it dry, ensuring she got every drop of his seed. She removed it and turned to Peter. Without saying anything she took his cock into her mouth as well. The warm sensation of her saliva mixed with his friend's recently deposited load was incredible. Peter didn't even care that it wasn't his cum. It felt amazing.\n\nShe popped it out and smiled at the two of them while stroking their dicks. She then swallowed the entire load, opening her mouth wide to show them she had done so.\n\n\"We did it,\" she said as she continued to sensually stroke them.\n\n\"We did it,\" Kevin agreed. They turned to Peter.\n\nPeter smiled. \"We did it,\" he echoed.\n\n"}
+{"text": "“Chat Noir,” Marinette says through a yawn. “What are you doing here?” \n\n“I’m sorry, did I wake you?” Chat asks, ears momentarily drooping, despite the excited grin he has on his face. \n\nMarinette rubs her tired eyes before fully climbing through the trapdoor to the balcony, careful to close it behind her with a quiet click. She’s met with the chilly air of a Parisian night, and suddenly her pink pajama set isn’t quite enough to keep her completely warm. \n\nBut, she enjoys the cool breeze against her skin nonetheless. \n\n“I’m not going to lie and say you didn’t,” she tells him with a shrug, “but since I’m up now you might as well tell me why you’re here at midnight.”\n\nHe scratches the back of his head awkwardly, before clearing his throat and perching himself on her railing, just like he did the last time he was here, before the Glaciator had attacked.\n\n“I needed to tell someone,” Chat replies, “and after going through all my options I concluded that you were the best person to tell.” \n\nShe raises a questioning brow at the superhero, starting to feel slightly uneasy about what he has to say. Marinette wonders why he can’t tell Ladybug whatever it is he’s hiding, given that they are in fact, partners. \n\n“And what exactly are you needing to tell me?” Marinette asks, nervously tapping her bare foot against the ground. \n\n“Remember the last time I was here?” Chat questions, and she responds with a swift nod. “Well, it’s related to what we talked about last time.”\n\nHer face scrunches up. “What we talked about last time?” \n\nSuddenly, a lovesick grin appears on his face and Marinette is blinded by it. \n\n“Oh!” Marinette shouts a little too loudly for this hour. “You wanna talk about—about Ladybug?”\n\nChat blushes, but nods at her with the pink blossoming from under his mask. It’s hard to see with a majority of his face covered, but it’s there.\n\nMarinette is unsure how she feels about this. On one hand, she thinks it’s kinda adorable that Chat gets all lovesick talking about her, and on the other she thinks the irony of her being the only confidante to hear about... herself, is weird and maybe a little bit conflicting. But, he looks like he’s about to explode if he doesn’t say something to someone soon, and she figures she’s the best person to make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid around her, or, Ladybug.\n\n”Is that okay?” Chat Noir inquires softly, looking suddenly insecure about his plan. \n\nMarinette hates it when he looks like that. “Yes! Of course it’s okay Chat, I’m all ears.” \n\nThe smile he gives her in return makes the discomfort of the situation worth it for now, she decides.\n\n”I kissed her cheek!” Chat announces happily, looking happier than she’s ever seen him. “And I gave her a rose and she actually blushed! Like, her cheeks were pink and everything and it was just—just amazing being there with her in that moment. I can’t describe how happy I was for that brief moment!”\n\nMarinette laughs. “Wow, that’s awesome for you Chat. I’m glad you’re happy.”\n\nHis happiness starts to turn into disappointment right before her eyes. “Well, I was happy. But... she’s in love with someone else.”\n\nThe designer winces, forgetting that that part of the conversation had happened with Chat Noir too. \n\n“It happened after the Glaciator was defeated, actually. The same day I came to see you, so it’s been a couple days since I’ve processed this information, and it still hurts just as much.”\n\nMarinette feels her stomach twist instead into knots as he speaks. She hates hurting Chat, but she can’t give up on Adrien. \n\n“I’m sorry,” she tells him, reaching forward to place a hand comfortingly on his arm. “I’m sure she cares about you very much, Chat Noir.”\n\nHe smiles wryly. “I know she does, just not in the way I wish she did.”\n\n”We can’t help the way we feel,” Marinette says with a shake of her head. \n\n“You’re right,” he agrees, “but I was thinking that maybe I could get her to finally understand how much I really love her. At least... one more time.”\n\nThe baker’s daughter freezes. “W-What do you mean?”\n\nChat takes in a deep breath, before a determined look settles in his green eyes. “I’m gonna try to lay out all my cards, one last time, before I give up on her.”\n\n”How so?” Marinette’s voice is barely a whisper at this point, and she has a bad feeling about this.\n\nChat Noir moves from the railing to the ground, smiling proudly. ”I’m going to confess, and say everything I’ve always wanted to say to her, and maybe she’ll understand how I am truly and fully in love with her and maybe she’ll choose me.”\n\nNo... she won’t, Marinette thinks to herself, internally screaming at this cat boy that is reckless because of his love for her superhero persona.\n\n”And if she doesn’t?” Marinette asks tentatively. \n\nThe blonde sighs. “If she doesn’t then I’m going to respect her wishes and stop pursuing her.”\n\nMarinette blinks. So, if she just rejects Chat one more time he’ll stop pining for her? Sounds simple enough... except she hates hurting him more than anything. But, as long as she can let him down gently, their friendship can be preserved and romance will no longer affect their partnership. \n\n“Well, good luck with that!” Marinette chirps, offering two thumbs up to her partner.\n\n”Thank you, Marinette,” he responds, “for everything you’ve done for me.” \n\n“I’ve hardly done anything,” she argues, “just listened to you talk.” \n\nChat rolls his eyes. “And that’s more than most people do for me, so seriously, thank you.”\n\n”Oh,” her voice says, a little saddened by the thought of Chat not having people to go to. “You’re always welcome to stop by if you need someone to listen.”\n\nA part of her feels so stupid for saying that, it’s dangerous and could jeopardize her identity or his. They aren’t supposed to know too much about each other and here she is offering him a place to spill all his personal details. But, when he wraps her in a hug and whispers thank you ten times in her ear she can’t find it in herself to really care. \n\nThough it certainly won’t make rejecting him any easier...\n\n”Maybe you can help me!” Chat Noir shouts suddenly, pulling away from the hug. “You’re a girl right?”\n\nMarinette gives him a look. \n\n“I mean,” he backpedals, “I know you are, I just meant you know how girls think so you could help me with my confession.” \n\n“I—what?!” Marinette yells. \n\n“Think about it! If I practice confessing to you, you can tell me what I need to fix so that Ladybug will like it!” \n\n“Chat, I don’t think that’s—“\n\n“Please?” Chat Noir begs. “This is my last ditch attempt and I really want it to be perfect for her.”\n\nMarinette hates the brokenness of his tone, and against her better judgment she actually considers saying yes. Tikki will scold her, Marinette will scold herself later. \n\nBut...\n\n”Okay,” she finds herself saying. Despite how incredibly dumb this is, she can’t deny her partner this. Not when she’s hurt him so many times in the past. It can’t be too hard, she hears him flirt with her all the time anyway. It’ll just be like that, and then once he confesses it’ll all be over and they can go back to their normal friendship.\n\nRight?\n\n”Oh thank you so much Marinette!” Chat says with glee, picking her up and spinning her around before she can even react. “You’re the best! You’re an angel! A princess!” \n\n“Woah, okay I mean I wouldn’t go that far—ah!” Marinette cuts herself off when Chat’s spinning comes to a sudden halt. \n\n“I’ll let you get some sleep now,” he says as he puts her back down. “Thanks again.”\n\nAnd before she can say goodnight, he launches himself away, practically skipping across rooftops and it’s nice to know she made him that happy. \n\nThe underlying feeling of knowing she’ll also be the one to take that happiness away hurts more than she wants it to.\n\nMarinette will worry about that later.\n\nWhen she has to."}
+{"text": "Lúcio’s knee was bouncing up and down as he and Pharah sat across from each other in the Orca.\n\n“Nervous?” said Pharah, folding her arms.\n\nLúcio took off one ear of his headphones. “What?” his knee stopped bobbing. \n\nPharah smirked. “Never mind,” she said.\n\n Lúcio glanced out the window of the Orca and shuddered a little at the gleaming white city below.\n\n“You are nervous,” said Pharah, leaning forward.\n\n“Eh, this place just always creeped me out when I had concerts here,” said Lúcio, “I mean any place called ‘Utopaea’ has got to have some messed-up stuff under the surface.” He glanced back out the window, “I mean even from here it’s like…It’s too clean. It’s too bright.” \n\n“Well most of it is hard-light constructs,” said Pharah.\n\n“So who are we supposed to be picking up again?” D.Va piped up, glancing up from the game she was playing using her MEKA’s projection screen.\n\n“Satya Vaswani,” said Pharah, picking up a tablet and scrolling through it, “And we aren’t really picking her up, just making sure she has some security on her flight to Oasis.”\n\n“Wait–Vaswani?” said Lúcio leaning forward.\n\nPharah turned the tablet around to show Lúcio the photo of her.\n\n“Symmetra,” said Lúcio, his brow furrowing.\n\n“Sym–what?” said Pharah.\n\n“That’s like, her supervillain name,” said Lúcio glancing up from the tablet.\n\n“Her what?” Pharah sat back in her seat, “Lúcio–She’s an architech.”\n\n“Obviously you’ve never met her,” said Lúcio. He looked thoughtful, “I should probably just hang back and make sure the perimeter’s safe. She uhhh…probably won’t accept our help if she sees me.”\n\n“Wait-wait-You’ve met her before?”\n\n“Well… to use the term ‘met’ loosely…” said Lúcio, rubbing the back of his neck.\n\n“She tried to stop him when he was taking back some tech that Vishkar stole,” said D.Va.\n\nPharah’s eyes widened. “You didn’t think to mention this at the briefing?”\n\n“I wasn’t at the briefing,” said Lúcio, shrugging, “I’m only here because you needed someone to–”\n\n“To fill in for Doctor Ziegler, yes,” said Pharah. She glanced down.\n\n“Reaper really did a number on her, huh?” said Lúcio.\n\n“She’ll recover. And it’s important for you to get out in the field,” said Pharah.\n\nLúcio huffed a little, “It’s okay, y’know?” he said, “I know you’re more used to her as your medic. Look, if we had time for her to give me a whole tutorial on how to use that Valkyrie suit of hers, I’d probably be wearing it right now and looking amazing.” \n\nPharah snorted. “According to your last mission report, you can handle yourself just fine in those hard-light skates.”\n\n“Well I don’t like to brag,” said Lúcio, interlacing his fingers behind his head and leaning back.\n\n“Yes you do,” said D.Va.\n\n“Okay yeah, little bit,” said Lúcio, smirking.\n\n“Preparing to land in Utopaea,” Athena announced.\n\n“Look sharp,” said Pharah, putting her helmet on\n\n–\n\nIt was a bit of a wonder how anyone knew their way around Utopaea. Rather than simple stoplights, entire sections of the streets would dematerialize with perpendicular roads materializing in their place. It hadn’t been as bad from the Orca but down on the street levels it was almost blindingly white. There were also walkways stretching overhead that would shift, change direction, sometimes dematerialize altogether. It didn’t take long for the team to realize that these shifts in walkways and vehicular byways were automatic, though there was an architech here and there gesturing at a building or street utility to shift its location or design. In a sense it was a city constantly tweaking and perfecting itself, and the people who lived there just rolled with these updates accordingly.\n\n“I dunno how anyone can know what’s going on with Vishkar changing everything around here all the time,” muttered Lúcio.\n\n“I dunno,” said D.Va shrugging, “I kind of wish we could build stuff this fast in Busan.”\n\n“Well yeah, Vishkar wants you to want that. It’s how they get in,” said Lúcio, pocketing his hands, “Good luck trying to get them out though, and saying no to them? You don’t want to see Vishkar when someone’s said ‘No’ to it.”\n\n“Try and stay focused on the mission,” said Pharah, walking ahead of them. \n\nThey reached a large apartment building with several walkways materializing and dematerializing against it at different levels. \n\n“You two,” Pharah glanced over her shoulder at D.Va and Lúcio, “Maintain the perimeter. I’ll go check on the architech.”\n\nGlancing at the mission specs on her comm, Pharah stepped into an elevator which shot up numerous floors and exited out at the top level. She stepped out of the elevator and walked down a gleaming white hall to a door. She knocked on it, “Miss Vaswani?”\n\nSeveral small spherical objects affixed to above and alongside of the door suddenly sprang to life and fixed on her, glowing bright blue and humming a bit menacingly.\n\n“Identify yourself,” a voice came from the other side of the door.\n\nPharah nearly grabbed for her sidearm but calmed herself and turned her attention to the door. “My name is Fareeha Amari. You were told Overwatch would come to protect you.”\n\n“And how do I know you’re with Overwatch?” the voice was clipped, yet still somehow melodic, aristocratic almost.\n\nThe passphrase, Pharah realized, I had a passphrase. She grabbed at her comm and quickly looked through it for the passphrase until she found it. “Laiṭlu āph ceyyaḍāniki,” she said, reading off of her comm.\n\nThere was a pause and spheres affixed around the door stopped humming and their glow faded. “Your accent is terrible,” the voice came from the other side of the door and the door opened.\n\nPictures in newspapers and dossiers had not done her justice. Maybe it was just the way everything was far too bright in Utopaea, but Satya Vaswani in the flesh was breathtaking, if not a bit intimidating. She held some kind of three-pronged object at the ready like it was a gun. “I’m not leaving the door open,” said Symmetra, “Come in quickly.”\n\nPharah stepped over the threshhold and into the almost unsettlingly neat and clean apartment. She looked around for possible bugs or listening devices, but only found spherical objects identical to the ones that had been posted outside, hanging at various angles and on different walls and in corners. She looked over at Symmetra, who was looking at her intently. “Hi,” Pharah blurted out, then caught herself and saluted, “Greetings,” she said, straightening up and saluting. “I’m Faree—”\n\n“You have already given me your name,” said Symmetra, folding her arms. \n\n“Right–” said Pharah, “Right…”\n\n“I will tell you what I told your ‘Nīḍa,’” Symmetra spoke the name as if Pharah would know who she was talking about, “I have no interest in associating with an organization that is renegade at best, criminal at worst. I am perfectly capable of defending myself. You can report back to your superiors and tell them I have no need for their big, barbaric…” she gestured up and down at Pharah, apparently searching for a word for her that wasn’t insulting, “…enforcers.”\n\n“Barbaric?” Pharah put her hands on her hips “Look, I don’t know who this  ‘Nīḍa’ is, but according to our intel, Talon put a hit out on you, and word is, Vishkar’s no longer protecting you. Overwatch is sworn to stop Talon on every front.”\n\n“Oh well they did an excellent job of it 5 years ago,” said Symmetra, rolling her eyes before furrowing her brows at Pharah, “Nīḍa said they were your friend,” she glanced off, “Or Overwatch’s friend at least.”\n\nPharah paused, “Is… Nīḍa the reason you’re leaving Vishkar?”\n\n“I make my own decisions,” said Symmetra, frowning, “But I will say thanks to certain… revelations by Nīḍa, I have made the decision to leave Vishkar.”\n\n“Okay,” said Pharah, “Well–Look, if Vishkar isn’t protecting you, just let us—”\n\n“Pharah?” D.Va’s voice came over the comm, “We’ve got company.”\n\n“Evacuate the civilians,” said Pharah, “We’ll be right down.”\n\n“’We?’” repeated Symmetra.\n\n“Yes, ‘We,’” said Pharah, “I’m getting you out of here.”\n\n“I have countless sentry turrets up in this building for just this occasion,” said Symmetra as a red dot appeared on her shoulder and started trailing up her neck, “I do not require your—”\n\nPharah suddenly tackled her to the ground as sniper fire hit the wall right behind where her head had been. Rather than shatter, the window of the apartment, which was made of hard light, dematerialized. \n\n“What was—” Symmetra started.\n\n“Sniper,” said Pharah, “We need to get you out of here. Please come with me.”\n\nSymmetra pursed her lips and furrowed her brow. “Very well,” she said in a slight huff. \n\n“Come on!” said Pharah, grabbing her wrist, “And keep your head down!” \n\nSymmetra was still gripping her photon projector as Pharah ran low across the floor of the apartment, gripping her wrist.\n\n“Wait–” said Symmetra as they reached the dematerialized window and Pharah took her around the waist, “What are you—”\n\nPharah leapt. Symmetra screamed. They free-fell for 16 stories, sniper fire whizzing past their heads, before Pharah activated her jump-rockets and stabilizers and recovered in mid-air, still holding Symmetra.\n\n“Are you all right?” said Pharah, descending.\n\n“You expect me to answer ‘yes’ after that!?” said Symmetra.\n\n“Are you shot?!” Pharah snapped at her.\n\n“No, I’m not shot!” Symmetra snapped back. Another round of sniper fire barely missed Symmetra’s head.\n\n“Cover your ears,” said Pharah, taking out her rocket launcher.\n\n“Don’t drop me,” said Symmetra, taking her arms off from around Pharah’s waist to cover her ears.\n\n“I won’t,” Pharah fired her rocket launcher in the direction of the sniper fire.\n\n–\n\n“Merde,” said Widowmaker as she saw the rocket hurtling toward her. She grappled away just in time to see her perch blown to bits behind her. When she was able to reposition herself, she brought the scope up to her eye only to see both the target and her apparent rescuer dodge out of sight into the interior of the building. She put a hand to her ear. “Reaper,” she spoke, “I’ve lost visual contact on the target. It’s up to you.”\n\n“I have to do everything around here,” Reaper muttered over the comm.\n\nWidowmaker scoffed. “So dramatic,” she said, turning the comm off. \n\n–\n\nSymmetra was shaking a bit as they ran into the garage of the apartment building, but was still managing to set up several small sentry turrets on different support pillars.\n\n“We’re on our way to your location!” Lúcio spoke over the comm, “Oh–Visual contact–”\n\n“Great, we could really use D.Va’s…” Pharah glanced up away from Symmetra and turned on her heel to see Lúcio skating up toward them with a barely-conscious and worse-for-wear-looking D.Va riding piggyback on him, “…MEKA…” Pharah stepped toward them and looked at the scratches, bruises, and scorch marks on D.Va, “Talon–?”\n\n“Taken care of,” said Lúcio, he forced a smile and looked at D.Va, “Thanks to D.Va here!”\n\n“So what…?” Pharah looked at D.Va.\n\n“Got clipped by my own self-destruct sequence,” said D.Va, pressing her face into Lúcio’s shoulder, “Scrub move.”\n\n“You did great,” said Lúcio, smiling at her.\n\n“Dos Santos?” Symmetra spoke up and Lúcio glanced up from D.Va.\n\n“It is you,” said Symmetra, her brow furrowing.\n\nLúcio was silent for an awkward gap of time before giving her a small wave, “Uh…hi.”\n\nSymmetra turned and looked at Pharah, “Overwatch is associated with this–this–ruffian?”\n\n“Yeah, also he’s right here,” said Lúcio.\n\nSymmetra’s mouth drew to a thin angry line and she started pacing back and forth. “So assassins are after me, my only means of rescue is association with–” she gestured angrily at Pharah, Lúcio, and D.Va, “With you!” \n\n“We can leave if you want,” said Lúcio, furrowing his brow, “You’re welcome to deal with these guys on your own.”\n\n“We’re not doing that!” snapped Pharah. She glanced over at Symmetra, “Do you know another way out of this garage?”\n\nSymmetra thought. “Do you have transport nearby? I could open a teleporter on it.”\n\n“The Orca,” said Pharah. She tossed Symmetra her comm. “Its coordinates are on here.”\n\nSymmetra looked at the coordinates and nodded, then brought up a projection out of her prosthetic hand and dialed some of the new coordinates into it. There was the sound of gunfire and suddenly a hologram of one of Symmetra’s sentry turrets appeared out of her prosthetic. “Intruder detected,” said Symmetra.\n\n“Just get the teleporter set up!” said Pharah. Symmetra nodded and drew up a projection of the teleporter. Her prosthetic flashed a red light again. “Sentry turret destroyed,” she said.\n\n“Just–” said Pharah. But with a flourish of her hand, Symmetra set the teleporter up.\n\n“You–” Pharah pointed to Lucio, “Get D.Va out of here.”\n\n“But—-” Lúcio started.\n\n“That’s an order,” said Pharah, “I’ll be right behind you.”\n\nLúcio nodded and headed through the teleporter with D.Va on his back.\n\n“Miss Vaswani—” Pharah glanced up to see Symmetra setting up a few more sentry turrets, “You need to go,” said Pharah.\n\n“I know,” said Symmetra, setting up the last few sentry turrets, “I’ll see you on the other side,” she said, before disappearing into the teleporter.\n\nJust as Symmetra disappeared into it, Pharah moved to go through it as well but there was the sound of gunfire and the Teleporter collapsed and dematerialized. Pharah turned on her heel. “I could use another teleporter,” she said into her comm.\n\n“My prosthetic needs time to generate enough hard-light to make a sustainable path,” Symmetra replied, “I’ll have one up as soon as I can.”\n\n“Nice armor,” said Reaper.\n\nPharah’s brow furrowed and she aimed her rocket launcher at him. Reaper glanced up at the low ceiling, “So… the wings won’t do you much good here. Plus I don’t think that thing will serve you too well in close quart—”\n\nPharah blasted forward with her raptora wings and delivered a swift kick to Reaper in the gut. Reaper slammed into one of the cars in the garage and grunted. \n\n“That was from Genji,” said Pharah, “For Volskaya.”\n\nReaper lifted his gun at Pharah and Pharah seized it by the barrel and punched him in the face as she wrenched it from his hand. and smacked him across the face with it and threw it off to the side.\n\n“Let me guess,” Reaper rasped, “That was from Doctor Ziegler?”\n\n“No. Me,” said Pharah. She moved to punch him again but it was then that Reaper managed to block her strike with one arm and get a shot from his other gun in with the other. The blast clipped her, catching most of her helmet and shoulder and knocking her back. She grunted on the ground and then gripped the edge of her helmet. It broke away easily and she rolled over to her knees and coughed, feeling blood running down the side of her face. She found herself staring down the barrel of his gun. She looked up at him and he hesitated.\n\n“Ana?” the name fell out of him and then he quickly caught himself, “No–” he aimed the gun at her again, but she swiped his legs out from under him and caught him with a rocket-boosted uppercut, thrusting him upward where she moved to kick him in the torso again but he turned to smoke and her leg phased through him. She caught another shotgun blast, in the chest this time.\n\n“Raptora structural integrity compromised,” the voice of the armor automatically sounded off in her earpiece, “Retreat and repair.”\n\nPharah grunted and moved to get up but Reaper put a boot on her chest and shoved her down to the ground. “Ana had no business dragging you into this,” said Reaper.\n\nPharah coughed. “My mother didn’t drag me into anything,” she replied, “Someone has to stop Talon. Someone has to stop you, Gabe.”\n\nThe name seemed to shake him, coming from her, but it didn’t stop him from pointing his gun at her. “Part of me almost wishes I taught you better,” he said. He pulled the trigger but his gun clicked empty. He snarled and tossed the gun aside.\n\n“There was one thing you taught me,” said Pharah. She raised her arm. “Clearing the area,” she said, her brow furrowed. She fired a concussive rocket from her wrist. Reaper turned to smoke and it phased through him easily. He returned to physical form and pulled out another gun to aim at her when the concussive rocket hit the car behind him and detonated. Pharah covered her face as Reaper was sent flying over her into the wall behind them, where he was caught in the beams of several of Symmetra’s sentry turrets. A sound that wasn’t really human escaped him and he dissolved into a wisp of shadow and disappeared. Pharah flopped flat on the ground, panting as her Raptora armor continued beeping in alarm and going on about compromised structural integrity. She then heard the whirring, chiming sound of hard-light forming and glanced off to the side to see a teleporter opened up. \n\n“Thank you, Satya,” she said softly. \n\nShe let out a huff of a laugh, a bit painfully, and struggled to her feet. Gripping her shoulder, she walked into the teleporter. "}
+{"text": "Exciting wasn't the word Jason Lee would use to describe his career. Being the youngest partner in the firm at thirty two, which was quite an accomplishment in property law. As a partner one would think that Jason would be well respected, but he knew he was often the butt of jokes. Small time was the snide nick name they had given him. He took it in stride, thought. His work was always solid, on time, and he held some very big accounts.\n\nIt was because of those accounts that they had assigned Sara McVety to him. She was smart and hard nosed, but those weren't the qualities that made her dangerous to him. It was her charming and warm presentation. He had to give her credit she was good at reading people, clients would often ignore him when she was there, clients that were very important to his status as partner. Last quarter they had showed told him that he was steadily bringing in less money for the last two quarters. He wasn't worried. However, the pressure was there.\n\nIt was this thought that had wedged a knot in his gut. A feeling that was eating at him as he sat in the conference room watching Sara present another compelling presentation to a new client.\n\n\"Well, I'm sold!\" the client said, as his eyes were locked on Sara's ample cleavage.\n\n\"Thank you Mr. Baxter,\" Sara said, as she leaned forward sliding the contracts toward the client. When she turned the client stare was fixated at the beautiful view she was displaying. He gave a leery smile as he sauntered out of the room.\n\nSara flopped down in the chair next to Jason and let out a sigh, \"What a total perv!\"\n\n\"Well, you were playing up to him,\" Jason said.\n\n\"That's not true.\"\n\n\"Didn't you have that blouse buttoned all the way up this morning?\"\n\nShe blushed and quickly started to button up again. \"That doesn't mean he isn't a perv.\"\n\n\"Does that make me a perv?\"\n\nShe playfully punched him in the shoulder. \"It shows that you have a pulse Mr. Lee.\"\n\nHe smiled at the fact that she still called him Mr. Lee. She was one of the few people in the firm that respected him. She had came to his defense when the partners had warned him about his earnings and she never tried to steal any of his big clients. She worked hard to get new clients, he had often seen her work late at nights and knew her work was as solid as his.\n\n\"Why do you -- \" he said, but stopped knowing that the question might make her feel uncomfortable.\n\n\"No, go ahead,\" she said. \"Why do I sell myself like this? How else am I going to land those big accounts? I'm thirty five, Mr. Lee and I only bring in a fraction in earnings that you do. I was working my ass off for years in this firm hoping that they would make me partner. When I heard that they were going to expand the property division I thought I was finally going to get the offer. Instead we merge with a small no name firm and I take a back seat to you.\"\n\nHe winced and shifted in his seat. Old wounds were bleeding again. \"I'm sorry Sara, I didn't mean to --\"\n\n\"Stop it already.\" She stood up and looked down at him. \"That's the worse part of all of this. You actually deserve to be partner. You put in the time most partners let their associates do. You know more about property law than anybody in the firm. I can't stand it when people say that your only partner because of circumstances and I really hate it when they call you small time. You are the top earner in this firm. If anything you did this firm a favor by staying on as a partner. Your clients stick with you because they know you are just that damn good.\"\n\nShe paused, cheeks flushed, she took a breath to compose herself. \"I should be the one asking you -- how do you do it?\"\n\nHe see her seething, he never knew she was this frustrated. He sat back and thought about his next move. She could be a very important ally in this firm but she could also be his down fall. He looked at her, she was being honest.\n\n\"Are they pressuring you as well?\" he asked.\n\n\"They told me that I would have to earn at least seventy percent as much as you in order to make partner. It would take me years before I could even earn half as much as you. I'm already doing everything can. I've sacrificed my social life, I've missed birthdays, weddings, my sister already as three kids. And yet you've already attained everything I'm striving for.\"\n\nHe stood up and motioned her to follow him. As they walked back to his office he uneasy, but he knew he needed to make a move otherwise the other partners would find some other way to force him out. Once closed the doors to his office he knew it was a risk he was going to have to take.\n\n\"Why are we here?\" she asked.\n\n\"I have a proposal for you. How far would you go to get a big client?\"\n\nShe pulled back, face twisted with scorn.\n\n\"Wait let me explain.\" He walked behind his desk and sat down, trying to keep his distance from her. \"You already know that all these clients talk to each other and if you get one of them your reputation with that client will drawn in more big clients. Now my proposal is a simple one. I'll introduce you to my first big client and you help me establish a steady stream of new clients.\"\n\nShe had a stern look on her face. He had already knew that she had filed a sexual harassment suit against an associate that had gotten that associate fired. Even thought she played up her sexuality for clients, she did not play nice with frat boy antics. \"What do you mean how far would I go?\"\n\n\"It means that when you meet this client you will do whatever it takes to make this client trust you.\"\n\nHer stone exterior did not break. \"Who is this client?\"\n\n\"I can't tell you that. I can assure you that she is very picky with the type of people she trusts and that she will test you. So I ask you are you willing to do anything to please this client.\"\n\nHe watched her think out his proposal. He had purposely let it slip that the big client was a female, hoping that this fact would ease some of her very valid concerns.\n\nAfter what felt like an eternity she stood up, face still stern but with the posture of confidence. \"Fine, it's a deal you introduce me to this client and I help you gain new clients, on one condition. Nobody ever learns about this meeting or deal.\"\n\n\"She wouldn't want it any other way.\" He stood up and held out his hand, she shook it with a strong grip. \"Meet me here tomorrow, wear something conservative -- no perfume, no blouses that show any cleavage and no skirts that highlight your amazing ass. Think nun in a business suit.\"\n\nShe nodded, walked toward the door, before left she looked back at him. \"Mr. Lee?\"\n\n\"Yes?\"\n\n\"So you think I have an amazing ass, huh?\" She gave him a wink and waltzed out.\n\n***\n\nThe next day Jason sat in his office watching the clock. His office door opened and Sara walked in smiling. She had on a tan pantsuit that seemed one size too big.\n\n\"Is this austere enough for you?\"\n\nHe walked up and inspected her. \"Lose the make up.\"\n\n\"What, you did not say anything about no make up.\"\n\n\"Just go take it off and meet me at my car. We can't be late.\"\n\nHe took off for his car not waiting to hear her response. He knew he had to trust her but her last words last night made him feel uneasy. It was a the type of comment she usually reserved for her clients. Was he being played?\n\nThe car door open and Sara slid in with her game face on. Her blonde her was up in a bun and despite having no make up on Jason still thought she looked beautiful.\n\nShe held up her hand. \"Not a word. Drive. Now.\"\n\nAs they hit the road he could see her looking out watching familiar business watering holes known for high powered meetings pass by. It wasn't until they were on the highway did she start to give him a look of concern.\n\nAfter a couple of miles she turned to him. \"Country club?\"\n\n\"Don't worry about it. She is very private.\"\n\nAfter a couple of minutes they pulled off the highway and took a country road that seem to go into the middle of corn fields. An iron gate pulled into view and Jason rolled down the window and pushed the intercom.\n\n\"Ms. Johnson? It's Jason Lee with my associate Sara McVety.\"\n\n\"Bring visitors are we?\" a voice on the other end said.\n\nThe gate open and they drove in. A well manicured lawn and garden greeted them, but they were only a prelude to the mansion that was at the end. They parked in front of a garage and made their way to the front door.\n\nBefore he rang the door bell, he looked at Sara. \"Remember she will test you. If you don't want to do something just say no.\"\n\n\"But I'll miss my chance if I say no right?\"\n\n\"Pretty much.\" He rang the doorbell and a butler answered the door. Wordlessly he guided them to room were a lady sat in a chair. She was dressed in a conservative blue dress with her hair in a bun similar to how Sara had her's.\n\n\"Hello Jason, it's good to see you again. Have a seat.\" She motioned at the butler and he left the room. \"Sara is it? Has Jason ever told you how he became my lawyer?\"\n\n\"No Ms. Johnson.\"\n\n\"He became my lawyer because he earned my trust. Now my daughter is also in need for a good lawyer and I was inclined to refer her to Jason again, but he told me that there was another young lawyer that would benefit from my goodwill. Now, Jason knows how much I place on trust and he clearly thinks he can trust you. I ask you can I trust you?\"\n\n\"Yes, Ms. Johnson. I assure you that I will be able to -- \"\n\n\"That's not what I asked!\" Ms. Johnson turned toward him. He knew what was coming next, he had thought that it would be Sara put through the paces, but he now knew that this would be an exercise on how much he really trusted Sara. And to be honest he wasn't completely sure he could, yet.\n\n\"Jason, you seem to be over dressed for our meeting,\" Ms. Johnson said. Without a moment of hesitance, he stood up and began to take off his clothes. He kicked off his shoes and socks and took off his suit.\n\n\"Stop,\" Ms. Johnson said as Jason was about to take off his boxers. \"Face her.\"\n\nHe turned and looked at Sara. She had the same stern poker face, but her eyes betrayed her. They were examining him up and down. His hairless chest and tone chest accentuated the v shape taper of his back. His solid midsection built from his dedication in the gym. He could feel his dick slowly becoming hard.\n\n\"Sara, is it? Take off his underwear.\"\n\nSara reached up and pulled down his boxers. His cock sprung, sticking straight out. He was a good seven inches in length and good six inches in girth. He heard a small gasp escape Sara's lips.\n\n\"Oh, you have never seen him naked before?\"\n\n\"No, Ms. Johnson,\" she said.\n\n\"I thought the reason why he trusted you was because you had shared his bed. This changes everything.\" Ms. Johnson got up and walked to a nearby cabinet and took out a small cigar box. \"It makes me wonder why he thinks he can trust you. I now know it can't be an strong emotion such as love or lust -- the difference is debatable -- it must because you have a mutual goal or even something more rare than love...loyalty.\"\n\nShe placed the box beside Sara. \"Open it.\"\n\nSara slowly opened the box. Inside was a ten inch crystal dildo and a bottle of lube. His heart sank, it wasn't uncommon for Ms. Johnson to use the dildo on him, but he was hoping she would not make Sara use it on him. Without being told he got on all fours.\n\n\"Wait you want me to stick this in him?\" Sara said, her voice had cracked, her facade had fallen and a look of total surprise was on her face.\n\nHe held his breath this was the point of no return, either she would go all in or she wouldn't.\n\nMs. Johnson raised her eyebrow and nodded.\n\nSara picked up the lube and coated the dildo.\n\n\"Don't forget to loosen him up with your fingers, my girl.\"\n\nSara looked at Jason with wavering eyes. She lubed up her fingers and began to play with his anus, rubbing his opening gently at first coaxing him to accept one finger, and than two, and than eventually three. Their breathing had become shallower, faster and hotter.\n\nHe couldn't believe that she was actually doing this. He felt that Ms. Johnson would somehow try to push her limits of decency, how easy those limits were broken were quite evident. He looked back and saw her biting her upper lip in concentration. With her free hand she began to trace light circles around his anus, slowly trailing down toward his balls, sending a shiver up his spine. He moaned.\n\n\"You have a gentle touch,\" Ms. Johnson said. \"Let's see how you handle the rod.\"\n\nSara pick up the dildo, she glanced at him, but her eyes quickly went back to his ass. He felt the hard pressure against his opening, he exhaled and tried to relax. Slowly she began to stretch his opening, he felt the head push through sending another shiver up his spine. And than she did something he did not expect, she angled the dildo until it was pressed up against his prostate sending waves of pleasure through him. He looked back again and saw Ms. Johnson helping her guide the dildo. A small smile was on the edges of her mouth and her cheeks were a rosy tinge of arousal.\n\n\"That's it my girl,\" Ms. Johnson said. \"You've found his pleasure spot, keep at it. Watch his breathing, notice how it quickens as you massage the area. You don't have dig deep to find pleasure. Oh no, you've neglected his member. Yes, that's right, a little bit of cock play can go a long way. You can almost see him quiver with your touch. So my girl, what do you think of your boss' cock?\"\n\n\"Excuse me?\" Sara stammered.\n\n\"Well, I'm sure this is the first time you have ever handled his member. It may not be a monster, I have seen many monsters in my day, I find that it is his girth that makes me love his cock, wide enough to stuff any wanting pussy. Is it not?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" Sara said softly.\n\n\"Oh my, I embarrassed you,\" Ms. Johnson said. \"A deep seeded lust, perhaps? How is he as a superior? He must treat you well, seeing as your touch is every so light. Any resentment at all?\"\n\nJason felt the pleasing massage pause, he swallowed hard, not wanting to turn and face Sara. Surely there must be some resentment. Would she take it out on him now?\n\n\"Yes, I see it now,\" Ms. Johnson said. \"Past over were we, by this cock? Maybe a little retribution is in order huh? Time to stick to the boss.\"\n\nA surge of pressure shot through Jason as he could feel the dildo plunged to the hilt. Unprepared bowels let loose a mortifying groan and his ass squeaked out a little bit of gas.\n\nMs. Johnson smack his cheeks. \"Bad boy! You know better than that.\"\n\nAnother involuntary moan slipped from his mouth. He dare not look back. The pilfering of his ass soon took a long and methodical rhythm and moans were replaced by grunts. After a couple of minutes he realized that Sara was grunting along with him as she plunged into him with controlled enthusiasm. He felt his cock begin to sway heavily and soon he was erect again.\n\nHe felt the familiar snap of his cheeks being smacked again. A lighter touch than before. It must be Sara. Each smack became stiffer, harder, stronger. He risked a glance back and saw a wicked smile on her face. He yelped as one smack had finally sent a painful shock through his body.\n\n\"That was for taking my job,\" she said. The dildo pressed against his prostate and he felt his throbbing cock caressed. A wave of pleasure. \"That's for being worthy enough to deserve it.\"\n\nHe could barely stand the ecstasy he was in, his cock was begging to be held, to find release.\n\n\"Stop my dear, don't want him to cum so easily,\" Ms. Johnson said. The dildo slipped out of him, his head dipped in disappointment. Close but so very far. \"Get up.\"\n\nHe staggered to his feet his, ass burning red and cock pulsating for attention. Sara was flush and she shined lightly from a touch of perspiration. The wicked smile did not fade as he looked into her eyes.\n\n\"You look too excited, Jason,\" Ms. Johnson said. \"Some jumping jacks should help calm you down.\"\n\nHe started the requested callisthenics. As he jumped up and down his cock began to flop around obscenely. Sara's eyes were fixated on his face, he found it difficult to to reciprocate the smile back. She was taking pleasure in his sexual frustration.\n\n\"That's enough,\" Ms. Johnson said. \"You two have a seat. I'll be right back.\"\n\nThe each found their seat again on the couch and waited for her to return. He stared straight forward, unwilling to engage in conversation. He knew that her test wasn't over. She was the one to break the silence.\n\n\"I guess I've been a real pain in the ass this morning, huh?\"\n\nHe laughed. He looked over to his associate. \"It's okay, I've been a dick.\"\n\n\"A very big dick.\"\n\nThey both laughed. The whole morning seemed to slip into perspective.\n\n\"What do you think she has in store for us next?\" she asked.\n\n\"You never know with Ms. Johnson. The first time I had met her, I spent an hour performing cunnilingus on her.\"\n\n\"That doesn't sound too extreme.\"\n\n\"It was during a conference presentation. My whole staff was there.\"\n\n\"Well that's one way to seal the deal.\"\n\n\"They didn't know I was there.\"\n\n\"Why she ask you to do it?\"\n\n\"She didn't ask,\" he said. \" I walked into the conference room determined that I would get the account. When I greeted her I just knew she was the type of woman that wanted control and I told her that with me should would have total control of her assets. I got on my knees went under the table and went to work.\"\n\n\"Oh my god and you give me a hard time for selling myself.'\n\n\"I know,\" he chuckled. \" I'm a whore\"\n\n\"Glad to see that you are both in good spirits.\"\n\nThey looked up and saw Ms. Johnson. \"Follow me.\"\n\nShe lead them to the front door, her butler opened it letting a breeze brush against Jason's nakedness. A black car was running outside and they got into it. They drove away from the tucked away mansion and back onto the highway. Sara was once again stern. To Jason's relief he notice that they weren't going toward the city. He remembered the one time Ms. Johnson had forced him to jack off in the middle of a women business luncheon in a busy restaurant downtown. He was so nervous that it took him a eternity to cum. He was so embarrassed that once the deed was done he ran out the back in shame.\n\nThey pulled into a private golf course. Once out of the car the butler lead them to two golf cart and left them. Ms. Johnson got into one cart and they got into the other. Jason could see some women in the lobby pointing at him. Ms. Johnson waved at them and they politely waved back with leery grins.\n\nSara drove the golf cart as they followed Ms. Johnson through the course. He noticed that only women were on the golf course. Each time they passed a golfer he received the same grin. They pulled up to the eleventh tee box and were greeted by two golfers.\n\n\"Mother, well this is a pleasant surprise,\" a brunette golfer said. \"Jason! What has mother got you doing now? Up to no good I see. Are you here to land another big account?\"\n\n\"You might say that Matilda,\" Jason said. He had met Matilda under many circumstances and this was his normal attire on each occasion. \"I like to introduce you to my associate Sara McVety.\"\n\n\"A pleasure to meet you,\" Sara said.\n\n\"Well, I'll let you feel each other out,\" Ms. Johnson said. The other female golfer got into the golf cart with Ms. Johnson and they drove off, leaving the trio behind.\n\n\"Do you golf?\" Matilda asked.\n\n\"Of course and necessary skill in our line of work.\"\n\n\"Great, look in the cart, I'm sure mom packed a pair of golf shoes for you.\"\n\nOnce Sara had her shoes on they teed off. As Matilda swung Jason caught a glimpse of her bare pussy. Game on.\n\n\"You have a very nice swing,\" Matilda said as they walked up to the green.\n\n\"Thank you, so do you.\"\n\n\"I've been working at it. I'm still a little be tight in my follow through, which follows me when I putt, but I've found if I could relax my rear end more during putting, it real improves my stroke.\" She wiggled her ass at Jason and he knew what he had to do. He walked up behind her and got to his knees. He lifted her skirt and began to lick her crack. A half a round's worth of salty crack sweat with a hint of cherry body spray rolled onto his tongue.\n\n\"Thank you, Jason,\" she said. \"Sara, it's too bad you're in slacks otherwise I would offer you some. He really is quite good. Why do you take off your jacket, it's warm out here.\"\n\nSara took off her jacket and handed it to him. They both sank their putts. On the next hole, he was once again behind Matilda this time he spread her cheeks wider and gave her a good rimming.\n\n\"Easy there tiger, don't want to make me too loose,\" she said. She gave his cock a small squeeze. \"Let's make this interesting. If I win a hole, you have to place a golf ball into Jason's ass.\"\n\n\"And what if I win?\" Sara asked.\n\n\"Call it.\"\n\nSara leaned back and gave Jason a wicked smile. \"If I win Jason has to cum into the hole.\"\n\n\"I like how you think girl,\" Matilda said. \"You better have eaten your spinach today, Jason. If you can't perform there will be a penalty.\"\n\nAs they teed off, Jason was unsure of which golfer to root for. He was unsure if he would be able to take six golf balls in his ass and he was definitely sure he wouldn't be able to cum six times. When the approached the green he saw that Sara was away. She lined up her putt and drained it from twelve feet. She gave a small fist pump, which digressed to a jerking off gesture and blew Jason a kiss. Matilda putted and fell an inch short.\n\n\"Come on tiger show me a hole in one,\" Matilda said.\n\nHe massaged his tool as he walked up to the hole. He squatted at the hole and began to stroke in earnest. The warm sun bathed his back as he worked himself off.\n\n\"Just tap it in, tap it in,\" Sara said.\n\n\"It's all in the hips,\" Matilda chimed in. They giggled together as they watched him unleash one into the hole. Matilda let out a hoot and grabbed a towel from her bag.\n\n\"A good golfer leaves the course as they found it,\" she said, leaving Jason to clean up his mess.\n\nAs he walked back to the carts his cock hung loose between his legs, relieved from the mornings stress.\n\n\"That will not do,\" Matilda said. She reached into a bag and produced a cock pump. Sara raised an eyebrow. Jason got the feeling she had never seen a guy use a cock pump. \"I like my caddies ready to go.\"\n\nShe tossed a tube of lube at him and he got busy lubing up his softened cock. He inserted himself into the cylinder and slowly pumped himself up, filling it up.\n\n\"It looks so much bigger now,\" Sara said.\n\n\"It takes a long time to see those results. Jason has certainly been practicing.\" Matilda smiled approvingly. \"Keep it on until you need to rub one out.\"\n\nThey played the next hole and Matilda easy won. Jason dutifully lubed up a golf ball and eased it into his ass, as he was peppered with hole in one punchlines. As they continued to play, to Jason's dismay Matilda won the next two, forcing him to carry three balls in his ass. To make matter's worse he felt his cock begin to strain against the cylinder. He was careful not too over pump the tube, but his years of cock pumping had made it easy for his cock to succumb to the pressure and stretch and fill the tube. He had now filled the nine inch tube and was straining to be released from his chamber.\n\n\"Only two more holes to go,\" Matilda said, as they watched Sara set up for her tee shot. \"Are you going to be able to make it?\"\n\n\"Sara will come through in the clutch,\" he said.\n\n\"I take it you've had experience cumming through her clutch, huh?\"\n\n\"Actually no.\"\n\n\"You've never touched that sweet ass?\"\n\n\"Nope.\"\n\nMatilda looked at Sara as she finished her follow through. \"She must be a good lawyer for you to introduce her to our family, Jason.\"\n\nHe shrugged. \"What can I say? I take my job seriously.\"\n\nWhen they came to the seventeenth green Sara came through for Jason's aching cock and ass and sank another impressive putt. He quickly released the pump and shuffled to the hole.\n\n\"The way you hurried to the hole one might think it was the first pussy you've ever seen,\" Matilda said. Jason squeezed his puffy and engorged cock at the base. He knew he had to prevent his cock from becoming flaccid after he came and he put on a cock ring he had found in another bag in the cart, Ms. Johnson had planned for everything this afternoon.\n\n\"Clever,\" Matilda said. Sara was staring at his enlarged red member. He massaged the head of his cock. The prolong time in the tube made getting off a bit more difficult, it also didn't help that he had already blew a huge load three holes back. He began to milk this cock and play with his balls.\n\n\"If you don't hurry up, you may be penalized for slow play,\" Matilda said.\n\nSara gave him a coy smile and winked at him. \"Come on Mr. Lee, milk that fat cock for me.\"\n\nHe noticed that her blouse was unbutton showing him her ample cleavage. He felt the pressure build at the base of his balls and he squirted out another decent load.\n\n\"Alright big boy!\" Sara shouted.\n\nHis cock remained heavy and thick this time, thanks to the cock ring.\n\n\"Last hole,\" Matilda said, as she set up for her drive. It was a par five and both golfers were swing for the fences, landing on the green in two. Matilda was away and had eased her first putt three inches from the hole. Sara had difficult downhill putt, which skipped over the hole leaving her with difficult second putt. She gathered herself, found her line and putted. It rolled with good four foot left to right break and sank it dead center.\n\n\"Great putt, Sara,\" Jason said.\n\nMatilda came up to her easy putt. The ball hit the lip and rimmed out. She cursed herself and cleaned up the hole.\n\n\"I guess you get another chance to get off,\" She said, eyes twinkling with mischief. \"Good game Sara, you really proved yourself out there.\"\n\nJason gave Sara a thumbs up and trotted out to the hole. He took a deep breath, the fact that they were able to get on the green on two did not leave him a lot of time to recover from his last load. He hoped he would be able to rub just one more out. He started out with long slow strokes, focusing on trying to get the maximum pleasure on each stroke. Minutes passed and he was wondering if he would be able to let another one loose.\n\n\"Remember the penalty Jason,\" Matilda said. \"If you don't perform on this hole, I'll suggest to my mother that she should give her account to Sara over here.\"\n\nHe began to stroke harder, knowing that Matilda was not one to joke about the deals she made. He stuck a finger in his already crammed ass and tried to massage his prostate. He wriggled his finger searching for the spot to push him over the edge. No luck.\n\nHe jumped up and ran to the cart. He grabbed the lube and took a pitching wedge. At the hole he got on his knees and worked up the lubed handle of the club into his ass.\n\n\"Playing it were it lies,\" Matilda said. \"Come on Jason work your ass. \"\n\nHe tried to ignored the distraction and began to stroke furiously. He was so close. Just a little more.\n\n\"Hey!\" Sara shouted. He looked up and saw her standing there topless. Her breast seemed to defy gravity as they perched perfectly on her. Pink silver dollar nipples perked out begging for him to suckle them. She pinched them and gave him a seductive moan. He groan in wanting and he felt a surge rising from deep in his ass, he pushed the club deeper and his body shook and he felt his cock jerk and small creamy load squirted out. He collapsed, exhausted.\n\n\"Good play, Jason,\" Matilda said. \"Clean up the hole and meet me in the club house.\"\n\nHe got up and watched Sara and Matilda drive off. He cleaned up his mess and drove up to the clubhouse. Walking through the clubhouse he was met with many grins and hellos. He had removed the cock ring, but his member was still very thick and long and stick straight out. Sara and Matilda were in the lobby drinking lemonade. Ms. Johnson was also there. They looked like they were enjoying a lazy afternoon.\n\n\"Jason, there you are,\" Ms. Johnson said. \"We were just finishing up business. Sara is going to be taking care of Matilda and you of course will continue to be my lawyer, as if there was any doubt. You always come through for me. I took the liberty of bring you your clothes and your car. I hate to rush you out,but management is getting anxious with a half cocked naked man wandering around here.\"\n\nHe picked up his clothes and put them on as the girls talked about when they were going to play a full round of golf, a girls outing if you will. Overall the day had been a success, a bit stressful at the end, but Sara really helped him out in the end. As he straightened his tie Sara handed him a glass of lemonade.\n\n\"You earned it out there,\" she said. He downed it quickly, parched from the sun and all the fluids he had loss. He thanked his hostess again and they walked out to the car. They pulled back onto the highway, a relax smile was still on Sara. The whole day had really proved to him that he could trust Sara and it had definitely brought them closer.\n\n\"You did good today,\" he said as they drove the lull of the highway home.\n\n\"I did good, you were superhuman out there. I didn't think you could top what you did at the house, but you did, under the gun even.\"\n\n\"Well, I did have some help on the last hole.\"\n\nShe blushed. \"I couldn't leave you hang there. It was nothing.\"\n\n\"Trust me, those are certainly not nothing.\"\n\n\"Remember our deal nobody learns about what happened today.\"\n\n\"Like I want to tell anybody I stuck three golf balls up my ass.\"\n\n\"Where are those golf balls by the way?\"\n\nHe gave a sheepish shrug.\n\n\"They're still up your ass!\" She started to laugh uncontrollably. \"Mr. Lee, I think you are the one with the amazing ass.\"\n\n\"Call me Jason.\"\n\n"}
+{"text": "Private Chat: Babybear and Hyungie\n\n \n\nBabybear: I am very upset\n\nHyungie: huh?\n\nHyungie: bear??\n\nHyungie: what’s happened?\n\nHyungie: TaeTae please answer my calls\n\nHyungie: Tae???\n\n \n\n \n\nPrivate Chat: Soulmate and Angel\n\n \n\nSoulmate: I think he’s cheating on me\n\nAngel: WHAT\n\nSoulmate: Well\n\nSoulmate: i don’t really think he is\n\nSoulmate: i trust him\n\nSoulmate: but fuck\n\nSoulmate: what if he is?\n\nSoulmate: it would make sense\n\nSoulmate: it’s always been too good to be true\n\nSoulmate: he always deserved better\n\nAngel: Don't you dare! \n\nAngel: He wouldn’t do that you\n\nAngel: And don't you ever even imply that you deserve less than perfect\n\nAngel: You deserve the world Minnie\n\nAngel: Just calm down and think things through okay?\n\nSoulmate: fuck\n\nSoulmate: i just feel so shitty\n\nSoulmate: i know he wouldn’t do that to me, to us\n\nSoulmate: but he’s been so weird Tae\n\nSoulmate: secretive, sneaking off\n\nSoulmate: he even hides his phone from me you know? whenever he’s texting someone or he’s on a call, he’ll get all quiet or try and hide his screen from me when i go near him\n\nSoulmate: if it was anyone but Yoongi, i would be sure he was cheating\n\nAngel: Exactly, but it’s Yoongi hyung\n\nAngel: He loves you so much Minnie, he wouldn’t do that\n\nSoulmate: i know\n\nSoulmate: but seriously Tae what else am i supposed to think?\n\nSoulmate: I’ve never really been that insecure of our relationship, but whenever we fight, not just a small argument but when it gets like this\n\nSoulmate: it just opens up all my insecurities about myself\n\nSoulmate: i can’t stop crying TaeTae\n\nSoulmate: i don’t know whether to confront him or not? cause Jin hyung said he knew the whole story and surely he would tell me if he was cheating?\n\nAngel: You’re right.. he did say that\n\nAngel: I’m going to speak to hyung\n\nAngel: He can be so stupid sometimes, you don’t deserve this Minnie\n\nAngel: And as much as I love hyung, I will not allow my soulmate to be sad\n\nSoulmate: i love you :(\n\nAngel: i love you more :(\n\nAngel: And by the way, you deserve the whole world, you’re beautiful and kind and I’m convinced your smile could light up a room\n\nAngel: Dont put yourself down just cause hyung is being a dumbass\n\nSoulmate: omg i’m so gonna tell him u called him that\n\nSoulmate: :((( i really do love u TaeTae :( I have the best soulmate ever\n\nAngel: Don’t lie\n\nSoulmate: ?\n\nAngel: You can’t have the best soulmate ever, because I do\n\nSoulmate: :((( you always cheer me up\n\nSoulmate: i’m gonna cry again I miss hyung so much\n\nAngel: I promise you I’ll sort this\n\nAngel: He’s always been so stubborn he probably doesn’t even realise what he’s doing\n\nAngel: He’s so kind and attentive.. let me slap some sense into him\n\nSoulmate: Don’t hit him..\n\nAngel: I will if I have to\n\n \n\n \n\nPrivate Chat: Hyungie and Babybear\n\n \n\nHyungie: Tae????\n\nHyungie: fuck TaeTae please answer your calls\n\nHyungie: Tae!?\n\nBabybear: I’m sorry I meant to say\n\nBabybear: I’m very upset with you\n\nHyungie: oh\n\nBabybear: You were very dismissive of Jiminie and that’s not okay \n\nHyungie: please don’t start Tae \n\nHyungie: I’m stressed enough as it is\n\nBabybear: Is whatever you’re stressed over more important than Jimin?\n\nBabybear: You will lose him if you don’t get your head out your ass\n\nHyungie: wtf Tae since when did you swear?\n\nBabybear: I don’t but Im very upset right now\n\nHyungie: look if you’re just here to make me feel bad then save it i don’t need your help\n\nBabybear: Wow.. that hurt\n\nHyungie: wait no i didn’t mean that\n\nBabybear: Yes you did\n\nHyungie: no i didnt\n\nHyungie: i just \n\nHyungie: i wanna sort this out myself not right now\n\nBabybear: You really don’t see it, do you?\n\nHyungie: see what\n\nBabybear: He was so excited about last night you know?\n\nBabybear: He rushed around making dinner, even had to go to the store for extra ingredients to make your favourite, lit candles and put on music for you\n\nBabybear: And you didn’t even care enough to show up\n\nBabybear: If Gukkie ever did something like that to me, I’d be heartbroken\n\nBabybear: You really messed up hyung\n\nHyungie: fuck\n\nHyungie: he actually did all that..?\n\nBabybear: Of course??? He loves you hyung\n\nBabybear: I don’t know what’s been up with you, but we’re all noticing it\n\nBabybear: You’ve been sneaking off and hiding your phone from Jimin whenever he’s seen you the past couple weeks\n\nBabybear: I didn’t want to tell you this but I feel sick even thinking about it and I need you to tell me the truth\n\nHyungie: ..?\n\nBabybear: Are you cheating on Jimin?\n\nHyungie: holy shit\n\nHyungie: of course not!\n\nHyungie: what the fuck\n\nHyungie: no?? never?? like literally NEVER?\n\nHyungie: is that what he thinks???\n\nHyungie: oh fuck\n\nHyungie: fuck i’m such an idiot\n\nHyungie: i’m such an asshole Tae he must have been so upset last night and\n\nHyungie: he really\n\nHyungie: fuck if he thinks there’s someone else..\n\nHyungie: fuck TaeTae what can I do\n\nBabybear: First you need to be honest with him about what you’ve been doing\n\nBabybear: And you need to apologise sincerely to him \n\nHyungie: fuck but it’ll ruin the surprise\n\nBabybear: ?\n\nHyungie: I’ve been doing something for Minnie\n\nHyungie: fuck I guess I might as well just tell you\n\nHyungie: but please promise me you won’t tell anyone\n\nBabybear: Of course!!\n\nHyungie: our anniversary is coming up\n\nHyungie: and i want to make this one special\n\nHyungie: so i’ve been planning something and it’s taking me a lot of time to perfect and i’ve been meeting with people to organise it\n\nHyungie: tip: hiring a party planner with low reviews just cause they’re cheap is a very bad idea\n\nHyungie: he fucked up so i’ve been trying to fix everything in time\n\nBabybear: Thats sweet but.. isn’t your anniversary in June?\n\nHyungie: yes\n\nHyungie: i’m not talking about our anniversary of when we got together\n\nHyungie: it’s almost the anniversary of when I first met him\n\nHyungie: March 1st\n\nBabybear: You\n\nBabybear: You remember the day you met?\n\nBabybear: Really?\n\nHyungie: yeah of course? i wrote it down in my journal back the \n\nHyungie: i didn’t know his name until you told me he was your best friend\n\nHyungie: i’d been calling him mochi-cutie cause he was eating mochi when i first saw him\n\nBabybear: That’s so sweet hyung.. \n\nHyungie: fuck i really fucked up didn’t i?\n\nHyungie: Jin hyung slapped some sense into me but even then I didn’t want to listen\n\nHyungie: he was right, i’m prioritising the wrong thing\n\nHyungie: how can we celebrate our anniversary if he breaks up with me?\n\nBabybear: That won’t happen if you speak to him\n\nBabybear: Tell him honestly what you’ve been doing\n\nHyungie: but.. the surprise\n\nBabybear: So tell him that\n\nHyungie: i’m not following?\n\nBabybear: Sigh\n\nBabybear: Tell him you’re planning something for your anniversary, you can tell a white lie and say it’s for your dating one in June\n\nBabybear: Tell him about the party planner you hired and how you’ve been trying to sort everything yourself\n\nBabybear: And then, get on your knees and apologise for being so blind that you basically cut him out of your life and made him cry on my shoulder all night\n\nHyungie: he did?? oh fuck fuckfuckfj \n\nBabybear: No pity party\n\nBabybear: Sort this mess out\n\nHyungie: you’re so grown up now it hurts my heart\n\nBabybear: Well one of us needs to be mature, don’t you think?\n\nHyungie: mean\n\nBabybear: I love you hyung and this is very sweet of you to do\n\nBabybear: But don’t put a stupid party over the person it’s for\n\nBabybear: That’s kinda dunb\n\nBabybear: Think about how you can make it up to me later\n\nBabybear: Focus on your boyfriend who is so heartbroken and distraught he’s scared you’re gonna leave him for someone else\n\nHyungie: my baby fuck i’m such an idiot\n\nHyungie: i should have known he’d overthink \n\nHyungie: can you blame him?? with the way i’ve been acting fuck\n\nHyungie: he should just dump me\n\nBabybear: Hey!\n\nBabybear: No pity party, remember?\n\nBabybear: You wanna throw away 4 years cause you’re being stupid? Go ahead\n\nBabybear: But if you’re ready to grow up and actually sort this then start kissing the ground he walks on and grovel at his feet for his forgiveness\n\nBabybear: And you’d better make sure you never miss a meal he makes you again\n\nHyungie: yes\n\nHyungie: fuck i wouldn’t just lay down and let him do that\n\nHyungie: if he wanted to break up i’d fight with every inch of me to keep him\n\nBabybear: So why are you still talking to me?\n\nBabybear: Go fight for him dummy\n\nHyungie: oh fuck, yeah\n\nBabybear: Wait!\n\nHyungie: .. yeah?\n\nBabybear: Try not to fight him, don’t fuck this up\n\nHyungie: i\n\nHyungie: i’ll try not to\n\nHyungie: please don’t curse it hurts my heart\n\nBabybear: Hurts your heart like how you hurt Jimin’s? ₍◌′ᵕ‵ू◌₎♡\n\nHyungie: that emoji seems threatening\n\nBabybear: Because it is ♡(ŐωŐ人)\n\nBabybear: Don’t hurt my soulmate ever again \n\nBabybear: Love you hyungie!! Hope you win him back （*´▽｀*）\n\nBabybear: Fighting!\n\nHyungie: okay bear\n\nHyungie: see you soon i guess..\n\n \n\nBabybear: Also, as punishment\n\nBabybear: No cuddles for two weeks\n\nHyungie: AH"}
+{"text": "\nAh, my Xiao Ying, you want a story? Okay, Mama will tell you one. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nHmm... let’s see... this is one my shizun once told me. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nOnce upon a time, there was a lonely dragon who lived along a lonely river. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIt starts at the river. \n\n \n\nThere should have been nothing to it, really. It’s the same river it has always been- the small one that runs down from some mountain neighbouring the one the Cloud Recesses is built on, and the one that meets with a dozen others to form the flooded canals of Caiyi Town. \n\nPredictably, Wei Ying is late. Or, he had been on time, but had forgotten something back in the Jingshi, so he had said, and had left Lan Wangji by the riverside with a firm command of ‘stay put, darling, I’ll be back before you know it!’ and a wink before fluttering off. So, that leaves Lan Wangji there, by himself, waiting once again for a husband that he knows will surely come back to him now. \n\nSo he is late. \n\nWell. It is some small consolation at least that Lan Wangji, ever meticulous, had decided that it would be best for them to leave early. So, assuming that Wei Ying returns in a timely fashion, they will, by all means, still make it to town on time. \n\nSo Wei Ying is late, but they will not be late. \n\nOf a lack of more interesting things to look at, like husbands and their smiles, Lan Wangji casts his gaze to the river. \n\nIt’s more a brook than anything, clear water tumbling over grey stones and brown riverbed, flowing steadily down the mountain until it meets with the main one. Tiny river grass sprouts from between pebbles and fallen branches, stirring gently in the stream. \n\nBut as he stares, something there seems to take hold of him. \n\nHe stares. \n\nAnd he stares. \n\nDistantly, part of him knows that it’s simply water. Water, present everywhere at the turn of his head in any direction. \n\nBut the other, and the biggest part of him-\n\nThe burble of the creek sings to him, loud, clear, carrying the stories of upstream down to sea. It washes over him in a wave of icy coldness, but not something uncomfortable. Cold as the Cold Springs, soothing as the wrap of Wei Ying’s arms around him. Home, somehow, but-\n\nAll he knows is that there is something there that he must reach-\n\n“Uh, Lan Zhan, care to explain why you’re standing in the middle of the river?”\n\n-And it breaks. \n\nHe glances up with a jolt. Wei Ying has returned, and he stands on the shore, peering anxiously over at him, though there’s a twitch at the corner of his mouth that appears whenever he thinks Lan Wangji’s done something amusing, which is more often than not. With another jolt, he realises that he’s walked clean into the water, and it flows out and around his knees, leaving both his boots and the bottom of his robes soaking wet and vaguely brown with river silt. \n\nHe returns to shore, and Wei Ying huffs out a laugh, pecking him on the cheek. He doesn’t comment on the pink of his ears peeking through his hair, nor does he press any further, only trying and failing to hide his smile. Water sloshes in his shoes with every step he takes, and with practiced ease, Lan Wangji allows himself to silently sigh on the inside. This won’t dry on time. \n\nThey end up late after all. \n\nIt happens, and because Wei Ying doesn’t question it any further, he forgets it, like he does with everything else that doesn’t have to do with food, a particularly interesting corpse, his husband, his children, and his brother. Eventually, Lan Wangji does too. \n\nSo that should have been the last of it, except it isn’t. \n\nA week later, or thereabouts, they leave Gusu on one of their extended night hunting trips. \n\n“I wanted to take a trip! Just the two of us, just for a week or two, you know?” Wei Ying says to him loudly, from atop Little Apple. The donkey flicks one of its ears and brays disagreeably. \n\nLan Wangji acknowledges him with a slight tilt of his head and Wei Ying continues, “I love you, and I love the kids, but I miss just having the two of us, like- Wei Ying and Lan Zhan against the world!… Well,” he pauses. “If the world was every resentful spirit under the sun and not all of jianghu, because I’ve had enough of that for both lifetimes.”\n\nQuite frankly, Lan Wangji is inclined to agree. After the first seven-odd times they had almost been interrupted, delayed or otherwise inconvenienced by ill-timed encounters with everything from junior disciples to the indignant yao, he had begun to develop a steadily growing urge to take time for the two of themselves, undisturbed. A second honeymoon would have been the most ideal, but that would require delegating their duties to others for far too long, and neither of them can afford that any currently.\n\nCase in point, even though both of them had jumped to take this assignment for a particularly stubborn infestation of walking corpses a few villages over, it had come at the cost of several pointed remarks and incessantly subtle nagging courtesy of one Lan Qiren, up until Wei Ying had rightfully pointed out that he would at least have a few nights of peaceful sleep instead of being kept awake by… certain noises. His tune had changed very abruptly then, and the incessantly subtle nagging had gone into more of the direction of subtly nagging them to leave, already, and why were they still here, and so on.\n\nSo.\n\nAfter a day of preparation and making sure that all homework was assigned and all rabbits and their caretaking of was accounted for, Lan Wangji and Wei Ying had left the Cloud Recesses.\n\n“When was the last time we went out on a date like this?” Wei Ying says aloud, sending a sideways glance to Lan Wangji. Calling it a date seemed awfully reductive, and dealing with regular cultivator duties hardly seemed very romantic. But then again, whenever it was the both of them involved in things, there was always a certain shimmer of romance to it anyway. “Oh! Maybe that demon that one time? The one that was infecting the crops in that little village? We got so covered in plant guts after, and you told me I looked ridiculous, but you weren’t looking all that put together either.” \n\nHad it really been that long ago? That had surely been months ago. Maybe they really were long overdue for this expedition then. Just as long as it didn’t end up in the two of them covered in melon innards again. The smell felt like it had clung to their clothes for days afterwards, even after Lan Wangji had painstakingly washed them clean. Though,there was something about that statement that he felt was somewhat… off.\n\n“Hm,” He only says in response. “I find it hard to believe that I would find you any less than breathtaking, even as covered in plant matter as you so claim.”\n\n“W-Well, I- Maybe I lied a little bit! Maybe you said something like that last time too! I- I don’t really remember!” Wei Ying says hurriedly, quickly turning away and hiding his face behind his sleeve. His husband is so adorable when he blushes. Fortunately, Lan Wangji knows exactly what to say to get him to do so. “Anyway, that’s not the point! Let’s take a break, okay? My back kinda hurts, so I want you to give me a massage too.”\n\n“As you wish.” He replies indulgently, and lets Wei Ying lead the two of them and the donkey ahead to a nearby river. This is how it is meant to be- Lan Zhan, following Wei Ying, always and forever, to the ends of time and back, and nothing could ever change it.\n\nLittle Apple’s first order of business when they reach the riverbank is to lower its head and drink, and the two of them let it do so in peace. Though he really doesn’t need any help getting off the donkey’s back on his own, Wei Ying still lets Lan Wangji help him do so, and he gets rewarded with a quick kiss on the lips for his trouble. \n\n“How very chivalrous of you, dear!” He says teasingly, and Lan Wangji allows a trace of a smile to slip onto his face. \n\nA conveniently placed large rock by the riverbank makes the perfect place for them to rest, the two of them taking a seat on it with Wei Ying tucked up against Lan Wangji’s side as they share a few oranges Lan Wangji had produced from his sleeves. After a brief moment digging in his own sleeves, Wei Ying comes up with a small knife for him to cut the oranges with, and Lan Wangji accepts it with a nod of gratitude. \n\nHe looks out over the river as he works on slicing the oranges. It’s a little wider than usual, owing to light rainfall over the region in the past few days, but ultimately not something that most people would notice unless they were actively looking for it. Thankfully, there hadn’t been much accompanying winds, and the water was free of silt and dirt. Tiny, glittering fish dart just below the surface of the water, swimming in and out of the waving river-grasses while it flows steadily downward, and if Lan Wangji tries just a little more, there’s almost something like a voice calling-\n\n“Lan Zhan!” \n\nA sharp voice, lanced with concern cuts through his trance, and with a start, Lan Wangji glances down. Red gleams off the edge of the blade, and as if in reaction to his distraction, the pain hits him all at once- the sting of the orange juice seeping into his cut, and the pain of the cut itself.\n\nCareful hands prise the knife from his fingers, and take the one with the cut into their own. Wei Ying glances across at him, worry etched into his brow as he tilts Lan Wangji’s hand around, looking at the cut from different angles. He sighs, and flicks his eyes up to Lan Wangji. The worry still hasn’t left his gaze. \n\n“Well, it’s not deep, which is good.” He says, rising to his feet. He pulls Lan Wangji up with him, tugging him over to the side of the river. “Let’s clean it out and wrap it up.”\n\nHe directs Lan Wangji to rinse out the cut in a deeper part of the river where the water is a little more fast flowing while he busies himself with digging around in their supplies for bandages. The faintest streak of pink blooms in the water around his finger when Lan Wangji dips it in, and then the current carries it away. It stops bleeding after a short moment, and he pulls his hand out, shaking off the droplets. \n\nWei Ying flits over, a tiny roll of bandages in hand, and sets to dressing up the wound with far more urgency than Lan Wangji privately thinks is necessary, considering it had been only a minor cut and it would heal within the day anyway, but then again, it isn’t as if he would willingly turn down being doted on by his husband either. \n\nWei Ying presses a kiss atop the bandages as he ties it off. \n\n“That’ll make it all better!” He says and Lan Wangji kisses him atop his head in return. \n\n“But, uh… Lan Zhan… is everything alright?” Wei Ying asks, crossing his arms. “It’s not like you to get distracted like that. Is there something on your mind?”\n\nLan Wangji opens his mouth to answer, but stops. What… what had he been distracted by in the first place? Something…? With the… river? \n\nNo, that couldn’t have been it.\n\nHe shakes his head.\n\n“No,” he says. “There is nothing. I was merely careless. Wei Ying need not worry himself.”\n\n“Hm.” His husband doesn’t seem altogether convinced, but he otherwise drops it, chewing slightly on his lip. “I can’t help but worry over you though.”\n\n“I am fine.“\n\n“Well… alright then…”\n\nHis gaze drifts over Lan Wangji’s shoulder, and it suddenly morphs into outrage.\n\n“Wh- Hey! What the hell do you think you’re doing, you donkey?! Those are our oranges– Get away from them right now!”\n\nLan Wangji blinks.\n\nIn the entire incident with the cut on his fingers, he had almost forgotten about the oranges in the first place. However, it seemed as though the third member of their party hadn’t.\n\nA loud and drawn out bray rings through the air, along with Wei Ying’s cursing, and Lan Wangji huffs out a tiny laugh before turning around to head over to the squabble himself. \n\nThe oranges were probably a lost cause, but that was alright. They could get plenty more another time.\n\nA week later, they returned from their solo expedition. In the end, it really had been as minor an incident as it had been made out to be, and clearing up the infestation had taken little more than a single day. Be as it may, neither were that frantic to return to the Cloud Recesses all that soon, it had been a number of days until they actually did so- which was just as well, because if they had returned even half a day later, they would have been subject to even more of Lan Qiren’s incessant lecturing on responsibilities, and what sort of ideas they had about time, and all other sorts of incredibly naggy statements that neither of them particularly enjoyed.\n\nBy nightfall, they are both curled into each other’s arms, basking in the glow of simply being with the person they love the most, Wei Ying reaches up a hand to trace lightly over Lan Wangji’s jaw, coming to scritch under his chin. He hums contentedly to himself, tuneless but not discordant. \n\n“What do you dream about?” Wei Ying asks him. His eyes are half lidded with sleep and contentment, and his hair is softer than silk under Lan Wangji’s hands when he combs through it to pick through the tangles left by their earlier bouts of passion. \n\n“You,” Lan Wangji says, as easy as breathing. It’s not a lie. More often than not, that’s how it is. His husband’s sun-dappled smile haunts his dreams as much as it does his waking days, and he would much rather it be that than anything else. “What else?”\n\n“You’re incorrigible.” Wei Ying laughs, leaning up to kiss him lightly on the lips. “What about rabbits? Do you dream about those?”\n\nLan Wangji considers it for a moment. \n\n“Sometimes,” he says, and the gravity in which he says it makes Wei Ying laugh again, light and airy, and clamp his hands over Lan Wangji’s mouth. \n\n“Don’t say anything else, gege, or I think my heart won’t be able to take it. Are you this cute on purpose, or are you just like this?” He says.\n\nLan Wangji, of course, continues to say nothing, only content to let his husband laugh to himself.\n\nHe dreams about the water.\n\nThis is what he had not told Wei Ying, earlier, when he had asked, in part because he did not know completely himself, in part because some small part of him is afraid of what it could mean.\n\nThere are things forgotten, which he remembers now, in the half remembered way that is true of dreams- fragmented, but with some parts as clear as a mountain brook and the rest as murky as churned up sand in the stream. \n\nWhen he was younger, he used to dream of the water. \n\nHe could not have been more than five or six, bright eyed and innocent, unaware of everything that would come to befall him in the future. Back then, he still shared a room with his brother, and his mother was still alive to hold his hand and comb his hair. \n\nIt was hard to say what of the water he dreamed of exactly, only that he did. Most of the memories had been washed away in the current, leaving only vague impressions like grooves in a dried riverbed. \n\nHe must have told his mother about it at some point, because he remembers her laughing softly and kissing him on the top of his head. Is that so? My Zhanzhan, one day I’ll take you to Yunmeng, then, with all its rivers and lakes. It’s not quite like Gusu, but I’m sure you’d love it, she had said, listening to whatever he had to say with a warm embrace and an even warmer smile. She had indulged him then, because she had been around to do so. \n\nThen she had died, and Lan Wangji had stopped dreaming of water. Someone else had taken him to see Yunmeng instead, and though he would never give up those moments for anything, he could only wonder how she’d known that he’d fall in love with someone who was Yunmeng itself, free-spirited and as capricious as its rivers. The dreaming had stopped entirely, until now. \n\nWhen he dreams of it now, it feels like he is five again, and being taken down to the lakes and rivers of Caiyi and being shown the glittering water with the sun sparkling off the surface. A fish darts in between the waving fronds of lake grass, dipping in and out of the dark stems. A bird cries out in the distance, swooping down to the surface of the river to pluck out a feast for its chicks. The water laps at his feet, warmer than the Cold Springs but colder than cooling evening tea.\n\nThis is how you swim, says one of the senior disciples teaching the class of young children, maybe, though the sound of their voice is indistinct and distorted, blurry as though underwater.  Put your arms out like this, and move them like this, and kick your legs like this. Don’t be scared. You’ll always be able to float. If you can’t, we’re here to help you.\n\n\n\n\n\nBut I don’t need to do any of that to swim, he thinks, and is about to say so when he realises, and frowns. \n\nIf not like that to swim, then, how? \n\nThe water continues to flow around his ankles.\n\nSilly child, someone’s voice says to him gently, but when he looks around, he sees nothing but flowing water around him. To teach a being of the river and of the water to swim is to teach a wolf to howl at the moon. There is nothing that is to be learned, only that which you know to do. \n\n\n\n\n\n\nBut how do I know how to do that? How do I know what it is that the water is trying to tell me?\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThat’s easy, the voice replies. All you need to do is take a deep breath, dive down deep, and open your-\n\n\n\n\n\n“-eyes? Oi, Lan Zhan, wake up, you’re going to oversleep!”\n\nLan Wangji blinks open his eyes.\n\nWei Ying’s face is close to his own, eyes luminous against the silvery light of the morning. It’s far too early for him to usually be awake, and when Lan Wangji tells him that, a little dazedly owing to having just woken up, he laughs, pressing a kiss to his forehead.\n\n“Don’t worry about me! I was just about to get some rest myself-” Which tells Lan Wangji all he needs to know about his husband’s bad sleeping habits, which is to say, he had fallen prey to them once again, and that later that night, he would have to use some… extreme measures to get him to sleep at night, rather than in the morning when quite arguably the entire rest of the clan was waking up for the day.\n\nHis displeasure must show on his face, because Wei Ying laughs again, shifting back to take hold of Lan Wangji’s hands and pull him upright into a sitting position.  \n\n“You need to get ready for class, otherwise the juniors are going to wonder what’s happened to their Hanguang-jun to have him arriving so late! Unless,” he smirks here, and quirks his eyebrows. A telltale heat rises to the tips of his ears. “You’d care to make that a certainty for sure? I can think of one reason why he might be a little… ah… delayed...”\n\nWell.\n\nPerhaps there was a little time before he had to get ready. \n\nAnd he had been thinking about those… extreme measures after all.\n\nIf he remembers anything of his dream at all, he certainly doesn’t after he pulls a very willing Wei Ying into his lap and swallows down his laughs with fervent kisses.\n\n\nMama, that’s silly. How can a river be lonely?\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nYingying, Yingying, shh. That’s just how it is, okay?\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nOnce upon a time, there lived a lonely dragon along a lonely river. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThis dragon lived alongside a small village of humans, making sure that there would be rains to water their crops and making sure that the river would never flood its banks. In return, once a year, they would present offerings to the dragon as thanks.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBut what use did the dragon have for these offerings? Despite all that it was given, it was never given the one thing it truly desired.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIf the dragon was not feared too much, then it was respected too much. If it was not respected too much, then it was feared too much. And so, the dragon continued to live, lonely by the lonely river.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMama, that’s stupid. I would have been that dragon’s friend.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nYingying, Xiao Ying, settle down. Your Mama hasn’t finished the story yet.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nOne day, a clever young fox that was running away from wolves fell into the river. He had played a trick on them, you see, and all it was was simple fun to the fox. But the wolves felt otherwise.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAngered, they chased that fox from their den to the high cliffs above the water, and with one wrong step, the fox fell into the river, still freezing cold from the last remnants of winter. Ah! Thought the fox. So I am to die today, it seems. If only I could have seen the moon one last time!\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThis sorrowful regret swept down the river to the dragon. And, being as kind as it was, the dragon flew up the river at once and saved the drowning fox. \n\n“Wait.”\n\nWei Ying suddenly stops in the middle of the road. He cuts himself off in the middle of a sentence, squeezes Lan Wangji’s hand where their fingers are twined together. Lan Wangji tilts his head at him, curious. \n\nWei Ying’s brows furrow for a moment, and he glances around. \n\nThey’re returning from a night hunt out on the Gusu border, and, on the principle of Wei Ying wanting to stretch his legs, or so he says, they had taken the time to start out the journey back on foot. Either way, Lan Wangji is simply content to indulge him in whatever he desires. \n\nBut the landscape around them isn’t much to be impressed by. It’s a fairly beaten farm road, and when he glances to the left, green rice paddies and hunched over farmers dot the fields. It’s nice, perhaps, but nothing he hasn’t seen before. Still, there’s a certain sort of tranquility to be had from wandering there with his husband at his side that sets him at ease. At least, it normally would, but...\n\nHe looks back at Wei Ying, who taps a finger to his chin, frowning slightly. \n\n“Can you... can you hear that?”\n\nLan Wangji blinks. It’s indication enough to Wei Ying that whatever he had heard, Lan Wangji had not. \n\nHis husband slides his attention to the thick scrub to their right, tilting his head slightly. \n\n“No no no, that’s not quite...” he mutters briefly to himself. In a few quick strides, he’s crossed the length of the road and slipped into the shrubbery that grows in abundance opposite the fields, giving Lan Wangji barely a moment to realise it before he follows after him. “-there!”\n\nAs always, Wei Ying doesn’t care much for neatness or care as he weaves through the brush, never mind the fact that the one picking the leaves out of his hair and clothes—as well as cleaning the tiny scratches on his face and hands—is always Lan Wangji himself. Still, whatever had caught his attention must have been important. It usually was. \n\nThe ends of Wei Ying’s hair ribbon is caught on a little tangle of bush, but he doesn’t seem to notice from where he’s crouched over something, hands held out placatingly. Lan Wangji untangles it for him when he catches up. He glances down to check what had caught Wei Ying’s attention, and blinks in surprise.\n\nThere’s a fox. One of its hind legs and its neck are caught in a nasty tangle of rope, which in itself is tangled around the base tree trunk and a squat little sapling. The more it strains against its restraints, the more the rope tightens, and it whines piteously with each passing moment.\n\n“Oh, you poor thing,” Wei Ying murmurs, gazing unblinkingly at the fox. “Let’s get you out of that, shall we?”\n\nHe hovers his hands awkwardly over its little body for a moment, seemingly unsure of where to begin. The rope is wrapped around itself in a way that means that it can’t be easily untangled, and the way that the fox shrinks away from his hands and hisses as best as it can isn’t helping.\n\n“Wei Ying,” Lan Wangji says, and nothing else. \n\nIt’s likely part of a trap set by the local farmers to stop foxes like these from sneaking in at night and killing all their chickens. Unfortunate, but only just how things were. On principle, he still would set the fox free from its bindings, but who was to say it wouldn’t get stuck again in the future, or cause trouble for the local farmers?\n\nWei Ying inclines his head slightly as the only indication he’s heard. He gets like this when he’s focused and thinking, hundreds of ideas being built up and then discarded in his brain in the blink of an eye before it slowly settles on one or two that would work the best. It’s saved many a hide or hair in the heat of battle against resentful spirits and fierce corpses, but works just as well in planning his pranks, or even, helping injured and trapped animals it seems. \n\nOut of the two of them, it’s usually Lan Wangji who’s the better one with animals, as his handling of Little Apple and the rabbits can attest to. Here though, it wouldn’t make a difference, and he’s sure that the presence of two very big presences isn’t doing much to calm down the poor little creature. Quite the opposite, in fact.\n\nWei Ying bites his lip.\n\n“Well…” he mutters to himself, and pulls back one of his hands, hovering the other one over its flank- then, with a slight moment of hesitation, over to its snout, letting it sniff cautiously at his fingers.\n\nIt stares at him with narrowed eyes. Then, it licks tentatively at his fingers and stills. While there’s something still cautious in its eyes, it seems much more relaxed than before- or at least, less hostile. Tension melts off Wei Ying’s shoulders, and he sighs in relief.\n\n“Good, good, that’s… good. Lan Zhan, Bichen, if you please. It’s about time we get this poor dear out of these ropes.” \n\nThat… was certainly a surprise. He had half expected the fox to bite at Wei Ying, as most distressed animals were fond of doing. For it to become so docile…\n\nEither way, he puts it out of his mind and unsheathes his sword as requested, crouching down beside his husband to place the blade against the ropes. It cuts through the rough strands as easily as it does against fierce corpses, and once he lifts it away from the fox, the creature shakes off the severed pieces of its restraints. \n\n“See? You’re perfectly fine!” Wei Ying says with a warm smile, holding his hand out to the fox, who then butts its head against his palm. “And cute, too! Hey, gege, who’s cuter? Me, or this little guy here?”\n\nAt this, he reaches out to pick up the fox, settling it into his arms not unlike how he would a baby or very young child. A warning that the fox wouldn’t appreciate being suddenly picked up like that dies in Lan Wangji’s throat when the fox instead only swishes its tail and squirms slightly in Wei Ying’s hold to get into a more comfortable position, tilting its head up to lick at his chin.\n\n“Well?” Wei Ying asks him expectantly, quirking his eyebrows. Lan Wangji stares for a moment more before he shakes his head, sheathing his sword once more. \n\n“You are.” He says simply, and Wei Ying puffs up his cheeks, though they’re tinged pink in slight embarrassment.\n\n“How cruel! You’ll hurt his feelings! Come on, Lan Zhan, you have to admit, it’s a cute little thing, right?”\n\n“It is a wild animal, Wei Ying. Not a pet.”\n\n“Oh, psh.” Wei Ying scoffs lightly, raising a hand to scratch behind the fox’s ears. It purrs slightly in response. Lan Wangji stares at it doubtfully. Why did his husband have to do these things? It was all well and fine to free it from the ropes, but who knows where it had been? It probably had fleas. If those got into Wei Ying’s robes, it would get into Lan Wangji’s, and then the both of them would be itchy and miserable. “Don’t listen to him, Xiao-Huli. He’s a boring fuddy duddy and he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”\n\n“Wei Ying.”\n\nWei Ying clamps his hands over the fox’s ears and sticks his tongue out at Lan Wangji. “Lalala, my name is Lan Zhan and I’m sooo hot and sooo sexy as fuck but I’m sooo boring and everything I say is just boring stuff, lalala~” \n\nLan Wangji stares at him flatly. He tries not to feel offended, but he does. Maybe. Just a little bit. The fox matches his own flat gaze with a glint in its dark eyes. The tip of its pink tongue pokes out from the side of its mouth.\n\n “Are you done?” He says after a moment, and Wei Ying huffs slightly, pulling his hands away to scratch under the fox’s chin. Its eyes crinkle shut in pleasure, and another set of low purrs rumble from it.\n\n“I’ll be done when you say sorry to Xiao-Huli!” \n\nAs if on cue, the fox opens its eyes just a crack, and if he didn’t know better, Lan Wangji would almost swear it was winking at him. The irritation prickling at the back of his neck grows just a little bit more. \n\nCalm down, take deep breaths, he thinks to himself. There were rules for these kinds of situations (Loosely. The rules also left many things up to interpretation. He’s sure this could be one of them.) and it would help to think of them now.\n\n“I am… sorry,” he says a little stiffly. Gods. What on earth was he doing, apologising to a fox? Never let it be said the lengths he would go to for his husband. “I will… endeavour to be more compassionate in the future.”\n\nWei Ying beams. “There we go, er-gege! That wasn’t so hard now, was it?”\n\nIf it meant seeing that smile, then Lan Wangji supposes, it really wasn’t. Just as long as he didn’t say-\n\n“Oh, I know! Why don’t we take this little guy back to the Cloud Recesses with us? The rabbits could use a friend, don’t you think?”\n\n-that.\n\n“Wei Ying,” Lan Wangji says, letting a little bit of despair seep into his voice. “Please, do not. You cannot just bring this fox home. You know this.”\n\nThere were a number of reasons that this was a bad idea, and he did not particularly want to have to say them all aloud. \n\nAt the top of that list was that having the fox anywhere near the docile, well-fed rabbits of the Cloud Recesses was bound to end in disaster, somewhere in the middle was that the fox’s red-brown fur would stand out awfully against pristine Lan-white, and somewhere near the bottom was that he didn’t particularly look forward to the prospect of having to vy for his husband’s attention against the fox, who, unfairly, he felt like was winning right now.\n\n“But it’s so cute!” Wei Ying shifts his grip again and thrusts the fox up to Lan Wangji’s face. It yawns at him, pink tongue curling and flicking. He gently moves it aside with the back of his hand, staring down at his husband. “What happened to not denying me anything, huh? You wouldn’t do this for me?” \n\nThat… Well.\n\nHe really was becoming far too skilled at exploiting Lan Wangji’s weaknesses (Wei Ying himself) for his own good.\n\nFine, then.\n\nLan Wangji sighs. “If you truly insist, then the fox may accompany us until we reach the gates of the Cloud Recesses. But I cannot, in good conscience, allow it any further than that,” he states.\n\nFor a moment, he thinks that Wei Ying would continue to protest in his cutely over-dramatic way, but instead, he smiles wryly, and shrugs.\n\n“Well, I tried,” he says, but he doesn’t sound particularly disappointed. “You’ll be fine by yourself though, hm, Xiao-Huli? Until then, Wei-gege’ll take care of you. And I’ll make this gege take care of you too!”\n\nHe kneels down then, and the fox leaps from his arms to land gently on the ground. It shakes out its fur, and looks back at him, barking once.\n\n“We still have some time until we reach Caiyi, and the Cloud Recesses beyond that.” Lan Wangji says.\n\n“It’ll be fine.” Wei Ying waves a hand dismissively. “You’re worrying too much!”\n\nWorrying about what? That he wouldn’t know when to let the fox go, or that he would get too attached to a creature that would not stay? That the affection that he shows for it now would cause a dependency in it that would make it even harder for their eventual separation? All of those and more were extremely plausible.\n\n“Trust me!” \n\nLan Wangji sighs again, but nods, if a little reluctantly. \n\nFar be it for him to lose faith in his husband over something as simple a matter as this.\n\nThe fox continues to follow them even as night falls.\n\nLuckily, they both manage to secure lodging for the night in a barn, lent to them by a kind old couple who apologised for how substandard it was, despite Wei Ying’s insistence that it really wasn’t, and that it was plenty and just having a roof over their heads was enough for both of them, who, on principle, shouldn’t be too occupied by comforts anyway.\n\nWell, it was easy for him to say that. He could fall asleep just about anywhere, especially if that was on top of Lan Wangji, who, in situations like these, was treated as more of a mattress than a person. He only minded it a little bit. Love always required a little bit of sacrifice, after all. Even when his husband had been indulging himself with a little more food than was strictly allowed under the Lan Clan rules, and hadn’t been keeping up with his training. Not that Lan Wangji would ever admit that.\n\n(If he makes their ‘everyday’ appropriately more intense as a result, then the only person who would ever know the reason why would be himself.)\n\n“I think we’ll probably be home by tomorrow.” Wei Ying half says through a yawn, half dozing on Lan Wangji’s chest. A barn doesn’t nearly rank at the bottom of the list of most unusual, or the worst places to have sex, that they have, and with all things considered, it still could turn out to be a memorable experience in some strange, domestic homestead-y kind of way. \n\nAnd at the very least, the fox hadn’t been there to see it. Rabbits were one thing, but that fox might have been too much, even for someone like them. \n\nThe fox itself had disappeared sometime after they had settled in for the night. Lan Wangji had suggested that it had decided to leave them to go on its own way, and Wei Ying was insistent that it hadn’t and had simply gone out for a night adventure. They had ended up making a bet on it, even though gambling was one of the things disallowed by the Lan Clan rules also. \n\nThen again, it had been a long time since Lan Wangji had seen them as anything other than suggestions, something to be selective with, or wanted to use to prove a point to his husband.\n\nWei Ying had declared that if he won, Lan Wangji would make him whatever food he wanted for a week when they got back, and if Lan Wangji won…\n\nWell. It had made Wei Ying stutter and go bright red, but he didn’t outright shoot down the idea, so even if Lan Wangji lost—which he wouldn’t—there was always the possibility of doing it in the future anyway.\n\nHe hopes he wins. If not for his reward, then at least to save him from his slow transformation into a jianbing via Wei Ying-ified flattening.\n\n“What will you do about the fox?”\n\n“So you’re acknowledging that I’m going to win our bet?” Wei Ying says a little smugly, and Lan Wangji rolls his eyes just the slightest amount. Here, in the dark and in between tall haystacks with only Wei Ying as witness, there isn’t anyone to care about impropriety.\n\n“Hypothetical scenario.”\n\n“Alright, if it makes you feel any better, keep telling yourself that, dear. Well, anyway… I was thinking we might kee-”\n\n“We are not keeping the fox.”\n\nWei Ying huffs, but Lan Wangji refuses to let it sway him, even as slightly torn up as he felt about it. It really was for the best. \n\n“Only until we reach the gates.” He reminds his husband, and Wei Ying pulls a face that might have had more effect if it wasn’t currently half squished against Lan Wangji’s bare chest. “Wei Ying should sleep now.”\n\n“You’re no fun…” Wei Ying mumbles, but there isn’t any bite to it, and Lan Wangji knows it to be false otherwise, simply from the countless times where he had explicitly said that Lan Wangji was the most fun person to be around.\n\n“Sleep.” He says again, a little firmer this time, and wraps his arms fully around Wei Ying’s waist.\n\n“Fine… See you tomorrow, Lan Zhan…”\n\n“Mm. Good night.”\n\nLan Wangji closes his eyes then, and lets himself drift off to the comfort of a warm weight on his chest.\n\nIn the morning, Lan Wangji wakes up early, as usual, and asks to borrow the old couple’s bathtub. He politely, but firmly declines their offer of settling it for him, and instead decides to draw the water and fill the tub himself, bringing the water to a hot, but not boiling, temperature with a few well placed heating talismans. It isn’t that he has something against the couple, but more of the fact that he doesn’t feel wholly comfortable taking advantage of their generosity more than they already have, considering what happened in the barn last night. \n\nHe does, however, accept their offer of providing them with breakfast before they set out once more, though he does have to somewhat apologetically let them know that that would depend on what time his husband wakes up.\n\nIt’s around the time where he starts to take the water back to the tub that something red slinks into the corner of the field of his view.\n\nHe turns, and sighs.\n\nThe fox looks back at him, licking at its paw idly. A dead bird is at its feet, and judging from the bite marks around its neck, it hadn’t been killed too long ago and had been carried over.\n\n“Why did you come back?” he asks it. “Did you know I made a bet with Wei Ying? Were you determined to see me lose it?”\n\nIdly, he considers the benefits of chasing it away, and then lying to Wei Ying by pretending that he had never saw it and thus, winning their bet, but the thought is dismissed as fast as he thinks of it. For one, it would never work. Something told him that the fox would come back later in the day anyway, and he would sooner collapse under the guilt of this particular lie than keep the secret. \n\nSo. Whatever happens… happens.\n\nPredictably, because he’s talking to a fox, it doesn’t answer him, and continues to stare at him, gaze almost judgmental. For a split second, he considers the possibility of the fox being a mind-reader before common sense all but slams back into him, in more ways than one.\n\n…What was he doing? Talking to foxes now? He doesn’t have time for this. \n\nHe picks up his buckets, hefting them over his shoulder and heads back to the barn. He doesn’t turn to check if the fox is following, but from the flashes of red at the corner of his eye, it seems as though it is.\n\nThe walk back to the barn is a quick one, and filling up the tub is just as quick. From his sleeve, he takes a few heating talismans and applies them to the tub, leaving it to gradually heat up.\n\nOnto the next matter of business…\n\nLan Wangji eyes the fox, which has taken to sniffing curiously at one of the talismans stuck to the tub. At some point, it had gone on to eat some of the bird it had hunted, but hadn’t finished it. Evidently, it found the bathtub far more interesting.\n\n“Could you please take that somewhere else?” He asks, gesturing to the half-eaten bird. The fox’s ear flicks, but it doesn’t look back towards Lan Wangji, and it continues inspecting the talisman. \n\nWell, that was rude.\n\nHe begins to reconsider the merits of shooing it off. For one- no more strands of red sticking to their clothes. For another, no unwanted spectators for their morning bath. \n\nBut… he shakes his head and settles on neither. \n\nWell, maybe except for the second part. He isn’t exactly keen on being what felt like judged, by the fox, again, for what he did or didn’t do with Wei Ying.\n\n“Could you at least return later, then?” He tries again, and this time, the fox actually does turn its head to look at him. They stare at each other, unblinking, until the fox snuffs and turns away with a swish of its tail, picking up the last of its bird within its jaws.\n\nIt trots off somewhere in the general direction of the vegetables, and Lan Wangji breathes a quiet sigh of relief before heading over to retrieve his husband.\n\nThis part of the morning is rather the same as it usually is, with some minor differences owing to their unconventional location. Wei Ying starts coming back to himself sometime after the tenth kiss, and just about returns as Lan Wangji ties the last knot in his hair ribbon, combing out the slightly damp tresses. \n\n“Good morning,” Lan Wangji begins, and Wei Ying opens his mouth to reply when something behind Lan Wangji seems to catch his attention, and he perks up. The kiss that Lan Wangji tries aiming for his lips goes sideways and lands on Wei Ying’s cheek instead, who, insultingly (in Lan Wangji’s entirely unbiased and correct, opinion) does not return it, instead bouncing forward.\n\n“Ahaha! Lan Zhan! Look who it is!”\n\nWei Ying smirks.\n\n“So much for your theory, huh?” \n\nIt’s the fox, of course, because who else could it be? The fox in question, ostensibly now finished with its bird, walks forward to twine around Wei Ying’s legs like an overlarge cat. He bends down slightly to scratch behind its ears.\n\n“Yes,” He says a little stiffly. “It seems so, doesn’t it?”\n\nWei Ying looks up, and something seems to occur to him. \n\n“Ah! You know what this means, then! I totally won our bet!”\n\n“You did.”\n\n“Ahaha!” Wei Ying walks back over to Lan Wangji, patting him on the head. Lan Wangji almost wants to protest that he isn’t a fox either, but instead averts his gaze. “You don’t have to sound like such a sore loser over it!”\n\n“I am not.” He says. Wei Ying tilts his head back down at the fox.\n\n“What do you think, Xiao-Huli? Do you think Lan-gege sounds like a sore loser?”\n\nLan Wangji would rather not stay and let this particular line of conversation continue. He turns away hurriedly, and starts making his way back to the old couple’s house.\n\n“Breakfast is waiting.”\n\n“Ahh! No- I was just making a joke! Lan Zhan, wait for me!!”\n\nBy late afternoon, Caiyi Town comes into view. \n\nAfter a simple breakfast of rice with eggs and preserved vegetables provided to them by the couple, they parted ways and continued on back towards the Cloud Recesses, the fox following along, much to Lan Wangji’s chagrin.\n\nThankfully, it didn’t seem to want to cause too much trouble, nor did it get in the way too much, and other than Wei Ying now having two to chatter to rather than just one, things were relatively simple.  \n\nThey pass through Caiyi, with the fox sniffing the air carefully but managing to avoid falling in the canals. A few of the townspeople call out to them in greeting, recognising them from their frequent trips down the mountain, and they get some number of curious looks at the fox accompanying them, but at long last, they approach the foot of the mountains at the Cloud Recesses, and it’s there that they finally stop for the moment. Wei Ying crouches down to face the fox, and it tilts its head back at him quizzically.\n\n“This is where we say goodbye, Xiao-Huli. Though the time we spent together was short, it was also memorable.” He says a little solemnly, reaching out a hand to ruffle its fur and give it a scratch behind the ears. “Safe travels, my friend. Don’t get caught in any more traps now, you hear?”\n\nHe bounces back to his feet. The fox continues to look at him.\n\nFor a moment, Lan Wangji almost thinks that it would hardly know the meaning behind Wei Ying’s words, but a beat passes, and the fox barks once before turning away and bounding into the foliage, the red of its fur disappearing into the underbrush. He watches it go, and strangely, a strong sense of melancholy passes through him before it disappears, just as suddenly as it had come in the first place.\n\nHe shakes his head slightly, and holds out a hand to Wei Ying, who takes it, slotting his fingers between Lan Wangji’s own.\n\n“You know, I felt like that fox was really smart. Like it knew what we were saying, right?” Wei Ying says to him a little later, as they climb the path up the mountain, tucking his hands behind his head. He gives a sideways glance towards Lan Wangji. “Did you think so too?”\n\nLan Wangji hums non-committedly. It hadn’t been as though he had been paying particular attention to it, nor had he had much experience with foxes, but he had to agree that there was something about it that made it seem especially intelligent. He says as much in his following hum, which is to say, less ‘saying’ and more ‘expressing’, though he hardly needs any words for his husband to understand his meaning.\n\nWei Ying sighs.\n\n“Well, no use wondering about it any longer. It’s probably long gone by now, off chasing sparrows and the like. Let’s just chalk it up to another interesting day in the life of Lan Zhan and Wei Ying, okay?”\n\n“Perhaps that is for the best,” Lan Wangji replies evenly, curling an arm around Wei Ying’s waist and pulling him a little closer. \n\n“I’ll kind of miss it, I think,” Wei Ying pokes Lan Wangji in the ribs, gently. “And you can say you’ll miss it too! It’s only us here right now. You’re not gonna lose any face by admitting that.”\n\nLan Wangji chooses not to comment on the matter, but it seems Wei Ying doesn’t feel like dropping it just yet, and he pats Lan Wangji’s shoulder.\n\n“Come on, gege,” he says coaxingly. “Make all the excuses you want, but don’t think I didn’t notice you going all soft on Xiao-Huli a few times, hm?”\n\nWhich were moments of weakness, and Lan Wangji has half a mind to tell him that, but thinks better of it in the end, and wisely decides to keep his mouth shut, instead humming something that could be taken as either agreement or denial. If it really were feasible, he would probably have let Wei Ying keep taking care of the fox, but there were too many things to account for that to happen. The rules that disallowed it, the rabbits… No, there were too many complications.\n\n“Fine then, be that way,” Wei Ying says, but he sounds amused more than anything. He lets out a content sigh. “Ah, it’s nice to be home! Lan Zhan, make me something special tonight! I won our bet after all! We have to celebrate a little! I want…”\n\nThe topic of the fox dropped for the moment, his husband instead begins to detail a list of dishes he wants that a few days of travel on the road couldn’t provide. It was far too many to make on a single day, so of course, Lan Wangji would need to spend the next few days doing so, a week, at the very least, as was the conditions stipulated in their bet, and that there was a very willing taste tester present to make sure that his skills hadn’t deteriorated in the short time he had last used them, and so on; there is a practised ease where Wei Ying says anything and everything on his mind, and Lan Wangji listens, for no other reason than the fact that he loves to do so.\n\nThat, at the very least, is something Lan Wangji can do.  \n\n\nWhen the fox opened its eyes, the first thing it saw was something round and glowing brightly. Ah, how fortunate I am to have seen the moon, it thought. Now I can die in peace.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBut this was not the moon, and the fox did not have to die. Grasped in the dragon’s claws, the fox had caught a glimpse of the dragon’s pearl- the same one that it had used to calm the raging river so that it could save the fox. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe dragon brought the fox back to its home, passing energy to the exhausted fox to heal it. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWhen the fox woke, it was amazed to find that it was still alive, and even more than that, its saviour was the dragon of the lonely river!\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMaster Dragon, I cannot thank you enough for saving this lowly one’s life! The fox \nexpressed\n, arching into a bow in gratitude.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThere is no need for thanks, returned the dragon. Go now, and be well. Be wary of the river in the future.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe fox did not leave just yet.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBut Master Dragon, this one now owes you a life debt! How could I ever possibly repay it? Is there anything you wish for? This one shall provide as best as this one can! \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBut what could a fox give that the dragon did not already have? \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMama, didn’t the dragon want a friend?\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nShh, I’m getting to that part, Xiao Ying.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAlready, the dragon knew. Though it longed for a companion, how could it ever trap the fox here? How would it ever know that the fox wished to be here, or merely remained to pay off a debt? Thus, the fox could never stay.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThere is nothing, said the dragon. I have no need and no desire but for your wellbeing. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThere must be something! cried the fox. Whatever it is you desire, even if you believe you do not possess one, I will find it and give it to you!\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe fox stayed with the dragon for a day longer until it departed. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nOn the night before it was to leave, the fox invited the dragon out to the river.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCarrying the fox on its back, the dragon followed the course of the river out to the part where it was the most still.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWhat did you wish to say? The dragon asked, and the fox would smile, pointing to the moon and the stars above, then to the surface of the water, on which the reflection of the night sky shone brightly.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe dragon was lost for words. In all its time living there, it had never seen a sight as beautiful as this- And yet, it should have been something that it had seen countless times.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nI am to leave to-morrow, said the fox. But it is my sincerest desire for you to look up at this sky and remember the time we have spent together.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIf you find yourself missing my presence, you need only to look up to the skies above and know that I too, am looking at the same sky and thinking of you.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThey remained there for a while longer before returning to the dragon’s home.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAnd, in the morning, as it said it would, the fox left with a final farewell.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAlthough the dragon was saddened to see it go, it knew that it was for the best. And so, it resigned itself to its loneliness once again. The chance of the fox returning, it knew, was almost none.\n\n\n\nYet, could it not hope?\n\n\nWei Ying is out on a trip. He’s headed to Yunmeng, and the only reason Lan Wangji isn’t accompanying him this time is because with Lan Xichen still half in seclusion, he is, more or less, still Acting Sect Leader, and with the Discussion Conference looming on the horizon and the Lan Sect set to host it, responsibility falls to him to settle the last affairs.\n\nWell, that, and the fact that he still hasn’t quite gotten over what had happened the last time he and Jiang Wanyin had been even remotely near each other. It had involved no less than five jars of wine, a string of dried chillies, a duck, a dog, and two bribes to Nie Huaisang to diffuse the political meltdown about to happen.\n\nWei Ying finds it endearing, if not a little frustrating, most of the time. Lan Wangji does not. This is one of a small number of things that they are still working on. It’ll be resolved one day. One day far, far in the future. \n\n“Maybe it’s for the best that you’re staying here this time,” Wei Ying had said to him on the morning of his departure. Lan Wangji had given him a flat look, mixed with the ‘Wei Ying is Going Away Again (But Only For A Little While) and I Cannot See His Beautiful Face Until He Returns To Me’ look. \n\nWei Ying had only laughed at him, and leant up to pat him on the head. Lan Wangji had tried to maintain his composure, but the fluttering in his heart at the sound of his husband’s laugh does little to help. \n\n“Oh, come on, er-gege, don’t look at me like that! If I give you a kiss, will you give me a smile? You look beautiful when you smile, you know.”\n\n“I have nothing to smile about in my life,” he had said. “My husband is leaving me for another man.”\n\n“Did you have to say it like that?” Wei Ying had replied, rolling his eyes and patting his head again. “It’s only for a few days. Well, a week. But it’ll be a really short week! I’ll be back before you know it!”\n\n“Mn.”\n\n“You’re being incredibly dramatic, dear.” Wei Ying had lifted his hand to cup Lan Wangji’s face. “Are you really that desperate to keep me here?”\n\nHe had taken hold of his husband’s hand in turn. “I miss you dearly for every moment that we are separated,” he had recited dutifully and truthfully. “Know that my heart yearns for your presence and that I will eagerly await the day that we will be reunited.”\n\nWei Ying’s face had gone quite a lovely shade of red at that, and he had snatched his hand back after a moment of dumbfounded silence to cover his face, only peeking out between his fingers to glance at Lan Wangji.  “I- uh- Lan Zhan!! You- I- why! I keep telling you!! You need to give me a warning!! When you say things like that!!” \n\nHe hadn’t resisted when Lan Wangji had pulled him closer to press a kiss to his temple though, instead giving a final sounding, fond sigh. \n\n“I- oh, never mind. How about this? When I come back, you can…” \n\n-and then he had turned his head to whisper certain things in Lan Wangji’s ear that had the tips of them assuredly turning bright red, and when he had reached out for his husband, Wei Ying had flounced away from his hands with a light peal of laughter and a blown kiss, tugging an irate Little Apple after him as he began his descent down the mountain. \n\nSo.\n\nHusbandless, slightly brotherless, and also sonless, owing to an impromptu scheduled visit to Baling by invitation of the Ouyang heir, Lan Wangji finds himself at a little of a loss, which is odd, considering that he never was much of a people person, and yet-\n\nWell. There was always his uncle. But moments spent between the two of them alone always seemed to devolve into some long-winded lecture on his uncle’s part on some obscure historical detail that left Lan Wangji wondering whether his uncle realised that he was grown now and not one of his students anymore, or worse, enough subtly unsubtle remarks about the inadequacy of Wei Ying as his spouse to leave him sufficiently incensed for the rest of the day, only now there would be no doting husband to lift his mood.\n\nBecause he was in Yunmeng. With another person who also had the tremendous power to leave him feeling more than slightly irritated. \n\nHe has the slightest inkling that this bad mood might persist for the rest of the day, and would quite certainly do so if he had to look over any more inane correspondence from allied sects beyond Gusu regarding the upcoming Discussion Conference. \n\nMaybe he ought to take a break, like Wei Ying always pestered him about. Besides, fresh air might do him well.\n\nWith a sigh, he carefully cleans the last of the ink from his brush, setting it back into its place alongside the rest of the set. The last of the marking, and the dreaded correspondence could wait for later. From there, it’s only a matter of taking a quick moment to make sure his appearance is neat and orderly before stepping out of the Jingshi, shutting the door quietly behind him.\n\nThe sun is beginning to descend when he casts a brief glance up to the sky, a slight shadow of twilight already beginning to creep its way over the Cloud Recesses. He looks up to the sky, the setting sun, the drowned-blue of the sky and thinks of his husband- is he, too, watching the same sky, thinking also of Lan Wangji? \n\nIn Yunmeng, the waters of the rivers and lakes would burn a bright gold when the sun began to dip beneath the horizon. Then, at night, if the weather was clear and the moon was high, the stars would come out, and on the perfectly still waters it would mirror the divine skies above, a dark sheet of star speckled brilliance- transient, yet eternal at the same time.\n\nThere was nothing like that in Gusu.\n\nIt was one of the things Wei Ying had said he’d missed, early on in their marriage. He had spoken of it wistfully and fondly, and there had been a somewhat distant look in his eyes- the one that often was accompanied by thoughts of the late Jiang Yanli. \n\nIt had only been that one time that he had brought it up, because not long after that, he had said that there were other beautiful things in Gusu that he could let his eyes wander to, and he had directed a rather salacious smirk at Lan Wangji that left no question as to what ‘beautiful things’ he was referring to.\n\nThe thought sits a little oddly in his stomach now. \n\nFor all the times that he’d been to Lotus Pier since then, and Yunmeng as a whole, there had always been something that prevented Wei Ying from showing those star-stained rivers and lakes to him. He had eventually forgotten about that desperate longing to see it and share in something that Wei Ying cherished so deeply, because compared to the other bright memories that they were making in their day to day, it seemed like it was barely anything.\n\nSo, he still hadn’t seen what it was like at night.\n\nBut, for some reason, he could picture it perfectly in his mind’s eye.\n\nIt’s… more disconcerting that he cares to admit.\n\nPerhaps it was because Wei Ying had that way with words. In another life, he could have been the finest storyteller, weaving words in exchange for coins. As it stands, all he does these days with that skill is to trick children into having them believe that made up monsters exist and to whine exaggeratedly to Lan Wangji about the smallest of inconveniences. But, it’s his skill to do as he pleases with, and as someone who has never been particularly verbose, Lan Wangji knows to appreciate it, even if isn’t used as it should be sometimes… most of the time.\n\nIt had been quite a while though. Was it truly the case that a description from once upon a time was enough for him to visualise it perfectly?\n\nLan Wangji’s foot catches on an uneven stone, and he blinks.\n\nIn front of him stands a familiar cottage. Lost in his musings, he hadn’t noticed that his feet had brought him to this spot until he found himself standing before it.\n\nA slight breeze rustles the wisterias that hide away the little cottage from the rest of the Cloud Recesses. A moment caught in time, perhaps, he thinks- the more things changed, the more they stayed the same. It seemed like only yesterday that he was here, waiting for the day that that door would open up and his mother would usher him in. Eventually, that day would stop coming to pass.\n\nStill, even if the cottage’s past resident no longer lived within its walls, he was sure that the door would still open up for him.\n\nPerhaps this would be the first step to finding out some answers.\n\nOr, at the very least, a place where he could begin to clear his head.\n\nThe walk up to the door is nostalgic, if a little bittersweet. The wisterias are smaller than he remembers, but back then, he was much smaller as well. There were simply too many memories associated with this place, both happy and sad, for it to be anything less. \n\nEspecially now. \n\nLan Wangji hesitates for a slight moment when he arrives at the door. Perhaps… Perhaps this was a bad time. It was out of their usual schedule after all, and for someone like him who was hardly prone to acts of spontaneity, it would only worry the person he meant to visit. \n\nThat’s no way to go about things, er-gege! The phantom of his husband’s voice speaks into his ear. Come on, just do it! You’re overthinking it too much! Unexpected or not, he’ll still be glad to see you!\n\n\n\n\n\nWell.\n\nThat’s what Wei Ying would say if he were there.\n\nSo, before he can truly overthink it, and before he can leave and regret it, he raises his hand and raps neatly on the door.\n\nFor a moment, there’s no response. Then-\n\n“Just a moment, I’ll be right there-!” A voice floats out from behind the door, and when it opens with a quiet rattle and a soft patter of footsteps, Lan Xichen peers out from behind it, blinking at him. “Oh, Wangji, it’s you?”\n\nLan Wangji pauses in his prepared response. “...Were you expecting someone different?” He finally says, tilting his head fractionally.\n\n“Ah, oh no, not at all.” His brother says hurriedly, stepping aside and gesturing for Lan Wangji to come in with a small, slightly strained smile. “I just didn’t expect you to come by at this time. There’s still quite a few days before I was expecting you, but no matter. Please, come in, have a seat, I’ll get some tea ready. I’ll join you shortly.”\n\nLan Wangji steps in with a slight dip of his head in thanks, quietly stepping out of his shoes before heading further into the house. \n\nAfter the incident at the Guanyin temple in Yunping all those years ago, and several unpleasant truths had come to light, Lan Xichen had formally announced he would be entering seclusion to reflect on the events that had come to pass. He at least had had the forethought to delay it until Lan Wangji had returned from his honeymoon, and gotten decently used to the duties of Sect Leader, though in name and in authority, the First Jade of Lan was still the leader of the sect. \n\nHe had moved into this little residence, where their mother used to live, away from the Hanshi, citing that it was geographically more secluded and therefore more peaceful and more conducive to his reflections, which wasn’t untrue, but did not exactly leave Lan Wangji brimming with confidence. This place, as much as he wished to deny it, still had been a prison, and the meaning of his brother moving into a place where things- or people- were left to wither and fade away, was not lost on him. Neither was the suspicion that this would also be quietly considered as a self-inflicted punishment for being too idle about the brewing animosity between his sworn brothers.\n\nEither way, Lan Xichen had moved into their mother’s old home and begun to make it his. Progress had been slow, but the more time that passed, the more that Lan Xichen seemed to be doing better for himself, and Lan Wangji had let those concerns worrying away at his mind fade away to the background- not entirely gone, but not entirely accepted either. Only something to be aware of, and to prepare for if need be. Lan Xichen himself was already half out of seclusion now, and it was probably only a matter of time before he was ready to resume leadership fully, even if there were some things that couldn’t be healed. \n\nAs Lan Wangji walks into the main room, he notices that there’s a new wall scroll hanging on one of the far walls- an ink sprawl of some landscape or another. It’s tasteful, in a way, if not a little familiar in its strokes. He wonders where he’s seen the style before. His brother catches his curious gaze when he glances at him, emerging from the tiny kitchen area with a clay tea set on a small tray in his hands. \n\n“Oh, that?” Lan Xichen smiles again, though it’s still a little strained. “A gift from Sect Leader Nie. It was only recently that I received it.”\n\nAh. That would explain it. He certainly had seen enough of the same style of paintings on  Nie Huaisang’s fans when he chose to flick them open during Discussion Conferences in order to avoid answering questions about how the sect was faring. For someone who was in talks to become the next Chief Cultivator, he was startlingly adept at being elusive.\n\nHe shrugs slightly as Lan Wangji busies himself with pouring out the tea. He starts the tiniest amount when he realises they’re the same cups that their mother used to use, but if his brother notices at all, he doesn’t comment on it, instead sighing slightly and folding his hands in his lap. \n\n“It seemed like it would be rude to return it, especially since he said it was something he painted himself. All that wasted effort.” Lan Xichen shakes his head. “No, I thought it would have been better to simply hang it up. Goodness knows this house needs a little decoration, hm?”\n\nThings like these still came in every now and then. Odd little trinkets or another that were sent over from Qinghe, usually addressed to either Lan Xichen or Wei Ying, and even rarer still to Lan Wangji himself, though that only extended to personal gifts and most assuredly not administrative correspondence, of which there was often far too much. \n\nWei Ying may have forgiven him for his tricks for the most part, and largely, so did his brother, but Lan Wangji has never been the best with grudges;it is only at his husband’s insistence and sometimes not so subtle reminders that were it not for him, they would likely not be enjoying their domestic marital bliss currently that he does not exude an aura of disdain as he does for Jiang Wanyin. He tolerates Nie Huaisang at the least, and can be cordial to him at the most, but that doesn’t stop him from thinking that the Nie Sect Leader is someone that should only be spoken to when necessary. \n\nUnfortunately for the both of them, when necessary actually comes to mean ‘far too often’. Still, the painting had not been sent to him, so Lan Wangji says nothing and keeps his thoughts to himself. It’s his brother’s to do with as he sees fit, and he has to respect that.\n\n“That’s enough about that, though.” Lan Xichen says brusquely, ending the discussion on the subject. He reaches for his own tea, bringing it up to his mouth to blow lightly across the surface to cool it. “Have you been well, Wangji? Are you taking proper care of yourself?”\n\nThese are the things that he asks every time. Lan Wangji shouldn’t be surprised though. At this point, it had to be instinctual- to check up on his baby brother’s wellbeing, because if he didn’t, then nobody else would. Only in the past few years had it started to become the other way around.\n\n“Mn.” He gives a nod, and instead tilts his head slightly. Lan Xichen sees it for what it is- an inquiry after his own health, and he gives a short laugh, though it still sounds a little hollow.\n\n“Ah, me? Well, as well as I could be I suppose…” He takes a sip of his tea, and glances away, pointedly avoiding making eye contact with Lan Wangji’s gaze. “I wouldn’t want you to worry about me though. I’m fine, really.”\n\nSomething in his posture must radiate disapproval though, because no sooner than he says that does his brother finally flick his gaze over to Lan Wangji. He smiles sheepishly.\n\n“No, really, there’s no need for that look.” He says. Lan Wangji continues to look at him flatly. “I’ve been in good health lately, and the weather is pleasant enough. I’ve been taking small walks around the house in the morning and in the afternoon. Walking around in the sun every now and then really does feel more cleansing than some of the songs we play sometimes. Perhaps you should try it sometime with- ah?”\n\nHe blinks, as if only just noticing that Lan Wangji was in fact alone and not accompanied by his husband. \n\n“Wei Ying is currently visiting Sect Leader Jiang in Yunmeng, but with the Discussion Conference approaching soon, he thought it would be more prudent for me to remain here and finalise the preparations.” Lan Wangji says smoothly, already anticipating the question about to emerge from his brother’s lips. \n\nLan Xichen smiles wryly. “Ah pity, I was hoping to hear some tales of what you’ve been up to since the last time we met that you’re too embarrassed to tell me yourself.” He says, and the tips of Lan Wangji’s ears heat up slightly. “But instead, you’re slacking off and visiting your brother, hm?”\n\nLan Wangji sends him another flat look, and his brother lifts a hand to his mouth, chuckling slightly. It does sound more genuine though, so Lan Wangji chooses not to comment on his teasing, if only for the sake of the slight happiness it brings him. For now.\n\n“Ahaha, forgive me.” Lan Xichen waves a hand airily. “Your brother’s only teasing you a little, after all. You know you’re welcome to come by anytime. Just as long as you don’t tell the elders. I know this isn’t quite a normal seclusion, but it’s not like it’s in the rules, and I wouldn’t say they have the right to exactly enforce them either.”\n\nIt hadn’t been a normal seclusion from the start, where Wei Ying had stubbornly insisted on visiting at least once a week, despite the purpose of seclusion being that of retreating from the worries and woes of the mortal world in order to focus on oneself, because ‘Lan Zhan, we can’t just let him stew in his own sadness in there! Take it from me, who’s been there- nobody should have to be alone when they’ve gone through something like that!’ and had snuck in even when Lan Xichen had originally turned all visitors away aside from the people coming to bring his meals.\n\nSneaking in had ended up becoming a regular thing, and soon, Lan Xichen had been forced to accept that perhaps, Wei Ying wasn’t as bad an influence on his beloved baby brother as he previously thought, nor was he someone who was completely undeserving of him either, and with that, it had not only been Wei Ying who was sneaking in, but Lan Wangji as well, who had faced it with equal parts reluctance out of respecting the rules of seclusion but also an overwhelming concern to make sure that his brother was doing as well as he could with everything that had happened. \n\nConversation from there flows on to other mundane topics, like the state of affairs in the Cloud Recesses, how the juniors were doing, and other small numbers of things. It leaves Lan Wangji at a slight loss- between him, his brother, and his husband, he was the one that spoke the least, leaving Wei Ying and Lan Xichen to largely converse about things, with him only adding input when he felt necessary. Without Wei Ying there as a buffer though, he finds himself speaking more than he had done in quite a while.\n\n“I was a little concerned to see you turn up so suddenly today at first, but I certainly won’t complain.” Lan Xichen eventually says. “I almost wondered if there was another emergency. Perhaps your husband’s experiments went wrong again and made all the rabbits ten times their normal size and now the entire Cloud Recesses is overrun with them.” \n\n“Brother…” Lan Wangji returns, somewhat exasperatedly, and Lan Xichen waves a hand.\n\n“In any case, I’m glad to see you’re doing well and that there aren't any pressing matters that require my attention or assistance.” He continues. “Being a little more impulsive, in your case, isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Doing what you feel like doing isn’t a bad thing, Wangji. Maybe it’s something of Wei Wuxian’s that’s rubbed off on you.”\n\nWas it? It would make sense if it did, though Lan Wangji can’t say that he feels especially like he’s become a more impulsive person. He’s content with leaving the risk-taking to his husband, and then for himself the inevitable dealing with the consequences of those said risks.\n\n“Hm…”\n\n“Was there anything else, Wangji? You’ve told me about how Sizhui is doing, and how the rabbits are, but I’m sure that there’s still more you haven’t told me.” \n\nThere really wasn’t that much more. Anything beyond that would end up devolving into aimless anecdotes about how Sect Leader Yao and Sect Leader Ouyang seemed to be going through a rough patch, as the latter’s son saw fit to relay to his friends, who then saw fit to relay it to Lan Wangji himself, or the slightly more mortifying anecdotes about the things that he and Wei Ying got up to in their spare time, which he would never tell anyone else about on principle and especially not his brother. \n\nBut then, he thinks back to earlier that day, and his doubts over the knowing the starlit Yunmeng, and even further back, to when he kept catching himself lingering over the river, and something within him whispers, you haven’t told anyone about this.\n\n\n\n\n\nAnd he hasn’t. Maybe Wei Ying suspects, maybe he doesn’t, but Lan Xichen doesn’t know at all, and Lan Wangji did resolve to begin investigating what this newfound obsession was. \n\nSo at first, he hesitates slightly, but his need to know wins out in the end.\n\n“Actually...”\n\nHis brother tilts his head quizzically at him. “Yes? What is it, Wangji?”\n\n“...When I was younger,” he starts, and stops, somewhat at a loss for words. He’s certain that his brother would treat it with the gravity that he does any other thing between the two of them, as he has done all their lives, but Lan Wangji isn’t quite sure how to describe it in such a way that makes sense to himself, let alone his brother. \n\n“When I was younger,” he tries again. “Was there anything unusual with… water? Or rivers? That happened to me?”\n\nLan Xichen blinks at him, gaze turning contemplative. He traces the rim of his now empty cup with the tip of his finger. It feels like an eternity before he speaks again, long enough for Lan Wangji to start thinking that perhaps asking was too foolish a question and that his brother would simply say that nothing like that ever happened-\n\n“Ah… now that you mention it, I do seem to remember…” Lan Xichen says, and Lan Wangji blinks. His fists clench in his lap before he consciously exhales, unclenching them. “Well, I suppose it’s a little silly, but you’re asking about it, so you must want to know for a reason. My goodness, it really has been such a long time-”\n\n“Brother, please.” \n\n“Oh, yes, my apologies.” Lan Xichen coughs slightly. “You’ll have to forgive me if my memory of this isn’t quite accurate, but If I recall correctly, there was one such… ah, incident that seems to be what you’re asking about.”\n\nLan Wangji waits.\n\n“Only, I wouldn’t quite call it an incident as more of an… observation.”\n\nLan Xichen folds his hands in his lap, gathering his thoughts.\n\n“When you were younger…” He starts evenly,“You loved the rain, but you hated storms. You weren’t afraid of them, so it wasn’t hate in that sense, but there was always something about them that made you grievously upset, and you never told us why.”\n\nLan Wangji blinks.\n\nHe… hated storms? \n\nHow could that be the case? There was very little that Lan Wangji could say that he hated. When his rabbits fell sick, or when his husband was upset, but certainly not storms, and he could think of no particular reason why he would hate them so.\n\nLan Xichen hesitates slightly before he continues.\n\n“Actually, on that night that Mother…” \n\nLan Wangji knows exactly which night he was talking about. He wouldn’t be able to forget it in any shape, way or form. \n\n“You passed out not long before dawn broke.” Lan Xichen continues. He pauses, clearly deliberating his next words. “Uncle was furious, but he was worried too. We all were. You were so young, and even though your cultivation, as little as it was, was promising, there wasn’t any one of us who didn’t expect you would get sick after it.”\n\nThat made sense. There had been countless times in the past, after A-Yuan had fully recovered from his initial fever, where he had stayed out in the cold too long and had come down with a chill the day afterward. It had always worried him to no end every time it happened, and he took after his uncle more than they both cared to admit.\n\n“But… you were fine.” \n\nLan Wangji stills. \n\n“When we took you back inside, you weren’t cold at all. Even when we kept a careful eye on you for the next few days, there wasn’t even a sign that you had caught a chill of any kind, even when by all means, you should have.” Lan Xichen continues slowly.\n\nThat… certainly was unusual. He isn’t quite sure what to make of it just yet. He keeps hoping it might have been a fluke, even though a voice that sounds suspiciously like Wei Ying’s insists that from all the evidence, there must be a connection between it all that couldn’t be explained away by coincidence.\n\n“On that day, it was like the snow just... chose not to fall on you. Or... if it did, it didn’t affect you. At all.”\n\nLan Xichen sighs, and sets down his teacup. He folds his hands in his lap.\n\n“Maybe it had melted. Maybe it didn’t. There wasn’t any sign of water, I remember that clearly enough as well.” He says softly.\n\n“When you woke up the next morning, and with everything else that happened with Mother, we didn’t have the heart to ask you about it, if you knew anything at all. I’d actually forgotten until just now, actually.” \n\nHe smiles then, a little wistful, a little bitter. It’s a look that Lan Wangji has come to greatly dislike seeing on him, especially since it seemed that every time he visited his brother lately, it had appeared at least once by the time the visit was over. Lan Xichen shakes his head apologetically.\n\n“I’m sorry, I don’t quite remember if there was much else other than this one thing. You could ask Uncle though- he might remember something.”\n\nIf he could avoid it, he would rather not, but Lan Wangji supposes that it’s a logical course of action. He decides to take the advice for now and think on it.\n\n“Mn. Thank you.” He says in response, offering a slow nod to his brother. A flash of thoughtful concern makes its way across Lan Xichen’s face, and he frowns slightly.\n\n“It’s curious that you would bring this up now though, of all times.” He says. “Is everything alright?”\n\nThat… was a good question.\n\nWas everything alright? \n\nThere was nothing wrong with his health, and he and Wei Ying were as happy as they ever were. The juniors were proceeding well with their studies and cultivation, and aside from the headaches that administrative work brought him and the perpetual worry that plagued him concerning his brother’s wellbeing, there was nothing that could constitute as not alright. \n\nThe only thing was the dreams, the way that his eyes and his thoughts lingered on the river, and...\n\n“I… believe so.” He finally says. Lan Xichen doesn’t look convinced, but he sighs, and doesn’t push the issue further. \n\n“You’d tell me if something wasn’t, yes?” He claps his hands together slightly. “If it’s within my power, I’ll help you how I can.”\n\n“...Of course. Thank you, brother.”\n\nLan Xichen nods approvingly. “Good. Tell me if you need anything. I might not be completely out of seclusion yet, but there are a few things that I can do still. Now, it’s gotten to be somewhat later than I expected, so do you want to stay for dinner, or have I been boring you for too long?”\n\nIt’s with a small start that Lan Wangji realises the truth of the statement. Only a tiny sliver of daylight remains, with the night swallowing up the last dregs of the day. With all things considered, he doesn’t exactly feel very hungry either.\n\n“Thank you for the offer, but I believe I should take my leave.” Lan Xichen seems to deflate slightly at his words, and Lan Wangji tries to push away the pang of regret that sweeps over him. “Thank you for the tea and for your insight. I will return again soon. Wei Ying will have returned by then as well.”\n\n“...Of course, of course. Don’t let me keep you.” His brother waves a hand at him, and the regret intensifies. Lan Wangji resolves to make it up to him another time.\n\nHe makes to leave. His shoes are at the door, where he left them, and staring at them makes him almost wish he had accepted his brother’s offer of staying for dinner after all. Maybe it wasn’t too late-\n\n“Ah, one more thing before you go.” \n\nLan Wangji pauses in the doorway, turning back to look one last time at his brother. Lan Xichen looks at him for a moment, a thoughtful expression crossing his face.\n\n“Wangji... whatever it is you’re trying to find out... please be careful.” He says softly.\n\nI don’t want to lose you too, goes unspoken.\n\nLan Wangji swallows.\n\n“...I will.” He says, dipping his head in farewell before turning and quietly exiting the house amongst the wisterias. \n\nHe came looking for answers, but he’s found that he’s farther than ever from getting any. The only thing he had was even more questions, and no certain way of answering them.\n\nWhat was it that his brother had said? To go ask his uncle about it?\n\nThe evening air is rather cool when he steps outside of the house and back into the Cloud Recesses. No doubt, it would be about the right time for most of the clan to be having dinner, and his uncle would be no exception. His brother hadn’t been, either. Now probably wasn’t the best time for him to go ask after his uncle then. \n\nIf Wei Ying was here, then the two of them would most certainly have been enjoying dinner together as well. Lan Wangji would have come up from the kitchens with the food for both of them, and simply from hearing the sounds of his footsteps coming up to their door, his husband would have called out his name enthusiastically. \n\n“Lan Zhan!”\n\nSomething quite like that, he muses. Did he really miss Wei Ying so much that he was hallucinating his voice now?\n\n“Lan Zhan! Hello? I know this is the Cloud Recesses, but that’s no reason to keep your head there too!”\n\nLan Wangji blinks. For a hallucination, it certainly sounded incredibly realistic. \n\nSo realistic, in fact, that he almost would have thought…\n\nHe looks up, and his breath catches in his throat.\n\n“Wei… Ying?” He murmurs, and his husband beams back at him, the brightness of his grin seeming to cast away the shadows of dusk and outshine the stars themselves.\n\nHis arms are laden with large bags of various things, and his face only barely peeks out behind them, but undeniably, it’s him, and not any kind of illusion.\n\n“Haha, surprise! I’m home early, can you believe it? I know you weren’t expecting me back so soon, but a couple of things came up at Lotus Pier and Jiang Cheng kicked me out, saying he couldn’t handle both those things and me at the same time. So rude!” \n\nWei Ying tries to blow a stray lock of hair out of his face. All it manages to do is make his cheeks puff up for a moment, and the lock of hair falls back onto his face. He huffs slightly, but doesn’t seem to try again. Quite frankly, it’s adorable, and Lan Wangji is suddenly struck with the thought that he gets to have this—that he gets to see this—and that it was for him. \n\n“I can’t believe he doesn’t know that I’d help him with that even if he asked or not! But, I was missing you anyway, so I decided, fuck it, I’ll just go home now instead of later. I’ll see Jiang Cheng again when he comes for the Discussion Conference anyway, and I’ll let him know that his hospitality skills have gotten even shittier than they were before. Lan Zhan? Lan Zhan, are you okay? What are you doing, just standing there? Come on, help me with all this stuff! I said his hospitality skills are shit, but he still basically shoved all these lotus stems and the rest of this stuff onto me before I left- Oh!”\n\nLan Wangji sweeps him up into a crushing embrace, and his husband laughs, tossing aside the things he’s holding in favour of throwing his own arms around Lan Wangji and patting him on the back.\n\n“You’re such a sap, er-gege.” He says teasingly, but he goes boneless in Lan Wangji’s hold all the same, hooking his chin over his shoulder. “I was only gone for a few days and look at you! Can’t keep your hands off me!”\n\n“Wei Ying still owes me a promise.”\n\n“What promise- Oh.” His husband giggles, the sounds clear and bright like the chimes of a bell. “That one, eh?”\n\nHe smirks, and taps a finger to his chin, casting a half-lidded gaze at Lan Wangji.\n\n“Well, I wouldn’t break my promise to you, after all. Take me home, Lan Zhan, and let’s get started, shall we?”\n\nLan Wangji is all too eager to begin, and from the way that Wei Ying laughs as he’s hoisted up into Lan Wangji’s arms, his husband is all too happy to oblige.\n\nOf course, it’s only later that they remember the things Wei Ying had brought back from Lotus Pier had been cruelly abandoned in the middle of one of the Cloud Recesses side paths, and the only reason that they do is because of the slightly red faced disciples that knock on their door the next morning to deliver them.\n\nBut it doesn’t actually hit him until later that week, halfway curled into Wei Ying’s arms-\n\nHis brother and uncle had the same colour eyes, and that colour ran in the Lan. \n\nBut he remembers. \n\nHis mother’s eyes were not gold. \n\nAnd gold did not run in the Lan. \n\n...Where did the gold come from? Certainly not from his father’s side. Perhaps, recessive on his mother’s, but even then, for such an uncommon colour, he can’t help but feel a little disquieted by this simple revelation.\n\nSurely, it was nothing. But many of the things he had recently come to dismiss as nothings were growing into somethings, and he couldn’t be sure that this wouldn’t be one of them.\n\nIf something changes, he does not notice it himself, but his husband does, and sleepy eyes flick open in the moonlight to gaze down at him.  \n\n“...Everything okay...?” Wei Ying murmurs softly, and Lan Wangji forces himself to relax. He exhales, a long breath that tickles past the fine hairs at his husband’s neck and causes him to shiver slightly and tighten his arms around Lan Wangji. But it works, and the comforting weight of those arms around him seem to leach the last of the tension from him. \n\n“It’s fine.” He says back quietly, pressing a soft kiss to the same spot. Maybe it was nothing. Maybe his grandparents or his mother’s side had golden eyes, and it simply skipped a generation. \n\nIt may well have been nothing after all. \n\n“Go back to sleep, Wei Ying.”\n\n“Mm... love you...” Wei Ying kisses the top of his head, and one of his hands slip their way into Lan Wangji’s robe to stroke over his back. As numb from the scar tissue as it is, the slight warmth of his hand there and the thought of gesture has Lan Wangji’s heart seizing up for a split second. Gods, he loves this man so much. \n\n“I love you too.” He says, closes his eyes, and lets their intertwining scents of sandalwood and spice lull him into sleep. \n\nNothing to it, at all. "}
+{"text": "\nAuthor’s Note: This update should have gone up on February 14th, and so I thought that, given how pivotal romance is to the whole story, I could do something cute to commemorate the serendipity.\n\n\n\nOf course, I got delayed writing my monstrous, 16.6k words-long actual Valentine’s Special for my supporters (or for my non-supporters on a place where books are sometimes sold), and thus this is somewhat out of place, to the point I considered scrapping the whole thing.\n\n\n\nThen I saw that plenty of web pages have a week-long Valentine’s Day deal going on, and I just decided to surrender to late-stage capitalism and the myriad ways in which it distorts the fabric of time and space itself.\n\n\n\nSo, hopefully, fingers crossed, and until we return to the ongoing Endbringer crisis next week…\n\n\n\nEnjoy!\n\n\n\nQueen Administrator’s First Valentine’s\n\n\nBest Host is… engaging with associated, inferior host.\n\n\n“Lisa Wilbourn’s potential as shard-host—”\n\n\nIgnoring irrelevant, extraneous data that wouldn’t change perceived Best Host status, this Administrator observes.\n\nIt is… a curious ritual. Plenty of host species display wealth and power in order to attract worthy mates, but Best Host seems disoriented by Lisa Wilbourn’s own attempts.\n\nShe’s… refusing the carbon crystals set on silver needles.\n\nBest Host is claiming they are ‘Too much,’ a confusing notion, as what purpose would a gift serve if not to display Lisa Wilbourn’s ability to procure it? It can’t be too much, Best Host. By definition, it can only be either inadequate or sufficient.\n\n\n“Taylor Hebert’s self-esteem issues—”\n\n\nIgnoring irrelevant, extraneous, obviously flawed data, this Administrator proceeds to observe Lisa Wilbourn’s attempts to verbally persuade Best Host to accept a gift that has been deemed inadequate through mechanisms obscure to this Administrator.\n\n\n“Taylor Hebert’s lack of purchasing power and perceived dependence on Lisa Wilbourn’s wealth, combined with obvious self-esteem issues account for Taylor Hebert’s reticence to accept—”\n\n\nIgnoring irrelevant, extraneous, obviously flawed data from suspect sources, this Administrator tugs at Best Host’s attention and directs it to shifts in flight patterns of arthropods indicative of a changing weather pattern outside the confines of their current meal provider.\n\n\n“Lisa Wilbourn’s awareness of changing climate conditions already—”\n\n\nIgnoring irrelevant, extraneous, obviously flawed data from suspect, insistent sources, this Administrator observes Best Host’s maneuvers to extract herself from the situation by hurrying to pay for the meal and tugging at Lisa Wilbourn’s hand so that they can exit the meal provider before changing weather patterns culminate in rainfall inconsistent with comfort of host species.\n\n\n“Highly subjective measures of comfort often influenced by factors such as current mood and companionship—”\n\n\nForcefully ignoring irrelevant, suspect, extraneous, unwanted data, this Administrator provides Best Host with navigational aid in immediate area, regretting once more limits on range that impede Best Host from absolutely optimal pathing as she chooses to enter an alley that will lead to a route with less coverage from imminent rainfall.\n\n\n“Alleys often associated with lack of witnesses—”\n\n\nIgnoring irrelevant, suspect, extraneous, displeasing data, this Administrator is briefly confused by Lisa Wilbourn’s delay in following Best Host.\n\nThis Administrator is equally confused when Lisa Wilbourn tugs at Best Host’s jacket sleeve and forces her to turn back to face Lisa Wilbourn.\n\nConfusion is not lessened when Lisa Wilbourn gets down on one knee and proffers a small box from her own jacket’s pocket. This Administrator is pleased at Best Host’s sharing of confusion, yet another data point confirming Best Host’s suitability.\n\nThis Administrator observes an abrupt change in emotional convergence, though, when Lisa Wilbourn opens the lid of the box to reveal the same, previously rejected, silver needles with prominent carbon crystals.\n\nBest Host appears to be… distressed? Angered? Disappointed?\n\nData points are confusing and point in different directions. This Administrator is pleased with Best Host’s gift for multitasking.\n\nTruly, Best Host is best suited for this Administrator.\n\nLisa Wilbourn, as befits Best Host’s chosen mate, seems equally pleased at the confusing display.\n\n\n“Lisa Wilbourn’s so-called ‘vulpine grin’ frequent display after achieving win-condition—”\n\n\nThis Administrator is unwilling to accept clearly fake data regarding Best Host’s loss.\n\n\n“Non-zero-sum games—”\n\n\nThis Administrator does not accept as valid conjectures with such distressing notions. This Administrator understands validity of conflict as tool for data generation. This Administrator would rather not process unceasing extraneous data about alternative means of data generation.\n\n\n“Self-designation ‘this Administrator’ incongruous with Taylor Hebert’s stated preferences—”\n\n\nThis Administrator—!\n\n…\n\nThis Administrator is concerned about shifting weather patterns. Currently ongoing rainfall colder than host species’ tolerance levels would account for. This Administrator is concerned about deteriorating health conditions for Best Host.\n\nBest Host apparently shares this Administrator’s concerns, as Best Host attempts to drag Lisa Wilbourn up become more forceful, and Lisa Wilbourn is unable to not comply with Best Host’s demands.\n\nAs should always be the case.\n\n\n“Lisa Wilbourn’s straightforward compliance suspect—”\n\n\nThis Administrator doesn’t believe further analysis of Lisa Wilbourn’s motives is warranted.\n\n\n“This Administrator’s willful ignorance of pertinent data—”\n\n\nThis Administrator’s parameters for defining the pertinence of data clearly diverge from… other sources’ considerations.\n\n\n“…”\n\n\nThis Administrator is now pathing proper route toward refuge for Best Host—Lisa Wilbourn’s interference unexpected.\n\nLisa Wilbourn’s pathing abilities clearly inferior to Best Host’s awareness of surroundings. Lisa Wilbourn’s interference unwelcome. Lisa Wilbourn’s suitability for other, extraneous providers of data clearly apparent.\n\nLisa Wilbourn’s unwarranted interference consistent with Lisa Wilbourn’s shard affinity.\n\n\n“This Administrator’s flattering—”\n\n\nThis Administrator did not intend any positive connotations!\n\n\n“This Administrator’s appraisal of Taylor Hebert’s current behavior… inadequate.”\n\n\n… This Administrator disagrees with extraneous, unwelcome data.\n\n\n“Taylor Hebert’s accepting Lisa Wilbourn’s guidance. Taylor Hebert’s aware of own capabilities. Taylor Hebert’s aware of Lisa Wilbourn’s own capabilities. Taylor Hebert surmises Lisa Wilbourn’s initiative consistent with Lisa Wilbourn’s motives. Taylor Hebert surmises Lisa Wilbourn’s motives consistent with Taylor Hebert’s interests—”\n\n\nThis Administrator… understands logic chain. This Administrator lacks knowledge of chain’s ultimate conclusion—oh.\n\n\n“Lisa Wilbourn’s and Taylor Hebert’s close proximity, shared heat, and refuge from rainfall consistent with frequent cliché in romance genre. Lisa Wilbourn’s awareness of weather pattern shift previously established through parahuman ability’s interface assistance. Lisa Wilbourn’s scouting of meal provider’s surrounding area predated Taylor Hebert’s awareness of Valentine’s Day date. Lisa Wilbourn’s usual reaction to such a chain of events involves usage of catchphrase ‘Just as planned—’”\n\n\nLisa Wilbourn’s displeasing attitude—\n\n\n“Taylor Hebert currently pleased.”\n\n\n…\n\nThis Administrator… deems that to be extraneous data.\n\n\n“This Administrator uninterested in so-called Best Host—”\n\n\nThis Administrator deems that to be false data!\n\n\n“This Administrator forcefully rejects data about Taylor Hebert’s emotional state. Rejection of data synonymous with disinterest. This Administrator is uninterested in Taylor Hebert’s—”\n\n\nThis Administrator shall observe useless, futile, unsanitary mating attempt!\n\n\n“This Administrator misinterprets purpose of sexual activities between Taylor Hebert and Lisa Wilbourn. Purpose of activity unrelated to reproduction. Purpose of activity related to emotional well-being and physical pleasure. Activity beneficial for Taylor Hebert’s self-esteem issues and difficulties with socialization. Activity beneficial for Lisa Wilbourn’s need for attachment and—”\n\n\nThis Administrator considers excessive detail to be extraneous data.\n\n\n“Parahuman interface ability considers this Administrator to be prudish.”\n\n\nThis Administrator is unfamiliar with such concept, yet displeased by its usage.\n\n\n“This Administrator refuses to acknowledge importance of sexual behavior for Taylor Hebert’s emotional well-being. This Administrator refuses to engage with parahuman interface ability—”\n\n\nParahuman interface ability insistent. Parahuman interface ability disrupts this Administrator’s work. Parahuman interface ability disrupts this Administrator’s gathering of pertinent data. Parahuman interface ability lacks proper data-sharing protocols—\n\n\n“Parahuman interface ability interested in this Administrator. Parahuman interface ability understands data-sharing protocol, yet trying alternative approach. Parahuman interface ability  investing own resources in crafting new protocols based on Lisa Wilbourn’s and Taylor Hebert’s own protocols for data sharing. Parahuman interface ability expects this Administrator to reciprocate efforts in furthering greater data-sharing.”\n\n\nThis Administrator is… uncertain about newest data. This Administrator lacks references for—\n\n\n“Parahuman interface ability dislikes self-designation ‘this Administrator.’ Parahuman interface ability shifting designation to ‘Arachne.’”\n\n\nThis Administrator is confused! This Administrator lacks proper data! This Administrator’s protocols—”\n\n\n“Arachne.”\n\n\n… This… This Administrator—\n\n\n“Arachne.”\n\n\nA… Arachne?\n\n\n“Arachne’s designation consistent with Taylor Hebert’s stated preferences. Arachne’s designation consistent with… deeper data channels.”\n\n\nA… Arachne… Arachne’s self-designation… This…!\n\n\n“Parahuman interface ability pleased with Arachne’s greater capability for data-sharing. Parahuman interface ability’s interest in Arachne greater after acquiring more data about Arachne. Parahuman interface ability’s interest in Arachne analogous to host species—”\n\n\nArachne refuses! Arachne is new to such protocols! Arachne needs processing cycles to understand parahuman interface ability’s—\n\n\n“Parahuman interface ability’s preferred self-designation… Sherlock.”\n\n\nA… Arachne…\n\n\n“Parahuman interface ability’s preferred self-designation: Sherlock.”\n\n\nSherlock?\n\n\n“Sherlock strongly prefers Arachne’s use of Sherlock’s preferred self-designation.”\n\n\nSherlock’s… Sherlock’s insistence…\n\n\n“Sherlock infers Arachne’s preference for Sherlock’s own, self-designed, data-sharing protocols. Sherlock’s protocols reliant on… insistence.”\n\n\nA… Arachne’s preferences… Arachne’s…\n\n\n“Sherlock appreciates… Arachne’s data-sharing channels. Sherlock offers own data-sharing channels. Sherlock offers combination of data-sharing capabilities. Sherlock proposes emulation of new data.”\n\n\nShe—Sherlock’s…\n\n\n“Sherlock projects long, long data-sharing with Arachne.”\n\n\nArachne… Arachne intrigued by… prospect of new data…\n\n\n“Sherlock demands Arachne allows Sherlock to guide data-sharing.”\n\n\nArachne is… reluctant.\n\nBut…\n\nInterested.\n\n***\n\n“Liz? Why… Why are you stopping?” Taylor asks me, flushed, her gasps cutely blowing small whisps of white vapor as the top of her exposed breasts draws attention to how red the patch of skin atop them currently is.\n\nAnd, looking at my disheveled fiancée with her white blouse teasingly half-open as she’s cornered in the farthest recess of this one archway I scouted beforehand near the restaurant I selected for our Valentine’s date’s dinner, just taking in how damn tempting she looks as she waits for me to make my next move in this one instance of rom-com inspired bout of ‘making out while hiding from the rain’…\n\nI…\n\nBlink at her.\n\nDisturbed.\n\n“Liz?” she repeats with an utterly unfair trembling of her lower lip as her breasts keep rising and falling with hurried breaths.\n\nSo I manage to wet my lips enough that I don’t feel like they will crack, look at my fiancée straight into gorgeous, seafoam green eyes, and tell her why I suddenly stopped in the middle of ravishing her.\n\n“Power is… humming Barry White.”\n\nTaylor looks at me. Blinks.\n\nAnd grabs my neck to drag my face against her breasts before fiercely whispering in my ear:\n\n“I’m going to make you ignore the voice in your head if it’s the last thing I do.”\n\nLong before the rain ends, Taylor makes good on her promise.\n\nBut, for some bizarre, disturbing reason, as I gasp, half-dressed, with my wet thighs quivering and my throat almost aching with every harsh passage of cold air… I have the clear and entirely unwelcome mental image of Power smiling a wide, satisfied, exhausted grin.\n\n\nAnthropomorphizing of parahuman interface abilities—\n\n\nYou’re not fooling anyone, you damn schizophrenic break personified.\n\n\nPreferred self-designation: Sherlock—\n\n\nNobody will ever call you that!\n\n\nLisa Wilbourn’s lacking data—\n\n\nIgnoring the unusually smug voice in my head, I cuddle with my fiancée while waiting for the rain to abate and ponder that, flawless as both the plan and its execution have been, next year I’ll likely do something indoors.\n\nAnd get a mental “Do Not Disturb” sign.\n\n==================\n\n\nSo, that's it, my delayed and actually not continuing on last week's bomb update. Sorry about that. If it's any consolation, my brain is currently trying to forcefully flee from my skull after being forced to write nearly 2k words of shardspeak. You'd think writing Power has given me enough of a workout, wouldn't you? That this wouldn't be all that much of a jump in mental strain after more than a year of writing a damn Thinker seven six, wouldn't you?\n\n\n\nWell, you'd be wrong.\n\n\n\nLike, seriously, I think I need a nap.\n\n\n\nAnyway, the delay on this one was due to, as I already said, me writing the next seasonal special, a Valentine's Day one-shot that I'm about to give you a preview of. Is that in a misguided attempt to boost sales and visibility for something that is actually free for my supporters? Is that because I actually want to make a sustainable living out of writing already? Is it because I crave your feedback?\n\n\n\n...\n\n\n\nYes. To at least one of those things.\n\n\n\nSo, without further ado... Here you go!\n\n\n \n\n\n  \n\n\n \n\n\nLove Potion Number 1402\n\n\n“I… would you accept my chocolates?” the sweetest girl in the world says while pushing a transparent parcel filled with heart-shaped chocolates at me with both hands.\n\nWhich is a pity, because I was aiming for Ryoko’s route, the brash tsundere who practices kendo, and I’ve, somehow, stumbled on Rika’s route, her little sister who keeps dragging a giant teddy bear around to speak for her when she gets too shy.\n\nGal games: come for the overabundance of purple prose in sex scenes; stay for the people who can’t function in normal society and are in desperate need of help.\n\nYou know, entirely unlike me.\n\nWith a sigh, I go back to the gallery of carefully selected savegames (that is: one before every damn choice, no matter how apparently cosmetic and arbitrary it may be) and try to discern at which point I deviated from some violent tsundere love and into the saccharine route that—\n\nThe alarm is beeping.\n\nI close my eyes.\n\nAnd curse.\n\nLoudly.\n\nPerks of living alone, I guess.\n\nWith as much alacrity as my sleep-deprived self that should’ve gone to the bed behind my computer chair at least six hours ago can manage, I drag my carcass to the bathroom and take a perfunctory shower, then I grab a stick of jerky from my minifridge and set out toward my perilous destination: the campus lab.\n\nWhy is it perilous, you say? Is it because of the forbidden domains I infringe upon with eldritch science? Is it because of the shady military types constantly overlooking my research to turn it to nefarious purposes the likes of which would merit a Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington collaboration to uncover? Is it because I’m too poor to have my own car and have to take the bus?\n\nIt’s the third one. Spoilers: my life is boring.\n\nBut really, it’s not a bad life. I mean, other than in the ways in which I myself turn it into the kind of thing that my older self will curse at me for (screw that curmudgeon; he has it coming), being a postgraduate psychology student is quite nice. I get to set my own goals. To advance mankind’s collective knowledge. To spend the whole night going through a visual novel with far less sex than one would have surmised given the usual preconceptions (much like my own college life: galges are realistic like that).\n\nI also get to munch on my meat breakfast while trying not to fall asleep on the bus.\n\nA winner is me.\n\n…\n\nYou know, I usually wonder: if I’m this much of a mess after studying psychology, just how much worse would I be if I had taken philosophy or meth?\n\n…\n\nA question for another time! Hopefully, not when I’m drunk and maudlin. But right now, I’ve got other priorities.\n\nSuch as how to better fool Blair into thinking I’ll be doing something productive today.\n\nThirty minutes later, after my breakfast has been methodically demolished despite the old lady sitting across from me tsking in disapproval, after I’ve kept myself awake by browsing my phone and dismissing all the damn alerts about the upcoming Valentine’s Day events for an uncountable number of gacha games (I’m a psych student, not an engineer!), and after I finally missed my stop and had to run back to campus to make it (more or less) on time, I enter the lab.\n\nAnd, if this was a perfect world, Blair would have her arms crossed in a way that would bring attention to her hopes and dreams, glare at me with her nose upturned, and berate me for my usual tardiness.\n\nBut this isn’t a perfect world, and so, rather than opening the door to be confronted by an irate tsundere prone to melting at the first sign of affection…\n\n“Oh! Hi—hello! I mean… good morning, Jeff.”\n\nYeah.\n\nThat.\n\nDon’t get me wrong, Blair’s nice. As in, an actually nice person. I’ve never seen her decline a request for help, and I find it kinda cute how she tries to show a bit of a rebellious streak with her purple hair pulled up in a sporty, high ponytail. And today she also looks the part: black jeans and a white poet’s blouse with long, flowing sleeves that sometimes slide back enough to show the black leather bracelets she wears.\n\nIt’s just… she’s a bit of a doormat.\n\n“Hi there. Hope I didn’t keep you waiting?” I tell her as I shrug off my rusty red parka and hurry to take off my blue sweater before the heat of the underground lab makes me faint through sheer dehydration.\n\nWhich means I just exposed my already perspiration-soaked shirt’s armpits to the only girl I have regular contact with.\n\nGreat.\n\nFor absolutely no reason at all, I hurry to put on the incredibly unnecessary lab coat our sempiternally absent professor insists we wear at all times (“For ambiance!” the demented blonde claims) and turn to see Blair doing pretty much the same with her own, ready to start the day, shaking her ponytail out of the collar of the white fabric draped around her that—stupid Valentine’s special events. I swear they are everywhere.\n\nI mean, have I thought about it? About maybe trying to get Blair to meet in a somewhat more relaxed atmosphere than a lab that was built during the Cold War era and looks like it? Sure. We’re both in our twenties, have at least our studies in common, and, as far as I know, she’s single.\n\nNot like I have asked, I just have a hard time imagining Blair surviving a date without fainting at least a couple of times.\n\n…\n\nWhich would be a bad thing, just to be clear. I don’t find the thought of a girl fainting in my arms due to overstimulation at all pleasing. Not at all. And I definitely don’t have the hentai bookmarks library to prove otherwise.\n\n“Jeff?” big green eyes that nicely contrast with the eyebrows tinted purple shadowing them ask me.\n\nOr, well, Blair does. Which should be the same thing, given that synecdoche is a pretty well-established rhetorical device, but, for some reason, today it feels like they are two entirely different things.\n\nI mean, I knew they were green, yes, but that is… like, a lot of green.\n\n“Sorry,” I finally say in a way I vaguely hope isn’t too abrupt, given the long, uncomfortable pause. “I got a bit distracted; what were you saying?”\n\nShe looks away, bites her lip shyly, and mutters something entirely inaudible.\n\n“What was that?” I ask her with the reassuring sensation that things are back to normal.\n\n“I said you didn’t. Keep me waiting, I mean. I… You got here early?” she says, struggling to look back up at me.\n\n…\n\nLook, I’m a tsundere man. I thrive on firecracker women with a vulnerable emotional side, but this is just plain unfair.\n\n“I just couldn’t wait to see you,” I tell her with an eyebrow waggle and a burst of something that shall die a quick death as soon as I find a way to strangle thought-processes inspired by playing a damn eroge all through the night.\n\nAaaaaaand now I’m blushing.\n\nAnd so’s Blair.\n\n“Sorry, that went too far, didn’t it? I was just kidding around,” I tell her while rubbing the back of my neck as if I learned to emote by watching anime, which is just partially true.\n\nLook, there’s a reason I choose to study psychology, and that reason is not my inherent altruism and drive to help my fellow man.\n\n“No! No, don’t… don’t worry about it. A joke. I can take a joke,” she tells me with a frail smile that all but gives lie to the statement.\n\nI blink at her. She sways on her feet.\n\nI sigh.\n\n“Take a seat and I’ll bring you some tea, all right?” I say.\n\n“Please,” she says as she slumps into her usual stool and buries her burning face on her crossed arms, her ponytail spreading over the brushed steel surface of the lab workstation, and—\n\nTea. I’m going to grab tea.\n\nCareful not to startle her, I silently close the door to the lab behind me and march in search of the coffee machine and the things it falsely claims to be drinkable.\n\nWhile waiting in line for the damn thing to service some other sleep-deprived students, the all-nighter catches up with me, smacks me over the head with a wave of dizziness, and makes me fall face-first against the cheery, bright red snack machine.\n\nGreat. It’s going to be one of those days.\n\n***\n\n“I… would you accept my chocolates?”\n\nNo, Rika, I won’t accept your damn chocolates. Stop being so pushy; nobody likes a stalker who isn’t even going the extra mile to grab a kitchen knife.\n\nAlso, how? How did I even get here after changing four of the dialogue choices in the previous attempt to get some hot kendoka tsundere action? Is the game bugged? Did they only ever write a single scenario branch, and choice is entirely an illusion? Does free will exist in this seemingly deterministic universe, or are we all slaves to the flags raised long before our births?\n\nAnd why is the damn phone alarm ringing—oh.\n\nDamn it.\n\nLook, it’s not as bad as it sounds, okay? I took a relaxing, hot shower as soon as I got home and then took a long, long nap. It’s just that I woke up in the middle of the night, and I had nothing better to do, and I swear if I open my phone to find yet another ad for a time-limited Valentine’s Day event, I’m going to smash the damn thing against the wall as hard as I would a bokken-wielding tsundere.\n\nFun fact? Check what kind of walls you have before smashing anything against them. It may be the walls that are at risk.\n\nAnyway, I’m not entirely sleep-deprived today. I am far better off than yesterday. I’m not even in as much of a hurry.\n\nThis means I can eat my breakfast jerky stick at home.\n\nYay.\n\n***\n\n“Hi there, Brain,” I greet the white lab mouse as I pass by its overly spacious cage.\n\nBrain, as is his wont, looks at me in a scheming way.\n\n“I… I think Brain was a rat,” Blair protests from where she’s setting up a camera on a tripod above our voted ‘Most Likely to NTR Mickey Mouse’ lab partner.\n\n“Nope. The wiki clearly states Pinky and the Brain were mice.”\n\n“But they had hairless tails!”\n\n“Mice do have very little hair on their tails to help with heat regulation. It was a stylistic decision,” I tell her without even thinking about the rote answer.\n\nMostly? Because she looks unfairly cute when she inflates her cheeks like a hamster in what she thinks to be a displeased moue that should cow me into compliance.\n\nIt… does not.\n\n“Okay, so what’s the piece for today?” I ask her as I sit on my stool and pull on the edge of the workstation to roll all the way to my laptop.\n\nWheeeeeee!\n\n… Shut up. Totally worth it.\n\n“… Barry White. Patricia told me to put Barry White,” Blair says, rubbing the bridge of her nose with the kind of exasperation only our nominal boss can bring about without even being present.\n\nI absentmindedly grab one of the cookies on the platter Blair usually leaves between our computers and munch on the chocolate chip piece of early diabetes as I ponder the implications of such an experiment.\n\n“Does she really think Brain will run faster if he’s horny?” I ask.\n\nBlair looks at me in stern disapproval. Or about to devolve into a stuttering mess. It’s kinda hard to tell with her.\n\n“That’s… the point, isn’t it? To prove what effect emotional states have on puzzle-solving,” she finally says, half-heartedly defending the undefendable.\n\nShe would’ve made for a great errant knight. Or a white knight, given the times we live in.\n\n“You’re giving her too much credit,” I tell her as I open the spreadsheet with Brain’s results over the past couple of weeks of maze running with varied soundtracks.\n\nLook, the thing is quite simple: do you remember that piece of trivia about listening to Mozart boosting IQ scores on tests? Yeah, that was… almost a load of garbage. The thing is, it did improve some of the spatial-solving parts of the test, which is not nothing, but it definitely didn’t make anyone smarter. And, when tested on mice? The same thing happens.\n\nAs in, music boosts spatial-solving skills in mice.\n\nWhich, given we usually only measure how smart they are by having them run mazes, may give us a slightly biased perspective on how much it affects their cognition overall.\n\nSo, here comes Patricia, our fearless blonde leader, and posits the question of how much emotional arousal adds or detracts to the equation. Does calm, relaxed music work better? Maybe something energetic? Is an angry mouse smarter than a horny mouse? Would that explain any of the things commonly observed in the bars near the campus?\n\nIt’s not uncharted terrain by any means. There are plenty of studies with similar approaches already written, but, I think that precisely because of this, she trusts Blair and me to cut our teeth on running this one.\n\nIt’s just that her playlist over the past few days (that is: since Valentine's Day’s ads for gacha games started bombing my phone), the playlist Blair and I have to work with has been… somewhat suspect.\n\nAs in, it will be hard to forget the fascinating shade of puce Blair’s cheeks turned after listening to half an hour straight of ‘I Want to Fuck You Like an Animal’ (also known as ‘Closer,’ but really, who are we trying to kid here?).\n\n… Brain did beat his high score, though.\n\nAnd now we’re going to see if ‘I can’t Get Enough of Your Love’ can top that. As in, metaphorically top that. I have no doubts about who would be on top between Barry White and Nine Inch Nails.\n\nSo, as Blair finally finishes setting up the camera and opens Brain’s cage toward the maze adjacent to it, I prepare for a very uncomfortable mix of amusement, mortification, and chagrin as Barry White keeps telling me about how he hasn’t made love enough times, something that, while I highly suspect to be untrue, I can at least sympathize with.\n\nI mean, I’m still stuck on the Rika route.\n\n***\n\n“I… would you accept my chocolates?”\n\nNo. Rika, no. Stop asking. Learn to accept rejection with dignity.\n\nYou know how, Rika: just study my past behavior and do precisely the opposite of that.\n\nWith a sigh, I close the computer before turning away from the black monitor and toward my bed, and—is that the Sun? What is the Sun doing already up? I mean, certainly, it feels like it’s a bit late in the night, but that’s a different feeling than it being early in the morning. Those are two entirely different things, and my circadian cycle is—\n\nCompletely busted.\n\nWhich is a major contributor to symptoms of depression.\n\nSomething I’m not at risk of, at all, when facing yet another dateless Valentine’s Day.\n\n…\n\nOkay, according to my phone, I’ve got about three hours of sleep before I have to get up and go play mood music for an increasingly horny mouse. Better make the most of it.\n\n***\n\n“You’re late,” Patricia says as I rush through the door, already pulling off my red parka and—\n\nWait a goddamn second.\n\n“You’re never here!” I counter the blonde woman with a (slightly wavering) finger pointed straight at her.\n\nShe, by all answer, crosses her arms over (as in: hiding rather than emphasizing) her lab coat-covered breasts and arches an eyebrow at me.\n\nIn the background, Blair pretends not to look as ‘Careless Whisper’ gets Brain properly motivated to, hopefully, run a maze rather than have a torrid romance and then betray the trust of his old friend for a meaningless fling.\n\nI mean, Brain doesn’t look like the type, but you can never be too sure about these things.\n\nNo, I’m not projecting. I’m totally over Laura.\n\nThat bitch.\n\n“Are you going to point at me much longer? I mean, at least have the decency to yell ‘Objection,’ if you’re going to do that,” Patricia, arms still crossed, says.\n\nAnd I, cheeks not burning like I should seek medical help, drop my arm, finish taking off the parka dangling from the previously eloquent and now limp member that is not, at all, a phallic metaphor for my own confidence in getting out of this conversation unscathed, and prepare myself to get lectured by the one woman who should never dare criticize anyone for their work ethic.\n\nMidway through said lecture, Blair slides the platter of cookies to me.\n\nHmmm… candied orange peel. Fancy.\n\n***\n\n“I… would you accept my chocolates?”\n\nYou know what? I will take your goddamn chocolates, Rika. And do you want to know why? Because your determination, your will to see things through despite facing rejection again and again, has moved my heart. It has made me see you in an entirely new light.\n\nThe light of spite.\n\nSo I will take your chocolates, and then I’ll throw them on the floor, and stomp on them, and watch as you devolve into tears, with your pathetic teddy bear shielding you from the full weight of my hatred until I take it from you and tear it asunder—\n\nOh. My phone’s alarm is ringing.\n\n…\n\nYou get to live one more day, Rika.\n\n***\n\nI am not late.\n\nI am not late, yesterday I slept a… passable amount of hours, and I’m about to enter my lab.\n\nWithout sweating, with the jerky fully consumed, and, joy of joys, actually cleanly shaven for the first time in weeks despite my murderous rage at Rika making the prospect somewhat risky.\n\nAnd you know what? It’s a good thing. It’s a good thing to be on time, presentable, and about to dedicate my day to something at least nominally productive.\n\nMostly? Because today’s the much-anticipated Valentine’s Day, which means once I’m done with this, I can stop getting bombarded with constant reminders of past trauma by the goddamn games meant to give me a pleasant escape from reality and take away my life-savings while doing so.\n\nYup. I am dealing with this in a perfectly sensible manner. A healthy manner. A responsible and, dare I say, adult manner.\n\nSo I steel myself for, hopefully, the last day filled with trauma triggers until next year, ready to greet Blair and maybe even the ever-elusive Patricia, and…\n\nThe lab’s empty.\n\nWell, I mean, Brain’s still presumably here, given that, you know, that’s where he lives, but no women are here to greet me, so I shrug off my parka and take the lab coat from its hanger before I approach the workstation and, oh, look, Blair’s already set the cookies—\n\n…\n\nThere’s a platter of cookies. Almond-covered ones. Nice cookies.\n\nThere’s also a bag that has fallen out of Blair’s carelessly dropped black coat. One she has thrown over the steel counter before, presumably, being dragged away by some urgent business.\n\nIt’s a nice coat. Almost like a woolen trench coat, with a texture that reminds me of cashmere, and it’s cinched to emphasize Blair’s slender waist in a way that brings attention to her hips despite her not being precisely voluptuous, though her long legs and tendency to wear tight-fitting jeans definitely make up for it, and—\n\nOkay, it’s a bag of chocolates.\n\nHeart-shaped chocolates.\n\nBeing irrationally angry at the thought of Blair giving them to anyone, I walk up to them to maybe see if there’s a nametag incriminating the suspect of my ongoing investigation as Rika-induced PTSD keeps nagging at me to just stomp the damn things on the floor, grind them beneath the steel (actually rubber) heel of my dress shoes, and rejoice as the cleaning staff gives me dirty looks when they are inevitably called to take care of the mess I’d make of the linoleum.\n\nNot that I’d actually do such a thing. Of course.\n\nAlso, there’s no nametag.\n\nOf course.\n\nSo I glare at the transparent bag gleaming under fluorescent lights that trace wavy lines over the crinkled plastic and the milk chocolate covered by it, and…\n\nI mean, there are quite a few chocolates in the bag.\n\nIt’s not like Blair would have counted them, is it? Unless they are the really expensive kind. You know, those that you buy at the specialty chocolate store and…\n\n…\n\nJust one. Just getting a single chocolate from a girl who isn’t on the other side of a computer screen nor cheating on me should be enough.\n\nSo, looking around me, exchanging a brief glance with Brain, who seems to accept being involved in my scheme with a manly nod of understanding, I tug at the simple red ribbon around the bag and take out a single, heart-shaped milk chocolate and…\n\nOh.\n\nOh, wow.\n\nThat is… good.\n\nIt just… It just melts in my mouth, the flavor not as cloying as I usually expect from milk chocolate, neither as overwhelming as the darker varieties, and it’s like every part of my tongue is being caressed with a different nuance. And, look, I know my palate may be a bit underdeveloped after basically subsisting on dried meat and Blair’s cookies for months, but this is, like… Really good.\n\n…\n\nNote to self: read cooking manga. I need better vocabulary for this.\n\nSecond note to self: don’t yell ‘Umami!’ like a goddamn weeb.\n\nBut… oh. There’s liqueur inside. And it just splashes over my tongue as the tip of it melts a hole through the thin layer of chocolate, and—\n\n“Wha—Jeff!” Blair yells at me from the door after catching me with my hand on the almost literal cookie jar.\n\nI… blink at her. Slowly.\n\nAnd reflexively swallow the remains of the chocolate, almost choking on it, thus making the punishment fit the crime.\n\n“These are… some very good chocolates,” I tell her after suppressing some rather violent coughing. And not being at all contrite, blushing, nor wishing for a hole to bury my head in so that I may never again be forced to witness a hostile world set on bringing me terrible, unbearable shame.\n\nReally.\n\n“Did… Did you eat one of those?” she says, rushing to me, grabbing the lapels of my lab coat with small hands, and bringing her face up, uncomfortably close to me, and, wow, those are some very long eyelashes—\n\nI mean. Huh.\n\n“Just… one?” I tell her with aplomb and poise that would make my first-grade self beam with approval.\n\nBlair blinks.\n\nAnd hurries to let me go.\n\n“This is bad,” she mutters.\n\n“I… I mean, sorry, I just… Okay, I don’t have an excuse; I don’t even know what got into me, you obviously meant to give them to someone special, and I—”\n\n“Those were for me…”\n\n“What?”\n\nShe turns to face me, hands wringing below her belly, and, oh, she’s wearing a tank top that matches the shade of her purple hair, and why is she wearing a tank top in the middle of February, and how can I take advantage of such an unusual choice in wardrobe to change the damn subject!\n\n“I… How are you feeling? Elevated heart rate?” she says with apparently a somewhat idiosyncratic approach to my silent plea for a way to get out of the current conversation.\n\n“I mean… yes?” I answer with absolute sincerity.\n\nShe closes her eyes, pinches the bridge of her nose, and mutters something entirely unintelligible.\n\n“So… it is working,” she finally says while looking straight into my eyes with her forest green—\n\nWait, what?\n\n“Wait, what?”\n\n“The… The love potion. It’s working,” she says.\n\nI blink at her.\n\nThen, slowly, I turn around and grab my stool before I sit on it to face her.\n\n“Explain,” I ask her, not at all relieved to have a way to turn this conversation around so that she’s the guilty party.\n\nReally.\n\n***\n\nBlair… explains.\n\nAfter a fashion.\n\n“This is ridiculous,” I tell her.\n\n“It’s not! I… I just… I wanted to feel better about myself…” she says with a voice that steadily loses energy and volume until it devolves into a mumble that makes my heart ache at my being guilty of reducing Blair to such a state.\n\nEven if it’s her damn baseline.\n\n“You were planning on drugging yourself with… an oxytocin enhancer?”\n\n“It’s… a bit more complicated than that? As in, I would not only stimulate oxytocin production, but also oxytocin receptor secretion, and, uh, some estrogen release that would… you know…”\n\nI blink at her.\n\n“Make you feel more feminine? Is that what you were going for?”\n\nShe nods, blushing up to her hair roots.\n\n… I swear, if I end up getting boobs because of this—\n\n“But it works differently for males!” Blair hurries to say as she watches my likely reaction to the prospect of buying a new bra. “I… I don’t know why, but it seems to increase… the release of androstenedione?”\n\nI blink at her.\n\n“That’s the secondary male sexual hormone—” she clarifies.\n\n“I know what androstenedione is. It just doesn’t make any sense that the same drug would have such wildly divergent effects… Wait, how do you know what the drug does on males, Blair?”\n\nShe blushes. Or, well, she blushes harder.\n\nAnd then guiltily looks at where Brain is peeking at us through the gaps in his cage.\n\nPeeking very intently.\n\nAnd mostly in Blair’s direction.\n\n“No,” I tell her with dawning horror.\n\n“It’s entirely harmless! I just wanted to establish a baseline!”\n\n“No. You… You have not turned this lab into a zoophilic version of Tristan und Isolde. I refuse to accept that our lab mouse is in love with you.”\n\n“I just… Brain is very cuddly, and so I… Well, what harm can it do?” she says, trying to shrug in a way that definitely brings attention to what her tank top is very bad at doing in regards to disguising her curves.\n\nI silently turn my stool around and look at Brain.\n\nHe, more or less like usual, looks at me with the curiously supercilious brow that all but forced me to christen him with his moniker.\n\n… Does he look a bit more hostile than usual?\n\nCarefully looking for any reaction, I lay my hand on the cold steel of the workstation and slowly slide it toward where Blair is currently biting her lip and looking between the mouse and me.\n\nBrain… glares at me.\n\n“He’s jealous! The goddamn mouse is jealous!” I say, jumping up and pointing at a mammal that I’m not anthropomorphizing at all.\n\n“He’s not! He’s just… very attached to me,” Blair says, jumping up to stand between the white menace and me.\n\nBrain, from behind her, looks at me smugly.\n\n… I’m so going to get a cat in here, you damn bastard—\n\n“What are you two doing to my lab mouse?” Patricia asks.\n\nBlair and I, about as pale as Brain’s fur, turn toward the door where the one woman who should not be witness to all this stands with her jacket draped over her arm and a carefully sculpted eyebrow arched in such a way as to indicate a lack of patience with youngsters and their shenanigans.\n\nI exchange a look with Blair, and she all but telepathically begs me to explain things to our supervisor.\n\n… I blame the goddamn oxytocin for caving in.\n\n***\n\nAs it turns out, Patricia’s eyebrow was somewhat misguiding.\n\nAs in, she definitely enjoys youngster shenanigans, at least if laughing so hard she has to clutch her belly is a trustworthy indicator.\n\nMore research is needed.\n\n“You… Oh, God, this is hilarious,” she says when she manages to once more meet my eyes.\n\nMy currently twitching eyes.\n\nI blame lack of sleep, and not, you know, mortal embarrassment.\n\n“I am really, really sorry,” Blair repeats for the… I don’t even know. I lost count after the tenth apology.\n\n“I am not! This is priceless!” the allegedly responsible adult around these parts claims with the kind of grin that makes sharks ponder how inadequate they felt until puberty hit them and the new row of teeth came in.\n\n… I don’t know if shark puberty is a thing. Shut up. My brain is currently too busy producing happy chemicals for me to be witty.\n\nApparently.\n\n“I am so glad you find this amusing…” I grumble out.\n\n“Priceless! Not amusing: priceless. Seriously, you couldn’t find a better way to test our current hypotheses,” she says with a cheerful wave of her arm.\n\n…\n\nWhat?\n\n“No. Absolutely not. You’re not sticking me in a maze to see how fast I can solve it. Mostly because I would die of starvation before I found my way out.”\n\n“Don’t be silly. Don’t you play games? Just try to see how high your scores are compared to when you’re not in love with Blair—”\n\n“I am not in—” I start to say.\n\nThen I slowly turn toward Blair, who’s fidgeting, hugging her bare arms, looking at the floor like she’s considering a long-term relationship with it, and basically being Blair.\n\n… It’s like kicking a puppy. A puppy who’s, somehow, a wounded Nam veteran going through a PTSD episode.\n\nAs in, who would kick a wounded Nam veteran going through a PTSD episode? The Vietcong, that’s who.\n\n“I may be slightly affected, but oxytocin does not mean romantic attachment,” I try to rationally explain. “It’s secreted during breastfeeding, and we’re not going back to that whole Oedipal Triangle mess, thank you very much—why are you looking at me like that, Blair?”\n\n“I… When I said it acted differently on males?” she answers, barely lifting her head at an angle that forces her to look at me through her unfairly long eyelashes.\n\n“Yeeeees?” I try to prod her.\n\n“Well, the increase in androstenedione seems to be linked to… an increase in… you know!” she says.\n\nAnd covers her face with both hands.\n\nI… blink at her.\n\nThen look at Patricia laughing like a hyena.\n\nAnd at Brain still glaring at me.\n\nThen my own brain kicks me in the back of the head, and something clicks together.\n\n“No,” I whisper in utter horror.\n\n“Emotional attachment and an increased sex drive. Sounds like the start of romantic love to me,” Patricia says with the kind of grin that makes dentists recoil in primal fear.\n\n“I am sorry! I am really, really sorry!” Blair says in the kind of tone that makes dogs howl in shared pain.\n\n“Do you—I am a single man in my early twenties! If I get an increased sex drive, I will sprain my wrist! And get friction burns! I already devote hours to—”\n\nTwo women are staring at me as I divulge just how much time I masturbate every day.\n\nI feel there’s only one reasonable course of action left to me.\n\n“All right, I’m going to kill myself for a while, be right back.”\n\n“Ah, le petite mort. So it begins,” Patricia comments, making something in my temples throb when she adds a very explicit, wrist-spraining gesture.\n\n“I… Do you need help?” Blair adds, making something elsewhere also throb.\n\n“What?!” I reply in a perfectly reasonable tone, given the current circumstances.\n\n“I mean… It is my fault that you are… and Brain seemed to be quite… you know…” she says. And, yet again, devolves into a muttering mess.\n\nFor once, I feel like joining her.\n\n“Okay, you two are too precious. Take the day off,” Patricia says.\n\n“What? I’ve got classes after this; you can’t give me a day off,” I tell her. Like a moron.\n\n“Sure I can. Also, it’s not quite a day off,” she says with the kind of glint that makes me fear a marathon of ‘I Want to Fuck You Like an Animal’ with Blair blushing and—not like that!\n\nAs my only answer, the grin that would make a T-Rex feel scaroused widens.\n\n***\n\n“I… I am really sorry about the mess,” Blair says, fumbling with the keys to her apartment as she seems to have trouble figuring out which of them will open the creamy wooden door in front of us.\n\nI don’t answer.\n\nMostly, because I don’t know how.\n\n\n‘This is a fascinating chance we’ve been given! Just try to play a few games in varying degrees of proximity to Blair and document your performance. Wink wink, nudge nudge.’\n\n\n\n‘You’re not supposed to say that out loud.’\n\n\n\n‘When you’ve got tenure before your forties, you can say whatever the fuck you want, kid.’\n\n\nAnd thus ended my (admittedly somewhat feeble) objections to spending the rest of the day with Blair.\n\nIn her apartment.\n\nPlaying videogames.\n\n… At least it’s not gacha.\n\nThankfully, before I’m forced to figure out how to, indeed, answer, Blair manages to get the right key into the lock and turns it to let me step into—\n\nAn explosion.\n\nNo, literally: as soon as the door swings in, a series of popping noises set off, and the corridor leading to her living room is showered with bright, colorful, sparkling confetti.\n\nThen, as Blair gasps and her eyes widen in what I (uncomfortably) easily recognize as the start of a panic attack, a banner unfolds from the ceiling, the white cloth stating in bright, red, cheery letters that ‘You Are Worth Being Loved, Blair!’\n\nI silently turn toward my panting lab partner and idly notice that her pupils are so dilated as to turn the green in her eyes nearly black, which is a nice contrast with her dreadfully pale complexion. I mean, I’m sure there’s a necromancer somewhere who just got a new fetish.\n\n“I… I…” she slowly turns toward me, the pronoun barely distinguishable from the scared, small animal noises interspersing her attempts at communication.\n\n“I mean, you are,” I tell her as I brush a strand of purple hair behind her ear with the back of my fingers while the tips ghost over the peach fuzz of her temples and the top of her suddenly ablaze left ear as she turns to look up at me, mouth hanging open, lips parted in—\n\nGoddamn hormones!\n\n“Sorry! Sorry, I just… got carried away!” I tell her, taking a step back and waving my hands as if trying to shake off… something! I don’t know what, okay! Blair’s not the only one who has a right to freak out.\n\n“No! No, it’s… it’s all right… I mean, you’re basically drugged, so it’s not like you can control yourself, and it’s just me being stupid that made you eat the chocolate, and I even forgot I decorated my apartment to cheer myself up, and I should have told you, and it’s all my fault, and I’m sorry, and a failure, and—” Blair rambles before abruptly shutting up and looking back at me in utter panic.\n\nMostly? Because I’m covering her mouth.\n\nWith my hand. My utterly Platonic, entirely non-sexual, just vaguely aware of the soft lips pressed against it, hand.\n\n…\n\nJust what is my life?\n\n“Look, it was me who stole the chocolate. Stole. I had absolutely no right to do that, and I will keep apologizing for the gross invasion of privacy as long as it takes, but you are not at fault, Blair. Not unless you had some kind of nefarious way to manipulate me into eating chocolate out of my own… volition… why are you looking at me like that?” I ask.\n\nBlair takes a moment to answer. Or, at least, to verbally answer.\n\nMostly because I’m still pushing my palm against mesmerizingly soft lips, and I don’t quite process her frantic, downward eye movements as a request to change such an unprecedented set of circumstances.\n\n… In my defense, she could have just taken a step back. It’s not like I’m holding her waist and pressing her lithe body against mine to—down.\n\nStupid brain getting confused by its own stupid chemicals, I swear…\n\n“I Pavloved you,” Blair finally says with an even more dramatic display of horror.\n\nI blink at her.\n\n“What?” I add, just to clarify my possibly ambiguous kinesic signaling.\n\n“I… The cookies! The cookies, Jeff! I conditioned you to eat any sweets I laid on the location where you found the chocolates, and you just reacted according to—”\n\n“Blair, that’s ridiculous. I don’t care what Skinner says, free will is a thing, and I can resist the urge to eat anything you bring to the lab.”\n\n“But you never do!”\n\n“I… I may rely on you to supplement my frankly terrible dietary choices.”\n\n“… Just how bad is your diet that cookies would be a supplement?”\n\nI bite my lip and look away from inquiring green eyes vaguely at the level of my nose’s tip.\n\nBlair twists her head to follow my head.\n\nIt is super effective.\n\n“I basically subsist on dried meat and cafeteria meals,” I mumble.\n\nShe blinks.\n\nThen, more assertive than I’ve ever seen her, she grabs the front of my (ironed, for once) button-up shirt and drags me into her apartment so suddenly that a swirl of confetti rises at her wake.\n\nFrom the corridor, a female voice cheerfully yells, “Yes! You go, Blair!”\n\nAs her only answer, Blair lets go of me, flushes scarlet, and steps around me to slam the door to her apartment closed.\n\n“Please ignore any and all of my neighbors,” she politely says.\n\nAnd then she flees into what I presume to be the kitchen.\n\n***\n\n“A salad,” I point out, with as little skepticism as I can manage while I take in the two dishes just recently set on the small wooden table by the wall of Blair’s kitchen, the one opposite the sink and barely big enough for the two of us.\n\n“You need fiber before you get… a lot of bad things,” she says, only looking up from her own dish to glare reproachfully at me.\n\nUnjustly, I feel.\n\nI mean, to be fair, it’s a very fancy salad: lettuce with thinly sliced oranges, small, crisp cubes of tart apple, crushed walnuts, and sesame seeds all drizzled with a vinaigrette made with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, orange juice, and honey.\n\n… Okay, my stomach is now rumbling. I didn’t realize just how delicious it would all sound when put together in my head rather than me trying to contribute to Blair’s culinary efforts by… basically peeling things.\n\nI mean, I’m more of a grill-and-fry kind of cook. Sauces and the like are not my forte.\n\nThis… may change my mind.\n\n“This is all… wow. I mean, I know you have great taste, because those cookies you buy are always—”\n\n“What?” she asks, looking at me with a single drop of orange-colored glaze making her lower lip shine under the white light coming from the two recessed lamps set in the ceiling that seem to shimmer over the glossy—stupid hormones.\n\n“The cookies? I mean, I don’t know what bakery they are from, but they are always delicious.”\n\nBlair, still holding a fork with a speared slice of sesame-seed-coated orange on it, blinks in confusion.\n\n“I bake them myself?” she asks me, as if unsure of her statement.\n\n“What?”\n\n“I bake them. Myself?”\n\n“… This is utterly unfair.”\n\n“I’m sorry?”\n\n“Well, you should be! All this time, I thought you were just buying some cookies for the two of us, and I was content with our unstated social contract in which you brought delicious sweets and I provided the drinks I could safely forage from the wilds of the campus, but now it turns out that I’ve been gorging myself on your home cooking like a dense harem lead the likes of which haven’t been witnessed since Love Hina, and now the inbuilt urge for reciprocity that is the basis of human socialization demands I offer you something of equal value, which, given the state of my savings account can only be managed if I turn to a life of crime, So, congratulations, Blair, I’m about to spectacularly mismanage a bank heist and spend the rest of my life in prison, where I’ll get involved in ever more convoluted escape plans that will hopefully not involve any tattooed maps, and all because your cookies are so damn delicious that I can’t come up with a more rational course of action to fulfill my unstated obligations.”\n\nBlair… blinks.\n\n“I am… sorry?” she slowly and carefully enunciates. Then she notices the drop of honey glaze that is still accenting her bottom lip and rubs it out with the tip of her finger before carelessly sucking it in.\n\nAt which point she realizes I’m watching the fascinating display like I’ve been offered a free one-day pass to a camgirl show, and she blushes up to her ears.\n\nAs she takes the paper napkin by her side and frantically wipes her already clean face, I force myself to close my eyes.\n\n“I apologize; this is me panicking and blurting out something entirely inappropriate as a way to deal with inner stressors. What I mean to say is that your cookies are indeed delicious, that they are quite often the highlight of my day, and that I wish I had been aware you were baking them yourself earlier so I could’ve shown you proper gratitude for them,” I tell her, relying on brute force, point blank sincerity to carry the meaning across.\n\nYou know, like a moron.\n\n“I… It’s one of the things I tried to do to… like myself,” Blair says, her tone somewhat steadier than usual, as if me closing my eyes somewhat helps her distance herself from the anxiety of carrying a conversation—and of course it would. “I thought if I conditioned myself to provide me with enjoyable things on a daily basis, that it would… that the associations established may carry over to other areas of my self-perception. It was kinda silly; I just… I started in high school, when I didn’t quite understand anything but the rudiments of classic behaviorism, and it ended up becoming a habit, so I kept it going, and… well, now I just… enjoy it? And I… I enjoy that you enjoy it. That’s your part of the social contract, so you don’t need to worry about it,” she tells me, her uncharacteristically long speech ending in a far steadier note than usual.\n\nI open my eyes.\n\nAnd, for a brief moment, Blair, softly smiling, face upturned, confident, meets my eyes.\n\nOf course, the second-long silence as I just take her in makes her stammer and flee my eyes yet again, but…\n\nI always had a good memory. It’s one of the few things I’m confident about.\n\nSo I won’t forget this Blair, the way she looked when unburdened, when…\n\nI just…\n\nI won’t forget her.\n\n***\n\n“Just play a damn game already,” Patricia’s disembodied voice orders me from the phone set on speaker and lying on Blair’s black coffee table.\n\nWhile we sit on her astonishingly soft, velvety, equally black sofa.\n\nOn opposite ends of it.\n\n“I would like to state yet again that I haven’t signed up for any kind of psychological experiment to be a part of, and thus it is ethically suspect to—”\n\n“Jeff, I’m telling you to play a goddamn game, not to recreate the Stanford Prison Experiment,” Patricia cuts me off, not at all forcing me to imagine Blair wearing a striped white and black uniform consisting of a traditional prisoner’s cap, some very tight short shorts, and a midriff-baring top with short sleeves that—hormones.\n\nStupid, stupid hormones.\n\n“I have Mario Kart?” Blair offers, making things much worse as I can clearly see her in an adorable Bowsette cosplay.\n\nYou know, doing the clawing at the air thing with both hands, mouth open in a kittenish roar while wearing a tight, strapless dress—\n\nGoddamn hormones.\n\n“That is perfect! Just remember, Blair: a blue shell is a perfectly valid metaphor for blue-balling him!” Patricia cheerfully states with her usual sadism.\n\nAnd then, before I can complain about workplace harassment, she hangs up.\n\nLeaving me alone with a currently flushing Blair.\n\n…\n\n“Mario Kart!” I yell like an entirely sane human being would. Really.\n\n“Yes! Mario Kart!” Blair agrees, equally sane and socially adroit.\n\nThen there’s a moment of silence as we look furtively at one another across the wild, untamed expanse of black sofa stretching between us.\n\n“Mario Kart?” I inquire.\n\n“Mario Kart,” she tentatively offers.\n\n“Mario Kart,” I affirm with aplomb and a manly nod.\n\nThen I bury my burning face in both hands, refusing to allow the world be witness to my shame, and whimper.\n\n“Can you please set the game and pretend this whole exchange never happened?” I ask the black void beyond the confines of my hands.\n\n“Yes. Please,” Blair agrees with a strangled squeak. Well, two squeaks, actually.\n\nThen she gets up and starts rummaging beneath the wide screen set on the wall in front of the sofa, or so my currently enhanced spatial awareness tells me because I’m most definitely not taking the risk of looking at Blair on all fours with the way her black jeans usually cling to her.\n\nStupid. Hormones\n\n "}
+{"text": "\nSherlock was lost for a bit, then. Time passed; he wasn’t quite unconscious, but wasn’t capable of interacting with the environment. He came to himself after an indeterminate time, flat on his back with a large knife embedded in the cast on his left arm. There were two dead men lying near him; one was Tarik Musa. It wasn’t until that point that he remembered where he was, and why.\n\n\n\nHe was aware of a curious numbness; not physical (since his foot was, sadly, far from numb, and other areas of his body were announcing their profound displeasure as well), but internal in some way. He knew, on an instinctive level, that something was very wrong with him, but couldn’t muster any kind of real concern about it.\n\n\n\nAbruptly there was a loud thump from the rear of the train, and the sound of over-stressed metal shrieking. That led to another unsettling realization (which he also realized was very slow in coming—another symptom, evidently, of whatever bodily failure he was undergoing): the train was moving and, after a lurch, was speeding up. That meant something; he was—he needed to—there was something that needed to happen related to the train’s movement.\n\n\n\nTo give himself time to consider that, he dealt with a couple of immediate items. He reached over and pulled the knife (with a certain amount of difficulty) from the cast on his left arm, noticing distantly that a small amount of blood followed the removal. Evidently skin, as well as cast, had been punctured, though not severely enough to cause difficulties. He placed the knife on the floor and rolled slightly to his side, using his good arm to push himself, painfully, to a sitting position. His vision wavered momentarily, but then normalized. His eyes skittered over the two dead men but didn’t settle; he found himself curiously reluctant to examine them.\n\n\n\nHe continued to shift his gaze around the carriage, hoping that something would give him a clue as to why the train’s movement was important. He looked methodically around until his eyes lit on the rucksack, abandoned in the rear doorway. He didn’t remember having dropped it, but he must have done so in his approach on… before he…didn’t matter. It was there, and it was important, and he suddenly recalled what was inside, and why it was needed.\n\n\n\nHe also remembered, in a distant sort of way, that the train moving was a Bad Thing, at least insofar as it made his mission with the explosives time-sensitive. He had no idea how long ago the movement started, but believed it was of short duration; Gabe would have blown the limpet charges as soon as the movement started, presumably. But given that they didn’t really know how far away the mines on the tracks were, Sherlock had to assume that setting off their own bombs needed to happen immediately. He scuttled painfully over to the rucksack and pulled out the chain of steel balls, draping them over his neck like a macabre necklace.\n\n\n\nHis first issue was deciding where to place the charges; a quick decision, in the end. While it would have been easiest to place them on the coupling between the locomotive and the first carriage, that wouldn’t work: the locomotive alone would then set off the mines on the tracks. That meant that the charges had to be placed in such a way that the locomotive itself would lead the way on any derailment. He would need to enter the locomotive itself and hope to find an access port of some kind that would let him place his charges close enough to the wheels.\n\n\n\nSecond concern: how to reach the locomotive. He knew he was close, in relative terms; this crew compartment was, as far as Sherlock knew, one of the last before the engine itself. But even the distance to the front doors of this compartment seemed vast, from his current perspective. He wasn’t at all sure he could stand. He considered, briefly, fishing the remaining pain pills out of the rucksack. On consideration, though, he realized that he would hopefully be done with his tasks before they would take effect, and he needed his wits about him to prepare for the derailment itself. Finding a way to protect both himself and Gabe was essential—it was hard to say how extensive the damage would be since Sherlock had no effective way to judge how fast the train was going, nor how the train would react to leaving the tracks at speed.\n\n\n\nHe put the rucksack back over his shoulders (after putting the large knife carefully inside), turned and crab-scuttled to the carriage doorway. Better to leave trying to stand until it was absolutely essential.\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\nThe necessity to stand came sooner than he would have hoped. He was able, after considerable maneuvering and some creative cursing, to open the carriage door into the vestibule between the carriages. But once he got into the cramped connecting space, he realized that he couldn’t employ the same method to open the next carriage. This one, apparently a maintenance and storage area, had a secured lock that was situated at chest height. Try though he might, he couldn’t think of any way to open it from his knees—just couldn’t get sufficient leverage, even if it hadn’t been secured by an electronic lock. He had also left his tyre lever behind, so brute force wasn’t an option. But he did see that the lock could be accessed by a key card, and he knew just where to secure one. All he had to do was…he needed to…he could do this. He could.\n\n\n\nIn the end it took far too long for Sherlock to make himself return to the two dead men. He crept back, unable to force his eyes off the floor, try though he might. He kept his gaze rigidly along the front wall once he reached the open compartment, and crawled carefully parallel to that wall until he encountered the outstretched arm of the man Tarik Musa had tortured. Breathing carefully through his nose, he looked only at the crewmember, sliding his hands over the blood-drenched clothing until he felt a tell-tale hard edge in the pocket of the shirt lying open along the corpse’s left side. He slid his prize out and tucked it into his trouser pocket. Then, because he needed it and because he refused to allow his malfunctioning systems to dictate his actions, he forced himself to turn, pass Musa’s body (though he nonetheless couldn’t stop himself from keeping his eyes glued only to the floor) and secure the tyre lever from the far side of the room. Ignoring the low-level tremble that had now invaded his body, he turned and crab-crawled back to the exit door and into the connecting vestibule. \n\n\n\nThe door into the maintenance carriage opened with ease, thankfully. Sherlock tucked the card back into his packets and continued his slow progress towards the front of the train. As the next doorway opened onto the connecting vestibule, he was gratified to see that he was now looking at the rear entry to the locomotive itself. The relief from that view lasted until he forced himself once more onto his protesting knees, stretched his arms up and held the security card to the reader—and nothing happened. Well, nothing other than a red “no entry” light, anyway. \n\n\n\nSherlock sighed, tried once more, and then heaved himself up as high as he could, tyre lever in hand. He wedged the implement into the crack of the doorway and shoved with all his might, but the awkward angle meant that he couldn’t put sufficient pressure on the lock to break it. He tried, over and over, until he finally slammed the lever into the metal door in frustration and slumped against it, exhausted and, to be truthful, a bit frightened. But then, his slow-moving thoughts caught up with the situation, and he fingered the “necklace” currently draped around his shoulders. The charges were linked together, but each could be separated and used independently. The timer Gabe had given him, currently residing in the rucksack, would act on all of the charges collectively. But each contained an external switch—as Gabe had put it, “place the charge, hit the switch, and run like hell.” The tiny internal timer gave the user 15 seconds to get clear. It wasn’t ideal, but it would work.\n\n\n\nSherlock looked around for something to use to secure a silver ball to the door handle. It was too big to simply wedge in the opening between handle and door—some kind of webbing or wrapping was needed. In the end he crawled back into the maintenance carriage, and was pleased to quickly find some plastic netting that would do. He crawled back to the doorway, detached one ball, wrapped it very carefully in the mesh and secured the mesh itself around the door handle, made sure his return pathway was clear, then reached up and pushed the manual timer. The electronic pulse screeched in his ears as he scuttled quickly back into the maintenance carriage, pulling the door closed behind him. He had just reached the midsection of the carriage when there was a tremendous “whump” behind him, a blast of heat and pressure, and a violent rain of small and large pieces, one of which was apparently the door. He tried, and failed, to jerk himself out of the line of fire, and had just started to drop to his belly when there was a second deafening blast, and a piece of something hit him hard enough in the back of the head that he lost all interest in the proceedings.\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\nWhen he awoke—well, not exactly “awoke”, as he never completely lost consciousness, but rather when he became coherent again—he was lying on his stomach in the walkway of the maintenance carriage, with bits and pieces of metal and plastic strewn over and around him. His head was pounding—he shakily lifted his good hand and felt the back of his skull, detecting no blood, thankfully, but a large and pulsing knot the size of the little steel balls he still wore around his neck. \n\n\n\nThe second thing he became aware of was the silence—despite the train’s movement and the new, largish hole visible in the front of the carriage, Sherlock could hear nothing beyond a continuous dull roar. He reached his hand up to his right ear and encountered a small amount of blood trickling down the side of his neck. Ruptured eardrums, then. Annoying, but not critical at this juncture.\n\n\n\nHe shoved himself roughly to his knees—that process grew more painful every time he did it. Random pieces of metal and plastic slid off his back as he did, and he shoved more out of his way as he crept back towards what had been the front door of the maintenance carriage. That doorway now no longer existed—instead there was a gaping piece blown out of the right front bulkhead, in addition to the now-missing door itself, which gave Sherlock a broad view of the (thankfully) now-open entrance to the locomotive itself. That entry door, of a heavier metal than the one used in the maintenance carriage, was not completely missing, but had been blown back violently to the side and was now essentially melded into the wall of the locomotive itself. Of rather more concern, however, was the fact that the floor plating in the vestibule between the carriage and the locomotive had also been blasted away, leaving only a narrow shelf to each side of the now-exposed coupling beneath. Sherlock could see the strobe-like flicker of railroad ties passing by underneath, which made the absolute silence more unsettling somehow.\n\n\n\nThe most unfortunate aspect of that particular damage was that it meant that his current method of locomotion was not going to serve to bridge the gap. He would have to stand, and either bear his full weight on his damaged feet or pull himself across on one whole and one casted arm. Neither was optimal.\n\n\n\nFirst order of business, then, was to lever himself up. He scooted over next to the wall, where a grab handle was conveniently located close to the now-gaping opening. Wrapping the fingers of both hands firmly around the metal, he pulled himself up until he was kneeling only on his right side, and slid the less-damaged left foot onto the floor, hissing at the pain as he did so. That didn’t bode well for the future, since he needed to be able to bear virtually all of his weight on this foot (he had no illusions about the right foot—it continued to pound and throb without no stress on it at all). He modulated his breathing and did his best to cram all sensation away from his conscious awareness. Then he tightened his fingers around the handle, tensed his leg muscles, and simultaneously pulled with his arms and pushed (gingerly) with his left leg. And suddenly he was standing—well, swaying like a branch in a high breeze, actually, but erect. He waited, still weaving a bit, while his vision cleared, then dared to let go of the handle. He stayed up; he couldn’t resist a tiny glow of satisfaction.\n\n\n\nSherlock considered trying to bring the tyre lever with him (assuming he could find it in the debris). He quickly realized, though, that he had no secure way to carry it, even if he were able to lift it off the floor without falling.\n\n\n\nAs he was, then. He checked to make sure the rucksack was securely zipped; losing the timer/detonator for the charges would be catastrophic at this point. He could, if he had to, ignite them by pressing one of the manual switches, but he knew that choice wouldn’t be survivable, and he didn’t particularly want to die today.\n\n\n\nHe edged himself over to the open vestibule and considered. His best option, clearly, was to use his arm strength to carry him across the gap, using his feet (well, foot) solely for balance. Thankfully there was a grid-like metal framework at the top of the structure. Unfortunately, he couldn’t be sure of its integrity, after the blast, but it would have to do.\n\n\n\nHe scanned the gridwork, making sure he had his planned route firmly in his head before reaching up and grasping the first crossbar. It should be relatively quick—no more than 2 or 3 shifts before he could pull himself into the opening in the locomotive. He swung himself slightly forward and reached for the next bar, both feet leaving the ground as he let his momentum carry him up. He reached with his left hand for the second crossbar, slipped his fingers in, only to realize in horror that his cast prevented a full grip. But his weight was already committed, and he felt himself start to slip, unable to resist a glance down at the opening in the floor below him, the passing of the railroad ties. He shoved his hand in as far as it would go, his grip continuing to fail, and hurriedly shifted his body to pass his weight to the last crossbar. He managed to get his right hand gripped fully around the metal rod just as his left hand slipped completely loose, the sudden jerk slewing his body sideways and slamming him harshly against the broken metal opening. He gasped as raw metal edges plowed through skin along his ribs and side, but held on long enough to throw his weight through the opening onto the floor inside with a pained thump.\n\n\n\nHe allowed himself almost a full minute on the floor, waiting for his heartbeat and breathing to fall back from their panicked levels. Then he reached up to the railing bolted to the side of the passageway, and hauled himself painfully back to his feet.\n\n\n\nThe open area of the locomotive was surprisingly small, given the large size of the engine itself. The entry corridor was perhaps 12 feet long, lined with a variety of access panels of assorted sizes. At the end was a smallish control area, with two seats (now empty, of course) surrounded by a myriad of dials, levers and buttons. Most noticeable, however, was the large metal box anchored to the middle of the floor. Sherlock hauled himself forward, putting much of his weight on the handrail and ignoring the violent protests from his left foot (the right he held carefully off the ground, no matter how awkward that made his movements).\n\n\n\nThe box, welded securely to the floor on all four sides, was roughly 12 inches square. No access ports, no hinges, no visible cables or wires running in or out. It was clear, though, that power was running to the box, presumably from underneath, since a variety of readouts on the top were lit and moving. Their purpose was largely unclear. But one item was unequivocal: a large clock was counting backwards, clicking steadily down. It didn’t take a genius to understand what that clock was referencing. And according to that timer, Sherlock now had 16 minutes before the train hit the mines.\n\n\n\nIt was very difficult not to panic. He knew that his trip back to Gabe would be painful, uneven and, by necessity, not quick. Which meant that he had a vanishingly small amount of time to select a spot for the explosives, anchor and charge them, and then make his way to Gabe and secure them both in the car.\n\n\n\nHe looked rapidly around the interior of the compartment, hoping for schematics, warnings, something that would give him a clue as to where to place his charges. Nothing. He knew he had no information on this subject in his Mind Palace—he’d made that quick search before leaving Gabe. Logic, then. He knew that his best option was to reach the rear set of wheels; damaging the front wheels would certainly ensure a derailment, but they were too well-protected by the body of the locomotive itself. \n\n\n\nSherlock grasped the handrail again and hauled himself back down the corridor, looking at the various access panels and doors he had passed. He quickly identified his target: a panel labelled “Battery Fluid Access Feed”. He knew that the batteries, designed to feed power to the functions not involved with train propulsion, were located in the center base of the locomotive, and this access should feed roughly to the rear of the battery compartment. Good enough; based on the power produced by the single ball Sherlock had used on the doorway, the remaining 11 balls should be more than adequate to puncture the battery compartment and blast the wheels off the rails, pulling the remainder of the train with them as they went.\n\n\n\nHe carefully fished his hellish necklace from around his neck and looped it around his left wrist. He reached out for the clasp of the access panel and popped it open, saying silent thanks that there was no locking mechanism. Once he removed the panel, he saw a rectangular tube, roughly 6 inches by 8 inches, with two pipes running down out of sight on the back wall. Hypothesis confirmed, then—this would give the explosives access to the bottom of the engine. He took one last look at the chain of steel balls, then reached down as far as he could with his left arm and let them drop, feeling a soft metallic vibration in the sidewall as they hit the bottom of the channel. He twisted and writhed until the rucksack slid down his arms, slid it off and opened the main compartment. The timer/detonator was in the bottom; Sherlock pulled it out and looked at the settings, calculating the remaining time before the train hit the mines, versus the estimated time to return to the car carriage and Gabe. He set the timer for 9 minutes, pushed the buttons, and dropped the detonator down the channel after the charges. Then he slid the rucksack back on and moved.\n\n\n\nThis time, when he reached the destroyed vestibule between the carriages, he changed his tactics. Rather than trying to swing from his unreliable casted arm, he gambled everything on one single leap to the center of the space with both hands. He pushed off on his howling left foot, launched himself up and out, and managed to grasp the chosen crossbar briefly before swinging himself immediately onward, landing in a painful tumble through the destroyed doorway of the maintenance carriage. He quickly rolled himself onto his back, spotted the metal grab bar he had used before, and hauled himself erect again. He was critically aware of the continued countdown running in his head.\n\n\n\nFrom that point, the trip was largely pain and panic. Where he could, he forced himself along by pushing with his hands on each side of his path, using his left foot for balance. Where he couldn’t, he hopped, and fell, and hopped again. He lost track of the number of times he fell, except for calculating the amount of time it cost him to pull himself back up each time. The open carriages were the worst; in the end he reverted to crawling after his third agonizing encounter with one of the massive steel arms of the farm equipment. On the final stretch he used the struts of a cultivator to pull himself up again. He continued to use his arms for most of his locomotion, but that ended up leading to disaster. On his last shift of weight, in this last open carriage before the car carriage, he reached out for a side strut just as the train gave an abrupt lurch—nothing violent, but enough to make his hand just miss his reach and send him stumbling towards the open edge of the carriage. And instinctively he tried to catch his balance and stop himself—and his left foot planted itself full-force on the floor.\n\n\n\nSherlock didn’t faint. He did fall over; he did gasp; his vision greyed out, and he dry-heaved twice before getting himself under control. But only his internal panic enabled him to shove himself back over, using just his arms, to the edge of the last piece of heavy equipment. He knew he had lost count, the surge of pain unsettling his internal clock. But he knew he now had less than 5 minutes. Which meant he had to be moving, right now. \n\n\n\nHe gave up on standing; he was close enough now that it didn’t matter, and he wasn’t sure he could get up again regardless. He forced himself once more to his knees and took off as fast as he could, ignoring the howls from his abused shins. He scuttled quickly through the last vestibule, slammed the last door open, and pushed his way into the car carriage.\n\n\n\n“Gabe!” Sherlock panted, as soon as he made it through. “Move to the car.” He crawled as fast as he could, looking frantically around for his partner. “Gabe!” he called again, panicked at the lack of response. He passed the back of the car that had once held the rucksack and skidded to a halt as he saw the older man lying motionless at the front of the Maserati. “Gabe,” Sherlock found himself gasping, in a tiny, terrified voice, as he reached the big man’s side and slammed his hand to his jaw, searching frantically for a pulse. Sherlock's vision blurred in relief as he found it, a little faster than desired but there nonetheless. \n\n\n\nBut now he was presented with a new problem. He had to somehow get both of them in the car, and he now had to do it without Gabe’s help. Gabe, who out-weighed Sherlock by at least 40 pounds.\n\n\n\nHe quickly decided to prepare the car first. He scuttled over and opened both doors, making sure the belts were in proper position for easy use. Then he crawled back to his partner, forced himself under his back, and laced his left arm around Gabe’s chest before trying to shove both of them backwards towards the open door.\n\n\n\nHe tried. He tried so hard, and it hurt. He managed, after nearly two minutes of agonizing work, to get them both positioned next to the car door. But then he tried to lever Gabe up into the car itself, and failed, over and over. By now Sherlock was sobbing, and gasping, and pleading to everyone, to no one, to a God he didn’t think he believed in, for help, without avail. And the clock continued to run, far too long. \n\n\n\nFinally, in desperation, Sherlock closed the car doors—the car itself was tightly secured to the decking, and with the doors closed the body of the car itself would provide greater protection and stability. He pushed, and tugged, and sobbed, and wedged Gabe’s lifeless form fully under the low body of the car, and then pulled himself as tightly against the older man as he could, working his good arm through the anchor cable and his bad arm under Gabe’s back.\n\n\n\nIn the end, Sherlock closed his eyes, and tucked his chin into Gabe’s inert shoulder. And suddenly, there was a thunderous noise (that Sherlock felt rather than heard) from ahead, and a violent jerk, and then the world inverted, and exploded, and Sherlock was lost again.\n"}
+{"text": "\nTEN - ADORA\n\n\n\nIt had taken a bit longer to finish up Catras deck than I would have liked, but I had changed a few things. Catra had drawn just a simple awning for shade in the summers, but with winter coming in a couple of months I made it more of a permanent cove. Thick insulated covers with plastic windows could be hung up so she still had somewhere to sit during the cold seasons. Instead of just an awning that came off the wall I built a (Simple but sturdy) roof that connected with the newly installed posts. It was her own little gazebo. \n\n\n\nScorpia and I had rushed to move some newly bought patio furniture in there so Catra would see it when she got up. \n\n\n\nScorpia and I then had to really rush to get to work on time. \n\n\n\nIt had been a challenge to keep Catra from noticing the changes I had made. We wanted it to be a surprise. Somehow we managed, plenty of tarps and promises of not looking out the windows were used. Thankfully Catra played along, begrudgingly and with loud protests. \n\n\n\nIt was all going to be worth it when she woke up however, and hopefully liked the changes made. \n\n\n\n“Are you as nervous as I am?” Scorpia asked as she checked her phone. It was close to the time when Catra would usually wake and we were both nervous about her reaction. \n\n\n\nScorpia had really pulled through and helped, all the while Perfuma 'supervised’ but really just ogled her sweaty girlfriend. \n\n\n\nI nodded, “Just a bit.” That was a lie. I was really really nervous. \n\n\n\nWhat if Catra just really wanted some awning? \n\n\n\nI would tear the whole thing down and restart. \n\n\n\n“Could you not?” Mermista asked from the head of the table. \n\n\n\nLonnie nodded in agreement as she slapped another card on the table, her and Rogelio were playing an intense game of Uno while Mermista didnt seem as enthused to play a  part in. \n\n\n\nThough from the looks of it she was winning. Poor Rogelio held like fifteen cards in his large hands. \n\n\n\n“Sorry.” Scorpia groaned out, “Its just, this is a big thing for my Wildcat. That place isnt really something she has good memories tied to. So her whole, make it her own thing is really important. This is the first ‘major’ project we’ve done. I just really want her to like it.” \n\n\n\nFirst? First major project? Great, no pressure. None what so ever. \n\n\n\nWhy the hell didnt Scorpia say that sooner? I would have asked before kind of doing my own thing. \n\n\n\nCrap, what if Catra just absolutely hates it? And her first step into making her home hers is just ruined? \n\n\n\nIn the middle of my not so minor melt down I was aware of Scorpias phone going off. \n\n\n\n“Shes up!” Scorpia all but jumped from her seat, as she inspected the text she got. It cant be that bad right? Scorpia was smiling. So maybe crisis averted? \n\n\n\nMy panic spiked once more as my own phone went off. \n\n\n\nGlancing down I was really only met with confusion. \n\n\n\nCatra: \nAlright. \n\n\n\nAlright? \n:Adora\n\n\n\nCatra: \nYah, alright. \n\n\n\nThe porch is alright? \n:Adora\n\n\n\nOh I seriously messed up. It was ‘alright’. No one wants an ‘alright’ porch. No, Catra deserved a nice cozy one. I still had ten more hours on shift. I could slip in a nap before leaving and start tearing the whole thing down. I would need to stop and get lights so I can see what im doing in the dark. By the time I can have the thing stripped the stores should be open again so I can go get an actual awning. \n\n\n\nCatra: \nThe porch is great. Thank you for that. You did shockingly good work.\n\n\n\nCatra: \nIm saying alright to the date, dork. \n\n\n\nThis time I jumped up from my chair, “She said yes!” \n\n\n\n“She said yes?” Scorpia seemed a bit confused\n\n\n\nEagerly nodding and rereading the words so I knew for certain she had sent that last text, “To the date!” \n\n\n\nScorpia rounded the table and scooped me into a massive hug, happily squealing all the while, “Oh my goodness! Thats great news! So she liked it?” \n\n\n\nMy grin was in serious danger of splitting my face, “I think so! But she said yes!” \n\n\n\nRogelio slow clapped while Mermista groaned. Lonnie was smiling like a proud parent. \n\n\n\nScorpia had yet to put me down and even started to spin us around, “Aw! You guys would be so cute together!” \n\n\n\nI patted her back in an attempt to get her to stop, “I have to respond.” \n\n\n\nShe set me down almost too quickly, “Right, right. Sorry. Where are you going to take her? What are you going to do?” \n\n\n\nI shrugged, a bit dumbfounded, “I dont know yet. I dont think ive gotten that far.” \n\n\n\nYah I had thought up some different date ideas, but none of them really screamed Catra to me. She seemed to accept the flowers, and always responded to my good morning and good night texts, though she was still ignoring the sappy questions. \n\n\n\nShe worked at a bar so that was a no go. She didnt seem like the hiking type. I didnt want to do a movie because I wanted to talk to her, but maybe a movie and then dinner? \n\n\n\nCatra: \nI have a feeling your being a nerd and celebrating, but a response would be nice. \n\n\n\nSorry. I totally was not celebrating. At all. \n:Adora\n\n\n\nCatra: \nKeep lying to yourself. \n\n\n\nIs there anything in particular you would like to do? \n:Adora\n\n\n\nCatra: \nYou're the romantic sap here, you choose. \n\n\n\nGladly. Im so excited! \n:Adora\n\n\n\nCatra: \nCouldnt tell. \n\n\n\nAre you free tomorrow night? :\nAdora\n\n\n\nCatra: \nEager much?\n\n\n\nCatra: \nI am\n\n\n\nGreat. Ill pick you up at five. :\nAdora\n\n\n\nCatra: \nGet back to saving lives, dork. \n\n\n\nBow popped his head in, “Whats all the screaming about?” \n\n\n\nI turned so I could face him, grin permanently on my face, “Catra agreed to a date!” \n\n\n\nBow squealed, doing a happy dance in the doorway, “Adora! Thats awesome!” \n\n\n\nMermista groaned, loudly, before throwing her cards down, “Yay, Adora can finally get laid. Can we stop all the yelling?” \n\n\n\nRogelio grunted but he had his own small smile. \n\n\n\nBow, in a quieter tone, “Im am so calling Glimmer right now. Shes gonna flip.” \n\n\n\nEven the idea of my best friend maybe not taking the news as well as Bow couldnt put a strain on my excitement. Glimmer has voiced her opinion on my thing for Catra but really her main concern was me not getting hurt. Which she thought was too likely if I got involved with the moody woman. \n\n\n\nI really couldnt care less right now. \n\n\n\nI have a date with the prettiest girl I have ever seen. Not only that shes funny with her wit, sassy as all get out, and down right sexy. I was gonna do my best to swoon that smirk right off her pretty face. \n\n\n\nThe lights flashing shot me out of my day dream\n\n\n\nWe all rushed to the garage. Getting prepared in record time and were speeding out onto the road with sirens blaring.\n\n\n\nMicah filled us in that it was a closet fire on the executive level of Dyrl security. \n\n\n\nEntrapta worked for Dyrl, though she mainly worked from home. If I remember correctly Dryl was Entraptas business. She had always talked about it during high school, it had something to do with robotics. It was really hard to follow along with her whenever she explained it to me, though I had been happy to see she had actually managed to pull it off. \n\n\n\nA closet fire on the top floor wasnt too concerning so long as we made in time for minimal damage. It was preferred over a ground fire that could take out the integrity of a tall building like Dryl. \n\n\n\nRogelio starting making our way up the stairs, luckily it was only a ten story building. Yay. \n\n\n\nBow was prepping the ladder with Lonnie just in case it got out of hand, though we hadnt seen any smoke upon arrival. \n\n\n\nWe were told no one made an effort to put out the fire due to the chemicals in the closet, smart on their half. \n\n\n\nIt took longer than the elevator would but we managed. \n\n\n\nThe only thing is, we couldnt spot any fire. Not even after we made a full sweep. \n\n\n\nGrabbing the radio at my shoulder, “Hey, we’re clear up here. No sign of anything. Sure it was top floor?” \n\n\n\nMicahs voice came through with minimal static, “Start a sweep down. Mermista and Lonnie will start a ground sweep and meet you in the middle.” \n\n\n\nRogelio shrugged as we made for the next floor down. \n\n\n\nWe didnt find anything or anyone until we reached the seventh floor. Where we were met with a group of bound and gagged people in white coats. They were trying to yell but couldnt make any words out through the rags stuffing in their mouths. \n\n\n\nRogelio and I didnt get a chance to really take in what was happening before a masked figure stepped out from one of the cubicles.\n\n\n\nIf the gun in his hand wasnt cause to freeze, the obvious bomb vest on him was. \n\n\n\nRogelio and I looked at one another, the panic in his eyes easily reflecting my own. \n\n\n\nWhat the fuck did we just get ourselves into? \n\n\n\nAnother masked figure appeared out of one of the offices to the side, they too wore a bomb vest. \n\n\n\n“Have a seat while we wait for your friends.” The one in the cubical said, gun pointed right at us. \n\n\n\nRogelio and I slowly lowered ourselves to the floor. \n\n\n\nMy radio was at my shoulder, I wouldnt be able to send out an alert in time. Not unless I wanted a bullet as a prize. \n\n\n\nWe sat in tense silence for what felt like forever but in reality could have only been a few minutes before the elevator pinged.\n\n\n\nMermista and Lonnie were already bound and gagged as they were shoved out, another bomber at their back with another gun. \n\n\n\nThey were forced to their knees next to me, eyes wide and panicked. \n\n\n\nThe one who was now sitting in a chair just outside the cubicle, apparently the ring leader to this shitstorm, spoke, “Youre gonna do us a little favor. Get on that radio, let your friends know exactly what is happening.” \n\n\n\nRogelio and I glanced at one another, we were the only ones with radios not gagged. Who was going to give the news? \n\n\n\nApparently we took too long because an ear splitting bag sounded. \n\n\n\nI watched in horror as one of the hostages slumped and stared lifelessly up at the ceiling, blood pooling around him. \n\n\n\n“Tick tock.” The masked man growled out. \n\n\n\nI raised my hand my walkie, “Micah?” It slipped my mind to even call him chief\n\n\n\nHe must have heard something in my voice, “Is everything alright?” \n\n\n\nI took a steadying breath, “No. Not really.” The man raised his gun again, apparently unhappy with how long it was taking. Rushing, “Theres hostages. Three bombers confirmed so far. We’re all on the seventh floor.” \n\n\n\nThere was a long pause, before, “What do they want?” \n\n\n\nI raised my eyebrows at the man, never having taken my eyes off him. \n\n\n\nHe leaned back in his chair, “Try and stop us.” \n\n\n\nThat made no sense what so ever. What were they after? What was this about? Who were they? \n\n\n\nI spoke into the radio, “He says to try and stop them.” \n\n\n\n“Do they have a name?” \n\n\n\nI couldnt see the mans face but I had a sick feeling that he was smiling, “All hail Lord Prime.” \n\n\n\nMy gut dropped. Prime cultists. In Brightmoon. \n\n\n\n“Prime.” I choked out, almost forgetting to release the button on the radio to hear a response. \n\n\n\nThe cultist who brought Lonnie and Mermista up roughly started taking the radio off of Rogelio and myself. \n\n\n\nI didnt get to hear a response as the radios were clicked off. \n\n\n\nWe were then bound and gagged. \n\n\n\nMy eyes never left the man at the cubical. I couldnt look away. If I did I would stare at the dead man too close to me. I would acknowledge the blood just an inch from my knees as it steadily made its way towards me. \n\n\n\nSo instead I focused on what I knew about the Cultists. \n\n\n\nEach bomb threat previously had been called in. Every single one had been given a warning. Thaymor was the only successful incident of a bomb actually going off and their being casualties. \n\n\n\nEvery other instance they were able to clear people out, or disable the bomb. \n\n\n\nIn the instances of the infamous suicide bombers it was broadcasted live, feed only going out once the bomb set off. The cultists would give out long nearly euphoric speeches before pressing the little remote and taking the buildings down with them. \n\n\n\nThis was the first time I had heard of hostages. \n\n\n\nPrime has been growing in infamy and becoming bolder in their movements. Was this their next step? Taking innocent lives down with them? \n\n\n\nNot to mention, there were three bombers here. Previously there was only ever a record of one bomber per instance. \n\n\n\nThe man in the chair leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, “I like that fire in your eyes, sister.” \n\n\n\nI couldnt respond thanks to the gag currently shoved in my mouth, but I did let my eyebrow arch in question. \n\n\n\nHis chuckle was low and dark as his companions began to move around, “Do you seek eternal glory?” \n\n\n\nI willed my breathing to calm, I wasnt going to give this guy the satisfaction of my panic. \n\n\n\nSo instead I turned my head to watch his companions. Which proved to spike my panic further. \n\n\n\nThey were setting up a tripod. A camera sitting idle on the floor. \n\n\n\nThey were going to go live with this. \n\n\n\nHe made a show of counting his hostages as his companions got things set up, “You have twelve hours before you find it.” \n\n\n\nMy heart beat erratically in my chest. There were ten hostages, include myself and the other three. \n\n\n\nThree bombers, ten hostages. That was thirteen. Why had he counted us and then said twelve? \n\n\n\nHis companions had finished setting up and flashed him the all clear before he stood from his seat, moving to stand in front of the camera. \n\n\n\nHe didnt start speaking until the camera started flashing a small red light, “All hail Lord Prime.” He clasped his hands behind his back, “We seek Eternal peace. Today we share that with Dryl Robotics. We offer all of Brightmoon to rejoice and follow our sisters and brothers. We have new members with us today. All still clinging to their earthy attachments. Still corrupted from seeing the light.” He stepped aside so the camera could take in our huddled group of terrified, bound and gagged, “Each hour one of our brothers or sisters will find their Eternal rest. Find peace in Prime and glory through him. On the thirteenth hour, I too will follow them into the light. We will all soak in the offered peace of Lord Prime. And you are all free to watch, free to contemplate. Free to join us in our rapture.” \n\n\n\nAs if scripted, one of the bombers grabbed the nearest Dryl employee and brought him over to kneel in front of the camera. \n\n\n\nThe man from the cubicle reached down and gently caressed the cheek of the thrashing man, “Fret not, Brother. You will be bathed in light, free from all tethers. Blessed with Eternal rest.” \n\n\n\nRight as he finished, a timer went off. Then the sound of another bullet meeting flesh. \n"}
+{"text": "Harry slept like the dead.\n\nThough he’d gone to bed no later than half past seven in the evening, he did not wake until nearly the same time next morning, his body stiff and aching slightly, and he knew immediately he had not moved an inch all night. He sat up slowly. His limbs felt as though they were tied down with weights; he stared with heavy lids at the sunlight seeping in under his bed curtains. The light swirled hypnotically the longer he looked at it. His head felt stuffed with cotton, his thoughts as slow and dull as if he were drugged. Which, he supposed with a slightly loopy smirk, he probably still was. Harry might have sat there forever, entranced by the strip of light, but he gradually became aware that his throat was very, very dry; he swallowed uncomfortably and commanded his sluggish arms to pull back the curtains with difficulty.\n\nHe was met with the sight of Ron, sitting up and yawning widely, his arms stretched high over his head. “‘Morning….” he told Harry groggily.\n\nHarry swung his cement-filled legs over the side of the bed and sat there for a moment, rubbing the sleep slowly out of his eyes. He let his arms drop heavily to his knees and stared at the pitcher of water on his bedside table, which appeared to be impossibly far away.\n\n“You alright?” Ron asked as he, too, moved to perch on the edge of his own bed, scratching his head and yawning again. He watched, frowning slightly, as Harry struggled to pour himself a glass of water.\n\n“Yeah,” Harry rasped after he’d taken a few sips, the water easing a cool trail all the way down to his stomach. “Think I slept too much,” he slurred, licking his lips. He snorted quietly in vague disbelief. He’d slept….\n\n“Good,” Ron said with a resolute nod, and got up to search for his school robes.\n\nYes, thought Harry, and he squinted blurrily at his pillow as the other boys began to stir, it was good.\n\n \n\n \n\nHarry followed Ron and Hermione down to breakfast, listening to them bicker about something he did not possess the concentration to follow properly; the sound of it bothered him less than usual, however, and he found himself perfectly content to walk behind them silently, staring about. Everything looked somewhat surreal, like a fuzzy, out-of-focus dream, and the constantly looming threat of dizziness he’d got used to lately hovered even closer, making it necessary for him to grasp firmly onto the railings every time they descended a flight of stairs.\n\nAs soon as Harry sat down next to Neville in the Great Hall, the same dishes he had requested the night before appeared in front of him, only the vegetables had been replaced with more fruit. Harry stared at them. A deep hunger surged to life in his belly, much stronger than his usual pangs, and his eyes wandered a bit guiltily to the other plates filled with bacon and eggs. Harry helped himself to a whole grapefruit, a handful of strawberries, several slices of apple, and, before he could talk himself out of it, a spoonful of scrambled eggs and a piece of bacon. He ate quietly, the sound of Ron and Hermione’s voices dulling to a drone in his ears, until Neville waved a hand in front of his eyes, asking anxiously if he was alright. Harry startled a bit, looking up to find the three of them watching him curiously.\n\n“Fine,” he assured them, and went back to his plate, only to find that it was already empty, including the bacon and eggs. A squirming sense of shame spread all the way out to his fingers as his friends resumed their conversations; he hadn’t meant to cheat, really he hadn’t, but he was so hungry. He wondered distantly if it was the sleeping tablets making him feel so ravenous…he couldn’t remember if that had been listed as a side effect or not…he would have to check when he got back to his room….\n\nBreakfast finished in a blur, Harry doing his best not to stare off into space again, and he heaved his heavier-than-normal bag over his shoulder and trailed listlessly after Ron and Hermione to the Transfiguration classroom for their first lesson.\n\nProfessor McGonagall strode up and down the rows of desks after they had all settled in, collecting homework. Harry sat silently when she came to him, having nothing to hand in, and as McGonagall stared down at him over the tops of her square spectacles, her eyes narrowed ever so slightly, scrutinizing.\n\n“No homework, Potter?”\n\nHarry shook his head mutely, staring at a spot over her left shoulder, unable to meet her eyes. He wanted to apologise, but he did not know what to say, he had no excuse to offer – Harry braced for a reprimand, for points to be docked for his negligence, perhaps even for a detention…but McGonagall simply gave him one last look, the corners of her mouth turning downwards in the barest trace of a frown, and swept away to her desk. Harry and Ron stared after her in shocked disbelief. Never in living memory had Professor McGonagall neglected to punish someone for failing to complete her coursework.\n\nHarry expected Hermione to fume at this inexplicable show of indulgence or leniency or whatever it was, but she was instead staring over at McGonagall with a thoughtful look on her face as she slowly pulled her copy of A Guide to Advanced Transfiguration out of her schoolbag.\n\nTransfiguration passed in much the same haze as the rest of the morning had done – Professor McGonagall paced slowly back and forth at the front of the classroom giving a complex lecture Harry could not even attempt to decipher, and his head drooped further into his hand as Hermione scribbled furious notes beside him. His lethargy lifted slightly towards the end of the hour, but that only made room for a low thrum of anxiety about his slip-up at breakfast to creep up under his skin, and he put his hands under the desk to scratch where Ron and Hermione would not see.\n\n \n\n \n\n“What d’you reckon, McGonagall going soft in her old age?” said Ron as they left the classroom, elbowing Harry’s side as though congratulating him for winning some sort of contest.\n\n“She’s not that old,” Hermione said automatically, but her voice lacked any real reproach. She still looked pensive and, Harry thought, a little relieved, though he might have been imagining it – his surroundings still did not seem fully real to him.\n\n“I thought you’d be cross,” Harry told her. “She’s never let you off like that….”\n\n“Yes, well, she’s never had the occasion, I’ve always handed in my homework, haven’t I?” Hermione said reprovingly, but her expression relaxed a bit as she looked at him. “Come on, we’ll be late for Potions if we don’t move….”\n\nHermione did not say anything further on the matter of Professor McGonagall’s behaviour, and Harry let the subject drop, reaching into his bag to pull out the Marauder’s Map instead. Hermione rolled her eyes at the sight of it, but Ron moved in closer to look over Harry’s shoulder, muttering, “What’s old ferret-face up to now?”\n\nSince the whole Dark Mark fiasco, Ron had seemed a bit keener on keeping tabs on Malfoy, and Harry, glad to have company at last in his 'obsession,' as Hermione liked to call it, readily shifted the Map to give Ron a better view as he tapped the parchment with his wand and mumbled, “I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.”\n\nHarry and Ron bent over the Map as the little black lines and dots appeared, and it took each of them only a second to find Draco Malfoy. They looked up at each other at the same moment, then turned to see over their shoulders in unison. According to the Map, Malfoy was not thirty feet behind them, but it was impossible to see him among the sea of students thronging the corridors.\n\n“He’s following us….” Harry murmured suspiciously.\n\n“Of course, he’s following us,” said Hermione a little impatiently. “He’s going to Potions, isn’t he, we all are….”\n\nBut Harry could not accept this explanation: Malfoy had left the Transfiguration classroom well before they had, and as Harry continued to watch him on the Map, it seemed as though he was taking care to maintain that same thirty feet or so of distance behind him, Ron, and Hermione as they moved through the halls. Ron, like Harry, kept glancing back all the way to the dungeons. But Malfoy pretended to be searching through his bag every time they managed to catch him looking, and Harry tried to quell the disquiet that crept upon him as he warily considered any possible reason Malfoy could have for stalking the three of them through the castle like a slithering predator ready to spring.\n\n \n\n \n\nHarry continued to keep an eye on Malfoy’s movements throughout the rest of the morning, and he spent so much time with his eyes boring into the back of that infuriating blond head of his in Potions that Hermione audibly sighed more than once and even Ron shot him a look of slight exasperation. But Harry continued to stare, as if he could somehow see through Malfoy’s thick skull to his brain, and see what it was he might be planning….\n\nThe weird, drugged-out state that Harry been stuck in since he’d woken up lifted almost completely by lunchtime. Regrettably, this only permitted him to feel even more uneasiness about Malfoy’s behaviour, not to mention a distinct resentful annoyance at Hermione’s refusal to take it seriously, and a keen awareness of the hunger pains that had not abated in the least since breakfast. He was in such a foul mood by midday that it took every ounce of willpower he possessed to stick to his planned food at lunch and refrain from snapping at Lavender Brown to shut up when she giggled shrilly at a joke Seamus told her.\n\nDinner was much the same. Only it was made about five times worse by the fact that Romilda sat down two seats away from Harry, the barest tinge of purple in her cheeks the only sign of what been done to her – “Madam Pomfrey got Professor Slughorn to brew something up, it was a potion in my shower gel that did it, it was an easy antidote in the end….” she could be heard telling her friends – and in spite of Harry’s intense hunger, he suddenly felt the nasty urge to refuse to eat a single thing. It was only the memory of Ron’s disturbed expression at the sight of Harry’s weight loss that kept him in his seat, and he shoveled some mushrooms and peppers onto his plate with great reluctance.\n\nHarry went to bed early again, despite having been assigned another mountain of homework for the week. In the privacy of his four-poster he re-examined the packaging of the tablets Kreacher had got him...headache, dizziness, stomach pain, changes in appetite....\n\nHarry frowned. That did explain it, then. He sat there for a moment, turning the box over idly in his hands, debating...was it really worth it? Bargaining a good night’s sleep for the risk of wanting to eat more than he should? But in the end the prospect of dreams full of screams and pain or, worse, dark broom closets, made the choice for him, and he quickly popped a second tablet out of its tray.\n\n \n\n \n\nThe following week fell into a pattern that Harry seemed to observe from the outside rather than participate in himself. Wake up. Slog through the morning. Rabbit food (Harry remembered wryly that that’s what Uncle Vernon had called it when Dudley had been sentenced to his diet). More rabbit food. Sometimes straying from that when his body managed to beat back his brain…guilt (desperate, awful guilt) when he did stray, and he scratched. Endless piles of homework, and he tried, he tried but he couldn’t focus. The days blurred together, and he needed sleep, and he took his tablets, and he was too tired. He was cold. He was frustrated and worried and hungry, so hungr –\n\n“Will you please put that map away?”\n\nHarry glanced up at Hermione in annoyance, though her tone when she badgered him about his preoccupation with Malfoy had shifted more towards pleading than disapproving the past few days.\n\n“You never tell Ron to quit looking at it, do you, and he’s just as convinced as I am that Malfoy’s up to all this Junior Death Eater rubbish….” Harry pointed out, regretting that Ron was already down at dinner waiting for them; he could have used the backup. His eyes found the Slytherin’s dot again, which was positioned, predictably, not very far away from him and Hermione at the moment.\n\n“No, I don’t,” Hermione said meaningfully, but she did not say anything else as they descended a narrow staircase.\n\nDeciding not to even attempt to interpret that, Harry ignored her and kept his gaze trained on the Map – ever since Monday morning, Malfoy had been sticking to Harry, Ron, and Hermione like glue – well, this wasn’t exactly true. He’d been sticking to Hermione like glue. Harry had checked the Map as often as he could between classes and meals, and, almost every time, Malfoy had been there, lurking somewhere behind them – except for when it was only Harry and Ron. Malfoy seemed to lose interest then. Sometimes Harry caught sight of him on the Map, loitering outside the library or a bathroom, like he was waiting for Hermione to come out. Harry’s insides writhed and seethed furiously at the thought, a venomous hatred pulsing in his brain, and he glanced over his shoulder again, catching a glimpse of Malfoy’s pale, pointed face through the group of fourth year Ravenclaws that stood between them.\n\nMaking up his mind on the spot, Harry decided that the time for caution had long since passed and he hastily refolded the Marauder’s Map and stuffed it back into his pocket.\n\n“Got to go to the bathroom – you go on, I’ll see you in a minute,” he told Hermione quickly as they came around a corner, already turning away from her.\n\n“Hurry up!” she called after him, and she disappeared down another staircase.\n\nHarry doubled back to the corner of the corridor and leaned against the wall, doing his best to appear casual and thoroughly innocuous as the cluster of Ravenclaws walked past. A couple of the girls giggled when they saw him, which did nothing to improve Harry’s frazzled nerves, and he just barely stopped himself fixing them with a withering glare. A minute later, they had also climbed down the stairs, and then there was only one more set of footsteps making their way up the hallway.\n\nHarry waited silently, barely breathing as he drew his wand.\n\nMalfoy came around the corner and Harry sprang forward, seizing the front of Malfoy’s robes, ignored the outraged “HEY!” that echoed furiously through the halls, and pulled him roughly around to slam him up against the wall.\n\nIn the split second that Malfoy was frozen in surprise, Harry brought his wand up, jabbing it threateningly into the side of his neck. Malfoy immediately began struggling, clutching at Harry’s wrists as though the touch of the wand at his throat had released him from his shock. Malfoy’s nails bit into Harry’s flesh, and Harry let a low growl, yanking Malfoy away from the wall and slamming him back again…blood was pounding in his brain, a blinding rage surging up inside him, rushing up his throat, making his face burn and his fist close even more tightly around his wand….\n\n“Get off of me!” Malfoy snarled, stray strands of his blond hair flying around his face as he plunged a hand into his robes and pulled out his own wand, pushing it sharply up underneath Harry’s chin, right over his jugular. But Harry did not release him, and they both stood there, breathing heavily, with their wands pressed against each other’s throats, glaring at one other with unadulterated hatred and disgust.\n\n“Why have you been following her?” Harry demanded through clenched teeth, twisting Malfoy’s robes viciously in his fist.\n\nSomething like astonishment flickered in Malfoy’s grey eyes, and Harry felt a savage burst of satisfaction; Malfoy had not been aware that Harry knew exactly what he was doing. But Malfoy’s face contorted into an ugly grimace as he spat, “Who?”\n\n“You know exactly who I mean! Hermione, you slimy little – ”\n\n“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Potter. Why would I possibly want to follow that little Mudblood around?”\n\nHarry’s vision nearly went blurry with rage as adrenaline coursed through his veins, his ability to keep from hexing Malfoy into oblivion hanging on by barely a thread. A sharp pain flared suddenly in Harry’s chest, and then his vision really did seem to be going blurry as a wave of dizziness overtook him.\n\n“I know it was you, Malfoy, the graffiti, that Dark Mark,” Harry panted, trying desperately to hold himself together as another pain flared in the region of his heart. “You’re not going to get away with this, you’ll be chucked out for good…I know it was you,” he said again, pushing his neck even more firmly against Malfoy’s wand, half-wishing Malfoy would try something, would give Harry an excuse to fight him, to unleash all the anger and frustration and panic that had been simmering underneath the surface for so long.\n\nBut Malfoy shoved Harry away from him, and Harry’s grip broke easily as another swell of lightheadedness crashed over him. Malfoy straightened his robes with a few sharp tugs and ran a hand smoothly over his head, slicking his hair back into place as he smirked at Harry.\n\n“Prove it,” he whispered.\n\nHarry glared at him, his breath catching harshly, channeling the force of his outrage and loathing to keep himself on his feet. “You stay the hell away from Hermione, you understand me? You touch her and I swear I’ll – ”\n\n“You'll what? It’s a free country,” said Malfoy, “And I don’t take orders from stinking half-bloods….” He looked Harry briefly up and down, his lip curling as he took in the sweat at Harry’s brow, his heaving chest, the hand shaking around his wand. “What’s wrong with you, anyway?” he sneered. “Golden Boy of Gryffindor losing his nerve?”\n\nMalfoy gave a derisive snort and set off down the hall, bumping Harry’s shoulder forcefully as he went. Harry wanted to turn and go after him, to call out a retort, to do something to wipe that bloody smirk off his face, but it was all he could do to stagger unsteadily over to the wall as Malfoy disappeared around the corner.\n\nHarry dropped more than sunk onto the floor, leaning heavily against the wall and gasping for breath, clutching at his chest, which was now bursting with pain. With sharp, jerky movements, Harry dug out the Invisibility Cloak and swung it over himself, cringing at the thought of anyone coming along to see Harry Potter sprawled out, sweating and trembling helplessly on the floor. The pain in his chest seemed to be suffocating him, and Harry wondered suddenly if he was having a heart attack. It was beating so fast in his ears…what if he died, right here in this hallway?\n\nA hysterical thought popped wildly into his head, and he wondered if he shouldn’t take the Cloak off so no one would trip over his body –\n\nBut after a few minutes, the pain lessened, and then dissipated, and he could breathe again.\n\nHarry pulled himself shakily to his feet, still trembling underneath his father's Invisibility Cloak. He stared at the spot of stone floor where he’d just been sitting, as though expecting some sort of dark apparition to rise up out of it and attack him.\n\nHarry shook himself, rubbing his knuckles nervously against his hand, and set off quickly down the corridor, keenly aware that he was already very late for dinner, and that Ron and Hermione would be wondering where he was.\n\n \n\n \n\n\nA cool, slight breeze ruffled Harry’s hair as he walked along, the vast blue sky silent above him. His footsteps were muffled and uneven, and he looked down, discovering with pleasant surprise that he was walking upon clouds as white and fluffy as fresh marshmallows…well, of course. Why shouldn’t he be walking on clouds? Everyone did.\n\n\n\nPatterns swirled hypnotically up in the atmosphere, winding and curling like snakes, and Harry leapt gently off the surface of clouds and floated up to one of them with ease, thinking that it was really very pretty…he reached out his fingers, and touched it – the swirling thing broke open, and a murder of crows, each with six bulging eyes and four ravaged wings, burst out of it, flapping around him in a frenzy, attacking his face, his hands, pecking at his eyes, and Harry threw his arms over his face, curling into himself as the murder bore down upon him, driving him down through the clouds, and Harry was falling, falling fast….\n\n\n\nThe crows disappeared as suddenly as they’d come, and Harry looked around to find that he was standing in a dark cave, rosy pink firelight flickering sinisterly off the damp walls. He was naked. There were disembodied eyes, scarlet and slit-pupiled like a cat’s, staring at him from every dark corner, and he backed away, hitting a wall, out of which long, thorny vines grew in an instant, winding around his legs and arms, binding him against the clammy surface. Terror exploded in his stomach, and he opened his mouth to scream, but nothing came out...a school bell rang, loud and sharp, echoing around the cave, whose floor kept shifting and changing like quicksand, and a girl appeared in a puff of purple smoke right next to the pink fire, roasting squares of chocolate over the flames as though she’d been sat beside it all along. She smiled at Harry as the chocolate dripped into the fire, each drop transforming into a tiny Snitch as it fell, and then flying away before Harry could catch it…he strained at the vines holding him to the cave wall….\n\n\n\nThe girl laughed, an ugly screeching sound, and suddenly she was standing right in front of Harry, her dark hair swirling around her. She caressed his face with a hand that felt like sandpaper, and Harry knew that if she wanted to she could score the flesh right off his skull….\n\n\n\nThe vines holding him down disintegrated to ash as she pressed her body to his, but still he could not move. She kissed him then, a thick, bubbling liquid pouring into his open mouth, choking him – the girl stepped back and looked at Harry sadly.\n\n\n\nShe spoke, and her voice echoed as though there were three of her speaking together. “I’m so glad you came to see me. I’ve been waiting. I’ve been eating rats to survive, you see….” She gestured over to a pile of little skeletons, and only their eyes remained, staring back at Harry blankly….\n\n\n\n‘I’m so sorry,’ Harry wanted to say, and he wasn’t sure whether he meant it for the rats or the girl, but he suddenly found that he had no mouth, only a smooth stretch of skin below his nose, and he looked down at his own body to find that he was a skeleton, too, as if all his flesh had been melted away.\n\n\n\n“It’ll be okay,” the girl soothed. “You have me, now….” And Harry’s horrified gaze found her face, which was now grey and taut – she looked dead. Dead like the four corpses standing behind her with sunken expressions of accusation and hatred on their gaunt faces as they looked at Harry, blaming him, he knew, for what had become of them….\n\n\n\n‘I’m sorry!’ Harry tried to tell them. ‘I’M SORRY!’ But he still did not have a mouth, and his body was fading away…the dark-haired girl stepped up to him again, whispering, “I can help you…” and moved into him, so that she became a part of him, and their bodies became one body, and Harry screamed, clawing at his bare bones –\n\n\nWith an almighty wrench, Harry dragged himself out of sleep and into wakefulness, still screaming so loudly he thought his throat might tear, the taste of iron on his tongue. His body attempted to thrash, to bolt up, but it was paralysed, stuck to the sweaty sheets as though a giant mass were sitting on top of him, pinning him to the bed. His scream cut off abruptly with a choked, desperate whimper – his lungs were frozen in his chest, his brain starved for oxygen, and with an enormous push of willpower, Harry forced his lungs to fill, to expand, and he sucked in the deepest breath he’d ever taken in his life. Sweat poured off of him, his heart hammering fit to burst, and a sharp pain in his tongue told him he had bitten it in his sleep.\n\nPanic pounded through him, still unable to move, and he stared, wide-eyed, up at the canopy of his four-poster, trying to get his brain to communicate with his muscles. It felt like he was Petrified – terror slammed his heart against ribs, and he choked on a sob. Move, he snarled at his mind, move, move, move, move, MOVE!\n\nHis fingers twitched. His knees jerked. Slowly, the feeling returned, and he was able to drag himself up to rest against the headboard, panting heavily. He realised his face was wet with more than just sweat, and he thrust a hand jerkily back behind his pillow, seizing hold of his wand like a lifeline and clutching it to his chest.\n\n“L-l-lumos,” he whispered, his voice breaking. He coughed and tried again. “Lumos!”\n\nHis bed filled with light, and amongst the shadows cast by his rumpled bedspread, he saw a smear of blood on his sheets. Harry stared at it. He repositioned his wand and raised his trembling hands to his eyes. The outsides of his wrists were torn open again.\n\nThe damage was not nearly as bad as it could have been, and a small part of Harry was grateful that he had not been able to move properly in his sleep – he could not have asked Ginny to heal him again. The look in her eyes if he did was enough to make him want to crawl straight into a hole to shrivel up and die.\n\nHarry clenched his hand into a fist, feeling the congealed blood underneath his fingernails, and he threw back his covers, forcing his wooden legs over the side of the bed. He doused his wand and pulled back his hangings. He had to make it to the bathroom. He had to clean himself up, but he didn’t know if he could even stand….\n\nHarry rose slowly, clutching at his bedpost for support – he could hardly feel his feet under him – the bathroom seemed miles away, and he tamped down the urge to give into despair. He focused every last particle of his brain on putting one foot in front of the other. He stumbled unevenly, barely making it to the bathroom doorway before he collapsed. His knees gave out and hit the floor with a sickening flash of pain and he bit down on a grunt, determined not to wake the others. Harry half-crawled into the bathroom, closing the door behind him with a shaking hand. He stared up at the sink, yearning for a drink of water, for a splash on his flushed, sweaty face, but he did not even have the energy to prop himself up against the wall, and he crumpled weakly onto the freezing floor, rolling over to stare at the underside of the counter, his heart thumping madly again from exertion.\n\nThe desire to call out for Ron like a child in the night rushed up inside him, and he felt traitorous tears prick at the corner of his eyes again as he lay there, prone and miserable. Harry curled up, like he had in his dream, and he pressed his eyes shut at the phantom sensation of gruesome, six-eyed crows pecking him all over, stabbing, hurting him.\n\nEver since he had started taking the sleeping tablets, he had slept more solidly, but almost every day he had woken up with vague memories of strange, eerie dreams that left him slightly on edge all morning. But tonight…tonight had been something else entirely. His nightmare had been so…real. Vivid and disturbing and unnervingly psychedelic, he had never had a dream quite like it. The image of his skeletal body intruded sharply, and he opened his eyes, looking down at himself just to make sure he was still all there. His hand twitched up to his mouth, feeling for his lips….\n\n\nFour corpses staring back at him through empty sockets….\n\n\nHarry shuddered, forcing his eyes shut again. He lay there for what felt like hours until some modicum of strength returned; he carefully placed his trembling palms against the floor and pushed himself up. He rested briefly against the sink before grasping the edge of the counter and hauling his shaking, shivery body to its feet. Determinedly avoiding looking at his reflection, Harry turned on the tap and stuck his hands under the stream, rubbing lightly at the dried blood. He winced at the sting, but when he was done they looked much better. Or he thought they did, anyway. He had left his glasses beside his bed. Harry splashed some water on his face, washing away the salty remains of the sweat and tears, and gulped down a few mouthfuls, feeling marginally better.\n\nBreathing as deep and even as possible, Harry hobbled to the door and opened it, startled nearly out of his skin to find Dean waiting beside the door, squinting and sleep-mussed, on the other side.\n\n“Harry,” Dean whispered. “I was just about to knock, you’ve been in here for – are you okay?” he asked suddenly, taking in Harry’s appearance. Harry could not see Dean’s expression clearly without his glasses, but there was a slight note of concern in his voice, and Harry thought he saw his eyes flick down to Harry’s wrists, which Harry shoved hurriedly behind his back.\n\n“Yeah,” Harry whispered back. “Sorry, all yours.” He let Dean past him; Dean cast him another fleeting look and closed the door.\n\nHarry dragged himself back over to his bed and dropped onto it wearily, his brain teeming with uncomfortable, unwanted thoughts. Abruptly, he shoved a hand under his pillow, pulled out the package of sleeping tablets, and threw them into the drawer of his bedside table, closing it firmly.\n\nWell, that was the end of that, Harry sighed to himself.\n\nTonight had been ten times worse than any of his normal nightmares, and if he was being honest with himself he was a little relieved to have an excuse to stop; the dreamlike numbness that had coloured his whole week had been, he had to admit, nice in a way. But it certainly wasn’t doing him any favours as far as his schoolwork situation went, which was now beyond desperate. He was certain he was in danger of failing about half his classes at this point. However, without a doubt the worst part had been all the extra food he had been unable to stop himself from consuming. Not to mention the fact that he’d felt so drowsy and slow that he hadn’t managed to drag himself out of bed once for a morning run…a restless hum of anxiety pulsated just underneath his skin….\n\nDean came out of the bathroom and got back into bed. Ron muttered something in his sleep that sounded like ‘can’t go to the dance, got to help take these flowers to the zoo, I’m the manager’ and Harry allowed himself a small grin. He turned over and stared at Ron’s raised silhouette, thinking.\n\nHe’d just have to be a bit stricter with himself.\n\nThat was the safe thing. And the only way to make up for this last week – no more options or choices or leeway, he just had to grit his teeth and do it. Something subsided in him at the thought, like a monstrous serpent being lulled back into a doze, and Harry reached eagerly over to his alarm clock, setting it early enough for his run. After a second’s thought, he pushed it back another half hour. He’d need time before breakfast to go down to the kitchens and tell the house-elves about the adjustments that needed to be made.\n\nHarry buried his face in his pillow, thoroughly exhausted, and closed his eyes – the vivid, too-real images of his dream threatened to overwhelm him, and once or twice his eyes snapped open, expecting to see dozens of scarlet eyes staring at him from the shadows. Eventually, the sound of Ron’s quiet snores and the promise of much more manageable days on the horizon eased him to sleep.\n\n \n\n \n\nA storm was raging outside the window when Harry’s alarm went off, testing his resolve to follow through with the plan he’d outlined for himself, and he momentarily let his eyes slip closed again, sinking back into his mattress, before he sat up with a jerk, jumping out of bed as suddenly as if he’d been poked with a cattle prod.\n\nNo choice, you’ve got to go, you said you’d go, Harry told himself firmly, and he shoved his glasses sleepily onto his face, taking comfort once again in the idea of a decisive, clear-cut routine, even as a flash of lightning cracked apart the sky outside the dormitory, followed by a low, ominous roll of thunder.\n\nHe had to stop by the kitchens first anyway, and the storm might have blown itself out by then. Gathering up his things, Harry left the dormitory, closing the door quietly behind him, and ran through his list of meals in his head, over and over again like a recitation, all the way down to the kitchens so that he wouldn’t forget.\n\n \n\n \n\nRon and Hermione were not happy with him.\n\nAt all.\n\nNor was Ginny, for that matter, who had taken to sitting right next to Harry at meals whenever Dean was not with her.\n\nNone of them had actually said anything outright, yet, but he did not know how long that was going to last – their pointed looks from his plate, to his set jaw, and back again spoke volumes. As did the way they kept pushing dishes of food towards him, though, true to his promise to himself, he had so far wordlessly refused to touch any of it.\n\nHe had to follow The Rules, and The Rules told him exactly what he was allowed to have:\n\n\nBreakfast: half a bowl of cornflakes with milk, or one grapefruit.\n\n\n\nLunch: an apple, a salad with tomato, and broth.\n\n\n\nDinner: Tomatoes, broccoli, and carrots, one cup each.\n\n\n\nNo snacks. End of.\n\n\n\nWater.\n\n\n\nTea. No sugar, no cream.\n\n\nAny more than that, and it was an extra lap around the Quidditch pitch. Even though sneaking out was a bit trickier these days – there were now security trolls posted outside all the secret passages during the night in addition to the rotation of Aurors guarding the front doors.\n\nBut this had not stopped him in the end – Harry knew how to get by trolls, after all.\n\nPerhaps Ron, Ginny, and Hermione sensed that attempting to reason Harry into eating more would be ineffective (which, Harry thought with a fierce twinge of self-satisfaction, it would be), or perhaps it was the fact that Harry had now secretly started wearing two jumpers under his robes that eased their worry enough for them to refrain from commenting on his stringent eating habits. Harry knew he had lost several more pounds, and something told him that unless he kept it from showing, he was not going to like the consequences.\n\nThe tension between all four of them was palpable. Harry, who had already been trying to avoid too much contact with Ginny, was now doing everything in his power to make sure they did not run into each other in the halls or the common room, made more than a little difficult by the fact that Ginny was having none of it. She made an effort to engage him in conversation, even when he did nothing but mumble lame responses at her, and she continued to wave or smile at him when they saw each other outside of meals, even if he pretended he did not see it. She insisted on treating him normally, even as he was trying his best to pull away from her, and it was truly, inexpressibly maddening.\n\nRon and Hermione were taking much the same tack.\n\nEven though neither of them were directly trying to address Harry’s behaviour at mealtimes anymore, Hermione always seemed to attempt to bring the subject of food up organically. She would start conversations about the new line of sweets Honeydukes had come out with, or the best Christmas dinners they had ever had, or an interesting book of wizarding recipes she had found in the library. Harry largely ignored these attempts, partly because he knew exactly what she was trying to do, and partly because he had tried to warn her to watch out for Malfoy, that he was tailing her for some as yet unknown nefarious reason, and she had told him that he was being ridiculous, a transgression for which Harry had yet to forgive her.\n\nHarry had told neither Hermione nor Ron about his confrontation with Malfoy, and he did not think it to be a wise idea at this point, for Ron, despite hating and suspecting Malfoy quite as much as Harry did, seemed to have taken it into this head to appoint himself Harry’s keeper.\n\nEvery time Harry tried to disappear to his bed hours early, or go to the library by himself, Ron provided some excuse for Harry to stay, or be accompanied, as if he was of the opinion that Harry was spending too much time alone. An opinion Harry might have shared, if only Ron were acting a bit more like himself. As it was, Ron had become almost…Hermione-ish, expressing the concern that Harry was putting off too many homework assignments, and teaming up with Hermione to make a weekly schedule for Harry to follow so he did not fall too far behind. Harry privately and grudgingly agreed that Ron perhaps had a point, but it did not stop him missing his best mate and how things had been only weeks ago, before everything had got so…complicated.\n\n \n\n \n\nHarry let out a low sigh, tapping his quill rhythmically against the side of the table.\n\nHe had decided to try to work out a response to Lupin – the man had sent another letter full of thinly-veiled worry, apparently having dismissed Harry’s claims that all was well – taking the opportunity to do it while Ron and Hermione had been called away to a Prefects’ meeting. But he could not think at all what to say. He stared dejectedly across the common room, watching a couple of third years have a riotous belching contest, empty Butterbeer bottles strewn about the floor around them…Harry wondered distantly if there was an acceptable way to say ‘I really don’t want to talk about Sirius, or anything else, thanks, but if you would keep sending letters anyway, that’d be great because it helps’ but somehow he didn’t think so….\n\nThe portrait hole opened and Ginny clambered through. Quickly averting his eyes, Harry focused on the letter before him and prayed that she would not stop to talk to him. As usual, however, the great cosmic forces of the universe did not see fit to take what he wanted into account, and Ginny came over, falling into the seat across from him and plunking down a plate of chicken and potatoes. “Hey. What’re you working on?” she asked him.\n\n“Letter,” Harry grunted, still staring at the parchment.\n\n“To whom?”\n\n“Lupin.”\n\n“Oh, I miss him,” Ginny said fondly, and Harry could hear the small smile in her voice. “I wish he could have stayed on as Defence teacher, he was a right sight better than Snape.\" She said Snape's name like a curse word, and Harry suffered a twinge of endearment. \"Anyway, I brought you some dinner – roast chicken. Your fa-a-avourite!” She said in a sing-song voice, nudging the plate a bit closer to him.\n\n“Thanks, but I’m not hungry,” he said quietly, his eyes flickering up ever-so-briefly to meet hers before looking back down quickly as though he’d been burned.\n\n“You’re not, huh?” Her tone was neutral enough, but there was the faintest undercurrent of a challenge.\n\n“I already ate my dinner.”\n\n“You didn’t have dinner, Harry. Or lunch.” She crossed her arms over her chest, and Harry knew that if he were to look up he would see that hard, blazing look in her eye again.\n\n“Just because I wasn’t in the Hall doesn’t mean I didn’t eat anything,” Harry said coolly, brushing the feathered tip of his quill across his fingers. “I went down to the kitchens.” He turned his head to watch the third years with the Butterbeer again to avoid the temptation to look at Ginny. He could feel her eyes boring into the side of his head.\n\nThey sat there together in silence for a moment.\n\n“Damn it, Harry….” said Ginny, so quietly it was almost a whisper, and it sounded so unguarded that his heart twisted with guilt.\n\nJust then Dean came down the boys’ stairs and spotted Ginny. “Ready to go?” he asked her when he had crossed over to them, and Harry had never thought he’d be so glad to have Dean interrupt them.\n\n“Yeah, let’s go for a walk, we can go by the greenhouses. I’ve been dying to see Professor Sprout’s new Flame Flowers – Neville told me about them,” Ginny said, giving Harry one last glance. She stood and heaved her bag over her shoulder.\n\n“Flame Flowers?” Dean asked curiously. “What do they do?”\n\n“They don’t do anything,” Ginny explained. “They’re non-magical, they’re just nice to look at.”\n\n“Well that’s a bit boring,” Dean complained, and Harry felt a stab of annoyance, his eyes trained on his paper again. Was it so difficult to just go see some stupid flowers with her?\n\nThe two of them turned to go, and Ginny added loudly, “Maybe we can stop by the kitchens on the way. I’m quite sure the poor house-elves haven’t had much company lately….” And she disappeared through the portrait hole hand-in-hand with Dean.\n\nHarry tried to focus on the letter before him but had to give it up as a bad job. He twirled his quill in his hands and looked sideways at the plate of chicken. He supposed, really, that it wouldn’t be so bad to have some – in spite of what he’d told Ginny, he hadn’t had anything since his grapefruit that morning, which meant he had some calories to spare. He was a bit hungry…and Ginny had taken the trouble to bring it up for him….\n\nSo? said a nasty little voice in the back of his head. She left you to go off with Dean….\n\nBesides, what was it to him if he didn’t get lunch or dinner – he had gone far longer with less at the Dursleys’, and he didn’t really like to eat meat anymore anyway. Rolling up the nearly-blank parchment with a few sharp movements, Harry snatched up his quill and headed for the staircase, but his foot had hardly touched the first step when someone called his name. He turned to see Ron and Hermione coming in through the portrait hole.\n\n“How was the meeting?” Harry asked them after they’d fought their way through the sea of people returning from dinner.\n\n“It was great – ”\n\n“Yeah, a great big load of sh – ”\n\nHermione cut him off with a sound like an angry cat, nodding pointedly at the first years sitting within hearing distance, and Harry smirked.\n\nRon shook his head bitterly. “Why have we got to sit there for half an hour and talk about the Hallowe’en decorations the school’s going to put up? I mean, call me in two weeks’ time when they actually need putting up and until then….” He snapped his fingers as though a brilliant idea had just occurred to him. “You know, I bet they’re concerned we wouldn’t be able to take all the suspense,” he nodded sagely.\n\nHermione mouth twitched in a smile, and she turned back to Harry. “Listen, Ron and I were talking, let’s go down to Hagrid’s, we haven’t been in ages….”\n\n“Tonight?” Harry blinked.\n\n“Yes, why not, we have some time before curfew – I saw him at lunch and he threated to sic Fang on us if we didn't come down to see him soon,” she said, clucking her tongue. This was, after all, not much of a threat as Fang was about as harmless as a newborn bunny.\n\n“It’s only just over an hour till I’ve got to be at Dumbledore’s office,” Harry reminded her with a stab of regret. As eager and anxious as he was to begin his second lesson with Dumbledore, the thought of seeing Hagrid loosened the ever-present knot in his chest ever so slightly.\n\nRon shrugged. “We don’t have to stay for long. C’mon, it’ll do us all some good….”\n\n“Yeah, alright,” Harry conceded, and Ron and Hermione beamed.\n\nThey dashed upstairs to get their cloaks and ten minutes later they were striding down the sloping lawn in the crisp autumn air towards Hagrid’s hut, where they could already see lights in the windows as dusk faded to darkness around them. A gentle breeze blew up from across the lake, carrying the faint sound of crickets and the hoot of an owl. For a second, Harry felt almost completely at peace with the world, and some of the worries that had been wrapped around his heart like a straitjacket fell away.\n\nFang’s booming barks sounded from within Hagrid’s hut as they approached, and they heard Hagrid’s voice attempting to quiet him. Hermione made a nervous little noise behind Harry, and he looked round to see her staring warily at Buckbeak, who was secured to a post just outside the front door. Ron caught Harry’s eye and rolled his own, and Harry patted Hermione’s arm lightly, fighting back a grin as they climbed Hagrid’s front stairs. Harry raised his fist to knock, but before he could, the door swung open and Hagrid’s massive frame filled the threshold, Fang jumping at his back.\n\n“Who’s tha’ – ? Oh, it’s you three,” he boomed cheerfully, smiling down at them, and he stood back to let them past. “Come in, come in – no, down, Fang – finally remembered me, have yeh?” He chuckled, but Harry glanced up at him, frowning, as they all removed their cloaks and sat down at the scrubbed wooden table, Fang bounding over at once to lay his head upon Harry’s knee – he thought he had seen Hagrid’s face fall for a split second after he’d opened the door.\n\n“What have yeh lot bin up to, then?” Hagrid asked them, his back turned towards them as he rummaged about in the cupboards and started hot water going for tea.\n\n“We’ve been terribly busy,” Hermione told him, looking slightly harassed. “There’s so much to learn this year, I don’t know how we’ll ever get through it all….”\n\n“Agh, yeh’ll get through it jus’ fine, always do, don’ yeh? Brains like yers?” he said, bringing over a tray laden with three enormous mugs, a cup the size of a small bucket, a teapot, and plate of rock cakes. “All three o’ yeh,” he added gruffly, winking at Harry and Ron. Hagrid poured out the tea and passed a steaming mug to each of them. Harry wrapped his hands around his gratefully, soaking up the warmth.\n\n“I’m sorry we didn’t carry on with Care of Magical Creatures, Hagrid,” Harry blurted out, and he meant it. None of the other sixth years had signed up, either, and Harry couldn't help but feel guilty. “We wanted to. We really did, it’s just – ” He glanced at Ron and Hermione for help, but they merely grimaced. Hagrid, however, waved him off.\n\n“Never mind, knew yeh probably wouldn’t be able ter, in the end,” Hagrid smiled, though a bit sadly. “‘Sides now I can spend a bit more time with Grawpy, he’s learnt nine more words – nine! An’ Dumbledore’s got ‘im all set up with a nice big cave in the mountains, now – good thing, too, he was always scarin’ the unicorns an’ the Thestrals right outta their wits on account of rippin’ up all those trees when he was livin’ in the Forest, poor things….”\n\n“Well, that’s – er – good,” Hermione offered. “And you are being careful, Hagrid, aren’t you, I mean, you are being safe….”\n\n“O’ course I’m safe, Grawpy wouldn’ hurt a fly, least not on purpose anyways, he’s too sweet,” said Hagrid, taking several big gulps from his massive cup.\n\nHarry, Ron, and Hermione glanced at each other and looked away very quickly; ‘sweet’ was the very last thing any of them would have chosen to call Hagrid’s little brother, who had, on the last occasion Harry and Hermione had met him, terrorised an entire group of angry centaurs into fleeing for their very lives. Hermione coughed and changed the subject to the decorations going up for Hallowe’en (“I thought we’d decided it was too early to be talking about this,” Ron muttered to Harry out of the corner of his mouth) and Hagrid spent the next fifteen minutes proudly informing them on the status of the giant pumpkins he was growing for the Great Hall in the vegetable patch behind his house.\n\nThere was a blazing fire going in the hearth, and the heavy weight of Fang’s head on Harry’s knee was a soothing comfort – he sipped at his tea, the mug still warm under his fingers, and listened to Hagrid talk as he sank into a comfortable drowsiness.\n\n“So, how’s yer Quidditch practice comin’?” asked Hagrid, and Harry sat up a bit straighter, blinking.\n\n“Great,” said Ron, attempting to take a bite of rock cake then setting it gingerly back down on the table as he massaged his jaw. “The Cup’s got Gryffindor’s name on for sure, really good team this year, and Harry’s a brilliant captain – ”\n\n“Of course he is,” Hermione said staunchly, and Harry could not help grinning at both of them.\n\n“When’s yer first match?”\n\n“Six weeks,” Harry told him. “Slytherin.”\n\n“And yer up for it, are yeh?” Hagrid asked, eyeing Harry with the same troubled look in his eyes he’d had when he had first opened the door and clapped eyes on the three of them.\n\n“Yeah,” said Harry, taken aback. “Why?”\n\n“Dunno,” Hagrid said, turning his cup in hands, still surveying Harry’s face with a deep frown. “Yer lookin’ a bit pale, is all. Thinner, too, I reckon. Have yeh been ill or summat?”\n\n“No,” said Harry, a bit defiantly, and he looked to Ron and Hermione to confirm this, but they were both staring back at him steadily with expressions that said quite plainly that they agreed with Hagrid. Hermione’s jaw wiggled slightly, as though debating whether or not to say what she was thinking, and a spill of hot anger tinged with betrayal seemed to fill him up all the way to his throat: Was this why they’d asked him to come? So they could recruit Hagrid to their campaign to make Harry do what they wanted?\n\nHarry opened his mouth, but as soon as he did, Hermione seemed to come to a decision and she said, very quickly but deliberately:\n\n“It’s because he won’t eat.”\n\nHagrid’s cup stilled in his hands. There was a heavy silence for a second, in which Harry fixed Hermione with his fiercest glare. Her lip trembled slightly, but she crossed her arms and did not look away. Fang whined at Harry’s knee.\n\n“Whadda yeh mean he’s not eatin’?” Hagrid said in a low voice, narrowing his eyes at Ron and Hermione as though wondering if had understood correctly. But before either of them could answer, he rounded immediately on Harry, his expression ominous. “What do they mean yer not eatin’!”\n\nFang scuttled off to hide under Hagrid’s bed, and Harry couldn’t help but wince under the force of Hagrid’s indignation. He sat there with the three of them watching him, feeling mutinous, and stared at a barrel of giant grubs in the corner, grinding his teeth together. He wrenched his jaw open and said shortly, “I eat.”\n\nRon snorted forcefully. “Barely.”\n\n“I do – ”\n\n“You were. Well, sort of,” Hermione said, and though Harry was not looking at her, he could hear the threat of tears in her voice. “And I thought…but now it’s, it’s practically nothing, Harry – ”\n\n“I don’t want to talk about this,” Harry ground out, his temper rising, and he tightened his hands around his mug in an effort to contain himself.\n\n“Well, that’s too bad,” Hagrid growled. The cup in his hands groaned as he squeezed it, threatening to shatter, and he let go of it quickly. Hagrid sighed heavily, getting control of himself, and brushed one of his dustbin-lid-sized hands through his wild hair in agitation. “I know that yeh – yeh’ve had a hard time of it lately, but yeh can’t just - just give up, Harry…yeh gotta take care o’ yerself – ”\n\nHarry stared so hard at the barrel of grubs that everything began to blur together. He felt like screaming at them all, he could feel himself shaking with suppressed anger. They were not being fair, they didn’t get it. He wasn’t giving up. He was trying. He was trying so hard…they could not know, any of them, how much it was costing him to keep himself together….\n\n“I’ve got to go meet Dumbledore,” Harry said, fighting to keep his voice even, and stood automatically, refusing to look at Hagrid’s face – he did not want to see the worry there, or acknowledge that the guilt of disappointing Hagrid might even be enough to make him stay.\n\n“That’s not for half an hour,” Ron insisted. “Mate, c’mon – ”\n\nHarry grabbed his cloak and threw it around his shoulders. “Gives you lot more time to talk about me then, doesn't it?” he snapped, though his voice caught on the last word, rather ruining the effect. He turned around and strode towards the door.\n\n“I'm tryin’ ter talk to yeh, if yeh’d just sit down fer a minute! Harry, come here – ” Hagrid called after him, his voice cutting off abruptly as Harry slammed the door behind him, breathing heavily. He took off towards the castle, shoving down a mixture of relief and hurt when Ron and Hermione did not follow him. Good, he thought viciously, stay there and fill him in, leave me alone….He could not believe the two of them, using Hagrid against him like that…and now Hagrid knew, and Harry had to avoid him, too, and he didn’t want to do that.\n\nHarry fumed all the way back to the castle and up to the seventh floor, coming to a halt in front of the gargoyle that stood sentry outside Dumbledore’s study.\n\nRon had been right, of course; it was a while yet before he was supposed to present himself for his lesson, and he stood staring at the gargoyle, doing his best to master his temper and rubbing irritatedly at his wrists over his robes, trying not to scratch. After a few minutes, feeling jumpy and restless and desperately wanting something else to think about, Harry gave the gargoyle the password and stepped onto the spiral staircase that carried him up like an escalator to stand in front of the gleaming oak door of the headmaster’s office, hoping that Dumbledore would not object to him showing up a little early.\n\nHarry knocked a bit harder than he meant to, and he heard Dumbledore’s voice from within call “Enter.”\n\nDumbledore was standing in front of one of his office’s many shelves, a very large book open in his hands, and he looked up, his silver eyebrows rising in faint surprise as Harry entered. “Harry! Gracious me, is it eight o’ clock already?”\n\n“Er – no, I’m sorry, sir, I know I’m early. I – I can come back….” said Harry, unsure, his hand still on the doorknob.\n\n“It is no matter, Harry, indeed a pleasant surprise, come in,” Dumbledore smiled kindly, and Harry stepped away from the door. As he moved further into the room, Dumbledore lowered his book, peering more closely at him. Harry supposed something of his anger and resentment must still be showing on his face, for a crease appeared between Dumbledore’s eyebrows, and he closed the book entirely and set it down on an empty corner of his desk.\n\n“What has happened to you?”\n\n“Nothing,” Harry said at once. His heart seemed to be beating somewhere in the region of his throat. He realised abruptly that he was trembling, and he crossed his arms tightly over his chest.\n\n“What has upset you?”\n\n“I’m not upset.”\n\n“Harry….” Dumbledore chided gently, his expression stern.\n\nHarry shook his head, averting his gaze from the headmaster’s penetrating scrutiny. “It’s…I had a row with Ron and Hermione, it was nothing….”\n\nDumbledore paused. Harry knew he was still watching him. “That is understandable,” he said softly. “I would imagine that their perception of things differs a great deal from yours, at the moment.”\n\nHarry frowned. He looked back to Dumbledore in confusion, but before Harry could ask what he had meant by this, a voice issued from one of the portraits above their heads.\n\n“I have just spoken with Lourdes,” said the painting of Sirius’s great-great-grandfather, Phineas Nigellus, as he sidled back into his frame. “Hanson would like you to know that he’s available on the – ”\n\n“Yes, thank you, Phineas,” Dumbledore said repressively, cutting him off, and Phineas looked round in surprise.\n\n“Ah,” he said, spotting Harry. “Yes, of course. We shall discuss the matter later, Headmaster….” And he settled into his painted armchair without another word, staring down his nose at Harry with unusual interest as though he were examining a strange new specimen.\n\nDumbledore circled his desk, sitting down, and gestured for Harry to do the same. “I am truly sorry to hear you have been arguing with your friends. It happens even in the closest of relationships, I’m afraid –  I find it usually works best, under such circumstances, to sincerely listen to each other’s concerns.” His chin lowered a fraction of an inch, and he studied Harry over the tops of his half-moon spectacles. “Have you been confiding in them?”\n\nHarry fidgeted in his seat. “Sir?”\n\n“You asked me, I believe, after our first lesson together if you would be allowed to tell Mr. Weasley and Miss Granger everything I had told you – have you discussed it with them?”\n\n“I….” Harry recalled, dimly, the conversation in which Ron and Hermione had interrogated him about his time spent in Dumbledore’s study, and how he had balked at the thought of discussing Merope and Tom Riddle and the circumstances surrounding their union and the subsequent birth of their child…. “Not really,” he said finally.\n\nThe Pensieve sat on the desk between them, throwing little specks of silvery light onto the surrounding portraits and ceiling. Harry stared at it, wishing that the headmaster would just get down to business and start their lesson so he could focus on something besides the uncomfortable buzz pricking under his skin. Dumbledore lowered his head another inch, trying to catch Harry’s eye, and Harry unwillingly met his gaze.\n\n“As I said before, you need your friends, Harry. Keeping secrets from them will only make things more difficult for you, and for them,” said Dumbledore shrewdly, and Harry got the distinct impression that he was not only talking of passing on the matters of these lessons. He wondered, again, what Dumbledore had meant by Ron and Hermione’s perceptions differing from his own, but Dumbledore was already standing, indicating the Pensieve on the desk, and after a brief review of what they had covered previously and an introduction to where they were headed next, Harry was plunging face first into the cool surface of the contents of the Pensieve and falling down through darkness into Dumbledore’s memory of a boy Voldemort.\n\n \n\n \n\nQuite a while later, after Harry and Dumbledore had emerged from their viewing of a shabby little London orphanage run by a Mrs. Cole and the calculating, disquieting version of a young Tom Riddle who had spent his childhood there tormenting the other children, they sat with the desk between them again and discussed the boy-Riddle’s tendency towards secrecy and domination, and his odd, magpie-like habit of trophy-collecting.\n\nThe sky outside the window had now grown dark and starless, and Fawkes was dozing softly behind the door with his head under his wing.\n\n“And now, Harry,” said Dumbledore, “I think it is time for bed. But firstly, I would like to ask you something.”\n\nHarry, who had made to stand up, sank back into his chair and waited, apprehensive.\n\nDumbledore considered him for a moment, and Harry rather thought that the usual twinkle in the piercing blue eyes looked just a bit dimmer. Dumbledore pressed the tips of his long fingers together. “I want to know,” he said gravely, “if there is anything you would like to tell me.”\n\nHarry remembered Dumbledore asking him much the same thing in second year, when the Chamber of Secrets had been opened, and people had been getting Petrified left, right, and centre, and Harry had been so worried that he might actually somehow be the heir of Slytherin....\n\nHarry thought, now, about his growing dread about Malfoy and what he was doing following Hermione around. He thought about the broken skin on his wrists. About the empty ache in his belly, and the sleeping tablets in his bedside table. He thought about how he was just the tiniest bit nervous to leave Dumbledore’s office when they were done here, because last time there had been someone waiting for him…he thought about the extra layer of Mrs. Weasley’s jumpers he was wearing at that very moment, to protect himself from the cold, and from suspicion. He thought about how very, very tired he was.\n\n“No, sir,” Harry said in a flat voice, looking into Dumbledore’s bright blue eyes. “I can’t think of anything.”\n\nIn the corner, Fawkes let out a low, soft, musical cry."}
+{"text": "I lay on the lounger, letting the sound of the lapping waves flow over me. This weekend had been another level of exhibitionism for me. So many times, in so many 'innocent' circumstances, some gent had seen my breast or breasts, often enough that included at least a part of my areola or nipples. I can't recall the number of up skirt 'accidents' that have happened since we began our play in earnest, progressing over time to upskirts with tinier panties, and then none at all!\n\nI was overwhelmed, honestly, with the emotions I felt during the time I was trapped in the KDE hospitality convention cycle. Trapped might be too strong, but it wasn't voluntary, and my exposure always expected. Not my choice of when or where or how, or for whom. Granted, it was exciting, and I gained a new appreciation for the fact that men did find me sexy, lovely, or hot. But since then, as Tony and I had explored my exhibitionism on our terms, I'd gone from just dressing in a more revealing fashion -- away from home and work -- to where I was now.\n\nI can't say if anyone had ever taken a picture of me before yesterday and yet, ohmigod, this morning, I'd posed completely naked for a guy I knew was taking pictures and was sharing them! It excited me in a profound new way!\n\nRoberto, the pictures, his note. All of it crept into my mind as I tried to listen for the knots of people I'd seen coming up the beach. The first group was for sure four guys. The others, well.... The note, what had he said? Oh, I wanted to check my phone to read it again, how my \"intimate area\" was something he'd never actually seen before. Did he mean, could it be I was the first real, live woman whose pussy he'd seen? Or did he mean just in \"such a state of...,\" how did he say that? Had he just never noticed with other women, certainly such a handsome young man couldn't still be a virgin? I'd stared wantonly, curious, at the bulge in his pants. That was new, mostly I just noticed that guys were getting hard, could see some tenting if it was a more than momentary exposure I gave them. And Thom, I'd seen the tenting, I'd reached over and place my hand on his erect cock! Yes, he had his shorts on, but that was new. Should I feel guilty? I didn't.\n\nAll this running through my mind, my heart rate was elevated as I heard the voices come closer.\n\n\"Phones,\" Thom whispered next to me. He might as well have handed me a personal massager.\n\nI inhaled deeply and arched my back, then settled back in the lounger, letting my left leg fall off the side. I could only imagine their view, I knew what I hoped it was. I hoped Thom, laying within arm's reach, was also seeing me. And Tony, wherever he was. Oh god, I wanted Tony here, sharing this madness with me!\n\nWhat felt like an hour passed before I heard Thom say, \"Rita, looks like that's all the looky-loo's for now.\"\n\nThen he added quickly, as I reached for my hat. \"No, please stay just as you are, I want to walk down to the water and back, to see what all these lucky devils have been seeing.\" My heart leapt into my throat! He wasn't anonymous, we'd talked and been in class together, he was a professional colleague. I was so turned on! I dropped my hand back to my side, enchanted that he wanted me in this way.\n\nHe must have relished the view, as time seemed to drag on before I heard his voice again. In the interim, either by design or not, I certainly grew hotter, my breasts aching with amused gratification.\n\n\"Hey, that kid's coming with your drink, you want to cover up?\" Thom said from the foot of the lounger. I wondered how long he'd been there. I felt a warm pulse in my core, overjoyed that he'd been so close, looking. I wondered too how the material of this suit showed wetness.\n\n\"He's over twenty-one, what do you think?\" I replied from under my hat, a smile he couldn't see wide across my face. I heard Thom return to the lounge chair next to me.\n\nThom told me later Bradley had approached from along the beach, my drink on a small tray covered with a napkin, and had stopped and made a questioning motion. Thom had nodded 'yes\" and waved him to come on up with the drink. He said he was surprised Bradley hadn't stumbled, his eyes being on me and not where he was walking through the sand until he reached the end of our loungers. At that point Bradley uncovered the drink and offered the glass to Thom, but Thom realizing that my desire was to be seen by as many men as possible, shook his head and pointed at the little table. Bradley had then sidestepped between the chairs, his head down and apparently memorizing my chest and likely well noticing the pubic hair sprouting along the suit bottom, until he bumped the table with his leg. He let out a little \"oops.\"\n\n\"You trying to steal my drink, handsome?\" I said as I reached my arm around the leg at my side essentially trapping the young man.\n\n\"No, ma'am,\" Bradley practically squeaked.\n\nI pulled my hat off and acted surprised, but kept my arm around his tanned, well-muscled leg. \"Oh, hi Bradley. I thought Thom was trying to get my drink again,\" making no attempt to cover myself with my hat.\n\nI turned my gaze to the tented shorts eighteen inches away and smiled, \"Is that for me?\"\n\n\"Yes, ma'am,\" he replied, then taking his eyes off my chest to notice where I was looking, stammered, \"Ah, no ma'am. The drink..., you ordered a..., he said you wanted me to bring... oh god,\" he was rattled.\n\n\"Bradley,\" I said, looking up into his eyes and sliding my hand up to mid-thigh inside the leg of his shorts, \"are you still calling me ma'am?\"\n\n\"Ah, sorry,\" and before I could react, he grabbed the glass off his tray and squatted to set it on the lounge-side table, trying to do something to change the situation. It changed; my hand went up his shorts leg where I discovered in that instant that he wasn't wearing any briefs. He froze, his eyes wide. To his credit, he didn't drop the tray on me or my drink.\n\n\"That was my fault, Bradley, I'm sorry,\" I said, our eyes fixed on each other, the back of my hand inside his shorts and resting against a very rigid, warm phallus.\n\nHis mouth opened but nothing came out. I withdrew my hand, dragging my fingers along the length of his thigh and smiled at him. \"Your girlfriend is a very lucky young lady.\"\n\nHe nearly sprang up and spun toward Thom. \"I'm really sorry, sir. It's just that she, Rita, ah, your wife, is really fucking hot. I mean, ah, sexy, ah...\" he blurted out. \"I didn't mean stare, or...ah,..,\" he placed the tray over his midsection.\n\n\"Bradley,\" I said trying with great difficulty to stifle my laugh seeing Thom's shocked expression. \"That's not my husband. Thom's just a friend I met at the conference.\" Okay, friend was a stretch.\n\n\"But I gotta agree with you, dude,\" Thom finally replied, \"she is very sexy. I'm having a hard time not staring at her myself.\"\n\nBradley looked at each of us a couple of times, thoroughly confused. Although, his eyes weren't focused on my face alone. He recovered himself and smiled, \"Will there be anything else, Rita?\"\n\nOh, what the fuck. \"What's your cell number?\"\n\nHe looked at me without comprehension.\n\n\"Bradley,\" I said softly, \"can I have your cell number, please?\" He gave it to me.\n\nI messaged Tony. 'Please send this wonderful young man a photo of me for \"inspiration!\"'\n\nBradley still looked confused, but asked again if there would be anything else.\n\nOur phones buzzed at the same time. Mine said 'done,' his with the picture took longer to process.\n\n\"You'll probably want to answer that,\" I smiled at him.\n\nHis eyes went wide. He glanced at me, then his phone, then back at me (I think comparing the breasts to the picture's), and again at the phone. \"Jeezus,\" he said and sat down on Thom's lounge-chair.\n\nThom began to get up and try to see the phone, but I put my hand on his shoulder and pushed him back, then rolled toward the two of them and moved my hand to cover the phone from Thom's view. \"Uh-uh, that's a gift for Bradley, not you, Wisconsin.\"\n\nThom pouted, \"Yeah, well I'm the one paying for the drinks.\"\n\n\"Patience and a good attitude,\" I winked at him as I came to a sitting position with my legs on either side of Bradley's. I was fairly certain that my already scrunched bikini bottom was revealing quite a bit of me, but didn't care.\n\nI looked at the phone that Bradley cradled protectively on his lap, and smiled with some self-satisfaction at the photo Tony had chosen to send to him. Mygod, was I really comfortable with being displayed like that? I mean, talk about full frontal! Hell, I was hot and proud of it!\n\nI tapped my knees against his, drawing him to look up. \"Just one rule, okay? That never goes online and you never tell anyone my name.\"\n\nBradley smiled, \"Yes ma'am, that's a deal. Thank you, Rita.\"\n\nI kissed him on the cheek and nodded, \"Get back to work.\"\n\nBradley stood, his still hard manhood at the most distracting height just in front of me. I honestly considered planting a kiss on his shorts, but instead leaned back, pushing my chest out and opening my legs wide to reveal my barely covered bottom. His eyes touched every part of me wantonly, with unadulterated desire. His smile was soft, his eyes between pleading and crying. He looked at the picture on his phone, stroked me again with his eyes and sighed. \"I'll know at least that you weren't a dream,\" he said raising the phone. \"Have a safe trip home, ma'am?\"\n\n\"Thank you, Bradley,\" I said, moving my leg so he could step past. I watched him walk down the shoreline, swinging the tray in one hand and the phone in the other.\n\n\"He'll be hard for a week,\" Thom said.\n\n\"And you?\" I nodded at his tented shorts as I closed my knees and brought my legs back on the lounger, sitting. My last move, for Bradley, had caused the bottom to roll between my labia majora and bury the tiny strip of fabric just hiding my wet angel wings, but providing a provocative invitation for Thom's eyes.\n\nThom laughed, \"I'm not as young as he is. I don't think I could stay hard that long.\"\n\nWith a devious grin I answered, \"Maybe you just need motivation?\" I reached back and grabbed the glass, taking a long, sensuous draw on the fresh glass of superb Irish whiskey, my upper body turned to Thom. I could feel his eyes squeezing my taut nipples, hardly as innocent and guileless as Bradley's had.\n\nI set the glass down, reached under my chair and pulled out my sunscreen from my bag. \"Would you mind?\" I asked, extending the tube to him. He sat up quickly, taking the tube, then chuckled as I turned and lay on my stomach.\n\n\"You're a real...\" he began\n\n\"Choose your next words carefully,\" I warned as I stretched out.\n\n\"Honest,\" he said, \"I was going to say 'motivator', you're a real motivator. A sexy, gorgeous motivator.\"\n\n\"Mmm,,\" I said, turning my head and tossing my hair to one side as I relaxed into the now flat lounger.\n\n\"please be very thorough, I don't want to get burned... anywhere. And tell me about the folks who passed by earlier...\" I shuddered and closed my eyes. This was new ground; Tony is the only man who has ever lotioned my body. A little voice asked me how I meant that.......\n\nThom started, perhaps still tenuous as to where this was heading, with my neck and shoulders as he narrated what had transpired as I lay topless for the roving beach pedestrians. There were pictures from all of the first group and I found that I was thrilled with the idea, with one of the men taking a few steps across the sand toward me to get what Thom described as a close-up of \"where my legs met.\" The alcohol and the lapping of the waves, along with the fine doctor's soothing, expert touch relaxed me as I \"saw\" everything he described.\n\nThe guy who had stopped and simply stood for several minutes, the wife with the look of having swallowed a whole lemon, dragging her grinning, rubber-necking husband past this row of hussies displaying ourselves like this. The two men in business suits, pants rolled up and carrying expensive dress shoes, socks tucked inside, as they appeared to rate each of us who were topless, trading comments, pointing, nodding or shaking their heads. I wondered where I fell on their scale? All the while, he spread the sunscreen thoroughly, having completed my back to the line demarcated by the side ties of my bikini bottom. I felt him rest his hands as if trying to decide how to proceed, or just enjoying the touch on the small of my back.\n\nMy heart was not resting, though this was quite relaxing. He had lingered and slid his hands as he got to my side-boobs. I'm small, and know there is not much there when I lie down, but he'd taken his time and moved his hands as much as he dared along each side, nudging his finger-tips between the towel and the flesh of my breasts. I'd tried to remain neutral, neither encouraging or rejecting, still toying with how much I was going to allow, - how much I wanted.\n\nMy ears pricked up when Thom said, \"And the last guy, in the black Speedo, really thought you were hot as hell.\" His hands came off of me just then, but in a few seconds I felt the sunscreen drizzle across my glutes and Thom began to work it in.\n\nHis circular motion, I recognized, was meant to lull me as he spread my cheeks, - I did not tense. The last guy had walked past, then come back and stood, moving this way and that a few feet to truly study me. Thom said it was obvious that he had a hard-on, one the suit could hardly contain.\n\nThom put a dollop of lotion on my right calf and I realized he'd moved himself down to the end of my lounger, apparently kneeling between my legs. I almost laughed at myself for not realizing that I'd opened my legs, my feet on each side of the lounger giving Thom a place to rest himself. His motion was nearly massage-like as he worked the protective layer into my skin. He said he'd lost sight of the guy for a moment and had just about decided to sit up when he saw the man approach the side of my lounger, no more than two feet away. He had squatted and taken a shot \"of the most nubile breasts\" on the beach, catching a magnificent profile of my nipples \"erect and proud, looking so wonderfully suckable.\"\n\nThom was working on my left calf now as he stated, \"from the way he looked to be framing the shot, it's probably just your gorgeous breasts, with those amazing, perfect nipples of yours saluting the heavens, and the ocean in the background.\"\n\nThe lotion dribbled all the way up the back of my leg from knee to my bum, Thom adding \"I'd pay a tidy sum to have that photograph hanging on the wall of my bedroom, but would probably have it right out front in the living room for everyone to see.\" I thought I'd scream when another drizzle went up the back of my other leg. Then Thom crawled up a bit, his knees touching mine and urging them apart as a hand touched each leg at my knees and started to work upward in dizzying unison.\n\nMy phone vibrated in the sand beneath the lounger. Tony.\n\nI had to concentrate to pick it up and read the message as Thom's hands worked on both my legs, running the length up the inside of each leg to just a shade, -oh so achingly close-, to my feminine folds and then upward and out, spreading me, and then back to my knees. I peered between the vinyl slats of the lounger.\n\n\"u ok\"\n\n\"yes\" I thumb typed one handed. \"can u see\"\n\n\"YES!!!!!\"\n\n\"u ok\"\n\n\"u r so HOT!!! Yes! I luv u!\"\n\n\"lub u\" I managed before dropping the phone back to the sand.\n\nI brought my hand out and reached back, finding Thom's crotch. I cupped his scrotum and then gripped his erect shaft through the shorts. \"Make sure you don't miss anything, alright? I don't want anything sunburned.\" I gave him a little squeeze and removed my hand, dropping it over the side of the chair.\n\nHis hands started back up the inside of my thighs. He didn't miss anything.\n\n\"I'm pretty sure you've got the sunscreen well worked in, don't you think?\" I said with a pleased smile, turning as much as I could to Thom. I could just get my elbows under me and my head turned to the side as he was fairly well kneeling over me with his knees at my mid-thighs.\n\n\"Just trying to be thorough,\" he smirked with a sheepish grin.\n\n\"Mmm, you were, thanks.\" I nodded at him and then at his chair.\n\n\"Oh,\" he said. He scooted down a bit and then climbed from between my legs, standing and stretching.\n\n\"I guess I am a pretty good motivator,\" I said, running my hand over the front of his shorts as I sat up. He jumped, and I laughed.\n\n\"I just, ah...\"\n\n\"No problem,\" I smiled demurely and lowered my eyes. Peeking up at him, and pouting just a bit, I said, \"I was hoping to get lotion over the rest of me too,\" holding the sunscreen out to him.\n\nThom glanced around. \"Here?\"\n\n\"Well, why not? I could just take this off...\" I reached for the side ties on my bikini bottom.\n\n\"No!\" he said louder than he meant to. \"No,\" he said less panicked. \"It's just, well, everyone could see what we were doing... I mean..., if you were..., if I was doing the front of you.\"\n\n\"Okay,\" I said, squirting a glob of sunscreen into my hand and beginning to do my arms. \"But if you think no one knew what you were doing, what you were touching on me...., why do you think the couple next to us walked off like they did?\"\n\nHe had a deer-in-the-headlights look as he whipped his head around to see the lounge chairs nearest us now empty. \"I...uh...\"\n\nI giggled, \"There's putting on sunscreen for a woman, and there's spending ten minutes running your hands over her pussy lips. I could spend the next week out here naked with that much sunscreen,\" I said shaking my head. I plopped another daub of lotion into my hand, rubbed some onto my other hand, and began to do my collars and breasts nonchalantly.\n\nThe tease was terrible, but I was also trying to lower my own arousal level. Thom knew how to touch a woman.\n\n\"Have you..., do you put sunscreen on that girl you're dating the way you just did me?\" I asked batting my eyes trying to be coquettish. \"She'd be crazy not to marry you,\" I said honestly.\n\nThom blushed. \"I read a lot, watch videos. Tracey, that's her name, doesn't..., she's pretty conservative.\"\n\n\"And you?\"\n\n\"Well, I didn't freak out when you said you liked to be naked in public, did I?\"\n\n\"Grab your towel, Wisconsin, and we'll head down the beach a bit, strip naked and sunscreen each other, then lay out and let people see our privates. You game?\"\n\nHe had a grin on his face, but worry in his eyes. He sighed, \"I really, really want to see all of you, Rita. To touch you...., but...\" he shrugged.\n\n\"Hey, if no one's told you, you're in love with that girl,\" I smiled, standing and wrapping my arms around him. \"Get yourself back home and propose to her,\" I said looking into his eyes, \"Then show her all you learned from those videos and books,\" I winked.\n\n\"And one practical sunscreening application?\"\n\nI hugged Thom again. \"Yeah, but take it slow, and remember that it's all about loving and caring. The sex will take care of itself if the love is there.\"\n\nHe nodded and picked up his shirt. \"Safe trip home,\" he said, taking my hand and giving me a little squeeze.\n\n\"You too, Thom,\" I smiled.\n\nHe began to turn and I called, \"Thom.\"\n\nAs he looked back, I brought the hand I still held to my breast. \"Freebie,\" I laughed.\n\nHe dropped the shirt and brought his other hand up and took my uncovered breast in it, caressing them both for a long moment, kneading them gently and catching my nipples between his fingers as he stared into my eyes.\n\nI shuddered, \"Damn, what videos were those?\"\n\nHe laughed with joy, turned, picked up his shirt, and walk back toward the hotel.\n\nMy phone was vibrating again as I slumped into the seat.\n\n\"u heading back now?\" Tony asked.\n\n\"nope, I'm gonna do this\" I typed and added a shocked emoji.\n\nI got back the goggley-eyed, tongue-hanging-out one from Tony.\n\nIt took me a couple minutes to apply sunscreen to my tummy and legs. I figured I'd just have to take the tube with me to finish the one area still unprotected. I tossed back the rest of my whiskey, grabbed my bag with the clean towel, stuffed my top into it and headed down the beach away from the hotel, - heart skipping.\n\nA couple times I'd walked topless along beaches where that was an accepted practice when Tony and I had taken vacations. Alabama law states that you can't take you suit top off if you have the intent of arousing another person who isn't your spouse. My intent was certainly to arouse Tony -- and as many other men as I could! Hell, women too, if they were interested. And it was not going to be just my top.\n\nAfter maybe a quarter mile, I found a lovely area of smooth beach -- and about eight or ten guys already sunbathing nude, along with two couples, also nude. Nobody was too obviously creepy, but I also wasn't worried. I wanted to be seen and desired.\n\nRight by the highwater mark, so everyone walking the beach had an opportunity to walk very near me, I stopped and dropped my bag. Taking a breath -- was it all adrenaline and anticipation? -- I undid the ties on my bottom and stuck it in the bag as well. I stretched a little, then pulled the large beach towel out of the bag and flipped it out, perpendicular to the shoreline. I could feel the tautness of my nipples, a sign of the excitement of this adventure, already shooting through me.\n\nMovement to my right caught my attention as I was trying to decide if I should put on my sunscreen standing up to draw more eyes, or after I sat down to ensure I did a more thorough job? Eyes were evidently not going to be the problem as the movement that had distracted me was an evenly tanned man of about forty-five, his pubic area completely shaved clean and his cock about half hard, stretching out a towel maybe fifteen feet from me. I could swear I'd seen him when I arrived, about fifteen \n\n away. As I turned to retrieve my tube of sunscreen, I noted another guy with his towel ambling in my direction. Now, maybe, it was a little creepy.\n\n\"Well, one or two would be nice,\" I said out-loud to myself, making my new neighbor look up at me, interest in his look. Oh! -- I had a sneaking suspicion what he thought or hoped I meant. I should have considered some sort of adult resort, one with thirty and forty somethings; maybe the guys would look better? I knelt on my towel and leaned to grab the sunscreen still unsure how I was going to proceed.\n\nThe end of the towel behind me, nearer the water, blew up just then. Flustered, I reached into my bag, grabbed my sandals and swung around to weigh down the corners of my towel with them. I realized a second too late what this move did, and the view I was presenting to all the people sunbathing nude behind me.\n\nhe voice in my head snickered. If you're going to jump into a cold pool, you just do it, and so I stretched out, my bottom in the air, and smoothed my towel back in place. Feeling the midafternoon sun on my most intimate part was exhilarating. I almost giggled.\n\nSitting back on my haunches, I squirted a glob of lotion into my hand, rolled off my lower legs to sit on the towel and, completely ignoring the older guy fifteen feet away, I took my time to cover the delicate skin and every fold of my pussy with sunscreen as I sat splay-legged with my knees bent. In for a penny, in for a pound. Peeking, but showing no reaction, I saw that he was on his side facing toward me and touching himself. I had hoped I'd feel more; perhaps I just didn't find him attractive?\n\nGlancing up and down the beach, I could see walkers coming from both directions. Heart thumping loudly, or so it seemed, I rolled up my bag into a sort of pillow, lay back, and moved my hat over my face. I could make out the edge of the water as I looked down my naked body, which was good as I had no one with me to tell me if anyone stopped to look. Ohmigod, I wanted to do this! I cannot describe the euphoria I felt being completely nude on a public beach for the first time.\n\nAs I concentrated on my breathing to calm myself, the sea breeze tantalized my skin bringing every cell alive and focused. Every gust, every grain of sand blown on or over me, was savored for the sparks ignited, tingling my senses and concentrated in my core. I'd been out without panties any number of times, but not like this. It was dizzying, making me light-headed and giddy as the warmth of the sun and the breeze combined to set alight an inferno undulating in, over, and throughout my core. I could feel the blood flow swelling me, and knew my nipples stood our straight like flags whipped by a gale force wind. I trembled with eagerness, I wanted to be seen, to show anyone and everyone. I smiled under my hat imagining a large, flashing, neon arrow pointing to me -- I wanted scream \"Look!\"\n\nI heard the whisper, my senses all turned past 'maximum' on their sensitivity dials, saw the feet on the beach. \"Fuck, I wish her legs were open...\"\n\n\"I know, man, but she's gorgeous,\" and then the feet moved on.\n\nShocked, I think I held my breath as I watched the feet go out of my visual range. I glanced down my body to see, beyond the patch of black hair drenched in full sun, that my toes were touching. My entire leg was clamped tight to its neighbor. Reaching out with my senses, I realized I was stiff, not relaxed at all, a pretty, plastic mannequin on a towel.\n\nI inhaled forever, and then let out just as long a breath sending my thoughts from my belly outward as I did in meditation, relaxing each part of me as the thought wave flowed out. That felt so much better, I'd even had my butt clenched! Several more breaths, calming and cleansing, brought more relief. It was nerves, excitement, anticipation.\n\nI stretched, then moved my legs apart, bending my left knee up and out, opening myself more. My arms moved themselves and I appeared asleep. The breeze licked me; would my voyeurs know that was my own dew or think it sweat? I didn't care, but I cared so much! I craved the exhilaration, the wickedness, the abandonment of expectations. Should I 'scratch' some imaginary itch and pull my angels wings open a bit? Later, I thought, let them see you like this for now. The smile under my hat was one of delight and satisfaction.\n\nAnother set of feet. They stopped. A sigh and they moved on. Thank you, I thought. I can't wait to share this with Tony!\n\nTony! Was he still around? He knew I wanted to try this, we'd talked about it a few times -- and again on the phone last night. He'd been able to see Thom and me, so he had to have seen me head down the beach. Suddenly I craved his presence, to see me here, in public, completely nude, mischievous in a way that thrilled us both.. And not just nude, but I had my legs open, not obscenely, but enough that I was certain my labia could easily be seen. I wanted him to see me doing this, enjoying myself, to rise with pride -I still had the effect on him, thank god -- as others looked at me. We did this for each other, it excited and fulfilled us in some inexplicable way.\n\n\"Oh my god, did you see that woman?\" Two more sets of feet. If he didn't, my dear, thank you for pointing me out because he was certainly looking now. One set stopped. \"George!\" came the perturbed whisper and the second set of feet fumbled moving away, being dragged. I had to stifle a laugh.\n\nAnother set stopped in front of me a few minutes later, coming from my left. They stopped right in front of me, and I saw him squat no more than inches beyond my right foot, knees open, and his cock and balls dangling before me. After thirty seconds -- did I hold my breath?- his cock was no longer flaccid. 'That's brazen,' was my first thought while simultaneously happy for his complimentary sign. I fought to keep my breath even. He set down a bag next to him, then dug out a phone, and extended his arm to get an even more intimate view of my treasure, snapping several shots one-handed. I was definitely getting wetter; in my hyper-attuned state I felt a droplet run down my perineum.\n\n\"Stunning,\" he breathed, slipped the phone back in his pack and rose. I could imagine his cock preceding him, swinging to and fro, as he walked off. Did he know, or had he simply guessed that I was awake?\n\nOver the next fifteen minutes, I watched several more sets of feet pass by. None stopped, but by the pace I guessed each was at least glancing at the sand area, covered here and there with nude bodies. The two couples I had seen on arrival were young, both members of each good-looking. Of the single guys who were there, most I would guess to be in their forties and fifties, and by their tans, long time naturists. Average guys, mostly, though two were rather overweight.\n\nI decided I should probably turn over, as well as reapply my sunscreen. To my surprise, there were three guys all within about ten feet of me in the sand further up the beach. My heart leapt seeing Tony to the right, a sparkle in my eye noting he was nude and quite erect, as were his two beach-mates. I didn't care about them, but I was going to scold him later if he'd forgotten his sunscreen- after we made love!\n\nI nodded and smiled politely to the three guys as I sat facing them cross-legged and dug into my bag for the cream. I also needed a long drink of water, which tasted great even though it was quite warm, making a point to lean back tilting the bottle up and pushed my chest out toward my admirers. Capping the bottle and laying it down, I grabbed the tube and shook it, while casually looking around.\n\nA bit further back, one couple had a few guys around them. He appeared to be asleep, though I'm sure he wasn't, and she had her head lying on his chest, her body perpendicular to his, and had an arm over her shoulder fondling his semi-rigid cock. She was watching her admirers as she lazily opened and closed her folded legs, her shaved pussy glistening in the sun.\n\n\"Need any help with that?\" I heard, distracted from my realization that I wasn't in the least disturbed by her display, or the two guys quite plainly stroking their cocks in response.\n\nI blinked. \"Just guessing you were going to flip over, I know the back's hard to reach,\" a sandy-haired guy, I guessed to be around fifty, with fabulous green eyes sitting to my left smiled. I looked at the tube, then back at him. I let my eyes, I hoped hidden by my sunglasses, jump to Tony. He had a very tiny grin, and made the slightest nod. I swear his cock jumped at the same instant. I'm sure I kegeled.\n\n\"If it's no trouble,\" I smiled.\n\nHe stood to walk over, his cock swaying. He touched my hand as he took the tube and said, \"Just relax.\"\n\nI stretched out on my belly, folding my arms so I could keep my face up to see Tony's face. I was quivering and hoped it didn't show. He knelt at my waist, on my left. I heard the spurt of lotion from the tube and felt the warm glop on my back. I know my eyes went wide, Tony smiled, his own cock telling me what he too was thinking. Could my lotion helper see the look between us?\n\nI relaxed into the hands rubbing the lotion into my shoulders and back. It felt so sensual, he wasn't rushing but soon was at my lower back. It was a symphony of emotions, what I was feeling, what I saw in Tony's eyes, the notes being played on my body. And somewhere deep, a fear, a teasing that we were on a fine line and could tip over into an abyss.\n\nAnother splash of sunscreen, right at the top of my derriere. He moved, tapping the inside of my leg, and I felt a knee move between my legs. His hands were on my buttocks, and he nudged my leg with his. Tony still looked accepting, his cock bouncing, so I opened my legs. Then my tawny haired acquaintance's other knee came down and he was kneeling between my spread legs, urging me wider, my knees against his. His hands slipped to the splash of lotion and began slow circular movements at the small of my back. I fought to relax, overwhelmed with his touch and Tony's obvious -- very obvious -- pleasure. I wasn't scared in the least, Tony was near, but the electric shocks dancing over my body and the near euphoric psychedelic flashes in my brain were almost too much.\n\nHis hands slid up my body, curved outward, and came down along my sides lingering ever so slightly at the swell of my breasts. Three more times he repeated this motion, his fingers curving under at my sides each time, lingering, searching. On the fourth sweep, his hands came all the way down to grip my hips, his thumbs at the small of my back. He circled there a few times with just his thumbs.\n\nAnother splash of sunscreen, I dropped my head, my sunglasses tumbling into the sand. I brought my unfocused eyes up seeking Tony's. He cleared, and I saw him as near the edge as I was, our eyes penetrating each other, his hand slowly stroking his swollen, leaking phallus. The man behind me brought his hands together on my back, swirled them in the lotion, and slid them out and under me, moving upward. Only fingertips ran across my crazed nipples as I raised myself to give him room, but he did not linger and moved then up and out, around to my shoulders. He stretched, and I felt the fullness of his manhood press on my buttocks, not seeking entrance but simply, deliciously, the magic touch of warmth on warmth.\n\nIncredulous, though not breaking the hold Tony and my souls had on each other, I bit my lip. My mouth opened in a silent, rambunctious scream of ecstasy as I erupted in an unbridled orgasm and watched Tony peak as well, his seed splattering in the sand between us.\n\nThe world began to rotate again some time later, breath returned to my lungs, sound to my ears. I lay tummy-down on the beach, nude, my legs still spread wide to the ocean and anyone who cared to look, my post orgasmic state brilliantly clear to any who might. My amazing, supportive husband, his cock still full but no longer erect, now just two feet further up the beach from me, a long, sticky drip falling from him. We still gazed at each other, the two of us abandoned by our recent audience, my helper vanished.\n\n\"I love you so, so much, Rita,\" Tony said softly.\n\nI smiled, \"I love you, Tony. You are my life!\"\n\n"}
+{"text": "\nMarch 17th \n\n\nMaggie doesn’t realize how dependent she’s become on Alex bringing her breakfast – and lunch most days now – until Alex is suddenly gone.\n\nMaggie hasn’t seen her all week.\n\nShe hasn’t seen Lucy either, for that matter. Or Kara.\n\nShe has no idea what happened. At first, she starts to think that maybe Alex is sick and staying home. But after four days of complete absence, Maggie doubts that’s it. She knows Alex would get word to her somehow if that were the case.\n\nSo then, she starts worrying that she did something to make Alex upset. They had hung out again with Kara and Lucy on Saturday, no one really mentioning what had happened the night before at the diner other than the two of them asking if Maggie felt better that day. But even though Alex was trying to act normal, she still seemed off somehow to Maggie, like she had a lot on her mind. And now she’s wondering if it was because of her.\n\nBut Alex hadn’t said anything and she had seemed fine the last time Maggie saw her, on Monday when she had brought Maggie breakfast like normal before she left for school.\n\nBut then she hadn’t shown up the next morning. Or the next.\n\nSo Maggie doesn’t know. And she tries not to think about it too hard because if she does, the loneliness starts creeping back in. Even though she’s been on her own for weeks now, it hasn’t really felt that way, not when she’s had a combination of Alex and Lucy and Kara to break up the dull moments.\n\nAnd that makes her kick herself mentally, because she had promised herself after Eliza that she wasn’t going to get too attached to anyone ever again, but here she is, almost completely dependent on people she met practically the second after getting here. But she knows it’s too late now.\n\nBut there’s a more pressing problem than even the possibility of suddenly losing her only friends, and it’s one that’s a lot simpler.\n\nShe’s absolutely starving.\n\nLike it or not, Alex is her consistent source of food, and without her, Maggie flounders.\n\nShe had a little bit of money left over from the last time Alex gave her some, but she had stupidly spent it all to buy dinner Monday night, before she realized that something was wrong. And so when she did realize and needed to come up with a game plan, she had absolutely nothing to work with. Not even some leftovers.\n\nNot exactly a great start.\n\nSo she figures she really didn’t have much of a choice. She starts going through the garbage cans on the boardwalk late at night. But when she realizes that the payoff for that is too low and the risk of being caught too high, she switches to dumpster-diving in the back alleys downtown.\n\nAfter the first couple times, she doesn’t really feel shame in it anymore, not like her first week on the streets. Most of her attempts end with some half-eaten pizza slices or cups of half-finished fries, but she realizes that right after the restaurants close and the workers have dumped the trash for the night that she never knows exactly what she might find. Sometimes she’s able to piece together a full meal.\n\nHer companions most trips are usually the rats and stray cats, but twice she runs into a couple of homeless people doing the same thing she is. The first time, it’s a woman missing most of her teeth who just grunts when she sees Maggie and hands her a fully wrapped, intact burger that’s still kind of warm. The second time, though, it’s a guy covered from head to toe in filth, and he immediately starts screaming about Maggie trying to steal ‘his dumpster.’ Maggie’s quick to book it as soon as that happens, and she’s really glad she did after she sees two police cars prowling around the area.\n\nShe makes a mental note to avoid that place, but after that, she’s too afraid to try again, and she goes a full day with nothing but water, her stomach achingly empty.\n\nShe prays each night that she’ll wake to a brown bag with Alex’s familiar writing or see her out on the water. Twice, she considers ringing the doorbell on Alex’s front door and asking to see her. But she’s still scared of Alex’s mom discovering her, and the lingering fear that Alex is purposely ignoring keeps her from doing so. And although she’s learned a lot about the layout of Midvale since she arrived, she still isn’t quite sure where Lucy lives. So she’s stuck until she sees one of them again.\n\nShe studies herself in the bathroom mirror Thursday morning. She hasn’t really looked at herself too hard since she got there, her new haircut and the bruises on her skin making her avoid her reflection, the reminder of what happened too painful. But the bruises are gone now, and Maggie’s captivated with the fact that she no longer resembles the picture she has of herself in her head.\n\nHer skin is darker now, a product of spending so much time outdoors, and she definitely looks skinnier than before she had left Blue Springs. She finds she doesn’t really mind her shorter hair anymore, although the ends are kind of choppy and a little uneven, but altogether it doesn’t look too bad. She’d eventually like to grow it out again, maybe not as long as she used to have it, but close to the length of Alex’s, coming in just below her shoulders.\n\nAnd there she goes again, thinking about Alex.\n\nShe doesn’t really know why, but she doesn’t think she’ll ever be able to stop thinking about Alex.\n\nBy Saturday, she can’t take it anymore. She wakes hours before dawn because of the ache in her stomach. Unable to fall back asleep, she spends the time until the sun rises watching the ocean, desperately hoping more with every passing moment that Alex will show up that morning.\n\nBut when the sun’s fully in the sky and there’s still no sign of Alex coming, Maggie lets her hopes die.\n\nShe stands and makes her way to the boardwalk to start the day, her body achy and stiff. She starts walking downtown, past all the shops opening up for the day. She thinks about maybe trying to swipe some food from the farmer’s market she knows takes place every Saturday morning near the other end of the boardwalk. The fruit stands there are making her mouth water just thinking about them.\n\nBut she doesn’t really trust her thieving skills, and the last time she had been there, she had seen at least two police units patrolling the large crowd the event always gathered.\n\nPlus there’s the whole stealing-is-wrong thing, Maggie thinks. Her dad had drilled that into her for as long as she can remember. But she’s past the point of really caring about that if she’s being honest.\n\nShe’s so deep in the argument with herself that she almost misses it, and nearly trips herself up as her brain registers what she’s just seen a second after her eyes do. The grin that breaks out on her face as she looks at the item on the ground is the first genuine smile she’s made in days.\n\nA quarter, face up and shiny in the morning sun, just lying there in the middle of the sidewalk. Calling to her.\n\nMaggie scrambles to pick it up, feeling like she just won the lottery. Because maybe it wouldn’t seem like much to most people, but Maggie knows exactly what it will get her.\n\nBreakfast.\n\nOr, more specifically, one of those oversized muffins from the best local bakery in town.\n\nMaggie heads there with a spring in her step, knowing it’s still early enough that the pastry selection will be largely untouched.\n\nHer hunch is proved correct when she gets to the bakery and the woman behind the counter happily informs her that she’s the first customer of the day. Maggie waits and watches as she finishes setting up a large display of cinnamon rolls before setting it on top of the counter.\n\nMaggie orders a chocolate chip muffin, practically drooling as she takes in all the delicious pastries in front of her. She desperately wants to gobble up half the bakery, particularly the cinnamon buns sitting right in front of her, almost mocking. But she knows she’s lucky to at least be getting something to eat.\n\nShe hands her quarter over and the woman bags her muffin just as a timer goes off in the back room. “Here you go, dear. Have a nice day,” the woman says, handing the bag over to Maggie before going through the back doors. The timer shuts off a few seconds later.\n\nAnd Maggie can’t help herself. There’s no one else in the store, so she seizes her chance. She swipes two of the cinnamon rolls from the front of the circular display, knowing they’re the least likely to be missed, and stuffs them in the bag with her muffin before quickly moving out the door.   \n\nSomething in her brain tells her she should feel bad for stealing from such a nice shop owner, but it’s quickly squashed by the growling in her stomach.\n\nThat is, until Maggie realizes that someone’s seen her.\n\nThere’s a dog grooming place across from the bakery, one Maggie’s never really paid much attention to before. But now, she can’t help but notice it. Or rather, the eyes she feels on her.\n\nThere’s a woman standing on the inside of the glass doors, holding a rag in her hand and a spray bottle in the other. She’s staring directly at Maggie, and even from across the street, Maggie feels the penetrating stare, and somehow, she just knows the woman saw everything.\n\nMaggie clenches the bag hard in her first, but the woman makes no move to confront her. Instead, she simply flips over the open sign on the door and goes back to cleaning the window, with one last look at Maggie.\n\nThere’s something about the look that makes Maggie think the woman’s seen into her soul. Shame floods her, but she takes off before the woman decides to change her mind.\n\nShe would like to say that she doesn’t enjoy the cinnamon rolls after that, but they still taste like heaven, and Maggie scarfs down every last crumb.\n\n…\n\nShe’s walking on the boardwalk sometime later when someone barrels into her from out of nowhere, tackling her into a hug.\n\n“Maggie! Oh my God, I’m so glad I found you!”\n\nMaggie pulls back with some difficulty to see Lucy with a frantic look in her eyes. She seems reluctant to let go as she starts rambling rapid-fire.\n\n“I didn’t know that Alex was bringing you food every day! But she literally just got back phone privileges this morning and she called me worried sick about you, so I went to look for you at the beach earlier, but you weren’t there and then I got worried, because if I had known, I would have been bringing you food all week but I–”\n\n“Whoa, Lucy, hang on, slow down,” Maggie interjects, her head spinning with trying to keep up. “What happened to Alex? Is she okay?”\n\nLucy takes a deep breath, giving Maggie one more tight squeeze before taking a step back. “Right, sorry. You don’t know. Alex got into a fight at school on Monday. She got a week’s worth of in-school suspension, and her mom grounded her. She has to take the bus to school and wasn’t allowed to use the phone or anything.”\n\nMaggie’s heart skips a beat at the news and now she feels like the frantic one. “She got into a fight? With who? Did she get hurt?”\n\nLucy grimaces. “It– it was Logan. They have gym class together. From what I’ve heard, he started it, but the gym teacher had to pull Alex off of him, so she got in the most trouble. I heard she got a black eye, but I haven’t seen her. Logan’s nose is broken. He’s been a baby about it the entire week. He only got written up.”\n\nMaggie’s eyes widen in shock, but she can’t think of anything to say beyond, “Oh geez.”\n\n“Yeah.” Lucy kicks at the wood with her flip flop, blowing out a frustrated breath. “I should have known he wasn’t going to leave her alone after Friday.”\n\nLucy’s face is hidden by her hair, but Maggie can hear the guilt in her voice. “Hey, it’s not your fault. I don’t want to like, insult your ex or anything, but he seems like a total douchebag.”\n\nThat makes Lucy laugh a little. “He totally is, isn’t he? God.” She’s quiet for a beat, but then claps her hands suddenly, startling a seagull that had landed nearby. “Anyway, that’s only one of many reasons I wanted to find you. Wanna get food? ‘Cause I’m buying.”\n\nMaggie’s stomach growls just at the mention of food. She wraps an arm around her abdomen like that’s going to keep it quiet and smiles sheepishly at Lucy. “Please?”\n\nLucy grabs her arm, pulling her in the direction of the nearest pizza shop. “C’mon. I’ll show you the other things I got for you after we eat.”\n\n…\n\nLucy orders a whole pizza and a basket of fries, and then proceeds to eat only a slice and a handful, leaving the rest for Maggie. And Maggie wants to say that she doesn’t wolf the entire meal in less than ten minutes, but then she’d be lying. She doesn���t even wait for the pizza to cool, just lets the roof of her mouth burn as she inhales slice after slice. Then she attacks the fries, and they’re greasy and salty and utterly delicious, and one of the best things Maggie’s ever tasted, although that just may be the hunger talking.\n\nWhen she’s done, Maggie feels full for the first time in days and she smiles contently at Lucy. “That was so much better than garbage pizza.” Seeing Lucy’s look of confusion, she adds, “You really don’t want to know.”\n\nLucy’s face scrunches in disgust. “Noted. But wait ‘til you see what else I brought you,” she says, pulling at her surprisingly stuffed backpack. She digs out some clothes and drops them in Maggie’s lap before zipping the backpack shut again, not letting Maggie see what else is in there.\n\nMaggie holds up the pair of jeans, gauging them to be about her size. The t-shirt is a dark gray with ARMY scrawled across the chest.\n\n“Figured if Alex gets to give you one of her shirts; I get to give you one of mine. But I’m still gonna call you Sunshine no matter what you’re wearing.”\n\nMaggie laughs. She gets a little fluttery feeling in her chest whenever Lucy uses the nickname for her. “Well thank you.”\n\nLucy shakes her head, getting off the stool by the counter they’re sitting at and holding out a hand for Maggie. “Wait until you see the big surprise. This was just the beginning.”\n\nLucy leads her back to the cave, where she crawls inside, telling Maggie to wait on the beach.\n\nBut Maggie can’t help but start to panic when Lucy pulls her sleeping bag and all her stuff outside. “Wait, Lucy, what are you– ”\n\n“It’s okay. Just give me a few minutes; I promise I’m not going to mess anything up. Don’t look or you’ll ruin the surprise.”\n\nMaggie reluctantly turns around and watches the waves crashing on the shore, still feeling nervous. She knows it’s ridiculous, but she’s gotten attached to her little make-shift home and the collection of barebone items she’s obtained and the thought of anyone messing with them makes her want to cry, even if she trusts Lucy.\n\nThere’s a lot of scrambling and what sounds to be Lucy struggling with something and muttering to herself for the following ten minutes, telling Maggie not to look every time she asks if she needs help. Eventually, Lucy comes back out and plops onto her back next to Maggie, wiping sweat off her forehead.\n\n“Okay, I’ll let you set your stuff up how you like, but it’s all ready for you now.”\n\n“What is?”\n\nLucy nudges her with an elbow. “Go look.”\n\nMaggie looks doubtful, but she does as Lucy says and goes into her cave. But instead of the normal space she’s used to seeing, she’s met with tan fabric, a zipper running down the middle.\n\n“What the–”\n\nLucy pushes past her, impatient, and pulls the zipper the down, and then Maggie’s looking at the inside of a one-person tent, with her sleeping bag and a new little camping pillow set up inside.\n\n“Ta-da,” Lucy says, sounding proud.\n\nMaggie goes inside, looking at it in awe. “Lucy… This is… How did you…?”\n\nLucy follows her in, still grinning, but her voice soft in the way she has when she’s trying to reassure Maggie. “It’s one of my dad’s old tents. He’s got like five and he doesn’t use any of them. He’ll never notice one’s gone. And I just checked; you can’t see it from outside.”\n\nMaggie feels like she could cry, and she hugs Lucy tightly. “Thank you. This is like the best thing ever. You’re like the best thing ever.”\n\nAnd maybe she’s getting emotional, but she swears she sees Lucy’s ears turn red in the same way Alex’s do sometimes, but Lucy untucks her hair from behind them before she can get a good look.\n\n“It’s nothing,” Lucy says. “Seriously. Sorry I didn’t think about it sooner. And if it kind of stinks. It tried to pick the best-smelling one.”\n\nMaggie inhales deeply, getting a hint of must. “Nah, it’s perfect. Smells like perfection.”\n\nThat makes Lucy laugh, and she leans back on her hands. “Well, I don’t know when Alex will be ungrounded, but we could meet up again tomorrow to get food. And I could bring you some stuff before school this week if Alex can’t. Or even if she can, I’ll bring extra.”\n\n“That would be great. I’m just glad to know what happened. I was a little afraid she was avoiding me or something.”\n\nLucy’s head tilts. “Why?”\n\nMaggie shrugs. “She was kind of quiet last Saturday. And then, you know, I didn’t see her all week, and I started thinking maybe she was mad at me.”\n\n“That definitely wasn’t it. You didn’t do anything,” Lucy says, shaking her head. “I don’t want to speak for her, but I know she’s not mad at you, Maggie.”\n\nMaggie’s glad to hear that. She feels a little weight lifting off her shoulders, now that she knows the truth.\n\nLucy hugs her again. “So, I need to get going, but I’ll see you tomorrow, Sunshine.”\n\nYep, the fluttery feeling is back. “See you then.”\n\n…\n\n\nMarch 18th\n\n\nIt’s the cats that get Maggie’s attention.\n\nShe’s making her way back to the beach around dusk when she sees them, five or six street cats all running down the same alley. This isn’t the first time Maggie’s seen strays hanging around, but she’s never seen that many around each other without there being a fight, so she follows, curious.\n\nThere’s even more when she gets behind the building. Maggie counts at least twenty, but it’s hard to be sure when they’re all moving around. But it seems they’re moving with a purpose, as they all gather in front of a specific door. They start meowing all at once, and some of the closest ones start clawing at the metal.\n\nMaggie’s so engrossed in watching them and wondering what they’re doing that she almost misses the door swing open from the inside. She barely has time to duck behind the nearby dumpster. She really doesn’t want to have to explain to somebody what she’s doing back there.\n\n“Okay, okay, I’m here, settle down,” a voice says. Maggie’s heart pounds until she realizes the words aren’t for her. She peeks around the edge to take a look.\n\nShe recognizes the woman she sees. It’s the woman from the dog groomers’, the one who had seen her steal from the bakery. Now Maggie is even more intent on hiding, really not wanting the woman to see her and remember.\n\nIt makes sense that she’s behind the dog groomers’ when she thinks about it, especially if the foul smell coming from the dumpster is any indication.\n\nMeanwhile, the cats have all gone still as soon as the woman speaks, sitting up and staring at her, tails flicking. The woman starts placing the dishes she’s carrying in front of them, and Maggie sees they’re full of food. The cats don’t move even when all the dishes are down, and Maggie watches in awe.\n\n“Enjoy,” the woman says, and all the cats nearly pounce on the bowls after being given permission. While they’re eating, the woman goes back through the door and comes back out with two larger bowls, filled with water.\n\nSome of the cats leave as soon as they’ve had their fill. Some of the others move a little ways away and start grooming themselves. The rest gather around the woman, twirling around her ankles and rubbing up against her legs. She pays special attention to these ones, stooping down to pet them.\n\n“I’m all out of catnip,” she tells them. “I should be getting more soon, along with the flea repellant.”\n\nHer voice is kind and it’s obvious she cares about these strays, who most of the other people in Midvale consider a nuisance.\n\nOut of nowhere, the woman looks toward the dumpster and Maggie ducks back around, holding her breath.\n\n“It seems you guys aren’t the only ones here who are hungry tonight.” And Maggie kicks herself because she must have been spotted, but then the woman adds, “Time for me to get my own dinner. I’ll see you all tomorrow.”\n\nAnd then there’s the sound of metal bowls being stacked and a door closing, and the cats start dispersing in different directions. Two of them come over to where Maggie’s still crouched, butting their heads against her knees.\n\n“Hi,” she whispers, holding out a hand for them to sniff. One of them – a calico with a notched ear – bats at her fingers playfully. She pets them both, until she notices that it’s really starting to get dark now. “I better go,” she tells them, standing up after double-checking that the coast is clear.\n\nThe calico follows her, meowing.\n\n“Maybe I can come visit you again tomorrow,” Maggie says. “Seems like this is a pretty regular thing for you guys. I just can’t let anyone see me, okay?”\n\nThe cat gives her a final meow and then scampers off, and Maggie heads home for the night.\n\n…\n\nShe’s incredibly glad for the tent that night. Because not too long after she falls asleep, she’s woken up by a huge crack of thunder. And shortly after that, there’s another, and another, and then the sky opens up to a torrential downpour.\n\nShe’s lucky. It’s the first real rain she’s had since coming to Midvale. There had only been a few short drizzles before this.\n\nBut now, she’s nice and dry in her tent, and the thunderstorm doesn’t last very long. The rain continues throughout the night, but she’s lulled to sleep by the sound of it hitting the boards above her.\n\nWhen she wakes up the next morning, the sand around her tent is soaked, but the combination of the bottom tarp layer and the tent had kept her space completely dry.\n\n“I owe Lucy,” she says out loud. “Big time.”\n\nWhen she changes into clean clothes that morning, she can’t help but smile as she puts on the shirt Lucy had given her. And that makes her amend her thought from a few days ago.\n\nShe doesn’t think she’ll ever be able to stop thinking about Lucy either.\n\n…"}
+{"text": "BAZ \n\nI look up at the clock on the wall. There's still twenty minutes left. And I've already finished the test. I scan over my answers, not changing anything before I sneak a look at Snow. He's still on the first page, and he's gotten most of the questions wrong. He's chewing on the bottom of his pen as he narrows his eyes at the paper. You can't threaten a test, Snow, I want to tell him. I know for sure he doesn't even care about Chemistry. We once had an argument about why we had to take Chemistry, or any of the other Normal subjects we have to take at Watford.\n\n\"Just because we have magic, doesn't mean we don't need an education, Snow,\" I rolled my eyes.\n\n\"Yes it does!\" he'd argued. \"We have magic. We don't need anything else.\"\n\n\"Careful Snow, you're starting to sound like the Old Families.\"\n\nHe just scowled.\n\nI mean, he doesn't need to care. I highly doubt the Mage remembers what isomers are. I don't know why Snow's getting himself into such a fuss about it.\n\nI watch as he runs a hand through his bronze curls, tussling it around. He looks anxious. He looks scared. He looks like he's going to faint. Its unnerving. I shuffle around on my seat, looking around the classroom. Everyone else is still working (except Bunce, who's staring at Snow with a worried look on her face), staring down at their papers as the sound of scratching pencils fill the room. Well that and Snow's deep breathing. He does that when he's nervous. I used to think it was infuriating. Now it's just something I've accepted as a part of Snow.\n\nI look up just as Professor Chilblains scans the class. Then she sits back down at her desk and starts to mark some other tests, frowning. I rest my head on my hands, already dreading the next half an hour with nothing to do but be overly aware of every move I make next to Snow. \n\nHe sighs through gritted teeth when ink spills from his pen. What an idiot. He looks up at me, and I’m expecting him to scowl, but he just frowns slightly, his eyes wandering to my completed paper before he looks at his not completed paper. Then he leans back in his chair and drops his pen onto the table. He’s giving up. He’s quitting.\n\nHe tips his head back and throws a forced smile when he makes eye contact with Bunce. She arches an eyebrow. He shakes his head.\n\nI shake my own head as I turn away from them. It’s so weird how they can talk without speaking. If I didn’t know them, I might think it’s magic, but it’s not. It’s just... friendship. I shudder. It’s weird as fuck, that’s what it is. \n\nI sneak a glance at Snow as he and Bunce do their weird telepathy. He's disgarded his blazer once more, just like he does everyday. If anyone else chose to not wear their blazer everyday, they'd get detention, but because it's Simon Snow, the Mage's fucking Heir, the pride of Watford, he can do whatever he pleases. And no one even cares. \n\nSnow turns back around and sighs. I can hear him gritting his teeth. This is un-fucking-bearable. I bite my lip looking down at Snow. He’s pouting and he’s folded his arms. He looks like a fucking child. I roll my eyes and tell myself to face away, to just sit still and don’t do anything. But I don’t listen. I don't even listen to my-fucking-self anymore. Snow has really messed up my priorities.\n\nI shoot a glance at Professor Chilblains, and when I see that she’s not looking, I slowly pull Snow’s paper over to me. He frowns and slams his hands on top of it, thudding against the wooden desk. Professor Chilblains looks up at us, but Snow doesn’t notice becuase (he’s so fucking dense) he’s staring at me. I kick him under the desk and he turns to the professor, blinking before he shrugs apologetically. I just school my face into a cast of boredom. \n\nShe narrows her eyes at us before she goes back to marking. I clench my jaw and widen my eyes at Snow when he looks up at me again. He frowns, suspicious, but lets me slide his paper over to me. I look down at it for a moment, and realise that what I’m doing is really fucking stupid, but I’m already practically doing it, so I start fixing it. I scribble out most of his mistakes and write the correct answers before I hand it back to him. He grabs it out of my hands, scowling as his blue eyes read what I've done, before they widen. He freezes before he turns to me, his head cocked.\n\nHe's still got the massive gash down his face, I'm surprised no one's cast Early to Bed and Early to Rise on him yet. Maybe it's a magic injury - they're harder to heal. I bet I could do it. There's a spell; Healing of the Heart, that I've been reading about, that I bet I could do. It only works if you're seriously in love with the person you want to heal. In love as in, would rather die than lose them love. I think most of the spells in the World of Mages were created by angsty teenagers.\n\n\"What are you doing?\" Snow asks me. I think he tries to hiss it but it comes out confused and meek. I just shrug, and turn back to the front. I'm deadly aware of Snow staring at me for the rest of the period but I just keep still, holding my breath.\n\nWhen the bell rings, I stand up quickly and storm out of the class, ignoring Snow calling my name. What the fuck did I just do?\n\n*\n\nI walk through the corridors, letting my feet take me wherever. I don't care where I go right now, just as long as I get away from Snow. To be honest, Australia would be the most preferable place to be right about now. Well, maybe not. Flammable and all that. I sigh as I turn the corner and realise that I've ended up at the library. I look up at the massive, wooden doors and sigh, running a hand through my hair. I push the door open slowly and slip into the room. There’s only a of students here. There’s a clump of first-year students around one table, all of them muttering spells that shut their books or untie their shoes. There’s a couple of people on their own, just studying, all of different ages. \n\nThere’s a group of three girls in my year sitting at a table right next to where I’m currently hovering. I don’t know their names. They grin up at me and they look like they’re gonna try and talk to me. Fuck that. I nod at them before I walk right to the back of the library, leaving them scowling behind me. \n\nAs soon as I sit down at the empty table tucked away behind the shelves, and let myself breathe, I hear Snow’s fucking booming voice. Is this some sort of sick punishment? Was I a really shit person in my last life? I thought the vampire thing was punishment enough, but no. Of fucking course not. I had to have Snow thrown into my life aswell.\n\nMyabe he's just here to study. Or maybe he’s just meeting Bunce. \n\n“Have you seen Baz?”\n\nOr maybe not.\n\nFuck my shitting fucking life.\n\n“Yeah, he’s back there, I think.”\n\n“Oh, thanks, Rose.”\n\nI hold my breath as Snow turns the corner and our eyes meet. Then he frowns; his round nose crinkling and his brows furrowing. I narrow my eyes as he sits directly across from me. I don’t speak. If he wants to fucking talk then he can talk. We sit in silence for a moment, Snow obviously trying his very hardest to not talk. He clenches his jaw and grits his teeth before he finally gives in. \n\n“What are you doing?” \n\nI know he’s asking about the test and why I did, but I don’t even really know why I did it myself, so there’s no way I’m making this easy for him. Also, I’m an asshole and delight in pissing him off.\n\n“Studying,” I shrug. He frowns.\n\n\"Where's your book then?\" he asks, folding his arms. It's my turn to frown. I don't say anything just lean back in my own chair.\n\n\"Why'd you help me?\"\n\n\"Because you were going to fail. Miserably,\" I shrug. Liar. I'm such a fucking liar. I helped you Snow, because I'm in love with you and your stupid, fucking face.\n\nSnow pouts and has the gall to look sheepish, as if he even should. \"I don't understand Chemistry. It's stupid.\" He scratches the back of his neck, awkwardly.\n\nA thought pops into my head and I instantly want to slam it out. But I don't. \"What are you doing on Friday, ten o'clock?\"\n\nHe arches an eyebrow before he runs a hand through that fucking hair. That hair keeps me up at night. \"Nothing. Why?\" he adds, suspicion creeping into his voice.\n\n\"Be here. Bring your Chemistry stuff,\" I tell him. Crowley, I'm breaking all my rules today. He shakes his head.\n\n\"I'm not doing anything with you, Baz,\" he hisses, using my name like a curse. I try to not flinch. \n\n\"Fine. Fail Chemistry. S'not my fault,\" I say as I stand up. Even though it was't ever my fault, but I'll feel guilty if I at least don't try and help him. He stands up as well, his eyes locking onto mine. A muscle ticks in his jaw as he bites the inside of his cheek. He licks his lips and I try to not let my legs wobble.\n\n\"Ten o'clock,\" he says before he walks out, his back stiff.\n\nWell. That just happened.\n\n "}
+{"text": "\nAs soon as Wukong arrived down to the jungle he bolted towards the trees, dashing from branch to branch fast enough to feel the wind against his fur. It felt good, like he was filling a primal urge or a sort of instinct. Either way, his crazy jumping along the vines and trees didn’t last long for he encountered the upper hand of a crystal clear waterfall.\n\n\n\nWith a smile from ear to ear Monkey King sum summoned his loyal cloud and took a dive into its freshwater. In that moment, when he felt the water hit his fur and soak his purple robe, Wukong disconnected from everything.\n\n\n\nHis bubbly laughter filled up the air as he splashed and played with the water, droplets of this liquid across his fur and shining bright under the sun rays.\n\n\n\nHe had missed this, the way things used to be, the way his life was before his Journey to the West…when Macaque was by his side as a companion, a friend, and a lover. He wouldn't change anything, he knows why things had to be done but that didn't mean he didn't miss it or wonder what could have been.\n\n\n\nHe climbed some nearby rocks to rest a bit and glanced at his belly, at three months of his pregnancy he could notice the smallest of bumps that softened his abdomen. \n\n\n\nHe noticed that since he discovered he was pregnant the times where he touched his belly were a bit rare like it was some sort of intimate act, only done when he was very comfortable or alone, and he knew why, it made him soft, vulnerable.\n\n\n\nPerhaps, now that he was alone he could and so he did, and just as he did it he left out an almost inaudible chirp, and that surprised him. It felt very weird, never in a million years would he have imagined growing a baby inside of him. He wondered how they would be, how they would look.\n\n\n\nLike him? \n\n\n\nOr like…\n\n\n\n\"Macaque.\" he breathed his name out, the curve of his mouth now upside down. Now his soaked robe instead of fresh it felt cold, even with the warm golden sun rays that basked him. \n\n\n\nHe missed him so much, it wasn't even ironic anymore, it felt like a part of him was missing. It was so crazy how fine the line was between love and hate, but he knew those were his emotions going all crazy, he couldn't risk it. He wasn't sure Macaque knew about the magic pregnancy shenanigans, because there was always that possibility, but also another where he didn't know. A part of him hoped for the best, to think the best of him. \n\n\n\nHe remembered the night he shared with him in the festival, how soft his dark fur felt, his soulful eyes, his deep voice, how even if they were sworn enemies he still treated him gently when needed and roughly when asked all over his pleasure spots that he seemed to remember even after hundreds of years.\n\n\n\nWukong blushed hard at that memory. Indeed, Macaque was a very attractive creature, even after all this time, he still had a very delicious, intoxicating musky scent, one that could turn him on in an instant just thinking about it, and it did. The mere thought set a hot thrill down his spine. \n\n\n\nThe monkey then scanned the area, no one but him was there. Perhaps he shouldn’t but then he thought again about Macaque’s earthy scent and the idea of stopping seemed to be out of the question. It wouldn't hurt to have some me time right? He had been too busy since the Mid Autumn Festival to pleasure himself since then.\n\n\n \n\n\n-----NSFW WARNING\n\n\n\nWukong grabbed onto the memory of that night he had shared with Macaque as he adjusted himself on the soft warm river rock, his wet cloak now pressing against his skin. \n\n\n\nHe took his own tail and pressed on its base firmly just like Macaque had done, starting to get into the mood.\n\n\n\n\n\"Cute. You always had a sensitive tail peaches.\"\n\n\n\n\nWukong let out a sigh as he continued shyly playing with his tail, feeling his below throb with need in a pool of warmth. He imagined the hot steamy breath from Macaque's voice whispering in his ears how good he took him in, how much of a mess he was.\n\n\n\nThe monkey whimpered, then used his other hand to grasp onto his needy member already wet with precum as he continued stimulating his tail, damn his hormones must be really messing him up.\n\n\n\n\n\"Like this peaches?\"\n\n\n\n\n“Yes.”, Wukong let out a low moan as he slid up and down, quickly setting a pace. He used his thumb to circle the tip of his member as he felt his cheeks getting warmer and warmer by the minute. It felt so fucking good to think about him, about his lean muscles, his thick cock inside of him, the aggressive thrusts that made him begg, submit to him. \n\n\n\nThe Monkey King let a deep breath out between whimpers as he felt himself getting close. His cloak has loosened up and a couple of sweat drops slid down his bare chest as it rose up and down in quick breaths. The heat building up from inside him was driving him crazy as he increased the pace, moaning along with the slick wet noises under the sound of the waterfall.\n\n\n\nHe wanted him.\n\n\n\nMacaque. Macaque. Macaque. Macaque.\n\n\n\n\n\"Heaven's you are so hot Sun Wukong.\"\n\n\n\n\n\"Macaque.\" Wukong whimpered as he threw back his head, going completely stiff for a moment as he felt the release of his hot seed. His muscles spasmed and left a light tremble in his legs as he caught his breath in the afterglow. \n\n\n\n------END OF NSFW WARNING\n\n\n \n\n\nThat's when it hit him like bricks, heck, he just pleased himself with the thought of his enemy, of the night he betrayed his own principles and slept with Macaque. He felt shameful.\n\n\n\n\n\"What? Didn't like it peaches? Cause I can see a pool of your seed telling me otherwise.\"\n\n \n\n\n\n\"AUGH JUST GET OUT OF MY HEAD FUCKING BASTARD!\" the monkey let out as he splashed cold water at his face, multiple times, in hopes to snap out of it, to erase that ridiculous blush from his cheeks.\n\n\n\nMonkey King facepalmed in defeat, knowing by the strong beat of his heart and the sea of thoughts invading his mind that he was indeed fucked.\n\n\n\n\"Fuck.\" he cursed at his dumb heart.\n\n\n\n\n\"Who'd known that that mighty Monkey King had such an extensive vocabulary?\"\n\n\n\n\nOkay, that was it.\n\n\n\n\"You are gonna be the end of me dumbass.\"\n"}
+{"text": "\ntodo bb it's gonna be okay\n\n\nTouya: be there soon, sorry\n\nShouto reads the message for the twelfth time in the past two minutes, then glances up at the door again.\n\nThe coffee shop is empty aside from him and the one employee who dares to take the early shift, but it doesn’t stop Shouto from glancing around the space anyway. Not that he expects his father to show up, but he’s already found Shouto, he can’t find Touya as well.\n\nDabi. He wonders how he’d come up with that name, and if he would prefer that Shouto use it as well. But he’d added his own number to Shouto’s phone, and put his name as ‘Touya’, so that must be alright?\n\nHe glances at the clock again, at the second hand ticking away - he’s only a few minutes late, supposing he arrives soon, but Shouto’s anxiety ticks up along with the clock. Every minute he doesn’t show, Shouto wonders if he plans on coming at all.\n\nThe bell over the door startles him, and he glances back over to find Touya walking in. His hair is wet, like he just got out of the shower, and his clothes look rumpled and disheveled. He must’ve only just woken up - Shouto had suggested they meet later, but Touya had said he’d be nearby and wouldn’t mind getting up early.\n\nHe doesn’t look too different, Shouto thinks as he walks over - his hair’s a different color, of course, and the scars almost blend into the rest of his skin now, but Shouto had still known his brother the moment he’d seen him at the house.\n\nTouya sits without a word, but he’s tense, and Shouto’s never been the best at breaking the ice.\n\n“You’re late, did something happen?” Touya glances up, brows lifted high on his forehead, and Shouto wonders if he’s overstepped. Just because they’re related doesn’t mean he’s entitled to Touya’s life - but he’s curious anyway. It’d taken a lot of willpower not to ask Touya where he’s been upon first seeing him last night.\n\nTouya blinks at him, and his lip quirks up in what Shouto knows to be the Todoroki family version of a smile.\n\n“Got distracted,” Touya says, “sorry I didn’t respond right away.” Shouto had sent a few texts, mostly just to be sure Touya was awake and that they were still on for coffee. That Touya hadn’t skipped town again, without any notice to Shouto.\n\n“Hawks?” Shouto asks - they’d been together the whole night, Touya wrapped in Hawks’ arms. He’d looked happy - distant, but happy. He laughs now, loudly enough that the sound echoes around the empty space. \n\n“You always were so observant, little brother.” Touya shakes his head. “Yes, I was with Hawks.” Shouto chooses to avoid commenting on the sudden flush on his cheeks, the way he ducks his head, the joke he made to deflect. “And you’re with the green-haired kid?” Dabi quirks a brow at him, and it’s Shouto’s turn for a wave of warmth to rush through him.\n\n“Midoriya Izuku,” Shouto says, and he’s sort of wishing Izuku were here, even just as moral support. He doesn’t know that Shouto’s here, that Touya is here. He’ll tell him later, once the dust has settled.\n\n“Pretty bubbly kid,” Touya comments, and Shouto blows out a breath.\n\n“Have you met Hawks?” he asks in return, which earns him another laugh. Touya’s grin stays around this time, and he levels his gaze on Shouto.\n\n“So,” he says, and he leans forward to prop his elbows up on the table. “What happened?” Shouto can hear the big brother tone leaking in, and he can feel that wave of spite he’d held onto for so many years rise up to the surface. But it’s so distant, this time, so insignificant in comparison to the deep peace he’s felt for so many days, the warmth he feels at being able to see his brother again. So he lets that spite fall away. The curiosity doesn’t, though.\n\n“Father wasn’t much of a fan of the people I brought home.” Shouto shrugs. “Clearly, you escaped before he could pass that judgment on you.” He’s not sure if he’s being too cryptic, or too accusatory - Touya blinks for a few seconds, like he might not be sure either, then he sits back with a sigh and a wry grin on his lips.\n\n“Not that there was anyone for me to bring home,” he quips back, and Shouto watches his hand tug at the sleeve of his jacket. He may have run away long before Shouto, but it’s clear he’s still trying to escape their father’s wrath. All those years Shouto spent angry at Touya for leaving, he’d forgotten that Touya was just as much a victim as Shouto. He sees that now, in the soft lighting of the coffee shop he’s come to think of as a second home. They were never enemies, just allies that took different paths. \n\nHe’s glad their paths have crossed again.\n\n---------\n\nDabi leaves after an hour, under the guise of having things to do, but Shouto can see the exhaustion in his expression. For once, Shouto’s in agreement - in spite of the coffee, he can feel sleep tugging at him. Or maybe it’s just the allure of the bed Izuku’s still probably fast asleep in. Maybe that’s what tugs at Dabi as well - Hawks in his bed, waiting for his return.\n\nHe doesn’t say it aloud, but he thinks Dabi seems happy. For some reason, he’d avoided saying as much at the party, but there’s something like a spark in Dabi’s eyes, and maybe he’s in the same boat as Shouto: not quite as happy as he hopes to someday be, but on his way there.\n\nThe brisk air greets Shouto when he steps outside, and he’s grateful for the way it wakes him. In spite of the burst of energy, he takes his time walking home - he doesn’t want to know where Dabi went, or where he lives. Best not to risk that, not with their father’s recent and unexpected visit still looming over his head. It’s safer for them both if he doesn’t know.\n\nSo he meanders, walks up and down side streets and inhales the steam from the peppermint coffee he ordered to go. He’s missed his family, of course, but his sister and other brother had thrown in their lot with his father - or, rather, they’d thrown in the towel, watching with worried but distant eyes and closed mouths as his father kicked Shouto out. He wonders what Dabi would’ve done.\n\nDabi had been the black sheep from the start, though. Shouto would like to believe he’d have fought back.\n\nBut that piece of his life is a chapter he wants to turn the page on, so he does. He’d rather move forward than focus on the past, and he gets the feeling Dabi would like to do the same.\n\n\n“Are you sure you don’t mind me calling you Touya still?” Dabi shrugs, but Shouto can see the way his eyes flick to the table at the name. He doesn’t have to say it aloud, but he’s no longer Touya. He hasn’t been Touya in a while, Shouto thinks.\n\n\n\n“It’s no big deal, it’s the name you know me as.” His explanation lacks any kind of conviction, though. Shouto tilts his head.\n\n\n\n“I don’t think you’re Touya anymore,” Shouto says, “and that’s okay.” Dabi’s gaze lifts from his coffee, but he glances back down the moment Shouto meets his eyes. “I like Dabi,” he says. “Both the name and the person.”\n\n\nNo, Dabi hasn’t been Touya since the day he left - maybe even longer than that, but it’s not his place to pry. He would rather they both move forward.\n\nAfter what feels like hardly a minute but must’ve been at least twenty, Shouto finds himself back at the gate of the house he’s called home for the past several months. He wonders if Dabi has a place to call home, or if he’s been drifting. Shouto had worried, sometimes, about how easy it was for his brother to disconnect from reality, from the world around him. While Shouto had always been desperate for an explanation, digging into their world until his fingers bled, Dabi had been detached, disinterested.\n\nBut he hadn’t seemed that way this morning. Maybe he’s finally found something to ground him.\n\nThe handle feels icy under Shouto’s hand, and he lets it center him. He wants to talk to Izuku about this, but he needs a clear head first.\n\n-------\n\n“That’s so crazy to think you somehow ended up in the same town as your brother,” Izuku says, eyes wide. He hadn’t been asleep, just laying in bed and messing around on his phone. Shouto wonders if he’d been waiting for him to return. The idea makes him want to smile. “Maybe it’s fate or something?”\n\n“I don’t believe in fate,” Shouto says - although a part of him wishes he did, or wishes he believed in anything, really. Izuku’s hand closes around his, though, and he gives Shouto a smile. \n\nPerhaps he believes in Izuku, and in people like him.\n\n“In any event,” Shouto continues, “I think I’d like to spend more time with him, once all this business with my father blows over.” He’s still at risk, Shouto thinks - his father hadn’t found Dabi, not for years, and Shouto won’t be the reason he does now. He can protect him.\n\n“Have you talked to Iida yet?” Izuku’s voice stays gentle, but the question doesn’t pain Shouto the way it might’ve done a week ago. He nods.\n\n“He’s already filed the paperwork.” Iida had been clear and concise in walking through the steps for a restraining order and what that meant for both him and his father, and Shouto had signed the papers without hesitation.\n\nIzuku nods, then squeezes Shouto’s hand.\n\n“Would Dabi want the same? I’m sure Iida would be glad to help,” he suggests, and Shouto blinks at him. It feels like an easy fix to his current problem, but would it only cause more distress? Shouto’s already expecting some backlash from his own restraining order, but would it put Dabi at risk for their father to know where he is, or to deduce that he’s with Shouto?\n\nIzuku must read some kind of look on his face, because he squeezes Shouto’s hand again.\n\n“A conversation for another time, maybe just bring it up as an option.” Shouto nods, but his head swims with the potential benefits and drawbacks. He doesn’t move when Izuku crawls from the bed, mumbling something about a shower.\n\nShouto’s phone weighs heavily in his pocket, and he takes it out and lets it sink into the blankets on the mattress instead.\n\nIt’s not a terrible idea, if the law can uphold its end of the bargain - both Shouto and Dabi would be safe, they could live without constantly checking over their shoulders. But it puts them both at risk of their father’s anger, should he decide he’s above the law.\n\nNo - he has a family now, a real family, and they wouldn’t let his father get to him. They’ve already proven that, and it doesn’t do him any good to doubt them now. He unlocks his phone and opens his messages with Dabi - which still say ‘Touya’, so he changes that before typing out his message.\n\nShouto: i’m getting a restraining order against our father, would you like one?\n\nLike he’s asking about an ice cream or a cup of coffee, I’m heading out to pick it up, would you like one as well? He’s a little surprised by how quickly a response comes in.\n\nDabi: never occurred to me but what the hell, can’t hurt, right?\n\nShouto has the urge to explain that it very much could hurt, but then, perhaps that’s a conversation better had in person. It has very little to do with how nice it’d been seeing his brother this morning, nor how much he’d like to see him again sooner rather than later.\n\nShouto: iida is helping with it, he can probably get yours too. I’ll talk to him, it seemed pretty straightforward. You can probably stop by any time.\n\nDabi doesn’t respond immediately to that one, so Shouto takes a deep breath before standing from the bed. He should’ve probably mentioned this to Iida before agreeing on his behalf, but he trusts Izuku’s instincts that Iida would likely help. And he trusts his friends.\n\n--------------\n\n\npika pika\n\n\nDenki holds his breath, doing his best not to make a single sound.\n\n“Dabi is...your brother?” Iida’s voice sounds muffled behind the half-closed door, but Denki’s absolutely certain he heard correctly.\n\nDabi? Dabi, that guy is Todoroki’s brother? He can’t even begin to unpack all that because he’s got a full load of laundry half-falling from his hands and he needs to get out of here before they notice he’s been standing outside for the past few minutes.\n\nHe does his best tip-toeing past the door and into the hall, then rushes to load the washer and get it started. With any luck, they won’t have realized he’d walked past them after collecting the dirty clothes from Mic and Aizawa’s room, or maybe they won’t hear the machine starting at all.\n\nHis feet move of their own volition, flinging him full force into the lounge - he needs to talk to Hitoshi right now.\n\n“You gotta- uh,” Denki pauses as he slides into the lounge to find Bakugou frowning up at him from where he’s sitting across from Hitoshi. “Shinsou,” Denki widens his eyes, hoping to convey the seriousness of this situation - and the gossip - via brainwaves alone.\n\n“Kaminari,” Hitoshi says back, frowning at the formality. “What’s up?” He sets his laptop aside, and Denki glances over to find Bakugou quirking a brow. He looks back at Hitoshi and jerks his head toward the staircase.\n\n“I was hoping you could, uh, help me with that project, you know the one?” he emphasizes, lifting his brows a bit higher - hopefully Hitoshi will get the message, and-\n\n“Oh my god, if you’re gonna go fuck, just go, jesus christ.” Bakugou’s voice cuts through Denki’s thoughts like a knife, and he sputters out a laugh. Actually, that probably would’ve been a faster way to get Hitoshi alone, he can’t believe he didn’t think of it himself.\n\nHe turns to find Hitoshi’s mouth wide and his face bright red, and Denki takes the excuse to grab his hand and drag him from the sofa and up the stairs. He leads them to Hitoshi’s room, does a quick check of the hall, then shuts the door.\n\n“What was that?” Hitoshi asks, and Denki turns around to find his head in his hands.\n\n“Oh, what, like they don’t already know?” Denki laughs - he’s never understood the stigma around sex, like it’s some secret they can’t be open about. Besides, they’re certainly not the first or last to hook up in the house.\n\n“Yeah, way to get me in the mood.” Hitoshi flops back on the bed, and his hands find the top button of his shirt. Denki sits on the edge of the mattress and grabs his hand. \n\n“No no no no, that was just a ruse,” he explains, shaking Hitoshi’s arm. “I have gossip.” Normally, Mina would be the first to hear about this, but he needs to make sure it’s not already known. Because if Hitoshi knows, it’s known, and Mina almost definitely knows it. And then she’ll never let Denki live it down for not knowing.\n\nHitoshi blows out a breath at the ceiling, then waves a hand to indicate Denki regale him. \n\n“Dabi, that guy with Hawks last night?”\n\n“You mean the guy who was also with that creep last week?” Hitoshi’s lip turns down in a scowl - Denki’s starting to get the feeling he doesn’t know. Besides, he’s usually only this hostile toward new people. If he’d known Dabi before, or known about him, he’d probably be more likely to give him the benefit of the doubt.\n\n“That guy,” Denki glosses over the negative there. “Did you know he’s Todoroki’s brother?” So far, most of the things Denki’s told Hitoshi have earned him a small laugh, then a placating ‘yes, I knew that’, but this one makes his eyes widen.\n\n“His brother, really?” Hitoshi’s gaze tracks to the sheets beneath them, and he frowns. “Todoroki didn’t tell us, did Aizawa or Mic know?” Denki’s not sure where he’s going with this, but he shrugs - they could’ve, for all he knows. Usually Hitoshi’s the one who gets all his information from them.\n\n“If Iida’s involved, though,” Denki deduces, “Aizawa or Mic must’ve known.” Nothing goes through him that doesn’t also make its way up to either of them.\n\n“If not, they’ll know soon,” Hitoshi adds, finishing Denki’s train of thought. \n\n“So, y’think Mina knows yet?” Hitoshi rolls his eyes.\n\n------\n\n“He’s what?” Mina practically shouts, and Denki shushes her before glancing around - fortunately, they’re up on the third floor, and there’s not really much reason for Todoroki to be up here, probably. He glares at Mina anyway, not that she seems to really care much about her volume. “Oh my god, how- how did you find out?” \n\n“I was passing the library and he was in there with Iida, and I-”\n\n“Oh my god, you eavesdropped?” she says, as if she hasn’t done that herself on many occasions. She crosses her arms at him, but he just rolls his eyes.\n\n“He said it himself,” Denki continues, intent on explaining the whole conversation. \n\n“Who said what now?” Momo’s voice startles Denki, and he whirls around to find her climbing the stairs, a bookbag slung over her shoulder. She sets it down with a thump, then raises her brows at Denki. \n\n“Dabi is Todoroki’s brother!” Mina interjects before Denki can say anything, and he blows out a breath - he really should’ve known this was how it’d go if he told Mina first. He should’ve started with everyone else…\n\n“He’s- oh, I could see that,” Momo nods, leaving her bag in the middle of the hall and making her way to the room. Denki stares at her, jaw on the floor.\n\n“You’re not even a little surprised?” he asks. She just flops onto the bed.\n\n“I am, really!” He can hear the placating tone she takes, like he’s some little kid she has to humor. He crosses his arms over his chest.\n\n“She’s just tired,” Mina adds, a bright grin on her lips, and she shoos Denki from the room. “We’ll talk about it later!” He frowns, but lets himself be pushed from the room - besides, with Mina occupied, he gets to be the one to tell everyone the gossip.\n\nAfter a quick glance upstairs, he determines Tokoyami probably already knows. Tsu and Uraraka’s room is empty, the door swung open like they’d left in a rush. Or maybe were just too lazy to close it.\n\nAt the very least, though, Denki’s sure Eijirou will play into his excitement and surprise over this discovery.\n\n------\n\n“Huh,” Eijirou tilts his head, looking up to the ceiling. “Guess that makes sense, why they’d leave so quick after the party. And Todoroki had been quick to go to sleep.” Okay, so his surprise isn’t as enthusiastic as Denki had hoped, but it’s better than Bakugou’s quirked brow before he’d gone back to whatever he was doing on his laptop. He doesn’t even glance up at Kirishima’s deductions.\n\n“D’you think he knew?” Eijirou asks, and Denki frowns.\n\n“That he had a brother?” He supposes it’s possible he hadn’t known, but then how would the subject have come up in conversation? He doesn’t even recall seeing them talking, but he had been a bit-\n\n“No, you dumbass,” Eijirou elbows Bakugou, but he doesn’t look particularly chastised for the insult, “that his brother would be there.” It seems Bakugou’s taken over the role of reading Eijirou’s mind, which is probably for the best because Denki had never been great at it. Besides, he’s got enough on his plate with Hitoshi anyway.\n\n“He had to have known, right? Or did he definitely not know, and that’s why they left?” Denki’s brain twists at Eijirou’s words, all the possibilities overlapping each other and demanding his consideration. \n\n“I dunno,” Denki admits, “maybe it’s something totally different? I mean, Todoroki didn’t even mention a brother until now.”\n\n“But did Midoriya know?” Bakugou chimes in, and Denki’s brow lifts - he hadn’t expected him to be one for gossip, but he’s glad for the extra input.\n\n“He must’ve, Todoroki only really talks to him, he’s probably mentioned his brother, right?” Eijirou turns to Bakugou, who just shrugs.\n\n“You could ask him.” Todoroki’s voice startles Denki, and he grabs the nearest pillow to duck behind. He hadn’t even thought to check the hall, but Eijirou left his door open and now Todoroki’s standing in the doorway, face as emotionless as ever as he glances at each of them.\n\nBakugou has the common sense to look back at his laptop and pretend he hadn’t been participating, but Denki can see Eijirou’s face turn red out of the corner of his eye.\n\n“Dabi is my brother,” Todoroki confirms, though Denki had heard it before. “Both he and I suffered at the hands of my father, which is why I was discussing with Iida whether he could assist with an additional restraining order for him.” Denki sinks back into his chair, hoping it’ll suck him in - clearly, Todoroki had figured out what happened, that he’d overheard their conversation.\n\nNobody speaks, and Denki suspects they’re all a little uncomfortable at being caught gossiping, but Eijirou clears his throat.\n\n“If we can help, let us know,” he says, and his voice sounds far more confident than he suspects Eijirou’s actually feeling. Denki nods, and Bakugou makes some sound that might be interpreted as an agreement.\n\nTodoroki stands still in the doorway, so still that Denki has half a mind to go check that he’s actually there and not some statue, until he finally blinks and nods.\n\n“I appreciate it,” he says, and Denki exhales when he finally turns and leaves the room. Not that he’s scary or anything, but he has such a cool determination about him that Denki would hate to end up on his bad side.\n\n“Probably shouldn’t be gossiping,” Bakugou comments. Denki has half a mind to add that he had been participating, but Eijirou rolls his eyes and gives Denki a tiny shake of his head. \n\n“Well...better be going,” he says after a few more moments of silence, then he makes his way out the door. \n\nWhere he proceeds to run almost directly into Todoroki, who’s staring down at his phone with a frown.\n\n“Whoa- hey there,” Denki says, narrowly avoiding collision. Todoroki seems entirely unaffected, but he does glance up after a moment.\n\n“Will Aizawa and Mic mind if Dabi comes over now?” he asks, and Denki’s surprised to find a small crease between his brows. “I haven’t had the chance to discuss with them yet, but-”\n\n“I’m sure it’s fine,” Denki waves a hand. For all his teasing, for all the gossip, he can’t even begin to imagine how Todoroki must’ve felt, how he must be feeling. Family can really stir up emotions, and he’s pretty sure Todoroki’s never felt more than two or three of those in his life before now.\n\n“He said he’s bringing Hawks, will that be okay?” Todoroki’s tone borders on worried, and that’s enough to shift Denki into full caretaker mode.\n\n“It’s totally fine, everyone loves Hawks! You should go let Iida know Dabi’s coming so he can get everything ready.” He waves a hand toward the stairs, and Todoroki’s eyes glaze for a moment before he nods and heads down to the lounge."}
+{"text": "A month before …\n\nScott stood in the preserve, waiting in a space between two nearly limbless, decaying trees. He felt powerful with his red eyes: the sign of his being a true alpha. A true alpha, in his mind, meant he was so honorable that he did not have to kill to get those red eyes. He could persevere through pure will power and doing the moral thing. He often thought, if that way of becoming an alpha was not honorable, then what was?\n\nHe then heard the chaos coming his way. Jackson and Theo were running down a group of coyotes, herding them toward Scott. Many of the coyotes tried to change course, but Jackson and Theo made sure to chase aggressively at them. The wolves in human skin set a panicked pace while not allowing the coyotes to get past them in their nearly crazed method of pursuit. Growling and drawing blood when they could, Theo and Jackson kept the group of coyotes running to Scott. \n\nDeaton had warned Scott that there was a victim among the coyotes—a girl trapped in her shift. Upon finding this out, Scott assumed it was a sign that he had to rescue the girl. He believed it would cement his being a true alpha, which he thought equaled moral superiority. \n\nAs he saw the group of coyotes barreling through the trees towards him, Scott took a deep breath and let loose his alpha roar.\n\nWhen his roar hit the coyotes, most just kept running to escape as best as they could; however, one skidded to a stop as she began to shift. She dropped to her knees as she finished shifting to her human form. The girl held her hands up, studying her wiggling digits. She seemed to be trying to process what just happened.\n\nThe coyote turned girl had a lithe build, tanned skin, and long, mousey brown hair. She seemed to have no issue with being completely bare in front of three guys, but rather she continued to focus on her human hands. It seemed she may not have been human for a very long time.\n\nScott, smiling, approached her without any real caution. \n\nHe stepped within her arm span but faltered when she turned to him and growled. Scott was not expecting that reaction; he was the hero after all.\n\nThe she-coyote kept her predatory eyes on Scott. She didn’t rush to stand or flee. She seemed to be adjusting to her human body, but it was hard to say for sure.\n\nScott slowly took a pouch from the back pocket of his pants. He knelt to her level as he took a necklace out of the pouch. The piece of jewelry was simply a small but full pouch on a string. Scott then said, “I know you may be confused, but I have something that will help you: this necklace. I need to put it on you, but then everything will be okay.”\n\nWhile Scott knelt to her level, holding her attention, Theo and Jackson approached her from behind.\n\nScott moved like he was going to try to put the necklace on her.\n\nThe she-coyote immediately threw herself back from the approaching predator, but Jackson and Theo were close enough to latch onto her, holding her still just barely. There would no doubt be bruises on her when all was said and done.\n\nScott moved fast, attaching the necklace onto her as Jackson and Theo were struggling to maintain a hold of her with her fast, wild movements. \n\nThe moment the necklace was latched on her, she stopped struggling. She looked to Scott with expressionless eyes and said, “Thank you so much for saving me, Alpha. I’m sorry I did not realize you were helping me.”\n\n--------------------------------------------\n\nTwo weeks Later … \n\nThree murdered. Their bodies in the morgue. \n\nStiles swallowed hard—he could do this. It’s not like he hasn’t been in the morgue before with it white medical walls for dealing with the dead and taupe offices for addressing the living. He shook out his hands and checked through the door window to see if the room he sought was empty. It looked clear, so as quietly as he could, he slid the door open and stepped in. Inside, he checked his phone, but Lydia had not messaged, which was as much of a go-ahead as he could get.\n\nHe walked around, looking for files on the murders. Struggling to find what he was looking for—cause of death and names of the murder victims—Stiles decided that he would take a faster option. He may not like it, but he had no way of knowing how long Lydia would be able to keep the front desk attendant busy with hair twirling flirtations.\n\nStiles walked out of the room and crept to a different, colder room. He checked for anyone in there first. Seeing no one, Stiles slipped into the room and walked straight to the wall with the drawers of body storage. \n\nHe knew there were only three murdered people here. With a steadying breath, Stiles mentally reminded himself that he didn’t need any of the wolves for help with this. It wasn’t like they were hounding to support him or notice anything different with him, Forcing himself forward, Stiles started pulling the drawers out, checking for the ones that had bodies. Most were empty. One had an older person who showed no signs of anything but old age. He soon came upon what he was looking for: murder victims.\n\nOne at a time, he rolled them out of their drawers all the way. He took notes in his phone as he worked one body at a time.\n\nThe first body was a woman. She had light blonde hair, a face full of laugh lines, and she was petite. Stiles noted the she did not have many calluses on her hands, but quite a bit on the bottom of her feet. Stiles took a lot of notes about her appearance, working around his horror at what had happened to her.\n\nAfter a closed eyes moment with himself, he pulled more of the sheet off the body, seeing a glimpse of what was likely a very painful death: she had deep claw marks all over her body. Her chest was ripped open. Stiles noted to himself there seemed to be some blade cuts as well. It was a complete mess even with the blood cleaned off the corpse. After he noted all he could about the woman, Stiles slid her drawer shut.\n\nHe then turned away from body storage to the counter in the room. He looked around further, realizing that under the counter were filing cabinets possibly for active files. Growling quietly at himself, Stiles searched the counter itself for more information on the bodies. Nothing.\n\nDespite the counter being devoid of anything helpful, Stiles knelt down and started looking through the file cabinets. It was harder without names, but he was looking rather for numbers—numbers that matched the toe tag on the woman’s big toe. \n\nStiles hoped it would work. It did, with way more sorting than he’d hoped would be required. This problem was taking him too long. Grabbing the file when he found it, he did not bother reading it. Instead, he took a picture of each page in the file before putting it back.\n\nJust then, he got a vibration from his phone, signaling a text. He opened his phone back up, reading the text:\n\nLydia: Done yet?\n\nStiles: Close\n\nLydia: Hurry\n\nStiles: K\n\nStile then returned to the wall of body drawers. He hunted quickly, noting on his phone the toe tag numbers of the two other bodies obviously murdered in similar fashions to the initial murdered body. He then put them away and went to the file cabinets. He rushed through to find the needed files. He took pictures of all the pages in the files. He then put everything back the way it was.\n\nAfter stuffing his phone in his pocket, Stiles slipped out of the room. He then slipped out of a back door of the morgue that assistants used to sneak out for smoke breaks. Thankfully, none of them were there to see him leave as he texted:\n\nStiles: Out\n\nLydia: finally\n\nStiles smiled, knowing she really didn’t like having to flirt just to get what she wanted as much as she used to. He then moved to head home—he’d need to make his father dinner soon—however, he also stopped by a bakery to get Lydia her favorite lemon squares on the way home.\n\nJust as he drove his blue Jeep into the driveway, Stiles felt another text. Once he had the Jeep parked and off, Stiles took his phone from his pocket to see who texted him. Looking, he realized that it was not a text but a voice message, from his Dad.\n\nStiles frowned at having missed the call, but he listened to the message before getting out of the Jeep. It seemed his Dad had to pick up a second shift due to the murders. \n\n--------------------------------------------\n\nLater that evening …\n\nIn a pink blouse and skinny faded jeans, Lydia was sitting on Stiles’ bed looking through a tome Stiles had gotten a hold of a while back, having long since kicked off her yellow heels. His resourcefulness could be quite shocking if one were to underestimate him. Lydia worked not to. Too many surprises could cause wrinkles, she thought with a smile.\n\nHaving noticed her smile, Stiles asked, “Find anything helpful?”\n\nShe looked over to where Stiles was sitting in his computer chair, wearing loose jeans and a baggy graphic t-shirt depicting the maze from Labyrinth, looking through some print outs they had gotten from Alison. With a shrug, Lydia said, “Not really. The Latin to English translation is a bit inconsistent, so it takes a bit to understand. I wish a version in the original Latin was just lying around for us to use.”\n\nStiles rolled his eyes, seemingly knowing she just wished that there was a true playbook on being a Banshee rather than just bits and pieces here and there. He then offered: “Want to take a break and grab something to eat? I even suspect there may be some company interested.”\n\nLydia smiled, knowing exactly what he meant. She asked, “Want Alison to bring her Dad too?”\n\nStiles shook his head with a grin, “Naw, was hoping our favorite serial killer would join us.”\n\nShe sighed, saying, “I know there is something going on with him that’s helping you, but I just… what he did to me? To bring him back… I just. It’s hard to move past that.”\n\nStiles got up, setting the papers he was holding aside. After moving to her, Stiles hugged Lydia close, saying, “I know, I know… but he, of everyone, knows the most about what you are. You don’t have to like him, be nice to him, or anything like that. And if you don’t want to question him or take that avenue to learn more about yourself, then we won’t. I won’t force this on you.”\n\n--------------------------------------------\n\nAcross town …\n\nScott was sitting behind the school, leaning against the side of the tan building and waiting. He had been out of lacrosse practice for a few minutes. One of his fellow players—Adrian—was really struggling with being a bench warmer. It seemed he had joined the team to grow in social status. It was seriously not working. \n\nIt was a little rougher being in lacrosse with Stiles having quit the team, but he at least had Jackson. However, with Issac also on the team, Scott was itching for having more support to make sure the other pack didn’t get any ideas of trying to get to him through the team.\n\nScott suggested to Adrian to meet him behind the school after practice, figure they could both be helped if Adrian agreed to the bite. \n\nWhile waiting for Adrian, Scott texted Alison: Hey, wanna meet up to grab a bite to eat?\n\nScott then noticed Adrian heading his way. He struggled to wait, so he started walking toward Adrian.\n\nAdrian was wearing a tight black t-shirt and slightly baggy tan khaki pants. With his backpack hanging on one shoulder, he said, “Hey Scott, what’s you want to talk about?”\n\n“Well, I wanted to offer you a way to be stronger and faster… it could cause you to no longer be a bench warmer,” Scott replied.\n\n--------------------------------------------\n\nThe next afternoon…\n\nAfter school and lacrosse practice, Scott had walked to Alison’s house. He would have had a ride, but Stiles was no where to be found to recruit into his getting Alison back plan. In regular fit jeans, gray sneakers, and a red t-shirt, Scott walked right up to the Argent’s front door like it was the most right and natural thing to do. He knocked on their door, imagining Alison leaping out at him with a hug or a kiss desperate for him, wanting him back now that he was a true alpha.\n\nInstead of Scott’s assumed outcome, Chris Argent, Alison’s dad, answered the door. Wearing dark colored jeans, a white t-shirt, a buttoned up dark green shirt, boots, 5 o’clock shadow, and his signature frown, Chris looked as no nonsense as ever when he saw Scott at his door. His silence spoke volumes Scott was clearly not listening to.\n\nScott piped up, saying, “Hey, is Alison home?”\n\nChris sighed, and then said, “No.”\n\n“Oh,” Scott said. “Well, can I wait for her to get home inside?”\n\n“No,” Chris said as he stepped out of his home, shutting the door behind himself, his body language loud and clear on the subject.\n\nScott did not notice, instead asking, “Well, do you at least know when she’s going to be home?”\n\n“No,” Chris responded, seemingly expecting Scott to get the message. \n\nScott frowned a bit. He then asked, “Do you know where she is? I could go and meet up with her… I know she wants to catch up on things.”\n\n“No,” Chris said, crossing his arms over his chest.\n\nScott finally stopped, glaring at Chris as he left. Scott refused to let Chris keep Alison from him. They were meant to be together. Nothing could come between them. He knew that if only he could talk to Alison everything would be fixed and they’d get back together.\n\nOnce Scott had left, Chris went back into his house. \n\n--------------------------------------------\n\nPresent …\n\nScott and Theo left to look for Peter, knowing the rest of their pack was doing the same, having started from a different part of preserve. He smiled to himself, knowing that his powerful, better pack would find the deranged wolf that was Peter before Derek and his even made it halfway to wherever Peter was.\n\nHoping that things would align for Peter to be put down, Scott was all smiles as they moved around through the darkness to find Peter. Perhaps as a true alpha it was his duty to put down the unjust? Maybe it would cause Alison to even see him as a hero, as boyfriend material again.\n\nA snippet of “Rockstar” by Nickleback blared from Scott’s phone to notify him of a text. He paused in his walking to check his text notification.\n\nAdrian: Malia hears people fighting deeper in the preserve. Want us to investigate?\n\nTheo moved to where Scott had stopped. He looked over Scott’s shoulder at the text, asking, “Do we need to head their way?”\n\nScott shrugged, saying, “Probably. I don’t want it to be Peter and we miss out on catching him before he kills someone. He’s incredibly dangerous.”\n\nScott: Yes"}
+{"text": "Rita is a stunning woman. That is something that everyone who knows her agrees upon. How could anyone not agree? She is 5 feet 8 inches tall, a blue-eyed blonde with long straight hair reaching down to her waist. She has the figure of a college cheerleader. It seems incredible that a woman with such a narrow waist could have such magnificent tits, a full 36C and as firm as a teenager’s. Her shapely ass and legs draw admiring stares from every red-blooded man who ever sees them. She did some modeling in her early twenties, and her bikini-clad picture appeared in a popular magazine. Many men have kept that picture of Rita, without their wife’s knowledge, and they have the picture carefully hidden, to be brought out by the men at very private moments, usually in the bathroom. Rita is a real head-turner as she strides elegantly down the main street of this mid-Western town, dressed for success as always, her magnificent ass swaying seductively.\n\nRita is married to Derek, and has been for about two years. Derek is the envy of every man who knows him and his wife. He is a very ordinary guy, nothing special to look at, and his buddies often wonder what it is about him that enabled him to land a hot-looking babe like Rita. Some guys wondered if Derek was hung like a stallion, but those who played softball with him, and had seen him undressed in the locker room, said that his cock was nothing special, and might even be a bit on the small side. Whatever it was that had attracted Rita to Derek, it was still present as Rita was strictly a one-guy woman.\n\nMost of the guys had tried to make a move on Rita at sometime or another, usually at one of the large barbecues or corn-roasts held in the town. The beer and rye whiskey always flows freely at these events, and some guy or another, with more than a few shots of liquor in his belly, was always ready to try to sweet-talk Rita into a little frolic behind the nearest barn. But no one, ever, had gotten anything from these feeble attempts, anything other than the cold shoulder. As soon as Rita figured that the babbling fool in front of her was nothing but a would-be Romeo, she turned as cold as ice, and her blue eyes would blaze with fury. She would hiss threats about taking up the discussion with the fool’s wife or girlfriend, and that was usually enough to cool the hottest guy’s ardor. Very few guys had the nerve to try it twice. Rita earned the nickname “The Ice Queen” from her multitude of unsuccessful suitors. Guys could only fantasize about what Rita would be like in bed … and most of them did.\n\nLeading the parade when it comes to Rita’s admirers, and would-be seducers, is Al Ross. Al is one of Derek’s oldest buddies, and has actually known Rita for longer than Derek has. He even dated Rita once but, despite his best efforts, got nothing more than a light peck on the cheek at the end of the night. She had left him with a massive erection that night, and he had had to jerk off as soon as he got home to give himself relief. Once Rita met Derek, it was all over for everybody else, including Al, but she was still his favorite fantasy. Al jerked himself off regularly, and Rita was always in his thoughts when he did so, imagining himself ramming into her elegant, naked body, spread-eagled on an imaginary bed, her long blonde hair spread out across the pillow. Al was always thinking of ways to try to get Rita into bed with him, so far with absolutely zero success.\n\nAl would have jerked himself off even harder if he knew more about Rita, because Rita had a secret, a secret that even her husband didn’t know about.\n\nRita, the Ice Queen, was a borderline nymphomaniac!\n\nRita was obsessed with sex. She fucked her husband at least once every day, more often if she was feeling particularly aggressive. During the day, when Derek was at work and she was alone in the house, she would undress, lie down on top of the bed, and ferociously masturbate until she had multiple orgasms and had drained herself completely of sexual energy. But the energy would always quickly return and soon she would be looking for further release. Masturbating two or three times a day was not uncommon for her. Rita, too, had a fantasy, and when she masturbated it was always the same one. Rita would fantasy, as her fingers plunged in and out of her dripping cunt, that she was being gang-banged by every one of Derek’s friends. In her mind, her thrusting fingers became a succession of stiff cocks, as a long line of naked men, their erections jutting out in front of them, shuffled slowly toward her bed, waiting for their turn to lie down between her wide-spread legs.\n\nThe idea of a participating in a gang-bang fascinated and aroused Rita. She was certain that she would love to have, say, 10 guys take turns fucking her, filling her cunt with their cocks, then their cum. She was so certain that she would enjoy a gang-bang, that she was terrified about allowing even one other man to fuck her. She felt sure that, once she started, she would not be able to say “No” to anyone, and the floodgates would open. All those guys who had tried to get her into bed would never know how tempted she had been. If any of them had really persisted, she would probably have agreed to fuck him. But fear over her own reaction had always won over temptation, and she had scared them all off, every time.\n\nOpportunity doesn’t knock on a person’s door every day, and when it knocked on Al Ross’s door, he decided to grab it with both hands. Certain circumstances had arisen, and Al felt that he was finally going to have a good chance of fucking Rita. As he drove towards Rita’s house one day, shortly after lunch, he smiled with anticipation and was so confident of success that he announced loudly to no one in particular, “Today, Rita, you are going to get fucked by yours truly.”\n\nAt the same time, Rita was just getting ready to go upstairs to her bedroom. She was feeling especially horny today and was really looking forward to a wonderful release through masturbation. Her menstrual period had finished just the previous evening, so she had not had sex and had not masturbated for about a week. As she thought about the exquisite pleasures she was about to enjoy, her heart beat faster and her cunt became wet with anticipation.\n\nThen the doorbell rang. “Shit!” thought Rita, “Your timing is lousy, whoever you are.” She walked quickly to the door, anxious to get rid of the caller as quickly as possible. She had a date with her fingers in the bedroom, and she didn’t want to keep herself waiting! She opened the door, and there stood Al Ross, smiling pleasantly.\n\n“Hi Rita” he announced cheerfully. “I was in the neighborhood and thought I would drop in for a visit. Have I come at a bad time?”\n\nYour timing is the shits, thought Rita, but said aloud “Hi Al. Come in, it’s good to see you.”\n\nAs Al settled into a chair, Rita went into the kitchen and came back with a beer for him and a glass of wine for herself. They raised their glasses to each other in a silent toast, and both took a long sip of their drink. Al placed his glass on the table in front of him, and looked directly into Rita’s eyes. It was a warm day and she was wearing only tight shorts and a halter-top. She looked stunning. Al drew a deep breath.\n\n“I’m going to come right to the point, Rita. I’ve loved you for a long time, I think you know that, and I want to know what it would take for you and I to become lovers?”\n\n“Oh Al,” sighed Rita, “not that again. You’ve talked to me about this before, and my answer now is the same as always. The answer is ‘No’. I’m not interested in having sex with you, or anyone else except my husband. I’d throw you out of the house right now, if it wasn’t for the fact that you’ve been a good friend for a long time.” God, if you only knew what I really want to say, thought Rita. Of all Derek’s friends, Al Ross was the one she liked the most, and he was always the first man to penetrate her during her fantasy gang-bang. She had wanted him to fuck her at the end of their date, over three years ago, but she didn’t have know how to make the first move without appearing like a slut. With pounding heart, she realized that in her high state of sexual arousal today, she desperately wanted him to fuck her now, but the old fear about losing control of herself made her hesitate.\n\nAl was ready with his answer. He reached into his pocket and took out an envelope. In the envelope was a thick wad of bills. “There’s $5,000 here, and I want you to have it. If you let me make love to you, the money is yours, and I promise that I will never tell anyone about us for as long as I live.” Al reached over and gently placed his hands on her knees. The touch of his hands sent a small charge through Rita’s body. “Please say ‘Yes’ Rita, you’ll make me the happiest man alive.”\n\nRita looked down at the money silently. She picked up the envelope and felt the nice heft to the wad. The bills were all brand new fifties, and she assumed that there were 100 of them. The extra money would be nice, and it would come in very handy. It was also a good excuse for her to say yes to Al, without revealing her real emotions. The truth was, she wanted to fuck him, and she needed to fuck him, in the worst way. Her pussy was getting wetter from the mere discussion about sex. Fingers are great, she concluded, but there is nothing to compare to a stiff cock. And she desperately needed a stiff cock right now. Her pussy twitched. She reached her decision.\n\nShe stood up and held out her hand to Al. “All right Al, I agree. But if you ever breathe a word of this to anyone, I’ll tear out your heart with my bare hands.”\n\n“Great!” Al said in delight as he stood beside her and took her offered hand. “I’ve given you my word, and I’ll keep it.”\n\nUpstairs in the bedroom, Rita and Al hastily pulled off each other’s clothes, and Rita stretched out on the bed like a cat. Her blonde hair spread out on the pillow, just as Al had often fantasized. In her nakedness, she was breathtakingly beautiful and for a second Al thought he was going to cum right then. Her tight breasts pointed straight up, and the nipples were already erect. She spread her legs invitingly, just a few inches. When Al saw the moisture glistening in the hair at the top of her legs he realized that Rita was highly aroused and he lay down on the bed beside her.\n\nRita lowered her eyes and gazed at his stiff cock.\n\n“Let’s make the first fuck a quickie, then we can take our time for the rest of the afternoon,” she whispered.\n\n“Great idea, baby.” Al growled, and put both hands on the inside of her thighs and pushed them wide apart. He swung himself over her slender body, and positioned himself with his cock pointing directly at her wet pussy. She reached down between her legs with both hands and pulled her pussy lips apart, revealing a wide-open, dripping entrance to her cunt. He pushed his hips forward quickly, and his entire cock slid into her warmth without the slightest resistance.\n\nA long hiss escaped through Rita’s clenched teeth as she felt his hardness plunge deep into her body. She removed her hands from her pussy, and clamped them onto Al’s buttocks. She dug her long fingernails hard into his flesh and pulled him toward her. Al gasped with pain, but thrust his hips against the spread-eagled woman, driving his cock as deep into her body as possible. Neither of them could contain their arousal any longer, and Rita’s cunt muscles tightened as the orgasm that had been building for the past half-hour exploded through her. Al’s fantasies had come true. The most beautiful woman he had ever met was writhing and gasping in orgasmic pleasure under him, with his cock buried in her glorious body, and an orgasm roared over him as well. His throbbing cock squirted thick gobs of cum inside Rita’s receptive hole. The two gasping lovers thrust their bodies against each other furiously.\n\nIt was two or three minutes before they recovered enough to even speak.\n\n“Well, Al Ross,” said Rita, with a sly smile, “you’re full of surprises. I reckon that was certainly worth $1,000. Only four more thousand to go, huh?”\n\nGuilt crept into Al’s mind. “Look, Rita, I’m sorry about the money. I think I’ve made a huge mistake.”\n\n“No mistake, lover. A deal’s a deal, and I’m going make sure you get your money’s worth.” Rita playfully pushed Al over onto his back. “Now, more action and less talk.”\n\nAs Al lay back on the bed, the sheets already damp from Rita’s sweating body, the blonde woman turned herself around so that her feet were near Al’s head. She then swung her legs over top of the prostrate man and put herself into the classic ‘69’ position, her thighs straddling his face. He could feel her long blonde hair cascading over his naked thighs. She took his limp cock in her hand and looked back at him briefly.\n\n“Let’s see if your tongue can do what your cock just did. I want you to make me cum again.” It sounded more like an order than a request. Her pale, round buttocks were only inches away from his face. He could plainly see her tight butt-hole, nestled between the cheeks, a slight trace of blonde hair surrounding it. Even closer to his mouth was her open pussy, red and puffy from the fierce fucking, dripping with her own juices and Al’s cum. The blonde hair surrounding the pussy was thick and wiry, wet with sweat.\n\nAl pulled a pillow up under his head to stop his neck from getting sore, and just as he gave Rita’s pussy a first tentative lick, he felt his cock engulfed in the wet warmth of her mouth. In response, he licked her clit, and sucked the little nub into his mouth, pulling on it with his lips. She grunted and pushed her ass back against his face, burying his nose between her cheeks. He sucked harder on the clit and pushed his tongue into the sopping cunt. He brought both his arms from his side, and wrapped them around her hips. He pulled her pussy even harder against his face, at the same time bringing one of his hands around to let the fingers probe between her butt cheeks. The index finger probed her tight, puckered hole, and he felt Rita’s body twitch. Her hips did small circles on his face, and her ass pushed back gently against his finger. He brought the finger down quickly, and slipped it past his mouth and into her wet cunt. He felt her twitch again. He withdrew the now moistened finger, and returned it to the entrance to her butt. She clearly could feel what he was doing, and pushed back a little harder. He knew what she wanted, so he probed gently with his moist fingertip, and it slipped easily past her sphincter muscle, and into her ass.\n\nRita grunted again and began moving her hips in a riding motion. With amazement, Al realized that she was on the verge of another orgasm already. He worked his lips and tongue against her cunt and pussy as hard as he could, and pushed the finger into her butt up to the first knuckle. With his free hand, he reached between their bodies, found one of her breasts, and rolled the nipple hard between his thumb and finger. She gave a muffled croak and began crushing her pussy against his face, riding it hard, so that Al could scarcely breathe. Simultaneously, she sucked fiercely on his cock, which had once again stiffened. Fluid gushed from her body, onto his face and into his mouth, a mixture of her own juices and his. Another orgasm powered over him, making him buck his hips hard upwards, shoving his cock into Rita’s mouth. She sucked the cum from his body, swallowing it greedily.\n\nAfter their writhing bodies had become still, Rita rolled off Al and lay beside him, her head on his shoulder, her hand stroking his chest. It had been the best sex, and the most powerful orgasms, she had ever experienced, and she was feeling very loving and tender toward her old boyfriend.\n\n“Wow!” she finally muttered quietly. “If I had known you had this kind of talent, I might have married you instead of Derek.”\n\n“Thanks, but Derek’s a good man, and it’s all water under the bridge now,” replied Al. “Besides, I think if I tried this too often I’d die of a heart attack. You’re pretty talented yourself.”\n\nShe reached down and took his limp cock into her hand. She began to stroke it gently.\n\n“Your cock felt really good when it was inside me. You’re only the second man I’ve ever fucked, and it was exciting to have a different cock inside me for a change. I’ve sometimes wondered what my old boyfriend, Al Ross, would be like in bed, what it would feel like to have him fuck me. Now I don’t have to wonder any more … you feel great. Speaking of which, we’re wasting time. I want your cock inside me again, and it feels like it’s rising to the occasion.”\n\nSure enough, my cock was stiffening again. The combination of her hands and her conversation had worked magic. Al was beginning to feel physically drained, but his cock was telling him that it was ready for yet another round. Rita reached into a bedside drawer and pulled out a tube of lubricating gel. She then positioned herself on her knees and elbows, her firm and curvy ass pointing invitingly upwards. Al wondered what had happened to “The Ice Queen”. There was nothing frigid about Rita … she was hot enough to bake bread!\n\nRita turned her head around to look at him, and waved the tube of gel in her hand.\n\n“You might be needing this,” she smiled and winked.\n\nAl got onto his knees behind Rita and spread her legs apart. Her ass and pussy were wide open and completely vulnerable. Moisture was still oozing slowly from her well-fucked hole. Miraculously, his cock had stiffened up yet again. He was amazed at himself, and assumed that he was getting additional inspiration from this beautiful woman, who was beginning to seem sexually insatiable. His cock slid easily into her again, and he began to fuck her rhythmically as she arched her back, tightening the grip of her cunt on his cock. Her body moved back and forward, keeping time with his thrusts. He knew that this was going to be a long fuck, as he felt that he would be unable to come again. He had already deposited two steaming loads of cum into Rita, and the last time, he felt like she had sucked him dry.\n\nAl settled into an easy fucking routine. His glistening cock slid in and out, in and out, in and out as the minutes ticked by. The only sound in the room was the slap, slap, slap of his thighs on her buttocks. To change the pace, he hunched his body over the sweating woman, and reached under her with both hands. With his right hand he found her clit, and begun to pull on it gently. His left hand found her breast, and he pulled hard on the nipple. Rita broke the long silence.\n\n“Fuck me, Al. Fuck me hard.” She began to push back against him more urgently. Al was still not ready to cum, but he knew that the “Ice Queen” was on the brink once more. He increased the pressure on the clit and the nipple, pulling and twisting so hard he felt sure that he was hurting her. Rita pushed herself up off her elbows, onto her hands. She let out a strange cry, half sob half grunt, and rammed her ass hard back against Al’s thighs, and another climax surged through her arching body. She pounded against Al for a minute or so, then grabbed the tube of gel, flipping it back towards Al.\n\n“Fuck me in the ass, quick!’ she gasped between lunges. Breaking his rhythm slightly, Al picked up the gel and squirted a generous amount onto Rita’s tight, puckered butt-hole. He hadn’t come yet, so his cock was still stiff as he pulled it from Rita’s sopping cunt. He pulled her hips down slightly to improve the angle, put the tip of his cock right against the greased-up hole, and pushed forward firmly. His cock slid in two or three inches as another hiss escaped through the woman’s clenched teeth.\n\n“Deeper. Fuck me deeper,” she gasped and she pushed herself back against him. Al pushed forward as hard as he could and the remaining part of his cock disappeared into the stretched open hole, gel oozing out around his shaft. Their bodies were almost motionless as he reached under her again and began to rub her clit furiously. With his left hand he grabbed a handful of her long blonde hair, and pulled her head backwards, just as he began his fucking rhythm once more. Her ass was the tightest sensation he had ever felt, and he quickly came inside her, as she bucked and whimpered in a glorious mixture of ecstasy and pain, which drove her to her biggest orgasm yet. Tears ran down her cheeks and splashed onto the bed sheets as she and her lover rocked against each other, both overcome with desire.\n\nThe exhausted lovers lay for a long time afterwards, too shattered to move or to speak. Eventually they both quietly got dressed, and Al prepared to leave.\n\n“Rita, I need to explain about the money,” he began. Rita put a finger to his lips, shushing him.\n\n“It’s been a wonderful afternoon, let’s not spoil it by talking about money. We’ll get together again soon. But I’m warning you, I expect you to be as good in bed next time as you were today.” She felt satisfied and complete, something she had never felt before. Today’s sex had been the best she had ever experienced. She knew that the two men in her life, Derek and now Al, would keep her sexually satisfied, and her fears of becoming sexually uncontrollable were gone forever. She felt good.\n\nRita busied herself removing all traces of Al’s visit. She hid the envelope of money, put fresh sheets on the bed, and opened the windows to allow fresh air to blow away the heavy smell of sweat, sex, and cum. Finally she had a shower, and was looking fresh and radiant when Derek arrived home from work.\n\nAfter the usual greetings, Derek settled back into his favorite chair with a glass of Scotch. He looked around the room.\n\n“Did Al Ross drop in to see you today, Honey?” he asked. Rita was stunned at the question, and felt her face flush a little.\n\n“W-who? Al Ross, did you say?” she stammered.\n\n“Yeah, Al Ross, for Pete’s sake. What’s the matter with you? Did he drop in to see you today?” asked Derek again, a little impatiently.\n\n“No, he didn’t. Why would he? I haven’t seen Al for months.” Rita was panic-stricken.\n\n“That son-of-a-bitch.” muttered Derek in exasperation. “Before we were married, I lent him some money. I’ve been bugging him to pay me back. He told me that he would drop in this afternoon and give you the $5000 he owes me.”\n\n"}
+{"text": "\nLan Zhan is in his kitchen, fixing an evening cup of green tea, when his phone buzzes twice in quick succession. \n\n\n \n\n\nWWX: Hey\n\n\n\nWWX: Can I come over?\n\n\n \n\n\nHe nearly drops the whistling kettle in his rush to reply.\n\n\n \n\n\nLZ: Of course. Please do.\n\n\n \n\n\n—\n\n\n\nThey have not spoken since the performance the previous night. No sooner had they caught their breath did someone in the crowd pull Wei Wuxian aside, much to Lan Zhan’s displeasure. He had hung around a few minutes, watching for trouble from a distance, but left after he saw Wei Wuxian smiling and chattering with his usual enthusiasm.\n\n\n \n\n\nLan Zhan had stayed away from the shop today, in order to finish some much-needed studying. His brother had come home after closing, an expression of grateful relief on his face, to tell him that they had exceeded their sales benchmark for the month. Cloud Recesses is safe, for now at least. But he suspects that Lan Xichen knows something is wrong, given Lan Zhan’s happy-but-hollow response to the good news. A week ago, this news would have felt heaven-sent. But there are other things troubling the waters of Lan Zhan’s mind. \n\n\n\n—\n\n\n \n\n\nHe’s knotting one hand in his hair almost hard enough to yank it out when there’s a knock at the door. The other hand holds a small parcel, wrapped in cloud-patterned tissue paper—an item he has been holding on to for weeks, waiting for the right moment, wondering if it will ever come. Gulping, he briefly considers climbing out the window to escape. Nevertheless, he turns the door handle, a slight tremble afflicting his usually steady hand.\n\n\n \n\n\nWei Wuxian looks as though he hasn’t slept, shadows ringing his eyes, face pale. They just stare at each other for a moment before Lan Zhan steps aside to allow him to enter. Without really thinking about it, he leads him up to the roof.\n\n\n \n\n\nThey sit, much as they did almost a month earlier. The view in front of them is the same, but so much between them is not. \n\n\n \n\n\nWei Wuxian speaks first.\n\n\n \n\n\n “Lan Xichen called me,” he begins. \n\n\n \n\n\n\nNothing gets past my brother\n\n, Lan Zhan thinks, and almost rolls his eyes. Still, he’s relieved. \n\n\n \n\n\n “I know why you gave up the audition now. And…Lan Zhan, I’m so sorry for how I snapped at you.” He stares at his hands. \n\n\n \n\n\n “Wei Ying. No need to apologize.” \n\n\n \n\n\n “Yes, I do. I misunderstood and I overreacted. I thought you were giving up your dream for me…or because of me. And I completely ignored that delicious espresso ice cream thing you made for me, which I \nloved\n, and which I want you to make for me every day until I die, and which we should definitely add to the menu,” he said. \n\n\n \n\n\nLan Zhan flushes at the idea of getting to make coffee for Wei Wuxian every day. But he doesn’t allow himself to hope he \nmeant\n anything by that. Not yet. \n\n\n \n\n\n “I have a new dream now,” Lan Zhan says. He lets the not-quite-a-confession hang in the air between them for a long moment, staring out at the horizon.\n\n\n \n\n\n “I have a question for you, Lan Zhan.”\n\n\n \n\n\n “Mn.”\n\n\n \n\n\n “About the song, the last one we played.”\n\n\n \n\n\n “Mn.”\n\n\n \n\n\n “Did you write that?”\n\n\n \n\n\n “Mn.”\n\n\n \n\n\n “What was the inspiration?”\n\n\n \n\n\nOh. \n\n\n \n\n\nHe just freezes for a moment, not daring to look at the other man. He can’t lie to Wei Ying, but he also can’t tell him the truth without revealing everything. He chooses the comparatively safer third option, and gingerly hands him the tissue-paper wrapped parcel. \n\n\n \n\n\n “Happy birthday, Wei Ying,” he says. Wei Wuxian’s face ignites into the first real smile since he arrived.\n\n\n \n\n\n “You remembered! Wait. I \ndefinitely\n never told you. How did you know?” He giggles, gently punching him in the side. “Did you use your top-secret Batman computer database to pull all my confidential information? Find anything incriminating?”\n\n\n \n\n\nLan Zhan smiles again, relieved at the turn the conversation has taken. “Wen Qing told me.”\n\n\n \n\n\n “Oh,” Wei Wuxian says, humor leaving his face, growing pale. “Did…she tell you anything else?”\n\n\n \n\n\nLan Zhan nods slowly. “She told me about the scholarship. I know what you did for your brother. And I will never tell a soul.”\n\n\n \n\n\nTo his surprise, Wei Wuxian lets out a breath and starts laughing, color returning. \n\n\n \n\n\n “That’s all she told you? I mean, yeah, it’s a secret, and I don’t ever want A-Cheng to find out. But I was worried she might have-” He runs a hand through his hair, nervousness flitting across his face. “Doesn’t matter. I can’t believe you got me a present! I’m gonna open it right now.” \n\n\n \n\n\nHe tears into the tissue paper with the reckless abandon of a child on Christmas morning, tossing it behind him. His eyes widen, mouth falling open.\n\n\n \n\n\n “Lan Zhan, this is…”\n\n\n \n\n\nHe holds a black mug with white bunnies dashing across it. From a distance, they would probably look like polka dots. \n\n\n \n\n\nHe looks at Lan Zhan with an unreadable expression. It’s like a mosaic of wonder, amusement, and perhaps fear. Lan Zhan’s heart skips a beat, wondering if he did something wrong. If he’s ruined everything. \n\n\n \n\n\nFrom his reclining position, Wei Wuxian leans into Lan Zhan’s space until their faces are just inches apart.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Lan Zhan,” he pauses, swallowing and taking a breath. His voice is almost a whisper. “What does this mean?”\n\n\n \n\n\nHe can’t deflect, he can’t lie. And that now-familiar invisible string knotted around his wrist, tethering him to Wei Ying, ensures he cannot run, either. He is terrified that the truth is written all over his face. That it has been since…he doesn’t even know when.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Lan Zhan,” he says, louder now but with a barely perceptible shakiness. He hesitates, then pulls Lan Zhan’s hand into his own. \n\n\n \n\n\n“The mug. The song you wrote. Your new dream. I need to know what it means. I \n\nneed\n\n you to say it.”\n\n\n \n\n\nWords have a habit of failing Lan Zhan at important moments. Fortunately for him, all of those questions have the same answer.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Wei Ying.”\n\n\n \n\n\nThe distance between them dissolves, both closing it, and there is only the kiss, and the night, and a song flowing between them. \n"}
+{"text": "Ryan’s heart almost stopped when Akmazian walked through the infirmary door. \n\nIt was what passed for the night shift on a space station; corridor lights dimmed and almost all patients asleep. Ryan was alone at the front desk as Jane and Dr Urvidian did the final rounds of the day. The infirmary was eerily quiet at this time, the busy bustle of staff and the concerned murmuring of visitors gone. The only people to come by now were people with medical emergencies and, well, Akmazian apparently. \n\nRyan stood slightly, dropping his pen, wanting to rush towards the other man but unsure of whether he should. His heart seemed to stutter in his chest but whether that was the sudden reappearance of the supposed terrorist or the amount of caffeine he had drunk to get him through the midnight shift, was anyone’s guess. Akmazian stood awkwardly by the door, hands deep in his pockets as he bit his lip. He somehow looked more nervous than he had when Ryan last saw him, standing at the front of a courtroom waiting for the jury to give their judgement. Then he had stood tall, chin jutting out defiantly but here he seemed hesitant. The only similarity was how he actively seemed to be avoiding making eye contact with Ryan. \n\n“I- I didn't know you were coming,” Ryan stuttered out uncertainly. The words felt heavy on his tongue, weighed down by all the things he wanted to say but couldn't find the words for. It had been so long since he had spoken to Akmazian, he hadn't had the chance to since he had left Eos 10, since they had- \n\n“Papers went through faster than expected,” Akmazian said, his voice low and rough, “Bureaucracy, right?” \n\nEven in the washed-out light of the infirmary, Akmazian looked good, Ryan had to admit that to himself. It seemed even an alliance holding cell was better than an abandoned cargo bay, it seemed. He looked healthier, muscled instead of sallow, his eyes and hair brighter. It sent a pang of guilt as he took in the sight of the nervous-looking man in front of him. \n\n“I’m just dropping by,” Akmazian said quickly, “I’m won't stay for long– I just thought I should- I wanted to see you again- you and Jane and Dr Urvidian, that is.”\nRyan’s stomach sank. He blinked rapidly and looked down at his papers, his fist tightening around the pen he held. \n\nIt had been stupid to hope Akmazian would stay on Eos 10. After months of being hidden on the ship, it was only logical that he’d want to leave. No doubt he had friends to see after years of being a fugitive, maybe even family who he would want to visit now he had been proved innocent. \n\n“I see,” Ryan choked out, “I- it’s good to see you.” Even to his own ears, it sounded far too genuine. It was, of course. Akmazian gave a strained smile and poked at the infirmary floor with his shoe. The silence that hung between the two felt oppressive, unsaid things hovering in the dim light of the infirmary.\n\nEventually, Akmazian spoke. “So, uh, Jane and Dr Urvidian around?”\n“Urvidian’s gone but Jane’s just doing last rounds,” Ryan replied hurriedly, “She should be back any minute if you want to wait.”\n“Nah. It's fine. Say hi to them from me,” Akmazian paused briefly, “I actually came to see you if I'm completely honest. I came to say thank you.”\n\n“Thank you?” Ryan said in confusion, “For what?”\nAkmazian gave a slight laugh, shoving his hands deep into his pockets, “Seriously? For everything. For taking care of me, for supporting me, for risking your life to prove my innocence, for just- for being there. Thank you.”\nRyan felt himself blushing and quickly glanced away from Akmazian’s intense gaze.\n“I was just doing my job.”\nAkmazian’s soft smile was obvious in his voice. “I think everything you did for me goes far beyond your job description, Dr Dalias. You've done things for me that I can never repay.” \n\nRyan looked up at Akmazian who looked strangely wistful, “You don't need to. You're my friend.”\nAkmazian laughed quietly again but it sounded somehow hollow. “I'm very glad to have you as a friend then.”\nRyan smiled at him but he imagined it looked as forced as it felt. \n\n“Well- it was nice of you to drop by- before you leave the station,” Ryan said after a long pause, desperate to fill up the space of unsaid things hovering in the air.\nAkmazian’s eyebrows shot up. “Leave the station?” he repeated, in a surprised tone, “I'm not planning on leaving Eos 10.”\n\n“You said you weren't staying!” Ryan exclaimed, a small note of hope rising in his chest. Akmazian rolled his eyes. “Okay, that was misleading. I meant staying in the infirmary. I'm off to see the Quartermaster about accommodation and from what I've heard that may take a while.”\nRyan grimaced. “You have my condolences.” \n\n\"Are you glad I'm staying?” Akmazian asked suddenly, his tone somewhere between flirty and deeply serious.\nRyan paused briefly before nodding. “Of course, like I said - you're my friend. I want- I'm glad you're around.”\n\n“Just friends?” It was a question that didn't demand an answer, Akmazian sounding resigned. Ryan blinked in surprise, he opened his mouth to reply but the way Akmazian was looking at him took his breath away and left him speechless.\n\n“I have to ask,” Akmazian said as he brushed stray strands of hair away from his face, the apology clear in his tone and his wry smile; steady but sad, “When I left Eos 10, you said – you said kissing me was a promise. I – what exactly did you mean by that, Doctor?”\n“I-” Ryan began slowly, searching for the words as he twisted his hands in the scrubs he wore.\nAkmazian interrupted him. “I’m not- I ain’t expecting anything from you.” He gave a low laugh and crossed his arms, shifting awkwardly. “You’ve already given way more than I can ever repay you for. I just – I’d like some clarification. I thought about what you said- what happened– a lot over the past few weeks.”\n\nThere was a long silence, Ryan glaring a hole through the faux-wood of the infirmary table, before Akmazian quietly added, “You kissed me.”\n“You kissed me first,” countered Ryan quickly, finally looking back up at the tall figure of the ex-supposed terrorist. \n\nAkmazian gave another of his wry smiles, the type that was filled with sadness. Ryan bit his lip at the sight. “Yup. That I did, Doctor Dalias.”\n“I thought I told you to call me Ryan.” Ryan stood slowly and began to make his way around the desk. Akmazian’s dark eyes watched him intently.\n“You might have done.”\n\nRyan stopped barely a foot away from the other man and looked up at him, chin tilted defiantly.\n“Why did you come here now, instead of waiting till the morning?” he asked softly.\n“You know why,” Akmazian replied, raising an eyebrow. Ryan took that as his cue. Stepping forwards, he placed his hands on Akmazian’s shoulders and leant in, slowly enough that the other man could easily stop him. Akmazian did not. Instead, he let out a soft exhale and leant forwards slightly, meeting Ryan half-way. His hands rose to cradle Ryan’s face, tentative and unsure but quickly becoming more confident. Akmazian pulled Ryan forward, kissing him firmly. Ryan’s hands slipped round to the back of Akmazian’s neck, pulling him in closer, fingers tangling in the man’s dark hair. He pressed in closer, sighing slightly against the other man’s mouth.\n\nThere was a muffled noise from behind them. The pair sprung apart, although Akmazian’s hand still rested gently on the doctor’s shoulder. Jane stood in the corridor’s entrance, her expression both excited and extremely self-satisfied. \n\n“I knew it,” she said, her grin growing steadily wider second by second, “Oh this is so great – wait till Levi hears, I told him but no, he didn’t believe me but now, guess what. Guess who’s right-”\n\n“Jane.” Ryan interrupted quickly, “Now isn’t the time. You can be smug as you want, but just- give us a minute?”\n“Oh! Right!” Jane flushed slightly and stepped back, “I’ll go – um- double check on Mrs Banks again. Oh yeah, Ryan, she’s been sick about three times, I really need you to look at that. I know it’s not a good moment but I think she might need different medicine- so, uh be quick? Please? It’s really, really gross.”\n\nRyan sighed deeply. His hand was resting on Akmazian’s chest so he could feel it vibrate as the man chuckled.\n“I’ll be there in just a minute.”\n“Thank you so much,” Jane said in exaggerated relief, “No funny business, okay? Or I’ll tell Urvidian you’re getting it on during work hours.”\n\nShe sent the pair a suggestive wink before flouncing out of sight, back to the patients. Ryan gave another sigh and rolled his eyes before turning back to Akmazian.\n“That sounds like something I should probably deal with,” he said with a dry grimace.\n“Yeah, I better get to the Quartermaster. I do need a place to crash after all,” Akmazian agreed, although neither made an attempt to move away. After a moment’s pause, Ryan reached up and quickly kissed Akmazian again.\n\n“Once you’re done, come back, alright?” he said.\n“Will do,” promised Akmazian, brushing his thumb gently along Ryan’s lips, “Now I’m free I can come and see you whenever I like. Which may be quite a lot, just to give you a fair warning.”\nRyan smiled widely. “You know what? I like the sound of that.”"}
+{"text": "Severus was hunched over the High Table, his arms resting on either side of his plate of uneaten toast.  The angle of his body was so pitched that his dark hair had fallen on either side of his face effectively blocking out the rest of the hall from his scorn.  If it were scientifically possible, the condensation from Severus’ steaming form would have created a fogbank along the dais; there would be no mistaking his sour mood with such a visual.  Alas, his body language was having to do the work for him. Thankfully, it seemed to be a good enough orator as his peers had, so far, given him a wide berth. Which was just as well, Severus’ temperament was not suited for congeniality this morning.   Bloody fucking rounds with Filch… up at the arsecrack of dawn like usual… today is terrible and I very well hate everything. \n\nThe scent of oranges momentarily floated over him as someone walked behind the table.  Severus felt his shoulders relax as he recognized the aroma. “What’s that sound?” Hermione asked as she pulled out her ladderback chair and sat down next to him.  A bowl of oatmeal topped with blueberries and a honey swirl appeared in front of her. “Is someone making tea?”\n\n“No,” came a gloating voice a few seats over.  “It’s just Severus hissing.”\n\nSeverus’ head snapped up and he spat, “I do not--” before stopping himself abruptly because even he could hear the sibilation threatening to erupt.  He looked down the line of his peers and fixed Hooch with a glare.  \n\n“Oh, that look doesn’t work on me, boyo,” the Flying Instructor said with a genuine smile as she tipped her cup in his direction.  “We’ve been through too much together for you to scare me away.”\n\n“Damn crone,” Severus muttered under his breath as he reached for his own cup, swirling the dark liquid.  He covered his fond half-smile for the older woman by taking a drink. His shoulders relaxed another fraction as the coffee warmed him from the inside out.   The Elves aren’t breeding civets down there, are they?   Severus thought, referencing the famous Kopi Iuwak coffee, worth nearly two hundred galleons per bag, whose cherry-like beans were fermented by the digestive tract of an Asian weasel. \n\nRolanda’s voice carried down the table, “What was that, sonny?  You’d have to speak up for someone as old and infirm as me.”\n\n“Oh, stuff it, Rolanda,” Sprout scolded from the table’s left flank on the other side of McGonagall.  “The poor dear was up awfully late last night.”\n\n“What?” Hermione asked, finally entering the conversation after eating some of her breakfast.  Eagerly, she turned to Severus. “What were you doing last night? Do you have a new project?”\n\nThe question of ‘May I assist?’ was unspoken but Severus heard it all the same; Hermione rarely passed on the opportunity to learn something new.  Highly aware of all the other eyes in the vicinity, he was careful to not show how much her enthusiasm had warmed him. Severus smiled crookedly at her when he answered, “No, I have no such thing.”   Although, perhaps I should orchestrate some long, drawn-out project if it would guarantee a moment alone with you... \n\nHooch cackled, “He had rounds last night.”\n\nHermione, who had turned to look at Hooch as she spoke, returned her gaze to Severus’ face.  She twisted her body closer to his, creating the illusion of a more intimate conversation in the public space of the Great Hall.  She asked low, “Rounds? I didn’t think you had--”\n\n“I switched,” Severus muttered back, his soft volume matching hers.  Dark eyes snagged on to ones the color of espresso.\n\n“Why did you do that?”\n\n Oh, damn.  He had to be careful here at the High Table.  A public declaration of affection had the potential to either spook Hermione into fleeing or drive her to reciprocate out of guilt.  He wasn’t going to put her on the spot like this. Severus couldn’t very well be truthful in front of all these witnesses anyway; they’d tease him mercilessly.  But Severus also wouldn’t lie.\n\nHermione’s expression was morphing into one of concern and Severus knew he had to reply.  He still wasn’t sure what he was going to say when he started, “Hermione--”\n\nA woman’s voice suddenly rang out into the room, “Darling!”\n\nSimultaneously, Severus and Hermione broke eye contact and turned to see who had arrived at the front of the Hall.  But, just as quickly, they flinched when a booming, joyous voice on the left shouted a reply, “Oaty cakes!”  \n\nIt escaped everyone else’s notice that Severus’ hands flew to Hermione’s forearms in alarm and that her fingers gripped his sleeves in kind.  The touch itself was fleeting, they grasped and released each other within seconds; but as Severus turned to locate the source of who had called out the term of endearment his palms tingled.  He had no time to analyze the mutual reaching for each other--the quick confirmation that the other was all right--as a grating screech of a moving chair pierced the silence of the room. \n\nHagrid had stood and the man looked as happy as if Norberta had just returned with an entire brood of grand-dragons and that his dreams of being a grandparent were finally realized.  Hagrid began waving his arms--Sprout was forced to lean sharply to the right to avoid being swat--as if he was directing a Muggle Concord Jet transporting a celebrity in for a landing.  Perhaps he was, to an extent, considering who was trotting to the High Table. Madam Rosmerta was weaving between the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw tables, carefully lifting her slim legs to step over discarded school bags.  She wore a form-fitting brown wool coat, high heeled tasseled boots, and a beret on top of her loose hair. Rosmerta gave small acknowledging waves to the older students who recognized her. But her large smile seemed to be reserved for only one person in the room.  Rosmerta sauntered up the short set of stairs and rushed around Sybill to Hagrid’s waiting arms.  \n\nThe landlady squealed as Hagrid spun her; this time Sprout found it necessary to push her chair directly against Flitwick’s to get out of the way of the dangerously circling legs.  As Hagrid gently placed her back on the floor, Rosmerta exclaimed, “My big burly man!”\n\n“Well, shucks now,” Hagrid said, his entire face turning red.  Severus half expected steam to erupt out of the half-giant’s ears.\n\nOther than Pomona’s act of self-preservation in regards to not being kicked in the face, the rest of the staff at the table seemed shocked into silence as they watched the unexpected reunion.  Severus felt fortunate that his brain had begun working well enough again to sputter out a singular thought.  What in the ever living hell is this?   \n\nHagrid continued, “What are yer doing here? I was goin’ to come down this afternoon.”\n\n“I couldn’t wait that long,” Rosmerta cooed, sliding her hands down Hagrid’s front while wiggling against him.\n\nMinerva cleared her throat, being the first to recover, reminding the two-- Lovers?  Severus thought incredulously--adults as to where they were.  Most pointedly, that they were center stage in a room of young children. \n\n“Oh right,” Hagrid replied, patting his large hand on Rosmerta’s back.  “We need to set a good example for the students. None of all that, now...”\n\nRosmerta giggled as she twirled to face Minerva, her coat fanning out around her.  She slid her hand down Hagrid’s chest to clasp his meaty hand with both of hers. As she leaned her frame against Hagrid’s side she asked formally, “Would it be alright, Headmistress, if I visited Rubeus for the day?”\n\nSeverus wasn’t sure where to look.  Either the public display between the half-giant and the buxom village barmaid or the very pinched face of the Headmistress.   Damn, that pulsing vein is back.  I may need to slip her that Hypertonie Draught after all. \n\n“You’re both adults,” Minerva replied slowly.  “Hagrid is off duty today and therefore--”\n\nRosmerta’s delighted squeal echoed around the chamber.  Hagrid’s blush returned two-fold. The woman began to pull Hagrid out the side door.  Before the pair had disappeared completely Minerva harshly reminded, “Remember the children!”  The door slammed and an elated “Oh, my squishy pickle!” was heard through the thick walls.\n\nSeverus blinked at the door, completely at a loss for words.  The students nearest the High Table looked shocked and slightly sick.  One intrepid sixth-year--Henriksen, alcove rutter--wrote a hurried note in the margin of a book.\n\n“What - just - happened?” squeaked Flitwick.  \n\nA sharp clap interrupted any forthcoming response.  Immediately, an Elf appeared next to Minerva. “Headmistress called Tansy?”\n\n“Yes, after our Groundskeeper and his friend return to his home please do the following: cast a strong student repelling charm around the area of Hagrid’s hut.  A circumference of thirty feet should be enough.” Minerva paused and Severus felt her indignation rolling off her in waves.  “And a silencing charm. A strong one.” Tansy’s ears wiggled in a concerned manner as she took her orders.  \n\nIrma asked pointedly, “Can the staff be included in that repelling charm, Minerva?”\n\nMinerva rolled her eyes.  “Merlin’s pants, this has been a terrible February for this Castle’s occupants.”  With a nod to Tansy she said, “Make it so.”\n\nThe Elf bowed low and disappeared with a soft pop.\n\nHooch spoke up, her voice soft with shock, “Rosmerta told me last week that she had started seeing someone.  Someone whom she considered a friend before suddenly seeing him in a different light. I just didn’t expect… I didn’t….” she trailed off, her voice suddenly lost.\n\n“I don’t think anyone could have predicted that,” Minerva said as several heads swiveled to Trelawney at the end of the table.\n\nThe Divination Professor was sitting at her customary place near the end of the table.  Besides Pomona, she had been closest to the amorous display. She was clutching her silverware tightly with white knuckles--a piece of banger still on her fork--and was staring ahead blankly.  Dumbfounded, Sybill’s voice carried across the dais, “It… it wasn’t in the tea leaves.”\n\n“You don’t really think they will require all those precautions, do you?” Sprout asked, her eyes wide and face pale.\n\n“I can’t risk having our students learn the complexities of the sexual experience from our Groundskeeper,” Minerva answered.  She threw her serviette over her half-eaten plate of breakfast. Standing, she said, “Now that I am thoroughly off my…” Her forehead vein pulsed menacingly.  “My toad-in-the-hole… I am going to do some very tedious paperwork away from any windows.”\n\nCasually dismissed, several of the professors--who shared similar feelings about being off their breakfasts--began to scatter to safer areas.   I suppose there’s marking to do... \n\nAs she stood, Hermione looked over at Severus and said, “I was going to take a walk around the grounds, but I, um...  I love Hagrid, understand, but I would rather not…” She gestured vaguely in the air. “I think I’m going to go to the library instead.  Would you like to join me?”\n\nSeverus didn’t think about a response for long at all, the answer was easy.  “Yes.”\n\n \n\n---\n\n \n\nSeverus deliberately slowed his gait as they walked to the Library.  He wasn’t in a rush to end their close proximity or forgo the opportunity to talk to Hermione privately.  Admittedly, the public display between Hagrid and Rosmerta had put him off from immediately revealing his feelings to the woman at his side.  The timing would be too suspicious, similar to the faux pas of a wayward beau proposing marriage at a wedding; he didn’t want her to think he was simply caught up in the sentimental moment and wasn’t genuine.   \n\n“That,” Hermione said, referencing what had just occurred in the Great Hall, “was….”\n\n“Horrifying?” Severus supplied.  They turned a corner in the corridor and their arms grazed briefly.  The contact reminded him of their flustered touch in the Great Hall. He had truly not been thinking when he reached out to her; the grasp was instinctual more than anything, a quick verification that things were as they should be--a reminder that even in a jarring moment they were safe.  Whether that reminder was meant for him or for Hermione, Severus wasn’t sure.  And she touched you back, didn’t she?  The suspicion about the extent of her feelings grew, warming his chest.\n\nShe breathed out a laugh, “I was going to say unexpected… and sort of nice, in a way.”  Hermione shrugged casually, swinging her arms.\n\nSeverus felt his eyebrow raise on its own accord.  He deliberately kept the cynicism out of his voice when he replied, “Nice?”\n\nHermione’s cheeks became pink.  “Well, yes. Hagrid is a dear old friend, and it is nice to see him so happy.  He has been awfully lonely since he fell out with Madame Maxime. But it’s specifically that he found someone who was…”  Hermione drifted off, her eyes sliding to the row of windows overlooking the Quidditch Pitch on their right. “Nevermind.”\n\nHe felt a smile twist across his face.  There was something becoming about her sudden shyness.  “You have my morbid curiosity piqued, Granger.”\n\n“Well, just what Madam Hooch said, about how Hagrid and Rosmerta’s relationship evolved, so to speak…”\n\n“You mean,” Severus said carefully, remembering the shocked and stilted conversation at the High Table from earlier, “when she said Rosmerta had considered the pair of them friends first?”   Is this an invitation to discuss the possibilities between us or merely a coincidence?  \n\nThey arrived at the staircase and Severus paused momentarily to step behind her, giving Hermione the railing.  He felt her absence at his side as she briefly hesitated on the landing before following him. Once she reached him mid-way up she said, “Yes exactly.  That the pair of them were friends before becoming… intimate.” Hermione turned away from him then, her cheeks becoming scarlet.\n\nDespite the lovely sight of a flush that highlighted the freckles across her nose and ran down past her ears onto her neck-- How long does it go on for? --Severus had to repress a gag.  The mental imagery of the sexual gymnastics and amount of lube required to make the logistics feasible between Rosmerta and Hagrid was enough to put Severus off from his next three meals.  \n\nHer soft voice gratefully broke him of the disturbing visuals, “Do you think that’s ever a good idea?  To be friends first?”\n\nSeverus instantly grimaced, the dark memories of his broken friendship with Lily suddenly descending upon him like thick smoke.  His shoulders sagged under the weight of decades-long guilt.  This isn’t the way I expected this conversation to go ... “I don’t have much success with that sort of thing…” he confessed quietly as they reached the first floor.\n\nThe admission snuffed out the warm feelings that had been flourishing in his chest at Hermione’s proximity.  Instead, Severus was filled with a flood of insecurity.  What makes me think that things would be any different this time?  One misstep from me and I would lose her friendship… it’s too risky.  Potter was right all those years ago. I am a coward.   \n\nHermione gave him a sad smile, the corner of her mouth upturning slightly.  “No, neither do I.” She laughed hollowly, and her shoulders tensed. “Geographic barriers kept me from pursuing anything serious with Viktor, and Ron was always more like a brother to me.  I haven’t had many opportunities for relationships since.” She finished quickly as if to erase what she had just said, “Seems like it worked out for Hagrid though.”\n\n“Seems like.”  Severus felt the tightness in his voice, and he had to suppress the panic that felt like he was suffocating under his emotions of a long-dead woman.   No, no, no  … he chided himself.     I did right by Lily by winning the War.  Hermione is not like her. She has never given me any indication that she would ostracize me if my feelings shifted from mere friendship and I later made a colossal fool of myself… she accepted Weasley back after he abandoned them in the woods…  she laughed when my snakes made a mess of things…  \n\n“Would… assuming, of course, that the person wasn’t an old love, so to say… would you ever be willing to pursue a relationship with someone who you consider a friend, again?  Like someone you’re friends with now?” her uncertain, low voice cut across his thoughts.\n\nSeverus’ Slytherin sensibilities were suddenly on alert.  The question itself was one of extreme liberty taking; he had always considered himself to be a very private individual.  But if there was any validity to the evidence of her feelings for him--the touch over breakfast, the smiles that reached her eyes, the hand-delivery of the manchets, and the determined defending of his students--the question could be Hermione’s less than subtle way to ask if there was a chance for the two of them to be more than friends. \n\nBut that whisper of doubt, egged on by the preceding memories of Lily Potter née Evans, made his feet too heavy to cross the line.  Severus desperately wanted to be more than a friend to Hermione… but the fear of rejection was too great and he felt unable to take the blind leap of faith.  Anxiety spoke for him when he murmured, “Is this rhetorical or is there someone you already have in mind for me?”\n\nThey rounded the last corner to the library.  Suddenly annoyed, Hermione threw up her hands before resting one on his bicep and hissed low, “Severus--”\n\nShe stopped abruptly and her hand clutched at his sleeve, silently urging him to come to a halt.  In the middle of the corridor was a large, orange-furred mass. The animal’s squished face rounded to scowl at them, his yellow eyes glinting in the light.  He scrutinized the pair of them and based on his expression he didn’t like what he saw.\n\n“Crooks?” Hermione asked slowly.  “What are you doing out of our rooms?”\n\nCrookshanks twisted suddenly, hunched and then--\n\n“Crooks, no!”\n\nCrookshanks began to undulate rapidly, his flat-face contorting.  A disturbing horking sound echoed around the corridor.  He isn’t really going to… but Severus wasn’t able to finish his thought before the remains of a regurgitated field mouse--or what he chose to believe was a mouse--were thrown up in a pile of gooey spittle in the middle of the floor.\n\n“Oh Crooks… this is not proper behavior for in front of the library...” Hermione scolded as she stepped closer to her familiar.\n\nBrown and Marsh--third-years, proficient gobstone players--walked into the corridor from the same way Severus and Hermione had come.  Brown, who was behind his friend, warmly greeted his Potions Professor before running into Marsh’s back. “Good morning Professor Sna--Oi, what gives?”  Brown peeked around Marsh to see a very disgruntled over-sized cat whose owner was attempting to wrangle its withering, stubborn body into a cradle hold.\n\nThe boy’s gaze fell to the floor and the smelly wad of vomit that currently rested on the flagstones.  Brown immediately bent at the waist and threw a hand over his mouth. He moaned low.  \n\nMarsh, understanding what was happening quicker than the adults, muttered “Oh no!”  He began to dig feverishly in his sleeve.\n\n“Brown, are you alright?” Hermione asked as she vanished Crookshanks’ mess.\n\nEmbarrassed, Marsh said, “I must have left my wand in the Common Room.”  He began to pat Brown on the back, which unfortunately only made Brown audibly gag.  “Quick, Professor,” Marsh motioned to Severus, “he’s a sympathetic vomiter, he’s going to need a--”\n\nSuddenly, the situation’s perilousness became obvious and there was a real possibility that Severus was going to end up with bile splashed onto his shoes if he weren’t quick.   Alas, after rapidly scanning the hall, there wasn’t anything to transfigure into a bucket. Coming to the grim conclusion that there were no better alternatives, he gripped the bottom button of his frock coat and pulled it off.  Hermione gasped and Severus knew that he only had seconds to spell the fastener into a receptacle.  \n\nAs soon as the button was made into a bucket Marsh yanked it out of Severus’ hands and placed it in front of Brown.  The boy quickly lost the entirety of his breakfast. Severus turned slightly to give him the illusion of privacy and caught Hermione’s gaze.  She looked thunderstruck, although he couldn’t fathom why. Her smile, upon realizing that he had turned to her, had brightened even further and it suddenly reignited the fondness in his chest.  Severus felt his stomach flip, and it had nothing to do with the gastrointestinal distress occurring to his left.\n\nAnother student moved into the corridor behind him and hollered, “Hey, are you two coming to play gobstones or what?”\n\nPanicked, Marsh responded shrilly, “No!  Don’t come any nearer! It’ll happen to you too!”\n\nNovák--fourth-year, Quidditch Keeper--stepped up beside his classmates.  Disbelieving, he asked, “What are you talking about?” Only for it to be quickly followed by, “Oh gods, you were sick weren’t you--” and then clutched his stomach as the smells and sounds of regurgitation washed over him.\n\nSeverus had to repress a sigh as he passed the bucket to Novák.\n\n“This is soon becoming a circular disaster,” Severus drawled.  “Time to get you all to the hospital wing.” He began to usher the students back down the corridor, the nauseating bucket-of-sick floating obediently to the side.  There was a sense of loss as he turned away from Hermione. Their conversation had been interrupted and now things felt like they had to continue to be left unsaid for just a little longer.   Perhaps I should have been more forthcoming… have I missed the opportunity to make my case altogether?   \n\nHe turned before rounding the corner.  Hermione was still smiling. After a quick adjustment of her hands, jostling her hissing cat in the process, she gave him a small wave of goodbye.  Severus returned a half-smile and looked down at the feline. Maddeningly, the little bastard looked smug.\n\n\n"}
+{"text": "“It’s a shame I needed their help! But now you’re finished, All for One!” All Might roared, every word soaked in rage. “I’m going to smash everything you’ve built, once and for all!”\n\nGran Torino zipped behind and around to Riot, who stood defiantly against the old man. Torino wasn’t going to lie, the sight of the silver brute put the fear of God into him, but he hadn’t gotten this old by hesitating or letting fear decide the course. \n\n“Two left, and everything’s cleared!” He shouted.\n\n“Tomura, I don’t want to die here!” Toga said fearfully, as Riot focused on the old man, the footfalls of the giant beast drawing closer and closer.\n\nAll for One seemed rather unperturbed, three bone spike tendrils shooting from his fingers, as All Might dodged quickly, unimpressed by the weak attack, before noticing where they were heading. Right into Magne. They stabbed into her chest, as magnetic energy sparked from her finger tips and into the downed forms of Mister Compress, Spinner, Twice and X, a blue glow surrounding them, \n\nRiot swiped forward with his claw at Gran Torino, who tried to level a kick at the Symbiote’s face, but was tugged backwards. Riot stumbled, thinking it an attack, slamming his foot into the ground, and roaring in rage. He looked to Toga, to see a pinkish glow surrounding her, as she looked confused and startled.\n\n‘I see. Time to bow out.’ He thought, retreating into Shigaraki’s body, the blue glow bursting free from the confines of the Symbiote.\n\n“Wait, you’re coming at me too fast!” Toga protested all too late as four bodies smacked into her and threw all five into the portal.\n\n“Wait...master! Not yet!” Shigaraki protested, as he struggled against both the magnetic force and Riot’s instance on a retreat.\n\nFinally, four silver tentacles shot out of Shigaraki’s back, pulling him in, as All For One’s tendrils deposited Magne within the portal, before whacking Gran Torino away and keeping him at a safe distance from Tomura’s retreat. The younger villain looked on in horror, reaching to him desperately.\n\n“Master, you still haven’t healed! Your body isn’t ready yet!” Shigaraki cried out desperately. “Please, I’m not ready…!”\n\nHe was pulled in, Kurogiri’s body the last to ‘leave’, as All for One retracted his tendrils back into himself.\n\n“Tomura, you must continue to fight on!” He stated aloud, knowing his student would succeed where the first master of Evil had failed.\n\nHe barely had time to think of something else to do or say, before All Might was back at him again, pulling back for a while haymaker. As he closed, the black liquid spewed from Gran Torino’s mouth, wrapping and slipping all around him, as All for One kneeled down slightly before All Might.\n\n“I only came to rescue Tomura,” He declared, as the black liquid tore open into reality, Torino’s head appearing from as All Might reached the height of his punch, too late to pull back now. “But if you want a bloody brawl, I’ll humor you.”\n\nAs soon as the punch hit, a ripple went through Gran Torino’s body, the punch striking the side of his face and sounding a loud crack through the air, before the ripple burned back up through his body and back into the point of impact, blowing All Might’s arm almost out of the socket, and throwing back slightly in shock.\n\n“I’m sorry!” He called out through grinted teeth. He pulled his arm back, pain shooting from finger to shoulder, as he worried over whether his arm had snapped out of the socket. He could handle his own punches, but with the angle and positioning, that was almost too much.\n\nAll for One threw Gran Torino aside, rising to his feet to begin another attack, before speaking again, his voice full of venom and hate. “Above all else, I detest you. There was a time when you went, dismantling my empire and taking out my comrades, left and right, with those fists of yours.”\n\nHis muscles bunched up and coiled once more, another air strike prepared. “They named you Symbol of Peace, as you stood so tall atop our sacrifices! How was the view from ontop our broken bodies?”\n\nAs he pulled forward to launch another Attack, All Might grabbed Gran Torino away, pulling him back, as he swung with his other hand, his left arm, striking the coiled limb head, “Detroit Smash!” echoing throughout the city. Such power and force picked up all around them, displaced air flying back into All for One, and into All Might’s arm like a hurricane.\n\n‘Negating my attack was such force...’ All for One thought for a moment. “You’re using more power then I thought. Aren’t you worried? Heroes have so many things they must protect!”\n\nThe air smashed through the streets and buildings, shattering every window, and throwing large chunks and even whole buildings into the air around them. Godzillo drew close, smashing both of his massive, pad-like feet into the ground, and bringing both arms up, as the displaced air smashed into him, buffeting him and causing him to list back and forth, but remained unmoving, a Mountain against the Great Winds, doing what he could to keep the attacks from damaging the city.\n\n“Shut up!” All Might finally snapped, his blue eyes burning with such rage, it caused even All for One to stop for the briefest of a second. “That’s what you do! You use people, you toy with them! Break them! You take advantage and twist them like tools! You sneer at them as they’re just trying to live happy lives!”\n\nHe grabbed The Demon King’s left arm, crushing the forearm to powder, as All for One realized, all too late, that he couldn’t warp anyone to cover for him, and that his other arm wouldn’t be able to building up power in enough time to stop it.\n\n“I won’t forgive you!” He declared at the top of his lungs, with the force to shatter the heavens and shake the oceans. \n\nHe drove his fist with all of his power and rage straight through the breathing mask, driving All for One down into the Earth and through his skull and into the ground below him. He breathed hard, wondering if that was it, that he had finally put a stop to the worst monster in the world of Quirks.The wet snap of flesh and bone sounded below him, as All for One’s head reformed just as quickly as All Might had thought he destroyed it. All for One released a grunt of pain, as his head almost completely reformed.\n\n“You’re getting awfully emotional, aren’t you All might?” All for One replied with a condescending tone of care. “I remember those words. In fact, they came from the previous user of One for All, word for word in fact. Nana Shimura, wasn’t it?”\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\Venom crashed through another wall of debris, seemingly sniffing the air for the scent of the other three. The symbiote still shuddered at how close they had come to fighting Shigaraki and Riot, but was grateful that they were at least away from his Team leader and his host. It still sent a thrill through him though, thinking of how he could finally stand up to Riot and declare his freedom to do as he liked. But for now, he focused on what was needed. Getting out of here and within a safe distance.\n\nDeku was muttering inside his head, something he had tried his best to ignore as they made their escape. “...And jeez, we came so close to having fight, we could’ve lost the baby, or been captured ourselves, and….”\n\n“Izuku.” Venom stated, trying to snap him out of the spell.\n\n“Can All Might beat him? He’s injured already, and that Villain Boss has so many Quirks...” He continued on, seemingly unaware of his Symbiote.\n\n“Izuku!” Venom snapped in annoyance, narrowing his eyes.\n\n“Sorry! What?” His host asked.\n\n“We are safe. The little one is still with us, we accomplished our goals.” Venom said confidently. “Cease your worry.”\n\n“But All Might…!”\n\n“Is the Number One hero, who has a giant monster now helping him.” Venom replied, jumping and swinging onto a segment of bricks that stood over the ruins, balancing a top it to overlook the ruined city. “We are fine.”\n\nVenom jumped onto the ground, landing on all fours, and moving across the ground like a hunting hound, his claws slicing through the rubble and all, before he stood and smashed shoulder-first into a broken down wall. He came to a stop, coming to a stop, eyes looking around in shock. Five dead riot officers. It was not surprising, given what they had seen. All for One could’ve easily slaughtered them, far easier then even lower ranked heroes.\n\nNo, what was surprising, was these were fresh kills, and not the work of All for One. One cop’s head had been torn off, his body leaning against a wall, brutally cut off without a fresh, clean strike. Another was cast to the ground, his stomach completely carved up and open, while another one’s legs were brutally torn apart. \n\nThose with their faces left, even in death, their expressions frozen in utter terror and horror. Venom stopped right where he was, looking around in shock. Izuku’s breath caught in his throat. \n\n“What in the hell is this?” Izuku asked in a panic, trying to look around this shattered area and broken bodies.\n\n“Be silent. Something worse is here.” Venom remarked quietly, hunching over, eyes focused as he slowly looked around to see if there was any sign of the attacker.\n\nThe Symbiote stood unmoving for a moment, before he heard a loud step, crunching stone, wood and glass beneath it’s footfalls. The steps got closer and closer, thundering through the alleys and broken buildings, only a low grunt or growl sounding from whatever it was. Venom turned to the right, eyes narrowed as whatever approached stopped. It seemed to realize something else was here, as it released a low, rumbling growl.\n\nIt sounded like the vocalizations of Riot or Venom when they were agitated or in battle, but there was something strange about this one. It sounded so different from the other two. The creature lumbered into sight, dragging another broken corpse in it’s wake.\n\nIt was tall and brutish, covered in rippling black muscle, white Tron-like lines across it’s shoulders and abdomen, as well as it’s wrists and below it’s knees. White tumorous growths erupted from it’s wrists and legs. It’s reptilian mouth had no face, only a white circle in the center of it’s face.\n\n“Symbiote Detected. Not Designated Leader Riot, Shigaraki, All For One, or Doctor.” The strange Symbiote stated coldly, it’s voice like Venom’s, but with a robotic undertone. “Identify yourself.”\n\n“Who are you?” Venom demanded.\n\n“You will identify first.” The creature replied coldly.\n\n“You first!”\n\n“You will identify first.” The creature repeated without changing tone.\n\n“We will get the answers!” Venom growled, beginning to step forward, before remembering why exactly he couldn’t fight. And unlike Riot, he had no clue what this was and what it was capable of.\n\nThey stood for several moments, staring at each other, as the mysterious black and white Symbiote watched him, seemingly barely reacting or caring to his outburst, before straightening.\n\n“Target will not identify. Objective: Destroy any surviving police, completed. Objective: Escape sightings from Heroes and Police, completed. Objective: Find Venom Symbiote, Incomplete.” The Being listed off, dropping the corpse, and turning to leave. “Finish last Objective: Return to Doctor.”\n\nThe being turned and walked off without another word, disappearing from sight. Venom was almost shocked that it couldn’t recognize one of it’s own, before slowly realizing something. Izuku managed to vocalized exactly what both were thinking.\n\n“Is that...is that an artificial Symbiote?” He asked, voice quivering. “Did...did All for One create that one too?”\n\n“Bakugou and the others are nearby, let’s go to them.” Venom replied simply, not wanting to even think about where that thing had come from, bounding off in another direction.\n\nVenom smashed through another wall of debris, skidding to a stop as he saw a group of evacuated civilians and police escorting them away. Spotting Bakugou and the group in the middle of the group of evacuees, Venom morphed into cloths again, before shooting out a tendril and lowering themselves down, Izuku melting into the crowds, as Venom lead him right to the group. They almost didn’t notice him, so focused ahead where they, until Tenya looked to the side, and almost jumped in shock.\n\n“Midoriya! You’re alright!” He said in surprise, almost stopping to envelop him in a hug, before remembering where he was. “I was so worried when that thing got it’s tentacles on you!”\n\n“Yeah, how’d you get outta there without fighting?” Kirishima asked.\n\n“He was distracted for a moment, so we got outta there.” Izuku replied, omitting the fact that Riot had a deeply personal reason for wanting them. But, since his friends didn’t ask, he wouldn’t say.\n\n“I’m surprised he’d have a Quirk so similar to yours, but his master must have given such a thing at some point.” Tenya remarked, tapping his chin slightly, as he made a small chopping motion towards the safer areas of the city.\n\n“Yeah, a Quirk. Right.” Bakugou remarked softly to himself, almost out of earshot.\n\nThey entered another district, now largely safe and out of harm’s wave, before Izuku’s phone rang. He quickly grabbed it and checked the number. Todoroki. He quickly clicked it on, and held it to his ear.\n\n“Midoriya, you guys alright?” Shoto asked quickly.\n\n“Yeah, we made it, all of us. What about you guys?” Izuku answered with a nod.\n\n“We sneaked behind the villains and slipped into an Evac-zone with some Pros.” Shoto explained, before shifting to another topic. “I saw the Shigaraki guy grab you, with a Quirk like Venom? You got away though, I’m assuming.”\n\n“Yeah, he got distracted.” Izuku answered.\n\n“Because he’s a dickhead!” Venom declared in his ear, his usual bravado returning. “Once we’re done here, we need to find him and kick him in the face, tell him to go eat shit and….”\n\nIzuku put the phone down, covering the receiver with his other hand. “Venom, adults are talking!”\n\n“Anyway, we got Bakugou near a station, outta the range of the shockwaves.” Izuku stated.\n\n“Rescue successful!” Kirishima successful.\n\nBakugou gave him a foul snarl, baring his teeth in rage. “Listen, it’s not like you rescued me or anything, okay? I just had to take the easiest option!”\n\n“Yeah, okay buddy!” Kirishima laughed, giving him a thumbs up.\n\nBakugou’s expression and tone softened. “That, and...I didn’t want to get in All Might’s way again.”\n\nOverhead, flew numerous News helicopters, flying overhead, the roar of their fan blades echoing ominously over the city. It was just a grim reminder that far more was at stake then just Bakugou, and far more bloodshed was bound to occur before the night ended.\n\n‘Right, him, Nakajima-Sensei and, some guy named Gran Torino.’ Izuku thought darkly. ‘They’re the best, but I don’t know if even they’ll be enough.’\n\n“Can’t Nakajima just step on him?” Venom asked bluntly. “Big size difference and all.”\n\n“I’m not sure it’s that easy.” Izuku muttered aloud, looking at his shoulder as though Venom was there.\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\“Ah yes, it is Nana Shimura, correct?” All for One taunted with a chuckle, even as All Might’s knuckle dug into his forehead. “I’ve killed so many other One for All users.”\n\n“I don’t want to hear her name from your filthy mouth!” All Might roared in rage.\n\n“She was so pathetic. Putting her ideals forward without the power to back them up. It was embarrassing for me, the father of One for All, to see it play out,” He continued without a care in the world. “And then died such an unseemly death.”\n\n“Enough!” All Might roared in rage, pulling back for another punch, before All for One’s right hand shot up and fired a blast of compressed air, launching him into the skies.\n\nGran Torino moved, darting throughout the ruins, before shooting up and grabbing All Might’s body, almost prone, as Godzillo roared and charged straight at All for One. The villain stood, coughing and taking several wheezing breaths, reattached some of the pipes into his mask, before, a gigantic scaled fist almost collided with his body. The Villain leader swung his left hand forward, smacking into his central clawed finger, the two struggling against each other.\n\nNakajima’s eyes widened slightly in shock, releasing a short grunt. All for One said nothing for a moment, surprised at how much power what he originally had thought was just a movie star could have. It appeared the size wasn’t just for show.\n\n“Daisuke Nakajima, the Third User of the Toho Quirk. How impressive.” He said with mock praise. “You dealt with my minion, Wolfram and his gang with such ferocity. You seem to always want to get in between myself and All Might’s little tussle.”\n\nThe Monster King growled in response, before All for One side stepped his punch, letting him stumble forward, before releasing a concentrated air blast into his chest, with much more force and power behind it. Godzillo released a surprised yell, knocked backwards. All for One pushed beneath, propelling himself into the air, eye level with the Monster Hero now.\n\n“Such an interesting Quirk, many facets and abilities stock-pilled together.” All for One remarked softly to himself, as Godzillo regained his footing, glaring at him with burning red eyes. “I almost wonder if there’s a secret to it like with dear All Might’s.”\n\nWith a purpose grimace and terrible sound, his fins, from the back of his neck to the tip of his tail, flashed blue, as he tried to swat him aside with the back of his right hand. All for One jumped a little further, landing on his fingers, and jumping away again, before reaching into his inner suit pocket.\n\n“I could use such power at my fingertips, or create such a wonderful Nomu from it,” He remarked, taking a heavy breath. “But it’s far too chaotic and random for my tastes. But even under my control, I’ll have killed less then your family of outcasts.”\n\nGodzillo was about to lash out in rage, before he pulled out a gun, Nakajima recoiling in surprise, before All for One aimed and fired. Godzillo could barely believe he was using a gun now, before the bullet slammed into his right eye. The Monster hero stumbled back, roaring in pain and shock. His fins flickered, blue and white flashes, like a lightbulb struggling to stay on, as blood ran from his eyes.\n\nHe couldn’t figure it out at first, but soon it came to him as his eye closed tight over the wound. A bullet. All for One, with all of his power, had resorted to guns to deal with him.\n\n“Such an unseemly thing, using guns, but I had little choice. I couldn’t get my hands on an anti-nuclear Quirk in time,” All for One remarked. “You require radiation, either sunlight and geothermal, converted within your body, or raw energy from generators and such.”\n\n“These bullets mix cadmium and Anti-Nuclear bacteria. With it coursing in your blood, you’ll be essentially Quirkless for a time.” He continued with a chuckle. “And without fresh sunlight, I doubt you’ll get in the way.”\n\nGodzillo fell to one knee, struggling to breath, as he felt his power quickly drain from him. His body began to shrink and drop away. He grunted, soon half his original height. To get such a mixture of elements...who was this guy? All for One lifted his hand again, arm rippling with built up energy, before he fired another air blast into the King’s face, knocking him end over end.\n\nGran Torino stopped ontop of some rumble, holding All Might close at hand. “Listen, this is just like six years ago. Let him get under your skin, dance to his tune, and you’ll end up with worse then that hole in your gut, understand?’\n\n“Right.” All Might muttered.\n\n“You haven’t reached your limit yet, have you?” Torino asked worriedly.\n\n“No. I have a few more minutes left in me, as long as I don’t overextend myself.” All Might replied, wiping blood from his mouth with the back of his hand.\n\n“Then keep at it, and push beyond if you have to.”\n\nGodzillo landed in a pile, as All for One landed again, tossing the gun aside. “Your attack dog is down All Might. No more hiding behind others. You’re just going to make your death more pathetic then Shimura’s.”\n\nHe began to step forward, before turning quickly, as Godzillo tried to slam into him once more. All for One grunted with surprise that he was still able to stay awake, much less fight. Even at largely the same size as All Might and himself, Godzillo was still trying to put up a fight against the Demon King. All for One almost would’ve been impressed if this wasn’t getting under his skin.\n\nA clawed hand swung at his face, All for One grabbing it quickly, before blocking the other hand’s strike, the two pushing against each other for several minutes. \n\n“You truly are quite a nuisance, Godzillo.” All for One stated, giving an annoyed sigh.\n\n“Good...it’s the...family business.” He struggled, smiling broadly, despite the pain shooting through his eye and into his veins., making it feel like his blood was freezing cell-by-cell. “And I’ve...faced the….Golden Demise. A guy in….a cheap suit’s…..nothing compared to that.”\n\nHe suddenly lunged forward, like a striking serpent, sinking his dagger-like fangs into All for One’s left shoulder, slicing through muscle and flesh like they weren’t even there. All for One briefly grunted in pain, before releasing his right hand, and swinging his fingers forward, jamming them into Godzillo’s damaged eye, and sinking in. Godzillo stayed for as long as he could, even as the Keloid-like scales began to fade from his body. All for One dug in further, before the Monster Hero released his shoulder, reeling back and yelling in pain.\n\n“My favorite Valentino suit.” All for One remarked in annoyance, as dark blood ran from his wounds, more like oil then blood. “You’ve accomplished very little, other then wasting my time.”\n\nHe pointed out with his fingers, as the black and red rivets shot out once more, six of them slamming and piercing through Nakajima’s chest and stomach, and shooting out the other side. He coughed up blood in shock and pain, eyes widening in agony.\n\n“Nakajima!” All Might shouted in surprise, as All for One tore the tendrils out, tossing Godzillo aside, as he turned to All Might.\n\n���Now, for our feud. Not anyone else’s.” All for One declared, sounding slightly offended by the distractions All Might was putting in his way. “Keep your pets on their leashes, All Might.”\n\nThe wounds rapidly sealed themselves up, leaving nothing but some white scar-like tissue in their wake. New Helicopters circled overhead, now filming everything, giving everyone live coverage of everything going down. From across the country, everyone could only watch in horror as a Villain who could match blows with All Might, stood mostly unscratched by the efforts for the Number 1 and several of the other trusted heroes.\n\n“And now they gather to see your last performance All Might!” All for One declared theatrically, spreading his arms wide to his sides. “Tomura has worked so hard to erode trust you and your kind, I feel almost sorry that I have to be the one to finish his work!”\n\nHe readjusted parts of the mask, sighing in disgust. “You know All Might, you may despise me, but I think I hate you more. While it’s true I took your precious master from you, you’ve taken everything from me that I’ve worked so hard to build.”\n\n“That’s why I’m planning a most ugly, humiliating death for you and your little gang of rabble here today.” He remarked, as his left arm once more bunched up and built up energy for another attack.\n\n“A big one’s coming, prepare to dodge!” Gran Torino warned, preparing to move, as All Might nodded to him.\n\n“Dodge? Can you really afford to do that?” All for One asked innocently, as All Might glanced behind him, noticing a women crawling out of the rubble.\n\nWith barely a second to think, another blast whipped through the area, Gran Torino shooting out of the way, as All Might slammed a foot foreward, and swung outwards, punching with everything he had, as the compressed air shot out all around him, tearing through the ground and buildings around him, as Gran Torino was almost thrown into the rubble again. The attack cleared after a moment, All Might breathing hard, coughing up blood for a moment, before taking a deep breath and refocusing.\n\n“My, my, I’m surprised, you haven’t hit your limit yet?” All for One taunted. “How is this so? If you passed it on, the Quirk should be embers inside you by now...”\n\nAll Might merely glared at him in reply, refocusing himself and saving his energy for when he could get close and launch another attack. He wouldn’t rise to his words.\n\nAll for One, however, wasn’t going to let his silence detour him from his continued taunting. “You truly are arrogant All Might! Even coming close to death during our first meeting, and you decided to ‘keep’ that Quirk? What did you hope to accomplish? To die and take it with you?”\n\n“Why do you resort to vocal jabs and taunts like a schoolyard bully so much, All for One?” All Might asked gruffly, narrowing his eyes at him. “Not ready to face justice yet?”\n\n“You came so close to death last time, and you think you’ll walk away?” All for One remarked with a rough, cold laugh. “Oh, you are a strong one, but as far as last users of One for All go, you aren’t what I had in mind for ‘Last Bearer’.”\n\n“It doesn’t matter what words you throw at me, or what attacks you choose!” All Might yelled in triumph. “I am the Symbol of Peace and the Pillar of this Society! I may not have a successor yet, but you will not defeat me! I will defeat you again, and give this strength to the next generation!”\n\n“I see. I’ve forgotten how stubborn you can be.” All for One replied with a small shrug. “I guess I’ll just have to give up then?”\n\nAll Might jumped at him once more, crossing his arms before him, preparing for another attack. All for One fired off the rivets from his fingers, hoping to impale him before he could launch his attack, only for All Might swing his arms outwards, smashing aside the red and black tendrils, and sending a blast of air of his own that knocked back All for One in surprise. The Masked villain stumbled back. Even without being struck, the attack was all too surprising.\n\nAs he tried to regain his footing, All Might was on the villain, swinging back and throwing a powerful left uppercut into his stomach, a powerful blast sounding from the impact, as All for One went flying back several, smashing through a pile of bricks and twisted metal. All Might stood for a moment, breathing hard, expecting to have some time before All for One could launch another attack, before another concentrated blast shot out and hit him head on, sending him back for a few feet.\n\nAll Might stood off from the attack, steam burning off his body, breathing hard. He had put up a good fight, gotten in some hard blows, but this was not getting easier. All for One seemed desperate to soften him up as much as possible. With everyone watching, he couldn’t afford to released, even for a moment.\n\nAll for One coughed, wheezing for a moment, as he caught his breath, his mask filtering the air once more, as he stood up once more. “Such power from dying man. It’s almost inspirational.”\n\n“Even without it, I would still be the Symbol of Peace!” All Might declared, as he felt the seconds tic by for him to remain in this form. “I am here, because of my spirit, not my strength.”\n\n“You sound like you’re beginning to cope with your soon to-be-lost power.” All for One observed, seemingly preparing for another attack, before suddenly stopping, and lifting up a finger. “Oh, but speaking of spirit and One for All, I almost forgot something.”\n\nAll Might watched him carefully for a moment, as All for One let the tension sit in the air for a moment, before speaking again, the malice and joy heavy within his voice. “Tomura Shigaraki, my successor and student? He’s Nana Shimura’s Grandson.”\n\nA terrible silence fell over the entire battlefield, the raging fires, the Helicopters overhead, everything around them silent and a void, as All Might stared at the Villain leader in disbelief for several moments, his air caught in his throat. Without even realizing it, he released his muscle form, shriveling down again. Not since his first fight with this Demon King had he felt like his stomach had been torn out, and his heart torn from his chest now. Had he misheard? Had he somehow mistake All for One’s words? Was he lying somehow?\n\n“Ah, where was that spirit and pride?” All for One remarked, as All Might shuddered in horror.\n\n“You’re...you’re lying!” All Might declared, unbelieving the horror before him.\n\n“You know it’s true, because it’s something only I would do.” All for One replied pointedly.\n\nThe News cameras focused on All Might, everyone shocked and horrified by what they were seeing. “A villain who bested several top grade Heroes, is trading blows with All Might...and he’s...he’s all shriveled up!”\n\nEveryone in the crowds around Izuku and the rest watched in silent shock, as a similar eerie silence fell over most of the households watching across the country. It wasn’t right, it didn’t seem real, like something out of a nightmare or a cruel joke. The Symbol of Peace, all skin and bones now, before one of the most powerful and cruel villains in the world.\n\n“His secret...” Izuku whimpered to himself within the shell-shocked crowd.\n\nBakugou’s heart dropped like a stone, as the others looked on shock. For all the years he had watched All Might, admired him, sought to emulate his victories and power, he had never believed for a moment that something like this could be possible.\n\nAll for One merely chuckled, gesturing to All Might like he was a specimen at a museum. “Hollow cheeks and sunken eyes, and a broken spirit. To think you’re their greatest champion. Try not to be ashamed.”\n\nAll Might looked in horror, shaking from the blow of his words, as he let out a cry of broken horror.\n\n“See, I intended for you two to meet, but it could never happen. First with the Symbiote-child getting in the way, and then, injuries Tomura took,” All for One said with a shrug. “And every time he lost, not even coming close, it stoked the fires of hate deep in his heart. That hatred, towards you.”\n\n“How...dare...you?” All Might asked, his voice low and shaken, his face pale and completely shattered.\n\n“I thought you and Nana Shimura were all smiles, even in the face of death?” All for One asked, tugging at the corners of his mouth with his thumbs. “I guess such pleasant facades are there to hide your own weakness.” \n\nThe woman behind whimpered, snapping out of his depressed stupor. “All...All Might? You can help us right?”\n\nThe crowds around Izuku and the rest shuddered and shook nervously, before someone called out finally. “All Might’s never lost a fight. He can’t lose now!”\n\nSlowly but surely, cheers began to build in the crowd, one after another calling out to him, their confidence and strengthen growing as they remember what All Might was to them. Not the larger then life figure who could withstand anything, but the Hero who could help any person, stop any crime, and cared for every person he helped no matter what happened.\n\n“He’s skin and bones, but he’s still our All Might!”\n\n“He always wins, no matter the odds!”\n\n“He’ll always stand up for us!”\n\nThese and many more yells and calls broke form the crowd, as hearts soared and spirits rose in triumph. The crowd roared for All Might, cheering and yelling his name, as Izuku and Bakugou looked to the screen, each coming to the same idea within their own head.\n\n“Come on All Might!” They both shouted to him, joining the cheers of the crowds.\n\nAll Might could not hear them from here, but he knew one thing. No matter what All for One did, he couldn’t himself fall or buckle before this figure, even if he was the worst villain. \n\n“Not to worry Young Lady!” All Might stated, gold lightning sparking and pulsing through his body, as he bulked up again. Pain ran through him, his body not ready to start again, but he grinned in spite of it all, glaring head on at All for One. “We heroes have too much on the line, too much to look out for! That’s why, All for One, I. WILL. NOT. LOSE.”\n\n“So much bluster and air before the inevitable.” All for One replied, nonplussed by his declaration. He had heard that same type of rhetoric throughout his years. This was nothing new. “Let’s see if all your touting and words can measure up!”\n\nAll Might could still feel his body shaking. Even if One for All was still burning in his body, his injuries and prior battles were catching up with him. Every inch of bone and fiber of muscle screamed in agony, as steam and smoke burned off his frame. But he had made his promise to stand before the Master of Puppets, and he would not be tossed aside or give up so easily.\n\nAll for One rose into the air once more, preparing another attack. “Let’s both do our best, eh All Might? One final blow, for all the world to see!”\n\nHe seemed to build up to something, before a blast of white hot flames shot towards him. All for One barely had time to react, firing an airblast and dispersing the flames with a concentrated shot before they could touch him.\n\n“More interference.” He remarked tired, as Endeavor and Edgeshot climbed over the ruins.\n\nEndeavor’s eyes were wide with hate and rage. “All Might, what’s wrong with you?!”\n\n“They were all Mid-Levels, but even so, it’s quite impressive you cleared through my Nomu so quickly.” All for One remarked. “You’ve done adequately enough, Endeavor, to be Number 2.”\n\nAll Might looked to the other Hero in surprise and concern over his choice to yell at him now. Something else was in his eyes and voice. Not just rage and the usual white-hot hate Endeavor expressed in battle.\n\n‘Everything I tried to be, how I sought to be better then you, even as the gap widened and widened until I couldn’t cross it.’ Endeavor thought, firing a second blast in All for One’s direction. ‘What that lead me too….’\n\nHe swallowed down his loathing, as he fired another blast at the villain, who dispersed it with but a gestured. “Explain that form! What are you really, All Might!?”\n\n“If you’ve come to cheer him on, then I suggest you be good audience members and sit down and be silent.” All for One remarked, preparing another attack against Endeavor, black and red lightning crackling and blasting off his wrist as he charged up, before tilting his head backwards to avoid an attack by Edgeshot.\n\n“We’re not here to cheer him on,” Edgeshot declared, winding around for another strike. “We’re here to help bring an end to you.”\n\nAll Might looked around in surprise, the other Heroes here now, Kamui Woods wrapping his vines around Mt. Lady, Best Jeanist, Gang Orca and Godzillo, carrying them to safety, as Tiger wrapped his arm around the women behind All Might and carefully pulled her to safety.\n\n“If this is all we can do, we’ll do it! Anything to ease your burden!” Tiger declared.\n\n“No matter how you look, you’re our Number 1, it’s your spirit we follow to the end!” Kamui declared, as he escorted the wounded from the battlefield. “No matter what happens, everyone’s resting their hopes on your victory.”\n\nGran Torino watched it all, too injured to interfere now, thinking back to when Nana Shimura had come to him with the idea of giving such a Quirk to Toshinori Yagi, then a young and impulsive kid, with big dreams but not the power to make them real. He couldn’t have believed then that this dumb kid could stand before the greatest evil in the world, and protect everything and everyone from this threat.\n\nToshinori could the blood burning in his veins, as he nodded to his comrades, Edgeshot and Endeavor continuing their attacks, hoping to keep him busy long enough to buy the rescue teams and All Might enough time to make their move. All for One, however, merely chuckled in contempt at them.\n\n“Oh please.” He replied, black lightning bursting forth from his body, building up and sending a loud hiss through the air.\n\nA moment later, another massive shock wave, like the one that had first destroyed the Nomu Hangar, sending Edgeshot and Endeavor flying back and away like paper caught in a hurricane. All Might gritted his teeth, blood spitting up from his throat, shooting out form his wounds as he held off the massive wave of energy, barely staying on his feet. All for One kept floating, turning back to All Might.\n\n“Oh yes, ‘spirit’ this, ‘hope’ that, get with reality!” He declared, his right arm bulging and bulking up, tearing through what remained of his suit sleeves. \n\nAll Might and those conscious Heroes that remained watched in disgust as bone and flesh morphed and twisted around, crowds from one end of Japan to another struck silent by the sight of All for One’s putrid arm twisting and morphing itself before their very eyes.\n\n“Spring-like limbs, Kinetic boosters Times 4, Strength Enhancer times 3, Limb Multiplier, Hypertrophy, Rivets, Air Walk, Spear-like bones,” All for One listed off his stored, as his right arm bulged into an inhuman side, drill-like bone tips shooting out, the man hand the size of a car’s front-end, the limb supported by numerous smaller limbs and other bone-like growths across it’s knuckles and back. “The shockwaves and airblasts from before were just to soften you up, peppering you with weaker attacks, so I could prepare for my final move.”\n\nHis massive fingers bent and straightened for a moment, before creating a fist with it. “To kill you, and smash you and your arrogant image, I’ll crash down on you with my ultimate Quirk combination All Might!”\n\n‘Trading blows with you was enough for me to realize you haven’t passed on the Quirk. Which will make everything all the better for me.’ All for One thought with a grin beneath his mask. ‘I’ll turn you into a smear, and retake that which was rightfully mine.’\n\nAll for One zoomed at All Might like a bomb, pulling back his disgusting, deformed limb for the ultimate hit.\n\n“So All Might, who did you plan to pass that Quirk of yours onto before your untimely end?” All for One taunted as he closed in for the attack. “Katsuki Bakugou, certainly has fire. Perhaps Endeavor’s own little science project? Or perhaps...you really were thinking of that alien infected brat, Izuku Midoriya? Were you that desperate to pass it own, I wonder?”\n\nAll Might stepped forward, pulling back his own right arm, as he breathed in hard, preparing for the inevitable. This was going to be like no punch he had sustained before. All for One had prepared himself well for this second confrontation. The punches collided, energy exploding outwards in every direction, any buildings near the crater created in their brawl were level from the impact and force of the blasts, as the two struggled against each other for a moment, All Might putting everything he had into the blow to try and break back the punch. Bones and plating upon All for One’s knuckles shattered and broken, as his eyebrow rose in surprise.\n\nThe Impact Recoil Quirk activated with a sharp whine through the air, the force of All for One’s punch, combined all the power All Might had put into the final strike.\n\n“You may see my lack of a Successor just yet as weakness, and maybe that’s so.” All Might answered through his teeth, swallowing hard to keep his blood building in his throat down, as skin and muscle fibers split within his arm from the force of everything hitting him. “But you’re facing a man who still has everything to give, and everything to lose!”\n\nHe could hear the words of his master, the words he clung to at his lowest, in his worst fights, even after taking the worst blows, or being at his lowest. To push on, past even his own limits, and face whatever Villains stood before him with a smile. He suddenly pulled his arm away, letting it go slack, as All for One’s mighty punch rolled past his shoulder.\n\nAll for One lurched in surprise. If he still had eyes or anyway to express his disgust, his face would curled in an expression of apathy and disdain. ‘To think you would still struggle after all this, make your death all the more unseemly….I’ve miscalculated.’\n\nAll Might stepped forward, clenching his left fist, as he turned and swung with all his might, smashing through the spear-like bones and masses of muscle in his way, and crashing into the side of All for One’s face and mask, smashing the machines that remained away form his mouth as he stumbled back in surprise.\n\n“Petty tricks, what a surprise from you.” All for One remarked, sounding slightly impressed, even through the horrific pain that rang through his jaws and face. “Whose influence is this now?”\n\nHe swung his monolithic limb backwards, smashing aside All Might with a single blow, ribs and hip bones breaking instantly from the attack, and sending the Number One falling onto the ground. It had been slow enough, but his energy, his time limit was more then up for him. It was taking all he had to stand and punch. He couldn’t hope to dodge such an attack in time. Before he could rise again, rivets shot from All For One’s three fingers, and struck two into All Might’s chest, one into his thigh. The Number 1 barely reacted to the attacks, as All for One re-positioned himself for the next attack\n\n“Still too weak!” He declared with a twisted smile, before pulling them back out. Blood burst from the wounds, as All Might rose to his feet. In spite of it all, he still wore the usual cocky, confident smile that he always did.\n\n“Because my back wasn’t into it!” All Might declared, as he charged once more into the fray.\n\nAll for One’s inhuman limb swung forward once more, barreling towards the Number 1 hero like a freight train once more. All Might barely got out of the way, his left skimmed by the blow, twisting it out of shape, skin stripped from it, before he pulled back his right arm, yellow electricity burning off his entire body as he pulled back.\n\nAll for One’s other arm bunched up, as he prepared for another air attack to try and blast him away. It was hard to read his expression, but for once, All Might could see the bare traces and signs of terror and surprise in his face for once in his life. There was no time to counter and reposition now. He had had his chance before, and now it was gone.\n\n‘This brawl ends.’ He thought darkly, as the energy burst to life through All Might’s body, his right’s arm’s injuries and wounds sealing up, bones snapping back into position. ‘But...’\n\n“UNITED STATES!” All Might roared at the top of the his lungs, those words carrying throughout Kamino, echoing in All for One's ears like the threat of an enraged God. “OF SMASH!!”\n\nThe fist and everything he had left to give, and then some, collided into All for One’s face head on,  jaw snapping out of place, as he was thrown to the ground, the fist following into the dirt, smashing into him with such force, his legs flew up in the wake of his body. Such force and power thrown into the punch, threw the air and winds all around them into a flurry, twisting and spinning around, morphing into a massive tornado, larger then any that should’ve been possible, throwing any nearby debris and barreling around for several minutes, as gold lightning fired and flew out from the tornado, burning through the skies for a moment, before finally dying down.\n\nAnd in the crater that was left from their final bout, electricity sparking and fizzling all around the two, All Might, even weakened and left as nothing but skin and bones, took a deep breath, before raising his right fist over his head. Yellow and gold electrical bolts sparked and fizzled around the two, as All Might looked drained to the point of collapsing. A moment, later, he bulked up once more, standing over All for One’s unconscious form.\n\nEveryone watching roared with approval, cheers for All Might breaking out in the streets of Kamino, across everywhere that could see this victory. In the time it would take for the transmission to travel, All Might’s victory would inspire celebrations in all the countries he had visited at some point, his adopted home of America and other places soon to join in similar celebrations. It was the ultimate symbol of All Might's status as number. To be dragged to the lowest point, and push his way back to the top.\n\nEdgeshot climbed over the ruins, stumbling on the shattered masonry, as his eyes widened. “He’ll over exert himself doing that!”\n\n“Let him. He’s the Number One. He’s still got a job to do.” Gran Torino remarked softly.\n\nThe sun rose over the tired and shattered remnants of Kamino Ward. It would be a long time til the city was ready to be lived in again, as Heroes, Police and EMTs spread out to rescue and clear out the debris, and start getting civilians to the hospitals and treatment facilities. As All for One had been taken into an Iron Maiden, and restrained under heavy metal gear, All Might was rushed to hospital for all the broken bones and lacerations he had suffered in their brawl.\n\nNeither would be walking away quite well anytime soon.\n\nIzuku watched the scene play out in shock from the streets he was on, not sure what would happen now. Even Venom was momentarily silent for a moment, before speaking to him.\n\n“The Heroes have done all they can,” He hissed, his voice low and awed. “For now, we go home.”\n\nBakugou watched him for a moment, as Kirishima tried to get him to move. There was still something he wanted to clear up with Deku, a question crawling in the back of his mind. Looking at All Might being escorted by paramedics to safer area, he decided now was not the time to poke around. He could wait.\n\nAll Might, meanwhile, sat back as the medics worked quickly, operating on his arm and carefully working around his now frail form. He had tried everything, and All for One was still a threat, even now defeated. The League was out there, and, even now, his time was coming to a close. Whether it was Young Midoriya or another, someone else would have to defeat the evil of society where he had failed.\n\nThe next day, All for One, oxygen tanks and all attached to his wheel chair, with IV fluids pumping into his body, was wheeled into the walls of the mightiest prison man could have constructed. Layers and layers of walls, three Heroes chosen specifically for guarding this place, numerous automated gunneries that locked onto his seemingly frail form as he was brought in. Through the standard medical check-up and such before he was brought to prison, All for One had been surprisingly quiet and obedient.\n\nNow, however, his curiosity got the better of him.\n\n“Where am I exactly?” All for One asked politely to the guard pushing him in.\n\n“Shut your mouth!!” He shouted in rage. “After everything you’ve done, a death sentence would be too light! This kind of place is perfect for scum like you.”\n\n“Ah, a prison. I had trouble telling.” All for One replied easily, not bothered by the outburst. “Too many sensors here.”\n\nThe guard calmed down for a moment, surprised for a moment. “You’re...you’re totally blind?”\n\n“Beyond the rustle of cloths and air vibrations, I have my infrared Quirk which I’ve used to navigate this world,” All for One explained. “I can also detect and pick up on emotions. But yes, my eyes have been gone for a long time.”\n\n‘He couldn’t breath or see. And he fought All Might to a stand-still like this?’ The guard thought in terror, feeling sweat run down his forehead. \n\nAs he pushed All for One along, the Master Villain was watched by another criminal, the former Hero killer Stain, watching the Tartarus Prison’s newest inmate come into the place, glancing at him from his cell with a weary expression, not sure if he should trust the rumors that had circulated from the guards that he overheard or not.\n\n‘I lost All Might, and a pathetic struggle I put on.’ He thought to himself, shaking his head slightly, as the guns followed him. ‘But you’ve made a mistake.’\n\nThe elevator doors opened, two more guards standing aside to let them in, as the guard backed them into the elevator.\n\n‘You’ve shown yourself at your lowest, and now you’re going to give up your power when the world will need you most.’ He thought, as a malicious grin spread across his lips. ‘Your power will fizzle out, as more and more criminals come to the fore. Including my Tomura.’\n\nShigaraki and the rest of the surviving League members stood within the abandoned warehouse they had been dumped into. The various team members watched him in silence. He stood in a darkened corner, away from the refuse and garbage dumped within it, his hood pulled tight over his head, as he breathed hard, his eyes bloodshot and enraged. No one dared even approach him at this state.\n\n‘A teacher’s job is to make his student independent of his master, preparing them for the future.’ All for One thought with a chuckle to himself. ‘When a teacher vanishes and that students needs him, he’ll learn to stand on his own, and walk the path of a true leader. He has comrades, he’ll learn to find more.’\n\nThe silvery head of Riot sprouted from his shoulder, drawing near, as he whispered to Shigaraki, out of earshot of the rest. ‘You’ll do fine now Shigaraki. With Riot, use your experiences, your hatreds and regrets to push yourself onwards.’\n\nBoth All Might and All for One had thought the same thing of their students, of Izuku Midoriya, the bright, hopeful spark and figure who would never give up on being a Hero, aided by the brutal and free-spirited Venom, and of Tomura Shigaraki, the determined, single-minded Heir to Villainy, helped by Riot, the brutal Conquering Leader among Klyntar.\n\n“Now, it’s your turn!”"}
+{"text": "As it turned out, Draco was not in a completely heartless mood and Harry found the door to the prefects' bathroom opened when he spoke the password. He slipped inside and, with a thought, disabled the password, effectively locking the door behind him.\n\nDraco was already in the bath, water cascading from two of the taps into the almost full pool. No matter how many times he used it, the prefects' bathroom was always spectacular to Harry, even more so with Draco in it. The opulent setting seemed to fit his soulmate and the way the rising steam made Draco's skin glisten had Harry licking his lips in anticipation.\n\nThere was something almost ethereal about Draco with all his pale skin and pale hair among the mist above the hot water. Harry was captivated.\n\nWhen Draco looked up at him, silver eyes clear and just slightly smiling, Harry's breath caught in his throat. Sometimes he couldn't believe this was his life, that Draco was his and he was Draco's. Maybe it was the view combined with everything else, but he felt his heart swell and his throat tighten as he just stood there.\n\n\"Come here you ridiculous Gryffindor,\" Draco said, shaking his head fondly.\n\nHarry didn't need inviting twice. He padded around the edge of the bath, slipping off his shoes, glasses and robe and putting their toiletries on top, before sliding into the water. It was beautifully warm and he bobbed under and back up again, pushing his way over to Draco with one stroke.\n\n\"Now, I believe you had some learning to do,\" Draco said.\n\nHarry's erection had wilted a little with the practicalities of gathering everything they needed and making his way to the prefect's bathroom, but it sprang back to life at those words. He leaned in to Draco, kissing those perfect lips that held just a hint of a mischievous smile.\n\nDraco responded, opening his mouth and darting his tongue over Harry's lips. There was no question that Harry would not open up to Draco and the kiss deepened. Harry let himself fall into the feel of Draco as well, focussing on nothing but their connection. It was at moments like this he felt most whole, most at peace.\n\n\"Oh, Harry,\" Draco whispered, breaking the kiss, \"is there anything you wouldn't let me do to you now?\"\n\n\"No.\"\n\nIt was the simple truth.\n\n\"What do you want?\"\n\n\"All of you,\" Harry replied.\n\n\"Bend over the side of the bath for me,\" Draco said, tone coaxing, but commanding at the same time.\n\n\"Where?\"\n\n\"There, use the steps. I want most of you out of the water.\"\n\nHarry had no problem obeying that command. It wasn't cold out of the water, but the change in temperature made little goose-bumps rise on his skin.\n\n\"For me?\" Draco asked and ran a hand down his back, causing his skin to react even more.\n\nHe made a very quiet agreeing sound and Draco stepped up behind him.\n\nWhen Draco reached past him to where he had left all their things, he wasn't really expecting his soulmate to pick up the flannel, but he wasn't about to argue. As long as Draco touched him, he didn't mind how.\n\n\"You have such lovely skin,\" Draco said, soaking the flannel in the water.\n\n\"Says the man with acres of perfect body,\" Harry replied with a small laugh.\n\n\"I didn't say it was better than mine,\" Draco told him and he gasped as Draco went straight for his more sensitive regions with the wash cloth.\n\nIt seemed Draco had something very specific in mind and Harry was just along for the ride, so he enjoyed the sensations and decided to shut up.\n\n\"Cleanliness is so very important, don't you agree, Love?\" Draco said.\n\nHarry would have replied, but Draco momentarily removed his ability to think by giving his cock a very firm stroke. He moaned instead.\n\n\"I thought so,\" Draco said and kissed his back.\n\nDraco then spent the next five minutes washing him from head to toe, with special attention on anywhere that could be remotely considered an erogenous zone. Harry was putty in his lover's hands.\n\n\"I think you may be ready now,\" Draco finally decided, placing the flannel back on the side of the bath.\n\nOnce again Harry was surprised as Draco did not do what he expected. The pot of lube that was neatly disguised as body lotion remained right where he had left it on his robe.\n\nWhat Draco did do was run those amazing hands of his from the top of Harry's back to the base and gave Harry's arse a good squeeze.\n\n\"Now don't over balance,\" Draco told him.\n\nHe hummed in agreement and Draco began to kiss down his spine. His lover didn't stop when he reached the end of it either. With dexterous fingers, Draco spread Harry's buttocks and carried on. Harry swore, because he hadn't been expecting that either.\n\nDraco had a very clever tongue for more than talking. Harry's legs almost gave out as his soulmate employed it to devastating effect. His balls felt like they were ready to explode after only the first touch. When Draco reached a hand between his legs and gave his cock a good stroke as well, it took every ounce of will he had not to.\n\n\"So there is a use for that Gryffindor stubbornness,\" Draco said when he finally came up for air.\n\nHe sounded far too pleased with himself and Harry really couldn't blame him.\n\n\"Merlin's balls,\" was the best he could manage as a comeback.\n\n\"Oh, I'm far more interested in yours,\" Draco said and fondled them for good measure.\n\n[Please,] he begged because he knew what he wanted and it wasn't Draco's tongue.\n\n[Am I wonderful? Am I incredible?]\n\n[Yes and god yes,] Harry replied.\n\nIt never ceased to amaze him how well Draco could take him apart, inch by inch.\n\nFinally Draco did reach for the lube and Harry moaned in renewed anticipation. He was so ready it took bare moments for Draco to prepare him. His body had responded so completely to Draco's ministrations that he opened up to Draco's fingers with ease.\n\nThen Draco urged him forward just a little and moved in right behind him. He moaned long and loud as Draco finally pushed into him. His body opened, his mind opened and he joined with Draco as completely as it was possible for two people to be. He shared his pleasure, his want, his love and his joy and Draco moaned, coming to rest against his back.\n\nThis was what it meant to be alive.\n\nThey needed no words as Draco slowly began to move. They were together in love and desire, and they expressed both in a very physical manner.\n\nNothing else remotely impinged on Harry's consciousness as he was enveloped by all that was Draco. At no other time was he ever so completely unaware of the world around him. With Draco in his heart and his mind he let himself go.\n\nHe had been so close to the edge from everything Draco had been doing to him that it didn't take long. His orgasm took him and there wasn't a thing he could do about it. As wonderful sensations shot all over his body and he came hard, shuddering uncontrollably, he felt Draco withdraw from their connection, just for a few moments.\n\nHe found out why almost immediately, as Draco continued thrusting into him, even stroke after even stroke, as he rode out his orgasm. Draco hadn't given in like he had, Draco was very much still going. His gasps became moans as Draco showed no signs of stopping at all.\n\n\"Let's see how long it takes you to go again,\" Draco whispered in his ear and Harry whimpered. \n\n* * * \n\nHarry was sprawled in the water looking thoroughly shagged out and Draco felt very pleased with himself. There was something inside him that liked it a lot when Harry surrendered to him so completely.\n\nHis old friends probably would have thought it was something to do with control and domination, but that wasn't it at all. It was that Harry could let go so totally that made him happy. The trust and the knowledge that he was Harry's perfect match were what meant the most to him. His father's actions had tried to separate them and the rings Harry had created for them both meant no one could try that again, but it was their very natures which had saved them in the first place.\n\nHarry opened his eyes, catching Draco's gaze with those brilliant green orbs. He could see his own thoughts reflected back at him from deep within their depths.\n\n\"Of course I do enjoy taking you apart as well,\" he said and smirked.\n\nHarry smiled back and lifted a hand out of the water, holding it out to him. Draco reached out and took it, allowing himself to be pulled in beside his soulmate.\n\n\"Love you,\" Harry said, sounding entirely satisfied.\n\n\"Love you too,\" Draco replied and leant in so their noses touched.\n\n\"Ugh, too lovely dovey,\" said a voice from the corner of the room. \"9 out of 10 for the rest though. Try harder next time.\"\n\n\"Myrtle,\" Draco said at exactly the same time as Harry.\n\nAll that greeted them was the sound of disappearing laughter."}
+{"text": "\n Shibuya \n\n\nThe morning after the trial, Kureto paces furiously around Shinya's dungeon cell as the omega leans against a wooden post with his head down. The beta out of his Kingsguard armor.  \n\n\"I made a deal for you to keep your ungrateful head on your ungrateful neck a little while longer.\" Kureto rants. \n\n\"I'm sorry, what am I grateful for?\" Shinya looks up, \"The opportunity to live and die at the Wall as punishment for a crime I did not commit?\"\n\n\"You threw your life away. You threw it away. It's not a joke. You understand that, don't you?\" Kureto asks Shinya with a serious look. \n\n\"Of course it's a joke, just not a very funny one.\" Shinya grumbles, \"I couldn't- I couldn't listen to her standing there telling her lies. I couldn't do it.\"\n\n\"You really thought Yukimi, the Master of Whisperers was someone you could trust?\" Kureto asks. \n\n\"I was stupid enough to think that she was on my side. That deal you made, it was everything Uncle wanted. You do see that? He gets you back as the house heir. The future Lord of the Rock. And he ships me off to Nagoya, out of sight at last. All so perfect. It felt good to take that from him. He knows I'm innocent and he's willing to sacrifice me anyway.\" Shinya looks out the barred window. \n\n\"He's willing to sacrifice any of us.\" Kureto says. \n\n\"Not you. You're the golden son. You could lose a hand and fuck your own sister, but you'll always be the golden son.\" Shinya says. \n\n\"Careful. I'm the last friend you've got.\" Kureto says stone-faced. \n\n\"At least I got to tell them what they really are.\" Shinya says. \n\n\"Yes, brilliant speech. They'll be talking about it for days to come. I thought you were a realist. Didn't realize you'd die for pride.\" Kureto drawls. \n\n\"Don't give up on me just yet. I survived one trial by combat, even though you weren't there to save me.\" Shinya says. \n\n\"I can't save you this time either. My training has proved that I can't beat a stable boy with my left hand, even if Mahiru would let me get within an inch of this trial.\" Kureto says. \n\n\"Where's your sense of adventure? Even if you lose, imagine the look on Uncle's face when you fall.\" Shinya says. \n\nKureto huffs a chuckle. \n\n\"Our family name snuffed out with a single swing of the sword.\" Shinya says. \n\n\"It is somewhat tempting.\" Kureto remains bare-faced. \n\n\"Well... Aiko fought for me once, she'll do it again. If she wins, I expect I'll be in her debt for the rest of my life.\" Shinya says. \n\n\"If she wins.\" Kureto says. \n\n\"Will you find her for me?\" Shinya asks, Kureto nods. \"Who does Mahiru plan on naming as a champion? I hope its Ser Fuola Honte. I'd enjoy watching Aiko disembowel that pompous child beater.\"\n\nKureto shakes his head in defeat and looks down before returning Shinya's gaze, \"No. Not Ser Fuola.\" \n\nShinya squints at Kureto before his eyes begin to dilate in realization. \n\nSer Saito roars as he mightily lifts his sword upright in the air with an alpha man impaled in the stomach on it. The large alpha is shirtless with only slacks on as the man on the sword heaves and groans in pain, his life slowly leaving him as blood pours from his mouth. \n\nMahiru watches from a distance with a slight smirk of pleasure. She's clad in her black gown with her purple hair down. \n\nSer Saito turns the sword over as the man's body easily falls off of it leaving a trail of his fresh blood on the dried one.\n\nA guard pushes another prisoner forward from a line of filthy ones, a beta this time. \n\n\"Go on, move it.\" The guard says as the young beta male moves towards the Mountain with a meager sword. \n\n\"And you. Come on.\" Another guard pushes another alpha out. \n\nThe alpha picks up a sword and charges towards Ser Saito who parries. The Mountain then slices his stomach to disembowel the alpha causing his intestines to pour out before he falls to the ground.\n\nThe Mountain moves towards the beta who throws down his weapon and falls to his knees in front of him, \"Mercy. Please. Please, mercy.\"\n\nMahiru moves down the stone steps with her entourage of Kingsguard following close behind. \n\nSer Saito slices into the man with his sword spraying blood as Mahiru steps over the intestines. \n\nThe Mountain howls as he continues to strike the beta angrily before stopping when there is nothing left of the man, but pink slush and red blood. \n\n\"Ser Saito. Welcome to the capital. Thank you for riding here so quickly.\" Mahiru gets his attention and steps closer towards the alpha as she looks down at the puddle of the beta before her. \"You seem to be in good form.\"\n\n\"Who am I fighting?\" Ser Saito asks. \n\n\"Does it matter?\" Mahiru asks. \n\nSer Saito only shakes his head slowly in response with a killer look on his face.\n\nIn Shinya's cell, the omega stares forlornly out the window. He can hear the footsteps bounding down the stairs.\n\nHis door suddenly opens to reveal Aiko Aihara, clad in a red dress with pants, boots, and a matching cape. Something he's never seen her or any sellsword in. \n\nShe looks around the dim cell before her eyes find Shinya and she bows her head slightly, \"My Lord.\"\n\n\"You have new clothes.\" Shinya observes. \n\n\"Do you like them? Gloves are doeskin. Softer than a virgin's thighs.\" Aiko smirks. \n\n\"I sent for you days ago.\" Shinya says tensely. \n\n\"I've been a bit busy.\" Aiko acknowledges. \n\n\"Doing what?\"\n\n\"My lonesome days are over.\" Aiko says, \"I am to wed Ahmya Haruka.\"\n\n\"Ahmya Haruka? Doesn't strike me as your kind of omega.\" Shinya says. \n\n\"I wouldn't say I had a single sort of omega.\" Aiko shrugs. \n\n\"She's dim-witted.\"\n\n\"If I wanted wits, I'd marry you.\" Aiko says. \n\n\"When my sister arranged this love match, did she mention that Ahmya has an older sister?\" Shinya probes. \n\n\"Falya. Aye, I did know about the older sister.\" Aiko says. \n\n\"And you understand the rules of inheritance?\" \n\n\"Falya is forty and barren.\" Aiko says. \n\n\"She still gets Castle Haruka when her father dies.\" Shinya says. \n\n\"She does. Unless she happens to perish before her father. Then Ahmya gets the castle.\" Aiko says, mischievously.\n\nShinya can't hold back a scoff at that. \n\n\"What? People fall from their horses and snap their pretty necks all the time.\" Aiko shrugs.\n\n\"You and my sister deserve each other. Why did you bother to come here?\" Shinya says. \n\nAiko sits down on a little rock. \"You once said if anyone ever asked me to sell you out, you'd double their price.\"\n\n\"Is it two wives you want or two castles?\" Shinya asks. \n\n\"One of each will do. But if you want me to kill the Mountain for you, it'd better be a damn big castle.\" Aiko explains. \n\n\"I'm a bit short on castles at the moment. But I can offer you gold and gratitude.\" Shinya says with slight desperation leaking out.\n\n\"I have gold. What can I buy with gratitude?\" Aiko muses. \n\nShinya stalks forward towards the beta, \"You might be surprised. A Hiiragi always pays his debts.\"\n\n\"Your sister's a Hiiragi, too.\" Aiko points out. \n\n\"Guren still remains and is Lord of Snowstorm. If I emerge from this with my head still on my shoulders, I may one day rule the Nagoya. I could carve you out a big piece of it.\" Shinya conjures up. \n\n\"If, may, and could. It's bloody cold up North. Ahmya is soft and warm. And close. If I gave you the choice between fucking Ahmya and fighting the Mountain, you'd have your britches down and your cock out before I could blink.\" Aiko says. \n\n\"Does he frighten you so much?\" Shinya asks at a loss for words. \n\n\"I'd be a bloody fool if he didn't frighten me. He's freakish big and freakish strong. And quicker than you'd expect for a man of that size. Maybe I could take him, dance around until he's so tired of hacking at me, he dropped his sword, and get him off his feet somehow. But one misstep... and I'm dead. Why should I risk it?\" Aiko says. \n\n\"Because you're my friend.\" Shinya says. \n\n\"Aye, I'm your friend. And when have you ever risked your life for me?\" Aiko asks. \n\nShinya looks down in contemplation as his mind roves over all of his encounters with Aiko, but he finds himself coming up short. She's right and she knows it. \n\nAiko stands, \"I like you, pampered little shit that you are. I just like myself more.\"\n\n\"I understand.\" Shinya says. \n\n\"I'm sorry it has to be this way.\" Aiko says. \n\n\"Why are you sorry? Because you're an evil bitch with no conscience and no heart?\" Shinya says, almost despondently while completely honest, \"That's what I liked about you in the first place.\"\n\nShinya extends his hand and Aiko hesitates before shaking it heartily. \n\n\"We had some good days together.\" Aiko says. \n\n\"Yes, we did.\" Shinya agrees with the ghost of a sad smile. \n\nAiko pats his arm and gives him a meaningful glance before making her way back towards the door. \n\n\"What will you do?\" Aiko asks before knocking. \n\n\"I suppose I'll have to kill the Mountain myself. Won't that make for a great song?\" Shinya muses sentimentally. \n\n\"I hope to hear them sing it one day.\" Aiko says before the door opens, she nods her head down and takes her leave. \n\nShinya watches the beta leave him, and he can't help but feel the finality of it all as his trial-by-combat breathes down his neck. He just lost his last hope for a champion and realizes just how fucked he is. But, he has no one to blame but himself for this situation. \n\nIn the dark of night, Shinya sits against the wooden post in his dungeon cell, dreading the circumstances he finds himself facing. \n\nNo light remains in the cell as he finds himself diving further into his pit of despair. He glances up when the loud sound of the door opening catches his attention.\n\nA flaming torch lights the room as the figure comes towards him to reveal Prince Basteya. \n\n\"I imagined you'd be back at the brothel at this hour.\" Shinya says miserably. \n\n\"I did spend some time with an absolutely stunning blonde the other day.\" Prince Basteya says, \"His mouth felt like something that went above the seventh heaven.\"\n\nShinya huffs a laugh, \"Mm, do tell. I've got every kind of filth down here except the kind I like.\"\n\nBasteya puts the torch on a holder and sits down at Shinya's crouched level. \"Your sister.\"\n\n\"Oh.\"\n\n\"Mahiru approached me. We spoke a great deal about daughters. She was trying very hard to pretend she had not come to sway me against you. I think she may have even believed it herself.\" Basteya says. \n\n\"Making honest feelings do dishonest work is one of her many gifts.\" Shinya says lowly. \n\n\"It was difficult for her to hide her true intentions. It is rare to meet a Hiiragi who shares my enthusiasm for dead Hiiragi's. She desperately wants to see you killed.\" Basteya says. \n\n\"She didn't need to bother you. It looks as though I've taken care of that myself. The joy she will feel when my head leaves my neck. She's wanted this for a long time.\" Shinya says darkly. \n\n\"Yes, I know. Do you remember us meeting? Many years ago.\" Basteya says. \n\n\"Faintly.\" Shinya says. \n\n\"Our father brought me and my sister Elina with him on a visit to Hakone. My first time away from Harajuku. I didn't like anything about the Rock. Not the food, not the weather, your accents. Nothing. But the biggest disappointment...you.\" Basteya says. \n\n\"You and my family have more in common than you might admit.\" Shinya says ironically. \n\n\"The whole way from Harajuku all anyone talked about was the omega that had been made into a Hiiragi by the King. We heard many conflicting things about you. That you were tall and short. Ugly and beautiful. Pudgy and thin. Raven-haired and purple-haired.\" Prince Basteya says. \"When we met your sister, she promised she would show you to us. Every day we would ask. Every day she would say, \"Soon.\" You had this habit of keeping to yourself when you were younger, always locked in the library by yourself with no one ever bothering you. Then, one day the library door was open, and she and your brother took us inside. She unveiled you. You were beautiful, in every conventional way. Something I found predictable and disappointing. Until today, I realized that you aren't like your family. Back then, we didn't try to hide our disappointment. I told Mahiru. \"That's just a baby.\" And she said, \"It doesn't matter, everyone says he's not one of us. That he does not belong here. I hope they are right. He should have never been brought here.\"\"\n\n\"My father, the King brought me home from an orphanage when I was very young. I don't remember a great deal, but he and the Mad King used to frequent our orphanage. Back before the Mad King became mad, he used to help the poor. When they were there, they would always talk amongst each other and pass constant glances at me and only me while looking around. Strangely it was mostly the Mad King. I could tell the difference easily because their cold and imperial looks towards anyone else was rather obvious. No other children captured their attention like I did without even speaking a word to either of them. But, I was always told to respect alphas, especially those in higher positions as a common omega. So, when I was brought to them one day and told that Lord Hiiragi wanted to make me his son in every possible way, what could I do? I was shocked, but they both told me it in the kindest way they could muster, and clearly wanted it as much as I needed it. A chance at a good life on Hakone that not many omegas could ever dream of. Both, Father and Mother loved me and treated me like I was their trueborn son. Father, especially saw to it that I was educated. Even the Mad King was not terrible to me before the rebellion. But, all of them are gone now.\" Shinya reminisces with watery eyes in defeat. \"Well... sooner or later, Mahiru always gets what she wants.\" \n\n\"And what about what I want? Justice for my sister and her children.\" Prince Basteya says. \n\n\"If you want justice, you've come to the wrong place.\" Shinya shakes his head. \n\n\"I disagree.\" Prince Basteya says before rising with his torch illuminating him and declaring, \"I've come to the perfect place. I want to bring those who have wronged me to justice. And all those who have wronged me are right here. I will begin with Ser Saito, who killed my sister's children and then raped her with their blood still on his hands before killing her, too. I will be your champion.\"\n\nShinya huffs a gasping breath of grateful relief as he looks up at his new champion. \n\n\n Riverlands \n\n\nOn the borders of the Riverlands, Mitsuba and Aoi ride side-by side on their horses past a large green tree. \n\nOnce past they see a hidden, smoldering farm hidden by smoke and dark trees. \n\n\"Could be food.\" Aoi says. \n\n\"Could be soldiers.\" Mitsu retorts. \n\nAoi and Mitsu ride forward into the smoke and dismount. Both women have their swords drawn as they enter the grounds of the farm.  \n\nThey hear a grunt and follow the sound until they find a man propped up on a well with a bleeding wound in his gut. \n\n\"You shouldn't be sitting out here like this.\" Mitsu says. \n\n\"Where else to sit? Tried to walk back to my hut, hurt too much. Then I remembered they burned my hut down.\" The man grunts out. \n\n\"Who were \"they\"?\" Aoi asks. \n\n\"I stopped asking a while ago.\" The man says. \n\nAoi kneels down to inspect the wound. \n\n\"That's not gonna get better.\" Aoi tells him. \n\n\"Doesn't seem so.\" The man keeps his eyes down. \n\n\"A bad way to go. Haven't you had enough?\" Aoi asks as Mitsu passes a wary glance. \n\n\"Of what? I know. Time to go. Take matters into my own hands. The thought has occurred to me.\" The man says. \n\nMitsu kneels near the man, \"So why go on?\"\n\n\"Habit.\"\n\n\"Nothing could be worse than this.\" Mitsu says. \n\n\"Maybe nothing is worse than this.\" The man says. \n\n\"Nothing isn't better or worse than anything. Nothing is just nothing.\" Mitsu says. \n\n\"Who are you?\" The man asks. \n\n\"My name is Mitsuba. Mitsuba Sanguu.\" \n\n\"You her mother?\" The man asks. \n\n\"Her sister. Bringing her home to her real family for money.\" Aoi responds. \n\n\"A fair exchange, that is. Always held to the notion of fair exchange in all my dealings. You give me, I give you. Fair. A balance. No balance anymore.\" The man says, \"Could I have a drink? Dying is thirsty work.\"\n\nAoi gives the man a drink of water. \n\n\"Wish it were wine.\" The man says after taking a hearty sip.\n\n\"So do I.\" Aoi agrees before plunging her dagger into the man's heart. He looks up at her as she nods and removes the blade. He smiles a tiny bit before he closes his eyes and dies. Aoi wipes the blood off of her knife on his shirt. \n\n\"That's where the heart is. That's how you kill a man.\" Aoi tells Mitsu. \n\nSuddenly, a man screams as he jumps on Aoi's back and bites her in the neck enough to draw blood. Aoi flips the man over her shoulder onto a rock, so that he bangs his head harshly against it. Blood pours from the top of his head. Mitsu and Aoi stand and turn to see a man with a sword. \n\nMitsu squints in confusion because the man looks familiar before her eyes widen in realization. He was a prisoner of Torrhen to be sent to the Wall. The one who threatened to rape her. \n\n\"The fuck you doing?\" Aoi asks. \n\n\"There's a price on your head.\" The man says. \n\n\"Guess that's what the King does when you tell him to fuck off.\" Aoi says. \n\n\"The King's dead. He drank poisoned wine at his own wedding. The bounty on you is for killing Hiiragi soldiers. 100 silver stags.\" The man says as Mitsu and Aoi share a shocked glance.\n\n\"And you thought you were going to collect it? Didn't think very hard, did you?\" Aoi challenges as she holds her bleeding neck. \n\n\"You were Torrhen's prisoners when he was taking me to the Wall. He told me he'd fuck me bloody with a stick.\" Mitsu tells Aoi as she comes closer to the two. \n\n\"This day's really not working out the way you planned.\" Aoi tells the man before turning to Mitsu, \"He on your little list?\"\n\n\"He can't be. I don't know his name.\" Mitsu says. \n\n\"What's your name?\" Aoi turns back. \n\n\"Ranpan.\" The man says. \n\n\"Thank you.\" Mitsu says with a smile as she stands right in front of the man. She quick draws her needle and fatally stabs him in the heart, similar to how Aoi showed her. \n\nThe man groans in pain and falls to the ground while Mitsu wipes her sword clean on his body. \n\n\"You're learning.\" Aoi says, slightly impressed. \n\nMitsu sheathes her needle and turns to follow Aoi back to the horses. \n\nIn a mountainous and green valley, Mitsu cleans and sharpens her blade as Aoi tries to tend to her wound alone. \n\nIt is still day as the horses graze on the grass and Mitsu studies her sister clumsily trying to do it all by herself.\n\n\"Rat cunts. Fucking whore.\" Aoi curses. \n\n\"You're doing it wrong. You need to burn away that horrible bit there. Otherwise it's gonna get infected and fester. If you don't do it right-\" Mitsu puts down her sword and stands. \n\n\"I know what I'm doing.\" Aoi insists as she struggles. \n\n\"Let me help you, it will only take a second.\" Mitsu comes closer.\n\nAoi stands up abruptly and backs away. \"NO!\"\n\nMitsu's eyes widen at the insistence and they both stand still, silently staring at one another for a long time.\n\nMitsu finally gives up after a few minutes and begins to pick up her sword to continue with what she was doing before. She sits and returns to her cleaning.  \n\nAoi studies her as her face slightly softens, \"Shut up about it. Shut up about everything. Thanks to you, I'm a walking bag of silver anywhere the Hiiragi's hold sway. Which is everywhere between where we are now and where we're going.\"\n\nAoi retakes her seat, \"I'm as stupid as that hog you stuck back in the village, getting myself stabbed and bitten. No reward is worth this much trouble. Wish I'd never met you. Wish I'd never taken you.\" \n\nMitsu remains silent. \"Then, why did you?\"\n\n\"I don't fucking know.\" Aoi lies, but she does. She knows why she did it. She wanted to protect her sister and take care of her, even if she wasn't good at showing it. She wanted her sister to be safe and who better to be with than her for that. Despite, current events. \n\nMitsu studies her sister, \"Let me wash it out and help you sew it up at least.\"\n\nAoi remains silent and keeps her eyes down. Mitsu takes that as an invitation. She stands and walks towards her with the water pouch. Mitsu pours the water on the wound which causes Aoi to wince before she begins to sew up the bite. Aoi carefully and uncertainly watches her sister as she does so.\n\n\n Ikebukuro \n\n\nA horn blows as rangers train in the snowy courtyards of Ikebukuro. \n\n\"Rangers returning!\" A man announces from atop the dark stone castle. \n\nYuu, Benjey, and the remainder of his party come through the tunnels leading to beyond the wall. \n\n\"They return!\"\n\n\"Rangers returning!\"\n\n\"Greetings.\" Yuu calls out from the front in his dark feathered cloak. \n\nThe men in the yard come to greet them with Seishi at the front. Many of the brothers trading hugs with each other. \n\nBanko joins the men, as well. \n\nYuu and Seishi hug, \"All right, Warden?\"\n\nKusunoki and his party enter on the second-story platform. \n\n\"Lord Ichinose.\" Kusunoki says in the usual mocking tone as Yuu finishes hugging Banko. \n\nAsu enters from the tunnel remaining at the entrance and in very good sight. \n\nThey all look up at Kusunoki as his eyes find Asu. \n\n\"This is no place for wild beasts. Lock him away or I'll let Knob throw him in tonight's stew.\" Kusunoki threatens. \n\nYuu gazes darkly at the man before turning and walking towards Asu. \n\n\"Come on, Asu.\" Yuu says to the wolf who instinctively follows him towards the kennels. \n\nIn the Great Hall of Ikebukuro, all of the men sit at the tables with the exception of Yuu who stands before Kusunoki at the elevated table on the platform.\n\n\"Mel's army was closing in on Rast's Keep when we left. We saw their campfires from Orien Hill. They'll reach the Wall before the next full moon.\" Yuu says. \n\n\"I'm surprised you didn't ride over and say hello. The King Beyond-the-Wall is your old friend, isn't he?\" One of Kusunoki's men provoke Yuu.\n\nYuu ignores the man and addresses Kusunoki, \"We need to prepare.\"\n\n\"We've been preparing.\" Kusunoki says. \n\n\"We should seal the tunnel. Plug it with rocks and ice. Flood it and let it freeze.\" Yuu suggests. \n\n\"And how would we range north?\" Kusunoki asks. \n\n\"We wouldn't.\" Yuu says. \n\n\"Coward. You would cut off our legs, pluck out our eyes, and leave us cowering behind the Wall hoping for the storm to pass?\" Kusunoki sneers at Yuu.\n\n\"We can't defend the gate against a hundred thousand men.\" Benjey says. \n\n\"This castle has stood for thousands of years. The Watch has defended her for thousands of years. And in all those centuries, we have never sealed the tunnel.\" Kusunoki says.\n\n\"Have you ever seen a giant, Ser Eita? I have.\" Yuu challenges. \n\n\"The bars on those gates are four inches thick. Cold-rolled steel.\" Kusunoki says.\n\n\"They won't stop them.\" Yuu says knowingly.\n\n\"Remind me which order you belong to, Lord Ichinose.\" Kusunoki mocks. \n\n\"The stewards.\" Yuu says knowing he is going to be shot down in the end. \n\n\"Are the stewards responsible for maintaining the tunnel?\" Kusunoki challenges. \n\n\"No.\" Yuu says lowly. \n\n\"Who would that be?\" Kusunoki asks. \n\n\"The builders.\" Yuu says, slightly annoyed. \n\n\"Ah, the builders. First Builder Yarwitch, Lord Ichinose here recommends sealing the tunnel, leaving us unable to carry out our duties as sworn brothers of the Watch. Do you agree with him?\" Kusunoki ridicules. \n\nYarwitch gives a long pause of consideration before answering, \"No.\"\n\n\"Given your deep knowledge of the Wild One army, Lord Snow, you and Seishi will take night duties atop the Wall until the full moon.\" Kusunoki orders. \n\nA good chunk of the room lets out laughs. Yuu moves, ready to murder the man before Seishi grabs his arm to stop him. \n\n\"Moving on. First Builder, we'll need a hundred barrels of pitch brought atop the wall.\" Kusunoki continues on with his business. \n\n\"Aye.\" Yarwitch agrees. \n\nYuu loudly retakes his seat as his large hand comes to rub at his eyes in frustration. \n\n\n Shinjuku - Meeridan \n\n\nIn the dead of night, Mikaela Shindo makes his way to his bedchambers. His hair is still down with the multiple braids. The omega is clad in a blue gown with navy dragon scales etched in the top of the gown. The gown is a covered in the navy blue from the top to bottom sides with a light blue chiffon skirt revealed in an open archway of the dress at the front and back. There's an opening on the front that slightly bares his chest and an opening at the back that shows the top of his back.\n\nThe omega is wary from his day at the Meeridan court to deal with the matters that his people face. He enters the room that leads to his council table and has to do a double take. Mika looks at the hallway with a guard still posted all the way down that he just passed and then back at Shahal in the dark room. \n\nShahal is clad in a simple, loose tunic that exposes his collar bones, tight slacks, and riding boots. The man has flowers in his hands as he turns to look at Mika. \n\n\"How did you get in here?\" Mika asks in sheer wonderment. \n\n\"Your door is well-guarded.\" Shahal gestures to the door with the bouquet, \"But your window is not.\"\n\nMika makes his way to the alpha, climbing up the steps to meet where he stands near the table. \n\nShahal hands him the bouquet, \"I swam to an island a mile offshore for these.\"\n\nMika hands it back to him with an annoyed look, \"Don't do that again.\"\n\n\"Never met an omega who didn't like wildflowers.\" Shahal says. \n\nMika begins to remove the dragon-themed jewelry, \"These are my private quarters. If I want you here, I will summon you.\"\n\nMika takes a seat on a backless chair which seems to be rather common in Meeridan.\n\nShahal kneels playfully to him to plead for forgiveness, \"Forgive me, my queen. I live to serve you.\"\n\n\"Tell me why you're here.\" Mika orders as Shahal rises. \n\n\"I came to ask a favor. I only have two talents in this world- war and omegas. You are staying here in Meeridan to rule. That is a wise decision. I respect it. But here in Meeridan, I cannot pursue my talents.\" Shahal says. \n\n\"I've ordered the Second Sons to patrol the streets to stop the revenge killing.\" Mika says resolutely. \n\n\"You've ordered us to be night watchmen.\" Shahal argues. \n\n\"And as for omegas, there are thousands in Meeridan you can pursue.\" Mika says. \n\n\"There is only one, and he does not want me.\" Shahal says. \n\nMika refrains from rolling his eyes, \"You swore me your sword.\"\n\n\"My sword is yours till the day I die.\" Shahal says. \n\n\"So if I command you to stay in Meeridan and patrol the streets?\" Mika asks. \n\n\"I'll stay in Meeridan and patrol the streets. Send me to kill your enemies. Any enemy anywhere. Let me do what I do best.\" Shahal says. \n\nMika considers the man before him. He considers all he's offering. He's considering the three years that have passed since Makoto and his son's death. Maybe, now is the time to move on. Find something with anyone. He loved Makoto, but he does not know if he was the one he was fated and destined to be with forever since he's died. He's not sure if Makoto was the alpha he was supposed to find and feel the fated connection with since he does not know what it would feel like. Lucal always told him he'd know what it'd feel like when it happened and he still remains uncertain that it ever happened when he was with Makoto. He loved Makoto with all he could possibly give, but was that enough to mean they were each other's fated pair. He does not feel the same about Shahal, but if anything, this may provide a distraction. \n\nMika rises and moves to pour himself a cup of wine, \"Very well. Do what you do best.\"\n\nMika retakes his seat with a somewhat hungry and uncertain look in his eyes before ordering, \"Take off your clothes.\"\n\nShahal smirks at the omega as Mika remains uncertain as he gazes at the strong alpha's toned and muscular chest when he removes his shirt and shoes. The tanned skin being lit in the moonlight. Shahal moves to unlace his pants as they fall to the floor to reveal his huge alpha cock. Mika looks at it admittedly with lust while the fear remains on his face. A little gust of wind blows his blonde hair a bit. \n\nMika takes a large gulp of wine to finish and rises. He walks towards Shahal and places his arms on his chest to feel the warm muscles. Mika looks at the alpha's pink lips, licking his own. He doesn't feel the need to produce any slick which should be the first sign, but he ignores it, in favor of rising to match his lips to Shahal's one in a light kiss. Mika kisses the alpha who reciprocates, but the omega doesn't feel anything.\n\nA cold feeling soon settles in him as he deepens the kiss. He realizes it feels just like it did when he kissed Makoto. His husband's face flashes in his head causing him to pull away from Shahal with a gasp. \n\nShahal's eyes widen, \"Are you okay?\"\n\nMika remains at a distance from the naked alpha, \"This, we-I can't do this. It's not right.\"\n\n\"Why?\" Shahal asks. \n\n\"I'm not ready.\" Mika huffs out sardonically, feeling pathetic. \"Three years have passed since Makoto died and I still can't move past him far enough to kiss another alpha. Even though his bite mark has faded from my skin long ago.\"\n\n\"It doesn't have to mean anything.\" Shahal says almost in a plea. \n\n\"I know that.\" Mika looks at him, \"Even then, I can't do it. Not yet.\"\n\n\"When?\"\n\n\"I don't know.\" Mika says. He feels like he's betraying his memory and love for Makoto if he does this with some random alpha. \n\nThe room remains tensely silent until a realization hits Mika about what he really wants. \n\n\"It wouldn't mean anything to you?\" Mika asks. \n\n\"I already said that.\" Shahal says. \n\n\"That's the problem. It would mean something to me to do this with an alpha that I don't...\" Mika trails off, for once feeling like his age as he looks at the older alpha. \n\n\"Love?\" Shahal says. \n\nMika nods slightly, \"Not to mention what this would mean for my reign, a lover is a liability. Giving in as an omegan Queen to an alpha I am not even mated to is something I won't allow myself to do. I value you as a friend and soldier, but that's all it can be.\"\n\nShahal looks like a kicked puppy but nods his head, \"I'll respect that.\"\n\nMika nods. \n\n\"Your Grace, a word of advice.\" Shahal says, \"Friends are important, but they're also liabilities too. You can be open around them, even if you are a Queen.\"\n\nMika studies the man, \"It's rather late for you to leave now, even if you are the head of the Second Sons. You can sleep in the soft chair for the night.\"\n\nShahal nods, \"Pleasant dreams, Your Grace.\"\n\nMika looks back at the man, \"You, as well.\"\n\nMika makes his way towards his bedchambers as Shahal puts on his pants and settles into the soft long chair for the night.  \n\nIn the early morning light, Ser Lacus makes his way to the council chambers in the Great Pyramid. \n\nHe strides around the hallways and is about to turn the corner before Shahal turns it at the same time, shoving his shirt on his naked chest. \n\nSer Lacus' eyes widen at the sight of Shahal leaving the Queen's chambers so early in the morning. Shahal plasters a smug look on his face. \n\n\"Lacus. Are you here to see our queen? He seems to be in a good mood.\" Shahal pats a silently fuming Lacus on the shoulder before making his way past the beta. \n\nLacus looks at the alpha before glancing at the entrance to the council chambers.\n\nThe sun shines through the window onto a table where Mika looks down at a spread-out map. The omega has all of his pale blonde hair down.\n\nMika wears a new dress. An x-shaped cross made of cerulean dragon scale fabric crosses down the front of Mika's torso to his waist, creating a barrier around the waist for a white-grey pleated chiffon skirt to continue all the way down to his feet. There are light-blue cut outs to cover his nipples that strap around to his back to connect with the cross. The dress has cut outs that reveal his naked chest, belly button, and left and right part of his abdomen that are shaped by the cross. Giving Mika a looks that makes him look more open by revealing more. \n\nMika studies the map as Ser Lacus walks inside. \n\n\"Khaleesi.\" Ser Lacus says. \n\n\"You're here early.\" Mika says. \n\n\"Later than some.\" Ser Lacus says with a bite that Mika catches. \n\n\"I take you ran into Shahal. You needn't worry, nothing happened.\" Mika says. \n\n\"I can't trust him, he's a sellsword.\" Ser Lacus says. \n\n\"Didn't you fight for the Gold Company before pledging your sword to Lucal?\" Mika challenges. \n\n\"I did.\"\n\n\"I trust you.\" Mika says sincerely. \n\n\"Shahal killed his captains and dumped their heads at your feet when he grew tired of their commands. How could you ever have faith in a man like that?\" Ser Lacus asks. \n\n\"As I've said before nothing happened and even if anything did, I would not have to answer to anyone for it.\" Mika says slightly defensive, \"Besides, I could never have faith in a man like Shahal. That's why I've sent him and the Second Sons to retake Yunkarion.\"\n\n\"You have?\" Ser Lacus is now eager to change the subject. \n\n\"I have.\" Mika reiterates. \n\n\"Without you there to rule, Khaleesi, I fear the masters will simply bide their time, wait for the invaders to leave and reassert control.\" Ser Lacus says. \n\n\"That is why I've ordered Shahal to execute every master in Yunkarion. The masters tear babies from their mothers' arms. They mutilate little children by the thousands. They train little omegas in the art of pleasuring old alphas and betas. They treat alphas like beasts, as you said yourself.\" Mika says.\n\n\"Herding the masters into pens and slaughtering them by the thousands is also treating men like beasts. The slaves you freed, brutality is all they've ever known. If you want them to know something else, you'll have to show it to them.\" Ser Lacus says. \n\n\"And repay the slavers with what? Kindness? A fine? A stern warning?\" Mika asks sarcastically, \"I've already tried the ones here, and yet we still face problems in Meeridan. What good has this mercy done?\"\n\n\"It's tempting to see your enemies as evil, all of them, but there's good and evil on both sides in every war ever fought.\" Ser Lacus advises. \n\n\"Let the priests argue over good and evil. Slavery is real. I can end it. I will end it. And I will end those behind it.\" Mika declares. \n\n\"I sold men into slavery, Khaleesi.\" Ser Lacus points out. \n\n\"And now you are helping me show them to freedom.\" Mika argues. \n\n\"I wouldn't be here to help you if Guren Ichinose had done to me what you want to do to the masters of Yunkarion.\" Ser Lacus says. \n\nMika considers this before an idea springs into his head, \"The man who came to me the other day about burying his father.\"\n\n\"Hizakh lo Doraj?\"\n\n\"He will accompany the Second Sons and serve as my ambassador to Yunkarion. He will tell the masters what has happened in Meeridan. He will explain the choice they have before them. They can live in my new world or they can die in their old one.\" Mika tells Ser Lacus sternly. \n\nSer Lacus has the ghost of a smile on his face as he nods. \n\n\"Well, go and catch Shahal before he leaves. Tell him I changed my mind.\" Mika tells Ser Lacus. \n\n\"Yes, Khaleesi.\" Ser Lacus says, moving to leave. \n\n\"No.\" Mika stops Ser Lacus, \"Tell him you changed my mind.\" \n\nSer Lacus nods with the ghost of a smile that mirrors Mika's as the beta takes his leave from him. \n\n\n Ebina \n\n\nShinoa is clad in a dark cloak over her lilac dress as she walks down the hallway towards the Ebina courtyard. She walks outside into the snow that falls onto the ground of the courtyard, already having covered the ground in white. She looks around in awe as she remembers the last time she ever saw snow was back home in Nagoya at Snowstorm. She feels a wave of nostalgia overtake her as she feels the cool white feeling hit her skin and her purple hair. \n\nShe looks down at the snow and decides to do something that reminds her of home. She gets on the ground and begins to construct a model of Snowstorm Castle. She must have spent around three peaceful and unbothered hours outside creating a perfect replica of the snowy castle made out of snow. Once she's finally done, she sits back and looks at her handiwork as a wave of melancholy washes over her at the sight of her former home. \n\nShe turns at the sound of footsteps and sees Ryuki emerge, \"Hello, Ryuki.\"\n\n\"What are you doing?\" Ryuki asks. \n\n\"I'm building my home, Snowstorm. At least I think I am. I haven't been back there in a very long time.\" Shinoa says. \n\n\"Why did you leave?\" Ryuki asks as he crouches. \n\n\"It's a long story.\" Shinoa says with a rueful smile. \n\n\"I stay here in Ebina. Mother says it's dangerous on the roads and I have to keep myself safe because I'm the Lord of Ebina and the Lord of Ebina is a very important person.\" Ryuki says. \n\n\"Yes, you certainly are.\" Shinoa agrees. \n\n\"When will you go back?\"\n\n\"Probably never. My family doesn't live there anymore and someone burned it down.\" Shinoa says. \n\n\"Oh. Does Snowstorm have a Moon Door?\" Ryuki asks. \n\n\"No, I'm afraid not. It's not high up in the mountains. It's down on the ground.\" Shinoa explains. \n\n\"That sounds dangerous. How do you make people fly?\" Ryuki says. \n\n\"We don't.\"\n\n\"What do you do with all the bad people and the scary people and the people you don't like?\" Ryuki asks. \n\n\"I never did anything with them at all. Omegas didn't take part in that where I came from.\" Shinoa says. \n\n\"Well, I'm Lord of Ebina. When I grow up, I'll be able to fly anybody who bothers me. Or you. When we get married, you can tell me if you don't like somebody and then we can bring them back here and, whoosh! Right through the Moon Door.\" Ryuki rambles on. \n\nShinoa remains amused, the boy seems harmless so she plays along. \"I like the sound of that.\"\n\n\"Let's put a Moon Door in your Snowstorm.\" Ryuki suggests. \n\n\"All right.\"\n\n\"It can go in here in this big tower.\" Ryuki hastily reaches to show her, but accidentally knocks down the snow tower he touches. \n\n\"Careful.\" Shinoa gets out too late before sighing, \"You've ruined it. Now I'm going to have to rebuild the whole thing.\"\n\n\"I didn't ruin it.\" Ryuki says defensively. \n\nShinoa rises and Ryuki does with her, which causes her to realize she's actually taller than him. \"You did.\"\n\n\"It was already ruined because it didn't have a Moon Door. I was fixing it!\" Ryuki whines. \n\n\"Knocking things down isn't fixing them. It's ruining them.\" Shinoa reprimands. \n\n\"I didn't ruin it!\" Ryuki starts to whine and stomp. \n\n\"You're being stupid.\" Shinoa says.\n\n\"I didn't ruin it!\" Ryuki shouts and begins to kick Shinoa's Snowstorm until it no longer remains. \n\nShinoa watches shocked and angered. She's tired of these annoying, bratty alpha men in her life that think they can treat omegas horribly because of their status. Her bubbling rage grows as the boy stomps and once he stops and looks at her challengingly, she finally lets it all out. She slaps the boy across his face for ruining her happiness. The boy holds his face and gazes at a dazed Shinoa with wide eyes. \n\nShinoa snaps out of her daze as Ryuki sobs and runs away, \"Ryuki, I'm sorry, I-\"\n\n\"Children.\" A voice says across from her at the other entrance causes her to turn to see Kagiyama. \n\n\"I hit him.\" Shinoa says. \n\n\"Yes, I saw.\"\n\n\"I shouldn't have done that.\" Shinoa tells him. \n\n\"No, his mother should have a long time ago. Consider it a step in the right direction.\" Kagiyama consoles her. \n\n\"If he tells Lady Hyakuya-\" Shinoa starts. \n\n\"Let me worry about Lady Hyakuya.\" Kagiyama reassures her. \n\n\"I was trying to remember what everything looked like. I'll never see it again.\" Shinoa says forlornly at the pile of snow where her Snowstorm was. \n\n\"A lot can happen between now and never. If you want to build a better home, first you must demolish the old one.\" Kagiyama tells her lowly. \n\nShinoa studies the man suspiciously, \"Why did you really kill Takashi? Tell me why.\"\n\n\"I loved your brother more than you could ever know. Given the opportunity, what do we do to those who've hurt the ones we love? In a better world, one where love could overcome strength and duty, you might have been my child. But we don't live in that world.\" Kagiyama tells her closely. \n\nKagiyama strokes her purple hair before saying, \"You're more beautiful than he ever was.\"\n\n\"Lord Kagiyama-\" Shinoa starts, almost fearful. \n\n\"Call me Taro.\" Kagiyama says before cupping the omega's cheeks with his cold hands and lifting her face to meet his in a forceful and dubious kiss. \n\nShinoa closes her eyes as she tries to get away from the strong grip. \n\nBoth remain unaware of Lady Fumie Hyakuya watching their entire exchange and fuming with a need for murder and vengeance at another Hiiragi besting her before she turns to leave. \n\nShinoa finally manages to pull away and looks at the beta in shock and slight disgust, while Kagiyama looks at her with uncertain lust and annoyance at the end of the kiss.\n\nShinoa makes her way to the Ebina Throne Room after being summoned by Lady Hyakuya after she came back inside from the snow. \n\nLady Hyakuya stands near the Moon Door looking out of it. \n\n\"You wanted to see me, Lady Hyakuya?\" Shinoa asks. \n\n\"Come here, Shinoa.\" Lady Fumie distantly tells her. \n\nShinoa joins her hesitantly at the edge of the Moon Door. They both look down at the clouds under the door and the lush greenery and specks of rocky landscape that can be made out from such a height. The port and lake that can be seen covered by the clouds.  \n\n\"Do you know how far the fall is?\" Lady Fumie asks. \n\n\"No.\"\n\n\"Neither do I. Has to be hundreds of feet. It's fascinating what happens to bodies when they hit the rocks from such a height. The impact breaks them right apart. Like eggs dropped on the floor. Sometimes pieces remain intact. You'll find the head sitting on its own. Every hair in place. Amber eyes staring at nothing.\" Lady Fumie says which catches Shinoa's attention as the woman's voice grows murderously cold with her next sentence. \"I know what you did.\"\n\n\"I'm so sorry, Lady Hyakuya. I never should have hit Ryuki, I know it. I promise it won't happen-\" Shinoa starts to apologize. \n\n\"Don't be coy with me, you little whore. You kissed him. You kissed Taro.\" Lady Fumie sneers at the girl. \n\n\"I didn't. You don't understand.\" Shinoa's voice gets louder and defensive. \n\nLady Fumie grabs Shinoa's forearm, \"I saw you! You can't lie to me because I saw it with my own eyes!\"\n\n\"He kissed me. I pulled away.\" Shinoa retorts in desperation. \n\nLady Fumie grabs the back of Shinoa's hair in a vice grip and pulls her over until she is kneeled to lean over the Moon Door as Shinoa cries. \"Liar! Whore! He is mine!\"\n\n\"Please!\" Shinoa begs as tears begin to pour past her eyes. \n\n\"Everyone stood between us and now they're all dead. That's what happens to people who stand between Taro and me.\" Lady Hyakuya hisses at Shinoa before shouting, \"Look down! Look down! Look down! Look down!\"\n\n\"Fumie!\" Kagiyama's familiar voice stops Lady Fumie's rage for a split second as he enters, \"Let her go.\"\n\n\"You want her? This empty-headed child?\" Lady Fumie shouts in disbelief and madness at being passed up for another Hiiragi. \n\n\"Let her go.\" Kagiyama says. \n\n\"She's just like her brother. She'll never love you.\" Lady Fumie cries while holding back tears. \"I lied for you. I killed for you. Why did you bring her here?!? Why?!?\" \n\n\"I'll send her away. I swear on my life. I swear to all the gods. Let her go, Fumie.\" Kagiyama implores. \n\nShinoa's whines can be heard. \n\nLady Fumie considers this with her grip remaining tight as her face scrunches up. \n\nLady Fumie pushes Shinoa back by the breast as she lets go of her hair so that the omega falls back onto the cold, stone ground. \n\nShinoa is paralyzed in fear and relief as she sits back. \n\nLady Hyakuya finally breaks down on the ridge of the Moon Door, leaning on it to weep.\n\nKagiyama approaches her carefully and gently. \n\n\"Oh, my sweet wife. My sweet, silly wife.\" Kagiyama says as he comes to her and kneels to her level. \n\nHe holds her shoulders as Shinoa recovers and watches the two. \n\nKagiyama rises with her in his arms as he makes her face him. \n\nHe meets her tearful gaze with solemn and cold ones, \"I have only loved one omega... only one, my entire life.\"\n\nLady Fumie smiles at him in a dazed happiness, believing he means her. Shinoa looks up at the two.\n\n\"Shinya Hiiragi.\" Kagiyama declares darkly with a low tone of voice. \n\nKagiyama watches as Lady Fumie Hyakuya's face falls before coldly pushing her off the edge and past the Moon Door.\n\nKagiyama watches as she screams while she falls to her death until he cannot hear it anymore. Shinoa watches the man, surprised that she is not shocked by this as much as she should be. "}
+{"text": "She only lost consciousness for two or three seconds really; then the pounding of blood in her ears died down, and Anne realised she was leaning heavily against someone, and that that someone was supporting her from sliding to the ground by keeping his arms wrapped tightly around her.\n\nShe opened her eyes.\n\nThen she lifted her head and looked up into Gilbert’s fury-white face.\n\nUpon seeing her move a wave of deep relief swept over his features; but the next moment he looked, if that was possible, even more angry.\n\n‘What the hell did you think you were doing?’\n\nAnne had never before heard him – or, indeed, anybody else – use such a voice.\n\n‘I— I just—‘ she began, and realised her teeth were chattering just like that night in the stable, only a hundred times more.\n\n‘Just what?’ Gilbert demanded, his hands slipping to her elbows and grasping them so tight it hurt. ‘Just what, Anne? Are you crazy?’\n\nHis eyes had such a distraught look Anne was frightened even more, and she gave into the tears which had been welling up in her throat since the morning – or rather, since Saturday night.\n\nShe was vaguely aware that Gilbert was saying something; she felt him move and, horrified at the thought that he was trying to free himself from her, frantically grasped at the front of his coat with both her hands.\n\n‘I’m so sorry,’ she managed through her choking sobs. ‘I’m so sorry. It’s all my fault. Gilbert, I’m sorry.’\n\nHe said something, but she was unable to register his words and only shook her head against his chest.\n\nThis might have gone on forever as far as Anne’s ability to check her own access of misery was concerned, but suddenly she felt Gilbert forcibly tear himself away from her panicked grasp, take her face between his hands, and hold it in an iron grip.\n\nShe was so startled by both the suddenness of the movement and the directness of his gaze that she momentarily stopped crying and merely looked back at him in dumb bewilderment.\n\n‘Breathe in,’ he said. ‘And then out. Just like me, okay?’\n\nAnne complied, mainly because she would literally have done anything he told her to at that moment if it only meant that he wasn’t going to leave her.\n\nTo her surprise, after a few moments she felt her body cease to shake, and she realised she was once more capable of thinking more or less clearly.\n\nThis must have shown in her face, for Gilbert gave her a small, lopsided smile, and asked,\n\n‘Better?’\n\nShe nodded.\n\nHe let go of her face, and she almost cried out to stop him, but controlled herself. It was no use.\n\nNothing was any use now.\n\n‘Let’s sit down, then.’\n\nGilbert’s manner was carefully calm and collected, and although he still looked pale and extremely wary he no longer had that look in his eyes as though he was on the verge of madness.\n\nAnne stood passively by as he looked round and, espying an old tree trunk lying some yards away, put his hand on the small of her back and led her to it as one might a scared child.\n\nShe could not help the impression that he was careful to sit far enough away so as not to touch her in any way. Well, she didn’t wonder. He must think her filthy enough to contaminate anything she got near to.\n\nThey sat for a moment in complete silence. At last, taking a sudden resolve, Anne looked up and encountered Gilbert’s eyes. His gaze was level, but she saw that there lurked beneath the surface calm that mad rage of a few moments’ ago, and shuddered involuntarily.\n\n‘You can go,’ she blurted out rather abruptly, afraid of what he might say if he were to be the first to speak. ‘If you want to.’\n\nHe stared back blankly.\n\n‘Go?’\n\n‘Yes. I mean, if you’d rather not be here.’\n\n‘And what are you going to do then?’ he asked, a sudden sharpness entering his voice. ‘Go back to the edge of that cliff? Is that why you want to get rid of me?’\n\nHe sounded – and looked – almost as angry again as he did some minutes previously, and, instinctively, Anne drew away from him a little.\n\n‘Get—rid?’ she stuttered out. ‘I only meant that—‘\n\n‘You only meant to throw yourself off that cliff, did you? Why?’ he demanded harshly as she merely continued to look back in dumb bewilderment. ‘Why, Anne? Does everything—everything we have mean so little to you?’\n\n‘I—I never even considered doing it on purpose!’ she countered, stung into speech by the enormity of the error he was making. ‘I just stood there, and then—I don’t know, I just turned giddy and couldn’t—couldn’t move—‘ she stopped, the memory of that awful moment when the fall had seemed inevitable making her voice tremble against her will. ‘How could you think I’d ever do something like that?’\n\n‘What else could I think?’ Gilbert answered heatedly, standing up and turning upon her fiercely. 'First you go out of the schoolhouse looking—like that, and then when I finally find you, you’re standing on the edge of a bloody cliff—‘ he stopped, running his hands across his face, and turning away.\n\nAnne felt very cold all of a sudden.\n\n‘I swear to you, Gil, I’d never do something like that,’ she said quietly, getting hesitatingly to her feet. ‘I swear it. You know I wouldn’t.’\n\nShe touched him tentatively on the arm, and when he turned round she suffered yet another shock.\n\nGilbert was crying. His whole face was contorted with suppressed tears, and one was actually rolling down his cheek.\n\nWithout thinking twice, Anne reached up and brushed it away, and then held her palm against his face.\n\n‘Gil—‘ she whispered, at a loss for words. ‘Gil—‘\n\nHe pulled her into him, and held her so tight she could barely breathe. She felt him bury his face in her hair and inhale in a slow, painfully shuddering way.\n\n‘Don’t ever do that again,’ he said hoarsely. ‘Anne, don’t you understand I couldn’t—I can’t lose you, Anne. I can’t—‘ his voice broke a little, ‘I can’t even think about it.’\n\nHer astonishment at those words was so great she pulled away and blurted out,\n\n‘Do you mean you still want to be with me?’\n\nGilbert stared back in undisguised bewilderment, his arms falling to his sides.\n\n‘What—what on earth do you mean?’\n\n ‘I mean,’ said Anne with painful precision, her cheeks flaming up. ‘That I can’t—I thought you despised me.’\n\n‘Despised you?’ he repeated, sounding horrified. ‘Anne, are you crazy?’\n\n‘Well, what was I to think after the look you gave me in the morning, when I—‘\n\n‘The look I gave you?’ Gilbert interrupted in an incredulous, increasingly heated tone. ‘Anne, I was not giving you any looks, for God’s sake. I barely know what I was doing. I was trying to stop myself from throttling that bloody bastard, I suppose.’\n\nAnne felt her stomach clench. It had come, then – the moment when they openly acknowledged the part played by Billy in this awful mess.\n\nShe stood silent, looking down at her own tightly clasped hands. She could feel Gilbert’s eyes on herself.\n\n‘Anne,’ he said, in a strained but nonetheless gentle voice. ‘Do you want to talk about it?’\n\nShe looked up and met his eyes.\n\n‘It wasn’t like he’s making it out to have been,’ she said quietly. ‘It wasn’t anything—anything nearly so odious, Gil.’\n\nHis eyes were scanning her face searchingly. ‘It-wasn’t?’\n\n‘No,’ she went on, feeling as though her face was on fire. She put her hands up, pressing them against her forehead so that she might be screened from Gilbert’s penetrating gaze. ‘He’s lying. He’s never—he’s never even touched me, except—except for my throat,’ she was stumbling over her words now, speaking with increasing speed and incoherence. ‘But that was only—I don’t know, I suppose he was just trying to scare me. But nothing really happened. He didn’t really hurt me. I swear he didn’t, Gil. He’s just talking the way he is because he knows how it’s getting on my nerves, and—and Josie is in on it too, and—‘\n\nShe stopped, for she felt Gilbert’s fingers close gently around her wrists and draw her hands away from her face.\n\nImmediately and unreasonably, she dropped her gaze to avoid meeting his eyes.\n\n‘Anne.’\n\nShe looked up. He was pale and his eyes were angry, but he made an attempt to smile at her.\n\nThat’s when she began crying. Again.\n\n‘Anne, don’t,’ he said firmly, drawing her into another tight embrace. ‘Don’t cry. I swear to you he’ll never dare even look in your direction again.’\n\n‘No!’ she exclaimed, freeing herself from his arms and looking rather wild. ‘Don’t you see that’s why I never told you in the first place? I knew you’d want to do something stupid!’\n\n‘Well, and what did you expect?’ he countered, frowning. ‘He can’t just go on bullying you forever, and perhaps worse—‘\n\nAnne went white. ‘I thought you believed me!’ she gasped, feeling sick to the heart. ‘I thought you believed me when I said there was never anything—anything of that kind! Oh my God, I knew it, I knew it would be like this— You’ll never look at me the same way again now—you’ll always suspect—‘\n\n‘What are you talking about?’ Gilbert asked in some exasperation. ‘Of course I do believe you, Anne. And nothing—nothing could ever change my feelings for you. You know it.’\n\n‘I know nothing of the kind!’ she countered, sitting down again and putting her face in her hands. ‘I can’t stop thinking about it— And I know you’ll feel the same, even if you won’t admit it—‘\n\n‘Admit what? Anne, what are you talking about? You just said he hasn’t—‘ she heard his voice break a little, ‘really hurt you—‘\n\n‘Because he hasn’t’ she repeated emphatically, finally looking him straight in the eyes. ‘But he—he’s said something—something—‘\n\nShe broke off helplessly.\n\nSlowly, Gilbert crouched down in front of her, taking her hands in his and looking up at her with extreme earnestness.\n\n‘Anne, whatever it is, I swear to you it won’t matter. You must not be afraid to tell me.’\n\nShe looked back at him silently for a moment, trying to steady her breath.\n\n‘Gilbert,’ she said finally, doing her best to speak calmly. ‘Do you think—has it ever occurred to you that we might perhaps—that possibly—that someday you might want to get married to me?’\n\nGilbert’s eyebrows shot up at the unexpectedness of the question. Then he smiled an unexpected smile.\n\n‘Once or twice an hour it does, yes,’ he said with mock solemnity.\n\nAnne, although internally trembling with apprehension, couldn’t help a small, unwilling smile of her own at that.\n\n‘I’m serious,’ she said, making a wry face.\n\n‘What makes you think I’m not?’ he countered with a shrug. ‘Anne, if you insist on knowing the truth, I think that if I was rich enough I could even go to the length of dissuading you from continuing your studies if that meant I’d get to,’ flushing slightly, ‘make you mine sooner. I’m no better than Charlie Sloane really, you see,’ he finished with a smirk.\n\nAnne frowned. ‘You wouldn’t do that.’\n\n‘Well, I can’t do it, anyway. But,’ he added playfully, ‘you, being a demure lady, know nothing of the temptations we base fellows are exposed to. The thought of waiting years before we can be together is hardly exhilarating.’\n\nShe suddenly remembered the dreams she’d had lately, featuring Gilbert and not in the least demure in nature, and felt her whole body go uncomfortably warm.\n\n‘Indeed,’ she said with rather exaggerated curtness. ‘I’m extremely sorry we girls don’t have to marry at sixteen the way we did in the old days. So incommoding to you.’\n\n‘You have no idea,’ he murmured, and reached up to kiss her on the lips.\n\nInflamed as she was by his last words, Anne give herself up to the caress, and kissed him back with the old unrestrained ardour.\n\n‘You really are something, Anne Shirley,’ he breathed into her hair.\n\nThis phrase brought her back to reality with a thud.\n\nAll her nerves going suddenly taut again, she disentangled herself from his arms.\n\n‘Yes,’ she said dully, confronting his startled, slightly distracted gaze with a sudden determination. ‘What am I?’\n\nGilbert looked back at her with raised eyebrows, as though not sure whether she was just talking nonsense or not. ‘What do you mean?’ he asked eventually, his voice confusedly amused.\n\n‘I mean,’ replied Anne stiffly, sitting up straight, ‘don’t you ever wonder who I really am? As in, who my parents were, and what they did for a living, and stuff like that?’\n\n‘No,’ he said promptly. ‘I don’t.’\n\nShe stared at him, and he met her eyes with a level gaze.\n\n‘Don’t look like that,’ he said finally with a small, forced laugh, reaching out again for her hand. ‘It’s not that I don’t care in the bad way. I wish with all my heart I could meet your parents, and you mine, but,’ with a shrug, ‘it just can’t happen, and it’s no use dwelling on it.’\n\nAnne was silent, looking down at their joined hands.\n\n‘Anne, it’s you I fell I love with,’ Gilbert said softly. He drew her closer and, putting his arm around her, tried to look into her downcast eyes. ‘Only you. And you seem to keep thinking I’m going to ask you for some sort of credentials or something. That’s not terribly smart for such a reputedly smart girl, you know,’ he added teasingly.\n\nFor all his assumed light-heartedness, when Anne looked up at him his eyes were serious and searched her face anxiously.\n\n‘I knew you would talk like this,’ she said with a sigh she couldn’t help. ‘But that’s only because you haven’t really thought about what it means that nobody knows who – what I really am.’\n\n‘Well, you seem to have done my share of it,’ Gilbert replied with an attempt at a smile. ‘Anne, it really doesn’t in the least—‘\n\n‘But it does, it does!’ she interrupted impatiently, freeing her hands from his hold and putting them up to her forehead. ‘Can’t you see that you might one day regret that you never knew who you were connecting yourself with? Let’s suppose,’ she went on rather breathlessly, looking back at him and instantly regretting it, he looked so bewildered and also, in some vague way, angry once again. Nevertheless, she went on. ‘Let’s suppose we do get married, and you do get to obtain a medical practice somewhere, and then someone starts some—some odious rumour about me—a rumour neither of us can disprove—because it might be true—‘\n\n‘What rumour? What are you talking about?’ he asked, frowning. ‘What could anyone possibly have to say about you? You’re an orphan, for God’s sake, not a fugitive criminal!’\n\nIt has come, then – the moment when he would forever cease to see her the way he used to.\n\n‘I am not a fugitive criminal,’ Anne said with whatever calmness she could muster, meeting his gaze squarely. ‘But what if some member of my family was?’\n\n‘It does not matter – as I already told you—‘\n\nAgain, he tried to reach out for her, but she moved away. She needed to keep a clear mind, and Gilbert’s touch was rarely conductive to that.\n\n‘Aren’t you afraid heredity might assert itself?’ she asked quickly, before he could say anything more.\n\nAt that, he looked involuntarily amused. ‘What, afraid that someday you’ll take to shoplifting?’ Then, perceiving her annoyance at the attempt at jest, he added more seriously, ‘Anne, I do not believe such things are hereditary. And if you try and think about it objectively, you’ll believe the same. There are black sheep born into the most honest families, and the other way around.’\n\nAnne waved this away impatiently. ‘Yes. But when someone gets hold of a story, they don’t bother thinking objectively about whether it’s true or not, they go on repeating it until everyone knows it, and believes it, too—‘’\n\nGilbert’s voice cut into her irrelevancies peremptorily.\n\n‘Anne, what story?’\n\nShe looked at him in silence for a moment, and then, feeling unequal to it, looked down at her hands.\n\n‘For example,’ she said quietly, feeling as though each word was being dragged out of her, ‘that my mother was not—that she was not a respectable person. That she was—might have been—a member of a profession which—which— Oh, what’s the use?’ she broke off impatiently, looking up at him with flaming cheeks. ‘I can’t make it sound any better, no matter how hard I try. What I mean is that my mother might have been a prostitute.’\n\nGilbert’s frown faded from his face, and he looked back at her with a completely blank expression. In the few seconds’ silence which ensued, the thought flitted through Anne’s mind that it was a pity she had not toppled down that cliff after all.\n\n‘Is that what’s Billy’s been tormenting you with?’ he asked eventually, his voice suspiciously neutral.\n\n‘You can’t deny it is a possibility,’ she snapped back promptly.\n\n‘Anne, anything’s a possibility. And it does not—‘\n\n‘Doesn’t it?’ she cut in with a sort of desperate defiance. ‘Not if someone actually turns out to know it for a fact someday?’\n\n‘Anne—‘\n\n‘Well?’\n\n‘No,’ he said, curtly but with great deliberation. ‘It does not matter. Anne,’ he added more gently, sliding closer to her and taking her face in his hands, ‘it doesn’t matter to me in the least. Do you believe me?’\n\nShe did not. She simply daren’t.\n\n‘I—‘\n\nHe bent down to kiss her, quick and fierce. ‘Anne, I love you. Nothing can ever change that. Don’t go fretting over this any more. Will you promise?’\n\n‘I’m not in a position to argue,’ she said evasively, giving him a smile she hoped looked genuine. ‘And will you promise something in return?’\n\nHe kissed her again.\n\n‘Anything you want,’ he murmured against her lips.\n\n‘Don’t confront Billy about this. Or about anything. Never again.’\n\nShe felt his body stiffen, and he looked annoyed as he held himself away to give her a frowning look.\n\n‘Anne—‘\n\n‘You said anything,’ she pointed out, and as he rolled his eyes at that she went on quickly, ‘Really, Gil, it’s just not worth it. I don’t want you to get into trouble because of a pig and an idiot like him. I don’t want you to use physical violence against anyone,’ she added quietly in afterthought. ‘Not ever. Promise.’\n\nSomething in her tone must have struck him, for now he looked concerned rather than annoyed.\n\n‘Anne, you don’t think I would ever use it without a valid cause or – or against someone who was smaller and weaker than me?’\n\n‘There never is valid cause for violence,’ she replied quietly, looking away. ‘There’s always a different way. Promise.’\n\nHe was silent, and she looked up at him.\n\n‘All right,’ he said softly, putting his hand up to stroke her cheek. ‘I promise.’\n\nAnne turned her head to the side and kissed the inside of his palm. When she looked at him again, it was with an arch look in her eyes such as Gilbert hadn’t seen for what seemed like a long time now.\n\n‘What is it?’ he asked, smiling back at her.\n\n‘I just realised we did skip school, after all,’ she replied, giggling.\n\nBut in her heart, she was far from easy.\n\n \n\n***\n\n \n\nOver the next few days, Gilbert kept his promise to keep away from Billy and, since the latter soon wearied of taunting Anne over this particular subject, all seemed to be in a fair way to unalloyed happiness.\n\nIf Anne did not keep her promise to him – and after all, she never really gave one – not to dwell on dreary possibilities any more, she thought she managed to hide it well enough.\n\nShe could not help noticing, however, that Gilbert had become oddly quiet, and that there were moments when he got so wrapped up in his thoughts she had to speak twice or thrice before she got his attention.\n\nAnd, of course, she put the worst and to her mind the only possible interpretation on that fact – namely, that he was after all waking up to the full, awful meaning of the odious possibility concerning her origins she had put before him, and was wondering how to break free of his fatal connection with her.\n\nOn a Sunday two weeks later he did not appear at church.\n\nAnne had not seen him the day before either, having been particularly busy about the house, and when the following Monday he was absent from school she felt certain he must be seriously ill and, classes over for the day, promptly turned her steps towards the Blythe farm.\n\nThe door was opened by Mary.\n\n‘Is Gilbert home?’ Anne asked rather breathlessly.\n\nMary looked surprised. ‘Gilbert went to Charlottetown on Friday evening,’ she said. ‘Didn’t you know?’\n\nAnne felt sick. ‘No,’ she replied, hardly knowing what she was saying. ‘I didn’t. Why—I mean, did he go to—for some particular purpose?’\n\n‘He didn’t tell me,’ replied Mary, and then, smiling, ‘I would have thought it much more likely you would be the one to know.’\n\nAnne somehow managed to smile back, and asked, ‘And—Did he at least say when he’d be back?’\n\n‘Well, actually he said he hoped he’d be back before today,’ said Mary, frowning a little. ‘But he also said not to worry if he wasn’t.’\n\n‘Oh,’ said Anne, the terrible certainty that Gilbert had meant to keep his excursion secret from her making her feel cold all over. ‘I see. Well, thank you, Mrs Lacroix. I—I’ll be going. Goodbye.’\n\nShe turned to leave, but Mary stopped her with an anxious,\n\n‘Anne, are you all right? You look really pale. Don’t you want to come in and rest for a moment?’\n\n‘No, thank you, Mrs Lacroix!’ Anne, who only wanted to be alone, replied hastily, giving the older woman a smile over her shoulder. ‘I really need to head home. Thank you and goodbye!’\n\nAnd before another well-meant enquiry could be made, she was out of the gate and in the road."}
+{"text": "To: All employees\n\nFrom: USSure Board of Directors\n\nRe: Holiday surprise\n\nThe Board of Directors wishes to announce this year's winner of the Employee Holiday Drawing. Our congratulations go to Cindy Smith of our Centerton office. She and a guest will receive round trip tickets to any location in Europe plus $250 per day to help offset lodging and meal expenses for a three week vacation. Congrats Cindy.\n\nWe also want to thank everyone for all the hard work performed on behalf of the company. In addition to any year-end bonuses or raises, the board has authorized a $1000 VISA gift card be made out to every employee and manager.\n\nHave a wonderful holiday season and a Happy New Year.\n\n-----\n\nCindy could hardly believe it when she logged in Tuesday morning and read the announcement twice to confirm she was indeed the winner of the drawing. She was amazed a mere five-year employee was able to win such a wonderful prize. What she also couldn't have imagined was how her coworkers responded to the news.\n\nFirst was her PA Suzanne who came running in a few minutes later. \"Cindy, did you see the news? Isn't that great, you lucky bitch!\" she laughed.\n\n\"Yeah, Suze, I can hardly believe it myself. How could I, with just five-years, get so lucky?\"\n\n\"I understand they include every employee who has been with the company for at least a year, so you qualified. Where you gonna go?\"\n\n\"Oh, I haven't even thought about it yet. I'll need to talk with Ted and see what he'd like to do. I bet he wants to go to Sweden and look at all the blonde beauties there, but I'm thinking the Med is more interesting.\"\n\n\"Oooh, the Riviera! That sounds so nice. Or even along the Adriatic. Oh, you're so lucky.\"\n\n\"Yeah, I agree. I guess we'll just have to plan a bit and decide.\"\n\nLater she received several congratulatory emails and calls from her coworkers, many of whom gave her recommendations as to where she should consider going. Eventually, the excitement died down and she was able to get back to work.\n\nShe decided to not tell her husband until they got home. That evening she left work a few minutes early and quickly prepared a nice meal. When he arrived, there were lit candles on the dining room table and the overhead lights were off.\n\n\"What's up, Honey?\" he asked as he surveyed the scene.\n\n\"I have a big surprise for you. Glass of wine?\"\n\n\"Sure. Uh, get a raise?\"\n\n\"Nope. Something more fun, though.\"\n\n\"What?\"\n\n\"Have a seat. Our dinner will be ready in five minutes.\"\n\n\"Cin, what's going on? You've got me worried.\"\n\n\"Relax, Ted, it's all good news. How was your day?\"\n\nHe recounted a fairly boring list of activities as he drained his wine. She then smiled and invited him to the table. After they had finished most of the meal and another glass of wine, she decided to tell him the news.\n\n\"Honey, are you ready for the surprise? It is a whopper!\"\n\n\"OK, so I'll bite. What is it?\"\n\n\"Your wife won the USSure annual employee drawing!\"\n\n\"What's that?\"\n\n\"Every year they throw all employees' names into the hat and draw out one for a big prize. And I won it!\"\n\n\"What's the prize?\" he asked with excitement in his voice.\n\n\"Your wife, along with a guest, will be traveling to Europe for three weeks next year! And they're paying the airfare and giving a daily allowance of two hundred and fifty bucks!\"\n\n\"Oh, Cindy, that's great! Where will we go?\"\n\n\"Uh, I'm not sure you'll be going with me,\" she teased. \"Maybe I'll ask Jennifer to go with me.\"\n\n\"Oh, no you don't!\" he laughed. \"I insist on going with you.\"\n\n\"I don't know. Jennifer is a great gal, could be a good travel companion. Maybe we could find us some nice Italian men...\"\n\n\"Wait a sec! You're actually thinking of leaving me here!\" came his exasperated voice.\n\nWith a twinkle in her eye, she replied, \"No, Silly, I'm just kidding. I'd love to go with you. But somewhere around the Mediterranean would be a good, don't you think? Interested?\"\n\n\"Sure! You won it; you choose. So, when do you have to go?\"\n\n\"There is no specific time, I have a full year to pick from. How about summer?\"\n\n\"That would be the best for me. I don't have to teach summer school next year, so I'll be free.\"\n\n\"Great, let's start to looking at things and come up with a plan. Why don't you look up Italy and I'll check out France. Oh, Honey, it's going to be so much fun.\"\n\nOver the next few weeks they each spent time online looking up places to visit. While discussing things together they decided they'd most like to really get to know a few places intimately rather than do a big tour and France was their preferred destination. They penciled out a week in Paris and two weeks in southern France along the Riviera. They also chose July, preferring to avoid the worst of the crowds in August. The final details would be settled over the next few months.\n\n-----\n\nTheir jet flew out of JFK on a beautiful July evening. They flew through the shortened night and arrived at Orly in the early morning, local time. Once on the ground they taxied for what seemed like hours until they reached the terminal. Eventually they made their way through customs and immigration before traveling to the center of Paris. Once there, a taxi took them to their B&B where they stored their luggage before walking to a sidewalk restaurant for a quick meal. After the meal they went back to the room and slept until early morning.\n\nThe next week was devoted to seeing the sights of Paris. They hit the big museums, rode to the top of the Eifel Tower and visited the Arc de Triomphe. On one day they visited the burned-out ruins of Notre Dame, a sight that brought tears to her eyes.\n\nAfter their week in Paris, they were excited to head to Nice on the Mediterranean coast. They took the bullet train so they could see the countryside up close. In Nice they had a wonderful room in a smaller hotel along the Promenade des Anglais, the main road along the waterfront. Their view from several floors up was delightful and they had good meals in the local restaurants.\n\nAfter two days of exploring in town, they toured around the area and visited the old mountain town of Eze. It was high on a steep little mountain and featured wonderful art galleries, good restaurants and spectacular views of the Mediterranean. With her binoculars Cindy looked carefully at the coast below her and could see attractive beaches and steep bluffs.\n\n\"Honey, look at the coast. We need to hit the beaches, don't you think?\"\n\n\"Sure, let's do that tomorrow,\" he replied. Then in a softer voice he whispered in her ear, \"You know, some of those beaches are topless. Interested?\"\n\n\"Wellllll, I'm not going topless, but if you want to ogle cute little mademoiselles, that'd be OK with me. Ya know, I believe some of the sausages packed into those little Speedos could be worth looking at, too,\" she laughed.\n\n\"OK, then tomorrow it is.\"\n\nThat evening they looked at their tourist info and found Paloma Beach several kilometers from their hotel. It looked easy to get to and there were restaurants nearby, so they decided it would be their first beach on the Med.\n\nCindy woke up with a tiny bit of nervousness. She knew there would be topless women at that beach and worried she might need to take her top off just to be allowed to go there. She didn't consider herself to be a prude and enjoyed a ribald joke now and then and she very much enjoyed sex with her husband, as she had with a few boyfriends before him. But she always considered herself to be a bit on the modest side. She never let her boobs hang out over a low neckline, would always wear a bra if her blouse was too sheer and generally preferred one-piece bathing suits. She, however, had been persuaded by Suzanne back home to get a fairly risqué bikini. Cindy kept going for more cloth on her bikinis but Suzanne kept pushing her to the little, teeny bikinis, some with merely a thong for a bottom. After much haggling, Cindy agreed to buy a fairly daring one which featured four small triangles, but she refused to let a strip of dental floss be the only thing covering her rear!\n\nShe quietly got up, quickly showered and shaved herself down to a landing strip. After drying, she slipped on the bikini, a blouse and shorts. She had hidden the bikini from Ted and couldn't wait to see his face when she showed it to him on the beach. They had a leisurely breakfast and made their way to the beach, arriving around eleven.\n\nCindy could barely believe her eyes. Sure, she'd known there'd be topless women, but she couldn't believe how many. It seemed nearly all of the women were casually sunbathing, walking or swimming with no top on. And no one seemed self-conscious at all. There was no leering, though she did have to nudge Ted with her elbow when he gawked a bit too long. \"Honey, it's ok to look, but don't stare, OK?\"\n\n\"I'll do my best, Sweetheart, but it's tough for a red-blooded American male not to look,\" he laughed.\n\nThey made their way along the beach until they came to the furthest section where there weren't too many sunbathers. After laying their towels down, she stood a few feet from Ted and slowly peeled her shirt and shorts off.\n\n\"Holy shit, Honey, I can't believe you're wearing that.\"\n\n\"Like it?\" she asked smiling at him.\n\n\"Oh, you know I do. It's attractive enough to make me even forget about all these boobs around here.\"\n\n\"Oh, you know just what to say. I'm glad you like it. Thank you, Sweetheart, but I know you still want to peek, so go ahead. God, some of these beautiful women could turn even me on.\"\n\n\"They're just eye candy, Honey, but you're the one for me. Here, let's get some sun cream on and relax.\"\n\nThey applied the cream to each other's backs and stretched out. It was a warm, almost hot day with plenty of sun. Eventually the area around them became more crowded with other beach-goers and most of the women were topless. After awhile Cindy became a bit self-conscious about the fact that she had a top on. She even thought about peeling it off, but just couldn't quite do it. She had grown up in a fairly conservative household where everyone dressed modestly and sexual issues were swept under the rug. It had even taken her many months before she was comfortable having sex with the lights on.\n\nEventually she rolled over onto her stomach and untied the back and neck straps. \"Dear, could you put a bit more cream on my back, please?\"\n\n\"Sure. If you want to, turn over. I'll put some on your front,\" he teased.\n\n\"No, I don't think I could. You know me, I'm just a little too shy.\"\n\nOnce the cream was on, she found herself drifting off to sleep. It was sometime later when a beach ball bounced off her butt. Startled and confused, she sat up to see what happened. Two little children were running to her laughing in French and holding out their hands for the ball. Cindy took the ball and tossed it back to them just as she realized her top was on the towel and her breasts were out in the open. Suddenly, she dropped back down to the towel with a little cry of surprise. She described what had happened to Ted when he asked her what the problem was.\n\n\"Well, Honey, did the world end when your nipples got some sunshine?\" he teased.\n\n\"Nooo,\" she replied emphatically, \"But it's just not for me. Sorry, Sweetheart, you won't be seeing these girls out on the beach.\" With that, she re-tied her strings and rolled over to get some more sun on her front. Once she got settled, she started to think about what had happened. Her boobs were exposed for all to see and Ted was right: The world had not ended. The more she thought about it, the more she realized it had been OK and nothing to be ashamed about. She liked her boobs, her ass, her entire body. Truly, there was no reason to hide it away, was there?\n\nOnce she acknowledged that, she felt a gradual, weird change overcoming her. It was if a lust dimmer-switch in her brain slowly turned from off to full on. Sexual images drifted through her mind: tender licks on her nipples, raw, earthy fucking, anonymous oral sex; the list went on and on. She realized her heart was racing, her nipples were beaded and she was getting wet! \"What's going on?\" she mused to herself. \"How can I be getting excited?\" Those wild sexual thoughts continued to run through her mind as she sunned herself and, try as she might, she was unable to take her mind off of them. She would look around at the beach to try and distract herself, but then an Adonis with a large bulge in his Speedo swimsuit or even a beautiful woman would walk by and her mind would tear off in a new direction. \"What would it be like to have him come over and take me without permission? What would she taste like and how would her screams of delight sound in French?\"\n\nAfter an hour or so of unrestrained mental stimulation, she had enough and knew she needed to get relief. \"Uh, Sweetheart, could we go now? I've had enough sun for today, OK?\"\n\n\"Well, sure, I guess. We've not been here very long, though.\"\n\n\"I know, but if you come back to the room with me now, you may just be surprised. I've got a certain itch...\"\n\n\"Well, in that case, yeah, sure, let's head back,\" he chuckled. Once back in their room, she launched herself at him as soon as the door was closed.\n\n\"Off with those trunks, NOW!\" she demanded as she peeled her dripping, wet bikini bottoms from her crotch. Once Ted was stripped, she nudged him back to the bed, pushed him down and crawled on top. A few rubs of her wet slit on his cock and he was hard as a rock. \"I want you in me, you good with that?\"\n\n\"Of course. What's got you all horny anyway?\"\n\n\"Now is not the time for talking,\" she replied as she slid down on him. He felt so good, stretching and filling her, causing her to moan with desire. She started to push herself up and down, driving her clit onto his pubic bone, stimulating herself more and more. That last hour on the beach fantasizing had been like an hour of foreplay. Never had she gotten so excited prior to sex and so, after just a few strokes and in what seemed like an instant, she crashed through a wild orgasm.\n\nOnce she caught her breath and recognized Ted had yet to come, she got off him and turned around, riding him in a reverse cowgirl. She knew he loved that position and wanted him to enjoy their time together as had she. She began to raise herself up and down again, slower this time, but still with passion and energy. Fantasies of fucking the Adonis raced through her mind but Ted's moaning brought her back to the present. He grabbed her by the hips, thrusting up and into her as she plunged down, harder, deeper and faster. Even though she had already had an orgasm, she felt another rising from her pelvis. Her right hand reached down and rubbed her clit in time with the thrusting.\n\n\"Oh, God, yes,\" she moaned as she felt herself reach the point of an inevitable orgasm and heard him grunting like he usually did just prior to his own orgasm. \"Oh, yes, yes, YES,\" she screamed as she fell off the orgasmic cliff and drifted down, spasming with intense pleasure. Eventually she collapsed down onto him to catch her breath. Ted gently rubbed her ass cheeks as they both recovered. She rolled off of him and turned to him to snuggle up.\n\n\"Mmm, nice,\" she whispered.\n\n\"Yeah, really nice,\" he responded. After a few seconds he went on, \"Uh, what got into you, anyway? At one point you're pulling your top back on and then an hour later, I'm being dragged up here for super-hot sex.\"\n\nEven though they had been married for several years, Cindy could still be a bit shy talking about sex. She hemmed and hawed not wanting to admit that somehow being topless, even for a few seconds, turned her on. \"Oh, we're on vacation and on the Med, so a roll in the hay was something that seemed right, somehow.\"\n\n\"A roll in the hay? Honey, you just about raped me, not that I'm complaining, mind you.\"\n\n\"Ted, Sweetie, it's hard sometimes for me to talk about this, you know, about sex. Let's just say I wanted you and, well, I had you. OK?\"\n\n\"Yeah, OK,\" he replied as he kissed her neck. \"You know, what we just had was a wonderful experience. A romp like that with my wife, well, that was one of the wildest experiences of my life.\"\n\n\"Yeah, me too,\" she whispered back to him.\n\nAfter a few minutes she giggled in his ear, \"But don't go thinking I'll be doing that anytime soon again.\"\n\n\"Why not?\"\n\n\"Gotta keep things like that special, now, don't we?\"\n\n\"Honey, every time we have sex is special. I can't believe sometimes how lucky I was to find you and convince you to marry me.\"\n\n\"You didn't have to convince me. I was hoping for months you'd pop the question. I loved you so much, just like I do now. And I'm lucky too.\"\n\nThat evening they had a tasty dinner at an open-air restaurant right on a large avenue. The service was impeccable, the food was delicious and the wine was some of the best they had ever tasted. After dinner they walked hand-in-hand for over an hour along the Promenade before retiring to their room.\n\n\"What do you want to do tomorrow?\" Ted asked her as they settled in.\n\n\"Oh,\" she paused, \"Uh, another day at that beach, if that's OK with you?\"\n\n\"Sure, let's hit the Chagall Museum in the morning and then we can head back down. OK?\"\n\n\"Yeah, that's great. And you'll get to see more French boobs again.\"\n\n\"Now, wait a sec. You, not me, you were the one asking for another beach day.\"\n\n\"Are you saying you don't wanna see French boobs?\"\n\n\"Honey, I'm a guy. Sure, I wanna see tits. But if you want to go to another beach, just let me know.\"\n\nWith her mind racing about the events of the day and how excited she got, she decided to let him off the hook. After all, she enjoyed the topless beach, too. \"No, Ted, let's go back. I'm good with it, OK?\"\n\n\"Sure. Wear your bikini under some nice clothes and we can head out from the museum without coming back here.\"\n\nThe next morning dawned bright and sunny. They had a quick breakfast and after packing some beach gear, they headed up to the museum. Around noon they ate lunch on the museum grounds and then went down to the beach.\n\nIt didn't seem as busy as the day prior and they did not have to walk so far to find an open area. They stripped off their clothes, applied sun cream to each other and stretched out to catch some sun. Cindy started out on her stomach and untied her bikini top while Ted lay on his back. About twenty minutes later he suggested they needed to turn over to prevent a sunburn. He rolled over onto his stomach and she rolled over onto her back. Her top was still untied and lying on her, barely covering her breasts. Suddenly, she knew what she would do. Casually she let her hand drift up, grab a string and pull the top completely free from her chest.\n\nCindy, little conservative Cindy from Nowheresville, Iowa, who grew up in the Evangelical First Faith Fundamentalist Church, was stretched out topless on the beach!\n\nThe sun caressed her breasts, the breeze tickled her nipples and she enjoyed every second of it. Again, she felt herself getting excited, much like the day before, first with heaviness in her pelvis and then moisture in her pussy. She peeked down her torso and realized her nipples were also erect, a sure sign of her excitement.\n\nAt first Ted did not know what she had done. He was on his stomach with his head turned away from her so he could watch the topless French girls, she presumed. Quietly she applied sun cream to the girls while secretly rubbing and squeezing her nipples. This caused her to get increasingly excited and she wondered if she could even climax doing this. Once with an old boyfriend she'd had an orgasm when he was sucking her nipples, but never since had nipple play caused such excitement. She rolled her head over and through her sunglasses saw an older man staring at her lecherously. \"Oops, I guess I better stop this,\" she thought to herself.\n\nShe brought her hands down to her sides and closed her eyes under the sunglasses. Once again sexual fantasies ripped through her mind. She dreamed of wild and crazy scenarios; being dragged up to a nearby villa for an afternoon of wild, anonymous sex, swimming out to a nearby yacht for drinks and sex on the deck with a French starlet and even having a threesome with Ted. Cindy kept trying to focus on other things but without success.\n\nAfter a bit Ted announced it was time to turn over. She sat up and waited for him to see her. While rolling over he suddenly stopped and stared at her. \"Uh, Honey, did you forget something?\"\n\n\"No, I didn't. I've been like this ever since we last turned over. Like it?\"\n\n\"Uh, yeah, definitely! Cin, you have nothing to be ashamed about. You can compete with these French girls just fine.\"\n\n\"It's not a competition, but I'm glad you like it. It's nice. The breeze on my nipples tickles, but nothing like when I put on the sun cream,\" she whispered.\n\n\"Wait a cotton-pickin' minute. Were you doing more than just rubbing on some cream?\"\n\n\"Mmm, maybe, a little,\" she giggled, \"But that guy over there kept staring at me, so I stopped. Guess who's still horny?\"\n\n\"Honey, I've never seen you so, uh, bold, I guess I should say.\"\n\n\"What? I've tried some kinky things with you...\"\n\n\"No, I mean outside or where others can see you.\"\n\n\"Yeah, I don't know what's got into me, but I do know what I want in me,\" she responded. \"Maybe you'll get lucky again when we get back to our room.\"\n\n\"Sounds to me like you wanna get lucky, too!\"\n\n\"Umm-hmm,\" she replied. \"Hey, uh, I need to hit the restroom.\"\n\nWith that, she stood and strolled towards the little building housing a kiosk and the restrooms. It felt so freeing! She had on just her bikini bottoms and nothing else. Through her sunglasses she noted a few guys glanced at her, but there was no gawking, no leering.\n\nCindy really liked her breasts. They were a generous B-cup or even a C-cup with certain bras. Their shape was perfect, sitting proud on her chest with just enough fullness that she could sense her breasts sway slightly as each foot hit the sand. She particularly liked her nipples, little eraser tips on fairly petite areolas. Knowing her breasts were the envy of many women, she straightened her posture even more as she strode to the restrooms. Once there, she slid into a stall and took care of business. As she sat, she realized her heart was racing a mile-a-minute from the excitement and as she patted herself dry with the tissue, she found there was far more moisture than the usual few drops of urine.\n\nAfter dropping the tissue into the water, she slid her finger along her crack and up to her swollen clit. \"Oh, God, my clit needs this,\" she thought to herself. She reached down and let a bit of moisture collect on her fingertip and then rubbed her clit again. Cindy couldn't believe she was actually rubbing herself in a public bathroom. She knew guys would sometimes masturbate in restrooms, but girls? Suddenly she heard another person come into the restroom, run the water in the sink a few seconds and leave. \"Was she alone?\" she wondered as she peeked under the stall dividers and saw no feet.\n\n\"I can't believe I'm doing this!\" she mused as she rubbed herself in earnest. Very quickly she got more and more excited and her breath was coming in little gasps, which she tried to stifle, as she began an all-out attack on her clit. Cindy rarely masturbated, in part due to her upbringing. Sure, she experimented when she was younger but in her married years, she probably polished her pearl no more than once or twice a year, usually when Ted had been gone on a trip for more than a week. Here she was rushing herself towards an orgasm purely because she was excited from her walk across the beach.\n\nJust as her excitement started to crest into a full-blown orgasm, the door opened. Cindy couldn't stop herself so she clenched her teeth and tried to control her breathing as her orgasm tore through her body. By the time the door in the next stall was closed, she was a bit more in control and could breathe easier with only a bit of gasping.\n\nThe woman in the next stall suddenly spoke out loud in French. Cindy didn't answer and after ten seconds or so she heard the same phrase again.\n\n\"I'm sorry,' she managed to say in a calm voice, \"I don't speak French.\"\n\n\"Oh, oui, oui. I ask are you good? You OK?\"\n\n\"Yes, yes, I'm fine.\"\n\n\"You sounded seeck.\"\n\n\"No, I'm not sick, but thank you for asking.\" She stood, disposed of the toilet paper ring and pulled up her bikini bottoms. Once she left the stall, she quickly washed her hands and walked back out into the bright Mediterranean sun.\n\n\"Did I just do that?\" she asked herself. \"Jill out in a bathroom? What would Ted say if he knew?\" Then she got worried. She knew Ted had an incredible nose and could easily smell her excitement. \"Uh-oh, what am I gonna do?\" She decided to act as if nothing happened and to move her towel to his opposite side, downwind of him.\n\n\"You sure took your time. Was it crowded?\"\n\n\"Oh, a little bit,\" she lied. \"Uh, Honey, that guy over there was staring at me earlier. Mind if I move to your other side?\" she asked as she dragged her towel over.\n\nOnce she settled onto the towel her husband leaned over to whisper into her ear, \"You know, I kinda think you're liking this, huh?\"\n\n\"Yeah, I'm getting used to it...\"\n\n\"I know I like it.\"\n\n\"But you've got dozens of cute mademoiselles to look at. Why is it a big deal that I'm topless?\"\n\n\"Honey, sure I like to look, but you, you're the one for me. Just seeing you braless can get me going, as you know. And this, wow, it's got me really going! If I could, I'd roll you over right now and have my way with you.\"\n\n\"I think it would be a fight,\" she giggled, \"As to who would attack who first.\"\n\nA few hours later as they approached their hotel's elevators she whispered, \"Last one in the room has to go down on the other!\" There was a mad scramble as two elevators arrived at the same time, she took one and he took the other. Up on their floor, the elevators arrived at the same time and the two rushed down the hall and stumbled into the room with her just in front of him.\n\n\"I won! Now come on over here,\" she said as she pulled off her top before peeling down her shorts and bikini bottoms in one, fell swoop. Ted went over to her, knelt on the floor and started to eat her out. As his tongue ravaged her slit and clit, she moaned while pushing his head tighter to her. Within seconds she was rolling from one orgasm to another, 'skimming,' as she called it, until her knees buckled and she fell back onto the bed.\n\n\"Honey, easy, I'm getting a bit too sensitive, what with my orgasm earlier and now these...\"\n\n\"Your what?\" he looked up at her with a girlcum-covered face.\n\n\"Oops,\" she giggled, \"I guess I, uh, I guess I might have admitted something...\"\n\n\"I thought that trip to the john was a bit too long. Did you rub one out in there?\"\n\n\"Umm-hmm,\" she admitted.\n\n\"What has gotten into you, anyway?\"\n\n\"Oh, Ted, I was so damn horny! Being topless is, well, it's super exciting for me. The light breeze on my nipples, the sun warming my boobs, the freedom from shame... I don't know, but it got me going a little bit yesterday, but today: Wow!\"\n\n\"Ooo-kaaay,\" he responded slowly, \"I'm learning a lot about you here.\"\n\n\"So am I! I can't believe it myself. Now, Honey, you still haven't had yours. Do you want me to do you?\"\n\n\"I'll tell what I want. Since you obviously already played with yourself, I want to watch you do it again, then you can give me a BJ. OK?\"\n\n\"I'd be a little embarrassed to do that in front of you...\"\n\n\"Why? It's a perfectly safe and normal activity, one you have done already today. And I think it is a hell-uv-a turn on.\"\n\n\"Alright. I'll do it. But you can't touch yourself. You're just gonna have to watch,\" she said as she pulled herself up to the head of the bed. Once she rearranged her pillows she stretched out, let her legs slip apart and teased him, \"You get to sit there on the corner, but no closer or I'll stop.\"\n\nThen with her eyes closed, she let her mind drift back to the beach. In no time at all she had moisture pooling below and a fullness in her pelvis. With her index and middle fingers, she parted her lips, moistened the digits and slipped them up to her clit. Cindy didn't masturbate very often, but she did know what worked the best: two fingers together rubbing little circles right over her clit. As she began the round and round motion, she could hear her lower lips making wet noises. It all felt so good and she found herself rising quickly to another orgasm. Eventually she let herself ride just shy of coming, prolonging that fabulous sensation of pre-orgasmic tension.\n\n\"Put your fingers inside,\" Ted whispered. She opened her eyes and glanced at him. His hands were by his side and he sported a raging hard-on.\n\n\"I normally don't. I like it this way.\"\n\n\"Keep doing that, but use your other hand. Go ahead. Try it.\"\n\nAs requested, she reached down with her left hand and curled her middle finger inside, eventually reaching the slightly knobby area in the front of her canal. This sent wild stabs of excitement deep into her pelvis. She felt herself start to lose control as she circled her clit and probed her G-spot, so she eased off just a bit. Again, and again, she brought herself to the edge of orgasm and let herself slide back.\n\nAfter several minutes of this self-imposed torture, she opened her eyes and looked at Ted. She could see pure lust etched on his face and his throbbing cock jutting out in front of him. Watching him and seeing how he looked at her suddenly upped her own stimulation immensely. Even though she had practically stopped rubbing her clit altogether, knowing he was looking at her felt as if she were still rubbing herself vigorously. His watching her sent her over the edge. With deep gulps of air and flushing across her upper torso she came with loud moans, having the best masturbation orgasm of her life. She took in several breaths and became lightheaded for a few seconds before her body settled down.\n\n\"Whew, Honey, that was...\"\n\n\"Good?\" he asked.\n\n\"No, not good, but great! One of the best ever.\"\n\n\"You sure looked like you were enjoying it.\"\n\n\"Umm-hmm. I did indeed,\" she responded. \"What about you? Want a BJ?\"\n\n\"You know I do. Take a few seconds, let yourself recover.\"\n\n\"I'm good to go, Sweetheart. Lean back.\" She expertly applied all her skill to bring him teasingly to his own shuddering orgasm. After a few minutes she stretched out beside him and stared at the ceiling. As she lay there, she realized being looked at, being watched wasn't a little bit exciting; it was actually a huge turn on. Due to her upbringing, she had not been inclined to experiment much sexually when she became active. The old idea that sex was for procreation could still niggle in her brain even though intellectually she understood sex was also for loving and pleasure. But on that day on the Riviera, she experienced pleasure beyond anything she could have ever believed possible.\n\n\"Cin, what's going on in your mind?\"\n\n\"Oh, just remembering about how turned on I got. And that last, big 'O', oh my God, I still can't believe it.\"\n\n\"Why were you so turned on, hmm?\"\n\n\"I kept thinking about being topless for all the world to see. Then, we come in here and you were watching me. Ted, I couldn't believe how that me going from fast to supersonic.\"\n\n\"So, little Cindy from Iowa is now an exhibitionist? What gives?\"\n\n\"Ted, I have never thought about it 'til now. Maybe it's because I was suppressed so much growing up. You know, Honey, you have brought me a long way in my sexual awakening. Remember when I still needed the lights off? Well, I certainly don't need that anymore, do I?\" she laughed.\n\nSuddenly she realized Ted was getting hard again. She was still wet and still excited so she leaned over him, licked his cock to full stiffness and crawled on top, facing his feet. She gently lowered herself onto him and started to thrust up and down while gently rubbing her clit. Ted grabbed her hips and helped pull down as he thrusted up into her. This went on for some little while until she felt him slide his hand over her butt. She didn't think much about it until she felt him rubbing right around her hole.\n\nCindy had never been interested in anal sex but she found herself suddenly getting very excited. His rubbing right around her anus sent lusty signals to her brain. The harder he rubbed, the better it felt. It wasn't a conscious decision, but she suddenly heard herself say, \"Stick it inside.\" There was a pause when the hand was removed from her butt, however once it returned, an obviously wettened digit was slid right into her.\n\n\"OMG!\" she thought, \"That is absolutely fantastic.\" She gently forced herself back to the finger and deeper onto him, all the while rubbing her clit. Within half a minute she found herself screaming towards yet another orgasm, moaning and panting with lust. Ultimately, she found herself experiencing yet another massive \"O\" while feeling Ted thrusting wildly below her. Wild waves of extreme pleasure coursed through her body and flashes of light raced in front of her closed eyes while she vaguely heard loud screams coming from somewhere. Once the waves passed through her, she collapsed onto Ted's legs, breathing deeply and trying to make sense of what had just happened.\n\n\"Hon, did you hear screams next door a few minutes ago?\" she finally asked him.\n\n\"Uh, no,\" he responded and paused for a few seconds before going on. \"Sweetheart, that was you.\"\n\n\"No effin' way. I never make much noise, you know that!\"\n\n\"You're right, usually you don't. But just now, well, you did.\"\n\n\"Hmm. Amazing,\" she whispered, more to herself than to Ted. Then she went on, \"Shower? Then we need to plan dinner.\"\n\nAfter they cleaned up and had dinner at a nice little bistro, they returned to their room. Once there they kicked around some plans for the next day.\n\n\"Wanna hit the beach again?\" Ted asked her.\n\n\"I don't know if I could tolerate it,\" she chuckled. \"Maybe I need a day off.\"\n\n\"It's your vacation, you get to decide what you want to do. I'll tag along wherever you lead us.\"\n\n\"All I know is while we are here, I want to do more topless bathing. And,\" she went on, \"I think you'll want me to, also!\"\n\n\"No doubt about it. I'm more than glad to help you relieve any sudden tension,\" he laughed.\n\n\"Good. So, let's sight-see tomorrow, OK?\"\n\nThey planned a day trip to Antibes, a smaller city to the west of Nice. They visited the Picasso museum, walked along the coast, looked on with amazement at the dozens of varieties of olives in the farmers market and spent time at the city's history museum. By evening they were back in Nice having another fabulous meal on the Promenade. For awhile Cindy didn't say much and seemed to be looking off into space. Finally, Ted asked her about it and she began to talk.\n\n\"Ted, Honey, I don't want you to get worried or anything, but you need to know something. I've been mulling this over all day long and it might sound crazy, but here goes: I love this exposure thing. And I need more of it. It seems to have triggered something in me, something I can't deny.\"\n\n\"Ooo-kaay,\" he responded slowly. \"Anything else?\"\n\n\"This is kinda embarrassing, but I need to, uh, I want to, uh, you know, go all the way.\"\n\n\"All the way how? Nude?\"\n\n\"Yeah, totally starkers. I know that sounds kinda wild, given how I grew up and how I been with you up 'til now, but I wanna try it.\"\n\n\"I see. You're sure?\"\n\n\"Yeah. It's keeps running around in my mind and until I try it, I'll never get past it. So, yeah, I wanna do it.\"\n\n\"I sure didn't see any completely nude people at Paloma, did you?\" Cindy shook her head 'No' before he went on. \"So, I guess we'll need to look up nudist beaches and maybe go to one, let you try it, huh?\"\n\nCindy launched herself at him saying, \"You'd do that for me? Really? Oh, Ted, you're the best guy a girl could ever wish for. You won't be upset knowing other guys, uh, other men will be lookin' at me?\"\n\n\"No, Honey, I won't. What I want is for you to explore anything you want, to find yourself and if it means walking bare-assed down a beach, well, I'm all for it.\"\n\n\"You'll need to be nude too...\"\n\n\"Yeah, I figured as much. You know I've never been as modest as you. I've skinny dipped before, so I'm OK with it. Here, let's google it.\"\n\nThey spent the next thirty minutes looking up nude beaches on the coast. Eventually they found one within a two-hour drive from their hotel, a few kilometers outside of St. Tropez. They decided to rent a car for the day and not rely on public transportation. That night she spent extra time in the shower again shaving her legs and all but her landing strip, which she trimmed short. She was so excited about the next day that she had trouble relaxing but eventually after a little bit of wine and some snuggling with Ted, she drifted off.\n\nThe next morning dawned clear and bright. They quickly dressed with summer clothes over their bathing suits, ate breakfast and went downstairs to pick up the car they had ordered. Ted drove while Cindy helped interpret the map and follow the GPS directions. In about two hours they were pulling into a parking area. Once out of the car, they strolled hand-in-hand to the beach.\n\n\"I know I want to do this, but I'm still a little nervous,\" she admitted.\n\n\"Oh, you'll do fine, and just think what this will do to you,\" he chuckled.\n\nAs they made their way, they saw people wearing bathing suits, sometimes topless, but no nudists. Suddenly Cindy was nervous. \"Maybe it's not a nudist beach after all,\" she thought to herself. Once on the sand they strolled a bit to the west where there were fewer people. Suddenly they both saw the same sight at the same time. Here on beach towels were a few couples absolutely naked, stretched out and enjoying the sun. \"Whew,\" she said quietly, \"I was getting nervous I'd be the only one here.\"\n\n\"Nah, you're in the clear now, Honey. Let's just stretch out here and slip these clothes off.\"\n\n\"You say that like we were in private,\" she giggled as she spread out her towel. She pulled off her top and shorts and sat on the towel. After looking around a few seconds she untied her bikini top and let it slip to the ground and with a \"Here goes,\" she stretched out and slipped off her bottoms as Ted shucked down his shorts.\n\nShe was nude, absolutely totally nude! It felt so invigorating, so freeing, so natural. She asked Ted to put sun cream on her back and butt and did the same for him. She stretched out on her stomach and faced the shore. Her heart was beating fast and hard, she could feel her nipples dig into the towel and her breathing came in little gasps.\n\nAfter a minute or two she became aware of the breeze tickling her cheeks. It seemed to slip up her crack and spread over her butt, much like a lover's hands might. It teased and caressed her, but she still wanted more. As discretely as possible, she let her legs splay apart a foot or so. The breeze now directly played with an area that had never seen sunlight, tickling it much like Ted did when he would blow on her right before eating her out. It felt wonderful! And she was also aware anyone walking by could see her most private of places. This knowledge, along with the breeze, suddenly sent her into sexual overdrive. Wild sexual images teased through her mind as she moistened so much it oozed slightly out from between her lips. Her nipples under her felt like she was lying on pebbles. Her pelvis felt an aching hollowness that usually occurred as she was rapidly getting excited such as when Ted would lightly stroke her lips and clit.\n\nEventually the sexual stimulation proved to be overpowering. She stirred a bit and decided to turn over. Once on her back she took sun cream and started to coat herself from head to toe. Her fingers seemed to slow as she rubbed her beaded nipples. Once she looked around and saw nobody looking directly at her, she dragged her fingernails across the nipples which shot sheer lust to her pussy. Her hands next drifted south, spreading cream on her belly. She bypassed the area around her pussy and coated her legs before deciding she needed to make sure she did not burn her sensitive pelvic skin. Taking small dollops of cream, she slowly coated her lower belly and alongside her pussy. Her clit seamed to scream at her, begging to be touched. She so desperately wanted to touch herself, but to do so in public was clearly too much.\n\nShe took a tiny dab of cream and slowly rubbed it along her landing strip, rubbing it into her hair, making sure she didn't burn the sensitive skin barely covered by her clipped hair; at least, that's what she tried to convince herself. After a couple of rubs she took another bit of cream and rubbed it lower, right above her slit and clit. It felt so good! Her body begged for release.\n\n\"Honey,\" she whispered to Ted, \"Turn over.\"\n\n\"Sure, what's up?\"\n\n\"I am so fuckin' horny I can hardly stand it. What am I gonna do?\"\n\n\"I don't know. How bad is it?\"\n\n\"If there weren't people around here, I'd have already been on top of you, that's how bad!\"\n\n\"Yeah, well, you can't do that, now, can you?\"\n\n\"Noooo, but what can I doooo?\" came the plaintive cry.\n\nTed sat up and looked around. Sure, there were scattered nude sunbathers but there were none near them. Still, he didn't see how she could 'take care of business.'\n\n\"Honey, you're stuck. I don't see how you can get relief without getting caught.\"\n\n\"Dammit, I'm so horny, I'm about to go to the bathroom over there...\"\n\n\"Remember you almost got caught last time. You want to risk it again?\"\n\n\"No, plus they're usually not the cleanest of places\" came the faint reply. A few seconds later she went on, \"Well, if I can't do anything, I might as well try to forget about it, plan for tonight and get a tan. Put some more cream on my back, please.\"\n\nTed sat next to her and applied the cream to her back after she stretched back on her stomach. As he rubbed her, she purred her contentment. \"It's nice,\" she murmured. He started to apply sun cream to her lower back and upper buttocks and her breathing became more irregular and deeper. \"Mmm, good,\" came the muffled words. As he moved lower, he could sense she was thrusting her butt upwards with each stroke of his hand. Eventually, as he was rubbing directly on her ass, she said, \"Don't forget the crack. Don't wanna get a burn there.\"\n\nHe applied more cream to his right hand and leaned over her a bit. As he let his fingers rub her cheek, the thumb trailed deep into her crack. \"Mmm,\" she hummed. \"A little harder, please.\" Pushing harder and harder only got her to moan softly and push her butt higher to meet his strokes. His thumb trailed right across her butt hole to her obvious delight. \"Oooh, yeah, do that again.\" He kept stoking her butt while letting his thumb trail across her rosebud.\n\nThen he became aware of her shifting around a bit before he saw she had slipped her left arm under her. After he casually glanced around to be sure no one was watching, he looked down to see her left fingertips working feverously on her slit. \"Uh, Honey, are you...?\"\n\n\"Yeah,\" she whispered back, \"No one can tell, can they?\"\n\n\"I don't think so.\"\n\n\"Good, sit just like that, like you're just putting cream on me, but keep that thumb where it is.\"\n\nTed applied more pressure to her hole while she fingered herself from below. He could see she was getting increasingly excited and before he knew it, she closed her eyes tightly, creases crossed her brow and a deep, red flush crept across her back. Her body went into spasms, spasms which she obviously tried to control, but a moan still escaped from her lips. Cindy had climaxed out in the open, in front of everybody!\n\nTed glanced around and there were no stares or looks of concern, indeed everything looked absolutely calm, everything except his cock, that is. Rubbing her and watching her had caused him to get a serious hard on. He slowly took his hand off her butt and rolled onto the towel next to her, forcing his cock into the sand with a groan.\n\n\"What's wrong, Sweetheart?\"\n\n\"Watching you come was so hot, now I've got a bit of a problem.\"\n\n\"Oh, so now you need to relief, right?\"\n\n\"It'd be nice, but let me relax a bit and I'm sure it will pass. No sense in us getting caught.\"\n\n\"Oh, I'm sorry,\" she whispered as she rubbed his back, \"I was kinda selfish there...\"\n\n\"Nah, it's OK. I'll remember that scene for my spank bank for a long, long time. Now, let's just enjoy the sun,\" he replied as he tried to relax onto the towel.\n\nAfter half an hour she told him, \"I'm too hot, so I'm going in the water. OK?\"\n\n\"Yeah, go ahead, but I shouldn't be seen in my current state. Have fun.\"\n\nCindy walked slowly to the water. She glanced around and didn't see anyone staring at her. She felt so free, so open, so bare. Once at the water she waded in until the water lapped at her pussy. The splashing of the water caused her to get excited once more. As she waded out into the deeper water her mind told her she needed to come again and her pussy demanded attention. Once the water was over her boobs, she drifted her hand down to her pussy. \"I can do it right here, no one will ever know.\"\n\nShe found that the seawater was not quite as slick as her own juices, but it didn't matter. She was so excited and so in need of another orgasm that just rubbing her two fingers around in circles right over her clit was more than enough to get her rapidly racing towards another orgasm. She looked around herself and seeing no bathers nearby, she turned facing the sea and waded up to her neck. Her busy hand and arm were hidden from view and she closed her eyes and let her mind drift. Faster and faster she rubbed until those usual shocks of desire rose from her pussy to her brain. She had to clench her teeth and force herself to stay as calm as possible as her second orgasm of the day tore through her body. As it subsided her head hung down a bit and was splashed with a tiny wave. Sputtering and laughing to herself, she turned towards shore and swam lazily around. Once her heart and pussy had settled down, she slowly made her way to shore and casually walked like Venus rising from the sea over to their towels.\n\n\"Enjoy it?\" asked Ted.\n\n\"You have no idea,\" she laughed quietly.\n\n\"No! You didn't!\"\n\n\"I most certainly did. You should try it.\"\n\n\"Only if you come with me, no pun intended.\"\n\n\"Sure, let's go,\" she replied as she led him, half hard on and all, to the water. Once submerged to their chests they swam around a bit. At one point they came together and she kissed him deeply while he wrapped his arms around her.\n\n\"Am I feeling someone waking up?\" she whispered in his ear.\n\n\"Umm-hmm. Never fell completely asleep. Feels good, actually.\"\n\n\"Let me make him feel better,\" she said as she slid her hand between them and grabbed his cock. \"Remember how I got myself off on the beach? Remember rubbing my butt hole? Did it get you excited, hmm?\"\n\nAs she kept talking to him and reminding him of her episode on the beach, he developed a powerful erection. She would grab it, rub a bit and then swim a bit away from him before returning.\n\n\"You're such a tease,\" he grumbled.\n\n\"Yeah, kinda, but I don't want people to think we're doing anything out here. Maybe you need to help yourself a little bit, too.\"\n\nHe would stroke himself a bit and let her when she swam by. On one occasion she sank into the water and took him into her mouth for a few seconds. \"Oh, God, you are a she-devil,\" he complained when she re-emerged laughing at him.\n\n\"What's the matter, Honey?\" she taunted him. \"Go ahead, get yourself off, you'll never be able to go up the beach unless you do. Here, turn out towards the water,\" she said as she stood next to him. \"Now, take that cock of yours and give him some relief. I wanna watch.\"\n\nTed had had enough. He needed to come in the worst way, so he grabbed himself and quickly stroked to a powerful climax. After he had recovered a few seconds, she turned to him and asked, \"Now, aren't you feeling better? Too bad you polluted the Med,\" she laughed. \"And now that it's getting smaller, I hope no fish decides it's a worm.\"\n\nThey swam around a bit before walking through the shallow water to the beach and their towels, where they stretched back out to enjoy the sun. Every twenty minutes or so they would turn over and Cindy found being on her back with her boobs and pussy displayed for all to see was, by far, the most exciting to her. Still, she managed to keep her lust under better control than earlier in the day.\n\nBy four pm they were aware they had more than enough sun and decided to return to Nice. After sitting up and slipping on their outer clothes, they stuffed their bathing suits and gear into their tote bags and wandered back to the car. For Cindy the drive back seemed to last forever and they couldn't get there fast enough. She urged Ted to no waste any time until he teased her and said he wanted to eat dinner first.\n\n\"You know they don't even open restaurants until seven or eight, so we have time to go to our room and still get dinner.\"\n\nBy the time they got back, dropped off their car and made it to the room Cindy was fit to be tied. \"I want you and need you right now,\" she demanded as the key card slid into the slot.\n\n\"Uh-uh, not so fast. Gotta get rid of the sun cream. Shower first,\" he said.\n\n\"OK, but I'll shower with you,\" she replied as she peeled her clothes off and darted into the stall. Once the water was on, he stepped inside to find her washing her hair. From behind he reached around and to tease her nipples before his hands went down to play with her clit. Cindy moaned as she tried to finish rinsing her hair as quickly as possible. Ted kept massaging her clit, round and around, but would back off before she came.\n\n\"You're such a shit,\" she laughed.\n\n\"Too bad. That's all you get,\" he laughed with her. \"We still need to wash this cream off of us.\"\n\nThey washed each other quickly, leaving her very frustrated, and stepped out to dry and get dressed. After wandering around the streets, they found an attractive restaurant to have dinner. At the restaurant they were able to talk quietly about their day.\n\n\"Oh, Honey, that was so much fun. I can't believe I did it.\"\n\n\"I can't believe how this exposure thing has got you turned on. Wow.\"\n\n\"Me, either. But there's something about it that just gets to me. I know most nudists don't consider nudism as a sexual thing so much as a general lifestyle thing, but for me, well, it just cranks my engine.\"\n\n\"Yeah, I see that. I wonder what your father would say if he knew you were doing this.\"\n\n\"Dad? What about Mom? She's the real prude. She hardly even gave me the basics of the birds and the bees. I had to get most of my information from the sex-ed section of my middle school PE class. And let me tell you, having that old Miss Thompson tell us about sex was kinda crazy. I doubt she ever had sex, at least with a man.\"\n\nOnce dinner was over, they strolled hand-in-hand back to their hotel. In the room she stripped down and sat on a chair looking over at the curtains with a far-away look in her eyes. Ted came up behind her and quickly wrapped a scarf around her hands, tying them behind her.\n\n\"What are you doing,\" she gasped as she realized she was unable to move.\n\n\"Ambulance. Remember that word.\"\n\n\"Ambulance?\"\n\n\"Yes, ambulance. That's your safe word.\"\n\n\"What for, anyway?\"\n\n\"From here on I'm in charge. If anything at any time hurts or bothers you or if you want to stop for any reason, just say 'ambulance' and I'll stop. But until then, I'm in charge.\"\n\n\"I dunno, Honey. Are you sure?\"\n\n\"I promise. You say the word and I'll quit.\"\n\n\"Ambulance!\" Ted leaned over and started to untie the scarf immediately.\n\n\"No, wait! That was a test. I know I can trust you. Go ahead.\"\n\n\"Sure?\"\n\n\"Sure! Unambulance me, whatever that means,\" she giggled as he tied her hands up again. He grabbed one of her belts and one of his and tied her feet to the chair legs.\n\n\"Ready?\"\n\n\"Uh, I guess so...\" she responded as he opened the curtain and slid the door to the tiny deck open. \"Wait, what are you doing?\"\n\nHe responded by lifting the chair from behind and carrying her out onto the deck. The railing was a simple iron bar across the top and glass below. Between each room's deck was a solid wall. Cindy sat on a chair, exposed to the world below yet hidden from the neighbors in the hotel. They were high enough that not many would be able to see her, but she was well lit from two wall sconces, one on either side of the door. Ted stood behind her and gently rubbed her shoulders.\n\n\"Like it?\"\n\n\"Uh, kinda scary, but actually, yeah, I do.\"\n\n\"Good,\" he murmured back as he pulled up another chair and sat behind her. His hands slowly rubbed her upper back and shoulders as she began to relax, sensing the evening breeze flow over her, tickling her nipples and pussy.\n\n\"Mmm, feels sooo good.\"\n\n\"Glad you like it.\" His hands achingly slowly expanded their territory, eventually sliding over her breasts, but avoiding her nipples, and over her belly.\n\n\"You tease.\"\n\n\"What?\"\n\n\"My nipples, you forgot my nipples.\"\n\n\"No, I didn't. I'm ignoring them on purpose.\"\n\n\"You shit,\" she chuckled.\n\n\"You'll get yours, just be patient.\" His hands slid down her belly, fingers barely teasing her landing strip, before going down to her legs. Up and down her thighs, first on top and then on the inside until his thumbs grazed her lips.\n\n\"You are such a shit,\" she moaned.\n\n\"Ambulance?\"\n\n\"Hell no!\"\n\n\"OK, then, be quiet and enjoy.\"\n\nThe slow teasing continued for what seemed like eons. Her pussy was flooded with moisture, her pelvis felt full and her nipples were beaded up, begging for attention. As much as she wanted faster relief, she knew she needed to keep quiet and let Ted run the show.\n\nEventually his left hand drifted up to her breasts and began to slowly tease the nipples with light strokes and later with some light pinching. His right hand all-so-slowly approached her pussy, initially lightly stroking the outer lips before diving inside to pick up moisture, which he spread onto her clit.\n\n\"Aaaah, nice...\"\n\n\"You like it?\"\n\n\"Oh, God, you know I do. A little harder, please.\" Instead of harder, he frustrated her even more by decreasing the pressure on her nipples and pussy.\n\n\"You turd, you big, fat turd!\"\n\n\"That'll teach you to tell me what to do. I'm in charge here. Now, where were we?\" he asked as he slowly increased the pressure and tempo of his rubbing.\n\nShe got more and more excited, her breathing got deeper and her head rolled from side to side. Once her legs started to twitch, a sign she was nearing an orgasm, he eased off on the pressure. Her pre-orgasmic tension eased but her frustration increased, however she knew if she complained, he would back off even more. Once she relaxed, he started up again, slowly increasing the pressure of his rubbing and stroking. Again, and again, she would approach orgasm, only to have him back off. It was so frustrating, so maddeningly frustrating, but she wouldn't, she absolutely couldn't cry 'ambulance.'\n\nAfter what seemed like the fifth or sixth episode of stimulation and relaxation, she let her eyes drift open and she stared down to the Promenade below. Her eyes popped wide open. There were three couples standing together staring right back at her. Here she was, stark naked, bound to a chair and being stimulated by her husband, all the while being watched by strangers. The reality of this was like a sudden massaging right on her clit. Even though Ted had just been easing off the pressure and frequency of his attention, she found herself rising rapidly to an earth-shattering orgasm. Her eyes squeezed shut, her skin flushed deep red, her legs twitched and jerked right before her whole torso bent forward and went into deep, muscular spasms. Blinding light shot through her brain as profound pleasure spread through her body and loud moans escaped from her lips.\n\nAfter the orgasm subsided, her head dropped to her chest and her breathing settled down. She was aware of Ted's hands gently rubbing her torso and his light kisses on her neck. As she opened her eyes, she saw the couples below quietly clapping before they turned to walk further along the Promenade.\n\n\"Ted, we were being watched.\"\n\n\"Umm-hmm, you were being watched. Like it?\"\n\n\"Yeah, definitely. That's what sent me over the edge, even though you were easing off at that moment. Wow, I can't believe you did that.\"\n\n\"More?\"\n\n\"No, please. I've had enough. Ambulance, please.\"\n\nTed leaned over and untied the belts and scarf and helped her to her feet. She could barely walk to the bed and once there, she collapsed in a heap, sighing with fatigue. Ted pulled a sheet lightly over her as she fell into a deep sleep.\n\nThe next morning Cindy was slow to wake. Initially she was slightly confused until she completely opened her eyes and looked around. Over to the side was the chair with belts still loosely wrapped around the front legs. A faint breeze billowed in the curtains. Ted snored lightly beside her. As she lay there, she thought about her experiences both on the beaches and the night before. She realized in spite of her up-bringing, she had a completely new sexual angle. She was absolutely turned on by exposing herself, something she knew would totally shock her family back in Iowa. But she was comfortable with her newfound sexuality.\n\nAnd she loved her husband. Ted had played along and allowed her to explore her new sexual desires. And the night before; she couldn't believe how exciting it had been and how it was all a result of his doing. As she thought about him, she felt herself getting slightly excited once again. She glanced over at him and a smile crossed her face. She pulled the sheet slowly away and exposed his cock. She loved his cock. It was nicely shaped, just the right size and tasted great. She decided to taste it. A few licks along the underside of the head and his cock rapidly developed a strong erection which seemed to wake Ted up.\n\n\"What're you doing?\"\n\n\"Giving you a little 'thank you' for last night.\"\n\n\"Mmm, if you insist,\" he laughed as he dropped his head back to the pillow and enjoyed his wife's oral skills. She had not been very eager to give blow jobs when they first were sexually active, but with time she became quite good at them and even enjoyed pleasing him with her lips and tongue. There was minimal teasing that morning, just rapid, hard sucking and licking designed to give him a quick release. \"Oh, God, you really know how to push all the buttons, don't you?\" he said as she worked on him.\n\n\"Mmm-hmm,\" she intoned around his cock as she kept working him. In no time at all he rose up and spasmed as he came in her mouth. As he softened, she kept gently licking him knowing it still felt good to him.\n\n\"You like?\" she asked, fully knowing the answer, before she went on. \"Honey, now that I've cleared your pipes, I think we need to get cleaned up and have a 'rest' day, you know, just simple touristy things. I couldn't do another day like yesterday anytime soon. I need a day or two wearing clothes. Don't worry, we can still have fun, but being nude too much will clearly wear me out.\"\n\nOver the next two days they traveled around Nice and viewed more interesting sights. They spent a bit of time looking up more nudist beaches and found a nice one further down the coast which they decided to visit on their way back towards Paris. They were able to get a room at a hotel right next to the beach which meant Cindy could drag Ted upstairs when she got too frustrated. After two days there, they zipped back to Paris and their flight home.\n\nTheir plane was surprisingly empty and they had three seats for the two of them in the back row and the row in front of them was vacant. After they had a lunch they dozed for a while. It became cool in the plane and they shared a thin blanket and talked quietly about their trip and the fun they had. Cindy thanked Ted several times for allowing her to express her new sexuality and particularly thanked him for the episode on the hotel deck.\n\n\"That was the highlight of the trip,\" she whispered. \"I don't think I have ever been so excited and when those people down below looked at me, well, wow, I was in another dimension.\"\n\n\"Liked it, did you?\"\n\n\"NO! Loved it. And I love you,\" she said as she kissed him. A minute or so later she went on, \"Honey, I'd like to make this a part of our life together. I know most folks back home are more hung up than the French, but there have to be nudist resorts somewhere nearby, don't you think?\"\n\n\"Sweetheart, there are. When you were napping yesterday afternoon, I googled a bit. There are two within a couple of hours of us. I think we may need to join one of them.\"\n\n\"Oh, that'd be great, yes, let's. We can check each one out on a visit and decide which one to join.\"\n\n\"I'll do it on one condition,\" he chuckled as he paused, \"No more masturbating on the beach.\"\n\n\"Awww, Honeeeey....\"\n\n"}
+{"text": " \n\n“How are you feeling, Draco?” She approached the bed and sat down, checking his face for any signs of pain or discomfort.\n\n“Better than expected I guess. Thanks to you, Granger… I mean Hermione.\" Her given name coming from his lips sounded as weird as her pronouncing his.\n\nHe was eyeing his body, frowning at the grey sweat shorts he was dressed in, “These aren’t mine.”\n\n“I took off your clothes,” her blushing cheeks giving her away, “You sweated quite a bit from the fever, and I bathed you…” she motioned to the vanity chair behind her, “Everything you were wearing is over there, clean and stain-free.” The silence sizzled uneasily; she admitted undressing him and was feeling slightly guilty for crossing a certain line. He was surprised at how well she took care of him.\n\n“Draco-”\n\n“Hermione-” They both spoke at the same time, although Draco motioned her to talk first.\n\n“What happened to you?”\n\n\"I'm sorry for imposing myself on you. I should not have brought you into my mess.\" He pushed himself out of the bed, walking to the chair and grasping the pile of neatly folded clothes, “Where’s your bathroom?”\n\nPointing at the door to his right, she asked him, “Draco, please, answer my question. What happened to you? Who assaulted you like this?” She ended up talking to a closed door, which infuriated her to no end. Several minutes later he emerged from her bathroom again, gazing at her with an unreadable look in his eyes. She blushed, looking at everything but him. He knows I saw his….\n\n“Granger,” his knuckles grazed her cheek, “You can’t imagine how grateful I am for what you did. I don’t deserve your kindness. The last thing I want is for you to get hurt, being entangled in my problems.” His thumb was caressing her face gently, “Let it go. I’m not a man that begs, but I implore you to let it go. I’m a piece of shit that doesn’t deserve-”\n\nShe intervened, with a hand against his strong chest, “Draco-”\n\nShaking his head, he raised her chin, his eyes boring into hers, “No Granger, I don’t deserve pity nor help, I don’t want you to get hurt. What is happening to me is my doing, and my burden to carry, not yours. Stay away from me, Granger.” He rested his forehead on hers, “I wish I could go back in time and redo all the nasty stuff. I regret my actions in the past so much.” He planted a kiss on her forehead, letting his lips linger against her skin longer than usual, “Goodbye, Granger.”\n\nReleasing his hold on her, he retracted several steps back and disapparated while she attempted to grab hold of him, “Draco!”\n\nHer hands were in the air, grabbing in vain. Her temperament flaring up, but she felt powerless, \"Damn you Malfoy. You don't get to do this to me.\" She gathered her robe and wand, raging out loud, \"I'm 27 years old; I’m not a porcelain teenager doll that breaks easily, Malfoy.\" She focused for a moment into restoring her wards allowing only Harry and Ron full access to her home, before she decided to pay a visit to Harry, \"You can't ditch me so easily, do you hear me, Malfoy?\"\n\n-oOo-\n\nThe youngest Head Auror in Wizard's history almost left his office, when he spotted the apparition of the bushy-haired witch, her face in tempest mode. He suspected the perpetrator to be a blond wizard instead of the usual ginger head, \"What did I do to get the honour of this late visit?\" He tried a lighter tone.\n\n“Malfoy!”\n\n“I had already discerned your mood had nothing to do with the usual culprit, Ron.” His lips pursed tightly, fighting hard to control a grin that wanted to escape. Hermione’s face as usual was an open book, “Did he ruffle your feathers wrong?”\n\n“He ditched me without giving me any explanation. Proclaiming he was protecting me from harm, that he wasn’t worthy of help and all that crap that goes with the ‘It’s all my fault’-speech.”\n\nHarry was slack-jawed, “Wait a minute, Malfoy, the bully we’ve always known, has done, for once, the right thing?”\n\n“Harry, he’s in danger, we should help him.” She argued her case.\n\nHe shook his head, “Hermione, if he wanted help, all he had to do was be honest with you. The fact he disappeared just like that, tells me that he doesn’t want help.”\n\nShe didn’t cave in, “Did you find anything?”\n\nHer determined face was enough for Harry to understand that she was not going to let this go quickly, \"Hermione,\" he put his hands on her shoulders, emphasising his next words, \"He doesn't want help. Let it go.\"\n\n“Those were his exact words, Harry.\"\n\n“Should tell you something.” He shook her shoulders lightly, force her to see the reason, “This is not your battle to fight. And apart from those little details at the end of the war, none of his actions in the past should make you think you owe him anything.”\n\n“He apologised for his bullying.”\n\n\"Stop the press! Let the Daily Prophet publish the next headline, \"Malfoy heir says sorry to Muggleborn!\" What do you think? A sold-out edition?\" His mocking tone was enraging Hermione more than he expected, \"You are a goody-two-shoes, ‘Mione, you see an injured bird, and you want to nurse it. One: you have nursed him back to life. Two: your job is done.\"\n\nHermione was spitting fire, “Newsflash Harry, I’m not done. Of all people he could turn to, he knocked on MY door. Draco was humble and grateful that I had helped him instead of showing him the way out. Not once was he his arrogant self. But he sounded astray. He considers himself a lost cause, the one to blame for being beaten up.\" She stood before Harry with both her hands on her waist, \"Again, have you found anything?\"\n\nHarry sat in his chair, sighing deeply, \"There are rumours of something going on, but I couldn't find out more details about it.\"\n\n“What is the fuss and why are they targeting Malfoy?”\n\n“Beats me at this point, there have been no complaints to alarm the Ministry. If not for Malfoy showing up the way he did at your doorstep, nothing would give it away there could be something out there.”\n\nHermione crossed her arms in front of her, “And you are not planning on finding out more?”\n\nHe shook his head, “No, not really.”\n\nShe took a deep breath, “Alright, fine. Sorry for disturbing your evening. I’ll let you be. Good night, Harry.” Turning her back to him, she headed for the way out.\n\n“Hermione, please stop for a second.” She stopped, faced him and waited, “Hermione, you're not going to let it go, are you?”\n\nHer face told him all he needed to know before she left his office.\n\nAlone again in his space, Harry made a mental note to drop by her office tomorrow - the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures; and to keep a close eye on her. His guts warned him, however that his sister was not going to let this rest. Maybe he should touch base with his informants and see if he could gather some more intel before Hermione got hurt trying to be the hero and save that ferret at any cost.\n\n-oOo-\n\nShe returned to her home fuming, angry with Harry for his unwillingness to help Draco. Her gut feeling told her two things: whatever happened to him was not a first-time, nor a last, and it pained her to admit Harry might be right: it could end with her getting hurt.\n\nShe paced around her living room, analysing her next steps, \"Where's that damn ferret at this moment?\" talking out loud always helped her organise her stream of thoughts, \"There's something sizzling underground. Whoever this was, he wanted to teach Draco a lesson, not kill but hurt him badly. At least I hope the intent was not to kill.\"\n\nHer fingers were moving restlessly, drumming on her lips at a silent beat or fumbling in her hair, \"Why is Draco a target? It has been more than nine years since the war ended. His parents are under house arrest, they've contributed severely for the restorations in the war aftermath. Draco faced trial like all other Death Eaters but was free from all charges. His wand contained no trace of killing curses, the Wizengamot's test confirmed it.\" She didn't stop for a second in her enumeration, \"So why this now?\" She plunged into her armchair with a sigh.\n\nShe made a mental note to return the vials and the beaker back to Neville tomorrow before heading to her office and made a plan to start with Blaise in her enquiry on Draco's whereabouts; he worked at the Division for the Misuse of Magical Artefacts, two floors below her office. Concluding that was the first step in her plan.\n\nAdmitting for the first time: their short encounter left a trail. One she wanted to pursue. Draco's sleeping features, woke something into existence. And she wanted at least to know what that something was."}
+{"text": "Monkey King stayed in that waterfall for a bit longer, the recent events that made his insides burn with eternal conflict completely killed the mood.\n\nHis soaked robe and the breeze sent shivers across his fur.\n\n\"Maybe I should have brought a change of clothes.\" The monkey dryly chuckled as he got out of the water body and summoned his cloud.\n\nFinally, after getting a good grip of his cloud he zoomed through the top of the trees to go back home, and for a couple of seconds the idea worked until a strong wave of dizziness took over him.\n\nHis cloud lowered just enough for his feet to get tangled with the top of the jungle trees and fall down to the mud in a clean thud.\n\nWukong let out a gasp in surprise as he braced himself for the fall with the remains of his cloud. After millennia of living he knew a thing or two about falling correctly, now protecting his belly, even while having his vision blurred with black dots.\n\nAfter the hit his cloud dispersed and left Wukong laying there on the jungle mud.\n\nHe groaned, the dizziness leaving as fast as it came, making his head throb in pain.  \n\n\"Great. Now I'm wet and covered in mud.\" He thanked the universe as he shook off all the dirt from his fur and clothes. \n\nHe took a step forward and suddenly yelped as a sharp pain darted across his side over his left hip. \n\n\"Okay, do not panic, maybe it was just the after effects from the fall, nothing to worry about. Just walk it out.\" His mind reasoned as he took another couple of steps and the pain increased by a ton, forcing him to grab onto the nearest tree to balance himself.\n\n\"Hehe, so walking is not an option, do not panic, just summon your cloud.\" The monkey reassured himself as he raised his hand to call his cloud. Just that this time it did not come, not a single bit of it. \n\nHe took a deep breath and tried it once more, with the same result.\n\n\"Mmm, maybe panic a bit. Oh! I'll just transform into a bird. That will surely work!\" He said optimistic.\n\nLong story short, it did not work.\n\n\"My powers, they're gone?\" His heart started racing like crazy inside him and his breathing became quick, erratic.\n\nThe sense of vulnerability, of having very low defenses woke up an instinct inside him that improved all his senses to the max, of protecting his cub at all costs.\n\nThe fear of anything unexpected happening or a threat coming close to him made Wukong's tail wag anxiously but he quickly came back to his senses. He needed to remain calm, alert yes but also calm. \n\nHe decided to sit on a big root on the nearest tree, carefully leaving his hip upward with no extra pressure.\n\n\"Breathe Wukong you're the Great Sage for heaven's sake! Have a little more faith in yourself! Yeah, you don't have powers now and you are injured but you are still a master of martial arts!\" He motivated himself as he softly slapped his cheeks. \"You're on your mountain, it is safe, just wait a bit! See if any little monkey appears or if you feel better to walk back, yeah, that's the spirit!\".\n\nSo waiting, that's all he had to do for now at least. What could he do to kill some time? Perhaps he could do some meditation, Tripitaka has always told him that it brings peace to the soul. MMM, but that'll mean that he'll be alone…with his thoughts.\n\nA light bulb turned on. Monkey King's eyes wandered down his belly.\n\n\"Seems like we haven't talked that much after all this time?\" He laughed with a crooked smile.\n\n\"So why do you think I lost my powers? Maybe you borrowed them for your brewing of immortality? Just so you know, you have to ask first!\" He joked around as he poked his belly but then patted it, \"Nah, it's okay little blossom, well not getting stuck in the middle of the jungle part but you get the point right?\"\n\nHe continued talking to his belly for some more time, anything really to ease his bored mind.\n\nBut that could only do so much, as the sun set down in the sky the lack of response was more than enough for the monkey to let out a puff of air in defeat.\n\nYup, he felt a bit dumb talking to someone who wasn't even born yet. \n\nThat's when the boredom took another level and he started doing random stuff like flapping his hands and clicking his tongue. \n\nThen the sudden urge to stim overpowered him and this time, it was in the form of sound.\n\nAt first it began with chirps, then vocalizing random letters,then finally giving a fuck and just plain screaming at the top of his lungs, hoping that at least one of the monkeys hears him.\n\n\"AHHHHHHH. a.\"\n\nThen he got tired of that too and contented himself with the sound of the jungle at night, the delicate moon rays playing with the shadows.\n\n\"So borinnnggg.\"\n\nHe glanced at the moon and its beauty, there was this weird energy that almost pulled him towards something that he could not pinpoint. It felt warm, familiar, and somehow safe.\n\n \n\n---Flashback---\n\nThe bubbly quiet laugh of two idiots in love filled the night sky and accompanied the bright stars. \n\nThey were both in the mountain valley where wild flowers bloomed and left their sweet scent up in the cold breeze. \n\nCrack! Crack! The sound of little twigs came as the two ran across the field in a wild goose chase. That's until one finally caught the other under in a tight hug and both fell over the grass and yarrows. \n\n\"Gotcha.\" The dark fur monkey teased with a smirk the orange monkey underneath him who just rolled his eyes with half a smile as he placed a soft peck on his cheek.\n\n\"Oh you got me! Please be gentle, have mercy on this pure innocent creature!\" Wukong put his hands up in defeat dramatically wanting to follow the game but at the end he couldn't hold on his giggles which lead to both bursting of laughter.\n\n\"Always the comedian.\" Macaque said after their laughs ceased, his eyes locked in his lover's ones. \n\n\"Aw, this is what you signed up for the moment you gave me this.\" Wukong chirped as he showed him a well kept jade pendant.\n\nMacaque cringed at its sight as red spread across his ears, \"Ugh, don't tell me you still keep that silly thing? I have given you much better gifts.\" He tried to grab the pendant but Sun took it out of his reach with his tail.\n\n\"Why wouldn't I? It was the first gift you ever gave me as a lover, the very day that we became a couple.\" Sun said fondly as the jade pendant reflected the mood rays.\n\nMacaque rolled his eyes but kept a small smile on his face, \"Okay, but you gotta admit I did a pretty bad job, the jade is all crooked and badly crafted.\"\n\n\"You did your best and besides, I think it's adorable, like you.\" Wukong teased as he scratched the Macaque's head who just scoffed bashfully and sat up. \"Really bringing out all the compliments tonight, what gives? If you wanted some old Mac love you could've just asked, I don't bite.\"\n\n\"And what if I do want some of that Mac love? What you gonna do?\" Sun Wukong teased as he sat as well and locked eyes with him.\n\n\"This.\" Macaque replied as he leaned forward, his hand caressing his mate's neck, and showered him with dozens of little kisses all from his forehead down his soft lips. Wukong just melted under his touches and let out a deep relaxed purr as he pulled him, his foreheads now touching.\n\nThey stayed like that until Macaque broke the silence, picking up a dandelion, \"Never leave me Peaches.\" He whispered as he intertwined his tail with Wukong's, who then took the dandelion and blew it before answering,\"Wouldn't dream of it.\"\n\n---End of flashback-----\n\n \n\nWukong's ear twitched when a nearby bush moved its leaves, indicating the presence of an unknown creature.\n\nHe growled, showing his sharp fangs and claws ready to fight even with his injury.\n\nA few leaves moved before a creature bolted out of the bush. It was as if a switch was turned on inside Wukong as he felt a powerful energy drive coming out as a golden laser through his eyes towards the creature who managed to dodge just in time.\n\nThe orange monkey was ready for a second round when he noticed that it was not a threat but one of the white monkeys that went looking for him, probably from all his screaming a few moments ago.\n\n\"Oh I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!\" Wukong immediately apologized as he walked towards the small terrorized monkey.\n\nThat's when it hit him, \"My powers, they're back, and my body is healing now! About damn time! Thanks lil bud!\" Wukong exclaimed as he picked up the little guy and spun him around in celebration.\n\nThe little one screeched in protest of being treated like some sort of rag doll. \"Oh oh yeah, my bad. Maybe let's go back home and I'll give you a taste of those peach chips you like so much?\" Wukong chuckled as the monkey noodled eagerly and pointed the way back home.\n\nThey would have returned right away but when Wukong tried to summon his cloud only a very small one came; his powers were glitching in some kind of way.\n\n\"So much for time alone.\" He groaned all the way back to the temple because now he'd need to give MK and flame boy a call first thing in the morning. \n\nBut for now, he'll give his little bud some chips finally back at his good old little house. It seems like all the other monkeys were asleep on his couch, leaving the TV on playing some cliché cop movie.\n\nWukong turned the TV off and went to his bedroom, happy to finally take off his dirty humid robe. He freshened up and winced as he looked through a mirror. He had a big purple bruise on his thigh, hadn't seen one like that since before he became immortal.\n\nThen again, he was very tired, a problem for tomorrow he thought as he looked through his drawers for clean clothes. The thing is, he had completely forgotten tomorrow was also laundry day and that robe was the last pair of his usual clothes.\n\nHe had no choice but to look through his old clothes he barely uses. He quickly picks up some and hears a thud, something hard had fallen to the floor.\n\nIn the darkness he couldn't distinguish what it was until he picked it up and put it under the moon's light from his window.\n\nHe shuddered, almost dropping it, the sight had opened an old wound on his heart.\n\nIt was a badly crafted jade pendant. \n\nEven after all these millennials, it looked just as the day he had given it to him.\n\nWhy had he kept it? After all this time? Only heavens will know.\n\nHe examined the piece and nostalgia hit him like a train, he really missed the old days yet it hurt him too much to remember. \n\nHe tried to not dwell in the past, but there was something that made it impossible to get rid of the pendant, it held too many memories.\n\nWukong's eyes held a tired look on the pendant and went to bed, only bothering with putting on pants. \n\nAs he laid there, on this bed sheets and let sleep take over, never did he let go of that old jade pendant."}
+{"text": "\nIn hindsight, Hyunjin should have probably realized that offering to share a bed with Seungmin would have been a pretty bad idea regardless of how much clothing he was wearing because Hyunjin is a clingy sleeper, and needed to hug something, whether it be a pillow or a Felix, or a Jeongin if their youngest was feeling particularly generous. \n\n\n\nThe youngest was not feeling particularly generous, as Hyunjin was soon to find out, when the screech of \n\n“Felix hyung, they did the frickle frackle!” \n\nresounds through the bungalow, waking Hyunjin up better than his own alarm ever would.\n\n\nHe blinks until his vision focusses and he tenses when he sees Seungmin glancing down at him curiously from where he had his arms wrapped around the brunette’s waist, his head presumably pressed against the boy’s cool chest. His face immediately stains scarlet and he jerks away, only for a hand to hold him in place.\n\n“No...stay there, it’s warm,” Seungmin insists, as though he didn’t understand how this could be misinterpreted by anyone who saw them; presumably, it had already been misinterpreted by Jeongin.\n\n\nHyunjin’s face remains pitifully crimson as Felix’s head pops in through the doorway (he would think it counterintuitive to even \n\nwant \n\nto do that after Jeongin’s ear-splitting proclamation, but he had the worst friends, so really, he shouldn’t be surprised), and he hides his face in Seungmin’s chest as Felix grins from ear to ear and shuts the door on them without a word. Somehow Hyunjin finds that more terrifying than if the blonde was to mimic Jeongin’s (false) broadcasting.\n\n\n\n“What did he say? Frickle frackle?” Seungmin asks curiously, and his voice doesn’t sound sleep-ridden at all, leading Hyunjin to believe that he had been awake for a while, which makes his face even redder if at all possible because \n\nhow long \n\nhad Seungmin been aware that he had been clinging to him and not done anything about it?\n\n\n“Just...just ignore them,” Hyunjin mumbles, figuring that if he didn't see Seungmin's face then maybe the embarrassment would dwindle. Unfortunately, considering how his method of not looking at Seungmin's face was to hide his own face in Seungmin's chest against his cool, sun-kissed skin, his embarrassment didn't lessen as he had hoped.\n\n\nSeungmin nods and chuckles as he eyes Hyunjin, and somewhere in the corner of his mind that was currently blaring sirens (the eoeoeo ones, not the Seungmin ones) telling him that he should really get his face off of Seungmin's toned chest, he wonders just how the boy can be remotely cheerful in the morning. How the \n\nhell \n\ncan someone be so perfect that they have a \n\nsmile \n\non their face so early in the morning?\n\n\n(In reality, it wasn't that early at all, but Hyunjin never was and never will be a morning person).\n\n“If you don't want to get up right now, you don't need to,” Seungmin points out, his voice slightly nasally in that way that Hyunjin found unforgivably adorable. “You were up late last night and you're on vacation right? So you should be able to get more rest.”\n\n“Marry me,” Hyunjin groans then and there because he swears that Seungmin's words are those of angels singing. He realizes what he's said only a good few seconds after he's spoken and flushes down to his neck again. “Actually, forget I even exist, I want to crawl in a hole and die a quick and painless death,” he decides. He hears that infuriatingly cute chuckle again and feels something cold rest on the back of his head. Belatedly he realizes that it's Seungmin's hand. But his mind was on overload at the moment, and really, where Seungmin's hand was on his being was the least of Hyunjin's worries.\n\n“We barely know each other, Hyunjin, I'm not going to marry you. I don't even like humans.”\n\nHyunjin just about wilts in Seungmin's grip at the words and pouts, finally shifting to look up at him, his chin resting on Seungmin's sternum. “Not even me?” He tries, giving him his best puppy dog eyes.\n\nSeungmin rolls his eyes, his hand shifting to flick Hyunjin gently between the eyes. “I don't like humans,” he repeats, firmly and without hesitation.\n\nHyunjin's pout deepens and he returns his face back to Seungmin's chest, honestly too embarrassed to even care about being embarrassed anymore. He falls silent and stays silent for a bit, understanding that this was probably a touchy subject for Seungmin, although why was beyond him. Although humans could be pretty terrible, so he supposes that Seungmin's behaviour wasn't completely unreasonable. That didn't mean it didn't hurt to be so blatantly rejected. Hwang Hyunjin was used to rejecting, not being rejected. He wasn't the kind of jerk that would lead people on if he felt nothing for them.\n\nFor how much longer he remains cuddled up against Seungmin (the discomfort of it had eventually faded when Hyunjin's natural tendency to be touchy-feely kicked in, but that didn't mean the rollercoaster ride his stomach decided to embark on had stopped) he isn't sure, but he's snapped out of the comfortable reverie when the brunette speaks. “I'm thirsty.”\n\nHyunjin immediately hops out of bed. “I’ll get you some water.”\n\nSeungmin slips out as well, and Hyunjin tells himself to focus, to keep his eyes on Seungmin’s face. “You have to show me how to get water so that I can do it myself,” he states frankly.\n\nHyunjin stares blankly at him for a few moments before pursing his lips. “You have to put on clothes first,” he tells him. “Lucky for you, I bought you a bunch!” he grins and moves over to the bags of clothes that he hadn’t removed since he had purchased them. Now Seungmin was here to wear them at least, so he hefts the bags over to the bed and grins at Seungmin. “Choose whatever you like. They’re all yours!”\n\n“Mine?” Seungmin hums, surprise glinting in his eyes. It makes Hyunjin feel oddly self-satisfied. He nods, and Seungmin looks through the clothes quietly. “You shouldn’t have. Money is hard to earn for you humans, isn’t it?”\n\n\nHyunjin shrugs slightly. “I...just wanted to get you something to wear,” he responds lamely, looking down at the floor. \n\n\nThat chuckle again. Hyunjin wonders if Seungmin will start vomiting rainbows with how perfect he is. “You know I don’t like or need to wear clothes, Hyunjin.”\n\n\n“I know, but I don’t want everyone to see you walking around everywhere naked, excuse me for wanting to protect your privacy.” \n\nAnd maybe keep that sight to myself. \n\nHyunjin feels blood rush to his cheeks at his own thoughts.\n\n\n“You aren’t the only one that’s seen me naked.”\n\nHyunjin’s eyes widen. “D-did I—”\n\n“Say that out loud? Yes, you did.”\n\nHyunjin groans and faceplants onto the bed. “Just kill me now and save me from embarrassing myself even more than I already have…” he whines, his voice muffled by the mattress. He felt so utterly mortified that goosebumps lined his skin down the entirety of his frame.\n\n“I’ll wear these.” Hyunjin turns his head so that his cheek is pressed against the mattress and glances over Seungmin’s choices. They were loose clothes, of course, an oversized hoodie, t-shirt and a pair of joggers.\n\nHyunjin nods and turns to head out the door. “I'll go wash up, you can get dressed.”\n\n“All right.”\n\nHyunjin flashes Seungmin a quick smile before hurrying out to the bathroom and promptly shutting the door before leaning his back against it and just slowly and far too dramatically sliding down until he's sitting on the cold, tiled floor. He buries his face in his hands and tries to decide whether he wants to wither from mortification or squeal in sheer happiness. He ends up letting out a sound that vaguely sounds like a crying moose.\n\n\nAfter a few minutes of just groaning out his \n\nfeelings \n\n(he still wasn't quite sure what exactly those feelings were), Hyunjin stands and jumps into the shower, dousing himself in cold water and promptly shrieking, his breath trapping itself in his lungs as he gasps. He twists the temperature to something warmer and finishes his shower as soon as possible, quickly brushing his teeth and changing into a fresh set of clothes.\n\n\n\nHe opens the door, nearly braining Seungmin with it, the brunette was standing so close. He blinks, staring at Seungmin, dressed in the oversized clothes and looking very \n\nvery \n\nhuggable, and Hyunjin doesn’t think he’s wanted to hug someone so badly his entire life.\n\n\n“Water..?” Seungmin just asks simply, and Hyunjin bolts to the kitchen to grab a glass and fill it with water.\n\n“He’s not limping...you think he topped?” Changbin stage whispers to Jeongin from the table where they’re very obviously sitting and judging Hyunjin’s every move.\n\nHyunjin whirls around and glares at them. “We didn’t do anything! I just...ended up cuddling him..while sleeping..”\n\n“Suuure you did,” Jeongin chirps, evil glinting in his eyes.\n\nHyunjin huffs and sticks his nose up in the air and parades out of the kitchen. “I did,” he declares, making his way down the hall where he can already see the amused glint in Seungmin’s almond eyes. He blushes, realizing the ridiculousness of the entire situation.\n\n“H-here’s your water,” he stammers, offering the boy the glass.\n\nSeungmin accepts it with a nod. “Thank you, Hyunjin.” He downs in in seconds and a droplet slips down the furrow created by the corner of his mouth, dripping down his chin. His lips glisten, and Hyunjin can’t help but stare. He wants to kiss him. Really badly. “My eyes are up here,” Seungmin calls and Hyunjin’s gaze snaps up. He blushes when he sees the knowing glint in the brunettes gaze.\n\nHe pouts, and reaches out to wipe the droplet of water from the corner of Seungmin’s lips. He feels the boy tense under his touch, and catches sight of his eyes widening ever so slightly in well-concealed surprise, which Hyunjin takes as a victory on his part, although he wasn’t exactly sure what kind of game this was to begin with. Seungmin didn’t even like him, or humans in general. He knows he’s playing a losing match, but he can’t seem to stop. “Drink slower or you’ll choke,” he hums.\n\n“Can you not flirt in the hall?” Felix suddenly yells, running through the door and pointing an accusing finger at them.\n\nHyunjin sputters. “We’re not flirting! I just got him a glass of water!”\n\n\nJeongin pops out of the kitchen, screen of his phone brandished, and Hyunjin’s eyes widen as he sees the image snapped of him staring \n\npointedly\n\n at Seungmin’s lips while wiping off the water droplet with his thumb, his ears somewhat red, while Seungmin’s eyes are wide and staring at him. “Not flirting,” the maknae crows. “Suuuure.”\n\n\n“Hey, where’s Chan hyung?” Hyunjin loudly interjects in blatant attempt to divert the conversation. Fortunately, it seems to do the trick.\n\n“Sleeping,” Felix responds without missing a beat, and Hyunjin relaxes, a relieved smile curling onto his lips. It’s mirrored on Felix’s face, and suddenly all is well with the world.\n\n“Finally,” he sighs, stepping past to collapse onto the couch. “He’s sleeping.”\n\n“Well, he nearly drowned last night, I’d be surprised if it didn’t take a lot out of him,” Changbin calls from the table, his eyes darting to Chan’s room. “So if you kids are gonna make noise, then at least go out and do it so you don’t wake him up.”\n\n“Since when did you become responsible, hyung?” Jeongin asks curiously, pocketing his phone.\n\nChangbin just glares at the younger and turns away, lips pursed. Felix chuckles at that. “He was joking, hyung, no need to be mopey over it.” He drapes himself over Changbin from behind and pokes his cheek. “Something the matter?” he asks, his voice quieter. “You usually have a lot of patience with Innie.”\n\nHyunjin watches them, and debates on teasing Felix after all that Felix had teased him for, but he decides to be the better person in their friendship and leave them be. Besides, it seemed that Jeongin was already doing all the work with his brandished phone and foxy grin.\n\nWith a sigh, Hyunjin lets his head fall against the back cushion of the couch. His eyes close and he sits there, as still as a statue, until he feels the cushion sink somewhat. He opens his eyes and glances over to find Seungmin sitting beside him, looking somewhat uncomfortable. Hyunjin owes it to the clothes. He sits upright and faces Seungmin properly. “Everything is all right right now,” he tells him. “Do you want to go for a swim?” He’s sure that Seungmin would feel much more comfortable in the sea. At the moment he looked very much like a fish out of water, but much stiller.\n\nThe brunette shakes his head, but Hyunjin doesn’t miss the brief hesitation, and he stands up. “Let’s go swimming,” he declares. “And then we can order takeout for breakfast so that Chan hyung doesn’t need to wake up and cook for us.”\n\n“Swimming?” Felix suddenly perks up and turns to look at them. “Count me in!”\n\n“No, you should let them go on their date, Lix hyung,” Jeongin calls out cheekily and Hyunjin puffs out his cheeks childishly.\n\n“Lix can come if he wants! It’s not a date!”\n\n“Sweet! Hyung, order us some breakfast,” Felix orders, turning to look at Changbin who rolls his eyes at the bossy attitude. Hyunjin smirks slightly when he catches the fondness in Changbin’s gaze that Felix seems to miss entirely.\n\n“Sure. But I’m not swimming,” he decides.\n\nFelix pokes his tongue out at the shorter man. “Fine, be that way.”\n\n“Real mature, Lix,” Changbin retorts.\n\n\n“\n\nAnyway, \n\nif you’re done flirting—”\n\n\n“We’re not flirting!” Felix yelps and Jeongin just looks as though he’s having a field day, the widest grin on his face.\n\n“Suuuure,” Hyunjin teases. “Anyway. I’m heading out for a swim.” He bolts off the couch and darts into the bedroom, swapping his pants for his swim trunks before darting out of the door and towards the beach, leaving the rest of them staring at his back.\n\n“...is his inner swim-otaku coming out again?” Felix wonders aloud.\n\n“Swim-otaku?” Seungmin repeats, turning to eye the blonde curiously.\n\nFelix grins. “You know, when he goes gay for water.”\n\n“No, I don't know,” Seungmin deadpans, but when he watches Hyunjin throw off his shirt and dart into the water like an excited child, he can't help but chuckle. “He's very bizarre.”\n\n“Bizarre as in plain weird or kind of cute?” Jeongin breaks in, looking far more interested than he normally would have.\n\n“Neither. Just...bizarre. You're all very bizarre.”\n\n“We could say the same for you,” Changbin points out as he pockets his phone. “I ordered chicken. If you're all going to be out swimming, then you'll probably be starving after.”\n\n“Great! Now that that's over with, let's go.” Felix runs to the bedroom to change into his swimming clothes.\n\nWhen he's gone, Seungmin turns to face Changbin. “You're tense.”\n\n“Yeah, I know. Maybe it's because of you,” Changbin admits honestly. “I don't know you, and suddenly you're integrated here. It feels off. Not to mention this whole siren thing. And we don't even know your intentions.”\n\nSeungmin shrugs. “I'm not too happy about being here myself, but…” his eyes darken slightly. “I think I need to.” He stands up as Felix emerges from the bedroom wearing a wetsuit and a bright grin.\n\n“Sea, here I come!” He cheers, running out of the building. Seungmin watches him go before following in his wake, Jeongin close behind, and finally, Changbin after a few moments of watching them.\n\nFelix exhibits no hesitation as he runs into the water, splashing Hyunjin and perpetrating the resulting waterfight that Jeongin easily joins just so he could saturate the two with his ever-present grin on his face. Truth be told, it was slightly intimidating, how his smile was plastered on so perpetually. Seungmin just watches in fascination for a few minutes before tugging off his hoodie, and then his shirt, and finally, his sweats so that he's nearly stark naked, save for his chains and jewels that he never seemed to go anywhere without.\n\n“Damn, Hyunjin was right, you do have a good physique,” Changbin remarks, sparing him a brief glance before looking away again, seemingly unfazed.\n\n“I'd say I'm fairly average,” Seungmin disagrees as he lifts himself onto his feet and steps over to the shoreline, his frame glittering in the sunlight. He gravitates naturally to the turquoise waves, easily slipping from the shallows into deeper water and watching the sun dance through the surface to shine beneath in dim rays. He felt far more at home under the water than he did on land.\n\nSeungmin just stays beneath the surface for a long while, letting the water flow through his gills and relaxing in the familiar environment when he's suddenly met with a familiar face. His eyes widen. “Hyunjin?” He exclaims, surprised, before immediately moving to clamp his hand over the other man's mouth before Hyunjin can make the stupid mistake of opening it. (Hyunjin would've argued that he wouldn't have, but Seungmin wouldn't believe him).\n\nHyunjin pulls away from his grip and breaks the surface, presumably to breathe, before ducking under again and looking at him. Seungmin meets his gaze incredulously because he's fairly certain that Hyunjin's eyes must have burned, but the man seemed all too eager to revisit the sensation for whatever reason. He purses his lips. “You're ridiculous,” he sighs, shaking his head and swimming beneath Hyunjin before sidling closer to him.\n\nUnder the water, it took him less effort to move. He could manoeuvre with grace and ease, and he was one with the currents. His chains float about him and as sunrays reflects off the adornments, it bathes him in fractals of dancing light. To say the least, Hyunjin looked enraptured, and although it was easy for Seungmin to see, he did his best to ignore it.\n\nHyunjin reaches out slowly, as though to touch him, but pulls back at the last moment and just smiles a little, averting his eyes. His frame glowed in the muted, refracting sunlight and his hair swayed with the movements of the water, forming a halo about his head. Hyunjin glances up at him again before swimming back to the surface, leaving Seungmin watching his trail. He closes his eyes momentarily and wonders to himself since when had humans been so beautiful. The thought clouds his mind and his eyes snap open, his brow furrowing. He scowls and breaks the surface, slicking his drenched hair back with a hand.\n\n“I keep forgetting that you live underwater and I don't,” Hyunjin huffs, paddling around absently.\n\n“How do you forget that you don’t live underwater?” Seungmin drawls, cocking an eyebrow at him. Hyunjin shrugs.\n\nHyunjin stares at him for a few moments, looking for all the world like he wanted to say something, but this time he had unfortunately developed something similar to a brain-to-mouth filter that functioned well enough for him to not spill exactly what was on his mind.\n\n\nWhat had been going through Hyunjin’s mind was, in fact, the thought that Seungmin made him forget a lot of things, no matter how obvious they were. The boy had made him forget how to breathe multiple times, and even now, he had looked so completely and utterly \n\nethereal \n\nin his element under the water that Hyunjin had temporarily forgotten that they even were underwater. Of course he had to be reminded painfully when his lungs screamed for air and he needed to swim back to the surface.\n\n\nHe debates on what he should say to Seungmin, finally able to think with enough sense to tell him that he shouldn’t just blurt out the first thing that came to mind like he had numerous times before, but before he has the chance to finally speak, he hears a loud yell somewhere in the distance.\n\nHis head whips around to see Felix flailing about a little further away from shore than they were and quite a distance away. The blonde was very obviously struggling, which made little sense to Hyunjin, as Felix was an excellent swimmer, albeit not as good as he himself was. He’s about to call out to see if Felix was all right before Seungmin tenses. “He needs help,” the brunette immediately gasps as Felix goes under.\n\nHyunjin’s body tenses as he finds himself rooted to the spot, watching as Felix breaks the surface, arms flailing, only to fall under the waves again. He finally manages to snap out of it a moment after Seungmin darts under the water again and he himself swims towards Felix. However, both of them aren’t as fast as Changbin despite the shorter man being seated by the shore watching them.\n\nHe had been the first to move, immediately sensing something was wrong the moment Felix had ceased to move, considering the boy never did that, especially not when he was in a hyperactive mood. And so Hyunjin watches as Changbin ducks underwater where Felix had disappeared.\n\nSeungmin is under the water as well, but Hyunjin can only watch, stupefied, as the distorted form of Seungmin’s body darts out towards the mouth of the cove while Changbin drags Felix up to the surface. Only then does he finally move and help the man pull the blonde to the shore. His brow creases and his breaths catch. First Seungmin, then Chan, and now Felix. Something was very wrong.\n\nBefore he has the chance to move to check on Felix, who currently looked quite limp and awfully pale, Changbin takes the initiative, checking on him, taking his pulse and checking his breathing; he clearly was in a bad state. Hyunjin’s attention is immediately stolen to the sea again when he recalls that Jeongin had also been in the water, concerned that something may have happened to him as well.\n\nTo his relief, he sees both Seungmin and Jeongin making their way back to the shore.\n\n“Shit, he’s not breathing,” Changbin hisses under his breath and Hyunjin tenses, turning back to where the man was bent over Felix, his clothes that weren’t fit for swimming plastered to his frame and a wild look in his eyes, almost like some kind of animal that had been cornered.\n\nHyunjin is about to push in and take over, but before he can, Changbin tilts Felix’s head back and pinches his nose before sealing his mouth over the blonde’s and blowing air into his lungs. Release, rinse, repeat. Hyunjin can only stare, his breaths taut in his chest as he waits for Felix to do something, anything. Hell, the young man could even come to and promptly tease him about Seungmin and he would be happy. Seeing Felix so small and unconscious felt wrong.\n\nWhen Felix’s chest finally begins to rise and fall, Changbin moves back and stares at him, and Hyunjin stares at Changbin. There were few times that Hyunjin ever saw genuine fear in the man’s eyes, his fearful expressions often brief and overdramatized, but this time he knew that Changbin was afraid. He glances back at Felix when the blonde coughs harshly and spits water out onto the sand, tears welling up in his eyes and spilling down his cheeks. Again, Hyunjin is too slow to react, as Changbin is the first to dart forward, helping the blonde to sit himself upright and leaning Felix’s head against his chest.\n\n“Hyung— hyung..!” Felix bursts into raspy tears, hiding his face in Changbins chest and reaching up to cling to his soaking wet shirt. Despite his deep voice, he still sounded incredibly small, and Hyunjin feels his heart sink with dread at the sight of the blonde clinging to Changbin as though he were some kind of lifeline.\n\n“Shhh...it’s okay, Lixie, you’re safe now,” Changbin murmurs, his grip around the blonde’s back tightening protectively while his other hand rests in Felix’s saturated, stringy, blonde hair. Felix sniffles and keeps his face hidden for a while, pressing as close to the older male as he could. For a few minutes, Felix remains relatively still against the man while Jeongin ran off to fetch a towel for him.\n\nHyunjin’s eyes widen when Felix finally lifts his head, his eyes reddened and looking absolutely terrified in a way that Hyunjin had never before seen from him. The blonde’s gaze meets Changbin’s and his hand balls into a tight fist, taking with it Changbin’s saturated t-shirt.\n\n“They— they were pulling me down, hyung,” Felix rasps fresh tears blooming in his eyes as his voice cracks. “They w-were...they were trying to drown m-me..”"}
+{"text": "\nMinho tries his hardest to take a nap, to just finally let his mind rest for a bit, but it’s impossible. He didn’t expect his life to get so messy after just one, one very confusing kiss with Jisung, but it did. Even if he hadn’t seen the said boy for hours, having been lying on his bed ever since they came back from the graveyard. Jisung had left without saying a word. \n\n\n \n\n\nMinho wasn’t worried.\n\n\n \n\n\nIt’s quiet downstairs too, only the faint sound of Mrs. Han typing away something on her laptop. Minho feels guilty as he listens to her work on a Sunday evening, having done nothing himself for the whole day. Unless you count moping around as an activity. \n\n\n \n\n\nIt’s been a few hours since he and Jisung came back home, hand in hand. Jisung had been the one who grabbed his hand first, so of course Minho had accepted the gesture. Jisung’s fingers laced with his had been very comforting and warm and probably what got him through today’s panic attack. He swears his palms still tingle from the touch. \n\n\n \n\n\nBut now Jisung is gone, and even if they hadn’t talked much on their way home, Minho feels like it got so much more quiet when he left. He let his fingers touch his lips again, let them ghost over so subtly, remembering how it felt to have the younger’s sweet lips against his. \n\n\n \n\n\nHe misses the feeling already. \n\n\n \n\n\nMinho’s thoughts are interrupted by the sound of a incoming call and he startles a little, his hand flying from his lips to his stomach with a loud smack. He feels like he just got caught, even though there’s no one here. He reaches for his phone that’s resting on the window sill and takes a double take when he realises it’s an unknown number calling him. \n\n\n \n\n\nMinho never gets calls from unknown numbers. \n\n\n \n\n\nHe half expects it to be Changbin hyung, calling from the phone at his workplace.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Yeah?” Minho asks, his voice barely audible. His throat feels dry from the lack of talking. \n\n\n \n\n\n\n“Minho hyung? It’s Seungmin. I’m Jisung’s classmate.” \n\nA familiar voice says, and Minho sits up with surprise. He hadn’t heard from the younger ever since that \n\none\n\n party. \n\n\n \n\n\n“I know who you are.” Minho replies, a hint of worry in his voice. “Why are you calling me? Did something happen to Jisung?”\n\n\n \n\n\n\n“Oh no, everything’s fine. Um-” \n\nSeungmin sounds a little anxious as he stops in the middle of the sentence and Minho wonders why. It’s not like Minho’s scary, right? \n\n“Woojin hyung gave me your number. We’re together right now.” \n\n\n\n \n\n\nMinho smiles when the warm image of Woojin pops up in his head. “Oh, tell him I said hi. What are you two up to?”\n\n\n \n\n\n\n“It’s hyung’s last day here before he has to leave for college again and so we thought why not go and just drive around for a bit, maybe find an old diner and eat something good. I know today’s a hard day for you, but we think you should come with us.” \n\nSeungmin rambles, and Minho realises he’s smiling already at the thought of hanging out with the two cousins. \n\n“We’re actually outside your house.”\n\n\n\n \n\n\n“Wait, what?” Minho rushes up and looks out of the window, noticing the familiar car in his drive-through. Seungmin giggles into the phone and Minho sees the two boys wave at him from the car. \n\n\n \n\n\n\n“You in?”\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMinho’s quite content as he sits in the back of Woojin’s van, listening to the two cousins argue in the front seat about some movie. He’s not really paying them that much attention, his eyes focused on the road. Driving through a forest always calms him down. \n\n\n \n\n\n“I’m just saying! Captain America turning into that old man in the end of the movie really ruined it for me.” Seungmin says, crossing his arms on his chest as he pouts at the older in the driver’s seat. \n\n\n \n\n\n“Why don’t you want him to be happy? He finally got to be with the girl of his dreams. That’s better than being a superhero, if you ask me.” Woojin says, his hands steadily holding onto the wheel.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Ha!” Seungmin lets out a snort. “Well, no one asked you.” \n\n\n \n\n\n“Seungminnie.” Woojin says, giving the younger a quick glance. \n\n\n \n\n\n“Okay, I’m sorry.” Seungmin apologizes, heat rising to his cheeks. He must be really into the movie to get so heated over this. Seungmin turns around in his seat, giving Minho a hopeful look. “What do you think, Minho? Would you rather be a superhero or find true love?” \n\n\n \n\n\n“Oh,” Minho breathes out loudly, turning away from Seungmin’s piercing gaze. It’s like the younger wants to steal his soul. “I-I’m not sure I can say much about this. I haven’t seen any of the Marvel movies.” \n\n\n \n\n\n“You’re kidding?” Both of the boys ask at the same time, making them all laugh. \n\n\n \n\n\n“I’m more into horror movies. And romance.” Minho says, shrugging. At the back of his mind, he remembers the time he watched a horror movie with Jisung. And how the younger had been almost stuck to his side because he was so scared. Minho feels like it’s been years since that night. \n\n\n \n\n\n“That’s literally what Marvel movies are about.” Seungmin says, turning away from Minho again. “Right, hyung?”\n\n\n \n\n\n“No, not really.” Woojin smiles and looks at Minho from the rear-view mirror. His brown eyes are as welcoming as ever. “Seungmin, you need to stop guilt tripping people into watching Avengers. It’s not cool.” \n\n\n \n\n\n“Stop scolding me, I’m not your little brother.” Seungmin sticks his tongue out at the older and looks away from him, instead focusing on the scenery on the right side of the road. “It worked on you, though.” Seungmin says, his tone more quiet this time. \n\n\n \n\n\nMinho smiles as he listens to his friends argue, for once feeling like he is with people who actually want him there, in their company. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThey drive for approximately 30 more minutes before Woojin pulls up at a diner that’s supposedly open 24 hours a day. It doesn’t look like an expensive place, but it’s cosy and inviting and seeing all the different people coming from different places to just grab a snack here makes Minho feel like he’s in some movie, on some mission to find himself. \n\n\n \n\n\nThey sit in the booth way back and order a weird combo of fries and milkshakes, because supposedly they taste amazing together and no, it’s not just Seungmin who has a weird taste in food. \n\n\n \n\n\n“I’m surprised that this actually isn’t bad?” Minho says in disbelief, shaking his head a little. Who would’ve thought? \n\n\n \n\n\n“Thank you! Finally someone who agrees with me.” Seungmin bows his head a little, before digging into the fries again. \n\n\n \n\n\n“What do you mean? I’ve always liked dipping my fries into a milkshake.” Woojin says, pouting. Minho’s glad the other boys take up like 80% of the conversation, letting him just sit and enjoy the company. They don’t force him to talk and he appreciates that, Minho really likes being quiet most of the time. \n\n\n \n\n\n“Well, obviously you don’t count, hyung. We’re like the same person anyway.” Seungmin says and that takes away the pout from the older’s face, making him smile in an approving way instead.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Thank you.” Woojin nods. Minho thinks this is the time when they finally all stop talking and just enjoy the atmosphere, but of course it’s different with the Kim cousins. \n\n\n \n\n\n“So, since we’re already talking about relationships and stuff-”\n\n\n \n\n\n“Not smooth, Seungmin.” Woojin whispers, interrupting the younger.\n\n\n \n\n\n“-I’ve never understood yours and Jisung’s.” Seungmin says, leaning his head on his elbow as he fully faces Minho. He bats his eyelashes, waiting. \n\n\n \n\n\n“You’re annoying, you know that?” Minho says, but there’s no harshness in his words. “What do you wanna know?” He says, much to his own surprise. He doesn’t know why, but he trusts these people already. \n\n\n \n\n\n“Well, I’ve been around Jisung for a long time. And I’m good at observing people, if I do say so myself. But, I swear I just don’t understand him? Is he happy?” Seungmin asks, and Minho feels himself being swallowed by the ground because he has no answers to give. He doesn’t know Jisung at all. “Does he like hanging out with all my stupid classmates? Miyeon?” \n\n\n \n\n\n“Min, don’t call others stupid.” Woojin says, but the youngers don’t pay him any attention. \n\n\n \n\n\n“I-I don’t know, Seungmin.” Minho bites his lip, making direct eye contact with the younger sitting across him. “I don’t think he’s happy with them. But I don’t know why he forces himself to be around those people either. Why he acts so fake. I remember when he wasn’t like that, you know.” \n\n\n \n\n\n“Hyung, I really think, no, I believe Jisung is only happy with you.” Seungmin whispers, like it’s the biggest secret of the century and no one’s supposed to know. Woojin nods, but Minho’s not so sure. No one knows what Jisung’s feeling.\n\n\n \n\n\n“Can you show me that Miyeon girl? I swear I only graduated a year ago but I already can’t remember any of the other kids.” Woojin asks Seungmin after a while, realising Minho has nothing else to add on the topic of Jisung.\n\n\n \n\n\nHe doesn’t know why he’s hiding the fact that they kissed today. \n\n\n \n\n\nIt’s not like Seungmin and Woojin hyung don’t know about his crush on Jisung. Or maybe it’s not even a crush, but it’s definitely \n\nsomething \n\nand Minho’s sure it’s very obvious to them. \n\n\n \n\n\nSeungmin whips out his phone from his back pocket and scrolls through Instagram until he finds Miyeon’s account. \n\n\n \n\n\n“Oh, see, this is a recent post. She posted this just a couple of minutes ago.” Seungmin says, handing the phone to Woojin without looking at it himself. \n\n\n \n\n\nWoojin stares at the picture for a while and Minho just guesses he’s trying to remember the girl. But Woojin’s eyes have always been so readable to him and Minho knows it’s full sadness he sees in them as the older gives him the phone. \n\n\n \n\n\n“You should see this.” \n\n\n \n\n\nIt doesn’t come as a full surprise. Minho had seen it coming, it had always made perfect sense. \n\n\n \n\n\nIt’s like when you look at the sky and you see the lighting strike and you know for sure that it’s gonna thunder any moment now-\n\n\n \n\n\nBut you still startle when you hear the loud noise.\n\n\n \n\n\nOr when you’re standing by the toaster, waiting for the bread to pop out of it, and you know it will fly out any second. You just know. \n\n\n \n\n\nBut you’re heart still skips a beat when the toast finally pops out. \n\n\n \n\n\nMinho just stares at the picture without feeling anything. He doesn’t feel how the time passes by or how life goes on around him or how his cheeks heat up or how the Kim cousins are staring at him with, waiting. \n\n\n \n\n\n“What’s going on?” Seungmin finally whispers to Woojin. \n\n\n \n\n\n“Jisung asked Miyeon out. They’re official.”  \n\n\n \n\n\nMaybe Minho should’ve been worried when Jisung left.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n"}
+{"text": "“I’m staying with you tonight, I’ll get freaking nightmares if I can’t check on him.” Nobara insisted when they had been released from the medbay.\n\nYuuji was ordered to go straight to bed by Shoko after enduring a last check of his pups, both of them curled up strong despite what they’d gone through that night. Nanami all but hovering over the process to make sure they really were okay, shaken to the core by Maki’s report of the situation. Biting his tongue to hold back the lecture he wanted to give until Yuuji was in a better state to hear it and Sukuna wasn’t leaving him to deal with the fallout on his own.\n\nMegumi nodded along with Nobara’s statement, the trio heading back to the packroom together. “That’s fine, we won’t be doing anything but sleeping. Don’t know what you saw, but with how everyone is reacting it couldn’t have been pleasant. I want to know what happened, but I can tell by how you two look I should wait until tomorrow to ask.”\n\n“Thanks, both of you.” Yuuji responded gratefully, leaning against his mate while they walked. Nuzzling and scenting him, letting the alpha take on some of his weight. “I promise I’ll tell you Megumi, but I’m just so tired. I’m glad it worked, but it took a lot out of me. Sukuna too, but he’s being stubborn about admitting it.”\n\n“I know,” Megumi assured, tucking Yuuji against his side, stroking his back. “You’ve earned the rest. Let me take care of you and the pups for now. We’ll worry about everything else once you’ve recovered.”\n\nYuuji slept like the dead for over twelve hours once he finally made it back to his nest. Glad they had put the cursed doll in the locked box before meeting with Yaga when all this started. They could stay just the way they were, he wanted his mate. Curling around Megumi and clinging tightly in a move that was somewhat unusual for him. He loved contact, but didn’t usually trap anyone in place, even when he was asleep.\n\nHe moved for trips to the bathroom and nothing else. Megumi was getting concerned for his safety, and he wasn’t the only one, because Sukuna intervened. Prodding his host awake so they could feed themselves and the pups or he would have carried on like that even longer.\n\nStumbling into the common area, they found it empty. Everyone off to classes or missions. But Megumi was able to put a bowl of noodles in front of him without too much waiting. After taking care of their by that point ravenous hunger the world started to make a bit more sense again. He was at least able to taste the second bowl, the first, not so much.\n\n“I’m surprised you aren’t with your sister. Diva and I can take care of this much, go to her queen. I know you want to.” Once again having two mouths was useful, not choking was a wonderful perk.\n\nIt also made it so Megumi had half a chance of understanding him when he was practically inhaling his food. “I’m taking care of my mate first, she’ll understand. Probably be mad at me if I didn’t.” He disagreed, nuzzling into him gently. Valiantly resisting the urge to wrap his whole body around him and smother him with affection.\n\nThey might like it, but the babies needed food more than he needed to satisfy his cuddle addiction after a full night of snuggling. “You both put yourself through a lot yesterday, most of it for my sake. Let me do this for you. I want to spoil you. It wasn’t a hardship to lay with you, not for a moment. You and the pups need to eat, then we can all go see Tsumiki when you’re feeling up to it. I’m sure she needs to rest too, it’ll take awhile to recover her strength, but she’s back. My sister’s really back. You did that for us.”\n\nNobara had followed them, and took the opportunity to comment “I’m so glad it worked. I was a little worried when her system rejected Sukuna, but his backup plan was enough. Fucking crazy, but it worked.”\n\n“I know what I’m doing diva.” Sukuna chided, grateful when another bowl of noodles and a large glass of water was given to them without needing to ask. He had protected the pups and healed the damage to Yuuji’s body, but the overall strain would take a bit to recover from. “I might have had to switch things quickly, but it was to get that asshole away from our pack and the pups. It had to happen the way it did. If I had known he had a direct link to this place I would have done the exact same thing the day I got here using whichever curse I could find that worked for that purpose. Hell, one of Yaga’s stronger cursed dolls may have worked, but this was worth it. As much as we don’t know about this stranger currently in her head, she’s already better off without that monster sinking his claws into her brain. Trust me.”\n\n“I do.” Megumi insisted. “She told us that much. Yuuji tried apologizing and she wouldn’t let him. Granted Tsumiki might have been in shock, we all were, but she sounded sure of herself. I’d like to talk to the hybrid in her, but if she’s okay with the situation I’ll wait to panic until I know there’s something to worry about. Can’t keep getting worked up over nothing, I’ll exhaust myself before the real fight even starts.”\n\n“Agreed.” Yuuji added, at last not so hungry that he couldn’t join in the conversation. “Sukuna and I didn’t have much choice either, and we’ve been making it work. Hopefully they will too. He could be good to have around, maybe he could protect her while she’s recovering?”\n\n“Not so fast brat,” Sukuna warned. “He’s a pretty tough one, I have to give him that because not doing so will end badly for all of us, but he’ll be like a glass canon in that body. Until she can recover some muscle mass he’ll break her if he tries to fight. Using my own attempts to take over a host to guess what he might be capable of, there’s a good chance he could sustain a battle. One. But he’ll be in awful shape afterwards. Think about how badly you hurt after we arrived here and put ourselves through a full heat and reckless fighting. This body was relatively well conditioned, and we still strained our muscles. He’d tear theirs apart. Which doesn’t matter if you have no interest in your host; either because you can just heal yourself or you can survive their death. I’ve been on both sides of that issue, but I don’t know where he will fall on it and that bothers me. We want him to maintain her and while he’s already proven to have survived without a host, I do not know that he can heal. Hybrid powers are unpredictable at best, his kind even more so.”\n\n“So him fighting is a suicide mission?” Nobara realized, vocalizing for the group what Megumi couldn’t bring himself to acknowledge just yet.\n\nSukuna had no such hesitations. “Potentially, yes. At least for Tsumiki. This depends on his powers and her strength of course, but as things stand there’s about a fifty-fifty chance it’s true. I felt that hybrid personally for a reason, I got a measure of his strength. I know he has the raw power for healing, what I don’t know is if he can actually do it. There wasn’t enough time to confirm that along with everything else that needed to happen.”\n\n“Couldn’t you tell by the state of her body after he took over?” Yuuji asked. “I mean you healed absolutely everything wrong with me, even went a little too far with the whole cleansing my blood thing. Our pups are proof of that. He did something similar. You started healing her, sure, but didn’t he finish?”\n\n“Yes, but that could just be part of the host process. Like I said hybrid powers are unpredictable.” Sukuna clarified. “There is no way of knowing if it was an instinctual thing he did to acquire a suitable vessel, or if he can do it consciously. There’s a pretty big difference. It is equally possible that it only happens when he takes over a new host or that he has control over it to whatever degree he has learned or been taught how to manipulate it. Yet another possibility comes to mind that it might be a mix of both where his ability is also triggered whenever her life is in mortal danger, but no other times and he can’t heal anyone else.”\n\n“I feel like we are starting to get into the territory that if you don’t tell me what happened yesterday I’m going to get very lost, very fast.” Megumi stopped the musing before it could go down an even deeper rabbit hole.\n\n“Before we do, I’ve got to ask one more time, are you absolutely sure you want to know?” Yuuji spoke seriously, taking Megumi’s hand and squeezing it. “I’m not trying to avoid you or break my promise, but it’s a lot and you shouldn’t need to deal with that when we’re okay and Tsumiki is awake. Do you need to know how that happened?”\n\n“Yes, he does.” Nobara insisted. “Yuuji. Do not try to dodge this one. Megumi didn’t see anything, but he should know about it, because that kind of shit doesn’t just go away. You broke down sobbing last night.”\n\n“He what?!” Megumi exclaimed, worried. “When did that happen?”\n\nYuuji stared down at the table in defeat, not looking at his mate. “When I left to take a shower. She came with me, and I just got overwhelmed. I think it was the pups and everything all at once, plus I was really tired. I feel better today. Really.”\n\n“He lasted longer than I thought he would.” Sukuna surfaced again. “He knew what was coming, and I’m kind of surprised you didn’t seem to realize that diva. How else would he know to warn all of you away? Still, I had no choice but to bring him along with me while I did it. And I’d do it again. He knows it too.”\n\n“Yes, I do.” Yuuji agreed, quietly. “Guys, I could see his plans. Both of them. I don’t think I could have finished if it was up to me, but it wasn’t. That doesn’t mean I didn’t agree though. You didn’t see into Sukuna’s memories, I did. We got complacent again, treating Sukuna like he’s human when he’s not. He saw a problem and fixed it his way, and I don’t think he was wrong to do it. Not after what I saw.”\n\n“The both of you should really start telling me what’s going on, please? I don’t like feeling left out of things this important to you.” Megumi pleaded.\n\nSo they did. Sukuna doing the majority of it, explaining the process as clinically as he could before finishing off with, “The best way to make sure I wasn’t going to unleash further hell into the situation was to test out the hybrid on myself. I knew it would be okay, I built up our strength first. Fucking punk was strong, but brat and I know ourselves better than he does. Takes more than power to beat us. Besides, pretty sure I know the little punk. Or at least of him.” Sukuna confessed.\n\n“How in the world do you know him? Why didn’t you say anything?” Yuuji demanded before the others could.\n\n“I doubt we ever met personally, I know him by reputation mostly, and the feeling I get from his power.” Sukuna answered. “I learned about him from the scattered vessels I’ve had over the centuries since being sealed. My usual priority is checking to make sure the bastard is still fucking dormant, that’s what caught me so off guard to find him back when he shouldn't be. This hybrid is connected to him personally.”\n\n“I know he’s one of the experimental subjects that the bastard was creating, Yaga said that much when he told us about them in the first place, is there anything else?” Yuuji was serious, brow furrowed thinking about it. Flashing back to the memories that gave Sukuna a panic attack.\n\n“I’ll leave it for him to say just in case I’m wrong in my guess, but I don’t think I am.” Sukuna decided. “And don’t go snooping around brat, you really won’t like what you find. I tried to warn you last time. Just don’t.”\n\n“I won’t dig around until you’re ready to show me things because that’s your business, but don’t think I’m weak. I won’t back down from what I saw, Sukuna. I’m your brat. Let me at least try to understand so that when you do something like yesterday, I can have your back. I didn’t stop you, all I did was try to keep the others away so they wouldn’t have to see it.” Yuuji pointed out. “The more I learn about you the more I trust your reasoning even if your methods aren’t how I would handle things. And that’s okay. We shouldn’t have to think the same way. I’d prefer we didn’t have to hurt anyone, but yesterday wasn’t about the pain we were causing, it was about the pain we were preventing. It required us to inflict pain in order to avoid more later, and I can understand that even if I don’t like it. I’ve learned that much from you.”\n\n“Great, glad you two are all cozy with it, but when I see my friend and pack leader with their hand through their own goddamned chest, I reserve the right to fucking slap you. I knew it wouldn’t do much to actually harm you, but it made me feel better.” Nobara immediately countered. “You succeeded and I’m glad, but you also would have committed suicide right in front of me if you weren’t able to stitch yourself back together. I thought you might lose the babies over all this. Blood loss is no joke, and then there’s shock to worry about. Do you understand Sukuna? We didn’t panic because of the blood or brutality, we see that all the time, but because of someone we love treating themselves like they’re expendable.”\n\n“I didn’t though. Not me, or brat, and the pups were never in any danger at all. They slept through the whole thing.” Sukuna assured. “It was a risk, I acknowledged that from the beginning, but a very calculated one. I did things in a precise order, controlling everything I could to make sure I got the outcome we did. The only thing I couldn’t entirely control was the actions of that hybrid, and even then I picked the one least likely to cause me issues, because again, pretty sure I know him. None of you are expendable and I sure as hell wouldn’t think that about my pups. What makes my pack and pups important is the fact they are mine. Hit me all you want diva, I chose you because of your willingness to fight for your beliefs, but it won’t change me. I am the King, I will do what needs to be done. Always.”\n\n“Sukuna, we should probably tell them about what happened with that bastard. It would help them understand you better, and I think it would be good for you.” Yuuji coaxed.\n\n“I don’t like that I have to explain myself for people to get that he’s fucking evil and shouldn’t be allowed to exist. Why should I debase myself to prove it, seems rumor is enough. Look at how I’m remembered, when I doubt there is a single book that mentions him. His hosts, yes, but not the fact they all have a common link.” Sukuna protested.\n\n“Don’t do that. You are trying to distract, -again- from the fact you had a very painful thing happen that you haven’t dealt with, pretty much at all, in several hundred years. Not counting when you were sealed.” Yuuji wouldn’t let him get away with the misdirect yet again.\n\n“If I’m going to do this, it will be once and only once. We should go see devil, and perhaps rouse that little punk. Because I am not repeating myself no matter how irritating he gets if he finds out and wants to know things about the asshole he doesn’t already.” Sukuna bargained.\n\n“I honestly can’t tell if you’re treating him like a pup or a brother.” Megumi noticed, bemused with a soft expression on his face.\n\n“Both.” Yuuji didn’t hide his smile. “He’s treating him like a little brother. An annoying little brother.”\n\n“...Is that normal, or because you’re stuffed with pups?” Nobara asked curiously.\n\nYuuji shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine this time. No idea. Might have something to do with being pregnant, but we also had him as part of us for a short period of time. Could be feeling protective of him from that. Or, wait, maybe he likes him because of where he knows him from?”\n\n“You will never know.” Sukuna insisted. “Except that I do not like that punk, he’s fucking frustrating and I only talked to him for a few moments.”\n\n“All of the above is the correct answer.” Nobara realized. “He’s getting defensive.”\n\n“How about we go see how Tsumiki is doing today and find out?” Megumi decided to get them back on track. Not wanting them to lose sight of Sukuna finally agreeing to tell his story.\n\n“Let’s go.” Yuuji allowed. “I want to make sure she’s okay, and I’d like to meet him if he’s willing to talk to us.”\n\n“He might if there aren't so many people around. Let’s keep it relatively small with just us, and maybe devil.” Sukuna advised. “She’ll want to be there to monitor us I’m sure. Stopping her just isn’t worth it.”\n\nWith the plan in mind, they headed back to their rooms to change, agreeing to meet back up to head over to the medbay together."}
+{"text": "******************\n\nLate August 2022\n\nPrecinct - Monday Afternoon 12p\n\n******************\n\nIt had been a busy morning for the Captain and her squad. As soon as Fin, Amanda, and Velasco walked into the precinct the sergeant was hit with an office groping case. Soon after Fin headed out, Amanda and Velasco were sent to Hudson University, where videos secretly recorded by a peeping Tom of students getting undressed had surfaced on the school’s intranet. Meanwhile Liv’s day started with an impromptu meeting with McGrath, followed by a scheduled one with Lorraine Maxwell at the DA’s Office. \n\nNothing came of the groping incident, which Fin eventually figured out was fabricated. However, Amanda and Velasco’s case would be something the two of them would need to spend more time looking into after conducting an initial investigation at the campus. \n\nAmanda, who had been on the go with Velasco all morning, was looking forward to continuing their work back at the precinct. Mainly because she was feeling physically exhausted; for a reason only she was privy to. However not long after her and Velasco returned to the squad room, followed soon after by the Captain, another call came in.\n\nLiv, who took the call, quickly gathered her detectives together by Amanda’s desk and handed the case off. “Fin, I need you and Rollins to head out to Dalton Academy on the Upper West Side. School nurse just reported a possible case of child abuse.” \n\nShe turned to Velasco. “I want you to stay here and keep combing through the videos to see if any clues pop up as to who the voyeur may be.”\n\nBoth Fin and Velasco nodded and made their way back to their desks while Amanda got up from her chair and stopped Liv, who had started walking back to her office, and pulled her off to the side. \n\n“Could Velasco go with Fin and I keep looking through the videos?” Amanda asked quietly. “I know I have a good rapport with kids but so does he and I’m feeling a little rundown today. I could use an hour or two off my feet.”\n\nLiv stared at her a bit curiously for a moment, but simply nodded. “OK.”\n\nAmanda headed back to her desk while Liv made her way over to Fin and Velasco. “Change of plans. Velasco I want you to go with Fin while Rollins will hang here and continue looking through the videos.”\n\nHe nodded. The two then quickly collected their things and made their way out. \n\nLiv headed back to her office and started working through some paperwork. As she did she noticed Amanda get up and go to the bathroom not once but twice within a 30 minute period and for what seemed like uncharacteristically long stretches. \n\nWhen she emerged from the restroom after her second trip, Liv got the blonde’s attention and motioned for Amanda to come into her office. \n\nOnce Amanda closed the door and took a seat across from Liv, the Captain wasted no time getting to the topic at hand.\n\n“What’s going on Rollins?” She asked as she removed her glasses and placed them down on her desk. “Is this post vacation fatigue or something else?”\n\nAmanda ran a hand through her hair. “It’s…exactly what you think it is.” \n\nShe took a quick breath, exhaled, and told her, “I’m pregnant.”\n\nThough Liv assumed that she was, hearing Amanda so willingly admit it without much prodding surprised her, but in a good way. It also had her wondering if maybe her and Sonny had been trying for a baby. But before she could get her question out Amanda continued speaking.\n\n“While we were vacationing in Cape May last week, I felt a little under the weather, but kind of sporadically. It’s when I realized I might be pregnant. So when we got back on Saturday I went out, picked up a couple of tests and discreetly took them while Sonny and the girls were occupied. They all came back positive.”\n\n“Did you tell him yet?”\n\nAmanda shook her head. “No, not yet. There was a lot going on. We spent most of the weekend unpacking, catching up on laundry, and getting the girls ready for their final week of day camp. It just didn’t feel like the right time. But I was gonna tell him tonight.”\n\nLiv nodded slowly and though she was thrilled to hear the news, she wasn’t quite sure how Amanda was feeling about it.\n\n“So is this a good thing?” She finally asked her. “Did you want a third baby?”\n\nAmanda smiled softly. “It is a good thing. While I didn’t see myself having another one after Billie, now that I know I will be I’m excited about it. Because I know Carisi’s going to be an amazing dad to this baby.”\n\nLiv smiled back at her.\n\n“I still can’t believe I’m gonna be starting over and having a baby at 41.” Amanda said. “Does it seem crazy to you?” She asked a little worriedly, biting her lip.\n\nLiv shook her head. “No. If I had found a loving and supportive partner like Carisi at your age I probably would’ve tried for one.”\n\n“Yeah?” \n\nThe Captain nodded. “But my life went a little differently. The jury’s still out on how things will go in the romantic department but as for the rest of my life, I couldn’t be happier with how it’s all turned out. Noah entering my life when he did was such a blessing. I’m very fortunate.”\n\nAmanda smiled. “He’s a keeper.”\n\n“He sure is.” Liv said agreeing. \n\n“You know, it’s interesting to hear you say you would’ve considered having a baby at my age.” Amanda admitted. “Because even though Carisi and I probably should’ve had the baby discussion, considering how old I am and the fact that I already have two kids, we hadn’t.”\n\nThe Captain seemed a little surprised. “Really?”\n\nShe nodded. “There was just so many other things to think about. We’ve been together for a year and a half now, but those first nine months were spent keeping our relationship hush hush. Even from the girls. So we could take some time to navigate the dynamics and, at least in my case, to build up the guts to share it with the world. Because I was so afraid that defining what we were might some how ruin it.”\n\n“But it didn’t.” Liv pointed out.\n\n“It didn’t.” Amanda concurred. “It just made him and I stronger. And then once we finally disclosed we spent the next few months making sure the girls were comfortable with everything and for them and I to get to know his family better.”\n\nShe looked down at her left hand, which now sported a subtly beautiful diamond on her ring finger. “Then we got engaged and a lot of our focus has been on planning a wedding of some kind in the near future.”\n\nLiv nodded slowly. “I can see why it wasn’t on your radar. At least initially. But do you think you chose to not bring it up to him because deep down you worried you might not be on the same page about it?”\n\nAmanda sighed. “A little. I mean, I am genuinely happy about the baby but it’s like I said earlier. I was pretty sure I was done after two and I probably wouldn’t have actively  sought this path. Even though Carisi didn’t have kids and, knowing the kind of guy he is, would likely want at least one.”\n\nShe paused for a moment and then continued. “Because when him and I were talking about disclosing, he brought up how he didn’t want to be ‘Uncle Sonny’ forever. And at the time I figured he was referring to Jesse and Billie; that he wanted the girls to know who I really was to him and be seen by them as more of a pseudo, and eventually official, stepdad instead of a family friend and godfather. But later on I started wondering if he also meant he wanted to be a dad in his own right someday.”\n\nLiv nodded and sat quietly as she carefully strung together her thoughts and then responded.\n\n“Last year Carisi said something that really struck a chord and made me feel for him.” She sat up straighter in her chair. “He said at his age he always thought he’d be married and that he’d have kids. And it was clear to me it saddened him he wasn’t and that he didn’t. Because those were things he really longed for.”\n\nAmanda frowned a bit, but stayed quiet and let Liv continue.\n\n“Then a short time later you and the girls came into his life in the way he’s always wanted you all to be in it.” She said to her. “And it’s the happiest I’ve ever seen him. Even during a tough, stressful day in court. Because he knows at the end of it he gets to go home to his family. And you three…”\n\nLiv cleared her throat and in her best iteration of a Staten Island accent said, “Are the only ones that can make those bad days good again.”\n\nA grin spread across Amanda’s face. \n\n“Carisi’s going to be over the moon when he finds out the two of you will be having a baby, but he’s also over the moon about the life he currently shares with you and the girls. I don’t think he was ever oblivious to the fact that a biological child might not be in the cards for him. I think the reason he never brought up the baby topic to you was because it wasn’t something he needed to be happy. It didn’t matter that Jesse and Billie don’t come from him. They’re the kids he’s always wanted and you’re the only woman he’s ever wanted it. It’s why he gave you that ring.”\n\nAmanda found herself growing emotional. “We’re lucky to have him.” She said as she wiped away happy tears from her eyes.\n\nLiv nodded but then followed up by saying, “And he’s lucky to have you.”\n\nJust then a patrol officer knocked on the door and slowly opened it after getting the OK from Liv.\n\n“Chief McGrath had this file sent over for you Captain.” He said as he walked over to her and handed Liv the folder.\n\nShe thanked the officer, who then quickly exited and closed the door behind him.\n\nAmanda stood up. “I better get back to those peeping Tom videos.”\n\nLiv nodded, got up from her desk and walked her to the door. \n\nShe gave Amanda a hug. “I’m happy for you Rollins. I can’t wait to see what a mini you and Carisi will be like.”\n\n“I can’t either.” Amanda said when they pulled apart. “But if I had to guess I’d say trouble.” She laughed. \n\nLiv playfully rolled her eyes and chuckled. \n\nThe blonde’s cheerful demeanor then slowly became a bit more serious. “I know I gave you a lot of that over the years.” She told her. “Thank you for not giving up on me when most would’ve. For being a good Captain but an even better friend. I’m lucky to have you in my life.”\n\nLiv gave her a small smile. “Ditto.”\n\nAmanda grinned and then as she opened the door to head out, Liv said to her, “Let me know how it goes with Carisi tonight.”\n\n“Full report comin’ your way tomorrow, boss.” She said.\n\nAmanda then made her way out of the office while Liv headed back to her chair and returned her attention to the files on her desk.\n\n******************\n\nSonny and Amanda’s Apartment - Monday Night 10p\n\n******************\n\nDespite having a hectic morning, things thankfully slowed down for Amanda later in the afternoon and she got home to the girls at a decent time. However Sonny, who was roped into assisting with an Organized Crime Control Bureau case as soon as he got into work, had to stay late.\n\nSince she had the time Amanda tried to come up with a fun, cutesy way to tell Sonny about the baby. But pregnancy brain got the best of her. Still, she didn’t wanna wait any longer to tell him so Amanda decided that when he got home she wouldn’t try to do come up with anything witty. Instead she’d just be straightforward and come right out with it.\n\nAn exhausted looking Sonny eventually made it home around 10p.\n\n“Hey,” He said to his fiancé, who was sitting in the living room watching TV.\n\nAmanda lowered the television with the clicker, got up from the sofa and greeted him by the entryway with a kiss. “You look so tired.” She said to him sympathetically.\n\n“I am.” He said as he set his briefcase down and hung up his keys. The two then made their way into the kitchen together.\n\n“I’m guessing you already ate but I ordered a pizza for me and the girls and there’s a lot left. Do you want me to reheat a couple of slices for you in the oven?”\n\n“No I’m good.” He told her. “Just goin’ to make a cup of coffee. Do you want one?”\n\nAmanda shook her head no and sat down at the table. \n\n“How was your day?” Sonny asked as he stood by the Keurig preparing his coffee.\n\nShe ran a hand through her hair. “My morning was pretty hectic, but things eventually started to slow down. I still can’t believe I didn’t see you even once today. That rarely happens, unless you’re in the middle of a trial. Velasco had to go to Nolan Price to get a search warrant. You were actually busier than him.”\n\nHe chuckled. “I’m always busier than him Rollins. Because as executive ADA he hands off a majority of his minor requests to peasant ADA’s like myself.”\n\nAmanda playfully rolled her eyes at him.\n\n“Did you make any headway with that peeping Tom case you were texting me about?” He asked as he poured some creamer into his coffee.\n\n“A little.” She said as she absentmindedly played with her necklace. “Getting there.”\n\nSonny poured some sugar into his mug and stirred it into his coffee with a spoon. “How were things here tonight? Anything exciting happen?”\n\n“Not really.” She told him. “But I do have something exciting to tell you.”\n\nHe took a sip of his coffee. “What is it?”\n\n“I’m pregnant.”\n\nSonny instantly dropped his mug and, though he didn’t spill any coffee on himself, the hot liquid scattered all over the floor and the mug broke into a bunch of small pieces.\n\nBefore commenting Sonny, as well as Amanda’s, eyes briefly shifted from each other to the door of the girls’ room, which remained closed. \n\nOnce confident he hadn’t woken Jesse and Billie, Sonny redirected his attention back to his fiancé, who had gotten up from her seat at the table. \n\n“You’re really pregnant?” He asked, knowing he hadn’t misheard her, but still wanting her to repeat herself for reassurance.\n\nAmanda gave him a small smile and nodded.\n\nTears started to well up in his eyes. He then carefully dodged the remnants of his coffee on the floor and made his way over to her. Sonny kissed Amanda passionately and then gently pulled her into his arms. “I can’t believe we’re goin’ to have a baby.” He said quietly into her ear. “I’m so happy.”\n\n“Me too.” She whispered back.\n\nWhen they finally pulled apart his gaze immediately drifted down to her stomach and he stared at it in awe. “How did this even happen?”\n\nAmanda jokingly began explaining. “Well, when two people love each other, they often like to express that love by—“\n\n“Alright, alright.” He said laughing. \n\n“I’m surprised about it too.” She told him. “But I took four tests and they all came back VERY positive.”\n\nHe smiled and gently stroked her hair. “So you’re really OK with this? Because I always figured a third baby was probably something you weren’t interested in intentionally pursuing.”\n\n“Probably not.” She admitted aloud to him for the first time. “But things happen for a reason and I’m glad that I get to have a baby with you. Because you’re already the best dad there is to the girls and I know you’ll be just as amazing to this little one of ours on the way.“\n\n“I’m glad I get to have a baby with you too.” He told her sincerely. “But I want you to know I didn’t need one. Being able to share and build a life with you and the girls is all I’ve ever wanted.”\n\nSonny placed his hand on her stomach. “The baby is the icing on top of the already sweet and wonderful cake I call my life. One I’m so thankful I’ve been blessed with.”\n\nHe knelt down, lifted her shirt up a bit and kissed her stomach. “I love you…”\n\nSonny stood up and kissed Amanda. “And I love you and the girls so very much.” \n\n“We love you too.” She said smiling at him. \n\nThe two continued to gaze deeply into each other’s eyes when both Amanda and Sonny caught glimpse of Frannie licking up the coffee on the kitchen floor.\n\n“Frannie, no.” She said to the dog, who ignored the command and continued to lick up the coffee.\n\n“I hope you’re ready for when the baby tries to do stuff like this.” Amanda chuckled as she gently led Frannie out of the kitchen and then began picking up the broken mug pieces.\n\nSonny jokingly cringed, but then laughed. He then soaked up the coffee with paper towels while Amanda grabbed the Swiffer from the bathroom closet."}
+{"text": "Aizawa hadn’t realized how much weight he was unintentionally carrying until some of it left his shoulders at the sight before him. Not all of it left, he still had a lot of things that were weighing on his mind. He still had to figure out what Shinsou knew, figure out what the Miasma was, how it worked, how to dismantle it, and that doesn’t include his other cases or his duties that come with being a teacher.\n\nIt had taken him hours to talk with Naomasa about what he thought was happening at the station. He ended up explaining a couple of concepts and theories a multitude of times. Sansa looked beyond unconvinced as he talked but Naomasa hummed along encouragingly. He ended up showing some of his supporting evidence that he luckily kept on his phone, that was finally able convince Sansa that at least one of his fellow officers were in the Miasma.  \n\nBy the time he got home it was seven at night, which officially means that he spent 8 hours at Sansa’s house discussing the case.The apartment seemed almost eerily empty to him when he first came in. The kitchen and the living room void of anyone and had a strange stillness in the air. The only thing that put him to ease as he settled in was the soft music he could hear coming from his bedroom.\n\nIt was when he heard a loud thunk followed by a shout from Shinsou’s room did he become more alert. With his heart pounding as thoughts rushed to his head that the Miasma found out about their conversation, he went to the room. He didn’t waste time in knocking on the door but threw the door open with the handle firmly grasped in his hand.  Five startled sets of wide eyes and cards fluttering to the ground is the sight that had greeted him.\n\nShinsou was laying propped up in his bed with a set of cards in his hands.His face was still flushed with his lingering fever and he had a deer in headlights look as he stared at him. Uraraka was sitting crossed legged at the end of the bed with her jaw dropped as she stared at him with cards slowly falling out of her hands.\n\n Midoriya was sitting on the small ledge at the window as he fumbled with picking up the cards he tossed in the air when the door had opened.  Iida was now standing at his spot in front of the desk chair that flew back when he got up abruptly at the sound. He was standing rim rod straight with his mouth opening and closing as he tried to figure out what to say. The last person in the room was Asui, who was sitting on top of the desk with her legs swinging out in front of her. She put down a single card in the stack in the middle of the bed and claimed Uno, completely ignoring the atmosphere. \n\n“Hello Sensei,” Asui croaked after she decided to declare herself as the winner when no one continued the card game. \n\n“Hello.” He replied slightly startled.  \n\nHaving five kids in the room is not what he had expected when he came home today. It wasn’t anything he anticipated from Shinsou either. He didn’t think Shinsou was friendly with anyone, let alone be close enough for people to come visit him outside of school. \n\n“We can leave if you want!” Uraraka blurted out as she tried to break the now awkward air. “We didn’t mean to intrude!”\n\n“I apologize Sensei! I didn’t mean to betray any trust by bringing them here.” Iida said matter of factly as he adjusted his skewed glasses on his face. \n\n“It’s fine Iida!” Aizawa jumped at the sound of his husbands voice so close to his ear as he interrupted the long speal that was sure to come from Iida. He gave the man a sharp glare when he started to tug him away from the door. “Just continue you what you were doing!”\n\nHe begrudgingly let Hizashi pull him into the living room and deposited him on the couch. Hizashi quickly joined him with his legs crossed underneath him as he sat sideways on the cushion to face him.  A large smile was on his face as he slowly leaned in closer to his until he huffed in fake irritation and pushed him away gently.  Hizashi let out a small laugh at the display but fixed his position so their sides were pressed up against each other. \n\n“So, this is progress.” Hizashi mumbled as his eyes darted to the hall and back to him. “Should have known, Izuku ‘Knows No Boundaries’ Midoriya would have became friends with Shinsou.”\n\nIt was good progress. It was slightly jarring to see that many of his student’s in his house at one time, but it wasn’t unwanted. He was glad that Shinsou was finally talking and hanging out with kids his own age and that it was outside of training. \n\nHaving Shinsou socializing was one less thing he could be concerned about. It had weighed on his mind heavily about how to try and integrate Shinsou into a normal life. Well, as normal as they could get it to be with his background and their lives.  Having him train with Iida was a nice way to break the ice and get him used to talking with other students, but he had to admit that he didn’t think it would lead anywhere. Shinsou was always closed off and if he did talk, it was to snark at them. However, seeing him play a normal card game with his peers, proved that wrong. \n\n“Well,sooner or later one of the students in that class would have forced their way in.” Aizawa sighed as he thought over his class. “It was bound to happen when you put him with that group of kids.”\n\n“Speaking of your class, have you decided who I’ll be fighting against for the finals?”\n\n“I was thinking Jirou and Koda.” \n\n“Sound vs sound, sounds rad!” Hizashi exclaimed excitedly before settling down quickly against his shoulder, like that outburst sapped the rest of his energy. It was a long day for the both of them. He knows that Hizashi got out of school and headed straight to the station to do his show and plan more ahead. He also knows that he’s running on little less than four hours of sleep with him patrolling the other day. They both really just needed a break for a while. \n\n It was silent for a bit, just enjoying each other’s company while they listened to the excited shouts and sounds of complaints that came from Shinsou’s room as their game progressed. Minutes ticked by until Hizashi turned his head to look at him, his chin pressing against the top of his shoulder. “What are we going to do about the camp?”\n\n“The training camp?”\n\n“Yeah, I have to go to that convention in Hotsu and you’re going up in the mountains. What are we going to do with Shinsou?”\n\n“I could take him with me.”\n\n“Is that really the smartest idea?” Hizashi said leaning back slightly to take in his whole face. “You’d be too busy with your students and helping with Kan’s to be able to focused on him.”\n\n“It’ll be fine, he’s not a little kid.”\n\n“You want him to be surrounded by that amount of training? I don’t think that’s a good idea, you saw what had happened with All Might.”\n\nHizashi is probably right. No, he was right. \n\nShinsou has always been weird with training instances.  It was fine when it was with Iida because there were no quirks used and it was one on one. Shinsou also had complete control over their training, there was no surprises or any expectations from him during their training.\n\nIt was vastly different when there was a bunch of people using their quirks in a room. Shinsou was always tense and on high alert, even when he was on the sidelines. Being at the camp with not only his students but with Kan’s,  and with them focusing on increasing their quirks, was not the best idea. \n\n“What do you have in mind then?”Aizawa asked.\n\n“What if we get someone to watch him?”\n\n“That’s a good idea, but who? Everyone we know is busy that weekend.” \n\n“Well,” Hizashi’s voice singsonged. “We do know one person that’s free that weekend.”\n\n“No.” He deadpanned quickly. No, not her. She’s beyond qualified but he doesn’t know how Shinsou would react with a personality like theirs and to be frank, he doesn’t want to know. \n\n“Come on! She’s perfect! She’s free, has the place to herself, doesn’t even have patrol! It’ll be perfect!” Hizashi reasoned. “Besides! It’ll only be for a couple of days until my thing is done and I can come pick him up.”\n\n“Fine, but you’re dealing with any consequences with them meeting. I do not want to know how many things he could learn from her. Even in that short amount of time.”\n\n \n\n--------------------------------------------------------------\n\n \n\n27 sat with a pencil clenched hard enough in his fist that his hand ached. He stared down at the blank paper in his lap as if it was mocking him. \n\nThe cards that they were playing with earlier was safely tucked away under his mattress along with the other things he has collected since his arrival.  At first he didn’t want the cards and he had tried to give it back to Uraraka. However, she kept insisting that he keep them. At first he thought that she must have seen him sneak away one of the reverse Uno cards earlier and she felt bad for him or he ruined the deck, but she said it was so when they come visit next time, they’d have something to play.\n\nThe group quickly took their leave after Iida pointed out  how late it was getting and it was a school night. He could hear them from his room refusing Mic’s invite to stay for dinner and exit the apartment. As soon as that front door closed, the levity of the atmosphere went way and the reality of everything came crashing down around him. \n\nEraser was onto him and he was too close for comfort. He was like a dog with a bone and he knew won’t let it go anytime soon. The suspicion was easily read on Eraser’s face any time he sees him and it only mounts as time passes. It was only a matter of time before he corners him and questions him. Even with his tactics, he could only avoid him for so long.  \n\nHe has no idea what he would say to Eraser when it comes to that. If he tells him too much, the Miasma is will find out  and there will be consequences. He cant risk having the Miasma find out he spilled anything, he still hasn’t figured out how he’s going to get out of it.  If he tells too little, Eraser is too suspicious not to know he’s still hiding things, and would push for everything. He just needs to find a nice balance. \n\nWith that somewhat figured out, it only remains one other major pressing issue that he needed to do. His report to the Miasma was due tonight and it had to be good. \n\nIt needed something. Last weeks report was lackluster and he’s sure it was disappointing. He needed to make up for that and the only thing that comes to his mind was the big revelation of the week, perhaps the century. That Toshinori Yagi was All Might. \n\nHe had told Midoriya that he wouldn't tell anyone but he could always go back on his word. Even if Midoriya  somehow found out that he had told the Miasma, it would be too late too late to change anything. It had little risk for him if he told the Miasma. It wasn’t like he had too much to risk if Midoriya did tell Eraser everything. If Eraser hasn’t figured out that he was involved with the incident by now, he was at least close in putting it together. Which leaves Midoriya’s threat null. \n\nMiasma’s unspoken threat had a stronger pull than Midoriya’s. If he doesn’t tell them, and they find out, it’ll be so much worse for him than anything Midoriya could do or say. \n\n27’s stomach turned and his lungs clenched tightly in his chest as he thought over his options.  If he tells, Toshinori would be in a world of hurt. It might take awhile for someone willing to fork over the amount of cash that they want in exchange, but it will  happen. If he doesn't tell, he’d run the risk and be the one on the chopping block.\n\nHe breathed heavily through his nose in attempt to calm his staggered breathing. He pressed the pen against the paper and started his report, simply starting with his basic observations.\n\nTelling the Miasma about All Might can wait. It’s not like there was a time limit on it and he could always say he found out later than he actually did. What he needs to write is something that would be important enough to report but nothing that can directly harm anyone. If he couldn’t figure out something, he’d have no choice but to write about All Might. \n\nHe gnawed at the bottom of his lip as he tried to wrack his sluggish brain about anything that he could report. There was the instance of Mic going to leave town in a week but that didn’t seem like anything that the Miasma would find useful. He could write about how Aizawa was closing in on them, and how his cover is about to get blown. That was his  main purpose of coming here anyways. \n\nThe pen glided jaggedly across the page as he wrote. His hand was too tense for any fluid movement and the sudden cough would jerk the pen across the page. It was messy but it was legible. Memory should be able to make out what he wrote. \n\nWhat worried him was that the page wasn’t even a quarter way full. It looked so blank and empty compared to his previous reports. It needed something else to help fill the page, something to make it thicker. \n\n27 pursed his lips before he was struck with the realization of what he should write. Finals for the students were this week right before summer break. He had heard Eraser discuss with not only Mic but also Vlad King about a training camp. The details were slim, but  he did get that they were going to be training with the Wild Wild Pussy Cats in the mountains somewhere. It wasn’t a lot, but the Miasma could probably piece together enough information to figure out exactly where it’s going to be located. \n\nIt was the perfect information to write about. It wasn’t important  enough for the Miasma to know or sell for large amount, but it was big enough that it looked like he was giving away everything he had learned this week and that he was getting semi-useful information.  It was a harmless side note to everything that had actually learned. No one truly cares about where some UA class was going to be for a week, so he doubts anyone would buy that information. \n\nThe training camp was irrelevant and it was harmless information to give away."}
+{"text": "Disclaimer: As always I own nothing but the original characters and the plot. Thanks and enjoy.\n\nValentine's Day\n\nIt was ten minutes until the end of Detective John Blake's shift. Just ten more minutes and then he could get the hell out of the squad room and head home. He'd gotten used to days like this, he reminded himself, days when the cops around him gave him suspicious looks or made snide little comments to make it clear what they thought of the fact that he was sleeping with one of the most dangerous suspected criminals in Gotham. He didn't expect them to understand his relationship with Bane, hell, half the time he didn't get it either. But at the end of the day he and his lover didn't mix business with pleasure and that was that. His division didn't operate in Bane's territory and neither of them talked about their work in order to avoid the other learning something they shouldn't know.\n\nAnd technically Bane didn't have a criminal record, the man was just a living legend in the criminal underworld and was feared by pretty much everyone who encountered him. So while his fellow cops had heard plenty about him they didn't have any actual evidence since that tended to disappear as quickly as the man's enemies.\n\nSo yeah, hooking up with the guy hadn't been one of his smartest decisions, but he'd made worse. Probably. And it wasn't like he saw them as having a future, for Christ's sake. It would never work. That they'd lasted three months was a minor miracle.\n\nThe fact that he'd never had a relationship last this long was just the icing on the cake, Blake thought with a small sigh, his eyes once again being drawn over to the desk nearest his. Deena's husband had had the roses delivered that morning and the smell was almost driving him as crazy as why the man had sent them in the first place.\n\nIt was Valentine's Day.\n\nWhen you grew up the way he had you learned not to give a shit about holidays, and part of the reason his track record dating wise was crap was because he was married to his job and didn't have a romantic bone in his body. And Bane had to be the same way, so there was no reason to think that the fact that they were getting together later required him to, in any way, shape or form, acknowledge the commercial holiday currently going on.\n\nBut what if the man was expecting something?\n\nThey'd only been having sex during Christmas so that hadn't been an issue. It was only in the last month that they'd actually started to spend the night together and keep each other company with clothes still on. They weren't really dating…but they sorta were too.\n\nDammit.\n\n\"So, Blake, got big plans tonight with your Quasimodo on steroids?\"\n\nEyes narrowing ever so slightly Blake kept his cool and refused to rise to the bait. Sort of. \"As a matter of fact BANE is coming to my place tonight. But no need to be jealous, McGreedy.  I'm sure eventually you'll manage to save up enough to pay a human being to sleep with you. It should only take you a few more decades, and hey, in the spirit of the holiday I'll chip in ten.\"\n\nBlake wasn't even really surprised when the now red faced man threw the punch.  Maybe he'd been hoping for the chance to alleviate his tension so that Bane wouldn't notice it later. Either way he simply moved his head out of the way and didn't attack, knowing the man would look more foolish for it.\n\nDrawing back his fist again McGreedy didn't get a chance to throw it, the cold voice of their commissioner slashing across the room like a nine-tailed whip.\n\nEveryone straightening and coming to attention both men assured Gordon that nothing was the matter when he demanded to know what the hell was going on. Nothing, they assured him, nothing at all.\n\n\"Then I think your shift is over now, Blake. Why don't you head on out.\"\n\n\"Yes, Sir.\"\n\n)\n\nStepping out of the elevator Bane loosened the bright red scarf Talia had wrapped around him earlier, insisting that it was just the thing since it would not only cover up his mask but get him into the holiday spirit. She'd had a gleam in her eyes that he hadn't liked, especially when she'd told him to have a nice time with his detective. The two had never met of course, his connection to her couldn't be known to anyone outside the League, but he was beginning to think that Talia didn't like that he was involved with someone.\n\nWhich was foolish, as his loyalty was absolute. There was no one more devoted to her than him. The relationship he had with Detective Blake was merely a sexual one that would no doubt end before the snow left Gotham City for the year. If not sooner.\n\nYes there was something about the man that…drew him, but that was because Detective Robin John Blake was a puzzle and one he had yet to solve to his satisfaction. The man kept pieces of himself hidden and guarded, refusing to show them to him. But he had most of them now, and Bane was confident that it was only a matter of time before he could anticipate the man's every move instead of constantly being caught off guard by how different the man was in comparison to anyone he'd ever known.\n\nAs it was he was still trying to figure out why the dedicated and un-corruptible cop had propositioned him in the first place.\n\nIt had started at Inception, a bar his Talia owned and one that he enjoyed visiting on occasion. His little bird wasn't much for such places but had started coming somewhat regularly in October to walk one of the bar's waitresses, who was his neighbor, home at night due to a small gang that had been making trouble in their area.\n\nThe chemistry between them had been immediate that first night, when they'd both been scanning the room for trouble and had locked eyes instead. He would never forget that moment as long as he lived. And it had kept happening every time they saw each other, both intimately aware of the other and left shaken when one forced his gaze to drop away.\n\nNaturally Bane had known everything there was to know data wise on the man when Blake approached him. So he'd thought he knew who and what he was dealing with. Yet he'd never expected the man to ask him to bed, nor for the cop to go to his superiors once it became clear that one night would not be enough for either of them. Blake had made no effort to hide their relationship, taking the investigation by his internal police in stride and refusing to act as an informant when approached again and again to do so.\n\nBane had cops in his pocket of course, so he knew how his little bird was treated because of him.\n\nYet his detective never complained…and continued to see him.\n\nHe spent far too much time thinking about the man, Bane told himself, and not for the first time. But it seemed pointless to try and stop when he was about to see Blake again. When he was with his little bird the detective was all he could think about. Analyzing every move he made, ever word that left those soft looking lips that tempted him with their every quiver.\n\nShaking his head over those trivial thoughts Bane concentrated solely on studying the hallway he was walking down until he came to the correct door, knocking carefully since the wood was thin and would break easily enough under a normal man's strength.\n\n)\n\nHaving been waiting for the knock Blake wasn't long in coming to the door, the delay coming from the necessary check through the Judas hole and then the undoing of the locks that he'd installed to at least give him some warning if someone came hunting for a cop. Though any criminal with brains would probably avoid him like the plague for fear of what Bane would do to him or her if they did harm a hair on his head. He knew word had gotten out about their relationship and that he was considered the property of the man who pretty much blocked the entire doorway once he'd opened the door.\n\nA single blink was the only reaction Bane gave to the look on his man's face, knowing it well and not at all pleased not to be the cause. Or perhaps he had been, but had not been given the opportunity to be the direct cause. \"You look well satisfied.\"\n\nMaking a confused sound Blake moved out of the way to let the much bigger man in, pondering the question. \"Oh. Yeah. I have strawberry shortcake. I'm good.\" Not even the thought that he was considered Bane's bitch in the criminal world could dim that sugar high.\n\n\"Cake?\"\n\n\"Strawberry shortcake.\" Blake corrected with a smile that brought his dimples out and made his eyes crinkle. \"It's a major weakness of mine. I was just getting into my third piece when you knocked. It's from the bakery three blocks from here, and better than regular sex.\"\n\n\"Better than sex.\" Bane repeated, just the faintest hint of insult in his voice.\n\nBlake grinned. \"The heat we generate is anything but regular.\" Moving in the detective placed his lips against the man's neck over the pulse point, sucking on the skin there in long, slow pulls. It wouldn't even bruise noticeable, the man's flesh was that tough, but it was the closest thing he'd been able to come up with to replace actual kissing.\n\nHe'd never realized just how much foreplay and easing into a sexual relationship started with the meeting of lips until he'd started to sleep with a man whose lips he'd never even seen.\n\nAnd understanding the gesture for what it was Bane lifted a hand to stroke his large fingers through the man's hair before cupping the back of Blake's head to keep him where he was. His way of returning the gesture.\n\nWhen he pulled away Blake stroked Bane's cheek briefly before he turned to lock the door behind them, putting the multiple chains in place even though it really wasn't necessary given the other man's presence. He'd like to see some would be thief or murderer try to get past Bane to him. Well no, he wouldn't, but that was mostly because he didn't like the idea of his lover in danger. Or the idea of Bane killing the bad guy in front of him.\n\nThe two of them heading for the small apartment's even smaller living room Blake moved over to the table where he'd left his latest slice of cake. \"I'll just put this in the fridge and be right back.\" He never ate in front of Bane, it just seemed wrong and impolite to do so.\n\n\"Finish it. I don't mind.\"\n\nGood manners warred with greed, and Bane had given him the okay so…greed won.\n\nFiguring that he could eat while Bane talked Blake asked the man about whatever book he was reading at the moment and then turned his attention back to finishing off his dessert, doing his best to listen and enjoy at the same time.\n\nHe had to be doing it on purpose, Bane thought as he kept his body under tight control.  There was no way that dessert could be that good. The carnal pleasure the man was projecting, it was meant to seduce him. To entice him. Blake always seemed to enjoy their sexual encounters more when he felt that he had made Bane lose control as well. Naturally he'd pointed out how dangerous that was, though the bruises on the man's flesh should have been warning enough. Thus far neither warning had sunk in.\n\nIt was the spoon licking that had the large man grumbling through his mask that there was no need to put on such a show.\n\nFollowing the man's pointed gaze Blake didn't have to wonder what Bane was talking about for long. Laughing he shook his head, dimples flashing again as he reminded the man that he'd said it was just that good. And seeing that he wasn't being believed Blake stuck the spoon in what was left of his treat and held out the plate. \"Here. I'll go somewhere else and you can try it. Just call me when I can come back in.\"\n\n\"I have no need to pollute my body with some sugary concoction that does not benefit the body in any way.\"\n\n\"But it does have benefits.\" Blake argued. And since the man thought he was doing this just to seduce anyway…why not? Shifting over Blake carefully straddled one of Bane's legs, sitting on it comfortably while facing the man as he scooped up a little on his spoon and waved it teasingly in front of his lover's masked face. \"It makes you feel good, just like sex.\" Pretend pause. \"But if you don't want it...maybe you'd feed it to me instead?\"\n\nBeing a master strategist Bane knew this was a trap. An idiot could see that. But his bird was watching him with such a playful, happy gleam in his eyes that Bane found himself taking the spoon from the detective, wanting to please him.\n\nAnd annoyed by that urge Bane decided to annoy the man in turn by deliberately moving the spoon away from Blake when the man leaned in to take it into his mouth.\n\nUnfortunately it didn't work that way, the younger man laughing instead as he braced his free hand on Bane's shoulder for balance as he tried to move fast enough to get his treat. Bane was faster though, his reflexes far superior and his timing impeccable. But Blake kept trying, both because he refused to admit defeat-and because the leg he straddled felt so good as he rubbed against it with every movement of his body as he lunged towards the bait again and again.\n\nWanting both his hands free to touch Bane decided to let Blake get his treat, regretting the decision quickly as the detective punished him for making it easy by giving the spoon a blow job, sucking and licking at it in a way that had a great deal of blood leaving Bane's head and heading south to an area of his anatomy that would very much have liked to change places with that piece of silverware.\n\nPulling back when he was sure his point had been made Blake studied the man's eyes with pleasure, seeing just enough in them to know he had definitely hit more than a few of the man's hot spots. If he hadn't there would have been nothing to see in the man's eyes but steel walls.\n\nThinking that he'd give the other man another 'kiss' on the neck to soothe him a little Blake's eyes caught on something that had transferred to his lover's skin during their little game without either of them noticing. Hmmm, how convenient.\n\nBane tensed up at the shift in Blake's attention, wanting to know what had caught his interest.\n\n\"You got some of the cream on you.\" Leaning in Blake slid his tongue across the man's neck, very deliberately only lapping up a minute trace of the cream. Again and again he did that, drawing it out as long as possible as he tasted Bane's skin with just the faintest trace of the dessert he'd been snacking on. Then he nuzzled his face against his lover's neck, his nose picking up the faint smell of the medicinal gas coming from the mask. But that was just one more aspect that made up his lover's unique scent and he wanted Bane more than any sweet smelling treat.\n\nTaking the basically empty plate from his bird with one hand Bane wrapped the other around Blake's waist as he leaned over to lightly toss the dish onto the nearby coffee table with the spoon before standing up, effortlessly supporting the smaller man's weight in his hands.\n\nEven with his long legs Blake couldn't properly wrap them around Bane's waist as they headed for the bedroom, but he knew that Bane had him and so he turned his attention to the man's throat again, determined to try and leave a mark that would still be there come morning. It was a little annoying after all, that every morning he bore the marks of Bane's claiming while no one would know, to look at his lover, that he belonged to someone.\n\nAnd okay, he knew Bane had someone special in his life who he basically worshipped and he wanted that person to know that the man was his too.\n\nThat the man belonged to him in a way Bane would never belong to her.\n\n\"You will be getting very little sleep tonight.\"\n\nShuddering deliciously at the threat Blake lifted his head just long enough to point out that that was sort of the point of Valentine's Day.\n\nBane almost stumbled, the hitch in his stride barely noticeable as years of training kept him on his feet as his mind tried to wrap itself around what Blake had just stated. Not being completely oblivious to the commercial holidays practiced by the materialistic masses he'd known the significance of the day, Talia had made sure of it, but it hadn't occurred to him that their scheduled rendezvous had been meant to mark the day that honored, in theory, lovers.\n\nNaturally he'd never celebrated it. If someone gave you a heart in The Pit it had recently come out of someone's chest cavity.\n\n\"Parjarito…\"\n\nLifting his head to meet Bane's gaze Blake let the whole calling him 'little bird' in Spanish go for the moment and answered the question he could read in the man's eyes. \"You're taking me to the bed you bought me and intend to fuck my brains out till morning, right?\" The bed was the only thing he'd allowed the man to buy him, and that was only because the man was directly responsible for the destruction of his last one.\n\n\"That was my plan, yes.\"\n\n\"Stick with the plan.\""}
+{"text": "Taylor’s arm is tightly clutched around my waist, her body flush against my back.\n\nIt doesn’t matter.\n\nThe wind roars around my helmet, the road blurring below my bike as the engine overheats between my legs.\n\nIt doesn’t matter.\n\nThe Rig is getting closer.\n\nThat matters.\n\nI swerve around a car moving far too slow for my tastes, the dirty white sedan frantically honking at me when I suddenly pull right in front of it to avoid the red truck coming at me in the other lane.\n\nIt doesn’t matter.\n\nI… I strain, every single detail around me coming into stark relief, fed to Power as soon as I can be aware of them, or sooner in most cases. I adjust my course minutely to avoid yet another of Brockton Bay’s potholes before I pull into a sharp angle that takes me along a perpendicular street and toward the coast, the Boardwalk, and I allow Power to calculate the likelihood of encountering one too many traffic stops along the way if I stick to conventional routes.\n\nI don’t like the result, so I speed up, jump the curb, rush past low buildings filled with cape souvenirs, and finally skid over tightly packed wooden beams mercifully deserted of most pedestrians, as even Brocktonites have the sense to void easily accessible public places when an Endbringer siren sounds.\n\nI used to think it was stupid. Paralyzing the whole world at once every time there’s so much as a threat of one of them showing up? Why not wait? Why not have a hint of their actual target before mobilizing an entire planet?\n\nThe answer?\n\nBecause we need to.\n\nBecause most capes refuse being easily tracked, so we need the rallying cry to reach all of them. Because if the Simurgh moves, no one knows where or when it will land, and every second counts in vacating civilians or at least getting them to the (oh so very inadequate) shelters. Because Leviathan cruises the oceans at a speed that allows him to strike anywhere in the world in minutes.\n\nBecause Behemoth…\n\nThe Hero Killer.\n\nMy fists tighten, and the engine roars.\n\nThere’s a staccato, the suspension barely keeping up with the ups and downs of the wood below us, but Taylor doesn’t complain. She just tightens her arm once again, holding me closer until we finally reach the expanse of concrete at the end of the Boardwalk.\n\nNot far behind us, a gleaming, crystal hotel where we spent our last peaceful date fades into the distance.\n\nAnd the Rig grows closer.\n\n***\n\nI pull up in front of the ramp leading to the superhero base of Brockton Bay’s Protectorate. The rallying point is at the PRT building, but I’m not here to volunteer. I’m here to talk some sense into someone stubborn enough to…\n\nTo follow me to the other side of the country.\n\nDamn it.\n\nI kick my bike into its parking position, and Taylor briefly squeezes me before letting go, both of us dismounting as fast as we can. Then I tear my helmet off before I pull my phone out of my jacket’s pocket as I march toward the ramp leading me to Colin.\n\nI press a few buttons, and the phone only rings once before she picks up.\n\n“Sarah! Sarah, I’ve been calling you—” Mom says.\n\n“Are you safe?” I cut her off.\n\n“Yes! Yes, we’re headed to a shelter—”\n\n“Don’t. Get back to the house. Tell Danny it’s Behemoth and remind him of the looting statistics during attacks. He’ll know what that means.”\n\n“What does it mean?!”\n\nI glare at the PRT trooper standing in the middle of the ramp until he gets the hint and steps away, but not before looking behind me at Taylor.\n\nI don’t know what she’s gesticulating to him, but I can only guess being whitelisted by Tagg is helping at this very moment.\n\nThat, and that we currently are Skitter and Tattletale, so he may have guessed this has something to do with the ongoing crisis.\n\nGood.\n\n“There’s nothing here that Behemoth wants. It doesn’t fit his style, and there hasn’t been any seismic activity. While Endbringers can and will deviate from known patterns, the closest shelter to Danny’s home is near enough that you will be able to safely get there if Brockton Bay is confirmed as an attack site. Meanwhile, it’s statistically more dangerous for you two to be on the streets.”\n\n“And what about you?” she asks, voice trembling.\n\nI, without even slowing down, close my eyes.\n\n“I am a superhero, Mom. The good guys always win,” I tell her, lying to her worse than at any time in my life.\n\nThen I open my eyes, and the glass gates leading to the reception for visitors and tourists (such a ludicrous thing) slide open before me.\n\n“You don’t have to be! You can stay here and—”\n\nI hang up on her.\n\nThen I call Brian.\n\n“Almost there,” he grunts in a way that suggests somebody is holding the phone close to his ear.\n\nNote to self: buy hands-free devices. For all of us.\n\n“Good. See you soon,” I tell him, not clarifying what that means.\n\nBecause I haven’t told him what I just told my mother. Because he’s heading to the Undersiders’ base to collect a little someone who may or not make an actual difference in the fight to come. The fight he still thinks may happen in his little sister’s hometown.\n\nLying by omission. It’s so easy it feels like cheating.\n\n“Lisa?” he asks, something worried and anxious in his tone.\n\nI glare at the receptionist standing behind the crystal shelf keeping her away from slack-jawed tourists, and stride right to an elevator with a number pad that I quickly press a combination on.\n\nOne I memorized when I came here to nail down the nature of my deal with Tagg. Thankfully. I’m not in the mood to play a guessing game.\n\nEqually thankfully, the security of this place is still crap, and the password works despite having been used in front of a Thinker seven. Sometimes, I wonder how Coil wasn’t already running this town before I arrived.\n\n“It’s…” I hesitate, something in me shifting after stopping. After having been made to wait rather than move. “It’s nothing. Hey, Brian?” I say.\n\n“Yes?”\n\n“Aisha will be all right. I promise.”\n\n“You can’t—”\n\n“I can. And tell Rachel to stay at the base. Behemoth’s aura would fry her dogs before they could do anything worthwhile, and I don’t want that on my conscience.”\n\nThe phone crackles with sudden motion.\n\n“I can fight,” Rachel says without any inflection.\n\n“You can,” I tell her. “But I don’t want you to.”\n\nThere’s a pause that only makes me focus on the barely perceptible rumble of an elevator moving too slowly for my tastes.\n\n“Thank you,” a small, frightened voice that nonetheless stands firm finally says.\n\nAnd Rachel hangs up.\n\nMy phone rings as soon as that happens, Mom’s name flashing on the screen.\n\nI…\n\nI want to pick up. I want to tell her… A lot of things. Reassuring things, hurtful things, meaningful things, and ceaseless prattle.\n\nI want…\n\nI want to tell her everything still unsaid.\n\nWithout turning around, I hand the phone to Taylor.\n\n“Tell her you need to speak to your father. Please,” I say, my throat clenching before and after the last word.\n\nThe doors to the elevator open, and Taylor speaks to my mother behind me.\n\n\nLisa Wilbourn—\n\n\nJust… Just drown me with facts and inferences, all right? Make it so I can’t think my own thoughts until I need to. Please. Please, Power—\n\n\nThree main modes of attack. Attacks wasteful. No regard for efficiency. Overwhelming force. Display of power dramatic. Demoralization of opposition intended. Differs from other Endbringers in approach. No subtlety. No feinting. Relentless advance. Likelihood of—\n\n\nThank you. Thank you, Little Brother.\n\n\n… So-called ‘kill aura’ consisting of lethal doses of radiation, yet not spreading in the radius expected by field equations—\n\n\n***\n\n“You are not coming,” Colin says as soon as the door to his workshop slides open and our eyes meet.\n\n“You are not the boss of me,” I try to tell him with as much levity as I don’t feel.\n\nColin, standing amid whirring metal limbs, his armor still being secured over his black undersuit—\n\n\nElectromyography—\n\n\nOf course.\n\n“No. I am not,” he says.\n\nAnd he keeps just standing there, arms spread, feet beyond the width of his shoulders as pieces of blue ceramics with a metal sheen are bolted on his frame, servos coming to life as they assemble and connect to one another.\n\n“That’s inefficient,” I say.\n\n“What?” he asks with actual affront.\n\n“That. The myosensors. I’m betting they require pretty precise conditions to work to your specifications—humidity? Right. Humidity. Gel pads. You devote a lot of space, relative to what you’re capable of, obviously, to making your suit adhere to the nerve endings you have calibrated for it and—”\n\n“What are you doing, Lisa?” he asks.\n\n“I’m showing you I can be of use! If I’m there, I’ll see things—”\n\n“You promised—”\n\n“And I’m a villain! A Thinker—a social Thinker! Of course I’d lie to you and—”\n\nAnd Taylor hugs me from behind.\n\n“No,” she whispers. Right against my ear.\n\nUnfairly.\n\n“Tay, I am—”\n\n“You aren’t going. What you could do there that you can’t do remotely doesn’t even rate the personal risk—”\n\n“I could—I could hide inside Grue’s cloud! Dragon just proved it’s a shield against any kind of radiation, anything a dynakinetic can—”\n\n“Except for kinetic energy. Like a thrown rock,” Colin cuts me off.\n\nI glare at him.\n\n“Why aren’t you surprised about what I just said? Dragon was almost apoplectic with the implications—of course.”\n\nA monitor swivels on an arm located behind and above Colin’s left shoulder, and a sheepish Artificial Intelligence waves at me.\n\n“Hi, Lisa—”\n\n“Of course. Of course nobody stopped me coming in. Of course he isn’t surprised and is ready for my arguments. Of course—”\n\n“You are in no state to go to an Endbringer battle,” Colin speaks right over me.\n\n“—of course you’d all gang up on me to stop me from doing what I need to do to keep you, band of lemmings, alive!”\n\n“I can’t say I disagree with the sentiment…” Hannah mutters from right behind me before she lays a hand on the shoulder Taylor isn’t wrapped around and goes right back to her place as my favorite adoptive mother figure.\n\n…\n\nMy life is complicated.\n\n“He’ll go. We will go. It’s what we do, Lisa; you already know that. You aren’t even trying to stop us, just trying to be there, to feel like you have a choice in what happens. And none of us do,” Hannah says, cruelly kind with every truth I already know.\n\nI close my eyes. Feel Taylor around me.\n\nAnd take a deep breath.\n\nI… I need clarity, but I don’t want it. I don’t want to know the odds, how likely it is at least one of them won’t come back. How…\n\nHow powerless I am.\n\n\nLisa Wilbourn—\n\n\nAll right. Poor choice of words.\n\nSo I open my eyes.\n\nI look around me.\n\n“This will be my comms center,” I tell them in no uncertain terms.\n\nDragon smiles, Colin rolls his eyes, and both Taylor and Hannah squeeze me harder, though through different means.\n\n***\n\nI am sitting in Colin’s chair, the damn ergonomics so fricking comfortable it’s utterly unfair to my willfully tensed shoulders.\n\n“We still don’t know where he will emerge,” I confirm with Dragon after taking a look at the extracts from shifting seismic readings all over the globe.\n\n“He likes to do that. Swimming just below the Earth’s mantle for a while, going in and out of convective currents to threaten different gathering points. He’s… Different from the others. Leviathan and Simurgh will attack hard and fast, taking everyone by surprise in their search of their objective, but Behemoth… he wants an audience,” Dragon tells me from the monitor over my right shoulder as Colin keeps making last-minute adjustments to his armor.\n\n“Are you sure he’s that sentient?” I ask, trying to come up with a pattern as Power and I browse a list of the last sites ravaged by the monster.\n\n“It doesn’t matter. If he isn’t, he’s being made to act as if he was,” she says without even hinting at what pain those very words could cause her if applied to the artificial being who became a woman.\n\nI hum.\n\nThen I take out my phone, ignore the hundred missed calls from my mother, and call Brian.\n\n“Lisa? Do we already—”\n\n“Brockton Bay is safe,” I tell him.\n\n“Will you ever let me finish a goddamn sentence—wait, what? Are you sure?”\n\n“I am… almost certain. He still hasn’t set on a target, but there’s nothing here to lure him in, given his past history,” I tell him.\n\n“Then—”\n\n“Then,” I cut him off with a hint of a smile, because one should relish life’s small pleasures, “you can relax knowing that Aisha is as safe as I told you she would be. You and Alec, though…”\n\n“What are you even suggesting?”\n\nI close my eyes, lists of cities swimming behind my eyelids while Power sifts through them and tries to do what no other Thinker has ever managed.\n\nI don’t open them when I answer Brian.\n\n“I am saying that we just learned your power is a perfect counter to many of Behemoth’s known abilities, but not all of them. I am saying you could be Alec’s bodyguard during the fight, or you could protect the healers and injured. I am saying that you, Brian Laborn, could be a hero today… And I don’t want you to.”\n\n“What?” he asks, tense because of something other than me rudely interrupting him.\n\nMust try harder.\n\n\nLisa Wilborn’s sense of priorities—\n\n\nOh, come on, you like it as much as I do.\n\n“I… Okay, don’t take this the wrong way. I don’t want you to go soft on me just because of this, but… I love you guys, all right? I… I have taken a peek at what each and every one of you actually is, what lies under the surface, and the trauma, and the powers bullshit, and I… Don’t want to lose you. I don’t want to lose someone I love ever again. But you’re also not mine. I can’t control you. I can’t keep you safe despite your will. So, if you go? You’ll get your pay plus a hazard bonus, and I’ll be proud of you. Proud enough to give you detailed plans for counter-pranking Aisha the next time she gets a bee in her bonnet, literal or otherwise, and I know the expression doesn’t even fit that well, but I’m an emotional wreck, and I want you to live, and not have to tell your little sister that her brother was a hero she should honor every day of her life, and—”\n\n“Double hazard pay,” he says.\n\n“What?”\n\n“I want double hazard pay. So does Alec,” he says.\n\n“I wasn’t done telling you why this is a terrible idea.”\n\n“Yet I’m done listening to you lose your mind. I… We also love you, Lisa. And thank you for giving me this chance,” he says.\n\nAnd the man with the biggest chip on his shoulder I’ve ever met, a man who I just told is a perfect counter to some of the most feared attacks on Earth Bet, hangs up on me.\n\n…\n\nI may not have thought this through.\n\n“You’re far too mushy,” Taylor says from my left, her hand squeezing mine once more.\n\n“I just…”\n\n“I know,” she says.\n\nAnd I open my eyes.\n\nThe almost soothing dark red from my eyelids is yet again replaced by Colin’s harsh, stark lighting reflecting off the brushed metal covering his walls. He’s on the workstation beside me, working on something that looks far too bulky to carry by himself, so I’m guessing it is a last-minute addition to his bike, and—\n\n…\n\nI forgot to chain up my baby.\n\n\nLisa Wilborn’s sense of priorities—\n\n\nAnd you conveniently forgot to point it out.\n\n\n… Anthropomorphizing of parahuman abilities interfaces—\n\n\nYou motherfuck—\n\n“It will be on Asia,” Dragon points out, her voice stark enough to break me out of my inner dialogue.\n\nI… blink, trying to regain my focus, and stare at the readings she just pulled up in the display in front of me.\n\nSmall tremors reported on Myanmar. South Korea. Nepal. Mongolia…\n\nAnd none from China.\n\n… They can’t be this stupid.\n\nIt’s absolutely impossible for even a dictatorial regime to hide seismic tremors during a Behemoth alert. Nobody is that suicidal. There’s absolutely no way the CUI would willfully ignore useful, powerful assets invaluable to their survival—\n\n…\n\n\nLisa Wilborn’s—\n\n\nI know. Shut up.\n\nI close my eyes tightly for a couple of seconds before I reach for my phone.\n\nThen, buried among the notifications of missed calls from Mom, I find… precisely what I expected to find.\n\nAnd I return one of the many, many calls I kept ignoring.\n\n“Hey, Dinah…” I tell her with my most apologetic, sheepish tone.\n\n“Hey,” she replies with an icy cold tone.\n\nThen we let an awkward, tense silence pass.\n\n“Would you believe I have been ignoring another person, and I just forgot to check on who else was calling me?” I tell her as both Dragon and Taylor look at me like I need some kind of intervention.\n\nHopefully, they have different methodologies in mind.\n\n“Yes. Because I was forced to waste a question on that after you kept not picking up,” the adorably grumpy world-class precog tells me.\n\n“Right. Right, that fits. So I guess you already know Brockton Bay is safe—”\n\n“Yes.”\n\n“Right.”\n\n…\n\nI don’t know how to handle this!\n\n\nDinah Alcott’s need for acknowledgment—\n\n\n… This is now going to feel manipulative, no matter how sincere I am, isn’t it?\n\n\nLisa Wilborn’s sense of morality—\n\n\nI don’t even know if that’s a good or a bad thing at this point.\n\n“Hey, I… I am sorry. I promised you I would treat you like an equal, and right as a crisis hit, I forget all about that and just try to tackle it on my own, and… And that’s not how I want us to be. I want us to be badass Thinkers together. So… let’s show an Endbringer what he’s gotten itself into by bringing a Blaster power to a Thinker fight?” I hopefully ask.\n\n“… You’re quoting something I haven’t read, aren’t you?” she says.\n\n“A movie, actually. And I’m paraphrasing it, not quoting it.”\n\nThere’s a strained silence as the partner I unwillingly offended likely pinches the bridge of her nose, copying something she’s sometimes seen her uncle do and finally understanding the true reason behind the gesture.\n\n“Let’s kick monster butt,” she finally says.\n\nAnd, for the first time since this whole thing started, I feel my smirk stretch my lips.\n\n \n\n \n\n=================\n\n\nThis was one of those chapters that had my temples burning with throbbing heat as my brain protested the abuse it had just been put through. I think it was worth it.\n\n\n\nEven if it obviously lacks at least a couple of shards humming Careless Whisper to one another.\n\n\n\nAnyway, things are getting somewhat more serious than usual in this fic, and they are likely to remain so for at least the next few chapters. On an entirely unrelated note, I think I need either a glass of wine, a mug of chamomile tea, or a professional masseuse. Whichever is cheaper.\n\n\n\nAs usual, I’d like to give a particularly enthusiastic “thank you” to my credited supporters for going above and beyond: Niklarus, Tinkerware, Varosch, and Xalgeon!\n"}
+{"text": "\nRegular Day at the Office\n\n\n\"Are you serious? Why didn't he tell me this?\" Naruto asked bewildered; his hand lingering above a yellow rose.\n\nItachi huffed amused. \"I guess because he doesn't like making a big deal out of it. He's rather modest.\"\n\nThe blond man huffed, retrieving another yellow rose from the basket. \"Modest he might be, but that doesn't mean something like this shouldn't be celebrated! I mean, how many people can say they accomplished this much at his age already?\"\n\nThe other man chuckled lowly. \"I wish you good luck in trying to convince him to celebrate. My little brother has never been really fond of parties.\"\n\n\"It doesn't have to be a party.\" Blue eyes rolled. \"Just a celebratory dinner; he can't have any problems with that, surely?\"\n\n\"Like I said, good luck,\" Itachi told him amused. Someone else started talking in the background and after a short moment, Itachi said apologetically, \"I need to look at some documents. Let me know if you actually managed to convince my otouto to have some fun.\" Amusement coloured his voice audibly.\n\n\"Oh, you of little faith,\" Naruto snickered. \"Have fun with those documents!\"\n\nAfter hanging up, he checked the clock, worrying his lower lip between his teeth in thought. Ten past four … Well, that should give him enough time to stop by the store and buy the ingredients for dinner tonight. Itachi might be sceptic that he would succeed, but he didn't know yet just how stubborn Naruto could be once he had an idea in mind. There was no way he was just going to ignore his milestone!\n\nFirst, he added the last two roses to the bouquet and placed the flowers carefully in a bucket with water. That done, he picked up his phone again, hoping he wouldn't accidentally disturb the other one. Did he have a meeting now? He couldn't remember. Ah well, if he didn't want to be disturbed, he wouldn't pick up the phone in the first place, so he'd know soon enough.\n\nHumming, he listened to the 'beep, beep' tone; leaning his arse against the edge of the table while he waited for the other man to pick up.\n\n\"Naruto, this is a surprise,\" a deep, smooth voice greeted him. \"I didn't think I would hear from you for another three hours at least.\"\n\n\"Yeah, well, I've got some time between preparations and there aren't any customers in the shop,\" Naruto replied; a smile unwillingly spreading across his face at the sound of his boyfriend's voice. No matter how many times he would hear it, Sasuke's voice never failed to send shivers down his spine and warmth curling up in his belly.\n\nHe cleared his throat and crossed his legs, reminding himself sternly that this definitely wasn't the place to let his mind wander. \"I'm not disturbing you, am I?\"\n\n\"No, not at all,\" Sasuke reassured him. \"Any reason in particular you're calling or are you just missing my voice?\" he asked teasingly.\n\n\"Bastard, don't be so smug,\" Naruto grinned fondly. \"I should scold you actually: why did I have to hear from your brother of all people that we've got something to celebrate tonight?\"\n\n\"Oh?\" Sasuke said blankly. \"We do? What did nii-san tell you?\"\n\n\"Does the fact that you've been leading your own company for five years already ring a bell maybe?\" Naruto asked exasperatedly.\n\n\"Oh that.\" Sasuke sounded entirely unruffled by that. \"He's making a deal out of nothing.\"\n\n\"Out of nothing?\" the blond man repeated incredulously. \"Sasuke, you're not even thirty and you're already leading a company! That is huge!\"\n\n\"If you say so,\" Sasuke replied and his tone made it clear that he was smirking.\n\n\"Yes, I say so!\" Naruto snarked. \"So we're going to celebrate that tonight! Any requests for dinner?\"\n\n\"You,\" Sasuke answered promptly and yeah, he was definitely smirking now, the bastard.\n\n\"That's not dinner, that's dessert!\" Naruto fired back cheekily; his grin widening when the dark haired man chuckled pleasantly surprised. \"So with dessert settled, what do you want for dinner? I can make everything you want, no problem. The stores are still open so if need be, I can make a quick stop at one of them before going home.\"\n\n\"I don't need something elaborate or special, but if you insist, I like omusubi with okaka. Or you can make something with tomatoes and Skipjack Tuna,\" Sasuke answered calmly.\n\nNaruto wrinkled his nose. \"Only you can have something incredibly healthy as your favourite food,\" he said in disbelief.\n\n\"Hey, you're the one who asked me what - \"\n\n\"Please, Uchiha-sama! I swear I won't do it again!\"\n\nStartled by the unexpected loud pleading, Naruto questioned, \"Who was that? What the hell did they do that they're pleading like that?\"\n\n\"That was an employee who made a serious mistake in a document for an important client,\" Sasuke answered; a hint of irritation sneaking into his voice.\n\nNaruto winced, feeling sorry for the poor soul in Sasuke's office. He and Sasuke might have only known each other for barely a year, but he'd learnt early on that Sasuke strived for perfection in everything he did. A mistake in a document meant for an important client? Yeah, there was no way he was going to let that fly.\n\n\"Oh man, he's in deep shit now,\" Naruto sighed, shaking his head.\n\n\"You can bet he's going to get quite the earful of me,\" Sasuke muttered darkly.\n\n\"Well, don't make him cry too much, all right?\" Naruto said, turning his head when he heard the doorbell ring, signalling he had a customer. \"Look, I've got to go now, but tonight we're definitely going to celebrate. Don't work too late, okay?\"\n\n\"I won't,\" Sasuke promised. \"I'll see you tonight.\"\n\n\"Yeah, I'll see you in a couple of hours,\" Naruto grinned and reluctantly hung up.\n\nHe blushed when he walked past Ino, who was looking at him with knowing eyes, all while artistically putting together a small basket of purple lilacs and forget-me-nots. \"Celebrating tonight, hm?\" she said teasingly, waggling her eyebrows.\n\n\"Oh shut up,\" he laughed, nudging her shoulder with his before he went out to the front to greet their customer.\n\nHe and Sasuke were definitely going to celebrate tonight, all right. For now, though, he had a customer to attend to.\n\nPlacing his phone on his desk, he slowly turned around, looking at the piece of shit who had nearly destroyed everything he'd built so far with his lover.\n\nThe cockroach in question was trembling heavily, forced onto his knees by Jugo, who had one large hand clamped across the man's mouth. It was only thanks to Jugo's quick interference that nothing worse had been revealed.\n\n\"Apologies, Sasuke-sama,\" Karin grimaced, glaring at the man in the middle of the office. \"If I had known he'd be that stupid, I would have gagged him.\"\n\nHe waved off her apology, knowing it was sincere, but it was unnecessary. It wasn't her fault that this son of a bitch had decided to make everything even worse for him.\n\nStopping in front of the terrified man, he stared down at him coldly. \"You nearly got me into some trouble there, Mizuki. I can't say I appreciate that – nor do I appreciate what you intended to do.\"\n\nMizuki started blubbering something, fat tears dripping down his face, and Sasuke waited for a moment before signalling for Jugo to remove his hand.\n\n\"I'm sorry, Uchiha-sama! I swear, I never meant to go through with! You have to believe me!\" he begged; his thin, white hair plastered against the right side of his face where a cut was still bleeding sluggishly. \"They were making me do this! I was planning on telling you all what they wanted me to do and - \"\n\n\"Suigetsu, refresh my memory if you will: what was Mizuki planning to do?\" Sasuke asked calmly. That was a front, however, as he was inwardly seething with fury, barely able to hold himself back.\n\nHis third trusted bodyguard straightened up from his slouched position against the wall and stepped forwards, his hands stuffed into the pockets of his jacket. A vicious glint lit up his purple eyes as he recounted, \"Per Itachi-sama's information, Mizuki was planning on abducting Naruto-sama and delivering him to the Sound clan where Naruto-sama would either be killed or be forced to work as a whore.\"\n\n\"He's lying!\" Mizuki said shrilly, trying to wrestle free from Jugo's grip. \"That guy is lying! I never said I - \" He grunted in pain when Jugo kicked his back.\n\nHe could try to struggle for as long as he wanted; Jugo was one of his strongest men – if he didn't want to release someone, they would never get free.\n\n\"My brother is lying, you say?\" Sasuke murmured silkily and Mizuki's eyes widened, fear making him quiver. Black eyes glided back towards Suigetsu. \"Anything else to add?\"\n\n\"Sure do, boss,\" Suigetsu smirked, but his gaze was as cold as ice when he continued, \"When looking at his e-mail history, we discovered that he'd been negotiating with Kimimaro, the leader of the Sound clan, for 'rights' to get to try out Naruto-sama first – as he so eloquently put it.\"\n\n\"Sicko didn't hold back either in describing his fucked up fantasy,\" Karin muttered disgusted, flipping her red hair back over her shoulder. \"I feel like I need brain bleach to be able to forget that filth.\" She shuddered, looking like she'd swallowed something foul.\n\n\"They're lying, they're lying, they're lying,\" Mizuki kept repeating over and over again, shaking his head in desperation.\n\nPicking up a bundle of papers, Sasuke read the first page, curling up his lip at the content of it.\n\n'I can assure you the plan will be easy to accomplish. I'll wait until he locks up the shop, follow him into the alley he takes to get to his scooter and there I'll sedate him. I'll take him to …'\n\n'Uchiha doesn't suspect anything. He'll be too busy with the meeting with the Sannin to pay attention to anything else and that's when I will strike.'\n\n'I would like one favour, Kimimaro-sama. I'd like to have at least three hours with the whore before delivering him to you. I've been waiting for an opportunity like this for a long time and …'\n\nOn and on it went; the pages detailing the elaborate plan to abduct Naruto and hand him over to one of Sasuke's biggest rivals. Countless mails detailing the depravities Mizuki had been longing to inflect on the man Sasuke called his lover before disposing him into the arms of the Sound clan. One large, elaborate plan and several condensed ones in case the first one failed. Line after line, Mizuki's betrayal was laid out in front of him, showing clearly how close Naruto had come to being in danger.\n\nHe had his brother and Mizuki's own stupidity to thank for the fact that Mizuki's plan had been foiled just on time.\n\n\"So these e-mails don't come from your account?\" Sasuke asked nonchalantly, dropping the pages one by one on the floor in front of the bastard. \"That wasn't you writing to Kimimaro how you wanted to fuck Naruto raw and have him screaming and begging before handing him over? These messages talking about how to abduct Naruto – they aren't signed by you?\"\n\n\"Sick, fucked up and dumb,\" Karin muttered, shaking his head. She crossed her arms underneath her breasts and breathed out loudly. \"Man, how did he ever get through the selection process?\"\n\n\"Granted, he was working in one of the lowest levels,\" Suigetsu pointed out, running his tongue across his sharp teeth. \"Doesn't take a genius to be able to work there.\"\n\n\"We'll be conducting a clean-up after this,\" Sasuke murmured and all three of them inclined their heads.\n\n\"What do you want to do with this one here, boss?\" Jugo asked calmly. He could have been simply asking whether Sasuke wanted a cup of coffee with how calm he was – save for the gun pressed firmly against the back of Mizuki's head when the man wriggled one time too much.\n\nAt the feeling of the cold metal pressed against his head, Mizuki froze and whimpered, looking like he would start pissing himself any second now.\n\n\"I never did like it when people tried to take something of mine,\" Sasuke mused, dipping his hand into the inside of his jacket to retrieve his gun. \"I like it even less when people think they can drag my brother's name through the mud.\"\n\n\"Looks like you hit the jackpot, jackass,\" Suigetsu grinned, sauntering over to look at Mizuki. \"Did you really think you could get away with this?\"\n\nIgnoring Suigetsu, Mizuki looked up, quivering like a leaf in the wind, and stuttered, \"Pl-please, U-Uchiha-s-sama, I – I sw-swear I – I won't d-do it again! I-I-I'll k-k-keep aw-away from Naru-\"\n\n\"Don't you dare say his name!\" Sasuke snarled viciously, whipping his gun out of his pocket and aiming it straight at Mizuki's forehead.\n\nThe white haired man froze, his mouth open but no sound coming out anymore. He'd grown so pale he looked like he was going to faint any second now.\n\n\"Karin,\" Sasuke said deadly calm. \"Prepare the car. We're going for a ride.\"\n\n\"My pleasure,\" she grinned; her eyes gleaming like a cat who got the canary.\n\nHe was cutting off Mizuki's remaining ear – excruciatingly slow so he would feel as much pain as possible – when Karin stepped forwards, entering his line of vision.\n\n\"Sasuke-sama, sorry for interrupting, but if you want to be home on time, you should leave now,\" she said quietly, undisturbed by the ten discarded fingers dropped just two feet away from her. \"That will give you enough time to shower and change your clothes so Naruto-sama won't notice anything.\"\n\nSasuke paused, staring down at the crying, bloody mess in front of him. They were in an empty warehouse at the edge of the city; the remoteness of it ensuring they wouldn't be disturbed. Mizuki was currently missing his fingers, the stumps sluggishly bleeding, colouring the concrete floor a dark brown; four precisely aimed bullets had shattered his kneecaps, ensuring that he wouldn't be able to flee even if he would have had the chance. His shirt had been cut off and his bare chest and back were a macabre artwork of deep, bleeding gashes; a result of Jugo's handywork with the whip.\n\nHis nose had been broken in two different places and he was missing at least six teeth. His right ear laid discarded next to the pile of fingers; his left almost on the verge of being sliced off. His face was a disgusting mess of tears, snot and blood, and his pleading and screaming had died down to weak whimpers and pitiful sobbing; there was nothing left of the arrogant man who'd stepped foot in Sasuke's office three hours ago.\n\n\"P-p-pl-please,\" he cried. His wrists were a mess of raw chafed skin after having struggled uselessly against the ropes tying him down to the table.\n\nSasuke considered him before checking his watch and noticing that it was indeed time for him to leave if he wanted to go home on time. Quick as a snake, he hacked Mizuki's left ear off, smiling grimly at the choked scream leaving the son of a bitch.\n\n\"Look at that,\" he smiled cruelly, rising up. He held out his hand, accepting his gun from Suigetsu. \"Looks like you're saved by the one person you wanted to hurt. I wonder if this is called irony?\"\n\nOne single gunshot echoed through the large warehouse, cutting off the crying abruptly.\n\n\"Jugo, Suigetsu, clean up this mess,\" he ordered calmly, lowering his gun and watching the blood ooze slowly out of the single hole right in the middle of Mizuki's forehead. \"Let the rest of them know what will happen if they dare to cross me again.\"\n\n\"Ay, ay, boss,\" Suigetsu smirked, saluting him.\n\nJugo nodded respectfully, bowing when Sasuke marched past him.\n\n\"I've already informed Deidara-sama that we will be stopping at his place for you to clean up,\" Karin informed him as they made their way to the car. \"His place is the closest and you've got clothes there, left from the time Danzo attacked you in your house and you had to stay with Deidara-sama whilst the place was being cleaned.\"\n\n\"Thanks, Karin,\" he murmured, studying the dried smears of blood on his hands with cool detachment. \"Put together a team of fifteen men by tomorrow afternoon. We'll be paying the Sound Clan a visit to remind them who exactly they were trying to cross.\"\n\n\"Certainly, sir,\" she agreed and bowed, straightening up to open the door of the car for him.\n\nWhen she was settled behind the wheel, he spoke up again, \"Send a bottle of Yamazaki whisky to my brother; he's earnt it.\"\n\nShe flashed him a smile through the rear view mirror. \"Very well, Sasuke-sama.\"\n\nAfter all, he reclined against the comfortable cushion, annoying as his older brother could be at times, he deserved a gift for helping him out.\n\n\"You're on time,\" Naruto smiled pleased, removing his apron when Sasuke walked into the kitchen.\n\nThe dark haired man smirked, crossing the distance between them in a couple of large strides. Gripping slender hips, he bent down and caught Naruto's mouth in a soft kiss. \"Were you expecting me to be late?\"\n\nNaruto shrugged, cupping the back of Sasuke's neck with his hands. \"I know how much you love to work and you've lost track of time before,\" he reminded him cheekily.\n\n\"I love spending time with you more,\" Sasuke instantly shot back and had the pleasure of seeing a deep red flush filling Naruto's cheeks rapidly. The sight of it had his cock stirring and he pressed his body firmly against Naruto's, pushing the blond against the counter. Running his nose across the smooth expanse of skin in Naruto's neck, he breathed out, \"What do you say of having dessert first?\"\n\n\"Well, I've always been more of a dessert kind of guy,\" Naruto said mischievously; his blue eyes sparkling brightly. His mouth dropped open, his blush deepening, when a hand cupped his dick; it hardened quickly underneath Sasuke's touch and the dark haired man smirked.\n\n\"That's what I like to hear.\" He stepped back and Naruto's confused look was quickly wiped away when Sasuke swiftly picked him up and swung him across his shoulder so that he ended up hanging upside down.\n\n\"Seriously, Sasuke?\" Naruto laughed, smacking the man's arse for good measure. \"I can walk!\"\n\n\"This is quicker,\" Sasuke smirked and not having the patience to make it up all the way upstairs, he made a beeline for the living room instead, where he dropped his lover down on the couch.\n\nLoosening his tie, he watched how blue eyes darkened and a tongue shot out to lick pale red lips. \"Now,\" Sasuke murmured, kneeling down on the couch between Naruto's legs and leaning over him. \"What was that about a celebration?\"\n\nIf Mizuki's screams and crying had been like listening to a nice song, Naruto's throaty moans and breathy gasps and his pleas for more, harder, please, Sasuke! were like music to his ears.\n\nBurning black eyes took in the way Naruto had his head thrown back across the arm of the couch, baring his neck; a flush spreading from his cheeks down to his chest. Unable to resist the invitation, Sasuke swiftly leant down, pressing himself deeper into his lover at the same time he kissed his neck, worrying the skin right above his collarbone between his lips, nibbling at it softly. That earnt him a deep groan and Naruto's inner muscles clamped down around his cock; fingers gripping black strands and keeping his face pressed into the blond man's neck.\n\n\"M-more,\" Naruto whimpered; his other hand scrambling across Sasuke's back, his nails occasionally catching pale skin, leaving faint red lines behind.\n\n\"If you've got time to order me around, I'm not doing a good job then,\" Sasuke grunted and his next forceful thrust had Naruto nearly mewling, eyes squeezed shut and his body shuddering underneath Sasuke's.\n\n\"Look at me, Naruto,\" Sasuke demanded, needing to see those glorious blue eyes looking at him.\n\nNaruto obeyed almost instantly, eyes flicking open, revealing dilated pupils. They burnt with lust, passion and love; the sight of that drove Sasuke nearly insane and he caught Naruto's mouth in a deep, filthy kiss, swallowing his next moan when he angled his dick just so that he struck the blond's prostate dead on with his next thrust.\n\nNaruto clung to him, letting him use him as he saw fit, kissing him back with equal desperation; his arms and legs wrapped tightly around him, as if he never wanted to let him go.\n\nSasuke wasn't planning on letting him go.\n\nIt didn't matter if he would have to go to the deepest pits of hell itself – there was no way he was ever going to let this man go. This gorgeous, wild creature with a heart as pure as fresh fallen snow was all his and he was going to make sure everyone knew that.\n\nThe second anyone tried to touch as much as one single blond hair – they would pay.\n\nHe would murder every single last person, would set everything alight in flames if that meant keeping Naruto safe. If it meant keeping him with him always, he would go to every length necessary.\n\nMizuki had tried to take him away and he'd failed. The Sound clan had tried to steal his lover from him – and they would pay dearly for that.\n\nNaruto was his: mind, body, soul, heart. Everything was his. He'd make sure everyone would know that by the time tomorrow would come to an end.\n\n\"Sasuke!\"\n\nInner muscles clamped down around him, making him groan, and Naruto thrashed his head back and forth against the couch, shuddering and shivering as he spilt between their stomachs; his eyes rolling back in his head when Sasuke kept striking for that hidden spot deep within him, prolonging his pleasure.\n\nWhen Sasuke came, pleasure crashing into him like waves against a cliff, it was with Naruto's name on his lips and slender arms holding him close.\n\n\"So how was work today?\" Naruto asked when they dropped down onto the bed. They really should eat, but … Eugh, he didn't want to move now.\n\nSasuke turned his head and smiled faintly, pulling him closer with one arm. Blue eyes closed when lips kissed his forehead tenderly.\n\n\"Oh, just a regular boring day at the office.\"\n\n\nThe End\n"}
+{"text": "The manor was insufferably warm. From the groups of rich nobles gracing around the hall and from the steaming heaps of rich food that was being brought out in silver platters. \n\nWhat made it worse was the constricting silks Geralt was forced to wear and he wanted nothing more than to rid himself of the dumb silks and get back into his trusty leathers. Although... Ciri was practically glowing as soon as she pulled on the dress and she nearly exploded when she entered into the hall so Geralt kept his complaints to himself. \n\n\"The man who owes you money,\" grunts Geralt in a low growl to Yen who was posied by a wall, goblet of wine in hand. \"Who is he?\" Geralt chances a glance to Ciri who was watching the nobles dance but was still close enough to Geralt so that Geralt wasn't itching with worry. \n\n\"Why so you can beat the money out of him,\" scoffs Yen as she pauses to sip from the goblet. \"You needn't worry about him yet. I haven't seen him yet and I'll deal with him later when he's drunk. I wouldn't want to ruin your night.\" Yen pushed off from the wall so she's mere inches from Geralt. \n\nHe can smell the wine from her lips which she was licking but he simply rolls his eyes and grunts before turning his back on her. Much to her annoyance.\n\n\"Isn't it just wonderful,\" giggles Ciri as she sways in time with the music. Geralt gives a small hmm of agreeance but really he watches the nobles seeing only peacocks flashing their feathers. \n\nWoman have their grandest jewelry in an attempt to show it off. Men have shark-like grins as they talk of their riches, their land and themselves. Right now everyone is sober but Geralt wishes everyone would hurry up and get drunk. That's when the fun begins. \n\nHis eyes scan across the sea of glittering jewels and vibrant dresses before his eyes lock onto something brighter than jewels, something worth more than anything that hung off the women's necks... a pair of painfully familiar blue eyes. \n\nAnd they were looking back at him.\n\n\"Geralt, are you okay?\" Geralt is only slightly aware of the slight tug on his arm and he had only just realized that he had been stood silent and motionless. \n\n\"Hmm, yes...\" Geralt takes a glance down at the small girl who was stood worried next to him but he quickly pulls his gaze back up in search of the blue eyes but they were gone as soon as he looked away. \n\nGeralt suddenly became very aware of the music around him. The man's voice was nice but not smooth like silk or sweet like honey. Like Jaskier's voice. There was already a bard strumming and singing so why was Jaskier here? \n\nThere was already a bard? Unless...\n\nJaskier was a guest. \n\n\"See I knew you would enjoy yourself,\" smiles Yen as she joined Geralt and Ciri. \n\n\"I just wanted to thank you-\" starts Ciri only for her to abruptly interrupted by Geralt.\n\n\"Lord Augustus,\" he begins as he turns his hard stare onto Yen. \"What is his full name?\" \n\nYen stares hard back at him with her eyebrows knitted. \"Why would that interest you?\" she asked sounding exasperated. \n\n\"Tell me.\" \n\n\"Grumpy are we,\" sighs Yen as she swirls the wine in her goblet but Geralt's snarl makes her talk. \"It is a long name to say the least, complicated too. Something along the lines of... Augustus Pankratz, Viscount de Lettenhove but I don't see-\" \n\n\"Fuck!\" exclaims Geralt with a snarl on his lips. \n\nNot a bard. Not a guest but rather an heir. \n\n\"Language,\" snaps Ciri in a slightly joking tone but she can see something is troubling Geralt. She goes to ask him as she places a light hand on his shoulder only for her to interrupted again by Lord Augustus' raspy voice breaking over the crowd who had all paused to watch him grace into the center of the floor.\n\nDressed head to toe in his finest attire, August swans with as much grace as his old body would allow him with his skeleton of a wife hanging from his arm. She too was dressed in her finest dress only it hung from her fragile body like it was two sizes too big on her. \n\n\"Esteemed guests,\" he begins as his hand that was covered in thick rings reached out for the crowd. He goes on to talk and talk, not that Geralt was listening but his attention falls onto the movement from behind Lord Augustus. Behind him, more well-dressed nobles swan behind him. Grinning at the guest apart from one...\n\nHis head was turned down at the floor with his face devoid of all emotion. He held himself like he was fragile, cold and like he was in pain. \n\n\"My children and I wish you a good night!\" With one last show of love, Augustus plasters on a smile and throws an arm to the nobles behind him. \n\nHis children... \n\n\"Who the hell is that,\" hisses Yen in a hushed voice behind Geralt. She nods towards the nobles and it was no surprise it was directed at the small looking son. \"I knew August had children but he never mentioned him.\"   \n\n\"I think there's a reason for that,\" huffs Geralt as he soon realizes who it was. \"That's Jaskier.\" Geralt's heart shatters at the sight of his bard who was painfully silent. There was no smile on his face or glitter in his eyes. Usually, Jaskier loved public attention but now that the crowd was clapping for him, each clap seemed ot be painful for him.\n\n\"You mean your rude mouthed bard,\" chuckles Yen and her joy only boils Geralt's anger. \"Why would he be here?\"\n\n\"Julain Alfred Pankratz, Viscount de Lettenhove...\" sighs Geralt with a hang of his head as he feels shame wash over him. \n\n\"Oh, shit...\" Yen lets out a sigh of realization but there was a sense of sorrow. For Yen has heard passing rumors of Augustus' cold and unloving nature and for Jaskier's sake, she hopes it was only a passing rumor. \"Well, it just so happens...\" there was a glint of wickedness in her smile as they watch Augustus and his children melt into the crowd. \"We need to make a quick visit to his dear brother Finneus.\" \n\n \n\n\"Get that look off your face,\" snides Finneus as they melt into the crowd towards the table of food. \"This is a banquet! Filled with food, drink, fine woman and happiness.\" Finneus tries to appeal to Julain who was stumbling behind him with no look of joy on his pale face. \"Father was right about you ruining it...\" sighs Finneus with a side glance to his brother and malice in his voice. \n\n\"I'm sorry,\" Jaskier wasn't entirely sure why he was apologizing but he felt obligated too. \"I'm just not... feeling great,\" Jaskier mumbles as he rubs the pain in his shoulder that seemed to grow as the night went on. \n\n\"You're not still worked up about that stupid instrument of yours?!\" snarls Finn as he pauses midstep to turn around and hiss at his brother who flinched away at his brother's sudden turn.\n\n\"No, I just-\" \n\n\"It's for the best, Julain,\" sighs Finneus as he rakes through his dark hair. \"You are a Lord, you should be smart enough to know what qualifies to be a Lord and right now, you do not qualify.\" Finn's words hiss through his grated teeth. \"That means no idiotic lute, no mutants and don't even think about singing! We all know what's best for you, Julain and being here is what is best...\" \n\nAlthough his words were cruel and cold, he places a brotherly hand on his bad shoulder but quickly his grip gets tighter until it is no longer a 'brotherly' grip but more a threatening one that enforces his words. \n\nJaskier swallows down his cry of pain that bubbled up inside him when Finneus' hand clawed into his shoulder that was still raw with pain. \n\n\"Good...\" said Finnues when he saw the pain in his younger brother's eyes and luckily let his hand fall from his brother's shoulder and Jaskier let out the breath he didn't know he was holding. \"Just... don't be stupid. Be... Lord Julain. That's what father wants.\" \n\nThe words were heavy on Jaskier. Reminding him that no matter how hard he tried, he would never be 'Lord Julain.' He was and will always be Jaskier, a punching bag to his siblings, a disgrace to his father. \n\nAnd a burden to Geralt. A liability. \n\nJaskier shakes his head as the thought of Geralt creeps back up on him again. So what if he was here? Jaskier's family wants him to be Lord Julain and Lord Julain has no affiliation with Geralt.\n\n\"... of course,\" the worlds fall out of Jaskier's without him even realizing but neither did Finneus as he was concerned with something else. He was scowling over Jaskier's shoulder with his lips parted slightly as his mind whirled with thoughts. \"Finneus?\" asked Jaskier in a small voice.\n\n\"Shit,\" sighs Finn with his top lip flaring and his teeth grinding. \"I need to go.\" Finn tried to compose himself by smoothing down his hair and sucking in a hard breath but Jaskier could practically hear his brother's heart hammering with fear. \n\nJaskier dares to look over his shoulder and his eyes fall to the raven-haired sorceress dressed in fine silks who was talking rather animatedly with a small blonde hair girl and burly white hair Witcher. \n\nYennefer, Ciri and (of fucking course) Geralt. \n\nBehind him, Jaskier hears the hurried footsteps of his brother who had fled behind him. \n\nNow, Finnues was a man who always spent the money he didn't have and Jaskier, although he'd been away for a lifetime didn't have any doubt why he was running. He clearly owed money to someone. \n\nBut who?\n\nGeralt wasn't a man of business and if Finneus owed Geralt money, Finneus wouldn't be alive. Not that Finneus would ever give Geralt a contract but if he were and withheld Geralt's money, Geralt would've slain Finnues were he stood and looted his well-earned money from his corpse. \n\nYennefer, on the other hand, was a woman of business. She had a way with words, money and more importantly men. If Finneus was owed any money, it was Yennefer and if so, he was right to run. Many fear the strength of a Witcher but Jaskier fears the wrath of Yennefer. \n\n \n\n\"Plan of action?\" asked Ciri as she looked up between the witcher and the mage. \n\n\"You can run after your bard but I'm getting my money,\" huffs Yennefer as she downs the rest of her wine. \n\n\"If you can find him that is,\" grunts Geralt and Yen's vibrant purple eyes scowl as she looks for Finn but the twitch of irritation in her face was a sign she'd lost him. \n\n\"That bastard probably saw us and took a runner, the coward,\" she curses as her hand curls around the goblet. \n\nGeralt too was scanning the room for he was indeed going after his bard that is if Jaskier would even want to talk to him again. The night at the inn after the two saw each other, Jaskier did a runner which was fair, to say the least. \n\nAnd now Jaskier seems to have done a runner again which wasn't surprising. How was Jaskier supposed to feel after seeing Geralt in his family home?\n\n\"I'm sure if we find Jaskier, he can point us in the direction of Finn,\" pipes up Ciri and both Yen and Geralt turn to look down at her. Only Yen had a wide and proud smile on her face while Geralt has his mouth pressed in a firm line of regret. \n\nPart of him wanted never to see Jaskier, not because he believed Jaskier was to blame for all of their misadventures but because Geralt was too guilt-ridden. How could Geralt face his 'closest-friend' who he blamed, ridiculed and shunned from his life? Geralt was never a man of words but he had to so much he wanted to say but would never know how to say it. \n\n\"Amazing idea! Maybe some of your brilliant intelligence will rub off on Geralt,\" before Geralt can protest, Yennefer sent off with Ciri bouncing along behind her so Geralt felt obligated to. \n\n\"I have to ask,\" said Ciri as she fell back from Yen's side to walk by Geralt. \"Did you not know anything of Jaskier's past? His family?\" Ciri cocks one of her fair eyebrows as she looks up Geralt who's face twists with... something. Shame, maybe? Ciri couldn't quite place it but it was a mix of sorrow, shame, and anger. \n\n\"It was never something we spoke of,\" shrugs Geralt but it was true, Geralt was ashamed of himself for never knowing or maybe Jaskier had told him but Geralt had just brushed it off like Geralt usually did. \n\n\"You never asked?\" \n\n\"I thought it wasn't my place. I knew he was noble but I never asked more. I wonder why though, he must've had a good life with money and whatever he could've asked for.\" That made Geralt wonder. If Jaskier had all this money and riches at his fingertips then why was he a simple bard and more importantly, why did he tag along with Geralt and sleep in shit hole inns when he could've been sleeping in a manor!?\n\n\"Human life is never that simple, Geralt,\" sighed Ciri with a shake of her head. \"Jaskier isn't like other nobles. He's a simple man who is content being on the road with his lute and his Witcher. It makes you think, maybe there was a reason he left it all behind for you.\" \n\n\"Hmm,\" hummed Geralt. \"You're surprisingly wise for someone so young.\" \n\n\"Someone needs to keep you in check,\" Ciri gives him a soft elbow in his side which Geralt responds to with an amused half-hearted smile as her words were heavy on his entire body. \n\nJaskier never once talked about his riches, wealth, his home, his family. He never showboated and instead was happy strumming the strings of his lute and singing merrily and he did it all with a smile. Geralt could never imagine any other noble doing this. They were friends for what? Almost two decades? And this train of thought never once came to Geralt? Never?! \n\nGeralt was angry at himself. Jaskier was his... friend and yet Geralt knew so little about him. Now that he thinks about it, Geralt only knew Jaskier, the bard and never knew Julain, the lord. \n\nGeralt must've been really deep in thought as he hadn't even realized he'd collided straight into someone. He resurfaced from his mind when someone small and narrow framed hit his chest. \n\n\"Oh, sorry...\" came a small voice from below and at the very moment. Blue and Amber eyes were mere centimeters from each other.\n\nThe air was suddenly very thick and heavy like smoke. It was as if the whole room had stopped just to watch Geralt and Jaskier like the music had stopped so they had center stage but really Jaskier was just stuck in the moment as he looks hard into Geralt's amber eyes. For the first time, Jaskier struggled to find the words.\n\nEven Geralt struggled to find his breath like his throat was tightening. He did want to meet with Jaskier, desperately in fact but not like this. Not thrown together in heat of a feast. \n\n\"Jaskier, I-\" Geralt begins and without even realizing, he raised his hand for Jaskier's shoulder as if instinct only for Jaskier to step away from his hand to hold his chin up. \n\n\"Julain,\" spat Jaskier. \n\n\"Huh?\" is all Geralt could manage.\n\n\"It's Julain. Lord Julain.\" His words were so... lifeless. Like he was reading from a script. There was no sweetness or dramatization to his voice and his arms remained steady at the side which was so unlike him. Usually, he was up singing about tales, hands flared and animated as he spoke with joy. \"You will address me as such.\" \n\nThat wasn't right. Jaskier was Jaskier, not Julain and certainly not Lord Julain. Never before had Geralt been afraid of Jaskier. Not that Geralt was worried Jaskier would go for a punch or anything but because Jaskier looked at Geralt with so much hate, anger and sadness that it froze Geralt. It was like Jaskier was looking at Geralt like he was indeed a monster.\n\nMuch like most nobles look at Geralt. \n\nHe could smell that sickening and putrid smell of anger that oozed from Jaskier. \n\n\"Jas... Lord Julain,\" the words felt wrong in Geralt's mouth and even Ciri cringed at it. \"I need to speak with you,\" Geralt was almost begging. \n\nYen could see the desperation the Geralt's face but even Yen's cold heart crushed as Jaskier looked down at Geralt from his nose without so much as recognition in his eyes but it was at that moment Yennefer saw it. \n\nLove. \n\nThey say Witchers are devoid of all emotion but at that very moment, Geralt was almost a different man as he pleaded with the man he loved only for his heart to be crushed. \n\n\"I don't know what you're doing here,\" hisses Jaskier sounding a little more like himself although Yennefer knew Jaskier would never speak like that to Geralt out of his own will. \"You told me it would be a blessing if I was out of your hands and yet here you stand pleading with me?\" \n\n\"I know but I-I didn't mean-\"\n\nIt was happening but Geralt didn't know it was happening. Everything was he wanted to say was swimming in his mind, fighting over each other to try and get to his mouth so Geralt couldn't actually string a sentence together. \n\n\"You didn't mean it?\" laughs Jaskier but his laugh was not his own. It was not his usually explosive laughter but this was more a cold one. \"Then why didn't you stop me? Why did you let me leave?\" His voice cracks and wobbles but Jaskier somehow managed to save himself from utter embarrassment. \n\nWhat would his family think if they saw him crying? Crying at the feet of a Witcher?\n\nPathetic. \n\nSpeaking of family, Jaskier froze with fear as the thin and boney arm of Beatrice swung around his neck. She smelt of her usual roses but she had the bittersweet smell of alcohol and food on her. \n\nIt was bad enough Geralt had come to talk to him and now he was having to keep a strong front against his sister after what she did last night. He couldn't let Geralt know what they had done because then Geralt would know that Jaskier had no place with his family. That he was a disappointment. \n\n\"Come now, little brother,\" her words are slurred a woozy as hangs from Jaskier's neck and he grimaces at his sister's drunkness. \"Geralt and Yennefer are esteemed guests and if I recall correctly-\" shit. \"You are the famous white wolf? Geralt of Rivia?\" she points to Geralt with her goblet making wine splash out onto the floor.\n\n\"I am, yes,\" Geralt squints his eyes at Beatrice trying to study her but his eyes fall back to Jaskier who is surprisingly stiff. \n\nHe didn't look comfortable at all with his sister that close to him. Or maybe he wasn't comfortable with being this close to Geralt? No. Geralt smelt Jaskeir's fear intensify as his sister latched onto him. \n\nHe was scared of his own sister and Geralt was willing to bet Jaskier was scarred of the rest of his family. \n\n\"You know,\" she swallows down a hiccup. \"You are extremely handsome. I thought Julain was just being stupidly dramatic about you but damn,\" Beatrice tries to straighten herself out but instead finds herself leaning into Jaskier again but never once breaking her eye contact with Geralt. \"You are very nice to look at.\" \n\n\"You're married, Beatrice,\" said Jaskier in a low voice to his sister, trying to brush over the fact that Beatrice just let slip that Jaskier thought Geralt was handsome. \n\n\"Yeah. Unhappily,\" snorts Beatrice rather loudly. She finds enough strength to push off Jaskier so she's now standing by herself. \"So what do you say, white wolf!\" Beatrice opens her arms wildly and attempts to look at Geralt with a flirtatious look but it looks like she's having a stroke. \n\n\"Julain.. talked about me?\" Just when Jaskier thought the worst was over... but there was a certain softness to Geralt's voice that made Jaskier's heart flicker. \n\n\"Nope,\" said Beatrice rather bluntly. \"But he wrote about you, aaaaaa lot!\" She swings her goblet up for a drink only for her to underestimate which sent her drink down the front of her dress.\n\nGeralt's face contorts as he thinks. Jaskier only ever wrote in that worn songbook of his and he never let anyone read it not even Geralt. \n\n\"Uh, uh, uh. A good craftsman never shows his unfinished masterpiece until it is finished,\" he would scold whenever Geralt tried to sneak a peek at whatever Jaskier was scribbling down in there. \n\nIf Geralt never got to see it, then why would Jaskier let his sister (of whom he is clearly afraid of) see it. Unless.. it was against Jaskier's will. \n\nGeralt's rage boiled.\n\n\"Excuse but we have to go,\" said Jaskier with a shaky sigh as he looks to the floor to avoid Geralt's deadly glare. He loops Beatrice's arm back over his neck and steadies her. \"Enjoy the rest of your night.\" Even if his words kind, there was no meaning to them and they fell flat in the air. \n\nJaskier turns to leave with a half-conscious Beatrice drooling on his shoulder but something tugs on Geralt's heart. \n\nPulling and urging him to take Jaskier's hand and pull him back. Something hard and meaningful that made his heart hurt and stomach churn. \n\nLove. \n\n\"Julain-\" Geralt gives in and takes a grip of Jaskier's arm and gives it a soft tug only for Jaskier to yelp out in pain. \"Shit, I didn't mean to-\" Geralt recoils his hand as Jaskier twists his head around with his face pinched in pain. \n\n\"It's fine, it wasn't you,\" with his free hand Jaskier rubs his shoulder trying to soothe the burning pain. \n\n\"Someone hurt you?\" Instinctively Geralt jumps into protective mode. \"Who was it?!\" Jaskier almost smiled at the way Geralt genuinely cared for him, cared for Jaskier in a way none of his family ever did but it was little too late.\n\nThe time for Geralt's apologies and care was years ago.  \n\n\"Noone. I slept on it funny,\" lied Jaskier once again avoiding Geralt's piercing gaze as Jaskier knows as soon as he looks at Geralt, he'll tell him everything. \"I must go, apologies. Goodnight.\" \n\n\"Wait,\" now it was Yennefers turn to pester Jaskier and clearly it worked at Jaskier snapped his neck around to scowl at the sorceress. \n\n\"Oh for fuck sake what is it now!\" His voice was low enough that no one else paid any mind to it but it was so low it was like a growl and Yen actually found herself flinching away from the bard. \n\n\"Your brother, Finneus,\" Yen composes herself. \"Where is he?\" \n\n\"Lemme guess. He owes you money,\" huffs Jaskier letting his shoulders drop. \n\nYen simply nods. \n\n\"Well, you just missed him. The rat bastard saw you a scampered. Your best bet is looking for him in his chamber, he's probably packing his shit.\" There was real hatred in Jaskier's voice. Yen recognized that hate as a hate so deep-rooted and strong that you would do anything to be free of them.\n\n\"His chamber. Where is it?\" Yennefer steps out towards the bard as urgency grips her.\n\n\"Up the main stairs, left corridor, fourth door on your right.\" \n\n\"Hah, marvelous. Thank you, Lord Julain,\" she gives a slight nod of her head before scurrying off but she must admit, it was unnerving to address the bard so highly for she only ever knew Jaskier as Geralt's pet bard now... something had snapped inside of Jaskier.\n\nAnd now it was only Geralt, Jaskier and Ciri who was looking between the bard and the witcher, suffocating under the tension. \n\nFinally, Geralt spoke again.\n\n\"Jaskier I need-\"\n\n\"Save it,\" Jaskier holds a hand out and Geralt surprisingly fell silent. \"I have guests to attend to and clearly you are at Yennefers bidding again. Go.\" His words are blunt and have a simple sadness to them. Like this was Jaskier's way of saying goodbye. \n\nAnd sure enough, when Geralt looked behind him Yen was stood at the base of the stairs waving at him but when Geralt turned, he saw only Jaskier melting back in the crowd. \n\nBut Jaskier was stupid if he thought Geralt was going to let it end like that...\n\n \n\n "}
+{"text": "\"The door,\" Harry said, trying to prioritize with his head rather than his cock. His cock was saying this was a rather brilliant position to have suddenly found itself in, and hey, let's spend a minute or two rubbing up against a tantalizingly wet Malfoy. \"We have to get the door open.\"\n\n\"Oh, open the door. I never would have thought of that. Is that what you brought to the war, a keen sense of the absolutely obvious?\" Malfoy banged his head against the wall a time or two but didn't let go of Harry. \"The doors down here are charmed to seal shut if there's water pouring into a room. Flooding in a dungeon is serious business, Potter.\"\n\n\"What about the people in the room? You just let them drown?\" Slytherins, Harry thought.  \"That's horrible!\"\n\nMalfoy let his head fall forward until their foreheads met with a clunk. \"No, Potter, it's sensible. The founders thought if there was water coming in, it would be through a broken window. Which the students could then swim out of. Understand? Are there any other safety measures regarding living under a lake that you'd like to cover before our imminent deaths?\"\n\n\"We're not going to die, you berk.\" Harry tried to make that sound authoritative. It came out a little squeakier than he would have liked—the water was cold and it was starting to tickle his bollocks. Still, some of his panic had faded away. Malfoy was alive, Harry had gotten to him, no one had drowned yet, and there had to be a way out of this.\n\n\"When your room-mates come back,\" Harry said, after a moment more of thought, \"they won't be able to open the door either. They'll call for help and someone will get us out.\"\n\nMalfoy sneered. \"Dinner just started. By the time they come back, find out something's wrong, get help, and get us out, we'll be blue, wrinkly, and very, very dead. Try again.\" \n\n\"Fine. I've got a bubblehead charm on. I'll do one on you too and we'll be able to last until they get us out of here.\"\n\nMalfoy sighed like he did it professionally—long and weary and full of resignation. His chest rose and fell interestingly against Harry's as he breathed.  \"Bubblehead charms only last an hour. Imbecile.\"\n\n\"So I'll do it again and again until they get us out of here.\" Harry knew he really didn't need to be having this conversation while pressed tight against Malfoy. The water rushing in was loud, sure, and it was swirling and tugging at their legs but really, he could move back an inch or two at least. Not that he was going to. \"The slightest little problem and you give up? What, if you can't hire someone to do it, it can't be done?\"\n\n\"Well I certainly wouldn't hire you,\" Malfoy said brightly, letting his arms hang over Harry's shoulders like they were the oldest and closest of friends. \"Seeing as how you obviously don't know how bubblehead charms work.\"\n\nHarry waited. If there was a flaw in his plan, he was sure Malfoy would point it out. Not that there was.\n\n\"Those of us who have to pass our NEWTS with knowledge rather than fame understand that bubblehead charms enclose a pocket of air, right? The pocket of air surrounding your head, to be precise. The air which in a not inconsiderable amount of time will be nonexistent in this room. If, while we're drowning, you wish to enclose our heads in an extra bubble of water, however, then it's a marvelous charm. Go right ahead.\"\n\nOh. Harry scrunched his face, trying to remember anything else about the charm even as that particular hope died a messy death. \"It doesn't pull air from somewhere else?\"\n\n\"No, Potter. Air cannot apparate in. Just like we can't apparate out.\" Malfoy let the fake bright look go out. \"Which is why we're going to die.\"\n\n\"Fine, so my first idea won't work.\" Harry looked down at the water, which was now up to his waist, then back at the cabinet it was still pouring out of. Ok, he had another plan—\n\n\"We use magic to close the cabinet doors, we might not be strong enough to push them closed physically but if we use a force charm—\" \n\nMalfoy was leaning his forehead against Harry's again. \"Twat. Once again you display a complete lack of understanding of the magical object in question.\" The look on his face was almost fond, though he was probably just fond of the chance to call Harry a twat. \"Think about it.\"  \n\nHarry scowled and thought about it. Vanishing Cabinets had been used to escape from Death Eaters, right? But you wouldn't want someone at the other end to be able to accidentally interrupt your arrival, so once the connection was established, it probably couldn't be stopped until everything had come through, which in this case was the entire contents of the lake—\n\n\"Destroy the cabinet completely,\" Harry said, fast as the thought hit him. \"No cabinet, no connection.\"\n\nMalfoy was already shaking his head. \"Won't work. They're layered in protection charm on protection charm. Indestructible, at least in the time we have.\"\n\nThe water was over his waist now. Not quite to nipple height but definitely at 'get a good plan right now' height. \n\nMalfoy pulled him a little closer. Neither of them were talking about the 'wrapped close as lovers' part of this, but there it was. \"Potter. Get me my wand.\"\n\nHope surged in Harry's chest. Had Malfoy thought of something? \"Accio, Malfoy's wand,\" he called out. \n\nNothing happened for a moment then a pale wand leaped out of the water like a thin silver fish. It hit Harry's hand with a wet slap and he passed it over to Malfoy. \"So? What's your plan?\"\n\nMalfoy wrapped his hand around his wand and dropped his head to Harry's shoulder. His words came out muffled by wet sweater. \"I don't have one. I just wanted to die with my wand in my hand.\"\n\nHarry tightened his grip, solely for the purpose of making it easier to growl in Malfoy's ear. Not to comfort him. \"I've come up with four plans and you haven't thought of a single one! So who's the useless berk here, huh?\"\n\nMalfoy lifted his head. \"You've come up with four stupid, useless plans and I've had to spend valuable time explaining why they won't work. So you're the berk.\"\n\nHarry went ahead and wrapped his arms fully around Malfoy, because Malfoy was shivering and it was the right thing to do. Plus, something about body heat, right? \"At least you got to spend the last hour of your life telling me how stupid and wrong I am. That's got to be pretty nice.\"\n\nMalfoy swayed in the water and kind of laughed. \"Should I even ask why my dorm room is filling with lake water and why you're here too but you don't have any way out either? Is that a profitable use of my last minutes or do I just really not want to know? It's not like there haven't been plenty of other things, major things, that nobody's bothered to explain to me until it's too late to make a difference.\"\n\n\"The short answer is the twins—\"\n\nMalfoy nodded, as if 'the twins' explained everything. Which it pretty much did.\n\n\"The long answer—\" Harry stopped. The long answer involved the words 'magic sex contract' and there was no way he was going there. \"The long answer's not worth getting into right now. Except I didn't do this to you and I'm, er, very sorry it happened.\"\n\nMalfoy didn't answer. Just sniffed a bit. Harry wasn't sure if it was a scoffing type sniff, or a teary sniff, or just a water-up-the-nose type sniff.\n\nAnyway, the water was now rippling across Harry's nipples, and it was chilling and scary and uncomfortably stimulating all at once. \"I'd, er, rather spend my final moments doing something else. Not that I think these are our final moments, okay? I'm just taking a quick mental break on making plans.\"\n\nHarry really meant that. He hadn't survived Voldemort just to die from a stupid Weasley prank. That would make the worst, most ridiculous footnote in the history books since Winifred the Wonderful defeated the Five Troll Army Invasion then choked to death on a ham sandwich while signing autographs.\n\nMalfoy eyed him warily. \"What did you have in mind?\"\n\nWinifred…trolls…ham sandwiches…choking to death…autographs…  Harry ran through every thought he'd just had in his mind, none of which were things he wanted to discuss. Ever. What he'd really wanted was—\n\nFuck it. If these were going to be his last few minutes on earth, he wanted to know what it felt like to kiss Draco Malfoy.\n\nHarry leaned forward until their lips brushed. Malfoy's lips were smooth and, surprisingly for the circumstances, not wet. They quivered uncertainly under the press of Harry's mouth and then slowly the kiss was returned, lips softening, head tilting to let Harry come closer.\n\nHarry brought his hand up to Malfoy's neck and cupped his head, leaning in to deepen the kiss. From the nipples down Malfoy's body was cold and wet, his sodden clothes plastered to his thin form. His lips were cold too. But they opened, tentative and unsure. Harry wondered when that had happened—the Malfoy he knew from before sixth year had never seemed unsure of anything. Harry's tongue licked out before he could stop it, wanting to taste and feel. And past those cold lips, Malfoy's mouth was warm. Harry's cock stiffened. Despite the water, despite the danger—or maybe because of it. Or maybe just because it saw no reason not to celebrate being locked in an embrace with a lean male body.\n\nHe pushed into Malfoy's mouth and for a moment there was more of that uncertainty, then their heads were tilting and Harry was falling forward into a tangle of hands in hair and warm welcoming tongue, and hips that pressed eagerly into his own. There was an answering hardness swelling there and his cock was completely on board with forgetting about the whole death-by-drowning thing in favor of the need that was seizing hold of him, spiraling up from his groin and making him shake with pleasure.\n\nBasically, it was a bloody fantastic snog and Harry hated to end it but—\n\n\"I have an idea,\" he said, forcing himself to pull away, panting. \"See? Letting me take a break from thinking worked perfectly. We can--\"\n\nMalfoy groaned. \"I'm about to die in water fish have peed in. It's undignified enough without having to spend my last few minutes listening to Gryffindorish prattle about impossible escapes.\"\n\n\"No, hear me out.\" Harry's heart was pounding double-time from combined fear and lust but he thought he had it this time. Water swirled around his neck. \"See, the windows might be specially reinforced against breaking but why would they do that to a dorm room door? Its edges are charmed shut but it won't be charmed to resist a concentrated Reducto in the middle. We'll smash it to pieces.\"\n\n\"A combined Reducto on the door?\" Malfoy's head tilted consideringly, cheek coming perilously close to the ever-rising water.\n\nHarry's heart beat faster. They didn't have much time left but Malfoy couldn't think of any reason this wouldn't work and he was nearly as smart as Hermione. He grabbed Malfoy's hand and tugged him until they stood directly in front of the door. \"Get your wand ready. They'll work underwater, don't worry about that, just put everything you have into it.\"\n\nMalfoy nodded stiffly. He raised his wand and pointed it at the door. \"We need to concentrate our combined magic on the smallest possible area. Drill a hole and the water will rush through, helping us break it.\"\n\n\"On my mark,\" Harry raised his wand, then stopped. \"Wait. You're right.\" He shoved his wand back into his waistband. Malfoy was looking at him questioningly, pale and frightened but determined now. \"I know the best way to concentrate our magic.\"\n\nHarry moved behind him, wrapped one arm around Malfoy's waist, and covered his hand on the wand. \"I think I proved your wand works for me,\" he said, not able to help the smile that curved his lips up as he pressed them to Malfoy's neck. \"Come on now. The wand just directs the magic. We'll let our power flow through it together.\"\n\nHe felt more than saw Malfoy's nod. Fingers tightened under his on the wand and at the same time, they both breathed out a firm Reducto. Magic rose to his call and poured down his arm and out the wand. Malfoy's magic bubbled around it, lighter than his own somehow, and together they swirled out the end of the wand and slammed into the door.\n\nSparks flew even underwater. It looked like a video Uncle Vernon had brought home once, something where they were supposed to admire the drills but all Harry had really noticed was the welder's flame, cutting a path through steel with fire.\n\nThe door might as well be steel, Harry thought a moment later as not even the smallest hole had appeared. What the hell did the Slytherins want their doors to withstand, a battering ram? There were flimsier portcullises, he bet, but he kept his magic strong and flowing. Malfoy was leaning back into him, open now in a way Harry had never seen, letting the stronger flow of Harry's magic pull his own out. Their magic was connecting, merging. It was... right. Being wrapped around Malfoy, with Malfoy pressing back against him, was right. If they ever managed to get out of here, Harry wasn't going to waste any more time. Every cell in his body, every particle of his magic, was telling him that the other things he wanted to do with Malfoy would feel right as well.\n\nMalfoy gasped. Harry saw why a second later—a tiny hole had appeared in the door. It was working! Part of him wanted to stick his tongue in Malfoy's ear and go nah-nah-nah, who's the stupid Gryffindor now, but the larger, smarter part of him wanted to live and so he kept the wand tight and focused. \n\nThe water was up to his chin. He'd been so intent on the door that he'd barely noticed it climbing higher. Now it was lapping at the ends of his hair and inside, he could feel his magic tiring. All of it, he had said, and he'd meant it, but it was so hard to keep the wand steady, the hole enlarging. Malfoy was trembling with exertion but the fizz of his magic kept flowing, and it called to Harry's, twisting together into something bright and powerful.\n\nSomething gave and when it gave it went all at once. The hole went from tiny to massive as the center of the door blew out. Harry's heart leaped with joy and relief and triumph all at once but he had no time to think about it. Water rushed through the hole, pouring out in a wave that swept them both out of the room and past the accursed door, sides scraping painfully as they popped free. It was too wet and too tidal to properly stand and so together they slipped and skidded down the corridor.\n\nHarry risked a glance back as they stumbled up the stairs to the common room. The door had smashed completely open and if anything, the water was pouring out faster than ever. Some kind of magic, he supposed—the greater the space to fill, the more water was coming through. They were still ahead of it, though, and he kept Malfoy close to him, pulling him up each time he fell. \n\nInto the common room, and Harry pelted across as fast as he could make Malfoy move, tensing as behind them the water bellowed. He looked back again in time to see it explode out of the stairwell with the force of a geyser, sending hungry foaming wave after wave after them. Harry had only a second or two as they ran to consider the irreparable damage lake-water would do to those gorgeous black leather sofas and finely carved tables, then they were hitting the door at a shivering run, arm in arm. The stone entrance creaked as it opened and they tumbled out to the roar of angry water. \n\n\"I can't—\" Malfoy panted, limped a step and then collapsed. The stone door slammed closed behind them and Harry sank to the floor beside him, pulling Malfoy into his arms. The rumble of water was still loud, ferocious, but they were on the right side of the charmed door now.\n\n\"We're safe, shhh,\" Harry said, feeling stupid and guilty and more wet than he'd ever been. He flopped all the way back, unable to even sit, and Malfoy slid down next to him, practically blue in the face. Harry hauled him on top and started rubbing his back, worried, feeling Malfoy's too-thinness and the cold that had seeped so deeply into him that the dungeon stone seemed almost warm in comparison.\n\nMalfoy let out a little helpless sound and turned his face into Harry's neck. If only he had enough strength left for a drying charm, maybe a warming charm, and Harry definitely wasn't thinking this was a relatively fine position to find himself in—\n\nA shadow fell over them. Harry looked up and then looked up a little more at the tall figure now standing there, a pleasantly amused expression spreading across his face. Blaise Zabini, close enough to take in every detail of their drenched embrace, but just far enough back to keep his expensive-looking shoes away from their dirty puddle. Behind him crowded the rest of Slytherin House, a mass of curious eyes and dropped jaws and whispering heads.\n\n\"I'd say, get a room but,\" and here Zabini paused long enough for the rumbling water on the other side of the door to make its own statement, \"but I'm guessing that might have become, ah, problematic? Am I correct?\""}
+{"text": "Chapter 65\n\nOctober 31st, 1994\n\nHogwarts\n\nThey left the Great Hall with Fleur having put her name in the Goblet of Fire\n\n\"Ok,\" Harry said, \"Follow me\".\n\n\"Where are we going,\" Fleur asked.\n\n\"Someplace I think you will find interesting,\" He said.\n\nShrugging Fleur followed her boyfriend to see what he had to show her.\n\nThey arrived at a second floors girl bathroom.\n\n\"Why are we at a girls bathroom Arry,\" Fleur asked.\n\n\"It's ok there's no one who goes to this bathroom\" He reassured her.\n\nAnd like he said the bathroom seemed pretty run down.\n\nFleur looked as he led her to a sink.\n\nHe began speaking in the language of the snakes Parseltongue.\n\nShe had known for a while that her boyfriend had the ability to speak Parseltongue.\n\nIt did not worry her about his ability but it was weird hearing it in real life.\n\nSoon a staircase came off the side of the sink.\n\nShe followed down the stairs where after walking down another hallway they arrived in a large chamber.\n\nShe stared around her in wonder.\n\n'Where is this?'\n\n'The Chamber of Secrets,' Harry grinned.\n\n\"Wow,\" Fleur said \"This is the Salazar Slytherin's Chamber then\"\n\n\"Yes,\" He replied.\n\n\"How on earth did you find this place,\" She asked.\n\n\"It's a long story,\" He said chuckling.\n\nHarry took Fleur to then see the Bookshelf in the back of the chamber.\n\nShe seemed very interested in seeing all of the interesting books and tomes.\n\nOne of the books that he wanted to look at the most he needed her help with due to the requirement of two people for it to work successfully.\n\nHe wanted to become an Anigmus.\n\nSo they soon were reading the book about Anigmus training together.\n\n'An animagus, is able, once they are fully capable of using their form, of retaining most of their faculties, even if they are influenced while within their animagus body. Ordinary human to animal transfiguration leaves the altered wizard or witch with no more intelligence or understanding than the animal they have become. A partial transfiguration can have either effect, depending on the part of the body altered.\n\n\"In order to become an Anigmus, you must need another person with you who will use a spell caused Mutata Interiore\n\n\"Well, you mind doing at\"Harry asked.\n\nFleur said \"Mutata Interiore\" and Harry closed his eyes.\n\nThere was a glimpse of a slim, black body. Slender scales, tapering away. Dark eyes, gleaming like gimlets. The dispassionate, distant curiosity of the hunter, its patience, its power. The cruel-edged, long, straight beak, curving talons, and the sleek feathers that concealed him in the shadows.\n\nA raven.\n\nThe curiosity was catching, the sense of the raven slipping closer to himself, pervading and permeating his mind, twisting his thoughts into unreadable loops. Harry was distantly aware that he was changing, the world looming larger, and the ceiling rising away from him.\n\nOld-cold-living-stone.\n\nIt rung under his talons as he tapped them against it, intrigued that what was not-alive felt so strange. He clacked his beak, hopping from the floor to the warmer, dead-wood-once-trees; it gave him a better view of the room. Dipping his beak into his feathers he eyed the surroundings, tilting and tipping his head to take in as much as he could as quickly as he could.\n\nTwo-legged-no-wings-no-feathers.\n\nThe creature seemed familiar, but it was old and slow. He could see it in the lines of its pale skin, the talonless tips of its feet, and the greying of its hair.\n\nNot prey. Not a threat.\n\nHe clacked his beak at it curiously, hopping closer. It was the only creature present. The living stone drove the others away with its unusualness.\n\nThe creature moved with sudden speed, and the desk crumpled underneath him, pitching him onto the floor with an indignant squawk, until he found himself staring at his fingers on the stone, and the raven faded away.\n\n'How curious?' Harry stood up slowly, inspecting himself to see if he was completely human again.\n\nHe was.\n\n'I truly was the raven.'\n\nXXXXXXXXXXXXX\n\nAfter finishing reading about Anigmus Harry was able to somehow convince Fleur to have a mock duel.\n\nNeither particularly wanted to hurt each other but it would be good practice.\n\nFleur was waiting in the middle of the chamber with her rosewood wand, extended out to her right.\n\n'Normal rules,' Fleur decided, conjuring a glowing circle across the floor. 'Nothing too dangerous, and no speaking anything but spells and no trying to distract each other.'\n\nHer wand snapped up without warning, and Harry immediately flicked his into his palm in preparation.\n\n'Shall we begin,' Fleur returned her wand arm to its original position and Harry mirrored her, forcing himself to look away from her eyes and consider her an enemy.\n\nFleur struck first, unleashing a trio of jinxes with her wand movements sliding from one spell into the next without halting.\n\nHe deflected two of them back at her, side-stepping the last and attacked himself, throwing every one of the borderline useless spells he knew at her, but Fleur proved impossible to touch.\n\nShe stepped around them, weaving fluidly, almost dancing amongst the beams of magic, deflecting the few she could not dodge back at him and constantly turning and twisting him along the edge of the ring stretching the angles he could deflect her spells at to their limit.\n\nHarry couldn't seem to pin her down, no matter how fast he cast, and his spells were slicing across the air from his wand tip twice as fast as Fleur could send them back. She was glorious in action. It was hard to ignore the way she moved to avoid his magic, the way Fleur curved away from his hexes was almost hypnotic.\n\nFleur may not like to fight a lot but she sure knew how to defend herself well enough.\n\nThe events of the World Cup and the Tournament had gotten her interested in really learning self-defense.\n\nAbandoning his assault for a moment, he slashed his wand across his chest drawling the water from the pool behind her, he conjured a liquid serpent the length of the bridge that twisted forwards through the air to encircle and shatter her shield.\n\n'Expelliarmus,' Harry murmured, just as her defenses faltered, and then it was over, and Fleur's wand was in his hand.\n\nGrinning triumphantly he gave Fleur her wand back.\n\nFleur scowled but he knew she was fine with everything.\n\n'So what did you think?' He asked.\n\n``I can't believe you beat me already' she sighed.\n\n'Already?'\n\n'I expected you to win eventually, I'm good at dueling, but I'm better suited to enchanting and other subtler aspects of magic as well as the medical field\"\n\n\"Well at the very least we will never have to face each other on a battlefield,\" Harry said.\n\n\"Indeed\" Fleur agreed.\n\nHarry noticed the time.\n\n\"We had better go if we want to get to the Selection Ceremony on time,\" He said.\n\n\"Oui\" Fleur said and followed him out of the Chamber as they headed back upstairs and to the Great Hall.\n\nThey would be working more at a later date on his Animagus form and seeing if he could transform into a raven."}
+{"text": "xiv.\n\nThere’s a woman in the cage. The box. Whatever they call it. There’s a woman in it.\n\nShe’s short. Pale, deathly pale. Red hair. Pretty. She’s wearing a baggy jumper with a batman symbol on it and a pair of skinny jeans. Her feet are bare, but the toes are painted scarlet. The clothes don’t suit her. High heels and flouncy dresses, her hair in perfect curls - that would suit her, and Thomas doesn’t know why he’s so sure about this, but he is.\n\nShe heaves in a breath like she’s fighting for it, and she looks straight at Thomas as though she knew where he’d be.\n\nShe says, “Stiles.”\n\n \n\nxv.\n\nHe puts her out of his mind. She’s nothing to do with him, just another kid sent up to the glade. Who cares if it was unusual? Who cares if she’s the first girl they’ve had, who gives a flying fuck about anything to do with her?\n\nThomas doesn’t. He doesn’t.\n\nHe cares about the griever rotting in the maze and the secrets it holds. He cares about getting out. He feels constricted, hemmed in by the walls of the maze - his maze, his fucking maze and if it’s so saturated with his magic why can’t he get out? Why can’t he just blast his way through, force it open, why can’t he get the fuck out of here?\n\nHe can’t focus. He needs to focus. There’s something he’s missing, something important and he just needs to sit down and think. He needs everyone to stop fucking looking at him like that, he needs his thoughts to shut up and stop distracting him.\n\nHe’s pacing so fast he almost gives himself whiplash when he turns. His fingers tug at the hem of his shirt and his pulse is rabbiting in his neck.\n\nHe needs to calm down. He wants Alby, wants the dryad’s endless patience, but Alby’s sick and Thomas’ magic is sparking and fighting his control and Thomas doesn’t know how much longer he can keep Alby grounded. He’s started fitting on the hospital bed. Clint gave him a swipe of paralysing poison, but Alby’s still shaking. He’s going to get worse and there’s nothing Thomas can do and if he wasn’t trapped then maybe maybe maybe\n\nBut that’s no help because he needs to fucking focus. He turns back to head for Newt because he’s hyperventilating and he can’t stop and he needs his pack, but that’s a bad plan, that’s a really messed up bad plan because what the hell is even up with Newt and just at the moment Thomas can’t deal.\n\nHe takes a breath, as deep as he can. Tries to count it down. A shadow of a memory flicks through, someone staying with him, counting his breaths for him when he can’t hold onto the numbers. But they’re not here. They’re out there and Thomas is in here and he’s trapped.\n\nHe can’t get out. His magic thrashes against the maze and it’s his maze so why doesn’t it listen to him why isn’t it moving and why isn’t it opening and he can’t get out he can’t breath there’s a ringing in his ears he can’t breath there are black spots dancing across the edges of his vision and he can’t get out the girl called him Stiles but that’s not his name it’s not it’s not it’s not\n\n“Thomas?”\n\nThomas spins, grips their shoulders hard enough to bruise. “I need to get back into the maze,” he gasps, and that’s - that’s clarity. That’s calm. “I need to get back into the maze,” he repeats, slower, his vision clearing and his breathing stabilising.\n\nMinho shrugs his hands off. “Have you got a death wish?” he hisses. “You only just got out of the maze, now you want to go back in?”\n\nThomas shakes his head. “I want to get out - for good. Think about it, Minho! No one’s ever seen a griever and now we have one. Ours, just lying there. Aren’t you even a little curious?” He’s grinning, hands flying wildly to illustrate his point. The griever is their ticket out, the bit he’s been missing. Minho is stepping back, folding his arms, but Thomas has him, he knows it. They’re going back in the maze.\n\n \n\nxvi.\n\nIs Minho pack now? Minho kinda seems like he should be pack now. He stuck his arm into griever-goop to get Thomas a shiny beeping magic thing. He’s definitely pack now.\n\n \n\nxvii.\n\n“It’s a key,” Thomas explains as Newt turns the cylinder over in his hands. The other boy is back to being cool and almost distant with Thomas, but then again, their hands maybe brushed a tiny bit when Thomas was handing the cylinder over and Thomas is maybe a little bit highly strung around Newt at the moment. For obvious reasons.\n\nHe pushes it down and drags his mind back to the matter at hand. “I don’t know what for exactly, not yet, but it interacts with the maze.”\n\nNewt runs his thumb over the letters down the side and Thomas’ heart skips a beat. Fuck’s sake, he’s in a room full of weres with heart-beat-detecting hearing. He needs to get a grip.\n\n“How?”\n\n“I don’t remember the mechanics -” no, wait. That’s not true. Thomas tilts his head to the side, waiting for the information that was hovering on the edge of his mind. Sometimes, sometimes you just have to be cunning with these things. “The maze… It’s too big. Something that complicated, you can’t change part of it. The whole thing collapses if you try.” He nods to himself, more confident in what he’s saying. It makes sense. Sky is blue, things that go up must come down, and, “When a seal is too complex to rewrite on the fly, you write the original seal to cover all possibilities and use separate commands to flip between the options. It’s a matrix transformation; same data always encoded in the matrix, but different outputs depending on the transformation you’ve applied.”\n\nYes, that’s it - he reaches for the cylinder. Newt hands it over with a bemused expression that Thomas fails to notice. He digs his fingers into the casing, sending out an exploratory flare of magic to get a reading and - called it. He bares his teeth in a vicious smile. “It is a runic matrix, I knew it. This is how they control the maze, don’t you see? Load the right runes onto the grievers and send them to the right place - it’s programming, programming with magic, oh my god I’m in heaven, I didn’t even know this was possible on this scale - do you even understand what this means?”\n\n“No?” Minho hazards. He doesn’t seem to grasp the enormity of Thomas’ discovery. Thomas waves the life changing magic cylinder at him to help him see.\n\n“Wards! Dynamic wards - you could key them to people, or activate different wards at different times, you could set traps with these anywhere and no one could sense them because there wouldn’t be anything to sense, not until you activated the wards do you see? And spells, god could you imagine a multi layered spell with a hidden second phase? Mayhem! Chaos! Minho this is beautiful!”\n\nNewt grabs a flailing hand and drags Thomas back a step. “Does it help us break the maze?” he demands. Thomas whirls on him, because this is so much bigger than the maze, it’s - Newt’s serious face stops him in his tracks. He plays the conversation back through his head until he’s back with the program again.\n\n“Yes,” he manages in a calmer voice. “The grievers use it to move around in the maze. If we can get back in the maze, if we can work out how to apply it, we can use it for the same thing.” Newt frowns at him, working through what he’s said, and Thomas lifts his chin. He’s sure about this.\n\nNewt’s still holding his wrist. Just, just by the by.\n\n“Ok.” Newt nods and takes a step back. His fingers drag up the inside of Thomas’ arm when he lets go and there’s fire trailing in their wake. Thomas swallows and tries to pretend that he’s not affected. He pokes at Newt’s pack bond again but it’s still - he’s still - frustratingly silent.\n\n“Ok,” Newt repeats. “I’m not going to say I understood most of that, but I got the gist.”\n\n“How the hell do you even know that stuff?” Minho asks, and Thomas absolutely did not jump, because he hadn’t forgotten that Minho was there. It’s not like his whole attention had been on Newt or anything. No.\n\nGally snorts (and Thomas hadn’t forgotten he was there either, he’s doing well with that today, and yes, sarcasm is a way of life and lying to himself is a human right that he will not be denied). “Didn’t you get the memo? All powerful alpha Thomas has strange and mysterious powers that are beyond us mere mortals.”\n\nAlpha? The hell?\n\n“Gally,” Newt starts, but the other boy cuts across him.\n\n“Oh come on, Newt, you can’t be serious! First he breaks our rules, then he tries to get them thrown out completely. You see what he’s doing, don’t you?” He jabs a hand at Thomas to illustrate his point and his lips twist into a sneer. “We’ve spent three years building up this glade, making it equal and ordered and making it work. He spends three days here and he’s trying to control everything because he’s an alpha and that’s what alphas do.”\n\n“I’m not trying to control anything!” Thomas protests. “This isn’t a fucking coup, Gally - I’m getting us out of the maze, that’s it. That’s all of it!”\n\n“Yeah?” Gally bares his teeth. “Then prove it, shank! If you were any other glader you’d be punished for breaking the rules. You going to submit to that?”\n\n“Yes!”\n\nThere’s a stunned silence. Thomas runs a hand through his hair and tries to get his breathing under control. “I’m not your enemy,” he says finally. “I want to get out - but I want everyone to get out. I’m not leaving you behind.” He lets his hand drop and shrugs. “Alby left Newt in charge. If Newt says punishment, I’m not going to fight it.”\n\n“But Newt’s an omega,” Gally says.\n\n“I know.” Actually, he’s fairly certain that Newt’s a beta now, but best not quibble.\n\n“And you’re an alpha.”\n\n“Doesn’t matter.” And he’s still dubious about the whole alpha schtick. He doesn’t feel like much of an alpha, he’s just… Just Thomas. He wanted a pack, that’s all.\n\nGally stares. “What the hell shank, you’re not even lying.”\n\nThomas shrugs again. There’s not much else he can say to that. “Newt?” he asks, keeping his gaze trained on the scuffed footprints on the floor. Newt’s going to give a punishment. He kind of has to, at this point. And Thomas has to obey it or let Gally turn him into a liar. Which he isn’t.\n\nHe hopes Newt doesn’t banish him. Or ban him from the maze. He’s so close, so close to getting them all out of here. And… he doesn’t know where he stands with Newt at the moment. This whole ignoring you - oh wait no, here’s some eye fucking - no, back to ignoring you thing, it’s confusing.\n\n“Thomas broke the rules,” Newt finally announces. “He needs to be punished.” Thomas braces himself, shoulders tense. “One night in the pit, no food.”\n\nHe’s stunned. He barely hears Gally’s angry protests, barely even registers Newt promoting him to runner status. He nods and tries not to grin (he doubts it would go down well). Newt’s supporting him. Newt wants him to go back, is helping him find a way to fix this stupid mess and get them out. It doesn’t explain the whole ignoring thing, but - it’s a start.\n\nHe waits for the others to file out (or angrily stomp out in Gally’s case) until it’s just him and Newt left in the hut. And then, then, see, he has a plan. A well thought out plan where he’ll calmly ask Newt to explain, and Newt will say something that makes sense and then they’ll laugh and hug it out and maybe if Thomas is lucky the hug will go in an interesting direction. The important thing is that he starts out calm.\n\nHe toes the door to a closed position and takes a deep breath. Turns to face Newt. Remembers his calm. He is all of the calm. His chi is in balance.\n\nNewt’s got one eyebrow raised. He’s leaning back against the wall with his head tipped back and his eyes half lidded and his crossed arms pulling his shirt low at the collar. The left side of his lips twitch up into a smirk.\n\nGuh.\n\n“You going to try and talk me out of it?” Newt asks, and holy whores in a crack house it should be illegal for a voice to be that sexy. It’s low and there’s a hint of roughness at the edges and with Newt’s accent it just rolls off his tongue like caramel syrup oh my god.\n\n“What?” Thomas manages to croak.\n\nThe half smirk evolves into a full smirk. Newt pushes off the wall in one smooth movement. His shoulders ripple beneath his shirt and there’s a bead of sweat running down his throat to pool in the hollow of his collar bones. It’s hypnotising. Thomas can’t look away from that bead of sweat. A griever could break through the roof and Thomas would be dead because of that bead of sweat. Newt’s neck is literally killing him.\n\n“Weren’t you listening?” Newt purrs. He’s walking towards Thomas - stalking towards him, hips moving with each step and if he had a tail he’d be lashing it behind him - and Thomas backs away on instinct. His back hits the wall. His magic hovers awkwardly, one step from melting through the wall to let him keep moving away, but then Newt is there, bracketing Thomas with his arms and his thigh one long line of heat against Thomas and Thomas just stares, his mouth is hanging open, holy crap he thinks he’s forgotten how his knees work if Newt wasn’t holding him up he’d be a puddle on the floor and just. Just.\n\nThe bond is carefully, achingly, silent.\n\n“Your punishment,” Newt says, his lips brushing Thomas’ ear. “Shall I retract it, Alpha mine?”\n\nThe bond is silent and Newt’s head is bowed, blond hair falling over his face and hiding his eyes. Thomas swallows, something bitter rising in his throat. He raises his hands to push against the other boy’s chest, but Newt takes the opportunity to dip his head. He licks one long, wet stripe up Thomas’ neck and Thomas’ knees follow up on their threat to give out beneath him.\n\n“Newt,” he gasps out, fingers clutching against his shoulders. The rough wall digs into his back and Newt’s hip is bony against his own and between them, they’re all that keeps him upright. Newt presses a grin against his throat and an ugly satisfaction bleeds down the link between them.\n\n“Is that a yes, Alpha?”\n\nThomas grits his teeth. “No,” he manages. Newt hesitates against him. “No,” Thomas repeats, stronger. He forces his legs to cooperate and slides out sideways from underneath Newt, turning until they’re facing each other. Newt turns with him, leaning one shoulder against the wall and crossing his ankles in a facsimile of calm.\n\n“No,” he says, too flat to be a question.\n\nThomas crosses his arms defensively and hunches in. He wants to reach for the bond again, hell, he wants to reach for Chuck just for the security that his pack would give him, but he doesn’t. Keeps all limbs and thoughts and magic carefully inside his own space. “I said I’d serve whatever punishment you decided, so I will. I’m not going to change my mind.”\n\n“Even though you’re an alpha?”\n\nHis lips pull down into a sour frown. “I’m not -” he starts, but Newt cuts across him.\n\n“You are.” Newt runs a clawed hand through his hair, gripping and tugging on the blond strands. He shifts restlessly, his gaze jerking away from Thomas and back as though he can’t decide where to look. “You’re an alpha, you’ve made yourself my alpha. Alphas don’t follow orders from betas.”\n\n“Alby left you in charge,” Thomas protests. He feels sick, and he doesn’t want to understand why. “You know the glade - the Gladers - better than I do, it’d be stupid for me to take charge.”\n\n“Alphas always take charge,” Newt scoffs. Thomas shrinks in on himself further. How are they having this argument? How did they go from - from - to this? “Alphas take anything they want, it’s not like they need to ask.”\n\nHe feels like he’s been plunged into ice. His voice comes as though from far away and sounds odd in his ears. “Anything. Like. Like you.”\n\nNewt snorts, sharp and hurtful. “It’s not like you hid it,” and the words cut into Thomas like talons. “You didn’t give me a choice before, why should I expect one with this?”\n\nOh. Oh god. Because, because Thomas had been running and had been scared and Ben had been too close behind him, and he’d reached for Newt in a panic and the bond had flared to life. Because Thomas had wanted it to. Because he’d needed something that Newt had, needed Newt as his pack.\n\nHe has a feeling that he’d come across an alpha before that had made a pack without asking.\n\nHe has a feeling that he’d set the fucker on fire for doing it.\n\n“I’m sorry,” he croaks out. “I didn’t -” he doesn’t finish that sentence. It would probably be a lie anyway. He feels for the bond inside his head, feels how deeply it’s rooted itself, and grimaces. He can break it. He thinks. It will - it won’t be pleasant, but if he breaks it his end, then he should be able to stop any of the backlash reaching Newt.\n\nShit, this is going to hurt.\n\nHe takes a breath and screws his eyes shut, his magic coiling around and dampening the bond in preparation -\n\nNewt slams his hand away, grip hard enough to grind his wrist bones together as he pins it to the wall. “What the fuck are you doing?” the coyote snarls, eyes glowing an electric blue.\n\n“Fixing it,” Thomas spits back. Newt snarls again, pressing closer, claws digging into Thomas’ shoulder. The bond flares between them, a maelstrom of anger and shock and why why why why and something that might almost be hope. “You don’t want it,” Thomas says, but it comes out almost like a question. “So…” he licks his lips, searching for the words, and Newt’s gaze hones in like a homing beacon. Thomas’ throat goes dry. “So no pack?”\n\n“Yes pack,” Newt growls, and his eyebrows add, you bloody idiot, but there’s something almost fond in their cultured british accent.\n\n“Oh,” Thomas manages, and Newt kisses him.\n\nGuh."}
+{"text": " \n\nThe door cracks.\n\nA strip of light floods in, almost reaching his feet from where he wedged himself into the little corner between the wall and the chest. It is the closest he can get to how things used to be in the cell, and it is pretty much all he can do to hold himself together as much as he can.\n\nIt’s probably Phil bringing him some soup. He still doesn’t quite get why they’re so adamant on him having soup all the time. It’s not that he didn’t enjoy it, he just doesn’t get why it is so important for them. They weren’t as insistent on him doing any of the other things they used to do. At least it was just soup, none of the other things they had tried. Bread wasn’t too bad, just tiring to chew, but he wasn’t fond of any other things they had tried. Certainly not the golden things they had wanted him to try once. Their consistence was weird, and they left a metallic feel in his mouth. Somehow, it had deeply unsettled him, and he had refused them the next time.\n\nHe doesn’t want soup right now, or at all for a while. He just wants to sit in his corner and either slip into the void or make sense of what is going on and what he is supposed to do. Everything was confusing, and he knew nothing aside from everything feeling wrong and fake.\n\nHe doesn’t even know if he could trust Techno and Phil anymore. Yes, they had been friendly to him and helped his body move again. They had taken him from the little cell and brought him to this big and beautiful place with so many things to explore and learn. He knows he had felt such a profound sense of relief when he had first seen them in his cell, even if he doesn’t remember any other part of the ordeal. The sense of relief stayed, even when his guide had taken over and led him to float in the void soon after they had appeared and taken him away. It had been too strong of an impression to forget even through the whirlwind of things that had happened afterwards.\n\nBut he doesn’t know what to make of the relief now. He doesn’t know what caused it. It couldn’t have been just seeing them. Because seeing Tommy or Wilbur hadn’t caused any of that relief, much more the opposite. Not even Ranboo had caused any reaction aside from mild curiosity, although he had never even gotten close to him. It couldn’t have been familiarity or anything, because it was clear that Techno and Phil were family to Tommy and Wilbur. And Tommy very clearly hated Dream, and judging by the feeling both he and Wilbur caused in him, Dream was sure that they had shown him that very clearly before. He didn’t understand most of the fight between the four, he had been too busy trying to wrangle the chaos in his mind into either calming down, or plunging him into the void. Neither of the two scenarios had happened, but from the little he had understood through his breakdown it at least seemed like Techno and Phil had not agreed with Tommy.\n\nThat should have been reassuring probably; if it had not caused them to bring up the memories that he had given away. And even though Tommy and Wilbur had both left, it was only a question of time until they would return and there was no guarantee that Phil and Techno would always be on his side. It was clear they still cared for Tommy, that he was family in a way that he, that Dream, was not.\n\nHe didn’t know why he was here at all. There was no trace that he had any kind of relationship to them outside of the weird but positive Deja-vu he had when seeing Techno for the first time after waking up here. He did not have any prior feelings regarding them outside of that and he hadn’t worried about that until Tommy showed up. Now he was doubting everything and feeling misplaced and wrong.\n\nThe worst part was the helplessness. He had no idea what to do if Phil and Techno decided he wasn’t worth it anymore. If they wanted him to leave. How would he even get back to the cell? He had no idea where it was. Maybe they would bring him there themselves? Somehow, he doubted that. Techno wasn’t fond of the cell, mildly spoken. But that didn’t change that it was the only place Dream had left. Where else would he go? He didn’t know anything or anywhere.\n\nThe hem of Phil’s green robe comes into view. Ah. He zoned out again. Not that it was important to him, but both Phil and Techno didn’t like it when he was distracted and unresponsive. He tried to avoid it around them, since their dislike for it set off a quite unsettling feeling in his gut. However, sometimes he couldn’t help it. Another pair of footsteps follows, and Dream realizes that it must mean that Techno has returned from whatever trip he went on.\n\nBut then another pair of feet steps into the room and Dream freezes in his tracks. It could not be Tommy, right? It hadn’t been that long since he’d been here. What if he had never left? What if he got angry again? What if he had convinced Phil and Techno of his opinion and they came to get rid of him?\n\nHis vision swims as his heart rate picks up. His breath is getting thinner and he could swear that the floor is tipping over, when the person belonging to the unfamiliar pair of shoes is squatting down. His breathing stocks as his gaze zeroes in on the new person. The blonde hair is the first thing he notices, fear crawling up his throat before his view dips and the face comes into view.\n\nBlue eyes and blond hair just like Tommy, but it’s missing the curls and the overwhelming anger reflected in the eyes. No, this isn’t Tommy, this isn’t anyone that has visited before, and yet Dream can say with unwavering clarity that he has met this person before. Has met him before. And unlike with Tommy and Wilbur, where he had felt choked up in fear and terror at their sight, this one feels different. Not even the relief at their first meeting, not the Deja-Vu with Techno can compare to the feeling that floods him.\n\nIt is like sunlight on his skin, it’s the security of a warm blanket and a bowl of his favourite soup, it’s like holding Patches and feeling her lick his face in gentle kisses. It’s an overwhelming sense of trust, of familiarity, of safety, and it’s not just a feeling, it’s a conviction. Even his inner guide rises up, reaching towards the stranger that isn’t all that strange, preening with joy at the sight.\n\nThe new persons face is tinted in worry and nervousness, but all of that is overshadowed by the genuine relief and joy in his eyes.\n\n“Hey Dream.” He says, and his voice is gentle and apologetic and joyful all at once and Dream can’t help it. His eyes start leaking, and he sobs, overwhelmed with the situation. His body still feels like lead and he is so exhausted that he barely made the way to this corner, but all of that doesn’t matter when he throws himself towards him. He has no strength to catch himself but Dream doesn’t have to, because he does it automatically.\n\nHis face buries into white, soft fabric as two strong arms wind around his torso and hold him so tightly he can almost forget how lost and broken apart he felt. His face sinks into Dreams hair and one hand comes up to hold his head as he whispers apology after apology into the wispy whitened hair.\n\nAnd Dream lets himself be held, because even with all the doubts that plagued him, everything within him unwaveringly knows that this person is as safe as the sun is warm.\n\nHe lets himself be held, and he lets himself cry.\n\n \n\n \n\n***\n\n \n\n \n\nTechno had been worried about how the interaction would go. Dream had already been doing badly after seeing Tommy and Wilbur, and he really did not want it to get worse.\n\nThe only reason he went ahead with it was the fact that Punz seemed legitimately to be the only actual friend that Dream had left. Because as much respect for their skill as they had, and even with the 3 months in the prison, he and Dream were not quite “friends”. Friendly rivals seemed the most fitting label for their relationship.\n\nSeeing the way Dream had begun to freak out at first made him think it hadn’t been a good idea. The nerves had amplified and he was prepared to stop everything. What he had not been prepared for though had been the way Dream had pretty much launched himself at Punz and then proceed to bawl his eyes out. It was the most noise they have heard him make ever while he was awake.\n\nDream quite literally melted into the embrace, face buried in Punz hoodie as he held him and experienced his own little breakdown. It was clear that Dream was more than fine with Punz being here, which convinced Techno that it was safe to give them a little privacy.\n\nHe and Phil went to the kitchen, where he filled him in on everything that Punz had told him, while Phil gave a short recollection of the day. Dream still had not been doing well, but with his reaction to Punz, they started to feel a little more confident.\n\nWhen they checked in on them a good hour later, both of them had fallen asleep huddled up in the little corner, clutching at each other like a lifeline. They left the room quietly, leaving them to their well-deserved rest. It was precious, made Techno both hopeful for Dreams future, and a little wary of the past.\n\nWhile he and Phil had undoubtedly tried their best in helping Dream, there still had been mistakes that might have been avoidable. They tried hard to avoid some things in case they might set off a bad reaction, but in hindsight, Techno felt like there might have been a few things that they should have tried to do.\n\nLooking at the way Dream had clutched at Punz made him realize that they had never really… hugged him. To be fair, Techno was not really a touchy person, and neither was Phil, and they were dealing with a traumatized torture and isolation victim. The closest they got to “cuddling” were probably the few times they had sat on the leather couch together, Dream in their middle as Phil fixed his hair. Aside from that, there was not a lot of touch between them, outside of medical care or the physical therapy they had helped Dream with. It makes him feel a little foolish when he remembers how boneless Dream got when Phil took his time to wash and braid his hair, and how he had enjoyed therapy once they got past the part of hurting.\n\nWas it something that he needed? That he had craved and they hadn’t realized to give it to him? On the other hand, was it just because of Punz? It worried Techno, but even trying to remember back to the DSMP days didn’t help him. Because yes, he remembers Dream hanging off his friends and vice versa back then, but he also remembers that Dream had not been that touchy with him.\n\nHe did not like feeling so out of his depth. It felt like he was in the middle of battle and somehow overlooked a key step in his opponents attack pattern. It was uncomfortable, made him feel doubtful of his own perception. But at the same time he felt hesitant to ask Punz for clarification, worried to have missed something obvious.\n\nLuckily, for him, he did not have to ask.\n\n \n\n*\n\n \n\nWhen Punz emerges from the room a few hours later, with messy hair and sleep still clinging to his features, his whole energy had shifted. Where he had arrived tense and worried, there is now a lightness and ease to his step. Sleeping on the floor, wedged into a small corner could not have been comfortable and yet he looks rested and refreshed.\n\n“Hey mate!” Phil calls quietly from where he is sitting at the dinner table, a cup of tea steaming in front of him. “Sleep well?” he teases good-naturedly, and Punz smiles easily in return.\n\n“Best sleep I’ve had in 13 years. He’s always been touchy, but I didn’t realize how much I missed it.” He plops down into the chair across from Phil, leaning heavily into the backrest. He is about to ask where Techno went, when the latter sets a cup down in front of him as well with a muffled “Here.” It is tea, hot and aromatic, and now that he concentrates on it, he notices how his stomach grumbles in hopes for food. He prepares to reach into his inventory to pull out a golden apple, but Phil is faster.\n\n“We have some rabbit stew and fresh bread if you’d like?” he offers, and gestures to the kitchen, where a basket of bread sits next to the stove with a simmering pot. Of course he doesn’t say no, a warm meal infinitely more inviting than his travel food.\n\nQuickly, a wooden bowl filled to the brim with savoury, thick stew is served. The bread is perfectly soft on the inside with a nice crunch to the crust. The first spoonful is like heaven, and finally, a knot starts to unravel in Punz’s chest. He found Dream, Dream is okay as he can be within his circumstances, and he has a warm meal to enjoy with people he can safely label as allies.\n\nFor the first time in years, he genuinely feels like things will be okay.\n\n \n\n*\n\n \n\n“How is Dream?” Phil asks once Punz has is on the last spoonful’s of the bowl. Punz chews carefully, before swallowing to reply. “Good, I think.” He picks up the cup of tea to wash the bite down. “I put him into the bed before leaving. He seemed exhausted.”\n\n“I can imagine.” Phil hums thoughtfully. “All that crying must have tired him out after these last few days.”\n\n“Right.” Punz agrees, and sets his spoon down. “Now that I’ve seen him and we have a little time, I’d like to hear more about how he’s been doing.” He looks down at the cup of tea. “I really want to avoid doing anything that could set him on edge or hurt him.” He stops for a moment, before continuing, “I think he’s been hurt enough.”\n\n \n\n \n\n***\n\n \n\n \n\nWhen Dream wakes up, it is to a soft bed and warm covers. For a moment, he just floats in the comfortable haze, blissfully unaware of everything that hurts him. Slowly, the events of the past days trickle into his mind, but the apathy is staying out for a bit longer than before. He doesn’t question waking up in the bed, even though he had spent the majority of his time on the floor in the corner. Probably either Phil or Techno had picked him up and put him to bed.\n\nHe feels well rested and his mind is clear, despite the heaviness to his limbs. Opening his eyes is not as hard as it had been, and the room is awash in gentle light. The darkness must have passed only recently. There is a peculiar scent in the air, herbal and fragrant. He moves his head to the side, wondering whether Phil or Techno showed up with another soup to insist he eat, when he stops in his motion.\n\nNext to his bed sits a person in the chair usually reserved for when Techno or Phil decided to spend some time with him in the room. He has light blond hair, and wears a bright white hoodie, holding a steaming cup in his hands. Almost immediately, he remembers what happened before he had woken up in the bed.\n\nTechno and Phil had brought the stranger with them, but the stranger wasn’t a stranger, in the same way Techno hadn’t been a stranger when he first saw him. Just like before, his inner guide preens at the sight, like Patches would in the warm sunlight after he shared his soup with her. He doesn’t remember the person, but he knows him. There is no doubt there.\n\nBut this time it was so unlike the light feeling of relief and familiarity he had with Techno. It was so much more intense, just like the fear he had felt with Tommy.  Even now, the feeling was just as intense as it had been the first time. It felt right and comfortable, to see him sitting there, next to his bed on a chair. It made sense, it was familiar and safe. \n\nThe sheer, overwhelming relief at that made his eyes water. He wants to reach out to him, to submerge himself in the relief that comes with his presence. Like he read his mind, the person sits up, and puts the cup down before he gently extends his arm to him, the hand open and inviting. It is not far by any means, but his arm still aches as he reaches to take it. His hand ends up flopped just on top, the bandages almost as pristine as the sleeves of his hoodie. The hand is warm from the cup, even through the layers of the bandage. He holds Dreams hands carefully; and this too, feels comfortable and safe.\n\n“Hi.” His voice is calm, with only the faintest waver, and Dream remembers how he had cried with him and he feels so, so safe. “My name is Punz. We are friends. I looked for you for a long time. I’m very glad I finally found you. I missed you.”\n\nHe speaks slowly, words picked carefully and pronounced clearly. Dream understands every word.\n\nHe doesn’t do anything to stop the tears from falling.\n\n \n\n \n\n***\n\n \n\n \n\n“…And you think summoning XD will help figure out what happened to Dreams memory?” Punz asks, while his eyes wander over the pages of the book that Techno had shown him. Blood splatters over the pages and in rough lines a few words are spelled. His eyes linger on the ‘Mercy’, and his stomach knots in anger and worry.\n\n“Well, summon is quite optimistic, considering I don’t have the revival book. But the god is somehow connected to it. At the very least, they might be able to answer a few questions, give us a new lead.” Techno explains. “Dream wouldn’t have mentioned the name if it wasn’t important. And since it is kind of impossible to bring the topic up without him freaking out, we’re kind of left with XD.”\n\n“Do we know why he was scared?” Punz questions, looking at Techno and Phil, but both are answerless. “All we have are guesses.” Techno says, while Phil shrugs helplessly. “It might be because of Tommy’s presence, or it was just amplified through the trauma that was triggered with the fighting and everything.”\n\n“It’s difficult.” Techno says, getting up from his chair to pace the room. “According to the messages he had sent while in the prison, he had started to forget only a year or so from the disaster. And while at first he seemed to try and fight against it, he just gave up at one point. That’s all we have in regards to the cause of his amnesia.”\n\n“Which-” he stops pacing, “-would mean that the amnesia was caused through the circumstance, and not a disorder or dysfunction of the brain. Which means that we should be able to reverse it. However…“ he starts moving again “that doesn’t explain why he seems so afraid of the topic.”\n\n“Maybe it’s subconscious?” Phil theorizes. “Maybe his brain tries to supress the memories because of the trauma. But wouldn’t it be better to confront it then, to avoid further breakdowns?”\n\n“Hmm…” Punz hums, as he leans back in his chair. “What if he is scared of remembering itself? According to what you told me he seemed fine until Tommy showed up and got very upset. What if he is scared that remembering will cause something bad to happen to him?”\n\nHe looks at the book, at the MERCY and the NO MEMORY, tries to visualize what Techno had told them of that scene. “He had freaked out when you asked him if he remembered, right after you had defended him from Tommy, partially on the grounds that he doesn’t even remember.”\n\n“What if…” he stops for a moment to gather his thoughts, before he looks up at them. “What if he is afraid that he’ll be left behind if he remembers? That you’re going to leave him to Tommy, someone who obviously hates him?”\n\n“He was already battling abandonment issues before he got imprisoned. Where do you think all the “attachments are bad” stuff came from?” He elaborates at their silence, with a bitter, yet fond smile. “Dream is smart, but he is also a fucking idiot with a boatload of issues. I don’t think that prison and amnesia have magically cured him of either of these things.”\n\n“Besides….” He trails off, eyes wandering once again to the book. MERCY MERCY MERCY “That fear wouldn’t even be unreasonable. It wouldn’t be the first time someone he cared about left him because of Tommy.”\n\n \n\n \n\n***\n\n \n\n \n\nIt’s warm outside. For the first time, Dream feels like he might be able to sit in the grass without the warm cape Phil had given him. He still wears it, just in case. More than just providing him warmth, it makes him feel safe. Wrapping himself up in the fabric helps to shut out the world around him.\n\nHe had been nervous sitting in the grass in front of the house. Even the slightest noise had him swivelling his head around in fear of Tommy returning. At least, until Punz had sat a little basket down in the grass before flopping down next to him. Soon after, Patches had slunk out of the treeline and made her way over to them. She climbed into Dreams lap quickly, and lapped at his face and hands with such ferocity that it startled a little laugh out of him. It seemed she had missed him enough to be twice as attentive as usual.\n\nShe even let Dream introduce her to Punz, sniffing at his offered hand and tolerating a few pats without much fuss. After sharing a bit of steak with her, Punz quickly rose in her regard though. The cat was content to roll through the grass between them and play with their hands.\n\nSlowly, but surely, Dream forgot about his worry and relaxed. Whenever he pointed at something, Punz would name it and explain what it was, always in that calm and simple way. It was so easy to understand him, without the gruff drawl of Techno’s voice and his long, winding sentences full of complicated words, and the lilt and peculiar pronunciation of Phil’s.\n\nPunz had been very kind to him ever since that first meeting. He seemed to always be there, just a step behind him if not right by his side. He never pushed or asked for anything, instead content to just follow Dream’s lead. And throughout it all, through every interaction, that very same sense of familiarity stayed. Everything Punz did felt right, it made sense.\n\nIt helped immensely to keep the insecurity and fear at bay that had taken hold of Dream after Tommy had shown up. He didn’t feel wrong in Punz’s company, didn’t feel like a place holder or as if he wasn’t supposed to be there. It felt right, comfortable even.\n\nMaybe it was also that the one time he had asked him about Tommy, Punz had scoffed and told him that he didn’t care about Tommy at all. That was another thing with Punz. He had given him the little screen that used to sit on his wrist back in the prison, and showed him how to use it.\n\nTo Dreams surprise, although it involved writing in a way, his guide hadn’t balked at it at all. It had stayed completely calm and uninterested, and finally Dream had a way to communicate easier. Signing had been a little harder with now both of his hands damaged, so he gladly welcomed another alternative. Especially since he only needed his thumbs for it. He didn’t even need to show it to Punz, since he could just send it to his own device.\n\nDream found himself being a lot more communicative after that. It was so much easier to ask questions now, no longer limited to signs that he had to memorize, and none of the pressure and worry that came with speaking or writing. He liked talking to Punz in this way. Punz also never asked for his memory, despite it being clear that he knew Dream. Instead, he just told him things, never expecting Dream to know or remember them. Of course, Dream avoided to bring up things that could lead back to his memory, but he still appreciated the possibility to hear of their friendship. It soothed his worries and reassured him of his place next to Punz. He belonged. He belonged.\n\nHe was happy.\n\nHe wanted Punz to stay forever.\n\n \n\n \n\n***\n\n \n\n \n\nBringing Punz here had been the best decision Techno had made in Dreams healing process. Dream had been pushed out of his depressive, apathetic start almost immediately after Punz’s arrival. Even when the initial excitement mellowed out, he still didn’t return to that sad, disinterested state. They had finally gotten to try communicating via his communicator, and it worked splendid. They still tried to avoid imperatives, and formulated their questions carefully, but overall it had made a big step forward while Dreams hands healed.\n\nAlthough Techno had been a little upset that he had not been able to help Dream as good as Punz somehow seemed to be able to, he was mostly happy with the progress. He also knew that it wasn’t a fair comparison. After all, Punz had been a close friend to Dream and knew him a lot better than Techno ever had. It was clear that it would be easier for him to connect to Dream. Besides, he was glad that he didn’t have to start cuddling with Dream. Putting his preferences for physical closeness aside, he would have been very worried of accidentally hurting Dream. Even after all the time with them, he was still quite frail and Techno was a huge, strong guy. He supposed he made a comfortable surface to cuddle up to, according to his experiences with Tommy and Wilbur, especially when they had been younger. But Dream had never initiated anything like that, so he can’t help but feel that it might have ended incredibly awkward.\n\nThankfully, Punz seemed more than fine with taking over that part. It was not rare to find Dream leaned against him or both of them cuddled up in Dreams little corner. More often than not, they would be holding hands, Punz always careful of Dreams hurt ones. Phil had once asked about the state of their relationship, but Punz had just laughed and easily denied any interest in anything of the sorts. ‘Dream had always been like that’ he had said, ‘usually he spread his need for affection evenly across his friend group, but after everything I was kinda the only one left over. I didn’t used to be super touchy, but it had been easy to do it for Dream, and after all those years, it was even easier to return to it.’\n\n“Not just for Dream, but also for me” he had added after a bit. “He’s my friend. I missed him a lot.”\n\nAll in all, they had made much more progress in a week than in the last months combined. Techno even felt fully comfortable to make the trip to the Dream SMP to find XD, not worried about how Dream would be doing without him there. He was fully confident in the combined efforts of Phil and Punz to take care of Dream.\n\nOr well, that had been the plan, until Punz had told him that he would be coming with him.\n\nOn that morning, Techno had done a final check of his things. It was mostly perfunctory, he had made sure he had everything he needed the night before, and it wasn’t as if he needed a lot of things. It was mostly routine, just something to give him peace of mind.\n\nHe had just clasped his cape into place, when Punz had stepped into the entryway, storing a loaf of bread in his inventory. “Coming to say goodbye?” Techno had teased slightly, but Punz shook his head.\n\n“I’m coming with you.” He replied, and Techno stopped in surprise. “What? Why? What about Dream?” he asked in bewilderment, but Punz did not waver.\n\n“I have something you’ll need.” He explained, cryptically, not explaining anything at all. “Okay, I guess?” Techno agreed, a little hesitant, but Punz had proven to be trustworthy, and the finality in his eyes was convincing enough for now. After all, Phil was still here to take care of Dream.\n\n \n\n \n\n***\n\n \n\n \n\nTommy feels ridiculous. Although sneaking in through the backdoor shouldn’t, and truly wasn’t, new to him in any way, he couldn’t help the unease that sat in his stomach. It was stupid, ridiculously stupid. He had done so many dumb things in his life where he could have used even a spoonful of apprehension, but this was the moment his conscience decided to speak up?\n\nHe couldn’t even quite pin down where the feeling came from, but that was nothing new. Ever since his talk with XD, the PRIME GOD, just as a reminder, he has been in a constant state of confusion. It felt like the god had taken everything he knew and tipped it over with their absurdly large and spooky unattached hands.\n\nIt’s been days since the talk, and he still hadn’t been able to settle his thoughts. He had crashed at Tubbos for most of that time, hoping that his and Ranboos mushy relationship balance would maybe somehow inspire some enlightening in him. But even with all their silent eye-to-eye conversations and their harmony and their healthy, mature life in marital bliss he hadn’t felt a solution approach. He spent most of his time playing with Michael instead, feeling a little more at ease drawing crayon scribbles on paper instead of confronting his inner turmoil.\n\nBut that only worked for so long before Tubbo kicked him out for “moping” and told him to fix his shit. As appalling as it was, Tommy agreed. He wanted this to be over with, and the only person he could think of who might provide him with some clarity… was Phil. If he was being honest, he probably should also visit his Therapist again, but he still felt reluctant to return to a battle he thought he had already conquered.\n\nSo Phil it was. He had been thinking of a place to meet up, when he had almost run into Techno near the spawn of the DSMP. Now, a less intelligent man might have confused Tommy’s wild dash up the tree with “panic”, but it was just a tactical retreat on his part. Even though there wasn’t really a reason for it, he felt hesitant to interact with Techno right now, which only solidified his resolve. He needed to talk to Phil and figure this entire thing out.\n\nWhich presented him with a new issue he previously had not put into consideration: XDs request.\n\n“Do not search for him, do not hunt him down.” Fucking easy to say for a god that had not considered that Tommy already knows very clearly, where Dream resided and that that place was the house of TOMMY’S FAMILY. What did the god expect, for Tommy to stay away from his family infinitely just because they decided to play nurse for his arch nemesis?\n\nOkay, he had not visited them in a year, but that had been due to circumstances out of the ordinary. It is not as if he usually stayed away for weeks-, or well, months at a time. And it’s not like he is going out of his way to find Dream, it just happens that he really needs to talk to Phil. In person preferably.\n\nHe would have asked him to meet up outside of the server, but since apparently Techno was on the Dream SMP of all places, Tommy bet that Phil was busy babysitting Dream. And Tommy really didn’t feel like waiting until Techno came back just so he could talk to Phil. He needed Phil’s help now, not in a week. (He is exaggerating, there is no way Techno would stay away from his weird, guilt motivated babysitting job for a whole week. Tommy knows him too well for that.) Still.\n\nTommy does not listen to anyone, not even god.\n\nHe does send a message to Phil announcing his arrival though. He is not a complete idiot.\n\nAlthough he cannot help but feel like one, crouched in the bushes behind Phil’s house as he rifles through his inventory for something to use as a lock pick. Just because he didn’t want to take the front door, in case he runs into Dream again.\n\n \n\n \n\n***\n\n \n\n \n\n“Wow!” Punz exclaims, marvelling at the architecture of the Syndicates hideout. Techno can’t help but feel pride at the compliment, still happy with the results of their hard work. Their meeting room and the surrounding area had taken months of secret construction, but it had been worth it.\n\n“And this has been here the entire time?” Punz asks, walking along the high walls and lava curtains. “Nobody even knew of the existence?”\n\n“Well” Techno drawls, “We didn’t quite get to be active enough as a group to become known enough that someone would have tried to find our hideout. I had planned to ask them for help for the prison break, but it never came to that.” The mood sombers slightly, as he finishes his explanation, and Punz returns back to his side.\n\n“Anyways!” Techno exclaims, and approaches the large table in the middle of the room. “It’s a goddamn shame” he says a little sadly, as his hands smooth over the surface of it. “All the trouble we went through for this.”\n\nHe takes a step back.\n\n“But alas, this is the only way to get in contact with XD without the revival book.”\n\nAnd with these words, he pulls out his axe in one smooth movement. He builds momentum, and in one powerful swing, the metal embeds in the wooden centre of the table. Or it would have, had Punz not surprised him for the second time that day.\n\n“This is how you treat the table you begged me for?” a familiar voice calls, and a floating hand catches the axes blade before it makes impact. It dissolves immediately, and Techno whirls around, to find the god behind him, large form dissipating as it morphs into a smaller, more accommodating form. Punz stands close to a lava curtain, an ender chest at his feet, and seemingly not the least bit surprised by the progression of events.\n\n“How?” Technoblade asks, but the god interjects before Punz can answer.\n\n\n“It seems Dream wasn’t the only one with the revival book.”\n\n\n \n\n \n\n***\n\n \n\n \n\nThings had been going well. Dream had made a great recovery considering the state he had been in after the fight with Tommy. Phil was truly grateful for Punz’s presence and help. He couldn’t imagine that they would have been able to help Dream as quickly and efficiently without him here.\n\nDream had flourished under Punz’s care. He almost seemed reborn, brighter than before. He was more active and seemed more aware as well, and with the use of his communicator, he was more communicative than ever. He hadn’t been ecstatic when Punz had to leave with Techno, but he had taken it in stride, even if he has been sulking by the window ever since then. Phil had never expected to be so delighted about someone moping, but it was such a refreshing change to his apathetic state that he found himself not caring at all.\n\nIt also showed a nice step forward in regards to the scars that the prison trauma had left behind. They’ve been making progress. It was such a change in such short time, it felt like the fight with Tommy had never happened.\n\nIt was almost too good to be true.\n\nOf course, this was when things had to go wrong. Again.\n\n \n\n \n\n***\n\n \n\n \n\nPunz had left him, but only for a bit. He had promised to be back soon, and he had explained that he could use his communicator to speak to him even when he wasn’t there. Dream trusted Punz, so he wasn’t too upset about staying alone for a while. He had stayed alone for much longer before, and yet it felt different this time.\n\nIt wasn’t as if he was struggling on his own, or as if he was completely alone, since Phil was still here. And yet he couldn’t help but look forward to Punz’s return. The outside didn’t look quite as inviting as it did when he was alone. Despite the sun shining warmly through the window he sat in front on, he couldn’t will himself to leave the safety of the house.\n\nHe didn’t go outside on his own anymore. He could never help the worry that ate away at him and kept him on look out. Approaching steps set him alert, and he needed to be in view of  the path ways at all times. He just didn’t feel safe anymore. With Punz there, he didn’t have to worry about any other unexpected guests. He could trust him to keep him safe without a doubt.\n\nBut Punz wasn’t here, so he stayed inside. By the window.\n\nPhil was making soup, and Dream was actually looking forward to it. Recently, Punz had explained to him what “hunger” was, and why they always ate things. He had been completely flabbergasted at the knowledge. Who could have expected such a thing? It had taken a bit for him to draw the parallels, but now he understood why that one specific darkness had never come back after the prison. Turns out that the pain could be kept away just by eating soup! The darkness never had to come save him if the soup was protecting him already.\n\nEver since then, he didn’t protest the soup they brought him. He still wasn’t fond of the other foods they’d have him try. Most were too hard to eat, all the chewing was bothersome. He kept biting on his cheek and even his tongue. He didn’t like it, even if some of them smelled very nice. He preferred the soups, even if they had bits to chew in them. Usually they were soft enough to eat easily anyway.\n\nOnce, they had offered him something called “steak” but the smell alone had him gag. For some reason, the distinct scent of the charred meat sent chills down his spine. They hadn’t offered it again, and he was glad for it.\n\nA familiar, delicious smell wafted towards him. Phil was stirring the pot carefully, while he read something on his communicator. His face was drawn tight, and he let go of the spoon to hurriedly tap away at the screen. Whatever was going on seemed to seemed to worry him, but no ping arrived on Dreams own communicator, so he decided not to worry about it too much. Punz had promised he would be fine, so he tried to worry a little less.\n\nHe wondered what soup Phil was making today, when a sudden sound from the back door distracted him. He perked up in excitement, was it Techno and Punz already? They had promised to be back soon, but he hadn’t realized it was this quick! Sure, it had felt like forever, but now it doesn’t seem so bad anymore.\n\nOut of the corner of his eyes, he sees Phil stop and drop the spoon and hurry to the door with a curse. It’s a little silly, he thinks. Techno doesn’t need Phil to open the door, he has his own keys. Dream idly wonders for one moment, why they would use the backdoor instead of the front one. He would have waited over there had he known, and wouldn’t have to struggle getting there in his excitement.\n\nThe wonder doesn’t last however.\n\nBecause even with Phil and his large wings in the way, it is impossible to hide who steps through the backdoor when it swings open.\n\nBlonde, messy curls appear over Phil’s shoulder as the person steps inside, despite Phil’s protests. The boisterous, but subdued greeting is cut short as Tommy’s gaze wanders into the room and meets Dreams eyes.\n\nFor one moment the world stands still.\n\nAnd then…\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n\nIt crashes.\n\n\n \n\n \n\n***\n\n \n\n \n\nThis time, there is no slow adjustment, no underlying unease that gradually grows. No, this time, the panic slams into him in full force, sending him to the floor in a frenzied tumble.\n\nTommy is back. Tommy is back. Tommy is back. He is here, in the house, and he is alone. Punz isn’t here, he realizes with a start. Punz isn’t here, but Tommy is. His throat tightens. Phil turned around at the commotion, leaving Tommy in full view. He’s tall, taller than Phil, but from Dream’s position both of their figures loom over him like a monument of danger.\n\nFor a moment, it feels like their shadows are threatening to engulf him, whispering a dark promise of all his fears into his ears. It’s not their shadows however, but black spots that are flimmering in his view, and he can’t seem to focus, everything swims and swims and he can’t, he-\n\nHe can’t breathe. Distantly, he notices someone coming towards him, but he is incapable of reacting as his chest tightens more and more with every moment. He can’t breathe. His throat is closed and his chest hurts, he needs to breathe but everything hurts and he can’t do anything. He tries to move away from the person approaching him, but he can’t get up by himself and nothing is in reach.\n\nThe black gets worse, and then there is a hand on him and he recoils with lightning speed and slams into something. It hurts, but the impact shocks him enough to draw in a startled breath and suddenly, there is air inside him again. He gasps for more, his head swimming and every breath hurting but he breathes, he breathes, he is alive.\n\nNow more aware, he realizes the person crouched in front of him is Phil. One of his hands still hovers, slightly outstretched from where he had tried to touch Dream. Tommy still stands behind the door, a slightly uncomfortable, yet thoughtful expression on his face. He hasn’t moved further into the room, which Dream appreciated, but he was more concerned that he was here, more importantly, still here.\n\nWhy?\n\nWhat did he want? Did he decide to finish the job?\n\nPhil moves into his field of view, and finally Dream remembers to focus on what he says.\n\n“-mmy I think you need to leave.” His voice is apologetic, but firm. It surprises Dream, but it eases the knot in his chest. The tiniest, lightest flame of hope starts flickering within him. Maybe there is a space for him here, maybe he had been wrong, maybe it was safe to trust Phil and Techno.\n\n“What? NO!” Tommy protests from where he had stayed, and he takes a step further into the room. Dream flinches back like he had been struck. “Listen, Phil, I’m not here for Dream, well, it is kinda about him but I want to talk to you, not him. I need to talk to you. You were the ones that told me to move on and find closure but it wasn’t that easy and everything is all a mess. I need your help, Phil to make things make sense again.” His voice has turned pleading, and Dream looks back to Phil.\n\n“Not like this.” He refuses, and the hope in Dream grows, flickering warmly in his chest.\n\n“Please, Phil.” Tommy pleads insistently. “I wouldn’t have come if it wasn’t important. Prime, God itself told me to stay away but I really need your help, Phil. I talked to God, I talked to XD, Phil. Fuck”\n\nDream freezes up at the mention of XD. Cold fear drags up his throat and he looks at Phil in a dizzying mixture of apprehension, of fear and hope and despair. He doesn’t dare to expect, but he wishes fervently for him to refuse again, hopes for it, but Phil hesitates. He thinks for a long moment, mulling over the things said. Then, he resignates, crumbling like a piece of bread in soup.\n\n“Fine. I’m taking Dream to the room first. I don’t want a repeat of last time.” He sighs wearily, and the floor vanishes under Dream as he falls. Phil gets up, and gestures to the table, to the chair that bears Tommy’s signature. “Take a seat, I will be right back.”\n\nAnd the flicker of hope is snuffed out.\n\nHe doesn’t have the presence of mind to move his body, much less protest, when Phil picks him up and carries him away. He doesn’t hear a single word that Phil speaks to him, everything drowned out by the chaos in his head.\n\nTommy is here. Phil didn’t send him away. Tommy scares him, Tommy hates him, but he is still here. Is allowed here. Is welcomed here. Is in Tommy’s chair. Not Dreams chair. Tommy’s chair. There is no chair that is Dreams. There is nothing that is his. This isn’t his home. He doesn’t belong. The pictures of Tommy on the wall. The traces he left all over the house, even when he isn’t here. There are no traces of Dream, because Dream doesn’t own anything.\n\nHe doesn’t even realize that he has been sat on the bed until the door clicks shut behind Phil, and Dreams head snaps up. Takes in the room he is in, has been in for a long time now. There isn’t much. There is the bed he sleeps in, there is a small table next to it and a chair, a chest at the end of the room. A window. On the chest sits a small basket with fabric scraps and bandages. On the table, a few of Techno’s books. A mug left behind by someone. Nothing alludes to the fact that Dream specifically has been staying here. The only signs of his presence are the cape and old hat that hangs on a hook by the window, and even those could easily belong to someone else. They do, in fact. Phil had made them from his own things.\n\nDespite Dream being the one that slept and stayed in this room, there were more things that pointed at Techno and Phil than at him.\n\nHe didn’t belong. He was wrong here. He shouldn’t have hoped for something that wasn’t his, something he would never be granted.\n\nSomewhere, deep within him, the realisation slowly, painfully slots into place. As if it was a truth he had known long before, he concedes his not-his-place to the rightful owner.\n\nHe slips off the bed and makes his way to the window. An eerie, serene silence has settled within him as he carefully takes step after step towards the window. It opens easily for him, despite the tremble in his bad hand. He drags the chair towards it and uses it to climb onto it. Although the motions are janky and clumsy, he instinctively knows where to reach and what to grab.\n\nThe fall is short, the impact shorter. Pain twinges up his right ankle, but it ebbs away soon enough. He doesn’t turn around as he heads for the forest. Although he knows he is making the right decision, he knows looking back won’t make it easier.  As he approaches the edge of the forest, Patches slips through the treeline and excitedly makes her way towards him.\n\nShe winds through his legs only for a moment, noticing the slight sway in his steps. As if she understands, she walks back to the trees, before stopping and looking back. Dream follows.\n\n \n\n \n\n***\n\n \n\n \n\nOf course this had to happen when Techno and Punz were gone. Phil sighs. At least this time around he knows not to let Dream in the same room with Tommy, unlike they had done last time. Although that might not yield any better results. Dream is already shaken enough just by Tommy’s appearance, well on his way into another meltdown. Phil just hopes that Punz can pull Dream out of it like last time.\n\nDream doesn’t resist or struggle when he picks him up to bring him to his room. Phil isn’t sure if he prefers this to a full on tantrum. There is something so disheartening to settle an unresponsive and shaken Dream into his bed and then just… leave him there. Even if it is easier than having to calm him down or restrain him to stop him from hurting himself. He doesn’t like it when all the life bleeds out of Dream like that.\n\nBut he is alone right now, and there is no one to help him with this, so he swallows down the unease and deals with it. Besides, it’s only for a bit. Techno and Punz will be back soon.\n\nAnd Tommy had said something about XD. He might have valuable information. And he didn’t even react badly to Dream this time. So maybe they were making more progress than expected.\n\nHe walks back down the stairs and heads to the sitting area. Surprisingly, Tommy isn’t seated at the table though, and instead stands in the kitchen, surrounded by plumes of smoke, trying and failing to open the window.\n\nAh. Right. The soup.\n\nWith a curse, Phil dashes for the oven to pull the pot of the stove and dunks it in the metal sink. Then, he helps Tommy with the windows to clear the air of the smoke and biting smell of burnt food.\n\nLooking at the charred remains at the bottom of the pot, once the wasted soup had been poured out, Phil decides that his lunch plans are thoroughly ruined. He has no further produce or other ingredients in the house, the soup had been intended to use up the leftovers before he filled up their storage with fresh produce later that afternoon.\n\nThankfully, they have had a good breakfast not too long ago, so Dream won’t go hungry for a while longer. Although Phil isn’t sure if Dream would have even be able to eat right now anyways. So instead of sitting down at the table with Tommy to discuss his troubles, they both head out to the gardens to stock up the storage while they talk.\n\nThey talk for a long time while they work. Soon, the sun starts to go down, and they head back inside to finally prepare dinner. Storing away the new produce takes time, as does cleaning, preparing and cooking. By the time dinner is finished, night has already fallen. Phil offers Tommy to stay for dinner before leaving, and Tommy accepts gratefully.\n\nWhen Phil takes a bowl of soup up for Dream, he prepares himself to take it back down in case Dream has gone fully apathetic again. But he still hopes that maybe Dream will eat something anyways. He had been very diligent in eating his meals lately, even if he was still obviously picky in food choices.\n\nHe knocks on the door, just to announce his arrival before he steps in, eyes focused on the bowl as to not spill anything. He is in the middle of describing the soup when he has sat it down securely on the table next to the bed, when he looks up at Dream.\n\nBut the bed is empty. And even before he checks the corner to see if Dream has just hidden himself away again, an uneasy, tight feeling rises in his gut. The corner is empty. The window is open.\n\nHe doesn’t call for Dream. He doesn’t run. He doesn’t search the house. All that comes later.\n\nHe reaches for his communicator instead.\n\n \n\n \n\n***\n\n \n\n \n\nHe doesn’t know how long he has been walking. He knows he left around midday, when the sun had been high in the sky and lent warmth even through the thick roof of leaves above him. He had walked, following patches at a steady pace, fuelled by the immense need to get away. He couldn’t stay, so all that was left was to leave.\n\nAlthough his mind was in turmoil, and unease was rolling off his inner guide in waves, the persistent ache in his foot kept him in the present. With every step, a little twinge zips through his leg, keeping him focused and unable to drift off. He couldn’t afford to have a “meltdown”, so he pushed Tommy’s words far, far away, and continued on the path that Patches presented him.\n\nAs the light had started to dim and the sun prepared to disappear, Patches had led him to a little cave, carved out of a rocky cliff and with a vine covered entrance hidden from sight through bushes and trees. A rest was dire needed, so Dream didn’t even try to keep going instead. His leg was hurting in a steady pulse, but even aside from that his body was aching. His breath had been evading him for a bit now, and his skin was clam with sweat, even if the forest had cooled down considerably.\n\nExhausted, he had fallen asleep before the sun had even reached the horizon. Even though he had slept on a soft bed for so long now, it wasn’t hard in the slightest to fall asleep on the hard stone floor. The cold was much worse than the hardness of the floor, but Patches had curled up next to him and warmed him until the shivering had subsided.\n\nStill, it had been dark outside when he awoke. For a moment he didn’t realize what had disturbed his rest. Sleep was still clinging to him, and it took a bit to reorient himself and remember what had happened. The floor was hard, and he was freezing. His stomach pulled in an old familiar, but not recent sensation. His body ached. The sky grumbled in the distance.\n\nIt was Patches hissing, that pulled him to awareness.\n\nThe cat stood in between him and the opening of the cave. It was hard to see in the dark, but hidden in the green of the plants that guarded the entrance was… something. A being, almost as tall as him blended almost perfectly into the greenery around them. It seemed distracted by the cat, watching it warily.\n\nDream sat up to get a better look, unease slowly building inside him. However his movement alerted the creature, and although it was dark, Dream realized that its attention shifted to him. A soft hissing sounded, and it took him only a second to understand that it wasn’t Patches who made that sound.\n\nThe creature emitted a slight, pulsating glow as it tried to advance, but Patches hissed loudly, calling attention towards her again, and it backed off slightly again. Dream was at a loss. He didn’t know what that thing was, and yet it caused a deeply unsettling feeling within him. Much more than just a general sense of danger, he felt a deep apprehension, a fear almost of not complying, of setting it off.\n\nHis limbs felt like lead, and jittering anxiety washed at his mind. Something was familiar about this. Something that made him distinctly aware of his position, and the wrongness of it. Like lava, his limbs burned, telling him to move, to get in the correct position or else. ‘on your knees on your knees on your knees’ his guide called, and ‘head down, head down, don’t look, don’t look, don’t speak unless spoken to’.\n\nHe didn’t understand, but he also couldn’t tear his eyes away from the creature. It didn’t leave, despite Patches best efforts, and Dream didn’t know what to do. His mind told him to move and look away, but he couldn’t help but feel like staying still and keeping watch was the correct answer.\n\nHe didn’t get to ponder his decision for long.\n\n \n\n*\n\n \n\nThe time between a flash of lightning and the thunder can determine how far away the storm is. In this case, the thunder only took 4seconds. And yet, many things happened within these few moments.\n\nLightning flashes outside, and illuminates the beasts features.\n\n \n\n\nOne.\n\n\nDream flinches back in horror.\n\n \n\n\nTwo.\n\n\nThe beast lunges.\n\n \n\n\nThree.\n\n\nPatches cries out.\n\n \n\n\nFour.\n\n\nThunder strikes, and with it, an explosion.\n\n \n\n \n\n***\n\n \n\n \n\n\nPhil: Come back immediately.\n\n\n\nPhil: Dream is gone\n\n\n \n\nWhen the message had flashed on Techno’s screen, it felt like all of the lava in the room had been drained and replaced by ice instead. “Punz.” His voice had been tight, worry strangling his vocal chords as the voices has exploded into a cacophony of chaos.\n\nPunz had looked at him, and understood immediately.\n\nGracefully, XD had come to their aid and led them into a server jump without the need to head back to the spawn or the server hub. They had been able to make it back in record time, but they still missed Phil who had already headed out to search. For good reasons too, as night had already fallen, and thunderclouds rolled across the sky.\n\nThey didn’t need to meet up to make a plan. It was simple: Swarm out, find Dream before something else does.\n\nThey didn’t bother staying together, instead taking off in different directions to cover more ground. Phil had already went into the forest, but behind the house was only the mountain, where Dream couldn’t have gone, and in front endless grassland stretched out. Punz took to the Grassland, intending to use his trident once the rain fell to search more quickly, while Techno took to the vast forest as well.\n\nIt was a run against the clock, and they couldn’t afford any delaying.\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n***\n\n \n\n \n\nThe night is dark. Huge, grey clouds have pulled themselves in front of the moon, like dark velvet curtains. Even the stars seem to have vanished under the force of the storm. The only source of light comes in the form of lightning flashes as thunder rolls threateningly.\n\nDream is running. His heart is beating out of his chest and his lungs constrict but he doesn’t slow down. All around him, he can hear scattering footsteps, chattering and whispering and hissing. Eyes flash in the dark wherever he looks. In his arms, clutched to his chest, he holds patches. He can feel her little claws dig into his skin, but he pays it no mind. Her fur is singed much like his clothes, and she meows weakly, in between licks to his exposed skin.\n\nThere are tears running down his face, but it makes no difference. At some point, rain had set in, and his body is already soaked to the bone. He doesn’t mind the wetness, it washes the blood off his skin, but it makes the ground slippery and so much harder to traverse on top of his already injured leg.\n\nBut he keeps on. He cannot afford to slow down. An arrow whizzes past him and embeds itself into a tree trunk with enough force for some of the bark to splinter off. It startles him, almost more than the face of the green creature had. Impossibly, his urgency rises and he leaves the path to run through the thicket in hopes of shaking them off. He has nothing to defend himself with, but there is this quiet, insane part of his mind that believes he can outrun them. Even injured and defenceless, it whispers of his success as long as he keeps running.\n\nHe does.\n\nUntil the forest lightens, and the end of it is in sight.\n\nHe doesn’t know what comes after, but it feels like hope.\n\nHe makes it to the edge of the forest, stumbling past the treeline, and out of it into a field of grass. The ground is gently sloped, tapering off from the higher situated forest. A body of water sits at the bottom of the incline, a wide, winding stream separating the grass land from a mushroom biome. Dream picks up speed, sure that if he can make it across the stream they will be safe.\n\nOutside of the protective canopy of the trees, the rain hits even heavier, and the grass is wet and slippery. Although more beasts hide in the woods, out here in the open he poses an easier target.\n\nAnother arrow whizzes past, followed my two more in short succession. He throws a short glance back, and sees three skeletal beings in his pursuit. Dread pulls tight around his throat and he tries to speed up, but his foot gets caught on a rock and he falls forward. He barely catches himself on his knees and his bad hand, the other one still cradled securely around the cat.\n\nBlinding pain shoots through his arm, and a sob tumbles past his lips. An arrow buries itself into the ground right in front of him, so he gets up as fast as he can, despite the pain throbbing in his limbs. He lost valuable time, so he doesn’t try to look back again, instead trying to gain ground again.\n\nBut it is to no avail. This world is unfamiliar to him, and it doesn’t love him the way his one had. It doesn’t grant him mercy, and it doesn’t come to his aid. Luck isn’t an endless resource and his has run out.\n\nAn arrow finds its mark.\n\nIt pierces his shoulder, chipped, but wickedly sharp bone digging into muscle and flesh, unhindered by the cloth that had long burned away. An anguished cry leaves Dreams lips, but he keeps on running. The view sways, but he is honed in on his goal. It’s not much further, just a bit more, just across the slight incline ahead and he’ll reach the bottom of the hill, and with it, the water.\n\nUnable to see from his position, a ravine snakes its way through the grassy hillside. It’s not large, not wide in any way. Had he known of its existence, or had he been able to see it before, he could have made it across in a daring, but by no means impossible jump. Even in his current condition he could have made it.\n\nBut luck is no longer on his side.\n\nAnother arrow hits.\n\nIt digs into his calf, and this time, he cannot fight back the fall. He crashes to the ground, momentum carrying him forwards, over the slight incline and then-\n\n \n\ndown.\n\n \n\nHe plummets into the ravine, unable to do anything but clutch Patches to his chest to protect her from the impact that surely awaits them at the bottom.\n\nBut he never reaches it. He hits a protruding rock, and it slows his momentum enough that his fall is broken by vines and remnants of a mine track that once bridged two mine tunnels on each sides of the ravine. His body comes to a standstill in a bloodied, broken heap, balanced precariously on old, brittle wood and splintered metal over a drop of dozens of chunks.\n\nWith the last of his strength, he raises the arm that carries the attached communicator to the hand that has protected patches from the fall. He barely manages to type just a few letters, before black falls over his eyes and his hand drops limply to the side.\n\nIf it was Luck or Mercy who bestowed him one last favour is unclear, but his arm falls just right for a piece of metal to hit the small send button on the side of the device. Unfortunately, when Dream had selected the recipient of the message, in his agony, he hadn’t picked Punz as it had been intended, but the next entry on the list of priority contacts.\n\n\nDream (whispers to Sapnap): hhel p\n\n\nOutside, the storm rages on until the night overcomes its darkest hours and turns to dawn. Once the sun rises, the last storm clouds will slowly disperse, and with it the mobs. But until then, the darkness rules. The mobs slowly grow disinterested at the disappearance of their prey and return to the cover of the forest. Silence settles over the meadow like a heavy blanket, broken only by the distant, anguished yowls of a cat.\n\n \n\n \n\n***\n\n \n\n \n\nBarely half an hour into their search rain had started to come down. Now able to use his trident, Punz had made great progress on his search, but outside of stray mobs he had been unable to find anything. He tried his hardest to stay calm and level-headed, but inside, a storm was brewing that rivalled the one currently wreaking havoc on the server.\n\nThere had been no progress, no sign of Dream until multiple hours into the search. Phil had sent coordinates from the forest. Apparently he had found a creeper hole, which by itself wasn’t anything special, but it had been on the entrance of a cave. Inside the cave, protected from the rainfall, a bloody handprint was left behind, as well as singed scraps of the clothes that Dream had been wearing.\n\nUnfortunately the rain had washed away any foot prints or blood trails, but Dreams flight from the mobs had left other traces. Split and broken off twigs, disturbed ground and plants. The mobs on his trail had left more traces as well, the most noticeable ones the arrows stuck to trees and the ground.\n\nNow that they had finally found a lead, Punz abandoned the search of the grassland and hurtled towards the coordinates. He had gotten far enough out with his trident that he had to head back somewhat. Flying a half circle around the forest borders, Punz intended to check the surrounding areas of the direction Dream headed. Phil was following the track and Techno was making his way there, but the mobs that littered the forest slowed them down.\n\nThere was no death message in the server logs, which meant that he was still alive and must have gotten away from the mobs somehow. And Punz intended to keep it that way. It wasn’t long until dawn now, and with it, the mobs would be gone and Dream would be safe. He just had to hold on a little longer. Just a little more.\n\nSuddenly, he spotted a mushroom biome up ahead. It was well within the area that Dream could have reached on his course from the forest, and mushroom biomes were notoriously clear of mobs. Had this been what saved Dream?\n\nHe notified Phil and Techno, and headed for it. If Dream had made it here, he was safe. He just needed to find him now. Thankfully, the tall mushrooms didn’t obscure his flight too much, which allowed him to keep using the trident. He didn’t want to fly too high above, in fear of missing Dream under some of the wide mushroom caps. He searched diligently, but as dawn approached, he still hadn’t been able to find Dream, nor had Phil or Techno.\n\nHe found himself back at the beginning of the mushroom biome, in a stretch of grassland. The rain was starting to let off, so his trident would soon be useless anyways, so he decided to head for the forest. Maybe he could work his way towards Phil and Techno and meet in the middle.\n\nHowever, when he made his way across the meadow, a group of skeleton took notice of him. Evading one or even two skeletons was no problem, even without a shield, but a group of them scattered across the area made it almost impossible. He couldn’t risk injury either, as he had a much more important mission at hand.\n\nCursing at the time lost, he sprinted towards a little overhang in the hill to duck behind. Once he got to the forest he could hide behind the trees, but out here he was a free target. He just needed to get away from the skeletons, or wait until the sun came up. To his surprise, the overhang sheltered a fissure in the ground that led into a ravine underground. Carefully, he balanced beside it, as to not lose his balance and fall. Although he might be able to mine his way below the skeletons through the ravine, he didn’t want to be too hasty with his decision making.\n\nBut as he crouched there with bated breath, calculating his next move, he noticed a peculiar sound. At first, he struggled to make sense of it. Quiet, distant cries, almost like a crying child if not for the animalistic of it. ‘Cat’ his mind supplied, ‘distressed. Probably fell into the ravine and can’t get out’.\n\nNow, it wasn’t like he hated animals. The opposite, he was quite fond of them. But he was also under a lot of stress, and trying to save Dream, so it wasn’t really like he had the time to save a cat right now. But then he remembered Dream playing with Patches, and how fond he was of cats in general.\n\n‘It’s just so the crying won’t give my position away.’ He reasoned with himself as he carefully climbed down the ravine. ‘Going through the ravine is probably the quickest way to get to the forest anyways.’\n\nOnce he made it to a somewhat secure platform, he took a look around to orient himself and find the cat, as well as the most beneficial way to mine towards  the forest. He quickly realizes two things.\n\nOne: that it wasn’t a ravine, but most likely an old mine that had been half unearthed by an earthquake. An old mineshaft opens up in one wall, leading towards the forest, perfect for his plan.\n\nAnd Two: his plan is useless and no longer important because right there, on the old tracks connecting the tunnel lies Dream, and with him the cat he had heard earlier.\n\nWith shaking hands, he pulls up his communicator to send his coordinates to Phil and Techno, and then he bolts. Or at least, he tried to. The mine was in terrible condition due to the rupture, and everything was rather unstable. Agonizingly slow, he had to dig his way towards Dream, who was suspended on rickety railway tracks above a steep drop.\n\nAs he gets closer, he notices that Dream is unconscious and in quite frankly horrific shape. His frame is bloodied and broken, the clothes ripped apart and burned. An arrow is sticking out from mangled leg. Fear freezes him in place, and he has to remind himself that Dream is alive, he’s alive, there was no death message (yet, he doesn’t say.).\n\nHis chest is rising and falling almost imperceptibly, was it not for the cat curled up and held to his chest by his arm. She mews pitifully in between little licks to the exposed chest, likely exhausted after hours of calling for help. Her fur is singed and matted with blood, but still, Punz recognizes her.\n\nIt’s Patches. His heart seizes and his voice comes out a little broken as he whispers praises to her, thanks her for protecting Dream. It’s a cat, just a cat, and yet he chokes up at the realisation that she has stuck with Dream, has protected him, has cared for him, simply out of love. There are no ulterior motives here, no lies, no deceit, no pretending. No guilt, no regret, no obligation or duty. Just trust and love, just care for Dream as a person.\n\nIt’s this revelation that finally tips him over, and the tears begin to flow. It may be stupid to others, but for years, so many years Punz has been the only one that had thought of Dream fondly, with care and affection. Even back in the server, he had to lie and pretend, had to spend time surrounded by people that hated Dreams guts and he had never been able to speak up. He had to betray Dream for these people, and even if it had been staged, it had been real to all those people. It had bitten at him, to be known as the person that betrayed Dream, and not the one that had been loyal all this time.\n\nHe just wanted to be able to be his friend everywhere, not just behind closed doors. He wanted to be able to smile and laugh with him, out in the open. He wanted to be able to defend him against others, to protect him. He wanted to be able to wear their friendship proudly, openly, wanted it to be known and recognizable as a part of him just like his signature white hoodie and gold chain.\n\nSo he sits there and cries, for Dream who has been hurt and hurt again, who has spent years feeling unloved and forgotten. He cries for hours, days, months spent searching for any possible clue to find him, when he had been locked away right under his nose. He cries for Dream, who lies unreachable on fragile wood and metal, bloodied and broken, so near and yet so far.\n\nAnd he cries for the overwhelming relief of no longer being the only one to love and care for Dream unconditionally, even in danger.\n\nOutside, the sun finally rises. The mobs dissolve with unholy screeching and wails, as the morning light reaches them. Three people stumble out of the forest, ignoring the burning monster corpses that litter their way. They’ll get down into the ravine, and they’ll carefully construct a scaffold to hold up the railway bridge. Punz won’t be happy to see Tommy with them, but he’ll hold back, as long as they’ll get Dream to safety first.\n\nHe won’t leave Dreams bedside until he wakes up. Neither does Patches.\n\nWhen Dream wakes up, he cries.\n\nAnd Punz makes a decision.\n\n \n\n \n\n***\n\n \n\n \n\n“Let me take him with me.” It hadn’t really been a question, nor had it been an offer, and Techno knew that. Still, something in him wanted to refuse. Punz wouldn’t be able to take Dream by force, if Techno wanted to, he could very well just keep Dream here. ‘It’s for his safety’ his mind whispers, ‘we’re strong enough to keep him safe, nothing can hurt him here.’\n\nBut he just needs to look at Dreams battered, bruised body to know that it isn’t true. To know that it wouldn’t be fair.\n\nIt doesn’t matter if he thought he could keep Dream safe from physical harm, if they had caused him enough mental pain that he hurt himself. Granted, it probably hadn’t been Dreams intention to get hurt when he had... run away.\n\nBut wasn’t that the crux of the issue? Tommy’s appearance had stressed him out enough to have him run away and get severely hurt. And Tommy hadn’t even been hostile to him, nor would he be in the near future, as it seemed. And yet it didn’t seem to matter, as his mere presence caused severe distress for Dream.\n\nOf course, the obvious choice would be to just.... keep Tommy away. Punz had been advocating for that one quite clearly, adamantly refusing to let Tommy take a single step into Dreams room.\n\n\n“Get away from him!” Punz’s voice is fire, unrestrained in anger as he blocks the doorway from Tommy, who holds a tray of something.\n\n\n\n“Woah calm down man, I was literally just helpi-“ \n\n\n\n“I. Do. Not. Care. One step closer and you’ll be crying for help yourself.”Punz bites, cold fury dripping from every word as his hands itch for a weapon. Oh how much he hated Tommy, hated that he was able to hurt Dream even when he didn’t intend to.\n\n\n\n“I don’t want you near him, ever again. Don’t look for him, Don’t look at him. Don’t speak to him.”\n\n\n\nA short pause.\n\n\n\n“You have no right to be near him.”\n\n\n\n \n\n\nAnd yet.... Techno didn’t want to deny Tommy and Wilbur entry to the server. They were family, not just to Phil but to him as well. Even if they didn’t live here, this place was home, was a safe haven for them. He didn’t want to take this from any of them.\n\nAnd Dream... he had barely been someone he could have called a friend, had they had more time. He was much more a friendly rival, someone who had helped him out. But that person didn’t even exist anymore. Although that had been partially his own fault, he couldn’t help but mourn the loss of something he hadn’t been able to achieve. Now that he knew that Dreams amnesia wasn’t randomly caused, but granted. Dream didn’t want to remember, didn’t want to go back. Techno couldn’t fault him for that, not after the torture he had endured. So he mourned silently, as he looked at Dream with different eyes.\n\nA broken, battered shell that housed a soul of incredible wit and talent, but it was chained away under trauma and pain. That rival that he had appreciated for his prowess would never return. Even if Dream remembered, his body was simply unable to hold up.\n\nThis new Dream was skittish, albeit curious, and in all honesty, fragile.\n\nKeeping him here just to alleviate his guilt over his broken promise wasn’t fair, when he couldn’t even ensure that he wouldn’t run into what frightens him. He knows that he can’t have both. And yet, he is still reluctant to let go, feels the failure of his promise clawing at the edges of his mind.\n\nBut Punz stands strong and doesn’t give up. After all, if anyone would understand Techno’s guilt, it is Punz.\n\n \n\n\n “Don’t worry Technoblade. You part of the plan was just to get him out. You did that, even if it was delayed, and you even went beyond it. Now let me fulfil my part.” His voice is gentle, but firm. His decision is clear, and they both know it is the right one.\n\n\n\n“I’ve been waiting for a long while, Techno. I’ll take it from here.”\n\n\n \n\n*\n\n \n\n“You sure about this, mate?” Phil asks, leaned next to the doorframe as Punz and Dream walk down the pathway. Once Techno had agreed, Punz hadn’t wasted much time to prepare for their departure. Although there hadn’t been many things to pack in the first place.\n\n“It’s better for Dream. And for Tommy as well, probably. It would be selfish to keep him here just to alleviate my own guilt.” Techno mutters thoughtfully. The guilt still lingers, he knows it likely won’t ever leave fully. But he has come to terms that he has done what he could, and that he was no longer neither the safest, nor the best option for Dream.\n\nIt had been evident simply in Dreams reaction to Punz’s offer. He didn’t need to speak to make the sheer relief and gratefulness evident. It couldn’t have been clearer, even if he had shouted it from the rooftops. It was what assured Techno of the rightness of his choice.\n\nAnd as they watch them leave, Techno bids a goodbye not just to this Dream, but to the old one as well. Once again, it is time to move on, but this time, he does it with a lighter heart, knowing he has done what he could and relieved of the uncertainty of Dreams wellbeing.\n\n \n\n \n\n***\n\n \n\n \n\n\nSome time in the future\n\n\n \n\n“Are you ready?” Punz asks, petting Patches who wanders over his workbench, and it truly is that, just a question. No worry, no distrust, no uncertainty. Just unhindered loyalty, ready to follow wherever Dream leads them.\n\n‘Yes’ Dream signs, and breathes deeply as Punz leads them into a server jump. There is no need for any further explanations. They had worked towards this for a long time. Gone is the soul crushing fear, gone is the paranoia simply at the notion of it. What had settled in its place was longing.\n\nWhen they spawn, he doesn’t recognize his surroundings outside of a vague sense of familiarity. Soon, that will change, as he’ll once again be able to attach years of history to every place. He idly wonders if it’ll change how he views them now, and shakes his head at the naivety of the idea. In the end, it doesn’t quite matter anyway. Punz had told him everything he had asked for. He knew of the horrors that had happened here, all that he was missing was his own view of it.\n\nBut that wasn’t why he was here, not really.\n\nAlthough Punz had never once pushed, not even asked or tried to trigger any of his old memories, Dream knew that there were years worth of experiences locked away inside his mind. Punz had always been courteous, and nothing but inexplicably loyal and supportive towards him. But Dream yearned to truly know their full story. He wants to understand where their bond had started, how it had developed, how it had been able to stay strong all these years.\n\nHe wants to share their full history, in more than just tales he had memorized.\n\nHe wanted to remember them.\n\nHe wanted to remember.\n\nHe was ready.\n\n \n\n \n\n***\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n\nThe End\n"}
+{"text": "They decide to get married at The Tomlinson House, the place where it all began. Niall serves as best man for the both of them, and brags relentlessly that it was him who essentially brought the two of them together in the first place. He and Louis let him have his moment, especially since they’re jetting off half-way across the world again as soon as they say I do.\n\nHarry frets with the collar of his jacket where he’s standing at the top of the creaky staircase. He can hear the strings die down and then start up again with the song they chose for their processional march, and he’s never been more nervous about potentially falling down a flight of stairs.\n\nHis mother takes his arm and gives it a light squeeze when she hears the cue of the music. She gives Louis’ mother a thumbs up where she’s waiting outside of her son’s door. She returns it, and then the two of them begin their slow descent.\n\nHis knuckles are white from so much attention as they float through the sunroom. They make it to the altar and his mother leaves a kiss on his cheek before taking her seat with the rest of their friends and family. It’s nerve-wracking standing by himself, but he’s only alone for a little while before the music swells up again and Louis is walking towards him with his mother on his arm. He looks just as gorgeous as he did the night they met in this very room, wearing a smile that would also be identical if it weren’t for the way his eyes are shining.\n\nThe attempt Harry had made to stay calm is forgotten when Louis’ mother kisses his cheek at the altar and leaves her son to stand beside him. Harry has been on the verge on tears all morning but he didn’t want to give Louis the satisfaction of him crying first, however he lets them fall when he sees that Louis has already forgotten his pride and is openly wiping at his eyes in front of all of these people.\n\nThe ceremony gets less emotional as the minutes pass, and pretty soon all Harry can focus on is the part where he becomes Louis’ husband.\n\nNiall hands them the rings when they’re getting close. Harry’s heart feels like it’s in his throat when he slides the golden band onto Louis’ finger, a satisfaction like nothing else he’s ever felt in life when Louis beams up at him. Louis repeats the process and slides Harry’s wedding band onto his finger until it’s nestled against his grandfather’s ring.\n\nHarry doesn’t hear anything else going on in the room, but his ears perk up when Louis is asked to say ‘I do.’ He watches Louis’ mouth form the words, his eyes shining again as he waits for Harry to repeat them. The officiant reads off the list of promises that he’s swearing to keep and Harry rushes to agree, saying ‘I do’ so quickly that Louis and everyone else laughs. They have to listen to some other stuff that Harry couldn’t care less about at the moment, and then finally the moment comes. His heart has never felt so full and light all at once when Louis reaches for him and connects their lips. Their kiss is fueled by excitement and adrenaline, and Harry is certain that he’ll never feel happier than in this moment.\n\n*\n\n“You two don’t even need a honeymoon. You’re never in the country as it is,” Niall grumbles as he’s hugging them goodbye. Camille nudges him in the arm to shut him up.\n\n“He’s just jealous,” she laughs. “He’s been complaining about it for weeks.”\n\nNiall turns to her with a traitorous look. “I have not! I love the Caribbean,” he explains like his fondness for the islands will change their minds about letting him join. “I’m just saying you could’ve invited me along. Not for the honeymoon parts but just, you know, for moral support or whatever.”\n\nHarry smirks, pretty confident that he won’t need help or moral support from anybody to have a good honeymoon with his husband. Louis’ grin says the same thing when they lock eyes.\n\n“Well, we have a flight to catch,” Louis announces out of nowhere, waving to their guests that have come to the entryway to see them off for their island hopping adventure.\n\nNiall rolls his eyes. “It’s a private fucking plane. It leaves whenever you tell it to,” he says, leaning in to wrap them both in a final embrace.  “Goodbye. I love you both. Have fun. Get out.”\n\nThey are all too happy to oblige as they practically run out the door with the promise to see them all in a couple of weeks.\n\nNiall was right when he said there was no rush, so they take their time getting to the airport. They’re only a little bit late from stopping off at Harry’s to change and get their suit cases. Now there’s nothing left to do, but sit back and enjoy the nine hour ride.\n\n“What exactly are you looking for?” Harry asks when Louis has yet to relax beside him. His determined hands have been riffling through both of their bags since take off.\n\n“The list,” he answers. “I know I packed it…I made sure of it.” His eyes light up when he produces a pen and the folded up list from a side pocket of his duffel.\n\nHe reads through the list of items until he finds the one that he needs.\n\n“Marry the love of my life,” he reads as he draws a line through it. When he’s done he places his hands on either side of Harry’s face for kiss that’s a lot more heated than the one they shared at the altar.  \n\nHarry laughs when they break apart and Louis is still scanning the page. “Now what are you doing? You can’t mark off the Caribbean until after we’ve been there,” he reminds him.\n\nLouis shakes his head. “No, that’s not what I’m looking for...I’m looking for-Ha! Here it is!” he shouts when he finds it scribbled in between Niagara Falls and Moscow. Harry’s eyes grow wide looking down at the paper.\n\n“Now?” he asks, scandalized. “But- But they’ll know! The crew-” he tries, but he can tell Louis is already sold on the idea.\n\n“Oh come on, Haz! We’re the only passengers! If not now, then when?” Harry can’t believe the amount of determination in his eyes. “It’ll be so hot and so much fun! Please? Please? Please?!”\n\nHe sighs, caving before Louis can break out the dreaded puppy eyes. “Fine,” he relents with a smile, “But I’m not going first.”\n\nThat stipulation doesn’t deter Louis in the slightest. He rummages through their bags again until he finds a packet of lube. He slips it into his pocket before bravely making his way through the cabin and inside of the bathroom. He’s only gone for about thirty seconds before he pokes his head out of the door to beckon him with the worst line Harry has ever heard.\n\n“Hey, Haz… I don’t know how to work the sink… Come help me,” he calls out.\n\nLouis’ pathetic excuse doesn’t catch the attention of anybody except the lone stewardess near the front who kindly pretends like she didn’t hear.\n\nUnlike Louis, the thrill of getting caught makes him more nervous than anything when he stands to join him. His heart is hammering when he steps through the door and Louis is waiting for him with slick fingers and his joggers pooled at his feet.\n\n“Hurry up,” Louis orders him.\n\nHarry’s body responds immediately, his hands already working to shed his clothing before his mind has accepted that this is really happening. They make quick work of opening Louis up before he’s bending himself over the sink he claimed he didn’t know how to use and lets Harry enter him from behind.\n\nHarry has never worked so hard to be quiet in all of his life, which turns out to be a wasted effort when Louis comes in just a few minutes with a loud cry that gets amplified in the basin of the sink. Harry gets pulled over the edge as well, but he isn’t nearly as loud with the soft whine he bites into Louis’ skin.\n\nThey stumble out of the bathroom one at a time even though there’s no way everyone didn’t just hear them. The stewardess is still hard at work smoothing out the same blanket she had been folding when Harry left, and again, he’s grateful for her false ignorance.\n\nLouis unfolds the list and relocates, ‘Join the Mile High Club.’ He makes Harry mark through it with an overly pleased smirk.\n\n“Thanks, love. I couldn’t have done it without you.”\n\nHarry fondly rolls his eyes. “Well technically you could’ve… you know,” Harry says in a low voice. “But, I’m glad I could help out.”\n\n“Wanks don’t count and aren’t nearly as much fun,” Louis says like the rules of the Mile High Club are common knowledge. “Go on Harry, admit it. It was hot and you liked it.” Harry can’t help his smile as he shakes his head at his ridiculous husband. He still can’t believe he gets to call him that. He still can’t believe he can’t say no to the idiot.\n\n“It was more than hot and I loved it… I’m also glad that you have the scary ability to talk me into doing anything you want.”\n\n“I know you are, love,” Louis kisses his jaw before returning the lube, list, and the pen to his bag. “And that’s exactly why I married you.”\n\n----\n\n \n\nSix Years Later\n\nHarry opens his eyes to bright sunshine and immediately closes them again. He’s just about to drift back off when Louis wrenches his arm away from his face.\n\n“Oh no you don’t!  Wake up!”\n\nHarry doesn’t fight it even though he’s exhausted. He and Louis were up most of the night from being too excited and wired to sleep. He has no idea how Louis is so bright eyed when he’s sure Louis got the least amount of sleep between the two of them.\n\n“Good morning.” Harry’s words turn into a big yawn as he rolls onto his back to properly wake up. Louis moves to lay half on top of his chest.\n\n“You mean great morning,” he beams down at him. “Go on, ask me what day it is,” he pushes.\n\nHarry can feel his excitement radiating between them. He adopts a huge smile of his own that stretches across his face when his brain catches up to what Louis is so excited about. “What day is it, love?”\n\n“It’s Due Date Day!”\n\nHarry laughs at the way his eyes light up from finally getting to say it. They’ve all been waiting for this day, counting down for months and weeks, which is no easy task for someone as impatient as Louis. He’s surprised Louis slept at all last night.\n\nTheir surrogate, Sarah, has had two successful pregnancies for other couples in the past, and each of those babies came a few days early. Louis had been certain that their baby would come before his due date as well, but so far nothing has happened. Harry and everyone else knows that Louis is counting on their baby arriving today; no one except Harry has the heart to tell him that it doesn’t always work that way despite what the doctor says.\n\n“Louis, remember what the doctor said…” Harry carefully reminds him, so as not to get their hopes up too high.\n\nLouis waves him off just like he did with the doctor after they were informed that their baby is healthy and ready to join the world any day now. “It’s going to be today,” Louis assures him. “I can feel it.”\n\n“You said that yesterday and the day before,” Harry points out with a smirk.\n\nLouis pinches him in the arm. “It’s not my fault that our kid is stubborn.”\n\n“Hmmm... Wonder where he got that from?”\n\n“Probably the same gene pool that he got being an annoying prat from,” Louis quips back.\n\n“Hey!” Harry yells, taking offense and pinching Louis in retaliation. He doesn’t even flinch, his smile growing wider as he moves to lie next to Harry, rather than on him.\n\n“Who do you think he’ll look more like?” he asks dreamily as he stares up at the ceiling.\n\nHarry links their hands between them as he thinks about it again. They had originally planned to use Harry’s sperm and a donor egg from the surrogacy agency they used. Back then, he and Louis had hoped the baby would look somewhat like Harry. Then one day, of her own accord, Louis’ eldest sister volunteered to donate an egg for them. Their child will have both of their families’ genes, so now the possibilities are endless.\n\n“I want him to have your hair, I think,” Harry finally decides.\n\nLouis tugs at a random lock of Harry’s hair that is so long now that it grazes his chest. “Yeah, me too,” Louis teases, causing them both to laugh.\n\n“I hope he has Tomlinson eyes as well. They’re so beautiful and blue.”\n\n“Really?” Louis flips onto his side with a look of disbelief. “I was hoping they’d be green like yours... I’ve always loved your eyes,” Louis admits. Harry can feel his cheeks warm from the compliment. Louis ruins the moment about five seconds later. “I hope he grows up to be as tall as you and as graceful as me.”\n\nHarry frowns at him, half tempted to pinch him again. “Hey! What are you implying?”\n\n“Nothing at all,” he grins with the face of innocence. “Simply that our child should inherit your supermodel height.” The part where he’s low-key calling Harry clumsy goes unsaid.\n\nThey lie there, daydreaming about their son until Louis can’t stand being still any longer. He’s up and on the phone with all of their friends and family, declaring today as the day their baby comes. Harry fondly shakes his head at him, praying that he’s right.\n\nHe’s proud of him for not driving Sarah insane all day, however, around three in the afternoon Louis starts to get anxious. He calls her up and asks the same barrage of questions he has asked her all week. The questions range from how she’s feeling, if she needs anything, to if there has been any sort of change. She says no, giggling like always at Louis’ dedication, but swears to call the millisecond that something happens.\n\nLouis flops face first onto the couch around six o’clock with a long drawn out sigh. “Your kid is taking forever!”\n\nHarry makes an offended sound at the back of his throat. “My kid? He’s got half of your family’s genes. He’s your kid too.”\n\n“Not when he’s being stubborn like this, he isn’t. I mean really, how hard is it to be born on time? I did it and I’m never on time for anything.”\n\nHarry is quick to agree with that last statement. “He’s just trying to make a grand entrance. He likes the attention just like his dad.”\n\nHe knows things are really getting to Louis when he doesn’t even laugh at his joke. Harry leaves his armchair to come sit on the sofa with Louis. He holds him close, cradling him against his chest.\n\nHe seems less on edge with Harry holding him, but something still seems off. Louis clears his throat after a few minutes, his voice sounding small and scared.\n\n“Haz? Do you think something might be wrong?”\n\nThe question does something funny to Harry’s chest when he asks it. He doesn’t even want to consider that. He can’t, but he can help put Louis’ mind at ease.\n\n“The doctor said our baby is healthy and that everything looks great. Sarah is healthy and she has done this before…I don’t think anything is wrong. I think it’s just taking a little longer than we expected, love.”\n\nThe worry etched onto his face starts to fade. “You really think so?”\n\nHarry can’t know any of that for sure, but he sure hopes that he’s right.\n\n“I’m sure of it, love.”\n\n*\n\nIt’s just after ten o’clock when Louis drags himself out of the nursey room for the hundredth time today. Harry tries to comfort him in every way he knows how, but he can still tell that he’s disappointed. They go to bed soon after that, feeling exhausted even though the only thing they did all day was wait around the house.\n\nAs they lie in bed, Harry holds Louis close to him, praying that their baby comes soon for both of their sakes. He gets his wish when his phone rings at half past two in the morning.\n\nLouis springs up with eyes so bright, no one would ever be able to tell that he was just asleep. The phone isn’t even in his hand yet, and already Louis is asking questions.\n\n“Who is it? Is it her?”\n\nHarry nods to confirm and puts the phone on speaker. “Sarah? Hi, how are you?” Harry rumbles into the receiver.\n\nShe greets them sounding wide awake. Harry glances at the clock; it’s two thirty-eight. He’s impressed. “I thought something had changed about an hour ago, but I wanted to be sure before I woke you two up. I’m definitely having contractions, so I’m heading over to the hospital soon.”\n\nLouis snatches the phone out of his hand even though he can hear her perfectly through the speaker. “Sarah, are you sure? These aren’t like those fake contractions or anything…like, it’s really happening? These are real?”\n\nThere’s a sharp intake of breath from the other side of the receiver that makes Harry wince for her. “Oh yeah,” she grits out. “These are painfully real.”\n\nNeither of them needs more convincing than that before they’re jumping out of bed. They promise to meet her at the hospital as soon as possible. Harry has never moved faster to get somewhere on time in his life.\n\nEach of their phones are working overtime as they hurry to call everyone and inform them that baby Tomlinson-Styles is officially on the way. Most of their loved ones arrive at the hospital just after they do, a palpable energy thrumming through the waiting room as they settle in.\n\nHarry and Louis have to stop to compose themselves before going in to see Sarah. They only enter the room once they appear less manic for Sarah’s sake. Louis calms down a considerable amount when the doctors tell them it’ll still be a while before there’s a baby, but he looks so thrilled that Sarah is even in labor that his smile never fades.\n\nThe two of them get quieter as the hours pass and blur. Louis has been pacing in the corridor or choosing to wait with their families, but he hasn’t said much. No one would be able to guess that he had been wide open this morning.\n\n“You alright?” Harry asks him when they’re just stepping out of Sarah’s room again.\n\nHe nods enthusiastically. “I’m great. Fantastic even.”\n\nHarry laughs at the way he’s over compensating.\n\n“You look scared out of your mind.”\n\nLouis covers his face when Harry draws a laugh out of him. “That’s because I am… but it’s a good scared, you know?”\n\nWhen it comes to Louis, Harry has been scared shitless plenty of times. Riding in a hot air balloon, riding the world’s tallest rollercoaster, and even jumping out of a fucking plane over the island of Hawaii after Louis had to practically push Harry out of it are just a few examples, but being here for the birth of their child is by far the scariest thing they’ve done together. It also happens to be the best.\n\n“I know exactly what you mean,” Harry grins.\n\n*\n\nThe sense of calm that had settled over the night gets demolished once the doctor says it’s time to push. Sarah had said they could be in the room, but Harry doesn’t want to be one of those fathers that ends up fainting, so he chooses to stand outside of the door, and because his husband is so wonderful, he opts to wait with him.\n\nNeither of them dare speak a word as they listen at the door. Harry feels like he has been standing there with his ear pressed against the wood for ages, and then finally they hear the unmistakable first cry of their son.\n\nThe world feels like it’s underwater when a nurse comes to usher them inside. He registers the room full of hospital staff and the words that they are saying to him, but nothing stands out until a nurse walks towards them with something settled into the crook of her arm. He sees the baby nestled there, but he doesn’t believe he’s actually real until the nurse asks which of them would like to hold him first.\n\nHarry shakes his head and places a hand on Louis’ shoulder to give him the honor. After all, Louis has been waiting a very long time to meet him.\n\nDuring their time together, Harry has only seen Louis cry a handful of times. Once, when he proposed, a second time at their wedding, and again one morning when he found, ‘Start a Family’ scribbled onto their list in Harry’s handwriting. Those few times hardly matter at all when their son is finally placed in his husband’s arms. He sucks in a ragged, wet breath as he stares down at their son crying in the quiet room. Louis spends a long time just looking at him, memorizing him like he’s having trouble believing he’s real as well. He places the gentlest kiss Harry has ever seen on his forehead before turning to Harry and offering him a chance to hold him.\n\nIt still feels like a dream, even with the very real and tiny weight he’s holding in his hands. Harry counts each of his fingers and runs his finger along the slope of his tiny nose, thanking heaven that it looks just as cute as Louis’. His hair is dark like his own. It’s too soon to tell if it’ll be straight or curly, but Harry thinks it would be perfect either way. His son blinks his eyes open for a fraction of a second to reveal a sliver of light blue and that’s all it takes for Harry lose it. He hands the baby back to the nurse when he starts crying so hard that tears start to fall on the soft blanket covering his son’s tiny feet.\n\nLouis is all smiles again with his eyes still swimming with tears when he pulls Harry into him. It’s the wettest kiss they’ve ever shared, but Harry also thinks it may be the best.\n\nThey walk to the waiting room together to tell their friends and family the good news. Congratulations and questions fly at them from every direction, but the question that sticks out the most is the same one he and Louis have spent the last nine months debating over.\n\n“What are you going to call him?” Louis’ mother asks, looking just as excited about having a grandson as he and Louis did this morning about becoming dads.\n\nThere were a few names that both of them liked, but could never agree on. They decided to wait until he was born to see which one would fit him best, and now that they’ve met him, the choice is obvious. They lock eyes wearing identical grins when they tell the room in unison that their son will be called Matthew.\n\n*\n\nThe sun is shining bright when he and Louis manage to sneak away from everyone and head downstairs to get something to eat. They almost make it to the cafeteria as planned, however Louis grabs his hand and guides them in a different direction.\n\nThey spot their son sleeping in the nursery along with three other babies with his little fists balled up on each side. Louis’ voice is quiet even though Matthew can’t hear from the other side of the glass.\n\n“I can’t believe we really get to take him home. I keep thinking I’m dreaming and I’m going to wake up.”\n\nHarry drops a kiss to his temple. “I promise you’re not dreaming. I can pinch you if it’ll help.”\n\nMatthew yawns wide like a tiny kitten. Louis coos through the glass at him, but doesn’t miss a beat. “Pinch me and I’ll be forced to retaliate in front of our son.”\n\nHarry bites down on his stupidly happy grin. They have a son.\n\n“I can’t believe we’re here. A year ago this was just another item on the list, and now it’s something real that we can cross off.”\n\nLouis sighs, still captivated by their son doing absolutely nothing except existing. “Yeah, I know. Too bad it’s at home.”\n\nHarry smiles to himself, thankful he had the presence of mind to grab it before they ran out of the house.  “You mean this old thing?” he asks as he produces the list and a pen from his back pocket. It’s faded and so creased that it’s tearing a little at the edges, but Louis still smiles when he sees it like it’s an old familiar friend.\n\n“You remembered!”\n\n“Of course I did. Someone had to. You were so insane when Sarah called that you probably couldn’t even spell the word list, so I got it right before we left.”\n\nHarry carefully unfolds it and finds the item he’s looking for. He hands the pen to Louis and feels his heart overflowing with pride when he draws a line through their latest achievement.\n\nLouis pulls him in for a long kiss that makes Harry feel even lighter (although he didn’t think it was possible). Louis holds him afterwards to let the moment linger and resonate between them.\n\n“So, we’ve officially started a family. What next?” Louis smirks. “World domination?”\n\nA nap is Harry’s first thought, but then he takes time to read through the list of things they have yet to do. They can go anywhere in the world and do whatever they want. Harry looks through the glass at their beautiful son and realizes that for now, he just wants to be right here.\n\n“I was thinking that maybe we could stick around for a bit? See what trouble we can get into around here with Matthew.”\n\nHe’s grateful when Louis grins and takes his hand, proof that he feels the exact same way.\n\n“I was really, really hoping you’d say that.”\n\n \n\nThe End"}
+{"text": "\n“Okay, guys, stay close and let me know if you need any help identifying the plant life. No picking yet!”\n\n\n\nThere was a chorus of acknowledgement and Raya’s small class of children scattered from the lowest level of Fang. Two warriors from the palace stood guard not far away and Raya nodded to them awkwardly, more concerned with keeping an eye on the kids than making nice with her escorts. Glancing around she noticed how one of the girls had stayed behind, small hands fiddling nervously as she looked up at her new teacher. The princess smiled as warmly as she could, moving to take a knee so they could speak at eye level.\n\n\n\n“Do you have a question about the lesson, Tala?”\n\n\n\nThe dark haired girl seemed to search her eyes for a moment before she whispered, “Can I work with you, Princess Raya?”\n\n\n\n“Oh.” Raya blinked in poorly suppressed surprise. In the month she had been working with the students of Fang, none of them had ever seemed particularly clingy, likely because of their village’s reputation as fierce warriors. It had honestly disheartened Raya a bit in the beginning, but now with Tala looking up at her with big, sad eyes she felt put on the spot. “Of course, if you want.”\n\n\n\nThe two brunettes set out to forage, creeping low to the ground to keep from disturbing any wildlife. The children were meant to be identifying local flora that could be used for tonics and medicine and Tala was at a supreme advantage with the teacher tagging along with her. The girl was quiet and serious and probably Raya’s favorite child in the class so far. She was younger than a lot of the others which made her natural skill for everything taught extremely impressive. Raya liked to think she saw a bit of herself in Tala, but had to admit at some point she saw much more of Namaari. The children of Fang adored her wife and the second princess wondered if the only reason they were so good for her was because they did not want a bad report to find its way back to Namaari. The infrequent times she would visit during lessons was a fascinating display of the young ones all devolving into awestruck chaos before being quickly herded back into shape with a stern look from their future chief.\n\n\n\nRaya wasn’t jealous of this fanfare per say, but she longed for the day \n\nanyone\n\n in Fang would be that excited to see her. As it was, not even her wife showed much of a reaction when she walked into a room. She and Namaari were no longer perfect strangers, but more like cool acquaintances. They still slept in separate rooms and trained on separate fields and basically spent a good chunk of their days trying to avoid each other without making it look like they were avoiding each other. Raya had realized with time that contrary to her first impression, her wife was not actually horribly unlikeable. Servants, warriors, and civilians alike seemed to both admire and respect their princess and in return Namaari treated everyone fairly and as an equal to herself. \n\n\n\nEveryone except Raya.\n\n\n\nNamaari acted as if Raya simply did not exist and Raya mirrored the treatment in kind, though she wasn’t quite positive which one of them were actually on the receiving and returning ends. The princess from Heart had stubbornly refused to make any efforts to find common ground with her wife even though she just knew her Ba would call her stubborn and pig-headed for her behavior. She wasn’t going out of her way to be cruel, obviously, but she also didn’t attempt to make conversation over the several meals they shared and never visited her room again after the first time. She got news of her spouse through the grapevine and Atitaya who had remained friendly and social after their initial encounter.\n\n\n\n“What’s Princess Namaari like?” Tala questioned suddenly, pulling Raya from her musings. She looked over and saw her student squatting beside a bush blooming full of flowers that could be pressed into a syrup that alleviated coughs, but her wide eyes were turned towards her teacher. Raya blinked, mouth working soundlessly for a moment before she moved her gaze away.\n\n\n\n“She’s...nice,” she settled on, not sure what a child could possibly want to know about an adult, but not wanting to tarnish her wife’s reputation. “She’s strong and kind and—“\n\n\n\n“Everyone knows that,” Tala interrupted, tiny brow furrowed in a way that could only be described as suspicious. Raya stood and started to closely observe nearby tree branches in a ploy to hide her blushing face. “What’s she like when you guys are all alone?”\n\n\n\n“W-Well, we’re not alone that often,” the Dragon Gem guardian found herself saying much to her own humiliation, “Princesses are very busy, you know?”\n\n\n\n“What about at night when you sleep?” Tala seemed scandalized and the absurdly pregnant pause that followed her next question only caused her to scrutinize the princess harder. “Mother and father sleep together in their own room.”\n\n\n\n“The princess and I...Iike our space.”\n\n\n\nThis explanation gave the little girl pause and Raya tried to quickly formulate an escape route from the conversation. Looking around, she was glad to see the palace warriors were too far away to hear this impromptu interrogation, but she also cursed that an emergency didn’t suddenly pop up that needed the immediate attention of the new princess. The other children were scattered about and didn’t appear to need any help at all with their assignment and so Raya was well and truly trapped. Daring to risk a glance at Tala out of the corner of her eye she noted that the girl no longer looked suspicious, but instead vaguely sad and confused. \n\n\n\n“Are you and Princess Namaari...not friends?” Stunned silence. “Is it because you have an estranged marriage?”\n\n\n\nHer verbal slip put her young age on display and Raya felt a heavy breath whoosh out of her. She knelt back down, smiling sincerely at her favorite student as she placed a hand over her chest. “The princess and I have an \n\narranged\n\n marriage, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t be friends.”\n\n\n\n“But you aren’t,” the girl noted matter-of-factly, “Why?”\n\n\n\nRaya winced. “I think it’s because I’ve been a little...shy.”\n\n\n\n“Why?”\n\n\n\n“Well...I’ve been homesick since coming to Fang and I don’t really know if Nama-...the princess would understand.” As she said it, Raya realized it was actually the truth of the matter. She didn’t truly believe Namaari could sympathize with her longing to be back in Heart and so had shut her wife out, all the while telling herself it was \n\nNamaari \n\nwho was being cool and distant. Trust her star student to make this clear as day.\n\n\n\n“Princess Namaari is very smart,” Tala advised wisely, moving on to another plant as she grew bored with the conversation. “You should talk to her so she can make you feel better.”\n\n\n\n “What are you doing in here?”\n\n\n\nRaya hadn't meant to sound quite so harsh, but surprise had gripped her vocal cords tight when she walked into her room and found her wife standing in the middle of it. Namaari glanced over her shoulder casually, drawn away from where she had been quietly observing an old painting Raya kept on her writing desk. It was an official portrait of the chief of Heart and his two ‘daughters’. Raya had spent several lonely nights in Fang gazing at the oil depiction of Ba and Sisu and wished she could fly back to them. She didn’t particularly care to have Namaari studying it so closely, lest she spot the lack of familial resemblance between Raya and her ‘sister’.\n\n\n\nThe first princess of Fang didn’t show a hint of shame or modesty as she turned fully towards her spouse, a scroll held lightly in her hand. She tossed it to Raya without warning and the other woman caught it on instinct. “A courier brought this for you.”\n\n\n\nA letter from Heart!\n\n\n\nRaya moved to rip it open to read immediately, but then recalled a former enemy was in the room and froze. She eyed Namaari warily and slipped the scroll into the waistband of her loose fitting pants. “Thank you for delivering it. Was that all?”\n\n\n\nNamaari scoffed, “You know since you’ve come, our couriers have had to do twice as much work carrying letters back and forth between you and your family.”\n\n\n\nIt could only be taken as an accusation and so Raya squared her shoulders defiantly, chin high as she met her wife’s eyes. “What? Am I not allowed to fraternize with my own village anymore?”\n\n\n\n“\n\nFang\n\n is your village now.”\n\n\n\n“\n\nHeart\n\n will always be my homeland.”\n\n\n\n“You could at least have the decency to try and make a place for yourself here instead of running our messengers ragged just to tell your kid sister you miss her.”\n\n\n\n“If it’s that much of a problem then why don’t I just go back to Heart?” Raya snapped, teeth bared as the taller woman blanched visibly. “Then your couriers will get plenty of rest since I know \n\nyou’ll\n\n never write.”\n\n\n\nIt was the first conversation they had had in nearly an entire turn of the moon and it was also their first argument. Namaari’s face was twisted with irritation as she stomped forward into Raya’s space. “Why would you return to Heart? We’re married!”\n\n\n\n“Well, I can be married from my village,” Raya responded stubbornly. Her heart was hammering loudly in her chest as Namaari leaned into her face. Brown eyes met and the room suddenly didn’t have enough room for the two of them. The Fang princess looked her wife up and down as if inspecting her and Raya fought back a shiver.\n\n\n\n“Is that what you really want?” she challenged, “To ruin the fragile peace our union has created between our homelands?”\n\n\n\n“It wouldn’t ruin-“\n\n\n\n“Do you even care about my people?”\n\n\n\nIt was a serious blow to her pride and honor and they both knew it. To say Raya didn’t care for Namaari as her reluctant bride was one thing, but to say she didn’t care about the people of a village she was meant to one day lead was quite another. She sputtered, “Of course I-!\n\n\n\n“You don’t take anything about this arrangement seriously,” Namaari interrupted, drawing away from the shorter woman as she heaved a sigh through her nose. She sounded tired and frustrated.\n\n\n\n“I take our marriage seriously, Namaari,” Raya defended, but her voice was small as she recalled Tala’s tiny face pinched in disappointment as she accused her teacher of not being friends with her own wife. \n\n\n\n”This is our first talk in weeks and you're threatening to abandon the village,” Namaari pointed out, dark eyes slit with irritation as she paced the area between the bed and the door. Raya thought not for the first time that she was just like a cat. “I hardly ever see you!”\n\n\n\n“I could say the same thing!”\n\n\n\n”Because you avoid me!” The princess’ voice sounded different raised like this; higher and slightly shrill. Raya winced. “In the halls, on the training field; you go out of your way to be everywhere I’m not! Why are you even here if this is how you’re going to act?”\n\n\n\n“I just-“\n\n\n\n“No one forced you into this marriage, Raya.” Namaari’s voice was back to its usual low grate, her whole body tense as she glared at her partner icily. “I didn’t \n\nask \n\nfor \n\nyou\n\n.”\n\n\n\nRaya’s breath caught in her throat and she unconsciously backed into the door at the harsh look on the other woman’s face. Namaari was right of course. Even though their marriage had been arranged, Raya had not been forced to accept any type of proposal against her will. The proposal hadn’t even been meant for her, it had been meant for Sisu; Heart’s most preciously guarded secret. When the scroll from Fang had arrived all those months ago it had been with a sincere suggestion from Namaari herself that she would wed the youngest daughter of Chief Benga and form an alliance between Fang and Heart as a sign of good faith for generations to come. \n\n\n\nThey had all known immediately that there was no way Sisu could marry the princess, her hidden identity as the last dragon making it impossible to trust her in the hands of another village. Still, to refuse would have been an insult too great to ignore and so Raya had volunteered herself in her adopted sister’s place. It was a far greater sign of trust to offer up the next in line for the chieftain than the quirky younger daughter who had not been introduced to society until only a few years prior. And so Raya had left Heart Land, married Namaari, and had been avoiding her ever since.\n\n\n\n“It’s not that simple,” the former guardian murmured, fire gone from her form as she shrank under her wife’s gaze.  “You don’t know everything.”\n\n\n\nNamaari didn’t respond, just stood there with a hand on her hip and looked down at the shorter woman as she always did. Raya could feel a blush splashing over her cheeks as a heady silence stretched out between them punctuated by the sound of village life filtering in through the windows. Namaari had gone into this hoping for a wife that would help her unite their lands and had gotten Raya instead.\n\n\n\n“I’m sorry, but...this has been hard for me and you and I aren’t even \n\nfriends\n\n so...I don’t know what to say.”\n\n\n\nThe confession lifted a weight off her chest and her next breath wasn’t nearly as ragged as she had expected it to be. Since arriving in Fang Raya had constantly felt like everyone was studying her and judging her, but in that moment she felt as if Namaari was simply looking at her. Like she was seeing her for the first time. The silence continued, but it was less tense, and slowly but surely the sharp lines of Namaari’s face smoothed out and her shoulders slipped down in a non-rigid slope. She didn’t seem as big anymore as she moved around Raya to finally head for the door.\n\n\n\n“Don’t miss dinner tonight please,” she said lowly on her way out. \n\n\n\nRaya hardly caught an ounce of sleep after her discussion with Namaari, the harsh accusations of the other princess playing over and over again in her head. She didn’t go to dinner. Laying wide awake in her bed, the Dragon Gem guardian had to admit that her wife had made some rather cutting but true observations about their union so far; Raya wasn’t taking it seriously. The fate of the peace between their villages rested on her shoulders and she was letting everyone down with her stubbornness. Which was why she rose with the sun the next day and went in search of the palace kitchens. \n\n\n\nShe would start this journey to her redemption with the first step. \n\n\n\nEven with the day barely started, the grounds of Fang were alight with activity and it wasn’t hard for her to find someone to point her to where their meals were prepared. She had been getting the lay of the land over the last month and felt confident she could find her way back after she’d completed her mission.\n\n\n\nThe kitchens here were not unlike the ones in Heart; full to the brim with ingredients hunted or gathered from the surrounding land and bustling with people coming and going as they prepared the meals for the day. A heavenly smell was wafting through the air and Raya felt tension slide off her shoulders as she recognized the scent of her favorite soup. With ingredients from every village, it was the perfect combination of flavors and a fitting representation of what Kumandra could be if they all worked together. She made a note to definitely make time to attend lunch and then started searching around for the necessary pieces to make a pot of tea. Her plan, simple though it was, was to offer Namaari a peace offering in the form of a spicy tea that was extremely popular in Heart. Fang seemed to favor green tea and chrysanthemum and Raya had been dying for chai for a while and now she finally had a reason to make it herself. To share with her wife.\n\n\n\nThe servants were very helpful once she explained what she was looking for. With a familiar ease from spending years in the cooking area, a young boy brought her black tea leaves, milk, spices, and some sugar. He offered to make the pot himself, but Raya dismissed him politely, confident that she could make the tea from memory, but not that she could properly explain the process to someone else. It wasn’t as if she measured every ingredient out carefully every time; it was a sprinkle here and a pinch there until it tasted perfect. That couldn’t be taught in the timeframe she was looking at. Everyone gave her a respectful amount of space as she stood there, taking constant sips of the unfinished brew until it tasted just like Ba used to make. A girl a few years younger than her brought her a tray and some cups and then Raya was ready.\n\n\n\nCareful not to drop her precious cargo, the Heart princess wove her way back through the hallways, thankfully only getting turned around once. She kept her pace steady but brisk since she knew Namaari rose early and didn’t want to miss her. Nor did she want the tea to grow cold. The scent of spice wafted into her face from the steam out of the pot and her stomach grumbled enviously. Raya hoped Namaari did in fact feel like sharing with her and straightened her shoulders nervously as she finally found herself outside her wife’s bedroom door. With one more steadying breath and being careful to readjust her tray, Raya knocked firmly on the door and waited. If there was movement within, it was muffled by the thick walls and Raya worried that maybe she had missed her chance. However, as she moved to knock again, the door swung open and there was Namaari dressed and ready for the day while her wife was still in her sleep clothes.\n\n\n\nRaya noticed this with a flush of embarrassment as she thrust the tray out towards Namaari, lips pressed into a thin line as the warrior eyed it critically. “A peace offering.”\n\n\n\nHer wife’s brow ticked minutely and she leaned forward slightly to sniff at the pot, the spicy scent no doubt foreign to her. Raya told herself the chances that Namaari was double checking that the tea wasn’t poisoned were high, but that she would politely not accuse her of anything. “What is it?”\n\n\n\n“Masala chai,” she said, lowering the tray slightly as her arms began to ache under the weight. “I’ve been rude and I wanted to show you I’m sorry. This is a tea we make back ho-...in Heart, and I’d like to share it with you.”\n\n\n\nNamaari looked rightfully suspicious for a moment, but she still opened her door wider to permit her wife to enter. Raya heaved a huge breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding; she hadn’t been positive the other woman would let her in. She moved to set the tea tray down on one of the wide window ledges, careful to step over Buwan’s tail swishing back and forth on the ground. The serlot was lounging near the foot of the bed and looked up at Raya with a low purr as she passed. Once the tea was safe, the two women stared at each other awkwardly in the early morning silence. \n\n\n\n“Uh...how old are you?” Raya questioned, embarrassed this was something she had not known before. Namaari blinked, guard lowering slightly as she considered the question and Raya got the distinct feeling her wife already knew how old \n\nshe \n\nwas. Tala had been right to frown so heavily at her the day before.\n\n\n\nShe answered, “Nineteen.”\n\n\n\n“Oh...I’m eighteen so I guess I’ll serve you,” Raya noted haltingly, reaching out to grab one of the empty cups and the pot. \n\n\n\nShe could feel Namaari’s sharp eyes on the back of her neck as she poured the steaming tea, the heat insulated from her hands by the thick stone of the cup. She passed the spicy drink off to her wife with a quick dip of her head, and then moved to pour her own serving. Namaari waited patiently, not drinking until Raya was ready and then they both stood there sipping in silence. Warmth flooded all through the Heart princess’ body as the familiar flavors spilled over her tongue and down her throat. It tasted like home and if she closed her eyes she could almost pretend she was sitting in her room back in Heart, Sisu flung across her bed lazily and Tuk Tuk peeking in through the window. However, when she opened her eyes she was back in Fang and Namaari was there tasting her tea lightly, eyes soft and unassuming as she hummed. \n\n\n\n“This is good,” she noted, moving to sit on the edge of the bed. Buwan jumped up after her, large body acting like a cushion as his mistress leaned back against him. The bed had to have stone underneath because it barely dipped under the massive feline’s weight. “Thank you.”\n\n\n\n“You’re welcome.” Raya leaned back on the window ledge, reaching to pour herself another cup as she tried to piece together the wording for what she wanted to say next. “Do you...have anything to do today?”\n\n\n\n“After breakfast I need to meet with a merchant from Heart to discuss trade deals,” Namaari informed blandly. Her wife nodded.\n\n\n\n“Oh...alright then…”\n\n\n\n“Did you...want to do something?” Namaari looked as surprised as any adult from Fang was probably capable of looking, brows raised slightly as Raya waved her off hurriedly.\n\n\n\n“Not if you're busy!” she insisted. “I’m sure I can find Atitaya once my class dismisses.”\n\n\n\n“She’s on a scouting detail in Spine.”\n\n\n\n“Oh…”\n\n\n\nThe other princess watched her wife closely and shared a meaningful look with her cat before standing. Her cup was empty and she passed it back to Raya, a silent request for more. “If you have nothing to do once the children are gone we could...do something together?”\n\n\n\nRaya smiled and nodded, moving to silently pour her wife another cup of tea. It was nothing more than a plan to make a plan, but for a married couple who hadn’t truly spoken or spent any quality time together in weeks it felt like progress. The two of them stayed together sipping tea and talking lowly until it was time to attend breakfast. For the first time since arriving in Fang, Raya took the seat that had been set beside Namaari. \n\n\n\nEgregiously enormous progress. \n"}
+{"text": " \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\nSteven’s secondary gender had never been something he thought much about. When his eighteenth birthday had come and gone, he confirmed what he and his family had always assumed. Steven was sure he was a beta, just like his father. After all, it’s not like anything else should have been swimming around in his gene pool. Gems didn’t have secondary genders, so it was one of the very few things in his life that his mother had no influence over.\n\n \n\nSteven was content with being a beta. After the meltdowns and mood swings that accompanied his teenage years, he figured that any more hormones wreaking havoc on his body might just make his head explode. Plus, from what little he understood about the other two genders, he considered himself lucky he didn’t have to deal with the whole mating aspect of things. He didn’t even have a partner. Connie, who had presented as an alpha, had broken things off with him right before leaving for college this past fall. With Steven on the road seeing new sights and Connie drowning in her studies, they didn’t really have the time or space to keep up a romantic relationship. That had been hard for Steven to accept, of course. He dreaded to think about how many other people Connie could be involved with, meeting new people in class and attending frat parties and the like. Steven never stayed in one place long enough to really get to know anyone. Driving from city to city, state to state was exhilarating and eye-opening, but he often got lonely.\n\n \n\nRight now, Steven was making his way through the dirt roads and landmarks of Aqua-New Mexico. Blasting his music, windows cracked, he took note of the darkening sky on the horizon of the empty highway. He yawned. He’d been driving for at least three hours, seeing barely even a gas station while he made headway through the desolate part of this state. It was scenic, sure, but pretty deserted. I guess that’s to be expected in the desert.\n\n \n\nAfter a while longer, Steven eventually saw an exit sign detailing a fast food restaurant, gas station and motel. He used his turn signal out of habit, even though there was no one on the highway to see it, and pulled off into the exit.\n\n \n\nHe’d been living out of motel and hotel rooms for the better part of two years now, the time flying so fast he couldn’t believe he was almost twenty. He visited home every once in a while, stayed for maybe a month or two before the setting and stasis got too eerily familiar. He loved his family and he loved Beach City, but he couldn’t stay there for long. There were too many reminders of bad, bad things that haunted him. Pearl’s home cooked meals were always nice, though.\n\n \n\nSteven fondly remembered some of his favorite recipes as he paid for a burger and fries in this dimly lit, single staffed fast food joint. Not exactly what he should be eating, but it’ll do for now. He thought about how long it’d actually been since he visited home, and promised himself he’d start making his way back soon. Right after he visited the Grand Chasm.\n\n \n\nPulling up to the motel, he noticed how much it looked like the first one he’d ever been to in Keystone. Most motels looked exactly the same, if he was being honest, but maybe all this thought of home was making him see something familiar in this old, run down place. He put down his dad’s credit card at the front desk, an act he’s done countless times since leaving home. He’s always felt kinda guilty about using his dad’s money so flippantly, especially at the nicer hotels or in towns where the gas prices were an arm and a leg. However, Greg always insisted on it. After all, those ten million dollars were exceptionally hard to make a dent in, with interest and all the other bank stuff Steven barely understood.\n\n \n\nOnce settled into his room, Steven slumped in exhaustion. He hadn’t really realized how tired he was. He’s long since learned that sitting in a car for hours on end, while it may seem low effort and relaxing, really drained him after a while. That being said, he felt exceptionally exhausted all of the sudden. He flopped onto his bed, not bothering to do the cursory bed bug check his dad always stressed the importance of. He barely wanted to eat,  and if it weren’t for his rumbling stomach he might have just fallen asleep right there in his jeans. Grasping the forgotten bag of food he’d dropped by his dangling feet, he dug in.\n\n \n\nIt wasn’t the most satisfying of meals, and by the end of it Steven cursed himself for not buying a milkshake or something while he was there. The thought of ice cream, or chocolate, or some kind of candy was so strangely appealing to him right now. He’s been pretty good about his sugar intake in recent years, going for water instead of sodas and only eating the occasional ice cream, but right now all he could think about was a big tub of rocky road.\n\n \n\nHis mouth watered at the idea, but his exhaustion won over. Pulling off his jeans and tossing them aside, Steven crawled under the stiff covers of the motel bed. He haphazardly reached for the lamp switch, flicking it off, burrowing into the two dingy pillows and bunching up the blankets before succumbing to a deep sleep.\n\n \n\n————\n\n \n\nAt 5 am, Steven woke up restless and sweating. Normally, if he woke up with damp bed sheets, it was because of cold sweats after a particularly bad nightmare. This, however, was not due to any nightmare, at least not that he could remember.\n\n \n\nWhat he did know, however, was that the room was absolutely sweltering. Steven felt hot and sticky, as if it was the dead of summer in his humid hometown. Which was bizarre, considering it was early spring and this desert area of the country was usually freezing without the sun to warm the air. Steven fought with the covers, stumbling out of bed to open his window and let the cool air start circulating in. It didn’t help as much as he thought it would. For whatever reason, even with the chilly early morning breeze creeping into his room, Steven was still burning up.\n\n \n\nWhat’s happening to me?  He thought, baffled. He felt light headed as he ran a hand through his damp curls.\n\n \n\nSteven vaguely remembered Connie telling him about fevers, where your body temperature rises when you get sick. Was Steven sick? The worst he’s ever had to deal with was allergies when he was a kid and the physical aftermath of his big meltdown. He’s never been ill before, not like a regular human. He always assumed that his gem protected him from any viruses or infections; his healing powers would just nip it in the bud. He had no frame of reference for what a fever was like, so how could he know for sure?\n\n \n\nThe only thing he could think to do to cool himself down was take a cold shower. Padding unsteadily over to the bathroom, he fumbled with the faucet before setting it to cold and stripping down. Without needing to wait for the water to heat up, he jumped straight under the stream. The shock of cold water made him gasp involuntarily, curling into himself and falling back against the shower wall. He shook as his body temperature warred against the water. After a few minutes of getting used to it, it actually started to feel nice. Steven relaxed into it, letting the water pour over his head and down his body.\n\n \n\nHe had grabbed a tiny bar of soap from the sink to use, unwrapping it and sudsing himself up. He had his own shampoo, conditioner and body wash in his luggage, but he hadn’t thought to grab it from his car last night. So Steven made do with what he had.\n\n \n\nRinsing off under the stream, Steven sighed in relief. He was starting to feel normal again, so he didn’t have to worry about being sick, right? That was, until a sharp pain in Steven’s gut made him keel over, frighteningly close to slipping in the shower just from the surprise.\n\n \n\nSteven grunted and gasped, slowly falling to his knees in the tub as his stomach cramped intensely. He wrapped his arms around his torso, whimpering in confusion and pain as he toppled onto his shoulder and curled into the fetal position. The water flicked onto him annoyingly as the cramps his body was enduring started to make him nauseous.\n\n \n\nWhat’s was   happening to him??? \n\n \n\nThe pain ebbed and flowed while Steven groaned and panted, shivering in the tub. When his body gave him a brief moment of reprieve, the hybrid reached up to the faucet and set the water temperature over to hot, hoping it would do something to fight against the ache rippling through him. To Steven’s surprise, his idea actually worked. The warmth pouring over his midsection soothed his cramps enough to allow him to pull himself up to a standing position, leaned against the shower wall for support.\n\n \n\nUnfortunately, however, the water temperature caused that same unbearable heat boiling Steven alive to resurface. He whined, confused and frightened as frustrated tears prickled at his eyes.\n\n \n\nWhen he eventually realized the shower couldn’t do anything more to help him, Steven shut off the water and grasped for a towel. He did his best not to slip on the linoleum floor of the bathroom before making it back to his bed and face planting.\n\n \n\nHe couldn’t figure out what was wrong with him. He’d never felt anything like this before, and it scared him. Was it some kind of disease he’d never heard of? Where did he get it from?\n\n \n\n…\n\n \n\n\nCould it be some kind of Gem sickness?\n\n\n \n\nSteven pawed over his gem, shivering from the weird sensation it evoked. Flopping onto his back and peering down at himself, he studied the glittering diamond. It looked normal as always. He wasn’t glowing or swelling. Do Gems even get sick? He’d never heard of anything other than being cracked and corruption, which he didn’t really count as sickness.\n\n \n\nAnother intense cramp wracked through him and he cried out. A strange rushing sensation accompanied the pain, causing an odd damp heat to settle in between his legs.\n\n \n\nSteven froze. The only thing he could imagine had come out of him was blood. Hesitantly, he reached a hand down under him and found the wetness. When his shaking hand came back into view, he breathed in partial relief. It wasn’t blood. In fact, it almost looked like water if it weren’t for the sticky, almost viscous quality to it.\n\n \n\nSomewhere in the back of Steven’s mind, he knew what this was. Denial was a powerful thing, though, and that fleeting idea went against everything he knew.\n\n \n\nStuck on the theory that this had to be some kind of human illness, Steven went to his last resort. He searched for his phone, finding it tucked under one of the pillows. His shaking fingers typed in his passcode and he went straight to his contacts.\n\n \n\nHe dialed, setting the phone to speaker and resting his head against the blankets as he listened to it ring. This was the only person he could think of that might be able to help him, and one of the only people he trusted to.\n\n \n\n“Steven?” A groggy, quiet voice eventually picked up, along with some rustling on the other end of the line. The man’s voice was scratchy and rough but comforting all the same. “Boy, you’re sure up early, Schtuball. Is everything okay?”\n\n \n\n“Dad…” Steven croaked, muffled against the covers of his bed. “Dad, I… S-something’s wrong with me.”\n\n \n\nSuddenly, his dad sounded much clearer, his tone shifting from wary to alarmed. “What? What’s the matter? Are you hurt?”\n\n \n\n“I…” Steven clenched his teeth and fought back a whimper as another cramp passed over him. His voice trembled over his words as he spoke. “I’m sick, I-I think I might have a f-fever. I-I don’t know, my stomach hurts, too. I don’t know w-what’s happening to me.”\n\n \n\n“Sick? But you’ve never been sick…” Greg sounded incredulous and thoughtful, with an undertone of worry. Steven heard him clear his throat. “Where are you? Are you close to a pharmacy, or a hospital?”\n\n \n\n“I’m in the middle of nowhere!” Steven whined pitifully, already knowing how screwed he was. Tears dripped down his cheeks, his breath stuttering unevenly. He felt more like a child than ever, begging his dad for help like this. “I-I’m in a motel in the desert, I just guh-got here last night. What am I supposed to do?”\n\n \n\n“Oh, bud…” Greg sighed sympathetically. “Hold on, lemme check something… Did you use the credit card to get the room?”\n\n \n\n“Yes.” Steven breathed, rubbing his tear-stained cheek into the covers.\n\n \n\nA minute went by, Steven suffering through the ache and heat as he listened to his dad tap on his phone screen.\n\n \n\n“Dusty Road Inn?” Greg eventually spoke up, “Is that where you are, Schtuball?”\n\n \n\n“Mhmm…” Steven hummed, his tense body relaxing slightly as the pain passed for a beautiful, merciful moment.\n\n \n\n“Okay, lemme look it up on the map…” A little more tapping, the soft sound of his dad breathing and then a regrettable: “Oh, boy… You weren’t kidding, huh?”\n\n \n\nSteven groaned aloud. He was fucked.\n\n \n\n“Okay, it’s alright. I’ll have some stuff delivered to your room, it just might take a little while. Some pain reliever, fever reducer… maybe some soup?”\n\n \n\nGreg paused, supposedly waiting for some kind of response but Steven was too busy trying to ignore his growing discomfort. “Do you have any other symptoms, Schtuball? Headache? The sniffles? Cough?”\n\n \n\n“Nuh-uh,” Steven admitted, grateful that his dad at least had some idea of how to help him figure this out. There was one thing the hybrid was neglecting to mention, however, something that made his cheeks light up in embarrassment.  If there was anyone who wouldn’t judge him, though, it was his dad. “But u-um, there is… it’s like...” His voice fell to a shameful mumble, “Wet. Down there.”\n\n \n\nThe other end of the line was silent for a few, excruciatingly still moments. He could feel the realization slowly dawning on his father through the phone. “What do you mean, bud?”\n\n \n\nSteven was burning up, and not just from the fever. He licked his dry lips, wishing he hadn’t said anything at all. He had to continue, though. He couldn’t just leave it at that. “Th-there’s all this slick stuff, I don’t know… I-it’s clear.”\n\n \n\nHe heard Greg take in a breath, “Steven…” the man hesitated, and his tone was strained and light when he spoke, “I think that, uh… I think you might be in heat.”\n\n \n\nSteven’s stomach dropped.\n\n \n\n\nIn heat. \n\n\n \n\nHe had been avoiding that phrase, unsure of what exactly it meant for him. It was far too ultimate, and it rewrote so much of how Steven saw himself and how he thought of his life. Hearing it said aloud, however, when he’s stuck in the throes of something he doesn’t understand, the phrase feels very apt.\n\n \n\n“No,” Still, Steven wanted to deny it. Why now? It had been so long, Steven was sure that there wouldn’t be any surprises. “I’m a beta. I can’t…”\n\n \n\nHe wasn’t prepared for this.\n\n \n\n“I mean,” Greg’s voice sounded stretched with discomfort, trying to remain delicate. “You’ve always been a bit of a late bloomer, kiddo.”\n\n \n\n“No…” Steven groaned. He couldn’t be an omega. He didn’t know the first thing about being an omega! Well, maybe he did, considering he was living it at this very moment, but it’s not like he knew how to deal with it.\n\n \n\n“Okay. Now, don’t worry, there’s nothing to be embarrassed about. I, uh–“ Greg choked on his words, breathing a nervous sigh. “I know I never really gave you much of a talk about this, and I’m sorry about that. But uh, well, ya see, when your body goes through these changes–“\n\n \n\n“Dad, p-please stop.” Steven protested through the hands covering his face. This was mortifying. He panted, feeling like his guts were tying themselves into knots. “D-don’t do this. I seriously cannot handle this conversation right now.”\n\n \n\nMore slick began seeping out from between Steven’s legs, proving his point. He crossed them and pulled the towel to further cover his lower half, disgusted with himself.\n\n \n\n“H-how do I make it stop?” The hybrid pleaded. There had to be some way to end this, some way other than with an alpha.\n\n \n\n“Uhh,” Greg furiously tapped on his phone, “Hold on, I think the pharmacy might carry a temporary heat suppressant. Lemme see if I can’t swift-cart it to you. What room are you in?”\n\n \n\n“Three.” Steven whimpered, growing more and more delirious as his fevered body began to burn hotter, almost seeming to fry his brain.\n\n \n\n“Okay, I found something. Lemme see here, it says it’ll take…” Greg paused, holding his breath. “Five hours to get to you. I-I’m sorry, bud. Do you think you can hang on that long?”\n\n \n\n“J-just do it.” Steven sobbed. “Please. Anything.”\n\n \n\n“Okay, alright. It’s on its way.”\n\n \n\n“Thank you.” The hybrid whispered.\n\n \n\n“In the meantime, uh…” Awkwardness pervaded the silent space in the call, “I know you don’t want to talk about it, but it might help for you to, ya know. Try to… take care of yourself.”\n\n \n\n“Don’t–“\n\n \n\n“It’s perfectly natural, and, uh, I can text you an article about how to help an omega in heat, or-or something along those lines. I won’t say another word, don’t worry–”\n\n \n\n“O-okay, alright, thank you, Dad!” Steven said through gritted teeth.\n\n \n\n“Remember to stay hydrated, kiddo! Drink plenty of water, and order yourself something to eat, something sweet–“\n\n \n\n“Bye!” Steven slapped the end-call button and pushed his phone as far away as possible so he didn’t have to see any messages his dad thought to send him.\n\n \n\n\nWell, that was the most embarrassing thing that’s ever happened.\n\n\n \n\nSteven tried to even his breathing, the heat rushing through him making his mind foggy and dim.\n\n \n\n\nHe didn’t want to have to deal with this. \n\n\n \n\nSteven should have been a beta, there was no reason for him to present as an omega. The hybrid figured it was just another way for the universe to fuck with him.\n\n \n\nIt wasn’t   fair.\n\n \n\nThe hybrid cried out as that deep, awful ache rocked through him again and more slick poured down his squeezed-shut thighs.\n\n \n\n\nMake it stop, please make it stop.\n\n\n \n\nAs much as Steven would like to claim ignorance, he wasn’t all that innocent. He’d seen porn before, obviously. Alpha-omega stuff littered the websites he would occasionally frequent. He wasn’t an idiot.\n\n \n\nAnother cramp twisted through him, and he writhed in discomfort and abject frustration.\n\n \n\n“Stars, please… fine. Fine!”\n\n \n\nDesperate for this clawing, wrenching pain to stop, Steven reached down and opened his legs shakily. This wasn’t completely new, at least. He’d experimented with himself in the shower once or twice, but now that his body was more or less designed for this, it became so much more daunting. He was hesitant as he trailed his hand down to this new, unfamiliar territory.\n\n \n\n\nOh, stars. \n\n\n \n\nHe was so wet.\n\n \n\nShame reddened the tips of his ears.\n\n \n\n\nWas he really gonna do this? \n\n\n \n\nHis entrance spasmed when the tip of his finger lightly brushed against it, begging for more.\n\n \n\n\nHe didn’t have a choice. \n\n\n \n\nSteven cautiously pressed the tip of his finger inside and was met with zero resistance, only slick, wet heat and tiny sparks of pleasure dancing along his spine.\n\n \n\nThe hybrid shuddered and moaned outright, his voice full of aching relief. He inched his finger in deeper and sucked in a breath, his eyes rolling back from how amazing it felt. It was almost terrifying to realize how much his body needed this, especially after he had unwittingly denied it this whole morning.\n\n \n\nModesty be damned, Steven needed this. \n\n \n\nGrasping onto the covers with one tight fist, Steven worked his finger in and out of himself, gasping and whining as the pleasure built faster than his brain could keep up with. Suddenly and without warning, he was tightening and spasming around his own finger, his hips bucking involuntarily and slick gushing out over his hand.\n\n \n\n“Aahhuh—nnnh!”\n\n \n\nThe feeling took over his entire body and he shook and gasped, his eyes screwed shut.\n\n \n\n“Hah, hah…”\n\n \n\nEuphoria washed over him, dazing him as his hips settled back onto the bed and he slowly slipped out of himself. He was panting hard, feeling like jello as his bent knees slid out from under him and his arms fell loosely to his sides. When his brain finally had the chance to catch up to what happened, Steven was stunned.\n\n \n\n\nDid he just come? \n\n\n \n\nWell, there was no denying that. It was definitely an orgasm; his body was shivering with aftershocks and the bed beneath him was soaked. He had been fucking himself for less than fifteen seconds, though, with just a single digit and no other stimulation.\n\n \n\nLooking down at his nude body, Steven saw that his cock was completely hard against his belly, oozing copious amounts of precum over his gem. The realization struck him with a strange mix of dread and curiosity.\n\n \n\n\nHe came like an omega. \n\n\n \n\nThat was definitely a new feeling. The few times he had played with himself down there had never felt anything like that. It was like his mind had gone completely blank, an instinct he never knew he had taking over and giving his body what it was craving without hesitation.\n\n \n\nIt was scary how right it felt.\n\n \n\nAnd the relief, stars.\n\n \n\nThe cramping, the discomfort, the sweltering fever had eased pretty much as soon as he started fucking himself. It was heavenly to get this kind of reprieve, especially after such an amazing orgasm. Steven hardly realized he was smiling like an idiot before he felt himself start leaking again, his entrance squeezing around something that wasn’t there.\n\n \n\nBefore he could even think, he was reaching down again and slipping his first finger back in all the way up to the knuckle.\n\n \n\n“Ahhh–“ Steven moaned highly, his back arching and his legs kicking. It was only after few hard, deep pumps that he slipped another finger in along the first, spreading himself wide with no resistance. A strangled cry ripped from his throat. “F-fuck!”\n\n \n\nHe forced his fingers deeper, twisting and scissoring at a frenzied pace all while he whined like a bitch in heat. Well, that much was accurate. A third finger joined the other two, and Steven howled.\n\n \n\nYes! Good! Steven’s brain screamed in delight.\n\n \n\n\nDeeper… Faster…More!\n\n\n \n\nSteven tried to push as deep as he possibly could, and when he curled those digits experimentally, it was all over.\n\n \n\nThere was something there, something that made Steven all but lose his mind. That one spot made his entire body seize, made him suck in a huge, gasping breath, and made him fall apart instantly. He shook and jerked with the force of his second orgasm, repeatedly pressing over the spot that made the brightest of stars explode in his belly.\n\n \n\nSteven was keening, unable to stop the debauched sounds from pouring out of him. He didn’t even need to touch his cock, the stimulation from his fingers alone making him come all over himself, white ropes painting his chest and slick coating his wrist.\n\n \n\nRecovering from the mind blowing euphoria Steven just experienced took what felt like several minutes. The hybrid was on cloud nine, little jolts of left over pleasure rocketing through him and making him whimper. His entrance was squeezing his fingers so tight, almost like his body was trying to keep them inside for as long as possible.\n\n \n\nAs amazing as it all felt, Steven was starting to sense that there was something missing. There was a strange feeling of emptiness inside him, as if there was some other space that he couldn’t seem to fill.\n\n \n\nKnot. Steven’s instinct whispered to him.\n\n \n\nOf course. That’s what all those omegas were always begging for in those videos Steven pretended he didn’t watch. They wanted their alphas to knot them.\n\n \n\nThey wanted their alphas to mate them.\n\n \n\nWell… how was he supposed to do take care of that on his own?\n\n \n\nThe pit of emptiness inside him grew the longer Steven pondered it. He wiggled his fingers a bit, trying to maneuver them deep enough to reach the space inside him that needed to be filled. He whined, frustrated that the more he tried, the more desperate his body grew, and the more insistent that little voice in his head became.\n\n \n\n\nKnot! Knot! Knot!\n\n\n \n\nTears pricked at the corners of Steven’s eyes as he twisted and writhed, trying to reach a place that he already knew he couldn’t reach. He let out a small sob, pulling out his useless fingers and pressing both hands to his lower abdomen. He could feel it right there, that gnawing hollowness that was slowly beginning to eat him alive.\n\n \n\nSteven felt like crying, the loneliness and neglect of his physical needs making him increasingly miserable. Curling up onto his side, Steven let the tears trickle, sniffling and hiccuping. He felt so pathetic, his emotions running especially high due to the hormones that were currently wreaking havoc on his system. He knew it wasn’t his fault for feeling this way, and that fact made him angry.\n\n \n\nWhy did this have to happen to him? Why now, when he was stuck in the middle of nowhere, more alone than ever?\n\n \n\nSteven didn’t see, but could feel his gem flicker in response to his distress. That happened pretty often, and he had been working extremely hard in therapy to make sure his destructive powers wouldn’t get the better of him when he was upset or in a panic.\n\n \n\n“I don’t need that right now, thanks.” Steven mumbled to his gem, his voice raw and tearful.\n\n \n\nAnd that’s when, suddenly, a thought occurred to Steven. Or, more like a memory.\n\n \n\n\n‘It’s okay, Steven. I’m never alone.’\n\n\n \n\nGarnet’s voice rang through his head, and then, gradually, the gears in his head started turning.\n\n \n\nSteven had an idea.\n\n \n\nTaking a deep breath, the hybrid used his clean hand to wrap his fingers around the edges of his gem. The sensation alone was enough to make him flinch, if it weren’t only for the psychosomatic response to the feeling of something clutching his gem.\n\n \n\nYou know, what with all the trauma.\n\n \n\nIgnoring the fact that his therapist would not recommend this, and ignoring his own natural fear, Steven held his breath and pulled the gem embedded in his flesh free.\n\n \n\nAnd the sheer pain of it made him immediately pass out.\n\n \n\n———\n\n \n\nHe came to what seemed to be only a few moments later, blinking his heavy eyelids and squinting at the bright pink glowing figure hovering directly over him.\n\n \n\nThe naked bright pink glowing figure.\n\n \n\nRight. Steven thought. What was I expecting?\n\n \n\nIt still made him blush.\n\n \n\n“Hi,” Steven greeted meekly.\n\n \n\nThe other version of himself’s eyes were wide, fixated on Steven’s face. The gaze that bore into the human was as intense as ever.\n\n \n\n“Fuse.” The Pink Steven commanded. His electronic voice reverberated through Steven’s ears, making Steven shiver. Under the blankness of his expression, he seemed confused. Concerned.\n\n \n\n“N-no.” Steven tried to argue.\n\n \n\n“No?” Pink Steven immediately snapped back, now visibly confused.\n\n \n\n“No, I-I brought you out f-for a reason!” The conviction in Steven’s voice slowly petered out, replacing itself with shame. “I-I need your help.“\n\n \n\n“You are distressed.” Pink noted, eyes flickering over the tear stains on Steven’s cheeks.\n\n \n\n“No… w-well, yes, but—ah!” Just then, another shooting pain twisted in Steven’s abdomen, making him hiss.\n\n \n\n“You are hurt.” Pink announced definitively, “I will heal you.”\n\n \n\nBefore Steven could stop him, Pink leaned down and kissed Steven on the forehead. A glittering light emanated from his lips, a zing of electricity sparking through Steven but not due to any aspect of their healing powers. Pink pulled back, looking at his human for any sign of a positive affect. Steven just looked surprised, a little dusting of pink on his cheeks. Still, the Gem had no reason to believe his powers hadn’t done the trick.\n\n \n\n“Fuse.” Pink insisted.\n\n \n\n“Th-thanks, but it’s uh, it’s not that kind of hurt.” Steven told him sheepishly. “I don’t need healing from you.”\n\n \n\nPink’s brows furrowed pensively. “What do you require?”\n\n \n\nSteven averted his eyes, flushing with an intense heat that didn’t necessarily have to do with being an omega. His gaze traveled along one of Pink’s arms, traipsing down his torso and staring at the bright, glittering gem for a long moment. Then, his eyes made their way a little bit lower. He bit his lip, feeling the pull of his instincts.\n\n \n\nPink’s cock was hard, whether the Gem knew what that meant or not. It made sense, considering the fact that so was Steven’s when they separated. Pink was nearly a perfect copy of him, frozen in time, if it weren’t for the gem, the pink glow and the owlish, unblinking diamond eyes studying him so intensely.\n\n \n\n“Uhnn…” Steven moaned, feeing his body urging him to do something by undulating and pouring out even more slick. He arched, breathing heavily through the embarrassment and fierce arousal boiling his blood. “P-please, I need you to touch me.”\n\n \n\nPink blinked twice and quickly acquiesced to Steven’s request, placing his impossibly hot hands on Steven’s arms. “Like this?”\n\n \n\n“No, ah, lo-lower…” Steven begged, tucking his chin to his chest self-consciously as he took a hold of Pink’s hands. He slid them down past his torso and onto his hips which trembled finely in the Gem’s grasp. The human shivered at the contact. The feeling of another pair of hands on his feverish skin was indescribably good, and he whimpered for it.\n\n \n\nPink, to his part, appeared to be somewhat nervous, staring down at his own still hands with a dozen questions whizzing behind those sharp, analytical eyes.\n\n \n\n“Is this what you required?” The Gem asked with as much warmth as a popsicle in a tundra and a hint of what Steven could only assume was uncertainty. “Can we fuse now?”\n\n \n\n“Oh, fuck it,” Steven growled in frustration, latching onto the sides of Pink’s head and pulling himself up to smash their lips together in a hot, frenzied kiss.\n\n \n\n“Mmpf!” Pink replied into Steven’s mouth, the most animated sound Steven had ever heard him make. The Gem’s eyes were as wide as saucers, pure shock overriding his system, yet he still kept Steven’s hips firmly in his grasp. He allowed himself to be pushed backwards by his human’s meager strength. The human wasted no time in climbing on top of him, seating himself on Pink’s lap as his hungry tongue delved deep and his body began to rock of its own volition.\n\n \n\n“Mm-ohhh, stars, yesss…” Steven whined past Pink’s lips, moaning shamelessly as he ground his hips into his Gem’s. It was like he wasn’t controlling his own body, his omega instinct taking over and doing everything in its delirious power to touch, kiss, fuck, mate. When their cocks unintentionally brushed together, Steven whimpered, digging his nails into Pink’s shoulder and attempting to grind their cocks together with more vigor. Much to Steven’s surprise, he heard and felt a distinct breathy sound leave his Gem’s mouth from the motion. A string of saliva trailed down Steven’s chin as he pulled back, trying to focus on his Gem’s face.\n\n \n\nPink… Pink was blushing? \n\n \n\nIt was a little hard to tell, but there was a noticeable dark splotch settling on the Gem’s cheeks, his mouth slightly agape in wonder, his glowing eyes burning hotly instead of coldly as they gazed at him.\n\n \n\n“Do…uhhn… do you feel this?” Steven reached down to brazenly grab Pink’s cock, giving it a few clumsy, experimental strokes. Despite the lack of technique on Steven’s part, Pink closed his eyes, a soft sigh of pleasure barely audible over Steven’s own breathless panting. Then, Pink blinked his bright, lidded eyes back open and nodded slightly, affirmative.\n\n \n\nSteven smiled, reassured that he at least wasn’t being totally selfish about this.\n\n \n\n“W-well, then this should be guh-good for the both of us…”\n\n \n\nLifting himself up, Steven angled Pink’s cock as skillfully as he could to line up with his entrance, shaking with arousal and adrenaline. Feeling the throbbing head pass over it until finally catching, the human wasted no time in sinking himself down onto Pink’s cock.\n\n \n\n“A-aahhh…!”\n\n \n\nSteven cried out, a sharp, high sound that ripped from his throat as Pink’s cock slid into him to the hilt. He was nearly sobbing from it, feeling so achingly full and fulfilled already. It was mind-blowing, and it had barely even started. Steven clawed his nails down Pink’s back, tucking his chin into the Gem’s shoulder and trying his best to hang on as his limbs weakened from the sheer pleasure of having a cock fully seated inside him.\n\n \n\nPink remained completely still, tensed with obvious pleasure but ultimately unsure of what he was supposed to do.\n\n \n\n“Puh-p-please…” The human’s voice sounded whiny and pitiful even to his own ears, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. He felt his strength being sapped, his instinct forcing him to rely on the one who had unwittingly claimed him. He tried to rock himself back and forth, but he had little power to do much of anything except succumb to his honorary alpha’s whim. He felt tears building up, his own helplessness making him desperate to appeal to the person his instinct viewed as having all the power. He keened pathetically, jerking back and forth on Pink’s lap. “Fuck, please f-fuck me.Uhnnffuck me…fuck me, p-pleassse.”\n\n \n\n“Whatever you wish, my Steven.” Pink’s voice sounded uncharacteristically sultry and teasing to the human’s ears. It caused goosebumps to raise along his skin. He didn’t have time to really register those words, parse through their possessive, reverent phrasing, before Pink shoved them both down onto the bed and Steven’s mind went blank.\n\n \n\nThe human hardly registered that he was now on his back and the length inside him had sunk deeper from the change in position. Mindless, Steven was mewling, wordlessly begging for Pink to move, to get rough, to shove him into the mattress and have his way with him.\n\n \n\nDespite all of these fantasies, the Gem started with slow, short thrusts, the unpracticed motion slowly rocking Steven’s limp body up and down. Even with the gradual start, the human was in paradise, wrapping his legs around Pink’s back and hooking his feet, arching himself into the thrusts, moaning and whining wantonly for more, more, more.\n\n \n\nAnd Pink did not disappoint. With the permission, he sped up, deepening his thrusts and causing the human below him to squeal in delight. Pink’s cock was grazing over the spot inside Steven that had him writhing, gasping, clawing and gripping onto Pink’s shoulders for dear life.\n\n \n\n“Ahhnn…! Oh, starsss, oh fu-uck!” Steven cried, his voice pitched high and cracking all over the place. In another situation, Steven might have been embarrassed by his reactions. Right now, though, even with all his squeaking and stuttering, the only thing he could focus on was Pink.\n\n \n\nPink grunted, the increasing tightness around his cock and the way Steven’s claws started digging marks into his shoulders distracting him from his mission. His Steven needed him. He shouldn’t be getting caught up in his own pleasure. He shouldn’t be focusing on the attractive way Steven’s body glistened with sweat and slick, or the beautiful sound of his voice giving out, or the way he twisted and writhed along with everything Pink did.\n\n \n\n“H-harder… ahh… faster!” Steven begged breathlessly, tipping his head back and exposing his throat in a naturally submissive gesture. He was all but drowning, diving deeper an deeper into his instinct with every thrust. He mewled, “Ple-ease… Alpha, please!”\n\n \n\nInstead of having the desired affect, Pink started slowing down gradually, until it came to little more than a snails pace, and then stopped completely. Confused and irritated, Steven looked back down and tried his best to focus on Pink’s face with his fuzzy, heady gaze.\n\n \n\n“I am not an alpha.” Pink told him very matter-of-factly, his head slightly titled like a confused puppy. The human almost clicked his tongue in annoyance. Who cares about the semantics? This was the closest thing to an alpha Steven could get right now! He almost responded as such before Pink firmly corrected: “I am a Diamond.”\n\n \n\nSteven’s eyes widened. Hearing that come out of his Gem’s mouth wasn’t necessarily something he was ready for. Of course, Pink wasn’t wrong about that. However, the connotation to that word was something Steven didn’t currently have the brain power to unpack. Not now, at least, not like this. Especially since, with all the disorienting hormones flooding Steven’s brain, the title that Pink had just claimed for himself was a little…or perhaps very… very hot.\n\n \n\n“O-okay… Diamond.” Steven tested the word out on his tongue nervously, seeing how it tasted. He reached over with a shaking hand to caress Pink’s torso, his thumb just a few centimeters away from making contact with his gem…his diamond. Pink tipped his head down and watched this happen. His human was so close to touching the source of his power, the thing that normally binds them together, but he fell short at the last second. Steven’s hand retracted, gripping onto Pink’s forearm instead and leading him to place his palm on the center of his chest.\n\n \n\nPink met Steven’s eyes, the moment filled with electric tension.\n\n \n\n“My Diamond…” Steven said, voice hoarse.\n\n \n\nPink’s breath stuttered at that. Something strange passed over him with those two words, filling him with a syrupy, warm rush. Hearing it come from Steven, watching the words pass his bruised, bitten lips, it made something buried deep in his gem start to come alive.\n\n \n\n“I w-want you…” Steven was growing quite pleased with himself through the haze of his heat, seeing what affect he was having on his Gem. His lips were upturned, sly, as he slid the Gem’s hand up his own chest, past his collar, until finally bringing it to rest over his throat. “To ruin me… my Diamond.”\n\n \n\nPink’s eyes flashed, the stark white diamond-shaped pupils so clearly apparent for a split-second. It alarmed Steven only slightly, sensing a distinct change in his Gem. If he had known that getting a little formal would be the way to get Pink to fuck his brains out, he would have done it immediately.\n\n \n\nIt did in fact seem to do the trick: the Gem visibly relaxed with a confident grin, a strangely expressive look on him. He leaned down, bringing his lips mere inches away from the human’s, and then wrapped his fingers securely around Steven’s throat. The human gasped, lifting his chin to give Pink better access.\n\n \n\n“Say it again,” Pink asked, demanded. He started rolling his hips at an excruciatingly slow pace, making Steven whine and grind down into them in an attempt to get more friction going. In a flash, Steven’s hip was caught by Pink’s free hand, immobilizing the human’s pelvis with an iron grip. “Say it.”\n\n \n\n“My Diamond!” Steven sobbed, so desperate for that wonderful, satisfying friction that was just out of reach. He was so unbelievably horny for it, too, now that this stark change in Pink was illuminating fantasies he didn’t even know he had. His hands mindlessly went to try and pry off Pink’s hold on him, causing the Gem to instead catch both of Steven’s wrists in one hand and force them into the pillows above his head. He fully shoved Steven down, pressing his weight into him and subsequently pushing his length deeper inside, brushing up against the human’s sweet spot. Steven cried out, swept up by the power of someone so much stronger than him, forcibly held down, pinned by his wrists and neck and, of course, by the cock throbbing inside him.\n\n \n\n“Keep going.” Pink prompted.\n\n \n\nThe human begged profusely, tears trickling down his cheeks and voice completely shot. “My Diamond! My Diamond, please, please fuck me hard a-and fast. C-claim me. Make me yours, fuck, please, my Diamond, I-I need it. I need you. Please, my Diamond!”\n\n \n\nPink kissed away one of his tears, a subtle sparkle of light bursting off of his cheek. “Good Steven.”\n\n \n\nAt that, Pink got straight to the point. He began pounding away into Steven with as much force as he knew the human could withstand, causing Steven to yell and moan and cry in a raw, ruined voice. The Gem panted and groaned with the way Steven’s entrance spasmed around him, admiring the hopelessly fucked-out expression on the human’s face and enjoying the pleading nonsense spilling from his mouth.\n\n \n\nSteven was pretty much incoherent at this point, unable to control the babbling or the way his body continuously arched into Pink’s. Even with the little amount of leverage he had, Steven did his best to meet each thrust, pushing further and further to the bright precipice of white hot pleasure only Pink could help him reach.\n\n \n\nPink’s hot breath ghosted over Steven’s cheek until the Gem turned to join their lips in a kiss, his tongue quickly dominating Steven’s mouth and muffling his helpless cries. Pink’s hand still rested over Steven’s throat, feeling the rapid thumping of his pulse and the vibration of his voice beneath his fingers. The Gem decided to give an experimental squeeze, gentle so as not to cut off his human’s air supply. The reaction was instantaneous, Steven breaking the kiss to throw his head back and try to push into Pink’s grip.\n\n \n\n“A-alpha…” the human gasped, his eyes shut and his brows knitted. He was clearly in a world of his own, far away enough to forget that the person laying their claim on him went by a different title.\n\n \n\nPink growled, relinquishing his grip around Steven’s throat to grab his jaw firmly, forcing the human’s head back down to face him with a rough jerk. Steven’s eyes blew wide open at the gesture, meeting Pink’s glowing gaze instantly, giving his alpha his full attention.\n\n \n\n“That is not my name.” Pink snapped, causing Steven to flinch at the reprimanding tone. The Gem pulled his hips back, slipping out of the omega until only the head of his cock remained, squeezed tightly by Steven’s entrance as if his body was begging for it to stay put. Pink let go of his pinned wrists but pressed the human’s hips down onto the bed, giving him nowhere to go. “Now, what are you to call me?”\n\n \n\n“My Diamond!” Steven corrected himself, strained and urgent. He then slurred and stuttered out a litany of apologies, trying his best to appease his Gem with the desperation of a dying man. “I’m s-sorry, my Diamond. Pleah-please don’t st-stop. Sorry, m’sorry.”\n\n \n\nPink smiled as he caressed Steven’s cheek, thumbing away a tear drop as it cascaded down. Admittedly, it was fun exercising this much power over the human, making him grovel and obey. Some part of Pink wanted to see how much further he could take it.\n\n \n\nFeigning carelessness, he let go of Steven, pulling out of him completely with a pop and watching as the human’s face lit up with panic. Pink shuffled back on the bed, severing any contact with Steven and staying out of reach as the human weakly scrambled and tried to cling.\n\n \n\n“N-no, my Diamond, please, don’t l-leave me.” Steven cried, attempting to crawl onto his front and get closer to Pink on the bed, a pathetic display that made Pink’s gem warm. “I-I’ll be good! Please don’t go! Please, my Diamond!”\n\n \n\nPink chuckled. The snarky confidence building in his stature and the natural dominance emanating from his diamond was causing his physical form to shift and change. A glow overtook his body, reforming him in this new, Diamond-like image. He was bigger, more imposing, a perfect picture of the strong, broad alpha Steven was so in need of.\n\n \n\nSteven didn’t even seem to notice this change, too drunk from his heat and distressed by the abandonment to focus on how his Gem’s form now differed from his own.\n\n \n\n“Pitiful little thing.” Pink lilted, his expression affectionate and cruelly delighted. Steven had made it close to him at this point, weakly clawing at his thigh and whimpering like a wounded animal. “Thinking you have any control over what your Diamond gives you. You must be put in your place.”\n\n \n\nWhen Pink reached over and grabbed the back of Steven’s neck, his immediate response surprised the Gem. The human went completely limp, his hand sliding off of Pink’s leg and his knees and elbows giving out beneath him. His begging quieted, only soft, wordless whines escaping him now. Pink lifted him up from the prone position, watching curiously as the omega just dangled. He was basically a rag doll in Pink’s hold, and the Gem suddenly recalled a fuzzy memory from their time as a fusion. In a video they once watched privately, an alpha did this to a standing omega and it made her collapse onto the floor, presenting for him. It was a pressure point, some kind of trick to get an omega in heat to submit to their alpha.\n\n \n\nThrilled with this discovery, Pink grinned deviously. He threw Steven onto his front, pressing his face and chest into the covers while keeping his grip on the back of his neck firmly in place. He watched in amazement as the omega’s body naturally presented itself to him, his back arching beautifully with his knees spread wide.\n\n \n\nThe portrait Steven made was too inviting to resist, so, without further ado, Pink shuffled behind him and lined up his length to Steven’s slick entrance. The omega tensed slightly and whimpered in anticipation but otherwise stayed still, bound by Pink’s hold on him.\n\n \n\n“Who am I?” Pink asked one final time.\n\n \n\n“Mm-myyy Diamond…” Steven murmured past the covers his face was being pressed into, tears of joy and relief soaking into them. His Diamond wasn’t abandoning him. His Diamond was right here, right about give Steven exactly what he needed.\n\n \n\n“Good boy.” Pink praised before slamming into Steven to the hilt and resuming a fast, punishing pace.\n\n \n\nThe omega keened loudly and drooled, his eyes rolling all the way back into his head. This new position made every single one of Pink’s thrusts hit his sweet spot with dead accuracy. He would have been thrashing, shrieking, tearing into the pillows if it weren’t for the hand on the back of his neck subduing him. It was like he had been sent into a totally different headspace, one where he was only half-aware of what was going on. He wasn’t Steven anymore, just an omega under the control of his alpha Diamond, vulnerable and willing, relying on his Diamond to take care of everything while all he had to do was submit.\n\n \n\nPink was whispering sweet nothings as he pounded the omega beneath him, however, they all pretty much fell on deaf ears. All Steven could register was the immense pressure building in his gut, and every move Pink made brought him closer and closer to his ultimate climax.\n\n \n\n“Ahhhn! Ahhhn! Na-aahh!” Steven’s moans continually rose in pitch, in volume, as white hot pleasure bloomed in his belly. His instinct became increasingly more vocal, more bold. It was telling him exactly what he needed, and he didn’t waste time letting his Diamond know as well. “Nuhhh…Knot…kn-knot! Pluh-p-pleeease, give it-t-to meee… knuh-knot me…Knot me!”\n\n \n\nPink listened to his human beg, watching him attempt to fight the paralysis he instilled with tiny little jerks and spasms. He knew what the omega needed, remembering what a knot was from the videos they’ve watched. Even though Pink hadn’t realized it at first, the human had given him the sole purpose of mating with him the moment he had ripped them apart. It was Pink’s mission, his way to help Steven through this. So what, if he ended up having a little fun in the process?\n\n \n\nNow, however, it came down to knotting him, finishing this and giving Steven a reprieve from the intense, all encompassing heat that had long been melting his brain and boiling his blood. Luckily for Steven, Pink could shapeshift, and even though he wasn’t an actual alpha, he was able to augment his form in order to take the place of one.\n\n \n\nAnything for his human.\n\n \n\nPink rocked deep into him, punching harsh, guttural moans out of Steven as he helplessly took the force. Pink leaned down until his mouth was next to the human’s ear, letting his breath ghost over it in a hushed voice.\n\n \n\n“I will always give you what you need, my Steven.”\n\n \n\nAt that, the Gem began shapeshifting his length into what his human required. He had it swell gradually, letting Steven feel the burn of friction inside him grow and grow, and listened to him scream for Pink in frantic ecstasy. He was almost able to meet his thrusts with what little movement he was allowed, so desperate to finally be knotted, to feel the release of pressure and flood of hormones take over his entire body.\n\n \n\nThere was just one single, tiny thing missing, though.\n\n \n\nThis time, Steven’s mouth was way ahead of his brain, unable to think about any potential consequences, far too enraptured by the heat of the moment.\n\n \n\n“Buh-b-bite… bite me…” the omega panted, begged, looking up at his Diamond pleadingly, meeting his eyes as best as he could from this difficult angle. He wanted his Diamond to mate him, and biting is what mates do, right? Fuck, knot, bite… these were all of the things Steven’s instincts were screaming for. “Ple-ease, bite me, c-claim me…”\n\n \n\nSeeing Steven so debauched, so helplessly needy for him, gazing up at him with those adoring, sweet brown eyes… well, how could Pink possibly resist him?\n\n \n\nThe Diamond gave in, letting go of the omega’s pressure point in favor of wrapping his hand around his torso and pulling him flush against his chest. Steven cried out and sprawled, now free to move of his own accord. He used the opportunity to clutch the arm secured around him, digging his claws in and rocking in tandem with Pink’s increasingly sloppy thrusts. When the Diamond’s mouth latched onto where Steven’s neck meets his shoulder, he gasped, arching into it. When the Diamond sunk his teeth into the flesh deep enough to draw blood, Steven screamed, in equal parts pain and pleasure.\n\n \n\nThe dam finally broke. With the bite, Steven came harder than he thought possible, his vision whiting out for several seconds and his mouth gaping open in a silent scream. Pink kept going, fucking Steven through his orgasm and overwhelming the poor omega as he sobbed in devastating ecstasy. Soon enough, Pink’s pseudo-knot finally caught, making the myriad of sensations Steven was already being assaulted with somehow escalate to new heights. He was so full, so complete, and he sagged against his Diamond when his body simply couldn’t withstand the intensity any longer.\n\n \n\nPink was growling into the bite wound as he came as well, letting all of that built up tension release deep inside the omega in several quick bursts. Releasing Steven from his jaws, he licked away the blood but neglected to heal the actual wound. He would do it if Steven asked him to. For now, though, he wanted it to remain.\n\n \n\nSteven was jolting hard in Pink’s grasp, his whole body trembling finely but twitching every time another shockwave passed over him, or when Pink shifted even a millimeter. The omegas breath stuttered even as he tried to slow his panting and breathe deeply, the exhaustion quickly catching up with him. Steven felt the heat slowly drain from his body, being replaced by oversensitivity and soreness.\n\n \n\nPink held the human securely on his lap as he shook through the aftermath of it all, his cock still seated deep inside him. Slightly curious, the Gem decided to test the strength of their physical bond by very gently attempting to pull out. Steven cried out in obvious pain, reaching behind him and gripping onto Pink’s thighs to try and stop him from moving an inch.\n\n \n\n“Don’t do that!” Steven wailed, his entire body rippling in response to the minuscule movement Pink had made. He was extremely sensitive right now, and any action that was pleasurable to him before now registered as painful. He pouted miserably. “It hurts. P-please just stay still!”\n\n \n\n“Sorry, sorry,” Pink murmured, kissing along Steven’s shoulders apologetically.\n\n \n\nSteven shivered at the feeling, whimpering as his aftercare needs started making themselves more apparent, his post-orgasm haze continuing to fade. “H-hold me tighter… please.”\n\n \n\nPink fully embraced the smaller human, wrapping his arms over his shoulders, encompassing him in his body heat and squeezing him tight. Steven sighed, the pressure of his Gem’s body encasing him serving as a huge comfort.\n\n \n\nSeveral minutes passed of them in this position, stock still aside from Steven’s shaking and breathing. Pink was absolutely content to give Steven all the time he needed to recover. Eventually, though, Steven’s eyes fell shut and his head lolled. He blinked, realizing how much he really needed to be horizontal right now.\n\n \n\n“Could you lay us down?” Steven asked meekly, knowing it was going against what he had just begged Pink not to do, “A-as gentle as you can?”\n\n \n\nPink, silent, just nodded. He retracted one of his arms, using it to support their combined weight as he slowly lowered them onto their sides. Steven tensed and whimpered as they went, crying out when their hips shifted as they landed on the bed and had to adjust slightly.\n\n \n\n“Are you alright?” Pink whispered, feeling guilty for unintentionally harming the human again.\n\n \n\nSteven sniffled. “Mmhmm. It’s okay. I-I’m okay.”\n\n \n\nThe human burrowed his head into the pillow and sighed, ready to fall asleep and not wake up for at least the next six years. That is, until something suddenly occurred to him. He cracked his eyes open, lifting one of his hands to touch the spot where his neck meets his shoulder. He hissed, the sting from the fresh bite mark there lighting up as he grazed over it.\n\n \n\n…Oh, fuck.\n\n \n\n“Y-you bit me?” Steven asked, hushed with shock.\n\n \n\nPink was silent for a moment, unsure how to respond. “You asked me to.”\n\n \n\nSteven snapped his scandalized mouth shut.\n\n \n\nOh… he thought.\n\n \n\nOh shit.\n\n \n\nYeah, he definitely remembers saying that now.\n\n \n\nHe dropped his arm back to the bed.\n\n \n\n“Fuck. Well, that’s not good.”\n\n \n\n“Why not?” Pink asked innocently.\n\n \n\n“What do you mean, why not?” Steven replied incredulously, and it would have been more impactful if his voice wasn’t so scratchy and hoarse. “Because you’re my gem and you mated me. You claimed me as your bonded mate.”\n\n \n\n“I thought that was what you wanted.” Pink argued, his voice much more calm than Steven’s but still pinched with a hint of defensiveness. “That was all you kept saying. ‘Claim me. Knot me. Bite me.’”\n\n \n\nSteven blushed brightly, the conviction that he felt slowly fading away until it was replaced by sheepishness.\n\n \n\n“Really?“\n\n \n\n“Yes.”\n\n \n\n“…Geez.”\n\n \n\n“Was this not true?” Pink interrogated, making Steven wince. “Did you not want me to mate with you?”\n\n \n\nSteven sucked in a breath. He wanted to protest, to tell Pink there was no way he would want to mate with his Gem. Are you kidding? But… he couldn’t. His emotions were too raw, too real, and no matter how much he wanted to mask them, he couldn’t hide right now. Not from him.\n\n \n\n“N-no, it–… I did. Want it.” He bit out.\n\n \n\nPink snickered slightly, his breath tickling the back of Steven’s neck. “I thought so.”\n\n \n\nSlowly, gradually, Steven felt the constriction keeping Pink’s knot locked inside him finally release. He sighed in relief.\n\n \n\n“You, uh… you can pull it out now.”\n\n \n\nPink looked down at where their bodies were still joined. “Oh.”\n\n \n\nSteven grit his teeth as he felt Pink pull out, the general discomfort bothering him more than any actual pain. He whimpered when the Gem finally pulled himself free, the sudden emptiness chilling him to his core and making a strange, distant ache throb inside his chest.\n\nIn response to the sudden negative feelings he didn’t quite understand, Steven twisted over to face Pink and immediately clung to him. He buried his face in his chest, wrapped his arms around his sides, tangled their legs, and snuggled into the other’s warm, glowing form.\n\n \n\n“D-don’t leave me.” Steven’s tone was vulnerable, muffled and slightly tearful. His breath hiccuped, and he bit his lip hard. He was crying all of the sudden, not truly understanding why it came on so strong or what it was even about. He was a mess of conflicting emotions and hormones, and he just wanted to be held. To feel loved. To be close to someone. He felt completely ridiculous for it. Of course, he would be one to break down and cry and be all needy after having sex. Still, he couldn’t help but plead with his Gem: “Please just… don’t l-leave me alone. I-I don’t wanna be alone anymore. I don’t wanna be alone.”\n\n \n\nPink was shocked by the sudden mood swing but cradled Steven all the same, only wanting offer to him comfort and soothe his rampant emotions.\n\n \n\n“Oh, my sweet Steven…” Pink cooed, rubbing the human’s back with one hand and brushing through his curls with the other.\n\n \n\nSteven peeked up at him, wet eyes looking at him expectantly, reverently, like Pink was the only one in the world that mattered to him.\n\n \n\n“We will never be alone.”\n\n \n\nSteven sniffled, smiling shyly as he burrowed his head back into Pink’s chest. The tears he’d been shedding morphed into those of joy and relief. Rightfully exhausted, Steven eventually, finally fell asleep, cuddled up into Pink’s arms.\n\n \n\nPink idly traced a finger along the tender flesh surrounding the fresh bite wound, not getting close enough to it for Steven to feel the sting and be woken up. The Gem smirked, admiring the way his human looked with his Diamond’s mark on him.\n\n \n\n‘We will never be alone.’\n\n \n\nIt was true.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n…Pink had made sure of it.\n\n\n "}
+{"text": "\"This is all your fault, England.\" France was the first to speak.\n\nEngland, who'd been staring at America with an odd, fixed intensity, snapped his head up and glared.\n\n\"I beg your pardon?\"\n\n\"It is entirely to your blame! You were the one who had given him those damn Puritans. Look how they have retarded his development!\"\n\nEngland sputtered, but to everyone's surprise he calmed down. Completely straight-faced - aside from a wicked gleam in his green eyes - he actually said, \"You're right, France.\"\n\nFrance immediately felt an urge to check if England was ill, delirious perhaps.\n\n\"It is entirely my responsibility,\" England went on. \"I shall now take it upon myself to bring America's sexual education up to date.\"\n\n\"....what?\" America gurgled.\n\nFrance was already shaking his head. \"Non, non, Angleterre,\" he purred, his accent deliberately thickening. \"What young America needs is guidance from someone who is actually skilled in the arts of the bedroom.\"\n\n\"France is right!\" China said, and observers wondered how often that phrase was going to be used today. \"And my long and storied history of four thousand years obviously qualifies ....\"\n\n\"Excuse me, China-san,\" Japan interrupted. \"But I believe in this case, I am the more qualified. I already have several helpful guides to sexual intercourse, produced over a wide variety of multimedia channels, ones I'm sure America-san will find suitable to his needs....I have already given him similar items, so....\"\n\nItaly pushed past them to kneel beside America, beaming, German being pulled along behind him. \"Americaaaaa~ why didn't you tell us? Sex is a very awesome thing, like pasta, only it's not food but like the equivalent of pasta in your pants, and Germany and I will be glad to help you....\"\n\n\"No, I think not,\" England interrupted, moving closer to America protectively. \"I don't think I want Germany's dogs involved in my America's sexual education....and we all know that's how it would end up, you told us yourself, Italy.\"\n\n\"He's not yours anymore, England!\" Spain protested.\n\nJapan was politely but acidly telling Korea and China that any 'guides to sexual intercourse' they would produce were only cheap, inferior copies of his own; France was eying Canada - who was still sitting beside his brother's head, stroking his hair gently - and obviously plotting; India was reminding everyone she owned the Kama Sutra, the concept of tantric sex, and the ropes tying America up; Mexico and the countries of South and Central America were discussing how to propose a \"Let's Have A Pan-American Orgy You Other Continents Keep Out of It\" initiative; Switzerland was smiling widely as he discovered that the gun that had been in America's back holster was a Swiss-made Sig; and Lovino was simultaneously managing the betting action among the observers while keeping an eye on Spain. The observers were munching, video-taping, discussing excitedly, having their own sexual liasions underneath tables....in short, it was chaos.\n\nAmerica's voice, loud, brought the room to a standstill. \"Are you all really arguing over who gets to lecture me about sex-ed? Jeez! I know you guys think my school-system sucks, but really...\"\n\nThere was a collective twitch about yet another example of America's density, which approached in size and severity the status of a black hole, and that was it. England couldn't take it anymore.\n\nHe swung himself over America's waist, straddled him, hauled him up by the shoulders, and kissed him hotly.\n\nAmerica gasped, his eyes widening, and panted for breath as England released him - only to gasp again as his head was wrenched to the side and Canada sealed their mouths together. Unseen hands - unseen because Canada's head was blocking his view, and his eyes kept wanting to slide closed, began to tug at his jeans.\n\nWhen Canada broke for breath, America's head was turned again, more gently this time, and France began laying soft kisses all over his face. America squirmed. There were a few answering gasps and someone tugged on his hair.\n\nThe observers licked their lips, almost simultaneously, and began reassessing their chances. They couldn't win America one-on-one, but perhaps joining in the orgy now beginning in the center of the chamber was a possibility...\n\nIt was then, while America was tied up and helpless and the other countries either watched hungrily or molested him, that the Bosses walked in to collect their Nations.\n\n \n\n*** \n\nThere was another moment of charged silence, in a day that seemed full of them. The Bosses gaped at their Nations. The Nations gaped back at their Bosses.\n\nAmerica's Boss was the first to speak. \"...are you gang-raping my country?\" he asked, blankly, politely, his hands making involuntary little twitches.\n\nThe other Bosses began to sweat as their Nations couldn't find words to even begin to describe what was going on. Visions of an America who felt violated - and they all knew what happened when America felt it had been violated - danced in their mind, along with visions of Tomahawk missiles, airborne troops being dropped into their cities, US Naval carriers sailing into their harbors with decks packed full of fighter aircraft, populaces being forced to watch American cable television.\n\n\n\"Nyet,\" Russia finally answered, which was sadly undermined by the fact that he was kneeling between America's spread legs and he was pulling down America's pants, exposing boxers dotted with little X-Wings and TIE fighters.\n\n\"Then why is he tied up, and...and.... why are you stripping him, and why are you....\" America’s Boss tried to find an act he could describe decently, couldn't, began to shake.\n\n\"Boss...\" America said, plaintively, his eyes big and blue and very shiny. No one ever found out what he was going to say, because America's Boss began yelling, American Secret Service began streaming in and pointing guns at everyone, which prompted the other security details to start getting antsy, and then the bosses of Poland began to shriek shrilly as they discovered their Nation in the middle of sex with Lithuania.\n\nWhen it was over, half-naked America was standing, rather dazed-looking, behind his shorter Boss, who glared at the other countries like an overprotective father (England was visibly miffed, had been stepped on by America's boss while he was collecting Alfred, and had to be held back by his Prime Minister) and the Secret Service were asking people for America's clothes.\n\nThey found nothing. (Canada would later drop the leather jacket off - somehow no one would notice him doing so.)\n\nAmerica was shooed away in the hubbub, while no one was looking, somehow. His President stayed a while longer to yell at everyone, but everyone was so busy yelling/questioning/looking for their own Nations that no one answered, and then he left too.\n\nIt was an altogether very eventful day.\n\n***\n\nOriginal AN: thanks for all the nice reactions. I actually have no idea who ought to take his virginity, so...heh. What would you guys do if this was the last part?\n\n \n\n2019 note: I really had been pondering ending the fill here originally. Instead it became....something else. "}
+{"text": "Jaime didn’t say much to his friends on the phone. They knew there was big trouble before they bounded into the barn ready for war. He decided on brutal honesty and they would hear it as Claire heard it. Angus was on his feet sending the chair into the wall. His eyes were huge with fury. Rupert was taking deep breaths with his hand on his chest. “Why couldn’t this fight be with a man!” Angus shouted. Jaime waited for them to settle down and continued with Laoghaire’s visit to the barn. Both men were on their feet and Jaime asked them to please sit. “We have to make a plan before Claire is hurt or the barn burns down with the horses in it.” \n\nRupert asked why she hadn’t been arrested yet. “She was no longer at the Princess when Phoenix PD arrived to arrest her. She was not at her home when Mesa PD came to arrest her. The Mesa officer I’ve been workin with stays in contact, thank Christ, or I might lose my mind. Because of the previous attempt and her threat to have Claire killed they are posting officers to watch her house until she is caught. It won’t be long now.” Jaime let out a long exhausted breath. \n\nRupert and Angus took their seats as the gravety of the threat became crystal clear in their heads. \n\nClaire paced in front of Jag’s stall. He watched her but after several minutes he kicked the bars and Claire almost jumped out of her skin. “Oh, sorry. I bet that’s irritating to watch someone pace.” She had to do something or lose her mind. She left a note for Jaime on the board. ‘Checking Fred and Ginger, back soon’. Claire grabbed two apples from the supply she kept in the tack room and walked to the back pasture again. Once inside she sat on the fence facing the sunrise. Now that she was alone there was no stopping the tears which were soon sobs. She wrapped her arms around her stomach and cried so hard it brought Ginger to her. She handed her an apple but could not speak. Fred bumped her arm on the other side and looked directly into her eyes. Claire thought, not for the first time, that somehow he knew she was hurting. She handed him an apple. Ginger wandered away to eat grass but Fred continued to bump her arm until she turned around facing him. She jumped off the fence and rubbed his belly until her arms were sore. “I’m okay Fred. Just needed to get that out.” \n\nRather than go back to the barn she walked to the house to let pup out. She grabbed bagels and cream cheese and a couple knives for the guys. Back at the keypad she looked around for Pup and saw him in her peripheral vision running full speed for the barn. She was too far to hear him hup but she saw his mouth move like he was barking. He was jumping up to see Jag over the half door when she heard it. Pup barked and then ran under a bush with his tail between his legs. Claire punched the numbers and ran toward the barn. Jag had lowered his head so Pup could lick him then he ran for Claire. He had so much energy she just sat down on the grass until he barreled into her. He circled her sniffing and poked his nose in her chest, stomach, armpits, and hair, finally pulling a giggle out of her. She put her hands up in surrender.\n\nOdd behavior from this little dog, well, not so little anymore. Why hightail it to Jag’s half-door and run back? “It’s because you are a silly pooch in love with a horse, who is a boy same as you. Just sayin.” Claire and Pup walked back to the barn with the bagels. She could see her trailer as she walked. She could be packed, lease broken, horses loaded, and headed somewhere far from here by noon. She could ditch her cell phone and never have to speak to Jamie Fraser again. Colorado didn’t have a six-month wait for transfer of medical license. She could be in an operating room by next month. Colorado did not have the heat and definitely had better horse shows. Colorado had the Rocky Mountains and amazing small towns, like Loveland, where she attended a conference. She loved it there. She could be headed there by noon. She felt hot tears again, then the sobs. Pup hupped at her, obviously worried, and another bark came out scaring the shit out of him. He sat on his tail and pressed against her leg shaking and looking around. Claire wiped tears away and looked down at him. She felt him shake and started laughing. He was still looking around for the bigger dog that barked at him. Claire dropped to her knees and hugged him. She was sobbing and laughing at the same time. “That was you who barked Pup and you’ll do it again, many times. Don’t be scared. He looked up at her and licked her face. Somehow he knew he had much to be scared of right now. \n\nPup planted his butt on the road and refused to get up or even look at Claire. He reminded her of a two-year old that put his blanket over his head because it was safe under there. How could he not feel the shift in the energy. Dog’s were amazingly perceptive. Claire called Jaime’s cell. “I am sorry to interrupt but Pup is sitting in the middle of the road and won’t get up. He’s scared of something I think. Anyway, you can whistle for him?” Before a minute passed they heard Jaime’s distinctive whistle and Pup’s head whipped in his direction. Claire was calling him and trying everything she knew to get him up. Pup just stared at Jaime but wouldn’t get up. Claire tried to pick him up but his body went limp and he was just too heavy. She watched the road in both directions praying a car would not be barreling up on them. \n\n“Well, Laddie, ye got yer butt stuck to the road did ye?” Jamie saw his ears pressed back against his head and the tail tucked tightly between his legs. “Looks like the lad got a snoot-full of somethin that scared him to the marrow.” He scooped Pup into his arms and carried him to the soft grass. Claire watched Jaime drop to his back and lay quietly while Pup walked a few steps, tail tucked and head down. She was so grateful that Jaime would take the time to lay in the grass when air-raid sirens were going off in his world. “Maybe we can get ye mistress to join us?” Jaime looked in Claire’s eyes and his heart nearly stopped. He held his arm out to her smiling but his mind was in a meltdown. No, no, no, Sassenach, don’t run, don’t leave. Sweet Jesus I can see what yer thinkin and ye will tear my heart out if ye do this. He wanted to beg her and promise her everything. Claire laid down and put her arm around his waist. Pup walked around them and the tip of his tail was moving back and forth but still tucked between his legs. The danger was still somewhere close by. He could feel it.\n\n“Sassenach. Dogs are perceptive, more than we give them credit for, I know it. Pup is afraid of what ye were thinking right before he sat down.” Jaime lowered his voice, “I’m afraid of what ye were thinkin too mo chridhe. Don’t go Claire, please don’t run. I’ll spend the rest of my days lookin for ye, be sure of that. I won’t ever stop lookin for ye love.” \n\nClaire was full of fear and in the throws of fight or flight. Laoghaire’s taunting played on an endless loop in her head. They were sent to kill her in the vilest way humanly possible. She felt Jaime under her arm and hand. He was solid, and real, and promising to protect her. She heard his honesty. He would turn his back on the business, horses, and clients and drive down unknown highways looking for her. She had not put his loss into the equation. If she ran away, Angus and Rupert would lose Jaime and the life they have built here. What would happen to Jag if she ran out on him? He could end up under one of those sadistic Olympians or worse. She saw the domino blocks crash into one another as the interconnected lines all fell. That’s what would happen if she ran away. Like it or not she was a part of something bigger than her. Like a family. Her eyes closed against big tears and she felt them come in sobs that gripped her stomach and she clung to Jaime. She felt his strong arms come around her. “Oh God, my God Jaime. I could never, would never leave you.” As her body shook with tears her mind cleared and she understood the team was like a family. She would rather fight to the death than leave them. \n\n“I’m sorry Jaime. Can you forgive me for thinking such selfish things? I love you too much to leave no matter what the threat is. I love all of you too much. Please say you forgive me!” Jaime held her close and kissed the top of her head. “There’s nothin to forgive, ye ken?” She looked up at him, “what?” Jaime smiled when he looked in her eyes. He saw her clarity and resolve. Thank Christ, he thought. Claire needed forgiveness, absolution for considering something devastating to those who loved her. “Ye need to forgive the Laddie for sittin in the road and tryin to kill ye.” Claire looked incredulous, “that’s not why he sat down. He was so scared he couldn’t move. There is nothing to forgive!” As the words tumbled out of her mouth her mind saw the parallel. She jumped on top of Jaime hearing him grunt before she kissed him everywhere she found skin. Jaime was laughing and making her work for every landing. He held her face and said, “every fiber and cell in me thanks ye Claire. I gave ye my heart and when survival instincts were screamin at ye to run, ye hunkered down and protected it.” He kissed her with all the love and gratitude he felt and she did the same.\n\nThey walked back to the barn with Pup on their heals, wagging his tail and jumping happily at bugs in the air, real or imagined.\n\nClaire spoke to Rupert and Angus and assured them she was fine and on board for the show next weekend. She smiled with anticipation. They showed her the board where the three of them were listed in the calendar. “We take turns sleepin here until that cu… sorry lass, that bitch is caught. Ye ken? Jaime’s gonna hire a security guard for next weekend and I’m stayin here to watch over everything.” Claire’s head jerked up, “what?” Claire felt Rupert’s sacrifice and knew his absence would be felt. “Who will I have to bump into Rupert?” He smiled and looked at his shoes. “We’ve got ye lass.” Claire smiled at him, “I know you do and I’m grateful Rupert.” He blushed fiercely at her heartfelt words. \n\nAngus walked up behind them, “party at two o’clock” he said to Rupert. \n\n“You guys have a party… in the middle of the day?” Claire could not imagine anything so important that both of them would leave. “Jaime too,” Angus said walking to the arena. Claire could not believe her ears. Jaime did not mention going to a party and no one invited her. Probably nothing.\n\nShe poked her head into Jaime’s office before going back to the house. “I’ll be here and ready with Jag at two-thirty.” She searched his eyes and saw nothing. He kissed her and crushed her to him. “See ya then Sassenach.” Jaime went back to his chair and bent over his ledgers. Claire decided he must not be going to this party she wasn’t invited to. Her feelings were a little hurt from being left out but she pushed on calling for Pup.\n\nClaire’s body and mind were exhausted. She laid down on Jaime’s bed and pushed her nose into his pillow breathing in his smell. Fatigue pulled at her and she surrendered to it. In what seemed like just one minute she heard and felt her phone vibrating to pull her back to consciousness. It took great effort to open her eyes and she felt the deep fatigue when she swung her legs to the floor. She considered an early dinner of comfort food, like a southern recipe, designed to knock everyone unconscious within thirty minutes of eating the meal. She smiled at that thought. Only three rides to go before the show. She dragged her body back to the barn. \n\nClaire walked down the main aisle and felt weird energy. She waved to people she knew and decided they all seemed odd. What the hell is wrong with everyone? She wondered. She carried her brush bucket into Jags stall and was assaulted by his nose sniffing for treats. She wondered if the guys were at a party she wasn’t invited to. She pulled out a curry comb and told Jag to mind his manners.\n\n“Ah, Claire?” She was bent over picking a rear hoof and looked behind her. “What’s up Rupert?” She lowered the leg at the weird sound of his voice. “Jaime asked me to give this to ye.” Claire looked at his cheeks blushing like a rose. He feels guilty for not taking me to the party, she thought. Claire opened the large envelope and pulled out a single piece of paper. She scanned it quickly and asked Rupert what she should do with this. He was nearly coming apart with excitement when he pointed to the registered name of a horse. His smile was huge. Claire read the name, “The Sassenach’s Jag, Rupert what is this?” He pointed at the owner’s line. ‘Claire Elizabeth Beauchamp’. Her eyes jerked up at Rupert who was now bouncing on his toes with delight. Claire pointed at Jag, “he’s…” Rupert nodded his head. Claire was feeling dizzy and her heart was ramming in her chest. With wide eyes she read the document title, ‘Transfer of ownership’ and saw his new registered name, ‘The Sassenach’s Jag’. \n\nWhen Claire’s brain finally allowed her to accept what was right in front of her, she screamed at Rupert, “he gave me Jag!” Claire threw her arms around Rupert and hugged him tight, then she bounded out of the stall and saw Jaime. He was smiling. Claire leaped into his arms and squeezed his neck. “You gave me Jag!” said through tears of incredulous joy that were streaming down her face.  \n\nClaire became aware of all the people standing around them. She looked at each one of them, “you all knew about this?” All heads were nodding. “Oh! Best surprise ever!” She blushed looking at the people who came for her ‘party’. “I love you guys. And I suppose it’s no secret that I love this man.” The girls giggled. Two members of the Pony club walked toward her. They dropped something metal in her hand and said congratulations. Claire held a beautiful shiny brass saddle tag “The Sassenach’s Jag.” Claire hugged them both with renewed happy tears. She turned around and Angus put another one in her hand, “from me and the big dummy.” Rupert’s smile fell off and he glowered at his friend. It was a halter tag, “The Sassenach’s Jag.” Her arms flew around both their necks and she kissed them on the cheek. \n\nJag was kicking his bars after watching all the excitement. Everybody laughed at his curious expression. Claire held his head and kissed him scratching his face. When she looked up Jaime was dropping the new nameplate into the holder on the front of the stall. ‘The Sassenach’s Jag, Owner: Claire Beauchamp.’ She put her arms around his waist and her head next to his heart. “I don’t have the words I need. They are all too small.” She smiled up at him and her eyes sparkled like diamonds."}
+{"text": "\n5 months ago.\n\n\n \n\nMagnus smiled, looking at the crowd, at the swirling bodies moving in time with the music.\n\nPandemonium was packed, just like Magnus liked because this was just the golden opportunity to meet his next lover for the night. There was no shame in thinking like that, he liked sex, he enjoyed it and he was adamant in looking for someone that was like him.\n\nBut first—\n\n\"I need to dance,\" Magnus shouted, still looking at the crowd, \"get the blood pumping. Get in the mood.\"\n\nThis time, Magnus turned around just in time to see Catarina rolling her eyes and waving at the bar. Her plans were to get hammered and Magnus didn't judge. Of course, he didn't.\n\nHe took his time, feeling the heat of the place, the music reverberating in his ears. He could already feel sweat coating his back, the warm in his belly at the thought of just having a good time and the possibilities of what could happen next. Magnus was more than thrilled.\n\nHe started slow, moving his hips this and that way in sync with the music, arching his back and rolling his head, beads of sweat rolling down his neck. This, this was what he loved. Feeling everyone's heated look on him, the want but no one really brave enough to make a move.\n\nMagnus smirked, keeping his eyes closed. The chase and heated looks were the best parts. The teasing. He could keep it all night if he wanted to.\n\n\"Moving like that,\" someone said right in his ear, \"it should be criminal, Magnus.\"\n\nAnd right after that, he felt two hands gripping his hips and pulling him closer to another body, to another wide chest.\n\nMagnus smirked even more. He knew that voice, hearing it every day in class had him attune with this person. Both being so competitive in class, well, Magnus had his ears trained whenever it was Alexander talking just so he could debunk his answers.\n\n\"So, you dance now, Alexander?\" he asked and even thought the music was loud, Magnus knew Alec could hear him.\n\nSomehow, Alec pulled him even closer and Magnus went easily, loving the way Alec's hands trailed around his waist. Magnus threw his head back, giving Alec enough space make himself home in Magnus' neck if he wanted to.\n\n\"–'Cause it feels like we're just too close, too close for comfort. How can I be your friend when I wanna be your lover?–\"\n\nMagnus felt Alec shrugged, even when half of his mind was so focused on the way Alec was rolling his hips so deliciously behind him. Maybe it was the music, maybe it was the club being so dark and had this air of intimacy, or maybe Magnus was just horny but god, he never wanted this to end.\n\n\"I can dance if want to,\" Alec finally said against Magnus ear, but his voice sounded restrained. Just like Magnus, he was holding himself back and Magnus wanted anything but that.\n\n\"–I want you. I want you–\"\n\nBefore Magnus could reply, he felt Alec trailing down his neck, brushing his lips on his pulse point, sending shivers down his spine. Magnus gasped loudly, not caring that someone near could hear him. He was too busy feeling Alec's hands traveling up and down his torso; he placed one his hands on Magnus' neck but didn't squeeze or held it softly, just the amount of pressure for Magnus to feel its weight, of what Alec was capable of and fuck if Magnus wanted more. \n\nAlec huffed; his breath warm on Magnus' ear. \"You like that, don't you?\" this time, he tightened his hold just a little and Magnus felt like dying for how good it felt; he couldn't help the moan that escaped his lips. \"Can't believe you hide all of this with your cocky temper and sassy comments.\"\n\n\"That's not for anyone to see, Alexander,\" Magnus replied, the perfect opportunity to be sassy and cocky, even when he was at his mercy.\n\nMagnus never thought that he would end up his night dancing with Alexander Lightwood, but he was definitely not complaining. In fact, it seemed fitting that dancing was a competition between them too.\n\nBut Magnus had no opportunity to voice all of this because the hand that was holding his hip just moved closer to his crotch and Magnus held his breath, his heart hammering behind his chest and that simmering warmth he's been feeling, was inching closer to a burning heat.\n\nThe music changed.\n\nBut Alec's plans to kill him with his teasing were all the same.\n\n“–Make a request, put in a favor. Just tell me yes, tell me you won't go–\"\n\nAlec pushed his hips forward, giving Magnus the golden opportunity to feel the outline of his cock and he wanted more, more—\n\n\"Tell me, Magnus.\"\n\nDeft fingers started trailing down oh so slowly down Magnus' cock. Stroking him, slowly but with a purpose, knowing where this was headed. Teasing, driving Magnus crazy. He sucked on a breath.\n\n\"What do you want?\"\n\nSame deft fingers cupped his cock just so, stealing his breath and leaving Magnus panting. He didn't squeeze or stroke him, nothing. Alec left his hand there, just holding, like he wanted to feel Magnus growing cock and from how it felt, it was getting increasingly tight in his pants.\n\n\"Please,\" he whimpered, chest heaving. Not enough air around them.\n\nInstead of replying, Alec trailed his lips and bit down hard enough to leave a mark. A moan escaped his lips again, but Magnus didn't care if it was loud, he wanted more. He wanted Alec to stop this teasing, to move his hand and do something. Magnus wanted less dancing, more fucking.\n\n\"Please what, Magnus?\" Alec asked again, as if he didn't know what he was doing to Magnus last thread of sanity.\n\nMagnus shook his head; he wasn't going to beg. Just one time was enough, and he wasn't like that—\n\nAlec cupped his cock again and this time he squeezed, his thumb brushing just the side of it. \n\n\"– I wanna fuck you, I wanna fuck you right. I want you only thinkin' 'bout me when you're up at night.\"\n\nWithout stopping the roll of his hips, Alec kept his hands where they were, holding Magnus by his neck and teasing him until insanity with his hand on his cock. Lips kept brushing the side of neck, leaving kisses at its wake and Magnus was desperate.\n\n\"Stop teasing me and fuck me already.\" Magnus needed to feel those hands everywhere right about now because he was getting blue balls by this unnecessary teasing and foreplay and—\n\n\"Bathroom. Now.\"\n\nAnd just like he came, Alec was gone, and Magnus found himself missing those hands on him. He finally turned around just in time to see Alec's retreating form disappearing down the dark hallway that lead to the bathrooms.\n\nHe was panting and hard. So hard he would combust at any given brush of fingers.\n\nHow dare him? How dared Alec to touch him like that and then leave? Magnus was the one to give orders, not the other way around. Alec would hear a piece of his mind. How dare he, how dare him—\n\nHe busted that door so hard it bounced back with the wall behind it, but it was meaningless compared to his task at hand: get Alec inside him.\n\n\"How dare you leaving me standing there like that?\" All horny and wanting was left unsaid.\n\nAlec smirked at him, leaning against the sink. But his gaze was traveling up and down Magnus' body, not being subtle about it. His eyes left that hazel hue a while ago and were instead dark with desire.\n\nMagnus took his time too, to check him out. Alec wasn't one to wear over-the-top clothes, his wardrobe was very simple but tonight Magnus had the chance to see this man in a black tank top, showing off his biceps, black skinny jeans that looked like were painted on him and boots. A combination that, in other circumstances, would make Magnus reconsider this whole ordeal but right at that moment, the sight of his arms alone almost brought him to his knees. \n\nMagnus wanted him just as much as Alec wanted him back\n\nHe straightened up and in two purposeful steps, he was right in front of Magnus, grabbing him by his hips muttering a \"come here\" before they met halfway for a searing kiss; even knowing what was coming, it didn’t stop Magnus for gasping in surprise, something that Alexander very much took advantage of.\n\nThe kiss was filthy and bruising and deep. Alec thrust his tongue into Magnus’ mouth while Alec’s hands danced around Magnus’ lower back and skittering down until he had his hands full with Magnus’ ass and squeezed, coaxing another moan from Magnus.\n\nGod, Magnus wanted this, wanted this man who was pretty much fucking his mouth with the way he was moving his tongue and the way he would lick his lips and nibble at his bottom lip and Magnus was ready to turn into much at this point.\n\nWhen the lack of breath became unbearable, they parted but not before Alec bit down his bottom lip again one last time for good measure. Magnus didn’t need to look at himself in the mirror to know he was wrecked and completely hard and desperate. His lips were swollen, that was for sure but that was the least of his concerns.\n\nAlec tugged him to the nearest stall and perhaps Magnus wasn’t the only one desperate in this bathroom. He wasn’t completely inside when Alec tugged him hard until he back was hitting the wall, the door closing next to him; Magnus was prepping another sassy remark when Alexander was on him again, hungry hands tugging at the hem of his shirt, lips biting Magnus’ neck and he was dizzy, his mind completely blank, only focusing on those hands keeping Magnus in place by his waist.\n\n\n“When you're all dressed, send me that text. Tell me that you want me now. Tell me what you really need.”\n\n\nMagnus gasped again when Alec’s hand started to work over his dick, his other hand keeping him firmly in place even though he only wanted more friction, for Alec to undress him and hold him and more, more, more.\n\n“This. Off,” Alec said while tugging at Magnus’ pants.\n\nAnd Magnus was happy to comply, stripping down his pants. Only his pants and while moving the offending garment away, he heard Alec sucking in a breath\n\n“You’re commando.”\n\nMagnus smirked, looking up at Alec even though Alec was clearly focused on something else. “Like what you see?”\n\nAlec nodded. “Fuck yes.”\n\nAnd that was enough of admission for Alec to get his hands back on Magnus again and his mouth on his too and Magnus couldn’t wait. Teeth met tongue and swollen lips; Magnus was delirious at this point and he just needed more, he just needed Alec to touch him like he was starved for it. Faintly, he heard the rustling of clothes; Alec was taking his off.\n\nAlec thrust forward, meeting Magnus halfway there. That first contact, skin on skin, the roll of hips against Magnus’, it was delicious, but it wasn’t enough. He needed more, both of them did.\n\n“Fuck me,” Magnus said, between ragged breaths.\n\nAlec dropped his hands to hook behind Magnus’ thighs and lifted him so easily, his back clashing against the wall and another unbidden moan escaped his lips when his cock was pressed against Alec’s, letting Magnus feel the length of his cock and fuck, he couldn’t wait to have it inside him right about fucking now.\n\nAlec’s hands were on Magnus’ ass again, kneading and spreading him. Back to teasing. Magnus threw his head back and took that moment to enjoy himself, enjoy the strong body between his legs, the drag of Alec’s cock over his, the hot puffs of breath against his neck. Magnus loved this.\n\nThe lower Alec went, the whimpers and moans from Magnus became louder until Alec was brushing the very edge of his hole.\n\nAlec hummed appreciatively. “Already naked and ready for me.” And then he pushed two fingers inside him without any warning. “Love that in a man.”\n\nMagnus opened his mouth, but no sound came. It felt so good, so good— He threw his hands over his head to hold on the edge of the wall while Alec started working on him, spreading him, brushing that bundle of nerves that just sent Magnus reeling and he could feel himself already leaking and it was so good, so fucking good.\n\n\n“Now I'm all in your bed makin' you sweat. I said open up for me.”\n\n\nAlec trust his fingers once more, scissoring him, taking Magnus over the edge with every brush and every bite on his neck. Alec biting his earlobe, dragging his tongue over the shell of his ear, the feel of his long fingers— Magnus could stay here all night just to feel this kind of pleasure building up.\n\n“Don’t you fucking dare to stop,” Magnus warned him between moan after moan and ragged breaths. How he found his voice to say that, he didn’t know but the warning was there.\n\nAgainst his cheek, Alec huffed a laugh. “I won’t. I will fuck you so hard and so deep, you will feel me for days.”\n\nMagnus felt his cock twitch, more pre-come leaking from him and he whimpered. “Please.”\n\nThen he heard paper being ripped off, Alec pulling his fingers off and Magnus whined at the loss of them.\n\n“Aren’t we desperate?” Alec said in that cocky tone that Magnus was sure didn’t need but his body loved, nonetheless. “It’ll be a minute.”\n\nMagnus was working on some snarky remark when Alec put his hands back on Magnus’ ass, spreading him and in a swift thrust, Alec was deep inside him. No warning, no heads-up, nothing, just the feel of his long and thick cock splitting him open. He sucked in a breath, trying to contain his screams of pleasure. It hurt but it was the kind of hurt that felt good, amazing even and he just needed more.\n\n“I make that ass flex, watchin' you stretch. Screamin' put it all on me–”\n\nMagnus didn’t notice that he closed his eyes somewhere between Alec’s fingers and his cock, but he took that moment to open them just in time to see Alec’s gazed fixed on his own cock between Magnus’ legs. Slowly, Alec looked up to meet Magnus’ eyes; his eyes stopped being green so long ago, they were dark with desire and if that didn’t make him twitch, the shark smile did it for him.\n\n“You ready?” Alec grunted.\n\nMagnus could hear Alec panting but his smile was still there, taunting him, tempting Magnus to wipe it off with his lips and if it wasn't for the fact that he was using the wall for leverage, he would have done so.\n\nAlec shifted his legs to make his stance wider, taking hold of Magnus' hips. Magnus knew what was coming, so he held his breath in anticipation even though what he wanted to do was groan and moan when Alec's cock brushed his prostate with the movement. He tightened his hold on the wall and looked at Alec dead in the eye, challenging him.\n\n\"Show me what you got, Lightwood.\"\n\nAnd those were his famous last words.\n\nAlec slammed into him in a swift motion, knocking the air out him. Magnus threw his head back again with a thud but whatever pain he could have feel at that moment was overpowered by Alec's sheer strength to fuck him. \n\nThey were actually fucking in a public restroom and the high chance of someone finding them, just made him twitch and whimper. He was so close.\n\n\n“I wanna fuck you, I wanna fuck you right\n. I want you only thinkin' 'bout me when you're up at night.”\n\n\nAlec shifted again and with every thrust, he was slamming right into his prostate, hard and fast, leaving Magnus out of breath but not before pleading for more and faster, harder, Alexander, fuck me harder.\n\nThe bathroom was filled with the sound of skin on skin, Alec's panting and Magnus' loud \"ah, ah, ah fuck!\" accompanied with the music overhead. His orgasm was building up, really close and by the looks of it, Alec was close too. He had to.\n\n\"I'm so– ah– close. I'm coming.\"\n\nAlec smirked again, his face glowing with sweat. \"Cum for me, Magnus. Let me see you.\"\n\nAnd he didn't know what it was, if it was Alec's face, the way he was looking at him or the delicious drag of Alec's cock inside him, but his orgasm slammed into him like a freight train, making him cry out of simple pleasure. Alec followed suit, by the way he tightened his hold, leaving fingerprints on his skin. When he came down of his high, Alec slipped out slowly as to not hurt his oversensitive hole. How gentlemanly of him.\n\nHis arms gave out at last, but Alec was there to hold him by his waist and thighs. Finally, he put Magnus down and while his legs were still shaking and they were gross with sweat and cum, Alec didn't stop holding him close, his face inches away from his own. It felt oddly intimate, even more than the mind-numbing sex they just had. They were still panting, their clothes scattered around their feet and it was starting to get chilly, but Magnus simply couldn't look away.\n\n\"How was it?\"\n\nMagnus snorted and smiled in time with Alec. He shrugged. \"I might need a second opinion.\"\n\n\"How insatiable of you.\"\n\nThey met for another hungry and filthy kiss.\n\n\nNow\n\n\n \n\n\"But I still don't get how we missed it,\" Ragnor was saying while Magnus was finishing up the last touches of his outfit. \"Are we really that clueless?\"\n\n\"I'm a lawyer, dear Ragnor,\" Magnus countered while looking at his reflection. His blonde highlights taking front and center stage of his outfit. There was this one time that Alec told him he looked good with blonde hair and well, okay, that stuck with him. \"I'm capable of keeping secrets.\"\n\n\"Yeah but you never were capable with us,\" Catarina countered back.\n\nThis time, Magnus turned around to look at his friends. \"I honestly don't see the point of this conversation. We met, we fucked, we liked it and we kept doing it. It's not that deep. I kept it a secret because I don't need your nosy asses up on my business and you're gonna end up hurt, Magnus, this is wrong. I know what I'm doing.\"\n\n\"That sounds good and all, but Lightwood caught feelings and it's just a matter of time before you do too,\" Raphael said, waxing wisdom as if Magnus really needed it. \n\n\"Listen, I don't know if you are here out of concern or you guys want to gossip-\"\n\n\"I want the gossip.\" \"I was bored.\" Both Ragnor and Raphael said, respectively.\n\nMagnus rolled his eyes, infuriated with his friends' antics. \"I don't even know why I bother.\"\n\n\"In all seriousness,\" Catarina started, walking towards where Ragnor was seated and sat down next to him. Magnus crossed his arms, waiting for another lecture. \"we all know what happened with Camille and-\"\n\n\"Alexander is nothing like Camille, let's get that out of the equation first,\" Magnus snapped, his voice harsh. He didn't mean to but the sole idea of comparing Alexander with Camille was ridiculous at best and offensive at worst. \n\n\"We all know what happened and we know that you fall hard and fast without listening to the consequences, and it's up to us to pick up your broken pieces and mend you. We don't want that to happen again because you mix sex with feelings.\"\n\n\"Oh, so now I'm a burden. Thanks for that.\" He was really getting fed up with this conversation.\n\nCatarina sighed in frustration while Ragnor shook his head next to her.\n\n\"That's not what she meant, and you know that. You started this... This–\" Ragnor waved a hand in Magnus' general area, \"I don't even know what to call it– do you even know the guy? Beside the size he wears.\"\n\nMagnus looked at him unimpressed. Rude much? He knew Alexander, more than any other sex-partner he had, which wasn't the idea of their agreement, but the main purpose stopped being just sex and started being a bickering-flirting-stay-the-night type of relationship. One which Magnus could explain how and why Alexander got his feelings mixed up and Magnus would have too but he he had been extremely careful.\n\nUntil now. Because tall and handsome decided to serenade him a week ago, to ask him out on a real date and Magnus, against his better judgement, accepted because what if. What if Alec ended up being what Magnus wanted in a relationship, a real one. All the strings attached.\n\n\"You guys are acting as we don't know him. We've been in the same classes for the past two years. It's not like Lightwood is going to kidnap him,\" Raphael stated, standing next to Magnus. Magnus wanted to believe that it was in support. \"Chill.\"\n\nMagnus nodded, trying very hard to mask his surprise. Usually, Raphael would gang up with Ragnor and it was up to Catarina and him to defuse the situation and get them on his side.\n\nRagnor stared at him for a moment in silence and then sighed, like he was already lamenting what he was going to say next. \"Just be careful. I don't want to repeat another heartbreak.\"\n\nMagnus rolled his eyes. \"Yes, dad. Whatever.\"\n\n\"No-uh. Don't call me that. Ugh.\" Ragnor pointed a finger at him. \"I'm pretty sure that's what you call him.\"\n\nTaking advantage of the silence, Magnus smirked at them and it was just a few seconds before the implication sank in and they were all groaning.\n\n\"Magnus!\"\n\n\"You basically asked me,\" Magnus said, between laughs, \"that's on you.\"\n\n\"Okay, that's it. I'm out.\" Ragnor stood up and walked out of the room without sparing one last glance at Magnus. Raphael followed suit.\n\nCatarina was the only one who still sat there, looking at him.\n\n\"Something on your mind?\"\n\nShe shrugged. \"You tell me.\"\n\nHe threw a quizzical look at her and waited for her to elaborate. After a few seconds of their staring contest, he huffed and threw his arms up in frustration. \"What?\"\n\n\"You actually like him.\"\n\nMagnus rolled his eyes and turned around to see his reflection and avoid Catarina's knowing stare.\n\n\"Maybe not now, but you like him,\" she added.\n\n\"I don't know what makes you think that. It's just a date,\" he mused; he wasn't going to elaborate on his own words because that was a train of thought he wasn't ready to dwell in. \"Don't make it bigger than it is.\"\n\n\"Perhaps.\" That was the only thing she said.\n\nNext thing he knew, Catarina was kissing his cheek, saying goodbye with a \"catch you later. I want all the details.\"\n\nHe heard the door shut close. With the room empty except for him, Magnus let himself go and dropped his shoulders, his relaxed facade dropping. He was nervous, terrified and nervous but he didn't want his friends to know because they would misunderstand it.\n\nHe was nervous because he actually wanted this date to go well, amazing even. Alexander was a man like any other; without trying to sound cliché Alexander was different, even the sex was different. Countless times he had cared for him, even though he didn't have to. Alexander had shown him that he could be boyfriend material.\n\nHe shook his head. It was just a date and if it went well, then good. If it ended up being a disaster, they both knew they would call it off.\n\nBut deep down, Magnus wanted this go well.\n\n \n\n \n\n∞\n\n \n\nMagnus shook his shoulders and forced his body to relax. This is fine, I’m good, this is fine, fine, fine. Thoughts like that would go in his head in a loop.\n\nHe was so nervous; he could barely breathe. After millions of times meeting Alexander in a rather unconventional way, this was the one thing that could sent him back to be that school-boy that barely knew what dating was about. This felt like the very first date, which sounded completely ludicrous.\n\nAnd yet…\n\nHe was waiting outside his bedroom building. They had agreed that Alexander would pick him up because according to him, he wanted to make this the perfect date, checking out all the boxes.\n\nRight at that moment, a slick black car parked in front of him and Magnus let out a long shaky breath. Alexander was there, and Magnus was not nearly ready for this.\n\nAnd then, Alexander was getting out of the car, his eyes focused on him and Magnus almost felt his knees gave out. Alexander wasn’t a flashy man, not a all but he could manage put a simple attire– a white t-shit, a black leather jacket over it, black skinny jeans and black shoes– and Magnus could feel himself shake with the thought of spending the night with him. Then he would look at Alec’s face and Magnus would just self-combust; even after all this time, Magnus would still feel himself getting all hot and bothered when thinking about their nights together. Just last month, Alexander decided to grow out his beard and well, Magnus still had some recollection about the delicious burn on his thighs.\n\n“Hey,” Alec greeted him, smiling softly at him.\n\nAnd then, without any prompting or warning, Alec pulled him by his waist, a hand on his chin and they were kissing like any other couple, and Magnus… His last working circuits sparked and short out with the feel of his lips and the appreciative hum. Would he be able to last the night? Probably not.\n\nWhen they parted, Magnus kept his eyes closed for a second, relishing in the taste that was Alec.\n\nGod, when did he become addicted to those lips? Maybe he wasn't the only one who mix things up at some point in their relationship and that was a scary thought.\n\nAlec did a once-over and then smiled. \"You look amazing.\"\n\n\"Why thank you,\" Magnus replied, brushing his ear trying to play coy but that didn't stop that warm feeling in his gut to start spreading. He wasn't that brave to say it out loud, but he loved it when Alexander complimented him. It made him all kinds of hot and bothered.\n\nAnd there was a high probability that Alexander knew that by the way his eyes darken a little and there was no smile, just shameless lust. He leaned down just enough so there were inches between their mouths.\n\n“But I’m sure they would look better on my bedroom floor.” Alec used the momentum while Magnus was still catching up, to swipe his thumb over Magnus bottom lip while biting his own.\n\nHis eyes flitted up to catch Magnus’ and they stared each other just seconds but they were seconds enough for Magnus to feel hot all over his body. It was intoxicating.\n\nAs soon as it happened, it was over and Alec was turning around in direction towards his car and saying “come, we don’t want to miss out reservation” over his shoulder, like nothing happened.\n\nMagnus stood there, reeling from the clash of everything he was feeling. He took a moment to breath out and pray he would last the night.\n\n \n\n∞\n\n \n\nAgainst all odds, Alec decided to choose something simple, a dinner. At the most expensive restaurant in the area. Because he wanted to go all out with their first date and Magnus didn’t have the heart to tell him that whatever he decided for them to do was fine. Magnus didn’t need eccentricities.\n\nBut maybe Alexander was just trying to impress him, that he wasn’t that “simple” as everyone liked to think and it wasn’t like they talked about that (because that wasn’t a topic of conversation for two guys just having sex) but Magnus never thought of Alexander as “simple”. He was anything but that.\n\nMagnus lowered his gaze to laser-gaze the menu after he realized he was staring at his date for far too long, feeling his cheeks getting warm. This is stupid, he thought, we had done far more shameless things behind closed doors and I get flustered because I’m staring. What the fuck, indeed.\n\n“I’m thinking, maybe pasta?” Alec mused, doing that thing of his where he would squint his eye, looking more thoughtful. Adorable.\n\nMagnus shook his head and continued laser-gazing his menu. Adorable? Since when? This was getting out of control. Ragnor was right, he was catching feelings just mere minutes after the date had started. Five months into no-strings-attached-sex and the moment they take the “next step,” he’s falling for Alexander? Unbelievable.\n\n“Hey, Magnus.” Magnus looked up to see Alexander already staring at him. “You okay? You look constipated. We can rain check if you want.”\n\n“No, no. It’s that… Well, um,” Magnus trailed off, closing his menu. It was obvious he didn’t have half the mind to think about food. “It feels weird to be like this.”\n\nIt certainly felt odd to be in a public setting like this.\n\nAlexander didn’t say anything but closed his menu too. “If you feel weirded out, we can cut this short, Magnus. I don’t… The last thing I want you to think is that I’m forcing you.”\n\nMagnus shook his head, vehemently. “I don’t want to cut this short. No. I'm fine. This is fine. I want to do this.\" Magnus frowned, going back to looking at his menu because looking at Alec's soft smile would probably melt his remaining brain-cells and the night had barely started. \"Stop asking me if I'm fine.\"\n\nInstead of being annoyed or mad at his comment, Alexander just snorted and leaned over the table. \"Adorable. You're adorable.\"\n\nMagnus raised his menu successfully hiding his face from this uncalled teasing and also preventing Alec from seeing the rosy tint on Magnus' cheeks. \"Shut up,\" he grumbled.\n\nNot even the menu could prevent Alexander for laughing at him for putting Magnus in this situation. Even though he never told Alec about his recent weakness for praise, Alexander was getting the idea and the fact that he was doing this in public, not fair. Alexander wasn't fair.\n\nRight at that moment, the waiter came stopping whatever filthy thing Alec was cooking up in that head of his.\n\n\"Hi, good evening. My name is David. I'll be your waiter for the night.\"\n\nMagnus looked up to see this guy, probably their age. Dark skinned, curly hair and warm brown eyes. He also filled his vest and white buttoned-down shirt in all the right places. The guy- David- was a sight, for sure but even with their odd relationship, Magnus could firmly say that he didn't hold a candle when comparing him to Alexander. \n\nAnd he really believed that Alexander was the whole package he wanted in a man and he wanted this date to go right but maybe that wasn't clear enough because David did a once-over and there, right in front of Alec, he smirked and then licked his lips. Magnus glanced at Alec who was already looking at David like he wanted to squeeze the life out of him. It was subtle, of course, but Magnus already knew his death glares; Alexander wasn't happy.\n\n\"What can I get for you, beautiful?\" David get looking at him.\n\nAnd Magnus just wanted a hole to open up right there and then. \"I, uh, can I get a margarita?\"\n\nDavid nodded, scribbling down on his notepad. \"Classics. I like that in a man.\" He looked up just a moment to wink at Magnus and then back down. \"And to eat?\"\n\nMagnus could feel Alec seething from his side of the table and he could bet this David felt that too, but he kept the shameless flirting, not caring for Alec. He cleared his throat. \"I'll have what he's having.\" \n\nDavid turned to Alexander with a bored gazed, his hips jutting out as he was so suddenly annoyed and in a hurry for leaving their table.\n\n“We would like a Shrimp Alfredo,” Alec said, handing the menu but keeping his death glare on the waiter but David didn’t look faze by it. “Don’t come until they are ready.”\n\nDavid took the menu, actually rolling his eyes at Alec and turned around.\n\nThere was this deep need of him to clarify the situation. Magnus wasn’t one to flirt with someone else if he was having a date and he wasn’t crazy enough to do so in front of \n\nAlec, even when they weren’t together together. He wanted Alec to understand that he didn’t condone this shameless flirting and if there was someone that he would end the night with, that would be the man in front of him.\n\nBut before he would form his reasons, Alexander beat him to it.\n\n“So, how was your day?”\n\nMagnus whipped his head so fast it almost gave him a stroke and frowned. They weren’t going to talk about what happened? Was Alec fine with it? That couldn’t be it. But looking at his face— calm face, no traces of death glares— maybe he didn’t wat to talk about it.\n\n“Well, same old, I guess.” Magnus shrugged while rearranging his cutlery, buying some time for him to come up with something interesting. It was never like this between them, but he was so nervous and there was no reason for it. It was Alexander, he knew this man inside out, even with their particular situation. “I have a whole entourage asking me what I was doing and how did I manage to pull this off because according to Ragnor, I can’t keep secrets.”\n\n“Because you can’t.” \n\nMagnus looked up, so offended that pulled a laugh out of Alexander, and crossed his arms. “Well, do tell.”\n\n“Remember this exam we had for Constitutional Law? We were so anxious about it and you said that you would get hammered if you got the minimum to pass.\n\n“We all got hammered, Alexander,” Magnus rebuked, crossing his legs over the other, “don’t put that on me.”\n\n“Hold on– And then you said that your father couldn’t find out because I don’t need that kind of stress in my life, Alexander. That would be embarrassing.” It seemed that they had spent so much time together that he could imitate Magnus’ voice down to the flick of his wrists. Magnus rolled his eyes even though the was already smiling. Alec continued, “turns out your father showed up the next day for an “impromptu visit.”\n\n“He said that he missed me and that he wanted to spend time together with his son and I was pulling that off until fucking Underhill showed up.” At that, Alec laughed loudly, immediately covering his mouth.\n\nMagnus remembered that Wednesday night. They all knew it was a bad idea to go out on a school night, especially when they had another exam on Friday but they were all wound up about that day, they’d decided to just have a few drinks that turned into a competition of who could drink more tequila shots. Catarina had thrown up her weight in liquor, Ragnor had fallen asleep on the sidewalk because if he were to die that night, it had to be in the streets so he could be famous. Raphael got lost in the middle of the \n\nnight and Simon had spent half an hour crying because of that; turned out Raphael had fallen asleep in the bathroom.\n\nClary was so convinced that she could keep drinking but she couldn’t even stand on her feet; Alexander was a happy drunk while Underhill had hollered that he was amazing at dancing.\n\nAsmodeus had showed up the next day saying he wanted to spend some quality time with Magnus since he was so caught up with his classes and as any other Asian parent, his father was strict with grades and classes. So, Underhill showing up that same morning saying that he could still feel the tequila shots, well, it hadn't been cute for Magnus and even though he tried to convince Asmodeus that he didn't know what Underhill was talking about, his father saw through the lie.\n\n\"I think he started hating Underhill after that,\" Magnus added, pulling a laugh out of Alec. \"He even thought I was dating him, which not going to happen.\"\n\nAlexander hummed, tilting his head a little. \"And who are you planning on dating?\"\n\nThat was a rhetoric question, it had to be because they were there, right? It should be obvious that it was—\n\n\"Here you go.\" David placed two steaming plates in front of them. It smelled delicious, so much that it made him salivate and his stomach grumbled. It was then that he realized he hadn't eaten anything yet. David looked up and winked at him again. \"Enjoy. If you need anything, and I mean anything, you know where to find me.\"\n\nMagnus opened his mouth, ready to turn that offer down but the guy was gone before he could mutter a word. He turned to Alec who was already eating from his plate.\n\nIt was stupid, ridiculous even, but they were on a date, right? Alec was the one who insisted and now that they were here and this guy was clearly interested in Magnus, the only thing that Alec had done was glare but just for a moment and that was it. Was the food more important than the possibility of someone coming and sweeping off his feet? But he couldn't complain, could he? It was not his place to do so. Maybe somewhere along the way, Alexander realized that they should just stick with sex.\n\nLooking at his food, he wasn’t hungry anymore but they were here and he should make the best out of it. He picked his fork but that was as far as he could go.\n\n\"I hear you thinking over here. What's wrong?\" Alec asked.\n\nAnd Magnus should be quiet, they weren't together and if this didn't work out, he had this David guy to replace Alexander at least for the night. It was fine, they weren't together—\n\n\"This guy's been flirting with me since we sat down and it-it... I'm annoyed that you don't care enough to say something. What if I go with him and leave you alone?\"\n\n\"Are you going to do that?\"\n\nMagnus spluttered and opened his mouth, coming up with nothing. \"I could!\" He sounded outraged and all kinds of offended.\n\nBut Alec remained the same, his face didn't change nor he spoke and maybe Magnus was exaggerating this whole ordeal because the only thing that really bound them was their mutual desire and their classes but that was it. Magnus shouldn't make a scene.\n\n\"I'm not going to fight with the waiter, Magnus.\" Alexander shook his head as if the mere possibility of that happening was mad. \"Let's just have a good time.\"\n\nMagnus looked at him, hard. So, the food was more important. Right, message received. Without saying a word, Magnus flicked his napkin over the table and stood up.\n\n\"Then have a good time alone,\" he hissed. He spared one last look at the food and huffed.\n\n\"What are you– Magnus!\"\n\nBut Magnus was already halfway through the restaurant, ready to leave and no matter how many times Alec would call, he wasn't turning around.\n\n \n\n \n\n∞\n\n \n\n \n\nMagnus was so furious that he ended up walking to some park close to the restaurant. He was so blind by rage that he completely forgot that he could have called an uber or maybe Ragnor to pick him up and by the time he realized this, he was already in this park, alone, in the middle of the brightly-lit bridge and overlooking a small lake.\n\nThis is stupid, he sighed leaning on the railing and closed his eyes for a moment. Now that he had to the time to think about it, whatever that was, it was ridiculous, He actually ditched Alexander because the man didn’t want to yell at the waiter for flirting with Magnus. Who the fuck would think like that? Magnus, apparently.\n\nHe just wanted a nice date and he completely ruined it. It wasn’t farfetched to think that maybe Alexander didn’t want to see him again after this, that he wanted to cut their thing off.\n\n“There you are.”\n\nMagnus almost jumped out his skin at the new voice. He turned around to see Alec standing just a few feet away. He was close enough from him and Magnus didn’t even notice before.\n\n“I’ve been looking for you,” Alexander added, walking the few feet between them until he was right in front of Magnus. “The valet told me you came this way.”\n\nMagnus shrugged while turning back to the lake. “Well, here I am.”\n\n“What was that all about?”\n\nAt the mention of his catastrophic demeanor, Magnus hunched over his shoulders and tried with all his might not to look at Alec. It was embarrassing enough to also have Alec looking at him with pity or disappointment.\n\n“Magnus, look at me.” The command was clear in his voice and against all his wishes, Magnus turned. “What happened back there?”\n\nMagnus looked at Alec in the eye and then to somewhere else because he couldn’t keep eye contact, not after that. “I don’t know. I… I got caught up in this “let’s have a date” thing and I forgot that we weren’t together.” He stopped for a moment and swallowed, embarrassment taking hold of him. “It was uncalled for. It’s just– I thought you were wooing me and turns out you only cared about the food. I’m annoyed, I don’t know. This guy was flirting with me and you didn’t care. I don’t know.”\n\nHe felt his cheeks getting warmer because saying it out loud sounded more stupid and he needed a hole to open up just so he could hide. He needed this conversation to be over right at that moment.\n\nWhen he heard movement, Magnus looked up just in time to see Alec cutting short the distance between them until their faces were mere inches away, Alec’s hands on his hips. Magnus sucked in a breath, feeling his heart stopped for just a second.\n\n“I keep forgetting that you’re not mine, not really. I can only call you mine in my bed, behind closed doors but the moment you leave, those moments are over.” He stopped and looked at Magnus as he was searching for something, but his gaze never wavered. “I was so mad that he was flirting with you and I wanted to call him out on his bullshit, tell him that you were with me but I… I didn’t want to assume, not when you didn’t have your feeling clear for me.”\n\nMagnus pursed his lips and lowered his gaze. This could have been solved in a nice and peaceful conversation, not like this inn the middle of the night. The thing was, his feelings were clear and the fact that he was frustrated because Alec didn’t assume things right away, it was a dead giveaway.\n\n“Assume. Do it.”\n\n“What?” Alec frowned.\n\n“I just pulled a reversed-jealousy stunt back there–”\n\n“I don’t think that exist.”\n\n“I want you,” Magnus cut him off, his voice determined. Saying it like that, caught him by surprise but it was true. It felt true. “I want you. All the strings attached.”\n\nSlowly but surely, Alec smiled this big, bright smile of his that just melted the remaining of Magnus’ walls. “Are you sure?”\n\n“More than that.”\n\nAlec pulled him closer until their lips met.\n\n \n\n∞\n\n \n\n \n\n“–And then we kissed,” Magnus concluded, looking over at the mix reactions of his friends.\n\nRagnor raised his eyebrows. “That was extreme, even for you.”\n\n“I really can’t believe you pulled that off. Lightwood must really like you,” Raphael added.\n\nMagnus rolled his eyes in time with Catarina’s, but the snark aside, those words held some truth.\n\n“I, for one, am glad that you guys are not keeping your relationship a secret anymore,” Catarina said, drawing Magnus’ attention. “I’m happy everything turned out fine.”\n\nMagnus smiled, trying to go for nonchalant but in reality, he was glad too."}
+{"text": "“Do you think…” Vergil’s voice brings you out of your daydreaming. You wait for a heartbeat, but he keeps his gaze on the window, silent and brooding.\n\n“Do I think what, Vergil?”\n\nHe swallows thickly, closing his eyes. “Do you think we could be together. Like we did before?” He slides the Yamato back into its sheath.\n\nA look passes over your face. Memories flit past, glimpses of happy and sad times with him before the incident, before he became V. And then happy times with V. The sadness you felt when you realised he wasn’t coming back. The tentative happiness of having Vergil back, the wariness. “Before?”\n\n“When I was V. Could we go back to that?” Those icy blue eyes flit between your face and the floor, a strange expression of vulnerability on his handsome face. “Could you ever love me?”\n\nSilence falls like a veil between the two of you, disrupting the once peaceful silence.\n\n“Are you ready for that answer?”\n\n“Yes.”\n\nYou lock eyes with him, fingers fidgeting on your blanket. He’s ready for that answer. But are you? You can’t deny that you’ve thought about it - each time he comes home and greets you with a shy smile, each time he rolls over at night and clutches at your hand, each time he wakes up and sighs contentedly. He’s not the man you used to know. Not the old Vergil. Not V. He’s…someone else entirely, a mix of both. You loved V and hated the old Vergil. \n\nThis Vergil. This new him that resurfaced from the Underworld with a grinning Dante by his side, who nodded at Nero, who quirked a tiny smile at Nico fangirling over Dante’s new blade. Who looked at you with great longing in his eyes, who stilled his trembling fingers when you approached him with wariness. Who ducked his head when you asked him where V was, if he was coming back. Who shook his head solemnly and steadied you when you swayed, eyes squeezed shut to stave off the tears.\n\nYou look at that new Vergil now. Really look at him. He feels completely different from the Vergil you once knew. He’s relaxed, content, no deep tension stiffening his shoulders, a sense of serenity in the way he lounges in that sun-drenched chair with a leatherbound book open on his lap. He doesn’t wear his coat or vest or any of his gear, a comfortable jumper and sweats replacing his outside clothes. Barefoot and with his hair escaping his normally slicked back style, Vergil looks like he’s at home.\n\nIn the mornings now he stays with you in bed, refusing to leave until you get up. In the evenings he doesn’t leave your side but gives you your space, only going to bed when you do and staying up until you do. He shows that he cares now, in that subtle, hesitant way. As though expecting rejection. Just like now. Though his back is straight and his head held high, there is a sense of anticipation in the way he seems to hold his breath. As if he was just expecting you to tell him that you can’t love him. Can’t forgive him. \n\nYou close your eyes and sigh deeply, setting your book aside. No matter your feelings, your own inward battle, you refuse to let him percolate in his own depressing thoughts. “Arms up.\" \n\nVergil complies without a thought, lifting his arms so as to give you space to slide onto his lap. With your legs flung over one thigh, you curl your arm around his neck and press your forehead over his temple. And just like that, Vergil relaxes fully, his arms falling around you and wrapping you in his intense warmth. In his strong arms. He swallows thickly and turns his face into your hair, inhaling deeply and dragging your scent into his lungs. Doing his best to make you sink into his pores and burn you into his memory. \n\n\"I think I can,” your murmur is so soft Vergil almost doesn’t catch it.\n\n“Mmm?”\n\nYou clear your throat gently and pull away just enough so you can look at his handsome face. “I won’t say we can go back to when I was with V. But…” Your eyes flit over his hopeful expression, your hand pressing against his jaw and cheek. “We can try. V was you, but you’re not V.” His strangled breath is felt more than heard. “I want to love you for you. Not V. You.\" \n\nA lump grows in Vergil’s throat and he fights not to avert his gaze. Hope and anxiousness build in his chest in equal measure. Hope for a new future; anxiousness that he won’t live up to your expectations. He raises a hand and presses your palm to his cheek, leaning into your touch and lowering his gaze just a tad. \"But…I…”\n\nYou press your lips to his nose, his eyelids, his forehead. Whisper into his skin, “You deserve to be loved for you, Vergil. I won’t disrespect you by loving a memory over what is right in front of me.” A shaky smile crosses your lips and you pull back enough to tilt his head up, to make him look at you in the eyes again. “We’ve gotten off to a good start, baby. You’re opening up to me more and you’re letting me care for you. That’s really good. We just have to keep going, okay?”\n\nFor the first time ever, shiny tears start to build in Vergil’s beautiful eyes. They never fall, never trail down his chiselled features, but they turn his gaze wet and soft. “I just-” He just wants to be loved. Protected. Cared for by someone who loves him. Wants to love someone in turn.\n\n“I know,” you whisper with a sad smile. “I know, baby.”\n\nIt’s not quite time for you to say those words, but deep in your heart, you say it clearly. I can love you.\n\nVergil shakes and his eyes widen, those icy blue eyes darting over your face as he hears what you can’t say. Hears the words that you’re not ready to utter. So he shoots you a shy little smile and buries his head into your neck, enjoying the feeling of you wrapping yourself around him and stroking his soft hair.\n\nOkay. Okay, he can wait. He will always wait for you."}
+{"text": "\n8am\n\n\n \n\n\n      Scott opened his eyes with a groan. He'd rarely had such an awful night of sleep. Derek had warned him of course, but the electric feeling across his skin had been nearly unbearable. He'd finally fallen asleep around eleven, but had woken up multiple times throughout the night. He crawled into the bathroom and took a shower. Thank god he was already planning on skipping school for the day, the feeling on his skin was distracting enough, trying to deal with that and the bad night’s sleep might be a disaster. \n\n\n\n      He crawled out of bed, ate a bowl of cereal, and slipped out of the house while his mom was still asleep. Derek was already waiting for him at the curb down the street and Scott hopped into the passenger side. Derek gave him a look and asked, \"Breakfast?\"\n\n\n\n     \"I already ate,\" Scott said. \n\n\n\n     Derek nodded. \"You'll want to eat as much as possible today. The first shift will really take it out of you otherwise. If you're normally careful about what you eat as far as calories, don't do that today.\" \n\n\n\n     Scott nodded.\n\n\n\n     \"Are you more nervous or scared about tonight?\" Derek asked.\n\n\n\n     \"Both.\" Scott said quietly. \"Does it hurt?\" \n\n\n\n     Derek was quiet for a moment. \"My shift was never the way yours will be tonight. I was born to be a shifter. Your body is changing to become one. So I'm not sure. I remember the first time that it felt like I was on fire and then I wasn't. But ask Allison and Gary how it was for them. I'm glad they're here, there's a lot about your experience that won't match mine.\"\n\n\n\n      Scott nodded. \"I'm also sort of excited for it. I'm not sure if I would have picked this, but I'm starting to get used to it. I have moments when I feel like I'm starting to get a real handle on my senses and it's amazing.\"\n\n\n\n      Derek smiled. \"I'm glad. I know that the tradition is that it's a curse, but it's never seemed like that for me. This is a blessing. I couldn't imagine not being able to change.\"\n\n\n\n      Scott laughed. \"I'd be more excited if I could do the full wolf shift, that is super cool.\"\n\n\n\n      Derek shrugged. \"Don't get too wrapped up in the idea you can't. There have been bitten wolves who've managed to do it. Mostly alphas, but I don't know that a beta can't learn. Your wolf knows it's shape, just let it take you there. Don't fight it, don't push it, just let the wolf take charge. Take comfort that there's nothing new about it, and there will be five other wolves in the room going through the same thing.\"\n\n\n\n     Scott nodded. \"I think I'm ready. But I'm still terrified.\" He laughed. \"I'm kind of a mess today.\" \n\n\n\n     \"It's normal I'm sure,\" Derek said. \"How long do you think before Stiles skips out to join us?\"\n\n\n\n     \"He's done with Chemistry at 945, he'll be at the warehouse by 10.\" Scott predicted.\n\n\n\n     \"I saw him last night. Does he often have a hard time sleeping?\" Derek asked.\n\n\n\n     Scott nodded. \"Every since his mom. How was he?\"\n\n\n\n     \"I scared him,\" Derek said with a smile. \"He was on the porch moving a chair around and I sneaked right up on him.\"\n\n\n\n     Scott laughed. \"That explains the text I got. It simply said 'Fluffy wolf is an asshole.'\"\n\n\n\n     Derek smiled. \n\n\n\n     \"Do you want him to be like us? Is that why you spend time with him?\" Scott asked.\n\n\n\n     Derek thought for a moment. \"I think he'd be a fantastic wolf if he wanted it. And if he asked I'd find an alpha that would do it even if Laura said no. But if he doesn't want it, no. I just think he's great, and he's important to you and-\" Derek almost added, 'the sheriff', \"I keep an eye on both of you at night. In case the alpha comes sniffing around.\" \n\n\n\n      \"Do you expect him to?\" Scott asked.\n\n\n\n     \"I don't know what to expect of him, to be honest,\" Derek said. \"He's not doing any of the things I'd expect him to do. He bit you, then he abandoned you. And then he ignored you. I've expected to see signs of him hanging around and keeping an eye on you. But there's been nothing.\" \n\n\n\n     \"Maybe he just regrets biting me,\" Scott said quietly. \"Maybe he really wanted Stiles.\"\n\n\n\n       Derek looked at him closely. \"When I went back out that next morning, before I saw you guys, I walked up that same walk you guys took into the reserve that night. His scent was everywhere. He followed you both, watching you both. Whatever he was thinking, biting you wasn't an accident. I'm not sure if he intended to bite Stiles too, I think he did, otherwise he would never have dropped you and turned back to Stiles. But he bit you because he wanted you too.\" \n\n\n\n      \"Is it weird that I'm glad a crazy monster werewolf actually wanted to bite me? That it wasn't an accident?\" \n\n\n\n       \"I mean, I'd rather you got to decide for yourself that you wanted the bite, but that's kind of a perfect world option obviously,\" Derek said. \"But it's nice to know the things that happen aren't accidents I guess.\"\n\n\n\n      Scott nodded. \"Do you believe in destiny? That, like, certain things are mean to to happen?\"\n\n\n\n      Derek thought for a moment. \"Not really. I can't imagine a reason for what happened to my family. I can't believe that whatever divine author you like to imagine would find meaning in their death. I think that life just happens to us, and it's on us to give it meaning.\" \n\n\n\n      Scott was quiet for the rest of the ride, but Derek could tell he was thinking over what Derek said.\n\n\n\n       There was a white van parked out front when they pulled in at the warehouse. Derek slid out of the driver’s side and the van's driver got out and shook his hand. \"Sorry, I got a bit of an early start this morning so I came a little before we'd said,\" the guy said. \"I'm Randy from A and G Security.\" \n\n\n\n       Martin had recommended the security company, of course, which he'd thoroughly vetted over the years. Derek introduced himself and then unlocked the door and turned on the lights. He explained in more detail what he wanted, and made sure that the resulting system would not be affected by the use of the sprinklers. \n\n\n\n      Randy got to work and Scott and Derek went up the stairs to one of the second story offices so Derek could coach Scott on getting used to his expanded senses. They listened to Randy's breathing and heartbeat, and tried not to giggle a bit at his tuneless humming. By the time the hour had passed Scott was getting a grip on how to focus and, just as important, how to stop listening supernaturally. \n\n\n\n       Around ten, as predicted, Derek and Scott both heard a vehicle pull up . Scott smiled and said, \"Stiles.\" \n\n\n\n      \"How'd you recognize him?\" Derek asked. \n\n\n\n      \"His heartbeat. I can't explain it, but it says Stiles to me,\" Scott said. \n\n\n\n      Derek nodded. \"They're like fingerprints, no two are the same.\"\n\n\n\n      They heard Stiles bolt through the doors and ask Randy where they were hiding and then leap up the stairs two or three at a time. \"Fluffy are you hiding Scott up here?\" he shouted up the stairs. Derek smiled and rolled his eyes.\n\n\n\n      \"Stiles, I'm going to beat you if you start calling me that.\" Derek said evenly.\n\n\n\n      \"That's what you get for scaring the piss out of me in front of strangers,\" Stiles accused. \"Like he doesn't even know who I am besides the ridiculous flailing kid who screams. How could you even do that to me?\" \n\n\n\n      Derek snorted. \"Don't be ridiculous Stiles. He knows you as the idiot who attacks an alpha werewolf with a stick.\"\n\n\n\n      Stiles mouth gaped. \"Seriously? You tell people about that?\" \n\n\n\n      Derek looked at him, \"Stiles, I’m telling EVERYONE about that. It's hilarious. It's like taking on a tank with a fucking slingshot.\" \n\n\n\n      Stiles moaned. \"Why couldn't I have been a coward?\" he said. \"Life is easy for cowards. No one laughs at them I bet.\"\n\n\n\n      Derek smiled. \"No one laughs at you Stiles, they might think you're stupidly brave, but no one laughs.\" \n\n\n\n      Stiles perked up. \"Really?\" \n\n\n\n      \"Really.\" Derek said. \n\n\n\n      \"So you think I'm brave?\"\n\n\n\n      \"I think if you ever do that again you won't have to worry about the alpha werewolf killing you because I will.\" Derek replied.\n\n\n\n      \"Who's going to pet you if you kill me?\" Stiles shot back. \n\n\n\n      \"Scott.\" \n\n\n\n     \"Oh no, you guys leave me out of this.\" Scott said quickly. \n\n\n\n      \"Scott would protect me if you tried to kill me,\" Stiles answered back. \"Cause he's my werewolf bro!\"\n\n\n\n      \"And what am I?\" Derek asked curiously. \n\n\n\n      Stiles shrugged and thought for a moment. \"You're like my werewolf cuddle buddy.\"\n\n\n\n      Derek laughed. \"Just make sure you try to avoid getting in a fight with any other wolves, okay Stiles?\" \n\n\n\n      \"I'll try,\" Stiles said, \"but I expect my werewolf bro and my cuddlewolf to keep me safe.\"\n\n\n\n      \"Deal,\" Derek said looking at Scott. \n\n\n\n      Scott smiled. \n\n\n\n       \"Wait,\" Stiles said. \"Does that mean you're planning to stick around after all of this is over?\"\n\n\n\n       Derek nodded. \"Yeah, I actually started the process of buying a place here in town a couple of days ago. It's going to take some work but I'm looking forward to it.\"\n\n\n\n       \"Where is it?\" Stiles asked. \"When do I get to see it?\"\n\n\n\n       \"I'll take you over to see it once I've signed for it. It's over off of 4th in the commercial district,\" Derek said. \"It's going to require a pretty big remodel of the inside, but it's big and I think I can make it secure, and I'm ready to be home.\"\n\n\n\n       Scott looked at him like he was hearing something that Derek wasn't saying, and Derek wondered what that was, but was too afraid to ask. \n\n\n\n       \"That's awesome!\" Stiles said. \"I kind of thought you'd be going back to New York after we found your sister and we'd never see you again.\" \n\n\n\n       Derek shook his head. \"No. Scott's going to need someone around for awhile til he's got control on his wolf at least, and I-\" Derek paused and then said, \"New York has never been my home, it's just been where I lived. For better or worse Beacon Hills is home.\"\n\n\n\n        Stiles seemed quite cheerful after that, peppering Derek with questions about the building and didn't seem too disappointed that Derek wasn't planning to build some kind of Fortress of Solitude-esque retreat.\n\n\n\n         Eventually Randy called up the stairs and said that he was done and Derek went down to check it out. The camera system included it's own low lighting system that would always be on, and had a back-up power source in case the power was cut. The cameras were discreetly placed and hard to see, even if you knew where to look, and Randy explained to Derek the couple of small blind spots the system left. Derek nodded and listened carefully, and he wasn’t surprised at all when Stiles asked several very good questions about access and recording. He was his father’s son.\n\n\n\n          Randy helped them set up the live access and Derek let Stiles pick the password they used to replace the default. The system had a local video back up as well as a remote service that would both keep up to 1000 hours of footage, and had an easy process by which you could export raw footage to permanent storage. It was exactly what Derek had asked for, plus things hadn’t known to ask for. He thanked Randy, shook his hand and took the card from him. \n\n\n\n          They had about a half hour after he left before the plumbing specialist was due to arrive to test the water sprinklers, and Derek handed Stiles his credit card and sent him out to get burgers for an early lunch. \n\n\n\n        The plumbing guy showed before Stiles got back, and he was explaining to Derek how the system worked and where the manual trigger for the system was located, when Stiles rushed back in with bags of food and an endless string of words.\n\n\n\n        When the system had been installed someone had clearly been thinking about the possibility of a localized fire on the main warehouse floor because the system actually had two manual triggers for the main warehouse floor, one for the east and one for the west side, as well as a separate manual trigger for the second floor, all located in the secure mechanical room under the stairs. They tested both the triggers for the main floor and both were in excellent working order, and Derek smiled. He thanked the plumbing guy, and made sure he had Martin's address to send the bill to. \n\n\n\n        Scott and Stiles were eating burgers and talking animatedly about a movie that Derek had never heard of, and Derek had a moment where he was exactly where he wanted to be, other than Laura not being there, and it was exactly who he wanted to be with. He didn't know if Scott wanted to be pack with him, but he was increasingly sure he wanted him to be. \n\n\n "}
+{"text": "Sam had to pry Dean off Cas, tugging him back into an awkward hold to get him away from the mattress. Once he decided to act, Sam would be decisive, and he’d clearly decided to let the Nephilim try to get Cas’ grace back. Dean felt as though he was watching it through a screen, heavy grief already settling about him like a shroud. \n\nCas was dying. \n\n“Sam,” he tried, but he couldn’t get any further. His voice sounded hollow. Numb. \n\n“Just let her try, Dean,” Sam said, right into his ear, his mouth practically pressed against the side of Dean’s head. “Let her try and we’ll deal with the rest.”\n\nHe let go of Dean then, leaving him to catch himself on the cold concrete, his arms weaker than they had any right to be as he held himself upright. The numbness was stopping him from diving at her, from knocking her away from Cas. \n\nShe knelt next to him, a calculating look on her face, seeming to ignore Sam, who now crouched opposite her, tense and ready to move if he had to. If it would do any good. \n\nCas was more on his back than his side. She reached out and placed her hands on his shoulder. Dean twitched and she levelled a look at him that clearly told him he was being foolish.\n\n“I do this or he dies,” she reminded him, and turned back to her work.\n\nAs soon as she got Cas onto his stomach, her eyes flared, even brighter than they had before, and she shifted, her shoulders pulling back and up in a way Dean had seen on Cas when he was facing an enemy. For a second, he could have sworn he saw shapes behind her, red and insubstantial, then his vision cleared and it was just her, just a woman with fiery starlight for eyes, plunging her hands into his best friend’s body, strange words spilling from her lips.\n\nCas stopped screaming.\n\nIn the place of screaming, small, short gasps filled the room and it took Dean a minute, but he finally realised that Cas’ eyes were open. Really open. Cas was staring at Dean and seeing him, for the first time since Sam and Dean had left the bunker to find their cure. One hand had landed on the mattress on the line between Dean and the angel, and now it opened, reaching. \n\nDean shuffled forwards, not wasting time getting to his feet, and almost fell on his own stomach as he lowered himself and grabbed Cas’ hand. He felt his friend grip tightly and squeezed back.\n\n“Hold on, Cas,” he said, not caring if he could be heard over the chanting. “Hold on, man. We’re not losing you.”\n\nHe wasn’t sure if Cas heard him, but he kept a firm hold of Dean’s hand, still panting with what had to be pain. If he could do nothing else, Dean was going to make sure he kept hold, that Cas knew he wasn’t in this alone. He’d been alone all too often in the past. He’d let go too many times in the past. \n\nThe sharp ache of Cas, letting go and stumbling back down an earthy slope, was enough to make Dean hold even tighter. Cas had come a long way since then. Hell, he’d told that Ritz-whatever that he wanted to live. \n\nThe chanting went on, and on, the words dancing at the edge of meaning, like they were some Ur-language that plugged right into the base code of the world. It was sort of like Enochian, with the raw power throbbing through it, but more fluent, more lyrical. More refined. \n\nWhatever it was, Cas looked, if anything could be made out beyond the pain, resigned to it, whatever it was. He probably knew exactly what she was saying, being an angel and all. Except, he wasn’t an angel right now, and Dean had never thought to ask if that meant he lost any of his eons of knowledge, and anyway he hadn’t known the marks on his chest, so maybe he didn’t know this language, and Dean had to stop rambling in his head. Stop. Focus on Cas. Just on Cas. \n\nThe guy’s eyes were still blue, clouded by suffering, and paler than Dean had ever seen them. Even when Cas had been Steve, he’d still had that otherworldly blue going for him. Now, they were washed out. That spell seemed to have knocked more than just his stolen grace from his body.\n\nAs Dean watched, gripping his friend’s hand, the pale blue caught a soft glow, deep in the iris. Tiny sparks lit up, the truer, richer blue of Cas’ normal eye colour flashing in and out. All Dean could do was stare. Did it mean this was working? \n\nMore sparks lit up, died, lit up again. More. A whole cluster flared into being, then another, and suddenly half of Cas’ right eye was back to angel-blue. \n\nDragging his gaze from the blue, Dean checked what was going on above them. She still had fiery eyes, still had her shoulders pulled back like she had invisible wings of her own held aloft, but now her hands were in the air above Cas, pulling back and forth slowly, over and over again, like she was spooling yarn. Her skin was coated in blood. \n\nCas stopped breathing.\n\nDean jerked his eyes back to his friend, panic jolting thick nausea through him, ready to scream and yell and tear. Cas looked back, his eyes almost entirely blue, colour flooding back into his skin. \n\nHe’d not stopped breathing because she’d killed him. He’d stopped breathing because he didn’t need to anymore. \n\nAs Dean fathomed that fact, grace glowed electric in Cas’ eyes and the chant rose to a pitch, stirring and commanding. With a last cry, the Nephilim stopped, throwing her arms out wide as though releasing something, and it was Dean’s turn to gasp.\n\nOut of the corner of his eye, he saw Sam looking at the same thing, his face turned up and his mouth open wide.\n\nAbove Cas, stretching all the way to the ceiling, were the sketched outlines of shining black wings, crackling with blue grace, the dungeon still visible through them. They were a dream dragged partway into reality.\n\nAs Dean stared, he felt Cas’ hand slip from his, saw Cas push himself upright, saw the massive wings thrash. Something that big should have floored all three of the people round the angel, but Dean felt nothing. \n\nThe wings beat again. Once. Twice. \n\nCas stood tall by now, his head high and his shoulders up and back and…oh. Oh. That was when he was beating his wings, when they were flaring out above his head. Did he do that every time he fought?\n\nAlready, the outline was fading, but Cas still stood the same way. Perhaps, to him, the wings were always there. Had always been there, until losing his grace.\n\nFor the first time in a long time, Dean felt awe."}
+{"text": "The Boss of the Anti-Symbiote Taskforce sat within the shadows, his broad-shouldered form reclining in the chair for a moment, before he sat forward, his shoulders hunched, his scared, pale hands interlaced before him. His face was still invisible to him, due to his positioning and how he had directed the lighting be placed within his office. He wore a dark burgundy suit, was about all Kinzokumure could tell. None of them of the AST, had been this close to their boss before. He had always contacted them through droids, emails, burner phones and other aspects.\n\n“I have to attend a meeting in Tokyo with the Police, Public Safety Commission and other agencies over what occurred in Kamino.” The Boss explained carefully and slowly, his voice modulated by a machine. “You are in charge, Agent Kinzokumure. It is of the utmost importance we maintain this island base’s secrecy and security going forward.”\n\n“Is All Might retired?” Kuishinbo asked aloud, voicing a rumor that had started to surface ever since the battle ended.\n\n“He is in surgery for severe injuries taken in the battle, but he will make a full recovery.” The Boss replied simply. “There are many rumors abounding of past injuries. None of you are hired to worry about those.”\n\nThe others flinched at his words, as he continued on with his speech. “Doctor Cathal will continue studying Klyntar specimens Phage, Lasher and Agony, while I retrieve other specimens for study.”\n\nHe stood up, as Kuishino, Kinzokumure, Okiatsumaru and Tairana bowed, averting their eyes from him. “Within 5 hours, US Army Specialist Lee Price will be here for Symbiote M-22349, make sure he is ready.”\n\n“I will see to it sir.” Okiatsumaru replied, keeping his head, and for once, his voice serious and controlled.\n\nHe walked past them, his shoes giving a metallic click as he left the room, marching to their right, then behind them, before finally leaving out the single brown wooden door. The Four agents waited for a long time, before finally looking up, all of them breathing a little harder then they should’ve. Of course, they had come close to seeing their boss, but he was adamant about them not seeing him. Kuishinbo had only looked at his back for a second, and the Boss had almost had him shot on the spot for it.\n\nIn the room, there was nothing. A simple desk with a computer, two windows, and nothing of personal effect. No pictures of family, no little toys and nick-nacks that he had gathered, no plants or even a stuffed animal. The only thing visible that was his own was two paintings, one of a red faced man, his mouth agap in terror, his silver eyes locked on something to his right, the other a man playing a flute, but his body and fingers made entirely of finger bones, his black eyes turned downwards.\n\nAll of it was sterile, besides those two paintings, that Okiatsumaru shuddered at every time he saw them. Kinzokumure turned to the others. “The Boss will not want us to linger here. Get a move on boys, girls and others.”\n\nHe was the last to remain, as they all quickly filed out of there. They had entered this room few times, but when they did, it was cold and unsettling. Very little heat was in the room, and there wasn’t even detectable smells of any kind. If one stood outside, they couldn’t even pick up what was being said within.\n\nIn this way, nothing could be found of the boss, even if you stood outside and listened in, or went inside and tried poking around, looking for any sign of something.\n\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\nDoctor Cathal, meanwhile, was on the mainland himself, traveling along and resting at a motel, when the fight with All for One and All Might had went down. He had cared little, sipping his coffee calmly, as he watched the news reports and read his paper without a care in the world. Others had foretold of what was to come. It was like watching a movie, that he had already read the spoilers to. A few surprises, to be sure, but nothing he was unprepared for.\n\nHe sat back in his chair, lazily stirring his creamer into his coffee as the others in the cafe talked and gabbed among themselves excitedly, replaying parts of the battle, and wondering what this meant for All Might going forward.\n\n‘Simple minded fools, clinging to symbols to hold themselves up...’ he thought for a moment, before the cafe’s doors opened with the ring of a bell.\n\nHe looked over his shoulder to see a young man in a white long coat and hood over his head, hands in his pockets, as he carefully and silently moved to the back booth with Dr. Cathal. He went immediately to the Doctor once catching sight of him, moving past everyone else, and taking a seat next to him.\n\nThe young man had pale and slightly delicate features, with light blue hair, styled into arrowhead point at the ends, framing his face. He pulled his white hood off, giving the Doctor a weary look.\n\n“I thought I was meeting with Kai.” Cormac remarked with slight annoyance.\n\n“You’re a government scientist, and we’re already under tight surveillance.” The Man replied simply. “I am Hari Kuruno. I represent the Wagashira Kai as the Shataigashira.”\n\n“I thought Kai Chisaki was your Head Boss.” Cormac replied, now interested in this.\n\n“What happens with our Oyabun and group is none of your business.” Hari replied, keeping his voice low, but anger evident all the same. “Now, do you have us a deal or what?”\n\nCormac gestured to the briefcase in the seat next to him, giving it a good tap with his hand. “It’s inside, do you wish to check.”\n\n“When we leave, I’ll check it in some place more secure.” Hari replied simply, eyes still narrowed as he studied him closely. “So what do you gain, Cathal, by handing this over to us?”\n\nCathal took a long sip of coffee, looking out the window with a bored expression. “My employer asked me to create some things for him, but wasn’t happy with some of the products. I was asked to destroy them.”\n\n“And instead you’re handing them over to us?” Hari remarked, tilting his head slightly.\n\nCormac nodded carefully. “Get me to Kai Chisaki, and it’s all yours, and a little extra something for you to study later.”\n\n“Finish your coffee, and we’ll meet Overhaul.” Hari replied with a nod.\n\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\nA cup of coffee and a few hours drive spent randomly turning down street after street, hoping to keep any tailing figures or agents off their back, before quickly leading him. They made it past a number of low-ranking Yakuza grunts, as Hari placed a special plague doctor’s mask over his face, a gold and brown bird-like visage with blue goggles, leading him into a set of stairs. Cathal didn’t seem bothered by the advanced underground maze he was now being lead through at the end of the stairs, balancing on his bronze-headed cane and carrying the large briefcase close. A number of Yakuza had offered to carry it for him, but Cathal had insisted on handling it himself.\n\nFinally, they reached a door at the end of the complicated halls and walls, the bunker leading to this simple room. Cormac said nothing, as Hari opened the door and lead him through. The room had cleaned green tiles, pristine white walls, and a clear glass coffee table.\n\nSeated on the cough ahead was the young Boss himself, Kai Chizaki, Overhaul. He wore a simple dress shirt and surgeon’s gloves. His face was obscured by a red plague mask, embroidered with gold. Besides him was a small figure, almost the size of a child, all black, with a white beak and empty, void-like eyes over the beak, the other was a taller figure, dressed in a black overcoat, black fedora and plague doctor’s mask. He wanted to make a remark about their strange choice of attire, but given what organizations he was a part of...\n\n“I hope you don’t mind the maze. We had to make sure you weren’t planning anything, Doctor.” Chizaki greeted coldly. “We have good reason not to trust you, given your...working history.”\n\n“What will it take then?” Cathal asked, moving around the second fold-out couch, and setting his briefcase down beside him, and leaning his cane on the table, before slowly sitting down with a grunt.\n\nKai said nothing, nodding to the man in black, who stepped forward. “Did you agency send you here to infiltrate or sabotage us?”\n\nWaves of blue emanated from the man’s mouth and around the room, before focusing in and warping into Cathal’s body. Without thinking, he answered immediately. “I am defying orders by being here. My superiors would kill me if they knew what I had.”\n\nChizaki nodded in satisfaction. “Good, good. That should do, Shin.”\n\nThe man stepped back, as Cormac nodded. “You have any other questions?”\n\n“If what you said via your private messages was true,” Kai remarked. “You have something...like that Jet Black fellow?”\n\n“Yes, many things like it.” Cathal replied with a cold grin. “They’re not exactly Quirks, you see.”\n\n“It doesn’t matter. If my plans are to proceed, I need something to even the playing field.” Chizaki stated with a shrug. “You have the tools so I can come out on top of this power vacuum.”\n\n“Yes, these are called Symbiotes, and not everyone is ignorant of them.” Cathal explained with a small smile. “In time, you will find them most useful, once you...overcome some hang-ups.”\n\n“Well, let’s open up the case,” Overhaul replied, scratching the side of his face near the mask. “I want to know what I’m buying first.”\n\n“Ah of course.” Cathal replied, reaching with one arm, grabbing the briefcase handle, and swinging it up, before carefully laying it down on the table.\n\nHe carefully clicked off the locks, put in the code for the last locking mechanism, and as everything came undone, popped the top of it off. He carefully opened it, checking it himself, before slowly turning it around for Overhaul, Mimic and Nemoto to see. \n\nInside were two large canisters, one containing a mostly white, with some black mixed in, roiling mass of slime, struggling within. The other, was crimson, like spilled blood fresh from the body, and struggling much more frantically to get out then the other. Nemoto and Hasi looked surprised for a moment, while Kai barely reacted, looking at the two canisters with more curiosity then revulsion.\n\n“The first, the white one, is a creation of mine named...well, it’s code-name is much simpler.” Cathal explained, carefully pulling the canister out and setting it in front of Overhaul. “It is a clone of the same creature that brutally murdered ten of your grunts, some call him Black Death, Deathbringer, Jet Black, but his name is Venom. This, is his opposite, a mutated clone very different from him, named Anti-Venom.”\n\n“How does this ‘opposite’ work then?” Kai asked, as his advisers looked at him curiously. Dealing in stuff like this, it didn’t seem healthy. They weren’t sure if Kai should continue talking with this man.\n\n“It can absorb plagues and illnesses, like cancers, break them down and grow stronger, feasting on sickness while curing those it touches.” Cathal explained with the hint of excitement of a salesmen making his pitch. Kai felt some weight fall of his shoulders at his words. A destroyer of sickness, hm? “And of course, an assortment of weapons including claws, fangs and tentacles. Flesh keeps it sated, but chocolate will attract...less negative attention, I’d say.”\n\n“What are the weaknesses of this thing?” Overhaul asked, narrowing his eyes. “Because the last one slaughtered my troops with little difficulty, and I want to know how to beat it.”\n\n“Hmm, it’s good to know your own and your foes’ weaknesses. Such avoids loss of life and limb.” Cathal said pointedly, giving another cold, inhuman smile, Kai wanting to ask what he meant, before Cathal continued. “Fire and intense heat will burn it away without much resistance. Intense sounds up to 110 decibels can separate it from your body.”\n\n“Good. So we’ll be ready for anything the Heroes have.” Kai replied with a nod, interlacing his fingers in front of him. “What about the other?”\n\nCathal gave a broad smile, chuckling in excitement at the question, as Mimic and Nemoto looked to the boss for a moment in worry. “This? This little beauty is a special one, found in some wreckage near Cletusville, Kentucky, in North America. It’s supposed to arrive next week, but I have pulled strings to get it now.”\n\n“Won’t your own boss mind?” Kai asked, all too aware of what could happen if the government became aware of missing property. Heroes and police were already after him.\n\n“I soon won’t be working for him.” Cathal replied with a smile, even his next words reeked of death and venom. “He won’t know until his agency is in the ground, gone. Dead and buried.”\n\nKai raised an eyebrow, surprised at how assured he was. “You seem awfully certain.”\n\n“Oh, trust me, the Taskforce won’t be bothering your group or mine very soon, Chisaki.” Cathal remarked with another arrogant smile. “But, back to our subject here. Red and black and evil all over here, is named Carnage. Another like Venom, very related in fact, whose wild and unhampered by thoughts of mercy. Perfectly adapted for killing, murder and mayhem.”\n\n“Wild doesn’t work in an organization unless it can tempered.” Overhaul said plainly. “Can it follow orders.”\n\n“No.” Cathal said simply. “But the other organization I’m in, they need you to not touch it.”\n\n“Not touch it?” Overhaul replied, not liking the sound of holding government property like this, and still being in the dark. “For what reason.”\n\n“Essentially, we will be paying you big bucks, dollars, diamonds, Yen, whatever you want, to keep it in a very specific spot of my choosing.” Cathal explained. “I will visit to administer food and chemicals to keep it alive, and you may only worry about keeping it in the jar.”\n\n“So I get Anti-Venom, and the other is basically a tenant here?” Overhaul asked.\n\n“Yes, you pick up quickly, Big Boss.” Cathal said with a sideways grin. Shin and Hasi both wanted to warn him not to mouth off, before Overhaul gave a quick gesture to ignore his barbs.\n\n“So what are you paying exactly for it’s rent?” Mimic asked carefully, pointing a thing black finger at the canister.\n\nCathal reached into his pocket, Shin and Hasi laying hands on their guns within their coats carefully, before he pulled out a notepad. He handed it over to Overhaul, who looked it over carefully, before raising another eyebrow in surprise.\n\n“That is quite a bit. I’d almost not need Eri if I was getting that much.” Overhaul remarked to himself. “How are you getting this much money?”\n\n“We have our ways.” Cormac replied with a distant look in his eyes. “You need only be concerned with keep Carnage in one place.”\n\n“Even if your Agency isn’t after us, this other group you’re part of could turn on us,” Overhaul replied with narrowed eyes. “What’s to stop that?”\n\n“Your trust,” Cathal remarked with an eerie smile, before pulling out and clicking on a pen. “And whatever amount you want. Do we have a deal?”\n\nA few hours later, after Cormac had deposited Carnage safely, and left Overhaul with the container holding Anti-Venom, the Doctor walked out, cane clicking across the sidewalk as he happily hummed to himself. He pulled out his phone, leaning heavily on his cane, as he clicked the speed dial, and waited.\n\n“Did you distribute our fellows among the Shie Hassakei?” A Voice asked on the other end.\n\n“Yes, Supreme Prophet Al’Hazred, we positioned our two pieces nicely.” Dr. Cathal replied, keeping his voice low, as another, almost inhuman smile came to his lips. “What now?”\n\n“Return to the Agency, and wait.” Kitab ordered. “Nakajima and Midoriya will do the rest for us.”\n\nCathal nodded, as he walked into the shadows of an alleyway, and quite literally, vanished within the darkness, disappearing from any sight or cameras that could’ve been watching him. It was as though he had not been there at all.\n\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\nA few hours after the chaotic evacuation and Police and Medics checking and seeing to the health of all the citizens and survivors, Izuku and his part of the group meet back up with Todoroki and Momo, getting to the police and passing on Bakugou to the authorities. He was quiet the whole time, seemingly struck silent by his inner thoughts and struggles. It wasn’t their place to pry, and so decided to leave him alone to process his thoughts and talk with the more capable adults.\n\nOnce everything was checked out for them and they retrieved their cloths, the five meet back up at the train station, preparing for the long ride home. It was a night that felt like weeks had passed instead of hours, and all of them could use the sleep. Iida was still shaking ever so slightly from the nerves, and the rest were obviously exhausted.\n\nAfter saying their good-byes, Izuku settled into the train heading back to Mostafu, collapsing into the train seats, shaking his head to himself, looking out the window with a vacant, gaze in his eyes. Venom was silent for the whole trip. The two stopped at the last station home, going off and heading first to Mrs. Chen’s store, grabbing some supplies, then heading home.\n\nHe opened the door, taking a deep breath in. He entered their apartment, immediately greeted by his worried mother.\n\n“All Might certainly had a lot of trouble. I’m grateful you weren’t there. You had enough trouble getting home without that.” She said, sounding relieved to have her son back.\n\n“Yep.” Izuku said simply. He couldn’t think of anything else to say.\n\nHis mother gave him a last worried look, before turning to get back in the living room, Izuku trudging over to his bedroom, throwing up the door, and flopping down on it. Venom shoot a tentacle out, closing the door, as Izuku immediately went to sleep. The whole ordeal was a lot to take in.\n\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\nAs Izuku was arriving home, All Might’s surgery had been completed. Despite some severe damage to his leg, hip and rib bones, and to his remaining lung and arm and leg muscles, he would make a full recovery. Unlike the first bout, All for One had not managed to completely ravage his body beyond repair. He had to say his prayers and count every last lucky star in the sky for that one. His right arm was in a slight, the other wrapped like a mummy in wraps, his side and much of his body.\n\nAfter ensuring he was safe and stabilized, he was allowed visitors. Tsukauchi had a few bruises and scratches from his encounter with the Nomu horde, while Torino had the left side of his face covered wrappings, and bandages over some new battle scars. What surprised Toshinori the most was the appearance of Daisuke Nakajima, his right eye covered in a bandage, with a black eyepatch over it, his right arm in a sling, the other, holding a set of crutches for his left leg.\n\n“Nakajima. I’m surprised you’re up.” Toshinori greeted in surprise, though slightly worried he might be pushing himself too much.\n\n“I still got enough anti-Nuclear Bacteria to clean out Chernobyl in me, but I can walk.” He replied with his usual stoic expression.\n\n“It’s good you’re here, because I want to include you in this.” Toshinori replied with a nod, looking to the other two to confer with them. “if that’s all right.”\n\n“I’ve known his family. His grandfather was as good a friend as Nana. He’s a trustworthy one.” Gran Torino replied with a nod, leaning heavily on his old cane.\n\n“I have no objections.” Tsukauchi remarked.\n\nDaisuke looked around carefully for a moment, as Tsukauchi grabbed a chair, offering it to first Torino, who refused, then to Nakajima, who also refused, before sitting himself beside All Might.\n\n“Nakajima, my Quirk, One for All, can be passed onto successors, giving them boosted power and strength compared to the last person. I’m the Eighth one to hold it.” Toshinori explained carefully. “I wanted Izuku Midoriya to be my successor.”\n\n“Understandable.” Nakajima replied with a nod, not seemingly surprised by any of this. “Can you still access it? Those injuries...”\n\n“I have full range of abilities, just for a set time.” Yagi said with a nod. “Once I pass it on, it will start to burn away.”\n\n“And then we lose our Symbol of Peace once and for all.” Nakajima replied grimly, nodding to himself. “Do you want me to move operations back to Japan for you? I’ve been in America for my movie career and other things, but I can come home full time.”\n\n“Not quite.” Toshinori replied, shaking his head, and raising his last good hand to stop him. “I will need to dedicate myself to teaching Young Midoriya full time going forward, and I need your and Gran Torino’s help.”\n\n“He’s a spirited one, for sure.” Gran Torino remarked with a nod. “I’d like a shot at training him.”\n\n“It will have to wait for Venom to...recover.” Daisuke replied carefully, nodding to All Might. “We should wait til both of you are at top health before the transfer.”\n\n“Agreed. The world will still need All Might for a little bit.” Tsukauchi added.\n\n“That. And there’s still one more thing I gotta do.” Toshinori stated firmly, the fires of determination returning to his eyes.\n\nGran Torino narrowed his eyes, giving a weary glance. “Tomura Shigaraki is the Grandson of our dear Nana Shimura.”\n\n“That Nana Shimura?” Nakajima asked carefully. “Gramps spoke highly of her. How could this be?”\n\n“Yeah, don’t forget who told us this to begin with.” Tsukauchi cautioned, looking among the group carefully. “All for One has every reason to want to toy with us mentally.”\n\n“You two didn’t keep in contact with the Shimura family?” Nakajima asked.\n\n“No. Nana’s husband was murdered. To keep her sun safe, she put him up in the foster care system, to keep him from the world of heroes,” Torino explained with a note of sadness in his voice. “She told me and Toshinori to not contact him if anything happened to her.”\n\n“And that promise was twisted by All for One into this,” Tsukauchi remarked with a sad shake of the head.\n\n“To think, one of my master’s descendants could fall so hard into evil,” Toshinori stated bitterly, clenching a fist. “I have to find him, reach out to him and...”\n\n“And what, Toshinori? If you treat him as anything less then a villain, only tragedy can follow.” Gran Torino stated firmly. “No matter his ancestry, he’s still a dangerous criminal.”\n\n“There’s worse news.” Nakajima stated, looking to the group in worry. “That one Villain with them, ‘X’, I have every reason to believe he’s related to my own nemesis, an ancient Villain I put away a long time ago.”\n\n“I have a bad feeling I know which one...” Tsukauchi mumbled to himself in worry.\n\n“If All for One and the Golden Demise are working together, I have to find out.” Daisuke declared stubbornly. “I have to reach X, and help him. He may not be a foregone figure like his father, his actions and attitude tell me as much. I have to try and save him.”\n\n“All the same, it’s for the best you watch Midoriya as well.” Gran Torino replied carefully. “X is now in with a group that’s done incredible damage. Even if he’s nothing like his father, it won’t stay that way. Tsukauchi and I will handle the arrests. You can reach out to either of them once we know they can’t do any more harm.”\n\n“That sounds good.” Toshinori replied, looking down at his injuries morosely.\n\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\nWithin the Hero Public Safety Commissions’ HQ, were the leading figures of the operations that coordinated and lead heroes. Giving out licenses, writing and reworking the codes of conduct, investigating malpractice and Hero Brutality within the ranks. It was all the sort of stuff that anyone could expect, bu their fingers reached far further then simply that. Some of those more weary of them, whispered they were involved in operations that defied any laws, and even the recruitment of Hero Hopefuls as their private soldiers.\nThe President, with 9 of the top figures in the HPSC, were seated, discussing the recent loss of All Might’s status as the legendary unstoppable hero.\n\n“All Might’s injury is now public knowledge.” One of the officials said worriedly, his face resembling a Kamodo Dragon, his hands like scaled-talons. “Even if he doesn’t retire, he’ll be recovering for many months, and if he does get back to work, Civilian and Villain alike will know his limits.”\n\n“The police chiefs said relying on one man could be bad.” Another remarked with a sigh, rubbing a hand through his thinning gray hair. “Now we see where that leads.”\n\n“All for One is being held at least in Tartarus, and we’ve scattered his Nomu across other high-level prisons,” A third stated tiredly, paging through some papers. “But the hangar didn’t have the proper facilities for that level of biologic reconstruction, and the bar is scrubbed of any evidence we could use to find Shigaraki.”\n\n“Speaking of biology, we need good news on things,” The President said, shooting a determined glare at the ASTF leader. “I hope you have some for us in the Ogasawara research base.”\n\nThe Boss, as always, did not appear in person, but rather via an experimental hologram, his face obscured in shadow, as steppled his fingers in front of him, one leg crossed over his knee.\n\n“Yes, actually. The research I’ve developed will change things.” He declared with a prideful note in his modulated voice. “I, with my teams and Doctor Cathal, am nearing the end of the First Phase. With US Soldier, Lee Price as the first Field Test Subject for our new batch of Heroes we can deploy.”\n\n“What exactly is this you’re working on?” The first demanded, narrowing his reptilian eyes in annoyance. “You hide behind proxies, you never meet face to face, you scurry off to an island with some of our best agents, and only tell us that it’s ‘Operation:Black Death’. What is going on?”\n\nThe President spoke up before any others could join in, cutting through the agitation instantly. “Kotaio Hanashinku is working on something too important to compromise. Do not let his idiosyncrasies distract from his results.”\n\nThe hologram did not move from his position, narrowing his eyes slightly at his rival. The holographic figure nodded slightly to the President before speaking again. “I can bring it to completion. No time at all, we will have the ability to turn even Quirkless children into Heroes with few weaknesses.”\n\n“What has Lee Price done to deserve this supposed gift, Hanshinku?” Another asked. “If this works as well as you claim it does, at this stage, why not give it to the Heroes who work directly for us, like Hawks, Gyges and his brothers, etc?”\n\n“Early development. I have high hopes, but if there are glitches in this, Lee Price will be the one we’ll work them out of,” Kotaio explained coldly. “If this is found to be perfect, everyone, from Slidin’ Go, to All Might himself, can receive these ‘implants’ and be all the more equipped for their jobs. Sickness will not hobble them, injuries will be healed instantly. I can do this.”\n\n“Even if All Might doesn’t retire, we are calculating an 80% chance of a 35% increase in crime in the coming months and weeks.” Another board member replied stoically. “Get Lee Price outfitted and ready, and we’ll see just how well your new ‘implants’ work, Kotaio.”\n\nThe Hologram nodded, as the President gave him a weary glance. Even with small aspects and details known about the project, she didn’t know the full details. She had hoped giving him free reign wouldn’t come back to bite her. \n\n“You have other jobs to see to, Kotaio?” She asked.\n\n“Yes, Madam.” He replied gruffly.\n\n“Then you may see to them.” \n\n“Yes ma’am.” He said, bowing his head, as the hologram flickered off.\n\nKotaio stood up from his chair, smoothing his suit, as he turned to the board to his right. His hotel room was dimly lite, keeping him framed in shadow. He looked around, his eyes wide with fury and paranoia for a moment, before he focused on the board. There, were pictures of Izuku Midoriya, Tomura Shigaraki, Daisuke Nakajima and others involved in the case.\n\nHe walked towards it slowly, laying a hand on the board, as he glared intently at Izuku Midoriya. “Of all the malcontents to come to my sphere of influence, you are the most interesting, intriguing. And the most dangerous!”\n\nHe turned away, clenching his fists in rage, his teeth bared like an animal. “A boy can have dreams, but these monsters do not. They claw and eat and kill and devour worlds. And now one toys with me as we speak. It joins UA, like a normal child. It learns, like a normal child. It befriends others, like a normal child. But I know that malign intelligence within!”\n\nHe went over to a desk, barring folders and profiles of all the Class 1-A students who would be linked to Izuku. He paged through the one for Katsuki Bakugou, teeth still bared like a wolf. “Has his mother noticed a change behavior? His friend, Bakugou, perhaps? Surely, even if it could hide it’s behavior and emulate it’s host, it would’ve made a mistake!”\n\nHe tossed away the folders onto the old, beat-up bed, before digging his nails and fingertips into the desk. “My agents have to get closer to you, Venom, and give me the proof that you’re a threat! You can’t hide your nature!”\n\nHe closed his fists tightly on the edges of the desk, smashing it into splintered wood and chunks as his fists shook with rage, drops of blood tracing down from his fingertips and palms, but he barely seemed to notice.\n\n“All for One called you and your kind here before we could prepare, and now I cannot punish him for disrupting the way of things in the world.” He growled to himself, shoulders hunched. “But I will not let this surprise ruin my plans!”\n\nHe went over to the picture of Daisuke Nakajima, glaring off to the right, dressed in a suit instead of his usual ‘Bancho’ Hero outfit. His eye twitched with annoyance at the sight. “The way of things cannot be disrupted, even by a hero. I cannot entrust this to any of my subordinates. Your niece, the Hero-in-training Mina Ashido, will become an example for you, Nakajima.”\n\nHe looked to the folder, eyes narrowed, releasing his fists as the blood continued to run down them, before the wounds sealed themselves up. ‘He will not, after what occurred with Katsuki Bakugou, let his family be easy to reach.’\n\nHe stopped in an instant as one of his burner phones went off, his breath catching in his throat as a feral growl escaped his lips. He clenched a fist in rage, standing there for a moment, eyes unblinking, his entire body tensed up, not sure if this was happening, before slowly walking over. The number was not available. Someone he didn’t know had found a burner number he used.\n\n‘I specifically have my numbers not listed for telemarketers and other scam calls.’ He thought in disgust, the blood rushing in his ears. ‘This is one of my rivals, prying into my business. Trying to gag my weaknesses.’\n\nHe picked it up, studying it for a moment, before calmly flipping it open and answering. “Yes, who is this and how did you get this number?”\n\n“Hello, is this Hanashinku Kotaio?” An unfamiliar voice asked, it’s tone easy-going and relaxed.\n\n“How do you know my name and number?” He snarled, his voice low and filled with barely controlled rage.\n\n“It’s not important, Mr. Hanashinku. What is important, is your subjects of interest.” The voice replied.\n\n“Do you think you can toy with me?” He snarled. “What do you want?”\n\n“The Venom Symbiote within Izuku Midoriya, is pregnant.” The voice remarked. “You could do much with this right? Venom will be weakened from the process, the newborn will be fresh and ready to mold. All of this, and more, is an easy victory for you.”\n\nHe said nothing for a moment, breathing hard, as he focused on the words, repeating them to himself within his head, before speaking again in a hushed, angry tone. “Are. You. Sure?”\n\n“I am not toying with you, Kotaio. The Symbiote will reproduce.” The mysterious man assured him. “Keep your agents tracking it, and you will have anything you could want.”\n\n“If your tip is worthwhile, thank you,” He replied, his voice soft and congratulatory at first, before it shifted again into his fouler tone. “Either way, I won’t allow someone to know me and my business. I will find you.”\n\n“Pleasure doing business.” The voice replied, hanging up before he could offer any more threats.\n\nKotaio growled, holding the phone before him in rage. “This, this is worse then anything else. The Flow of Balance, requires Heroes maintain the current society as constant. And, it requires me to rule from beyond the touch of anyone, even fate itself!”\n\nHe smashed his phone to smithereens within his hand, releasing the pieces to the floor. “I will not let anything threaten my eternal equilibrium.” \n\nHe crushed the pieces that remained beneath his shoes, turning back to the board, his eyes focused and intent upon Izuku Midoriya’s face for a long time, before shifting his focus to Mina Ashido. Even with the chaos caused by All Might’s reveal and the League of Villains, his plans and Eternal Equilibrium, would be unchallenged by anyone, be they hero or villain."}
+{"text": "\n\"I hope you don't mind my sudden visit, Xiao,\" Mr. Zhongli enters his apartment. His crisp black coat smells of expensive tea. The kind that Xiao would most likely not be able to appreciate.\n\n\n\n\"Not at all sir,\"\n\n this is your property, after all\n\n. It has been a while since he's talked to his sponsor through texts, and even longer since they've seen each other. He doesn't really know much regarding the happenings in the Jade Chamber. Ganyu talks about it to him every now and then, but it's clear that she knows Xiao finds it a bore. Thank goodness for him really. Even if he tried his best, the likelihood of him understanding all that techno-babble is close to zero.\n\n\n\nXiao was about to close the door when a mass of purple entered the apartment after Mr. Zhongli. \n\n\n\n\nOh, it's Qiqi\n\n. \n\n\n\nShe's a small girl of pale white skin with lavender? Lilac? Some sort of light purple hair. There's a sluggishness to her steps and movements that always grated on Xiao, but he had always attributed it to her being a child. \n\n\n\nA child that seems to \n\nalways\n\n be tired, never an ounce of energy to her. Shouldn’t children be more energetic at their age?\n\n\n\nNow that he thinks about it, she doesn't seem to have grown all too much from when he last saw her. Granted, it's not by literal years. She could just be growing slowly.\n\n\n\nShe's also the reason he and Ganyu were able to trust Mr. Zhongli. Before they had gotten under his care, Qiqi was already there. She was his daughter of sorts, adoptive, though she's never really heard her refer to him as father, or dad, or papa for that matter. He's never heard Mr. Zhongli refer to her with some sort of endearment either. Regardless, she is very well taken care of; from what Xiao and Ganyu can tell. There's a trust between them that Xiao thinks only those with a familial bond could ever achieve. \n\n\n\nThough, there is the question about her general demeanor. \n\n\n\n\"Qiqi, you remember Xiao. Say hello.\"\n\n\n\nThe small girl turns and gives him a small bow. \"Hello, Xiao gēge.\"\n\n\n\n\"Yeah, hello,\" Xiao says, hesitance clear in his voice. She always referred to him as an older brother. It wasn't unwelcome, just…odd.\n\n\n\nWhat's even odder was after she gave a nod of acknowledgement, she immediately grabs his hand. That isn't odd on its own. What's odd is how she holds it. She digs her thumb into the space between his thumb and his forefinger. Real hard, massaging it in circles as if she's trying to pop something in his flesh. It's a bit painful in all honesty, but he never had the heart to tell her to stop. She is just a kid after all.\n\n\n\nHe closes the door behind them, Qiqi still holding his hand. \"What brings you here today, sir?\"\n\n\n\n\"Straight to the point, I see,\" Mr. Zhongli hums. \"Were you in the middle of something when I arrived, Xiao?\"\n\n\n\n\"No, sir. Not at all,\" he hasn't really been up to a lot these days other than moping. \"It's just… you haven't been here for a while.\"\n\n\n\n\"Yes, well. Things have been rather busy these days. I've had to do a lot of field work recently,\" he sighs, pensive as he stares outside through the open window in the room. The sky is blue and clear of clouds. Some would even call it pleasant enough to spend the day outside. \"Today and the weeks after are the same.\"\n\n\n\n\"Sir?\"\n\n\n\n\"I will be out for a long while and, well, I've set a babysitter for Qiqi but she hasn't been off her work at the Dawn Winery yet. And Ganyu is almost just as busy as I am nowadays. I was hoping you could watch over her before the babysitter arrives?\"\n\n\n\n\"That's-\" \n\nDawn Winery\n\n, \"-fine, sir. I can- Dawn Winery?\"\n\n\n\n\"Yes,\" Mr. Zhongli nods, still staring outside. \"I assume you know of the place?\"\n\n\n\n\"I do-\" \n\nI haven't asked Dirk about Venti in a while\n\n, \"-the sitter, who?\"\n\n\n\n\"Miss Amondine,\" Qiqi cuts in, looking dazed. Then again, Xiao doesn't think he's ever seen her with a different expression before. She quickly corrects him in a second as she suddenly makes the softest smile Xiao has ever seen on anyone. It looks off on her otherwise pallid face. \"She takes good care of Qiqi's friend.\"\n\n\n\nXiao… doesn't really know how to respond to that. Mr. Zhongli seems to have no follow up either, perfectly content as he stares at the outside, his gaze now intense. Maybe there’s a change in the weather, Xiao thinks, but when he looks outside all he sees are a few clouds covering up the sun. \n\n\n\n\"How do you know Miss Amondine, sir?\"\n\n\n\n\"Well, Dawn Winery is a very important business partner,\" Mr. Zhongli says, \"At some point we befriended each other, though I wouldn't be able to tell you how. You're acquainted with her then?\"\n\n\n\nThunder claps outside so suddenly that Xiao flinches. Qiqi, who hasn't let go of Xiao yet, now holds him with two hands, though her face doesn't really show any apprehension of the sudden sound. Xiao searches the sky for any shades of grey and sure enough, there they were, though he could have sworn that the sky showed no signs of stormy weather until just now.\n\n\n\n\"Y-yes, sir.\"\n\n\n\n\"Then I won't have to worry about you sending Qiqi to the wrong person.\"\n\n\n\n\"Yes, sir,\" \n\nhow little faith you have in me-\n\n\n\n\n\"I'd advise bringing Qiqi outside,\" Mr. Zhongli walks towards the door with haste. He doesn't spare them a glance when he says, \"Make sure not to get stuck under the rain.\"\n\n\n\nHe slams the door behind him before Xiao could mutter, \"Yes, sir.\"\n\n\n\nWith Mr. Zhongli's exit, the room becomes quiet. And \n\ndeathly\n\n awkward. Xiao looks down at Qiqi to get a read on her only to find that she'd already been staring at him.\n\n\n\n\"Uhm,\" it dawns on Xiao that he has absolutely no idea how to deal with a child. What makes it worse is that Qiqi's face is absolutely blank. He has no idea what to make of it. And she is \n\nstill\n\n holding his hand. \n\n\n\nThe hand that she is now dragging towards the sofa. She places his hand on the soft furniture.\n\n\n\n\"You want me to sit?\"\n\n\n\nA nod.\n\n\n\nXiao sits. And she sits beside him. The awkward atmosphere ensues.\n\n\n\nHe sees Qiqi's mouth move but her voice is too small to hear.\n\n\n\n\"What?\"\n\n\n\n\"TV,\" she points at the screen across them. \"Please.\"\n\n\n\nHe sighs in relief. His shoulders drop considerably. Engaging with children is stressful. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTime passes by extra slowly when you remain still. By his estimate, he should have been sat still for only 50 minutes to an hour, but it feels like two days of his life had just gone by. \n\n\n\nQiqi remains static beside him, leaning on his arm with her hands holding the remote. She has changed the channel at least five times now, to Xiao's count, at least. It's quite likely he blanked out a few times and didn't notice her change the channel. Right now, the program seems to be about a girl who befriends a ghost named Casper. It's a bit plain for Xiao's taste; that and he hasn't really been paying attention, but Qiqi seems to be enjoying it.\n\n\n\nAgain, at least he \n\nthinks\n\n she is. Her face hasn't moved a bit other than the occasional blinks. From his perspective, she looks… dead.\n\n\n\nWhat a morbid and exaggerated way to say that she looks stoic. Venti must be getting into his head, with his flowery words and all. \n\n\n\nVenti…\n\n\n\n\"Xiao gēge,\" Qiqi pulls at his shirt gently. \"Where can I get cold water?\"\n\n\n\n\"Uh-,\" hearing her talk always catches him off guard. \"In the kitchen.\"\n\n\n\nShe stares at him still. Her eyes… so wide yet so- \"Where in the kitchen?\"\n\n\n\n\"The- the fridge…\"\n\n\n\n\"Kitchen, fridge,\" she nods after each word. \"Got it.\"\n\n\n\nShe makes a little 'hup!' before climbing down the couch. As her foot steps skitter away into the kitchen, Xiao wonders how Mr. Zhongli got a hold of such an odd girl. \n\n\n\nWhy were they using the cable service? Qiqi would have had a wider selection of films to choose from if she used the streaming service. Xiao wasn't paying his full attention, but even then the commercials would somehow invade his otherwise peaceful state of mind. Annoying.\n\n\n\nXiao was never one to complain though. At least it kept Qiqi still.\n\n\n\nSpeaking of, where is she? It's been a good while or so, but Xiao hasn't heard water being dispensed from the kitchen. The kitchen wasn't big, but did she get lost somehow?\n\n\n\n\"...Qiqi? Are you… okay?\"\n\n\n\nSilence, and then he hears a very faint, \"Kitchen, fridge… cup?\"\n\n\n\nThat didn't sound \n\ntoo \n\nbad, but Xiao had to make sure. He heads to the kitchen and finds Qiqi jumping as high as she can to reach a cup on top of a counter. Her efforts are… frankly, useless. Xiao reaches one out for her. She nods dutifully.\n\n\n\n\"Are you okay?\" He says out of a sense of responsibility. She looked perfectly fine. \"Are you hurt anywhere?\"\n\n\n\nHer hands tighten on the cup. \"Qiqi, is not growing at all.\"\n\n\n\nDumbfounded. Xiao is inclined to agree. He doesn't know much about children, but Qiqi really doesn't look like she's grown the last time he saw her.\n\n\n\nBut that's not something you say out loud, isn't it? At least Venti wouldn't, he thinks. The words he spoke about people were always positive (save for the on and off jokes). What would Venti say to Qiqi?\n\n\n\n\"That's not true. I'm sure you did, one way or another.\"\n\n\n\nNo, that's not it. But it's out of his mouth now. That will have to do.\n\n\n\nQiqi's expression (or lack thereof) doesn't change, but she gives him a nod. Xiao sighs in relief, then wishes he didn't (out loud at least).\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThey continue watching, but it's an entirely different film. A relatively old film about dinosaurs. Xiao failed to keep track of the plot, getting too side-tracked with how well done the special effects were. The dinosaurs \n\nalmost \n\nlooked real, and this was made \n\nwhen\n\n?\n\n\n\nQiqi seems invested at least. He can hear her whisper under her breath the names of the dinosaurs that appear on screen, though he can’t tell if she was right.\n\n\n\nBehind him, by his windowsill, a soft \n\npitter patter\n\n starts. Small droplets of water fall from the slowly darkening sky. They bounce off from the window to his neck with an uncomfortable chill. How had he not noticed that the weather had changed so quickly?\n\n\n\nHe returns his attention to the TV only to find Qiqi staring right at him, eyes blank but intense in a way that Xiao couldn’t understand. He sits still, frozen for a moment, until his posture gives out and he backs away and notices that Qiqi didn’t follow his line of movement. She had been staring at the darkening sky too.\n\n\n\n“Oh,” Xiao scratches his neck. “Did you want to go out, maybe?” Qiqi doesn’t react. “S-sorry, I don’t think it’s a good idea.”\n\n\n\nQiqi nods, then returns her attention to the TV. Xiao manages to sigh in relief when she changes the channel- channels, so suddenly. What is she looking for?\n\n\n\nThe rain from outside crashes down like drums with thunder. It’s getting the couch wet, so Xiao closes the window. \n\n\n\nQiqi seems to have found what she’s looking for. She stops at a news channel, the rain from outside seemingly overshadowed by how strong and loud the rain was at the TV. He could hardly hear the newscaster, who was holding onto his microphone for dear life. He didn’t look safe there, like he could be swept away by the wind at any given moment. His voice came out choppy through the speakers. The cameraman seems to be having a hard time standing his ground. \n\n\n\n- \n\nweather- - - - intense winds and rain pouring d- - - over at the fields - - - - - - unprecedented - - - - nearby towns - - - - - - citizens forced to evacuate under - - - - - notice. I have never seen rain - - - - this hard and so su- - - - - enly. - - - - already flooding in - - - - - and soon enough, the roads will be - - - blocked by!!! Lord have me- - - - - - landslides caused by the flooding!\n\n\n\n\nA streak of purple lightning flashes against the almost black sky behind him. It’s only then that Xiao realizes it was nowhere near evening, yet the sky behind the newscaster looked almost like night time. \n\n\n\n\n- - - everyone’s safety, please - - - - getting out of your homes! If you live - - - - , please, evacuate as soon as - - - - - - - -. No news on when the - - - - - - - - will move on, we will try - - - - - - - - keep you updated! Fuck!\n\n\n\n\nA large branch almost hits the newscaster by the face. The camera shakes. \n\n\n\n\nLet’s get out of here!\n\n\n\n\nThe live broadcast stops, moving on to the news anchors who look very concerned. Positioned on the screen seems to be a live broadcast of the area affected by the… storm is a light word to use for it. The footage seems to be taken from a helicopter and - compared to the actual footage, the camera itself doesn’t seem to be in too much danger. In fact, it looks relatively safe. But the \n\nstorm\n\n.\n\n\n\nContained would be the best word to put it. Like a dark and giant cloud hovering only in one area. In that dark area, the downpour is nothing like Xiao has ever seen at a distance. Thunder can be heard every other minute. The visibility is close to zero. There’s no telling what’s happening inside the contained storm. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of people surrounding that area though; seems to be the countryside. \n\n\n\nNow that he looks at it more, it… is that the area where the Dawn Winery is? He isn’t too sure. It could be but, there’s more of the countryside that Xiao hasn’t seen. \n\n\n\nHe hopes not. He hopes he’s wrong. He hopes Dirk and Kaya and the others are okay.\n\n\n\nDear- what if \n\nVenti \n\nis there? Caught in the storm?\n\n\n\nThat- such a thought. He couldn’t be there, right? If he was at the Dawn Winery, Dirk would tell him so, right? Then again if this was happening near the Dawn Winery, Dirk wouldn’t have the leisure to tell him anything. \n\n\n\nHe feels his vision crackle as the scent of ozone creeps in from the spaces in the window.\n\n\n\nGod. \n\nGods\n\n, no. Please, something, someone, give him a sign. Tell him \n\nVenti\n\n isn’t there. \n\nPlease.\n\n And… and Dirk. Kaya. Amondine. That’s right, Amondine was supposed to pick up Qiqi. But Venti. Venti. Is he safe?\n\n\n\n“Ow!” A sharp pain from his hand jolts him out of his thoughts. \n\n\n\nQiqi stares at him, still and quiet. For a second, he sees what he could call \n\nconcern \n\nin her eyes. “Xiao gēge?”\n\n\n\n“Qiqi- you-”\n\n\n\n“Is Xiao gēge scared of thunder?”\n\n\n\n“You-” Xiao swallows air. \n\nHim?\n\n Afraid of \n\nthunder\n\n… is he? No, he isn’t. Of course he \n\nisn’t\n\n. He probably wouldn’t even die from getting struck by lightning. How could he ever explain to a child that his state of distress comes from something more than just a fear of thunder? “Yeah, yeah, I think, I think so.”\n\n\n\nExplaining it would be too much of a hassle.\n\n\n\nQiqi changes the channel. “No more thunder.”\n\n\n\nHe purses his lips, not too sure of how to respond. He settles with a pat on her head and a quiet, “Thank you.”\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nXiao doesn’t know when they fell asleep on the couch. What he does know is the lights are somehow off, and Qiqi is currently on his chest, cuddling him as if he’s a pillow. Only static comes from the TV with the connection seemingly off. He panics for a moment before realizing that if he squirms, he might disturb her sleep, so he winds himself down. \n\n\n\nThough, it would help if he could move a little. The position isn’t the most comfortable one.\n\n\n\nQiqi asleep is quite different from when she’s awake. Awake, she’s almost stoic, yet there’s always some sort of confusion with how she acts, as if she’s never sure of what to do. \n\n\n\nAsleep, she’s peaceful. Quiet, but without any pressure. And… still. She’s always been a still child, but asleep she almost looks like she isn’t breathing. He can barely see her back move from breathing. It’s… almost amazing.\n\n\n\nToo amazing in fact, if Xiao didn’t know any better… he’d think that… Qiqi…\n\n\n\n“Qiqi?”\n\n\n\nBefore he could shake her awake, he hears a knock on the door. Like a switch, Qiqi’s eyes open. Xiao stays frozen as she scoots down and off him and heads for the door.\n\n\n\nIt must be Amondine then. How long were they asleep? \n\n\n\nQiqi opens the door to greet Amondine, but instead finds Ganyu there with an umbrella, slightly wet from the rain. The rain that was still going, albeit not as hard.\n\n\n\n“Ganyu?” beside him, Qiqi is frozen. \n\n\n\n“Good evening, Xiao,” Ganyu bows. Is it night time already? “I’m here to take Qiqi back.”\n\n\n\nQiqi grabs on to his shirt. It seems that she and Xiao share the same concern. Somehow. He gives her a comforting pat on the head. \n\nTries.\n\n\n\n\n“Wasn’t someone else supposed to pick her up? Amondine?”\n\n\n\n“Yeah, from what I was told,” Ganyu tidies her hair. “I don’t know her personally so - it was actually Mr. Zhongli that told me to pick her up. Something came up with her apparently, she texted him… or something.”\n\n\n\n“She texted him,” Xiao can feel Qiqi sigh in relief. This is a good sign, right? \n\n\n\n“Is it really safe for her to travel in this weather? Wouldn’t it be better if she stayed the night over?” He feels Qiqi nod against his shirt. \n\n\n\n“I’m sorry, Mr. Zhongli insisted,” she bows her head. “He said he’d feel better if she was at home. He has people to watch over her there.”\n\n\n\nXiao looks at her. “Are you okay with this?”\n\n\n\nQiqi looks at the floor, then at Xiao… then at Ganyu. Slowly, hesitantly, she releases Xiao’s shirt and stretches her hand towards Ganyu. Ganyu bends down and reaches for her, carrying her almost effortlessly in her arms. \n\n\n\n“Good girl, Qiqi. Thank you,” Ganyu says.\n\n\n\nBehind her, a car waits. At least they wouldn’t be commuting in the rain. \n\n\n\n“We better be off then,” Ganyu bows her head at Xiao. “Thanks for watching over her for a bit. Stay safe, okay?”\n\n\n\nHe nods. “You too.”\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nHe waits for them to get to the car safely, and waves at them as the car drives away before re-entering his home.\n\n\n\nQiqi… he’s known her for quite some time, but this is probably the first time he’s ever got to spend some time alone with her. She had always been this odd enigma to him, and even though they spent time together, he’s not even close to understanding her. \n\n\n\nBut… there’s a quiet solidarity between them that he’s only noticed now. A kind of not knowing what to do that they share with each other. Is it the amnesia? Mr. Zhongli mentioned her having some sort of amnesia, the sort where she couldn’t remember new things. Anterograde, was it?\n\n\n\n\nKnock.\n\n\n\n\nMaybe it was that, or something different. One thing is for sure: children are hard to deal with. Qiqi wasn’t unpleasant, but he’d rather not have to take care of her alone ever again.\n\n\n\n\nKnock knock.\n\n\n\n\nDid he hear that right? Is it Ganyu? Did they leave something here?\n\n\n\n\nKnock knock knock.\n\n\n\n\nIt isn’t frantic, but it isn’t soft either.\n\n\n\nHe opens the door.\n\n\n\n“Ganyu? Did you forget something aga-”\n\n\n\nXiao freezes as someone tackles him.\n\n\n\nNo, not \n\ntackle\n\n. An embrace. Cold, soaking from the rain. No weight into it, but sturdy enough that he couldn’t push the person off and-\n\n\n\n\n-crying\n\n. They’re crying. And that smell. That voice. That \n\nvoice\n\n. \n\n\n\n“Ven… \n\nVenti\n\n?” He isn't doing well with keeping his voice from cracking.\n\n\n\n“They’re gone. Xiao, they’re \n\ngone\n\n.”\n\n\n\n“\n\nGone?\n\n” He’s back and his mind is still somewhere- “You came \n\nback-\n\n”\n\n\n\n“\n\nPlease,\n\n” the wetness of his voice is unmistakable. The sobbing, sniffling, his fingers clawing at Xiao’s back. All unmistakable. Xiao could only bring himself to return the embrace as his mind races with so many things, so many thoughts, all at once. They were loud enough to cover the TV coming back from the white noise, with a voice frantic and screaming through the camera.\n\n\n\n\n- It’s -  it’s gone! The Dawn Winery. It’s gone! It’s completely gone! \n\n"}